Stupid Evil Bastard

I’ve been hoping that this would be the week I finally landed a job. What with no less than five different possibilities all pending I figured this week would be the week that it happens and it still might be, but not as of today. First off I’ve still not gotten the offer from my old contract house that I know is supposed to be coming along. Not sure if they’ve changed their minds since I last talked to them or they’re still busy with year-end benefits issues, but the call still hasn’t come and I’m getting to the point where I’m not even worried about it anymore.

One of the new contract houses I’ve spoken to recently is responsible for two of the opportunities I’ve been waiting to hear on and one of them, going to work for a major banking chain that’s based here in the Detroit area, had me in for an interview on Tuesday afternoon along with about 9 other guys from the same contract house. The interview was one of those short 15 minute jobs where it was less about your qualifications than what the job entails and what your people skills are like. They had seen my resume and had no doubts I could do the job—which was basically a two month contract to do PC renewal at three of their major office locations—they just wanted to make sure, in the literal words of one of the interviewers, that I didn’t have 14 million piercings across my face. I don’t, but I do have a shaved head and a beard some have likened to Saddam Hussein’s. That didn’t seem to be a problem at the time of the interview and I answered their questions on my people skills with examples of how I’d deal with various situations. A telling moment was when they were explaining how they knew there were ways that you could tweak the renewal process to make machines load stuff faster or put up witty splash screens and they didn’t want us to engage in that sort of thing because anything that deviated from the process they had established would put other processes at risk and so on. I piped up and said, “You have a standardized process for support. Makes perfect sense. Deviation could result in breaking other applications or the support systems you have in place. I’m quite familiar with standardized installations.“ The guy interviewing me practically jumped out of his chair with excitement saying that I was the first person in the two days they’d been interviewing that used the word “standardized” and could explain why it was a good thing. So, naturally, I thought I’d be a shoe-in for the job.

You can imagine my surprise and amusement then when I got a phone call from the contract house today and was told that the bank had decided to pass on using me on the contract because I had “too much personality.“ That’s a first in my career. I’ve been turned down plenty of times, but never because I had too much personality. Now the rep I spoke with today wasn’t sure if that was what the bank actually said or if it was just the interpretation of the account manager who was handling it, but that was the reason he was given. It seems quite a few of the folks this contract house sent over didn’t get picked up which is odd considering that last year when they had a similar cattle call every single one of the people this contract house sent over did get hired and several are still working there. But that’s OK because this same contract house has a pretty strong relationship with a local energy utility and I’m on the short-short list (one of two people being considered) for a position with them instead which I should be hearing about within the next day or so.

Additionally the potential job down in Ann Arbor, which would be great from a commute standpoint once I move in with my in-laws in Brighton, has scheduled me for a 11AM interview this Friday. I’m also still waiting to hear back on the Server Administrator position I interviewed for last week that would be the best paying out of all the jobs so far (at least out of those that I know what the pay rate would be). So while I missed out on possible job I still have four other possibilities pending. I just need one of them to hurry up and decide if they’re going to hire me so I can get some bills paid up. The drama continues….

When Sony unvieled the upcoming Playstation 3 I had the same reaction a lot of folks had to the boomerang shaped controller design: I thought “WTF?“ I’m a big fan of the current dual-shock controllers the PS2 uses and while the basic layout is the same in the new PS3 versions, the shape has changed quite a bit. It’s received quite a bit of criticism from a lot of folks despite the fact that no one’s really had a chance to try it out yet and see what it’s like once it’s actually in your hands. Now some folks have come up with a animated GIF picture showing why the new design is going to be better than the old one. Namely because of improved ergonomics. According to the demonstration the idea behind the new controller is to put your hands in a more natural position and make it more like you’re holding, say, a steering wheel.

I have to admit that after watching the simple demo I’m more inclined to give the new design a shot before passing judgement on it. I still think it looks like an attempt to be too stylish, but then I’ve never been that studied on ergonomic concepts that I’d spot the fact that there was any consideration for how your hands would hold the controller. Now I want to pick one up and see how it feels. It’s possible I could love it even more than the old controllers.

Link found via Joystiq.

I was reading through some threads over at Unscrewing The Inscrutable and ran across the following comment by Daniel Levesque.

Real life situation happening in schools across America. Every religion with the exception of Christianity is being freely taught and discussed as a “cultural phenomenon”. Any time Christianity enters the mix someone, usually the ACLU or Americans United for the Seperation of Church and State sues the school. It would seem that, in this situation at least, Christianity is recieiving a certain “special attention” in that it is being supressed in a forum where other religions are free to be taught to the stdents.

Mr. Levesque has his own blog called Raving Conservative.

Since this is something I’ve heard from Christians over and over again, I thought it might deserve some comment here. Other religions are taught in school as part of a foreign culture topic. Understanding a culture’s beliefs are an important part of understanding the culture itself. Christianity isn’t taught because it is part of our culture, something most people in this country already know about. This might be different if the aim of the curriculum was to convert children to one of these other religions, but that’s not the case. It is just a way to let the children know these other religions exist.

Enough shit from the bible belt. Time to do something about it.

If a circuit court judge started saying that he was abducted by aliens, there would be calls to remove him from the bench. Why? Because if he believed something that ridiculous his ability to think rationally and do his job would be in question.

If a state senator declared that Santa Claus was real, would we leave him in place or would we push to drive him out of office? Would you feel comfortable having decisions that effect your life being made by someone who believes a fat, jolly man slides down his chimney every year?

Maybe the belief in a higher power doesn’t fall into that exact category. I have heard plenty of rational arguments for believing in some greater force then us in the universe. I personally don’t buy it, but I can respect it. However, the specific belief in the literal God of The Bible, invisible sky daddy who can make entire eco-systems in six days and doesn’t like it when we don’t pray to him, that DOES fall into the Santa-Aliens category and anyone who believes such stuff is incapable of making completely rational decisions because their belief system influences all that they do.

So we need to make a list of all the people in power who fall into this category. All the politicians, judges, etc. Then we need to hire some lawyers and bring them each into court for competency hearings. A unified movement across the country.

Think that would send a message?

I was tooling around on Elwed’s blog where he was commenting on a Christian blogger by the name of John Bartlett who was ruminating on an atheist bumper sticker he had seen the other day:

“Proud to be an Atheist”

..was printed on the bumper sticker I followed for several stop lights a few weeks ago. It was on a pick-up truck driven by a man in his mid-30’s. I guess it shouldn’t shock me, but yep… it shocks me that someone could believe there was no God. As I followed his truck on my way home from work I just prayed for him. I didn’t know what else to do (although I did think about getting into a wreck with him so that I could try and work God into the ensuing conversation). I wanted to talk to him to see if I could reason with him.

If only he knew what I and so many others know to be true.
...
I feel such a passion for this. I’m totally serious here… I was actually trying to figure out how I could talk to this guy! If I didn’t think he’d punch me for wrecking his truck I probably would’ve done it!

That’s some pretty bad gotta-proselytize jonesing going on if you’re actually considering getting into a traffic accident just to try and convert someone. Mr. Bartlett later says he wouldn’t ever actually cause a wreck just to preach in the comments that follow the entry, but then why claim in the last sentence that he was totally serious and only stayed his hand because of fear he’d get punched out?

Why the big desire to try and convert others from so many Christians? I used to just write it off as them following what the Bible says in terms of going out and witnessing to others, but when you get passionate statements like the one from Mr. Bartlett there has to be something more to it than just following God’s directions behind it all. It’s things like that which make it a lot easier to accept the theory that Christianity is a particularly virulent form of meme. It’s not enough to be content in the feelings of wonderfulness that such a deeply held belief brings about, they have to validate their beliefs by convincing others to join in on the delusion. They tell themselves they simply want others to know the immense peace and love and happiness a relationship with Jesus brings them, but if they were so damned content they wouldn’t need the external validation their witnessing is meant to bring about. I suspect, though I can’t prove it, that it’s lingering doubts about the stories they’ve bought into so completely that brings about this behavior.

During the course of give and take in the comments Mr. Bartlett asks the following question: “If you had the cure for cancer wouldn’t you shout it from the rooftops too? Someone else responded with the quite true statement that anyone who did have the cure for cancer wouldn’t need to shout it from the rooftops so long as other scientists could replicate the experiments and confirm the claim. Besides, there are already thousands of people who claim to have the cure for cancer out there who have just as much evidence supporting their cures as Mr. Bartlett has for his God. When they can back it up with something more than “I know in my heart that this is true” then I’ll stop to listen, but until then I’m not buying what they’re selling.

If you’re blogger Joseph Harris of The Rant.us then you can fit in quite a lot. In an entry titled Thanks for the Validation of Christianity Joseph manages to hit on just about every single bit of bullshit the so-called Christian Right likes to harp on endlessly about and then claims it’s a validation of his religious belief:

There is little doubt that enmity exists between the church and the world. God is mocked, churches are belittled and individual believers are cast as backward and intolerant. The ACLU is at the forefront leading the attack under the guise of protecting the civil liberties of Americans (and illegal aliens, Muslim terrorists, etc). In reality, civil liberties in this country are not in danger, but religious liberties are constantly challenged. Pseudo science has waged war against God through an unproven theory on the origin of man, stating the existence of God cannot be proven, while demonstrating it’s inability to prove the theory of macro-evolution through empirical evidence. God, the Bible and morality have been kicked out of public schools and the public forum under the so-called myth of “separation of church and state” which is nothing more than a manifestation of hatred for God, facilitated by liberal politicians, educators and eager members of the media.

That’s pretty impressive and I think it covers just about every ridiculous claim they’ve ever made. There’s some irony about the complaint that individual believers are cast as backward and intolerant considering how the rest of the entry goes on to reveal how backwards Joseph may actually be. He makes a lot of claims just in this first paragraph, most of which are serious distortions if not outright falsehoods. Here we have another True Believer™ who is apparently ignorant of the fact that the ACLU has on many occasions gone to court to fight on behalf of Christians whose civil liberties had been violated. I tend to follow the activities of the ACLU pretty closely being that I am a member myself and I can’t recall the last time they’ve ever sued a church, a place of business, or an individual over a religious issue. By and large the cases the ACLU gets involved with are directly related to the separation of church and state, a concept that Joseph obviously doesn’t believe in despite the fact that the idea was written about extensively by several of the Founding Fathers in trying to explain the First Amendment.

That he’s ignorant of his history is no surprise considering that it’s clear from his essay that there’s little room for facts in Joseph’s world when they get in the way of his opinions. Trying to tar Evolution as pseudo-science not only reveals his ignorance of the theory, but also of what constitutes science. Besides it’s so much easier to paint those folks who disagree with you as “God-haters” than it is to come up with a reasonable argument that isn’t built on fantasies and half-truths. Naturally, having established he’s a nut case in his opening paragraph, Joseph goes on to explain how this validates his God-belief:

So for all the hatred, attacks and lawsuits against God and that which is Christian and moral, I say thanks for the validation. I appreciate the validation given by this ungodly world to the God of the universe and His followers. Jews and Christians have been attacked more than anyone in history. The Jews have endured more attempts of genocide throughout their history than any ancient people on the face of the earth and true Bible believing Christians have been targeted throughout church history (See “Trail of Blood” by J.M. Carroll and “Foxes Book of Martyrs” by John Fox).

It’s the always popular “we’re the most persecuted people ever” argument. Poor baby. It really must be tough being a part of the majority in this country and having all the power and influence only to have that pesky Bill of Rights getting in the way all the time. I also love how he’s joining forces with the Jews to help increase the perceived martyrdom because they both supposedly worship the same God, don’cha know. As long as we’re going to dig up the ancient past in trying to show how persecuted we are we should probably mention the thousands of folks that the good Christians of old put to death in various wars and Crusades over the years because they wouldn’t convert.

Say here’s an idea: Perhaps if the Christians would stop trying to foist their bullshit off on everyone else either through force or subversion then they might find themselves a little less under attack by everyone else! You know, that whole “do unto others” thing that Jesus talked about once? Nah, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Not when folks like Joseph carry around delusions like the following:

Now look at some modern day feeble attacks against God and His people:

(1)It was a representation of Jesus and not Mohammed that was placed in a jar of urine, some years back, as an “art” exhibit. In a more recent display, the mother of Jesus was associated with elephant dung. I hope the mothers of Mohammed, and Confucius and the mother earth goddess of the Wiccans weren’t offended since they were ignored and not thought worthy of this honor.

I’m surprised at how many folks still get all pissed off over these art displays—and I use that term in the loosest possible sense as I didn’t see anything all that artistic about them myself—especially considering that it was pretty obvious the artists were trying to be offensive in the first place. Contrary to the implication in that paragraph, however, there have been plenty of other religious icons that have been the focus of offensive artworks over the years. The above two examples made big headlines here in the States mainly because this country is majority Christian. Chances are Joseph wouldn’t have given a shit if Buddha had been the victim of offensive artwork someplace else in the world even if he had heard of it. Have we forgotten about Salmon Rushdie and The Satanic Verses already? Granted that was a book rather than a sculpture or a painting, but the point remains that Christians have no lock on having others making offensive statements about their beliefs. My advice is to grow a thick skin and get over yourselves.

(2)Notice, also the commotion caused at the mention of the name Jesus in public Christian prayers. Apparently there’s just something about that name (with apologies to Bill Gaither). Besides, what other name could a Christian use in prayer, but the name Jesus? The problem is this: God hating, Christ rejecters have a problem with God. Period. That is the answer, simply put. Franklin Graham and Bailey Smith are not afraid to use the name Jesus on national television. See Acts 4:12.

Wow, the above argument is idiotic on so many levels that it’s hard not to be impressed with it. There’s nothing about the name of Jesus that’s a problem in public prayers unless said prayers are part of a government function and then it wouldn’t matter whose name was in the prayer be it Jesus, Allah, Brahman, Zeus, Ralph or what have you. The fact that Franklin Graham and Bailey Smith aren’t afraid to use Jesus’ name on television shouldn’t be a big fucking surprise considering they’re not representatives of the Government, but TV preachers. You are free to walk around your town praying out loud to Jesus all you want and neither I nor any other atheist or the ACLU is going to raise a finger in protest (though we may laugh at you or roll our eyes in a bemused fashion as we pass on by). I don’t hate God nor do I reject Christ because I don’t believe either exists in the first place. There’s nothing to hate or reject. The fact that Joseph likes to make bold claims about the motivations of those of us who want state and religion to remain as separated as possible only gives folks more reason to ridicule and belittle True Believers™ such as himself.

(3)Any attempt to take the name of God in vain is aimed at the God of the Bible, not Allah or any other wannabe deity. Allah (who is actually an ancient Mesopotamian moon god, hence the crescent moon on the flag of Islam) is not in danger of being blasphemed. We too often hear “gd” but who has ever heard anyone say “ad”? (Some would say that Allah is God, but make no mistake. The God referred to in “gd” is the God of the Bible.

Hey, it’s not our fault you guys decided to latch onto the word “God” as a proper noun for your deity nor is it our fault that you presume we’re making reference to your particular God when we say “God damn.“ We could just as easily be thinking of Zeus or Aten or Haile Selassie or any of a number of different gods who commonly go by the nickname of “God” among their followers. It doesn’t help that according to Judaic tradition it’s improper to use the Tetragrammaton as a reference to the Judaic God or the fact that it’s really downright difficult to figure out the pronunciation of “YHWH”—which some Christians have claimed should be pronounced Yehovah—otherwise when we’re specifically thinking of your God when we swear we’d use his proper name.

In short, when folks say “God damn” there’s plenty enough reason for believers of any faith to be upset and not just you Christian lot. For all you know we could be talking about one of their Gods.

(4)And now we come to that special time of the year when we must stuff everything religious looking (of a Christian nature) into the closet. The baby Jesus in the manger and every vestige of anything smelling of Christianity must be burned on the altar of sensitivity to the religions of others and the atheism of a few. As usual, the so-called American Civil Liberties Union, possibly allied with some Muslims, will lead the charge this season, taking America to new heights of freedom from the shackles of the medieval Christianity that binds the civil liberties of everyone. I admit there are some pagan connections with what is now called Christmas, so I don’t fully endorse all the trappings that come with this holiday. The main focus of this season at our home is not Santa. However, extremists who hate God, attack that which they perceive to be Christian, then Christians get offended, so then the offendees become the offenders. This may be America, but we are not guaranteed immunity from offense.

Again Joseph decides to go with a distorted version of the facts rather than reality. No one is forcing you, Joseph, to stuff your baby Jesus and his manager into your closet. You’re perfectly free to set them up on your front lawn and light them up with bright lights for all the world to see. I’ll even volunteer to come over and help you put them into place cheerfully and with nary a sarcastic or disrespectful comment the entire time. I’d be happy to lend a hand, assuming of course that you live within a reasonable driving distance. You have every right to put a manger or angels or even a big sign that says “JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON” on it—despite the fact that it’s patently false—anywhere in your yard or home that you feel is appropriate. Hell, put it in front of your Church or your Moose Lodge or your small business for all I care.

It’s not a problem until the place you want to put it is City Hall’s lawn or next to the steps to the Courthouse, which is where you really want it to be, right? There’s a subtle inference of government preference when such displays are put in places such as that and that’s exactly the goal of folks, such as yourself, who wish to place them there. Admittedly I find the display of a nativity less of a problem than the Ten Commandments on the court house wall, but it’s still a violation of the Establishment Clause. Why is it such a burden on Christians for the rest of us to ask that they don’t try to get government to subtly endorse your religion above all others? Is your religion so poor as to fail without the support of the state to prop it up? Have you not seen what has become of religious belief in countries that have official state churches such as England and much of Europe?

I love the attempt to link the ACLU with the current popular bogeyman of the right these days: Muslims! Oh no! If the ACLU is willing to stand up for the rights of Muslims than they’d probably stand up for the rights of Satan HIMSELF!

I also love the statement at the end of this paragraph in which you rightly say that no one is guaranteed immunity from offense, though I find it very ironic considering how your first example up above was your indignation over offensive artworks involving Christian icons.

Why is such outrage expressed and such intolerance exhibited toward God and especially Christianity? I think the answer is found in the words of Jesus to his disciples. “In the world ye shall have tribulation….“ So just expect it. Attacks against God and that which is perceived to be of God are normal. However, we don’t have to like or accept it. And the same civil liberties used by the few to voice their opinion against God, are also afforded to the majority, and we should express our opposition to their opposition with zeal. If atheism and Islam had a majority, there would be no opportunity for second opinions. The quilt of freedom which covers this country was sewn on the framework of Christianity, which is the mother religion of this nation.

I was with you on this final paragraph all the way until the last two sentences. Though I think the examples you provided are pretty low on the ‘tribulations’ scale it’s entirely possible that you’re just a much more sensitive guy than I am so you get your feelings hurt more easily which would make those particular tribulations more epic in scale.

As for the claim that if atheists and Islam were in the majority there were be no opportunity for second opinions, well, that may be true of Islam given the various governments that are based on it, but I disagree that would be the case if atheists were in the majority. There are a few countries out there where atheism is rapidly gaining ground and where the majority of the population is secular if not outright atheist. Several of them are progressive democracies that have traditionally had a state supported church such as England. Despite the fact that the Anglican church is hardly the voice of authority it once was in England that hasn’t stopped them from making a lot of noise and getting a lot of stupid legislation into the system over the years. I’m sure some of the SEB regulars in Europe can elaborate further on that topic, but the point remains that most atheists don’t really give a shit if you want to run around believing in whatever imaginary playmates you prefer so long as you don’t try to drag everyone else into it against their will. Still, there’s no way to know this for certain until we get a country that is majority atheist. I recommend we make America that nation and see what happens. If it doesn’t work then at least we’ll know for sure.

Also the claim that the “quilt of freedom which covers this country was sewn on the framework of Christianity” is quite simply bullshit. It is a popular canard among True Believers™ though. Were there Christians involved in the foundation of this country? Absolutely, but by no means singularly or even in majority. It doesn’t take much study of history to learn that this nation was intended to be secular from the very beginning and a lot of the ideals were based on the Enlightenment thinking of the time. Lest we forget, the fact that this nation is not founded on Christianity is not only an issue of historical fact, but also U.S. Federal Law via the Treaty of Tripoli which unequivocally states that the U.S. is not founded on the Christian religion.

But then I’m sure Joseph doesn’t let pesky things like facts get in the way of a good rant.

It never ceases to amaze me how Jay Leno manages to get incredibly stupid people to show up and make fools out of themselves on television. I’ve written before about various segments he’s done with stupid people and I just sat and watched him take one of his regular segments—called Jay Walking—to a new level.

For those few of you who have never seen a Jay Walking segment, it’s basically a pre-filmed bit where he goes out on the street and stops random people to ask them general questions about science, politics, history or what have you. Sometimes he’ll show people a picture of a famous dignitary such as Tony Blair and ask folks if they know who it is, which of course they don’t, then he’ll turn around and show them a picture of Paris Hilton whom they have no problems identifying. Very few of the questions are all that tough and are what I would qualify as general knowledge if sometimes a bit trivial. The resulting segment is pretty funny if you can overlook the fact that these idiots can vote and drive a vehicle.

I’ve always taken comfort in the fact that the segment is pretaped under the assumption that it’s edited heavily to remove anyone who managed to demonstrate they have a clue and make some folks look even dumber than they really are. Surely, I think to myself in a classic symptom of denial, these people aren’t that incredibly stupid. They’re only using the best bits of cluelessness to make it funny.

So tonight I’m watching Leno and he’s taken Jay Walking to a new level with “Battle of the Jay Walking All Stars.“ In this bit he’s set up a section of the stage to resemble a game show with him standing at a podium and three people standing opposite behind buzzer stations. He then asks questions and the contestants buzz in with what they think the answer is just like on a real game show. Except these people apparently have lived most of their lives under a rock.

These people have already been on the show in past Jay Walking segments so you’d think they’d be aware that Jay’s putting their ignorance on display for the entire nation to laugh at, but either they’re not aware or they don’t care. Neither of which is all that comforting to consider. The segment still appears to be edited, but not as much, and I suppose the laughter could be canned. At least I hope so. Or better yet, actors. Let them be actors that were hired to pretend to be idiots for a comedy bit. That would be good. I could feel all right about laughing at them instead of wanting to throw a brick at my TV in frustration. Deep down, though, I fear that they are real and it makes me shudder.

I know this is mentioned in other topics but I would really like to establish a point where we can just get updates on where we are with the Evolution Debate in Public Schools.

I've read as much as I can from other topics here on this forum, from news sites, from various blogs and opinion columns but I still cannot figure out what, currently, is the state of play in the ongoing attempts by the Christian Right to ride roughshod over the American education system.

Are the attempts to install Intelligent Design BS into official public school curriculums still going on or are we done?

I heard that one all-Republican anti-evolution school board was fired and replaced with a board of all Democrats and pro-Darwinian ppl. I'm not sure where that was though - was that in Kansas?

I'm lost I have to confess.

I'm guessing that someone here is savvy enough to know the big picture of whats going on.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can clear this subject up for me.

Deoxy.

I originally posted this back in 2003, but it’s such a good post that I’m rerunning it today. So in honor of the day I present to you the following list of Top 10 Things Overheard on Thanksgiving that Sounded Dirty, But Weren’t.

10. “Reach in and grab the giblets.“

9. “Whew… that’s one terrific spread!“

8. “I am in the mood for a little dark meat!“

7. “Tying the legs together will keep the inside moist.“

6. “Talk about a HUGE breast!“

5. “And he forces his way into the end zone!“

4. “She’s 5000 pounds fully inflated and it takes 15 men to hold her down.“

3. “It’s cool whip time!“

2. “If I don’t unbutton my pants, I am going to burst!“

And the number one thing overheard on Thanksgiving that sounded dirty, but wasn’t is…

1. “It must be broken ‘cause when I push on the tip, nothing squirts out.“

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[Editor's Note: Although this is a topic I've written about previously it seemed like a good way to bring the discussion up again in case anyone wanted to talk about it.]

Hello All,

I apologize in advance if this gets kinda long but I have a point I want to make. It is up to you and everyone else who isnt sucked in by the lies that the Christian Church spews to do the right thing and bring some truth into our lives.

The very core basis of the Christian holidays are a farce. There is not one Christian holiday that has any basis in its religious doctrine, in the facts of where traditions come from or in the stories we are told that supposedly give them reason.

You probably all already know, or at least have realized by now that both Easter and Christmas both fall almost bang on days that correspond with relevant solar and lunar confluences. The date of both Christian holidays have changed repeatedly over the last couple of millenia. Christmas has no basis in the biblical doctrine, Easter has only a feint basis as a celebration. Obviously there are no rotund jolly old bearded men wearing red and white in the bible and no bunnies delivering chocolate eggs either.

Where do those things come from? Pagan tradition.

Read the rest of this entry

We had our first snowfall of the season last night and I still find that to be a wonderful thing. Our move out of this apartment and into my in-laws will begin in earnest in the next couple of weeks as we want to be done with it by Christmas. Surprisingly enough despite all my time complaining about this cramped two bedroom apartment it has still been home for the last six years or so and has hosted more than a few wonderful memories in that time so I’m actually finding myself a little nostalgic as the holidays get under way with Thanksgiving today. We’ve had some very fine Christmases here as well as many birthdays, Valentines, and an uncountable number of ordinary moments that managed to become more than ordinary for various reasons. I started this blog while living here and I managed to hit both the pinnacle and the lowest point of my career while residing under its roof. As good as it will be that we’re moving on to hopefully better things in the not-too-distant future, there’s still a twinge of remorse over leaving this poor old place behind.

While we’re on the subject of Thanksgiving I wanted to take a moment and thank all of you who have made SEB a regular stop while cruising the information superhighway. This year in particular many of you went out of your way to help me and my family during my unemployment and I am truly thankful for your generosity and all of your encouragement. I can not begin to express in words how fortunate and grateful I feel. Thank you.

Now, before you head off and start chowing down on turkey and stuffing in a mad fit to bring about a self-induced food coma I wanted to share one last pic of this year’s first snowfall from the doorway of my apartment. This one didn’t turn out as well as some of the past ones, but what the hell.

You’ve got to see this video from IFILM Viral Videos, guys. Show it to the family on Thanksgiving day. Email it to friends, just get it out there because this guy obviously wants to be seen by as many people as possible.

As if this song needed more notoriety!

IFILM describes it thusly:

What Is Love (Don’t Hurt Me)  (2005)
Even if he nailed the lyrics (which he doesn’t), this middle-aged webcam karaoke is just too sad for words.

I’m sure the poor guy didn’t mean to do so but, he hurt me!

(Happy Thanksgiving All - You’re what I’m thankful for.)

It’s the time of year when slowly but surely houses along your street start putting out the Christmas decorations and lights to help make for a joyful and festive experience for all. As is the custom of modern day Christmas many folks, such as the one pictured here, take the theme of excess to heart when decorating their homes. It’s as if the Griswold family has run amok in some places or perhaps Tim Taylor of Home Improvement got loose in your neighborhood. There’s even a website dedicated to such folks called Planet Christmas which has tips and guides on how to make sure there isn’t a square inch of your home that isn’t covered with lights and what the general flash point of wood siding is so you don’t accidentally burn your house down with them. You can also show off your decorating prowess and there’s a forum for talking about how to be even more excessive than you were last year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really bashing these folks. If I A) had a house and B) could afford to do it I’d be just as bad as anyone else in this group is. Worse, probably, because I have the decorating sense of an epileptic walrus. I love this stuff, even the tacky ones like the example I posted, though I’d hope that I could manage to be a bit more tasteful about it like one of my fellow Canton neighbors has managed to do year after year.

But with so many people getting into the excessive Christmas lights spirit it starts to get harder and harder to set yourself apart from all the other folks participating. What can an obsessive Christmas light hanger do that’ll make his display that much more unique? Just use professional stage lighting equipment to sync your lights to music such as the hyper-energetic Wizards of Winter by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra!

This person has about 16,000 lights, 88 LightORama channels. The Mega tree has 48,500, and the triangle in the middle is made up of 22 mini-trees, with 300 lights each, or 6300 total. (You may have seen this video floating around on the Internet in November 2005. I can assure you that it’s real, and computer control was used to create all of the effects you see here. It is not a fake.)

The video clip and the quoted text come from Wonderland Christmas.com maintained by Don Teague who explains how to go about making your own Christmas display synced to music. The house in that video isn’t Don’s, but he does have his own house wired and ready for the holidays and his display is set to go live in just over 2 days time. He also has links to more video clips that people have sent them of their own creations including a second one by the folks who did the video I linked to above only set to the tune of Jingle Bells. I have to say that I am just green with envy over how friggin’ cool this is and the fact that I can’t even begin to imagine doing something similar myself. These guys must have some patient neighbors though, as the houses do attract no small amount of attention with lots of visitors stopping by. Several of the folks who run such displays end up collecting donations for their pet charities which is pretty cool thing to do considering their electric bill must go through the roof during the month or so they have these things running.

I keep watching the Wizards of Winter clip over and over again because it gets me so stoked every time I see it. It’s not hard to understand why as it appeals to both my gadget geek and my Christmas geek sides all at once. Can’t help it, I love this stuff.

Update: Here’s a link to another copy of the video that might be a bit easier to pull up. Kudos to Adam for locating it.

I noticed recently that the adorable and very cute Carrie Underwood - the 2005 winner of the highly popular musical puppet contest, American Idol, has released her CD and dropped a couple of singles on us.

The second single from Carrie’s album is called “Jesus, Take the wheel”. Not like we don’t expect American Idol to suck but to come straight out on the Christian Pop wave is just plain weak.

This comment is to remind all of you of your duty when you are addressing the ladies who love to waffle on endlessly about their faith and religion and the bible to remind them about what the bible REALLY says about women.

For Instance,

1 Timothy, Chapter 2,

“2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;  > Yup, God is a man, ladies - and don’t you forget it.

The chapter continues -

2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 
2:7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. 
2:8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.  “I will therefore that men pray every where.“
Yeah yeah, Blah blah….

And then the kicker.

2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
Thats right girls, No gold, No pearls, Nothing of costly array.

Dress in SHAMEFACEDNESS and SOBRIETY and in MODEST APPAREL!!

We didn’t write the book but if you’re going to preach a religion to people the least you can do is pretend you believe what it says.

For me, I’m a fortunate SOB.. I’m from the UK (living in the US) and despite the fact that the UK has a state religion (we call it Church of England - you might call it episcopalian) most of us don’t give two hoots about religion.

My wife is the daughter of a prominent Minnesotan geologist - Again, being married to another atheist is something I’ll be thankful for when I’m eating turkey this year whilst honoring a day when European immigrants paused briefly in their invasive genocidal onslaught against a native population - not that I’m pretending that the British have a squeeky clean rep when it comes to invasive genocide of a native population (i.e. South Africa).

I really enjoy reading all of your comments.

Thanks,

Deoxy.

After two days and as many server moves, SEB and the rest of the blogs I run for various family members are back up and running. If you tried visiting the site during that time you may or may not have seen much of anything. Sometimes the sites were working, sometimes they were somewhat working, and sometimes it couldn’t resolve the URL at all. A couple of our sites were broken for the entire duration of the problem. No one’s really sure what happened, but it seems to be back to whatever passes for normal now with the only exception being my mother’s blog for which the URL isn’t resolving properly at this time, but we’re hoping it’ll sort itself out within a couple of hours.

I’d hoped to get some new entries up over the weekend, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen given the messed up state the site was in. So here’s a quick update on the job search. Got a call back from the newest contract house I interviewed with last week letting me know that the position they put me in for with DTE Energy here in the Detroit area had informed them that I was on the short list of potential candidates and that I should expect a phone call from someone within a day or two. And later today at 1:30PM I have the interview for the Second Level Server Admin position back at Ford that sounds like the best of the current opportunities I’ve been presented with so I’m really going to try hard to sell myself. Of course, it’s currently 3:14AM and I’ve not been to bed yet so I should probably finish this up and get some sleep so I don’t look all worn out by the time the interview comes along.