Weird dream last night

I don't know how to interpret it. It was night time, about 3am and the sun was still shining. My sister Kim told me that it was not a big deal, sometimes the sun just sets really late here in FLA. Still, I found it bizarre, and I so I brought Tina's Flip camcorder outside to record the craziness because most people were asleep and wouldn't believe me. I think it was supposedly a local and not a global phenomena, one that just crops up every now and again. It was just an odd feeling to be outside, looking around at all of the starkly contrasted shadows on the ground, having been cast by the leaves and branches of the trees. And all of this during a time when the sun should have been long set. Maybe you just had to be there.

The Manchurian Candidate has been elected

I've been thinking this for a while now, but this article puts it all together. I know the few people who read my blog would disagree. Actually, that's an understatement - they probably think I've gone from middle of the road conservative to certifiable conspiracy whack job. But I have to get this off my chest: Barak Obama, in my opinion, was hand selected to bring about chaos and destruction to the United States. And while I write these words, I'm wrestling with the idea of whether or not I should even bother arguing my point.

I don't think I will go into it fully. Instead, if you're curious as to what has led me off my rocker, I ask that you look into Obama's long time associations yourself. Look into his achievements, voting records, etc. The right-wing World Net Daily had an opinion piece posted days before the election last year that does a fine job of explaining my general point of view.

But you don't need my help understanding my point of view on this; not really. Obama's actions speak louder than any words uttered from this internet soap box.

idiocy

At least he reads the teleprompter well. I mean, he certainly sounds like he knows what he's talking about. You couldn't say that about Bush.

Baez throwing in the towel for a win

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the defense strategy for Casey Anthony is to throw the case and create a mis-trial. Why they would want this, I imagine has to do with money. Unfortunately, this is more of a gut feeling than anything I can back up with facts. I'm not sure what Baez gains in providing a completely incompetent defense. Maybe I'm just giving him too much credit: perhaps he really has no idea what the hell he's doing.

Who done it

Tina turned me on to this blog called "Eyes for Lies". It's written by a "human lie detector" - someone who has been identified by the FBI as having an uncanny ability to detect when someone is lying. She doesn't claim to always be right, but her record is pretty close to that.

Go ahead and read her thoughts on cases that have already been solved and you'll see just how accurate she can be.

Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well for Haleigh Cummings. After reading her thoughts on the case and knowing her success record, it's pretty clear what the outcome will be.

3/7/2009

We went to Epcot today. We were able to get in, complements a good friend of the family. I won't say who that good friend was because Disney has spies everywhere. They're like the cardnalists of 17th century France. Yeah, I know that's exactly what you were thinking. No really, I mean it, because now that everyone is on facebook, I am truly writing to myself. Well, actually I'll bet Tina pops in every now and again. That's because she's a good wife. And a great mom - she planned out the whole Disney weekend get-away and was responsible for the bulk of its successful execution. Of course, I could say that about any day of the week.

Anyhow, we had a great time at the magic kingdom yesterday. We're debating whether to continue doing the annual three-day / two-night thing or buying season passes. I always think the season passes are going to be less than they really are until I am reminded when I look at the prices. It would cost us about $1K for the family. And that's with black out dates! Still, there is a LOT to do between just MK and Epcot. We haven't even seen the other two.

I'll try to get some videos of the kids at MK and the character breakfast posted tomorrow. Not that anyone other than Tina and I will see them, but I'm going to put them up anyway.

Facebook - aka - BlogKiller

Now that everyone's resigned themselves to Facebook, our blogs are kind of withering. I suspect this phenomenon will be short-lived. Facebook is good to reconnect to old friends and relatives; but if you've got a soapbox to stand on and opine, nothing beats a blog.

Well, I have nothing more to say. I'm going to facebook now.

A favorite song

I only heard this song for the first time about two years ago. I just love it, even if it sounds rather whiny. I'm whiny. I'm whining about that fact right now. Whaaa..

Anyhow, here's a link to that favorite song of mine. I don't think anyone else will like it, but hey - you never know.

This looks like fun

This band is covering the entirety of Dark Side of the Moon, as well as playing their usual Grateful Dead covers. To me, this sounds like a little slice of heaven. Even though they are "just" a cover band, their sound is pretty good. And I find it impressive that they can recreate Dark Side with such fidelity in a live setting. Maybe it's really not that impressive, but as a musical ignoramus I find it neat-o.

Stumbling on sociopaths

This post is to justify my interest in the Casey Anthony case. I've always been amazed by sociopaths. I'm sure you've known at least one or two in your lifetime. They say its more of an anti-social sliding scale than a simple and singular diagnosis. In fact, it's not a diagnosis at all. But I digress: they fascinate me. When I first heard the story of this 22 year old who claimed someone kidnapped her daughter, but she didn't bother to report it for a month, I thought "Either this person knows exactly where her daughter is and just doesn't want to say anything or she is by far one of the biggest sociopaths I've ever seen." I said that because she was clearly not even a little bit concerned about her kid, so I figured she had to know where she was. Because even a sociopath would be upset that they got caught ... she didn't seem like she had a care in the world.

Well, we know the truth now. She's very far on the anti-social scale, but I don't think as much as Bundy or Ramirez. Especially Ramirez, who actively hates humanity. What I think makes her case so fascinating is the complete lack of forethought that went into her crimes (remember the check-forging, stealing, etc). All the other sociopaths that I am aware of (and obviously I am no expert) had a strong sense of self-preservation. Casey seems completely incapable of worrying about anything except what is happening to her at that very moment in time.

I read a book recently called Stumbling on Happiness. In it, the author talks about how happy lobotomized mental patients are. They found that the reason for this was that the prefrontal cortex controls planning and forethought. In the early days of lobotomies they had assumed the prefrontal cortex was not useful at all, but removing it had the pleasant side-effect of making their most anxiety-ridden patients as calm and happy as clams. The reason being that much of anxiety has to do with what you're thinking might or is going to happen. Take away that part of the brain and poof - no more worries. Literally.

So I got to wondering if Sociopaths have something wrong with their prefrontal cortex. I looked it up and guess what? They do have some strange wiring in the prefrontal cortex after all. Evidently it's well known, but hey, it was news to me.

Here's an interesting article about it: http://indioheathen.blogspot.com/2007/01/sociopathy-and-sado-authoritarianism.html If you're interested, google sociopaths & Prefrontal cortex. You'll get a ton of info about the biological roots of clinical sociopathy.

So who else among you has been following this case? What are your thoughts on Casey's motivations, her psychology, and anything else that would bring a person to the point of murdering their own child and not even bothering to do a half-way decent job of covering it up?

Fuel Alternatives

I'm wondering what the most viable energy alternatives are. Ultimately what's needed is to find a chemical reaction that results in a high yield of energy and a truly harmless waste product. Better still, a useful waste product. Oxidizing (or whatever the right word is) hydrocarbons results in CO2 and H2O. I guess that's where the idea of Hydrogen power comes from: H + O2 and we get an exothermic reaction with a byproduct of ... H2O. And who can't use what amounts to distilled water? They could even put it in a collection tank and you could empty it into a reservoir at your house that is specifically used for waste water. Right now we use the same water source for drinking and flushing the toilet. Why not use our cars' waste for our personal waste? Or... we could make the collection container so that the owner removes it and places it on a water cooler. Obviously you would have at least two of these.

I guess this idea hasn't taken off yet because of the whole "I don't want to be immolated by my car"/Hindenburg thing... Plus, where are we going to get all of that pure O2 and H? And the cost of shipping it ...

Maybe the answer to global warming is reducing hydrocarbon consumption as much as possible while working on figuring out what to do with our bumper crop of CO2 that's just floating around. Surely someone wants a lot of CO2... Maybe there's an interstellar CO2 market that we need to tap into.

I don't know. I'm going back to work now. If there is one thing that we've learned in this monologue its that we need the help of CO2-deprived aliens. And that means we're that much closer to solving the world's energy crisis. You know, having figured out the alien component and all.

Who could have seen this coming?

Yesterday's bombing at the Taj Hotel comes as no surprise. For some historical perspective, check out this bit from the Wikipedia on the Barbary Pirates:

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then the ambassador to France, and John Adams, then the ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the ambassador to Britain from Tripoli. The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. The ambassador's response was reported to the Continental Congress:

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once. [13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates

Up Andrew's world

When Andrew was much younger than he is now, he used to sing Twinkle Star's refrain "Up above the world so high ..." as "Up your world so high ...". Tina and I say that to each other to this day. I tell you because it is now up your world. So high.

Tollerance fails the T-Shirt test

Great article, but in no way surprising.

Funtown Auto

Are you looking for a new or used vehicle? Actually, I don't care. Check out this commercial for Funtown Auto.

My buddy Timothy works in finance. Check out the commercial dedicated to the finance department. He'll hook you up with some excellent finance options: 6.54% APR, or a Nun-Chuck across the clavicle.

WTF is wrong with this state?

A guy asks a boy at a school bus stop in Sanford (a town not-too far away from Orlando) to help him find his puppy. http://www.wftv.com/news/17772669/detail.html OK, first of all, how unoriginal? OK, but aside from that - what is the deal with this state and pedophiles? What draws them to Florida? Specifically, central florida? Disney? It's got to be.

OK, inspiration just struck me. To alleviate the added pedophile burden, any child who wishes to audition for a Disney role, like a "That's so Raven" or Hanna Montana - first you have to assist in 10 successful pedophile sting operations with Chris Hansen from Dateline - To Catch a Predator.

Another idea: Chris Hansen's "To Catch A Predator - Universal Studios Orlando" ride. I don't know how this one would work, exactly.

JailB8: My parents are out this weekend, wanna come over?
Hot4Kids: Sure - where do you live?
JailB8: Universal Studios, at the Catch a Predator house.
Hot4Kids: Whoa, you're not like a cop or something are you?
JailB8: No.
Hot4Kids: Cool, I'll be right over.

On second thought, maybe this would work...

This kind of works ...

It's titled "YouTube LSD Trip" - which is just silly. But it creates a pretty neat optical illusion. The idea is to just watch it full screen (I didn't bother and it still worked) then at the end, look away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9uYEM2osYQ&NR=1

Blogspot.com is Eeeeeeevil!!!!

Not really, but our security people believe so. Evidently, blogspot is about as bad as myspace when it comes to open vulnerabilities, exploits, etc. Well, I just did a search on google - probably spent 10 minutes or more looking for these "pervasive" articles, and I can't find a thing. It's certainly not a 10th as bad as myspace, that much is certain.

Anyhow, I can't blog at work now, so that really stinks. I was just starting to be good about blogging again.

Something different

I just need to get that last (ridiculous) post bumped down a notch. I have nothing to say, but the bump has to happen. It's 1:00am and I got done working on a side job just a few minutes ago. This place has two servers that Black Box installed, and they managed to screw them up royally. Ironic that they are called "Black Box" in this instance. Black Box is supposed to mean a turn-key solution. Instead, I find myself delving too deep into the murky depths of Windows SBS03 version of LDAP/AD. Oh well - their mistakes are my gain, I suppose :-) Time to turn in.

Oh, and don't think any of you are getting away with not watching Maraka (two posts down). Not watching it is truly a loss. You'll soon find yourself at social gatherings and people will be joking about how funny it was, but you'll just have to fake an awkward smile, and then won't you be sorry?

We love BJ's

I know what you're thinking - lots of people like BJ's, so what? Well, Tina's mom and a friend of hers had advised her against BJ's, saying it just didn't taste all that great. Fortunately for us, we decided to investigate ourselves and found the food to be delicious and the service was perfectly adequate. For those not in there area, a new one opened up in the west end of "the loop" in Hunter's Creek. We went there last night, and really enjoyed ourselves. The restaurant was well laid out, comfortable, if a little cold, and had a short wait. I expect the wait to change as word of their delicious deep dish pies spreads. That's what I got - the vegetarian. If you decide to get one, I might recommend the small instead of the mini. The mini was only 6": adequate, but the 8" was more than enough to satisfy. You'll probably bring home leftovers. Tina got a big Turkey sandwich with wedge-cut fries. She said it was really good. I tried one of the fries and I can attest to that. As wonderful as the entres were, the appetizer was really the highlight. Avocado wonton rolls. Wow, were they good! Amazing, even. The only problem was that they were very filling. Which is to be expected - avocados are like 98% fat. Good fat, but fat nonetheless.

So anyhow, we enjoyed BJ's, and if you have one in the area, we think you'll them too. Here is their website: Click here for BJ's.