Prop8FlawedArguments
2008-11-17

There aren't any new arguments here. I just want to gather, in one place, all of the arguments in support of Prop 8 that I have an issue with.

• We are defending the 'traditional' institution of marriage
  • No, you're not defending marriage, because no one was threatening it. In order to defend something, someone needs to be threatening it. Nothing about your life has changed by the supreme courts decision to allow me to marry someone I love.
• Prop 8 restores the "traditional" definition of marriage.
  • No, it doesn't. An argument about what might be considered the "traditional" definition of marriage could fill pages. But let's not forget why marriage was originally created: to subjugate women and treat them as property. Keep that in mind when you want to change your last name to your husband's.
• Same-sex couples already have equal rights through civil unions
  • No, the rights are not the same. While civil unions were a nice step in the right direction, they do not need to be recognized across state boundaries, and still receive no federal recognition.
• Allowing same-sex couples to marry will undermine the sanctity of marriage.
  • Really? Are we still going on with that argument? What about divorce, rampant infidelity, Las Vegas weddings, and celebrity spotlight weddings?
• Churches should have the right to follow whatever beliefs they choose. The government should support that.
  • Correct. So why is marriage a state issue at all? Completely remove all references to "marriage" from any state constitution, and your problem is solved. What about religions and churches that DO support same-sex couples? Why are they treated differently from the more "traditional" religions? What happened to the religious freedom you're arguing for?

Full article - Prop8FlawedArguments (Comments: 1) (Last comment: )

BeeAyBay
2008-10-07

Once, my mom took me to Circuit City in Salisbury, MD, to buy me a new stereo. As we were shopping, the sales associate was quite helpful. He let us demo the stereos using a mix tape he happened to have on him.

I've since lost the mix tape, but some of the songs are stuck in my head, and I'm never sure that I'll be able to find them again. One of the songs seemed like a remix (dub or D&B or something) of the Three Stooges vowel song. It just kept repeating "Bee Ay Bay, Bee E Bee, Bee i Bicky-Bye Bee o Bo" over and over and over. It was pretty hypnotic.

Another was a song which sounded like a group of women singing "Doll baby, doll baby, you're such a doll baby"

There was also "Shut up and sleep with me" by Sin and Sebastian, but I've since found that song, since it appeared on other compilations as well.

I wish I knew how to find these other songs!


Full article - BeeAyBay (Comments: 1) (Last comment: )

TimeToRefactor
2008-03-11

It's time to update my web page format. I liked the PmWiki approach, because it gave me tons of flexibility for developing components for sharing information. However, the rapid development of web portals devoted to managing and presenting certain types of information from users has led me to the conclusion that my web page should simply become a mash-up of existing services.


Full article - TimeToRefactor

MoneyAsDebt
2008-01-13

Paul Grignon's video "Money as Debt" has been an enlightening introduction into the world of economics for me. The video does a very good job of explaining what exactly money is in our society, and where it comes from. This is something that's not taught as a rule in schools, and is generally reserved for those who have a specific interest in economics (and these people are generally well into a college career by the time they learn this stuff).

Unfortunately, the video puts a 'doomsday' spin on the concept of interest-based fractional-reserve banking that is currently the modus operandi around the world. Since I've always had a bad taste in my mouth on the idea of "making money by moving money around", I was easily lulled into seeing nothing but evil and destruction as a result of our banking system.


Full article - MoneyAsDebt

PinkShirts
2007-11-06

When I first came to Paris, it seemed like all of the business men were wearing pink shirts. Two weeks later, they all seemed to be purple. In retrospect, I think I was just finding patterns that weren't there, because men were wearing pink shirts.


Full article - PinkShirts

Spontaneous Districting
2007-08-31

Last night, we went out to dinner at Paesano's, a nice urban Italian restaurant in Midtown Sacramento. It's part of a small cluster of food estblishments at 18th and Capitol. As we were walking into Java City to get a latte before dinner, I noticed a small emblem at the bottom of the door that said "Handle District." Having never heard of such a place, I assumed that it had something to do with the manufacturer of the door, and decided that I was rather disappointed with the door handle, given that such a big deal was being made about handles. I was in for a shock...


Full article - Spontaneous Districting (Comments: 315) (Last comment: )

Iterating through a directory in Bash, when the filename has spaces
2007-08-19

I've commonly run into a problem in Bash where I'd like to perform some operation on a number of filenames in a directory. I finally found out an easy way to successfully do this, even when there are files that include spaces in the filename.


Full article - Iterating through a directory in Bash, when the filename has spaces (Comments: 5) (Last comment: )

Rest in peace, mom. 09-07-1954 - 05-21-2007
2007-05-22




Full article - Rest in peace, mom. 09-07-1954 - 05-21-2007 (Comments: 1) (Last comment: )

Pervasive2007
2007-05-18

I've just returned from Pervasive 2007. It was a great experience, filled with researchers from a range of technical and sociological background.


Full article - Pervasive2007

Babies are worth 6 figures on the open market...
2007-02-20

We went to Safeway to get some food today. While in the freezer section, Rob noticed a baby that didn't seemed to be associated with any of the grown-ups nearby. I'd noticed the stroller, but there were people milling about in the aisle, so I didn't think much of it. A few seconds after Rob said something to me, the aisle had cleared. Completely. Except for the baby.


Full article - Babies are worth 6 figures on the open market... (Comments: 1) (Last comment: )

Finally - Tea Done Properly in Sacramento
2007-02-17

Recently, Rob and I have become big fans of tea. I'm not talking about the boxes of bagged tea that you can get at the supermarket (although those have become quite fancy in recent years), but rather the myriad of varieties of loose leaf tea that you can find. Now we have somewhere to go in Sacramento!


Full article - Finally - Tea Done Properly in Sacramento

New Tutorial, and change in the layout!
2007-01-28

I've changed the layout of my website a little to to put more emphasis on the Coding and Tutorials section that I'm building up. I've also added a new Tutorial on writing plugins for the GNOME deskbar applet tool, which is really quite useful. If you haven't tried it, I recommend checking it out!


Full article - New Tutorial, and change in the layout!

HappyBirthday
2007-01-23

Happy Birthday to me...


Full article - HappyBirthday

IPhoneGestures
2007-01-22

What is this?

Finally, the iPhone is here! As it turns out, I played an itsy-bitsy part in its development! Read on to find out more.


Full article - IPhoneGestures (Comments: 1) (Last comment: )

Sacramento Development News
2007-01-08

A view of the California
state capitol, right now!

Check out the blog of Rob McQuade, "the central city guy". He's got tons of info on development projects "in the grid" in Sacramento. He is obsessive about knowing as many details as possible about all of the development projects going on in town, so this blog is undoubtedly going to be a clearinghouse of information. Go check it out, and set up your RSS feed now!


Full article - Sacramento Development News

ICY Metadata in XP Media Center Edition
2006-12-31

We've gotten a new "living room PC." Since it came with Windows XP MCE pre-installed, we've been playing around with all of its features. The interface is really nice, clean, and snappy. It's unfortunate that I don't like Windows, because this is a really good interface. Unfortunately, it still suffers from lack of easy flexibility. There's also one thing that's really bugging me... there is no way for Windows XP MCE or WMP to get title information from shoutcast streams!


Full article - ICY Metadata in XP Media Center Edition

Phase Cancellation
2006-10-25

Sometimes I get excited about silly things. In this case, I experience the real-life manifestation of a mathematical concept.


Full article - Phase Cancellation (Comments: 1) (Last comment: )

Dimensions and Perception
2006-08-10

I've been doing a lot of reading about math lately — calculus, complex numbers, the discovery of the transcendental functions, and so on. I also occasionally catch a random article discussing string theory. Now, string theory I don't really understand. It discusses ideas like the possibility that our universe actually exists in many more than 3 dimension, but for some reason, the 3 that we see dominates.


Full article - Dimensions and Perception (Comments: 2) (Last comment: )

Palm OS Flaws
2006-08-10

I've been using the PalmOS since about 1999. It's amazing how much it's stayed the same in the past 7 years. In some ways, this is a good thing. Conceptually, PalmOS is very well designed for the target device. For its original PIM tasks, it's quite well designed. But 7 years later, I expect to see notable improvements, and I just haven't. So here's the run down, in no particular order:


Full article - Palm OS Flaws

Rrrrrrrrrrr...
2005-05-05

All of us who work frequently with computers know the importance of having a comfortable, well-designed keyboard that can get the job done. I couldn't resist making a mention of this keyboard that Rob pointed out to me!


Full article - Rrrrrrrrrrr...