Dear City of Lenexa, KS

I’d like to thank you for finally fixing the pavement at the railroad crossing near the intersection of College and Lackman.  Why you didn’t do this when you repaved Lackman just a few months ago, I do not know.  Clearly you knew that no trains would be crossing there ever again.  Otherwise you wouldn’t have done a half-ass job at paving all the way up to the rails in seemingly arbitrary points at the crossing.  Nevertheless, after months of horrid, ever-growing potholes, it seems you have fixed your error.

Things I Hate About Barack Obama

I have pondered writing this post for quite a while.  Probably since the beginning of the health care debate.  Honestly, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if I wrote it before that.

Let me be clear, I like(d?) our current President.  It’s a love/hate thing, really.  Some days he does good things, some days bad things. And I voted for the guy.  Let me also be clear, I hated our last President as well. Comparatively, it’s quite clear that I hate former President Bush more, but still there is so much to dislike about both.

Since I’ve been thinking about this post for some time now, and given the inevitable offenses that are bound to occur in the future, I shall update this post in the future as the grievance transpires.  On with the list.  By the way, these are not in any sort of order, just whatever pops into my head at the time.

  1. Making people who voted for you think you weren’t a Centrist. Because if the last year, or so, is anything, it’s most certainly that you are not a Democratic President, let alone a Progressive one.
  2. The embrace of ridiculous Republican ideas.
  3. Believing now that Republicans have an agenda other than complete, 100% opposition to everything you do.  Naivete at it’s best?
  4. The fact that we’re still in two never-winnable wars on the other side of the globe.
  5. Guantanamo Bay is still open for business.
  6. The complete lack of prosecution of employed torturers, let alone acknowledgment thereof.
  7. The continuance of the multiple different types of Justice for accused Terrorists – Federal Courts, Military Commissions, Indefinite Detention Without Trial.
  8. For doing exactly what Alberto Gonzalez did when he was the head of the Department of Justice – politicizing the fuck out of it.  Exactly why are you even in the conversation of where a person should be tried in a Court of Law – Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial in New York – or not.
  9. Numerous Health Care Issues – these also commingle with my Hate of Congress, but whatever:
    1. Lack of any balls whatsoever in saying what you wanted in the bill to begin with – and when you did it was shit, thus letting Congress fuck it all up.
    2. Lack of a Public Option
    3. Removal of the Drug reimportation provisions
    4. Back-room PhRMA deals
    5. Like 900 other things
  10. Approval of warrantless wire-tapping
  11. Reneging on your support of fillabustering any FISA bill that had Telecom Immunity in it
  12. Reversing the release of photos detailing detainee abuse
  13. Allowing expanded offshore drilling off the coast of Florida and Virginia

More stuff to come, but it’s bedtime for now.

Chris Matthews, Thou Art A Dick

I meant to post this yesterday because I found it to be too good not to: Chris Matthews has Alan Grayson on HardBall.  During the interview, Alan Grayson talks about using reconciliation to pass Health Care – weeks before others were talking about it.   Chris Matthews proceeds to be a huge holier-than-thou dick to Alan Grayson, believing he is crazy for even suggesting the use of reconciliation.

Alloys. Also, I’m a nerd.

Maybe it’s because I’m kind of weird and nerdy, but today I was thinking about alloys.  I couldn’t quite remember what metals were used to make brass.  I was initially thinking it was copper and tin, but I was pretty sure that was bronze (speaking of which is bronze even used anymore? Like, for anything?).  So I Wikipedia’d it.  And yeah, Wikipedia is now a verb, just like Google.  Turns out it’s copper and zinc – who knew.

And because I was then more curious about alloys in general, I found this list of alloys on Wikipedia.  Now, there are tons of alloys out there, mainly ones I’ve never heard of, but there are quite a few common ones that I’m going to list as my own personal reference for when I think about alloys again.  And yes, I’m pretty sure that actually will happen at some point.

Brass – Copper, Zinc

Bronze – Copper, Tin, aluminum or another element

White Gold – Gold, Nickel, Palladium (I always wondered what white gold was)

Stainless Steel – Iron, Carbon, Chromium, Nickel

Tool Steel – Iron, Carbon, Tungsten or Manganese

Solder – Lead, Tin (I also always wondered what this actually was made of.  If I had to guess, it would have been these two metals)

Sterling Silver – Silver, Copper

Pewter – Tin, Lead, Copper (never knew what this was really)

Want To Donate Blood? – Don’t Be A Gay Dude

Am I the only one who didn’t know that if you’re gay male – or ever had a homosexual experience with another guy, even once – that you’re banned from donating blood for life?

I just read this article by Senator John Kerry, yeah the guy who lost in 2004 to Georgie, arguing for a repeal to the federal ban on gay man blood.

Via, I dunno. But that article is from Bay Windows.

Chile Earthquake Infographic

I just think this infograpahic of the Chile Earthquake is really cool.  The earthquake was rated an 8.8 on the Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS).  The MMS is the successor to the more commonly known Richter Scale.

It’s also worth comparing to the recent Haiti Earthquake, which was rated a 7 on the MMS.  People who aren’t nerds like me may not be aware that the MMS, and formerly the Ricter Scale, is a logarithmic scale, not a linear one.  What this means is that while the Haitian earthquake had about 50 megatons of energy, the Chilean earthquake had about 10,020 megatons of energy.  That’s roughly 500 times as much energy.

Infographic Via: Matt

TV Shows

This weekend Becky and I watched the first four episodes of Dexter – a show that apparently everyone thinks is just the best TV show ever.  That got me thinking, I currently watch, and have watched, a lot of TV series.

Update: I thought of another one that we’re watching that’s on hiatus.

Currently watching live:

Lost – Current

Archer – Current

Ax Men – Current

Chuck – Current

The Office – Current

Currently watching hiatus:

Sons of Anarchy – Current

True Blood – Current

Currently Watching – Old:

Dexter – Just finished Season 1

Recently stopped watching:

Scrubs – Stopped only because DVR recordings conflicted with Lost and The Biggest Loser

Never finished:

Heroes – I think I’m near the beginning of Season 3

Sopranos – Not sure where we left off on this one, Season 4/5?

Deadwood – Completed Season 1

Nip/Tuck – Seen up to season 3? I think

Oz – Haven’t watched this in a while, I think I’m somewhere in the middle

Macguyver – Dude, I have no idea

Completed:

Firefly – 1 Season Only

This is just off the top of my head and I’ll update this a bit more.  But at first glance, is the only series I’ve ever finished Firefly? What the hell.

Another thing I just thought of: mini-series.  I have watched quite a few of those.  Not surprising, they’re all from HBO.

– Band of Brothers

– Generation Kill

– John Adams

– The Pacific – This just started.