+100%

So I commute to work about 48 miles each way. Hay, I don't like it. The idea of being a commuter sickens me, but frankly, good jobs are scarce, and teaching jobs are few and far between in today's climate.
Our budget is getting hit like mad because of this. It's been angering me to see $3.15+ gas prices and I've just started to remember things form the past, like President George "fucking lying scumbag piece of shit" W. Bush telling us that his glorious war was going to find lower gas prices. Am I the only one who remembers this? I can't find a reference in a quick google search, but I swear there was at least a line or two in his war declaration (I have it recorded somewhere, I guess I should check it out) about how destroying Iraq will make gas prices go down for US citizens.

Anyway, it did make me think about how much we have been paying and finally - after weeks of meaning to do it - look up the stats. This site lets you chart the gas price trends in Vermont, but only as far back as 6 years. That, however, is not too bad. 2/24/2002 appears to be around $1.40. Today, at least $3.15 and climbing. Hmmm..... that MORE THAN DOUBLING in price in only 6 years. How fucked is that? The chart shows a nasty spike in August of 2005 and a cooling off in Q3/2006. But in the last year - a DOLLAR per gallon increase. The D.O.E. has a chart showing what I'm guessing are national averages since a long time ago. I wanted to know what it was like in 1998, before I got married. The wife and I both walked to work back then and only drove for shopping and visiting family. $1.06!

Did you miss that? $1.10! That's nearly 1/3 of what we are paying now, and certainly will be LESS than 1/3 of what we will be paying this summer I'm guessing. Their chart kindly converts the prices into "real" prices, which accounts for inflationary prices. Actual average was $1.06, according to the chart. Worst yet is that since 2001, the "real" price is lower than the "nominal". I'm no economist, but I'm pretty sure that represents the US Dollar falling into the shitter over that time. $2.59 was only really worth $2.23. Der! No one here is surprised to find that not only are we paying more for necessities, but even the value of them is dropping.

Why the fuck this fuck-tard president isn't heading to prison for shitting on the country, I don't know. This man has got to be the WORST president in our history and he's too fucking stupid to even know it.

My new gig as a teacher has luckily paid me more than I was getting after 8 years at UVM, but so much of that is getting sucked away in the nearly $5 per day fuel cost to get there, and it's killing me. Even riding my motorcycle isn't looking like the fuel saving option any longer.

During Bill Clinton's run as Commander in Chief, prices were in check. We had wars during his terms. But as soon as big oil man W got in the throne, it nearly immediately started to go up, and up and up and up. Fluctuations happened, but it was consistently more than anytime since 1985 (in "real" dollars").

Don't get me wrong. This is a good thing in that it's forcing people to re-evaluate their fuel consumption practices, but as I'm sure you see, it's not stopping asswipes from buying Hummers or other large SUVs. Not even close. This weekend I did see a news blurb about how the sales of hybrids is going up (something like by 60%) and SUV sales are going down (but only by 12% or so), but really. For every Hummer out there, you likely need to buy 10 Priuses to make up for it. When we went looking for our first new car, the Honda Civic Hybrid is really what I wanted, but at the time (forgot the year), it was $5000 more than the Civic and came with less of the things I wanted. Hell, if it had just the sun/moon roof, I'd have likely jumped at it. I have to assume the modern Prius and more are more ammenity oriented, but the last car we got was for bad weather travel fears, a Subaru. It does the job, but frankly, it's a lackluster car, even at the
high trim level. So, when our Civic EX dies - likely soon, since we just got the title from the bank - I'm hoping we look at an alternative fuel option more seriously.

Until then, just over a year until President Fuck-Up moves the fuck out of the Whitehouse and perhaps we have a chance to fix all of his fuck-ups. Personally, I hope he dies on his way out the door. Yeah, I said it.

Big O

So the news just said that Barack Obama just won the Iowa primary. Cool!

For weeks I've been struggling with my candidate support options. I almost wrote an entry here to fully support Obama, but I still struggled. At the time - about a month and a half ago - it was really between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The true struggle? They are all happily outwardly Christian. Not that I will be able to vote for a winnable candidate who isn't, but I'm really tired of the christ-pandering. That said, they are at least progressive when compared to the repugnicans running for the executive seat.

So I didn't type out my endorsement. I still like Kucinich and Richardson. I think they are more honest and likely reliable and quite more likely to be less likely to pander to religious nutters. But those are traits that don't get people elected in today's U.S.A.. I also like John Edwards. In fact, I like him more than Hillary. Don't get me wrong, I'd happily support another Bill Clinton term (hehehe) but they are really part of the problem. She's just in too deep. Edwards may be a lawyer and likely wearing snake skin, but I seem to trust him. THAT said, we've GOT to admit, it's time to have a president who isn't from the South.

I'm not officially sticking my name behind anyone specifically right this second, but I'm very happy to see that Obama has taken a big step forward. He's the one I feel will actually make a CHANGE at the top - though frankly, would it even be possible to elect another fuck-tard like George W. Bush again? Well, we the evangelical xian movement continues to prove, you can't idiot proof politics as the idiots get better and better - and not in a good way. Huckabee... you seem like a nice person, but you're still a fucking wackjob lunatic like all the wack-job lunatics who you (used to) preach to.

And if this is any indication of who's running for the top job, then in all reality, we're all screwed no matter, since Gravel and Kucinich are the only two who are operating in what I would consider the most important quadrant. For the lazy, I've included just the graphical story.For the record, I'm much more left and a little more south of Gravel (L/R: -8.25, L/A: -3.79)

WiiiiiiiDDR

Much thanks to my bro and his wifey and the rugrat for the Wii DDR system for solstice gifts. Woot!!My wife and I are already rockin to it (they left only a little while ago) and I've got a great sweat going on. The music for DDR Hottest Dance Pary is a decent selection. I'm sure more tracks will open up, but for now, I can't complain, especially with a few happy hardcore speed tracks mixed with some slower ones that Karen can groove to that require a little less coordination (sorry hun ;) ).

I'm so very happy.

Anyway, first post here in a while, so I'm glad to have a nice one before I post a few upcoming ones that will be a little less than nice.

Craack, ungh, splrsh, shuullllll

The title represents my onomatopoeia representation of the glorious sounds of death that can be found in Manhunt 2. If you don't know what Manhunt 2 is... um, wake up and smell the geek coffee. ;) Err... well, I didn't know until a couple months ago. I was checking out some trailer on youtube and saw sidebar videos with trailers and other captures from Manhunt (1, but before there was a 2, it was just Manhunt I'm sure - naahtahmean?). I watched and was shocked and in love. The main character sneaking up on peeps and murdering them in such brutal and violent ways that I didn't know that kind of violence got on video games. Whew. Then I read a comment about Manhunt 2 and its being banned in the UK... I had to check that out. Sure enough, it was banned because of was given an AO rating - that's Adults Only for the newbs. My response. "And?" Adults Only!! Now, if only parents would get their shit together and shops wouldn't cave in, then kids would not have such easy access to games and adults could actually have some adult only gaming fun without nosey fucks interfering. So, as a cop out Rockstar Games made changes to the game to make it M rated (that's Mature to the newbs). Have to be 17 or older to buy, versus the 18 or older for AO. I'm fricken 35 and I'm relatively well-adjusted, who the hell are they to tell me what I can play? Urgh. That pisses me off.

Anyway, I bought the game anyway... I want brutality. It's damn fantasy. It's not real and my mind is not going to act on it. I know for a fact that kids do act on their game training. I teach kids who are playing some games that frankly their parents should be slapped for letting them play. I love Grand Theft Auto, but a 13 year old kid should not be playing it. A married, well educated, average Joe isn't the issue. So I'm playing the game, a few hours of play time - hey it's a hard game for this guy - and I've seen the changes. The execution scenes have been altered (as the word on the net is) such that they are all washed in a red tint and blurred, covering so much of the detail that's it's really mostly hinted violence. I'm actually pissed and offended by it, but I still enjoy the game. Rockstar sold out. The game would still sell like mad if they kept the AO version, frankly the difference between 17+ and 18+ is a little silly. I realize M is like an rating from the MPAA (don't even get me started on that terrorist organization) and thus AO is meant to be like X (or XXX since X was done away with so that a triple-x rating could seem worse) and I'm fine with that, but why on earth does that really cause releases to fail? Ok, I realize a lot of adults would feel weird walking into a store to buy real pr0n (not that bullshit tease softcore crap you find on old-school skinemax), but I guess that's a whole different topic.

Blah, I'm ranting and rambling.

There's apparently a version floating around in torrent land that is the uncensored release, but I only saw info on the PS3 version... and even if there was one for the Wii, I'd not hack my Wii just to be able to do it. When I first put Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Wii in my system, it said it was installing something that warned that if I had done any modifications to my system, it might stop working. Yikes!

So, tonight I believe SNL isn't new since the TV writer's strike is still on, I'm hoping the wife won't mind if I play some more. Hahaha, she'll likely need to go to bed first though. When I first put the game in the night I got it, to just check it out, I had the option of a little tutorial on how to use the Wiimote and Nunchuk... it just had me move the parts in ways to cause thing happen - uh, yeah - but the sounds were obvious. The sounds of crunching or bones and popping body parts causing blood splatter. The sound really bothered her. It cracked me up. You could see what appeared to be blood splatter on the screen, slowly dripping, but it was dark. In any event, she's an audibly annoyed person. It did not set well. Thankfully the headphones have a long cable.

Other than the annoying censorship of the game, I despise that they ignored lefties. I have to have the Wiimote in my right hand because all the primary weapons end up in that one. Damnit, I'm a lefty, I should have the options of switching, even if only because it's a lot harder for me to control certain actions with my right hand. What idiot forgot about something as simple as that???

Still... great game that will provide hours and hours of brutal, bloody, mental violent fun. And some of my students had the gall to call me square last year.

Dumbldore is gay... and some people are just assholes

Perhaps it was intentionally not "big news", but I mostly only caught that Harry Potter author JK Rowling announced that Hogwarts headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore was gay by chance listen on the news. I was shocked at the announcement, but frankly, after reading Deathly Hallows, who is really shocked about the fact??? For real. As a young wizard he totally had a boy-love relationship with Grindelwald. My only disappointment is that there wasn't a better hint. No need to explicitly state it, as it really had no bearing on the story, but I had a feeling and it would have been cool to have just a tiny hint more to make a better educated guess. But so fargin what? I still found the book amazing and will forever be happy I was pushed into reading the series. Bravo JK.

The second after I heard the news, I knew for a fact that the ignorant masses that are homophobes would freak out about it. Boy did they. I'm looking right now at the comments section to a posted article at The Leaky Cauldron where I see lots of support, but lots of ignorance and homophobia.

To bring things closer to home... I have played the Harry Potter Trading Card Game for years. Actually, I've had it for years, but rarely play. It's a fun game though. I joined a Yahoo! group for players of it and have gotten some info and advice from the list. It's a low traffic group, but still served its purpose. This morning however, the original creator of the group sent this final message to the group:

Due to Rowling's decision to turn HP into a series for homosexual
propaganda, making the series unsafe for children, this group is being
shut down.

Um, you asshole! I realize she created the group, but in the real world, if a group thrives even without the direction of the creator of the group, who is the creator to destroy it? Especially since the server is was supported by was not hers.

In any event, I was shocked to see such an abrupt message and that when I went to check if the group was still there, it was already gone, so she really did kill it off quickly. I'm honestly guessing she wanted to hurt it by making sure we couldn't easily get the member list so if a new group would be created, the previous members could be directly invited. So I responded to her in a not nice way - screw it, homophobes are not deserving of respect when they do something specifically to make negative issue of homosexuals - and then wrote to one of the group members who is much a group leader. Another person already started a new one and he was added as a co-owner (a good idea BTW, in case someone flips out - I got booted off the LG-V6000 group because I made a comment about the group creator making some religious comments) so he invited me.

I was in the car going out to lunch with my mom a few years ago, possibly even 6 or so. She had the radio on a Christian talk show. They happened to be talking about how evil Harry Potter books were and how kids should not be allowed to read them; they should be removed from school, and all that stuff. I asked what my mom felt about it (being an evangelical xian) and she didn't really have an opinion. I don't recall too much more, other than stating the positive the books have done even to get more kids reading (statistically debatable from what I've heard) and questioning if she had a problem with The Lord of the Rings -something she knew I had had interest in strongly for a very long time. She hadn't formed an opinion. As of last year, I'm certain her opinion was aligned with the rest of the religious zealots. It's a shame. She even talked my dad out of wanting to see Order of the Phoenix at the drive in. Eh, what can I say. The point is, the wingnut fervor died down for a while, or at least wimpered, and now they are at it again - and it has hit my inbox yet again.

So yeah, Dumbledore is gay. It's cool, and it's not... it just is. Being an asshole is a choice, however.

Short winded power

I hate the blogger doesn't have a trackback feature. Gr.
Anyway, just ran into this ditty:
Windbelt, Cheap Generator Alternative, Set to Power Third World

This is kick ass. Of course they don't tell us how to make the low wind generator. What annoys me though is that all these ideas are always "for third world countries"... um, hello? We can all use renewable energy sources. How about making it cheap and easy on the home front (assuming "home front" means the US to you as well). My porch gets all kinds of winds that would make a few of these babies rock (or hum I suppose), so since I live in a developed country where a bunch of eejits drive Hummers, I'm not targeted for energy saving options. I want off the grid.

One day, when I have a mouse with a workshop, I swear, I'll put all this info to use.

update:
I followed a link by a commenter on the above page and viola, an idea I came up with independently a couple years ago... well, very similar.
Micro Wind Turbines
My actual ideas revolved more around the idea of having a bunch of pinwheels. I think that's what they're called, I'm too lazy to look it up. Basically small light aluminum or paper wheels on sticks that kids blow into or let the wind blow into to spin. I wall of those on my porch would look kinda neat and likely not sound any more disturbing to neighbors than the wind chimes on others' porches.

Cough cough cough

Burlington city counselor Ed Adrian has proposed that Burlington's Church Street Marketplace be smoke free. This is something that for years I've been hoping someone would do. Yeah, I guess I should be someone who tried to get this going, but not being a politician and having to earn a living get in the way of all the social causes I would like to get into.

Anyway, I was going to let the issue rest in the hands of the counsel and others who could make it to open meetings, but then my local list had people who were actually sticking up for smokers violating our lung freely downtown. I couldn't resist... had to write to the list:

If I had a spray bottle with arsenic in it and I sprayed people with it downtown, I'd be arrested. If I spit on someone, I'd possibly be arrested. If I hit someone, I'd be arrested. So why is it that a smoker's right to put their poisonous cloud into my lungs is so often defended by smokers and non-smokers alike? Does seriously believe that people who smoke around others are not doing harm? Still?

I'm also sick of the "the government is always trying to protect us from ourselves" argument. That's shortsighted at best. How about protecting children from you? We're at the point of arresting child predators just moments after the [thought] crosses their mind to offend, but a smoker can directly pollute every child's lungs around them with impunity.
And step a few feet away from the smokers? Why? I suppose if you can't move away from my fist fast enough then it's your own fault if you get hurt, right?

Just Church St.?!?! Be happy it's not being pushed all over the outdoors. When I go running on the *bike path* - you know, sort of an epitome of where to try to be healthy - there are people smoking. Nothing like the smoke and related chemicals burning my lungs when I'm gasping for air as it is, or having to hold my breath til I nearly lose it.

We've had no less than two smokers living in our apartment building whose smoke and odor seeped into our entire apartment.

I have never smoked in my life, but I grew up with smokers around me, so I believe I'm paying much the same price with my own respiratory problems.

No, sympathy for smoker's rights just doesn't make any sense when it amounts to allowing them to choose to poison others.

I believe that smokers are specifically committing acts of assault on others when their smoke interferes with them in any way.

So, as I always do, I write a long winded response to issues that matter to me. And now it's here.
I decided to not attack the same counselor on his intent to support lowering the drinking age at UVM to 18. How friggin stupid is that? For another time.