Steve Wells at “Dwindling in Unbelief”, posts an insightful article with a whole list of Biblical atrocities committed by or at the behest of “you know who” (the “god of the bible”). Wow. They just sentenced a man to 4000 years in prison for raping 3 girls. Seems to me the sins of humans pale in comparison to this god’s capacity for cruelty and retribution. Steve figures if you asked a believer, they would agree a human shouldn’t do those things but argue it was alright for god to do it, because we don’t know “his plan”. (Isn’t that just the ultimate cop out?) Come on, who really wants to spend an eternity with a supreme being that makes Hannibal Lecter look like a pussy? Not me.

It is so nice to get up and not head into work on a Thursday. My holiday has already begun, and I am easing into it. I put the flag out, had a glass of juice and surveyed my kingdom. It is in serious need of work! (LOL) Cleaning, mowing, laundry, picking up random piles of crap. I also stopped by the new 24×7 gym to get a key for a week to try it out. So, I might head over there with the boys later today. I already spent enough to fun a small Central American army on fireworks, so, other than groceries (they’re also open 24×7) I am prepared for a 4-day siege in the kingdom of Null.

[I should have stopped here, but I just had to read the news!]

Checking out the morning news:

• Scientists use quantum mechanics (entanglement) to photograph something they aren’t looking at… - neat-o!
• North Pacific Gyre is a 1000 mile wide garbage patch in the Pacific. I want to write more about this another time.
• Ron Paul just won’t give up his rock star status - annoying Paulbots go away!
• It appears watermelon is good for you, with some bonus benefits!
• Because this guy says so, all the science supporting evolution is wrong I guess… (ROFL) This is how some uneducated evolutionist really think! Scary!
• Interesting data on the earth’s magnetic field.
  We’ve known for a while that the earth’s field is changing rapidly (in the past 300 years) so this is just more supporting evidence. I am sure the creationist will claim this is proof of impending armageddon, but the copious science behind a million different models like how the earth’s magnetic field works (clue: not magic) support the earth being really really old because these pole changes occur periodically hundreds of thousands of years apart.
• Is the Left mounting a Swift Boat campaign against McCain? Looks the same as 4 years ago.
• It used to be fun to go to reddit.com, but now it is filled with ignorant liberal wackos who just spin every story to support their view of a conspiracy-filled world by creating extreme, sensationalist headlines. The pro-Obama and pro-Ron Paul just come off to the rest of us as deluded, but there are some really hateful anti-Bush and anti-American people out there. It is depressing to see people so biased, and either oblivious to the fact or enjoying the ability to get together and twist the truth in ways so they can insult those they hate. I’ve said it before, the noisy people who come out of the woodwork on the Internet are not interested in truth or fairness, but just about being loud and hating anyone with an opposed viewpoint. They enjoy flaming others, and have no interest in constructive dialogue. They are just like the creationists who have their minds made up, and use the Internet to search for arguments that support their twisted view of things, and forums where they can feel special and get attention of others who think the same way. I can only hope that there really is a silent, sane and better educated minority out there. Reddit.com is all the evidence you need for why these people don’t write real newspaper headlines.

Reading the general Reddit.com feed is like trying to get a mouthful of clean water from a putrid fire hose. While there are some interesting articles there, most are stupid, redundant old links or have vile twisted (ha ha, I’m so clever) headlines. I had much better luck, and my blood pressure stayed low when I visited Digg - Science, and I found a really intersting Discover article on three leading areas in science. As the election nears, I am really going to have to crawl under a rock or find a cave far away from the partisan stench and the crap flinging monkeys at Reddit.com and similar sensationalistic sites that do nothing more than beat in your brain and lower your IQ.

Now I’m going to have to find something wholesome to do, so I can forget about all this stuff that makes me so damn angry! This is going to be a great 4-day weekend, we all just need to follow my friend’s advice and turn off the TV and Internet for a while!!

When it comes to Macs and cameras, there is little that compares to viewing a sexy new model for the first time. Like the Nikon D700 mid-range DSLR camera ($2999). Drool!

• Feeling: Nausea

Anybody want a ride? I’m thinking about trading my gas-guzzling truck in for one of these babies. I’m trying to find out where on the Buzzball website it says how many miles to the gallon you get with this gizmo. I figure it would be great for my weight-loss program, since I wouldn’t be able to keep down a meal.

• Allergies: Better without nasty smokers in my restaurant!

I started slowly this morning - with a case of what I call “Dragon Ass”. I was seriously dragging ass, as it were. I left the house a little before 9am, bought overpriced gas and started what would be a long, grueling day with a venti vanilla latte from the new Starbucks Coffee on 53rd Street and Elmore. It helped. I see in the news today that Starbucks is laying off (up to) 12,000 employees and closing 600 stores. I guess with $4 gas, not as many people can afford a $4 cup of coffee after filling up their SUV.

It was a long day today. We had our antivirus vendor on-site, and spent the day discussing their products and later configuring the console and discussing deployment plans for later this year. We did have one nice break, for lunch we went to Sports Fans in Bettendorf, to enjoy the new Iowa smoking ban that went into effect today. Yay, Iowa!! It’s about time the health and well-being of society came before supporting a disgusting habit like smoking. This follows on the heels of the Illinois ban, but allows for more loopholes. This was only day one, we’ll have to see how it is working after a few months. At least it was a nice change of pace, before I finished meetings and spent an hour fussing with Jarrett’s bank to get an NSF charge reversed from an unexpected online charge he thought had been cancelled two months ago. GRUNT. I closed out the day by calling gyms to find out what their fees were, and picking up a frozen pizza from Target for dinner. It was a long day. Did I mention that?

Notice the distinct lack of smoke filling Sports Fans bar
and restaurant in Bettendorf, Iowa.