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So Izzedin is dead and Sonia won't be PM because of idiotic nationalists. Not a good couple of days. I don't feel like ranting about either of these, since they are bad enough on their own.
On a lighter note, I just realized a second ago that I tend to "voice" my e-mails; that is, if I receive an e-mail from someone and I'm reading it, I hear the particular person's voice in my head. Obviously, this isn't true for everyone, but the realization was odd nonetheless. Maybe I've been working too hard lately.
Back to work now...tons of stuff piled up from yesterday, despite coming in for a few hours last night.
Okay, let's get the anagram out of the way quick. The solution to the one on Friday was "O! Gardening". The next one, courtesy Kevin, is "Empires now? hah!". Remember the extra o is still there. (And I added a letter, since Kevin screwed something up...twice!) Start working on it...
As far as this weekend was concerned, Friday evening was a great deal of fun, courtesy Kevin and friends. The only negative was that arriving home early in the morning after non-stop revelry left me low on sleep. Saturday I recovered by early afternoon, at least enough to hit Troy with Leto, Deborah and Dwight. A great film, and a perfect way to begin the summer movie scene.
Post movie, Deborah and Dwight joined me at a cookout hosted by Gwyn, at which Kevin and others showed up. This brings up a point I'll mention later...After this event Dwight hit a party near the 'werkz itself, Deborah bailed and I crashed at the house. After, of course, I ventured next door, saw the people who ran over Brad last year and enjoyed the thrill of having a complete stranger/idiot come up to me, yell, "that's the worst costume ever" and spray me with water. I replied "I'm the next door neighbor" at which point the girl in question flushed beet red, apologized and ran away. I eventually found Dwight and departed.
Sunday I cleaned up the 'werkz with Deborah. The whole day. Yay!
Three points were brought home this weekend. In no particular order, here they are:
- I really need to find a way to turn it off when I go out. Eventually, I'm going to get hurt. Or, rather, someone else will. Apologies to Kevin's friends, etc. It would, of course, be much easier if people actually figured out that flirtation is, by definition, innocuous. Perhaps my puritanical tendencies simply don't allow me to see a problem when one exists. Oh, well.
- I really need to work on my compartmentalization skills. It used to be simple: few friends interacted with each other. Many openly hated each other, forming an odd melodramatic touch to any occasion and resulting in complex logic games before any events on Friday or Saturday night. Now, half the people know each other, which leads to trouble. I've got to get back to basics.
- I really need to punk those losers two doors over. Maybe we'll have a party where everyone dresses to the nines, invite them, then kick them out. Suggestions should be e-mailed to me. Nothing is off the table.
Okay, time to get some caffeine, hit some powers, then crash. I won't bore anyone with the vagaries of the political events this evening. Return to your homes...nothing to see here.
werkz advice: catch it in the theaters!
Wolfgang Peterson's "Troy" is a good epic film: light on substance, heavy on action, with plenty of awesome imagery and memorable lines. Initially I was disappointed some scenes weren't included (like that of Laocoon and the sea serpents) yet all these doubts were erased with a late cameo by Aeneas. (I can already see the sequel in my mind: "Troy 2: Aeneas's Revenge!". Don't bother re-reading the illiad, just go watch the trojans and greeks mix it up.
Someone from my office said my new nickname should be "Job". It was only partly in jest.
Needless to say I haven't been able to do any work (I had a whole series of items planned for today) because of some technical issues that arose. About an hour ago, I finally managed to start working on the things I had intended to do when I arrived at work this morning. Not a fun way to spend the day.
Of course, this also impacted the anagram and story-telling I was to partake in at lunchtime. I had to get out of the office, even if just for 10 minutes, so I did so. I'll post some after I get off...
Thanks, TiVo, for allowing me to watch our secretary of state, hours after the fact, be disgraced on national television by an idiotic press relations flack. If you haven't seen the priceless moment...feel free to drop by the 'werkz and I can show you the bizarre palm tree sequence.
Summary of weekend tomorrow...along with the new anagram. I'm too tired to write much right now after spending the entire day cleaning the house with Deborah. The only remotely satisfying portion was the coda: watching the delightfully diminuitive sarah michelle gellar from the first season, courtesy Kevin. And now, to powers and sleep.
Anytime I leave a party and feel like a snob, that's not a good sign. More later...
Yesterday's solution to "Coil Hobbles Win" was "O! Ben's Chili Bowl". Deborah managed to get it right, and suggested the following one, again, continuing the Brad-inspired-addition of having the letter "O" added to it. So here you go: "Dean Gringo". Go to town.
Brad must've been smoking that crack...here's a hint about the anagram for today, which I just figured out. First, there's an extra "O" in it. Unless Brad was intending to have the anagram be "O! XXXXXXX" which is just silly. Or I could've made a mistake about the anagram itself. Second, if it's what I think, then the answer doesn't sit well with Brad himself. That's the hint. Of course, I could be wrong...
A coup in 2012. Worth reading.
When we graduated from the War College in 1992, the armed forces were the smartest, best educated, and best disciplined force in history.[15] While polls showed that the public invariably gave Congress low marks, a February 1991 survey disclosed that "public confidence in the military soar[ed] to 85 percent, far surpassing every other institution in our society." The armed forces had become America's most--and perhaps only--trusted arm of government.[16]
Assumptions about the role of the military in society also began to change. Twenty years before we graduated, the Supreme Court confidently declared in Laird v. Tatum that Americans had a "traditional and strong resistance to any military intrusion into civilian affairs."[17] But Americans were now rethinking the desirability and necessity of that resistance. They compared the military's principled competence with the chicanery and ineptitude of many elected officials, and found the latter wanting.
Be sure to read the whole thing.
I'm no fan of the Congress Party...but I hate nationalistic parties like the BJP. So congrats to Sonia and friends. A stunning upset.
Okay, giving people a hint evidently was too easy. Brad nailed it so fast that there will be no hints this time. The anagram from "CIA Tolerant" was, of course, "altercation". Thursday's anagram, presented a few hours early, is "Coil Hobbles Win". Go to town!
I want one of these. Now. From the article:
At the Baja Beach Club, Tuesdays are VeriChip implantation days. Stop in and a ''nurse'' -- the club's word -- uses a syringe to inject a VeriChip capsule under your skin. There don't seem to be any rules about where on the body it has to be placed. If you think this sounds like something you'd never do, then you're not the kind of person who goes to clubs wearing your bestest nose ring.
Once implanted, you become your own credit card. Need to pay for a drink? Wave your implant near a reader, and you're done. VeriChip has dreams of going global with its ''human implantable ID technology'' -- once implanted, you could wave a body part to pay for a burger at Wendy's, a beer at a baseball game, or whatever.
Privacy is already dead...we just don't know it yet. Chip me up, kids.
I woke up this morning to hot weather for the third day in a row. At a loss for what to wear, I pushed aside some shirts and discovered a pair of brand new, black linen pants I had purchased months ago but managed to forget in the interim. A great way to start the day. Tasty pretzels at lunch are also in my future. And my office is super-cool, temperature wise. Needless to say, I'm in a good mood.
Brad nailed it. As such, he gets to suggest the next one for tomorrow. I'll post his suggestion tomorrow morning along with the answer for today.
The answer to yesterday's anagram of "Spot Thing Wagons" was "Washington Post". Clearly a little too difficult for the average joe.
Today's anagram is "CIA Tolerant". I'm going to start giving hints so people have a better chance. Today's hint is that I've been in one of these in Adams-Morgan.
Inhofe went ape today during the Taguba hearing...his words were so inflammatory McCain walked out:
I -- well, first of all, I regret I wasn't here on Friday. I was unable to be here. But maybe it's better that I wasn't, because as I watched the -- this outrage, this outrage everyone seems to have about the treatment of these prisoners, I was, I have to say -- and I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment. The idea that these prisoners -- you know, they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents.
Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals.
And I hasten to say yeah, there are seven bad guys and gals that didn't do what they should have done. They were misguided, I think maybe even perverted, and the things that they did have to be punished. And they're being punished. They're being tried right now, and that's all taking place. But I'm also outraged by the press and the politicians and the political agendas that are being served by this, and I say political agendas because that's actually what is happening.
Well, according to the Red Cross 90% of the people interred were a mistake which kind of belies the whole "American blood on their hands" malarkey. And even if they did...shouldn't we be the ones above torture? Do we really want to turn into these guys?
GENEVA - Up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees were arrested "by mistake," according to coalition intelligence officers cited in a Red Cross report disclosed Monday. It also says U.S. officers mistreated inmates at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison by keeping them naked in dark, empty cells.
If you want to see the exact moment McCain has had enough of Inhofe's garbage go to right here (it's a clip in realvideo format) and move the time forward to 1:07:20. You get to see Inhofe act like an ass and McCain finally walk out. The people behind Inhofe have some priceless expressions...
I never thought I'd say this but Lindsey Graham is actually making sense. He just said something to the effect of, "Saddam Hussein is a bad man...if we had him in here tomorrow, would you sic dogs on him?" Taguba replied that we needed to follow international law. Graham then said, "Yes, we know Hussein is a bad person, but we need to follow the rule of law and I applaud you..."
Didn't Howard Dean say something like this awhile back...and get castigated? My, how times have changed.
Rove demystified by Wonkette. Hilarious.
Just to remind folks, BG Taguba's father was a prisoner of war during the Bataan death march. So he might be rightly critical of inhumane prisoner treatment. The chance to serve on the side of justice must be especially empowering, to crack down on the kinds of abuse his father had to deal with. Sometimes bad things happen to good people...but sometimes the right person is in the right place at the right time.
He's still testifying on the hill now, if you haven't been watching.