Just a Quick Memo

Hey all -

Just a quick note to all my loyal readers - thanks for sticking with me and helping me out. I've traveled out to Cooper City, Florida, where they actually have some power and internet connections. It's about an hour's travel from my house. Many thanks to Debbie (Matthew, Joel, and Michael's mother) for housing me and hunting me down an internet connection. The Blip server was in horrible shape, and I had to do some overdue maintainence. What I've done should tide it over until next Tuesday, at which point I can do the open heart surgery it needs to the machine.

With regards to the donations of time and information - your help has been invaluable in keeping me alive, as well as all the other denizens of 12th street in Pompano Beach. I want to send out special thanks to Smokehouse, Darrell, Matthew, Joel, Traci, my dad, and everyone else who called with their warm wishes and good information.

My plan, as of now, is to take a month in Texas to get my life straightened out, and figure out what we're doing with Blip. The main thing is to get the VC situation straightened out, as well as get the server operational long term, again.

Then, of course, we've got to address the long term stability of AACS. AACS took a major hit during the storm. Our South-facing doors were blown wide open during the storm, and we may have taken up to $35,000 worth of property damage (and that's purely in lost equipment). We've yet to fully assess the extent of the damage. Luckily, our data is secure, and our employees are safe, so we can rebuild.

I've got a lot of ... interesting ... stories and pictures to share with you next week, so stay tuned for that. In the mean time, Matthew, Art, and Darrell will keep you updated through this blog while I'm incommunicado. As always, the best way to get a hold of me is to leave me a voice mail (the number is on the side of the page here). As for my email, it's pretty much out of my reach right now, as my spam filters are the only thing that make it readable, and I can't apply them through my web-based email readers.

Until we speak again, be well, and thanks again.

/rizzn

Mark STILL alive. Film at 11.

I just got a call from our favorite displaced Floridian. (That's Mark Hopkins, for those of you in Rio Linda.) It would seem that he is chugging right along. He's doing a lot of walking and eating from street barbecues, but he's okay.

He tried to get me to apply for FEMA disaster assistance, but somehow I didn't feel right about that. I've given up on AACS ever paying me the $1742.00 they owe me. I'm sure they are out of business now, anyway. Clown shoes.

Much to Mark's anger and dismay, it would seem that no one in San Francisco reads the newspaper. He's gotten calls from his PR rep and his venture capitalist, both of whom want to know why he's missing appointments, or hasnt turned whatever in. I find this very disturbing. Perhaps the people of San Francisco are too busy planning gay pride parades, putting up rainbow flags, and reading the style section to notice that south Florida is a hellhole right now. Aside from that, Mark's mother hasn't even called him. That's worse than disturbing in my view. That's evil.

Mark tells me the newspaper says the wealthy neighborhoods of Miami will be getting their power restored first. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I suppose the best we can hope for is that it will trigger some "trickle down" economics, or something.

Mark was able to get some money out of his paypal account, so the plan now is for him to buy some gasoline, head to the airport, and shoot off to Texas. He plans on staying there for about a month. Acoording to him, that seems to be the plan for a lot of folks, as he says half his street has moved out of state.

A big thank you to everone who has helped out.

More as it happens.

Mark Lives

I just got a call from Mark. Apparently, south Florida is indeed a wasteland, as he was calling me from the only working pay phone he could find. He does have a little money and food for a couple days, but donations are still appreciated. Right now, he needs to find a working gas station in the Pompano Beach area, so if anybody can help out with that, please drop me a line at smokehouse@rantradio.com ASAP!

"I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll...

...blow your power out!", threatened hurricane Wilma. 6 millionish people without electricity and, Mark, is one of them while, Wilma, laughs her evil hurricane kackle. It's the worst powere outage in Florida's history.

Mark says his power could be out for up to a month or more. He has no food or money. He begs of you to donate what you can via paypal to mark@aacsnet.com

If he can manage to get some gas, he may try to get back to Texas for a bit.

That's all the news thats fit to print.

I 4M 571LL H4x0r 31337

Okay, so I’m having a weird life right now.  I’m all off my game, and, well, I don’t know how to explain it.  I think what it is right now is I’m editing this old book of mine that has a lot of emotional and mental ties to my past, and it’s putting me in a really funky headspace.  On top of that, the rest of my life is in a wacky state of flux, too, so I’m just off-kilter in general. None the less, I’m a trooper, and I’m still going to some blog posts for you peoples here.

Spill the beans already!
On the topic of the book, I recently found out (last night) that there is a new real-life chapter to the character’s lives the book is based on. I guess, I’ll go ahead and spill the beans on the book here, so I can try to figure out how I’m going to tackle this last chapter.  The book is based off the journal I kept during the nine month period of time where my engagement to my ex-fiance was dissolving.  It starts out all eloquent, heart-broken, and full of wistful love, and ends up as the writings of a mysogenistic, bent, and spurned author. I’m not sure how I’m eventually going to pitch it, but it’s definately an interesting read.

Well, as to the extra chapter, I was just informed that my ex-fiance got married a couple weeks ago to a fellow who she and I used to hang out with.  This guy was good friends with the guy who broke up our marriage, both of whom were in highschool at the time.  I was under the impression that she had changed, and spun off all her old bad associations, but apparently not.  Not sure what to think about all of that now.  I mean, I’m completely over all of that, but editing through the book as I am right now, like I said, puts me in a weird headspace, so it’s affecting me none-the-less.

A Podcast that Explains a Lot
Smokehouse is uploading a podcast we did last night on my feed. We talked about the upcoming Hurricane Wilma, old leftover topics from Hurricane Katrina, Tom Delay stupidity, my vacation, and a bunch of other rediculous stuff (including my fiasco at work this week).

It’s long, but I think it maintains interest all the way through. If you’ve got an hour to kill, check it out.  You should be subscribed to my feed anyways.  This may be the return of some more regular podcasts from me, anyways.

Excited about the Fellowship Of The Corpse
The adventure to revive Caligh’is returns tomorrow night at iRP.  I haven’t posted another chapter up here yet mostly because not enough story advancement has occurred yet, but there should be enough story advancement by the end of tonight, so look for another exciting chapter in the Fellowship of the Corpse series.

To quickly summarize where the story is at currently, the adventurers who ended up on the Fellowship ended up being Doidialdi, Lutherous, Rizzn, and Marigold.  We spent a fair amount of time last week stocking up for the trip at the market, and then headed north, following Pendleton’s (the horse) lead.  We reached a forrested area, and made camp for the night.  Rizzn stood watch, and after a couple hours we were attacked by a couple bandits on one horse.  We killed one  of the bandits, but he was scooped up by the horseman, and they fled the scene.  At the moment, Rizzn is mounting up to give chase.

Stick around this week, I’ll try to transcribe some of the logs into story form for the next installment.

Hacking the On Time Payment Protection System
A friend of mine from Tyler called me up, and said a friend of his had bought a car from a loan shark who was protecting the car with a payment protection system called ON TIME. I did a little quick research on the device and found that it’s an ‘embedded system’ that may or may not run on TinyOS. The way it works is that if you don’t enter your payment code into the system at the given intervals, it will prevent your car from starting properly.  The code is usually a six digit number preceded by a 1 (1–######).

It allegedly has a tamper protection system built in as well. From what the fellow was telling me, the device only had two wires leading out, that traced back to the starter, which presumably disables that functionality if it deems it so.

My advice (purely unqualified) was if he were to try to defeat the system, he should strip back the wires carefully, to see if they expose copper or more wires inside.  If they simply expose more wires, then give up, because they probably lead back to the computer, and we’d have to reverse engineer the box itself.  If the two wires stripped back only expose copper, then my advice would be to bridge them so as to short circuit the box itself, which theoretically would allow the car to start normally.

The next part is important.  If the car starts normally, you should take the box (which is attached, by adhesive, to the steering column), detach it, and take it to the nearest lake, and pitch it in, reason being is it contains a GPS device, which they will use to come tow your car when you stop making payments.

This advice is not meant to show anyone how they can steal a car, just simply what I told this guy on the phone today.  I do not endorse stealing, nor do I endorse getting out of your bills.

I am curious to see if this all works, because if so, if that is all it takes to defeat the security on the device, then ON TIME PPS is a rip off.

Liz Taylor Deadpool Update
According to the IMDb, Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor has expressed her wishes at having her ashes scattered in Wales, England, the home of the biggest love of her life Richard Burton.

Taylor is reportedly seriously ill following a string of health problems. Last month it was revealed that the 73 year old actress is now sleeping up to 14 hours a day and hasn't left her Californian Bel Air home for weeks.

A source close to the actress recently said that she had almost given up on life, felt asthough she has nothing left to live for and dreamnt of being reunited with her former husband.

Despite being married seven times, Taylor has revealed she wants her remains strewn at Cardiff's Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama to be close to Richard's theatre there.

She’s definately moved to the top of my list. Get ready to send your funeral flowers.

/rizzn

Music on the Turntables Currently: DJ Rizzn - Basket Case (Kool Kannon Remix)

Just a Quick Note

Things are super crazy with work right now. I'm in a form of 'Final Jeopardy' with my partners at work, and we're shooting for all the marbles. It's a real pickle of a situation. More details if I get resolution tomorrow.

In other words, I'm real, real, real stressed out right now. I may be a bit slow responding to emails and phone calls.

/rizzn

Music on the Turntables Currently: Optimus Rhyme - Incogni2

Studies show that Rizznites are 65% More Accurately Informed than Slime Mold

Newest Order of Kate and Adam Shirts
I just recieved notification that the latest shipment of Kate Moss and Adam Curry tshirts are shipping.  If you live inside the continental US, you can expect your shirts within the next 3–6 days.

The Colbert Report
Joel said today:

Studies have shown consistently that people that only get their news from the John Stewart are 30% more accuratley informed than people who only get their news from FOX.  Of course, Slime mold growing in my shower is better informed than people who only get their news from FOX.

I think that it is pretty important to include that people who watch Fox News Channel about as accurately informed as viewers from MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, CBS News, or any other mainstream news source.  I remember reviewing a study that Joel is probably quoting here that the only media consumer differences occur when you look at people who consume a multitude of different types of media.  Those that consume blogs and MSM or those that consume public radio and print, etc, are all better informed than those that get their news from one type of primary source.

RE: Technorati Buzz Index
This Times Select business is ruining my life.  Ever since the New York Times has decided to charge for online access to editorials, the Technorati buzz index has been jammed up with keyword searches for John Tierney, Paul Krugman, and whatever other idjits that they have over there spewing swill.  A million cheapsake NYTimes readers are clogging up Technorati with searches so they can find their precious editorial drivel for free somewhere.

What’s the moral of the story?  Clearly, liberals are interested in hearing what their favorite fact-spinners have to say, but they don’t think the words are actually worth paying real money for.

I’m Going to be Published
I just got word back from a few different publishers on a book manuscript I’ve been sending out for the last few months.  I’ve gotten a few yeses, a bunch of turn-downs, and several no replies, and a couple return to senders.  The upside is that I have a few yeses to compare and evaluate to see which one is going to do the most marketing of the book.  More on this as it develops… once I sign a deal with someone, I’ll tell you guys a bit more about it, but just to tease you a little bit: it’s an auto-biography focusing on a nine-month period of my life from several years ago.  I envision it being a coffee table book, but most publishers don’t want to handle those.  We’ll see.

Miscellaneous Stuff
Clusterflux Anomaly are putting out a new episode soon.  Go check it out once it’s updated, it’s supposed to be a special episode.

Kate Moss turns down Doherty visit. In our continuing coverage of this blasted Kate Moss story, Gawker today paints a picture of what will end up being the final nail in the coffin to the US ecomonmy as a result of Kate’s decision.

My Basket Case remix is getting rave reviews from all who listen to it.  Go download it.

That’s more or less all I got today.

/rizzn

Merchandise: A Lesson in Capitalism

Alright, I don't do enough shameless promotion around here, and I'm far too lazy to type anything up of substance today, so I'm going to take the day to promote myself and all the crap I've been putting out lately. This is a cattle call for all of you to buy something from me. The idea is that if I can get sales to go up, I can drop prices. I'm ordering everything piecemeal right now, so prices are high. If I can get volume up, prices go down. It's all about economics.

	Kate Moss did some coke, and the biggest surprise of all was that millions of people came to my website because of it. This shirt celebrates that. She pushed the rock, she's a star, she's a rock star. Do the math. This ain't high-brow humor here or anything. The biggest reason to get these shirts is that they may not be around long -- I keep getting TOS'ed everywhere I go to have them printed up. I'm not dedicated enough to the cost to buy a screen printing machine for my room, so when they're gone, they're gone..
	$25 + 5
	Adam Curry is a Jerk. That's what the shirt says, and that's what he is. Why do I say this? Why am I so mean? Frankly, it's simply because Adam claims credit for everything ever done, he doesn't return emails or phone calls, and he steals my ideas and tries to enter into competition with me every chance he can get. It's annoying as hell, so I figured I'd put it on a shirt. I own this shirt, I wear it once a week, so how's that for endorsement. Be like me (a spiteful, bitter, grudge holding blogger). It's attractive.
	$25 + 5
	Play God. This is the infamous ‘Play God' shirt we used to wear back in our days in the Dallas geekhouse, featuring the old Rizzn.Com sitelogo on the front pocket, and a pensive image of Alan Greenspan on the back. Alan Greenspan is the fed chairman, for those of you who don't know politics. He controls the US Economy, and ergo the world. Since Earth is the center of the universe, it's fair to say he has God-like powers, influencing intergalactic politics with as little as an inopportune sneeze.
	$25 + 5
	Ladies <3 Rizzn. They do! That's not to say that most of the ladies who love Rizzn don't eventually crack and become crazed and legally insane shadows of their former self, but they do love Rizzn. This is the shirt you wear when you're a lady, and you want to proclaim your love for me. It's got a picture of me in my Patron Saint of Whatever icon garb. Seriously, the ladies do love me. Seriously.
	$25 + 5

	Soundtrack to My Car. This one, if you've gotten any of the old Riz Mix CDS, has a lot of material from Riz Mix 6 or 5 that was reworked into something that you'd actually want to listen to. I finished some decade old projects for this CD, and came out with some stuff that actually sounds cutting edge, instead of horribly dated. (that which is old is new again). You can buy the CD, or even download it for free from the website. Do both!
	$10 + 5
	John Garvin Fan Club vs. DJ Rizzn. This one's actually been up for sale for about three or four or five years now, I just never got around to marketing it for personal reasons (grudge with the band leader). I've since gotten over my emotional trauma, and am open for business. It's a split – half me djing, and half my production work for JGFC. They've got an atypical indie sound. If you hunt around on Last.FM or acidPlanet, you'll be able to find something of theirs laying around.
	$10 + 5

Where the longhorn cattle feed on the lowly gypsum weed. Back in the saddle again!

Hey guys.  A few things to talk about here.  I’m taking it easy this weekend, recovering from vacation.  Yes, I said recovering.  For reasons I’ll explain later, my face has been burnt to a crisp.  All in all, though, the vacation was a blast – I’ll get into that in a second. 

The Band is Back Together
As a few of you have heard, we’re getting the band back together.  Yes, that’s right, it’s the return of the MADshow/Out In Right Field.  Everyone has been itching to do another podcast/radio show, including me, so Smokehouse, Darrell and I have been doing some planning sessions on what we want the new show to be.  The trick is going to create a format that’s going to work for all of us – it’ll be somewhat politics based, and I’m pressing everyone for a thirty minute daily format, with pre-recorded bits and rants mixed in.  That’s pretty much all I can say about it at the moment, although if you want to be in on the planning sessions, you should join the RIC mailing list here.  We’ll eventually move the discussion to it’s own list, but this is where it’ll all start.

When They Roll Up the Streets in Toledo Ohio
I woke up this morning to the sounds of violence in Toledo, Ohio coming from my TV.  I tend to leave my TV on the cartoon channels on the weekend, but for some reason I fell asleep watching one of the news networks, and so I wound up being serenaded this morning by the police chiefs of Toledo instead of Scooby Doo re-runs.

In another example of how piss-poor American MSM is, I had to go to the BBC website to find out that these ‘race-riots’ were actually not race-riots, but gang warfare (in Toledo Ohio? Who knew!?).  There were only 20 non-violent Nazi’s protesting (as opposed to 500 violent ‘anti-Nazi protestors’), and the Nazis were dispersed before the violence even began.  I’m not going to make some racist comments here about how it’s those darn blacks acting up again, I’m just saying how is it that the Main Stream Media has this aversion to reporting facts?

I know, Nazi’s are bad, mmkay.  But still, I think this is a good example of violence being somewhat glorified by the media, just because, y’know, well … who wants to defend skinhead Nazis?  Facts are facts.  Report them, regardless of how it makes the ratings or your public image go.

Apologies go out to the late John Denver for my abuse of his song title.

Hillary vs. Condi
I really don’t want to comment on this, but I feel I have a couple words to say on the topic of mild interest.  I think it’s patently absurd that the presidential race next term will be Hillary Clinton vs. Condileeza Rice, but the media is now fixated on these two running for president against each other.  The reason for this is most likely because of the hit series on whatever network it’s on where Geena Davis plays the POTUS.  I’ve been discounting the idea that Hillary could get the Democratic nomination, much less the highest office in the land on a couple of premises, but I’m being forced to reconsider due to the media attention.

To explain, one of the craziest conspiracy nuts I know (and have had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with him as a semi-crucial business affiliate the last couple years) once said (completely in a serious tone) that he had inside information that the powers that be have sat down and decided that Hillary is going to be president no matter what.  I tend to take the words of lone nuts like him, and whatever they predict, count on the opposite being true.  The sky doesn’t fall on command.  Conspiracies work by the numbers, and there’s just no percentage in any conspirators putting a woman in the nation’s pilot seat.

The other reason I can’t see Hillary taking the election is that Democrats are weak weak weak right now (despite a slight bounce in their numbers over the Rove/Delay/Frist scandals).  Hillary was the weak link in the Whitehouse PR chain for four years.  It’s a wonder she won a senate seat.  I honestly can’t see her winning votes for dog-catcher in all but the most liberal of precincts.

Unfortunately, though, because whomever the media fixates upon, that’s who ends up running for president.  If the media isn’t fixated on them, they get no votes (Perot ‘92 vs Perot ‘96, or Perot ‘92 vs Nader ‘02 for instances).  I’m just a bit saddened by this because damnit, if we’re going to elect a woman president, why can’t it be someone who isn’t a consummate liar, crook, and (dare I say it) unattractive?  I mean, crap, this is my criteria for a woman running for president – they must not maintain but one of those characteristics.  They can be a liar, but not a crook and ugly at the same time.  I’ll vote for an ugly woman candidate, but she better be a friggin’ saint.

I’m saying this for the children.  I mean we were all subjected to Susan B. Anthony dollars when my age group were young.  We were all, “Who’s this ugly chick?”  Do we want our first woman president to be talked about in this manner when history looks back at her? No!

So, um, let’s elect Uma for president or something. Yeah.  Hell, I’d settle for Geena, she’s still lookin’ pretty good.

My Vacation in the Bahamas, part I October 17th, 2005
I haven’t finished converting all my video yet, but I’ll go through the first bits of my vacation. Monday noonish, I hopped in the jalopy and drove down to the port of Miami, which was surprisingly easy to find (and not very trafficky getting there either).  I parked in a garage, walked directly across the street, and was all checked in within less than 15 minutes.  Interesting bit of trivia – you don’t need a passport if you’re traveling from America to the Bahamas.  A photo ID and your birth certificate will do just fine.

So I arrive on the boat, and as I enter the rotunda, there’s art all over the place, and I feel like I’m in the upscale section of a mall. I find my room without too much difficulty, down two decks, and in the front of the ship (it’s a ship, by the way.  they hate when you call it a boat).  It’s a small room with two seperate beds, probably a quarter the size of my efficiency.  Still, its ample room to move around, just not big enough to turn a cartwheel in. I’m not big on cartwheels, so I’m okay with it.

I wandered around the ship for a couple of hours waiting for my dad to board.  The ship had eleven main decks, and three more decks up in the tower.  As I found out the next night, it was in the top ten list of biggest ships of all time, accomidating around 2700 passengers and 800 crew. Another fun fact about the ship – there were about nine bars/lounges on board, about a third of them allowed smoking.

The first evening was pretty uneventful.  I got some good portside video of us leaving the Port of Miami, and some interesting birds eye video of South Beach.  They have this all day buffet thing that goes on from deck 10 to 12 on the front of the ship, from which my dad and I partook, and then went to bed.

I’m looking at the clock now, and it’s 4:50 in the morning on Sunday, so I’ll save the next day for tomorrow.

Deuce!

/rizzn

 

Music on the Turntables Currently: DJ Rizzn - Basket Case (Kool Kannon Remix)

Back in Town

I'm back y'all (an I'm back y'all, and I'm bickety-bickety back y'all). Tanned, rested, and ready to get back to work, after I relax this weekend of course. I’m not going to spend a lot of time writing right now. I'll just buzz through my predictions, post a couple top stories from my inbox, and we’ll do the RICR tomorrow. I've got 280 emails to sort through, yo (not including spam).

Pictures and video coming this weekend. Stay tuned.

Also, tousen tuck to Darrell, Smokehouse, Matthew and Jon for their contributions this week.

My Predictions On The News - 3.5 out of 6.
Liz Taylor Dies - She held on another week. Still has congenitive heart failure, though.
House and Senate Hand Out Corporate Welfare - It took less than a week. On Thursday, congressional Republicans began a rush Wednesday to ease environmental rules on refineries and looked for ways to open new coastal waters to oil and gas development.
Rove Testifies Before Grand Jury - White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove today made his fourth appearance before the U.S. grand jury probing whether Bush administration officials disclosed the identity of an undercover CIA operative to reporters. We'll hafta wait until Oct 28th rolls around to determine whether my indictment prediction comes true: The grand jury's term ends Oct. 28.
Adam Curry invents Vodcasting - Alright, I wasn't far off on this one. Adam Curry was quoted on Investors.com, making tons of predictions of what the uses of video iPods will be used for, and instead of coining a new term, rolling all these applications into podcasting. He didn’t mention Blip one time.
Kidnapping in Aruba Remains Unsolved - yeah, they still haven’t found her.
Tropical Force Disturbance Xanadu Makes Landfall - The NOAA hasn’t started naming breezes yet, but I haven't seen the Weather Channel this week, so someone will have to fill me in.

Microsoft, Yahoo ready IM interoperability
Microsoft and Yahoo have agreed to link their free instant messaging services in a move that allows the companies to jointly take on both market leader AOL and newcomer Google. The link-up is also expected to give users of both systems the ability to intercommunicate via VoIP, a move fraught with powerful ramifications for the traditional telecom industry.

For now, the two companies say their partnership will focus on text IM, with interoperability expected to be in place by June 2006. While the companies eventually hope to be able to let users make computer-to-computer phone calls, no timetable has been set for deployment. When voice interoperability does happen, it could set the stage for a VoIP battle royale between Microsoft-Yahoo and Skype Technologies, which is in the process of being acquired by eBay.

Russia's New Rasputin
Grigory Grabovoi claims to be the second advent of Christ, and a psychic who can bring people back from the dead. And he's running for the Presidency of Russian in 2008.

Last month he paid for a group of mothers who lost children in the Beslan massacre to visit him in Moscow, where he apparently told them he could resurrect the kids, on 17th October.

Some people obviously believe in his powers. It has been reported that Grabovoi is employed by the government to use his extra-sensory skills to ensure the Presidential plane stays safe on trips.

/rizzn

Where Did He Get Those Wonderful Pants?

Apple unveiled some wonderful new products yesterday. I wish I could tell you what they were, but I can't because while I was watching the Apple special event, I was too focused on Steve Jobs' pants. They were cool pants. Dare I say the pants were the coolest product at the special event.

Why am I so focused on these pants? Steve normally wears jeans. The leggings he was wearing yesterday weren't jeans. At times they seemed to change from a black to brown color. They sorta resembled Dickies cargo pants. Anyway, the left side of these pants definately had a cargo pocket, and on either side of the waist, below the belt loops, there were metal, d-shaped rings, kinda like those found on Hot Topic goth chick pants. These were really cool pants for a business casual style.

As I grow older, I find myself moving more and more towards that business casual look and I really want a pair of pants like Steve's for it. Sometimes though, I back step to my The-Dude-is-a-real-life-person style. So, Steve's pants and a fuzzy bath robe to match and I think I'll finally have the business casual bum look I've always wanted and will never have to choose between the two ever again.

Smokehouse Says This: Kill Your TV

A few years ago, I discovered something. I have found that I can't stand television. In fact, I abhor it. It didn't used to be that way. I mean, I used to like TV. TV used to be full of fun stuff like "The A-Team", "Starsky and Hutch" and "The Dukes of Hazzard". Those were the days kids, I'm telling you. You could tune in and watch the good guys kick truckloads of ass every single week. Oh, how I yearn for 20 years ago.

Now, let's fast-forward to the twenty-first century. Television is no longer an instrument that is used to inject some mirth into the doldrums of everyday life. It's now a social replacement system. It is everyday life.

Just in case you haven't figured what I'm getting at, I'm talking about reality TV. Could somebody point me to the people responsible for this cultural train wreck? If you ask me, (and you must have, since you're reading this), reality TV has greatly contributed to the decay of our society. We as a people are becoming fatter and lazier by the day, and deep down inside we all know it. A lot of us out there are having some tough times, me included. In fact, let's lay it out on the table here. For a lot of people, life sucks right now.

If you're one of those people, whom, by your own estimation, falls into the "cappy life" demographic, Guess what? You are the target audience for reality TV. I haven't the foggiest idea how this happened, but I've noticed that there are fewer people taking an active interest in the direction of their own lives, and more and more people who are interested in who will get kicked off "Survivor".

Let me clue you people in on something, okay? "Survivor" isn't real. It's a TV show. If it were real, there wouldn't be any of this voting stuff. If "Survivor" we're real, people would die. That's what it means to survive. Not to die if you're really stranded on an island. Let's say you pass out and fall in the fire like old what's-his-name did, and there is no helicopter to ship you out. You just lie there and burn to death. The only one who is doing the "voting" is God. None of this tribal council crap. The Big Man just punched your ticket for the train, and it's time for you to go. Sorry about your bad luck, Junior. The only decision the Tribal Council gets to make is whether to bury your stinking carcass or to eat you. Now that is survival, boys and girls. When you have to eat your buddy, you know you're in some serious trouble. Now, if you think that's mean of me to say such a thing, because these people have families and such, well that's just too bad. If these people really carried about their families they wouldn't whore themselves out to some stripped down Club Med vacation in pursuit of a million dollars that they will undoubtedly blow in six months on stuff they didn't really want or need, not to mention the doctor bills they will incur for the wretched case of skin cancer they'll get as a booby prize for spending a month in direct sunlight. Screw them! Let the contestants rot. It's natural selection in action, and I don't know about you, but I think our gene pool could use some serious chlorine right about now.

I might watch "Survivor" if they had it in some place where the contestants were in perpetually imminent danger, such as, oh, I don't know, say, Chernobyl, Russia. I mean, really, who wouldn't want to watch that? I think it would be great. They could implement some "last man standing" rules, so the last one who hasn't rotted apart or puked his or herself to death would be declared the winner. "Out think, out plan, glow in the dark". How's that for a catchy slogan? I really think it could work. There should be plenty of food in that town for people to subsist on. I've heard that the animals in the area are just teeming with extra body parts. A show like this would pull in fantastic ratings simply based on the fact that it would satisfy the bloodlust that every television viewer secretly has. Don't lie to yourself. You know it's there. Let go. "Fuck 'em, kill 'em, and eat 'em." It's that line of thinking that made America great, after all. Moving along, I think I would be remiss if I didn't mention "American Idol". Am I the only one who realizes that the goal of this show is consumer enslavement? For years I have heard people complain without end how the music business and radio have gone to complete shit because all they do is cram the same pabulum down our throats day after day. It's a simple process, really. The record companies find someone with marginal talent who can be easily exploited with the help of record producers and stylists who possess magician-like skills. Then, when the album is complete, the record companies pay off radio program directors nationwide to play the same song on the radio over and over and over again until you think it's cool. Do yourself a favor and don't kid yourself on either front. "Payolla" still goes on, and you know once you get some stupid song stuck in your head, you start singing it, and then you think ,"Gee, I never liked it before, but this is starting to grow on me." Next think you know, there you are standing in line at Tower shucking out $20 for an item done by a warmed-over clone of a previous artist, all of which cost about thirty cents to make.

They've got you now, sucker.

What people aren't realizing is that all "American Idol" is does is let consumers decide the method of their own extortion. In fact, it's a double-whammy. They can bombard you with commercials during the show, so you'll buy stuff, while you're waiting to have the show's winner's album shoved up your butt for the next year and a half. People go nuts over it, too it completely baffles me. Some folks are downright obsessed with who will win, like they know the contestants or have some sort of a personal stake in the matter. The only thing at stake here is your wallet, and you're a fool if you think otherwise. I don't give a damn about who wins, and neither should you, because no matter who it is, there will still be a slew of sub par albums by every contestant on who was ever on "American Idol", whether you voted for them or not, and they'll be gone in two years. Your votes didn't help the winner, because he'll probably still end up a lounge singer at best. All you did was help to buy Simon Cowell another house.

I beg you: Dare to be different don't fall into this trap. Don't live vicariously through the "people" on TV. Be honest with yourself. Which would make you happier? Watching some ditz whore herself out to 50 thugs on that televised meat market called "The Bachelorette", or going out and living a fulfilling social life of your own?

Don't let TV and radio dictate to you the notions of what's cool, figure it out on your own. There are a lot of great musicians out there that never make it on shows like "American Idol", and the best part is…they make real, original music. The Internet has become a haven for those who don't have major-label backing. There are tons of independent labels and artists out there that are dying to be heard. Check them out. If you don't have access to the Internet, check your town clubs. Almost every town has at least one jazz club, not to mention the other genres. If you take the time to look, you'll probably find exactly what you're after.

Television started as a simple diversion. It has now become a crutch. I think that's scary. If we as a society don't take our lives back soon, the "glowing god" will drag us all down with it.

Television isn't real.

Howdy from Nassau

Hey everyone - Just a quick post to let everyone know my vacation is going swimmingly. I'm posting from an internet terminal in a Subway's here in downtown. The price is $.10/a minute, a mite cheaper than the ship's $.50/a minute. Not much to say, except everything is going great, and I'll have some good pictures and video next weekend. If I find a terminal with some hookup cables, I'll try to upload some before week's end (but my phone won't work out here, darn MetroPCS, so I can't do any moblogging or podcasting).

That is all, as you were.

(BTW, just remembered - there will be pictures next week from Fashion Week Miami - Ricky's going down to cover the events this week, and I'll put the best of photos up on the site in the gallery, and few in some select blog posts).

/rizzn

So What is iRP about anyhow?

Hay Rizzinites! Been a solid minute since I posted on this site. Speaking of solid, veterans may recall me as The Shit back in the hey-day of Dj Colonoscopy and his sidekick, The Shit.

Todays subject: Addiction...

Addiction is a horrible beast that will one day rear it's ugly in head in our direction. I used to play WoW (World of Warcraft) and Ever-crack and all that stuff. Indeed, my life was consumed. I always figured that if someone wanted to make a quick million they could open a computer free clinic that helped people reclaim there lives from there level 55 shaman lieutenant. I know many desperate wives that would gladly pay for there husbands treatment.

Yom Kippur is the Jewish holy day of attonement where Jews everywhere come together to celebrate their overwhelming guilt. I plan on including a few prayers for forgiveness this year for all the time I wasted on my MMORPGs.

It would go somthing like this: "Dear God of the Hebrews, please forgive me for killing so many other players and wasting all my time focused on doing so."

God's response would go somthing like this: "Dearest guilt ridden Hebrew male, thank you for your consideration, however the only way I could consider exonerating you is if you mitigate your addiction somwhat by playing the only RPG that matters and forgetting all of the others. I, the Lord your God, of course now speak of Iroleplay.net.

Now what the Lord my God doesn't realize of course is that the site is run entirley by a nutso group of heathens, but don't tell him I said so. Don't tell them I said that either for that matter.
Iroleplay.net has been the most singularly unique roleplaying experience I have ever enjoyed on line, and would encourage Rizzn readers to give it a try. The action occurs in four (or more) hour stints usually tuesday and friday night in the IRC based chatroom, Heroes Haven Inn. Incidentally that is the also the in game location where most games start from.

Top 5 Reason's to play Iroleplay.net

#5 - Great Characters
Avid Rizzn readers are already familiar with some of the wackier ones.

Doidaldi- (the cross dressing giant/would be giantess) is a reason unto himself. This show tune singing twin's most recent exploits, include selling himself to a group of sailors, and walking bow legged back into the bar. Here is one of his posts on the message boards
"The tall, gorgeous giant of a transvestite urdon turns and walks away defeated once more from ever finding a man that can see past appearances. A tear and sadness plays across his mishapen, but otherwise womanly features as he turns his head toward the moon and sings in a horrible tone def glory: ((in what would anachronistically seem to be the tune of "It's raining men)) "Somewhere there is a man for me... perhaps out on the open sea My Urdon heart I give freely for the man who loves me for me..." A nearby cat shrieks and dies..."

Zoot- the mentally unstable goblin shaman has his own fashion line that consists entirley of pots and pans strapped to various body parts. There exist hosts of other characters, and please understand that not all of them are over the top. We aim to keep the game believable enough to take seriously. I would encourage any who are interested to check out the message boards to verify this. http://iroleplay.net/viewforum.php?f=15

There are many more worth mentioning, but the grand reason why so many players are so creative with there character concepts, is because characterization is richly rewarded in this game. It is one of the main ways experience is earned. The act of character creation and the process of creativity is cherished among this group. If you feel like you are a creative person than IRP is a home you never knew you had, because you will be playing with nothing but.
#4 -The Adventure
Our GMs are some of the most well established veteran text based Game masters in the world. This wealth of creative, veteran talent has compiled the rules of this game over an eight year period. They have been adapting the system to online play for over a year. Please check out the history section to learn more. http://iroleplay.net/index.php?page=history

I still wonder at some of the brilliant characters and dynamic scenarios my characters have encountered. I will never forget Hannibals barbecue grill. Having retrieved it from the enemy and his horde of angry dingoes, we quickly started it up to cook some griffin meat. We were told that "It's use had altered the fate of kingdoms". We should have taken a hint. Expecting permanent stat increases from the consumption of the meat cooked on it, we were not surprised when magical plumes of smoke began belching out. We were shocked when those fumes knocked us all out. We should have died, but thank the gods, we were inside the heavily warded walls of the Heroes Haven inn and the army of Fire elementals that the grill summoned instead decided to burn down every other standing structure in town.

#3 - The Setting
The world of Gwyreth is richly detailed and provides custom reflections for almost all cultural and racial scenarios of this world. I have a middle eastern style character from a region called the scorched lands, there is actually an entire empire not unlike Rome called Folnir. There are also many fantastical environments that have no paralell here on earth. The race and class combinations for your characters are vast at more then 100 possible combinations. These include an array of special classes your character can evolve into. Evolution will happen by happy accident, because qualifications for these classes are entirley secret and depend on how you develop your character (PSST...GMs are accomadating and in game will drop obvious hints to steer you toward your secret class of choice). Skill choices, alignment, in character ambitions, all come into play when determining whether or not your character can evolve to an elite class.

#2 -The addiction
The reason I stopped playing MMORPGs is that I eventually discovered what a consuming and awful thing an addiciton can be. Even if it is just a roleplaying game. Ultimatley, It is depressing and after awhile I lose the joy of the experience. It becomes automatic. One of the most delightful aspects of this game is that it is an addiction that is only fed twice a week. In this regard IRP is a safe, wife + having a life friendly addiction. As much as I would like to I can't IRP all the time. It is a select occasion that I really look forward to all week.The limitations are a built in restraint to my addiction while at the same time providing a haloe of ritual to the entire thing that has in my many months of playing, never diminished.

And, (very cliche' drum roll.....)

The NUMBER ONE REASON TO PLAY IRP IS....
Its Free. We need people to play. We really want you to help in developing rich history for the game. A wealth of creative talent will be required in this monumental effort and while we have alot of talent amongst us, we really need more. If you have some interesting character ideas, we want you now! Creative roleplaying provides not only the only characters playing with a good time and a fulfilling experience, but also all of those playing with them get the same. IRP is in the process of transitioning out of Beta. Once out, it will be a paid service. (one time five dollar member for life fee) All of those who help us out in Beta will be free for life, Our little way of saying thankyou.

And the number zero reason that IRP Rocks...

Free Booze.

All members of the Heroe's Haven Inn are entitled to free room board and drink. If you do decide to play try not to get your characters plastered before the dragon slaying mission. I am sick and relying on a bunch of drunks to get my back on major baddies.

Thanks for the post Mark! See you in Gwyreth Rizzinites.

Something Old Makes Something New

Hello everyone, Jon Wilson here from Thelinebeginstoblur. As you may or may not know, i have been commissioned to guest blog for Mark today as he is on vacation. Ive been told to post something relevant without saying the words.....well you know, dirty words. At the very least i should make sure that you know that anything i say here today is the sole opinion of myself, and cannot be controlled by Mark Hopkins in anyway, shape, form, or fashion. Dont yell at him, Yell at me via pinionblue@gmail.com

Onward we go.

I was stressing slightly over what to post for today's update. I havent really kept up with too many political issues since sometime around march when the gas prices started raising the roof more often than Flava Flav at a Public Enemy CD release party. So therefore, instead of trying to think of something new and bore you to death. Im gonna post an old article about some ads that i never could get behind.

Namely, ads for Basic Cable.....on basic cable.

The article is as follows:

Amongst the overflowing amount of Blink-182 videos that never seem to go away, and the reruns of Growing Pains.....with that lovable chump turned Fundamentalist Christian Kirk Cameron. I noticed something on the Godbox yesterday. Cox Cable, the local conglomerate on all things digital entertainment in our area (and when i say our area, i mean Jupiter....just north of that flaming ball of hellfire), was showing commericals for its basic cable service.

Now correct me if im wrong, but if you are the only cable company in the area and you are advertising your basic cable service on the only basic cable service in the area, then what possible difference, or for that matter profit, would you make by placing these spots on television. Granted im not too worried about missing the preview commericials for "Who wants to live on the Real-Survivor-Idol Millionare Island Dance and Chili Cook-Off" or the newest line of products from The Gap, but i honestly dont understand the thought process the executives went through to get these commercials on air. If i did understand it, it would probably go a litlle something like this:

[exec walks into room, straightens tie, sits down at top position of table]

Executive Head: "Good Morning Gentlemen. I trust this meeting will be short?"

[two lower level executives, obviously crying inside from the pathetic bastardazation of all things sacred and holy in their lives, clear their throats and begin their presentation]

Lackey Number One: "Yes, Sir. Very short. We are going to present an idea to you for the commercial to fill the 30 seconds right before "The Spanking New Adventures of Donkey Kong and Miles Davis (sponsored by MTV and Clorox Bleach)"

Lackey Numero Dos: "Sir we have an absolutly outstanding idea for this spot! Picture This: A commercial on both our Basic and Digital streams, advertising our Basic and Digital Streams!

[The head executive holds his open hand up, as to gesture a stop from the moron lower level executive from speaking out of his mouth-hole]

Executive Head: "You want to run an ad on Basic Cable, for Basic Cable?"

Lackey First One: "Yes, Sir. That is the plan."

[as if waiting for the head to go greco-roman and raise his thumb in approval or lower it in utter dismay of the very notion that they could pass a green light for something so incredibly idiotic....the lackeys wait for what feel like 4 minutes....but is really only 3.925 minutes]

Executive Head of Retards: "Thats absolutly brilliant Steve!!!"

Retard Number One: "Thank you!, and my name is Paul sir..."

Executive dead by five-thirty: "Thats what i said.....Steve...."

Number One guy man: "....yes sir...."

Executive nicknackpattywackgivadogabone: "the project is green-lighted, bring a rough draft back to me when im not drunk!"

[lackey/moron/giraffes walk out of boardroom in a stupor, surprised that something so meaningless was actually go for launch....]

/end pathetic excuse for a skit youll never see on the Kids in The Hall, or performed by the West Chester, Pennslyvania comedy skit troup: Chester Nut Bars on Parade (featuring Weird Al and the 1991 Denver Broncos!)

But Since i dont know what they were thinking.....i can only begin to think that the Higher ups had one of four things on their minds...

A: Make the Commerical and put it on every thirty seconds that the Season Finale of Will and Grace isnt on.

B: Show it to some girl scouts in the hopes that they and their families would get free cookies/sexual favors

C: Take the hard copy betamax tape of the Commercial and sacrifice it to the devil of all things decent and entertaining on television (read: the same devil that let Pauly Shore do "Jury Duty")

D: Mix the Commerical with some Mayonaise and Bread (white because all bread companies are racist) and make a nice Crap Sandwich

E: Frank Zappa

Again, only God and the Denver Broncos will ever really know the truth as to the decision that was made to put this commerical on air and rot away all other neuro-pathways inside my cerebral cortex. Hopefully, They will share with me and all the other white bread loving americans when we all die from the ebola virus....

Hows THAT for a curveball...

Running out of time to look for the Holy Grail
Jon Wilson

You can find my blog at

Basket Case (Kool Kannon Remix)

Hey guys.  Didn’t intend to do an update today, but I’m getting ready for my trip, cleaning my apartment, and I’m listening to music.  Green Day’s Basket Case comes up on the playlist, followed by a remixed version of Canon in D.  Bizzarre enough, I was struck with inspiration, and I took a break from what I was doing to work on the masterpiece I present to you now: Basket Case (Kool Kannon Remix). (click the link to download).

Yes, yes – retarded I know.  In the spirit of Yet Another Generic Christmas Carol.  But fun, none the less.

Oh, by the way, one of the agencies I report to when I submit video to MSM told me to be on the look out for Johnnie Depp in the Bahamas.  Maybe I’ll snake an interview, or at least a couple paparazzi pictures.

/rizzn

Music on the Turntables Currently: Yo La Tengo - Cherry Chapstick

I'm outta here folks

Well, guys, this is my last post until I get back from the Bahamas.  Next week is guest week… we’re going to have a host of great bloggers to come in and fill your week with Rizzny goodness.  All Blip tech support requests will be redirected to storage and handled upon my return.

Guest Bloggers
Monday – Jon Thomas Wilson aka thelinesbegintoblur
Tuesday – Matthew Finkelstein aka matthewtheunhumbled
Wednesday – Art Lindsey III aka smokehouse
Thursday – Darrell Thomas aka ndmovies
Friday – RICR

Make your guest bloggers feel welcome.  Tip your waitstaff, they work hard for you, etc, etc.

Sprint Nextel sues providers in patent spat
Sprint Nextel is suing VoIP providers Vonage Holdings and Voiceglo Holdings, accusing the firms of infringing on seven VoIP technology-related patents. The suit, filed in federal court in Kansas by a Sprint Nextel subsidiary, seeks an injunction that would bar the defendants from using the communication company's patented technologies. The suit also seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Sprint Nextel claims its patents protect a series of innovations that allow the processing and delivery of voice and data communications via packets over the Internet. The company says that these methods also encompass VoIP. The suit, however, doesn't explain how the companies are violating the patents.

Michael Rupert Ruminations
I think I’ve figured out my problem with Michael Rupert.  I’ve really been trying to like the guy, find some common ground with him, see if there’s slivers of anything I can grab onto in his writings.  The more and more I read, the less and less I feel that dream will ever become a reality.  The guy has a whole worldview that’s miles apart from where I could ever see myself.  He’s horribly entrenched in an idea of apocalyptic nightmare (not in the TFTA amusing sort of way), and miles away from being able to admit the problem.  Every article I read for the last two months is either MSM tripe or an article by him that paints a picture based off of MSM tripe of what his fantasy apocalyptic world will be like.

I don’t buy it.  He’s not providing hard data.  He’s not convincing me.  The hard data he does provide is likely as not to be fallacious.  When it’s not fallacious, he’s as likely as not to draw a conclusion that doesn’t logically follow.

Joel sent me his most recent article, and I was re-reading it on the way to the bank and the landlord today, looking for a shred of anything I could exposit upon positively, and suddenly I read the sentence I must have skimmed over fifty times before.

In my earlier presentation and throughout the day today, it should be growing clear to you that official preparations for Peak Oil have been underway for some time.  And – as I document in “Rubicon” – they include the attacks of September 11th, 2001 and all US government foreign policy initiatives since then.

There you have it. I’m sorry – and I know I’m going to offend at least three people in the RIC with this one – if you entertain fleeting notions anymore that September 11th was a government conspiracy, and not a bunch of jackasses from the Middle East playing God, then you aren’t playing with a full deck.  Popular Science a year ago devoted a special 60 page edition issue of their magazine to debunking every myth about that.  It’s now considered common knowlege that there was no government conspiracy to blow up the twin towers.

This sentence was in the introduction to his paper. His premise is predicated on a myth.  I simply can’t take anything this man says seriously.  If anyone wants to use Michael Rupert to convince me of anything at this point, they’re going to have to work real hard at it.

Some Predictions of the News
Since I won’t be here to report the news, I’m going to take some guesses, and we’ll see if I fare better than the National Enquirer.  Any takers on this bet?

Liz Taylor Dies Alone, Leaves Everything to her Cat – every entertainment pundit this week has moved Liz to the top of their deadpool.  I’m taking that bet and raising – I’m gonna say she dies this week. Additionally, the cat will immediately die from perfume overdose.
House and Senate Hand Out Corporate Welfare to Oil Refineries – all this talk of Peak Oil, hurricanes, and damaged rigs (oh my!) this week will be the final push that Congress needs to draft some legislation giving the oil industry some odd billion dollars of handouts.
Rove Testifies for Grand Jury
Whitehouse Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove is going to testify on a grand jury, and roll over on a senior or mid level administration staffer.  There’s no way the man would walk in there knowing he’s going to get charged.  The only way he’s going in there is if someone else takes the hatchet.  In the head.
Following Apple’s Video iPod Debut, Adam Curry “invents” Vodcasting
Despite the fact that Vodcasting has been a term in use for years now, Adam Curry will claim to invent Vodcasting on his sattellite radio show, “the Podshow.”  He’ll also continue being a jerk, and he won’t mention BlipMedia one time.
Tropical Force Disturbance Xanadu will Hammer Key Biscayne
Since the hurricane season is dying down, and there’s no hurricanes, tropical storms, tropical depressions, or what they’ve now taken to calling ‘tropical waves’ to report on, The Weather Channel will invent a new classification called “Tropical Force Disturbance” to indicate when the tropics “…think about getting nasty.”  NOAA Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield adds: “In my pants.”
Kidnapping in Aruba Remains Unsolved
By Greta Van Susteren, anyways.  Everyone else in the world is pretty sure Natalie Holloway is dead.

These are fun.  I could do these all day long, but no! It’s time for the …
RICR #3
There were two main topics that dominated the RIC list this week: Who’s going to do the guest columns, and the QCF debacle.  I encourage you, if you are in any way interested or have listened to, or know the culture of internet radio or rantradio, to go read that forum thread.  I laughed non-stop for a good thirty minutes.  It’s just comical.  It’s sad to see a good show go, but when you break the rules, you get in trouble.  I know that better than anyone.

In other news, Darrell released Haunted Road, a short film.  For every shoe in the road, there’s a story.  Go see this one, it’s pretty neat. Elsewhere, Smokehouse posted a few times, a few of them about the QCF thing, as well as a short post about nappy stripper teeth.

Kelly went on vacation and Jon celebrated a birthday.  It’s too late to look smart, but you can still look friendly – go wish him a happy belated. He also firmly believed that Serenity was better than Star Wars. Meanwhile, my buddy Rob experienced an eclipse followed by extreme wetness out in Africa, all the while finding time to change his site design.  Again.

Lastly, but not leastly, MC Chris posted his new tour dates.  See him, then go see him again!

I’m out guys – See you in a week.

/rizzn

From the Wilderness: Why I don't trust Michael Rupert

I understand there’s a small but growing contingent of people who strongly believe the same as Michael Rupert in that we are going to see a huge depression this year as a result of the Peak Oil situation.

For me, it’s not very difficult to discount out of hand all that Mr. Rupert puts forth in this respect.  Let’s start with Mr. Rupert’s latest post, issued 10/05/05, linked here. In it he links five news stories, and provides a few comments of his own to preface the series. None of the articles are primary source articles actually written by Mr. Rupert, one is an opinion article masquerading as a fact article (America Be Wary of the New Silk Road), one is an environmental article on shaky scientific ground (New satellite observations show sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster, while air temperatures in the region are rising sharply, scientists said),  two of which are articles about the effect of the hurricane by CNN (No easy fix for Rita-damaged oil works, and Report: Rigs take record hit from Rita). The only article of any significance is the Chavez article (Chavez: Venezuela Moves Reserves to Europe).

Rupert then provides the following commentary to accompany the articles:

It is clear to the whole world what is coming for the US economy. Gulf energy production is still almost completely shut in and won’t be repaired for years. It makes no difference if half of the refineries are back up because they can’t get product. Rig damage is far worse than expected and there is still no full assessment of the pipelines running from platforms to shore. Bush just added $300 billion in new expenditures for clean up and said he wouldn’t raise taxes. Consumer confidence is plunging. Credit card late pays and defaults are soaring. Venezuela will not be the last nation to pull its reserves out this fall and winter. To put it bluntly, the US is now a bad investment. And the two-plus billion dollars a day needed to finance our economy is going to dry up very quickly.

The US house of economic cards is starting to come down. – MCR

To me, at least, it is clear that he is either completely entrenched in his viewpoint so that all he sees are patterns that prove his own points, or he’s being willfully ignorant of the context and actual meanings of these articles to prove his own conclusions.  In otherwords, Rupert starts with a conclusion, and works his journalism backwards from the point to the evidence.  Given that, he’s always going to reach the same conclusion, but never really prove his point to those who aren’t already convinced.

Let me explain.

The Chavez article does not indicate that there is some credible threat to the U.S. economy, or that our policies somehow make our economy more subject to foibles than the European economy.  The article about Chavez shows that Chavez is ardently anti-American.  You mean to tell me that you actually think that your money is safer in Germany, where there are currently shades of World War II and World War I and a constitutional crisis?  I don’t think so.  No one is that stupid.  No one is stupid enough to believe that Eastern Europe is a better place to put money than a New York City bank.

There’s no real reason to break down point by point the environmental article.  I’ll quote a line from the article itself, and if everyone who reads this blog can’t determine what the problem is with associating the study with the concept of global warming, I want you to close your browser window and never come back to my website again: “Sea ice records in the Arctic are sketchy before 1978.”  Don’t get it still? Re-read the title of the article: “New satellite observations show sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster, while air temperatures in the region are rising sharply, scientists said.”  Still don’t get it? The article and Rupert intimate that it’s our usage of fossil fuels that create the problem.  Still don’t get it? Keep re-reading this paragraph over and over until you understand where the problem comes in.  Don’t stop until you get it.

The article about the “Silk Road” is nothing more than a propaganda piece by a news site that panders to the Chinese government – it is a propaganda piece talking up the wonders of living in Communist China, and how it’s superior to being in America – if you’re an Arab.  Check out Amnesty International if you actually believe that tripe.  Chinese people hate Arabs, just like the rest of the world does right now, except they do more than just stack them naked ten high when they bomb people’s cities.  They just kill’em (and bill the families for the bullets).

For those of us that live in Florida or Houston, I really shouldn’t have to point out how hard it is for us to believe any news article coming from CNN, FNC, MSNBC, CNBC, or the Weather Channel if the article in any way contains Hurricane.  All the cable news networks have lied more in the last two months about hurricanes and hurricane coverage (and then lied some more to cover up they’re obvious lies), that if anyone ever sends me an article again saying a CNN article proves this that or the other about something having to do with a hurricane, I won’t even dignify it with a response.

Listen, I’m not saying Peak Oil doesn’t exist.  I’m saying that it’s strongest proponent, Michael Rupert, does a piss-poor job convincing me.

Come back to me with primary sources, non-MSM articles that do their research and aren’t sponsored by an enemy state, and industry insiders that will actually disclose their names, and we might have something.

/rizzn

Music on the Turntables Currently: Yo La Tengo - Cherry Chapstick

God Told Me to Update Twice, today...

I usually don’t update twice in one day, but I saw this piece come across the wire a few minutes ago, and I know that it’s going to be a talking point for a long time to come.  So far no real large news agency is carrying the story, but here it is in a nutshell (as told by the Daily Times of Pakistan):

WASHINGTON: The mystery as to why US President George Bush decided to invade Iraq stands resolved. It was God who told him to do so, he told Palestinian leaders two years ago. Not only Iraq, but Afghanistan also got invaded because of a divine directive. This is the first time the president, a born-again Christian, has claimed that God communicates with him direct. God also told him, he said, to create a Palestinian state. This revelation about the US president’s inspiration and statecraft is due to be made in a BBC programme to be broadcast on October 10. In it, the Palestinian prime minister and foreign minister describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003. Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath says, “President Bush said to all of us: ‘God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan and end tyranny in Iraq.’”

Okay. Not exactly a fair, balanced, and unopinionated article, but here’s the thing – even if Bush said such a thing, I’m not sure it’s understood by secularists how Fundamentalist Christians view their religion.  The President subscribes to this theology, and he speaks frankly, which is why I can see a quote like this taking a foothold, but still, it’s improper to assume that it’s true.

Any fundy will tell you that it doesn’t work like that (unless maybe they’re a Pentacostal).  Really, it’s mostly the new agers and the like that believe that they have a direct line to God and hear actual audible words from him.  Fundys tend to believe that the Holy Spirit will lead us to certain courses of action, but never will you hear your Baptist minister (if he has any reputation at all) tell you that God spoke a specific sentence to them in relation to current events.  There is a subtle but distinct difference.

Regardless of whether Bush said he was led by the spirit or he spoke with God directly, he’s certainly not the first world leader to say he ‘spoke with God,’ and definately not the first US President to pray and be led by the spirit.  Read Civil War letters, read federalist papers, read historical documents.  How can you assume that we have inalienable, God-given rights, if you have no direction from God?

The only person a fundamentalist is ultimately accountable to is God, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that if the President truly subscribes to Christian doctrine, he would allow himself to be led by the Holy Spirit.  Where secularists and I part company is I don’t believe that is a symptom of insanity, whereas most secularists do.

/rizzn

Kurzweil and Peak Oil, Hurricane Rita Aftereffects, and the Ongoing Debate

Matthew, Joel, and I have been engaged in an ongoing debate for a few months now concerning the Peak Oil crisis, which for the uninformed, is the concept that the world has reached it’s peak oil producing capacity, and is now on the downhill slope of that graph.

My theories concerning Peak Oil are very Kurzweilian in nature.  I share the belief with Ray Kurzweil that most of the world’s global problems will be solved before the bulk of the world realizes they are problems, and of course those solutions will in turn present a new set of problems to overcome.  This is the nature of progress, and what has happenned time and time again in accordance with the Law of Accellerating Returns.

Before Hurricane Rita hit the gulf coast, Matthew and I had a debate as to whether the nation could recover simply from the damage that inevitably would be done to the refineries and the secondary and tertiary systems in Houston and Galveston.  Matthew stipulated that we may be on the verge of a national crisis, since so much of the nations oil refining capacity (some estimates say 30%) takes place there, and these refineries have been down for so long.

I have a number of contentions to this line of thinking, one that was brought to mind directly as a response to this article from CNNMoney. The article states that the Wall Street Journal is reporting that efforts “to restart facilities a week after Hurricane Rita blew through the area are being hampered by sufficient workers, helicopters, and equipment.”  I find the assertion, and the rest of the article’s exposition on that assertion to be somewhat absurd.  We do not live in a closed market society.  Helicopters and people resources are mobile, and there are around 200,000 extra workers from NOLA area in the Houston/Galveston area that have settled in and are looking for work – many of those people undoubtably experienced in refinery work, as there were refineries in NOLA shut down, as well.

To me, this looks more like local corporations pandhandling the federal government for some entitlements.  Listen, I understand more than anyone else the unexpected expenses in even getting hit with a Cat1 hurricane, and how that can disrupt your entire workflow situation, and cost lots of money.  But I also know from experience that a lot of problems with a business can get lumped into “hurricane damage” that aren’t necessarily related.  My guess is here that this might be the case – early reports said that there was little or no damage to the plants. We’ve also got to keep in mind that we’re still well within the predicted amount of time it was going to take to get these refineries back online – two weeks to four months.

All in all, most of what my opinion is based off of when it comes to Peak Oil is shooting from the hip.  It’s a hard area to get into – there’s not a lot of public data on the subject.  One of my next personal projects is going to be to apply some Kurzweil logarithmic graphs to the energy industry.  It’s one area of technology that really hasn’t been sufficiently graphed in terms of Moore’s Law and TLOAR, in my opinion.  If anyone wants to join me on this project, drop me a line.  I promise, next time the subject of Peak Oil comes up here, I’ll go into more detail of what I’m talking about.  By that time, I hope to be through a bit more of the new Kurzweil book, and I’ll have a little more structure to work with as well.

Peak Oil may be further away than previously imagined
In other peak oil news, as I was doing my research for this bit of the entry, I came across the latest Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) newsletter, which contained some interesting information:

A detailed revision of the deepwater evaluation has been made on the basis of new information covering the world's fields ... this has an impact on the overall model, as illustrated in the Table on Page 2, shifting the peak of All Liquids from 2007 to 2010.

Even if our best estimates put the peak oil production out at 2007, I firmly believe we have ample time to move our infrastructure to an as-of-yet undeveloped technology.  This opinion, however, is unsupported by fact (which is why a Kuzweilian logarithmic graph based on TLOAR is necessary).  We need to figure out what part of the curve we are in – are we below the knee of the curve?  Is energy technology past the knee?  Where’s the lag?  Deployment or research?  These are the questions we should be asking – it’s less important how much oil we have left, and more important to focus on fixing the problem. We will eventually run out of organic and fossil fuels – this is a fact, because it’s a finite resource. We need to prepare for the eventuality, because it’s the Next Thing to Do, not because it’s a crisis.  This is not even an assignment of blame issue – even if Cheney/Bush/Halliburton/Enron is to blame, putting them in jail for 300 years a piece will not help anyone.

With an open pie system such as America’s, TLOAR at our backs, and ingenuity and versatility in our history, America should be able to seamlessly make a transition off of organic and fossil fuels.  The stage is set correctly, in my opinion.  It must be our goal at this point to a) determine if the proper actions are being taken and b) if not, take those actions.

If the tech boom taught us GenExers anything, it’s that we have the capability to reshape society as we see fit.  We must do it.

/rizzn

Slow News Day - Go surf your pr0n.

There isn’t a whole lot tripping across my email box this week that’s interesting enough to talk about, and a cursory glance of Technorati.com shows the keyword “Sinbad Vs. The Mermaids” clocking in at the fifth most searched keyword.  I could believe that if indeed there were more than one single post in Technorati’s database that contained those keywords.  Something’s messed up there.  On several levels.

I mean I could talk about some of the wacky posts on Craigslist recently, but really, everyone’s doing that now, and it would just be too “following the trend” for me right now.

Maybe I’m just in one of those blah blah moods.  Yes, I’m certain that’s what it is. (admitting you have a problem is the first step to overcoming it).

As to my vacation plans, I took a closer look, and it appears that I’m taking a five day vacation starting next Monday.  I’m sailing out of Miami on Monday, then we port in Nassau, Coco Cay, then Key West, then back to Miami on Friday.  It’s a short jaunt, but it’ll be fun and a nice change of pace.  My Dad’s coming along, which will be interesting.  I haven’t been on a vacation with him since I was in middle school.  It’ll be different this time since we won’t be driving 2000 miles, and I won’t be fidgiting in the back seat, and he won’t have the ability to turn the boat around and go back home if I don’t start acting right.  Muahaha.

I’m going to have some guest bloggers taking up the slack next week here around rizzn.com, so everyone be nice to them (RICer’s – check your email for details).

Because there’s absolutely nothing else going on in the world worth talking about, I’m going to put together the top ten list of reasons why Harriet Miers is a good pick for SCOTUS, largely gleaned from IMAO.

10. She seems to have excellent posture.
09. She's an evangelical Christian Sunday School teacher.
08. She wasn't singlehandedly responsible for the decline of reptiles and the rise of mammals (although she was on the committee). 
07.  She can eat just one Lays potato chip.
06. If her pick is cronyism, then it further proves that Bush has a wide variety of cronies in the areas of gender and race.
05. She's not Ginsberg.
04. Harriet" sounds like "Harrier Jet," and Harrier jets are cool.
03. She's from Texas!
02. She has no judicial experience, which means Democrats can't give her an anal probe over her previous rulings. 

… and the the number one reason Harriet Miers is a good pick for SCOTUS:
01.  When he takes off that mask and reveals to the senate that by confirming mediocre lawyer Harriet Miers, they have actually unwwittingly just confirmed Justice Robert Bork, conservatives will have sweet, sweet revenge. 

Seriously.  This is the best I can do today.  There is absolutely NOTHING else going on worth talking about.  At ALL.  You can go play MMORPGs or surf pr0n or something with the peace of mind that you’ll not miss any important newsworthy events today.

/rizzn

Harriet, Sweet Harriet

Howdy, all.  As you may have noticed, I’ve updated the masthead a bit – and the progress of rizzn.com marches on as we go up one tenth of a version number.  My hope is that the new banner ads may result in some higher click-throughs and ultimately some purchases of my products.  We’ll see.  It may just be that my products really suck.  

In other news, the Blip migration is slowly progressing.  For about twenty minutes this weekend we were on the new server, but I realized all the path statements were wrong, so I had to move us back.  I’m updating the code today and tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll get all this done before my vacation at the end of the week.  Yes, that’s right, I’m taking a vacation (for the first time in years and years).  With me actually living in a sub-tropical paradise, you’d think I’d not take a cruise to some place like the Bahamas for vacation, but indeed I am.  I’ll report back to you guys while I’m there.  I think I leave on Friday, but I’ll hafta check my itenerary to be sure…

Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers
I hope you guys read the bio I posted of Harriet Miers yesterday.  If not, go check it out.  I’m not sure about you guys, but I’m a bit peaved to hear the media saying that Miers didn’t graduate from a top-tier college over and over again, in an attempt to undermine her credibility.  She graduated from SM freakin’ U.  Sure, it’s a party college, but hey, it’s a college, and an expensive, tough college at that.  It was number five on my list of backup colleges (had I decided to actually go for a four year degree).  It’s got a strong liberal arts, and a strong science and math department, if memory serves.  The facilities are immaculate, and it’s in a major metropolitain city with a multi-cultural environment.  It doesn’t get much better than SMU in Texas, in my opinion. 

Of course, now that I’ve said that, I’m going to get Longhorns and Aggies crawling up my butt from now to eternity, but still.  My point is the woman is educated, and the press needs to stop pretending she got her law degree from DeVry or something.  For the record, though, SMU has stricter test score requirements than either the aforementioned state schools (once again, if memory serves).

I’ll tell you what does make me nervous about this nominee.  Michelle Malkin has been posting some unflattering comments of the woman: “Well, it's a new day. Upon sober reflection, President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court appears...even worse than it did 24 hours ago.“ I’m sure most of you know who Michelle Malkin is, but for those of you who don’t, she’s an author and journalist so conservative, that as a Japanese-American she wrote a book called “In Defense of Internment,” which was as the title would indicate, a defense of internment, and she’s coming out against Harriet Miers.  And then on the other hand, we have Harry Reid giving his support of the nominee. There’s even a lot of talk that Harry Reid picked out this candidate for the President.

Screw cronyism, bi-partisan support like this makes me nervous.  I’m all for an end to the fighting, but what in the hell, Bobby?

Google and Sun Partner
Haven’t I been telling you that Google wants to topple Microsoft for a long time now?  Here’s further proof.

Sun and Google had a news conference with live video webcast today concerning the “forward looking statements” from both companies. They are working on a “open, network services environment” that concerns open source. Both representatives presented themselves to be best friends.

“Don’t bet against bandwidth, because bandwidth is going to free.” This sentence really summarizes the movement of both companies towards networked computing and interfaces which capitalize on networked resources. The press conference dabbles in statements concerning the OpenDocument format, StarOffice and Google’s Toolbar. Then Google even presented the Sun chair a “Java” lamp.

Google is gaining 2.2 billion dollars of R&D from Sun Microsystems and further, Sun is gaining an omnipresent platform for its open source enterprises. The general tone in the room is that Google and Sun working together can not only defeat Microsoft, but eventually offer the best networked computer model, and for free.

My biggest gripe is that they choose Sun and are hinting around at using Java.  Java is dead; get over it (to mangle their former CEO Scott McNealy’s quote).  It reminds me of a dream I had the other night (yes, brace yourselves, I have really weird dreams).  I dreamed I was back in Nokia, and it was the VEEP’s office who told me I was laid off.  The conversation went more or less like it did when it actually happenned.

Me: So there’s no way I’m going to be working here or at the Nokia office after this week.
Anantha: No, Mark, I’m afraid we’re letting you go.  Nokia is cutting our contract back.
Me: Alright, well, let me get a few things off my chest here that I’ve been unwilling to come to the management with for fear I’d lose my job, as we have a very strong “don’t rock the boat policy” around here.

The difference was that in real life, I went on a forty-five minute diatribe about management skills, and how disillusioning it was to have your project canned, but being forced to finish it for another three months after you know your project is being canned.  In my dream, however, I went on and on about how stupid it was to base an entire company’s programming department around Java programming.  Back in 2000–2001 when we were focusing on Java, there were lists of problems so long with it that it would take me ten pages to explain them all.  To save time, I’ll simply link to Jamie Zawinski’s rant on the topic.  JWZ is one of my code idols from the early days of Netscape, before they turned evil.

Will Skype pose a revenue threat to other market players?
Cabel Digital News just released an article identifying the nature of the Skype threat. Some cable industry players and analysts are concerned that Skype and the various Skype imitators could end up drastically undercutting cable telephony pricing. In a research report issued last month, Richard Greenfield, a media analyst with Fulcrum Global Partners, warned that it's only a matter of time before Skype and the Skype-alikes have an impact on VoIP prices. Greenfield acknowledges that some VoIP subscribers may stick with cable-delivered service because of such enhanced features as E-911 service and whole-home wiring. Yet he questions whether such subscribers would still pay the $35 to $40 per month that most MSOs have so far been charging for IP telephony.

/rizzn