Wacky Memorial Day Weekend

Hey guys. This is just a quick update. I've got a really busy week in store for me this week, and my schedule is filling up quicker than you could imagine, so this might possibly be the only update to the blog for the week (heaven forfend). I should be sending a few updates the direction of the Fisher for Legislature website though, so you should definately check that out if you get the chance. My brain is in that sleep deprived mode, so this may not make a whole lot of sense, but I'm going to chance it anyways.

Saturday
A Dating Success Story
Saturday was when the madness began. I was up working on my company's website (link forthcoming this week) till about 4am Friday night, so I slept in till about 10:30am-ish.

My buddy Jeff has been going through a rough time, relationship-wise lately. I already had plans for the day here in town, as well as plans to travel on Sunday, but as a favor to him when he requested, I agreed to wing-man for him on a blind date with a girl from Duncanville. We headed out to DFW around 11AM to go meet up with his date, arriving around 1:30 or so.

For those of you who know Jeff well, you know he's lost like 50 lbs. lately, and has been hitting the gym pretty heavily every day. It's may be shallow, but when someone works to take care of themselves like that, they expect to be able to land a girl who isn't to heavy to be picked up by anything but a bodybuilder. That said, the girl Jeff was supposed to hook up with was clearly not his type. The myspace profile she had given him was clearly false advertisement (the "myspace angles").

None-the-less, she was a friend of a mutual friend of ours, and that particular mutual friend was also there, so rather than be rude and ditch her, we stuck around. We palled around with the two girls there at big girl's house, and had a fairly enjoyable time.

Around 9:30PM or so we were joined a few friends of Big Girl. Two of the girls were pretty cute, and two of them were not quite my type. Of the two that were cute, there was one that could best be described as "freakin' hot." Her name was Iris.

Like most single guys do, I suppose, as soon the new girls arrived and we started settling into the social phase of the night, I started mentally assessing the situation; I decided which ones I was attracted to and which ones I thought I had a shot with. The number one cute girl seemed to be giving off the vibe of "I'm not gonna be messing around with anyone here," so I ended up sort of just being friendly and spreading my attention around equally with the rest of the girls.

At some point thereafter, it became the concensus of the group to head out to the local hotspot of Duncanville, the Tux. The Tux was a trucker bar just off I-20. We head on out, all in seperate cars. Three of the four girls rode together in the car they came in, Iris rode with our friends we were there to see originally, and Jeff and I took my car. Things weren't really going well for either of us, at least by our asessment at that time, so I suggested to Jeff that we just leave at that point, but he said, hey, let's just give it a shot, go into the club, and leave in a little bit. I obliged, and we made our way in.

Jeff was talking to our mutual friend Laura (one of the girls we had come to see originally) as I paid the entry fee, and I caught up to him moments later. The club was a cacophony of loud bad music, even louder drunken local yokels, and thick layers of smoke - a veritable cornucopia for the senses. As I walked up on Laura and Jeff, Jeff leans over and tells me "She likes you"... I had to ask him to repeat it, whether it be from the loudness of the club or my sheer disbelief.. then I had to ask him to specify who it was he was referring to. He pointed over in the general direction of the girls, possibly referring to Laura.

I shrugged and headed back towards the booth that had been claimed as our own. I slid into the booth, making room for Laura who was following closely behind me at the time... and then Iris shoved past her and slid in right next to me.

Thus commenced an evening of romantical entanglement. I could go into all the gory details, but I'll save that for people who ask for them on the Secret Mailing list. I'll just post this one last picture to the left here which should explain a lot - it was taken at the club.

More pictures of the evening found here.

Sunday
A Campaigning Success Story
The campaign kickoff was a lot of fun, and a moderate success. We didn't quite have the turnout we expected. Due to mostly it being Memorial Day weekend, most of the Tyler RSVPs wound up cancelling out at the last moment. Despite this we still had a decent turnout, and over $5000 in pledges and donations were collected during the event.

Additionally, the function served to really jazz our base up quite a bit, we doubled the size of our mailing list, and for the few newcomers we dragged into the party, Thos and I really honed our gladhanding skills. Later today, I should have a full updated post on the campaign website with all the photos from the event. I just realized a few minutes ago that not all the photos downloaded from my camera, and I'm missing about 20 other pictures.

We also had a great night on iRP. Many of the iRP players and GMs were in attendance to Thos's party, so we all hung out and played together from the same house. I met Cassius for the first time, and even though Sixkiller was supposed to run his session, he was still a bit to ... inhebriated ... to make it, so GM Vaerkon sat in for him. The upshot is that the kobold Rizzn kicked a berzerking barbian's butt!

Monday
Monday was a real slack of day for me. I laid around Thos's house recovering from the weekend instead of heading back to Tyler like I should have. Fortunately I did get a couple things accomplished while I was there in the form of campaign work and literature written.

I got back into town close to 5PM, just in time to miss PV and Darrell's trip to go see XMen 3.

If anyone out there within driving distance of me haven't seen the flick yet and would like to go with me to the show.. write me or call me. I'd prefer not to go alone.

In other news
Those of you who know me likely know Rob Rooker. I just got this email from him yesterday

I'm married!!

On the 27th of May, I exchanged wedding vows with Mary Boyoi Gola of Southern Sudan.

I now have a wife. I am now a husband. Am still trying to sort that out in my head.;) Is a very strange feeling.

If you would like to see some photos, go to my website www.robrooker.com and click on the picture of me and my lovely wife. Or you can go direct to the photos here

Just wanted to share with everybody my happiness:)

cheers,
Rob

So send Rob your congratulations. I gots to get back to work, folks. Be well!

/rizzn

Bush Quotes

I found a cache of President Bush quotes today. In case you have never checked it out, WikiQuote is a cool resource, although not quite as nicely laid out as I could hope for. Still, a very reliable set of quotes with full attribution - up to the standards of the WikiPedia.

Given all the "Bushisms", I found it interesting there were such a large number of quotes in a resource that didn't display idiocy, or at the very least, ideosyncratic speech. Here were a few of my favorites.

"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." -George W. Bush, May 29, 2003

See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
George W. Bush @ Midwest Airlines Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 3, 2003

"In all due respect, I'm not so sure it's credible to quote leading news organizations about — oh, never mind."

George W. Bush @ 3rd Presidential Debate, October 13, 2004


"I said you were a man of peace. I want you to know I took immense crap for that."

George W. Bush to Ariel Sharon

Well, actually, he forgot Poland."

George W. Bush responding to John Kerry's criticism of his "Coalition of the Willing". 1st Presidential Debate, September 30, 2004

Lots of Momentous News!

Okay. I've got to make this quick. Why? Because I'm going to go get a haircut!

Yes, that's right Smokehouse, I'm getting a haircut. I'm sorry ladies, but these lovely locks are going bye-bye. I'll have some before and after shots this afternoon.

I wanted to mention a few things. First of all, I'm incorporating my ad hoc consulting company. I've got a few logos, but one that I thought was pretty funny was the one below. Let me know what you think.

Kinda freakin' goofy. Yes I know. Next.

In other news, Thos and I are officially kicking off the campaign this weekend. No worries, there are no political speeches, no required donations (although any donations will be accepted), just Thos, myself, and 50 or 60 of our closest friends and supporters! Live music, too!

I'll be reposting this bulletin all week to keep it fresh in your mind. If enough of you respond positively, we may get a carpool or a caravan of carpools going down to Dallas for this.

When: 2-7PM (or later), Sunday 28th May 2006

Where: Eastbridge Apartments Poolside, exit Henderson Ave. in Dallas from 75 and turn left on Willis just after Tei Tei and before Cuba Libre. Park on the street and call Thos to get gate access. (Don't have my phone number? Message me and I'll give it to you.)

Why bother?: For some great food and fun in the pool, not to mention the possibility of a little live music. Let's get the summer started off right with a righteous bash! No RSVP required but it is appreciated!

I'll remind you again this week in case you forget.

That's all I got now. More later.

Oil and Refined Gas: Interesting yet Appropo of Nothing

I was reading an article on the CATO website today, and a particular paragraph caught my eye:

The "make a wish" aspect of the congressman's bill is also truly amazing. America consumes about 20 million barrels of petroleum products every day (mbd). We produce about 5 mbd of crude and we import about 10 mbd a day of crude. Through the miracle of modern technology, our refineries produce about 17 mbd of products (refineries actually produce more output volume than they use as input), and we import another 3.5 mbd. Now, if you believe that mandating flex-fuel automotive capability and providing fatter subsidies for hybrids will allow us to eliminate 13.5 mbd of crude and refined imports in nine years as well as allow for economic growth, then you're probably the kind of person who is busily working with Nigerians on get-rich-quick schemes over the Internet.

Interesting, and I probably don't have to say why (but you know I will anyway).

It occurs to me that most peak oil theory supporters assume two things in their arguments. One is that technology for obtaining and refining oil will never improve or get better at what it does, and two that it is possible to estimate how much oil there is in the world that has yet to be discovered.

I throw the second point in there because I heard it at a CATO luncheon I went to a month or two ago, and it makes perfect sense - it's impossible to say exactly or with any degree of accuracy how much oil there is left to be discovered in the world because it's yet to be discovered. It seems pretty obvious to most of us, but I actually had a peak oil theory supporter actually argue vehemently that it was absolutely possible to state with authority exactly how much undiscovered oil there was left in the world.

The first point, however, is also as fallacious and obviously wrong, as Moore's Law and Kurzweil's Law of Accellerating Returns proves to us. Technology begets technology. I think the fact that we're able to take a barrell of oil and turn it into a barrell and a half of gas or oil byproduct is compelling support for that case (not to mention the inescapable fact that regardless of what you'd like to happen, technology marches on).

/rizzn

CyberWar Update: The Next Generation

Why is it that everyone who is an 'expert' on China thinks they have some mystical abilities on the computer? There was an interview with an author on the blog Human Events Online that caught my attention this morning. I've seen this type of author before, and I'm rapidly becoming familiar with the type: they are convinced that there's an upcoming war with China, and that they have all these awesome abilities to take us out and we're not gonna see it coming.

Read the excerpt:

In Showdown, you raise the possibility of the Chinese’ waging cyberwar against the U.S., and Japan. What’s exactly would that mean?

China—as we illustrate in the last fictional scenario in Showdown—is rapidly building the most advanced offensive computer war capability in the world. If they decided to use it, they could—unless we counter it with our own massive buildup of defensive and offensive cyberwar capability—conquer America without firing a shot. They could do everything from disabling satellite networks to taking down the stock market and banking networks. America could be reduced to a 1940s existence in a matter of minutes. I don’t believe they have the ability to do this yet, but they will very soon.

[via Human Events Online]

See, I used to sortof be in the camp that thought that China might be a threat. The problem is that every time I read something said by these authors, they always talk about "CyberWar" like it's something that could actually happen. CyberWar is somewhat tricky and deceptive term for online warfare. One imagines a keyboard of big red buttons that you can push to take out servers and transfer rich people's money into other bank accounts. That simply is not the case, although it makes for rich, imaginative storylines that I'm sure everyone in Hollywood loves (ahem... Swordfish).

Smite buttons aside, CyberWar is a nuanced and very situational thing. Take for instance the real cyberwar taking place right now between spammers and anti-spammers. This week, the warm-conflict between the two groups escelated to what could actually be called a war. It's been an ebb and flow back and forth between the seedy underbelly of the net where the spammers will develop new techniques to defeat filtering techniques, and the anti-spammers will develop better techniques.

Last week, as many of you probably read, anti-spam company Blue Security shut its doors in response to escalated targeted attacks by spammers at the company.

If you happened to have been away from the internet for the first week of May, you missed the story about how a spammer figured out Blue Security's "opt-out" list by seeing who it clear out of his own list, and then proceeded to bombard them with even more spam. Immediately after this, a fairly massive denial of service attack was directed at Blue Security's servers, which ended up taking out many other sites, including major blog provider Six Apart (which hosted a Blue Security blog). The decision to shut the company down appears to have been based on threats that another such attack was pending -- and Blue Security's belief that it wasn't fair to take out other sites again. As skeptical as we were over Blue Security's original model, and the risks it entailed, this still seems like bad news. It certainly will embolden spam attackers to hit hard at anyone who takes them on. In the end, perhaps that was the worst legacy of Blue Security's system: it simply escalated the war with spammers to new, unfortunate, levels.

[via TechDirt]

The fact is that the internet is driven by commerce. Us old early adopters may not always like that, but it's the fact of life. CyberWars like this tend to be driven by monetary interests. China has no vested economic interest in taking down our information infrastructure. Not only would it seriously inhibit their economic interaction with the United States, it's also likely to be just as damaging to the rest of the world, as most of the world either does a large amount of business with us, or relies on American technology to survive. I'm a simple blogger in the boonies of East Texas and I see that, I can't imagine that there are cyber-Hawks in the Chinese military who don't.

/rizzn

Quick Tuesday Update

I'm still out in Dallas... I should be back this evening. Just a quick note to let everyone know this, and that I still hate banks a lot. More on this later.

/rizzn

55 Words For Friday Evening

His stressful week over and done with, our hero pauses to evaluate his weekend options. He's interested in unwinding and blowing off some steam, and doing so in the company of friends.

With all the irony inherent in this dry county's favorite pasttime apparent, he exclaims: "I shall go a' drinkin'!"

Hilarity and hijinks ensue.