If you find my house boy, please return him.
DJHJD
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Morlock or murlock
So, E squared just called me "King of the Murlocs."
A murloc, according to Wikipedia, is:
A morlock, on the other hand, is a:
A murloc, according to Wikipedia, is:
The murloc is a fictional race in the Warcraft Universe, created by Blizzard Entertainment. It is a bipedal amphibanoid race residing along coastlines, lakeshores and riverbeds, as well as in underwater ruins. Murlocs are distinguished by their bulbous bodies, large mouths lined with row upon row of sharp fangs, and slime-coated skin. Murlocs range in coloration from turquoise to darkish grey, and in height from 3-1/2 feet to 6 feet.
Murloc culture is tribal in nature, and religion is generally shamanistic, with most villages containing a number of oracles and tidehunters, with coastrunners and warriors for defense. Habitations are generally crude huts with peaked roofs, huddled around a body of water. Oddly enough for amphibianoids, they prefer their food cooked, and will happily build campfires or even large bonfires which easily accommodate their favourite dish, the "spit-roasted gnome warlock".
Murloc behavior toward other races is best characterized as "hostile," and even more so as "unbelievably hostile." Typically, approaching within 100 yards of even one, apparently isolated, murloc will result in the subject letting forth the usual gurgling warcry "Rawgrlrlrlrrlglrl!" and dragging forth his entire village of 20, emerging as if by magic, to battle the visitor. Such assaults generally result in a nasty, slimy overkill against the hapless tourist. Indeed, it is nearly impossible for even the most dedicated murloc hunter to get just one to himself -- three or four Murlocs are usually the bare minimum.
Murloc hunting, however, is a time-honored vocation, particularly since murloc fins are a prized delicacy when used for soup broth, and slimy murloc scales are sought after by advanced leatherworkers for use in crafting fine armor. In addition, hefty bounties are often placed on certain murlocs, due to their incredibly-pronounced disregard for the sanctity of life, generally-accepted notions of fair play, or lack of simple common decency. By the same token, pounding one of them into guava jelly with a large mace is surprisingly satisfying.
A morlock, on the other hand, is a:
fictional species, created by H. G. Wells for his 1895 novel, The Time Machine. The Morlocks, as well as another supposed offshoot of humans, the Eloi, exist in the future world in the year AD 802,701 in 'The Time Machine'. The Morlocks are said to have descended from humans, although they have evolved to become a completely different species by the 8028th century.
Morlocks are humanoid creatures. They don't seem to wear clothing, and are instead covered with fur. The Time Traveller describes them as 'almost spiderlike' in their demeanor, in that they silently slink around in the dead of night and snag their prey. They live in an underground civilization, where they maintain ancient machines that they may or may not remember how to build. Their only entrance to the surface world is through a series of well-like structures which dot the future English countryside. As a result of living underground, the Morlocks are extremely sensitive to light, and apparently have little or no melanin in their skin.
The Morlocks are cannibalistic, as their main source of food is the Eloi, another race descended from Humanity who lives aboveground. The Morlocks seem to treat the Eloi as cattle, and the Eloi make no resistance.
The above describes the Morlocks from the original novel. Since then, many other sources (such as movie adaptations, sequels to the original novel, etc.) have given variant descriptions of them.
The feeling of deju-vu
Most of the people I know don't remember diddly-squat about the Kent State "Massacre" (which only resulted in four deaths, but they were unarmed, non-violent students.) I was only twelve years old when it happened; my cousin Anne was attending Kent State at the time, and I adored her, so the events left a sharp note in my memory logs.
Here, you can read up (if you're so motivated) on what HAPPENED, both before, during and after. This will read very much like the Bush administrations' take on people who protest the Iraq war, people who speak out against it, and what could easily happen again.
So, if you think this is more liberal ranting on my part, so be it. You can ignore these tantalizing hyperlinks and just keep on keeping on - worrying about whether Brittany is going to have a boy or a girl, or whether that thing between Ashton and Demi is for real, or for show. Then, when some over-zealous troops or police shoot up a non-violent protest somewhere in this country, you can remember "I told you..." and maybe, just MAYBE come back and read them.
Or not. I expect not.
Prelude to Kent State: Nixon Invades Cambodia
Call Out the National Guard: May 1-3, 1970, at Kent State
"They Just Started Shooting Us Down" -- Kent State
"They Should Have Shot Them All" -- Kent State Aftermath
"Inexcusable": Investigating Kent State
Guardsmen Go on Trial: Kent State
"Blood on my Hands": Kent State Civil Trials
Here, you can read up (if you're so motivated) on what HAPPENED, both before, during and after. This will read very much like the Bush administrations' take on people who protest the Iraq war, people who speak out against it, and what could easily happen again.
So, if you think this is more liberal ranting on my part, so be it. You can ignore these tantalizing hyperlinks and just keep on keeping on - worrying about whether Brittany is going to have a boy or a girl, or whether that thing between Ashton and Demi is for real, or for show. Then, when some over-zealous troops or police shoot up a non-violent protest somewhere in this country, you can remember "I told you..." and maybe, just MAYBE come back and read them.
Or not. I expect not.
Prelude to Kent State: Nixon Invades Cambodia
Call Out the National Guard: May 1-3, 1970, at Kent State
"They Just Started Shooting Us Down" -- Kent State
"They Should Have Shot Them All" -- Kent State Aftermath
"Inexcusable": Investigating Kent State
Guardsmen Go on Trial: Kent State
"Blood on my Hands": Kent State Civil Trials
So, they offer to quit attacking and we say ..
"go hang."
From Daily Kos
Half a trillion
by kos
Thu Jun 29, 2006 at 08:44:03 AM PDT
Half a trillion.
The overall cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other global anti-terror operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will top $500 billion next year, according to congressional estimates and expectations of future funding.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a report that through the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the government will have spent $437 billion on overseas military and foreign aid funding. That includes the latest supplemental spending bill signed into law this month, which provided $69 billion for the war effort.
Add in roughly $1.5 billion in FY07 Foreign Operations funds for Iraq and Afghanistan; $50 billion in Pentagon "bridge" funds for the first half of FY07, plus as-yet-undetermined supplemental funds for the remainder of the next fiscal year, and total war-related costs will easily soar over $500 billion one year from now.
Meanwhile, Sunni insurgents have offered to cease all attacks if the US offers a timetable to withdrawal.
Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks - including those on American troops - if the United States agrees to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Withdrawal is the centerpiece of a set of demands from the groups, which operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces are increasingly violent and attacks there have crippled oil and commerce routes.
The groups who've made contact have largely shunned attacks on Iraqi civilians, focusing instead on the U.S.-led coalition forces. Their offer coincides with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's decision to reach out to the Sunni insurgency with a reconciliation plan that includes an amnesty for fighters.
But of course Bush rejected the offer outright. No timetable. No withdrawal. Hundreds of billions more and countless lives set to be sucked down the Iraqi sinkhole for the rest of the Bush presidency.
From Daily Kos
Half a trillion
by kos
Thu Jun 29, 2006 at 08:44:03 AM PDT
Half a trillion.
The overall cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other global anti-terror operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will top $500 billion next year, according to congressional estimates and expectations of future funding.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a report that through the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the government will have spent $437 billion on overseas military and foreign aid funding. That includes the latest supplemental spending bill signed into law this month, which provided $69 billion for the war effort.
Add in roughly $1.5 billion in FY07 Foreign Operations funds for Iraq and Afghanistan; $50 billion in Pentagon "bridge" funds for the first half of FY07, plus as-yet-undetermined supplemental funds for the remainder of the next fiscal year, and total war-related costs will easily soar over $500 billion one year from now.
Meanwhile, Sunni insurgents have offered to cease all attacks if the US offers a timetable to withdrawal.
Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks - including those on American troops - if the United States agrees to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Withdrawal is the centerpiece of a set of demands from the groups, which operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces are increasingly violent and attacks there have crippled oil and commerce routes.
The groups who've made contact have largely shunned attacks on Iraqi civilians, focusing instead on the U.S.-led coalition forces. Their offer coincides with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's decision to reach out to the Sunni insurgency with a reconciliation plan that includes an amnesty for fighters.
But of course Bush rejected the offer outright. No timetable. No withdrawal. Hundreds of billions more and countless lives set to be sucked down the Iraqi sinkhole for the rest of the Bush presidency.
$1,000,000,000,000 of Gay Money and the Ringing of the Bell
from Daily Kos
by Rippe
Wed Jun 28, 2006 at 05:06:50 AM PDT
Just 6 years from now, gay and lesbian buying power in the U.S. will reach $1 trillion -- a 50% increase over today's estimated $641 billion.
But just two days from now -- this Friday -- a national gay support organization will celebrate the GLBT's impact on the economy by ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) makes this historic and symbolic appearance at the NYSE Friday to drive home a point to Corporate America: gays are a vital part of the U.S. economy.
* Rippe's diary :: ::
*
To put this in perspective, consider that $641,000,000,000 is:
15 times the FY06 federal budget for the Department of Homeland Security...
$100,000,000,000 more than this year's Department of Defense budget...
8-10 times the federal budget for the Department of Education...
About $140,000,000,000 more than the U.S. will make in Social Security payments this year.
See the budget numbers for yourself here.
Today, my significant other and I will be driving from Madison to Chicago with another gay couple to watch the Milwaukee Brewers (hopefully) beat up on the Chicago Cubs. The tickets were $46 each. The gas will be about $40 each way. I've allocated $100 for souvenirs. The beer and hot dogs and peanuts at the game will exceed $200 between the 4 of us. Happy hour after the game will add $50. Dinner will approach $200.
Four gay guys will spend $1000 today -- on a major league baseball game, for crying out loud!
So..please join me in congratulating PFLAG on Friday's historic event, and in thanking the GLBT community for its contribution to the economy.
by Rippe
Wed Jun 28, 2006 at 05:06:50 AM PDT
Just 6 years from now, gay and lesbian buying power in the U.S. will reach $1 trillion -- a 50% increase over today's estimated $641 billion.
But just two days from now -- this Friday -- a national gay support organization will celebrate the GLBT's impact on the economy by ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) makes this historic and symbolic appearance at the NYSE Friday to drive home a point to Corporate America: gays are a vital part of the U.S. economy.
* Rippe's diary :: ::
*
To put this in perspective, consider that $641,000,000,000 is:
15 times the FY06 federal budget for the Department of Homeland Security...
$100,000,000,000 more than this year's Department of Defense budget...
8-10 times the federal budget for the Department of Education...
About $140,000,000,000 more than the U.S. will make in Social Security payments this year.
See the budget numbers for yourself here.
Today, my significant other and I will be driving from Madison to Chicago with another gay couple to watch the Milwaukee Brewers (hopefully) beat up on the Chicago Cubs. The tickets were $46 each. The gas will be about $40 each way. I've allocated $100 for souvenirs. The beer and hot dogs and peanuts at the game will exceed $200 between the 4 of us. Happy hour after the game will add $50. Dinner will approach $200.
Four gay guys will spend $1000 today -- on a major league baseball game, for crying out loud!
So..please join me in congratulating PFLAG on Friday's historic event, and in thanking the GLBT community for its contribution to the economy.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Tuesday progress
Source article
Thomas Jefferson has a strong opinion about the Kos affair
What does Thomas Jefferson have to say about the Kos & David Brooks & Newsweek & Jason Zengerle brouhaha? Let’s ask him:
Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, tho’ not the most wise depository of the public interests.
In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, Liberals and Serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still, and pursue the same object. The last appellation of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all.
That’s all there is to say about this. The people who own the New Republic, Newsweek, the New York Times and the Democratic National Committee are Jefferson’s Aristocrats. They fear and distrust regular people. So they’ll attack anything that allows regular people to organize themselves and have some voice in how things are run.
That can be unions, or DailyKos, or the AARP, or in 2397 A.D. the Association of Alpha Centauri Moisture Farmers. It doesn’t matter. The important thing, from their perspective, is to destroy anything that allows regular people to talk to each other, discover their common interests, and act. In this particular case, the Aristocrats will not stop trying to destroy the blogosphere until (1) they succeed or (2) they or the blogosphere switch parties.
Thomas Jefferson has a strong opinion about the Kos affair
What does Thomas Jefferson have to say about the Kos & David Brooks & Newsweek & Jason Zengerle brouhaha? Let’s ask him:
Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, tho’ not the most wise depository of the public interests.
In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, Liberals and Serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still, and pursue the same object. The last appellation of Aristocrats and Democrats is the true one expressing the essence of all.
That’s all there is to say about this. The people who own the New Republic, Newsweek, the New York Times and the Democratic National Committee are Jefferson’s Aristocrats. They fear and distrust regular people. So they’ll attack anything that allows regular people to organize themselves and have some voice in how things are run.
That can be unions, or DailyKos, or the AARP, or in 2397 A.D. the Association of Alpha Centauri Moisture Farmers. It doesn’t matter. The important thing, from their perspective, is to destroy anything that allows regular people to talk to each other, discover their common interests, and act. In this particular case, the Aristocrats will not stop trying to destroy the blogosphere until (1) they succeed or (2) they or the blogosphere switch parties.
Virus Myth, Part I
One moonlit night in 1983, a biochemist named Kary Mullis was driving along a California mountain road when he had an aha! experience akin to Newton's with the apple and Archimedes' in the bathtub. Mullis immediately pulled off the road, awakened his sleeping girlfriend, and told her that he suddenly knew how to replicate DNA.
It was a problem that had been vexing scientists and, as it turned out, Mullis was right. His insight into the polymerase chain reaction won him the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and led to the invention of DNA-replicating machines and the tests they make possible, including the one for HIV antibodies.
This is simply by way of establishing the impeccable scientific credentials of Dr. Kary Mullis. Because when someone of his stature questions whether the HIV virus causes AIDS, we should probably listen.
Huh? Of course HIV causes AIDS, we all know that, don't we? The CDC tells us so, the media tell us so, our doctors tell us so. End of story.
Well, actually not. There is a sizeable, and growing, chorus of dissenting voices. And unlike many groups that challenge an entrenched mainstream belief, this one does not consist of loudmouths with fringe credentials. It is made up of pre-eminent scientists with rock-solid reputations.
Among dozens of others, in addition to Kary Mullis, we find Dr. Peter Duesberg of UC Berkeley, one of the world's leading molecular biologists; Dr. Heinz Ludwig Sänger, emeritus professor of molecular biology and virology at the Max-Planck-Institute in Munich, Germany; Dr. Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, professor of medical physics at Australia's Royal Perth Hospital; Dr. Walter Gilbert, 1980 Nobel prize winner for his work on DNA sequencing; and Dr. Gordon Stewart, professor emeritus of public health at Glasgow University and a former AIDS adviser to the World Health Organization.
Impressive, and that's just the short list. So, what are these men and women saying?
Kary Mullis: "If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least with a high probability. There is no such document."
A few quick reminders: AIDS is not a disease, it's "Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome," a catch-all applied to those whose natural bodily defense systems have been so compromised that they no longer protect the individual from any number of life-threatening diseases. AIDS vaulted into public awareness when large numbers of gay men in San Francisco started exhibiting horribly devastated immune systems in the early '80s, and began to die of previously rare or normally benign diseases such as Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. A crash program attempting to isolate the source of this epidemic yielded the discovery of the HIV retrovirus by Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier and its designation as the "cause" of AIDS. Montagnier has since backed off and now considers HIV as merely a "co-factor" in AIDS cases; Gallo still vigorously defends the premise that HIV is the cause. (Full disclosure: Gallo patented the first "AIDS test kit" in 1984.)
There are many problems associated with the HIV/AIDS theory. Take the AIDS test, for example. It establishes the presence of HIV antibodies, not of the virus itself. Why? Because the virus is present in such minute quantities that it's too hard to find. How can such a tiny amount of virus do such awful systemic damage? Good question. Defenders of the status quo have been forced to claim that the virus somehow does its dirty work, then essentially disappears, only to have its effects show up later, often years later. That's a pretty unique kind of infection.
Then, too, aren't antibodies evidence that the immune system is doing its work? Yes. HIV/AIDS proponents claim that the virus is killing T-cells [one of the key components of the immune system], Peter Duesberg says. Yet, "At the same time, all they ever found in patients was antibodies against the virus. And I said those two things don't make any sense at all. A retrovirus isn't killing cells. That's the one thing we always knew and agreed on about retroviruses--that they do not kill cells. The second thing is viruses only cause disease when they are bonded, not when they are neutralized by antibodies. That's what you call a vaccine, when a virus is neutralized by an antibody."
There are reliability difficulties as well. An Australian research team, writing in Bio/Technology in 1993, concluded that no test procedure met the "gold standard," the "quintessential element for the authentication of any diagnostic test," wherein positive tests consistently lead to finding the virus, negative tests to not finding it. Or, in other words, a positive antibody test may mean the virus is there, but it may not.
Additionally, Mullis writes, "[Those] tests are based on a lot of assumptions that are not very easy to prove, because they've never isolated the organism completely by itself. There's not a tube of HIV in the country that's pure. There are cultures that have by mass something like one out of 100,000 is HIV. That's all. That's the best we've got."
Furthermore, treatment of HIV infection often involves immune-suppressive drugs that will, on their own, kill you as readily as any ailment, often closely mimicking the syndrome they're meant to cure. This Duesberg calls "AIDS by prescription."
Finally, there is the classification loop by which the CDC links HIV, AIDS, and disease. A person is said to have AIDS if he or she suffers from one or more of 31 different diseases--all of which existed long before the AIDS epidemic--and if he or she also has HIV antibodies. Someone who succumbs to tuberculosis and has the antibody thus has "died of AIDS." Minus the antibody, it's just plain old TB.
Likewise, "AIDS" is the diagnosis in Africa for anything involving cough, fever, persistent diarrhea and substantial weight loss, a symptom grouping that, probably not coincidentally, also defines malnutrition.
In short, the problems are many and the case against the HIV/AIDS hypothesis is complex. Space limitations mean that we have only hinted at a few basic aspects of it here. But there is a wealth of information on the Internet. www.virusmyth.net is a good starting place for interested readers. It archives papers by Mullis, Duesberg, and many others. We encourage our readers to inform themselves about this ongoing scientific debate, with minds open to the possibility that everything they think they know about AIDS may be wrong.
A stubborn clinging to unproven dogma is one of the worst enemies of the quest for truth. While we're not scientifically qualified to say with any certainty who is right in this controversy, we are sympathetic to Kary Mullis' complaint that "so many scientists have absolutely refused to examine the available evidence in a neutral, dispassionate way. Several respected scientific journals have [rejected] a statement issued by the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the H.I.V./AIDS Hypothesis simply requesting 'a thorough reappraisal of the existing evidence for and against this hypothesis'." That kind of peer review seems like a minimum effort that can, and should, be made.
Our final question is, of course: If HIV doesn't cause AIDS, what does, then? There is no one answer. Most likely, the dissenters say, different diseases have different etiologies. Problem is, no research is being done on alternative theories because the HIV people get all the grant money.
In the next issue of WWNK, we'll take a closer look at some of these theories and the roadblocks frustrated researchers encounter in trying to pursue them, and we'll examine the career-threatening consequences of dissent.
It was a problem that had been vexing scientists and, as it turned out, Mullis was right. His insight into the polymerase chain reaction won him the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and led to the invention of DNA-replicating machines and the tests they make possible, including the one for HIV antibodies.
This is simply by way of establishing the impeccable scientific credentials of Dr. Kary Mullis. Because when someone of his stature questions whether the HIV virus causes AIDS, we should probably listen.
Huh? Of course HIV causes AIDS, we all know that, don't we? The CDC tells us so, the media tell us so, our doctors tell us so. End of story.
Well, actually not. There is a sizeable, and growing, chorus of dissenting voices. And unlike many groups that challenge an entrenched mainstream belief, this one does not consist of loudmouths with fringe credentials. It is made up of pre-eminent scientists with rock-solid reputations.
Among dozens of others, in addition to Kary Mullis, we find Dr. Peter Duesberg of UC Berkeley, one of the world's leading molecular biologists; Dr. Heinz Ludwig Sänger, emeritus professor of molecular biology and virology at the Max-Planck-Institute in Munich, Germany; Dr. Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, professor of medical physics at Australia's Royal Perth Hospital; Dr. Walter Gilbert, 1980 Nobel prize winner for his work on DNA sequencing; and Dr. Gordon Stewart, professor emeritus of public health at Glasgow University and a former AIDS adviser to the World Health Organization.
Impressive, and that's just the short list. So, what are these men and women saying?
Kary Mullis: "If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least with a high probability. There is no such document."
A few quick reminders: AIDS is not a disease, it's "Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome," a catch-all applied to those whose natural bodily defense systems have been so compromised that they no longer protect the individual from any number of life-threatening diseases. AIDS vaulted into public awareness when large numbers of gay men in San Francisco started exhibiting horribly devastated immune systems in the early '80s, and began to die of previously rare or normally benign diseases such as Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. A crash program attempting to isolate the source of this epidemic yielded the discovery of the HIV retrovirus by Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier and its designation as the "cause" of AIDS. Montagnier has since backed off and now considers HIV as merely a "co-factor" in AIDS cases; Gallo still vigorously defends the premise that HIV is the cause. (Full disclosure: Gallo patented the first "AIDS test kit" in 1984.)
There are many problems associated with the HIV/AIDS theory. Take the AIDS test, for example. It establishes the presence of HIV antibodies, not of the virus itself. Why? Because the virus is present in such minute quantities that it's too hard to find. How can such a tiny amount of virus do such awful systemic damage? Good question. Defenders of the status quo have been forced to claim that the virus somehow does its dirty work, then essentially disappears, only to have its effects show up later, often years later. That's a pretty unique kind of infection.
Then, too, aren't antibodies evidence that the immune system is doing its work? Yes. HIV/AIDS proponents claim that the virus is killing T-cells [one of the key components of the immune system], Peter Duesberg says. Yet, "At the same time, all they ever found in patients was antibodies against the virus. And I said those two things don't make any sense at all. A retrovirus isn't killing cells. That's the one thing we always knew and agreed on about retroviruses--that they do not kill cells. The second thing is viruses only cause disease when they are bonded, not when they are neutralized by antibodies. That's what you call a vaccine, when a virus is neutralized by an antibody."
There are reliability difficulties as well. An Australian research team, writing in Bio/Technology in 1993, concluded that no test procedure met the "gold standard," the "quintessential element for the authentication of any diagnostic test," wherein positive tests consistently lead to finding the virus, negative tests to not finding it. Or, in other words, a positive antibody test may mean the virus is there, but it may not.
Additionally, Mullis writes, "[Those] tests are based on a lot of assumptions that are not very easy to prove, because they've never isolated the organism completely by itself. There's not a tube of HIV in the country that's pure. There are cultures that have by mass something like one out of 100,000 is HIV. That's all. That's the best we've got."
Furthermore, treatment of HIV infection often involves immune-suppressive drugs that will, on their own, kill you as readily as any ailment, often closely mimicking the syndrome they're meant to cure. This Duesberg calls "AIDS by prescription."
Finally, there is the classification loop by which the CDC links HIV, AIDS, and disease. A person is said to have AIDS if he or she suffers from one or more of 31 different diseases--all of which existed long before the AIDS epidemic--and if he or she also has HIV antibodies. Someone who succumbs to tuberculosis and has the antibody thus has "died of AIDS." Minus the antibody, it's just plain old TB.
Likewise, "AIDS" is the diagnosis in Africa for anything involving cough, fever, persistent diarrhea and substantial weight loss, a symptom grouping that, probably not coincidentally, also defines malnutrition.
In short, the problems are many and the case against the HIV/AIDS hypothesis is complex. Space limitations mean that we have only hinted at a few basic aspects of it here. But there is a wealth of information on the Internet. www.virusmyth.net is a good starting place for interested readers. It archives papers by Mullis, Duesberg, and many others. We encourage our readers to inform themselves about this ongoing scientific debate, with minds open to the possibility that everything they think they know about AIDS may be wrong.
A stubborn clinging to unproven dogma is one of the worst enemies of the quest for truth. While we're not scientifically qualified to say with any certainty who is right in this controversy, we are sympathetic to Kary Mullis' complaint that "so many scientists have absolutely refused to examine the available evidence in a neutral, dispassionate way. Several respected scientific journals have [rejected] a statement issued by the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the H.I.V./AIDS Hypothesis simply requesting 'a thorough reappraisal of the existing evidence for and against this hypothesis'." That kind of peer review seems like a minimum effort that can, and should, be made.
Our final question is, of course: If HIV doesn't cause AIDS, what does, then? There is no one answer. Most likely, the dissenters say, different diseases have different etiologies. Problem is, no research is being done on alternative theories because the HIV people get all the grant money.
In the next issue of WWNK, we'll take a closer look at some of these theories and the roadblocks frustrated researchers encounter in trying to pursue them, and we'll examine the career-threatening consequences of dissent.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Monday, Monday ver. 831.01
Oof. I spent most of the day today working on the class reunion stuff. I made significant progress, at least.
Little Liz isn't going to happen. Time for Ruby to get a thorough cleaning, and go to the trim shop.
Bram the room mate is a lot of fun. I'm enjoying him being here a great deal. Well, it's only been a day, but .. I think I've scared the bejesus out of him talking about the Bush administration...
Little Liz isn't going to happen. Time for Ruby to get a thorough cleaning, and go to the trim shop.
Bram the room mate is a lot of fun. I'm enjoying him being here a great deal. Well, it's only been a day, but .. I think I've scared the bejesus out of him talking about the Bush administration...
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Why I skipped Gay Pride this year
It's just not fun anymore. The parade used to be a fabulous, exciting, heart rendering event - with several hundred thousand people lining lower Westheimer, screaming their hearts out.
Now, it's 1/3 churches, 1/8 lesbian service organizations, 1/4 multi-national corporations, three bars (all owned by Charles Armstrong) and BCBC. Churches? Churches that promise to be inclusive, and that Jesus will take us in? The same church organizations that are fighting against gay marriage, and fighting against gay people being seen as anything other than behavorial choice?
A bunch of people marching with signs for Jesus and overtaxed, underpowered audio systems playing Christian rock is NOT what I associate with gay pride.
Charles Armstrong, who is the Lord and Master of all Gay Commerce in the City of Houston now puts his usual five bucks into gay pride, and we have a token appearance for the six gay bars he now owns. He probably docked his employee's pay to create the float, or made them work on it on their own time or something.
I remember when there were entries for every significant gay business; bars had elaborate floats built on fire trucks or construction equipment, there were all-gay amateur marching bands, the Dallas gay cheerleaders, fifty-four thin, moustached men in leather chaps, leather vests, leather boots and leather caps, each carrying a flag of the fifty states, one carrying the flag of the United States, one carrying that of the City of Houston, one carrying the rainbow flag, and one the flag of Mary's, the oldest gay bar in Texas. People were exuberant.
Now, it's just the young lesbians who are. It's gotten to be a contest for "look at how accepting we really are."
The truth is different. The truth is that the prejudice has become somehwat unfashionable. It's still there. It still operates. Show me an openly gay upper level member of management in a Fortune 100 company. Show me an openly gay partner in a big five accounting firm. Or in a major law firm. Show me the CEO of a major multi-national company whose partner at a party is a man with whom he's shared his last thirty years.
It doesn't exist. It likely won't exist. Just as women continue to beat their heads against the glass ceiling, and black people are welcome just SO high and no higher, we are only allowed to achieve the maximum in businesses that we own. There are several, some very successful.
Yet, we will likely never measure up to the standards of Oprah or Mary Kay Ash. Most of our gay business leaders are still focused on the party, and focused on the youngest man they can still coax out of his very fashionable drawers. They are vicious snubs of other gay businesses, unless they think that they can get "it" or get it for free.
There is no bigotry like that with which the gay community assaults itself. Being old is cause for excommunication. Being fat is worse. Being effiminate even worse than that. The gay ideal is a clone army of thin young men in low-rise, $150 jeans, wearing an earth toned, distressed t-shirt with "Abercrombie & Fitch" emblazoned across their gym toned chest. Everthing is geared to speak to that image. There are no businesses that cater to an older crowd, except as to allow those older persons to try to pick up on the young ones that look just like .. the ideal. All right, there are a FEW businesses that are free of THAT much single-mindedness, but I defy you to find some gay business owner who actively seeks out other gay businesses to supply their needs.
So, rather than be regaled with zealots telling me that Jesus will welcome me into their worship services, or watch Countrywide Home Loans' float lionize having squeezed out all of the independant gay mortgage brokers, or Wells Fargo pretend to be accepting of homosexuality, or Bill White act like gay people mean a rat's ass, I stayed home, and reflected on a time when half-naked go-go boys dressed as fire fighters, grinned madly at the crowd from the top of their rented fire truck, instead of suffering through the intense discomfort of the Fire Chief and those few firefighters who could be compelled to ride behind the closed doors and windows of their COH fire engine.
Now, it's 1/3 churches, 1/8 lesbian service organizations, 1/4 multi-national corporations, three bars (all owned by Charles Armstrong) and BCBC. Churches? Churches that promise to be inclusive, and that Jesus will take us in? The same church organizations that are fighting against gay marriage, and fighting against gay people being seen as anything other than behavorial choice?
A bunch of people marching with signs for Jesus and overtaxed, underpowered audio systems playing Christian rock is NOT what I associate with gay pride.
Charles Armstrong, who is the Lord and Master of all Gay Commerce in the City of Houston now puts his usual five bucks into gay pride, and we have a token appearance for the six gay bars he now owns. He probably docked his employee's pay to create the float, or made them work on it on their own time or something.
I remember when there were entries for every significant gay business; bars had elaborate floats built on fire trucks or construction equipment, there were all-gay amateur marching bands, the Dallas gay cheerleaders, fifty-four thin, moustached men in leather chaps, leather vests, leather boots and leather caps, each carrying a flag of the fifty states, one carrying the flag of the United States, one carrying that of the City of Houston, one carrying the rainbow flag, and one the flag of Mary's, the oldest gay bar in Texas. People were exuberant.
Now, it's just the young lesbians who are. It's gotten to be a contest for "look at how accepting we really are."
The truth is different. The truth is that the prejudice has become somehwat unfashionable. It's still there. It still operates. Show me an openly gay upper level member of management in a Fortune 100 company. Show me an openly gay partner in a big five accounting firm. Or in a major law firm. Show me the CEO of a major multi-national company whose partner at a party is a man with whom he's shared his last thirty years.
It doesn't exist. It likely won't exist. Just as women continue to beat their heads against the glass ceiling, and black people are welcome just SO high and no higher, we are only allowed to achieve the maximum in businesses that we own. There are several, some very successful.
Yet, we will likely never measure up to the standards of Oprah or Mary Kay Ash. Most of our gay business leaders are still focused on the party, and focused on the youngest man they can still coax out of his very fashionable drawers. They are vicious snubs of other gay businesses, unless they think that they can get "it" or get it for free.
There is no bigotry like that with which the gay community assaults itself. Being old is cause for excommunication. Being fat is worse. Being effiminate even worse than that. The gay ideal is a clone army of thin young men in low-rise, $150 jeans, wearing an earth toned, distressed t-shirt with "Abercrombie & Fitch" emblazoned across their gym toned chest. Everthing is geared to speak to that image. There are no businesses that cater to an older crowd, except as to allow those older persons to try to pick up on the young ones that look just like .. the ideal. All right, there are a FEW businesses that are free of THAT much single-mindedness, but I defy you to find some gay business owner who actively seeks out other gay businesses to supply their needs.
So, rather than be regaled with zealots telling me that Jesus will welcome me into their worship services, or watch Countrywide Home Loans' float lionize having squeezed out all of the independant gay mortgage brokers, or Wells Fargo pretend to be accepting of homosexuality, or Bill White act like gay people mean a rat's ass, I stayed home, and reflected on a time when half-naked go-go boys dressed as fire fighters, grinned madly at the crowd from the top of their rented fire truck, instead of suffering through the intense discomfort of the Fire Chief and those few firefighters who could be compelled to ride behind the closed doors and windows of their COH fire engine.
Saturday - Pride Day
In Houston, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco .. but not in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, or certain other cities.
Waiting for the new mattress/box spring to be delivered; Bram moves in tomorrow, and I had to get another bed. The guest room looks a zillion percent better with the mattress and box spring in place, and bedding on the bed. I need to put together a list of some things to pick up at Bed, Bath and Beyond - like a red silk duponi bed skirt, some other stuff.
And that damned cook top.
As soon as the mattress/box spring shows up, I need to run over to HEB and pick up a few things.
I've been looking at things that work and things that don't work for me, and where I'm getting resistence from the Universe. Mortgage loans, chasing old tax returns, working for businesses that are in trouble - just don't work. Chasing people who are already train wrecks only invites that wreckage into my own life.
I need to go up on my fees, and charge up front, only.
It looks as if writing courses, delivering courses and writing for NV is going to work for me. I'm really enjoying developing some course presentations, and conceiving articles for NV. I just put together a concept for a DaVinci code dialogue with a Christian scholar, a Jewish scholar and discussion ..
Waiting for the new mattress/box spring to be delivered; Bram moves in tomorrow, and I had to get another bed. The guest room looks a zillion percent better with the mattress and box spring in place, and bedding on the bed. I need to put together a list of some things to pick up at Bed, Bath and Beyond - like a red silk duponi bed skirt, some other stuff.
And that damned cook top.
As soon as the mattress/box spring shows up, I need to run over to HEB and pick up a few things.
I've been looking at things that work and things that don't work for me, and where I'm getting resistence from the Universe. Mortgage loans, chasing old tax returns, working for businesses that are in trouble - just don't work. Chasing people who are already train wrecks only invites that wreckage into my own life.
I need to go up on my fees, and charge up front, only.
It looks as if writing courses, delivering courses and writing for NV is going to work for me. I'm really enjoying developing some course presentations, and conceiving articles for NV. I just put together a concept for a DaVinci code dialogue with a Christian scholar, a Jewish scholar and discussion ..
Friday, June 23, 2006
Friday night wonders
Watching "Die, Mommie, Die." What a great movie. It's a hoot.
The garage door opener is working again! And the yard is mowed! And the pool is clean! YAY! Tomorrow, I'll vacuum, and the house will be all spic and span for the new room mate's arrival Sunday night. Tomorrow, I have to also buy a new bed, as the new room mate is renting the guest room for a month and then getting his own furniture.
The garage door opener is working again! Did I mention that the garage door opener is working again?
Renewed the loan officer license today. Mailed all the eBay stuff. Spent four and a half hours getting medical tests done. Reduced by nine pounds from last month, had normal blood pressure, normal EKG.
It's time to hit the hay here ... have a ton to do tomorrow, including floating in the pool with Mikey, Ro-Ro and Ro-Ro's friends.
The garage door opener is working again! And the yard is mowed! And the pool is clean! YAY! Tomorrow, I'll vacuum, and the house will be all spic and span for the new room mate's arrival Sunday night. Tomorrow, I have to also buy a new bed, as the new room mate is renting the guest room for a month and then getting his own furniture.
The garage door opener is working again! Did I mention that the garage door opener is working again?
Renewed the loan officer license today. Mailed all the eBay stuff. Spent four and a half hours getting medical tests done. Reduced by nine pounds from last month, had normal blood pressure, normal EKG.
It's time to hit the hay here ... have a ton to do tomorrow, including floating in the pool with Mikey, Ro-Ro and Ro-Ro's friends.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Thursday - maybe I'll try this AGAIN
This wireless router is less valuable than a dog turd in a punch bowl. It works for about ten minutes, then I have to go upstairs, unplug it, reset it, and come back downstairs. Of course, in the meantime, whatever I was working on is GONE.
Today was passably productive. Now, I'm at the mercy of this client, who may or may not show up to finalize his thing. He's not being any more reliable than he was before. Lovely stuff.
I should make some dinner and eat it before it gets too late. By the time I'm done with that, the wireless router should have collapsed onto its fainting couch again, and I'll be in synch.
Watching a documentary about Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense from the Vietnam era. I've seen it before, as it turns out. It's a goood show.
In summary:
1. I am going to let my loan officer license go, because I'm just no longer going to try to schlepp loans, and I can't see paying the $200 to keep that license.
2. I'm going to fire .. well, most of the clients I have .. tomorrow, because I'm no longer willing to have clients who try to negotiate the fee after the fact, and refuse to pay in full or on time.
3. I'm going to start looking for another place to live; I'm unwilling to continue to dance this dance with Twitch .. yes, no, maybe, it depends.
4. I'm going to tell a number of people that I'm no longer interested in discussing "deals" with them, because they bring me nothing. They call over and over and over and over and pester me with hypotheticals, but they offer nothing.
5. I'm going to figure out how to make my life work for me, and only work on things that don't involve solving other people's problems.
I am going to focus on my church development, including the articles and presentations that I have. I am going to focus on my website, and web based delivery of content that will make me money. I am going to focus on the mortgage training materials.
Somehow things are going to have to work out to support this.
Today was passably productive. Now, I'm at the mercy of this client, who may or may not show up to finalize his thing. He's not being any more reliable than he was before. Lovely stuff.
I should make some dinner and eat it before it gets too late. By the time I'm done with that, the wireless router should have collapsed onto its fainting couch again, and I'll be in synch.
Watching a documentary about Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense from the Vietnam era. I've seen it before, as it turns out. It's a goood show.
In summary:
1. I am going to let my loan officer license go, because I'm just no longer going to try to schlepp loans, and I can't see paying the $200 to keep that license.
2. I'm going to fire .. well, most of the clients I have .. tomorrow, because I'm no longer willing to have clients who try to negotiate the fee after the fact, and refuse to pay in full or on time.
3. I'm going to start looking for another place to live; I'm unwilling to continue to dance this dance with Twitch .. yes, no, maybe, it depends.
4. I'm going to tell a number of people that I'm no longer interested in discussing "deals" with them, because they bring me nothing. They call over and over and over and over and pester me with hypotheticals, but they offer nothing.
5. I'm going to figure out how to make my life work for me, and only work on things that don't involve solving other people's problems.
I am going to focus on my church development, including the articles and presentations that I have. I am going to focus on my website, and web based delivery of content that will make me money. I am going to focus on the mortgage training materials.
Somehow things are going to have to work out to support this.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Playing the slots in McCarren Int'l Airport?
Why do that when you have open access wifi!?!?
We have just about an hour before our connecting flight, and we've already evacuated in the men's room, grabbed a beverage, and now we're sitting here with our Dell laptops (which are nearly identical) clamshelled together, digging into our electronic worlds.
So, where to start? My joy at the American Episcopalians' choice of a new leader? Being kept awake nearly all night by E's OCD wheaton terrier? The three LOUD persons sitting behind us on the flight from SEA to LAS, who blathered on about waaaay too personal material? The dreary drive at the butt crack of dawn from Vancouver to Seattle? Or, shall I compare and contrast the treatment we had at the hands of ICE (the new border customs and immigration agency) and the government of Canuckistan?
On the way up Thursday night, we were in a huge line of cars crossing the border. We sat in that line, which suddenly broke free and we zipped up as the cars were processed in no time flat. We pulled up, and a camera took both our car's VIN and license tag. Here's how the conversation went:
Canuckistanian inspector: Where are you from?
Doug (for D&C): Houston, Texas
C.I. Rented car?
D&C: Yes
C.I. Both US citizens?
D&C: Yes
C.I. Purpose of your visit in Canada?
D&C: Visiting friends for the weekend
C.I. Where are you headed?
D&C: Vancouver
C.I. When do you return?
D&C: Monday morning
C.I. Bringing any gifts into Canada?
D&C: No, sir.
C.I. Have a good time in Canada.
Now, here we come back into the United States of Jesusland, as modified by the Republican party over the last twenty-five years:
US ICE Nazi customs inspector: What is your place of residence?
D&C: Houston, Texas
ICE Nazi: Where were you in Canada?
D&C: Vancouver
ICE Nazi: What was the reason for your trip?
D&C: Visiting friends
ICE Nazi: Did you buy anything in Canada?
D&C: Yes, a bottle of aspirin each, and a bottle of cough syrup (C got sick while we were there)
ICE Nazi: Is there codiene in them?
D&C: Yes, sir
ICE Nazi: When are you returning to Houston?
D&C: This morning at 11:20, we're headed straight to SEATAC
ICE Nazi: The drugs you're bringing in are controlled substances. Park your car, and go inside and wait with the drugs.
D&C: Yes, sir.
Inside, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Nazi #2, wearing BATTLE DRESS gives us further enlightenment.
ICE Nazi #2: Are you C?
C: Yes, sir.
ICE Nazi #2: Where do you live?
C: Houston, Texas
ICE Nazi #2: Both of you?
D&C: Yes sir
ICE Nazi #2: How do you two know each other?
C: We've known each other for years.
ICE Nazi #2: Why were you in Canada?
D: A Friend's 40th birthday party
ICE Nazi #2: How do you know this person?
D: I've known him for eight years - we've worked together in computers
ICE Nazi #2: Where is your prescription for these drugs?
C: We don't have one
ICE Nazi #2: You realize that these drugs you're bringing into the US are controlled substances. Having them in the State of Washington is a felony. I could call the Blaine PD right now and have you charged with possession.
D: uh-huh
ICE Nazi #2: So, what are we going to do about this?
(interruption by loud sirens and everyone scrambling outside to deal with the threatened incursion across the US Border. From Canada. At 7:15 a.m. In the morning. On a Monday.)
ICE Nazi #2: Are these for your personal use? you've opened them.
C: I came down sick while I was there.
ICE Nazi #2: The US doesn't ban the importation of these drugs for personal use, but you're only allowed 50 pills. This is way more than that. You could turn around and drive back to the drugstore and return these, but since you've opened them, I doubt that they will take them back.
D: uh-huh
ICE Nazi #2: So, if you're going to insist on bringing these into the United States, I'm going to have to call Blaine PD and have you arrested.
D: Okay
ICE Nazi #2: However, if you want to bring in this one (handing C the cough syrup) and you want to bring in this one (handing D a bottle of aspirin) then you could dispose of one of these into the trash, and I'll just let it go by.
D: Okay
ICE Nazi #2 thereupon escorts D outside to a trash can. D throws bottle of aspirin, of which two tabs have been consumed, into the trash.
ICE Nazi #2: You can go now.
I feel SO much safer!
We have just about an hour before our connecting flight, and we've already evacuated in the men's room, grabbed a beverage, and now we're sitting here with our Dell laptops (which are nearly identical) clamshelled together, digging into our electronic worlds.
So, where to start? My joy at the American Episcopalians' choice of a new leader? Being kept awake nearly all night by E's OCD wheaton terrier? The three LOUD persons sitting behind us on the flight from SEA to LAS, who blathered on about waaaay too personal material? The dreary drive at the butt crack of dawn from Vancouver to Seattle? Or, shall I compare and contrast the treatment we had at the hands of ICE (the new border customs and immigration agency) and the government of Canuckistan?
On the way up Thursday night, we were in a huge line of cars crossing the border. We sat in that line, which suddenly broke free and we zipped up as the cars were processed in no time flat. We pulled up, and a camera took both our car's VIN and license tag. Here's how the conversation went:
Canuckistanian inspector: Where are you from?
Doug (for D&C): Houston, Texas
C.I. Rented car?
D&C: Yes
C.I. Both US citizens?
D&C: Yes
C.I. Purpose of your visit in Canada?
D&C: Visiting friends for the weekend
C.I. Where are you headed?
D&C: Vancouver
C.I. When do you return?
D&C: Monday morning
C.I. Bringing any gifts into Canada?
D&C: No, sir.
C.I. Have a good time in Canada.
Now, here we come back into the United States of Jesusland, as modified by the Republican party over the last twenty-five years:
US ICE Nazi customs inspector: What is your place of residence?
D&C: Houston, Texas
ICE Nazi: Where were you in Canada?
D&C: Vancouver
ICE Nazi: What was the reason for your trip?
D&C: Visiting friends
ICE Nazi: Did you buy anything in Canada?
D&C: Yes, a bottle of aspirin each, and a bottle of cough syrup (C got sick while we were there)
ICE Nazi: Is there codiene in them?
D&C: Yes, sir
ICE Nazi: When are you returning to Houston?
D&C: This morning at 11:20, we're headed straight to SEATAC
ICE Nazi: The drugs you're bringing in are controlled substances. Park your car, and go inside and wait with the drugs.
D&C: Yes, sir.
Inside, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Nazi #2, wearing BATTLE DRESS gives us further enlightenment.
ICE Nazi #2: Are you C?
C: Yes, sir.
ICE Nazi #2: Where do you live?
C: Houston, Texas
ICE Nazi #2: Both of you?
D&C: Yes sir
ICE Nazi #2: How do you two know each other?
C: We've known each other for years.
ICE Nazi #2: Why were you in Canada?
D: A Friend's 40th birthday party
ICE Nazi #2: How do you know this person?
D: I've known him for eight years - we've worked together in computers
ICE Nazi #2: Where is your prescription for these drugs?
C: We don't have one
ICE Nazi #2: You realize that these drugs you're bringing into the US are controlled substances. Having them in the State of Washington is a felony. I could call the Blaine PD right now and have you charged with possession.
D: uh-huh
ICE Nazi #2: So, what are we going to do about this?
(interruption by loud sirens and everyone scrambling outside to deal with the threatened incursion across the US Border. From Canada. At 7:15 a.m. In the morning. On a Monday.)
ICE Nazi #2: Are these for your personal use? you've opened them.
C: I came down sick while I was there.
ICE Nazi #2: The US doesn't ban the importation of these drugs for personal use, but you're only allowed 50 pills. This is way more than that. You could turn around and drive back to the drugstore and return these, but since you've opened them, I doubt that they will take them back.
D: uh-huh
ICE Nazi #2: So, if you're going to insist on bringing these into the United States, I'm going to have to call Blaine PD and have you arrested.
D: Okay
ICE Nazi #2: However, if you want to bring in this one (handing C the cough syrup) and you want to bring in this one (handing D a bottle of aspirin) then you could dispose of one of these into the trash, and I'll just let it go by.
D: Okay
ICE Nazi #2 thereupon escorts D outside to a trash can. D throws bottle of aspirin, of which two tabs have been consumed, into the trash.
ICE Nazi #2: You can go now.
I feel SO much safer!
Friday, June 16, 2006
Deep in the Finlandia
Today, we ventured out for a quick tour of those things that make Vancouver fun and unique. We saw the steam clock, which was swarmed with people, and we drove through Stanley Park and the West End. We ate at a restaurant overlooking English Bay. Now, we're sitting in E's house, watching the sun go down over downtown through the front window and waiting for him to make some salmon and pasta.
Much napping. MUCH napping. Much drinking, too - not by Chuck and by me, but holy cow the alcohol consumed here!!
Yesterday, I had a message from the Buick dealer - automated marketing message. They are having a "major sales push" and my Riviera is "just right for trade in; we'll give you a maximum value for it."
So, tweaked by their communication, I went to their website for the first time in a few weeks. The car I ordered is now on their online inventory. As in, they haven't sold it. As in, they LIED when they said there were all of these customers for it.
And I want it.
We have five big homosexuals here in this house, and ONE bathroom, with a single, 15 gallon water heater. They're thinking of making a reality TV show about it.
Much napping. MUCH napping. Much drinking, too - not by Chuck and by me, but holy cow the alcohol consumed here!!
Yesterday, I had a message from the Buick dealer - automated marketing message. They are having a "major sales push" and my Riviera is "just right for trade in; we'll give you a maximum value for it."
So, tweaked by their communication, I went to their website for the first time in a few weeks. The car I ordered is now on their online inventory. As in, they haven't sold it. As in, they LIED when they said there were all of these customers for it.
And I want it.
We have five big homosexuals here in this house, and ONE bathroom, with a single, 15 gallon water heater. They're thinking of making a reality TV show about it.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Humping toward YVR
Another day spent nearly entirely away from the home office. Have to leave around 11 for a meeting in The Woodlands, and then teaching a class in Pasadena, which obviates coming back here.
Got radical yesterday (it was a VERY angry morning) and had Babs take ALL of the clothing that didn't fit to the resale shop and drop it off. It's gone, and my closet looks totally empty. I have to pick up some laundry today, or I'll have nothing to wear on my trip to YVR tomorrow.
Got radical yesterday (it was a VERY angry morning) and had Babs take ALL of the clothing that didn't fit to the resale shop and drop it off. It's gone, and my closet looks totally empty. I have to pick up some laundry today, or I'll have nothing to wear on my trip to YVR tomorrow.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Monday, Monday ver. 762.01
Blessings unto us all. It's hotter than the bloody blue blazes of hell today, but part of that is that I have a fever, gained from more food poisoning from the same source (presumably.)
I've worked a bunch today, in an unusual pattern of working for forty-five minutes, then laying down for forty-five minutes to try to settle the cramps and fever.
Taught my first class for San Jac tonight in a long, long time. Got the replacement stereo face plate for Ruby today, and it's nice to be able to use the stereo again.
I have another crazy day tomorrow. At least the bank reopened the Fabulair bank account, which they closed without cause or notice. Craziness will continue to ensue all week, it seems.
I've worked a bunch today, in an unusual pattern of working for forty-five minutes, then laying down for forty-five minutes to try to settle the cramps and fever.
Taught my first class for San Jac tonight in a long, long time. Got the replacement stereo face plate for Ruby today, and it's nice to be able to use the stereo again.
I have another crazy day tomorrow. At least the bank reopened the Fabulair bank account, which they closed without cause or notice. Craziness will continue to ensue all week, it seems.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Five Hundred Thirty Eight
$538.00
That was my electric power bill for last month. 102 was my blood glucose this morning. $65.00 was the total of gift cards I nabbed yesterday for transferring prescriptions. $40.00 was what I paid the lad who put the pool neeting up (after many, prior, failed attempts) and who cleaned out the garage, $250 is what I should make from selling things on eBay that we FOUND in the garage, zero is the amount of time I get to spend with Chuck today, $65 per bedroom is what I've agreed to pay the guy who's going to paint the upstairs rooms, $400 is the price I've quoted for the vacant bedroom upstairs, 5 is the number of seemingly real candidates for said bedroom, $3 is what Lisa paid for dog clippers at a garage sale yesterday for me, $3 is likewise what I paid for a coy pond liner at the church garage sale, and $175 is what a seller on Craigslist was asking for a similar pond liner, albiet somewhat bigger. 22 is the number of books I have about the Titanic. 90,400 is the number of miles on Ruby, and six is the number of suspension repairs I've had done on her in thirteen months. Sixty is the number of minutes before I need to be at church, and twenty is the number of minutes it's going to take me to get ready if I close down the computer RIGHT NOW.
That was my electric power bill for last month. 102 was my blood glucose this morning. $65.00 was the total of gift cards I nabbed yesterday for transferring prescriptions. $40.00 was what I paid the lad who put the pool neeting up (after many, prior, failed attempts) and who cleaned out the garage, $250 is what I should make from selling things on eBay that we FOUND in the garage, zero is the amount of time I get to spend with Chuck today, $65 per bedroom is what I've agreed to pay the guy who's going to paint the upstairs rooms, $400 is the price I've quoted for the vacant bedroom upstairs, 5 is the number of seemingly real candidates for said bedroom, $3 is what Lisa paid for dog clippers at a garage sale yesterday for me, $3 is likewise what I paid for a coy pond liner at the church garage sale, and $175 is what a seller on Craigslist was asking for a similar pond liner, albiet somewhat bigger. 22 is the number of books I have about the Titanic. 90,400 is the number of miles on Ruby, and six is the number of suspension repairs I've had done on her in thirteen months. Sixty is the number of minutes before I need to be at church, and twenty is the number of minutes it's going to take me to get ready if I close down the computer RIGHT NOW.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Saturday morning in the sunshine
Waiting for Twitch to show up - I had dinner with him last night and with Arturo, who used to live here in this house. He was weirded out very much by being here, and kept telling me how incredible the house looked now that I'm in it.
Twitch keeps asking what I'm doing with the pool, it has NEVER looked as good as it does when he lived here.
Just wait until I get the paint done and the landscaping done and the exterior lighting done. Hoo baby.
Have a lad coming over about noon to help me clean the garage out some more; I'm going to get the pool netting up if it's the LAST thing I do today. Mikey and Ro-Ro are coming over around lunch time, and we'll hang out most of the day.
Lance has offered to help me landscape here once I get the place secured. He has some great ideas already for what kind of plants should go where, and what will require minimal maintenance (a very good thing.)
The incredibly humpy new lawn guy started yesterday, and the yard looks GREAT. He spends more time edging than did the last people, and it makes a difference.
Wrote to both of the boys who have asked about renting a room; waiting for their replies.
Talked to Emery about the new car I wanted at his dealership - they told me that I needed to look at something LESS expensive for right now, and they're working on getting me approved on a VERY cute 2004 Mercedes .. I'm going to call her Little Liz. I guess I'll drop my car off to get it sold when we go to Vancouver on Thursday, and when it comes back, I'll be able to zip up to Dallas and pick up the car.
Twitch keeps asking what I'm doing with the pool, it has NEVER looked as good as it does when he lived here.
Just wait until I get the paint done and the landscaping done and the exterior lighting done. Hoo baby.
Have a lad coming over about noon to help me clean the garage out some more; I'm going to get the pool netting up if it's the LAST thing I do today. Mikey and Ro-Ro are coming over around lunch time, and we'll hang out most of the day.
Lance has offered to help me landscape here once I get the place secured. He has some great ideas already for what kind of plants should go where, and what will require minimal maintenance (a very good thing.)
The incredibly humpy new lawn guy started yesterday, and the yard looks GREAT. He spends more time edging than did the last people, and it makes a difference.
Wrote to both of the boys who have asked about renting a room; waiting for their replies.
Talked to Emery about the new car I wanted at his dealership - they told me that I needed to look at something LESS expensive for right now, and they're working on getting me approved on a VERY cute 2004 Mercedes .. I'm going to call her Little Liz. I guess I'll drop my car off to get it sold when we go to Vancouver on Thursday, and when it comes back, I'll be able to zip up to Dallas and pick up the car.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Friday -
Talk about UNmotivated. Good lord. I have been .. truly unmotivated today. I have been working on the car equation, and I've rebooted about sixty times, because the desktop has been cranky in the extreme. The pool guys are coming today, and the new lawn guy is scheduled to come. Babs is having a day off, and Chuck is completely twitterpated about his date last night.
A new tax client is supposed to be coming tonight; blah, blah. Twitch is saying he's coming by to pick up some more of his stuff - I only hope.
Just spending some time dwelling in my own attitude, motivation and behavior and looking at things. Hmm.
A new tax client is supposed to be coming tonight; blah, blah. Twitch is saying he's coming by to pick up some more of his stuff - I only hope.
Just spending some time dwelling in my own attitude, motivation and behavior and looking at things. Hmm.
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Thank you for participating in this test of the blogger post system.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Thursday thingies
Interesting - today, I started by pulling a bunch of stuff out of the garage, and discovering another wire shelf-y thing for the home office; so armed, I thought to move the printer/faxer/scanner/copier and the wireless router and modem around some to make things more rational.
Boy, did THAT work out. Not only is it far more functional for me upstairs, but the wireless signal in the living room (downstairs) is a WHOLE lot more stable and strong. Plus, I got a ton of stuff done today, including letter writing, filing, mailing, emails, phone calls .. hopefully, tomorrow will be even better from that perspective.
Twitch came by several times today, requiring technical support. He's so funny. Just haywire, he is. He was to be coming by tonight to pick up his bed and other stuff; of course, he's now hanging out with the "girlfriend," who WANTS his bed for HER house, and blah, blah. No really cute boy coming over tonight to help him move furniture. Bleh. I do have the first of the new room mate potentials coming by any time now to look the place over. He's supposed to be deciding tomorrow about moving in. I found someone today to paint the upstairs bedrooms and replace the sheet rock in the dining room for me; he gave me the number of someone to fix the garage door opener.
Secret Agent Man was very frisky (conversationally) today. Who knows what to expect EVER?
A guy came by whom I've been speaking with about renting one of the extra bedrooms. I'm not sure he's the right sort for the job - he's a bit withdrawn and well .. it's hard to put my finger on. I just don't think he LIKES anything. But, he's .. well, we'll just see.
Anyway, that's the update for the moment. Off to .. I'm not quite sure, but ..
Boy, did THAT work out. Not only is it far more functional for me upstairs, but the wireless signal in the living room (downstairs) is a WHOLE lot more stable and strong. Plus, I got a ton of stuff done today, including letter writing, filing, mailing, emails, phone calls .. hopefully, tomorrow will be even better from that perspective.
Twitch came by several times today, requiring technical support. He's so funny. Just haywire, he is. He was to be coming by tonight to pick up his bed and other stuff; of course, he's now hanging out with the "girlfriend," who WANTS his bed for HER house, and blah, blah. No really cute boy coming over tonight to help him move furniture. Bleh. I do have the first of the new room mate potentials coming by any time now to look the place over. He's supposed to be deciding tomorrow about moving in. I found someone today to paint the upstairs bedrooms and replace the sheet rock in the dining room for me; he gave me the number of someone to fix the garage door opener.
Secret Agent Man was very frisky (conversationally) today. Who knows what to expect EVER?
A guy came by whom I've been speaking with about renting one of the extra bedrooms. I'm not sure he's the right sort for the job - he's a bit withdrawn and well .. it's hard to put my finger on. I just don't think he LIKES anything. But, he's .. well, we'll just see.
Anyway, that's the update for the moment. Off to .. I'm not quite sure, but ..
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Hump Day developments
So, I busted Brian today - Brian the "pool boy," whom I have referred cleaning clients to, he who talked to me for a few weeks about moving in and being my room mate when he came to town, but who bailed on me upon arriving here. He who was paid to be the "pool boy," and spent the time hanging out chatting up the guests and being the center of attention. Yeah, that worked out for me.
Here's our little conversation:
Notice that he NEVER said that he wanted to be friends, or that he wanted to actually keep those social appointments, or that he wanted to reschedule.
It's not just what someone SAYS - it's what they DON'T say. And, the old adage - actions speak louder than words - that one is true.
Now, on to other topics.
Got my auto registration in the mail today, that seems to require a rocket scientist to install. "Don't do this, do do that." Yeep. I need to go put it in, actually, and head out to Clear Lake.
Whoops - can't write that - big eyes reads this, and he loves trying to get me into trouble if he detects any sign of anything he can remotely complain to the authorities about. Not that anything's ever turned out for him.
Talked (briefly) with secret agent man this afternoon. He wants to "keep things simple." I guess that means, "I'll email when I need you."
Bleh. Men suck.
Talked to TWO nice men today about them becoming room mates.
I need to buy some more copy paper. I'm outtie. Well, it's time to head out .. what WOULD I do with a five and a half foot musuem model of the RMS Titanic, anyway? And, would it FIT into my built-in?
Here's our little conversation:
DrDivo: So, I have a direct question - if you're not interested in being social with me, will you please say so - I don't like asking you to spend time with me if it's not something you're interested in.
gaysportnut: any big plans for the weekend
gaysportnut: I never said that....I have been busy
DrDivo: we've had plans to be social three times in the last month, and each time you've just failed to show. So, that's why I'm asking. Having grown up in the midwest, I understand how communication works. "I never said that" means "yes, you're right but I'm trying to be polite and not say something hurtful.' So I have my answer. My stepmother talks EXACTLY the same way.
gaysportnut: fine sorry you took it that way
DrDivo: well, what am I supposed to think? You blew me off for dinner and didn't communicate with me about it BUT asked one of my friends out before replying to my email asking you what happened. I just feel like a clueless
DrDivo: idiot for having asked you to hang out with me at all
gaysportnut: I didn't ask any of your friends out to dinner
DrDivo: Okay, whatever
gaysportnut: and when did I blow you off for dinner
DrDivo: Thursday, last week, we had plans.
DrDivo: no call, no email, no show. Third time.
gaysportnut: I asked Tommy to dinner like 4 weeks ago....I didn't ask anyone else or ask him again
DrDivo: okay, whatever
Notice that he NEVER said that he wanted to be friends, or that he wanted to actually keep those social appointments, or that he wanted to reschedule.
It's not just what someone SAYS - it's what they DON'T say. And, the old adage - actions speak louder than words - that one is true.
Now, on to other topics.
Got my auto registration in the mail today, that seems to require a rocket scientist to install. "Don't do this, do do that." Yeep. I need to go put it in, actually, and head out to Clear Lake.
Whoops - can't write that - big eyes reads this, and he loves trying to get me into trouble if he detects any sign of anything he can remotely complain to the authorities about. Not that anything's ever turned out for him.
Talked (briefly) with secret agent man this afternoon. He wants to "keep things simple." I guess that means, "I'll email when I need you."
Bleh. Men suck.
Talked to TWO nice men today about them becoming room mates.
I need to buy some more copy paper. I'm outtie. Well, it's time to head out .. what WOULD I do with a five and a half foot musuem model of the RMS Titanic, anyway? And, would it FIT into my built-in?
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Tuesday Twitching
I sit here waiting for Twitch and a client referral of his. I'm watching TV, and shopping around on eBay for nothing I need.
I did find a martini table for the Lexus LS430, which was a hoot. It's from Hong Kong, where they seem to have LOTS of really fun accessories for that car. But, a martini table. With two martini glass holders .. (giggles)
I have to get a new stereo rack, as Twitch is picking up his TV stand tonight. He's actually motored off with his dresser and his mattress foundations - he's on his way back for the bed frame (that's going to be a bitch) and the rest of the stuff in his closet.
I found a great stereo rack on Craigslist tonight - I hope that they write back and still have it - it's basically a tall black wire rack with four glass shelves. I wouldn't put the TV in it, just the stereo equipment. I'm actually thinking that I'd do something very interesting for a TV - get a big panel of white board from Lowe's, and a nice projector that I can also use with the laptop for presentations. The projector will accomodate high definition, and can be used on any flat white surface. Better picture fidelity, lower cost, bigger sized picture. WHOOIE!
But that's sometime in the distance, not now.
Twitch just called and said he was going to come back tomorrow night for the rest. I think I've talked him into coming back now.
Got some good things done today; tomorrow, a lot more needs doing.
I did find a martini table for the Lexus LS430, which was a hoot. It's from Hong Kong, where they seem to have LOTS of really fun accessories for that car. But, a martini table. With two martini glass holders .. (giggles)
I have to get a new stereo rack, as Twitch is picking up his TV stand tonight. He's actually motored off with his dresser and his mattress foundations - he's on his way back for the bed frame (that's going to be a bitch) and the rest of the stuff in his closet.
I found a great stereo rack on Craigslist tonight - I hope that they write back and still have it - it's basically a tall black wire rack with four glass shelves. I wouldn't put the TV in it, just the stereo equipment. I'm actually thinking that I'd do something very interesting for a TV - get a big panel of white board from Lowe's, and a nice projector that I can also use with the laptop for presentations. The projector will accomodate high definition, and can be used on any flat white surface. Better picture fidelity, lower cost, bigger sized picture. WHOOIE!
But that's sometime in the distance, not now.
Twitch just called and said he was going to come back tomorrow night for the rest. I think I've talked him into coming back now.
Got some good things done today; tomorrow, a lot more needs doing.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Monday, Monday ver. 781.01
An interesting day spent in a CE seminar. The entire day there, up at 0600 to work on email and such, then off to the seminar. All day there, and home on "E" to meet up with Twitch, who was expected to come pick up his possessions. He's being a total freakazoid. He said he's coming "late" with Sean/Shawn to retrieve more stuff.
Just zipped through Craiglist looking for room mate candidates for the rest of the summer. Found one that looked promising; wrote to several.
WAY irritated with Brian. And Secret Agent Man. And Twitch. And stuff.
I have a hugely busy day tomorrow. And, I either need to have this mobile alert business kick in and start PAYING or I need to quickly find another source of revenue.
I'm done with stressing out.
Have the proposal from the company that wants to JV with me regarding online presentations. Have to read that tomorrow and respond. Tom also asserts that he's reworked my website for review, but so far no links have been found in my email.
Just zipped through Craiglist looking for room mate candidates for the rest of the summer. Found one that looked promising; wrote to several.
WAY irritated with Brian. And Secret Agent Man. And Twitch. And stuff.
I have a hugely busy day tomorrow. And, I either need to have this mobile alert business kick in and start PAYING or I need to quickly find another source of revenue.
I'm done with stressing out.
Have the proposal from the company that wants to JV with me regarding online presentations. Have to read that tomorrow and respond. Tom also asserts that he's reworked my website for review, but so far no links have been found in my email.
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