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Nov. 19th, 2009 @ 07:31 am Hey [info]graycoyote, you'll get a kick out of this...
Texas says "Marriage shall consist of the union of one man and one woman. The state or any subdivision of the state shall not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

Including marriage, which is of course identical to itself!! XD So...no more marriage in Texas. They have a definition for it, but they are allowed neither to create nor recognize any marriages or marriage-like legal statuses. No more civil unions, no more common-law, no nothing. Hope everybody's ready to pay back taxes to the IRS! Ha, no more spousal health benefits, either! XD

GO TEXAS!

I would very much like to see everybody in Texas, and indeed in the USA, to fight to keep this constitutional amendment as is. It seems both fair and well-reasoned. After all, it passed the legislature and was heavily ratified by the people of Texas. And it's been in force for a number of years now. The people wanted it; the people got it. No take-backsies. They made their bed, and they should be made to sleep in it.

That's how it works, after all. You take more food, you'd better be able to eat it all. You complain about your boredom, you'd better be ready to take whatever work is handed you. You make a law, you'd better be ready to obey it. You don't get to say "But...that wasn't supposed to affect ME!"

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Rex - Friendly wuff...
Nov. 13th, 2009 @ 11:39 am Friday 13!
Generally, I consider Friday the 13th to be my lucky day.

This time, however, it seems that it is the doom of electronics far and wide. The SkyTrain I was on lost power just outside of Sperling/Burnaby Lake. We waited ten minutes for staff to reactivate power, and we went on from there.

But the rest of it...

Servers are rebooting for unexplained reasons across the city. No traces of anything explainable in the event logs. Internet links are going down and coming back up randomly. File accesses are slow across those links. Zombie processes are showing up and have to be killed off with the computerized equivalent of a fire axe across the skull. Dying battery backups are provoking servers to shut themselves down without permission and without reason.

It would be highly interesting to watch if I didn't have to fix it all. And since I'm the only one in the office...
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Rex - Say what?
Nov. 13th, 2009 @ 09:17 am Peat and Re-Peat were in a boat; Peat fell out; Who was left?
The Beeb has an interesting article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8355287.stm

I like it. Thoughts?

(Rebroadcast to vfur would also be interesting, given the recent documentary activities in the area.)
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Rex - Cool dude...
Nov. 13th, 2009 @ 07:29 am Completed WCG project!
World Community Grid has completed a research project.

The Influenza Antiviral Drug Search was also run out of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. The project ran from May 5 to October 22 this year, and ended with almost 3,000 years of computer time under its belt. That alone gives you an idea of the research acceleration possible by using grid technology. There will be a Phase 2 for IADS, so this isn't the last we'll see of this project. :)

That makes six active projects running on the grid at this time. I encourage you to sign up and join in. You can use a desktop, a laptop, a netbook, Windows, Mac, or Linux. It doesn't matter, and it all helps. You can even choose to donate your time to some projects and not others, if you so choose.

If you want more information about BOINC or World Community Grid, just give me a shout. Thanks for listening.

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Current projects on WCG:
FightAIDS@Home
Human Proteome Folding - Phase 2
Help Conquer Cancer
Nutritious Rice for the World
Help Fight Childhood Cancer
Help Cure Muscular Distrophy - Phase 2

Completed projects on WCG:
Human Proteome Folding
Help Defeat Cancer
Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy
Genome Comparison
AfricanClimate@Home
Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together
The Clean Energy Project
Influenza Antiviral Drug Search
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BOINC
Nov. 11th, 2009 @ 09:32 am Never do we forget
In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place. And in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amidst the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe.
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch--be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not rest, though poppies grow
In Flanders' fields.

---

Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead.
The fight that ye so bravely led
We've taken up. And we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep
With each a cross to mark his bed
In Flanders' fields.

Fear not that ye have died for naught.
The torch ye threw to us we caught.
Ten million hands shall hold it high,
And Freedom's light shall never die!
We've learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders' fields.
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In Flanders' fields...
Nov. 9th, 2009 @ 07:49 pm Not fun
When I got home tonight, I said to myself, "Better keep the socks on. You know if you take them off, Trapa's just going to have some reason for you to go out, and it will become a huge inconvenience."

How true. Except it wasn't Trapa, and it was an inconvenience anyways. I don't care how you spin it, but walking down and up 18 stories of stairs is not fun no matter when you do it.

Still, I'm going to be thankful. We didn't get our apartment flooded like [info]selkit and Orka did.

Oh, and my parents had one of their cars stolen last night. After somebody backed into my sister's car last Thursday and is trying to deny they damaged anything (even with witnesses who say otherwise). Peachy keen for everybody.
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FUCK YOU
Nov. 6th, 2009 @ 07:46 am My favorite Star Wars quote:
"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent."

I could say this to a lot of people I meet in life, including some many most furries.
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_support, Rex - Let's roll...
Nov. 2nd, 2009 @ 03:18 pm (no subject)
It's grey outside. Some of the trees have but a few leaves remaining on their branches. Others have only just begun to fall.

Endings and beginnings. I feel an anticipation in my bones. A new novel attempt begins. A new certification attempt begins. A new month begins. A new season begins. A new phase in my life begins. A friendship begins. A friendship ends. A phase in my life ends. A season ends. A sense of helplessness ends. A sense of solitude ends.

May the season ahead bring more joy and more friends, more challenges and more triumphs.
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LIGHT
Oct. 23rd, 2009 @ 08:00 pm Items of irritation
Item: an eBay seller who offers to combine shipping for your items. Seperately, I would pay $13 and $18. Together, I only pay $40. Tell me again, what kind of a great deal I'm getting.

Item: fucking gangsta' teens who think that, when somebody asks one of them nicely to turn down the music they're playing without headphones, it's awesome funny to grab five or six more of their buddies and surround the asker and start threatening them.

Item: people who strut around proud of how smart they are, who brag about what a better job they would have done, when all they did is copy/paste Wikipedia, and didn't even have their fucking passport to attend the con. How are they going to do a better job if they can't even be there?

Item: people who blame their equipment and their manager for problems that were caused by their own incompetance, lack of experience, and arrogance. And then blame the manager for them putting in a "C average" effort. (Their words, not mine.)


Christ, I swear it's a good thing it's the end of the work week. If I had to deal with another day of work on top of all this, I would surely lash out at somebody.
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DEATH
Oct. 18th, 2009 @ 04:01 pm Completed WCG project!
Listening to: M-People - What Have You Done Today?
World Community Grid has completed a research project.

The Clean Energy Project was a project from Harvard studying the possibilities for creating solar energy. Specifically, many different compounds were studied, along with methods for creating materials to boost the efficiency of solar energy conversion to electricity. Currently, the most efficient solar cells can only convert about 10% of the energy they receive, and this has to become much more efficient before solar energy becomes practical for everybody to use. There will be a Phase 2 for CEP, so this isn't the last we'll see of this project. :)

That makes seven active projects running on the grid at this time. I encourage you to sign up and join in. I have friends who have signed up on their desktop computer, who have signed up with a laptop that they carry around...it doesn't matter what kind of a computer it is. It all helps. You can even choose to donate your time to some projects and not others, if you so choose.

If you want more information about BOINC or World Community Grid, just give me a shout. Thanks for listening.

--------

Current projects on WCG:
FightAIDS@Home
Human Proteome Folding - Phase 2
Help Conquer Cancer
Nutritious Rice for the World
Help Fight Childhood Cancer
Influenza Antiviral Drug Search
Help Cure Muscular Distrophy - Phase 2

Completed projects on WCG:
Human Proteome Folding
Help Defeat Cancer
Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy
Genome Comparison
AfricanClimate@Home
Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together
The Clean Energy Project
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BOINC