So, yeah. Here's the funny part. I was listening to the conservative nutjobs today, and caller after caller is complaining about the lack of coverage of the tea parties. One woman called in, said that she was at work yesterday, told her coworkers she was going to the tea party down in DC, and then was amazed that no one else at her work knew what she was talking about. A quick (CRAZY) step from there to "it's all the left-wing media. They're not covering this..." Well, yeah. I thought it was grassroots. Grassroots means that it DOESN'T get the media coverage, it means that it goes by word of mouth, people calling/emailing/texting each other. I really don't care if Fox News sponsored the tea parties. My other favorite call was the woman who thought that ACORN was going to be out at the tea parties "intimidating" the protesters.
Oh yeah, because the Left is now using fascism and strong arm tactics to attack their political opponents.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Bureaucrats...
So, as I mentioned before, I completed my dissertation defense. Well, after the defense comes the revisions (apparently pretty much a standard). So I have a little less than a week to complete my revisions and get everything submitted before the graduation deadline for Spring. So I plug away, and the day after my defense I go down to the Graduate Office to make certain I have everything I need, all forms filled out, i's crossed, t's dotted, etc. So Miss B. not a single congrats, good job, nothing. Whatever, we've never really gotten along, for no reason I've ever been able to figure out. (I have my suspicions, but six years is a LONG time to hold a grudge over something so small).
So anyways, the point of this particular is this response I got from her, after finally submitting my dissertation to UMI: "Congratulations. Your submission has cleared all of the necessary University checks and will soon be delivered to ProQuest/UMI for publishing." So apparently, I don't get a congratulations for eight years of classwork and independent research complicated by two deployments to Iraq, 500 pages of dissertation, and successfully defending my work to my peers. However, she is VERY proud of me for having taken that work and converted it from Word to PDF.
I guess I know what's important to small minded bureaucrats, ey?
So anyways, the point of this particular is this response I got from her, after finally submitting my dissertation to UMI: "Congratulations. Your submission has cleared all of the necessary University checks and will soon be delivered to ProQuest/UMI for publishing." So apparently, I don't get a congratulations for eight years of classwork and independent research complicated by two deployments to Iraq, 500 pages of dissertation, and successfully defending my work to my peers. However, she is VERY proud of me for having taken that work and converted it from Word to PDF.
I guess I know what's important to small minded bureaucrats, ey?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
RIP
A sad day for everyone.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/03/angel_star_andy_hallett_rememb.html
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/03/angel_star_andy_hallett_rememb.html
Sunday, March 29, 2009
A double helping of WTF
I remember hearing rumors when I was in Iraq the first time about the water causing rashes and other serious problems for soldiers. It never happened to me or anyone I knew, and I discounted it (after all, how would such things happen, we have water treatment specialists...) Then there were rumors of a "deliberate ignorance" of toxic dust in a KBR facility which soldiers were exposed to. Hey look, the sand in Iraq, (well, dust really) is so fine it can cause all sorts of respiratory damage all on its own, and trust me, it's a bitch, I still have Iraqi dust on clothes from 2004...
Apparently there were some other issues with the subcontracting in 2004, which was killing soldiers rather than just giving them a bad break out. The worst part about this is that it is still going on! (And I was worried about the incoming fire... silly me). Well, that's okay, I say, I can always choose to go to Afghanistan. Oh, wait, they did it there, too.
This truly makes me sick. I say fuck the "you're all heroes" crap, but there's a saying in the Army: "You don't mess with a joe's pay, mail, or food." Anything else is fair game, but I really don't think "let him die in the shower because it's cheaper than actually inspecting the goddamn things" really follows... This wouldn't piss me off so bad, if it weren't for the fact that KBR just sits on multi-billion dollar contracts and says "not our fault."
Apparently there were some other issues with the subcontracting in 2004, which was killing soldiers rather than just giving them a bad break out. The worst part about this is that it is still going on! (And I was worried about the incoming fire... silly me). Well, that's okay, I say, I can always choose to go to Afghanistan. Oh, wait, they did it there, too.
This truly makes me sick. I say fuck the "you're all heroes" crap, but there's a saying in the Army: "You don't mess with a joe's pay, mail, or food." Anything else is fair game, but I really don't think "let him die in the shower because it's cheaper than actually inspecting the goddamn things" really follows... This wouldn't piss me off so bad, if it weren't for the fact that KBR just sits on multi-billion dollar contracts and says "not our fault."
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Some new ratings on the WTF meter...
First, apparently in Colorado, you can set your water on fire.
Something seems... wrong there.
Second, apparently the Chinese are planning a musical version of Das Kapital. I guess it had the best storyline...? (Or is it the Chinese attempt at the Ring Cycle?)
Something seems... wrong there.
Second, apparently the Chinese are planning a musical version of Das Kapital. I guess it had the best storyline...? (Or is it the Chinese attempt at the Ring Cycle?)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
WOOHOO!!!
So, there's always revisions, but nothing major.
If there are any other doctors in the audience... while I was waiting to be called back into the room, I heard a conversation along the lines of "well, should we just tell him he's not going to get his Ph.D.?" Needless to say I got a little freaked out. When I was told I passed, my first thought was that they were talking about a different student (one had been mentioned earlier in the defense). My friend thinks they were deliberately fucking with me. Anyone else had this experience?
Oh... and what do I do now? This has been my life for nine years (with a couple trips to Iraq interspersed in between), I'm kind of at a loss.
If there are any other doctors in the audience... while I was waiting to be called back into the room, I heard a conversation along the lines of "well, should we just tell him he's not going to get his Ph.D.?" Needless to say I got a little freaked out. When I was told I passed, my first thought was that they were talking about a different student (one had been mentioned earlier in the defense). My friend thinks they were deliberately fucking with me. Anyone else had this experience?
Oh... and what do I do now? This has been my life for nine years (with a couple trips to Iraq interspersed in between), I'm kind of at a loss.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Truth in Advertising (spoilers)
Okay, it was decent. Not great, but better than a lot of finales I've seen in my time. Certainly better than the Seinfeld finale, but not as good as the Newhart finale...
However, two points:
1) given that this was a series finale, advertising for two follow-on stories (not even really spinoffs, but more like sequels...), it's hardly a finale.
2) "All will be explained" - hardly. Okay, so Starbuck's not a Cylon (I never thought she was), what is she??? An angel? Maybe. But there was hardly enough explication, except for the "my job is done" BS line at the end. And if she was an angel, why wasn't she hanging out with Baltar and Caprica at the end? And what exactly was her body doing on Earth (1)? How did she get there? Was she always a reincarnation of the Starbuck corpse on Earth (1), and the Starbuck we knew grew up with the knowledge of how to get to Earth (1)? If so, then how did she know the way to Earth (2)? And if that were true, then who was the original Starbuck from Earth (1) (in a Viper, no less...)? If the Starbuck of Season 4 was the returned soul of Starbuck (season 3) after somehow getting to Earth (1) and crashing there, how did she know the way to Earth (2), since all the prophecy crap about her was her ability to get to Earth (1)?
And really, all the fuss about Hera, and in the end she's just Mitochondrial Eve? Cute tie-in, but obviously, since the humans can breed with the Cro-Magnon/Neanderthals wandering around, the importance of Hera is kind of insignificant.
Honestly, I think it would have ended better if they had landed on The Island and Roslin's cancer was miraculously healed... at the cost of one of her toes.
However, two points:
1) given that this was a series finale, advertising for two follow-on stories (not even really spinoffs, but more like sequels...), it's hardly a finale.
2) "All will be explained" - hardly. Okay, so Starbuck's not a Cylon (I never thought she was), what is she??? An angel? Maybe. But there was hardly enough explication, except for the "my job is done" BS line at the end. And if she was an angel, why wasn't she hanging out with Baltar and Caprica at the end? And what exactly was her body doing on Earth (1)? How did she get there? Was she always a reincarnation of the Starbuck corpse on Earth (1), and the Starbuck we knew grew up with the knowledge of how to get to Earth (1)? If so, then how did she know the way to Earth (2)? And if that were true, then who was the original Starbuck from Earth (1) (in a Viper, no less...)? If the Starbuck of Season 4 was the returned soul of Starbuck (season 3) after somehow getting to Earth (1) and crashing there, how did she know the way to Earth (2), since all the prophecy crap about her was her ability to get to Earth (1)?
And really, all the fuss about Hera, and in the end she's just Mitochondrial Eve? Cute tie-in, but obviously, since the humans can breed with the Cro-Magnon/Neanderthals wandering around, the importance of Hera is kind of insignificant.
Honestly, I think it would have ended better if they had landed on The Island and Roslin's cancer was miraculously healed... at the cost of one of her toes.
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