the red-eyed jedi

Most people are not rational, they are TRIBAL: "my gang yay, your gang boo!" It really is that simple. The rest is cosmetics. - "Gary Brescher", War Nerd

Maybe war is an inevitable part of human nature. Maybe to get rid of war, we have to become something other than human. - Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace

so that's why i'm constantly cut off by people driving hybrids.

is google chrome a rampant memory hog for anyone else? i had to go back to firefox.

vista has started being "quirky" on my laptop, so i'm about to try upgrading to windows 7 whenever-i-feel-like-it, might try again after that.

This is the moment a a US Navy pilot gave a shocked resident a very close look at his F18.

The fighter/bomber streaked past an apartment block on the banks of the Detroit River at the weekend.

link

today i finally managed to get some half-decent shots of an approaching sandstorm.



the only thing i can compare it to is- you know how video games have draw-in distance where stuff on the "horizon" just pops into view as you approach it? it's like that, in reverse. a wall of wind and dust proceeding not-that-slowly across the map, and things just sorta disappear as it gets closer to you.



when the water tower on the northeast edge of camp (i thought you'd be able to see it in the 2nd pic, but apparently not) goes away, it's time to either get out whatever dust protective equipment you have or get inside (or just deal with the grit in your mouth, which i don't care for), because you have about 3 minutes until it looks like this:



fun! (we call these "orange days".)

it's night now and the storm has mostly died down but there is still dry lightning up in the sky- unfortunately i don't have a tripod and i don't know how to set a long exposure time on my camera so i can't get pics of that.

about one month left here.

new house mix posted

sad to see all of the japanese works shops pulling out of WRC.

subaru has been an underdog since i started watching a few years ago, and suzuki just got started, but i think having underdogs to root more must have made it more entertaining.

the idea of watching loeb/citroen and hirvonen/ford battle it out with only the odd privateer subaru or mitsubishi occasionally making inroads into the top 8 points places sounds boring, and the idea of watching solberg drive something else just seems wrong.

hopefully, this is a sign of the economic times and not a shift in focus of subaru's corporate strategy, because in my mind, rally made them what they are as a company...

if only there were an "overheard in the barracks" website like there is for NYC

SFC McFarlane (referring to 1-161 Infantry): yeah, i heard there was a negligent discharge over there.
CW2 Dory: let's get naked where?

Poll #1238941
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

russia waited till now to invade a strategically-valuable post-USSR satellite state because everyone is watching the olympics.

i care about it.

i NEED to be involved in this race series at some point.

http://jalopnik.com/391501/the-24-hours-of-lemons-altamont-2008-uber-gallery



also, e30 w00t! can i call the cheap-cars-to-thrash or what? if it weren't for the fast-and-furious driftmania, we'd be seeing nissan 240's running head to head at lemons too. now i just have to figure out what to do with my skyline-engined car, since it isn't smog-legal in california...

where is your f***ing helmet, dumbass?

i remember the news story about the parent falcons being rescued and raised, so this is sad.

life imitates robert heinlein novels. do want.

had been too long since i'd done a dj mix.

new handle, new genre (drum'n'bass this time... but with the feel/"abruptness" you'd probably expect from me).

pyramidhead - avulsion (~88mb, 192k/sec, ~1:03 duration)

enjoy & propagate, feedback appreciated. another will come after i get my next laptop.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Swimming Pool
The Believer

i've been on a movie binge over the past month, but these are the ones i've liked.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2008/03/28/nhelmet128.xml

Jedi Master Jonba Hehol - known to family and friends as Barney Jones, 36, of Holyhead - was giving a TV interview in his back garden for a documentary when a man, dressed in a black bin-bag and wearing Darth Vader's trademark shiny black helmet, leapt over his garden fence.

Wielding a metal crutch - his lightsaber presumably being in for repairs - the Sith Lord proceeded to lay about his opponent, whose Jedi powers proved inadequate for the task of defending himself.

After besting Master Hehol in single combat, Vader, who The Sun reports was under the influence of alcohol, went on to assault the camera crew and a hairdresser.

http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn13449

A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time.

With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.

...

"I can still talk verbally at the same time," Callahan told New Scientist. "We can differentiate between when you want to talk silently, and when you want to talk out loud." That could be useful in certain situations, he says, for example when making a private call while out in public.

so the new york auto show is currently ongoing; and though i've been hot on the new dodge challenger for years now, i have to say the car(?) i'd rock is the new pontiac el camino G8 ST (for sport truck, obv):



unfortunately, army regs would prevent the growing of the otherwise-required mullet. fuckin'a, man.

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so who out there actually cares about the content/comment strike that's supposed to start in about 7 hours? just curious.

from the "what could possibly go wrong" file
even as one of the people who'd be granted such a license... srsly, how is this a good idea

from the "is breeding control really such a terrible idea" file

from the "coulda told you that shit 5 years ago" file

how did i not hear about this until day-after? i'm slipping.

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edit: ok i'm listening and the shit is good. this is a return to the layer-upon-layer-upon-layer complexity that i loved about the fragile. i'll send trent $5. i promise.