Here's a random bit of a grammar lesson. You know how you've got your primary, then secondary, then tertiary... What is the word for 4th in line? I don't know about you, but I've thought about this at times. Well, here they are up to 10:
I've really been posting the pictures lately... These were taken yesterday. I was crazy enough to go up Rainbird Trail (cutting a new path in the snow as I went) just to get a bird's-eye view of the town covered in snow. Mine were the only tracks on the trail. Click an image to view full.
View of the West end of Ketchikan, covered in snow. Here's a link to a picture I took from the same location at the same angle back on April 21st, 2008.
The main road through town, with the snow bermed up in the center between the lanes. This is basically zoomed in on the center of the picture above. If you view the full-size, you can see the fuel prices are still quite high at $2.499 for regular unleaded and 3.999 for diesel. So although the prices came down a little the day of the protest, they didn't come as far as they should have.
This is the 3rd Ave bypass.
Back down off the trail, this is looking down Washington Street. It's one of the many hills that gets closed when it snows.
And here's looking down 2nd Ave. Looks like it's been reduced down to a single lane.
With all the snow we have, and the mention of a snowblower in that post, somehow I thought this would be relevant.
Yesterday it snowed 2-3 feet in the morning and into the afternoon. We had a few inches before that, but damn...
It's unusual for us to get this much snow here in Ketchikan, Alaska. Sure, you think "Alaska" and figure it's normal. Well, not for this part of Alaska. The last time we had this much was in 1999. We're more of a brief-snowstorm-turns-into-rain type of place, normally.
It had snowed quite a bit after I took this photo. This is my dad's driveway, and that's my dad's Toyota Prius in the picture. It was completely cleared off earlier in the morning. The picture doesn't show very well just how deep the snow really is.
I was wasting some time randomly looking at things in Google Earth. I happened to find this near Seattle, Washington:
You can also see it in Google Maps written in chalk. If the date in Google Earth is to be believed, it was photographed on November 9th, 2007.
Whoever you are Gina, you must be lucky. Your boyfriend's graffiti was photographed by a passing satellite. I just hope he wasn't hit by a passing car after drawing it.
Yes, finding that was the most exciting thing all day for me yesterday.
This page may refer to:
Here is a great South Park Christmas special, Woodland Critter Christmas. (I know, it's just like TV, complete with commercials.)
So if your internet connection is fast enough to stream video, gather the family1 'round the computer screen, because it is time to watch my personal favorite cartoon Christmas special, Woodland Critter Christmas.
Have a happy Christmas, everyone.
1:South Park is known for its crude humor, and may not be suitable for young children.
...A symbol of the unhuggable - of silkworm size or immense; at times invisible.
Felicitous phenomenon!
Bonus points if you can figure out what the title of this blog post is a parody of.
Yesterday I spent the day keeping myself busy with my blog supplement pages. I'm finally taking the time to learn php. I'm re-writing all my non-blog pages in php. The great thing about that is if I want to change something in the sidebar or whatever, I don't have to go through and make that same change over and over in the html code for each individual page. I'll change it once in the main php code, and it will take effect on every page.
The actual blog is hosted by Blogger, and thus will be unaffected by all of this.
Basically, I'm using the require() function to paste in all the code that is the same on every page; things like the sidebar and footer. It reduced the actual .html files for the web pages down to the content that is unique to that page. As an example, my template page that I use to create new pages was 200 lines (before actual content is added), now it is 31 lines.
None of the web addresses or file names are going to change, though. You'll notice they still have their .html extension. In fact, the files themselves are still .html files. I just told it to run .html as a php file with a little .htaccess magic:AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html
AddHandler x-httpd-php .php .htm .html
Also, the non-www version of my web address finally 301 redirects to http://www.mastermarf.com, as I've wanted it to all along.
I'm sure there's so many neat things I could do with php, I'm just beginning.
The official start of Winter, and shortest daylight of the year. I live in Alaska, but not far enough North to have perpetual night during the winter. Here in Ketchikan, our official times for today are 8:25 AM for sunrise, and 3:31 PM for sunset. That's still 7 hours 6 minutes of daylight. Fairly dim daylight, but daylight all the same.
Oh, and if you believe such things, it is exactly 4 years until Armageddon. The Apocalypse. Judgment Day. The End Of Days. Doomsday. Whatever you want to call the end of the world. Some people believe it will be the Second Coming of Christ and shall mark the biblical end of all things. Whatever...
Why do people believe this? Because the Mayan calendar (one of the most accurate in the world) comes to a sudden end on the winter solstice of 2012. There are ancient Greek prophecies that vaguely refer to the end or the world around that time. There's even some Chinese book that says the winter solstice of 2012 will be the end. Hell, even the internet (Web Bot Project) says it will be the end. And let's not forget our friend the Large Hadron Collider, perhaps that's the day it finally destroys the Earth.
Here's a multi-part YouTube video telling all about it:
December 21 2012 the END? (Part 1 of 6).
December 21 2012 the END? (Part 2 of 6).
December 21 2012 the END? (Part 3 of 6).
December 21 2012 the END? (Part 4 of 6).
Dec 21, 2012 - End of the World? - Part 5 of 6, Part 6 - N.A
The person that posted this says Part 6 will come in 2012, as the news reports the end of the world... *cue dramatic, ominous music* Dun dun, dun...
Sound familiar? (Y2K anyone?)
The cat is right, everyone is in some sort of shape.
I took a walk last night and I happened to see this quote on a random white van.
That sent my idle mind on a mission to logically tear apart the quote if taken literally.Theater is a light in a world so dark it casts a shadow on the sun.
At a time when the major oil companies are cutting production in an attempt to raise the fuel prices, local prices are still up around where they were before the prices fell elsewhere.
Basically, what I can tell is the attitude of the local fuel companies has changed since last month. Before they were trying to make excuses about old "more expensive" fuel stored in their reserves still. Now, they're saying there's no price gouging law in Alaska, so they can charge whatever they want, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it! Seriously.
I heard there's a protest scheduled Saturday (December 20th) down by Safeway.
That's me, and evil to the core...
When the tides are at their highest, some of the storm drains work in reverse. We've been having some really high tides lately. This is a picture I took at high tide behind the Plaza mall. Yes, that's tidewater; it's not a plugged storm drain. Click an image to view full.
Here's another photo showing how close the tidewater is to the parking lot level.
You wouldn't buy our shitty cars.
Some of the text is quite small, so I'll write it out:
So we'll be taking your money anyway.
The bailout. Coming this January.
You probably thought it was smart to buy a foreign import of superior quality, with better mileage and resale value. Maybe you even thought that years of market share loss might prod us into rethinking our process and redesigning our products with better quality in mind. But you forgot one thing: We spend a shitload of money on lobbyists. So now you're out $25 billion, plus the cost of your Subaru. Maybe next time you'll buy American like a real man. Either way, we're cool.
GM / Chrysler / Ford
We're The Big Three. We Don't Need to Compete.TM
I've been doing better since my doctor's visit. There's only been a few times I couldn't eat much in the past week. I'd still say my overall appetite is less than it should be. I haven't gained any weight back, but at least I haven't lost any more. (Yes, I'm one of the few Americans you could call "underweight".)
I'm starting to believe more and more that the doctor was right when he suggested anxiety as being the cause. Although I couldn't tell you the source of the anxiety. Ever since he suggested that it might be anxiety, I've been paying attention when I feel sick. There's always a heightened anxiety along with it.
Another reason I say he might have been right is because I've been doing better since the visit. Keep in mind, I received no medication or treatment during the visit, and thus there should have been no change. (This thing has been ongoing for over a month, so I wouldn't expect a change now.) Because there was a change, I'm lead to believe that somewhere in my subconscious I was relieved that there wasn't anything wrong that he could find.
I suppose I've always had a little anxiety. I often catch myself or have it brought to my attention that my leg is shaking like a nervous twitch. I just figured it was just part of life. And of course, I get really nervous when I have to talk to people I don't now, but that's part of being shy. I've always been shy. (Although admittedly, I think I'm beyond the realm of simple shyness and approaching phobic.)
What concerns me now is why has the anxiety gotten to the point that it affects my health? I know of no triggering event or reason. Like I said, I don't even know the source of the general anxiety to begin with. Perhaps I'm just losing my mind.
Ok, read this article from Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Evidently he is really into his sandwiches.
What is this "fluff" he speaks of? I gather it is something similar to peanut butter? I've never had it, and I don't remember seeing it on the shelves in the grocery store.
One computer to go. It's not top-of-the-line, but they were hand-me-down parts, so I can't complain. They are better than what I was using.
Now on my "main" computer (I name it Lemmywinks1) I'm running an AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 dual core processor (2.6 GHz), 4 GB of memory, and a GeForce 8600 GTS graphics card. With 4 GB of memory, I finally can justify using a 64-bit operating system.
The next computer will be built from the parts I just took out of this one. It all works in a sort-of chain of command. My dad buys new parts. I get his old parts to go into Lemmywinks. Then Lemmywink's old parts go into my other computer (named BlueMarf). Then those parts replace the even older parts on the shelf.
The Game. Because I just saw the words "The Genre" and that caused me to lose The Game... again.
1:Yes, I know the correct spelling is Lemmiwinks. But I like spelling it with a "Y".
Makes me wounder what's really in the box.
"A fail that overflows fail's integer and wraps right the hell around into win." Is that even possible?
As you may or may not have figured out by now, I live between parents. They are divorced, and I live half of the time with my mom and half with my dad. They have different days off, so I'm usually with a parent on their days off. Yes, I'm 22 and still live with my parents. So what?
Anyway, getting to the point... I have a computer at both places. I seem to use the one at my mom's more, so I keep it as the "superior" computer and give it the best hardware. Well, my dad just upgraded his computer, so I'm getting his old parts to distribute to my computers. Both will undergo a major enough change to require a reinstall of the operating system.
This shouldn't affect my blogging. I hope, anyway.
$182.00 later, and Looney was right. Now that's something I don't say very often. It seems like Looney and I respectfully disagree on about everything. However, he was right about the doctor not finding anything during my appointment.
Basically it was a general checkup. Get my blood pressure and heart rate. Answer some questions about family health history. Listen to my breathing and heartbeat. Feel my lower abdomen. Pull down my pants, turn my head and cough. That sort of thing. It all checked out, I seem to be in good health. He said it could be anxiety.
I just have to give it more time. I'm to call the doctor in a few weeks and tell him how I'm doing. If I'm not better then I'll go back in and they will do some actual tests.
You may be wondering why I didn't get any tests this time. I think it is partly because they don't know what to test for, and I'm not covered by insurance. When you start doing all sorts of tests, it starts costing more money and there's no guarantee that they will find anything.
So I guess we'll see what happens.
That doctor's appointment I made? It has been rescheduled because the doctor won't be available. So I had to reschedule it... Not a day or two later... No, that would have been too quick. It has been pushed out to December 9th, about a week out from when it was originally scheduled!
When I rescheduled, I had them put me on the waiting list. They called yesterday and said they have an opening at 3:00 today, so it looks like the reschedule may have worked in my favor. Who knows...
Ok, we all know (I hope) that noting bad will happen if you don't forward these to everyone in your address book. We also know (again, I hope) that nothing good will happen to you, either. That is to say these chain-letter emails have absolutely no power or influence over your luck, health, love life, finances or otherwise. So why send them? Is it that they are mildly amusing to you? Or is it that you received this annoying piece of crap and had to inflict it upon others?
Putting aside the fact they are annoying for a moment, there is a tangible downside to these. It's called spam. You see, each person these are sent to gets their email address tacked on to the message. Somewhere down the line this will get sent to someone that runs a spambot. They will extract the email addresses from the To:, Fw:, Cc:, and From: fields (and any list that spilled into the body of the message) and enter those into his little spambot and share (or sell) the list with all his spambot friends. Next thing you know, everyone the chain-letter email has ever been sent to is getting a lot more spam in their inbox.
The same thing happens to any email that keeps getting forwarded and sent around like those cute little joke emails. Oh, you know the type. They usually are filled to the brim with lame jokes and animated gif images.
So please, do everyone a favor and stop forwarding such things. But if you absolutely must send an email to multiple people, please use the bcc: field instead of the Cc: field. At least that way you won't send everyone the entire list of emails.
Urban Dictionary Word of the Day: Black Friday
My health has been somewhat questionable since I posted about not feeling well on October 24th. What I seem to be having problems with is my gag reflex. I'm not really nauseated in the stomach, it's in the back of my throat; kind-of like sticking your finger on the very back of your tongue. I don't feel it all the time. Usually when I'm eating or after I've eaten. I've felt it mildly other times as well.
Yesterday my lymph nodes under my jawbone swelled up a little, but have sense returned to normal.
I'm beginning to get a little worried; lasting this long it might be something serious. I don't seem to have any other symptoms, other than a slight weight loss because I'm not eating as much, and maybe I'm sleeping longer than usual. Anyway, even without health insurance I decided to make a doctor's appointment yesterday. I didn't make one earlier because the symptom is not always there, it's on-and-off with sometimes days between. However, with the lymph nodes swelling up, it's probably some sort of tangible infection.
They're backed up a bit right now at the doctor's office, so my appointment was set for December 3rd. They told me to go to the emergency room if I get worse before then.
Of course, trying to diagnose yourself on the internet always leads to the worst possible condition.
11 -- Creation 'Science' Made Easy
I can just see someone that would have figured out the cure for cancer instead just accepting that it's God's will and not researching it any further than that.
There are more videos in this series. Just take a look in potholer54's YouTube channel.
I definitely saw the d20 first...
For those of you totally out if it, d20's are 20-sided dice. Just in the same way a d10 is a 10-sided die and d6 would be your average 6-sided die. The common shapes are d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20.
Dr. Pepper promised a free Dr. Pepper soda to everyone in the US if Guns N' Roses managed to release their album, Chinese Democracy, in the year 2008. Well, the album came out today. Dr. Pepper is offering a coupon for a free soda on their website today only.
So, there's a rush on the Dr. Pepper website. Like anyone would expect, all this extra traffic is essentially a DDoS attack on their servers and it went down. I can't help but think that not only did they not prepare for this, but they expected and wanted this. As long as their servers are down due to an overload of traffic, they have an excuse to not deliver on their promise.
Even if or when you do get it to load, the average person is not going to sit and try for two strait hours to finally get the page to load. And yes, they knew about this day a few weeks ahead of time. They had plenty of time to prepare.
EDIT: I managed to get the page to load enough to get a phone number. I tried submitting my information, but when I submitted it I just got a Page Load Error. So, here's their number: for questions and concerns, call 1-800-696-5891.
The question was raised about my atheism and where my parents stand with it.
When did I become an atheist? To tell the truth, I don't remember. I think I stopped believing in God before Santa Clause (despite the fact that Santa had the exact same handwriting as my mom). I didn't give too many hints of my beliefs for quite a while. With Santa, I was afraid I wouldn't get as many gifts if I said I didn't believe. With God, I wasn't sure what the reaction would be and it seemed best just to keep it to myself.
You know, you tell a child all these lies about Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy... You may think it's just all in good fun. But when a child starts to realize the truth, they may start to question if God and Jesus were lies as well.
My parents come from different religious backgrounds. My mom was raised a Catholic, had it forced upon her and hated it. She's basically rebelled against it. Whether she actually believes in God or not, I'm not sure. We don't talk about it much.
My dad was raised Lutheran, and although he's drifted away from the literal interpretations of the Bible, he does believe in God in the Christian sense. He feels the Bible was written by man, and thus has been exaggerated and had human biases inserted. Really, who can blame him once you've looked over the Old Testament (or even much of the New Testament).
My parents are fine with what I believe. I'm old enough to have my own beliefs. My grandparents, on the other hand, are not happy with it. I've had a couple of talks about it with my grandfather. But, they love me just the same.
I was never forced to go to church as a child. When I got a little older I did a fair amount of research on a wide variety of religions; for a while it was almost an obsession. It didn't take long to dismiss the major religions. Although I admit I didn't put too much time into Buddhism or Muslim. I found the more “occult” religions fascinating, particularly Druidism. I spent some time talking to a friend online that is a Druid, as well as a classmate in real life that was a Druid. I even spoke to a true Witch in real life (Wicca). However, I just couldn't believe the prayers (read: spells) had any power. No matter what religion I looked into, they all had some beliefs that were downright silly.
You may think I should have given the major religions such as Christianity more time. However, I don't believe in a God. Everything else was based on that belief, and all evidence they provided was circular logic back to the belief in God.
So here I am. If one day God should make himself visible and prove himself to infact be God, I'll be inclined to modify my beliefs. And he'd better make it good, because extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Until then, I am an atheist.
What's with all the vampire stuff lately? The season finale of South Park was about vampire wanna-be's, Drek talked about a TV commercial on his blog...
If you think about it, common vampires have all sorts of seemingly random weaknesses such as:
Yeah, that running water bit is a lesser known weakness.
Where am I going with this post? Nowhere really. It's just that everyone else is talking about vampires so I thought I'd jump on board.
One of the many drawbacks of living on an island is the lack of competition. While fuel prices are dropping below $2.00 and even down close to $1.50 elsewhere, the people of this town still have to pay out the ass for fuel. It's still $3.759 for regular unleaded and $4.259 for diesel here.
Sure, it was always a bit more here than down in the lower 48 states: by maybe 10 cents/gallon. There's a public outcry in town about it. The gas stations are saying that they have to charge this much for it because they bought it at the higher prices and still have the "more expensive fuel" stored. However, as you might have guessed, it doesn't work that way when the prices are going up. It was changing daily to match the raising prices. Also, their reserves of the higher priced fuel seems to be lasting a long time...
That always happens around here. Any excuse to get the prices up, then when the markets change the prices still stay high here; and it's not just with the fuel.
It's amazing that atheist billboards are causing such an outcry. There's been a few atheist ads and billboards in public places lately. On the buses in Washington DC, as well as 11 billboards in Denver, Colorado. They are starting to appear in other places as well. There's not an outcry from religious billboards.
Tell me, are the beliefs and teachings of your church so fragile and weak that you feel this threatened by a few billboards? Oh, wait... I guess so...
Ok, I give up. What are the Japanese up to now?
He's about to unleash some serious bitch-slappin'.
Gay marriage backers rally in Manhattan, other cities
If I were in one of these cities with the protests for gay marriage, I think I would go out and support them. It's not just gays that support gay rights. It's not just gays out there marching alongside them.
I don't fully understand those who oppose gay marriage. If you don't like the idea of marrying someone of the same sex then don't; but please, don't stop others. I've seen the argument (from Looney, in fact) that a government recognized gay union would be saying that God supports it. In Looney's exact words:
The US government is not a theocracy. There's a phrase called "separation of church and state". It is traced to the letter written by Thomas Jefferson himself in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists, in which he referred to the First Amendment in the United States Constitution as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state. That seems like enough for me to say that the government does not represent God or God's wishes. It also means these justices of the supreme court clearly do not have the jurisdiction to claim to be "God's spokesmen". They simply speak for the government, not for a religion.As Thomas Jefferson noted, our rights come from our Creator, which was understood. Thus, the California Supreme Court, by declaring this right to gay marriage, has effectively stated that God endorses gay marriage. The justices of the supreme court have made a purely religious statement and declared themselves to be God's spokesmen.
I think my biggest problem now is keeping track of the ones I've already posted so I don't start doing duplicates.
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