Jayson Blair has a book coming out. I wonder if he used a ghost writer.

  ¶ 4:25 PM

  The Linux Box:SCO Wallpaper

This looks real to me. It's a photo of a street outside of SCO (the almost-as-evil-as-Microsoft company who claims that Linux people are illegally using some of its unix software). In the photo, there's a real life road sign pointing at the SCO headquaters. The sign reads, "DEAD END."

  ¶ 1:39 AM

  He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
...still insists he sees the ghosts.
...still insists...


  ¶ 12:14 AM

  Ken and Barbie are getting a divorce. I think we all know why, too. The final straw was when Barbie discovered that Ken had been filming his own version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy called Queer Eye for the Plastic Doll out behind their Malibu House.


  ¶ 3:10 AM

  Who said:

"Linux represents a best-of-breed UNIX, that is trusted in mission critical applications, and - due to it's open source code - has a long term credibility which exceeds many other competitive OS's."

"Most of the primary apps that people require when they move to Linux are already available for free. This includes web servers, POP clients, mail servers, text editors, etc"

"I previously had IE4/NT4 on the same box and by comparison the combination of Linux / Navigator ran at least 30-40% faster when rendering simple HTML + graphics."

"Consumers Love It."

"Linux's (real and perceived) virtues over Windows NT include: Customization ... Availability/Reliability ... Scaleability/Performance ... Interoperability ..."

Microsoft. In an internal memo, Microsoft said these things about Linux. They also detailed part of their strategy against Linux. This is all part of an internal memo, now infamously called "The Halloween Document," that was leaked. Microsoft had to verify the document and then bent over backwards to say those were just the opinions of some, not a "strategy" and that there isn't any "strategy" against Linux. That's interesting considering I see more Microsoft ads at Linux sites than any other ad. And you can't blame the sites because I bet M$ pays good money, and it takes good money to stay afloat on the net if you want to stay up to date.

I love those new IBM Linux commercials, the one with the learning boy who symbolizes Linux. I would love them more if they included actual M$ quotes. Though, I bet M$ would find a way to copyright their praise of Linux and sue IBM for using them.

  ¶ 1:33 PM

  Open Source Initiative OSI - The Open Source Definition

I love Open Source. Click above to read what it really means. There are basically 10 rules, some of which could be considered moral regulations. That's not a bad thingy. True Open Source things may not discriminate agains people, places, or things.

  ¶ 1:14 PM

  Yesterday, I watched an episode of The Simpsons. Well, I pretty much watch at least one episode of The Simpsons each day. It's my way of taking a thirty minute break no matter what's going on during the day.

The episode was the one where Marge gets mugged and then beefs up to "Iron Maiden" status. After she's hulked up, she runs into the guy who mugged her. She then beats the crap out of him. The whole scene is shot for shot the scene in The Godfather where Sonny beats the crap out of Connie's husband, Carlo. I just love that.

Interesting to note, Joe Mantegna, who played Joey Zaza in The Godfather III, plays mafia kingpin, Fat Tony on The Simpsons.

  ¶ 2:24 PM

  So Clark's out of the big race. To be honest, I hardly knew he was in. And I'm not even sure it's a big race either. Dean and Edwards, I guess, have hopes that it is a big race.

Like usual, my vote doesn't count. Every vote is supposed to, but not really. I'm in Alabama. By the time of our primary, there'll be only one guy left running. Dean won't have enough money to go the full distance. And Edwards, who might have enough money if he uses his own, might, but if you keep loosing primaries then surely you'll realize you can't win the nomination.

And let's not forget the real election. My vote won't count in that either. Alabama votes Republican and seems to always will. Nobody comes down here to campaign anyway. Maybe it's the weather. We're having flooding problems again and will until Friday morning. Oh joy. I knew I should have learned to swim.

  ¶ 5:45 PM

  Have you ever heard something, a sound, that really messed you up? Well, I just did around 2 in the morning.

I'm laying on my bed, watching a deleted scene on the Legend DVD. I heard what I thought was a young woman scream twice. Two times real close together. I lay and listen. I was half asleep to begin with and thought it was just in the deleted scene (which made no sense considering the context of the scene). Then I thought maybe it was something on my computer, but the speakers were turned off.

Then my dad opens the door and wants to know if I'm alright. He said he heard somebody scream. Here's where that not so nice feeling starts to grow right in the pit of my stomach. I pop right up as he goes to check on my sister. She's asleep. Then my mother comes walking down the hallway wanting to know if we heard something.

My dad seems to have heard it the clearest. He said it was a woman or a child. He said it was a scream and then the sound of breath escaping. That sound of air leaving the body at the moment of death. He's heard it a few times in his life. He says he can't forget it. That feeling in my gut grows even more.

I check outside, and there's nothing moving, no wind or cats. Then a dog starts to bark. There's always a dog somewhere needing to bark. And they all pick really bad times to do so.

My dad starts to talk about the scream and how bad it's bothering him. My dad is usually not bothered by most things. Especially in things he doesn't believe in. It becomes clear that my dad is not only bothered by this, but spooked. And my dad doesn't get spooked. At least, I thought he didn't. Here's where that feeling in my stomach has spread to everything of me.

We begin talking of who the scream sounded like. It didn't sound like my sister. It really didn't sound like anybody I know. But if my dad is right about the type of scream, then... well, never mind.

I have a point of reference. A year or so ago, something happened. I was awoken by a child screaming. And later that day, I found out that during something horrible had happened. I really don't want to go into that any more. Let's just say, I have a point of reference.

So I'm sitting here, about an hour later from hearing the "whatever it was." My dad's up, still a little bit freaked. I think I'm going to be up for awhile, too.

It's a really terrifying, helpless, doom kind of feeling. Like being left out of something, not being able to stop something horrible from happening that you knew was going to happen, yet at the same time, you didn't know it was going to happen. Really mournful, sorrowful.

Yep, I'm going to be up for a long while.

  ¶ 3:12 AM

  What Would Jesus Drive?

No joke. This is a site that's a "discussion initiated by the Evangelical Environmental Network & Creation Care Magazine because transportation is a moral issue."

  ¶ 11:13 PM

  Mozilla Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded

I installed Firefox, formally Firebird, today. Firefox is the stand-a-lone browser from Mozilla. Mozilla's combo browser/email program works just fine. But I like having my browser be one program and my e-mail be another (Mozilla's stand-a-lone Thunderbird).

I haven't been pleased with the name changes ever since Phoenix became Firebird. With that aside, Firefox stunned me. It is faster than Firdbird, which I thought was the fastest, even faster than I. E. Firefox looks amazing. True Type Fonts work beautifully. That always gave me trouble in Firebird. I'm not sure, but I'd take a guess True Type Fonts are turned on in Firefox because I turned them on in Firebird. I think that because all my bookmarks, themes, plugins, and at least one extension, magically migrated to Firefox the first time I ran it.

Installation was simple. I unzipped it and typed in ./firefox and boom, she popped up. I played around with it for a bit and switched right over to it. I'll probably never run Firebird again. But I'll keep it around just in case.

I really can't get over how nice webpages really look in Firefox. I just installed the Blog This extension, which let's me right click on a website and enter a blog about it. The Extensions page was down for the most part of the day. So were the Themes page for Firefox. Even getting it took a little bit. I'm not sure the folks at Mozilla were prepared for how popular their little browser is.

Here's the official description:

"Firefox is an award winning preview of next generation browsing technology from mozilla.org.

Firefox empowers you to accomplish your online activities faster, more safely and efficiently than any other browser, period. Built with Tab browsing, popup blocking and a number of other seamless innovations, Firefox stands out ahead."

That's just so nice. Go download it. Linux, Mac, and M$ are all supported.

  ¶ 2:46 AM

  FATUOUS

stupid; foolishly self-satisfied

Fatuous is a good word.

  ¶ 11:07 PM

  NFC 55 AFC 52 Amazing Pro Bowl.

  ¶ 10:45 PM

  Last night I watched Mommie Dearest which starred Faye Dunnaway and was the story of Joan Crawford and her daughter Christina. I thought it was a pretty disturbing movie.

This morning, I did some searching around about it to see if Joan Crawford was lynched or not. I found out that Mommie Dearest is considered a campy, comedy classic. I was not aware of this. I took the movie serious. Maybe that's because I actually know a few parents like Joan Crawford and a few daughters like Christina Crawford. That might take the funny out of metal clothes hangers.

I finished an edit of "W. T. for Short," and I'm very pleased. There's a whole lot of satire in that story along with absurdity and folly. And there's nothing wrong with that.

  ¶ 3:34 PM

  After Thursday's weather, there was a good bit of debris to clean up. Thankfully, most things were where they were supposed to be.

Today, I was able to get a lot done. I'm printing out the novel HAUNTED: THE SECRET OF THE HANGED MAN. I'm making time to edit it like I should have a long time ago. Because of some personal issues, I put that novel aside. In the novel, there are some characters who cared for a grandmother. And that grandmother died. I wrote it while taking care of my own grandmother. And then she died. See the connection? That's why the story has sat. But now's the time for me to do something with it. (Or for it to do something with me.)

And despite some late evening back pain, I was able to achieve one of my life time goals. I printed out a story that ends with the word "titties."

Also, I've given serious thought to changing my name legally to bobby Ho-tep in efforts to get the movie shown down here in Alabama. If Bubba Ho-tep can make some money, then Don Coscarelli can finish off the Phantasm movies. What could be more important than that? Oh yeah, George A. Romero finishing off the Living Dead movies. He can't get any money for that either.

  ¶ 3:19 AM

  It has been one wild ride tonight. Weather in Alabama has been an extreme again, tornadoes, floods, fires, and Republicans. Here in Walker County, we only had three tornadoes. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Flooding is pretty bad. I watched a car go afloat down the street, the tail lights rose, turned sideways, went down, and then out. I called the Police, and they sent somebody out in the most icky of weather. Ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived to take the driver away, a wrecker came for the car an hour later.

Things are slowing down, just a heavy rain now. Outside is bad. I've only seen this much water once before and that was twenty years ago when I was a child. There doesn't seem to be too much damage, though there seems to be a drainage pipe in the neighbors yard. How that twenty foot pipe got there is anybody's guess.

The Global Warming has just started. And our boob of a President doesn't even believe in it even after the world's scientists along with his very own scientists tried to tell him otherwise.

Global Warming doesn't exactly mean everything gets really hot. It just means everything gets really wet. If things get really wet, you can have extreme temperatures in the summer, heat waves and droughts in some areas while there's massive floods in others. In the winter, the extra moisture gives us tons of snow, ice, and cold. And once again, you can get massive floods. Paid attention to the weather in the last five years? It's February. It's warm, wet, flooding with tornadoes here. This isn't normal. Not even for Alabama. And I bet where you are dear reader, the weather isn't actin' right either.*

So, I would like W to look out his window and behold the proof he seems to lack for Global Warming. If not, the next Ice Age is due to start any day now. Then it'll be too late. Get your snow shoes on and learn to ski.

(*assumption not valid for Hawaii or Florida)

  ¶ 3:17 AM

  Less boobs. I am not looking forward to this trend. Tonight, NBC will air an "edited" new episode of ER. There was supposed to be a scene of an 80 year old woman who's gown slips and exposes her breast for a moment. This is how it is a real ER. But because of the "climate" as NBC calls it, they've edited this scene out. I'm not troubled by the fact that I won't get to see an 80 year old boob, but because now a show I actually look forward to see, which is rare these days, is having to cut back on its creativity and realism.

In a previous post, I did mention that ER has already shown boobs, two boobs, in an episode last year not just one that was planned for tonight. Also, that episode has already aired on TBS and CBS in syndication. And on TBS it aired at 9 Central/10 Eastern in the AM, not in the PM.

And get this, on CBS sometime in the mid 90's, boobs were shown on CBS medical drama Chicago Hope, which I also watched for a small while. Nobody cared back then.

One more thing, back on January 20th, 2004, all major networks and news stations carried a boob live for over an hour. Nobody cried foul about that.

I can't wait to see what else people will overreact to. Maybe two women will kiss or something.

  ¶ 2:59 PM

  Significant change in Mandrake Linux Development Process

Things are going to be different. Mandrake, my distro of choice, has changed the way they release their Linux distros.

Before, they'd release a version called "Cooker" where things are tested out here and there. Then it is "frozen" and a Beta comes out, then a Release Canidate, and finally the end product.

Now, they'll still go about the same process of Betas and Release Canidates, but then release a "Community" version. After a bit of things being worked out, a "Offical" version will be released.

There was a problem with Mandrake 9.2. After the Betas and Release Canidates cleared and 9.2 was released, there was a problem with certain LG CD-Roms, common in Dell computers, that wasn't caught during the Betas and RCs. With the new way, problems like this should be weeded out, and we'll have an ultimately more "stable" release.

Of course, this basically comes down to me getting a new Linux distro. And now I can look forward to two new distros this year.

  ¶ 11:30 PM

  I haven't been able to sleep. I constantly shake. It hurts when I urinate. I have trouble seeing clearly. My appetite is completely gone. And I even have this unbelievable urge to vote Republican.

Why? Because Janet Jackson exposed one breast on live TV. Behold the power of one good boob.

With the way the media is treating this, you'd think Osama was sighted on the 33 yard line in the third quarter. And it's not just the media over-covering it, the feedback from phone calls and e-mails seem to be just about Janet Jackson's breast, completely ignoring what else is happening in the world.

I can not understand why those offended are offended in the first place. Their argument is that they were watching with their children. Well, use some common sense. You knew who was going to perform during the halftime, and with no disrespect toward the artists, they're not kid-friendly artists. So why let them watch to begin with? And if you didn't know the artist, you should at least know MTV isn't kid-friendly. And for heaven sake, even if you didn't know that, the name Jackson by itself should send some "maybe this isn't for my kids" beeps on the ole' parent radar.

Next, it's a breast. One boob. If you don't have at least one, then you momma does. I saw a rerun of ER a few days ago that had two boobies in them, and it was a rerun on CBS. Nobody cried foul when the episode first aired on NBC, and nobody cried foul when it reran on CBS or TBS.

It is hard for me to imagine being offended by any part of the human body, especially the female body. The provocative dancing (Janet and Justin) was more offensive. And didn't Nelly seem like he had the clap with all the crotch adjustments?

Oh well. There is other news out there. It just took a while to find. I'm actually getting into the whole political scene. I really love the "anybody but Bush" notion. Dean, tonight, actually said that no matter who wins, he was going to vote for them because "anybody's better than Bush." I agree.

I like Edwards. I also like Kerry. Dean isn't too bad, but I probably wouldn't vote for him. I actually like Liberman, but I wouldn't vote for him either. He had no chance to win, and it seems that votes for Liberman actually hurt Edwards. Liberman is out now so maybe that'll change.

I'd vote for Kerry if he'd just come clean with America and say that he is indeed clinically deceased. I have nothing against the living dead. I just want them to be honest. Seriously, doesn't Kerry look two days dead?

Edwards seems like he has a good head on his shoulders, but lacks experience. Maybe that'll change as things go along.

There's also Clark. Yep.

There was also a Ricin scare at the Senate, and Powell giving second thoughts to being pro-war since what he knew wasn't true. There really was other news.

  ¶ 11:41 PM

  BUBBA HO-TEP

"We find the King (Bruce Campbell) as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his “death”, then missed his chance to switch back. Elvis teams up with Jack (Ossie Davis), a fellow nursing home resident who thinks that he is actually President John F. Kennedy, and the two valiant old codgers sally forth to battle an evil Egyptian entity who has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds…

Based on the Bram Stoker Award nominee short story by acclaimed author Joe R. Lansdale, Bubba Ho-tep tells the “true” story of what really did become of Elvis."

This is true. And so is the Phantasm movie.

  ¶ 12:50 AM