Blog
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I Love WordPress
Just upgraded all of my sites to the latest version of WordPress before I realized there was another, slightly newer version available. Normally this would drive me crazy because it meant another hour of deleting, uploading, and activating. But now there’s an auto-update feature! And the interface is so secksy! I don’t know why more…
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Vote for McCain/Palin = Vote for Evil
If you’re voting for McCain and Palin even after they engage in tactics like these, don’t fool yourself: you are voting for evil. You’re already reading my post, so why not read the article that inspired it? Palin hits Obama for ‘terrorist’ connection Unsubstantiated bullshit like this is what led us into a disastrous war…
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Hey Hey! Ho Ho! IE6 Has Got to Go!
Please, please…if you’re still using Internet Explorer 6, STOP! Why? Microsoft wants you to. IE6 has many issues with security and display. Comedy Central wants you to. Once you upgrade to FireFox (Windows or Mac), or IE7 (Windows), you’ll get faster download times, smoother animations and better looking pages. All of the new browsers have…
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Massive Moon
When I see the moon in the daytime, I can’t help but think of it as a strangely round mountain range waaaay off in the distance. Did you know that the moon is getting farther away from the Earth as time goes on? Right now it’s the size of a dime held at arm’s length,…
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Christian Beliefs vs. Atheist Beliefs
A quick rundown of the surprising similarities between atheists and Christians.
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What, a coincidence?
What the hell are the odds of this? I was checking some really old messages that were sent to my Stewart/Colbert profile, and there was one from December 18, 2007. Today is February 7, 2008. I’ve been watching episodes of South Park that I set into motion about an hour ago. These are completely unrelated…
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Dec. 20, 1996: Science Loses Its Most Visible Public Champion
by Tony Long of Wired 1996: Carl Sagan dies. Calling Carl Sagan a scientist is a little like calling the Beatles a rock band. Sagan was certainly a scientist (an astronomer, biologist and astrophysicist, to be precise). But he was also science’s most visible public advocate, a secular humanist, a fervent believer in extraterrestrial life,…
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No Wii. Why? No $.
Why You Can’t Get Your Hands on a Wii Annotated I have owned a Nintendo since 1985, and I’ve never owned an Xbox, a Sega, a PlayStation, or anything since my Atari when I was (literally) too young to walk. So, Nintendo’s success here is kind of a great thing for me to watch. The…
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Why I Miss Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle’s show was absolutely brilliant for the first couple seasons because he got to be open about humor with complete disregard for race. It allowed for some truly historic moments that I know they will talk about in documentaries and history books decades from now. For example, there is this skit about Clayton Bigsby.…
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Sasha Metze (2002-2007)
We buried our cat, Sasha, today. She was about five years old, independent as can be, and only had one kitten (Spot, who lives with Erin and me). I’ll spare everyone the details, but she did not die of natural causes. The point I really want to make is that Erin was remarkably helpful. She…
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2000 Honda Civic Gas Mileage
I bought a slightly used 2000 Honda Civic in October of 2002, and at the time it only had 32,000 miles on it. I was increasingly aware of the coming gas crunch, so I wanted to make sure I had a vehicle that wouldn’t kill me at the gas pump. And since I’ve always wanted…
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Selling Virtual Things
My cousin, Steve Metze, asked me how one could make money selling virtual things. Well, the entire Second Life economy is a lot like the US economy, only it’s based on the Linden (L$), which is their version of the dollar. Now, if it was just play money I wouldn’t be excited about it in…
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Get a (Second) Life!
I recently got in a discussion about Second Life (a virtual world in which you can live, work, and play) because I just got into it a couple weeks ago. For the longest time I — a born and bred video game enthusiast — completely ignored it because the concept just didn’t seem that interesting…
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Look at me! I’m a cyborg!
I used to have one of the Bluetooth earpieces, but that was when they first came out. I’ve never been that comfortable with it, and that was long before everyone was wearing one. I got one as a gift, and honestly, I only wore it around that person so they knew I appreciated it. In…
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We are mostly nothing!
Do you realize that we are mostly empty space? And when I say “mostly” I mean, almost entirely. Not just 75% or 90% or even 99%…we’re something like 99.99999999999999999% completely empty space! Want to see what I mean? I created a graphic that represents an electron as one pixel, which means that the proton graphic…
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Stop using www. right now!
I grew up in a town of about 12,000. Everyone I knew had the same area code and the same prefix to their phone number. For anyone calling from, say, Kansas, my home phone number was (806) 894-4879. For anyone calling from my hometown, all I had to tell them was 4879. Well, I have…
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The Twelve Step Suite by Dream Theater
This is a suite of four songs that I mixed together after I realized that they are parts of a larger body of work that Dream Theater is actively working on. Each song is from a different album and will likely be performed as a single piece of music once they have put it all…
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Rosie’s Curiosity
I tried to get Rosie to say something, but she was just confused by the black thing I was holding in my hand.
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Why Janice Is/Isn’t a Republican
I received an email the other day from a family member that told a parable disguised as a political joke. It takes on a distinctly biased approach and misrepresents the other side completely. Annoyed and frustrated, I did the only thing I really could: I parodied it. “Why Janice IS a Republican” Janice was about…
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Hackers are the most pathetic excuse for terrorists in the world.
Most hackers don’t waste their time defacing random web sites that they have no real issue with. Wannabe hackers sit around in their shitty little apartments and use real hacker’s programs to do stupid things like deface a web site. The thing is, these pathetic morons don’t realize that what they’re doing is pointless. This…
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Happy Winter Solstice!
Looooong before the words “Christmas,” “Hannukah,” “Kwanzaa,” and “Festivus” ever entered humanity’s vocabulary, we have been celebrating the winter solstice. And why not? Without modern technology and capitalism making us fat, warm, greedy, and complacent, we’d be hunkered down in our holes, caves, and huts trying to make it through the brutal winters. As many…
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Stewart-Colbert2008.org Now Online
It’s time to change the sheets! Let the campaign for a new America begin! It’s not official yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start the groundswell of support. Sure, it’s a bit cynical of us to want a couple of television stars to run the nation, but if an actor can get elected as…
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Grand Army of the Republicans
Have you noticed that our military is getting a lot of training invading strangers in a “suburban” setting? How hard would it be for the president to convince 150,000+ soldiers to invade, say, Los Angeles? The Grand Army of the Republicans could do a lot of damage, and people would still have their “Support Our…
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Leap of Logic
Why is it a logic leap to say that existence implies a creator, but statistical inevitability is not? During a discussion I was having with one of my very good friends, a question came up that I had to stop and think about. It’s a delicate matter, with an important subtlety that has to be…
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American, Husband, Father, Soldier, Filmmaker, Über Goober
My cousin, Steve Metze, is currently serving in Iraq for the Texas National Guard. He has an interesting story, really. He’s a graduate of West Point, teaches Television and Film at the University of Texas, and is second or third in command of the Texas National Guard. In May of 2004 he got married, and…
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T&A (Testosterone and Alcohol)
Why are people so shitty to each other? Furthermore, when someone is being shitty to someone, why does everyone allow it to happen? Last night I was enjoying a night out with my friends at a bar when I noticed a loud noise coming from the men’s restroom. I immediately knew something wasn’t right and…
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The Orwellian Bush Doctrine
I keep saying it, but no one believes me. I swear the Bush administration has 1984 on their required reading lists, at least for those with real influence. Bush’s speeches, his thoughts, his motivations…they’re right out of the Big Brother world. Anyone know of any other (perhaps better) examples of these? This was just what…
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There’s a Difference between Thinking and Doing
A family member recently sent out a family email and it got our discussion juices flowing again. My problem with the email was that it portrayed liberally-minded people as foolish and weak. If you really believe that, then this email is definitely for you. Someone said that (most, if not all) liberals ACTUALLY believe that…
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Lawless, Godless Heathens!
I had a couple family members make (what I believe) are huge mistakes by assuming that without religion one cannot have law. They acted like the only place people learn rules is from religious entities. I wonder if they realized that most of the rules they’re talking about were taught to them by society, and…
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Can’t Prove or Disprove It
Saying that you can’t prove or disprove the existence of God has been the cop-out for the God debate for as long as I’ve been aware of it. Atheists, Christians, and primarily agnostics use this idea when it all comes down to agreeing to disagree. For the longest time, I was accepting of the idea…
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America: The Rich, Fat Uncle
A good friend and I were discussing Thanksgiving and I started to think about how it must look to other countries for us to have a holiday where we stuff ourselves full of food and roll around on the couch watching football. You know, I can’t believe Americans even publicize Thanksgiving. It should be like…