Wednesday, November 30, 2005

 

Cervidil

No post from me today, but grab some tissue and come follow E-Lo on her magical journey of birthing Lyric Alexandra.

It kinda looks like a baby.

That's from Austin Powers, calm down. Lyric is gorgeous.

See?






I love how inventive pharmaceutical companies are with their drug names.

Drug: Prostaglandin
Effect: is used to "ripen" the cervix when it is agreed that your baby is safer to be born than to remain in the uterus

Marketing wizard conversation:
Okay, um, it dilates the cervix.
Fanny Opener? No, too weird.
How bout Gash Spreader? Too gross.
Box Opener? Too common.
Pink Taco Enlarger? Too long.
Dilacerv? Not bad.
Cervidil? Bingo.

Personally I think Dilacerv or Box Opener would've been fine.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

 

Bill Waterson saves the day!

Feel free to ignore the lower post. But consider yourself lucky for dropping by and checking out this link:

Calvin and Hobbes Snow Art Gallery


Please let this inspire you and yours to create a few non-traditional snowmen and snowwomen this season. If you get snow. And if you don't, give it to me. I haven't made a snowman in many years.


 

Monkey bites

For some unknown and possibly evil reason, that Sheryl Crow song that was out a few years ago popped into my head. It goes "if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad." And it struck me as to what a horrible message that is to society.

There are several things that I would like to do, and yes they temporarily would make me happy, but there are severe consequences to those actions. I would like to set all Hummers on fire. Except the ones for the military. They actually use them.

I'd like to rob a bank, not that there would be much money in a local bank, but I've always wanted to and it would be a great rush.

I'd like to drive at whatever speed I deem safe. Which leads me to my next item: stealing a car. I would really have no intentions of chopping it up and selling it for pieces, that would be wrong to the car. I just want to drive it. I saw a V12 BMW 760 the other day. That thing would get me to Birmingham so fast. I think I could safely do 140-150 mph on certain stretches of road. Maybe faster. This would definitely have to be either at night or sometime during the day without too much traffic. But that would definitely make me happy.

All of these are highly illegal according to societal rules. But yes Sheryl, they would make me happy and they are that bad.

Phew, this just made the "Seth's Bottom 10 Posts" list.

Monday, November 28, 2005

 

Why didn't I pick the blue pill?

Anyone else that works or has contact with a university, a query: Is it hot as "the blazes" in your building?

The majority of my collegiate career has been spent in chemistry buildings so I want to see if it is a campus-wide problem. It is so ungodly hot in here right now, I'm actually sweating. It isn't even that cold outside but they have the thermostat set on "Inferno". But it was like that in undergrad also, so it might be a university thing. I remember always having to remember to layer and wear clothing that is easily removed because odds are that you're gonna have to take off most of it. Haven't they heard of 72 degrees? Or 68? Both lovely temperatures, Fahrenheit of course.

Raced again on Saturday. Decent showing. Lost my class by .4 seconds, but he was on Hoosiers, which are slightly stickier, and he had a co-driver and he's a better driver. I was pleased with my performance and actually got the end of the car to rotate better than last time, as opposed to massive understeer. Results are there and they misspelled my name again. And I think Focus is going to be getting a few Christmas presents, so she'll be even faster! Yay!

I was in a major funk this morning. I think it was the "Oh fuck, I can't sleep and putz around the house anymore"-itis. Or a case of the Mondays if you prefer you sick bastard. Oh lookie, I guess I'm still in it.

Friday, November 25, 2005

 

Mmmmm, so much food

J and I went over to a friend's house in Pendleton, a small town just down the road from Clemson.

So we didn't travel far at all. Basically our Thanksgiving went like this:
I wake up at 10
Do the dishes and clean the kitchen to get it ready to become messy again
Make my Golden Apple Turnovers - Freshly grated apples but used pre-made pastry sheets
J wakes up at 10:45, starts making her corn souffle
While the souffle is cooking, I ready my sausage balls to go in the oven
I try my turnovers after letting them cool, delicious - I used Fuji apples, very tart and tangy, excellent choice
Corn souffle comes out and looks great
Balls go oven deep
Balls come out brown and greasy
Balls soak up some grease and are delicious

Then we put our food in the car, pick up another friend who brings 1 tray of homemade mac&cheese, a dessert called "Chocolate Delight" and cheese muffins and go to Pendleton.

We weren't planning on having turkey but Dave bought two turkey breasts and they were delicious and I love him because I was really worried about no turkey on Thanksgiving. He also made his Corn Flake topped cheesy potato dish and a very unusual stuffing out of his roommates cookbook. It was good but it had apple and all sorts of odd things. It was good but after the first bite I told myself not to think of it as stuffing and then really enjoyed it. He also put too much blue cheese on the salad but it was good.

We ate and were fat and happy. Then played some card games and watched TV. And drank wine. It was a really great and relaxing holiday.

And now I'm at work, but it's okay cuz I'm working on my paper which will directly help my career and my graduation prospects.

And now some somber news:
Pat Morita passes away

Pat played Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kids and was also Arnold in Happy Days. His film and TV credits can be seen here thanks to imdb.com He is survived by his wife of 12 years and 3 daughters from a previous marriage.

Football legend George Best dies

And let me translate for my American readers, "Soccer legend George Best dies". Now I will admit that I don't really know who he is, but according to the article he was the first soccer superstar. He died at 59 and was Manchester United's and Northern Ireland's greater players.
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, attending a summit in Malta, described Best as "probably the most naturally gifted footballer of his generation and one of the best footballers our country has produced."

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

 

Happy Thanksgiving! (almost)

And also WELCOME LYRIC!

E-Lo gave birth to Lyric Alexandra at 4:14 PM. She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz, 21 inches long.

That seems like a nice and healthy baby size. But I hope the newly expanded family has a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving. I can't believe she made it out. And for some reason I always thought it was going to be a girl.

And continuing the theme of good will and peace on Earth:
Venezuela sending cheap oil to Massachusetts
President Hugo Chavez proposed doing this to help out the US poor during a trip to Cuba in August.
"He has said the aim is to bypass middlemen to reduce costs for the American poor -- a group he argues has been severely neglected by Bush's government.

Chavez has become one of Latin America's most vocal critics of U.S.-style capitalism, which he calls a major cause of poverty."
What economic gap? We don't have an economic gap! America, Fuck Yeah!

Your move Bush. Do you want to get shown up by another president helping out YOUR poor?
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Today is our department Thanksgiving luncheon. We bought some dehydrated stuffing from Satan's minion (Wal-Mart) the other day and I think we're going to make that. It's super easy. Boil water and margarine/butter. Remove from heat. Add stuffing mix. Stir and serve.

Maybe I should stop referring to Wally World as "Satan's minion". It isn't accurate. China's minion is much better, but doesn't have that nice ring to it. And I don't want people to think that I equate China with Satan. And I CERTAINLY do not want the Chinese government to think that I think that. I might not be around too much longer. I'll work on it.

But I want the stuffing to be as hot as possible, so the best solution I came up with is this:
Take my camping stove and pot and water and butter to where the luncheon is. Boil the water and butter and then add stuffing and serve. I like it. And I get beaucoup (or boocoo) eccentric points. And I get to use my camping stove which we all know doesn't get enough use.

I also have some work to do today. Bossman said that my Thanksgiving doesn't start until I get these crystals cut up. I'll explain later why we're cutting them up.

I also got a "Don't fuck around". He wants me to start writing a paper on a series of crystals that I have been working on. Why would I want to delay being a published primary author any longer than I have to? Just imagine checking this blog one day and there is a link up to MY paper with MY name in the first spot. That'll be a good day.

Just to get you warmed up:
Synthesis and Electrochemical and Photorefractive Properties of New Trinitrofluorenone-C60 Photosensitizers
Hopefully this comes up for most of you. I just linked the abstract and not the paper, but you might need a subscription to the journal. I know most academics could check it on campus. Let me know if it doesn't work and I'll work something out. It isn't too exciting, I'm one of 11 authors, but it is my first real publication. Now for my very own one.

Monday, November 21, 2005

 

Why should I change? He's the one who sucks.

The "he" in that quote is Michael Bolton if that helps with the movie. I've quoted it before but J wanted to watch it last night. She occasionally will watch movies or TV to put her to sleep. This would bother some people, but I had a roommate my freshman year of college that would regularly stay up until 3-4 am with the lights on, playing video games. He would sometimes turn off the lights, but there would still be some electronic device going. So my options were a) go insane, or b) learn to sleep with the lights on. I chose b, or at least I think I did.

I finally realized last year that flat nail clippers work the best for my toenails. Luckily I did not inherit my mother's toenails, not super fungusy but not very pretty (Sorry Mom). Before my epiphany I would normally just tear them off. They aren't too brittle so they would generally peel off in nice strips. And sometimes it would go too low and my toe would throb for a couple days. But Joan had a pair of nail clippers that were small and straight across the top instead of the small curve. It was incredible. I wasn't constantly having to do geometry problems in my head to clip my toenails. They also work well for fingernails but they are a little trickier. The flat tip nail isn't very attractive on guys, so I would have to create my own curve. I have never understood those gigantic "toenail" clippers. They might fit my big toe nail. Maybe. I hate those stupid things, which is why I was so happy to find a small, straight one.

The drifting event in ATL was awesome. There were a few very good drifters. Some not so good, but that's what practice days are about. Legal places to practice what would get you arrested on the street. My friend that drifts his BMW 325 took home 3rd place. And another guy I know took home 4th in his Hello Kitty Miata. He has Hello Kitty door panels and roll bar padding. It's very cute, especially with the bare metal paintjob he has. First was a turbocharged BMW 5 series tuned by Ter-tech down in Florida somewhere. I know Andy would've taken first with a turbo. Well, pretty sure. It's hard to make impressive tire smoke clouds when you're essentially using the stock engine.

But all in all it was a good day. Got semi-lost around 10th St and got to drive through Georgia Tech. And Sunday watched some SCCA races, cleaned and watched the Simpsons. Now back to work.

But for anyone who has a rear wheel drive car, find a nice big open lot or ideally a drift practice day, and get out there and see what you can do. Who knows, you may like it.

Friday, November 18, 2005

 

99 Red Balloons

Or 99 Luftballons if sprechen sie deutsch.

I like german. But when you think of german, don't think of screaming Nazis and blitzkreig and the Luftwaffe. Think of a sitting in a bar with a pint of fresh German beer talking with an attractive male and/or female German. Discussing nationalized health care, personal freedoms and monkey love. Isn't that better?

But it is a slavic langauge, related to english, so some words are the same or sound the same. Kind of like spanish, but not really.

We had another CGSO meeting last night. About 21 people showed up, so about 1/5 of all the grad students, so I'm pleased. We had food from Eddy's Spaghetti and it was pretty good. Eggplant parmesan, chicken parmesan, baked ziti and garlic knots which were all very yummy. And I got to take the leftovers home! Yay!

The posts haven't been easy this week. So some links and some searches:
10 most dangerous toys
Excellent list. Just click on the photo gallery to see them all.

A crossbow dangerous? Poppycock.

And this one from Chris over at Cynical-c.com
Forum opened to all after discrimination complaints
Trust me. He does a much better job describing it so just click the link. It's the 2nd story down.

My favorite is when he changes a few words around to see the affect.

Searches:
cookies clemson chemistry department seminar (Google) - yes we do have cookies before the seminars, they're usually okay

CRAZY SEX GAME (MSN) - Good luck, and be careful

ciara concert fee (Google) - No, but it should be

yogurt past expiration date still smells okay (Google) - DON'T DO IT! Throw it away!

And finally a game: Knife Throw
Very simple. Click the mouse where you kinda want the knife to go. And apparently you are not supposed to hit your assistant in the face.

Thank you, and we had 27 visitors on Wednesday. Hope I made your humpday just a little better.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend! And to one special reader I hope you have a baby!

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

 

Blue Blockers

We're staying here for Thanksgiving. But we still haven't decided what to do about Christmas. Board the cats here. Take the cats with us to Birmingham and keep them at the grandparents house. Then take them to Florida and board them. It might just be easier to board them here and save them the endless hours of highway. But boarding is expensive. Bleh, I don't know.

We have a health insurance committee meeting at 10 am. But of the 5 people on the committee, 2 have said they can't make it. Fine, we're still having it.

Not a whole lot to say. My mind has been occupied recently, with what I don't know, but no worthwhile posts have been created in there. But there is always the past.

I don't really know how it started, but my friends and I started running around the neighborhood naked. We would strip to shoes, socks and boxers once outside, stash our clothes in one of our cars, and then venture out into the neighborhood. Picture any suburban community at 10:30pm-1am and you have the general setting. Mostly it was just the rush of doing something stupid and illegal but the sensation of air rushing over your naughty bits was so incredible. Maybe it started out as stupid suburban rebellion but you couldn't deny the fact that your twig and berries getting some much needed air was part of it too.

So naturally, even though we took the precaution of running at night, the occasional car or other person would happen upon our naked brigade. But that's why the Creator/Big Bang made bushes. For naked adolescents to hide behind. Thankfully, no cars ever stopped and no one ever searched the bushes at night. But we always did wonder what would happen if someone did. I always imagine it would go something like this.
Nudie: Oh shit! Be quiet! Someone's coming!
Yuppie: That was weird. I thought I saw something run over here.
Nudie: Phew, I don't think he has a flashlight.
Yuppie: Oh, here's my flashlight.
Nudie: Crap.
Yuppie: WTF?!?!?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!
Nudie: Nothing. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!

And the best part of running nude, you get to moon whoever catches you as you run away. Good times.

So next time you're alone and feeling adventurous, get naked and go for a jog. Well, maybe some people should keep their bra on, I hear the bouncing hurts.

Now for a few "Forest" facts:
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, said forests covered nearly 4 billion hectares, some 30 percent of the world's land, with 10 countries accounting for two-thirds of all forest area -- Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Peru, Russia and the United States.

South America suffered the largest net loss of forests between 2000 and 2005 -- around 4.3 million hectares per year -- followed by Africa, which lost 4 million hectares annually.

By contrast, forest area grew in Europe, although at a slower rate than in the 1990s, while Asia moved from a net loss of some 800,000 hectares a year to a net gain of 1 million a year -- thanks mainly to large scale planting in China.

All from this CNN article: U.N.: World forest loss still alarming

Monday, November 14, 2005

 

Asshat

Clemson beat FSU. Yay. We had 42 people show up to tailgate and all the food got destroyed. Woopie.

Sunday morning I leave my apartment and am greeted by the horror of an ass dent stretching 3/4 of the way up my hood. I remain calm cuz I'm fairly certain most of it can be popped out. Most of it came out and with a little screwdriver work, the rest kind of came out. But there are still two very noticeable dents in my hood. I hope karma is swift and vengeful for this douchebag. My neighbor thinks it is a friend of the people next to me. Possible.

I assume it was an accident and not a personal attack but leave a note.

Okay, I can't do this anymore. I didn't think about it all this morning and every time I do, I get in a bad mood. I want to know who did it but don't know what would happen next. So I'm trusting karma on this one. Do Focus proud.

Friday, November 11, 2005

 

Ear muffs

Hopefully everyone knows what 21st century movie from the creators of Road Trip that that quote is from. If not, seriously, what's wrong?

J and I went to a birth control panel last night sponsored by Planned Parenthood of South Carolina. It was great. And I didn't know that SC schools are not allowed to discuss birth control with their students. I also didn't know that the government sponsored abstinence only "sex ed" classes are deceiving today's youth. Two "facts" that are taught: 14% of condoms break (Lie, only 2% break), condoms do not stop the HIV virus (Lie, condoms are one of the few forms of birth control to stop the spread of STDs). So there is that and apparently there are more, but the ethicist only got about 10 minutes to talk and said that he could teach an entire semester class on the ethics of birth control. Basically his statement was that democracy is good and that everyone likes it. But when you try to control people's lives, it starts to fall apart.

On the panel were a physician, a pharmacist, a lawyer, a philosopher, a magician, and an architect, or the so-called gods of our time, though gods they were. (Sorry, a little Donovan joke for anyone who has heard the song Atlantis or knows who Donovan is) But the first 4 were on the panel.

The doctor went over different types of birth control. I had no freakin idea there were so many options. Some sound pretty cool. And some are as effective as having your tubes tied (yes I have heard about pregnancies after hysterectomies but I think those are flukes or bad doctors). The rod in the arm thing is effective for 3 years and as effective as tube tieing. (or is it tying?) OK, it is tying. Thanks internet! Or there are those IUD, inter uteran devices which are good for 5-10 years and are surgically implanted and can be removed. She talked about some future birth control but I can't remember what they were. She did say that there is pretty much everyway to get the medicine into your body except a nasal spray. She also said that male birth control is still not here and apparently we have very complex hormonal makeups and it's hard. We're such simple creatures, I figured it would be easy but what do I know.

The pharmacist talked about pharmacists refusing to fill orders. And some are even refusing birth control now. It's all completely insane, but there are rules on the books that make it okay. Some say you can flat out refuse, others say you can refuse but you better make sure they still get it, and others say you can't refuse. Currently there is no explicit law in SC that addresses this, but I'm sure it's down the road. Ultimately he said that if they refuse to fill your prescription, take your money elsewhere. They are after all businesses and care about the bottom line. The doctor piped up and said that she can get birth control for $0.30 but some pharmacies charge $30, and that's the pharmaceutical industry in a nutshell in my opinion. Cash rules everything.

For those wondering, J and I use the Ring. It's great and it's free. She had to make an appointment at the County Health Department, which was a major hassle, but she got the prescription and now it's filled at Bi-Lo for nothing. Yay!

The lawyer talked about legislation and laws. She was awesome and very funny. She talked about the history of privacy and Roe Vs. Wade. Very interesting. One thing that popped up was that if Roe vs. Wade is overturned, which she said was likely, was that each state would determine whether they allowed abortion. Gonna take a wild guess and say that SC would give a big thumbs down to that. They like being in the top 5 for teen pregnancies. Go SC! And that it would mean that only the rich would be able to get abortions. She actually said that the Bush daughters would be able to get them, which I thought was very very funny. Poor Jenna and the other one (Barbara). Gotta fly to Nevada because abortion is illegal in Texas.

There was also talk about Plan B, the Morning-After pill, and that is mostly what pharmacies were refusing or wouldn't stock. He even said he heard of a pharmacy that didn't stock Viagra. But the physician said that if 100 women in the room had sex, how many would be pregnant? 8/100. And if those 8 took Plan B? 1-2/100. So it works but not 100%. They also said that it doesn't interfere with the actual pregnancy, but they didn't really say how it works, just that you're not killing babies by taking it. She also said, or maybe the lawyer did, that with Plan B generally available it would reduce the nations 300,000 unwanted pregnancies by half. Which is good. Every baby should be wanted and loved, a very noble cause.

Very informative talk and got to sit next to a fellow health insurance committee member. She's very cool. And I got to sit next to Joan who is much cooler than anyone ever. (Good fiance points for the day)

Now for a few links:
Anyone who owned a Sega or played video games in the 80's to mid 90's, Do NOT Go to this website!
Seriously, you'll waste a good half hour before even thinking about it. And if you right click on the Java window, it'll bring up the button change menu. It took me 10 minutes to find Start on the arcade games.

Pat Robertson is at it again. Now he's predicting disasters. You may or may not have heard that every single school board member who supported teaching intelligent design in school was not re-elected. All 8.
Robertson warns Pennsylvania voters of God's wrath

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club."

"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.

Mmmm, good ol' Christian compassion. Like a warm blanket. What an asshat. But he's been right before. "In 1998, Robertson warned the city of Orlando, Florida that it risked hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist bombs after it allowed homosexual organizations to put up rainbow flags in support of sexual diversity." And see? Orlando has been hit by many many hurricanes this season.

Now me. I predict that Seattle will get lots of rain. I predict Nevada will get almost no rain. Maine will be covered in snow! Repent! It's the only way to save yourselves from certain weather!

Earthquakes and terrorist bombings? In Orlando? I think someone needs to check their "Infidel Hotlist" and techtonic plate chart once or twice more. Maybe a rabid Pluto or a crazed Donald, but not too many earthquakes down in America's penis.


And no, that doesn't make CA America's ass.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

 

Burgle

I have always liked the way those consonants sound together. Which is why, I hear from internationals, that english is so difficult to learn. Alot of our letters make different sounds and once you start combining 3 consonants, it's all over. One of my teachers in Costa Rica said that "shrimp" was very hard to learn how to say.

The CGSO EZ-Up arrived Monday and we finally set it up yesterday. It's HUGE! It's 10' x 15' and can be fairly tall also. And the emblems look great on it also. It was pricey, around $1200, but I know it will get lots of use and will give the chemistry department a much higher profile, especially since I personally am going to be taking it to any outdoor events that I attend, such as The Atlanta Drift Expo which is a week from Saturday. It will provide some shade and generate some word of mouth. Hopefully it isn't all just, "What the hell is the Clemson Chemistry Department doing here?" either. And who knows, maybe we'll get a few applicants that wouldn't have previously thought about going to Clemson. Now I just need to get some chairs to go underneath it. My old ones broke. Boo.

I'll get some pictures of the EZ-Up on Sat. We're going to try and document our events a little better and then put them up on our website which hasn't been worked on at all recently.

Off to be a good grad student.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

 

Do you see the light?

I realized a few days ago that I haven't told many stories on here. Some are good, some are weird, some are funny. They come from the different time periods and/or ocurrences in my life. Choir Tour, through my local Southern Baptist affiliated church, Dawson Memorial Baptist Church produced many stories. Dawson itself produced many stories. Some from Samford, many from the DR (actual country name found here).

So today we're going to start with one from choir tour. It is the summer trip or "tour" that Dawson's high school choir would embark upon every June or July. My four years we went to, in chronological order: Chicago, Boston/Toronto, San Antonio/New Orleans, Cincinatti. My favorites were the first 3. Cincinasty is a craphole, but we did go to a Reds game and ate at the Spaghetti Factory and I stole a dessert bowl that I use as my change dish. But they were all pretty cool, or as cool as church trips can be. But all my friends went and they made it worth all the singing and general religiosity.

All produced great stories but this particular story is from the Boston/Toronto trip, which might have actually happened third, my junior year, but I digress. So after the evening meal and we usually had a Bible study or something, we would retire to our rooms. And the chaperones would mostly go to sleep and the kids would stay up and general shenanigans ensue. For some reason, my friend's room became the epicenter for this evening's activities. So we have a room of 9-10 teenagers and nothing to do. So we start seeing how much money a certain act would require before someone would do it. I won't go into any details or mention too many, but I did get to see my first male douche that night. (Side note: On these trips we had Secret Santa's and you always wanted a friend or a cool guy because then you could get hilarious presents like douches, but I did get a very cool bookmark with my name on it. So that's where the douche came from.)

So after that, or maybe a different night, someone commented that they had never seen a fart lit on fire. I was in the "never seen it" camp. So a lighter was produced as was someone who could fart on command, a skill I was not blessed with. It worked. Amazingly well. And even through denim. At one point a stream of fire covered all of this guy's crotch. It was incredible and of course, we also did it with the lights out and it was like our own fireworks display.

If you have never seen such a thing, it might be difficult to find someone who can do it. I'm sure you could try, but would need a mirror or video camera. It is truly amazing. So if any tries to say that you can't, you tell them that you have 2nd person proof that it is possible and is everything you could ever imagine.

Monday, November 07, 2005

 

Aaaaaah, I feel better

My seminar went well. Not too many tough questions. The evaluations from the faculty said that I didn't have enough real chemistry in it, which is true, but I'm not too worried about it. It's done with and now I can focus on research again. Yay!

This morning I told J something that I had been hiding for a month or so. Nothing "relationship ending" as it only involves me and loosely her. If enough people want to know, I'll set up a time and put up a post for a few hours then take it down. It's a little too "illegal" to keep it up full time and the statute of limitations hasn't even started yet.

But we determined, or J discovered as I have always known, that she has more morals then I do in this one particular area. Namely stealing. The most stealing she would do was to eat the damaged items that Publix was going to throw away. And she was in high school. I have stolen significantly more. Lots of items from Samford University (and no I don't want to contribute any money, I don't have any), several candles and sconces from Illuminations, the candle store I worked at over Christmas one year, about 128 10 oz. sodas from the Wynfrey Hotel in Birmingham, and then something recent. I have never felt bad about any of this. I think that is one thing that being raised Southern Baptist taught me. I can rationalize the hell out of something. If you sin, you're going to hell. But if you rationalize that sin away, it isn't really a sin. Or so I thought and can pretty much convince myself of any flimsy rationalization if I really want to. Stealing from corporations and large businesses, and universities that I paid $16,000/year to attend, were very easy to rationalize.

Seth? What if you owned those businesses and someone was stealing from you? If I didn't catch them, that's my fault. I should be more diligent in my security. Hire more guards, install security systems, hire people to actually watch the security system.

I haven't ever put a value on how much I've stolen but it definitely hasn't been more than $1,000 from any place, so no grand larceny for me. I'm a nickel and dime theif. But I have been tempted to steal a car. You know how to steal a car? Not even a little, but when Joe Douchebag runs into the gas station to get some smokes and a sixer and leaves the keys in the ignition and the car running, my grandma could steal that car. And the majority of the time (the exception being a REALLY nice car) I would probably just drive it around the corner, or across the street, just to teach them a lesson, that you never know who is out here so don't leave your running car unattended, moron. The really nice cars I would take for a spin, just around the block and then bring it back.

Results from Sunday are up. I did pretty well. There were lots of awesome cars and drivers out yesterday so my 19th overall is pretty good. And check out the 50th car. That's my Focus! She is the girlfriend of one of the club officers and needed something easy to drive, i.e. no RWD, so she asked if she could co-drive my car. Sure, but now they owe me. And damn, I'm gonna have to give her some pointers next time. Results from Nov. 6th autocross

The NYC marathon was yesterday, not that I care or run, but the pictures are pretty cool.



The Winners!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

 

Another fallen hero

Vivian Malone Jones passed away on October 13th, 2005. She was 63 and is survived by a son, daughter and a grandson.

Vivian Malone was one of the first two black students to attend The University of Alabama. On June 11, 1963 Governor George Wallace stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium in an attempt to prevent the school from being integrated. With the help of the National Guard, the students were allowed to attend classes there and Vivian Malone became the first African-American woman to graduate from Alabama.


University of Alabama's Opening Doors, Opening Minds

Vivian Malone, Leading the Way

Civil rights pioneer Vivian Jones dies

And unfortunately, I heard nothing about this in the local or national news. But it was in The Week. Hopefully people in Alabama heard about this, at the very least. And hopefully no one will forget her and Rosa Park's legacies.

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