Saturday, October 30, 2004

I've been practicing my Muni (off road/mountain unicycling for those of you who forgot) skills. I can jump with decent height to the right but not to the left yet. To the right I can hop up on railroad ties and other such things. I'm working on my skinny riding (on logs etc) and rolling jumps, as well as other such skills. Today I road with a group of people out at Soper's Mill (between Ames and Story City). I was easily the worst person there, but still had a lot of fun. I had some good falls and did something bad to my ankle trying to ride down a creek bed. I could still ride fine, but it sure is starting to hurt now. One day, I will have mad Muni skills.

I'm still working on the bus. The guy I bought it from isn't e-mailing me back, however, and I kind of need him to. Blast.

I figured out my Halloween costume. I'm going to wear a bathrobe, have a phone in one hand, and a vibrator in the other and be Bill O'rielly. I'm also going to strap a jar of peanuts over my junk under the robe, and randomly fling my robe open and yell "I'M FUCKING NUTS!!" ... it's going to rule. There are a few parties I'll be stopping by, so it's gonna be fun.

Speaking of right wing wackos, I saw Ann Coulter talk last night. She spent most of the night saying that racial profiling is good, making up a bunch of facts, attacking liberals as being "girls", making fun of the french, calling Germans Nazi's ("of course Germany wouldn't want to remove a dictator that gasses his own people"), etc etc. She's a crazy crazy bitch, and she got standing ovations many times from the crowd. There is a reason terrorists hate Americans... Oh yea, she also said Bill O'rielly isn't conservative. Right...

The night before I saw Capitol Steps with Qehn and my Dad. It was a good time. Wooh!

Posted by Seager @ 05:15 PM CST Link |

I have a pretty big update, but I'm tired, so I'll leave you with this until tomorrow.

I don't really know what to think of this development.

I wish my dog would chase a ball :(

Posted by Seager @ 03:36 AM CST Link |

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Well... I got my bus, finally. I'm hoping it's just a fuel relay problem. I've been doing some work on the electrical system and I've made a tiny bit of progress. *sigh* Slow going. I need the damn guy that I bought it from to fucking e-mail me back. Oh, and the tow up here from where it was broken down at was extremely expensive. What an asshole.

I finally built my offroad unicycle (muni) last Thursday and went out on a ride with Mark today. I need to practice a lot. I can almost rolling hop some logs and almost not die going down some hills. Unfortunately, just as I was getting my muni-legs one of my cranks came lose and we had to call it a day. Blast.

I've been having fun clicker training Georgia Clinton. She's learning stuff. WOOOH! We have fun daily walks/muni rides out into the harvested bean field behind our house. She likes running around out there.

I have to sleep and pee. Not in that order. Peels and eep. Peesleep.

Palindromes that aren't really palindromes are fun.

Posted by Seager @ 05:11 AM CST Link |

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

My Boinka.com connection came through and ripped THE ENTIRE Michael Moore moshpit clip for me in DIVX. At times the audio is just a bit off, but that may have just been my shitty system. It's well worth watching if you haven't seen it.

Download - 114 megs (It's a big file, please don't link to it or our server will die and Josh will kill me. It will probably be up for a limited time. You are all welcome to mirror it for me.)

If case you are wondering, I'm the second stage diver at minute 4:12 and the shirtless long haired guy in the center from minutes 5:00 to 5:10. Josh (of Chegg) can be seen at minute 7:50 stage diving.

Despite the short clip, we were at that for two days, skipping school, and having snowball fights. The actual e-mail I wrote at the time will be found very soon.

Posted by Seager @ 03:44 PM CST Link |

I just rode home in 45 degree drizzle wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I had rain gear and warmer gear, but it didn't really seem worth the trouble to put on. I need to get my cold tolerance up anyway. It was one of those freezing cold experiences that helps you know you're alive. It being 6:30am didn't hurt either.

I just watched half of Kill Bill at a coworker's house after work. Figured I should probably leave though and get to bed. I'm SUPPOSED to get my bus this morning around 8am. That means I probably ought to sleep.

In response to Katy's comment - Rush Limbaugh or Hannity is a better comparison to Moore than Coulter. Possibly even Glen Beck - that guy at least makes me laugh. Coulter is REALLY out there. Kind of like the right's version of a PETA fanatic, 'cept she probably doesn't run over puppies with a steam roller, which I suppose that comparison would imply. Jesus Christ people, SHE THINKS WOMAN SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO VOTE! Click the extended entry for more Coulter quotes. Sorry, no source on these - but you can google 'em I'm sure.

Speaking of PETA, check out Peta TV. If you look to the right of the page and a little down you see "PETA's wildest summer." IT'S VEGAN PORN!!!

I don't know why I chose to pick on PETA tonight. The first link really makes me chuckle though. Talk about missing the point entirely.

Posted by Seager @ 06:58 AM CST Link |

Monday, October 18, 2004

Second post of the night. My perusing of Boinka.com has led me to some important news items. I just had to post them tonight despite already posting a rather long entry earlier. (below)

Maya Keyes, who's father Alan Keyes called Mary Cheney a selfish hedonist for being a lesbian, is, *gasp* a lesbian?!?
boink source | web source one | web source two
Probably not the most important news ever, but funny anyway. True? Possibly...

Also, Patrick Stewart LOVES Beavis and Butthead. As an owner of every episode ever made, I heartily agree with this endorsement.

Posted by Seager @ 02:57 AM CST Link |

5ish years ago I met Michael Moore when he did his traveling Mosh Pit in Ames. I don't really feel like telling the story, but if you rent season two of the Awful Truth you'll see me moshing without a shirt on in the winter and crowd surfing Alan Keys. No, really. I managed to find some random clips on the internet, but not the entire thing. *sigh* When I find my original e-mail of my story of what happened I'll post it. When I find it. Anyway, random clips:

From Unofficial Michael Moore:
Intro.mov
Bush.mov

And from Boinka.com:
Crowd Surfing Alan Keys (divx) (Locally hosted so I don't destroy Mr. Boinka.com's server - where this came from)

My point is, the people I met on this trip my freshman year at ISU really turned me on to what was actually happening in the world and politics. Talk does a lot more than people say it does. Talking opens minds. That's why you should never stop ranting, they opened my mind, I've opened minds since, and now those people are opening minds. NEVER BE QUIET. That being said, Michael Moore himself seems to be filling a different niche' now than he did five years ago.

I went and saw him speak tonight, and it really wasn't all that impressive to me. He's moved from appealing to intellectuals to appealing to more of the masses. Now, this used to be something I thought was unintentional. The glaring half-truths in F911 and Bowling used to bother me, because I thought they were detracting from his very true message and he was just getting carried away. Now I think it's just that people like me are no longer his target. He's moved to being more of a pep rally cheer leader. And really, he's probably more effective for his cause, although a little less honorable/ethical. I don't know if I agree with this new direction - well, scratch that - I KNOW I don't agree with this new direction, but at least now I believe he's doing it on purpose rather than by accident. This, for some reason, puts me more at ease. He knows EXACTLY what he's doing, and frankly, I'm glad he's here to balance out the Hannitys and Ann Coulters. I'd rather no extreme spinning liars exist, but at least we have on on our side now.

I think Moore is in a conundrum. I think he could be effective while being 100% honest at getting people to agree with him. (The evidence against Bush is damning enough on it's own.) Unfortunately, agreeing with him doesn't make people vote or do anything. He has to get them angry, hence the sensationalism. It's not the way I think the world should be run. But, again, it's better than just having sensationalists on the RIGHT. We don't have the moral high ground, but at least things are balanced.

Oh yea, speaking of balanced, Ann Coulter is coming to speak at ISU soon. For $30,000. (They paid Moore $4,000) Saying Ann Coulter balances Moore is like saying a Nuclear Bomb with an attitude problem balances out a sling shot. ANN COULTER IS A CRAZY PSYCHO BITCH!

It's the classic Monkey Vs. Robot battle. Moore = Monkey. Coulter = Robot. (editors note: Ann Coulter being an evil republican robot is not an idea that is new or original.) Except in this case the monkey would rather pick flowers and the robot is crazy, has lazer beam boobies, and takes it up the ass from Hitler. Thankfully, the only people who take her seriously have got to be the historical Pat Buchanan supporters, and it's not like they'd ever vote left anyway.

(Hell, they're probably too busy at Clan meetings to vote, period.)

Posted by Seager @ 02:18 AM CST Link |

Sunday, October 17, 2004

John Stewart recently went on Crossfire and ripped them a new one. He did what we all wish we had the chance to do. He went on a show where they expected him to be a funny man and instead he bitched about how the media is worthless and how crossfire "is hurting America." You can download it here. If that doesn't work click "Entry Extension GO NOW!" below.

This is quite possibly the best thing you will watch this year. Hands down. The transcript really doesn't do it justice. If it hadn't been live it would never have been aired.

As for the rest of the world, my work schedule is going to get a little shifted around, I'm not sure exactly how yet, or if I like that. We'll see. It may suck less, it may suck more, I'm not sure.

El Zacho visited tonight and last weekend on his way to/returning from Colorado for the week. (He lives in Chicago now) We had fun. I drank some beer, not really for the sake of drinking beer but more for the sake of drinking 'til my the nasty burn on my hand that I got at work today stopped hurting. That only took a couple, so I'm not sure they really had anything to do with it. I may just be metal*. I worked today to help out a coworker that got hosed. It wasn't so bad the first few hours, but the last few I really regretted doing it. Ah, well. It paid off my speakers and unicycle...

Tomorrow I get my frame from George (I hope) so I can build my muni wheel. WEEE! aaaaand.. still no bus. Booooo!

* I have no idea what that picture is off, but she's wearing an ISU sweatshirt. That pictures pops up if you search for "Death Monkey" in google images. I take no responsibility.

Posted by Seager @ 04:25 AM CST Link |

Friday, October 15, 2004

I just got some bitchin' new computer speakers. Since my computer is no longer hooked up to my mega-huge stereo like it was back in the days of yor I've finally broken down (after over a year) and bought some nice computer speakers. I have a soundblaster Audigy EX (for recording purposes), but I decided to not get the a 5.1 system even though I could support it (5.1 was cheaper, even). I don't really game much, nor do I watch movies up here. I went with a 2.1 system that was higher quality for music and don't regret it. These speakers are awesome. What I read about the 5.1 systems in the same price range was that they aren't that great for music. Thus, I bought the Creative Intrigue 3300 for ~$100. They are damn sweet. I've never heard some of my music this good before. I'm currently testing them with Brian Wilson's Smile (thanks Ben), and earlier I stretched 'em with some Bjork and the original matrix soundtrack. All around sexiness! If I'd had 350-500 bucks to throw around I would have gotten a pimped out 5.1 system by Klipsch or something nicer. Yay budget! Yay being good e-fucking-nough!

For your regularly scheduled "under the radar" aka "I stole this from the strangetalk politics forum" update, Bush had a stroke? Well, it does explain a lot, like his alleged third debate drooling problem. (I say alleged because I didn't see it. I was streaming the debate audio at work via NPR webcast) We love internet rumors here at PlasticPenis. By "we" I mean YOU CAN GO TO HELL!! Thank you, please drive through.

In domestic news, you're a whore.

We love hostility here at PlasticPenis. By "we" I mean THIS JOKE IS GETTING OLD!

I'll stop now.

Posted by Seager @ 06:32 PM CST Link |

Thursday, October 14, 2004

A few notes:

My bus is not here yet. I shall call them tomorrow. Slackers.

Bill O'Rielly is a creepy-ass sex fiend. Ewe. YOU MUST READ THIS!

We streamed what we could of the third debate tonight at work (thanks npr.) Same 'ol same 'ol. Bush sucks. Kerry sucks less.

Some republicans with no scruples (no redundant jokes, please) have taken it upon themselves to do some rather heinous voter fraud in Nevada and Oregon. -- this election is not going to be pretty.

If you think you left a comment here, but it doesn't show up, hit refresh on your browser before you leave it again.

And, last but not least, I am apparently normal:

Category III - The Regular
Jo(e)

You are the quintessential standard conjured by the
word 'Friend'.


What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT PICTURE SUPPOSED TO BE?

Posted by Seager @ 05:38 AM CST Link |

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

My resting heart rate is around 47 bpm right now. I'm suprised because I consider myself out of shape at the moment.

Well... Out of shape for me, that is. Probably not compared to the average McDonalds customer.

I'm curious to see how this compares to other people's.

Posted by Seager @ 05:59 AM CST Link |

Monday, October 11, 2004

My broken down bus might finally make it to Ames tomorrow. (Monday) Wooh!

Oh yea, in my absence I bought a bus. It was for RAGBRAI. It broke down shortly after I bought it - it didn't even make it to Ames. *le sigh*

Well, I might get it to Ames finally tomorrow so that I can start fixing it.

Anyway:

That's better.

Posted by Seager @ 02:34 AM CST Link |

Saturday, October 9, 2004

(tonight I post an entry very similar to one that would be posted by a braindead aoler with good politics and warez connections.)

And... Scene!

..........................

I recently got my winamp to play real audio files and quicktime files. That rules. It'll be useful for later too. ALLUSION!!!!

Zach is visiting tonight. We set up two TV's so Mark, Qehndrah, Zach and I could play smash brothers at the same time we watched the presidential debates. (note the symbolism) Bush got his ass kicked again, but did deliver some zingers. Kerry had a good one where he said "you can get away with not living in a real world when you're a red socks fan, but not if your a president" and "something something compassionate conservative, you're 0-2 Mr. President!" Later Bush zinged back with "Want to buy some wood?" (no, really, he did.)

It was a pretty good zing. In context. Really.

Ok. Sorry. They're both stupid motherfuckers. I know. You have to give Bush some credit for not using sign language during the debate like his cousin Coco the gorilla. He must have been coached well. On a related note - Dick Cheney kicks puppies. No, really. He eats children too, which may be a good trait depending on who you talk to, but no one likes a puppy kicker.

Speaking of kicking babies... STEM CELLS!!!!!!! Boy Bush dropped the ball on one. Did you know that there are bunch of stem cell at fertility clinics that can't legally be destroyed or have research done on them, so the private citizens have no choice but to pay to have them stored, and they're spending out the ass? True story. I have no source for you, but a med student told me that this summer. Google it or something if feel the need. Personally, I think that fact that people who don't understand science are legislating this research is reason enough to call bullshit. It doesn't take a degree in Microbiology to see that stem cells research is good. (It probably helps though.)

Jesse Klein's CNN blogs of the debates are hilarious. Especially the blog of first one.

THIS IS A MOVIE of some guy in the house of reps owning Bush on why no one believes him about the draft. Watch it. Oh, it's a .mov, but you can play it in winamp (wooooh!! ALLUSION COMES TRUE!!!) if you have the right plugins. (We all know quicktime sucks)

*cough* and *cough*

(that second cough goes in your winamp plugins directory)

fo real media, G

Uhm... don't spend it all in one place.

Remember, Kerry may be a dipshit, but at least he isn't an evil two headed monkey who kicks puppies with lazer beams for genitals.

THIS JUST IN!! BUSH PUTS NAILS IN VAGINAS!! "NO SEX FO U, B1TCH!! EYE HATE FUN AND 0RGANPR0N!!"

I don't know what that means, but I think it's bad. Vote Kerry.

............
End Scene!

*applause*

Posted by Seager @ 03:59 AM CST Link |

Sunday, October 3, 2004

In case some of you missed this. This is a personal e-mail sent from a wall street journalist to his buddies. Unpublished.
This is the best story I've read from Iraq.

source

Seems real enough...
--------------Quote----------

From: [Wall Street Journal reporter] Farnaz Fassihi
Subject: From Baghdad

Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under
virtual house arrest. Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.

Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am house bound. I leave when I have a very good reason to and a scheduled interview. I avoid going to people's homes and never walk in the streets. I can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for stories, can't drive in any thing but a full armored car, can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling. And can't and can't. There has been one too many close calls, including a car bomb so near our house that it blew out all the windows. So now my most pressing concern every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive and make sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel first, a reporter second.

It's hard to pinpoint when the 'turning point' exactly began. Was it April
when the Fallujah fell out of the grasp of the Americans? Was it when Moqtada and Jish Mahdi declared war on the U.S. military? Was it when
Sadr City, home to ten percent of Iraq's population, became a nightly battlefield for the Americans? Or was it when the insurgency began
spreading from isolated pockets in the Sunni triangle to include most of Iraq? Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a
foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come.

Iraqis like to call this mess 'the situation.' When asked 'how are thing?' they reply: 'the situation is very bad."

What they mean by situation is this: the Iraqi government doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and injuring scores of innocent people, the
country's roads are becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of
landmines and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health -- which was attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers -- has now stopped disclosing them.

Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.

A friend drove thru the Shiite slum of Sadr City yesterday. He said young men were openly placing improvised explosive devices into the ground. They melt a shallow hole into the asphalt, dig the explosive, cover it with dirt and put an old tire or plastic can over it to signal to the locals this is booby-trapped. He said on the main roads of Sadr City, there
were a dozen landmines per every ten yards. His car snaked and swirled to avoid driving over them. Behind the walls sits an angry Iraqi ready to detonate them as soon as an American convoy gets near. This is in Shiite land, the population that was supposed to love America for liberating Iraq.

For journalists the significant turning point came with the wave of abduction and kidnappings. Only two weeks ago we felt safe around Baghdad because foreigners were being abducted on the roads and highways between towns. Then came a frantic phone call from a journalist female friend at 11 p.m. telling me two Italian women had been abducted from their homes in broad daylight. Then the two Americans, who got beheaded this week and the Brit, were abducted from their homes in a residential neighborhood. They were supplying the entire block with round the clock electricity from their generator to win friends. The abductors grabbed one of them at 6 a.m. when he came out to switch on the generator; his beheaded body was thrown back near the neighborhoods.

The insurgency, we are told, is rampant with no signs of calming down. If any thing, it is growing stronger, organized and more sophisticated every day. The various elements within it-baathists, criminals, nationalists and Al Qaeda-are cooperating and coordinating.

I went to an emergency meeting for foreign correspondents with the military and embassy to discuss the kidnappings. We were somberly told our fate would largely depend on where we were in the kidnapping chain once it was determined we were missing. Here is how it goes: criminal gangs grab you and sell you up to Baathists in Fallujah, who will in turn sell you to Al Qaeda. In turn, cash and weapons flow the other way from Al Qaeda to the Baathisst to the criminals. My friend Georges, the French journalist snatched on the road to Najaf, has been missing for a month with no word on release or whether he is still alive.

America's last hope for a quick exit? The Iraqi police and National Guard
units we are spending billions of dollars to train. The cops are being
murdered by the dozens every day-over 700 to date -- and the insurgents are infiltrating their ranks. The problem is so serious that the U.S. military has allocated $6 million dollars to buy out 30,000 cops they just trained to get rid of them quietly.

As for reconstruction: firstly it's so unsafe for foreigners to operate that
almost all projects have come to a halt. After two years, of the $18
billion Congress appropriated for Iraq reconstruction only about $1 billion or so has been spent and a chuck has now been reallocated for improving security, a sign of just how bad things are going here.

Oil dreams? Insurgents disrupt oil flow routinely as a result of sabotage
and oil prices have hit record high of $49 a barrel. Who did this war exactly benefit? Was it worth it? Are we safer because Saddam is holed up and Al Qaeda is running around in Iraq?

Iraqis say that thanks to America they got freedom in exchange for
insecurity. Guess what? They say they'd take security over freedom any day, even if it means having a dictator ruler.

I heard an educated Iraqi say today that if Saddam Hussein were allowed to run for elections he would get the majority of the vote. This is truly sad.

Then I went to see an Iraqi scholar this week to talk to him about
elections here. He has been trying to educate the public on the importance of voting. He said, "President Bush wanted to turn Iraq into a democracy that would be an example for the Middle East. Forget about democracy, forget about being a model for the region, we have to salvage Iraq before all is lost."

One could argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation. For those of us on the ground it's hard to imagine what if any thing could salvage it from its violent downward spiral. The genie of terrorism, chaos and mayhem has been unleashed onto this country as a result of American mistakes and it can't be put back into a bottle.

The Iraqi government is talking about having elections in three months
while half of the country remains a 'no go zone'-out of the hands of the
government and the Americans and out of reach of journalists. In the other half, the disenchanted population is too terrified to show up at polling stations. The Sunnis have already said they'd boycott elections, leaving the stage open for polarized government of Kurds and Shiites that will not be deemed as legitimate and will most certainly lead to civil war.

I asked a 28-year-old engineer if he and his family would participate in
the Iraqi elections since it was the first time Iraqis could to some degree
elect a leadership. His response summed it all: "Go and vote and risk being blown into pieces or followed by the insurgents and murdered for cooperating with the Americans? For what? To practice democracy? Are you joking?"

-Farnaz
--------------------------------------End-------------------------
Remember when bush said the training of the cops was going well?

Posted by Seager @ 04:01 AM CST Link |

Sweet, I got to eat that one dudes brain!

Posted by Seager @ 02:19 AM CST Link |