Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed

A brief reprieve from the serious, let's talk about how to maintain high productivity through musical interlude and multi-tasking. Let's talk about how to get the lyrics to your favourite songs at your favourite moments so that you can turn any workplace into your best Karaoke performance ever. Let's talk about Underwear outside the pants and policies not strictly enforced. Let's talk about Amararok a great MP3 player developed in concert with the folks who brought you KDE.

LAZYBOY LYRICS

Underwear Goes Inside The Pants

Why is marijuana not legal? Why is marijuana not legal?
It's a natural plant that grows in the dirt.
Do you know what's not natural?
80 year old dudes with hard-ons. That's not natural.
But we got pills for that.
We're dedicating all our medical resources to keeping the old guys erect,
but we're putting people in jail for something that grows in the dirt?

You know we have more prescription drugs now.
Every commercial that comes on TV is a prescription drug ad.
I can't watch TV for four minutes without thinking I have five serious diseases.
Like: "Do you ever wake up tired in the morning?"
Oh my god I have this, write this down. Whatever it is, I have it.
Half the time I don't even know what the commercial is:
people running in fields or flying kites or swimming in the ocean.
I'm like that is the greatest disease ever. How do you get that?
That disease comes with a hot chick and a puppy.

The schools now: It is all about self-esteem in the schools now.
Build the kids' self-esteem, make them feel good about themselves.
If everybody grows up with high self-esteem, who is going to dance in our strip clubs?
What's going to happen to our porno industry?
These women don't just grow on trees.
It takes lots of drunk dads missing dance recitals before you decide to blow a goat on the internet for fifty bucks.
And if that disappears, where does that leave me on a Friday night with my new high speed connection?

Masterminds are another word that comes up all the time.
You keep hearing about these terrorists masterminds that get killed in the middle east.
Terrorists masterminds.
Mastermind is sort of a lofty way to describe what these guys do, don't you think?
They're not masterminds.
"OK, you take bomb, right? And you put in your backpack. And you get on bus and you blow yourself up. Alright?"
"Why do I have to blow myself up? Why can't I just:"
"Who's the fucking mastermind here? Me or you?"

Americans, let's face it: We've been a spoiled country for a long time.
Do you know what the number one health risk in America is?
Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic.
An epidemic like it is polio. Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day.
The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004.
"How'd you get through it grandpa?"
"Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere."

Nobody knows why were getting fatter? Look at our lifestyle.
I'll sit at a drive thru.
I'll sit there behind fifteen other cars instead of getting up to make the eight foot walk to the totally empty counter.
Everything is mega meal, super sized. Want biggie fries, super sized, want to go large.
You want to have thirty burgers for a nickel you fat mother fucker. There's room in the back. Take it!
Want a 55 gallon drum of Coke with that? It's only three more cents.

Sometimes you have to suffer a little bit in your youth to motivate yourself to succeed in later life.
Do you think if Bill Gates got laid in high school, do you think there'd be a Microsoft?
Of course not.
You got to spend a long time in your own locker with your underwear shoved up your ass before you start to think,
"You'll see. I'm going to take of the world of computers! I'll show them."

We're in one of the richest countries in the world,
but the minimum wage is lower than it was thirty five years ago.
There are homeless people everywhere.
This homeless guy asked me for money the other day.
I was about to give it to him and then I thought he was going to use it on drugs or alcohol.
And then I thought, that's what I'm going to use it on.
Why am I judging this poor bastard.
People love to judge homeless guys. Like if you give them money they're just going to waste it.
Well, he lives in a box, what do you want him to do? Save it up and buy a wall unit?
Take a little run to the store for a throw rug and a CD rack? He's homeless.
I walked behind this guy the other day.
A homeless guy asked him for money.
He looks right at the homeless guy and says why don't you go get a job you bum.
People always say that to homeless guys like it is so easy.
This homeless guy was wearing his underwear outside his pants.
Outside his pants. I'm guessing his resume isn't all up to date.
I'm predicting some problems during the interview process.
I'm pretty sure even McDonalds has a "underwear goes inside the pants" policy.
Not that they enforce it really strictly, but technically I'm sure it is on the books.

How did I know that these were the Lyrics you ask?

Because much of the world's best poetry is simply a random shuffle away. Downloading is simple, the necessary components of the KDE (desktop) will be installed by using your package manager (whether that be Synaptic Package Manager, yum, FreeBSD ports or Adept) if you are a Gnome desktopper or something else. If you are using KDE you probably already have Amarok under the multimedia menu.

Load it up and shake it down. This music machine is going to rock your town.

The context menu allows constant great selections from your MP3 collections. The Lyrics load with the touch of a button and if it was a tiny bit more stable I'd go into production.

Get this thing and put your underwear on like you just don't care.

A perfect MP3 player for humanity and best of all its open source and free!

There are come caveats though..

1. it isn't quite as stable as I'd like, as it crashes occasionally while rebuilding my music collection,
2. isn't available in a binary distribution for windows or MacOSX, so you windows users will have to compile it yourselves, and
   
3. has trouble understanding that when I plug in a peripheral like my camera it doesn't need to manage it (although apparently this is a feature that I can fix through excessive meddling with the settings).

On the plus side,

1. random mode keeps track of whether you skip music part way through playing, and scores files in a artificial intelligence style learning process about your collection,
   
2. intuitive gui interface allowing for substantial updating of your collection's tags while listening, and
   
3. Amarok's motto of "rediscover your music" accurately describes how I have renewed my interaction with an old collection of music as a result of Amarok's excellent features.
   

The feature list as described by Amarok's creators:

• Quick and simple drag and drop playlist creation
• Super eye-candy interface
• Multiple backends supported ( xine, helix and NMM)
• 10 band equalizer
• Automatic cover art download using Amazon services
• The unique and powerful Context Browser
• Automatic play-statistics generation (iRate style)
• Full lyrics download
• Read about your bands with embedded wikipedia browsing!
• Funky visualisations from libvisual and XMMS
• KDE integration
• Streaming MP3 streams, including Last.fm streams.
• Crossfading
• Podcasting Support
• Fully configurable translucent OSD for track changes
• K3B (CD-burning) integration
• Style your Context Browser with custom CSS styles
• Save space in your Context Browser with collapsable boxes
• Show the Context Browser without Amarok open through the Konqueror sidebar!
• Full support for Last.FM! Share your music taste with friends on the net
• Generate dynamic playlists based on last.fm suggestions
• Support for SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases ensuring fast collection access
• Support for your iPod, iRiver, PlaysForSure, NJB, and generic USB device with the all new media-browser
• Powerful scripting interface, allowing for easy extension of Amarok
• Complete DCOP access
• Translated into more than 50 languages, thanks to the KDE localization team.

Wow all that for Free!

PS: If you are addicted to random consumer expenditures, Amarok comes with its very own music store, where you too can spend more and more and buy the tunes you hear pumpin' next door or Not!

Labels: alternatives, leftist content creation, new media critique, opinion, tools

What the ....?

A 10% increase and they still don't have enough money to perform the basic functions they are instructed, by our government, to carry out. Functions like run the regularly scheduled patrols of our ocean borders?

We need to get out of the Persian Gulf part of the Iraq War mission. We must get out of Afghanistan.

The United States (the world's largest military power and supposedly our largest ally) continues to threaten our human rights. Is our military prepared to defend the environment? Why is it that illegal fishing such as drag-netting is a lower priority than enforcing an oil-embargo against a now deposed Iraqi regime (the reason given when we sent ships to the gulf)?

We may not even have the basic patrols to assert sovereignty over our territory that the United States is fundamentally changing with their intolerable disregard for our Earth. Meanwhile our government re-announces programs cut from the agenda of a prior governments that did nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Check this campaign at ceasefire.ca:

Dear Prime Minister Harper:

I do not agree with Canada's military role in Afghanistan. I urge you to end Canada's combat mission, and work with our allies and the Afghan government to establish a comprehensive peace process for the country.

A 10% increase in military spending is a shameful legacy of your new government. Please do not allow this excessive increase in military spending to threaten other vital programs.

Thank you.

Labels: anti-war, democracy, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, human rights abuse, leftist content creation, online campaign, opinion

Chilean office workers told to shun neckties to ease air conditioning costs is an idea that is anything but the Oddity that the CBC has labeled this story as. The idea of forcing people to wear clothing appropriate for a British winter in the middle of a southern hemisphere summer is ridiculous. What is worse is then air conditioning to make up for it.

If we are forced to chose between planet earth and the fashion norms of the past I choose a future with creative new ideas free from global warming. Now if only we can give up coal, gas-fired and nuclear as power generation sources. Not in British Columbia. At least the NDP are calling Gordon Campbell on this insanity.

Labels: bcmedia, democracy, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, health, nuclear waste, opinion, public power

Wikipedia is where it's at. And not just because of this majestic photo of the sometimes overly degraded 'skyrat.'

The photo, in focus and colour of the stunningly beautiful common Western Gull is reproduced courtesy of the GNU Free Documentation License. The photo credit goes to Daniel Shwen.

The photos below are my feeble attempts at gull watching. The bird is of the same species but you just can't tell can you. It is definitely a juvenile as the colouring represents the immaturity. A friend noticed the waves are fake and this made me chuckle. This inspired me to wonder, and for those that come after me...

Sitting alone atop the First Church
of Christ, Scientist on Pandora St.
may find the waves you sit amongst are wooden,
lonely and provide absolutely nothing to eat.
The colour washed out of your perch,
deprived of the path for which I search
Am I too old for still pecking the spot on my parent's beek?
Where is the stability and life I seek.

Why can't I come down from here... ?

Labels: faith, kitten, personal story

According, to intensive research done on you the reader only about 50% of you are idiots. Busy beaver stats created by Awstats show that exactly 49.7% of the hits on this blog were from people using Internet Explorer.

Now, I can forgive the 2.9% of you who are using Internet Explorer 7. You are clearly a thinking person, wrong in your ways, but a thinking person who has made a choice is sticking to it like a Liberal voter and upgraded recently to fend off the inevitable attacks from well publicized security holes and breaches.

But those 42% of you using Internet Explorer 6.... what are you thinking? You must just be lazy not as stupid as you appear. Maybe it is your employer. Are they making you use IE 6? Quit. Find a real job.

Luckily, I have a better solution for you Internet Explorer users that will smarten you right up.




It is free and better than smoked wild salmon... what are you waiting for. Don't be one of the idiot majority, be a part of the great minority. Download Firefox today.

Labels: anti-microsoft, internal, opinion

This article about how Democrats want the draft reinstated needs substantial follow-up and research. Democratic policy inconsistency should be clearly examined and critiqued and what better time than now, two years out from a Presidential election, with a new house and senate majority. No one should fall into the trap of expecting Democrats to be intrinsically against the War machine. We need to know now where Democrats stand and where the Democratic presidential hopefuls stand on the draft and the continuation of war.

The following quote "Smart Border Declaration of 2001 provides for U.S.-Canadian cooperation to return American citizens stateside" from this article had me wondering if this was true. This sourced document from FactCheck.org says this claim is a hoax. Although, it does go on to state that 14 Democrats co-sponsored Democratic Representative Rangel's pro-draft legislative bill referred to in the story in the first paragraph.

A clear unequivocal statement from the Democratic leadership opposing the war both in Afghanistan and Iraq and distancing itself from a draft would be very welcome. One way to do this would be to introduce legislation into the senate repealing the Military Selective Services Act the draft empowerment legislation. Watching to see the stances of democratic presidential senatorial potentials Obama, Clinton and Edwards will be very interesting indeed.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, democracy, opinion, unfolding

Most people hold beliefs, ideas and concepts that are clearly wrong when tested logically. Skeptics and humanists have often pursued rigorous logical examinations of these clearly false ideas to encourage the scientific method.

This kind of strict logical analysis is often unacceptably harsh on those who have spent most of their lives believing that which is obviously false. It is hard to admit that you have made decisions without logic as a base. Many people would rather cling to ideas that are incomplete, wrong or wrongheaded than allow themselves to be educated with the cost of ridiculing their past.

The following eight questions about whether you are really a Christian from Way of the Mind:

1. Do you believe homosexuals should be killed? Not just “they’re going to hell”, but actually executed?
2. Do you believe women are inferior to men, should remain submissive, and can never be allowed to teach men or have authority over them?
3. Do you believe slavery is OK?
4. Do you believe disobedient children should be killed?
5. Do you believe that, when waging war, it is proper to commit genocide, killing every man, woman and child in the enemy nation — except for, in some particular cases, female virgins, who can be taken as “spoils”?
6. Do you believe that anyone who suggests to a Christian that he follow other gods should be killed?
7. Do you believe that an old grandmother, who lived a life of caring for others, bringing joy to dozens, will be condemned to an afterlife of eternal suffering if she didn’t accept Jesus as her savior?
8. Do you believe that there are cases in which a raped woman should be killed along with, or even instead of, the rapist?

Is a dangerous way of changing people's minds. Of course the questions are both funny and apropos. The strict teachings of Christianity are no longer acceptable in our world. Those who believe a watered down version can rightly be asked:

1. What do you really believe and why?
   
2. Aren't there substantial internal contradictions within your faith?
   
3. Don't these contradictions make you doubt your entire faith?

A progressive teaching of Christianity and for that matter a modern teaching of Islam and Judaism don't openly accept the above listed tenants. Using the logical fallacy of thinking in extremes may question the hypocrisy of the majority of believers, but those who do it should realize that there is a danger that the people confronted with in the extreme may blindly go back to their religious teachings and accept a more absolute and arbitrary renewed belief in their faith as an answer. Many people believe ideas without having ever examined why or how they came to these beliefs. Many more do not have any capacity to undertake such an examination. It is extremist understandings of faith that ultimately are much more dangerous to truth than debatable ideas that can come as a result of a respectful conversation in which forms of gentle logical persuasion may be established.

So, the alternative is a middle path. While skeptics must continue to ask tough questions and not abandon that which is clearly true to avoid offending. These questions should not be asked without teaching an alternative at the same time. It isn't enough to remind believers in the idiocy of an arbitrarily pure interpretation of faith. Those who have had access to alternate interpretations of our existence must make every effort to establish rigorously how that alternative exists.

We should understand the tenants of faith that those around us hold in a compassionate and in-depth manner while gently ridiculing our idealogical opponents towards understanding.

Labels: alternatives, faith, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, opinion, scary technology