wombat_socho

This week has been pretty rough, and even though objectively I know I've gotten stuff done, here I am on Friday night thinking "What a waste of time this week was."

Missed one marketing class on account of instructor coming down with Swedish Death Flu or something, and one statistics class because the instructor was off doing...stuff. I don't know. Might as well have had class since I wound up meeting with my group to talk about the annoyingly vague project instructions and how we're going to make our database (DC/MD/VA unemployment numbers over the last decade) into an appropriately impressive chart with means, modes, medians, and all that other cool statistical stuff. Interesting trivia: our female group member is one of the handful of Koreans not surnamed Kim, Lee or Park. And to think I thought she was Mongolian. vOv

When I wasn't studying, sleeping, in class or otherwise performing acts of self-maintenance, I re-read Dies The Fire, The Protector's War, and A Meeting At Corvallis. I wonder if the last three novels of the Emberverse will be more like these, now that the quest that takes up the middle three novels is over.

Since HP's new CEO, Meg Whitman, hasn't yet reversed her dip-shit predecessor's decision on WebOS yet, you can find a lot of odds and ends for the phones and TouchPad for cheap. I picked up a spare battery, recharger/USB cable, and Touchstone recharger with case, since the Pixi's factory-applied rubberized back had been peeling off for a while and making the phone act weird. Had to take the Pixi into the local Sprint store to have the new case put on, since I have ten thumbs and can't understand simple pictorial directions, but they were cool about it and didn't charge me.


Not sure whether today's sluggishness is due to the return of the monsoons with fall, sleep cycle fuckery, or something trying to eat my leg. Thinking about going to Fan Appreciation Day on Sunday if I can score a cheap seat; it would have been good to see the Nats reprise their 2009 four-game sweep of the Hated Braves that ended that year's home season, but after tonight's 7-5 loss, that's not happening. I'll settle for a win on Sunday. And maybe some player autographs, since it's autograph Sunday.

...and now, your 4:23 of ZenJUCHE!

(h/t misterfuffie on e2)

Castro's Confession - IBD - Investors.com:

The Left: Fidel Castro stunned the world this week by admitting socialism had failed in Cuba. The implication of the dictator's statement is unclear, but one thing isn't: Castro's sycophants have some explaining to do.

Castro, now 84 and semi-retired, made a surprisingly lucid admission about how 52 years of communist dictatorship have ruined his country. "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore," he casually told the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, a reporter he summoned to Havana to tell him his thoughts.

Congratulations, you leftist pendejos. You've been sucking up to this murderous jerk for half a century now, and even he admits the "revolution" was a miserable failure. Who will your cult of personality fasten on now? The inept, bombastic Chavez, in Venezuela? The dictatorial Kims of North Korea, who seem hell-bent on starving their over-militarized country to death? Schadenfreude, bitches. I HAS IT. And it tastes almost as good as Mom's chili.
RTWT.

Johnny Rotten, Neocon Punk Rocker | The Weekly Standard:

Johnny Rotten, who is widely considered to embody the zenith of punk music and a former singer of the British band the Sex Pistols, issued the following statement to the Independent newspaper about his planned concert in Tel Aviv:

I really resent the presumption that I'm going there to play to right-wing Nazi jews [sic]. If Elvis-f-ing-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he's suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him. But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated.

Johnny Rotten. Smacking pretentious wankers upside the head since 1975. :)

DHS protects America from those infamous scourges of freedom: role-playing games and the traitors who play them.*

In other tales of terrorism, Maziar Bahari reports on how Revolutionary Guards really feel about America: “He hated me and he was jealous of me at the same time because I had been to New Jersey.” While the article is entertaining enough, there are some real prizes in the comments.

The same is true of this smackdown of racist thug Woodrow Wilson; the bus riding comments alone would be worth the price of admission, if they were charging any.

Honduras gives the finger to Hugo Chavez, the OAS, and the 0bama Administration, not necessarily in that order. More commentary and links at Fausta's blog and Babalu.

ESR comments on the whole Global Warmening conspiracy hack: "For those of you who have been stigmatizing AGW skeptics as “deniers” and dismissing their charges that the whole enterprise is fraudulent? Hope you like the taste of crow, because I do believe there’s a buttload of it coming at you. Piping hot."

*EDIT It occurred to me some hours after composing this post that this is literally true of Paranoia players. It's right there in the rules.

Ganked from Jules Crittenden.
( Yes, I am a bit of a nationalist. :) )

The Norks finally pop off a nuke. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe promises to get medieval on their ass. Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive expects that the PRC ain't gonna appreciate being faced by the Kid either, and brings the Photoshop love as well. On the other hand, Defensetech says it's a dud, but on the gripping hand the Reverend Sensing says "not so fast with the snark".

Meanwhile, back on the home front, it's another lazy day at the castle. Doing a little cleanup, hanging out in front of the computer, recharging the Palm, wasting time with bankers, that sort of thing. No plans for tonight, really. I may just hang around and catalog books until it's time to hit the rack.