Bits of Life

Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Christmas has become an interesting time of year for me. I guess I'm a bit grown up, because I was more excited to give my wife gifts than about what I might be getting.

My brother and sister-in-law were in from Portland Oregon and we had a blast. My aunt & uncle were down from Minnesota with their 3 kids. Its great, we played lots of Settler's of Cataan. Great game.

I held back and didn't give any presents to Katrina early, but I really wanted to.

I got a great game called Dominion. You build an empire with cards. Its easy to learn, fast to play and great fun for 2-4 people.

This Christmas was nice. I got to spend time with people I loved and I was very thankful for that. It helps me realize how truly blessed I am.

I'm so thankful for a family that loves and cares like mine.

I can't add...

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:13:00 +0000

Blessed are the land-mines
Stretched across the desert floor
God, bless the hands that formed them
Filled their shrapnel hearts with war
May You bless the companies
The goose that laid the golden egg
May they make a million more
Blowing off a million legs
Blessed are the black-tongued ravens
Substituting fear for reason
To hate war is to hate us
If you love peace, then you must love treason
Beat your plowshares into swords
Beat your pulpits, turn your tables
Blessed are the hand-grenades
Bless the church who rattles sabers

This house, is burning
This poison still is worming
This temple, will cave in
There's nothing here worth saving

Nail the gold up to the altar
Like Ahab taunts his crew to war
Blessed are the shareholders
Lack of faith is for the poor
Hold your wallets to the sky
A temple built to sooth yourself
Blessed is the church who tries
To help you build blessed wealth

"Blessed are the land mines"
Written by: Reese Roper
Performed by Brave Saint Saturn

The road to hell...

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:25:00 +0000

Will be paved with the proponents of the prosperity gospel. Yes, I'll say it. God will have more mercy on well, most anyone else.

Adventures in Computing

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:39:00 +0000

My wife's older laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1100, has been running slow for ages. Doing some internet research I learned those computers were notorious for overheating which lead to running slow.

To remedy this I replaced the conducting grease and bought a cooling pad. These helped keep it from overheating and shutting down, but it still ran slow.

I upgraded the ram from 640mb (yes, 640) to 1gb. This too helped some.

I stripped the computer of all but its essentials. Windows XP, plus maybe 3 gigs of other stuff was sucking up 13 gigs of HD space.

So, after copying an ubuntu liveCD and testing it, I decided that was the route to go.

Well, if only it had been that simple. I had forgotten that I experimented with ubuntu, and I installed Xubuntu. Very similar. In fact, from what I understand, the guts are the same, its just the GUI that is different with Ubuntu using GNOME and Xubuntu using XFCE.

Long story short, XFCE isn't playing well with this laptop. I wondered why a stupid Facebook game was sucking up so much memory (330mb? For farmville????) and processor power.

Well, it turns out, the GPU isn't doing anything. The CPU is running both the graphics AND the rest of the system. So, now I'm going to be on my 3rd (well, 5th if you count the times I reinstalled Xubuntu Karmic Koala) OS install in a week. BUT, this should speed up the silly games. I hope.

I'm just glad she's so patient with me.

Edit: Well, turns out the GPU IS doings its job, its just a grappy old Intel 845 chipset which essentially does nothing. I don't know why facebook makes their stupid little Farmville game so graphics intensive, but they do. So, pretty much, this computer won't go any faster for it. Looks like its time to start saving up for that netbook now!

The one good thing is, we do still have a stable laptop computer and its still handy for things like email and the like. Its a little wonky on startup, but it works. I suppose sometimes that's all you can ask.

Scientific "Concensus"

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:02:00 +0000

In case you haven't been following the story, the email and files of some prominent climate researchers was hacked and posted to the web. The emails contained some interesting statements, which of course as being explained away as "of course we weren't manipulating data."

See, the problem here is guys, it looks like you were. As much as scientists want to believe they've come so far, they are no different than scientists throughout the ages who "knew" something to be true.

Is pumping CO2 and toxins in the air bad? Yes. Should we try and stop doing it? Yes.

Is there a true "scientific" concensus on it? Heck no. Dissenting voices aren't heard.* Or are laughed off as quacks because there is lots of money to be had in grants if you have the hot theory.

This isn't just in climatology. This is in evolutionary study, physics, lots of different areas. Dissenting voices are quashed.

The issue to me isn't if the data was being manipulated. It is more an issue of these scientists aren't doing their work with an open mind. Because if they are not, they don't have to manipulate the data, they'll just miss the stuff that doesn't fit unconsciously.

I look forward to seeing this develop.

Also, I'm not saying its a good thing that hackers broke in and stole it...but...dang, this sure is nice and interesting!

*Helps when you put the "n't" on the end of the word so the entire post makes sense...

Its That Time of Year

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:34:00 +0000

Time for the "news" channels to "report" on holiday travel. Its going to be BUSY! WOW!!!!

You should plan accordingly! This is news? Honestly? Really???????

I'm sorry, to me, this is PROOF that TV news makes you stupider. Sure, even NPR does a little piece on holiday travel, but they at least aren't running the same piece every hour all day long.

I understand its cheaper to send a cameraman and a guy with a mic to the local airport to interview Jimbo about his holiday travel plans than it is to send someone to the Phillipines to report on whats going on there. But, honestly, its like this EVERY YEAR! Have you idiots not figured out its busy during the holiday season?

Bah, humbug

Mad Skillz

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:23:00 +0000

Or not. So, while my job's in a bit of limbo and the dealership is probably getting sold, I'm still working! YAY!

Everyone around here is rushing to do inventory, etc. and working off lots of old messed up invoices.

So, today, I got to show off my mad Paint skillz (yes, with a Z) and clean an invoice up. It was kind of fun. I scanned in the invoice, erased the lines that needed erased. Changed the total, and then erased the pen markings all over the place.

I'm not going to be asked to contribute to any amazing photoshop work anytime soon, but it looked much better than it did.

I was pretty proud of myself. I have a few computer skills left at least

Waiting

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:18:00 +0000

I suck at waiting. I'm an instant gratification lover. Yes, this is not a good thing I realize.

Right now I'm waiting to find out if I keep my job. Joy! Nothing like waiting to see if you keep the job currently have! Ugh.

So, I wait. And try not to worry, since it doesn't do any good. And pray. And wait and did I mention this sucks?

I'll know this week sometime.

I normally don't post things like this, but, its really on my mind right now. So, I share?

Politics from the Interwebs

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:04:00 +0000

If you read this, you know I hate our two party system. I've hated it long before I started to read much stuff politically on the web.

That said, here is a hilarious comic on it.

See, I can poke fun at myself.

NEVER SURRENDER!

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:15:00 +0000

The French are frequently made fun of for surrendering. The 20th century was not overly kind to them in war and well, lots of jokes are made at their expense.

Apparently to compensate for this, they have decided to defend their language at idiot lengths.

Here is a hilarious article on the efforts that go into keeping French "pure."

Ya know. I rip on English for being an amazing bastardization German with French, Latin and Greek roots shoved in all over. But, I like how our language just adapts as needed. We just add a word that works. We don't bother to come up with bizarre five word descriptions that aren't needed.

Thanks to Sheldon for pointing this out to me.

Nanowrimo

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:49:00 +0000

Nanowha? Nanowrimo. National Novel Writing Month. Yeah, writing a 150 page novel in a month. 50,000 words. 1666.66666(repeating) words per day.

I'm trying it. I'm not too far behind right now and its fun. Lots of fun. None of the constant editting and changing, just writing. After November is over, I can edit all I want. For now, its just crank out words as fast as I can.

Wish me luck. If you want to track my progress my name on there is ovid9.

StL Cardinals

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:09:00 +0000

I know that only 1 of the 3 of you who read my blog care about sports, but here it goes.

I love the Cardinals. They have been my favorite baseball team since I was little. I've been a fan. I was18 during the summer of 1998 and a bit niave about performance enhancing drugs.

Since then I've learned lots. Including the fact that Mark McGwire, among scores if not hundreds of other pro's cheated by using steroids.

The Cardinals have now hired him to be their hitting coach. Yes, you read that right.

I believe Tony Larussa made it a requirement that McGwire be brought on board to stay another year as manager. I wish they hadn't done it.

Tony, you're a great manager. You've done some amazing things with pile of crap teams. Thanks, and goodbye.

That's what I wish they would've said.

Instead, we keep around a surly enabling manager and bring on board a cheater to coach our hitters. Great.

I'm not saying I won't cheer for them next year, but I will make sure I pay far more attention to the White Sox than I did this year! *Please Sox, don't be bad....*

And we gave them MFN status

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Posty day (slow at work)

Thanks to my dad for this link. Economically we are pretty screwed as a nation.

Chinese refuses to even attempt to play fair on the world stage, and honestly, why should they? They have no self-interest in doing so. Dictato-capitalism the the route to go!

And, they own so much of our debt, I'm not sure what we can do about it either..... oi

I said this months ago...

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Wow, maybe I should go into finance, or at least being an "expert" on it. I was saying what this article suggests earlier this year. (Horn-tooting found here....)

The system is broken. Why are we going to continue to let people make tons of money losing other people's money?

They want teachers to get paid on performance when they don't control the product coming in? Well, then I think investment bankers, paper pushers and the like should get the same thing. Not paid on how many millions they move, but how much they actually make!

Also, its finally being admitted that the "recovery" is only in the financial sector and the business world. Companies had bloated payrolls and have trimmed down. The issue is, people on the street need jobs. We're having a 2-tiered recovery. The rich get back to getting richer, the rest of us hold on and hope.

Blame it on...

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:04:00 +0000

Sinfest, possibly the greatest webcomic ever, (and in my humble opinion (IMHO) the 2nd greatest comic ever) has another great one.

Its never MY fault. Ever. Always somebody elses...

Comic

Inspiration for Atlantis?

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Thought this was cool, figured I'd share. Plato might not have had the story correct, but its sounding like some of the "myths" might not be all that far off. Cool!

Another healthcare thought...

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:05:00 +0000

One of the concerns of healthcare reform is that the government will have too much of a say in who get's medical care.

Yeah, because the current system of letting corporations driven by profit deciding is working so well....

I'm not saying the government will have a good plan, its just the current system isn't tenable either...

OMG! Football!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +0000

Yes, I am poking a bit of fun at myself. And yes, its that time of year again. So, here's my opinions on the Bears so far and their prospects.

They're 3-1. That's good. They have a QB who is good. That's good. They have recievers who are actually catching the ball. Very good. They have a good special teams and the D-line is getting at least a little bit of pressure. (Very little, but I'll take what I can get.)

What concerns me. Our offensive line is bad. Just plain bad. Cutler is going to get KILLED by Jared Allen when the Vikings and Bears play. The defense is very meh. Not horrible, but not good either.

Our secondary is mediocre and our D-line REALLY needs to do more. Like I said, they are ok. But ok usually means a 1st round playoff exit.

Also, the Vikings are a better team. Brett Favre may be old, but he has an arm still. And he's being smarter with his passes than he has been. He's not forcing stupid passes. He has an amazing O-line who keeps him safe and breakage free. Oh, and that Adrian Peterson guy is pretty good too.

Their defense is solid and with Jared Allen on the end and the Williams fatboys in the middle, that is tough to get through.

I think they Vikings have a chance to go all the way this year, which would make my dad quite happy.

Plutocracy FTW!

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:39:00 +0000

So, just my 2 pennies about the whole healthcare thing. For reform, against reform, doesn't matter.

If health insurance is mandated (or you can pay a fine to not have it) and there is no public option we have just admitted that powerful lobbies own the country.

Just think carefully here. Everyone MUST have health insurance, but your options are completely controlled by a cabal of companies out for profit.

Don't buy into the "everyone has to have car insurance" bit. You don't HAVE to own a car. You are a living person, so, umm, you kind of have to exist. Or, if you cease existing, it doesn't matter anymore anyway.

If we are going to force everyone to buy health insurance then we need to also insure (haha) that affordable, useful options are out there.

Cut rate health insurance won't work like cut rate auto insurance. Heck, cut rate auto insurance doesn't really "work" if you do have a wreck, but it does keep you legal to drive.

So, just remember folks, no matter your views, if our Congress mandates health insurance for all without a viable alternative to private insurance or some sort of regulatory board with TEETH, well, let the nightmare begin.

Getting Older

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Well, I normally don't post a ton about my life. I'm a private person and well, I'd rather rant and rave.

This week has been rough. I have a grandpa in the hospital with a mild hematoma. He's 92 and well, the prospect of brain surgery isn't pleasant and the prospect of him living with the current issues isn't pleasant either.

My wife's grandmother went into the hospital after the cliche "I've fallen and can't get up." Sadly, it wasn't funny at all. She was dizzy, had been having headaches, and her heart rate was mid 40s.

The ER she was at almost released her! Thankfully she couldn't stand and my wife and her cousin (both granddaughters) were there to say, um, admit her.

Well, today (3-4 days later) she'd had a CT scan, NO MRI (until tonight) and things hadn't gotten better. In fact they got much worse. Her eye was drooping, her arm and leg hurting.

Finally the do an MRI and she's had a stroke in her medulla oblongata. This would explain the low heart rate, the labored breathing. She's conscious, but now the next step (what is the next step?) Has to be taken.

I'm upset with the hospital, as is my wife, because they didn't seem NEARLY as concerned by the abnormally low heart rate as we were. SOMETHING had to be causing it!

I suspect she had a mini-stroke the first day and a full on one today. That's only what I think. I have no proof of that. My wife is going to lodge a complaint about the ER treatment as they were going to release a 76(?) year old woman with a 45bpm heartrate!

Also, my mom gets to go in for a biopsy monday. YAY! *with as much sarcasm as can be* I'm thankful the doc noticed something and while he says its most likely nothing at all to be worried about, checking is good.

So, please, lots of prayer for the extended Schurter/Maddox families as its been a bad couple weeks medically.

Movies: A Mini Rant

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:13:00 +0000

I think about movies too much. This is strange, since I don't watch all that many movies, and most of the ones I do are silly fun action movies, but really I do.

I suppose I do because I expect certain things out of different sorts of movies. Action movies I just want fun entertainment. Sci-fi/fantasy, coherent plot and a decent story.

Drama, well, I don't watch much drama and here's why: Real life has enough drama for me!

What brings on this hatred (not really) of all things dramatic? Well, Katrina rented Revolutionary Road last night. It was critically acclaimed which I'm starting to decide is a real strike against a movie being watchable.

The premise is this. Leonardo Decaprio and Kate Winslet are married with 2 young kids in the suburbs in the 1950s. They hate their lives as Leo works as an ad-man for Knox Business Machines (IBM) and Kate is a housewife who is in community theater.

The movie starts with a huge fight between them and it really goes down from there. Its a litany of 1950s stereotypes, questioning of life, bad behavior and just painful things to watch on screen.
A list of the issues "dealt with (brought up I should say): Consumeristic life in the suburbs, the pointlessness of many corporate jobs, the housewife's lament, the having more kids to prove you wanted the first, abortion, greed, dreams of a different life.

The movie doesn't so much deal with these issues as chronicle them. The life of Leo and Kate is miserable, unhappy, and all too common in America of the 1950s or today.

Which brings me to my point. Why would I want to watch a movie about this? I know people who's lives are like this. This isn't raising my awareness to anything. This isn't making me "deal with" or "confront" any issues.

Its merely a sad depressing tale of two people who's lives didn't turn out as they wanted and who don't seem to really want to work on themselves.

The movie might end great. About 90 minutes into it give or take Katrina hated it enough to give up as well. Or she just wanted to shut my sarcastic comments up. Either way.

Avoid this piece of trash at all costs. Unless you like reveling in other people's misery.

edit- Thinking about this a bit more, I'm not sure the movie was even well made. Its set in the period very well. But, the flashbacks are few, far between and seem sort of an after thought. It, I dunno. Just avoid it.

"Big" Government

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:49:00 +0000

So, my brother has an interesting post on cutting government spending. Its interesting, and here's some of my thoughts on it.

Going off of the Havoc Pennington post, I suppose I'm more in the "cut government by 10-20%." I like the general ideals of libertarianism, but since I view man as naturally flawed, not naturally good (and very distinct from naturally evil) I can never truly support libertarians because I don't trust people enough.

I don't trust the government much either, but they tend to slow things down enough that nothing totally insane happens that often.

It would seem that 21% of the budget going to Defense/War on Terror is high, I personally would much rather see that at 10-15% with no Iraq war, but you can't turn back the clock.

But, as my dad points out, that's only about 1/3 of what is going to programs that only suck more money out of the system. That is the underlying problem of socialist styled programs. France is going broke over its healthcare/welfare/retirement system. Sarkozy has all but said that they can't afford to keep doing things the way they have been.

The problem with entitlement systems or government funded programs is as people live longer and longer, you get more people getting payed out and fewer paying in. It also doesn't help that Congress can't help but raid the "surplus" for things like Social Security as extra spending money. That it hasn't been legislated illegal is only proof of how completely screwed our government is.

Case in point. Listening to NPR the other day it was a story on how the SEC missed the AIG mess. Well, the SEC along with the Commodities watchdog have overlapping duties. But, they don't/didn't communicate well so AIG just played them off against each other. They were interveiwing an excongressman who said he tried to combine them, but the Agriculture committee chairman didn't want to give up the power (and money) from the position.

Why do I share this story? Because the system is broken. Since both parties get elected mainly to stay elected (and attempt to push through what their lobbyists pay them for) real change isn't going to happen.

Our political system, and many of the rulings on "free speech" pertaining to politics almost insures that any plans the government comes up with will eventually end up broken, bloated, and pandering to the rich and or corporately connected.

Don't get me wrong. We spend far too much money in this country as citizens and government. We're going broke. This isn't just our leaders fault.

What IS their fault is they are too interested in getting reelected and/or getting cushy high paying lobbying jobs down the line to do what is right, not what is politically convient or expedient.

The statement both sides want to spend 105% is true. And its going to bankrupt us and slowly push us to 2nd nation status.

Rein in your morons

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:56:00 +0000

I like guns. They are fun to shoot. I believe they are something most people should legally be able to have. I think that the laws governing them should be logical (wouldn't that be nice?).

However, if you're pro-gun, maybe in the NRA, or just really like your guns, I have a suggestion. Attempt to rein in the morons on your side. Really. Please?

It might be legal to carry around assault rifles in plain view in Arizona. That doesn't mean it should be done (or legal, but that's a different discussion). If you value the right to bear arms, please, work hard to get idiots like these to STOP BEING MORONS!

The people who did this (and who incidentally were doing it as a radio stunt for what they believe) were merely a distraction. And a bad one at that. Its stupid, even if legal, to carry around heavy weaponry in plain view at a crowded event.

Especially one that will be highly politically charged anyway. Its not exercising your rights. Its a show of force.

Like I said, I like guns. But that doesn't mean I want to see heavy weaponry just carried around by anyone with a permit. Especially at an event where there are lots of people present. At a machine gun shoot, go for it.

So, what I'm saying is this. If the moron fringe (please tell me its a fringe) of the pro-gun movement keep this up, you're going to see the opposite effect happen as moderates like me on gun control get pissed off and start to vote more and more rights away.

Call it exercising your rights, I call it intimidation. And that always backfires. It really does. I would be intimidated by someone walking around at a large public gathering with an AR-15. That sounds like something that happens in Iraq, not the USA.

Can't we love our guns and not be stupid about it?

(Oh, and if you REALLY want to be scared, read the guy's quotes. It'll also point out why I don't care much for Jefferson. Oh, and here is a bit more about Mr. Creepy)

Yes, actually, I believe it is.

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Sitting here at work, getting a nice little break from the phones for once, I'm watching two nice bigscreen flat panel TVs.

One is showing the Cardinals beating up on the Reds. The other someone has put on Fox"News" and talking heads are talking.

I can't hear what's going on, but Robert Gibbs was talking to the media and the little "info bar" was telling me what he was talking about. The gist was, "Townhalls are not indicative of how people feel."

I'm guessing this is due to the shameful behavoir of many people at townhall meetings who have decided (and have been encouraged by the Republicans) to disrupt them by shouting, yelling, filibustering and not discussing anything.

And sadly, I feel this is completely how much of America is right now.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not harkening back to the halcyon days of yor when bipartisanship meant you might beat your opposition with your cane in a session of Congress. Its not like media feeding into people's fears and predujices is new.

What is new, is how you can totally isolate yourself to people who agree with you. You never have to listen to those who disagree, except on talk shows where they are invariably shouted down. You never have to engage in a discussion about issues, so people only know how to shout about them.

The 2 party system promotes this as the party in power doesn't really want to work with the other party anymore than to get bills passed.

Partisanship is not new. But it is getting uglier. It saddens me that townhall meetings in 2009 are no more civil than many probably were in 1809. This doesn't surprise me, but it does make me sad.

Cash for Clunkers

noreply@blogger.com (pschurter) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Alright, I have lots of issues with this program. I'll try and be brief.

This is not a stimulus. It is merely getting people to buy the car NOW they would've bought in a few months or a year. This is not "rejuvenating" the industry, it is spiking sales which will then slump back to "meh."

Jobs aren't really being created by this as car manufacturers are not going to ramp up production to meet demand as they understand demand is spiking, not actually going up.

This is also a tax on the poor. Sure, 4500 for your junker is nice, but if you have no credit or can still only afford a car that costs 6000, how does this help you? Oh, and it'll drive up the price of used cars and quite possibly the prices on keeping old cars running, especially if they blow an engine. So, the poor are not benefiting from this at all.

Also, the environmental impact is negligible at best. Sure, you're taking fuel inefficient cars off the road. And moving them to junk yards. Yes, many parts of them will be recycled, but there will still be rusting blocks of iron. AND, its replacing them on the road with cars that still pollute.

Yes, they pollute yes, which is good. But, its not like there will be less cars on the road, because THAT is truly a zero emission car. The one that isn't there.

I guess I'm just frustrated by the waste and the bait and switch that seems to be going on.