June 2002 Archives
Pledge of Allegiance ruled unconstitutional.
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We are still having problems with home building situation. I don't know who to be angry at. The people who sold the lot to me screwed up and are jerks, the neighbor is a nice but fed up with jerks who sold me the lot, the real estate agent never said anything about any of this, and my builder made a mistake in not letting me know about these problems before he signed the dotted line. Now we are waiting for the previous owner and the neighbor to hammer out their differences while the clock runs on our 150-day interest rate lock, and interest continues to accrue on the construction loan. More than you ever wanted to know I am sure. Anyone know a good real estate attorney?
I am also moving this weekend to a house in St. Paul (proper). It is not in the best area - ok its the hood - but its free until it sells or until our house is ready. It will really make us appreciate our home when (if) ever gets done.
The Bush administration once again
has decided for us that the environment should take a back seat to the energy industry and the special interests lining their pockets.
You have to admire their tenacity at least. They don't seem to give a damn about the public outcry that they have caused with all their repeals of other laws that had protected the environment.
Not to be discouraged though, by his
recent admission that global warming does, in fact, exist, Bush has NASA working on a plan that won't require us to reduce our consumption, come up with better, cleaner, technologies, or, god forbid, burn less irreplaceable fossil fuels. Nope NASA's new plan is simple -
just move the earth farther from the sun.
I feel that my motivations for how I want to live and who I vote for tend to be pretty altruistic. My thoughts about the future and preserving the planet for future generations must come from somewhere - and this is coming from someone who never plans to have kids of his own.
Al"tru*ism, n. - 1. Regard for others, both natural and moral; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness; -- opposed to egoism or selfishness. 2.
Zoology. Instinctive cooperative behavior that is detrimental to the individual, but contributes to the survival of the species.
I really thought everyone was like me. Everyone really thought that this was the right way to live - maybe they didn't always see fit to live like they thought, but they knew they should. In steps Ayn Rand. I had
The Fountainhead and
Atlas Shrugged on a list of books to read for going on ten years now. When I finally got around to them, I was sorely disappointed to find
Objectivism at the heart of her ideas. Objectivism is nearly the only formulated way of thinking that denies altruism and claims self reward as the only goal of life. I think it was
Cam that told me that Rand's books are the romance novels for Capitalists - and so they seem to me - Capitalists and Republicans too!
However good I feel claiming to be altruistic (or bad since the associated guilt can be bothersome) I still can not explain why I might feel this way. Why should I care? I am not going to have offspring filling the earth. I do not believe that I am going to have to reckon for my sins when my life ends. Why do I care? No really, I am sincerely asking because I don't know. Here is some reading I have been doing:
Why Altruism?,
Altruism: A Scientific Perspective,
Ayn Rand dot org,
The Fallacies of Egoism and Altruism, and the Fundamental Principle of Morality,
Capitalism vs. Altruism and the "Achievements" of the Soviet Empire,
The Evolution of Altruism
A game that takes more than 5 years to make, has been shown at the last 3 E3 conferences, debuted at Gen Con in 1999 and promises to bring the power of a game story developer to every person that buys it is 6 days away from shipping to millions of people around the world. I am one of them. I preordered this game months and months ago in the hopes that I could be one of the first to play it. What game is it? I have posted about it before. It is
NeverWinter Nights and it is one of only a few games that has ever made me this excited.
Here are some recent reviews of it:
Games Domain and
Game Banshee.
Having just come back from "up north" as we like to say in Minnesota I have a few instructions for all those people that aren't quite sure how to drive on interstate highways (primarily for 4-lane divided highways) throughout this great land. Here we go with step-by-step driving instructions for the driving etiquette-challenged:
- Make your way to a freeway/highway entrance ramp and proceed down it, steadily increasing your speed, until you can merge with traffic at their pace.
- Proceed to your destination while maintaining a constant speed. (hint: Cruise control works well here)
- If your speed of travel brings you upon a slower moving vehicle switch lanes into the passing lane (left lane) and pass the vehicle in question.
- Return to the right lane (all the while maintaining constant speed
If everyone follows these simple rules, everyone will have a stress free trip - it is a well functioning system. If everyone drove this way there would be no breakdown in the system (by definition) and much more efficiency would result. (even fuel efficiency as constant speeds would always be maintained)
Some people claim, however, that other systems would work equally well - particularly the "I just drive in the "fast" lane until someone wants to pass then I get over" method. There are two reasons this technique doesn't work: 1) the majority of people are trying to follow the rules listed above and 2) this system requires people be more active - always watching for people coming up behind you. It should be the responsibility of the faster car coming up from behind to pass.
I like Star Wars as much as the next guy, unless of course the next guy is one of
these people. Here is a link to
their site.
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This book looks very interesting and I plan on picking up a copy soon (I am trying to get it from the library - part of my cost saving measures lately - and as it turns out slightly more environmentally friendly). It is about "how humans relate to their environment" - meaning that in a closed environment like the one we are basically in (not including the input from the sun) we (humans) alone create waste that is not readily used by other organisms and broken down. And that we must strive to create products, but also the means of making the products, that are more in harmony with the ecosystem in which we live.
There is a nice review on this book, titled
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things to be found
on slash dot here.
Excerpts from the review:
"Our model of technology and development is completely counter to the natural cycles and principles that worked for millions of years to create the environment we so cleverly manipulate"
"The authors envision a world where, when a material item gets worn out, you simply throw it on the ground to decompose. Buildings should produce more energy than they use. Eliminate the concept of "waste" entirely. "
I had just talked myself out of getting Grand Theft Auto III for Playstation 2 when I read Cam's review of it. I sucked it up to get it for an upcoming trip I am taking. My personal expense budget for the remainder of the month: $0.
This brings up a interesting question however. My
lil' brother would love that I got a new game but I am not going to let him play a game where the objective is to steal cars and elude the law.
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I don't think enough press is given to how cool Microsoft Windows XP is. There is much ado about Mac OS X and rightfully so, with its Unix under the hood, but from an interface and usability standpoint, XP has a slight edge on X. Before you jump down my throat, consider this: XP has the best context-sensitive information and menuing display of any OS bar none. Combine that with the fully integrated multimedia capabilities and powerful multi-tasking that Windows has been known for, and you have a helluva operating system.
Ozzy and Family sign up for another season. So for once, a good show stays on the air.
Soon we may not be able to say that about a few other shows:
The
Family Guy has already been cancelled. I am just hoping beyond hope that it gets picked up by the WB or something - I mean come on! What on the WB or UPN is better than the Family Guy?
Futurama is on the block next, though it does have more than a season of episodes completed that have yet to air.
In happier news the Simpsons movie is scheduled to come out sometime next year.
Details are hard to come by though. www.thesimpsonsmovie.com and
www.simpsonsmovie.com have been registered, probably by FOX.
