Paranoia

Posted by tom on July 23rd, 2008 filed in sillyness
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So, I scared shitless right about now.

I’ve been reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It’s great, and I’ll link to the full text of the book on Cory’s site later. I think it will be my favorite book once I’m done reading it.

The story is fiction, but the setting is very real. Imagine a world where following another major terrorist attack, we lose even more freedoms to a second Patriot Act. Not too difficult, is it?

The book is creeping me out in ways that no book has before. I have little fear of rabid German shepherds. I scoff at clown monsters attacking children. I got bored with reanimated corpses.

The loss of my few remaining freedoms gives me the willies.

I set up GPG tonight. I’ll post my public key here tomorrow, after I go see Wargames.

Remember when the commies were the ones after us and not our own government? I long for those simpler times.

Mmm, Wordpress on iphone

Posted by tom on July 22nd, 2008 filed in Meta, iPhone, sillyness
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Just the usual test when I get a new means of posting. Now I can really post from anywhere, and maybe I’ll actually deliver on my goal to blog more often.

More later. Sleep now.

iphone screencap

Posted by tom on July 13th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized
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Test post

Dear Senator Clinton,

Posted by tom on June 1st, 2008 filed in General
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Okay, so I’m starting to understand.

Don’t get me wrong. This by no means that I’ve suddenly decided to start supporting you, or even really start to like you. I’m still an Obama supporter, through and through. And I respectfully disagree with you on many of your positions (the Gas Tax Holiday, universal health care, Social Security, etc).

What I’m getting as is the driving force behind your intense push for the Democratic presidential nomination. Since March I’ve been wonder why you’ve kept going. It’s rare that a Primary goes this long. Since I’ve been old enough to pay attention, there’s usually been a clear candidate by this point (we all knew it was going to be your husband in 1992; I don’t know where you’re getting June from), so the fact that you want to take this to the convention (regardless of what you’re telling people) is a bit alarming.

You thought you were the chosen one.

Sixteen years ago, you were the wife of a man who was en route to the White House. Bill was all over the place, vying against an incumbent who promised “no new taxes” but created them anyway. Many point to the appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show as the turning point. Others say it was his charisma that did the trick. The package of Bill and you and Al and Tipper made the ballot, and the people (well, a good chunk of the people) spoke. George and Babs and Dan and whoever Dan’s wife was were outta there.

You then attempted to become the most active First Lady since Eleanor. It made perfect sense: Bill was rather popular with his moderate ways and smooth demeanor, Al was showing that a Vice President can be more than a guy with his finger on the button or a guy who can’t spell “Potato,” and Tipper had already raised a stink over dirty lyrics in music (we still hate her for that, by the way). Rather than feel left out, you went before Congress and pushed a health plan they didn’t want. A Congress controlled by your own party.

I’m not sure what had happened; I was too young at the time to understand why this was such an odd thing. I learned later that Reagan got along better with the Democratic Congress than you and your husband did in his first term. In the long run, it didn’t matter much. Life went on, then the Republicans took control of the Senate and House, and all Hell broke loose.

Bill fought off sex scandal after sex scandal, then the “vast right wing conspiracy” came after him. I’m not sure why. The whole country was up in arms over a blowjob, and the Federal Government decided to get involved. About as silly as your colleague Arlen having hearings over the Patriots cheating, but it happened. And it cost a lot of money.

For your part, you stood up for yourself, distancing yourself from the women described by Patsy Cline and being your own person. This was a good thing. But you stayed married to him, and by his side. Not being a woman, I’m not sure what the protocol on that is, but it sure seemed odd to me at the time.

Bill’s presidency came to an end in 2000. Looking back, he really didn’t make a damned bit of difference. He didn’t push to make cars and trucks more fuel efficient, he spoke out against gay rights and bombed Iraq to take the focus off his impeachment hearings. There were a number of other things as well, but I might break Wordpress if I list them all here.

You and he wrote books (well, paid people a percentage of your fee to write books for you) and you got more money than Bill did. This was the first time we saw aspirations from you, leading into your strange run for the Senate in New York. As a New Yorker, I was confused as all hell.

You relocated to New York from Arkansas via D.C. You waffled over which baseball team to support. You didn’t appear to have a chance until Mayor Guliani “took ill” and sent some unknown schlub to take his place. You became a Senator, and suddenly had real power. Constitutional power, no less.

You decided to use this power against free speech. You still are, as you support bills suppressing the rights of designers to make any video game they’d like, just because a kid might play it at some point. You’ve even sided with Democratic turncoat Joe Lieberman on this issue. Sadly, this is the only thing I remember you for as a Senator.

What this all balls up to is this: it should have been a cakewalk. You were the First Lady, one that tried to do more than tell kids to “Just Say No.” You were the Senator from progressive bastion New York, albeit the unlikely Senator. You were the wife that didn’t simply stand there (at least for a few minutes) when your husband made a public mistake.

You would have pulled it off, if it weren’t for those meddling kids.

And by meddling kids, I mean Barack Obama.

Nobody expected it. Not even myself. The Democratic Party is about as immutable as its Republican counterpart. Very little change has come around since Jack Kennedy dared to be a Catholic in power, diplomatically steering the nation away from WWIII. So this bright spark was about as foreseen as a Spanish Inquisition.

2004 rolls around and a young man takes the stage in Boston. He delivers a speech that makes many take notice. They start talking, and the words “Presidential candidate” start getting dropped in the same breath as “Barack Obama.” The spotlight was shifted from you, the most viable female candidate in history (sorry, Carol Moseley Braun) to Senator Obama.

I can see why you feel scorned, both by your party and the nation. Can’t be a great feeling, either. Nobody likes to be the silver medalist.

So, yeah, I get it. I get why you’re still fighting. My only issue is that you’re fighting dirty.

But this letter isn’t about that. It’s about me coming to grips with what I’ve mistaken as insanity, or vengefulness, or hurtfulness or stupidity. You simply feel left out. Like you didn’t get picked for kickball, or make the cheerleading squad.

Perhaps it’s all for the best. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Maybe Bill Richardson, John Conyers and Martin Sheen were planning on dumping goat blood on you in Denver, Carrie style.

For what it’s worth, the moment I knew things had changed was when my mother brought up something political. She hadn’t done so, beyond chastising President Bush for warmongering.

She said that she was watching 24, in which the fictional United States had a fictional African-American President. She suddenly arrived at the notion that we would have a black president before a female one. My mother may not be James Carville, but she doesn’t make such statements without a certain insight.

I hope my rantings (and the declaration of my mother) haven’t caused you to stir. I’m sure you’ll never see this epistle, and even if you did, the ramblings of a displaced New Yorker probably doesn’t hold much weight to what your supporters, friends and family have to say.

I just wanted to get this off my chest. I understand, Senator Clinton. I see where you’re coming from.

Best of luck in Puerto Rico today, and in Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday. I have a feeling you’ll need it. And I say that with no malice whatsoever.

Regards,
Tom Tostanoski
Citizen

It came from . . . Houston?

Posted by tom on May 15th, 2008 filed in General, sillyness
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Ants swarm over Houston area, fouling electronics :: WRAL.com

Again.  Houston.  WTF?

Tags: houston, wtf, killer_ants

Austin <> Houston

Posted by tom on May 9th, 2008 filed in sillyness
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I live in Austin, TX.  Austin is pretty darn cool, sort of like New York if everyone slowed the hell down, started cooking brisket slathered in sauce called “barbecue” and lost all semblance of driving ability. 

Houston, on the other hand, is about 3 hours thataway, he says while pointing vaguely southeast.  I’m to understand it’s a bleeding pit, full of festering gobs and stupid nutters and witless twits.  Like the kids in the story linked below.

Don’t get me wrong.  I understand the need for stoners to be creative.  I had roommates once that converted many items into smoking equipment.  Their wastebasket, large chemistry equipment.  The times they attempted to get a buzz off peanut skins and nutmeg.  I get it.

However, there’s no need to go all Edgar Allen and dig up a hundred year old corpse.  Which likely isn’t what they were doing.  Kids in Houston likely have no grasp of American literature that isn’t Maxim or High Times (not to mention they fact that reading levels in this city are really only above, say, Alabama or the current White House).

They, did, apparently plan this.  I guess The Hills wasn’t on that night.

What bugs me the most is that they weren’t being questioned about digging up graves for drug paraphernalia.  They were being questioned on a completely unrelated topic (smash and grabs) and the copped to the grave robbery.

These fuckheads give legitimate stoners a bad name.  I myself do not partake.  But if I could walk into a 7-11 and buy a pack with a filter I’d consider doing so from time to time.

That will likely never happen, my dear friends.  All because idiots like these two Houston douchebags (redundant!!!) have to go and ruin it for everyone.  Grr and argh.

The real reason for this rant is that I’d like to further the distinction between Austin and Houston.  Austin is good.  Houston is bad.  Worst we got here are white cops shooting black civilians for no good damned reason and corruption in the State House.  You know, just like any other large metropolitan area in the USA.

Teens desecrate grave to make pot pipe from skull

Tags: stupidity, Houston, stoners, gravedigging, douchebaggery

Blogging from Flock

Posted by tom on April 7th, 2008 filed in Meta
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I’m starting to enjoy this Flock thing, and it’s only been a couple minutes.  It keeps all my social stuff in one place, and allows me to blog stuff real easily. 

It may even help me blog more.

My only gripe thus far is that it’s based on FireFox 2.  I must go digging for one with a FireFox 3 backend.

TaTa for now.

Tags: flock, blog, lazy, social_networks

Yawn

Posted by tom on December 7th, 2007 filed in General
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I can’t sleep. I completely botched my sleep schedule by agreeing to participate in my girlfriend’s all-nighter. Somehow, even after all the Red Bull she drank, she slept, and I was up all night playing BloodRayne.

I really didn’t like BloodRayne. I don’t know why I kept playing. It might have been recapturing my lost youth. Days of guzzling caffeine and playing video games until my thumbs hurt.

It might have been the fact that I wanted to keep playing that disaster, like watching the proverbial train wreck. There were so many issues. Voice clips that played back long after the caption displayed. Effects that occurred too late (I nearly lost it seeing an elevator fall on some Nazis only for their models to clip through it, then scream in terror and die). The inability to aim, or even have a targeting reticle.

It was probably just a horrible lapse of judgement. I keep having those for some reason.

GameTap and Red Bull aside, I’m awake again. I was in and out all day long. And I have work in a few hours. Allergy shots prior to that. My vacation can’t come any sooner.

Thankfully, that starts Monday afternoon.

Amy and I are going to South Padre Island. Sure, it’s December, but it’ll be warm. It’s been a toasty December here in Texas. Sure, there will be very little to do, as it’s off season. But we need time away from the Austin area. And I haven’t seen a beach since Wrightsville over a year ago.

We’re spending three nights down there, then coming back up to see The Toadies, speaking of recapturing my youth. We were gaga over these guys back in Middle School, or maybe ninth grade. Amy saw them earlier in the year, right before she came to visit me in New York. I won tickets in the same manner she did: texting a radio station. Beats trying to be caller number X (which I’ve been on a few occasions in the past).

A week from Saturday I turn 27. It’s hard to imagine, but it’s true. I’m getting up there. Well, not like some cats are. I don’t know, I just feel old. Amy’s turning 26 a few days prior. Having a December birthday and coming to dread this time of year isn’t something isolated to me. I guess the whole birthday and Christmas gift paradigm combined with the lack of sunlight tends to add up.

I think I’m going to pop a Sonata and catch some shuteye, as much as I’m enjoying listening to “The Mist” in 3D audio and playing with WriteRoom. I wish this thing had a means of publishing right to the blog. I kind of like writing with no distractions. I think I’m gonna pay for this one.

I’ll post again before we leave, and probably photoblog some while we’re out there.

Goodnight, world.

Miss me?

Posted by tom on September 28th, 2007 filed in Meta, iPhone, sillyness
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Yeah, I realize it’s been a while. I know I haven’t posted in ages. I understand that you’re all starving for an update.

Okay, two out of three ain’t bad.

I’ll fill the faithful in on my life sooner than later. For now, enjoy the fact that some intrepid coders have made it easier for me to post and read the site from my iPhone.

If you visit from an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you’ll see a nicely formatted page that is easy to read. This doesn’t apply to LiveJournal just yet, but if Six-Apart gives a shit about that community, the tools will be there sooner than later.

Have fun with reading, mobile device users. I promise to get blogging hardcore from this point forward.

Moved to tears

Posted by tom on June 18th, 2007 filed in BGT, General, opera
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Rare that I can use that expression, but in this case it’s appropriate. Even Simon Cowell, that malicious bastard from American Idol that everyone loves to hate, can’t help by shed a couple. Check out Paul Potts: