jkndrkn

Listening to the Thelonious Monk piece on NPR. The critics always want to say; it's the drugs, he was crazy; bullshit. It's hard work, and not letting little minds stop you from doing what you need to do.

Like Dan Hicks says "You think this is easy? It's not." I'm not Monk, but i know too. Hard work and ignoring know-it-alls

99% of the people in the world spend their entire time thinking up reasons why people can't do things, and why things once done, suck.

They may all kiss my hippie ass.

Am i developing an attitude? After 60 years of being told i am a weirdo?

Guess.

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...needs a new forever home.

( Here's the linkie )

SLR camera backpack for sale, $20:

( Image/details behind the cut. )

Has anyone seen Dr. Robert Skidmore? I'm planning to make an appointment for an acne consultation...

""GOD'S LAW"

[An old favorite, written by James M. Kauffman, Ed.D., Professor Emeritus,
Dept. of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at the University of
Virginia. This was originally addressed to conservative radio talk host Dr.
Laura Schlesinger, who said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, she found
that, according to Leviticus 18:22, homosexuality is an abomination and
cannot be condoned under any circumstance. This piece has in recent years
gone around the Internet, readdressed to President George W. Bush. We use
this latter version:]

Dear President Bush,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have
learned a great deal from you and understand why you would propose and
support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. As you said:
"in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man and a woman." I try to
share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to
defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that
Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of
God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female,
provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine
claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify?
Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus
21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her
period of menstrual uncleanness--Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I
tell? I have tried asking, but most women for some reason take offense at
this.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a
pleasing odor for the Lord--Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim
the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him
myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an
abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I
don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there "degrees" of abomination?

7. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around
their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How
should they die?

8. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me
unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

9. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different
crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two
different kinds of thread (cotton-polyester blend). He also tends to curse
and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of
getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16) Couldn't we
just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people
who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable
expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again
for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging."

* * * * *

Ransom Notes

There are good and bad ways to wake. A predawn phone call announcing the death of a friend is not one of the best. No fool like an old fool, but getting set on fire for being in the wrong woman’s bed, a few days before your fifty-ninth birthday, seems a bit harsh.

I hung up the bedside phone, and L. Cohen on the shuffle player told me “I ain’t never giving in, I ain’t never giving up.”

Rise and shine, asshole.





This will be the fourth or fifth Tchevy book. At the request of Hon. Wife Person, no nasty bumping.

Two cultural notes. My rant against OT music has prpoduced one (1) "please don't go vote," proving my point, i suppose.

And I got the Amazon Top Ten SF&F Books List, not one of which i would read unless paid. Paid well, i must say. Zombies, zombies zombies, and Ta! Da! Steampunk Zombies!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1624

archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about–
klassic komix, you guys!
← previous	December 29th, 2009	next
December 29th, 2009: This is where I take my MINI CHRISTMAS VACATION: I'll be running Klassik Komicks until January 1st, 2010 (next Friday!) So it's really just four Klasik Komix. I keep spelling "Klassick Kowmics" differently each time because they're that classic! Have fun, everyone, and thank you for making 2009 one of my best years ever. It's still amazing that I get to do this comic instead of having a real job, and it's all thanks to you guys. – Ryan

В Петербурге в торжественной обстановке открылся обновленный вестибюль станции метро «Горьковская».

( Read more... )

I've just finished my autumn term essay and, as ever, The Discussion has happened in our house. The Discussion stems from the fact that my partner and I have totally different approaches to writing. He's one of those appalling and lucky people who do the research, have a think then sit down and write a whole paper in one go without any real planning. It'll be ready in plenty of time for the deadline. I sit firmly in the other camp: I read around the subject, picking up anything that looks interesting and possible connected. I probably do twice as much research as I need to. Then I sift through the research for the bits that are really relevent to the topic. I write out plans. Possibly at this stage I go away and do a bit more reading to fill in any gaps. All the while my deadline come creeping ever closer. Finally I sit down to write. The blank page stares back at me mockingly. So I make a cup of tea. I jot down bullet points. I stare at the screen some more. I check my word limit. More screen staring. More tea. Possibly I go for a walk to get some fresh air. I threaten to throw the computer out of the window. My partner leaves the room/flat/city in frustration. Eventually, close to tears, I start typing. Some time later I realise that my partner has been asleep for hours, it's some ungodly time of the morning and I have the half-finished remains of dinner and several cups of tea littered around me, but the majority of the dratted thing has been drafted. From there it's just a matter of a conclusion and editing, which I can usually expand or contract to fit the amount of time left before the deadline.

Naturally my dearest one can't fathom why it is that I get so upset by the process. "Why" he asks "do you spend so much energy getting angry about not writing, when you could use it far better if you just wrote any old garbage and then went back to edit it?" It's usually around this point that I threaten to throw books at him. I've tried to explain several times that my brain just doesn't work the way his does. He works on the production side of publishing and is he's very good at thinking A>B>C>D>paper. My thought process is more like one of those scatter diagrams: lots of apparently unconnected things gradually being filtered and grouped into a cohesive whole. To him this is a madly inefficient way of working, to me it's just life.

How do you write? Does it cause domestic strife?

http://www.asciiartfarts.com/20091229.html?via=rss

          O .                                            
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      /     |     \    AVOID MISSING BALL FOR HIGH SCORE.
     /      |      \                                     
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   /   _ ( )|        \                                   
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/____\/|____|___________\                                
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   | /   \           |drx                                
   _/    /_                                              

92,723 words on the SF book. Getting done. Got a reject on the one before this one, i had great hopes for that book, but at least it didn't take ten years to get the shitcan.

So does that mean that my carefully sensitive modern book is less acceptable to the Pub than the horrible raunchy Hellhound saga? If they only told you what they liked and don't like, you could try to write what they want, but "fuck you scribbler, guess."

Plenty more losers for the slush pile.


Also bought a 100 bd/ft of mahogany, a few other things, shipped two packages, dropped off two guitars at Germantown Music, and bought tuners and strings at Shannocks.

Mods: Please feel free to remove my post if it's not appropriate.

I've been accepted to a conference as an independent scholar. I'm trying to register, but I'm not sure what to call myself: 

Professor/Professional
or
Retired/Unemployed

While I do work, I'm not working as an academic or teacher (nor am I enrolled in graduate school), and it's half priced if I select Unemployed. Of course, I don't want to be dishonest, but I'm paying for all of this out of pocket, so it certainly makes a big difference.

Thanks!

Interesting summary of how we've progressed over the past decade.

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/15-game-changing-linux-moments-of-the-decade-659030

Personally I consider this more important:

http://www.top500.org/stats/list/34/osfam vs http://www.top500.org/stats/list/14/osfam

I'm looking for novels that take place near or on the sea.
Besides The Sea, The Old Man and the Sea and The Sea, The Sea.

thx.

Please enjoy my 2009 music wrap-up. I'm slacking this year: no mixtape, no micro-reviews. However, it is a list of 40 fantastic albums that I advise you to acquire at your early convenience.

http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/~r/pa-mainsite/~3/3g3IoGnGi9M/

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1624

archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about–
klassic komix, you guys!
← previous	December 29th, 2009	next
December 29th, 2009: This is where I take my MINI CHRISTMAS VACATION: I'll be running Klassik Komicks until January 1st, 2010 (next Friday!) So it's really just four Klasik Komix. I keep spelling "Klassick Kowmics" differently each time because they're that classic! Have fun, everyone, and thank you for making 2009 one of my best years ever. It's still amazing that I get to do this comic instead of having a real job, and it's all thanks to you guys. – Ryan

PS Tried article_request, and this community was recommended to me. Will be grateful!

http://www.asciiartfarts.com/20091228.html?via=rss

      |\',      \.                                                
    .' \\|       \'.                                              
 __|   |~         \ :    LA LA LA                                 
/\ \_. \  /\      : |                                             
\ \|  \ \/  \     / /       DON'T KNOW WHAT THESE TWO SYMBOLS MEAN
 \/    \ \/\ '._.' /        NEXT TO EACH OTHER                    
       /\ \ '.___.'                                               
      / /\ \             WHOOPS ANOTHER 100+ MILLION DEAD OUR BAD 
     / /  \ \                                                     
    / /    \ \                                                    
    \/   DB \/                                                    

http://xkcd.com/681/

+Please remove if inappropriate+

Hi,

I've tried searching online, but is there a particular way (MLA if it exists) for conference proceedings published in a CDROM only?

Thanks!

91,536 words on the SF book. got three things strung up today, shipped three, walked dogs, fell and bruised my hand.. La..

also decided to officially give up on old time music and the elitists who play it. Synthetic and affectless trance music. From now on my motto is what Joan Baez told Linda Ronstadt. "If you look up and don't see tears glistening in the second row, you are wasting your time on stage."

Bah. Roseanne Cash may have "The List", but i have one of my own.

Anniversary of a cosmic blast

The sheer amount energy generated is difficult to comprehend. Although the crust probably shifted by only a centimeter, the incredible density and gravity made that a violent event well beyond anything we mere humans have experienced. The blast of energy surged away from the magnetar, out into the galaxy. In just a fifth of a second, the eruption gave off as much energy as the Sun does in a quarter of a million years.

Oh, and did I mention this magnetar is 50,000 light years away? No? That's 300 quadrillion miles away, about halfway across the freaking Milky Way galaxy itself!

And yet, even at that mind-crushing distance, it fried satellites and physically affected the Earth. It was so bright some satellites actually saw it reflected off the surface of the Moon! I'll note that a supernova, the explosion of an entire star, has a hard time producing any physical effect on the Earth if it's farther away than, say, 100 light years. Even a gamma-ray burst can only do any damage if it's closer than 8000 light years or so.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

I have to sell everything by 9 a.m. tomorrow morning... please call (727) 267 - 5074 to schedule a time to see/pick-up anything.

http://gainesville.craigslist.org/gms/1525437447.html

I have to sell everything by 9 a.m. tomorrow morning... please call (727) 267 - 5074 to schedule a time to see/pick-up anything.

http://gainesville.craigslist.org/gms/1525437447.html

http://www.asciiartfarts.com/20091227.html?via=rss

                                  _______ 
     ___________________________.'.------`
    '---------------------------.'        
      `.                      .'          
    .-//`.                  .'            
 .' .//.'/`================'              
=[=:====:=]=           \\||               
 '. `--' .' LGB         \_|               
   `-  -'                                 
                                          
       CECI NE PAS UNE WHEELBARROW        

http://www.asciiartfarts.com/20091226.html?via=rss

        ..                            
       66 |   PLEASE DON'T FUCK ME OUT
   .-'`  ::                           
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  :`      .`:                         
 .`       `:`:                        
 :         `.`.                       
.`  o\-`o   : :                       
            ` `                       
                                      

 I just got a steel string Martin Backpacker. I'm one of the people who loves this little funky guitar. 
However, originally I wanted the nylon string version, but changed my mind in the store because 1. they didn't have a nylon backpacker and 2. I've only played a nylon stringed once for about ten minutes at the store, and I don't know enough about the sound/ tuning/ quirks to know if I would like one or not. 
I have 30 days to return the guitar for a refund or an exchange, and I'm seriously considering swapping for a nylon string. But, I'm not sure. I know that I like this one, but I think that I would like the sound of the nylon strings better... So, if anyone plays a nylon string guitar I would love some insight as to the differences and what to consider when choosing. 

http://www.jerkcity.com/jerkcity4066.html

Hello,

I would like to change my username however, when I go to Admin>Users and Groups, the username is greyed out. I believe I'll have to use the terminal for this and I'm not well-versed but I believe I can still do it.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

91,254 words on the SF book. And got a bass on eBay, strung up a couple other things, trying to get well enough to get some good sleep.

Re; Holmes; I liked it a lot.. The plot is relatively simple, as conspiracy plots go.. I think this Holmes is closer to the Text of the original stories. The Basil Rathbone movies, that set the stereotypes, are actually very bad.

They were based on the Sidney Paget illustrations, which Doyle had no control over. Holmes was a lot more of a Bohemian than is usually portrayed.

I liked the grubbiness of the city.. The actors were having a lot of fun. Holmes got to beat up people with singlesticks (i guess) which i always wondered about.

Okay, so here's a recurring problem I've had with the audio on Karmic 64-bit Ubuntu for the past month or so:

Basically, when playing some games in Wine, but also when watching video using XBMC and such, my audio will cut out. It'll ramp up to 100% CPU and just sit there churning. The sound becomes popping and crackling, not actually giving any stable sound whatsoever. Originally I figured that I'd have to kill and restart the PulseAudio server to get it to work, but now I've discovered, strangely enough, that going to the Sound Preferences menu, selecting a different hardware output and switching back to to 4.1 surround that I use will clear it right up.

Any idea what happened to PulseAudio to cause that? I've even gone to the PulseAudio repos to ugrade to the latest version today, but nothing works.

It's causing a lot of problems for games in wine. Previously, I'd have no problem alt-tabbing out, or going to my second monitor to do what-have-you, but now doing anything that defocuses from the game will cause the audio to gam up like that. I can't figure it out.

This seems to be happening exclusively with Wine games and XBMC, the former of which are also being really stuttery with graphics. I don't know why.

Anyway, most people's usual advice is "remove pulseaudio," but Karmic seems to have made that a really, really sketchy process and I don't want to go mucking about and ruining the audio that DOES work.

Advice? Logs I can look at/post?

Bugs Inside: What Happens When the Microbes That Keep Us Healthy Disappear?

The human body has some 10 trillion human cells -- but 10 times that number of microbial cells. So what happens when such an important part of our bodies goes missing?

With rapid changes in sanitation, medicine and lifestyle in the past century, some of these indigenous species are facing decline, displacement and possibly even extinction. In many of the world's larger ecosystems, scientists can predict what might happen when one of the central species is lost, but in the human microbial environment -- which is still largely uncharacterized -- most of these rapid changes are not yet understood.

Meanwhile, each new generation in developed countries comes into the world with fewer of these native populations. "They're actually missing some component of their microbiota that they've evolved to have," Foxman says.

Previously, previously.

I'm hoping you guys will be able to help. I'm using Karmic and decided to try my webcam again(it kept freezing the entire system back in Intrepid). Good news! It worked! System is not freezing, I seem to be getting video.

But my problem. The sound isn't working. When I switch to pulse audio it works. Kinda. In a breaking up I can barely hear anything sort of way. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. I know the webcam works(I have a dual boot in XP).

Thanks for any help guys! I'd love to be able to get my webcam working in linux.

Webcam is a logitech btw, I think its a quickcam. Is there some other package I should be grabbing from synaptic that will make the audio/mic work?
Thanks again.

Edit: Now for reasons unknown I'm not getting sound at all on skype. And whenever I change the mic's sound preference from low to medium it resets back to low.

What's the dumbest/newbest thing you've ever done to your system?

When I was very new to Linux, I rm -rf'd an important directory tree. I think it was /usr.

More recently, I used usermod -G without -a. On the only account that could sudo. Fortunately, I had a recovery CD handy.

I have an 8 gig USB stick that has suddenly gone into "Read Only" mode and I can't save or copy anything to it currently. This just won't do as it holds all my every day files on it.

What in the world? How did this happen and how do I change it? Just going into properties from the desktop doesn't show anything, so is there something I can do from the command prompt?

I have a feeling it's something ridiculously simple, but I can't figure out just what that is.

ETA:
Fixed!!

There is more to life and music than playing banjo ukes with massage therapists and tenured professors of whoosis no matter how sincere and worthy.

http://www.jerkcity.com/jerkcity4065.html

Exercise 4-13. Write a function reverse(s) which reverses the string s by turning the mind inside out, converting madness into reality and opening the door to allow the Old Ones to creep forth once more from their sunken crypt beyond time.

Merry Christmas, all! I have an odd request.

I got a Kindle for Christmas, but I'm not sure which books are available for it. What are the best books you know of that are available on the Kindle?

I love contemporary poetry (actually, any poetry really) and I'm interested in (but not limited to) reading new fiction. My favorite books include The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel, and Quicksand by Tanizaki Junichiro.

90,397 words. The shop is flooded. Off to another jolly holiday event.

I needed to download some pictures that my Mom took on her digital camera today. She has a Canon Power Shot SD 780.

Did some quick googling to learn that Debian has a command-line program that can be used, and apparently supports a very large range of digital cameras: gphoto2
***
Connected my mom's camera via usb cable to my workstation.
Next did:
sudo aptitude install gphoto2

Then created a directory on my filesystem
robert@pip:~/cameraPictures/mom mkdir _2009-12-25

Then cd'd to the directory. In the directory, ran this command:
gphoto2 -P

This command downloads _all_ the photos from the camera to the directory where you executed the command.
***
Just wanted to share this quick way to get photos, in case you were like me :)
***
Happy Holidays Everyone!

(cross-posted to debian )

Awesome Christmas gifts. Finally my very own copies of Iris Murdoh's The Sea, The Sea, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Herman Melville's Moby Dick or The Whale. I could reread them over and over again. Blissful end to a decade and a hopeful beginnings through one might anticipate of the turbulent teenage years of the twenty first century.