The United States of Hypocrisy

sammyv @ 2008-08-22T11:09:00

2008-08-22T15:09:21Z

NYT QotD

Hooker wins pole vault gold medal for Australia

sammyv @ 2008-07-09T19:17:00

2008-07-09T23:20:52Z

In keeping with the title of this blog, I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the United States Senate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/washington/10fisa.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

and

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00168

Both of Indiana's senators voted Yea, although I called and asked them not to. Baron Hill voted Nay in the House.

Long live the King!

sammyv @ 2008-06-27T20:39:00

2008-06-28T00:39:27Z

NYT QotD

The Mets clobbered the Yankees, 15-6

Yowza!

sammyv @ 2008-06-22T10:45:00

2008-06-22T14:46:16Z

NYT QotD:

"...yet remain conservative on issues like opposition to abortion and support for the death penalty."

So mysterious.

sammyv @ 2008-05-03T21:54:00

2008-05-04T01:55:28Z

Thomas Friedman has a very nice column today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/opinion/04friedman.html?ref=opinion

And -- extremely surprising -- I enjoyed Maureen Dowd's column also:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/opinion/04dowd.html?ref=opinion

sammyv @ 2008-03-18T22:01:00

2008-03-19T02:02:13Z

Not funny, but NYT QotD:

Arthur C. Clarke, Premier Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 90

sammyv @ 2008-03-14T13:30:00

2008-03-14T17:31:16Z

Oh man, I am so awesome.
Today's Wikipedia page of the day is Oxygen, and someone had replaced the article with "is delicious." So I reverted it back to the previous edit. I saved oxygen.

sammyv @ 2008-03-07T09:26:00

2008-03-07T14:28:28Z

Very interesting article about a NYC charter school over at The New York Times. The school will pay teachers 125k, and the principal will get only 90k. Choice quote:

Ernest A. Logan, president of the city principals’ union, called the notion of paying the principal less than the teachers “the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

sammyv @ 2008-02-21T21:02:00

2008-02-22T02:03:08Z

NYT QotD

“I don’t know anything about it,” Mr. McCain said. “Since it was in The New York Times, I don’t take it at face value.”

That's a cheap shot, John.

sammyv @ 2008-02-18T09:24:00

2008-02-18T14:24:44Z

It's snowing!

sammyv @ 2008-02-11T16:40:00

2008-02-11T21:40:27Z

NYT QotD

This shared outrage underscores how egalitarian free trade is: undermining inefficient producers who survive behind protective barriers, be they fabulously wealthy sugar producers in Florida or campesinos on tiny plots in Michoacán.

sammyv @ 2008-01-24T07:30:00

2008-01-24T12:30:36Z

NYT QotD

“Never get into a wrestling match with a pig,” Senator John McCain said in New Hampshire this month after reporters asked him about Mr. Romney. “You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

sammyv @ 2008-01-02T10:57:00

2008-01-02T15:59:00Z

NYT QotD

Yet we often promise developing countries that if they will only adopt good policies — for example, institute honest government and a free-market economy — they, too, will be able to enjoy a first-world lifestyle. This promise is impossible, a cruel hoax....

From and op-ed by Jared Diamond, author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel."

sammyv @ 2007-12-12T19:25:00

2007-12-13T00:25:41Z

Here are pictures of the boys:

https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/simoniss/dogs/IMG_2003.jpg
https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/simoniss/dogs/IMG_2004.jpg
https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/simoniss/dogs/IMG_2020.jpg

The brown one is Wooster, the black and brown one is Jeeves.

long time

2007-12-10T20:48:39Z

Wow, it's been a long, long time. Things are going well. We are busy. Very busy. And now we have two dogs. I don't know how we are going to do it. We might just have to get the car fixed. I am going a little crazy. The dogs are wonderful, but I am not so sure how I feel about being responsible for them. What if they grow up to be mean and spiteful and bite people and for 15 years I have to deal with that?

But they shouldn't, not if we treat them right. Not if we are good to them and introduce them to new people and so on.

They are beagles. They are 11 months old. We adopted them from the shelter. We think they are brothers. Their names are Wooster and Jeeves. I will put some pictures online somewhere soon. They're super cute. Especially the little one. And they are already learning to sit and so forth. They're still a little wild -- they were strays, who knows for how long. They're very excitable, and not yet all that interested in paying attention to us. But that's getting better already.

Anyway, I'm going a little nuts, but I think overall they will be really good for me. They'll definitely get me on a more sensible schedule (since I want them on a sensible schedule). And I'm getting a lot more exercise! On the downside, I am allergic to them. I've never noticed any reaction to dogs before, but now that I have my own my hands turn red and dry out and swell up and itch. As the day goes on the swelling and redness creeps up my arms and starts on my face. It gets better overnight -- the dogs stay downstairs and we sleep upstairs. But how ironic is that? The only reason we haven't gotten a cat -- the easiest of all animals, and my favorite -- is that I'm allergic. And now we get dogs, which are a big pain in the butt, and I'm still allergic. Benadryl helps, but it knocks me out. I just took one and you can see how disjointed this is.

I hope I don't sound negative about this overall. It is great! And Sandra is happy.
Come meet them sometime.

sammyv @ 2007-08-06T16:48:00

2007-08-06T20:49:31Z

NYT QotD

About bin Laden:
“I can’t talk about that, whether he is in Afghanistan or in Pakistan,” Mr. Karzai said, “but I definitely know that he cannot be in Afghanistan.”

sammyv @ 2007-06-15T00:03:00

2007-06-15T04:05:01Z

Here's something pretty funny:

Directions from "bloomin" to the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge

I was trying to autocomplete "Bloomin" to Bloomington, but I just hit enter. Check out step 35.

About damn time

2007-05-28T22:59:11Z

I got my Wii yesterday. At the Target in Clarksville they had about 6 or 8 of them. Here in bloomington you have to be at the store when the truck gets there to get one. Anyway, it's awesome. My number is
7048 4935 2580 2556

sammyv @ 2007-04-24T19:24:00

2007-04-24T23:24:49Z

MORE THUNDERSTORMS, PLEASE.

ALSO SEND MORE BURRITOS.

sammyv @ 2007-04-14T13:55:00

2007-04-14T17:57:14Z

Sandra and I ran a 10k race in Columbus this morning. It was a lot of fun. We came in 2nd and 3rd from last. But check this out: We both won our age/sex groups. First place Men 25-29, first place Women 19-24. Hahahahahahaha. AND we both got door prizes. Pretty sweet all around.

sammyv @ 2007-04-02T22:39:00

2007-04-03T01:43:01Z

So, every other entry here starts with the word "so". So so so so so. So. So. So. So. SOOO so so so so.

sammyv @ 2007-04-02T22:32:00

2007-04-03T01:37:39Z

So I realized that I've been out of the computer/video game loop pretty seriously for a long time now. I was just looking through my game CD's and I saw Homeworld, a pretty big hit for Sierra at one time. I remember being excited about the game. I remember not getting it because my computer wouldn't run it at the time. I remember someone getting it for me for Christmas or my birthday or something. I remember playing it a few times and then putting it aside in the "I like this, but I'll really play it later" category. To me this game seems new. The graphics seem new. The concepts seem new. My memories of the game seem new.

Homeworld came out in 1999. It's EIGHT YEARS old. WTF?

sammyv @ 2007-04-01T15:55:00

2007-04-01T18:56:22Z

So, Sandra and I ran 8 miles today. Sure, we averaged over 12 minutes for each one, but I'm pretty damn excited about it.

sammyv @ 2007-03-28T22:08:00

2007-03-29T02:14:46Z

So I decided to brush up on my programming skills recently. I got a book and I've been messing around and all that. Now, I like Visual Studio, and it's free (yay for being a student!). But what I hate hate hate about it is the keyboard commands. I hate always having to move my hands off the home keys to do stuff. So I was looking into using emacs as my editor for VS, but it seemed like I'd have to type ten thousand lines of lisp to make it work right (like so many things emacs). But then I was looking through the options in VS and I discovered that you can remap the keyboard wholesale to a bunch of different command schemes, and one of them is emacs! So now I don't have to move my hand over to the damn arrow keys/home/end when I want to move the cursor. That alone is enough to make my evening.

sammyv @ 2007-03-28T09:50:00

2007-03-28T13:51:07Z

NYT QotD

Yet when it comes to gaming, Xbox 360 users are serious, Mr. Rodman says. Six out of 10 Xbox 360 users use Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming service.

“We don’t feel like the Wii customer and the Xbox customer are the same thing,” he said. “We think that as soon as the Wii customer turns 14 they want something else.”

Now that's just mean.