a comment jason made sun night sprang into my mind as i skimmed this economic growth article. he mentioned that his companies computer equipment was so old that they wouldn't be able to claim depreciation on it anymore after this year. so reading about the huge surge in companies investments in equipment and technology has to make me wonder. what percentage of these investments were spurred on not by economic confidence but purely by the fact that out-dated equipment replacement could no longer be delayed since they needed the tax right-offs. 09:10 am

well, The Gender Genie was wrong. it thought i was male. i also noticed that it is far less than it's predicted 80% accuracy. 08:54 am

ITOvertime.com this is good to see. now if they'd only been around 4 years ago when startups were forcing us all into 80 hour weeks. if you make less than $43.58/hour as a computer professional, you're entitled to overtime pay. via dori. 12:39 pm

George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics. wow. i've been paying a lot more attention to politics in the last 2 years and especially the whole run up to the war. one thing i had noticed was the uncanny ability of republicans to spin issues using words so that by opposing them you became evil or unpatriotic or a terrorist. i also noticed that democrats were never able to recover either. the whole "partial-birth" abortion thing last week was so clearly framed around the verbiage too. i mean who in their right mind would be for a baby getting killed as it's being born?

sadly, i was reading this article, and found myself thinking "omg, the democrats are doomed because they're not paying attention framing, i should be signing on with the republicans. oh wait, i'm not rich, being a republican would be stupid. dammit." 04:52 pm

oh no. we'll never hear "Come on down!" again. sniffle. 03:45 pm

The trouble with MMORPGs: Grinding me down. yes! that's it exactly. although i have to say that despite my worship of Blizzard, i'm not raising my hopes that high for WoW. it would be too depressing. 09:28 am

being rabidly pro-choice, and seeing andrea's comment about choosing to abort at 7 months, i have to point out that you can only elect to have an abortion up to 24 weeks (6 months) after that it is only done because of medical problems. the aclu myths and facts page states:

Don’t women seek elective third-trimester abortions? No. Long-standing, unchallenged statutes in 40 states and the District of Columbia prohibit elective abortions by any method after fetal viability. Moreover, women do not carry healthy pregnancies for seven or eight months and then abort on a whim. On those extremely rare occasions when women have third-trimester abortions, they do so because their fetuses have severe or fatal anomalies or because the pregnancy endangers their lives or health.

it's been a long time since i played around with my gui but i couldn't resist the rainlendar when it saw it in matt's screenshots. everything snowballed from there. 01:25 pm

ew creepy. i've never been this close to a faith healing story. this is jason's great aunt(?) his grandmother's brother's wife. what's even weirder is that even tho she's not a blood relative she looks just like his grandma. 10:35 am

thinking of Anita (who just had surgery for ovarian cancer) and hoping for the best. 12:42 pm

i find this article on the new voting machines *really* scary. why is it that the really scary articles about the state of the U.S. all show up in british newspapers? 07:26 pm

Bush orders officials to stop the leaks. "News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately." lol. 05:51 pm

what happens when you force kids of today to play the games we grew up with? egm decided to find out. i can't really say that the results of Kids Play are surprising, but some of the commentary is quite amusing. and yes, i do now feel very old. kid's today just don't know how good they've got it. in my day... 05:46 pm

Why the beer belly may be a myth. 12:24 pm

Property sales out of this world 11:25 am

A Casket Full Of Cheese Fries. via rebecca. 11:06 am

Monkeys Can Move Robot Arms With Thoughts 10:59 am

Is Sex Necessary? now if i could only get jason to read this and take it to heart. 10:44 am

reading about matt's photo project reminds me that i haven't been taking enough pictures. i think this means i must be starting to feel better. as i've ramped up on my new drug, i've had to drop one of my others because of the side effects. theoretically, in ten weeks, i could be off all other meds. starting the new year with monotherapy would be a good thing. especially if my seizures were under control. even better, i'd have no icky side effects. although, i'm waiting for the really good weight loss side effect of my new drug to kick in. being fat again is not fun. 10:03 am

so Rush Limbaugh is a drug addict which i'm sure excuses all the stuff he's said in the past few weeks. ya right. 09:53 am

Lessons in Civility. 09:51 am

Man Kills Friend, Drinks Blood. 09:47 am

CalPundit: The New Model Republican Party. if you don't want to read much, just scroll down a bit and just read through the repulican platform. it is truly a scary thing. 09:28 am

$87,000,000,000.00. heh. 09:15 am

So what's their hang-up? ironic, don't you think? 11:22 am

The Surprising Benefits of Being Unemployed. it's always good to be reminded of this every now and then. it helps to counteract the corporate brainwashing that goes on at company meetings.

"I actually thought - and this is really silly when you consider that I've been working in the FEH for nigh on to a thousand years and so should know better - that companies feel the same sense of obligation and duty toward their employees that they insist their employees should feel toward them. If you contribute to your company's success and help it to advance its interests and financial health, often making sacrifices of your own time to do so, then your company will reciprocate by making sacrifices in bad times to take care of you by not depriving you of your paycheck and benefits. That's the way I thought it worked.

Where in the world did I get that idea? Now I finally understand - and I'm so much the better man and citizen for the understanding - that the true, indeed the only, obligation any company's top management has is to its Board of Directors and major shareholders. And of course to the continued employment of its top managers. My appreciation for the wonderfulness of the FEH can only be deepened by this knowledge, even if I am now forced to gaze upon that wonderfulness from a cold and comfortless place outside the warmth and safety of its shelter."

Who's Sordid Now? 10:54 am