Trust the Ferret, the Ferret is Wise

So, I saw this bumper sticker promoting people buying products made in the USA. It was text, and a photo of the top of the Statue of Liberty. Which was made in France.

(The actual issues of trade balances, manufacturing, etc, are More Complicated Than That, and I'm not getting into them, I was just commenting on the disconnect between the message and the image. And yes, I know the Statue of Liberty is an iconic American monument. One that was built for the US by the government of France.)

John Egbert is king of the trolls. He fools them all with his derpy innocence, then knocks over their whole worlds. All of them.

So I was reading the comments on The Ferret's post about manilness and somebody linked to the website The Art of Manliness, and I clicked over because I was curious, and I was ready to make jokes about it, but then I saw the title bar.

I simply cannot argue with that moustache. That is a truly elegant and wise moustache, and only a fool would dispute with it.

Now I'm actually going to go read the site, but between the moustaches, top hats, and illustrations taken from vintage men's magazines, I get the feeling that these people have their heads on straight enough to not actually take it all seriously, while taking it seriously. Or maybe it just reminds me of David Malki!'s Wondermark.

Yay, research!

... Now I just need to figure out how to make the time work, and the money.

Also, I need to find time to build a trebuchet. A fairly little one, for practice.

A professor bet that a transhuman AI in a box would be able to talk people into letting it out. He would play the AI. Two people so far have volunteered as "gatekeepers" and bet $10 on the experiment. Each time, he convinced them to let him out.

Hey. Yeah, it's been a while. Bit of dust on this old place. Well, old in internet age, this LJ'll be five and a half in... Huh. The archive says the first post was in May, 2004, but I KNOW there were earlier ones, saying stuff like "This is just here for me to watch other people's LJs" and we know how that turned out. So, about five and a half years, we'll say. It's close enough. But that's just a number, not really a milestone. I'll get to those in a minute.

First though, I wanted to apologize to people, for not being around much, and not being around or talking to people much for the last while. Maybe a year. Part of the blame I can place easily on being busy, what with everything that's gone on. I'm back in school studying engineering, for about another year after this semester. I moved hundreds of miles, got a new job, got an apartment, got married, etc. So, a lot going on, and intermittent net access through it all. And I've barely mentioned most of that here. Which is what I feel a little weird about. I haven't mentioned much of that here at all, or anywhere, really. Haven't been able to be online and talk with people as much as I used to. That and I don't often talk about myself (which is why I've had a blog for five years, uh huh.) But I wanted to apologize to everybody for not being around, though I don't know how much that's going to change, 'cause I'm still busy.

Two of those reasons I'm busy are the milestones I mentioned in the title. The first? Last Monday, I turned 30. Which on the one hand is just a number, and doesn't seem very important, but on the other hand is made into this big huge thing culturally. And the other thing is we're buying a house. Despite these, I don't really feel like a responsible adult though. And I'm back in school, but there's far worse places to be, and I'm lucky I landed my internship when I did, and have been able to keep it. But I still find myself thinking things like "I wanna be a Science Hero when I grow up!" Or, in other words, this XKCD. Though I haven't made lego buildings in a while. My legos are in Virginia.

So what's the plan? Get moved, and finish school, and the rest I'lm taking by ear right now. Gonna have to start looking at finding jobs and taking the FE exam and that sort of thing soon, but not yet. Responsible Adultness? Well, gonna have to keep faking it. And try and get out more, instead of just letting responsibilities become excuses not to do the rest of the stuff I need to do. Cut back on the empty calories of flash game distractions and spend more time catching up with people I know. Send letters, the actual physical kind, 'cause it's really cool to get stuff besides bills and spam in the mail. Just need to figure out how to make the time, I've got two half-finished letters that've been sitting around for months.

So far this year, like every year, the regular old flu has killed thousands more people than the Panic of the Moment Animal Flu.

The More You Know!

Okay, so this one program I'm using for this research project?

It's written in FORTRAN.

Seriously.

If you're ever telling your child something at all similar to how they're the greatest disappointment in your life, you're doing it wrong.

You're not trying to "challenge" them, it's not "tough love", you're just hurting them, and possibly setting up a dramatic battle where they repudiate you and all that you stood for, rather than trying to meet your expectations. Possibly in a thunderstorm.

Also, it's not your job. Your job is to help them, train them, and encourage them to go out and kick the world's butt, then get out of the way and let them do it their way, and offer help when they need it.

But then again, I don't have kids yet, so I could be completely wrong. But I don't think so.

Wow. Not one, but TWO op-eds, in major newspapers, ranting about the evils of denim and jeans. Seriously. I'm not gonna bother linking to either of them, they don't need any more traffic.

But the entire premise, besides Grumpy Old Man syndrome, seems to be that because of jeans, they can't look at people and tell what social class they are. Ohnoes!