Car Trouble

Over the thanksgiving weekend, I drove up to Canada to visit my parents. (Thanksgiving and Christmas is about the only time I see them...) So on the way there, the weather was sorta bad... but I made it OK, once I got out from under the Lake Effect. I was heading home on Sunday afternoon, and I'm cruisin' along with my cruise on, and my tunes when suddenly, the car shudders a bit, and then I start slowing down...
Thankfully, I am close to an on ramp, so I can pull over and not be directly in the path of on-coming traffic. Then, since I don't have AAA, or anything else, but my cell phone still works, I call 911 (I know it wasn't an emergency, but what else do you do?) I am still in Canada (actually only an hour into a 6 hour trip) so this super nice Canadian trooper pulls up behind me (after a sorta tense and cold wait) and after taking my info (why? It wasn't like it was an accident...) and then he calls a tow truck. The tow truck guy (Ed) is also super nice, and gets me pulled back to the nearest Canadian Tire (18 miles back) which results in a rather steep towing charge...) He wants cash, and I don't carry that much, so I mosey on over to Canadian Tire to see if they can give me a cash advance.
I hear from the cashier lady that I have to buy something first, so I pick out a set of tie straps (always handy to have around) and wait in line at the checkout. When I get to the cashier, she tells me that she can only advance me half of what I need... so I ask her if there is an ATM around. She says there probably is one in the gas station.
I jog over to the gas station (remember, my tow truck man is still waiting) and don't see any ATM... I ask the gas station attendant, and he tells me that their is a bank across the street. I learned from him the actual meaning of kitty corner, as I have to cross the street twice. I walk up to the drive-up ATM, and get my cash, and then jaywalk back across the street, and back to Canadian Tire. By this time Ed has gotten bored of sitting around, so the Canadian Tire guys page him.

"Tow Truck driver to the service desk"

He hasn't wandered far thankfully. I slip him the hard-earned wad from the ATM, and he is on his way. By this time, it is 4:45 and once I finally get to talking to a service guy, they are closing up shop. I guess I am lucky they were open at all...
I called my Mom and Dad, and they give me the number of the closest relative. I call my Uncle, and he picks me up a bit later. Super good family... they open their house to me and let me crash on the couch.
So now I am just waiting for Canadian Tire to call me and let me know what is up with the car...

I'm OverReacting

I just discovered Magnatune. Good stuff there.
According to "Brad Sucks", I guess I am overreacting...

When theres no place you feel at home
And you think you'd be better off alone

When you think there's no reason to try
And you hate yourself and wanna die

When you're filled with anxiety
And everyone's your enemy

When you wish you were someone else
And you wanna go out and kill yourself

OOOOhOOOOhhh you're overreacting
2x

When you get yourself depressed
Because you think you can't do your best.

When you write yourself a stupid song
To remind yourself that you forgot

OOOOHOoooo you're overreacting
2x Brad Sucks

I'm a Quitter

I am a quitter.
I love escapist music, books, and movies, because I don't have to do anything, so I can't mess it up.
I am in love with myself and no one else.
I don't think people should love me so I don't act lovable.
Most people would rather like you, but we have to make that possible... I work as hard as I can to make myself unlovable, so when people reject me, I am still in control, because I did it.
Plus, when I say I have no friends, I sound really dramatic, and I like drama. If my day goes a little awry, then I give up on the rest.
I give up quickly (Is it really worth it to apologize about being late? Just don't go and then no one can give you grief).
I think the world has given me a bum deal, but that is because I have been deluded by the unrealistic world painted by my music and movie choices.
The universe is mostly a cold and dark place.
But I love myself... and I'll never hate me or leave me. I'll always forgive me, because I can't live without me.

Space and related stuff

I wrote about the open source project Stellarium in a previous post. Today I found another star mapping program that allows you to leave the earth, and zoom off to Jupiter for a look at its moons... Its called Celestia and you will probably again need a decent video card and system to run it.

Speaking of stars... I just saw Zathura and loved it! Its harmless and innocent adventure. More please!

The Living Things - Bom Bom Bom

I was looking for the lyrics on the net for this song, and couldn't find them, so I transcribed them myself...

Bom Bom Bom

We're gonna wake this city tonight
Oh, Watch it burn into the twilight
I said, Hey, Hey Hey this is our birthright
To be bought and sold, shipped off ready to die
We're ready to fight

We're gonna bom bom bom
Bom bom away bom
bom bom, bom bom
2x

I can't drink but drive a tank at nineteen
So, I set off to join the U.S. Army
The first time I left my country
I felt the desert sand marchin' under my feet.
Come march with me

Refrain 2x

We're gonna take this city tonight
We're gonna shake this city till broad daylight
We're gonna take this city tonight
We're gonna shake this city till broad daylight
Shake it...

I said
No NYC, Los Angeles
No Saint Louis, No New Orleans
No U and Me, No U and Me, No Sympathy
Cause we're gonna bring them, bring them to their knees

Refrain 2x

We're gonna take this city tonight
We're gonna shake this city till broad daylight
We're gonna take this city tonight
We're gonna shake this city till broad daylight
Shake it...

The Living Things

EDIT: Thanks to the anonymous comment, I have changed the OR to BUT

Native American proverbs - Wikiquote

We do not inherit the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. tribe unknown

Native American proverbs - Wikiquote

'Those that lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.' Blackfoot

Self-Help doesn't work...

Anything outside yourself, this you can see and apply your logic to it. But it's a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, these things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that's really chewing on us. Jessica speaking to Thufir Hawat

What sources now?

"For the first time in history..." Weather Girls

"I love this song!!!.... but that means I'm gay... Shit!" Aron

I strongly object to being labeled... but I just love the infectious happiness of this song more. The words actually turn me off, because I am not gay... but I do have some coming out to do...

I was with some friends over the weekend, and, as the custom is in most places, we got together over dinner. I ordered the vegetarian "burger". (notice those quotes... that was exactly the way it was on the menu.. we were in a place famous for its ribs...) Of course, people asked me why, and I had to explain. They were really shocked, and later I realized that I had just gone through a "coming out."

I haven't talked about this before, but I just can't hide it anymore...

I am a vegetarian. A vegan actually. A predominantly raw vegan...

I feel so much better now...

Cure for Depression

This one is much more happy. (WARNING: Some innocent playing around involved - may offend prudish sensibilities.)

Ghost World is depressing..

Ghost World tells a story of two girls graduating from high school. It is a coming of age story that accurately describes the experience of thousands of high school kids. It is a story that I totally identify with, and that is why it depresses me. I am just like Enid... and maybe now I am becoming like Seymour... But at least I have my family... and my faith, which is significantly better than Seymour's plight...

The last post was optimistic...

It turns out that the first 3 digits are an area number, so if you know what state someone was born in, you only have to search from 1 million (15 minutes at 1 millisecond per check) up to 24 million combinations (which is 6 hours at 1 millisecond per check). The Social Security Administration needs to hire some paranoid security people fast! (BTW, this didn't take me very long to find out... it isn't like I am a cracker or something... I just know a little bit... so what about other people who are better at it than me?)

The Social Security Number is TOO Short

The American social security number as a security device is much too short. Because there are only 9 numeric digits, there are only 1 billion combinations. This seems short, but remember that the U.S. population stands at 297 million (and counting), which means that the numbers will have to start being re-used after less than 4 generations. Plus, using this number as a security device means that more than 25% of the search space is valid. If you pick 9 numbers at random, you have a 25% chance of it being a valid number. I hope there isn't a national clearinghouse that allows viewing of personal data with only a social security number. Now matching that number to a name is still rather difficult, but still totally within computational limits given a validity checker. Modern computes are running in the Gigahertz range, which means they can do something every nanosecond. What they can do isn't much though. They can do something useful probably once a millisecond (that is actually probably on the slow side...people should optimize more). Lets say there is a service somewhere that checks the validity of a social security number if you also give it a person's name and birthdate. Name and birthdate isn't that hard to find. Once you have that, you only need to hammer that service for 12 days (max) before you know someone's social security number. Now, hopefully, someone somewhere would notice your continuous hammering and cut you off before you got to the number, but what if you tried it spread out more randomly over a longer period of time? I tested it with once a second and thankfully, it would take up to 30 years... so as long as someone is watching the service for thousands of failures from one IP address, we should be safe... We are in more danger from people using our info flippantly. For example, my school used to use the social security number as an identifier for everyone. They have since stopped... but we have to watch our services for security gaffes like that. Keep thinking people!

Pakjes Avond

Our family (like many families) has a Christmas tradition of picking names and buying presents for each other. We do it on a different day than Christmas, because Mom and Dad want Christmas to be about Christ, not gifts. We call the celebration Pakjes Avond, which is Dutch (literally) for "package open." When we were young, Mom and Dad would to do all the gift giving, but now our family is growing up. We used to pick names from a hat at thanksgiving dinner, but now because of us growing up and getting families of our own, and the fact that half of us live in Canada and the rest live in the U.S. we don't get together for Thanksgiving anymore, so the hat is hard to pass around... We do alot of our interaction using the internet or telephone becuase of the distance, and though it loses alot of its "gezellig"-ness, I am developing a virtual hat, which I have named Pakjes Avond... though I think I need a better name... and maybe a brand or logo... So far I have the name picker done, and I am working on automating another part of the process that we used to do by email, namely the wishlists. We would just send our wishlists using the "Reply All" feature, but the problem is that the lists would get out of sync, and someone would have to maintain the list, and that made things less jolly... so I am hoping this will make our season a little more simple... What I would like is ideas to make this better... and if you want to implement this for your family, let me know... I won't let you into my family's implementation, because that would make our little private family place less cozy, but I would be willing to let anyone interested see the source.

God and Sovereignty

Is God embedded in Cause and Effect? Is the reason for God's sovereignty over bad effects yet his lack of responsibility the fact that God is the glue that holds the logic together? Or that God is in or under the logic? This seems sorta pantheistic.... Is reality a simulation or illusion maintained continuously by God? Is God a computer that is running the simulation? Is God playing a part or is He the director?