The Lofty Tower of Pretentiousness
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "wyrd_sane" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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01:58 pm
[Link] |
quick note
I just had to share this with the non-world I am in before I forget about it. I'm researching a company, and this is what I found at the top of their "we exist" page:
Transparency * Trust^3 = Balance
I'm speechless.
Current Mood:  working
Tags: corporate, inanity
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05:49 am
[Link] |
UClue
I wanna save a link to this place somewhere so as not to forget about it, and also to popularize it.
I think it'd be great to become a researcher there, but unfortunately they're still in Beta. It seems they exist largely to take over where Google Answers left off.
I had always wondered what happened to Google Answers. I found out on accident when I did a search "why do stomachs growl". The resulting search included something from Yahoo Answers, and that reminded me about Google Answers which I hadn't heard of/from in like forever, so I searched for that too and found this blog post which lead to the place the picture goes to.
P.S. This snapshots link preview feature they've added to LiveJournal is pretty sweet. :-)
Current Location: 2nd floor admin
Current Mood:  happy
Current Music: ventilation system
Tags: geek, google, research, tech, uclue
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04:35 pm
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programming
Programming... it combines the most unpleasant aspects of: writing, engineering, and dealing with the worst kind of icky bureaucracy all into one nice, neat package.
I've not done much/any in-depth work with spreadsheets before. Well, who does really? I mean, if you can't point-and-click it in just a few moments, then why bother? Well I'm a masochist (read: programmer) so I wasn't gonna take no for a result (actually it was #!NAME).
I wanted a copy of my running total to always be displayed at a cell at the top of the worksheet. So that way I wouldn't have to go searching for it. I worked out that I could refer to the cell farthest down the sheet in that column with a number in it with this: "=COUNTIF($F$3:F65506;">0")+2".
Ok, so that's all neat and stuff. So now all I needed was to figure out how to dereference the number I had calculated to use as a cell reference. It shouldn't have been a big deal, but instead it took several agonizing hours to find the answer. I'm writing this down with the hope that I won't have to do this again. Maybe I should have tried that online google-for-code thing, ut I forgot it existed until just now.
Anyway, the magic to keep in mind is
1: Spreadsheets have an inanely simplistic syntax, so they handle all the sophisticated things (like dereferences) through functions.
2: Some people use the term "indirect" instead of "dereference". Or maybe indirection and dereferencing aren't quite the same thing. I forget, it's been a long time since assembly language.
Anyway, this is what it looks like:
"=INDIRECT(CONCATENATE("F";COUNTIF($F$3:F65506;">0")+2))"
yay
Current Location: home
Current Mood:  blah
Current Music: Dragon Ball Z infinite music loop (i.e. sonic torture)
Tags: calc, code, dereference, excel, formula, indirection, openoffice, programming, spreadsheet
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01:45 am
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The Next Big Thing (well one of them at least)
The Next Big Thing is going to be/currently is (with respect to Computers, The Internet, etc): Virtualization. Specifically by replacing apps-on-your-harddrive with apps-online. The practice of virtualizing applications, OSes, hardware, and sometimes even whole computer systems has already been ongoing for some time, but now we are seeing, and are going to see a lot more instances of individualized virtual desktop environments for end users that exist solely or primarily online.
As I write this (at work) I'm connected to livejournal's built-in journaling web form from a Citrix Remote Desktop.
Things like this:
Desktop On Demand
will become more and more common.
Current Location: BR
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: I can hear the Schwing pump feeder screw rev
Tags: desktop, next-big-thing, online, virtual
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07:30 pm
[Link] |
Podcasting
"What is podcasting"? you may ask? Well... let's Ask a Ninja:
Ask A Ninja: Special Delivery 1 "What is Podcasting?"
Current Location: apt
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: squeaky swingset outside
Tags: podcast
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08:58 pm
[Link] |
"My mouth was a broken jpeg--I had no choice."
Strongbad emails are now also available in podcast form. This one's really good (in traditional flash form): Virus.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Strongbad Emails--Virus
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04:43 am
[Link] |
Worst Buy?
I've been reading through some emails at www.bestbuysux.org. This may become a new hobby of mine. There's an anti-Best Buy customers section (emails by customers about bad experineces at Best Buy) and an anti-Best Buy employees section (emails by current or former employees about bad experineces they've had working for Best Buy). There's also an attempt at a pro-Best Buy section, although it's rather sparesly populated and many of the emails are actually hate mail directed at the guy running the site. The site is apparently run by a former Best Buy employee.
Obviously, any criticsms made by former employees and even some of those made by customers should be taken with a grain of salt. But I myself have had somewhat less than darling experineces in Best Buy stores, and one of the anti- emails by a customer is about the specific store I've often been to. I seem to be getting the sense that, while it's certainly not the case that every Best Buy everywhere is staffed by nothing but people that are soulless, corrupt, or inept, the percentage of soulless, corrupt, or inept employees working for Best Buy might be a lot higher than normal. More disturbingly, there seems to be some weird culture (possibly perpetuated by training materials) in the Best Buy corporate structure that says that the customer is to be considered the enemy with which Best Buy must grudgingly do business. The following excerpt is (or at least claims to be) from a Best Buy employee responding to someone else's story of being held up by Best Buy staff for failing to consent to bag check after purchase. (this isn't on the bestbuysux.org site)
In dealing with the larger issue of why we verify receipts, I will ask a question: Have you ever worked retail sales? How long ago? The unpleasant reality facing retailers today is that "the customer" will lie, cheat, and steal at the slightest opportunity. They will invent fairy tales in attempts to get lower prices, and if you have the gall to debate their logic, they will insult, threaten, and even assault you. This Christmas we had a customer, a 39 year old, 6-2 200lb man, grab a 16 year old slip of a female cashier by the front of her shirt, pull her across the counter to his face, and scream at her because she would not honor an ad price that had been out of effect for two weeks. I personally had a customer, an intelligent, middle-aged man, tell me that a sign I had made ($9.99 after $5.00 mail-in-rebate) was misleading. I could go on, but I won't. Simply put, that is "the customer". All the old sayings about "the customer being the reason we're here", etc...don't apply as much as you might like them to. The reality is that customers don't come to Best Buy because they want to do their part to keep us in business. They want to buy a computer and they come to Best Buy because we have a lower price than Circuit City. That may be simplifying things a bit, but it illustrates the fact that "the customer" will put up with a lot to save 10% How else do you explain the continued existence of
Kmart?
It is because of these facts that , while we try to serve the customer, we must take steps to protect ourselves from "the customer" It is distasteful to be sure, but if we didn't do it one of two things would happen: we would have to raise prices to compensate or we would soon go out of business. Kmart doesn't protect itself the way Best Buy does and each store loses about 5% of its sales to theft and waste. At my Best Buy a similar level of inefficiency would be about $5,000,000 in loss. As it is, we'll lose about $120,000. I'm sure there was an uproar when stores first began to run personal checks through the various time consuming verification systems, but people soon grasped the truth that other people write bad checks and stores had a reasonable right to protect themselves from that. Receipt verification follows a similar logic. The attitude of "How dare they? Do I look like a thief" comes my way in a lot of the people I check off, and I sense a bit of that in you. Frankly, it's a natural reaction. But, just as we cannot tell a bogus check writer by looks, we cannot differentiate shoplifters either.
-- Best Buy Receipt Check: Epilogue
The author makes some good points about how customers can't always be trusted and he certainly makes us all anxious with stories of a big tall man grabbing a young girl by the hair in anger. But I can't help but notice familiar themes both here and on the BB sux website. Each side blames the other side for all problems. Each side points to the worst members of the other side as if they are an example of a typical member of that class or group. Each side makes gross generalizations. As if all customers are likely to steal the store, as if all BB employees are likely to screw the customer over in every way possible.
Once a hostile environment has developed, things have a way of naturally progressing from bad to worse. And how will it turn out? Will we have armed guards have their guns trained on the customer from the moment they walk through the door? Will we have customers bringing along their lawyer to ensure the BB staff don't treat the customer unfairly? Well, probably not. But it might make for an entertaining cartoon. Speaking of entertaining, although the following is a tale of BB employee woe, I found it amusing:
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 14:39:54 -0800 (PST)
Baytown #952
I realise that by writing this I am going to lose my work, but this needs to be said.
Here are the problems with my store, by department:
Appliances -
There is two people that work appliances! What do you see wrong with that?
Mobile Entertainment -
Nobody is EVER in this department, they are always in the install bay. If there is 3 people on shift you can bet all 3 will be in the install bay. It is impossible to go anywhere near that part of the store because there are 10 people there that need help! You will never escape mobile if somebody stops you!
Computers -
First of all the computer price tags are almost never correct or up to date, or even entirely completed for that matter.
Ever since our manager was fired for DOING HER JOB of following the book, our schedule looks like it has been made by a monkey with arthritis. We're lucky to have one person on shift in the evenings.
Wireless -
The associates take entirely too long with customers, sometimes they will be on the computer/phone with one customer for two hours just to sell one phone! This leaves a mass quantity wondering over to computers asking for help when we are busy with our own customers.
Media -
New releases are never correct.
Their media closet has all of their merchandise. If somebody is looking for something you don't look on the floor for it because it will not be there - it will be in the media closet.
Certain associates spend their time flirting with other associates and get nothing done for an entire shift.
Operations -
They have to spend all their time with selling a magazine that the line piles up! Again this pulls us from our work having to save someone else's understaffed behinds.
Customer Service is a joke.
Warehouse -
Half of the warehouse guys are overpayed and will not work. The other half are underpaid and do not stop working.
Loss Prevention -
The suprevisor is the living definition of a brainwashed drone.
Management -
Ever had to call for an unlock? Ever have it get unlocked in under 5 calls? That's what I thought.
I look forward each week to looking at the schedule. It provides a good laugh.
The SM is a living cell of bipolar.
The GM hires people entirely too overqualified and comes down on everyone else for his mistakes.
Every manager, with the exception of the OM, gets paid for talking on their phone. That is all that they do. Period. End of story.
The GM is extremely immature for his age and does not deserve the money he makes or the store that he runs. Constantly talks about his "past life". They are building a Conn's a few blocks down, please return to your "past life".
100% of the GM and his suck-up SM's time is spent in their SDR, watching us on camera and then getting down our throats for "lack of activity", in which they discovered by a lack of activity themselves.
Fix the schedules. Fix the staffing. I will continue this discussion with you when you call me into your SDR to sign my termination papers.
The bit about the schedule looking like "it has been made by a monkey with arthritis" just cracks me up something fierce.
Current Mood:  inscrutible
Current Music: Doctor Who--The Visitation
Tags: best buy, customer service
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02:47 am
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( (√100) / 2 + ( log(8) / log(2) ) ) th grade math?
It would have been really depressing if I'd got any wrong.
| You Passed 8th Grade Math | 
Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct! |
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Law & Order--Magnet
Tags: math, think
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08:16 pm
[Link] |
something...
The Dick Cheney shooting done in lego: link
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Air America Radio--Majority Report
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08:44 pm
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You Make Bath Time So Much Fun
# "One's never really alone with a rubber duck." -- Life, the Universe, and Everything
# All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense. -- The Principia Discordia
[The following from a random web page]
# Anvil. anvil, in the sky, silly anvil, you can't fly! WHAM!
# Common sense is what tells you that the world is flat.
# No two equals are the same.
# Everybody I know who is right always agrees with me.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: road noise
Tags: quotes, random
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04:34 am
[Link] |  | You scored as Aimless Eclectic. You are an Aimless Eclectic! You have no bloody idea where you're going, but you don't care because you're having a great time! Eventually you'll find a focus, or fade away from the fad of occultism altogether. Try not to suffer the flames of hell....er....ridicule too much along the way.
Aimless Eclectic | | 75% | Discordian | | 60% | Otherkin | | 60% | Magician | | 50% | Mystic | | 50% | White Lighter | | 50% | True Alternative | | 50% | Spiritualist | | 10% | </td>
What Subversive Alternative Paradigm Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com |
I don't really want to be aimless, but what alternatives fnorddo I really have? And about the ridicule (intentionally misinterpreting)--there's an awful laaaawt of stuff out there to ridicule, kiddies, yes indeedie. The picture's nice though. 23 Skidoo
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Doctor Who--Podshock
Tags: meme
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04:27 am
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Survey says...
a meme from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) alamoo
1. name:
2. birthday:
3. place of residence:
4. what makes you happy:
5. what are you listening to now/have listened to last:
6. do you read my lj:
7. if you do, what is particularly good/bad about it:
8. an interesting fact about you:
9. are you in love/have a crush at the moment:
10. favourite place to be:
11. favourite lyric:
12. best time of the year:
13. best album of 2005:
14. where would you take me to hang out?:
RECOMMEND
1. a film:
2. a book:
3. a band, a song and an album:
PLUS
1. one thing you like about me:
2. two things you like about yourself:
3. put this in your lj so i can tell you what i think of you.
4. POST A PICTURE OF YOU:
Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: Dragon Page--Cover2Cover
Tags: meme
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08:19 am
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dWoW, oW (daily Words of Wisdom, or Whatever)
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: NIN--Ruiner (but only in my head)
Tags: dwow, ow
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01:16 am
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meme-y time
I've never really cared for the DnD notion of alignment. Still, it is tempting to find out...
| You scored as Neutral Good. A Neutral Good person tries to do the 'goodest' thing possible. These people are willing to work with the law to accomplish their goal, but if the law is corrupt they are just as willing to tear it down. To these people, doing what's right is the most important thing, regardless of rules, customs, or laws.
Neutral Good | | 70% | Lawful Good | | 65% | True Neutral | | 60% | Chaotic Good | | 55% | Lawful Neutral | | 40% | Lawful Evil | | 40% | Neutral Evil | | 35% | Chaotic Neutral | | 25% | Chaotic Evil | | 15% | </td>
What is your Alignment?
created with QuizFarm.com |
COMMENTARY: Check out those perecentages. Just 5% separating the Lawful Good from the Neutral Good. Just another 5% down to True Neutral. And Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil both at 40%. I like these results. *content-smile*
Which Fairytale Tarot card are you? MANY cards and great fairytale pictures.
brought to you by Quizilla
COMMENTARY: I don't like to think of myself as an Emperor. And at first, I don't think it fits at all. But then, oh wait, let's take a look at the name of my LJ again... hmmm...
The results page this meme came from had the following description on it--
from the you're-not-telling-me-anything-I-didn't-already-know dept: (or are you?)
Artifice and invention - Predictable structures and patterns - Reason and Logic - Authority and man-made status
You have a kind heart but you don't like to show it. Instead you spend ages messing about with toys, gadgets and wind-up singing birds. Relax! Get out into nature sometimes or next thing you know there'll be some strange guy with a scythe sitting on your bed laughing. High tech is not always high style.
I don't think I care about man-made status quite as much, or quite in the same ways as it thinks I do. Or then again, maybe I do care about status, just not the same sorts of status that mainstream society cares about. Yeah, that's more likely the case. I also think the personal biases of the page creator may be showing through here with the tech vs. nature attitude. (The WWW, the Internet, poetry, and all of human communication would not be possible without predictable structures and patterns.) Still, she/he/zie/it/they probably has/have a really good point in there somewhere.
Let's go eat some bark. *wry-smile*
Current Mood: slightly melancholy
Current Music: standard ventilation system noises
Tags: introspection, memes
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03:21 pm
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dWoW, oW (daily Words of Wisdom, or Whatever)
Dave Hitt on the Hittman podcast had an idea about laws I liked. His suggestion is to give every law an expiration date so that, instead of lawmakers making new laws every year, they'd have their hands full rejustifying old laws. He goes into a lot more detail on it so that it doesn't sound quite as unrealistic as my superbrief description might make it sound.
A direct link to the mp3 download: Dated for Freshness (just 5.2MB--Mr. Hitt likes to make short podcasts)
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Firefly soundtrack--Out of Gas/Empty Derelect
Tags: podcast, politics
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01:27 am
[Link] |
political correspondent conjectures why Bush admin was not "fully candid"on rational for Iraq war
According to MediaMatters, Newsweek's chief political correspondent Howard Fineman appeared on the November 28 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning.
From that broadcast (courtesy MediaMatters):
FINEMAN: Looking back on it, I think there was a case to be made for the war in Iraq that would have allowed them [the Bush administration] to be fully --
DON IMUS (host): Honest.
FINEMAN: -- candid and on point with the American people. The problem is it was too convoluted for their purposes, and I think what they did was underestimate the intelligence of the American people, and as [Newsweek managing editor] Jon [Meacham] said, that way lies catastrophe for any president. And the case was that we can't let this madman who you saw on TV a little earlier, Saddam Hussein, sit on top of the largest or second-largest pool of oil in the world and siphon off billions of dollars to pay protection money, essentially, to the Osama bin Ladens of the world. That's a complicated and convoluted case that would have been difficult not only to sell to the American people, but to the United Nations and the Vatican and every other place where public approval would have been sought, because it really would have been pre-emptive war, it really would have been like the Department of Pre-Crime, if you happen to remember the movie Minority Report, and that would have been hard to sell. But had we gone in on that basis, which I think is the honest basis to have gone in, then there would have been more public support. But we didn't, and instead they reduced it to a cartoon of a mushroom cloud and a handshake between Saddam and Osama that never happened, and that's why, having created that cartoon, they're in such political trouble now.
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: large fans, some faint music, and a modem
Tags: politics
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06:11 am
[Link] |
Persons that are minors that blog
There's a Wall Street Journal article that can get to through onegoodmove about how schools are sometimes coming down harsh on students that blog. From the article:
Ms. Gudelis, the principal . . . said it is appropriate for schools to hold students accountable for their online writings. "Unlike a conversation that might take place on an email or on the telephone, these sites are accessible to the public. So, yes, it can be harmful to students when others are posting things about them that are hurtful," she said.
Schools around the country have wrestled with how to deal with students' online writings, and the debate has spilled from classrooms to courtrooms. So far, there is little legal consensus on the circumstances in which schools are authorized to punish students for their blogging, according to Thomas H. Clarke Jr., a lawyer in San Francisco with Ropers, Majeski, Kohn & Bentley who focuses on First Amendment issues.
He noted that a handful of courts have examined cases in which schools disciplined students for off-campus writings, taking into account factors such as whether the student published threats against the school or other students, and whether the materials were accessed on campus by students or administrators. While some courts have ruled against schools that tried to punish students for their Web sites -- even when the content was vulgar or threatening -- others have decided that online writings can be subject to school restrictions. "The courts are all over the place. Trying to find consistency among all these different rules and opinions is extraordinarily difficult," Mr. Clarke said.
The EFF, furry as ever, has created a legal guide for student bloggers.
Current Mood:  contemplative
Tags: blogs, eff
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03:38 am
[Link] |
Cheney
secret meetings, the power behind the throne
A Washington Post article supports the perception that VP Cheney still has close ties to the oil industry--ties that probably aren't in the peoples' best interests.
(emphasis added)
A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.
The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.
-- Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force
The meeting itself is not the problem. When attempting to formulate energy policy, it makes sense to talk with the big energy producers. It is the secrecy of the meeting coupled with the denial that the meeting occurred that makes it bad. I mean--why make it secret if everything's hunky doory? Why refuse to invite representatives of environmental groups? It's not as if all environmentalists are hippies and treehuggers. some of them just happen to be energy conscious activists, and their voice surely should be heard.
As I was thinking about this, it struck me as odd that Mr. Cheney would be so directly involved in energy policy in the first place. I mean, after all, don't we already have a department for that? Well, yes in fact we do. It's called the Department of Energy. There's a little org chart to show you its structure. (not sure if it's up-to-date, but it's what's on their site)
It's very difficult to read, but you can just make out that the current secretary is Dr. Samuel Bodman. Let's see what the connection is between he and Cheney. A google search leads to "Who is Sam Bodman?".
From that page:
On December 10th, 2004, George Bush nominated Samuel W. Bodman to replace Spence Abraham as Secretary of Energy. The nomination surprised everyone involved in the energy sector. Sam Bodman has little direct energy experience.
. . .
It is expected that Bodman will promote Vice-President Dick Cheney's energy initiative. He is expected to deregulate the energy industry and promote new nuclear power plant construction, clean coal-burning plants, and to press for drilling in ANWR and elsewhere within the US.
So, it seems that it's actually Cheney making the energy policy and the DoE guy, Sam Bodman is just implementing it.
It seems Mr. Cheney does an awful lot of the running-of-things at the White House. In a recent interview on NPR with "Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell," Wilkerson strongly asserts that "the vice president and others bypassed the rest of the government to control key decisions." If you have realplayer, you can listen to the interview here.
lies, damn lies, and the Long Dark Teatime of the Lame Duck
In other Cheney news, the VP has gone on the bitchy mode. Recently, the Washington Post reports:
Speaking before a Washington dinner of the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, a conservative research organization, Cheney said last night that Democrats who say they were misled by the administration are "making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war."
-- article link
That part about the dems making a play for political advantage seems so weak to me. I mean--so what if it's true? Isn't that pat of the nature of all politics? It's a little like criticizing the other runners in a race for trying to win. Of course, I can't really critcize Chaney too much for making his remark (that particular remark at least) because that too (complaining that the other guy is trying to make political gain) is also part of the nature of politics.
However, according to this article on the BBC News website, Mr. Cheney also said some opposition democrats were guilty of spreading "cynical and pernicious falsehoods" about the Bush administration supposedly misuing intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq. As is often the case, the truth probably lies somewhere in between.
Personally, I think Cheney, Bush and co. had already decided that war with Iraq was a really good idea even before we invaded Afghanistan. When they looked at the intel, they didn't look at it asking the question, "is there anything going on there in Iraq?". Instead they looked at it asking the question, "What's the best angle we can use to justify sending in troops?"
Whatever the case, according to that same BBC article, "senior Democrat, Senior Harry Reid, dismissed the vice-president's [remarks as] `tired rhetoric'." That response is very telling. It tells me Cheney is a dog whose bark has lost its bite. Of course there are several years of the Bush presidency left, so it's always possible for a Cheney recovery. At the moment though, dissatisfaction with the president, and the war in Iraq remains high, and Cheney has no power.
Current Mood:  cold
Current Music: BBC Overnight
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06:17 am
[Link] |
Normality, and some Myth Busters
Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.
-- Ellen Goodman
Adam Savage is a host on MythBusters. He's a geek and he gets to spend his time devising ways to confirm or deny urban legends. What could be be better? The guys from a very geeky podcast, ChuckChat Technorama interview Adam Savage over the course of three episodes. Oh, but of course, the hosts are a bit cruel, in that they force you to listen to them talk about tech things for a certain chunk of time each episode before getting to the actual interview. But, if that's not something you want to listen to, you've always got that handy positional slider on your mp3 program or appliance. I forget what the average running time is, but each one's gotta be over 30 min.
Part one: CCT-2005-10-31.mp3 (show notes)
Part two: CCT-2005-11-03.mp3 (show notes)
Part three: CCT-2005-11-07.mp3 (show notes)
Current Mood: exanimate
Current Music: Mad Music Hour--Polka Dot Undies
Tags: mythbusters, podcast, skeptic
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05:08 pm
[Link] |
fortune
This was the fortune message I got today when I started Windows.
And it seems nicely relevant what with that whole ID-destruction-of-science-thingie going on next door. (The edge of Kansas is about 100 ft due West of my location.)
The quote also sums up the problem I have with dogma in all its forms. Dogma gets in the way of free thought. I think I cherish free thought above all else in life. What does "freedom" amount to if it does not include thinking freely? I think it would amount to nothing.
But thinking freely is much more difficult than it first appears. For there is so much dogma out there, and it comes in so many forms other than the overtly religious.
Current Mood:  creative
Current Music: Firefly--Out of Gas
Tags: *nix, freethink, politics
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