What a BuzzKill

Either this guy is a total nut job, or he’s got a kick-ass sense of humor…

_{This entry is experiencing the discomfort of a mild sunburn.}

I know that I don’t. I’m willing to bet that it’s safe to say you don’t either. So why is it that it’s so common to walk into the restroom of an office, restaurant, etc. and find that somebody has urinated (or worse) all over the toilet seat?

It’s gotten to the point where the first thing I do when I enter a restroom is to grab two wads of paper towels, wet one handful, scrub the toilet seat, then dry it off with the other handful. Don’t bother telling me that I should just use a toilet seat protector (AKA ass gasket), either. A thin ring of paper isn’t sufficient enough to isolate my buttocks from a complete stranger’s piss, thankyouverymuch.

And don’t get me started on public restrooms, either. I totally abhor having to use a restroom at a busy public park, beach, campground, etc. — even just to take a whiz. God forbid that I have a stomach problem and need to take a seat to relieve myself. I’d almost rather just shit my own pants!

Can’t these lazy, disgusting, inconsiderate assholes try a bit more to control their urine stream? Lift the seat! Take better aim – it isn’t a sin to hold your own penis, guys! If you do happen to sprinkle, clean it the fuck up! Don’t leave it for the next person to deal with … they’re not your goddamn janitor any more than you are for the person that came in before you!

Would you do this in your own home? Would you want your friends, children, relative, or significant other to sit in your pee? Does the idea of some poor little kid sitting on your sticky, smelly bodily excretions make you happy? Something tells me that the vast majority of people would say “no” to all of these questions.

This isn’t some complicated thought process, people; this is one area where the Golden Rule affects you just as much as the next guy. Think about it.

_{This entry doesn’t understand why this concept is so difficult for people to grasp.}

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r5LYzwkztU]

_{This entry’s milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.}

This old video from 1966 does a pretty good job of predicting about the future of home computing …

[flash http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4796674762025998102]

_{This entry knows better than to take a taxi in L.A.}

Well I figured out how to fix the problem with being unable to embed flash videos on my blog posts: I just needed to encapsulate the code for the Flickr badge doo-hickey to the right within its own DIV tags. I’m glad it was something simple, because I really like that doo-hickey (besides I spent about an hour and a half hacking the code before I figured out how to make it look the way I wanted).

I was going to post the video I linked to in my last post, but it’s been taken down for violating copyrights. Oh well.

In other news … uh … I have nothing to say, really. Life is good!

_{This entry likes to play patty-cake with poodles.}

Check out this series of funny clips.

(I tried to embed the video, but apparently my Flickr photo thing to the right conflicts with it.)

_{This entry loves a good Star Wars spoof.}

My buddy Quinn seems to have been inspired to pick up his guitar again and start producing some of his music on his computer. This makes me happy; not only do I get to hear his music, but it also means that we’ll likely get the chance to play together when he comes back out next year. June can’t get here fast enough!

_{This entry has a fever …}

I personally believe that U.S.  Americans
are unable to do so because Osama.

People out there
in our nation
don’t have that,

And I believe that our education
like such as south Africa and
such as the Iraq.

everywhere “such as”.

And I believe our education
should help the U.S.
should help the South Africa
and the Iraq
and the Asian countries
so we can build up
our future.

_{This entry loves maps.}

After 12 years, I finally built myself a brand-new computer. This may seem odd to hear from an I.T. guy, but the fact is that since the first computer I bought back in 1995 I’ve had a computer that was either some constant set of upgrading one piece here, one piece there, leftover used parts that clients no longer wanted, or a part replaced when the one I was using eventually failed. I wasn’t trying to live on the cutting edge of technology, but I did manage to keep my system current enough to handle whatever it was I wanted to do.

The computer parts were ordered last week from Newegg.com and the last box arrived yesterday. I assembled it last night and stayed up late installing Windows XP (I won’t try Vista until after the first service pack), all the usual plug-ins and applications (Foxit PDF reader, 7-Zip, QuickTime, PrimoPDF, Adobe Flash/Shockwave players, etc), and all available updates from Microsoft.

The late hour didn’t bother me much since I was going out with Christine, Sam, & Rece to watch the lunar eclipse later. I took some pictures of the eclipse, that I’ll post some time soon.

So back to the computer … I brought the computer to the office with me so I could continue installing software when I had some spare time between projects and assisting clients. This thing is fast! I’m quite impressed and getting anxious to give it a test drive soon. I loaded Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and will probably hop on to play after I’m finished typing this post. I should be able to turn up all the video options that my old computer either had trouble displaying or was unable to display at all. I’m so excited!

_{This entry is going to journey to Rivendell!}

Why isn’t this topic being discussed by those going nuts about global warming? To me this is the biggest factor on either side of the argument.

Before medicine, people died often and early, keeping the population low and limiting growth. In the last 100 years we’ve about doubled the life expectancy for people. Many conditions that would have prevented people from conceiving a child only 50 years ago are being eliminated, sometimes resulting in people having an entire litter of rug rats. Oh, and don’t forget that the fertility age of both sexes have also been greatly increased, so we can pop out kids for 3-4 decades.

What’s my point? In 1900 the world population was estimated to be around 1.6 billion. In 1960, it was around 3 billion … almost double in just 60 years. Since then, less that 50 years later, we’ve more that doubled the world population again! Can you believe it?

Call me crazy, but if we’re worried about the environment, about the resources of the Earth, about hungry children, about disease, about everything on this planet, we really need to take an honest look at how many people are on it. In addition to doing something about the burning of fossil fuels, or deforestation, or toxic waste, or promoting recycling we should be telling people to stop having so many kids!

People argue that it’s their biological right to procreate. While that may be true, it should come with some sense of responsibility. We’ve believed for so long that having a big family is a good thing … but where did that belief come from? Was it religion (“be fruitful and multiply”)? Was it from our farming ancestors (needing help in the fields)? What about for protection (the village/clan/country needs a strong military)? How about the fact that we’re essentially just another type of animal with a strong instinct to reproduce? Wherever it came from, we need to recognize that those beliefs are no longer going to work if we want to sustain a livable environment here on Earth.

We’re at the top of the food chain. There are no predators to control our population. Science has conquered diseases. Modern society abhors violence, so we aren’t killing one another in sufficient numbers to balance things out. Education and technology have enabled us to produce food in enough quantities to feed everybody (whether or not it’s getting to those who are hungry and/or just being wasted by rich countries is a different topic of discussion). The human population is no longer being kept in check as it once had been for much of our history.

Sure it sounds like some crackpot theory. I admit that, but to me it’s just about the math. If you have an environment that can only produce so much and organisms that need to share it and balance their output to ensure the replenishing of resources, it just makes sense that when one organism becomes out of balance, other things get knocked out of balance as well. Extinction of species is happening at a rapid pace now, especially as we start carving up and re-engineering the natural balance of an area. It leads to a cascading failure that must stop at some point. When will we reach that point? Will we even be around to see it?

There is hope, however. People are becoming more aware of the effects of pollution and their impact on the environment on a global level. Whether or not they’ll do something about it remains to be seen. I’m no saint, either. I’ve made many adjustments to my lifestyle over the last few years that reduces the impact my son and I have on the environment, but I know we could do more.

Hell, I don’t know if this makes much sense, but I felt like getting it out of my brain. Hopefully I was able to get my point across. Thanks for listening.

UPDATE EDIT: I have since realized that my thinking on this topic was seriously flawed. Climate Change is definitely a real thing and it is for sure being made worse by human activities. I’m keeping the original posts up, as I think it’s important for people to see that opinions can change after new information is learned. (and I still think the human population is too high)

_{This entry doesn’t know how to fix it, either.}