mikedaddy.com

Discovery Channel :: News :: Brain in a Dish Flies Plane

That is the question.

I just bought a ABIT NF7-S V2 motherboard.. Now I just gotta get a chip and some ram.. Gonna have to wait a few weeks though, money is real tight right now..

I hope I’m making the right decision going with AMD.. I attempted AMD at k6-233mhz, and ended up regretting it and going back to Intel 233mhz Pentium. Then I got an Athlon 900 about three years ago.. My Intel 800 PIII blew it away. So I regretted it and went back to Intel.

Everyone seems to be having good luck with them.. All I’ll have to compare it against is a P4 2.8ghz 800fsb.

Fingers Crossed….

Gas has more than doubled in the last ten years.. I wonder what other industry has seen such a price increase?

Well, I was just reading some newsgroups, looking at my list of subscribed ones.. when I realised that .. Holy Jeez .. I have way too many hobbies, and not enough time to enjoy them all..

Let’s make a list of my current hobbies that I’ve invested time and money into of some sort in let’s say just the last 3 years:

1) Photography – over about the past two years, I’ve been pretty avidly exploring photography. I’ve got a digital SLR and two film SLR cameras, four lenses, a tripod, a monopod, three bags, more filters than I can count on my fingers and toes, an external flash, a drawer full of film, three magazine subscriptions, an entire darkroom setup, and a closet full of developing chemicals. I am still very much into photography and try to take pictures as often as possible, but have a problem finding the time to develop and process/scan film. Luckily I’ve got a beautiful daughter to keep me taking photo’s.

2) Geocaching / GPS – Geocaching and playing with GPS equipment has been an interest of mine for quite a while. I’ve never really gotten into it too much (only found about 5 or so caches), but I do enjoy being outdoors and using the GPS as frequently as possible. I’d like to get out and hike with it. I’d also love a Jeep or some other 4-wheel drive vehicle to go on excursions in, but that may not be something I will be able to afford for a while.

3) Ham Radio / CB – I guess radio communication has been an interest of mine for at least 16 years now? I remember being less than eight years old and my dad bringing home these old clunker Handheld CB radios from work. I was into them ever since, but never got serious. I’ve always had CB’s as long as I can remember having a job, and use them occasionally on long road trips where it’s convenient to hear where the bears are at. Right now in the top of my closet, I have three CB’s, an SWR meter, a magnet mount antenna and a real nice outdoor “side of the house” mount antenna. Again, I rarely use the stuff, so it’s depressing. Onto amatuer radio.. I got into this from my neighbor Jimmy, when living in El Paso, TX.. I bought a book and read it, took online quizzes, bought a Kenwood TH-7xxx something or other handheld unit, but ran out of money at the time.. HAM is something I want to get back into, but time and money right now don’t permit. I’ll get back to one of these days.

4) Linux – Linux is not really a hobby, but more like my life. I still don’t feel like I have enough time to get everything in I want. I’ve started three sourceforge.net projects, and volunteered for another. All of which have been sitting for oh 1-4 years depending on the project. In addition, I’ve tried to volunteer to help out even an hour a day with the Gentoo project, but always have some work related thing come up (working at home on the computer most days is next to impossible). Luckily I do run Linux full time at work, and most of the time on my home and laptop machines. So I do get to use it every day, but I just don’t get to write perl, learn C/C++, learn QT, fix bugs for projects, help on IRC, and so on.

I’ve got a lot under my hat for things I want to do, between work, daughter, and trying to catch up on stuff missed while at work and giving my daughter all the attention I possibly can while I have her, it gets pretty tough.

I hope one day life will slow down some and I can catch up on all my hobbies. Or maybe I’ll find a way to become a “mobile GPS using ham radio operator that travels around photographing stuff and using linux” then maybe I’ll be complete.. But as time goes on, more stuff interests me! So we’ll see..

Well, elections are coming soon… Most people forget that we do have other people to vote for other than Kerry and Bush, I know that it would be very hard for a 3rd party to win, but why support Kerry if you are a “Anyone but Bush” person.. Well, anyways, here’s some links to the other “left behind” candidates.

Michael Badnarik – Libertarian Party
David Cobb – Green Party
Ralph Nader – Independant
Michael Peroutka – Constitution Party

Read up on the candidates. Maybe someday we will have a real chance at having a non democratic or republican president.

This is long, but well worth reading!

Don’t Close Your Blinds

The other day, our nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war.
My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I
were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve
and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give
him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told our son to go stand
in front of our living room window. He told him: “Son, stand there and
tell me what you see?” “I see trees and cars and our neighbor’s houses.”
He replied. “OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard
is the United States of America and you are President Bush .” Our son
giggled and said “OK.” “Now son, I want you to look out the window and
pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country,”
my husband said. “OK Dad, I’m pretending.” “Now I want you to stand
there and look out the window and see that man come out of his house
with his wife and he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her
bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the
ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and
are afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are watching this but do
nothing because they are kids and afraid of their father. You see all of
this, son what do you do?” “Dad?” “What do you do son?” “I call the
police, Dad.” “OK, Pretend that the police are the United Nations and
they take your call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to
help. What do you do then son?” “Dad, but the police are supposed to
help!” My son starts to whine. “They don’t want to son, because they
say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that
you should stay out of it,” my husband says. “But Dad…he killed her!!”
my son exclaims. “I know he did…but the police tell you to stay out of
it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our
neighbor who you’re pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same
thing to his children.” “Daddy…he kills them?” “Yes, son, he does.
What do you do?” “Well, if the police don’t want to help, I will go and
ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him,” our son says. “Son, our
next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as
well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him,” my husband
says. “But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can’t stop him by myself!!” “WHAT DO
YOU DO SON?” Our son starts to cry.

“OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for
help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and
puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?” “What Daddy?” “He
walks across the street to the old lady’s house and breaks down her door
and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and
then. He kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in the window
and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?” “Daddy…”
“WHAT DO YOU DO?” Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers,
“I close the blinds, Daddy.” My husband looks at our son with tears in
his eyes and asks him… “Why?” “Because Daddy the police are supposed
to help people who need it and they won’t help. You always say that
neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won’t help
either…they won’t help me stop him I’m afraid I can’t do it by myself.
Daddy I can’t look out my window and just watch him do all these
terrible things and do nothing so I’m just going to close the blinds so
I can’t see what he’s doing and I’m going to pretend that it is not
happening.”

I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in
the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands
questions and he tells him….”Son”!!! “Yes, Daddy.” “Open the blinds,
because that man… he’s at your front door now…”WHAT DO YOU DO?” My
son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his
tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation
he says: “I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I’M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR
MY SISTER, DAD!!! I’M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I’M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!” I
see a tear roll down my husband’s cheek and he grabs our son to his
chest and hugs him tight, and cries…”It’s too late to fight him, he’s
too strong and he’s already at YOUR front door son…..you should have
stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife. You have to do what’s right, even
if you have to do it alone, before…..it’s too late,” my husband whispers.

THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good
men stand by and let evil happen is the greatest EVIL of all. Our
President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must understand
that this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove evil men from power
so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not afraid
to look out our window. So that my nine year old son won’t grow up in a
world where he feels that if he just “closes” the blinds the atrocities
in the world won’t affect him. “YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS
RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!”
Remember Adolph Hitler? He almost enslaved Europe before anyone would
stand up to him!