Wow, Doyle just e-mailed me. David Raschka alert!
8:07 PM


I should be a) doing my descriptive geometry homework; b) doing my Solidworks homework; and c) writing a lecture on moisture and thermal protection. Instead, I'm playing on Theory.org.uk.

What I really want is my own Edward Said trading card, but I'd settle for Foucault. And really, it's too bad the theory action figures do not exist, they'd make a perfect gift for that Ph.D. holder who has everything. Well, and Lego theorists...what more do I need to say?
7:47 PM


Hmmm....which looks more unprofessional, a dugout full of kids, or a bench-clearing brawl?
3:39 PM


I find local politics in Indiana somewhat opaque. I've been totally out of the loop during the last five years, and every year I blame it on the same thing: there's no Voter's Pamphlet in this state. What's up with that? It makes finding out anything about the candidates a really difficult task. It appears that what the voter is required to do is drive around town, note down all the names on the various election signs, and then try to figure out how to contact all these people and figure out what they stand for. We don't even get a ton of "vote for me" literature in the mail; in fact, we get more election material from Oregon than we get from Indiana, five years after we've moved out of state.

So, I'm stuck with lawn signs (I won't vote for one candidate specifically because his sign is on my neighbor's lawn, and I won't vote for someone supported by crazy people), web pages (if they even have one), biased newspaper editorials and insane letters to the editor (the Green Party = the antichrist in some parts of Indiana), and...I guess that's it. Sure, I could get really motivated and spend a weekend tracking down all the candidates and locating their campaign headquarters, and as a concerned citizen, I shouldn't bitch about having to exert myself, but....really.

Just publish a Voter's Pamphlet, for chrissakes.
10:47 AM


You know what? Fuck Putin. He's a sorry excuse for a leader, and the Russians deserve what they get for electing him. How stupid do you have to be to kill the very hostages you are trying to save by using some gas you can't even identify? The "competent" people know the name of the gas. Well, let me say--there *are* no competent people in charge in Russia. This is why Americans should be pissed off at our Cold War leaders. The Russians can't do anything right--what ever made us think they could make a functional nuclear weapon? They can't even make a car that runs more than 50 miles without breaking down. They *are* a dangerous nation, dangerous in their stupidity and incompetence. Couldn't they have contacted some outside agency and consulted on the potentially deadly effects of the nerve gas? But, no, of course not. This is the administration that was willing to let its own navy personnel drown unnecessarily because it couldn't fucking ask Finland for help in opening up the hatch on the Kursk.

I tell you, there are days that I think Lebed' would have been a better President, and if that doesn't frighten you, nothing will.

Freaking Soviets. I used to think there was a difference between Russians and Soviets, but I'm not so sure anymore. They are a people crippled by decades--if not centuries--of graft and corruption, and rather than wising up and using free elections to institute change, they revert to old patterns and elect the candidate that most closely resembles a Soviet dictator. I have no sympathy for them at this point.