Thursday, March 23, 2006, 08:47 PM - Odd Dreams
It was one of these odd dreams that mixed the metaphysical with science fiction. Of course, that's one of my favorite combinations!
In this dream. I controlled a small fighter-ship in a really dark region of space. It seemed that a kind of "hole" had opened in space opened in space connected our Universe with a more sinister, evil universe. A dark aperature opened and a squadron of triangular black ships emerged. I fired on then with the ship's weapons, but it didn't seen to have any effect.
My engineering Construct (a type of sentient machine) had the clever idea to fire on a passing asteroid. The shrapnel ripped two alien ships to Shreds. that left about Six or seven more.
The black ships began emitting a kind of "halo" of darkness that I instinctively knew would quench a living being's life force. They closed on ship. It seemed that we were about to be consumed by the darkness.
It was at that moment that these two huge creatures appeared in space. I knew that they were composed of energy, light, and spirit. They were not solid, and yet they shore with an iridescent light that slowly strobed from blue to violet blue to violet back to blue. I knew, somehow, that these two beings weres omehow angels. they appeared like jellyfish. The "cap" part was translucent and sparkled from within. Blue and purple tendrils flowed in their wake. They were simply breathtakingly beautiful. Words cannot really describe how delicately beautiful they were.
Their light drove back the black ships and dispersed their life-draining halos. But before these angelic creatures vanished from where they came, they made the hull of my ship shine the same way they did. I knew then that I would never again fear the black. ships or their death energy.
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( 3 / 1694 )Tuesday, March 21, 2006, 09:06 AM - Cool Stuff
I've noticed that the mainstream media has this unending drumbeat against gas/electric hybrid cars. It usually goes something like this: "The gas money you save doesn't offset the price of the car. The batteries are expensive to replace. Hybrids don't get the advertised gas mileage. You're a fool if you buy one!"
Lemme tell ya: I drive a 2003 Civic Hybrid and it is by far the coolest *and* most reliable car I've ever driven. Since I own one, I'm in a position to make *informed* commentary.
Point 1: If your sole concern is having the car pay for itself, then DON'T buy a hybrid. All cars depreciate -- really quickly. No car pays for itself, hybrid or otherwise. But if you would like to use less gasoline because of the knowledge that this resource is finite and non-renewable, then you SHOULD buy a hybrid.
Point 2: Hybrid batteries are pretty expensive to replace. That's why they are engineered to OUTLAST the car. Only a handful of battery packs have been replaced worldwide, and are typically heavily subsidized by the car maker. I had the batteries tested in my car at the 90,000 mile mark; they still functioned at 92% of original capacity.
Point 3: It is true that hybrid cars *usually* don't deliver the advertised gas mileage. But regular cars don't either. This is because of a long-standing error in the EPA's testing formula. The EPA figures assume a set of "ideal" driving conditions: 75°, low humidity, a flat/smooth road surface, gentle acceleration, 50-55 mph velocity, and no use of air conditioning. If all these conditions are met, ANY car (hybrids included) will get the EPA estimate. The sad fact is that most Americans (hybrid owners included) just don't know how to drive. They slam the gas pedal to the floor when the light turns green and speed at 80 mph with the AC blasting.
Myself included.
If I drive like "Mad Max", my car gets 36 mph (still not too shabby!) But if I drive very conservatively, I get about 47 mph. On a perfect day, I've gotten as high as 52 mph! And that is truly stellar.
Other than the car being expensive, I have not a single complaint about my car. It's very quiet (thanks to the 1.3L i4 vTEC engine), powerful (thanks to the battery assist), and pretty. It has never had a mechanical failure in the hybrid propulsion system.
Of course, it also pollutes a lot less than a regular car. That's an important factor in Baltimore where we get a lot of "Code Orange" and "Code Red" daily pollution warnings each summer.
Would I buy one again? You bet! I don't know when that's going to be, however, since this car seems like it's going to run FOREVER!
Is my hybrid worth the expense? Every last penny!
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( 3 / 1264 )Monday, March 20, 2006, 08:28 AM - Odd Dreams
I had this dream that started with me running my "World of Gaianar" role-playing game. In the dream, I was describing to two players an encounter with an Illuthielite Priest (an Undead cleric of the evil god Illuthiel). But then the room vanished and was replaced by the scene I had described:
It was on the ruins of an ancient highway and it probably bordered the Deadwoods, since all the trees were twisted, blackened, leafless horrors. The stunted grasses were dry as tinder.
An Illuthielite Priest approached us. Its skin was waxy and stretched tightly over its face like a corpse prepared for the coffin. There was no spark of life in its sunken, dead eyes. It wore rusty chain mail armor and a filthy tabard that displayed the "holy" symbol of the Illuthielite faith. It had a short sword that looked to be in poor repair.
It did not speak as it attacked us, but it had some rudimentary telepathy since I was able to hear its raging hate in my mind. It hated those of the living.
I pulled out my Rosary beads and, using the Crusafix as a talisman, commanded the Priest to retreat.
It did.
When the dream ended, it reminded me of why I wish that the World of Gaianar was a real place. Sure, the Undead roam the land and terrifying monsters abound. But in that world, prayer has real power and good is on an even playing field with evil. A handful of heroes can make a lasting positive difference.
In the real world, evil almost always triumphs. Evil has all the power, money, resources, and political capital. The few good men are cowardly and impotent. There are no heroes.
I would risk having a very short life living in a dangerous world where prayer had real power.
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( 3 / 1694 )Sunday, March 19, 2006, 10:14 AM - Odd Dreams
I had an odd dream that Earth had been taken over by a race of aliens that were Xenophobic and heavy handed. They claimed to be emotionless and logical (like the Vulcans from Start Trek ) but in reality they were racist bigots with reserved demeanors. their modus operandi was to make almost everything illegal. Humans were put in ghastly prisons with long incarceration terms for even the smallest infractions. These dark Prisons were cold, wet hell holes with insufficient, contaminated food. The idea was that human inmates would die of disease and malnutrition after a few weeks of confinement. Then the captors would use this informant ion to publicly state how human. beings were innately dirty and inferior.
There was a resistance movement in the alien culture. They would use their limited resources to smuggle humans out of the death-prisons. Then they would cosmetically alter the people who they rescued in order to make then look alien (and thus exempt from the human containment laws). the members of the resistancehad these technologicalamulets that could openlocks and disable securitysystems. They were illegalto own, of course, butthe aliens rarely prosecuted their own.
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( 3 / 1753 )Friday, March 17, 2006, 08:17 AM - Dissociation & Switching
The interesting thing about exercise and dissociation is how, when I do a really intense workout, I feel like I'm shining. It feels sometimes that there's this unseen radiant energy that becomes part of me for a while. If it made a visible glow, it would be bright silver-white.
Thistle has this energy all the time. But at least I can occasionally experience it.
I wish that when I had the shining that I could fly too.
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( 3 / 1707 )Wednesday, March 15, 2006, 08:19 AM - Odd Dreams
I had this really odd dream that one of my friends from college had somehow become a kind of socialist bandit. What he would do is go into some chain store (like Target or McDonald's) and rob the contents of the safe. But instead of taking the money for himself, he would divide the cash amongst the employees. Then he would say something Socialist like, "Power to the workers!"
So in the dream, I made the tactical mistake of going to a coffee shop with him. Of course, he robbed the store and gave the loot to the employees. I cringed, thinking "they'll probably think I'm an accomplice!" Ugh.
On the way home from the "workers' liberation event", I turned on the radio and found that a different college friend was running an illegal radio station that criticized the government while singing the praises of the Socialist Bandit.
It was just so *weird*.
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( 3 / 1708 )Monday, March 13, 2006, 07:20 PM - Dissociation & Switching
Today was one of the rare "perfect" days. It was sunny, breezy, warm, and dry. Thistle likes days like this. His own domain is much like that.
Thistle can look at the sun without harm. He can fly. He gains energy in sunlight, clouds, and sky.
I wish I could be like him - an angelic being. When the sky and sun are like this, Thistle shines.
Thistle is the voice of my spirit.
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( 3 / 1631 )Sunday, March 12, 2006, 08:21 PM - Cool Stuff
My partner and I did one of those New York day trips where you pay $50 for a round trip bus ride. Man! We squeezed a LOT of stuff into just 12 hours!
We got to see a lot of computer and gadget stores. We drank some really awesome coffee and ate some triangle-shaped Jewish pastery. Then we visited the AXA gallery and saw some really creepy Louisiana folk art (it way good, but erie and creepy).
For lunch, we ate at a genuine Irish pub staffed with actual Irish people with actual Irish accents! How delightful! I had "bangers & mash" and Doug had shepherd's pie.
We hung out at a museum art store and looked at books and trinkets. There was a beautiful book on Irish art, but it was REALLY heavy, so I didn't buy it. But I may order it online.
Then we visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral. That was certainly a Thistle-motivated choice! It is a huge old church with beautiful sculptures and a lot of very pretty side-chapels. I bought a set of amethyst Rosary Beads. (Violet is Thistle's favorite color!)
So then it was time for the play! We saw "Mama Mia", which is a musical that features a lot of ABBA music. They even did Super Trooper! The play was a real hoot.
We left New York just as it was getting dark. We avoided the Vampires and CHUDs, thank God!
On the bus ride back, they showed the movie "Walk the Line", the Johnny Cash story. I always admired the Man in Black because he, too, had a lot to overcome and turned his darkness and pain into something truly memorable and lasting.
We're *definitely* going to do this again!
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( 3 / 1433 )Friday, March 10, 2006, 08:06 AM - Dumb Happenings
I already knew that HP had outsourced its Tech Support department to India. What I didn’t know until last night is that they also outsourced their spare parts order centre. The arrangement was so bad that I was unable to order the spare part I needed.
My TabletPC is three years old. It uses a special magnetic pen for input and navigation. Recently, the pen has started to have trouble capturing my handwriting. So, logically enough, I decided that I would order a new pen from the spare parts hotline.
The guy who answered on the other end had a very thick accent that was difficult to understand. When I told him what I needed, he said “That’s impossible! Digitizer pens don’t wear out!”
That’s funny, I thought , no one said that when I did a pen replacement 18 months ago! And it solved the handwriting problem until last month.
Before I could contradict him, he transferred me to Tech Support. This was pointless, since the warranty on my computer expired three months ago. (Which is why I was going to buy a new digitizer pen instead of just asking for one).
So the Tech rep proceeded to transfer me back to sales -- but to the wrong department in that division. The rep there only knew about PDAs, and insisted that there are no electronics in a PDA pen (that is true for a PDA but not for a TabletPC).
So I got transferred again. The next guy insisted that a TabletPC was “corporate” product, not a “retail” product. So I got transferred to corporate sales.
Over at corporate sales, the rep said he didn’t understand how I could own a TabletPC if I wasn’t a corporate customer (answer: I bought it off eBay from a doctor who was using it for business.)
When that rep said he was going to have to transfer me somewhere else, I gave up. This whole process took an hour and I still don’t have my new pen. Well, there’s always eBay.
Gotta love Corporate Outsourcing!
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( 3 / 1523 )Wednesday, March 8, 2006, 05:44 PM - Cool Stuff
My partner and I have been doing well on our respective health plans. Doug is on the Jen-1 Craig diet and has lost 12 pounds in 2 weeks! I have been doing an hour workout at the gym 3x week. I haven't lost weight, but I have slimmed down from 38" waist to a 36". So I guess I'm building muscle and losing fat.
I'm very proud of Doug. Soon, he will be below 300 pounds.I think he might be able to fit on roller coasters then. Yay!
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