Storm's Edge

The Coming Storm

I made this post in JUNE of this year. I've been saying similar things for at least four years now.

Today, I think the first edge of the storm has come.

The first attempt at a bill to "bail out" the failing banks and credit industry has failed to pass the House. Some are blaming a partisan speech, others are blaming the bill itself. Others are too confused to know who to blame yet.

The DOW is, as I write, falling like a body off a Wall St skyscraper (a fantastic urban legend btw.) because no one knows what is going to happen. It currently shows as -627 or -5.6% for the day.

The biggest scare is what happens if there are no institutions willing or able to extend credit to those who need it. If credit dries up, many sectors of the economy will shut down entirely. Paper, shipping, produce, and many other large sectors of the economy operate completely off credit.

And here in the south, things are worse than anywhere. Gas pumps are still running dry in many areas. When you can find it, its over the national average by several cents, and you can expect to wait an hour to two hours for it. Some areas are out totally.

And this is only the leading edge. Trust me.

Manual for postmodern childrearing

Reject all active initiative and make it clear to your child that setbacks are as objectionable as successes, since setbacks are an indispensable component in maintaining the category "success". Accuse the child of attention seeking if it achieves either terrible or impeccable academic results.
Demand that all actions have a self-referential dimension. Remember that children do not do as you say; children do as you do. You should thus perform the following speech act: "All actions hereafter are self-referential, hence this speech act."
Each time the child shows signs of perceiving something in the world as a category, lock yourself in the bathroom and switch off the light, so nothing is visible. Place your child in a military academy to demonstrate the consequences of absolute concepts.

In A Nutshell

Old TV >>>> New TV

Progect TARDIS a Success

Tardigrades survive exposure to space in low Earth orbit

Tardigrades are one of the toughest living things on earth. They make Chuck Norris and his ilk look like pretty sissy boys by comparison. And they now have claim to being the only known multicellular life form (So far) that can survive hard space exposure. The Foton-M3 carried up a bunch of these little buggers and exposed them to low earth orbit grade space. They lived. How they managed it, and how we can adapt ourselves based on their abilities are still up in the air. But for now, let the OH COOL begin.

PS - BEST PROJECT NAME EVER. You can read more about the TARDIS project here.

House of LOL

And today, I painted my fingernails black for the first time in years.

CANDYGRAM!

Courses I Want To Teach

Here is a short list of some class ideas that came to me in the shower.

Theology 301: My God is Smitier than Yours

RELS 201: Proofs for your God, and Everyone Else's Too

PHIL 100: Oh SHIT! You need to THINK!

PHIL 400: Think you know the answers? NOPE!

RELS 400: Killing the Buddha, once and for all

Taught as a pair
PHIL 301: Life, The Universe and Nothing
PHIL 302: Death, Void, and Everything

I'm sure I'll think of more of these later.

DragonCon

So yeah, my last entry was a bit of the dramatic. I'm not actually quitting FFXI or a bunch of the forums I'm involved in. I am however cutting back on the amount of energy I expend on being social.

Anyway, Dragoncon - today is the last day of con. We are getting ready to head down for the last few things, despite not getting home until 5:30 this morning. Con has been very very good other than a few rough patches for everyone involved. Friday night sucked, but thats neither here nor there. Saturday was great - last night, other than the Panel Without A Purpose being deroomed, things seemed pretty good.

Singing Tesla Coils ROCK.