Vox Popoli: Reading list 2010

Speaking of being an "intellectual", (which I put in quotes for a good reason), here is a good illustration of what makes the difference between being simply highly intelligent and being an intellectual or genius: click the link above and take a look at Vox's reading list for 2010.

I have deduced from what Vox has said from time to time that we are both running about the same brain horsepower--roughly 3+ to maybe 4 standard deviations above the norm. But the difference that makes me look like a rube and a dunce in comparison is what Vox does with that horsepower. He is a voracious devourer and processor of information and the thoughts and arguments of others. He's been doing this for decades--apparently untethered from the desire to relate effectively at the norm, he pursues thought at a level far above mere mortals.

I on the other hand, have found my high IQ to be such a convenience, a breeze that allows me to excel at normal levels with virtually no effort, that my motivation to pursue the stratosphere has been lacking. It has permitted me to be tremendously lazy, and I have taken advantage of that most of my life. I never encounter anyone at my level in regular life, and so never saw the need to take advantage of what I had beyond convenience. The advent of the internet has certainly humbled me, and reading Vox Popoli over the last half decade has shown me what I've been missing. It has also served as a quiet pool of sanity in the midst of a world gone mad. Which doubtless sounds mad itself to some, who find in the Ilk a motley assortment of misfits, madmen and misanthropists.

My kind of people. ;P

I am no intellectual. Not in the real sense of the word. I'd have a lot of catching up to do if I wanted to ascend those heights.

It was coming down pretty hard as I climbed the hill to Oracle this morning. Accumulations off the road were up to a few inches near the top. I followed a snowplow most of the way up the hill, which was sort of helpful, but he didn't have the blade set close enough to the ground to take off all the slush. I was fighting the tug of slush on the right tires all the way up, which was unnerving and gave me flashbacks to my sixteen years of driving in Minnesota winters. Not pleasant.

At the top there were a couple of vehicles in the ditch with State Troopers and tow trucks in attendance. Damn fools who don't know better, or who did know better but their asshole got the better of them.

Downhill the other side, the slush on the road surface tapered off fairly quickly and well before I got to my turnoff, there was no accumulation on the road. Down here in the valley it was snowing when I got here but nothing was sticking.

Tonight it is dropping into the upper teens, and tomorrow night is still forecast for the low teens. That is *very* cold for this area.

Looks like we're in for nasty weather...
Benson, Arizona (85602) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground

Thirteen degrees for a forecast low Friday night.

yIkes...

Poochie will definitely get a warm (cat-whiz-protected) spot indoors Thursday-Saturday. (She normally is a strictly outdoor cat due to her incontinence, but I have to have pity on the poor old lady this weekend.)

BBC News - The verdict that may shake Russia

Mr Khodorkovsky made a lot of enemies among the ruling elite and his fellow businessmen by insisting early this century on adopting Western standards of transparency for his businesses while the rest continued to cloak their affairs in secrecy.

It is rumoured that he made another fatal mistake by refusing to "share" his huge earnings with the powerful bureaucrats who are used to regular backhanders, something meekly accepted by the Russian business community as a necessary evil.

In other words, Mr Khodorkovsky challenged the very foundations of the oligarchic system, the symbiosis of power and wealth that makes Russia what it is now.

And then, on top of all that, he offered financial support to opposition political parties in order, as he put it, to develop pluralism in the country. And that, probably, was the last straw.

Business as usual. Where'd I get the idea in the first place that things were different in Russia? Some Putin fellator, no doubt.

(snowman...)

snagged from Rodger

Labels: felicity and jocularity, geekery

What do you do when your sweetheart asks you for something that is not commercially available anywhere at any price?

Well if you're me, you make it yourself!

Daisycat watched a little girl wearing light-up shoes stride and trip her way down the auditorium walkway at a recent Christmas concert we attended. She declared "*I* want a pair of shoes like that!"

Well. The only problem is that the shoe sizes of light-up shoes stop at kid's size three! I searched high and low, and there are a lot of other people searching for this impossible gift also. All of the "answers" websites come up empty. The only "adult" light up shoes are clear acrylic platform heels for women that have lights in the soles.

Not...quite Daisycat's style...

So I went to work researching how these shoes are made, how they operate, and came upon some good information from the curious who have dissected these shoes to find out, and a How-To page describing one project to convert kids light-up shoes to adult size shoes. Here is my own "how I did it" photo essay:

I started with a pair of kids light up slippers and carefully dissected them to extract the electronics. This was a pair of shark slippers with light-up eyes. The electronics consist of the two LED "eyes", a small microchip on a circuit board, a trigger mechanism, which is a small spring in a plastic housing, and a watch battery.


Next I obtained a pair of suitable sneakers. These are women's "Skechers" that already had some glittery highlights in the styling. They also came with a spare pair of pink laces, which I thought was excellent.

The next trick is finding a suitable place to hide the electronics in these shoes. In the slippers they were tucked along one side of the heel. For these shoes, I looked for a pair that appeared to have a well-padded tongue, because I intended to hide the electronics in the tongue. Trying to get them in the heel or elsewhere would have involved too much deconstruction of the shoe, with the attendant risk of ruining the shoe completely.

So after removing the laces I carefully opened up a seam along one side of the tongue.


I punched a suitable sized hole in the sides of the shoes where I wanted the lights to be mounted. The location was dictated in large part by where I was going to be able to route the wires to keep them tucked away safely. I've seen kids shoes with the lights along the side, so this is where I punched the holes.


I was able to tuck the front light completely behind this layer of fabric and route the wires up to the top seam. For the rear light (not shown) I cut a small slit in the fabric just below the top seam and slipped the light down through the slit to the hole I had punched.


Amazing Goop, how great the stick!

The lights were fixed in place with a dab of Goop and the slit in the fabric closed up with the same.

Test fire is successful!


Now came the tedious process of carefully gluing the wires along the top seam neatly and without making a mess of Goop everywhere. I'd say I was successful. These wires will be hidden behind the tongue when the shoe is put together again.


The wires run along the top seam until they reach the root of the tongue. There they turn up into the dissected tongue and I tucked the electronics up in there, above the padding to minimize the chances that they will be felt when the shoes are worn. The fattest component is the trigger, so I pushed that up toward the top of the tongue where it should be least noticeable.


Goop and clothespins close up the seam again.


Now at this point I could call the project "done". The light-up transplant is complete. However if you've ever seen these shoes for little princesses, you've probably noticed that they are all decorated with stuff like Disney characters or other stuff that appeals to little girls. These shoes are still way too "adult" looking.

I bought a number of appliques, not knowing exactly what I would want to use, plus a selection of different colored glitter. I settled on sequined hearts and embroidered daisies.


I glued on the appliques with Goop, and then added a line of pink glitter around each applique with superglue. This was in part decorative and in part to reinforce the applique where it might be vulnerable to scuffing loose.


I noted that the shoes already had some glittery highlights as they came from the factory, so as a final touch I added more slivery glitter in the fabric stripe areas on both sides of the shoes.


Finished! Sneakers fit for a princess!


--------------------
Update: Because I had a problem with some of the wires breaking shortly after giving the gift, I have a solution and additional instructions HERE for anyone following this for their own project.

Labels: art, geekery, women

J.S. Bach - Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 - Part I 'For the First Day of Christmas' - Mvt. I

Officially it is Christmas Day as this posts.

via SondraK

Labels: art

Rachel Lucas appears to be back to semi-regular blogging, at least while she is back in the States on break. Her erstwhile dog Sunny made the cover of the book published by the "I Has A Hot Dog" site. That is very cool and I am envious.

I haven't seen Wonder Woman around anywhere in forever, and here she pops up on my site. So onto the sidebar with a link you go lady.

And, um...that's all.

Oh, only to note that I have been blogging continuously now for six and a half years. I can't see stopping any time soon. Not as long as at least a few comments keep trickling in.

I may or may not post again before Christmas, so if I do not, my dear readers please accept my sincere wishes for a very Merry Christmas! May all your Christmas dreams be fulfilled.

Labels: blogospheric navel-gazing

Daisycat didn't recognize the song I was singing to her this morning. Which is odd, since she was a big disco fan back in the day. So here it is:

Ah, the 70's!

Labels: art appreciation, earworm

I am ruined.

Spoiled for life.

I will never be able to look at a performance of the Nutcracker Ballet by a local dance company the same again. We just returned from watching a performance of the Moscow Ballet perform the Great Russian Nutcracker. Utterly entrancing, beautiful. I may be a southwestern redneck yahoo, but I know world class dance when I see it!



It brought tears to my eyes at times to see this performed to such a high standard. There weren't just one or two stars, but the entire troupe was saturated with impeccable grace and talent. And of course there were stars even amongst this group. The Arabian duet was outstanding, as was the Sugar Plum Fairy (Clara/Maisha...? The story line in this Russian version is a bit different than other performances I have seen).

When I learned the Moscow Ballet was coming to town I grabbed the last two inexpensive seats at the very top of the auditorium. When were we likely to see such a troupe come to this cowtown again?

If they are coming to your city before Christmas (and there are still tickets left), consider them highly recommended.

The east side glazing is all installed.

This was more work than it may appear, given that it involved multiple trips up and down the ladder, measuring, cutting, and then some very awkward maneuvers to screw the panels onto the outside of the tower from the ladder on the inside of the tower.

However this was mostly finished Saturday. Friday I arrived late and got little done, because I had a meeting with my tax accountant in the morning to discuss the tax treatment of the settlement I negotiated with the second mortgage holder on my Tucson home. Sunday I slept in, then completed the last panels. I got a start on digging out a second stump in my wheat field, but mostly had household cleaning and maintenance tasks to show for the rest of the afternoon.

Next weekend I expect to get little done on these projects, as I have a secret project to accomplish and then Daisycat will be here late Christmas Eve and for Christmas Day and Sunday.

When I return to this, that last wood panel on the north side will go up, and then I can start installing the internals at the top end. I'll probably get the glazing installed on the south and west side from the top down to about 16 feet above ground. Those last panels will wait until I have the solar hot water system installed.

Labels: San Pedro homestead

That's the nickname my instructor gave me.



Cool! I like it. I'll use it.

Labels: minutiae

...for the women in your life:
How Real Men Treat Women (Sometimes)

I once watched my roommate pick a flower from a bush and hand it to a girl and say, “Here.” She was happy for days.

This really belongs in The Men's Room blog, but I had to drag it out here, considering many men are probably in a blind panic about now, doing their last minute shopping to try to keep their balls out of the lockbox.

Relax guys! Read this, and then pick up a bag of skittles on the way over to her place Christmas Eve.

Labels: women

"You Need Buy Me!"

---
Update: Can anyone tell me what "golf dude" is doing wrong here? (hint, there is more than one thing...)

Labels: felicity and jocularity, women

I had a dream about this three nights ago. I did not know what it was about at the time. I dreamed from the perspective of the bankers, although I did not realize that at the time either.

J.P. Morgan and the Great Silver Caper by Eric Fry

I was in fear of legal troubles, possible criminal charges, and the value of my holdings was being systematically drained by the manipulations of others. There was simply no way I could cut and run. My every move was being tracked, and any sudden moves would be seized upon as evidence of malfeasance.

I took some comfort in the fact that my compatriots were all in the same boat, and we were just lying quietly, hoping to wait it out.

Although the steady and now seemingly systematic deflation of our assets was becoming...troubling...

"...is played in the snow and mud!" says Daisycat.

Well.

Real footbal it appears to be then.

Stadium issue settled, but QB still in question

I've been slowed down by sequence of construction issues. Last weekend after considerable thought, I decided that the last panel on the north top should not go up until I had the east side glazing installed. There is no way to access the east side by ladder on the outside. The only way to attach that glazing beyond my reach from the roof is from the inside. To get the last panel in place will require me to reach around from inside to install the fasteners. And for that, the top panel would be in the way.

But it is now constructed, including the maintenance hatch, and ready to go.


The remainder of last weekend (and part of this afternoon) I spent painting the panels that will become the internal light baffles. This is a lot of painting, so it was not time lost.


In between painting each panel face, while letting it dry, I dug this stump out of my wheat field. Paint one side, dig for a while, flip the panel and paint the other side, dig for a while, etc.

There are more stumps to go, and I got a start on the next one today after backfilling the hole from this last one.

This week I bought enough corrugated polycarbonate panels for the east side, together with the corrugated strips necessary to properly fasten them. What I failed to buy was the gasketed screws I needed to attach them. Fortunately I had a handful left over from a previous project, enough to get a start and a sense for how the rest of the work will go.


It also took more time than expected to fiddle with the tower to roof transition. I installed a flashing strip, sealed up with black polyurethane sealer, and cut a piece of siding material to fill the gap between the flashing and the first glazing panel.


All this doesn't seem like two weekends worth of work, and that would be correct. I've also been fighting with what turns out to probably be a low level, persistent virus of some sort. It has been behind my headaches the last couple weeks, the chronic fatigue, chest pains and generally higher than normal aches and pains. And the low productivity. Damn flu viruses have been getting harder for me to detect.

Somehow I wonder if they "know" that once I discover them, I have an effective arsenal to deploy against them, so they creep around the back stairs of my body, making me miserable without showing the classic, recognizable symptoms. Colloidal silver, dispensed to the appropriate orifices in the appropriate fashion, on regular intervals. And the garlic/cayenne/honey concoction if I really must.

I will be pleased to have this tower done when it finally happens. This project has been much more time-consuming than I could possibly have imagined. It will be great to save utility costs, but more, I am ready to switch gears back to rehabbing the interior. Right now with the bedroom/bathroom in the midst of major remodeling, it is in no shape to serve as a love nest for the girls in my harem. Gotta get the place spiffier so I can bring them out here and let the cats charm them.

I mean, who can resist such a cutie as Bobby?

Labels: San Pedro homestead

THE GUN DECK - unloaded: Some Serious Navel Gazing

There are - at least - two kinds of damage to be looked at here. There is the overall damage done to the image and reputation of the United States by the release of these documents, and then there is the actual damage itself that has been done by the actions and activities of the people these documents expose.

Which is worse? The real damage, or the reporting of it?
...
It is a no-win situation for us. But is Julius Assange, a man who admittedly hates the United States, responsible for all this?

No. It is the government officials whose conduct these documents expose who are responsible.

Enormous damage has been done to the United States, but to blame the release of documents for it is to condemn the wrong criminal. It is the people whose actions and activities these documents expose who are responsible.

The United States needs secrecy in many of its activities. Our diplomats need confidentiality and privacy in their dealings with other nations. But we as American citizens should have the confidence in the government that when a man such as Julius Assange surfaces, what he reveals will not be a national embarrassment and cause enormous damage.

And when we don't?

Yeah, when that upstanding pillar of the community gets revealed as the owner of a huge stash of gay bondage kiddy porn who frequents certain seedy locales to engage in homosexual adultery, well we should lament his loss of privacy, and damn the one who unearthed the dirt!

Sunlight. It's better than bleach.

A new way to be "green" after Christmas!

Christmas Tree Rocket

Labels: art appreciation, felicity and jocularity, geekery

Why We're Headed For A Collapse in [Market-Ticker]

Americans want Congress to bring down a federal budget deficit that many believe is “dangerously out of control,” only under two conditions: minimize the pain and make the rich pay.

The public wants Congress to keep its hands off entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. They oppose cuts in most other major domestic programs and defense. They want to maintain subsidies for farmers and tax breaks like the mortgage-interest deduction. And they’re against an increase in the gasoline tax.

There is only one way:


The people of this country have a lot of growing up to do, and it is going to come hard, fast, and ugly when it does. The game is up. It's been up since 2008. Preparedness is more than just stockpiling goods. There is a mental, emotional and spiritual shift to be made that even many preppers refuse to face. What you grew up with and what you may still be able to enjoy now will be gone in another 5-10 years. We've had a half century of luxurious indulgence and our Beneficent Betters have managed to keep us fat, happy and ignorant for most of this time. But now the gravy train is off the rails, and it behooves us to prepare mentally, emotionally and spiritually, as well as physically for the turmoil and hardship to come.

Labels: financial ponderings, misanthropy, skittles, society and culture

"I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy ... censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives." - Robert A. Heinlein

Labels: fascism on parade, statism

I was going to write about this, but it's been covered well at Hot Air:
Great news: Bill Clinton apparently now president again � Hot Air

I can’t do justice to what you’re about to see. The spectacle of the president bugging out of his own press conference to go to a Christmas party is weird enough, but having Clinton back at the White House podium fielding questions on the hottest domestic issue of the day shoots past deja vu and lands firmly in “am I hallucinating?” territory.

So let's get this straight: Obama is having trouble getting his party to accept the tax compromise, so he invites Bill Clinton to join him at a press conference, turns over the podium to Bill, then leaves for a party with Clinton in charge of the remainder of the press conference.

Utterly surreal!

I am very sorry I don't have the likes of Pretty Lady and other arch Obama supporters coming around anymore. For all the anti-Bush crap I put up with, this would *so* be payback material. Really most of his presidency up until now has been a huge disappointment and embarrassment to the Hope'n'Changers.

Or should be.

Via Ace


UPdate!

Snork!

*cackle!*
(snagged from SondraK)

Labels: felicity and jocularity, politics, society and culture

Conrad Black says the WikiLeaks cables show Russia to be a "Mafia state run by a thug".

So, what do I know. They're still in the robber baron phase then.

Labels: politics

No longer just the ponderings of survivalists and gold bugs...

Yeah, go read it. I'm not going to try to excerpt it. The linked article is by Gary North and he has already heavily excerpted from the original article from Foreign Affairs. The link to the original article is in the story:
U.S. Facing Federal Debt Cataclysm, The Establishment Is in Despair

Labels: financial ponderings

No, I do not worship at the Church of America.

Christian brethren, do not conflate your patriotic fervor with your passion for Christ! The Lord showed me several years ago that it is a grave error, bordering on blasphemy to do so. Christ himself said "my kingdom is not of this world". Why do some of us then attempt to ascribe to America the Glory that belongs to Him alone?

Knowing as many of you do the kind of men who run this country behind the scenes, how dare you?

Labels: fascism on parade, religion, spiritual

WikiLeaks is freedom in action

I write not to condemn Julian Assange, but to praise him. More than that, I write to accuse those so-called conservatives who have waxed hysterical in their contemptible fulminations against Assange and his organization, Wikileaks, of being ideological frauds, enemies of democracy and false friends of human liberty.

One of the favorite accusations made by the totalitarian bootlickers who condemn Assange's free speech is that by making information available to the public about the actions of certain individuals that were recorded by other individuals, he has blood on his hands due to some mysterious transitive property that no one has yet managed to rationally explain. And the idea that an Australian citizen can be a traitor to the United States of America is simply absurd. These are abuses of logic so severe that it is a wonder the corpses of Aristotle, Descartes and Gödel do not spin right out of their graves and tear those making these ridiculous arguments limb-from-limb in righteous zombie-philosopher retribution.

Totalitarian bootlickers.

It is ironic, given that Assange is an Australian citizen, but WikiLeaks is one of the last defenses that Americans have against the centralized control of communication being exerted by the U.S. government over the citizenry. For how can a supposedly democratic society operate in near-total darkness? How can the will of the people be legitimately expressed when the people are intentionally kept in near-total ignorance by their representatives and servants?

This kind of stuff reveals how much the "progressive" mindset has so thoroughly permeated both the left and the putative "right" in this country.

-----------------------

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.
John F. Kennedy: Address to ANPA (1961)

How far we have fallen...

Labels: fascism on parade, society and culture, statism

'Tis The Season


Snagged from SondraK

Labels: art appreciation, women

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Labels: felicity and jocularity

Russian redneck FTW!

You know the damned irony of my lifetime is that at the rate things are going, it may soon make sense to move to Russia to escape the tyranny of Soviet Amerika. I grew up in fear of imminent nuclear annihilation from the Evil Empire. Then the world changed in 1989 and we are coming closer to a complete reversal.

Putin stamped out the robber barons and everyone in the west became anxious about a return to the dark ages for Russia. But the people he stamped out are the ones robbing America blind today.

Labels: geekery, preparedness, statism