Month: December 2004

So what does “Christmas Spirit” really mean?

The question is kind of tongue-in-cheek but the fact is I’m starting to think that for me the answer is “mild depression”.

Now I’m really not trying to cause anyone concern–this is not “I’m going to go jump off a bridge now” material. I don’t feel unhappy or anything–which even now makes me wonder if I’m wrong–instead, I’m just totally and utterly apathetic. I have no energy, no desire to do anything active at all–I’d happily sleep, eat and watch television, maybe read and play World of Warcraft.

In fact, at first I just thought it was that I was tired–three months in DC did take a lot out of me; it was stressful for a whole host of reasons, and it didn’t exactly end on a high note. But I’ve had plenty of time to get past the physiological effects, and yet here I find myself, feeling like Inertia Man–if I can get moving, I can sometimes find some energy and keep it going, but most of the time, I lose steam quickly. And it happens pretty much every year.

Oh, well, as reliably as it comes, it goes, too. In a couple of weeks I’ll wake up bursting with energy, wondering why I was so egregiously slack for the last month–it’s just weird to realize all this.

Hawking Technology makes some interesting router hardware…

…but I’m not sure I’d go to them for web development.

It is a tiresome fact of web development that you can’t trust anything the user enters, and you really _must_ validate input you get from your users. Unfortunately, the “message you get from following this link”:http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID= (which I didn’t construct–it was on their site) seems to show that they’re not doing a very good job of that.

(Not that I’ve ever been perfect, either, but I try hard.)

I don’t have anything insightful to add…

…but I will note that during the three months I was in Washington, the two local, non-political things that dominated the news were the opening of the Krispy Kreme in Dupont Circle and the jubilation of some that they would no longer have to drive to Baltimore to see pro baseball.

Nevertheless, I don’t see how paying for a new stadium for a team would be anything other than a boondoggle.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder…

“I hope your children turn out to be as perfect as you are, sir.”

— Bill Clinton, quoted by the “New York Daily News”:http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/262079p-224420c.html, allegedly to a man “pushing a stroller” in Central Park who called him “an embarrassment.”

It’s all Chet’s fault…

…that postings have dried up, insofar as he hectored me into buying Worlds of Warcraft, which is interfering with me getting any, you know, _work_ done.

I haven’t spent this much time with a video game since ’95 or ’96, when Quake came out.

Josh Marshall pretty much sums it up

“Read it here.”:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_12_05.php#004169

Discussing the Bush Administration’s plan to privatize Social Security:

bq. In other words, we have to start phasing out Social Security now because if we don’t we’re going to face some big borrowing in a few decades. But we can avoid that horror of horrors by doing some big time borrowing now to finance abolishing Social Security we won’t have to face that terrible fate a few decades from now.

Now I’m really not the biggest fan of entitlement programs myself, but the fact is, before Social Security there was even more of a problem with rampant poverty among the elderly than there is now. I don’t see how dismantling this program–which, just in case you missed it, _is not insolvent or in trouble at this time or likely any time in the next three decades_–can be a good thing.

Or, as an alternative, why not just be honest about what you’re doing. State, “Social Security is over.”, arrange to borrow the money to handle everyone over, say, 50 now, and then let me save my money how I wish. None of this forced saving bullshit.

Oh, yeah, I forgot, this isn’t about true choice–this is about how to funnel money from the pockets of the poor into the pockets of the well-off. So we’ll force people to invest in the stock market, which will mostly help stock brokers.

Feh.

Nine Inch Nails has a new album coming out

I’ve become resigned to the 5 year cycles that are all Trent seems to be able to achieve–yeah, yeah, I know that there’s always a ton of sub-releases in the intervening time (I’ve got a shelf full of them), but let’s face it: ??Pretty Hate Machine?? was 1989, ??The Downward Spiral?? was 1994, ??The Fragile?? was 1999–crap, this one’s going to be 6 years. He’s getting deep into Paul Simon territory here.

Because it’s ??NIN??, the fan community will, upon release, have to indulge in an immediate war about whether this is the best or worst album ever.

Imagine, then, my amusement at finding someone’s already released a “pre-emptive apologia”:http://www.theninhotline.net/meatpers/current.html for the album.

It will, I predict, be a fun rwar to watch, and I’m glad people are getting an early start.

Remember: ??With Teeth??