Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Al Petterson's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
11:26 am	They want to hurt you. But it's only because they love you. Fawkes News, today. For those who don't want to pollute their brains by watching, this former CIA official - who is also on record as unequivocally pro-torture, btw - says "The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States ... Only Osama can execute an attack that will force Americans to demand a government protect them effectively, consistently and with as much violence as necessary." Glenn Beck, the host, is nodding in agreement. The context is discussion of immigration, which makes it extra special. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
1:49 pm	Continuity error in recent OotS? Wait, when did they figure this out? Spoiler if you're not up to date on OotS... ( Read more... ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 26th, 2009
9:08 am	A public service: F to C If you're like 85% of people (I made that number up, but it's correct), you can't remember the F to C calculation. You know it's 9/5 and 5/9, but do you add or subtract 32? And do you do it before or after the multiplication? Screw that noise. Do it this way instead. Start with either the F or C number. Add 40. Then multiply by the ratio: C is smaller than F, you know that already, so when going from F to C, get smaller (multiply by 5/9); when going from C to F, get bigger (multiply by 9/5). Then subtract 40. Works either way. The reason it works is this: if 0 were the same in both scales, you could just multiply by the correct ratio and you'd be done. But 0 is not the same in both scales: minus 40 is the same in both scales. So add 40 (to get to zero), multiply by the fraction, and then subtract the 40 back out. Of course, there's an even easier method, if you're just listening to a weather report and you just want to know whether to wear a sweater. For those purposes, a 2:1 ratio is good enough. Start by remembering zero is freezing, so 0 -> 30. Then 10 -> 50. 20 -> 70. 30 -> 90, roughly. It gets off by a couple of degrees on the ends (yes, 0 is really 32, and by 40 it starts to miss -- 40 is really only 104.) But this is just fine for knowing whether to wear a swimsuit, sweater, or parka -- or stay indoors. Do use the precise method if you're bragging about how bad the weather is. If it was 110, and you tell people overseas it was 40, they won't be sufficiently impressed. Telling them it was forty-three and a half will shock them. :) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
6:13 pm	Made this because my esophagus was not going to be happy with the bratwurst I was cooking for the rest of the family: Defrost a Costco boneless/skinless chicken breast in microwave for about 3 minutes. Slice into thin strips. Heat a 9" frying pan. When hot, sprinkle pepper, garlic, crushed rosemary, and ginger into the pan. Heat for 30 seconds. Add some extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy scent. When oil is hot, throw in chicken. Stir fry till chicken depinks. Toss in some onion (I used fresh, can also used minced/chopped dried, I bet.) Ideally toss in other veggies, like maybe green pepper and mushroom. Cook another few minutes. Add maybe a half teaspoon of soy sauce and a half tablespoon of hoison sauce. Let it coat and cook a few minutes more. Serve over rice. Yummy. Will do it again. (Comment on this)
Friday, June 12th, 2009
11:18 am	coolness today Look who was visiting, just outside my window: (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
8:10 am	Olbermann's idea I encourage you to spread the meme. Quarantine Fox News. Anytime you are visiting an establishment, if that establishment has FOX News on a television, calmly request that the channel be changed. Explain, calmly, that you will not provide your business to them if they are broadcasting that station. Explain, calmly, if asked, that Bill O'Reilly and others at that station called for the execution of a citizen who had committed no crime, and domestic terrorists carried out the execution, and you will not do business with anyone who implicitly condones such behavior. And if they won't change the channel, walk out. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
9:58 am	Fonzie's been cloned! If you didn't ever watch the video to Total Eclipse of the Heart, back in the 80s, this won't make much sense. But since it's a Steinman song (and one of his best, or at least one of his most epic), I of course did. And thus this is, well, the lyrics do make a lot more sense than the original... ( Read more... ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
9:18 pm	Kate On TV (after ad) Watch this - she's in the group of kids wearing blue shirts - she's in the black-and-white hat on the lower right, at about 1:15 left in the video. (Comment on this)
9:10 am	Project21 Joshua's teacher is one of thirteen in our district who was applying a new curriculum this year. He was one of three students she asked to come to the open house last night, to show off an example of what they'd done. KOVR13 had a TV crew there. Josh wasn't on video, but his teacher - Patty Hagan - was the teacher they interviewed for the broadcast segment, which is available (hopefully for more than a day) at the link. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
9:18 am	Imagine Sarah Palin explaining contraception to her daughter. Then perhaps Bristol's warning about sex will make sense. "If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex," says Bristol, sitting at her parents' lakeside patio table. "Trust me. Nobody." "What you do is, you unroll it over the -- it's all about the pills. You put the pill in there, with a little string, and then what you do is, be careful of the moose antlers. Every day, and the pill is important, so. See?" (I tease. Palin is no worse than Ford or Quayle or Reagan or W. But imagine Tina Fey and... couldn't resist.) (Comment on this)
8:15 am	OK, this is it, California. We need this now. As exciting as electing Obama was, this will make a much bigger difference to the people of California, if we get it on the ballot next year and pass it. Simple Majority. That's it. Two words. Put it on a bumper sticker, explain it in an elevator. Simple majority -- to decide spending, to decide revenue, to pass a budget, everything. Simple majority in each house. Of course the Governor can veto and then you need 2/3, like the US govt and everywhere else. But to pass legislation, majority rule. And if you get whining about "tyranny of the majority", the retort is this: when the will of the majority is consistently thwarted, you don't have democracy. The alternative -- the only alternative -- to majority rule is minority rule. Tyranny of the majority is only tyranny if the minority isn't being heard. Minority views should always have a soapbox and megaphone to say what they want; they should get a fair hearing, give them the opportunity to try to turn their minority view into a majority view. Then, after reasoned debate and time to think, there should be a vote. And the majority should rule. Because all the other ways of doing it are worse. Simple. Majority. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
1:01 pm	All In This Together So we the family went on Friday night to Granite Bay HS to see their production of All Shook Up. That has to be almost the perfect musical for a high school. They did it about an order of magnitude better than, for example, Larkin HS would have done back in my day. The kids loved it. Robert gave up trying to figure out the shape of the "love polygon" constructed by the end of the first act. Kate's eyes were shining; might have had something to do with me telling her this was a realistic example of what she and her peers could be doing in about a half dozen years. Josh had great fun, got a lot of the humor, and (like all of us) loved the songs. A review, and a bit of nostalgia, after the cut. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
10:53 am	About GRRM I didn't read his first book, so I am extrapolating from the discussion I see. Probably what follows has been said by others before me.( Read more... ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
7:35 am	Deep thought: the problem with Arlen Specter changing allegiance is that he has lowered the average intelligence of both parties. (Comment on this)
6:56 am	Look at me, I'm forty-three My grandfather (my father was fond of saying) saw us go from the horse and buggy to the moon. My father, I suppose one might say, saw us go from the vaccuum tube to the Internet. Not sure what one might say of me so far. We've gone from the moon to... plans to go to the moon again. To date, the most significant thing might be that we've gone from the King assassination to the Obama presidency. Or from Pong to World of Warcraft. But I'm only forty-three, after all. (Maybe my life will see us go from the moon back to the horse and buggy. Hope not.) We might yet get fusion power. Or real longevity. Or AI. It's odd that the thing that matters most to me is still where else we go, and that everything else seem so, if you'll forgive me, mundane. Guess it's that baby-duck thing again, watching "one small step" when I was three. Because cellphones and the Net and collision-avoidance and WoW are all pretty amazing. (Still, rivers on Titan and oceans beneath Europan ice mean something that the others don't.) But things seem to be awfully incremental sometimes. I woke up trying to filk 'Look at me, I'm forty-three' in my head this morning, but it all sounded variously soppy and morbid ('Thinkin' 'bout mortality', as an example second line) so I wasn't going to bother trying to write the actual verses. Other than "this ride is too damn short" (James Nicoll said it, but I'm sure others have as well) there's not much to say about that topic. It is what it is. Yes, we're all going to die. Live first. And live well. I'm taking the boys to skating practice this morning, Kate's got a doubleheader in the afternoon if it doesn't rain, and friends are coming over this evening to play D&D. That's celebration enough. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 1st, 2009
11:28 am	Lessons Learned By Losers Year Lesson Learned Lesson Learned By Year Lesson Forgotten Lesson Forgotten By 1952 Do not run a nerd for president. Democrats 1956 Democrats 1956 Do not run a nerd for president. Democrats 1988 Democrats 1960 Do not run Richard Nixon for president. Republicans 1968 Republicans 1964 Extremism frightens people. Republicans 1968 Democrats 1968 You need to protect your candidate from nutbars. Democrats 2008 Republicans 1972 You can't beat a sufficiently treacherous opponent. Democrats 2004 Democrats 1976 Surprisingly, committing crimes as president turns out to be a problem. Republicans 2008 Republicans 1980 The Middle East is treacherous. Democrats 2008 Republicans 1984 The Globetrotters will always beat the Generals. Democrats 1996 Republicans 1988 Do not run a lizard for president. Democrats 1996 Republicans 1992 You can't win if the third-party candidate appeals to your base. Republicans 2000 Democrats 1996 You cannot win if your candidate has no Elvis. Republicans 2004 Democrats 2000 Winning the election isn't actually as important as you might think. Democrats 2004 Republicans 2004 Do not run a nerd for president. Democrats TBD TBD 2008 Sufficiently spectacular failure actually matters to voters. Republicans 2008 Republicans (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 27th, 2009
12:18 pm	Vlad Taltos series, a revelation So having perused the Lyorn Records and other places in Brust fandom, I know all about how in each book in the Vlad Taltos series ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Friday, April 24th, 2009
1:28 pm	About the drow. You probably don't care. Total game-geeking about a society Gary Gygax invented on the spur of the moment back during the Carter Administration.( Read more... ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 29th, 2009
3:45 pm	upsilon update Boring for anyone who doesn't care about gamedesign geeking. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
10:22 am	I read this by Scalzi a few days ago, and then tried to post on the AMC thread, but was cruelly rebuffed because I'm not l33t or something. So instead, here is my list of less-than-10 things I think about regarding SF and movies:( Read more... ) (Comment on this)