Dirk L'Orange is Writing...

It's been a great year, with many more to come. I love you!

Posted by The Observer at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

PoS and I also discussed some of the uselessness of a LOT of the articles on Wikipedia, as we discussed how I had put a reference to the Wikipedia article on "Pencil" in my Master's Degree earning report, and wondering who would waste the time and effort to put such a thing together....

And we thought that perhaps some form of competition was in order to see who could find the most useless Wikipedia entry. Right now the definition of such is pretty objective, so we'll need to get some rules down, but here's the intial "feel"...

1. The article should be about something innocuous - it shouldn't be a minor component of a major historical, industrial, etc, event or item, such that if you think about it actually turns out to be important. It needs to stand on its own. Note: This doesn't exclude trivia that has no significance - finding an article about Napoleon's love of turkey sandwiches MAY be eligible...but only if it didn't lead to some sort of military strategy put into use, or some other historical timeline.

2. The article about such an item should be written in a way that it doesn't really leave you any more educated or informed after reading it as you were before.

3. It should be something you don't care about, never have cared about, or never would have considered caring about.

4. It should be something so that if somebody asked you about it 10 minutes after having read it, you would look at the person as if they were crazy.

5. Native language/name doesn't matter, but the entry has to be in English.

Here's my first offering:

Storbergsmasten

Posted by The Observer at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Per a conversation with PoS, here's a Rorschachy situation...

I was at a mandatory company policy dispensing meeting this week. I noticed before the meeting started that one of the monitors used to display the Powerpoint slides was off/broke, and another was having a connection problem such that the colors on the display rapidly flickered.

After about half an hour of meeting loveliness, one of the attendees, an epileptic, flopped out of his chair, crawled down the aisle on all fours, ran into the backwall of the room, and then flopped over onto his ass, murmuring incomprehensibly. Those of us in the back noticed this, and a couple of people familiar with this individual's condition jumped up to assist him. About a minute and a half later, the instructor/manager noticed what was going on, asked over the microphone what was going on, then decided to walk back there, ostensively for assistance. After doing his best to take in the situation and not actually get involved, he asked someone to notify security (which had already been summoned at this point, and was en route), he walked back up to the podium, announced that because of who he/management is, that "THAT is more important than THIS!", implying that he would rather disregard the connotation of useless information onto people who'd rather not be there and put his attention on his fellow man in need.

After this...What happened next??? What would YOU do if you were this manager/instructor???

The TRUE actions to come...

Posted by The Observer at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I normally don't ask this but, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled for a vote on Tuesday on a bill by Senator Stevens which is effectively opposed to the Net Neutrality Bill from Sens Dorgan and Snowe. As I understand it, the committee stands one vote short of killing the stevens bill with several senators on the committee who are still "on the bubble" in regard to the net neutrality issue.

One of the senators "on the bubble", so to speak is TX Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, if you live in Texas please contact her office and ask her to support S. 2917 WITHOUT AMENDMENT, between now and Tuesday.

My suggestion would be to call or fax. They actually keep track of the number of faxes and calls in support or opposition to a particular peace of legislation.

Here are her offices.

WASHINGTON OFFICE
284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4304
202-224-5922
202-224-0776 (FAX)
202-224-5903 (TDD)

TEXAS OFFICES

Austin
961 Federal Building
300 East 8th Street
Austin, Texas 78701
512-916-5834
512-916-5839 (FAX)

Dallas
LB 606
10440 N. Central Expressway
Suite 1160
Dallas, Texas 75231
214-361-3500
214-361-3502 (FAX)

Houston
1919 Smith Street
Suite 800
Houston, Texas 77002
713-653-3456
713-209-3459 (FAX)

San Antonio
145 Duncan Drive
Suite 120
San Antonio, Texas 78226
210-340-2885
210-349-6753 (FAX)

Abilene
500 Chestnut Street
Suite 1570
Abilene, Texas 79602
325-676-2839
325-676-2937 (FAX)

Harlingen
222 East Van Buren Street
Suite 404
Harlingen, Texas 78550
956-425-2253
956-412-1468 (FAX)

Posted by PoS at 12:17 PM | Permalink

Dirk's Wiki is fully functional again. To get there, click on the link on the left side under the "Links"...

Posted by The Observer at 10:40 PM | Permalink

1. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. This is the first playoff basketball I've watched this year from beginning to end. Mainly because we were visiting the grandparents and they don't have cable tv. I must say, I was not disappointed.

2. The Mavs got jobbed on the timeout deal. In every other situation the refs would have asked the player, "Are you sure about that?"... Everyone knew that Dallas wanted that timeout after the 2nd free throw and I do believe it is part of the NBA official's job to make sure there is no missed communication. That being said, it is not the official's job to interpret the thoughts and intent of the player and the coach. Bottom line, Josh Howard should have been more careful and not made what turned out to be a huge mental mistake right at the end of the game.

3. Dwayne Wade DID get fouled on that last drive to the hoop. Not by Dirk (whom the foul was called on), but by Devin Harris. It might have been a very ticky-tack foul... and probably ought not to have been called at the end of the game, but it was a foul nonetheless. Stop whining Mavs fans.

4. Dallas DID NOT lose the game because of the bad calls by the refs. They lost the game because they missed free throws in crunch time and made mental errors. The bottom line is the choked. It should have never come down to that last shot. By the way, what is going on with your MVP, mavs fans?

5. Mavs fans need to stop making generic Mavs talk and game analysis. No one wants to hear you break down the game and talk about how "AJ should had his players push the ball more and gotten the transition game going" and "AJ is a good coach but he needs to tell his players to drive it to the rack more." Message to Mavs fans: YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL... so stop regurgitating what you heard last night on whichever post-game show you were watching. Why does every fan think they're an expert. Just root for your team, watch the score, and stop being me down with this nonsense.

6. Miami did NOT commit a backcourt violation on the final inbounds play. In the NBA, a player does not have to establish themselves in the back court before receiving an inbound pass from the front court.

7. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

8. It's more than a little arrogant to go ahead and announce the victory parade for Tuesday (today) when you're only up 2 games to none and face 3 games on your opponent's home floor. It is also arrogant to accept an invitation to be on The Late Show with David Letterman between games 3 and 4 -- when you're up 2 - 1 in the series -- take a shot at the opponent's head coach and then declare, "We're going to win the series." But this arrogance is typical of dallas fans, who never miss an opportunity to crow about their teams on the verge of success, especially in football. Perhaps Karma reared it's head and smiled on Miami, perhaps the arrogance of the players and owner of the mavs was a wakeup call for Miami, it doesn't matter.

9. Dirk Nowitski punches and/or drop kicks a ball into the stands after the game (for which he was fined $5000). He then picks up an exercise bike on the way to his locker room and tries to throw it into the cement wall, and finally kicks at a table just outside the doorway to a locker room. He's obviously a great example to all the children out there. What a freakin' crybaby.

10. Look at it this way, mavs fans. Miami may be up 3 - 2 now and have all the momentum going into game 6. Your backs are against the wall and NBA history may not be on your side because the home team has never won all of it's games in an NBA final; but if your team loses, you can at least hang your hat on 43 straight years without a Presidential assassination in your city. Way to go dallas!!!

Posted by PoS at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If your butter never seems to spread when you want it to, or you’ve compromised on taste for convenience by opting for margarine or easy spread products, then look no further…the answer is here with the ButterWizard!

Posted by The Observer at 4:30 PM | Permalink

Synopsis: It is a documentary about the global warming crisis as told by Al Gore, through his lecture series on the topic, with scenes interspersed throughout that explain how and why he feels so passionately about this subject.

It is, without a doubt, a very compelling documentary. The scientific data that is presented is staggering. And it is presented by Al Gore in an easy to understand format. Perhaps, the most important part of the movie is when Gore states, "We already have the technology to solve the problem." Along with this very scary information is a message of hope and of change.

I came away from the movie with the feeling that the biggest obstacle we are facing in the global warming crisis is a lack of urgency and interest. Mrs. Pool of Sick stated, very succinctly afterward, "People suck." I have to say that I concur. Case in point, we have friends that are not going to see this movie because they're "just not interested." It is that lack of intellectual curiousity, indeed that apathy and fear of being taken out of their comfort zone and exercising their minds that keeps us moving down the path we're on. And it is that attitude among people in general -- probably the same attitude that makes American Idol is so popular -- that really gets under my skin.

Everyone should see this movie. And everyone should take some time and think about how they can change their own habits to help ease the problem. You can go to ClimateCrisis.net and just take a look to see if there are even little things that you can do in your daily lives that will lower your CO₂ footprint. Things like, changing your incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent light bulb or change your power provider all together to one that promotes renewable and/or clean energy sources. Gore points out, that a lot of little changes by everyone, can add up to big changes in the overall picture and if we act soon enough, we can start reversing the trend.

[UPDATE] 2006-06-14 10:40:00 - It seems I stepped on some toes with some of the comments I made regarding the movie. I mentioned some friends that weren't interested in seeing this movie... and it was juxtaposed with Mrs. PoS' comment that "people suck" along with an example of friends of ours who just didn't care to see the movie... This was poorly worded.... The Mrs. PoS comment was completely independent... my point in talking about our friends was in personalizing the apathy involved in this issue and in learning about the topic in general. That said, my apology goes to the offended parties (you know who you are).

Posted by PoS at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by The Observer at 6:30 AM | Permalink

Posted by The Observer at 12:18 AM | Permalink

This evening I saw this little news item that you might be interested in:

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform users that its tool for determining whether a computer is running a pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software maker.

Posted by PoS at 1:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You be the judge

It's a bit loopy to search for cultural commentary in the MTV Movie Awards — the trophy looks like shellacked popcorn for a good reason — but there was an honest-to-goodness moment of gravity at the taping Saturday in Culver City when Jake Gyllenhaal accepted the award for best on-screen kiss for his lip-lock with Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain."

Posted by PoS at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)