I drafted an unpublished post titled, “Joshua, three months old.” This implies the following: I am a very busy mama, and I either need to type faster or write shorter. Here’s hoping that I finish this post before another month passes!

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As of late I’ve been stuck in a very focused train of broad ideas. Nihilistic in a nature, yet looking to a higher power for answers. The one thing that I’ve settled on is that I don’t have them, and people with age do — If I listen. The trouble is that I still find myself somewhat socially awkward, especially with strangers, so I don’t posses the courage to just walk up to an elderly person and say, “Would you mind telling me your life story?” The thing is that I truly want to know. I’m convinced that if everyone over 70 wrote their memoirs (and everyone else read them) that the world would be a better place. Life just moves to quick and if we don’t stop, we don’t learn.

Stay with me… I have a point.

Today, at the bus stop, I was approached by a kind looking old woman with a walker-on-wheels-with-a-grocery-basket-thing. She stopped, looked at me, and then said in a very quiet voice, “Can I tell you something?”. I was rather intrigued so I nodded and leaned in.

“How does an astronaut cut his hair?”, she said. I shrug.

“Eclipse it!”

And she walked away. So that’s it then. After all the years that she has seen, she felt it was necessary to share a joke with a stranger waiting for the bus. I loved it. I think I’ve found the meaning of life.

Technorati Tags: jokes

I should probably get an automatic A in my first class with the University of Phoenix for successfully breaking Adobe’s DRM on my class eBook. Is it too much to ask that someone in the BSIT program might like to read the book that they’ve legitimately been given access to on something other than Adobe Acrobat in Windows XP?

Well, 3 days later and countless numbers of packages (well, maybe a dozen), and I finally found a way to patch Ghostscript so that it would convert a PostScript file back into an unencrypted PDF. Here’s the process:

Open the PDF in Adobe 6.01 with Windows (unlock it)
Print to a file using any PostScript printer
Using Linux now, run ps2pdf on the .ps file and viola!

Of course, without the patch, ps2pdf will just vomit all over the console and tell you that it isn’t allowed to convert an encrypted PostScript file. Too bad.

At least now I can read in peace.

Technorati Tags: adobe, pdf, drm, postscript, ghostscript, university of phoenix

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/17/domesticspying.lawsuit/index.html

A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the U.S. government’s domestic eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately.

In a 44-page memorandum and order, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor struck down the NSA program, which she said violates the rights to free speech and privacy. (Read the complete ruling — PDF)

The defendants “are permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly utilizing the Terrorist Surveillance Program in any way, including, but not limited to, conducting warrantless wiretaps of telephone and Internet communications, in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Title III,” she wrote.

She declared that the program “violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III.”

Her ruling went on to say that “the president of the United States … has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders.”

All I can say is it’s about time! I’ll still be biting my nails through the appeals process though. I’ve had to argue for this crap in debate rounds and I still see very little value of having a warrantless wiretapping program. It just doesn’t make sense given retro-active warrants. Under FISA law the government has up to 72 hours to get a warrant after they’ve tapped your lines! Now why would anyone say lets just skip the whole warrant process in the first place?

This program being defeated doesn’t hurt national security. If anything it bolsters our democratic system in ways that will only benefit security in the long-run. Think about it. I have.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5239758.stm

An Indian non-governmental organisation says samples of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products are showing even worse levels of pesticides than in a previous study.

CSE Director Sunita Narain told journalists in Delhi that samples from 12 states showed that Pepsi products contained 30 times more pesticides than found in 2003.

Sunita Narain
This is a grave public health scandal
CSE Director Sunita Narain

Likewise she said that Coke samples had 25 times the amount of pesticides found three years ago.

She alleged that despite the public outcry over the issue following the first report, the government has failed to set up the necessary quality-control standards for the soft drinks industry.

India does not have any purity standards for soft drinks.

Isn’t it strange that they would bother to manufacture a beverage in a country that, according to this article, has no standards to speak of for them?

Last week we got back from a long trip to California to visit family that we haven’t seen collectively in years. We were supposed to leave on Monday and end up home that night (between a 15-18 hour drive, depending on stops)… unfortunately we were delayed by a day. Was it California’s fault? Not entirely. To be fair, it is mostly our fault (myself and Shae) for not being assertive enough about the dangers of his allergy. But during the process we were shown yet another reason why we will never live in the state again. I’ll try to keep this short for my sake more than anyone reading this. I’m tired (look at the time).

On Sunday night Djai got hold of a small amount of peanut butter from a cookie. We’re talking a corner of a 1″ by 1″ cookie… not too much. But, as anyone with a peanut allergy knows, it doesn’t take a great deal of the stuff for a reaction.

Shae noticed it by the small bit of chocolate around his mouth. She knew what it was. My Mom knew that the only cookie on the table that had melted chocolate was the ones with peanut butter. We were all saying good-byes so nobody saw him get it. I’ll be honest here that I was in complete denial and wanted to believe that he had gotten anything other than the cookie with the peanut butter. A brownie? Anything. But no. I didn’t want to believe it.

Then he started coughing.

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I�m a modern man, a man for the millennium. Digital and smoke free. A diversified multi-cultural, post-modern deconstruction that is anatomically and ecologically incorrect. I�ve been up linked and downloaded, I�ve been inputted and outsourced, I know the upside of downsizing, I know the downside of upgrading. I�m a high-tech low-life. A cutting edge, state-of-the-art bi-coastal multi-tasker and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond!

I�m new wave, but I�m old school and my inner child is outward bound. I�m a hot-wired, heat seeking, warm-hearted cool customer, voice activated and bio-degradable. I interface with my database, my database is in cyberspace, so I�m interactive, I�m hyperactive and from time to time I�m radioactive.

Behind the eight ball, ahead of the curve, ridin the wave, dodgin the bullet and pushin the envelope. I�m on-point, on-task, on-message and off drugs. I�ve got no need for coke and speed. I’ve got no urge to binge and purge. I�m in-the-moment, on-the-edge, over-the-top and under-the-radar. A high-concept, low-profile, medium-range ballistic missionary. A street-wise smart bomb. A top-gun bottom feeder. I wear power ties, I tell power lies, I take power naps and run victory laps. I�m a totally ongoing big-foot, slam-dunk, rainmaker with a pro-active outreach. A raging workaholic. A working rageaholic. Out of rehab and in denial!

I�ve got a personal trainer, a personal shopper, a personal assistant and a personal agenda. You can�t shut me up. You can�t dumb me down because I�m tireless and I�m wireless, I�m an alpha male on beta-blockers.

I�m a non-believer and an over-achiever, laid-back but fashion-forward. Up-front, down-home, low-rent, high-maintenance. Super-sized, long-lasting, high-definition, fast-acting, oven-ready and built-to-last! I�m a hands-on, foot-loose, knee-jerk head case pretty maturely post-traumatic and I�ve got a love-child that sends me hate mail.

But, I�m feeling, I�m caring, I�m healing, I�m sharing– a supportive, bonding, nurturing primary care-giver. My output is down, but my income is up. I took a short position on the long bond and my revenue stream has its own cash-flow. I read junk mail, I eat junk food, I buy junk bonds and I watch trash sports! I�m gender specific, capital intensive, user-friendly and lactose intolerant.

I like rough sex. I like tough love. I use the �F� word in my emails and the software on my hard-drive is hardcore–no soft porn.

I bought a microwave at a mini-mall; I bought a mini-van at a mega-store. I eat fast-food in the slow lane. I�m toll-free, bite-sized, ready-to-wear and I come in all sizes. A fully-equipped, factory-authorized, hospital-tested, clinically-proven, scientifically- formulated medical miracle. I�ve been pre-wash, pre-cooked, pre-heated, pre-screened, pre-approved, pre-packaged, post-dated, freeze-dried, double-wrapped, vacuum-packed and, I have an unlimited broadband capacity.

I�m a rude dude, but I�m the real deal. Lean and mean! Cocked, locked and ready-to-rock. Rough, tough and hard to bluff. I take it slow, I go with the flow, I ride with the tide. I�ve got glide in my stride. Drivin and movin, sailin and spinin, jiving and groovin, wailin and winnin. I don�t snooze, so I don�t lose. I keep the pedal to the metal and the rubber on the road. I party hearty and lunch time is crunch time. I�m hangin in, there ain�t no doubt and I�m hangin tough, over and out!