It seems that there are too many players at various levels attempting to control the national narrative right now in the United States. The saturation level of technology that enables groups of any given ideology to more effectively spread their ideas has contributed greatly to this phenomenon.

I filled out my census today. While doing so, I noticed that in the name block, there are fields for first name, middle initial, and last name. No suffix field. Crap. Now the normal, rational person probably has no issues with this, but as a former user interface and form designer turned database administrator, poorly designed forms that cause data ambiguity really gall me. When there is no suffix field, and a person wishes to distinguish themselves as a junior, III, etc, they are obliged to put that information in the last name field. So what's the problem? one might ask. The problem is that the data from that form is going to be captured into a database of some sort. Databases are notoriously literal in the way they treat data. When performing a last name search, "Doe" =/= "Doe Jr." wildcards creep into the queries, and the whole thing slides into the abyss.

Ok, it's not really that bad, but it's still just a damn poor practice.

I watched 6 hours of Dollhouse last night. I'm glad that Joss finally got a warning when one of his shows was being killed off, so that he could end it in an appropriate fashion. I watched it go from The Matrix to The Cell, and that was just in one episode. I think that there are only 3 episodes left, starting in January. This is some seriously good stuff.

So our furnace has been acting up. I did lots of research on tech forums, especially cozyparts.com, which has a great forum with Lennox techs on it. Then I replaced the thermostat. That fixed the problem for exactly 1 day. Now it's even deader than it was. The damper opens, and the igniter sparks for 15 seconds, but it won't ignite. Likely it's a problem in the ignition control from what I'm reading, or possibly the sensor switch on the damper. My DIY chops include plumbing and wiring, but fall short of tearing into gas appliances. When I get paid Friday, it looks like I have to get a tech out here. Dammit. Gonna be a cold couple of evenings at Red Base.

The weather the past few days has been very cool, even chilly at night. It's like an early taste of autumn. Although I love the temperatures, the allergens have been in full effect. I'm taking my decon and antihistamines, but I am still a wreck. This coupled with extensive HVAC renovation at my office today has left me weeping and squinting. My left eye has been particularly bad. Ugh.

I read this today. It moved me. In my wildest dreams I aspire to have the impact on the world that he did.

WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy -- ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness -- that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what -- at last -- I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

Bertrand Russell, July 1956.

Neill Blomkamp rules. If you've never seen them, you should watch the short live-action films he did for Halo 2. They're on YouTube.

For those who were interested to know where I got my necklaces from, here are the sources:

http://www.imosh.com/ (chaostar)
http://www.anubisengraving.com/ (ouroboros) It's rhodium over nickel.

Random Productions presents

EXORCISM: Indianapolis: 08.01.09

http://vampirefreaks.com/event/Exorcism
(see our event at Vampire Freaks!)

Saturday, August 1
@ The Vollrath Tavern
118 E. Palmer Street Indianapolis
10PM $5 cover

WITH:

END: THE DJ
(Xenomorph Productions, Komor Kommando, Hazmat, #1 Industrial Club DJ in the World!)

"#1 Industrial Club DJ- The DJ List.com"
"The Best EBM DJ I've ever heard- Ginger Snap5"
"Top notch DJ...fills the dance floors- Sebastian Komor (Icon of Coil, Zombie Girl)"
"Don't you think you're pushing it a little?- Terrorfakt"

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/HUMAN_NATURE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9biTWihvoU

and
DJ Copper Top (Vendetta Music, Amalgam Recordings, Random Productions)

and
DJ Krazy Karoline (Random Productions Indianapolis)
DJ Zlaya (Random Productions Indianapolis/Belgrade, Serbia)

Who all is planning on going?