Archive for October, 2006

Hacking the Vote and Other Randomness

Tuesday, Oct 31st, 2006
Categories: 2006, pizza, random
  • I tend to stay away from politics on this site, but this post concerning electronic voting machines on Scott Adams’ blog made me laugh out loud. It also made me sort of sad…

    I think about the history of ATMs when I hear all the nervous Nellies wetting their pants over electronic voting machines. I believe those worries are totally misplaced. Now don’t get me wrong – there’s a 100% chance that the voting machines will get hacked and all future elections will be rigged. But that doesn’t mean we’ll get a worse government. It probably means that the choice of the next American president will be taken out of the hands of deep-pocket, autofellating, corporate shitbags and put it into the hands of some teenager in Finland. How is that not an improvement?

    Statistically speaking, any hacker who is skilled enough to rig the elections will also be smart enough to select politicians that believe in . . . oh, let’s say for example, science. Compare that to the current method where big money interests buy political ads that confuse snake-dancing simpletons until they vote for the guy who scares them the least. Then during the period between the election and the impending Rapture, that traditionally elected President will get busy protecting the lives of stem cells while finding creative ways to blow the living crap out of anything that has the audacity to grow up and turn brownish.

  • Also, it’s Halloween today. No, George will not be wearing a costume today, although if he was, he would be wearing this one. I will celebrate the holiday by eating stupid amounts of candy and making pumpkin risotto with chestnuts and sage and offering it to trick or treaters. Won’t they be excited!?
  • Ed Levine, one of the country’s foremost authorities on all things pizza has published a list of the best pizza in the country, including my personal all time favorite, Pizzeria Bianco. The interesting part is that included with the Bianco’s and Pepe’s of the world is Boston’s own Picco, a place I have yet to visit. How is this possible? A place that specializes in Neapolitan-style pizza and ice cream in my own city, and I haven’t checked it out? I should be ashamed of myself. Susie, gas up the car. We’re going downtown!
  • You know what drives me absolutely crazy insane bonkers? The self-checkout lines at the grocery store. I now notice two groups of people clogging up these “time-saving” devices: older people who have never even used an ATM machine before and are completely confused by the technology and spend at least 15 minutes trying to scan in a single potato, and people with completely FULL carts, always full of produce that has to be looked up by hand, are often talking on their cell phones, and hold up the line for oh, about 20 minutes while they jam the coupon slot and need more assistance. The self-checkout was meant to speed things up for those of us with a few things to buy, so we could get in and get out. Now, they take longer than the normal checkout line. Here’s my solution: limit the number of items you can purchase to say, 10. This will keep the full cart people away. Next, make it necessary to pass a test before using them. You’d have to be able to go through a trial run while timed and be able to complete your checkout in under a certain time, say two minutes. If you pass, you get a card allows you to use the real self-checkout line in the future. If you fail, you’re relegated to the normal lines, but are welcome to retake the test. Come on, who’s with me?

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10/30/2006

Monday, Oct 30th, 2006
Categories: 2006, topten
  • I hate daylight savings time. I enjoyed the extra hour of sleep yesterday, but it’s not any lighter out when I get up at 5 AM.
  • After we take George out in the morning on the weekends, he comes back to bed with us and miraculously sleeps for another three or four hours. Yesterday morning I woke up to his sitting up on my stomach and staring at me, just waiting for me to wake up.
  • Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has a blog, and it happens to be one of the funniest and best written one I’ve read in a while. Most amazing is his entry about suffering from a rare neurological disorder that caused him to lose the ability to speak, and his subsequent retraining of his brain to regain his speech. Just unbelievable.
  • Malted vanilla chip ice cream with crushed up Whoppers isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s a fantastic thing. God, I’m excited for Halloween leftovers. Last year, we didn’t get too many trick or treaters, so I had plenty of leftovers. Last year at this time, we were also spending every single night painting. Yes, it’s been a year in the house. I’m glad we’re not painting any more.
  • I will knock on wood, but after three weeks, I think I’m finally getting over my cold. I haven’t coughed in two days. Yet.
  • Rest in Peace, Red.
  • A very well attended and very successful TommyRuns.com fundraiser. Here’s a nice article about what they’re doing.
  • I made my own roasted chicken stock yesterday. After spending about four hours roasting the chicken and vegetables and simmering the stock, it made exactly enough for a batch of soup. So much for having tons leftover to freeze and use when I need it. I guess next time I’ll have to triple the recipe.
  • This is what I spent many a late night and weekend debugging a few months back. If you have a spare $300k, I suggest you buy one for your home.
  • Clif Bar has fall seasonal flavors that I dig, Caramel Apple Cobbler and Spiced Pumpkin Pie. Why don’t they have any seasonal flavors for seasons other than fall?

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