Brainwaves of Sken

I convinced my employer to let me out early for good behavior, so this was the first year in at least three where I’ve been to a con before 7:30.

blue_lucy and I set up the room for the party, and it was tremendous fun! I made grilled cheeses for half the night, lucy played wii with people, dave and benny made conversation, and netmouse held the fort while I listened to childe‘s panel.

I used up a loaf and a half of bread, gave away all 50 CD’s, and distributed 97 well-earned Free Hugs ribbons. The party was hoppin’ for a Friday night! I was too distracted to ask someone to take pictures, especially as the party picked up. I missed the sushi party, better luck next time. :)

Penguicon Photo Gallery

The rest of my con weekend

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The Bush White House called embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales “our No. 1 crime fighter” Friday, a day after Gonzales’ often halting explanations for the firings of eight federal prosecutors brought additional demands for his resignation.

“He has done a fantastic job in the Department of Justice,” deputy press secretary Dana Perino told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One as President Bush headed for a speech in Michigan.

I want nothing more than to see a comic strip with Bush and Alberto, where Bush says, “Gonzo, it’s an important job. I need someone I can trust. You… are my number one… guy!”

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I am most excited for con. pfrank will be the party DJ, Skipford J will be providing Curmudgeon Support, blue_lucy is making the awesome-punch, netmouse is helping with flyers and running the room while I’m watching childe‘s panel…

I’d say “I love it when a plan comes together”, but the truth of the matter is more along the lines of, “I love it when I randomly decide to have a room party and a half-dozen of my friends take it upon themselves to make sure it is awesome.”

My car is full of things. I am most afraid of having forgotten some minor linch-pin at home, but honestly I expect the evening to be full of laughter and fun, so who cares?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-MYVv4tgQc

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I had an interesting pair of discussions with netmouse and silver_bits about an article I read in Creative Cow (a media professional mag) about a program at James Madison U for HD in any one of five concentrations. Being a B.A. program, it may not be exactly appropriate for me… but then again, maybe it would be. Either way, it’s cool to see that there -are- programs out there that get me hot under the collar. I haven’t looked around for a postgrad program (yet), but this really gets me thinking.

The part I wanted to lay down in my journal was about perception.

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Bye bye PC. [Lucy now has a macbook]

For Sale:

One well-loved PC, with some shiny new parts and some slightly older but still trustworthy parts.

Hardware
Elitegroup AMA K7 motherboard
AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz processor
1GB DDR RAM
40GB hard drive (split on two drives, actually)
PNY GeForce Verto GeForce 6600 256MB video card, with VGA, DVI, RCA, S-Video and component out (less than a year old)
350W Power Supply
3Com Ethernet card
Wireless keyboard and mouse
Crappy old Logitech webcam, still usable
Speakers, nothing special, but they work just fine.
21″ monitor, not the best quality picture, but it works really well
All necessary cables

Software:
Complete Diablo bundle: Diablo, Diablo II, and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Sims 2
Civ 3 Gold plus the Civ3 Conquests expansion
Children of the Nile (SimCity type game)

[The hard drives have been formatted, no Operating System.]

I’m going to be asking $350. If you know anyone interested, please let me know. I’m cleaning it all up as best as possible, but this is a well-loved PC, so it’s not going to be going to anyone shiny new and spiffy. I’ll do my best to get it pretty though.

Contact blue_lucy or leave a note with me if you’re interested. She built it for playing World of Warcraft, but it would also make a good linux box for someone.

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From the AP story:

“A White House spokesman said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.

“The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said ”

That makes me feel sickened. I don’t care which side of the gun debate you’re on, this is a shitty time to be talking about how the gunman had a right to own the gun he used to kill 29 people.

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Doubleclick gathers a massive amount of personal information via ad serving on the web, and I’ve always felt uncomfortable about their ethics. I’ve been fairly confident of the ethics of google, despite their -capacity- for bad behavior, given all the information they have access to.

Since I already think doubleclick invades my privacy by accumulating information about me via the multiple sites I access that use doubleclick advertisements, I sense a tempting consolidation of data that, while very profitable, would be very disturbing.

I -don’t- want someone combining my search history with my web browsing history. Even if they’re banal. My behavior patterns are not for sale (and if they were, I’d want a cut, damn it).

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