pentane

Busy busy busy

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:58:35 GMT

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/05/hiding-health-bills-behind-closed-doors/
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/opinion/05kinsley.html?ref=opinion
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/01/11/100111fa_fact_collins
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Don't get that PhD

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:04:34 GMT

LOL: http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the-Huma/44846/

Also also wik

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:20:14 GMT

As much as I hate to agree with a post called Cheney was right I not only agree but find it one of the most intelligent things I've read for a while.

The continuing of stupid

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:22:58 GMT

The Nation tells us what's next for healthcare reform. Darn those insurance companies for charging sick people more for insurance. You'd think they don't spend more on doctors than people who are not sick!

Meanwhile the Colorado Attorney general is ready to challenge the 'healthcare reform' on Constitutional grounds. If it passes.

Newsweek points out that we'll probably regret healthcare reform, and so will Obama.

"So there was no ticking time bomb. No urgent need ever arose to torture anybody who was withholding crucial details, so that civilisation as we know it could be saved in the nick of time. No wires had to be tapped, special prisons erected or international accords violated. No innocent people had to be grabbed off the street in their home country, transported across the globe and waterboarded. Drones, daisy-cutters, invasions, occupations were, it has transpired, not necessary.

Indeed, when it actually came down to it, to forestall a near-calamitous terrorist atrocity in the US the authorities didn't even have to go in search of information or informants. The alleged terrorist's father came to the US embassy in Nigeria of his own free will and warned them that his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had disappeared and could be in the company of Yemeni terrorists."

Pretty obvious, yes, but still some of the best stuff I've seen written on the topic.

Also, I'm debating what I think about:

"It's clear that there's a high correlation between lifestyle patterns and economic performance. Almost no one who graduates from high school, gets married and stays married, and gets a job falls into poverty. Many who do not do these things do."

From my middle class background it looks true, but I'm no so sure I agree with it. The whole article (about what Republicans should be besides not Democrats) is interesting.

Dean update

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:20:21 GMT

I have 4 jars of change on my dresser. Well, one is a quart cup, but there are three sealed Mason Jars. Dean has gotten into the habit of going into the change cup and taking out a penny and carrying it around the house. There are pennies EVERYWHERE!

Dean also knocked off my company badge (in plastic holder with belt pulley), bills (I keep my smaller than 20s folded in half in a pocket) and train ticket from the nightstand. The bills and train ticket were at the foot of the stand, leading me to believe something was amiss, but I could not find the badge. Now, my badge is 9 years and 2 months old, and shows me when my hair was not noticably grey (in a thumbnail pic anyway). I was not relishing the idea of a new one, even if I was thinking about getting one, since I (obviously) no longer look anything like the picture on the badge.

It turns out the badge was hidden in the comforter on the bed, so I am currently wearing it. Put I put the aformentioned stack of items under my wallet, to prevent Dean taking any of it and hiding it better.

Also, unlike Jake and Ingrid who sleep in the room with me (Ingrid at the far corner of the bed and Jake in the closet), Dean sleeps behind my knees. He also sleeps in my lap a lot, still.

For later

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:07:35 GMT

http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/07/04/modern-bear-tanking-1-specs-and-rotations/

http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/10/23/advice-on-being-less-squishy/

http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/12/26/intro-to-the-basics-of-bear-mechanics/

After a ton of PUG heroics, my gear score for resto is currently 1700 (which is approaching Naxx25 level), but my tank score is 1300ish, meaning I don't tank, because DPS is insane. All of them. I still want to tank, but I don't hold out hope for doing so.

It's not the new year yet

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:12:50 GMT

I've been invited to a new year's eve lunch (well, after work event) at one of my team's, so that's all the excitement I have going on.

The White House actually hit back at Dick "draft dodger" Cheney for his comments about Obama and the "war on terror". I like the White House response. I didn't like this response as much, but whatever.

This article on flight 253 reminds me of how I used to see the world before I dealt with 'real' amounts of data... the kind you have to sort through when working in a large company. I think about the amount of siloing of data we have and how much of it is siloed, and I understand how things like this happen. The other thing that concerns me is the whole attitude that someone smack talking about someone should instantly get them on the "no fly list". Sure it's easy to observe in retrospect that someone obviously needed to be on the list, but how many people are equally obvious, but not a threat?

Interestingly, when I mention Tim McVeigh, I get a lot of blank stares, but domestic terrorism is on the rise, where "domestic" seems to be defined as Muslims living in America. Also, the Internets are blamed for making young men do stupid things. Film at 11 (a term which some people don't recognize any more, thanks 24 hour news cycle).

In an article that would be a perfect segue the spectator points out that a government that can't properly maintain a no fly list can hardly be trusted with health care. Since, however, there aren't any articles on healthcare I find worth talking about, no segue.

There is, however, alarmism that the Democrats will lost their majority (hence the rush to pass anything), concern over the peril of too much debt which we'd love to face but can't as it's much too perilous, and these two screeds in favor of the free market.

Now with extra irony

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:01:04 GMT

It didn't take the Republicans long to start crying about all this executive power that Bush accumulated. Words fails to bring the full range of my contempt for them.

Global Guerillas points out that terrorists don't even have to be successful in their attacks to win. I totally want that job.

In separate news, reactions by the TSA to events remind me of work. This just clicked for me today, and I am debating how sad I want to be about it.

Post

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:06:35 GMT

I'd talk about the most bizarre Christmas on record, but since no one will really comment (the pictures of the kid are on facebook), I won't.

Just imagine visiting a country where they don't speak English and have nothing in common with you and that's about how it was.

Further things for people to not comment on:
Why encrypting predator video doesn't matter.

Why Hand sanitizer might be bad or might not. This, for the record, is how real science reads. Maybe this, maybe that, it's too complex, we don't know but here are some guesses...

It has already begun

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:11:28 GMT

For the, 8th time (in World of Warcraft) I'm working my way through the last level before the level cap.

Stop the insanity

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:37:54 GMT

Just finished a Nexus run with a tank who did not once stop moving. Had to pull every trick in the book to keep mana up, but we finished the run in 20 minutes (tank says 35 is normal).

Tank was pulling 1300 DPS, had a boomkin with 1100, the rogue and hunter were... less (700 and 500).

blah blah healthcare

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:32:52 GMT

So, evidently the Senate passed something. Seems like no one likes it:

The biggest point (and Clinton missed it too) is electing Democrats on account of they are not George Bush is not a mandate to do all the liberal stuff they can never do because they aren't judged fit to govern until the Republicans totally fuck up. Clinton didn't get that after HE was elected for not being George Bush, and now a new group of politicians will learn the Jacksonian lesson:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2009/12/democrats_risk_another_jackson_1.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/leftright-populist-outrag_b_397483.html (wait, I just agreed with Huffington post? maybe this world ending in 2012 stuff is true)

I laughed: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/21/a_parody_of_leadership_99615.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/19/AR2009121900921.html?hpid=topnews

Tax and spend democrats of the 70s? pikers: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/21/profligate-road-to-perdition/

Smart for me, dumb for the country: http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/12/senate_preparing_for_cloture_o.php

Why the public option is good: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30832.html (note: he's wrong, but against the bill anyway)

Who really benefitted:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/20/obama_helps_the_fat_cats_99627.html

(this group (who benefits) also includes the company I work for, so thanks a lot suckers (aka taxpayers))

also:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/health/policy/21healthcare.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

More pork than a bacon store.

Stupak still wants to stop abortion:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30811.html

climate stuff:
"One reason is that the leaders of China and India are unwilling to slow down the economic growth that has been lifting millions out of poverty in order to avert a disaster predicted by climate scientists who, we now know from the Climategate e-mails, have been busy manipulating data, suppressing evidence and silencing anyone who disagrees."

Moar comments:
it's done badly and may cause fiscal ruin, but we won't regret it:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1db42944-ed8e-11de-ba12-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

Ok, sure.

Also, it might fail anyway:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30844.html
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzM3MzBiNDM0NzU0ZWU3ZmYyNWY5YTFhMTlhYmNhODU=

Personally, I'm waiting for the ads that have a picture of an obviously sick child (the bald kids with cancer maybe), some moody music and the voice over "support healthcare or the kid gets wacked". I'm really interested to see what depths people will sink to.

LOLRET

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:28:32 GMT

First, this link of what english sounds like to Italians. It's a song sung by an Italian that's made to sound like English (it does) and not be real words aka gibberish (it is).

Got druid to 75 during a surreal Sunday. Was propositioned by a troll shaman (seriously, was told I'd need to do group quests with him or give him a kiss) who I ended up instancing with.

Random PUGs are still very interesting. People don't move out of the void zones in Drak'tharon, tanks go down fast, some groups just click and WTFPWN everything. Was told I lost health too fast, it turns out I had pulled 2 groups by mistake. Since I knew the healer could tank (he'd tanked a group for me before) I suggested he could tank and I'd heal.

The crowning moment of awesome, though, was a Utgarde run. I healed for the first boss and we lost the tank somehow (I'm guessing he was too fragile and got us killed a lot and quit, but who knows), so we queue up for a tank. What we got was a 69 ret pally who "hit tank by mistake". Uh huh. Nothing to do with 40 minute queue times for DPS vs. 1 minute for tanks (tanks get groups faster than healers, but both are an order of magnitude faster than DPS). Well, the other ret pally allowed as he might have some holy gear, so I popped on the tank gear and went to town on the last 2 bosses in the instance.

Despite being maligned by paper tanks, healing is going well (over 1k +heal and have asspulled some fights), and in tank mode I weigh in at 16k HP in Tauren form (which is typical for a tank of that level) and 22 or so thousand HP in bear form. Some aggro problems, but I blame the DPS... because I can.

I've tanked Drak'Tharon, Violet Citadel and Utgarde Keep and healed all those (well, haven't healed VH yet, but I will) along with both Azjol'Nerub instances and Nexus. Guess I'll be doing VH runs in between questing in Dragonblight until I reach 76 and which point a new instance will open up (I hope). At 77 I start Hodir and Ebon blade quests giving me a short coast to 80. Will have enough badges for 1-2 epic items and need to decide if I want to go primary tank or heal for upgrades. Also need to farm an asston of leather to make myself the 78 blue items (ideally I make both sets), which should give me enough juice to handle easy heroics.

I also dusted off my shaman (72) specced him for resto and healed a Nexus instance. That was sort of fun.

Paladin is a quick jaunt away from 40 and plate armor. Level prot baby, because killing 1 at a time is boring! (she's an enchanter and her gear is fully loaded, since she gets all the greens shipped to her) and was taking down 3 mistvale gorillas (40-41) at a time.

Interesting

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:36:18 GMT

Lots more interesting hot air on healthcare today. I found a lot of it to be in line with what I think, and I'm not sure what to think of that.

Key quote:
"The White House and Congress need a win, for the sake of winning something, but also to demonstrate to voters that Democrats can govern."

As they say... Q.E.D.

Very interesting piece on the pros and cons of the healthcare bill:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/opinion/18brooks.html?_r=1

It really gets to the fundamental question. Is trying to take care of the 30 million without insurance worth rationing healthcare or bankrupting the nation (or both really). The question is, no one really understands what 'bankrupting the nation' means. As far as we can tell, Congress just votes to make more money and voila, more money. Surely it's not that simple.

Yet how many people think about what they really want the government to do (I take a page from P.J. O'Rourke and think the government ought to have an army to kill foreigners we don't like and pave the roads), and how many just sort of assume 'the government will fix that'.

The opposite point of view, which I pretty much disagree with is what this author is saying. I do, however, have to respect this quote:
"But vague commentary does not help transform a $2.6 trillion industry -- an entity as large as the economy of Britain."

Puts it in perspective, doesn't it?

Republican senators sound a lot more reasonable opposing democrats than they do advancing their own harebrained agenda:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703514404574588842779569168.html
lead quote: "Government guidelines would likely have forbidden the test I used to discover Sheila's cancer."
key quote: "And Medicare refuses medical claims at twice the rate of the largest private insurers."

This is, actually, a really bad problem. There's no party I'd feel safe having them govern me.

I'd also like to take this time to thank the founding father's for making it hard for government to do anything.

Moar funny quotes:
"a feuding gang rather than a governing party"

The honeymoon is officially over for Obama:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/18/all_the_presidents_mendactiy_99605.html

Good press for Pelosi:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/18/at_the_plate_some_whiffed_99601.html

Plus baseball quotes.

The debt is setting off some tremors:
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/mary-kate-cary/2009/12/17/congress-moving-to-increase-the-national-debt-shows-democrats-are-out-of-touch.html

Bitches fear my battle rez

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:02:27 GMT

One of the interesting things about healing as a druid is the selection of heals that you have.

For a paladin, you can cast the big heal or the small heal. There's also beacon of light (which isn't exactly a heal), but that's about it.

Shaman can select between big heal and small heal OR chain heal. I find chain heal to be incredibly fun to cast, but it's not a "good" spell for serious groups.

Druids, now, have rejuvination (insta cast, low heal, long duration), regrowth (short cast, small heal with duration heal after), lifebloom (very funky short duration heal), wild growth (group heal over time) and healing touch ("big heal", also very long cast).

There's also swiftmend, which is a medium to big heal with a minute long cooldown, and requires that a heal over time is on the target, nature's swiftness, which makes the next spell insta cast and has a 3 minute cooldown.

And tranquility, which is a massive, group channeled heal.

The problem is there's no "oh shit" heal (aside from the nature's swiftness healing touch), and prtty much every fight has an "oh shit" moment.

I could step away from all the HoTs and just HT all the time, but running HoTs isn't quite enough to deal with normal damage output, but HT on top of HoTs is overkill. Except when it isn't.

So far, tank deaths are at a minimum, but (for PUG random lich king dungeons) DPS get instagibbed all the time. Which I regard as a failure (mostly mine).

ANYWAY. I also get battle rez. Only class that has one, unless you count the shaman reincarnte, which is self only.

I was in Utgrade Keep last night and the tank (paladin) didn't get a HT in time... Usually on a 3 pull (which is a standard pull), there's a moment where the HoTs stop cutting it (or lifebloom drops because I've got to heal DPS) and I have to throw down a HT and hope it lands in time - assuming nature's swiftness isn't up or I forgot it (both of which happen a lot). There were quite a few "purple club" moments last night (and I think either the shaman or paladin was 'helping' with healing), but on an early pull, there was a death. The tank went down like a prom dress.

So I pulled aggro (not that I had a choice) on one, the hunter and shaman were blowing cooldowns to stay alive and instead of that becoming a wipe, I battle rezzed the paladin, dropped a swift HT on her and we went to town. Causing a cry of "OMG super healer" in group.

The shaman still got instagibbed 3-4 times, but it's not my fault he wasn't managing aggro.

The last thing a squirrel sees

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:56:59 GMT

I continue to be amused

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:18:57 GMT

I've been seeing bits and piece of this "Climatgate" thing, but I didn't understand what it was until was until I discovered an article describing what it is. Now, I'm just very amused.

It's like the whole anti-smoking and anti-obesity thing. Yes, bills for both are higher at a given time, but since smokers tends to keel over early from heart attacks, emphysezma, lung cancer and the like, and because the bulk of spending is on end of life care, in the long run, smokers are cheaper (fat people too). No link for this one, sorry.

Some American in Britian blames the government for being broken because it the Republicans are abe to put a complete stall on "healthcare reform" (what's being considered is neither, actually), but sorry, that's our system working EXACTLY AS INTENDED. For a preview of what a government would look like if the party in power could do whatever it wanted, look no further than that last administration. Thanks for allowing torture, you spineless pussy Democrats. Try being a real OPPOSITION.

Of course, government does have its uses. I acknowledge that... as little as possible.

I much prefer mocking government stupidity. Of course, people are still piling on by pointing out that you can't give more people more benefits for less money.

I find the idea of us buying drugs from Canada to be amusing in the extreme. For more reasons than I care to think of.

Also two weekly standard articles I don't feel like weaving in to the narrative:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/330jqwtc.asp

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/329mquur.asp

Impressive

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:27:20 GMT

So, RCP has the following to say about the new bill (and I summarize):

Senator: Oh, hey, we already have a government run healthcare, it's called medicare, let's make it bigger

Public: Isn't that plan going broke? Plus my doctor won't take it.

Senator: NMFP. I'm passing a bill for something you said you want and I have my own private coverage.

For those that want the detail:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/78899997.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/10/socialized_medicine_whatever__99494.html

If you want a worst case from the eyes of the insurance companies, here it is:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/10/the_sheer_arrogance_of_obamacare_99479.html

It's not too good for the taxpayers either, but there we are.

Also, the punditocracy is not happy with the president... film at 11

http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/07/economics-politics-obama-unemployment-opinions-columnists-richard-a-epstein.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/10/obamas_fantasy_jobs_plan_99492.html

Moar links

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:46:40 GMT

Our CEO recommended Real Clear Politics as a reading source for coverage on the insurance thing, after she challenged us to "think like general managers of the company" (as opposed to technology (or whatever) managers).

Pulling their current RSS feed yields:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-09/liberals-rejoice/?cid=bs:archive3 (I find this amusing since it makes the goal of progressives to make healthcare available to everyone... the cost man, the cost!)

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/12/14/091214fa_fact_gawande

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/09/_the_charge_of_the_280_dems_99475.html (I am always in favor of mocking democrats)

http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2009/12/08/harry-reid-is-wrong-on-history-and-wrong-on-health-reform.htm (while the article states it takes 2000 mammograms for women between 39 and 49 to prevent 1 cancer death, versus 337 for 60 to 69, part of that .05% is reading this LJ now because of a screening)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/07/AR2009120702947.html (best article on cost control ever... also if the 11-13k number for medical cost is true, we need a per capita income of 135k to 160k to meet the target of 8%... given that the PCI is under 35k, you see the cost problem)

On a totally irrelevant note (or not, who knows)... Obama's in favor of teaching fisting in middle school.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/09/obamas-risky-sex-czar/

It's just like high school all over again

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:40:18 GMT

I've been asked to "formally" participate in a mentor program, but there are more mentors than mentees.

LOL.

We also had an hour presentation from our CEO which I found very inspirational. She also said, without using those words, that the government is on crack... It turns out they are targetting 8% of income as the 'acceptable cost' of health care.

Hmm

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:09:35 GMT

Moebius Bagel

Fake documents are fake - GAO gets ultra-safe document using fake data.

Bureaucracy makes you unresponsive. Film at 11.

And then...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:34:01 GMT

Pictures that will scar you in an emotional way but are nominally PG-rated:

here, here and here.

Quotes and thoughts from the weekend:
"Persian Incursion". I'm not sure who was the first person to call the jihad after the founding of Islam that, but there we were.

I was debating how mystical I wanted to make my world. Given that there are people that don't die unless you cut their head off, "some" is a starting point, but I never really thought that through.

This also relates to "Supernatural"... if 'mystical' things are true, how does that change people's reactions to... everything.

The game "ran" from 820AD to about 1000AD. It turns out we had to retcon the first game which I had said was set in 1300, but it turns on that was ok.

Next game I'd like to set somewhere in Asia and have formal martial asskicking as a central theme. Ideas? I'm in favor of Korea.

Listening to "Murder Ballads" while driving on a dark road through the countryside is not recommended. In case you were thinking of it.

Had enough

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:12:27 GMT

"Home" crossed the rubicon of suck so fast and hard it left a suck tornado in its wake.

Seriously, why would I want to be home alone watching stuff designed to scare me. Even if it does it badly.

Let me expand on that...

The whole (part of the) show was about building tension... the releases of tension were LAME LAME LAME.

Seriously, if you spend what seems like 20 minutes having this woman dig through the basement of the ever so haunted house and spend a good minute of the chair moving from the sealed closet and the doors springing open, you need to do better than a whirl of fire. Which is admittedly VERY SIGNIFICANT (pause for soound effects) in terms of the series but still not worth the build up. You know that the kid who is scared of the "thing in the closet" is right and if you were to think about it a little, the whole whirl of fire is probably obvious.

In the same way, when you see someone sticking their arm in a garbage disposal while a self motivating cymbal monkey clapping cymbals you do not need constant cut backs to the monkey's evil fixed stare to know that the garbage disposal is going to turn itself on despite all the precautions the man took (and thanks for spending the time to show all those) and cut his arm off. DUH.

It was at this point I got tired of them using dramatic tension to pad the show.

Question

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:06:11 GMT

If I had 4 quarts of change handy and wanted to do something charitable with it, what would you recommend?