Bagpipes (mp3)

John Newton (1725-1807)
Stanza 6 anon.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we’ve been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’ve first begun.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

End of an era. Thanks Steve.

Frustration and Unhappiness In the Games Industry

Gamasutra’s Leigh Alexander recently wrote an editorial about the atmosphere of irritation and dissatisfaction that pervades all aspects of the video game industry. Developers are often overworked and unfulfilled, gamers have no qualms about voicing their disapproval (sometimes quite warranted, sometimes not), and the media, in trying to please both groups, often fails to satisfy either. Why is there so much strife in an industry ostensibly focused on having fun? From the article:

“More and more developer sources I talked to suggested that fatigue, hostility, being at odds with one’s employer and questioning one’s career course is frighteningly common in the game industry. That being the case, it seems natural that elements like emotional detachment, anxiety and a lack of fulfillment make their way, even subtly, into the products the industry creates and into the ecosystem around the industry and its audience. ‘Because of the secrecy and competition, a lot of development teams end up having a siege mentality — batten down the hatches and refuse to come up for air until the game’s done,’ says [an] anonymous developer. ‘Game development has a way of taking over your life, because there’s always more that can be done to improve perceived quality. I’ve seen a lot of divorces in my time in the game industry. I feel like it’s much greater than average, but I have no statistical evidence.’”

I think the problem is this simple: greed. The people running the companies aren’t in it to have fun – they’re in it to make money and live out their vicariously violent fantasies. Fun, craftsmanship and contribution to society are a far-distant second. It’s one of the reasons I don’t play video games – I don’t want to support a morally-bankrupt industry that causes people so much pain.

The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

Craigslist posting with photos

STOLEN – Green 1998 Acura Integra GS-R 4-door

Last night (Wednesday June 9) someone stole from my driveway in Central East Longmont my great car.

If you have any information about this car, phone the Longmont Police Department, 303-651-8501, or write me directly.

Body was almost perfect except for a small scrape on left rear quarter panel near tail light.

Factory green-blue paint.

• Konig Helium wheels, silver (photo below is old, shows factory Blades, no Thule rack yet)
• Thule roof rack with Yellow RockyMounts bicycle carrier and Thule wind deflector.
• BF Goodrich g-Force Super Sport tires, nearly new.
• KYB shocks.
• Reese trailer hitch, no ball.
• A little over 85,000 miles on the odometer.
• VIN # JH4DB8587WS000467

Location: Longmont

RoboMouth

How many more people will have to die of cancer before this cure is perfected?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I’d comment further but feel there’s no need to – the silence of Lunaticmont speaks profoundly.

The conservatives are terrified of being likened to… *gasp* {{shudder}} …Boulder.

Horror

But this comment on the Times-Call says it all I think:

Civil Liberties and Freedom of Speech! I know who I won’t be voting for this coming election.
Longmont, 7/24/2009 10:04 AM

I was going to write, this will do nicely.

What I Hope Apple Unleashes Tomorrow

I refuse to excerpt from this wonderful article.

Go read it. Derek Powazek. Add to aggregator.

I haven’t heard from her in years and if this is how she may meet her end I hope she’s found help. It sounds horriffic all around.

This text is a direct transcription from this PDF:

Alcohol-Related Sudden Death with Hepatic Fatty Metamorphosis: A Comprehensive Clinicopathological Inquiry into its Pathogenesis

Abstract – To clarify the pathogenesis of the widely-known but obscure symptom of sudden death with hepatic fatty metamorphosis observed in alcohol abusers, we have scrutinized both the clinical and pathological data of 11 subjects who died under such circumstances between 1987 and 1993. Death followed several days of uninterrupted drinking often with little dietary intake. The notable clinical features on arrival at the emergency room were disturbance of consciousness (11/11), hypotension (4/6), hypothermia (3/5), hypoglycemia (8/11), metabolic acidosis (6/6), renal dysfunction (11/11), and hyperammonaemia (5/5). The common hepatic pathology was the extensive appearance of numerous microvesicular fatty droplets in the hepatocytes together with varying degrees of macrovesicular fatty change; four subjects had an underlying cirrhosis. Death undoubtedly results from a variety of metabolic disturbances triggered by the combination of massive ethanol intake and starvation. The appearance of extensive microvesicular fatty change superimposed on macrovesicular fatty change was considered to be an associated phenomenon.

http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/6/745.full.pdf

It’s still 1920 in Colorado and will continue to be until the last of the stoneheads die off.

Thank God.

That’s the best Christmas present I’ve ever gotten.

Thank you.

May the season bring you everything you hope for and may the new year be filled with joy!

Blessings on you all.

By Sheldon Whitehouse, AlterNet. Posted December 21, 2009.

In his Senate floor speech on the health-care bill, the Rhode Island senator accused the GOP of fomenting the kind of paranoia that led to Kristallnacht and lynchings.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This floor speech was delivered by the junior senator from Rhode Island yesterday, as the Senate remained in session to debate the health-care bill before a procedural vote that will bring the bill to the Senate floor later this week. References to “Madam President” or “Mr. President” refer to the senator who is presiding over the body at the time of the senator’s comments. When Whitehouse began speaking, Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., was presiding; when he finished up, it was one of the male senators wielding the gavel. Transcription and links added by AlterNet.

Madam President, as we are here in the Senate today, Washington rests under a blanket of snow, reminding us here of the Christmas spirit across the nation — the spirit that is bringing families happily together for the holidays. Unfortunately, a different spirit has descended on this Senate. The spirit that has descended on the Senate is one described by Chief Justice John Marshall back in the Burr trial: “those malignant and vindictive passions which rage in the bosoms of contending parties struggling for power.”

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Hofstadter captured some examples in his famous essay, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.”

The “malignant and vindictive passions” often arise, he points out, when an aggrieved minority believes that “America has been largely taken away from them and their kind. Though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion.” Does that sound familiar, Madam President, in this health-care debate? Forty years ago he wrote that.

Hofstader continued, those aggrieved fear what he described as “the now-familiar sustained conspiracy” — familiar then, 40 years ago; persistent now — “whose supposed purpose,” Hofstadter described, “is to undermine free capitalism, to bring the economy under the direction of the federal government, and to pave the way for socialism.” Again, familiar words here today.

More than 50 years ago, he wrote of the dangers of an aggrieved right-wing minority with the power to create what he called “a political climate in which the rational pursuit of our well-being and safety would become impossible.”

A political environment “in which the rational pursuit of our well-being and safety would become impossible.”

The malignant and vindictive passions that have descended on the Senate are busily creating just such a political climate. Far from appealing to the better angels of our nature, too many colleagues are embarked on a desperate, no-holds-barred mission of propaganda, falsehood, obstruction and fear.

Read the rest at Alternet.

Then, today, one of my students and a local journalist, Bob Wells writes an article about two other WordPress experts and I!

WordPress gurus speak

Thanks Bob! You da man.

Go give the Boulder Reporter a lookee see!

IBM Throws Out Microsoft Office

Sep 12, 2009

360,000 IBM workers have been told to stop using Microsoft Office and switch to the Open Office-based software Symphony.

Quoting an inside source, the German economic newspaper, “Handelsblatt” reports that staff at IBM have been given ten days to change to Symphony, IBM’s in-house Lotus software. The use of Microsoft Office will in future require managerial approval. With immediate affect, the Open Document Format (ODF) will rule at IBM with the file ending .doc soon belonging to the past.