Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I owe my sister a reply to her Myspace message.

Well, this past week has been eventful. Lots of stuff going to the new backup network. I discovered a new live365 station, Aramis, radio by night -- it plays American, French, Greek and a smattering of Italian/German/Dutch oldies. Pretty cool, actually. Will hang out with Eugene tomorrow night -- just need to decide what movie to see. I'll head up to Rockville since last time he came from Silver Spring down to Springfield.

Today on Fark there were a couple of thoughtful threads -- one regarding the "Quiverfull" theology and the other regarding the Church of England considering a nuanced position on allowing severely deformed infants to die.

I think to repost my posts. At 8:55am:

Most reasonable ideas become repulsive if carried to their extreme conclusion. The slippery slope arguments are made because we HAVE fallen down that slope in the past, and humanity HAS repeated its mistakes in the past.

Over the course of the past 100 years we have advanced in our ability to care for infants.

Deformities that in 1906 would have meant a short, brutal lifespan or nearly instant death allow either a fairly productive life or even a nearly complete life.

My wife was born three months early. She was given to the care of her parents because, frankly, they expected her to die. Today, her survival would be expected. In 1978, it was considered a miracle. In 1906, well, there would be a gravestone that says, "born and died on November 4, 1906."

She is a college graduate with a job as an engineer today.

Some babies are born with deformities that might be resolved in 2500. Today, all that can be done is say a prayer for those involved -- nurse, doctor, parent and child.

Hopefully even in the death of a child with a borderline deformity there is knowledge gained that can save this child 10-15 years down the line.

On a secondary front, I'd like to add that life has never been unicorns and flowers. As recently as 100 years ago, most people lived and died on the weather. A drought that lasted more than a couple years meant people -- often in the housands -- DID die from starvation.

--end post

One thing I just learned is what is Harlequin fetus syndrome -- and I've heard there's other, worse disabilities. The wonderful thing is that we slowly become better able to handle these and other disorders -- so what caused death 100 years ago allows a life of 20-30 years today and in 100 years, disorders such as cystic fibrosis will be no more impediments than being deaf or blind are today. The sad part is that perhaps the research that allows future babies to live fulfilling lives forces some babies to lead a "life" of but a few weeks in neonatal ICU.

-- from last night's thread about Quiverfull theology

The love of Christ demonstrated by that love appearing in our thoughts, words and actions. To show that love in the face of hatred, whether the hatred carries the banner of "God" or of the "World," is the greatest challenge.

Too often I allow the cold water of hatred to put out the all-consuming fire of God's love that yearns to build within me.

Is having kids an expression of the love our Father holds for us, or is it to achieve some worldly goal? There is so much talk of electing Republicans, as if a Republican President and Congress would guarantee a more moral nation! Does my the bond of marriage I hold with my wife strengthen based on the occupants of power in Washington?

We are each given many gifts. Some unfortunate ones -- their only gift is the strength to overcome their innumerable demons. Others are blessed with many children. Still others are blessed with the ability to teach. Yet none of the parts of the body of Christ are somehow better than the other.

I will pray for serenity of the sort Paul writes about: I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

--

God and His Son, Christ, tell us to love much more than they tell us to go forth and fark like bunnies, burn the heretics, hate the gheys, etc.

It is interesting how many people want to create a Heavenly Kingdom in this world.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Well, as you might have noticed, my spam counting project has ended prematurely. It was simply taking too much time out of my day, really -- who wants to devote 20 minutes a day to reading spam when there's Scholastic Bowl questions to be written and work to be done at my work?

This weekend was pretty chock full of my regular work -- I ended up spending 13 hours working on servers on Saturday into Sunday (6pm to 7am) and then another 6 tracking down a pesky problem with a private database network. The former ended up with me restoring a 20gb file system in about an hour (I love the new backup system) and the latter ended up with me tracking down the issue to a faulty GBIC fibre-to-copper adapter on the private network's switch. I got a lot of help on this one from the weekend shift lead. I imagine the non-technical among my eight readers are now bored to tears on this one. And, for good reason.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

The elections are all through. Right now, the Democrats are the party of destiny. Every 20-40 years, the time is simply right for one or another party. In the 1930s, it was time for the Democrats, in the 1970s, it was time for the Republicans. I just hope that I don't become so dogmatic that I lose sight of when to become a Republican again.

A thread on Fark that I didn't get a chance to reply to was very interesting. Apparently, the camp that was featured in the movie Jesus Camp was closed down and will be used for some other purpose. A few of the repliers decided to challenge not only the divinity of Jesus, but the very existence of a Rabbi named Jesus that flourished around 30 AD.

I'd like to think that the existence of Jesus is fairly well-documented. While the Josephus references are attributed as forgeries, we are assured of the existence of a missionary named Paul that in the 50s and 60s wrote several epistles to Christian churches around the Roman Empire. In these letters, he quotes Christ extensively.

By 64 AD, the Christian church had become important enough to warrant the first of several persecutions (although it didn't really get serious until 250 AD, when Decius decided the church was an existential threat to the Roman Empire.)

64 AD is fairly soon after Christ's probable crucifixion (which was between 30 and 35 AD). So soon, in fact, that the Apostles and Christ could easily be remembered by many Christians at that time; in fact, the Apostle John is said to have lived well past 90 AD. Mythical-historical figures (think of Jimmu Tenno) usually become mythical-historical with several centuries of intervening time between their actual existence and their emergence at the beginning of that culture's story.

We must also consider the relatively early existence of the Gospels. Most scholars argue that they were completed by 70-75 AD; again, Christ's ministry was within the memory of a few of the oldest Christians at that time. The Gospels were probably based on earlier oral tradition -- again, this tradtion probably began circulating at some point during the 50s, when the Christian church stopped being of a size where "everyone knew eveyone else" and such storytelling became a necessity.

Then, of course, the obvious question is this -- if not Jesus, who was the founder of the Christian Church? Paul of Tarsus? It seems odd that Paul would not have sanitized his early life, or have otherwise seen to it that his unsavory actions in Acts were not cleaned up. Likewise, Paul bases his own authority on the earlier authority of Jesus.

Now, with this said, why didn't anyone mention Jesus while he was alive? Simply put, he was not important enough to care about in 35 AD. Cults came and went in large numbers -- this is references in the passage in Acts where the Sanhedrin initially agreed to leave the Christians alone. By the time anyone really cared about Christianity, the only witnesses of Christ's life and time were other Christians.

I haven't even gotten into the Dominionist debate. Are they are fringe group or are they a serious aspect of the Christian Right? I'm inclined to think they are the former, although International ANSWER is disproportionately strong within the anti-war left.

Of course, the final question is why am I blogging at 5am?

There was a planned power outage this afternoon. I came in at about 6:15pm yesterday and was hoping to be back at a reasonable hour. We had two servers that just wouldn't come up and a crucial database server that had a disk go bad. We had a bad clock board on another server, a tape drive go bad on our VAX and there was an error of some sort on an external disk array but we couldn't trace what it was. Right now I'm hoping to get a restore kicked off.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Well, I thought my foot was feeling better. But a trip to Starbucks proved me wrong.

I discovered the joy that is French and German hip-hop today. I went on Wikipedia to get some artist name and then typed in those names in Youtube. Result: happiness.

Today's the last day I work the evening shift. Well I go back to normal tomorrow. Then Wednesday I have a dentist appointment, the first one in several years, actually. The podiatrist sees me on the 16th, although I suspect if I just overused my foot, he'll take a look and see nothing wrong. It can't hurt.

I think I'll vote for Mike McMenamin (R) for the County Board. The Board has been dominated by Democrats for too long -- kinda like how Capital Hill has had Republicans for too long. I'll probably vote for Cecelia Espenoza for the School Board, too, on little more than the Washington Post's endorsement. The school bond issue seems to have somewhat of a legitimate opposition -- Wakefield High is in as bad shape as Yorktown is, but Yorktown gets rebuilt and Wakefield might get rebuilt by the time Rebecca and I send our kids there. But even the Arlington County Taxpayers Association didn't have any goods on the other bonds. So I'll vote no on the school bond and yes on the other four.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Yesterday was my wife's 28th birthday. We celebrated by going out to her parents' house in the Shenandoah Valley, and going out to a nice Italian restaurant named Venice out here in Winchester.

We also hung out in her parents' hot tub. That was pretty fun. It also motivated me somewhat to clean out our porch. I think there'd be room to build a bigger porch and put our own hot tub there but we'd have to figure out a way to prevent it from being an 'attractive nuisance' as I think my insurance-selling aunt would put it.

My foot's still hurting just a little but I think I might be able to manage going to the grocery store. Rebecca's been getting on me about that for the past few days -- we'll see how my foot is after the drive. I think sitting around with no shoes helps a lot. I 'borrowed' a cane from Rebecca's dad but we'll see if I need to make good use of it.

The major news item is Saddam Hussein being sentenced to death. Since he was the law he acted in an lawful manner (regarding Iraqi law.) On the other hand, would a UN trial have turned into a 'let's bash America' session? Probably so. The US has done quite a bit to be ashamed of over the years, but the person on trial is Saddam Hussein, not the US goverment.

Of course releasing the verdict this close to the election provides the GOP with some warm fuzzy feelings. Of course if we hear about giant riots in the Sunni parts of Iraq, this will erase all those warm fuzzy feelings and give more evidence to the Democrats who believe (as I do) that our continued presence in Iraq is not helping the situation.

I'm still voting for Jim Webb. He promises to be one of the more conservative Democrats in the Senate, and more importantly, an independent voice, as opposed to the computer program that George Allen really is.

Jim Moran has done sufficiently well to earn my vote for re-election -- I am also voring for Moran to help bolster the Democrats' chances of retaking the House, which I think acts as a much-needed check on Republican power. I suspect Thelma Drake (2) down in the Virginia Beach area will lose, and after that, Frank Wolf (10) and Tom Davis (11) are in some danger. Either of them losing will be a hit below the waterline for the Republicans.

On the gay marriage amendment, I'm not sure this is an issue where a Christian majority can force their will on non-believers. Anyone that believes the few gays who want to get married are an imminent threat to marriage, in a world full of temptations to heterosexual couples, is kidding themselves. Britney Spears has done more damage to marriage than any gay who wants to get married. In addition, there is evidence that a similar amendment in Ohio has led to some discriminatory things being done to unmarried heterosexual couples -- I'm going to vote no.

The second VA amendment strikes some un-Constitutional (with the US Constitution) language about churches not being able to incorporate. I'll vote for that, it's a no-brainer.

The third VA amendment allows localities to provide exemptions from real estate taxes if they like what the owner is doing with the property. If federalism is a good idea on the national level, it's a good idea on the state level. I'll probably vote for that.

There's five bond referenda: Parks and Rec, Metro and Transport, Community Infrastructure, Utilities (expanding sewer lines) and Schools. I'll have to read the Arlington County Taxpayers' Association website and see if they have an issue with the bonds other than "Waaah! The gubmint is spending money!"

The County Board has an open seat. Chris Zimmerman seems to be a decent guy, but I'd like to see a Republican and/or a Green on the board if only to provide some balance. I'll have to look at Josh Ruebner and Mike McMenamin and see what ideas they have.

The School Board has Ceceilia Espenoza squaring off against Sally Baird. I honestly don't know who to vote for here. I'll have to check their websites.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Category 18-Sep Total
Free stuff 31 585
Male performance 10 411
Cheap stuff 20 423
Loans 20 798
Self-improvement 11 174
Porn 36 1469
Meet women 5 76
Stock tips 30 523
electronic scams 3 28
offline scams 3 61
Casinos 7 67
Political 1 7
Blank 20 127

Spanish 10 164
Japanese 1 31
Chinese 33 1304
Undetermined Asian 16 55
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 0 49
Turkish 0 3
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 197 4749

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Category 14-Sep Total
Free stuff 45 554
Male performance 25 401
Cheap stuff 33 403
Loans 39 778
Self-improvement 12 163
Porn 91 1433
Meet women 2 71
Stock tips 52 493
electronic scams 1 25
offline scams 4 58
Casinos 8 60
Political 0 6
Blank 28 107

Spanish 18 154
Japanese 1 30
Chinese 74 1271
Undetermined Asian 18 39
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 9 49
Turkish 1 3
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 340 4552

Friday, September 08, 2006

Well, more fun stuff. Read this article from Salon.com about older, female virgins. My own opinion is that a man will use a woman's virginity as an excuse to ditch her if he isn't all that into her to begin -- women will do the same thing too. Basically, some people think if someone else hasn't been there earlier, well, there must be something wrong. This, of course, is as fallacious as thinking, "once a slut, always a slut."

It's times like this that Phillipians 4:12 rings even more true.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Work to improve your situation when you can -- when it can't be improved, then try and enjoy it.

Right now I'm listening to XM Radio's Special X. Apparently it's not on their satellite lineup, but is available to DirecTV listeners and people who buy XM's online lineup. My wife's been asking to get it, although I'm not 100% sure where we'd listen to it -- we get it at home along with our DirecTV but I'm not sure where we'd get $12.95 a month from listening to it.

I've listened to the French version of Lorne Greene's song Ringo and Leonard Nimoy's hit Bilbo Baggins. Fun stuff.

Spam count
Category 8-Sep Total
Free stuff 21 509
Male performance 11 376
Cheap stuff 12 370
Loans 25 739
Self-improvement 10 151
Porn 70 1342
Meet women 2 69
Stock tips 28 441
electronic scams 0 24
offline scams 1 54
Casinos 3 52
Political 1 6
Blank 9 79

Spanish 7 136
Japanese 5 29
Chinese 64 1197
Undetermined Asian 4 21
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 2 40
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 193 4212

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Another quick spam update. One of these days I am going to make this a real blog. But for now ... this is it.

Category 6-Sep Total
Free stuff 53 488
Male performance 40 365
Cheap stuff 29 358
Loans 97 714
Self-improvement 16 141
Porn 172 1272
Meet women 4 67
Stock tips 46 413
electronic scams 2 24
offline scams 3 53
Casinos 9 49
Political 0 5
Blank 5 70

Spanish 15 129
Japanese 1 24
Chinese 158 1133
Undetermined Asian 0 17
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 3 38
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 476 4019

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Category 31-Aug Total
Free stuff 24 435
Male performance 29 325
Cheap stuff 18 329
Loans 55 617
Self-improvement 17 125
Porn 113 1100
Meet women 4 63
Stock tips 21 367
electronic scams 2 22
offline scams 5 50
Casinos 3 40
Political 1 5
Blank 10 65

Spanish 9 114
Japanese 0 23
Chinese 109 975
Undetermined Asian 1 17
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 4 35
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 302 3543

Monday, August 28, 2006

Another spam count

Category 28-Aug Total
Free stuff 36 411
Male performance 26 296
Cheap stuff 12 311
Loans 53 562
Self-improvement 6 108
Porn 79 987
Meet women 7 59
Stock tips 18 346
electronic scams 1 20
offline scams 4 45
Casinos 2 37
Political 0 4
Blank 4 55

Spanish 6 105
Japanese 4 23
Chinese 68 866
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 4 31
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 248 3241

Friday, August 25, 2006

quick spam update for today

Category 25-Aug Total
Free stuff 10 375
Male performance 2 270
Cheap stuff 10 299
Loans 7 509
Self-improvement 2 102
Porn 25 908
Meet women 1 52
Stock tips 2 328
electronic scams 1 19
offline scams 2 41
Casinos 1 35
Political 0 4
Blank 0 51

Spanish 2 99
Japanese 0 19
Chinese 20 798
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 1 27
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 63 2993

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Category 24-Aug Total
Free stuff 15 365
Male performance 9 268
Cheap stuff 9 289
Loans 5 502
Self-improvement 4 100
Porn 34 883
Meet women 2 51
Stock tips 14 326
electronic scams 0 18
offline scams 0 39
Casinos 1 34
Political 0 4
Blank 2 51

Spanish 3 97
Japanese 2 19
Chinese 32 778
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 1 4
French 0 1
Italian 0 26
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 95 2930

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Myspace finally worked the way I wanted it to. I heard from a gal who was a year ahead of me at Warren County -- I need to write her back.

But more importantly, I need to edit the myspace page to reflect my wife and me being a couple. I suppose I could also put a picture of my wife and me up there?

Category 23-Aug Total
Free stuff 8 350
Male performance 9 259
Cheap stuff 6 280
Loans 9 497
Self-improvement 4 96
Porn 27 849
Meet women 1 49
Stock tips 8 312
electronic scams 0 18
offline scams 2 39
Casinos 1 33
Political 0 4
Blank 2 49

Spanish 4 94
Japanese 0 17
Chinese 21 746
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 4 26
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 77 2835

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Quick spam update.

Category 22-Aug Total
Free stuff 17 342
Male performance 11 250
Cheap stuff 4 274
Loans 12 488
Self-improvement 4 92
Porn 40 822
Meet women 1 48
Stock tips 8 304
electronic scams 2 18
offline scams 1 37
Casinos 1 32
Political 0 4
Blank 3 47

Spanish 0 90
Japanese 0 17
Chinese 37 725
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 2 22
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 104 2758

Monday, August 21, 2006

Well, sorry for the lack of updates of late.

Today was spent on work and editing VHSL questions. I'll be doing the latter for much of the week, and then it's a return to writing questions. It'll be busy, but I've got four fairly easy (for me categories) and I might be able to have 24 matches' worth by Labor Day. We'll see.

Saturday, Becca and I went to the Clarke County Fair. It was okay, I suspect we'd have had more fun if we had been feeling better. Sunday, we went to church and then I went over the math questions with Adam and finished the geography questions.

Here's the spam count since Friday morning. I am impressed. The other categories are actually making a comeback vis-a-vis porn.

Category 21-Aug Total
Free stuff 35 325
Male performance 48 239
Cheap stuff 27 270
Loans 77 476
Self-improvement 9 88
Porn 142 782
Meet women 4 47
Stock tips 23 296
electronic scams 1 16
offline scams 6 36
Casinos 5 31
Political 0 4
Blank 3 44

Spanish 7 90
Japanese 3 17
Chinese 129 688
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 4 20
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 380 2654

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Just another quick spam count. The Chinese porn spammers sure are persistent.

Category 17-Aug Total
Free stuff 9 290
Male performance 5 191
Cheap stuff 7 243
Loans 6 399
Self-improvement 4 79
Porn 42 640
Meet women 0 43
Stock tips 7 273
electronic scams 0 15
offline scams 1 30
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 1 41

Spanish 2 83
Japanese 0 14
Chinese 42 559
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 0 16
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 82 2274
Quick spam update

Free stuff 2 281
Male performance 3 186
Cheap stuff 2 236
Loans 7 393
Self-improvement 3 75
Porn 6 598
Meet women 0 43
Stock tips 3 266
electronic scams 0 15
offline scams 0 29
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 0 40

Spanish 1 81
Japanese 0 14
Chinese 5 517
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 0 16
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 26 2192

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Quick spam count

Category 16-Aug Total
Free stuff 0 279
Male performance 1 183
Cheap stuff 2 234
Loans 1 386
Self-improvement 1 72
Porn 30 592
Meet women 1 43
Stock tips 1 263
electronic scams 0 15
offline scams 0 29
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 0 40

Spanish 0 80
Japanese 0 14
Chinese 30 512
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 0 16
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 37 2166

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Well, another day is through. I wrote some questions and did some work. Not as much Farking today. My wife went to her Lions Club meeting and had a minor crisis when the toilet didn't flush. Turns out there was a used tampon clogging things up, but the snake managed to get hold of it and pull it out. Hopefully, no more toilet clogging.

My MySpace adventure continues. I got two webcam girls (one from Arlington), one Hoodia saleslady and one random woman from Texas. I have no idea how she got my screen name, so I asked her. I may end up taking the darn page down, since I'm not sure what road I'll be going down. Well, here's hoping people from Warren County and Randolph-Macon actually get in touch with me.

Today's Spam:

Free stuff 10 279
Male performance 8 182
Cheap stuff 7 232
Loans 7 385
Self-improvement 1 71
Porn 54 562
Meet women 1 42
Stock tips 3 262
electronic scams 0 15
offline scams 1 29
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 2 40

Spanish 2 80
Japanese 0 14
Chinese 49 482
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 3 16
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 94 2129

Monday, August 14, 2006

Well, today I played in a thread on Fark, wrote some geography VHSL questions and did some work. Tomorrow I look forward to much of the same.

Here's my quotes from the thread:

"Hopefully every person with a significant other reading this thread will take an extra 30 seconds to hug that person and tell them just how much they mean to you. "

then

to user Captain Fashion: Well, it depends. Do you WANT a significant other? I read a lot of single Farkers who seem to have a neverending parade of pornstars, strippers, alcohol, threesomes, etc., and seem quite happy doing this. (Witness the guy who said, "cheat away you married losers.")

then

Let me see if I can translate Crazy Lee.

Going on a quarter century with smooch pet and we are still a couple of flirt birds. We don't take to the wing as often these days but we preen each other with the same affection as ever.

My wife and I may not have sex as much as we once did but remain affectionate with each other after 25 years.

Regardless of age and hormones I think it's pretty much simpatico and imagination taking advantage of the biology that keeps ya singin', not the other way `round.

Imagination and kindness will go a long way towards keeping natural biological urges active.

A good tactic to use if you're a male trying out this strategy is to murderize da kittens before picking up Miss Hot&Bothered for the first three or four dates (if you've some notion of considering long term parking in that fire). Introducing some cognitive lag time might well lead to the revelation that the train your willy is wheedling you to ride into the distance, on tracks torrid and terminal to your singularity, is actually going to be a trip into the `oven' of Miss Not and bothersome (she'll be hauling your ashes, for sure).

If you are going on a date with a girl, and think this may lead to a relationship, then masturbate before going on the date. In this way, you will not let your smaller head do the thinking or allow the woman to use the prospect of sex to lead you around.

I've gotta agree with those who prefer flowing tresses (the tighter the curl the colder the girl). There's something heroically feminine and alluring (widely shared male cultural prejudice), a `maiden on a mission' effect that pretty much defies age (`some unknown but still sexy thing puts forth the moulding of it's features from behind the mask of seasons').

I like long, flowing hair. I believe a woman who looks good in this can look good for decades.

/all you pudknockers who can make it this far and still get a bit tantric while playing scrabble (win-win when you both lose it) - you'll be happier than you've any right to be.

If you have made it this far and can learn how to make the smallest of experiences, such as playing Scrabble, somehow seuxal, then you will be very happy in your life.

then I posted

Lots of good marital advice here.

to user Captain Fashion
The thing is, you have to avoid falling into some sort of bitterness loop that would turn off someone desirable when you do meet her. At the same time, you can't plan your life around meeting someone who may or may not show up.

to user PinkoLeftist
Divorce Court these days is a lottery. For every story of a woman that made out like a bandit, there is likely a story of a guy making $100k a year that has to pay $50 a month in child support or some similar nonsense.

to user Crazy Lee
Actually I agree with you pretty much entirely. I also hope to be making random allusions as much as you are in 20 or so years.

to user Tree Hugger
Were there any signals early on in the marriage/relationship that made it clear she had some serious problems with sex?

re Stacked Librarian's case
Any friend who dislikes the significant other will, unfortunately, have to take a backburner role. My wife comes before ANY of my friends, and I come before ANY of her friends. Therefore, I have ditched friends who were rude to her, and she has ditched friends who were rude to me.

re the Daniwould v. Quackedtheduck thread
We cannot really control our spouse. We can, however, control our own actions.

re porn
I'm told to avoid Gilligan's Biland. Apparently there's a lot more male/male action than female/male or female/female action.

then

to user I_Make_Jebus_Cry
If someone else is in the right and my wife is in the wrong, then it is my job to mention this to her at a later point. But I shouldn't backstab my wife with people looking on. On the flip side, my wife has distanced herself from some of her more man-hating friends.

to user daniwould
sob ... I've been on FARK for five years and I've never made anyone's profile that I know of. Thanks.

I added myself to MySpace. We'll see who from my past contacts me. I had put some effort into putting down my interests, etc., but then I hit another part of my profile editing and lost it. Oh well, next time.

http://www.myspace.com/shawn_pickrell

Visit me and give me props. Or something.

Spam for today:

Free stuff 8 269
Male performance 7 174
Cheap stuff 15 225
Loans 15 378
Self-improvement 3 70
Porn 69 508
Meet women 0 41
Stock tips 11 259
electronic scams 2 15
offline scams 3 28
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 1 38

Spanish 1 78
Japanese 1 14
Chinese 56 433
Undetermined Asian 1 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 1 13
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 134 2035

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Well, Becca and I just got back from church. Becca is reading right now and I am sitting around waiting for my digestive system to percolate. Then I'll go to the grocery store. I might ask her to wash the bed, it is getting fairly bad. But then again, she doesn't seem to mind it so much.

Yesterday, Becca and I went to P.F. Chang's (it was Chinese food, mind you, good Chinese food, but just Chinese food) and I dropped off for recycling her cousin Karen's computer that has been occupying space in our house for the past three years. Then I went over to the Nortons (our new minister and his wife) and found they didn't need any help in moving in. In fact, Kurt was off ministering to a young man at our church that was just diagnosed with liver cancer. I got the names of everyone in the family (it's one of the Spanish-speaking families, and I'm not 100% up to speed on everyone in all in the families) so I am going to send a card to them tomorrow (the directory and the cards are up there.)

I also got the impression Nancy would rather have just kicked up her feet for that afternoon -- so I went back home. So her friend Sarah came over. I played on the internet and talked to them -- they tried to watch Memoirs of a Geisha but disliked it so much they stopped watching it after about 45 minutes.

Kurt's first sermon was on the necessity to give a warm greeting to all who are in the house of God. I couldn't agree with it more, really. One of these days I might consider reading more about the "mystery worshippers" who'll show up at a church and then write the church about their experience. We must be careful, not only because the person we ignore or otherwise mistreat could embarrass us in the fulness of time, but because it is the right thing to do.

God commands us to love much more than he commands us to follow certain lists of rules.

The Bible study class was on Revelation 19 -- where the Whore of Babylon is overthrown by an army led by Jesus Christ and the Beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire. It is a very violent chapter, some churches (of all groups that profess Christianity) ignore it, while others seem to be doing their best to bring on the end times. I am of the opinion that these events will happen in some form, and that through a faith in Christ that manifests itself in the fruits of the Spirit (goodness, love, kindness, generosity, etc.), one can avoid the terrible punishments mentioned here. At the same time, though, those who seek to hasten these events are displaying a terrible hubris. Christ's return will be at a time of HIS choosing, not our own. We cannot ignore the plight of Palestinian and Lebanese Christians to cheer on Israelis, because we think God might return -- do the ends always justify the means?

Well, enough of that. I've got some spams to count and here is the cut and paste job from the Excel spreadsheet.

Best wishes to all.

Free stuff 13 261
Male performance 10 167
Cheap stuff 4 210
Loans 9 363
Self-improvement 2 67
Porn 13 439
Meet women 2 41
Stock tips 8 248
electronic scams 0 13
offline scams 0 25
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 3 37

Spanish 2 77
Japanese 1 13
Chinese 10 377
Undetermined Asian 0 15
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 0 12
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 64 1901

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Another spam count

Free stuff 6 248
Male performance 8 157
Cheap stuff 4 206
Loans 12 354
Self-improvement 0 65
Porn 18 426
Meet women 2 39
Stock tips 1 240
electronic scams 0 13
offline scams 2 25
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 0 34

Spanish 2 75
Japanese 0 12
Chinese 17 367
Undetermined Asian 0 15
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 1 12
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 53 1837

Friday, August 11, 2006

Quick spam count

Total 139 1784

Porn 57 408
Loans 30 342
Free stuff 15 242
Stock tips 13 239
Cheap stuff 4 202
Male performance 6 149
Self-improvement 5 65
Meet women 1 37
Blank 5 34
Casinos 0 26
offline scams 2 23
electronic scams 0 13
Political 1 4

Chinese 56 350
Spanish 1 73
Undetermined Asian 0 15
Japanese 1 12
Italian 0 11
Portuguese 0 3
Turkish 0 2
French 0 1
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Well, another day at work. Apparently, we are going to be moving our backup operations to another server. This stuff will take place over the next 6-8 weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to start installing Solaris 10 on the server -- and then my bosses will get me a full membership on http://sunsolve.sun.com -- because right now, I can't get the patches for Solaris 10. But I suppose this will be solved in a panic when something goes wrong and they need the patches.

My wife's with her friend Sarah right now going to a Bible study group with McLean Bible Church. On the 25th (I think) we will be seeing a B-17 bomber that has stayed around since World War II. There's some question reading for VHSL Scholastic Bowl and some home repairs -- right now on the agenda is disposing of an old computer that's taking up space in the basement and getting the area outside the basement properly screened off so leaves won't blow into the stairwell there. Eventually -- the culmination is expanding our porch so we can include a hot tub. THAT will be a lot of fun. But ... one thing at a time, and I hope that we hear from Abby and John soon. It's a bit unusual for them to go two weeks without contacting us ...

Today's SPAM count. The Chinese porn just won't stop. In honor of that, I am ordering some ... Chinese food! Yay!

Free stuff 2 227
Male performance 4 143
Cheap stuff 8 198
Loans 14 312
Self-improvement 3 60
Porn 24 351
Meet women 0 36
Stock tips 14 226
electronic scams 0 13
offline scams 1 21
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 3
Blank 1 29

Spanish 4 72
Japanese 1 11
Chinese 22 294
Undetermined Asian 0 15
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 0 11
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 71 1645

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Well -- Joe Lieberman and Cynthia McKinney look like they are both going down for defeat in today's primaries. Gas looks as if it will hit $3.50 a gallon after the Prudhoe Bay disaster. Iraq and Lebanon remain war zones.

Work went fairly well, nothing special really. I probably should've written more VHSL questions, but I will do so after posting tonight's post. The lights look as if they are going to stay on, which is a tad unfortunate.

Here's the spam count for today. The flood of Chinese porn I started getting on the 26th of July has put porn over the top as far as spam is concerned.

Category 8-Aug Total
Free stuff 9 225
Male performance 3 139
Cheap stuff 7 190
Loans 10 298
Self-improvement 3 57
Porn 39 327
Meet women 6 36
Stock tips 12 212
electronic scams 0 13
offline scams 1 20
Casinos 1 26
Political 0 3
Blank 2 28

Spanish 4 68
Japanese 2 10
Chinese 34 272
Undetermined Asian 0 15
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 1 11
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 93 1574

Monday, August 07, 2006

Well, Randy is now gone as our minister. Kurt and Nancy Norton show up on Thursday. I emailed the church secretary, since every one of the members will want to hang out with them. On the plus side, they will be getting free meals for the next couple months. :-)

One of my fellow small group members will be going to Little Rock with her new husband next month. Rebecca and I were suspecting it for a while, but it is now fully in the cards. Hopefully she can continue some sort of business opportunity. We shall see.

Four people have passed on at work in the past six weeks. That has to be some sort of actuarial weirdness. Hopefully the lights will be turned off when I show up at work tonight.

Two people had relatives pass on at church and one more has had her husband suffer a heart attack.

Wow. Lots to pray for today.

Spam count:
Total 187. Porn 66, Loans 28, Free stuff 27, Cheap stuff 15, Stock tips 14, Male performance 13, Casinos 7, Blank 5, Meet women 5, Self-improvement 3, offline scams 3, e-scams 1. Chinese 61, Spanish 2, Japanese 1.

Overall 1,435. Loans 280, Porn 274, Free stuff 207, Stock tips 195, Cheap stuff 181, Male performance 134, self-improvement 51, Meet women 29, Blank 26, Casinos 25, offline scams 18, e-scams 12, Political 3. Chinese 225, Spanish 63, Asian 15, Italian 10, Japanese 8, Portuguese 3, French 1, Turkish 1.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Quick spam check here.

Free stuff 16
Male performance 7
Cheap stuff 3
Loans 17
Self-improvement 2
Porn 15
Meet women 1
Stock tips 4
electronic scams 0
offline scams 2
Casinos 1
Political 0
Blank 1

Spanish 1
Japanese 0
Chinese 13
Undetermined Asian 1
Portuguese 0
French 0
Italian 0
Turkish 0

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Well, Day Two of the lights being out at work has concluded. It seems the women don't like it very much and the men are enjoying it. I suspect we'll go back to normal when the temperatures go back to normal next week.

Came up with some more Scholastic Bowl answers.

I got 34 spams today.

Porn 8, Cheap stuff 6, Loans 5, Free stuff 4, Male performance 3, Meet women 3, Stock tips 3, Self-improvement 2. Chinese 7, Spanish 3, Japanese 1, Italian 1.

Category Total
Free stuff 164
Male performance 114
Cheap stuff 163
Loans 235
Self-improvement 46
Porn 193
Meet women 23
Stock tips 177
electronic scams 11
offline scams 13
Casinos 17
Political 3
Blank 20


Spanish 60
Japanese 7
Chinese 151
Undetermined Asian 14
Portuguese 3
French 1
Italian 10
Turkish 1
Gender-inappropriate 0


Total 1179
Well, it's another day. Not much right now aside from a Spam count.

Today (45): Porn 14, Loans 9, Free stuff 8, Stock tips 6, Cheap stuff 4, Male performance 2, Meet women 1, offline scams 1. Chinese 13, Spanish 2, Japanese 1, Portuguese 1, Italian 1.

Overall (1,145): Loans 230, Porn 185, Stock tips 174, Free stuff 160, Cheap stuff 157, Male performance 111, Self-improvement 44, Meet women 20, Blank 20, Casinos 17, offline scams 13, e-scams 11, Political 3. Chinese 144, Spanish 57, Asian 14, Italian 9, Japanese 6, Portuguese 3,
French 1, Turkish 1.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Spam count for August 2. Lots of Chinese spam for some reason.

Today (71): Porn 28, Loans 20, Cheap stuff 7, Stock tips 5, Free stuff 3, Self-improvement 3, Male performance 2, Offline scams 2, Political 1. Chinese 26, Spanish 4, Italian 1.

Overall (1,100): Loans 221, Porn 171, Stock tips 168, Cheap stuff 153, Free stuff 152, Male performance 109, Self-improvement 44, Blank 20, Meet women 19, Casinos 17, Offline scams 12, E-scams 11, Political 3. Chinese 131, Spanish 55, Asian 14, Italian 8, Japanese 5, Portuguese 2, French 1, Turkish 1.
Today is hot. However, after we got a broadcast email asking us to conserve power by doing things like turn off the monitors when we go home, turn off desk lamps when we go home, etc., we got the great idea to turn off the overhead lights in our room and turn on our desk lamps instead.

This worked like a charm. The temperatures went down 3-4 degrees in a matter of minutes, we have a cool vibe that other areas of our office simply don't have, and we saved several kilowatts of energy I'd rather see powering the air conditioner. :-)

Tropical Storm Chris is still projected to hit the Gulf at hurricane strength, untouched by Cuba or Florida. Oil prices are soaring as a result, and of course I got left behind today and yesterday's rises.

Fidel Castro still hovers around death. He has done some good and a lot more bad.

Today's SPAM count will be in a later post when I have access to my spreadsheet.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Today:

It was in the lower 80s in my office today. Outside it was 100 or higher, probably feeling like 110. At least home is somewhat cooler, in the lower 70s with low humidity. Plus, I can wear shorts and a T-shirt. Otherwise, it was a quiet day, perfect for catching up on everything.

VHSL: I wrote the answers to all the Virginia geography and US geography. Now left: world geography.

Tropical Storm Chris is currently predicted to go between Cuba and Florida and emerge into the Gulf of Mexico was a full Hurricane. This doesn't look good. In a few ideas, we'll see if Chris will hit either Cuba or Florida, and where along the Gulf it might be aimed. We'll also see if the freakish hurricane strengthening of the past year (Katrina, Rita, Wilma) was a one-year thing or if another Category Five will be roaring in the Gulf this time next week.

Today's spam: 100 total. 27 loans, 26 porn, 13 free stuff, 11 cheap stuff, 8 male performance, 5 stock tips, 4 self-improvement, 2 meet women, 2 offline scams, 1 e-scam, 1 blank. 19 Chinese and 5 Spanish. Those Chinese porn spammers aren't giving up.

Overall: 1,029 total. 201 loans, 163 stock tips, 149 free stuff, 146 cheap stuff, 143 porn, 41 self-improvement, 20 blank, 19 meet women, 17 casinos, 11 e-scams, 10 offline scams, 2 political. 105 Chinese, 51 Spanish, 14 Asian, 7 Italian, 5 Japanese, 2 Portuguese, 1 French, 1 Turkish.

Monday, July 31, 2006

It's another day. Today I'm taking off -- Rebecca is working. I will go out to lunch soon and then work some on VHSL questions.

Am currently listening to Radio Yéyé (French music from the 1960s). Interesting stuff as I have tired of the standard oldies radio rotation, which is gradually being defined away from the 1960s and certainly the 1950s. Will be open to finding Dutch, German or Swedish oldies and certainly some Francopop (if this word doesn't exist to cover the bland popular music that was not anti-Franco or anti-Catholic Church from the 1950s to the 1970s, then it should exist.) The Italian oldies seem decently covered in the nostalgia format I'm familiar with, actually.

I am hoping to find a way to be part of Christ's light in this world. While I am but a poor imitation, it is my hope to find some small method of service.

And now, since most of this blog's six readers (even my family doesn't read this thing) are here for the SPAM count, here it is. The Chinese porn is starting to sag on my mailbox. It's interesting to see cycles start to form even over the two weeks I've been doing this. Porn has moved into 5th place and may well overtake Free stuff and Cheap stuff in the next week. Loans is still running strong, although today there weren't as many loan spams dated from 2038 (amazing!)

Today (41): Porn 10, Stock tips 8, Loans 7, Male performance 5, Cheap stuff 4, Free stuff 3, Meet women 2, E-scams 1, Blank 1. Chinese 9, Spanish 1, Japanese 1.

Total (929): Loans 174, Stock tips 158, Free stuff 136, Cheap stuff 135, Porn 117, Male performance 99, Self-improvement 37, Blank 19, Meet women 17, Casinos 17, E-scams 10, offline scams 8, Political 2. Chinese 86, Spanish 46, Asian 14, Italian 7, Japanese 5, Portuguese 2, Turkish 1, French 1.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Well, yesterday was spent visiting Berryville, where John took some steaks out of my in-laws' freezer and we had a grand old time. John and Abby were VERY kind in preparing dinner for them, Rebecca, my in-laws' friend Monique and me.

Today was the farewell service for Randy and Beth. There was of course the service in the morning and then a reception for them at 4pm today. So -- no small group meeting today. The congregation got them some nice gifts, including a few for Madison and Reese, their kids. Hopefully, Kurt and Nancy Norton will be able to fill some of the role Randy and Beth Wray filled at the Arlington church, and where they are different, they will be able to be a gift to the congregation. The new ministers will be with us in two weeks.

Today's SPAM Count: 113. Loans 34, Porn 26, Free stuff 17, Cheap stuff 14, Stock tips 12, Male performance 4, E-scams 2, Blank 2, Self-improvement 1, Meet women 1. Chinese 18, Spanish 1 and Turkish 1 (!)

Overall count: 888. Loans 167, Stock tips 150, Free stuff 133, Cheap stuff 131, Porn 107, Male performance 94, Self-improvement 37, Blank 18, Meet women 15, E-scam 9, offline scam 8, political 2. Chinese 77, Spanish 45, unknown Asian 14, Italian 7, Japanese 4, Portuguese 2, French 1, Turkish 1.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Well, I finally finished the "other social studies" section of the VHSL questions. Now I am to work on "earth science" and nag my contractors into getting things done.

We didn't go out, just to the Metro 29 Diner for lunch and the Don Pablo's in the Potomac Yard Shopping Center (or whatever that thing's called at Glebe and Route 1.) Tomorrow Rebecca and I will drive out to see Luray Caverns and then up to her parents in Berryville, where we'll have dinner with her sister Abby and her husband John.

Here's the spam count.

Today (66): Porn 14, Stock tips 14, Cheap stuff 9, Loans 9, Free stuff 8, Male performance 7, Self-improvement 3, Meet women 1, Blank 1. Chinese 13, Spanish 6, Italian 1.

Overall (775): Stock tips 138, Loans 133, Cheap stuff 117, Free stuff 116, Male performance 90, Porn 81, Self-improvement 36, Casinos 17, Blank 16, Meet women 14, offline scams 8, e-scams 7, political 2. Chinese 59, Spanish 44, unknown Asian 14, Italian 7, Japense 4, Portuguese 2, French 1.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

My wife also got an email about some opportunity to adopt blind kids from Asia. Hopefully this isn't a scam designed to separate us from our money. In any case, she's forwarding it to me, and I honestly think we'd be as good a parent to blind kids as anyone else -- we wouldn't make the mistake of believing our kids are made of glass or in treating our kids as if they were 100% incompetent.

Well not much today aside from me taking a trip to Starbucks ... Rebecca work up with a headache that lasted pretty much all day. Tomorrow, we're heading out to Luray to Luray Caverns. If that doesn't pan out then we will be going to PF Chang's China Bistro -- we've been threatening to do that ever since Rebecca's co-worker raved about the place -- hopefully it'll be twice the taste good at twice the price. Either that, or I might convince Adam to go there when we practice reading the questions for the VHSL Scholastic Bowl competition. We've caught a few embarrassing errors before the questions went out to press.

I also learned that Championship Manager 01-02 doesn't play well with the JAWS screen reader that my wife needs. So it goes back to the downstairs computer, where I am managing the Miami Fusion FC (yes, I know the game is old) and the Ghana national team. In 2006, I led Ghana to a title in the African Nations Cup and a good finish in the World Cup -- beating Iran 3-0, drawing to eventual champions France 0-0 but losing to eventual runners-up Romania 3-0. So their performance this year doesn't surprise me. However, about 1/3 of my Miami squad dislikes me due to our early exit from the MLS playoffs in 2007.

Spam count for 7/27. I seem to be getting a LOT of Chinese porn spam.

However, my mom forwarded me some amazing photos from Pearl Harbor. I don't know where they were from originally (it was a fifth-generation forward by the time I got it). The source is "AN OLD SHIPMATE ON THE USS QUAPAW ATF-11O." according to the initial email. But, in any case, here are the photos on my Yahoo photo album. I doubt that my five readers will overload the quota Yahoo gives me.

Here's something else worth seeing.

Oh wait. Enough already. Here's the count.

Today (39): Porn 12, Cheap stuff 6, Loans 6, Stock tips 6, Free stuff 2, Casinos 2, Male performance 1, self-improvement 1, Meet women 1, e-scams 1, offline scams 1. Chinese 12, Spanish 1, Portuguese 1.

Overall (709): Stock tips 124, Loans 124, Free stuff 108, Cheap stuff 108, Male performance 83, Porn 67, Self-improvement 33, Casinos 17, Blank 15, Meet women 13, offline scams 8, e-scams 7, Political 2. Chinese 46, Spanish 38, Unknown Asian 14, Italian 6, Japanese 4, Portuguese 2, French 1.
Well, it's another day. Lots of spam today.

Turns out yesterday's "cheap stuff/Undetermined Asian" spam was really Chinese porn.

So take away 12 from cheap stuff/Undetermined Asian and add 12 to porn/Chinese.

Today (73): Porn 18, Loans 16, Free stuff 13, Stock tips 12, Cheap stuff 5, Male improvement 3, Blank 2, Self-improvement 1, Meet women 1, Offline scams 1, Political 1. Chinese 17, Spanish 3, Italian 1.

Total (670): Stock tips 118, Loans 118, Free stuff 106, Cheap stuff 102, Male performance 82, Porn 55, self-improvement 32, Casinos 15, Blank 15, Meet women 12, Offline scams 7, E-scams 6, Political 2. Spanish 37, Chinese 34, Undetermined Asian 14, Italian 6, Japanese 4, French 1, Portuguese 1.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Well, last night we just stayed in. We went out to the Paradiso Restaurant in Springfield. Today, we're going to go out with Rebecca's friend Sarah, and Rebecca wants to make a real effort to see The Devil Wears Prada.

We also had a devil of a time ... we're trying to get long-term care insurance and one of the questions was, "Have you received disability payments in the past five years?" Well -- she has, since she is blind. This means she gets disability (I figure this makes up for her not being able to work a job such as a 7-Eleven and being pretty much restricted to "brain work.") But she hasn't been getting it since she started working for Northrop in April 2002.

Well yesterday they had one of their on-staff RN or LPN types call her, and they had a survey. They asked a weird mix of questions, which included "what do you do for entertainment?" (um, we go to concerts, plays, visit family/friends, that sort of thing?) and not "are you or have you ever been addicted to illegal drugs?" I guess there might be some legal reasons for this odd mix of questions, but Rebecca just felt weird. The lady was perfectly pleasant, she tells me, but she just felt weird.

Rebecca owes Helen Bloomingburg, a nice older lady from church, a call. Rebecca's been wanting to go out to lunch with Helen for some time now -- and we talked to her Sunday and she was agreeable to it. Also, she owes her sister a call so we can go out to dinner or lunch sometime (including my brother-in-law, too!) The latter I might do if I get tired of waiting.

I think next year, I need to sit down in February and plan out our vacation. We might go somewhere nice. Or, we might just do a few day trips. We'll see. If there's a baby on the way, we might do just what we did this year.

Spam count for today. I got like 12 Asian spams today -- I can usually tell them by the !@???!!??? type characters -- there is no image to help me figure if it is Japanese or Chinese. Some of the English words in these spams indicate it might also be Hindi -- I'm sure there might be Hebrew spam, too.

For today (48 total): Cheap stuff 17, Stock tips 9, Free stuff 6, Male performance 6, Loans 3, Self-improvement 2, Meet women 2, Porn 1, Casinos 1, Blank 1. Unknown Asian 12 (!), Spanish 3, Japanese 1, Italian 1.

Overall (597 total): Cheap stuff 109, Stock tips 106, Loans 102, Free stuff 93, Male performance 79, Self-improvement 31, Porn 25, Casinos 15, Blank 13, Meet women 11, e-scams 6, offline scams 6, political 1. Spanish 34, Unknown Asian 26, Chinese 5, Italian 5, Japanese 4, Portuguese 1, French 1.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

It's Tuesday. What more can I say?

Deciding whether to see the Front Royal Cardinals or The Devil Wears Prada. Rebecca is going back and forth as we speak, probably to decide upon ...nothing! :-)

Today's SPAM count (37 total)

Loans 10, Free stuff 9, Stock tips 9, Cheap stuff 6, Porn 2, Male performance 1. 4 Spanish spams and 1 Italian spam.

Total count (549 total)
Loans 99, Stock tips 97, Cheap stuff 92, Free stuff 87, Male performance 73, self-improvement 29, porn 24, casinos 14, blank 12, meet women 9, e-scams 6, offline scams 6, political 1. 31 Spanish, 14 undetermined Asian, 5 Chinese, 4 Italian, 3 Japanese, 1 Portuguese and 1 French.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Well, today was another fun day. I went to the Northern Virginia Lions Camp to help out with a cookout that was being prepared for a youth exchange camp hosted by some Tidewater-area Lions Clubs. One of these days I might take the plunge and actually join Lions. We shall see.

My in-laws are going down to Wise, VA, for the annual Remote Area Medical Program this weekend. Rebecca and I might go next year. I'd rather spend my anniversary helping people, then spending time with Rebecca, than going on some overpriced vacation and sitting in traffic for too long.

Tomorrow -- we might go to see the Front Royal Cardinals play, but more likely we'll see The Devil Wears Prada and then out to dinner at a place to be determined.

Before I left, I walked Rebecca through some of the bill-paying processes. Property taxes went up, so the escrow account on my mortgage was very hungry, almost to the tune of a monthly principal/interest payment. Once that's done, I'll be able to pay the regular payment sometime next week -- when I am not on vacation (gasp!)

Well, off to writing some more Scholastic Bowl questions -- this time in the category of "Other Social Studies."

I think I might start advertising my blog now, at least to friends and family.

Spam count for 7/24: 30 loans/mortgage (!), 18 stock tips, 12 male performance, 12 cheap stuff, 4 blank, 4 free stuff, 4 other self-improvement, 3 porn, 1 meet women. I got 4 Spanish, 2 Italian and 2 Untermined Asian spams as well. 88 spams in all.

Overall: 89 loans, 88 stock tips, 86 cheap stuff, 78 free stuff, 72 male performance, 29 self-improvement, 22 porn, 14 casinos, 12 blank, 9 meet women, 6 e-scams, 6 offline scams, 1 political. 27 Spanish, 14 undetermined Asian, 5 Chinese, 3 Japanese, 3 Italian, 1 Portuguese and 1 French.

I got a few spams which consisted of a single word. I decided to include that in the blank category. The most bizarre spam remains the sushi restaurant in Chile (?!)

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Got back from church just now. Waiting until we're hungry to go out. Our Oreck vacuum cleaner gave out -- there is a belt inside the vacuum that has to rotate on there -- it frayed for the SECOND time this month. So I am throwing out the darn thing and have solicited advice from family members -- I may as well ask the four or five readers of this blog for further advice.

Well, here's the SPAM count for today. 43 new spams showed up in my mail today, and I've seen 424 of them since I started this idea a week ago.

Stock tips 13 (70)
Cheap stuff 9 (74)
Male performance 7 (60)
Loans 4 (59)
Casinos 4 (14)
Self-improvement 3 (25)
Free stuff 2 (74)
Porn 1 (19)
nul points: Blank (8), Meet women (8), e-scams (6), offline scams (6), Political (1)

Undetermined Asian 7 (12)
Italian 1 (1) -- the first Italian spam -- yay!
nul points: Spanish (23), Chinese (5), Japanese (3), Portuguese (1), French (1) 0

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Today is Rebecca and mine 6th anniversary. It hasn't gone as well as we'd like; she didn't sleep well last night, so we didn't get to see the Cardinals play tonight. Also, on the way back from my parents, I got nailed for speeding on I-66 just inside the Beltway. No speed trap or "police brutality" anything of the sort, just carelessness on my part, I let the speed get away from the low 60s to the low 70s.

So today hasn't been the greatest day for either of us.

Tomorrow, we might hang out with a friend, or go see The Devil Wears Prada, in addition to the church-y stuff. Monday, we'll be helping out with a Lions Youth Exchange cookout -- it'll be at a Lions camp off of Route 50. Hopefully the students won't be late in arriving like they were last year ...

Here's the spam count since the last time I posted.

Male performance 22-53 total
Cheap stuff 18-65 total
Loans 16-55 total
Free stuff 15-72 total
Stock tips 14-57 total
Self-improvement 8-22 total
Porn 3-18 total
Casinos 3-10 total
Meet women 1-8 total
Blank 1-8 total
Offline scams 1-6 total

Subcategories:
Spanish 4-23 total. The weirdest one yet was an advertisement for a Chilean sushi restaurant. WTF?!?
Chinese 1-5 total
Undetermined Asian 1-5 total
French 1-1 total. My first spam in French.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

My vacation is beginning! I went out to the Malibu Grill Steakhouse for lunch and then went grocery shopping. I couldn't do that much since I slept until 11am and Rebecca was working but tomorrow we are headed out to her parents.

Here's the spam count since the last time I posted. I got my first Portuguese spam, which is kinda fitting, since the Malibu Grill is a Brazilian churruscaria in which the workers come by your table with skewers of meat. I'd recommend it only if you skip a meal. :-)

Total 52 - 279
#1 Free stuff 2 - 57
#5 Male performance 3 - 31
#2 Cheap stuff 17 - 47
#4 Loans 11 - 39
#7 Self-improvement 6 - 14
#6 Porn 4 - 15
#9 Meet women 0 - 7
#3 Stock tips 4 - 43
#11 electronic scams 2 - 6
#12 offline scams 2 - 5
#10 Casinos 0 - 7
#13 Political 0 - 1
#8 Blank 1 - 7

Spanish 7 - 19
Japanese 0 - 3
Chinese 0 - 4
Undetermined Asian 2 - 4
Portuguese 1 - 1
Gender-inappropriate 0 - 0

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Well, my vacation will start soon. At 7:30pm today, I am off until the 1st of August. So my spam counting will be a bit sporadic, hopefully I can make a few posts while I'm off work.

Here's the count since I started this on Saturday.

Total 226
55 Free products 13
39 Stock tips 8
28 Mortgage/loans 7
30 Low cost products 6
28 Male performance 6
8 Other self-improvement 1
7 Meet women 1
6 Entirely blank 1
3 419/offline 1
10 Porn 0
4 PayPal/eBay 0
7 Casino/gambling 0
1 Political 0

Subcategories
12 Spanish 2
3 Japanese 0
4 Chinese 0
2 Undetermined Asian 0

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Hey all. Fark is a-buzz with discussion of a suspected viral marketing campaign. What fun! Let me see if my knowledge of HTML tables still applies. 25 spams since the last update and a total of 182.

Total so farCategory# since last update
31Stock tips4
24Low cost products4
22Male performance4
21Mortgage/loans3
10Porn2
4PayPal/eBay2
42Free products1
7Casino/gambling1
7Other self-improvement1
6Meet women1
5Entirely blank1
2419/offline1
1Political

0

Subcategories
10Spanish3
3Japanese1
4Chinese0
2Undetermined Asian0
It's day 2 of the East Coast heatwave. It's a Code Red day, but I figure I can try to brave it out walking. Or, maybe, I'll just wuss out again and take a cab to and from work.

Well, two more days until I am on vacation, which will last until the end of the month.

I saw an interview with Elizabeth Smart on Good Morning America. It was kinda sad, really, she just seemed so nervous/robotic/scared ... she didn't have terribly much to say. I wonder if she is going to have a "true confession" some 15 or 20 years down the road.

Here's the Spam list for today. 26 spams since the last update, 157 in total.

41 Free products 9 today
27 Stock tips 5 today
20 Low cost products 4 today
18 Male performance 4 today
18 Mortgage/loans 2 today
8 Porn 1 today
5 Meet women 1 today
6 Casino/gambling
6 Other self-improvement
4 Entirely blank
2 PayPal/eBay
1 419/offline
1 Political

7 Spanish 1 today
4 Chinese 1 today
2 Japanese
2 Undetermined Asian

Monday, July 17, 2006

Spam update. I got 25 spams since I last posted. 132 total so far.

Categories:
#2 Stock tips 8 (22)
#3 Low cost products 5 (16)
#1 Free products 4 (32)
#4 Mortgage/loans 3 (16)
#5 Male performance 2 (14)
#7 Other self-improvement 2 (6)
#9 Entirely blank 1 (4)
#6 Porn 0 (8)
#8 Casino/gambling 0 (6)
#10 Meet women 0 (4)
#11 PayPal/eBay 0 (2)
#12 419/offline scams 0 (1)
#13 Political 0 (1)

Sub-categories
#1 Spanish 3 (6)
#2 Chinese 0 (3)
#3 Japanese 0 (2)
#4 Undetermined Asian 0 (2)

Gender-inappropriate 0 (0)
I was talking with Randy and Iad (two co-workers) about my spam collection. Iad suggested that in the blank spams might have white-on-white text. The odd thing about those is that the subject and even sender fields are blank. Randy suggested that sometimes a spammer will include a link to an image -- but the image host's account got cancelled. This too could lead to issues.
Interesting. I notice that stock tips seem to have surged up today. We'll see if this a Monday-only thing or if weekday spam is different from weekend spam.

Spam categories (107 total)
Free products 7 (28)
Stock tips 9 (14)
Mortgage/loans 5 (13)
Male performance 2 (12)
Low cost products 3 (11)
Porn 2 (8)
Casino/gambling 4 (6)
Meet women 1 (4)
Other self-improvement 0 (4)
Entirely blank 1 (3)
PayPal/eBay scams 1 (2)
419/money-based scams 0 (1)
Political spam 0 (1)

Sub-categories
Chinese 1 (3)
Spanish 1 (3)
Japanese 0 (2)
Undetermined Asian 1 (2)
Gender-inappropriate 0 (0)
Well, I am checking my email once more. 35 spams, a few bills, but only a couple of real emails. Spam diary in the next post.

It'll be hot today. I'm probably going to drive up to the Ballston Mall then take a cab in this morning. Tonight it should have cooled down a bit by 7:30pm, so I'll walk to the Metro and then drive back home.

At small group, we debated the meaning of Revelations 20:11-15, the Final Judgment. How can we compare Paul's insistence on salvation through faith and this passage's assertion that "each person was judged according to what he had done?" Perhaps we might be comforted that we should not be dead at that time, but instead sharing in our new life in Christ.

My own opinion -- we all begin with our names in the "book of life." When we accept Christ, we stop trying to erase our names, and instead accept His gift -- part of which is having our names in that book. I would think that any God capable of infinite mercy would be capable of handling relatively minor (on a God-scale) problems such as the virtuous unbaptized. Even C.S. Lewis in the Last Battle allows for the possibility that the unbaptized might enter Heaven; and so, too, should we as Christians.

My continuing prayers for those in the Mideast.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Oh yeah -- one more thing. When I heard about the shiznit going down between Israel and Hizbollah/Lebanon, I bought 100 shares of the US Oil ETF. I've made about $70 on it so far, and we'll see what happens from there. I made a bet on some S&P puts when Ben raised rates another 25 basis points at the end of last month.

Of course the next question: Is it immoral to profit off of instability thusly? Would the misery that'd occur if Syria or Iran were somehow directly involved be worth me making a few hundred (or even a couple grand) extra dollars? Or am I merely an observer of world events, and since I am not the cause of this misery, any money I make from wise (for that environment) investment choices merely astuteness on my part?

I will donate 50% of any capital gains to causes devoted to ending the suffering on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. Peace will only come when people are tired of the violence (Northern Ireland) or if one side is beaten into submission (World War II.) In either case -- there will be suffering.
In other good news: at the Uplift camp at Harding University over the 4th of July, seven of our teens chose to be baptized. I am praying that their faith can remain strong as they grow as Christians. I like to say that I am a practicing Christian; one day I will get good at it.

In other good news: Arlington church has hired a minister, Kurt Norton. He accepted the position earlier this week and it was put into this week's bulletin.

Well, right now it is off to the small group -- this week's topic will be faith vs. works. Rebecca and I got the book we are studying yesterday. See you guys soon! The next entry of my spam diary will be tomorrow. I also typed up the original article referred to in my last post, but I forgot to email it to myself (I typed it on the downstairs computer, which I prefer using since it has all the cool games on it but only a dial-up Internet connection.) I'll copy and paste the original French article in here as well.
Hello everyone! It's Sunday morning. My sister told me yesterday that she is engaged to her boyfriend. Rather ironic, since both sisters-in-law have been dating their boyfriends longer than Rebecca and I have been dating -- and Abby and John got married last year and now Dave and Jennifer will get married, probably this fall.

My wife and I are going to go out to eat before going to church and I figured it was time to check my email. No legitimate emails, of course. But 30 pieces of spam since I last posted and that makes for 72 total.

I had to add a new category, completely blank, since two spammers were so completely incompetent they could not send even an advertisement. Also, there was one piece of spam that was porn as it had a picture of some girl's cleavage, but the ISO coding was so munged that I couldn't figure if it was Japanese or Chinese. I can usually tell the two apart by seeing the hiragana or katakana symbols in Japanese.

I've got a little side project, too. If any of the two souls reading this blog (I don't even think my mom reads it) can figure out anything about the French singer Danièle Dupré, let me know. I saw her singing on Youtube a few weeks ago. I thought she was attractive. My wife didn't have an opinion on that, but she (like me) loved the voice. I have another pic of her taken scanned from an EP cover I found for sale on Priceminister and will put it up as soon as I figure out how to post images.

Don't look on Wikipedia, I wrote that after a few hours of Googling. Yes, that's all I could find, even pages in French.) And the magazine cover on there? Yes, I spent $17 to get that (it was something like $16.50 when I placed the order. By the time the order cleared all the hoops, it was $17. Stupid exchange rates...) I ordered another magazine that claims to have an interview with her; it should be arriving any day now. It'll be interesting to see, basically, "what happened" to her. As far as the Interweb is concerned, she fell off the face of the Earth.

Now, she obviously wasn't a superstar on the level of the Platters (multiple #1 hits, etc.), but certainly a Eurovision performance would count as a Top Ten hit, warranting some page somewhere dedicated to her. (Look, for instance, what comes up when I look for the Bobbettes, who had essentially one big hit "Mr. Lee" and a few minor hits.) From what I can dig up, it seems she released several EPs on Polydor -- at least five -- so I figure she probably had a couple of songs reach the bottom of the French Top 40.

But my point is that I am slowly translating the article. It's a nice piece of fluff you'd expect from a radio/TV weekly (La Semaine Radiophonique, to be exact) from 11/19/1957.

I got about halfway through when I realized I probably should just type it all up in French first and save *THAT* as a file. Then, I can enlist the help of French scholars to understand idioms and alternate meanings of words ... and quickly cut and paste any references. BTW, Babelfish alone is useless, but I'm sure you already knew that. Wordreference seems potentially useful.

On to the spam count.

Free products 10 (21)
Male performance 3 (10)
Mortgage/loans 4 (8)
Low cost products 2 (8)
Porn 4 (6)
Stock tips 3 (5)
Other self-improvement 0 (4)
Meet women 1 (3)
Entirely blank 2 (2)
Casino/gambling 1 (2)
PayPal/eBay scams 0 (1)
419/money-based scams 0 (1)
Political spam 0 (1)

Sub-categories
Chinese 1 (2)
Japanese 1 (2)
Spanish 0 (2)
Undetermined Asian 1 (1)
Gender-inappropriate 0 (0)

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Well, it's Saturday. My wife and I celebrate our six-year anniversary on Saturday, in case you didn't know. We are going out to Front Royal to see a Front Royal Cardinals game and a Little League Challengers game. Apparently the Front Royal Little League Challengers competition has been invited to watch the Little League World Series and is raising money to do this. I'm not sure how Front Royal got selected but they will be having a special game on July 22 as part of the ceremonies to open Bing Crosby Stadium.

One of these days I am going to copy and paste all my posts on fark.com onto here so you can get an inkling of what I think, politically and otherwise. It makes little sense to type a post there and then post something similar here.

But I've decided to keep a spam diary. I got 42 spams between yesterday afternoon when I left to see Assassins at the Signature Theater last night.

Here's how it's running so far.

For 7/14:
Free products (i.e. "Home Depot vouchers", etc.)
11
Enlarge my penis/cum more/Viagra (I'll also include the enlarge my breasts spam here)
7
Low cost products (such as genuine replica Rolex watches)
6
Mortgage/loans
4
Self-improvement (lose weight, get diplomas from quality non-accredited schools, etc.)
4
Porn
2
Meet women
2
Stock tips
2
PayPal or eBay scams
1
419 or other money-based scams (lotteries, etc.)
1
Casino/gambling
1
Political spam
1

Of course, no spam is complete without remembering how much foreign language spam you get and how much gender-inappropriate spam you get.

Spanish
2
Chinese
1
Japanese
1

Gender-inappropriate
0

For the one or two readers of this blog, let me know if you have any ideas. I won't start trying to hotlink my friends until I've been at this regularly for a couple weeks or so.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Well, here I am again.

A cousin of mine is getting married on Saturday. I just found out that my sister didn't get an invitation, but my wife and I did. Needless to say, my wife and I are a bit annoyed by this -- so we are not going. Am I rude in doing this?

Post 212068 on the FNM board is a challenge I am making to a Chomskyite on that board (at the least, he quotes Chomsky frequently). The honest ones are interested in discussion about the challenges of setting up proper international institutions, whereas the dishonest ones are more interested in complaining about the USA's allged "hyperpower," when they fail to realise that a duopoly in power leads to a Cold War and a multipolarity of power seems to lead to frequent jockeying for power, as the history of Europe between 1500 and 1945 seems to indicate.

I have commented frequently that World War II was the equivalent of the Ludovico Treatment from A Clockwork Orange regarding Europe. Witness Europe's inability to handle civil strife of a hateful nature in its own backyard during the 1990s.

It is my fervent hope that (1) the USA's excessive militarism and Europe's excessive pacifism can be balanced out -- neither is exactly helpful to the world as it stands -- and (2) that the USA does not need to undergo further Ludovico Treatments a la 9/11 to be cured of this miltarism.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Well, I am feeling much better. The doctor prescribed a decongestant for me, and I've been faithfully taking it twice a day. I woke up today and had the least amount of gunk in my throat/nose/lungs that I've had in weeks.

Right now the speculation is that Karl Rove will get indicted. Of course, Bush has the potential to screw up the immigration speech, as well. I don't think most people really care about illegal immigration until their jobs are at stake. For now, at least, we are living an OK existence, with any shortfalls between lifestyle expectations and the ability to pay for it covered over by home equity loans, credit cards, etc.

In finance, I see no reason why oil and gold won't keep on going up.

Regarding American empire, here is a post I made on the FNM board: "I do wish opponents of American hegemony would provide better alternatives than police-state PRC, theocratic Iran or wanna-be dictator Hugo Chavez." While the Bushite model, for lack of a better word, sucks, the alternatives seem to be the ones I mentioned, or the de facto isolationism of the European Union combined with the unable to agree on anything United Nations.

Well, I'm about ready to head off to work and deal with the fallout of the backups. I hope no drives got damaged over the weekend.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Ah -- how could I forget -- my FBR was stopped out today at 10.25. If it gets down to $9 a share, I'll get back in. For now, I'm out. My portfolio is getting smaller and smaller!

I *really* mistimed KMP. I suppose investing in high-yield, interest sensitive stocks in a time of rising interest rates wasn't the greatest of ideas.
Well, Bush's approval ratings have hit 29%. We have gone out of Carter 1980 territory and entered Nixon 1974 territory; the next stop is Truman 1952 territory. Let's see if there are more polls showing a sub-30 rating -- remember these polls were taken before the NSA database. I'm not sure whether this'll up his ratings or drag it down a few more points, since it seems Mr. and Mrs. America don't have a problem with this. It's as if Bush gets a new scandal every week, one worse than the next.

The doctor told me that I had an allergy and a viral cold showed up sometime early this week. He prescribed a decongestant.

I'm bummed. I spent all day at work installing some application, and then as soon as I did what I could there, I had to babysit a tape drive replacement on the jukebox. Apparently, the backup server no longer sees that particular drive, and a jbconfig and a boot -r haven't fixed the problem. I'm out of patience and since backups start in about 40 minutes, out of time.

Well, we'll see what my wife wants for dinner. She's been known to change her mind on a dime, but since I'm not really set on anything, it's no big deal.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

One of these days I will figure out how to turn comments on. Of course, the only person who'll comment will be the occasional relative and the more occasional spammer, but I suppose a guy can dream, can't he?

Still sick. I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for 11:30am tomorrow. Hopefully the doctor won't automatically assume it's an ordinary cold and tell me to drink plenty of orange juice and get lots of sleep (stuff I'm already doing.) I'm not sure what they do to check for other things, like strep throat, sinus infections, etc. I just hope I'm not spreading this to everyone at the office, but I've thought that the contagious period is early on when you're not sure if you're sick or not. By the time you're sounding horrible, you're already getting better.

I got stopped out of my GOOD position, but I only got 17.55 for it, instead of the 18.00 I was hoping to get. Small annoyance, but I made well 15% on the stock including dividends. If we get below 17, I will jump back in. There is a decent management team -- these are the guys who made ALD a powerhouse.

In other news, it seems I might want to acquire a firearm. I need to double-check post 201,283 on the FNM board, there is some advice on there.

Side challenge: Can anyone name anything that the Bush team has done right in the past year? The most recent scandal as I'm sure you've read, is the NSA generating a database of ALL calls.

Of course, most of the Kool-Aid Republicans aren't going to care one bit. It's for our safety, we're told. The options seem to be a 0.01% chance of dying in a terror attack with our pre-9/11 freedoms, or having a 0.001% chance of dting in a terror attack with our freedoms slowly and surely being taken away. FWIW, why didn't the terror law passed after OKC stop the 9/11 plotters?

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

As promised, my filk. This is a 70s hit called "Ooh Child" by the Five Stairsteps. Yes, I should be ashamed of myself for thinking it was by the Wondermints. Here's the post I made. When another poster on the FNM Yahoo! board said it was terrible, I posted the lyrics to Melanie's "Brand New Key." I love me some bad 70s music. LOL

I say we should all put our thoughts to song.

Ooh Child (orig. by the the Five Stairsteps)
(remake lyrics adapted by S. Pickrell, and perf. by the Original Mudd Band)

Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right
Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right

Someday yeah, we'll put it together and we'll get all GAAP'ed
Someday when we value things rightly
Someday yeah, we'll get the value of derivatives mapped
Someday when Franklin is still sprightly

Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right
Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right

Someday yeah, we'll put it together and we'll get all GAAP'ed
Someday, rightly
Someday yeah, we'll get the value of derivatives mapped
Someday, sprightly

Someday yeah, we'll put it together and we'll get all GAAP'ed
Someday, rightly
Someday yeah, we'll get the value of derivatives mapped
Someday, sprightly

Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right
Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right

Right now
You just wait and see, things are gonna be
Well, trying to get over a cold right now. I'll be heading to work but I'll be taking Blue Top to and from work -- I don't know if I can handle the mile of walking through the dusty air that usually hasn't given me a problem.

In investment land today, we found out this week that Warren Buffett sold his silver. To think that silver has gone from $7-8 an ounce to $14 (!) an ounce -- while Buffett was presumably unloading his silver -- over the past year is astounding. I will sink a few grand into SLV, the new silver ETF, if the price dips below $13.50 again.

I am still at a loss on USO (the oil ETF) and have made a bit more with GLD, now that gold is touching $700 an ounce. I will unload my physical if I can get enough money to pay off my mortgage. Otherwise, why sell now?

I got to cover my GM short at a loss today -- $26. Ugh. That stunk to high heaven. Still long ACAS, FBR, GLD, GOOD, KMP, USO and WRE. I have moderate stop losses on those, and am sitting on a decent gain with GLD (8-10%), GOOD (15%) and WRE (30%) , and a moderate loss on ACAS, KMP and USO (in the range of 4-6% on each of them.)

FNM is also rolling. One of these days they will release an earnings report. I'll post a song I modified in my next post.