9066 - Thursday
Feb. 21st, 2008 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottobearLunar Eclipse last night was lovely... clear skies, snowy ground and crisp air. A good time to be outside and looking at the sky, if just for a moment.
Somebody made a sacrifice somewhere, and the moon came back. Next time, the gods won't be so kind!
Warnings about ice tomorrow... I may get a long weekend... (if my internet and power goes out... or I may get to work form home!) Then again, I may get to go into the office that's mostly empty, and get a lot of work done there, too. I suspect any or all will be win.
Lovely leftover dinner tonight... last of the mexican bake while BHK and I watch The Last Legion. I think that she liked it more than I did... How'd they get Mr. Darcy, Ghandi and the Mistress of the spices together to make this flick? Apparently the Goths were vikings with scottish accents.
Six unused cases of recalled beef will be thrown away by schools in Maryland and Virginia. Said a school spokesperson, “Now that we know what it is, we can no longer call it mystery meat.”
Pictures of Awakening's Move
So... Bush's Approval rating is now 19%. Sweet Christmas.
(To break it down further 1100 people asked - Among Republicans (29% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 45% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 50% disapprove. Among Democrats (43% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 1% approve and 99% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Among independents (28% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 17% approve and 75% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.)
This is Newton and Pyewacket, almost to a T.
I've neglected to mention that we watched the pilot for the new Knight Rider series.
It was only worth it for the Hoff cameo, and even that was pretty weak. Thank goodness for tivo and fast forward.
Psych was a little too scooby-doo for me last night... but watching the outtake of them singing "Somebody's Watching Me" made it more than worth it. I also saw the graduation episode of Kim Possible. Nice that Drakken has some utility after all.
BHK was blessed with a double-kitty snuggle last night... I was too fidgety for the kitty love, apparently.
HD DVD is officially dead. Well, I'm glad we didn't get Larry that DVD player for Xmas!
Giant fossilized frog named for the devil.
This college grad decided to live on the streets with just $25 and a gym bag to see if he could make it without any of the trappings of his upbringing, privileges, or contacts. After 10 months, he was moving into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had a savings of around $5,000. The point of the story is supposed to be that people are poor because they have bad attitudes. Which is technically true, but maybe he should do an experiment to see what being born poor will do for your "positive outlook." - via consumerist.
Add a few more elements, like mental / physical health plus his gender, age and skin tone into the mix, and I'd be interested to see how much harder it'd be to get by if you changed variables around. I don't like the implication that "anyone could do it".
I also wonder who was left out of the shelter he stayed in for the first few months of his experiment? Did they go hungry as a result? Sleep on the street?
The more I think about it, the more I'd like to see him actually in the circumstances of hopelessness and fear being homeless can bring. I feel that knowing the safety net is there will give a false sense of confidence and comfort, too.
Anyone can go camping when they know full well that they could fix things with a phone call... how's that song go?
You'll never live like common people,
you'll never do what common people do,
you'll never fail like common people,
you'll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there's nothing else to do.
He got to bail due to a personal tragedy at home... who else is allowed that? It's a lousy experiment when you can change the variables and conditions at whim.
1 year ago - sunset and duck pics, naked gun, phone hearing w/florida, cyn's new (now old) space!
2 years ago - 2nd life, frankenbox windows issue, modified newtcam subdomain, Samuel, I'm a nine
3 years ago - Atlantic shores hosp, motherboards, jokers utility belt, 2-headed baby, paris hilton hacked, jlu, angry beavers, comic essentials, danny teaches school about graphic novels, six-gun gorilla, ash, icon origin
4 years ago - Wishing for Dr. Feng Shui, Quit FFXI, Time out with Danny and his wife
5 years ago - DDoS on LJ, Friday five, Nordis is full of crap, parking spots pictures, The Groovenians = blah
6 years ago - robo-triffid, daily pictures, back hurting
7 years ago - Chariots of the Gods, reminders, Geocities stops hot links, my nesting instinct
Somebody made a sacrifice somewhere, and the moon came back. Next time, the gods won't be so kind!
Warnings about ice tomorrow... I may get a long weekend... (if my internet and power goes out... or I may get to work form home!) Then again, I may get to go into the office that's mostly empty, and get a lot of work done there, too. I suspect any or all will be win.
Lovely leftover dinner tonight... last of the mexican bake while BHK and I watch The Last Legion. I think that she liked it more than I did... How'd they get Mr. Darcy, Ghandi and the Mistress of the spices together to make this flick? Apparently the Goths were vikings with scottish accents.
Six unused cases of recalled beef will be thrown away by schools in Maryland and Virginia. Said a school spokesperson, “Now that we know what it is, we can no longer call it mystery meat.”
Pictures of Awakening's Move
So... Bush's Approval rating is now 19%. Sweet Christmas.
(To break it down further 1100 people asked - Among Republicans (29% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 45% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 50% disapprove. Among Democrats (43% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 1% approve and 99% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Among independents (28% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 17% approve and 75% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.)
This is Newton and Pyewacket, almost to a T.
I've neglected to mention that we watched the pilot for the new Knight Rider series.
It was only worth it for the Hoff cameo, and even that was pretty weak. Thank goodness for tivo and fast forward.
Psych was a little too scooby-doo for me last night... but watching the outtake of them singing "Somebody's Watching Me" made it more than worth it. I also saw the graduation episode of Kim Possible. Nice that Drakken has some utility after all.
BHK was blessed with a double-kitty snuggle last night... I was too fidgety for the kitty love, apparently.
HD DVD is officially dead. Well, I'm glad we didn't get Larry that DVD player for Xmas!
Giant fossilized frog named for the devil.
A giant frog that hopped around Madagascar 65–70 million years ago has been discovered.
Fossil fragments show that the frog, called Beelzebufo ampinga, could have measured 20 centimetres across its squat head, and probably more than 40 centimetres from snout to tail. The researchers nicknamed the monstrous beast ‘the frog from hell’; the official name comes from one of the many names for the devil (Beelzebub) and the Latin for 'toad' (bufo).
This college grad decided to live on the streets with just $25 and a gym bag to see if he could make it without any of the trappings of his upbringing, privileges, or contacts. After 10 months, he was moving into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had a savings of around $5,000. The point of the story is supposed to be that people are poor because they have bad attitudes. Which is technically true, but maybe he should do an experiment to see what being born poor will do for your "positive outlook." - via consumerist.
Add a few more elements, like mental / physical health plus his gender, age and skin tone into the mix, and I'd be interested to see how much harder it'd be to get by if you changed variables around. I don't like the implication that "anyone could do it".
I also wonder who was left out of the shelter he stayed in for the first few months of his experiment? Did they go hungry as a result? Sleep on the street?
The more I think about it, the more I'd like to see him actually in the circumstances of hopelessness and fear being homeless can bring. I feel that knowing the safety net is there will give a false sense of confidence and comfort, too.
Anyone can go camping when they know full well that they could fix things with a phone call... how's that song go?
You'll never live like common people,
you'll never do what common people do,
you'll never fail like common people,
you'll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there's nothing else to do.
He got to bail due to a personal tragedy at home... who else is allowed that? It's a lousy experiment when you can change the variables and conditions at whim.
1 year ago - sunset and duck pics, naked gun, phone hearing w/florida, cyn's new (now old) space!
2 years ago - 2nd life, frankenbox windows issue, modified newtcam subdomain, Samuel, I'm a nine
3 years ago - Atlantic shores hosp, motherboards, jokers utility belt, 2-headed baby, paris hilton hacked, jlu, angry beavers, comic essentials, danny teaches school about graphic novels, six-gun gorilla, ash, icon origin
4 years ago - Wishing for Dr. Feng Shui, Quit FFXI, Time out with Danny and his wife
5 years ago - DDoS on LJ, Friday five, Nordis is full of crap, parking spots pictures, The Groovenians = blah
6 years ago - robo-triffid, daily pictures, back hurting
7 years ago - Chariots of the Gods, reminders, Geocities stops hot links, my nesting instinct
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 05:11 pm (UTC)I've always said that humans can endure almost any hardship if they know that the situation has a definite end date. I've lived in places that I hated and put up with stuff I wouldn't normally allow because I knew I'd be somewhere else soon and I only had to tolerate the less-than-ideal circumstance for a certain period of time.
But when you don't know when misery is going to end...when you look at the future and only see more of the same...how do you put a positive spin on it and set goals for yourself? Especially if your life has been one misfortune after another. Add to that the fact that many of the habitually homeless have problems with addiction and mental illness and you don't exactly have the makings of a great "American Dream" turnaround story.
I'm thinking that kid just saw a book deal and figured that a year wasn't too much of his life to dedicate to playing at being homeless. With a credit card in his back pocket, a supportive family, and the knowledge that he could bail on the whole thing any time he pleased, how could he not succeed?? Arrogant jackass. Someone needs to shoot him full of heroin and maybe dig around in his brain until he's borderline schizophrenic, then take away his credit card, throw his parents in prison, and then see if he can find himself a job and apartment within ten months...
no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-23 03:30 pm (UTC)Ditto on what Scott said about the "personal tragedy". Those kinds of things cause even more likelihood of a down spiral. Weathering them is a huge task sometimes in real life.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-24 12:22 am (UTC)