[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Making the Dawnster Smile...

At the moment, that's my job. Dawn rocks, and could use some nice stuff for smiles and whatnots, and even though I'm a nice guy who's letting her cook in my kitchen*, I figured I'd go that extra mile to brighten her day (or evening as the case may be).

So, for Dawn (and the rest of you DeafCat fans out there), enjoy the portrait.

Now, does anyone remember The X-Files?

Do you remember how the Alien Oil Slick would creep its way across the eyes of its unfortunate victims to make them go all sorts of crazy?

Well, that's pretty much what happened to DeafCat a few seconds after this picture was taken. She was lounging happily on the floor. Then, she got up and stared at the laundry hamper because obviously it must've been doing something tremendously un-hamper-like.

After a few seconds of staring, her eyes become two jet-black little beans in her head, and she tore across the room with her black claws scratching upon the wood. However, rather than leap on top of the hamper (which I'm assuming was her original intent since there's a window there she likes to gawk out from), her slippery little feet must've lost purchase upon the floor, and she wound up diving head-first into the side of the thing with a dull thud silenced by a week's worth of dirty clothes.

The aliens... Oh yes. The aliens drive my cats into craziness.

-DP

*Technically, it's her kitchen, but it might as well be mine since it's got all sorts of cool stuff that I would have in my kitchen if I wasn't constantly out blowing money on camera stuff.

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/30/2008 08:24:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Bzzzzz....

Neat...

I found this little dude while out taking pictures a moment ago. Once again, I apologize for the sneezes this picture may inspire.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/30/2008 02:24:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Foto Heute!

Guten Morgen!

Ja! Ich kann nur ein bischen Deutsch verstanden, aber ich habe zu viele Worte vergessen...

Das ist schade...

Also, hier ist Heute's Foto fur Mittwoch:

Ooof... It's been a while since I used my German lessons.

Anyway, look what showed up in my house! It's a bottle of Fun and Five. Five isn't bad, and I'm thinking it's better than a six, but not nearly as pretentious or overbearing as a three or a four.

Five is cheap and yummy.

Unfortunately, I can't remember where this came from (which probably means that the bottle of wine accomplished its purpose). However, as far as I'm concerned, it lept from the shelves of the local liquor store and just sort of rolled its way across town into my kitchen so as to be beheaded and have its insides sucked out.

Either that, or someone brought it over. But, that takes the magic away, doesn't it?

Nonetheless, for today's picture, y'all get a cheap bottle of umlaut wine. Nothing arsty about it. I do, however, kind of dig how the bottle's left edge plays against the dark.


-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/30/2008 09:46:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] What the...?!?

Now, at first, when Ben Stein signed on to do the movie Expelled, I simply thought to my self that it was really no big deal, and that he was just another god-soaked fool who throws science out the window when he's been told it conflicts with his rather narrow world view.

I was wrong.

I think Ben Stein is utterly bat shit insane.

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. [PZ] Myers, talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed.

I admit, I am stunned that Mr. Stein, a game-show host, would actually be willing to go this far --so far, in fact, that he's essentially dropping his trousers and leaving a huge, heaping mound of steaming shit upon the corpses of his dead ancestors. He's openly lying about the motives behind the Holocaust. He knows it, we know it, yet he's seeking to perpetuate a lie to create not a remembrance of that human tragedy, but an open denial of it by scrambling to conflate Evolution with the slaughter of his people.

This whole interview is beyond insane, and, in a way, I feel sad for Ben Stein. His grip on reality has become so loose that even looking in the mirror has got to be a terrifying thing. He is scared. He is confused. And, sadly, the world knows it and is not afraid to confront it. Take this example:

Stein: We’re saying teach what is… what the evidence takes you to. I mean, the evidence does not take you to Darwinism about, uh, about, uh, as to the foundations of life. Darwin just had nothing to say about that. The evidence doesn’t take you to Darwinism about astronomy or about the laws of physics or of thermodynamics.

This is a level of gibberish I'd expect from someone who had dropped out of the earliest levels of high-school. However, Ben Stein has a college education. I believe that in high school, as dreadful as some of my science teachers were, I clearly knew the difference between Physics, Astronomy, and Evolution, and I had no need to contrive some sort of unified field for them out of a mythology concocted by late Bronze Age sheep and goat herders. So, why would BenStein, a college educated person, expect to find the answers to Astronomy in a Biology classroom?

And, he continues:

Crouch: What can people of faith do? What do you hope comes from this film?

Stein: Well, we hope that people who have children in schools will tell their children that if the teacher says Darwinism created everything and that there is no explanation for anything in the scientific world except Darwinism, that the student will say, well, Ms. Smith — or whatever the teacher’s name is — how did life begin? What keeps the planets in their orbits? Is there any proof of a separate species ever being seen to evolve?

This is an insult to just about everyone. The only people not insulted by this gibberish would have to be those whose minds are as addled as Stein's. "Dawinism" doesn't create things. What does he think Astronomy does? What does he think Biology is about? Why is he trying to conflate Darwin with creation? It's almost as though I could give Ben Stein the owner's manual for my Jeep and tell him to look up the meatloaf recipe inside. When he's sitting at a movie, does he ask people to rub sunscreen on his back? When the phone is ringing, does he open his microwave thinking he's being fed?

Perhaps the most disgusting (an ironic considering this guy is shilling eyedrops) is this:

Stein: … Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Really?

So, that science responsible for curing smallpox and polio is actually, nefariously, killing people? The understanding of the human body and its development at the most minuscule levels possible is somehow an evil murderous plot?

Perhaps the greatest crime in all of this is that Mr. Stein has conveniently overlooked reality in his open and wildly erroneous conflation of Evolution with The Holocaust, and by doing so, he's rendered the lives of those who both died and survived during this tragedy completely meaningless. He's skipped over the real history and source of acrimony among the German people toward the Jews. He is trying to distract humanity from studying the real reasons behind this tragedy, and he is doing to so pimp a movie and a resligion. Moreover, that which he has overlooked are the raging, anti-semitic writings of a well-known German monk named Martin Luther, and his work On the Jews and Their Lies (written more than two hundred years before Darwin was even born). And, here's Luther's proposal on how to drive the Jews from Germany. And, call me crazy, but I think the words of this Christian monk echo the sentiments of the Nazi's considerably more than those of a simple English naturalist:

1. "First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. ..."
2. "Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. ..."
3. "Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. ..."
4. "Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. ..."
5. "Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. ..."
6. "Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them. ... Such money should now be used in ... the following [way]... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed [a certain amount]..."
7. "Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow... For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants."
8. "If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs." [31]

I think one of the most disgusting things humans can do is rewrite their history. We learn from our history. And, as a result, we do our best to see that the tragedies and horrors of our past do not happen again. Ben Stein is tossing all this out the window in favor of rewriting human history in a feeble and fumbling attempt to cram god and ignorance down the throats of those who just wish to learn in an environment free of mythology and fear-filled superstition.

-DP

(Hat tip to The Friendly Atheist)

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/29/2008 08:42:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Puny Humans!

Behold, my tiny friends...

I am a giant! Cower before me, and "fee-fie-foe-fum," and all that stuff.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/29/2008 09:02:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] And The Winner Is...

Daniel Auger came in and flat-out nailed the question about which character was represented in my brother's tattoo, and after looking at Daniel's blog, Welcome to My Nerditotium, it's really no surprise. It seems that Daniel collects old Commodore systems, and if you're anything like me, and you grew up with one of those quirky little computers way back in the days of Quantum Link and 5 1/4 inch floppies, you'll probably get a real nostalgic kick out of poking around there.

Anyway, the character is a Mechtron from the game M.U.L.E..

My brother and I learned the value of a stable economic portfolio from that game, I think. We also learned that gambling pays pretty well. It's always been one of my favorite games.

Well, I'd love to write more, but my digits are ablaze, and I've got doctor appointments this afternoon. So, it's going to be a long day.

So, to wrap this up, I'll say congrats to Daniel for being a genuine geek. I tip my hat to you sir.

By the way, do yourselves a favor and make sure you check out Daniel's MySpace page to listen to some of his tunes. They're really very good.

I'm off...

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/29/2008 07:25:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] New Toys! New Toys! New Toys!

Look what came in the mail today!

It's my brand, spankin' new Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, and does this little puppy ever rock!

Technically, it's an autofocus; however, since I have a Nikon D40 which lacks the screw-drive required to make these particular autofocus lenses work, I have to dial it in manually. Which is a freakin' breeze to do, and one of the biggest reasons why I bought the little fellow. I kind of wanted that feel of a throwback to the good old days of film SLR's.

Aside from that, it's a fast lens with a nice, big, friendly aperture of 1.8, so it's outstanding in low-light situations (in other words, Wisconsin). Plus, it weighs nothing, and there's a certain feel of elegance and finesse when dialing in a focus (which, I'm going to be working on for a bit since, as a result of my other two lenses that actually do autofocus on the camera and have Nikon's Vibration Reduction, I became a little lazy and reliant upon the lens and camera and less upon myself and my own technique.

In other words, I'd forgotten how just a little twitch can utterly trash a shot. However, so long as the shutter is fast (which, again, requires a lot of light that Wisconsin simply doesn't have at the moment), blur is not an issue.

To make things even better, the pictures are razor sharp, and this little lens is about one-third the size of your average soda beer can.

Anyway, off to your left, you'll see the very first picture taken with this little lens which I am certain will fast become my favorite lens for portraits and landscapes. Unfortunately, that slow, Wisconsin exposure I was telling you about led to some slight blurring. Plus, Confucius still has a scalp-full of dust. I've decided that with the cats shedding, and with me losing my hair, watching a Sixth-Century BCE Chinese philosopher grow a nice, Rogaine-free collection of flowing locks may, in fact, give me and my shiny head a little hope. By the end of summer, Confucius might actually look like a member of the Beijing chapter of the Hell's Angels.

Nonetheless, I'm going to be out trying to get a feel for the ins and outs of this neat little piece of glass. That fixed 50mm perspective is going to take some getting used to since I'm used to knocking around with zooms which give me the nice luxury of not having to move nearly as much.

The thing is, since I am going to be out, I'm not going to be able to give you the answer as to which video game character is represented in The Clone's ink job.

So far, no one's gotten it right (including Wil Wheaton). I'm surprised by that; however, on the plus side, now is your chance to out-geek the Prince of Geeks (or king of geeks?). So, get to work on it!

The only other clues I can give you is that the game was available on the Commodore 64 (Winnar!), the Atari 400, and the Nintendo Entertainment System, and I believe that it's one of the very first sci-fi strategy video games ever made (I wish some company somewhere would mine the old, dead software to make a wild, new version of it).

Ah well... I've got to run and find some available light.

-DP


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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/28/2008 11:57:00 AM