I'm pretty pleased with this result:
Althought TECHNICALLY it should be a lioness... because Daemon's are the opposite sex of their human counterpart.
Friday, December 7, 2007
To further support Eric's contention
No hope for help...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. homeowners who could face crippling mortgage payments will have a hard time getting help if they call a telephone number President George W. Bush recommended on Thursday -- he gave them the wrong number.
"I have a message for every homeowner worried about rising mortgage payments: The best you can do for your family is to call 1-800-995-HOPE," Bush said after a White House meeting with administration officials and lenders on a new plan to help.
Unfortunately he was a couple digits off, it is actually 1-888-995-HOPE (4673). That gets you through to the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit group which offers free housing counseling for homeowners.
Moments after Bush completed his remarks, a White House aide told reporters the president misspoke and gave the correct number.
Calls to the wrong number Bush gave out were met with a busy signal. A search on the Internet showed it belongs to the Freedom Christian Academy which offers religious-based curriculum for home schooling and is located in Ponder, Texas northwest of Dallas.
(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, Editing by David Storey)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
An real-life exchange between two great minds...
This is an actual email exchange I had with my mother.
My mother: i actually had to turn it off at the mains
Me: huh?
My mother: huh huh
Me: turn what at the mains?
Mrs. Tanner,
Please endeavor to make more sense, for while my intellect is vast, it still fails to pierce the shadowy concealment of your thought granted by incomplete word, vague notions and nonsensical references. My time grows short as my shadow grows long. I will strive to make the most of my short time on God's green earth, but when such things are sent to vex me with no end, I grow weary of my time in my maker's paradise. Mother, dearest and most fair of all the lands, I implore you to listen to my pleas. Hopefully, they task you not, and will embolden you to seek such a change of character within yourself that can address such sorrows as I now presently suffer. Fear not, my dearest mother and life-giver of such a wretch as I, I will always quest to understand the strange mixes of utterances that escape your frail frame, and quicken to translate them into a form more fit for social disclosure between persons.
Your loving son engaged in conversation,
Simon
My mother: HAHAHAHAHA
My mother: THANK YOU my dearest son for making such a loving gesture towards your life giver. I will keep onto my bosom these words of wisdom although I doubt if they will leave any impression unto my frail and delicate brain.
Me: I love you mommie. :)
My mother: I was referring to the black screen I was getting whilst I was working on the computer. It was due to a program that I could not quit and I had to turn off the computer at the electrical switch, not the computer switch. I have never laughed so heartily, thank you for being so kind and so loving. I love you maman
I traded real money... for fake money
I hit a new low last night. I bought gold for my Lord of the Rigns Online character. My hobbit, Mattwise, is all awesomed out now, and as he murders goblins and orcs by the hundreds, he couldn't be happier about my descent into the seedy underworld of MMORPG gaming. The process was quick and seductive, as the Dark Side always is, yet contrary to what Obi-Wan would have Luke believe, it DOES make you stronger.
Money is a lot more difficult to build up in LOTR than in, say, World of Warcraft. You work your ass off gathering reputation items, farming, etc., and you get a lot of exp but you have shit to show for it in terms of dough. And I'm a goddamn burglar!
I always get spam in my LOTR mail box, telling me stuff like, "$1 for 1 Gold!". Normally I respond angrily to gold spam mail, with something like, "Go fuck yourself, you sick fuck!" or, "That sounds like a good idea, but I have a better one: go die", or even something more sophisticated like, "No thanks. Faggot." But in one of my darkest moments ever, I responded angrily... with my credit card... and ended up with 20 gold.
Okay, but that still doesn't change that I worked my ass off gaining enough rep to buy a fast, sweet looking pony (Stop laughing... hobbits ride ponies). Money doesn't buy everything after all. Fortunately, the level 50 items I REALLY want can't be bought. I'm going to have to work for those myself, despite this momentary lapse in morals.
On victorian literature...
I just finished reading Frankenstien. It came highly recommended by my girlfriend, so it when straight to the top of my "to read list" (and right now, I have literally 30 books in a pile on my floor that represent that backlog).
It was a really great piece of Victorian literature. A very engaging story, with great pose and themes that draws the read into this tale. Personally, I really love the verbose pose, grand themes, and epistolary narratives that seem to mark most of the literature. I have been on a gothic reading kick for the last couple of months. I have finished Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, the yellow wallpaper, the monkey's paw, and various Edger Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. I highly recomend all these works for gaining cultural capital because a fair amount of references and allusions today can be found that hark back to these works.
Surprising to me, out of what I knew of all these works, Frankenstein's popular movie represent is perhaps the most widely different version of all these novels. The movie seems only similar in name, and not by plot, characters representations, or themes. Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde vary on many points, but similar enough you can recognize the kernel of novel at the center. The only other movies that varies this much from the source is anything based on H.P. Lovecraft's work. I have never seen any movies that is even remotely close to the source material, and generally just borrows the names of characters and scenes, but leave everything else.
Even in today's movie/television world, I think there is something to still be said about reading the original source novel. In my experience, rare is the time when I think the movie is the superior work of art when compared to the novel.
Anyways, just a little rant about books.
Skeptical Simon
It was a really great piece of Victorian literature. A very engaging story, with great pose and themes that draws the read into this tale. Personally, I really love the verbose pose, grand themes, and epistolary narratives that seem to mark most of the literature. I have been on a gothic reading kick for the last couple of months. I have finished Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, the yellow wallpaper, the monkey's paw, and various Edger Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. I highly recomend all these works for gaining cultural capital because a fair amount of references and allusions today can be found that hark back to these works.
Surprising to me, out of what I knew of all these works, Frankenstein's popular movie represent is perhaps the most widely different version of all these novels. The movie seems only similar in name, and not by plot, characters representations, or themes. Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde vary on many points, but similar enough you can recognize the kernel of novel at the center. The only other movies that varies this much from the source is anything based on H.P. Lovecraft's work. I have never seen any movies that is even remotely close to the source material, and generally just borrows the names of characters and scenes, but leave everything else.
Even in today's movie/television world, I think there is something to still be said about reading the original source novel. In my experience, rare is the time when I think the movie is the superior work of art when compared to the novel.
Anyways, just a little rant about books.
Skeptical Simon
Bush and Paulson Unveil Plan To Aid Struggling Homeowners
Today, the Bush Administration announced a plan to freeze mortgage rates.
Basically, if you have a mortgage and a weak credit score, you get to keep your teaser rate for 5 years before it resets again. These borrowers took loans they couldn't afford. Why are they most deserving of lower rates? If a borrower loses his home, they can always find a place to rent. Actually, they should have been renting in the first place! Renting a place will provide the shelter as a home would.
If I buy a car, and stopped making payments, the bank will take the car away from me. Does anyone care? It's the same situation here. Someone bought a home, and they can't afford the payments. The bank should foreclose on the property! The government should not intervene. Yes, I understand the potential impact to the overall economy. But for every boom, there is a bust, and now we're just prolonging the bust. So much for buying my condo in 2009.
Basically, if you have a mortgage and a weak credit score, you get to keep your teaser rate for 5 years before it resets again. These borrowers took loans they couldn't afford. Why are they most deserving of lower rates? If a borrower loses his home, they can always find a place to rent. Actually, they should have been renting in the first place! Renting a place will provide the shelter as a home would.
If I buy a car, and stopped making payments, the bank will take the car away from me. Does anyone care? It's the same situation here. Someone bought a home, and they can't afford the payments. The bank should foreclose on the property! The government should not intervene. Yes, I understand the potential impact to the overall economy. But for every boom, there is a bust, and now we're just prolonging the bust. So much for buying my condo in 2009.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Welcome.
I created this blog in the hope that it will prompt me to write down my thoughts and feelings about the absurd universe in which we live. This way I don't have to keep all these strange and weird thoughts in my head. I invited some of my friends to join me in posting their views on a wide assortment of strange topics, whatever topic they wish. My goal for this blog is to have blog that prompts me to think about a variety of topics from different viewpoint, thus I named it "Eclectic Eccentricities".
Thank you for reading,
Skeptical Simon
Thank you for reading,
Skeptical Simon
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