In which next week is Spring break, THANK FUCKING GOD.
Finals week:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*headdesk*
This really is a stupid format for getting information into people’s heads.
—
CCNA Exploration – Routing Protocols and Concepts: A (87.0%)
CCNA Exploration – LAN Switching and Wireless: B (86.3%)
Security+: B (84%)
In which there’s an infodump.
If you’re needing more information on Japan’s 8.9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami:
Donate to one of the funds here, or text #REDCROSS to 90999 (70600 in Europe) from your cell to donate $10.
And if you pray, pray now, because Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) is currently having difficulty venting the Daiichi reactor, and it must be vented to prevent a meltdown.
Update 10:22 pm AP – Japan nuclear safety commission official says meltdown at nuclear power plant possible. My friend Shigeki (he lives in Tokyo) is very worried.
Update – From the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Where to Get Accurate Information on the Japanese Situation
Update 3/15/11 – At least one containment device is breached. Suspicions are that the fire was caused by a spent fuel storage pond going dry and allowing the spent-but-not-inactive rods stored within to overheat and catch fire. 750 workers have been evacuated due to radiation levels, leaving a brave 50 to try and keep the water pumping. Experts have been quoted as saying that it’s already far worse than 3 Mile Island and is nearing Chernobyl, depending on the amounts of radiation released and what happens next.
In which there’s a birthday!
goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today! goblinbox.com is ten years old today!
Feel free to buy me stuff.
In which I’ve read this passage before, but this time it seemed to be exactly the advice I needed.
“Don’t try to still your mind by force when you sit for meditation. The thoughts will rise up with ten times their original force if you do that. It is like pressing down a spring. Try to find out where the thoughts arise from, and control them with that knowledge. Don’t place the mind in any kind of tension. If any part of your body is tense or feels any pain, the mind will linger on that. Relax every part of the body and watch your thoughts with absolute awareness. Then the mind will subside by itself.
“Don’t follow your thoughts. If you follow them, only your body will be here; your mind will be somewhere else.”
– Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Upadeshamritam Vol. 1
(Emphasis mine.)
In which I drop a little update on you.
There are two weeks left of the term, COUNTING THIS ONE.
I have one class finished, am halfway through the second, and am one-third of the way through the third.
In other words, I’m really far behind and I don’t have time to be discussing this because I need to be studying! AARRGGH!
How this happened, I have no idea. It’s not like I haven’t been studying… I think someone stole three weeks somewhere.
In other news, I’ve lost twelve pounds and now the whole dieting thing has become really hard. Last night I ate nearly an entire bag of potato chips for dinner.
Update: I powered through two chapters in my ‘LAN Switching and Wireless’ course today. That only leaves three more, and hopefully I can get them done tomorrow. And there’s slightly less than half of my ‘LabSim Security+’ course. I think I can do this and still have time to study for finals next week… God, I hope I don’t have any gigs this weekend!
Here are the notes from some of my homework. Just so you can see how totally jargonistic it is.
In which this is a quick primer for all y’all who are innarested in packing your own lunches all healthy and cute-style.
Matro said this, so I’m saying this:
Bento boxes are nothing more than lunch boxes that happen to be from Japan, so you can put non-Japanese food into them if you want (and I do all the time). They are compact, visually appealing, and reusable. They have a variety of accessories, including chopsticks, fork and spoon sets, sauce bottles, food cups, picks, food dividers, carrying bags, and more.
In which I ramble on about politics and never get to the point.
My country has a seriously fucked up budget. China, Japan, and the UK hold over 2315 billion dollars in US treasury securities. We’re currently $127k in debt per tax payer. And we’re still cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy because it’s supposed to increase tax revenue, even though I can’t figure out how such an approach is supposed to work. (Probably because I’m not an economist and I don’t really care enough to do any deep research.) (What. It’s an opinion piece. Shuddup.)
“As of January 31, 2011, the Total Public Debt Outstanding of the United States of America was $14.13 trillion and was 96.4% of calendar year 2010’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) of $14.7 trillion. Using 2010 figures, the total debt (96.3% of GDP) ranked 12th highest against other nations.”
Congress is trying to balance the budget. Since they’re GOP-heavy, they’re threatening to kill stuff the GOP traditionally doesn’t like, little things like Planned Parenthood and PBS and NPR. I’m upset about these threats because I find these agencies to be both important and useful, and as a citizen I want some of my tax money to go to fund these things.
Continue reading Hey! GOP! You're freakin' out. Knock it off.
In which another country’s dictator tries to disconnect it from the world.
Have you been paying attention to Libya? (And Bahrain? And Yemen? Algeria?) Well, it disappeared from the Internet tonight:
“Renesys confirms that the 13 globally routed Libyan network prefixes were withdrawn at 23:18 GMT (Friday night, just after midnight Saturday local time), and Libya is off the Internet. One Libyan route originated by Telecom Italia directly is still BGP-reachable, but inbound traceroutes appear to die in Palermo. A minority of our peers report some surviving paths through the peering connection between Level3 and Telecom Italia, but traceroutes into those prefixes fail, suggesting that the Libyan cutoff is complete.
“We wondered whether anyone would repeat Egypt’s strategy. Tonight, it appears that we have our answer.”
In which Dr. Mel’s going to Iceland next month, so he had to do some stash reduction.
The good news is that Mel, in a sudden stash-reduction fit, sent me two boxes of yarn:
In which I wish I posted more.
Every time I post, I think, “That was pretty good! I need to post more often!” But then nothing happens so I have nothing to write about so I don’t write and then I check my site and it’s been, like, half a month since I wrote anything. (I’m proud to say that it took me nearly an entire decade to really start to run out of shit to say!)
Part of it, I think, is that most of the things I find really interesting socially are not appropriate topics. I can’t talk about how that couple’s falling apart spectacularly, or about that person’s funky health issues, or about that couple’s freaky sex life. I mean, I could, but then I wouldn’t have any friends. And I like having friends. I like getting stopped on the street by people who know my name. It’s nice not being a stranger anymore.
I don’t have a job, so I can’t bitch about stupid policies (and when I do have a job, I still can’t, because that shit gets you dooced. Which SUCKS, because all jobs, no matter how cool, are stupid and need to be mocked).
