The Worldometer site is a rather interesting collection of constantly-updating statistics. It’s interesting to watch how fast things like births grow in comparison to things like deaths… or the number of cars manufactured.

Hmmm, Bruce Campbell wrote a book. I will have to acquire it.

So, another actor writes a book about their glamorous, whirlwind life. Personally, as an ex-Detroiter, that crap bores me to tears. I’ve always been more interested in the working stiffs of Hollywood, 99% of whom are overlooked in those phony, “tell all” books. For every Bruce Willis and Steven Spielberg, there are a hundred no-name slobs scraping out a living in a shockingly difficult profession. Therefore, this is not a memoir about what I said to so-and-so at the Beverly Hills Hotel. It’s also not about an actor’s “meteoric” rise, or “tragic” fall. Rather, this book is dedicated to the players on the second string, the “B” people, if you will, and I cheerfully include myself in that lot.

I’m not quite sure what I can use to describe this … but it appears there is one demographic where John Kerry is killing George Bush: The Klingon Demographic.

A good war is based on honor, not deception. The first warrior, President Bush, deceived us all with this war.
— K’tok

On the home world, if there had been a contested election between Gore and Bush, the honorable thing would be for Gore to kill Bush, or the other way around. And then ascend to the head of the High Council.
— Khraanik

Bored with the everyday white iPod? Find it dull and lacking in excitment? Then why not get these guys to replace the LCD with a different coloured one … or add in different coloured lights or hell, even change the colour of the case itself. All for cost similar to buying an iPod in the first place … okay, not really but they do seem high.

Well it looks like Winter has arrived.

Temp: -5 °C
Wind Chill: -16 °C
Wind: ESE at 39 km/h
Conditions: light snow & low drifting snow

I should have really should have applied to Gateway Systems Limited in Bermuda when I graduated. I have British citizenship (sorta) … it wouldn’t have been overly hard to get a job. Mind, it appears their website has gone down hill during the last three years. *sigh* Well it appears they still do Delphi development. Then again, I really don’t like warm weather … but I also don’t like cold weather … grrr … In any case, the weather in bermuda … right now!

Temp: 29 °C
Wind: N at 9 km/h

I finally found the name of the show which has evade me all these years. In the mid-90s (1996 to be exact), I had the opportunity to watch a show that I not only enjoyed but stuck with me to this day. The problem was the name of this show was lost to the mists of time … or so I had though. The show’s name is Profit. A quick description of it from May 1996 can be found here. Amusingly, I found the name after reading through a Firefly discussion board where someone mentioned that the scene with River in a box reminded him a lot of Profit … where the man character slept in a box. After pulling up it’s description on TVtome, I found why none of my friends appeared to have heard of it, it only aired five episodes in April 1996. As such, I will never see it again. *sigh* I did find, though, that I am not alone in that disappointment.

I ran across an article today stating that some people in the Bible Belt of the USA want to move Halloween because it falls on a Sunday this year. One lady stated that “It’s a day for the good Lord, not for the devil.”

Some towns, in order to avoid complaints, have requested that Halloween be celebrated on the 30th. “Moving it, that’s like celebrating Christmas a week early,” said another lady.

Starr Burbic, longtime secretary to the mayor of Atlanta, had this to say: “About 15 years ago, we decided to have Halloween on Saturday instead. People went crazy. We said, ‘Never again.’ It messed everybody up to move Halloween. Some people don’t like having it on a Sunday, but we just couldn’t find a way to make everyone happy.”

Most places are going with a porch-light compromise. Those with their porch light off will be ignored by children. The article states:

The patchwork of trick-or-treat zones could work to children’s advantage: Some might go out on both nights to get all the treats they can.

But that is the stupidest thing I have heard. If half are going on Saturday, and the other half on Sunday, you are going to have to go out two nights just to get the same amount as you’d get on one day. With luck, though, you might be able to get farther each day and thus get more, but that is a bit unlikely.

This is added to proof that religous Zealots are insane.

There are a few days I wish that my mortgage hadn’t risen by $400/mnth. This is one of them. I noticed that NCIX is selling 50 spindles of Taiyo Yuden 8x-R media for $49.98 (only 1 per customer mind). The main reason for my excitement over these discs is their compatibility chart (ie: they work flawlessly with a PS/2) and their long life (very low PI/PIF errors). They are essentially the best discs on the market … and they are less than $1/disc. *sigh*

As you may recall, a couple month ago I ran across Neutrotically Yours, an on-line animated cartoon by Jonathan Ian Mathers. One of the recent cartoons dealt with tech support … and I believe you simply must watch it [mirror].

Found an amusing set of questions people asked Yahoo. This one about founding one’s own nation amused me. More importantly I found out about Minerva, Republic of.

In the 1970s, Olivier built a South Pacific island. He named it the Republic of Minerva and claimed it sovereign from its proprietary, the Kingdom of Tonga. The King of Tonga was none too pleased. He sent a group of soldiers to squash Oliver’s pursuit. They took down the “Republic’s” flag and claimed the island Tongan, while a four-piece band played the Tongan national anthem.

That quote above was a little deceptive. The Minerva Reefs were unclaimed by any nation when it was selected to be the home of the Minerva Republic by the Ocean Life Research Foundation. The reefs were unclaimed, but in October 1962 a group of Tongan islanders were shipwrecked and stranded on the reef for three months. This would be the basis of the “historical” claim of ownership the Kingdom of Tonga would later use. In any case, the Ocean Life Research Foundation claimed the reef under international law and began shipping sand from Australia to the reef to begin construction of the island. On Jan 19th, 1972, they notified the world that they existed and were a new sovereign nation. In February, they elected Morris C. Davis as Provisional President of the Republic. In the same month, at a conference of the neighbouring States (Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Nauru, Western Samoa, Cook Island), Tonga asserted its claim over the reefs. On July 21, 1972, Tonga “invaded”. While that is the very brief history of Minerva, they commission some nice coins (see below). Considering the date on the coins, I highly doubt they ever saw circulation.