I really wonder about this country sometimes. We are the home of modern democracy, yet it appears that we will not be able to get a simple thing like voting correct once again. We have polls that are ever more biased showing 10-15% changes overnight in state polls. And now I read this article about how Florida will more than likely muck it up again. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, I don't think anyone is going to be happy at the end of November when we will no doubt be arguing over hanging chads or some other nonsense. In any case, I think that some sort of federal agency needs to step up and make voting the same throughout the nation, whether it is with some computer system (although I read that these can be inaccurate as well) or just paper and pen. I really don't care anymore, just make it the same across the nation. We are voting for the leader of the free world here, not student council president, let's try and get it right.
Archive for September, 2004
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So Much Like Myself, I Can’t Believe It
This morning Bloglines introduced a new feature that will give you related feeds to any of the ones you are subscribed to. Being the curious person that I am, I decided to check out what sort of feeds are related to Dude Week. I found a couple of PVR web sites and some general weblogs, nothing too exciting. Scrolling down the list a little, I saw a site simply called Michelle Malkin. My curiousity was piqued once again by a simple name for a site, so I decided to check it out. After reading about 3 lines, I wondered how this site would be related to mine. This entry pretty much explains why this site should not be related to mine. Yusuf Islam is an activist who, as far as I know, is still an American citizen and is being refused entrance to the US for "undisclosed reasons" aka "We don't like what he is saying." This is wrong, just because someone speaks out against the US and our government, it does not mean we should refuse them access to their home country. We might not like what he is saying, but it is his right to say it.
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RSS Reader Update
It has taken some time and a number of different programs, but I think I have found an RSS reader that I really like. It is a web service called Bloglines. This site makes it easy to search for new feeds, add them in with autodiscovery and then manage them. Because this is a web service, this will also make sure that your read articles are synced up in all locations you check them. It also allows you to check your feeds from anywhere that has an Internet connection.
Another nice feature is the Bloglines notifier which runs on a number of different platforms, including one for Windows, Mac OS X (using Konfabulator) and my personal favorite, Mozilla. This unobtrusive plugin runs on the status bar and adds a red dot when new information has been posted. The only real drawback I have found is that you cannot change the amount of time between updates. Bloglines is hardcoded with one hour between checks, which should be fine for most users. I have been using Bloglines for a couple of weeks now and I am quite happy with it. If you are looking for an RSS reader and want to check your feeds from a number of locations, this may be for you. And for those of you who are interested, I have my list of subscribed feeds at http://www.bloglines.com/public/mizidymizark
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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
This is why I go and see movies. This is honestly something I have never seen before and with the story being right up my alley, I have to highly recommend this film. The acting and story were not exceptional, but they fit so well with the theme and style of the movie, it ends up working perfectly. The thing that will blow you away is the sets, or the fact that there were no sets. Everything except for the actors and the clothes they were wearing was done with computer graphics. This includes doors, objects they are holding, etc. After seeing it, I am still amazed by the scale of it all. The artistic styling with the graphics also help make this movie. Looking like it came out of Metropolis, the cities are amazingly drawn and the little touches throughout the film really make this movie something special.
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Trekkies
I never have to worry about being too big of a Star Trek fan. I enjoy the show and will occasionally stop to watch Next Gen on SpikeTV, but I am nowhere near the level of fan that is out there. This is a documentary about Star Trek fans, and you get to see people paying $1200 for Klingon head ridges that were used on the show, a 14 year old who has written a 170 page screen play and a dentist who goes to work each day in a Starfleet uniform. This movie shows that, yes, these people are pretty out there, but it also shows that they are all good people who are happy doing their Star Trek thing and being part of a community. I noticed that throughout the movie, a lot of the people commented how they only felt they really belonged when they were with other Trekkies. All in all, it was fairly interesting. Also, I feel I should note that Riverside, Iowa is mentioned in the movie for being the future birthplace of Capt. Kirk.