Not.
It had been a while since I updated any software on my computer, and so I updated Spybot Search & Destroy (which you really should be running if you are not, by the way). While the new version of Spybot was checking for just under 300,000 Bad Things, I headed on over to Windows Update.
While waiting for 316MB of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to download, I decided to do a little homework and see if anyone had any problems installing it (yes, I do live under a rock, how did you know? ). I had expected the usual "my random strange configuration won't run right" you find after every major update.
What I didn't expect to find, and in retrospect it flew by under my radar because I was in the hospital for a week when #3 was born, was that XP SP3 automatically installed on some computers and oh by the way ho-hum
completely killed a jillion PCs running AMD processors. Hmm. Good thing I don't have my box set to auto-update eh. Okay, so it turned out not to be quite that bad and it was mostly with ASUS and HP equipment, but still.
Is it really too much to ask, that your computer wakes up in the morning after installing an update? Really?
I know, I know, blah blah Mac Linux Ubuntu pwns blah blah. I got the box I'm typing on for less than the hard drive in it cost at retail, and at that price, I'm not switching OSes just so I can be MS-free while I blog & check my e-mail, sorry.
Since this all happened in the first quarter of the year, and we're looking at the end of the year, and I haven't really done anything to this box in the interval, maybe it's time for another off-site backup refresh.
Oh well, at least with XP SP2 I haven't had to do the annual Nuke-and-Pave reinstallation ritual that windows 9x called for due to generally increasing crappiness over time.
No immediate threats found on Spybot, by the way. Thank God.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Marvel Mystery Oil? WORKS.
A surprising number of visitors to my little corner of the Internet are google searching for Marvel Mystery Oil.
I have mentioned in passing before that I use it sometimes when changing my oil. I recently changed a camshaft in my engine and got to see what the top-end looks like after an oil change.
It looks like this in there.
Someone who uses dino-juice and presumably not MMO, shows this picture.
And the engine of yet another person who has changed their camshafts and taken pictures.
I have no idea what oils those people are running.
It looks like new in my engine, and I'm sure the Marvel Mystery Oil has a lot to do with that. Running a steady diet of synthetic helps too, as does flushing the oil every once in a while, but this is the cleanest "was running 1/2 hour ago" engine guts picture I've seen yet. It makes me happy and thanks to God, that it is also MY engine.
I have mentioned in passing before that I use it sometimes when changing my oil. I recently changed a camshaft in my engine and got to see what the top-end looks like after an oil change.
It looks like this in there.
Someone who uses dino-juice and presumably not MMO, shows this picture.
And the engine of yet another person who has changed their camshafts and taken pictures.
I have no idea what oils those people are running.
It looks like new in my engine, and I'm sure the Marvel Mystery Oil has a lot to do with that. Running a steady diet of synthetic helps too, as does flushing the oil every once in a while, but this is the cleanest "was running 1/2 hour ago" engine guts picture I've seen yet. It makes me happy and thanks to God, that it is also MY engine.
Global Warming Alarmism Replaced by Global Cooling Alarmism
From Newsmax (and I also heard it on the radio this morning):
The first half of this year has been cold. Last year was cold. To the sane thinker, this means Weather is happening.
To the one who only listens to the news on the radio between songs, or on the alphabet networks after supper, this is confusing.
I thought things were getting hotter! Now they are getting colder? What time is it? My show is almost on!
Follow your questions until you find out that the answer is not as cut-and-dry as you were told, and then try to make up your own mind.
Good luck.
The first half of this year has been cold. Last year was cold. To the sane thinker, this means Weather is happening.
To the one who only listens to the news on the radio between songs, or on the alphabet networks after supper, this is confusing.
I thought things were getting hotter! Now they are getting colder? What time is it? My show is almost on!
Follow your questions until you find out that the answer is not as cut-and-dry as you were told, and then try to make up your own mind.
Good luck.
Global Warming Will KILL ALL THE TREES!!!!1!
News, apparently, to some people who have never paid attention to coal mines (not news to the miners who don't count because they're not doctors or reporters):
from the Times Online
Boogity boogity magic BOOM and all of a sudden, there was an earthquake and the sea rushed in and filled the area with sediment, and perfectly preserved 10,000 hectares of forest by fossilization. To call that a bit of a stretch is an understatement.
They are ignoring a more plausible theorem because it doesn't fit into the humanist/evolutionist worldview.
Try this: before the Flood, the trees (and everything else) had a much broader range of the earth to grow on, because the global environment was healthier (maybe I'll talk about this in another post, later). So there was a forest in this place. Then the world was inundated, and this forest was covered with silt, and fossilized. Makes sense to someone not unwilling to believe what the Bible says is true. If the Bible can't be true, you come up with a whole forest subsumed in an earthquake and yet still standing, due -since this is the current bogeyman- to global warming.
Not.
Once again, science agrees with the Bible, if you will look at it from the proper perspective.
However, since the "experts" say different and nobody currently alive was there to see what happened to this forest, we will never know, and both sides will likely continue to believe what they did before, except for the soft-headed who will be persuaded due to the "experts" having Said So.
Of course, to present both theories in school for children to consider, would be a Bad Thing, right? I mean, right?
from the Times Online
Boogity boogity magic BOOM and all of a sudden, there was an earthquake and the sea rushed in and filled the area with sediment, and perfectly preserved 10,000 hectares of forest by fossilization. To call that a bit of a stretch is an understatement.
They are ignoring a more plausible theorem because it doesn't fit into the humanist/evolutionist worldview.
Try this: before the Flood, the trees (and everything else) had a much broader range of the earth to grow on, because the global environment was healthier (maybe I'll talk about this in another post, later). So there was a forest in this place. Then the world was inundated, and this forest was covered with silt, and fossilized. Makes sense to someone not unwilling to believe what the Bible says is true. If the Bible can't be true, you come up with a whole forest subsumed in an earthquake and yet still standing, due -since this is the current bogeyman- to global warming.
Not.
Once again, science agrees with the Bible, if you will look at it from the proper perspective.
However, since the "experts" say different and nobody currently alive was there to see what happened to this forest, we will never know, and both sides will likely continue to believe what they did before, except for the soft-headed who will be persuaded due to the "experts" having Said So.
Of course, to present both theories in school for children to consider, would be a Bad Thing, right? I mean, right?
Monday, September 8, 2008
Quick! Do Something Before It Happens!
The legislative ban on offshore oil drilling is set to expire (checks watch) this month.
So of course, we have to muscle in on your business and private lives, before the dramatically polarizing issue resolves itself.
I know it's a bit of a dumb question, but where is the mandate for this junk in my copy of the Constitution?
Just wondering.
So of course, we have to muscle in on your business and private lives, before the dramatically polarizing issue resolves itself.
I know it's a bit of a dumb question, but where is the mandate for this junk in my copy of the Constitution?
Just wondering.
Oh, I Didn't Consider This Mess:
A good point was raised at Shots Across the Bow:
What happens if Uncle calls your mortgage note?
What, you mean you didn't think the government would get into the business of owning your house?
Hm... looks like it may be time to line up a hundred thousand bux of low-interest credit cards and refinance. That'd work, until the credit card companies get swallowed up, too.
Oh well, I'm sure everything will be just fine! Hey what NFL teams are playing tonight? Did my netflix come in yet? ~or~ Hey, wall street is up 4%!
Bah! Humbug!
What happens if Uncle calls your mortgage note?
What, you mean you didn't think the government would get into the business of owning your house?
Hm... looks like it may be time to line up a hundred thousand bux of low-interest credit cards and refinance. That'd work, until the credit card companies get swallowed up, too.
Oh well, I'm sure everything will be just fine! Hey what NFL teams are playing tonight? Did my netflix come in yet? ~or~ Hey, wall street is up 4%!
Bah! Humbug!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Cousin Fannie, Cousin Freddy, Go Live With Uncle.
So the government (that would be you) has decided that taking on an additional few billion dollars of bad debt wouldn't hurt, since we're already anywhere from $4T to $90T in the hole, depending on how you count your debts. From Yahoo!.
Alrighty then, let's review, shall we?
1) Poor Poor Pitiful Poor People (whose lifestyles and bad money management choices made and kept them poor, by the way) can't get a loan for a house. Somehow, this is a Bad Thing and also Racist.
2) Democrats in Congress * muscle lenders into making loans that, according to the rules of common sense and good lending practices, will go bad in a few years.
3) "Investors" see that more people are buying real estate, and that (duh) prices are skyrocketing, and jump on the bandwagon. The amount of fraud involved in getting houses to flip for a quick profit is turning out to have been astonishingly high (25% and higher, some places, and that's just at the first reckoning, people that lied on applications about being able to afford it...folks who lied and said it was their main residence will be adding to this number).
4) The bad loans start to rot
5) The people with bad credit who didn't read their contracts, are astonished when their mortgage payments triple
6) Housing all of a sudden stops selling. People start getting foreclosed on in larger numbers for defaulting on loans. The vastly over-inflated price on "investment" homes falls dramatically.
7) "Investors" start walking away from their investment homes, in a national display of lack of honor that The Good People find breathtaking. Defaults on loans go even higher.
8) Mortgage based securities firms are in hard times, and one of the biggest goes pop.
9) People get distracted, the economy picks up a little
and now 10) The people who bought most of the crappy loans from banks who made crappy loans because they could sell them, facing dire financial straits, are taken over by the government.
So you are now going to be the one bailing out all the [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] people who bought houses they couldn't afford. What a bargain. When your taxes are higher next year, if you even pay attention to your return, remember this little boondoggle. And if you know someone who defaulted on the loan, borrow $5 from them so at least your share of their debt will come out of their own pocket.
Of course, they will have $5 to give you, because the things they really need, as well as the things they want, and the things that are nice to have and will be cluttering up their garages and storage facilities, are being financed at 15% interest on credit cards.
Next up: credit card companies in the same shape as mortgage companies. Coming soon to a real news agency near you!
If your panties are in a twist because I just stepped on your toes, keep reading. Everybody else have a nice day.
If you are buying things you don't need on credit, and can't afford the payments, you are a fool. If you are buying things you DO need on credit (gasoline, groceries), not only are you a fool, you are headed for a very ugly version of bankruptcy in the near future, and then you will be forced to figure out how to live within your means. If you find an even higher-interest-bearing credit source, you may be able to dig yourself a few layers deeper in debt before it happens, but it will happen.
UNLESS you ditch the expensive car and house you are struggling to pay for, and start living a lifestyle that your paycheck(s) will support, with enough left over after gas, groceries, and bills, to service your debt.
We are doing this right now in my home, and trust me it sucks but it's better than being out on the street, or living with your parents when you're 35 and married with kids.
If you can't figure it out on your own, you are NOT stupid. The government school system failed you, and you are figuring out how to swim after being kicked off the back of a ship in the middle of the ocean. Go to somebody like the Consumer Credit Counseling Service if you need some help getting started. If your counselor tries to get money from you, you went to the wrong place; it should be free
Which I know you like.
********
*Democrats, you know, the ones looking out for the working man? Yeah, remember this when you push the button for Democrats in the polling booth this December.
Alrighty then, let's review, shall we?
1) Poor Poor Pitiful Poor People (whose lifestyles and bad money management choices made and kept them poor, by the way) can't get a loan for a house. Somehow, this is a Bad Thing and also Racist.
2) Democrats in Congress * muscle lenders into making loans that, according to the rules of common sense and good lending practices, will go bad in a few years.
3) "Investors" see that more people are buying real estate, and that (duh) prices are skyrocketing, and jump on the bandwagon. The amount of fraud involved in getting houses to flip for a quick profit is turning out to have been astonishingly high (25% and higher, some places, and that's just at the first reckoning, people that lied on applications about being able to afford it...folks who lied and said it was their main residence will be adding to this number).
4) The bad loans start to rot
5) The people with bad credit who didn't read their contracts, are astonished when their mortgage payments triple
6) Housing all of a sudden stops selling. People start getting foreclosed on in larger numbers for defaulting on loans. The vastly over-inflated price on "investment" homes falls dramatically.
7) "Investors" start walking away from their investment homes, in a national display of lack of honor that The Good People find breathtaking. Defaults on loans go even higher.
8) Mortgage based securities firms are in hard times, and one of the biggest goes pop.
9) People get distracted, the economy picks up a little
and now 10) The people who bought most of the crappy loans from banks who made crappy loans because they could sell them, facing dire financial straits, are taken over by the government.
So you are now going to be the one bailing out all the [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] people who bought houses they couldn't afford. What a bargain. When your taxes are higher next year, if you even pay attention to your return, remember this little boondoggle. And if you know someone who defaulted on the loan, borrow $5 from them so at least your share of their debt will come out of their own pocket.
Of course, they will have $5 to give you, because the things they really need, as well as the things they want, and the things that are nice to have and will be cluttering up their garages and storage facilities, are being financed at 15% interest on credit cards.
Next up: credit card companies in the same shape as mortgage companies. Coming soon to a real news agency near you!
If your panties are in a twist because I just stepped on your toes, keep reading. Everybody else have a nice day.
If you are buying things you don't need on credit, and can't afford the payments, you are a fool. If you are buying things you DO need on credit (gasoline, groceries), not only are you a fool, you are headed for a very ugly version of bankruptcy in the near future, and then you will be forced to figure out how to live within your means. If you find an even higher-interest-bearing credit source, you may be able to dig yourself a few layers deeper in debt before it happens, but it will happen.
UNLESS you ditch the expensive car and house you are struggling to pay for, and start living a lifestyle that your paycheck(s) will support, with enough left over after gas, groceries, and bills, to service your debt.
We are doing this right now in my home, and trust me it sucks but it's better than being out on the street, or living with your parents when you're 35 and married with kids.
If you can't figure it out on your own, you are NOT stupid. The government school system failed you, and you are figuring out how to swim after being kicked off the back of a ship in the middle of the ocean. Go to somebody like the Consumer Credit Counseling Service if you need some help getting started. If your counselor tries to get money from you, you went to the wrong place; it should be free
Which I know you like.
********
*Democrats, you know, the ones looking out for the working man? Yeah, remember this when you push the button for Democrats in the polling booth this December.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Hmmm, Maybe Chicago Should Ban Guns?
. . . oh, wait.
They tried that, and it resulted in twice as many shootings as in an active WAR ZONE!
Hm, then maybe they should be hard on the young black gang members who are shooting the other young black gang members in Chicago? No, that would be racist.
Oh well. I guess they should just make guns illegaler again. You know, since it's worked so well every OTHER time they've tried it.
. . . oh, wait.
********
No mention in this CBS 2 Chicago article how all these guns were probably 100% illegal in the first place, by the way.
Found via WND
They tried that, and it resulted in twice as many shootings as in an active WAR ZONE!
Hm, then maybe they should be hard on the young black gang members who are shooting the other young black gang members in Chicago? No, that would be racist.
Oh well. I guess they should just make guns illegaler again. You know, since it's worked so well every OTHER time they've tried it.
. . . oh, wait.
********
No mention in this CBS 2 Chicago article how all these guns were probably 100% illegal in the first place, by the way.
Found via WND
Should Have Held Out For A New House.
Carry your guns, people!
From The Advocate and WBRZ News 2 Louisiana: (via WND)
A man was out flexing his rights, and was arrested for it.
This is why we must flex our rights: so that we will educate the police (!) and our fellow citizens.
He is not an open-carry advocate (like some of us), but he does demand that his rights are respected.
Note: rights are against the government.
So now the local government has made a settlement with him that would buy a new motorcycle. If he contacted the right lawyers this could have gone to a very solid precedent, but I'm not going to question the man's actions when he was proven right by the city's settlement and did what he thought was the appropriate thing to do to end the matter.
Good for him for at least bringing suit. I wish more folks like him would. But if they were willing to settle for new-bike price settlement, how about new car or even new house? Maybe a fired policeman and mandatory training of the rest? Wow, monday-morning quarterbacking is easy.
Bill Lodge: it's a revolver, not a pistol. That's about the same amount of difference between a train and a bus. At least you almost described the caliber correctly, and managed to be fairly even-handed towards an upstanding gun-toting member of the community.
Mark Marchiafava: congratulations!
From The Advocate and WBRZ News 2 Louisiana: (via WND)
A man was out flexing his rights, and was arrested for it.
This is why we must flex our rights: so that we will educate the police (!) and our fellow citizens.
He is not an open-carry advocate (like some of us), but he does demand that his rights are respected.
Note: rights are against the government.
So now the local government has made a settlement with him that would buy a new motorcycle. If he contacted the right lawyers this could have gone to a very solid precedent, but I'm not going to question the man's actions when he was proven right by the city's settlement and did what he thought was the appropriate thing to do to end the matter.
Good for him for at least bringing suit. I wish more folks like him would. But if they were willing to settle for new-bike price settlement, how about new car or even new house? Maybe a fired policeman and mandatory training of the rest? Wow, monday-morning quarterbacking is easy.
Bill Lodge: it's a revolver, not a pistol. That's about the same amount of difference between a train and a bus. At least you almost described the caliber correctly, and managed to be fairly even-handed towards an upstanding gun-toting member of the community.
Mark Marchiafava: congratulations!
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