I have been comforted by Lloyd’s reasoning in the comment for yesterday’s entry. You (any reader) must forgive my uninitiated Olympic mind and my irrational fear of communism. However, I was definitely not comforted by Jason’s comment, haha. (He’s the first commenter in that entry.)

I was also thinking about the models (the one based on economics), and it does account for bumps like the US team losing to Puerto Rico (which isn’t even a country for crying out loud). So, um, go USA.

In any case, China still put a man in space, and I still feel they are on the rise, looking beyond the 2008 Olympics.

To tell you the truth, I don’t really like watching the Olympics. It’s kinda boring. But hey, I fence, and I get way bored watching fencing.

This article piqued my interest, however: Only Three Golds – U.S. Misfires in Early Days in Athens.

It wasn’t just my patriotic outrage, it was the first sentence: “Told to avoid inflaming anti-American sentiment, U.S. athletes may have toned down the bravado too much in the early days of the Athens Games.”

Ain’t that interesting? Is this true? Or is an excuse? Either way, it disgusts me. Lose to make the rest of the world happy? Intimidation is part of the game, my friends. Even if you don’t think intimidation is all that great, can I appeal to your patriotism? Shouldn’t we try out best?

Something else to ponder: “China lead the medals table with 10 golds.”

So, they put a man in space. They’re in the lead for the medal count. Will they win? If not, they’re going to do a damn good job. Then, they’re hosting the 2008 Olympics. Being the host country naturally means you put more money into sports in order to look good, which will most likely translate to more medals. Could we be looking at China doing the best in 2008?

China is a nation on the rise. And China is not a democracy. That’s why I’m worried.

It’s all symbolic so far… and I know this is a cheap dig… but who hosted the 1936 Olympics? The Nazis.

It reminds me of a comment Lloyd left a while back [I’ll find the entry later]. The 20th century belonged to America. Will the 21st belong to the Chinese?

This is definitely the weirdest comment spam I’ve ever gotten:

Your Co-worker Could Be a Space Alien, Say Experts
		...Here's How You Can Tell
Many Americans work side by side with space aliens who look human -- but you
can spot these visitors by looking for certain tip-offs, say experts. They
listed 10 signs to watch for:
    (3) Bizarre sense of humor.  Space aliens who don't understand
	earthly humor may laugh during a company training film or tell
	jokes that no one understands, said Steiger.
    (6) Misuses everyday items.  "A space alien may use correction
	fluid to paint its nails," said Steiger.
    (8) Secretive about personal life-style and home.  "An alien won't
	discuss details or talk about what it does at night or on weekends."
   (10) Displays a change of mood or physical reaction when near certain
	high-tech hardware.  "An alien may experience a mood change when
	a microwave oven is turned on," said Steiger.
The experts pointed out that a co-worker would have to display most if not
all of these traits before you can positively identify him as a space alien.
		-- National Enquirer, Michael Cassels, August, 1984.

	[I thought everybody laughed at company training films.  Ed.]

It ends with a link for “tramadol.”

Who the hell thought this up? What is going on inside these spammer’s minds!

Spammers… grr… one of these days…

This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet (Permalink: http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2004/08/a_sonar_ping_of.html) — results and commentary will appear there in the future.

Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate — the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is: as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawst (this GUID enables anyone to easily search Google (or Technorati) for all blogs that participate in this experiment). Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)

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To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).

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(14) My web browser is: Opera 7.53

(15) My operating system is: Windows 2000

This is the prompt: “…is there anyone you know mostly (if not exclusively) online? If so, how much do you really know (or not know) about this person? Are you comfortable with the very idea of getting to know someone mostly online? Do you think you’d care to meet them eventually?”

Although Stevie and I were in the same room for many days in the summer of 2002, we hardly spoke face to face. We’d still chat online. Wow, that AIC class was not talkative. Since then, I’ve seen her only a few times, including the other day.

The other person I saw yesterday was Mary. I know Mary almost exclusively through online chatting as well. Before the other day, I had only seen her once: When we saw Star Wars: Episode II.

How well do I know these people? Not very well. If I had to do that question game, I would do horribly. Question game? Oh, at TVA, there was a little experiment in which three people who knew each other online were asked questions. Two could collaborate to figure out the answer about the third person. (Fun times.)

Still, even if I had to do that about people I know physically (didn’t want to say, “in real life”), I wouldn’t get very far. I just don’t know people all too well.

My mom’s always asking me, “What college does s/he want to go to?”

“I don’t know.” Those kinds of topics never come up.

Others inquire, “Then, what the hell do you talk about?”

“Random crap.” Ask anyone I know. They will tell you that the topics I bring up most often involve random crap. Even my website, Psycho-ward.org… random crap.

That’s why I’ve wandered so far off topic: I’m bringing up random crap. How much do I know about anyone? Not much. (Especially of the people I know online.)

I suppose it’s because I don’t ask about that junk, but one tiny part of it is because people assume I know. Ever had that happen to you? The ol’, “I thought you knew” line? Yes? No?

I like meeting these people personally. There’s something about human contact… I’ve met Mary before. I know Josh’s cousin, Colin, exclusively online, and I’m going to meet him this weekend. Still, truth be told, I’m even less exciting in real life. It goes back to the comedic timing thing I was talking about yesterday: I’m not that great a speaker.

I’m very comfortable with getting to know people online because they can’t see that. There can be huge lulls in the conversation, and that’s just fine. It’s nicer if you’re a natural introvert.

What’s the theme of this mental wandering? I wanted to talk about people online but I ended up trashing myself. Hm. It’s because I’m covering up for how little I actually know about the people in my life.

I have a backlog of entries I need to do, but really wanted to comment on how I need to work on my comedic timing. My style and delivery is utterly horrible, especially so in real life. I do better when I respond to what someone says, but if I wanted to devise my own comedic monologue, it would be completely unfunny. I know some of the stuff I say can be funny, but I don’t know how to present it correctly. Even when I do get it right, I’m not consistent, and what’s funny for one person is not funny for the next. That, and the art of the segue. I can’t elaborate on a story, or go on to another joke. Maybe I’m just a horrible extemporaneous speaker.

In any case, it doesn’t bode well if I want to get into politics later. I need to sound more natural. Talk to the people, not at the people, I always tell myself, but it’s harder in practice.

I’m at Tolman Hall, right now, visiting TVA. I hit the shift button a bunch of times in a row (I do that sometimes when I’m thinking of what to type), the computer made a funny noise, and a window popped up. *woosh* (The sound of memories flying through my mind.) I used to do that in AIC. That was back in 2002? Anyway, the moral of the story is: I have a weird habit, and I’ve had it for a long time.

Note to self: Do their journal question for today, heh.

“is there anyone you know mostly (if not exclusively) online? If so, how much do you really know (or not know) about this person? Are you comfortable with the very idea of getting to know someone mostly online? Do you think you’d care to meet them eventually?”

EDIT: Cut out “Journal question for today’s comment section… ” from beginning of original quote

An old guy was playing this odd quiz-type game machine, only he was really dumb. He said something really stupid aloud, and I, watching a short distance away, proceeded to laugh my ass off.

I related this story to one of my friends, only she didn’t think it was so funny, and even let someone else interrupt my story. I realized it was probably one of those “you had to be there” moments.

Later on, I wake up. I grasped at my dream fragments, trying to remember that moment. The funny event doesn’t even make sense anymore, and probably wouldn’t have been funny at all, had I been awake.

No wonder she didn’t laugh.

On March 16, I mused: are Gay Marriages Good for the Economy?

Lo, I find this: Gay Marriage Could Save USD $1 Billion? Am I vindicated? Am I good, or what?

I was going to add the caveat for yesterday’s entry that the chance of this was very slim, but because of this, I’m feeling a little better about my crystal ball. I still doubt it’ll happen, but I’ll leave it as it is (with the extra paragraph coming tomorrow).

This happened around the time of the musical, and this weblog was down at that time.

I was really tired because of the musical, etcetera. There was no chance to rest. You know how tired I was? I was so tired that I fell awake. That’s right, I fell awake.

I was already sleeping, and I was in the middle of a dream. In the dream, I could hardly keep my eyes open. Finally, I close them, and then I fall awake. I was wide awake at that point, and quite disconcerted.

Definitely the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me in a dream… even more disconcerting than when I told a dream person that I was dreaming. (Another story for another time.)

Do dogs have nightmares?

One of the seniors passed by me during lunch, “I’ll see you during Major Religions today… oh wait, no, I won’t!”

“Nice one, cripple,” I replied, in reference to his crutches.

His rebuttal involved sticking up his two middle fingers. Touché.

And that’s probably the last time I’ll ever see him. Okay, so, I’ll be at graduation, but in the pit, and only able to hear the names.

It’s just an odd way to say good-bye — somewhere in there, there’s an acknowledgement that it’s good-bye, and yet, it still gives a sense that there is no good-bye.

Just someone I sat next to during Major Religions. I remember interviewing him (and a lot of other people I don’t remember) last year for my Christology assignment. He was “hamburger man” or “hamburger guy” because he was eating one during the interview.

People pop in and out of life. I’m used to it. Not that anyone’s died on me, but if I never see them again, there’s no real difference.

I don’t know. There should be some point I’m trying to make here about the one random memory or good-bye, maybe something about how in a year, most of the people I know I’ll never see again. But I can’t think of a point. I can’t really explain any feeling. It’s just a moment I had.

All I can think of is that that moment will stick in my head. The hamburger interview will stick in my head. Oh yeah, and that time he said he liked the way the lights reflected off Mr. Steeb’s forehead.

Just moments.

My web host died on me. So, I lost all my stuff. Luckily, I went to the Google cache and preserved from material before it was lost. The only things I’m missing are the seconds in the timestamp for my entries, and the complete date for any comments after February 11.

Now I’m on a new host. I downloaded MovableType 3 this time around. I’m still trying to fix things and upload my old entries, so bear with me.

So far, I haven’t put up my comments or the entries from between late February and yesterday.

I have a lot of homework, and I’m going to make a Majestic comic tomorrow. The weblog is lower on the priority list right now. Thus, I’m not sure when I’ll be done rebuilding everything.

It’s ANYWAY. Not ANYWAYS. “Anyways” is nonstandard. It hurts my ears (and eyes).

To explain my feelings today, let me present a (fictional) story:

I have a car. It’s not the most beautiful, but it works for me. Over Easter Vacation, I had the car repainted and the interiors cleaned. Damn, that car looked good. It looked just like new!

So, later on, I drove to the supermarket to pick up some random items. When I came back, there was a shopping cart next to my car. It had scratched the paint. The new paint. It had just looked like new, and now, there’s a scratch. In fact, if I look at any other part of the car, it still looks new. However, my attention keeps coming back to the scratch.

Alright, end of story. What does it mean? The car is kind of like my soul. I felt all refreshed after Easter Vacation. I felt new and ready for the world again. If you know me a little bit, you know I can be rather cynical. However, I felt so much less jaded after the Easter Vacation. Now, I come back — just one day in school! — and I’m starting to feel a little jaded again. The world just put a scratch in the new paint on my soul. I still feel quite refreshed, but I know there’s a scratch now. Before the scratch, maybe there was the illusion that it would look new forever. But afterwards, I know there’ll be more scratches.

When’s summer vacation?

I didn’t post anything most of last week because I was on vacation. I forgot to mention that earlier, but you’d know if you’d been to my website. On to the topic at hand…

Let me preface this by saying that I never have nightmares. I just don’t. The whole falling thing, chased by stuff… yeah, haven’t had those kinds of dreams in years. This recent dream is as close to “scary” as it gets…

The dream wasn’t really specific. All I remember was that I was in a traffic jam. I had the general impression that: It was summer, gas prices had skyrocketed… There was a gasoline shortage and cars were lined up at the gas stations.

It was weird because I don’t normally have dreams that could translate into reality. You know what made it even more weird, and more real? I was thinking about what to write in my weblog while dreaming. Geeze.

I’m reading the text from the Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US brief.

Something caught my eye: “The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin’s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US.” I guess the US government recognizes Canada as the 51st state. Just kidding.

No, this actually caught my eye: “[…] Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Shaykh” ‘Umar ‘Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.” How could the president have prevented September 11th with that information? Does that even remotely sound like he’s going to use the hijacked aircraft to crash into a building?

[more comments tomorrow]

I added a new link on my side menu there: FactCheck.org – Annenberg Political Fact Check. Very factual site.

Help my friend’s band out: They are a local high school band from the bay area competing on action 36’s high school sports focus. Vote for them, Fat Kid Running, at: http://www.ktvu.com/sponsor/2458804/detail.html

I also have this printed at psycho-ward.org, a free advertisement, one could call it.

I made one new Ridiculously Easy Game for 2004. It’s called: True or False?.

Today’s April Fool’s Day, so I won’t interrupt the levity right now. I’ll wait until tomorrow to comment on Iraq.

I used Lego’s to make a Zen Buddhism comic for an assignment for my Major Religions class. I’m planning on adding more panels when I post it on psycho-ward.org, so it’ll be funny and popular with the general audience.

Not too long ago, I said I didn’t want to miss a day of updating. Lately, I’ve not felt like updating at all. Ironic.

You know what else is ironic? The Disney movie Hercules. He’s a classical Greek hero, but the music is modern and African in its roots. Now that, that is irony.

My page on Goldfish Jingles is once more #2 on Google for the search term “goldfish jingles” after I restored the original intro text.

Something to file in my “Things I Don’t Understand” box: Why do people use the expression “a couple”? It has 3 syllables. Two only has 1 syllable. [to be elaborated upon at a later date.]

Why does practically every pop song (from any era) have to sing about love? Not that I have anything against love, it’s just that, for once, I’d like to see an original song — not some generic love ballad. For once, I’d like to hear a song about something ordinary; I’d like to hear a song about a chair. Often, you’ll hear of love being taken for granted, but what about chairs? How often do you think about the chairs you sit upon every day? There is a home sweet home, but no chair sweet chair.

And for those who think you can’t get enough emotion from a song about chair: Haven’t you ever had a time when you really needed to sit down? How great did it feel when you actually found a seat?

It’s not as easy to write a song about a chair, but that’s the point. I want to hear a song that took effort to write, lyrics and all. Something non-generic. And the easiest way to remove the writers from the generic is to write on an entirely different subject.

I hate allergies because then you can’t tell if you have a cold or not and by the time you do, it’s too late.

We live in scary times. First, the bombings in Spain, and now Taiwan’s president is shot. I know they’re not related, but it still makes me feel generally insecure.

How much money do people typically spend on marriages? A lot, yes. Especially if you include everything immediately before and after the marriage. So, would the legalization of gay marriages induce a temporary spending spree? And if so, how much of an impact would it have, if at all?

However, would that mean companies would have to spend more money on health coverage, etcetera? Or, does it mean less work and paperwork since there’s less status types to remember?

Or, maybe all of this is a non-issue. I was just trying to think pragmatically.

[damn, missed the update… and I was doing so well, too]

Lloyd’s prompt: “How long can you go without having to post on your weblog? Days? Weeks? Months? Do you miss it somehow? Or not?”

Somehow, I managed to get into this current groove of flipping everyday. And I have to say, I like it. So, now, I don’t want to miss one day.

However, just recently, I missed 5 days because my weblog and website were down due to webhosting issues. I did miss weblogging. When I was writing, it was hard to think of new ideas. But just a few days after not having the weblog, I started thinking of new topics to write about. In fact, I ended up writing an entry on paper for when I got back to blogging.

How long could I go without a weblog? Realistically speaking: forever. I mean, if I absolutely had to, I could stop. Anytime. I’m not addicted to it.

If I’m not addicted, then how come I wrote an entry on paper? That’s because I knew I was getting my weblog back soon. But yeah, that does sort of make me contradict myself. Let’s say I was on vacation, away from the computer. I think I could probably go a week without writing anything. But after 7 days, I think I would have to write something.

Before I got into this 7x a week groove, I could easily go a few days without weblogging. However, for now, I’ll repeat that I don’t want to miss one day.

I’ve been thinking about writing about this for a while, but decided to do it today because Lloyd talked about it today and said, “In the coming time, I very much hope to read about this issue from those whose lives I follow on their weblogs[.]” I wrote this before looking at the listlog:

Even if I were against gay marriage, I could never in good conscience support such an amendment. Why? Because it limits the activities of the citizens! It says what they cannot do. The Bill of Rights were specifically created not to have the government take away citizen rights or privileges, and I think we should honor that example.

Alright, there is one case in which there was an amendment that said what a citizen could not do: the 18th Amendment, adopted in 1919. Technically, it forbids the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor, but that’s just a roundabout way of saying that people aren’t allowed to drink alcohol. But you know what happened to that amendment, right? In 1933, it was repealed by the 21st amendment.

As to the actual question of gay marriages, I say yes. Contrary to what chicken little says, it will not destroy the fabric of society. Letting two people get married will not harm anyone. Their partnership should receive the same legal benefits as a heterosexual marriage.

Hey, but what about civil unions? Can’t they figure out ways to give them the same legal status? Sorry, separate but equal isn’t valid. Besides, if a civil union were to grant them the exact same privileges, then the only difference between a marriage and civil union would be the name. At that time, is there any further point to keeping the names separate? It makes no sense.

Another idea I’ve heard is to not use the word marriage for any non-religious partnership. Just an attempt at politically correctness that won’t please anyone. Again, what’s the point of calling them something different if they’re the same?

The only “valid” argument against same-sex marriage is religion. Yet, Christianity preaches against divorce and remarriage. You can’t get remarried within the Catholic Church. Yet, you don’t see the Catholic Church lobbying for a constitutional amendment to not allow people to remarry. Church and state are separate. If a church doesn’t accept the marriage, then that’s the church’s prerogative, not the state’s.

On a not so unrelated note, kausfiles posits that Bush’s announcement helps Kerry: “Why did Bush have to make his gay marriage announcement today, as opposed to next Wednesday? … If he wanted to run against Edwards, don’t you think he’d have waited and given Edwards the space to make his pitch?”