Tim Saylor

I came across a lot of interesting things today, so here’s a digest:

• The Monster and the Nursery - An amusing article about how commie-pinko liberals will need to recruit conservative’s children to have any political power in the future.
  
• A Minister-Free Health Care System - A brief article outlining why the Swiss health care system works better than ours. (here’s a hint: free market)
• The United States Is Not Stingy - Talks about all the contributions the US has given to Tsunami victims, and why it’s good that we are in fact stingy when it comes to development aid.
  
• Ownership Society Includes Property Confiscation - A brief blurb on Cato’s Daily Dispatch addressing Bush’s support of eminent domain.
  
• Apple v. Google: A Matter of Timing - An interesting look at the future of Apple and Google, and how their product lines will clash sooner than you may think.

Have fun with all that. On a side note, I just noticed how cool eweek.com is. Throughout that last article are links to other articles that discuss what you just read. Some might call that advertising. I call it a mesh network of information; allowing me to follow any path I want to learn exactly what I want to learn. Pretty sweet.

I got my scooter running and drove it around the neighborhood. That was awesome! Wheeee!

A few fairly recent links from The Agitator brought a few exceedingly stupid people.

First, this woman. The initial stupid person is the cop who gave her a DUI ticket for driving her wheelchair. However, when you get to the very end of the article, she blindsides you with biting the head off a python. Despite my disgust at the implied jibe at my favorite programming language, that just ain’t right.

Second, these people. “Oh noes, the beach has chairs and stores and things on it! They’re manmade! Someone think of the children!” Someone is thinking of the children. They’re thinking of the children whenever they sell a beach chair or a melon. They’re making money to buy things like food, clothing, shelter, and maybe even college education for their children. So what do you think is more important: pristine beaches, or gainful employment?

I’ve been wanting a moped for at least 5 years, and looking for one on and off during that time. This week, I finally found one that didn’t cost an arm and a leg and was close enough that I didn’t have to pay $100+ to ship it here, so I bought it. I never made my desire for one a secret, and I told my parents about it before I bought it. This morning, I bought it and my dad had to tell my grandmother, who went nuts. She probably assumes I’ve already been hit by some drunk dopefiend who couldn’t see me because it’s so much smaller than a car and I’d be dead instantly because I’m not protected like in a car. Oh and also 95% of people who own mopeds are killed in accidents, but I don’t know if that’s an annual, monthly, minutely or whatever statistic.

So basically, now that I finally have the money and the opportunity to do something I really want, she’s going to throw a fit about it. That really pisses me off. Of course I’m buying it despite her insane concerns, but it makes me feel bad that my actions are upsetting her so much and I have no real reason to be upset.

I started composing a long post about how I see the future of software and the internet, but it got too long and I hadn’t really gotten into my main point yet, so I’m writing it offline and will post it elsewher later, if I ever get timsaylor.com going. I’ll be sure to keep my lack of readership updated when it’s finished.

I really don’t want this to turn into a livejournal (and all that connotes, even if I’m the only one who thinks it), but I really hate being alone. I really miss having someone who doesn’t have to care about me but does anyway. I just want that back. I want to be able to call someone whenever I want for no reason. I want someone I can hang out with and be perfectly comfortable being myself. It’s the only thing I can’t live without and the only thing I can’t have.

I know people are probably going to give me a hard time about this post but I don’t care.

The other day I noticed a new bug in a piece of code I was testing at work (though the bug was not in a part of the code I was testing). I tracked down what was causing the bug, identified a fix, and got it put into the main codebase for distribution, all while my boss didn’t want to fix it because no customers were having a problem, then because he thought the issue was elsewhere. I = awesome!

Someone told me about this a while ago, but I’m looking at used scooters online and it came up again. Apparently nobody actually owns their own vehicles, the state does, and there’s no way to actually own it yourself. If anyone knows about this first hand, please leave a comment or email me.

Bush is apparently starting to work on Social Security reform. I’m glad he’s following through on this particular campaign promise.

For anybody out there who thinks benefit cuts are a bad thing, remember that it’s my money that you think some old person deserves. If I choose to give it to them that’s one thing, but you’re advocating pointing a gun at me and forcing me to give away my money. (If you don’t think that’s what you’re doing, take the process to it’s logical conclusion. You are.)

This BBC article reiterates what I’ve been saying all along, that people want a “Star Trek” like data pad device and the cell phone will evolve into that. I can’t wait!

I’ve moved into my new apartment but we don’t have internet access yet, so my blogging will be rare (as if that’s news) and only from work. But nobody reads this anyway, so who cares.