Someone needs a nicotine patch

This is crazy. Who ever heard of selling drugs to support a cigarette habit?

Now for something completely different

Although I can't get to the story due to internet filters at work, seems Jennifer Aniston will go nude in her next movie.

Also, I want to plead with everyone to go support my girls and buy their new album. They had the courage to speak up when it was an unpopular thing to do. Perhaps their method was a bit crass, but many people will only recognize extremes before they will be open to any dialog.

Grrrr..

Where did my title image go???!!!

Separate but not equal

I’ve been wanting to blog lately, but I’ve been extremely busy. This past weekend was spent in Austin with Skyprincess’s friends. It was a short, yet busy weekend. I’m still recovering from lack of sleep. I don’t see that happening this weekend, it’s another busy one. I’m flying to Philly for a face-to-face interview with SAP America. Then a company in Denver is interested in an on-site interview also, we just need to determine when I can be available to make the trip. I was thinking I might be able to leave the Philly interview and get to Denver that afternoon, but the flights won’t put me there until 5pm. It might be another week.

I found this article the other day which I wanted to blog about, but I think I’m going to pass. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. For me, it’s another strike against encouraging science in America.

I think I want to talk about the talk radio discussion I heard this morning.

I only caught 15 minutes of the discussion, but it was about what could be done to improve America’s public schools. What I noticed was all the normal options were being thrown out. Longer school days. More money to pay teachers. Magnet schools. Administering standardized tests for student promotion. Reducing administrative expenses. Consolidating school districts. School vouchers.

Again, nothing new. Nothing that hasn’t been tried before and failed.

Instead of being one of those who screams “fix it!” but doesn’t supply a “how-to”, I’m going to give you “Mizike’s plan to fix public school”. You may recognize some of the ideas. They’ve been presented before. Why not use them?

For the most part, K-6 would remain pretty much the same. I would change the current text books, since they are failing the students. I would remove any ability of special interests in deciding the course materials. The text books will be standardized nationally, and not determined by local school districts. Any politically derived content will be removed. To read more about the failure of textbooks, read this MSNBC article.

I would also change the focus of some courses. For example, the focus of English should now become composition and creative writing. Writing skills for most Americans are abysmal. And I count myself in that group. My writing skills embarrass me at times. Americans have no clue how to write, and that needs to be taught very early. English should no longer be just conjugating and memorizing spelling lists.

The core courses should be English/Composition, Science, Math, Geography, Social Studies, Art or Music, and foreign language.

Foreign Language would be one of the most severe changes. Starting with K, I would mandate 3 hours each day for foreign language. Each student would be required to take these languages from K to 6th grade. They would be Spanish, French, and Mandarin.

With the extra 3 hours, it would require longer school days. To offset the class time taken away by the language classes, I would change the school year to be the full 12 months with 2 weeks off for Christmas, 2 weeks off for a summer break, and normal holidays. There will no longer be the 3 months break for summer.

Public school would change drastically at 7th grade (Middle School). I would model my school much like the Japanese school system. Each student will need to prepare themselves for testing to get into their next school. Depending upon which school the student wishes to go to, they will work with a counselor to pick their schedule. They would need to score well enough to get accepted to their school of choice. This will make sense in the next paragraph.

In the 9th grade, schools will be broken down into specific fields of study. This is similar to the school for performing arts in NY. If a student pursues a trade skill, the school will focus on trade skill related classes. These would not be your typical “Shop Class” we grew up with. These schools would be high quality craftsman schools taught be true artisans. Woodworking, metal skills, etc. This will prepare the student for those trades when they graduate. If anyone thinks this is a poor choice for students, just try to hire a plumber. Oh, I’d also make sure business classes are mandatory. These would not be your typical accounting classes, but classes that will give real world experience and expectations.

Of course, there will still be basic educational requirements that will be standardized. Math, science, etc. During these classes, students from all schools will attend. This will allow the social interaction that the segregated schools prevent.

There could be a school for performing arts, if a student wishes to become an artist. Music classes, music composition classes, sculpture, etc. Again, taught by true artisans.

I would also add seminary schools for those seeking to serve their religious beliefs.

Then there would be the college prep schools. They would be focused on the degree program you wish to pursue. Pre-med, law, science, etc. You would be tested every 4 months. If you are not making progress in your studies, you will be removed from the program and must pick a trade school to attend.

The focus of these changes is to provide the student with the necessary skills to have a skill set they can make a living with. Each student will need to work hard to achieve their goal. No longer can we afford the idea of entitlement. No longer can we accept the premise every student is entitled to go to college. Because it’s not true. Look at all the hundreds of thousands of students who never finish college. It’s because they have the idea of entitlement. They are entitled to go to college, but it doesn’t click that they need to work to succeed. It should be a privilege to go to college.

Here are the bigger changes.

I would abolish all non-public schools. I will make it illegal for any private schools of any type.

It is a sad historical fact. After the civil rights changes on the 50s and 60s, private schools began to flourish. School integration came about when the idea of ‘separate but equal’ proved false. The idea you can segregate classes or races of people, and still teach equal quality education.

Public school today has integrated as far as race is concerned. But we now have a class system where those with more money can receive a better education than low income people.

I would take away those private schools and force all students into public school systems. Next, I would take away locally funded school systems. All schools will be funded from a national budget. The quality of the school will no longer be based on the local tax brackets of the residents.

Public schools have funding problems. People do not want to pay the taxes to raise the quality of many public schools. The social groups (rich folks mainly) who can actually affect changes to the system will now be required to take action. They will see that public schools are sufficiently funded, since it now affects their children.

That’s my plan. I would like to throw in this, that has nothing to do with our education system, but I would want to implement. I would change citizenship requirements. There would be 2 classes of residents. Full-Citizens, with full rights to vote, hold elected office, etc; and Resident-Citizens, residents will full protection of the law but they cannot vote or hold an elected office. The difference is one group has taken the responsibility to lead the country; the other will be a protectorate of the country.

So how do you gain full-citizenship? Does this sound familiar? It’s like the book Starship Troopers (the book is far better than the movie, which sucked). You would give 2 years of your life to public service. You can serve as in the military or in non-military roles, such as the post office or some other government capacity.

Well... time to go back to work.

Pandora

Here's a nice hack for anyone wanting to rip MP3s from Pandora. Pandora is actually a great site, though it has limitations. You can only skip a certain number of songs an hour if it doesn't match your criteria. But it appears to be very good. Give it a try!

I have a better option, which does require a subscription. I don't have the links on this computer, but will update this post next week with that information.

Enjoy!

-Mizike-

For all your music peeps

This is an interesting article. Might need to try it next week.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/internet_tips1391.html

Even if you don't rip it to an MP3, Pandora seems amazing! I'm in the office, so I'm not sure the music quality. But it sounds very good off the cheap PC internal speaker.

-Mizike-

This post brought to you by the letter L

To all you losers out there!






Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling– convicted Enron chiefs. God has a special place in Hell for the both of you.

I present to you, Bob Dylan!

Here he is! errr.. she is, I mean.





It's true, Cate Blanchett will be playing Bob Dylan in a new biopic during his "androgenous phase".

'Cause I got something to say about it. And it goes something like this..

Have you ever had one of those moments when you realize an artist has finally cross the peak and is no longer relevant? With David Letterman, it was when he hosted the Oscars and did his “Umma, Oprah” thing. With Tom Cruise, it was his Oprah sofa gymnastics. With Kevin Costner, it was Waterworld.

Now Madonna has her “Confession” tour.

It’s time to retire Madonna. If you want to keep performing, I hear Celine Dion’s contract in Vegas is ending. Although Cher has been picked up to replace Celine, I think both of you headlining a show would be wonderful.

Madonna and Cher! Live in Vegas!

-Mizike-

I sense something; a presence I've not felt since...

Now if he only decided to do this before making the Star Wars movies, I may have actually enjoyed them.

-Mizike-

I wish I was bald

I made a mistake and looked into a mirror just a couple minutes ago and was very disappointed in what I saw. I hate my hair!

It is a daily frustration of mine. I have absolutely no fashion sense to begin with. Let’s not even talk about clothing choices. But getting my hair styled so it’s not retro-70s is an ordeal.

I’ve always had the split on the side, brushed look with no product. Spray a little spritz to keep it in place, and I was good to go. Now I’m trying my best to be a little trendier, and it’s turning out like a nightmare.

It’s never the same everyday. First, it’s sorta a Caesar with the flip in the front. Sometimes the flip turns out great, other times it makes me look like Alfalfa from The Little Rascals. Today it looks like a limp lettuce leaf on the top of my head. Doesn’t help the palmade I’m using has no hold at all. It will lose any stiffness it has within an hour and be droopy and wet looking all day. A wet, greasy looking piece of limp lettuce. Grrrr!!! You would think being a child of the 80s I would have gotten to be an expert on crap you put in your hair. But I’m not.

Maybe I should look at a different hair style.

Should I go for the Phil Spector look?



Or the James Traficant?




-Mizike-

Just too funny

Drunks

Curious

I'm very curious about the reaction in this photo. If anyone knows more about Korean culture and can fill me in, please do so.

This photo is the reaction of Hyundai employees when chairman Chung Mong Koo left for prison last month. He is charged with embezzling company funds.

Does the fingers to the nose signify anything?

-Mizike-

Let me fit you with some cement shoes

At times I look around and realize how much I would love to live in China.

When I worked for the Big Tree, we were forced to use JPMorgan as our investment manager for our 401K. During a time of very high returns in the market, our fund kept losing money due to the constant trading by our brokers. During a course of 2 years, many of us saw our porfolios drop 60% in value. Instead of allowing the value of our shares to increase with the market, the brokers kept trying to daytrade with very poor results.

I don't subscribe to cowboy justice, but there have been days I would love to.

-Mizike-

Acme Labs

Okay, I was having fun at Acme Labs when I should have been working. But I do that alot.

Here is a nice license plate I made.



And here is a label I just made.



And a heart for valentines!



And now the error message that I need to pay attention to, since I'm goofing off.

Excuse me, did you lose something?

I was one of the shy types in high school. There were the few friends I felt I could be myself around, the rest of the world I was this silent, brooding teenager. Come to think of it, not much has really changed. I’m still the quiet, shy guy.

As many of you know, I come from a fairly large family. Five boys and one girl. My sister is the oldest of us all. I’m boy #3. The 2 older brothers were fairly close in age and hung around each other. The 2 younger brothers were the same. I was stuck in the middle with very little interaction with either 2 groups. And it didn’t help that my parents grouped us together by calling the older 2 the ‘big boys’ and the 3 younger the ‘little boys’. It was artificial segregation.

When my father left, it put a huge financial strain on the family. He left for another woman, and basically adopted her kids and forgot us. To punish my mother, child support was ignored. There were many times I would have to pay the light company to keep the lights turned on. To be honest, I have no clue how my mom got through that time. It was major stress on her.

Just before I turned 16, my brother got me a job at Bonanza Steak House. I haven’t seen a Bonanza Steak House in years. I’m not even sure they exist any more. But I started at the bottom of the ladder as a busboy.

I was grateful for the work. Cleaning tables, cleaning bathrooms, washing dishes. All the labor intensive cleaning work. It was long hours and hard work. And I loved every minute. There’s something about working hard that is very satisfying. Too bad those types of jobs don’t normally pay very well. But then I never lacked for money.

There were times I would wait over a month to cash my paycheck. I wouldn’t say I horded my money, I just didn’t have anything to spend it on. I didn’t smoke. I didn’t drink. I didn’t use drugs. I didn’t have a girlfriend who wanted to go out every night. So it all went in the bank.

It was my first time to actually associate with other people outside of school or my neighborhood. The majority of people from my school I’ve known since first grade. It’s difficult to find someone attractive that you’ve known for that long. Now I was working with girls from different cities, schools, ages, etc. And it was exciting getting to know them. And then there was my assistant manager, Carla.

Carla was older that I was, obviously. I was 16 and she was 30. She was married, with 2 kids. After a couple months, it was obvious she was flirting with me. Being a horny kid, I didn’t mind one bit. Rumors abounded that their marriage was very open. Both saw other people. He targeted women who went to this bar he tended, and she went for the boys at work.

For Christmas I wanted to find something for my mom. I didn’t have a car yet, and Carla offered to take me shopping. I got off late on Saturday night, and she picked me up from work. Her mom sold odds and ends from this consignment store, and Carla was sure we could find something there. We pulled up and she opened the shop door. I started browsing the store for something for mom, when she disappeared. To be honest, I didn’t realize she wasn’t there any more. She never turned on the lights, so I didn’t know where she was.

On one of the shelves, I found this blue ceramic duck in a nest. It was my mom’s style. Very country-fide. I was about to shout to Carla to ask her the price, when I felt this hand on my shoulder.

I turned around and there Carla was, completely undressed. My mouth dropped and I choked back a few words. All I could do is stare at her breasts. I was petrified. This was my first time seeing a girl naked in front of me.

She reached down and grabbed both my hands and brought them up to cup her breasts. They were soft and heavier than I imagined. I couldn’t do anything but stand there massaging her breasts. I still couldn’t say a word. Then she knelt down to unzip me. To say I didn’t last long, is an understatement. Young boys have no control.

It wasn’t long before I was ready again and she brought me to the counter by the front window. The store was on a country road with very little traffic, but she wanted to do it in front of the window. I guess the thrill of maybe getting caught.

I often think back on that night with deep regret. She wasn’t the person I wanted my first time to be with, and I really wasn’t ready. I felt cheated, I felt used, I felt betrayed. It wasn’t with someone I cared for. I’m not saying she was ugly, but she wasn’t someone I would date. She wasn’t someone I had a connection with. From that day forward, it became very important for me to have some sort of affection for someone before I even consider sleeping with them.

I’m so much not a typical guy when it comes to sex. I need an emotional attachment to someone to even start to enjoy the act of sex. I get nothing out of just a casual screw. It feels so mechanical, so detached.

Even though I lost my virginity at 16, I would give anything to have it back and give it to the woman I am about to marry.

-Mizike-

For Celia again!

Doh!

I was going to rant on Bono, but discovered I was mistakened. So I'm going to undo my post before I make an idiot of myself.


-Mizike-

For Celia

Hope you like! I found the tool to create it here! So if you don't like the pix, then you can easily change them.

-Mizike-

Hungry

Skyprincess loves to grill. Grilling, for my family, was a special occasion. Fourth of July. Thanksgiving (yes, I prefer bar-b-que to turkey). Memorial Day. Just special holidays.

I thought it odd one of my peers at the timber company grilled all the time. He would come in Monday with chicken he had grilled over the weekend. He loved grilling. I think that was the only way he knew how to cook.

Skyprincess had been asking for a grill for a while, and I'm a softie who can't say no to her. So we went and bought an inexpensive gas grill. I think it's very nice. It's not the $1500 monster we saw, but it does the job.

My opinion on grilling has changed quickly. I love grilling. Well... I love Skyprincess's grilling. The one item I love the most is grilled corn on the cob. Nothing better. Peel back the husk and get all the stringy stuff off the corn. I'm sure it has a name. Corn silk, or something like that. All I know is that it's a mess.

Then pull the husk back over the corn and throw on the grill. Rub it with butter. Give it a nice coating of salt and pepper, and nothing is better!

Not long ago, Skyprincess grilled some lamb-ka-bobs. They were so good! Here's it is off the skewer.

Corporate Dictatorships

Here's an interesting read on Innovation Do's and Don'ts. Since I've always been suspect when it comes to the intentions of upper management, this caught my attention.

Most large companies have a change model that is essentially borrowed from poorly governed Third World dictatorships. The only way you can change them is with a coup. When a company gets into trouble, the board changes the CEO. So many companies think they can only be run by geniuses. Ordinary employees have abdicated their responsibility for being agents of change. Most people's innovation impulses lie dormant as they wait for the great vision to come down from the top.

Which fits my experience with corporate America.

Most employees feel powerless to turn the direction of the corporate ship. Mandates are handed down from above, although many employees know that it's a mistake. The problem is that news never travels up. It's filtered by managers who do not wish to be the bearer of bad news. Plus, upper management feel that the lowly employees don't see 'the big picture'.

The last major billion dollar corporation I worked for, always create new initiatives each year to present to the shareholders. Many times the initiatives were completely opposite from the previous years. In other words, we kept going backwards and forwards. Spending money undoing something, then putting it back.

For example:

When I joined this corporation we had 8 Regional Offices. Then we acquired a competitor and integrated their business into ours. This company then decided that to be more efficient, we needed to be more centralized. That there was duplication of services, and a waste of resources. And with less regions we can react to the market faster. So we went from 8 Regions to 3.

This took a lot of work. Our data systems were a mess. We had no way of changing the Region classification without corrupting the data. Plus our applications would need to be rewritten to handle this.

We spent over a year and millions to get this done. And in the end, it was a patch job. As soon as we went live with the changes, Upper Management decided that we needed to be able to be more responsive to the needs of the local markets. Since our company purchases timber to make paper, local offices really drive the process since they get to meet with the customer face to face.

So they decided we needed to be a more diverse purchasing company and divided the 3 combined regions into 12.

Now we spent another year and millions of dollars splitting the patched 3 regions into 12.

During the initial combine into 3 Regions, the foresters kept raising the red flag that the model would not work. That it would increase costs and slow the response time to the suppliers. But their managers did not raise the issue far enough up the chain to get to the decision makers, who saw 'the bigger picture'.


-Mizike-

That last post screwed up the site

Okay, so the copy/paste thing didn't work as well as I thought. I had reinserted the links manually, but seems it had some carriage returns hidden that I didn't remove.

So the blog page looks like crap now. I'll have to decide whether to delete the post (after working an hour to put in the links) or to leave it as it is. If I delete it, I may just add it as a link on the side. Which, if you notice, is screwed up also. The stupid post pushed my right menu items way down to the bottom!

Shit!

Grrrrr.........


-Mizike-

Stuff I found when looking for an FTP client

Okay, that screwed things up. I'm removing the text and placing a link on the right menu to the "46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities".

I had posted the list to the blog, but it screwed up the page rendering. So now it's a link, which is probably better.

What a way to waste the morning.

-Mizike-

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion

Has the US Military gone insane? Did they hire David Lynch to design military armor?

Here is the latest personal armor introduced to protect Humvee gunners.




Is it me, or does he not look like Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from Dune?

I see no reason to get upset with men who wish to be well groomed. I realize that some Muslims' beliefs prevent even shaving their beard. I thought Iran was a bit more progressive. Anyone care to enlighten me?

-Mizike-





Iran says no to girly sportsmen

Iran's hardline Islamic regime has had enough of footballers with long hair and plucked eyebrows.

"I will ban athletes with an effeminate look," the head of the country's Physical Education Organisation, Mohammad Ali-Abadi said, told the Etemad-Melli newspaper.

"It is really disgraceful for Iran that young people step onto fields wearing make-up," the top official fumed. "When a man enters the field with dyed hair and groomed eyebrows he is disrespecting society."

The paper said Ali-Abadi appeared to be particularly worried about footballers, and warned that "even though they get away with it now, they will be disqualified in future".

Err.. where's my stapler?

I was sitting at my cubicle reading an article on Wired about fighting video game bosses. You would think I'm a heavy gamer, but the truth is I'm a video game clutz. I sucked hard during the Atari days, and it hasn't improved since then. Plus, I find console games very very boring.

That doesn't mean I hate gaming. I love MMOGs. I wasted years of my life playing Everquest, and then World of Warcraft. I think I'm very good at those game, if I do say so myself. I just don't have the time to play them any more. You have to invest at least 4 or 5 hours a day to really play those games. I don't even have 4 or 5 hours a month to play them.

In case you wondered, I started playing a female Orc Shaman on WoW and then a female Undead Priest. I have more fun with the Priest than with the Shaman. Oddly enough, it's easier to solo with the Priest (shadow spec) than with the Shaman. I've dabbled with other classes, but I've stuck mainly with those.

So I'm reading this article when the lady across the room has her cell phone ring. She says "wait a minute, let me go closer to the window". That's when I realized, being close to the window is an unspoken perk in the corporate world. The more tangible ones are larger cubicles, not being on the end by a high traffic area (I hate people walking by seeing my monitor), a real office with a door (I miss my office in Savannah!), flat screen monitors, and of course a stapler. Having a stapler rules!

Lately, the companies I've worked for have had really poor cell phone coverage inside the building. Thankfully, I'm now close to a window and can get calls. Although I still have to use the community stapler at the printer, I have a cubicle close to the window which allows me to get calls! Woohoo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

It's Corona beer time! Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

Avast ye maties! He's about to blow!

I got started late ready my DrudgeReport stories. Yes, I'm addicted to Drudge. I actually remember the day I found his page. I was reading a bio of Soledad O'Brien, when they asked her what her favorite web pages were. This was back when she was doing the "The Know Zone" or perhaps it was "The Site". It was around 1995 or 1996. An aside... she's hot!

During her interview she mentioned Drudge, which I then went to see what it was about. This around 3am. He had just broken the story of Princess Di's death. So I found out before it made the network news shows. That was an insane weekend. I was working master control at the TV station and we had to cut out of weekend programming to the Princess Di story.

So, this is one of the Drudge stories today. Some chinese restaurant threw a family out because they didn't finish all the food on their plates?

This is one of those pet peeves I've always had growing up. Your parents, grandparents, etc. telling you that you can't leave the table until your plates are clean. Once I've ate enough, the last thing I want to do is keep stuffing myself. That's how I got fat to begin with, and it's taken years to get back to an average weight. Now, if I'm full, I leave the food on the plate.

For Japanese and Russian table manners, leaving food is acceptable. It means you are full and satisfied. An empty plate may indicate you want more food. Polish folks see food left as meaning you are not satisfied with the meal. This American thinks it means you are full and if you keep gorging yourself then you're going to get sick and hurl. So stop eating!!!

I'm notorious for leaving more than half my food on my plate. I'm always being asked if I liked my meal. Yes, I liked my meal. But I didn't need a plate that could feed 4 people!

-Mizike-

She's dead, wrapped in plastic

Like most kids, I grew up with a decent fear of death. I did my best to avoid any reminder that death was around me. If my pet died, take it away and bury it. Don’t tell me where you buried it. Don’t even remind me I had a pet to begin with. If a relative died, don’t make me walk up to the casket and see their body. It’s not them. It doesn’t even look like they did in life.

And I never understood the western tradition of presenting a body for viewing. I mean, I think I can understand. It probably comes from property right struggles where a body had to be shown to prove a death. Or from a sense of disbelief that they really are dead until you see the body.

But it’s creepy. You take a body. Pump it full of nasty shit that gives it a shelf life longer than twinkies. Put enough makeup on it that Dame Edna could be seen as a pentacostal. Place it in clothes they never would wear in life. Be honest. Uncle Jim Bob, the one who spent every Sunday watching ESPN and licking buffalo wing drippings from his fingers. The one who was more at home with a power tool than a hair brush. The one who thought Hooters was the local 5 star restaurant. The epitomy of the dirty shirt, American male. Do you really think he looks right in the Brooks Brother’s knock off suit? Hell no!

So it’s all together creepy. And it’s all show, which I don’t understand. For me, present me like I am in real life. Dirty white tennis shoes, a well worn t-shirt that is starting to get a bit thread bare, and shorts. There, that’s me.

Skyprincess has planned her funeral out. She’s already purchased the funeral package and has all the details written out. She wants to be cremated and have her ashes split and distributed in different locations. Which I think is such a cool idea.

I had a talk to my mom years ago about how I wanted my funeral to go. For me, I hated the idea of being on display. I don’t want a funeral. I don’t want anyone to come and “pay their respects”. I don’t want some headstone somewhere that’s forgotten years and years from now. For me, burn me and throw me away. It’s not me anymore. And coming to view a huge hunk of worm food isn’t going to really give you any closure. If you want to remember me, then revisit your old memories. If you don’t, then that’s fine with me. I’ve never been one of those who feels they need to leave behind some legacy to show they existed.

Most of my life, I’ve spent considerable effort to hide where I am. To not leave bread crumb trails of where I was or where I am going. Why should that change when I’m dead? My love ones will remember me, and that’s all I want. For those who think they need to be remember in order to prove they existed, I say bullshit. You are here now. Enjoy life now. How you are remembered 100 years after your death really means shit now. It’s far more important how your neighbor remembers you today, than some stranger in a 100 years. All they’ll know is some fact about you anyways. He was short. He was rich. He was responsible for burning down a city block after his bar-b-que grill exploded. That’s what they’ll remember. Not how you enjoy drinking your coffee with splenda instead of sugar. It’s the little things that make you who you are.

-Mizike-

P.S.
10 points to anyone who recognizes the quote used in the title WITHOUT googling it.

Texmex is teh devil

I'm not going to weigh in on either side of this debate in this post. The only thing I can say is that I really don't care for Mexican food.

Oh nos! My thumb drive is busted!

Nice hack from IntelliAdmin.


Disable USB Drives

Once in a while I have a friend, or customer that needs to keep people from using the USB ports to copy data off of a system.

It is easy to lock a machine down, disable the floppy, and cdrom in the bios. Many times when you try to disable USB - it disables it entirely.

This can be a real pain on newer laptops or systems that don't even have a PS2 interface for the mouse or keyboard.

There is a simple registry change that will keep the USB storage drivers from starting when the system boots. Keeps people from walking up to a PC and copying data off with a USB key, but allows you to keep your scanner, keyboard, and mouse working.

As always - back your system up before messing around in the registry.

Just open regedit and browse to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

Notice the value 'Start'

Switch this value to 4, and USB storage devices are disabled.

Switch this value to 3, and USB storage devices are enabled.

Another reason to go all organic

Since I'm not having kids, I'm going to ignor this news article and spray the little buggers with as much DDT laced insecticides as I can! Now if I can get rid of all the clover that is choking my yard I'd be one happy camper.

-Mizike-

You're a git! (a.k.a. Boxers or briefs?)

This weekend was sorta a quiet one. Skyprincess and I didn't go to the play, afterall. I had a planned morning long interview Friday, which didn't happen. I had 2 head hunter groups involved with getting it scheduled, and the communication between the two failed.

I had one group who found me for the position and had confirmed an interview time with me. The other was the first group's interface with the client, and the client never confirmed. I arrived for my 8am interview and no one knew where the hiring manager was. An hour later, I got the headhunter on the phone and found it was never a locked time slot.

There goes my morning! I then had a doctor's appoint at 1:30 to check my eyes. I haven't been since last August, which is bad. I need checkups everyone 3 months to keep a watch on my pressure. As usual, they were behind and I didn't get out of there until 4pm. There goes my day!

Saturday was a bit better. I got up early to mow the yard before it rained. Then inside to do a bit of house cleaning and away to see 'United 93'. Skyprincess handled it much better than I thought she would. Although she told me to 'stop looking at me' about 10 minutes into the movie. I kept my hands to myself and my eyes straight forward the rest of the movie. I am so grateful that she's still here. When she worked domestic flights, American flight 11 was her flight. She lost friends that day.

During one of my sleepless nights this past week, I was flipping around and caught a couple minutes of Jimmy Kimmel. He's funny, but I'm not really into late night talk shows. The only one I really like is Craig Ferguson. It's the accent and the british humor. Plus, how many times do you hear someone being called a 'git'?

Jimmy Kimmel was asking his guest some nonesense questions that I really wasn't listening to. Then he asked 'boxers or briefs'? His guest replied, 'well, now you have the choice for both.'

I really didn't hear what his preference was, I didn't care. But boxers or briefs? For me, I grew up in fruit of the loom briefs. I wore briefs forever. I tried boxers when I got out on my own and started dating. But to be honest, I hated them. I like my stuff nice and snug, not all floppy. When I first saw those boxer/briefs I thought they were ugly. Why would you wear underwear with legs? They were more like shorts! Then I tried a pair, and I must say... I love them! They are extremely comfortable, and don't look as silly as normal briefs. Be honest, what guy doesn't look silly in plain briefs?

-Mizike-