Below are the most recent 13 friends' journal entries.

Wednesday, June 19th, 2013
xkcd_rss	4:00a	The Pace of Modern Life http://xkcd.com/1227/ (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 18th, 2013
ernunnos	9:41a	Good. The Court Ruling That Could End Unpaid Internships for Good If the competition for those unpaid positions is so fierce, then they're not fields that can absorb a lot of workers at higher levels either. The majority of interns will be disappointed, and it's economically more efficient to disappoint them early, so they can move on to other things. If the job is so unproductive that it's not worth at least minimum wage, then it deserves to disappear. This is also a form of career gambling, with your parents' money. (Who supports these interns?) Transferring money from one person to another with little added value is an economic zero-sum game, and society suffers no loss by ending it. Also, this requirement for parental support is a way of perpetuating class ownership of certain fields, which has other negative effects. Why is the mainstream press such an echo chamber? You think filtering out aspirants by how much money their parents make and are willing to donate to the cause of getting their kids into it plays a role? I do. (Comment on this)
ernunnos	9:03a	Pit bulls aren't a breed... until they are. One of the standard tactics of pit bull apologists is to claim that there is no such thing. That there's nothing especially dangerous about them. It's just a label ignorant people use to describe a whole bunch of different dogs who can be trained to be violent or not, depending on the owner. That's when they're talking to critics. When they're talking amongst themselves it's an entirely different story. Why Should Responsible Pit Bull Owners Have a Break Stick? Because canines are pack animals, fights are possible in any multi-dog household, no matter what breed of dog you own. A responsible owner should take measures to prevent such fights, but he or she should also be prepared for the worst. The goal of any owner should be to break up a fight quickly and efficiently. The majority of breeds will snap erratically at their opponent, biting and releasing repeatedly. As terriers, pit bulls will usually bite and hold. Contrary to popular myth, this is not some kind of special pit bull behavior; it is merely terrier behavior. As its name suggests, a break stick is designed to break this determined terrier hold. This is the safest, easiest, and most effective way to stop a fight. Do not attempt to use a break stick on other dog breeds. Emphasis theirs. They know there's a difference, and it's an important one they feel the need to emphasize. Attempting to use a break stick on other breeds could result in serious injury to the person using the stick. Since other breeds will unpredictably snap and bite instead of getting a grip, you are far more likely to be bitten. You also should not attempt to use a break stick with other terriers. While all terriers grab and hold, pit bulls are far less likely to redirect their bite on an intervening human than, say, a Jack Russell Terrier. For the same reason, you also need to be very careful when separating your pit bull from another breed. Your pit bull will probably not bite you, but you might get bitten by the other dog. So pit bulls have distinct - and distinctly dangerous - tendencies not only from other breeds, but also from other terriers. Be Prepared There are many ways of managing a multi-dog household. Your primary goal should be to prevent fights before they begin. Many, many pit bulls—even pit bulls from fighting backgrounds—get along just fine with other dogs. Nevertheless, the breed’s tendency for dog aggression is slightly higher than the average dog, so constant vigilance is vital. Oh wait, what's that? "The breed's tendency" - and they've already established that it is a distinct and distinctive breed - "is slightly higher than the average dog..." This coming from friends of pit bulls. "...so constant vigilance is vital." Sounds like a dog I'd like to leave with my young child. Make sure to teach them how to use a break stick. Which, as a "responsible pit bull owner", you do have, right? And it's readily available where you can get to it in the middle of a dog fight, correct? You know another way to prepare for the worst? Don't rescue a pit bull. Eliminate the issue entirely. Problem solved, problem staying solved. Hundreds of thousands of dogs will be euthanized. You're going to have to make a choice about which one(s) you can save. Why not do yourself a favor and pick one that doesn't necessitate having a special tool to pry them off other dogs? Or, heaven forbid, people. You are not the Jesus Christ of the dog world, sent to save the worst sinners to prove your mercy and grace. You're a human with a desire for canine companionship, and you have every right to be as selective as you would be of a human roommate. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 17th, 2013
kathrynrose	7:32p	"Go Tell the Spartans" "Go tell the Spartans, you who read: We took their orders, and lie here dead." -- Epitaph of Simonides, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt For as long as soldiers have kissed their loved ones goodbye and gone to war, they have sent messages back home. Sometimes, as with the quote above, the words come home, and the soldiers don't. As an Air Force brat, I've understood that my whole life. We watched the Viet Nam war on the news with dinner every night, and thankfully my dad was never sent over there (he had served in Korea before I was born). We knew any unexpected phone call could order him in to travel to [Destination Classified] and we would see him when we saw him. "You know where the papers are." He'd say to mom as he bent to kiss my cheek, and I didn't need a scholar to translate, "I may not see you again at all." So you wait and you wonder and you check with your friends to see who else's dad got a call, and what, if anything, they know. For me, the wait was never very long, and usually my dad had been somewhere stateside in a windowless room full of computers and satellite images, watching other people do scary, dangerous things. But that not-knowing sticks with you, and I think that's why I support Operation Write Home. I know I talk about them a lot, but for new folks, OWH is a network of paper crafters who make handmade greeting cards and send boxes of blank cards to deployed service members so they can write home to their families. Some of our deployed Heroes (we don't say soldiers, because that word is specific to the Army) have access to email or Skype, but others have told us that before we started sending cards, they were writing home on the backs of the packaging that had come wrapped around their MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). OWH is a win-win-win situation because crafters gotta craft; Heroes get messages of support and thanks in boxes full of cheerful cards in colors that range well beyond desert camouflage, and reminders that the people they're fighting for care about them; and family members get words they can hold in their hands and tuck under their pillows. One of my favorite stories from the OWH website came from a Hero in Afghanistan. She wrote, "...We just had several tornadoes run through middle Tennessee. The news was telling everyone to take cover. My two teenage daughters and two toddler sons went into a closet that is under our stairs (our safest place in our house). My Mom went in to check on them after the storm had passed and all four of them were asleep. She looked down and both girls had taken some important things with them (just in case the house blew away and that is all that survived). Both girls had their shoebox with all of your cards in them, their arms wrapped tightly around it. My oldest had her prom dress, prom shoes and prom jewelry also! I thought it was hilarious because they were convinced that the house was going to blow away and that is all they cared about..." I read that story and thought, "It's not the cards they were holding on to through the storm. It was the words from Mom inside them." Since I've been involved with OWH, I've become very aware of reports of war fatalities. "War fatalities" sounds so clinical and distant, but I listen for locations and unit information if it's given. I used to think, "I wonder if they're one of our Heroes." (meaning, people who receive our cards). Then one day I realized, they're all ours. And any card we send overseas for someone to send home to their family may be the last words the family has to hold on to. I recently enjoyed watching an episode of Who Do You Think You Are featuring Paula Deen. The video is available at the website (or you can read the Yahoo! recap written by our own alycewilson). My favorite part was Paula sitting with an historian who had located letters written by one of her ancestors while fighting in the Civil War. There's something timeless and fascinating and humbling about looking at the words written by someone, knowing how brave they were under harrowing circumstances, that they continued fighting, knowing they could die at any moment, all the while thinking about the people they love back at home. I've never been in a war, but I'm willing to believe that feeling is universal. No matter when or where or what cause they're fighting for, all who battle would rather be at home telling someone how much they love them. -- This has been an entry for therealljidol Exhibit B. Thank you for reading! The poll is here. (27 Comments |Comment on this)
funcrunch	11:15a	Race report: San Francisco Marathon 2013 Nine months of preparation paid off. Yesterday I achieved my goal of completing the San Francisco Marathon within the six hour time limit. My official finish time was 5:52:23. ( The detailsCollapse ) I am proud that I accomplished my goal of completing a full marathon. Ever since dropping out of the first marathon I signed up for back in 2000 due to injury, I've wanted to see if I could achieve this goal. But it was until Dean Karnazes convinced me last September that I made this commitment. For the person who was always picked last in gym class, who was overweight and sedentary for half of her life, who didn't start running (or any other regular exercise) until age 28, and who always considered 26.2 miles to be an arbitrary distance, this was a Big Deal. And I did it. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
xkcd_rss	4:00a	Balloon Internet http://xkcd.com/1226/ (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 14th, 2013
xkcd_rss	4:00a	Ice Sheets http://xkcd.com/1225/ (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 12th, 2013
xkcd_rss	4:00a	Council of 300 http://xkcd.com/1224/ (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 10th, 2013
kathrynrose	6:29p	If Wishes Were Horses I reach for my rational mind, for facts that I know. I analyze. For example, did you know the most volatile time in a social movement isn't when conditions are at their worst? This I learned half-awake on Monday-Wednesday-Friday mornings from the second row of Dr. Throgmorton's Sociology of Conflict class. The most volatile time in a social movement, the time when it is more likely to get violent and ugly and dangerous, is when conditions begin to improve. When people are in their darkest, scariest moments, they lock into survival mode. They are more likely to reach out and work together because things are bad for everyone. The biggest social conflicts happen after that -- when the storm passes; when things are starting to get better; when resources become available. But the first truckload of food or medicine or money isn't enough to satisfy everyone. Even the best negotiators and relief workers can't meet all the needs immediately. So people go from despair to hope and when they don't get what they hoped for, no matter how unrealistic, that is when the rioting and the fighting and the chaos happen. It's true on the individual level too. In twelve years of talking to electric utility customers I learned that, during major outages, people aren't angriest when the whole town or the whole neighborhood is without power. In the first hours after an ice storm or a tornado, the voices aren't angry. They're afraid. The angry, bitter, nasty calls begin when power is restored to someone else. There are reasons some people always get their power on first. It's a triage. There are factors, and I can explain all of them, at 3 am, after working sixteen hours, for the third day in a row, while there's no power at my own house. The fact that Angry Customer has no power is about the fact that reconnecting the service drop in his back yard will do no good if the lines going down the alley behind his house are not hot. It is not related to how very much I would like for him to have electricity. Right. Now. And then there's me. I've been in a dark and scary place. Broken. Alone. Not really alone, but it felt that way. Not hopeless either, or people have said. But from where I sat there was barely any air. I thought I would be dead by now. I wanted to be dead by now. I plotted to be dead by now, but damned me and my follow-through. And things are getting better. But now, oh gods, now the light is too bright and I see too well what I haven't done. Things that didn't matter because I'd be dead by now. And there is not enough resource, and I cannot breathe or sleep or eat or think or write or bear to try. "I'm fine." I say when my friends ask, but there is terror just behind the words. Not fear, not dread. Terror that screams but has no voice, like a burn that makes your skin itch, but then blazes into fire when you scratch it. "Baby steps," they say. I know. "Make a list." Shut up. Go away. Why don't you understand I can't? I can't. I can't and I hate myself for it, and the hate I have for myself is the purest strongest thing I've ever felt. And I know better, and that's not me. And I'm supposed to be the responsible one. And lalalalala I can't hear you.  So I reach for the rational. I reach for what I know. I analyze. Triage. Concentrate on the things you can do that make the biggest difference. It's better than it was yesterday. Try not to hope for much. Hope is a dangerous thing. ___ This has been an entry for therealljidol Exhibit B. Thank you for reading. Special thanks to whipchick who is an amazing friend and cheerleader and beta reader and rockstar. The poll is here. (41 Comments |Comment on this)
xkcd_rss	4:00a	Dwarf Fortress http://xkcd.com/1223/ (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 7th, 2013
funcrunch	4:20p	A year of fitness This month marks a full year of sticking to a regular exercise program (primarily running, with the addition of yoga starting last August). I started to write up a long post on the subject, but it was getting dull so I scrapped it. Still thought it was worth marking the occasion though. As I wasn't heavy to begin with I don't have dramatic before-and-after photos, so these will have to do (from early May 2012 and late April 2013, respectively): Ran a decent 5K race this past Sunday, then a run over the Golden Gate Bridge and back with a group celebrating National Running Day on Wednesday. Nine days to go till my marathon. (Comment on this)
xkcd_rss	4:00a	Pastime http://xkcd.com/1222/ (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
retch	12:35p	Marvel Heroes Launched! For almost 3 years now I've been working on Marvel Heroes Online. We've built a free to play MMOARPG, this is Marvel Diablo and it is really darn fun. We're working hard on adding to it, but I'm really proud of what we built for release and I'm excited that all my friends can come in and check it out. :) I've been focusing on the main story missions and endgame, though I got to do lots of system design on player powers, boss fights, mobs, etc. as well. I've really enjoyed every stage of the project and I'm hoping we end up having a smash success so that I can spend the next several years making the game even more awesome. The fun thing about MMOs is that once you ship, you get to keep expanding the game. I can't wait to see where we are in a year or two. Console and PC games that I have worked on in my career, when we shipped them, they were done. Maybe a patch or two for the PC games, but in general what you put out was the final project. MMOs are more dynamic, they get to keep growing, and that is fascinating. I'm proud and happy and tired. :) (7 Comments |Comment on this)