LOGICAL FALLACIES...

      While I see it most whenever the latest atrocity committed in the name of Islam is committed, the fact is, it could be applied to most anything. Inevitably in any such article you'll read a variant of:

Islam is a religion of peace, therefore the perpetrators of this latest crime are not real Muslims.

     What exactly does that mean? Isn't that true of everything after a fashion? It's a statement that looks logical but I'm certain contains a fallacy though for the life of me I don't know which one (or ones). I never took a logic class. I wish I had.

     It just seems like a statement to absolve a group from any and all responsibility like what you read on practically every vitamin bottle/health food container after beneficial claims are made. There's always that asterisk: THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FDA. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
     It's not that the claims are necessarily bullshit, it's just that no one has bothered to subject them to rigorous scientific scrutiny but the fact remains that statement can be made in small print on the backside of the package while the beneficial claims can be made boldly, front & center.

     It's like a purity test. Only 100% counts. Anything less and they're not a real or true X. I mean, would you still consider a person a vegan if they ate meat ignorantly served to them (so as to be polite/not waste food) or if they were to accidentally eat meat or put on a borrowed pair of leather shoes because their feet were sore? I would.
     It would seem strange and petty to strip someone of their title for committing an act of politeness or accidentally transgressing, no?

     Is Islam an inherently war-like religion? I don't know and I doubt it. Most people seem content to live their lives without bothering anybody or imposing upon them.
     If I had to guess, I would say Islam is more a convenient tool for terrorism than a cause of it. I mean, the Bible is full of heinous stories that I'm guessing people would rather ignore/forget (and certainly not act upon) in order to focus on the good stuff. It strikes me as no different than those would use immigrants or those not of their race as scapegoats for current problems rather to tackle those problems in earnest. It seems easier to gather people to your will in anger, envy, and violence than it does to bring people together for a common good. Humanity doesn't seem to like the idea of a rising tide lifting all boats. We appear to remain a selfish lot who would wish only for ourselves and our loyal group to be raised thusly, leaving the rest to suffer and believe in our hearts that they are inferior and deserving of their fate.
     You have a combination of shared religious identity and the cultural memory that your religion was once very powerful and commanding. What greater way to sway a disadvantaged group to your side is there than the promise of a return to "the good old days"?

     And that, is what I think is going on.

     Though I think those who proffer such statements of So&So is not a real X because of Y are just trying to rationalize, more to themselves than to others, that nothing is rotten in the state of Denmark. They don't want to accept the possibility that people could be motivated to commit to heinous acts, violent acts, terroristic acts, etc. in the name of X group.

     I don't know what I'm trying to say so I'll end it here...

ADDENDUM (03/17/2015): I have recently been informed by Alias TBA that what I am thinking of is an informal fallacy called the "No True Scotsman" fallacy which appears to be part of a larger fallacy group called the Ad Hoc Hypothesis. Good to know :-)

ATB QUARTER MINTAGES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

     I thought I would do annual posts for the America the Beautiful (ATB) Quarter program to compare its mintages to the prior State Quarter program. This will be the first entry covering the years 2010-2013 and presumably each year afterward will get entries but we're working on the assumption that I will be keeping at this blogspot for years to come and that Google will not force me to use my real name on here at some point in which case I will be so out of here.

     Anyhow, the State Quarter program had an enormous total mintage from 1999-2009 of just slightly less than the total quarter production from the years 1965-1998. Almost half of all quarters made are state quarters which is both a reflection of inflation and a(n unsubstantiated) rumored production mandate that required no less than 300 million quarters per design (I guess one for every American). It kind of bears out because the lowest annual production never went below two billion (1½ billion would meet the alleged requirement) and the lowest State Quarter mintage was Oklahoma at 416.6 million pieces. The Territorial Quarters made in 2009, which was an addendum to the State Quarter program, apparently did not carry this mandate so that they, in combination with a weak economy, produced a total mintage of less than 800 million over six designs rather than the State Quarter expected production of 1.8 billion.

     The ATB Quarter program, like the Territorial Quarters, is also said to lack this production mandate and reduced mintages have been the norm for some time now. Only in 2013 did mintages start rising overall indicating that the glut of State Quarters produced may have finally passed through the system. Mintages for the first two years rivaled production of the quarters following the no mintmark years of 1965-1967. Those mintages were high to replace the silver coins rapidly disappearing from the marketplace. Mintages from 1968-1971 were low by comparison with typical subsequent years.
     The lowest single mint production for quarters ever was 101.5 million pieces and that honor goes to 1968-D. Clad quarter production (those quarters made after 1964 containing no silver whatsoever) has never had a mintage below 100 million per mint. But that didn't mean ATB quarters weren't low. While individual designs blew that 101.5 million mark out of the water (the Acadia National Park [ME] from the Denver mint as of now has the lowest mintage at 21.606 million pieces), I don't look at them that way. I'm looking at ANNUAL mintages and unless something happens in the coming years, it appears the record-holder for the ATB quarters is 2010-D with 173.4 million quarters produced. Both 2011 and 2012 had contendership written all over them at the start of the year but would lose out due to a sudden surge in production for the final design of the year.

      Anyways, to the point of this entry:

All ATB quarters produced to date have not yet even exceeded the total mintage of the first year of State Quarter production. In 1999, the Philadelphia mint produced 2.23 billion quarters and the Denver mint produced 2.21 billion quarters for a total mintage of 4.44 billion quarters.
     Total mintage for Delaware was 774.8 million pieces
     Total mintage for Pennsylvania was 707.3 million pieces
     Total mintage for New Jersey was 662.2 million pieces
     Total mintage for Georgia was 939.9 million pieces
     Total mintage for Connecticut was 1,346.6 million pieces

     The total production of 2010 ATB quarters was 173.6 million from the Philadelphia mint and 173.4 million from the Denver mint for a total of 347 million quarters which is only about 44.79% of Delaware's mintage. An entire year's worth of ATB quarter production did not even exceed the first State Quarter's mintage. In fact, it didn't even exceed the 373.4 million Philadelphia mintage of Delaware quarters (the lower of the two mints).

To recap, 2010-dated quarters are:
Of 1999 total: 7.82% with DE: 44.79% - PA: 0% - NJ: 0% - GA: 0% - CT: 0%
Of total 1965-1998 quarter production (37,463 million pieces): 0.926%
Of total State Quarter production (1999-2009 : 35,451.2 million pieces): 0.979%
Of total clad quarter production (1965-2013): 0.459% [about 1 in 218 quarters will be dated 2010]

     The total production of 2011 ATB quarters was 196.2 million from the Philadelphia mint and 195 million from the Denver mint for a total of 391.2 million quarters. 2011 was looking to be lower than 2010's production but Chickasaw Park [OK] came out with a mintage more than double the average prior design that year ruining its chance for the record.
     Again, the total production for the year did not exceed the first State Quarter's mintage nor does the combined production for the two years (738.2 million) although it does come close at about 95.28% of Delaware's mintage.

To recap, ATB quarters produced to date are:
Of 1999 total: 16.63% with DE: 95.28% - PA: 0% - NJ: 0% - GA: 0% - CT: 0% 
2011-dated quarters are: 
Of total 1965-1998 quarter production: 1.04%
Of total State Quarter production (1999-2009): 1.1%
Of total clad quarter production (1965-2013): 0.517% [about 1 in 193 quarters will be dated 2011]

     The total production of 2012 ATB quarters was 254.2 million from the Philadelphia mint and 313.8 million from the Denver mint for a combined total of 568 million quarters. 2012 was set to be the lowest of all. The first three designs were 72.6 million (P) and 68.606 million (D) respectively. Had the trend continued, the final production totals may have been 121 million (P) and 115 million (D) but Hawai'i Volcanoes [HI] went up (46.2 million (P)/78.6 million (D)) and Denali [AK] exploded (135.4 million (P)/166.6 million (D)) ruining 2012's chance at a production level not seen since 1969 and possibly lowest of all if mintages had continued to drop.
      Anyways, 2012 would be the year which exceeded the Delaware mintage. The honor went to the first design of the year, Puerto Rico's El Yunque Forest. Its total mintage of 50.8 million quarters put the total production of ATB quarters to date at 789 million pieces making it 101.83% of Delaware's mintage. We're now eating into Pennsylvania's total and it only took eleven designs to get there!
      The combined production totals for 2010-2012 were 1,306.2 million pieces.

To recap, ATB quarters produced to date are:
Of 1999 total: 29.4% with DE: 100% - PA: 75.1% - NJ: 0% - GA: 0% - CT: 0%
2012-dated quarters are: 
Of total 1965-1998 quarter production: 1.52%
Of total State Quarter production (1999-2009): 1.6%
Of total clad quarter production (1965-2013): 0.751% [about 1 in 133 quarters will be dated 2012]

     The total production of 2013 ATB quarters was 650.8 million from the Philadelphia mint and 804.4 million from the Denver mint for a combined 1,455.2 million quarters. Based on production totals from the 1990s, 2013 represents the resumption of normal quarter production.
     The first design of the year, White Mountain [NH] (68.8 million (P)/107.6 million (D)), pushes the production of ATB quarters to 100.07% of Pennsylvania's mintage and the fourth design, Ft. McHenry [MD] (120 million (P)/151.4 million (D)), pushed the production of ATB quarters to 117.05% of New Jersey's mintage. The final design for 2013, Mount Rushmore [SD], is eating into Georgia's mintage.
     That means it took eleven designs to surpass Delaware's mintage, five more to exceed Pennsylvania's mintage, and only three more to go beyond New Jersey's mintage. Production is clearly accelerating. How many more designs will it take to overcome Georgia's mintage?
     The combined production totals for 2010-2013 are 2,761.4 million pieces.

To recap, ATB quarters produced to date are:
Of 1999 total: 62.2% with DE: 100% - PA: 100% - NJ: 100% - GA: 65.67% - CT: 0%
2013-dated quarters are: 
Of total 1965-1998 quarter production: 3.88%
Of total State Quarter production (1999-2009): 4.11%
Of total clad quarter production (1965-2013): 1.92% [about 1 in 52 quarters will be dated 2013]

     I suspect 2014 will be the year which finally surpasses 1999's production. This is also why you haven't been seeing too many ATB quarters in your change. The first four years of production have not even equaled the first year of State Quarter production. Almost half the ATB program is likely to have passed before this landmark is achieved.

ADDENDUM: Oh, and since you may have been made curious...

Of all quarters made from 1965-2013:
1965-1998 clad quarters make up 49.5% of the total [about 1 in 2 quarters]
State Quarters make up 46.85% of the total [about 1 in 2 quarters]
1999-dated quarters make up 5.87% of the total [about 1 in 17 quarters]
ATB Quarters from 2010-2013 make up 3.65% of the total [about 1 in 27 quarters]

AN UNPUBLISHED DRAFT NOW BEING PUBLISHED...

ADDENDUM: I wrote the following thoughts on December 17, 2013. I'm in no mood to make these drafts into coherent posts. These were just some free-form thoughts that I had intended to go back to no more than a few days later but never got back to. The momentum is gone, not only from this post but perhaps this blog itself. I don't know how it would've turned out otherwise, but here's a sample of how I think...

~~~~~~~~~

The wall separating our working lives from our private lives has become anywhere from translucent to transparent thanks to the internet. I find it strange that there has been no mass protest in this country to oppose the thinning of this separation. It has allowed employers to keep an unreasonable amount of tabs on their employees through direct spying and snitching.

We are told to live in a state of constant fear as a result. Do not post what you would not want your boss to find out they say. People, especially teachers, have been fired for behavior done prior to their professional lives and during their professional lives even though it was all engaged in during their free time.

The concept of free time seems to be fast becoming a "thing of the past" and this terrifies me. Imagine if the wall separating church and state were again made transparent and you had to join the state religion. To stand up for your beliefs would cost you your livelihood (at best) or even your life (at worst). Your only alternative choice is to defy yourself and what you feel is right. No one would stand for that anymore knowing their beliefs could one day become the "wrong" beliefs. It's why the government in the Constitution is forbidden from sponsoring a state church...but we allow employers to effectively sponsor employer-based churches (example related to ACA-Obamacare) whereby the employer's beliefs are imposed upon their (usually female) employees. This is decried, but the loss of Freedom of Speech ("controversial" opinion posts) and Right to Peaceably Assemble (photos from a bachelorette party let's say) is not.

We are told we are now always on the clock. Everything we say represents our company. No longer are we free citizens. Accepting a paycheck is tantamount to checking your U.S. citizen rights at the door. Accepting a paycheck also means being on the clock for 24 hours while only getting paid for 8.

Related things: why is e-mail considered a separate thing from mail? Does no one who is not a legislator or HR director think that e-mail is not deserving of the same privacy protection as paper envelopes? The same applies to calls made by cellphone versus those made by landline. Does anyone besides those two groups actually feel cellphone calls are okay to tap without a warrant. GPS also applies, as does EZ-Pass. Why have we tolerated the thinning of these walls?

Rage began from #12 unpodcast "Your Tweets Are Not Your Own"

Controversial speech and ideas are the ones which need the most protection but they are the first to get you fired...

Link back to prior posts about teachers/students getting in trouble and NRA-type group for 1st Amendment.

It opens up the possibility of a world whereby employees must belong to the same political party as their boss and vote their boss's way too. Employees should have the same religion and tastes as their employer. I'm curious, if a man working for Coca-Cola was spotted drinking a Pepsi at a party, is that grounds for his termination...or even being associated with Pepsi (assuming he's not drinking any)? An employee who is on the clock is a worker, but off the clock is a potential customer. An employer should want his employees to also be customers, but should that not be earned rather than assumed? Is an employee allowed to consume the products and services of a rival? Why is employee behavior both on and off the clock subject to the morality of his employer, or more generally (when snitching is involved) why is employee behavior subject to the capricious whims of the most conservative person in the room? Why are the most conservative people (or financially well off) the sole arbiters of what is right and wrong?

Yet strangely, none of this has provoked rioting.  The solution seems to be unionization and guilds (for professionals). Protection via a union and tenure may be the only way to protect the rights of U.S. citizens from being taken away by their unelected, non-governmental bosses. Because after all, one day your boss might be liberal and accepting and your next boss could be a stick-in-the-mud conservative. Is that any different than having a laissez-faire king who is tolerant of any religious expression being replaced upon his death by a new king demanding the citizenry now all be say Protestant? Is it fair? I don't know. But so long as earning money to make a living is not optional I don't see how threatening a person's livelihood for expressing their 1st Amendment rights (or any Constitutional rights) is any more fair or in any way American. Job retention should be determined solely by competence.

NO FAP...

     I tried abstaining from masturbation for the first time back in 2012 but failed after 30 days. I failed both out of frustration and because the girl who would become my girlfriend was a virgin and intended to remain one. It felt pointless to continue and continue, I did not.

     This time it has been different. Though I have yet to see her again (yet...supposed to this Friday), I've been abstaining again from masturbation in the hopes that it is true that I've been overstimulating myself to the point where my penis doesn't function like it's supposed to during sex. Every time I have...those very few times...I've never come. It's always gone soft on me. My spirit was willing but my flesh was weak and all too literally at that.

      I've been really excited about this girl and despite not having seen her for over two months now, we have continued to communicate so I've never lost hope. After getting her phone number I started abstaining. It was difficult at first...I slipped up three times over the first two weeks but since then I have not wavered in my endeavor. I'm up to day 56 now out of a goal time of 90 days. I don't think I've gone this long without coming since I first learned how to do it.

      It definitely feels like it's working. I'm feeling like my penis is returning to life. I just haven't been able to test it out. Perhaps it's been a good thing I have not been able to see this girl for so long. It has allowed me to keep at my goal as well as allowed my body's sensitivity to restore itself. We may have had sex by now had we been able to see each other and I may have failed once again. This time, I feel like I won't fail. I just hope there is a "this time".

       The one thing I'm finding strange though is how easy it's been this go-'round. I mean, I still get urges and I've still been downloading new pornography but I have managed to resist giving in all this time despite setbacks. It's like I'm happy for myself but at the same time I am wondering if this is another manifestation of depression. I mean, I like masturbating. It feels good to orgasm. But since one of the symptoms of depression is stopping doing things which once brought you pleasure, I'm left wondering...

       Still...55 days down and 45 to go for goal and further should I want to. Still, it has been oddly easy... Also, I hope she sticks around long enough for me to have to give her an alias on this blog :-)

ADDENDUM: I've made it to 90 days. And it continues. February 27th will be Day 100. There's no sense in not making it at least that far and since February has but one day left at that point, I may as well finish out February too. I'm setting the "high score" right now. I'll admit I'm kinda sorta proud of myself.
 ADDENDUM II: I put an end to it at 108 days. I have not been good about balancing the masturbation and non-masturbation days since. I never got to test whether or not I had resensitized and now I worry if I have totally undone the work I did... 

A POST LIBERAL/CONSERVATIVE WORLD...

     I wonder if the liberal/conservative divide has run its course in American politics? We seem to be at an apex for the two ideologies...at least from the perspective of the House of Representatives. Hell, I'm not even sure what the words liberal and conservative mean politically anymore. I've had this notion that liberality was about embracing change or at least trying something new; that is was akin to progression...future thinking and that conservativism was about preserving the status quo or even retrogressing to a time or way of doing things perceived to be better than the way they are being done now. Liberalism was about trying out untested ideas and Conservativism was about proven ones (even if those ideas had been proven ill-advised).
     Yet that's not what the words mean. Like how "theory" means one thing to scientists and means quite the opposite colloquially, liberal and conservative, when worn as political labels, take on very different senses from the dictionary senses of the words.

     But where do we go from here? If liberalism and conservativism are on the way out, what ideologies replace them?
     In the past, there were liberal and conservative Democrats as well as liberal and conservative Republicans. What was their ideological dividing line? What did the parties back then ultimately disagree on before reaching an apex that allowed the current liberal/conservative paradigm reign?
     I'm not sure. I'm guessing this was the turn of the century (the 20th one) right up and through World War II that defined it. I imagine it came to a head in the McCarthy era. The Cold War paranoia may have ended the one reign bringing about the current liberal/conservative divide.
     Or maybe it goes back further to the ascendancy of the Republican party. Abraham Lincoln was its first President and soon after the Whig party died out. Perhaps a third party will rise soon in this country, electing its first President causing one of the two major parties to go extinct (I'd bank on the Republicans going extinct because they seem to be rushing headlong into it with their Tea Party and overzealous conservative factions).

     What might tomorrow's paradigm be? Libertarianism/authoritarianism? Labor/Capitalists?
     Personally I'd hope for the rise of a true labor party in this country. One emerging paradigm is the Haves vs. the Have Nots and there's a lot of Have Nots in this country who are unrepresented in government or at best marginally so. Congress is comprised as a percentage of their body by many more millionaires than are present as a percentage of the nation's population. Congress is also heavy on lawyers and businessmen. As Neil deGrasse Tyson asked (and I'm paraphrasing), where are the engineers, the scientists, the teachers, the service industry, the philosophers, hell even the ditchdiggers? Can we truly be represented by a government if that government's representatives do not even remotely resemble its constituencies?
      Personally I'd like to see a political party comprised of the actual poor, working, and middle classes and if any of its leaders are wealthy, they should have worked their way up to it. They should know intimately what it is like to be in the trenches so to speak.
       I would think the next divide would be between labor and the capitalists. The Republicans seem almost totally comprised of the latter category and the Democrats mostly so. What about the rest of us?

      But given the very close, very bipartisan vote on defunding the NSA (I believe it was 217 - 205 against defunding it), perhaps the next partisan divide that will shake up and reorganize the parties will be that of libertarians and authoritarians (though I'm sure the latter side will pick a better moniker). Privacy versus Need to Know.

      I hope something happens in the next few election cycles because this current stalemate between the two parties is preventing the government from governing at all and it's really annoying. To paraphrase a line from Babylon 5, the two parties are like divorcing parents fighting in front of their children and trying to make those children choose sides. It's one or the other we're told. I just look forward to a modern-day John Sheridan who can rise up and remind us that we don't need either of those parties anymore.

      As a Facebook friend suggested, we need to form the Mercutio Party...a pox on both your houses!...and figure out our own way through liberalism and conservativism; libertarianism and authoritarianism; labor and capitalists; privacy and publicity; individualism and community; etc. etc. etc.

ADDENDUM: This Daily Kos rant I offer as an example adding weight to my argument that the next division will be between labor and capitalists. If professionals organize in this country into guilds like screen actors and writers have in Hollywood, then I think the country will begin moving toward a real middle class again. Loyalty to companies seems a quaint and antiquated notion these days. It is further brought about by declining benefits and loss of pensions. Why bother sticking around? Accountants, lawyers, secretaries, hell even clerks, et al. need to organize into guilds.

BAD LUCK OR FILTH?

     I had an unpleasant surprise this evening. I went into my kitchen to make some microwave soup since I didn't feel like cooking. I didn't turn on the light, instead using the ambient light from my living room to guide me. When I placed the package on the counter, I thought I had seen something move around a small frying pan left on the countertop by the sink. I looked to where it had gone/blown to...and it moved again. Sure enough it was alive...and fast. Turns out it was a German cockroach. I killed it and went into my usual paranoia upon making such unfortunate discoveries.

     I've always found cockroaches offensive and not because I think they're icky but because they imply filth. Their presence is like judgement upon you.

     I immediately did the dishes, cleared the table, swept the floor, and searched the cabinets for any evidence of leavings or for a chance spying of roaches themselves. I found nothing. It made me wonder if the roach had been merely an anomaly rather than a vanguard for a much larger, heretofore unknown, infestation. I suppose it could happen. Hell, it happened before in my previous apartment when a giant winged cockroach found itself trapped in our bathtub after it came in through the bathroom window. We never had another roach after that one. It could be the same now. It's what I want to keep telling myself anyway.

     The damned thing could've hitched a ride on something I was carrying or been hiding under the door and scurried in when I had opened it briefly to come inside. I don't think I've got a bug problem because the out-of-the-way spiders I have a detente with in my living room never catch anything. It actually makes me feel bad for the spiders that their lives must necessarily end in starvation (or murder if they get a bit too bold with their choice of web placement) but then, that's nothing I intend to help them out with either.


     Then I also think that an apartment complex is only as clean as its dirtiest dwelling and as it may be, my apartment may actually be quite unworthy of infestation, but not necessarily unworthy of spillover from an apartment which is.

      Either way, I'm buying sticky traps and hoping nothing ends up on them but dust.

ADDENDUM: After more than a week I think it may be safe to declare my cockroach encounter a random one resulting either from a doorway dash or a window entry. All I've caught in all my glue traps was this little beetle:

It's small enough to fit through the holes in a screen

ADDENDUM II:  It turns out they were not mini roaches but rather phorid flies. This particular species frequents garbage and prefers running, flying only when necessary. After watching one I caught, its fly-like behavior was immediately obvious but when they catch you off-guard, their scurrying and coloration can, in my opinion at least, cause them to be confused for tiny roaches. What distinguishes them behaviorially is that they will scurry and stop whereas roaches don't stop running until they've found a dark place.
     The lesson here is to empty your garbage more often. I don't generate much trash at all so these flies actually had time to go through their larval stage and pupate. Lucky me!

They're about the size of fruit flies (but much faster) and their wings are not immediately obvious from a distance

Once it died I could get a clear picture. They have a noticeable hump when standing.

SPENDING TIME

More and more coins are nothing but reminders that I'm getting old. 2010 was the first year of these new Shield Cents. I still remember getting my first one and where I lived and what I was doing at the time.

Now I'm like, "Shit! There's four of you already?!!"

Time marches on indeed...

ADDENDUM: On a side note, I've been a carrying a 2010 cent with me since I first got one three years ago letting it "circulate" with a bunch of other change as I walk and go about my day. Since cents haven't really circulated in over fifty years (Have you ever seen a worn-out Lincoln Memorial Cent? A coin which honestly circulates will only last about 40 years in circulation before getting worn nearly flat and unidentifiable), I knew I would never see a worn-out Shield Cent. I'm not even sure if a worn-out Shield Cent will be possible either since the copper plating is micro-thin and zinc corrodes rapidly when exposed to moist air. So far the copper layer has held but I've seen my share of corroded "Zincolns" (1982 to present) at work. It remains to be seen.

almost exactly three years worth of wear

I have other coins I'm carrying that I also feel I'll never see worn-down versions of but this is the only one I can remember definitely when I started. It's a long-term patience project. If I can figure out how to light a coin properly, I'll consider sharing the current conditions of this project in progress. All in all it reminds me of the rock tumbler my Brother and I had as kids. I remember Dad remarking how it was a great thing to have because we would only see him every other weekend at the time and since the rocks had to tumble for days on end, they could get smoothed and polished while we were away. He figured (and almost certainly correctly) that we as kids would be too impatient for this at home with Mom; that we'd stop it and check it too often. Now I "tumble" these coins in my change purse as I walk around to, fro, and at work for several miles each day.

CARLY McKINNEY IS A ROLE MODEL...

     I saw this post on Gawker the other day. It's about a 23 year old math teacher in Colorado who has since been put on "administrative leave" for posts made on a now defunct Twitter account showing herself in various states of PG-13 undress, calling her students jailbait, and implying drug use.

Carly McKinney : Yes, I am totally adding these images in a nakedly desperate attempt to get my stupid blog to show up and be visited via a Google Image Search

     Now I personally do not know if any of the aforementioned tweets have been made on school time. If that's the case, I can understand any suspension and whatnot as I've argued in the past.  For the sake of this opinion, I will be assuming that they were not posted during school hours or using school computers and done instead, on her own time (even though under current law, my arguments do not matter according to the NEA - all that needs to happen is for the activity to be declared disruptive to the school: a judgement I'm sure will be found in a totally fair and unbiased manner).

     Comments in these articles inevitably point to Ms. McKinney deserving to be fired for failing to be a role model. (examples from the Gawker link)

"You can be a party girl famewhore, or you can be a schoolteacher. You cannot be both."

(commenter: Dismissed)

[sarcastically] "Yeah, she should really be rewarded for showing the judgement of a 14 year old while theoretically helping teach people's kids how to get on with life. Thanks for your insightful comment."

(commenter: Paul Tatara)

"...I know it is not right, but if you work in certain jobs, you simply can not behave this way online..."

(commenter: TuMadreTanbien)

"Idiot. You can't do that shit when you're a teacher, full stop. This woman grew up breathing social media if she's anything like other millennials, so there is absolutely no reason she should think any of that is okay. If you're a teacher (or any number of other public positions), you don't post this stuff online."

(commenter: GMaMazur)

     You can search articles for comments defending her: they're not hard to find. I will be offering my own defenses,  however, and these defenses will go beyond the obvious "slut shaming" thing needing to stop as it has happened inexcusably before and will continue to happen again. Because seriously, when was the last time a man was fired for being an underwear model or in porn?
     A quick Google search yielded nothing so the slant is fairly obvious.
     The teachers linked in the two articles not only did nothing illegal, but even if it's still technically conduct "unbecoming of a teacher" (how 19th century does that sound?), their photos and videos were made prior to them even becoming teachers!
     And it is that latter concept which factors into my defense...

     Why is Carly McKinney a role model of sorts? Because she demonstrates conclusively (at least up until the point of this media gossip-storm) that perfection is not required for success in life; that yes, you can grow up and with proper education, get a professional career regardless of one's past.
      It's the idea that you can still get ahead despite one's "youthful indiscretions". It's this idea that teachers can still be people too and not have to be held to these bizarre Victorian standards of stainlessness in order to be given the authority to teach our children.

Being hot should never be a terminable offense for a woman

     Because seriously, what are supposed to tell the stoners, the delinquents, the freaks and other perpetrators of "youthful indiscretions" in high school? That they can never amount to anything because they will be barred from any and all professions regardless of later academic achievement because society will refuse to acknowledge that they can change or gasp! actually be competent despite these faults?
     What are we supposed to tell the people who have prostituted themselves, performed in pornography, supported a position publicly that is unpopular, been to prison, and others whether legal or illegal? That despite this being a Christian nation, forgiveness will never come unto them? That they will be considered fuck-ups forever with no possibility for redemption or for simply letting bygones be bygones?

     That's the way it goes right now and probably will continue to go for the foreseeable future ever since background checks became so ludicrously easy to perform. And why should it be that way? Why should this system of intolerance and bullying - and yes, it is bullying...bullying in its most insidious degree as anyone who has ever been effectively shunned will recognize - be allowed to persist?
      And I don't care if the perpetrator was too young to know better or could have known better or should have known better...it doesn't matter. This gossip whose purpose is to ruin the lives of those who are either trying to make a better one for themselves or who are able to function competently in their jobs/professions despite their vices is entirely conducive to fostering hopelessness.
     Great...you made a mistake: now you've got to pay for it forever.
     Great...you've done something perfectly legal that petty people frown upon: now you've got to pay for it forever.
     Great...there's no point in working hard to achieve: no one will ever let you.
     Great...now you can either own up to your past and fail forever or you can hide it, living in perpetual terror that it will one day resurface and be used against you.

     What a shitty system.

Once a topless model, always a topless model...because it makes sense to do that to people

     If it were in my power, I would forgive Carly McKinney, reinstating her with pay immediately and without comment for actions both real and alleged portrayed by her online while off the clock. I would openly and hostilely condemn those who have maligned her for daring to have a life outside of her profession. I would condemn them for being busybodies and gossips. I would condemn those who insist upon such irresponsibly unrealistic purity standards for which a teacher may be judged fit for teaching.
     I would forgive those like Stacie Halas and Tiffani Webb, immediately reinstating them and without comment for actions performed by them PRIOR to becoming teachers and even if they were teachers at the time, those same actions were TOTALLY FUCKING LEGAL (and in the case of Stacie Halas for certain, also performed under a pseudonym) and thus would not be subject to firing if they were doing this stuff now (though if they did it in the school, yes...another matter entirely). I would condemn those that would judge these women unfit for duty on the basis of actions performed which were unrelated to their professions. I would condemn them for their inability to move on from their past lives. I would condemn them for holding these women guilty for their non-professional conduct. I would remind them that none of those doing the condemning and shaming are themselves without sin and that if held to their own standards, all of them would almost certainly be out of work.
     There are plenty of reasons to fire a teacher (or any professional): these are not any of them.

Because this clearly happened in the classroom

     No, if these women are to be judged, they are to be judged by the quality of their work in the classroom and their conduct therein. They should be judged by their professionalism as directly related their career. If Carly McKinney does an illegal drug in the classroom (or on school grounds): fired. If Stacie Halas films or her showcases her porn scenes in the classroom: fired. If Tiffani Webb models or has students take pictures of her in lingerie in the classroom: fired.

     But if they've done, they do or if they even consider doing any of these things (and more) on their own time, tell me again why it matters?

Pictured: personal time

      We tell people that life is about making mistakes and learning from them. But increasingly society makes life for people and especially professionals just so terrifyingly unforgiving. Yes, I am most certainly dreaming the dream of the idealist...but I want to live in a world where people are judged for their skills in life and not for their past lives.

     It really would only be fair.

As it should be...

ADDENDUM: Turns out a month before I had posted this, the Huffington Post reported that Stacie Halas, the teacher who PRIOR TO BECOMING A TEACHER performed in adult films had lost her appeal to get her job back and create a legal precedent that one's past is not allowed to infringe upon their present. Remember kids, in the eyes of the law: once a fuck up, always a fuck up. No forgiveness. No hope.

No forgiveness. No hope.

A TOMB OF ICE...

     Winter finally has come to my part of the country. We had our first cold snap yesterday and it will continue throughout the week.

     I pass by a corporate pond on the way to work. Walking home I noticed the ice was unusually reflective. I figure it must've frozen over very quickly giving the surface a rather glassy appearance. Normally the winds in the area cause the ice to pile up on one side, slowly moving the other edge by the end of the night giving the ice a choppy, white, and certainly unreflective appearance.

     I  went in for a closer look and it was definitely one of those moments I wish I had had my camera. It was bitter cold and my hands would certainly have paid dearly in numbness for the exposure (and who knows how long my camera's battery would've lasted) but there were some neat effects I would have loved to have shared. Maybe tomorrow if the pond remains free of skaters.

     Right at the edge where it is shallowest, it must have been frozen solid. Beneath the clear ice, you could see the decaying leaves which had settled on the bottom. They were eerie looking. Stuck in place, they appeared to have frost on them somehow. Very ghostly looking and surreal. It was like looking into an artsy paperweight.

     Looking over and into the ice at the deeper parts of the pond, you could see the ice had not touched bottom yet, but it was not immediate obvious from my first vantage point. It was only when I stopped to look at it...stare at it...that you could see it moving. Gas bubbles trapped beneath the ice and not yet frozen in place would swirl beneath their cap of clear ice. I don't know what was making them move. The pond overflows into a brook, but no water flows into it. It's at the mercy of the rain. The small fish that live in the pond perhaps?

      Further along the pond's edge came another point where gas bubbles had been rising to the surface perhaps from the leaves seen before. But this time, they did not swirl. On closer inspection, you could see they were frozen in place, not at one level, but at several. I suppose as the ice thickened, it trapped another layer of bubbles until the next set formed beneath it before they too were encased. Again, a neat effect that I'm not sure if a photo could properly capture, but I wished I could have tried.

      Near the pond's other edge the ice had some fractures. My guess is that since water expands when freezing, the whole pond cannot freeze over without exerting pressure on some points. Since the concrete walls bordering it certainly won't give, it must've squeezed the ice sheet itself to break at those points. I didn't see any evidence of water having oozed out and refrozen. Maybe it oozed slowly enough that it froze before reaching the surface of the ice sheet?

      The trailing edge was much like the leading edge. It too appeared frozen solid with ghostly leaves and branches entombed beneath the glassy ice.

      I will bring my camera tomorrow. With luck, the surface will have remained unmolested and I will share some shots here if they come out acceptably. Time to charge the camera's battery!

ADDENDUM:

Entombed leaves with one on the left side sticking above the frozen surface

The largest of the cracks up close

Cracks along the surface and more ghostly leaves

Photos of the gas bubbles frozen at ever greater depths

There was no more motion visible beneath the ice when I took these photos. The pond had frozen too thickly by this point. There's definitely a recovery time that needs to be factored in when exposing one's hands in temperatures like these.

INTERESTING...

     I saw this post on Facebook not too long ago. I'm well aware of the faulty reasoning contained therein, but nevertheless, it remains an interesting thought:

I never got why people would kill themselves.

So if you want to die you obviously don't give a shit about anyone. Because if there is anyone who loves you, you don't give a FUCK about them, or hurting them, and if there's not, then there's no one to give a shit about.

So instead of killing yourself why don't you get
the fuck out? Leave the basement, leave your house, leave your motherfucking country. Go on an adventure. Spend your time doing something awesome, like tracking down some terrorist. Go be James Bond. Go fuck up a shark with a harpoon. Danger? Fuck that, you were going up against a 100% death rate before, you're being safe now. Fuck EVERYTHING, man, the world is your oyster.

Sometimes I wish I was suicidal, I'd pull the barrel out of my mouth, point it in the air, and start a revolution. LIVE. Move to Barcelona, hit the bars, bang some chicks.

And then when I'm done, maybe I wouldn't want to kill myself, because I've seen how beautiful this world is.

tl;dr GO FUCKING DO SOMETHING!

ADDENDUM: A follow-up post from this user on Facebook had this to say:

Amanda Todd

Ok, well let's just get this all out of the way so you all can stop your bitching about this dead girl. A lot of what is posted in her video and on her page is fabricated to make her look like she was an angel. Think again.

1. She was 15 years old when she flashed those guys.
2. She did it out of her own free will. She CHOSE to do it.
3. She already flirted with many guys before.
4. She got 'beat' up at school not because of the picture, but because she slept with another girl's boyfriend. (refer to #1)
5. The guy 'bullied' her once only about 6-8 months after she flashed online. Not multiple times over 2 years.
6. She was known to have slept with multiple men and to sell herself out.
7. Her home life wasn't the best. (family troubles)

You people who are giving her sympathy and pity should all be ashamed of yourselves. Instead of giving pity to a girl who already committed suicide, how about you talk to that lonely kid at lunch? Yea, the one who sits all alone in the corner. But no, you'd rather sit with your friends and then come home and get on facebook and say shit like 'Oh, how come no one helped poor Amanda, she's so pretty, why did she have to die'. FUCK YOU! Go crawl back in your shell of safety while the ones who really need help are only an arms length away.

We should be talking about the ones who were bullied and managed to survive through it all. The success stories. Because that's what gives kids hope, the ones who know what it's like to be in their shoes. The ones who have walked that road before and came out ok.

What kind of message does it send to impressionable teens that if you go ahead and kill yourself that you will get thousands of likes on a facebook page and everyone will feel sorry for you and give you attention? If you have any self respect for the future then you'd stop and think about where your morals are. If you're too confused with your emotions and common sense, then just get off the internet entirely. No one wants to read your idiotic comments and your emotion filled rage tantrums.

tl;dr Stop giving pity to a dead girl. Give it to the ones who deserve it.

Again, not saying it is a valid point nor am I attesting to the veracity of the statements above about Amanda Todd's personal life...just another interesting point and yes, as a kid left to sit alone and be friendless in the days before online was a big deal and social-networking was just a dream (assuming anyone was even having that dream) and when cellphones were for rich douches...yeah, talk to that kid. Be a fucking friend instead of a fucking douchebag. And yeah, what about the survivors of bullying? If I was bullied at all, it was through ostracism. I'm not much of an inspiration. My Best Friend had it worse as did my former roommate who came out at a time when that still was a difficult thing to do and he was made to suffer for it rather than be praised.

I don't know. I have to go to bed. Maybe I'll amend this thought later. For now...just pause, and consider.

BECAUSE WHY LET A PERFECTLY GOOD LABEL GO TO WASTE?

     After watching the most recent episode of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, I had a thought. At one point, the former chief of police reminded Councilman Tenzin that protecting his family from Amon, who can take a bender's abilities away from them, was absolutely imperative since he and his children were the last of the Air Benders. I wondered why this was so. After all Aang, the previous Avatar, was born an Air Bender and carried that, uh...let's call it the airbending gene within him as several of his family have the airbending ability that, for a time, Aang was the last possessor of. Aang lived for like seventy years after the end of the events in the original series. He obviously had children, but why not a fuckload of children? And I'm not talking with just Katara.

     Now I know such a subject isn't appropriate to bring up openly in a children's show, but that doesn't mean it could not have happened nor does it mean that it could not be told to the audience subtly that Aang had LOTS of children in an effort to reestablish the airbending nomads who were killed off genocidally by the Fire Benders a hundred years prior to the events of the original series. One would think that no matter how much he may have loved Katara, this drive to restore the airbending population would be an imperative of his. Why didn't Aang impregnate as many women as possible in life in order to do this? Like I said, it could've been implied that this had been done and handwaved to the audience since this new show takes place so many years later. The suspicion could've been borne out by making sure there would be at least one Aang-ish looking person in the background people in large crowd scenes every week.

     Something like that would have amused me...

ADDENDUM:  Okay, now I really have to wonder why Aang didn't go all impregnating happy. I was looking at the TVtropes link, and a posted picture showed Aang and Katara's three children: Kya, a waterbender; Bumi, a non-bender; and Tenzin, an airbender. Now remember, Aang is the LAST natural born airbender on Avatar Earth. One would think, especially if it took three tries to get the world up to two airbenders, that Aang might have a personal interest in increasing the population of Air Nomads by fucking around...y'know, for the cause. I'm sure Katara would understand.
     And okay, I know they can't explain that openly in a kids' show, but it could still be implied. Tenzin got lucky and three, possibly all four, of his kids are airbenders meaning Tenzin has done more for the Air Nomads than Aang has. But still, there are only four (maybe five) of them on the ENTIRE PLANET.
     Now, since the job of the Avatar is to bring balance to the world, I am going to say (and add to my predictions for the show) Avatar: The Legend of Korra will get around this detail by figuring out not only how to soulbend to take away one's bending ability, but also its opposite and learn how to restore bending in people or even give bending to nonbenders. Korra will repopulate the world of Air Nomads through soulbending.

THE ART OF COMPROMISE

      I had an extra long walk today, plenty of time for my brain to think about stupid shit. One such thought came on the heels of an announcement by the Canadian government that it will be discontinuing production of its cent coin this Fall. This is of course leads to discussion about the future of the U.S. cent which, although has less than a cent's worth of metal in it (about ½¢ as of this writing), when shipping and distribution charges are figured in, each cent ultimately costs 2.41 cents resulting in about 1½ cents of negative seigniorage for each coin for the U.S. Mint. The Mint has been losing money producing and distributing the cent and nickel since 2006.

      The basic reason the cent is still with us despite relentless inflation eroding its value and despite recommendations for its elimination going back to at least the 1970s is because of its depiction of President Lincoln. It's politics plain and simple. No Congressman or Senator wants to be known as the (wo)man who voted to eliminate Lincoln (never mind that he's still on the five dollar bill). It's the same reason President Washington was not removed from the America the Beautiful Quarter series in favor of President Theodore Roosevelt. I imagine that is also the rationale behind retaining the one dollar bill and that is, besides convenience, it would be a politically bad move to remove President Washington (never mind that he's still on the quarter).

      The cent and dollar bill also have their supporters in two specific lobbies. The cent is now comprised primarily of the element zinc (97½% by weight with a layering of copper to retain its old appearance) and the dollar bill is produced in the greatest numbers of all the paper denominations (though in 2010, the $100 bill has held the top position). This gives the zinc lobby and the Crane Paper Company (the company which supplies the Bureau of Engraving and Printing with the paper our currency is made of) an incredible incentive to maintain the status quo as they profit handsomely from this arrangement.

      Finally, the metallic composition of the nickel (75% copper and 25% nickel) exceeds its face value and that's before shipping and distribution costs are figured in. Only Congress can alter the composition of our nation's coins and until it finally gets around to doing so, the Mint is forced to make cents and nickels at a loss. Seigniorage from the dime, quarter, half-dollar, and dollar coin still keep Mint production and distribution costs profitable overall (thus giving Congress additional time to drag its feet in this matter), but the amounts have shrunk most years since 2006.

      Now while I would much rather the Federal Reserve System work to deflate our currency in an effort to restore its value and return to having our coins depict personifications of Liberty rather than dead Presidents, I know that will never happen so how about this for a compromise? Something that should address all the problems above...

      As of now, there is a dollar coin program in effect showcasing all the Presidents. Barring some horrific tragedy befalling Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, the program is slated to end in 2016 with President Reagan (living people may not be depicted on circulating coinage). Let's use that as a starting point. Make 2016 the last year the cent and dollar bill will be produced. Starting in 2017, begin circulation of a new Lincoln Dollar using the current Victor D. Brenner portrait of Lincoln (look at any cent made since 1909). The reverse of the coin can either be a continuation of the current Union Shield or something else...but a Lincoln Dollar. This covers the bad politics of eliminating Lincoln. Although his cent will be gone, billions of dollar coins bearing his likeness will replace them annually.

      Once the dollar coin is forcibly introduced into circulation and dollar bills slowly disappear, production of the $2 bill will increase substantially. Though production of the $2 bill  will never reach levels attained by the $1 bill, its production will be in the hundreds of millions annually reducing losses to the Crane Paper Company. They won't be happy, but they will also know it could have been worse since a two dollar coin would be sensible in this inflation-ravaged age too.

      Finally, alter the composition of the nickel to be cupro-nickel plated zinc. The nickel would still look like a nickel, but would be composed primarily of zinc now (it would also be lighter). This should appease the zinc lobby as well as create a nickel that costs less than five cents to produce and distribute.

      Is that fair? Should I be writing my Congressman?

ADDENDUM:  I have given thought to the $2 bill. It too may require some compromise. As you may have noticed, the $5-$100 bills have all been redesigned with large, off-center portraits but the $1 and $2 bills have not. I am thinking the loss of a Washington dollar may also cause agitation so perhaps it is time (in this scenario) to update the $2 bill in the style of the large off-center portraits that the remaining bills employ. This bill could also be one without color which, given the large amount of production the $2 bill would have in this scenario, may prove beneficial. This $2 bill, since it would be a revised note, could feature a large, off-center portrait of George Washington and the reverse of the note, instead of the Great Seal of the United States that the $1 bill features now, could feature a depiction of Mount Rushmore (replacing the Signing of the Declaration of Independence featured currently on the $2 bill). The reason for this being that not only was this suggested around the bicentennial, but also because fans of Thomas Jefferson may object to having his likeness removed from the $2 bill. Since Jefferson is on Mount Rushmore, this would be a way of keeping both these Presidents on the note.

ATB QUARTER FATIGUE

      The America the Beautiful Quarter program started in 2010. Like the State Quarter series which preceded it, it is a eleven-ish year program featuring five designs a year for each of the fifty states and six U.S. territories with devices depicting a national park or historic site, one from each state/territory and in the order they were introduced. Eleven designs have been issued thus far starting with Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. The series so far does not appear to be enjoying any level of popularity except with hard-core collectors. There are several reasons for this.

      One, the mintages for the designs thus far have been unusually low due to a huge glut of state quarters produced from 1999-2009 and a stagnant economy dampening coin production in general. The mintages for the first eleven parks currently just about equal the entire mintage of the Delaware Quarter. That's right, a little over two years worth of quarters does not even equal the amount made of the very first State Quarter. Because of this, you may not have encountered many, or even any, at all. I work with money at my job and even with first access, I have seen less than $15 worth of ATB quarter designs since the program's inception. This creates a lack of awareness and that is not helpful.

       Nextly, while some parks are famous (Grand Canyon National Park), others are decidedly less so (Chaco Culture National Historical Park). At least with the states, you are more aware of them thanks to Geography classes and the news (especially during elections). Keeping the various designs in mind is difficult because in addition to several of these parks not being widely known, their release order does not mirror the order the states joined the union like in the State Quarter series. This makes keeping track of (and even knowing) what you're missing is considerably more difficult without a guide.

        I think aesthetically a different obverse would have been in order. When you think of National Parks, which President do you associate with them? Did you say President Theodore Roosevelt? Even if you didn't, a lot of people did and thought his image should be on the obverse of the new quarter, replacing George Washington. However, as politics would have it, Washington was retained because no politician wanted to be associated with removing him from the quarter never mind that over 72 BILLION quarters exist with his bust on them (and that's not counting the silver ones made from 1932-1964 which no longer circulate) and that he is on the first Presidential Dollar coin AND he's still on the one dollar bill made by the billions each year. Washington would not be going anywhere. A quick search of a handful of quarters would show dates going back to 1965. Almost fifty years after quarters lost their silver, they can still be found and found rather readily. Even if the ATB program ultimately yielded the same 35 billion quarters the State Quarter program yielded over its lifetime, they would still be outnumbered over 2 to 1. Washington would still be ever-present in your pocket change but such logic would not sway Congress. Instead, it is still Washington on the obverse though we collectors were thrown a bone by having his bust restored to be more like it was in 1932 when the design was first introduced. I like it (just like I appreciate the restored Lincoln portrait on the new Union Shield cents), but because our coins no longer have slightly concave fields and their relief has been sharply reduced over the years, the design is rather flat and appears nearly featureless at most viewing angles. Maybe they'll look better with some toning. Still I think T. Roosevelt should have been the design on the obverse of these quarters. It may have helped spur interest in the series.

      Some good will come of all this though. Eventually mintages will rise and when that happens, awareness will build. If people start collecting these designs with even a quarter (no pun intended) the ferocity shown with the State Quarter program, that will put pressure on the supplies of the lower mintage designs which may benefit those who entered into the program right away. But I don't actually think that would do it. I think this series will always suffer due to collector fatigue and because it is not as compelling as the State Quarter series.

      No, I think what would be the best the way to promote interest in the series would be a genuine rarity...or at least the perception of one. Currently the El Yunque design (forest preserve in Puerto Rico) is the lowest mintage at about 25 million per mint. Now while that is low for modern coin production, it is still not low from a collectible standpoint unless more people start collecting these coins than its total mintage. That would actually be interesting from my standpoint propelling its value upward. If the series remains neglected for a few more years and suddenly breaks out, it could pay off well for some people. But I think a design would need to be lower than that...at least less than 10 million from at least one mint. It could happen if circumstances intervene like another recession and like what happened in 2002 when the Philadelphia Mint had to close for six weeks. It caused the production of Ohio quarters to be significantly less than other designs of that year (about 220 million were made anyway so don't get excited). If the mintage of one such design were to be less than 10 million pieces, it would definitely drive interest in that design which then might carry over into the rest of the series. Hell, that scenario would even excite me and I really try not to be bothered with modern coins.

      I don't feel like concluding this properly so that's all you get.

ADDENDUM: Apparently I am not the only one who had this idea.

I'M A RAMBLIN' MAN...

      Sometimes I think "honest money" and employment in general are related.

THIS BLOG IS SEARCHABLE, RIGHT?

      I remember this song off the MUZAK player at work. I loved it but could not find it via a Google search for the life of me. No one had ever heard of the song and no matter how much of the lyrics I collected (and those lyrics were hardly generic), it would not turn up in a search. I only found the name of the group and song via the brute force method: I hung around the MUZAK site watching what was playing on the station I had heard the song on (FM1) and kept checking back periodically for days until the song came up again. I was thrilled when I had finally succeeded and "Greeting Committee" by The Pillbugs became the first MP3 I had ever purchased online. I actually put in efforts to get the lyrics of this song posted online, but for some reason, though accepted by various sites, they never got published. Let me (hopefully) rectify this now.

       So without further ado, let me post the lyrics to this song. Anything I'm uncertain of is in parentheses.

"GREETING COMMITTEE"

by

THE PILLBUGS

Something tells me I should skip this drink

Things could change the moment that I blink

I don't think they're coming for me

Ever since I dared to arrive

Until the moment they go away from here

I can't rest my mind

Something tells me

This is not a paranoid assumption

To be lightly cast aside

(And) I've been trying to sleep with open eyes

According to my calculations

They'll be here before sunrise

And please don't you look at me this way

You'll find out first-hand why

When they come around...

When they come around...

When they come around...

Something tells me I

Better pull myself together

I've been (pushed into the weather)

And it's darker than it's ever been at night

I don't think they're coming for me

Ever since I dared to arrive

And as soon as they go away from here

We can both learn why

Something tells me (logic's opposition)

And I'm certain I'll be wishing it was right

Ooh, when they come around

I don't wanna be found

No, I don't wanna be found here

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no, no, no, no

When they come around

"Greeting Committee" by The Pillbugs

ADDENDUM: Yes. Yes it is.

VARIOUS UPDATES REGARDING MY STUPID HEALTH...

      I had no idea the daily recommended intake of fiber was so high. You're supposed to be getting at least 25 grams of the stuff daily. Thankfully bananas are both high in fiber and cheap so I've been using them to supplement my diet in addition to making sure my bread is always whole wheat (not that I eat white bread anymore - though it's fantastic when toasted) so that every meal is sufficiently fibrous. As much as it makes me feel like an old man that I'm concerning myself with my fiber intake, I can't argue with the bloodless results...plus, I'm sure having two bananas a day is also good for me.

      I referenced a technique from a thread on Reddit last month about how to clear up a stuffy nose without medicine. I've been forcing myself to breathe solely through my nose for a good two weeks now. I think my body has finally realized that I'm no longer playing. The first few nights of doing this, I would be holding my breath for a painfully long time three or more times before falling asleep...but I woke up breathing through my nose, not my mouth. I'm noticing I'm sneezing less and possibly resting better. I have not had a sneezing fit since December 20th though I've had an itchy nose the past two days (left nostril Wednesday, right nostril on Thursday...I'm still convinced my body hates me) but neither day erupted into sneezing fits. I don't want to believe that it's this simple...it couldn't be this simple...but, results...