Dharmapunk's Surreal Self-History

It seems like every time we have an election, we have to suffer through awful, long-winded Christian diatribes, telling us how important it is for us to put old Jeebus Christ (or at least a strong admirer of) in office so that we can enjoy the dubious benefits of Christian government and Christian law.  Despite the first Constitutional amendment (which seems pretty clearly worded to me), which tells us that, at least in this country, the Church and the State must legally be kept very very separate, these oddly un-Christian "Christians" claim, 'This is a Christian country, founded by good Christians with good Christian MORAL FIBER, so suck it up, heathens!  Here's a big wad of MORALITY for you to shove down your throat.  Try not to choke, haw haw haw.  Oh yeah, Christ be with you, etc.'

Well, that ain't exactly true, folks.  Here are a few quotes regarding their various stances on religion,  by some of our founding fathers and great leaders.  If anyone has more, please message me, and I will add them. (Thanks for the quotations, Mr. Frank Zappa.  RIP)

"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine." -George Washington

"It does no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no gods.  It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." -Thomas Jefferson

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of.  My own mind is my own church." -Thomas Paine

"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature." -Thomas Jefferson

"The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion.  I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." -Abraham Lincoln

Posh and Becks have moved to Los Angeles: [is this good?]

Um.  Who cares?

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Take that, evil empire!

Also see: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070415-aacs-cracks-cannot-be-revoked-says-hacker.html
for an article about the future of bypassing media encryption.  Cool stuff, Maynard, if geeky.

Oh, and yes, I support media piracy.  Loud and proud.

What do you always forget to pack? 
Submitted by quornflour.

I lived out of a backpack in Asia for 3 years, and now I never forget to pack anything, ever.  I am an Uber Packer.  

I just watched "Thunderball" for the first time in, what, 25 years?  Sadly, I watched it right after seeing "Casino Royale", so it seemed (and I think *was*) really lame/boring/lacking surprise.  

But Holy S&M, Batman! 

I couldn't believe how overtly sado-masochistic "Thunderball" was!  Biting.  Bondage (no pun intended).  Lots of torture.  Tight black wetsuits for days!  And made in 1965?!  I don't think the censors now would let this get by without an "R" rating.

And isn't that sad?   That we are a more repressive society now than we were 40 years ago?

What are you going to do with your tax return?
Submitted by KB.

Tax return!  Hahahaha!  In my dreams, you mean?

What's the infamous story people tell about you? 
Submitted by Cherney.

Wow. There are so many.  My favorite is the one where I got drunk at a party, fell most of the way through a 3rd story window, breaking it in the process, and then gave a speech about the transitory nature of glass.  Thank god the past is actually in the past.

...And I am still in work hell.  What is it about working in IT that makes people (read CEOs && CTOs) just assume that I have no life outside of work, and would prefer spending all day, every day, working on servers?  Rant rant rant.  Why is it that I have to take a sick day in order to have some time to myself?  Rant rant rant.  Is it too much to ask for a work week that is less than 50 hours (or 60, or 80) hours long once in a while?  Rant rant rant.  And another thing:  How about hiring more sysadmins??  Rant rant rant.

Rant rant rant.

Wow.  That felt good.

I've been working 12-16 hour days for weeks.  I'm tired.  Apologies for not posting recently...

What's the most klutzy thing you've ever done?
Submitted by Jecka.

When I was a waiter, I had a table that was in a hurry to eat.  They had theater tickets, and only had an hour before their show started.  I put their ticket in as a "rush" order, but somehow the kitchen lost it.  By the time I'd resubmitted the ticket and the food was ready, my customers were seriously impatient (read "furious"), having only 20 minutes to eat and get to the theater.  When I brought the food to their table, I announced, "Here it is!", and then spazzed out, dumping plates of Shrimp Osaka all over the customers and myself.  Needless to say, they didn't make it to the show.

So that was fun.