Someone please tell me that this will not ever come to completion. 

Damn.  Someone please just shoot me now and put me out of my misery.

I think it may be time to bitch-slap PayPal and kick ‘em to the curb.  A few weeks ago I got an email from them saying that their acceptable use policy had changed and that I had to accept the new policy by a certain date (originally they said the terms would go into effect automatically, now they’re saying that my account will be severely limited after that date).  When I last logged into PayPal I declined the terms, as they were not acceptable to me.  They are now sending daily emails warning me that I must accept the terms and conditions.  It should be noted that (according to the last email), there are 82 days until the deadline.  I was going to wait until June to see if they came to their senses and changed the policy, however I will go postal if they send me 82 more emails….

A man in Missouri filed a civil rights complaint against a radio station that allegedly denied his request to dedicate a song on the air because he stuttered.

If it is true that he was denied air time because of his stutter, it’s cruel, but it isn’t a violation of civil rights.  The station owns the transmitter and has control over who goes on air.  I have a hard time with people who go to such great lengths to force a private entity to bend to their wishes.  It’s unfortunate that people have such a poor grasp on the concept of rights.  But it’s about what we should expect given the poor overall state of education that people are getting in the area of the constitution and civil rights.

I would be remiss if I didn’t say Happy Birthday to my sister, who turned 30 today:

I hope she doesn’t kill me for telling everyone about that….  But really, 30 isn’t so bad.  Besides, I didn’t upload that picture I found of you from the 80’s…

I’ve been increasingly dissatisfied with the layout of my guns page.  It’s kind of bland and the way they’re laid out is kind of cumbersome.  At the same time, the way the page is maintained is a bit clunky (the page is generated using a PHP script that has the descriptions of all the guns as array entries in the code, which is not exactly high quality programming; but then, it was the first PHP script I’d ever written and I was in a hurry).

I’ve spent most of the day working on a new PHP script that will allow me more flexibility in how the page is laid out and in how the data is stored.  I’ve just gotten the code to the point where it can read an XML input file to pull the data in (it took me longer than expected, given the brain fog induced by a few too many rum-and-colas last night ).  The next step will be to write the code that uses the data to display the page.

My goal is to make this code flexible through the use of PHP templates for the various page elements and CSS style sheets to control presentation within the elements.  If I get really ambitious, I’ll look into autogenerating thumbnails.

If this works out, I may look into releasing the code for use by anyone who wants to create a gun gallery on their own website.

I took some time away from the computer today to get out and stimulate the economy.  My mood was considerably brightened by my new clothing purchases because I was able to finally break through a (psychological) size barrier. 

I am, however, left with the observation that there must be some kind of contest between the clothing companies to see who can use the most stickers and plastic hang tags on each item.  The problem is that those plastic hang tags usually leave a little end somewhere that you don’t see.  They either get lost in the carpet or find their way onto my bed.  I find them later by either stepping on them or rolling over and getting stuck.

When I checked my mail I found that the CDs I ordered from Amazon had arrived.  They were protected in the box by bubble wrap, which leads me to my second observation of the day—I don’t think I know anyone who can resist the awesome temptation of bubble wrap.  You can’t handle it without popping at least one (or two, or three….).

The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.
  —Frederic Bastiat

Dr. Robert Atkins died today of complications from a fall he suffered earlier this month.  There seem to be a lot of people who revel in disinformation and ignorance about Dr. Atkins and the Atkins Plan.  It’s sad that I have to do this, but in the interest of truth, I feel I should share the following with everyone.

First, the cause of death:

The serious snowstorm that hit New York City the day before the incident, along with unseasonably cold temperatures, left streets and sidewalks slippery. As was his daily habit, Dr. Atkins walked from his home to his office, a distance of about one mile. At approximately 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 8, 2003, he fell and hit his head, suffering severe head trauma. Keith Berkowitz, M.D., a colleague at The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, was arriving at work at the same time, and was able to rush Dr. Atkins to the hospital within minutes. The doctors at the hospital emergency room determined that Dr. Atkins had suffered a subdural hematoma and that surgery was required to remove the blood clot from his brain. He survived for several days but eventually succumbed to complications.

He suffered a cardiac arrest about a year ago, but it was unrelated to the Atkins plan.

The cause of this event was cardiomyopathy, not blocked arteries. Over the last couple of years, Dr. Atkins has had an infection of the heart muscle (called the myocardium) contracted during an overseas trip. Coupled with the extreme heat conditions of mid-April here in New York, the 71-year old Dr. Atkins suffered this event.

“We have been treating this condition, cardiomyopathy, for almost two years,” explains Patrick Fratellone MD, Dr. Atkins’ personal physician and cardiologist, “and during the course of diagnosis, we discovered that Dr. Atkins’ coronary arteries were normal as diagnosed by an angiogram performed at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital on the upper west side of New York City in April of 2001. Clearly, his own nutritional protocols have left him, at the age of 71, with an extraordinarily healthy cardiovascular system. Unfortunately, the infection-related cardiomyopathy is totally another matter.”

I offer this because I have been told, quite sincerely, by people who ought to know better, that Dr. Atkins died of a heart attack (a year ago), and that anyone who follows his plan would do so as well.  Since I knew he was alive at the time, I naturally dismissed these people as either cranks or simply misinformed.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been on the plan since September and I have lost 65 pounds so far.  However, I have no interest in debating the merits of the plan with people.  I just want people to shut the hell up about it, as I’m fed up with their ever-so-solicitous suggestions about how I should run my life.

I heard this on the radio this morning.  It just seemed so sad to me that someone so young would take such a drastic action.  (Dallas Morning-News, registration may be required)

A 12-year-old girl at an Addison private school was found dead in a campus restroom Wednesday from what police described as a self-inflicted injury.

About 3:10 p.m., police and rescue personnel responded to the Greenhill School in the 4100 block of Spring Valley Road after someone called 911 to report an unconscious person in a restroom.

Addison police Officer Brad Freis said the first officers who arrived found a middle school student with what they described as a self-inflicted injury. Police declined to say whether the girl had a weapon.

I’ve always been conflicted about suicide.  My personal values and beliefs tell me that it’s a decision that adults can make for themselves.  As self-owners, we’re ultimately in charge of ourselves and we can control our final disposition.  Despite that, though, like all other choices, there are consequences to it.  The problem is that the person who makes the choice is not (usually) going to face them.  Having known a girl whose mother killed herself when we were in elementary school, I saw just how irresponsible that choice was.  If people were to consider the destruction and pain that they were going to leave behind, they’d realize that it’s just not the right choice.

Of course, none of this applies with children.  It just saddens me to think about it.  This poor girl must have thought that things were never going to get better (whatever they were).  It’s unfortunately that no one was able to intercept her before she made such a horrible and irreversible decision.

I almost got rear-ended this morning by a dumbass who was tailgating when another dumbass stopped for the vehicle in front of her who was turning left (of course she did this right after pulling out in front of me in a 50MPH zone, which didn’t leave me a lot of braking distance).  In Texas it is legal (and expected) that if someone turns left that you go around on the right (provided you can do it without leaving the pavement).  I’ve noticed lately that a lot of people are stopping instead of passing.  Perhaps these people are new to the state and simply didn’t bother to check up on our laws (I know that some states prohibit passing on the right when someone is turning).  Alternately, since this woman was driving a Suburban, maybe she doesn’t realize that it will fit into the space available on the shoulder.  The main downside I’ve seen to the advent of SUVs is that a lot of people are driving them who have never driven anything that big before and they don’t know the boundaries of their vehicle.

From the Texas driver’s handbook:(pg 6-3)

PASSING ON THE RIGHT

In Texas and many other states, you may pass on the right. You may pass on the right only under conditions permitting such movement in safety.

1. The road is clear of parked vehicles or other things and is wide enough for two or more lanes in each direction.

2. You are on a one-way road.

3. You may pass on a paved shoulder when the vehicle you are passing is slowing or stopped on the main travelled portion of the highway, disabled, or preparing to make a left turn.

Do not pass on the right by driving off the paved portion of the highway.

Of course, this could just be a problem with drivers in Argyle.  I’ve noticed over the past few months that they’re getting more and more squirrely in the mornings.