Life of a graduate student in Buffalo, NY.
Thanks guys, really…
You send me such a nice email, talking about a wonderful piece of software that will let me watch digital TV online from wherever, whenever, for one price!
Too bad I only used that one piece of software of yours exclusively on a Mac! Bastards! Learn your customer base, sheesh.
And while you’re at it, you might want to double check that motto…
I’ve noticed more and more that people who are becoming involved in this election process culminating this day, November 4th of 2008, are of the mind that our presidential candidate really drives where everything goes in this country. He/she bears the reigns of this superpower we call our United States of America.
I feel that people fail to notice that our government was multi-faceted in its conception for a reason. We have an executive branch to lead the military forces and oversee government organizations and committees as needed. We have a legislative branch to contrive and enact bills and laws to the needs and desires of this nation as a whole. Lastly, we have a judicial branch to serve to uphold or scrutinize the legislation produced by the legislative branch and approved by the executive branch. Each branch was given powers so that no one bore exclusive or indomitable power over the others, the traditional “checks and balances” we learned so long ago.
I bring this up because people appear to feel so strongly about some issue(s) that they are “forced” to vote for one presidential candidate, although that candidate may personally disagree with said person’s other less important values. I wholeheartedly disagree that this should be the thought and mentality about all this!
We need an executive leader to steer this country in the right direction, yes. At the same time, we need a strong voice in the representative branch of legislation in order to enact the laws and policies we want to see in place, despite what the executive branch may want. Congress does bear the ability to overturn a Presidential veto if he/she does not approve of the legislation. However, this will never happen if people don’t take the time to speak up to their Congressional representatives.
Make your voices known. Don’t compromise on most of your values for the greater good of a single value. The means by which the public can involve themselves in the greater good of this nation is multiple-fold. Don’t settle on one candidate simply because he/she bears a personal stigma such as race, age or religion. Don’t vote solely based on a pro-life/pro-abortion or to who gives you the bigger tax cut. If you’re taking the easy way out, thinking the President will be the end-all be-all of the direction of this government, then perhaps you should reconsider why you are voting.
If you’re not willing to explore all avenues for shaping this nation by your involvement, then what are you really accomplishing by participating in one active branch and not the others? Please, do not make this a half-assed endeavor (to put it bluntly).
Vote responsibly after deliberation on all the issues that matter to you. Make your opinion known to your representation in the legislative bodies so they know just how you wish to see this nation develop. Be aware of legislation that is being passed, especially if it directly influences those issues that matter most to you, and question it if needed!
I hope many of you that see this are voting today. I hope that among those that are, many are willing to flex their muscles of civic duty and participate to as much of an extent as they are able.
Graduate Students are the Worst People
“We might not be the best people” - Jack
“But we’re not the worst!” - Liz
“Graduate students are the worst.” - Jack and Liz(Via Entertonement.)
Are we really so myopic and horrible? *sniffles*
I really cannot wait until election week is over with. The asinine things that are happening all because of this election (or more accurately drawn out) have me just dreading this last week or two.
Is this a sign of things to come in future elections? If so, I’m not sure how long or to what degree of these shenanigans I will be able to withstand!
Bogus Robocall Tells Floridians They Can Vote By Phone:
“Another unknown group is distributing flyers (see the flyer after the jump) with official-looking letterhead around the area of Hampton Roads, Virgina that erroneously inform recipients that because of the crowds at the polls, the Virginia State Board of Elections is scheduling Republicans to vote on November 4th, and Democrats on the 5th.“
(Via Wired.)
That shit don’t get much better than that…
I want to live in this. I miss this weather so much right about now!
I think I need to start a list of places I would like to live. Starting with this one…Burlington, VT!
O hai big brother…I didn’t see you up there! Smile you say? Ok!
Satellite-Surveillance Program to Begin Despite Privacy Concerns - WSJ.com:
(Via Slashdot.)
In case any of you reading this haven’t heard, LIN Television’s retransmission contract with Time Warner Cable has expired as of October 2nd around midnight in the morning. This effectively terminated broadcast of fifteen local stations in eleven different television markets stretching from Texas to New York. The underlying problem appears to be that LIN wishes to charge Time Warner to carry their signal, at least from the information that is being presented about the negotiations.
I am not an avid fan of either CBS or the WB (WIVB & WNLO, the stations that were lost from the Buffalo/Niagara Falls market) stations, so I’m not terribly concerned about the brunt of their programming. However, I am disappointed that they went to the effort to enforce the non-duplication rights to the Bills’ football games, preventing Time Warner from broadcasting last Sunday’s game against Arizona from an affiliate station in Rochester, NY. LIN’s consolation to it’s viewers of those stations has been composed of no more than calling Time Warner to complain and push for an agreement, using terrestrial antennas to acquire over-the-air broadcasts, or to switch to another service. Time Warner went to the trouble of offering free antennae and issuing credits for purchasing antennae in order to help accommodate its customers (especially for the Sunday football game), leading me to further think Time Warner gives a damn about its customer base while not succumbing to this marketing ploy.
Take into consideration the following (which I’m sure has been proposed by many others…I’m hardly the first):
Taken together, Time Warner really is doing the local station a favor by broadcasting them for free. If the station(s) is/are really in high enough demand, then some concern might be warranted for actually paying for the signal(s) in order to keep subscribers on the cable service. However, this would eventually trickle down onto the consumer either directly or indirectly through cable costs.
If I were to switch to satellite, is it safe to expect they’re already paying to retransmit these signals? If not, what is to say that down the road they do not impose the same kind of restriction on the satellite markets, just screwing customers again? Information doesn’t appear to be readily available to even tell if these networks are that providing LIN’s signals are paying them in order to do so.
And what about the advertisers? Are they going to be compensated for loss of advertising volume by this whole incident? Who knows!
Must-carry was a worthwhile endeavor by the FCC in my personal opinion. Giving local stations the option to deny retransmission without their consent only complicated the issue with the ability to negotiate contracts. Regardless, it does seem like a justifiable option if the market really demands a station that extensively.
I do not feel this is the case here. LIN sounds like their just pushing for a larger revenue stream by now demanding higher retransmission charges, regardless of whether that will be pushed onto the consumer base or not. Their steadfast opinion that Time Warner is at fault seems difficult to swallow in the face of the duplication block against Time Warner, and the effort Time Warner has made to maintain consumer viewing of these stations.
LIN Television, I really hope your ratings suffer enough to hurt your revenue stream to make this entire debacle economically unfavorable, killing that additional revenue you were hoping to make. It might make you reconsider your options before thinking this is the economically feasible choice to do.
From very good taste, via Buffalo Wings and Toasted Ravioli:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
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Had some interesting clashes between overcast and sunny weather this afternoon. It made for a relatively nice shot while driving home to see the sun-lit autumn leaves against the dark and rainy distance.
Another mile on the way home, and a very intense rainbow made itself apparent. Primary, secondary, tertiary and supernumerary rainbows all present….wow indeed. I only wish I had managed to get a picture of the primary/secondary/tertiary all together.
I know I never mentioned it here in my blog, but I have a Nikon D80 DSLR camera that I’ve been playing around with as I start to dabble in some photography experimentation. The camera came with their more recently standard AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR DX lens which works nice for lots of stuff, but just doesn’t gather enough light indoors enough of the time to get faster shutter speeds. In its place, I picked up the AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens which has been fantastic as of late (you can see some shots with it on my Flickr page). Nice crisp images and usually non-blurry (if I can keep my hand still). I originally wanted the Nikon D60, but it was somewhat limited in some features, especially that of requiring AF-S lenses in order to use autofocus capabilities. Nikon appears to be slowly changing that game.
Apparently at some point, Nikon introduced their new AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens. It now brings the joy of autofocus for the 50mm prime lens to the Nikon D40 and Nikon D60 cameras. In addition, it removes the aperture ring from the older lens, which restricts it to the more recent Nikon cameras that can control aperture from within the body.
My brother will surely be enthused by this (he has been wielding a Nikon D40)! Unfortunately, it’s not slated to be available until December of this year, and there’s no price estimated for this yet. Hopefully it won’t be much more expensive than Sigma’s 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM, which currently retails around US$500, in order to stay competitive.
