Yay! Thanks Gnorb! :D
Yay! Thanks Gnorb! :D
Obama: Hill, you just don't know girl...I am THIS close to breakin' my foot off in your back end.
Hillary: Hmph.
After her first album, her management company suggested she get help for her drug problem. She said no, no, no, recorded the second album, and look at her now!
At this point, she's singing to her own soundtrack. Talk about a broken record, though.
My dad's a physicist and somewhat recent Orthodox Muslim convert (about 10 years ago or so...probably more). I get my name and my proclivity for Math and technology from him. My mom is much more...interesting. She's a biologist, but a diehard Christian. So she knows about evolution and the scientific claims supporting it...she just doesn't believe in it. (Don't ask me how.)
They're divorced now -- thankfully.
Hmm...I'm not sure I'm super close with either of my parents. Growing up, I just remember them each trying to one-up each other on their accomplishments. And growing up gifted/autistic in that kind of environment was a little off-putting. Now, I deal with them when I have spare time (and the cable Internet is off). I mean, I call and talk to them once in a while, but it's not like the world'll stop turning if I go a few months without talking to either of them. Luckily, they both subscribe to the notion that if I were really in some dire straits, I'd call them.
Until then, we can deal with each other on the major holidays and such.
RightOn, inadvertentgardner: thanks for your comments! We're hoping that the strong storms right now stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada will give us some rain, but it probably still won't be enough. I think come November, we'll start hearing more restrictions from the city government if we don't get more water soon.
Oh, and our governor's suing the Army Corps of Engineers. Don't know what to make of that just yet considering how far along we are in the drought stages, but I suppose every little bit helps.
I wrote a post, but Blog Action Day was on the same day I drafted a post idea about the drought down here in Atlanta. So it was more coincidence than anything.
I've used 1&1.com for years with no problems at all. Friendly 24/7 telephone support and all.
I don't edit any comments on my site, but if someone comes through my web space and is basically an ass towards me and my readers, I ban them, no questions asked.
I used to send e-mails of warning, but those were just met with more bad language and crazy behavior. So now, I figure if someone leaves a bad comment on my space, they did it with intent once they clicked "Submit Comment", so I don't waste any time trying to qualify their stupidity.
DS: Gyakuten Saiban 3 and Phantom Hourglass
Wii: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
I might be getting an Xbox 360 soon, so I'm excited about that!
@coreyjames: Hey, your dad was the police clerk when Charlie turned in the McPoyle twins!
If you couldn't tell now, I'm a huge fan of the show, and have all of seasons 1 and 2 on my Zen Vision:M to watch at my leisure.
I fluctuate between three and five blogs that I update:
1. BlackGayBlogger.com
2. Nascent, my Vox Blog
3. The Black Weblog Awards blog (not up right now, but will be in a few days - I just did a redesign)
4. Blogging While Brown Conference (a blog I contribute to for a minority tech conference me and a few people are planning)
5. BlackComix (my fantasy/sci-fi/comic book blog, which I haven't started yet, but will this weekend)
I guess I should've prefaced my story by saying that I was in Alabama....
I kid! I kid!
Looking back though, it was obvious that the school board had no idea what to do in terms of special education outside of mental retardation. The spectrum of children who are gifted, have learning disabilities or some other spectral disorder are just dust in the wind, settling where they can. It's sad.
Like JeffJ, I was in a gifted program from elementary school through high school. It was quite an interesting situation that the city school board devised (and in retrospect, quite obvious they had no idea what they were doing since the program structure I was in has now since dissolved). Personally, I think there should be a mix of "in class" and "out of class" interaction; the students shouldn't be made to feel isolated, but they should have some special time away from normal classes with curriculum more geared towards their particular development.
Here's my "special education" story:
What they did was have gifted students attend more than one elementary school concurrently. From first grade through fifth grade, I would attend one school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, then another school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The school I attended on Tuesdays and Thursdays had their "special education" program, which was essentially gifted, LD, (learning disability) TMR (total mental retardation), physically disabled and developmentally challenged children, all in the same class. The number of students fluctuated, with the average being around thirty throughout those years.
In sixth grade, the school board decided to start a separate gifted program at another school, so now I was attending a different school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our classes were much smaller (maybe 10, total, including the teacher), but we were put in a trailer outside of the school where other special education students were (in other trailers).
During seventh through eleventh grade, the gifted program was pared down dramatically. Now, the gifted classes were restricted to just one period a day, but the class size was still small (seven people, maximum). There was a year I didn't attend any gifted classes (tenth grade) because I was overseas.
In twelfth grade, they reinstated the whole "one student, two schools" gifted program, so now I was attending a different high school during senior year two days a week. This was probably the worst part of my gifted education tenure, not just because I was going from an urban high school to a private, all-White school, but because the teacher was completely bereft of compassion towards anyone who she didn't feel was "normal" (in other words, the entire class). She mostly used it as a vehicle to air grievances about her divorce and chain-smoke Marlboro Lights.
Sounds like a 9rules meetup might be in order! I'd like to meet everyone (easy answer, but it's true).
I just made the Camino switch also. On my Vista box, FF crashes if it's up for longer than an hour.
I've never been to Italy, but I'd probably be more interested in visiting an entire continent instead of one country. Is there somewhere in Africa you're particularly considering?
Just finished "Killing Johnny Fry" by Walter Mosley. It's his first foray into erotica...and it sucks. (No, not in the good way, either.)
Deciding on either "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green or one of the other dozen or so books around here I've started and haven't finished.
I'll Tumblr For Ya. It's probably all del.icio.us links at this point though.
Like Scrivs, AC is not an option here in Atlanta. We're in the middle of a drought with no rain in site and 90+ degree temperatures every day.
The company I work for now has W3C validation as part of their QA, so I'm finding myself changing up my coding practices to fit that. The last company I worked for, AT&T, didn't give a rat's ass about validation (mainly because of their insistence on using iframes and Java applets and Javascript).
Get it, Granny!
http://eater.com/archives/2007/06/why_i_hate_food.php
RC...now that takes me back. What other company makes a tasty beverage and a strong hair pomade? Genius!
It's Coke country here in the A.
So dook, how did this turn out? Did they provide you with a Mac? I know a PHP developer here in Atlanta who's in the same opinion as you, and it's been hell for him trying to find a job because he tells them flat out "I don't do Windows." I just got a job where I've got a PC and a Mac. So whenever I get frustrated on one, I just switch to the other.
Great note, Ryan.
This might be a shocking statement, but I give blood regularly (six times a year).
I'm HIV-, STD-free, and my blood type is fairly rare (B-). I've got my Red Cross blood donor card and everything. Each time I go to give blood, they do give me that obligatory survey which usually includes the question about male-to-male sex. I've answered "yes" and they've still taken my blood. (Maybe it's just the luck of the draw.) Now whether they go out back and dump it out in a biohazard container afterwards is beyond me, but they do run several tests for diseases on the donated blood, including HIV- and hepatitis B and C:
Blood from potential donors is tested for ABO group (blood type) and Rh type (positive or negative). Screening tests also are performed to detect infection with hepatitis viruses B and C, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLV), and syphilis. In addition to these tests, a special test called nucleic acid testing (NAT) is capable of detecting HIV and hepatitis C viruses early in the infection, before a blood donor's immune system has begun to produce antibodies against them, which is what the standard HIV and hepatitis C virus tests measure. In all, 14 tests are performed on every unit of donated blood; 11 of these tests, including NAT, are for infectious diseases. (link)
I can understand the FDA's stance on the issue, but the nation's blood supply, with all these tests, is pretty safe. And blood donations are needed more than ever, especially for rare blood types (although we all know the rarest blood type is the one that's not available when you need it!).
I've always been a fan of the Creative DAPs, although they are lacking in the accessories department. I have a black 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M I got for US$189 that is absolutely great. What kind of accessories are you looking for specifically?
I have my 101 in 1001. Speaking of which, I need to start my new list since this one will be expired in about 4 months.
I think (and hope) OpenID solves that problem Dook; I get tired of the multiple signups also.
@Oli: Oh, that is priceless!
Filezilla here also.
I use Text Link Ads also; I definitely had to debate whether I wanted to even go the advertising route, and I started off doing it as just a lark with Google Adsense (which sucked), then Blogads (which also sucked), and just stuck with TLA. I get about $100 a month, and I like how the links blend in with the rest of the site without jumping out and saying "Hey, CLICK HERE!"
I've been using pzizz lately, and it works like a dream.
» Muxtape.com ... Last Reply: 8 months ago by Karsh.
I've been using Muxtape now for a week or so; this is the second muxtape I've done thus far.
I haven't been able to listen to it in Firefox or IE, but have no problem listening to it in Safari. Weird!