Where I stand on Election 2016

NOTE: This is being done as a public service. I am not telling you who to vote for or why you should vote for anything/anyone.

My choice for POTUS, Senator & U.S. Representative...

All of those offices are on the ballot here in my part of Louisiana. I chose Libertarians across the board.

Why would I choose Libertarians?

Simply put, they understand what Liberty actually is and the 2 major parties have forgotten. The Libertarian Party is not a 100% match for my ideals (and no one ever will be) but, they are soooooo much closer to the mark than Democrats or Republicans.

Furthermore, I am thoroughly disgusted with both major parties and refuse to support either of them. Don't bother giving me any of that tired old tripe/BULLSHIT about a 3rd party vote being a waste. Wasting a vote would mean supporting the career criminal with a (D) after her name or the raging asshole with the (R) after his name just to keep one of them from getting elected.

When these two Shitstains are your 'only' choices, you know that something has gone terribly wrong with our beloved Republic. My fellow Americans, we can do so much better than these two horrific misfits.

It must take an awful lot of brainwashing and Tribalism to believe that 'vote for Candidate A so Candidate B doesn't win' non-sense. No matter what anyone says, I refuse to even consider voting for either of them. I'd be ashamed of myself if I ever considered either of them for even the smallest fraction of a second: Planck time.

And there were more reasons than these for me to vote for the Libertarians...

Louisiana State Constitutional Amendments on the ballot this year...

There are also 6 new amendments being proposed for my state constitution in this election. My representative in the State Legislature sent out a mailer listing them and what each one would say. Here is what I decided with them...

Amendment #1 - Setting qualifications for Registrar of Voters

LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE: Do you support an amendment to provide that the manner of appointment for the registrar of voters in each parish is as provided by law and to require the qualifications of the registrar to be provided by law?

MY VOTE: FOR. The fact that they (currently) can hire any joker that wonders in off the street for something this important really worries me. There should be a hiring standard of some kind.

Amendment #2 - Louisiana Authority of College Boards to Establish Tuition and Fees without Legislative Approval

LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE: Do you support an amendment to authorize the postsecondary education management boards to establish the tuition and mandatory fee amounts charged by institutions under their supervision and management, without legislative approval?

MY VOTE: AGAINST. College costs too much already and the current economy is making college degrees more and more worthless. There is no way in Hell that I'm going to allow the people running this state's public universities to start charging whatever they want. Most of it would probably just go into their pockets anyway.

Amendment #3 - Louisiana Removal of Federal Income Tax Deduction from State Corporate Income Tax Calculation

LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE: Do you support an amendment to eliminate the deductibility of federal income taxes paid in computing state corporate income taxes?

MY VOTE: AGAINST. Voting for this amendment would increase the tax burden for any company here in Louisiana. This state already has enough trouble attracting new businesses. We don't need to make the ones we already have pack up and leave.

Amendment #4 - Louisiana Property Tax Exemptions for Widowed Spouses of First Responders and Military Personnel

LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE: Do you support an amendment to authorize an exemption from ad valorem property tax for the total assessed value of the homestead of an unmarried surviving spouse of a person who died while on active duty as a member of the armed forces of the United States or the Louisiana National Guard, or while performing their duties as a state police, law enforcement, or fire protection officer?

MY VOTE: FOR. The grieving widow or widower has already lost a spouse and that spouse's income. They don't need to worry about the tax burden making it that much more likely that they'll also lose their home.

Amendment #5 - Louisiana Transportation Fund and Revenue Allocation

LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE: Do you support an amendment to establish the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund for the deposit of recurring mineral and corporate tax revenues, to restrict the use of the fund to 10% of the balance when the balance reaches $5 billion, to restrict the use of the fund to construction projects and transportation infrastructure, and to allocate recurring mineral revenues to the payment of state employee retirement debt?

MY VOTE: FOR. This would take the oil and gas taxes collected by the state and put them towards much-needed public works projects and retirement funds for state government employees. We need funding for those things very badly right now. The roads in Orleans Parish are an absolute disgrace.

Amendment #6 - Louisiana Use of Restricted Funds to Eliminate Future Deficits upon Projected Revenue Reduction

LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE: Do you support an amendment to authorize the use of up to five percent of current year appropriations or allocations from statutorily or certain constitutionally created funds or up to one percent of the current year’s balances in certain constitutionally created funds to eliminate a projected deficit in the next fiscal year if the official forecast for the next fiscal year is less than the official forecast for the current fiscal year or if the official forecast has been reduced by at least one percent from the most recently adopted estimate for the ensuing fiscal year, and to exempt certain funds and mandates from being used to eliminate a projected deficit?

MY VOTE: FOR. This increases the amounts of money from constitutional funds that can be used to close deficits in the state budget. Since we are currently having a budget problem here in Louisiana, this proposed amendment makes sense. It also prevents taxes from being raised and adds to the number of funds that cannot be touched for this purpose. The funds protected by this amendment include:

- Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund
- Conservation Fund
- Oilfield Site Restoration Fund
- Any healthcare provider fees or assessments in the Hospital Stabilization Fund
- Louisiana Medical Assistance Trust Fund
- Supplemental pay for full-time local police and fire-fighters.

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And that is how I voted, folks. Yes, I have voted already. There's early voting here in Louisiana and I took advantage of the opportunity on this past Thursday, October 27th. I thought I could avoid the Election Day crowds that way but, still had to wait an hour before getting to the booth. The fact that so many people showed up to vote early in the morning is very re-assuring to me. That shows that, despite having some really crappy POTUS candidates this time around, at least people still care. There may be hope for us yet...

- Lord Publius

Education for MY future

Ever feel like nothing ever quite goes your way? Lord knows I've felt like that a LOT since graduating college in 2008. My feelings on it all can best be described by some of the lyrics of the classic Judas Priest song Breaking the Law...

So much for the golden future I can't even start...I've had every promise broken, there's anger in my heart!!! You don't know what it's like, you don't have a clue... If you did, you'd find yourselves doing the same thing too!!!

There has been a lot of anger over how so many things have not turned out quite the way I hoped in my adult life. ITT, the Army, the Insurance Adjusting business... However, as I've hinted on my Facebook page for months now, that will change very soon. And it's gonna change by me finally using my VA education benefits to return to school. I am going back to college for a Bachelor's in Computer Science.

The specialty in that major hasn't been decided yet. That's something you do later on in the course of study. However, I think I'll be pursuing Cyber-security since there is ALWAYS a lot of work in that field. I was originally considering an Education degree so I could become a Teacher but, I changed my mind on that one. Just getting some damned information on how to pursue that course was so infuriating that I decided to go with my natural inclinations instead. Tech is where I belong.

I was also thinking about getting some kind of Master's but, my Bachelor's from ITT had a completely different accreditation service than my new school, the University of New Orleans. So, I have to start over as an Undergraduate again. I can't say I'm surprised. Life has already made me start over at zero several times in the last 10 years. This time though, Uncle Sam is picking up the tab so, I really don't care.

It's funny because it's true...

However, getting this far was certainly a bit of a misadventure. And I guess it all started the first time I went to college from 2004 through 2008...

ITT

I chose the title of this blog because 'Education for the future' was the advertising slogan that ITT used back when I first went there in 2004. That was also a time when it was still a legitimate institution. Now, I'm probably laughed at by any potential employer that sees that school listed on my Resume. Despite all that work that went into college for 4 years, I was immediately set back at Zero after graduating in 2008. Back then, it was because of the bad economic situation. Now, it's because the business people that ran ITT ran that school into the ground.

I worked so hard in college that first time around, trying to accomplish a dream of becoming a game designer. It didn't take long after graduation to realize that wasn't going to happen. That was the first time life made me start over at zero. Or, maybe I should say -52,000 since I had $52,000 worth of student loans that needed to be repaid ASAP. Thankfully, they are almost all gone now.

Now, 9 years later, I have all but $7,000 (maybe less) of the loans paid off. The rest will be gone sometime in the next 2 or 3 years, if everything goes according to plan. Maybe sooner if I can afford to put some money away to pay off large chunks at once but, that isn't likely...  (And I'm sure that I said something like that about 2 or 3 years ago as well...)

Anyway, I chose the private sector back then because public universities here in New Orleans were a joke at the time. I didn't think much of community colleges back then either. I didn't even really know what they were. I thought they were just the schools that losers attended. Now, I realize I probably should have went to one of them for something technical instead of those Sierra Bravos @ ITT. Oh well. Lesson learned... At great personal and financial expense...

At least I don't have to worry about people specifically telling me no in job interviews just because of that worthless ITT degree. It's also great that college is being paid for this time by a benefit that I earned instead of loans. I sure wouldn't want to be in the shoes of the kids that ITT messed over when they closed. The Feds had to set up a special program to help them. As if all the problems paying back student loans weren't bad enough for some people back in the 'Great Depression that we're just gonna call a Recession' of 2008.

No matter what the Feds did in 2008, it was still going to be very controversial and only marginally effective at best...

Concerns about Bleeding Heart Liberal professors and the kids that idolize them like false gods...

Bleeding Hearts who are also tenured professors are one of the reasons why I utterly refused to pursue anything in the Humanities, outside of Education degrees. That, and a degree in the Humanities (or any other form of Liberal Arts) just doesn't get you a job. Also, my grades shouldn't be at the mercy of biased ideologues who are pissed that I dared to reject some (or all) of their philosophy and/or worldview. That would be their own fault for actually giving a philosophy like Postmodernism the time of day. 'Feels over Reals' doesn't work in the real world, folks. You cannot simply reject objective reality and substitute your own. Those Commie professors are NOT Doctor Who.

All that being said, I got along quite well with all of my professors at ITT, especially the Bleeding Hearts. One of them even made me his unofficial teaching assistant by paying me to type up his lesson plans and correct his grammatical mistakes. Spelling wasn't one of his gifts.

I doubt strongly that I'm going to have to worry about any hippies among the student body, either. I took a good look around while I was there exploring the UNO campus. With only 1 or 2 exceptions, they all looked quite normal and well-adjusted to me. In fact, they looked downright happy. I think I'll be happy there too since being there puts a smile on my face. And being so focused on STEM these days, that school is essentially one giant Mad Science Laboratory. I think I may have just found my home away from home. :)

However, I know what to do when/if any of the kids try to give me any grief about anything, especially how I'm paying for school this time around...

Or in my case, almost 5 years...

Actually going down to UNO and getting registered, taking placement tests, et al.

I went down to the school for a campus tour and officially submitted my application in October. That process was fairly painless. The school also has the largest library I've ever visited in my life, with the possible exception of the Jefferson Parish Library's main branch in Metairie. They even still had Microfiche there. That on-campus library is also apparently a repository for a lot of government documents so, that's liable to be very useful in the future. Not yet sure how, though...

I walked around the campus on my own for hours, just to re-familiarize myself with the layout of the land. I knew this school fairly well because I went there for a few summer programs for genius kids over 20 years ago. Many things changed but, a lot of them didn't. The Education building is still almost exactly the same. That's where those summer programs took place. I'm sure a lot of the General Education prerequisites will also be taught there.

In addition to my ITT degree not being worth anything to them (which is annoying), I had to take a few placement tests from a serviced called Accuplacer. My old ACT scores from High School wouldn't work anymore since they are only considered good for 5 years. I graduated from High School over 16 years ago now.

There were 2 tests to take: Sentence Structure and Elementary Algebra. The Sentence Structure test was painfully easy. I finished it in 13 minutes and 30 seconds and got a final score of 107. I'm not sure how those tests are graded. However, that score was good enough to test out of the first semester's English class, if desired. The Algebra test though, was more difficult. I had to take that one twice. I needed a minimum score of 65 for that one and got a 68 on the second try. I'll be taking something akin to a remedial math course but, that's okay. I haven't looked at (let alone used) much Algebra for more than 12 years. I could use a refresher course. Thankfully, I can feel my brain starting to re-orient itself to the type of logical thinking required for crunching these fancy numbers. Neuroplasticity for the WIN!

Getting registered for classes was also a bit annoying since I was just directed to a website and told to do it myself without much real instruction. Sounds like I'm dealing with government employees again, huh? Oh well, I'll get used to this new paradigm in fairly short order. I'm actually looking forward to some of the classes I have for this first semester. I think they will be fun. :)

Laughing at my enemies, both real and imagined...

So many jackasses I used to know in the Army are going to be rather incensed when they hear about this latest misadventure of mine. Mostly because it's being funded by their tax dollars.

They'll also be pissed when they discover that the VA will be giving me a living stipend while I'm a full-time college student.

They'll be downright enraged to learn that the stipend and my VA disability check (which I started collecting in April) will cover my monthly living expenses.

The fact that their will also be a small profit after expenses may drive them through the proverbial roof. :P

And just so all of you fools know, I am laughing at you. Your fury and gnashing of teeth is truly Top Kek to me.

Yeah, we're gonna be rollin' around in some of that Donald Trump money really soon, my dudes...

I am laughing at SC, who thought I was about to lose my house and tried to blast my personal business over Facebook in November of 2016. Not only was he completely wrong in his assertions, he also never had any idea what I was really doing in life. Maybe he thought the jokes about being broke were a serious cry for help? I was working and living paycheck-to-paycheck, dumbass. Either way, I'm not selling my house and moving away from New Orleans again. Fuck that shit and fuck YOU too, asshole. You told me on a few occasions that you think you have Asperger's Syndrome. I still say you should go get tested but, for me at least, there is no doubt. That's probably the only way you could have been so clueless. Since when do you go blasting other people's business all over Facebook, numbnuts? Did your parentst not teach you any kind of manners or decorum as a child?

I am also laughing at those two snake in the grass bastards TAB and BKD. Both of whom deserve to rot in the Ninth Inner Circle along with Brutus, Cassius, Judas Iscariot and all other Sierra Bravos who betray their friends. You two apparently thought I was good for nothing, but I can assure you both it's actually the other way around. You two are lucky the Army was willing to employ you. Neither one of you would have much luck in the civilian world because of your tendencies to act like an ASSHOLE. Or, in BKD's case, a fucking degenerate BDSM faggot whose also probably an amoral sociopath. Lord knows the way you treat women is only marginally better than Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. You sick fuck. The way you use them for your own purposes is genuinely horrifying to anyone with a conscience.

I am also laughing at all the shitbag excuses for NCO's that I had to deal with too. They are also lucky that the Army hired them because no one else would. Well, maybe a few sleazy used car dealerships would but, that's not really an improvement... The less I have to say about any of them, the better. I've already beaten that dead horse more than enough.

That shitbag even looks like he might have been an NCO at one time...

Also, I am really having a good laugh at that shitbag BPC, who thought he was somehow going to shame me back into the Army after I left. And when that failed, he tried to cyberstalk me. Boy, did that fail. He might even slit his wrists over the fact that I got the VA to pay for college and provide me a lifelong disability check. Serves you right too, Cocksucker. I normally would consider suicide to be awful. However, in your case, I wouldn't lose even one minute of sleep.

Fuck YOU, BPC. And not in a way that your Homosexual ass might enjoy!

Random thoughts for 17 September 2016

0.) Happy Constitution Day!!!

1.) There has been a disturbance in The Force as of late...

For reasons I still don't fully understand, I have been a lot more attracted to blondes these past 2 weeks than usual. I suspect this has something to do with 2 hot blonde actresses that I like (i.e. Jennifer Lawrence and Melissa Benoist, the actress that plays the lead role in Supergirl) and that cute little 24 year-old nursing student that's my usual trainer at the gym.

2.) Make no mistake though, I am still just as obsessed with Redheads as ever. If Leanna Decker came to me and begged me to make her a happy wife and mother, I wouldn't say no. ;)

3.) I recently started a new job as a daily claims adjuster for an Independent Adjuster firm that I worked for in the past. So far, I'm just handling claims that people make against the local electric company. Most of them are easy denials but, I still give them full consideration. That way, when the claimant gets the denial, they can't say that I didn't even try to be fair to them.

I sure do hope this job goes well. I'm tired of being only sporadically employed and CONSTANTLY struggling to pay the bills...

Also, this job keeps me here at home. I don't just mean New Orleans I mean at home, handling the claims over the phone and internet with a laptop the company gave me. That ought to significantly cut down on my travel costs... :P

4.) Why is Firefox being such a crackhead? Am I going to have to get a new browser that DOESN'T suddenly take up all the system resources and freeze? Who cares if I have 20 tabs open (with most of them being YouTube videos) it should NOT be crashing in this modern age of superior open-source programming... *smh*

5.) No, I am not switching to Chrome. Google always wants me to sign into that shit and it is often just as much of a memory hog as Firefox. Sometimes much more depending on how many tabs you have open at once.*

* = Chrome has each tab run as its own process in Windows. This was meant to keep the whole browser from crashing if one freezes up for some reason. It doesn't always work well.

6.) I wonder if Opera would be worthwhile as a new main browser? Is it even still around? I know Nintendo uses Opera software for the web browsers in the Wii, Wii U and 3DS platforms. Would that be enough to keep them alive?

7.) Adobe Flash sucks. It should be replaced with HTML5 by ANYONE running an active website. I have spoken.

8.) I found an interesting article via Facebook tonight. It's about a Battalion commander getting removed for violating the Sexual Harassment and Equal Opportunity regulations.

"The investigation found Higgins committed multiple violations of the Army’s Sexual Harassment and Equal Opportunity regulations and policies, created a hostile work environment, and failed to treat subordinates with dignity and respect, according to the statement from the 1st Armored Division.

Officials from the 1st Armored Division later clarified that the Sexual Harassment policy violations cited in the investigation stemmed from inappropriate comments that created a hostile work environment, and there were no allegations of any inappropriate physical contact."

So, an old-school officer makes a few sex jokes and he gets fired... Okay...

I could swear that I've read about this dude somewhere before, years ago while I was still in the Army. The piece was essentially a biography of the guy in question, saying he was one of the most aggressive commanders we had in Afghanistan.

So, what really happened? Were the comments really that bad or is this a case of Political Correctness running amok? Either way, I think we are not being told the whole story.

9.) Found out that the new Star Trek show is being delayed until May.

I'm not upset by this delay at all. It will give them a chance to create a MUCH better product than what I've seen so far. Also, they didn't even have more than 3 or 4 scripts finished as of August. Getting a season's worth of episodes done in just 4 months would have been next to impossible.

10.) Haven't seen or heard anything out of that stalking shitbag in a while. I guess he got the message and took it to heart. Good for him.

11.) Speaking of Gingers that supposedly lack souls... I was thinking about the little red-haired girl from Korea again a few weeks ago. I have come to the conclusion that she was not in her right mind back in those days. Don't know if she got any better since I left her behind 5 years ago now but, I sure hope she did. Otherwise, her life is really going to suck in so many different ways.

12.) About talking point number 1... I recently watched all 20 episodes of the new Supergirl series on Netflix. I'm glad it's being renewed for a second season. I hope being moved from CBS to The CW doesn't kill its ratings like changes in time slot often kill a show's ratings.

13.) Bible Study started at church again this past Tuesday, this time studying the Acts of the Apostles. (Often referred to as 'the Book of Acts'). Straight away, it's proven insightful by explaining what 'Witnessing' actually meant.

It's definitely not the proselytizing, bible-thumping insanity from various religious fanatics that only drive people away from God. It's just answering questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, et al. whenever someone asks you about the subject. So, it's looks like I was witnessing many times over the years without ever being aware of the fact. Forget about mysterious ways, sometimes God works in some really low-key, seemingly sneaky ways. It's just a subliminal form of word-of-mouth advertising... How interesting...

14.) Why do the local Rock stations insist on cutting out about 15-30 seconds from the Ozzy Osbourne song No more tears? Even worse, why does it have to be from Zakk Wylde's guitar solo?! That is fucking BULLSHIT!!! Even the video on Ozzy's official YouTube page does it... Whisky Tango Foxtrot?!




15.) Ya know what else is awesome about working from home most of the time? I now have a LOT more free time. Unlike those damned call centers, I'm only expected to work 40 hours a week most of the time, as opposed to 60 hours. I can finally play video games on a regular basis again! Awesome!!! :)

That's all for now...

- Lord Publius

My life-long mission to get a Corvette FINALLY has some direction

One of my life goals is to have a Corvette. However, that isn't really cheap... under most circumstances.

I've done some research and found that C4 Corvettes (that's model years 1984-1996) usually go for between $5,000 and $15,000. That doesn't include special models like the 1990-1995 ZR-1, 1996 Grand Sports, Anniversary Editions and Pace Car replicas. For a classic sports car, 5-15k is quite a bargain!

Why are they so cheap? Because the later C5 (1997-2004) & C6 (2005-2013) generations were a lot faster and the earlier C1 (1953-1962) C2 (1963-1967) & C3 (1968-1982) generations are all prized just for their styling alone. Many of them are also still strong performers by today's standards too.

The C4 often gets a lot of grief from some (supposed) Corvette lovers because it wasn't always the fastest or most powerful. Considering how low the horsepower numbers (and performance) were for the C3 models from model years 1974-1982, I'd say that ALL C4's were a significant improvement. In addition to being the car that (eventually) restored the Corvette's performance abilities, it was also the first all-new Corvette design in 16 years. There's also quite a lot of affordable performance upgrades for the C4 (and any other Corvette that will ever be manufactured) so, I can improve the performance of any C4 that I acquire.

The only question is which C4 that I want to buy. The 1992-1996 models with the 300hp LT-1 small block V8 would be really nice. One of the earlier C4's from 1984-1989 could also be cool, just because I like the styling and digital instrument cluster. However, those cars had horsepower numbers between 205 and 250hp with the L83 engine used in 1984 (a carryover from the C3 generation) and the L98 used in cars from 1985-1991. The one year only 330hp LT4 V8 was most famous for powering the Grand Sports model from 1996 but, it was also available in any other Corvette from that year.

The digital display of the 1984-89 models, along with a wireframe for the early C4 model.
This pic is sooooooo 80's...

So, I've narrowed my choices down to the following:

- 1985-1989 Corvette coupe or convertible (Convertibles first appeared for the C4 in 1986)
- 1992-1996 Corvette coupe or convertible w/LT-1 V8
- 1996 Corvette coupe or convertible w/LT-4 V8

Based on what I've read on the C4's Wikipedia page, I think a 1996 model (with either LT-1 or LT-4) would be the best choice. Regardless of which one I get, it will have an automatic transmission and the soft-riding F45 suspension. I'm looking for my car to be a wicked cool boulevard cruiser, not a drag racer.

Of course, this isn't going to happen any time soon. I have much more pressing priorities right now. However, it will eventually happen. I just hope it happens while I'm still young enough to enjoy a sports car.

Finally, we have here the TV commercial for the 1984 model. It is STILL the best car commercial that I have ever seen. It makes me want to buy a C4 Corvette even more than I had before.





Not exactly a wonder why this car proved so popular back in the day, huh?

- Lord Publius

20 unpopular opinions that are still quite obviously correct

It's been too long since I managed to offend most of Humankind all at once (especially with something political) so, let's see if we can correct that oversight, shall we?

1.) Calling out a slut for her very irresponsible behavior is NOT sexism. It's chastising them for VERY inappropriate behavior that not only hurts them but, could hurt the rest of society too. (You'd be surprised how difficult this is for some people to understand.)

2.) The last talking point applies to Manwhores too.

3.) Hip Hop is NOT a genuine form of music.

4.) Catholicism is NOT Christian AT ALL.

5.) In fact, most denominations claiming to be Christian are not actually following Christ's philosophy. The moment you add things to the Scripture and start engaging in church politics, you're no longer following Christ.

6.) Hillary is the Devil. That, or she's in league with the Devil and very well might be the Anti-Christ.

7.) Bernie Sanders is a fucking Communist. He's also a pussy sell-out for harshly criticizing Clinton one minute and then endorsing her the next. See what happens when you let Tribalism override your principles?

8.) Trump is a blowhard.

9.) Ted Cruz looks really uncomfortable on stage sometimes... Like he's desperately trying to keep that gerbil from popping out of his ass...

10.) You think your candidate is like Obi-Wan Kenobi and the other side's candidate is Darth Vader. Truth is, they are both very much a real-life Jar Jar Binks. Suck on that one for a while and see how it tastes. Still want to keep wasting votes on Democrats and Republicans?

11.) Government interference in a marketplace is NOT a good thing, even if it does provide some temporary relief. Today's temporary relief becomes tomorrow's regulatory economic burden. Don't believe me? Ask the Detroit automakers what they think of the UAW. Or what ANYONE who either lost their coverage or saw the premiums go through the roof thanks to Obamacare thinks. Asking Uncle Sam for help is usually a Faustian Deal. It is NOT worth the risks.

12.) Toyota sucks.

13.) Volkswagen sucks.

14.) ANY Automaker that I don't like sucks.

15.) Obama is an incompetent Commie Shitbag and his mom was a old-school porno-whore. There is photographic proof all over the internet. Just do an Image Search on a chick named Ann Dunham. You'll see...

16.) Speaking of whores, how much does it cost for me to buy a Congressman? :P

17.) Gun Control is knowing how to hit your target. No exceptions. End of discussion. I HAVE SPOKEN.

18.) Veterans should be given a $100,000 tax-free lump-sum payment upon Honorable Discharge, just for having to tolerate Uncle Sam's Bravo Sierra for a few years. God knows many of us will need it since readjusting to civilian life is a long-time struggle and often features problems with getting reliable employment.

19.) Don't dare balk at the number in Talking Point#18. Congress allocates more than a BILLION Dollars to any number of things every single day they are in session. $100,000 for new Veterans is not going to be even a fraction of the costs that already go into entitlement spending.

20.) There has been no real economic 'recovery' since Obummer took office. The market just adapted to the new, dreadful circumstances. EVERYONE has learned to do more with less.

I'm sure I could think of a LOT more but, this ought to be sufficient for now.

- Publius

Testing old PC games on Floppy Disks and old CD-ROMs...

Months ago, I acquired some old PC games on 3.5" floppy disks and a few CD-ROM's that would have been compatible with Win9x, Win2000 & WinXP. They came from a friend of mine who is also one of my professors from college. I have bought a number of old games from him over the last few years including...

• A Sears Tele-Games branded version of the Atari 2600 'Light Sixer' model
• A Model 1 version of the Mattel Intellivision
• A mint condition, complete-in-box NES Action Set
• A complete-in-box, virtually never used black Nintendo Wii that doesn't have backward compatibility with GameCube...
• A number of games for all these systems, some of which were also complete-in-box. (Especially with the NES & Intellivision games...)

This individual's contributions to my 'Game Room of DOOM' have been quite extensive over the years. So, he thought I might be interested in some of these old PC games he had laying around. Some of them were interesting for various historical reasons. There's the shareware version of Doom, all 5 disks of v1.7 of Doom II, Lemmings and a demo version of Star Wars TIE Fighter  on floppy disk. The CD-ROMs were just PC Gamer sample discs with demos for old Star Trek games and a full copy of Duke Nukem 3D. In addition to being welcome additions to the collection, they would also make great museum pieces too.

However, they would need to be tested first...

At first, I thought I'd have to break out some old hardware running WinXP. It would have been either an old laptop named Majel 1 or a cheap netbook named Majel 3. I named all my computers after Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the wife of Star Trek's creator Gene Roddenberry, and the actress who lent her voice to all the Starfleet's computers. Yes, I really am that much of a nerd.

Then, my inner Mad Scientist had an epiphany and I suddenly realized that wasn't necessary. I'd be testing those floppies with a USB floppy drive that I bought in 2004, not an internal floppy drive in a machine itself. I didn't need to actually install and run the games to make sure they work, either. All I have to do is make sure I can access the files on them. Then, if I really want to try and run it on Majel 5 (my current Desktop), all I have to do is rip the files to a SD card/USB Thumb Drive/Whatever and open the files in DOSBox.'

So, that's what I did. I plugged the floppy drive into Majel 5 and proceeded to test the disks. They were read and I could access them. That means that they all still work. The miracles never cease, heh? I then tried the CD-ROM discs. Same happy result. They all read and I could probably do a native install of Duke Nukem 3D on my new desktop without using any emulators or backward compatibility tricks. So, that means that I now have a few more DOS & old Windows games to sit in the game room and collect dust on the shelf with my other PC games. Sweet! :P

Speaking of which, I then remembered that I have a number of old computer games that people just gave away. Not all of them are for a Microsoft OS like DOS or Windows, either. There's a plastic case full of cartridge software for the TI-99/4A, which I can't test since I don't have one of those computers. And, there's also several complete-in-box games for the Atari ST, all of which came on 3.5" floppy disks. There are both U.S. and U.K. releases in this small stack of complete-in-box ST games, comprising several genres ranging from strategy to space shooters and (I think) at least one platformer.

I remember reading somewhere that a floppy that was formatted for Atari ST would also read on an IBM-compatible PC back in the day. Since all modern PC's still have varying levels of backward compatibility with the old IBM PC's of yore, I decided to see if they would read. Windows told me that the disk would have to be reformatted before it could be read. I quickly removed the disk before Windows started getting any bad ideas.

I then did a little research and found that I was wrong. Atari ST computers with a double-sided floppy drive could read MS-DOS formatted disks but, MS-DOS PC's couldn't read the Atari disks. Dammit. There was 3rd party software that copied data between the two computers' disparate operating systems and file formats. Atari also built that capability into later versions of the ST's operating system, starting with TOS v1.4. However, that doesn't help me any since I don't have an Atari ST yet! It's one of those old classic systems that I have been trying to find for years without success. Same could be said for the TI-99/4A, Colecovision and Atari Lynx, to name a few. Arrgghhh!!!

So, for now at least, I am still unable to read any of the disks for the Atari ST in my collection. That sucks. I wanted to see what those old games were like, and if any of them were any good. Online reviews, Let's Play videos and discussion forums can only tell you so much.

However, one day, I will get my hands on the appropriate hardware. Until then, maybe I'll quit being lazy and go find an Atari ST emulator to see what those games were like and if I want to keep or re-sell them...

- Lord Publius

Looks like someone got the message...

Looks like the Sierra Bravo I talked about in the last post finally got the point. He even went so far as to change the name of that little 'fan page' he created for this blog. And all I had to do was threaten to go to his chain of command and file a complaint. Maybe I should have done that a lot sooner? I really am too kind to people sometimes.

Anyway, it looks like he's a little sore about being jilted. Can't say that I blame him since that does suck. However, it's his own fault. He took things too far and also wasted time falling for someone that was never going to reciprocate his homosexual feelings. (Assuming that was what was really going on...)

There was even this passive-aggressive little post on that page, expressing his negative feelings on the subject...

Posting a link to a PanterA video is supposed to upset me?
That's probably one of the only things that sorry ass page is ever likely to do right.

Also, how exactly was he supposed to be helping anyone? I'm not really convinced he can even help himself in a lot of ways. It's sad that so many people I once served with turned out to be such terrible people. There's this guy we've been talking about since the last post... A BDSM fiend that dragged me to a fetish party without telling me what kind of party it was... Another that was a sad little tool who got mad that I pushed him away and then got rid of the BDSM fiend too... And, of course, that female Ginger that I wasted time falling in love with while serving in Korea...

I won't bother going over what happened with that certain female friend I had in both AIT and my first post in Korea. Needless to say, I found her less and less appealing of a Human being as I got to see more and more of her personality over time. She was a deeply flawed and troubled young woman. Saying anything else about her here is likely to make her look really bad so, I'll refrain. I'm not interested in demonizing her. I know for a fact that she was under a LOT of stress for various reasons. I'm also pretty sure that she was mentally ill. If so, I hope she got the help she needed and found her way to the proverbial light.

I sincerely hope this is the last time that I have to worry about some asshole that I used to know in the Service getting all butt-hurt at the fact that I moved on with my life. On occasion, there will come a time when you have to make a radical change in your life, kids. I used to call it a 'Paradigm Shift' since I didn't know what other term to use. Turns out that term was actually correct too. I've had several of these shifts in my life. They used to happen on an average of every 4 years but, lately have been happening almost every year since 2010. I'm not going to list any examples here because that is really private.

Life will take you down some very strange paths. There will also be times when you have to backtrack on a few paths and start over again. So, when you see someone have to do that, don't criticize/ostracize him. Don't act like a cultist and try to shame him into going back to what you think he should do. Be a real friend and help him along his way. Every man must walk their own path. It is not ethical, logical or even possible for someone to exactly follow in another man's footsteps. Don't try to force that bad idea on them.

- Lord Publius