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Zobar's Journal

zobar
My Podcast Link

11/02/2008 22:05 #46480

don't vote stupid
Category: politics
Don't just go in there and start flicking levers. Don't vote the straight ticket just because you think it looks nice when all the flags are lined up. Don't vote for John Doe (Democrat) if you should have voted for John Doe (Working Families). Don't give up the opportunity to have a say in your local government just because you don't recognize any of the names that aren't in Column A Rows 1 and 2.

There will be one proposal on the ballot. In addition, the following offices are also up for election. If you don't know which districts you live in, follow the links to find out.

United States President
United States Representative in Congress (districts 26-28)
New York State Supreme Court, (district 8 - all WNY)
New York State Senate (districts 58-62)
New York State Assembly (districts 142-146, 148)
Erie County Court Judge
Erie County Family Court Judge
Erie County District Attorney
Niagara County Sheriff

The League of Women Voters puts together an informative voters' guide for every election and makes it available for free Read it to find out more information about the offices and candidates' experience, endorsements, and opinions.

You may be wondering what it means if a candidate is listed under more than one party. Suffice it to say that a vote for a candidate counts just as much on the Democrat line as it does on the Liberal or Working Families line. However if your beliefs are more aligned with a minor party, voting on their line will give them leverage with the candidate's platform. In close elections, endorsements by minor parties do make differences [in the opposite way of the Nader Effect] so most politicians are loathe to put third-party endorsements at risk. Here's kind of a long explanation


- Z


gardenmama - 11/04/08 20:23
I made it a point to use the Working Families line when voting this time. I'm still pissed off at my party for the primary crap, so I figure this at least is a way for me to vote and protest at the same time.
heidi - 11/03/08 21:40
Many thanks, (e:zobar). It's my first time voting in NYS and I have no idea what's going on!

jenks - 11/03/08 11:03
awesome, thanks for the links. I am still totally undecided, so I need to do some research tonight.
dcoffee - 11/03/08 10:36
You rock. I'm a big Working Families party fan. And I love the league of women voters, their election guide is awesome. I wish newspapers would publish their brief issues oriented guide in their Sunday papers before the election. I always vote for an Independent Party, it makes my vote count even more.
james - 11/02/08 22:55
I <3 fusion tickets. I wish more states had them.

10/29/2008 21:40 #46411

while we're on the subject
Category: misc
of prostatic massage... [Are we really on the subject of prostatic massage?]



What the fuck?! It's unavailable. It's Dr. Francis Fesmire, winner of the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine for his medical case report 'Termination of Intractible Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage,' giving the scientific community waay too much information about how he cured his ex-wife's hiccups. And isn't he dishy.

Item two: I think I made up for not making (e:dragonlady7,46402) a sandwich last night by making us chicken fried steak with country gravy and tater tots for dinner. She's got pictures. I've got indigestion.

Item three: for those who are unfamiliar with Lemonade Stand, the intro and first day's worth of business:

Hi! Welcome to Lemonsville, California!

In this small town, you are in charge of
running your own lemonade stand. You can
compete with as many other people as you
wish, but how much profit you make is up
to you (the other stands' sales will not
affect your business in any way). If you
make the most money, you're the winner!!

To manage your lemonade stand, you will
need to make these decisions every day:

1. How many glasses of lemonade to make
(only one batch is made each morning)

2. How many advertising signs to make
(the signs cost fifteen cents each)

3. What price to charge for each glass

You will begin with $2.00 cash (assets).
Because your mother gave you some sugar,
your cost to make lemonade is two cents
a glass (this may change in the future).

Your expenses are the sum of the cost of
the lemonade and the cost of the signs.

Your profits are the difference between
the income from sales and your expenses.

The number of glasses you sell each day
depends on the price you charge, and on
the number of advertising signs you use.

Keep track of your assets, because you
can't spend more money than you have!

Lemonsville Weather Report
Hot and Dry

On day 1, the cost of lemonade is $.02
Lemonade stand 1 Assets $2.00

How many glasses of lemonade do you
wish to make ?50

How many advertising signs (15 cents
each) do you want to make ?5

What price (in cents) do you wish to
charge for lemonade ?10

Would you like to change anything?no

$$ Lemonsville Daily Financial Report $$

Day 1 Stand 1
50 glasses sold
$.10 per glass Income $5.00

50 glasses made
5 signs made Expenses $1.75

Profit $3.25
Assets $5.25



What a hoot, huh?


- Z
tinypliny - 10/30/08 06:54
I see. So no wonder coding won out, I mean how much effort went into making that "asset" of $5.25??! Real life lemonade stand-management sounds easier to me!

IgNobels are hilarious. My favourite this year are the slime moulds who are able to solve puzzles. I was thinking of "practical" applications for that one. Suppose you have a fairly hard newspaper crossword, you often don't have the answers. Do you then dampen the paper and wait for it to mould? If it worked, you open up the mouldy paper and lo and behold, your hard crossword is all solved for you. Heheheh
james - 10/29/08 23:13
I just spent an hour reading about the ig noble prizes.

heaven.

10/28/2008 18:53 #46394

i didn't need to see this
Category: geeky
but Google News wanted me to.

image

I went down to the Apple Store this morning to finally fix my dang Airport card. I can only get reliable reception if I'm in the same room as the base station, which is seriously starting to cramp my style. (e:dragonlady7) came along to get her top case replaced since we discovered it was covered under warranty. While we were waiting for Geniuses [genii] I wandered around to the Edutainment department and picked up this gem Wandering back to the Genius Bar I told her I needed it. She was like: ok honey if you want to. Then when I read the back of the box I said yo, this shit is like a total ripoff of LEMONADE.STAND.

image

And she was like, wut. And I was like yeah it was actually kinda difficult because you'd get different weather and stuff and then the genius who was serving someone else was like yeah and then your mom would cut off your sugar and your costs would go up. And then the other genius was like yeah and then your road would be closed for construction. And I know the other people who had serious problems were getting kind of annoyed but we were taking it back old skool. Long story short, they want my box for 24-48hrs for diagnosis. Not today.

Here's an image I drew yesterday for reasons that are not anywhere near interesting*. I thought it was funny but couldn't come up with anything to say about it. No you can't buy this cap.

image

- Z

_______________
  • We needed an image of a cap with a placeholder everywhere a logo would go.

paul - 10/30/08 00:40
I loved lemonade stand.
tinypliny - 10/28/08 22:52
Did you want to be a waitress at some point but ended up a coder instead??!!? I mean, WUT?

And I really want to buy that cap. Do you have a limited edition. (I know people always have secret limited editions, when they say something is not for sale) Fess up! What are you asking for it? A prostatic massage?
tinypliny - 10/28/08 21:03
wut?
metalpeter - 10/28/08 19:50
On a side note I remember that lemonade stand game, I think I played it on some old apple computer
dragonlady7 - 10/28/08 19:29
That cap is pretty awesome.

If that medical illustration is supposed to be a hint about our sex life, I just have to ask if the rubber gloves are part of the fantasy or what.
metalpeter - 10/28/08 19:10
Hey from what I have heard some where a chick doing that 1st picture will make some guys feel like they have to pee and for some there is an "A Spot" that triggers a massive orgassam. There is a rumor that women can have what is called a trigasim. That is that some women would get off from the "A Spot" the "G spot" and then have a clitoral orgasim now that sounds like fun.

10/26/2008 13:29 #46345

more vista
Category: geeky
I think the thing about Mac OS X is it doesn't have the same sense of humor about itself that Windows does.

image

Like seriously what does this even mean? Does it go into a larger Recycle Bin? C:/Windows/Dumpster?

Maybe it puts the Recycle Bin into itself, and you get Mobius trash.*

- Z

_______________
  • For those who thought: 'wouldn't that make it Klein trash?' I bring you Acme Klein Bottles home of the Klein Stein and the Mobius Scarf
tinypliny - 10/26/08 22:58
I say this is a coup attempt by a coder to show the world that M$ doesn't care about recycling. Corporations will go to inordinate lengths to prove that they are concerned about recycling, when in reality, they don't give a damn. (eg. Roswell). By coding in the "delete" - that for some reason, slipped by unnoticed, s/he obviously made a subtle point about the willingness of M$ to compromise on issues such as recycling.

Yeah, this is a employee discontent and sarcasm statement.
zobar - 10/26/08 14:17
It takes the Recycle Bin off your desktop and you spend a half hour trying to figure out how to get it back.

- Z
paul - 10/26/08 13:31
So what does happen?

10/23/2008 19:32 #46285

what the fuck is this?
Category: food
This is a jar of store-brand whole black pepper.

image

1. Why a shaker top? What kind of deranged individual shakes whole black peppercorns onto their food? I can think of two recipes* that call for whole black peppercorns, and when I make them I usually just pour them out of the top of the pepper grinder.

2. The copy on the label which is probably too blurry to read, says

These are the highly regarded Tellicherry peppercorns from India...



You don't mean the highly regarded Tellicherry peppercorns from India?! You mean the ones everyone has been talking about down at the Pepper Club? You mean the ones that won Pepper Spectator's most prestigious "Highly Regarded" award in 2003 and 2004? Wow, that must be some pepper.

- Z

_______________
  • Corned beef, and poached salmon.

tinypliny - 10/24/08 17:46
You're totally taking external help from a related (e:strip)per. For the record I don't think that's fair. Like, AT ALL.

- TP
zobar - 10/24/08 15:24
Oh right! I knew there was a point to this.

- Z
dragonlady7 - 10/24/08 13:12
But this is Wegman's brand pepper. The Wegmans target market shakes whole peppercorns, without grinding them, directly into their food? On a regular enough basis that they wouldn't bother with a dispenser or grinder, but would just shake it directly from the bottle?
Z had to come get me to pry the shaker top off so he could pour it into his pepper grinder, because I have fingernails and he doesn't.
ajay - 10/23/08 23:07
1. Most Indian recipes call for whole peppercorns.

2. Grind up half of the peppercorns in that bottle. Sprinkle it all on top of 2 fried eggs, over hard. Add a little bit of salt. Make a sammich. That's how I eat my fried eggs every day.
zobar - 10/23/08 21:32
It took you nine seconds to type 'is?'

- Z
james - 10/23/08 21:16
whore
james - 10/23/08 21:16
comment
james - 10/23/08 21:16
a
james - 10/23/08 21:16
is
james - 10/23/08 21:16
Tiny
james - 10/23/08 21:15
yes
tinypliny - 10/23/08 20:34
Everything's fair in love and war. I am hard at both on (e:strip), so there!

Hehehehe, I got another one. 8-D
zobar - 10/23/08 20:30
You're doubling up on comments. For the record I don't think that's fair.

- Z
tinypliny - 10/23/08 20:18
BTW Tons of Indian dishes (and almost all South Indian dishes from this particular area) call for whole peppercorns. :)
tinypliny - 10/23/08 20:16
Hahahha... That made me snort tea up my nose.

But yeah, Thalassery is famous for its spices in Kerala. It's about 70 - 80 miles (I think) away from where I am originally from. :)