Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen

Nov 10

Posted by Hobbes in Uncategorized

You have embarked upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many generations. The eyes of the world have been upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere marched with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you have brought about the destruction of dangerous war machines, the elimination of tyranny over the oppressed peoples of the Earth, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task has not been an easy one. Your enemy was well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He has fought savagely.

But this is the year 2009! Much as happened since the triumph of 1776-83. The United Nations have inflicted upon warlords great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our soldiers have seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions at war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of fighting men. You have turned the tide! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. You have accepted nothing less than full victory!

Thank you! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon your great and noble undertakings.

Today is the one day – out of the the whole year – that we dedicate to you, that we honor your sacrifices.

You should know that the other three hundred sixty four days are spent enjoying what you have purchased for us.

Thank you.

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What Democracy Looks Like

Jun 15

Posted by Hobbes in Uncategorized

This.

This.

The eyes of the world are upon you.

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Murphey

Jun 7

Posted by Hobbes in Uncategorized

Sometimes, I swear, everything goes wrong.

In every possible way.

For me, the forces of nature conspired against my attempt to put the Windows 7 Release Candidate onto my Macbook.

Normally, this process would entail the following steps:

  • Open Boot Camp, select a hard drive partition size.
  • Install the Windows 7 installation from the DVD.
  • Install a few drivers and enjoy.

This should be accomplished easily within an hour. Instead, the process has haunted the entirety of my existence for more than 24 hours. My list of activities is a little more complicated:

  • Boot into old Windows XP installation, find, organize, and backup important data.
  • Boot back into OS X.
  • Open Boot Camp, and try to select a hard drive partition size.
  • Be told that it can’t be done, silly.
  • Run various hard disk verification/repair software, periodic maintenance cycles, etc.
  • Receive more and stranger error messages.
  • Boot in single-user mode and run fsck -fy to check the disk – four times.
  • Delete massive amounts of data in order to make it easier to partition, despite having ample free space.
  • Be told that it can’t be done, silly.
  • Delete even more heaps of data, using utilities to map out hard drive size and what may possibly be taking up space. Delete important system files just to make room.
  • Still be unable to partition.
  • Remove more than half of the data from your hard drive, back it up to an external drive, and still be told that it is impossible.
  • Delete iPhoto picture library, also known as every picture I have ever taken, backing it up.
  • Finally, upon freeing 145GB, be told that while 50 GB just can’t be done, 45GB is possible.
  • Partition the disk, then try to install from the Windows 7 DVD.
  • Find out you get an unusable selection menu from which you simply cannot make a choice.
  • Install alternate EFI software to better emulate BIOS settings.
  • Finally get the Install DVD to start.
  • Get the Install DVD to freeze on the first possible screen.
  • Restart and change settings in order to get the Install DVD to freeze on the second possible screen.

And that’s where I am right now. Just saying.

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Up

May 30

Posted by Hobbes in Life

Pixar – the animated movie studio – has had nine consecutive hits. There is no other company that has been able to make amazing films, and only amazing films, for fourteen years. So right from the start, Pixar has something special.

But I’ve been worried about Up. You see, I grew up with the best kids movies ever. Toy Story, right when I was six. My whole childhood was in a period now known as the Disney Renaissance, when I had films like The Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Hercules, Mulan, and the most important animated film to date at its time – Beauty and the Beast. It was nominated for best picture – something no other animated film has ever seen, which may be the result of the later “Best Animated Feature” category – as well as a grand total of six Academy Award nominations, something which only one film has ever done. This brings us back to Pixar, the creators of WALL•E – which received Academy Award Nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Best Animated Film.

That’s a hard act for Up to follow.

Of course, being part computer geek and part child, I love Pixar. I consider WALL•E to be one of my favorite movies of all time – so I was worried when I saw some of the trailers for Up. It looked silly – but not necessarily in a good way.

So, here’s what Pixar has done so far:

  • Toy Story
  • A Bug’s Life
  • Toy Story 2
  • Monsters, Inc.
  • Finding Nemo
  • The Incredibles
  • Cars
  • Ratatouille
  • WALL•E

And now, Up.

So now I have seen the movie, and I was surprised.

The film is heart-wrenchingly sad at moments. Within the first ten minutes, half the theatre was crying – at one moment, the theater was deathly silent. It was unimaginably emotional for what had been billed as a family action/adventure movie – and in some ways, was brutally realistic. This from a movie about a man floating his house away with balloons.

It’s also one of the most hilarious movies I have ever seen. Quite an odd combination – sad at moments, hilarious at others – but in many ways, this cartoonish animated film is very human. Even though some twists were quite predictable, they were so well presented that they were still interesting, funny, mournful, or even all of those simultaneously.

More than anything else, this movie was about growth – as a person, in maturity and wisdom. Although the ending was certainly good, it wasn’t what any of the characters were thinking of – or what the audience would originally expect. Many moments were bittersweet, and although the story itself is fairly simplistic, the extremely deep characters made the audience connect on many levels.

I had my doubts that Pixar could make another winner, for the tenth time in a row. But Up is simply an amazing movie – deep and soulful, emotional and hilarious. It’s completely worth of the Pixar name, and has lived up to my expectations and exceeded them in every way.

Although children might not understand everything going on in this film – and might be saddened at parts – people of all ages will love this movie. Despite the heart-tugging moments, the brilliant humor and deep characters will leave you looking Up.

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The State of Disappointment

May 26

Posted by Hobbes in Breaking News, Politics, Society

Today, California decided that Proposition 8 – which restricted marriage to same-sex marriages only – was a valid democratic action, did not overstep any civil liberties, but could not nullify the near 18,000 same-sex marriages that were carried out before the proposition was passed. One for three. Too bad this isn’t baseball.

When two people swear – before themselves and before others, (and before God, or whatever religious deities they believe in – or none at all if they’re atheist, because atheists are also perfectly allowed to marry) to affirm their love in mind and heart – that is marriage, regardless of what the state recognizes.

The state of California has neither the right nor the ability to change that.

When the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, did slaves suddenly turn from property into people? No – of course not. They were always people, regardless of the legal system’s inability to classify them as such. Their current legal status had no bearing on what they are, or what they were. And in reality, even the legal recognition didn’t lead to equality – and even the beginnings of that dreamed-of condition would not seriously appear for another one hundred years.

And even then, the greatest leader of that movement was murdered.

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I will never know what it feels like to be told that my love cannot result in a marriage. I don’t like living in a state – or a country – where others are not so fortunate, for reasons they cannot control.

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