Author: Synetech

Three minutes ago I was sitting on the bus. For the second time this month I heard young people talking about what constitutes sex. Both times they were talking about whether or not anal sex counts as sex and in both cases the results came back the same, the girls decided it did not count as sex and the guys were happy either way.

Anal sex is not the only intimate physical act who’s status is in question; President of the United States of America William Jefferson Clinton’s libido and lack of will power set a problematic precedent. Oral sex is now even less often considered sex than anal sex is and thanks to its ease and the fact that it requires less time, privacy, and preparation it is even less so than ever.

It is interesting that these people who question whether an activity is sex or not seem to miss the fact that the word sex is part of the name. It sounds like a case of selective blindness to me, they only see what they want, what allows them to do what they want without conflict.

Some even go so far as to look up the word sex in the dictionary. They grab a dictionary, flip to SEX, are then directed to COPULATE, COITUS, or any number of synonyms, and invariably end up at INTERCOURSE. Once there, they are presented with a definition describing penis-in-vagina thrusting. They then conclude that because the activity in question is not penis-in-vagina thrusting, it is not intercourse, and therefore not sex. That’s quite a feat of logic and reasoning for someone who no doubt is not all that intelligent. Had they been intelligent, they would have realized that the dictionary started by Merriam Webster, Encyclopedia Britannica, or whom have you was created hundreds of years ago. Back then penis-in-vagina was the only kind of sex there was; that’s why that is the definition given. Other forms of sex were rare, private, and in fact secret at best. (If one has doubt about this, then one should do a little research on the Marquis de Sade.) If the dictionary founder had been informed of these other forms of sex where other body parts are inserted into other body parts, then they would no doubt first have been horrified and disgusted (presumably), and then when told that there are more than just one person in the world doing them would have expanded the definition to include them all.

If one has a doubt on if an activity is sex or not and is honestly interested in the answer rather than merely trying to justify messing around without guilt then it is easier to determine than one would be led to believe. If you can answer yes to more than one of these factors then the activity is indeed sex:

1. Are genitals involved?
2. Is there some sort of pleasure?
3. Is there some sort of orgasm?
4. Is there more physical rubbing than what would occur in a crowd or bus?
5. Is there nudity involved?
6. Is it private?
7. Are there bodily fluids/solids?

On top of this ask yourself, would you do this activity with your mother/father? sibling? son/daughter? grandparent? a random stranger? etc? If so, then either it is probably not really sex, or you are one sick s.o.b. 😀

I just saw a news article about a movement to convert remembrance Day (Memorial Day in America) to a national holiday. This came at a most interesting time because just this week I have been thinking the opposite, that they should get rid of it altogether. I mean what, are we supposed to observe it for all eternity?

Now before you infuriatingly yell at me let me explain. I believe that most if not all holidays and observances should be treated like food, they should be given expiry dates; here’s why.

There is a push now to make November 11th a full holiday which I assume means that nobody goes to work or school that day. November 11th commemorates an event that happened over 50 years ago. Recently September 11th has become notorious and is likely to draw similar efforts. There are also a couple of dozen other national and countless municipal holidays and observances. As time goes by there will no doubt be more events that will compel new holidays and if this keeps up one day we will wake up to find that not only are we not going to work or school that day but we haven’t for as long as we can remember. What I’m trying to say is that eventually the calendar which has a mere 365 days a year will be packed full of holidays and observances.

The above prediction is why I propose that when a new holiday is created, as part of the specifics an expiration date be specified. This would mean that it would be officially observed for a given amount of time after which it will be rescinded. Once it has expired it can continue to be observed privately although it would no longer qualify for holiday benefits like staying home.

Doing this would not only keep the calendar free from clutter but would also allow people to focus on contemporary issues and events. If we dwell on the past forever than we will start to lose sight of the present and future.

I understand that there are a few holidays that are excruciatingly special and ancient like Christmas. I also understand that getting rid of it would upset many people because then they would be left with one less day to receive presents. And even though technically it does not have any reason to be exempt, I’m sure it would have enough support to become so. You might think it would be acceptable to do this with a few select holidays but then we would eventually be in the same boat. Once enough events that are significant enough have occurred, we would have a calendar filled with exempt holidays. You could give Christmas a longer expiry date.

In case you were thinking that this “problem” that I have described is ludicrous and would not occur for many hundreds or even thousands of years, you have to stop and think a little bit. Shortsightedness is a deadly mistake. In the same news segment as the Remembrance Day piece was piece about how there is an eight nation report on how the polar ice caps are melting a LOT faster than anyone had ever anticipated. What’s worse is that we will not be able to repair the damage in time. It turns out that human beings have successfully managed to destroy the planet in less than 75 years. How? Shortsightedness. People thought “Meh, why should I inconvenience myself? The garbage won’t pile up too much for a long time, the ozone will survive a long time, the fuel will last a long time.

A long time is never as long as you think, hope, want, or need.

I watched The Haunting again this weekend. I originally watched it the way I watch most movies, on video. This time I watched it on television, TBS to be specific. I was extremely, but not surprisingly disappointed. They cut out a lot of it. They cut out several parts that involved violence including the part where Luke’s head gets bitten off by the giant lion’s-head fireplace flue and rolls onto the floor.

Of course as I said this was not surprising because as anyone who has watched TBS knows that it is a VERY sanitized network. They cut—or at the very least clean—any and all violence, nudity, course language, sexuality, and mature subject matter; you know, the things networks put in the warnings after commercials.

This however was not the worst/stupidest offence that TBS has committed. A while back they actually had the audacity to air Striptease. Striptease?! Really? I mean come one, would the Disney Channel air Pulp Fiction? No. There’s a reason that they wouldn’t air it, because it is not appropriate subject matter for their network. TBS however does not seem to understand that simple concept, well, either that or they are just bloody greedy and want to air anything they can. I really cannot understand what would posses someone to air an R rated movie on a channel where they do not even allow mildly course language. When you think about it however, you will realize that this occurs on TBS all of the time, they cut out a whole heck of a lot, how else do they manage to do 5+ minute commercial breaks? As you would expect the resulting movie ends up being a terrible amalgam of disjoint scenes and looking like it was made by some lobotomized cutter. I suppose nobody complained about them airing Striptease because later they got the balls—pun intended—to start airing Sex and the City. *I am rolling my eyes so hard right now I think I may now be permanently cross-eyed.*

TBS may be the worst but is far from the only network to do this. Last night I watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High on CityTV and was happy to see the classic pool scene. ;D It had it again on City today but this time the pool scene (and all nude scenes) were cut to crap, and by that I mean completely cut out; without the intervening scene, there was quite a disconnect between the now-adjacent scenes. Not only that but last night all the language and everything else was intact, but today they were all gone. What is the purpose of this? Give the adults the full monty so to speak at night, then present a watered down version for the children to enjoy during the day? Maybe it’s just me but that seems very bizarre. If some of it is not appropriate for children, then none of it is. If it’s an adult themed movie or show, then cutting it up will just piss off the grown ups.

There’s a few other examples that I may add at a later date, but for now my blood is boiling just thinking about these stupid people.

Networks should pick what they want to be and stick to that instead of taking stuff that doesn’t fit into their model and chop it bits until it does because what’s left will be worthless, trash, garbage, crap, *%!@$*#. Okay, I’m getting too mad at this point, that’s enough for now.

After a long absence from television the American Broadcasting Corporate (ABC) has returned. For the past few years—that’s read, almost a decade—ABC has had nothing. It’s best show “The Practice” had been declining for a while because of ABC’s sabotage (time slot terrorism). ABC had even cancelled “The Practice” for while until Dave Kelly managed to force them to not only un-cancel it but also give into his demands. Unfortunately it eventually died. ABC has also had “Alias” which is somewhat popular but still not enough to give the network a leg to stand on.

It had gotten so bad that until this season I had not watched ABC at ALL, EVER for the past several years. In fact Rogers (my crappy cable provider) in yet another selfish nationalist channel banishment had moved one of the ABC affiliates from channel 16 to 62 and I did not even notice.

I think that part of the reason ABC has been doing so badly for so many years is because of it’s acquisition by the Disney Corporation. Disney Corporation, hmmm… that’s an odd phrase. When Disney bought ABC it took the expression “make it your own” to the extreme.

This season however ABC has made an unprecedented comeback. They now have two hit shows. Not only are they hit shows, they are a couple of the greatest, best executed, most gripping shows in the history of television. This season ABC made the wise decision to pick up “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives”.

“Lost” is not just another stranded-on-a-deserted-island show. It is not “Gilligan’s Island” meets “Fantasy Island” meets “Survivor” meets “Lost World” meets “Amazon”. “Lost” is very intriguing, gripping, and surprising. From the very first minute it has been shocking and intense with surprises keeping on the edge of your seat and then knocking you right off a few times per week. At the end of each episode something always happens to make you desperate to watch the next episode; it did not let up until the end of the fifth episode.

Speaking of desperation, “Desperate Housewives” is also very intriguing, gripping, and surprising. From the first minute you are introduced to a mystery that holds you throughout the season. Besides the underlying mystery, “Desperate Housewives” also has the interesting stories of the four main women, the question of the new guy on the block, and quite a bit of great humor. If that is not enough it has a very attractive cast great for both men and women.

ABC has been dragging it’s feet for far too long and now it has a chance to more than redeem itself. Let’s hope that they don’t blow it and endanger these two great shows by moving them or some other shortsighted maneuver.

I’m watching a sci-fi show right now and once again got hit with an annoying little consistency that seems to be prevelant in sci-fi shows that have aliens and alien cultures in it everywhere. What happens is that someone in the show will mention something and give a few examples—usually historic ones—which will pretty much always include at least one human reference and at least one alien reference. For example lets say a character is talking to another character about art and wants to give a few master artists as examples, then they’ll say something like “…great art from people like Michaelangelo, Greetblaczag, or Blorgjlob.” or “…like Zeepledorb, Marktong, or Cézanne.” They’ll always give a few alien examples to indicate that this is a sci-fi show with aliens, but always include a human example. I suppose it could be because it’s a human show, or maybe because humans think they’re so great. Maybe it’s because the writers think that viewers would feel alienated if they didn’t included at least one human reference each time. *Pardon the pun.*

Nov.16.04 – 1:28am *UPDATE*



It’s worse than I thought. I was watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager the other day and noticed the above statement taken to the extreme. Instead of just listing a couple of alien examples and a human example, they were talking about human matters (Starfleet captains) and two unknown captains were listed as well as one well known one. I found this fitting but shocking because this is not a lone incident, in all situation where a science fiction show self-references in a list, they will list a few names you have never heard of, but will always throw in a name from a previous episode, previous series, or film, or something that you DO know.

Just once I would like to hear someone list a few things that are completely unknown and leave it at that.

One day last year I was moping and whining about not being able to get a job and I remembered something from school. During school I was so smug, bragging to my friends who were in general computer science degree programs that because I was in an honors program I was exempt from certain courses. For example the general students had to all four 3rd year half courses as well as a 3rd year math course. The honors students only had to take two of the four half courses and the math course wasn’t mandatory. I though I was clever… boy was I wrong.

I took the courses I wished to take which was fine, but I skipped several courses because I thought—and heard—they were boring or difficult like databases, numerical computing, AI 2, analysis of algorithms, and compiler theory.

After graduating with an honors degree in cs and a minor in psychology (a rare and exclusive program taken by few and completed by even fewer) I thought I was ready for the world. As it turns out, the world had already declared bankruptcy, closed shop, and left town. I couldn’t—and still can’t—find a job. In the two years since graduating I’ve had four temporary/part time/minimum wage jobs that were so awful I wanted to shoot myself every morning when I awoke. They were pointless, non; productive, constructive, acomplishiative, and mind-numbingly boring. I soon learned that my degree was worthless. If that weren’t bad enough I had have debt collectors harrassing me every day about my student loans even though I’ve explained 100 times to 50 people that I’m broke.

Anyway, so last year I was at some employment thing and I got to thinking about how few tech jobs there are in this stupid farm town and of the few, most are database jobs. I wished I had taken the database course. Then it hit me, WHY CAN’T I?! I figured I could just sit in on the class—I believe it’s called “auditing”—just like I used to; the only difference is that I’m not getting credit. Of course by then the school year was almost over.

This year I put my plan into action. I checked the calanders and put together a time-table. I selected several classes I wanted to take including film classes. I had to select the large classes so that I could blend into the crowd; I could not take small intimate courses, courses where attendance is taken, or where participation is required. I ended up having to drop a few courses and am now left with 4: Databases, CS Fundamentals (DFA/NFA, strings, etc), Project Management, and Intro to Film Studies. Except for the fundamentals course which is bloody boring and has a professor whom nobody can understand (heavy accent) the courses are good. I’m learning some stuff. In fact I should be able to add a few things to my resumé at the end of the term and hopefully wil expand my options.

No news is good news. That’s probably why I don’t post much. A even more accurate reason I don’t post much is that I’m too lazy. Of course the real reason I don’t post much is because it’s not easy enough and I’m too busy. Well, I do have some news that’s been piling up.

I am rewriting the entire site. I will be doing away with the frames. Even though I really like them because they are the ultimate expression of order, they became extinct quite a few years ago. Due to several reasons, frames cause trouble with various things for example search engines. As a result, they have been antiquated and there are several alternatives. The problem is that the alternatives keep have become superceded by things that then became superceded. Frames, tables, css, php, asp… ARRRGGGH! There doesn’t seem to be any perfect website technology to use, I guess the web is the epitomy of continued learning.

Anyway, I am getting rid of frames and redoing the whole site with CSS. I have already redone it so that it emulates frames and so looks just like it does now, but better. I’ve sprinkled it with generous helpings of JavaScript to really make it sizzle. I’ve got cookies, expaning menus, and mroe. I have also kept it STRICT standards valid. I will try to keep it cross-platform and cross-browser compatible, especially now that I’m running several different browsers (IE, FireFox, Opera, Maxthon). However, I will not be doing too much in the way of supporting limited technology like text browsers; that would require TOO MUCH time on my part which is already at a premium. I will also not be able to do too much in the way of supporting users with JS or CSS disabled, although I am doing my best.

The biggest problem I’ve had with non-frames pages is that you have to include the same damn stuff on each and every friggin’ page, like a navbar, copyright, etc. and that’s just annoying. I’ve looked at a few HTML pre-processors but have not found anything easy/useful. Therefore, the new site will not likely go live until I have finished restructuring ParseTXT so that I can use it to pre-process the files.

In the meantime, the experimental site that I have been testing with is available at http://www.synetech.000k2.com/x1/

Well I’m back. I have not been around and have actually been asked why I have not had much Internet presence for a while which actually surprised me quite a bit. I did not think anyone would really notice (I’m not much of a poster, I do most of my work offline).

Anyway it’s been quite an ordeal. My girl cat was ill, she swallowed a piece of hard plastic somehow that got stuck in her gut and had to be surgically removed. She suffered a lot because she had to be away from home for the first time in her life and all alone each night—we were not allowed to stay 🙂 Not to mention all the pain (although she never really showed any). My boy cat was also pretty miserable, he definitely knew things were terribly wrong. As for us, we both went through Hell, having to see them suffering and all the fear of our own. It was the worst 4 weeks ever.

Anyawy, everythign seems to be pretty much back to normal now and hopefully things will start to pick up.

I have a lot to say right now so I should be posting a lot more soon.

I was just thinking about my student loans today. I graduated a couple of years ago and have had nothing but a few temporary, low paying jobs every few months since. As a result I was only able to make four payments before I ran out of money. They have been harassing me ever since and do not listen at all when I explain my situation. In fact I have recently gotten a letter threatening legal action.

I have no idea what kind of legal action they can take against me. What are they going to do ARREST ME FOR BEING POOR? That would be great. I would raise such a commotion and do whatever I could to get worldwide attention to this fascist action. At this point I would love nothing more than to drag those greedy, selfish bastards through the mud.

I checked that my mother did not co–sign any loan documents so that I can make sure that they do not have any way of bugging her. So, I can only think that they would try to take any/all of my assets. Unfortunately for them, I do not really HAVE any assets. I do not have a car, own any land or property; in fact the most expensive thing that I actually own is my computer, and since it’s rather old now, it would probably only bring in about $200 if sold.

So, what can they repossess? My education? GO AHEAD AND TAKE IT!!!

The education I got at Western was sub–par at best. I graduated from the computer science program minoring in psychology—a rare program due to several factors. I found that the computer courses were completely worthless. I already knew most of the material being taught (at least 80-85% per course), with only two (2) courses where I did not know much—those were the only two computer courses I actually enjoyed. I did like the psychology courses, although after I took the first one, they became a little less enjoyable due to the massive overlap between all the courses. I also liked the philosophy courses—which I HAD to take to graduate. After graduating from such a crappy program, I have yet to actually use that stupid, over-sized, ridiculously expensive piece of paper that contends that I do in fact know what I claim to know. The jobs I’ve had so far could have been given to a trained chimp.

Therefore, I was thinking, what the heck, I would be more than happy to hand over my diploma to the student loan repo–men.

Of course another option would be to get a refund on my education. I would be equally happy to give back my diploma to the greedy, bloodsucking University and get back my money (I’m sure they would pro-rate it), and then hand that over to the loans people. At least it would reduce my loans to a decent and manageable size.

If anyone who reads this has any idea of how I can go about doing so, I would be very willing to move forward with this. I know it sounds kind of dumb, but then again, I cannot even count the number of films I have seen where someone did something that sounded dumb and it became such a big thing that they made a movie about it. 🙂

Well it’s not like I promised that I would post every day. In fact I’m pretty sure I explicitly said that I am not the kind of person that posts a lot. That’s not to say I have nothing to say or no thoughts—quite the opposite in fact—I think too much, I have too much to say. There in lies the problem. I spend so much time thinking and fleshing out my thoughts and ideas that I have little to none left to actually write them down. I suppose that if I have a PDA or laptop or were sitting at the computer 24 hours a day, I might be able to fire off my ideas to the computer right away; but since I do not, by the time I do get to the computer, I’ve completly forgotten about it and am preoccupied with other matters.