The "Hippie Alert" Warning Log

If you think you're dealing with a hippie, here are some warning signs:

• Males will have long hair draping down both sides, or in the form of a ponytail.
• You really can't tell much about a female by her hair, but surefire signs of a hippie include lip, nose, or other body piercings. The person will also be extremely attractive.
• The person is very popular; i.e. a celebrity, such as a movie, television, or theater star.
• The person will very frequently contradict themselves.
• The person will use the following words frequently in their sentences; "fairness", "less fortunate", "choices", "democracy", and - this is a must - "FAIR SHARE".
• Emos, goths, punks, stoners, and musicians (and all five in one!) will almost certainly be liberal. (This is not to group them all into one category, but rather, to make clear their political leanings.)
• If a student, the person plans to obtain a Ph.D, rather than a degree in a certain trade or career.
  
• Though the person will frequently talk of happiness, the person is frequently unhappy (and, in fact, will be angry and hateful towards others).
• The person will frequently talk of environmental protection and animal rights...
• ...when in fact, that same person will run screaming from the animals that they wish to protect, lest he/she be pulled into their maws.
• Name-calling.
• The person will not be remorseful of his or her own vices, but will criticize you of yours at any given moment (and only yours).
• Mentioning "capitalism", "free enterprise", or "income based on effort" will cut off the person's circulation.
• Vegetarianism is not a sign... but sorry, vegans, you're not excluded from this list. Anybody who deprives themselves of any animal product is almost certainly a hippie.
  
• If you did not know of the person's political standing, and he or she did not know of yours, you would be very close friends/lovers/spouses.
  

My Computer Hell

I've started writing this exactly three minutes after my C: drive died on my main PC completely. I've lost about 50 GB of insanely important data, including - but not limited to - my documents, my installed programs, Microsoft Office, customized data for Steam, passwords, Internet cookies, downloaded MP3s, and what little confidence I had remaining in my stupid computer. All of these problems started with ONE. STUPID. FAN.

Let me give you the timeline.

1. Fan slows down. Power supply shows signs of wear and tear. Dad comes in to fix computer. Brother notifies that he is going to stay for weekend. Dad suggests brother comes to help.
2. Brother repairs problem, but fails to install CPU fan. Computer turns on. Motherboard and CPU destroys itself.
3. New motherboard and CPU bought. Weeks pass.
4. Motherboard and CPU arrive. Plugged into computer. Repair installation complete.
5. NEW-GENERATION VIDEO CARD NOTED COMPATIBLE ON MOTHERBOARD'S WEBSITE NOW INCOMPATIBLE WITH MOTHERBOARD. Onboard video card doesn't cut it. Older video card inserted.
6. Hard drive problems encountered. Brother pulls out hard drives, and breaks the 5-volt pin on the D: drive in the process, destroying it.
7. Long, painful process of recovering the D: drive's quintessential data ensues. Data includes uninstallable old-school programs, songs, MP3s, Paint Shop Pro, Visual Studio, and other hard-to-find programs for which we have lost the CDs and floppy disks.
8. D: drive data's recovered. Newer, faster, larger hard drive plugged into computer.
9. Present Day: The C: drive has stopped working at the most inopportune time. It has completely stopped spinning and is considered irrecoverable.

Here's what pisses me off the most. After I nearly lost all of the data on my D: drive, that experience alone should have convinced me to back up my C: drive's data. The thought even rang in my mind a few times, considering that I could free up lots of space on my cramped C: drive and make my computer run faster. A defragmentation wouldn't have been out of the question either. Well, hopefully I'll be able to recover my C: drive. For a good $600. After all, I've only spent about 2 grand on replacing my entire computer.

Could've been worse, I suppose. My entire computer tower would have fallen from my desk.

Man with gun vs. fourty men - Who should win?

The day after the Virginia Tech shootings, my English teacher brought up the event in casual conversation and mentioned school policy, stating "Remember that in the event of a gunman-type scenario, everybody needs to group up and huddle near that cabinet over there, away from sight." I brought up the point that the gunman could easily climb in through the window. "We'll lower the blinds so he can't see us," she said simply. I decided to also state that in this room there were thirty-five students, and one gunman. The students were outraged at my comparison. "Do you really expect us to overpower one man with a gun?" I was surprised that they didn't think twice at the thickness of their words.

Okay, Liberal Joe, let me make a comparison for you. Let's play pretend. Let's pretend that
the evil Dr. Turban has just entered the school premises. The alarm has just been raised. Now, this can play out either way. Allow me to demonstrate with the use of dramatic estimation, based on facts observed from other shootings, standoffs, and holdups, both in schools, banks, shopping centers, et cetera.

We'll use the "surrender" scenario first.

"FREEZE!" the gunman yells as he breaks down the locked door and points his 9mm firearm at the shaken students. "All students up against the wall!" Seeing no better alternative, the students comply, and stand at the wall, facing it. The teacher attempts to reach a phone to call 911. The phone is promptly shot out of his hands. "Try anything and you're a DEAD man," the crazed criminal growls. "You too, stand up against the wall." With all students defenseless, facing the wall, in fear of being shot, the gunman has the entire room secured. Everything is at his disposal. He didn't come in to steal money; if he wanted that, he would go to bank. He didn't want to hold anyone for ransom; the SWAT teams would be upon the building within minutes, and even if he made a reasonable trade-off, nothing would be stopping them from luring him out and capping him with a tranquilizer bullet. He came in for one reason, and that was to get revenge. Rage burning in his mind, he stood to the side of the students, raised his firearm, and opened fire. All 40 students in the room were murdered.
He managed to get a hold of 13 more casualties before the authorities finally arrived.

Gruesome, isn't it? 53 deaths... that could be labeled as the "most deadly mass shooting in U.S. history." Just shows you, anything is possible. Now let me show the alternative scenario.

"FREEZE!" the gunman yells as he breaks down the locked door and points his 9mm firearm at the shaken students. "All students up against the wall!" However, the students do not comply. They stay seated, facing forward calmly. "I said get up against the wall, or all of you are-"
The teacher, not wasting a moment, produces a .45 revolver from his desk and holds it level in the direction of the lunatic. The gunman panics at the sight of the weapon. One student at the back suddenly jumps up and attacks the gunman, pushing him over onto the floor. He calls for the other students to get a hold of him and pin him down. The weapon is immediately removed from the madman's hands.
Possible casualties? 4, tops. This is if the gunman decided to go ape and shoot as many people as he could before the students would be able to get him down. Seems miniscule compared to the previous scenario, doesn't it? It is.

Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe everybody would have walked out alive from the school. But how willing are we to take this chance? If a man breaks into the room with a nine in his hand, though, I won't be the one who cowers near the cabinet. That's all.

Two's Company...

Hiya, folks.

I want to give my utmost thanks to Mominuteman (aka Forger) who gave me the wonderful opportunity to become a contributor to this blog. As a fully working crew member of Camp Forger Headquarters, I pledge to maintain a safe, clean atmosphere for all readers, and assure that no feelings shall be harmed, and no topic I bring up will damage anyone's sensibilities.

Pshyeah, right. This is Camp Forger's headquarters, not a tea party. Why spare people the truth. If I intended to keep this boat clean, harmless, and safe for all people, I would have been turned down in an instant. My position is to tell people:

A. What I know.
B. What they should know.
C. What the government doesn't want you to know.

And one thing the government doesn't want you to know is this (taken from Boortz.com):

This isn't one of those freaky BS coincidential "periodical global warming" charts, or a measure of the national debt, folks. This is hard facts, stuff that you should know. How many years do you think it'll be before the tax code tops 100,000 pages? If you haven't done so already, go to http://boortz.com, and thou shalt discover the truth there of what the government is doing to put you in a socialist vegetative state. The United States is officially the last remaining non-developing capitalist country in the world. And damn, it ain't going away without a terrible fight.

Again, my thanks to Mr. Forger. Enough of the cheesy opening comments. The world's gonna be rocked a little harder from now on.