iPandora

Real American

Motor Trend magazine held a head-to-head between the V6 and V8 engine versions of the Camaro, Challenger, and Mustang, along with the Hyundai Genesis coupe.

It is odd enough and perhaps a sign of where we’ve come to in globalization that the Genesis coupe even shows up in this list alongside traditional American pony cars. And even odder that the Genesis took a solid second place in the rankings. It did not make first in any individual judge’s rankings, but was second according to 6 of 8, and the other two ranked it third.

My heart beat happy that the new Mustang took top honors. Unanimously.

A big and hearty “Take That!” to the Dodge and (Lying) Government Motors cars.

Now if only Ford would fix it’s website. It takes at least 6 clicks to get to the Mustang page. That’s unacceptable web design.

Real Chicagoan

President Obama is a firm believer in the efficacy of words. Some of his detractors are too. I can’t fault the facts of the following article, but I can sure wish he’d not taken the time to consult a Thesaurus and find the oddest words to convey his meaning.

Who the hell does Barack Obama, this morally preening, arrogant hypocrite, think he is? His vacuous, demagogic shtick about helping the “people” fight “the powerful” is getting so old from his lips, and already was so hackneyed even before he expropriated it, that it’s a miracle that even he himself can say it anymore without getting nauseated by his own oleaginous triteness.

Obama spewed the same old effluvia Monday when introducing Elena Kagan as his nominee for the Supreme Court. Let us count the inanities and dishonesties in his introductory remarks:

I know, who am I to talk.

Really, I think I’m just jealous he knew how to use “oleaginous” and “effluvia”.

Coming soon to I, Pandora, new, bigger, better, shinier, longer words that mean the same thing as words you already know!

Still, the article has it’s truth: Why get your hopes up in this guy who hasn’t accomplished anything but being the most trusted untrustworthy person in the US in the last hundred years?

President Obama is interested in power. He’s truly an idealist, so he seeks power for his ideas, and is willing, very willing, to sacrifice personal power if it means the success of his ideas. The problem is that he’s caught hold of all the wrong ideas.

So check out Obama’s Hackneyed Hypocrisy.

For you bloggers who are fully employed at jobs that require full attention all day: how do you budget time for writing?

Since starting at my latest position, I’ve been unable to peruse the internet in the way I was at previous employments that was so conducive to my blogging. I don’t want to give up the blog completely, though I’ve seriously considered that option. It’s just too much a part of my long-term goals. At the same time, posting every other week isn’t the way to encourage readership.

So how do you do it?

I’ve noticed an uptick lately in spam Akismet and IntenseDebate are not catching, but not approving either. Some of the comments appear legit, as in they are written by a real human for this specific post, but the websites included by the commentors are selling things not related to their comment.

So here’s a new policy: If your link is spammy, I delete your link. If you comment is spammy, I delete your comment and flag it as spam. If your link and your comment are spammy… what do you think this is? A democracy?

I’ll leave your comment if it applies to the post, just because I feel lonely sometimes out here in my little corner of cyberspace without people commenting. But I reserve the right to delete your link and change your name to Jane Doe or John Doe, as the situation is appropriate. Or Robby the Robot if it’s difficult to tell.

So you’re desperate, but I’m desperate too. Only difference, I’ve got the power here on I, Pandora, and you don’t.

Hey all.
I’ve been hired by a company, full time, and am now working on my second week of work. The company restricts internet access much more than previous employers. I feel like it’s my first “real” job.
At home the internet is down pending a new provider, so I’m enjoying attenuated access for now.
I’ll resume posting once the home internet gets back up and running.

Grandfather's Love

I’ll be away from computers most of the rest of this week.

My grandfather died last Saturday. He will be missed.

A veteran of the Korean War, father to a large family, including my mother, and kindly grandfather who made many memories with his many grandchildren.

He was a devout Catholic.

God has made it possible for me to drive down to San Antonio Texas to attend his funeral and see my extended family again. Though it will only be me, and not my wife, Grace, or our child, William.

So I’ll not be around here to post, likely.

Though I’d appreciate your prayers of safety for myself on the road, and for my wife and child as they stay up here in Chicago.

Update: My grandpa was a veteran of WWII, not the Korean war as noted.

Looking through the eastern window

I looked outside my window west, across the broad horizon.
My dreams and hopes from years gone by glowed golden in the light.
The setting sun of all my past fell surely to the lip of the hills, shedding the last light of the days of my youth on the things I valued then.

But looking out the other sill towards the glowing East, the light of breaking day, already growing steadily stronger as in repose I lay.
This newly born light, of the sun of new hopes and new dreams, rises strongly upward, bringing to my watering eyes in dazzling relief new dreams and new joys before unknown.
Toward this new light I rise to my feet, walking with strong step and sure, forgetting what was behind and pressing on I keep my aim true.
I am not without questions, and foreboding too, but when the dream and goal is sure as the wind, I know what I am to do.
To take hold of the wind and grip it tight as into it’s teeth I fly, I ride this beast, this roaring beast and follow it where it will.

I’ve been playing around with technical stuff on the site lately.

IntenseDebate was good as far as comment management goes, but there were some comments that seemed to slip through the cracks, and the RSS feed started showing REALLY old comments.

A few people had mentioned Disqus, so I switched yesterday.

It has been a pain. Poorly done, a lot of tedious cut and paste and copy and edit stuff I didn’t have to do in IntenseDebate, And their help is hard to find. so I’ll be switching back shortly.

And then Windows Live Writer.

I’m writing this post on Windows Live Writer.

First impressions: it’s ambitious. Very ambitions.

A familiar but simplified interface that allows easy posting to a blog of multiple forms of content.

And they even try making the edit window look like your blog live, which is a cool feature. Except it didn’t work.

I need to piece through my blog theme code to see why, but the white background which takes a little longer than the rest of the page to load only shows up as a white bar across the top of the Writer window, and I’m stuck writing all this content on a dark grey background.

Not an optimal situation, to be sure.

But, if I had a white background or otherwise more compatible theme, it would be a pretty cool setup.

Now to see how well it posts this to the actual site…

UPDATE: It worked pretty well. I must say. Impressive Microsoft. Now if only you could make a web browser that’s actually worthwhile…

UPDATE: Sorry Ben, Arne, and KOR, your comments were lost in the inability of Disqus to manage an export and a 500 error or two caused by my hosts limitations (hear that 1and1?). Feel free to add the comments again…

UPDATE: Found your comments. Everything should be up to date, and I found the latest comment widget and it works better than the RSS.

Monty captured the media’s paltry attempts at balance just right:

And Non Sequitur captured the spirit of the media coverage of Obama’s transition team:

Meanwhile, in the world that still travails under the weight of sin, current United States President George Bush’s policies dealing with AIDS are being praised as some of the most successful while remaining deferential to local support structures in affected locations. By working with churches and existing on-site humanitarian organizations the Bush Administration’s policies have sidestepped the bureaucratic bungling which destroyed the efficiency of other relief attempted while allowing the AIDS vaccines and treatments to reach the affected people much more quickly and cheaply.

So what does Obama plan to do? Change them of course. After all, we can’t expect those evolved animals to refrain from sex, can we?

After all, even some Americans are unable to even solve the moral equation containing Walmart deals and a horrific death.

Scanning the headlines on Google News this morning I was struck with how anxious the media are to cover the minutiae of every act of Obama as though he is their President already and worthy of the highest words of praise.

Instead of the sufficient and clear “Obama Selects Security Team”, the Washington Post writes this headline full of pathos and shining leadership “Obama Names Team To Face A Complex Security Picture“.

Bush was the bozo clown, the dimwit, the accidental accident.

Obama names his teams to face complex security pictures, he is brilliant and compelling.

Meanwhile, God is apparently Pro-Choice.

Meh.

Perhaps it’s the heat, as summer has finally decided to arrive in Chicagoland.

Perhaps it’s the plans, as I will be getting married in a few weeks.

Perhaps it’s the shows, as I’ve found Chef Gordon Ramsey to be as astute a judge of character as he is of food and business acumen.

Perhaps I’m just being lazy.

Meh.

As y’all have no doubt noticed, there has been a bit of spam making it through iPandora’s Akismet filters this last week.

I’ve been deleting them as I see them, but they keep coming. A few more each day.

What do y’all use to block spam on your blogs?