A fellow blogger over at Pretty Good on Paper has a very interesting project going. He takes blogs and pulls down all their content and analyzes the vocabulary used. He just finished analyzing my blog today, and has posted the results.

 

According to his analysis, my blog added a respectable 528 new words to the database, which is evidently something of a feat given how many blogs he’s already assimilated. Although I suppose a lot of that had to do with the fact that I have posts all the way back to 1996.

Anyway, it’s a very cool project and I suggest you check it out.

[ Link: What Words Do You Own? ]

I grow tired of dealing with 50 Cent-wannabe employees in business establishments that are attempting to portray an upscale image. When I go into a Starbucks, for example, there is a culture there that I enjoy. The ambiance is based around intellectualism, civility, and an overall concept of bettering oneself through education, business, and conversation.

As such, I don’t want to talk to someone behind the counter who has their hat to the side, pants too low, refuses to smile, and speaks in mumbled single-syllables because that’s how “ganstas” talk. These people convey one message with every action:

I don’t like this place, I don’t like this job, and I don’t like you. I tolerate you because I need money in order to pretend to be something I’m not. I’m not playing your stupid “act nice” game. I don’t jump through hoops for nobody. I’m a (gangster|player) and I’m proud of it.

Well, from now on my answer to that is going to be to ask for the manager and see if I can get the person disciplined. If I get an adverse reaction from the manager, I’ll call corporate and let them know that they’ve got a branch that’s not supporting their image.

Culture, Not Race

And before someone goes off on some race tangent, let me assure you — this is about behavior, not skin color. A good example of “Starbucks culture”, in my view, would be a recent experience I had. I came up and ordered a ” ‘medium’ …er….grande mocha.” The guy behind the counter (Mexican, according to a conversation I heard him having earlier) jumped on the opportunity in a typical geek fashion.

Him: Ah, yeah…we don’t have “mediums” here… (beaming a large playful smile) Me: Oh, damn…I’m probably going to get put on some kind of list now… Him: Actually, you’re already on the list; I’m just going to move your name closer to the top now…

This is the type of banter you expect from a place that caters to students and business people. And I don’t expect that from everyone, of course, but that same branch has multiple people there (of many races) that consistently smile and laugh and generally have a good time. Race is a non-issue.

This is what I expect — no, demand from a business trying to impart a positive experience onto me. I don’t want to see Eminem or R’Kelly trying to be players or gangsters while in a customer service role. It’s incongruent. It’s the same reason I wouldn’t buy rap albums from Erkel.

Bottom line: If you don’t subscribe to the culture of the place you’re working, and it’s a place that requires a public-facing role –don’t work there. And I ask you to join me in calling these people out when you see them instead of just getting pissed about it.:

Well, I’ve just finished locking down the entire site with industry standard ROT 26 encryption. For those not familiar with the algorithm, it uses a cross-phased, dual-helix rotation of ROT13.

As you might expect, not all sites can support this level of security; if yours does I suggest you take advantage and consider displaying the sitecon above that I made just for this purpose. This way, all your visitors will know how secure you are.

Stay safe out there…

…yeah, that’s all I had for you.

(cough) Ruby (cough)

Roo-bee. Rhubie.

Ok, I’m done.

…

…

…

(Ruby)

http://creationwiki.org/

Many atheists that I’ve known, including myself, exhibited an interesting behavior during and after their transition from faith to non-faith. I call this behavior substitution.

Here’s how it works: the atheist, having spent so much of his life loving this underlying, structure-giving entity, finds himself in need of something similar upon becoming a non-believer. It’s as if an emptiness rushes in where God used to be, and our human fragility require us to fill it.

I find that most young atheists fill this emptiness with other grandiose and beautiful concepts; here are the main ones:

• Romance: When the atheist places an extremely high value on “true love” and generally the whole Romeo and Juliet concept of love being more important than anything.
• Nature: An extreme reverence for the beauty and complexity of the universe.
• Karma/Buddhism: A fairly direct substitution, but one that doesn’t involve a personal God.
• Logic/Reason/Science: Embracing the disciplines that uncovered the flaws in religion.
• Order/Justice: A direct substitution for the most needed element — structure.

I think Einstein’s was the natural one, as was my own up until my late 20’s.

Mine started as romance, however. I remember thinking that romantic love was the ultimate thing when I lost God. I had illusions of soul mates and eternal bindings and such. It’s interesting to look back and realize that I was simply exchanging one drug for another — with the underlying problem being the inability to face reality in its true, raw, and rather cold form.

After talking to a young atheist for just a short amount of time, you can often surmise which type of substitution they’ve made. Which kind are you?

i believe that when i took marilyn as my own, i stole from the world it’s brightest jewel. with my best skills and pure faith in blind luck i won her heart and still show it with pride.

i know that when heather was born the world became brighter, more beautiful by leaps and bounds no earthly artist may by any gods’ graces devine. an unending dawn now shines forever, without compare.

i more than trust that when max was born, there began a future, and my world is now safe in strong, intelligent, and just hands. he is a beacon to mankind and the gardens of tomorrow, and it’s path is brightly lit.

hail, to those who fill my cup. i’ll not waste a drop!

-=T=-

If I was that kid I’d consider telling his Mom that the fact that she believes in God (and acts the way she does) is proof enough that it’s not the way to go. Disrespectful? Sure. But arguably warranted and necessary given her behavior.

I grow tired of hearing people ramble on about how religious Einstein actually was when he clearly stated the exact opposite on numerous occasions. Listen folks, his “faith” was an abstract, non-religious feeling with respect to the beauty of the universe — not a religious belief the way Christians and Jews want it to be.

But don’t take my word for it. Here are a few choice words from someone who actually had the most insight into the matter.

“The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.”

“The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to take seriously.”

“Thus I came — though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents — to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve.”

“I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one.”

“I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls.”

“From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.”

“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”

– Albert Einstein

Evidently the new version of VMware for OS X lets you run a virtual session right off of your bootcamp partition! Pretty cool stuff.

My buddy Craig has it working.

[ Link: Vista Running From OS X Bootcamp Partition Within OS X ]