When I was a kid, I saw a cool demonstration of the bell curve at the Seattle Science Center. A pachinko type of deal with balls dropping through a grid of pegs showing how most of them end up in the middle and dropping off gradually to the left and right. Basically, it was a "normal distribution" - and I've lived my life on the outside borders of that curve.
But there is an area (one of many) in which I am right inside that curve. My income/demographic is right in there. I am one of the true "95%" - that is inside the primary area of the normal distribution. It's the area defined by "two standard deviations from the mean."
What bugs me, and really really does so, is that the "occupy" movement (yes, they're back. . .) wants to lump me in with them; to say that they speak for all of the "99%" which obviously includes me.
They don't. They don't speak for anyone I know, either, not that those I know would admit.
Here's how I see it - the Occupiers (I'll just call them "O's") are protesting against what they call the 1% (really the 1% at the left of the bell curve) claiming that they're the 99% - but they're really the OPPOSITE 1% - the 1% at the right end of the curve, the low end of the income spectrum.
I'm calling this the "return of the 95%" - the rest of us inside those two deviations who are working, who are struggling to make ends meet, who are taking care of our families, and who WANT to get to work.
The group that the O's are hurting.
The O's are working to shut down cities today. LA is being hamstrung (actually by LAPD who are over-reacting and shutting down a TON of streets to let the O's take over the street, which is what the O's want). New York is being threatened with having their bridges shut down by protesters. SF's ferry operators have said they will honor the movement, which will shut down bay area traffic. . .
Who do they think that they're hurting? Not the upper 1%. . . they're hurting the 95% - us.
Who do they think is tired of their antics? Their stupid tactics? Us - the 95%.
Have they heard our derision? Have they noticed that WE, the 95%, the "normals", mock them? They have few allies here. Yes, I know that the upper 1% has the money; yes I hate the fact that I don't have much input into the process; I know all of this. I also know that the upper 1% is made up of Unions as well, and even though my family contains Union members, THEY don't have any say in how the Union is being run, and don't like that either.
Does it stop us from working? Definitely not - we want to go to work to provide for our families.
But who is standing in our way? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?
The lower 1% who call themselves Occupy, who call themselves the 99% but who are not.
Hey Occupy, be careful. Don't piss off the 95% - we may not have the money, but we do have the masses and we're getting tired of you.
Hunger Games - bring Dramamine cause it's worth it!
Written by Mike Malsed
Friday, 23 March 2012 09:56
My stepdaughter had me read the trilogy a few months back and I really did enjoy it. Good writing, although I don't really enjoy first-person novels too much. However, good plot, great characters, and an author who had guts to veer away from the typical.
So when the movie came out, we were excited. Okay, my wife and I were excited, Julia was ecstatic, and Dalton wasn't far behind. It was obvious that we were going to have to see it, and it was going to be a midnight of opening day showing. On Imax. Yep. . . tickets were purchased, plans were made, we were ready.
We forgot dramamine.
Yep, this movie uses jerky-cam. TONS of jerky-cam. I just got back and I'm still queasy. Okay, so there were a few places where it was really appropriate - quick running scenes, the scene where she's hallucinating because of getting stung by the Tracker-Jackers (beefed up wasps with nasty stings). Those were definitely appropriate. However, they used it EVERYWHERE, it seemed. And they didn't just have little wiggles, it was truly JERKY-cam. Big wobbles; hard jerks; it was like the cameraman was constantly drunk. Terrible.
BUT - with that out of the way - the movie was great.
The characters were great. Katnis was characterized extremely well, going from a hard face and features to soft and vulnerable; Peeta was probably the one that didn't fit with my notion from the book, but that was fine, he fit in there well; Seriously, the casting was amazing.
The scripting was excellent. George Lucas - take note. THIS is how to write vulnerable and sincere dialog. Yes, Katnis and Peeta's relationship feels awkward - it's supposed to. Katnis isn't sure if it's real; and pretty sure it's fake; but is there some feeling? Yeah - and that's how it comes across, at least to me.
The pacing was quite good. The only thing that made me look at my watch was the fact that my stomach was rebelling from all the jerky-cam.
It followed the book exceptionally well, without being slavish. That's something I have had a problem with in the Potter movies: I felt they stuck slavishly to the books to the point of putting in things that didn't really further the plot. We would be introduced to characters and then see them die or just never see them again. . . why? Hunger Games does not fall into that trap. We noticed quite a few things that didn't make the cut, but weren't really needed to move the plot along. The Mockingjay pin that Katniss wore - it's origin differed from the book - but still felt genuine and made excellent sense considering the constraints of time and scripting.
I was extremely worried, to be honest. We went to the midnight showing of Twilight (the part 1 thing) and it was so bad. . . I was so very worried about this one too. I'm eminently glad to say that I need not have been - this was very worth it.
If you have a strong stomach and don't get headaches or motion-sick, I say with no reservations, see this movie.
If you do not, or you DO get headaches or motion-sick, take some dramamine or something. . . and see the movie.
Last Updated on Friday, 23 March 2012 19:05
Rapture tomorrow?
Written by Mike Malsed
Friday, 20 May 2011 17:57
So a preacher has predicted that the Rapture will take place at 6:00pm on May 21 (which is tomorrow) - at each time zone. He has made this prediction based on a couple of things:
There is a mystical meaning to the numbers 5, 10, and 17. 5 is supposed to represent atonement; 10, completeness, and 17, heaven. He doesn't give any reference to why these numbers represent something. They do line up (somewhat) with traditional numerological symbology, but not exactly and I think they are a bit of a stretch.
Now, he multiplies 5 * 7 * 10 to get 722,500 which is also the square of the supposed number of days from April 1, 33 to April 1 2011 which is supposedly the exact number of days from when Christ was crucified and . . . April fool's day in 2011.
My stepdaughter was assigned the watching of the video on YouTube. Since I wasn't sure about it, and since the name rang a bell but I couldn't place it, I decided to watch it, and then (as I recommend to everyone) I did some research on it. This is my reaction - it's not documented (except for some sources at the end) because it's my reaction, not a researched article.
Foremost, I agree with the stated goal of the video.
Catch Joseph Kony and then prosecute him to the fullest. This guy definitely needs to be caught and then strung up by his. . . well, he needs to be punished. Absolutely, definitely, no doubt.
However, I strongly disagree with quite a bit about this video.
Woohoo! After several years brewing with my buddy Fid, I borrowed his pots, carboys, and all that and, along with Cyndi, I did a solo brew. I used Fid's Allegedly Amber recipe, which has turned out awesome for him and I figured it would be a nice opening act for my brewing career (if you will).
We brewed on Sunday and it went quite smoothly overall. Mash went nicely, although we did peak the temps at one point and I had to toss some more water in to cool it down quickly. The sparge went well, no big deal there. Boil went off with no hitch, and the cooling cooled the brew AND watered the lawn (I hooked the output of the cooling coil up to the sprinkler. . . dual duty! heh)
After that it was just sticking it in the carboy with the air-lock and let it ferment for a week and then transfer it to the 5 gallon carboy for another week of secondary (which we're in now).
Only problem is that I don't think I used enough sparge water so I don't have 5g - more like 4 1/2. Oh well. . . next time! :D
Now, when my kegerator kit comes in, we'll set it up and get the Amber kegged up for our enjoyment!
Plan is to hit either an Irish Red or a Scottish next.
