Kindred16's Xanga

How Long?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:15:40 GMT

Let's see. Carrie Prejean, super-Christian, pageant dunce, barely able to complete a sentence, has been the darling of the Christian Right since standing up for "opposite marriage". Nevermind that she's superficial enough to get a tit-job.

But...

How long will they praise her now that she's got a sex tape? Will they stand by her and claim the devil made her do it? Or will they actively seek the next Jesus-freak fraud and discard her like the trash she is?

(Oh, and she's not trash for the boobs or the tape...it's for the white-trash, "I'm a Christian and better than all you abominable homos" attitude.)

Go on Carrie, live up to your full potential. Get into porn.

Because Prayer is Just as Good?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:00:16 GMT

Here's an article that describes a brilliant idea: Let the government reimburse people for praying for the well-being of others.

Yeah, that's right. Let's allow faith-healers to earn money from the government. Nevermind that prayer can't possibly be shown to be effective. I guess we all need to take it on faith that it has any value.

Hell, why don't we just pay God directly for answering our prayers? We can just go out and burn piles of money as a sacrifice to God for all He does for us...even when the patient dies. (After all, a real doctor gets paid regardless of the outcome.)

This just goes one step further to show how utterly corrupt Christian politicians can be. It doesn't even really matter if they believe prayer heals. They know they're just enriching other Christians, in part, with the tax money of non-Christians and even money of Christians who don't believe God would answer such prayers, anyway. And, I might add, that of any thoughful Christians who might conclude that God would disapprove of others earning money off of His decision to heal someone when He might think that such prayers ought to be freely prayed for the good of the person suffering...you know, the supposedly uniquely altruistically "Christian" thing to do.

If such a provision passes I'm going to feel really stupid for donating money to help pay the medical expenses of some kid with cancer I'll never meet whose family sought actual medical treatment. I could have saved that money and instead prayed for him (or pretended to pray for him...like anyone would know).

Once again, there's an attempt to thrust superstition onto the American public. Fuck the Constitution...it's a "Christian Nation".

Guantanamo Detainees

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:52:50 GMT

The video includes several British men who were detained in Guantanamo. They describe what was allegedly done to them and others around them. Do they have reason to make all of it up? Perhaps.

But, that's missing the point of this post. They were held without charges or explanation for years and then released without explanation. They may have been tortured as they claim.

I don't think a lot of Americans give a shit whether it's true. They just don't care. They're not us. Fuck 'em.

But imagine hearing these stories if these were non-Arabic looking regular Americans describing what happened to them in some foreign country where they had been held for 5 or so years. What would the reaction be then? How many thousands of foreign civilians would we plow through to get to those who did this to our citizens?

We broke the law and those responsible need to be held accountable. If this means Bush and Cheney and other top people from the previous administration are convicted and jailed, then so be it...and the rest of the world will look kindlier on our pathetic country. If no action is taken, then Obama needs out after 4 years.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:32:03 GMT

"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner." - Ben Franklin

Cretinism Wins in Maine

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:13:16 GMT

From Ken (not Kindred16):

This country is such an embarrassment. Maine is the 31st example. And the hateful comments at Fox News are loudly representative of the quieter attitudes of most people. The popular vote confirms it.

Gay marriage (a governmentally recognized marriage that would provide the same rights to gay people as straight people enjoy) was repealed by referendum in Maine. Thus, 11% of the citizens of Maine are again unjustly reminded that they are unwanted, unclean and inhuman.

Anyone who would tell me that religion is not the root of this evil can go fuck themselves. In Washington, something similar was voted on (too close to call at this point). Check out the comments there. Apart from religious influence and belief there is no way that any otherwise sane person would take this stand unless they were only a greedy ignoramus who just didn't want to be fair. Yet, 53% of the voters in Maine slunk into the polls and projected their bigotry and hate onto completely normal fellow humans who happen to be homosexual. (And if you disagree with the "normal" label for gays, then I can explain the rationale behind that, as well sometime.)

This is NOT a great nation. It CANNOT be a great nation when we treat our own people like this.

I could go on and on about this and about how disgusting religious people who treat others like shit (in this way and other ways) are, but I have to go about my heterosexual day, enjoying the benefits I get by being a married heterosexual that are paid in part by homosexuals who don't have those same benefits.

And why do I need to go on with my day rather than continue this rant? Because, if I didn't, I would feel obligated to seek out friends and family (and strangers in the street) who would vote against gays having the same rights as me and loudly proclaim to their faces that they are nothing more than pieces of shit.

Notes Per Second

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:54:14 GMT

For any self-professed shredder, speed is important. It's nearly irrelevant when talking about playing music, but it's also like the home run derby at the all-star weekend. It's fun.

I read up on how to gauge this and what constitutes a fair test. Basically, the consensus seems to be that you must play at least a simple riff with no two consecutive notes being the same. It's also considered good etiquette to do whatever pattern you choose over at least 2 strings so as to not just repeat the same 3 notes over and over. And no sweeps, just alternate picking. I agree. Speed picking must have some musical value and not be essentially strumming.

So, I watched a video of a guy playing and how he approached the exercise.

Pretty cool. 22 notes per second. Very efficient picking and fretting. Not seemingly strained.

For my warm-up to this, I choose to play a classical riff on one string that caused me to move along the string. Each 4 notes were played from a different fret position, with some moves causing me to move 3 frets. Not a very smart riff for playing fast, but it sounds very nice.

I set up Guitar Pro 5.0 on my laptop with the riff, which ends with a half note and put that on a loop. That gave me a slight rest after each 16 note run to get my bearings and launch into it again. I started off easy and gradually moved the metronome.

Most people who chimed in on a message board about speed picking claimed 9 to 12 notes per second was reasonably fast. I barely achieved 14 notes per second, but 12 was easy...on my difficult riff. I found my picking was easily somewhere above 14 notes per second, but my fretting just couldn't keep up. Too much lateral movement required.

But, that's ok. It was just a test. I plan to use the pattern the dude in the video used once I get comfortable with it or one of my own design. I'd like to achieve 16 notes per second over a longer period, like maybe 5 seconds (rather than the short bursts I did for the test). Playing fast for 5 seconds isn't much of a strain. But, longer might be.

Teh Gay is Everywhere?

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:15:05 GMT

Some articles strike me as most interesting because they seem counter-intuitive (because of our close-minded society).

This is one. It's an article that proposes biological benefits to homosexual behavior in many vertebrates, counter to the genetic anomaly such behavior is thought to be. (Not surprisingly, other mammals don't persecute themselves over homosexual behavior. Maybe we not so smart, we humans.)

One thing I'd add in reference to the question of the subject being taken scientifically seriously: Regardless of how academic and emotionally detached all true scientists try to be about data, I have to believe that heterosexual human nature is going to imprint some bias on how straight scientists regard these theories. Darwin, a straight man in a time of almost completely closeted human homosexuality, would almost certainly be unable to conceive homosexuality as not only normal behavior, but potentially beneficial to the propagation of some species. That attitude may still hold (at least a little) today among straight scientists.

Straight people, myself included, would probably prefer that homosexuality just didn't exist. However, it does and it's worth exploring why and to what biological gain.

I hope that if the data is good and falsifiable, that whatever the truth, it comes out without bias.

How to Self-Identify as an Idiot

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:04:30 GMT

One thing I've found over the years is that the dumber a person is, the less they're able to realize it. I could name examples, but step-family occasionally reads my blog.

That said, here's a tip I thought of today while looking over walmart.com for a cheap desk for my 'puter. I read the comments/reviews left by people, and of 14 generally positive reviews there was 1 person (the 13th review chronologically) who complained the desk was too hard to put together. (We're talking a bare bones desk that I was looking for that I could easily pick up and move when not using it.)

So...if you're the 1 person who had trouble assembling a product, you're not only an idiot for that, but also for posting a complaint about it among 12 previous reviews of people who did not have that issue (and many of whom cited the ease with which they had assembled the desk). Congratulations...idiot.

Here's the entire review...the shortest of them all:

Do NOT Buy!!!, 10/24/2009
This desk is hard to assemble!!! Please do not be fooled.

What a Douche Bag Crybaby!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:01:35 GMT

Bill Donohue, who famously defended the Catholic church in the wake of the boy-fucking scandals, is such a complete pussy. He's also a liar. A braying donkey of a liar. The "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode involved Larry David urinating and water splashed up. (That wasn't shown clearly in the clip.) Of course, those outraged lie and say that Jesus was peed on.

How outraged can you really be if the only way you can express yourself is by blatantly lying about that of which you claim to be offended?

And really, of what significance is a little diluted pee on the face on a painting of the guy you wannabe cannibals claim to eat and drink? Get a fucking life, Bill.

Of course, the obligatory outrageous Fox News.com article also says several times that Larry David urinated on a painting of Jesus, which IS NOT TRUE! Even if it was, so what? But, that's not what happened in the story.

Mr. Deity

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:58:41 GMT