Beria Wacked Stalin

After watching a Timewatch documentary upon the subject, I am persuaded that Lavrenty Beria wacked the former Soviet Union Premier Josef Stalin. If so, at least Beria accomplished one good deed in his otherwise abominable life. Stalin was certainly comparable to Hitler in terms of ruthlessness and paranoia.

Timewatch documentaries have had a uniform excellent quality so far. I highly recommend the show.

Barney Frank Proves His Mettle (Again)

Are you cynical about politicians? I'm not. I'm a big fan of some politicians, like Barney Frank, who is taking a stand based upon principles, rather than politics. The courage to "do the right thing" is what separates the great leaders from the ordinary politicians. Torture is wrong, period. Any day of the week, any month of the year. American citizens have a right to know what is being done in their name and with their taxpayer money.

Obama's Campaign Rhetoric Compared to Policies

In comparison to Bush, Obama is a breath of fresh air, no doubt about it. But the contrast between his policies and his campaign rhetoric is stark.

Campaign Rhetoric:

• We will get out of Iraq
• We will repeal Don't Ask / Don't Tell
• We will repeal the Defense of Marriage Act
• We will save the economy by creating new public works projects (like FDR)
• We will get health insurance to every American
• We will close the prison at Guantanamo Bay

Policies:

• We stay in Iraq for the time being, possibly longer...and as for Afghanistan, we stay in there from now until Dooms' Day
• We do NOT repeal Don't Ask / Don't Tell
• Nothing whatsoever is done about gay marriage
• We throw hundreds of billions of dollars to incompetent corporations
• We will tinker with the current health care system a little bit but not that much
• Guantanamo Bay remains open for business

---

The charm of his eloquence is wearing off, and the reality of his conservative "business as usual" style of rule is starting to grate.

I've Been Searching for Leviticus

Fruitlessly, it appears. I can't find the unaltered, verbatim King James text on any of the usual sites, at least not yet. Surely there is an online version of the Bible that might be found via a Google search.

I'm on a mission, you see. Recently, New Hampshire permitted gay marriage. Opponents of gay marriage claim that homosexuality is against the Bible. The refutation to this argument is found, in part, in the Book of Leviticus. I recall reading a litany of offenses, all of which are practiced by the vast majority of Christians today. There is a prohibition in Leviticus against eating shellfish, for example, which would encompass oysters. There are many other strange taboos, but that is the only one I remember in exactitude. The point is that, if society is to start heeding the Bible, we must change dietary customs, in addition to marriage customs, because marriage customs as practiced today are in direct contradiction of the Bible. This is a statement that cannot be refuted by any Christian, of whatever sect, that holds the King James Bible as an article of faith. Thus, all Christian sects today, to the extent that they oppose gay marriage based upon Scripture, are hypocrites, because they have chosen not to heed the other laws in Leviticus.

Picking and choosing which texts of the Bible to follow, and which texts to ignore is specious at best. Either go whole hog, or admit that the Bible is unsuitable as a guide for secular law--which is my position.

At any rate, when I find a copy of Leviticus, I will post it on my blog in its entirety, and highlight the portions that the fundamentalist Christians prefer to ignore. The only one they seem to give any credence is the one concerning homosexuality, but that is such a very small portion of Leviticus. They would conceal what else is contained in that book. Concealment won't do. Let's be out with Leviticus, and put it front and center of the public debate, and see where the American public wants to go. Back to Ecclesiastical courts, heresy trials, and the Inquisition, or on with granting civil rights to gays.

Ten Common Traps for Writers

Beginners making their first stab at a serious project like a short story or novel succumb to a variety of traps, ten of which are enumerated here.

1. Exclamation points. Avoid. Your reader is calm, whether you are or not. Stir their pulse with words, not punctuation.


2. The idea that grammar, capitalization, or punctuation does not matter. These building blocks matter even more than your content. When I encounter a story where the writer has neglected these attributes, I skip the story, even if it was written by one of my favorite writers, such as Paul Bowles, who was unduly influenced by the Beat Poets.


3. Hubris. Writers slip into this fault unawares for the most part. Sometimes I will sculpt what seems the perfect image, only to realize it smacks of hubris and must be discarded. A recent example: "I have many more ideas waiting to be born like Athena from the skull of Zeus. You see the exposed spear-tip only." At first blush, this imagery pleased me, because I love mythology and will go to some length in order to make a mythological reference, but it is far too egotistical. Any comparison of a mere mortal with a god, whether mythological or not, is inappropriate, unless that mortal has accomplished a truly Herculean task, and even then, the comparison must never be made in the first person. In a similar vein, refrain from self-praise or self-congratulatory statements that are too obvious. Everyone likes to pat themselves on the back and it is natural to do so, but try to be subtle about it.


4. By the same token, avoid excessive self-deprecatory humor or criticism. Don't run yourself down too much or people will take your negative self-appraisal at face value and wonder why the hell they are reading you.


5. Stating the obvious. If a sentence is unnecessary, omit. If a word is unnecessary, omit. This policy will dispense with most adverbs, as well. If you waste your reader's time with fluff, you will lose your reader.


6. Strive for decorum. This is difficult when discussing politics and other controversial issues. But if you can manage it, try to discuss issues from a higher, intellectual level than the lowbrows on FOX news. This means making an attempt to be articulate and trying to avoid ad hominem attacks. However, when it comes to a central leader, such as George W. Bush, I have abandoned this stricture, because the man is relevant to the discussion.


7. Avoid gobbledygook. College students and other learned souls succumb to the temptation to use big words. If you can at any time replace a big word with a smaller word, without losing meaning, do so. I hate writers that use "utilize" instead of "use." "Utilize" is a word that should be shot at dawn. Also, avoid jargon unless it is necessary.


8. Profanity is not a forbidden zone anymore, but use it in a calculated manner, mindful of how it may affect your readers.


9. When writing fiction, it must at all times be clear who is acting or speaking. Be careful with your use of pronouns. Do not use creative tags for indicating speech, such as "interjected," "exclaimed," or "added." Just say, "So-and-so said." The numerous repetitions of the word "said" are all right, because the reader's mind will interpret "said" as a tag for speech, rendering the actual word invisible. By getting creative with the tag, you render it visible and annoying. If the tag can be omitted without obscuring the speaker, do so.


10. Avoid excessive use of the word "very." Everything is "very," isn't it? Avoid the word "somewhat". If you feel the need to use "somewhat," it is because you chose the wrong adjective. Choose an adjective indicating a milder intensity. In the game Dungeon Crawl, the program tells a player that invokes a power, "You feel somewhat more hungry." A suggested replacement for this is, "You feel hungrier."

Auto-Install for Dungeon Crawl

I like to live on the edge and play the latest and greatest and buggiest version of Dungeon Crawl, the beta, which can be obtained here. Updates happen as quickly as once a week. That represents a minor chore for the player. Not much, I know--just deleting the old files, unpacking the new, and moving those files into the right directory. In my opinion, if there's any time to be wasted, it should be wasted playing Dungeon Crawl. With that in mind, I took time out of my busy day to construct yet another handy-dandy batch file to fully automate the installation process. This utility installs Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup in less than five seconds and removes all temporary files as well as the Crawl archive itself.

Like all batch files found here, this one requires modification to reflect the proper pathnames on your PC. This batch file assumes that you are downloading the beta to a directory called "c:\pelf". If that isn't true, then correct the batch. It also assumes that your game is installed at \games\crawl, which seems logical. It does all the work - deleting the old game, installing the new one, and then cleaning up afterwards. A batch file should clean up after itself, by Cracky! So says Igor.

Requirements: WinRAR. I know, I know. Costs money. I tried using Unrar, the command line version of WinRAR, but it will not work with ZIP archives for some unknown reason. You could replace WinRAR with some kind of unzipping utility, but I am not familiar with ZIP utilities. You're on your own if you go that route.

This WORKS under Windows XP. If Microsoft suckered you into going with Vista, you're on your own. I believe a few minor mods to the pathnames would get this working with later versions of Windows. Why Microsoft wants to change pathnames all the time, I don't know, but there is little about Microsoft that can be understood without a spycam in their marketing department.

Update 3/25/2010

I added a few lines to append my preferences to tiles_options.txt so that I don't have to keep modifying the file every time I install a new version of Crawl. The same technique could be used to make mods to any of the other settings. Just remember that >> signifies "append."

Update 5/26/2010

Designated variables for the directories. A few mods added as well.

Update 7/25/2010

There is now an Installation version available for download as well as the Windows Tiles version. This batch eliminates the need for the Installation version. It is faster than the Installer.

Update 6/04/2011

Updated to handle either the dev Tiles or stable Tiles. I still use this, because it is ten times faster and does not use Windows's complicated pathnames, but instead the simple pathname of c:\games\crawl, which my regen.bat uses by default.

Update 8/23/2012

Updated zip filename to work with .11.

Update 10/05/2012

Ditto.

---

@echo off
cls
echo Install-New-Crawl.bat for Dungeon Crawl
echo by igor
echo http://techlorebyigor.blogspot.com
echo.Updated 10-05-2012
echo.
echo This utility will install the newest version of crawl, whatever it may be.
echo.You must have WinRar installed in its default directory for this to work.
echo.
echo.*** Note: The old version will be deleted, including any saved games! ***
rem ---------------------------------------
rem change variables as needed here. 
rem ---------------------------------------
set dldir=c:\pelf
set unzipper="\Program Files\WinRAR\winrar.exe"
set gamedir=c:\games
set crawldir=crawl
rem ---------------------------------------
echo.Review the following variables:
echo.
echo.Your download directory = %dldir%
echo.Your unzipper = %unzipper%
echo.Crawl will be installed to %gamedir%\%crawldir%
if not exist %unzipper% goto WinRarErr
set dlfile=crawl_
rem the boys keep changing the zip name
if not exist "%dldir%\%dlfile%*" set dlfile=stone_soup
if not exist "%dldir%\%dlfile%*" goto NoPelf

if not exist %gamedir% md %gamedir%
cd %gamedir%

if exist %crawldir% rd %crawldir% /S /Q
md %crawldir%
if exist temp rd temp /S /Q
md temp
cd temp
rem dev team stashes crawl within a directory with similar name as zip,
rem so let's fix that now
move "%dldir%\%dlfile%*.*" igor.zip

%unzipper% x "%gamedir%\temp\igor.zip"

rem this is the directory created by the archive
cd %dlfile%*
xcopy *.* "%gamedir%\%crawldir%" /S /D
cd %gamedir%
rd temp /S /Q

rem ---------------------------------------
rem Review this section and replace with
rem your own mods.
rem 
rem igor's chosen mods to tiles_options.txt
rem ---------------------------------------
rem cd "%gamedir%\%crawldir%\settings"
rem echo tile_update_rate = 2500   >> tiles_options.txt
rem echo tile_runrest_rate = 300   >> tiles_options.txt
rem ---------------------------------------
rem igor's chosen mods 
rem ---------------------------------------
rem echo name = glorious igor >> init.txt
rem echo remember_name = true >> init.txt
rem echo restart_after_game = false >> init.txt
rem echo M:1 >> macro.txt
rem echo A:Zap >> macro.txt
rem ---------------------------------------
rem add your own mods here
rem ---------------------------------------
exit 

:WinRarErr
echo. ERROR: WinRar is a required program to unpack the archive.
set dlfile=crawl*
if not exist "%dldir%\%dlfile%*" set dlfile=stone_soup*
if not exist "%dldir%\%dlfile%*" goto NoPelf
pause
exit

:NoPelf
echo. ERROR: Cannot find the crawl archive (expected in %dldir%)
pause
exit

Be Gentle to Animals

As a young boy, I read "Slaughter of the Innocent," which made my blood boil over with tales of cruel animal experimentation. I wanted to know why scientists were so evil and regardless of pain and suffering. My father had never heard of the book, which was a bestseller to my recollection, although I cannot verify it today, because the book doesn't have a Wikipedia entry. It is an old book, and people who disagree may feel that the less that is said about it, the better. They may have gotten away with destroying the wikipedia entry for this book, but they cannot destroy my memory or the Amazon listing, from which I obtained the cover art:


Later, I read that the book was discredited as being filled with exaggerations and lies. Perhaps that is so. Many of the anecdotes in the book seem fantastic and are not backed up by credible sources. Therefore the book can be dismissed as propaganda for the antivivisectionist movement. However, I still want to see a wikipedia article for it! I just don't feel qualified to write one, because all I have to go on is memory alone, and wikipedia looks for tighter standards than mere opinion and human memory. On wikipedia, you must cite sources already established in the media.

The verdict on this particular book aside, I still find credence in the antivivisectionist movement and its modern incarnation, PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the favorite butt of jokes on television. I don't approve of some of the stunts by PETA activists, such as when celebrity actor Edward Furlong, drunk or high at the time, liberated lobsters from a grocery store tank and was arrested for the crime. Such celebrities try to draw attention to their cause and are succeeding, although little of the attention is favorable.

It would be a fine thing if humans resolved to treat animals better. If we ever encounter an advanced extraterrestrial species, the criteria by which we will be judged is how we treat other sentient beings. If our race is marked by cruelty to animals, then we will be judged as unworthy.

Meeting with intelligent extraterrestrial life seems far-fetched, but it could happen, which is why the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was in Obama's federal budget. It was mocked by the Republicans and FOX news, who prefer to believe we are alone in the universe. The allocation for SETI, incidentally, is miniscule, a proverbial drop in the bucket, but has been included in all budgets, even under Republican administrations.

Whether we meet ET or not, we should want to deport ourselves in an ethical fashion. By breaking down the threads of compassion in society, cruelty to animals anticipates cruelty to humans. If it is acceptable to beat a dog or cat, then it is acceptable to beat another person. I am sure many of my readers know of cats or dogs more worthy of protection and affection than certain people. We will be a more war-like race if we abuse animals.

Many people agree that animals should be treated well, but then counter that there is nothing they can do about the laboratories where animals are being abused. However, many people have pets and abuse them in a myriad of ways that are quite common today:

• If you declaw your cat, that is abuse, because you are rendering it defenseless against children, who tend to be cruel, and against other animals. Try going through life without your fingers, and you will know what it is like to be a cat without claws.


• If you punish your pets with physical blows on a regular basis, that is abuse, and your strategy is not even working like it should. After a certain period of ownership, pets respond to the merest intonation of their master's voice. It is unnecessary and counterproductive to strike a pet. Instead of teaching the pet anything, you are teaching it to fear and hate you. One who strikes a pet is a villain who deserves to be struck himself.


• Keeping a dog chained up or in a fenced-in pen no larger than 10' x 10' is abuse. What crime did the dog commit to be imprisoned for life? It would be kinder to shoot the dog in the brain, rather than sentence it to life imprisonment beside its own excrement and urine.


• Cockfights and dogfights are relics from our ancestors, who were often at war. These traditions herald back to a past that is not quite erased. Fights between animals awaken the blood-lust in humans. Not much is required to reduce modern people into their ancestral equivalents. Do you want to live in a world where raiders might attack your village, kill you, rape your women, and plunder your treasure? If it is all right to mutilate, torture and slay dogs for sport, it is all right to slay humans for sport, as well. This is why dogfights have been made illegal.


• Spraying poisonous chemicals all over a lawn for no other reason than to prettify the grass, is negligence that harms wildlife and neighbor's pets. You are killing and hurting unknown quantities of birds, scurrying four-legged beasts, cats and dogs. In addition to this, the poisons you spray will enter the water you drink. There are better ways to control pests than through the use of poisons. Learn to adapt to nature rather than wasting money on poisons sold at the store that promise a quick fix.

Plumbing 201, installing an outdoor faucet

My previous class, Plumbing 101, is not a prerequisite for this course, but is recommended for aspiring students of Igor's Do-It-Yourself University.

This course explains how to install a new faucet in your yard for an outdoor hose. I taught myself this bit of lore last year. All that you need in material costs no more than thirty dollars. With a bit of luck, you should have a Home Depot nearby that offers plumbing equipment. I love that store. It is the friend of the do-it-yourselfer. The basic tools you need are:

• a hacksaw to cut through PVC pipe. I prefer a convertible saw whose blade can be replaced with either a wide-toothed blade for cutting wood or a fine-toothed blade for cutting metal or PVC.


• PVC pipe, including any joints and connectors you require.


• primer and glue. The new types of formulas that combine both seem to work fine, from my experience, and do save a bit of time, but are slightly more expensive.


• an outdoor faucet. I prefer one that is metal and capable of withstanding abuse.


• tape measure.


• a masonry drill if drilling through concrete, or a regular drill, if wood. You may be able to rent a masonry drill from the store, but ask your older and better established local friends if you can borrow one instead.


• If you are working underneath the house in a dimly lit crawlspace, be sure to get yourself a bright light bulb (CFL works fine, but incandescent bulbs may be cheaper and more durable) attached to a long cord.

With planning, you should only have to make one visit to the store. Measure how long your new pipe needs to be and buy extra length just in case you need more. You can always cut away unneeded length, but adding length takes more time, requiring a connector, new pipe, and sealing.

I had to visit the store about three times. In one case, I discovered that the diameter of the pipe I had purchased did not match the diameter of the existing pipe. The measurements written on the pipes matched, but the actual diameter varied from the stated diameter. For this reason, I advise that you measure the diameter rather than trusting what is printed on the pipe. One trick is to wrap a strip of paper around the pipe, cut the strip until it is an exact measurement, and then measure the strip.

The employee serving in the Home Depot plumbing section proved knowledgeable and gave me an impromptu lesson on plumbing techniques. I recommend listening to these guys. In many cases, they can save you time shopping and prevent you from making costly mistakes. However, the good guy was only there in the evenings. During the day, he was gone, and know-nothings were there in his place. Know-nothings are hired because they are cheaper. Visit in the busy evenings, and you are more likely to get a good guy with valuable contents between his ears.

There is no harm in buying extra parts just in case you need them. The cost of extra parts is just a few dollars at most, but the savings from avoiding another trip to the store are considerable in terms of gas, time and most of all, frustration. I was fortunate that Home Depot was willing to let me in after their official closing time of 10:00 PM. I knocked on the glass door and in polite terms, explained that I was in the middle of a plumbing project and faced an emergency, and if it wasn't fixed, I'd be without water the entire night. Since Home Depot was nothing but nice to me, they receive a free mention in my blog. Notice, business owners, that this is one of the many benefits of treating customers well. Imagine, if Home Depot had been not so nice, what I would be writing now. I have nothing but good things to say about Home Depot, though, unionized or not. For years, they have offered domestic partner benefits to their gay employees.

Believe me, when it comes to plumbing, planning is the most important thing you will do. You face a critical decision. Which pipe do you intend to cut and join to your new pipe? In my case, I chose the pipe leading to the bedroom bathroom cold water. I verified it was the right pipe by having my boyfriend turn on the cold water while I was in the crawlspace under the house, feeling the pipes until I felt vibration. Obviously, you do not want anything to do with the drain pipes or hot water pipes!

Before you make any cuts to existing pipes, you should have in your mind all of the pipes, joints, and connectors you will need. You should measure the precise lengths and diameters required. If you are the forgetful type, write all this down.

Once you have all your materials assembled, drill a hole through the wall of your house, or the foundation, where the desired faucet will be. Drill the minimum diameter required to push a pipe through the hole. The hole can later be sealed with a variety of materials, although concrete will complicate making any adjustments in the future.

Next, turn off the city water or the well water, if you are using a well. City dwellers should find the water main in the front yard under a rusty plate. You may find nothing but mud in there. Use a trowel to excavate the lever that turns the water off. I used a vice-grip to turn the water off. At this point, if anyone is taking a shower in your house, you may hear a scream.

With the water main switched off, go inside and turn on the cold water faucet connected to the pipe that you intend to cut. This is to drain the existing water from the system. You won't get all of it, but the idea is to get as much as you can before making the cut. The less mess, the better.

Go under the house again and use the hacksaw to cut the pipe. You need to make two cuts, taking away a measured length of pipe. This permits the addition of a three-way joint, reconnecting the existing pipe and adding a third outlet for the purpose of your garden hose.

Your next instructions vary according to the schematics to reach the outlet. You should connect everything first in order to verify your measurements. Then you can go back and begin using the primer and glue to seal the various connections between pipe, joint and connector. Plumbing is a forgiving business, and if you make a mistake, you can always take away by sawing and reattach by gluing. Remember, you bought extra parts at the store just in case you needed them, as you may indeed discover now.

After all the pipe parts are glued together, wait the recommended length of time for the glue to cure. This should be about an hour or less. The next job, checking for leaks, requires two people communicating via phones, one inside and one outside examining the pipes. Turn on the water main, and run both faucets, the one indoors and the one outdoors, full blast, to determine whether a leak exists. With a bright light, inspect for leaks at every juncture between pipes. Look all around the circumference of the connections for the slightest trace of water.

If any amount of water is detected, that means the seal was imperfect or else you did not give it enough time to cure. If you're not sure whether there is a leak, wipe the water away with a cloth and wait to see whether another bead of water appears. If you detect a leak, you must replace the affected parts in order to use parts that haven't had primer or glue applied.

Since you are the plumber and have the luxury of time, you might want to check under the house a day later and maybe even a week later, just to make absolutely certain of no leak. For my part, I have checked several times over the course of a year and found everything satisfactory.

That's really all there is to it. A job like this would cost you two hundred dollars or more if you hired a plumber, due to the amount of time involved. The satisfaction you gain from doing it yourself is worth just as much as the savings. In this wealthy country, we hire professionals to do work like this that we could probably do ourselves. Your achievement is worthy of sharing with your friends at your next dinner party--a better item of conversation than your usual self-deprecatory jokes about middle-aged decay.

When money's being made, everyone wants to call, visit and stay, as though some of the money might rub off on them, but making money necessarily takes up the bulk of one's day, which limits the amount of time and energy one can devote to socializing. When money's not being made, there is all the time in the world for callers and visitors, yet the calls and the visitors decline, as though poverty and failure might be contagious.

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Plumbing 101

Your drain is stuck, but you don't want to call a plumber. I've been there many a time and have learned on my own how to clear drains. Here is Igor's List of Basic Plumbing Tips.

1. Engage in preventative measures. Many plumbers recommend for a kitchen sink installing a garbage disposal ($200 or less if you do it yourself) to avoid a stuck drain resulting from chunks of food. I never installed one myself. Even a garbage disposal will not protect against oil and fat. Unless heated to a high temperature, oil will adhere to pipes. Capture and dispose of grease in the back yard rather than through the drain pipe. You can apply liquid grease to weeds in your back yard. It acts like an herbicide, but without the poison or the expense.
2. In most cases, drain-clearing chemicals like Drano and Liquid Plumber will not help you. They may be acceptable for fixing slow drains, such as shower drains that may have build-ups of hair. However, a slow shower drain is not always a bad thing. Warm water lingering in the tub helps to warm the bathroom in the winter.
3. For slow or stuck toilets and drains, the traditional plunger works best.
4. Clogged sink? For about twenty dollars, Home Depot sells a device known as a plumber's snake, a long, segmented steel coil that can stab through a clog and has claws to actually extract a clog. This is sometimes all you need. Every home should have one.
5. For a badly clogged kitchen sink, run a garden hose inside the house, attach it directly to the drain, and seal with a towel or other cloth. Apply water pressure to push the clog into the sewer. This works, but is messy, because water tends to leak no matter how well you cover the drain. But it beats calling a plumber.

These measures will save you $100 - $250 on a plumber's bill. Good luck.

How to Make the Perfect Breakfast

For most of my life, I ate store-bought cereal for breakfast. As I got older, I chose healthier brands. Muselix was my favorite, followed by shredded wheat. Even so, I wondered if there was a still better alternative.

To surpass cereal, we have to travel back in time to Grandpa's day. What did Grandpa eat each morning? More than likely, oatmeal. Today, it can be cooked just as fast as you can pour milk into cereal. More than that, it's healthier, cheaper, and tastes better.

Let us examine the economics of oatmeal. Three pounds cost around three dollars. Contrast that with twelve ounces of cereal that costs the same price. What are you paying for when you buy cereal? Marketing and advertising. The colorful, enticing, wholesome image printed on the cereal box. The grain inside is worth very little.

Oatmeal's health benefits outweigh those of cereal for the most part, although some cereals are little more than toasted oatmeal themselves, just with a higher price tag. Oatmeal contains the carbohydrates and fiber your body needs. Cereals often lack sufficient fiber, although many manufacturers include sawdust in their product to increase the fiber rating. Look for cellulose in the ingredients. How do you feel about eating sawdust?

Most cereals contain too much sugar and dangerous levels of minerals like calcium, one of the cheapest supplements of all, nothing more than the shavings from rocks. Too much calcium causes hypercalcemia. If you find that you are suffering from unusual ailments, stop taking so many vitamin supplements. You may be poisoning yourself, particularly if you eat too much cereal with milk and pop multivitamins as well. Most brands of milk in the United States already have an added nutritional supplement, vitamin A, besides naturally occurring vitamin C and calcium.

Oatmeal is low in vitamins, but let us examine the so-called nutritional advantage of cereal. If the cereal is ground to a fine dust and subjected to laboratory analysis, it will show the specified levels of vitamins A, C, D, et cetera. This much is true. However, humans absorb vitamins not inside a laboratory, but in the digestive system. Unknown is how much of these vitamins and minerals are in a form accessible to the human body. The cereal manufacturer does not care, but you should. Why not just pop a multivitamin, if you're concerned about nutrition? Why trust a cereal manufacturer to include all of the nutrients you require in a form that can be easily absorbed?

In summary, cereal has far too much sugar, costs too much, and the nutritional supplements are questionable. They may bring a benefit, but they also may do harm through toxicity. A massive experiment has been performed upon a sedentary population glued to television screens.

What cereal does not have is any advantage in terms of convenience. Oatmeal is faster to prepare. In fact, your trips to the grocery store will be reduced, because you will not need to purchase milk.

Begin with a jar full of oatmeal.



This container is for aesthetics more than anything else. True, you could keep the oatmeal in the store's three pound cardboard container, but that doesn't look as nice. The wife or boyfriend may disapprove--and they're right. This simple glass container is not only better looking, but easier to use, because all you need to do is lift the lid, and the heavy jar remains stationary while you extract the oatmeal like so:



The cup provides a measured amount. If you require more for breakfast, put a bigger cup in the jar.

Add enough water from the tap to set your oatmeal floating. Microwave for sixty to eighty seconds and you're done! What could be simpler?

The following steps are optional. You may wish to add ingredients to your oatmeal, such as ground flaxseed, which contributes omega-3 fatty acids, protein and fiber. It is important to choose the brown variety of flaxseed, not the golden, and to grind it in order to expose the beneficial kernel that contains the nutrients. Flaxseed is cheap. A pound should not cost more than three dollars. You should only use two tablespoonfuls per meal. More is, uh, not recommended. Let's just leave it at that.



Many people like to add nuts to oatmeal. Any nut will do, or even a substance that contributes a nutty flavor, such as a seed. Experiment. Get creative. I tried dill weed as shown below:



I imagine some readers will scoff at the notion of dill weed, a term of derision in a non-culinary context. Some other recommended additives are cinnamon, chocolate, pecans, pistachios, and maple syrup.

Try to avoid adding sugary ingredients on a regular basis. Sugar acts like a drug on the brain, lifting the mood and interfering with your brain's internal monitoring of caloric consumption. You will think you're hungry when you're not. I'm not saying avoid sugar in all cases, but be aware of its treacherous nature. If you can have one meal without added sugar, breakfast represents the best candidate. Let lunch be the time of trespass.

If you make the switch from cereal to oatmeal, you will save on the order of ten to twenty dollars per week, and even more if you have a large family. Unknown are the savings in health costs from your improved diet and reduced sugar consumption. Best of all is the feeling you get from making your own breakfast without recourse to a mass-produced, mass-marketed product. I buy generic store-brand oatmeal, because there is no appreciable difference between that and Quaker's, besides price. Variety is obtained by adding different ingredients to the oatmeal, depending on what is available in your area. I have been preparing breakfast in this way for years. Enjoy!

Every Day, More Good News

While President Bush was in office, I clicked on the news media with the expectation of a new war or even an exchange of nuclear missiles. I knew Bush was incompetent, but the utmost depth of his incompetence was uncertain. Now that Bush is out of office, we can entertain the thought of progress and improvement, virtues that were lacking the past eight years.

These days, I find inspiration in the headline news, of all places. President Obama is doing good things for the country, and I find ample reasons for hope:

Obama signs the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009

Crackdown on ship’s exhaust could help Seattle’s air

EPA to monitor 62 school’s air

Obama to Automakers: It’s My Way or the Highway

Obama cares. That’s the biggest difference between him and the Republicans. The Republicans would let us suffocate in the poisons spewed out by big business, while their clients vacation in locales such as the Bahamas and Switzerland.

I’m reminded of a high-ranking vice president of a multi-billion dollar company who told his assembled employees, including me, that liberals were to blame for all of the ills in the world. The reason, he said, was because liberals care too much. How can liberals be so stupid? They must be traitors who hate America. In China, there is less environmental protection and less protection for workers and consumers. We need to be more like China and less like America. This was his morale-boosting speech to his assembled employees.

A few months later, this vice president retired. In a candid confession, he admitted to making errors in judgment. One of those errors in judgment was that arrogant and ill-timed statement at a company picnic that was supposed to promote morale and cohesion. I returned from that picnic with the distinct impression that upper management was composed of idiots and that I had no place whatsoever in such a company. There may be many jobs I am willing to do, but I am not willing to spend my life in the service of evil.

China represents the Republican ideal, because it has less freedom and greater growth of the economy. Why don't Republicans just unfurl the red banner and be done with subtlety? Kill the poor and poison the planet. Crime pays, compassion doesn’t. That's the Republican philosophy, and that's why they lost the last election.

Recommended Strategies for the Minotaur Berserker

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup does not have a level playing field. Some race and class combos are better than others. Pick the right one, and you may not need to cheat, or your need may be minimized.

Take, for example, the minotaur berserker, one of my favorite combos. Although the minotaur begins with a proficiency in axes, it has an excellent aptitude for all weapon classes, an attribute only shared by the kenku, a weaker species. In the beginning, you should take advantage of this flexibility and be open to changing to a different weapon class. Trog rains down excellent weapons upon his favored berserker, and you can sort through them at your leisure until you find The One.

For me, The One was a +7, +9 short sword of Trog's Righteous Anger (slice, rF+, rC++). The resistances alone are reason enough to use the weapon, but the high level of enchantment seals the deal. Short swords tend to be overlooked by beginners, who favor weapons that inflict higher damage. My short sword has the potential to attack two times per turn for each swing of a cumbersome polearm or other large weapon. Each attack carries the high damage bonus and high accuracy bonus.

Until you find an excellent weapon, your minotaur should remain weaponless, using its horns. Minotaurs have a superb aptitude for unarmed combat and should attain level 12 in UC, at a minimum, before switching to a weapon. Although you cannot wear a helmet due to the horns on your head, UC in the form of head-butts increases the ferocity of your attacks. There is a chance of getting in an unarmed combat attack every time you use your primary weapon.

Here is a look at the inventory of my 24th level minotaur berserker (click to enlarge):



Note the excellent swamp dragon armour, which has stats of +7 AC, -2 EV, but gives back 2 EV, lets me teleport, gives resistance to electricity and also to poison (unstated in the inventory menu). I can't think of a better armour, especially with no tax on my evasion score. Some will swear by gold dragon armour, but it is far heavier, which would mean I'd have to jettison magic items, and it has a large EV penalty (-9) as well. True, a high armour ability can mitigate the EV penalty. Although minotaurs are superb at both dodging and armour, in practice I find that these skills are never quite mastered, because so much XP gets diverted into the primary weapon skill, fighting, and unarmed combat.

The Ring of the Nightingale was irresistible, although some powers were redundant, such as teleport. However, the Ring of the Nightingale supplies sustenance, answering the minotaur's higher rate of hunger compared to other races. An added bonus is +4 to AC and to a lesser extent, resistance to cold.

Cold is encountered in Cocytus and from frost giants and white dragons. Occasionally a monster may employ a wand of cold or bow of frost. The best resistances are, in order of value, fire, poison, electricity, cold, and negative energy, though in the Realm of Zot, electricity moves to second place due to the appearance of the dangerous electric golem. In fact, without strong resistance to both fire and electricity, you might want to delay your descent into Zot. Pillage the Hells instead and gather up any rings and armours that convey resistances.

Note the amulet I am wearing. Resist slowing. There is nothing better if you are a berserker.

My wands of healing, teleportation, and hasting are all fully charged by design, because these are the most useful wands in a sticky situation.

I employed the excellent longbow with great profit until late in the game, when I acquired a large shield so fine that I ceded the use of the bow in order to use it. A large shield slows down a longbow to such an extent that I decided to use it only to mow down fleeing monsters. The chief benefit of my large shield is blinking, which will save my bacon in a hot spot, such as I found myself here after stumbling into a teleport trap (click to enlarge):



This points to one of the few weaknesses of minotaurs--they aren't very gifted at traps and doors (T&D), although you can train them with persistence. If I had not spent so much experience on mastering the bow, I might have used it deactivating traps, an effective method of training at T&D. This helps most of all in the Realm of Zot, which is littered with potent Zot traps that can result in great harm to your character.

In the above situation, my hit points were halved, and I was surrounded by the most powerful monsters found in the game save for named devils like Asmodeus and the female devil whose name begins with an E, but quite escapes me (often in the literal sense as well).

I chose retreat, a humiliating prospect for such a powerful character, but better to live and fight another day, as the proverb goes. Running away was a viable option, particularly with my boots of running and hastened state, but judging by the map, the two adjoining rooms did not offer much in the way of cover and no stairways at all. In all likelihood, more baddies would greet me, resulting in death.

I judged that a blink would not quite cut it, because the monsters were spread all over the screen in every direction. Also, I was in the final level of the Realm of Zot, where blinks cannot be controlled. A random blink might have resulted in a worse position, not a better one. Therefore, I teleported.

I'm not sure, but I suspect that teleports are also limited in range on this level, besides being uncontrollable even by those skilled in translocations. My teleport put me in the adjoining chamber, where I found myself surrounded by another bevy of powerful opponents. I tried to teleport again, but before the teleport took effect, I was killed by a team of Orb Guardians.

Was this the end? Did my long career come to a screeching halt because I stumbled into a Zot trap? Not quite. Let us not forget my handy-dandy batch file that I use every time to cheat in Crawl. Under the circumstances, I felt justified, although I would have cheated whether justified or not. If you want to get your paws on my batch file, which works wonders, read on, It is not far away in the Dungeon Crawl branch of my blog.

With perseverance and a bit of assistance from regen.bat, a Minotaur Berserker prevails in the end, as shown below:

Nerds are Needed

Nerds, please apply. We need you.

That's what voters should be saying in every election. We need detail-oriented, meticulous, cautious technical wonks in government jobs.

The people understand this, which is why they elected Al Gore in 2000. The Electoral College and sneaky Florida ballots thwarted the will of people, with disastrous consequences for the U.S. economy as later events proved.

The latest article to catch my eye didn't surprise me. CFL bulbs are a huge scam.

Oh, the technology is good, it's just that private industry has dropped the ball, again, because government was MIA when it came time to write standards and regulations. You see, conservative Republicans don't believe in standards or regulations. They believe in laissez-faire capitalism. This is why so many CFL bulbs fail, because manufacturers would rather save a nickel than make a decent CFL bulb. They calculate that if a CFL bulb fails, you will buy another, which helps their bottom line. Government, until recently under the control of the conservative Republicans, looked the other way.

I can't say I'm surprised. I've lost about 50% of the CFL bulbs I've purchased. The NYT article states that the common reasons for CFL bulbs failing are:

• being in an enclosed space
• being turned on and off frequently
• being used with a dimmer

However, in my case, I've seen them arrive from the manufacturer in glass shards due to poor packaging. I've placed them in open outlets without a dimmer and seen them fail even when turned on and off only five times a day. I reached the conclusion, as did many other consumers, that CFL bulbs are a scam.

But they're not. The underlying technology is a good idea. No, make that a great idea, because 13 watts beats 60 any day of the week. CFL bulbs are supposed to be more reliable, not less, than regular bulbs. Along with their energy efficiency, this is the rationale behind replacing regular bulbs. But you can't get good CFL's by trusting the marketplace. Certain manufacturers have cut corners and gotten away with it, because laissez-faire capitalism doesn't work for anybody except a small group of shareholders.

What's needed are nerds that understand thoroughly the technology behind both CFL bulbs and their manufacture. Government needs to be informed, aware, but most of all have the will to act and enforce regulation that protects the environment and, most of all, the consumer. The only way to have such a government is to elect liberal Democrats to public office.

For the Love of Editing

Most of my blogging gets done in the early morning. For me, clicking "Post" is not the end, but the beginning. Hours after I've posted my latest blog, I may be in the kitchen drinking tea before I realize that my writing contains a grammatical error. Horror of horrors! I fly to the computer to make a correction before anyone detects my mistake. If I find one problem, I'm likely to find others strewn throughout. Sometimes the tea turns cold awaiting my return, but no matter. I like cold tea, and I love good writing.

Grammar is the least of my worries. In the case of grammar, one betrays only carelessness, unless the mistakes are numerous and form a pattern, in which case ignorance would be the culprit. An even worse scenario involves a logical error, which endangers one's entire argument. A reader that refutes one logical fallacy will conclude, fairly or not, that the entire piece is false.

Bad grammar is so common on the Internet that spambots use bad grammar to mimic human beings. Sometimes, the grammar is so bad as to arouse suspicion. Most humans, even if they are bad at grammar, get the rule about using an apostrophe to form a contraction like "don't." I hope I never see a real person write "dont", particularly in two messages in a row, as a spambot named Kaylee did on my blog.

I find errors even in mainstream media articles. A headline may read, "Vitamin E a Cure for Cancer?" when the research proves nothing of the sort. Adding a question mark to the end of the headline to imply uncertainty does not excuse the exaggeration. As I noted in a previous post, the media is awful when it comes to science. Exaggeration for dramatic effect is common. This leads to skepticism among the public to all scientific claims, such as the one for global warming.

To minimize errors, I believe I am going to start using Microsoft Word to write my blog rather than the web interface. Word has the ability to post directly to a blog, a feature I haven't tried yet. There are key advantages to using a word processor, such as the grammar and style checkers. If you use Microsoft Word 2007, click on the Office button, go to Word options and select Proofing. Under Writing Style, have the program check "Grammar & Style" rather than just Grammar, which is the default.

The Style checker is none other than the distilled wisdom of your stuffy old English professor, who was right about a great many things, as it turns out. Such as the need to avoid sentence fragments. Or not to begin sentences with a conjunction. And remember, avoiding clichés will keep you on the sunny side of life. You can take that to the bank.

Stephen King violates many style precepts in his use of the American vernacular. Sometimes breaking the rules seems to work better, but be careful. King is royalty. As such, he gets away with misdemeanors that would send commoners like us to the Dungeon of the Unread Writer. I may be there already.

Housecleaning in Dungeon Crawl

Players in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup eventually face a dilemma. They have played so many different characters, abandoning some along the way, that the game is cluttered with saves. This new batch file will clean out your save directories and your backup save directories with the click of a button. A minor gadget, true, but useful nonetheless. As a precaution, a pause gives you the option of aborting the process, in case you clicked it by mistake. Do avail yourself of that safeguard, because once something gets deleted in an MS-DOS window, that's that.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


@echo off
cls
echo cleanslate.bat for Dungeon Crawl
echo by igor
echo http://techlorebyigor.blogspot.com
echo.
echo.
c:
cd\games\crawl
echo. Are you sure you want to delete ALL of your saved games?
echo.
echo. If not, abort this window or press Ctrl-C now.
echo. If you really want to delete your saved games, press Enter.
echo.
pause

rd backup_saves /S /Q
rd backup_saves_2 /S /Q
rem this will spare the subdirectories such as db and des.
del saves\*.* /Q
pause
exit


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Update 5/25/2010: I spare subdirectories saves\db and saves\des from deletion, because the 5/24/2010 beta version of Crawl .7 tends to crash upon initialization if these subdirs do not exist. I do not think these subdirs ever change, so this should improve efficiency anyway. If my assumption proves mistaken, replace "del saves\*.* /Q", above, with "rd saves /S /Q".

A Spambot Attacks My Blog

Recently, a comment was left on my blog. Now I won't lie, I don't get many comments at the moment, although in the future I hope things perk up a bit.

This comment, however, struck me as funny:

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I
thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except
that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog
very often.

Kaylee

http:// (spam site they are trying to promote with this comment)

A comment like this is generic, having no relevance whatsoever to my content. Dropping the url is the entire point. Kaylee does not exist and is not a real person. Or maybe she is the daughter, wife or concubine of the programmer that wrote the spambot that dropped this message in my blog.

I rejected this comment, but discovered to my dismay that others in the blogosphere are falling victim to the ploy. Bloggers, awake! Don't be fooled by spambots.

This comment was followed, less than twenty-four minutes later, by another one, this time with a right-wing message, in response to my post concerning the bailouts:

you're right! spending is out of control! join us in protesting
excessive government spending!

http:// (site being promoted)

This comment I rejected as well, because it was obvious to me that the writer did not bother reading the content of my post. At most, he probably read the title of my post and nothing more. I suspect that this, too, was the work of a spambot.

The comment uses exclamation marks in an attempt to stir up anger. Something about that seemed familiar--I was reminded of Rush Limbaugh, actually. When I visited the site, all was clear. It was a right-wing shill site, with a slick appearance and plenty of catchy graphics and slogans. What was being protested? Not the bailouts, but rather the Democrats, and in particular Obama and his supporters. The writers were even discussing things like civil war and revolution. Bunch of right-wing loonies. Funny, I don't remember advocating revolution when George W. Bush served two terms and took this country into a war of aggression. But I digress.

I believe the two comments are connected. In other words, the same spambot that made the first comment also made the second one, twenty-four minutes later.

What is newsworthy is that the right wing site employs a spambot to spam left-wing blogs like mine, hoping to lure away my readers. Bloggers that are more naive than I am about technical matters publish these robotic comments and even visit the site.

Today the spambot left another message, confirming that it is indeed a robot and not a human:

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I
thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except
that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog
very often.

Kaylee

Notice the ominous hook, "I will keep visiting this blog very often." That's a threat directed at me, implying that a program of harassment is intended. In other words this comment will be posted every day and potentially a hundred times a day, eating up my time in comment moderation.

After rejecting this comment for the second time, I turned off anonymous commenting. If that doesn't stop the spambot, I may have to employ something along the lines of image verification.

I checked up on the WHOIS of the url being promoted and discovered the following:

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

The owner of the web site has paid a company, DomainsByProxy, to register the domain for him, so that he need not reveal his own information. Interesting. If the spambot continues to annoy me, I can seek recourse with DomainsByProxy, which serves as the unwitting middleman between the spammer and his victims.

Note that at no time have I divulged the actual domains in this post. Doing so equals promotion. The site owners could care less whether I am damning or praising them. Their search rank increases with every mention, whether in a positive or negative context. I wonder how many bloggers realize this? Every time you criticize a site, you promote it.

So, right-wing sites employ spambots. Should I be surprised? I'm not. I hope that other bloggers are savvy enough to recognize comments like the above for what they are. But from what I've seen, it looks like plenty of bloggers are being duped.

Bloggers are human beings. They want to believe that there are other humans reading their stuff and loving it. The reality is often quite different. Push against the natural inclinations of your heart and don't believe what you want to believe until there is a compelling reason. Once you publish on the web, you become noticed by the machines and the criminals, who are vast in number and constantly seeking ways to use you like a tool. One of their goals is search engine optimization. They have other goals, however, that vary according to which master they serve. The web is crawling with criminals who do not care who you are or what you believe. All they know is that you have a domain and can therefore be useful.

Why I am a Democrat

The Democratic National Party platform does not mirror my views exactly. I'm more liberal than the Democrats. Who among us is a perfect Democrat or for that matter Republican? In this country, we have a two-party system for better or worse, which means two big tents where everyone must gather. And I say "must" gather, because I'd like to see anybody win an election running on the Libertarian, Socialist or Green ticket. Lots of luck.

What I would prefer is the abolishment of the Electoral College and the implementation of a multi-party system similar to that in Canada where minority parties get to share power on the national level. That would mean, of course, that McCain would have a presence in the executive branch today. Do I hear any Republican readers cheering? On the other hand, that also means that the losers of the 2000 and 2004 elections would have had a role in the executive branch, as well. Without the Electoral College, the winner and the loser in 2000 would have been reversed.

I am sure that Republicans will agree that the winner-takes-all system of today leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the losers. Just imagine how we Democrats felt in 2000 and 2004.

Under such a system as Canada's, I'd probably join a minority party, one that is even more progressive than the Democrats, who are quite conservative on a number of issues. Pragmatism dictates that we gather together, regardless of our differences. We have to unite under a big tent. Otherwise our views won't be represented at all. This is the same situation that many conservatives find themselves in. They have to hold their nose and join the Republicans, because otherwise they're out of luck. At least one Republican has told me that the only issue he agrees with Republicans about is abortion, which he wants to ban.

I don't place DNP logos on the main page of my blog, because my blog does not accurately represent the DNP. This blog just represents my own views. Another Democrat may or may not agree with any of the positions I have staked out. However, I can say this. The DNP is the tent where I've found the most like-minded souls--intelligent, informed, patriotic citizens interested in the welfare of their country. When someone tells me they are a Democrat, we have more in common than would otherwise be the case.

The trend in pop culture to deride all politicians and turn one's back on the entire system is a mistake. That strategy cedes power to those who will do harm. If you think the system is corrupt, reform it! That's the only answer. Find politicians you can believe in.

I remember when George Carlin, my favorite comedian, advised an entire audience not to vote. I winced when he said that. What a terrible thing to say! Don't vote?! What kind of advice is that? Guess who will vote? The people who disagree with everything you believe in, that's who. You're handing a blank check to the fascists if you don't vote. Sure, the system is flawed. What system isn't? Sure, there are plenty of bad apples in politics. Don't vote? What do you want, a monarchy? A dictatorship? If we don't vote, then what did our ancestors die for in the Revolution?

Whatever party you support and whatever your beliefs may be, vote. In every election, not just every four years. At the very least, you are sending a strong signal to the powers that be that the people are paying attention, and they had better watch their grammar. If more people vote, it becomes more expensive to buy an election. Corruption is reduced. That's all to the good, unless you're a business criminal, in which case you probably won't be reading a blog like this one.

The Debt Collectors Call Again

While I was busy blogging, the debt collectors called again.

No, I do not have debt. These debt collectors are seeking someone who used to own my phone number. They call about once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. This has been going on for years.

Debt collection agencies are more irresponsible than the deadbeats they hunt. They fail to verify their information. They just don't care. They pursue the easiest route to find their paycheck without any concern for the thousands of innocent victims they are harassing with weekly phone calls.

They usually call with their number masked. Caller ID reports "Unknown Name -- Unknown Number." I can't block these calls, because I get some calls from another country whose telephone exchange does not support Caller ID.

Contacting one debt collector and telling them the facts isn't sufficient, because their databases aren't connected. Trust me. I know. I have told at least a dozen of these organized crime families the facts. Either they are lying when they say they are taking me off the list or they're selling my number to other companies.

I have no sympathy for banks that are foolish enough to loan money to ne'er-do-wells. Their standards need to be higher. If the banks lost money, tough. Eat the loss. Not my problem. The debt collection agencies dialing numbers in their database are harassing innocent people.

This is yet another reason to vote for Democrats. The focus of government should be to reign in abusive businesses that harm, abuse and harass consumers. Democrats understand the critical role of government in controlling unethical companies like the debt collection agencies that victimize the innocent.

Visit the Democratic National Party web site

Print This Out, Dungeon Crawler

I've zapped my wand of enslavement, and you are now under my thrall.

Oh, don't worry. I won't relieve your wallet of its small burden. Honest. I am permitted to do evil.

Oops! I meant to say, "no evil." My current character worships the Shining One, you see. I'm a good sludge elf. I even wield a short sword of holy wrath. You can trust me.

My only goal is to make you a better player.

Load into your word processor a copy of the Tables of Attributes, found in crawl/docs/aptitudes.txt. Change the font to Courier New with a size no greater than eight. Print a copy. Keep these two pages beside your PC for future reference. You are now on your way to becoming an expert player of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, one of the best roguelikes around, if I do say so myself.

Without a firm knowledge of the Table of Attributes, you're just never going to make it very far--although with my handy-dandy batch file, located deep within this blog's dusty vaults, you can certainly have your moment in the sun, no matter how well you play.

I used to offer a copy of the Table of Aptitudes here in this blog post, but it became obsolete due to changes made over time. I take the safer road now and simply direct users to the file found in their latest release. I doubt the file location will change any time soon.

Two Good Changes Coming to Crawl

When it comes to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, I'm not a tough critic. The reason is, all the changes that have been made to DCSS have been positive. I'd have to outright lie to find fault. Since I'm not a FOX news reporter, I can't do that.

The latest big change currently in the unstable beta version of Crawl involves races. Grey elves are sailing off to the Blessed Realm. If you don't catch the Tolkien reference, that means they are getting the executioner's axe. Ka-chunk! *rude orc laughter*

Although I have toyed with grey elves before, I'm neutral, opinion-wise. What are grey elves, and why are they grey instead of white or black? To recognize what grey elves are, one has to dive deep into the Silmarillion, as they do not make many appearances elsewhere in fantasy to my knowledge. My favorite elf race has to be sludge, because of their high Fighting and Dodging ability. And where exactly do sludge elves appear in fiction? Hmm. I suspect sludge elves were an invention of the programmers, but I'm not sure.

The other change concerns what amounts to the reclassification of the gnome race. Yes, gnomes are no more, but never fear, my gnome friends. Unlike grey elves, gnomes have been reincarnated in another race, albeit with significant alterations. A new family of dwarves has been introduced, the deep dwarf, which as you might expect is better at magic, much as deep elves are best among the elves at magic. Like the old gnome race, deep dwarves can sense their surroundings and have an affinity for Earth magic. They are also pretty good at dodging, exceptional at stealth, and enjoy the old dwarven knack for evocations. That's right, mountain dwarves have ceded their superior aptitude for evocations to their kin, the deep dwarves. I always had a hunch that mountain dwarves were overpowered. Now their power has been reduced.

If you play gnomes, you may like this change, because it means you can benefit from racial items you find throughout the dungeon. I always thought gnomes had a rough life because there aren't any gnome blades or gnome armour. There are plenty of dwarven armaments, however.

But hold on, don't celebrate yet! A wrinkle has been added that may furrow the brow of a grumpy gnome. Deep dwarves don't heal. Not even a little bit. They cannot recover from either wounds or the loss of strength, intelligence, or dexterity. Yes, I'm quite serious. If a kobold slaps you on level one, you will carry that wound to level twenty-seven unless you quaff a potion of healing in the interim or zap a wand of healing. Those potions of restore abilities and healing appreciate in value if you play a deep dwarf.

To balance this huge disadvantage, deep dwarves enjoy several new abilities. They can instantly recover from small wounds. They can recharge wands or rods at the cost of 1 permanent MP, which may not be much of a cost when playing a warrior. Also, they enter the dungeon with several potions of healing. They can also sense their surroundings. Is this sufficient to balance the lack of natural healing? I will leave that up to the former gnomes to decide.

Personally, I find deep dwarves to be a challenge race for advanced players. All of my characters have moments when they require rest to recover hit points. With a deep dwarf, recovery is impossible. Before you ask, no, even rings of regeneration won't work. That's quite a handicap, and a deep dwarf had better pray to Xom that he finds a wand of healing and about a dozen scrolls of recharging, pronto. Perhaps the best profession for a deep dwarf might be a Healer worshiping Elyvilon.

If you can escape with the Orb of Zot with a deep dwarf, in my opinion that's one for the history books. But on the other hand, mummies are no walk in the park, either. And don't even get me started on Draconians. Brother! For my part, I think I'll remain with my cheerful demon whip-wielding Demonspawn necromancer.

To Enumerate or Not to Enumerate

Any writer soon faces a decision on how to represent numbers. Will you use Arabic numerals or the English text equivalent?

Many beginner and even intermediate-level writers opt to employ Arabic numerals. A number reduces the amount of typing, conserves space on the page, and therefore seems more efficient, at least on the surface.

What’s wrong with Arabic numerals? Nothing, if you base your writing style upon the news media. Take this recent group of headlines found on Yahoo News:

Gunman kills 3 officers, wounds 4th in Oakland (AP)

Treasury's toxic asset plan could cost $1 trillion (AP)

Pope decries African wars at Mass for 1 million (AP)

Tibetans attack police station, 93 monks arrested (AP)

When reading these headlines, the mind requires a few extra milliseconds to decode the numerals into their English equivalents. This is because we associate numbers with a different set of skills such as counting, adding, and subtracting. Numbers are used in math classes, not reading classes. Words are more strongly tied to images in the mind.

Unconvinced? Pick up a book by any best-selling author. Open it up to random pages and search for Arabic numerals. The page numbers don't count. My wager is that the author spells out the vast majority of numbers, with a few exceptions here and there for large numbers—anything over a hundred, say, or in cases where there are many numbers joined together by conjunctions, commas, or in a list. Or, in the case of Stephen King's short story, "1408", the author wishes to draw the reader's attention to the number because it is an integral part of the plot.

The reason that pro writers do this is because the human eye scans words faster than numbers. Most writers, and all of the popular ones, have a powerful motive to render their work as easy to scan as possible. For the same reason, a popular author uses correct punctuation and grammar, avoids fifty dollar words, and employs the popular American vernacular.

Why does the news media represent a glaring exception to this rule? First of all, because their headlines have limited space and a journalist can fit more Arabic numerals than words into a line. Also, numbers catch the reader’s attention, which is the primary function of headlines. “$1 trillion” seems more dramatic than “one trillion.” As a writer, you don’t want to draw the reader’s attention to mere numbers, and you’re not limited to the confines of a headline.

I’ve argued this point with enough writers (two in recent memory) to blog about it. This advice is not original from me, but derives from criticism that a smart college grad gave me a couple of years ago when reviewing my writing. My stories had numerals strewn throughout. What compounded the problem was that in many cases I was employing either a numeral or the written word. If you insist upon using numerals, at least be consistent. Employ one technique or the other throughout your work.

I didn’t buy his manifesto against numerals at first. But sometimes I let new ideas ferment in the attic upstairs until they taste better. Breaking the lifelong habit of using Arabic numerals requires a good deal of effort. Some writers either won’t see the point or won’t want to bother. Better for you, then, to stand out as a better writer by adopting the technique used by the pros.

The weather is nice. Take advantage if you can.

The time has come to get out and appreciate the planet Earth during the wonderful Springtime. Don't stay in reading blogs like this, no, get out and enjoy nature. Before global warming ruins everything. While there is peace over most of the earth and the likelihood of a continuation of peace under the wise Obama.

I plan to reduce the number of blog posts from my frenzied 2-4 posts per day to about one per day, if that, and possibly skipping some days here and there and everywhere.

About Obama: I read on Gay.com that his poll numbers slipped from 64% favorable to 59% favorable. That number still beats Clinton, Bush and most of the other Presidents at this point in their Presidencies. I am serene. Obama is doing not just fine, but GREAT! Obama inherited this economic mess from George W. Bush. I don't expect Obama to solve our economic problems--getting back to where we were under Clinton could take ten or twenty years, given the level of incompetence of the Bush administration and the Republicans.

Hopefully conservatives have learned that voting for stupid leaders like George W. Bush has a serious negative impact on their wallet. Unfortunately, the Bush administration had an impact on my finances, too. I feel robbed by the right-wingers. They did not even win the 2000 election. They stole it from the people using the Electoral College and sneaky balloting in Florida. Any of these right-wingers who feel guilty about what they did to their country should send reparations in the form of a substantial donation to the Democratic party. Unless they're too busy praying that Obama fails.

But enough of truth-saying for the time being. I'm going to enjoy the weather.

Investment Advice and a Retrospective

If I had remained entirely true to my principles, I would be a wealthier man today. Instead, I listened to all these financial advisers that told every worker in America to put their 401-K savings in aggressive growth funds full of risky stocks.

To be fair to myself, I held out for years, keeping my money in bonds, until just before the stock market crash. Now my 401-K is worth half what it once was, and I suspect that any recovery will be a long time in the making. I almost added a scary aside, if a recovery ever happens, but thought better of it. It seemed like bad luck to me. The financial news does not look good, though. American manufacturing is in the toilet, and China is coming on full steam, while our political leaders are just waking up to the fact that Iraq is not the 51st state of the Union. The Democrats, at least, understand that it makes more sense to invest money in those states that are part of the United States rather than the Middle East.

In the early aughts, there was an excellent investment overlooked by most during the stock market's heyday, the Inflation-protected Treasury bond, or I-bond. I loaded up on these babies because they give you a little interest over and above the inflation rate. Not a super return, but safer than any other investment, and guaranteed to beat inflation. We can quibble over whether the government's declared rate of inflation is the real rate or not. Personally, I find the declared rate rather conservative, not reflecting adequately the cost of groceries, gas, and other items. Things like the cost of computer hardware is what the government takes into account, and if a processor is twice as fast as last year's model, but costs the same price, the bean-counters reckon the actual price has dropped in half. And they're wrong, and that's complete nonsense.

I-bonds that I purchased in 2002 are earning 6.48% interest today. Compared to the stock market's performance, that does not seem too shabby. I just wish I had thought to place more of my short-term investments into I-bonds.

So, my astute reader asks, are I-bonds a good investment today?

Nope, sorry to say, but to make money investing, you have to be a bit of a contrarian and go against what's popular. When everybody gets into an asset, prices grow dear and the potential return collapses. Some recent I-bond issues have had an interest rate that merely matched, but did not exceed, the rate of inflation. That's not very attractive. I bought mine when the I-bonds were beating inflation by two percent or more.

Today, I would go against common sense and keep my long-term investments in stocks. The reason is that stock prices are beaten down, many scams exposed, and investor vigilance has risen. Also, I believe inflation is likely to present a threat to the value of bonds. I have felt for some time that the U.S. is due for a major surge in inflation. Finally, if you sell now, you are locking in a sizable loss. Unless you can use the tax write-off, why take a loss?

What the fat cats were getting away with under the Bush Administration is not quite as likely to occur under Obama. He's not going to stop every abuse, but he represents the potential for additional government oversight and regulation, which has been needed for ages. I'm willing to bet that Obama is right about the economy and that he will succeed. My intuition tells me that financials and technology might represent attractive investments today. This advice is based upon no research at all and no experience. Just plain horse sense or donkey sense if you prefer, as I am a Democrat. Heyaw!

Five Old Movies That Might Have Escaped Your Notice

I imagine you hear quite enough about the latest and greatest movies just released. The following films aren't as old as McCain, but they are off the radar so to speak, although in the case of TLOTR, just by a few years. This is my short list of the best films of all time, ranked in order of preference.

1. Impromptu, an Australian comedy/romance starring Judy Davis in her best performance as George Sand, wooing the classical composer Chopin.

2. The Princess and the Warrior - Besides the very moving scenes that will raise goosebumps on anybody with a pulse, what I love about this film is the originality and meticulous care and planning that went into every aspect. I have never seen a movie remotely like this. The language barrier (German) was rapidly overcome by the expressive acting, so universal that a person of any land can understand. The nurse (the same actress who played in "Run, Lola, Run", a good film also) is easily among the best actresses in the world.

3. The Lord of the Rings, 1-3, Extended Edition. The Extended Edition is better than the original and makes the whole series worth watching again. I still can't get over the fact that the bean counters cut so many worthwhile minutes of film from the theatrical release. The Extended Edition is the definitive version of TLOTR for me.

4. Maurice - this has to be one of the best gay historical dramas ever, portraying a novel by D.H. Lawrence.

5. Harold and Maude - a comedy from the 1970's about an odd friendship between a teenager and an elderly lady who believes in anarchy and free love.

Eight Shows That You Must Watch Before You Die

These shows are ranked in order of quality.

1. Daily Show with Jon Stewart - the first popular talk show ever that addresses real issues with a hard, smart, funny edge coming from the left wing with pride. An ongoing and much-needed critique of the mainstream television media--FOX news in particular, CNN, NBC, et cetera. Jon does something rare. He brings humor to liberal politics. I'm not sure anyone pulls it off as well as he does. He's better than Carson, Leno and all the rest. Those guys are good, but Jon hits on real topics and digs deep.

2. Mad Men - fans of retro will love this show about ad agencies in the 1960s. This is well-written drama at its finest, mildly subversive, and has plenty of sex appeal.

3. Peep Show - this comedy gets low ratings in the UK and is not well known in the USA. However, DVD sales are very high, which has resulted in the show's contract being renewed for a sixth season. Don't pay attention to ratings--this show features the best writing on television, period. I explained why here.

4. That Mitchell and Webb Look - featuring the same actors as in No. 3. A British variety show little known in the USA, this is one of the funniest comedy shows around.

5. Little Britain - a hilarious but decidedly unintellectual comedy that gets laughs on its abundance of humor concerning gays, fat people, old people, the handicapped and transvestites. Despite the potential for causing offense, this show comes across as light-hearted and not mean-spirited in any way and is very funny. However, it has received criticism from some in the media that may not discern the subtle messages in the humor. My advice? Lighten up. These guys are poking fun at themselves for the most part. Think about it. As for the criticism over the vulgarity, well, yes, the show is quite vulgar. Don't let your grandmother watch it unless she is down with that.

6. Torchwood - a science fiction fantasy drama based in Cardiff, Wales, concerning the heroic work of a group of independent agents invested with the task of defending Earth from aliens. I know what you're thinking. This is better than it sounds. For one thing, it's sexy, whether you're straight or gay. There's a little something for everyone, or rather a lot of something. Also, the writing is pretty good, and the lead character is a tough, bisexual, good-looking stud, John Barrowman. This show is closely related to the Doctor Who series and has co-opted much of the Doctor Who plotline. In fact, Doctor Who and related characters make occasional appearances in this show.

7. Beautiful People - here is an example of something I never thought I would see in my lifetime, a comedy about a gay thirteen year-old! I wish television had shows like this when I was growing up. It would have made my life about ten times easier, just knowing I wasn't the only one! The show is not perfect--its script isn't top-notch like Peep Show. But it's a refreshing novelty from the UK, where so many good shows originate.

8. Doctor Who - I rank this at the bottom only because of its inconsistency. Some shows are outstanding, while others, about 25%, are mediocre at best. This show is targeted to children, and the plot tends to be super-cheesy, whereas Torchwood's plot is merely cheesy. However, it's worthy of mention, and its relatedness to Torchwood merits a watch. I was disappointed when David Tennant replaced the former Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston. Tennant's face, while prettier, seems to only be capable of one expression. I preferred Christopher Eccleston, a better actor by any measure. The departure of Billie Piper as the Doctor's companion was a major loss, because she injected much-needed sex appeal into the show.

What I Like About Obama - and What I Don't

My habit of reading the news each morning has changed fundamentally since Jan. 20th, 2009. Time was, I'd cringe at the policies originating from the White House. I'd cringe at the way Bush represented our nation abroad. The environment, civil rights for gays, the economy, the war, stem cell research, and military spending--on all of these issues, President Bush was dead wrong, but what compounded his errors was his personality and style of leadership. Instead of listening to his critics, he stonewalled, obfuscated and tried to punish his critics. President Bush is one of the few American leaders that actually sanctioned torture. All of this came from a man that made much noise about his religious beliefs and how they instilled him with a profound sense of morality. A more immoral Administration, it would be difficult to find in U.S. history. I can only imagine how embarrassing the Bush Administration must have been for devout Christians, to see a man that prayed in public, yet committed so many abuses, outright crimes, lapses of judgment and pure negligent behavior.

Now I look forward to reading the news in the morning. I feel something akin to euphoria when I read about all the good things that Obama is doing. There's something more to Obama, however, than his policies. He's a great representative of this nation.

Just to hear Obama speak is to be impressed by his maturity, eloquence and calm confidence, a confidence that is justified by his intellect and learning. Such was not the case with Bush, whose confidence came off as ignorant arrogance, because he was unskilled in language or speaking, and woefully ignorant of history, science, art, religion, geography, math, technology, economics, military strategy, and public relations.

Bush has a female clone in Sarah Palin, whose ignorance about geography and history is even more palpable than Bush's. Maybe people are conservative due to simple ignorance. Education results in people becoming liberal in their views. Even the right-wingers that produce South Park confess to being ignorant about almost everything except video games.

My point is this. Even if I disagreed with Obama across the board on every issue, I would still appreciate his skill in representing this nation abroad and in communicating with the American people. He is a good guy to have on television speaking about our common values and shared beliefs. When Obama talks, I have the feeling I'm listening to a man who deserves to be on our currency. However, the twenty dollar bill should be reserved for Barney Frank. I suggest putting Obama's visage upon the $1 bill, because it is the most used bill in our currency. I have nothing against George Washington, but maybe the time has come to relegate our first President's likeness to the $50 bill, displacing Ulysses Grant, whose administration was almost as immoral as that of George W. Bush.

As for those who say they want Obama to fail, that smacks of treason. Aren't these right-wingers the same ones who were quick to call us liberals "traitors?" I have had my patriotism called into question almost every time in my discussions with conservatives and resented it. Now it seems like patriotism is just a football to be played by the right wing. They don't care a fig about the country, just about their agenda. Think about it--if Obama fails, where does that leave the United States of America?

Recently, FOX News shot back with an article suggesting that Democrats wanted Bush to fail. That is absolutely false! I wanted Bush to be a rousing success! In fact, I half-expected Bush to be a good caretaker of the economy, at least, despite being conservative on important social issues. He wasn't even that. Most Democrats I know would have been pleased, not to mention better off financially, if Bush had been a success instead of the miserable failure that he was.

Getting back to the wonderful things Obama has done, I think we should begin with the Obama Administration's reversal of many of President Bush's narrow-minded policies, such as the one concerning stem-cell research. Anyone who has relatives that died of cancer or other diseases can appreciate the need to assist, rather than hinder scientists in their efforts to find treatments to combat the diseases that afflict all of our families.

Reducing the emphasis on abstinence in sex education removes religious dogma from the equation. Young people need to know what a condom is and how to use it. There are people even today coming down with AIDS due to having unprotected sex.

Obama lifted the prohibition of health care providers even mentioning information about abortion. This Bush-era policy did a disservice to poor women impregnated by abusive boyfriends.

I have a story to relate here. I was contacted once by a young woman from Africa, visiting this country, who asked me for a ride to the abortion clinic. She did not have a car, and the clinic was over ninety miles away. She was a young college student from a very conservative family. Her boyfriend had turned out to be a scoundrel, and they were no longer together. I gave her the ride, and she solved her problem without anyone being the wiser, not her parents, friends or anyone else that might have cast judgment upon her behavior. I certainly never told anyone, and even in this recounting of the story, I haven't mentioned which country she was from.

Young people make mistakes, especially in the area of sexual behavior, as we all should know. Think back to when you were young. Slick and smooth-talking seducers sometimes worm their way into the pants of young people, knock them up and then move on. Should these smooth-talkers be rewarded by having a poor young woman raise the kids on her own? Do we need a future generation of smooth-talkers? No, we don't. Abortion is often the best alternative in situations where the boyfriend is MIA and didn't possess any of the qualities that a young woman might want to see in her children.

I support the Obama Adminstration's decision to end the illegal DEA raids on medicinal marijuana clinics in California. Conservatives only talk about states' rights when it suits their agenda. When California voters passed a law allowing the prescription of medicinal marijuana, suddenly states' rights did not matter anymore. Under the Bush Administration, DEA thugs smashed the medicinal marijuana clinics, destroying computers, arresting everyone, seizing anything of value--loot and pillage, like barbarians, leaving sick and dying patients without their medicine. Under Obama, the DEA has been instructed to end these illegal raids.

On the subject of the war, I'm less pleased with Obama, who has put off returning our troops from Iraq. However, his hands may be tied. If the United States withdrew its troops now, and the situation in Iraq deteriorated, all of the armchair generals across the country would be in an uproar. Too many conservatives are under the impression that Iraq is the 51st state of the Union. Obama doesn't want to be judged as losing Iraq. My own opinion is there isn't any winning or losing to be had over in Iraq, just a continuous drain on resources that might be better invested here in the real United States.

As for the bailouts, I'll be honest, I have my doubts. I don't like handing over public resources to companies like AIG and the automakers, all of whom deserve to sink into the abyss where they belong for their incompetence, greed, and myopia. Isn't that what capitalism is supposed to be about? Weeding out the weaklings? Once again, in the United States we have welfare for the rich, and tough love for the poor.

However, unlike me, Obama is a consummate politician, and I think he recognizes that he has to do something about the economy. To do nothing would look too much like Bush. The people want action and they want it now. Bush neglected the country for eight long years, focusing upon Iraq instead of domestic concerns. The stimulus package addresses long-standing problems that went neglected under the Bush Administration. Without getting into specifics, I see good and bad in it as well, but here again I think Obama is reaching out to conservatives in both parties and trying to build a consensus rather than pushing a liberal agenda that would please people like me.

To date, I find Obama to be middle-of-the-road in his policies, not liberal at all, but moderate. I don't agree with everything his Administration does, but feel that he has good intentions. Many of the areas where I disagree are more than likely due to Obama trying to represent all of America, rather than just liberals. He's a gradualist in many ways, and perhaps that is what we need right now given the current situation with the economy.

The conservative pundits who claim that Obama is trying to do too much are quite mistaken. Bush did absolutely nothing to help the country, and consequently there is a backup of important projects that should have been tackled eight years ago. Obama is merely cleaning up the terrible mess left in his hands by the Republican Administration. He's also considerably further to the right than the Republican party would like to admit. Reaching out to Republicans and trying to appease them was doomed to failure, but by doing so, Obama scored political points, appearing conciliatory whereas the Republicans were partisan as usual. The very fanaticism that Republicans value so much in their moral and spiritual leader, Rush Limbaugh, is what will serve to alienate the American voter.

Obama is willing to rise above his own political agenda in order to broaden his appeal among Americans, an intelligent strategy that will reap dividends in the upcoming elections of 2010 and 2012, at which time I hope to see Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate that can withstand a filibuster. I also hope to see more Democrats in political offices throughout the country. The time has come to transform the country from a war-mongering bully to an economic powerhouse that produces goods and services that the rest of the world wants to buy. The world does not want our bombs and bullets.