Drone Hacked While Flying by College Students

That did not take long and imagine the resources foreign governments and terrorists have at their disposal. One thousand dollars is a pittance for such organizations, so expect to see more things like the drone captured by the Iranians. Since I have already gone on record with my objections to moving toward drones over manned aircraft, let me just say that this dare by the federal government was one of the most unintelligent things I have seen in a week filled with them.

Health 6-29-2012

Antibiotics are helping, but it is slow going. I will be glad to be rid of the headaches and at least the dry cough is gone. This all may be more expensive than expected, due to a change in health care providers. Minnesota moved a lot of us to UCare from MA and it turns out my old clinic is not on good terms with them. I will have to go doctor hunting and move to the Mayo Clinic system, which I do not have a high opinion of.

It could all be worse, a normal person would have been beaten into the ground by this, but since I already have CFS most of the symptoms are the same. Now to get some rest.

Obamacare Upheld Entirely

Article here.

So much for the survival of the Republic. Now that government intrusion into every facet of life is justified as long as it is considered a “tax”, anything and everything can be justified. Anyone who believes this to be a center right nation needs to look long and hard at the United States, for it has drifted firmly into the hands of the left. Tyranny has risen and will continue to rise unabated.

I wish I could feel more emotion about this than I do. But it is hard to when the writing has been on the wall for some time. What is surprising to me is how many on the right thought the Supreme Court would defend the Constitution like it was supposed to. That has not been the case for many decades.

It is fascinating that taxation was used as the justification for the package of laws called Obamacare. This country was founded by a rebellion against unfair taxation and so it seems appropriately ironic that it dies by taxation. People never learn that governments are infinitely greedy and have a hunger for taxes that is insatiable.  I pity the small business owners who will be crippled financially by all this.

There are those who believe this will be repealed. That is pretty much impossible, but running on that will give Romney the win in November.

I wonder if anyone still believes George W. Bush was a conservative after his biggest court appointee went hard left on the most important ruling in a generation?

Ticked Off

I went to the local clinic today and the suspicion is that I have a tick born illness -- possibly Lymes Disease. Results will not be back in until the end of the week at earliest. In the mean time, I am on antibiotics. Fun and games, eh?

No Longer a Cubs Fan

After not following the team in any serious fashion for several years, I am officially giving up on the Chicago Cubs. The sad thing is that they could get into the World Series next year and it would not get me back. Enough is enough and I do not have the energy or inclination to invest in losing propositions any more.

So that leaves me wondering if I am going to give up on Major League Baseball altogether. About the only option is to become a Minnesota Twins fan, but there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm being felt. With the local stations being Brewers oriented, watching games is pretty much out and there is no way to afford going to the real thing.

Oh how I miss the days of the Eighties, when I used to watch Harry Caray and Steve Stone every day on WGN. The beginning of the end was when the games were moved to limited local cable in an extremely foolish move aimed at milking more money out of the fans. The ownership change has not been impressive and frankly I think the wrong consortium won.

Ah well, at least there were some good memories in there. But I realized that I do not care a whit about the team anymore and the sport itself seems to have gone downhill. Time to let go.

Running to God

As I write this, sacrament meeting will be starting shortly at the La Crosse Ward. Too ill to be there, I find myself missing it like I always do when my health acts up. This time it is not quite as bad, because of something that happened last night.

One of the things about being a real film buff is the desire to reacquaint oneself with films seen decades earlier, especially ones seen when young. The changes in perception and understanding can be very profound, I have discovered. In fact, one film I loved as a teen, Cool Hand Luke, I now despise greatly. Deciding to be an adult is a conscious decision in our society these days and making that choice changed a lot of things for me.

Back in the early 80s, a movie won best picture and became an unlikely hit. Focused on runners in the 1920s trying to medal for the United Kingdom, Chariots of Fire is most remembered for its amazing theme by Vangelis. I remembered seeing the movie a couple of years after release and having a favorable opinion of it, but that is about it.

Anime Honorable Mentions

Having a brain as sharp as a brick this week, I omitted some animes from my worth watching list. While not up there with the rest, they did entertain me. So with no further adieu, here they are:

• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
• The Irresponsible Captain Tylor
• Mushi-shi
• Robotech: Macross Saga (yes, I know the purists hate that one)
• Full Metal Panic (all versions, content warning on the final series)
• Vampire Hunter D (content warning on that one too)
• Outlaw Star (Firefly ripped off a lot of elements from this)
• Lensman (not faithful to the books, sadly)

One thing I have noted is that creativity seems to be dead compared to the 1980s and 1990s. Very few risks are being taken and the moe movement has done a lot of damage in pushing the superficial, if not sleazy, aspects to the fore.  Changing male leads from headstrong confident types to perpetually embarrassed wimps has been another thing I have noticed. This has not been healthy, but it does pander to the Japanese otakus who drive the business model.

Resurrecting the Dead: The Subaru Lives Again

After five months of tinkering, bending metal, and hammering, the Subaru Outback is running again. Oh there are a host of problems needing fixing yet, including the non functioning fog lights and hood catch, but it is being driven again.

Health 6-22-2012

I hate posting about my health. So on with it so I can be done with it.

It has not been a good week. The right bronchial has been suffering congestion and things morphed into a sore throat last night. The “rash” is most likely a spider bite with a bad reaction, which would explain the increased pain and muscle stiffness in the neck. Proving just how random my body can be, the left middle finger is swollen and painful in the outermost joint – for no perceivable reason.

Going out for pizza Wednesday night turned into an ordeal of having trouble breathing due to the congestion, though I haven’t ruled out a cascading reaction to the bite. At least I have been able to get some sleep the last two nights despite the pain. No walks this week and I am unhappy about it.

It looks nice out, wish I could enjoy it.

Anime Worth Watching: An Opinion

A comment from Hanny has me thinking about which anime I like and how to go about recommending them. The problem is the style and content varies so much that they are hard to compare to each other. If I were an otaku it would be so much easier because I would like every new piece of trash that comes down the pike. But since I am just an entertainment lover and anime is just a minor subset of what I watch, my likes are very different.

Then there is the problem of trying to rank TV series against theatrical movies, which causes my brain to melt down. But hey, I like tilting at windmills, so here goes. My top three TV series are tied at number uno, so things get messy right off the bat:

1. Fractale, Area 88, Kimi ni Todoke
2. Spirited Away
3. Summer Wars
4. Only Yesterday
5. Squid Girl
6. Princess Mononoke
7. Howl’s Moving Castle
8. Porco Rosso
9. Castle in the Sky
10. C: Control
11. Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth
12. Space Brothers
13. Bleach
14. Kiki’s Delivery Service
15. Tiger and Bunny
16. Whisper of the Heart
17. Bubblegum Crisis Toyko 2040
18. The Cat Returns
19. Denpa Onna
20. FLCL
21. Akira
22. My Neighbor Totoro
23. Nausicaa Valley of the Wind
24. Hellsing

Bleach Ep. 16: Encounter, Renji Abarai!

As the first season draws closer to its end, Ichigo finds himself crossing blades with another Soul Reaper. Why?  Because Rukia’s past has finally caught up with her. While the daft humor is still present in places, the situation is becoming much darker for Ichigo and friends.

For the entire season, there has been a brooding undercurrent of fear radiating from Rukia even as she has tutored Ichigo in the art of Hollow battling. With this episode, we find out why she was afraid and it turns out the diminutive Soul Reaper had good cause to be. Kiss those light hearted school days goodbye as the story descends into darkness.

Summertime

Aside from being a great tune, that is what today is. Summer has officially arrived with the solstice, but the weather has actually moderated compared to the past few days.

The corn is growing and so are the weeds. For the moment, the thistles have the height advantage.

Health 6-19-2012

The pain I have been suffering has been slowly getting less intense. There is an odd rash on my neck that popped up around the time this started and it has gotten larger. Part of the pain at night has been an abnormally stiff neck and coughing. If it does not go away, time to see a doctor.

Something I forgot to report: A couple of weeks ago, I stayed overnight with some friends who had the air conditioner cranked up beyond what I was used to. Despite having covers and a blanket, I began shivering violently. While I have had this happen before when cold, the severity was a new experience – as was actually generating significant heat from it. This is interesting and a positive change, I think.

My suspicion is that the H202 therapy I went through changed quite a few small things in my system. It made me tolerant to rice, it has helped my circulation, helped stave off bronchitis, and I did not have a bout of eczema this winter. I’ve thought of CFS as being a “death by a thousand cuts” kind of illness, so it is strange to experience something positive working along the same lines.

Odds and Ends 6-16-2012

I have spent some time going back through old review posts and have done some minor editing to improve layout and add needed tags. Tagging is still underway, because I had previously thought of it in a master index way instead of how people actually use tags. If a tag is used to look up other posts, it is off of the post, not the side bar and I finally got that through my thick skull. New genre categories of science fiction, fantasy, comedy, and classics have been introduced to help with that.

One consequence of looking over the older reviews is finding the need to rewrite or update seven of them. In one case, that will require a newer and better DVD, but fortunately that will be under ten dollars to do.