A Private Little Tumblr
After years of blogging on various platforms (hand written HTML, custom perl, WordPress) I'm moving on to Tumblr. Things will show up here. You'll more than likely ignore them.
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Leave footprints of the Easter Bunny? Hiding gold coins on St Patrick’s Day? The damn Elf On The Shelf? Valentine’s GOODIE BAGS?
Hellllllll naw.
Making every third Tuesday an overdone holiday just so schools can have one more day to not actually teach, so helicopter parents can swoop in and make their kid feel like they are a special snowflake on yet ANOTHER ridiculous holiday?
Here’s the deal, kiddo:
Birthday: A party for you is cool. I like that. As you get older, invite your friends. We’ll have a “skating party” or even a “electro surfing 3D VR party” or whatever the kids in your day will be doing. But no “super sweet 16 bullshit”.
Thanksgiving: We’re gonna cook up a metric fuckload of food. You will then eat that food with your family. At school, you will likely make a turkey out of your handprint. Maybe even take place in a school play that totally glosses over what a horrible human being Christopher Columbus was. AMERICA FUCK YEAH.
Christmas: No elf. No “present every day for an advent calendar”. We’ll go visit Santa until you see through that scam. We’ll do a little Christmas Eve present thing and presents on Christmas, plus whatever days we have various multitudes of family visits to make. We sure as hell will not go overboard and get you that new Barbie Nuclear Hoverboard With Action Grip that P'Kaylieeey (The ‘P’ is silent in honor of her great aunt Penelope, you know) got for her birthday. We. Will. Spend. Time. Together. As. A. Family.
Valentine’s Day: You can pick out some pre-made cards and maybe a pack of smarties or something for each kid. OR you can make something yo damn self. I sure as hell don’t love P'Kaylieeey, so I’m not going to buy an elaborate pop-up-book style card that plays music over a projeted 3D hologram and matching goodie bag that says so for you to give to her.
St. Patrick’s Day: Here’s a green shirt. HAVE FUN.
Easter: Hey it’s a basket of chocolate and plastic grass! IT’S AN EASTER MIRACLE. Maybe we’ll use those shitty vinegar and food coloring kits to make really horrible painted eggs and just HOPE that we find them all when we have a hunt around the house and yard. No “artistic bunny footprints left 'secretly’ around the house to add an air of mystery to your childhood”. Barf.
Father’s Day/Mother’s Day: A nice little card, maybe dinner with family. It’s sweet you think of me. Thanks kiddo!
Is there another holiday that isn’t on this list?Nope not a holiday. Love ya but there’s no reason to be engaging in an elaborate celebration spanning home and school for Dr. Johnny AppleSeuss’s Official Pi Day celebrations.
Gotta nip this Holiday Overload in the bud. Not everything is a holiday nor is it about buying copious amount of shit.
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So yesterday I went off on a Twitter rant, but unfortunately based it on some bad information that I thought proved that overstaffing Indy police officers would do nothing for crime. I looked up the REAL numbers, and not limited by Twitter’s 140 characters, want to write them up here. (TL;DR - I was wrong, but ….. )
Indianapolis Chicago Chicago/Indy
Pop (millions) 0.829718 2.696 3.249296749
Pop (10k) 82.9718 269.6 3.249296749
Murders So Far 65 165 2.538461538
Murders (/10k) 0.7833 0.6120 0.781234136
Cops (Per 10k) 20 44.2 2.21
- Is Indy experiencing more murders per capital than Chicago?
Yes. 1.28x the Chicago rate per capita. - How many more cops does Chicago have than Indy?
LOTS. Chicago has 2.21x as many cops as Indianapolis - So does Indy need more cops?
Maybe a few. But this really looks like an issue of diminishing returns*. I know, WARNING: SMALL SAMPLE SIZE, but 2.21x as many cops for a reduction in murders/capita of ~22% seems like there’s a point where adding more cops only gets you marginal help in the number. - So is the Marion County Democratic Party right for attacking Mayor Ballard over the number of police offices?
I was wrong. Sure, a few more cops wont’ hurt and would possibly be of a little help, but mostly in property crime vs murder rate.
Sadly, the MCDP is going for the lowest hanging fruit by focusing on murders (of which more cops will have a much smaller effect) and also implying that ANY project the Mayor wants to spend money on (whether they are good or not is another question) is ill advised while we are ‘critically short on cops’ to 'keep us safe from murderdeath’.
City budgets don’t work in a way that Project A can just be cut and all money goes to Service B. Not to mention that sometimes Project A is good**.
I’d also argue that turning Indianapolis into a police state isn’t exactly the welcoming friendly image we’d like to portray, a cop on every corner, gun holstered and ready to protect us from the savages who would murder that poor family from Carmel and take their Lexus. </sarcasm>
I think it’d be MUCH more useful to sure, hire a few more cops, but also look at the reasons for the crime rate - poor employment opportunities, shitty mass transit that further reduces many’s employment options, and a terrible horrible no good very bad public school system that even further traps people in a cycle of crime and poverty.
But that takes longer to say than “OMG BALLARD SPENDS MONEY ON THINGS OTHER THAN COPS AND WANTS YOU TO DIE”. - Does anyone remember 2007?
Apparently not in the Marion County Democratic Party offices. I remember the GOP and Ballard’s campaign attacking Mayor Bart Peterson for the murder rate going up, how he wasn’t putting enough cops on the street, how he wanted us to ALL DIE MURDERDEATH and Democrats defending him, saying the Mayor can only do so much about crime, that police staffing is only so effective, that there is a lot more to crime numbers than number of cops. Now the roles are reversed and NO ONE in either party seems to care about the massive hypocrisy.
*Someday I want to do a bigger statistical study comparing police officer numbers with murder rates across cities of various size to see if there really are diminishing returns there.
** Okay, so the cricket stadium…. is it good? Probably not. But how many people, if transported back to when the Hoosier Dome was being proposed would have said building a stadium with no team was a good idea? I am NOT saying that the cricket stadium is like that, BUT I’m also saying that this city has had it’s success in taking chances. A refusal to take any chances, and instead just play the safe road in everything, will stagnate our city. Sometimes chances don’t work. Sometimes they are just dumb. But that’s how you grow.
I’m finally seeing some arguments specifically against the cricket stadium as to exactly WHY it’s dumb, but up until very recently the entire attack was “LOL CRICKET DUM” without any substance, which is bullshit politics no matter WHAT party it comes from.
- Is Indy experiencing more murders per capital than Chicago?
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Post reblogged from Yet Another Outletbut what about the one with the incredibly brash superpowered guy and his ridiculously buxom companion and how they save the world from various racially ambiguous creatures just in time to accomplish nothing of note
That’s good, but it’s not as good as the one about the skinny, nerdy guy who is weirdly appealing to women but gets too nervous around them for it to ever go anywhere for several seasons.
You’re both forgetting about the one with the giant robot.
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A few years back I did a few like this for Colts vs. Patriots. Figured I’d do the same for the upcoming Pacers/Heat clash.
Original: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37935745@N02/6870565721/
Original: http://library.umkc.edu/blog/speccoll/worldwar-poppen
Original: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37935745@N02/6870558413/
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Link reblogged from WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR dot COMHoppy beer is awful—or at least, its bitterness is ruining craft beer’s reputation. - Slate Magazine
YES.
PREACH!
No. I’m sorry, but this is wrong.
Seven paragraphs into this poorly-researched article, the author says:
Let’s be clear: Not all craft beer is hoppy. There are many craft breweries that seek to create balanced, drinkable beers that aren’t very bitter at all, like Patrick Rue’s the Bruery in Placentia, Calif., and the Commons Brewery in Portland, Ore. Among the non-hoppy yet complex and delicious American craft beers available are Widmer’s hefeweizen, New Glarus’ cherry and raspberry beers, and Full Sail Brewing’s Session Lager (a beer specifically developed to serve as a refreshing counterpoint to overhopped beers). America’s independent breweries make beers to suit every palate, not just the ones that revel in bitterness.
Yeah, so the entire premise of the headline is disproven by the author, but somehow Slate thought this was still worth publishing. That’s lazy and should be an embarrassment for both writer and editor.
There are plenty of craft beers that aren’t hop-forward, like Mama’s Little Yella Pils from Oskar Blues, Lagunitas PILS, and Coney Island Lager. There are literally dozens of browns, stouts, and wheat beers that feature malt and yeast instead of hops. The first craft beer I ever had, when I was in college and convinced that all beer was Budweiser was St. Rogue’s Red Ale, from Rogue brewing.
A more accurate and actually useful article might be headlined Think All Craft Beer Is Too Hoppy? Think Again.
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Photo reblogged from Arrested Westeros
Clerk: Do you want a cage for that?
GOB: No, I’m a magician.
(Walks into glass door)
GOB: What is your return policy, by the way?Top Banana - 01x02submission from devancho
