Website for Maggie’s Farm, of the WAKA Reston Division: http://wiw.org/~corey/kickball/

The party this past weekend was off the hook! This season is gonna be great!

Unfortunately, I feel like crap today.

Yesterday, it was 70+ degrees outside. I was wearing shorts. I was playing kickball. I was basking in the sunlight.

Fewer than 24 hours later, it is hovering around freezing outside, and there is at least an inch of snow on the ground.

whaa…?

I was enjoying the snow all winter. But now that springtime seems to have come — and then disappeared again — this surprise touch of snow is not welcome.

And everyone said it was gonna be so fast…

Gooooooood morning Vietnaaaaaam!

Article below…
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Someone wake me when MSIE grows up and learns how to render CSS.

Wish my stupid stock refund would have gotten here, because tomorrow, and maybe the day after, is gonna be a bit of a bear market for Wall Street, perhaps time to do some bargain hunting. Why do I think this? Well, in my opinion, after 8 days of positive gains, a dose of profit taking is long overdue. Furthermore, I think it’s gonna bite Wall Street in the arse to realise that this war isn’t as cut-and-dry, in-and-out that they were thinking and/or hoping.

“Brainwashed”

Words and Music by George Harrison
(c) Umlaut Corporation, 2002

Brainwashed in our childhood
Brainwashed by the school
Brainwashed by our teachers
And Brainwashed by all their rules

Brainwashed by our leaders
By our Kings and Queens
Brainwashed in the open
And brainwashed behind the scenes

God God God
A voice cries in the wilderness
God God God
It was the longest night
God God God
An eternity of darkness
God God God
Someone turned out the spiritual light

Brainwashed by the Nikkei
Brainwashed by Dow Jones
Brainwashed by the FTSE
Nasdaq and secure loans
Brainwashed us from Brussels
Brainwashing us in Bonn
Brainwashing us in Washington
Westminster in London

God God God
You are the wisdom that we seek
God God God
The lover that we miss
God God God
Your nature is eternity
God God God
You are Existence, Knowledge, Bliss

The soul does not love. It is love itself.
It does not exist. It is existence itself
It does not know. It is knowledge itself
-How to know God, page 130

They brainwashed my great uncle
Brainwashed my cousin Bob
They even got my grandma when she was working for the mob
Brainwash you while you’re sleeping
While in your traffic jam
Brainwash you while you’re weeping
While still a baby in your pram
Brainwashed by the military
Brainwashed under duress
Brainwashed by the media
You’re brainwashed by the press
Brainwashed by computers
Brainwashed by mobile phones
Brainwashed by satellites
Brainwashed to the bone

God God God
Won’t you lead us through this mess
God God God
From the places of concrete
God God God
Nothing’s worse than ignorance
God god God
I just won’t accept defeat

God God God
Must be something I forgot
God God God
Down on Bullshit Avenue
God God God
If we can only stop the rot
God God God
Wish that you’d brainwash us too

Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare Mahadev
Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare
Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare

Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva
Hare Hare Hare hare Mahadeva
Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva
Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva

Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare
Namah Parvarti Pataye Hare Hare
Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva
Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva

I am socially liberal.
I am fiscally conservative.
I dislike the Catholic church for its lack of progression.
I dislike the protestant church for its lack of social programmes.
I am technologically inclined.
I am recreationally luddite.
I could go on and on.

Is there any doubt as to why I never seem to fit the mold, anywhere? Efforts I make to find some place to call “home”, result in alienation. I don’t find compromise, I can’t find middle ground, and am unwilling to pick sides. It seems these days that you have to choose one path, side, or position, and unfurl your flag there. Even peeking curiously over at the alternatives brands you a traitor or, at very least suspicious.

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An Allegory
A little boy goes to the doctor. He is told he has to get a shot in the arm. He protests it, fights it, wriggles around, trying to avoid it. No matter, he is given the shot anyway. It all goes relatively painlessly. He seems convinced that maybe it wasn’t so bad, after all.

A few weeks later, when he goes back, the doctor cuts off his head.

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Everytime I hear that soundbite on the radio, talking about “our desires for peace”, I want to yell, go crazy.

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There was a helicopter crash over there today. This is the second or third, already. We hear about fighter jets crashing on training missions, all the time. On the racetrack, inevitably there are cars that unexpectedly break down, seemingly by the smallest thing. These things tend to happen because of their sheer complexity. They are wonders of mankind’s ability, but be it a mechanical problem or user error, things that are so complex nonetheless tend to have a higher level of failure.

Every day there are more advances brought into the world that improve the quality of life as we know it. There is nothing wrong with this. Furthermore, people are continually getting smarter, more able to grasp concepts, leapfrog irrelevant technologies.

Regardless, the level of complexity in the things we use continually increases. Sometimes, it just has me wondering how much the “acceptable level of failure” is increasing in our everyday lives – I don’t see how this can’t be the case.

I sometimes wonder if the levels of complexity in things will bypass our ability to adapt. I’m not talking about robots taking over the world, or anything. I’m just wondering if the inherent, increasing levels of failure that come with new technology will have certain, currently unknown consequences down the road.

Just the facts, ma’am — well, as factual as the press reports them, anyway.

Have things started? The Standard reports firefights in Basra. The Evening Standard (UK)

Article below…
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Defection reports:
Report 1 – Sky News (UK)
Report 2 – The Sentinel (UK)

Defection Rumour (since proven untrue) below:
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There is simply, absolutely no valid excuse to have a road repair crew out, using a jackhammer on residential roadways, at 7:00 in the morning!

Another publication, The Washington Post, has published an article similar to the previously mentioned New Republic editorial.

Article saved below…
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* As I have told others, I’m halfway-surprised that we haven’t yet seen the FOX news channel superimpose a “48 Hour” timer in the upper, right-hand corner of the screen.

* After yesterday’s gains, the market is down, largely due to the “weaker than expected” new homes market. We know Wall Street can be fairly irrational, but this is kinda silly. My take on this: yeah, perhaps the housing market is slowing down, but I’d wager that the east coast stormage in February had something to do with the new homes market coming to a crawl. It seems that people haven’t factored that in, and this surprises me.

Well, it looks like it’s now officially time to get your war on.

I guess it’s only fitting that Dubya will be making his 8:00 PM address to the American people on the idiot box.

Today was errands day. Tomorrow probably will be, too. Got a haircut; I don’t like what the woman did, really, and I don’t think she even heard what I was saying about my hair, but I mean, it’s not like she butchered it. I can gel it back fine.

It looks like chula and I shared a brain today!

I went to the new asian supermarket in town, to check it out. Seems it’s mostly Korean. Regardless, I bought some ginger, green tea, as well as some of this cool, jam-like tea substance that you put in hot water, which I had in Toronto during my last visit. I also bought my zhu rou and skins to make jiaozi. Finally, I got something from their bakery, “cream bread”, or something, which is basically lightly sweetened rolls with a sort of butter cream on the inside. Yum.

Because the weather was so nice, I had no qualms with also driving out to Kam Sam, so I could buy some more “Lao Gan Ma” brand chili. Basically, I’d promised to buy it for someone, and since it was so warm today, I had no reason to procrastinate. Rolled down the windows, turned up the music, and headed to the store.

Came home this afternoon and made my jiao zi — but I haven’t eaten any yet! Anxious to do so, but then mom called earlier, asking if I wanted to do dinner with kewlnonutz. Can’t turn down Vietnamese, either.

I will have to post my “recipe” for jiao zi later on. It is, by no means, scientific. It’s just observation from watching and prepare ‘em.

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Jiao zi filling

Basically, use all of these ingredients to taste, with pork usually making up the majority of the filling. For reference, I used a little over half a package of pork and, with everything else, it filled 50 wraps just about perfect.

Ingredients
* ground pork (or whatever)
* napa cabbage (although I didn’t use any this time)
* Mushrooms – you can use cremini, but your personal favourite might be better
* Green onion
* 2 tsp ginger, or more if you particularly like it.
* Fresh parsley or cilantro
* 1 egg
* soy sauce (again, I didn’t use any this time)
* splash of wine
* 4(?) Tbsp vegetable oil
* wild pepper – sometimes marketed as “dried pepper shells”

* salt

Directions
* Chop everything (mushrooms, cabbage, green onion, cilantro) very, very tiny. We’re talking pencil eraser-sized bits, here.
* Put all the ingredents, sans the oil and wild pepper, in large bowl, start to mix it up, stirring in one direction only.
* Put the oil in a pan, along with several pinches of wild pepper. Heat the oil, allowing the pepper husks to flavour the oil. Scoop out the husks, throw ‘em away.
* Pour the oil into the mix. Continue to mix, mix, mix, until the texture is consistent.

I ain’t gonna try to explain how to to make the dumplings themselves. If you’ve read this, you probably know how.

B O N U S !

What good are dumplings if you don’t have Dipping Sauce?

Ingredients
* Chinese vinegar (the darker the better)
* soy sauce
* sesame oil
* sugar
* chili sauce
* garlic cloves

Directions
* Chop up the garlic nice and tiny-like.
* Mix everything to taste. A good reference is a 2:1 ratio of vinegar:soy sauce. Add a few drops of sesame oil, a pinch of sugar, and however much chili and garlic that you like. As maybe expected, I recommend the Lao Gan Ma stuff, better than anything else. Hands down. No kidding.

From The New Republic:

Why does so much of the world think the Bush administration has hidden, nefarious motives for its war in Iraq…The responsibility for these misguided, toxic analyses lies mostly with other societies and other governments. But there’s a third reason for the world’s radical distrust of America’s war effort, and, for this, the Bush administration has only itself to blame: It keeps saying things about Iraq that turn out not to be true.

Of course, quoting and linking this article will cause some parties to immediately cast The New Republic aside as a liberal rag, when, in fact, it’s pretty centrist. In fact, it might be argued that, historically, it has been fairly conservative with regards to foreign policy. Regardless – for people who make such rash assumptions, I need not trifle with trying to change minds.

Article below…
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It’s that time of year, when you wake up in the morning and don’t know whether to dress for warm or for cold weather.

There could be worse fates, though, I suppose.

I just repurchased this album last night, after my original CD disappeared along the way. I was first introduced to BNL back in 1993-4, by some Torontonians (strangely enough), during my family’s annual beach trip. I had mentioned TMBG to them, and while they’d not heard of the band, they said it sounded a bit like a band they listened to, Barenaked Ladies. They proceeded to sing a few bars of “If I had $1,000,000″. When I came back home, I found one measly copy of Gordon on the shelf, in cassette. I was immediately hooked. I even started, and eventually gave away, a BNL webpage (which also seems to have fallen by the wayside in someone else’s care).

My interest waned a bit, following the live album, Rock Spectacle, but I’m not really sure why. Maybe it was the BOAPS album, which never did much for me, or maybe I just stopped following them. These days, though, I’ll still watch the segments on TV, if I happen to catch one or all of the guys, while flipping through the channels.

Regardless, Maybe You Should Drive is, still, and probably always will be, my favourite of the albums to which I’ve listened, to any degree. ‘The “Serious” Album’, it was dubbed by fans… it’s true, there aren’t nearly as many funny songs on this one as Gordon, but it’s much more mature.

I listen to this album, and it brings back a lot of memories. Thoughts of the beach; images of Vanessa, the girl on whom I had my first, real (unrequited) crush; memories of trips around Old Town Alexandria; my first feeble attempts to learn to play guitar.

It was warm and sunny outside earlier, near 65F; now it’s raining, and is supposed to get chilly, at least for a day. It makes me think of autumn. For some reason, it all seems to make sense.

In an ominous warning for his son, Mr Bush Sr said that he would have been able to achieve nothing if he had jeopardised future relations by ignoring the UN.

Full article below.
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Politics

Years ago, before the web was hugely interactive, when websites didn’t have much traffic, and when they at least tried to look interested in what their readers thought, I submitted some commentary regarding the very early discussions of US-involvement in the Serb conflict; It managed to make its way on to their feedback page. I forget the whole statement, but it ended with a line saying something to the effect of, “So we think that a few months of US-led military involvement is going to end hundreds of years of ethnic strife? What kind of idealistic notion is this?”

I guess what it all comes down to, is when I saw this, I couldn’t help but wonder, at least initially, how right that statement might have been.

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Nearby Congressional Rep Jim MoronMoran is on the hotseat for his apparent anti-semitic remarks, regarding the war. What’s more, after apologising, he’s pretty much reiterated them. It’s also unfortunate that I can’t say that I haven’t heard similar things from others around here, so perhaps he’s truly representative of his constituency, har-har. He’s been around for a while, though, and while I doubt he’ll be a candidate for the Helms-Thurmond Public Service Longevity Award, I don’t doubt that, despite this gaffe, people will forget about it, and he’ll stay in office for at least a few more terms. That is, unless he gets the Lott Treatment — but he’s just a lowly Representative, not a Senator… not as much meat to skewer.

Entertainment

“I been Phil Spectored, resurrected…” — Paul Simon

Robert Shapiro is predicting that his client, Mr. Phil “Wall of Sound” Spector will be cleared of all charges. Man, and to think it seemed that Shapiro had grown a conscience a while back, when he made statements about having second thoughts, regarding the Simpson case. Oh, and by the way, did you know Spector is a freak? Sure, sure, he did a great job on All Things Must Pass, but that doesn’t cover up the fact that, over the years, plenty of others have noted Spector’s, shall we say, unhealthy interest in guns, including John Lennon (“If you’re going to kill me, Phil, kill me, but don’t f*ck with my ears”), Leonard Cohen, and Dee Dee Ramone.

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Update: “Limp Bizkit now has over 200 guitar parts, written by various artists around here, which are unowned and not copyrighted. Limp Bizkit now owns these riffs.”: Hear those yowls and whining? No, it’s not Fred Durst. It’s hundreds of Limp Bizkit wannabe-replacement guitarists getting the shaft. As far as I’m concerned, though, if you’re dealing with the music industry, that’s something to be expected. And if you’re a Limp Bizkit fan, I daresay you get what you deserve.

Weather
It’s gonna be around 60F here today, and, sans the abberation of nasty weather tomorrow, they’re calling for great weather this weekend, too. Two great weekends in a row? Is Washington working on a karma deficit or something? They’re certainly not producing any of the good kind these days, that’s for sure.

Traffic

This is DC, the traffic here always sucks.

From a post (link probably requires registration) on a Fool.com message board …

THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLICANS

Mine Eyes have seen the bungling of the stumbling moron Bush;
he has blathered all drivel that the neo-cons can push;
he had lost all sight of reason ’cause his head is up his tush;
The Doofus marches on.

I have heard him butcher syntax like a kindergarten fool;
There is warranted suspicion that he never went to school;
Should we fault him for his policies – or is he Cheney’s tool?
His lies are piling on.

Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
The surplus is now gone.

I have seen him slash all taxes on the billionaires’ lone heir;
As he spends another zillion on an aircraft carrier;
Lets the smokestacks keep polluting – do we really need clean air?
His wreckage will live on.

Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
Your safety net is gone!

Now he’s got a mighty hankering to bomb a hapless state;
Though the whole world thinks its reckless – and there’s time to get things straight;
When he doesn’t have the evidence, “We must prevaricate.”
Diplomacy is gone!

Oh, a trumped-up war is excellent; we have no moral bounds;
If the reasons are disputed, we’ll just make up other grounds;
Enraging all the masses – to his brainlessness redounds;
The Doofus marches on!

Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
Glory! Glory! How he’ll Screw Ya’!
THE DOOOO… FUSS … MAR…CHES…ON!