Security has been in the news again lately with the attempted bombing of a Northwest Aircraft as it was about to land at Detroit on Christmas Day. The TSA, following their usual methodology, enacted stricter security requirements and measures at the gate and on the aircraft that defy both reason and logic. What’s worse is that they in now way address the problem or make us safer. They do however make flying that much more uncomfortable. Why do we accept measures using this method of transportation that, if they were done anywhere else, would be decried as hallmarks of a police state?

I read a quote by someone on Twitter (who’s name escapes me or I would gladly provide linkage) that said “the TSA showed once again they are masters of burning the wrong barn down with the horse still inside.”

Come fly the friendly skies. It was this sentiment from United from 1965 to 1996. It’s a good thing they dropped it back then because the skies are anything but friendly today and it has nothing to do with the occasional criminal up to no good on the plane.

That’s my goal and I’m not even waiting until new years to make it.

I never claimed to be a writer, this blog is mostly just a creative outlet for me, and while I have some idea’s floating around in my head I’d like to sit down and write, I’ve never been someone who was good at that sort of thing.  To be honest I read over some of my past material from this and other blogs I’ve written and I sometimes cringe at my style.  I use certain phrases much too often and I’m sure my grammar, punctuation, and spelling leave much to be desired.  I’ve also noticed sometimes I repeat myself inside sentences.  It sounds good in my head but when I go back to read it later it’s all jumbled together and messed up.

But sometimes I just have to talk ya know? Let’s face it, Twitter’s word count limit makes it hard to talk in anything but Haiku sometimes.

I’ve been a huge fan of Ubuntu for several years. While I had dabbled in Linux for various things for years and had run Fedora Core on my home server for a while, I never found a distribution that worked well enough for me to replace Windows with. One day a friend of mine pointed me at Ubuntu then under its 5.04 release. Ubuntu has been my primary OS of choice ever since though I usually have Windows loaded on at least one PC for work and gaming purposes.

My relationship with Ubuntu has not been without it’s bumps however. Earlier versions of the OS were often plagued with hardware compatibility issues. This wasn’t always necessarily Ubuntu’s fault as it seems to be an issue with Linux in general. It has more to do with the hardware manufactures lack of support and documentation for their specifications than anything to do with the OS. Over time, the situation has drastically improved and each version of Ubuntu has been easier to install and use. With the release last month of Ubuntu 9.10, dubbed Karmic Koala, I decided to take the plunge and update my laptop to the new OS.

Just updating word press and installing a new plugin called Bird Feeder that, if this works, will post a link to this entry on my Twitter Feed.

The plan is to start posting regularly.  I’ve been writing up a review of Ubuntu 9.10 and I just need to get some pictures formated for it so I can post it hopefully tomorrow evening when I get home from work.

It’s one of the biggest regrets that I have so far that I never attended college. When I got out of high school me and my parents had a fairly huge falling out and I was not on speaking terms with my mother for a while after that. I tried to apply for financial aid and figured I would have no issues, being dirt poor, on my own, and working a dead end job. It supposed me to learn that in the state of Georgia you are still considered a defendant of your parents, for the purposes of financial aid anyway, until the age of 25 regardless of what your actual dependent status is. I could have gotten loans but back then I was allergic to debt.

One of my best friend, who also happens to be my sister in law, recently started attending Valdosta State University, I have to say I’ve never been as intensely jealous of anyone as I have been to her. As I write this I’m visiting her there and getting a taste of what college life is like. It’s kinda funny how accurate some movies are. It’s so similar to yet so different from high school

I’m also realising though that there are many people here who are as old as me and some still older. My sister tells me, “you should come” and I sit here, I start to think, “Yea….. I should.”

Was bored tonight so I thought I’d create some avatars for my Ubuntu account.  I’m not  a big fan of South Park but I’ve always liked it’s character designs.

Hello!

Welcome to the new home of Spastic Musings.  This is the 2nd incarnation of this website and my 4th personal website overall that I’ve created during my lifetime.  I wanted to update my site that was sorely needing new content and material, I also wanted to merge it with several other things I was doing in my online life, such as Twitter and other websites.  The existing template from my old site wasn’t really up to the task so I started from scratch with a new Wordpress install and a new theme which I will be modifying over the next several weeks to suit my needs.

I also am changing the scope of what I write about.  My old site was mostly US politics and while I used to be fairly interested in that, I find I don’t have much of substance to say anymore.  When I do it’s not really often enough to maintain a site worth of material devoted too it.

The old material isn’t gone.  The new site uses entirely new databases and a separate Wordpress install.  Part of the template modification will include a link to the old site with the old content if you really want to find something old I’ve written.

I also hope to update this site more often with stuff.  There will be some political rants but I’m also going to be writing about some technical stuff, movie reviews, and a bunch of other things.  I hope it will be interesting enough to warrant a few repeat visitors.

Anyway thanks for checking the new site out.