recent happenings-on
Mood: peaceful
Music: U2 - "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own"
Posted on 2006-06-07 09:10:00
Tags: politics
Words: 453
The Senate votes on the Federal Marriage Amendment today, which will not pass. On NPR on Wednesday, I heard a good series of stories about it, including a fiery speech by Harry Reid (D-NV, Minority Leader in the Senate) decrying the amount of time being spent on it since it has no chance of passing. Update - it failed 49-48, (so only 49 senators voted for it). Only one more person voted for it than in 2004, despite the fact there are 5 more Republicans in the Senate, and the AP calls it an "embarrassing defeat to President Bush". Woohoo!! (and I'll stop updating this post now)
Something I've been forgetting to mention - I got a summons for jury duty! I'm very excited. Unfortunately they have this new online system to sign up, which worked great, but I feel like I missed out on part of the experience. No matter - it's apparently a new system that isn't used many places. Anyway, I'm scheduled to serve sometime in mid-July (I'll find out more details before then)- w00t!
Went to the Round Rock Express game last night with Doug and Lucas - Teresa was supposed to come, but little Timmy had had a long day and was very tired and cranky, so she stayed home with him. We only ended up staying a few innings since Lucas was tired, too, but it was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful night, and it's very relaxing sitting in the grass behind the outfield wall. Also, Lucas was in a very inquisitive mood, but in a cute way, not an annoying one. We had quite the conversation when I was driving him to pick up Doug from Dell :-)
After reading "Baseball Between the Numbers" (a birthday present - thanks, Mom and Dad!), I fired up the old Win Expectancy Finder data to figure out what the expected number of runs in an inning is, given the current situation. Got the data collected, now I just need to write a frontend to it.
So after my bold statement of my goal, getting sound working on my computer was quite easy. For posterity, I have an MSI RD480 Neo2 motherboard, which has an onboard Realtek ALC880. All I had to do was download the Linux drivers, untar and run the install script. Dunno why that didn't work last time, but whatever.
Also, Google announced Google Spreadsheets yesterday. I signed up and got in - if anyone wants to try it out I can let you share my spreadsheet. It looks neat, but I couldn't think of anything to put in a spreadsheet. Also, I finally got my invitation to Google Analytics so I've been playing around with that. Looots of stats available :-)
10 comments
Comment from djedi:
2006-06-07T09:40:44+00:00
Neat. Inquisitive kids can be fun sometimes. They do get more fun as they gain the ability to talk and such.
Comment from fairydust1:
2006-06-07T14:59:30+00:00
thank goodness the bill failed. I am (personally) disgusted that the politicians feel there should be a BILL against this. I don't care what your sexual orientation is - it doesn't reflect on your character as a person. I know more idiot straight people that I care to discuss! *hugs* Sorry, don't want to start a soapbox *grin*.
Glad you had fun at Dell Diamond - sounds like a great evening.
Side note: I'm going to try and update my Google calendar again tonight - have to backup to the memory stick, move the pdb file over, and then sync them, but if that's my biggest worry, we're still in great shape. :)
Comment from fairydust1:
2006-06-07T15:00:09+00:00
um replace BILL with Amendment (blush)
Comment from sanjeev87:
2006-06-07T16:23:02+00:00
oh what the hell ALMOST HALF THE SENATORS thought this crap was worthy of an CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT??
Comment from gregstoll:
2006-06-07T16:26:48+00:00
Gots to appeal to the folks back home, methinks. I have a feeling many of the people who voted for it aren't entirely comfortable with it, but are willing to "sell out" to not get hammered on it. But that could be the "optimist" in me talking :-)
Comment from sanjeev87:
2006-06-07T16:52:47+00:00
But
But
Why do people think this :(
If you don't want gay people to get married, fine. Make a law against it, whatever. BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT THE CONSTITUTION IS FOR
COME ON CITIZENS YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS
Comment from amorphousplasma:
2006-06-07T20:43:22+00:00
I got google spreadsheets too! I'd love to see what you have. I might post a faux financial model, or a model with identifying characteristics removed, just to see how Google Spreadsheets handles it versus Excel.
Comment from gregstoll:
2006-06-08T10:53:41+00:00
Well, I didn't really do anything, I was just seeing if anyone who didn't have access wanted it :-)
Comment from fartingmonkey:
2006-06-08T00:16:44+00:00
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6666637566522776701
I think you will enjoy this as much as I did. (Its a new one)
Comment from gregstoll:
2006-06-08T10:48:26+00:00
That is awesome! I was totally expecting them to do the "wings on my back" thing with the wings on his back, but it's all good.
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