Do Not be in Jail in 2012

Avoid being incarcerated when the zombie apocalypses comes. You're basically fucked if this is the case, because they will leave your ass in there

Would you survive?

Found a quiz online, it's humorous. Bored? Time to kill? Check it out here.

What you should be doing right now

The year 2012 is quickly approaching. If you haven't started active preparation yet, now is the time. What should I be doing this far in advance? you ask yourself. Well, here's the first steps:
1.) Scout out a stronghold. Your zombie fortress should be durable and windowless. Other zombie reference manuals cover what type of fortress you should be seeking, so I will leave that research for you to do on your own.
2.) Go to the gym. No, Seriously. Regular exercise now will build your strength and endurance. Granted this is a little more important if we are talking about fast zombies, rather than slow zombies. But regardless, go to the gym just in case.

Now finally...some Zombie Preparation

Apart from the fact that the title of this blog denotes zombie apocalypse preparation, I have talked very little about that very subject. In fact, I believe this very important topic has been significantly lacking from the discussion of issues here. So without further a due, I present to you some measures to take immediately to ensure your safety, and some thought provoking questions you should be considering in the days to come before the year 2012. Never forget, your input here is welcome, we will never be able to survive the walking undead without using teamwork.

Firstly, it is very important to stock up on non-perishables. I am hereby declaring Chili as the official canned food of the zombie apocalypse. You don’t want to get stuck eating ramen noodles. You will be slowed down by all the sodium; the undead will surely get you. My personal favorite is Hormel’s vegetarian chili. Just because the dead are walking and wish nothing more than to eat our brains, does not mean I have to eat meat. This is why proper preparation is important. I don’t want to worry about weaning myself back onto eating meat when my major concern should be ammo conservation and stronghold fortification.

Now, I’ve noticed lately the cost of this good rising, it’s about $1.70 a can in the grocery store now. This may seem a little frivolous… but remember; you are investing in your future. Chili is the perfect survival food. It’s packed with protein, doesn’t require much more than a simple fire to heat and it’s delicious. Additionally, the Hormel brand now comes in pop-top cans, so you aren’t SOL when your can opener breaks, or is confiscated by some zombies. If anyone knows a way I can buy this “canned entrée” in bulk, I would be very interested. I’ve already tried their website, no help there.

Now, I’m not a big fan of guns at all. But they are completely necessary in nearly any apocalypse scenario. You’re going to want to stockpile guns. All types of guns. And this takes some planning as well. Some things to consider:

1. Guns are expensive; you are going to want to budget yourself. Buy quality firearms, because they are going to get a lot of use.
2. Guns may take time to procure. In this state it is pretty easy to buy a shotgun. But handguns take some planning; you need permits and licensing. You are going to want to have both shotguns and handguns. Maybe even other kinds of guns if you know a lot about guns, I do not.
3. In addition to stockpiling guns, you need to think about stockpiling ammunition. Ammo is cheap; you shouldn’t have a hard time with this one. Simple math will tell you how many bullets you need. Just imagine how many bullets you need given the worst case scenario: every other human is a zombie. Don’t forget to take into consideration your shooting accuracy, and give yourself an extra 10% on top of all that for safety.
4. My friend Brian reminds me of an important element of gun-related preparation; you need to be able to clean the guns. Have cleaning materials for your guns ready, and learn to use them.

In fact, I’m going to go out right now and start learning about gun maintenance.

How to spend $160 a day on your hair

It seemed a little ridiculous for John Edward's to get a $400 haircut or two, but Sarah Palin is really taking the cake on this one. I got curious today after finding this photo series on Digg. She's clearly got a stylist, but it's not publicly known who's putting her in those classy outfits on the campaign trail. I'll admit it; Sarah Palin looks pretty classy most of the time. Turns out that's because the campaign has spent $150,000 on her wardrobe and hair in the past 3 months. Politico broke the story today. I also found this link with a really classy picture of what she looked like before she was named the republican vp nominee.
Turns out the stylist is Gahl Hodges Burt, who had something to do with Nancy Regan in the 80's, and tells Cindy McCain what to wear, too.
Fark: She's got a Facebook.

Abortion in Europe

I was curious about the status of abortions in Europe after reading this article. The quote from the British Financial Times: "The Palin appointment is yet more proof of the way that abortion still dominates American politics." sparked my interest. What exactly are the abortion policies in European countries? Here's the answer: Europe's Abortion Rules.
I think the most interesting is Ireland.

"Ireland has voted five times in the past 20 years on its abortion laws, most recently deciding to continue to allow women to have an abortion if they say they are suicidal - a loophole the government and Catholic Church wanted closed.

Women can have counselling and advice on options, and can leave the country to have the procedure elsewhere - more than 6,000 a year go to the UK for a termination."

I was very pleased with what Obama said about abortion in the debate last night. If you're into fancy stuff like a transcript to read along with your video, and popular opinion graphs, but don't mind your video being little. Try CNN.

Racism

The following is an email that was forwarded to me by a friend.
Typically I would have dismissed that the cause of the differences described is due to racism. But the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that racism is the only cause.
Read the email below, and feel free to leave me your opinion.

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?

…..think about it.

Would the country's collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama: Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden: University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

Vs

John McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study University of Idaho - 2 semesters – journalism Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call

Picnik Zombiefy effects

So I discovered this almost a year ago. But I just remembered it today in relation to this blog.
The photo editing site Picnik has an editing tool called zombieify which allows you to turn the subject of your photo into a zombie. There's also a blood tool, which helps a lot with the zombie effect. Furthermore, I think the site is sort of handy for a lot of reasons. Check it out, and share what you create.

these days

seems like I alter the appearance of the blog more often than I update it.

RNC Protests

Had I the means to attend the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis Saint Paul, I would have gone for the opportunity to protest the event.
Now, the first few days of the RNC were scaled back as Hurricane Gustav approached New Orleans, and threatened to induce Katrina level damage to the city. I was momentarily thankful that I had not attended the protests, thinking that the scaled back convention would have been a waste of a very long trip. I thought nothing more of it, until today when I learned that Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now had been arrested for approaching a policeman outside the convention. Video of the arrest of Amy Goodman and her producer Nicole Salazar are easily obtainable on the internet. Nicole Salazar describes being "stomped" by police while trying to flee the area. Later, Amy Goodman tries to approach police in riot gear to question them about the arrest of her two producers. Both Salazar and Goodman clearly identify themselves as press, and are both displaying their high-ranking press passes, which entitled them entrance to the convention itself.
Descriptions of police actions included the use of rubber bullets, tear gas and concussion grenades. I never heard of a concussion grenade before, so I attempted to research. What I found was this video from Current TV. I have not been able to find a very good definition of a modern concussion grenade.
I am deeply outraged at the numerous civil rights violations perpetrated by the police on this occasion, however this seems to be the mounting trend. Also, I question how the FBI or the Secret Service invading protest groups is anywhere near constitutional. Though I find it amusing the first groups apparently targeted for infiltration appear to be Vegan Organizations.

On a final note, Coverage of the Protest, and the accusations of police brutality have been severely lacking from mainstream media. Protests in general is something, I think mainstream America should be aware of, but is seldom considered newsworthy for the mainstream media.

Is Brilliancy a word?

I'm very amused by these tactics to fight the man.
click links below.
http://www.officeofstrategicinfluence.com/bulkmailer/
http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/spam/

Free Time

So I have enough free time now to actually keep this thing interesting. The question is: what to Blog about? Lots of free time means lots of surfing on the internet, so I'm sure you'll see a lot of that. But for right now I'm doing a lot of reading (as well as a lot of acquiring things for free). So I'm currently very enthralled with something I got out of a pile of "free books" on the side of the road last week.
The book is titled The Time Traveler's Wife, and I discovered yesterday that 'they'(Pit/Aniston ??) appear to be making a move out of it, set to release at the end of this year. However, I'm sure it will be completely sappy and therefore terrible.
But anyway, I can't seem to put the book down. It's adorable and gives me good feelings about the future. I'm lending it to a friend as soon as I'm done reading it. At this rate I'll be done tomorrow. (about half way through right now).

Mosaic Game

Ok, So I stole this from another Blog.

The Game:
First; type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr or Google Search.
Then; using only the first page, pick an image.
Finally; Copy the URLs for the images into this Mosaic Maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (I don't have one)

I used Google search to make one first and then Flickr search to make the one shown here. Flickr had much more colorful pictures.

Scientology

I'm in Layfayette NY, watching a video of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. My boyfriend's brother is doing research for a documentary on cults. I have been made aware of many issues with Scientology that are totally outrageous and infuriating. However, if you're looking for a little light reading, I'd like to draw attention to Operation Snow White and Operation Freakout.
In sum, (just in case Wikipedia changes) Operation Snow White was when Scientology infiltrated the US government in the 70s to steal unfavorable documents about themselves. And Operation Freakout was when they launched a campaign to have an author who printed unfavorable material about them jailed or thrown in a mental institution.
If you have more than a quick moment, I suggest you look into this farther. Their entire system of belief outright offends me.
And that's all I can bare to say about it for now.
'

Students Skip school to save on gas

Skip Wilson (really?) of Ireport.com for CNN reports that students at one college chose to skip class to save on gas.
Good point, but these people are all idiots.
First guy interviewed was studying in his car, and complained that he couldn't turn on the AC because it cost too much. Seriously, take the bus to campus go study in the library.
The bus director at the end is the only one who makes any sense at all. I wonder if these people realize what they're doing wrong.

Campus Cruizers

One of the truly delightful things about my campus is the Campus Cruisers. These are yellow one speed bikes that are put out by the campus cruiser club during the good weather. The club is all student run, and funded through Student Association. They used to be these old bikes but have transformed into a fleet of new one speeds. They are the perfect bikes for this job, back peddle breaks, big tires, cushy seats, one speed. They are durable, and simple so they don't break as easy. The bikes are supposed to remain on campus and be ridden by anyone who's lucky enough to spot one and fight off the competition.
So there is a big problem with people stealing/hording the bikes. Theres only 15 or so of them to begin with, and they rapidly disappear over the weeks. People hide them in thier building or ride them off campus and hide them at their homes. It pretty much ruins it for everyone. I constantly hear people say they want to buy one for them self. So here it is. They cost as much as my 21 speed Trek. I'm afraid to say, I'm sticking with the Trek.
Oh did I mention It weights 37lbs according to their website....

Lauren Bush is Interesting

So turns out George W's niece is a fairly interesting individual. She designed this bag to benefit the UN World Food Program. The bag retails for $60. $34 of this-the cost of feeding one child in a food program around the world for an entire year-will go to the UN WFP program. A pretty worthy cause if you ask me. You can only buy the bag on Amazon. And turns out shes also a model.
Interesting enough I suppose. But am I the only one that finds more than one thing funny about this photo?

This is the best "Glimpse" we get?

This is really cool in a really creepy way. The New York Times has an article today about a book called I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me. The book gives a rare glimpse into where some of the Pentagon's secret budget goes, via specialized military patches. Admittedly, its not a great record for all classified secret military, but it's certainly an entertaining look. Read the article here. Click on More Photos or view the sideshow.
Am I the only one totally creeped out by this?

Woot Rule but I'm not getting my shirt

So Shirt.woot.com is one of my favorite things. If you don't know about it then check it out. They will explain themselves better than I care to.
However, I was under the impression that I had ordered a Shirt.
When I still had not received my shirt today I double checked Woot. They tell me I never ordered a Shirt, and I checked my bank account...no $10 missing to Woot.
Since that was intended to be my first Woot purchase, my request for the actual shirt must have gotten lost somewhere in the registration process.
It's safe to say I am more than a little disappointed. That shirt ruled.

Whiskey Fudge!

Whiskey Fudge. Eric and I are so making this. But first we have to go buy chocolate chips. We haven't decided if we will use Evan Williams out of convenience, or if we're going to buy higher quality whiskey. I'll post pictures of what it looks like when we're done.

Veterans Against the War

Today is the five year anniversary of the US invasion in Iraq. Several protests were held around the state that I heard of including one in Binghamton yesterday that ended in arrests and tear gas. I just listened to today's DemocracyNow. They played testimony of Iraq war veterans testifying this week at the winter soldier hearings in Washington DC. Hearing these stories really knocked me on my ass. I suggest everyone listen to todays Podcast of DemocracyNow,(Lots of clips are available on youtube) or check out the Iraq War Veterans Against the War, or the original Winter Soldier hearings about Vietnam. I really wish more people knew about this stuff, It's so powerful.
The BBC Covered it, but no major American news covered the story that I've seen so far.

What I'm working on right now

Right now I am working on my last big project for Civic Engagement for SA... Earth Day.

Earth Day is April 22nd, and I'm hoping to make it really fun. The plan is to have a showing of Planet Earth along with giveaways of reusable nalgene style water bottles, and tee shirts, probably some free food in there too. But the best part is arguably the two penguin costumes I am getting for volunteers (Schwab) to wear around campus promoting earth day.