1 February, 2007

Something to think about when you’re feeling homicidal:

1. Everything around you is a weapon. Even that glass of water.
2. Plan ahead to dispose of the corpses.
3. Have a plausible, concrete alibi to work with.
4. Don’t play Unreal Tournament or similar games if you’re bad at them, when you get these urges. They are likely to enrage you further.

If you can’t plan for numbers two or three, then don’t go on a homicidal killing spree.

Something to think about when you’re sharing a network with the family:

• Having access to their computer, and especially their [tag]HOSTS file[/tag] is EXTREMELY vital if you’re the network’s controller.
• Instantly add lads.[tag]myspace[/tag].com to a HOSTS file or to the router’s blocked list. HOSTS file is preferred, since it doesn’t seem obvious to those who are not computer savvy. This has the benefit of blocking the music that plays on MySpace, forcing the family to actually learn about other websites besides MySpace!
• Install every safe anti-spyware and anti-virus measure (eg: [tag]Spybot S&D[/tag] run in Advanced mode to add its custom HOSTS file definitions as well as its IE sanitizer, [tag]SpywareBlaster[/tag] to further innoculate the system, [tag]Avast! Antivirus[/tag] as one free option that is compatible with the newly released [tag]Windows Vista[/tag]) that you can before you allow them to touch the computer. It saves you from having to perform maintenance every four days on the computer.
• Consider a router with a bandwidth throttle. Whenever they manage to annoy you on your network, throttle them down to the speeds a dialup user gets. Classic example of disturbance is singing off-key while on the internet, watching music videos from sites you didn’t add to the HOSTS file.

For once, I’m pretty cranky, and it can’t be helped.

Something that has baffled me, time and time again, is how easy it is for people to buy firearms to ‘protect’ themselves.
Inversely, it’s rare to see someone carrying a Taser, or a canister of pepper spray. This bothers me on many levels, because I do prefer a less violent way to deter any harmful events.

Firearms are problematic because they cause so much hesitation. In my eyes, people do not really want to kill someone if they do not have to, but with a firearm, one misfired round can spell the end of the life of someone who they don’t know. It means that they have killed someone.

Tasers, on the other hand are far less likely to kill someone, and allow for a form of defense that can give a person those crucial minutes between their attack, and hopefully subsequent apprehension of the criminal.

Here’s something to think about:
If you had a gun, and the criminal managed to get it out of your hands, you’re likely to end up being shot with your own weapon.
If you had a taser, and the criminal managed to get it out of your hands, you’re likely to end up being shot with your own weapon.
If you had pepper spray, and the criminal managed to get it out of your hands, you’re likely to end up being sprayed with it.

Of the three, two are generally survivable with no major side effects, and usually very little to no bleeding.
Here’s a hint: It’s not the gun.

What’s terrible about non-lethal security devices is, there are states that ban many types of them.
In Florida, it’s legal to carry devices that have a maximum range of sixteen feet (That’s just one hundred ninety-two inches, folks). Anything over this range is illegal. That’s fine with me. Sixteen feet of pepper spray and electricity ought to work.
In Hawaii, however… Tasers are apparently illegal, from what information I’ve been able to gather.

Maybe Hawaii has such a non-existent crime rate that this might work, but what about the other states that say no?
Why do we make it so easy to exercise the right to bear arms, but only certain arms of their choosing?
It’s pathetically easy to go get a 9mm pistol, and yet it’s harder to get a taser?

Why haven’t we challenged these rules?

[tags]Brick House Security, Tasers, Pepper Spray, Personal Security, Firearms, State Laws[/tags]

I made a comment on the PayPerPost forums recently, mentioning that all the good stuff to watch is all in Japan.

It might be because the rules binding television there aren’t as stupid as they are here in the United States.
For example, here in the states, I extremely doubt that they would ever air some of the comedy shows or game shows they air in Japan. I present one of my favorite examples, Hard Gay.

Here in America, it seems that they are slowly getting over their fear of the word “Gay”, with such (boring) shows as “Queer Eye”, but there’s no real humor in American makeover shows.

Hard Gay is definitely not a makeover show. The content is (mostly) safe enough to be viewed, though there is one questionable shot taken in Hard Gay - Ramen that you can tell was not really meant to be anything.

[video]http://youtube.com/watch?v=igC4bPDp6cU[/video]

There’s also Gaki no Tsukai, which seems to be mostly based on a punishment game. If you laugh at the defined subject (be it a butchered English video, or at Karaoke), you are punished.

I suggest watching.

[video]http://youtube.com/watch?v=jGKj_eYbBkQ[/video]

[tags]Hard Gay, Gaki no Tsukai, YouTube, Humor, Japan, Comedy Shows[/tags]