Wednesday 30 August 2006 at 1:11 pm
Source
Fox News' Ratings Take a Nosedive
TVNewser | Posted Tuesday August 29, 2006 at 05:12 PM
Somewhere, Keith Olbermann is sticking pins in a Bill O'Reilly voodoo doll: Fox News' ratings, TVNewser reports, are down since August of last year. Like, way down. Like down 28 percent in primetime among all viewers, down 20 percent in primetime in the "money demo" (viewers aged 25-54) and down 7 percent in daytime viewership overall. In fact, the only place Fox is up is during the day, when they managed a ratings increase of just 2 percent, and even then only in the money demo.
And lest you think this is an industry-wide trend, consider this: over the same time period, CNN and MSNBC are up. CNN's up 35 percent during the day -- 46 percent in the money demo -- and up 21 percent in primetime overall, 25 percent in the money demo. MSNBC's ratings increases aren't quite as impressive -- up 6 percent in primetime overall, 8 percent in the money demo, and up 36 percent in the money demo during the day, 26 percent overall.
We, of course, are Fair and Balanced here, so there won't be any celebrating later tonight. Certainly we will not be opening any champagne. That would be wrong.
- Alex Koppelman
Tuesday 29 August 2006 at 3:14 pm
What is OpenID?
How would you like it if one username could be your entire online identity. There is no need to have different logins at different sites with different password requirements. Or even having to make a new account just to leave one comment, post, or to view a picture. The OpenID website can explain it much better.
Anyways, right now I'm developing OpenID login capabilities for the Pivot blogging software, which this site runs on. Its a wonderful attempt for me to learn more PHP as well. Right now I'm running a test entry here. Everything runs smoothly up to the point the OpenID server returns the user back to this site, in which case the index page shows. Development thread is here.
Sunday 27 August 2006 at 9:49 pm
Forest Grove School District offered me a job this Friday as a part time special education teaching assistant. The reason why I turned them and a perfect chance to live closer to Derek down is because it is official: I am officially moving forward with my plan to go to graduate school. Due to a vacation to Disneyland in September it will be near impossible to obtain a temporary job at this point in time. When I return I plan to look for some short term work to save money in preparation for moving out assisted by wonderful student loans. But I will be going back to school to not only obtain my teaching license, but a Masters degree as well.
Sunday 27 August 2006 at 9:49 pm
To rehash my experience in the dorm at Western Oregon University: I learned that I was an anti-social loser. My short stay by myself this summer that violated my personal promise to be more social only reinforced that outlook. After staying with Derek for the weekend with his apartment mates I realized how incredibly jealous I am of his social situation. Do not get me wrong; I have friends, but I do not spend enough time with them nor are they in any cohesive group.
My solution? Either find un-official student housing and see if I can force myself to break my habit, or find nice friendly people to be house mates with. Can I break the habit?
Wednesday 23 August 2006 at 8:04 pm
I swear the Universe hates me
First of all I am happy to announce that I’ve been officially declared emotionally happy and psychologically normal (I question the latter, anyone who enjoys peanut butter and banana should not be considered normal) by a mental health professional.
The second element is the real reason why the Universe hates me. My job hunting over the summer landed me a fair number of interviews but no employment offers. After my interview today, which I regarded as a decent interview but definitely not my best, I looked into the Masters of Science Teaching program here at Portland State University. While I knew this program did not offer the teaching license certificate, like that the Graduate Teacher Education Program, it was something I was interested in as it was a formal Masters Degree.
After inquiring in the department about what it entails I found out an interesting tidbit of information. Due to additional funds coming in the MoST program will offer teacher certification. Not only will I be able to obtain my teaching license but I will have a formal Masters degree as well. The department is also much smaller than the School of Education so there is more financial aid and work opportunities available. While MoST is 9 terms compared to the GTEP’s 5, I feel that the program would cater to my specific career goals much better in addition to a formal degree (which includes a Thesis, defending it, possibilities of working on actual research projects, and my own desk in my own or shared office!).
A few hours after I decided this I had not one but TWO job offers sitting in my email box. It is a tough choice indeed, and I don’t have much time to figure it all out.
Saturday 19 August 2006 at 9:49 pm
Today's ceremonies sealed my graduation from Portland State University. In all reality I graduated last spring, but I chose to attend the summer commencement as it tends to be much shorter than the the 4 hour extravaganza known as spring commencements at the Memorial Coliseum. Its also outside in the South Park Blocks. I expected to be by myself but I ran into two people I went to high school with. Catching up was rather nice and it kept me from being bored. Summer commencement was held out in the south park blocks and the farmers market was bustling with activity next to us.
The ceremonies itself was delightfully short. Dan Bernstine, the president of PSU, came out for the usual graduation speech and said something tot he effect of this: "Today is going to get to about 90 degrees. Now I can either give a speech that I prepared that none of you remembered, or you can just give me the ovation for the speech right now." All 600ish graduating students and the onlooking family members stood and delivered a standing ovation. Start to end commencements lasted an hour. My maternal grandparents went with us last minute. Grandma's health isn't what it use to be but she is just beside herself. I don't think she expected to live to see the day of me graduating from college.
My family made a large ordeal of the whole thing -- I am the first grandchild to graduate from college. To me graduation in and of itself is anti-climatic as I will be returning to graduate school in a couple of years. There is no sense of completion for me. The other half of it all is that there is no sense of accomplishment. Going to college has been drilled into me for my entire life. Graduating is just a natural progression in my life ? there is nothing special to it at all. Receiving my teaching license will be fantastic event as that will be the key to open the door to my dreams.
Tuesday 15 August 2006 at 3:21 pm
Shaking your fist is an excellent way to project your anger to your object of your current scorn. In informing my recently returned from
tour friend Ruth via AIM that I saw
Serenity in theater this summer she shook her fist at me, however she is a few blocks away and her fist shaking was off a bit too west. The result is a scientific study on the properties of of Fist Shaking Wave (FSW). The transcript is as follows.
Me: would you hate me if i told you i got to see it in theaters again this summer?
Ruth: oooooo JEALOUS!!!!!!!!
Ruth: however im completely incapable of hating you
Me: hehe
Ruth: so i must resort to sshaking my fist in yhour general direction
Me: well i am almost due north of you at the moment
Ruth: youre at psu right now correct?
Me: aye
Ruth: yup
Ruth: shakingmy fist
Ruth: actually i started out shaking a bit too far to the right
Ruth: so it might take you a while to reach my waves of attempted anger
Ruth: thatmade more sense in my head...
Me: well the earth is round and an imperfict sphere, assuming fist shaking waves are affected by gravity
Me: i can't believe i just went there
Ruth: hahaha
Ruth: oh but you did
Ruth: but were not even 1mile apart
Ruth: so regardless of gravity they should reach you
Ruth: actually hopefully gravity will be in effect since the shaking waves would have to travel down 4 stories...
Ruth: .......................
Ruth: my god
Ruth: im giggly and discussing htephysics of shaking waves
Me: assuming the waves emminate in a hemisphere they should hit me
Ruth: EXCELLENT
Ruth: how fast do they travel>
Me: i suppose it would depend on the medium
Ruth: air/walls
Ruth: and potentially pedestrians
Me: collateral damage
Ruth: precisely
Me: and according to quantum mechanics there is a particle associated as well
Me: what should we name it? we have photons, electrons, gravatrons...
Ruth: hahahaha
Ruth: hmmmmmmmmm
Ruth: angertrons?
Me: fistatrons?
Ruth: YES!!!
Ruth: and we can call the medium its spreads through the fistratronator!
Ruth: that or the source
Ruth: either way
Ruth: there must be a fristronator involved
Me: lol
Me: well the particle is the medium the wave goes in.... yah the effect of fist shaking is the fistronator
Ruth: alright excellent
Ruth: weve got it all figured out
Me: except avergae speed in air
Ruth: hmmmmmmm
Ruth: that ones tricky
Me: considering no one has died yet from fist shaking (except for fisting, but thats something alltogether different) it must move very slow, or doesn't interact with normal matter
Ruth: jajajajaja
Ruth: and by ja
Ruth: i of course mean ha
Ruth: or har
Ruth: depending
Me: lo
Me: l
Ruth: lets see.....
Ruth: so about the equivelant pace of an opossom?
Me: We should do more testing.
So while we failed to determine an accurate speed in the atmosphere, we hope to have our initial results published in
Nature by the end of the year.
Tuesday 15 August 2006 at 12:53 am
This summer I had a chance to get
myself established. I'm taking a year off school. I got to
apartment sit for Jamey while he was on
tour. I searched for
jobs, but apparently in the wrong places and I didn't sell myself
well enough. After my student job runs out I will be unemployed and
living with my parents with a piece of paper proclaiming that I am in
debt and is totally useless outside of the academic world. This
attempt to finally establish me as a functional adult has failed.
Saturday 12 August 2006 at 11:15 am
The things us geeks find on the internet!
There are three pages of these, I only wish they were of higher resolution to make posters out of them. Next step is to find Babylon 5 ons, although I suppose they wouldn't be as funny as B5 wasn't so.... toung in cheek. Doctor Who might be a good example, there is well of 30 years of that series to select stuff from!
Tuesday 08 August 2006 at 2:40 pm
This is a man made birth defect. What you are seeing is the result of the use of depleted uranium in the ammunition and bombs used by the United States in the Middle East since the first Gulf War and is still being used in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is basically dumping toxic nuclear waste into the area.
Watch many more pictures of what depleted uranion can do and read a LOT more about it. Go read it. Go see it. You need to know whats going on.
Thank you Marco for letting me know.
Monday 07 August 2006 at 7:33 pm
I seriously botched my interview today. Major botch. Give an elephant laxatives, stick a plug up them for a week, then watch the effect of it being taken out. That's how bad I botched it. I also didn't get the job at the school district. So, obviously, I feel like shit right now. In a day or two I'll collect myself back together and continue job hunting. Bleh.
Thursday 03 August 2006 at 3:21 pm
I have been stressing out
all summer trying to find a job. I'm graduated with a degree useless
outside of academia (until I get my masters in education) and I really
want to stay out on my own and not move back into my parents. I'm ready
to have my life be my own. I'm sure a lot of you can relate.
Anyways, two people called to schedule interviews, one with an IT
department of an architecture firm downtown and another with comcast cable (hey,
if i get it its free cable and internet for me!). Yesterday I had an
interview with a school district to work with ESL students on reading
for 20 hours a week. Today is a very good day.
Thursday 03 August 2006 at 10:14 am
I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?
So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy.
But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by. So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."
Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.
Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.
Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.
Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.
Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.
