Ten Minutes Old: The Israeli tanks have crossed over into Palestinian areas, near "Area A" engaging forces in the area, and destroying a military post. Other units have crossed into the Tulkarm and Bitunia regions "moments ago", and are attacking PA police HQs in the area. There are reports of heavy gunfire in the Ramallah area as well.

This could be it, boys and girls, the Egyptians did threaten to send in the 3rd Army into Sinai (in violation of the treaty and in open warfare) if the Israelis moved against the Palestinians in force. Sounds like Sharon just called Egyptian President Mubarak's bluff.

Blue technician needs caffeine, badly.

Tired. Bored. Too out of it to rant. Maybe later this evening.

And now, the news that really should be in the tabloids, but isn't.

RABID KITTEN STRIKES DOWN SEVEN AT MARYLAND THEME PARK!
Yes, that's right. Rabid twelve week old kitten bites seven people, sending them to the hospital for treatment for rabies. The kitten itself was destroyed, having been far past the point of saving with treatment. Anyone who went to the Frontier Park Western in Ocean City ought to get checked.

PERUVIAN BOBS HIS BALLS IN WAGE PROTEST!
Yes, it's true. Peruvian worker Eduardo Veliz decided to knock off his knob over not being able to see the President and discuss the paltry wage he makes. He should be happy, last year he severed his slimjim because he didn't even have a job, and wasn't allowed to meet with a Congress leader to complain about being jobless. It was reattached, though there is no word yet over his new ignominious injury. Perhaps, when he gets the bill, he'll hack off the head and end the silly self-mutilation?

Tomorrow will be good. More Angry Rants fermenting.

Ray Pezzoli was enjoying a lunch in Vietnam, about as well as one could be enjoyed there. While eating, he had noticed several unarmed Vietnamese hide in a grove some thousand yards off, being pursued by US troops. The pursuit was halted in fear of an ambush, but the decision was made to watch the area. A short while later, a crack from the treeline arrived almost simultaneously with the wet splat of a bullet hitting the mud at his feet. Pezzoli dived backwards over the rock he was sitting on, returned fire (uselessly) with the M16 he had, and called for support on the company frequency. He was offered an airstrike, and took it - almost immediately a Huey Cobra comes up over the hill, sporting 2 12-round rocket pods and twin 7.62mm gatling guns. The Cobra takes one shot, adjusts its aim a bit, and unloads the remaining ordinance into the area the shots were coming from. Quoting Pezzoli:

After the smoke cleared, I noticed all the vegetation in that spot was completely dissolved; every single thing was completely obliterated. The only thing added was a big black hole in the vegetation.

"Good shooting, guys! I guarantee you got them. I'm so sure of this I'm not even going out there to confirm it. Go back to your base and clean that magnificent piece of equipment, I might need to use it again."

Ragabash, found the gold foil cards, they're in the top drawer of the cabinet. Erzoffinator knows it's okay to dig for them, and he knows where they are.

Whee, slow day. More on Windows Disgusting later - the good news, it's built up off of NT/2000 - so it won't be entirely wonderfully buggy as, say Win2K and Windows: M(alfunction) E(dition).

Go ask a criminal which targets they prefer - ones that can't fight back or ones that might be able to.

Icy rock well past Pluto takes new title as largest minor planet in the solar system, measuring 1200 kilometers in diameter. It's way out past the planetary orbits, apparently in the cometary halo 43 AU (4 billion miles) away from the sun. The new rock (yet unnamed, soon to change I would imagine) is just a touch bigger than Pluto's moon, Charon, and apparently now Pluto is no longer considered to be a true planet, but a Kuiper Belt Object, like the new one.

Well well well! The war continues between the software giants - remember how Hewlett Packard was part of the anti-M$ cabal? And how AOL, HP, and (trash)Compaq(tor) were exploring options as far out as countering Gates' dominance with new operating systems? Hewlett Packard releases Linux distribution for corporate users on Monday. It's targeted primarily at businesses (with a three thousand dollar price tag) but apparently is prized for its extreme security. It runs with the Linux 2.4 kernel and Red Hat 7.1, and includes Apache Web Server, Amanda backup utility, various configuration and security tools, and full install/integrate support. Security is the big thing going on with this one right now, and depending on how the corporates go, this might be the start of the main challenge to M$ dominance - keep an ear out for a personal version, if you see one the war's in full swing.

And yes, Windows XP is out now, and it's bloody expensive. I saw it at Office Dipwad the other day, for 400 bucks for the "professional" version, and 250 for the home user version. This is really putting the $ in M$...even if the actual ceremonies haven't started according to The Reg, it's on the shelves now. Heaven help us all.

Fae-chan, hai. There's still some stage-setting left, but the clocks are ticking.

YEDIOT AHARONOT ON-LINE reported that exchanges of fire took place overnight near Beit Haggai and Hebron in the West Bank and dozens of grenades were thrown at an Israeli Defense Forces outpost near Rafiah in the Gaza Strip. An explosive device was also detonated near Netzarim. In addition, Palestinians fired a mortar shell into Israel from the Gaza Strip. In response, the IDF attacked a Palestinian police station in Gaza.

According to IDF RADIO, three terrorists in the process of planting a bomb were identified on the Shave Shomron road. IDF soldiers fired at the terrorists, killing two of them and wounding the third that escaped to PA-controlled territory. Two hours later, another armed Palestinian cell arrived in the area. Several cell members were killed in the gun battle. At the scene, IDF soldiers found a bomb and an electrical cable.

In another incident, security guards at the Karni checkpoint, located in Gaza, seized 10,000 nine-millimeter bullets being smuggled into Gaza from the West Bank on Monday. The shipment was found hidden in a truck driven by a resident of eastern Jerusalem. The driver and another Palestinian in the truck were both detained.

And the Israeli military has made a major incursion into the Pallie-held areas, injuring three Pallies and destroying two buildings that the Israelis claim attacks were launched on their citizens from. They have since left, but not before getting into a firefight on extraction.

And, more just recieved from King Solomon brings up some interesting info I'm going to look up verification on tomorrow - Chinese leader Jiang Zemin is getting chummy with Arafat, and has invited him to Beijing. Arafat has also traveled to India and Pakistan, ostensibly to turn public opinion back to a more favorable light, and I'd suspect to find bigger nations to stand against Israel in an all out war.

Anyone want to think about prior prophecies of all-out war with Israel and "kings from the east", or do we not want to go to those books of the Bible?

Whoever thought of the idea of random-skins to random-songs in winamp...well, seeing a super-cheerful Tomoyo skin come up on The Scotsman...was wrong. Especially holding the videocamera. "Oh, lad, I don't know where ya been, but I see ya won first prize!" A Folken skin to "He got the wrong foot amputated" was also quite wrong. And...W2, you're Christian?

Whee. Soon to come, a real set of pages on the basics of shooting. And gun reviews, plus also my own little Gundam site.

...MegaHAL would suddenly make perfect sense.

You know me, I'm all for ripping the word HOW out of those questions and then answering no to all of them.

Alright, imoutos, N&M, and Gen-chan, I'll be on before 10PM pacific time. Have good news for you all. Catsy, you be on too.

Both imoutos: E-mail me or BE ONLINE tonight - need to discuss stuff with you. N&M & Gen-chan too, AIM or e-mail.

Attention to anyone involved with programming, especially for error codes - GENERAL ERROR CODES ARE A BAD THING. Technical Support will have all kinds of fun trying to figure out what you were too lazy to sort out. And, it's not that bloody hard to compile a list of the actual error codes - you wrote them, you know what they apply to, it's not like they're randomly generated - so give us the list, whole, complete, and we can do OUR jobs without trying to figure out a) what the user did and b) what the programmer was thinking (assuming the last is true).

Bouncing back a month or so, you all remember those allegations (that were never proven) that Dubya was a cocaine addict? Well, you notice that the charges died pretty fast, and noone's made mention of them since. Well, gee, if the president was a crackhead, shouldn't that be investigated? Shouldn't we be concerned about the Man In Office?

Maybe we should be concerned about the source. James Howard Hatfield, the man who created this "exposé" on the President, offed himself in a Springdale, AR hotel room. His claim was that the elder Bush covered up an arrest of his son for cocaine posession in Houston. His book, Fortunate Son was what really began all the fun with the Democrat allegations. However, the publishing house St. Martin's Press pulled the book completely after it was found out that the author, the reputable, upstanding Mr. Hatfield, public whistle-blower, was actually a felon and prison parolee - who was sentenced in 1988 to 15 years in prison for solicitation of capital murder. Namely, hiring a hitman to bomb his coworker's car. And, SINCE that conviction, he's also done time for embezzlement. And, since his past was discovered, all allegations have been dropped about Bush being a crackhead. Justice always comes in His time, ne Fae-chan?

Interesting, the Russians seem to be mad at the Japanese over something and just don't have time to meet on defense talks. Not a terribly good sign - NO government functionary is 100% booked up, time meeting with government officials is given to friendly nations or refused from people who...aren't desired. So I wonder what Russia's pissed about.

A little related news from Taiwan...first off, the jobless rate is way up to 4.92% after factory shutdowns and recent college graduates in the labor pool. This is the highest it's been since the government started keeping track in 1978. And, confounding the issue, Taiwan is opening trade with China - but China doesn't want to deal with the "renegade province" and is refusing to meet. And a lot of Taiwanese aren't big on the idea, closer ties to a neighbor threatening invasion and domination really seem to bother them for some unthinkable reason.

Even with one of the largest gay & lesbian communities in Sydney, Australia refuses to honor gay marriages.

And...Ashlea, don't get rid of Winamp. Slave it to MegaHAL and see what the hell happens. (hell may be the exact word, if you do, but like all attempts to summon the Devil, it ought to be interesting) And, umm, Technomancy Sucks because MegaHAL has not been fed Evangelion yet? I dare you to, with the aforementioned possible results.

44 governors pushing to have the moratorium on ISP taxes extended past the October date. So far, there are no taxes on internet access per se, just applicable sales taxes on the items bought online. I wonder how long or if the ban will be extended...

Fae, an excellent quote, yes. Now, we do need to sit down and chat - can you call me some night and I'll return it? Or else meet me online monday/tuesday?

Thanks to the Mighty Catsy...I might have a real live domain. No more pitas. REAL articles and such. More layout fun for certain people to be begged to.

Slow night. Ah well. And, everyone go check out the artwork over at The Station, imouto1's page.

And, W2, hee. I want a MegaHAL. And I promise Spent Casings won't suck starting tomorrow night, once I get all sorts of fun things taken care of here.

Ever notice that whenever the government gets something wrong, it's up to you to prove it, even if they refuse to listen to you or read your legal documentation? And then make you a criminal because you aren't following the law, even though you are? I so hate the Nevada DMV right now, and if you all are reading this - BITE ME! I did pay my insurance, you have records of it, now get off my damn back. And I'm calling you AGAIN tomorrow.

And The Reg has a blown router in London again, it would seem.

Taiwan steps into the fray over history with Japan at a meeting with Japanese scholars. After telling them that war was wrong and that history must be objective and actually print the facts, he said "There is only one real face of history and by all means there is only one objective truth". Good quote.

Seeing as how Samurai Jack is quite popular here the Japanese appear to be curious as well. Looks interesting, too bad I work when it's on. Ah well. Other than N&Ms' foaming fangirlishness, any thoughts on the show?

D, you're welcome. ^_^ I love Trade Wars. That game so ruled, especially once you found the little pocket of 6 or 7 sectors, mined the hell out of it, and set up your own planets/space stations. Now how do I get my own MegaHAL?

Kristi, hope all becomes well soon...

And NATO deploys mmmmore troops to Macedonia, putting all 3500 British troops in the area that the Mac rebels wanted to surrender to. Wonder how long the "peacekeepers" are going to be there.

And on the physics front, a rather large number of "strange" quarks were created at the Brookhurst Atom Smasher. Some 30-40 were detected, and this may start giving enough data to clean up more of the physics models of the universe, and possibly locate actual matter created BY strange quarks, mostly within neutron stars and quasars.

Now the Palestinians are complaining that they are poor and have no money and that living conditions have deteriorated so much in the last 10 months. NO SH*T. You go shoot at the people who give you jobs and a place to live, blow up their families and friends, and expect to keep your damn job? Sure, early on, Arafat's Intifada uprising against the Jews wsan't a problem, people saved up. But now all their money is gone, Arafat is still whipping the Palestinians to near-war with the Israelis, and guess what? The people are broke. And they aren't working because when the rebellion started, the Israelis fired the Palestinians - or else they were blocked by the Israeli military from getting to their jobs, or even by the Pallie authority. So Arafat's little rebellion got his unemployment rate from 10% to over 50% and is starving his own people. Meanwhile, he flies all over the damn place and meets with Arab leaders and dresses pretty and I'm SURE gets enough to eat.

Y'know, Israel could score a major coup with this. While Arafat's away, send in trucks with food into the Palestinian areas, and feed the poor people - and make sure that they know the Israelis are the ones coming to save them, not the guy who got them into that situation. Turn public opinion AGAINST Arafat, and remove him and the terrorist groups from power. Should the Pallies violently reject the idea, well, Israel has done all it can and for the good of its own country will no longer deal with the Palestinians except as POWs.

Ladies and gentlemen...Technomancy. A group of bored women who do scare me deeply yet still amuse me greatly. By far one of the best sites out there for sheer content fun.

Stylewise, let's look at his gameplan. Now, he seems to like to get in close - the victims were all beaten or stabbed to death, the police aren't giving much information out. However, our boy is also playing games with the cops, and is leaving messages as to where to find the dead 3 year old as well. He seems to be pretty confident, now can he break the police lines and slip away into obscurity? Or will he get tackled just short of the goal line, and thrown into the penalty box?

What, you don't like that it sounds like a football game? Sure looks that way in the media. This guy gets as much attention as Jerry Rice or Dan Marino, for slaughtering 6 or 7 people, depending on your religious beliefs. A little suggestion to the media - enough with the shock-value story. Try this: Man Wanted For Six Murders - He looks like THIS (picture). He is armed and dangerous. If you see him report to the police. Don't give us his life story, don't give us all the stories behind the victims, or else you just glamorize it and turn a heinous mass-murderer into a low-yield TV icon. Anyone remember Charlie Manson?

Everyone pray now, come on...O chubby mother, let me rubba your belly...let me rubba your belly...

In the meantime, umm, I will still try to at least check blogs. Pammy, you have too much time on your hands. :p Go play more games.

Yes, trip to Aztlan was good. Kidnapped imouto, drove over most of LA, nearly got into 4 accidents in one day (a personal best), and hit the Shrine Auditorium sci-fi con and Mandarake. Mandarake was both a letdown and a big success - letdown because none of the specific things I was hunting for were there. Success because I scored much happy fun toys, and found much more availible (but lack of cash sucks). They have a ton of Clamp stuff there - X artbooks, MKR artbooks, MKR toys, etc. I need about 500 bucks to get All That I Want from that place. They also have 3 7' bookcases FULL of various doujins, plus more scattered about in the baskets on the floor and counters. Didn't make it to Little Tokyo because imouto got called into work that afternoon (not planned) and the traffic was insane, and she got us lost. (note: you do NOT take the 110 to the 101 to get to the Alameda exit.) And Toytropolis in Alhambra was closed on Sunday as well, darnit. So no massive pile of plushies to convert to Tickle Me dolls (yet).

The Loot: Fushigi no Umi no Nadia soundtrack volume 2, Gundam Mechanics Vol II (with 1-X to be ordered later today, this is COOL), Cowboy Bebop Characters Collection, The Art Of The Princess Mononoke, and a cute little desktop sitter thing. Gold-foil X character collector cards and a 2001 X mini-calendar for Ragabash, and aforementioned HE artbook and Other Toy for Sakura. Would have picked up more Gundam stuff but ran out of cash. Sakura, Icchan dame, no HE doujins in the store at all, but they will order them and contact me when they find them.

And as for LA, there aren't too many places where you can see a nice, big, juicy, tasty, sizzling sirloin steak with the caption of "Beef: It's what's rotting in your colon." on a giant billboard in the middle of the city. And, yes, it was sponsored by PETA (who else). I do so love these people, they make my life fun and interesting.

System is still down, so I'm checking blogs and such when I can, and don't have access to AIM or ICQ. SIGH. Jelouise, if you see this, tomorrow evening at the Hilton is still on. CALL ME.