Vsper

Mornings

2009-03-28T12:18:45Z

Up early got stuff that needed to be done, done. Took some time to sit in the sunshine and drink my coffee. Rare are these moments.

meme snagged from Rayvn

2008-12-23T13:15:28Z

Things you've already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven't done and don't want to - leave in plain font

1. Started your own blog.

2.. Slept under the stars.

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii.

5. Watched a meteor shower.

6. Given more than you can afford to charity.

7. Been to Disneyland/world - Land

8. Climbed a mountain. - sort of no rope just lots of steep trails

9. Held a praying mantis.

10. Sang a solo (in the shower).

11. Bungee jumped.

12. Visited Paris.

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea. not quite sea on a great lake in a very bad storm, not romanitc ..very scary

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.

15. Adopted a child.

16. Had food poisoning.

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.

18. Grown your own vegetables.

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.

20. Slept on an overnight train.

21. Had a pillow fight.

22. Hitchhiked.

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb.

26. Gone skinny dipping.

27. Run a Marathon.

28. Ridden a Gondola in Venice.

29. Seen a total eclipse.

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.

31. Hit a home run.

32. Been on a cruise.

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.

35. Seen an Amish community.

36. Taught yourself a new language.

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.

39. Gone rock climbing.

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David.

41. Sung karaoke.

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.

43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant.

44. Visited Africa.

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.

46. Been transported in an ambulance.

47. Had your portrait painted.

48. Gone deep sea fishing.

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.

52. Kissed in the rain.

53. Played in the mud.

54. Gone to a drive-in theater.

55. Been in a movie.

56. Visited the Great Wall of China.

57. Started a business.

58. Taken a martial arts class.

59. Visited Russia.

60. Served at a soup kitchen.

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies.

62. Gone whale watching.

63. Gotten flowers for no reason.

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving.

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.

67. Bounced a check.

68. Flown in a helicopter.

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.

71. Eaten Caviar.

72. Pieced a quilt.

73. Stood in Times Square.

74. Toured the Everglades.

75. Been fired from a job.

76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London.

77. Broken a bone.

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.

80. Published a book.

81. Visited the Vatican.

82. Bought a brand new car.

83. Walked in Jerusalem.

84. Had your picture in the newspaper.

85. Read the entire Bible.

86. Visited the White House.

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.

88. Had chickenpox.

89. Saved someone’s life.

90. Sat on a jury.

91. Met someone famous.

92. Joined a book club.

93. Lost a loved one.

94. Had a baby.

95. Seen the Alamo in person.

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake.

97. Been involved in a law suit.

98. Owned a cell phone.

99. Been stung by a bee.

Warning Politics Ahead

2008-04-11T01:39:11Z

I have managed to keep my very liberal mouth shut. I will not tell people what to think, just to please think. To Assist in this effort I give you the following links and some places to get good information

Information on candidate and how they help the middle class
McCain
Obama
Clinton

The voting records of those candidates
McCain
Obama
Clinton

Show me the money and I will tell you who influence the candidate. This is links to everyones funding
Huffington Post Money race
Open Secret

Progressive Blogs and links
Eschaton - good political blog
Factcheck - shows everyone who is lying and stretching the truth
Media Matters - watching the watchmen
Big 10 - Who owns the media
Complete 9/11 timeline - this is a bit disturbing, 1000's of documents
Cryptome - all those embarrassing document the government doesn't want you to see
Center for American Progress - excellent place for news
Drudge - more excellent news

Spread these freely, enjoy them. Get people to stop getting their news from CNN and actively boycotting Fox.
Enjoy
- peace
Leigh

PS- if you have some good ones please leave them in your comments

really cute animal pics

2008-04-08T22:40:16Z

Really cute Animal pics

Says it all

Singularity

2008-02-22T02:11:59Z

The other night I was watching TV. It happened to be the new terminator show on fox. They mentioned a singularity, it had been a while since I had heard the term and I began to think about it.

A singularity for those who don’t want to google it is the concept that if machines reach a point where they are smart enough and have the will or reason to do so they will improve themselves at a faster and faster rate till that increase seems almost infinite.

The implications that so many fear is that such a fast rate will not be able to be kept up by is meat bags. The machines will become far superior to us in short order and at some point they will find us as a scourge against the earth and wipe us out.

I find this a kind of interesting concept, most of those looking at it fear the machine and fail to realize that it has already begun but not in the way they think. We are approaching a singularity but not with machines but with biology. We are just on the beginning, but we are getting there.

If you think about it we are machines, very complex little biochemical combustion engines. We are smart enough and motivated enough to improve ourselves. With genetics we have for the first time a much faster way to improve ourselves. Each generation can be built better than the last. Each generation will be a little smarter, healthier, longer living. Each generation will improve the tools to make these changes and will increase the rate of change. We will be reaching a critical point where the last generation will not understand what the next has done. Now in theory I suppose there is a biological limit to just how “perfect” we can be. I don’t think we will go just the biological route however, which will bring us to our next topic transhumanism….next time

Computers as art, not computer art

2008-02-21T11:16:15Z

I found this artist who does steampunk computers as art....Beautiful things. The page is a little slow, it contains a lot of high res photos. Look around the site. The clockwork laptop is my favorite....

www.datamancer.net

I am planning to post some thoughts I have been having lately about singularities, transhumanism and evolution. I am trying to organize my thoughts enough to make it understandable. By putting this here it forces me to do so, because I said I would...enjoy the site

no surprises

2008-01-24T12:16:16Z

Nabbed from jenn

The funny part is I scored above 99% men my age in both catagories

Your Score: Social Liberal

You scored 70% Personal Liberty and 26% Economic Liberty!

A social liberal believes in little to moderate government intervention on personal matters and moderate to high government intervention on economic matters. They tend to be opposed to war, police powers, victimless crimes, and what they may consider to be a corporate state or rogue capitalism. They generally support personal liberty and believe in a social safety net or welfare state. They support self-ownership and privacy. Social liberals are essentially the "mainstream" left and left of center.

Link: The Politics Test written by brainpolice on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(brainpolice)

Blog survey

2008-01-01T22:13:58Z

Stolen from jenn

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child -only as a teenager
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College - worked to get the money to buy it.
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

Interesting I always considered myself very fortunate...I guess it is all prespective
Leigh

vsper @ 2007-11-24T16:42:00

2007-11-24T21:43:36Z

Well making my plans for a herb garden in the new place. I am going to keep it simple this year. The herbs I plan on raising are

Rhodiola
Valerian
Skullcap
Peppermint
Catnip
Chamomile
Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Basil
Dill
Chives

The rhodiola is an amazing plant but it takes five years for them to get to the point they are useful as a medicinal herb. I have the layout of the garden set up but probably will change it a couple of times but that ok, there are a couple of months left before then.

work back to normal

2007-11-09T03:36:48Z

Over the last two and a half months I was on a special project that required me to work a lot of overtime. Even counting the few weekends I got off I averaged about 60 hours a week which is a bit harder with a 10 hour commute. Well most of the craziness of the project is over. While it was very hard work I learned a lot and enjoyed the work.

A interesting side effect of this was I got to work with people I normally don't. It also happens to be appraisal time. Since I worked with these people their management sent me a request for input on their performance. It is funny because for the most part everyone seems to dread this. I actually enjoy it. I think it is because I try to see the best those around me. They are really smart and hard working people. So it was a pleasure writing the evaluations. The funny part is my boss doesn't ask for anyone else's opinion, which is ok because she always gives me a good review anyway

I guess I am just grateful to work with some cool people.

Collateral Damage

2007-10-23T19:43:49Z

Sometimes I let comment slide because frankly I don’t care what the person thinks, or it is not worth acknowledging. There are some people who I value their opinion, but they are a different story. What I find frustrating is when there is collateral damage from personal attacks. This week someone I greatly respect and appreciate was the unfortunate victim of collateral damage based on what I suspect was an attack on me. I know they are hurt by what was said and it is not fair. I won’t mention who it was because they have remained silent on the issue. I would like to apologize to them for that. While I have not said anything, they unfortunately was splattered by crap thrown at me. So let me say I am sorry for what was said and let you know I think you are one of the best people I know, don’t let someone else’s hurtful word’s bother you, they were meant to hurt me.

vsper @ 2007-10-09T22:06:00

2007-10-10T02:31:29Z

Nabbed from Sarah

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users.

Bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand.
I also made the books I've read that I loved bigger!
The numbers after each one are the number of LT users who used the tag of that book.

I also added 2 to the list I recomend

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (149)
Anna Karenina (132)
Crime and Punishment (121)
Catch-22 (118)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (115)
Wuthering Heights (111)
The Silmarillion (105)
Life of Pi: a Novel (95)
The Name of the Rose (91)
Don Quixote (91)
Moby Dick (86)
Ulysses (84)
Madame Bovary (83)
The Odyssey (83)
~~Pride and Prejudice (84)~~
Jane Eyre (80)
A Tale of Two Cities (80)
The Brothers Karamazov (80)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (79) -want to just haven't gotten to it
War and Peace (78)
Vanity Fair (74)
The Time Traveler's Wife (73)
The Iliad (73)
Emma (74)
The Blind Assassin (73)
The Kite Runner (71)
Mrs. Dalloway (70)
Great Expectations (71)
American Gods (69) - Currently Reading
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (67)
Atlas Shrugged (67)
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books (66)
Memoirs of a Geisha (66)
Middlesex (66)
Quicksilver (66)
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West (65)
The Canterbury Tales (65)
The Historian : a novel (63)
A portrait of the artist as a young man (63)
Love in the Time of Cholera (62)
Brave New World (61)
The Fountainhead (61)
Foucault's Pendulum (61)
Middlemarch (61)
Frankenstein (59)
The Count of Monte Cristo (60)
Dracula (59)
A Clockwork Orange (59) the american version, not the english which is different
Anansi Boys (58)
The Once and Future King (58)
The Grapes of Wrath (57)
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel (57)
1984 (57) - was off by 23 years
Angels & Demons (56)
The Inferno (56)
The Satanic Verses (55)
Sense and Sensibility (56)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (55)
Mansfield Park (55)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (55)
To the Lighthouse (54)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles (55)
Oliver Twist (55)
Gulliver's Travels (54)
Les Misérables (53)
The Corrections (53)
The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay (52)
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time (52)
Dune (51)
The Prince (51)
The Sound and the Fury (55)
Angela's Ashes : a memoir (51)
The god of small things (51)
A people's history of the United States : 1492-present (52)
Cryptonomicon (50)
Neverwhere (51)
A Confederacy of Dunces (50)
A short history of nearly everything (50)
Dubliners (50)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (49)
Beloved (50)
Slaughterhouse-five (49)
The Scarlet Letter (49)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (48)
The Mists of Avalon (48)
Oryx and Crake : a novel (47)
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed (47) - also from the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel
Cloud atlas (47)
The confusion (46)
Lolita (46)
Persuasion (46)
Northanger abbey (46)
The Catcher in the Rye (47)
On the road (47)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (45)
Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything (45)
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance : an inquiry into values (45)
The Aeneid (45)
Watership Down (44)
Gravity's rainbow (44)
The Hobbit (45)
In cold blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences (44)
White teeth (44)
Treasure Island (45)
David Copperfield (45)
The Three Musketeers (45)

My additions to the list
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Tao Te Ching

vsper @ 2007-09-10T21:20:00

2007-09-11T01:31:48Z

Rayvn...this one is for you...

housecats

on the theme of cute cats
Leigh

nerdie

2007-09-01T01:51:13Z

A sign I am way too much a geek

vsper @ 2007-05-20T10:17:00

2007-05-20T14:19:37Z

You scored as We All Come From the Goddess. We all come from the Goddess
and to her we shall return
like a drop of rain
flowing to the ocean.

- Z Budapest

Hoof and horn, hoof and horn
All that dies shall be reborn
Corn and grain, corn and grain
All that falls shall rise again

- Ian Corrigan

</td>

We All Come From the Goddess

100%

Kore Chant

83%

"The Burning Times"

83%

Earth My Body

83%

"John Barleycorn"

83%

Isis Astarte

67%

"Samhain Chant"

67%

"Hecate,Cerridwen"

67%

"The Ocean is the Beginning of the Earth"

33%

What Pagan Chant Best suites you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Spring is here

2007-04-15T21:50:51Z

Ah it is spring once again there are some obvious signs. The office politics have shifted to overdrive and someone decided it would be fun to put me next to the office ultra conservative/ fascist. My last day of school is tomorrow, Yay! We actually began actually looking at houses.

With school ending I am hoping to have more free time. The whole full time school, full time work thing has me a bit tired. I thinking of taking a year off before going for the PhD.

We looked at our first house yesterday. In retrospect it was pretty sad. It was a great location but other than having a bad roof, foundation and water problems would have been a fine pick for someone who wouldn't mind taking five years and 60k to fix it. So the quest for housing moves on.

Hopefully with a little more time I can post and read more
vsper

Shiney!

2007-02-08T23:46:47Z

You scored as Shepherd Derrial Book. The Preacher. Out here, folks need a minister, if only to remind them that God hasn't forgotten them. It isn't about making them worship, it is teaching them to do right by themselves and other people. Why is that so hard for some to understand?

</td>

The Operative

88%

Capt. Mal Reynolds

88%

Shepherd Derrial Book

88%

River Tam

75%

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne

63%

Simon Tam

63%

Zoe Alleyne Washburne

63%

Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee) Frye

50%

Jayne Cobb

44%

Inara Serra

38%

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Just too funny

2007-01-27T15:25:55Z

Your results:
You are Apocalypse

Apocalypse		85%
Magneto		76%
Dr. Doom		70%
Juggernaut		62%
Green Goblin		62%
Lex Luthor		58%
The Joker		57%
Poison Ivy		57%
Dark Phoenix		56%
Mr. Freeze		54%
Venom		53%
Riddler		50%
Catwoman		48%
Kingpin		47%
Mystique		42%
Two-Face		34%

You believe in survival of the fittest and you believe that you are the fittest.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

vsper @ 2007-01-16T19:04:00

2007-01-17T00:04:27Z

Went to Kennedy space center today. I had always thought astronauts were incredibly brave, but after seeing the size of some of the early capsules I think brave isn't quite strong enough, perhaps crazy is more accurate. I am having a great time and thank god for spf55. Look forward to my own bed though.
Leigh

First leg of the journal

2007-01-11T00:52:33Z

Well the first day of driving went well. Basically I am sitting in a hotel in Statesville NC. One lesson learned is that apparently Virgina has not mastered indoor plumbing. All of their rest stops have porta-potties. So much for the modern age.

Tomarrow I will see some relatives I haven't seen in a while and am looking forward to it. Liz's uncle apparently lives right next to Kenedy space center. I hope that we can get a tour there. As a child I always wanted to be a astronaut, now I obviously will never be one but I can always take the tour and wonder what if....
Leigh

Vacation

2007-01-09T18:41:44Z

It has been a while since I have posted..

I am going to be on a vacation for almost two weeks. I always look at vacation with some trepidation. The problem being there is always so much to do that often I find myself more tired then when I started.

We will be seeing lots of relatives on both sides and that will be cool. It will b my first time to florida, and tomorrow with wind chill it is suppose to be 18 degrees. Out of town in the nick of time. The 40 some odd hours of driving is not something to look forward to but you do what you have too
Leigh

vsper @ 2006-12-17T21:17:00

2006-12-18T02:18:03Z

I couldn't resist....

My pirate name is:

Iron Morty Rackham

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

vsper @ 2006-11-16T22:58:00

2006-11-17T02:58:46Z

Huh...I would have thought the fool...

You are The Hierophant

Divine Wisdom. Manifestation. Explanation. Teaching.

All things relating to education, patience, help from superiors.The Hierophant is often considered to be a Guardian Angel.

The Hierophant's purpose is to bring the spiritual down to Earth. Where the High Priestess between her two pillars deals with realms beyond this Earth, the Hierophant (or High Priest) deals with worldly problems. He is well suited to do this because he strives to create harmony and peace in the midst of a crisis. The Hierophant's only problem is that he can be stubborn and hidebound. At his best, he is wise and soothing, at his worst, he is an unbending traditionalist.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

accents

2006-11-14T12:51:13Z

Stole this from Shen

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Inland North
The South
The Midland
The Northeast
North Central
Boston
The West
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Its kind of curious how far I live from philly and that I have not been there that much. I do like cheese steaks though
vsper

Dream Messages

2006-11-10T12:40:44Z

I had a dream last night. Not anything mystical, very plain but I think there was a message in it for me. I was in a doctors office and I was explaining how I am tired down to the bottom of my soul. They ran a lot of tests which were those silly dream test that don't make sense. The doctor came back and wrote me a prescription. I looked at it and all it said was one word "sleep".

I hate when my subconscious tells me what I already know. School will be over in a little over 5 months, just have to suck it up till then.
vsper