they should be focusing on reducing portion sizes and increasing exercise, not keying in on specific sources. but, they won't do that because they're lost in these right-wing ideas about human nature.

i'm not joking. it's not that the doctors and public health experts can't work out a basic conservation law, namely energy stored = energy consumed - energy spent. i mean, we're not doing nuclear reactions at the cellular level, here. it's not happening at speeds approaching the speed of light. there's no relativistic effects; the simple newtonian conservation law is plenty accurate. they know that. they passed grade 10 science.

but, they're convinced that there's essentially nothing that can be done to control for gluttony.

so, instead of telling people that it's ok to eat a double bacon cheeseburger if it's compensated for with exercise and reduced intake elsewhere, they tell people to stuff their faces with celery.

if it worked, we'd be reducing obesity levels, right? it doesn't work - because their understanding of human nature is all wrong.

we need to teach people how to budget their calories in a way that allows them to adjust their impulsive behaviour with long term planning. people are not going to stuff their face with celery all day, they're going to eat that double bacon cheeseburger. but, because the health professionals are telling them to eat celery, they don't know how to do this responsibly.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-food-guide-chanages-healthy-eating-1.4170245

see, i don't even want to call this a religiously-motivated terror attack.

i want to call it an episode by a psychotic person.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/muslim-community-in-michigan-condemns-despicable-knife-attack-1.4172691

rather than search for windows 7 machines, i should be able to just tell them to forget about the os, right? it'll probably save me a few dollars, actually.

i should put this aside for the moment and worry about doing a bit of editing, instead. next week...

i'll be able to get the laptop that i want for $500. 8 gb expandable is fine for now; if i ever need to upgrade it, i can.

there's no use in wasting money on unnecessary frills. it's just an access point. it's just meant to type with. it's better spent on other things...

it's not that my desktop needs an upgrade. it can take a 64 bit OS. it can take 16 gb of ram. it's currently running 32 bit xp and has to for hardware reasons, but it has a huge amount of room to grow.

it's just...

...when's the next time i'll get the chance?

one thing at a time: i need a new access point. i've already had to reboot this thing three times due to the usb freezing and taking the mouse out.

should i actually take the opportunity to buy a new desktop?

what i'm replacing is my typing pc. and, how did i even get to this point?

well, i initially had my 90s desktop for this purpose, but i ended up homeless, and i switched to my laptop, which was the only machine i had at all. i've been using the laptop in my bed ever since.

...but it was initially supposed to be the old machine that i used for this reason.

nowadays, i'm using it as an access point, for the reason that i know that my connection is monitored and i want to keep my data off the network.

what i'm thinking is that i've learned that laptops are much harder to service and prone to breaking in ways that desktops aren't. i'm a little bit apprehensive about buying another one.

i do want to have a laptop that i can take from a to b, but i can use the vista laptop for that reason.

as an access point, i don't need a really heavy duty laptop. i just need a sufficient amount of space and enough ram to stop firefox from crashing.

i should do this one thing at a time. but, i'm probably going to buy a large amount of inexpensive gear rather than a top of the line new machine. it's just going to get me what i actually want, better.

first thing is the access point, and if i can get more for less with a desktop then i should do that, instead.

no.

i'll get a standalone device for the tablet.

i want to avoid touchscreens altogether.

what i'm looking for is the best windows 7 laptop computer i can find.

i'm not seeing any upside to 10, at all.

i think i'll stick with 7...

in fact, i even have extra keys for it.

can i get a laptop with a pen input? i've been wanting that forever. it's not just the math, it's the music, too. i don't need or want a touchscreen, i want to be able to scrawl in equations and notation in real time and have it convert it into math fonts. i know a lot of the technology is about text-to-speech, but what i really want is to write, not to talk.

i'm a nerd. sorry.

with the amount of cash she's given me, i'd might as well up everything to the max, but the key thing i want is lots of ram. i think the processors nowadays are all ridiculous. and, i'll be happy with a few hundred gb of actual space, given that i'm moving the editing off to a different machine.

"is $5000 enough?"

thanks, nana.

i'm actually going to put that money to good use. i'm counter-intuitive: the more money you give me, the more responsible i am about it. and, i have a number of projects to deal with. this is going to take a while and will be the focus of the rest of the summer, but things will be better when it gets done.

1) i need a new hard drive for my media/tv pc. i'm not yet ready to retire it altogether. this will be very cheap, if i can even find an ide drive at all.
2) my 90s laptop is still humming, with no reasons to mod it.
3) but i should fix up my vista laptop, which might mean upgrading past vista, to start with. i want to eventually convert this into a music processor. it will need a new hard drive, a new dvd and 2 gb of ram. that should be around $100.
4) my windows 7 laptop will, in fact, be converted into an editing station. i'm going to get at least 4 gb of ram for it. that's actually good enough for now, beyond getting some better software.
5) i'm going to get some kind of phone so that she can call me. i'll have to research this. it may be an ip phone, or may be an unlocked smart phone.
6) i'm going to finally get my strat fixed.
7) i'm also going to look into a starter tablet. i mean a tablet, specifically: a device i can write onto with a pen. remember, kids: i have a math degree.
8) i'm going to get a new primary laptop, for sure. i'm mostly going to be focusing on a machine with high ram capabilities. i need to do a huge amount of research into this, as well. how bad is windows 10? should i stick with 7? i'm ok with 7. should i even finally focus on linux? and, no, i do not want a mac.
9) i should also get my bicycle fixed.
10) anything remaining can be reasonably focused on furniture.

$5000 is a ridiculous sum, for me. it's probably 5x what i need. but, i'll take my good fortune with the proper responsibility and make sure i put it to good use.

i need to do a lot of research...

how does don pittis remain employed? this is characteristic junk from him. he's reading the official unemployment rate, rather than the real one, which is still over 10%. removing workers from the market because they can't find a job doesn't mean that there's a deficit of them, it actually means that there's a tremendous surplus of them. in the current economy, you would actually expect that the pressures on wages would be downwards, which is what we're seeing.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/inflation-canada-outlook-1.4167888

the other thing that happened yesterday is an escalation with the property owners over how to deal with removing cat feces from my window. they put some soil there, and the cats have been attracted to it. they don't want me to remove the soil, but i cannot have cat shit wafting through the screen. so, i appear to be headed back towards litigation. i'm going to be more quiet, this time, until it goes through, other than to say that it is the same basic legal question.

so, i got everything up and running only it for to crash on contact with the internet. i remain convinced that us intelligence is annoyingly concerned with me...i vlog....i'm an open book....this is stupid...

nonetheless, it seems to be what is.

i slept through a chkdsk yesterday morning, and it appears to have largely resolved the situation. i hope. i then slept a lot this morning, as well.

so, the laptop has the screen removed - like, unscrewed. it's just the bottom. it's out to a monitor. i haven't set up a mic yet. everything works except a usb in, but i sort of expected that, too (the ribbon won't stay in).

do i call my grandmother and telll her? now, i want a new laptop :\.

i should be honest.

as i'm concerned about cia interference, i'll be falling offline in the next few hours, after i do little research on some things. this machine will render 5x times faster. i'll be back up in no time.

i don't want to make it seem like i'm taking this lightly.

but, this is the capital city of one of the most barbaric regimes that the world has seen since the second world war. when the numbers are counted, isis is going to have a special place in infamy for it's near genocide on a dozen ethnic groups, and soulless persecution of everything to the left of genghis khan.

...and, the reality is that the civilians in the region supported this.

there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see cities getting bombed. all i can say is, go on and bleed, but it is more important to keep this kind of barbarism at check than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of real justice.

this is the right choice.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-us-is-destroying-raqqa-in-order-to-save-it-and-civilians-be-damned