Christoph D. Miller

If your library is not "unsafe," it probably isn't doing its job.
John Berry

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.
Ludwig Börne

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness.
Emo Philips

In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.
Fran Lebowitz

This is a reconstruction of a crash involving a stationary Ford Falcon XT sedan being struck in the driver’s door by another vehicle travelling at 50 km/h.

0 milliseconds - An external object touches the driver’s door.
1 ms - The car’s door pressure sensor detects a pressure wave.
2 ms - An acceleration sensor in the C-pillar behind the rear door also detects a crash event.
2.5 ms - A sensor in the car’s centre detects crash vibrations.
5 ms - Car’s crash computer checks for insignificant crash events, such as a shopping trolley impact or incidental contact. It is still working out the severity of the crash. Door intrusion structure begins to absorb energy.
6.5 ms - Door pressure sensor registers peak pressures.
7 ms - Crash computer confirms a serious crash and calculates its actions.
8 ms - Computer sends a “fire” signal to side airbag. Meanwhile, B-pillar begins to crumple inwards and energy begins to transfer into cross-car load path beneath the occupant.
8.5 ms - Side airbag system fires.
15 ms - Roof begins to absorb part of the impact. Airbag bursts through seat foam and begins to fill.
17 ms - Cross-car load path and structure under rear seat reach maximum load.
Airbag covers occupant’s chest and begins to push the shoulder away from impact zone.
20 ms - Door and B-pillar begin to push on front seat. Airbag begins to push occupant’s chest away from the impact.
27 ms - Impact velocity has halved from 50 km/h to 23.5 km/h. A “pusher block” in the seat moves occupant’s pelvis away from impact zone. Airbag starts controlled deflation.
30 ms - The Falcon has absorbed all crash energy. Airbag remains in place. For a brief moment, occupant experiences maximum force equal to 12 times the force of gravity.
45 ms - Occupant and airbag move together with deforming side structure.
50 ms - Crash computer unlocks car’s doors. Passenger safety cell begins to rebound, pushing doors away from occupant.
70 ms - Airbag continues to deflate. Occupant moves back towards middle of car.
Engineers classify crash as “complete”.
150-300 ms - Occupant becomes aware of collision.

The Internet

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That last line's a killer...

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

World of Warcraft just made me cry.

A fucking video game. Made me cry. Affected me in such a way as to cause uncontrollable tears. Not 'cause I lost the roll for loot, or 'cause someone killed my character. I don't care about that shit, 'cause it doesn't fucking matter, 'cause it's a fucking video game. No, I cried 'cause I just did the first couple bosses in Sunwell Plateau.

I went into the raid with a pug filled with complete fucking noobs and greedy bitches (and maybe half-a-dozen good friends), and we downed Kalecgos & Brutallus with no real difficulty.

I know, it's level 70 content, I shouldn't expect a huge challenge, but it was the hardest fucking raid in BC.

I wanted to see this content when it fucking destroyed people, when it took near-perfect coordination and real skill to complete. Not when a bunch of noobs n' bitches could faceroll their keyboard and down everything.

It pissed me off even more than the way the devs have fucked up Enhancement.

I'm back to that point in my life where it sucks so bad I've stopped giving a shit; apathy's a horrible coping strategy, by the way. I might rather be a cutter, 'cause at least then I might still care. I can't get a job, and when I get a job I can't keep it. Usually because I'm a fuckup. I'll either slack off and coast till I'm canned, or I'll bust my ass, but do it so extremely that I get burnt out on it, or when it's something I really fucking love, like McDonald's or Randle, shit just goes south regardless of how hard I try to make it work. I'm so depressed I don't even really have the motivation to change, because I don't see the point anymore; I always end up right back here.

I'm . . . I was going to say that I'm living a life without purpose, but I don't know if a life without purpose is really living...

That's what I really want out of life, I think. Purpose. Probably a large part of why I was so gung-ho on wanting to join the military, one's purpose is so clearly defined. I don't know how to give a shit without a purpose that really makes sense, and I can't seem to find that in what life I've got.

Oh, and to top it all off, I might have a fucking brain tumor. Which could really explain things, in a way, but I still don't really accept that as an excuse. One thing life's taught me is that it's all a matter of will, of control. One can't control what happens to them, but they can control their thoughts, their feelings, their equal and opposite reactions. "I control my crazy, my crazy doesn't control me."

Such bullshit, really. I want to blame someone, anyone, but me. My father's psycho genes (nature), or my mother's raising (nurture), though they've each got a decent share of both. I want to blame, so that I can believe it's not my fault that I'm still just a fuckup slacker. But it is. "I control my crazy." It's truth if you've got the will to make it, which maybe I just don't.

Life should really come with a reset button. I'd wish for God Mode, but I know what happened to the last guy that got that.

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
Henry Kissinger

Cry over cuts n' stitches not sluts n' bitches.
Unknown

I can take two at once.
Rear Admiral Somadina

I had a dream last night, about an alternate future...
Some great cataclysm had occurred, World War III, or IV, or something...countries had fallen, old nations no longer existed...
Various areas of the world were ruled by a people calling themselves Scadians, who swore allegiance to The Society...
Small towns sprang up everywhere as its advance took over more n' more of the world...
Every man was sworn to someone, in a feudal system like that of the Middle Ages...
Personal disputes were settled with sword n' board in the erics in the center of town...
Nevermind that everyone carried a firearm, because while technology had degenerated a bit after the cataclysm, it had ramped back up later...

And no one knew what the SCA was...because it had happened so long ago...

In the brightest hour
Of my darkest day
I realized
What is wrong with me

Can't get over you
Can't get through to you
It's been a helter-skelter romance from the start

Take these memories
That are haunting me
Of a paper man cut into shreds
By his own pair of scissors
He'll never forgive her
He'll never forgive her

Because days come and go
But my feelings for you are forever
Because days come and go
But my feelings for you are forever

Sitting by a fire
On a lonely night
Hanging over from another good time
With another girl
Little dirty girl
You should listen to this story of her life

You're my heroine
In this moment I'm lonely
Fulfilling my darkest dreams
All these drugs all these women
I'm never forgiving
this broken heart of mine

Because days come and go
But my feelings for you are forever
Because days come and go
But my feelings for you are forever

One last kiss
Before I go
Dry your tears
It is time to let you go

One last kiss (One last kiss)
Before I go (Before I go)
Dry your tears (Dry your tears)
It is time to let you go

Because days come and go
But my feelings for you are forever
Because days come and go
But my feelings for you are forever

One last kiss (One last kiss)
Before I go (Before I go)
Dry your tears (Dry your tears)
It is time to let you go

One last kiss
Before I go
Dry your tears
It is time to let you go

One Last Kiss

Actually, it only takes one drink to get me loaded. Trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or fourteenth.
George Burns

When you say "I wrote a program that crashed Windows", people just stare at you blankly and say "Hey, I got those with the system, for free".
Linus Torvalds

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?"
Quentin Crisp

I'd like to learn a new language: Scottish. It's a mixture of English and alcohol. You drink a pint and end each sentence with 'you bastard.
Sean Meo

Yesterday started out very well. Spelljammer finally got Ony-Attuned and UBRS-Keyed. Only took 77d20h of /played to do it, lol. I was giddy with it. Fifteen minutes later I found out that Ernest Gary Gygax had died the previous day. Someone in /Trade mentioned it, others confirmed it, I checked CNN.com, read the pertinent article, confirming . . . and burst into tears. I cried for half an hour.

There are people that one never meets that have influenced one's life more than most of the people one's actually had the pleasure of meeting. E. Gary was one of those people for me. Not just for engendering within me a love of gaming, because that's a secondary issue. Primarily because, without D&D, I would never have met most of the friends that I have. The friends that have helped me through the stages of adolescence, and into adulthood, that have stood with me against the hordes of life's fears and problems. The friends that have helped me define who I am . . . .

The odd thing is that I'd never given him much thought before. I knew who he was, I knew--on an intellectual level only, I think--his impact on the realm of gaming, I respected him more than most others I'd never met, and I even knew a couple people that knew him around the time of the creation of First Ed, that used to game with him. But if you had told me on Monday that I'd bawl my eyes out upon learning of his death, you would have been laughed off stage.

So a toast! To the Dungeon Master; no other is so deserving of the title; you will be critically missed.

---

The day took a turn for the worse when I broke up with Amy. More on that later, when I've had time to arrange my thoughts.

The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly one you can never have.
Kierkegaard