Working for a living for Scientology ... nope, not so much

Got pointed to a video of Tom Cruise spewing his pseudo-religion of
Scientology. Lovely stuff. Makes me wish I'd never read any science
fiction ever in my life. If it were cheap, I'd have electrodes implanted
in my brain to erase the "engrams" of knowing L Ron "All About the Money"
Hubbard from every braincell in my head, no matter how many die.

I was actually offered the job that Tom Cruise has with Scientology. Not
being a big celebrity with a large cash advance to offer, I'd actually
have to Work for a Living. I'd have been Management -- but since it's a
Church (excuse me while I gag), I might never get paid anything, and if I
didn't work, I could have anything and everything taken away from me.
Ideally. Worst case, well... Seen the movies about Jonestown?

I expect Tommie knows people who do that. I'd have been technically an
employee, however, since it's a Church with a capital Urch, I wouldn't get
paid for anything, and would essentially be a slave. I would be offered,
"free," their mind manipulation cultish stuff, and if it worked, it'd be
"free," and if it didn't work and life as an unpaid cult slave didn't
work, I'd have to pay them for the services they provided that did
absolutely nothing for me.

At the time, I was not only unemployed, I was also essentially homeless.
And I turned them down, because I thought Dianetics was every bit as bad
as L Ron Hubbard's science fiction, and much, much worse. And I've spent
40 years reading good science fiction. L Ron Hubbard's work barely
deserves the name.

Religion? It's not even writing. Dianetics doesn't even rise to the
level of the worst of science fiction -- and what, I'm supposed to
willingly enslave myself to these fans of sucky science fiction, and =pay
them= if everything they said was lies?

Tommy-boy had better have an accountant who has a sharp eye for theives,
and a lawyer who knows how to implement a non compos menti defence in a
civil suit, when they come to take the 25 cents they haven't already
stolen from him.

But I mean that in the nicest possible way. Love the movies, but WTF with
the phony religious crap? What part of accessory before and after the
fact don't you understand? Have you had a non-Scientologist doctor review
your medications? Might not be a bad plan.

Tom, love you dearly, and I hope you pull your head out of your butt
before the episode of "Where Are They Now?" where they show the cardboard
box you're living in at that point.

Unless you're making money as one of these thieving bastards. In which
case, when you get to hell, have the devil ram one up your ass on my
behalf.

In the nicest possible way.

BTW, since I was an Odained Minister of the Church of the Desiderata (See the records of The Church of Universal Life), their offer was kinda beside the point, anyway.

--
Grizzly's Growls
The Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity
Podcast: <http://grizzly.libsyn.com>
Blog: <http://grizzlysgrowls.blogspot.com>

Positive, Negative, and eight out of ten

I was listening to the best and most reputable technical podcast in the
U.K., "Digital Planet," and heard something that boggled my mind.

They were interviewing a technologist and scientist on the cutting edge of
battery technology. They'd apparently come up with a technique to bind
the lithium ions on the negative end of the battery with silicon
nanowires, which will potentially provide 10 times the battery life.
Lovely stuff, all for it.

But he kept referring to the negative end as the "anode," and the positive
end, where they are hoping to also introduce nanowires, as the "cathode."

I don't work at the bleeding edge of technology, so maybe things have
changed. But it seems to me, back in the day, the Cathode was the
negative contact, and the Anode was the positive contact.

And this clever fellow on the bleeding edge of battery technology didn't
know that. And the Digital Planet folks, the best technology podcast in
the U.K., and arguably on the planet, also said nothing.

This made me crazy. I wanted to jump immediately onto the internet and do
this blog post to point out the error.

One little problem.

My laptop battery had gone dead. And I had to find somewhere to plug in
my laptop, so I could post this.

I would very much like that this technology will work, so at any given
moment I can rant incessantly about terminology errors by folks who know
more than I do. But if Anodes are now negative, and Cathodes are now
positive, I guess it wouldn't work with my laptop anyway, right?

Other than that, on a scale of one to ten for worthwhile content, I'd have
to give Digital Planet an eight.

Since When?

Watching (without listening to) the CNN coverage of the Disastrous State
of the Union address by president Beavis. And after having a whole
streamer of Bush's speech content, when they got to the part of the
streamer with Democratic response .... they cut to a commercial.


Which Republican supporter is it that owns CNN, I forget? And what part, looking at the Hearst-Newspaper-style coverage on CNN, did I get wrong??

--
Grizzly's Growls
The Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity
Podcast: <http://grizzly.libsyn.com>
Blog: <http://grizzlysgrowls.blogspot.com>

Kennedys endorse Obama

Got the TV going in the bar here, with CNN on. I see the Kennedys have
endorsed Barack Obama. How nice.

I can see why they'd want to do that. If they don't endorse Obama, no one
will care anymore about the Kennedys in national politics.

Now they have endorsed Obama. And nobody cares about the Kennedys in
national politics. They had two very good national candidates. Both are
dead. They now have one national candidate, Ted Kennedy, who doesn't
entirely suck as per electability. He only mostly sucks.

The Kennedys endorsing Obama is like the descendants of Dave Thomas, or better yet the decendants of the Macdonald brothers,
endorsing the Whopper. Other than two recognizable names in vaguely
similar areas of endeavor, who cares?

--
Grizzly's Growls
The Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity
Podcast: <http://grizzly.libsyn.com>
Blog: <http://grizzlysgrowls.blogspot.com>

Nothing but really bad choices

I just watched three people walk out of a bar.

Two beautiful women, one of them I've been just a bit crazy about for a
while now.

One hairy, drunk-ass guy, much younger than me.

All of them drunk beyond rational thought.

Bets on who's driving?

I have no objection to people making their own stupid-ass choices. Not up
to me what they choose to be stupid about. Say, for example, the young
lady I'm crazy about being in love with the drunk-ass younger guy.

Bets on who dies in the accident-waiting-to-happen, and how many news
reporters comment on how Nobody Did Anything?

It sucks to be me. If I had a plate number, I'd call the cops about a
drunk driver. Except one of the passengers is a local bartender (female),
who will probably be one of the late passengers, and who ought to know
better.

But I can't say anything, because after all, I'm just some guy who...

I'm sure that'll look all noble on her tombstone.

Anyway, I want to ask the name of her boyfriend. You know they ever name the passengers, pending notification of next of kin.

--
Grizzly's Growls
The Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity
Podcast: <http://grizzly.libsyn.com>
Blog: <http://grizzlysgrowls.blogspot.com>

A Modest Proposal

Had a problem with Episode 42, my first attempt at reading a story for my
podcast. Loved doing the show, proud of the way it turned out -- but the
tail end of the file, including the end of the story, got dropped
somewhere. Wasn't at the end of the file anymore, anyway, and I don't
know why.

Since I really and sincerely don't want to re-record the show right now,
too discouraging, I think for the moment I'm going to "fix" the problem by
recording the end of -that- story, along with the next story, in my
upcoming show.

And ya know, I'm really tempted to do that regularly -- record all but the
end of the story, then leave a Cliffhanger, if you will. Tales from the
Brothers' Grimm with cliffhangers? Sounds like a plan to me!

Or not.

--
Grizzly's Growls
The Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity
Podcast: <http://grizzly.libsyn.com>
Blog: <http://grizzlysgrowls.blogspot.com>

And now what?

Okay, got my swell new Samson Zoom H2 recorder. Now I feel like I really
oughta Record Something. Except now I can't think of a darn thing to say.

I'm so intimidated by this thing. Granted, I just got it yesterday. But
I'm scared I'm going to drop it and break it. Or take it somewhere and
lose it. Two hundred dollars worth of fragile electronics. Thousands of
different options. Where do I even start?

And now I know just how bad recording on my laptop sounded. When I record
with this thing, I can clearly hear that high-pitched whine that comes
from the harddrive on my aging laptop. So I don't dare have the thing
running when I'm recording. So I have to crank up my even older laptop,
because it doesn't make as much noise. I think. I haven't tried
recording with this thing when that laptop is running. Maybe that makes a
high-pitched whining, too.

And speaking of whining... <grin>

Anyway, eventually, I'll be recording shows with the Zoom. Once I have
something more to talk about than the Zoom itself.