…that the bartender at Foxwoods, at 12:15AM on a Sunday night, would not serve me a drink for my birthday?

Oh, it’s your birthday? I’m so sorry… I can’t serve you. The law states that you are not legally allowed to drink until we’ve reopened on the day of your birthday. We’ll be reopening at 10 o’clock.

Like I’m really going to need a rum and coke to get myself out of bed in the morning. Actually, it might’ve helped, although the drive back would’ve been nauseating.

But we had fun. I put $60 into the blackjack tables and walked out with $120, though at one point I’d gone as high as $160. Oh well; chalk it up to the white man’s greed. At least I didn’t give anyone smallpox.

So tomorrow, Monday, I turn 21. That only happens once, right?

This evening we had planned on going to Foxwoods. The moment I turn 21, I’m playing blackjack and sipping a martini. “Turn 21, Play 21″; that should be a marketing slogan. For idiots. And college students. But I repeat myself.

Somehow, because it’s Sunday, it seems people feel content to bail on me at the last minute. “My car’s wheels fell off.” Boo-hoo. Like you can’t just hoof it. I’ve looked at a map before; DC and CT are practically right next to each other. I mean, I know they’re different colors, but that doesn’t really matter, does it?

Or how about the “I’ve got too much work” excuse. What proper college senior turns down a free trip to Foxwoods because he wants to do work? As if I don’t have programming homework due Tuesday, an Algorithms problem set due Wednesday that will take hours to finish, and a paper on the “Stalin Revolution” due Thursday. So cry me a river.

I can’t really blame Natasha and Pina for not celebrating at the stroke of midnight; for them, I’ll be turning 21 at the stroke of 8AM. Besides, from what I’ve been hearing, their trip to St. Petersburg has been eventful enough. I don’t expect them to be taking shots right before French class, just for me.

So tonight, when all you studious types are tucked in (or, depending on time zone, getting out of bed), visions of broken wheels and regression curves dancing through your heads, I’m going to be gambling away my life savings with a drink in each hand. Sweet dreams.

Hans Blix is such a sore loser.

Everyone’s favorite Swede was in the news a lot recently, claiming war with Iraq was unjustified, accusing the US of “questionable honesty”, and even suggesting that Saddam destroyed all WMDs in the 1990s.

One must ask, why exactly does Hans Blix feel compelled to jump into the spotlight now? A man once lauded for his neutrality and fairness now seems ready to start scratching and kicking and pulling at what remains of George W. Bush’s hair. What motivates this man?

Well, he’s pissed off; you would be too, if you were proven irrelevant by the world’s only superpower.
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I really wish Windows Update would give me the option of permanently saying “No” to this ridiculous “Windows Rights Management” patch. From the patch information page:

During machine activation, your computer will be automatically connected via the Internet or by your entity’s proxy server in order to create and save on your computer a system component that is associated with your hardware. The system component is used by the software to allow you to access content that has been protected by the rights-enabled permission features of the software.

Basically, this upgrade means I give companies like Microsoft permission to take away access to the information on my computer. It “grants” me access to rights-managed software and content, which means one day I can open a file, the next day I might not be allowed to.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) poses a dangerous threat to the evolution of technology. When computer users are required to waive access to their own information, the computer goes from being a productivity tool to an interactive television.

This is just the next step in the war against Fair Use and rights of the average consumer. I urge everyone to not install the Windows Rights Management patch, and if you see any content or software which requires it, don’t use it. Show that you won’t sacrifice your property rights for someone else’s profit margins.

I don’t have much faith in the Democratic candidates for President, and the way they’re running their platforms, I don’t have much desire for them either. But the Bush administration has played its politics fairly well, and if an issue I wasn’t particularly fond of comes around to bite George in the ass, I’ll have a good laugh.

In 2002 proponents of protectionist economic policies (along with a trade union or two) were adamant in their support of steel tariffs as high as 30%, claiming they were needed safeguards against an unfair international market. Now, a study sponsored by steel-using industries has concluded that the tariffs — and the higher prices they’ve generated — have cost the US manufacturing sector as many as 200,000 jobs.

Maybe this could serve as a lesson for everyone who claimed that protecting our markets against unfair trade abroad is a goal worth sacrificing the cornerstone values of a free market. It might also teach the Bush administration that sacrificing your ideals for political gain generates more problems than it solves.

Today marks the first “real” release of Crow’s Nest, an Open Source project I worked on over the summer for Adeptra.

The program uses Twisted to form a toolkit that system administrators can use to set up complex and flexible event monitors for networked environments.

It’s also the first Open Source project I’ve been paid for, so I’m particularly enthused at this. If anyone has any interest in using Crow’s Nest, let me know; I’d love to hear what you’re doing with it, and I can probably offer some guidance as well.

I just love the subtle, yet effective, ways in which the media spins the Middle East story. Take, for example, this snippet from the AP:

Palestinian militant groups abandoned a truce last month after Israel killed a Hamas political leader in response to an Aug. 19 Hamas bus bombing that killed 22 people.

The order noted here is that Hamas abandoned a truce after Israel killed a Hamas leader, when the truth is that Hamas abandoned their truce as soon as they bombed that bus. After an attack of such magnitude, Israel could no longer be expected to pretend that the cease-fire was still valid.
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Geeks and linguists are going nuts posting to their blogs a story that words are legible as long as they begin and end with the correct letter; the rset can be smcrabeld hwoeevr you plseae.

I fguierd I wulod jion the exctiemnet.

Aoccdrnig to rsereach at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteres are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Trhee is aslo a wrod scbralemr avlblaiae onnile.