Alright! Here's the final installation of my travel diary, completely unedited and not proof-read yet. Deal with it. Anyhow, I'll endeavor to get around to rewriting the parts that are note-like into something more readable/funny. I couldn't post this in installments because we didn't have any Internet onboard, at least none I wanted to pay for. And it's extremely long. Posts of "tl;dr" will be dealt with extreme prejudice.

( Text so long it's ridiculous. It's not even funny. )

Alright, that's it for London, going on the ship tommorow! Won't be able to update much, if at all, as there is no (affordable) Internet on the ship.

Oh, and despite what Firefox thinks, "fuckton" is a fine, well-spelled word.

Day 4 (Wed)

Went on a tour of Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehendge was interesting, seeing something so absurdly old. Oddly, the inital view you get from the enterance is kinda shitty, but you get the full effect at the end of the path. Also included a few burial mounds next to the site. Long trip, 2-3 hours each way. Just barely missed the solstice. Include "slaughter stone", not actually used for slaughter, but turns red when it rains. Went to the roman baths in bath. Was really interesting, with an exceptionally in-depth audio guide. Included commentary by Bill Bryson. Was originally used by the native Britons for worship, then the Romans came in, switched from the goddess Sulis to Sulis-Minerva, and more worshipping. Added the bath area, which was pretty cool to walk around in. After, the Victorians used the spring for its healing properties. I had a chance to drink the waters of the spring. Tasted like bad tap water, so far to miraculous healing. In fact, feel a cold coming on... After, went to pub for dinner with parents, had my requisite meat pie.

Day 5 (Thu)

Tried to go to the theatres, didn't work. Went to St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. The abbey had a lot of history, with a lot of famous people buried there, including Darwin. Site of coronations. Beautiful building, with amazing cielings. Tendancy to try to see everything almost made me late, same way I was almost late leaving the roman baths. St. Paul's was similarily lovely, much more greco-roman. S=Actually didn't seem that much smaller, but was much less dense than Westminster. Did alow us to clip to upper areas of church, Up a fuckton of stairs. I counted. Had a whispering gallery up there, was neat; whisper along the walls, and people quite far along the wall can still hear you. Next level (more stairs by the fuckton, this time cramped and steep) was an outside view, good look at London. Sadly, the tippy-top was closed for renovations (No doubt accesed by, you guessed it, cramped fucktons of stairs). Crypt had Admiral Nelson in it. Nobody else notable, but there were a *lot* to memorials to the armed forces throughout the cathedral, including a few to American troops. Want to buy one of the famous "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster, I think it suits my outlook. Went to get ice cream *next* to Harrods. *In* Harrods was absurdly expensive, and gelato by the same company was half the price just across the street. Went to find local pubs at night, failed miserably, and just found some bars instead. Realized again that I don't like loud, crowded bars.

Day 6 (Fri)

British Museum. Huge museum, full of stuff. Was suprised it was free, everything else in London we've had to pay absurdly for. Conciously suppresed my desire to look at everything in detail, because that would take days. I was getting kinda museumed out, as nearly everything I've done was a sort of museum. Looked at the dishonor medals exhibit, Egyptian, half of the Greek, clocks, and money exhibits in detail. They have an absurdly flimsy excuse why they still have a good half of the Parthenon, since they more-or-less yoinked it from Greece, and they want it back. Ran through most of the rest of the exhibits,just so I could see it all. Went to Hyde Park, only found one person ranting. Were having concert. Lots of police there, had funny hats. Guys had big, round helmet with a point in the front. Women had kinda a bowler hat.

Day 2

Went to Tower of London and Globe. Tower was a lot of fun, very well done exhibit. They had a special exhibit on one of the Henries, the 8th? Took a tour with the Beefeater, fun tour, good natured tour guide. Saw the crown jewels. Saw a demonstration fo seige weapons. Had not very good greek food. Took a tour of the globe theatre. Interesting, the third globe, first burned down, second shut down and destryed by the puritans. Thatch roof, saw documents back and forth about how had it was to get that approved in London. Saw drum practise for As You Like It, but decided to not actually see that play. Lots of hunger afterwords, eventually sent Sarah to get food, brough back buger and suprisingly tasty chicken pita. Like the ginger beer here, very strong and tastes a lot like ginger.

Day 3

Went to science museum and Harrods. Science museum was a disappointment, went to see Wallace and Grommit exhibit only, but was but on by the British patent office. Too much about the patents, etc. Harrdos was a lot of fun. Saw suits that were far too expensive, arounf 1200 quid. Toy area was the most fun, much less stuffy than the rest of Harrods, with staff members displaying and demonstrating toys. Had a section on bulletproof clothing. Interesting, but far too expensive, much cheaper to just buy a custom-fitted vest. Had afternoon tea with Earl Grey and clotted cream, extrememly tasty. The food courts there are amazing, browsed for a long time, about an hour in the food courts alone. Bought chocolate, ginger and 99%. Went on a pub crawl in Leicester Square. Was a lot of fun, as had a chance to try several different bitters, but being tired makes my alcohol tolerance go way, way down. Only had 3 pints and an order of chips, and I was only just able to head on the tube home without looking too suspicious. Also, tis day and lasts are both written right after getting home from said bar crawl, sdo please excuse and obvious grammatical errors.

Left for plane, afternoon. Was still running late and had to help vacuum upstairs. Finished off last of house food, watched last half of Priness Bride. Plane was very nice, Air New Zealand. Watched 3 movies, Fish Called Wanda, Spinal Tap, [film with stephen fry and hugh laurie]. Last was far too depressing for a comedy movie. Haven't seen the first two in a long while. Tried to watch Pink Panther, but both version were broken. Watched an episode of Flight of the Concordes, interesting show, not sure if I'd watch it regularily. Watch 1.5 episodes of some show about 2 guys touring Britain, brinking booze. Was a lot of fun, will have to watch more, watch the others on ride back home. Food was excellent for airline food, kept feeding us, fattening us up. Offered tea or coffee after every meal. Full bar for free, took advantage of that with a breakfast scotch, although terrible stuff. On-movie games were superlame.

Arrived in London, lots of fun.terminals at Heathrow look very strange, like space station parts or sewage line with windows. Forgot to bring any pounds. Will have to put some on with plently of English cooking. Long terminal, but had moving walkways. Customs was dead easy, just walked through, no one even there. Picked up an Oyster Card, managed to butcher name of Leicester Square (pronouced Lei-ster) managed to not head the famous "Mind the Gap" message when first boarding. No shortage of american restoraunts (sp), Hard Rock Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, Hollywood something. Staying at Clapham. Hotel very near to Tube Station, also right across from Calpham Commons, great big park. Getting used to cars on the wrong side of street, have to look opposite way when crossing street. Lots of Indian food, Clapham seems like it was only just become a neighborhood, the shops all look somewhat new. The indian food is indeed tasty, and ginger beer is damned fine. Went to Tesco's, UK supermarket. Got cash out without any knowledge of how much it cost me, I'll check in morning. Have to try random British food. Longest day of year, missed the awesome Stonehenge festival on solstice, when stones line up. Birthday tommorow.

Intermission (Afternoon Nap)

Hotel is very strange, obviously a converted row house. Far too many doors, and the hallways twist and turn like a rabbit's warren. Went to Leicester square proper. Was a lot of fun, lots of interesting pubs, including one advertising itse;f as having no sports. Will have to try that one out sometime. Stayed light until something like 9:30, felt strange. Just wandered around, taking in the sights. Going to try to head to a few pubs tommorow. Also, seeing Tower of London and Globe Theatre tommorow. Might possibly see "As You Like It"

Hey, since I won't be able to keep up much communication with people stateside (although I do get internet in my hotel in London) I'll keep a general log of what I do. It will first be posted in the "Cliff-notes" version, just a raw dump of my notes so I don't forget anything. Later, I'll update it and make it easier to read. If you are frustrated because I'm not saying something horribly obvious, or I'm not going to the proper attractions, let me know.

I'm bored at work. Tired of debugging this thrice-damned PHP code. So, my politics. I'm writing this because I feel like writing it, some of it is boring personal details, and all of it is blatantly self-centered. Yeah, I probably should put my long, no-doubt rambling, rant under a cut, but NO CUT FOR JOO!

Hrm, history... I dunno when I started getting interested in politics to start with, but I know I only really got active and vocal round about the middle of Bush's first term. I went to a fair number of anti-Iraq protests, never got into any real confrontations with the police there, though it was very close a few times. At that time I was pretty run-of-the-mill liberal. That was also about the time I started Venice High's GSA, but this post is about greater politics than that.

I've met quite a few people with very different viewpoints who I've got a chance to talk to in depth. When I was taking a Japanese class at SMC, I met with and talked quite frequently with a hard-core communist. He had very extreme views, even for me at the time, but I learned a lot. Being in YRUU means you get inundated with liberals. Both my dad and Amy are quite Democratic, while my mom and Sarah seem more reserved about politics, and Sarah holds views that put her outside any mainstream political party. I read a few Ayn Rand books (Decent writer, scarily insane politics) and Heinlein (less insane). I had a lot of chances to debate with Katharine during our relationship, giving me good insight on the very libertarian viewpoint. Hrm, Danielle's dad gave me a lot of fun debate, in particular there is a very extensive debate on this livejournal about nuclear power with him. Hrm, I'm sure there are more, can't think of them offhand.

Now, actual politics, these days. I hold beliefs that don't fit with any political party well, essentially. If I had to describe myself, probably sane libertarian, maybe add constitutionalist on there. So, for social matters, in brief, do what you will as long as you do not infringe on the rights of others. There are limitations, there are always limitations to anyone but the most fanatical political beliefs. However, you should be held responsible for the choices you make, which I hold personally as well as politically. For example, go ahead and shoot up whatever drugs you want, but as soon as you commit a crime, come down on you like a ton of bricks, being high, addicted, drunk is not an excuse.

Economically, I follow the Keynesnian model of economics, largely that a properly regulated free market is the ideal way to have a national economy. Notably, however (and this is largely what differentiates me from other libertarians) regulation is a necessity. A full explanation can and has filled books, but breaking up unfair monopolies for instance. Also, public services are a necessity, for several reasons. Some goods, like roads, water supply, fire, etc., are far, far more efficient and effective when held collectively. Also, capitalism requires an intelligent, well-educated populace, so schools and universities are necessary. Safety nets are also useful, generally in a more limited amount than is offered here and now. People make mistakes, and those mistakes should not doom them, it helps everybody to have these kind of people get back on track and become productive.

Now, these social services require money, and that is eternally the sticking point for people. Who to tax, and in what proportion and amount? Libertarians often progressive tax rates on the wealthy as punished the most productive members of society. (As a side note, the taxes really aren't that bad for the wealthy, long-term investments are not taxed heavily, and rich people often have their wealth in investments) My argument for progressive taxing is simple, you want to tax luxuries. Taxing necessities is impractical, and rich people spend far more of their money proportionally on luxuries than poor people. Hence, progressive income tax rates form a way to effectively tax luxuries. A federal sales tax would work at that more directly, but would have to be graduated. Now, for a few specific points:

Gun Control. This is a position I have changed completely in a relatively short time. I now think guns should be legal to buy and use. Mind you, licensing, wait periods, all good ideas still. Essentially, the gun may enable more violent crimes, but them those crimes should be punished for what they are.

First Amendment: This has always been my personal crusade. No time to get into it now, but I consider first amendment rights to be crucial to the us, and are currently under attack on several fronts.

Nuclear Power: See other discussion on this here livejournal. In short, I think nuclear power is a very viable energy source. The massive construction subsidies need to stop, but it is far better than fossil fueled power, and alternative power cannot get near full power requirements now. France does it well.

GMO Food: Good idea. Conflicted on labeling requirement. More information to the consumer is always good, but DAMN, consumers are military-grade stupid on this issue. It's safe. Unfortunately, the debate is muddied with Monsanto, who is absurdly shady, but GMO is not Monsanto.

Affirmative Action: A bad idea for a great many reasons. Again, no space here to get into it.

Subsidies: Stop them. Damn near all of them. Subsidies are useful only in very specific circumstances, and only temporarily. Notably, massive farming subsidies need to stop. People say this will eliminate family farms and possibly all American farming. OK, go right ahead. If other countries can do it cheaper (some restriction apply, blah blah) then import from them. More money all around!

Meh, there are obviously more issues, and I could expand any of those much, much greater.

Now, as for the election, who to vote for? Well, socially the answer is clear, while Obama is not perfect, he is far, far more permissive on social rights than McCain. However, what about the economy? Plenty of libertarians consistently vote Republican because they agree with them on economic policy. Not so much. Old school, pre voodoo, Republicans may have actually been economic consaervatives, ya know, taxing little, spending little. However, recent republican would be laughable if they weren't destroying the country. Pro Tip, tax a little, spend a lot does not make for a good economy. And the numbers bear this out; by any metric you choose, the economy does better under Democrats, more jobs, better jobs, lower inflation, etc. Additionally, Democrats actually send *less* than Republicans overall, Federal deficits are massively larger under Republicans, even if you take out the financial abortion of Reagan.

So, the choice economically is not between liberalism and conservatism, it's between competence and foolishness. Republicans and Libertarians are deluding themselves if they actually believe that the Republicans are conservative economically. No matter how any times the mantra is spoken the numbers (which I can dig up, or you can too) don't lie. I'll be voting for Obama, even discounting all else, Obama is far more aligned with my views.

Date:	2008-04-01 15:32
Subject:	Awesome
Security:	Public
Mood:	indescribable

The newest version of the GURPS role-playing game have rules and complete effects of having your character eat babies. Awesome.

That is all.

Hey! Another root beer for ya'll! And, no, I've got no plans to write about my personal life. It's been waaaay too long since I updated anything substantial, and I would miss stupidly big and important things were I to post. Reply in a comment with a questions if you wish. Better yet, talk to me on AIM or call me, eh? Anyways, root beer...

Boot Rear Rootbeer

Following the general trend of vaguely manly root beer designs, this oversized bottle has three cowboys on it. Why? Because it's Boor Rear, that's why! Also, puns. Root beer is biiig on puns. Anyways, no to that actually useful stuff. The basic flavor of this particular root beer is sweet, with a strong honey flavor. With that in mind, it makes for a very smooth rootbeer, but one that has to be chilled before drinking it. Warm root beer tend to make sweet flavors syrupy. The flavor is well rounded, again, focusing on the honey taste, with fairly light carbonation. I quite enjoyed it, but I think the large bottle works against it, by the end of the bottle, you've had just a little too much sugar. I prefer my rootbeer with a little more of a "kick" of sorts, not harsh, no, with with something to balance the sweet flavor. This root beer doesn't really have that, but still manages to keep the honey flavor largely under control.

Final Grade: B

Date:	2007-12-24 21:32
Subject:	Holiday gifts and such!
Security:	Public
Mood:	nerdy

Oh, alright, I suppose I can call then Christmas gifts. Even though the only people in my family who aren't atheist are an extremely lax Jew and a former Pagan. 'natch.

( Snipped behind a cut for those of you who don't want to read such a list. )

Date:	2007-11-20 11:05
Subject:	Oh man, remember when...
Security:	Public
Mood:	nostalgic

I was just puttering around the tubes as I am want to do, and came across something that made me so, incredibly nostalgic. The Way Things Work. I remember back when I was a wee kid, reading this book for hours, again and again. It's a wondrous book, explaining a variety of machines with the help of cute little mammoths explaining the concepts. Sounds hokey, but it comes off good. Oh man...

Is there anything of yours that makes you incurable, illogically nostalgic for "the good ole' days", whatever they may be?

Date:	2007-11-04 19:54
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	depressed

Well, that's it then. More than five years, and it was the best five years of my life. I'll miss you, Danielle.

Date:	2007-09-24 17:03
Subject:	Reving up the old rant engine
Security:	Public
Mood:	productive

Here is another one of my famed, overly-long rants about politics. This one is about affirative action and how it eats babies. Cute, cuddly babies. Keep in mind it is a rough draft, and written sort of between being a speech and being an essay.
( Read on at your peril )

Date:	2007-09-05 14:04
Subject:	Facebook purge
Security:	Public
Mood:	annoyed

I am doing a Stalin-esque purge of my Facebook friends, as it shows 150 friends, and I know I'm not friends with that many people. I'm mostly saying this here just in case someone gets deleted who doesn't want to. Basically, my criteria is that I must have talked to you in the past year at least, or was a good friend of before. Specifically, I am deleting most everyone from Venice High and before, from Open People's Party, and from Anacapa 1100s. Just thought you'd like ta' know.

UPDATE: SCA friends are safe, as are current and last year roommates.

My gaming con was fun, details forthcoming when/if I feel like it.

On other news, I forgot my Physics Nalgene bottle while running a games, left $40 worth of brand new games at the con and my bike got stolen over the weekend.

This one so because good answers will be far too detailed to work as a meme. But, I will get to that much later, after I have a chance to expound loquaciously. For an introduction, I've been reading a fair amount of political and economic work recently and have been thinking about idea societies. On particular thing I've seen is that democracy is not a good governmental choice. What it does is ensure mediocrity, with democracy, you will never get excellent societies or leaders, but neither will you get wretched leaders. The main reason for this is that while people may know what they want, the vast majority don't have the skills to make that happen. The idea of a representative democracy is designed to help that, but it is flawed in that candidates are painfully rarely chosen for their abilities in leadership, much more for popularities sake.

So, my ideal society is a meritocratic elitism. In short, this is a society in which the best in various fields are given accordingly higher social status, and that the few best and smartest are given power over the populace. In order for this to work, great efforts must be made to identify talent and cultivate it, while making sure that aristocracy does not evolve. To be absolutely clear, by aristocracy, I mean a class of people who promote their fellows and conserve power among the class, which is against the principles of meritocracy. Certainly there will be the class of people who are the best, and these people will have the power, it just must be maintained that only the best keep power.

Some particular notes about all this: First of all, the single most dismaying trend I have found in democracy and recent United States is anti-elitism. The idea that our leader must be a common man will common skill and tastes is absurd; I demand that my leader be smarter, better skilled, and more elite than I. If they are going to lead me, they had better be! Secondly, the system above, when executed correctly, is more populist than it may originally appear. For instance, for it to work correctly, all people must get excellent initial schooling, at least until it can be conclusively determined who is the best, who will then go to specialized schools. Along these lines, I don't think the trend toward college schooling is a good idea at all; Certainly some disciplines require such advanced training, and those who with to learn for it's own sake should be encouraged, but the vast majority of jobs don't need such training, and I would like to see the return of trade schools in a much larger fashion. It's absurd how many jobs require a college education for no real reason. Specifically, colleges should focus on the more cerebral disciplines, such as the UC system does, while the practical disciplines should be split off into many, smaller, specialized trade schools. Even things like practical medical training, music, computer programming should be split off, as for the most part these disciplines don;t benefit from a broad education near as much as areas like medical research, computer science (Entirely different from programming, despite what universities may think...), or academic research.

Anyways, as for that question I promised waaaay up in paragraph one, if you could institute an ideal society, what would it be? Answer this either with regard to how human nature is, or if you could mold human nature as well (for example, communism works ideally, except that is goes against quite a bit of human nature).

Date:	2007-08-07 10:42
Subject:	yeah....
Security:	Public
Mood:	confused

From the makers of SimCity, the Sims, and other fine simulation products, come SimHealth! Ever wanted to experience health care management in the RAW? Ever dreamed of managing your very own HMO complete with action packed malpractice suits? Then come one, come all, to SimHealth, the world's first, last, and only health care simulation!

Ya know, I really, REALLY wish this product did not exist. But it does. Oh, yes, it does. My god, man, what in the seven layers of hell was Will Wright smoking? ...It must be mine.

Date:	2007-07-25 09:52
Subject:	I haven't had a good rant in a while...
Security:	Public
Mood:	irate

I hate care ethics. I detest care ethics. I loath care ethics. I just wanted to make sure you all have a sufficient idea of the depth of my feelings. But first, a disclaimer; I am not a philosopher, I don't have an extremely in-depth knowledge of all this, most of my knowledge comes from my introduction to ethics class and some putting around on the Internet. However, I am not debating fine minutiae of care ethics; I believe that the fundamental theory is wretchedly evil.

But first, a slight introduction. For those who don't know what care ethics is, it is a system of ethics proposed by feminist writers, inspired by psychologist Carol Gilligan. It emphasizes relationships with regard to ethics, basically stating that the closer your relationship you have with someone, the higher their ethical worth is.

This is a terrible method of deciding what is right and wrong. Not only does it condone base cronyism and nepotism, it states that it is your moral duty! It throws any concept of impartiality or fairness out, and shows no moral worth to those you do not know. It is repugnant that, according to care ethics, a stranger on the street has no moral value. You don't know him, you don't care about him, so it is your moral duty to push the interests of friends and family above them. The rest of us have a name for this kind of behavior; corruption.

I will not deny that this is, in fact, *how* people act, but that should never be the criterion for how people *should* act. By following care ethics, you should act in the best interest of those you like, not those who do good for the world, not the man on the street, not the community as a whole. While my ethics class did not go into great detail on the theories, it was very broad, and I found interesting idea from many branches that should be combined into a good system of ethics. Care ethics represents the antithesis of all that. Feelings and emotions do *not* lead to good ethics, which is not to say that emotions are bad, but if doing what you felt like was the always the right thing to do, there would be no need for ethics at all. My point is that emotions need to be overcome at least sometimes to do the right thing. You need to overcome greed to help feed the homeless, apathy to go volunteer. Not to mention, although a widespread issue, care ethics give no reason *why* this is the right thing to do, which is important when dealing with such metaphysical constructs.

Another issue, not directly related to care ethics at all, but the reason is was created. Those who started the movement were trying to create a "feminist" ethical system, away from the male dominance. While I will not deny that the vast majority of ethical philosophers were men, basing a system around that is worthy or ridicule. Feminine ethical systems are just as ridiculous as masculine ethical system, what manner of genitalia you have has no relevance on what is right or wrong. Saying that this in necessary, is just whining; these people give no reason why it's bad that the previous systems were made by men, nor if they are prejudiced at all. They seem to just do it for the sake of it.

I will admit that my ethical system is quite different than most, but I am not pushing that. Care ethics goes against many beliefs that people hold, from fair trials to charity work. This is not a valid theory, very little can be learned from; perhaps an an example of what people do, and entirely different question from what they ought to do.

Date:	2007-07-09 09:36
Subject:	Hot Chocolate
Security:	Public
Mood:	enthralled

Hmmm, the drink machine invariably deliveres a cupful of liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike hot chocolate. The button says hot chocolate, it looks like hot chocolate, smells like hot chocolate, but tastes utterly peculiar. Almost tangy, without a lick of chocolate flavor. This intrigues me.

Date:	2007-06-12 02:07
Subject:	WAY more physics than you want...
Security:	Public
Mood:	quixotic

( If you click this cut and are a liberal arts major, make an immediate SAN check to avoid gibbering off into pure madness )

Date:	2007-06-12 01:05
Subject:	Route to Chaos: Bad Roleplaying Supplement or Technical Physics Term?
Security:	Public
Mood:	hyper
Music:	Beethoven's Ronda a capriccio

Place your votes here! In other news, I need to study more...