The Unstoppable Rantings of Anton Bairloch

New Site is Up!

bairloch — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:22:14 +0000

Change your links, bookmarks, etc. to antonbairloch.com

:update: don’t change them yet. don’t quite have the hang of things. damn thing is running really shitty.

weee….

Under Construction

bairloch — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 05:51:45 +0000

Started work on the new site. It is located, logically, at antonbairloch.com

Right now its just a page that sends you here. But as I learn more, it will be more. In the meantime, this site will remain. Enjoy.

Yes, that’s a “tweet”.

bairloch — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 02:31:37 +0000

I’m hoping it will help with work. Don’t ask.

bairloch — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 02:30:20 +0000

Coded a website in HTML. It was crap, but it worked.—
Anton Bairloch (@bairloch) November 12, 2010

Shock value vs News value

bairloch — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:44:03 +0000

So its my second to last day in this caustic place. Thank the fluffy bunny that it’s almost over.

This morning I got a police report saying a guy broke up with his girlfriend via facebook. She got pissed and came over to his house and beat up his new girlfriend. Apparently this warrants news coverage according to the bunch of moronic children I work with.

There’s a big difference between news value and shock value. News value means that the viewer is better off after they have seen the story. They, in some way, benefit from the experience.

Shock value means they will simply respond. Some sort of “wow” or “Lookit that!” or “No she didn’t!” reaction. Unintelligent, knee-jerk response.

Yesterday there was another blown chance. The judges story I so obviously mentioned below. An intelligent follow-up would be to find out what kind of precedent this sets in Iowa. What kind of an impact losing half its justices will have on the state’s Supreme Court.

But instead, we focused on “What do gay marriage supporters/opponents think of the vote?” Well what the hell do you think their reaction will be? Supporters hate it, opponents love it. Done. No thought required. No intelligence necessary.

It is not a journalists job to entertain you with the bad behavior of the lowest dregs of our society. Its our job to enlighten and inform. We have abandoned that responsibility. It’s up to you to turn your back on us until we realize how badly we’ve screwed up. If you keep lapping it up, we’ll keep giving it to you because it pays the bills (horrible behavior, I know, but we’re run by for-profit assholes). So it’s up to you to take a stand.

Hurry the hell up.

To the rest of you

bairloch — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:20:44 +0000

People have spoken

“Compromise!” they claimed to need

Empty words, blind sheep

Congratulations Jackass

bairloch — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:12:09 +0000

Yes, you, Bob Vander Plaats. Congratulations on setting a dangerous precedent. Congratulations on politicizing our judiciary and making money control the third house of Iowa government. The potential was always in the system, but you proved that money can buy anything.

The sad thing is, you don’t even realize the damage you’ve done. You think this is a victory. You think you’ve done something good. When really, you’ve pushed us closer to the edge. Way to go Bob. I hope someday the truth hits you, and you cry yourself to sleep.

But I’m not holding my breath.

Is it a basic freedom to punch stupid people?

bairloch — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:35:02 +0000

Here in Iowa, the state supreme court threw out the law that marriage is only between a man and woman, based on the concept that it takes away a basic freedom (happiness, etc.) of a certain part of the population.
In Iowa, judges are appointed, but every few years they go up for “retention elections”.
Now, there’s a bunch of bigots out there trying to get people to vote these judges out (the three of them up for retention this cycle). They say its to stop judges from “legislating from the bench”, though we all know their real reasons. But unfortunately their fake reason is bullshit too.
They claim the judges have to follow “the will of the people”. Are they really that stupid? Do they really think that’s a judges job? I’m not sure. Some of them, maybe. The rest are just using that as a crappy cover for their real, bigoted reasons.
I’m just so fucking sick of these bigots trying to use all this bullshit to cover their real agenda. And having to give them airtime is even worse. Its like giving them credence. I hate it. I want to beat the shit out of these people.

Now, for my friends here that don’t believe in gay marriage, I’m fine with that. You are allowed to believe what you believe. Just be honest about it. Don’t ruin another person’s life, like these judges, just to get what you want. They followed the rules, did their jobs, they should not be punished for it.

Ouch

bairloch — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 23:56:05 +0000

So I’ve been trying carving to ease my yearning. I got the instructions to carve the above ornament (a beginner project I found here http://littleshavers.com/Index.html), not my first choice but the project best suited to what I had available. So far I’ve cut myself 3 times that needed bandaids. But I’m moving along. Hopefully I’ll finish before I need stitches.

Hobby Hunting

bairloch — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 03:31:48 +0000

need inspiration

build something, create, invent

confused and frozen

So, I’m looking for a hobby, maybe even more of a craft. My wife, ScrapJam, crochets and… well… everything. She’s amazingly crafty. Me? I waste time. I’ve got my video games, but y’know I just want to have accomplished something when I’m done.

Tried woodworking, I really enjoyed it but I’ve lost my garage and I can’t use a router (not that kind Uileat) indoors. That would be bad.

I want something I can do in the house, I mean, this is Iowa, half the year is winter. Something that won’t make a mess, but I could hopefully give as gifts or something when its done. Like I could (but never did) with my woodworking.

The wife thinks I should take up crochet, like her. It would seem to satisfy all the requirements, but I just can’t get interested in it. None of the fabric or fiber arts hold any appeal. Too bad, because they’d do the trick.

I’ve seen a lot of web posts saying things like model making and photography and collecting and whatever. Computer programming could be cool, but I’ve got no experience and it would be a long time before I could accomplish something. Besides, how could I give away a program as gifts? Not gonna work. Nothing is quite right. I want to build, create, invent… but I don’t have much in the way of skills.

Now I’m just rambling, this is frustrating.