neurological dryer lint

mmmm. garlic alfredo chicken and pasta with sauteed mushrooms tonight. there is literally no better smell on the planet than mushrooms cooking in red wine. if they made a perfume out of that scent, i'd buy a crate for renee. she opted out of the alfredo & mushrooms. i'll get her eating them any day now, i promise...

finished up house season 1. this is not a show you can watch one after the other for more than two or three episodes, because they kind of run together. there's not enough variety in the plot - granted, it's not smallville-esque where they're veritable clones of each other... it's interesting how well-written all of the characters are. they're not (all) two-dimensional, predictable, etc. their relationships play out very creatively. it's rare for non-HBO stuff, really.

how come we don't get any protests in cincinnati? there are half a million people demonstrating against an immigration bill in LA, and kids protesting a labor bill in france. well, i guess we did have that one riot, but that was cause the cop shot the kid. things haven't improved much there, either.

geez. france is in bad shape:

From official figures, over 80 percent of French young between the ages of 20 and 25 would qualify as below the poverty level, if not for parental assistance. And many receive no such help. There are now 600,000 people under the age of 30 who qualify as "poor" or "extremely poor," which means an income of less than $120 a month. For the first time in French history, those over the age of 60 now have a higher share of national income than those under the age of 30.

The national unemployment level is just over 10 percent. But for those under 25, it is 22 percent, and for the children of immigrants, 46 percent, and for those without professional qualifications 40 percent. The level of illiteracy among the young has grown to 16 percent.

i guess if i was facing that kind of economic gap, i'd freak out too. objectively i think it wouldn't accomplish much, although it did get the government to stand up and take notice (and roll out the riot cops).

how does a group of people get so frustrated and outraged and scared that they blow up into a riot? i confess that, were i in the middle of such a group, probably wouldn't hesitate to join in throwing bottles and rocks at the symbols of authority with the big plexiglass shields and sticks and teargas.

truthfully, i think i've wanted my whole life to riot about something. it means something affects you so much that you kind of go savage. something about that is intoxicating, that raw release of emotion. it's probably a good thing i was born into a suburb of a conservative city. although i guess we could riot about rumpke's expansion or something.

hey i'm getting published. specifically, my boss mike and i authored an article for the information systems security association (issa) journal on using a vulnerability scoring system called CVSS. assuming they accept it. it's a good thing mike did some serious editing - bullfighter says that i love to hear myself write - a fairly accurate diagnosis.