Thursday, April 30, 2009

Objective ZED ALPHA
I have surmounted the first hurdle; my score on the Jeopardy! online examination (taken in January of this year: wayback machinelink), though still unknown to me, was sufficient for advancement to an in-person appointment. So, I will sojourn to the Windy City at the end of May for another fifty-question examination, an interview, and a mock game. If I conquer each of these tasks, my name will then be entered into a pool for which the next year's worth of contestants will the chosen. The long and short of it is that I have completed successfully the first of three phases of the selection process, but it may yet be a long time coming before I potentially appear as a contestant on Jeopardy!

Nevertheless, to have triumphed over the first stage is so much more gratifying than to have failed. So, three cheers for me. Hip hip! Hooray! Hip hip! Hooray! Hip hip! Hooray!

Spy vs. Spy
According to both President Obama and his booster club in the "objective" press, 100% of America's problems were caused by the previous administration. So how is it our relations with the Russian Federation still are less than pure sunshine and rainbows? Spylink. We've all but endorsed Russia's barbarous efforts to rape* Georgia's sovereignty and carve up its territory, and yet still the Russians bellyache, declaring, "This outrageous action fundamentally contradicts statements by N.A.T.O.'s leadership on its readiness to normalise (sic) ties with Russia." I thought our charlatan president's charm offensive was supposed to heal all wounds?

Whenever I think about the Russians, I am reminded, as I am in so many circumstances, of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and something Weyoun said of the sons and daughters of Romulus: "Romulans. So predictably treacherous." So predictably treacherous, and yet President Obama is willing to scrap out purely defensive missile defense system in exchange for their "cooperation" on Iran's Manhattan Project. The Russians are right to spy on us; every day, we project weakness and naïveté, and they would be acting against their own self-interest if they did not seek to exploit our timorous nature.

*In the traditional sense of the word.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
The London Symphony Orchestra, "Allegro con Brio" (from Ludwig Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Opus 67 "Fate") from (the) London Symphony Orchestra Plays Classical Favourites (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I've always preferred "Suffer your fate" to "Fulfill your destiny." Not that I believe in either fate or destiny, predestination being yet another Protestant heresy.

Mittwoch, 29 April
They Might Be Giants, "Scott Bower" from Cast Your Pod to the Wind (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"Scott Bower, Scott Bower,
My lifestyle determines my death style.
Scott Bower, Scott Bower,
My lifeboat determines my death boat.

Scott Bower, Scott Bower,
My lightsaber determines my Death Star."

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