The Republic of T.

It sounds like a recreational activity. And, for a sadist or a sociopath, maybe it is. But this is what it looks like. Take a good look, because this is what we do now. And not everyone we do it to is a terrorist.

In this position, what would you do to end this situation? What would you say, what would you admit to — truthful or not — in order to be able to sit up and draw an unimpeded breath again? Supposedly, this treatment won’t cause organ failure, impede significant bodily function, or kill you, but do you know that? And how much of this would it take to make you wish that it would kill you, since — other than a less-than-reality-based “confession” — may as far as you know be the only way to end this treatment?

And if that’s not entertaining enough, you can get a taste of what many Americans apparently have a taste for via Channel 4’s Guantanamo Guidebook documentary. And remember that much is left out of what you’re seeing here, as there are some approved methods of torture that the BBC couldn’t justify doing to volunteers, and that might even have been illegal for the facilitators of the exercise to do to voluntary inmates. But it’s what we’ve done and are doing to people who aren’t involved in terrorism or with terrorists.

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I’ve never really called myself an atheist. But I don’t believe in a god; the Christian god or any other. And I don’t believe in a supreme being, an “intelligent designer,” a divine “watchmaker” or anything else. So what does that make me?

According to this test, a “spiritual atheist.”

Well, I was brought up in an organized religion, and as a result I definitely have baggage. Much of which is encapsulated in one of the questions on the quiz: “I was hurt deeply by religious people and have never forgiven them.”

Actually, I’d say I was deeply hurt by religion and have never forgiven it. People tend to use it as a weapon. I suppose I could apply the “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” Except my response to that is usually “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people, with guns.” And if you’d been shot a few times, you’d probably steer clear of guns and the people who tend to carry them.

Like I said before, I carry a bit of a grudge.

Just thought this was interesting. When I was growing up, our neighbor across the street — who was good friends with my mom — was Korean. She and her husband met and married while he was in the military, and moved back to the U.S. I was fascinated when I found out that the shed in their back yard contained a fully functioning kitchen. Her husband built it for her, so she could make Kimchi without the smell permeating the house. But sometimes I’d smell it if I went outside. I smelled it again in college, when I Korean housemate in the boarding house I lived in would have it with his meals. But until now, I never knew how kimchi is made.

I haven't done one of these in a while, and with the blog on life support for the last week and a half, I didn't have the time or inclination. Well, it's Friday, things seem to have settled as far as the state of the blog is concerned, and I figure it's time for another dive into the digital record bin.

Care to join me?

1. Start up the MP3 player.
2. Put the whole collection on random play.
3. Gimme the first ten.

I'll go first.
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With an album debut at #1, the Dixie Chicks may just have proven success really is the best revenge. It was sold out last week at the one store I checked, so I bought it at iTunes, just to do my part.

archives up and running last night.

Now that I’ve got that accomplished, I’m looking at what to do about a platform for the next incarnation of this blog. Pivot’s been a good stopping off point, but I’m not sure I want to stick with it long term. I’m looking at a handful of other blogging platforms. Textpattern is looking more and more interesting to me. I’m also playing with local installation of DotClear, LifeType, and Plume. And there are a few more I want to test out.

Of course, I might also just go with a fresh install of WordPress. I’m familiar with it, and it’ll give me the same set-up I had before. Plus there’s always the possibility that the coding/database issues will be worked out in a future build. On the other hand, if I think I might go back to WordPress in the future, then Textpattern might be the way to go, because the two import from each other pretty easily.

One more day, and I’ll probalby have it figured out. Then maybe I can return to blogging out something besides blogging software. (Though it may be interesting to write down all the steps I took to get from WordPress to Pivot to whatever I finally end up with. Further bulletins as events warrant! ]]>

The Repubilc of T. Archives have been born.

Comments and pings are closed for all the old posts. I”ll probably leave the default theme intact and just add my blogads strip and the necessary scripts for traffic counting. Basically, I had to install phpMyAdmin in order to get into the wp_options table in the database and put in the correct information for the URL.

The next thing will be to decide what to do for the next incarnation of this blog. ]]>

previous poll may be pointless. I’ve spent the better part of last night and today trying to import my old content into a new WP install on my host, for an archives.republicoft.com site where the old content would be easily found.

You can see the results of my work at archives.repubilcoft.com. It’s been a collosal waste of time and energy. At this point, I think my old content is lost to any useful access beyond being archived and searchable here. I’ve been emailing with my host’s tech support all day, also to no avail. I get different answers from a different person with each reply.

What it comes down to is that I’ve apparently gotten caught in the perfect storm of a blogging platform and a host that can’t handle the amount of content I have. At least that’s the diagnosis I’ve gotten from my host’s tech support and a few other techie friends I’ve consulted. I suppose I should have written less and posted less often over the last few years if I didn’t want to have any problems.

At this point I’m not sure exactly what to do as far as continuing this blog and keeping the old content available. I’m seriously considering going back to Typepad and somehow linking to the current incarnation of this blog as an archive site. It’s either that or pay someone to unravel it all. And I’ve no idea how much time or money that would take. ]]>

It occured to me that I’ve not yet asked readers here what they think I should do. So I thought I’d take a poll. Let me know what you think.

Take the poll

Free Poll by Blog Flux ]]>