Religious anger at DADT

I actually just posted a response on another blog about how religious leaders are incredible upset at the repeal of DADT. They are claiming that gays are an abomination before God and should not serve in our military. Here was my response to the blog post:
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As a side note... people who work on the Sabbath are to be stoned. Since our military works on Saturday, shouldn't they all be stoned to death for violating God's law?

The next are Chaplains/Priests/Ministers. No mortal man can know the true will and purposes of God. To claim to know God's will is to be a false prophet. False prophets are to be put to death. So if we are to follow the word of the Bible, should we put this Chaplain to death for both working on the Sabbath AND for being a false prophet?

Plus, the military is full of adulterers. Where is the outrage of that? That is an actual decree in the 10 Commandments. Not just a phrase in some obscure location in the Bible like the part of being gay.

Where is the outrage against killing? That is what the military does. That is another violation of the 10 Commandments. If there are no exceptions allowed for being gay, then why are there exceptions for killing? After all, it does not say Thou Shalt Not Kill Except For When It Suits Your Nation's Interests.

And even the part of the Bible where they always point about the abomination of gay people, they ignore how eating pork is listed in the same section as another violation of God's decree. I kind of remember bacon and sausage being in the chow halls. Where is the outrage over violating this tenet of God's?

All this is is one of the last groups of people that we can justify being discriminatory too. Whether you were Black or Jewish, a woman and currently, gay. Our religion has been used to put them in their place. But as equality grows, these "Gentle people of God"(I love that description), are blowing their fucking tops over the fact that they are losing their privilege to hate someone. They derive their self-worth from the ability to put down another as not worthy and abominable. Now, they have to treat these people as equals and they just cannot fathom it.

IT Support - acr_error.htm

I had a user today with this problem. They would open up Internet Explorer(IE) and the webpage would crash and recover repeatedly. The URL would keep growing too. It ws looking like:
http://www.mypage.com
res://ieframe.dll/acr_error.htm#,http://www.mypage.com
res://ieframe.dll/acr_error.htm#,res://ieframe.dll/acr_error.htm#,http://www.mypage.com

With each crash, it would keep adding to the URL.

It seems that this problem is being caused by a bad add-on. Here is what you can do to try to fix this issue.

Disabling Add-ons

• Click Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Internet Explorer(No add-ons)


• Click Tools->Manage add-ons->Toolbars and Extensions->Show: All add-ons


• Select all of the add-ons (Ctrl-A) and click Disable All


• Click Close


• Close IE

Attempt #1
Open IE normally and get to the Toolbars and Extensions like in the previous section. Select them all and Enable them. Close IE and restart and see if you continue to have a problem. It is possible that some add-on had a hiccough and just needed to be reset.

Attempt #2
If the problem persists, we will have to take it in a more of a phased approach. Disable the add-ons once again. Then re-open IE normally once more. Go back to the Toolbars and Extension section like the previous times, but this time select all of the add-ons from a particular company, and enable them. Close IE and re-open it. Browse through several webpages to ensure you are not having problems and proceed to the Toolbars and Extensions section again to re-enable the next company's add-ons. Rinse and repeat until all of the add-ons have been enabled or when you can narrow down the problem add-on.

Lack of posts lately...

I am pretty burned out lately with my IT Security class I am in and the fact that rugby is pretty much dead until spring. I am working on a post for Production & Operations Management covering the Transportation Model. I am adding the voice to it now. I'll have a link to that as soon as it is done.

Countdown to the ACC Championships - 22 Nov

After this week, a couple important losses, several more teams found themselves staying home from the ACC Championship game while one team is now solidified their slot into that match.

Atlantic
It's now down to Florida State and North Carolina State. If North Carolina State beats Maryland, then NC State goes to the Championship. Otherwise, Florida State gets to go.

Coastal
Virginia Tech will be going to the Championship game.

Countdown to the ACC Championships - 15 Nov

After a few more critical losses this week, a few more teams have closed the door to their season. Here is a summary of who remains left in contention for the championship game.

Atlantic
Boston College, Clemson and Wake Forest are out.

Florida State could make it, but they would have to win their game against Maryland and NC State must lose one of their games between UNC or Maryland.

Maryland can still make it, but they must win both of their games against Florida State and North Carolina State.

North Carolina State could make it, but depending on how Florida and Maryland go makes it difficult to see. If Florida State beats Maryland, then NC State has to win both of their games against UNC and Maryland. If Maryland beats Florida State, then NC State only needs to only beat Maryland to make it to the championship game.

Coastal
Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Virginia are all staying home.

Miami(FL) can make it to the championships, but they would have to beat Virginia Tech and VT would have to lose to UVA.

Virginia Tech can make it. They only have to win one of their games against either Miami or UVA.

Veteran's Day

I would like to take this time to not only thank veterans for their service on this Veteran's/Remembrance Day, but I also want to thank the many people are still on active duty and reservists who put up with many hardships and risking their lives so that one day, others may live, free of fear, tyranny and oppression.

Countdown to ACC Championships - 8 Nov

Well, since the last posting of this was right before the weekend, it was a short trip to me posting the one following the weekend. I think the ACC is definitely showing how bad it can be. Only one team, Virginia Tech, is even rated in the AP Poll.

But we have a new team joining the "stay-at-home" club. That would be UVA with their loss to Duke this weekend.

Atlantic
Boston College and Wake Forest are staying home.

Clemson is a statistical nightmare. They must win against Florida State to even have any hopes. They can lose against Wake, but it will require one of those "perfect storm" situations.

Florida State, Maryland and North Carolina State are running neck and neck.

Coastal
Duke, Georgia Tech and Virginia are all staying home.

Miami and North Carolina are still in the running, but they still have to win against Virginia Tech to just stay as hopefuls, but Virginia Tech still has a commanding lead which could squash them anyways.

Virginia Tech is in for sure if they win at least 2 of their next 3 games, though depending on how Miami or UNC play, it might actually be easier for Tech to get in to the championship game.

Countdown to ACC Championships

WIth the ACC Championship football game quickly approaching, several teams have already earned their seats at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the real teams play. There are still quite a few teams vying for slots to go to the championship.

Atlantic
Boston College and Wake Forest are out.

Clemson will have an incredibly hard time, but it is still statistically possible.
There are too many variables, but any loss by Clemson will instantly knock them out. And still, it is possible for them to win their remaining games and still get eliminated by other teams winning their games.

Florida State, Maryland and NC State are pretty neck and neck, but as of right now, NC State has a slight advantage.

Coastal
Duke and Georgia Tech are out.

Virgina has a snowball's chance in hell. For them to proceed, VT has to lose against Miami, UNC and Virginia... Miami has to lose at least one game between Maryland and Georgia Tech... and UNC has to lose against Florida State, NC State AND Duke. So, yeah... god speed to any UVA fans.

Miami and UNC both have not-unreasonable chances, but it is fairly unlikely since VT has a very large advantage. If Virginia Tech wins against Miami or UNC, that losing team automatically gets knocked out of championship hopes.

IT Support - Fixing broken links in Outlook messages after uninstalling Chrome

Lately, a few people have been duped into installing Chrome by not unchecking a box when they installed other software. Then, when they uninstall Google Chrome, the yget an error whenever they click on a web link inside an Outlook email and says you don;t have the access to open the link. You are able to copy and paste the link, but you cannot directly open the link.

Uninstalling Chrome is the culprit which breaks this function. To fix this, do the following steps. Backup your registry first if you are concerned about modifying your registry.

Open the Registry Editor (run regedit)

- Find "HKCU\Software\Classes\.html"
- Right-click the (Default) key and choose "Modify"
- Change the value from "ChromeHTML" to "htmlfile"
- Repeat for the keys .htm, .shtml and .shtm if they are present

Rugby Pics - Blacksburg v. James River

Rugby Pictures - BBurg v. Radford

I finally got the pictures uploaded. I was having Internet problems, but I got that resolved. They are in my usual Picasaweb site. If you want to view any of my pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/jpates.

Here is the slideshow of the gallery from the Sept 11th game of Blacksburg Rugby versus Radford University.

Virginia Tech Football - Am Embarrassment to the ACC (update)

Wow. All I can say is "wow". Today, Virginia Tech lost to James Madison in football... 21 to 16. I wish I had access to see the game, but it wasn't aired. And, I guess that is good for Tech since they would have truly embarrassed themselves nationally. I so hope that Tech is not in the Top 25 for the AP Poll. There is no excuse that a nationally ranked team should ever lose to a non-Div IA team.

Tech needs to get their asses in gear.

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Just as a side note. This was only the 2nd time ever in the NCAA that a nationally ranked team was beaten by a non-Div IA team.

ACC Football - Week 1 (Updated Estimated Scores)

Well, I actually guessed fairly well on my picks for ACC Football this last week. The only mistake that I had made was assuming that Navy was going to beat Maryland.

When it comes to ranking the top 10, my numbers have been off from the AP Polls. I have been using a variant of the ELO system to rank the Div I teams. My Top 10 for post-Week 1 are as follows:
1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. TCU
4. Boise State
5. Florida
6. Ohio State
7. Cincinnati
8. Brigham Young
9. Oregon
10. Penn State

Using the same system I used to pick last week's results, I will use for Week 2's predictions. For the Div I matches, the estimated score is included. (The score is something experimental and I want to see how accurate it is)

Duke v. Wake Forest - Wake Forest (22-27)
Georgia Tech v. Kansas - Georgia Tech (32-18)
James Madison v. Virginia Tech - Virginia Tech
Florida St v. Oklahoma - Oklahoma (25-33)
Presbyterian v. Clemson - Clemson
Kent St v. Boston College - Boston College (13-31)
Miami (FL) v. Ohio St - Ohio State (19-28)
Morgan St v. Maryland - Maryland
NC State c. UCF - UCF (24-27)
Virginia v. USC - USC (14-33)

Restaurant Review - Burger King

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be eating at each of the dining locations in the Blacksburg downtown area and providing a review. Some of these may be self-evident since the chain restaurant might be located everywhere and some places will be a local-only pub.

Today, I chose to have Burger King. I got the Smokey Cheddar Steakhouse XT with Medium Onion Rings and Medium Diet Coke. As a simple summary, I would have to say that was a big mistake. I really don't know where to start on this. It is one of the BK Xtra Thick burgers which I found out is 7 ounces of meat. It is served with the traditional lettuce and tomato but also has cheddar cheese, bacon and barbeque sauce.

Pros: None

Cons: Everything else

What I did not like about this burger is something partly due to the fact I do not like Burger King burgers. It never ceases to amaze me that for a burger that is flame broiled on a wire rack, how much grease stays with the burger. The burger continued to ooze the remaining grease every time I took a bite. I could not detect a smoked flavor in the cheddar cheese. In fact, i could barely taste the cheese between the Gulf of Mexico oil slick I had going on in my mouth and the barbeque sauce. I also did not care for the bacon. The bacon was so thin and flat, I almost wondered how they managed to cook it. The slices of bacon literally was as thick as if someone cut 1" x 4" pieces of notebook paper and called it bacon. No crunch. No flavor. Just more grease to the burger. Another side note... with all the grease I took in, it made my stomach a bit queasy too.

As for the sides, they are traditional sides from BK. The onion rings are a pressed onion product formed into the shape of rings coated with breading and deep fried. They are nothing special, but I do like them better than BK's french fries.

As my personal opinion goes, I would avoid this burger at all costs. It is not worth the calories you take in for what little flavor you get.

As a nutritional side note:
Smoky Cheddar Steakhouse XT Burger
Calories: 850 cal
Total Fat: 51g
Dietary Fiber: 3g

Weight Watchers Points: 21

Medium Onion Rings
Calories: 450 cal
Total Fat: 24g
Dietary Fiber: 4g

Weight Watchers Points: 10

Medium Diet Coke
Calories: 0 cal
Total Fat: 0g
Dietary Fiber: 0g

Weight Watchers Points: 0

Meal Total = 31 points.

My allowable daily total for me(37 y/o 6'4# 240# sedentary male) = 37 points

This will never be a repeat meal for me. I consumed close to 67% of my calories for the day and 115% of my fat for the day... all in one sitting.

No Rugby Pictures This Week

I was planning on taking some pictures of the Blacksburg Rugby friendly match against Huntington and Virginia Tech this weekend. As I was getting ready to go take them, I set my camera back down and decided not to go.

I think I was being bothered that I was not playing. And after numerous gout attacks over the last couple of years, I haven't been able to participate. The more annoying part is that I doubt I will be able to again since even walking can be mildly painful, much less running or scrumming. I think watching everyone else having a good time out there while I am confined to the sidelines is starting to get to me.

I think another reason I am feeling less inclined to take pictures is that I know almost no one on the team now. Since I am not playing, I am not getting to know the new people. Turnover on the team can be high sometimes since we do get a good number of college guys on the team that eventually graduate and move away. So, outside of the team leadership that I do know, no one else out there was familiar to me, and that didn't help with the decision of whether or not to go take pictures.

Maybe I will not be in such a bummed mood for the next home game.

Virginia Tech Football

So, it is that time again. Soon, Virginia Tech will be hittin gthe field again in an attempt to get a National Championship.

Here are my ACC predictions for Week 1.
All of the teams playing a non-Div I team should win which include:
Boston College over Weber State
Florida State over Samford
Wake Forest over Presbyterian
North Carolina State over Western Carolina
Georgia Tech over South Carolina State
Miami(FL) over Florida A&M
Duke over Elon
UVA over Richmond (but with UVA, maybe the Spiders will give them a rough time)

For the "real" games of the weekend:
Clemson over North Texas
Maryland losing to Navy
Virginia Tech losing to Boise State
North Carolina losing to LSU

And yes, I can hear the cries of sacrilege from my fellow Hokies, but I am still picking Boise State to win using last year's statistical numbers.

Caesar Cipher Lesson

I have prepared a lesson on the Caesar Cipher. You will need Adobe Reader 9 or higher to view this presentation.

Caesar Cipher Presentation

Starcraft II

I just finished Starcraft II: Episode 1 "Wings of Liberty" this last week. Nice game. It plays virtually identical to Starcraft. Some people were disappointed, but why change a winning formula?

I did love that the missions were not "you are base 1 and you need to wipe out base 2" like most Real Time Strategy games. Some people were complaining that they felt cheated that they only get to play the Terran missions. Again, that is a gripe of a few. Starcraft had 9 missions(maybe 10) for each of the 3 races. This one focuses mostly on the Terrans with 26 or 27 missions to tell their story. The other two races will get their turns.

But, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, this was the pre-release trailer for the game.

Rugby in Blacksburg

Believe it or not, rugby is gaining in popularity in the United States. This is evident that the town of Blacksburg, Virginia actually has three teams. Virginia Tech has both a collegiate men's and women's team and there is an adult men's team in Blacksburg itself.

Many people seem to avoid coming out for rugby since they think the rules are too confusing or that they don't have the build for it. I would like to dispel some of these negative reasons for not coming out to play. While at first the rules may seem confusing, it is no more confusing than learning any other new sport. Then, people think that they don't have the right build for the sport. As long as you can run, you can play rugby. You can be tall and thin, short and fast, or even have a stockier build. There are many different positions that have different functions.

The season for Blacksburg Rugby will be starting next week (28 August) with a friendly non-divisional match against Huntington, WV's team. All of Blacksburg's home games are played behind the Kroger on Main Street and they will usually start at noon.

Feel free to come out and watch. The information for the team can be found at http://www.blacksburgrugby.com

My AFOQT Results and Disappointment with AF Recruiters

This is something I still hold a grudge against. Every year, Virginia Tech's Engineering department sponsors an Engineering Expo career fair. The Air Force recruiters show up for this one, but skip out on the Business school's career fair which is the following day.

Back in 2004, 2005 and 2006, I had talked to the recruiters briefly about getting a commission. I was practically blown off by the recruiters since they were wanting "engineering students only" and that I was older than most of my peers.

Here is where my gripe comes in. I was older because I had spent 10 years in the Air Force. I had left to work on getting a degree in hopes of getting a commission. I was a 3C051 Communications/Computer Systems Specialist and then retrained to eventually become a 1A471 Instructor of Air Battle Management. I had hoped of getting a job as either a 13Bx Air Battle Manager, 14Nx Intelligence, 33Sx Communications/Computer Systems Officer.

I had finished my degree in Business Information Technology and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Virginia Tech. I had already knocked out my AFOQT prior to leaving the service. But, the recruiters still did not even call me back after talking to them at the career fair. Now, I am past the 36 year old age cutoff. So the Air Force is no longer an option for me. Such a shame since I truly enjoyed the military.

But, when one door closes, another door opens. While it is not the life I had planned for, I do not think I could trade it for anything else.

By the way.. here are my test results....

World of Warcraft

I have had many characters. Some are still there even though I never play them, others have been deleted forever. But this is my workhorse character. If there is an achievement to get, this is the character that will get it.

Thurissa on Gul'dan is my main character on World of Warcraft.

As much of a time sink that WoW has been for me, I thought I should honor the character that eats up most of my time. I must say that I love the Draenei female's "No" emote.