There are reports of a fake email (purporting to be from Paypal) being received. There’s a link in it. If you click the link to open it in any version of IE except that with XP SP2, your computer would get infected. MS hasn’t yet released any patches for the IE vulnerability that’s being exploited. Surfing the web with IE is not currently safe.

In other news, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 came out today, although I’m still very partial to Opera.

So, my last several posts haven’t been commented on, likely since there wasn’t anything particularly commentable about them. So, here’s my plea to leave a comment. Ask me a question, make analogies about far to the right I am, or invite yourself over for supper sometime. Hijack my journal entry for your own nefarious purposes. Let’s converse about nothing in particular, or everything all at once. Just say something, so I don’t feel like nobody likes me anymore :).

I’ve been somewhat saddened lately that while a majority of the country may share my overall political views (which for the purposes of this post I’ll define by voting for Bush), in the state that I live in, people sharing my views are definitely in the minority. However, I was recently encouraged by the fact that in the Spring, we’ll be moving to Charlton, and that Charlton was Bush’s best town in MA, winning 64% of the vote there. So, I’ll be in the majority nationally and locally, but just not regionally.

I got an email on the WPI SFS mailing list about a game called Nomic, where the rules of the game are about changing the rules of the game. It looks very very interesting and appealing. While my free time is generally short, I think that I’ll be able to find enough to play this.

Well, somewhat on a whim, we decided to go over ‘s place for late-night election-watching. and were there when we got there, but got scared off and left shortly thereafter :). The watching was just kinda in a background as we (, , Pezz’s dad, and me) chatted about all sorts of political matters.

It looks like Bush’ll probably win. CNN isn’t calling Ohio yet, but Fox News is. And with Bush having a 120,000 vote lead with 97% reporting there, I tend to think that he’ll probably win that state, and therefore the presidency. That makes me very happy.

It puzzles me that roughly half the country wants to be governed under one set of principles and the other half wants to be governed under a different set. I see how the way I think things should work makes so much sense, and can’t understand how the other half honestly thinks that their way is the best way to go. Yet, I’m fairly certain that the other half thinks the same way about their beliefs, and can’t figure out how we honestly think our way is the best way to go.

I am tired. I ought to be in bed. But, at least I get an extra hour tonight.

Random law I found amusing: “No person shall travel on a way with a sleigh or sled drawn by a horse, unless there are at least three bells attached to some part of the harness.” — M.G.L. Chapter 89, Section 3

I received good news last night regarding our house-building project:

• Many trees have been cut down.
• These trees will likely get removed this weekend.
• Today, the architect should have everything to make our final house plans.
• The well is currently expected to be drilled sometime next week.

Much happiness and excitement!

Just a rambling of thoughts going through my head:

So, this being a presidential election year, there’s inevitably talk about this archaic Electoral College system, especially in a race this close. But I would think that changing it to general-popular-vote would just shift campaigning from states-that-are-close to states-with-many-people, since campaigning in a state with lots of people will get you many more votes than campaigning in a state with few people. But I agree that it’s kinda weird that my vote for president essentially doesn’t count.

So, since I’ve been using my journal here as a forum for my controversial opinions, why stop now?

Top 5 ways I fear Gay Marriage will affect my life

1. The State recognizing homosexual marriage takes away from the meaning of marriage. Marriage will be seen as a mere partnership, which just provides financial benefits. Since kids can now have multiple moms and/or dads (and in fact do, due to no-fault divorce now), there would be no legal justification for stopping polygamy and other “alternative” forms of marriage. Anything that one might be able to remotely classify as a “civil right” will have to be acceptable. As our society grows in this direction, the children that Jessi and I intend to have will grow up in this society, and that thought scares me.