The best of plans and intent...

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Going a day without sleep in order to reschedule sleep patterns since I had stayed up too late sounded like a great plan.  At times in my life, that does work.  Not this time.  Beyond getting stuck on stupid trying to get that trophy, it seems that when I stay up, it doesn't always mean I can get to bed earlier.  I didn't end up going down until... 4:00?  I did, finally, get to sleep at that point.  And I did sleep.  But it was not a restful sleep, it was the sleep of the dead.  Waking at 15:00 or so, with a headache as if I had consumed far too much beer last night, but without the accompanying dry mouth, I feel more like I tussled with a rhino and lost.  The headache, at least, is not a migraine.  It is bad, but it is a nice dull pain, slightly to the left of the center of my skill, that makes me think a battle axe split through from front to back, down to a few inches above my spinal column.  I'll down some aspirin shortly.

Hey, but in my life, since the doctors can't really help and nothing I do works every time, I don't mind taking pot shots at things that have worked.  Suffering just goes to the souls in purgatory, if too... I don't mean to... add to what I go through, on purpose.  And I certainly don't mind trying to alleviate the suffering.  I am pretty sure even souls in purgatory don't mind me taking some painkillers when warranted, if memory serves.  They get enough anyway.  *grins*

On to some... actual news. It seems "science" has decided that kids are fatter now because fast-food chains' advertising is imprinting on childrens' minds.  The study ignores huge problems with the notion.  They ignore the fact that the obesity tables were changed about a decade ago, to be much more "inclusive".  They ignore that it is not children, but parents or other care providers who decide what, where, and when children eat. They ignore the fact that, by population, the number of children is greatly reduced from 20 years ago.  Families are having fewer and fewer children, leading to coddling, reducing in home child-to-child play and competition.  A family with six children, as well, is MUCH less likely to eat at McDonalds than a family with one or two children... the price, you see, is untenable. There are at least a half dozen other qualifiers that are simply being ignored, probably in a push to eliminate or regulate advertising.  On the other hand, my first fast-food chains are still in my mind.  I see and I get... hungry... all over again! Or... something like that.  Thank you, Jawa!

As for creepy things companies do?  Okay, this is downright creepy.  There are so many things wrong with this I can't begin to go through it all.  Of course, most people would just be happy to be "found" that they really wouldn't care.  Heck, most people see nothing at all wrong with this.  Well, until it all goes very bad, one way or another.  It makes you wonder when they do this with no prizes, for... other reasons.  My guess is, though, that they didn't do it for the public's sake, they did it because they wanted to try to make sure their people, or the ad agency, didn't rig the thing.  They are trying to not allow the contest to be rigged.  It only has a slim chance of working though.  Cheaters are being created from grade school on now, it's the only way it seems.  I would wish them luck, but luck being what it is and what they are doing as the method make well-wishes in their effort nearly impossible for me.

Life, death.  The strangest of anomalies.  No one really knows how they work, logic doesn't fit, the will to live can help but that isn't always the answer.  Sure, you see stories about people who kept going and going and going in an effort to live.  What you don't see is that most of the people in dire situations die no matter what they do or the stories of people who are completely stuck, do nothing, and still get saved.  A young man anda young woman have survived against... anything logical.  They will both get to have a chance at full, whole, lives... impossibly.  I would say life for them will be very different in that they... have a greater appreciation for life.  In the next case, something that seems impossible to have happened did.  A young man lost his life for no good reason.  Oh, don't blame YouTube, silly human tricks, or glass manufacturers.  It isn't even luck, or the lack of it.  It is... just the way of things.  Pray for his family, and the repose of his soul.  Now, while the death of a 59 year old man is not funny, some circumstances surrounding his death...  A drummer in a disco band, playing somewhere in South America, died while his band was playing.  His fellow band members didn't notice.  What I could say about disco, drummers, and such?  No, no, I will just leave it there.  I have said a prayer for his family and friends too.  Just understand from these things that life and death and health are not in our hands.  We simply don't understand.

And finally, a story of to Russia with love that has an ironic ending.  Ironic?  Something.  I was just discussing GM crops, "organic" foods, and such, the other day.  It seems Russia is the latest to fall for Greenpeace lies.  Now, the thing with Russia is, their leaders no more believe, let alone care, about the notion of genetically modified foods than myself or any other right-minded individual.  What they do care about is maintaining power.  The power that control of food, and limits on that, is immense.  This is not about food safety, this is about control through the stomach.  Greenpeace, after all, is just an bastard offspring of the ideological communist assault on America in the the first place.  And, it's intent is exactly how it is being applied in Russia, using their own American political involvement front group spawn as... political cover.  Yeah, I think that IS ironic... for the Russian people anyway.  Government control of who gets artificially scarcified needed goods is what this is about.