I just read your Cease and Desist letter (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=300) to SparkFun Electronics.  I have to say that I'm utterly amazed at the stretch you're taking to claim that a commonly used word such as "spark", as used in the distinct name "SparkFun", is infringing on your trademark.  If such is the case, there are an immense number of prior art works using the word "spark".

There is a need to protect one's trademark, however your stretch here is simply unprofessional and disrespectful of other professionals and of the industry at large.  This is certainly an exhibition of greediness and depravity.  Are we to expect further C&D letters to be issued to all people that have the word "industry" in them?  After all, this is an exactly spelling and word use which is technically much less of a stretch than "spark".  You do see the resemblance as it is used by other entities, do you not?

I won't make the effort to ask you to cease and desist your absurd notion here since even initiating this silliness is indicative of your lack of professionalism.  I will, however, never refer my clients to your hardware and services again.  You see, I do have a functioning professional compass.  I had a lot of respect for you over the years, and it is astonishing how quickly such a long standing opinion can can be changed.  I do hope at some time in the future you become a respectable entity again.


Sincerely,
David Ford

;-)

!@#%!@%  you know.  conservatives get to me now and then and really piss me off.  not all mind you, but the vast majority of all conservatives i've encountered recently are dishonest unethical immoral assbags!  the below story is similar to numerous other recent conservative experiences of mine.

a couple weeks ago some douchery conservative group got my email address and added me to their political tripe list.  i immediately unsubscribed.  guess what.  they immediately RE-subscribed me ... twice!  well, my initial reaction was a pinch of confusion in that i might have clicked the wrong button.  i unsubscribed again - very careful to click on the right buttons.  lo and behold i am now subscribed three times.

the tail of their emails stipulates they practice strong ethical and honest marketing practices and that i willfully chose to be on their list.  BULL.  FUCKING.  SHIT.  and cow shit and dog shit and pig shit.

nifty i thought.  actually i mentally voiced a few words not quite to the tune of "nifty".  i'm a geek, i'll fix this.  i ssh'd into my mail server and add a procmail rule to send them a 30megabyte file attachment appended to an "unsubscribe me you fucking dolts" header in reply to their original tripe-u-lation.  and yes, i send them several warning emails saying i was going to do this -before- i did it.

aww, sweet bliss.  each reply back to them seemed to generate yet another subscription or mailing to me in about 30 minutes.  this was a loop i could happily accept in the expectation of them killing their own server.

somebody got wise.  they stopped sending me new mails from that address.  now they're subscribing me to multiple different lists and they are using a mutating source email address.

who are they?  Conservative Action Alerts group.  spreading FUD and hate and outright lies.  we'll see how long they keep up this harassment bullshit before i get entirely unenthused and get a restraining order against them.  oh, yes.  they switched their base of operations out of Washington state where they could get sued for $500 for each email.  damn, coulda gotten a hella lot of christmas pennies if they'd stayed.

now ya wonder why i have a strong propensity to spit at conservatives?

assbags.

i find it particularly annoying that many of those getting upset about the masculine & scene verbiage adamantly insist that i have an effeminate cross dressing drama queen on 6 inch stilettos with my dick and balls pulled between my cheeks locked up inside me that i just need to embrace and let out.

i don't care if you do, i don't.

and i don't want to socialize with queens. neither do i want to socialize with white supremacists. and for my example, they have no correlation or connection in any way. i have no interest in either, for any reason.

nor do i have any interest in spending two hours shopping for shoes, neck wraps, or frilly pullovers either. further, "masc" has no requirement of hideous and excessive body hair, ill fitting bargain clothing, poor hygiene, cheap bear, and straight sports bars.

should everyone be into the "scene" of: playing geeky dungeons and dragons, magic the gathering cards, pagan worship rituals, PETA, KKK, jews for jesus?

just because my dick and ass get involved with another guy's dick and ass has no requirement that my gay club card must get stamped at all the horribly overpriced clothing stores and queen clubs. if a queen wants to be a queen, by all means, go queen it up all you want. i don't care about it, but it's not something i'm in to.

if some person wants to go in drag and perform on stage on thursday nights, then chill with me pulling the block out of an engine bay on friday nights, awesome. but i'll be doing something somewhere else on those thursday nights.

please stop trying to force all homos to fit into one cookie cutter, and stop getting so judgemental about people you claim are being judgemental. 'tis pretty hypocritical.

"I don't want to go to drag nite" has no condescending meaning. just because someone doesn't like what you like does not all of a sudden make them or their position condescending, cheap, lazy, or of bad taste.

it just means you're being nasty and trite. and i specifically mean trite, because i hear such snide remarks every time some muscular toned "masculine" guy turns down an effeminate queeny guy hitting on him. the ensuing conversation that would turn a sailor pale.

We were presented this topic today on realjock.com, here is my response.

---

Czarodziej reflects my opinion fairly accurately. (clickable photo at right)

Religions, most of them, are based on the concept of "because i told you so", faith.  irrespective of whether any of it is good or bad, it's based on a non-tangible tenet that what someone says is taken as fact
without any proofs.

That's fine, people are free to believe what they wish.  Here's the problem - most religions have a big list of intolerances and define how to react to perceived indiscretions, or sins.  There are a few exceptions but most boil down to two, you should not tolerate something, or someone should be punished.  And, the punishment, is often what modern society would consider cruel and severe, often resulting in permanent injuries, scarring, and sometimes death.

That someone should be punished so severely, based on "because i said so", reeks of heavily inflated and distorted ego.  Maniacal.

Most modern versions of religion have watered down the punishment.  Some have become more tolerant.  But it's still based on the premise of "just because" and often directly conflicts with factual evidence.  As time passes, tenet after tenet of religion is solidly proven false with science, with tangible proofs.  Religion is an instrument of faith, and by definition there is no proof, tangible or otherwise.

I have met several religious people in my time but I would certainly shy away from most when it comes to dating.  They would be adverse to experiencing a lot of fun things that I like doing.  I'm not just referring to carnal pleasures, after all, two men can hardly be properly married in most places, in order to have sex, and it's surely not for procreation.  But I'm referring to doing things on Sunday, for blowing money on some moment of time which is useless but fun, for seeing a guy and feeling lust, and expressing it.  "Wow, he is _hot_!!"

Religion seems to have established itself as the defining set of rules to strongly govern and limit if not outright prohibit those things for which we have the strongest desires for.  Desires driven by hormones.  Not just sex, but any physiological response to hormones.

Many of the so called sins that have been defined, were established by the church as a sin because in the age of time that it was established, such a thing was dangerous.  I.e. eating shellfish, or pork.  It was established as a sin because doing so almost surely meant death or debilitating disease which could ravish an area.  That's a bad thing when kings and leaders needed followers and churches needed tithing.  "Unnatural" acts of sex, such as anal sex was sinful because again, there's a strong possibility of sexually transmitted diseases due to the levels of cleanliness.  Proclivity would quickly spread STDs too.

Some things were sins because the ruling person or party at the time feared what would happen if people were allowed to do certain things.  Religion is often used as a tool for control, for power, for pressure, for pushing opinion, all under the guise of controlling sin and unnatural acts.

It's nice to be an upstanding person, just, loving, kind, benevolent, etc.  But I can do all those and more with zero religion.  And because we live in modern times with a vastly greater understanding of cleanliness, disease, and societal impacts, most of these sins are irrelevant.  Most of the remaining have a pallid purpose if any.

Murder is still bad however.  Our cat has deigned it so and in her mind she rules the world.

Now, my answer.  I would have strong misgivings about dating a religious person who is serious about their faith.  I see too many artificial limitations on the experiences that life can offer which translates to standing inside a house looking out a window onto life, with longing and regret, for experiences not permitted.  Condemnation for things I do and have done and want to do, for thoughts and feelings and utterance.

Heheheh, once in a while I get an email that really makes me laugh.  Like this one.  Not in scorn, just for the irony of their impression :->

---------
I just read some of your profile and wow you are a dick!! And i blocked
you so you cant message back... I dont go looking for fights or to be
negative but why would anyone want to be friends with you?
---------


Why ask me a question if you blocked me?  I suppose if you're an underage teenage slut with no courtesy or game at all, then you'll think I'm a dick.  Fine with me :)

I have no worries about what people think of me, I can count on my fingers the number of people have expressed their negative opinion of me.

To be blunt, I don't have time for these few.  I enjoy spending my time with my friends and having a lot of fun.  And I apologize for the sparse time I spend online keeping caught up with my close buddies here.  There's a lot of love in my heart and I express it often.

I cannot count the number of guys that have come and gone in my life, some around for a short time, some a long time, and many still around (somewhere, right john? *grin*).

Anyways, sorry for the impression you got Terry.  Have a great day!

xo,
-d

If you don't know what D&D or d20 is, you will probably not follow too closely.  D&D is a role playing game.

Hmm, not really any appropriate category to put this into but we're launching anyway. :)

1) I'm looking for sources of RC (radio control) style components such as servos, screw drives (not screw drivers), and solenoids etc.  Not costing an arm and a leg is a good thing.  I need some ideas and parts for building dungeon traps and accessories.  At present I have some ideas I wish to implement and I'm looking for some fairly quiet and fast servos and they don't need to be all that powerful.

2) I'm looking for molds.  Hirst Arts (hirstarts.com) has several and they're quite useful but I am looking for additional molds.  No sci-fi nor egyption, just standard FR dungeon type equipment.

3) I'd love to add more figurines to the collection of minis that my players currently have.  Does anyone have any sources of minis that are FR style such as Reaper?  Warforged sort of isn't in my interests.

4) I'd also like to expand my sources for tabletop landscaping.  If you have any ideas for sources - do let me know please.

Thank you muchly!

Category: MySpace, Anal walrus frottage

The asses are at it again.  I get home tonight and look at my mailbox and it's filled with emails hatin' on my comments.  Never mind you, myspace can put a monkey pissing in it's own mouth AND LEAVE IT THERE for a whole week, and have women more scantily clad than i in my main profile, but oh my fucking shitstorm hell! ... if there's a sexy pic of a GUY on here.



Anyone feel like venting at these ass warts?

The last few months have been full of fun, lots of laughter, some decidedly new experiences, etc, etc.  While living in Delray Beach during the winter can be quite a frustrating time, it is not without an overwhelming number of things that can be enjoyed as well.

Why is it frustrating here during the winter?  Old people can NOT drive and should NOT be on the road.  They cause so many accidents and foul up traffic that I often reconsider whether I really want to go out and get something from a store or go for a drive somewhere.  Those of you that have known me for many years know that I drive anywhere and everywhere at any time.

I think the old people's driving rubs off on other people too.  If I had a buck for every dumbass thing someone does on the road just between our house and my work office, we'd be living it up with some serious flash.

But enough about the dumbshits on the road.  Moving on.

We've been living in this house for almost a year now.  Frankly I love calling it home.  The house is decent, and except for the ice maker in the freezer, it's almost entirely hassle free.  Our landlord is a great guy and lets me improve on the property with projects quite a lot.  I haven't had a single request turned down!  And again, those of you who have known me for a time, know that I love playing in my workshop and doing projects.

The yard is looking really really great and we get compliments about it all the time from everyone.  I don't do it for the compliments - I do it for the two of us, but the compliments are nice too :-D  My most recent project was laying another extension to the backyard sprinkler system and building a planted water garden around a tree.  Stephen told me a while back that the back porch is starting to look like an Elven forest.  Ahhh, I like that :)

I've decided I'm going to get rid of my truck.  It's been under a tarp for a while and I just don't have the time to finish rebuilding the engine.  It's going for a steal (I'd rather someone actually stole it just so I don't have to deal with it).  Know anyone local to me that wants a 95 Ford Ranger with engine parts in boxes?  I'm going to put it up on craigslist soon.  I've a few brand new panels that I'll sell off for cheap as well.  The only thing I need to do is take my Fire/Rescue lighting system out of it before I give it to you.  Sorry, can't let you have that unless you've got a permit for such stuff :)

My project with the SBC2410 embedded computer system for my car has been put on hold.  Again it's a time issue.  I had problems getting the u-boot loader to work under my 64bit host system.  It sits on my desktop starting at me like a forgotten puppy and I so want to get back to it.

We were just up in CT/NY a few weeks ago for my annual banquet at the Fire Dept., and it was quite a pleasure.  I say it every year, but I really mean it, you never know how much you mean to a group of guys until you've been away for a while.  It isn't like I don't keep in contact.  Pretty much every week I am talking with someone up there, usually about the fire dispatch messaging software I wrote and maintain.

About that.  Like every good thing, it started as a fulfilment to a need.  I needed a more reliable way to get notifications of fire/rescue dispatches.  I lived 60 seconds from the fire station and most of the time, my pager never alerted.  So, I wrote a little utility that watched packets on the ethernet and send me a ping on my cellphone.  That was about five years ago.  Wow, it has been that long already.  Anyway...  It grew from that into a system that everyone depends on.  If it goes offline, I get phone calls and emails and IMs asking me to get it going again quickly! :D

A few months ago our dispatch center changed protocols with how they sent the dispatches across the network.  That's all fine and dandy except nobody told anyone.  All of a sudden Friday afternoon the system went silent and Chief calls me up.  Panic mode set in.  No more printouts and nothing across the wire!  I spent the next 72 hours in a dead heat race with time figuring out what was going on.  Mind you, the upstream geeks were happy as clams going about their business never mind you that our network was down.

Anyways, after some long nights and pulling of hair, I emerged from my desk with a new driver that recreated the print image and then ran an OCR filter against it to decode the text.  We have liftoff and there was much rejoicing!  Well actually it was more like everyone finally took a breath of air, "ahhhhhh" and relaxed.  Beep!  A dispatch came across the wire and our cellphones came alive with a datastream again.

I went out and mowed the yard.

Now, since January, I've been running a D&D campaign that was born out of a desire to sate Stephen's appetite for gaming.  I hadn't expected it to whelm me as it has but there we have it.  I intended to game for four hours every other Sat. evening and it's rare that I can get the guys to go home before 2am and I pretty much lost the fight about every other - now it's every weekend.  It's a lot of work, but I quite enjoy it.  We gamed Chapter 10 for Saturday, two days ago, and the group is quite anticipating next weekend.  We lost a few guys but we've picked up a couple in return.  The core is going strong!

That's my creative outlet and gives me a weak excuse to get away with buying more "supplies" at Home Depot and Lowes!  Hahahahah, I catch so much flack for spending so much $$ on power tools and boy toys there!

I just finished moving a mini-pond into a 30gal aquarium two weeks back.  The mini-pond was one of the props for the D&D game.  We've put about 20 fish into the aquarium and there are about 12 different types in there including a turtle.  He's quite a character, when he sees you coming to feed, he scampers across the water and plants to your hand far faster than you would think a turtle goes!  That bunny 'n turtle story?  Hell, the bunny ain't gettin' no side trips in this race!

We've had some very enjoyable intimate time with a few guys over the last several months and I have to say I (we) have quite enjoyed the company.  A lot of gay men seem to come with a lot of hangups and issues and the expression of them is what is called drama.  And there's usually a shitload of that any time you get around the male to male sex attraction.

We've had to deal with that mind you.  One of the most recent is an asshole we'll refer to as Bert which is entirely fictional.  Bert mosies up to us online, individually and gets friendly, "i love you guys, you're awesome!"  He quickly tries to push past the "we like friends" part to the he wants to fuck part.  He plays the "i want to be friends with you guys" card great until his idiocy is apparent.  Both of us have all our profiles reflect that we come as a matching set and no shenanigans behind the back.  Both of us talk to each other about pretty much everything, well, everything that we share interests in and hot guys is definitely that!

But here's the scoop.  Bert starts angling on hanging out with us, 1-on-1.  That's all fine up to a point.  But Bert wants to fuck.  And, he wants to keep it silent.  He doesn't want either of us telling the other that we're fucking Bert.  Well, we're both sitting here at our computers, a few feet from each other, sharing what people email us and pointing out hot guys, etc, etc.

Bert for some reason thinks he's gained an inside toe and acquired a certain level of assumed private conversation between each of us.  I suspect his eyes glazed over when it came to reading the details about our relationship and that we happily share our fancies of other men with each other and of course we don't hide emails from each other.

So he's emailing both of us trying to hook up with some 1-on-1 fucking and blatantly, not even insinuating but directly, telling each of us to sneak out on the other so we can go fuck.

So Stephen and I look at each other and shake our heads.  At first we passively ignore the asshat's assumption that he's getting some tail from each of us and getting us to cheat on the other.

But after ten minutes of this escalating fancy of his, it starts getting irritating.  We've already pointed out to him repeatedly that in nearly all fucking we come as a package deal.  Yeah every now and then we get some tail off on our own but it's a pre-approved visit to the grocery if you get my drift.

So I start telling him to kindly fuck off and reminding him that we've been sharing our conversations.  Which we'd already, both, told him some 30 minutes prior.  He launches into a fury-fest of vitriol for us about the drama that couples start with all their lying and cheating and coming-on to him.

That couples start?

We had a good laugh before emailing him back and pointing out that both Stephen and I had pretty much stopped paying much attention to him a while back as evidenced by our non-descript and devoid responses to his unfettered lust.

That really set him off.  I think he was quite confusing reality with a mix of drama shows on TV.  Neither Stephen nor I had promised or implied or even said anything that could be construed as an interest in -him-, sexually or otherwise, nor had we lied about our relationship and how we wanted to cheat on each other.

Perhaps he missed several dozen doses of medication, I'm not sure, but living in reality is not his forte.

However, I ramble.  Bert is an ass baby that needs a new prescription.

If you have a sexual interest in us bear in mind a few things; a) we're not going to fuck just to fuck and just because you have this undying urge to sit on my cock or plow my ass.  Contrary to the horrible fear of nearly every straight guy, gay guys do NOT want to fuck every swinging dick that goes by.  b) if you feel like sucking some cock and we feel like getting sucked off that's fine and dandy, an absolute daisy.  But if I turn you down, stop stalking, okay?

And stop going on week after week about your nighmare that I will find out Stephen got a blowjob from you.  I don't care, it's fine if he gets his ass and cock cleaner than a whistle from a rim job 'n blow job.  Likewise.  There's no drama and rest assured he and I are probably texting each other while you're sucking us off and telling the other about it as it's happening.  The 1-on-1 rule is for fucking.

Don't try to make drama on your own, it just doesn't look good on you!

Ahh, now back to the better side of things.  We developed a few friendships over the last year that resulted in intimacy.  It's great I tell ya :) And no, I didn't just get laid and I'm not having an emotional bunny moment ;-)  'Tis just a train of thought.

Good morning to the world and welcome to the day, thanks to you if you're a close friend of mine or us, and have a great one!

-david
p.s. Congratulations to Rivero and Randall!  If you know who they are, then you know what I'm talking about.