..the collection of (mostly) young people protesting against banking corporations in Manhattan. This movement started September 17th and has spread to 70 major cities in the US and 900 cities world-wide. OWS focuses on three aspects: social/economic inequality, corporate greed, and political lobbying by the financial sector. If you want more facts, feel free to check out the wikipedia entry, as it’s really a waste of my time and yours to regurgitate it all here.

Last night, a very appropriate special was on PBS, entitled “Free or Equal”. This one-hour show took a look at Milton Friedman’s economics and, specifically, the series he hosted in 1980 called “Free to Choose”. For those that don’t know, Friedman was the economic advisor to Reagan and received the Nobel prize in 1976. He was a very smart man that influenced nations and individuals. In this special last night, the host, Johan Norberg, visited the places that Friedman had influenced in the 70s and 80s and took a look at what they are now. Honk Kong, Chile, and Estonia (directly, to name a few) have all benefited greatly from the free market capitalism that Friedman brought with him. In the case of Chile, the new freedoms in the marketplace directly translated to a yearning for more freedom in society and politics. Within a short time, the dictator, Augusto Pinochet, was forced to resign and a democratically-elected president took his place.

Hong Kong, however, met a different fate. Soon after Friedman’s work there, it fell under Chinese rule. Seeing the great prosperity by what was once a refuge town, the Chinese adopted a laissez faire attitude towards Hong Kong economically. Hong Kong was free to trade internationally without restriction, tariffs, and government interference. In turn, it would be silly to lobby or appeal to the government, as it held no control over the market.

Estonia was also a victory for the free market, as a poverty-ridden former-USSR state was transformed into the wealthiest country that resulted from that breakup.

So let’s back up a little..

Free market capitalism, by definition, is free from governmental interference. Trade is conducted locally, nationally, and internationally, without penalty or restriction. Competition becomes fierce and companies/individuals must rely on innovation, competitive pricing, or tremendous customer loyalty to succeed. Those who do, turn a profit. Those who don’t, lose money and have to refactor what they are doing. This naturally forces advancements in almost all business sectors and increases the demand of producers in a system. Costs go down and both the buyer and the seller, ultimately, win. Granted, that’s a simplified overview, but this is, after all, a blog.

Tying this in to OWS..

1) social/economic inequality. Friedman made a very keen observation that what some people (in this case, OWS-ers) want is an equal finish line.. this is a wrong mentality to have. The equality should be the starting line. He argues that in a system, freedom and equality are not necessarily one and the same. By its very definition, freedom will allow some to succeed and others to fail. Both those who fail and those who succeed have an incentive to win. In an “equal” (economically) system, there is no incentive to do anything, as the successes are split with the losses. You might ask.. “Doesn’t that sound like socialism?” Right you are, my friend. This is exactly the direction that a country takes when it’s leaders decided to start redistributing wealth.

2) corporate greed. If a company makes money, it has the right to spend it how it wills. Breaking the down a little bit– if the owner of a company decides to take a massive paycheck at the expense of his workers, that is his/her prerogative. Employees are free to leave and work for a different company and, before long, that first company will drown by the owner’s own greed. The successful company will be one that balances and moderates itself. You and I should feel no claim to the profits any company claims unless that company is owned by us. How is demanding banks repay our loans for us any different then the greed they display themselves? If they are greedy, so be it. If it’s their money, they have a right to it.

3) political influence. If you remember back to the example of Hong Kong, in a truly free market economy, the government has so say, so lobbying has no effect. Once government interferes with tariffs, subsidies, restrictions, subsidies, penalties, subsidies, taxes, subsidies, and employment meddling (gender/race quotas, etc), companies and industries are free to lobby for their benefit.

So you see..

By saying, in essence, “down with capitalism”, you’re making a stand against your own point. You rally against an economic philosophy that benefits everyone as a general populous, incentivizes everyone to succeed by their own hands, and increases quality of life… the very economic philosophy that eradicates the negatives you list..

Two hundred years ago, our forefathers hated, condemned, and swore off everything that the monarchy stood for. The rule by one person invariably leads to oppression, social classes, and the economic ruin of a nation. Kings ruled with iron fists, commanded their armies out to war, and taxed their citizens into poverty. The hostility of a king towards his rivals was matched only by his anger. The king used various ways to crush insurrection from his people.

Thankfully, future-king William will have none of these powers.

But our President does.

People are being stupid right now, so let’s just reiterate the facts and touch on some things we should take away from this (sources inline).

1. Rep Gabrielle Giffords was shot, along with 19 other people this weekend. She, herself, is recovering, but 6 people died, including a Federal Judge and a 9 year old girl who was born on 9/11/01.
2. The shooter, instantly identified as being a Tea Partier is, in fact, an anarchist, a 9/11 truther, and a democrat who made numerous death threats against authorities in recent days
3. Sheriff Dupnik (lead investigator) almost immediately pinned the blame on the Right, most probably to deflect the blame off himself and the glaring mistake he made
4. Jane Fonda and many other reporters, anchors, pundits and bloggers decide that its the Tea Party’s fault, when there is no connection at all. Most of this vitriolic emotion comes from the astounding midterm election upsets and the fantastic display of both bipartisanship and priorities on the first day of HoR session this year. While some Democrats walked out and others passed out earplugs, some Dems stood up to the plate and even took part in the reading of the Constitution. Rep Giffords read the 1st Amendment.
5. The rabid left is now deflecting the disgust its receiving for trying to make a martyr out of Rep. Giffords by decrying the usage of rhetoric and imagery involving violence (target symbols on pictures, words and phrases in speech and print, etc).
6. In a stunning bit of irony (see the last sentence of point #4), Rep Robert Brady is now trying to make illegal the usage of such speech and imagery against Congressmen and Congresswomen. Violation of the 1st Amendment much? So instead of taking responsibility for jumping to conclusions trying to villainize an innocent group of people, the Dems try to save face by looking like they are preventing this from ever happening again. Instead, Bob Brady ends up looking like a wuss who can’t face opposition.

So now, what happens when Obama incorporates violence into his next speech? If this is applied to Reps, why is the rest of America left out? What of President Truman? Somehow when Obama uses violent rhetoric, it seems contrived and makes him sound weak- like the tall skinny kid at school who talked a big game, but was too lanky to land a punch. Outlawing violent rhetoric is silly and unconstitutional. Instead of trying to save face,

“To be clear, if you’re using this event to criticize the “rhetoric” of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you’re either: (a) asserting a connection between the “rhetoric” and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you’re not, in which case you’re just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?” – Glenn Reynolds

Lets focus on the families of those that were killed, not parade around in this circus of which party’s fault it is or who is subliminally to blame. Jared Lee Loughner shot those people. He pulled the trigger. He is to blame.

Thank God that Rep Giffords is alive, despite initial reports that she had died. Thank God that 13 other people made it through with only injuries. For the other 6 people, pray for the families as they have to grieve for the outcome of this despicable act.

**Warning: Due to the nature of this post, the links may include content that may not be suitable for all viewers. Use your discretion**

What started out as a series of posts on twitter has prompted me to write a blog post! You know things are srs when a blog post is produced!

The Issue

Words cannot express how outraged I am at the TSA’s actions over the past few weeks- the government sexually assaulting young and old, and most disappointingly, the president behind it all, condoning and encouraging these actions. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want pics of me stored on TSA computers and inevitably leaked, molested if I refuse the scanner, and fined $10k and subject to legal action if I refuse both. So by virtue of you refusing the TSA’s services to make sure your children aren’t smuggling guns in their underwear, you are presumed guilty and fined. Ten. Thousand. Dollars.

What Happened?

1. Obama approves $1B to be used by the TSA to install, train, and use new scanning devices (if you want to learn more about them, search for backscatter and millimeter wave scanners)
2. TSA spends time joking and more joking
3. Kids are molested (the paternal instinct in me would have had me bashing heads)
4. Passengers are threatened with legal suits for refusing both the scanner and gropings (and offering to leave the airport)
5. TSA computers are found to have had 35,000+ saved pictures on just ONE scanner (and subsequently leaked via FOIA)

Starting to get the picture? The TSA (and more and more government entities lately, it seems) is out of control and we have no one but ourselves to blame for it. Our passivity, our election day choices, and our desire to have safe, bubble-wrapped lives have brought us to this point.

The Deeper Issues

So what exactly are the underlying issues here?

1. Feel uncomfortable even when a doctor has to examine you? Now realize that the TSA is seeing you naked and you probably didn’t even think twice. Invasion of privacy much? I’m pretty sure the photographing of a person.. indecently.. is illegal. But its the government.. Who cares, right? Since when has trusting them to not misuse technology been a bad idea? That’s not even the point. They shouldn’t have access to pictures of you, me, your child, your grandparent naked. Period.
2. If you find yourself refusing the scanner, the TSA will leave no part of you physically unsearched. If a stranger performed the same search on you? Sexual assault. If a friend or relative performed the same search on you? Most likely, sexual assault. So how does the TSA justify searching a most-probably innocent person to a greater degree than a person in the process of being arrested? DEAR TSA: AT LEAST AFFORD US THE DIGNITY OF READING US OUR RIGHTS?
3. If you’ve managed to deal with the harassment of the TSA and refused both the scanner and the search, more than likely, you have on the order of a dozen armed TSA agents and police officers surrounding you. By this point you’re thinking, “No flight is worth this. I’m leaving.” Sorry, but no, you have to fill out a report and then prepare to be served a $10,000 fine, be subjected to legal procedings, and possibly barred from airline travel. Sounds like the TSA is trying to be judge, jury, and executioner, while presuming that you’re guilty until proven innocent.
4. Unless there is probable cause (and as invoking the 5th amendment doesn’t constitute probable cause, neither should refusing the scanner and search), there is no basis for the unlawful searching and detaining of a passenger in the first place. Perhaps more accurately reflecting this concept- refusing a sobriety test does constitute probable cause; however, in order to administer the sobriety test, an officer will have already had some suspicions that a driver was drunk. Still, this is a far less invasive operation. So what the TSA is saying, is that everyone passing through the security checkpoint has a default, inherent level of suspicion and you must prove yourself innocent. Well guess what TSA! I’m suspicious of YOU.
5. Health concerns regarding the backscatter scanners are warranted!

So What Can You Do? Nothing. Well, realistically nothing. Welcome to bureaucracy and a President who loves big government. Thank you population who voted him in and let him reach far, far beyond his Constitutional power.. but that’s ok, because even though he swore to uphold it, he calls it an imperfect and flawed document. Thanks to the post-9/11 terrorism-threat shroud that covers the airline industry, the government can exercise its power more and more. And believe this if you want– but there are no post-9/11 reports of airport security measures actually stopping a terrorist. Sure, there have been the random failed shoe bombers, but they were on board. Yes.. there were rigged packages destined for a synagogue, but that was a cargo plane. Can you imagine if Thomas Jefferson could see what was happening 200-some years after his “Founding Father”-hood and presidency? I bet he would be crying… weeping for his country that he dedicated his life to making. Instead we have idiots in Harlem voting back in Charles Rangel (apparently so they could watch him be found guilty of financial misconduct?). Yes.. Thomas Jefferson would be broken hearted, but he would have the guts to stand up high in the airport and proclaim the liberties afforded to us by the Constitution (Wait, I said Jefferson and not Ron Paul, right?)- a document written to LIMIT government and protect the people from government expanding beyond its bounds. At which point, he would be arrested, I’m sure.

Zomgee has sat unused for the most part for the past few years.. The casual internet usage faction has mostly died out. Personal blogs have long sat dormant and AOL Instant Message accounts haven’t been logged into for years.

What happened?

Facebook happened- further trivializing ‘friendship’ and any levels of communication we already had.

Unless you’ve had one yourself, you’ll never know the delight of getting an email notifying you that someone has commented on your blog post- especially if its someone you haven’t heard from in a while and you doubt that they even subscribed. Getting a comment on a facebook post? Not so awesome, and that’s assuming you got the notification email to begin with. Whoopdeedoo, someone you don’t even know “liked” the picture of your dog.

So what exactly happened?

With the explosion of social websites and the ability for your average Joe to have a messaging service, personal blog, myspace account, twitter account, xanga account, etc, the time was right for an integrated solution.. something that combined EVERYTHING- messaging, instant messaging, photo galleries, video posting, ‘blogging’, status updates.. It’s more efficient, for one thing, and being fully integrated means you don’t have to cross post to your blog, flickr, or twitter. You have 500M+ active users and probably up to (and above) 400 people seeing everything you do. One of the greatest things on the Internet is delivered content- RSS feeds, notification emails, and the like- mechanisms where you don’t have to go out and look for content from friends, but it comes delivered to you. Facebook does just that, and in great supply. I won’t delve into privacy issues with Facebook (more than likely, I’ll be posting a glowing review of Diaspora in the months to come).

I had a mental picture today of what blogging was like in comparison to Facebook…

Facebook is like being at a convention with everyone you know and everyone you don’t. There’s a lot of shouting and concurrent conversations going on. There might be a lot of interesting stuff, but almost too much. Blogging, on the other hand, is like inviting some friends over to your house for dinner and after-dinner games and only 1/4 showing up. It can be disappointing, but the time spent together feels more significant..

I guess one could step back even further and just invite people over to their house IRL… I mean.. most of us have our own houses now anyways. On the flip side, most of us are separated by 100+ miles and the glue that was Lamoka that held us together has lost most of its drawing-together power. :\

So don’t just casually read this. If you’ve stopped by to read this, take a second to say hi. You don’t have to register- just put in your name, email, and comment. Sit down.. take a load of.. and enjoy a board game (and maybe a LOTR marathon)

Hello all-
Not that you particularly care, but this site might experience random outages in the next 2 weeks or so while I move over to a new server and transfer the domain name to a new registrar. I pay $5 for a VPS on dreamhost, so why continue to pay $100+ a year for my account on godaddy in addition? That be like listening to Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga at the same time.

While doing some clean up on the site, I ran across a post I wrote almost a year and a half ago and never published publicly. I can’t believe how much has changed since then In the spirit of memories preserved, I’ll leave in the comments from HT and myself.

Written 12/29/2008

Within the next couple days, we’ll all be celebrating the new year and thinking back on the old one. Parties will be held, resolutions will be made, and invariably, resolutions will be broken. It’s a bit cliché now to even bring that up :\

I have to confess that no one will be as happy as me to see 2008 pass on by. Granted, there were some ups, but downs abounded… In January, one of my friends was killed, in February, my grandpa passed away, in March and April, my two best friends moved away, and so continued the rest of the year… My dog even died, for crying out loud. I became bitter, antagonistic, and hard-hearted. It was a year of disappointment, but through it all there was some joy.

Through one of the guys at work, I happened upon a website of web/flash developers and programmers… a very tight-knit, not-well-known community. Most of the people are of young adult age and several of them were going through similar situations and able to lend encouraging words and support, as well as offer advice with JQuery, SA questions and whatever other technical issues I ran into.

I also had some friends that were a bit closer, one specifically who, even though she didn’t always understand everything that was going on, was a regular source of support.

It took a while for me to realize something… even though I had lost people, either to the great end we all must meet, or the inevitable result of growing up and finding opportunities elsewhere, I can’t lose focus on the people that are still around.. who care and try to help, even when I don’t notice. It’s easy to get carried away with the bad that has happened and not see the good that is all still around.

So here’s to a great new year *raises Sobe Fuel*. May we all find joy in it and may we have the friends there to help us when we find otherwise.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock and dodging health insurance companies about getting a plan, you’ve probably heard of the passing of “Obamacare”, the gajillion dollar healthcare plan that increases federal funding to hospitals and doctors for abortions, c0ntrols what vital services people can and can’t have under the public option, and does everything in its power to increase actual insurance company premiums (gee golly, I thought it was supposed to do the opposite). In addition, it makes it downright illegal to *not* have insurance and you can be fined and prosecuted if you don’t.

I’ve railed against this many times on Facebook, so it might be getting old, but the fact is: this is an issue worth fighting for- and the Senate and House Republicans feel the same.

All night long last night, the republicans used every tool in their toolbox to stop and reverse the legislation voted on and approved by 50.3% of the house on Sunday. Eventually, two items were found to be in violation of Senate procedure. Republicans have launched a massive attempt to not only shut down, but amend the bill if the former doesn’t work. They’ve proposed 29 amendments that really don’t have much hope of succeeding, but each takes a really good shot at the legislation and would “unbalance” the legislation. Like it was balanced to begin with…

Now, most of this info is just regurgitated from the cnn.com website, but they had some … interesting …  quotes from Dem legislators. FTA:

“It’s unconscionable,” said [Sen. Carl] Levin, who as chair of the Armed Services Committee was supposed to conduct a hearing with a top U.S. military commander in Korea who had flown in for the hearing. “Our national security cannot be held hostage to disagreements over a health care policy.”

What about meeting with him on your own time? You know… maybe earn that pay raise you suddenly feel yourself deserving.

[Sen Claire] McCaskill had planned an oversight hearing on problems with contracts to train local police departments in Afghanistan. She said the Senate rule that allows the minority party to block committee action was “really dumb” and should be dropped.

“Disagree with us, debate us, vote no,” she said. “But to use a rule to stop us from working — that dog just doesn’t hunt from where I come from. That doesn’t even makes sense. That’s why people in American think we are clueless here.”

The only thing “dumb” about this is your apparent lack of vocabulary, odd idioms, and a disregard for the “rule”s which were put in place for situations exactly like this. If we must suffer under this law, lets make sure it conforms to the rules as all laws should (disregarding the fact that it doesn’t conform to the law, the Constitution).

Carl Levin continues, “It seems to me this is an example of how the obstructionism around here has gotten mindless.” Oh, yes, good sir. This is mindless. Please keep in mind that merely 39% of Americans polled were in favor of Obamacare and 59% opposed in a CNN poll this week (also setting aside the issue of representatives actually representing their constituents instead of the party line seems to be quite a thing of the past). The only mindless people are the 5% polled who have no opinion and the Dems who stop at nothing to make sure this succeeds: letters and phone campaigns, overwhelmingly negative polls, a clear breach of Constitutionality, etc.

With the recent surge in HSA-backed high deductible health care plans, health insurance can be affordable for just about everyone. That, my friends, is real reform- not adding a tax-payer backed insurance company into the mix that seeks to own everyone’s health.

This is a dangerous time, my friends. Know how your representatives voted and remember that in November.

Dude.

… Its a fact I’ve come to realize in the past week.

The only thing I ever throw out are wrappers, packing peanuts, and old homework.

I have a hard time letting go of things that meant something to me a long time ago… Letters from penpals when I was 11, notes from sermons at Lamoka when I was 15, Youth Seminar booklets and pens from when I was 17, funeral notices from when I was 21.

I still have my first official business cards- even though it took me 8 months of working at the place before I got my own. I’ve kept them even after two redesigns since then.

I have about $30 million in loose change in my room.. no lie. When I get a chance and count all the change, I’m sure I’ll have enough to pay off my mortgage.

*shudders* Mortgage. That single word is probably the most concise way to explain that you’re an adult.

I’m planning on boxing up my bowling trophies tomorrow- along with my model cars I spent countless hours painstakingly painting and assembling. Models which, in my mom’s merciless acts of cleaning while I was gone each summer, ended up on a shelf that even I can’t reach- and so they each have a dusty sheen.

I have a calendar still on the wall that my sister gave me for Christmas 2007. I made it to April 2008 and then forgot to flip the pages. Being unmotivated in such things as I am, it hangs right above where I spend my waking hours in my room- above the monitor. Worst of all, it features a horridly blue Mustang. The car itself is nauseating enough, why paint it that color?

Also littering my walls I have magazine cutouts of cars, posters of gaming greats (G-Man of HL2 fame, anyone?), the broken picture my camper bought for his mom (only broken through his carelessness, yet redeemed via my wallet for the purchase of a new one), guitars, turkey calls, dog tags, various years-worth of boogers that accumulated in oft-forgotten, rarely seen places (give me a break, I’m a boy), Eagle Scout neckerchiefs, Order of the Arrow sashes…

I have the foam nunchucks that each of the Zomgee Three won years ago at my birthday party celebration somewhere along the line. I have the silliest clothes that come no where close to fitting me, but I can’t bear to part with: the tie dye Chevy Truck shirt my brother gave me (Listen Kevin… I know its Chevy, but tie dye? really?), the Lord of the Rings Marathon that Kari (I think.. I forgot to what degree of perfection the colored glue and markers were applied) made me, the Jungle Book t-shirt I got when I was on the stage crew for yet another Terry Fyke performance (boldly emblazoned with the gawkiest cliche I could think of: The few, the proud, the stage crew), the silk Chinese shirt I won on eBay for a penny (and was shipped express from Hong Kong), and, most meaningful, one of the fleeces I always remember my grandpa wearing before he died.

To be honest, I’m not sure how my life so far has fit into one bedroom. My mom might argue that it hasn’t, as my things routinely spill out into the hall when the floorspace has been dedicated to dirty laundry, but I contend that the end of the hall is legitimately mine. I don’t know how my life will fit into this new house. Yes, there’s a billion times more space, but somehow, all this stuff seems..

irrelevant.

Pardon if I’ve waxed poetic and taken vain drama to a new level, but sometimes, when the reality of something in your life hits, you can’t do anything but write. I hate how it seems so many great things in my life have come and gone, but that’s the nature of living. I finally don’t spend my entire summer thinking about camp and wondering how the staff is doing– if campers’ faces get a bit cloudy when they ask if Tom, Pete, or myself are working “this” year only to find we’re not even in the same state anymore. Its startlingly odd knowing that many of those same campers-turned-workers will be experiencing that for the first time this summer too.

High school has come and gone.. Boy Scouts is but a memory. GCC is barely a blip in my memory, save the 6 months I spent every day trying to impress one girl. RIT seemed to drag on forever, yet I can barely recall the sight of brick building after brick building after brick building. When they found out Tom and I had gone to the same school for a spell, someone asked if we had any classes together. Rather hurriedly, I said “no”, only to realize a few awkward seconds later that we did… and it was the only class that I’ve ever gotten a C in. Well, that (being Politics in Fiction) and Discrete Math III with Yaxmi Gupta (anyone want to venture a guess why I didn’t do well in that one?).

Once again, my apologies if I’ve gone so dark that you’re beginning to feel depressed, but the sharp contrast here is this:

In two weeks, I’ll be living on my own for the first time in.. forever (minus the 2.5 month stints at camp), I’ll be married in 2 months, I’ll be enjoying Hawaii in 2.1 months , and, in 40 years, I’ll be yelling at the bratty neighbor kids to get off my lawn.

Sure, the things I’ve collected over the years may seem irrelevant now, but they’ve defined who I am. This process doesn’t stop here though, life is about adding to those memories.. loving.. being loved.. ministering.. praising God for His rich blessings– you know, those clothes that don’t fit but yet you can’t part with them.. those dusty dream cars in miniature scale.. and those letters reminding you of how you’ve touched others’ lives.

No, this isn’t another rant about how the media and advertisers are leaving out Christmas from their respective vernacular (heavily, and quite offensively handled by last night’s episode of Community)- its that time of year where I point you back to:

How not to end up in a ditch

As a bonus tip, avoid the ever-relevant “You have received a Hallmark e-Card from ‘A Friend’”, which invariably contains a link to an executable file which promptly installs itself and compromises your computer, AKA Bad news.

Merry Christmas and happy driving!

Its strange seeing a good number of people reacting negatively to the NYS Senate’s decision against legalizing gay marriage, but not many people at all reacting favorably, especially considering the ratio was greater than 3:2. Its also surprising given the definite left-leaning tendencies of the state. So what gives? O…ut of touch senators or vastly vocal minority?

Today is Oct. 22nd, marking the official release to the public of Windows 7. I’ve posted before the cheapest ways to obtain it (also, there is a 3-license Family Pack available on Newegg for $149.99)

Today marks a very historic day.. the first highly-lauded Windows release since 2001!

There has, however, been a bit of a snafu. Those of you who purchased and downloaded the copy of 7 from windows741.com may run into a problem about folder permissions upon running the installer. Gathered from here, follow these steps:

1. From within XP/Vista 32-bit, I downloaded the 64-bit version of Win7 Professional upgrade.
2. Used the installer to extract the files, but received above mentioned error.
3. Checked the file size of the folder “extendedSetup” and noticed that it was 3.01 GB.
4. Moved extendedSetup folder to root (C:\)
5. Downloaded this file and placed it into C:\WINDOWS\System32: http://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen…-l-oscdimg.zip
6. Bought up command prompt and typed the following: oscdimg -bC:\expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com -h -u2 -m -lWIN_EN_DVD C:\expandedSetup\ C:\7.iso
7. Burned ISO with ImgBurn (freeware)
8. Booted, installed, and activated

I’m trying that as we speak, so I’ll keep you posted as to if it works. Happy Windows 7 day!

EDIT: Command line syntax error.. -1 should have been -l. Its fixed above now