2010-07-05
Phase Two of the Van Buren Experiment recently got going, and I'm back to loading my pockets with dollar coins. I've written about the purpose of the Experiment before, so I won't rehash that. The base point is that dollar bills suck, and need to come out of circulation. While replacing our (self +2) personal paper dollars with dollar coins is fine, it isn't very large-scale. There must be some other way I can influence currency usage....Of course I have an idea.
In fact, this idea of mine will aid our nation on two fronts: first by pulling out paper dollars (Bad Ones) from circulation, while at the same time reducing inflation. The benefits of the former are well-known (in some circles). And inflation, as we are all aware, is a tool that the government uses to advantage when debtors (including itself). Inflation disadvantages those of us who currently hold dollars, as their value continues to be eroded over time. This invisible tax must be stopped.
Thus I present to you my plan to combat both evils. For each paper dollar mailed to me, I shall return to the sender one Inflation-Reduction Coupon. So I'll be taking out a spendable piece of paper and replacing it with a nonspendable piece of paper.
Questions?
Q: What can I get by holding an Inflation-Reduction Coupon?Trust me, this is for the good of the republic.
A: ... paper cuts?Q: Nothing else?
A: It's a token of your commitment to the cause.Q: What will you do with all the dollars you get?
A: They will be put in a box.Q: And then?
A: I will guard them, as Keeper of the Bad Ones.Q: That's it?
A: As long as they're kept in the box, they're out of circulation. Unfortunately, I can't burn them, as it's illegal to knowingly destroy or mutilate US currency. However, if a large enough quantity is acquired ($100k), I may personally export the whole stock to Timaru, where they can be destroyed outside of Uncle Sam's purview.Q: And after 100,000 people send you free cash, you're not just going to take the money and run?
A: Not at all. As stated before, the money shall stay in the box, until it reaches a certain amount. The money shall not be used for my personal gain. Once 100k is reached, I pledge to -- at my own personal peril -- escort the box to it's final demise. Naturally I'll need to spend a little to make the long journey, but I promise to hire the smallest possible luxury hovercraft available.
First seigniorage, then franking
2010-06-01
Sometime around May every year, I get hit confluence of expirations. Lease renewal. Renter's insurance renewal. Car insurance renewal.So it's hard not to reflect on things this time of year. It's also hard (for me) not to look forward, and realize that May-June would be a really good time to shake things up. It'd be pretty easy to cut and run. Since I don't have a mortgage tying me down, the closest things I have to an anchor are these annual contracts. So for a short period of time each year (right now), I could walk away from them all without penalty, and do something that's been on my list.
But that year is not this year.
Doesn't mean big life changes can't happen though. It's not necessary to move to another continent to do something big. For instance, I've decided to change my date of birth. Went right on down to the courthouse and got a judge to take care of it for me. My new date of birth is Novembuary 10.
Also, my driver's license now says that I'm an Organ Consumer.
...and it says "best if used by" instead of "expires"
2010-02-16
Over thirty billion dollars. That's how much money Apple has stated they have in current assets. Thirty billion. For reference, other tech companies such as HP, IBM, and Cisco also have tens of billions in cash. The difference is, Apple carries no debt; that $30B is free and clear.So I wonder, what are they going to do with all that money?
Things companies use "extra" money for:
- Make acquisitions
- Pay a dividend
- Buy back stock
But to be realistic, Steve's gonna need to find a much larger island if it's meant to be home to 35,000 Apple employees, plus hordes of pilgrims. Trouble is, big islands are hard to come by. Even if you're willing to pay big bucks, the most expensive options aren't that large. No Taiwans are up for sale. However, there is an alternative to scaling up, and that's scaling out: the Appletopia Archipelago. I direct your attention to Greece...
Greece is in a bind: lots of debt and a displeased public unwilling to cope with higher taxes, service cuts, and lower state wages. As a member of the Eurozone, it's possible that Greece will be bailed out by the other members. But that option isn't so popular with people in the other member states, particularly Germany, where the majority do not support financial assistance for Greece. If Greece gets stonewalled on this, there's a chance they'll get the boot from the Eurozone and go back to the drachma. With their monetary independence, they'll be able to devalue their currency to promote investment in the country. The cheap drachma will be beneficial to holders of stronger currencies, such as the US dollar. Who do we know with a lot of dollars... ah right, Apple. Apple: cash in-hand and in the island-buying market. Greece has about 1400 islands, and Apple could afford to pay over $20M for each. Compare that number to the going prices on the island real estate websites. And those prices don't take into affect the cheapness of the drachma. This is starting to look like a real possibility, innit? Just picture Steve Jobs as Poseidon, with a trident. The Apple2009-12-20
Current slogans of the major cell carriers:AT&T: We've got the biggest 3G network!
Verizon: We've got the fastest 3G network!
Sprint: We've got the first 4G network!
T-Mobile: Wein ist gorknoggerflankkensptiengupershigne von der wigglat!
Just ask Cathrine Zeta Jones
2009-09-09
Turns out that Democrats don't want death panels. The Republicans were criticizing them for this, so apparently they don't want them either. I ask: where's the support for death panels, and why don't they speak up?Thought it was about time I weigh in on this health care debate.
But I'm not going to explicitly give an opinion, but instead, a numbered list of things to consider. Here goes:
- It's all FDR's Fault - Ever wonder where our messed-up system came from? From watching Dr. Quinn and Deadwood we all know that back in the day, someone in town -- who was always named "Doc" -- would make house calls in exchange for a fee or gold or pot roast or whatever. Nowadays we travel to a doctor's office where maybe we pay some of the fee and a form gets mailed out to some organization (company or government) where they will pay a fraction of what the doctor bills them for. And some people don't have a place to have their forms sent to, so when they get sick they go to the emergency room where they're treated at the expense of people who can pay. So complicated. What happened to Doc and the pot roast?
During World War II, unemployment had fallen below 1 million. To keep inflation at bay, FDR thought it would be wise to implement wage controls. This may have helped, but corporations needed to attract workers. They couldn't do it with higher paychecks, so they expanded the compensation package to include health insurance. After this, some of the population became uninsured, and was disadvantaged because of it. Before this, almost everyone was uninsured, and it was a more equal, free market.
- The over-65 population doesn't want national health care - It's a wrong to say that the US doesn't have a public health care system. It does.... and it's called Medicare. Old people (and some others) have it. If everyone gets to use the health care system, then the biggest users of the system -- the 65+ folks -- might have a harder time getting appointments. I kind of see their point. Not that they should be more entitled to healthier than anyone else, but I have yet to hear proponents of full health care coverage ask the question...
- Where are the extra doctors coming from? - One of the reasons health care costs are high is because the AMA (yes, the organization that violated the Sherman Antitrust Act) does its best to constrain the supply of doctors. In other words, there's a monopoly on health care professionals. They support limits on med school class size under the guise of producing the best doctors, but constricting the supply increases salaries. And high professionals are more eager to pay into the organization that keeps their salary high through constricted supply, just like any union. But the tight supply hurts patients.
In Cuba, they have an oversupply of doctors. In fact, the doctors can't make enough money doctoring, so they often take up another profession instead. But I'll save my post on lifting the embargo for another day.
- People under-appreciate the gift of a known deathdate - Let's say you have an untreatable ailment, soul cancer. There's no known cure. You have 6 months to live.
Isn't that great?
I think so. You could be so carefree.... quit your job, spend all your money, do lots of drugs, travel without the worry of returning, eat anything you wanted... whatever. Most of the time, death comes unexpectedly. Perhaps death won't come by lightning strike or sudden heart attack, but even if you're simply old, you could start feeling deathly at 79 but stick around until you're 82. I'd probably wake up every morning wondering, "Am I dead yet?". It's preferable to know your time is running short, so you can say your goodbyes and wrap things up instead of letting the years drag on in a decrepit state, longing for the comfort of the grave.
Back to the soul cancer thing. Let's say "not curable" means "really expensive". Maybe treatment takes more than all of the money you've got. Do you go into debt trying to pay for the cure, only to continue life under a pile of debt with soul cancer still lingering?
I'm not saying everyone should not seek a cure, but I think people don't appreciate the option of not being treated. Back in the old days, it seems like (now, this is based strictly on TV and movies) death was just more accepted. Modern America seems to be more "clingy" grasping for any medical procedure that might make a difference. And doctors have to give it to them, lest they get hit with...
- Medical Malpractice Lawsuits - Rooted in the new American tradition of suing yourself to a better life, medical malpractice costs physicians (an in turn, those who pay them) big bucks. If the doctor doesn't order every possible blood test and the patient really did have TOWM flu, and dies, that doc is getting suited by the family. If a surgery isn't successful, good chance of a suit. Physicians need to blanket themselves in malpractice insurance if they wish to practice. And when settlements are big and the number of people treated are many, that's some pricey insurance.
- Some of the 45M uninsured Americans are ok with it - Probably not most, but some. There is not a horde of 45M Americans sick and dying for lack of insurance. Some are just young people who like their chances. I, for one, would not pay for standard health insurance for myself. And because of this...
- Not requiring everyone to have health insurance increases rates - Think of what would happen if only bad drivers got car insurance.
- Health insurance isn't treated as insurance - People use it as a club membership. Health care can be abstractly described in units (HCUs). Maybe an HCU consists of 30 minutes of a doctor's time, plus examination room space for that half hour, some equipment, blood work processing, whatever. The point is there is a finite number of HCUs, and they're getting spent on runny noses when they could be better spent elsewhere. But the insured can use the doctor's office like the gym, just stop by whenever they feel like it. This is not to say preventative care isn't worthwhile. Seeking preventative care will usually save HCUs (since they won't need to be spent later down the road). Unfortunately....
- Insurers don't treat their members as investments - at least some of them. Getting regular teeth cleaning will likely reduce the need for fillings in the future. And insurers want to pay out the least amount possible, so they'll keep paying for regular cleanings. But for patients in their 50s, the incentive starts to disappear, as members migrate to Medicare. From the insurer's perspective, it's best to not pay for the cleanings any more, and let Medicare foot the bill in a few years.
- The current system isn't a good example of a free market system - If a town only had one doctor and lots of patients, it wouldn't be a very free market, would it? The doctor would command pricing power since the people only have access to one doctor. Many local markets across the US have a dominant health insurer. Having to go through a single middleman to gain access to health care isn't much different than the one doctor scenario. Further, most people get their insurance from their employer; this limits choice (as people would "need" to job hop) and choice is a core component of the free market.
Because of this, the current argument of what we have now vs. universal health care isn't defined correctly: 1) we haven't had a real free market for many, many years 2) the Obama plan isn't really universal care, which I consider to be a single-payer (Canada-style) system.
- I don't want to pay for smokers and fat people - Universal health care evokes images of going to the hospital to get fixed up, without having to worry about payment or filling out forms. Or maybe a scene with someone going to the nearest doctor's office without worrying if she's "in-network" or not. But what I think about when someone says "universal health care" is smokers and fat people.... time bombs just waiting to go off. Because of bad decisions or lack of will, Smoking Man is going to be chugging tons of HCUs that could instead be used to prevent future health problems for dozens of people. I haven't heard of a solution to address this.
- We're going to need death panels - Insurance won't cover all procedures. To be at all sane, the government, acting as an insurance agent, will also have to make choices. Say I have a rare ailment (soul cancer again?). There is one specialist in Istanbul who can perform an experimental surgery with a 20% success rate, at the cost of $1M. Should the government pay for this? I wouldn't expect it to. Similarly, if an 80 yr old person requires intensive treatment for the rest of his life -- perhaps 5 additional years -- I think the government may balk at paying for it. It goes back to point #11, the HCU chugging problem. Either the tough decision has to be made, or #3 needs to be solved. And I'm not optimistic about the latter.
2009-05-25
On my own tonight. Roaming the streets of the El Raval district of Barcelona. My first destination, a restaurant, was closed. Restaurants here have uneven hours: closed two days of the week, open only for lunch, short hours on Fridays, etc. My backup destination, next door, didn't really seem suitable for dinner.So I started to wander.
LP had another recommendation that was not too expensive, and was open for sure. But it was some distance from my starting point. El Raval is not touristy like Barri Gothic, where the sights are, nor for being vacant like La Zona Alta, where our hotel is. It's not a total slum, but if you're looking for low rent, this is the place.
The streets are stone, narrow, and are often too small to be marked on my map. It reminded me of Cuzco, minus the hills. Naturally, I missed a few lefts and skipped a few rights along the way to La Bibiloteca and my walk turned into a tour. I happened upon a street game to cricket, a Spaniard wearing a Phillies cap (!), a singing quintet of winos, a statue of a giant cat, and some homeless people. As I walked by the mobile phone store Cell Red, I became aware that my surroundings were changing, notably the hooker's shoe landing on my thigh. After returning it (I'm such a gentleman) I dodged the second lady of easy virtue, but there was no getting around the third. She latched on tight, and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. She also wouldn't accept any of my excuses and gestures. At "no español" she paused, then replied, "lessgofuck", which made me laugh. By the time we reached the end of the street, I threw down the hammer: "no dinero". And she waved goodbye.
Finally, I got to La Biblioteca. After two hours of walking, eschewing touristy eateries near parks and town squares I was prepared to eat some real Catalan food. Yet what do I find inside? A bunch of friggin' Americans. Arguing over the merits of Goldmember.
But hey, there's pigeon on the menu!
Serisously, the cat was like, 9ft. tall
2009-05-16
For the past few years -- particularly around here -- gay marriage has been a hot topic. I am against state-sanctioned gay marriage. In fact, I'm against all government-sanctioned marriage. Back in the day, marriage was an agreement between a man and a woman resulting in the transfer of the woman to the man's family. The couple could have their marriage recorded at the church, if they chose. Eventually, the Church hijacked the whole thing, and marriages were required to be performed before a priest. After all it was a sacrament, and at the time, everyone was Catholic (or would soon be "persuaded" to become one). The clergy were inserting themselves into the ceremony to keep tabs on the flock (and to get invited to the receptions). The Protestants, not being down with Catholic councils, conferences, conclaves, congresses, or convocations, pitched the marriage-granting powers over to the state to handle. Religion wasn't yet separate from the state at this time though (Church of England) but eventually would be. And that pretty much brings us to today, where a man and a woman can marry in the eyes of the state, and also, separately be married according to their religion.But.... why?
Running through that brief history above, you can see that marriage started almost informally, with recognition of neighbors, but is now a state-controlled union with all sorts of legal streamers attached to it. It's the state's job to take care of legal issues, sure. But why must of host of legal consequences be packaged up into marriage? For instance, I have designated that upon my death, my group life insurance benefit will go to a specific nonprofit organization. However, if I marry, this benefit then goes to my wife. I would need to resubmit a form -- with my wife's consent -- to get things back into the state they are today. Why is such a thing change simply because I marry? I though it was about fidelity and love.... and now death benefits?
My view is this: I think we have enough lawyers and government offices in existence that anyone should be able grant whatever rights are ordinarily associated with a marriage, to any other person/people they desire. Today, "marriage" means a lifelong commitment to someone else, with the someone else getting a whole bunch of legal claims in the process. The commitment should be between the two people on a personal level, and all that legal entitlement stuff should be up to the person who is directly affected to grant in any way to any amount of people. Maybe your kids get your life insurance benefits and you give your brother guardianship rights over medical issues.
I guess you could call it marriage debundling.
Quit hasslin' me!
2009-01-04
There are some words that just sound different than what they are. Phonetically, one meaning triggers in my brain that's different than the actual definition. For instance, "tardy". Nice and short; quick to say. Does it mean "early"? Nope, just the opposite. It's supposed to be a negative word. Switch it up a little and it becomes "tawdry", which is easily recognizable as a negative word.Here's another one: "druthers". Am I the only person who thinks that "druthers" should be synonymous with "pants"? Picture: some trailer park, around 4pm on a Sunday:
Wife: Horace! Git yer druthers on, we got comp'ny!If not directly synonymous with pants, at least a type of pants.
And synapses are suspenders that you can use with druthers.
Give me enough time and I'll redo the whole dictionary
2008-12-02
The UK Post Office has a new campaign this holiday season: it's urging people to donate foreign currency that's sitting around at home. According to this article, there is an estimated £510M of the stuff in the UK alone. Foreign coins don't do much good to their holders -- can't spend them locally -- but would do a lot of good for a charity. A half-billion pound windfall; that would be something big.Something similar happens in the NYC area, the Common Cents/Penny Harvest people use school urchins to collect millions of pennies for charity every year. Same idea as above: non-circulating currency doesn't help anyone.
So out of curiosity, I decided to add up how much foreign currency I have around. It's inevitable that I'll bring some of it back after traveling. Also, when selling t-shirts, sometimes people would mail me currency from abroad as payment (I have an accept-all policy, since I plan to eventually travel everywhere). I have each currency in an individual envelope, held together with a binder clip. Let's add it up:
| Currency | Amt. | = USD |
|---|---|---|
| Euro | 32.58 | 45.36 |
| Czech Koruna | 8.5 | 0.45 |
| Canadian Dollar | 15.56 | 12.76 |
| Nuevo Sol | 263.20 | 84.73 |
| Total | 143.30 |
I'll note that the amount of CZK is so low because Dave and I decided to gamble away most of what we had left on our last day in Prague. Dan refused, so we knew there was enough currency between the three of us if we needed it.
Anyway, I at least have a lot more foreign currency than I was aware. How about you?
How many hellers will you give me for 3 centimos?
2008-11-03
Chicken or beef?It's election week, but it feels more like sitting in coach than anything else. There is the illusion of a choice, but in the end, we're still getting airline food.
Yeah, I'm glad to know that Dubya will be out soon. Obama will be president. But consider: which former presidency will Obama's presidency most closely resemble? Yeah, Dubya's. He'll start things off with a stimulus package, tax cut, and increase in military budget. Over the couse of his term, we'll see more nuke and coal power plants, US-fueled killing of Palestinians, and the continuation of corporate welfare. And of course, it's unlikely that he'll go back on his stance on FISA and telecom immunity.
Now go back and sub "McCain" for "Obama" in the previous paragraph. Same story.
Turning from current issues, there are several election process problems that will doubless go unfixed: closed debates, the electoral college, and rediculous ballot access hurdles. Not fixing these will impede us from electing someone who will deal with the above issues. It seems like every other developed country (and some not-so-developed!) is running a new version of democracy, and we're still at 1.0.
So pick: chicken or beef? There may be some additional choices if you have special dietary needs (5 in NY, 2 in PA), but between the two majors, I'm unsatisfied.
The only way to waste your vote, is to vote.
2008-07-17
"Follow the blue line," said the man at the gate. I had just exited the Museo Rafael Larco Herrera, a museum full of many, many pots and clay Inca men figurines with giant wangs.
So I followed the blue line. And followed it. And followed it. I finally arrived at another museum, this one focusing on the archological and anthropological past of Peru. And yeah, there were more pots there too. Also a small display on the importance of the potato. I was happy to see that.
I like the blue line idea; it's a great way for the government to get tourists to hit two museums instead of just one. And it's a convenient way to find your way somewhere, once I figured out that the line did indeed lead somewhere.
The Austrian I had met yesterday had given me her admission ticket to see the mummies; she wasn't planning on returning to Lima Cento, and I was. So I was headed to see that museum, for the second day in a row. On my way, I stopped to take some pictures in one of the plazas.
That's when I was intercepted.
A Peruvian man approached me and asked where I was from... he was a little surprised that I was American, and said I could have passed for someone fom Lima ("not Peru; only Lima"). But he was glad I spoke English, and asked to practice (this also happened yesteday while I was walking around with the Austrian). I obliged, and he showed me a colonial house, a church, and the skull of his favorite saint. Always good to see a skull once in a while. Our conversation was very much like something out of a foreign language class: what type of music do you like? what do you do on the weekends? do you have any brothers or sisters? what is your job?
He then asked if I was going to Machu Picchu. I told him I was, but hadn't arranged transporation yet. He offered (almost demanded) to take me to a ticket vendor, assuring me that it would be cheaper than buying at the airport. So we went. The ticket office was a storefront with two desks inside. For a one-way trip, they quoted me $115. This sounded about right to me, and was much better than the quote of a US deal site I had checked earlier ($400). I handed the dude some cash, and he disappeared. For like an hour. Diego saw that I was getting iritated, and asked me how we do airline tickets in the States. I told him that we pay with a credit card and print them out at home. He said he thinks that Peru needs more technology. Damn straight!
The guy finally returned (it was now dinnertime), clutching a half-sheet dot-matrix printout. "This is my ticket?" I asked. Diego looked it over and told me that everything was alright. It was around this point that I started to wonder if I had booked myself on a Poultry Express turboprop. Or was I just being ignorant about how things are done in other parts of the world? I headed back to my hotel to do some research; it turns out that Star Peru is a fine airline, they fly real jets, and $115 is an acceptable price for a ticket.
Anyway, I never did get to see those mummies.
Llama count: 0
2008-07-16
A small pitcher of yellow something is sitting on my table. Well, our table... I was seated across from a guy who doesn't seem like he wants me there. I noticed when I was ushered in that everyone had one of these pitchers on their table; no water. I asked the waitress what it was; she said, "agua y...<other stuff>". Tastes kind of lemony and sweet, but a warm beverage isn't quite what I wanted. My order of bistec y papas fritas should be here soon. There's a Coke coming with that.The waitress smiles at me as she passes, seeing that I'm writing in a notebook. Maybe she thinks I'm writing for an American travel magazine. Alternatively, she might suffer from facial muscle spams that force her to smile as she walks. I'm pretty sure those are the only two possibilities; bases covered.
I arrived in Lima last night. At around 12:30a, I cleared customs and emerged into a waiting throng of people shouting and holding signs. Usually at the airport, you'd see a handful of drivers waiting around, but this was more of an Nsync fanclub welcoming committe. Luckily for me, Augusto positioned himself well, and I spotted him quickly and we got out of there.
Augusto said he couldn't speak much English, but we were able to have a conversation as we rode back to the hotel. The hotel (like most of the tourist hotels) was in Miaflores, the district which Augusto calls "Lima's greatest victory", since it most closely replicates America. It was dark, so I couldn't assess that at the moment. Augusto dropped me at the hotel.
Can you tell that I like typing "Augusto"?
My room was smallish, with a TV, desk, A/C, and a bathroom with one towel. The window showed some neighboring rooftops. You can see in the pic (top of the grey and top of the yellow) some black metal tanks. As far as I can tell, their solar-heated water containers. Judging from the lack of water pressure in my shower, I think the hotel might be using one too.
After lunch, I went to check out the mummies, at the place where my cab driver dropped me off. But the gates were chained up and people were protesting. From the materials someone handed to me, it seems like it was university teachers upset with the president not keeping his promises (similar). So chains, a bunch of riot police on standby, and no mummies for Chris.
But also waiting at the chained gate was a girl, who also wanted to see the mummies, and spoke English. So it worked out.
Walking along, we were soon chased down by some Peruvian teenagers, wanting to interview us for a school project. They were in an English class and needed to interview English speakers. We obliged, but it was hard to answer their questions about what we thought of Peru, since each of us had been their only one day. But the students were pleased; since we counted as 2 interviews (they needed 3). By now, a classroom full of Peruvian kids know that I'm a dumb American who is visiting Peru for Machu Picchu and the papas fritas.
The Austrian and I split a cab back to Miaflores, and I eventually got some dinner.... that part is unimportant. Then I played some Time Crisis. Also unimportant. What IS important is that I happened to have some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted. At about 11, on my way back to my hotel, I decided to stop into this restaurant for a single dip cone. I asked the owner to give me her favorite flavor and paid. Five steps out the door I discovered how great it really was. I had a love afair with it all the way back to my hotel. And I have NO IDEA what it is. The texture was different too; not so much ice-y creamy, more like cookie dough. It wasn't fruity, and didn't have chunks of chocolate or nuts or anything. It's a mystery. I shall do some recon later.
"Too many cars horning their horns!"
2008-05-06
Roomba has been acting up again.I got home and walked in my back door, and there he was, waiting. It was kind of eerie:
Me: Roomba, what are you doing? I didn't put you there.I had started Roomba in the bathroom. He usually does the bathroom alone, then calls for me to move him out so he can do the rest of the apartment. But this time he didn't need human intervention.
Roomba: Bee-bee-beep!
Me: Shutup. Back in your pen!
There was a similar incident last week (I didn't blog about it, so as not to cause a panic), where he attempted to enter the bathroom on his own. He made it in, but got stuck. Not this time. Seems his abilities are improving.
This is how it starts...
2008-04-14
Came across this the other day:
"By the 1990s that talent, the knack for Want Creation, for appealing to the desire of people to buy things they don't need in some hope of proving they Are Someone, had begun to eclipse all other talents/knacks involved in propelling the modern American economy."It was from an article on American Apparel, but I think it's a pretty true sentence that can stand by itself. I've posted previously about Need Inflation, and hey, maybe it has something to do with the increase in people who have jobs creating wants, and then trying to morph wants into needs. Am I blaming "them" for the problem? Of course not; I'm a firm believer in personal responsibility. But I can see a link between Want Creation and Need Inflation.
Be aware.
2008-03-27
During my first-round interview for Morgan Stanley, one of the questions the interviewer asked was, "How many piano tuners are there in New York?"The first part of "passing" this question is not to freeze. Realize that the question is more about how you answer than the answer itself. Wrong answer is, "I don't know".
My correct answer started with a clarification ("New York City, right?) to get more data and buy some time. After that I started rolling with a series of linked assumptions until I got to a number that sounded pretty good.
Why do I bring this up? Because there have been many times since then where "I don't know" seems right, but "pretty good" got me a lot farther with only a little extra work.
tuners = (9000000 * .01 * 1) / 4 / (5 * 52 - 7)
2008-02-29
For me, one of the joys in life is a long hot shower. As a kid, I was often accused of taking showers that were "too long" by the rest of my family. A shower that is too long is the equivalent of saying that the water heater is too small. This is one of the reasons I shower at night: no complaints and lots of hot water. At Marist, I could shower for hours and no one would care, 'cause it was 1:30am.Here at the apartment, the water can get pretty hot. Turned all the way to "H", it pretty much just comes out as steam from the showerhead. I like to keep it one notch below that. It's still pretty hot. When it's on, the bottom of the shower curtain is actually blown aside as the cool air from outside the shower rushes in to displace the rising steamy air. After about 25 minutes or so, the air gets really steamy, and it becomes difficult to breathe. Then I think to myself, "What if all this water vapor in my lungs suddenly condensed? Would I drown? Could I be setting myself up for pneumonia? Am I TAKING MY LIFE INTO MY HANDS ON A NIGHTLY BASIS?"
But then I figure, hey, I drink my orange juice every morning. I'll be ok.
Did you know that Danica McKellar wrote a math book last year? That's pretty cool. I always like to find out when an actor has some brains. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's kind of hot. Ordinary actor? Wouldn't talk to them in public. Danica McKellar? Fo' sho'. I'd be like, "Hey Danica, lemme show you a little something about binomials raised to the power of hotness."
No I wouldn't.
"Thank GOD he stopped talking about mortgages"
2008-02-22
As soon as I submitted my last post on buying vs. renting, I knew that the following post was going to discuss things left out and other assumptions made but not stated. And I even got some help with this one, from current renters and homeowners. Here we go:Revisions/refinements:
- I had mentioned that the $40k used for downpayment on the house could be invested, but I didn't include this in my calculations. At the bond rate, $40k would compound to nearly $160k over 30 years. With the stock ETF it would be $340k.
- You can deduct property taxes levied by the city, county, and state from your income taxes.
- I forgot to include some taxes: county, town, library, and fire. These are all individually much smaller than the school property tax, but still significant (a few thousand per year). For the 18936 house, they are about $1k/yr (no fire or library taxes there).
- The way I figured the tax deductions isn't entirely correct. While the numbers are right and you do deduct them, when comparing against an apartment rental, only the amount over the standard deduction matters. Look at it this way, you always get the standard deduction, if you rent or own a house or whatever. Only if you can deduct an amount above that do the deductions become a factor. So for a married couple filing jointly in 2007, your total deductions minus $10700 would be your mortgage advantage over renting.
- I didn't account for laundry. When renting, it's assumed that you pay per load of laundry at a laundromat, whereas many homeowners have their own washer and dryer. For use of machine, electricity, and water, I spend $7 per month to wash clothes. Washing machines cost around $700, so it would pay for itself in about 8 years, excluding electricity, water, and repair.
- There was a question on why the mortgage interest tax deduction seemed low. This is because I use the interest deduction from year 15 so I could get the median deduction amount over a 30-year period. Mortgage interest payments decline over time, so using the year 1 amount would be misleading, since you'd never be able to deduct an amount that high again. A better table would show all 30 years with a side-by-side comparison.
- I didn't fill in the costs for appliance replacement, snow removal, etc. That's what the "?"s are for!
- I neglected to mention that if the savings are held in a Roth account, the gains are not subject to tax. Therefore the transaction cost would only be the trading commission.
- The $500k tax-free profit from selling a home is the amount for married couples; single people get half that
- I had said that not having a garage is hard on your car. It was pointed out to me that driving on NY's salty roads will cause more wear in the form of rust than having it sit outside in a lot. This may be true, but I didn't put a dollar figure on the wear since it's hard to quantify. Car wear is just something to consider.
- I had used the average American heating bill when factoring in the cost of heat. Someone pointed out that this might be higher in NY than in other parts of the country. I couldn't find any specific numbers for Dutchess county, but in the northeastern US (Philly, Boston, NYC, Buffalo), annual costs range from $1100-1600.
- Owning a house gives you more of a change to pursue alternative energy methods, be it burning wood or installing solar panels on the roof.
- If you are going to have kids or want to play the drums, an apartment is less of an option for you.
- I had stated that going from an apartment to a house is a lifestyle upgrade, since it's difficult to find any 650 sq. ft. houses. It was suggested that I could compensate for this in terms of space and money by renting part of the house to a roommate. This is a good idea, but would introduce landlord factors, such as vacancy rate, late payments, and crackheads.
- The expense ratio of the stock index ETF would not change
- The mortgage would never be refinanced
- All costs rise equally with inflation
- The house would not be physically harmed by an uninsured event (flood, etc.)
- Reassessment of the home property doesn't doesn't drastically affect taxes owed on it (ie: property taxes are only impacted by inflation)
- The US Federal Government doesn't default
Also, as far as researching cost of living and things, City-Data.com has a crap ton of information on housing and taxes and, well, everything really. Did you know that 1% of housing units in Dutchess County lack complete plumbing facilities? Or that 4.3% of residents speak other Indo-European language at home in Montgomery County? Strewth!
Once you say an "H", it's just hanging there, pouting, like a prostitute on a streetlamp
2008-02-15
After moving off campus, I became very aware of my personal budget. College is kind of funny in that housing is paid per-semester (a few months). Food budget is kind of a mishmash of groceries, school food, not eating, and mooching. Working and living on-campus, the car didn't get much use. And so on. But being on my own, it became very clear how much it costs to exist.The rule of thumb is that your housing cost should be no more than 1/3 your monthly income. Rent is my biggest expense, and does clock in at the expected rate (28%). But what do I get for paying rent? I pay it every month, but the only benefit I get from it is the right to stick around? Seems like a waste.
The feasible alternative to paying rent is paying off a mortgage (and living in the house that goes with it). When you make mortgage payments, part of each payment goes back to you in the form of equity, until you make the last payment and the house is all yours. On the surface, this seems like a better deal, since I would eventually get something for making these monthly payments. But is a blanket statement such as, "mortgage payments are better than rent payments" really true?
Pull out your other hand; we have another rule of thumb: "if you live in the same area for 3/5/7 years, you'd be better off buying a house than paying rent." Someone put a little thought into this rule, factoring in that the amount of home appreciation over a few years would likely be canceled out by the fee (4-7%) that the Realtor takes at the time of sale. And if there isn't any value in it for you, might as well just rent. But is even this always a true statement? 3-7 years, is that true for everyone in every housing market?
No more thumbs; I'm gonna figure this out. The only way to tell if one decision is "worth it" over another decision is to compare the price of the two with the benefits of the two. Let's do it:
| Yearly Payments | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | Rent | |
| Roof, 4 walls | 11760 | 11340 |
| Insurance | 550 | 100 |
| Int. Deduction | (1852) | - |
| Equity Gained | (4476) | - |
| Property Taxes | 6400 | - |
| Heat | 977 | - |
| Water | 200 | - |
| Sewer Rental | 600 | - |
| Trash pickup | 360 | - |
| Electricity | >960 | $960 |
| Lawn care | ? | - |
| Snow/leaf removal | ? | - |
| Appliances | ? | - |
| Repairs | ? | - |
| Furnace/HVAC | ? | - |
| Roofing | ? | - |
| Driveway upkeep | ? | - |
| Siding/exterior paint | ? | - |
| Other taxes? | ? | - |
| Total | >$17,146 | $11,440 |
Things not factored in:
- apt: wear on cars not kept in a garage
- house: having a well and septic tank instead of city water and sewer
- house: any non-maintenance home improvements
- apt: the freedom of moving out quickly
- house: the freedom to modify the structure
Ok, so it looks like owning a home costs a bit under $6k more than an apartment for a year. Between the two, all costs are sunk with the exception of the principal portion of the mortgage payment, which was taken into account. There are three more items to consider when comparing the two over time: inflation, home value appreciation, and return on savings.
Inflation: one of the benefits of having a mortgage is having your monthly housing costs fixed for a long period of time. That is, the monthly payment is not affected by inflation, so in real terms, the monthly cost is reduced over time, saving you money. We can use a calculator to figure out how inflation affects things. I used the numbers above, 3.5% for the inflation rate, 25% tax bracket, 0% for both home appreciation and return on savings (we'll cover this later), and 2% for annual rent increases (my increase this year was only 1%). Over 30 years, I'd save about $50k by renting over owning a home.
Home value appreciation: people often call their home their biggest investment. As equity increases, a home becomes a bigger and bigger store of value. Add to that home value appreciation, and you should end up being able to sell your house for more than you paid. Since 1890, home values have doubled in real terms. Interestingly enough, the same statement is true from 1945 (the Great Depression was a bitch). Using another calculator, we find that between 1945 and 2007, the compound annual growth rate for home prices is 1.12%. If you add that to the inflation rate, that's 4.62%.
Special note: home prices have increased dramatically over the past decade. Following the trend line (where home prices "should" be) instead of using current prices, the price increase of a home would be only 25% higher in real terms over the past 62 years; not 100%. This would result in a compound annual growth rate of .36%, or 3.86% factoring in inflation. If you think home prices will fall back in line with the historical trend, use this number instead of the one above.
Alright, so let's say that houses appreciate at 4.62% annually. If we throw this back into the calculator, we find that owning a home would save us about $165k over 30 years. Home value appreciation sure helps, huh?
Return on savings: We have found that the sunk costs of maintaining a home (upkeep, taxes, interest) are higher than renting an apartment by about $6k, at least for the first year. Where does that money go? And what about the $40k that was used as the down payment on the house? And closing costs on the mortgage? That money can be invested. Paying off a mortgage forces you to save, since a portion of each payment is returned to you in the form of home equity. But if you have the willpower to save on your own, you can make use of the cash not spent on sunk home costs and invest it. Let's say you're ultra conservative and invest in US Treasury I-bonds. They have a maximum life of 30 years (convenient!). Their rate varies over time; you get a fixed rate when you buy (currently 1.2%) which is added to the current inflation rate. We'll assume 3.5% again for inflation, and use 4.7% as the before tax return rate on our savings. Our calculator now tells us buying a home would result in about $14,600 in savings over 30 years.
What about other investments? Let's go with a low-cost S&P500 index fund. This is a relatively stable, diversified investment. From 1950 (close enough to 1945), the compound annual growth rate of the S&P was 7.47%. We'll assume this trend continues, and use this as our rate of return on savings. But first we'll adjust that down to 7.4% to account for the expense ratio of the fund. The calculator now tells us that renting would save us $72k over 30 years.
Special note: "value" of either a home or investment owned is not the same as the dollar value you would get upon selling, as it does not factor in transaction costs or taxes. For US treasury bonds, you will need to pay federal taxes on interest earned, although you are exempt from state and local taxes. For stocks, the tax rate varies based on income. Currently, capital gains on a home are not taxed up to $500k. However, the transaction fees for selling a house are much higher compared to other investments; 6% Realtor commission plus home inspection and other fees, compared to no transaction cost for government bonds, $30 roundtrip for stocks.
Alright, so what do we know? It looks like if you are smart with your money, you will make out better renting as opposed to buying. In Poughkeepsie, NY that is. It was a bit unfair to run these numbers for a house in NY state, since everything is comparatively expensive. Let's do a quick rerun of the numbers for the same house in 18936:
| Yearly Payments | |
|---|---|
| Mortgage | |
| Roof, 4 walls | 11760 |
| Insurance | 640 |
| Int. Deduction | (1852) |
| Equity Gained | (4476) |
| Property Taxes | 4000 |
| Heat | 977 |
| Water | 64 |
| Sewer Rental | 304 |
| Trash pickup | 360 |
| Total | $11,777 |
In conclusion, we find that the whole process is very complex. I don't like to trust a rule of thumb when dealing with so much money. Treating a mortgage payment like a rent payment isn't apples-to-apples. Think of all the things to be considered: mortgage rate, inflation, return on savings, home appreciation, insurance, heating, water, sewer, trash collection, snow and leaf removal, taxes, roofing, HVAC, driveway upkeep, appliances, repairs, freedom to move, freedom to alter, liquidity, Realtors. When you're buying a house, you're not replacing an apartment; you're getting a lifestyle upgrade. There aren't many 1-bedroom houses on the market first of all, and secondly much less is taken care of for you as a homeowner. While moving from campus to an apartment was an eye opening experience, the fact of the matter is that even as a renter a lot of costs are shielded from you. This exercise shows how much stuff really needs to be taken care of in order to live in the Average American Home.
I went to the Apartment Depot; just a whole buncha people standin' around saying, "I don't have to fix shit"
2008-02-02
I was eating baby carrots this week, and have made a startling discovery: the SIZE OF THE CARROTS IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE SIZE OF THE BAG they come in. Seriously. When I was young and ignorant (last week), I had just assumed that all baby carrots are, you know, baby carrots. That is to say, baby-carrot sized. Turns out that they come in different sizes! And here I thought I was getting way more carrots by buying the bigger bag. Looks like ya slipped one by, Green Giant!I'm ready for winter to be over. Right now is the precise worst time of the year (ie: any time during February), and I want out. It's not even particularly cold, and the grass isn't full of stale snow. Is it the dreariness that gets me? Doesn't help, but I think it has more to do with my need to hibernate. I should be in a cave right now, fulfilling my mammillian duty. You ever start taking a nap after lunch and wake up just in time for dinner? Isn't that the best? That's what I want, 'cept it'll be lunch on 12/30 and dinner on 3/15. Bit more of a spread.
2008-01-17
I infultrated the Dutchess County Obama campaign office tonight. It was their grand opening. Since I've been doing research on the candidates, I thought I should check it out. And if there was a time to do it, the grand opening was that time.I managed to sneak in undetected, using an alias on the sign-in sheet. The volunteers manning the door were obviously novices, as they didn't even frisk me. I could have smuggled in some Clinton campaing buttons or blackmail materials. But I'm not that kind of guy.
The place was small, but what I had expected. Watching the fouth season of The West Wing prepares me for all of this. It was a rather crowded place; shoulder-to-shoulder. Pretty much everyone there was either a man or a woman, between the ages of .7 and 200. I milled around, seeing what the Obama supporters had done to turn some empty office space into a campaign headquarters. There were buttons and bumper stickers for sale, magic marker posters on the wall, and photos of Obama. In the back, there was an older black man banging on a keyboard next to a table of doughnut holes. The other side of the room had another table; this one hosted the "Issues" poster, consisting of printouts highlighted with green marker. I used my miniature camera disguised as a cantaloupe to photograph the materials. I'll be faxing the photos to the other candidates very soon.
I left after the organizers gave their speeches (and begged for volunteer canvasers). My opinion didn't really change; I'd still like to see a McCain/Obama ticket. But it was interesting to see what type of people are Obama supporters.
In related news, I took a quiz on 2008 presidential candidates. The format isn't bad: you pick your favorite (not cited) responses to 25 campaign questions, and then weight that issue according to its importance to you. At the end you are told which candidate is right for you. I got Fred Thompson and John Edwards, both unexpected. I honestly wouldn't be able to say more than a single fact about either of them. Guess I should go look 'em up.
Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others
2008-01-11
Why are we sending our money overseas? We have our own problems to deal with here.This is a question that has arisen when describing Kiva. So I'll answer it.
- It's easy to get credit here - here in the developed world, financial institutions are falling over themseleves to give us credit. Just about anyone would be able to start a small business with no more than a credit card. I have an available credit line or tens of thousands of dollars. The rate would be 10%, but someone with home equity could secure even lower rates. You want instant credit in the developing world? Try 20% interest per day. That makes 10% monthly interest on a credit card seem almost charitable.
- LC/$ - the Lives Changed per Dollar rate is higher abroad, due to currency exchange (yes, even still). $200 can startup a business in Cambodia.
- Everyone diserves one chance - no one should have to live in poverty, but it's saddest those who have never known anything besides. The majority of people here in the States were given some sort of chance duriving their lives; let's distribute the chances until everyone gets at least one. Seconds and thirds will come around eventually.
- It's empowering - in many of the countries where Kiva has field partners, women have a limited set of rights. Capitalism allows them to grow on their own, without relying on a husband. Independence promotes societal growth and democracy.
Don't blow it
2007-12-30
There isn't a whole lot to do in prison. There's even less to do in solitary confinement. In prison you risk being attacked by butt raiders, but solitary can break your head. It's borderline torture being locked alone in a room for 23 hours. So rather than wait, I like to think now about what I would do to get through it.This is one of those things you should be prepared for, the same reason you have a spare tire in your car or how you install a bathroom in your house before you have to pee.
I theorize that people with small minds crack the soonest. Those who have a lot to think about make it the longest. So that's the first thing: have a lot for the mind to work on. First, I'd start a routine. This doesn't have much to do with the mind, but it chews up time do I need to spend less time thinkin'. It doesn't matter how little I'd have to work with in my cell, I'd make up a routine. Pace 300 times, 40 jumping jacks, trace the wall up and down in one inch segments. The I'd go to work. In my mind, I'd be constructing something, like a house. I'd take 8 hours per day to do that, plank by plank, nail by nail. After I was done with work, I'd have "free time". It's important to not treat all the time as free time. Gotta keep it structured: routine, work, free time. With my free time, I'd philosiphize, sing all the songs of all my CDs (alphabetically, in track order), come up with a lot of stories, and recite entire plays, movies, and TV shows.
Yeah, I'm ready for this. In fact, I may be an ideal candidate for solitary confinement. Can't wait to get to prison. Straight to solitary (unless the place is something like this).
It's kinda like that Creed song
2007-12-24
I was watching the news tonight, and they had a story on the Cardinal visiting a local jail to say Christmas mass. The reporter covering the story interviewed both inmates and the Cardinal, referring to the inmates as "criminals". The Cardinal consistently referred to them as "prisoners".I wonder if anyone else noticed.
The Cardinal, naturally, quoted the Bible. Something about Jesus... and that got me to thinking: when will Jesus pick up a new nickname? He was gathering them at a pretty good clip back in the day: King of Kings, Holy of Holies, Son of God, Lamb of God, King of Kings, Bread of Life, Prince of Peace, etc. I found a list of suggestions, but I don't think any of them are official. This is probably because they break tradition by not using "of".
I'm open to suggestions.
Behold the power of cheese
2007-10-29
Went to the dentist today and got a clean bill of health. Well, my moutherly parts anyway. Everyone else in my family is getting hit with oral surgery this year; a winner is me.I celebrated with a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles.
It's Monday, so I stopped by the lunch meat counter after work. Sure enough, a black guy was on staff at that time. This isn't out-of-the-ordinary; in fact, because my grocery trips are so regular, we kind of both expect to see each other on Mondays. A quarter pound of capicola is the first thing I order, just to let him know everything's goin' ok. But eventually it comes time to order cheese, I just hate shouting "half pound, white American!" over the counter to a black guy. I feel like White Power Bill ("Whi Pa'r!").
Maybe I should just switch to orange cheese.
I know I've been slow to post for the past few months. It's not that posts don't exist -- they do -- they're just not done. I'll backpost as time allows. This is why I'll never be a real blogger: I'm up-to-date three months late. If I were smart, I'd write posts from the future, and then I'd never be behind.
Standin' in line, for government cheese....
2007-10-06
Caught a guy at the supermarket today finishing the self checkout process who "forgot" he had a case of ginger ale under his cart. I called him on it. He sheepishly did the "whoops, forgot" palm-to-forhead motion, then proceeded to scan the case. But the register wouldn't take it: "Please wait for a store representative..."Vigilante Justice.
People sometimes ask me, "If you weren't a computer programmer, what would you be?" I think that its pretty clear that if I could no longer depend on my training in IT, I'd have to rely on my vigilante skills. Beating up bullies 15 years my junior, intercepting college applications from kids whose parents wrote their essay, starting a pirate tv/radio station to inform the public of the dangers of HFCS and gingivitis, replacing the golden master for Windows Vista with a copy of Ubuntu, popping popcorn for everyone at the movie theatre, collecting taxes in flesh from people who are cheating the system, cooking flesh burgers for people who are being cheated by the system, stealing tires from the SUVs of the world and making a giant inukshuks, and removing all those advertizements from public telephone poles. That sort of thing.
Basically I get to run around and do whatever I want, claiming it's for good.
They'd call me The Fixxer.
I don't feel tardy
2007-08-26
I hadn't realize there was a wikipedia article about this.If someone had come up to me and said, "You have a Philadelphia accent", I'd probably deny it as, "There's no such thing." But then in reading the description on the wiki page, it became quite clear that this is a very real thing.
My speech exhibits most of those points, although there are differences between the way I speak and the way my grandparents do. This likely has to do with my other set of grandparents not being from Philly. Especially notable is the "big" one; that doesn't apply to me. But "winda"? Yeah. "Wooder"? Used to. "Yo"? Fo' sho' (been criticized for that one).
This, combined with mumbling, is by I am misunderstood when speaking. People noticed that I became more articulate after spending that summer in California, but I count my ability to continue to speak and understand the Philadelphia accent as an asset. Not to mention southeastern PA vocabulary (dippy ekks anyone?).
I shore du wanna goata Itlee
2007-07-10
I think it all started after that DirecWay commercial started getting on my nerves. This was back in like 2005. You probably don't remember it, but it was played a lot on Comedy Central. I must have seen it several hundred times. It was the one with the red-haired woman selling satellite Internet service, and "all you need is a clear view of the southern sky". But it was the commercial's closing line that got me thinking: because you deserve it.That's when I started thinking about this trend of deserving/needing/indulgence/entitlement that has seemed to have been growing. I'm calling it "need inflation".
There has been more than just monetary inflation over the years, and I don't know that everyone realizes it. Large soft drinks, cruise ships, breasts... all of them have increased in average size over the years. On the more abstract side, so has "need". Human needs used to be a simple set of consumables: food and water. To exist on the biological level, get these two things inside you. If you have successfully delayed death for a bit of time, your needs have been met.
A while later, "shelter" (which may be interpreted as clothing) was added to the list of human needs. It doesn't help the body continue its cellular function, but shelter does enable humans to live outside of shaded temperate areas. So some people needed it; Norsemen maybe. But I think it's with this addition of a third, not-necessary-in-all-cases need that we hit the slopes.
Now we all need lots of things. Electricity. Cars. Cell phones. Bank accounts. Computers. Sex. Haircuts. Indoor plumbing. And everything on a grocery list.
Go on, try to remember not needing anything from that list above. They're really all wants. But if the repo man was coming to take away your car would you contend "I want my car" or "I need my car"? I'm thinking it's the former. And, "I need a haircut" is more likely to be heard than "I want a haircut". Again, need. In the case of many 14 year old metal fans, it's more likely to be a mother saying "you need a haircut", but that's really just her projecting her want, convincing the kid that it's his need. Mothers, eh.
"I have neeeeds!" cries a girlfriend. Ya don't, they're wants. Things you want badly perhaps, but it doesn't matter how badly you want something it doesn't transform into a need.
"Need anything at the store?" You might have some food in this list, but still not really a need. That grocery list is really just a list of preferences, and needs aren't something you can give preference to. If you answer that question with specific foodstuffs, you are expressing a want, not a need.
On top of the mountain of needs, we have things we deserve, our entitlement to indulge. Vacations. Spa treatments. Leather seats. And of course satellite Internet too. It's around this summit that it hits the pissing-me-off point. I can at least calmly handle a word having it's definition stretched out to encompass something else. But now it's resulted in what was once vaulting into luxury to be a mere step up just over there, so close I might was well be there. And midstride the phrase, "I'm doing this for myself" slips out as a weak rationalization.
We deserve satellite Internet why exactly? Because we watch TV? Because we didn't change the channel during the commercial? Maybe it pisses me off because satellite Internet service isn't that great. The only thing worse than convincing people they do deserve a luxury is convincing them they deserve something as expensive -- but not as good -- as one.
A recent WSJ article blames everything on Mr. Rogers. I happened to like the guy, but I see the author's point. And I thought it should be mentioned here.
My point is, people seem to have forgotten that the world owes them nothing. That's not to sound cruel -- I believe it is everyone's duty to ensure everyone else fulfills the two most basic needs -- but there should be no expectation of anything further. No iPod? Too bad! Fast food joint out of ketchup? Too bad! No cell service? Too bad! No air conditioning? Too bad! If I were go give a speech to a college graduating class, it would be: "You are in debt to the world society, for taking more than your fair share. You should spend the rest of your life paying off that debt, realizing how much you do have, realizing what you don't have, and having CELESTIAL RADIATION RAIN DOWN upon you as you're hit with the STARK CONCLUSION that your category 1 fills so many other people's category 2. And any time you move stuff from your category 2 to category 1, 1 gets bigger and 2 stays the same. Deal with it."
This post wasn't funny at all
2007-06-10
All has not been quiet here at stake.First: NEW CURTAINS! Have you noticed? Redesigning stake has long been on my todo list. The old style was put up temporarily when I first did this site. And we all know how temporary tends to become permanent... like with the Constitution. Or green Apple Jacks.
Second: I've backposted a bunch of entries from the past few months, plus some from the Germany trip and Prague (yes, really). More are on the way. In the course of adding those, I've broken past 200 posts, or over 100 printed pages, spanning three and a half years. I wonder how much of it I'd actually keep if I decided to edit all the crap out.
I saw a 2-year old kid today wearing a shirt that read, "I'm the most eligible bachelor".
A donkey, a donkey, my kingdom for a donkey.
2007-06-06
When I first moved into my apartment I didn't have a TV to bring with me. Instead of buying one right away, I thought I would see how I could get along without one. It's been a year now, and still no TV. You know what? Not only did I survive, I'm glad I don't have one. I can't imagine all the things I wouldn't have done if I had an idiot box as a distraction. I mean, I don't like the list of things I haven't gotten done as it is, and it would only be longer otherwise.Along with being TV-free, there comes a perception change. It becomes apparent how much other people's lives are tied to it. I don't think this has anything to do with the TV itself; I perceive the same thing with cell phones or WoW, two technologies not a part of my life. But not with broadband Internet. This is presumably because I'm a broadband addict. Everything got very different once I had it. It's interesting how adding or removing something from your life makes you recognize it more in the world around you.
You can twist perception; reality won't budge
2007-05-17
While pulling the sheets off my bed today, I noticed that the seam of my pillow is tearing! My first instinct was to stitch it up or get a new pillow, but THEN I considered how cool it would be to bury some secret documents inside. I have the seam, now I just need some secret documents.I think this would be an awesome format for a blog. Mine especially. Unfortunately I lack the talent to do so. Also, it was someone's thesis project, so getting regular posts up would be problematic.
Horses never bet on people
2007-05-10
For the first time in my life, I found myself inside The Gap. I had a gift card. From Christmas. In order to vanquish such a beast as the gift card, it must be debited til death, when it becomes nothing but a piece of plastic. That is why I was at the Gap.In and out was the plan. To my suprise, I found a suitable pair of pants. Good style, thick fabric, deep pockets..... dear God, a button fly.
The button fly is much like the horse-drawn carriage: Amish people were manufactured to keep them quarantined from the rest of society. Yes, the button fly need not be extinct, but it should remain under the watchful eye of a small few, the same way smallpox is kept around for observation.
The problem with the button fly is that it can hinder response time in the event of an emergency. What if you need to get out of your pants, pronto? If you're all buttoned up, you can't; you're hopeless. Better pray that someone's packing the jaws of life, because you'll be dead (or whatever) before you'll be droppin' trou. In times of danger, the button fly makes life difficult.
And that is why zippers came about. Too many deaths related to the button fly. In fact, the childish taunt, "Liar, liar, pants on fire" used to be, "My Lord, Charlie's become a pillar of flames because he couldn't get his pants off fast enough!" This was in the days of yore before the zipper (also a time when pants caught on fire a lot). But with the zipper now widely available, pants can be kicked off to burn on their own.
Anyway, I escaped from The Gap with a pair of shorts. They have a button fly too.
If you can't beat 'em...... BURN 'EM, BABY!
2007-04-24
It calls me through the window. Coke. Coke Zero. Fanta. Fanta, dontchawanna, wanna Fanta, dontchawanna....I blame Ívan for singing this throughout the summer of 2005 at the EB Almaden lab. I can no longer read the word "Fanta" and not have the song start automatically.
Fanta, Fanta, dontchawanna, wanna Fanta, dontchawanna....
Fanta isn't even my favorite orange soda. Their other flavors are ok, but they don't win when it comes to orange. Regardless that's the flavor that's stocked around here and it's what I'm drinking right now.
I'm sitting on a bench by a tree, drinking this Fanta, surrounded by schoolkids. It must be a field trip or something. There's an old church nearby (surprise!), and a teacher looks to be rounding them up.
I arrived in Frankfurt yesterday via a few train connections. After checking into the hotel and showering, I started exploring the area. There are a handful of skyscrapers (which is a lot for a German city), an old town area, and a waterfront lined with museums.
I skipped lunch and got a pretzel and weisswurst for dinner.
An ad for a comedy show at the English Theatre caught my eye. Opening night for an sketch/improv show imported from Amsterdam. Add to that reasonable ticket prices, and it sounds like fun to me.
So I went to go pick up a ticket from the box office this morning. Only the free city map I had picked up led me to a strip club instead of where I wanted to be the English Theatre. I checked all the surrounding blocks looking for the place, but to no avail. The red dot on the map was WAY off. One of the tourist maps posted around the city got me there though.
I crossed the bridge to see what was happening on the other side of the river. Answer: construction. Aside from that, there only places of interest seemed to be the museums: film, architecture, and a bunch of art ones. Figuring that the film one would be about a bunch of movies and directors that I'd never heard of, I opted to pop into the architecture museum. The two guys in there said it was closed for a while. So it was back over to the popular side of the river to check out the archaeological museum.
My dream job as a kid was to be an archaeologist. I was really into dinosaurs, but archeology has a broader scope than palaeontology. In addition to getting to dig up old stuff, you get the added bonus of finding buried treasure: be it Egyptian, pirate, or Inca. That's why I chose the archeology museum over the others.
At the front desk I found out that only the special exhibit has English descriptions. This was fine by me, as it allowed me to make up the other stuff as I went through.
The special exhibit was a reconstruction of a pre-Viking era Scandinavian warship from an underwater find in Denmark. The ship was reconstructed using the same tools, techniques, and materials available at the time of construction of the original vessel. The design itself was cool: it would make use of either one or two rudders, which were controlled from the middle of the boat. With a crew of about 20, it could cover 50 nautical miles per day carrying half a ton of cargo. Not bad for longtimeago BC.
Exiting the museum, I wandered back toward the heart of the city. After more than a week in Germany, I still had not had a kebap (or kebab), so I sought a kebap haus for lunch. This was not a difficult task. The kebap, according to Viktor, "is like the German version of an American hamburger, only Turkish." The Turks, being the latest wave of immigrants to Germany, brought with them their food, along with their desire for work. It turns out that the kebap was a bit hit in Germany, and most kebap packing plants and selling stations are manned by Turks. So in the process of immigrating to find work, the Turks found a huge market for a product they were skilled in making. If you think about it, there didn't even need to be a demand for unskilled workers in Germany, their own immigration created the market: the market for kebaps.
I took my kebap to go, and am now sitting at a fountain in the shadow of the Deutsche Bank skyscrapers. The sun is in my face, and cool mist is on my back. It's nice. The fountain is situated between a park and some building that must be important; people keep taking pictures of it (I'm ending up in a lot of pictures). In fact, a pair of girls just told me that they'd be taking a picture of it, and wanted to know if it was ok if I were in it. That was nice of them. I of course told them no, that being photographed is against my religion, and I wished not to have my soul captured in their camera. They looked confused. Must've been a language problem.
Asian people are funny. I first noticed them in force at Heidelberg Castle, and they seem to be invading Frankfurt as well. And they don't bring wimpy cameras; lots of paparazzi-sized lenses. The people are funny in the way they get their picture taken. They just kind of stand in front of the attraction and wait, hands by their side, no smile. No hand gestures or goofy poses. They're just making a record to show that they were there.
A lot of sentence fragments
2007-04-22
Mr. Whang is standing in the doorway, hands out at his sides, giving the "where is everybody?" expression. The candles are lit at his "Japanisch-Chinesich-Koreanish" restaurant, but no one is sitting. I wonder how diligent Mr. Whang was in his market research before opening up shop in a southeastern German tourist area. Across the street, I'm sitting outside at yet another German restaurant, awaiting my "ham over grey bread with two eggs on top".The sun set behind the cathedral. Across the street next to the Asian restaurant is a fancy-lookin' store, selling things from silver candlesticks to decorated plates.
A guy just rode by on a bike with a cigar in his mouth. Didn't his mother ever tell him not to do that?
I left Tyrel at the tram stop a few hours ago. We departed Strasbourg this morning; Heidelberg is an overnight stop for me, but only a day stop for him. I would have made it a two-day stop, if I had another day. But I don't, so it isn't.
This place has a real castle. It's not exactly what I think of when I hear "castle", but it's much closer to it than the few I've seen before. It's huge. We spent a few hours walking the courtyard and checking out the Pharmacy Museum. Unfortunately, only the guided tours were allowed inside the castle. Also unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. But it's a reason to come back.
There are too many Americans here. Even my server is (called me "dude" earlier). This restaurant is too close to the attractions I guess. At the biergarten for lunch today -- which wasn't really close to anything -- the girl waiting tables didn't speak any English. That's what I'm looking for after traveling 5000 miles. If I wanted foreign food from someone speaking American English, I'd go to EPCOT. It's not that the food is bad or the server is mean, it's just that I prefer more than just a change of scenery. I like the immersion. I like getting menus I can't read. I like struggling to share information with someone struggling to understand it, while we both have big dumb smiles on our faces. I like not knowing exactly what I ordered (I apparently ordered some sheep cheese for lunch). I like having strangers sit down at my table and ignore me (it's a central European thing). And I like being in a crowd and having no idea what other people are talking about. That last one is important. All the conversations are just sound swirling around me, so I assume that everyone is having highly intelligent conversation. I know it's not, but the world seems a lot better when I think of it that way. If I overheard people talking about what his brother-in-law said to her mother the night of their 15th wedding anniversary, it would kind of ruin the atmosphere for me.
I'm heading over to Mr. Whang's to see what he's offering for dessert.
Everyone has colleagues here
2007-01-20
Recently, I received some British pounds in my Paypal account. I've had lots of payments from the UK before, but -- at least for payments through Damnation -- the currency is automatically converted. This payment wasn't through the site though, so I now have 2 Paypal balances: one in USD, the other in GBP.There's a "Manage Currency" link that allows me to convert either of by balances into any one (or more than one) of 16 world currencies. The reason I find this interesting because you can play the currency game from within your Paypal account. Currency trading is a well-known sucker's game, based on fluctuations of different currency. Because the exchange rate between USD and GBP is independent of the exchange rate between CAD and GBP, you can take advantage of this by holding cash in a faster-appreciating currency. Now while currency trading is a sucker's game (seen those Forex ads all over the place?), there is something to be said for keeping some cash in an alternate currency, for long-term investment diversification purposes. Currency only has value as long as the sponsoring government has "faith and full credit". If they lose this, then assets denominated in that currency (say, bonds) hit the skids as well (remeber the rubel in 1998?). I keep 25% of my IRA in an AUD ETF for this reason.
Anyway, I thought this was interesting. If you are going to hold currency using your Paypal account note that they update their rates twice daily (don't know the specific time), charge 2.5% over the retail rate, and won't give you interest.
hand: an instrument commonly worn at the end of an arm
2007-01-19
I think indoor hammocks could be big. These seem to be pretty big right now, and I think indoor hammocks are next. The sumos are a throwback to the beanbags of the '70s, and a cool indoor hammock would be a throwback to Gillian's Island.A recent issue of BusinessWeek, as usual, had the Welch's business advice column. The question this week was something along the lines of "do you believe in all this talk about global warming?" I liked their (somewhat unexepected) answer. I'll break some copyright laws and post it here:
"...what do we believe? You sensed right -- we simply don't know. But that doesn't mean we would recommend companies do nothing. Just the opposite. In fact, we believe that, whether the impact of global warming ends up being mild or severe, companies have to adopt a "here it comes" mind-set and mount a well-reasoned plan. Any other response would be bad business. Our reason is hardly original. It's the same as Pascal's Wager. Back in 1670, basically using game theory, the French philosopher argued that it was a better bet to believe in God because the expected value of believing is always greater than the expected value of not believing. The same goes for global warming. If you accept it as reality, adapting your strategy and practices, your plants will use less energy and emit fewer effluents. Your packaging will be more biodegradble, and your new products will be able to capture any markets created by severe weather effects. Yes, global warming may not be as damaging as some predict, and you might have invested more than you needed, but it's just as Pascal said: Given all the possible outcomes, the upside of being read and prepared for a "fearsome event" surely beats the alternative."The expected value of believing is always greater than the expected value of not believing. Interesting theory. Not sure I totally agree with it (my belief in unicorns has gained me absolutely nothing), but I think it works in this case. What do you do with a drunken sailor?
2007-01-16
I happened to need some milk today, and was nearby Stop and Shop. Now as some of you may know, I've been a loyal PriceChopper shopper ever since the Midnight S&S Incident of 2005, where I was denied entry.But I just needed some milk.
Nothing has changed there really. The prices are still higher and the product placement is still questionable (let's see, we'll put the tomato sauce over here, and all the other tomato products at the opposite sie of the opposite end of the aisle). Truth be told, they did have the Bertolli CF&F in the freezer section. I've staked about this before, and about how it was nowhere to be found after the last spinach scare.
The only problem I have with PriceChopper is that they seem to think it is acceptable to carry alternating sizes of shell in the Barilla section of the pasta aisle. Every time I go, I never know if there will be small, medium, or large shells. Despite what current legistlaion is on the books, I do NOT WELCOME such unnecessary turnover in pasta-size selection. Medium shells: they please everyone. Stick with those, Chopper.
That's all I have to say about supermarkets for this week.
Entropy isn't what it used to be
2007-01-11
After four years, two months, and 12 days, I've finally decided to buy stake.tk. I've been using it for free until now, and today I feel like less of a moocher.As you can see, the site hasn't been redesigned yet. Oh well.
I swear it's coming, and will have pretty curtains
2007-01-01
There may not have been an update in a while, but that doesn't mean I'll let New Year's go by without a complaining. Unfortunately I don't have a long rant ready to go. I spent a the evening in good company, with the Eagles' second stringers pulling a W, and was driving home at quarter-to-midnight. So I didn't have time to think up something as profound as last year's post. But I do have this conversational snippet from the day:
Me: ... besides, I don't even like New Year's.
Her: But it only happens once a year!
Me: Every day only happens once a year.
And it's the truth.
Monogamy means having as few wives as possible
2006-12-17
Earlier today, I had trouble finding my car in a parking lot. I spotted a silver Hyundai, but it had a scrape on the front bumper; my car only has a scrape on the rear bumper. But there was also a red fez on the passenger's seat....So yes, it was my car, rendered COMPLETELY UNRECOGNIZABLE due to the some UNKNOWN INCIDENT while I left it TEMPORARILY UNATTENDED. Now I don't necessarily care care about cosmetic damage to the car (Hyundais don't impress the ladies, scraped or non), but if ANYONE is going to leave a scrape on my car, it had BETTER be ME.
Good news for prog rock in 2007: Rush's new album is apparently ahead of schedule, and Time Machine is not yet dead, and will be releasing the third part of the Eymerich Trilogy soon as well. The Time Machine news is very welcome, since I did infact think they were dead. And new Rush sooner is good too, since that means more possibility of a summer tour, and summer tours are better than winter tours.
In thinking about where I'll travel next, internationally, going to see Time Machine in concert has crossed my mind. It's quite plain that they'll never come to the US, so I'll have to go to them. And considering they had been MIA for about a year, I had better do it after their next album if I do it at all. This could be a last opportunity.
YouTube is great because I can get my decades-old bagpipe fix from that forgotten 90s song.
I love you like the day we never met
2006-12-14
In light of today's announcement by the Treasury, it seems that it is now illegal to melt down pennies and nickles in order to take advantage of the recent spike in metals prices (copper, zinc, nickel). Now I would assume that this has always been the case, but it still got me thinking. Obviously, if the current price of nickel is higher than the face value, there is a money-makin' scheme to be had. And you know I'm all about concocting money-makin' schemes.I'm a schemer.
I'm also a law-abiding citizen. How how do I plan to profit from melting down coinage? The answer is quite simple, and I'm kind of surprised I hadn't thunk of it before: we use CANADIAN PENNIES.
Now I figure that Canada probably has a similar law to the one in the United States, but I'm outside their jurisdiction. And I don't think they'll detect me anyway, since I won't be importing lots of pennies from the Great White North. Americans hate Canadian pennies; I know that every time one ends up in my pocket, red streaks of rage burn across my face. It's the pain of being gypped out of a True American Penny, and instead being left with one of slightly lesser value, with a maple leaf. But no longer, since I now have a scheme. And I'll be able to get lots of pennies since people hate them so much.
According to Wikipedia, pre-2000 minted Canadian pennies are almost entirely zinc and copper, with pre-1997 ones being mostly copper (even better). The penny is 2.53g. Currrent copper prices are running at about $3/lb. Now I have a 1962 Canadian penny here; at current metals market price, it's worth 1.67 US cents, although at the exchange rate it's worth more like eight tenths of a US cent.. That's right folks, you can get at or near double face value.
A $0.008 profit may not seem like much, but let's multiply!
number of Canadian pennies x $0.008 x amount people hate Canadian pennies = lots o' moneyAnd there you have it: another great get-rich-slow scheme from stake. I'm currently accepting donations; Canadian coinage preferred.
It's shiny. And jangly.
2006-12-11
In an effort to increase the liklihood of waking up on-time, I place my alarm clock on the far side of the nightstand and place myself way on the other side of the bed. This way when the alarm goes off, I actually have to get up to turn it off. The system has been working beautifully.Except on Thursday. On Thursday I confused the sounding alarm clock for an alien real estate communication device.
What's an alien real estate communication device? I have no idea.
So you see how this can be a problem. This confused morning haze of mine could cause serious problems for me, and the rest of civilization.
Friday I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled (supposedly). I'm always suspicious about cavity fillings. Why? Because the dentist is the one that decides I have a cavity, and the first step of the cavity-filling process is to drill the tooth, thus creating a cavity if there wasn't one there already. I'm thinking that they looked at my dental insurance and saw that there was still money remaining for 2006, so they needed to drain it. And they did. And now, with silver on my tooth, I'll never know if I actually had a cavity on my upper 4 or just a victim of year-end profit padding.
You're not going to Adam and belEve this
2006-12-03
I'm not a great speller. Grammar and punctuation, yes, but not spelling. I sometimes notice a misspelling, but usually won't say anything about it.But there is one word. There is a word that does not exist, but appears as regularly as if it did. And this week, even the Financial Times used it. That non-word is "noone".
"Noone" is not a word.
"Noon" is a word, "no" is a word, and "one" is a word. Lorna Doone is a cookie. But not "noone".
Hope that's settled, permanently.
An astute reader pointed out that I failed to mention that I went to see Evil Dead the Musical. I did.
The two Wrights didn't make it wrong
2006-11-13
Since last post I've:
- Seen Queensryche for the third time in three years
- Presented the digital picture frame at MHVLUG
- Halfway built a frame for the above presentation
- Sold off Elmo
- Put in an order for a to-be-announced Damnation product
- Represented Marist IT Class of 2006 at Marist's CS open house
- Avoided playing games at Gaming Day
- Caught up on my BusinessWeek backlog; I now have a The Economist backlog
- Sold a few more Kiva wristbands; invested in more Kiva businesses
- Watched Out of the Past
- Started posting to another blog
- Used the cereal coupon. No more came forth from the coupon printer. I am victorious.
I'm a big fan of Chicken Florentine & Farfalle. Nay, a HUGE fan. It is by far one of the finest meals that has ever touched my tounge. It comes frozen in a bag and takes 10 minutes to cook. Imagine that.
Anyway, it's abscence was noted at PriceChopper the other week. My supply had be depleated, went to buy more, but was shocked to find that it was not at the top of the Bertolli pile in the freezer section. I eventually found a bag, burried at the bottom. Suppose it has something to do with the spinach scare, but I was not deterred.
Stil, I knew the day may come that Bertolli CF&F would become extinct. So I set out to recreate it by my own means.
It didn't go very well.
Not having the package available for reference at the time, I tossed a half pound of pasta, half a block of spinach, half a jar of alfredo sauce, and half a can of chicken in a pot and cooked it up. It was very much not like Bertolli's. I don't think it was even close. Not a bad meal, but far from orgasmic.
Studying the packaging now, I see there are some key terms that may assist me in my next go-around: "Parmesan", "Grilled", "luscious", "granulated onion", "carrageenan", and "joy". Seems I missed quite a few things.
Baby, I don't care.
2006-10-22
I checked my credit score the other week. The results:
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729
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It's a pretty good score, but the highest is 850. I'm not even on the high score table! If I were, they'd have asked me to enter my initials. They didn't. I guess I'm going to have to apply for lots more credit cards and get a mortgage.
I used a coupon a few weeks ago: Save $1 on 3 boxes of General Mills cereals. So I used it, and the coupon printer at the register printed off another: $1.50/4 boxes. Used that the last time I was at the Chopper, and I'm now holding a $2/5 boxes coupon. Bring it on Price Chopper, I'll see your 5 boxes. Care to raise the stakes to 6? BRING IT.
Sitting at my desk the other day, I started thinking about dentists and optometrists. I came to the realization that all of my dental appointments have been during the day, forever. And my eye appointments tend to be in the evening. And when looking into dentists and optometrists, it seems to be a trend: dentists' offices close at 5pm. I detect DEVIOUS and MISCHIEVOUS activity abounds.
Doctors have a lot of student loans and high malpractice insurance bills, so they don't make a ton of money their first few years of practicing. So the question is: how are dentists getting away with working less hours? They must be supplementing their income somehow. A little something extra to cover the bills.
Drugs and looting.
Drugs follow bling, and dentists have lots of bling. Dentists have so much bling that they occasionally leave some in people's mouths! And looting is obviously done while patients are drugged up. I suggest you arm your pockets with mousetraps the next time you go in for an appointment.
Home Depot sells Victor mousetaps at 2/$1
2006-09-26
I don't think that people realize the ramifications of this ruling.Let's talk economics: $32,000 for 10 fondles; that's $3,200 per fondle. By ordering that $3,200 is not "the proper financial value of the compensation", the judge is creating a price ceiling for the breast fondling market. For those of you who didn't take macro econ 101, you can use Wikipedia as your crutch. Aside from the fact that someone in the judical system is imposing economic limits (not really their area), we have to consider what a price ceiling on breast fondling means.
Governments institute price ceilings when they feel that it is in the public's best interest to limit the maximum price of a good or service; that the consumer is being harmed by being forced to pay the market price. The US government put a ceiling in place last year with on price of cow's milk. Now I haven't done any research on the market price of fondling (hey, it's not like I'm a Finish judge), but assuming that $3,200 per lies somewhere in the realm of the market -- and that price is now restricted -- the judge's decision may very well result in an unnatural increase in demand for fondling. Take for example this Finish guy. Now he was willing to pay $32,000 for ten fondles, but now with a price ceiling in place, women are being forced to provide this, uh, consumer good, at a cheaper price. And that means that demand may increase, since $32,000 will buy him some amount greater than 10 under these new market conditions.
Now the question at hand is: is demand to breast fondle elastic or inelastic? Assuming it's inelastic (people consume the same amount, regardless of the price), everything is ok. But if it's elastic, there is going to be an excess demand. And that could spell trouble for the suppliers.
Unfortunately, the government always wins. Unionizing (trying to regulate supply) won't help. Assuming that the price will be at the ceiling with the current demand level, reducing supply will only decrease fondling revenue. So there's only one option. This industry is going to have to move away from the free market and into a black market. Yes, that's correct, no more door-to-door selling. No more catalouges, or infomercials, or telemarketing. Sexual favors for cash are now going to be restricted to the realm of back alleys and sketchy hotels. Who'd have thunk such a thing would ever happen?
I should write fake econ textbooks
2006-09-24
I finally got around to watching Good Night, and Good Luck. I was planning on liking it, and I did.You can read the synopsis on your own; no need to rehash that here. Short version: it's about Murrow's takedown of McCarthy in the 50's.
The film ends with Murrow (the newscaster) being told by an exec that stupid TV wins over anything thought-provoking. And so began the deterioration of television news, half a century ago.
Which makes me wonder, where is our news going to come from? We can write-off TV right away (sorry Katie). Newspapers have good news coverage; even the CBS guys in the movie went straight for the papers. But the newspaper business model is deteriorating. Look at these numbers. It's not sustainable. I know I don't subscribe to a paper, but I do read Google News daily. But this is just a compilation of the online version of the world's newspapers. And online revenues aren't displacing lost newsprint revenue 1-for-1.
So what does that leave, bloggers? Can we trust bloggers? Blog-delivered news sounds like a great idea: lots of news being "reported" by a vast array of micro-experts with near-instantaneous speed. Bloggers get paid from Google AdWords revenues. But that's the problem: internet ads don't differentiate between good and bad blogs. Whereas accuracy problems in the NY Times might cause and advertiser to question their contract with the paper, no such thing happens online. You can slap ads on anything, and get click throughs, even if the content is just entertaining instead of newsworthy.
Let's just hope BBC radio sticks around. They don't need to bring in profits like commercial news organizations, and their budget is actually increasing.
I did end up seeing Scanner, and I liked it; very true to the text. The animation was distracting during a few sequences, but overall I think the format is good for PKD's work (not-so-good for Schwab ads).
And finally, in the stake Learn Something! corner we have Georgy Malenkov, one-time leader of the Soviet Union. Opposer of nuclear proliferation and supporter of private-sector goods (well, the Commnunist equivalent), this man got the boot and was soon forgotten. Sadder than his short term as premier is the remainder of his life: manager of a power plant. And his death was ignored by Soviet officials. Ouch. C'mon guys, not even a headstone?
For next class, everyone memorize a poem
2006-09-17
I have a new get-rich-slow scheme.Gold.
After an uncompromisable argument between myself and a disagreeable hard drive, I took the wire cutters to it, pulling-teeth style. To get some anger out, as well as to make an example of it.
Partway through, I had ended up with a little pile of gold pins. Gold, the stuff that sells for $575/oz. Hmmm.
China has been getting rich off of this for years. In fact, that's how they got enough money to build the Great Wall. They financed that with few million discarded 4KB hard drives back in BC.
So the plan is, over time (it is a get-rich-slow scheme), I will amass enough gold to do something fun with:
- Stamp out gold coins emblazoned with my own image
- Form gold nuggets and hike around Alaska like a prospector (I'm going to need one of those floppy brown hats for this)
- Sell it all to dentists
I've been having a strange problem recently. It's a problem with my Double Mint. I think it has something to do with moisture. See, when I try to pull a stick out of its wrapper, it refuses, staying stuck in the wrapper and being all.... well, gummy. But it should not be gummy! It should be dry and easily transportable from its temporary aluminum home to my mouth. And this problem even happens after cracking open a new pack; nothing to do with age. I have no idea while I'm being plagued with this just now.
^That right there isn't so bad. The bad part is that I can no longer offer a piece of gum to someone, since I know how much of a problem the unwrapperfication process is.
Passerby: "Oh, Double Mint. Can I have a piece?"
Me: "No, it's too gummy."
And that's about as far as I can go. I can't do any more explaination more than that, lest they go on thinking I have OVERLY MOIST PANTS, as that would be their most likely conclusion. I am of the opinion that people are VERY JUDGEMENTAL when it comes to courtesey gum afflicted with ailments. I know I am.
Looks like Scanner is playing down at South Hills. I'll have to go see that this week.
Feeling sorry that you treat me unkind?
2006-09-05
Hi.It's over.
Well, most of it anyway. The shirts are still going out, but the mayhem has stopped. It's like comparing Niagra Falls with a water fountain.
Thanks to everyone (not Matt Stone) who came out for Snakes INVASION: NYC and Po-town. It was a blast, and the only time I've ever seen the same movie twice within 24 hours. There will be a Snakes INVASION: Po-town part deux, once (if) it hits the dollar theatre.
In other news....
- I got a coffee table, and I don't even drink coffee. I don't know how I get away with this stuff.
- August happened
- Lake Baikal is still the biggest lake in the world
one and one and one is three
2006-07-09
So, how about these monthly updates?My days now mostly consist of work and shirts. It's busy. Things should let up by fall though, I think.
Work is good. I don't like waking up in the morning, but I don't dread going into work. I already knew some people in the department, so I feel pretty much at home there. Actually it's.... fun. I also haven't done any real work. There can't be a corelation between the two, right?
I've had a couple of ideas for stories this past week. Haven't written any of them down, but showertime has been productive. The car and myself are now registered in NY. The license was easy, the car not so much. The DMV would not process me because my middle initial on my insurance card was a "T" instead of a "J". Some typist obviously made an error, right? No, it was unacceptable. So after a call to the insurance company, I went back and got through. Then on my way back to the car with my registration paper, it started to rain. A gust of wind took the paper from my hands. I had to get it back, it took me so long to obtain it in the first place. So there I was, chasing a scrap of paper down Main Street, in traffic, in the rain. I was able to retrieve it, and the text is still legible. But the gods were against me on this one. I tried to open an IRA account with my bank a few weeks ago, but it was disabled because Equifax (those people who know stuff about you) returned with an address mismatch on my residential address. To rectify the situation, I need to show a government-issued photo ID with my residential address on it. Driver's license? PO Box. Passport? No address. Voter's reg card? No picture. So.... we'll see on that. I went into The City to see BSS play a benefit concert. It was kind of a last-minte decision on my part; I tend not to go see bands that I don't know very well (I want to be a real fan, y'know), but this is the only time BSS is going to be on the US east coast this summer. Plus it was a benefit concert. So I had to go. It was a Thursday night, and I had to cut out of work a bit early to catch the train to get there on time. Arrived 10 minutes before they went on. Perfect. It was outdoors at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. There were maybe 1-2k people there; I was able to get right up front without any trouble. The set mostly consisted of stuff from their latest album, which is good, since that's the one I'm familiar with. They did my favorites: Shoreline, Fire Eye'd Boy, and Hotel. BSS is an indie rock band, and I'm not really into indie rock. I don't have anything against it, it's just that I'd never heard it and said, "I want more." Indie rock concerts also aren't like metal concerts; this was the first concert I had ever been to that everyone wasn't wearing black and shouting the lyrics. I came back with my voice intact. Oh yeah, and the week before work I did my Roadtrip to Nowhere. I wrote some Stake entries along the way; I'll back post those. Yeah, just like I did with my Prague entries (-: I've been thinking that if the format of this site changed, I might post more updates. I've talked about a redesign to fix the looks before, but I think a functional reworking might be more important. I have some ideas. ...when I have time. I don't have time. I need somebody to shove2006-06-05
I'm not yet dead.Let's just do the whole month in a bunch of bullets:
- Moved in
- Graduated
- Moved out
- DSL, phone up
- Got desk, bed, bookcase
- Ange's grad party
- Home for Memorial day weekend
- Picked up couch(es) at Ikea on return trip(s)
- Bill's grad party
And today, this. And that's just great.
Anyone know what the piece of land is between Poland and Lithuania? Have a look. Yup, it's a little piece of Russia. I hadn't noticed it before when researching eastern Europe. But it's there now. Well it looks like I have one more place to visit. It's just like going to Prussia, only it's called Kaliningrad Oblast. Unfortunately -- unlike Prague -- I get the feeling that Kaliningrad is a place where they realllly don't speak English. But they might have Cappy.
Names change, faces stay the same
2006-05-08
Do you know how cool it would be to sponsor a little league baseball team? Way cool. It's a strange form of advertizing, and it's been going on for quite a while now. Imagine a bunch of little kids running around with "DAMNATION" on their backs. Don't think it would happen? I do. If 20 kids will play ball with "Al's Extermination" above their numbers, then they'll certianly play with "DAMNATION". In other news, I'm currently fueled by a new hate for all things college. Maybe it has something to do with the eight different colleges we wardrove for our capping project. That's eight times more college than I can usually handle. Campuses, statistics, and charts. Blah. All I know is, there's nothing I can do about it. I've thought about just skipping finals and skipping out of here.... but to where? My lease doesn't start until the 15th. Which is too bad, because I feel that putting together furniture with an alan wrench is just what I need.Don't ever trust
2006-05-03
Today was our last System Design class. Made me think back to all the fun times we had (ha!) in SysAnal and SysDes over the past year. Right about this time last semester, FruityPants and I were sitting in the LinLab, trying to start/finish GR4 (our final assignment). F-to-th'-P was saying, as he has a habit of, "Okay, now we've GOT to get this done." And I was saying, as I have a habit of saying, "Dude, you have to use InnoDB; MyISAM won't work."And then it hit me.
"Don't 'Innod'B' and 'My-izzm' sound like rapper names?"
F-to-th'-P kind of shrugged it off, and kept working. I got to work writing our first rap.On the lab tables, there are those plastic circles that snap into the holes of the desk where the keyboard and mouse cables run. I had been playing with one, and noticed the manufacturer's name on the underside: "D. Mockett".
Kinda sounds like "da market".
So here we go:
Goin' to da mawket to make a sammichIt's the kind of thing you're allowed to sing where there isn't anyone else in the Linux Lab. It's also the kind of thing you should only sing once.
hoo-ahhh..... hoo-ahhh... << lost verse > >
hoo-ahhh..... hoo-ahhh... bread!
.....check it!
poak!
.....check it!
bread!
.....check it! SAMMICH SAMMICH SAMMICH
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Xerox never comes up with anything original.
2006-04-21
Amanda.Hard reality has a way of cramping your style. -- Daniel Dennett
2006-03-29
An entire month without a post. Has this happened before? I think not. "Juggling" is a very good term for describing how I'm handling workload right now. So much stuff. 1 working process, 8 waiting, 1 zombie. Shirts are temporarily taking over my life. I've been to Prague and back. Gaming for Hope. Job. Other job. Family stuff. Fun?Good news is that I _did_ write posts over the course of my Prague adventure. Those will be backposted when I pull them off my laptop. Maybe even soonish.
I can't complain, but sometimes I still do. -- Joe Walsh
2006-03-15
Prague Castle was the destination for today.To get there, we took the tram into the city (crossing the river) then hopped on a tram to take us to the castle (crossing the river back). Unfortunately, there was a broken down tram blocking the track, resulting in everthing getting all backed up. So we walked the rest of the way. On the bright side, this allowed us to see cool things we would have otherwise missed. It was a bit of a hike though, but the view from up there is pretty good.
It's not what I think of then I think "castle" though. Prague castle is a collection of buildings erected within a period of a few hundred years, surrounded by a wall. No drawbridge. No moat. No turrets.
St. Vitus is the most impressive of the buildings. It's huge, has a crypt, and features lots of stained glass. I must've taken 30 pictures of stained glass in the place. Aside from the cathedral, there's a chapel, the throneroom, and some other buildings. Golden Row is a line of small stores that provide a medieval shopping experience, featuring swords and things. There was also a very long hallway featuring armor that may or may not have been used by various nobelmen.
So while Prague Castle was at the top of the list of things we wanted to do in Prague, it didn't turn out the be the best thing. Which is actually good; I like it when unplanned events take the cake.
After coming down from the castle area, we checked out Charles Bridge, another must-see tourist spot. It's a walking bridge that connects center city Prague with the castle area; you can imagine horses and wagons crossing it to approach the castle. But now it's just tourists and souvenier sellers. And lots of statues, mostly of saints.
Wandering around after that, we stumbed upon the Icelandic restaurant which I had looked up while still stateside. This was a lucky find since I had forgotten to jot down the address. It's a higher end place than Dan, Dave, and myself usually go to, but well within our budget. We sat at a high, nicely-polished table in the window facing the street. They were playing "Brickhouse" over the stereo system. I can only assume that Lionel Richie is considered to be a musical hero in Iceland.
36-24-36, what a winning hand
2006-03-14
Let's see if I can do better than just bullets today.Finding our rhythm, we had our free breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to the tram to take us into center city. Through our sporadic exploring, we came across Old Town Square. It's a pretty touristy area. Wenceslaus square has touristy parts too, but real working people are also there. In Old Town, the people working are just there for the tourists.
In the area, there's the astrological clock, which chimes every hour. The door above the face open up and little statues of saints rotate through, while a skeleton dude (Death) who rings the bell. At the top of the hour, all the tourists gather around to watch the clock and have their pockets picked.
Next to the church where the clock is installed, there's an area of street vendors selling all kinds of things, including bells (you too can be just like Death!) and hot wine.
I remember reading somewhere that the Czech Republic has good pizza, so we decided to try an Italian place nearby. It was pretty good. But you know what? We have pretty good pizza here in the States too.
What we don't have is Coke with real sugar. It's the only drink I've been ordering, and will continue to do so for the week. It goes down smooth, the taste is so crisp, and it leaves your lips sticky. It's very unlike drinking carbonated corn syrup.
After seeing a poster for it yesterday, we paid to get inside the Museum of Communism today. Compared to the National Museum, it costs significantly more, is significantly smaller, and is all around designed as a tourist trap. But we didn't really care. A couple of rooms full of Commie stuff from East Germany is good enough for us. They did have one room devoted to Jan Palach, a young man who burned himself alive in protest of Soviet occupation. At the end of the video they were running, there was a song, "Dekuji." The word was repeated over and over. Now I will never forget how to say "thank you" in Czech.
"Go to the symphony" was one of the things on my list of things to do in Prague. One of the city's orchestral groups was doing a gig (do orchestras have gigs?) at some church, so we went to obtain tickets. DoS, 5th row, $10: not too bad. We hiked around and had dinner before the show. It started snowing. We got hot chocolate. Accidentally came across the Charles Bridge (good to know for later this week).
Eventually 7:30 rolled around, and we filed into the church. Unfortunately, the lady working there wouldn't let me take pictures beforehand, and they locked the doors right after the show, so I couldn't get a shot afterward either. But the performance was nice. They had a special guest, a clarinetist. He showed up about halfway through, and was playing in front of the other orchestra members. The first-chair violinist looked pissed. There he was, just going to town on his licorice stick. Looked like he was having fun. The first violin? Not a bit. Then someone from the audience gave the clarinetist a bouquet, which he then presented to the first violin. She was not amused.
I don't need no steenkin' flowers
2006-03-13
Bullets from today:
- breakfast
- tram line
- Wenceslaus square
- harasser #1 ("BUY SOMETHING!")
- national muesum
- lunch
- walk - power adapter
- east
- metro
- walk
- statue of Kafka
- finally find right church as night falls
- dinner ("Tommy", "yes please")
- tram home
- no long distance
2006-03-12
"Good morning, we will soon begin serving breakfast."It's 12:07 am EST, and we're somewhere over the western coast of Scotland. Thanks to Matt, Metro North, our feet, LIRR, AirTrain, and AZ flight 605, we are in our present position in a flying metal bird, ready to fall out of the sky. Out my window is the 100' wing of this plane, with a massive jet engine mounted under it. To my right is a nice old couple. Dan is directly across from me, at the starbord window, with The Bedouks of Hazard immediately infront of him. There's some frost on the window; it's -60F outside. In the distance you can see the saphire glow of the atmosphere. In here we have some nice flouresent lighting.
No suprise, but I've been busy, busy, busy lately. But it's spring break now, and I have time to post, and interesting things to post about. Or will soon.
We've been on-board for about five and half hours now. So far I've had dinner, watched everything on the "comedy channel", and enjoyed The Corpse Bride. It finished that just in time, as the cabin lights went out. I tried sleeping, but, eh. I wasn't really tired, so that might have had something to do with it. But closing my eyes and putting on some MP3s was nice. Got through a few CDs worth.
What else can I say. The plane is a bin 'un. All of the written materials are in Italian and English, along with the announcements (although they sometimes forget about we English speakers). There are LCD displays in the backs of all the seats. There's DC power in the armrest, but it's not the standard auto 12 volt, so I'm confined to battery power. The flight attendants are nice, but I rarely have a problem with them. Apparently there has been turbulance almost this whole flight, but I haven't noticed much. We're up 38000 ft, how much turbulance can there be?
Typing for typing's sake
2006-03-12
And it's 12:07 am (again, but now Central Europe time), and we're at our hotel unpacking. Well, I'm unpacking anyway (more on that later). The past 18 hours have not been productive traveling-wise (read: bad distance-moved-to-time ratio). We landed in Milan just fine, waited through a huge line for screening, only to find out that our connection to Prague had been canceled. I asked an Alitalia worker about it who responded, "I can tell you naahhzing. Go over there."So we went over there, waited through line, and finally got to a different Alitalia employee who told me, "Your flight has been canceled because you're going to Prague." (That's a reason?)
The flight had been canceled for some reason, but we had automatically been booked on the 15:00 flight out (was supposed to be 9:00). Unfortunate, but not so bad. So we hunkered down and I paid for a few bottles of Slam (an orange soda) and WiFi access. I hate having to pay for wireless access, but it proved to be a good purchase. I found out via Wunderground that the reason our connection being canceled was due to snow (although the weather in Milan was perfectly sunny and clear). Understandable, not the airline's fault. Not much else to do online though. Fired off a few emails (the Bedoukamom required status updates). Couldn't do any IMing, since everyone was asleep back at home. Oh yeah, and the power adapter I had brought smoked out on it's first use, so I was running low on battery.
So we waited. A lot. All of us were desperately in need of sleep, but that wasn't working out so well. Coat-over-the-head kind of helped, but I never fell fast asleep. Dan tried to force the floor to provide him comfort.
With all of our coats on our heads, Alitalia decided it was a good idea to call us over the PA system. And what did we find out at the customer service counter? Yes, our 15:00 was canceled. We had the option of taking the evening flight (20:00) or waiting until morning. We decided that "three's the charm" and picked up boarding passes for 20:00. Time for some more waiting. Rumor had it that taxi rides into the city were 100euro minimum, so that was out. Had to get used to Terminal B and it's crazy window shutters instead.
Paid 8€ for a microwave dinner, then $7 for a slice of pizza (the pizzeria took USD). Needless to say we were rather fed up with MXP's prices of things. On the plus side, Harry Potter was there, in plastic form. I don't know why.
At 21:00 our flight took off. Half a day spend waiting in Terminal B (with short field trips to Terminal A) of MXP. A nicely furnished airport, but we're not looking forward to stopping there again, if even for an hour.
The connecting flight was almost absurdly short; about 1:20 (not even an entire issue of Wired's worth of time). Ruzyne airport is nice. It's fairly new, with new construction on top of that. And yes, there was snow. We could see why the flight had been delayed; only one runway was open.
Baggage claim got two strikes, as neither Dan nor Dave's bags appeared. It was kind of a kick in the head when you're already down. I got mine though, and pocketed my Swiss Army knife ASAP (it's a habit). Next we got some Czech krona to pay for the taxi. Taxi service was a half hour wait. One finally came. The driver took us to the general area, informed us that Prague has "great beer and cheap women", but admitted that he did not know exactly where the hotel was (although he did point out the tram stop, which is helpful). Luckily, I noticed the Comfort Inn sign and he pulled right up to the door. Dave made a lifelong enemy by denying the cabbie an 80 cent tip. Got our room key just fine. The room does have three beds, sort of. No one I've talked to has heard of a hotel room with three beds, so I was skeptical when I was able to book a room with three. There are two identical beds, and one bed-couch thing. But the two bed's "mattresses" don't count for much anyway, so they're all pretty much equal.
The tub in the bathroom is very high; you need to throw your leg over about 25" to get in it. The room actually has 3 interior doors, all of which use a key that we were not supplied with (that's right, no lock on the toilet door). No toiletries provided in the bathroom except hand soap and toilet paper. The TV is a made-in-CZ "Tesla" brand, and has 7 or so channels, with CNN in English (and sometimes Eurosport too). So for the price (< $50/night) it's good, but this would not be considered a Comfort inn in the States.
And we all smelled terrible
2006-02-23
Let's start off with something I've been waiting to say for a long time: I got a camera. I kind of think of this as "getting a new camera", but the one I was using wasn't mine to begin with, and I have to hand if off soon anyway. So the time was right to purchase one myself. And the trip that's coming up was kind of a catalyst.It's a PowerShot G3: 4MP, 4x zoom, and a lens that's larger than a fingernail. It's a significant improvement from the S200 I had been using. It was at the top of Canon's prosumer line back in the day, and it's good enough for me now. I really have to find out how it works. I've been taking some okay pictures with it in AUTO mode, but what do the other modes do? What's this button for? Are higher numbers for this thing better? I need to find out.
So that's good. What else is there, bad? Yup.
System Design: it's not over yet. The semester is only at midterms, so I kind of expected that this class wouldn't be over yet. Still wish it was.
My weekends are disappearing. They were already gone in the sense that I didn't enjoy them, but now I have my calendar marked for all weekends in the near future, so if I wanted to plan something, I couldn't. Not a bad thing I guess -- nothing I've penciled in recently is something I'm dreading -- but I just don't like the constraints.
Looking in at what's going on, nothing is really bad with me, I just don't like this feeling that I've been having. There's been a lot of context switching lately, and I don't like that. I like to commit time to things when I feel like doing them, and giving people the time they want from me as well. It's like scattering some seed at a flock of pigeons: you throw a lot out there, you don't know where it all went, and everyone wants more.
I'd just be happy to take some pictures.
A new A Scanner Darly trailer is out. It's longer (and I think better) than the first one. You can get it from Apple.
"This is the best shit since sliced bread; let's go home and have some spaghetti"
2006-02-20
I'm real busy with homework right now, but I JUST remembered what made me want to go to Prague in the first place. When I tell people I'm going there on spring break, they always ask, "What made you think to go there?" Honestly, until this very minute, I couldn't remember. I knew I had been looking at some awesome photographs online during freshman year but... how did I even know Prague existed? How did I even know how to spell it?Mission Impossible. That's it. I recall being fascinated with a city described like it was in that book. It's in the movie too, right at the start, when Ethan's in the restaurant. But it's the image painted inside my head that is what drove me to look into it in the first place.
How can you see inside your head?
2006-02-08
So I'm gone for like a month, then post something out of the blue about pineapple juice. "What gives," you say, "hasn't anything else been going on?" It certainly has been going on. So much so that I have not had time to post. And it's at that point now where I could just forget it and move on, but I'll give a brief rundown of January:- Labor Economics - I did this course during winter break, although it did spill into the first week of the semester, ruining that. It was a good experience though, made me really feel like a student. I was spending days in the library and doing homework at night. By the end, I had pretty much read the whole book. And the final really wasn't hard because Labor Econ was the only thing (well, the only academic thing) on my mind. Got an A-.
- Snakes shirts - have sold, and still am selling a lot of them. A special edition black one is coming out this week
- Mad Money - I took a trip down to Englewood Cliffs to watch a live taping of CNBC's Mad Money ("Main Event IV"). Damnation's Lightning Round shirt arrived the day before, so I wore that and made sure to get it on camera. So I can now officially sell the shirt as "As Seen on TV". It was really fun to see how the show goes. Cramer really is "like he is" all the time. And yes, he is prompted while he's doing his commentary pieces. I was in line for the Lightning Round, but the people before me weren't fast enough, so I didn't get to talk to him on-air. He did however make sure to talk to everyone individually after the show and take pictures or whatever. I got him to sign my shirt and gave him one as well.
- The Semester - School started. It actually seems like a kind of minor thing with all the other things going on. Classes are ok; I've had most of these professors before. Still getting adjusted to (read: "currently failing") the online course; it's just so hard to remember it exists. Robotics is fun and is a great way to end the week (on a Thursday). Capping isn't quite so dumb as I thought it would be. Ok, it is dumb, but interesting. System Design...
- System Design Project - so Russ thought it would be a GREAT idea if the class worked on a real system design project instead of making up fictional ones. We've got this project with IBM to design a document review system to replace the one they're currently using. I'm the assistant project manager (not by choice) and have to go to weekly meetings on Mondays at 9am. And because I'm a manager, by grade is determined on the success of the project, not my performance. Sweet deal right? My grade depends on everyone else's work. I don't get paid, and I can't fire them if they're doing a bad job. Naturally, I felt that this whole thing was a set-up for disappointment. But once I found out the project, I'm fairly confident that it's small enough that it can be handled. Still though, my time commitment for System Design has doubled or tripled; uncool.
- Avenue Q - saw it last weekend, finally. Carolyn, you were right, this is a musical that I like. Sure, it did follow the Regular Musical Plot (have I posted on that before?), but at least it was funny. And not just dialogue; songs too. In fact, the songs were the funniest parts. I had heard the best of them before, but it was still good. Everyone liked it. Next up: Splamalot: A Lonely Crusade (that's my own personal subtitle).
- Doughnuts - I ate two today. They were good. Mmmm.
- MCCS Budget - I allocated for $1800, got less then half. I'm thinking I should beg, but I don't know how well that's going to turn out. One of the items that got zeroed was a new camera. I thought it would be nice for the incoming treasurer to have something better than the 4-year old 2MP model we have now. Also, I wanted to try out a new camera as I'll have to be actually buying one for myself pretty soon (plus I'd be able to take it to Prague). So now that I don't get the benefit of a test run, I'm just going to buy one the way normal people do: on eBay, used and cheap(er). Maybe once I get it I'll actually update the Pic of the Week.
- Prague - we're still going.
- Jobs - I've been getting requests from companies to do job interviews with them, and it's kind of depressing. The interview process is kind of exciting, at least I think it is. But being already hired, I don't want to waste their time. I mean, I'm sure I'll get laid off somewhere down the road and get to do interviews again, but I have the feeling that the gotta-get-a-job-to-pay-the-mortgage-and-support-the-family job interview won't be as fun as the nothing-to-lose interview.
- EB Jobs - the San Jose EB team is getting hired! Imagine that. So far we've got a bunch (5?) going to IBM, one to Google, one to Amazon, one to Oracle, and two to the Vole. No one's coming to IBM Po-town though.
- MOL Update - I finally put up some new forum software on MaristOnline. Decided to just forget about moving all the topics over and just migrated the user accounts. Nothing bad has happened, and people seem to like it. Just need to integrate it into the site more. I'll get to that in about..... 3 months.
I thought about what it would be like to have a kid today. That was weird.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair
2006-02-02
I just got off the phone with Roberto over at Dole Juices. He picked up right away, no waiting on hold. Excellent customer service those DJ people have.So I asked him The Question of All Questions, seeking to find the answer I have been searching for these past two weeks: "Why doesn't canned pineapple juice have pulp?"
Roberto acted like it was a completely normal question. Not a smidge of hesitation or "umm"ing. Obviously he's considered this question before as well. Roberto and I are an aweful lot alike.
While he admitted he did not know the exact answer to The Question, he gave what I consider to be a very good guess: not all fruit pulp has the same consistency. Whereas orange pulp may have the ideal size, texture, and bouyancy, pineapple pulp may not. I then pushed Roberto into divulging one of Dole's most closely guarded secrets: Dole lemonade doesn't contain lemon pulp; they acutally add grapefruit pulp. I'm coining this activity "cross-pulpination". I'm okay with this, but the public needs to know.
Or maybe the public just needs to read the ingredients label
2006-01-03
It's this time of year that it's so nice to watch some old movies. I prefer to watch TCM a bit after midnight, after the twelve o'clock picture has already begun. That way I don't know the title of the movie, and I have to figure things out before the end. Plus, they only show the best old movies, they're often in B&W, and there aren't any commercials.Here's what I've watched over break:
So there you have it. I'm pretty easy on old movies. Movies and music seem to get better with age; I tolerate their minor flaws much better for some reason. Maybe it's just because only the good stuff sticks around long enough to be remembered.
- Best Years of Our Lives - I caught this on halfway through at an interesting point. A couple of guys were sitting at a lunch counter talking about WWII, and one goes off in this conspiracy idea. I thought this was pretty revolutionary (to criticize the the government and all, especially for a 1946 film), so I kept watching. Turns out that this was the "wrong" viewpoint, and the guy eventually got punched in the face. But the guy with hooks for hands made up for it a little. The problem with him was, evertime he said "Fred", I pictued him as Barney Rubble. He had the same voice, and was shorter than the central character (Fred). I liked Fred. The film was bounching along, and then ended with a wedding. That was dumb.
- Falling In Love - De Niro and Meryl Streep in a rather recent (1980s) movie that was the complete opposite of the previous one I watched. Basically, two people fall in love. Except their both already in married relationships. I liked it for the parts where there wasn't any dialog, and you just fill in what you think is going on inside the actor's head. I started watching it partway through, and finally conceded within the final half hour that this movie really didn't have anything to do with the mob. Still worth my time though.
- Shop Around the Corner - A Jimmy Stewart movie -- great. I saw the very end about this time last year, and had no idea what was going on. It's about a guy (JS) who works in a shop and falls in love with this penpal. Only it turns out that he already knows his penpal in person and doesn't realize it. The characters of the cast are a bit varied, and one guy tries to commit suicide, so it's not your standard 1940s love story (a good thing). And I must say, I enjoy old-fashioned bantering between a guy and a girl. And 1940s hairstyles should make a comeback.
- Fitzwilly - Dick Van Dyke in a funny kind of story. He plays a servant trying to keep an old woman's estate together. You see, she enjoys donating to various charities; the problem is that she's flat broke and doesn't know it. So Fitzwilly (DVD) keeps the whole operation going through various schemes. Until a love interest changes things...
- A Christmas Carol - I watch A Christmas Carol every year, but this one is different from the one I usually watch. And I can't say it's better. It's nice to have a different perspective, but not at the cost of leaving out my favorite line from the whole thing. Even if Fred's wife was a total babe (she really was; check it out for yourself next time it's on).
- Alphie - This one won awards and things I think, but I didn't really like it? I'm not sure. It was different; the main character was pretty much a certified asshole; it was British; and the CA talked directly to the camera at times. So it had some things going for it. I think at the end he was supposed to end up a changed man. He was, a bit. But not like Ebeneezer was at the end of his movie. Alfie could use some lessons.
My girlfriend's girlfriend looks like you
2005-12-24
As it happens every year, CNBC has a new look. While I might not think so, I guess it's understandable that at least some people grow tired of how things are, especially the crew of the shows. So they spruce up the graphics and change the theame music.But this time I like it less. I can usually..... usually adjust to new theame music. But this year's graphics update is my least favorite so far. First of all, they moved the Indices Box (you know, that blue rectangle on the bottom right with "Dow", "NASDAQ"...) to the top of the screen as a new bar. So now there's two bars across the bottom and one up top. Fine. I guess it's easier this way for directors and advertisers, since they don't have to account for a little chunk missing from the bottom right of every shot.
Speaking of bars, the two ticker bars now show the FULL NAME of each company, along with the ticker symbol, current price, price change, and indicator. I do not like this at all. This means that you get to see something like 4x fewer quotes per minute. This about it: instead of just "X", they now have "United States Steel (X)". If you want to see that latest quote for US Steel, then you'd know it's ticker symbol is X. The rest of us don't need a lesson in ticker symbols we don't want/need to know. The whole thing is just less efficient.
Everything has to flash now. When text changes, a white light blip has to go over it. Like some sort of "future display". Oh, and it has to make a "schweeee" sound while it does it. Also very futuristic. And distracting.
Not done with the bars yet: ON TOP OF the bottom bars now often resides a segment of another bar: the CNBC Alert bar. It appears whenever there's a news alert, and has the blinky feature mentioned above. Blinky? You bet.
But the most important part of CNBC is the stuff going on between all the bars. That's pretty much unchanged. The graphs are now "3D" and continuously rotate. And the end point on the line graph now has a halo. I don't know why.
The commentators have stayed pretty much the same. The big change is that Squawk is now being hosted by Joe Kernen, Rebecca Quick, and Carl Quintanilla (where's he been?). It's a good move, so as long as Mark Haines is somewhere in the mix (he's in a new segment called Squawk on the Street). Not that it really matters, since I'm not awake that early anyway.
How Scroogish of me to talk about finanial news on Christmas Eve. Humbug!
And everyone throughout the world forever saved
2005-12-18
Dream last night: I'm sitting at a glass patio table covered in fine china. Every square inch, filled. I'm slouched in a chair and wearing a black jacket. Then from above comes this big stone; looks like hematite. It's about 8" long, with a diameter of 5". It's not a meteorite, it just came from somewhere above; maybe ceiling-level of the room. Anyway, it came crashing down, breaking china along the way, probably cracking the table too. Then before it hit the ground it severed my foot.Now the creepy thing is not that I was seriously injured, but what I was injured by. The stone is very familiar to me, as it was marked by a distinctive cleft. I just don't know where it's from, that's what's weird.
And how could a smooth stone sever a foot anyway?
Before I forget it all, a dream from last week: I submitted a comedy screenplay to Horatio Sanz. He gave me a 73 on it. I was not happy. And I don't know why I cared about his opinion.
I had another dream last night too. I remembered it after something in the newspaper this morning pulled the memory from wherever memories about dreams go. But I forget it now. Which is too bad, 'cause it was at least as good as the first. Maybe I'll pull the paper out of the recyclables. I remember exactly where the memory trigger was.
Lies from below belong to yesterday
2005-12-17
Likening the countries of the world to guests at a Christmas party, the United States is the one who brings such copious amounts of chips and salsa, that no one ever tries El Salvador's bean dip.
^And that is how I finished my EconDev final, railing against US farm policy. I don't think Drebert will like my analogy -- and I don't think she'll like my final paper either -- but I also don't think I care.
I had this little book as a kid; it was a short story about a boy named Pierre who responded, "I don't care" to everything. At the end of the story, he was eaten by a lion.
He didn't care.
So the semester is over. Finals are over. I'm sure they did nothing but drop my grade in all classes. DC? You bet.
I've stopped shipping shirts for the time being. People are still ordering. I don't know why.
There's about a week between now and Christmas, and I don't think I'm going to like it. Just this one day seemed kind of long. We're usually released around December 21st, which means that I'm barely home before visiting relatives and preparations are taking place. But I suppose I ought to enjoy this while I can; won't be getting a break like this again for a long while.
This whole entry has been rather blah, but everything is actually much better than I made it sound. The current time of year is dampening the mood.
Not a chance, fancypants!
2005-12-01
I'm not a jealous person. But there were two two points within the past week that I was hit with the, "Gah, that coulda been me" feeling.Found this last night. I applied for the same position, am at least as qualified as she, I admire Google, I don't wear most corporate brands, AND I HAVE A SHIRT! But I did not mention that I had a shirt when I applied. That was the kicker. I believe I was wearing the shirt as I was typing up my specially-created HTML format resume for Google. Apparently shirt-wearing does not rub off on code writing.
The other this hack. Guess who had that idea 8 months ago? Yup. Although my idea was a bit more advanced (prolly more than I could handle), the end result is the same. If I put a Gumstix in an Intellivision controller will that be as cool? No. Well, maybe.
I have so much work for the next two weeks. That's all I'm going to say about that.
I've decided that I should relese a box set. Musicians do it all the time, and they sell millions of them. But the sets aren't unique; everyone gets the same bunch of CDs. Totally lame. Each box set I release is going to be different. I'm gonna personally fill each one with random crap. Here's a short list of the types of things I'm including:
- bottle caps
- used thumbtacks
- air guitar, or air bass
- wrappers from individually-packaged mints
- that little bit of unsticky part at the begining of a roll of tape
- expired concert tickets
- capital letters
- pencils w/ sharpened erasers
- fortunes
- ball bearings
- coupons
- cash (instant rebate)
- pictures of people you don't know
- SIMMs
- water vapor
- Mexican jumping beans
- an origami turtle
- some textbooks
- musical greeting cards
- salt and pepper
- chromium
- secret recipes
- a collectible mug
- a meter of CAT-5
- some original lyrics
- an ugly figurine
- golf tees
- those pills that disolve to reveal those little sponge dinosaurs
- something illegal
- a hunk of wood
- a hunk of beef
- Sharpies
- a poster of a band you don't like
- a request
- marbles
- Double-Mint
- rage
- .7mm lead refils
- some barcodes
- a Ringpop of questionable origin
- tricks of the trade
- the Hardy Boys Casefiles
- lemon
- fuzzy dice (D6, D5, D20)
- drinking straws
- something organic that Caesar wore on his head
- tiny boxes
- tally counters
- batteries
- a giraffe
And on top of all that, each box is going to be special; different dimensions, different material, different everything. It'll be a terror for retailers to stock.
This was a good post
2005-11-19
Last night I was in the military or something. And I had to buy a lot of cars, which I was looking to get a discount on. That's all I remember from that dream.Things have happened since my last update... saw Jeff Sachs speak at Columbia two weeks ago... say EBers (and almost Garth Brooks) in NYC this past week... PMILF finally came out... it's getting cold outside... I'm not going to Mexico... I am going to Prague... and this site really needs to be redesigned.
That last part is actually done, at least in my head. But I don't know when I'll get around to it. I mean, I can't even perform regular updates, y'know?
And why do egg noodles come in bags instead of boxes?
There ought to be a law
2005-11-02
Just came back from DN, spent a long time poorly doing an assignment that was due two days ago. Walked back in the rain wearing my ugly jacket. But I didn't decapitate myself while shaving tonight, so that's a win for the home team.Senioritis is upon me. But I don't get the usual strain. It's true: I really don't want to go to class anymore, I have little motivation for work, etc. But my senioritis is a transitional sort of thing.... the way I view people changes (or maybe more accurately, reverts).... it also doesn't help that winter is setting in. It's really time to hibernate.
I've finally decided that I like Scenes from a Memory. It's taken a while, and I'm certainly not the DT fan I "should" be, but it's good. Songs stuck in my head in fact; hasn't happened in a while.
I had a crazy dream a few nights back. First part: I aquired a rather large mouse named Coil. We got along instantly, although he would scurry off when I'd let him go. He'd always catch up with me later, wherever I ended up, as if he were telepathic. He'd be there, sleeping upside down on the arm of a chair or something. Coil was cool.
Second part: I'm traveling to Prague with my dad and Mike. The area is vast with few buildings; the area between is paved. There is a distinct Asian feel to it; nothing like the pictures. Our mode of transportation is this rollercoaster/levitating platform that's inside a hotel/research facility. Although it's contained within this building, there are layovers involved. Mike gets lost along the way, which sucks, since I'm his roommate and he has the keycard. There's a bidet in the bathroom. Then after I board the transporation thing again, we're outside. My seat swoops down low to the ground, and there before me is Sting, from The Police. I grab a quick handshake before my seat is jolted back up again. After deboarding, I see Sting again in an alleyway with an arch over it. Turns out he's looking for some blue wine. We come upon a street vendor claiming he has the stuff, but it turns out he only has French blue wine, which Sting says is crap.
And that was all. Maybe I'll go back tonight and get some more information.
Could be eating French toast sticks with my feet right now
2005-10-22
What can I say. Monkey Steals the Peach did indeed come in this week. It looks fantastic; a very unusual color. All of the XLs are gone, along with all the Snakes shirts. And it seems like the whole world wants an XL.Alpacas were seen last weekend. They smell like farm animals but are Romeo soft. They also cost around $20k. I'll get one..... later. The World's Largest Kaleidoscope and a corn maze followed. And lemon meringue pie.
I'm reading an interesting book right now. Not many people have heard of economic hitmen (I hadn't) but they're being used to further the United States' Capitalist Empire. The book is the story of one man's life, and his part in building an empire, so it's a quick read, since it's in first person. The book also covers some "forgotten" history, such as the US invasion of Panama.
Next time: boxing up problems.
Snakes on Cobain
2005-10-09
Saturday was mostly a failure. The alpaca trip was canceled due to rain, the backup plan didn't happen, our basement flooded, and both cocounuts I bought turned out to bad.The weekend wasn't bad though. We invented a new game (Silent Hunter) and I came up with lots more shirt ideas. Probably enough for six months or so if I have a regular release schedule. That said, Snakes on a Plane came out even better than I could have hoped, and has coincientally sold out. The only place I posted that link was on themaxx -- a members-only site -- but through the magic of the interweb, it spread all over the place. 1500+ visits that day. A site called preshrunk helped out a lot. Another interesting referrer was wiki.amazon.com. Perhaps some Amazon folk are keeping tabs on the SoaP movement?
So yeah, this Snakes on a Plane thing is really taking off. There's now a blog, a song, and another shirt. Borderline getting out of hand, but that's how the web works.
Monkey Steals the Peach is due in this week.
Eels on the bus
2005-09-30
Sometimes stake falls to the wayside when I've other web work to do. Believe it or not I do have my limits to the amount of time that I spend online, and if my back starts to hurt enough, I'm not gonna suffer just to update here.That being said, here's an update:
There's another Zorro movie coming out. Antonio is coming back as de la Vega, and CZJ as the missis. This is good news. I really like Zorro, and was disappointed when a follow up to Mask didn't surface. After six years, it looks like we have one. I'm glad they got Antonio and CJZ back together before they got old. Trailer. Kind of looks like this will be the last of Zorro. Always looks like it's going to be the last of Zorro.
Update on Apocalyptica: they are still awesome.
I'm doing shirts now. PMILF isn't getting printed (yet), but Snakes on a Plane is. We'll see how that one turns out (in both quality and demand), and then go from there.
And I really should have more to say.
Z
2005-09-15
Apocalyptica concert: incredible. Can't believe it was only $20. I liked every song, which is saying a lot, since I don't know their material at all. Their set was split about 50/50 between original songs and Metallica covers. I love Metallica, but I really wanted to hear more of the original stuff. It was very, very good. And cellos don't seem to distort as badly as guitars too when aplified over the concert speakers. That's a plus.I have a new t-shirt design. A lot of people seem to think it's funny, so I'd like to get a batch printed up.... but no one wants to pay for a shirt (yet). The problem is I need to order at least 4 dozen of them minimum to be printed, and I can't afford to be out several hundred bucks. All I really want is just one shirt for me to wear, but well..... yeah. It's just an idea.
Scoffing at the wise
2005-09-10
The semster is well on it's way. Well on it's way. Maybe even farther along than it should be. I'm sitting in the dark listening to Time Machine; isn't it a bit early for that?Slings were constructed this weekend. Parachute cord was not readily available, so I went the braided route and braided up some slings out of mason line. It's not as easy to estimate length with this method, since you don't know how long it'll be until after it's done (the interleaving reduces length). But it's fun. Sling #0 pretty much works, but a longer one is needed for more distance. Marist is a great place to sling, with the riverfront being ideal, with lots of projectiles available.
I came across DeadMalls.com today, and let me tell you DM is the place if you want to read about failed commercial projects. The best laid plans go bust. It's nice to know someone is keeping a record of shopping complexes in dire straits; it's more than Herodotus ever did. Dork.
Lots of concerts coming up, first of which is Apocalyptica this Tuesday. I have no idea what to expect from a metal concert with cellos, but you can be sure that I'll report back when I find out.
A new game was invented today, tentatively named Cupball. Catch and throw a soccerball using plastic cups. That's all. No rules for this one.... but not all games need rules to be fun.
2005-09-06
Knocked down the first week without any problems. The PC is up and running again, and Time Machine is pounding away on a new set of speakers as I type. My credit card balance is also being pounded away, but that happens at the start of every fall semester.Over the summer, I'd somehow managed to get myself double-booked for the 6:30 Thursday night timeslot. It seemed so simple at the time, but now that it's here, I'm kind of like, "Huh. This might be tricky." The prof changed for one of the classes, and that threw off the plans I had made in my head. He's a good guy, and I think it will be a good class, but the problem is that I wasn't looking for a good class, I was looking for an easy class. Well then, I guess I'll just have to learn something.
What else to report... job wise I'm back at Marist IT; declined that FDR-NFS grant for this semester; got an email from Morgan Stanley for me to ignore; sent my resume to Google for them to ignore.
While at PriceChopper last week, I came upon some bottles of Moxie, two of which I promptly picked up. I'd never seen Moxie for sale anywhere before, and this was a suprise. I'd sworn off purchasing cases of Dew this time around, but the thought that I'd even have the opportunity to have Moxie never even crossed my mind. I'd all gone from the house now, and after forcing a few people to try it, I still don't have any friends who actually like the stuff. The reviews were: "I would drink this if I were dying", "This tastes like an old Jewish man", and the ringing review, "This is better than diet.". So, better than expected.
Stop singing IWtBU
2005-08-30
We made it back to PA. And now I'm back in Po-town. Two capacitors on my motherboard popped, and my speakers crapped out two days after that incident. Replacements are on the way.It's good to be back and settled. I was sitting right here, just like this, less than four months ago, and now I'm back. And I'll not have to relocate for quite a while, which is a welcome feeling. I can leave my stuff and not have to worry about packing it back up for some time. Right; good.
Dan broke the mop already.
Don't be flying planes into the medical observatory
2005-08-22
I'm in Indiana. Today Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois got checked off the itinerary. Illinois was our stopping point, but we were good on time (and didn't pass through any time zone changes) so we pushed through to the next state. Never even set foot in Lincoln Land, and that's some kind of achievement; at least that's what we're calling it.Dinner tonight was the buffet at the hotel restaurant. The mac&cheese was ok, but kind of tasted like feet.
Tommorow I'll be back in PA. It'll be nice, being able to enjoy 3 of about a month of days that I'll be spending there this year. We're only about 700 miles away -- 100 less than we covered today -- but with traffic it would take a significant amount of extra time.
Let's kill some birds
2005-08-21
I'm in Nebraska. Lexington to be exact. Nebraska isn't so great. Wyoming is more interesting than previously thought; "interesting" == hills. So the first half of today was better than the latter.A sign entering Wyoming referred to "Cattle Women".
There really isn't more to say.
Let's kill some bugs
2005-08-20
I'm in Utah. There's salt all over the place, and it smells like Mormans. We made good time for day 1, better than predicted in fact.The last week of work was fast/difficult/consulsive. It was tough saying goodbye to people. EB was a very unique experience: living, working, and playing with the same group of people; even more so than with people at college (to an extent). The bonds that grow within just a few short months is amazing. I didn't really post enough about it this summer, but it would be difficult to describe the experience accurately. But there were simply just a lot of cool people. We'll be keeping in contact though, and there might be a reunion in the future. Also, I got an offer from the LTC this week. More on that some other time.
Tomorrow: Wyoming and beyond.
Let's kill some bugs
2005-08-13
The Career Fair started off nice and early at 8AM. It was my own doing, scheduling an interview that early. I rolled out of bed at 7:53, but actually made it over there on-time, all suited up. The interviews wrapped up by lunchtime, with 6 being the final count, with 1 offer. Good overall; the interviewers were not very intense. Actually, I asked most of the questions.We EBers then parted ways; DC and myself headed to Po-town, with me to rejoin the rest in NYC the following day. Which is what I'm doing now -- heading south from Po-town into Grand Central.
I feel happy, I feel happy...
2005-08-12
Expo went well. We flew into JFK on Tuesday night (JetBlue: thumbs up), and moved on to IBM's CHQ campus in Armonk on Wednesday. Expo started at 8 AM (5 AM PST), with my team presenting first. Almaden, Austin, Ottowa, Toronto, and Raleigh presented. Our site preformed flawlessly, and I'm very glad never to have to recite our pitch again.Presentations ran up until lunch, after which was a meetup with hiring managers to set up interviews for the following day (Friday). And then came 3 hours of demoing. Much too long, but we got through it. Not too many passersby were interested; we only attracted a targeted audience, people who found us via the Expo programme. This was good in that the people who asked for a demo were genuinely interested, but it was lame in that we didn't get a lot of foot traffic.
Dinner followed the demos. The interns were assigned randomly to tables with top execs. Not the most senior of execs, but pretty high up there. At my table was Ron Adkins, who heads up Development for Systems and Technology Group. Of the nearly $6B budget IBM allots for R&D each year, STG gets about half. I made sure to site next to him and asked lots of questions. We talked about his career, Power, and the new game consoles that IBM has developed chips for. Ron has received some of the next gen consoles to test out, which is a nice perk, especially for his kids. The last question asked of him was about failures during his career; one was an environmentally-friendly PC, and the other was this laptop that used a butterfly keyboard. Yes, the 701! I almost jumped out of my well-fitting, nicely-pressed pinstripe pants. This was the guy who put the beloved Thinkpad 701 into production. He's also the one that pulled the plug. I've talked about my compy 486 before, one of my favorite pieces of technology, which I've since replaced with a faster model. But now I finally had my chance to find out why the butterfly keyboard was never included in later models.
It was technically sound, comfortable to use, and had a sturdy construction (mine is 10 years old and functions perfectly). I don't buy the reason for pulling production on the screen being too small. Ron said it was a failure, since it only sold 10K units. It was ahead of its time perhaps. Was it a mistake to cease production after producing just two models? I think so. The butterfly keyboard was the trademark feature of the 701, but I think other characteristics hurt sales. For instance, there wasn't a removable drive (floppy or CD) due to its size. And at $5K, corporate customers would be looking for more features over compactness. A Japanese computer company could've pulled it off. But with the Thinkpad being the laptop of corporate America in the '90s, it wasn't meant to be.
Your soul's gonna burn, in a lake of fiiiiiire
2005-08-07
Last Friday: sailing on the bay. The seas were rough that night, at least for the first half of the trip. Naturally, most of us wanted to stand right up on the deck. Standing in itself was a challenging exercise, but I never fell down (did display some hidden dance moves though). My jeans got soaked, since I had a nack for standing at the wrong place at the wrong time. The wind was cold, the fog rolled in, and it was great. pics.I took some time to talk to Capt. Jim up on the bridge:
"What does this lever do?"
"Why do you have to keep yanking those ropes?"
"Can I press the 'scuttle the ship' button?"
Saturday was a trip to wine country; Healdsburg specifically. Checked out 4 wineries, took some pics. The ride to and fro necessitated a drive on the Golden Gate Bridge. Since it was the day after we sailed under the GGB, that was kind of cool.
Rev 3:20
2005-08-05
I hate Enzyte commercials
I think Antonio Banderas should have made more Zorro movies
Sometimes breathing makes a song
Carlos Mencia + D.L Hughley != Dave Chappelle
People don't know how to use keyboards efficiently
Peter Sellers shouldn't have died
Ready for Part 2?
2005-07-30
There I was, at work on a Saturday, sitting in the dark, wearing someone else's suit and a fez, while assembing a 3" pewter model of a hydra. And I glued it to my hand. We were filming; it was fun; there are pics; the end.Here's an idea: an umbrella/canopy suspended in air by a helium balloon attached to a dog collar. You know, to keep dogs dry outside when it's raining. No one likes a wet dog, but dogs have to go outside, even if it is raining. Doggie rain jackets certainly isn't the answer. Something that you have to put your dog is much less prefered to an apparatus that can be attached to the collar. It should be simple to construct too. The downside is that it wouldn't keep the dog entirely dry, since the paws always seem to get wet. But the wet dog shake could be prevented (my dog likes to shake while he's on the hardwood floor, where the water will do the most damage).
And finally, here's a new t-shirt design.
She sets me on fire
2005-07-28
So I found myself at the Googleplex. They were running an intern-stealing event to try to entice other companies' interns into Google. As if any such enticing was really necessary. We were provided with a free dinner, shirts, pens, and a series of tech talks. The "finale" tech talk was by the inventor of Google Earth, a product which is MUCH more astounding when demoed by someone who knows what they're doing.There was a guy standing off to the side during the talk. He was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans in a sea of Google shirts. Who was it? Yup, Sergey Brin. It was a suprise; he hopped on stage and answered some questions. It was good.
I made mac 'n peas a few nights ago, and I was waiting ALL DAY today to come home and have the leftovers for dinner. ALL DAY. So I got home, and there it was, on the counter. On the counter for the past 2 days. I had forgotten to move it from the outside of the 'fridge to the inside of the 'fridge. Oh so frustrating. So I fried up some steak to make a steak sandwich. No cooking oil in this house, so I used butter-like spread. And then I noticed the greeness on my steak rolls. And that's how dinner goes.
What's this? The Giver is becoming a movie? Do I like this? I don't know yet.
I'm sure what I don't like: /. posting headlines about old tech news. Really old stuff. Slashdot is rarely the first place for tech news, but this is rediculous. It almost makes me mad, just having to read it. Yes, I have to read it.
Picture-in-picture is like custard for old people
2005-07-24
I can say without a doubt that one of the best parts of my summer experience is the people I've been given the change to meet, both the people I work with and the people that I just kind of get pushed into. Hearing different life experiences, outlooks, and advice is great. I would say that these are very non-institutionalized people -- very outside the box (and cubicle) many of them. For instance, a guy I met today is "on leave" from a job at IBM, a job that he loved. But he was hit with a quater-life crisis, and decided he had to get out. He's traveled all over the place during the past 18 months, met lots of people, and still doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, although he has offers for jobs if he wants to go that route. This fall he's going to get his masters for free, but he's really just looking at it as another 10 months to decide what he wants to do. And he's very comfortable with all of this, since he truly has nothing to lose.When was the last time I met someone like this? What are the chances of me being one of these people? Is being a professional drifter in the cards for me?
It's good though. I've been taking in all kinds of advice, and I've had some thoughts this past week. And I bought new clothes.
That last bit it the most unlikely of all.
Right-wing commet
2005-07-21
Last Saturday: Big Basin and San Fran. The hike was enough to get short of breath, but nothing compared to Half Dome. This one (Buzzard's Roost) was only about 5 miles, and mostly wooded. Redwooded, actually. After that, we took some windy roads to San Fran. Much better than the first time I was there; we arrived while it was still light out this time. Light was a key component when you consider the spectacular view we had from the hotel room. Top floor of the Hyatt Regency, facing the bay. Pics? Of course.Hans Coufal came to the lab a few days ago to give a talk. The talks given by tech people always seem to be better than the talks of the business people, since their careers seem more varied. But Hans is the best we've had so far. He just really talked about his life, how he got to where he is now, and answered questions on what he's worked on. If this dude wrote an autobiography, I'd read it; his life just seems that interesting. By the time he was thirty, he had received a PhD and MBA, fabricated the meter standard for Germany, wrote a best-selling textbook, started a scientific consulting company (which grew to a billion-dollar business), and was a tenured college professor. Later on he came to the States and did/is doing some really revolutionary work. All kinds of stuff, including holographic storage and racehorse surgery. Wow.
I don't think I staked this, but a year ago I (and everyone else with a Paypal account) received an email notice about a class action lawsuit settlement. Paypal was to payout over $9 million, and anyone who had signed up for a Paypal account in the past 5 years was able to claim a bit of it. After running some numbers, I came to the conclusion that my payout would range from $.01 to $1,000,000. I tried to get other people to fill out the form so they they could claim their share, but all I got were sneers and jeers in reply. "Only pennies will your receive!" they (and Yoda) shouted. Well, a few days ago, a "You've got cash" notice showed up in my inbox. Paypal had paid out. Eight bucks for me, right in my account. I showed you, I showed all of you. Now I'm rolling in it. Maybe I'll still let you talk to me as I walk down the street. I'll be the one in the shiny shoes.
top coat, top hat; cufflinks, stick pin
2005-07-15
Here's an idea: the New Rock Stock Exchange. I've been thinking (for the past few years) about how smaller bands can make it big. It seems that most new bands have to fit a record label's formula before they'll get signed. So for people whose primary new music venue is radio, it's really the record label that decides what bands you will like in the future. But there are people out there who acutally seek out the smaller (indie) bands. They become loyal fans, and do whatever they can to promote the band. But word-of-mouth alone never breaks a band to a larger audience. This is where the NRSE comes in.Corporations, often young ones, use the stock market as a means of cash infusion by way of an Initial Public Offering. Investors who believe that the company will do well buy shares of the company. Imagine if this could be applied to an unsigned rock band. The band could sell shares of their small organization on an open market; fans would buy them. This would provide the band with some income which could cover expenses such as studio time, new equiptment, CD pressing, or promotion. The shareholders would benefit by having some of the advantages of being a (or part of a) band member. If a 4-piece band decides to sell 50% of their organization during their IPO, they would effectively be be adding 4 other members to their band, much like how large shareholders of corporations become boardmembers. The top 4 shareholders of the band in this example could enjoy perks such as backstage access, voting rights on album cover art, etc. Shareholders could of course sell their shares on the NRSE; record companies could easily identify which bands should be signed, since the stock price would be a direct measure of popularity (or more accurately, marketability).
Yeah, it needs more development, but I think it could work in some cases. I have no idea how it would be implemented, or who would fund the infrastructure to make it work. Maybe I'll write up a more detailed proposal. Ha, maybe.
Me want Honeycomb
2005-07-10
You know when you pour milk into a cereal bowl too fast and some of the bits of cereal -- due to jostling and sudden displacement by the milk -- slide out over the edge of the bowl? What's that called?Last Saturday: Bone Bash VI. I was there for Queensryche of course, but Priest was headlining. Queensryche's performance was good, but couldn't be better than when I saw them in March. They did a song from their upcoming release... which is coming out later this year... which means I may see them yet again in the near future. Judas Priest put on a good show, although I'm not converted into a fan. High marks though for the motorcycle on stage.
This Saturday: Santa Cruz. The weather wasn't as cold as it was forecasted to be, and there were very few clouds. Lots of sun though. Water was freezing, but that really wasn't a problem, since I had planned for the water to be freezing, and wore ski pants. I hadn't been to the beach in about 4 years or so, and it was a good time. Pics.
I've got a force field and flexible plans
2005-07-05
I figure that I should talk about work a bit, since it's a rather significant part of my summer, and I've only posted on it twice before. Well, we're halfway done (or half the time has passed at least). Five weeks until the Armonk expo, where we have to present and demo our product to senior IBM execs. Today we had our largest presentation so far, with about 20 full-timers from HiPODS (the sponsoring division for our project) attending. It went alright, save the live demo failing rather misrably, but that's to be expected. Off the project, I've been working on my placement informaion, resume etc., and trying to get some IBM coursework in too. If Norton won't give me a z/OS course, I'll get it myself.I've been asked how much of the limb pirate pirate true; the answer is: all up until the last sentence of the second paragraph. So most of it is false, and there wasn't any bloodshed.
We get it backwards: the seven years go by like one
2005-07-01
I'm getting married.Well, that's the way it seems anyway. It seems to be the ONLY way. You see, In 'n Out -- the best fast-food burger place -- has locations only in CA, NV, and AZ. For the geographically-challenged, that's a long way away from the east coast. They only open 10 locations per year, and they've been in business since 1948 so... do the math. Drastic measures need to be taken if an In 'n Out is ever to reach the northeast in my lifetime.
In 'n Out is a privately-held business, and all the locations are corporate-owned. You can see how difficult getting in on this is going to be. So the only way I see to get an In 'n Out where I want it is to marry into the In 'n Out family. If I can't be a franchise owner and can't buy up all the shares, I'm going to have to inherit it. Now I just have to find someone in the Snyder family who needs marryin'.
I just saved a buncha money on my car insurance
2005-06-27
As a restaurateur I would mandate that every dish be served be accompanied by a useless utensil. A salmon steak with a whisk. Spaghetti with a pair of pliers. Chicken fried steak with a nutcracker. And the list goes on. Why would I do this? For the entertainment value. Harmless entertainment provided by many, many confused people. And perhaps even some ingenuity. I'm sure some 14-year could figure out how to use a chopstick to eat tomato soup. Or maybe a paintbrush to aid in the consumption of scrambled eggs.The very last one in a very long line
2005-06-26
It seems that stake was taking up too many server resources this weekend, and was disabled over on SDF. SDF hasn't been such a good place for me in 2005, first my database was deleted, a mysterious new user snatched away my TetRis crown, and now my web account gets disabled. It's not a big deal, just a bit annoying. So stake has been moved to the same server as everything else. It loads faster now too.Went to a baseball game yesterday. There was this young woman sitting in front of me, a very good-looking one at that. During the 5th inning, she turned around and squeezed my leg. Rather firmly. It was at that moment that I knew she was a limb pirate.
Maybe it was my years of research on the subject, or just keen instinct. But right then and there, with her left hand on my leg and her right hand clutching a gleaming 5ft. long cutlass, that I was not going to be "Chris all together" for much longer. How often I had seen the reports on the 11 o'clock news, about the limb nabbers going after innocent people's appendages, hacking and then selling on the black 'n blue market for hundreds in profits. And I was to become a victim; I was about to earn my 2.5 minutes on the local news.
No, not this dude, no way. As her grasp tightenend and the sword swung low, I ripped her hand off of my leg and stretched it out in the path of the blade. As she cut off her own limb, I caught it before it hit the ground. "Take that to the black market!" I proclaimed.
Then we both sat quietly and watched the rest of the game. It was kind of awkward.
We foster pure honest to goodness
2005-06-23
Dream last night: the only part I remember is that I have to arrange the last meal for the dog from Rush. I'm not exactly sure how this dog is in Rush, but we can assume he's a bandmember. We were in this long rectangular red room; velvet on the walls. The dog was white. I was holding the plate from which he as too choose his last meal (I'm unsure of why he was destined to die). The plate offered two choices: one side had a fancy Italian pasta, and the other had mac&cheese. But it wasn't regular blue box mac&chee, it was all dressed up; almost looked like the pasta. He chose that. I then turned and went the opposite way. The dog stood on the wall.Don't cast your spell on me
2005-06-22
New Foo arrived just two days after it was released. And it's good, it really is. I've only listened to the first disc so far. Reminds me most of the last album. I doubt that they will ever return to their mid-90s sound (unless Pat Smear comes back...). It's good. Buy it. And if you're wondering, my UK copy ripped just fine. Haven't watched the DVD yet, but it is Region 0.I hiked the Half Dome trail at Yosemite this weekend. Quit 1.5 miles from the end (top of Half Dome). There's a lot more to the story. Ever have so much to say but just don't feel like saying it after a few days go by? This is one of those times for me. I will tell the story on a person-by-person basis. Pics here and here.
In local news, San Fran is having a problem with pit bulls. It seems every urban area has a problem with pit bulls from time to time, since it's a cheap form of sports betting. But some government officials in the area have proposed a ban on the breed. To get votes of course, not because it actually need to be done. I for one oppose it. Pit bulls aren't inherently evil... they can be trained to kill. They're probably the easiest breed of dogs to train to fight. We don't restrict where people can live just because they might have a greater killing capacity. The people who are responsible for a pit bull must ensure that they behave. Which is what the law is now, and how it should remain. Outlaw pit bulls and -- assuming it's obeyed -- people will just switch to another dog which is easy to train for fighting; rotties maybe. Don't introduce a new law when the current law has provisions to stop the actual problem.
"...since the butterflies were so weak, they needed large birds of burden to transport the stone for the butterfly castles in Toronto"
2005-06-14
New Foo today, but don't buy it. It's full of DRM, unfortunately. Audio CDs are the final pure audio format, get it while you still can! Don't accept a copy-protected CD. The best way to protest against DRM is to not buy the CD. And iTunes only sells DRM'd songs, so that's not a good alternative. What did I do? Ordered the album from the U.K. How do I know the British pressing of the CD isn't copy-protected? I don't. But it doesn't explicitly say that it is. If I'm wrong, I guess I'll be stuck with an album with coverart in a different language.I visited a Hot Dog on a Stick last week. What is a hot dog on a stick? Well it's this hot dog ... on a stick ... deep-fried in some batter ... okay, it's pretty much a corndog. It tastes good, but there aren't any on the east coast. HDoaS has a very limited product line as well; another problem. I of course can solve their problems. I consulted with an ex-Californian on this matter. Instead of summarizing it, here is the actual edited dialogue:
So that's that. Expanding product lines is a snap.
Quick note: Dave&Busters has a new no-under-21 policy. Even flashing my straight edge card was ineffective.
Back on the borderline
2005-06-05
Here's an idea: a woman's hat designed to look like a cake. The brim would be the "plate" and the other part (is there a technical term for it?) would be the actual cake.The reasoning is this: when a woman puts down her hat on a table, she can scold passersby who fall for the false cake. This would be a particularly good fashion accessory for old women who like to include many hours of scolding in their daily routine. My friends, a new Sunday activity for grumpy grandmothers has just been born.
Up next: cakes designed to look like hats.
Oh yeah, and comments are back.
"Did you see how excited he got when he found out your birthday was fast approaching?" - Mitch
2005-06-04
Busy, busy, busy.The EB lab is a nice place to work; I have a desk area with a PC, laptop, and VoIP phone. But it's amazing how little I get to play with these tools; I always seem to be in meetings or prepping presentations or meeting IBMers. People higher up in the chain of command stop by our lab often, and each team has to present their project. We've done it twice already, and it's starting to get old already. But we can only improve I guess.
Took a trip of San Fran last night. Everyone told me that it's The Place to go in northern California. It was my first time there, and my first impression wasn't so great. Not that I had a bad time, it's just that it seemed pretty much the same as any other city. I'll have to go back and re-evaluate it during the day some time; the night kind of limited our activity.
Some pics from our Memorial Day excursion are up on remaindermark.
I've been using Skype to make calls back to PA. It works really well, and is really cheap. I didn't work at Marist (PC-to-phone voice was delayed; dropped outgoing UDP packets?). But if you have a decent broadband connection, I'd definately reccommend it.
No runs, two hits, one man left on base
2005-05-30
You can expect a batch of posts this week, as I had time to jot some ideas down while on the plane, but for now I'll just stick to first impressions of San Jose.The apartment is nice, located right off the light rail (trolley). South San Jose had bikers in mind when it was designed, as there are bike lanes on every street. But I don't have a bike (yet?), so I did a lot of walking yesterday.
I did not, as planned, at any Wendy's chili as of yet. But I did eat at an In 'n Out Burger, which for those who know, is the only fast food joint Neil Peart will eat at. He made sure to include that fact in one of his books. Speaking of Neil, I am now about 2800 miles closer to his abode; perhaps we will cross paths?
I haven't really bought any real food yet, but I did buy a router. It's all about necessity I guess. Tech > food.
My fellow interns and I have hung out even before we've actually started working, which is really cool. There are people from all different backgrounds, about half are undergrads, and more people are from the northeast US than anywhere else it seems. It's nice to know there are people that can understand some of the same concepts as I do (such as snow). Snow isn't something that's likely to happen around here, just check out the forecast. There isn't much variety, but I don't think I'll have a problem tolerating it for the summer.
A group of us went to a wine/music/art festival today. The drive over was half the fun. One of those windy mountain roads where the view is as great as your chances of plunging to your death. Got some nice pics I think, one might end up as a Pic of the Week. The festival itself consisted of some good food and drink, such as pork on a stick, lemonade, and strawberry shortcake. The fruit tasted especially good; it must be the region. I'll have to pick up some fruit from the Trader Joes's down the street.
First day of work tomorrow, guess some sleep is in order for now.
That's Chinese to me
2005-05-26
It's cold and rainy, and potholes are infecting the local roadways.What is this? A Casino Royale remake? John Cleese.... what?! Why have I not been informed about this?
Did you know that Wawa sells land? Check out this prime half-acre plot in Petersberg, VA. For only a couple hundred thousand dollars, it could be yours. But the deed restricts you from putting up a convenience store. So what else is there to build? A house of course. Think of it, your house, a Wawa. Wawa, and then your house. Then it would be a true convenience store.
So, for those of you who were wondering, this is what an unemployed nerd on a dial-up internet connection does: clicks around IMDB and looks for convenience store real estate deals.
Don't read this post.
2005-05-21
Honey Bunches of Oats with Peaches is a completely unnecessary cereal.Home has been tolerable thusfar (save ^). I'm catching up on reading, not spending much time on the computer, not wearing shoes, and sitting around my semi-unpacked/packed crap. I hate the whole business of moving. Packing, unpacking, trying to remember what's where..... bleh. It would really help if all of my posessions were network-accessible. One of the biggest parts of my life, the home directory on my computer, is not a problem at all to move. Why? Because I can just login and retrieve/put stuff any time. And if I add more files, I don't have to move more weight. You can't say that about shirts. Or books. Or even a 5lbs. bag of Crasins. Physical objects have to first be remembered, then lugged. I despise the remembering and dislike the lugging. My home directory requires none of that. So, there you go, another reason why comptuers are better than garments and dead trees.
.............yeah. yeah.
2005-05-12
Ever wonder how vegans die?I did this weekend. With heart disease as the leading cause of death in America, and with most heart problems being diet-related, vegans are pretty much immune. And considering they tout their lifestyle as being so much healthier than we meat-o-saurs, well.... what kills them?
Tragic accidents, that's what. Accidents are a high cause of death among all age groups, and no matter how much soy milk vegan drink, vegans are not immune to accidents. Must be pretty depressing for the vegan, walking down the street, munching on some legumes, and thinking, "Today might be the day I get rammed by a tractor-trailer."
^That's^ just rediculous. Everyone knows that vegans don't just wait around to get hit by trucks. Which is why I've come up with a new, better theory: low cholesterol.
Haven't thought about that before, have you? Without consuming meat or dairy products, how do vegans get the necessary amount of cholesterol they need? The answer is: they don't! This is a major problem, because according to Wikipedia, cholesterol "plays a central role in many biochemical processes". And as we all know, one of the most important biochemical processes is Not Dying.
So how are vegans suppoed to survive, given that they lack an essential ingredient to keeping their Not Dying biochemical process running? They inject it of course. That's right, just like diabetics inject themselves with insulin, vegans should be injecting themselves with cholesterol. As far as I know, there is not yet a product on the market that will do this, so the playing field is wide open for me. The only competition would be animals, and as long as vegans won't eat 'em, I've got the market cornered.
Some people seem to really enjoy my essay on Starship Troopers. You decide for yourself. It makes more sense (not really) if you've read the book.
Condense soup, not books!
2005-05-04
I have a story.I have a story for you.
There once was sheep. He lived on a hill. Sometimes it was windy on the hill, and the sheep caught a chill."I should get some pants," said the sheep.
So the sheep went to get some pants. The tailor shop was located at the base of the hill 5 hills over.
The sheep went down his hill, up another hill, down that hill, up the next, down again, up, down, up, down, up, and down once more. At last, he had reached the tailor.
"I'd like some pants," said the sheep.
"Alright then, let me just get the material," replied the tailor.
The tailor sheered the sheep, spun the wool, and created a pair of pants.
"Here you are!" exclaimed the tailor, as he presented the pants to the now-naked sheep.
"Oh, thank you very much!" the sheep replied graciously. He hopped his new pants an hurried home to his hill.
By the time he got back, the sun had set and the skies had opened. Rain. Perfect sleeping weather.
The next morning, the sheep felt uncomfortable. The pants had shrunk.
The End.
Don't masquerade with the guy in the shades
2005-05-03
Alright, most of the "lost posts" from last month's database disaster have been restored. These range from 2005.02.15 - 2005.04.09. Unfortunately, there were 4 posts that appear to be lost forever: "Operation: Mindcrime", "Jan / Feb / Dream", "Optimist / Pessimist", and "Nightwish". So if for some reason you have 'em, I want 'em.End status update; commence real post:
Gary, Indiana. "Gary" is not a normal name for a town. Have you ever thought about how the name of that town came about?
Future Mayor's Wife: Hank! There are a lot of people gathering 'round here now; we need to name the town!A similar exchange was had between the two several week later, except that the topic of the question was "new baby" and the answer was "Turnersville".
Future Mayor: ....Gary?
Back to the main focus, naming cities using people's first names if fun. Try it with your name. Girls' names coupled with midwestern states is pretty appealing. Denise Nebraska. Kinda sexy, isn't it? But by far the best firstname-state pairing is Dan, Nevada. Combine to make on word; Dannevada. It just flows so nicely. If there was a place with a name like Dannevada, I'd sure like to visit.
So I hopped on eBay. Yes, eBay lists land; it's under the Real Estate section. But I'm not looking for wimpy real estate, I'm looking for LAND. I need to fulfil the Manifest Destiny!
Bids are starting low on rural Nevada land. But the bid price isn't the full price, it just counts toward a down payment. So you pay $20 to win the acre plot, and then $6,000 to close the deal. I guess that's not bad. All we need is enough land to stake a sign that reads, "Dan, Nevada". Buying land online is kind of odd though, because you don't get to see what you're buying. How cool would it be to buy the title to a piece of land thousands of miles away, never visit it for years, and then just show up a few decades later, maybe after retirement? I could totally do that. Buy a plot of land in 2006, then stop by in 2034, lawnchair in tow. Then I'd hang out for a while.
psst... it's actually a last name!
2005-04-30
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: at last, has come to tbe big screen. I was expecting to be dissappointed. Disney + PG rating + dead DA.... it wasn't looking good. And for every good review there was a bad one. But I like it. I really do. First and foremost, they preserved the Englishness. English accents (not Trill though, for some curious reason), English settings, and quick English dialouge. One of the strikes against War of the Worlds was that it was Americanized; it's happened other places as well. But not here.Moving on to characters. Arthur: Good, almost dead-on. Not much else to say. Ford: Mos Def makes a suprisingly good Ford. Not the one I picutured when I read the book, but he works out. Tril: Again, not like I pictured, but good. Very likable. In fact, more likable than the book version. Zaphod: A good character, but he wasn't Zaphod. He was more surfer-dude/rockstar, whereas the real Zaphod had some kind of clue, if he was a bit eratic. Also the heads thing wasn't optimal. Slartibartfast: Wasn't quite as old and wizardy as you'd think. Did not once utter the word "fjords" during the film. Marvin: He's my favorite, and was sufficiently manic-depressive.
I felt that one of the best features was the voice over and the presentation of the acual Hitchhiker's Guide. I was afraid they were going to cut that out -- which would have been horribly wrong -- but it was in fact relied upone very much. It was presented with animation, and added humor while giving necessary information.
Does it follow the book closely? For the most part, yes. Some things had to be cut, do to time, but nothing major. Things like Arthur's conversation with the door or the fact that Ford was on assignment for his publisher. Arthur didn't even look up the entry for "Earth". But nothing huge is missing.
They definately set up for the sequel. Will we get one? I hope so, but I don't know if the box office will support it. On opening night, at the only after-7 showing at the local theatre, the group I went with represented half the audience (so, like 40 people total). I just pray that if there is a sequel, it's a full-fledged one, not some skimp-on-the-budget straight-to-video sequel.
So go see it. I advise you to read the book first, unless you're good at keeping up with quick dialogue. And even if you are, read the book anyhow.
The best way to get a drink out of a Vogon is to stick your finger down his throat...
2005-04-28
I have an IBM internship this summer. I'll be a part of the Extreme Blue program working on a project called Resiliency Workbench at the Almaden Research Facility in San Jose. The process of getting such a position consisted of electronically submitting a resume, getting a call for an interview, then the actual phone interview (2.5 hours), taking the IPATO test online, having IBM check my references, being selected as an Extreme Blue finalist, interviewing with a project group (half hour), and then being selected for that project. Unlike with Morgan, IBM's intern hiring process can easily be found online; I just provided it here for consistency.An interesting observation is that I have not actually met with anyone from IBM throught this entire process, which is something you'd expect to happen, if you don't consider the distance invloved. So they haven't met me, but hired me anyway. Morgan met me, but didn't hire me. Maybe the virtual me is better than the real one?
So, the summer in San Jose. I already know the first thing I'll be doing once I get out there: going to Wendy's for a cup of chilli. Recent news kind of puts a damper on the idea, but I'm confident that I'll be able to find some sort of prize in my fast-food chili. You know, maybe even collect all ten.
German toad experts are baffled...
2005-04-23
Let's catch up.Aside from dumb computers, dumb users, and dumb mistakes, things have happened. I'm finalizing my summer plans (details next post?) and can happily say that I am done looking for an internship. Oh how that got to be a pain towards the end. It sounds like fun, but it's tedious and requires a lot of waiting. Oh, Morgan turned me down by the way. No suprise there.
I've decided that I no longer like Cheez-It Twisterz. I've known for a long time that I do not need them, but now I realized I don't even like them. They taste like evil all of the sudden.
While walking through a parking lot last week, I came upon a key. Imprinted on it is the word "GUARD". Obviously, someone wasn't following the directions on the key. So I've made it my duty -- I am now the Guarder of the Key. It is doubtful that I'll ever find what it opens. But if I ever need it, I'll know to use it instantly. Like in those old PC adventure games, where you find yourself in a room with a door. You know you have to go through the door, but when you try "OPEN DOOR", the computer responds, "DOOR IS LOCKED". And then you go and find the only key in that world and it works on the door. THAT is what this key that I found is. A magic key. With it I will be able to continue on to the next stage of the game.
Now I have to find a room.
People are an invention of water...
2005-04-22
Okay, time for a status update.stake's database -- where all the posts and comments are stored -- was wiped out through some sort of mix up. Yup, all of it. So I'm scrapping together what I can find, which is most of it. Right now I've relocated the DB to a more secure location, and you'll be able to find about a hundred past posts. There are more to be restored, in due time.
I'll tack a real post later. It's good to know we're back.
Even good guys blow it
2005-04-09
I've never understood the expression "like it's nobody's business" tacked-on to the end of a phrase. As in: "Sammy collects bottle caps like it's nobody's business". The expression is supposed to mean that a person is very good at something. But it really doesn't make any sense. If nobody is in the bottle cap collecting business and Sammy is really good at that, then why doesn't he go into the business?Look:
"I lace bowling shoes like I'm in business."
Makes sense, right? Or even more stupendous:
"I lace bowling shoes like a Fortune 500 Company!"
Now that's saying something.
Searching for the lost Xanadu
2005-04-08
When I got an invitation to attend Morgan Stanely's Internship Assessment Center, the first thing I did was try to find out what an "assessment center" is. And I found nothing. Their website has lots of information on what to expect from their preliminary interview session, but nothing on this. No one had anything on this, even G. Therefore I vowed to post here on what the experience is like once I got through it, for the sake of future intern candidates, so that they might know what to expect.And I didn't.
But now, weeks later, I have uncovered my notes that I jotted down on the train ride back. So here we go:
The location was at Morgan's 7th Ave. building in Manhattan. It started at 8:30am, and the dress code was business casual, although all but two (out of twenty) of us actaully adhered to it. Everyone else was wearing dark pants and jackets. Ties too.
No matter, they let me in anyway. We all went to a presentation room, where we were given our individual schedules for the day. A breakfast was provided. First order of business was for each of us to do a quick intoduction of ourself. During this process, I found out that I was only one of three to be an undergrad. Everyone else was pursuing an MS, 2x MS, or PhD. That, and I was the only student from Marist. Nothing like being a part of a minority, except maybe not having anyone else to join you in your minority.
The day kicked off with a Q&A session. It answered a lot of questions, and gave us a good into how the company and the program works. We were then split into random groups, with each group being led to a separate room. We were given 80 flex drinking straws, some pins, and a task: to create a product, a company name, logo, slogan, marketing plan, list of pros/cons, and acknowledge our competitiors. This was to be done within an hour. And each of us was observed by a company employee. It was sort of like being on reality TV, since 1) we were being watched, and 2) we had to work together although we were all in competition. Our product was a modular building structure... think 3-story high legos. We then had to present it in front of a room of everyone else involved. I think we did alright.
And then came the major part of the day: interviews. There were 3: 2 technical and 1 non-technical. My first technical was very technical. Strictly business. He took me to a conference room (where I'd stay for most of the day) and started firing questions. He had a notepad, and I had to draw some diagrams... and whenever I'd just mention a related technology, he'd refocus on that. So I was hopping all over the place. But I started out badly. The first question was on the Unix command ln, and I COMPLETELY didn't recognize it. But once I got past that brain fart ("ln, ln..... link? YES!") we really got rolling. We covered file systems, inodes, DNS resolution, HTTP request and response, how traceroute works, TTL, IMCP, mounting, and /proc, among other things. That interviewer is a part of a Unix group, so it was good to see that I was matched up well.
My second interview was non-technical, and was with a manager who knows one of the Marist alumnus who currently works at Morgan (good for me?). We talked about their IT budget, how they earn it, his career history, why Morgan is a good place to be, the fact that techies getting promotions, and life goals. He also brought out some "classic" interview questions, such as the dreaded "3 strengths/3 weaknesses" one. But I guess that's to be expected.
The final interview was the one I felt most comfortable in, since the interviewer seemed like the type of guy who'd have be one of my friends had he worked at Marist IT. It was technical, but was rather casual. Topics included my digital picture frame, Perl/Python, dress code, 64 bit, kernel memory space, user space, Linux distros, Linux S/390, and Solaris 10.
I felt pretty good after the interview gauntlet. One thing to note is that all three interviewers asked me about the largest project I had worked on. I don't know if it's a required question, but it is important. They want to see that you can work in a team.
I was invited out to lunch by some Marist alums afterward, so we did that. As I was about to leave though, the dude who had interviewed me during the first round said hi and gave me his email address and wished me luck, which was nice of him, since he was under no obligation to do that.
Lunch was good, but I missed my train due to the parade. I ended up taking the St. Patty's Day Express home.
Virgil makes good rootbeer
2005-04-01
A lot of stuff, a lot to catch up on, but tonight needs to be dedicated to the late Mitch Hedberg.As some of you may know, Mitch is/was my favorite comic. I've memorized a lot of his material, and recite it often (remember the tribute comedian idea?). In fact, I was doing exactly that, reciting to myself, on a long walk back the night that he died. I found out afterward.
He was so vulnerable when he told a joke. Most had no build up, and transitions between jokes didn't really exist. He just kind of rattled them off. I don't know if people realize how hard that is. It's so easy to add build-up filler before the punchline, but being able to consistently deliver punchlines is something to be admired. Not many of those type of comics are out there, and Mitch was my favorite.
All of the articles and blog posts that I see are including some one-liners from Mitch. I'm gonna change things up and just post the start of some of his "long" jokes; you can fill in the rest for yourself (or ask me to finish them off). I actually started crying while recalling some these; they're just that good.
Sometimes I wake up and I think I should start wearing a beret...At my hotel room, my friend came over and asked to use the phone. He said "Do I need to dial 9?"...
I went to the park and saw this kid flying a kite...
Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having...
I was minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, "You're gonna have to move, you're blocking a fire exit."
An escalator can never break...
If you had a friend who was a tightrope walker...
I opened-up a yogurt, and underneath the lid it said, "Please try again." ...
I don't have a girlfriend...
I wrote a postcard to my dad - I wrote, "I really enjoy being here," but I accidentally wrote "rarely" ...
My apartment is infested with koala bears...
The first time I saw Mitch was on his Comedy Central special. It was a Friday night -- not a night to be watching prime time TV -- but I was sick with the Sheahan Death Virus. So I was watching TV; about 2 solid hours of Comedy Central Presents. I remember thinking to myself, "Does this guy really think he's funny? What is he doing?" He was just wandering around the stage, mumbling into the microphone. And then it hit me. His style of delivery hit me. And I was hooked.
Mitch, let's not bring ink and paper into this. End of transaction.
"I love you guys.... thanks for coming to my special"
2005-03-13
And today I wrote a terrible paper.Why? Because that's what I do.
I hate writing bad papers, because I hate making teachers read crap. But I've been on a bad-paper streak for a while. I really don't remember doing any truly decent ones since J. Mark's class, which was quite a few semesters ago. The thing is, if I really wanted to write a paper on a topic, I'd have already done it, or would at least already have preliminary notes on it (I do keep notes for things I mean to write in the future). It's not that I'm locked into a very specific topic: this last paper was on anything to do with modern speculative fiction. Anything, just crank out eight pages on it. What I've produced fits the bill, but I certainly wouldn't want to read it. I think my motivation for this sort of thing went away after I realized that not only do professors not seem to notice what (I think is) better writing, but I myself don't care. But how can I say I don't care when I started out this paragraph with "I hate writing bad papers"? Because I just want to get it done, that's why. The quicker I can finish writing a bad paper, the quicker I will not be writing a bad paper.
I completely lost track of time tonight; I was about 3 hours ahead of where I should have been. So I went for a drive. All the way down 9 until it becomes just two lanes. Miles and miles without traffic lights or stop signs. Trees line both sides, and there's a bend in the road every quarter mile. It reminded me of driving that stretch of Upper State between 202 and County Line. I'm sure there's tons of roads like it, but I can only relate it back to PA. It's been on my mind a lot lately, PA, seeing as Spring Break is coming up. But mostly because it looks like I'll be spending almost 11 months out of the year not at "home". It's kind of odd to have a PA driver's license, have a post office box in PA, pay taxes to PA, and refer to PA as "home" when I'm almost never there. But, as I found out whilst looking over income tax forms, none of this really matters. It's all about the domicile.
Had a dream the other night. The only part I remember is inspecting a circuit board on some kind, which I was to install. I don't know what it's function was or where I was to put it. Both sides were covered with components. The most notable feature was that it was full of corrections -- yes, in pen -- as if a student had submitted it for grading. There were little notes about the incorrect parts, arrows, and suggestions on color. But if there were so many problems with it, why was I to install it?
Learn what came from it.
2005-03-08
Today was a wasted day; classes were canceled and shortly after, offices too. I couldn't even go to work. So I pursued my latest pastime: watching internship videos.Not seeking out actual internship opportunities, just the videos. High-quality stuff. Much better than just text. They're highly enjoyable and uplifting. The best ones feature the "rewarding opportunities" and "challenges" that their program offers. The second-to-last segment of many videos feature the perks of the internship, including sky diving and horseback riding (not simultaneously). GE, Morgan Stanley, and IBM all have good videos. Lots of excitement and happy people. The European editions of the videos are cool too, since everything looks like the set of some BBC show. Happy people may abound, but my award for best supporting actress goes to Jane Innovate from SEI. She only has one line, in response to the question "What does 'change' mean to you?" Her answer? "Innovate. INNOVATE. INN-O-VATE."
A great performance, really. Makes me want to work for SEI. Innovating is so much better than just being challeneged. Being challenged can end badly (running in a corner and crying). Innovating, even if it's wrong, at least creates something. Look at their headquaters; there're pythons hanging from the ceiling. Someone was innovating. Maybe it was Jane Innovate.
dotcalm.com
2005-03-05
If I were adept with a bow and arrow (already have the hat), I'd borrow from the rich and lend to the poor. Taking and giving is so inefficient; much more wealth would be created and more people would be happy with a borrow-invest-profit-return cycle than a straight-up take-give cycle. Robin Hood was a good guy, just not a very educated guy.I wrote a third one. No reason.
One client at a time
2005-02-28
Last night, while I was partaking in my biweekly Price Chopper grocery shopping excursion, I came upon a wonderful sale item: 2 boxes of pancake mix for $3. It was the just-add-water kind, and a brand name to boot. I had to pick it up.This naturally also necessitated the purchase of some syrup.
And there, in the pancake syrup section of the breakfast aisle, I had a whole array of syups before me. All brands, all flavors. But I had been chopping prices all day; it was time for a little splurge. The crappy corn-syrup-based fakes would not do. I reached for the 100% Real Vermont maple syrup and didn't look back.
It had been a long time since I held that glass bottle, filled with that quick, dark amber liquid. Would it be just like I remembered it?
Not quite.
I cracked open the seal tonight. It tased alright -- a little off -- but still satisfying. Then I gave it a whiff, and it was pretty.... strong. Like brandy or almond extract. It's 100% pure syrup, without any preservatives. Almost completely sugar. There isn't any sort of date on the bottle, and I'm sure it was sitting back on that dark shelf in the store for a while....
I'm begining to think that my syrup has fermented.
So I did some research. First of all, I wanted to know if such a thing was possible, and if so, what would it be called? Well it is possible, and what it's called depends on how it's made. Add some hops and you get maple marzen. Substitute maple instead honey in your standard mead and get maple mead. Or pretend you're French and end up with eau de vie. The only major component that seems to be missing from these recpies is yeast, but as someone pointed out to me, yeast can be obtained from the open air, so given enough time, it could work it's magic.
Pretty interesting, eh? The researched helped, but I'm not exactly sure how to prove that they stuff has some alcohol content. The only thing I can think of is the match test, but the amount of alcohol would have to be very high for that to work. Any ideas?
Everyone's got to have the sickness, 'cause everyone seems to need the cure
2005-02-21
"Are you a light sleeper?" she asked.
I replied, "No, but I am a heavy awaker."
Mitch, you have my permission to steal that and use it in your act.
Say "hi" to your mothers for me
2005-02-19
This is a bit old (last week), but it seems that Castro has accidentatlly died again. Some of you may remember how CNN leaked some of their "coming attraction" obituaries a few years ago. It must be strangely pressuring for Castro, you know, with everyone expecting you to die and all. It's like the news media has finished a homework assignment early and is just dying (har!) to hand it in.There was someone selling paper hearts the other day, the kind where you make a donation to heart disease research and you get a heart posted on the wall. So I gave a dollar, and the girl at the table handed me a heart and a marker. No instructions. What was I supposed to do? I guess you're meant to write your name or your girlfriend's name (it was around V-Day) or the name of your uncle with heart diesease. So I scrawled "RUPERT" across the heart. It was all instinct. I'm sure there's some dude somewhere named Rupert who has a heart condidtion. That dollar donation is for you, Rupert.
The phone glove is my favorite hack of the week. I will have to make one of these myself, even if I don't use a cell phone. It's just so easy and cheap to do. Although the wrist-flicking aspect could be tricky. I really think there's a market for a real phone glove, with the whole phone being integrated into a glove. Just for calling; a screen and keypad wouldn't be necessary. You would speak the number you wished to dial ("CALL: six, one, zero....") or speak the name of the phonebook entry you wanted to call ("CALL: Julia"). The unit would be cheaper to manufacture, and the battery life would be better, since nothing would have to light up. I imagine there'd have to be some sort of Velcro strap at the base of the glove though, else the weight of the battery pack would be swinging around the wrist. That is, assuming battery technology doesn't improve by then.
We printed the faces of the MaRisk cards last night. Now we need to cut them. And then digitally design the playing surface. And print it. Small steps, small steps.
You're so special; I don't like you; you will always be my only friend
2005-02-15
So I did a bunch of updates in a row, and then.... nothing? Not even a why-Valentine's-Day-isn't-so-great post? I have been tempted to post, but was determined not to, at least not until I got BigWaa in working order. I wanted to get it to a state where I could actually use it for my next post, and I'm proud to say it is at that stage. For those of you that do not know, there's a menu in the upper-right of this page. One of the links is "Be Notified", which allows you to subscribe to notifications when this site is updated. Sending out notifications used to be a minor pain for me, since I'd often forget, or only send out the emails and forget about the AIM subscribers or something. BigWaa fixes this, and more importantly, it can be used for any web site. See BigWaa.com for more details. I'm looking for alpha testers, so if you have a web site or a blog or a photo gallery or ANYTHING that people check regularly, let me know and I'll let you be a tester. And if you DON'T let me know, I will FIND YOU and MAKE YOU be a tester. On to the actual post... Today was astonishly beautiful, especially for February. 50 degrees. It was -20 just two weeks ago, and it'll be back down to freezing before the weekend gets here. Today niceness was kind of like an oasis in the winter. February 15th is generally a better day than the day prior. Usually just because chocolate goes on sale, but I'll take great weather conditions over cheap chocolate any day. My entire house is trying to make me sick. Someone please start a petition to make them stop. I had a dream the other night. I jotted it down so I wouldn't forget it. It took up a lot of my time (or seemed to), so I hope it will at least entertain someone. I was in a building with lots of corridors. It turns out that it was a television studio. The first door on the left was the set of Wheel of Fortune. I went in and was there for the whole taping. I don't remember much about that. Then I went back in the corridor, and the pace picked up. William Shatner was there. I think he might have been a contestant on the show. There were also a lot of cheerleaders; I think they were delivering prizes. They were also trying to help me hide from a football player who was trying to kill me (must've been the losing contestant on WoF). There were a lot of close calls, but I managed to escape. Time passed, and then it was dark and I was outdoors. There was a fire burning in a pit; the pit was surrounded by very tall stone walls, about 15ft high. But the firepit wasn't entirely enclosed; the two walls before me had an opening between them of about 5ft. And just beyond that opening, infront of the fire, there was a young Chinese boy of about 5 years who was building something. Somehow I was sure that he was Chinese and not of any other Asian nationality. I sat on a log a few yards away and watched him. He was building some sort of structure, like a tower, out of long flat brick-like objects, like the sort used to counterweight stage lighting systems. Each layer of the tower would start with a box configuration, and after he put the top above the walls of each layer he would place one of the bricks diagonally between two of the walls. I could not figure out why he was doing this, as it seemed to threaten the stability of the structure. After a few minutes he turned to look at me, and, as he was about to put another piece on, said, "America is the son of apathy." I woke up sort of confused. Can anyone tell me what this means? It is the only sentence that I remember from the entire dream; do I remember because it's important or because it's the last thing that happened?"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak; for anything tougher than suet"
2005-01-21
Canadian pirates. That's right. Bet you've never thought of their existence before.Now's the time to do that.
Do it. Do it now.
I'd brought the idea of Canadian pirates up to one of my cow-orkers over break. We figured that they must have not been very successful, else we'd have heard of them. I see a Canadian pirate ship-boarding going something like this:
Canadian Pirate: Hand over all your booty.
Imperial Captain: What? You want our stuff?
Canadian Pirate: Indeed; that's what being a pirate is all aboot.
Imperial Captain: A boot? Being a pirate is all a boot?
Canadian Pirate: Err... you may have never heard of we pirates of the Great White North, but you'll remember us! Hand it over, now!
Imperial Captain: You won't get a bleedin' trinket without a proper fight!
Canadian Pirate: Arg, eh. [Raises hockey stick menacingly]
Referee: Alright, that's 2 minutes in the penalty box for high sticking! [Escorts out]
Imperial Captain: Albatross!
It is clear that the Canadian pirate industry was doomed from the get go.
I was made aware this week that cabinet season does not start until April. I'm not sure if you'll need a lisence or not, but you'd better check with your state fish and game comission before going on a outing.
I went food shopping today and upon my return, found out that our house is severely lacking in freezer space. So I spent a while reorganizing (smashing other people's food into more efficient shapes) until I could fit my stuff. It all seems sort of silly since it's 4 degrees outside.
"Of course it's the murder weapon. Who would frame someone with a fake?"
2005-01-16
I like when paperclips have a slight bend at the tip. If you tap it just right, it'll flip over.I noticed this week while watching World News Tonight that they used an Odd Todd animation to expalain fixing Social Security. So I thought that was neat. Good to see that Todd is at least getting some work.
I really wanted to hear Black today, and wouldn't you know it, WMMR filled my request. Only it was the live version, so the part that I really wanted to hear Eddie sing (the climax) was replaced with the voices of thousands of people I did not know. (I don't really know Eddie Vedder either.)
It's true, other stuff has happened this break, including the completion of a frame #08611 (an endevor which too far too long). I made the first frame over a month ago, and I did a howto for it. More to come.
Keep on keepin' on
2005-01-04
There hasn't been a post in a while, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let New Years' slip by without complaining.Bear with me on this one, I'm about to fix the problem that is date/time.
There are many parenthises.
If keeping time were up to computer nerds, it would all be much simpler. There would be no date. Everything is a time. Just multiply the year, month, and day of the month all the way out to seconds and add them all together. A very common way to track a date/time in the computer world is to store the number of seconds that have passed since the UNIX epoch (Jan 1 1970). We don't have to use this checkpoint, but it's good enough for now. With this single integer, you can know the exact time something occurred, since years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds can be deduced from it. Basically, time is kept in it's smallest commonly useful unit, seconds. Just like the metric system does for grams, liters, and meters.
For instance, a sample timestamp is 74304396236, which equates to November 17, 2010 00:03:24 UTC in the old time format (yes, I've decided it's old already). Since that's not quite as easy to speak as "January third", the ten millions place (8th digit from right) could be given an easy-to-remember identifier. The current names we have for the months couldn't be used since that'd be confusing, so new names would be needed. I suggest a set of ten names (since we only need ten now, not twelve) that each start with a different letter; that way the first letter could be used as an abbreviation, something that can't be done now (the Jan/Jun/Jul problem). Similarly, the "week" digit (millions place) would get a set of names. The first three digits (the "year") can be referred to as-is, along with the ending five digits, since people are used to stating the year and time as numbers.
So what happens under this new system? The concept of year, month, week, day, hour, and minute would be completely changed. Finding these out would be just a matter of dividing, but really, who needs them? Just for converting old dates into something understandable really. As long as the new system is uniformly accepted, everything will run smoothly. Look at the output of this watch:
743 0 4 3And from looking at this watch, you'd know that it's the thrid "day" in the 4th "week" of Alphamon (the first "month"). The "time" would be 96236. 96236 is straight seconds, and I guess you could chop that up into hour and minute-like units, but I figure most people would just leave off the ending digit when scheduling appointments (e.g. "I'll meet you at 9623 after I get off work").
96236
Advantages of the new system include:
- More accuracy
- Simplified math when trying to determine the amount of time passed between two dates
- Easy sorting of a list of times
- No accidentally writing the old year for the first few days of January (don't you hate that?)
Consequences include longer time units. It's all base-ten (metric), so a minute equivalent time unit would be 100 seconds long, an hour-equivalent time unit would be 10 of these long minutes.
Oh and while we're at it, timezones and daylight savings time can be abolished too, since they're really not necessary. World time (UTC) is where it's at.
The whole thing doesn't seem simple, does it? Well it is! The reason it seems complicated is because you're locked into the current system, just like people who have difficultly realizing that putting adjectives after nouns in the romance languages is actually better than putting them all over the place as in English. Or that the metric system is astronomically simpler than the customary system. This fear of changing also means this idea will be very difficult to implement as a standard; just look how long America has stayed with the silly customary system. We need Caesar around again. He got things done. Or Pope Gregory. He's partially to blame for the current screwed up system.
Or Pope Caesar
2004-12-26
There hasn't been an update in a while, and there won't be tonight.So there.
'cause I'm way to busy powertrippin', now I'm gonna shed you some light
2004-12-08
This nation is running full steam into a major catastrophe. It has come to my attention that something must be done to reduce the United States' dependency on foreign mink oil.
For those of you who are in the dark, let me tell you, THOUSANDS of minks per day are being pumped out of their reserves underneath the Canadian permafrost. After a lengthy investigation, I have constructed this illistration of The Truth. After they are extracted, they are put into huge compressors which squeeze out their oil (no illustrations, too gruesome). Finally, the minks are released out onto the street, oil-less. Without their oil, they constantly need to apply coconut-scented hand creme to their bodies. Unfortunately, most minks are not able to find an adequate supply of hand creme, and die off within 3 days of being released.
So I urge you, my fellow Americans, please write your congressperson and tell them to enact legistlation to curb America's dependency on foreign mink oil. It should come from our homeland, a place where hand creme is readily available, to all minks.
L -- Yeah, well maybe you smell like poo too
2004-12-01
Thanksgiving break was welcome. And I'm ready for the serious time off that Winter Break will provide. Ready to be back home for a month? Maybe not.Work is progressing on my digital picture frame project. I'll post pics when it's done (there is a fast deadline, so it will get done).
I was looking up news on Time Machine last week, and found an interview that I hadn't read before. The interviewer asked about the possibility of touring overseas (that is, over here in The States) and Lorenzo said that there is a chance they will be over here, with some big prog metal festival. Where is this prog metal fest taking place you ask? Nope, nowhere near NYC.... but in Atlanta, GA. Of all places.
But I haven't put it out of my mind yet.
For all you XWindows users out there, I found this little toy today called xdesktopwaves. It's a very quick compile without too many of dependencies; I had it up and running within a minute. While it may not be practical to have running all the time, it is some very nice eye candy.
[wiggles window]
Recently, I've been noticing deficiencies in the digital camera I've been using. The pictures aren't coming out as I expect them too. The quality of images the camera is outputting isn't degrading, it's just that.... maybe I've just been looking at really good photographs for too long, and mine pale in comparison. I'm wondering if I should consider getting a real camera instead of a point-and-shoot. But then it's almost not fun, having to lug around such a beast of a camera.
This whole dilemma would not exist if someone would get around to inventing a BRAIN CAMERA. Forget cell phone cameras.... a brain camera would not take pictures so much as just dump the exact image that is currently being interpreted by the brain. I have no idea how this would work.
I'm done.
So, until the next time, have a good sin
2004-11-21
For about 20 minutes the noise had gone on. It consisted primarily of a skwaking, much like that of a distressed baby bird. Interspersed between the skwaks was a "buck buck buck buck buck", a la Cadbury Bunny. Since this is occuring at 9am on a Sunday morning, I decide that this must stop. So I reached for my glasses, pushed the curtain aside, and there it was, looking right at me. As if he was just waiting for me to appear. Oh yes, there is but one creature vile enough, one creature menacing enough, one creature pretentious enough to pull this stunt -- a squirrel. Most probably the very same squirrel I kicked out of our house on numerous occasions. I won't lie, this was creepy. There weren't any other animals is the general area that he could be sqawking/bucking at. Just me, a foot away through an open window. And if there had been a threat nearby, that squirrel should be making squirrel noises, you know, those clicky sounds they make when they're scared. He must have not been scared, but rather on the attack. I woke up Dan to make sure I had a witness of this, so when this furry mongrel finally makes his way to my throat, the courts can be informed that the deed was premeditated.He finally broke his gaze with me and went away. I went back to sleep.
Mate, this parrot wouldn't VOOM if you put four million volts through it!
2004-11-14
Well it's about time.MacGyver Season 1 is finally coming to DVD. It won't be released until Jan. 25 (the same day as Coupling Season 4), but I've got it preordered. Over 17 hours of Mac in a box. It's gonna be great.
As a keen-eyed observer pointed out, two weeks ago was the 2 year anniversary of stake. I totally forgot, so there wasn't any hoopla, although there was celebratory tortellini after the fact.
Megadeth in concert was a good time. They were on hiatus for the past 3 years, and were welcomed back to NYC with a sold-out show. Dave Mustane's doctor told him he'd never be able to play guitar again but, as he put it, "it seems to be working pretty good!", and then followed with a guitar solo. Mr. Stone took a poll afterwards, and concluded that on a scale of "one" to "metal", the performace was indeed "metal". And then we missed our train... running by the station probably had something to do with that. Luckily, it wasn't the last train out of The City, so we eventually made it back.
Oh, and last night was Bob Saget at Vassar's chapel. Draw your own conclusions on how that went.
I love cooking my dogs and leaving out commas.
2004-11-08
Watched another old pulblic domain B&W tonight. This one is a whodunnit called The Crooked Cirlce (MPEG). The quality is so-so, with the volume changing drastically at some points, and a few dropped frames. But it was watchable overall. And it really wasn't that good of a movie overall. But that's ok; I'd watch it again just the same. For some reason, I don't feel guilty at all about watching bad old movies. Bad new movies? Yes. But not the old ones. I don't know why. As strange as it may sound, I like the production quality of the B&Ws. Ever notice how actor's voices seem so sharp and how when they finish talking it's as if a piece of the sound spectrum just disappeared? Maybe that's just how people talked back then, how do I know. I kind of like how they did things back then. Someday I'd like someone to visit me, have them be shown into the library, and then I will visit with them. I don't know why -- it seems very inefficient -- but I'd like to see how it works out first hand. I'll need a butler. But not someone who'll wait on me, just a guy to answer the door and show people into my library. Come to think of it, I'll need to get some people too. And the library, to go with my house full of doors.Well then, guess I'll be heading back to eBay to find all this stuff.
I did no right, I did no wrong
2004-10-29
I know, I know.But still.
Since last post it's been all about Boston, failing test, a weekend alone, zombie baby, and candy apples. You read that correctly, candy apples. I buy 2 three packs everytime I go food shopping. They're great. Everyday. I justify my mass consumption by telling myself they're a legitimate member of the fruit family. The candy apple is like that slutty Amish girl who longs to be a showgirl in Vegas. The rest of her family doesn't think to highly of her, but she's Amish nonetheless.
The domain stake.tk mysteriouly got whisked away for a few days last week. I know neither how nor why. But it's back now. For good? I hope so. Other related domains are already taken (stake.dk, etc.). Speaking of domains, I want to buy one to for a gallery of my pictures. As some of you may know, I currently just dump my pics on a server in a very-nicely-ordered directory structure. But I feel that I'm really growing out of that method of publishing. And I want to give this ga The domain stake.tk mked the following .coms so far:
- aberrance
- AvailableLight
- ChainLightning
- CenturyVision
...along with a host of others which I can't remember right now. I really like the tite AvailableLight for the name of a gallery. So did someone else. So I'll keep thinking, and will take suggestions into account.
I've been playing TetRis regularly again, and gaining high scores. I actually just got an email about that:
If you can't tell, the > and < clearly show that he's been diffing the highscore boards. So it looks like he's keeping tabs on everyone as their ranks change. Creepy you say? Heh, I'll be watching my back. Right hand on the keyboard, left hand armed with a.... with a.... meat cake? I dunno, for some reason, people like it when I say meat cake.From: Tycho Tithonus To: Chris Date: Today 21:17:50 > 12887 virtig01 ( 1841 on 7) < 9464 virtig01 ( 1352 on 7) I see you. :) That's a good jump up -- congrats.
Meat cake.
My baby, keep in mind, how much I love you beside of you
2004-10-11
Three Megadeth tickets are on their way to my mailbox. Excellent. The show is gonna be great, although I just noticed that David Ellefson (bassist, the one the girlies swoon over) is no longer in the lineup. Ah well. The ticket price wasn't bad; in fact, paying for 3 tickets to see Megadeth in NYC (something I want) is cheaper than paying for 3 parking tickets in Poughkeepsie (something I didn't want).My right hand did much TetRis playing this weekend. And at 1AM with the music blearing, a new highscore was achieved for level six. Not in the Top 10, but still good nonetheless. See, the problem is that points are awarded by how far the pieces fall... the computer doesn't get to see my style. Let me tell you, it's all about the style. Style points would get me into the Top 10.
As some of you may know, I have lots of ideas for song parodies, all of which are "in the works". Some have been there for over 4 years now. Last night I thought of a new one. This in itself isn't unusual, but this time I decided to write it right then and there. And I did. Enjoy.
Don't cry "tomato!" baby!
2004-10-06
Back in the day, teachers didn't have to go to college. Think about it: who taught teacher's teacher'sn teachers? It was just some dude (The Dude?). We'll take it back to the Greeks. One day, Socrates woke up and said to himself, "I think I'm a smart guy. I'm gonna go around and tell people what I think." (He said all of this with a Greek accent of course.) Nowadays if someone did that they's just be some crazy person shouting and wandering around NYC, most likely with a beard. And there is no way parents would pay to have their kids be educated by them.
Getting back to the Greeks, what do you think their course load was like? I'm willing to bet they didn't even assign written homework. You just know any class Plato taught was totally cake. Just sit on some rocks and tell the man what he wants to hear, which is also the stuff he's preaching to his students. For extra points, transcribe a book about whatever the instrutor is talking about. Word-for-word. Whoever transcribed Euthyphro never dreamed that someday his transcription would sell millions of copies a year. His ancestors aren't seeing a cent of it, it's going all to the publishing house. And all he got for it was an "A"....er, an "alpha" rather.
In other news, I've decided to phase out useage of "WTF?" and replace it with "WTBI?", which has a more Three-Stooges vintage feel to it.
I know everything, but I'm sworn to secrecy on most of it
2004-09-27
So I was sitting on the couch today, when I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye. "Must be the dog", I thought.We don't have a dog.
And lo, a squirrel jumps up on the chair next to me. Quite the brazen rodent was he. A formitable opponent. I slammed down my glass, jumped up, and shook at him the only thing in my hand -- a cookie. Because when you want to shoo away a varmint, waggling some food infront of it is the sure-fire fix.
The squirrel found his way back outside after I approached him, but not before pausing to turn around and give me a look. I closed the door behind him, but if my housemates have their way, B&E Squirrel will be returning.
This entry was the first in the "Stories for the Grandkids" series
2004-09-17
Run around naked.When it comes to discussions of morality and self-conciousness, nakedness is often discussed. How do we know to wear clothes? Are we taught by society? Are we born with this idea? Is it, as described in the Book of Genesis, a product of Original Sin? How do we know not to run around naked?
"Run around naked". It's not that I hear the phrase often, it's just that on the rare occurance that I do, it's always "run around". Think about it. Okay, maybe you don't notice. But I did when I read it in my philosophy book yesterday ("does society teach us that running arond naked is wrong?"), the overwhelming usage of the coupling of "run around" with the word "naked" struck me. Why is the action always "run around"? Why not "watch TV naked" or "hitchhike naked" or "design architecture naked"?
Since I don't do a lot of reading on nakedness, I figured that maybe I was wrong, that running around naked really isn't all that common. So I did some research:
| Google Search Phrase | # of Results |
|---|---|
| run around naked | 7330 |
| watch TV naked | 248 |
| hitchhike naked | 19 |
| design architecture naked | 0 |
You can clearly see, R.A.N. is the most popular. I still don't know why though. Or why it bothers me at all. Maybe it's my natural aversion toward running. I'd much rather design architecture.
Did these tables used to have tablecloths on them? I don't remember them being so naked.
2004-09-04
I just finished watching Pi for the second time. It's only natural that I popped this DVD in because it coinsides with what I've been thinking a lot about lately, which is, in short: it's better not to know.I have a whole article on this. I tried to get it out a few days ago, but circumstance prohibited me. I hope I don't lose it; as always seems to be the case. Should an article appear, you'll find it in Works.
REGRET
2004-08-20
I've been reading Neil Peart's latest book, Traveling Music, and it has been a very good experience thus far. I've even been skipping the 2AM X-Files just to read it. Unfortunately I don't think I'll get it finished before I ship off.Anyway, I was sitting in bed reading it one night when I came upon the word "Subdivisions". He wasn't talking about the song (although maybe about the origins of the song), but reading that word was the only spur I needed to jump into action. I grabbed my headphones and my copy of Signals and headed for the computer.
Headphones on, eyes closed, forehead implanted in the desk -- there's nothing like it. I listened to Headphones on, eyes closed,all Subdivisions + Analog Kid + Losing It. Analog Kid is largely an upbeat song, but ends on a somber note; that's why it's the perfect as the middle song. You almost can't listen to Subdivisions without following it with AK. Losing It never fails to give me shivers. Ben Mink, where have you gone?
About a month ago I had a similar late-night session with Counterparts. The experience is highly dream-like, and I recommend it to anyone. Not Rush necessarily-- I'm sure there is other music that will work just as well. Try it with your favorite CD and find out what happens.
You know, some people only read this site for the little bits at the bottom
2004-08-17
On the drive home last night, I had WMMR cranked as usual. Van Halen finished up, followed by a familiar voice... none other than DEE SNIDER himself, whose name must be printed in UPPERCASE bold letters!I found this especially curious since MMR doesn't carry The House of Hair radio show. As it turns out DEE SNIDER now works at WMMR as the 7-midnight DJ! This was very unforseen, but I'm glad that it's happened; he was always the best part of HoH. Too bad I couldn't enjoy his local radio presence all summer. Hopefully he'll stick around for a while.
This is a hundred by the way. The 100th stake.tk posting. Except you won't find 100 entries on here, since I have not yet finished adding the old ones back in (hm, kind of forgot about that). It's still a hundred so we'll celebrate anyway:
100. Woo.
Strong Bad's #100 is prolly more enjoyable. I won't even try to top his.
There was some other semi-serious stuff I wanted to post, but I don't want to mix it in with this entry. I'll keep this one short and just leave it where it's at.
Get in... sit down... shut up... and hold on!
2004-08-12
So I was thinking today that I should register the domain dancingturtle.com. I have no idea why. But as you can see, it's already taken, so the point is moot. Of course, mootnewt.com sounds pretty cool....One of our top minors (who shall remain nameless) was working a register tonight as I walked into work. He had accidentally entered the wrong amount of cash tendered at the end of a sale, so the register told him the wrong amount of change to give back. And, as a high school junior, he was naturally incapable of subtracting $3.48 from $5 on his own.
"Oh, that's bad," you say. But no, it gets worse.
So he calls the manager over. The manager can't subtract either. Yes, our manager is POILITING OUR VESSEL THAT IS STORE #15 to a MOST CERTAIN DOOM by his LACK OF CAPABILITY TO PERFORM HIGHER-LEVEL MATHEMATICAL FUNCITONS!
Therefore, I, haven taken calculus, approach the register. After calculating both the derivative and the integral, the customer received her $127.81 in change. It might have been a little off, since I rounded pi to 3.14. But in such a perilous situation, one can neglect the little things.
....and bumped him on the head
2004-08-09
- Michael Moore is un-American
- Michael Moore makes documentaries to cash-in on national tragedy
- Michael Moore is a flaming liberal
The last one is true.
Yes, after months and months of not seeing Fahrenheit, I did. But before we talk about the film, let's knock down numbers 1 and 2 from above; you don't even need to see the film to do that. In fact, most people who believe all of the above haven't seen it at all, but that will hardly keep them from ranting about how terrible it is.
1: MM and/or his documentary are hardly un-American; in fact, number 2 actually shows how American he is: he's decided to distribute his documentary worldwide and reap profits for both the distribution company and his own. But that's not the main reason he isn't un-American-- he's challenging government. That's the BASIS of our country, and the reason so many other countries respected ours. The American Revolution was the defining moment for our self-proclaimed democracy, and we fought the power who refused us our basic rights in order to prove our commitment. After the American's success, other countries followed. Moore isn't a treasonist; people, including the government, should embrace his efforts. I believe in a business strategy called "disruptive innovation", and I believe that government (and religion, and other institutions) can benefit from variations of disruptive innovation. What disruptive innovation means is that you welcome some type of new technology or business practice that seems to harm your current way of operating. It always seems counter-productive at the start, but in the end it fosters new growth and provides sustainability to an organization. Many companies have died (DEC, AltaVista, Edison Electric Light Co.) by being determined to "stay the course" instead of attempting to redefine their current methods which provide success in the short run, the same methods which will drag them down in the long run. Basically, disruptive innovation just means being open to criticism.
Hmm, that was a bit more verbose than I would have liked.
So yeah, MM isn't un-American. He's most definitely anti-Bush, but supporting the president has absolutely nothing to do with patriotism. America isn't a dictatorship; I think I covered that when I mentioned the Revolution earlier. Expressing opposition against the president is not expressing opposition against the nation. If that were true, every time an incumbent lost an election, the majority of Americans would be un-American*.
2: I really don't think MM's intention while making this documentary was to reap profits (although that would be a very American [read: capitalist] thing to do). Besides, it's astronomically stupid for people who back Bush to call Moore the profiteer; the person benefiting the most from publicizing 9/11 footage is Bush himself. And I'm not even talking about the moneymaking natural gas pipeline MM alludes to in his film. 9/11 is the entirety of the Bush's 2004 campaign; it defines his presidency. If the event never took place, he'd still be on vacation. He really can't ride jobs creation, since the dismal July numbers (32K) were released. He's campaigning for months that a million new jobs have been created, and in October, there's he'll still be touting the same number, which isn't that great. The man has to push national security, and the way he keeps national security at a high priority is to continue to issue terror warnings. Have you noticed that since the scale has been devised we've never been lower than a "Elevated" (yellow) terror level? There's constantly new intelligence being unveiled to the public, to keep them on edge. I'm not saying that it isn't true, I'm just saying that it's being used to keep citizens scared. Terrorist intelligence has been reported by government agencies daily for decades, it is only now that we're being constantly informed by it to be show that we're being kept safe. Safer than before? That's not determinable, and that doesn't even matter. We just need to know that we're not dying, and we should vote the President to continue this for four more years.
On to the actual documentary: it was standard MM fare. Some very good stuff, some that you can't take at face value. He ruins the whole thing I think, starting with a lot of informative er... information but then blending it with his own bias. A careful viewer is able to weed this out, but his bias is really the nasty ingredient. It's what makes liberals shout, "Oi!" and his opponents cry, "BLASHPEMOUS HARPY!" For instance, MM might take a range estimate quoted by some guy in a suit, and then run with the highball value for the following 10 minutes, showing all of the terrible things that such a high cost entails. The casual observer may not be aware that this is indeed theoretical "truth" that is being shown to them. Also, he seems to show links between people, and leaves these relations out in the open to be seen as Bad Things. For instance, he linked G.W. with the programming director of FoxNews, as if some guy working at a TV station really influenced the outcome of the election. The relation was something I didn.t know before, but it.s also something that I don.t think matters a bit.
All in all, it was worth seeing. I especially liked the final 20 minutes or so, which dealt with the military, and how the poor are sent to fight by the upper crust of society. It's been a problem for a while ("Peasants, go and die for your lord and master!") but hasn't really gotten the attention it deserves.
Another thing, I was kind of suprised that Paul O'Neil and his book weren't mentioned at all. I think it would have added a different edge to the film by having an actual cabinet member speak (or at least be spoken about). The Price of Loyalty was rather controversial when it was released; the conservatives didn't like that fact that one of their own turned against them. Seems like the kind of thing MM would be into.
During the film, MM asks , "Why would the government, who sent these soldiers to war, not want the pictures of the dead and wounded released to the media?" (or something to that effect) Well, here's a link to some such photos. Russ Kick deserves a lot of credit for his work, and I hope he was mentioned in the credits (although I didn't notice his name).
There is much, much moore (ha!) I could discuss here. While I was watching, I kind of wished I had my craptop available so that I could take notes just for this posting. Do you see what I do for you people? I actually think about maybe putting in some extra effort into these stake entries. Now that's dedication.
Meh.
Commence the jigglin'!
2004-08-05
...and you with your little pirate hats and your little pirate masks and your little pirate.... shoes.
Alex, during his La Villa rant
So there hasn't been an update for a spell, but did you really think I'd give up the chance to talk about last night's Rush concert?
The ferry left the Philly side at 7:30, and Rush was scheduled to go on at 7:30. We braced ourselves for the sound of the opening chords as we were halfway accross the river. But as we docked at Camden, the air was still quiet. Seeing as there was no time to waste, we bolted for the exit gate. I break into a run aproximately once every year, and this was it. As we were rounding the bend, I fished though my pockets and handed off Mike's ticket to him. After a quick feel-up from the event staff, we climbed the hill up onto the lawn. As soon as Geddy noticed our arrival, he started the show.
Thanks for holding out, Geddy.
The show started out alright; the only major nuisance was the ignore-ance of some of the other people on the lawn. They were chatting up conversations with eachother, as if there was just some house band playing. It's Rush! They're right infront of you! How can you just ignore them? That's what happens when you settle for cheap lawn seats. But things were soon to change.
After disregarding a phone call warning of impeding doom during Red Barchetta, we felt a bit of moisture in the air... by the start of the rap in Roll The Bones we were soaked. Everyone on the lawn started cheering -- I did too -- then I realized that I can't see anything when my glasses are wet. That and the fact that the dirt underneath us was quickly becoming less dirt-like and more mud-like prompted us to move toward the roofed section of the Tweeter Center.
As we huddled against the concrete riser (they were into Bravado by this time, if you're keeping track), we noticed that people kept disappearing in the row of seats above us. So we climbed up and found ourselves in Row S. It was kind of easy to tell who had lawn tickets and who the actual seatholders were, but the event staff wasn't about to shuffle us out of there at that time.
How fitting, Freewill is playing on WZZO as I'm typing this.
As intermission drew near, we realized that we must stay put if we wished to keep our upgraded seats. Staff was inspecting tickets of everone who walked by. Quite a few times we were very close to being tossed back onto the lawn, but our inconspicuousness saved us. The rain had stopped by that time, but the concert was much better with our new viewing angle.
On the topic of viewing angles, the camera crew was able to pull off a really cool shot during Resist. They had 2 cameras aimed at opposite angles; one with Geddy in the foreground, one with Alex in the foreground (they were sitting next to each other on stage). The shots from both cameras were then melded together on the projection screen, so it looked as if Geddy and Alex were facing Alex and Geddy as they played.
The lighting crew also did not disappoint. During both Subdivisions and Between the Wheels 4 sets of lights were lowered on their cables about 15 feet. They then shifted and gyrated and changed color. Very unexpected. Actually, the first time they pulled it off I thought they were having problems with the rigging :-) The laserlights were present as usual for Red Sector A, a song whose lyrics were botched! Don't think I didn't notice Mr. Lee, I'm fully-aware of your minor misstep.
So, they ended the night after playing 30 songs; the structure was similar to that of VT, but they yanked some songs (Natural Science, Cygnus, Camera Eye, Distant Early Warning) and replaced them with others (Heart Full of Soul, Summertime Blues, The Seeker, Subdivisions, Between The Wheels, Force Ten). There were enough songs that I couldn't entirely memorize the setlist, so there was still the element of suprise.
Oh, and the pirates; I forgot to mention the pirates. During La Villa Strangiato, the sound crew hoisted a large pirate flag at the soundboard and Geddy had a stuffed parrot perched on his guitar strap. It was funny, but I'm still not too sure how the song relates.
I picked up a program (and Neil's latest book) on the way out. It's a very good program. High-quality paper and lots and lots of glossy photos. I'm planning on scanning in quite a few to make some nice desktop wallpaper (something for me to do on Friday nights). I'd like to share them all, but there's one I like in particular. It's the last picture before the album guide. Have a look. It's a shot of the stage from the Toronto Doesn't Have SARS charity concert from last year.
One last thing: I found this as I was looking for a train schedule. You'd think that maybe the poll was tampered with, but The Register is a tech site, and they usually know how to run polls pretty well. Rock, rock on.
Attack the day like birds of prey
2004-07-24
If it weren't for that cut I received on my hand on the way out the door, this would have been an injury-free week.XM Radio will be playing 420 Rush songs intertwined with a bunch of interviews next week. 420 songs, that's a lot. I figure they'll have to put in all the live tracks they can. Let's do some math:
Studio LPs: Rush (8) + FBN (8) + CoS (5) + 2112 (6) + AFtK (7) + Hemispheres (4) + PW (6) + MP (7) + Signals (8) + GUP (8) + PW (8) + HYF (10) + Presto (11) + RtB (10) + Counterparts (11) + T4E (11) + VT (13) = 141
Live LPs: AtWaS (10) + ESL (13) + SoH (14) + DS (34) + RiR (31) = 102
The Feedback EP: 8
That's 251, if we don't break down the multi-part songs (2112, Hemispheres, etc.) into their individual movements. If we did, then the total would be..... more than 251. Geddy and Alex's solo stuff could be included as well I guess, but that still wouldn't bring the total all the way up to 420. Perhaps XM has some rarities that I have no knowledge of. [gasp] Never!
Old stake updates are coming along. They should all be back by the end of August for sure. Favorites from the last chunk that I added: 2003-04-06, 2003-03-12. Yeah, not so many. You can guess why.
There are 2 pics that I had spent a fair amount of time searching the Net for a while back, and had no luck finding them. Both are Rush-related; the first is the prayer from Counterparts. It's a part of the cover art and was printed on the concert Ts, but for some reason isn't available on Power Windows. So I scanned it in myself. I've uploaded a legible copy; if you want a full-size copy for wallpaper or something, let me know.
The Foo will be recording this Fall. I've posted Pierre's announcement on Orkut in the Foo Fighters community, so you can read it there.
I'll finish up with a posting that never came to be. After having one of those dreams when you're sort of awake sort of asleep, I banged out the following:
bamboo couple crossing riverwant to share, cannot do but quote lyrics
I really wish I'd slapped myself awake and wrote out a full update then and there, because now I can't make anything out of it.
And everybody wants to be, closer
2004-07-17
I want to live on a desert island all alone. With another person. I sincerely believe that would be the best way to know someone else. The distractions of today's society really take away from very pure relationships; being stranded with someone else would force your sole contact to be that one other person. Every feeling of love, hate, passion, and aguish would be exchanged between the two of you. I'd have to think that you'd be forced to like them, since there was no one else to connect with.I don't know; some people dream of wedding days or meeting famous people, but I'd really like to be stranded somewhere some day, for an undetermined amount of time, starting when I'd least expect it. I think that's the only way I'd be able to break free.
&nsbp; There hasn't been a new update in a while, but here have been plenty of old updates. I've finished 2004 and am into November 2003. I read every one I repost, and I must say, I'm glad I keep this site around. Without it, I'd totally forget the stuff that I think about. You forget something new every day. <- I wrote that, but completely forgot I had every done so! This is beneficial, since I can reread what I've written and find it funny or inspiring all over again-- it's almost like reading somone else's work.
From what I've finsished adding back so far, here are some favorites: 2004.03.07, 2004.02.29, 2004.02.14, 2004.01.01, 2003.11.16.
Only good guys blow it.
2004-07-04
Bad things, bad things.Yeah, so as I was updating the last post, I accidentally wiped every other post (some of you may have caught the somber temp main page if you checked on July 3). Never fear, all of your comments are safe (you can still view them in fact), but the text of the entries is gone. Thanks to hackers breaking into OpenDiary earlier this month, I was reminded to make a backup of all of my posts. So I haven't lost a one of 'em. Of course I didn't save them in the most convenient manner, so it's going to take some time to get them all back up. That's right lots o' copy&paste.
Don't frown at this mild catastrophe, make it fun! Because I'll be adding the posts back in reverse, you can TRAVEL BACKWARDS THROUGH TIME and enjoy all of the previous posts. And for those diehard stake fans out there, we'll run a little contest. Whoever can give a description of what the very first stake post was about wins.
Beleted.
2004-07-02
Oh no! Lyrics in the entry! (Don't worry, they're relevant to the rest of the post):
I've got some cotton candy
I've got a spool of thread
I'm gonna weave a basket
and put it on my head
---Meat Puppets, "Automatic Mojo"
So what's this got to do with anything? Yesterday there was a man at the custom framing counter WITH A BASKET ON HIS HEAD. Yes, I'm certain it wasn't a hat; definitely a basket. With a little chin strap. There was no cotton candy in sight, but I suspect he dissolved it in water and used it to dye his tshirt. Made of thread.
More customer fun: Tonight I was approached by an old woman who asked me, "Do you have the yarn from Turkey?"
The response was obvious.
"No, you silly old woman (Dennis? 37?), yarn comes from sheep, not turkeys. I hate turkeys. If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad a turkeys. There's turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastromi.... someone needs to tell the turkey, hey man, just be yourself."
She seemed a bit bewildered, but she had cataracts, so I don't think she heard me anyway.
You think I'm lying, but I'm not.
I used to draw you
2004-06-26
(You may skip the first few paragraphs)The first Worst Customer of the Summer award went out tonight; here goes: As I'm pushing back a line of carts to the store, a car stops infront of me. Not so that I could pass mind you, she stopped in my path. And waited. I also waited, since there was no where I could go with a 2,000lb assemblage in my way. Then she gives me the "can't you see I'm letting you pass?" look. So sorry I can't transend the laws of physics and pash these carts through your vehicle.
She moved on a minute later.
Grumble.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't be grumbling about something so petty, but this women earned the above grumble with her performance given a short time after the cart incident.
Like so many before her, this customer was dismayed that the store was closed (it was 9:15) even though she wanted to buy some crafty hooji. We close at 9:00 and turn away everyone after that. She claims that an employee had told her we closed later.... that may or may not have been true. The real kicker complaint from this woman was that no one told her the store had moved. As if we were supposed to fax her. Forgive us for not answering our phones, "Hello, AC Moore Montogomeryville, our store moved eight months ago, here are our current GPS coordinates...."
After rereading what I just wrote, it doesn't seem all that horrific. You really need to know about the events leading up to it. But there's no way I'm typing all that up.
Reviviscence lyrics finally found their way into the Works section. Actually, they've been there the whole time, I just didn't realease the link.
My sampoo bottle says it contains pro vitamins. No one ever seems to give the amateur vitamins a chance.
Upon My Grave has a set of shows coming up next month in New Brunswick. It's an hour and half drive from my house, so I won't be there. But I'm telling YOU so that you can go and take a recording, since their website is completely bereft of MP3s for some reason.
I have things I wish to get accomplished this summer. Of course, summer has already started, but a todo list can never be published until something on it has already been done. That shows there's progress. Here's my partial list:
As you can see, lots of reading, lots of computer crap, lots of stuff that's been on there for years, and no people. I don't include people on my todo lists. Listing books is easier. Listing people just seems wrong.
Read Catch-22Obtain Coupling Season 3- Read
winterand spring issues of 2600- Obtain summer issue of aforementioned periodical
- Read at least one of Neil's books
- Bask in the glory of a live Rush concert
- Memorize Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nrnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shnedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm's entire name
- Revamp virtig01.net
- Post weekly to stake
- Get my computer to shut up
- Create a Python MP3 module
Finish a casemod(you'll get a link in a few weeks)- Read a computer book (nothing specific)
- Never have to find a replacement for work (woo, perfect attendance)
- Write
- Get rid of the empty 2U cases in my room
- Read
June, July, August, and September issues of MaximumPC and Wired- Read a business-oriented book
- Throw a lot of stuff away
- Write my "Selling Textbooks Online" article
- Make some sort of improvement to MOL
- Write PUMA admin page
- Order more stickers in time for Sept. 1
- Write all those internship status reports (homework in the summer)
"...only if you harbor a desire to feel your lungs explode in an extravagantly violent manner!" -- Topato
2004-06-18
As I walked into The Moore earlier this week, I noticed a table full of red hats. No other colors, just red. The sign in front read: "Red Hats". I later questioned Ed (a manager) about this:
Me: Ed, what's with the red hats?
Ed: [points toward decorative flag (also for sale) depicting 3 red hats]
Me: But what's with those red hats?
Ed: It's an old people cult.
I'm still suspicious.
The face of a microwave popcorn bag has lots of useful information printed on it. Remove plastic wrapper. This side up. Caution: Steam is hot. But the side of this particular popcorn bag that I was reading had the most useful information. It told of how Paul Newman eats his popcorn whilst running around with a machete, terrorizing the public. I am not making this up.
Today being June 18th simply amazes me. Let's go summer, downhill, nice and fast. Just make Aug. 4th last a week.
"We're going to blow up the ocean!!" -- Blue Laser, archenemy of The Cheat Commandos
2004-06-16
A hole arrived in my jeans last week. On the left knee. I have never had a hole in the knees of any of my jeans ever. Lots of other spots, but never at the knee, where the legendary hole-in-the-jeans belongs. When you hear "ripped jeans" who doesn't immediately think of the knee? I have very nontraditional jeans. Distraditional jeans. Untraditional jeans. Antitraditional jeans.My jeans, once a rebelious pair, have been reduced to meager normal jean-ness.
I was thinking of making a Coupling quiz, but then found out that it already exists. Try your luck at season 1 and season 2. Remember, there aren't that many episodes per season, so the questions are rather specific. Still, I was able to manage 9/10 on the first, and a 21/25 on the second. I repeat, they are tough. Go take the easy one if you scored really badly.
As most of you know (and cried when you found out) Jeff left Coupling after season three. But fear not: I have worked him back into Coupling: The Movie. The script will feature all six of the original cast members -- and maybe Oliver too -- stranded on a desert isle. Yes, Gilligan's Island-style. I realized after I thought of this that there were 7 castaways and 7 (including Oliver) Coupling cast members; both containing a 4:3 bloke:girl ratio. You can't quite pair up the characters (sure, Jeff is a Gilligan, but who'd be The Professor?), but it wouldn't be an exact reconstruction anyway. I'm not exactly sure how they're going to get on the island or what they'll do while there on there (certainly no pub in the area), but those are all minor details that can be worked out in the cutting room.
I spell "WTF" with a "d." And you'll like it.
2004-06-09
June has arrived, and I spent some time on Friday raking up leaves in the yard. Something tells me this only happens at my house.The end of Catch-22 was finally reached tonight. 463 pages or something like that. I however, would have cut out about 100 pages, to keep the flow of the book consistent. There are definately parts that I liked. And there are most assuredly parts that had me saying, "Why am I bothering to read this?" But the whole thing wrapped up nicely. Sweden. Was it good enough to pick up the sequel right away? No. But Yossarian is a very cool name nonetheless.
As some of you may know, I hate IM abreviations. The trend has been to shorten any or all commonly used phrases to a few characters. Well I think it's high time to return to typing out entire words. Those of us who can type faster than 5 WPM should get some recognition. In fact, I think we should kick-start this whole thing by typing out even more than the full-length of the words; punctuation deserves some love too. For instance, let's turn "WTF?" into "dub-ul-yoo-tee-eff-kwes-chin-mark". Ah, almost straight out of the phonics book. Doesn't that look better?
No, it doesn't.
I'm scraping the bottom here, folks
2004-06-03
Played a round of golf today, and I got my money's worth. Getting one's money's worth is generally a good thing, but not when it comes to golf. Golf is the only game I know of where you leave happier after playing less.I got the great idea yesterday for a terrible product: unbreakable fuses. Yes, they'd be defective components, but imagine how enticing the packaging would look! "Will not break, LIFETIME GUARANTEE!" right smack on the front. I bet I could sell a whole bunch too, considering how much packaging matters now a days, and how little the information presented has to do with the usefulness of the product. My Frosted Miniwheats box proclaims to contain a free Spiderman watch, as if the purpose of the box is to contain a plastic watch. As if Spiderman uses a watch anyway. At least printing "Unbreakable Fuses" on packaging is useful information about the actual product. It pronounces the uselessness of the product contained therein, which is a selling point for people who don't know what they're buying.
I haven't really talked with anyone from Marist lately (or at least not as much as I used to), which is good becasue that means they've got nothing to say, and are having an equally uneventfull summer as I am having. Or maybe they've just got so much cool stuff to do that they don't have time to talk to me. Hmm....
Have you seen Junior's grades?
2004-05-24
Rotisserie chicken was for dinner tonight, and let me tell you, spinning chicken carcasses make my mouth water :-)Underneath my bed there has been a stack of notebooks sitting for some time. They're from college, high school.... some I think have just always resided there. Going through them, I found a 3-subject Mead that had only one line written on one page:
I'm a procrastinator, and I like it.That's all. And I have absolutely no recollection of writing it. I can't even recall the mindset I was in when I wrote it. Hmm.
The May issue of Wired got done being read by me on the hammock today (just in time too; I feel the June issue will be showing up in the mailbox sometime this week). This last issue's cover story was on the future of food. The article particular interest was the one on aqaculture. As the world's overall quality of life increases, the demand for protien increases. One of the greatest concerns is the overfishing of the oceans. People have attepted to solve this by farming fish on land, but that's a rather restrictive environment. So the wave of the future is to construct mobile farms in the open ocean and let them float around. That way the fish are sort of wild, but can be consumed without fear of depleating the wild fish supply.
A sidebar to the article points out how much sources of protein "cost". For instance, a pound of fish requires about a pound of feed for the fish, whereas a pound of beef requires nine pounds of feed. Fish should therefore be the preferred source of protein, since their rate of return (so to speak) is greater. What isn't addressed is where the other 8 lbs of feed that is given to the cow goes. If it's not a part of a future hamburger, then where does it go? I figure there are two possibilities:
I'm thinking that the second one is more likely, and more scary. If giving a cow 9 parts of feed results in only 1 part beef and 8 parts poo, then the world has a bigger problem than just keeping up with demand for beef (protein); we're gonna be swimming in cow poo. I don't know about you, but if I'm swimming in cow poo, I'm not going to be all that worried about world demand for protein. The real problem is evident. I forsee the next issue of Wired being devoted entirely to the Poo Problem. And you can bet that issue will have some attractive cover art.
- The cows order too much feed and then sell the surplus at warehouse discounters
- The extra feed is turned into poo
Gimme something to write on
2004-05-19
So almost an entire week has gone by, but it seems much longer than that. But all I have to do is look back at all the things I've done so far (nothing) to realize that there're still months ahead of me. I haven't written a line of code, spent any amount of time on the hammock, or read a full page of anything yet. This should all change shortly. I've already started my case mod for this summer; expect pics here when it gets done (or ends up in the garbage).Work is the same as when I left it (except we sell coconut now). My bedroom is the same as when I left it, still too hot to power up the computer before the sun goes down. The Dog is the same as when I left him. Same, same, same. Good? Maybe. There's something to be said for consistency. But you won't find it here.
Stopped by the ol' high school last weekend. Saw the last high school musical I'll be seeing in a while. The crew didn't screw up, and that's really what I was there to see. My last trainee will be graduating and I'll have no reason to go back there and suffer through another musical. The Fall Show maybe; those were always a bit more tolerable.
There was a good movie on during the day yesterday. Just plain good. I like black and white movies; not because they're black and white, but because of the era they came from. Everytime I finish watching a B&W movie, I never feel as if I was wasting time. They're reliable, that's what they are. I like that. I think I could sit around and watch B&W movies for days. Oh, and I wouldn't know any of the titles. That'd be one of the prereqs; not knowing the titles. They're really of little importance to the film anyway. Watching a film without a title adds something, a kind of secrecy. Also, it's fun to try to imagine what name you'd give to it.
Yup, I'm weird.
Everyone's got to have the sickness, 'cause everyone seems to need the cure
2004-05-14
I hate the hollow echo of the closing of an empty drawer.2004-05-12
Whenever I need to further lose faith in humanity, I eat dinner by myself and sit facing the self-serve ice cream dispenser. The thing is, most people seem to pull the lever and start the softserve flowing before they even realize what the result of their actions will be. And once they do realize what's going on -- what was caused by their own doing -- they forget that they can stop at anytime simply by letting go. Oftentimes, a mess is left in their wake. Sometimes they "fix" the mess by covering it with sprinkles. Oh, humanity.There's allusion somewhere in that last paragraph; go find it.
I was walking by the river tonight (an hour before sunset), when I stopped, just to look. The sun was behind a mass of clouds, so the sunshine was being diffused over a large area of the water below. Then a barge came by, pushed by a tug. Almost no noise was persisting; just the scene, the boat cutting through the liquid sunlight. A truly magical moment for both myself and... the security gaurd, who for some reason had decided to park his golf cart next to be and balance his checkbook. Two hands.
Forever after happily, making misery
2004-05-10
Took a walk tonight; noticed the lamposts. They seemed different than before.I'll blame the lack of a recent post on all of this stuff that's been going on the past couple of weeks. Soon summer will be here and I'll be able to blame not posting on lots of stuff not happening.
The new Time Machine CD finally arrived last week. It's teriffic of course. Not quite as much (at least not yet) as its predecessor, but still excellent. Almost killed my hard drive while ripping the tracks, but it was worth the chance. Letting the whole thing play through while in a state of near-consciousness is one of the most enjoyable experiences possible. And it's even good while I'm awake. The subject of this release is Satan himself, which is continuing the story started by the last CD; the difference is the change in point of view. Satan didn't get to say anything last time. Reviviscence allows him this, although the story isn't changed all that much. The second part of the CD strays from the storyline a bit, showing a wider view of the world. Of particular note is Grains of Sand (featuring well-chosen sound bites of G.W. Bush) and The Calling (instrumental). Also, I couldn't find the sound of a church organ anywhere on the disc, although some Spanish guitar presents itself, which is nice. The lyrics for Reviviscence will be up on stake in time. I've also started a community on Orkut, so that I can further discuss the greatness of TM. Other people can discuss too I guess... but I'm the only member... hmm....
Speaking of musical experiences-- I am in need of some sort of device that would permit me to listen to my music without disrupting others. Headphones seem to be the obvious solution, but they don't really provide what I'm looking for. They really can't replace the feeling I get when listening to music on a 2.1 system. And that feeling is what I relish when I'm in the mood to listen to music.
I've gotten 2 emails within the past 12 hours with the subject line "rutabega."
Always celebrate Mar 24
2004-04-26
Here comes another post from the lighting booth. This time I'm waiting for the HuMarists to start their dress rehearsal. It doesn't look like it's going to start any time soon.Gaming for Hope went satisfactorily. Pics.
This was my shortest post ever
2004-04-23
And another week goes by too fast. And tomorrow is going to disappear.I got stickers. Quite a few. The Plan is to use them as advertising MOL when September rolls around. This order was just a test run, to see if the design worked. Here's the image used to create the sticker. The actual print came out identical to this, which is good. The first thing I did was yank off the backing of one of them and.... didn't know what to do next. So it ended up on a notebook. Just have to figure out where the other 249 are going.
Gaming for Hope is tomorrow; you can be sure to find a full report here. Battle of the Bands is also tomorrow, so I might take a break from G4H to go see Upon My Grave. I'd post some of their MP3s, but they don't have any. But they do have a cool poster.
The fire alarm just went off. I just love how when I get outside, there's always a flock of people standing in the fire lane. It makes me think, "..."
I've got nothing else. Expect a post on Sunday.
Doll me up in my bad luck, I'll meet you there
2004-04-18
Traveled to Swap Fest at MIT today. It was better than last year, weatherwise and product-selectionwise. I walked out of there with a 1U power supply and a laptop.I'd gone in hoping to get the PSU, but the laptop was the fun part of the story.
Vendors set up their stuff in the parking lot and parking garage. I happened upon this Russian guy who had "set up" (dumped his stuff on the ground) in the corner. He was selling a stack of laptops, a box of crap, and a gas-powered riveter (figure that one out). I was spotted glancing at his stuff, so he offered me one of the laptops for $5 and it's docking station for another 3. So I took a look, because of my predilection for little laptops. All of then were stripped of drives, which is expected. Opened up one and was suprised by the decent condition of the screen, but there was no trackball. Opened the next and found that it did have a trackball (notice that I did not study the screen). I then rooted through the box 'o crap and found the accompanying battery. Picked that out, and attached it along with the docking station to the laptop. Offerred Mr. Russia $5. He accepted and the haggle was successful.
Later I was informed by an astute observer that the screen is borked. There's a healthy crack through it. Needless to say, my wonder buy of the afternoon suddenly seemed less wonderful. Had I actually had a use in mind for it, I would have been a bit pissed. But it was more of an "ah, well" feeling.
When we got to Bob's place, he showed us the gear he picked up from Swap Fest: 4 Pentium laptops for $25. And he was especially impressed at the great quality of the screens. [looks come in my direction] Har, har,har. The Mexican food was pretty good.
We're on the road back now. It's tough typing in the dark.
Unpredictable, unpredictable
2004-04-10
On the back of a magazine: an Apple advertisment. It shows the iPod next to the iPod mini. From the picture, the mini looks to be about 15% smaller. Underneath each are captions: "Small. (10,000 songs)" and "Mini. (1,000 songs)". Studing the rest of the text on the ad, one discovers that not only does the mini hold a tenth of the music that standard iPod does, but it costs more than half the price. So if we do the math, 15% * 1000 / $250 + mx... wait a sec; this just isn't working out. How in the world is it that the first-run stock of the mini sold out? It's clearly more expensive than its counterpart, and really isn't even that much smaller. What would possess people to buy one?Oh, wait. The mini comes in a lime green variety. It all makes sense now.
The new Time Machine album I keep mentioning has been pushed back a few more weeks. Lucretia has posted another MP3 from the upcoming release; I'll survive on that.
I had an interview yesterday, for a technical position over the summer. It's kind of a drive from my house, and they don't want to pay me. They're offering college credit, but that would actually be costing me money (since I'd have to pay for the credits). And I don't really need the credit anyway. Still, I haven't ruled them out yet. It's something different, and that could be good. But if another place closer to where I live wants to pay me, that's even better. Especially if they've got a nice shiny new building (yes, I've got one in mind).
Apperance drives a lot of decision making. Even I will concede that I fall victim to that. I'm uncertain whether I'm ashamed of this fact or not.
The new Microsoft Office commercials are stupid.
Driving around tonight, I found myself aiming for the parking space closest to the esablishment I was visiting. In fact, I've always done that. It seems that everyone alaways does that. But why? Do we really hate walking all that much? I know I don't. And I'm rarely in a situation that the extra minute of walking time will cost me anything. Looks like there's one more social norm that I find myself pitted against.
The good guys and the bad guys, they never work past noon around here
2004-03-29
Last night I realized that quite a few of my friends are superheroes; check it out:
| Person | Superpower/Superquality |
|---|---|
| Dan | can hear TV sound even while muted |
| Phil | it's this big |
| Matt | can take over Africa with 3 Brazilians and a mom |
| Joe | maintains the Joe Fro effortlessly |
| Nick | bringer of SALVATION |
| Kev | so tall he can put a giant cock on the wall |
| Skittles | has a girlfriend, yet retains his geekness (although no one has actually seen his girlfriend...) |
| Kershaw | can do anything better than I can |
| Porkchop | his name is a cut of meat; that's enough |
| Kara | can read minds, regardless of the number of tin foil barriers involved |
| Mike | can transform between a southerner and a tolerable person |
| Carolyn | unquestionable omnipotence |
| Q | can hurl people across vast spans of space |
| Nat's Brother | is never punctual |
| Vanessa | looks angelic in pink |
| Keuling | can be divided by zero to become Infinity |
Alright, I'll admit that some people's powers are greater than others. But when THEIR POWERS COMBINE something totally incredible will happen, I'm sure. Just look at The Power Ranger's credentials -- they're not so great when taken individually:
| Ranger | Power |
|---|---|
| red | a knack for stating the obvious |
| green | flailing limbs (karate?) |
| pink | hottness |
| blue | jumping around |
| yellow | screaming "Yeah!" |
So you see, the ragers are pretty weak on their own. But put them together, and they can destroy a big hulking monster set on demolishing suburbia.
I'd meant to post this a while ago (when it actually happened), but now is good enough. Putin won his attempt for reelection, and upon the news emphasized that he had decided not carry out a special election campaign deliberately: "The result was important for me. A possible result could have been higher if there had been a special campaign. I did not do it deliberately. It was important to see how people reacted to real work, not to election tricks. I have been working intensively and honestly over the past 4 years. People could not fail to feel this." I think that is awesome. Is it a bad thing when you've got more trust in a foreign politician than those of your own country?
Yeah, Putin is a superhero too.
What are you doing?!!
2004-03-26
Oh quit your whining. It hasn't been that long.First, I'll follow up on a previous post. Out of all of those emailinglists that I'd signed up for, only the GOP and Greens actually sent me anything. Greensweek is a nice text-only newsletter. I liked it because it actually talks about what Greens are doing around the country. The GOP sends out The Weekly Trunk (who names these things?). It's largely dull, and serves only to tell why Kerry sucks. They even got this little flash ani. Careful if you click it though.... it's only humorous for about 5 seconds. The Democrats' newsletter never got sent to me. Not even once. And I had even taken the time to fill out all of that information that they needed, giving them my name, address, phone number, email addy, and everything else..... but I got nothing. I'd have liked to at least compare the two biggest political parties' newsletters.
Conclusion of my research: Democrats don't keep their promises, Republicans proliferate crap.
There was a good Michael's Minutes a while ago. Read it if you want to increase your hatred Microsoft (or just of unecessary lawsuits).
On the music front: Time Machine's newest is now set to be realeased in April. I was kind of hoping for March, but April is any day now. April is also the month that Life of Brian is returning to the big screen. Think I can get tix in NYC on (re-)opening day?
I'll close this post with something that I punched into my PDA at 3am a few days ago:
Are we really better of now than when we were actually getting to be "better off"? Will this trend continue? I think that people don't know what to do once they are better off; they start to deteriorate, like the Romans did, drowning in their lavish ways.
Yeah, so whatever that means. Interpret as you will. I suppose it could have been better articulated and developed.
Just another laundry monster homocide
2004-03-07
This was proposed to a friend of mine a while ago. He thought it was a good idea.Yes, it's another one of those crazy ideas which I'll never follow through with.
Imagine combining pool and Whack-a-Mole (not this). The pockets of the pool table double as mole holes. Intermmitently, moles will pop up (silently, so as not to distract). Should the ball hit the mole, points will be awarded, or some other Good Thing will happen. However, each mole will have a mechanical gaping mouth, which, should the ball be approaching at the correct time, eat the ball. Not only does the player lose the shot, but the eaten ball is then scrambled in the internetworkings under the table and returned by another mole which will upchuck it back onto the playing field.
On top of all this, the moles will be French, complete with little rubber mustaches (with poetry underneath). They will also feature berets which will continue to hover in midair a few seconds after the mole has retreated to his hole. And there'll be a "wupwupwup" and "zoink!" sounds for that too, just like in cartoons.
For additional arcade fun, the moles will provide insults and taunts during gameplay. When the kids aren't around, you can bump up the taunt level to "Ultimate Douchebag", with the Frenchness of the moles reaching its maximum point (thanks to Dan for the UD suggestion). If you've got any good French insults, post them as comments to this.
Unrelated: I wrote a story. It's the result of a brief session of furious typing. I've been told that it's full of typos. They're not getting fixed.
Portraying sarcasm is difficult in text format. Or at least some people have trouble picking it up when I use it. Q suggested that a special sarcastic smiley be made to solve this problem. After doing some research, I found that the ever-comon :-) already is the smiley to be used for sarcasm. I think that's all wrong. I'm much more comfortable with my normality smiley to denote sarcasm: :-| . That's what my face looks like when I'm being sarcastic. So I guess that's best. Otherwise, it'll have to be "[SARCASM] [SARCASM] [SARCASM] " after my IMs.
I've got people underneath my bed.
2004-03-06
Another Saturday of mine spent at the library. No wanting to jump on trains today (but that doesn't rule out tomorrow). I stopped working about halfway through what I was supposed to be doing, and decided to go looking for a dictionary (gotta find a good word for the 'U'!). I didn't go to the reference section; it's much more interesting to go wandering around looking for something particular, and then turning up with something else.And I did.
I found myself in a section that I'd never explored before: the Really Old Books section. The one I picked up was The Illustrated London News. It was a collection of all issues from 1849. The volume (there were several, from different years) was very large; atlas size even. Apon opening it, I noticed red ink stamps on the bottom corners of some of the pages with some sort of seal and "1 Penny" printed under it. Cool. I forgot about the rest of my work and dove into this instead.
Inside, I found a advertisement of the yearly collection of the ILN:
The Illustrated London News, Elegantly bound in cloth, glit edges, rich in Illustrations of the Extraodinary Events of the Last Six Months, forming a most complete and valuable ILLUSTRATED CHRONOLOGY; together with a mass of highly interesting articles on Art, Liturature, and Science.
The edition I was going through wasn't clothbound, but still rich in illustrations and The edition I was going through w There are a lot of illustrations in there. I like the ones with the ships the best.
Looks like Mr. Jullien has gone bankrupt-- debts exceeding £12,000 and assets of only £180. Poor sap. And it says here some dude stole his furniture too. What a git.
Another excerpt:
The Royal Polytechnic Institution is offering lectures on the CULTIVATION of the VOICE and on the ART of SINGING by G. Clifford, Esq. Dr. Bachhoffner will have a lecture on Tuesday, alternate Eventings at Eight, on the topic of ELECTRIC LIGHT.
I love the liberal useage of capitals. Those crazy English people.
Oh, and a nice picture of the re-decorated Surrey Theatre. How nice. I'll have to go there sometime.
Excerpt:
NO MORE PILLS nor any other Medicine--Dyspepsia (Indigestion) and Constipation, the main causes of biliousness, nervousness, liver complaint, flatulency, distntion, palpitation of the heart, nervous headaches, deafness, noises in the head and ears, pains in almost every part of the body, low spirits, spasms, spleen, general debility, cough, inquietude, sleeplessness, involuntary blushing, dislike to society, unfitness for study, loss of memory, delusions, vertigo, blood to the head, exhaustion, melancholy, groundless fear, indecision, wretchedness, thoughts of self-destruction, and insanity, effectively removed from the system, by a permanent restoration of the digestive functions to their primitive vigor, without purging, inconvenience, pain or expense by THE REVALENTA ARABICA FOOD...
And to think that this whole time the noises in the head, dislike for society, groundless fear, and wretchedness was all caused by indigestion! Blimey! And I get free postage if I live in Prussia. Brill!
Probably the most interesting thing I found has to do with this side of The Pond; near Philly in fact. There's a story -- complete with illustration -- on the Church of the Redeemer, a FLOATING CHURCH for seamen and boatmen. Really. It says here that the building is "firmly fastened on a substantial deck 38' by 90', resting on two boats of 80 tons each [!] ..." And on top of all that, it can seat 500 people, and will include a fine-toned organ and a bell. Why have I never heard about this? And who decided that the Port of Philadelphia needed a floating church specifically for seamen? I just picture dudes leaving a church service by diving off the side. Heh, that would make them holy divers. Wow, it took me a whole paragraph to set that one up.
This was an easy post. Most of it was copied. I'll have to do a real one sometime soon.
Where's your crown?
2004-02-29
First, part of an AIM conversation from the passed week:
Meg: i need to get lights and better fans and cool things for it [her computer]Little did I know the consequences of such a claim. A day later, I was witnessing one of my computers (splinter) actually going up in flames, for real, in one of my dreams.
Me: ha, lights
Me: how petty
Meg: petty!
Me: my [computer] has FLAMES SHOOTING OUT OF IT!
It played out like this: splinter was sitting out of his case on the living room table at my parents' house. For some reason I had to reboot. Immediately after POSTing, it dialed out to AOL. This is strange because 1) I don't subscribe to AOL, and 2) that computer doesn't have a modem. Standing above it, I saw a small orange dot start to grow on one top of one of the chips. Then I noticed that as the glowing orange spot grew, the chip was being devoured by flames. I found this especially odd, since the chip catching on fire isn't a very hot component (the RTC).
The computer's on fire, so what do I do? That's right, I rush into the other room to grab my camera. By the time of my return, flames were erupting from multiple parts of the motherboard. Orange and blue, swiriling up from the fan. It was beautiful. I kept snapping photos as my mom suddenly appeared and started flipping out. I don't remember if the house caught fire, but I do remember the overwhelming sense of satisfaction and joy.
I woke up with no cool pictures and a fully untoasted computer. I didn't feel happy, I didn't feel sad; I just felt like having some Rice Krispies.
So I did.
Today: I was sitting at my usual spot on a Saturday afternoon. One of those 100+ car trains was traveling by one the other side of the river. I see this almost every day. But today I thought of something different when I saw it.
I should jump on it.
Really long trains of cars don't move that fast. I'd prolly be able to hop on pretty easily.
Why I had the urge to do this, I don't know. Sense of adventure? Being able to say I did it? Ending up at some unknown destination? Uncovering a plot to smuggle Canadians into the United States? Regardless of what the reason was, it still seems like a good idea.
I liked being at the time that I didn't realize until now was good.
2004-02-21
Finally updated the links page, just as I promised. And even better, I think all of the links actually work. Which is good for you.I tried to make a simple decision the other day: Colegate or Crest. Crest won out. But when I got back, I had realized that I had chosen more than just Crest. I had chosen Crest Whitening Expressions Extreme Herbal Mint. The title confuses me, but I'm pretty sure it's a part of a trilogy with a name like that. Anyway, using it doesn't make me feel any whiter. Or more extreme. But it's definately got an herbal taste. The jury's still out on whether it's herbal mint or parsley.
There are a bunch of CDs that I finished reviewing this week (I always review my CDs for a week, then rip the good tracks). The only really notable one is Beyond Good And Evil by The Cult. I think I might become a Cult fan. They've got quite a backcatalogue that I'll end up exploring. Thank God I heard their last popular single, Rise when I did. The Cult is one of those bands who are successful but don't get much radioplay (at least not any more). The only time they're on the air is to promote a single when a new CD comes out. It's the same sort of deal with Iron Maiden and Queensryche. If I hadn't been listening to the radio for the 2 weeks that they play the new singles for bands like these, I'd have never become a fan. And that would be terrible.
Ever wonder who those people are on the cards in the boardgame Clue? I don't know why, but this merited some of my concern this week. Who is Mr. Green? Did he know people would forever equate his likeness with the ballroom and the lead pipe? Did he really understand the implications of what he was doing? Where is he today? When will E! get on top of this?
The Russian government is now allowing bodies of water to be privately owned. I think it'd be cool to own a Russian lake. According to VisitSiberia, there is at least one lake in the area. The one in the picture looks a bit big though; would take too much time to dry. Yeah, that's right. Bet you did't know you had to dry a lake. Well, it's true. Lawns get mowed, greens get watered, trees get trimmed, flowerbeds get weeded, and lakes get dried. There's just too much water; need to perform some maintenance regurally to keep it in top shape.
You forget something new every day
2004-02-17
You know, as I was cruising around today, I noticed an incredible amount of gay pride rainbows (especially LiveJournal). It's just a 6-color rainbow with a link under it that says "Marriage is love". That thing has been mulitplying like crazy. I esitmate that nearly 50% of the blogs I read have one. Now I understand that it is an important time in America for gays because there's a big push for legalized gay marriage. But the fact is, there are just way too many rainbows out there going uncontested. It doesn't really have anything to do with gays. It's all about the proliferation of the rainbow. I had to do something.And I have.
Behold, my answer:
| Greyscale is love. | |||||
I'm not exactly sure what "Greyscale is love" means, but I do know that:
- Greyscale (B&W) is way better than RGB (color)
- Rainbows offend Irish people
- Spelling "Grey" with an "e" is sexy (I believe those are the wise words of Phil)
And of course I'm also offering the HTML to this glorious desaturated banner of mine, so be sure to copy and paste this into your blog or personal website:
So there. Oh, and feel free to post comments as to why greyscale is so great.
Nothing to lose, maybe I had something to trade
2004-02-14
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. And that means it's time for me to rant.No holiday is safe. All are getting commercialized, masking the true meaning. Christmas is the prime victim of this: when you think "Christmas", what's the first thing that pops into your mind? If you said "Santa" or "getting presents", your soul has been bought by the capitalist regime. If you said "spending time with family" or "Jesus", you're lying.
So, I'm sure that "Valenine's Day" brings to mind hearts, flowers, and chocolate. Once again, the true meaning of the holiday has been spoiled by fallacy. All of that love stuff that is attached to Valentine's Day actually has nothing to do with the dude. That all comes from the Roman feast of the Goddess Juno, and the day following (Lupercalia). What would happen is young Roman lads would run around on the Feast of Lupercalia seeking out pieces of paper with girls' names on them. The lad and the girl would then become partners (interpret as you wish) for an undertermined amount of time.
Ok, so far we've got Romans, Februrary 15th, and some matchmaking. Where does Valentine fit into any of this? He was a priest who did a few marriages behind Emperor Claudius' back, and then got his head cut off. Not a whole lot of love going on there. Beheading: that's the true meaning of the holiday. For some reason people tend to ignore this customary act. Instead they pass around paper hearts that say "Be my Valentine". Pagans, all of them! Don't associate the priest's name with the Roman holiday that isn't even on the same day as his feast. If you're going to celebrate Lupercalia, at least do it on the right day and call it by it's true name.
I hope this has been an enlightening experience for you all, and will stop celebrating the wrong holidays. And don't forget: anyone who says "Be my Valentine" on the 14th wants to chop your head off. So run. Los los los!
Happy birfday, Q (I know, a bit late)
2004-02-03
Most excellent news! We are but a month away from a new Time Machine album. It's the second episode of the Inquisitor Eymerich trilogy, and according to Lucretia's website, it's going to be even darker than it's predecessor. With Lorenzo Deho at the helm and Valerio Evangelisti supervising the script, I have no doubts that it's going to be great (but how can it be better than liber primus?). Rest assured, I'll post a review when I get it. I can't wait.Saw a banner ad yesterday telling me how "the demorats have no defense" and I should find out "the truth". It led me to a form to sign up for email updates from the RNC. So I filled it out. Then, I headed over to the DNC site and signed up for their email updates. Their form was a bit more rigorous, requiring not only name and email, but also address and a password (apparently I have an account with them now). And then I went ahead and signed up for email newsletters from the Greens, Libertarians, Labor partiers, Patriots, Democratic Socialists, and Libertarian National Socialist Greens. The Communist Party USA's list server timed out, so I couldn't sign up for them, although their shopping page was very much online. I like the Commie bear. He's so cute.
So The Plan is to compare all of the crap I get sent and find the truth. I'm not exactly sure how I will do this yet.... it might just be a matter of trying to unsubscribe to all of those mailing lists and see which parities actually honor my requests. On the other hand, I might even read them. Regardless, if anything good comes of this, it'll be posted here. I haven't yet checked that email inbox; still too scared to.
No one likes whining brats. Of course we all know that the reason they whine is to get what they want. And in today's society, they'll either get it now or they'll get it later. There's never a punishment for whining, which says to kids that there's no reason not to whine. We all know that hitting kids isn't acceptable anymore. It makes sense from a psychological point-of-view in that parents are supposed be seen as loving role models for the kid. But the kid won't shutup until they are trained to; frightening experiences are the best and fastest way to accomplish this. Actual hitting can lead to problems, such as possible legal action if you've got a smart kid, but also the change in the person that the parent becomes. They go from caretaker to punisher. It is important not to have parents hit kids. Thus, we need a device that will scare kids into shutting up as soon as mom or dad says "Quiet." I picture this remote-control car with a robotic arm wielding a sizeable mallet. Kid starts whining -> mom/dad say "Quiet." once -> kid keeps whining -> mom/dad hits a button on the remote -> the StopWhining thing races out from under the couch, baninging the mallet, chasing the kid around until they're TERRIFIED OUT OF THEIR MIND. The next time mom or dad tells them to shutup, they're gonna listen. In the end, you end up with an obedient kid and maybe some floor damage.
Got an interesting email just now. Apparently, if I send $30 to Aruba, I can get some wonderful priviledges:
Somehow none of those things were ever part of my life goals.
- MARRY your BROTHER, SISTER, or your BEST FRIEND!
- You can say "WELCOME TO THE WORLD! I AM YOUR MINISTER AND YOUR UNCLE!"
- After your LEGAL ORDINATION, you may start your own congregation!
But I like the second one. I might even start saying that without paying the $30.
Tree falls and hits Milli Vanilli: Someone else screams.
2004-01-31
There. The new stake.tk feature I promised: comments. "Woo woo, comments. Big deal." That's what you think. It took a while to do, since I'm dealing with user input. But I think I've covered all the bases. Still, you might be able break it. Try.I had an update that I typed up a few days ago, but decided that it was worthless and didn't post it. Makes me wonder if I had the chance to second guess all of my posts whether they'd end up here ever. The answer is: probably not. But I usually post on impulse, as soon as I'm done typing an update, which is why this page is as long as it is.
New toy alert: I ebayed for a hard drive. The old Seagate Decathlon (now there's a name for a HD) had been "singing" for the past few months. It was a high-pitched whine that usually occurred when I woke up or when I was already irritated about something else. It had to go. The new HD is a 7200RPM Western Digital Caviar SE (where they come up with the names for these things I have no idea). This component has been in Chris' upgrade pipeline for sometime. It's a historic moment because this is the last IDE HD that I'm buying before the jump to SATA. Yes, I know you all care about this terribly, so I'll stop talking about it.
I'm all for this. But then I read the article, and it's being done for all the wrong reasons. According to the superintendent of schools for the state, this is being considered "to avoid offending parents of children in more religious, conservative parts of the state". I completely agree that parents have some say in their childrens' curriculum, but this just doesn't make much sense. They want to replace Darwin with the Bible. Both are theories. I'd suggest teaching both (or all or any) versions of creation, but you can't because you can't say "God" in a public school (freedom of speech? what?). So lay off, Georgians. You're stuck with Darwin. At least get to know him. He was just some guy who took a cruise and wrote down an idea he had. Hell, I'm doing that right now. Except I'm not on a cruise. And I'm typing instead of writing. And I think naming a boat "Beagle" is just silly.
In Soviet Russia, hard drive seeks you!
2004-01-24
At the end of the first week back, it's time for an update. The first week is never bad. Get adjusted, get books, get to work. I don't have any classes most afternoons, which means I'll probably succumb to watching X-Files every afternoon. But I shouldn't be. Must keep up with reading. And going to work.Yeah, so I got books. Didn't need too many this semester, and of course I bought them online to save cash. Why more people don't do this, I don't know. Maybe it's because they don't know how. Well, I've written an article, so that takes care of that. Maybe it's because they're spending their parents' money and not their own. But there's nothing I can do to solve that.
Stop this silliness. It's already got Yeas in the House, so you'll have to write your senator.
Also while you're out influencing the government, stop by Amazon and buy yourself a politician.
I'll be doing a feature update to stake.tk (the site itself) sometime soon. And I'll update the links page too. I promise.
One man's constant is another man's variable. -- A.J. Perlis
2004-01-13
As usual I went to work today to get my weekly dose of injury. For some reason, I seem to get nicks and cuts on my hands on a weekly basis while I'm at work. It's almost uncanny. So today was: grab a frame -> broken class -> cut finger -> bleed -> wash -> bandage -> back to working. No more than 10 minutes later I'm cutting with my Xacto when I cut my previous cut underneath the Band-Aid. I cut my cut! How unlikely is that?! I was almost afraid to drive home for fear of a severe car wreck in which the car would be totaled, the gas tank would explode, and I would walk away with my finger cut in the same spot yet again.So I go to the bathroom sink to wash my rewounded wound. I tear the Band-Aid off, which of course causes the little bit of blood on my finger to fly everywhere. The mirror was splattered with droplets of my blood. It looked like a murder scene. I half expected Gil Grissom and the rest of the CSI team to bust in and start checking the DNA.
They didn't.
Went back to the ol' high school today to promote Marist. I never prepare anything to say, probably because I know that the reason kids come see college student ambassators is because they get out of class. I babble and babble and babble.... "hi, Chris, nice to meet you, look: classes, teachers, fun, money, housing, study abroad, clubs, sports, priority points, beautiful campus, roommates, food, library pictures, snow, hope to see you at Marist next year."
Saw some teachers too: Z, Algeo, Probert, and Capt. Apep. They all tell me that it's the same there, but I know it's not. Later in the conversation Algeo and Apep lamented over losing their higher-level courses (AP Econ and Chem2 respectively). Academically, that school has gone to pot. I'm glad I was able to go there when I did, when they were actually adding courses for students. Well it was fun to ride the wave; I'm out now.
The penitent man shall pass.
2004-01-08
I had oral surgery yesterday and I left with a bill, a mouth full of blood, and a t-shirt that reads: "It's not my fault". I'm not exactly sure why it says that... it's puzzling. I guess it's below me. Just doesn't make sense. I always assume that those sort of things are below me; not because I'm so high and mighty, but because I don't understand the rest of the world and their simple expressions. I don't know why. Maybe it's a good thing. But it can certainly be problem. Especially if someone asks me to explain my t-shirt.
So what else am I doing with my time off, besides getting things chopped out of my head? I've been working almost full-time up until now, and should be able to jump right back into work on Sunday with a 12-hour overnight shift. Won't that be fun. It'll be a virtual Moore slumber party, 'cept that there won't be much sleeping, just moving the old store's inventory to the new store. Just like we've been doing for the last few weeks. There's just so much. Taking a stroll though the old store earlier this week, I half expected the shelves to be empty, considering the amount of merchandise we've been receiving at the new store. But no, there's still lots left over there. Piles and piles of shi value. Anyway, the overnight shift on Sunday is a historic Moore event, and I'll try my best to get there. Adjusting my sleep schedule won't be a problem.
Earlier this break, I took some time to rip a vinyl that I got off of eBay. It's Time Machine's (yes, that ultra-cool Italian band) first release. I've spent a full year looking for the CD, but managed to get a special edition vinyl off of eBay for a mere $3! It's good music, what I can get off of it. I say that because I sense that I'm missing something. If you study the record closely, it appears that there are hidden tracks beyond the point where the needle will go on the player. There's one of each of these tracks on each side of the record, and I'm not sure how to play them, short of breaking the record player. The hidden tracks are pressed where the label usually is (it's a picture disc, so there is no paper label), and that's where the needle usually stops and goes back. Ideas, anyone?
I love it, but I hate the taste.
2004-01-01
Happy Janus' Day, pagans.Haven't posted in a while (busy, YYY) but it's time again for that false holiday known as New Years, and I couldn't let it slip by without railing against it.
A simple rollover of one month to another requires actual celebration? Why? I just don't understand it. When the car mileage hits 38888, I say "Woo." and then get on with it. One "Woo." End of celebration.
It's not as if anything great is actually happening -- the slate isn't being wiped clean; all of the problems you had in the "old year" will still be there in the new year. And chances are they'll be even worse. New Years resolutions promised to make your life better are worthless too.... why promise yourself to do (or not do) something that you know you can't. Making promises with yourself in the dead of winter is the worst time to do so; willpower is always lacking during a season when we mammals (us) shouldn't even be awake in the first place. There isn't a whole lot of rational thinking going on, especially at right around now.
If programmers were in charge of it all, there wouldn't even be days, months, or years. Instead, we'd all be counting the seconds since some event. January 1, 1970 is commonly used, but it could really be any event, such as lunch. We'd all be saying things like, "Meet me at the mall at 331281MyLastChickenLunch." That would be about an hour and half after your last chicken-based lunch. Since everyone would use their own time benchmarks; all times would seem completely arbitrary, which they already are, and people would just give up on the idea of time. And that's fine with me.
Brooks was here.
2003-12-19
There's nothing like a peanut butter burger while you're studying. It's the end of the semester, and I'm eating the end of my food. I've got peanut butter and hamburger buns. WHY the convenience store decided to stock hamburger buns instead of sliced bread I don't know. But having a peanut butter burger instead of a peanut butter sandwich seems like such a waste. The hamburger bun is a specialized protein delivery device, specially made for delivering hunks of dead beefs! But I'm using it with peanut butter instead... such an opulent lifestyle I lead.While I'm also disposing of food, I'm also getting food. Because of my frugal spending habits, I've ended up with an excess of thrifty cash that I need to get rid of by the end of the semester. Thrifty cash is credit toward food purchases around campus. I get a certain amount each semester, and if it doesn't get spent it's GONE.
So I go to buy food. Of course I wait until the last hour of the last day that I can do so. As you can imagine, the place is pretty barren. I needed something nonperishable, which limited availability even futher. I walked out of there (after paying of course) with 2 cans of jalapeno cheese dip and 1 can of bean dip. Looks like we're gonna have to have a party next semester, or else I'll be eating a can of bean dip with a spoon come May.
I was lined up for glory, but the tickets sold out in advance
2003-12-17
My last final project was completed last night. A mostly-funcitonal ecommerce website in 24 hours... that's not too bad. I'll skip the details about finals and go straight into complaining about next semester.I was initially excited about next semester's classes, but then I realized that there is going to be more work for me across the board. Check it out:
| Semester | |
|---|---|
| F 03 | S 04 |
| Web Prog. | Web Prog. II |
| Chem | Chem II |
| Stat. | Assembly |
| Multimedia | HW&SW Arch. |
| Social Ethics&Econ. | Econ. Social Issues |
As you can see, the first two rows will be more work; no doubt about it. Stat class had no homework, and Assembly will definately have weekly projects, so that's more work (but more fun too). The last two rows are hard to compare, but I'm thinking at least in equal workload in Econ Social Issues as in Social Ethics & Economics (almost sounds like the same course, doesn't it?). Yes, thank you for pointing out that I am the person who made that schedule. Must have been on one of those rare optemistic days.
But apparently there is a reason for all this work. A friend/coworker of mine finished his degree this semester and got a job offer from Big Blue. He starts the job early next year and is making more money than he expected to. He says his time at Marist actually amounted to something, although he's not sure on his life's direction. This led me to think of my own direction in life. Here're the plans I've got so far:
Kind of a short list, but I don't want to have too much on my plate at one time. Especially things that I don't know how I'm going to accomplish -- which is everything on my list so far. Come to think of it, both of those things are going to take a lot of work; I think I'll put it off until after I finish Chem II.
- Make a lot of money
- Give it all away
Time to look forward to the known future. Rush announced on Rockline last week that they will be touring for their 30th anniversary, with 30+ shows here in The States. I tried to record Rockline, but was on a bad stream for most of the night (the local Po-town stations don't carry the program). However, I was able to get a few clips, but the quality is so poor that I'm not going to post them here. The only other notable item was the fact that the Rush in Rio DVD has gone triple-platinum in less than a month. I hope this will spur Atlantic and Mercury to release other Rush DVDs (Show of Hands DVD anyone?).
Another tour coming to town in the future is Iron Maiden. You're right, I did see them this summer. But that was a different tour! Now they're touring on their new album, so it's a different setlist. Maiden is only doing two cities in The States, one of which is NYC, which I could most surely attend. The ticket price is a problem though. It would cost me about $70 plus a train ticket, perhaps because of the hoity-toity venue. That's a pretty steep price.... so someone had better win tickets.
By now you know they've caught Saddam.... unless you've been living in a hole or something
2003-12-06
Yes, very busy. Same old stuff... I won't bore you with that. You heard me, I won't bore you. Unlike some people do. I've decided recently that I was going to add some blogs to my daily Web visiting routine. Sure, I've got my friends' blogs/online diaries that I read, but I wanted to find one of someone I didn't know. I've probably tried to read about 50 such diaries. There are some things I think about before adding a new blog to my bookmarks:
- I hate bad color schemes (i.e. white text on pink background)
- Typing "reeeeeeally" or "soooooo" is not the appropriate way emphisize a word.
- Detail and thought is good
- I like punctuation (especially commas and semicolons; have you noticed?)
- Trivial relationship problems are never interesting
- "noone" is not a word
- Hyperlinks is how the 'Net is connected! Use them!
So basically, I like blogs that are similar to my own personal webpage (which is not a blog). In fact, that's true on a lot of fronts. If everone thought like me, the world would be perfect. It would run as smooth as a well-oiled machine. However, it would only be perfect for me. That's because Everything is.......well, I'll cover that more in my book.
So as of right now, I have found but two of such blogs. A sorry percentage indeed. I'm generally not so picky, except when it comes to people and their thoughts. If you've got any nominations for my blog bookmarks, send them my way.
You know, it would be interesting to walk around The City as a tourist and ask people, "Excuse me, what universe is this?". I'd bet most people would either give a blank stare or respond with "Lower East Side".
Now returning to a topic from last post, mp3.com did die as promised. Sigh. Out of curiosity, I tried to find some info about one of the bands featured on that site. No mp3s returned in an FTP search; even the mighty Google didn't give me any leads.
This really goes to show how close information is to extinction. I'm not just talking about mp3s (I was able to save them), but the ENTIRE SUM OF KNOWLEDGDE OF THE HUMAN RACE. Kill about 20% of the world's population, and everything mankind has discovered/researched/deduced within the past few hundred years is gone. Kill off a much smaller percentage (airline pilots or plumbers or nurses) and you've created a major disruption in the way the world works. Experience is a very special kind of information that is difficult to transfer, and takes time to recreate. Perhaps it's just the computer nerd in me (programmers hate re-inventing the wheel), but we're not all that far from losing all that we and our ancestors have done.
More of that in my book too.
I am made of poison!
2003-11-23
2003-11-16
I wish I had a big rubber stamp that said 'OK'. It would be so great. A big rubber stamp. On a long stick. I could just go around making everything OK.A blank wall: [-STAMP-] OK. An illegally parked car: [-STAMP-] OK. A homeless guy: [-STAMP-] OK. A discarded magazine: [-STAMP-] OK.
Not playing the hero's role: [-STAMP-] OK.
People tend to sneer at those with the "bad" jobs in society. Maintenace workers, bus drivers, cleaning crews, trash collecors... all of them are seen as being low-level people because of their low-level jobs, categorized as such because they require unskilled labor. No one wants those jobs, and few have appreciation for the people in such positions. Not enough people realize that heir life would SUCK without these people. It's those jobs that are essential to society and the way it works. Look at what happened in Chicago recently when the city trash collectors went on strike. After only a week the citizens were crying for mercy. Suddenly those invisible forces which were taken for granted just decided to stop.
The strike was over pay and benefits, but I think a little respect is due. Respect is a difficult thing to fit into a paper contract.
Even the best of friends can't go to each other's funeral.
2003-11-01
Sorry about not posting a while ago; I'd meant to do a post to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of stake.tk. Not that I had anything particularly great to say... just that it was the anniversary. Woo.Speaking of great stuff that happens agian, the Rush in Rio DVD finally was released. They were able to get it out less than a year since taping it in November '02, and that's pretty impressive. Not sure that I could wait much longer (ha. of course I could've), but it really is very good. Much like the show I saw in Camden. The differences included an animation for By-Tor and the not playing of Analog Kid and Red Barchetta. Rush had never been to Brazil ever EVER before last tour, so they put in some older stuff, such as The Trees. All in all, it's really great to see the trio up close, and the camera work is on target. This set is very much worth the $25 I spent on it, and you should pick it up (were you expecting a bad review?).
This is my first post originating from my compy 486. I've had it for a while, but I'm just now getting comfortable with it. It's 30th reboot was today. Wow. I'm sure you're amazed. Not that I am, but it's comforting, the dependability of it. The reassurance that when you type shutdown -r now, the screen will go blank, to die for an instant. But soon enough, it will ficker back to life, to give you all that valuable information that you already know. Hooray for constants in life. But when you compare this laptop with a modern one, you'll see that lots has changed. No more butterfly keyboards. No more nickel-cadmium batteries. No more Trackpoint pride. No more "Manufactured in Armonk, NY" on the casing sticker. But does my compy 486 know of any of this? No. To it, everthing is the same as it ever was, every boot is the same process. The cycle never stops. Even when it's plug is yanked out, it's still just waiting for the next power-on.
Power on compy 486, power on.
You could be mine. But you're way out of line.
2003-10-28
I get dirty looks when I leave the library. It's because I leave empty handed. After hours of typing and clicking, I produce nothing to the outside observer. No notes in a notebook, no thing off the laser printer, and no crumped papers. I always transfer my work over the network. Just do my work, drop it off on a server, and retrieve it from anywhere at anytime, no dead organisms required. Still, I get that suspicious stare from that girl in the corner. Because she thinks I was wasting computer resources while she does "real" work. Or maybe it's because I wasn't wearing designer jeans.I now own a folding knife contained in a fake shotgun shell casing. I feel like such a hick, as if I live in some God-forsaken place such as Georgia.
Gaming Day was this past weekend. It was long, there was some work invloved, but I think eveyone had a good time. One bad thing that happened was that the expected shipment of Red Bull did not come through. That left us 200 cans of soda short by our estimates, but by the end of the night we had about 50 cans of Dew left, so there was no shortage.
So I took the plunge and signed up for a CD club. Made sure that I got a good deal and not end up paying more than normal cost. In the end I'll end up with 12 CDs for about $50. I got my first 2 today: Eve6 and Static-X. Very different, but that's how I like to get CDs: in pairs, but different sounds. Getting 2 of the same type of bands lacks variation, and doesn't allow you to appreciate the sound each is going for. It's sort of a supply/demand thing for your ears. I can even remember some of the more memorable pairs of CDs that I've picked up in the past, Rush with Iron Maiden, Disturbed with Foo Fighters, and Tom Petty and Metallica. Hopefully with this music club, I can get all of those CDs that I should have gotten in years passed. You know the ones I'm talking about. G&R Appetite for Destruction for instance. Actually, I've already got that one, but it's a good example of a CD that everyone should own. To tell you the truth, I don't really like G&R all that much. But it reminds me of high school crew, and puts me in a good state of mind. And that's cool.
It's wax ecstatic.
2003-10-21
Okay, so I've neglected stake.tk a bit; I had meant to do an update sooner. But I have a confession to make: the reason for a lack of update is because I've been spending time with another site. But it was only for a brief stint -- just to get the redesign done -- and now I'm back. C'mon, please take me back.Well, looks like the results of this year's Weasel Awards are out. Those rats at the RIAA unseated the Democratic party this year by a healthy margin of several thousand votes. Landslide victories go to Microsoft (weaseliest company), blaming fatness on fast food chains (weaseliest behavior), and good 'ol GW (weaseliest individual).
Got my Fear of the Dark poster in the mail today (from Thailand nonetheless). Put it up right above my bed. Something to look at before I go to sleep. Sorry, they didn't have one for Infinite Dreams.
On the topic of eBay, I've found that I'm far more apt to buy things late at night than in the morning. Especially unnecessary things. Just last week I decided that I should aquire a slide rule. I have no idea why. Had I won the bid, I would have probably used the thing to hit the keys on my calculator. I HATE having useless stuff around. The worst is having useless stuff that you paid for laying around, because the purchase itself substantiates a reason to keep it around. Every time you look at it, you get the same feeling you get when you see your roommate's spleen sitting around: just a wasted cash oportunity. Like seeing a $50 bill walking away from you.
Hmm, that last bit about the spleen was a bit gruesome. Happy Halloween?
Some day you'll realize that I get shy and I choke up!
2003-10-10
I've noticed that the past few posts (30th, 10th, etc.) have been rather on the angsty side. Too much ranting. Lots of stuff has happened between now and the last post, and I've got a good rant all set up and ready to go. But I digress.What is it with people and digressing? It seems that people only throw in a "But I digress." into a conversation when they begin to say some interesting stuff. The reason it's interesting AND the reason why they digress are one in the same: they hit on a controversial topic. Why do they stop? Get it out in the open. That's what conversation is for, controversial stuff. They have the same root word: controversial and controversation. See? Digressing is both a retreat and a witholding of information. And that's just selfish.
There, a little rant. Seems I've foiled my own plan. I can't help it, I'm just an angsty young lad. No medals to show for it though.
Eric Idle is coming to Poughkeepsie of all places. I'd like to go to the show and bring an albatross with me. ALBATROSS! ALBATROSS! Not sure where I'd aquire one though. Doesn't really matter since I can afford to go. Greedy Bastard.
I looked in and I was shown, you were too.
2003-09-30
I have an annoucement: I'm leaving the professional TetRis circuit.Kate, I know I told you I was going to make my riches by stacking the blocks, but it just isn't working out.
Oh sure, I was all pretty glamourous at the start, riding high, cruisin' around in limos, parties, famous people, learning the new rules of the big leauges. But today, I hit the lowest of the low. Not even a little skill to show SkillJam. I cashed out and headed for the door. Goodbye high life. I'm going back to my roots. Back to the monochrome screen. Back to long-lasting high score tables, not some time-limited VIP leaderboards populated by some fly-by-night key mashers. A place where any kid with a dream can play. A place where I can beat the sysadmin at Netris on his own system. Where the pieces rotate the right way and you can pause the game if you have to. No annoying sound. Starting level, custom key bindings, piece preview.... it's all there for you to choose. And it's all free: play as many times as you want whenever you want.
What do I lose? Only the money factor. I'm going back to playing for the glory of The Game, and that's all. I can beat the sysadmin on his own system and be proud of it. And after that, we can play again, and he can beat me, and it'll just be fun.
Just for fun.
Sounds like heaven, doesn't it kids? Well it's not, I do all this on SDF. You're on SDF right now, as you read this page. It really is, as they say, All Good.
So support SDF. Become a member, donate, and buy a tshirt. And support Vadim Gerasimov, the programmer of The Game. Read his story. He's got a PhD now, but still got screwed earlier in life. Don't let this sort of think happen to you.
Big Money do the power of good; Big Money make mistakes
2003-09-27
People are such morons.LAUNDRY: it's a very simple thing. But people always seem to screw up the process. Not everyone has their own washer and dryer. That's why there's a big room full of these so people can share. I go down and put my clothes in the washer, and after they're done, they go in the dryer. THIS is where the problem occurs. If all the washers are taken, some dolt from the 6th floor decides that it would be better for them if they plop my wet clothes on top of the washer so that they can wash their own. THIS HELPS NO ONE. The washers take 38 minutes per cycle and drying takes at least 45 minutes. Do the math you 6th floor dolts! Your clothes aren't going to get done any faster by moving around other people's garb. And because of your stupidity we end up with are mountains of wet clothes, growing mold and spreading typhoid.
Laundry... the price you pay for wearing clothes.
I saw some tribute/cover bands last week: Revelations (Iron Maiden) and Limelight (Rush). Idle Tyme opened. As far as tribute bands go, Limelight was superior. Their setlist concentrated on early Rush ('74-'84), and included Working Man, Limelight, Tom Sawyer, Subdivisions, Passage to Bangkok, Spirit of Radio, Something for Nothing, Beneath Between and Behind, and Red Barchetta. One fan was screaming for Big Money, but to no avail. The singer was pretty convincing, and the drummer was 90% Neil. Revelations boasted a bigger stage presence of course, with some standups from Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, and others. Eddie (not that one) made an appearance. Their setlist included Somewhere in Time, Number of the Beast, 2 Minutes to Midnight, The Clairvoyant, Wrathchild, Be Quick or Be Dead, and Fear of the Dark.
I've added some new MP3s to the Links section. Check 'em out.
Do this too.
NBC is airing a "new" sitcom called Coupling. This is an import series, and from the comercial I saw, it looks like their taking the script straight from the original series. And I'm a fan of the original. Even though the scripts are the same, I just don't see myself liking the American version, probably because I know what the show is supposed to be like. I can't see Steve being played by anyone else but Jack Davenport and I won't be able to stand the cast referring to the bar instead of the pub. WHY the network didn't just get rebroadcast rights (PBS did), I don't know. So do yourself a favor and get a hold of the DVD of the BBC version. Or borrow my copy.
Have an Affair....It'll help break up the monogamy!
2003-09-19
Yarr. Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and it's high time for a post.This week has been full o' high adventure: pumas, hurricanes, and gas. The puma was reported to me by a lass who sighted the beast from close range. 'twas too quick fer her 'pparently-- she didn't have time to draw her pistol. Which is a shame since I be looking fer some exotic animal rugs fer me capnt's quarters.
'pon 'wakening this mornin', I was suprised to find the sun beamin' down on me. Been 'spectin' stormy skies. Suppose I can safely go on account tonight, once the crew hauls me schooner, the Blackhole Sun, from the depths of Marshy Swamp. 'ventually we be arrivin' at the final destination, beautiful Port o' Bello. Of course thar be lot o' pirating 'long the way.
And yesterday is the day when I saved the Donnelly from a terrible explosion. The whole lot would be drownin' in flames were it not fer me cunning eye. A pack o' wenches were fussin' around with some nasty scum water over an open flame. When the flame died, they left the gas to run-a-muck. Sensing danger, I jumped aboard and used my piratey instinct to stop the rampant escape of the gas. "Avast!", I cried, and it was forced to obey, lest I leave it with a piratey curse!
So fer the last hours that remain today, keep on with the piratey talkin'. It's not being too hard; just add an "arrr" or an "ahoy" every once in a while. But everyone on the ship knows the best part of piratey speech are the insults. So feel free to insult yer mateys with the followin' expressions:
- bilge rat
- wretch
- meddlesome cabin-boy
- scurvey knave
- ignoramus
- braggin' nitwit
- flaming jack-in-a-box
- hydrocarbon
Would you like to know why my roger is so jolly?
2003-09-10
Got back from another night of Resnet. Upon my return, I find several identical AIM messages on my screen. It's a notice saying that AOL is removing all non-active AIM accounts since they are losing money, and you that are to forward this notice to 20 of your buddies. It's a hoax, people. And you don't need to follow that link to find out that it is a hoax. Let's use some logic:
- Would AOL really announce that they were removing accounts by having their users IM 20 random people on their buddy list? Would that be efficient? Wouldn't it make more sense for AOL to simply contact the users they were going to remove via email?
- Would AOL really start removing accounts because they were losing money? No, of course not! AOL's purpose is to lose money. The company lost like $90,000,000,000 last fiscal year.
Yeah, so it's kind of disheartening that people don't really think about their instant messages before they send them. It's also disheartening that I DIDN'T GET MORE OF THEM! Apparently I'm a top 20 buddy of very few people. I'm not angry at people who did send the hoax to me-- you probably thought you were doing a public service. Really, I'm not angry. And I don't think you're any stupider than I had thought originally. Just next time, check the validity of your unsolicited IMs. Otherwise you'll spead the "virus" and get a lot of people confused.
Now time to rant about something else: the RIAA suing a 12-year old girl. You know what, it really doesn't bother me that she's 12. She's still bound by the laws of the United States. Except that her family doesn't seem to know the laws.... let's take a quote from her mother so that I can axe it: "It's not like we were doing anything illegal." Oh come on, how can it not be? Because you paid a service fee ($30) to an offshore company that has absolutely no business affiliation with any major record label, it's alright? What?!
I mean, if you could just download music instead of paying $18.99 for a CD, wouldn't everybody be doing it?
But Chris, everyone is doing it.
Shut up.
And now to blast the RIAA (quote in hand): "Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation [they'd rather have you just mail them some money]," said Cary Sherman, the RIAA's president. "But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action." YOUR PRODUCT ISN'T BEING STOLEN BY FILE SHARING. To be stealing, one needs to take away some or many of something that someone else owns. And unless that 12-year old's computer is able to physically transmit compact discs through a ¼ inch cable--which would be 'kin miraculous--it's not stealing. It's infringing--which is illegal--but it's NOT STEALING.
Don't worry, I've got an entire article I could write on the topic; there's more coming if you want it.
And finally, to wrap up on something I mentioned last time, all of those CDs I bought are good. All of them.
said she - ahhh - Pyretta Blaze
2003-09-05
And I'm back. It's been busy, but is good. GTNS.I got hired by Resnet within 3 hours of being on campus, so I've been running around with that since. Busy, tiring, frustrating, and fun. I can quit working whenever I want, but longer hours have been the norm since the pay is better this week, and I've got no homework.
I can't possibly mention Resnet without saying this: some people are stupid. Yeah, I understand that everyone might not know how to hook up their computer to the network, but buying a $1,500 computer without knowing the least about it is like buying a car without knowing how to drive. I got called last night to start Internet Explorer for some freshman. Dude, it's just a double click. Do we even want these people on the network?
How's the new living space? Not too bad. Lots more space than last year, but my setup isn't as nice (different room configuration, old furniture...). And it's also a bit dark, now that one wall isn't a window. My small window now has a lovely view of a brick wall. Too tell the truth, I really haven't been here much, since I've been working and visiting other people's places. I'll let you know how it is after I live here a little.
I'm a winner. After I ordered a number 8 from Taco Bell, I was informed by my Brisk iced tea that I have won free nachos. Got to redeem it by the 15th though-- a good excuse to return. Maybe they'll have Chalupas this time.
While at the mall, we stopped by FYE, where I bought stuff. This is very unusual, on account of their insane prices. But now, I'm happy to report, they mix in used (cheaper) CDs in with their expensive stuff. This is perfect for me and other people whose music libraries need beefing up. I picked up some Collective Soul, Fates Warning, Iron Maiden, the new Queensrÿche, and the latest from Type O.
Abrupt ending.
Round and round!
2003-08-24
And the topic of today's post is... today's post. Yes, folks it's an anniversary celebration here at stake.tk. THIS is the 50th post on the website. To celebrate, I'm buying a microwave.Well it's not really so much of a celebration as a duty-- I volunteered to pick one up for the suite this year.
So naturally I'm looking for the best deal.
Best Buy was looking good-- $40 and free shipping. Except that they refuse to ship it because the mailing address I'm using doesn't exist.
Who cares if the place you're shipping it to exists or not! That's no excuse not to ship! Just slap a label on it and hand it to The Man in the Brown Suit. Look, here, this is my credit card. I'M GIVING YOU MONEY. SEND ME THE MICROWAVE!
I then searched a wide variety of sites; True Value had one cheap with reasonable shipping but... I want a black one. You how cool dudes with black microwaves are. Black. Black like the night. Black like Blackhole Sun. Black like evil. Black like Back in Black. Black like profitable. Black like Meet Joe Black. Black like this t-shirt. Black like Blue on Black. Black like black leather. Black like the SR-71. Black like half a zebra. Black like Black.
But I mostly want black so it'll match the fridge.
Final result: Walmart wins another one. Curse you Smiley Face Man, for luring me in with your rolled-back prices.
...and one rockin' hampster bringing it all together.
2003-08-20
So I get home from work and settle myself down with a glass of milk and some cookies. I pull the first elf (they were E.L. Fudge by Keebler) from the package and get this message:
DUNK IT HEAD FIRSTHoly crap. My cookies are giving me orders.
I scan the room, using my hawk-like scanning technique. No other elves in sight. I study the cookie further. The front side of it has an imprint of an elf. He's waving and holding a sign with a name on it-- looks like a limo driver waiting to pick someone up at the airport.
Now that there exists a personal attachment to this cookie, I couldn't just bite it's head off, could I?
Of course not. I drowned it in milk and then I bit it's head off.
You saw that one coming, didn't you?
I am on a roll this week. Yes, I'm announcing yet ANOTHER new stake.tk website feature. Execpt that this one's not new.
What I've done is reimplemented the "Be Notified" feature, which creates a list of my followers/fans to be notified each time stake.tk is updated. This feature stopped working some time ago so..... it's back now. The reason it broke is because I used software written by someone else. That's always the problem. You know how the saying goes: if you want something done right... just forget it. But am I guided by conventional wisdom? No! I've fixed the thing, so use it; it's simpler than before and I promise to keep on top of my notifications. Oh, and if you signed up before, you need not do it again.
Why the sun?
2003-08-16
Ok, so I finally got around to implementing that feature that I promised a few posts ago; you can now select posts by title. You probably didn't even know that my posts had titles. Well, they didn't.... I just made them up. Come to think of it, I make up a lot of stuff on this site.And now you're asking, "Chris, why didn't you do this feature sooner? It's only an extra couple lines of PHP!"
I was working on something else.
This happens a lot. I don't get to something because I'm always working on something else... something that I don't tell anyone about:
Person: What are you working on?
Me: Nothing.
By telling people that I'm doing "nothing", I avoid the problem of being asked about the current state of my project. This way, if I don't finish the project, I won't be branded a slacker for not finishing it, since no one knows what I was doing anyway.
So instead of being labeled "slacker", I just work on nothing all day. And that makes me sound so much better.
I bought a product recently to help cool my computer. I found out afterwards that it doesn't quite fit in my case, but I did manage to find some great stuff in the instruction guide. Check out some of these Korean-English translation gems:
"When two computer users are facing each other, hot air from each computer easily flows to other person's face. Attaching chimney can prevent the hot air from going to the other's face."That has never happened to me.
"Just plug in, you are absolutely free from oppressive heat of CPU."My, that sounds liberating.
"Badong looks very ordinary and classical. Its effect is also like that, but it has strong logical background."?
But it is an intersting product nonetheless.
What's brown and sounds like a bell?
2003-08-08
So, it looks like Ahnold (make sure you pronounce that the right way) is running for governor of California. I'm not exactly sure why he-- or 200 other people for that matter-- want to be the governor of such a problematic state, but may the best fake cyborg win.I threw something new into the Works section a few days ago.
Ok, this one has been in my head for a while:
As some of you may know, The Moore is moving. The new store will be bigger, better, blah, blah blah.... but that's not what matters. What matters is the old store.
You see, once The Moore pulls out of their current location, there will be a vacancy. BUT people will still come looking for it. And this is where my Master Plan begins. To satisfy those clueless customers, myself and my partner will rent out Suite A (where The Moore previously was) and install our own startup company, A.C. Most.
People will naturally think we're better, since Most is better than Moore, right?
And while we're making a new company anyway, we might as well quit doing business The Same Old Way. First off, cutomers can forget about buying individual items; we'll be selling bulk. That means by the pound. No more price checks or being out of stock of one item-- none of that will matter. Customers will simply walk into the store and pick up a few pounds of wood and a pound of glue. As we keep enough weight in the store, we'll be fine. And with this rediculous ...er, streamlined approach, we won't have to hire that many minors to work the registers, since every cutomer's transaction will take aproximately the same amount of time.
If you're interested, A.C. Most is currently seeking venture capital. Feel free to throw some money at me if I come your way.
Ooh, looks like my copy of Race In North America on Amazon. For some reason, I find this very funny. Anyone else in my Origins class is welcome to laugh with me.
Only good guys blow it.
2003-07-26
Ok, there's what all the waiting was about. That little box up there in the upper-left corner. That's all you can see of the most recent stake.tk improvement. No longer do you have to load all of the posts I've ever done; now you can select the range of posts you want to view: Last 5, 10, 20, or All. This helps out people (me) with slow conncetions the most. At least check, the old-style web page was about 35 pages long (~32ft.). Eventually there will also be a box where you can choose specific posts by topic.While performing the upgrade, I had to enter the posts into a database. I reread each post before it went in. Some are really bad-- spelling and otherwise. Bad as in they probably shouldn't have ever existed. But since I'm not one for censorship, I kept everything intact. Even most of the misspellings.
And after rereading last night's post (just did that now) I don't think I adequately described the Iron Maiden conert. Here's a more vivid description:
Nicko's drums were like, "whap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap---BOOM"
And Adrian's guitar was like, "meelee-meelee-meelee-meelee-meelee-meelee-MEEEEEEEE!"
And Dave's guitar was like, "bwa-bwa-bwa-bwaaana-bwAAAAAAAAA"
And Steve's bass was like, "jugg-jugga-jugg-jugg-jugg-ja-JA"
Janick just kind of threw his guitar all over the place.
But Bruce was like, "ScREEEEEEEAM for me PHILADELPHIAH!"
And I of course was like, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
And that's how it really was.
One last thing for tonight: go get your own .tk domain name. If you have a website with a really long address (Tripod, Angelfire, etc.), you can have www.WhateverYouWant.tk redirect to that. And it's free. The organization that runs www.tk has been begging for me and other .tk domain holders to spread the word. So there, I did it.
Die with your boots on!
2003-07-25
[Blows dust off stake.tk][pokes with finger]
Hmm, still works.
It's been a month. Lots too tell, but I'm not gonna do it all tonight.
The website improvements I've been mentioning are coming along; just needs some more testing. Maybe tomorrow?
BIGGEST news that I have to report: Maiden was awesome last night. Concert started at 7:30, but Maiden didn't get on until around 10. But during that time, I'm glad to say that Motörhead kicked our ass.
Dio was old. Like a rainbow in the dark.
Then Maiden came on. I won't give away the set list-- wouldn't want to spoil it for those of you who are going-- but they played all of their biggest crowd pleasers, plus some other ones, and even a new song from Dance of Death.
I am not so happy to say that not everyone knew the lyrics... so I just had to scream them louder.
It was good.
Heaven can wait
2003-06-24
It's been a while since my last update. Contrary to popular (not too popular I hope) belief, I did not get dead. I assure you that I am alive and mediocre. The reason for the dearth of news is that I decided to put a freeze on new content while I implement some new features. And tonight I'm announcing that...I haven't finished yet. I'm working on it. Slowly. It's kind of a Tortise and the Hare sort of thing, except that I'm slow and lazy.
What I have done is add two new entries to the Links page. Hunt and peck around and see if you can find what's new.
A bit of excitement at work tonight. I was doing my usual task (pick stuff up, put stuff down) when a metal bracket thing slid off the display I was moving. Only it didn't hit the ground right away. It nailed a can of Envirotex (which happened to be on its side) dead center.
Nearly-invisible sealer started to spray all over the place. As soon as I located the source, I jumped right in and tried to cover the hole with my thumb. This does not work, don't try it. I needed to think up a solution fast.
I knew it was MacGyver time.
Using my MacGyver-like instinct, I searched for an object that would stop the vile spray from ruining all surrounding merchandise. So I grabbed a roll of paper towels and slid the can through the center of the inner carboard tube. Then with my hands capping the ends, I rushed it back to the stockroom to dispose of it.
In the process of disposing of the mess, nearly all of the liquid had escaped the can. I figure that my skin had absorbed around 4-6 ounces of the stuff. According to the back of the can, I am currently experiencing brain, liver, and kidney damage. Ho-hum. Just another life in the day of ACM Wonderboy. Still though, you may want to consider stopping my The Moore to say your last goodbyes. Don't know if I'll last much longer under this kind of chemical exposure.
The odds get even
2003-06-12
I want to post something new tonight. But I'm dry, so don't expect too much goodness.I've got one of the new Metallica songs stuck in my head, Frantic. tick. tick. tick. tick. tick. tick. tock.
Did you see? Did you see? It really is stuck. But the question is why. Is it because it's a genuinely good song, or just because it's the first track on the CD? Does it even matter if there is no reason?
Because if there is no spoon, there may not be a reason.
There's an essay I discovered a while ago, titled In the Beginning was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson. It's about computers, operating systems, life... but is not highly technical. And for those of you who just want some little pieces to gnaw on, I've compiled some excerpts and put them in the Works section.
While I was just editing that excerpts file, I realized that it's really cool to type "<p>". Try it. And make sure it's a lowercase p and that you're using the right shift only, or else the sound won't come out as great. Now do it over and over. Get a good rhythm worked up. I will christen this new style of mustic "Paragraph Tag Trance", since all that is typed is the paragraph tag and you'd need to be in a trance to do this for four minutes straight (all Paragraph Tag Trance songs must be 4 minutes in length). Record your best stuff and send it to me. Maybe I'll create a mix CD or something.
And on the 0th day, God created 1
2003-06-05
Today was far too untolerable. I had to wake up earely to drive someone somewhere, and then when I got back to pick up, the parking lot was full. I get home to work on this thing, only to find that it's going to take a lot more effort than I thought. By the time I was done that, it was time for work. Joy. Thursdays are usually light, but (suprise) this one wasn't. Customers were all over the place, the toilet overflowed (guess who played plummer?), new products needed to be put out, I was on register for much too long, and my recovery sucked. My night at work was topped off with the last customer (left at 9:15) asking me, "Is it always this dark out here?" Yes lady, we call this nighttime. That's when it get's dark outside. In fact, it's so dark that it isn't even light out anymore.I get home and decide to do a little more work with that thing I was doing before. I sit down to do something "real quick" only to find that the FTP server on Bebop is refusing requests. No, I'm not going to explain that.
I've noticed some relabling of consumer products. 2-liter Pepsi lables went from "Pepsi" with a little orb logo to "PEPSI" with a BIG orb logo. It does not make me want to drink it more. Diet Coke has a nice new clean look. Ever wonder why they call it "Diet" Coke? "Coke Light" would be more appealing. You never hear of diet beer, it's always [NameOfBeer] Light. Salad dressing isn't diet either, it's "Light Done Right" (a misnomer). Cream cheese is light last time I checked, and so are waffles. Now Diet Dr. Pepper makes sense. It's got the alliteration going for it. Coke probably whoopsed first with Diet Coke and Pepsi followed. Maybe Coke Light exists in some other market--Britain perhaps. Those Brits seem like they'd be twerked over a poorly named product.
I designed a new logo for Marist. Here's an alternate version.
I picked up the new Metallica CD yesterday. I just happened to be driving to Best Buy when Raz on WMMR announced that someone slipped up and put the CD on display 6 days early. People seem to hold pretty strong opinions about the "new" Metallica; everyone either loves it or hates it. I of course think it's okay (I'm not everyone). I haven't had a chance to listen to it much, but I'm sure after a few more listens I'll like it more. So far my picks are St. Anger and Dirty Window.
The hopeful depend on a world without end, whatever the hopeless may say.
2003-05-27
New Metallica debuted today. Kind of funny how both WYSP and WMMR BOTH claim that they had the broadcast premier... I wasn't awake for either so I can't verify. Anyway, each station was playing it like CVAZY, either every 93 minutes or every hour. Even the "new alternative" playing a little St. Anger. But I'm glad it's getting attention, it's a good song. Let's hope for the best from the rest of the album.
I finished my first book of the summer last week, so I decided that I should go on the hunt for my next one. I knew my target:
The Salmon of Doubt. It's the final book from Douglas Adams, published posthumously. I had already checked the local B&N; they were fresh out. Thought that maybe Atlantic might have it in hardcover or paperback, since the place is a warehouse afterall. No, they didn't. Finally, I ended up at Borders, the bookseller with the last two copies of the book in the world. I got mine for $24. Ouch, my wallet hurts.
It was time to build another computer. I had the parts, so I figured I might as well. The last component I needed was one of the hard drives from my primary machine. It took about 40 minutes to get that thing out of there (stupid computer case doesn't have a rail system|makes life difficult|drives Chris insane and makes him very very angsty). So it all comes together and... the CD drive is bad. That's not really a surprise though, since I pulled it from a might-not-be-working computer from Smashathon. I've always had bad luck with optical drives, so this was expected. The REAL problem was the device that made this sound: KaChuck, KaChuck, KaChuck, KaChuck, KaChuckkkkk..... the hard drive failed. It had lasted 5 years in that case and the day I bring it into the fresh air, it decides to die.
So that project is on the back burner for a while.
Sesame Street is no ordinary street; this I realized last night. WHY doesn't anyone ever get hit by a car? I think this would be a wonderful way to teach kids about the importance of looking both ways before crossing the street. This would also be an excellent way to get rid of Big Bird. Picture it: BB waltzes across the street, then you hear the screeching of breaks, then you hear "SPLAT", and then the ambulance comes. Elmo would squeek, "See boys and girls? Big Bird didn't look before he crossed the street, and he paid the ultimate price. Let that be a lesson to you."
What is on the other side of Sesame Street anyway?
She blinded me with science!
2003-05-23
It's prom season. I saw an article in the paper yesterday about the prom industry, and how it's recession-resistant. People want to have a good time, even if they're swimming in debt. The article went on to say how the average girl will spend about $700 for the event. This fact was followed by the following quote from a 17-year old prom goer, "You can't put a price on a lifetime of memories!"That's right little girl (I can call her "little" because I'm so much older), you will receive an ENTIRE LIFETIME OF MEMORIES within one 4-hour period. How can this be? How can you fit a lifetime into four hours? Isn't that the reason "lifetime" was invented, because not-all-that-much could happen within a 4-hour timespan?
But the hype. Oh, the hype. And legacy. That is what prom is all about. It isn't really about whether you have fun or not AT the prom, it's really about the excitement BEFORE the prom. If you pour enough time and money into it, you will force yourself to have a good time as long as you are expecting to. People expect to have a good time because people have gone to proms for years and years and have consistently reported having a good time.
This got me to thinking about my prom. Did I get a lifetime of memories? Of course not. My best (and one of my few) memories of prom night was driving home, north on Rt. 202, windows down, listening to Metallica. I don't even remember which song. And if I can't remember which Metallica song I was listening to, you can imagine how detailed the rest of my memories of the night are.
Was it worth the price? Of course not. I surely did not spend anywhere near $700, but it was a hefty sum (for me) nonetheless. According to the wise words of Probert, "You can buy a lot of goats with that kind of money." If that statement confused anyone, let me clear it up. He was referring to the four-legged mammal with hair. I'm sure you understand now.
I'm looking forward to some anti-formal parties when the time comes. There should have been an anti-prom back in the day but alas there was not. But next time...
Tear it off, but not a lot, only so much you can take.
2003-05-15
Everyone has left me. I'm pretty much over this fact, but you're welcome to take part in my post-abandonment listening cycle. The current featured artist on the play list isYou're right, Geoff Tate does do the best vocals ever.
Also, A Tout Le Monde by Megadeth has been/will be played multiple times before my departure.
The much-anticipated IS130 final project on Amazon has been converted to HTML and added to the Works section of this website. There have been several requests for this, so here it is, complete with original animation. The purpose of the final project was to implement an information system to surmount one of the given company's challenges. We made a mockery of the whole idea.
Yes, of course we got an A.
Concerning platypuses... I've gotten quite a few comments on the spelling of the plural form of "platypus". People are demanding that I change it to platypi. I had consulted with a platypus expert beforehand and determined that platypuses is fine. Don't believe me? Look it up.
Another thing people have commented on repeatedly about stake.tk is the pictures at the top of the page. And to answer the question, yes, they're of me.
Two last items before I stop: 1) the MacGyver series finale is coming up soon (again). This also means that the great pilot episode is fast approaching as well. Check your local TV Land listings for date and time. 2) Warm YooHoo and Jalapeño pretzels don't mix well together.
Those who forget the pasta are condemed to reheat it.
2003-05-03
Adolescent Radioactive Feng Shui Platypuses!^THAT^ is going to be a new hit TV show for kids.
Not to be confused with that other kids TV show with a similar theame song.
Now everybody sing!
(to the tune of the original TMNT theame song)
Adolescent Radioactive Feng Shui Platypuses!It's going to be a great show. It combines the best of Turtles, Trading Spaces, and Bill Nye. Let's take a peek at the first episode...
Adolescent Radioactive Feng Shui Platypuses!
Adolescent Radioactive Feng Shui Platypuses!
Mammals with bills on their faces...
Platy power!
Four normal baby platypuses are lying on the ground. All of the sudden, 1,000 miles away, a nuclear warhead disguised as a bowl of fruit detonates! A hurricane carries the fallout in a huge dust cloud over to where our soon to be heroes are laying. The fallout combines with the protective goo that exudes from the pladypuses skin. They are safe, but changed forever. Unfortunately, only minutes after this happens, they are separated from each other. Each is mistaken for a missing child from the back of a milk carton. As it were, each was alienated to his own continent.
As each grew up, they began to realize their special powers. Juan Diego, the oldest, had the power to inflate a children's swimming pool in under 10 seconds. Lau Tungh, the Silent One, had the ability to make a paper crane with one hand (fin/flipper/whatever). ƒÆÇËð, the one with funny dots over his name, was immune to paper cuts. Herbert, the one nobody really liked, could type at 370 WPM. But they all had a toxic spur, and that's really cool.
Once reunited after they were all simultaneously stuck without a flight at the airport, they found their first adventure. Or did the adventure find them?
No, I think they found the adventure for sure.
Someone had stolen the seats out of all the airplanes! Suddenly, there were 20 jetliners without adequate seating or interior decoration! What was anyone to do?
"Never fear!" cried the Adolescent Radioactive Feng Shui Platypuses, "we'll fix this problem in a single weekend!"
Their forces combined to tackle the mammoth project. Herbert typed up some plans. Juan Diego inflated a pool. Martha Stewart did nothing. Lau Tungh quietly whipped up some decorative paper cranes. ƒÆÇËð didn't get cut. Within 48 hours, the guys had redecorated 20 Boeing 757's in a manner that accentuated every passenger's Om. Or something.
But who stole the airplane seats? Tune in next time....
Old immortals never die, they just... well... they just don't.
2003-05-01
Well, we're back. Woo woo.Less Than Jake was here last night. Those other bands were here as well. Chris from LTJ actually got tricked into doing an interview on WMCR. Guess he didn't realize that the station is contained in a closet.
I recorded the interview for later enjoyment/exploitation, so if anyone wants a copy, let me know. It runs about 23 min with songs cut out. It's pretty entertaining; Chris answers The Tough Questions.
Have you noticed the ever-growing assortment of chewing gum? Well I haven't--it's contraband around here--but I'm aware of this occurance. Why can't there be a chewing gum with everything in it? I want a gum that tastes good, freshens by breath, whitens my teeth, gives me energy, attracts women, stops gingivitis, and lasts a long time. Why can't this be done? Note that my feature-consolodation proposal does not only apply to gum, other products are included. Take super glue for another example. I've seen 4 types of super glue: original, extra strong, won't-stick-to-your-fingers, and quick dry. WHY would I want any glue to stick to my fingers? And if I'm using super glue, wouldn't I want it to have the superest bonding power?
Now that you've seen how marketing shouldn't work, I'll now show you some good marketing: a frog that you can whack with a stick. Notice that this product supports all of the features you could want in a frog that you whack with a stick. It's great! Everything you could want...you can't beat that. Oh wait, yes you can!
Look out for #1. Don't step in #2 either.
2003-04-15
A lot has happened since my last post. But I'll hold off on that stuff and start out with my prediction:Bush will be president of Iraq.
You see, I was thinking that if Bush continues to follow in the footsteps of his father, then he should lose his bid for reelection. This means that G.W. will be unemployed and searching for a job. I'm sure you all saw those cheering Iraqis chanting "We love Bush" on TV. It's just so natural, so simple; President Bush of Iraq. It should be on MSNBC right now. Or at least in the National Enquirer.
On a related note, there is a group of people in this country who have a great love for a particular Iraqi official. Check out www.WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com. They've amassed all of his greatest quotes, including: "We blocked them inside the city. Their rear is blocked", "We will kill them all........most of them.", and "I speak better English than this villain Bush."
Gaming Day Spring 2003 was this past weekend. Played in some tourneys: Soul Calibur 2, DOA3 (single & tag), and TetRis. All was good--won some prizes, lasted longer (15 hrs), and we even had some sponsors. Picutures of the event can be found here. Can you find me in this pic?
Preliminary schedules for fall came out today. I ended up with the schedule that I submitted (though it's not the one I wanted). MATH130-123, IT203-112, IT210-200, REST231-200, and CHEM131-114 (might switch to 111 or 113). End of story.
Another revelation occured since my last post. Ready for this one?
C3PO is a commie.
Yes, it's true. That lovable (?!) Star Wars character is really the mechanized incarnation of Lenin. They even look similar! (a Karl Marx version was scrapped because robots with beards look funny) Matt assisted me in this discovery. While he was wearing a CCCP tshirt I commented on the repeditiveness of the "C". Why not C3P instead? So that's the "C3" part. The "O" is actually a "0", which coincidentally the fist number of the binary set. Therefore, C3PO is the first andriod of the USSR. I suspect that he's emigrated to George Lucas' ranch since The Fall.
Not only that, but I've recently found out that Papa Smurf is a Commie as well. The facts are all there, just read if for yourself.
I procrastinate; I won't take "now" for an answer.
2003-04-06
Yeah, there hasn't been a post in a while because of... you guessed it... more stage crew. We're doing Abracadabra Aladdin this time. For the kids (ah, it's been a while since I've said that...). There're 13 shows, and I'm working half of them. No big deal though, it's only 1 hour per performance.I've been working hard this weekend to reclaim my top spot on the SDF TetRis high score board. Well, that didn't happen, but I do currently hold the top score on level 1, which is the 6th spot overall. Maybe next week...
Now let me tell you how I changed the course of time. As most of you probably know, there was a time change early this morning due to the controversial and scandalous Daylight Savings effect. It just so happened that I was standing infront of a TV exactly one minute before what would be 2:00 AM, when the time would change. And I was like, "Woo woo, I'll get to see the clock (at the bottom of the screen) go from 1:59 to 1:00!"
"But Chris," said one of my followers, "the clock 'springs forward' this time of year, so it will be 3:00, not 1:00."
So it would seem that I stood corrected. But no! I just kind of glanced to my left, glanced to my right, and set clock to read 1:00 with my mind.
Everyone in the room was astonished.
Unfortunately, only the clock on TV said 1:00; my watch was at 2:00 and my computer said 4:00. Matt's laptop's clock was at 3:00, but he's only got a 16MB video card, so that one's probably wrong for sure.
Methinks my time-altering ability needs some work, although I was able to pause time once (see the 2002.11.21 post).
I'm just now finishing off a box of Teddy Grahams (honey). All that's left now are the feet and paws that always end up on the bottom of the box. If you've ever studied the teddies, you'll understand why. There are 2 (well, 3 really, but let's keep this simplified) varieties of teddies in every box: Type 1 have their legs together and their arms up, Type 2 have their legs spread with their arms in their pockets (in the pants that don't exist). As you can tell, the Type 1's are just asking to have their paws ripped off and the Type 2's are just begging to be defooted. I mean, come on now, you'd think that the teddies would just forget this whole segregation thing and have the Type 1's mate with the Type 2's. That way their offspring would end up with their legs together and their paws in their pockets, thus protected from the riggors of Settlement During Shipping. Then I could eat every one whole, with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power is kind of neat.
2003-03-27
Before I went to college, I imagined that I would grow my hair long and join a rock or metal band. I wouldn't even have to wrrite lyrics-- it would just be a tribute (read: rip off) to some other great band. But since the incarnation of this dream, I realized that it isn't going to happen just like that.Long hair is harder to maintain then I thought.
That's right folks, I actually went 8 WEEKS without a haircut. Just look at it! Some days, my morning hair technique took nearly 5 minutes prepare. Couldn't take it anymore, so it got cut.
I just realized after posting that last image link that the only pictures that I seem to post on this site are pictures of the top of my head. Looking at other people's pages (newly updated btw), it appears that posting pics of other people is all the rage. Alright then. Here is a page full of pictures of people I know and love. Few people are on it. Very few.
So back to my original idea--the tribute band thing isn't really working out. Then I got a new idea (this always happens). I could definately pull off a gig as a tribute comedian. I've been watching Mitch Hedberg's material every night. I memorize his jokes and the way he delivers them. I practice my ("my") routine in the shower. Guess it sounds kind of strange when someone walks into the bathroom and hear me saying, "I'll give you the money, you give me the doughnut." from the shower stall. Be on the lookout for people doing stand-up routines in the shower. And look out for me trying my routine on you. Notice that I will NOT be a Mitch Hedberg impersonator--that would require me to look like him--and Mitch has long hair.
I feel so strongly about toilet graffiti, I signed a partition.
2003-03-20
The stock markets are soft. Sales of personal computers are flatlining as the Tech Wonderment Effect wears off. The housing market is just now settling down. Unemployment is kind of on the high side, and President Bush is leading us into a military conflict with Saddam Hussein.Welcome to 1991.
Kind of strange, isn't it. Sounds a lot like TODAY. Sort of a deja-vù/been-there-before/history-repeats-itself/couldn't-we-have-done-it-right-the-first-time kind of feel. Well, with any luck, this country will have a tech boom just as I'm graduating college. Eggcellent.
I'm home for this week and I've really wanted to just lie down and watch some normal news on TV. C'mon Joe Kernan, no need for you to sit at a boring round table discussion, lets hear about some winners and losers on the Big Board! Even CNBC's weatherman left his high-pressure/low-pressure map to give us his insight on the war. At least Don Polec over at WPVI is doing his usual thing.
For those interested, I was able to score that Arthemis CD I wanted (mentioned in my last post). The bidding ramped up during the final minutes of the auction, but my max bid was too high for them! Suckers! Now let's just hope that the seller comes through.
If you want something done right... just forget it.
2003-03-12
I was listening to Off the Hook last week, and they were discussing airport passenger screening. Apparently, there's a new system (soon to be revealed) which will mark passengers as either green, yellow, or red, depending on their background check. A red sticker means that you are not permitted to fly. Airport security goes through most all of your personal confidential information (credit check, etc.) to determine your color. So my question is, why do we have to file taxes?If airport security can check your confidential personal information in the matter of minutes (perhaps seconds), and our friends at the Department of John Ashcroft's Funhouse is peering even deeper into our lives, why do they need us to file taxes? Shouldn't they be able to get all the info they need on their own? The government should file our taxes with us, and if we have a problem with them, then we conduct an audit and correct the situation.
When I was a kid, people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I "grew up". A fireman? No. An astronaut? No. I wanted to be a bricklayer. You know, building chimneys and such. To spend the day spreading cement, placing the brick, checking the level, and repeating. Each layer was dependent on the previous. The day ended with some real work accomplished. Laying brick in the sunset seemed particularly attractive to me. I don't know why. I no longer hold aspirations to be a bricklayer, but I guess I'm still pretty good at building walls around myself.
I like to write "Robespierre". It's almost as fun as typing the number 6.
6666666666666666666666....
As some of you many know, I was able to aquire the CDs of the Italian Progressive Power metal bands that I heard on that fantastic early Saturday morning of 2/8. The only CD I wasn't able to get was Arthemis. Several have come up on eBay but for various reasons I have not won those auctions. The one I lost last week was "snipered" way from me 2 seconds before the close of the aution. But I will get this one. If ANY of you atempt to sniper bid this copy away from me, I will come to your house and eat all of your CITRIS FRUIT so that you DIE OF SCURVY. And the cops can't even touch me.
I've added the lyrics to Evil to the Works section of the site. Enjoy.
Puns are bad, but Poetry is verse.
2003-03-08
Classes canceled again due to snow. And I'm sick again. I was expecting it; these crazy temperature changes, sick roomate (2 weeks of that), and the end of another stage crew session (seem to get sick after every show). Also, things were just going a bit too well -- which tends to make me think about things going awry. Always the optimist.I got my first Springboard module for my new toy (mentioned last post). The module was very cheap (< $3) and has dual functionality. It's a 2MB memory expansion (for games) as well as a vibrator...er, I mean silent alarm. Actually, it's not all that silent; it sounds like an electric toothbrush. No matter, it was worth it for the extra memory.
Sometimes jelly doughnuts remind me of the way sunlight reflects off of an ounce of prevention.
The Treasury Department announced that it will be changing the color of money. Once again, the move is an effort to thwart counterfeitting. It always amazed me that the United States, with one of the strongest currencies in the world, has such poor anti-counterfeitting methods. While other countries have moved to hologram insertion and plastic money, the US dollar remains vulnerable. Come on, we've all seen MacGyver episode #62, right?
Finally, here's a link that's been sitting around for a while. It's just one of those things that have to be posted.
I can learn to coexist with anything but pain.
2003-02-28
Haven't done an update in a while, largely do to stage crew and this strange habit of mine of going to class... I'll try to make up for it with a longer-than-usual post. As I'm sure all of you know, Mr. Rogers has died. It was a very sad day for me. As some of you may know, I held him in high regard. He is one of the few people who occupies Level 1. On this occasion, I feel it is appropriate to finally add The Chart to the works section of this site. It's one of my more famous high school stage crew creations.When I'm at stage crew, I'm surrounded by members of a club/organization/cult known as MCCTA. MCCTA stands for Many Conceptually Contaminated Theatrical Assailants, and is pronouncd "mic-ta." Please note the random vowel inserted to make the acronym pronouncable. Some people commit such crimes to make themeselves feel special. MCCS, Marist's computer club, does not take part in such vowel-injection felonies. We computer majors ct the God-given right of the wonderful people of Poland. If you are stricken with a surname composed of 7 consenants and one vowel, please go on exercising your proper-noun-alteration techniques.
And what COM/liberal arts/future seahorse beurocrat decided The MCCTA Phonetic Vowel should be "i" anyway? Why not "mac-ta" or "muc-ta"? Was a vote even taken? Was the democratic process even adhered to? No, I dare say, NO! I'm sick of being enslaved by 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society!
At 11:50 last night, with a can of Brisk in my hand, I prepared myself to make some popcorn for MacGyver. Well not really for MacGyver, but for me while I watched MacGyver. But if Mac wants to stop by and have some, he's more than welcome to.
So anyway, I tore open the plastic, plopped it face up in the microwave, and hit the "Popcorn" button. 2+ minutes go by and the microwave beeps, like it has many other times. Then I realized that there had been no popping. Apon opening the door, I found a bag of very unpopped kernels. I flipped it over and found that the non-butter-fat-globuole-substitute had melted just fine, but no kernels had popped. So I thew it out. Today I realized that it was acctually a bag of diamonds that someone was smuggling into the country; it's just that I had put in 80¢ and hit "E2" before the smugglers' US contact had a chance to. Whoops.
Most of this post was written on my new toy. I recently aquired a Handspring Visor Deluxe PDA. Of course I got it for much less than Handspring is selling their refurbished ones for. And you can too; just check eBay.
Thing is just so cool, especially for the price. I mean, 8MB RAM and a 16MHz processor is nothing to brag about, but it's amazing what can be done with so little. There are thousands of programs on the Net that run on PalmOS, including games and other essentials of course. And the Visor also has a SpringBoard expansion slot which can transform (robots in disguise!) the PDA into a GPS device, MP3 player, camera.... all sorts of cool stuff. With this new high-tech device, I am now ready to enter the year 2000.
I ate a Kit Kat today. It was specially-marked with: "Win $10,000." And in the fine print was: "void where prohibited." That's like saying, "not allowed where not allowed." Yay for redundancy.
I can learn to resist everything but temptation.
2003-02-19
My keen eye (not the other one) has picked up on something lately: There are cafeteria workers who go around and top off the ketchup bottles with other half-full ketchup bottles. It seems to me that this practice might produce some "veteran" ketchup bottles--circa 1997. In order to test my hypothesis, I'll need a list of production numbers from the bottles in the cafeteria; Hienz doesn't do "born-on dating" so the production number is all we've got. Send me all the ones you collect.Current Ketchup Bottle Production Number List Total (CKBPNLT): 0
My Time Machine CD came today! It's good. Go search for a copy. It actually has a storyline; here's the first few lines:
A ruthless battle between the forces of good and evil takes place in the year of our Lord 2001. Evil, via the web, aims to reach countless people, leading them into sin in order to posess their souls.It goes on to tell of similarly exciting stuff. It should be a good reading/listening combination.
pound gorilla, EA. No more Kyrandia adventures. And now that some (any remaining?) employees are being shuffled off to the megastudio, the chances become slimmer still.
So while you're out digging under rocks for a copy of Time Machine's Evil CD, also look around for The Hand of Fate.
One cannot kill time without injuring eternity.
2003-02-15
Well I hope everyone had a nice Singles Awareness Day. I for one spent it taking a porcelain cruise.Yeah, I got hit with the Sheahan Hall Airborne Stomache Virus. I'm pretty sure I am #7. Everyone's getting hit with it, and it SUCKS. Thursday night I puked up my entire turkey dinner, and then some. There were 5 throw-up sessions that night, multiple heaves each. And I couldn't sleep away the relentless pain. I couldn't even hold down water.
Friday I made my way to the nurse. She gave me this concoction ("Nausatrol"). It was supposed to coat my innards and neutralize everything. Well can you guess what happened when I took it? That's right: urk, urk, earlralf. It came right back up. Called the nurse and was like, "What's the deal?" They told me I could make another appointment.....RIGHT.
The nurse also gave me a sheet on diet for my next couple of days. First on the list was "Uncaffinated, uncarbonated, clear soft drinks (Pepsi, Coke)" Anyone else see a problem here? Where am I supposed to find an uncarbonated can of the clear alternative?
Anyway, after all of my hurlability, my wardrobe has become somewhat....limited. This forced me to do laundry again tonight. I have no clean pants. Even the ones I'm wearing aren't clean, they're just unpuked on.
This wonderful weekend comes right before a terrible week. Tuesday will host a computer science test, a discrete math test, and a 5-page origins paper that has yet to be formulated. Oh yeah, and I have to read this book by Wednesday. Well woo woo for me.
How am I supposed to know what a rhetorical question is?
2003-02-11
Let me get this out of the way first: "Lutheran" would be a really cool name to have.Next on the list is the announcement of stake.tk's newest feature: visitor notification. Just supply your name and email address and you'll be notified of site updates. Now you won't have to hammer this site every day looking for new content. Unless you really want to...
I received my first IS130 quiz today. I haven't given it back yet because it's a take-home quiz! It's redicerous. We have more than 2 days to finish a quiz with questions such as...
Could this be the origin of WhatsBetter?
On that note, my WB submissions have been up and down, though they are slowly gaining stability. Rynn is the high-flyer, but Sarah... not so much. The puppy is still having a hard time, but people seem to love to stuff rodents into containers. Marist Rotunda is fairing better than Marist itself (who submitted that pic amyway?). And people are finally realizing how bad a leaky capacitor is.
You'll be happy to find new stuff added to the Werriam Mebster Dictionary: Big Waa and Distributed Symphonic Blastido. Use liberally, rinse, and repeat.
New restaurant on the moon. Great food, but no atmosphere...
2003-02-08
WOW. Just wow. About a lot of stuff.First off, I discoverd a totally new side (sort of; different hemisphere anyway) of music. ITALIAN PROGRESSIVE POWER METAL ROCKS! I found this site with 4 MP3s. Heard them each 2X and was hooked. The way I stumbled apon this page is interesting in itself. It's a tale of decipt, desception, romance, intrigue, and struggle. I wasn't able to trace my path all the way back, but here's what I can remember:
Somewhere -> Some Rating Site -> Some Rating Site's Links page -> WhatsBetter -> Some pairing between a thing and a fantasy painting -> A Google search for the artist of said painting -> The Painting's Page -> The Artist's Page -> Artist's About Page -> Another Google search -> Mesmerize Page of Wonder -> Mesmerize Links Page -> Underground Symphony -> Underground's MP3s
any spoons, okay?
You'll notice that the last link on the menu it "Be Notified." "What is this?" you ask? Well I'm not going to tell you, because I don't know if it works. I'll let you know when it's done.
Big news for computer users: Many motherboard manufactured between 2001-2002 contain defective capacitors. See the IEEE website for a tale of intrigue, deception...
ar, only ABIT and IBM have openly addressed the problem.
While I was in the process of updating my links page, I invented a new word: whatsup. More info is available in the Werriam-Mebster Dictionary.
I don't serve Satan; I don't even have the recipe!
2003-02-07
Classes are canceled for today, so I'm doing today's post early.Here goes:
I did laundry today. The problem is that I just did laundry 2 weeks ago. Last night, I was shocked to find that I was nearly down to my emergency pair of boxers. This signals Laundry-Doing-Time. Doing laundry every 2 weeks is far too often... I suspect some foul play.
Someone else is wearing my boxers.
I'm not 100% sure, but it's the only explaination that I see. My Boxer Level determines when I do laundry. Now while my Boxer Level was low enough to cause me to do laundry today, my t-shirt level was not. I mean, I don't generally follow the t-shirt level, but I've noticed that they tend to correspond. Perhaps this time it's just an anomaly. Speaking (typing) of t-shirts...
I've aquired 3 free t-shirts this week. The first was from an online survey I answered. Apparently, I was one of the first 5000 entries or so, I've aquired 3 free t-shirts this week. The first was from an onlifirst was an H2K2 leftover; the second shows all of the legal action that has been taken against 2600 magazine. There were provided by Emmanuel Goldstein who was on his way home from a cross-country road trip. I also scored a free copy of Freedom Downtime. It's a great documentary, and I'll gladly loan it to anyone who wants to see it (pick it up yourself).
And finally, a little something I've been meaning to post, but couldn't since SDF was down. I've expressed this...thing (idea? hypothesis? observation?) to others and got positive feed back. I've noticed that when I'm awake more, I eat more. Noting this correlation, I prognosticated (har!) that if I slept all of the time, then I wouldn't need any food. And being that there is enough shelter for the entire population of the world, everyone could just sleep now and not need to work. Humans need food and shelter; we've got the shelter and we won't be awake to eat. Now the only problem with this is that it _could_ lead to The End of the Species. But that's just a kink that has to be worked out (or does it?).
Genetic Engineering = Heir styling
2003-02-04
Yay! The site's back up! Here's what happened to the system:
The SDF Public Access UNIX System 501(c)7, one of the oldest of its kind predating and exceeding the life of many commercial providers, had its co-location contract terminated without written notice or ample warning today. A community of 2800+ voting ARPA members as well as 18000+ pre-validated and associate members are without email and shell access. Many members had become dependent on SDF for their daily personal and business use.So yeah, SDF got its service cut for being attacked. Some members are extrodinarily pissed about this, and there might even be a class-action lawsuit.It is unclear when the DDoS attack targeting SDF began, and NWLINK is unable to provide source information. "..even if we do find them, we can't share that information with you" - NWLINK NMC tech. "Somebody out there doesn't like you .. we have to protect our customers" - Joe Kieser, VP of NWLINK.
Some good news: Rush is releasing a 2-disc DVD set of their Vapor Trails show in Rio. Rush in Rio was the largest Rush concert ever, with 65,000 attendees. Unfortunately, we've got to wait until the end of the year before it will be available. Meanwhile, you can pick up the cool new Rush T (F | B).
I'm sick. And it sucks. I'm Kachoonig everywhere and my nose is running like Forest Gump. Combine the damp weather, herds of sick comrades, and strangers coughing on me in the hallway, and you've got the Perfect Storm. Scratch that, I mean I've got the Perfect Storm, althoughcomrades, and strangers coughing on me in the hallway, on a Tuesday, which is my 4-class day. I've only got one tomorrow, but there's a paper due. I'm still deciding is I should (1) do the paper and go, (2) skip the paper and skip the class, or (3) skip the class and email the prof the paper. As of right now, I'm planning on waking up tomorrow completely recuperated, doing the paper, and showing up for class.
WAAAAAAAAAAAA-CHOOOOOO!!
It's not going to happen.
I need some duck tape--my duck has a quack in it.
2003-01-27
So I walk into the cafeteria today and the swiper lady says, "So, you're off today." and I responded, "Um.... yeah." How did she know that I have no classes today? Weird stuff. She's probably related to the Astonishing Neil.My endless scouring of the Internet actually produced something good, this website. It's called WhatsBetter.com. It's sort of like HotOrNot but better. Instead of scoring 1 to 10, you pick one or the other. You are presented with 2 pictures of people, places, or things. Toyota Celica or Herman Melville? Oatmeal creme pies or laundry care symbols? Season tickets or George Carlin? It's very addictive. And tough. I had to pick between Katie Holmes and Monty Python. It was painful, but Python always comes out on top.
You can also submit your own pics and track their stats. I've added a few; you can see them on my links page.
2003-01-14
Haven't posted in a while, so I thought I owed you something. Here's the transcript of a customer service phone call that I handled at work tonight:
Customer: I have a game... Duppo, have you ever heard of it?
Me: Sorry, can't say I have.
Customer: Well it's like Ruperfarpft.
Me: <silence; pondering greater problems>
Customer: Anyway, the paint is fading off and I was wondering if you have any very thin pens that I could redo them with.
Me: How thin?
Customer: The tiles are made of Alkerplast; do you know what that is?
Me: Our extra fine paint pens are about 1mm wide.
Customer: Is it paint or just a pen?
Me: It's a PAINT PEN.
Customer: And how late are you open?
Me: 9:00
Customer: <laughs>
Yes, customers are really like this.
Don't take life to seriously, no one gets out alive
2003-01-05
Well, it's 2003 (yay prime numbers!). Hope everyone had fun at their End of the Year parties. I'm not a big fan of New Years. It's simply an excuse to celebrate (i.e. get sloshed) and maybe kill someone on the drive home. There isn't even much of a "holiday" there. New Years is simply a celebration of a change in the abstract relative device humans invented called "time".I'm currently attempting the first of the Rush crossword puzzles. It's tough, but give it a try if you dare.
And finally for the most important news bit of the week.... MacGyver is now on TV Land! In fact, I'm going to watch it right now.
Big Money: It's that fool on television, getting paid to play the fool.
2002-12-27
My Christmas was very... normal (except for the snow of course). It occured to me that there is too much Christmas; once per year is overdoing it. Instead, the Pope should decree something like, "Okay, Christmas now!" every couple of years. Then people would really beexcited about it. You'd wake up in the morning and be like, "Dude, Christmas!" It'd be sort of like a snow day. No more of this preparation stuff. No more retailers starting Christmas in October. Bah. Humbug.I wanted nothing for Christmas. But I got something. So I didn't get what I had wanted. But I also got more than I wanted.
Whoa. Think about that one.
We must believe in free will. We have no choice.