- Three Fitness Tests You Should Be Able to Pass: via Fox. Plank, Sit and Rise, and Height to Waist. That's a nice short list and rougher than you'd expect as you get older.
- 10 Ways to Burn Fat (Men's Health): I'm sorry about the left/right slider. I hate sliders. But it's a good summary of the major points. Lots of water. Move every day. Eat breakfast.
- 7 Chord Progressions That Work All the Time: for those of us who know just enough guitar that we don't really want to spend time learning more.
- R.Crumb Illustrates Philip K. Dick: I didn't know he'd done this - neat. Not the scifi stories, but the crazy bits later in Philip K. Dick's life. My prof from Hamline wrote a biography of Dick and he mentioned in class how he got to see the religious writings that were a huge stack.
Showing posts with label Postpourri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Postpourri. Show all posts
Sunday, February 09, 2014
Things I've Been Reading
Not books - links. I'll get to a book. I read over 3000 pages in January. That's a pace twice my fastest reading rate of the last 20 years. I warned Mean Mr. Mustard not to read Mira Grant's Parasite. I'll dig into that a bit more soon.
Thursday, January 02, 2014
A bit more postpourri
I read a good book, which I think I'll talk about tomorrow. And I went back to work, which was pretty productive given I was already done with all my email and the short week has most people fairly busy and I'm coming off two release cycles. And we had our annual New Year's party which involved the least amount of cards/poker ever and was more a few board games and watching the children wrestle in the frontroom while Kyle told them it wasn't allowed. Instead, I'll list a few things I've been reading. Only a few, because I've been spamming the hell out of Kyle with things I find interesting on Zite, the Eagan Patch crime section, and a variety of other locations.
- Making waffles out of leftover Thanksgiving stuffing. Something I would have never thought to do but which is an ingenious use of leftovers. Gravy AND maple syrup - decadent.
- Indigenous Native American Food of the Southwest - Part I and Part II. I wish I had known about some of the restaurants that did locally sourced food when I was last down there.
- Skinny orange chicken - I was also reading about velveting meat, but that just seems like extra calories. This looks pretty straight forward for something I like to eat.
- 22 recipes under 500 calories. I have to try pumpkin lasagna. Then I have to modify it to try butternut squash lasagna. I can find the other 21 or 22 recipes on that page. Maybe it doesn't like my browser. But the pumpkin lasagna alone is worth my time.
- The 124 United States that could have been - even in that world, RAGBRAI would have been just as long.
- 15 ways to exercise in under 5 minutes - basically the 7 minute exercise set, but with demonstration videos in case, like me, you sometimes don't know what the hell they're trying to describe.
- 12 maps that changed the world - the map of the 124 states is not among them.
- 10 ways to be happier - I agree with them. Live close to work and plan your next bicycling vacation. Helps keep me happy.
- The Forgotten Souls of London's Women of the Night - Amazing little bit of history Justinian pointed me at. Which led me to...
- Lost Frescoes of the Maginot Line - also wonderfully interesting.
Monday, December 30, 2013
10 Most Offensive Board Games and Many Other Things
- Good list of the ten most offensive board games from io9.
- The best science fiction and fantasy of 2013. - a lot of things I haven't read, although MaddAdam is in my library pile on the counter and Ancillary Justice is in my iPad.
- 5 films the Dallas Observer thought were worth streaming on Netflix. I saw 237 and enjoyed it. I'll have to stream the rest when I'm done with my latest Bollywood film while cycling (Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola)
- Learn to Play 16 Easy Guitar Riffs from Music Radar - I have got to learn to play Supermassive Black Hole. I'll be set if any exotic dancers want to suddenly dance in my space.
- A very stately and organized flash mob by the USAF at the National Air and Space Museum courtesy of Larry (the father in law Larry, not the other one). Not exactly flash mobby when it involves violins, cellos, and everyone in dress uniform. But still neat.
- Ten Things You Didn't Know About Voodoo from Listverse - primarily for Eryn who's very interested in Voodoo, although she's still not allowed to watch Coven.
- The Scientific Seven Minute Workout - it's become my laptop wallpaper. I intend to make it part of my new year's resolutions.
- How To Motivate Yourself at Any Time - I do almost all of these. I'm naturally a fairly non-motivated person. But I tend to just do things because I know there's a domino effect to getting more done and, in the end, I'll expend less energy by not worrying about something more than once.
Tuesday, July 09, 2013
jne
It has a been a long time since I did a postpourri, but I wanted to capture a few links:
- Required Javascript Reading - a very good list.
- 30 Nerdy Coffee Mugs
- MAKE weekend projects Google+ entry: the actual link to the projects is here
- YoYo Games Framework - don't know if I'll try this out. Was looking for something Eryn might like to use.
- Eryn tried out a Johnson Telecaster and liked it while she was buying her oboe for band next year. I see they just came out with a Wilko Johnson Telecaster, but I don't think that's it. My wife said it was fairly inexpensive and Eryn liked the sound. Might have to ask the oboe salesman what he showed her.
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Things I learned on my trip from Denver to Montana
LissyJo, my sister, is afraid of "Grandma's Fireworks" and hides under the dash when she is confronted with them. Apparently she was afraid of lightning as a child.
Drew, my brother, is a little tyke who was obsessed with dollar pancakes as a child and would demand them from waitresses.
My father used to call any horse with more than one color a "two pieces". This link on equine coat color at wikipedia is for him so he knows whether he's looking at a piebald or pinto.
Firehouse Brewing in Rapid City is not as exciting the second time round. Perhaps it was my starvation the first time, or the lack of 3/4 of the beers I asked for the second time. My food and beer were good, they just weren't as good as what I had in Denver.
I like the print "Dakota Nation" by JoAnne Bird. I also like Paul Goble's prints.
Riding in a closed environment with grandma for 3 days after she's been sick makes everyone else sick.
Eating with strangers on the train is the best. I got to talk Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, hear a story about a dead body, and meet two very fun travelers (both female and neither with a ring, in case Kyle is looking for a singles opportunity).
I'm very very lucky. How else to account for missing so much hail it looked like a snow storm in the 30 miles leading up to Hot Springs, SD, and missing the 7 inches of snow at Sidney and Williston?
Eryn says "All Star Grill and Pub" in Hot Springs has her favorite wings of the trip. I learned that it's possible to survive on a long tip on just wings and Shirley Temples.
All Star Grill and Pub was advertising Monte Criscos. I assumed this was wrong. It's a Monte Cristo. However, the Crisco message board implies that if you go the recipe from them, it might just be referred to as a Monte Crisco. By the way, if you eat Monte Cristos, I dare you to look up the calories. That's some serious food.
In Hot Springs, it is not outside the realm of reason to tour the Mammoth Museum during the morning, and then go to "The Flood and Fossils: Record of the Lost World" at the 7th Day Adventist church in the evening. I missed a practical theologian debating evolution with a scientist and presenting "evidence you cannot miss!" by just a day.
It is possible to find a geocache without a GPS if you just search the rest stops.
"Wild horse sanctuary" seems like an oxymoron.
You can be a friend of E470 on Facebook.
The Fall River County Republicans are illiterate, otherwise they wouldn't refer to the "Fall River County Republican's Lincoln Day Dinner."
Mammoth Springs has a merit badge program for scouts. That's for Ming's benefit, should he ever find himself near Hot Springs.
Drew, my brother, is a little tyke who was obsessed with dollar pancakes as a child and would demand them from waitresses.
My father used to call any horse with more than one color a "two pieces". This link on equine coat color at wikipedia is for him so he knows whether he's looking at a piebald or pinto.
Firehouse Brewing in Rapid City is not as exciting the second time round. Perhaps it was my starvation the first time, or the lack of 3/4 of the beers I asked for the second time. My food and beer were good, they just weren't as good as what I had in Denver.
I like the print "Dakota Nation" by JoAnne Bird. I also like Paul Goble's prints.
Riding in a closed environment with grandma for 3 days after she's been sick makes everyone else sick.
Eating with strangers on the train is the best. I got to talk Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, hear a story about a dead body, and meet two very fun travelers (both female and neither with a ring, in case Kyle is looking for a singles opportunity).
I'm very very lucky. How else to account for missing so much hail it looked like a snow storm in the 30 miles leading up to Hot Springs, SD, and missing the 7 inches of snow at Sidney and Williston?
Eryn says "All Star Grill and Pub" in Hot Springs has her favorite wings of the trip. I learned that it's possible to survive on a long tip on just wings and Shirley Temples.
All Star Grill and Pub was advertising Monte Criscos. I assumed this was wrong. It's a Monte Cristo. However, the Crisco message board implies that if you go the recipe from them, it might just be referred to as a Monte Crisco. By the way, if you eat Monte Cristos, I dare you to look up the calories. That's some serious food.
In Hot Springs, it is not outside the realm of reason to tour the Mammoth Museum during the morning, and then go to "The Flood and Fossils: Record of the Lost World" at the 7th Day Adventist church in the evening. I missed a practical theologian debating evolution with a scientist and presenting "evidence you cannot miss!" by just a day.
It is possible to find a geocache without a GPS if you just search the rest stops.
"Wild horse sanctuary" seems like an oxymoron.
You can be a friend of E470 on Facebook.
The Fall River County Republicans are illiterate, otherwise they wouldn't refer to the "Fall River County Republican's Lincoln Day Dinner."
Mammoth Springs has a merit badge program for scouts. That's for Ming's benefit, should he ever find himself near Hot Springs.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
DP and 9 Other Things
It's a bit between posts lately. I think it's mostly because I'm not doing much that's exciting. Although I did buy a beer kit with Kyle last weekend. I intend to boil it up this weekend. The She Says are coming to town in two weekends. Eryn's been at soccer camp. And I made it through my first big release weekend where I had some sort of managerial input.
Seems like a lot, but it wasn't all that blogable. I'll tackle a few other things.
1.) Eryn has taken an interest in Pokemon. She's watching something called Pokemon DP in the mornings. All I can think of is Pokemon Double Penetration. I know. Wrong. But WTF? I cleared out one of my old Magic the Gathering collector card books so she can store some Pokemon cards. I know...laugh it up. But I think I still have a few thousand dollars worth of collectible cards sitting around that I won a few tournaments with, so maybe they'll help pay for books when she goes to college.
2.) My first big release cycle is behind me. I should have ten more months. This is good. I can get back to a normal life.
3.) I have a Proof of Concept for an ADABAS to distributed system (Oracle) week-long event next week. So it's not quite life as normal, but it's an excuse to cancel almost every meeting I have, so that's sort of a positve.
4.) NOM has called their new program against gay marriage 2M4M. I don't watch or read nearly enough news lately. They might as well have called themselves NOM DP.
5.) I was told at work today by another manager that she had contacted me because I was "the Agile guy" for my group. I come from one of the few groups where there's a preexisting piece of software that must match, as closely as possible, the resulting piece of software. We are the posterchildren for not using Agile. So it's interesting that the wandering around and talking to people I've been doing lately generates so much visibilty. I should point out that it also impacts my fun blogging, because the Agile blog I do at work sort of saps some of my usual blogging energy.
6.) I shared the soccer/manager meeting/ripped pants story with a few people at work and a few others found it. It makes people happy, so in the end (heh) it was a good thing.
7.) My father sent me a post about a koala bears that were too hot and were approaching people for water. I don't know if it's snopes-able or not, but the bath part seems real and is a serious cute overload.
8.) Fimoculous links to Hunch's Which Sci-fi Movie Should I Watch?
9.) Secrets of Six-Figure Women is on the shelf at work. The title made me laugh. I thought it was just me being juvenile until I went to Amazon and the contextual advertisement was for Olga Women's Secret Hug Nylon Scoop Brief #873 (from $8.99).
10.) If you're not from the cities, then you probably didn't see the Michele Bachmann comic in the City Pages. It's not gold, but you might enjoy it.
Seems like a lot, but it wasn't all that blogable. I'll tackle a few other things.
1.) Eryn has taken an interest in Pokemon. She's watching something called Pokemon DP in the mornings. All I can think of is Pokemon Double Penetration. I know. Wrong. But WTF? I cleared out one of my old Magic the Gathering collector card books so she can store some Pokemon cards. I know...laugh it up. But I think I still have a few thousand dollars worth of collectible cards sitting around that I won a few tournaments with, so maybe they'll help pay for books when she goes to college.
2.) My first big release cycle is behind me. I should have ten more months. This is good. I can get back to a normal life.
3.) I have a Proof of Concept for an ADABAS to distributed system (Oracle) week-long event next week. So it's not quite life as normal, but it's an excuse to cancel almost every meeting I have, so that's sort of a positve.
4.) NOM has called their new program against gay marriage 2M4M. I don't watch or read nearly enough news lately. They might as well have called themselves NOM DP.
5.) I was told at work today by another manager that she had contacted me because I was "the Agile guy" for my group. I come from one of the few groups where there's a preexisting piece of software that must match, as closely as possible, the resulting piece of software. We are the posterchildren for not using Agile. So it's interesting that the wandering around and talking to people I've been doing lately generates so much visibilty. I should point out that it also impacts my fun blogging, because the Agile blog I do at work sort of saps some of my usual blogging energy.
6.) I shared the soccer/manager meeting/ripped pants story with a few people at work and a few others found it. It makes people happy, so in the end (heh) it was a good thing.
7.) My father sent me a post about a koala bears that were too hot and were approaching people for water. I don't know if it's snopes-able or not, but the bath part seems real and is a serious cute overload.
8.) Fimoculous links to Hunch's Which Sci-fi Movie Should I Watch?
9.) Secrets of Six-Figure Women is on the shelf at work. The title made me laugh. I thought it was just me being juvenile until I went to Amazon and the contextual advertisement was for Olga Women's Secret Hug Nylon Scoop Brief #873 (from $8.99).
10.) If you're not from the cities, then you probably didn't see the Michele Bachmann comic in the City Pages. It's not gold, but you might enjoy it.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Postpourri - management, hills of Iowa, happiness
I enjoyed this article in The Atlantic about happiness (What Makes Us Happy, by Joshua Wolf Shenk) and the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a longitudinal study that tracked a number of Harvard students over their entire lives. If you're looking for some advice from the study, this is the crux of it, "seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically. Employing mature adaptations was one [humor being high on the list]. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight."
I've been practicing my strumming lately. Erik sent me this good link from Heartwood Guitar on How to Strum with numerous exercises. Here are a couple of online metronomes if those are helpful.
Slacker Manager's top 5 management videos. Erik says the Tribes one is good. I intend to watch it soon.
Scalzi referenced this: is creativity linked to drinking in some people?
Training for RAGBRAI: Iowa is NOT flat.
I've been practicing my strumming lately. Erik sent me this good link from Heartwood Guitar on How to Strum with numerous exercises. Here are a couple of online metronomes if those are helpful.
Slacker Manager's top 5 management videos. Erik says the Tribes one is good. I intend to watch it soon.
Scalzi referenced this: is creativity linked to drinking in some people?
Training for RAGBRAI: Iowa is NOT flat.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Wordle
My coworker Alex (I'll get a link out here for him soon now that his blog is public - I haven't sent the address home yet) sent me a link to Wordle and a word cloud he made from my blog. I've looked at Wordle before and there's a tag cloud somewhere on the blog in the past, but it's always fun to rerun those things to see if it looks different than the last time.
Here's the image Alex generated. I looked at it for a while and decided it only really captured the last month of my blog. It looks like I'm obsessed with Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, instead of obsessed with alcohol, sex, and bicycling, which is really the case.
So I ran it again trying to tag the last 100 posts by using a parameterized blogger url. This seemed a little more accurate. I do talk a lot about Eryn. I do put a lot of photos and pictures on my blog. But Christmas is limited to a single month. And surgery was the topic du jour for December, but otherwise it's not a consistent blog topic. And Sparky and Hannigan were one-post topics. So clearly, this wasn't capturing the essence of my blog either.
Wordle is cool. It's just not accurate. Fortunately, I remembered that Technorati does a word cloud that focuses on your tags, not your words from the last # posts. This seems more accurate, although less aesthetically pleasing. I'm willing to believe that bicycling, geocaching, friends, humor, eryn, memes and "postpourri" occupy quite a bit of my writing. I'm disappointed "Mean Mr. Mustard's Sister" doesn't make the cut.
Here's the image Alex generated. I looked at it for a while and decided it only really captured the last month of my blog. It looks like I'm obsessed with Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, instead of obsessed with alcohol, sex, and bicycling, which is really the case.
So I ran it again trying to tag the last 100 posts by using a parameterized blogger url. This seemed a little more accurate. I do talk a lot about Eryn. I do put a lot of photos and pictures on my blog. But Christmas is limited to a single month. And surgery was the topic du jour for December, but otherwise it's not a consistent blog topic. And Sparky and Hannigan were one-post topics. So clearly, this wasn't capturing the essence of my blog either.
Wordle is cool. It's just not accurate. Fortunately, I remembered that Technorati does a word cloud that focuses on your tags, not your words from the last # posts. This seems more accurate, although less aesthetically pleasing. I'm willing to believe that bicycling, geocaching, friends, humor, eryn, memes and "postpourri" occupy quite a bit of my writing. I'm disappointed "Mean Mr. Mustard's Sister" doesn't make the cut.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Postpourri - restless legs, fromatozilge
What people are currently saying about me: "Hits you like an unexpected explicative." - Jeffrey Lyins. "Sticks with you like the unfriendly gift of a plexiglass shiv." - Roger Fibert
This whole restless legs thing sucks. I moved to the basement bed so Pooteewheet could get some sleep. As a bonus, it's a bit cooler down there, so I wake up a little more fully, and I can be certain it's not because my wife is thrashing in her sleep. If I wake up, it's all my fault. So Sunday night I counted 10 times I awoke before I quit counting. Last night it was worse. Maybe every 20 to 30 minutes. So, I looked up the treatment yesterday. More exercise, but not near bed time. Can do, if I can wake up without sleeping through the alarm because I'm burned out from waking up all night. Reduce alcohol intake. Sure. Although Eryn wanted me to homebrew so she could help. But beer is a good gift. No caffeine. Argh. I'm not sleeping properly and I have to give up caffeine? I'm lucky I can type at the moment without falling asleep. I wonder if my fingers would twitch if I fell asleep at the keyboard. slkjfd lkewuuo .a,sfljlu
This whole restless legs thing sucks. I moved to the basement bed so Pooteewheet could get some sleep. As a bonus, it's a bit cooler down there, so I wake up a little more fully, and I can be certain it's not because my wife is thrashing in her sleep. If I wake up, it's all my fault. So Sunday night I counted 10 times I awoke before I quit counting. Last night it was worse. Maybe every 20 to 30 minutes. So, I looked up the treatment yesterday. More exercise, but not near bed time. Can do, if I can wake up without sleeping through the alarm because I'm burned out from waking up all night. Reduce alcohol intake. Sure. Although Eryn wanted me to homebrew so she could help. But beer is a good gift. No caffeine. Argh. I'm not sleeping properly and I have to give up caffeine? I'm lucky I can type at the moment without falling asleep. I wonder if my fingers would twitch if I fell asleep at the keyboard. slkjfd lkewuuo .a,sfljlu
- Salon article about David Foster Wallace and his last days.
- Find your Minnesota polling place.
- Ten books that will substitute for a computer science degree (via Taylor)
- CherryPal, the green computer (from Erik the Swede)
- CherryPal is vaporware (also from Erik, via Engadget)
- Erik recommends that I channel the discretionary energy of my direct reports
- Breakfast joints (very non-multicultural, there's no Maria's from Brad
- Next time he can put them on his own blog, FromAtoZilge.blogspot.com
- A link I promised Mean Mr. Mustard - portableapps.com, download apps + settings to your USB for free
Friday, September 26, 2008
Fringe - Restless Leg Syndrome
Fringe = X-Files + MacGyver
At least that's my take on it. Not saying I'm not enjoying it, that's just how I feel it can be summarized.
We went to the Children's Theater Company production of Madeline and the Gypsies tonight. There was a woman near the rest rooms who was yelling for her child to come back. Alaric, come back. Alaric, right now. Alaric? Who the hell names their child with a name that means "everyone's ruler"? And if that wasn't the intent, but rather that you wanted to name your child after the master dwarven rune smith in the Warhammer Fantasy realm...shame. SHAME!
By the way, a study in contrasts is my little girl sitting in the theater hugging her Peapods stuffed cat, Gus, with her ankle crossed over the knee of her other leg. When the hell did that start?
Pooteewheet thinks I suddenly developed restless legs syndome. I questioned whether it might be related to not enough exercise lately, and lack of activity (improvement with activity) shows up on the list. I like to think of it as I'm trying to bike in my sleep. I told her if she'd just start going to bed before again like she has for the last 15 years, there wouldn't be a problem. I don't like that whole "onset at 40" bit, however. I'm 39.82 or so, thank you very much.
At least that's my take on it. Not saying I'm not enjoying it, that's just how I feel it can be summarized.
We went to the Children's Theater Company production of Madeline and the Gypsies tonight. There was a woman near the rest rooms who was yelling for her child to come back. Alaric, come back. Alaric, right now. Alaric? Who the hell names their child with a name that means "everyone's ruler"? And if that wasn't the intent, but rather that you wanted to name your child after the master dwarven rune smith in the Warhammer Fantasy realm...shame. SHAME!
By the way, a study in contrasts is my little girl sitting in the theater hugging her Peapods stuffed cat, Gus, with her ankle crossed over the knee of her other leg. When the hell did that start?
Pooteewheet thinks I suddenly developed restless legs syndome. I questioned whether it might be related to not enough exercise lately, and lack of activity (improvement with activity) shows up on the list. I like to think of it as I'm trying to bike in my sleep. I told her if she'd just start going to bed before again like she has for the last 15 years, there wouldn't be a problem. I don't like that whole "onset at 40" bit, however. I'm 39.82 or so, thank you very much.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
What I Pondered (and did) Today...
That if the universe is having its time of the month, that would explain a lot. Or that perhaps someone built a CERN-style collider long before we got around to it - somewhere near the purple spot on the map.
My Uncle in Law sent me a link to Facebook. And Facebook was down. My Uncle in Law broke Facebook.
Pondered, then downloaded, Slacker Uprising my Michael Moore. But watched the Heroes Season 3 Pilot on Hulu instead.
Looked at a new tool for facilitating code reviews - Microsoft SharedView - to which Erik sent me a link.
Why I was so productive and on top of things yesterday, despite 8 hours of meetings, and so off my game today, despite fewer hours of meetings.
Thought about what I was going to check out at the Twin Cities Code Camp. Maybe I'll check out YouTube with Silverlight just so Jeff Brand has to worry that someone in the audience is a friend of his old girlfriend. Wondered which ones Erik is going to check out.
Finalized some plans for riding the Gandy Dancer trail with Kyle and Ming this weekend, which my be my last real bicycling ride of the season.
Finished a conversation with Erik about the slow performance of installing Xobni on my laptop, and that when I uninstalled they asked if it was because of the performance, and would I like to be notified when it improves, as well as another conversation about S+S, and whether it's for real, or Microsoft bunk designed to continue to sell desktop software. My opinion was that it's bunk, there's more of a future in services, but that at the moment it's a reality (at least for me - I'm still disconnected from the internet and often prefer the speed of desktop software). That led to a discussion about S+S vs. Software as a Service (SaaS), vs. Fat Client, vs. SOA, vs. Hybrid Peformance Models (basically S+S) and how to get from the fatty to the desired architecture.
Pinged a VP (more like two VPs) for a list of red wines to use as appropriate gifts for managerial types.
Checked out Calais, a semantic markup engine (and various tools) by Thomson Reuters. You can drop anything into their doc viewer just to try it out. Either it needs improvement, or I need to improve my writing (likely the later, as Mean Mr. Mustard made a joke about my pronouns a post or three ago), because when I uploaded all the text on the front page of my blog, it tagged "her" and "she" as Sarah Palin in almost every case in this post, which is about my dog Sandy dying from old age.
Read RFK Jr.'s piece in the LA Times about Sarah Palin being Dick Cheney...with lipstick.
Whether Glubble would be good for Eryn and decided maybe I'll just stick with the computer in a public place and no shutting the door. Otherwise I don't care to micromanage her internet use.
Whether I wanted to read Cornelia Funke's Inkheart before it was released as a Brendan Fraser film in January. I do, so I picked up a copy at Barnes and Noble after work, along with Halloween Mad Libs as she's busy copying paragraphs of text to practice writing lately, and a copy of Absurdistan for myself because it's been a while since I read something fun. But forgot to pick up Mental Floss, Forbidden Knowledge, which I read about on a local blog this morning. It'll be good library fodder, despite our local library being sort of all bedouin at the moment.
Scoped out dinosaur banks for Eryn on line.
Finished reading Book 7, The Vile Village, of a Series of Unfortunate Events to Eryn, and decided that for Halloween I may just use some marker to finish off the one eyebrow effect, draw an eyeball tattoo on my ankle, and go as the villain Count Olaf.
Agreed to be Cookie Queen's videographer for some school or work project. I need to rewatch Porn Wars so I'm capable of providing appropriate artistic direction. I think I'll encourage a scene in LissyJo's favorite examination room.
Watched a movie with Pooteewheet - well, an hour of a movie, we never finish them - over a glass of Jameson. Lately we've seen In Bruges and Be Kind Rewind, both of them enjoyable, although Be Kind Rewind could have been more funny and less sentimental.
Worried about McCain's "time out", Palin's "first" meeting with foreign statesmen, what I'm going to do when we're in a recession next Monday like Palin asserts we might be, and what I'm going to do with the $2,295 to $4,590 of my portion of bad national and potentially international debt. Given that I already had a renter skip out on rent and file bankruptcy to the tune of about $9,000 after expenses, that should have pre-purchased my portion and my brother's portion. At least part of that debt (renting the trash bin and storage) was tax deductible.
My Uncle in Law sent me a link to Facebook. And Facebook was down. My Uncle in Law broke Facebook.
Pondered, then downloaded, Slacker Uprising my Michael Moore. But watched the Heroes Season 3 Pilot on Hulu instead.
Looked at a new tool for facilitating code reviews - Microsoft SharedView - to which Erik sent me a link.
Why I was so productive and on top of things yesterday, despite 8 hours of meetings, and so off my game today, despite fewer hours of meetings.
Thought about what I was going to check out at the Twin Cities Code Camp. Maybe I'll check out YouTube with Silverlight just so Jeff Brand has to worry that someone in the audience is a friend of his old girlfriend. Wondered which ones Erik is going to check out.
Finalized some plans for riding the Gandy Dancer trail with Kyle and Ming this weekend, which my be my last real bicycling ride of the season.
Finished a conversation with Erik about the slow performance of installing Xobni on my laptop, and that when I uninstalled they asked if it was because of the performance, and would I like to be notified when it improves, as well as another conversation about S+S, and whether it's for real, or Microsoft bunk designed to continue to sell desktop software. My opinion was that it's bunk, there's more of a future in services, but that at the moment it's a reality (at least for me - I'm still disconnected from the internet and often prefer the speed of desktop software). That led to a discussion about S+S vs. Software as a Service (SaaS), vs. Fat Client, vs. SOA, vs. Hybrid Peformance Models (basically S+S) and how to get from the fatty to the desired architecture.
Pinged a VP (more like two VPs) for a list of red wines to use as appropriate gifts for managerial types.
Checked out Calais, a semantic markup engine (and various tools) by Thomson Reuters. You can drop anything into their doc viewer just to try it out. Either it needs improvement, or I need to improve my writing (likely the later, as Mean Mr. Mustard made a joke about my pronouns a post or three ago), because when I uploaded all the text on the front page of my blog, it tagged "her" and "she" as Sarah Palin in almost every case in this post, which is about my dog Sandy dying from old age.
Read RFK Jr.'s piece in the LA Times about Sarah Palin being Dick Cheney...with lipstick.
Whether Glubble would be good for Eryn and decided maybe I'll just stick with the computer in a public place and no shutting the door. Otherwise I don't care to micromanage her internet use.
Whether I wanted to read Cornelia Funke's Inkheart before it was released as a Brendan Fraser film in January. I do, so I picked up a copy at Barnes and Noble after work, along with Halloween Mad Libs as she's busy copying paragraphs of text to practice writing lately, and a copy of Absurdistan for myself because it's been a while since I read something fun. But forgot to pick up Mental Floss, Forbidden Knowledge, which I read about on a local blog this morning. It'll be good library fodder, despite our local library being sort of all bedouin at the moment.
Scoped out dinosaur banks for Eryn on line.
Finished reading Book 7, The Vile Village, of a Series of Unfortunate Events to Eryn, and decided that for Halloween I may just use some marker to finish off the one eyebrow effect, draw an eyeball tattoo on my ankle, and go as the villain Count Olaf.
Agreed to be Cookie Queen's videographer for some school or work project. I need to rewatch Porn Wars so I'm capable of providing appropriate artistic direction. I think I'll encourage a scene in LissyJo's favorite examination room.
Watched a movie with Pooteewheet - well, an hour of a movie, we never finish them - over a glass of Jameson. Lately we've seen In Bruges and Be Kind Rewind, both of them enjoyable, although Be Kind Rewind could have been more funny and less sentimental.
Worried about McCain's "time out", Palin's "first" meeting with foreign statesmen, what I'm going to do when we're in a recession next Monday like Palin asserts we might be, and what I'm going to do with the $2,295 to $4,590 of my portion of bad national and potentially international debt. Given that I already had a renter skip out on rent and file bankruptcy to the tune of about $9,000 after expenses, that should have pre-purchased my portion and my brother's portion. At least part of that debt (renting the trash bin and storage) was tax deductible.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Postpourri - politics, Merrill, dreams
It's difficult to blog lately. My days are full of working on rental property. Calling HRA about renters. And work. I have 7 hours of meetings tomorrow. That leaves 1 hour open to set up the 9 hours of meetings (interviews, actually) I know are missing from my schedule. It's just one of those cycles where I'm not doing much thinking outside what needs to be done.
I love the Merrill lynch advertisement on the back of my Harvard Business Review that touts them as the business I should engage in order to "remain competitive", get "access to capital" and be grounded in "strategic advice." After all they have "been a source of confidence for our clients in both good andchallenging markets." Oh well. 50/50 isn't bad.
Eryn saw some political signs on the corner yesterday and opined that John McCain was not among them, but she saw "two other bad guys." I'm guessing Kline and Norm. She's very well-informed for someone who prefers Jack FM and classical radio.
I heard Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains complaining about pedophile stalkers on television, and the first thought I had, knowing his religious background, was, "I wonder if he's just calling them a pedophile because they were gay?" But, he was 16, and the age of consent in California is 18, so despite the specific rules in California around 16 year olds, I'd have to state he's probably not making it up - ish.
I had a strange dream about being an independent - i.e. not bitten - contractor for a vampire (female) who needed someone to manage her more zombie-ish, bitten henchmen. It involved shooting other zombie-ish henchmen and worrying about some weird, disgusting, other vampires who fed on regular vampires by flicking cavier-like black eggs that grew in little bunches all over them. I'm pretty sure it's not a metaphor for work, but rather too much Resident Evil 4.
I love the Merrill lynch advertisement on the back of my Harvard Business Review that touts them as the business I should engage in order to "remain competitive", get "access to capital" and be grounded in "strategic advice." After all they have "been a source of confidence for our clients in both good and
Eryn saw some political signs on the corner yesterday and opined that John McCain was not among them, but she saw "two other bad guys." I'm guessing Kline and Norm. She's very well-informed for someone who prefers Jack FM and classical radio.
I heard Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains complaining about pedophile stalkers on television, and the first thought I had, knowing his religious background, was, "I wonder if he's just calling them a pedophile because they were gay?" But, he was 16, and the age of consent in California is 18, so despite the specific rules in California around 16 year olds, I'd have to state he's probably not making it up - ish.
I had a strange dream about being an independent - i.e. not bitten - contractor for a vampire (female) who needed someone to manage her more zombie-ish, bitten henchmen. It involved shooting other zombie-ish henchmen and worrying about some weird, disgusting, other vampires who fed on regular vampires by flicking cavier-like black eggs that grew in little bunches all over them. I'm pretty sure it's not a metaphor for work, but rather too much Resident Evil 4.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Postpourri - politics, software, etc
Did you know that in the town of V.F.D., "Rule #4,561 clearly states that citizens are not allowed to use their mouths for recreation"? They mean biting!
Politics:
Software and Software Managers:
Other:
Politics:
- Sarah Palin expose via Majikthise
- Sarah Palin compared to a Black and Decker drill by J-Money
- Bush as Sarah Palin, and three (3) Falling Sarah Palin screen savers by PlanetDan
- My Gal (very funny) by George Saunders at the New Yorker (via Mean Mr. Mustard)
Software and Software Managers:
- The Government and Web 2.0 at ReadWriteWeb
- 5 Ways to Use Social Media at ReadWriteWeb
- Lawriter Introduces the First Social Network for Law Students (via Reuters - noted by John at work)
- Attorney 2.0 - Generation Y in Your Law Firm via LawyerKM
- How I Learned to Love Middle Managers at Inc.com by Joel Spolsky
- Stack Overflow, the Beta (via Erik the Swede)
- Stack Overflow - What is the single most effective thing you did to improve your programming skills?
- What is Stack Overflow, by Joel Spolsky
Other:
- T-shirt search engine (PleaseDress.Me) via Fimoculous
- Kick-starting a Low-Productivity Day at LifeHacker (via Taylor)
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Snippets
I walked past an open meeting area at work where someone was referring to "jar holes". I think they were referring to Java jars to plug certain functionality holes, but it still sounded very wrong.
I was sitting in the corporate library/training area and a guy walked in with two visitors to the company in tow. He gestured expansively at the area and stated that this area was a primary social hub as well as a high tech training center. This probably surprised them a little as I was sitting there alone reading the Harvard Business Review.
We are officially ThomsonReuters. The little ball peen hammers and noise of sticky paper attest to it - we are reminted in terms of branding. Mean Mr. Mustard thinks the new logo looks like a drain in his basement. I first saw it on video and it looked like a swirling toilet (the water). My new pen is uberkewl and She Says can't have it.
Yesterday, I donated platelets. While I was sitting there, I looked over and the old guy next to me had this huge shit eating grin on his face. I looked at his portable DVD player screen and there were two big spandexed butts. Some sort of Johnny Carson special. But leering at spandexed butts when you're 65+ makes you seem like a skeevy perve, even if you are donating white blood cells.
I went to the Backstreet Grill after donating platelets. I recommend it. Pretty good prices, pretty good breakfast. You can walk there from the Red Cross, although I recommend driving - lack of red blood cells always makes me a little dizzy and it's a busy street.
I went to another Aqua City Motel gig - this time at the Uptown which has great acoustics. They sounded really good. I think I'd like to hear the first song sped up about 50-100% just to see what that sounds like. The second song ("I don't believe that I could feel any lower") sounded a bit like Weezer and was really good. A very catchy riff.
It might have been Luke that posted this - super neat naturally dyed Easter Eggs.
Finally, I went to a talent show at Eryn's school this afternoon. We've biked 22 miles this week with the tagalong, so I thought we both needed a rest. Elementary talent shows are truly frightening. Lots of martial arts sets. Scooter tricks. Hockey displays (with mullets). So much Hannah Montana it's hard to believe: Hannah singing, Hannah lipsyncing, Hannah dancing. Some good piano and violin. Juggling with two hoops, and a bit of dropping them even with just two. Cheerleading displays. A bit of hit and miss magic. And even a light saber demonstration, with not one, but two, light sabers. The cheap one, which is more for all out swinging approaching aerobics, and the really expensive one you have to handle carefully because it lights up, is made of glass and metal, and probably cost two years' worth of allowance. But I enjoyed it. Because I sit there and I think, what's more important, hanging out here and making my daughter happy and cheering on these kids who, even if they don't have a real skill, had to wrack their brains to create a skill, or riding a database administrator because I need a change toot sweet and the only way to apply any pressure is indirectly through jokes about being my mother, references to superiors who really want the change, and borderline whinging. I seriously hope my presence at their creative talent exposition keeps them far away from cubicles and inefficient process-related wankery.
Finally - anyone who's not on my bloglist whom I read. I offer up a sincere apology. I really need to update my template and get things in order. You know who you are. Or maybe you don't. I lurk at at least one flickr account because she had pictures of herself on the West Virgina/Maryland ride I want to take, and now she posts pictures of herself in a bikini and with an apple on her head. That cheers me up.
I was sitting in the corporate library/training area and a guy walked in with two visitors to the company in tow. He gestured expansively at the area and stated that this area was a primary social hub as well as a high tech training center. This probably surprised them a little as I was sitting there alone reading the Harvard Business Review.
We are officially ThomsonReuters. The little ball peen hammers and noise of sticky paper attest to it - we are reminted in terms of branding. Mean Mr. Mustard thinks the new logo looks like a drain in his basement. I first saw it on video and it looked like a swirling toilet (the water). My new pen is uberkewl and She Says can't have it.
Yesterday, I donated platelets. While I was sitting there, I looked over and the old guy next to me had this huge shit eating grin on his face. I looked at his portable DVD player screen and there were two big spandexed butts. Some sort of Johnny Carson special. But leering at spandexed butts when you're 65+ makes you seem like a skeevy perve, even if you are donating white blood cells.
I went to the Backstreet Grill after donating platelets. I recommend it. Pretty good prices, pretty good breakfast. You can walk there from the Red Cross, although I recommend driving - lack of red blood cells always makes me a little dizzy and it's a busy street.
I went to another Aqua City Motel gig - this time at the Uptown which has great acoustics. They sounded really good. I think I'd like to hear the first song sped up about 50-100% just to see what that sounds like. The second song ("I don't believe that I could feel any lower") sounded a bit like Weezer and was really good. A very catchy riff.
It might have been Luke that posted this - super neat naturally dyed Easter Eggs.
Finally, I went to a talent show at Eryn's school this afternoon. We've biked 22 miles this week with the tagalong, so I thought we both needed a rest. Elementary talent shows are truly frightening. Lots of martial arts sets. Scooter tricks. Hockey displays (with mullets). So much Hannah Montana it's hard to believe: Hannah singing, Hannah lipsyncing, Hannah dancing. Some good piano and violin. Juggling with two hoops, and a bit of dropping them even with just two. Cheerleading displays. A bit of hit and miss magic. And even a light saber demonstration, with not one, but two, light sabers. The cheap one, which is more for all out swinging approaching aerobics, and the really expensive one you have to handle carefully because it lights up, is made of glass and metal, and probably cost two years' worth of allowance. But I enjoyed it. Because I sit there and I think, what's more important, hanging out here and making my daughter happy and cheering on these kids who, even if they don't have a real skill, had to wrack their brains to create a skill, or riding a database administrator because I need a change toot sweet and the only way to apply any pressure is indirectly through jokes about being my mother, references to superiors who really want the change, and borderline whinging. I seriously hope my presence at their creative talent exposition keeps them far away from cubicles and inefficient process-related wankery.
Finally - anyone who's not on my bloglist whom I read. I offer up a sincere apology. I really need to update my template and get things in order. You know who you are. Or maybe you don't. I lurk at at least one flickr account because she had pictures of herself on the West Virgina/Maryland ride I want to take, and now she posts pictures of herself in a bikini and with an apple on her head. That cheers me up.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Snubber Ring, SeanSexy, Little Chub
The washer at the southern rental property (makes me sound rich, but it's all borderline debt) has been acting up and blew an internal hose. Rather than make several trips to Home Depot and risk breaking various bits and pieces, my brother and I called in an appliance repairman (I have yet to meet a repairwoman). He popped it all apart in about two seconds and then announced, "There's a problem with your snubber ring." (note the bottom area of the diagram). You don't want to hear that. Sounds painful. And obscene. While only a $10 part, it requires ripping apart much of the machine and, if you're talented, leaving the breaking mechanism partially intact while replacing it, before putting it back together. Around 1-2 hours of work - so presumably $100-$200. They generally fall apart after 5-7 years, but ours died in a year, prompting said repairman to note that ApplianceSmart had probably sold us a refurb without telling us. I had him clamp the hose and seal it back up, he tilted it toward the back for good measure to balance it a bit more, and gave the renters instructions to use a half load. The real fix will be to yank it in a week, store it in my garage, and give it to my parents as a cabin washer for half-size loads, or try to replace the snubber ring myself and let them do full size loads. The renters can bask in the glories of a new direct drive washing machine not from ApplianceSmart.
I got a Lil Chub for Kyle on my way to RAGBRAI. How does he repay me? By keeping it? No, he hid it in my bike bag and I had to give it back. Did he leave his Lil Chub in the rocks of his fish tank where Eryn hid it? No...he gives my wife a Lil Chub. I know, because I found it in her car. He claims I should geocache it - but if I do, it'll be at his house. The good news is that Kyle can now count Ryan Seacrest a metaphorical brother, because according to this TMZ post, he "gets a little chub" too.
My friend Adam is enamored of the phrase "Seansexy". What does it mean? Absolutely nothing, unless you're drunk and playing boardgames with Adam and Sean. Then it means several hours of Adam laughing and wishing he had a t-shirt to wear that said "Seansexy". This is my personal contribution using one of the online t-shirt making tools. I think we get a discount for three or more, although I wonder how often Sean would game if he had to look at Seansexy shirts all the time.
Mean Mr. Mustard gave me one of his more consternated looks this morning when I gave him his birthday present, three weeks late and wrapped in pretty purple fairy wrapping paper. After his failure to properly identify the central candle of the menorah in the Caribou coffee trivia, and his wife's assurance that his religious identity was tenuous at best (my paraphrase), I went in search of something that would help him connect with his heritage. I don't presume he wants to get in touch with his heritage, I just went in search of something. What I found was The Menorah Game, courtesy of an Israeli blogger/boardgammer/programmer I read, Yehuda. The Menorah Game is his creation, although you can't buy it. But my friend Kyle, with access to laminaters, printers, and sundry, printed me up a copy of the various items on Boardgamegeek, I printed the rules from Boredgamegeek, and bought a 1" scrapbooking circle cutter to punch out the Israeli menorah coins. I considered using chocolate coins, or some other real coins, as gelt, but even with the help of Sank from Old and in the Way, couldn't find something quickly enough to avoid being a month late. Regardless, it turned out nicely, and Mr. Mustard has three full copies of the game (240 coins - my poor squeezing muscle) so that he can host super-cool parties for up to 12 gamers. A big thank you to everyone who participated. Even if he's dubious of the game, he can't deny that his present was the concerted effort of a moderately sized posse. On a similar note, his wife made me a tin of walnut-chocolate chip cookies for services rendered. They were a hit in my work area and with my family and received many glowing compliments.
I've always said geo-kayshing. Then Sarah corrected me at a boardgaming day and said geo-kashing. I didn't argue, as I'd just made an assumption way back when. Apparently it's actually something of a discussion on the web, with a few posts noting that it's programmers, Aussies and Kiwis who tend to say kaysh. I'll have to ask my brother in law about that. At least I'm not some fool who says kashay.
Finally, if you got this far...a bit of Web 2.0 outsourcing humor at Techcrunch (original Doubtsourcing.com).
I got a Lil Chub for Kyle on my way to RAGBRAI. How does he repay me? By keeping it? No, he hid it in my bike bag and I had to give it back. Did he leave his Lil Chub in the rocks of his fish tank where Eryn hid it? No...he gives my wife a Lil Chub. I know, because I found it in her car. He claims I should geocache it - but if I do, it'll be at his house. The good news is that Kyle can now count Ryan Seacrest a metaphorical brother, because according to this TMZ post, he "gets a little chub" too.
My friend Adam is enamored of the phrase "Seansexy". What does it mean? Absolutely nothing, unless you're drunk and playing boardgames with Adam and Sean. Then it means several hours of Adam laughing and wishing he had a t-shirt to wear that said "Seansexy". This is my personal contribution using one of the online t-shirt making tools. I think we get a discount for three or more, although I wonder how often Sean would game if he had to look at Seansexy shirts all the time.Mean Mr. Mustard gave me one of his more consternated looks this morning when I gave him his birthday present, three weeks late and wrapped in pretty purple fairy wrapping paper. After his failure to properly identify the central candle of the menorah in the Caribou coffee trivia, and his wife's assurance that his religious identity was tenuous at best (my paraphrase), I went in search of something that would help him connect with his heritage. I don't presume he wants to get in touch with his heritage, I just went in search of something. What I found was The Menorah Game, courtesy of an Israeli blogger/boardgammer/programmer I read, Yehuda. The Menorah Game is his creation, although you can't buy it. But my friend Kyle, with access to laminaters, printers, and sundry, printed me up a copy of the various items on Boardgamegeek, I printed the rules from Boredgamegeek, and bought a 1" scrapbooking circle cutter to punch out the Israeli menorah coins. I considered using chocolate coins, or some other real coins, as gelt, but even with the help of Sank from Old and in the Way, couldn't find something quickly enough to avoid being a month late. Regardless, it turned out nicely, and Mr. Mustard has three full copies of the game (240 coins - my poor squeezing muscle) so that he can host super-cool parties for up to 12 gamers. A big thank you to everyone who participated. Even if he's dubious of the game, he can't deny that his present was the concerted effort of a moderately sized posse. On a similar note, his wife made me a tin of walnut-chocolate chip cookies for services rendered. They were a hit in my work area and with my family and received many glowing compliments.
I've always said geo-kayshing. Then Sarah corrected me at a boardgaming day and said geo-kashing. I didn't argue, as I'd just made an assumption way back when. Apparently it's actually something of a discussion on the web, with a few posts noting that it's programmers, Aussies and Kiwis who tend to say kaysh. I'll have to ask my brother in law about that. At least I'm not some fool who says kashay.
Finally, if you got this far...a bit of Web 2.0 outsourcing humor at Techcrunch (original Doubtsourcing.com).
Friday, January 11, 2008
Links from Locals
Someone in my house said there's snow outside. I'm sitting here, facing a window, and I couldn't tell you yea or nay. I refuse to look. I'm heads down enjoying the web. I can't help but wonder if Tall Brad has been watching for some sort of details about my poker win at his house last Friday. They won't be forthcoming - not even a word about whether I had an 8 in my hand. I refuse to discuss my new poker strategery.
I stole this out of a comment at Planet Dan's. Watch for the arm flailing, it's the best.
Pete Ryan despairs of a urinal booger. Fortunately, he works so far west of my cube that it's officially another building. Then again, I won't touch the push area of the urinal door near me for a very particular reason.
He's not local anymore, but he was, so he counts. Fimoculous links to the trailer for Paris Hilton's new movie, The Hottie and the Nottie. Want to go to an afternoon movie during work sometime Ming and Mean Mr. Mustard? It could be better than Ming's Matrix sequel outing. But the fact that the trailer is about eight minutes long certainly implies a bad movie. Well...and Paris Hilton.
Information Aesthetic has a link to an interesting graphic of all the attacks in Iraq that resulted in American and coalition deaths.
Eyeteeth links to an interesting picture about gas and soldiers.
After School Snack is no more. I wonder if I'll get them off my blogroll in the next year. I swear, that thing is like a glacier. The non-global warming sort of glacier.
I stole this out of a comment at Planet Dan's. Watch for the arm flailing, it's the best.
Pete Ryan despairs of a urinal booger. Fortunately, he works so far west of my cube that it's officially another building. Then again, I won't touch the push area of the urinal door near me for a very particular reason.
He's not local anymore, but he was, so he counts. Fimoculous links to the trailer for Paris Hilton's new movie, The Hottie and the Nottie. Want to go to an afternoon movie during work sometime Ming and Mean Mr. Mustard? It could be better than Ming's Matrix sequel outing. But the fact that the trailer is about eight minutes long certainly implies a bad movie. Well...and Paris Hilton.
Information Aesthetic has a link to an interesting graphic of all the attacks in Iraq that resulted in American and coalition deaths.
Eyeteeth links to an interesting picture about gas and soldiers.
After School Snack is no more. I wonder if I'll get them off my blogroll in the next year. I swear, that thing is like a glacier. The non-global warming sort of glacier.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Postpourri - Dystopias, Man-months and Kibibytes
Quotable Scooter: "I don't have a writer's ego. If I did, I would have been an MFA student."
Rex has a link to the Top 50 Dystopian movies of all time. I agree that a lot of the movies have dystopian tendencies, but I disagree with their ordering and a few choices. Brazil certainly belongs in the top three. But Wings of Desire near the top? That's a great movie, really great, but it's a weird one to even have on the list. And where the hell is A Handmaid's Tale? I pointed out to Pooteewheet that maybe it didn't make the cut because men made the list and didn't feel it was dystopian. And based on some of their choices, I'd offer up A Handful of Dust as a dystopia, at least at the end of the story - a damn sight scarier than many of the others. Idiocracy? I was watching it last night when I read Rex's list. It is dystopic - it actually gave me a headache. But in many respects it's a rip off of Futurama, which is much more clever (though not a movie), and it doesn't belong above Rollerball (the old one) and Stormship Troopers, which has a few clever tonuge-in-cheek bits that are simultaneously dystoptic and mocking of dystopic ideas.
I was reading Wikipedia's entry on The Mythical Man-Month and found myself amused by his formula for group intercommunication: (n − 1) / 2. Digging around for an old script I had - Visual Basic with an error catch that just rolls past duplicate index values - I ran a count versus one of the nine projects I'm currently involved in, but not the biggest:
MNSpeak has a link to Steve Marsh's article on Twin Cities bike culture.
And via Merlin's Rest from a few weeks ago, a link to World Wide Words. I've been reading bits and pieces of it all the time - it's fascinating. At least two co-workers can attest to me using the phrase beanpole family and I'm looking for the opportunity to use kibi-, mebi-, gibi-, and tebi- byte in polite geekversation.
Rex has a link to the Top 50 Dystopian movies of all time. I agree that a lot of the movies have dystopian tendencies, but I disagree with their ordering and a few choices. Brazil certainly belongs in the top three. But Wings of Desire near the top? That's a great movie, really great, but it's a weird one to even have on the list. And where the hell is A Handmaid's Tale? I pointed out to Pooteewheet that maybe it didn't make the cut because men made the list and didn't feel it was dystopian. And based on some of their choices, I'd offer up A Handful of Dust as a dystopia, at least at the end of the story - a damn sight scarier than many of the others. Idiocracy? I was watching it last night when I read Rex's list. It is dystopic - it actually gave me a headache. But in many respects it's a rip off of Futurama, which is much more clever (though not a movie), and it doesn't belong above Rollerball (the old one) and Stormship Troopers, which has a few clever tonuge-in-cheek bits that are simultaneously dystoptic and mocking of dystopic ideas.
I was reading Wikipedia's entry on The Mythical Man-Month and found myself amused by his formula for group intercommunication: (n − 1) / 2. Digging around for an old script I had - Visual Basic with an error catch that just rolls past duplicate index values - I ran a count versus one of the nine projects I'm currently involved in, but not the biggest:
InternalArray() = Split(MyItem.To, ";")And it came back with a list of approximately 95 distinct emails and email groups, which results in over 18,000 lines of communication. This explains much about my day-to-day confusion.
For i = LBound(InternalArray) To UBound(InternalArray)
A.Add Trim(InternalArray(i)), Trim(InternalArray(i))
Next
MNSpeak has a link to Steve Marsh's article on Twin Cities bike culture.
And via Merlin's Rest from a few weeks ago, a link to World Wide Words. I've been reading bits and pieces of it all the time - it's fascinating. At least two co-workers can attest to me using the phrase beanpole family and I'm looking for the opportunity to use kibi-, mebi-, gibi-, and tebi- byte in polite geekversation.
Penis Panic
Kyle told me E!'s The Soup made the same joke about National Alpaca Farm Day that I did. Then he noted that E! is an important source of information for issues like Hidden Penis Syndrome. I had no ideas what this syndrome entailed, so I did some web research. Suspiciously, you don't get webmd or NIMH articles about HPS, you get comics, blogs and Jerry Springer. This leads me to believe the syndrome might be made up - a fallacy - in order to prey upon the insecurities of those who might be hung more like red-bellied short-necked turtles than like snake-necked turtles. I bring up turtles, because there is a mass-hysteria related affliction called Penis Panic that shows up on Wikipedia. In Malaysia, Penis Panic is called Koro, which means "head of a turtle". Penis Panic can involve the belief that Zionists are out to melt your penis by dint of electrical combs and handshakes. If you buy an electrical comb, it probably serves you right.
This fear of losing your pe-nay-nay has parallels in vagina dentata, where individuals fear castration by toothy vaginas. I enjoyed the nod to Pillow Pants, the vagina troll in Clerks II in the popular culture section, although I didn't see a reference to the Bruce Boston story in Locus which I believe I read when I was much younger and involved a dentist. As a disgusting aside, Jaye's Blahg posts a clip from an article about dermoid cysts growing teeth and modblog has a repulsive armpit tattoo, which immediately reminded me of these not-so-safe-for-work (nsfw) tattoos posted by Planet Dan.
This fear of losing your pe-nay-nay has parallels in vagina dentata, where individuals fear castration by toothy vaginas. I enjoyed the nod to Pillow Pants, the vagina troll in Clerks II in the popular culture section, although I didn't see a reference to the Bruce Boston story in Locus which I believe I read when I was much younger and involved a dentist. As a disgusting aside, Jaye's Blahg posts a clip from an article about dermoid cysts growing teeth and modblog has a repulsive armpit tattoo, which immediately reminded me of these not-so-safe-for-work (nsfw) tattoos posted by Planet Dan.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Postpourri - Blogger Play, Licked Manikins, Cops and Cow Clocks
If you don't pay attention to the informational messages Blogger gives you when you create a post, or you don't use Blogger, Blogger Play is as much fun as they claim. It was fun to watch what people looked for on search engines, and it's fun to watch what they upload for pictures. Although I have to stress, the pictures are often nfsw. It reminds me a lot of when I used to run an application to make sure we weren't getting uploaded student porn on the website I worked for until last year (millions of hits, so lots of uploads) and occasionally got images like a boyfriend doing a top down strip tease, or female students licking manikin breasts. Be still your horny hearts. You don't ever get to see it - there are privacy rules.
Technology is not living up to my expectations. I put my headphones on the other day, and truly expected the music to just start and play something I wanted to hear. I was just sitting there, waiting for it.
Pooteewheet and Eryn caught a rabbit. They took the dog outside in the morning and scared the beasty, which promptly leapt at the wire fence, stranding itself halfway through, about six inches above the ground. Too far to get any leverage. My wife made me come outside and guard it from cats and foxes and polar bears displaced by global warming until she could get gloves on and push it free. It was fine, although deserving of a Darwin award. Kyle tells me this is not an uncommon event, and the rabbit should feel fortunate not to have bounced off the fence and directly into the jaws of a physics-savvy greyhound.
The new issue of the Twin Cities Imbiber is online, featuring Big Sky Brewery and cooking with coffee.
If you search for a ride on the Minnesota Zephyr on Google, you will discover the train is powered by AtomicForce. I saw "Atomic Train" on SciFi and it sucked, so I'm looking for a good B&B instead.
Robert Jordan passed away. If you're not familiar with him, he was the author of the Wheel of Time series that has been slowly accumulating more and more time between books with every release - almost ironic. I quit reading around book 4 or 5 because I couldn't remember what the hell had happened in the previous book by the time the next one came out. I said to a friend, and this is almost verbatim, "He's going to die before he finishes these. I'm not going to read them anymore. I'm not going to read any unfinished series ever again. Robert Jordan has ruined them for me." And since then, I have never read a series, on purpose, that isn't complete with the exception of Harry Potter - and I read the first one by accident. Said friend bought me a f-ing dragon book by Terry Goodkind, and I think he meant it in good faith, but based on the earlier conversation, I was almost certain he was being an a-hole. It sits on the shelf, unread. To give you a timeline perspective, The Wheel of Time is unfinished, and I sent Dan'l the first one, used, paperback, from the Uptown book store, to his ship, the U.S.S. Tarawa, during Gulf I, in 1991, 16 years ago.
She Says thought the man who died after internet gaming for three (3) days might in some ways resemble me, given I have talked about "gaming weekends" in the past. I pointed out that while my gaming weekends may have actually lasted three days, and involved 16 gallon kegs of beer for only three people, we did on occasion venture up from the gameboard to drink said beer and to eat a buffalo burger near the Res.
Speaking of which, Pooteewheet and I went to Superbad (a spoiler below). I'd recommend it. It's a teen sex comedy, and slightly offensive in the beginning, but the pace just builds and builds and it gets funnier and funnier. I loved it. Near the part of the movie where the action gets the fastest, the kids are stopped by two cops and about to be framed, there's dialog for a while, things get tense and more tense, and then one of them just runs like a bat out of hell. This scene is so much funnier if you've sat on a porch in Mobridge, SD, drunk, watching a pair of cops pull over a car full of Native Americans. Much to the cops' annoyance, there's snow falling, the Res residents are twitchy, and the drunk idiots on the porch closest to them are playing a Mexican Hat Dance Mooing cow alarm clock over and over and over and over. In a moment of distraction - maybe it's the snow, maybe it's the cow clock - the Native Americans make a break for it, sprinting off at a speed the cops can't hope to match given the icy road. End result - within ten seconds there's not a Native American in sight, there's an abandoned car from the Res, there are two very grumpy looking cops, and there are two drunk idiots on the porch playing a moo clock and laughing so hard it's probably an arrestable offense. I applaud them for their restraint in not hauling us in, though I suspect it had more to do with not wanting our testimony on record.
Technology is not living up to my expectations. I put my headphones on the other day, and truly expected the music to just start and play something I wanted to hear. I was just sitting there, waiting for it.
Pooteewheet and Eryn caught a rabbit. They took the dog outside in the morning and scared the beasty, which promptly leapt at the wire fence, stranding itself halfway through, about six inches above the ground. Too far to get any leverage. My wife made me come outside and guard it from cats and foxes and polar bears displaced by global warming until she could get gloves on and push it free. It was fine, although deserving of a Darwin award. Kyle tells me this is not an uncommon event, and the rabbit should feel fortunate not to have bounced off the fence and directly into the jaws of a physics-savvy greyhound.
The new issue of the Twin Cities Imbiber is online, featuring Big Sky Brewery and cooking with coffee.
If you search for a ride on the Minnesota Zephyr on Google, you will discover the train is powered by AtomicForce. I saw "Atomic Train" on SciFi and it sucked, so I'm looking for a good B&B instead.
Robert Jordan passed away. If you're not familiar with him, he was the author of the Wheel of Time series that has been slowly accumulating more and more time between books with every release - almost ironic. I quit reading around book 4 or 5 because I couldn't remember what the hell had happened in the previous book by the time the next one came out. I said to a friend, and this is almost verbatim, "He's going to die before he finishes these. I'm not going to read them anymore. I'm not going to read any unfinished series ever again. Robert Jordan has ruined them for me." And since then, I have never read a series, on purpose, that isn't complete with the exception of Harry Potter - and I read the first one by accident. Said friend bought me a f-ing dragon book by Terry Goodkind, and I think he meant it in good faith, but based on the earlier conversation, I was almost certain he was being an a-hole. It sits on the shelf, unread. To give you a timeline perspective, The Wheel of Time is unfinished, and I sent Dan'l the first one, used, paperback, from the Uptown book store, to his ship, the U.S.S. Tarawa, during Gulf I, in 1991, 16 years ago.
She Says thought the man who died after internet gaming for three (3) days might in some ways resemble me, given I have talked about "gaming weekends" in the past. I pointed out that while my gaming weekends may have actually lasted three days, and involved 16 gallon kegs of beer for only three people, we did on occasion venture up from the gameboard to drink said beer and to eat a buffalo burger near the Res.
Speaking of which, Pooteewheet and I went to Superbad (a spoiler below). I'd recommend it. It's a teen sex comedy, and slightly offensive in the beginning, but the pace just builds and builds and it gets funnier and funnier. I loved it. Near the part of the movie where the action gets the fastest, the kids are stopped by two cops and about to be framed, there's dialog for a while, things get tense and more tense, and then one of them just runs like a bat out of hell. This scene is so much funnier if you've sat on a porch in Mobridge, SD, drunk, watching a pair of cops pull over a car full of Native Americans. Much to the cops' annoyance, there's snow falling, the Res residents are twitchy, and the drunk idiots on the porch closest to them are playing a Mexican Hat Dance Mooing cow alarm clock over and over and over and over. In a moment of distraction - maybe it's the snow, maybe it's the cow clock - the Native Americans make a break for it, sprinting off at a speed the cops can't hope to match given the icy road. End result - within ten seconds there's not a Native American in sight, there's an abandoned car from the Res, there are two very grumpy looking cops, and there are two drunk idiots on the porch playing a moo clock and laughing so hard it's probably an arrestable offense. I applaud them for their restraint in not hauling us in, though I suspect it had more to do with not wanting our testimony on record.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Postpourri - A Nipple, Bread, Esoteric Bicycling Ceremonies
In honor of Klund's birthday, I present a mashup. Not a Yahoo mashup with a picture and news story, an invention of his, but one from my Netflix queue in-transit list: "Inside Deep Throat. Sandwiches You Will Like."
My sister and Kyle had an email discussion about scary clowns this afternoon. I offer into evidence this recent post by Planet Dan.
I'm not quite sure if I saw a nipple today. I was in a meeting, and my eyes were drawn to what appeared to be a bit too much... I don't know. What do you call it when it's not traditional plunging cleavage, but sort of shirt pulls to the side over a low-cut bra cleavage? Anyway, there was a lot of breast showing and my eyes were drawn, like George Costanza at a television pitch. I was surprised, because I don't usually check out breasts. They were nice, but I realized that what had caught my attention was a dark spot on the bra/breast liminal. At first I thought it was a nipple - well, the part you could see with a low cut bra - the areola - not to be confused with the aureola, the luminous part around Jesus. Then I thought, no, it's more like a birthmark (which could have been shaped like Jesus, but who's to say with only part of it showing). But that wasn't quite right. Maybe a bite - could be breast feeding a little animal who doesn't understand he has teeth. Finally I settled on hickey. Then I worried about whether I'd been looking too long. What? No...I was contemplating Christ!
In case Mean Mr. Mustard doesn't believe me, National Alpaca Farm Day is September 29th and September 30th. National Alpaca Farm Day is on two days. No wonder alpacas always look so surly, if they're only getting half their food on any given day because their owners think a day is 48 hours long.
Speaking of food. Pooteewheet made me a loaf of coffee-banana bread last night. I had an urge to see what coffee grounds mixed into banana bread would taste like, seeing french toast with coffee grounds had turned out pretty well, and I like ice cream with coffee grounds. However, she washed the stove dials during baking and cooked the loaf at 550 degrees. At that temperature, it tastes like charcoal. I ripped the top 1/3 off and recooked the rest at a lower temperature and it turned out pretty well, but I can't taste as much coffee as I like, and it leaves grounds in my teeth. Not precisely a success.
Velocipete has a very funny post on his site about his ritual to appease the gods of flat tires. I feel for him. I had my share on RAGBRAI, during casual riding, and across all my bikes. Sacrificing a balloon sounds like it might work as well as anything else.
My sister and Kyle had an email discussion about scary clowns this afternoon. I offer into evidence this recent post by Planet Dan.
I'm not quite sure if I saw a nipple today. I was in a meeting, and my eyes were drawn to what appeared to be a bit too much... I don't know. What do you call it when it's not traditional plunging cleavage, but sort of shirt pulls to the side over a low-cut bra cleavage? Anyway, there was a lot of breast showing and my eyes were drawn, like George Costanza at a television pitch. I was surprised, because I don't usually check out breasts. They were nice, but I realized that what had caught my attention was a dark spot on the bra/breast liminal. At first I thought it was a nipple - well, the part you could see with a low cut bra - the areola - not to be confused with the aureola, the luminous part around Jesus. Then I thought, no, it's more like a birthmark (which could have been shaped like Jesus, but who's to say with only part of it showing). But that wasn't quite right. Maybe a bite - could be breast feeding a little animal who doesn't understand he has teeth. Finally I settled on hickey. Then I worried about whether I'd been looking too long. What? No...I was contemplating Christ!
In case Mean Mr. Mustard doesn't believe me, National Alpaca Farm Day is September 29th and September 30th. National Alpaca Farm Day is on two days. No wonder alpacas always look so surly, if they're only getting half their food on any given day because their owners think a day is 48 hours long.
Speaking of food. Pooteewheet made me a loaf of coffee-banana bread last night. I had an urge to see what coffee grounds mixed into banana bread would taste like, seeing french toast with coffee grounds had turned out pretty well, and I like ice cream with coffee grounds. However, she washed the stove dials during baking and cooked the loaf at 550 degrees. At that temperature, it tastes like charcoal. I ripped the top 1/3 off and recooked the rest at a lower temperature and it turned out pretty well, but I can't taste as much coffee as I like, and it leaves grounds in my teeth. Not precisely a success.
Velocipete has a very funny post on his site about his ritual to appease the gods of flat tires. I feel for him. I had my share on RAGBRAI, during casual riding, and across all my bikes. Sacrificing a balloon sounds like it might work as well as anything else.
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