My boss stole my bug!
That is all. Continue with your boring, monotonous lives.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
I got a date!
Well, actually, not just one. About 50. At 4.49$. Without tax. At Safeway. Well, it's still something.
*Evil laugh*
Today, I finally received my first and only Wal-Mart purchase. It had to be Wal-Mart because no one else sells this, and it had to be online because I'm not stepping into the store for any reasonable amount of money.
Anyways. So, it's here.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. Especially if you work in my building.
Highway fog
Highway fog
Originally uploaded by FuzzyGamer.
It's still foggy as hell at 10am. Kinda glad I took the small roads to work today.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Poor, poor Art
I was just complaining to Art that I had to go to work on Saturday. He's still in school, getting his 18th Doctorate. He sent me this link.
Art, many apologies. I know how hard it must be for you. That's one of the reasons that I'm here. The other reason is that Microsoft made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Seriously! Oh, and I wouldn't have gotten into any Master's program except at Bob Jones college where they give free hats to newbies.
Asian restaurants
This isn't new news, just more observation from the pissed off dude writing this blog: the people who work in New Kowloon Seafood Restaurant are either racists or incompetent. Or both. It took half an hour and about four reminders that I'd like a glass of water! Sad part is that it's not going to change. I'm a white guy going to a Chinese restaurant. They treat the main customers (Chinese people who come back time and time again) really well, and screw the guy in the corner. I've had the same crap pulled on me at Jeem Asian Restaurant on 24th, by Safeway. The second time I went there they stuck me in the corner where the server with the food (I go there for dim sum) had to try harder to come over. It's not that it's impossible to stop by my table, it's just that it's in the corner and tight, so it's basically a one-way street for a Hummer: turning around is out of the question, so back up. So, practically no servers ever stopped by. Not like they ever do. At New Kowloon the servers skip my table and go for the large 8-person parties. Overall, my experience with Asian restaurants leaves me contemplating choosing a new favorite cuisine. If I'm alone, or there are no Asian people with me, or they're the "wrong type" (Chinese people getting Korean BBQ or Japanese people going for dim sum), the service is gonna suck and, in some cases, the quality of the food suffers. What kind of crap is that? I'm white, so I probably don't know good Chinese cooking from Panda Express? And while we're on that, yes, I do eat "fake" Chinese food. I even like it. But when I go to a Chinese restaurant and ask for authentic food, bring me authentic food just like you would if I asked you in Chinese, and don't ask me "Are you sure you want that?" Yeah, I know, most people order the orange chicken. They're entitled to make bad choices. I'm not them. So bring me those pig tongues!
Seattle and then some
Contradictory to most of the world, today I found out that Seattle is the sunny city. Leaving from Redmond, it was raining. Not buckets, not drizzle, somewhere in the middle. The closer I got to Seattle, more blue skies and less rain. Later, on my way back, just as I turn off from I-5 to get on the 520, it starts raining like before. And I wish I had my camera with me! Oh, and a few extra hands to drive and take pictures at the same time. I was on the 520 bridge, the one that spans the water, and it was like sitting in the middle of Armageddon: on the right side, blue skies, sunny weather; on the left side, rain pouring down and it's pretty dark. The rain looked absolutely amazing, since it's over water and it makes this really strange edge where on one side it's calm water and just a bit over there's this strong rain coming down and this mist holding just above the surface.
Actually, today there were lots of opportunities for great photos. Mostly thanks to the rain. Ever seen a rainbow following a car? It actually keeps up, even though it doesn't have legs. It has to be like this: the sun is on the left, you're in the left lane and ahead and to the right of you there's the target car; the road has to be pretty wet and the car has to be going fast to kick up a fair-sized mist. The mist catches the sun and you see this mini rainbow, following right behind the car. Gorgeous!
Oh, and this is entirely off-topic, but this is the funniest picture I have ever seen: link.
Friday, October 27, 2006
BillG e-mailed me!
Walking into the office at the late hour of 8am, I am amused by this most beautiful sight: Bill Gates, The Big Guy Himself, e-mailed me! Obviously, he also cc'd 30,000 other MS employees so they wouldn't feel left out, but you know for a fact that he was just doing that to be polite to them. He really just wanted to talk to me. And he did! Whoo!
Curiously, BillG was asking for money. See, us poor MS peons apparently donate more, per employee, than any other company. Seems like we hold the lead by quite a large margin, as well. And, personal donations are matched by the company, up to 12,000$. For a second there I had a great scheme in mind for others to donate through me and have MS match the amount, but apparently The Big Guy frowns upon that, so there, into the void, goes my plan of world domination.
Next week, new plan.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Thank you Nik
Nik, my boss, just pushed a document deadline (that was imposed on me by some goobers) from Monday to Wednesday. Thanks ever so much.
Yeah, I know he doesn't read this (or anyone, for that matter), but still, a thanks is deserved.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
The slow child
Using Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is akin to roasting yourself over an open fire.
Microsoft really screwed the pooch on this one: practically no driver support (they helped this one out, keep reading), no promotion of the actual product, very narrow user-base thanks to clever marketing, no support for a number of Microsoft products (imagine the support for third-party software), no connectivity between XP 64 and Microsoft's own entertainment flagship XBOX 360 and almost-total third-party ignorance of the existence of XP 64.
Had Microsoft laid out the red carpet and gone all hog-wild about the release of this OS, things would be different. As it is, very few non-hardcore-geeks even realize that it's out there, and many companies ignore it like the annoying over-achiever cousin at a family function. "What? Drivers? Sure, we got drivers up the ass! Check it out. Works with everything under the sun: XP, 2000, Vista, 98, 95, 3.1, MCE, ME. Yup, works with every version of Windows in existence. Move along now, you're holding up the line."
The sad part isn't what Microsoft has done wrong in the past, it's what they're doing wrong now. Try downloading Windows Media Connect (software to allow you to stream music to your XBOX 360) for your XP 64. It doesn't exist. Microsoft has a copy of the program for XP Home, XP Professional (32 bit), XP Media Center and XP Media Center 2005, but nothing for XP 64. Not even a mention of the OS on the website. You get to find out that the program is incompatible once you download it and try to install. Whoop-de-doo! XP 64 has been out for a year, in beta for yet another year and in development far longer, but in all that time Microsoft hasn't even tried to get their act together. Windows Media Connect is something that they started working on after XP 64, so why not develop a version for it? Are they burying this OS on purpose?
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Oh, that Solo
"That's not what the Empire would have done... What the Empire would have done was build a supercolossal Yuuzhan Vong-killing battle machine. They would have called it the Nova Colossus...Galaxy Destructor or the Nostril of Palpatine or something equally grandiose... And you know what would have happened? It wouldn't have worked. They'd forget to bolt down a metal plate over an access hatch leading to the main reactors, or some other mistake, and a hotshot enemy pilot would drop a bomb down there an blow the whole thing up. Now that's what the Empire would have done."
Wikipedia
There are ways of marking articles in the Wikipedia as "biased" or "needing clarifications" or "needing references" and others. I wish there was a "de-Asian-ify" flag.
Dim sum - Wikipedia article
Read the first paragraph and tell me who wrote the article. Yeah, a Chinese person with a Chinese-English dictionary.
Normally, I don't care who writes an article. Because you usually can't tell. And, while this article is well-done and is very informative, the style is clearly different from a similar article written about high tea.
High tea - Wikipedia article
The purpose of all those flags is to make the Wikipedia be a uniform, homogeneous body of knowledge. Articles that are biased, not well written, exhibiting different reference models or particular styles should be modified to conform to particular standards.
That, and it bugs me to be reading Chinese translated (badly) into English. I mean, look at the following segment from the dim sum article:
Dim sum is a Chinese light meal or brunch served with Chinese tea. It is eaten some time from morning to early afternoon with family or friends.
With "family or friends"? You don't say. I was gonna invite that asshole from corporate affairs so we could talk smack while enjoying chicken feet. Oh, and I was gonna stick him with the bill.
Also, while we're on the subject of Wikipedia, I found a new Wiki that is quite awesome. The Wookieepedia! Link. It's the Wikipedia for Star Wars, named Wookieepedia because of the name similarities.
Que?
Scenario: Anna doesn't want to marry her long-time boyfriend Ben. In fact, she doesn't wanna get married at all. She comes from a broken home. Hmm, I wonder if that has anything to do with her decision. Anyways.
So, Anna and Ben agree that they continue going out, blah blah blah, but no marriage on the horizon. Ever. At least that's what I was told. Now, here comes the turn: they just bought a condo together.
As is usual with my blogs, I bash stupidity and traditions (which are often times one and the same) about the head and shoulders like a madman. Here it comes again. You're living together, you're in an intimate and a monogamous relationship, you made a major purchase together, there's no end to the relationship in the foreseeable future: yup, you're married! I don't care what the courts or the Republicans say. Marriage is not a contract and a piece of paper, it's a state of mind.
Anna, do you not want to get married because you believe that the piece of paper will ruin your life? Cause you certainly don't appear to think that it's anything else that comes with being married. Do you think your parents split up because of a few items of jewelry and a long-winded sermon?
Most people who don't want to get married for the reason of being married usually try to keep distance from the other person in some way: they don't buy houses, they don't get pets (unless the lifetime of that pet is under a year), they certainly don't make commitments for the next 5-10 years. Hell, there are married people that do this. But, like I said, marriage is a state of mind. Two people can be married in the eyes of the state (and your various gods) but basically be two strangers living in the same house. Or not even the same house.
I feel a marriage-bashing post coming up. Soon.
Monday, October 23, 2006
You know it's gonna be one of those days...
...when you see this online:
Bulletproof iPod
Someone actually shielded their iPod in 5mm aluminum. In theory (owner's theory) this could stop a 0.22 bullet. Nevermind the obvious question of "who put the contract on your MP3?", this is just plain funny. Inevitably, the new iPod now weighs half a kilogram, 446 gm or 1lb, and is considered by most to be a lethal weapon.
Adventures in my apt
So there I am, being sweet and cute, playing LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and I hear this click-clacking sound coming from the kitchen. It's like a rat got into a cupboard and can't get out. Scared me. So, I pause the game and look over there. And the sounds stops. So I continue playing and hear that sound again. What the hell?! I pause the game and finally figure out that it's my speakers scaring the hell out of me. In the game, there's a brain-spider walking around, making noises, and this one walked behind and to the side of me, so he was technically "in" my kitchen. His sound was certainly coming from there. Freaky, but awesome.
MS Internal Auction
MS Internal Auction
Originally uploaded by FuzzyGamer.
4ft.long x ~3.5ft.tall, ~50lb. soft, gray stuffed elephant toy formerly used in an advertising shoot is now looking for a wonderful family to retire--ideal for children's playroom or family room! In excellent condition!
The bidding started at 50$ and is now at 130$. The auction ends on Wednesday. Apparently, the elephant really costs 500$. Yikes.
I'm thinking, somewhat not seriously, of acquiring said elephant and placing him in my office. There's enough space in front of my desk, I think. But I also have to consider that I may be making a hypothetical child cry. Or maybe it's a child only in the figurative sense: maybe the guy who's trying to buy this is buying it for himself and he's really a 30-year old kid. Or a 22-year old kid. Whatever.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
The Prestige and others
Apparently, this post is going to be a stew of entertainment reviews. Go figure.
Saw "The Prestige", and I gotta say, I certainly didn't expect that. Not the ending. That I figured out. But I just didn't expect the characters to be such rivals. I was expecting to see them be friends for a while and then, slowly, they just drift apart and end up hating one another. But no, it basically starts off like that.
It's a great movie. Better than "The Illusionist". It really reminds me of Niven. Niven's "Crashlander" and "Flatlander" series of mystery stories are a perfect analogy: Niven hands you a self-contained mystery. You can actually solve the mystery with the information he gives you. And it's certainly satisfying to see the elements mentioned almost without reason, all of a sudden being brought back and seen in a different light, together with the rest of the plot. "The Prestige" is like that. You see the parts and you start to put them together. They give you everything you need to know, just apply it.
It's also great to see an artistic, well-made movie have an engaging and action-filled plot. Doesn't happen a lot: either the movie is all action and no plot, or all plot, but the characters just sit around the table and it's about as exciting as reading a phone-book. Certainly gives me hope for the Jumper film, as the same guy is making that movie as well.
I'm tired, so this may seem like rambling. Sorry.
I'd also like to point out that "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Layer Cake" (also spelled "L4YER CAK3") are two of the best movies I've seen. Nevermind the resemblance in style, characters and plot to "Snatch", which I saw first and have seen many times before, the movies are great. Just listen closely. Those British accents can really screw you up sometimes.
Daniel Craig was in "Layer Cake" and I like him as an actor. I've seen him in multiple parts, from "The Jacket"'s mental patient to "Layer Cake"'s drug-world Bond, and it's clear that the guy is talented. Now, we'll just have to watch what he does with Bond. It's really refreshing seeing a good actor play a variety of roles, small, bit parts as well as leads.
"Smith", the show about heists, was cancelled after only three episodes. Whoops. Not like I didn't see that one coming. I wrote a bit of a review earlier, and while I do think that "Smith" got what it deserved, I would have liked to have seen the story grow and become something more than a drawn-out introduction. Oh well.
Dane Cook's stand-up is on right now, and I really gotta say this: does anyone else think the guy is a conceited bastard? He's up there, in some weird circular auditorium, and he's acting as if he's the king of the world. He's not even funny, yet it seems like he sees himself as the next, I don't know, Oprah. Dude, you're not gonna have a following. Stop. You're not entertaining. Stop annoying people with crappy movies and horrific stand-up routines and fade into obscurity. Please.
That's it. I'd write more, and more coherently, but I can't keep my eyes open.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Here's a hypothetical...
What would you rate a movie where a character gets their arms ripped off? Where it's actually seen as a good thing. Where the protagonist does it fairly often.
How about a video game? What rating does a game that does this deserve?
Ponder that while I ramble.
So, I bought this game today, and I must say, one of the best and most enjoyable games I've ever owned. Yeah, it's up there with San Andreas and the rest of the GTA siblings.
It's LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. I've been playing the first game, LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game, for a few weeks now and just today decided to get the sequel. I think that the developers decided to pull out all the stops and packed the game with as much craziness as they could possibly fit on a single disk. The original had shorter levels and not as many classes. With the sequel, I find myself spending close to an hour per level!
The developers considered the LEGO Star Wars player and asked themselves "what would they like?" Obviously, their answer was "a Wookie that rips off his opponents' arms and more swag". Yes, in this game you can rip arms off your opponents (at least the Storm Troopers) when you play as Chewie. (And the game is rated Everyone 10+. Don't ask me about the oxymoronic rating.) And, knowing that Star Wars fans liked swag, like being able to buy lots of extra features in the game, the levels are jam-packed with money. In the original game, the bonus level at the end went above and beyond the average 30-40,000 "money" pieces by allowing the player to get as many as 100,000 pieces. The sequel offers that much per each level. Usually, a lot more. This last level I acquired close to 200,000 pieces. Oh, the swag I'll buy with that one! First on the list, improved light-sabers. Second, mustaches for everyone!
The game improves on the predecessor in many areas. Visuals are outstanding: not only is the game in glorious wide-screen, it also features light-bloom and beautiful depth-of-field effect, though I seriously suspect that they took the cheater's way out with that one. (Possibly the same approach I'm thinking of taking in my ray tracer. It gives gorgeous DOF results while increasing the cost by less than double, as opposed to other alternatives that can cost 4-16 times.) No longer are the Jedi/Sith restricted to building contraptions: anyone, except a droid, can assemble LEGO pieces now. Vehicles! After driving an AT-ST through the streets of Mos Eisley, I can truly say that this game earns a permanent place on my shelf. Ripping arms out of their sockets! Come on, who doesn't enjoy that? It's hella long (so far) and the levels are varied. Also, you have to come back in Free Play mode to complete a fair piece of the game, so I guess I've only seen about 2/3 of the level. The shooters, characters with blasters, are also much better. Or maybe I just think so. In the original, I didn't use them much. Didn't really see the need. Now, half my time is spent running around with a blaster. The other half is spent as a Jedi splicing enemies to pieces, which is relaxing in its own way. Yeah, I know, I'm weird. Whoo!
Friday, October 20, 2006
Traditions
On the way to work I was listening to stand-up and one comedian was describing the idea of marriage: "Hey, guys, me and Sara are gonna have the same relationship we've had the last three years and we're throwing a party next year to celebrate it. Put on your best clothes, give us presents, tell us how great we are, get completely smashed, and the day after that everything is going to be just the way it's been, we're just going to get a different title for our relationship. Yay! Please, no little kids."
I've had the same opinion of marriage for years, but this guy put it quite nicely: it's the same thing, just with a different name.
I guess you can consider me an anti-traditionalist. No, I don't do the opposite of what the traditionalists do, I simply consider traditions to be at best pointless and at worst dangerous. A tradition is something done because "it's always been done that way". Even if there is a reason, not many people consider it.
Consider the tradition of saying grace at the dinner table. It dates back to the hunter-gatherer societies when dinner was at the whim of "gods", and the people were thankful for anything and everything that came to them, as it was actually a challenge to get the food. Who are you thanking now? You're thanking God that Bubba smashed a cow's head in with a hammer and then cut it up for processing? Unless you're actually catching your own food, and it better be hard work, why say grace at all? If you're thanking god for your food, why don't you also thank god after crossing a street? He kept you safe, after all. Or thank god after a hockey game for not having your teeth knocked out. Why thank god for some stuff, right there and then, but not others? Thank god at the end of the day, if you're still thankful.
Traditions can be as pointless as throwing a bouqet or as dangerous as a religion. What, don't believe me? I mean, we know religions are dangerous, but it's also tradition. Or do you think it's a coincedence that Catholics come from Catholic families and Muslims from Muslim families? The kids are doing what the parents are doing. Why? Because the parents are doing what their parents did.
I think that the next step should be this: look at a traditions, ask yourself "Is there a real reason for doing this?", and disgard the tradition if your answer is "no". That's it.
Of course, people are going to have a big problem with this. Especially societies based on nothing but traditions. Middle East. Asia. Washington, D.C. Boeing. Vatican. India. Corporations. Imagine what the world would become if traditions were stripped away. Social status would be gone. Fake-giving "to be nice" is forgotten. Monarchies disappear overnight. Corporate red-tape and BS fades from memories. Sexism, racism, religion-ism? (53% of America wouldn't vote for a well-qualified Atheist and American families are more upset by their children dating Atheists than anyone else. Not that either of those mean anything to me, but it's sickening how we're seen in this country.) Racism is a tradition. So is most people's belief that we are better than the rest of the Animal Kingdom because we have Jerry Springer and microwaveable hot-dog-wrapped-in-a-chocolate-chip-pancake-on-a-stick. I have more respect, and love, for my dog Sherlock than for some representatives of my own species.
Think that the world will be too sterile and boring if traditions are abolished? No more gifts at Christmas or Valentine's Day makes you sad? Do something for the hell of it, then. Don't feel you're obligated to be nice to a person just because the planet made another revolution around the sun since their birth, be nice to the person year-round. Don't just get nanna from the home on Thanksgiving, come and thank her whenever. You know she'd like to see you. So why hold off? Because you've always done so?
Matrix Hillarity
Link - Matrix Hillarity
Yes, some people have a lot of time on their hands. Good thing they're making these animations and not dealing drugs or burning down embassies, though. Right?
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Websites and blogs, oh my
Are websites on their way out? Certainly not the big-people businesses and porn websites, hell no, but how about personal sites?
Which one is simpler:
- Register a domain, get a host, create a unique layout, create content, add extensions to count your visitors, create a forum and a guestbook, make a photoalbum, design a template to make your site have a continuous theme, etc.
- Sign up for a blog and start posting. Post text, pictures, multimedia, games even. Individual feedback is already enabled. Practically no setup cost, aside from the time to choose a template.
The internet is moving away from the old static format to a much more involved, interactive and communication-based existence. No longer are users satisfied to read lines of text on a screen and click a link once in a while. They expect an experience. They want to reach out and talk with others. That's why sites like Facebook, MySpace and the multitude of blogs (or journals) are enjoying such popularity: they give the user a simple way to put ideas on the web, allow other users to comment on those ideas and make communication as easy as writing on a person's virtual wall or leaving a quick comment.
The new, "interactive" sites are here to stay. And that's a pretty sad thing. Everything is getting easier. A "site" can be run by anyone, be they 6 or 91 years old. Such a wide user base produces a lot of content. And a whole lot of it is pure drivel. Crap. A decade ago, a person had to be more than slightly determined to make a website. It wasn't as simple as signing up for an account and jotting down some thoughts. Naturally, this weeded out the not-so-serious crowd and created a much better crop. In the end, there were websites with content and meaning, not just another pre-teen bemoaning their existence and complaining about the hard life in Orange County. Give me a break.
This is true for anything, really. At the Microsoft-wide company meeting I was "fortunate" enough to see new technology that will allow a game to be made in as little as half a minute. Will the game be absolute crap? You better believe it. Will we see hundreds of minute-games within a week of the release of this tool? Yup. And they will suck! No originality, no replay value, just a quick app put together by the last person in the world who should be designing games: the user.
Am I being too forward? Not nice? Pessimistic? Spend enough time on the internet and you will be convinced that the last thing we need is an easier way for idiots to be heard. Sure, with the multitude of morons "creating" content, we are bound to find a gem. It's a statistical inevitability. Unfortunately, on the internet, it means shoveling 10 tons of manure to find 4 grams of gold.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Worm Insanity!
Click "Read More" to see the game.
Click applet to get focus. Control the worm with the arrow keys. Space bar pauses and unpauses the game. Reload to restart.
The field wraps around, so go toward a wall and you'll come out on the other side.
Red apples grow the worm one length.
Yellow apples grow the worm five lengths.
Green apples grow the worm ten lengths.
Blue apples... well, figure it out.
Solid black things are walls.
There's an ending, as well as multiple levels. Sorry, not fireworks at the end, just the end. The apples appear based on chance. The probabilities change. Some apples earn more points. Some are really helpful but rarely come out to play. Dying takes away some points. You can get more points by stacking bonuses.
You need to have an updated version of the JRE. Download JRE 5.0 at this link: http://www.java.com
Did I mention I hate spammers...
I'll also mention that I hate it when people can't speak English, yet try really really hard to get their point across. Well, the following e-mail I got really makes me mad (Hulk-mad, even).
From: Trina Babb
hi Trina i hope this is your mailbox.
I was like to see you the other day. I expect you are really had like the New York.
So much so much happening all the time, lots of great opportunities.
And speaking of opportunities, the deal I was speaking you about day before embraces a company
called Tex-Homa (TXHE).
It's already growing up, but the big info isn't even
out yet, so there's still time. I have got this shares already and made
2000. I suggest you to do the same today.
Hope this helps you out. I'll see you this weekend.
Yours Trina Babb
First, Trina is sending an e-mail to her friend Trina? Weird, but moving on.
Second, Trina seems to have an IQ of 60 and a well-used Nigerian-English dictionary.
Third, who's the stupid bastard who keeps these people alive by taking the advice of idiots that can't put a sentence together? This particular scam is meant to inflate the price of the stocks of Tex-Homa, so the spammers who bought the stock for pennies can sell their stocks for big-people money and make a crap-load of money off the idiots who invested in Tex-Homa.
Fourth, I reiterate my hatred for spam and the butchers of the English language. Hmm, I guess that includes most of America. Oh well. Bollocks to that.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
The Departed
Hot on the heels of Martin Scorsese's critical success "The Departed", the legendary director is filming his next masterpiece, "The Deported", a story of a poor Mexican family in a Republican-controlled version of the United States.
Note to self
Building 17 is a ghost-town at 9 am. Come in early and you can play Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" as loud as possible.
PS. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is #100 of Rolling Stone's [the magazine] 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list of 2004.
PPS. Does anyone think it's weird that on that same list, "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan is #1 and "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones is #2. This is a list made by Rolling Stone magazine.
PPPS. Supposedly (according to Wiki) this is the site offering the streams of the songs. There are only 237 of them, but it's still worth to check it out. I'm listening to "Stayin' Alive" by Beeg Gees right now.
Link - Streaming "500 Greatest"
PPPPS. Have a nice day.
EDIT: For all the unwashed masses, listen to this song and be happy.
Link - Free Bird
Monday, October 16, 2006
Lets try this again
Easy one to start the ball rolling:
For 10 points, name George Carlin's Third Commandment.
Spam
So, I'm sitting here, erasing e-mail, and the more spam I see, the more I am convinced of human stupidity. 95% of the spam has horrendous spelling or grammar errors. And yet there's so much of that it suggests that someone out there is falling for it. Otherwise, these assholes would go and get a real job. Well, maybe not. But the point is that there are people out there who see "Buy a replica Rolex at a faction of the price", "works MySpace Xanga etc.Flash" and "V1agra 10 P1lls 100 mg $69.95" and actually open the e-mails and after reading more crap decide "hey, I'll give them some money".
I'm pissed off at the spammers, and the idiots they convince to somehow give up their money and people with extremely bad English. Bah.
Heinlein
Now I sorta know how some religious people feel when they read their religious books. I say some, because (a) you have to actually read the book and (b) you have to actually believe, truly believe, not just pretend to believe, what the book is saying.
Reading Heinlein is like reading a book of quotations. With a story in between. But the quotes are incredibly poignant and I agree with most of what he is saying.
Here are a couple I just got from a few consecutive pages:
Books are meant to be read and loved, not stored.
But in general Father says that anything two - or more - people want to do is all right as it does no physical harm. He felt that the words 'moral' and 'immoral' were ridiculous when applied to sexual relations.
So as far as I know, there are no organized religions in Boondock, or anywhere on Tellus Tertius [Far future]. Question: Is this an inevitable evolutionary development as mankind approaches true civilization? Or is that wishful thinking?
I agree wholeheartedly with all three of the quotes:
- The last thing I want is my books to be stuck in some bookshelf, never being taken out and read, after I'm gone. I just have these depressing thoughts that when I die, all my books, all of these things that made me so happy are going to be tossed out, destroyed or, even worse, forgotten.
- Truly, why should people concern themselves with the lives of others when there is no harm being done to anyone? What do you care that some guy down the street from you enjoys weed? Or has a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend. Or spends his Sundays sleeping in his bed rather than in a pew in your church.
- Religion will die out. Someday. Most likely, though, it will be too late and religion will die with the last of mankind.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Kobe Terrace Park
Kobe Terrace Park
Originally uploaded by FuzzyGamer.
Stone lantern from Kobe, Japan, Seattle's sister city.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Boss
Ah, bosses, the bane of our existence.
It's 5pm and my boss sends me an e-mail about the changes I made and the changes I should make to those changes. It's 5pm! I can't ignore the e-mail, so I'll be here the next two hours (5 minutes of which is spent on this entry, no need to point it out), instead of watching "Man of the Year". Yeah, I know, it sucks according to the critics, but I still wanna see Robin Williams be elected to the Presidency. Well, what's left of it...
My own radio station
Yes, I know, people have been running radio stations forever now, but I finally decided to do one because I go for walks around the neighborhood with my Palm and it's easier to stream my music than to continuously upload stuff to a memory card.
Plus, I can listen to my tunes at work without storing illegal stuff on work computers. Always a plus. I mean, it certainly helps to not be fired.
My Radio Station -
I'm still playing around with the settings, so there may be weird glitches like the name not popping up or something. I'll fix it. Maybe.
Oh, and screw you, I like my music. Yes, I play weird stuff: Russian folk music followed by Coolio followed by Mozart followed by Beatles followed by Beauty and the Beast soundtrack followed by Elton John followed by REM followed by... If you don't like my taste in music, go away.
EDIT: This is how I set it all up. I use Winamp 5.3 and everything is explained on this link.
Link - setting up online radio station.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Christian math classes
Christian math classes have got to be the easiest thing, right next to the Amish computer-repair courses.
Once you start with the assumption that 3=1, you can prove that telephone = ham sandwich. Actually, as long as you know what the answer is, you can show it in a few easy steps:
- 3 = 1
- 2 = 0
- 1 = 0
- A = 0
- A + B = B
- C = B
- telephone = ham sandwich
A little while back there was a bit of a debate/movement to sort of integrate the Bible into science. Maybe that's not exactly what they said, but the general message was that you get some "science" out of the Bible and use it with the other science that is already in place. For example, the following topics are (according to some Christian site, I didn't do this research) covered in the Bible: Paleontology, the Bible mentions dinosaurs; Astronomy, the Bible mentions a great number of stars and the suspension of Earth in space; Meteorology, fluid dynamics and the circulation of the atmosphere; Biology, the importance of blood (really?!) and biogenisis; Anthropology, mentioning cave men; Hydrology, the circulation of water, the immense amount of water held in clouds, hydrothermal vents (written about more than 3,000 years before their discovery by science); Geology, Earth's crust and the spherical shape of the Earth; and even Physics, nuclear energy and, ready for this, television!
So, imagine using all of this "science" that is described in the Bible to advance mankind further along, toward whatever goal it is thought we are going toward. Yay. Actually, I do mean that. Yay. Please, "integrate" the Bible into science. So that we can toss it out in the first four minutes! The most important thing about science is that no matter how liked a theory, how much tested a law, how perfect an idea, it can be tossed aside instantly when we find some evidence against it. Galilean mechanics were great for a while, but then that damn German bastard had to come along and turn physics upside down.
Picture this: tomorrow, both the Christian and the scientific community agree to "integrate" the Bible into the body of science. It's done. Then, some researcher somewhere, probably an underpaid graduate student, decides to test a theory he looked up in the Bible. A simple experiment. That ends up destroying half the lab and all the hopes of the Christian world. Seems the Bible messed up a bit. Guess it's time to toss it out the window? No, no. See, the researcher made the classic mistake and read the Bible wrong. He forgot that you need the special decoder ring. So, the next researcher, who's also an underpaid graduate student, goes and asks the wise men who have the decoder ring to translate a particular passage so he can determine exactly what the Bible has to say about his experiment. Hmm, this might prove difficult. Try getting Christians to agree on what the Bible really means. And so this goes on. No one can agree to what the Bible is saying: do tachyon's exist or don't they? Well, this passage says they do, but only if you read it on a full moon when my ass isn't itching from sitting on the carpet too long. And this passage clearly states that tachyons don't exist. But it's about as clear as a West Virgina coal-mine. Oh, sure, you can look up anything in the Bible. Anything that was already discovered and we already know. But how about anything, GASP, new?!
Now, you may be wondering, why exactly is there so much confusion? Doesn't the Bible talk about dinosaurs and nuclear energy and blah blah blah? What's so hard about reading the Bible and figuring out exactly what God says about a given topic? Well, it's hard because the Bible has never been used to accurately predict anything. Yes, you can say that the Bible talks about all those fancy sciency terms I mentioned, but as long as you know what you're looking for, and if you look really hard and are very lenient about interpretation, you can find the full names of all the US presidents hidden in the Bible. Just flip it upside down, hold it to a black light and squint. From 12 miles away. On a stormy night.
Here's the page where I got that science crap - link. Read the passages they give in most of the examples and tell me you could have gotten the same results if you didn't know you had to look for dinosaurs or the spherical shape of the Earth. Actually, the "spherical shape of the Earth" argument rests on a translation. Whoo!
When has the Church ever made a clear statement accurately predicting anything? Actually, when have they ever made a statement predicting anything at all? When have they said "next Tuesday, Maury the cabby in New York will find Giuseppe's wallet that Giuseppe will have lost on Sunday" and have it come true. OK, that was sort of a simple one. How about predicting the Second Coming? Unified field theory? Or, hey, check it out, the attempt on the Pope? Or anything new that we don't already know?! The Church will "accept" the pagan theory once in a while, like with the Big Bang, but they'll never put forward a theory that can be proven one way or another. I mean, the Second Coming is perfect: it hasn't happened yet, but that means that it will happen sometime later. There's no due date, and that's not the Church's fault, it's God's plan. The only time the Church will even acknowledge something that's not in the Bible, like the Big Bang or evolution, is when enough followers agree and there won't be much of a reaction. The Church will welcome homosexuals a few decades after every country in the world has defined marriage as a union of two individuals. Maybe I'm being optimistic? If you really wanna know, look it up in the Bible.
EDIT: Upon further examination of the webpage I linked to, I found the following:
We are not aware of any [their emphasis] scientific evidence that contradicts the Bible.
Jokes of Christian ignorance and "la-la-la, if I don't see it then it doesn't exist" aside, I'd like to address the statement. Science cannot contradict the Bible because there is nothing to contradict. We say that the world is 13.7 billion years old, which contradicts the Bible's 6,000 year timeline and the apologists have to explain to us ignorant swine that (a) the six days of creation don't necessarily mean six 24-hour events or (b) God created a Universe already 13.7 billion years old. Or both, at the same time. How can you argue or attempt to contradict something that changes depending on the angle and the time of day or the scientific evidence is blasted with the one-answer-fits-all response of "it's God"?!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
What the f---?
A plane crashed into a building in Manhattan today, October 11! What the f---?
Wikipedia Link - has links to other news sites as well.
Joke? Creepy coincidence?
EDIT: I think this proves something I've thought about for a long time: famous people should not fly planes.
Now I'm just going to sit and wait for Travolta to plow his plane into the ground. It's coming. As foretold by Lord Xenu.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Work
Got feedback about my first code hand-in: 53 "suggestions" from my boss. Which, if it was what I expected it to be, would be perfectly fine. I expected it would be stuff like "hey, look here, this can be a bug" or "remember to include this file for backwards compatibility". But no! Most of the "suggestions" are style! "Do comments in this way", "name your variables like this", "don't put the space over here, it could be confusing", "explain the function better in the comments", "follow this convention". Argh!
Monday, October 09, 2006
Columbus Day?!
Did you know it was Columbus Day? I didn't. I wouldn't have known about it at all, seeing how this Monday is like any other Monday. Except for the fact that I got a Delivery exception on my FedEx package! The damn package is 5 miles from me, and I can't have it because FedEx chose to honor a particular holiday. And they are probably doing it save money, or something. What do you wanna bet that the people who ship stuff the more expensive method (not Express Saver!) will get their packages on time.
So, lets work out, once again, why I hate shopping online: I make a purchase on Thursday, it gets posted online next Thursday, gets shipped Friday, gets here Monday but it's a holiday so I have to wait, gets to my place Tuesday, I'm not home so they leave it in the management office, the office closes at 6 pm, I get home after 6 and get stuck holding a package notice, on Wednesday I stay home until 9 am to get the package, which I then put in my apartment and leave to go to work, come back Wednesday evening and finally take the PSU out of the box. If everything goes according to plan, I plug the PSU into my new PSU tester and the tester lights up red! I get out my gun, shoot the PSU and ship it back for a full refund.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Things to do if you're bored
Found an interesting list of things to do while you're bored.
Here's the link - Fun E Humor
My favorite suggestion has to be this one: Pick up a dog so it can see things from your point of view. I thought about this, and it's so true. Sherlock has never seen the kitchen countertops or a keyboard or what the heck is on the big, green table in the basement. It's a ping-pong table.
Mullholland Drive
I don't normally bash movies, mainly because I avoid watching the terrible ones (think White Chicks or Agent Cody Banks), but I have to say this about Mullholland Drive: worst movie ever! A waste of time. If it wasn't for the hope that everything would be explained in the end, I would have stopped watching half-way through. Do yourself a favor and skip this horrific flick.
EDIT: Having read the Wikipedia entry of the movie, I am now convinced that this is the worst movie that I would ever recommend to anyone or would myself watch again. Here's how it breaks down: the movie is good, iff (iff = if and only if) you have someone sitting with you and telling you what in the hell is going on on screen. Maybe I'm an idiot. Or maybe, just maybe, Lynch could have been a bit clearer and not so messed up in his movie-making.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Feelin' good
You know what's a good feeling? When your boss tells you to start working on something, and you tell him "yeah, I'm actually done with that" and he stands there for a moment with nothing to say. Oh yeah!
My new PSU
Ooh, look, I ordered a new PSU last Thursday (a week ago) and just got an e-mail notifying me that they're shipping it. I go to the FedEx link, and it doesn't even say picked up: "Package data transmitted to FedEx". Anyone wonder what the hell they mean by this? Did they tell FedEx that there's a package waiting to be picked up? It's almost 6pm on the West coast. That means that the earliest that FedEx is getting around to simply picking up my PSU is tomorrow. Of course it'll sit in some warehouse over the weekend and I might see it next week, around Wednesday-Thursday. And that's me being optimistic!
ARGHH!!
Jumper (again)
So, it's confirmed: Sam is playing the role of Brian Cox. Whoot! Lets see him pwn Davy a new one.
On a side note, it's also been confirmed that Anakin Skywalker is going to be playing Davy. I still don't know what to think, since I think this actor is pretty much a hack, but, I suppose with right direction he can pull it off.
Davy's father is slated to be played by Michael Rooker. Look this guy up. He certainly looks like a drunk, abusive father. Hahahaha. Oh, I kill myself. No, what I mean is that he looks like he'll fit the role just fine.
The budget of the movie is apparently around 100 mill. Good or bad, I'm not sure. If the movie doesn't do really, really well, the studio is unlikely to front more money, so the trilogy dies. That would make me a saaaad panda.
Oh, and Tom Hulce is going to appear, although I have no idea as whom. He's playing a character that isn't in the books, as far as I know. If you're wondering who Tom Hulce is, join the club. He played Mozart in Amadeus. And pretty much nothing else. Well, he did theater stuff, but who's going to count that, right? No, wrong. Shut up.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
CSI
Watching CSI:NY right now.
There are things that piss me off about this show, certainly, but I do like it. Things like: what's with all the puns?! Really, are CSI's that "funny"? Or do they need to make these horrible puns because their jobs are so boring in real life? And, these people have all the databases in the world. Just now they were looking up a feather in a FEATHER DATABASE! Anyone ever hear of this crap? They've got a database for everything. A guy comes in with a scrap of crap he picked up at a crime scene, the lab tech analyzes it, tells the guy the scrap consists of, that it's actually gum, then pulls up a database to tell what kind of gum it is and where it's made. Waaa?!
Smith
So, I've been watching Smith for the past three weeks. It's this show about a group of thieves doing heists. Only it's not. Not really. Sure, it's a group of thieves. Sure, they do a heist in each episode. But the heists are all small. The first episode was promising, but it only showed one messed-up heist. And now, we're being shown a crap-load of interpersonal drama, the effects of the messed up heist and who's screwing whom. Yes, they do heists, but it's either not as a group, or it's not the big heist. Like, three people out of the group will have their own heist. Or the group will have a mini-heist to acquire yet another necessary thing for the big heist. So, imagine a big and cool heist happening once a month. I'm sitting here going "what the hell?!", expecting that it'll be CSI inside-out, but it's more like House stretched out four or five times: you've got this big case, and there's all the preparation and crap, and there's the small cases in between. But it doesn't happen within 44 minutes, no, it happens in four or five 44-minute segments. And it bores the hell out of you.
Ooh, lets look at the wife be suspicious. OK, here she is being suspicious. Here she is again. Again being suspicious. And here's a commercial break. And we're back. Now we're looking at who's screwing whom. Mindless, forgetable and unimportant conversation follows. Commercial. Oh, look, Mr. "No Lips" (Ray Liotta) is walking around. He talks to a guy who might come in on the job. Then he sees the suspicious wife. Then he goes home. They have a tense moment where he knows she followed him, and she hopes he doesn't know. Commercial. Ooh, they highjack a truck. And store it in the garage for the "big" heist. Yay. Whoa, wait, commercial again?! Screw you!
So, at that point I fired two shots into the ceiling. Then things turn blurry and I don't remember waking up in prison, but apparently I did, and I must have said something to the wrong guy, cause now I have this ham sandwich stuck up my nose.
EDIT: OK, I do like Amy Smart in the show. She's pretty hot. And Jonny Lee Miller is awesome, foreign, and also pretty hot. Now, Ray Liotta just freaks me out. The guy has no lips. Imagine the inverse of the Angelina Jolie thing. It's so weird!
So, the characters aren't bad at all. I like them. Virginia Madsen is awesome, as is Shohreh Aghdashloo of the 24 fame. But they really don't have a lot to work with. Most of the time we see the cast wearing Armani as they walk around and plan and scheme and cavort. Whoop-dee doo. Reminds me of CSI: NY. Except that it sucks. Whereas CSI: NY just plain rules.
CSI: NY is my favorite CSI. Miami just plain sucks, and Vegas bores me. Ooh, look, more cases involving casino bigshots, hookers or stupid tourists. The reason I like CSI: NY is cause you've got this great city to work with. The city is built on so much history. You've got secret passages and tunnels and it's alive, constantly changing. Vegas is a sandbox with a bunch of over-sexed idiots. Whoo!
The Seattle Times
So, Taty asked me to get her two weeks-worth of The Seattle Times. No biggie.
I started on Monday. On Tuesday I came across a very interesting front page. Two things on it caught my eye:
First - American Idol is doing tryouts in Seattle, and Paula Abdul takes a dump on the tryouts, saying that the talent is "astoundingly awful". I'm a bit irked by that, but whatever, judges are meant to say stuff like that. Under her comment is the line from Simon. Seems the singers were mean to him. Mean. To Simon. Oh dear god, what will we do. The meanest judge in America is complaining that the singers used big-people words and hurt his fragile spirit? Simon, please be kind to shove it. You've been an ass for four years, and now you can't take it when a few of the attention-hungry idiots call you a bad name? Somewhere, there's a room full of people who care. It's Steve, the president and sole member of your fan club, sitting in his parents' basement, eating Cheetos and drooling all over your picture.
Second - UW revokes some admissions offers in severe cases of "senioritis". In the extreme cases where students' grades plumeted in the year, or semester, of high school after being admitted to college, the applicants were notified that their offers have been revoked. One poor bastard was notified of this two days after he moved into his dorm. Yikes! Anyhow. What's the reason? The school says that it's only fair to those students who continued to work hard right up to graduation. Like that, do you? In a related move, UW is instituting the following policies:
- All sports scholarships are revoked. The school feels it's only fair to those students who continued to work hard right up to graduation. And before graduation. And in college. All four years. And basically all the time.
- All classes are brought up to the same difficulty level. Students taking classes in Leisure Studies, Figure Skating, Film Analysis, Basketball, Business Ethics, Political Science Survey, Earth Science, Physics 101 (How Things work), Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a multitude of other classes, will now be required to do 20-page weekly reports, complete 4-hour lab sessions, do lab-work outside of class and take monthly no-calculator, closed-book, no-extra credit, 40%-average-score-for-the-class, in-class exams. The school feels it's only fair to those students who take real classes and have real majors.
- SAT, ACT and GPA scores will be divided by the IQ score of the applicant to get an adjusted score. The school feels it's only fair to those students who scored lower only because of their lower intelligence.
- SAT, ACT and GPA scores will be further adjusted based on: birthdate of the applicant, to offset any astrological effects; the applicant's average popularity score in high-school to be fair to students who were too popular and thus had spent more time partying and hanging out with the in-crowd instead of studying; the average teacher-unfairness score to be fair to students who were singled out and purposefully picked on my their teachers; the average bully-attraction score of the applicant to be fair to students who were singled out by the school bullies and could not concentrate properly on their studies.
- In the further interest of fairness, UW's campus will be split up into two walled-off, maximum-security sections to separate the students by gender. The school feels it's only fair to give the jocks the same chance of getting girls that the nerds have always had to put up with: no chance in hell.
OYG
Wow! - People Link
That's Sam, and he's starring in "Jumper"! Of course, that should have been expected, since he's in everything, but still. I absolutely love "Jumper" and Sam, so this is a pretty neat combination. I think he'll be playing the big-shot NSA honcho Brian Cox. In the book the guy is white, but with Sam, I don't think anyone will notice, as he'll still be a bad-ass. I'm pretty sure he's playing Cox, because there aren't any other important male roles in the book. Aside from Davy's father (sorta weird if he's played by Sam, unless Davy was adopted, and that screws with the story) and Rashid Matar. I'm hoping Sam doesn't play Matar, simply because I wouldn't like it if Sam played a bad guy. Of course, this isn't adaptation, it's more of reimagining, or whatever. Same concept, but they're adding characters (Griffin) and probably changing the whole Arab-terrorists-highjacking-planes theme of the first book. Though, this is supposed to be a trilogy, so who really knows. I certainly hope that they do go for the whole trilogy thing, and not stop after the first movie. "Battlefield Earth" was supposed to be the first of two, but because it bombed so spectacularly, no one in their right mind is even considering making a sequel. I sincerely hope that doesn't happen here and we get a solid trilogy. Not to spoil anything for anyone, but I hope they deviate from the books and keep Cox for the whole trilogy. Not because it might be Sam, but because I like the character, and it would be nice to see more of him.
That's all for now. And, as it often happens when I talk about books, I have to make a few small suggestions:
READ "REPLAY"! READ "JUMPER"! READ "FLASH FORWARD"!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Shipping. Ah!
So, as I've said before, shipping sucks. I purchased a thing online on Thursday. It's Tuesday, and the order is still being sent to the warehouse. The people haven't even gotten off their asses to get me my power supply. Thankfully I chose the slowest shipping method. Imagine how pissed off I'd be if I paid for next day air (most expensive, I think), expected the package on Friday or possibly Saturday, and was told on Tuesday that it's still sitting there in the warehouse, waiting for a lazy bastard to get it from a shelf and stick it in a crappy package.
That's another thing, everyone is trying to maximize their profit, so they cut back on the shipping. Amazon now ships stuff in envelopes, where before they used to have real boxes stuffed with packing material. I got Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay from Buy.com, and the game came in a dinky envelope. The box is all bent up and I hate looking at it. I like nice boxes. That's a reason that I buy games that I like instead of just downloading them illegally.
Anyway, that's just me being pissed about shipping. But it's not like I don't have a reason.
I bought a game online. The guy mailed it on Saturday (unlike Amazon, who didn't do anything for almost a month). It's being shipped USPS. I got an e-mail with a tracking number. Yesterday, the website said that the package was delivered at 11:30am. So, I come home early, expecting to fly some planes, kill some hookers and drive a tank through the streets, but there's no package. Nowhere. Sure, I checked the mail, I checked my door. No slips. No mention of a package. Damn I'm pissed. And, even if I get the package today, the office closes at 6pm, so if the package is in the office, I have to wait till tomorrow morning to pick it up, and wait again until tomorrow evening to do all those fun things. Gah!
Yes, I hate shopping online, but I have no other option. The power supply and GTA: The Trilogy are only available online. No brick-and-mortar stores near me sell them.
So it goes.
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