Kinetic Typography

SURELY, I am the last person to discovery the kinetic typography videos on YouTube, yes? So, there's really no reason to blog about it.

But here are some of my favorites:

Pulp Fiction

Who's on first? (A classic bit; I also enjoy its many variations)

Peter Griffin dislikes "The Godfather" (Probably my favorite of the bunch right here ^_^)

(There are a lot more good ones out there)

I don't know what took me so long to finally see these. I guess they're just not the type of thing I normally watch. ;-)

PAX update

The $5 off ($45 total) preregistration price expires soon. The exhibit hall (PDF) looks much bigger than I remember from last year. Oh look, Brawndo is going to be there!

Also, they've announced the Keynote speaker: "screenwriter and developer Ken Levine"

What what? Ken Levine, (sort-of) famous writer (e.g. Frasier, Cheers, Wings) who has a sweet blog I sometimes read? I didn't know he was working as a game developer.

That's because he totally isn't. They meant Ken Levine, who worked on BioShock (among others). [Unrelated sidenote: BioShock was only $15 on Steam this past weekend. Crazy! That's how I found out about the Penny Arcade game, and now we're going in circles...]

Also also, MC Chris dropped out as a musical act, but Jonathan Coulton will be there! So will MC Frontalot, The OneUps, The MiniBosses, and some people I've never heard of (Anamanaguchi, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, Freezepop).

What brought about all this seemingly-random update nonsense? Because the "Describe PAX in Seven Words" contest winners are posted.

• Saw you across the room. Horde, right? (Victoria Worthington)
• Lights sway: A Sea of DS’ glow. (Lisa Johnson)
• Where gamers go to be as One. (Scott Platkus)
• I *STILL* haven’t finished all this ramen. (Phoenix Gabriel, that's me!)
• I fell and accidentally flashed Wil Wheaton (Kate Newman)
• I stand in awe. Finally, I’m home. (Wade Larson)
• I’m only anonymous in my basement? Sh*tc*ck! (Matt Thrailkill)
• And the best of the haiku entries: The Omegathon | Twenty Omeganauts Try | One Victorious (Sean Martin)

Now, of course, I've already been notified, right? Well, here's the thing about me: I've got such fringe luck (in both directions) that I've come to expect the unexpected. Like the time I won a free copy of a soon-to-be-released game (unexpected) only to have the game company fold before its release (unexpected). So I was fully prepared for this to be a trick by some prankster (I know how easy it is to spoof e-mail, since I am a total computer nerd). But there it is, my name, on the official PAX site. That makes it real. ^_^

Of course, now the horrible thought is that they think I'm the guy that won the "Win your weight in ramen" contest (same booth from which I got my case of ramen). I'm totally not. They're going to find out, and they're going to kick me out of PAX.

Star Wars, Episode 37

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There are more like this.

Dr. Horrible returns

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Missed Dr. Horrible when it premiered? Catch it again on Hulu. Or get it on iTunes. When is that DVD going to come out?

UPDATE: Apparently Hulu put out a press release saying that Dr Horrible will be up for four months. But I can't find it.

Missed Opportunities

So, there's a Penny Arcade game, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (Episode One). Cool, right? But pricey.

Normally, it's $20, which is a bit too high for me for an episodic game. I'd gladly pay $10 for it though. That's the price point I'm waiting for. But, that's probably going to take a while.

EXCEPT it was $10 two weeks ago! For the weekend only.

Missed opportunities are frustrating.

Western Spaghetti

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Another excellent stop-motion from PES.

Buying a TV

So, today's Woot is an Emerson 32" LCD HDTV
$399.99 + ($5 shipping).

HDTV for $405? Count me in, right? Whoa there, cowboy. A couple of the posters in the forum sent me to this:



A Westinghouse SK-32H240S - 32 inch LCD with a better screen and way more inputs. (It's the inputs that do it for me), right now $430. No tax here in WA, free shipping (or $5 for expedited shipping). But wait, there's more! $10 off $200 in electronics knocks it down to $420, plus I can get another $30 off if I sign up for their visa card. So it's really $390 vs $405 shipped (both are refurbished). $15 less for a better TV. And the Buy.com one offers the ability to purchase an extended warranty for $50 (Woot does not have this option).

Am I crazy to buy this? With the extended warranty, it's $440, which is more than a month's rent. And I don't have a job at the moment, so it would come out of my meager savings... but it's a good deal. The people who bought it either love it or had it break (hence the extended warranty). And I've been meaning to buy a TV since I came back from Japan. The previous TV I wanted went out of stock before I bought it (missed opportunity!). This is the best deal I've seen since then.

What do you guys think?

Cheesecake Factory

I've never been to one. Is it good?

On Wednesday July 30^th, they'll be selling cheesecake for $1.50 per slice in honor of they're 30^th anniversary (eg, same price as in 1978).

Doesn't help me though, since the nearest one is apparently in Bellevue.

Font Conference

Fails for:

• Comic Sans not sucking
• Lack of Helvetica

Talk Radio

Graham has some theological questions.
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Large Hadron Collider is coming....

Not that the world is going to end or anything. I mean, probably not. Sure, some crazy people think that this will create microscopic black holes that will fall into Earth's gravity and feed on the core of the planet, growing exponentially fast until everything is part of it.^* How ironic would it be for our evolved intelligence to bring about our very destruction? Ha! But what are the odds that THIS is our Great Filter?

It is not far fetched to suppose that there might be some possible technology which is such that(a) virtually all sufficiently advanced civilizations eventually discover it and (b) its discovery leads almost universally to existential disaster.

• Nick Bostrom (May/June 2008). "Where Are They?". MIT Technology Review.

Have a good night! ^_^

^*The great thing about this idea is that we wouldn't necessarily even know it had happened until shortly before the world ends! Of course, it's unlikely to happen. LHC-like collisions happen all the time in our upper atmosphere. So, if microscopic black holes were going to devour us, they should have done so already, right?<sup>++

++</sup>Of course, matter is much denser here on the hard surface of the planet. The upper atmosphere is mostly empty vacuum, actually. But, that probably won't make a difference. Surely all the scientists have already thought of that, right?<sup>**

**</sup>Right?<sup>][

][</sup>Man, I hope the world doesn't end before PAX.

Awesome PAX Adventure!

PAX is BACK (August 29^th - 31^st), and I'm totally going! But wait until you hear why.

So, very shortly after my return from Japan last summer, I attended PAX (the Penny-Arcade Expo), which happened to be in Seattle that same weekend. It was pretty cool, although I only got to go for one day, and I missed all the big stuff (Jonathan Coulton, Wil Wheaton) but I did get to see the second Mike/Jerry Q&A which was great stuff.

I also got some swag, mostly expo cruft but also a big case of ramen! There was a booth promoting a Naruto game, and the booth was like constructed with cases of ramen (Naruto's favorite food). Well, towards the end of the day, the guys running the booth just started handing the cases off to whomever was standing nearby (bonus for the crowd and less for them to pack out later, win win). I followed the stream of attendees carrying cases of ramen back to the source and got my own. ^_^ Sweet!

Unfortunately, I had been spoiled by years of living in Japan, and American ramen didn't cut it like it used to. I ate fewer and fewer packets as time went on, only returning to them at the end of each quarter like the poor hungry college student I was am. But I couldn't finish them off, and now that case sits in my office.

So, that was last year. ^_^

THIS year, (a few days ago, actually), "Gabe" posted a new contest on the Penny-Arcade site. Write about your previous PAX experience. In exactly seven words.

It was Wednesday afternoon when I saw this (the deadline day), and to make sure that I entered before I forgot, I wrote something on the spot and sent it off.

"I *STILL* haven't finished all this ramen!"

And if you know me at all, you totally see where this is heading. ^_^

About an hour ago, I got an e-mail with the subject "Congratulations!"

If you're getting this email, then yes! You've been selected as one of the 8 winners for your 7-word submission!

Sweet!

[Name and contact information requested here, etc]

Thanks, and congrats!

-Robert

I totally won the contest. I won the hell out of it! I'm going back to PAX, baby!

Does... um, does anyone want to carpool to Seattle? :-/

Dr. Horrible (and stuff)

You already know that Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has all three episodes up and running. What you may not know is: it's not going to last. Quoth the Whedon:

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th. Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom – that’s still playing. Like, everywhere.)

So enjoy them whilst you can.

Also, if you haven't read it yet, check out Captain Hammer's 8-page comic over on Bad Dark Horse Comics' myspace.

Finally, console me over the fact that all the Captain Hammer t-shirts were sold-out in my size. :-(

Barney's Blog.... RSS FEED!

It's the great Barney's Blog, now with syndication! Recent entries are hosted on TVGuide.com. It has ads and stuff, but hey! RSS!

(Also, the official site has gone downhill. No more old entries, no more sorting by month, etc. Man, I wish I had archived that when I had the chance. Wait, I^* totally did. The graphics are gone, and everything is out of order. If I were more motivated, I'd recover the old pages and archive them on some commonly used free service or something. But I'm lazy busy. ^_^)

* For certain values of I.

Photoshop Disasters

So very very painful.

Veritas Vos Liberabit

The Handwriting of Typographers

Cruising /. today and ran across this great article on type designers. (No Helvetica though)

(short posts indicate that I am wandering the streets of Spokane)

James Blunt at Top Gear

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Surprisingly witty, a great interview with James Blunt. Here it is! Now I can stop telling people about it. (Apparently I misremembered his lap time though)

(short posts indicate that I am still slightly homeless and wandering the streets of Cheney)

Bacon

We all remember Kris's Bacon Salt video, yes? Indeed, bacon is beloved by all. Then, surely you have all seen these?

Maple-Bacon Lollipops
Bacon flavored mints
and the item that led me to the others: Bacon floss

^_^

(short posts indicate that I am still homeless and wandering the streets of Yakima)

RIP George Carlin

A comedian and philosopher, George Carlin passed away yesterday at the age of 71. Let us never forget:

shit
piss
fuck
cunt
cocksucker
motherfucker
and tits.

Finding Businesses in Google Maps

Random thought of the day:

Looking for a clothing store near the hotel I'll be staying at in Lacey, I began to wonder what the other nearby businesses were. I can clearly see these large buildings with expansive parking lots, and no idea what business is there.

So, why don't businesses put their name on their roof? With satelite imagery (like Google Maps) becoming mainstream, this is an advertising venue they are totally missing out on. How much could it possibly cost?

Time travel back to 1000 A.D.: Survival tips

There is a fairly fascinating thread going on over at Marginal Revolution regarding unexpected time travel. The basic premise is this: suppose that you were suddenly transported back to 1000AD. You only have what you were wearing and your knowledge. What steps would you take to ensure your survival?

The entire thread is a _long_ read at the moment (and getting longer), but the suggestions range from the practical to the hilarious.

I don't know what I'd do; I can't even think past the inevitable massive caffeine-withdrawal headache.

Retarded Policeman (Episode 9: Boobies!)

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Why did I laugh at this? It wouldn't appear to be my kind of humor at all.

"So, I should get rid of the hobo?"

Josh is funny.

Pillow Talk

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From BriTANick.com

Poor choices

My computer recently crashed with a blue screen of death. I was quite unprepared for it, since I hadn't restarted my computer in over a month. So I hadn't had a reason to close firefox. So... I hadn't saved my open tabs. Of which, there were many.

Oh, but I have Tab Mix Plus installed, right? That saves open tabs. And, even if it didn't, I still have my tabs from the previous two sessions, yes?

Obviously NO, otherwise why would I be posting about it?

TMP stores the previous two sessions AND the current session (in case of crash) in THE SAME FILE. So, if that file is being written to DURING the crash, everything is gone. The current tabs, the last session tabs, the previous tabs, EVERYTHING. Because they couldn't be arsed to separate these things into different files.

It's not the most retarded design decision I've seen this month, but it's pretty fucking close.

If you use firefox (which you should), and you use tmp (which you also should, it's just crap at sessions), may I heartily recommend Session Manager? It's about 1000x better, and works very well with tmp. Don't make the same mistake I made of relying on tmp. Because it will fail.

(By the way, the new version of firefox 3 is ridiculously fast. Best browser I've ever used, and I basically live online. Get it.)

Bother

It bothers me when people don't read the entire contents of an e-mail before responding. I spent some time crafting that message, choosing the right words, the best phrases... And then they read the first two sentences and reply.

True story: I'm working on my masters project for computer science. What I would like to do is use games as a medium for education, eg, an RPG where you learn a language while playing. Simple, right? And while I could do this easily on a computer, for the specific game I have in mind, a stylus is preferred. So, the Nintendo DS would be ideal. But, as just a guy, I don't really fit the developer profile they are looking for. However, I decided to send them an e-mail to ask them, just to be sure. Something like:

Hi, I'm a student working on my final project, and I was wondering if Nintendo has an educational program for developers. Since I don't meet the specifications for a developer license myself, could my university acquire one? Thanks for your time.

What I got back was (verbatim):

Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,

While I would like to assist you with your project, I don't have access to the type of information you are looking for. Due to the number of similar e-mail we receive, we're not able to assist with projects like yours, and we're not equipped to track down official responses to questions.

It may interest you to know that all of the information we have available is posted on our website at www.nintendo.com. If you visit our site, be sure to check out the "Corporate" section. This is where we have posted Nintendo's business-related information, annual reports, and a company history.

Also, several books and articles have been written on the video game industry. "Game Over" by David Sheff and "The Ultimate History of Video Games" by Steve L. Kent were written several years ago, but are excellent resources on the video game industry.

Although we regret being unable to assist you with your request, we're confident that you will find the listed resources useful.

Sincerely,

Nintendo of America Inc.

At first, I thought they were talking about my actual project, but as I continued reading, I realized that somehow they got the impression that I was writing a report on the history of gaming or Nintendo or something. Grrr.

Where's Phoenix?

I hate the end of the quarter.

There are a lot of fun-sounding things going on, and I can't go to any of them, because I have to finish my quarter-long-projects.

:-(

Sasquatch

Just got back from the Squatch. Most of the caravan had tickets for Sat+Sun, so it was decided to camp out in the desert near George. And since there were so many people going, some of us had to go early and save camping spots. So, we headed out on Thursday.

I haven't gone camping for over a decade. It was a lot of fun. Wait, did I say fun? It was a lot of rain. A whole lot. It pretty much rained constantly except for Saturday, when it got crazy hot.

I was there to see Dan the Automator. He was playing with Crudo, whom I'd never heard of, but they weren't bad. And that introduced me to Butterscotch, who is ridiculously talented.

Modest Mouse played later and REM followed, but the rain had returned. In fact, we got rained out of most of REM's performance, and I love REM.

The following day, most people had had so much fun that they sold their Sunday tickets and came back early. ^_^ They didn't need any more fun. They had reached a saturation point for fun (and/or rain). Good times!

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera (although I did remember to charge the batteries for it. My old-timers is selective), so no pics yet. Hopefully I'll pick some up from the other adventurers.

(also, it was a tad more expensive than I anticipated. I had my credit card declined today for the first time. But that's OK, since I was just buying food, and how much of that stuff do you really need anyway?)

Professionals

I saw an ad just now for Professional Singles, a matchmaking site.

I know that the name means singles who are professionals, but my first thought was that they were targeting people who had been single for so long that they turned pro.

Not quite right

So I dump out a bag of skittles so I can sort them by color (as I am known to do), and I think something looks a bit off...



And then I spot it.



I don't know what the hell it is, but it ain't no skittle. It's hard, like a pebble. Hmm.

Procrastination

So, my computer crashed and I lost my work around 3am. I started over (hey, it was all fresh in my mind, right?) and worked for about another three hours when I realized I was so tired I couldn't type properly anymore. So I thought I would pop home, take a short power-nap, get up re-energized and polish my paper. Right?

Well, I got a little too optimistic, and set my alarm so early* that I slept through it, and then slept through class.

I am reminded of Lev's "Tales of mere existence", specifically the Procrastination episode:
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(although Saturday is similar)

*I needed to wake up early because I had to get a lot of stuff done.

THINGS I DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE

Hey, GUESS WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!

KDE crashed!

I lost all the work I had open! Including FOUR FUCKING PAGES OF NOTES FOR MY FIVE PAGE PAPER DUE TODAY!

So, instead of being ALMOST DONE I now get to START OVER FROM THE BEGINNING!

Hey, have I mentioned that it's now past THREE IN THE MORNING?

YAY!!

Linux Is For Supervillains

This animation is OLD, but it came up again at work today (my co-workers haven't seen it, which makes me a sad panda).



Unfortunately, the video comes from a time long ago, when autoplay was still OK and flash videos didn't have to play well with others. So I'm not putting it on the front page, but hiding it here.

"The Office" original Japanese version

(From the SNL sketch)

Kosuke's Adventure

From an e-mail I received today:

Cheney, Wash. -

Eastern Washington University is pleased to announce that Dr. Kosuke Imamura has been selected as the 2008 Fosseen-Kusaka Distinguished Professorship Fellow by Mukogawa Women's University in Nishinomiya, Japan.

Imamura, who is an assistant professor in Eastern's College of Science, Health and Engineering, was selected from a pool of several faculty applicants at the conclusion of the fall 2007 open nomination process.

Imamura will travel to Japan in early June where he will be hosted by the Mukogawa Women's University (MWU) Informatics Department. During his one-week stay, he will be introduced to Japanese culture, deliver lectures in his academic field to MWU students and interact with his Japanese faculty colleagues.

Eastern is proud to offer this unique opportunity in association with Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute (MFWI), a branch campus of Mukogawa Women's University, as part of the ongoing partnership between Eastern Washington University and its Japanese counterparts. Eastern has worked with MFWI to foster international exchange and strengthen professional ties between our institutions since 1994.

To emphasize, in case you missed it, they are going to fly Kosuke Imamura (a Japanese gentleman) to Japan where he will (among other things) be introduced to Japanese culture. I'm sure he is looking forward to this exciting once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn about a distant land.

Ri-damn-diculous SMW Auto-run

So, there are these auto-run hacked levels of Super Mario World, which if you haven't seen yet, GIYF. (Check the via link if you can't find any)

But never have I seen a level like this. This is an 11-minute monster, which in addition to being completely automatic, incorporates sound effects from the actions of the game synchronized with the music. You really have to see (and hear) it to believe it.


(via)

Comic Book Clinton

I was reading an old copy of Supreme and who should make a guest appearance but none other than Hillary Clinton.


(From "Supreme: The Return", issue #1)

Porn for girls, by girls

Finally, a website that knows what girls truly want. (sfw?)

Things younger than Republican Presidential candidate John McCain

Pre-Taped Call In Show

This came up at the Thomas/Morah Birthday Bonanza (and Bowling), but I had never seen it. Well, now I have. ^_^

From the 3rd season of Mr. Show.

WTF, in concentrated video form.

*Warning*, this video will make your head explode.
I guarantee it.



(via)

Hobbit-holes, Part Three

Here are the promised pictures from the Fallout-Shelter tour:


Approaching the entrance..


Closer...


That same entrance, seen from the inside.


Above us is a skylight...


...which can be closed.


To the right of the entrance is an empty wall.


To the left of the entrance is the kitchen-wall.


Left from the kitchen-wall is the entrance to the bathroom.


Through the bathroom door, on the right is a washer/dryer and bathroom sink (on left is toilet and bathtub).

It's basically one big round room, with a small separated bathroom.

Hey, you know what gives you a better spatial orientation than static pictures? A video!

Anyone remember Thunderbirds?

Here's a commercial featuring the resident genius, Brains.

Characters I don't Resemble, part II

If you haven't seen me this week, I've shaved off the beard (see Bloomsday pic, below).

But not the moustache.

It's such a different look for me. I've heard a half-dozen or so characters that I supposedly look like. By far the most common is:

Mario*. Maybe, if I wore overalls and white gloves, I might see it.

In second place is:

Wyatt Earp. Maybe I'll put on a cowboy hat and go to the gun range. I have a black suit, I just need a vest and pocket watch to go with it.

Tied for third are:

Yosemite Sam and Earl Hickey. I think Yosemite's is too long, Earl's too short.

I think most of it is that I have a moustache now, and these are people with moustaches. I don't personally think I look like any of them.

(* Mario picture is from here)

Characters I don't Resemble, part I

I've been told (while clean-shaven) that I look a bit like Hugh Laurie, aka Dr. House.



I just don't see it.

Hobbit-holes, Part Two

It's ON.

I'm scheduled to go check out the hobbit-hole (er, I don't really like that name. Can we call it the fall-out shelter?) TOMORROW @ 1:15pm. If you guys want to come see it, you're all welcome. ^_^

(Sorry I couldn't give more notice)

After Bloomsday

Today was Bloomsday. Here are my thoughts:

Ow. Ouch. Ow. Eeee. Ouch. Oooh. Ouch. Ow.


From Left to Right: Phoenix, Phoenix's belly, Becca, Zach

I'm Ready For Bed

Gotta get up early for Bloomsday tomorrow morning.

However, it appears that some young couple is having sex* on the grass behind Dryden, aka, right outside my window.

I guess I'll go hang out in the lounge for a while and give them some privacy.


* Or possibly the gentleman is moving heavy objects while the lady enthusiastically agrees?

Cheerful thought for the day

Out there in the Milky Way galaxy there's a lot of stars. Occasionally one goes nova, rarely supernova, as they explode. There is a sphere of very active radiation leaving such stars. If one went off in our vicinity, up to twenty light years away, say, all higher forms on Earth would be sterilised, at least.

More worrying still are gamma-ray bursters. Gamma-rays are very short wavelength electromagnetic radiation, such as x-rays. When astronomers managed to develop instruments that could detect such radiation , and put them in satellites, they discovered that two or three times per day the Earth is illuminated by an intense burst of gamma-rays coming from somewhere out in space.

So far, all the gamma-ray bursters we've seen are a long, long distance away. But one could light up anywhere. If a pair of neutron stars collapsed on to each other within a hundred light years of Earth, life might survive in the deep seas and the deepest rocks, but the rest of our planet would be dead.

And we wouldn't even see it coming.

Asteroids and comets give you a bit of notice. We have the capability, given a year's run-up time, to tackle small Earth-crossing asteroids now. We can see them coming and plot their arrival. But gamma-rays are electromagnetic: they travel at the speed of light. They could be on their way now: we couldn't know. As soon as we did know, we and our technology would be dead.

Terry Pratchett, The Science Of Discworld, p258-9, abridged.

Although the title is "The Science Of Discworld", it's really the science of our world. And it's fascinating. ^_^

Eggbeaters

It is curious that the strongest believers in the soul tend to be people who denigrate material things; yet they then turn their own philosophy on its head by insisting that when an evident process -- life -- comes to an end, there has to be a thing that continues. No. When a process stops, it's no longer 'there'. When you stop beating an egg, there isn't some pseudo-material essence-of-eggbeater that passes on to something else. You just aren't turning the handle any more.

Terry Pratchett, The Science Of Discworld, p187.

Moving on up...er, down.

So, the time has (almost) come for me to move out of my home.

I have lived in Dryden longer than any other place in my life. Is that sad? I can't tell.

Most people who live in Dryden consider it a home away from home. While I was in Japan, Dryden was the home I was away from.

But it's time to move on. Mostly because it's expensive to live here, and I'm going broke paying for my education.

In my quest for an off-campus housing solution, a friend of mine recommended this place:



That's right. It's a hobbit-hole.

Weight Loss: Week Four

Another week, another weigh-in. Not much change this week either.

Time so far: 4 weeks

Starting (avg) weight: 232.28 lbs
Previous (avg) weight: 229.08 lbs
Current (avg) weight: 228.96 lbs
Change this week: 0.12 lbs (eesh)
Target weight: <180 lbs

Starting (avg) body-fat: 32.72%
Previous (avg) body-fat: 31.1%
Current (avg) body-fat: 30.34%
Change this week: 0.76% (exactly the same as last week!)
Target body-fat: <25%

My never-go-to-the-gym diet is not working out as well as I'd hoped. :-(

I've got to stop staying up until 5am, if I want to be able to get up and go to the gym at 6:15...

Looking at the trends, my weight goes down all week, and then jumps back up over the weekend (my cheat day is Sunday). Maybe I'll move my weekly weigh-in to Friday...? ^_^

SLEEP

Hey guys, how's it going?

I was up all night working on OpSys stuff, but I did finish this morning around 7am. Good thing that I don't have class until this afternoon, eh? ^_^

Did you know that the rooms in Dryden have two windows? It's true! Of course, since I'm at the back corner of the building, outside one of my windows is the generator. And I guess we're having electricity problems, 'cause that puppy's been running for hours! Haha! That's one loud puppy.

Of course, I can barely hear the generator now. They're apparently cleaning up all the broken branches and throwing them in a wood chipper behind Dryden. GUESS WHERE THE WOODCHIPPER IS, GUYS! Did you guess "RIGHT OUTSIDE MY OTHER FRICKIN WINDOW?"

MY GOD, YOU MUST BE PSYCHIC! AHAHAHAHA!

You down with OCD?

Yeah, you know me.

Am I OCD?

Here are some skittles on my desk:


I'm not saying I'm OCD, but they sure didn't come in separate packages ordered by color.

Weight Loss: Week Three

Another week, another weigh-in. Not much change this week. Of course, sustainable weight-loss is often pegged at 1-2 pounds per week, so I guess I'm on schedule.

Time so far: 3 weeks

Starting (avg) weight: 232.28 lbs
Previous (avg) weight: 231.56 lbs
Current (avg) weight: 229.08 lbs
Change this week: 2.48 lbs
Target weight: <180

Starting (avg) body-fat: 32.72%
Previous (avg) body-fat: 31.86%
Current (avg) body-fat: 31.1%
Change this week: 0.76%
Target body-fat: <25%

My all-fudge-brownie diet is paying dividends. ^_^

Looking back over the week, I see that, yet again, I didn't go to the gym very often, and didn't watch my food intake very much. But "not very much" is loads more than "not at all". I'm still surprised at how little effort is required, just as long as it's more than nothing. Although, the same exact thing happened when I lost all my weight a few years ago.

It's clear that strength-training (this week), as opposed to cardio-vascular workouts (last week), are more beneficial weight-wise. Now, if I could just get my ass to the gym every morning...

Weight Loss: Week Two

Another week, another weigh-in. As I mentioned last week, I'm using my previous averaged numbers as my new baseline from this point forward.

Time so far: 2 weeks

Starting (avg) weight: 232.28 lbs
Current (avg) weight: 231.56 lbs
Target weight: <180

Starting (avg) body-fat: 32.72%
Current (avg) body-fat: 31.86%
Target body-fat: <25%

So, no great change so far. I guess the all cookie-dough diet isn't any better than last week's all bacon diet.

Using the spreadsheet-method, it's interesting to look back and see how often I made it to the gym last week, and what junkfood in my diet made it into my notes. This past week, for example, I hardly made it to the gym at all, but I'm more conscious of the crap I eat, so I still managed to lose a little weight.

Weight Loss: Week One

I followed a link Thomas made to a guy who lost 30 pounds in three months, keeping a spreadsheet. So I started keeping one, too.

It's interesting to see the huge weight shifts. Yesterday I was 233.0, today I'm 230.4. Have I lost two and a half pounds overnight? Not really, it's just a weight shift.

So, for my weekly* updates, I'm going to put the most recent 5-day-moving-average, instead of the daily weigh.

(*well... last week it was on Tuesday, this week it's on Wednesday, next week... who knows?)

Time so far: 1 week

Starting weight: 231.4 lbs
Current (avg) weight: 232.28 lbs
Target weight: <180

Starting body-fat: 31.2%
Current (avg) body-fat: 32.72%**
Target body-fat: <25%

(**also, my fat scale seems to be nearly completely random, so I don't know how helpful this is)

So, according to this, I've gained some pounds and fat. Apparently my all-bacon diet is backfiring horribly. Or, I was on a low weight-shift that first day. So, maybe I'll start from this first averaged data instead. We shall see!

Cool Things

(that haven't made it to Popular on Digg yet)

See-thru laptops!

Bills bills bills

I found out how much my surgery cost.

$4,628.36

Because, you know, my paycheck is around $400. So this is totally affordable.

I haven't actually received the bill yet. I found out how much it's going to be, because my insurance isn't paying it and the hospital called me.

:-(

Weight Loss: Week Zero

Like some other people, I've decided to get a bit healthier and drop my weight down a bit. Publicly.

I even got up at quarter to 6am to go to the gym. Bear in mind, my first class today wasn't until 5PM. (I don't know if I can do this two days in a row, since it's now 2:21am and I haven't slept yet...)

Unfortunately, I hadn't used my digital scale for so long, I didn't realize that the batteries had gone. So. I couldn't weigh myself this morning, but it's taken care of now.

There is no deadline. This will continue until I reach my goal or goals, and these goals may change.

Time so far: 0 weeks

Starting weight: 231.4 lbs
Current weight: 231.4 lbs
Target weight: <180 lbs

Starting body-fat: 31.2%
Current body-fat: 31.2%
Target body-fat: <25%

Pounds this week: 0 lbs
Pounds total: 0 lbs
Pounds remaining: ~51

Things I wish I had known just a little bit sooner

Baldy's closed today at 6pm, instead of 7pm.

It was taco night!

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke Has Left The Party

If I have given you delight
By aught that I have done,
Let me lie quiet in that night
Which shall be yours anon:
And for that little, little span
The dead are borne in mind
Seek not to question other than
The books I leave behind.

            Rudyard Kipling,
            "The Appeal"

Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at 1:30am local time. He was 90. Clarke had been battling debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s.

One hopes that he has found a home in Secular Heaven. He will certainly be missed.

Remembrances:
2007 December 90th Birthday Reflections

2007 September Arthur talks about the Cassini mission

2001 April Arthur greets attendees at ISDC 2001

1997 March Cybercast Hal's Birthday

1995 The Colours of Infinity about the Mandelbrot Set 1 2 3 4 5 6

1994 "Mysterious Universe" series clip 1 2 3

1988 God, The Universe, & Everything Else

What's my age again?

When I was getting my lunch at Baldy's today, the guy behind the counter asked me if I was visiting my kids here at the college.

WTF?

How old would I have to be to have college-age kids?

AFK, crying.

How much are you worth in bed?

Normally I avoid all things Internet-quizy, but this one's about sex. And like sex, I couldn't resist it.

Powered By Stimulators

Happy Birthday

Four years ago, I took an advanced graphics course from R. William Clark, a professor here at EWU.

Today is Dr. Clark's 15th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Bill. ^_^

Of course!

So, my laptop started breathing its last not too long ago, around the end of December. It had had a good three-year run, and I was going to miss it, but I was ready to move on to bigger and better things. Faster things. More Mac than then old girl.

My next laptop was going to be a Mac. Specifically, a Macbook Pro, a desktop replacement computer. Just my speed.

But, it was too close to the Macworld Expo, so I couldn't buy one. If I bought one, and then they announced a new, better, faster one (for the same price) a month later? I'd lost it.

So I decided to wait for Macworld. Which I did.

It came, and went, and no new Macbook Pro was announced. W.......what?

Maybe they would follow up a week later? Maybe some bugs needed to be worked out, and it was just near the door but not quite ready for prime-time, but almost, and on its way?

I waited.

No new Macbooks.

I waited.

My laptop finally gave up the ghost, and now I was without a home computer. I began spending even more time at work (with my working work computer). And I waited.

Well, eventually.... I just couldn't wait anymore. I bought a Lenovo T61p. It's not a Mac, but it has pretty good bang for the buck.

It arrived yesterday.

The new Macbooks came out today.

Of course.

HD DVD is dead, long live HD DVD

The HD wars are nearly over, and it appears that Blu-Ray is going to be the winner. That's too bad, as the HD-DVD format was, in my mind, the superior one. But what happens to it now? I ran across this interesting suggestion:

Don't throw it away... Recycle it...
by FellowConspirator (882908)

If it's a commercial failure, then why bury it. Just make the spec, tools, etc. free without license. There's a huge market for a low-cost high-capacity storage and video medium. Toshiba could make HD-DVD free to everyone. Blu-Ray can't beat that. Sure, the MPAA members will only ship Blu-Ray, but if it costs nothings to add to your drive, why wouldn't a vendor throw it on top just because. Home video and amateur cinematographers will have a reasonable format for producing, sharing, and storing footage, there'll be an HD replacement for VHS, and the cost for the blank media will plummet.

Then let's see who wins in the long run. Toshiba can still ship HD-DVD recorders, media, etc. Being fully open, the platform will reach every corner that Blu-Ray doesn't, by design. Blu-Ray is a very consumer-hostile format as-is; it's designed to limit the medium. Toshiba should give up not by burying it, but by becoming the antithesis of its competitor.

As a FOSS nerd (and all that implies), I find this idea incredibly intriguing.

As long as I'm here...

Since I'm re-uploading those pictures anyway, I thought I'd toss up my favorite commercial of all time.

Signs

(This is a free player I found on the innertubes, so if it's wonky, let me know)

Gone, baby, gone BACK, baby, back.

Just noticed that ALL OF MY OLD PICTURES ARE GONE FROM THE BLOG.

I used to use a port5.com host for pictures, back before Blogger hosted them. Port5 was bought out by Intrascape. Intrascape deleted all my pictures with no notice. UPDATE: Intrascape didn't delete anything; I was able to ftp in and retrieve them. Once I track down where each came from, I will restore them.

Since the originals were on a hard drive that crashed, I have no duplicates.

This makes me a sad panda.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I only recently realized that, because I'm back in America now, NO GIRLS ARE GOING TO BE GIVING ME CHOCOLATES ON VALENTINE'S DAY!

Sometimes I miss Japan more than others.

Phoenix and the Pizza Mystery

While I was recovering from my surgery, I didn't feel like going out much. So, last week, instead of getting up and going to the store, I ordered a pizza. I paid with a credit card, so I could save my precious precious cash for vending machines (Skittles!), and besides, credit cards are magic money!

Anyway, the delivery guy called me and told me to come down to the entrance. He'd be there in five minutes.

Now, there are TWO main entrances to my building. There is an entrance on the 1st floor, but it isn't often used for deliveries, because the delivery person has to come up a flight of stairs to get there, and very few people live on the 1st floor anyway.

The most commonly used entrance for deliveries is the 2nd floor entrance, from the back (it's a split-level building, so the 2nd floor entrance is also a ground floor). For this entrance, the delivery person can drive right up to the door (not that they often do, because then they'd have to drive BACKWARDS to get out, and most of the delivery people I've seen drive like Tommy Chong fleeing from imaginary racoons). But a delivery person might not know that it was

1. Technically the 2nd floor
2. NOT the main entrance to the building

And because my room is on the "second" floor, he might have meant to come down to the ground floor.

So I didn't make any assumptions. I took my phone with me, so that if he got lost or went to the wrong entrance, he could call me. But there is no reception on the 1st floor, so I stayed up on the main floor in the lounge, looking out the window at the 1st floor entrance.

15 or so minutes after he called, I saw him. I must have been turned away from the window when he came up, because I only saw him leaving. NO!

I panicked, and ran down to the 1st floor as fast as I could, shouting and waving my arms to get his attention. "Don't leave! I'm here, I'm here!"

He didn't stop.

The smell of pizza lingered in the air. I had been so close!

I figured that, not seeing anyone at the door, he left to finish his other deliveries before (hopefully) trying again.

(I should also probably mention at this point that I was getting anxious for the pizza to arrive, because I wanted to eat so I could take a Vicodin before I had to use the restroom. Hurry, pizza-man, hurry!)

I waited another 10 minutes before deciding that I should call and find out roughly how many other deliveries he had to make before he came back, because I was still standing by the window (bleeding from my penar) when I could be laying in bed. So I call them up again, and the conversation when something like this:

THEM: Pickup or delivery?
ME: Delivery, I hope. How many delivery guys do you have out tonight?
THEM: Uh, just me.
ME: Oh, OK, good. I --
THEM: So, an order for delivery?
ME: I already placed my order, I'm just wondering --
THEM: Who is this?
ME: I'm Phoenix. I ordered --
THEM: You gave me a bogus number.
ME: ...what?
THEM: I tried calling your phone, like, 20 times.
ME: (looking at my phone, and it's distinct lack of missed calls) Uh...
THEM: You can't give us fake numbers, dude. When we need to get a hold of you --
ME: What number did you call?
THEM: Your number dude. I even read it back to you when you placed your order.
ME: Um, no you didn't.
THEM: Yes I did, dude!
ME: No, you didn't take my order, Megan did. (Yay for remembering names!)
THEM: ...
ME: Listen, it doesn't matter. I was just wondering if I could find out how much longer it was going to be.
THEM: For what?
ME: My pizza. Like, how many more other deliveries --
THEM: I already delivered your pizza.
ME: ...!
THEM: Like, 15 minutes ago dude.

Dude. No way.

Apparently, he had come up to the door, saw a guy standing there, asked "Is this pizza for you?" and gave it to him. I had already paid by credit card, so the mystery guy didn't have to fork over any cash or anything.

Damn. It.

ME: So...
THEM: So...what?
ME: So, when can I get my pizza?!
THEM: ...I'll have to ask my manager. Let me call you back in a few minutes with what she says we can do.

Ask his manager? At the very least, I expected the pizza I ordered and paid for. He needs his managers permission for that? Throw another pie in the oven, pronto! I'm STARVING over here!

So I wait. And I wait. And I wait...

FORTY FIVE MINUTES LATER:

THEM: I've got your pizza, I'll be there in five minutes.

Finally! In addition to my pizza, they gave me a $20 credit on my account, and a description of the guy that stole my pizza.

Apparently he had had to sign my credit card slip to get my pizza. They were going to report it to the police the following day as credit card fraud. WHAT WHAT!! That's some serious shnikey right there. We have our suspicions as to who it was (he possibly signed his own name), but I haven't heard anything more about it since. I also tipped the delivery guy $5, because the mystery man didn't tip jack, and he did have to make TWO deliveries. And I was just happy to get my pizza.

...and now that I've finished typing this all up, it's after 1am, and they've stopped delivering for the evening. And now I'm hungry for pizza!

Phoenix and the Surgery

Apparently, I haven't told everyone about this yet. So if you haven't heard it before, here it is. And if you don't read this, then you probably don't care anyway, so I'm glad I didn't tell you.

I had an operation the other day. Two weeks go, in fact.

On my penis.*

It was my first time under general anesthetic. Pretty scary, considering all the horror stories I had grown up hearing. Apparently it's much safer now, though. One minute I was taking four deep breaths, and the next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room. I couldn't keep my eyes open for more than a second at a time though, and that went on for a long time. After I could wake up a bit more, they took me back to my room and tried to get me to use the restroom, at which point I noticed that there sure was a lot of bleeding going on.

From my penis.**

Also, at this point, I feel I should say a couple words about pain. It hurt.

Eventually I could pee enough that they didn't think I would die, and they sent me home. I spent the rest of the day at Doug's house, although there was a scary incident later in the day. Because I was lying down on my back, I bled into my bladder (as opposed to out onto the gauze), and when I used the bathroom later, all those hours of blood came out at once. NOT a calming sight.

I had a follow-up appointment for one week after the surgery. I was under the impression that the bleeding would stop by then, and we would mostly talk about my recovery. You can tell by the fact that I MENTION this that the bleeding did not stop by then. Seriously, ONE FULL WEEK LATER, and I was still bleeding.

From... well, you know.

I told my doctor that I was still bleeding and he kind of just laughed and said something like "Well, yeah, that's going to go on and on." Great. We made another follow-up appointment for six weeks in the future. Hopefully that implies that the bleeding with SURELY stop by then, right? Or am I just believing what I want desperately to be true?

In the meantime, I'm taking Vicodin so I can urinate without screaming too much, so all those who think I remind you of Gregory House, well, fuck you, it's just a coincidence. And the limp will go away after I heal. The cane is just temporary. TEMPORARY!


(*Yes, of course it was a reduction.***)

(**BTW, "Bleeding from my penis" is just about the best [and worst] all-around general-purpose excuse there is.

• "Take the garbage out!" "Can't, mom, I'm bleeding from my penis!"
• "Sorry I'm late for work boss, I was bleeding from my penis!"
• "I'm sorry I can't give you a better rate on your mortgage because of all the blood coming out of my penis!"

I'm telling you, it works for everything.)

(***Sort of. I had a urethral stricture. That was cut out of me, so that it didn't close up entirely, because if it DID, I would die slowly...painfully...from a burst bladder. Isn't science fun?!)

From the "Things I wish were not true about my psyche" department

Today, I was late to class because I overslept.

I overslept because, in my dream, the alarm clock was trying to TRICK me into waking up. I can't now remember what it was that I had to do before I woke up, I just remember that it was vitally important that I did so.

But, of course, the clock wasn't trying to trick me at all. It just wanted some attention.

My new favorite commercial

OK, not really. My favorite commercial will always be "Signs" for the PS2 (Made By TBWA Los Angeles, 2002; it's in the last block at the bottom before the BMW films).

Anyway, here's a close second:

I'm not even supposed to be here today.

I'm at the office now. I've been here since about 6am. I'm running some heavy-computing projects, and I need the data for class tomorrow. (If there _is_ class tomorrow, campus is closed today because of snow)

The data is only useful at the end of each iteration. The previous iteration had been running since 9:19am. It's now 11:47am. It was a little more than a quarter complete (6000 cycles out of 20,000). I need to wait for this iteration to complete, to make sure the rest will process correctly, before I can leave.

A few minutes ago, the CEB had a power failure. No worries though, because I picked up a UPS a couple weeks ago, after the previous power failure. It's all good, right?

Well, it turns out that there are two different sides to the UPS. One is a surge protector, and one is a surge protector PLUS UPS. One of those two sides was covered by a sticker. Can you guess which one?

So now I'm starting over.

Current mood: Frustrated.

MORE GOOD NEWS!
The power outage has reset the security system. My keycard won't open any doors anymore. Also, the magnetic door stops release during power outages (the doors close). So, if I leave the building, I can't come back. If I go to the bathroom, and there's another power outage (there already was another one since the original post), I won't be able to get back to my office.

Best day evar! :'-(

UPDATED: FSM/Cthulhu '08

Remember the FSM/Cthulhu shirt design from last Friday? Sure you do.

Well, I was inspired by that to make these:
I'm not sure how they're going to turn out. Usually Zazzle prints great stuff, but the graphic on this one...

Well, it's not my best work. Let's leave it at that.

...




OK, let's not leave it at that. Here are the things wrong with the graphic:

First, I'm using the following two source images:



Now, first off, I should have looked harder for a Cthulhu image. This one is ... kind of blurry. Which is not a good starting place. But I had FSM reaching out left and Cthulhu reaching out right (or perhaps dropping a guy?)... too good to pass up.




But then, I combined them into this image:

There are a number of problems with this image. Who can spot one of the major ones?

Here's a hint: Look at Cthulhu's head.
Hint #2: Look at the crack.

The crack stops at his head! What what what? If this is supposed to be a painting, HOW does the crack mysteriously stop right at his head?

Of course the answer is that I pasted Cthulhu over the original image. And I'm lazy. And I didn't notice. So there it is.

*UPDATE*

Well, of course, I couldn't let it stand at that, now could I? ^_^ I found a better Cthulhu image:

AND learned about color matching. And learned new tricks for transparent layers. So, the updated version is:

There are still problems (there always are). Look at the buildings/rocks in the bottom right. Yeah, that's all messed up. But overall, I think it looks much better now. ^_^

Now I just need a campaign slogan....

SADNESS! Terry Pratchett Diagnosed with Alzheimer's

"One of geekdom's most popular authors, Terry Pratchett, has announced that he has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. The OBE-winning author of the Discworld fantasy series made the original announcement on the website of Discworld illustrator Paul Kidby. Pratchett remains optimistic: 'I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell.'"

I don't really have anything to add to this. :-(

ILotD: Bruce Schneier Facts

Essentially, Chuck Norris Facts, but about computer security expert Bruce Schneier.

I especially like the 3rd top fact:

Vs lbh nfxrq Oehpr Fpuarvre gb qrpelcg guvf, ur'q pehfu lbhe fxhyy jvgu uvf ynhtu.

GotD: Lost in the Static

Game of the Day:
Lost in the Static (Only for Windows, I'm afraid)
Now, this is not one of those magic-eye 3D images above. It's an actual screen-shot of a game. Everything in the game is represented by static, but different types of static move differently. It's hard to explain, unless you play it.

Also check out the Modding and Behind the Scenes pages for bonus insights. ^_^

This was made by Silver Spaceship Software, whom you may recall as the guys that made Chromatron.

Speaking of which, Chromatron is now entirely free, and available for both Windows and Mac. ^_^

ILotD: St. Gabriel Possenti Society

Interesting Link of the Day:

In 1860, a band of soldiers from the army of Garibaldi entered the mountain village of Isola, Italy. They began to burn and pillage the town, terrorizing its inhabitants.

Possenti, with his seminary rector's permission, walked into the center of town, unarmed, to face the terrorists. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape when he saw Possenti and made a snickering remark about such a young monk being all alone.

Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier's revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti's direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.

At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as "the Savior of Isola".

Hence, the Saint Gabriel Possenti Society, an organization dedicated to promoting St. Gabriel Possenti as the patron saint of handgunners.

Ah, religion and firearms. Is there any greater combination?

It's got what plants crave.

If for some reason you haven't heard yet, Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator, the drink from the movie Idiocracy (It's got electrolytes! It's got what plants crave), is now a real, actual drink. Here's the drink, here's a shop, and here's the commercial:

Random Links

First, 50 Answers from the Stereotypist. People asked a question in each comment, and he answered the first 50 of them. With a comic, each. Sounds like fun, eh? Someone here should do that. Not it!

Second, I found this FSM/Cthulhu '08 campaign design:

But then I lost it. While searching for it, I found a vanity plate on this page. Speaking of the old one, can I assume that everyone else has already seen the Calls for Cthulu series?


Finally, a music video: Here Comes Another Bubble - The Richter Scales (v1.1)


Where's my Friday Funday, Thomas? I needs it!

Tetris Jesus

#827006

ElGarlic: Spending your life waiting for the messiah to come save the world is like waiting around for the straight piece to come in Tetris.
ElGarlic: Even if it comes, by that time you've accumulated a mountain of shit so high that you're fucked no matter what you do.