This is my 100th post on here.
Eric is moving to San Francisco. I haven't seen the kid in a couple months, and in the past year or two haven't seen him very often at all, but there's something about his moving away I find quite depressing. First Dave, now Eric. I am now roommate free. Kate has pointed out that San Francisco is a great city to visit, and she's right. It's definitely a nicer visit than Kansas or Ohio, where I was thinking of moving a few years ago. Plus I have a few other friends who live in SF. Eric should like the weather out there, it's always slightly too cold.
I'm sampling the band These United States because they're linked from the Page France myspace page. I'm digging this song "Honor Among Thieves". Sadly, all their other songs on myspace are much softer. Not sure I'll get this album.
My desktop has caught some malware. When I open firefox it opens a large popup in IE advertising random software or software-related books on amazon. I was just searching for a flash tutorial on google, honest. And I downloaded a flash plugin without thinking about it much, maybe that was the problem. For now, I've routed IE through a fake proxy so that it can't connect, and disabled all my unknown firefox extensions. I'll reinstall the OS later when I have more time.
quote pending
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Just spent a fun weekend in Woodstock, NY with my sister, cousins, their friends and Kate. We spent some time in the hot tub, sitting by the fire, and playing drinking games. The SUV I rented turned out to be totally unnecessary and pretty expensive, but that's alright. Also it turns out that it's impossible to rent an SUV that has 2 cigarette lighters. I wanted to run a gps device and my fm transmitter at the same time, but instead we had to swap the music in when we hit long stretches of highway.
I got pulled over by the police today for the first time ever. This was in dc. After dropping kate's things off at her house I was giving her a ride to her office and then I was going to go on to return the car at the airport. A cop pulled in behind us somewhere around Logan circle, and I watched her (it was a lady cop) in my rear view mirror. She drove up, looked at my license plate and then punch it into her little computer. (The rental car for some reason has georgia plates, so I thought this was the reason she thought we were suspicious.) She followed us though the circle, for 2 or 3 blocks, and just when I was discussing with Kate how you could tell whether the cops wanted you to pull over or not (because they routinely drive around with their overhead lights on), the cop lady beeped her siren at me and pulled me over.
Now, I'm not totally sure what happened. Maybe Kate has a better understanding of the events. I was busy focusing on not arguing and appearing compliant so that I don't get dragged out of my car and beaten.
Cop: I pulled you over because your tags are out of date, and you just ran a stop light.
me (surprised): Really?
(This was a real surprise because I noticed at the exact instant that the cop car pulled into the street behind me, and I usually pay attention to stop lights even when there isn't a cop behind me. But circles can be tricky so it's possible.)
Cop: Are you from around here?
me: Yeah, though I don't drive often.
Cop: Can I see your license and registration.
(I gave her my license and she took it back to her car. Kate and I did some fishing around in the glove compartment for any registration information but came up totally empty except for some insurance stuff that didn't really have account numbers or anything. Quality Alamo car rentals.)
Cop (hands me back my license): You know, if you don't feel comfortable driving in the city then you should let someone else drive.
me (very mildly): Well, I do feel pretty comfortable driving.
Cop: It's a rental car, right?
me: Yes.
Cop: (At this point she babbled for a good 30 seconds. It was something to the effect of: it turns out that the vehicle is registered, it just doesn't look that way from the stickers, and so she got mislead. Somehow I think she admitted to messing that up, but made it sound like it was my fault)
Cop: I'm going to let you off with a verbal warning. You need to stay alert and be careful when you drive.
me: Thank you. Okay, I will be careful.
When I got down to the airport and the car rentals, I told the guy that I got pulled over and that the cops said the stickers on the car are out of date. The guy said "No they aren't, come look." Sure enough, the sticker on the back says "10" for 2010.
Now the question of me allegedly running a stop light in logan circle. Kate (who was awake and sitting in the front with me) didn't see me run anything, I didn't see myself run anything. And we both knew there was a cop behind us (we were discussing it the whole time) so you'd think it'd occur to one of us if I ran a stop light. Also, Kate says that the cop said stop sign the first time, and then corrected herself and said stop light after I said "really?". It's a fishy story. I wonder if the dc cops know that it's okay to be in the intersection when it turns red, so long as you're already inside the intersection. I should have asked the lady cop what, exactly, her definition is of a "red" light. Now I'm imagining my future re-tellings of this story where I act much more manly or cunning. Perhaps lying about being an ignorant tourist, or pulling some macho "Woman, don't you realize you're about to try to give a ticket to a man!?! I'm an alpha male!"
(about Revenge of the Sith)
"What kills me is that Spielberg saw this movie and cried. He wept!! That means that Spielberg is either the biggest Star Wars nerd in the history of Star Wars nerds...or it means that he knows nothing about directing great movies and just gets lucky everytime out. Unless he cried at how inconsistent and unfulfilling it was."
I got pulled over by the police today for the first time ever. This was in dc. After dropping kate's things off at her house I was giving her a ride to her office and then I was going to go on to return the car at the airport. A cop pulled in behind us somewhere around Logan circle, and I watched her (it was a lady cop) in my rear view mirror. She drove up, looked at my license plate and then punch it into her little computer. (The rental car for some reason has georgia plates, so I thought this was the reason she thought we were suspicious.) She followed us though the circle, for 2 or 3 blocks, and just when I was discussing with Kate how you could tell whether the cops wanted you to pull over or not (because they routinely drive around with their overhead lights on), the cop lady beeped her siren at me and pulled me over.
Now, I'm not totally sure what happened. Maybe Kate has a better understanding of the events. I was busy focusing on not arguing and appearing compliant so that I don't get dragged out of my car and beaten.
Cop: I pulled you over because your tags are out of date, and you just ran a stop light.
me (surprised): Really?
(This was a real surprise because I noticed at the exact instant that the cop car pulled into the street behind me, and I usually pay attention to stop lights even when there isn't a cop behind me. But circles can be tricky so it's possible.)
Cop: Are you from around here?
me: Yeah, though I don't drive often.
Cop: Can I see your license and registration.
(I gave her my license and she took it back to her car. Kate and I did some fishing around in the glove compartment for any registration information but came up totally empty except for some insurance stuff that didn't really have account numbers or anything. Quality Alamo car rentals.)
Cop (hands me back my license): You know, if you don't feel comfortable driving in the city then you should let someone else drive.
me (very mildly): Well, I do feel pretty comfortable driving.
Cop: It's a rental car, right?
me: Yes.
Cop: (At this point she babbled for a good 30 seconds. It was something to the effect of: it turns out that the vehicle is registered, it just doesn't look that way from the stickers, and so she got mislead. Somehow I think she admitted to messing that up, but made it sound like it was my fault)
Cop: I'm going to let you off with a verbal warning. You need to stay alert and be careful when you drive.
me: Thank you. Okay, I will be careful.
When I got down to the airport and the car rentals, I told the guy that I got pulled over and that the cops said the stickers on the car are out of date. The guy said "No they aren't, come look." Sure enough, the sticker on the back says "10" for 2010.
Now the question of me allegedly running a stop light in logan circle. Kate (who was awake and sitting in the front with me) didn't see me run anything, I didn't see myself run anything. And we both knew there was a cop behind us (we were discussing it the whole time) so you'd think it'd occur to one of us if I ran a stop light. Also, Kate says that the cop said stop sign the first time, and then corrected herself and said stop light after I said "really?". It's a fishy story. I wonder if the dc cops know that it's okay to be in the intersection when it turns red, so long as you're already inside the intersection. I should have asked the lady cop what, exactly, her definition is of a "red" light. Now I'm imagining my future re-tellings of this story where I act much more manly or cunning. Perhaps lying about being an ignorant tourist, or pulling some macho "Woman, don't you realize you're about to try to give a ticket to a man!?! I'm an alpha male!"
(about Revenge of the Sith)
"What kills me is that Spielberg saw this movie and cried. He wept!! That means that Spielberg is either the biggest Star Wars nerd in the history of Star Wars nerds...or it means that he knows nothing about directing great movies and just gets lucky everytime out. Unless he cried at how inconsistent and unfulfilling it was."
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Yesterday, at Giant, Kate remarked to me that the organic brocoli looked exactly like the generic brand. An older black lady was picking out some brocoli and said something to the effect of "Yeah, they're the same, but don't worry because it's all good." And then I couldn't believe my ears. Kate told this black lady "I heard that." I pulled her aside immediately afterwards and gave her a little talk about the expressions you can and can't use infront of black people.
Saw this comic today. Kinda funny. Then, when surfing through other comics of the series I came across one that was extremely work in-appropriate. So don't make the same mistake I did. These few others are too amusing though.
http://www.legorobotcomics.com/comics/60.jpg
http://www.legorobotcomics.com/comics/58.jpg
http://www.legorobotcomics.com/comics/55.jpg
Saw this comic today. Kinda funny. Then, when surfing through other comics of the series I came across one that was extremely work in-appropriate. So don't make the same mistake I did. These few others are too amusing though.
http://www.legorobotcomics.com/comics/60.jpg
http://www.legorobotcomics.com/comics/58.jpg
http://www.legorobotcomics.com/comics/55.jpg
(emailing with Dan after he skipped on meeting up with Sean and me at a bar. I told him that he missed out on a mostly-empty bar with a large group of drunk girls. While Sean and me aren't single, but it could have been Dan's night.)
Dan: Now you say a dozen drunk girls, but no mention of their hotness, so what does that tell us..
Monday, January 12, 2009
Funny article in the Washingtonpost about those expensive inaguration appartment rentals going untaken. Eric was trying to do that, but I'm not sure if he actually found a taker. And Lauren was telling me over Christmas that I should try to do it, but it really sounds like more work than it's worth. Sorta like playing the lottery, except this is more work with less payoff (though the odds are a little better).
I just told my officemate that I'm going to be going on work at home next week and he told me that I'd been a good officemate. I told him I was sorry if my laying out of office "rules" put us on a shakey start and he said not at all, that he'll do the same thing when he gets a new officemate. Then we cried a little and held each other. I haven't ever really had a terrible officemate. Josh slept most afternoons and was a horrible example of work ethic for a new employee, but he was friendly, entertaining to talk with, and pretty practical when you asked him questions. Loan argued on a phone a lot with her mother but she was fun to joke about, with her unusual english and she was amused when I would make proclaimations "as the man of the office". Grant has been really quiet, but in trying to set a good example I've stopped all naps in the office (sometimes at the cost of my ability to think), and he's fine when you talk to him, though we don't have much in common. Actually, looking back, I don't think I've ever had an issue with any coworkers in any of my jobs. Sometimes it pays being easy going.
Also I downloaded the new Street Fighter 2 HD remix for my ps3, and that game is insanely frustrating. I've never played a game that's made me want to break the controller this much (though I haven't broken anything yet, just done a lot of yelling at the tv).
(from a review of xbox game Space Giraffe, after the reviewer describes how a game series can either cater to the casual gamer, or take the "conceptual high ground.")
"In that scenario, you can all too easily end up with something like the Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter series, endlessly refined and tweaked for the benefit of insanely hardcore fans until you get a game so spectacularly impenetrable to unsuspecting newcomers that the instructions might as well be written in ancient Phoenician, full of absurd nonsense about "Z-ism" and reversed air counter-tackle returning stumble throw blocks, until normal people run away crying and you're left with an audience of about nine completely socially-dysfunctional autistic savants in Tokyo."
I just told my officemate that I'm going to be going on work at home next week and he told me that I'd been a good officemate. I told him I was sorry if my laying out of office "rules" put us on a shakey start and he said not at all, that he'll do the same thing when he gets a new officemate. Then we cried a little and held each other. I haven't ever really had a terrible officemate. Josh slept most afternoons and was a horrible example of work ethic for a new employee, but he was friendly, entertaining to talk with, and pretty practical when you asked him questions. Loan argued on a phone a lot with her mother but she was fun to joke about, with her unusual english and she was amused when I would make proclaimations "as the man of the office". Grant has been really quiet, but in trying to set a good example I've stopped all naps in the office (sometimes at the cost of my ability to think), and he's fine when you talk to him, though we don't have much in common. Actually, looking back, I don't think I've ever had an issue with any coworkers in any of my jobs. Sometimes it pays being easy going.
Also I downloaded the new Street Fighter 2 HD remix for my ps3, and that game is insanely frustrating. I've never played a game that's made me want to break the controller this much (though I haven't broken anything yet, just done a lot of yelling at the tv).
(from a review of xbox game Space Giraffe, after the reviewer describes how a game series can either cater to the casual gamer, or take the "conceptual high ground.")
"In that scenario, you can all too easily end up with something like the Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter series, endlessly refined and tweaked for the benefit of insanely hardcore fans until you get a game so spectacularly impenetrable to unsuspecting newcomers that the instructions might as well be written in ancient Phoenician, full of absurd nonsense about "Z-ism" and reversed air counter-tackle returning stumble throw blocks, until normal people run away crying and you're left with an audience of about nine completely socially-dysfunctional autistic savants in Tokyo."
Monday, January 5, 2009
After seeing this headline in the news for a few days, I finally clicked on it to see if there were any hot example photos. Sadly, there are not.
Facebook makes a pretty good argument about how they don't allow nudity, whether it is obscene or not. And I don't mind if you want to breast-feed your kid, but why don't you do the rest of us a favor and put the camera away while you do so? Yikes.
If I was labeling blog entries, this one would be called Joe Vs. Dave. Dave and I have a 49% similarity on Netflix, which sounds like it means that if Dave likes a movie I'm actually more likely to dislike it than I would be otherwise. Dave's recommendation is really a disrecommendation to me. I find this pretty curious. Here are the movies that we've both rated, but disagree on the ratings by more than a single point. Actually, there aren't very many of them. Dave's score is the first column, my score is the second column.
4 2 Blow
3 5 Donnie Darko
5 3 Goodfellas
3 1 Hard Candy
2 4 Independence Day
4 2 Little Children
5 3 Little Miss Shine
5 3 One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest
5 3 The Royal Tenenbaums
5 3 When Harry Met Sally
Who has better taste? Clearly I do. To be fair, Dave has only rated a few dozen movies. The only times we've really disagreed about movies has been for Blow, Hard Candy, Independence Day, and Little Children, which one of us liked and the other didn't. All the rest of the movies we commonly liked or disliked, just to a different degree. Maybe I should have given When Harry Met Sally an extra point. (Or Independence Day one fewer point, but I saw it in Jr High and really enjoyed it then.) Now I'm going to queue up Solaris and hope that George Clooney's bare ass doesn't ruin it for me.
(walking around in the freezing cold wind)
kate: Hold on, I want to put on my hat.
me: I should have worn a hat too.
(kate gestures to my hooded sweatshirt)
kate: You should put your hood up!
me: I don't want to be one of those people who walk around with their hoods up.
kate: Why not?
me: It's not raining. I'll look silly.
kate: It will keep you warmer.
me: Everyone driving by will think I look ridiculous.
kate: I know if I was driving by, and I saw someone walking around in this weather who had a hood but wasn't wearing it, I'd think, (Kate slips into a deep voice with a southern accent) "That boy is a damn fool!"
Facebook makes a pretty good argument about how they don't allow nudity, whether it is obscene or not. And I don't mind if you want to breast-feed your kid, but why don't you do the rest of us a favor and put the camera away while you do so? Yikes.
If I was labeling blog entries, this one would be called Joe Vs. Dave. Dave and I have a 49% similarity on Netflix, which sounds like it means that if Dave likes a movie I'm actually more likely to dislike it than I would be otherwise. Dave's recommendation is really a disrecommendation to me. I find this pretty curious. Here are the movies that we've both rated, but disagree on the ratings by more than a single point. Actually, there aren't very many of them. Dave's score is the first column, my score is the second column.
4 2 Blow
3 5 Donnie Darko
5 3 Goodfellas
3 1 Hard Candy
2 4 Independence Day
4 2 Little Children
5 3 Little Miss Shine
5 3 One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest
5 3 The Royal Tenenbaums
5 3 When Harry Met Sally
Who has better taste? Clearly I do. To be fair, Dave has only rated a few dozen movies. The only times we've really disagreed about movies has been for Blow, Hard Candy, Independence Day, and Little Children, which one of us liked and the other didn't. All the rest of the movies we commonly liked or disliked, just to a different degree. Maybe I should have given When Harry Met Sally an extra point. (Or Independence Day one fewer point, but I saw it in Jr High and really enjoyed it then.) Now I'm going to queue up Solaris and hope that George Clooney's bare ass doesn't ruin it for me.
(walking around in the freezing cold wind)
kate: Hold on, I want to put on my hat.
me: I should have worn a hat too.
(kate gestures to my hooded sweatshirt)
kate: You should put your hood up!
me: I don't want to be one of those people who walk around with their hoods up.
kate: Why not?
me: It's not raining. I'll look silly.
kate: It will keep you warmer.
me: Everyone driving by will think I look ridiculous.
kate: I know if I was driving by, and I saw someone walking around in this weather who had a hood but wasn't wearing it, I'd think, (Kate slips into a deep voice with a southern accent) "That boy is a damn fool!"
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
I'm back from, as my sister described it, the "black hole" of communication that is my parents house. Spotty cellphone reception, no internet connection, like 2 tv channels, and an 8 minute drive into a small town or 15 minute drive to the nearest reasonable-sized town. Luckily the electricity didn't go out for any extended periods, like it has in the past. One time in high school it went out for 4 days, just because a branch fell on the power lines on our street and the power company was too busy with problems in more populated areas.
Anyway, it was a pretty quiet, relaxing vacation. I saw a few high school friends, and my entire family including new in-laws and my new niece.
After hearing the song "New York I Love You" in a clothing store, I went and checked out the album (by LCD Soundsystem). Perhaps not surprisingly, that song is totally unlike every other song on the album. Instead of soft and melodic, every other song is a nasty combiation of ska and funk and I can't resist hitting skip after 20 seconds. Deleted.
Happy New Year!
(from a review of the Path of Neo. In the game you get to pick new skills to learn after each stage, but occasionally you're only given one skill option.)
"What is the point of giving me one, I repeat ONE, skill to pick from at the end of a stage? What do the developers expect me to do, not pick it for the sake of variety? It feels like election day in a totalitarian dictatorship."
Anyway, it was a pretty quiet, relaxing vacation. I saw a few high school friends, and my entire family including new in-laws and my new niece.
After hearing the song "New York I Love You" in a clothing store, I went and checked out the album (by LCD Soundsystem). Perhaps not surprisingly, that song is totally unlike every other song on the album. Instead of soft and melodic, every other song is a nasty combiation of ska and funk and I can't resist hitting skip after 20 seconds. Deleted.
Happy New Year!
(from a review of the Path of Neo. In the game you get to pick new skills to learn after each stage, but occasionally you're only given one skill option.)
"What is the point of giving me one, I repeat ONE, skill to pick from at the end of a stage? What do the developers expect me to do, not pick it for the sake of variety? It feels like election day in a totalitarian dictatorship."
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Working super late tonight because my flight is early in the morning and all this stuff is going to be due. Blah. And I'm still kinda sick. Not at sick as Kate, but that's probably because I got her sick in the first place. (Though she did think that she was going to get healthy before me just because I have to keep working through my sickness. But I showed her!) Merry Christmas people! So long, East coast! I'll be back just before New Years Eve.
(responding to a poster who complained that he'd rather install offical DRM than go to a sketchy torrent site and downloading software that does who-knows-what to his computer)
Wex: There is a difference between going to a proper site and getting a torrent hundreds of people already tested, and going to a "XXX BRITNEY NAKED! WAREZ! RINGTONES!" site to get infected. If you know where and how you surf you don't get exposed to malware. And whoever doesn't should first pirate a good antivirus.
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