Category: general

Where I put something when I’m too lazy to categorize it.

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anywhere but here

Sleep is comfy.
Late post. I had big plans last night for a nice meaty entry today – then lost all steam once the television came on. That thing is a brain-drain man, taking ideas right out of you. I have much better luck writing while sitting in front of the window and listening to tunes. Anyway, didn’t post earlier this morning because I was giving a training to some of my Taiwanese buddies… went well, I find I feel much more confident up in front of people I’m familiar with. So, it’s gonna be thin again.. but I actually dig this one more than most of the entries I’ve been responsible for lately. Read on.

You ever get that feeling? The one where, no matter where you are, you think that at that second you’d rather be nowhere else than warm in bed with the person you love? I get that feeling sometimes… I got that feeling today at work. Sitting in a conference room, thinking about nothing. All of the sudden I wished it was 6:30am on anyday and I was wrapped in blankets and smelling my wife’s hair while the alarm snoozed. Usually right after those moments, I wonder where she is… what she’s doing, is she alright? Since I couldn’t call, I text’d her: “Hey, thinking about u. In a stupid meeting. Miss and love u.” There, that should do it… that should help. Ahhh… 1 New Message: “Love u too. Call after your meeting.” There; all better for the time being. It’s not warm blankets and soft skin and sleep-breathing, but it’s the best I’m gonna get until 6:30am tomorrow – so I’ll take it.

I dunno what was up with my writing this week. I can blame it on the usual suspects: being too busy at work, laziness, whatever. But in some ways, a slow week on some internet page where I write means a very not-slow week in the real life I live… where I don’t have to or don’t choose to write about things because I have something better to do. Besides, I honestly think I drained myself writing last Friday’s entry. I invested so much time in it, so much thought. It really wore me out, which I find kinda awesome. I mean, that you can write something so “hard” that you’re actually strained afterward. If only I could write that hard all the time. Y’know, that might be a good blogger motto: “blog hard.” Actually, that would be awesome in all-lowercase black arial font on a white t-shirt. I could make some money maybe. Except… isn’t there some shoe company or sports-liquid drink whose motto is “play hard?” Bummer.

Today was productive, with a visit to the dentist and a much-needed haircut. It turned out to be sunny, where I’d heard earlier in the week it was supposed to rain. Since I had rain in mind, I didn’t set the alarm early enough to bike in… which I was kinda bummed about once I saw the blueish sky through the shower window. If you’ve been reading this rag for a while, you know I get off on “accomplishing” a lot in a constrained time. I love days where I manage to bounce from one thing to the next, getting all kinds of productive junk done in what feels like record time. So when I can have a good day at work, make a teeth-cleaning, grab a haircut, and still have time to grab a beer with a buddy from work… it’s a good day in my eyes.

Oh, and I was far and away more amused than anything. Until Monday, have a good weekend.

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when moths attack

Chugga-chugga woo-woo.
The other day, Ben mentioned that he’d downloaded the new version of Winamp, and that it had several “Internet TV” stations available… streaming all sorts of video content. He also told me that there appeared to be a plethora of porn stations being freely streamed. The video thing in general sounded cool, so I decided to check it out. Sure enough, there was a lot of porn. Now, I’m no porn-addict, but curious to see what freely streamed porn looked like, I browsed through a couple “channels.” Only then did I realize that I was using Winamp to “investigate” this porn, and remember that I’d installed a plugin for this page that displays what I’m listening to in Winamp. I wondered… open IE, browse to the blog, oh crap. Right there in the “currently hearing” section of the sidebar is an impressive list of porn-sounding names, the stream names even identify them as videos – so there was no mistaking that I was indeed checking out porn rather than simply listening to songs with porn-sounding names. Ugh. Thanks a lot Ben.

I guess the idiot award today goes to this guy here in CA who, in an attempt to take his own life, stopped his truck on the commuter train tracks. Then, in a last-minute moment of revelation, decided he wanted to live – and up and left his truck on the track. Train smacks truck, crashes up hard, and nearly a dozen people die. Now the I-wanna-die-wait-no-I-don’t dude faces the death penalty, which is hilarious to me… since it’s what the fool wanted in the first place. Next time, consider a less killin’-ohter-people way of taking your life, especially if you think you might reconsider at the last second. On the reals though, poor dude must be pretty mentally messed up by now… as if he wasn’t already.

Most of the people I work with in Taiwan are here this week for some on-site training. Yesterday I walked over to the conference room they were all in to say “Hi.” As soon as I crossed the threshold, I was brutally assaulted by the smell of naphthalene. Y’know, mothballs? What is it with Chinese people and mothballs? I love my Asian brothers, and have had some great times hanging out and working with them – but, much to the disappointment of my nose, they love them some mothballs. I’m sure, to them, Americans all reek of Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese or SUV or something. From the olfactory potency, they must’ve packed ’em in their suitcases or something.

Then I guess that’s it… I have nothing more. A week of tiny entries I guess. Nite.

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disrobe for peace

Bazooka time.
There’s something so awesome about stripping off the days clothes and trading them in for something looser and shoeless. Sometimes it’s the only thing I wanna do when I get home… pull off the shoes and socks, yank the outer shirt over the head, and swap the boxer-twisting jeans for some non-binding shorts. Perfect not-goin’-out wear for… not going out.

CNN ran an awesome story as their lead item late today (yeah, I’m back to trying to write at night). It was on the upcoming Iraqi election, and my favorite quote was, “Although most say they don’t know who the candidates are or where to go to vote, they say they will vote come January 30…” Yeah? They don’t know where to vote, but they will vote? Assuming they can wander the vast deserts of Iraq long enough to find the hidden, unpublicized, polling places… they don’t even know who they’re voting for… why vote? I know why… because they believe in the salvation that is democracy, that’s why.

One of the stats I like to keep track of how “saturated” the search engines are with regards to my blog; meaning, out of the total number of pages that make up my blog, how many have been spidered and indexed by search engines. Last night, Google must have done a huge update… and my saturation jumped from a previously semi-stagnant ~25% to a respectable 65%. It’s amazing what that jump translates to in terms of referrer stats. Google is now sending three people my way for every one it did before. It could be good for readership, but it’s also an even more fragrant flower to the spam bees. Stupid spam bees.

I sat here for 15min trying to come up with more to write, but I guess sometimes just going with what you have is the best strategy. With that in mind, I’ma press “Publish” and post these couple measly paragraphs. Goodnight.

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over the hills

Stinky.
Hey hey, my first day biking to work and back… no problems at all. I mean, other than being winded and coming home with legs made of jelly… oh, and the sweat, the commute went swimmingly. The ride in in the morning is somewhat hampered by thick fog… which at speeds forms a nice damp mist over my arms and legs. It’s not wet enough that the tires kick up road-muck onto my back, so I’m OK with it. My urticaria seems to be well-controlled, at least with respect to bring brought about by cooler ambient-temperatures; I think the multi-antihistamine cocktail the doc’s got me on is just the panacea I needed, even if it’s not protection from cold-water swimming, at least I’m not itching something furious when the temperature is sub-50°. If my legs aren’t too sore, tomorrow will be day #2. Wish me luck.

I saw this link on fazed the other day, and absolutely loved it. One day I’m gonna have a full-on “study,” filled with leather-bound books, comfortable chairs, and – the piece de resistance – a pipestand (y’know, the old-type floor ashtrays?). Anyway, I downloaded several illuminated manuscripts and paintings to use as wallpapers… and some freeware wallpaper flipper to change ’em every so often. What a nerd. I have some fascination with Renaissance art and thought, and the more I read about humanity’s obsession with doubt and reason during that time, the more interesting it gets. Guess I shoulda paid more attention in World History or something.

I hate when I pull a shirt or sweater out of the closet in the morning, only to pull it over my head and realize it reeks of the restaurant I ate at several days passed. Mexican food is the worst offender, but Indian food runs a close race. Sometimes, even after being allowed to “air out” in the closet for over several days, jeans or shirts retain a surprisingly potent food-funk. Occasionally it’s so bad I have to toss ’em in the hamper and move onto choice B. It’s almost as stinkified as the dreaded I-cut-onions-a-friggin’-week-ago-and-my-hand-still-stinks phenomenon.

That’s really all I have… I know it’s slim. I was tired last night, and wasn’t in the writing mindset – and work kept me too focused all day to dream up good material.

See ya.

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i’m a consumer

Right-o, chap.
I dunno if you noticed, but the entry is “late.” Usually I automate these things to post at midnight the day I want them up, which means I have them written beforehand. Not this time. I got home last night and decided I didn’t even feel like sitting in front of the PC. I debated even writing… but I have some kinda built-in thing now that makes me.

Saturday I did it. I bought a bike. Remember, I wanted to… to see if I could make it my >50% time method of transportation to work? It’s Sunday now, so I can’t really report on how that worked out yet. Although I do plan to bike the commute tomorrow, despite the cold and damp mornings we’ve been having. Later today I’m going to do a time trial, to get an idea of when I need to leave. In the end, I settled for a cheaper bike… since I’m no cycling enthusiast or anything. I guess anything with two wheels would’ve served me well… but I couldn’t stand the thought of cruising to work on a Sam Walton special. So I settled for something the hovers slightly above the department store generics and below the bike store name brands. Either way, it rolls when peddled… so I think I’m OK. If you never hear me talk about it here again, the shame of buying it and not using it as I’d hoped has become too great – and I’d advise not bringing it up.

It’s Monday now as I write… I got to work early to finish today’s entry. And, because I took off early from the house to give myself plenty of time on the ride in. Yup, I totally did it. Biked the commute for the first time, beat yesterday’s time-trial by 5min this morning. Riding through the cold fog-mist was kinda nice. I put the new Early Day Miners record on the flash player and peddled away. It felt good… I maintained a good pace, didn’t get too tired. I’m so self-conscious when it comes to exercise; I know it’s stupid. Everyone knows me as the guy who “doesn’t care.” So when I do things that are contrary to that, it’s a fair assumption that I’ll give them up shortly or that it’s a fad. I mean, the precedent is definitely there. So I ride to work and hope I don’t pull up next to a car with someone I know in it, for fear of feeling “dumb.” Oh, no doubt it’s psychosomatic… but it’s a real thing nonetheless. I’m just glad I’m doing it. If I can stick to it, there’s a potential 8.2mi per day… ~1hr more exercise than the zero I was getting previously.

I left the 5th grade 10 days before the last day of school, because my family was up and moving to Florida. Our classroom had a party that day which served the double-purpose of a “graduation from 5th grade” party and a sendoff for me. When we got to Florida, dad’s work put us up in a condo until we could find a house. A condo that was right on the beach. I remember that summer like one long vacation. Frank and I would roll out of bed and onto the beach. Move from the beach to the pool, pool to running around the complex ringing doorbells. It was great. I remember listening to “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” and “Nightmare on My Street.” I guess there was a period where I was listening to some top40… but I did have Speak and Spell in the cassette deck.

The other night Sharaun was watching this reality show where these fat people are competing to lose the most weight (yes, I know the name of the show, but chose not to use it as if I didn’t to demonstrate my disdain for such programs). Anyway, they had a competition where there was a insanely huge mountain of food on stage. All kinds of food, cheese, pastries, breads, anything you could think of and all stacked to the stagelights. The group was split into teams, and the goal was to move as much food from the huge pile over to a little podium – the catch being that they had to use only their mouths to transport and stack the grub. Imagine the scene – ten overweight people grabbing hunks of food in their mouths, shuffling across stage, and pressing it drool-covered onto a growing mound of similarly disgusting stuff. Food was dropped in transit, stepped on, mashed, squished, and gummed and toothed – but not consumed.

I watched it, and transformed from the mindless, wasteful American consumer I am – to that ever-popular American alter-ego of the caring (but just a tad less than being moved to act), world-conscious good Samaritan. How appalling would this video be if we took it on a tour of Somalia or something? It really was disgusting, it made Double Dare’s milk-battles pale in comparison. America’s food supply is so abundant that we have to find alternate uses for our stores – like playing games or building things with it. I remember a Sharaun telling me about an exchange student who was helping the homecoming committee clean up after the dance, and who broke down in tears as she watched the pounds and pounds of uneaten food go right into the trash. We truly are the land of plenty.

Random, but done.

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man this entry blows

Vote Shiite, Sunni sucks.
Good evening blog, glad to see you in good health. What’s that? You’ve been plagued lately by online poker and Viagra spam? Well, not to worry blog, although you may get ~20 “holdem” and “bigger member” spams per hour, I’ve installed some nice anti-spam features that prevent all but the craftiest spammers from getting a comment through. I know, I also wish that your usage stats were once again meaningful, rather than a record of spambots trying to post comments. It’s the nature of the internet, blog, that’s just the way it goes.

Argh… why does the “war on terrorism” have to look so much like a war on Islam? Word around the web is that we’re posturing against the next member of the “axis of evil,” Iran. It was interesting that the rumour of covert US forces in Iran was this morning’s story, and this afternoon the “Americans evenly split on how they feel about the Iraq invasion” story was the lead headline. But have no fear, the orderly and completely representative democratic election this month will set Iraq squarely on the road to non-barbarianism.

Sorry for the sarcasm, but I’ve lost all faith that this vote is anything more than a sham, a parade by the administration for the sake of perceived progress. The news is rife with stories of polling places kept secret out of fear of violence; 60% of voters think they’re voting in a new Iraqi president (they’re not); candidates can’t campaign for fear of death; and more than one million absentee voters are registering from over fourteen countries. This election is nothing more than a dog and pony show, I don’t understand how it will accomplish anything at all. Not everyone can vote, people who are voting don’t know what they’re voting for, and the candidates can’t get their message out even if they did. I guess I’m pessimistic.

Enough about it already, I realize there’s nothing for complaining.

Having my entire music collection here at work with me is awesome. I can listen to such a wide variety of stuff during the day. I’ve got about 80% of my CDs ripped to MP3, so I have almost my entire collection on-hand. I need to get around to ripping that final 20% (which consists mostly of Beatles’ bootlegs), so I can be done with it. After I’ve got everything ripped, there’ll be a period of “cleaning” up the tags and directory structure. But for now, it’s awesome to be able to pick from the same selection I’ve got at home while at work. Just tonight, for example, I got the complete Miles Davis Montreux recordings (a 20CD boxset clocking in at almost 2GB when digitized)… how cool is that to have on-hand when I feel like rad jazz? (Ugh, after downloading this beast it seems like it’s all from the 80s and is with Miles’ electronic band… I dunno if I can get into this…)

I relented from my hardline stance of not doing work-work in the evenings (my much cherished off-time) tonight, mainly because I didn’t make full use of my time at work today… and I’m once again pressed for time this week. Finally made my reservations for the first of my two upcoming trips to Taiwan, the initial jaunt commencing in late February and lasting a week. The second trip comes sometime in late March and lasts 2-3 weeks. I got worried at first, because it looked like my favorite swank hotel was completely booked up the week I was going. The thought of not being able to stay in that now familiar environment really bummed me out… I like that hotel, I feel like the king of the castle there. Anyway, I did manage to book a room for the week, and am now looking forward to the trip, and subsequent sky miles. Too bad I couldn’t arrange something where Sharaun could join me…

Man this entry blows. Goodnight.

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poor horatio

Let's go down to Myer's Lake for a picnic.
Dear reader, a varied post lies ahead… written at different times throughout the weekend. I make no claims about its contents being interesting, or even cohesive for that matter. I only offer what I write, and I tend to write a lot of crap. Please bear with us here as we strive for some decent content, but for today – we’ll take what we can get. And now onto the stuff.

If you know me, or have been reading this wordy webpage for a while, you know that The Andy Griffith Show is “pretty much my favorite” television show. As much as I like it for it’s bumpkin humor or Aesopesque underlying messages, I like it more because it’s a glimpse at some kind of utopia… at least, a utopian vision that closely aligns with my own. Simpler times; a close-knit community of friends; a rural existence based firmly on morals, a desire for peaceful clean-living, and a common-sense respect for others. A place where people are still close to the things that make them happy: the land they work, the friends they have, and the beliefs they share. No… the show never really goes into any of that, those are just my extrapolations. That’s my Mayberry, as stupid as it sounds.

In the tradition of last weekend’s “what I’m listening to” sidebar addition, I spent 10min Saturday adding a “random post” link at the bottom of the “archives” sidebar section. Used a nifty little WordPress plugin to get the job done, pretty cool. Even I get a kick out of clicking it sometimes, I write some stupid stuff. So check it out, and remember – if you see some whack formatted posts that got messed up in the WordPress transfer, lemme know so I can fix ’em. Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

Sunday, I got what I thought was a great idea. I’ve had this 120GB external hard drive sitting around for a while, not really doing much with it but copying the occasional thing over to it as an extra backup. Double-checking the current size of my digital music library and finding it to be 106GB, I decided to copy the entire thing over to the external drive. Then, I setup a script that can compare the two drives and keep them in sync, always ensuring that the external drive is up-to-date. I plan to take the drive to work with me. Now, instead of having to sift through piles of DVDs to find something to listen to at work, I’ve got it all on-hand. I’ll bring it home every few days to sync it with the master collection on my RAID array. Now… if I could only find a way to plug it into the car stereo and be able to take it on the road…

When technology really gets smart, here’s how I see it going down: I’ll have a central repository for digital media in my house, it will be large capacity, redundant, and fault-tolerant (RAID5). I’ll have a small iPod like device, but based on flash memory, which will also be large-capacity, enough to hold a mirror image of my entire collection. Vehicles will support the standard interface to this portable device, a plug-in interface that supplies power and signal-out and will be as ubiquitous as the 2.5mm headphone jack is today. The portable device will have built-in wireless capability, and will use my sleeping hours to keep in sync with the central collection. Physical size is important, the current iPod form-factor and weight being the largest that’s acceptable. Storage size must always seem to be overkill, 500GB-1TB if it this thing were real right now. As a rule of thumb, it should always be about 30% larger than what’s thought of as “big,” because if you just aim for “big,” it’ll without a doubt be too small within a year. The advantage of flash vs. moving spinning disks is essential, and when unplugged from a power source, the battery on this device will last 24 hours.

In addition, if I’m in a music store with the device, I can “purchase” an album and zap it through the ether onto my drive; same deal at the video rental store. If I’m at a show, I can purchase a board recording of the event at the end and beam it on. The device will support a “friendly” mode, where it will wirelessly seek fellow devices with similar tastes and enable file-sharing between them, integrated GPS will even allow two “friendly” enabled device owners to meet in real life if they wish. DJs at clubs will be able to offer their entire sets to be immediately “beamed” to paying customers. It will interface with PVR devices to take the kids’ favorite TV shows on the road. If you like a song you hear while in a store, you’ll be able to purchase and beam it to the device.

I spent a good bit of my weekend freetime reading Beside Still Waters, a book Pat loaned me thinking I’d be interested, mostly based on my writing from the other day. It’s a good book, if a little wordy. In fact, it’s a great book… seemingly targeted to what I’ve been thinking about lately. I wanted to write more about it, but I’ve not finished it yet – and wanted to reserve judgment until I was done. If you’re at all curious about that kinda stuff, I’d recommend checking out the book. And, I’m sure I’ll have more uninteresting stuff to say about it when I’ve finished reading it.

Goodnight.