random order

Deliverance

2007-04-13T00:45:43Z

I think our mailman
drinks. This is not twenty-one,
and I am not Frank.

Happy pi day!

2007-03-15T03:37:46Z

Happy pi day, everyone!

Yes, I know, I haven't updated in forever... but maybe I'll start again. Also, I have pi day pictures.

Well, I have to start somewhere.

Look at me!

2006-10-13T19:46:01Z

I'm posting using the new LJabber Frank bot. Pretty cool, no?

Yes, I should post more often, but some is better than none. I'm using Gaim (gaim.sf.net) to do this, which has Jabber support built in. For more information about how to get this Livejournal instant messenger thing set up, go to http://www.livejournal.com/chat/ or just put in your LJ name, livejournal.com as the server and supply your password in any Jabber client. The contacts list is automatically populated with your friends list, which I think is a killer feature, leveraging the synergy of the networked contact list while maintaining vertical integration with the existing legacy relation system. I knew you would understand.

That's all for me for now, lets see how this turns out.

Long time, no post.

2005-12-26T01:06:19Z

Hi everyone, and Happy Hallowee'n, Joyous Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah. I haven't posted for a while, but I figure today is as good a day as any. Firstly, I'm not dead, which I do very much appreciate, believe me.

So, in the past almost-6 months, I've managed to graduate (although that happened before my last post), gotten a job, become slightly unhappy with job (due to apparent lack of an upgrade path), got engaged to virginhuntress (can you believe it? :-), learned how to solve a Rubik's cube in under 7 minutes, and probably a whole host of things I can't quite think of right now.

I come to you this day because so far, it has been moderately crappy, although the night before was great. I spent the day with Michelle and her family, with the plan to drive to my grandmother's house for dinner with the rest of my family. I can't remember everything, I had some drinks, and some coffee, and talked a bunch with her Mom and Dad, managed to go to midnight Mass with Michelle and her brother (which was pretty much exactly how I imagined it would be), slept over, and ... woke up feeling pretty good but quickly started feeling ill. This is probably due slightly to the drinks and coffee earlier, but most likely caused by getting 4 or so hours of sleep every night for the past 4 days. I was supposed to leave at 10:30 to arrive at my grandmother's house at 12:00 to 12:30, but didn't end up leaving until about 2:45, after I stopped feeling sick and had something to eat. I got back home about 7:00 PM.

Just a quick score for those of you playing at home.

Hours driven so far: 4
tasty holiday meals consumed: 0

What had happened was that my parents and brother, all of whom I had bought presents for (a first for me, with my own money), had left at 4:15, but I managed to arrive at 5:00 PM. I decided to continue on and see my grandmother, but she basically said she was very disappointed in me and that I had managed to ruin the day by not showing up. It doesn't matter that I finally have a full-time job (even if it should pay me better), or that I'm actually trying to put my life in order (ignore that I don't have anything really wrong in my life, I'm not abusing steroids or getting into barfights or writing really awful pop songs), but I did manage to ruin Christmas. So, I should have just turned around and left when I got the message that the rest of my family had started to drive home about 30 minutes before. I had gotten a phone call from my mom earlier, but as I was explaining where I was and how I was feeling, she decided to hang up on me. The call lasted 45 seconds. Yes, my mom hung up on me in the middle of saying I felt sick.

So, if they were getting there at 12:30, and they left at 4:15, that's 3.75 hours, which is about the same amount of time (less, even) as it takes to drive to Maryland. Go figure. I don't think anyone has work or school tomorrow (but I do), and now I have 3 presents that I have to mail to them... or something. Grumble.

I was a bit sad and disappointed, so I decided to give a few calls to people and at the very least, leave some holiday messages. I called elvinnn, sleepymaggie, ktkid, padmaclynne to leave messages, and managed to talk to lalasinging in person. Overall, kinda disappointing to be alone and hungry after driving 4 hours and ending up back at home.

I was going to just stay at home and drink gin (Hey, gin smells like Christmas, doesn't it?) but instead I'm going back up to Jersey City where I can improve my food to travel ratio, as well as hang out with a family that isn't going to decide to leave because I'm a little late. OK, a lot late, but really, could they not have stayed overnight? I have to drive in the dark all the time to leave from their little events that they plan without my input. Sigh.

I do feel much better now, but I am about to go visit Michelle again and actually have something to eat. That should definitely improve my mood, although I do wish I had some more time to myself. If my job paid better and didn't eat 10.5 hours from my day, I might actually have that.

Also, leave comments!

Packing up

2005-05-28T00:30:51Z

I've been packing my stuff up slowly, since it is hardly fun, but has to be done so I can move out on the 31st/1st... argh. My other two roommates already moved out, leaving me with ... most of my stuff that I forgot was mine, and some abandoned tableware. Fun.

Anyway, before all that, I spent some quality time in Borders and Barnes & Nobles, picked up the latest issue of Make, and inside was a coupon from Radio Shack for a "free" Cold Heat "soldering" tool. I figure, why not, I can spare $20, and I'd like to try and build the IR transmitter for my computer. Hopefully the voltage thing won't screw up the transistors, but I have some backup ones if it comes to that. I'll write up a review for here later on, when I'm done packing and unpacking and all other stuff.

Also, as I was poking around to find stuff to simulate electronics, I found Qucs, apparently pronounced "Cukes", which looks awesome, but has decided not to let me do anything useful with it. I made a circuit myself, tried to simulate it, and failed. I followed the tutorial, and it worked. Tried again with my own circuit... nothing. Argh. I'll figure it out, at some point.

Also, before I forget, I just discovered, through this Make post and the site it links to, the site of seamless.usgs.gov. Talk about cool... Download ridiculously detailed maps for lots and lots of places. Now if it would only go faster...

Also, I managed to get a battery-powered milk frother in the mail today. A nice one, too. Strange... Useful, but strange.

Things I want to do

2005-05-21T21:24:57Z

Get a job, if I don't have one already...

Take the GRE and apply to SCILS for the IT program, maybe.

Build a small Solar Death Ray, possibly out of AOL CDs

Try out some Moss Graffiti

Learn more Arabic, using the book I have already

Do tai chi again

Force everyone in the apartment to watch Robotech...... yessss......

Undetermined Art Project

Learn Electronics, with the help of "Teach Yourself Electricity And Electronics"

I'm sure I'll come up with other things, too.

What I'm doing now

2005-05-21T21:20:11Z

Looking for a job

cleaning up and packing my room, in preparation for the move to another apartment in New Brunswick

Trying to lose some weight, through slightly more sensible eating and a bit more walking around

Trying not to freak out because I don't have enough money to pay the rent and such

Gee, it feels like I'm doing so much more than I am... I'm sure there is something else that I'm not including.

Things I Have Done

2005-05-21T21:10:34Z

Things I have done:

Finished all my coursework, and graduated, class of 2005, with a BS in Computer Science (although, they managed to screw up and print up a Bachelor of Arts diploma)

Gone on a number of job interviews, some more promising than others, but none that have yet decided to hire me

went to the graduations of ktkid, lalasinging, maereth, Adam, and a few people who also graduated, but who I don't remember. Don't hate me!

Cleaned up my room a bit, in preparation for packing up everything and moving

Probably lost a small number of pounds

I guess the graduation is the biggest one for me, but my next task is to get a job, so I can afford to stay far away from my parent's house for a long time...

Oh look, a post.

2005-05-13T20:55:35Z

I figure maybe I should post. Maybe.

So, since Livejournal is for whining, I may as well complain about things.

Despite having moved virginhuntress out yesterday, I don't feel sore at all, which I guess is good, but I maybe I would have gotten more sleep if I were. Also, there's still a lot of stuff in my car.

Graduation is next week, where I get to dress up and get my diploma, something that I really, really don't care about, but which I will probably have some emotion about next week. The whole thing feels like another hassle that my parents are putting me through, something to make sure they aren't disappointed, not something that I really have anything to do with or should care about. I'm glad to have the degree, I'll feel better about it when I have a job, but right now I am not looking forward to

I'm still looking for a job, which is only causing me slightly more tension as the days go by... I can wait for something to fall into my lap, in which case I wait forever, or I can go out and search for them, which requires more effort but has much better results.

I had wanted to enter the TopCoder Logo Contest, but I kept on having more things to deal with. I knew exactly when it was 2 weeks, then 1 week, then 2 days away, but never got together the time to complete my entry and submit it. Also, Adobe Illustrator is VERY ANNOYING. I wanted to have a thick yellow line with a thin black outline. Couldn't find it. Couldn't get the right font, and getting that to be outlined was similarly impossible to find. I had two ideas (3 entries were allowed), one involving a maze, one involving a machine and some gears, but I spent about 45 minutes on the maze before I gave up. Cash prizes were nice, but just entering would have been fine with me. I'm a little angry about this.

I'm in the lab, and I have to say, College Ave is totally not the best lab ever. There were people on cell phones and other people eating all around me. :-\ Stupid Adobe Illustrator...

I still need to clean up my room and pack everything up. Certainly will be lots of fun.

Maybe I'll post again in the next year or so.

25 million Firefoxen!

2005-02-17T04:40:11Z

I was reading Cheif Blogging Officer's entry on some geeky things, I clicked a link and...

Firefox has passed 25 million downloads! Holy crap!

In honor of this, there is a 25% off offer on Firefox merchandise. Too cool. I'm gonna get me a shirt.

Allegra Cole

2005-02-16T18:09:25Z

On Saturday, I went to see Hitch with virginhuntress, and Google was sort of the brand sponsor (even going to far as being used as a verb).

What I thought was interesting, and of course, I did it, was to enter "Allegra Cole" into Google...

I discovered something rather interesting, that Allegra Cole may be an homage to Allegra Coleman, a hoax celebrity created by Esquire in 1996....... Most interesting.

hey people

2005-02-09T04:31:37Z

I'm an asshole, but I'm OK.

Or maybe the other way around.

In any case, I'm sorry.

newspaper, sqlite, pencil drawings, spam comics

2005-02-08T03:38:13Z

Hey, this is cool! I got myself in the newspaper, although I have to admit I've been a little slower than I would prefer in finishing the new version of the software... Here's a local link.

I've just discovered a really cool small database engine called SQLite. It is coded in C, is totally fast and uses a single file for the data storage. There's a plugin for PHP, which is how I found it, actually. I'm rather excited about it, hopefully I'll have a reason and I'll go use it for something. You can find it at SQLite.org.

From Metafilter, I found this comic site, http://bfxproject2.com/ which is drawn with number 2 pencils (hardness B. get it?) The stories are a little unevenly paced, but both the left and the right sides are slightly related. All in all, cool beans.

Lastly, there's something hilarious: http://spamusement.com/ "Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!" Trust me, you want to read them. I love any of them that have 'software' in the name.

Gallery and some code

2005-01-26T21:43:55Z

Hi there internetters.

I've installed a photogallery at this location. (comments should work now)

I've started the second Arabic class, hopefully I'll both learn a great deal and get a good grade, even though I've graduated already.

I'm still looking for a job in this area (New Jersey, central) and if I can't find one by the time my lease is up in May, I'll just move back home to Maryland and see if I can find one there. $100/month in rent is nothing to sneeze at, although I'd probably make sure to set up some kinda of awesome networking while I'm there.

Also, just recently, I made this little thing in perl to send a text message to my phone. If you want to see it, I've put it in the file TxtMessage.pm but I don't know if it is a good coode or not. It uses WWW::Mechanize, and uses the web interface on tmobile.com currently. I had to use an ethernet sniffer to get the proper codes, since WWW::Mechanize (specifically the tick() method) is a little vague. I hope to improve the code over time, and add other carriers.

Life so far.

2004-12-30T03:29:03Z

Well, I know I've been a bit negligent with the posting lately, but really, not that much in my life has prompted me to post. Sure, I have a large number of political and other links, but they're all in chat logs and I'd have to dig through them and sort into categories and everything. Yeah. I'm lazy.

Currently, I'm in a PC Baang, because I just had to get out of the house. Too much of having to do silly things, like repair a coffee table that was put together wrong, or move firewood, install a storm window, apply mulch, or drive around so my mom can go shopping. Of course, the one night that I had planned to go out and finally finish the book that I had started over Thanksgiving break, I have the privilege of having the 'Where are we now?' speech from my parents. Yeah. I love how they offer to help me 'move forward' with my life and then I end up doing all of the work anyway. I'm just tired of hearing it, that's all. Then again, maybe I'm turning into a giant grump.

I checked my grade online (yes, grade, singular) and I got an A in Arabic, which means I finally get to graduate, which means employers will need another reason to ignore my resume (but I'm sure they'll come up with something). I had wanted to write a simple ray-tracer (probably only using cubes or something else really simple) but I haven't even started on it. Mostly research so far, but I think I understand how (mostly) to proceed. Since I have to go back to my apartment on the 3rd anyway, I don't think I'll get anything else done with it. I had wanted to completely re-write my Bookswap code as well, but (assuming I am not interrupted with pleas to collect the shower curtains) I don't think it should take more than 2 days.

All in all, I'd just like to be able to relax a bit more and not have my mom come in and wake me up for no reason. I want to be productive, but starting the day without a good amount of sleep is not how I like it. Parents! They just don't understand.

Christmas was similar to last year, and the two years before, owing to the fact that I don't really need anything, and that I don't have many friends here in Maryland (and I'm also really bad about calling to arrange events), the day just wasn't very special to me. Most of the stuff I got, I'll be returning or giving back to my mom to probably wrap up and give to me another year... One good thing was a sort of updated Poor Richard's Almanac, complete with a picture of Ben Franklin on the cover. Everything else, I could (and will) live without.

While my days haven't been completely filled with annoying stuff, I haven't really been too motivated to do anything that I had told myself I would do. I went and bought sweat pants, but have yet to do any serious running. I figure I'm eating better, though, so maybe I'll wait until I get back to New Jersey to be aerobically inclined. I have been playing some of the games I got from Home of the Underdogs, but X-com keeps crashing on me. I have enjoyed Bahamut Lagoon, though. It has provided many hours of gameplay so far, and I'm quite happy with it, even though I thought I wouldn't like the strategy-rpg category.

Bummer bees

2004-11-06T21:34:50Z

Well, I'm a bit late with this post (since I had to go to sleep Thursday night and wake up and go work on Friday) but I figure I'd share with you all my experience at the New York training event for ilovebees.com...

I now feel a little stupid for getting my friend involved in it, but, here's how it went. I left to get on the 6:38 train, then transferred twice to get to the 33rd street stop (total time, about an hour) and then walked another 15 minutes to the theatre. If you look at the top window, I think there are all the people they let in because they were waiting since 3pm...

After waiting in the rain for about 20 minutes, they made a line for the people who had sent an email and were put on the list. I gave my name, got my numbered ticket, a lanyard and plastic badge, and a DVD. Here's what I looked like, and here's what my friend looked like. Everyone was pretty excited at this point, waiting to get into the theatre to see what the whole event will turn out to be...

We eventually were led into the theatre, sat down in order of our ticket numbers, and found out that the place was already about half filled up. There were 4 Xboxes set up in front, playing 1 on 1 and 1 Xbox in the back, also 1 on 1, but hooked into the digital projector and Xbox Live with the other 3 cities. Overall, a pretty cool setup, even if it took a good 10 minutes for all the teams and voices to get working properly. The MC thanked everyone for showing up, and playing the game, and then everyone got really quiet as they played the last clip of the storyline. It turns out that it is the artifact or Melissa or something else that ends up bringing the Covenant to Earth in 2552, but I was still a little confused by the end of it. Oh well, that's what the DVD is for! In the middle of the clip, something had triggered a windows system noise which was kinda funny at the time...

Anyway, much gaming ensued, just not for most of the theatre. There was a little bit of video taken when we were all standing outside, and then some more inside the theatre, as well as a large number of photos. As the night wore on, while it was fun to watch others play, it got really disappointing as it became clear that we wouldn't get any time on the machines... I mean, really, 4 Xboxes for a whole theatre in 3 hours? They knew how big the theatre was, and how long the event was, and yet didn't plan on having enough machines there. They didn't even link the 4 machines together, so each one was just 1 on 1. The whole thing was funded by Microsoft / Bungie, and they couldn't have sprung for any more swag? T-shirts, pins, posters, controllers, headsets, Xbox Live subscriptions, postcards... none of that. It turns out that the 3 other sites had raffles for free stuff, and the one in Austin even got to have beer (because of the theatre they were in). While, yes, I understand it was a free event, would it have killed them to have another 4 Xboxes? Give away more stuff? Bah. Maybe I'm just a cranky bastard and shouldn't complain. Hell, I can think of lots of cool stuff to give away. How about Halo figures? A resin-cast helmet? A CD of the music? Grr... More free stuff!

There was one guy who really should have gotten a prize or at least some recognition, but the event seemed so understaffed that no one likely would have noticed. Here he is, with his cool shirt and the cool back of the shirt.

I ended up getting back home around 3:00am, as did my friend (who had an exam the next day), and I went to bed and tried to get some sleep in before work. If the travel and wait times weren't quite as long, maybe I wouldn't feel as bad about it as I do, but seriously, would it have killed them to add another 4 consoles?

That is all. Great game, great idea, poor final execution.

Vote more bees

2004-11-03T07:19:48Z

I figure I should go to bed at some point. As for the election, "I have a very bad feeling about this."

For everyone who wants in on the ilovebees.com action, here's 2 pages for you:
http://ilovebees.com/40404
http://ilovebees.blogspot.com/ esp. http://ilovebees.blogspot.com/2004/11/communications-log.html

Good luck.

bees and weekends

2004-11-02T07:27:04Z

It's been a while since my last post, during which many things have happened.

On Wednesday, I got my digital camera, a Canon A75 which I bought for the awesome price of $180! (Check buy.com and newegg.com and look at the shipping or tax options.) So, I took some pictures. Now I have an awesome and well-priced digital camera, and I only had to wait 4 months for it!

The day before, on Tuesday, I hit 2 "axons" in the ilovebees.com Halo2 Alternate Reality Game. Here is the 1st phone booth I hit, and here is the second. I hit the second one again on Sunday. Basically, there are times and GPS coordinates given, and at the right time, you go to the payphone, pick it up, and answer a question that relates to the story so far. The way the story is laid out, an AI from 2552 has somehow crash landed on Earth in the present day and has hooked into the server that hosts ilovebees.com. From this base, the AI has tried to establish links with loyal supporters to establish a new crew to help get back to 2552. In order to prove to the AI (known as Melissa or The Operator) that you can be trusted, you have to answer the question correctly. If enough people pick up the phone and answer correctly, then the sound file that is played after a correct response on the phone is available to everyone on the website. The whole thing is really cool, and for some reason felt strangely familiar... There were also a number of puzzles hidden in the graphics and text of the website. Totally cool and very well executed. One of the totally awesome things about this is the support sites that popped up around it, such as mapping and transcripts. Cool stuff. I'm confirmed to go to NYC on Thursday the 4th for whatever they are doing... It seems like it is in a movie theatre... More info here. If you are lucky, and ask, they might let you go, too.

The weekend was full of spending time with the virginhuntress, and I'm sure she'll love to tell you about it. :-) Good food, friends, and fun. No McDonalds involved.

Now, it is Monday, tomorrow is election day, and I'm going to bed. Good night, all!

The Internet is bad for sleep.

2004-10-23T04:17:48Z

Yeah, I probably should have done something useful with the last 2 hours, but... y'know.

Pastede, yay!
FCC Song by Eric Idle.
Here he comes to save the day!
Old American Century
huge list of politics-related video and audio
Bush's Brain
Forchess (Four!)
Prius mileage chart.

Time to go clean my room up and go to sleep...

Random Latest Posts

2004-10-23T03:21:42Z

I probably shouldn't ever go to the 'latest posts' page of livejournal...

Silly.
Shiny.
Sad.
Bullwinkle.

X-Prize, X-15, Pegasus

2004-10-19T23:51:35Z

This post is a bit old, I made it and then forgot to clean it up and post it...

The occasion of the X-Prize being completed was the impetus for this post, wherein someone had posted that, while much cheaper, private, and all that jazz, there wasn't anything groundbreakingly different from the X-15 flights, which were also launched from an airborne platform.

More news of the X-Prize.

There was further discussion of plane-launched space vehicles, and someone mentioned Pegasus. So I took a look. In fact, if I owned one of these systems, or, more realistically, was designing for this platform, I could read The Pegasus Users Guide.

Pretty crazy.

Bushy Questions

2004-09-24T12:32:31Z

Stolen from violingirl4

Medium-Dace

2004-09-16T03:49:09Z

Starting again with a title that is an AOL password pair, I want to apologize for my long absence from posting. Oh wait, no one cares if I don't post. Excellent!

Over this past week, I've learned a great many things:

I'm not as good a perl programmer as I thought. This... has been made very clear.

My parents can't figure out how to tell me 'important' things over a cell phone, instead requiring me to drive for a total of 10 hours over a weekend so they could tell me to get a job. No, really. Literally, "get a job" that is better than the ones I have now. I'm so glad they told me this! I would have no idea, otherwise...

"The conclusion drawn by the good doctor is that designers of robots or prosthetics should not strive overly hard to duplicate human appearance, lest some seemingly minor flaw drop the hapless android or cyborg into the uncanny valley — a fate to be dreaded by all concerned." Note: The Uncanny Valley is not where X-Men go when they get old and retire.

There is valid reason to search for "Jungle Cock" on the Internet if you go fishing.

Deeper-Etudes

2004-08-07T00:39:52Z

Today I felt kinda strange and lacking in energy, which I guess isn't too odd, but it seems like I've been spending too much time thinking about money and stuff lately, and it is making me into a broing grown-up who doesn't know how to have any fun. I think I'd much rather be someone who can FRIGGIN' RELAX sometimes.

I drove virginhuntress to her RESNET training (8:30 AM), then had a mostly unremarkable day at work, and then drove back to pick her up from the training (at 4:30 PM). As I waited, I was listened to 88.7 WRSU. Artifacture was on. I phoned in, partly out of boredom, and desire to converse with the DJ. I mentioned my desire to help with some stuff in The VILLAGE, but that my interests didn't exactly fit in with their goals. The DJ said he had a similar experience with the "VILLAGE people". Hah! And to think, I had only been making Prisoner references when talking about them! Also, while I'm talking about the training, hi to archaicformat and maereth!

I've realized that hyperlinks allow for my thought processes to appear much more linear, whereas in speech, they would end up having to be filled with explanative tangents.

From BoingBoing, we find some links about hypercubes including some on how to visualize them. From the same page, there is a link to some very interesting, but beyond me at the moment, Review of the Voudon Gnostic Workbook. I wonder if padmaclynne and/or sleepymaggie managed to see it, or if their travels have made them too busy.

Money-throwing

2004-08-06T17:51:52Z

Using the power of the blogosphere for completely uninteresting things.

Should I buy a digital camera and memory card for $200-ish (40% of a months rent)?

or

Should I buy a new video card for $200-ish? (40%)

or

Should I get a new system upgrade for $700-ish? (140% of rent) Opinions on the composition of list are appreciated as well.

There is the option of keeping the money, too...