tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24384745667850466232024-03-06T22:03:36.742-08:00Banana 9000jrOnce considered the most pretentious blog in the history of the world.<br/>Now, simply the best.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-33355850381644027552014-02-21T23:30:00.000-08:002014-02-21T23:30:06.512-08:00If You Aren't Interested In Language, Thou Wilt Not Enjoy This Joke<br />
<br />
Is this the kind of thing that only I find funny?<br />
<br />
Pronouns are surprisingly fundamental to most languages, but surprisingly quirky as well. For instance, in English both the first and third person pronouns have singular and plural forms (<i>I</i> and <i>we</i>, <i>he</i>/<i>she</i>/<i>it</i> and <i>they</i>), while the word <i>you</i> is both singular and plural. Of course, that wasn't always true. Originally, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou"><i>thou</i></a> was the second person singular and <i>ye</i> was the second person plural (kind of like <i>you</i> and <i>you all</i> - more on that later). The word <i>you</i> was the oblique form of <i>ye</i>, similar to <i>me</i> or <i>them</i>. So one might say, "If thou singest to me, I will sing to thee," with one person, or, "If ye sing to me, I will sing to you," with a group.<br />
<br />
Everyone was addressed with those pronouns, regardless of relationship or station. This is in contrast to Latin-based languages, in which there is a distinction between a familiar relationship and a formal relationship. This is referred to as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E2%80%93V_distinction">T-V Distinction</a> by sociolinguists (all seven of them), based on the distinction between <i>tu</i> (a friend, close family member or inferior) and <i>vos</i> (someone to whom respect was due, whether as high as a king or as close as a father). For whatever reason (those crazy Romans), the word <i>vos</i> also served as the second person plural pronoun. So if one were wont to replace the second person pronouns in the example above: "If tu singest to me, I will sing to tu," with one friend, or, "If vos sing to me, I will sing to vos," with a group of friends... or with your boss.<br />
<br />
Still with me? I realize it hasn't gotten funny yet.<br />
<br />
Anyway, English had no such distinction until 1066 or so, after which the language was heavily influenced by that of the Norman conquerors. Having Latin roots, French also distinguished between T and V pronouns, and as in Latin the plural form was generally used to address a respected person. Since they were now the rulers of the English-speakers, they demanded to be addressed with respect, but even then it was impossible to get English-speakers to learn proper French ("Mon Dieu! An abomination to my ears!"). The best they could do was to claim the plural pronouns as their own; this is the origin of "the royal <i>we</i>". It is also where the usage of <i>you</i> becomes fodder for humor; while in a tavern one could hear, "Pierre, thou art a cheese-eating surrender monkey," at court it would more likely sound like, "Pierre, you are a brie aficionado who lulls us into a false sense of security in a simian fashion."<br />
<br />
As time passed and society grew more polite, it became more and more common to address others with the respect formerly reserved for kings when speaking directly to them. Eventually, <i>thou</i> was reserved for very close friends, and to a stranger it could be considered insulting. This was the state of usage during Shakespeare's time, which makes me want to go back and re-read some Shakespeare to see which was chosen in various scenes. Of course, in modern common usage <i>thou</i> has almost entirely vanished, excepting religion, a few dialects and writing that is intentionally archaic.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, many of those writers are actually just comedians trying to make their late-night TV skit seem old-timey, and they liberally sprinkle <i>thou</i>s all over the place in their confusion over its original usage. Because of the historical significance of royalty and the inherent comedic possibilities in conversation between people with diverse socioeconomic status, these archaic pronouns are certain to be used out of context.<br />
<br />
Are you ready? This is where it gets funny... well, funny to me, at least.<br />
<br />
I fell down that rabbit hold earlier (while wondering, for obscure reasons lost even to me, if, "Avast, ye scurvy dogs!" is grammatically correct - it is, by the way), and because I'm a grammar geek I found it fascinating. I wanted to drop the words into my vocabulary immediately, because in my opinion the addition of both a plural and an informal form of <i>you</i> would vastly increase the utility of pronouns. Of course, this led me to ponder how my friends would react if I started addressing them as <i>thou</i>, but the irony is that it would have the reverse of the intended effect. Due to centuries of religion, and decades of scullery maids in improv sketches addressing royalty as <i>thou</i>, it has come to seem more formal rather than less.<br />
<br />
Of course, there is still hope. We do have our very own American-made second person plural pronoun, and while it may be too late to appropriate it for formal usage it would still work as an informal variant to replace <i>thou</i>. I guess I'll just have to get over my knee-jerk reaction to my redneck roots and start using <i>y'all</i> again. Y'all will understand what I mean, right?<br />
<br />
Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-20545538195658906252011-09-15T22:07:00.000-07:002011-09-15T22:07:51.078-07:00Burning<p><i>I wrote this for a Facebook group honoring the memory of my friend Scott, who died earlier this year. I'm transferring it here because it elicited a powerful response from a lot of people, and because I want to be able to find it again later when I need some reassurance.</i></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joe-azure/6116288687/" title="Temple of Transition by jazure, on Flickr"><img align="right" alt="Temple of Transition" height="300" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6088/6116288687_22c2d99de2.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Every year at Burning Man they build a giant wooden temple - this year, it was the largest temporary wooden structure in the world, or so I was told - and at the end of the week they burn it to ashes. Participants are encouraged to write on the walls throughout the week; sometimes these messages are spiritual in nature, but most often they are messages to the departed.</p><p>I'm not the most spiritual person, but I made the pilgrimage out to the temple in the middle of the Black Rock Desert this year. I scrawled a quick message to Scott on the bannister of the arch on the right of this picture. It was powerful, and somber, and sobering. I couldn't really talk about it for days afterwards.</p><p>On the way back from the temple, we were caught in a dust storm. It was the biggest we experienced all week: fifteen minutes of white-out conditions, sitting immobile in the middle of dessert, sand piling up in my ears. All I could think was, "I'm pretty sure even Scott would have been impressed."</p><p>We didn't stay to watch the temple burn; it's a long drive home, and I had to get back to work. I'm glad to know that it did, though. I guess I hope he got the message somehow, but I know it doesn't really matter. I can say that I'm glad I took the chance to send it. It's honestly the first time I've felt any peace while thinking about him.</p><p>Anyway, I figure even if he couldn't read the message, he sure would have been impressed by the fire.<p>Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-43108054019848911392010-04-05T13:03:00.000-07:002010-04-05T13:11:32.185-07:00Best Of The Decade<p>I spend too much time thinking about stuff. Pointless, meaningless stuff. Way too much time. Let me give you an example…</p>
<p>Sometime around Thanksgiving 2009, I spotted the first droplets heralding the deluge of "Best of the Decade" lists that was to come. I've always been fascinated by such lists, in particular the "Best X Songs of the Year/Decade/Millenium" lists that have been put together by Rolling Stone, Spin, Pitchfork, etc. I've always been something of a musical gourmand, and despite the arbitrary nature of picking a certain number of songs from within a certain time period, the mere fact that someone took the time to determine which songs were released during that period always left me both amused and amazed. Picking the top X favorites from within that time period struck me as the easiest part of the undertaking.</p>
<p>As much as I'd wanted to put together my own list, I had always been deterred by the mountain of research that stood between myself and the goal. Sometime in the last decade, however, a synergistic combination of iTunes, database technology and the internet have finally solved that problem for me. I had to spend a few hours populating the Year field in my iTunes library with the help of <a href="http://www.discogs.com/">discogs.com</a> (currently the best discography source on the net, IMHO), but beyond that the heavy lifting all came down to decision-making. That's about when the hard work started.</p>
<p>Did I mention that I think too much about pointless, meaningless stuff? I did? Okay. As of December 1, 2009 I had all the data in front of me. I was resolved to complete the list by December 31, 2010 at 9pm so I could play it at our New Year's Eve party. By Christmas Day I had compiled a list of 350 candidates. And that's about when the hard work started.</p>
<p>I quickly decided to follow the Ancient Laws of Mix Tape Creation, which state clearly, “Yay though many songs by one band may express the feelings you wish to convey, still shall you use only one song, so that the listener may experience the maximum number of new artists. So mote it be.” Of course, picking the song which best represents Foo Fighters in the 21st century was not an easy matter, and I don't even want to think about how many times I listened to My Chemical Romance's “The Black Parade” trying to determine which song deserved inclusion, but in less than 24 hours I was down to only 250 tracks. I cut another 20 or so when I decided that cover versions simply confused the issue too much; I wasn't happy about the removal of “Comfortably Numb” by The Scissor Sisters, but it had to be done. And that's about when the hard work started.</p>
<p>What followed was five days of soul-searching, staring at my laptop, repeatedly listening to 30-second clips of songs, agonizingly editing and re-editing <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AquYGAEDaCJxdEN1STdpc2FhZG8xUUczMW5aZmswaGc&hl=en">my spreadsheet</a>, asking random passers-by if including Kanye West made me a bad person (I'm told that he's a gay fish), and just generally scratching my head wondering how I got myself into this. I had to kill bands I love. I cut Justin Timberlake, then brought sexy back... I dropped Snoop like he was hot, then picked him back up once I'd cooled off... I had 99 problems, and Jay-Z was one. But eventually, it was time; if it wasn't for the last minute, I'd never know when to finish anything. At 8pm on New Year's Eve, I finally settled on my list of the Best 100 Songs of the Decade.</p>
<p>And that's about when the hard work started.</p>
<p>On January 2, 2010, I discovered that one of the songs (“My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit) was actually released in 1999. After listening to the playlist alphabetically, I decided I just couldn't justify the exclusion of Blink 182 while Angels & Airwaves made the cut. I kicked myself back and forth before I replaced the incredibly popular “This Ain't A Scene...” by Fall Out Boy with the virtually unknown, but ultimately superior, “Hum Hallelujah” from the same album. I argued over whether I could forgive myself for allowing Coldplay in just because the album was produced by Brian Eno. And then came the issue of ordering. That's about when the hard work started.</p>
<p>Did I mention that I think too much about pointless, meaningless stuff? I did? Okay. You see, I loved listening to the list in shuffle mode, but I just couldn't put it in a definite order. I tried ranking the songs, listing them alphabetically and chronologically, breaking them up by genre... nothing seemed satisfying. Of course, it didn't matter to me, but I had promised to publish the list online, not to mention several people that wanted the list burned to audio CDs (seven discs in all), and I had to do <i>something</i> about the order.</p>
<p>It was my friend Mimi who eventually proposed the obvious solution to me. “If you like it on shuffle, why don't you just post it in a random order?” she asked. Hmm... well I suppose I could whip up a little JavaScript, but what about the CD's? “Just burn each person's copy in an order generated randomly uniquely for them,” she suggested. Hmm... neat! Why didn't <i>I</i> think of that?</p>
<p>And so, finally, here it is. If you're just viewing the list online and you don't like the order, hit refresh and it will change. If you're reading this through RSS and don't see the list at the end of the post, go view it on my actual blog; I have no confidence whatsoever that the JavaScript I wrote will actually execute in any sort of feed-reader. If you receive a data CD of MP3's from me (or if you download it, once I post the BitTorrent file), I may include a randomly ordered playlist, but I still recommend that you simply put your music player of choice on shuffle mode and let the electronics handle it for you. And if you receive (or burn) audio CDs, well, you're stuck with the order you get (unless you own a seven-disc changer, I suppose), but at least you'll know that it is unique to you.</p>
<p>I have a lot more to say on many of these songs, and a list of notes regarding why I included them, which I'll hopefully post once I've cleaned them up a bit. In general, my criteria for the list were that it be listenable, personal, cross-genre, exceptional, and finally that I wouldn't be embarrassed by it in 10 years. Of course, I expect disagreement on many of my selections, and I encourage comments about both the songs you think I unfairly passed over and the songs you think I'm an idiot for including. Dissent is educational, and while I don't guarantee that I'll change the list for you, I can't guarantee that I won't. In the end, this is the beauty of the internet; nothing is true, all is illusion, and any mistake can both be immediately corrected and never be erased.</p>
<script language="JavaScript">
var songCount = 100;
var songList = new Array(songCount);
var randomList = new Array(songCount);
songList[1] = "A3 - Too Sick To Pray";
songList[2] = "The All-American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret";
songList[3] = "Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good";
songList[4] = "Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)";
songList[5] = "Arctic Monkeys - Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor";
songList[6] = "Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At";
songList[7] = "Beck - Think I'm In Love";
songList[8] = "The Beta Band - Squares";
songList[9] = "Beyoncé - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)";
songList[10] = "Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling";
songList[11] = "Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You";
songList[12] = "Blink 182 - I Miss You";
songList[13] = "Bloc Party - Hunting For Witches";
songList[14] = "Blue October - Breakfast After 10";
songList[15] = "Britney Spears - Toxic";
songList[16] = "Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)";
songList[17] = "Buckcherry - Next 2 You";
songList[18] = "Caesars - Jerk It Out";
songList[19] = "Cake - Short Skirt/Long Jacket";
songList[20] = "The Chemical Brothers - The Test";
songList[21] = "Coheed & Cambria - The Suffering";
songList[22] = "Coldplay - Viva La Vida";
songList[23] = "The Coral - Dreaming Of You";
songList[24] = "CSS - Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above";
songList[25] = "Daft Punk - One More Time";
songList[26] = "Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart";
songList[27] = "The Decembrists - 16 Military Wives";
songList[28] = "Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move";
songList[29] = "Doves - There Goes The Fear";
songList[30] = "The Dresden Dolls - Backstabber";
songList[31] = "Eve 6 - Promise";
songList[32] = "Fall Out Boy - Hum Hallelejah";
songList[33] = "Finger Eleven - Paralyzer";
songList[34] = "The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??";
songList[35] = "Flobots - Handlebars";
songList[36] = "Foo Fighters - All My Life";
songList[37] = "Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls";
songList[38] = "The Fratellis - Flathead";
songList[39] = "Gnarls Barkley - Crazy";
songList[40] = "Goldfrapp - Ooh La La";
songList[41] = "Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.";
songList[42] = "Interpol - Evil";
songList[43] = "Jason Mraz - Curbside Prophet";
songList[44] = "Jay-Z - 99 Problems";
songList[45] = "Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl";
songList[46] = "Joss Stone - Snakes & Ladders";
songList[47] = "Justin Timberlake - SexyBack (featuring Timbaland)";
songList[48] = "Kanye West - Stronger (featuring Daft Punk)";
songList[49] = "The Killers - All These Things That I've Done";
songList[50] = "Klaxons - Golden Skans";
songList[51] = "Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head";
songList[52] = "Lady Gaga - Bad Romance";
songList[53] = "LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends";
songList[54] = "Lemon Demon - The Ultimate Showdown";
songList[55] = "Lily Allen - Smile";
songList[56] = "The Limousines - Very Busy People";
songList[57] = "Louis XIV - Finding Out True Love Is Blind";
songList[58] = "M.I.A. - Paper Planes";
songList[59] = "Madonna - Music";
songList[60] = "Maroon 5 - Harder To Breathe";
songList[61] = "Massive Attack - Small Time Shot Away";
songList[62] = "MGMT - Time To Pretend";
songList[63] = "Missy Elliott - Work It";
songList[64] = "Modest Mouse - Float On";
songList[65] = "Muse - Knights Of Cydonia";
songList[66] = "My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade";
songList[67] = "N.E.R.D. - Lapdance (featuring Lee Harvey and Vita)";
songList[68] = "OK Go - Here It Goes Again";
songList[69] = "OPM - Heaven Is A Halfpipe";
songList[70] = "OutKast - Hey Ya!";
songList[71] = "Panic At The Disco - Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off";
songList[72] = "Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks";
songList[73] = "Phish - Sand";
songList[74] = "Phoenix - 1901";
songList[75] = "Pink - Who Knew";
songList[76] = "The Polyphonic Spree - Running Away";
songList[77] = "The Postal Service - Such Great Heights";
songList[78] = "Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows";
songList[79] = "The Rapture - Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh";
songList[80] = "Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music";
songList[81] = "Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes";
songList[82] = "Rogue Traders - Voodoo Child";
songList[83] = "Santigold - Lights Out";
songList[84] = "Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama";
songList[85] = "She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart";
songList[86] = "Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It's Hot";
songList[87] = "Spiritualized® - Do It All Over Again";
songList[88] = "Spoon - I Turn My Camera On";
songList[89] = "The Strokes - Hard To Explain";
songList[90] = "Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Counting Down The Hours";
songList[91] = "The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name";
songList[92] = "TV On The Radio - Staring At The Sun";
songList[93] = "U2 - Elevation";
songList[94] = "Vampire Weekend - A-Punk";
songList[95] = "Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn)";
songList[96] = "The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army";
songList[97] = "Wilco - Heavy Metal Drummer";
songList[98] = "Wolfmother - Joker & The Thief";
songList[99] = "Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps";
songList[100] = "Zero 7 - Give It Away";
songList.shift();
for (index = 1; index <= songCount; index = index + 1)
{
var randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * songList.length);
randomList[index] = songList[randomIndex];
songList.splice(randomIndex, 1);
}
for (index = 1; index <= 100; index = index + 1)
{
document.write(index + ": " + randomList[index] + "<br/>");
}
</script>Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-40041967840610782532009-12-02T01:24:00.000-08:002009-12-02T01:27:57.363-08:00The Rock<blockquote><p>I look back at who I was […] and it’s like, “Who are you?” … I recognize him like a stranger in a fog; no, he looks like an angry insomniac jogging in the middle of the street at 3:30am. It’s the mentality that doesn’t check out. Something was clearly wrong with me but my worldview didn’t permit me to see it. I wasn’t cracked-out, I was “working my ass off”. I wasn’t arrogant, I was “awesome”. I was peaking on a high I couldn’t imagine coming down from.</p><p> —<a href="http://jakelodwick.tumblr.com/post/264303658/two-years-ago-today-i-was-fired-from-vimeo-on">Jake Lodwick's Blog</a></p></blockquote><p>As the days of unemployment tick past, I become more and more convinced that this description fits me, prior to the layoff, all too well. I was thoroughly convinced that I was accomplishing great things, both for myself and for the company. I worked long days, long weeks, long months; I sacrificed friends, family and free time. I did it all willingly, thinking I was actually moving forward. I added features, I fixed bugs, I structured the code, I improved performance. I was expanding my skills, building my resume, making up for lost time and earning more money than I'd ever thought possible.</p><blockquote><p>"The rock is going to fall on us," he told the magistrate<br />
"I believe that we can stop it, but the time is getting late.<br />
You see, I've done all the research. My plans are all complete."<br />
He was showing them contingencies when they showed him to the street.</p><p> —"The Rock" by Harry Chapin</p></blockquote><p>Of <i>course</i> I was enjoying myself. The constant mental challenges kept me so hyper-focused that I barely had time to notice stress, depression or illness. I felt nigh-invulnerable. I could accomplish anything, and they couldn't live without me.</p><p>I was high.</p><p>Now that I have nothing to do but sit around and think, I can see the problem with the mental frame in which I then existed. Four months later, I have nothing to show for all that effort but 25 lines on the first page of my resume. No money, no stock, no interviews and no respect. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, I accomplished <i>nothing</i>.</p><blockquote><p>He went up on the mountain, beside the giant stone.<br />
They knew he was insane, so they left him all alone.<br />
He'd given up enlisting help, for there was no one else.<br />
He spent his days devising ways to stop the rock himself.<br />
<br />
One night while he was working, building bracers on the ledge,<br />
The ground began to rumble, the rock trembled on the edge...<br />
<br />
"The rock is gonna fall on us! Run or you'll all be crushed!"<br />
And indeed the rock was moving, crumbling all the dust.<br />
He ran under it with one last hope that he could add a prop,<br />
And as he disappeared, the rock came to a stop.<br />
<br />
The people ran into the street, but by then all was still.<br />
The rock seemed where it always was, or where it always will be.<br />
When someone asked where he had gone, they said, "Oh he was daft,<br />
Who cares about that crazy fool," and then they'd start to laugh.<br />
<br />
But high up on the mountain, when the wind is hitting it,<br />
If you're watching very closely, the rock... slips... a little... bit.</p><p> —"The Rock" by Harry Chapin</p></blockquote><p>If I was supposed to learn a lesson from all this, I still haven't found it. Could I have done something different to keep my job? I have no idea. Is there some way I could have ensured my future employment? Um... like what? Would I do it all again in the same circumstances. Hmm... yeah, probably so.</p><p>As useless as it all was, I'm still proud of what I did. Not because of what I accomplished, but because I refused to give up. I'd rather give everything I have and fail then do a half-assed job and succeed. That may be short-sighted, but it beats hell out of losing what little self-respect I have. Was it worth it? Pfft. I'm not even sure I understand the question.</p><blockquote><p><b>Slartibartfast:</b> "Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what's actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, 'Hang the sense of it,' and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day."<br />
<b>Arthur:</b> "And are you?"<br />
<b>Slartibartfast:</b> "Ah, no. (laughs) Well, that's where it all falls down, of course."</p><p> —<i>The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy</i> by Douglas Adams</p></blockquote>Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-71803054738004808672009-05-25T13:12:00.000-07:002009-05-25T13:12:12.716-07:00Declaration of IntentA few weeks ago I completed an absolutely ruthless culling of my Google Reader subscribed feeds list; now following 82 feeds, down from a lifetime max of 803. Last weekend I caught up on the remaining 450+ unread items from the feeds that made the cut, mostly belonging to friends, coworkers, and local acquaintances. Earlier this week, I used <a href="http://nest.unclutterer.com/">Nest.Unclutterer</a> to screen my follows and followers; yesterday I broke <a href="http://twitter.com/owenj23">Twitter</a> silence for the first time in six months. I've budgeted an hour a day to deal with my primary GMail account, all of which is currently directed towards an <a href="http://www.43folders.com/izero">Inbox Zero</a> system that works for me. I even dragged the <a href="http://owenj23.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> bookmarklet back onto the Firefox toolbar so I could post some links and ditch the associated emails once and for all.<br />
<br />
Consider yourself warned, internet. I've spent too long staring at source code, letting your pathways become overgrown while a feral glint creeps into the eyes of your denizens. Perhaps my metaphors have even become brittle and strained, with descriptions both baroque and byzantine.<br />
<br />
I had a nice little online life set up for myself once upon a time, but I let it all slip away while in the grip of a horrible addiction to work. I'm not going to claim that I no longer have a problem; I expect I'll be fighting this particular addiction for the rest of my life. (Like my oxygen addiction, it can be dangerous to avoid the source of the dependency too completely.) I'm still having difficulty making the tough decisions that must be made on the way to Inbox Zero, and I can't even think about <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=672302583">Facebook</a> without pangs of guilt for the messages from old friends and high school classmates that remain unanswered. Every site I have needs a facelift, or at least some botox for the CSS. I have an entire Google Notebook specifically for sites and projects I'm unlikely to ever reclaim.<br />
<br />
I'm not going to let it overwhelm me any more, though. I'm taking it back ("<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2DxyAGzGxM">Net Monkey 4 Life</a>?") one site at a time. We will fight them in the feed readers! We will fight them in the social networks! We will fight them in the blogs and sharing sites. Let the cry be, "No surrender!"<br />
<br />
Or, um, something like that. We now return you to your regularly scheduled lack of programming, already in progress.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-83288074700918884892008-08-14T00:28:00.000-07:002008-08-14T00:36:30.477-07:00We've Got Nothing Better To Do...<div class="separator" style="float: right; clear: both;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/owenj/2761317665/in/photostream" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0pt none ; background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="250" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3215/2761317665_7b2b8a57bd_b.jpg" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a></div>Shooting the picture myself from the other side does little to disguise the fact that I spend far too much time sitting in this same chair, in front of the same notebook, with the same things on TV night after night. However, like drinking, spelunking and philosophical conversations, it's really only troublesome from a behavioral psychology perspective if one does it alone.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-83633700606681830492008-08-13T01:53:00.000-07:002008-08-13T02:20:17.372-07:00Off-Center<div class="separator" style="float: right; clear: both;"><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3243/2758713447_5ff6d269cc_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0pt none ; background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="250" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3243/2758713447_5ff6d269cc_b.jpg" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a></div>I feel a bit ridiculous posting this late, but I couldn't get to sleep feeling like I'd already given up. The picture kind of mirrors the way I feel about this project at the moment... no pun intended, of course. So far I'm not thrilled with the results. It's self-reflective, sure, but it's off-center, out of focus and ultimately the only thing that matters seems to be the camera. Hell, I can't even look myself in the eye. I feel as if I'm standing next to the shower curain of pointlessness.<br />
<br />
Er, sorry. Metaphors seem stretchier at this time of night. I didn't mean to break it, really. It was an accident. Jeez. Forget it, I'm going to bed.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-22446601219861188222008-08-11T20:57:00.000-07:002008-08-13T02:19:51.357-07:00Drunken Smile<div><div class="separator" style="float: left; clear: both;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/owenj/2755094417/in/photostream/" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0pt none ; background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="275" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3165/2755094417_6282223ee8_o.jpg" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a></div>Made a last-minute decision to see The Monads, Bob Log III and Scott H. Biram at Off Broadway last night, or allowed it to be made for me. Topher was going anyway, and I didn't really have anything better to do, but balanced against Sunday evening laziness it was still a close decision. Eventually I decided that I needed to use a different background occasionally for my daily picture than the chair in the corner, which tipped the scales in favor of going along; it seemed easier than carrying all my crap into the basement.<br />
The Monads were totally not the band I was expecting, but they were pretty cool nevertheless. They're certainly the best local bluegrass punk outfit I've seen. The really impressive act was Bob Log III, a one-man band, death cyclist and born showman. I like to think that under that helmet he looks like David Carradine from a bad '70's movie, but perhaps he just wears it because it drives the ladies wild. Getting two women to sit on his knees while playing the kick drum is not just an impressive feat of seduction but also of rhythm, but the real coup is live <a href="http://lofistl.ning.com/video/video/show?id=814862%3AVideo%3A42713">Boob Scotch</a> (NSFW video). By the time Scott H. Biram came on, I was going to need something with a stronger beat than his peculiar brand of psychotic hellbilly gospel to keep me moving, so I spent the bulk of the show outside with a PBR and a cigarette.</div><hr /><div><div class="separator" style="float: right; clear: both;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/owenj/2755122794/in/set-72157606637161297/" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0pt none ; background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="325" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3016/2755122794_9d4d729ddf_o.jpg" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a></div>Somebody used to tell me all the time, "You have a cute smile when you're drunk." I'm still not sure I see what she meant, unless by cute you mean 'slightly goofy.' The vague look of dementia around the eyes may be due to the shot of absinthe I had, or it may just be the onset of a serious psychiatric problem. I'm also not sure if I'd prefer to believe that my face is that shiny due to the little bit of drinking I did or the little bit of dancing I did. Maybe its just bad lighting, or bad skin care.</div>Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-1031887972717503282008-08-10T16:25:00.000-07:002008-08-13T02:19:15.443-07:00Zero Day<div class="separator" style="float: right; clear: both;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/owenj/2750400260/in/set-72157606637161297" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0pt none ; background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="300" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3194/2750400260_b0c60c8568_o.jpg" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a></div>Before I looked old and scraggly. After shaving, just old. Of course, waiting to take the picture until moments before bed doesn't help, and doesn't bode well for the success of this project. Gotta be more on top of things.<br />
<br />
Still, the goal I set for myself was to get a picture before crashing for the night, and to get it posted by the next night, and I've accomplished that much at least. It's a bit early in the game to start kicking myself over the small failures and near misses. After all, I have to have something to talk about next week.<br />
<br />
So anyway, today is <b><i>Zero Day</i></b>. This is the baseline upon which I must improve what I can and make peace with what I cannot. Staring at these daily photos will force me to either improve my self-image or work to improve myself. At least, that's my theory. We'll see how well it proves out in practice.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-8140400774389078382008-08-09T13:34:00.000-07:002008-08-13T02:18:45.366-07:00Every Story Must Have A Beginning<div class="separator" style="float: right; clear: both;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/owenj/2747125823/in/set-72157606637161297/" imageanchor="1" style="border: 0pt none ; background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="300" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3028/2747125823_4462a2a282_o.jpg" style="border: 0pt none ;" /></a></div>Since I first started trying to maintain a blog, way back when I had free time, I've been planning on doing the picture-a-day experiment on myself. I've had a fair number of justifications for this plan, but they really all boil down to the One True Reason for all my internet adventures: I want to learn how to better fake narcissism.<br />
<br />
I'm sure that as time goes by, you'll all hear plenty more of my philosophical musings on why I'm torturing myself, not to mention my Loyal Readers, in this most nefarious way. For now, however, I just wanted to warn anyone who happens to still be following my lately-derelict personal blog that they should set their browsers to refuse images from this URL for the foreseeable future.<br />
<br />
I'm calling this shot <i><b>Day -1</b></i>. It was taken 2008.08.08 by Topher, and showcases what happens when I spend about a month ignoring the basic tenets of personal grooming. Part of the reason I'm starting this project now is so I can have this picture right at the beginning of the set; hopefully I can use it as a reference to remember why I need to take better care of myself.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-37152786709668782652007-03-30T09:57:00.000-07:002007-03-30T10:08:27.071-07:00PersonalDNA<div><div style='float:right;margin-top:10px;margin-left:10px;'><script src="http://personaldna.com/t/?k=CsrgKmPOIxQRrce-DM-CACDD-0121&t=Advocating+Artist"> </script></div>I'm not a huge fan of these personality tests, but <a href="http://personaldna.com/">PersonalDNA</a> has the coolest interface ever. And I'm totally behind anyone that calls me an Advocating Artist, too. Plus they have this cool little PersonalDNA Map gizmo, and as everyone knows I think gizmos are cool. If you really just think I'm so cool that you need to know everything about me, or if you're an FBI Profiler looking for data on me, you can read the <a href="http://www.personaldna.com/report.php?&k=CsrgKmPOIxQRrce-DM-CACDD-0121">full report</a> to find out what makes me tick.</div>Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-53782677127278099502007-01-30T15:52:00.000-08:002007-01-31T13:12:10.179-08:00The Obligatory RSNIt feels like it's been weeks since I've done the blog thing, and I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I missed it. Unfortunately, the spare time that I burn here has been stolen by variously deadlines at work, the moving/unmoving process and the Inexorable Hand of Fate.
The work thing has been the most frustratingly soul-crushing, overall. The two-week advantage I acquired by burning through the holidays working 60 hours a week evaporated quickly in the face of additional feature requests and early deadlines. This is the first night I've come home in a while that didn't have a set agenda, usually consisting of a single item: "redesign code furiously to fix problems uncovered in testing during the day." What did I achieve in the last month of activity? Well, I added a bunch of features, cleaned up both the code and the design significantly, and finally (and most importantly) demonstrated that the problem was definitively in my boss' code.
The moving process is now complete, and The Mansion is history. I'm sad to see it go, and a bit overwhelmed by the prospect that all the problems with this place are now <span style="font-style: italic;">my</span> problems, but January is a good month for new things and that place was killing us slowly anyway. Of course, we still have the vast and unconquerable unmoving process to complete. The Brat puts a ton of pressure on herself to put everything in the house into its Designated Away Zone immediately, but I'm pretty happy to just have the network up and running. I can even play my iTunes upstairs and downstairs at the same time. Walking up the stairs and hearing to the music shift between the stereo downstairs and my computer upstairs feels so ridiculously good that I think I may have discovered an Eighth Deadly Sin.
Meanwhile, the Inexorable Hand of Fate (not to be confused with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060666/">Manos</a>, which had multiple Hands of Fate) has been mucking with my life again, pushing me closer to some people and further from others and just generally making it hard to take the impending permanence of the house and impending disaster of the job too seriously. I figure that if I can't even predict whose floor on which I'll be passing out or what might inspire me to write multi-line haiku emails, there's not much sense in worrying about the future. I'm reasonably sure that I won't understand it once it gets here.
Tomorrow is the day that I have officially designated as New Years Day 2007. I wrote off the month of January, but I have big plans for this year and I'm looking forward to finding the time to execute them. It's All Coming Together, and in addition to the normal life-plans I've got a few things lined up for the blogs in the next month that I've been anxiously anticipating. I've scheduled a beginning-of-the-year clean-up and review of my bookmarks and linkblogs, so expect a major link-dump of cool stuff sometime in the next few days. If this goes well I'm going to make it a monthly blog event, so any feedback will be appreciated. I also plan to blog a house-tour once The Brat is vaguely satisfied with her work, for those of you unwilling or unable to come see the new space. Topher suggested that we should write a Safe Free Pr0n Download Tutorial, which seems like a good idea given the frequency with which our friends seem to pick up spam-ware. I've got a few iTunes smart playlist tricks up my sleeve that I've been dying to write about. And don't forget the impending 8,742-part Rebuilding Firefox series that I've been promising... I know everyone is looking forward to that.
Extra-blogging activities that will probably get mentioned here in the New New Year include excitement like buying a new car and the inevitable discussions of which music festivals to attend over the summer. I hope to have a weekly(-ish) podcast up and running by mid-March, and sometime around then we'll start finishing the basement as well. I've also promised myself that more live poker is in the cards for me this year, and if that works out as well as internet poker has I'll have plenty to say about it as well.
So, that's the obligatory Real Soon Now list. There's also a half-dozen requests I've had for various posts - software development and testing using VMWare, syncing bookmarks with del.icio.us, Google Reader posts in both basic and advanced flavors, etc - which I hope to get to RSN as well. Plus I've got a few new Coolest Things Ever currently in review. And I'm taking suggestions, so if you've got any geek questions or your looking for a step-by-step on something that I actually know how to do, let me know and I'll add it to the list.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-55615462282263240142007-01-21T13:54:00.000-08:002007-01-22T14:32:06.093-08:00Tagline Abusers Anonmyous<span style="font-weight: bold;">[Ed. Note:</span> I should point out that the following is mostly tongue-in-cheek, but not so tongue-in-cheek that I don't fear it may get taken more seriously than intended. I don't want to have to invent another program for sardonic blogging.<span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span>
Hi, my name is OWenJ, and I am a Tagline Abuser.<span class="footnoteMark">*</span>
It's time for Step Five, which I've been dreading, but it has to be done. To quote the <a href="http://owenj23.googlepages.com/taglineabusersanonymoustwelvesteps">Tagline Abusers Anonymous Twelve Steps</a>:<blockquote>Step 5: We have blogged about the nature of our transgressions, so that our contacts could read it and Google could index it.</blockquote>So here I am, admitting that I have a problem and I am powerless to stop changing.
I've had my <a href="http://www.blackberrypearl.com/">BlackBerry Pearl</a> for almost six months now, and it has become as indispensible as my 7100<span class="footnoteMark">**</span> had been before it. Any time I'm bored for a minute or two, I can see who is online to chat, check my <a href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com/">Milk list</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/">Reader items</a>, read messages... I guess I could even talk to people, if I wasn't so much more comfortable with text these days.
Anyway, it wasn't very long before I was whipping it out every time I had a free moment. Stop lights, smoke breaks at work, trips to the bathroom, waiting for the Subway guy to finish my sandwich... <span style="font-style: italic;">every</span> free moment. Of course, these moments aren't often long enough to do any serious web-surfing or say much more than hello to someone on <a href="http://www.google.com/talk/">GTalk</a>. Ultimately, it became clear that the best I could do was type a line of text most of the time. And increasingly frequently, that line of text was my GTalk tagline.
At first I struggled for something clever to say each time. It was surprising (given my <span style="font-style: italic;">exceedingly</span> clever nature ;-) how often I failed. Sometimes I'd lose those precious spare moments to thinking (which is <span style="font-style: italic;">so</span> 20th century), sometimes I'd put up a (mis)quote from something, <strike>sometimes</strike> <strike>often</strike> most of the time I'd put up something <span style="font-style: italic;">completely</span> nonsensical.
Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone quite understands the mental shift a toy like the BlackBerry brings upon one. Or perhaps it's because many IM programs refer to this as a "status message" rather than "tagline" or "subtitle," which is certainly what it had become in my mind. Apparently it's supposed to embody some sort of mental, physical, emotional or spiritual metric that can be used to give information in addition to the default 'Normal' and 'Busy' messages. Who knew? I thought it was a way to convince people to talk to me.
For that, it worked. Just not always the way I wanted it to. Fe0<sub>2</sub> asked me if I was okay when I quoted "I'm the new Cancer" from a <a href="http://www.panicatthedisco.com/">PANIC! At The Disco</a> song (Coolest Song Title Ever: <span class="footnoteMark"><span class="footnoteText">"There's a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought of It Yet")</span></span>. Joule was concerned when I quoted something with the word contagious in it. And then there was the issue the logging.
See, I didn't realize that these changes were showing up in peoples' open conversation windows. I mean, I knew it, but I always closed the windows when I was done... didn't everybody? Turns out, the answer is no. The Brat read through about eight gazillion of these changes when she left a window open for three days. She thought it was funny (she's a little weird sometimes), but in most cases it conveyed unintended meaning. A few people thought I was providing commentary on conversations already in progress, and someone seemed to think I was providing commentary on his relationship issues. And who knows what Google magic would cause the dueling text from my desktop and BlackBerry connections to argue over which one was most recent or sometimes give me two or three messages on the display.
I'm done with all that now, however. I've entered a program... well, okay, I made up a program but whatever. They've supplied my Tagline Methadone and I blogged about <a href="http://iotower.blogspot.com/2007/01/coolest-thing-ever-twitter-little-bird.html">using Twitter</a> a week or so ago. It has served as a good replacement for my addiction, and I have pledged to do all my stream-of-consciousness blogging on <a href="http://twitter.com/owenj23">my Twitter page</a> from now on. While it won't help me quit, I'm confident that with the help of the <a href="http://owenj23.googlepages.com/taglineabusersanonymoustwelvesteps">Tagline Abusers Anonymous Twelve Steps</a> I can be completely clean in another 24 days or so. Maybe less if I give myself some time off for good behavior.
<span style="font-weight: bold;">[Update:</span> I'm over half-way through the program!<blockquote>Step 7: We have humbly asked Google to remove our Status Message.</blockquote>You can see my <a href="http://groups-beta.google.com/group/3rd-Party-Clients/browse_thread/thread/bbfb05a2648d6b1c?hl=en">Humble Request</a> in the GTalk Group on Google Groups.<span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span>
<span class="footnoteMark">*</span><span class="footnoteText">Note that I am <i>not</i> a Tagline-oholic, as I do not drink Tagline-ohol. (c)199-something Random</span>
<span class="footnoteMark">**</span><span class="footnoteText">Not nearly as sexy as the <a href="http://www.blackberrypearl.com/">Pearl</a>, but a cool toy nonetheless. According to <a href="http://www.bbhub.com/2007/01/20/buy-a-blackberry-7105t-on-amazon-and-come-out-74-99-richer/">BBHub</a>, Amazon will currently give you $75 (eventually) to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/BlackBerry-BLACKBERRY-7105T-7105t-T-Mobile/dp/B000BNQNDY/sr=8-9/qid=1169093548/ref=pd_bbs_9/105-3234366-0474820?ie=UTF8&s=wireless">take the upgraded model</a> of this (<a href="http://www.blackberry.com/products/blackberry7100/blackberry7105t.shtml">BlackBerry 7105</a>) of their hands. Jump on this if you've been thinking about upgrading but don't have the scratch.</span><span class="footnoteMark"><span class="footnoteText">
</span></span>Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-40330935519086735802007-01-07T01:10:00.000-08:002007-01-06T23:14:41.445-08:00How Many Blogs Must I Stack Up<blockquote>To wash you out of my mind, out of my consciousness?
How many posts must I write up
To bring you back the check fat off of my slenderness?<sup><b>*</b></sup></blockquote>You may have noticed the name change. Then again, maybe not. I'm not even sure that anyone cares. However, <a href="http://cheatingatsolitaire.blogspot.com/">Cheating At Solitaire</a> was/is the name of my long-neglected poker blog. I've been playing a bit more recently, and while I'm not sure that I'm likely to try writing about it again any time soon, I just can't stand to steal the URL from it.
Anyway, the URL here has not changed. For better or worse, or at least for the time being, my online identity is designated by the now nearly-nonsensical string owenj23. The feed URL is also unchanged, although it is unlikely to stay that way long, as it seems somewhat ridiculous to leave CheatingAtSolitaire in the URL.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/7650/troncoverioqa8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/7650/troncoverioqa8.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I'm in the process of making some other changes that may not be immediately apparent. I've tagged several posts <a href="http://owenj23.blogspot.com/search/label/iotower">iotower</a>, primarily the geek stuff about BlackBerry and Firefox. I've moved all these posts to a new blog, which I've named <a href="http://iotower.blogspot.com/">The I/O Tower</a> because it's geeky, and I think that will allow me to find some <a href="http://www.3gcs.com/tron/">pretty cool graphics</a> with a little effort.
Why am I moving them at all? Well, as with most things I do, it's a little bit of OCD and a lot of vanity. I was checking my <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/">Google Analytics</a> stats the other day and discovered that seven (7) people found my Firefox post the other day via Google, as I'm somehow third on the query results for '<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=fast+firefox">fast firefox</a>'. As if this whole blog thing hasn't already gone to my head, I started to think that I might get readers or something.
Of course, from the readers' POV, this blog kind of sucks. At least for me, the blogs I really like stay on topic, or at least on a tightly-bound range of topics. Not that I'm looking to be the next ScoBoingCrunch or anything, but it just seems natural to separate my tech fetish from the (depressingly mundane) updates about my life. For that matter, I expect most of my friends are really just curious about the new house or whether I've bought a car yet. This way they won't have to be exposed to <span style="font-style: italic;">Re-installing Firefox: The Multi-part Epic</span>.<sup><b>**</b></sup>
For the record, this is not the first time I've done this. I once had a post tagged NSFW (temporarily restored) before I decided that it would be better to segregate the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll to <a href="http://everysevensex.blogspot.com/">Every Seven Seconds</a>. And I have big plans for <a href="http://owenj.vox.com/">MediaDada</a> once I decide whether I'm playing with Vox or actually using it. I'm sure I've got a <a href="http://owenj.livejournal.com/">LiveJournal</a> around here somewhere. And of course I've got several Google Reader <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/shared/08067293229460284737">linkblogs</a> of <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/08067293229460284737/label/webcomic">various</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/08067293229460284737/label/blackberry">flavors</a>...
So what is that? Four... five? Six if you count the post or three I've put on <a href="http://www.myspace.com/owenj23">MySpace</a>, although the most recent one announces that I'm about 10 days from blowing up that account. Wow, when you put an integer on it like that, it seems like maybe I'm a little... sick? Unbalanced, perhaps. I'm starting to have second thoughts about that zombie blog I wanted to create...
<sup><b>*</b></sup> With apologies to Soul Coughing.
<sup><b>**</b></sup> Seriously.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-11157073628673965892007-01-05T13:10:00.000-08:002007-01-05T13:31:58.957-08:00Good vs. Evil<table style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>
<td style="width: 50%;">
Your results:<br/><b>You are <span style="font-size:6;">Spider-Man</span></b><table><tbody><tr><td><table><tbody><tr><td>Spider-Man</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="75"></td><td> 75%</td></tr><tr><td>Batman</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="70"></td><td> 70%</td></tr><tr><td>Hulk</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="65"></td><td> 65%</td></tr><tr><td>Robin</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="60"></td><td> 60%</td></tr><tr><td>Superman</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="60"></td><td> 60%</td></tr><tr><td>Catwoman</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="60"></td><td> 60%</td></tr><tr><td>Wonder Woman</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="55"></td><td> 55%</td></tr><tr><td>Supergirl</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="55"></td><td> 55%</td></tr><tr><td>The Flash</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="55"></td><td> 55%</td></tr><tr><td>Green Lantern</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="50"></td><td> 50%</td></tr><tr><td>Iron Man</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="45"></td><td> 45%</td></tr></tbody></table></td>
<td>You are intelligent, witty,<br/>a bit geeky and have great<br/>power and responsibility.<img src="http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/pics/spidy.gif" /></td>
</tr></tbody></table><a href="http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/">Take The Superhero Personality Quiz</a></td>
<td style="width: 50%;">
Your results:<br/><b>You are <span style="font-size:6;">Dr. Doom</span></b><table><tbody><tr><td><table><tbody><tr><td>Dr. Doom</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="69"></td><td> 69%</td></tr><tr><td>Lex Luthor</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="67"></td><td> 67%</td></tr><tr><td>Mr. Freeze</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="65"></td><td> 65%</td></tr><tr><td>The Joker</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="62"></td><td> 62%</td></tr><tr><td>Green Goblin</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="60"></td><td> 60%</td></tr><tr><td>Magneto</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="59"></td><td> 59%</td></tr><tr><td>Riddler</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="58"></td><td> 58%</td></tr><tr><td>Apocalypse</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="57"></td><td> 57%</td></tr><tr><td>Venom</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="57"></td><td> 57%</td></tr><tr><td>Catwoman</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="56"></td><td> 56%</td></tr><tr><td>Dark Phoenix</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="49"></td><td> 49%</td></tr><tr><td>Juggernaut</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="48"></td><td> 48%</td></tr><tr><td>Kingpin</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="43"></td><td> 43%</td></tr><tr><td>Mystique</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="36"></td><td> 36%</td>
</tr><tr><td>Two-Face</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="36"></td><td> 36%</td></tr><tr><td>Poison Ivy</td><td><hr align="left" noshade="noshade" size="4" width="30"></td><td> 30%</td></tr></tbody></table></td>
<td width="250">Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.<img src="http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/villain/pics/dr_doom.jpg" /></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/villain">
Take The "Which Super Villain am I?" Quiz</a></td></tr></tbody></table>
So many statistically significant facts to ponder. Would I have been more Luthor than Doom if only I did not have a Hideously Scarred Eyebrow? Would I be more Green Lantern than Wonder Woman if I had answered differently about <a href="http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/1083/weirdscience24de.jpg">wearing a bra</a>? And why am I 4% more Catwoman-as-hero than Catwoman-as-villain? Ah, the mysteries of modern psychology...Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-41975376203190703112007-01-01T23:58:00.000-08:002007-01-01T21:41:38.949-08:00Some Goals For 2007I was about to post my traditional quote here, but I realized that Alienne has already done it more fully than I wanted to type in her Live Journal. Go read <a href="http://alienne.livejournal.com/74054.html">A Long December</a> and just pretend that's my post, as I can echo every word of those sentiments exactly.
It's December 26, 2006 as I write this, but this should be the first post of 2007 when I publish. Assuming I manage to wake up in 2007 at all. Nothing interesting here, but I wanted to post some goals so that I'd have something to talk about next year at this time. So here they are, in no particular order:
<ul><li>50 stomach crunches per day by June</li><li>Find way to sync <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/">Google Calendar</a> events and Remember The Milk tasks to Blackberry</li><li>More creativity - blog, podcast, photograph, just <span style="font-style: italic;">make</span> something more often than I have been. Stop letting my brain atrophy just because I'm writing code for a living again.</li><li>More live poker - twice a month? maybe even once a week? - including my first live tournament not played at a kitchen table.</li><li>Find mental equilibrium.</li><li>More new music. More new books. Buy some comic books that I've downloaded and appreciate. Buy more <a href="http://www.minimatescentral.com/">mini-mates</a>.</li><li>Get my passport. Find a reason to use it. Or at least go to Vegas.</li></ul>Okay, that's a pretty scattered list. I'll probably think of some more over the next few days and may even add some updates. As it stands, the year has started out pretty bad, which is a good omen in my warped little mind. We'll see how it goes, but I'm hoping that <a href="http://www.lyricwiki.org/Howard_Jones:Things_Can_Only_Get_Better">things can only get better</a> from here.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-82874607585380991892006-12-28T17:40:00.000-08:002007-01-02T21:49:22.256-08:00Feed Frenzy<div style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;"><img src="http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8747/feedicon96x96hj8.png" /></div>I switched my feed to Feedburner yesterday, mostly because I'd heard a lot about the site and wanted an excuse to check it out. If you are already subscribed to the RSS or Atom feed, <strike>I'd appreciate it if you would re-subscribe by clicking the big orange icon here (for those of you with Firefox 2 or some other kind of in-browser subscription) or changing the feed URL to <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/CheatingAtSolitaire">http://www.feedburner.com/</a> if you prefer to do it the old-fashioned way.</strike>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">[Ed. Note:</span> I'm changing my feed name RSN, so don't follow any of those instructions if you have not already. I'll update this with a link to the relevant post as soon as the switchover is complete.<span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span>
And if you're still reading my blog by actually coming to the site... well, why? I can give you step-by-step instructions on how to set up <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/">Google Reader</a> if you'd like. About half my readership wouldn't be here if I hadn't already converted them.
In other bloggish news, I've got my first frequent commenter. Of course, around here two comments means you are downright eloquent, ant fortunately it doesn't take much to excite me. (It was the best-est Cwissmass <i>ever</i>!") Anyway, <a href="http://purplegoddessinfrogpyjamas.net/">Chasmyn</a> pointed out:<blockquote>Stinking 2.0.1 won't work on my Mac...but I followed your other instructions. We shall see.</blockquote>I should have mentioned that the <i>config.trim_on_minimize</i> may not have any effect on a Mac. Then again, you usually don't have to worry nearly so much about memory leaks under OSX as you do with Windows, so it's kind of a wash. Restarting the browser is still a good bet, however, and I can find the session restore extension for Firefox 1.5 if you're interested. I'm curious why the new build doesn't work for you, however. If you want to go for a comment hat-trick, let me know the details. Also, let me know if you ever got a feed set up for your blog.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-14353636196215094202006-12-27T08:44:00.000-08:002006-12-27T22:27:50.862-08:00Fast Firefox Fix Found<span style="font-weight: bold;">[Ed. Note:</span> I know this looks like a pure geek entry and therefore something that you can skip, but if you browse with Firefox it's worth the time, trust me. And if you don't, like, what is your <span style="font-style: italic;">damage</span>?<span style="font-weight: bold;">]</span>
It's no secret that Firefox is a memory-leak hydra: every time the development team fixes one, two more spring up to take it's place. Build a large enough application and you're guaranteed to drop a few pointers here and there, and once you add in a Javascript engine, Chrome interfaces and a half-dozen or more extensions you might as well throw in the towel on your leak analyzer. This is the one area that Internet Explorer will always surpass Firefox. When you package most of your functionality as an integral part of the OS, your memory leaks are either found quickly or so deeply buried that you'd have to move Jimmy Hoffa to find them.
On the other hand, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 leaks like a sieve, but it's the most helpful development environment I've ever seen. Perhaps memory leaks are found due to usefulness the way security flaws stem from popularity. That theory would conveniently explain the balance of bugs in Microsoft's OS code. But I digress.
There are some people (whose initials may be BMW) that will tell you that the best solution for this problem is to never install Firefox on a Microsoft OS. These are usually the same sort of people who still prefer <span style="font-weight: bold;">vi</span> to a text editor. Personally I'm not one to give up functionality for the sake of form, but what can a resource-constrained power-surfer do?
Well, the traditional method of freeing up resources lost to a leak is to restart the application. Back in the old days (like, three months ago) this was a major pain, involving bookmarking or finishing any open tabs, logging in to sites again and losing any form data that you might have entered on any open pages. Of course, there were extensions to fix any of those problems, but often they were a cause of the very problems you were trying to fix.
Thankfully, Firefox 2 fixed all that. I don't even want to know that you haven't updated yet, just go <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/">do it now</a>. I'll wait. Anyway, Firefox 2 includes a crash recovery mode that can restore your entire session, usually without reloading the pages. Of course, this doesn't happen when you voluntarily close the browser, but you can see it in action when you install an extension. In fact, I suggest you check it out right now. Go install the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3458/">Restarter extension</a> from from the add-ons site. Once you've clicked the Install button (after the standard five-second penance), the Extension Manager will open to show the progress. Installing this tiny extension will probably take less time than the install delay. Once it's done, notice the Restart button? Click it. Go ahead, I'm patient.
That served two purposes. First, you have now seen the session restore function at work. Until now, the only way to trigger that as a user was after installing an extension. However, the tiny little extension that you just installed added an item to your File menu. At the bottom, just above Exit, there is now a Restart Firefox option. This will do exactly what the Restart button just did for you, so you can try this whenever the browser seems to have gotten bloated and slow.
This is far more convenient than a restart used to be, and it is guaranteed to free up any leaked memory, but it's still not always convenient. It's like rebooting the computer, almost guaranteed to fix the problem but sometimes like chasing a fly with a baseball bat. However, I found a potentially more useful tweak today in a post on <a href="http://lifehacker.com/software/firefox/reduce-ram-use-in-firefox-166208.php">Cybernet</a>, which I found via Lifehacker's <a href="http://lifehacker.com/software/firefox/reduce-ram-use-in-firefox-166208.php">Best of April 2006</a>. Here's what to do:
<ol><li>Highlight the words <span style="font-style: italic;">config.trim_on_minimize</span> and copy them to the clipboard.</li><li>Open a new tab and type <span style="font-style: italic;">about:config</span><enter> in the address bar. This will display a page of Firefox's internal configuration values.</enter></li><li>Right-click anywhere on the page and select <span style="font-style: italic;">New -> Boolean</span> from the context menu.</li><li>Paste the copied text from above into the input box that appears and hit enter. Yes, you can type it if you'd prefer, I just found cut-and-paste more convenient.</li><li>Select true as the value and click the OK button, then go to the File menu and click that new Restart Firefox option we just added.</li></ol>So what did this accomplish? Well, now Firefox will unload most of itself from memory each time you minimize it. In my experiments, it went down to between 7M and 8M, from it's average of 40M to 50M (too many extensions loaded). Your results may (and probably will) vary, but from what I've been able to determine, at least some leaked memory is regained after you maximize the application. At the very least, you can free up a big chunk of system resources while you're doing something else without having to close the browser. This is a must for any serial tab abuser like myself, as well as anyone running on an ancient and/or overloaded system. I'm looking at you, Kare-Bear... just follow the instructions, you'll thank me later.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-65588737121390457352006-12-24T15:40:00.000-08:002006-12-24T17:16:40.752-08:00The Spirit Of Christmas Passed (doing about 80MPH)I went out for a little last-minute gift shopping today, mostly because it's a personal tradition of self-torture. I'd already found the items I was trying to purchase on-line, in preparation for the my inevitable annual frustration tantrum during this trip, but it didn't happen. Neither the traffic nor the tempers were up to par this year, and even the Santas seemed to be smiling. Perhaps global warming has thawed the hearts of my fellow citizens. Maybe it's because X-Eve is on a Sunday this year, so everybody got their shopping done early. Then again, maybe the shit is going to hit the fan when the malls try to close at six o'clock tonight. I might get that Riot At The Galleria Playset that I wanted so much after all.
Of course, I'm not going to let all this happiness and nice weather touch my Seasonal Affective Disorder. I used to really love this season, all the gift-giving and decorating and crap. I'm not really sure what happened, but it seems like these days I can no longer afford the cost of The Perfect Gift or the time for Holiday Cheer. You know what they say about Christmas... lotta suicides. From one of my favorite bloggers, <a href="http://www.tinynibbles.com/blogarchives/2006/12/actually_right_now_the_f_is_fo_1.html">Violet Blue</a>:
<blockquote>Damn this nauseatingly familial season. I bought little foil bows for no reason at all. I think I will stick them on my cat. And maybe my tits. [...] Maybe if I find more eel porn it will put me out of my misery before tomorrow.</blockquote><div style="float:right;width:200px;text-align:center;margin:0px 0px 10px 10px;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwudi/187714707/in/set-72157594196274035/"><img style="cursor:pointer;width:100%;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/72/187714707_39a1dc03aa.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="width:100%;font-size:9pt;font-style:italic;">From <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwudi/sets/72157594196274035/">The M&M Army</a> of djwudi</div></div>Of course, family stuff isn't until tomorrow. And even then, not my family, which makes it slightly more embarrassing but an equivalent amount more uncomfortable. This will be the third or fourth year that The Brat and I go to Ghan's parents' for dinner, for no better reason than they're willing to have us and it's slightly more social than, say, drinking anti-freeze. It's ironic that I spent years skipping out on my family however I could, only to be trapped into a family gathering to which I don't belong. At least The Brat can get drunk and flirt with Ghan's dad. Mostly I either sit uncomfortably at the table playing with the trains or whatever that were attached to the customary M&Ms, or standing uncomfortably on the porch smoking by myself.
On the plus side, at least her dad is a good cook. As long as they don't try to serve me a duck while telling me it's turkey, it is less intolerable than my Parental X-Dinner used to be (Me at 8: "If this is turkey then you found the smallest, greasiest turkey ever, Mom." Mom: "Just eat it and shut up."). I think that family gatherings are mostly about showing up and smiling politely, and maturity has brought me those abilities if little else.
Eventually however, the rich food, nervousness and boredom inexorably clamp down on my abdomen. The smile will become weaker, and then even the showing up starts to fade. Usually at that point, I leave The Brat with Topher and Ghan to continue her drunkening while I beg off the further festivities to get back to online poker. There I discover the True Spirit Of Christmas in the generosity of those poor souls, probably stuck on some relative's computer, drunk and trying to give away their stocking stuffer subsidies playing 60% of their hands on the $2/$4 6-max tables.
Ah yes... it's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Maybe I'll watch <a href="http://www.noradsanta.org/en/default.php">NORAD's Santa-tracker</a> to see if the Russians can scramble their MIGs in time this year. Boxing Day just can't come soon enough for me.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-76281743943391179772006-12-12T14:52:00.000-08:002006-12-12T15:29:04.397-08:00So-oh-oh Urgent... Emergency!So it's official, I'm on the 15-day Disabled List with a rotator cuff injury. Like a pitcher afraid of the play-offs, I have now managed to acquire a soft-tissue injury immediately preceding three of the our four moves. I have no real clue how bad it is yet, as I'm unable to get in to see an orthopedist until January 4. I imagine I'll get an MRI at that point and find out whether I've torn it or just strained it. Of course, with any luck it will no longer by sore by that point, which will answer the question without forcing me to removing my tongue stud.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.stanthonysmedcenter.com/images/lemay.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.stanthonysmedcenter.com/images/lemay.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I've always sort of had a problem with going to the emergency room, unless I thought I was likely to be admitted. It seems to me that ER staff have exactly two types of patients to deal with: whiny little bitches and people who are dying. Neither of those are categories in which I particularly wish to be placed. I may have found a good solution to this dilemna by visiting the <a href="http://www.stanthonysmedcenter.com/healthcareServ/urgentCare/index.asp">St. Anthony's Urgent Care Center</a>. I had never been to one of these nearly-an-emergency rooms before, but it seems far less stressful than an ER. Inside of 30 minutes I was signed up, processed, talked to the doc, and out the door with a sling and two scripts. Of course, actual mileage may vary, as this was a Sunday afternoon and I may have been the only patient. Still, it's worth remembering as an alternative to waiting three weeks for a appointment with my Primary Care Physician.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-57987225999611109322006-12-12T10:26:00.000-08:002006-12-12T15:36:31.881-08:00Rock Star<table style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 10px;" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><table><tbody><tr>
<td align="center" width="50%"><span style="font-size:180%;"><b>Rock Star</b></span>
You scored 98%!</td><td align="center"><img src="http://is1.okcupid.com/users/102/306/1023073104876057970/mt1115192032.jpg" /></td>
</tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td>You damn rock star. You know all the basics, and if you got any wrong, I bet it was that stupid Traveling Wilburys question.
Your friends are probably intimidated by your knowledge of classic rock and envy your impressive collection. When a classic rock song comes on the radio, you can probably identify it before the vocals kick in most of the time. You probably get good scores on the "maiden name of Clapton's mom" tests, too.</td></tr><tr><td><span>My test tracked 1 variable
How you compared to other people <i>your age and gender</i>:<blockquote><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="middle"><table bgcolor="black"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="#b2cfff" height="20" width="149">
<a href="http://www.okcupid.com/"><img src="http://is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif" alt="free online dating" border="0" /></a></td><td bgcolor="white" width="1"><img src="http://is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif" alt="free online dating" border="0" /></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td valign="middle">You scored higher than <b>99%</b> on <b>notes</b></td></tr></tbody></table></blockquote></span>
</td></tr><tr><td>Link: <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=9994175725051725569">The BASIC classic rock Test</a> written by <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/profile?u=allmydays">allmydays</a>
on <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/">OkCupid Free Online Dating</a>, home of the <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/online.dating.persona.test">The Dating Persona Test</a></td></tr></tbody></table>
Fun quiz, but I may just think that because I was 100% certain of almost every answer. For the record, I did <i>not</i> get the damned Wilbury's question wrong. I couldn't put "watergate does not bother me / does your conscience bother you?" to a beat at all, and it just sounded too political for Skynyrd.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-34587283565155554092006-12-07T22:09:00.000-08:002006-12-07T22:29:47.654-08:00The "Blogging In My Blog..." Joke... Again<div style="width:100%;text-align:center"><a href="http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cassetteur7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/8384/cassettezn1.jpg" style="width:400px;" border="0" alt="Cheating At Solitaire: An Oliver Wendell Jones Production" /></a>
<div style="font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;">Also Available In <a href="http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cassetteur7.jpg">White</a> And Black</div></div>
The <a href="http://www.says-it.com/cassette/index.php">Cassette Generator</a> is one of the coolest toys ever. I'm going to put one of these up in the title bar if I can figure out how to make it look good.
On a separate note, is there a downside to <a href="http://imageshack.us"><img src="http://imageshack.us/img/iss3.png" border="0" alt="ImageShack" /></a> that I'm not seeing? I haven't had a lawyer look at the TOS or anything, but it sounds like free anonymous image hosting for an indefinite period of time. Maybe not where I'm going to put my personal photo albums, but it might be the best solution for stuff like this.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-47380465990594602982006-12-07T21:14:00.000-08:002006-12-07T21:35:14.597-08:00You Can't Judge A Site By It's Layout*If you think the old template hurt your eyes, how do you think I felt? I had to look at it several orders of magnitude more than you, I assure you. The new template is based on Jellyfish by <a href="http://jason.similarselection.org">Jason Sutter</a>. And when I say "based on" I obviously mean "nearly identical to", at least for the moment. I don't imagine that will last for long, however.
<div style="font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;"><sup>*</sup>However, you can often tell how much it will cost to see the <i>really</i> hot photos.</div>Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-46464727349425497862006-12-07T16:52:00.000-08:002006-12-08T10:41:58.247-08:00Google Feeds My NeurosesJust a random bit of Google weirdness that left me wondering who exactly was getting high last night.
<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/owenj23/GoogleXFileScreenshots/photo#5005960250981461218"><img style="width:100%;max-width:800px;" src="http://lh5.google.com/image/owenj23/RXi-U1d5rOI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/MkxiFVPpRAE/GoogleSearch.20061206.flickr%2Bfeed%2Bview.results-1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; text-align: center; width: 100%;">Results of Google search for flickr+feed+viewer (Wednesday 2006-12-06 c.11:00pm CST)
How did this <a href="http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&amp;d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&amp;f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050160005%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050160005&RS=DN/20050160005">patent application</a> become the top result?</div>
<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/owenj23/GoogleXFileScreenshots/photo#5005960263866363122"><img style="width:100%;max-width:800px;" src="http://lh4.google.com/image/owenj23/RXi-Vld5rPI/AAAAAAAAAKE/PtgObXVH_YU/GoogleSearch.20061206.flickr%2Bfeed%2Bview.top-1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">This is the patent application in question. It does not contains 'flickr', 'feed' or 'viewer'.
The URL is a doozy, you'll have to scroll to see it all.<textbox style="width: 100%;" onkeypress="return false;" text="http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050160005%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050160005&RS=DN/20050160005"></textbox></div>
<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/owenj23/GoogleXFileScreenshots/photo#5005960293931134210"><img style="width: 100%;max-width:800px;" src="http://lh3.google.com/image/owenj23/RXi-XVd5rQI/AAAAAAAAAKM/1FZDeSkT9nw/GoogleSearch.20061207.flickr%2Bfeed%2Bview.results-1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">Results of Google search for flickr+feed+viewer (Wednesday 2006-12-07 c.11:00pm CST).
The next day it's gone. But...</div>
<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/owenj23/GoogleXFileScreenshots/photo#5005960302521068818"><img style="width: 100%;max-width:800px;" src="http://lh5.google.com/image/owenj23/RXi-X1d5rRI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Ai4SkcbQIMk/GoogleSearch.20061207.flickr%2Bfeed%2Bview.top-1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">While <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/railsconfeurope">this is on 'flickr'</a> and it does have a 'feed', still no 'viewer'. And not exactly relevant either.
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I'm not sure why this sort of thing fascinates/annoys me so greatly. Some part of my brain wants more weird data points like this, thinking that if it had enough outliers I would understand Google's algorithm or something. Of course, if I could correlate that many data points I probably wouldn't need a search engine as much.
Then again, this could be an artifact of someone gaming the algorithm. Maybe some private Google-bomb or black-hat SEO is trying to screw with the search term Flickr? Or maybe Google is messing with the term internally now that Yahoo owns them.
I need to find the Google-equivalent of Fox Mulder to investigate this for me. Anyone have any wild theories?Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2438474566785046623.post-59938725658547850782006-12-01T14:22:00.000-08:002006-12-07T21:38:31.965-08:00Tiltmore Hotel PhotosThere comes a time in every blogger's life when it's time to grow up and write your first I'm-About-To-Buy-A-House post. I told a couple of people that I'd have these images posted Wednesday night, but I had underestimated my ability to take really terrible interior photos. These <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=our+house+is+a+very+very+very+fine+house">Google</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=our+house+in+the+middle+of+the+street">queries</a> have lead me to believe that both the <a href="http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/ourhous0.htm">Madness</a> and <a href="http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/ourhouse.htm">CSN</a> titles have been way overdone for this particular flavor of personal blog post. Instead I went with the more obscure <a href="http://www.sfstl.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=56">Six Flags reference</a>. in honor of the slightly queasy angles I managed to capture in most of these photos. I hope the clever captioning and a little of <a href="http://picasa.google.com/">Picasa</a>'s "I'm Feeling Lucky" button makes up for the two day wait and possibility of induced vertigo.
<div align="center" width="100%"><div style="FONT-SIZE: 83%; WIDTH: 194px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><div style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left center; HEIGHT: 194px; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial" align="center"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/owenj23/HouseInspectionBlogPhotos20061129"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN-TOP: 16px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="160" src="http://lh5.google.com/image/owenj23/RXCoUAzJC3E/AAAAAAAAAJQ/SYnqq6pqRnE/s160-c/HouseInspectionBlogPhotos20061129.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/owenj23/HouseInspectionBlogPhotos20061129"><div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(77,77,77); TEXT-DECORATION: none">House Inspection Blog Photos 2006.11.29</div></a><div style="COLOR: rgb(128,128,128)"></div></div></div>
A few notes to myself for the next time I go through the house-buying process:
<ul><li>Borrow decent camera, take pictures <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">after</span> finishing coffee</li><li>Pre-approved to sign paperwork in reverse</li><li>Make more money</li><li>"Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer to call it threatening to reveal the results of my inspection unless you drop the price or fix stuff."</li><li>Set closing date for wife's birthday (anniversary or Valentine's Day would work as well) to save shopping time.</li><li><em><span style="font-size:85%;">[Updated 2006-12-01 10:35pm]</span></em> Never let emotions affect your dealing with barracuda, lasagna, and realtors.</li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>[Updated 2006-12-01 11:15pm]</em></span> Don't tell anyone you're pregnant before the second trimester.</li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>[Updated 2006-12-07 11:37pm]</em></span> That was a metaphor, people. I was merely implying that the deal could still fall apart. So far as I know, we are closing 2006-12-20 and no one is pregnant.</li></ul>As this process is on-going, I reserve the right to add or remove items from this list.Banana 9000jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00227908677484226388noreply@blogger.com0