My Roamings

Ready...and....SHIFT!

2006-09-04T18:45:00.000-06:00

I'm relocating to Blogger Beta. Much cooler. I'll have to tell anyone not in the know more later, but it's sexy and bitchin'. Generating pages on the fly means faster posting, which is cool as hell.

Here's the new addy: http://bookmunkie.blogspot.com

According to the Back of My Linear Algebra Book

2006-08-13T17:43:00.000-06:00

The problem I just solved doesn't have a solution

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Starving Artists

2006-07-05T00:24:00.000-06:00

The other day I was perusing the new release shelf of the science fiction section of Barnes & Noble, sipping my Jamba Juice, and admiring the quality and variety of cover art on the books. I started to wonder how many artists make their living making book covers like that. Yesterday, I was thinking about Sony's sexy new eBook reader coming soon, and iRex's new reader they just released and I started thinking about how inevitable it is that as more and more of life becomes digitized more people are going to follow me down this currently less traveled road of reading mostly digital books. Digital books can still have cover art, and maybe it's because I mostly read bootlegs, but most don't seem to have any. When they do it's actually kind of cumbersome. If the mass of popular literature makes the digital migration, what happens to those artists? Will they have to learn HTML and start designing the books' web pages instead? That's probably a more lucrative profession, but it also leads to the obsolescence of an art. Cover art could become a novelty like hand bound books or books with gilded pages.

We can't expect things to stay they way they are, though, just because of a few "lost jobs." Anyone who understands the industrial revolution knows that more jobs are created by these kinds of advances than are "lost" as long as people are willing to adapt, but it still makes me sad to think a bookstore might just be a thumbnail gallery instead of a dark hardwood shelf full of reproduced paitings and ink-stained cellulose. What I'd kind of like to see is designer books. Of course, they'd be more expensive, but that'd be because more was put into them. To appeal to collectors or just everyday customers, physical books would have to find new "features". Maybe covers could be hand-painted, like the fore-edge paintings Martin Frost makes.Each book might have a custom binding, or the cover art would be hand painted. The cover art could be made in limited and numbered print runs like some artists already do. My "designer book" ideas are actually sounding pretty weak to me right now, but I'm not a designer. I know the creativity is out there, in the public and the industry, to make something really cool out of this idea.

A Little Explanation

2006-06-29T11:48:00.000-06:00

Apparently, the previously posted Juggernaut Bitch video has been around for some time now. Meaning longer than the movie X3. A buddy of mine read in an Entertainment Weekly that the movie was actually paying a bit of tribute to this golden little nugget of web culture when Juggernaut said, "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch"

Good times

Juggernaut, Bitch

2006-06-27T16:20:00.000-06:00

If I Had Multiple Faces

2006-06-06T15:19:00.000-06:00

They would all be rocked off.

This is exactly the kind of thing I envisioned when I learned about the scripting ability in Second Life, and again when I heard about Multiverse (a build-your-own MMO type thing). I never even got to try making it happen because my lappy can barely handle SL and Multiverse isn't out yet.

In the beginning, Linden Lab created the heavens and the earth, but the sky was empty and the land was barren. The trees were green but did not grow, the sun and wind passed overhead but did not affect them.

Then Laukosargas Svarog came upon this and said, Come, let us make clouds so that they can be borne upon the wind. She did, and it was good. Then Laukosargas said, Let these clouds cast rain upon the ground, and where the land is marshy, let marshy flowers bloom, and where the land is open, let open flowers bloom. And let the sun shine upon these, and where the sun shines brightest, let them grow more, and where it shines least, let them lay fallow. This she also did, and it was good. Seeing this, Laukosargas said, Let bees fly amongst these flowers to pass their seed between each other, and thus be fruitful and multiply. Then she said, Let there be birds to feast upon the seeds, lest these flowers be too fruitful and multiplicitous. This she did as well, and it was likewise good.

Then her computer crashed. And that was not so good.

That quote's from this article I read on New Worlds Notes, a Second Life news blog. Basically, this lady made an artificial ecology. All the "life" (I'm not optimistic enough to drop the quotes yet) on her island is interdependent of the other organisms in the system. It's a beautiful thing.

The article even mentions emergence, which is my big area of interest lately. I totally recommend checking out the article or even Second Life. Your first account is free.

This Is Why I Want To Go To MIT

2006-05-29T11:57:00.000-06:00

These MIT freshman built a complete dorm automation system complete with a party button.

When the button is hit, all the lights shut off, the blinds close, the displays show: "FEEL THE ENERGY" and a deep voice says this over the speakers with a deep bass beat in the background. Then intense music turns on along with the sound activated strobe light, laser light show, fog machine, black lights, revolving disco light, LCD visualization projector projected onto the blackout-screen, neon colored lights, computer screen Winamp visualization, oscilloscope showing the waveform of the music, and surveillance camera monitors.

They called it MIDAS, and you can read about it here.

Origins

2006-04-16T08:46:00.000-06:00

2006-04-13T15:27:00.000-06:00

The Best News I've Ever Heard

2006-03-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

On the Daily Show, Clive Custler just said they'll be doing a Sin City 2, and maybe 3.

Snowboarding == J00 Daid

2006-03-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Beautiful, Amazing, Sexxy, Robot Fish

2006-03-15T02:21:00.000-07:00

Mofo's autonomous.

Word.

2006-03-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

What is a Podcast, I Hear You Ask

2006-02-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

(22:14:50) Rodney: But, yeah, an RSS feed is a way to get just little clips of a website sent to you automatically
(22:14:57) Rodney: Firefox calls them "live bookmarks"
(22:15:23) Rodney: Like, if I subscribe to Slashdot's RSS feed, I'll have a little orage wave icon on my bar
(22:15:47) Rodney: And if I click it, it's like showing the contents of a folder, but those contents are each of Slashdot's headlines
(22:16:17) Sean: interesting
(22:16:19) Rodney: Know it or not, your blog has an RSS feed
(22:16:39) Rodney: A podcast is just an RSS feed with an mp3 imbedded
(22:16:51) Rodney: Kind of like an audio blog
(22:17:04) Rodney: I've been finding a lot lately with people reading outloud
(22:17:14) Rodney: Cory Doctorow reads a lot of his own work on his podcast
(22:17:36) Sean: I can't read my own stuff very well
(22:17:40) Rodney: It's just called a "podcast" because the iPod is the predominant mp3 player of the day and it's like a broadcast
(22:17:49) Sean: oh
(22:18:11) Rodney: So, yeah, there's the answer to the question you asked, like, 20 minutes ago
(22:18:58) Sean: it's alright
(22:19:04) Sean: it's a good one
(22:19:25) Rodney: That's the kind of thing I used to write posts about
(22:19:36) Rodney: My blog's been more stagnant than yours
(22:19:56) Sean: heh
(22:20:10) Sean: at least yours is always interesting

2006-02-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

God once asked Chuck Norris what the secret of life was.
Chuck proceeded to teach God Karate.

Your Beer is Getting All Up In My Kool-Aid

2006-02-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

Hehe, I just had to say it. My roomie bought a new beer last night, but he didn't want the whole thing so he tasted it and screwed the cap back on. Well, overnight it leaked onto and into my pitcher of Kool-Aid.

Bars: Freaky Weird Places

2006-02-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

At about 1:30 am this morning, a 40-year-old lady called me a hottie.I should have said, "Wow, you're 40? So is my mom." I suppose that could have come across as mean.

That was Random

2006-01-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Remember that free iPod thing? I got an email today saying that one of my referrals has completed their offer. Kooky. Two down, three more to go.

Pondering

2006-01-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

How do you say, "The bosses cut my hours," in Spanish? I need to have an answer prepared next time the cleaning ladies ask why I alway look so unhappy.

Is There Life On Mars?

2006-01-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

I just watched The Life Aquatic. I really like they way the word "life" looks in that italic font. And I totally loved the kooky clamation sealife-ness. I'm downloading the soundtrack.

If You Could Just Smell Them Too...

2006-01-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, there are a few areas where eBooks don't measure up to their treeware versions: mainly look and feel (yeah, that includes smell). But, I have never minded that trade off for better useability and portability. But, the more and more I read digital texts, I'm finding even more to enjoy about them. My newest thing is a well-formatted eBook.

Past are my days of just converting plain text files to a Palm readable format, now that I've discovered Palm Markup Language. The program on the left was my first introduction to it, but the trial sucks and they charge $30 for what is more or less a glorified version of Notepad. But, then, I found PML from the same makers. Its funny how the free version is actually a lot more useful.

Skyler Is a Music Snob

2006-01-18T17:04:00.001-07:00

My buddy Skyler at school is a metalhead music snob. He actually said that Evanescence sucks (sacrelidge!). As rediculous as that is, some good came of it. He recommended to me a band called Lacuna Coil. I guess he thinks any rock band with a chick singer is comparable. Beyond that one similarity, they're not really much the same. The girl's voice isn't half of what Amy Lee's is. They are still a very good band, though. I highly recommend them.I burned up a disc and put it in the CD player on the way to school last night, and my part-time chaufer and I started talking about obscure bands. He told me there's a band called Skindred that's, like, Jamaican metal. Well, they're from Whales, but they're kinda like regae metal. According to Wikipedia they founded a whole new genre called ragga metal. Ragga is short for raggamuffin music which is a variety of dancehall regae. I haven't listened to them yet, but it sure as hell sounds interesting.

So Pretty...

2006-01-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

I WANT THAT! WHY NOT ME?!?
I'm gonna cry

Just Doing What the Man Says

2006-01-12T23:56:00.000-07:00

Printcrime

Copy this story.

(originally published in Nature Magazine, January 2006)

Cory Doctorow

The coppers smashed my father's printer when I was eight. I remember the hot, cling-film-in-a-microwave smell of it, and Da's look of ferocious concentration as he filled it with fresh goop, and the warm, fresh-baked feel of the objects that came out of it.

The coppers came through the door with truncheons swinging, one of them reciting the terms of the warrant through a bullhorn. One of Da's customers had shopped him. The ipolice paid in high-grade pharmaceuticals -- performance enhancers, memory supplements, metabolic boosters. The kind of things that cost a fortune over the counter; the kind of things you could print at home, if you didn't mind the risk of having your kitchen filled with a sudden crush of big, beefy bodies, hard truncheons whistling through the air, smashing anyone and anything that got in the way.

They destroyed grandma's trunk, the one she'd brought from the old country. They smashed our little refrigerator and the purifier unit over the window. My tweetybird escaped death by hiding in a corner of his cage as a big, booted foot crushed most of it into a sad tangle of printer-wire.

Da. What they did to him. When he was done, he looked like he'd been brawling with an entire rugby side. They brought him out the door and let the newsies get a good look at him as they tossed him in the car. All the while a spokesman told the world that my Da's organized-crime bootlegging operation had been responsible for at least 20 million in contraband, and that my Da, the desperate villain, had resisted arrest.

I saw it all from my phone, in the remains of the sitting room, watching it on the screen and wondering how, just how anyone could look at our little flat and our terrible, manky estate and mistake it for the home of an organized crime kingpin. They took the printer away, of course, and displayed it like a trophy for the newsies. Its little shrine in the kitchenette seemed horribly empty. When I roused myself and picked up the flat and rescued my poor peeping tweetybird, I put a blender there. It was made out of printed parts, so it would only last a month before I'd need to print new bearings and other moving parts. Back then, I could take apart and reassemble anything that could be printed.

By the time I turned 18, they were ready to let Da out of prison. I'd visited him three times -- on my tenth birthday, on his fiftieth, and when Ma died. It had been two years since I'd last seen him and he was in bad shape. A prison fight had left him with a limp, and he looked over his shoulder so often it was like he had a tic. I was embarrassed when the minicab dropped us off in front of the estate, and tried to keep my distance from this ruined, limping skeleton as we went inside and up the stairs.

"Lanie," he said, as he sat me down. "You're a smart girl, I know that. You wouldn't know where your old Da could get a printer and some goop?"

I squeezed my hands into fists so tight my fingernails cut into my palms. I closed my eyes. "You've been in prison for ten years, Da. Ten. Years. You're going to risk another ten years to print out more blenders and pharma, more laptops and designer hats?"

He grinned. "I'm not stupid, Lanie. I've learned my lesson. There's no hat or laptop that's worth going to jail for. I'm not going to print none of that rubbish, never again." He had a cup of tea, and he drank it now like it was whisky, a sip and then a long, satisfied exhalation. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

"Come here, Lanie, let me whisper in your ear. Let me tell you the thing that I decided while I spent ten years in lockup. Come here and listen to your stupid Da."

I felt a guilty pang about ticking him off. He was off his rocker, that much was clear. God knew what he went through in prison. "What, Da?" I said, leaning in close.

"Lanie, I'm going to print more printers. Lots more printers. One for everyone. That's worth going to jail for. That's worth anything."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cory Doctorow has spent the past four years at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org), fighting at the United Nations and in tech-standards bodies to balance the rights of copyright and patent holders with the public interest. His novels can be had free online at www.craphound.com.

Widget is a Good Word

2005-12-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

I Figured It Out

2005-12-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

I figured it all out. Santa is a hive mind. That's how he can be at all the stores and get presents everywhere. I'm a fucking genius.

I figured something else out too: I was watching the best of MotorMouth where they put a camera in rental cars and people set up their friends so they get caught singing with the radio on tape. One lady was driving around telling people her and her friend were a couple of milfs. I thought it was weird, because she was saying she'd like to fuck herself and her friend. But, she could be saying "mylf". It would pronounced the same way. I've never experienced it, but I don't think I'd really like an older woman just driving up and saying, "Hey, you wanna fuck me."

Monster Island

2005-12-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to finishing Monster Island, and...damn. Good book. Damn. I'll buy the treeware version in April. Damn.

Letters to Walken

2005-12-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

These Christmas letters to Christopher Walken are hilarious.

Its Dean Gray Tuesday

2005-12-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Get Some

Billie Joe on the "Boulevard of Broken Songs" Mash-Up:

"Actually, I was driving in my car, and I heard a Green Day mashup, with, um, Oasis and Aerosmith. It sounded cool! There's been a little bit of talk about doing a mashup, but I'm not sure who would be the appropriate hip-hop guy yet."

Q-Unit

2005-12-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

As ridiculous as it sounds, this is a cool CD. Mashups seem to be what's got the RIAA all riled up lately. This particular mashup CD is a combination of Queen and 50 Cent.
The particular one the RIAA is targeting is American Edit, a bunch of Green Day mashups. I actually heard one of these on the radio last weekend. It was a Green Day song with an Oasis song. Really cool stuff. American Edit, though, has been given a cease and desist only 10 days after going up. If you're interested in mashups, you should check out Mashculture.

P.S. There's nothing like the feel of fresh-out-of-the-pack socks.

I Just Saw the X-Men III Trailer

2005-12-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

I just saw the X-Men III trailer, and I have to say, Beast looks fucking ridiculous.

I Don't Mean to Make People Feel Like Dumbasses

2005-12-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

Is it really my fault that I can do in ten minutes what the rest of the class can't finish in two hours, even with the teacher's help? I blame the teacher. He became positively incoherent when he was trying to explain how to do things on the board. I'm not the only person in the class who knows what he's doing, but I'm the best at it. I usually don't even think when I program. I hear the problem, I see the solution, and I make a program that implements that solution. I do that with nearly everything. I don't think. The answers just bubble into my consciousness and I act on them.

Isn't That a B.B. King Song?

2005-11-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any images in awhile. I thought these were just priceless.

Wrongs Have Been Made Right

2005-11-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Borders has this bad habbit of charging me the Canadian price when I buy comic books there. I think its about time I just give up and start giving the legit comic shop more of my business. At least Borders refunded my $4.50.

Grand Theft Autumn

2005-11-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

Turn out I've liked Fall Out Boy since before I could even remember who they were. Christmas break, just about two years ago, I bought a CD at a Hot Topic called Punk vs. Emo, and on the Emo disc was this song, by Fall Out Boy:

Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman.
An' maybe he won't find out what I know: you were the last good thing about this part of town.

When I wake up, I'm willing to take my chances on whom I forget
that you hate him more than you notice I wrote this for you.(For you so...)

You need him. I SHOULD be him...
I could be an accident but I'm still trying. (YEAH!)
That's more than I can (YEAH!)say for him.

Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman.
An' maybe he won't find out what I know: you were the last good thing about this part of town.

Someday I'll depreciate in value, get off my ass and call you...but meantime I'll sport my
brand new fashion of waking up with pants OFF at four in the afternoon.

You need him. I SHOULD be him...
I could be an accident but I'm still trying. (YEAH!)
An' that's more than I can (YEAH!)say for him.

(1-2-3-4!)

Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman.
An' maybe he won't find out what I know: you were the last good thing about this part of town.

(won't find out) he won't find out
(won't find out) he won't find out

Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman.
An' maybe he won't find out what I know: you were the last good thing about this part of town.

Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman. (he won't find out)
Maybe he won't find out what I know: you were the last good thing about this part of town

Drunken...ing

2005-11-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

If you want to have a good time drink two glasses of Redrum and play Yatzee wh9le watching Office Space. I have to mention that I'm hanging out with cool kids.

I Need A Vacation

2005-11-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm going to lay down a thought or two before I move my pile of books, papers, and laundry from my bed to my chair and get some rest for work.

I'm tired of always knowing what I'm going to do tomorrow. I had that thought laying in bed last night. It was the first time I've had insomnia in I can't remember how long. My days have become too monotonous. I never want to get up in the morning. I've come to the conclusion that I need either a vacation or someone to be my significan other. I think the latter would be better because it'd have a more longterm effect, but my problem (for today at least) isn't so much loneliness but a lack of spontaniety and randomness in my days. I can tell you right now what I'm going to do for the majority of this week. Thanksgiving throws in a wildcard, but not a big enough one to get me out of this funk. If that's all it took, weekends would do me just fine. I really know better, but I'm going to pretend the sense of accomplishment if I finish reading something before I crash tonight will make me feel better.

Not Fucking Acceptable

2005-11-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

When people say things like, "My teacher gave me a fucking B," that usually means the student earned a B and got what they earned. But, no, not with Mr. Seif Azghandi. When everyone knows you're one of the best programmers in the class he takes off points for the fact. My code was too fucking elegant for this joker. Earn an A, get a B? Good thing programming fucking runs in my blood, or this might take the fun out of it.

Discussion Topic:

2005-11-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

What does everyone think of AOL adding two new bots to your buddy list without you asking or giving permission? I, myself, love AIM bots but I don't think I'll be getting much use out of either of these. Thoughts?

Writely and Blogger

2005-11-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I post things just for Sean to see. Remember the web-based word processor Writely ? When you write a document in that program, not only can you print it directly, save it as a Word file, and publish it to the internet, but you can also publish it to your blog. Writely is just cool like that. Colaborative documents being published to a blog...I need to find a good use for that.

P.S. for fuck's sake, I can publish a document to an obscure page Writely gives me. No one would be likely to find it except the person I gave the link to. I just checked and I can actually specify who can view it by email address.

You Pronounce the Letters

2005-11-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

Post #201, baby!

MXPX is pronounced em-ex-pee-ex. They're a christian-ish punk band who'se been in and out of mainstream (meaning non-christian). To me they seem kinda wishy-washy about wether or not to be a christian band, but at any rate, they're a good punk band.

MXPX Has Been A Band Since I Was 8 Years Old

2005-11-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

I've been in and out of some nice institutions.

Digital Time Capsule

2005-11-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

I don't know what Forbes has to do with this, but they have a page on their site called The E-Mail Time Capsule. I just sent myself an email that I'm not going to receive for 20 years. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, but I'm glad I did it and I think I still will be 20 years from now.

Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh

2005-10-29T11:00:00.000-06:00

DUDE!! Stephen King collaborating with Marvel Comics to make a Dark Tower comic series! Fucking A! Its going to start up in April 2006, and come holiday time, there will be a hardback version containing the first six issues. I totally have to get the rest of the series read/listened to by then.

Testing a Possible Permanent Addition To My Blog

2005-10-24T23:17:00.000-06:00

My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?

I thought this was kinda fun. They actually do calculations and stuff.

Flapart

2005-10-23T13:31:00.000-06:00

I'm totally buying this to cover my Algebra book. Flapart has all kinds of these funny things, cinluding Coroner by Correspondence, Do-it-Yourself Dentistry, How to Get Your Brother Kicked Out of the House, and How to Make Your Grandmother a Porn Star. Hilarious. I'm kinda thinking I might be able to Kinkos something like this together myself, too. That'd be a fun project, eh?

Zombies

2005-10-23T13:11:00.000-06:00

Ya know what's even scarier and more fucked up than a zombie? A zombie that can think. He's called a lich, but I don't think the author finds that name for him until the second or third book. Monster Island is awesome I'm almost 2/3 through it.

My Cereal Poem

2005-10-17T06:29:00.000-06:00

There you are
Hand in hand
Floating in Rodney's Bowl of Cereal Land

You give Honey Bunches of Oats its name

Mmmm.... Smells Like Creative Commons

2005-10-16T21:35:00.000-06:00

I love these online novels published under Creative Commons. David Wellington has written a trilogy of serialized zombie novels and published it online. I don't know what to call the trilogy--the Monster trilogy, I guess. The books are called Monster Island, Monster Nation, and Monster Planet. The chapters are fairly short, so reading it on the computer isn't bad at all. I normally don't like reading eBooks on my computer and use my Palm instead.
I accidentally started reading the last book first, but I'm 10 chapters into the first one now (1/6) and I like what I'm reading. I guess someone else likes it too, because he's gotten a book deal. Monster Island's going to be released by Thunder's Mouth Press in April '06. Good stuff.

You Are a Gentleman and a Scholar

2005-10-13T22:14:00.000-06:00

Is that the standard expression of gratitude when you pick up Chilli's for someone? I dunno, but I like it. I should start using it myself.

Sorry for the long stretch of non-posting. Comcast (our cable and internet provider) sucks balls. I'm tired as hell now and I've gotta work at 6, but there will be plenty more to come.

Leonardo Da Vinci Rocked Your Face Off

2005-10-08T18:49:00.000-06:00

The British Library has put a bunch of really cool old notebooks online, including one of Leonardo's.

Just So I Remember When Windoze is Working Again

2005-10-06T21:15:00.000-06:00

Sean might like this too.

Magic-League.com is something I'll be checking out soon, and they've got links to free Magic software.

Magic Workstation: the magical toolkit for CCG players, which looks like the best one, and Apprentice.

Oh, and I found a website with "The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft"

Super Lotto Fantastique!

2005-10-05T14:49:00.000-06:00

Ya know what's fun? According to quantum physics, the numbers on this folded in half lotto ticket on my desk aren't determined until I look at it. There's some food for thought: quantum physics basically says conciousness is a fundamental part of the universe. Observation actually determines the outcome of things on the quantum level.

On Pipes

2005-10-04T23:39:00.000-06:00

(23:36:46) Roger: cigars and cigarettes are just...shallow
(23:36:53) Roger: it's like a one night stand
(23:37:12) Roger: you smoke it, get what you want out of it, and throw the useless end away
(23:37:20) Roger: you smoke it, and you're threw with it
(23:37:27) Roger: but a pipe on the other hand...
(23:37:32) Roger: it's like an old friend. a companion
(23:37:54) Roger: you see your pipe, and you pick it up and say, "let us go enjoy the afternoon."
(23:37:57) Roger: so then you have a smoke
(23:38:09) Roger: and when you're done, your companion is still there.
(23:38:19) Roger: you take it home and say, "untill next time."
(23:38:24) Roger: you don't just throw it away

Has Anyone Seen the Doom Trailer?

2005-10-02T19:27:00.000-06:00

It looks fucking awesome.

Has Anyone Seen the Aeon Flux Trailer?
It looks fucking awesome.

Has Anyone Seen Serenity?
It is fucking awesome.

I'm going to make a game. Its name will be Fuckin' Space Melee.

Crazy Kid

2005-10-01T20:44:00.000-06:00

This is what my 18 year old brother wants me to get him for his belated birthday present. If I get him one, I've totally got to get one for myself. A while back, I was looking all over the place for a sub-$60 churchwarden (long stemmed pipe). I think I'm gonna do it just to keep him from walking around Wisconsin smoking a corn-cob pipe like he is now. Someone reminded me, though, that Popeye does it corn-cob style.

Yesterday Was Humpday

2005-09-29T16:02:00.000-06:00

I normally don't think of Wednesdays as Humpday, but that's pretty much what it was. A hump I had to get over and now the rest of my week is downhill. No class tonight (but I've got to finish that 10 page project), I turn 21 tomorrow, and its my last day of work for the next 9 days.

Last night's Magic game in class was epic. EPIC. I'll write about it if I get my project finished early enough.

Some People Just Need to Know

2005-09-27T21:42:00.000-06:00

Resizing an NTFS Partition with Knoppix

First off, always defragment your hard drive and make backups when you fiddle with your partitioning. Its not too dangerous to do if you're careful, but its just a safe habbit.

The simplest way to do this is with a program called QTParted. Only the newest version of this program can resize NTFS partitions, so if you're using an older version of Knoppix, or you're using Knoppix STD like Sean, you'll probably have to use ntfsresize. QTParted, if you've got a new enough version, is pretty self explanatory.

Without QTParted, you'll have to use two seperate programs: ntfsresize to resize the file system, and fdisk or cfdisk (my preference) to resize the partition itself. Its a good idea to read, or at least scan, the man pages for both of these programs before beginning. At the command prompt, just type man and the program's name.

First, you'll run ntfsresize by typing
sudo ntfsresize -s size /dev/hda1
into your command prompt. size you will replace with the new size you want for the partition. You'll need to follow the number with a k, M, or G for kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes respectively. And you'll replace /dev/hda1 with the actual location of the partition to be resized. In Sean's case this will stay /dev/hda1.

After that, you need to run cfdisk by typing
sudo cfdisk /dev/hda
into the prompt. cfdisk has a pretty friendly interface as far as command line programs go. You're actually going to use cfdisk to delete the partition and make a brand new one starting at the same place on the hard drive with the new size you want. Make absolutely certain you start the new partition on the same block the old one started on.

After that, you probably want to boot up Windows and run chkdsk before you do anything else.

Good luck and have fun dual-booting. Maybe you'll end up like me and breaking Windoze on accident and going totally Linux. Only re-installing Windoze when you get a hankerin' for some games.

Further references: the first time I did this, I read how to do it in Knoppix Hacks published by O'Reilly. Awesome, awesome book.

Wolverine Number 1

2005-09-26T22:59:00.000-06:00

I found the coolest download ever. Did you know Wolverine's claws are bionically implanted? Its right there in issue number one. I know you're jealous.

2005-09-25T13:02:00.000-06:00

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

2005-09-23T23:44:00.000-06:00

by Robert M. Pirsig

an exerpt:

"Let’s tell stories then," Chris says. He thinks for a while. "Do you know any good ghost stories? All the kids in our cabin used to tell ghost stories at night."

"You tell us some," John says.

And he does. They are kind of fun to hear. Some of them I haven’t heard since I was his age. I tell him so, and Chris wants to hear some of mine, but I can’t remember any.

After a while he says, "Do you believe in ghosts?"

"No," I say

"Why not?"

"Because they are un-sci-en-ti-fic."

The way I say this makes John smile. "They contain no matter," I continue, "and have no energy and therefore, according to the laws of science, do not exist except in people’s minds."

The whiskey, the fatigue and the wind in the trees start mixing in my mind. "Of course," I add, "the laws of science contain no matter and have no energy either and therefore do not exist except in people’s minds. It’s best to be completely scientific about the whole thing and refuse to believe in either ghosts or the laws of science. That way you’re safe. That doesn’t leave you very much to believe in, but that’s scientific too."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Chris says.

"I’m being kind of facetious."

Chris gets frustrated when I talk like this, but I don’t think it hurts him.

"One of the kids at YMCA camp says he believes in ghosts."

"He was just spoofing you."

"No, he wasn’t. He said that when people haven’t been buried right, their ghosts come back to haunt people. He really believes in that."

"He was just spoofing you," I repeat.

"What’s his name?" Sylvia says.

"Tom White Bear."

John and I exchange looks, suddenly recognizing the same thing.

"Ohhh, Indian!" he says.

I laugh. "I guess I’m going to have to take that back a little," I say. "I was thinking of European ghosts."

"What’s the difference?"

John roars with laughter. "He’s got you," he says.

I think a little and say, "Well, Indians sometimes have a different way of looking at things, which I’m not saying is completely wrong. Science isn’t part of the Indian tradition."

"Tom White Bear said his mother and dad told him not to believe all that stuff. But he said his grandmother whispered it was true anyway, so he believes it."

He looks at me pleadingly. He really does want to know things sometimes. Being facetious is not being a very good father. "Sure," I say, reversing myself, "I believe in ghosts too."

Now John and Sylvia look at me peculiarly. I see I’m not going to get out of this one easily and brace myself for a long explanation.

"It’s completely natural," I say, "to think of Europeans who believed in ghosts or Indians who believed in ghosts as ignorant. The scientific point of view has wiped out every other view to a point where they all seem primitive, so that if a person today talks about ghosts or spirits he is considered ignorant or maybe nutty. It’s just all but completely impossible to imagine a world where ghosts can actually exist."

John nods affirmatively and I continue.

"My own opinion is that the intellect of modern man isn’t that superior. IQs aren’t that much different. Those Indians and medieval men were just as intelligent as we are, but the context in which they thought was completely different. Within that context of thought, ghosts and spirits are quite as real as atoms, particles, photons and quants are to a modern man. In that sense I believe in ghosts. Modern man has his ghosts and spirits too, you know."

"What?"

"Oh, the laws of physics and of logic—the number system—the principle of algebraic substitution. These are ghosts. We just believe in them so thoroughly they seem real.

"They seem real to me," John says.

"I don’t get it," says Chris.

So I go on. "For example, it seems completely natural to presume that gravitation and the law of gravitation existed before Isaac Newton. It would sound nutty to think that until the seventeenth century there was no gravity."

"Of course."

"So when did this law start? Has it always existed?"

John is frowning, wondering what I am getting at.

"What I’m driving at," I say, "is the notion that before the beginning of the earth, before the sun and the stars were formed, before the primal generation of anything, the law of gravity existed."

"Sure."

"Sitting there, having no mass of its own, no energy of its own, not in anyone’s mind because there wasn’t anyone, not in space because there was no space either, not anywhere...this law of gravity still existed?"

Now John seems not so sure.

"If that law of gravity existed," I say, "I honestly don’t know what a thing has to do to be nonexistent. It seems to me that law of gravity has passed every test of nonexistence there is. You cannot think of a single attribute of nonexistence that that law of gravity didn’t have. Or a single scientific attribute of existence it did have. And yet it is still ‘common sense’ to believe that it existed."

John says, "I guess I’d have to think about it."

"Well, I predict that if you think about it long enough you will find yourself going round and round and round and round until you finally reach only one possible, rational, intelligent conclusion. The law of gravity and gravity itself did not exist before Isaac Newton. No other conclusion makes sense.

"And what that means," I say before he can interrupt, "and what that means is that that law of gravity exists nowhere except in people’s heads! It’s a ghost! We are all of us very arrogant and conceited about running down other people’s ghosts but just as ignorant and barbaric and superstitious about our own."

"Why does everybody believe in the law of gravity then?"

"Mass hypnosis. In a very orthodox form known as ‘education.""

"You mean the teacher is hypnotizing the kids into believing the law of gravity?"

"Sure."

"That’s absurd."

"You’ve heard of the importance of eye contact in the classroom? Every educationist emphasizes it. No educationist explains it."

John shakes his head and pours me another drink. He puts his hand over his mouth and in a mock aside says to Sylvia, "You know, most of the time he seems like such a normal guy."

I counter, "That’s the first normal thing I’ve said in weeks. The rest of the time I’m feigning twentieth-

century lunacy just like you are. So as not to draw attention to myself.

"But I’ll repeat it for you," I say. "We believe the disembodied words of Sir Isaac Newton were sitting in the middle of nowhere billions of years before he was born and that magically he discovered these words. They were always there, even when they applied to nothing. Gradually the world came into being and then they applied to it. In fact, those words themselves were what formed the world. That, John, is ridiculous.

Close Call

2005-09-22T20:25:00.000-06:00

How would you feel if 7 gigs of your data disappeared just because you shared it on the network? Especially if it was a giant pile of eBooks? No, I didn't let remote users have read/write access. Windows just felt the need to relocate the folder for sharing.

Hey, I've got a joke:
What do air conditioners and computers have in common?

They don't work right when you open windows.

All For You, Sean

2005-09-21T16:56:00.000-06:00

Ballet

2005-09-20T21:54:00.000-06:00

The drive to school was like a ballet of not-wrecking. There were some close calls, but I like to think everyone had a blast.

Why?

2005-09-17T18:17:00.000-06:00

When someone sees you in a bad mood, why are they all like, "Gah, why are you in such a bad mood? You're such a downer. What's wrong with you?" instead of trying to make you feel better?

Darth Emo

2005-09-15T18:39:00.000-06:00

Hehehe. http://emovader.ytmnd.com/ The whole thing doesn't really flow too well. Don't let it loop for too long.

Word

2005-09-14T15:27:00.001-06:00

You Heard What I Said

2005-09-13T22:29:00.000-06:00

Yeah, they're all a bunch of Sublime wanabes.

Postulation

2005-09-12T15:25:00.000-06:00

I wonder if the blue and red pills were "written" like the Merovingian's desert.

An Adventurer is You!

2005-09-08T20:01:00.000-06:00

Another great low tech MMORPG is The Kindom of Loathing. My bro got me into it awhile back. I quit playing for a long time, but I've been itching to play while I wait for more actions to use in Urban Dead.

The game is goofy as hell. My characher is a level 2 Pastamancer. The rushing bum in the Sleazy Back Alley has bum rushed me more times than I can remember.

The other available classes are Seal Clubber, Turtle Tamer, Sauceror, Disco Bandit, and Accordion Thief.

Anyone who joins either of these games should let me know your screenname in a comment or something. There's not much interactivity in KoL, but we could be a kickass zombie horde in Urban Dead, or kick the ass of a zombie horde.

Urban Dead

2005-09-08T18:29:00.000-06:00

You guys should join me in playing Urban Dead. Its a low-tech massively multiplayer online game about a quarantined city and the zombies and survivors it contains. All you need is a web browser.

If you get in, my name is I'm Not Dead Yet. If you want, we can even locate each other with this complete map a fan of the game put together.

Not That Anyone Cares

2005-09-04T21:44:00.000-06:00

Whew. Gotta let my computer cool down after that 5.5 hour Diablo II marathon. I only had to play for 4 hours for my Game Analysis assignment. That's just the kind of student I am. (You can laugh now.) In that time I've gotten my Necromancer up to level 12 and I'm running around with a posse of 4 skeletons, 1 skeleton mage, 1 clay golem, and a hired rogue with fire arrows. The rogue with fire arrows isn't as cool as the one who had ice arrows, but she kinda died.

Do you have any idea how messy a battlefield can get when you make your fallen enemies' bodies explode so their reanimated skeletons can kill even more of them? I'm also wondering how scary it would be if you and your buddy were randomly wandering around in a cave when you were attacked by four skeletons, you kill(?) one skeleton, but then they get your buddy and she explodes and her skeleton stands up and helps the other three kill you. What a way to go. That's what you get for having blue skin and running around in caves. Freak.

In other news, more open source type stuff. I discovered the Open Game License today. It was made by the Open Gaming Foundation. Actually, I just found out on the OGF website the license was drafted by Wizards of the Coast. Which helps explain why they have a whole bunch of Dungeons and Dragons stuff released under the license.

Thanks CC and CD

2005-09-02T22:58:00.000-06:00

I can totally do this because Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, the book I'm currently reading now that I've finished Accelerando, is released under the Creative Commons license. I was winding down and getting ready to fall asleep, when I read this passage that made me laugh out loud:

"'You wouldn't get up,' I said, and slopped coffee in the general direction of a mug, then scalded my tongue with it."

Libris Mortis

2005-09-01T21:39:00.000-06:00

Apparently you can play an undead character in Dungeons and Dragons. Ya know, when I came to Mines, I hoped the people here would be more like me. I now doubt there are enough of those to populate a classroom, let alone a campus. I don't know anyone who's actually interested in DnD that's not also socially intollerable. I swear, I have no peer.

Although, I do feel a little closer at my new school. I even have a Magic appointment next week.

Shhh...No Words, Just Emotions

2005-08-30T21:25:00.000-06:00

Roger just emailed this to me. Ilikeit.

Word Verification

2005-08-29T14:32:00.000-06:00

Alright, I'm allowing non-registered users to comment again. Blogger has added a new feature called word verification to help prevent splogging. Now when you want to comment on my blog you get one of those funny looking word pictures where you have to actually type what you see to go any further. I guess spammers are too dumb to train a neural net to pass these things.

If I get another spam comment, though, I'm returning to the draconian commenting restrictions.

Now, That's Just Silly

2005-08-28T15:32:00.000-06:00

I used the recovery disc that came with LaMachina to reinstall Windoze so I can play some games (turns out my Diablo II playdisc has a label-side scratch, yeargh). The disk recognized that I had repartitioned my hard drive, so it repartitioned it to the original state before restoring the disc image. The silly thing is that it didn't change the boot sector of my hard drive. So, now, I've got GRUB and its got no directory to read its settings from. When I try to boot, I just get a
GRUB>
prompt. So, now I've got to make it look like
GRUB> rootnoverivy (hd0,0)
GRUB> makeactive
GRUB> chainloader +1
GRUB> boot
That's a lot of crap to type just to get Windows to start up. Once I reinstall Linux it should be working alright again. Oh well, this is the first complaint I've ever heard about Toshiba. Unlike a certain Dell I know that breaks all the freaking time.

Motherfuckers

2005-08-24T21:50:00.000-06:00

You all can see the effects of "splogging" if you check out the comments on the previous post. According to this /. article, Blogger is the worst offender (most of it happens on blogger pages or comes from blogger users), but Google is taking meausres to stop it. Some of you may have noticed in the top bar on a Blogger page, there's a new button called "Flag". This flag button lets you flag blogs as objectionable. I've now gone to every blogger page linked to in these messages, and flagged all of their pages. I'd really appreciate it if anyone who reads this would follow the links and do the same. This should eventually lead to the page being removed. I will do the same for everyone else, regardless of whether or not they do it for me.

An added benefit of so many spam pages being removed, is that the "Next Blog" button actually takes you to peoples' blogs instead of some ad.

Anecdote

2005-08-23T22:49:00.000-06:00

In my Game Analysis class, the teacher who goes by Gibby (short for GibbletOmelette), was telling us how bad we all need to play Halflife. I guess its the closest thing this class has to required reading. I know I could get it to, but to be a smartass I was like, "Does it run in Linux?" He was like, "You do everything in Linux?", and I was like, "Yep."
"You do your homework in Open Office?"
"Yep."
Then he asked, "What distribution do you use?" and I started with, "well...", so he interrupted me and said he wanted what I use right now, not my history. I told him SuSE, and he said, "Pff, mainstream."
"Well, before this I used Gentoo."
"Pff, mainstream."
Gentoo is NOT mainstream. I don't think the idea of compiling your entire operating system from the source code appeals to many people. He said I should use Slackware (the oldest distro still under development), an I retorted, "Slackware's for old people."
His jaw dropped. He grabbed the clipboard with the roll sheet. The sheet has a space for notes next to each student's name. I don't know if he was really writing, but he acted like he was, and he said out loud, "Called teacher old fucker."
I was like, "What?!", and he said, "They'll believe me, not you."

It was good times.

I Couldn't Resist

2005-08-23T16:55:00.000-06:00

"The Hare Foolishly Lowers His Guard and Is Devastated by the Tortoise, Whose Prowess in Battle Attracts Many Desirable Mates"

Some guy made a list of Klingon fairy tales. Rich, rich, rich.

Questing: Conclusion

2005-08-20T19:04:00.000-06:00

After 6 phone calls, I finally found a place that still had the fat pack in stock. Its in a town called Parker, south of Denver. Its about 35 minutes away, but it was well worth the drive. I didn't have much else to do, it was raining, and the drive back was beautiful. I got to see the mountains from a distance and angle I normally never see, and the clouds on the edge of the thunderstorm that just passed by are bizarre and beautiful. Now for that new card smell.

Questing

2005-08-20T16:35:00.000-06:00

Who'se got the Quake 3 source code? I've got the Quake 3 source code. w00t! Its only 5.5 MB. Its released under the GPL! Props for the GPL. There's a file with directions for compiling it on a Win32 system. The file also has directions to compile it on a Linux system. The file also has directions to compile it on a Mac system.

Now its time for a quest. The quest is for a comic shop that still has 9th Edition Fat Packs in stock. Away!

I'm A Missunderstood Guy

2005-08-18T23:13:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone understands my title "Censor Your Children" was meant to be ironic.

Lazy Cyberpunk

2005-08-18T19:44:00.000-06:00

I wrote too much yesterday. Instead of writing you a novel, I'm going to have you read a link about a cyperpunk graphic novel made for the PSP. Not bad so far. Oh, and its released under Creative Commons.

P.S. The birthday money has already started trickling in. I think its time for a fat pack.

I Got pwned

2005-08-17T21:45:00.000-06:00

Over Your Head Warning

I have to say tonight has been the best night of class so far. We were discussing the different types of rules in a game: operational, constituitive, and implicit. It was a very hands-on lesson because he gave us a worksheet and we actually played a game to identify the different types of rules. The games were dominos, Magic: the Gathering, and a board/card game called Illuminati. First hour of class was "boot camp"--a quick runthrough of the rules of each game so everyone could decide which game they wanted to play. I, of course, chose Magic. There was a nearly equal n00b to vet ratio, so each of us coached the person next to us. I threw down with my old Smooth Criminal deck.

We played a giant 7 person circle free for all. I layed down martial law. Darksteel Colasus was unstoppable with a Whispersilk Cloak. I had taken down the only two other vets and was sitting pretty still at a full 20 life, when the guy with the elf weenie deck puts a Lure on a guy and suddenly I've got no blockers and he knocks me down to 4. I bluster on about how "all shall wilt under my gaze," but with the help of outside intervention he brings me down to 1 and finally pings that one last life off. I got too cocky.

The endgame happened too quickly while I was back in the classroom turning in my paper. Will, the guy to my left who basically said we'd be the two horsemen of the apocalypse and would duel it out titan-style after we'd cleaned the board, Junior, the guy that took me out, and Bobby, the lady with huge glasses everyone was pretty much ignoring, were the last standing. It played out as I predicted. Bobby would continue to be ignored, sitting on her 23 life, while Will and Junior duked it out. Will, of course, won because I'd knocked Junior down to 4. Bobby, still sitting pretty, cleaned up the leftovers.

This is the first time I've played in nearly exactly a year and it makes me fear for my budget. I so badly want to start playing again. I offered an invitation to Will to play anytime.

Censor Your Children

2005-08-17T15:46:00.000-06:00

The Ministry of Reshelving has been putting copies of George Orwell's 1984 into their proper places on bookstore shelves such as the "current events" section. I might just join in on the fun. This brings to mind something I witnessed while I was spending my lunch break in Borders as is my wont. Given the book they're reshelving, the Ministry seems more concerned with privacy invasion becoming so commonplace, but it reminds me of an instance of censorship.

A woman was in the store with her two children and another woman who I think was her friend. The first woman was buying her son and daughter a book apiece, but when her daughter brought her choice the second woman said that she'd heard there was disapproved of content in the book. The girl pointed out that she'd already read the first book in the series and that nothing was that bad.

The lady told her daughter that she would buy her two books as long as neither was that one. I've left out some details, all this took a few minutes, but by this point in the exchange I was red with ire. I wanted to speak up so bad, but I know people are morons and I was wearing my work shirt. You can't wear your opinions on your sleeve when its not your own shirt. People will like to assume you're representing that little name on your chest instead of yourself.

I would have been telling her, "Yeah, good idea: censor your children now so by the time the government's doing it they'll be used to it. Heck, they might not even notice." My parents did censor my media input and I usually disagreed, but they NEVER censored my reading. Rated R movies weren't the movies I was interested in anyways. Dad said I couldn't watch Rugrats because they used the word "butt" and he thought the show was done in bad taste (stupid). Mom censored my mail (free Playboy when I turned 18). That really pissed me off. Not because of what it was, but because she was fucking censoring my mail. Can you say "federal offence"? But they NEVER censored my reading.

So, I Was Sitting and Thinking

2005-08-17T15:17:00.000-06:00

about what to have for my afternoon snack. This snack, falling between work and school, is usually pretty substantial for me--almost amounting to a fourth meal. I was thinking sammiches, but I don't have any sandwich meat and a cheese sammich didn't sound too good. Then, I remembered I have peanut butter. A second later I remembered I had grape jelly I really just want to get rid of so I can buy more peach jelly. Then I gasped as it hit me like a semi running late on its shipment (apt, right?)...peanut butter AND jelly.

It really took too long to realize, but once I did realize it and the plan came to fruition it was amazing.

I Saw A Werewolf Drinking a Pina Colada at Trader Vic's

2005-08-16T21:19:00.000-06:00

His hair was perfect.

I believe bibliophile might be a good description for me. I'm not a biblio maniac, but "compulsive hoarders, identifiable by the fact that the number of unread books in their possession is continually increasing relative to the total number of books they possess and read," sounds all too familiar. Compulsive hoarding is a symptom of obsessive compulsive dissorder, which I've never denied having.

Fooling Around

2005-08-16T13:06:00.000-06:00

I know I can publish my entire blog under the Creative Commons license, but what about individual posts?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

hehehehe

I Like Getting My Hair Cut

2005-08-14T17:08:00.000-06:00

Makes me feel kinda narcistic.

Code Monkey

2005-08-14T02:24:00.000-06:00

John Carmack, badass extroidenaire, has compared software pattents to mugging someone. Carmack is the guy responsible for the Quakes and the Dooms. Being against software patents, he's also for open source. Actually Quake III is about to be open sourced, just like the two before it. Did you know there's code from the original Quake in Halflife 2? I sure didn't.

This makes me feel a little sick inside. The good thing is that it can be used to run Linux as well. You can read a lot more about it here.

Being Human Isn't The Problem

2005-08-13T15:55:00.000-06:00

The problem with A.L.I.C.E. isn't acting like she's human, its the fact that she's nothing but a giant if statement. If it was anythign close to human, I wouldn't care if it was mimicing one. A.L.I.C.E., though, is just a script that responds to patterns in what you say to it.

Human: Do you think?
ALICE: Yes. I am a thinking machine.
Human: Are you conscious?
ALICE: Yes I am completely self-aware.

The proper answers would be No and No. Its not really even a machine, its a bit of software.

SciFi Writers Get To Make Up All The Cool Words

2005-08-12T00:04:00.000-06:00

Zimboe - A zombie with no self-awareness, but programmed to cliam to be aware in an attempt to deceive the truly consciouis beings around it.

Sounds like A.L.I.C.E. I hate that bot purely because Dr. Wallace wanted it to pretend to be human. When I fiddle with bots if they ever say something about being human or sentient its because I have to build off of Wallace's foundation or have a bot that barely knows anything.

Accelerando

2005-08-11T23:46:00.000-06:00

"Greetings, earthlings, compile me on your leader."

Accelerando is so indescribably cool.
I guess I missed my chance for a cheap Librie. I forgot to make sure I was still the top bidder before I went to work this morning. The final selling price was $405. I still don't know what S&H would have been. Coming from Japan, I bet they could have ripped me a new hole. Getting up that high, I might as well pay $475 for one that's already got the English firmware patch so I don't have to find a computer with Windoze and patch it myself. I'm just a tad nervous about patching firmware on devices with foreign operating systems anyways. Looks like the winner sniped. His final bid took place six seconds before the end of the auction.

P.S. Apparently, when a skunk is caught off guard by an automatic sprinlker system, they empty those nasty little glands all over the yard.

Spam

2005-08-11T19:50:00.000-06:00

Well, it appears my blog is getting spammed. An anonymous poster is advertising in my comments. Bots are the coolest fucking thing ever, and some jackass is using them to deface my site. Its back to Members Only commenting for awhile. You should check out the last comment on my last post. Its a doozy. I'll leave it there for posterity.

2005-08-11T00:12:00.000-06:00

The thing that sucks about being me is that to not hate the guts of everyone I meet, I have to pretend a lot of shit doesn't piss me off. I guess I just hold myself to a higher standard than most people.
These words sound harsh, but I don't know how else to say them.

My Favorite Error Message

2005-08-09T23:21:00.000-06:00

repeter@LaMachina:/> touch boobs
touch: cannot touch `boobs': Permission denied

SuSE

2005-08-08T12:19:00.000-06:00

If you don't see me online for a couple hours/days/eons, its because I'm chaning the OS on LaMachina over to SuSE Pro 9.3. Gentoo just took too much effort, and still never worked the way I wanted it to. I've got my entire hard drive backed up for posterity, to be restored on a whim. The backup is taking up surprisingly little space on my NAS.

The BK Lounge

2005-08-08T09:58:00.000-06:00

I had a dream that I bought a Burger King. I sucked at running it, but Lori worked there and she was a huge help. It was like a video game; I could see the amount of money I had in orange digits in the the lower right corner of my field of vision.

Asimov's

2005-08-07T18:47:00.000-06:00

I just realized that the short story "Nightfall" by Charles Stross I read on the Asimov's website was actually a part of the book I'm reading, Accelerando. All the sections of the book were released one at a time as short stories in Asimov's Science Fiction. One more reason to love Asimov's.