KHftCEA 0.3

          lights your fire

KHftCEA 0.4

goodbye 17 banks street #2- you were a great first apartment.

KHftCEA 1997-06.1 June

feels like the first night of summer.  I really wish there were fireflies around.  Nights like this make me think of camp.  Life and romance was came so easily then.  I'm realizing that I'm really missing the large social circles that camp, marching band, and the Honors track provided. Asking someone out didn't have to be a big risk then- you could make enqueries through mutual friends and stay in a very non-threatening zone.  And the groups are big enough to prevent inbreeding but with enough mutual interests to give easy fallback conversations

KHftCEA 1997-06.2 June

the idea that all lovers silently and unknowingly make a contract during the first few glorious weeks for the rest of the relationship
Waiting for rick outside of bertucci's- the FIRST bertucci's.  Rick and I are such goofballs together.  It's not the case that we're the only ones we can be ourselves with- in fact the opposite. But it's fun, and funny, and relaxing

KHftCEA 1997-07.2 July

I want to catch two score fireflies and give them to you
idea for a program: firefly simulator / screensaver
these people take summer fireflies for granted  ..that seems like a sin
fight fire with napalm

KHftCEA 1997-09 September

"The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile, implying in a subtle, complimentary way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before."
every first kiss feels like a miracle

KHftCEA 1997-10 October

Talking with mom, she mentioned my describing when dad was first sick and his frustration at not being able to give me money from his wallet like a father to his son. That kind of famlial obligation/ generosity was very important to him, like my grandma's outta the blue checks for 25 with a note to buy myself a coke.

KHftCEA 1997-11.3 November

3. They're a kilometer away from the river, who gets there first?(h)

KHftCEA 1997-12.1 December

"We are animals.  Our first instinct when we see an object of beauty is to eat it."

KHftCEA 1997-12.2 December

planning my first real party... Yikes, why are my social circles so deep-not-wide?
 He said first in the middle, then you swing from side to side.

KHftCEA 1998-01.2 January

game idea: Virtual Firefighter

KHftCEA 1998-03.1 March

"Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day.  Set fire to him, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

KHftCEA 1998-04.1 April

"To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe"
First Law of Humanics: Even complete jerks deserve a second chance

KHftCEA 1998-04.2 April

Last night going for my writeable cd-rom- realized for the first time in a while how close I was to the HoJo's where 222nd Jazz stayed in 1991. (and how close I'll be to it at the Big Yellow House.) Looked at where the bus pulled up, the dining room we ate brunch at.  Thought of looking into the humid small poolroom, racing through the stairwells, looking at our reflection (and of Veronika's odd red shirt with the doo-dads attached) in the window at the end of the hall. Veronika was my first big love, and 'you never forget your first.'

KHftCEA 1998-05 May

"We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his hands for masturbation."
As for kissing on the first date, you should never date someone whom you would not wish to kiss immediately.

KHftCEA 1998-06.1 June

You would need something evolved for transportability as well as functionality, very tough to do in hardware.  But since the whole point of hardware was a richer feature set in the first place...

KHftCEA 1998-06.2 June

"... I've seen Sun monitors on fire off the side of the multimedia lab.

KHftCEA 1998-06.3 June

1.  Beef jerky was first extensively eaten by the Mayan Indians.
6.  The clitoris was first (officially) discovered in 1559 by Dr. Reginald
7.  At the age of nine, Gauss derived the formula for the sum of the first n integers.

KHftCEA 1998-07.1 July

[On not feeling 'House-on-Fire' Love]
They have already forgiven Clinton not only for his dalliance but for lying about it, and they have forgiven him not because they are indifferent to it, not because they don't care, not because "the economy is good," not because they find the behavior admirable, but because what they cannot forgive is Kenneth Starr's asking about it in the first place.

KHftCEA 1998-09 September CB

"Say the purpose of sex isn't procreation or recreation. Say it's concentration. Say it makes you focus on the person you're sleeping with, 'cause there's just too many other people in the world. It's like biological highlighter. [...]  Look for me first, in any crowded room, and I'll do the same"

KHftCEA 1998-10 October CB

You're probably referring to a "backronym".  A regular acronym is created from its component words.  A backronym is created first and then component words are shoehorned into it.   

KHftCEA 1998-11 November CB

First christmas song of the season- woman jazz vocalist cover of Winter Wonderland at the Gap.
     The wife whose lamp went out first would be his for the night. For leap years, he'd take the night off.

KHftCEA 1999-02.1 February CB

Had a lot of dreams the other night, probably because of all the stress at work.  One had me joining a swim class, except the first lessons were at this small hot spring basin.  It turned out it was attached to a nudist beach, you had to be naked to swim, and the other beachgoers applauded when we decided to be naked on shore.  Sarah was one of the undressees, but it wasn't very sexual.  I thought the people might be bad at this yellow scented additive the instructor added to the basin.  In another dream there was a winking semi-animated statue of Don Quixote sitting on a bench.
Waiting for Rob at the Cambridge Brewing Company. There's a very sad first person "I'm lost!" cat missing poster: "I'm Lost! My name is Jerry and I'm a 6yr old gray and white fat cat (25 lbs). I have never been outside before I disappeared this Saturday, but now I'm cold and scared and want to come home. I'm very shy and am probably hiding under a porch. If you see me will you please call my owner to come and get me."

KHftCEA 1999-03 March

"A small anarchic community of wireheads and hackers made the mistake of giving fire to the masses. Nobody is going to give it back. It is paradise lost."

KHftCEA 1999-04.1 April

"The first time ever kissed a man I was in a blue rental Geo Metro."

KHftCEA 1999-04.2 April

Putting my first laptop down the thriftstore chute, the one I had

KHftCEA 1999-05.1 May

A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it.  That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your unit.
Dreamt of a videogame last night called "Mario & Luigi".... they were the bad guys chasing my character on these jungle looking levels, and then I was really screwed when they came out riding a big (fire breathing) dinosaur.

KHftCEA 1999-05.2 May

"Lips kissed for the first time are kissed forever."

KHftCEA 1999-06.1 June

--Larry Wall, "Perl, the first postmodern computer language"
          Schwartz's fingers stopped, and he stared at Lloyd as though he had seen him purely and for the first time.

KHftCEA 1999-06.2 June

Last night I woke up around 2am from a nightmare, where I received rreally bad news from or about Aunt Susan.  I remember thinking i should write it down, to confirm or deny my ability as a prophet.

KHftCEA 1999-07.1 July

It was a nice way to spend the fourth. They got here in the late afternoon, showered, then we went to Cambridge Brewing Company and then to see the fireworks from the Cambridge side.  (Lot of walking around.) Then they left this morning.

KHftCEA 1999-07.3 July

The first wise, blind elephant felt the human, and declared, "Humans are flat."
Rereading Unbearable Lightness of Being (After I told Lena I had a personal philosophical revelation, she asked if it was from this book, ha ha.)  Realized the copy I picked up is the one I gave to Mo, with an inscription dated 12-18-97. It talks about Nietzsche's "eternal recurrence": that's either the stupidest thing I've ever heard, or it's not supposed to be literal, or I just don't get it.  Where does free choice enter in?  Entropy?  Is this the first time around?  Could we tell?

KHftCEA 1999-07.4 July

"There may be intelligent life on other planets in the galaxy, but somebody, somewhere, had to be first."
Because that's really something I can't stand -- when people refer to themselves as crazy. The truly crazy are labled so on the grounds that they see nothing wrong with their behavior. They forge ahead, lighting fires in public buildings and defecating in frying pans without the slightest notion that they are out of step with society. That, to me, is crazy. Calling yourself crazy is not crazy, just obnoxious.
--Thomas Builds-The-Fire, "Smoke Signals"

KHftCEA 1999-08.1 August

This life is like an Atomic Fire Ball (r) - once you get past the stuff that hurts it's pretty sweet.

KHftCEA 1999-08.4 August

The first entry on the new PalmV- still sitting on its little charger. Very elegant looking unit. Still wondering if I was too hasty, but hey, time will tell.
--Porfirio the Fisherman on a catalog offering a rowing machine (quoted by Alastair Reid

KHftCEA 1999-09.1 September

"It's art. You give it up, you were never an artist in the first place."

KHftCEA 1999-10.1 October

First you were in New Yorker, now in rec.humor.funny.... Som day I'll tell my grandchildren I hadsex with a famous person (-:

KHftCEA 1999-10.3 October

The other day slashdot had a reference to a guy who rigged up Doom so that killing monsters killed procceses on the system. Not too practical, but the first time I saw someone actually attempt that staple of cberpunk, VR mapped to "real life" computer tasks.

KHftCEA 1999-11.1 November

The Panglossian pessimist says, "Isn't it a shame that this is, after all, the best of all possible worlds!" Imagine a beer comercial: as the sun sets over the mountains, one of the hunks lounging around the campfire intones, "It doesn't get any better than this!" -- at which point his beautiful companion burts into tears: "Oh no! Is that really true?" It wouldn't sell much beer.
"The Web brings people together because no matter what kind of a twisted sexual mutant you happen to be, you've got millions of pals out there. Type in 'Find people that have sex with goats that are on fire' and the computer will say, 'Specify type of goat.'"

KHftCEA 2000-03.1 March

A fire knows

KHftCEA 2000-03.2 March

Mo got a Palm IIIc, the first color Palm. Nifty.
This day does note bode well. Spent too much on some pictures, couldn't find my belt, locked my keys in the car for the first time, will be lunching with R *and * D (there's a bad pun in there somewhere.)

KHftCEA 2000-03.3 March

How am I gonna explain "Zamfir- master of the pan flute" to my kids?
You've been dead before, remember. What was the first 15 billion years of the universe like for you?

KHftCEA 2000-04.1 April

According to the NRA, the best form of personal protection is to be in possession of a loaded firearm at all times. To ensure your personal safety, stay the hell away from NRA members.

KHftCEA 2000-05.2 May

First of all, let's face one fact--everybody ends up dead. Think of all the infants and children and people who had the misfortune to die before they got much of anything out of life, and then think of all I got out of it.

KHftCEA 2000-05.3 May

A metaphor for the practice of thinking of mortality: it's a bit like fire fighting in the wilderness.  Random thoughts- fleeting references to the passing of time, realizng the finiteness of things- are sparks that can set a fire to cause many sleepless nights.  To prevent that, you can just work to make sure those sparks don't show up, but a better bet is to try to saturate the land with comforting perspectives, and keep coming back to those perspectives whenever conditions seem to warrant it.
Also, there was a line I should've written down from a book- either Miss Wyoming or Day Job- about how you stop making new friends around the same time you buy your first piece of expensive furniture.

KHftCEA 2000-05.4 May

Let me make a general observation--the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

KHftCEA 2000-06.1 June

"It's much easier to bathe unruly children if you take the first step of holding them under the water until the bubbles stop."

KHftCEA 2000-07.1 July

I wonder if we'll start naming big fires like we do storms.  Maybe not, since fires don't travel to different areas and so are easier to name by place.

KHftCEA 2000-10.1 October

          First let's talk smells.

KHftCEA 2000-11.1 November

Will life never treat me decently? I am wracked by despair! My head is pounding! Mrs. Sol Schwimmer is suing me because I made her bridge as I felt it and not to fit her ridiculous mouth! That's right! I can't work to order like a common tradesman! I decided her bridge should be enormous and billowing, with wild, explosive teeth flaring up in every direction like fire! Now she is upset because it won't fit in her mouth! She is so bourgeois and stupid, I want to smash her! [...]

KHftCEA 2000-11.2 November

"The fireman said, 'If you hear a sound like , you shouldn't run and hide, because it's a good thing.  It means that there is a fireman coming to rescue you.'  But I was thinking in my head that maybe it's a bad thing, because it means your house is on fire."

KHftCEA 2000-12.1 December

"I got an idea for a play-- tell 120 people to come to a meeting, then call 60 of 'em and tell 'em not to come 'cause the rest are fired..."

KHftCEA 2000-12.2 December

Mary Wargo sent a tape to Aunt Susan and Uncle Bill as part of a Christmas package, saying "open this first." We put it into the stereo system. The first track seemed to be the soundtrack to some warning lesson about Tsunamis. We kept listening, waiting for the next track to make sense of the first, but it keeps on going. It even has commercials, like it was taped from TV. Finally Susan says 'enough' and asks me to turn it off. I shut off the tape. The sound keeps going! Then it dawns on us- we've been listening to the Travel Channel, the TV can be piped through the stereo and we didn't switch it back. Whoops.

KHftCEA Appendix C R+K Archive pt 2

Banged my hand, a little while later I noticed a small twinge on the last knuckle of my right ring finger, the finger I broke right before junior year. A long time ago; a little before we re-established contact for the first time.

KHftCEA Appendix D From Tufts Sigs pt 1

Today is the first day of the rest of your short,brutish existence as a sentient creature before being snuffed out into utter nothingness for all eternity.

KHftCEA Appendix G Dreams

reading a letter from Robert First to shakespeare re Romeo and Julliet,RF wrote a famous sonnet, ends his note by saying he reassures his SO by saying she is the gal in his sonnet while WS's is the gal in'my love is not as fair'
with a bunch of friends (mostly women- and Mara?) in some gym or auditorium- i was in love with one of them.  There's an indoor swing ride and we sing that swahili viumbe vyote song.  We sleep, then play indoor baseball the next day.  It's around the 4th of july or new year's.  The woman and i grab some fireworks- we light cigarettes and I come up with a romantic idea of smoking as if we were coastantly getting a light off of eachoter's cigaqette, staying like that for hours.

KHftCEA Appendix H Dreams

I'm driving behind a firetruck (that's on fire?) and there's another firetruck coming up behind. Later Bjorn explains something (?- badly written note)

KHftCEA Appendix I Dreams

Went to some kind of psychiatrist whose diagnostic tool was a kangaroo: seeing which of her three kids (the youngest one being inside her pouch) she trusted you to be near was some kind of diagnostic tool (I got the middle one, which was pretty good for my first session.)  Later I went to the old house on Euclid, except it had been *completely* renovated in a George Jetson mode, there was a HUGE suprise birthday party for me.
Dreamt of a videogame last night called "Mario & Luigi".... they were the bad guys chasing my character on these jungle looking levels, and then I was really screwed when they came out riding a big (fire breathing) dinosaur.

KHftCEA Appendix J Dreams

Then I'm in Germany, looking to meet Veronika. I go to this giant multistory house / restaurant. The first floor was more or less a normal eatery, but higher floors revealed many young attractive Germans having sex, it was some kind of romantic hostel. Some guy (who speaks Engllish) is desperately looking for a translator, but I'll do (I think about how I try to use my little Spanish everywhere)-- later, after sitting waiting for him on the edge of a waterbed (where anther guy is sleeping) on the third or fourth floor, I find out the first guy wanted help figuring out the riddles on the back of a box of Cap'n Crunch. (Here I see a lovely young woman going hurridly down the nearby stairway (this was in the foyer ,ouside the room with the bed) with her breast visible over the top of her v-nect oversized T.) Anyway, finally Veronika emerges from the room across from the waterbed... she's distraught, with a few people consoling her, Bernd left her (I guess finally housing was available for him and he didn't need her,) and looks very heavy- almost unrecognizably so, especially with her huge oversized glasses that magnify her red teary eyes.

KHftCEA Appendix K Dreams

Watching big lightning strikes from a porch, then I see a huge hit these giant gas containers in the distance, and the fire shockwave comes my way-- I tell myself I might be ok, because it's not nuclear.

KHftCEA Appendix L Family Stories

Right.  The laundry shoot ran from the first floor bathroom (which had a big old fashioned soaking bathtub which your dad loved) to the laundry area of the basement.  I could see by looking up that the shoot door was open and I could hear your dad in the bathroom (although I didn't realize he was in the tub).  I wanted to include your winter jacket in the laundry I was loading, so I hollared up. "Please toss down Kirk's jacket."  There was along pause, no answer, so I repeated my shout. After another long pause came the immortal reply " I don't talk to no walls."

kirk.is 2001.01.25 fireman kirk

fireman kirk

kirk.is 2001.08.13 sartre said it first

sartre said it first

kirk.is 2002.03.25 my trophy has a first name, it's o-s-c-a-r

my trophy has a first name, it's o-s-c-a-r

kirk.is 2002.07.03 goodness gracious great flies of fire

goodness gracious great flies of fire

kirk.is 2002.12.04 the campfire of consciousness

the campfire of consciousness

kirk.is 2004.04.03 today is the first saturday of the rest of m...aw, crap

today is the first saturday of the rest of m...aw, crap

kirk.is 2004.11.10 brand of fire

brand of fire

kirk.is 2005.03.04 first love

first love

kirk.is 2005.04.15 firefoxy

firefoxy

kirk.is 2005.09.23 fire fire fire

fire fire fire

kirk.is 2006.06.01 fire fire fire

fire fire fire

kirk.is 2008.01.16 the process isn't about not getting fired

the process isn't about not getting fired

kirk.is 2008.04.09 eat dessert first

eat dessert first

kirk.is 2008.07.04 kirkjerkfirewerk

kirkjerkfirewerk

kirk.is 2008.12.11 last night i had a weird dream with the special wing of the space force who flew ships that looked like marshmallows and prayed rapidfire prayers to the aliens to keep them away

last night i had a weird dream with the special wing of the space force who flew ships that looked like marshmallows and prayed rapidfire prayers to the aliens to keep them away

kirk.is 2008.12.21 the navel of a firefly

the navel of a firefly

kirk.is 2009.05.16 a dream of fire

a dream of fire

kirk.is 2009.05.24 horses snorting fire? is that possible?

horses snorting fire? is that possible?

kirk.is 2009.07.05 kayak and fireworks

kayak and fireworks

kirk.is 2009.10.03 first day of my life

first day of my life

kirk.is 2010.07.07 atomic fireball: diet food

atomic fireball: diet food

kirk.is 2010.12.18 life is a game, a video game-- and first and last i hate the past

life is a game, a video game-- and first and last i hate the past

kirk.is 2011.07.03 problems of the first world

problems of the first world

kirk.is 2011.09.04 first look at the uncanny valley...

first look at the uncanny valley...

kirk.is 2012.06.21 robert rowland smith on first love

robert rowland smith on first love

kirk.is 2013.10.31 from worst to first

from worst to first

kirk.is 2017.08.03 affirmation

affirmation

kirk.is 2019.12.10 NOLA first half

NOLA first half

kirk.is 2020.12.19 from "The Fire Next Time"

from "The Fire Next Time"

kirk.is 2020.12.30 the first 20 years

the first 20 years

2001.01.01

Wow. 01-01-01, the first AB-AB-AB date since... I dunno, December 12 1912? (I was going to hack up a perl script to figure out how many days that was but I had sudden attack of laziness.)

There's a brilliant 7k game for the palmpilot called <A HREF="http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=9720">SFCave</A>. You can also play a <A HREF="http://www.lab6.com/sfcave.html">Java Version</A> that doesn't quite capture the magic, but gives you the general idea. You pilot a little line in an ever shrinking cave with square obstacles. Gravity pulls you down, but by pressing any button you can get some thrust upwards. It has an insanely high 'just one more game!' factor. It confirms my theories that some cool simple games can be made by throwing in elements of inertia. (See my own <A HREF="http://alienbill.com/abp/java/joustpong/">JoustPong</A> for another, rather similar example.)

<B>Be Slower to Anger</B> -- I find myself raging at things that irritate me: bad drivers, news reports of conservative politicians doing things I find offensive, video games that seem unfairly rigged, general stupidity. I've been getting better at extinguishing these rages almost instantly, I'd like to keep up that trend and see if I can get better at not letting them form in the first place.

2001.01.05

I'm reading Blackmore's <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019286212X/">The Meme Machine</A>, I'm roughly halfway through. The first part wasn't too convincing, where she defines memes strictly in terms of imitation, but now she's bringing up some good points. Seeing the conflict between our memes and our genes is interesting: the ideas we have and patterns of behavior we follow are no longer certain to be good for us in terms of reproductive capability. While clearly there's been some benefit, or otherwise wouldn't be the force that we are on the planet, it's wise to keep in mind that biomass-wise, the insects are more than holding their own 'against us'-- in that sense, their genes are 'better' than ours. (Arguably. "Insects" forms a much more diverse group than "People", and I'm not sure how Insects are against all Mammals, say.)<P>

2001.01.08

I weigh 4 1/2 pounds less than I did last Monday. Ah, the easy rewards of the first days of weight loss. If only it were all that easy.

2001.01.15

I wish my website was as smart and funny as <A HREF="http://www.mommymommy.com/fmf.html">15 Megabytes of Fame</A> by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and maybe with the same touch of wistfulness. It's updated every week. My friend Dylan told me to get her book <A HREF="http://www.mommymommy.com/firstb.html">The Book of Eleven</A>. He said it was the funniest thing ever, and it wasn't, but it was funny, and I could really connect with the things she was saying. It's worth going to your local bookstore (Preferably not Barnes and Noble) and having them order it. Her site is so good that I'm tempted to start a 'best links' page just for sites like that.

2001.01.17

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2001.01.17.fireball.gif" WIDTH=120 HEIGHT=53 align="left">

This life is like an Atomic Fireball:

2001.01.20

is being displayed on the first page of search results.

2001.01.22

you feel like a ninjaworm running through showers of fireworks... it's really quite beautiful at times. A little repetitive, maybe. (For another great simple Palm

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2001.01.22.snow.gif" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=114 ALIGN="LEFT">The snow arrived in force today. First major accumulation, on top of a layer of ice that hasn't gone away. There's not much to think about when you're shoveling, so I thought about Snow, and the recent

2001.01.24

<B>Husband:</B> Why not first prize?<BR>

2001.01.25

Why are fire engines red?<P>

Books are read. Magazines are read, too. Two plus two is four. Four times three is twelve. Twelve inches on a ruler. Queen Elizabeth is a ruler. Queen Elizabeth is a ship at sea. Little fishes swim in sea. Little fishes have fins. Finns fought the Russians. Russians are called "Reds". Fire Engines are <I>always</I> rushin'. That's why fire engines are red.

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2001.01.25.fireman.gif" alt="Fireman Kirk" WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=89 ALIGN="LEFT"> That joke reminds me... I wanted to be a Fire Fighter when I was a kid, at least for a short while. (And I was curious about the difference between the term "fire man" and "fire fighter".)<P> At some point I wanted to be President as well. During that time, I got a letter from an Uncle who I had never talked to, and he said "So, do you want to President yet?" I was amazed! <I>How did he know that??</I><P>

2001.01.27

of the dice the first few go 'rounds sets the course for the rest of the

2001.02.05

<A HREF="http://www.imdb.com/Title?0103064">Terminator 2</A> the other day. Man, that has some nightmarish scenes, especially where Sarah Connor is dreaming of the nuclear blast, and you see the wall of fire taking out the buildings, blowing apart the ashes of the people on the playground... yikes.

2001.02.15

Many movies use this one stock scream sound effect, kind of an "aiiiiii!" It's called a "Wilhelm" after a character in one of the first films it showed up in (in the 1950s, although it was probably taken from Loony Tune cartoons before that.) It's shown up in all of the Star Wars flicks, even though often it doesn't quite fit. One guy has compiled a

2001.02.17

registration database is available for the first time ever.

2001.02.18

On Reagan's birthday, the anti-tax firebrand Grover Norquist was busy promoting his latest Reagan-related project. (His last one was the successful effort to rename Washington National Airport Ronald Reagan National Airport. It used to be unusual, except in places like Stalingrad and Ciudad Trujillo, for important localities to be named after living politicians.) Norquist wants to replace the portrait of Alexander Hamilton on the ten-dollar bill with a portrait of Ronald Reagan. "Hamilton was a great American," Norquist jauntily told the <I>Times</I>. "But it's time to move on."

2001.02.21

First I saw a copy of "Worth" magazine

happened the first 20 days of this month! Groundhog day was a long time

2001.02.24

on his cheat sheets. "I, first, look forward to the visit," Bush

NATO. It is -- anyway, let me visit with him first. I promise to

2001.03.03

Man, Winter has gone on way too long. I find my self getting charged up at the site of skin-- almost any bit of bare upper arm or torso. At first I thought

2001.03.06

Ada Byron, visionary and first very bad programmer

2001.03.07

"I doubt my getting fired from the Dairy Queen is a bellwether of recession, but it sure is a bellwether of I stuck my wang in the butterscotch."

2001.03.13

At the first sign of day<BR>

2001.03.18

<A HREF="http://www.sixfoot6.com/omni/">Project Omni</A>, a brilliantly written (at least for the first few pages) account of some 20-something guys taking apart a 1981 Dodge Omni in the summer of 1997. Laugh out loud funny in parts. <BR>(via <A HREF="http://cruel.com">Cruel Site of the Day</A>)

2001.03.19

Went ice-skating for the first time in my life yesterday with some of the

I think I was pretty good for a first timer (possibly because of the roller blading I think.) There were a lot of kids there. At first that was a little annoying, but then I thought of them as forming a big obstacle course,

Bound was the first movies from the Wachowski <s>Brothers</s> <s>Siblings</s> Sisters who would

2001.03.21

Finally it's <A HREF="http://www.kaiju.com/">Kaiju</A>. I saw a sticker with the URL at the men's room for the Upstairs Lounge in Boston. It looks like people making up some more of these elaborate costumes and duking it out. The FAQ says it got its start at the School of the MFA, where I took some of my first programming classes (they had a tie in with Tufts.)

2001.03.31

Hey-- I have the same <A HREF="http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/03/29/tech_life/UNIVAC29.htm">birthday as UNIVAC</A>! UNIVAC, the first commecial computer, is 50, and I'm 27... funny to think that I've been alive for more than half of this commercial revolution.

2001.04.15

I don't feel a day over 8000... Anyway, I was reminded that I once had plans to make this as project, making a web interface to calculate the difference between any two dates, or figure out what date is a certain number of days away from another date. At first I assumed I would do this in Perl with round trips to the server, but javascript turned out to be a better bet...

2001.04.16

Anyways, I was always trying to figure out why the first part of a month

would slip away so quickly, but then I realized it was part of the nature of weeks and two digit numbers... the first few days of the months slip by, you're

2001.04.21

heroin using girl. Not as fascinating as I thought when I first heard about it, but kind of interesting view of street life.

2001.04.25

Super mega wicked campy. At first I thought Robin's final statement was just a goofy morality line, but then I read the IMDb entry and got the joke- he says that while the dynamic duo are 'climbing' the side of a building with their typical sideways camera trick.

(from <a href="http://www.monroesaltworks.com/stores.asp?shopid=4250193239&storeid=10">Monroe Salt Works</a> in Arlington) sits on my monitor. She's the first toy I bring in to a new situation.

2001.04.27

Oh, and <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,107753,00.html">George Bush 2's graceless hand</a> brings more tension with China. Or as <a href="http://onion.com">the Onion</a> headline put it "First Chapter In History Of Sino-American War Of 2011 Already Written"

2001.04.29

character and stated belief system in some <a href="http://www.douglasadams.com/">Douglas Adams</a> book.) Dirk asks people to state the connection between two objects or concepts. For example, "socks" is related to "feet" because "that's where you wear them", "white" because "a baseball team", "bill clinton" because "the first cat of the united states of america is named socks", etc. The cool part is you can then enter any two concepts, no matter how disparate, and it will try to find a connection between them-- and often succeed. The server is a bit slow these days, but it's still a great site. For example, "socks" is related to "atari" with the following path:

Genesis is the first book of the Bible

atari was one of the first big video game companies

2001.05.10

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Interstate Trucking Commission,

Only the first one applies to me

2001.05.15

Nintendo just <a href="http://cube.ign.com/news/34494.html">'leaked' the logo</a> for its upcoming game system, the "GameCube". There's a clever hiding of the G and the C in the logo, but over all I don't think it will be as flexible as the old <a href="/journal.aux/64n4.gif">4 N's</a> logo. At first I couldn't tell if it was a "real" 3D object or just an Escher-esque trick, but I think it can be real if the inner cubed is flush against the top front corner of the larger cube, not centered inside the larger cube as it kind of appears. Still, once it rotates the cool "G and C" visual gag will go away.<br><br>

2001.05.17

Interesting piece on the <a href="http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/05/16/manifestos/index.html">Art Manifestos</a> from earlier this century, "when art mattered enough to hate". Mostly I liked all the manifesto snippets on the first page. I've always been a big fan of <a href="http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/">Dada</a> myself.<br>

2001.05.19

First we state that girls require time and money.<br>

2001.05.23

Yesterday the fire alarms at my building went off. We all dutifully filed down the stairs to the lobby, where we discovered we were completely stuck. Both the front and back doors to the outside were sealed shut. At first we assumed there was some sort of errant locking mechanism in place, but when the fireman arrived, we discovered that even once they were pried open with a crowbar (the glass (!) doors, not the fireman), they were still prone to slamming shut in dramatic fashion.

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2001.01.25.fireman.gif" alt="Fireman Kirk" WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=89 ALIGN="LEFT">

Apparently, there was some kind of mechanical venting mechanism, presumably meant to whisk away smoke filled air, which was creating a low-pressure area in the lobby. (I don't know enough about fire codes to know if the implied supply of fresh air to a fire is consequential either.) The amount of force needed to open the doors was tremendous. Eventually the back doors (a floor down) were open, although I'm not sure how, or how they were kept from slamming shut.

2001.05.24

Paul Slansky, "The First Hundred Days: The Quiz" from The New Yorker (Answer:m)

2001.05.26

<a href="http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/">Star Control series</a>. The first game added 12 new types of ships, each with 2 unique weapons systems, and the second created a whole universe to support it. Brilliant, brilliant stuff.)

2001.05.27

Slate.com has a <A HREF="http://slate.msn.com/diary/01-05-21/diary.asp?iMsg=1">diary of a firefighter</A>. You really have to respect firemen, there lives are such a blend of danger and boredom, as the journal entries explain. And harsh practical jokes. <i>(via <a href="http://ojr.usc.edu/content/spike.cfm">Spike Report</a>)</i>

2001.06.07

<A HREF="http://www.csj.org/studyindex/studycult/study_marine.htm">How the United States Marine Corps Differs from Cults</A>. Ok, ok, it makes some reasonable points, but the humor is in why this page needs to be up in the first place. (Admittedly not as funny as if it was hosted on the <a href="http://www.usmc.mil/">USMC site</a> itself). It's like, if I made

2001.06.09

for the first time.

2001.06.10

"Silver Fire", Luminous, Greg Egan

2001.06.12

stupid. I admire the song "<a href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan.stuart/music/lyrics/itsraini.html">It's Raining Men</a>" ('Cos tonight for the first time /

For the first time in history /

2001.06.14

way-- but third graders don't have that sense of timing. Click the first

2001.06.15

Always remember, however, that there's usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.

2001.06.24

the fateful trip I first started flirting with Veronika, Spring of 1991.

2001.06.28

not quite as random as it may first seem, it's a parody of an image from a game called

        At dinner their first night<br>

          On their first day,<br>

(2019 UPDATE: Intriguingly, now when I try and google for this poem, I find it has become a poem "Conversation's Afterplay" which changes from third person to first and second person.)

2001.06.30

This is from the <a href="http://www.clevelandfilm.org/">Cleveland International Film Festival</a>. It was one of my first really cool shirts,

2001.07.01

A serious fire in the apartment across from the one where the dress was,

Mo, as a different fire alarm chased us out of our hotel

2001.07.08

T. H. White. This is one of the first works I ever transcribed to share with other people. I'm such a quotemonger now, it's hard to remember I ever was otherwise.

2001.07.09

At first I thought of that quote in terms of some of the airline hassles

Pat, on a mailing list Mo's mom Janis is on. The fire across the way

2001.07.13

from Seanbaby's <a href="http://www.seanbaby.com/personal/fireworks.htm">Celebrating Independence Like a Bad Motherfucker</a>, advocating the joys of homemade fireworks.

2001.07.21

The first is the cooler by far, an interesting blend of frustrating game and

2001.07.25

<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:wtPhQ4FhKDM:www.angelfire.com/mb/visitme/security/dsktpsc.html+&hl=en">How to <i>really</i> secure your PC against theft</a>-- it's the Google cache, without images, for some reason <a href="http://angelfire.com/mb/visitme/security/dsktpsc.html">the original</a> is gone.

2001.07.27

My latest idea is for a beat-em-up game in the Mortal Wombat vein called Friedrich Nietzsche's Art Of Fighting. The player basically has two kinds of attacks: the first attack will actually increase your opponent's health bar, while the second will kill the opponent instantly no matter how strong he or she is. Thus, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, in every possible sense. I'm sure there's a market for it.

2001.08.08

my general disregard for the general sentiment of "Hey look at me! I'm wacky!" My mom got it for me before she got handle on what kind of T-shirts I liked and disliked. (In general, I don't like well-known cartoon character shirts, though Bill the Cat was my first post-surfing-t-shirt I had.)

2001.08.17

<tr><td><IMG SRC="/journal.aux/10k1fire.gif" WIDTH=25 HEIGHT=25 ></td>

<td><b>Fire</b> (fingers up and wiggling)<br>

Beaten by everything but beats Fire.

2001.08.29

high school. (NEOSA stands for North East Ohio Salvation Army.) I had some great times there, from my first girlfriend to the reign of the Water Mafia (I still have the old combined WM logo from that) which is part of why I was

2001.09.01

very well done, but not quite as rich a world sim as it may first appear.

2001.09.04

What keeps our faith cheerful is the extreme persistence of gentleness and humor. Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things: through cooking and small talk, through storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through sports, music and books, raising kids--all the places where the gravy soaks in and grace shines through. Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people. If we had no other purpose in life, it would be good enough to simply take care of them and goose them once in a while.

2001.09.17

The cherry's thought was one of the first ones I ever came up with, and the

2001.09.21

with speed more important than confirmation/guranteed accuracy,

2001.09.22

On Wednesay when we first arrived at the morgue two cops came over to us

the first truck to the gurney the sun was behind the bag and I could see

brought in the Chief Fireman and Asst. Chief Fireman. They could not

thing. She saw the first plane hit, the second plane hit, and then

I am anxious to go down to Ground Zero. The firemen are requesting

2001.09.24

<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/anthrax_g.htm">first symptoms of

<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/22/peshawar/index.html">First we are Pathan, then we are Muslim, finally we are either Pakistani or Afghan</a>. The Islamic justification for some of the treatment of women

2001.09.25

turn to romances first, and then my circle of friends.<br><br>

2001.09.27

So I watched the first episode of <a href="http://www.upn.com/shows/enterprise/entFrameset.html">"Enterprise"</A> last night.

it seems like the "first encounters" don't seem quite alien

First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns, and I speech nothing because I no verbs.

2001.09.30

The sanest New Year's I ever spent was two years ago, when my best friend Donald and I split a bottle of wine and played Jenga and a sort of mechanical fishing game with magnetic rods. At twelve o'clock we went outside to look at the fireworks and shook hands briskly. No nonsense, no drunken emotion, and we were in bed with cocoa by half past twelve. We vowed then and there to do the same for the Millennium, except maybe at Stonehenge.<br><br>

2001.10.17

Ok, you have to be a fairly hardcore oldschool videogame geek to appreciate the beauty of this <a href="http://www.gamechambers.com/gcMKmap.htm">thorough map of Mountain King</a> for the Atari 2600. Actually maybe not; the map has a certain elegance of its own. Anyway, it's a real achievement. Mountain King was an <a href="http://www.gamechambers.com/gcMtKing.htm">impressive game</a> for the time, as you can see it had a very large world. (And a nice rendition of the song.) Plus, there was that secret area 'above' the main mountain, that the <a href="http://www.gamechambers.com/gcMKing2.htm">website covers pretty well</a>. At first I assumed it was a glitch, but it turns out most of the Mountain King games for different systems had something like this. When you're way up there at the top, ladders and platforms shimmer and shake, it's like the game is letting you see something that doesn't really exist.

2001.10.21

<a href="http://nowheregirl.com"><IMG align="left" SRC="/journal.aux/2001.10.21.nowhere.gif" WIDTH=107 HEIGHT=64 border=0>Nowhere Girl</a> is the first installment of a really good graphic novel style comic. Good artwork and a very good story. I actually used a new <a href="http://alienbill.com/temp/showimages.cgi">cheat script</a> I made that lets you loads all the pages of it on one HTML page to view it, but I shouldn't publish the full link to that because of copyright issues...but e-mail if you want more info. (I just hate waiting for webpages to load as I'm trying to read something.) <i>(via <a href="http://memepool.com">memepool</a>)</i>

2001.10.22

<a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2001.05.22">first one he did</a> but still I'm

An arguably very useful link for a change! <a href="http://pigdog.org/auto/mr_bads_list/shortcolumn/1914.html">70 Things to Say When You're Losing a Technical Argument</A>. The first one is probably the best: "That won't scale".

2001.10.23

<a href="http://www.angelfire.com/sc/pete2049/intvlinks/index.htm">

2001.10.24

This just forwarded by Mo, Citing anti-Israel bias, <a href="http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/297/living/Mideast_strife_hits_WBUR+.shtml">2 firms pull funding from WBUR</a>. Now on the one hand I acknowledge that currently I'm angrier with Israel than with the Palestinians, I think the settlement policy is a real travesty. And I acknowledge that some of this

2001.10.27

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2001.10.27.pikmin.jpg" WIDTH=78 HEIGHT=55 align="right">Last night I went with Peterman (my main videogame buddy) and Sawers (the guy I'm cobuying a Gamecube with) to a Nintendo Gamecube Launch event. It was in a warehouse kind of place near where I used to work in Cambridge. They had a DJ with a lot of music (one remix firmly planted the <a href="http://remix.overclocked.org/rsmb13.htm">Super Mario Bros</a> theme in my head), colored stage lights, and a bunch of systems with all the release games and a few more. They also had contests and giveaways (I won a too cute <a href="http://www.pikmin.com/">Pikmin</a> hat for Mo, with three of those little guys like that little blue one.) Kind of weird to see an event like this, though I guess it's not as bad as that <a href="http://www.imdb.com/Title?0098663">Fred Savage movie</a> they made as a big old advertisement for Super Mario Brothers 3...

Come see your <A href="http://titoonic.dk/testarea/spider/">life as a hungry spider</a>. A very pretty game, I love the animation of the Spider's legs, though those fireflies are very annoying. The slingshot effect to launch the spider is terrific as well.<br><br>

2001.10.28

This was my halloween costume at <a href="http://lupschada">Brooke's</a> party, made from an idea I had two years ago, and with a lot of help from Mo, who did most of the sewing work. I was "The First World War". You can see the Yanks and British Doughboys on the left, and the Germans on the right. The flags for the three nations aren't exactly historically accurate, but whatever.

Combined with my triumph at deciding to go to 256 megs from 64 for my desktop system and getting it done, it was a pretty good day. Hmm, I think this system now has about twice as much memory as my first PC had diskspace. (And this is a cheap-in-1999 Pentium II system...)

2001.10.31

<a href="http://doomworld.com/">DOOM</a> was an early "First Person Shooter", one of my favorite games, running around these bases, physically ducking in my seatr when monsters shot fireballs at me, slaying demons left and right, saving and reloading frequently. (I'm almost tempted to get a Game Boy Advanced to play <a href="http://pocket.ign.com/reviews/16301.html">this version</a> of the beloved game.) Recently I found a page with lots of

2001.11.01

Somehow I missed the <a href="http://slashdot.org/interviews/01/10/29/173252.shtml">Wil Wheaton Responds To Your Questions</a> when it first came out on slashdot, but John was talking about. He got an early big break in "Stand By Me" and he also played Wesley on Star Trek: The Next Generation. (He was kind of the Barney the Dinosaur of the show, the character it was cool for everyone to hate.) Interestingly, he's become a fairly mainstream geek, albeit one who can act. He runs his <a href="http://wilwheaton.com">own website</a> and takes everything in good humor, as long as you don't think an abundance of "I was with your mother last night" jokes eliminates the possiblity of "good" humor.

2001.11.02

quotes, in chronological order rather than the last in, first out method I usually use.

2001.11.08

moose antlers of the first one on the page... <i>(via <a href="http://camworld.com">camworld</a>)</i>

2001.11.17

ERIC: (Long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.) I run away. <br>

ERIC: (Reaching for his dice) Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so

2001.11.21

If there's one even a first year chem student knows,

2001.11.25

So Mo and I are moving ever closer to getting a house. Right now Waltham seems the most likely bet. Kind of funny how my life keeps coming back to that city...it's where my Mom and Aunt grew up, it's where my family still owns a (now being rented) house, it's where I had my first apartment, and now it might

be the site of my first house. It's not the most amazing cosmic coincidence,

2001.11.27

From New Jersey Online, some <a href="http://www.nj.com/photos/ledgerphotos/gallery.ssf?/njo/images/1051/index.html">photos from beneath Ground Zero</a>. Read the captions underneath to see what's going on. The first photo and #8 are the most interesting, I think.

I first saw this poem in

2001.11.29

On the other hand, I just heard about a fire that destroyed 8 condos that was started by a bathroom fan being left on and overheating. (Aren't fans supposed to be cool not hot? Anyway.) So perhaps I shouldn't be so cavalier.

2001.12.06

This summer I was thinking about trying to rig up some remote controlled device that would let me squirt the cat with water from the comfort of my bed when he was noisily scratching and meowing at the bedroom door. I thought if I could get one of those battery operated waterguns, it might not be too difficult to rig up something to fire it. The thing is, they don't make that kind of watergun anymore! Almost everything is of that Super Soaker variety. Those UZI-looking battery powered guns that went click-click-click are nowhere to be found (realistic looking guns are frowned upon anyway these days.) I remember when the first supersoakers came out...there ability to deliver a solid stream of water was really impressive. Some guy brought one to jazzband and we were in awe..."that things a hose!". An <a href="http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Maze/6592/reviews/index.html">arms race</a> ensued over the next decade, and current models are quite huge. Anyway, here's an interesting <a href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/water-blaster.htm">piece on how they work</a>.

2001.12.12

<a href="http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html">Announcement with lots of 'Firsts'</a>: First mention of Microsoft, the Commodore 64, first post from AOL, first serious spam, etc etc.<br><br>

<a href="http://groups.google.com/groups?q=author:kisrael%40pearl.tufts.edu&hl=en&scoring=d&rnum=9&selm=1993Apr28.210238.1%40pearl.tufts.edu">first one of mine</a> I could find. (Actually,

by fiddling with the dates, so it's probably not my first first post.)

2001.12.13

This guy came first. I think in some way he was supposed to represent <a href="http://alienbill.com/abp/about.html">alien bill</a>, or at least be a similar kind of character:<br><pre>_/O\_</pre>Later

built a <a href="http://www.classicgaming.com/vcsp/News.htm">portable Super Nintendo</a>. At first I wasn't all that interested, but I was drawn in

2001.12.15

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2001.12.15.tower.jpg" WIDTH=133 HEIGHT=200 align="right">I've started keeping a cheap digital voice recorder by my bed so that I can record dreams before dream amnesia sets in. Recording dreams is a way of getting something more out of sleep, since otherwise it feels like such a waste of a third of my life. So far it's worked out pretty well, I'm two for two for having something to write down the next morning. The image on the right is from the first evening, I was in some kind of thrill ride at the Eiffel Tower, you went to the top, got into a capsule with windows attached to the peak via bungee, and then they hauled you down to the bottom and let go, sending you zinging around Paris...

2001.12.19

I wish I could find a photography class that talks about composition without going through all the "mechanics of 35mm film" first. I suspect the main factors are interesting lighting,

2001.12.20

In California at least, <a href="http://www.dfeh.ca.gov/pants.htm">the right to wear pants</a> shall not be infringed. Ok, not quite as wacky as it may first appear. (thanks <a href-"http://moonmilk.com">Ranjit</a>...wow, he's been a veritable fount of interesting stuff lately.)<br><br>

I typed in all of Electronic Gaming Monthly's "Best 100 Games of All Time" (for their 150th issue) into my homebrew database. I've always been interested in lists like that. But the scary thing is, it's not the first time I've done this...I did the same thing

2001.12.27

<a href="http://www.magnoliascuisine.com/">Magnolia's Southern Cuisine</a>. Hot stuff from Mew Orleans, and one of the things on the beer menu was <a href="http://www.caribbeer.com/brands/shandy.htm">Shandy Carib</a>. This thing tasted wonderful, like ginger ale, very sweet and a bit tangy. My buddy Greg Owen (aka Gowen) tells me that a Shandy is, by definition, beer with a mixer, usually ginger ale or sometimes lemonade. (And that website confirmed it was only 1.2% alc/vol, a "cool, hip, lively, one-of-a kind, contemporary young, sociable, fun loving, 'so-you-stay-in control drink.'") He gave me a link

2002.01.05

The Great Fires,

2002.01.09

The animation is well nigh non-existent, and the "Please note: Holding the CTRL/COMMAND key down for continuous fire will cause the game to malfunction." doesn't bode well either. (Incidentally, PT Barnum was a trustee of Tufts, which is why his famous elephant is the mascot. He promised his remains to both Tufts and the American Museum of Natural History...they got the skeleton, we got the skin, but it was turned into ashes during a fire in the 1970s. More of the <a href="http://ase.tufts.edu/athletics/history.html">story here</a>.)

Essay on geek slacking and buzzword compliance as a weapon: <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html">Fire and Motion</a>. Mentions an idea I've felt myself, but rarely hear admitted to: for many tech workers, a day that's really productive may only consist of a few hours of dedicated work. There's a huge slack factor, and I can really identify with the sense of productivity inertia he talks about. Like Monday night, when I worked from 6pm 'til 1am, really without much of a break. And like others day, where it' a struggle to get <i>anything</i> done.

2002.01.12

<a href="http://thedailyshow.com">The Daily Show</a>? I found this animated GIF on <a href="http://jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu/~daw/">David A. Webb's Home Page Ground Zero</a>, which should meet your US RDA of Rockin' Guitar Licks and Skeleton, Fire, and Blood Themed Animations. I did a bit of websearching to find out more about it. It's from "The Story of Ricky", a semi-legendary chop socky flick, and you can see a <a href="http://www.badmovies.org/movies/storyofricky/">page with some stills and an mpeg clip</a> at badmovies.org.

2002.01.18

I first saw this image years ago, and really liked the stylized woman. But then I starte asking, what part of the sax player is forming the woman's mouth?

2002.01.24

"looking back is the first sign of aging and decay",

2002.01.28

What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

2002.01.31

This must've been brought on by "Garter Dance" entry two days ago. Me, a player? Uhh, right. I may have hurt someone when Veronika and I started going out. I kind of suddenly broke off another relationship. But I don't have a lot of regret about that; the other relationship had been stagnant for many months by the time Veronika and I were on that fateful jazz band trip to Boston, and what I had with Veronika stands out as my first and last great AND innocent love. I'm sorry that I may have hurt someone to get that though.

2002.02.01

John quoted that last line out of the blue the other day, and it has been rattling around my head ever since, just how the kid who speaks first is kind of trying to cover for himself. Thanks a lot John.

2002.02.04

individually announced; it was just The Team. That's style. They dominated the first half, held a "line in the sand" against a powerful Rams offence that tied it up, and got a terrific final drive in to end with a winning field goal in the final 7 seconds. It was one of the best games ever to watch with some friends and chips and beer. And salty pork...mmmm. Actually, we set up two

2002.02.22

It shows up on the second page of a <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=wtc&svnum=10&hl=en&start=20&sa=N">Google images search for "WTC"</a>, and it's about the first pre-destruction non-distance shots in the result set. It's also one of the biggest links to my front page, so I thought people could use a bit of follow-up information.

2002.02.26

7) What was King George VI's first name? <br>

2002.03.05

probe Pioneer 10, currently headed out of the Solar System, and put it in a museum, maybe next to Neil Armstrong's first footprint on the moon. I thought

2002.03.20

I don't think striving for realism is as negative thing as you do. (Though I've read where Eugene Jarvis shares your opinion about 2D-ish overhead views vs more limited first person perspectives. Robotron would be a pretty tough game, or have far fewer enemies, if he had to give it the first person perspective.) For one thing, it's not pure realism people crave in general, but detail--they want to play a Space Marine or drive a car REALLY fast or Kung Fu Fight, not be a clerk or be stuck in a traffic jam or wander a mall. Having games get closer to what it might "really" look like, rather than depending on the iconic representations that were all the classics could muster, is an interesting and worthy goal for gaming in and of itself.<P>

2002.03.25

Deface GWB at <a href="http://www.futurefarmers.com/texandrawl/index.html">Texas Drawl</a>! At first it seemed just goofy with a bad interface, but click on "Popular Defacements" for some pretty good stuff.

2002.03.26

I'll send $10 to the first person who can tell me what

2002.03.31

Paul Slocum has recently released his <a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~paul-slocum/synth.html">synthcart</a> for the Atari 2600. It's a way of using the Atari as a synthesizer/beatbox. The samples on the site are really impressive, especially the two that share the name "two ataris". (I guess this is a bit like I the Gameboy cart Nanoloop I <a href="http://kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi?date=2002.03.01">wrote about</a> on the first day of this month.)

2002.04.02

Did you know the relative goodness of a First Person Shooter (a genre of videogames, the ones where you're running around a 3D environment, usually with a gun) can be <a href="http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/crates/crates1.shtml">scientifically determined</a>? (An older article, but pretty funny anyway.)<br>

2002.04.09

severe security measures for the first time.

2002.04.11

It was the guy's <a href="http://www.cmohs.org/">Congressional Medal of Honor</a>. OK, not that I would recognize one at first sight either,

2002.04.15

So I spent my first day of unemployment making art. (Or is it "art"? But maybe I shouldn't count this as unemployment, since Patriot's Day is a day off for so many companies in this state.) A few weeks ago on Ebay I bought an Etch A Sketch Animator, a toy I had in middle school. Today I spent a few too many hours laboriously copying in a ten-frame excerpt from a previous

2002.04.21

So, today's entry is coming to you <i>live</i> from John Sawers' house. And from a Mac, which is probably a first as well. None of the little keyboard things in side a textbox (hop to the end of the line, etc) work right.<br><br>

2002.04.27

day 3 of my Honeymoon Filler (which is what led me to make this system in the first place...)<br>

2002.04.29

</blockquote>Bushnell was the founder of Atari, the maker of the first Pong arcade machine. Or as he says in the same interview, "I think I was the guy who started it two years earlier than it would have been started without me".

2002.05.02

First off, look into something better than dialup access! Especially

2002.05.04

Republican first terms seem to be a bit of a bummer!) I wouldn't mind

2002.05.05

<dd>My first PC (before that I had an C=64, and before that an Atari 800XL), a screaming 386 16mhz. I loved playing Wing Commander on that thing! And Elite, and Star Control 2. It might be the only system I installed Linux on...a pre-1.0 release, in fact.

<dd>Then I moved on up to a 486 66mhz with 16 megs...that was like <i>the</i> gamer machine for a while in the 1990s. I got it in a mammoth tower. It was huuuuuge. Ran Wing Commander 3 like a champ though. And Windows 95 for the first time...I think for some reason I got that on floppies. That took <i>forever</i> to install. Got my butt handed to me on a platter in Duke Nuke'em 3D by all the freshman with their shiny new Pentiums on our new Campus LAN.

2002.05.06

> in the same typeface? And who first suggested that <br>

2002.05.08

Kind of like <a href="http://www.hotornot.com/">Am I Hot or Not</a> meets <a href="http://www.grudge-match.com/">WWWF Grudge Match</a>, it's <a href="http://www.whatsbetter.com">WhatsBetter.com</a>, an attempt to bubblesort everything in the universe, by displaying images of things two at a time and having people pick which one is better. (Don't be flattered if you get a lot of "100% of people agree with you"...often you're the first or second person to have voted on that particular pairing.) <br><br>

2002.05.14

echo, first hope<br>

fire<br>

2002.05.15

<a href="http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=957520">Iran's Khatami Tells U.S. to Stop Insults</a>..."If they abandon their threats and insulting language and we sense their goodwill then dialogue would be possible. American politicians should first learn to speak politely." This being the nation that calls us the "Great Satan" and uses hatred of us as a rallying point? Sheesh!

2002.05.16

So, the Segway had it's <a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/0502/03segway.html">first reported accident</a>..."The officer, whose name was not released, injured his knee going up a driveway onto the sidewalk". I dunno, it's seem weird to read that, because there's been so much play about how stable these things are...it's kind of like the Titanic..."God himself couldn't trip that scooter!"

2002.05.25

tablecloth, we played a game John Sawers taught me, "Mr. Snowman": one player draws a snowman, then the second player draws something to melt or otherwise destroy the snowman, then the first player draws a defense, and then you repeat the attack/defense cycle. She started with a blowtorch, I put an asbestos wall (with the snowman going 'COF'). Later she drew a bulletbroof train with a team of deadly attack ninjas. I drew a happy helpful chef, who threw the switch to divert the train away from the snowman, along with providing delicous pie to distract the ninjas, because everyone knows, Ninjas Love Pie. It's a great game.

2002.05.27

from the broadcasting career of Robert Trout, who was one of the first

2002.06.04

Interesting <a href="http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html">tool at the U.S. Census Bureau</a> that lets find the ranking of first and last names. "Israel" is the 2962th most popular last name in the United States, and "Kirk" is 288th for guys...(edged out by "Kurt" at 249...is that why people keep folding my name into that?)

2002.06.17

did the towers withstand the impact of the airplanes, but they might have survived the jet fuel fires

2002.06.18

Rufus T. Firefly,

2002.07.01

We sure as hell don't want <i>that</i> kind of fireworks.

Got caught in the rain on the first day:<br>

2002.07.03

Hey, there are some fireflies about! I thought we were too far north to see many here...maybe it's just being in an ever so slightly more suburban

There's something divine about fireflies.

2002.07.08

Did anyone in the northeast notice how yellow the sunlight was yesterday? (And also this morning, but not quite as severely...look for areas of alternating light and shadow to see it well.) I think it must have been the <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2002/2002-07-08-northeast-smoke.htm">wildfires in Quebec</a>, which haven't gotten much attention here besides this.

2002.07.09

it's...well, see, there's this roller coaster at <a href="http://cedarpoint.com">Cedar Point</a> in Ohio called "Disaster Transport", and they have this sign, see, pretending that it used to say "Dispatch Master Transport" but it looks like the first part of "Dis" of "Dispatch" and everything but the M of "Master" have fallen together, and that's the name of the coaster, get it? Oh, never mind.

2002.07.12

I think our relatively "easy" military successes of the last decade may be leading people to forget how ugly this might be, on the warfront, on the economy, in terms of putting fuel on anti-US fire in general...

<a href="http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/">Colossal Cave Adventure</a>. Along with being the forefather of Ultima, Final Fantasy, and all of those graphical RPGs, it contained the first videogame "Easter Egg", a hidden room with its creator Warren Robinett's name. Warren Robinett put together an interesting <a href="http://www.warrenrobinett.com/adventure/adventure_lecture.ppt">PowerPoint presentation</a> (Google has the <a href="http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:FcCHoEYq_4cC:www.warrenrobinett.com/adventure/adventure_lecture.ppt+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8">text version</a>, but messed up) that talks about the history of the game and Atari programming in general. Plus, Scott Pehnke has made a passable but imperfect <a href="http://www.scottpehnke.com/programming/flash.htm">Flash Port of the game</a>. (And of course you could try out "<a href="http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=3202">Indenture</a>", an excellent replica-plus-expansion of the original game for MS-DOS by VGR.)

2002.07.14

I have a dream. It's not a big dream, it's just a little dream. My dream - and I hope you don't find this too crazy - is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a fire, calling the fire department would actually be a wise thing to do. You can't have people, if their houses are burning down, saying, "Whatever you do, don't call the fire department!" That would be bad.

2002.07.15

My efforts to say nothing but positive things to my son have become desperate. 'You're the best, smartest, cutest, friendliest baby, you're...telekinetic. You move objects with thought and start fires with your brain.'

2002.07.19

Aristotle. At first I misread this as "the gods are too fond of a joke", which I think might be true too.

2002.07.20

"first-amendment feminist" stuck in a kind of bad job. A lot of well-thought-out insights into the people who rent and the videos they watch.<br><br>

2002.07.21

<a href="http://www.the5k.org/">5k Contest</a> is <a href="http://www.innofinity.com/5k/2002/">Wolfenstein 5k</a>, a very decent FPS (First Person Shooter) with a complete little 3D engine that fits on a 5k webpage. The trick it uses is quite ingenious, an old text-based graphics format that he can generate on the fly using javascript. (Its inspiration, <a href="http://www.3drealms.com/wolf3d/">Wolfenstein 3D</a>, was a groundbreaking game for PCs in the early 90s.)

2002.07.24

I'm on a business trip today and tomorrow. It's a plane ride up to Maine, my first plane ride since WTC, and it occurs to me that the old gag "take this plane to Cuba!" (or its variants, like "take this bus...") might never be funny again. Not that it was any great shakes to begin with; in fact, I think by the time I learned it Cuba was no longer really the number one highjacking destination.<br><br>

2002.07.28

as well as an <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2125304881">Ebay Auction</a> for a <A href="http://www.pegwarmer.com/tantive/">Rebel Blockade Runner</a> (the <a href="http://starwars.com/databank/starship/tantiveiv/index.html">ship</a> Princess Leia and the droids are on at the start of the original Star Wars movie.) The cool thing about that last construction is that it's "to scale" for the action figures...and it's huge, as you can see below. A reminder of how gigantic the Star Destroyer that engulfs it at the beginning of the first movie is meant to be.

2002.08.01

</blockquote>Buzzelli was one of the very few survivors from inside the collapse itself. Man, I've had dreams where that kind of stuff happens, the whole free fall thing. Excellent article, though I wish it had a bit more about the supporting culture that grew up that my mom <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2002.03.15">told me about</a>. The article has a very...I dunno, macho perspective in a sense, all about the engineers and the firemen and the politics of the power structure that spontaneously formed there. (But maybe that makes the better story, I dunno.)

2002.08.13

<a href="http://whattheheck.com/">WhatTheHeck.com</a> seems to have a steady supply of interesting links. (And claim to be the first "weird Ebay auctions" trackers.) I ran into a Eric, one of the founders, at a brunch <a href="http://www.virtualmax.com/">Max Weinstein</a> had on Sunday. (I think Max is looking for a <a href="http://www.virtualmax.com/resume.html">Sys Admin gig</a>, if anyone's got an opening.) WhatTheHeck seems to need an archive feature, however.

2002.08.18

Mo and I share the same middle initial, "L". She mentioned noticing that for the first time yesterday, looking over some papers we both had to sign to refinance our mortgage. I'm not sure if it ever really registered with me or not. Though I think we agree that my "Logan" is more interesting than her "Lynn".<br><br>

2002.08.20

I assembled part 2 of my online <a href="http://www.kisrael.com/photos/photobook/">photobook</a>. Photobook ii, hopefully an ongoing project, emphasizes photos that have a certain visual flair (relative to the first edition) since I'm taking so many more pictures these days.

2002.08.24

Every once in a while I get this morbid idea that I could setup a script on this website so that if I failed to update for a couple of weeks, on the frontpage a new bold link would appear raising the <i>possibility</i> that something has happened to me, and if so, here's what I'd like to have done. (With information on how to try to contact me first, online and off, before going off in a panic.)<br><br>

It is reported that on the first run of the fight sequences using the MASSIVE Artificial Intelligence program, the intelligent fighters - programmed to fight in the most efficient manner possible... <br>

2002.08.28

That whole Francesco Redi <a href="http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/multi/redi/eopere.html">cheesecloth experiment</a> that "proved" spontaneous generation didn't happen? Who knows, maybe the cheesecloth screwed up the air flow that was needed to bring the fly bits to life!<br>

2002.09.02

Probably something that looks a lot like <a href="http://review.mondominishows.com/happytree.html">Happy Tree Friends</a>. Warning: this stuff, while very cartoonish, is also very very macabre and violent. But kinda funny none the less. If you're in a hurry just watch the first one. (I only got up to #11 or so.)<br clear="all"><br>

2002.09.11

bakery for fear of finding red, white, and blue cakes, thereby confirming

NY Times' <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/13/magazine/13SHEA.html?pagewanted=1">Which Way Did He Run?</a> on a Fireman who was knocked unconscious and doesn't know if he stood or ran.

2002.09.14

I had been carrying around a defunct URL for a "Flashy Dancer" animation for years (literally, since 1998) and now I've found its new home. I can't link right to it, but go to the <a href="http://www.globz.net/index.php3?lang=en&skin=skin.swf&xml=globz.xml&id=news">GlobZ flash site</a>, click on the green box on the left (with Pacman on it), and then it is the first link listed. Fun to customize, especially the torsos.

2002.09.15

Some people think they have found <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/~mbj/Smiley/Smiley.html">the first 'Net smiley</a>, with more details <a href="http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/sefSmiley.htm">from the inventor here</a>. (though others are convinced that this is a reinvention, that they were around before on various BBSs.)

2002.09.23

<a href="http://www.lego.com/eng/spybotics/game.asp">Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident</a>. It's a Lego promotional game, made by Ranjit's group <a href="http://www.gmlb.com">gameLab</a>. It's kind of a...puzzle game meets a simple wargame, I guess you'd say, with great music and some cool pseudo-corporate design. You go around this large network, and reclaim nodes by fighting battles with these little "hacker program" icons, kind of like small robots...you can buy different types as you get further along. It's a bit confusing at first, but once you get into it it's hard not to go ahead and try to finish it.<br><br>

I like it because while you have to clever to finish many of the boards, there's usually more than one technique that'll win. It's a great game, and I didn't do much else on Saturday but play this game and watch football. (Football's pretty good background A/V. For anyone who cares, but not enough to look it up: Patriots came a toin coss away from losing a game they should've romped on, when it flipped their way and they got first possession in sudden-death overtime.)

2002.09.25

There's a whole archive with tons of other episodes, but they're all minor variations on a theme...good music though, especially that first one.

2002.09.26

And the economy...gak. My company had some minor layoffs a few weeks ago. Mostly "junior developers" who had earlier been working on the product that was replaced with a new acquisition and had been retrained for work on our grand march Java product, management thought they weren't pulling their weight or something. But a big core piece of that project is now in the hands of one of them consulting firms from India...never a good sign. My bet is hedged a little bit, I'm the one developer on a conversion bit for the old legacy systems and the new acquisition, but y'know, I'm very jumpy. I dunno what to do. Haven't voluntarily looked for work since the downturn. And I'd even feel guilty, some developers don't even have jobs in the first place. (Ooh, maybe I shouldn't be posting this in public; ah well. I do like it ok there, but I no longer feel I can relax about it. I want to be able to take having a job for granted for a while.)

<a href="http://www.spiritedaway.net/">Spirited Away</a> is a bit of a bright point. We saw it with Peterman and Leslee the other day, arguably the best movie I've seen all year, a cross between Alice in Wonderland and...well, a lot of things. One of the characters (the first one to show up in the flash animation on that link, actually) is "No-Face" who wears a simple stylized mask. Peterman pointed out that this is a clever little pun, because the mask is from "Noh", a Japanese performance art. <a href="http://www.costumesupercenter.com/nohmask.html">Noh masks</a> are known for their ability to have different expressions depending on the viewing angle, as shown here if you look closely. (I guess the ability to

2002.09.30

<i>In their T-shirts and swim trunks. They look a million miles away from the black-suited, bad-asses we first met.</i><br>

2002.10.03

First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing

2002.10.05

The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."

2002.10.06

</blockquote> In googling up the lyrics (though most of transcriptions stick an ugly "I'm" before "waking") I realized it must have been in <a href="http://us.imdb.com/Title?0259711">Vanilla Sky</a>, which I watched last night--good movie. An old lover loved the first part of that chorus, it did a good job of describing her inability to cope with the morning, though she was a little more hesitant about the "Don't even know who's bed I'm in" part...

2002.10.07

<a href="http://www.thoughtviper.com/newest.html#new">Bill</a>, who thinks that I get to his site by searching Google for <i>man who fired shots in front of UN Bldg. yesterday</i>, linked to this site,

<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/norris1001.html">Rumsfeldism: The New Surrealism</a>. Rambles a bit, but the first few paragraphs are great.

2002.10.09

The Cellular (and Nobel-Prize Winning) <a href="http://slate.msn.com/?id=2072092">connection between sex and death</a>. There's a cartoon I saw once, some cell is presented the option between living forever or having sex in the first panel, in the second panel he sees some cute girly cell waggling at him, catching his attention, and in the final panel he's old and shriveled and thinks "damn". (Yeah, I know, a picture would've been worth a thousand words, but I couldn't find it.)

2002.10.10

There was a big <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/10/1456228&mode=nested&tid=98">Slashdot discussion</a> on the Fortune Magazine article <a href="http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=209746">Generation Wrecked</a>. Fun to try to figure out where you fit on this bellcurve. For Mo and I (who are at the tail end of the age range) I think it's firmly on the righthand side, far from the people who are struggling and/or broke, but we never did wander into the "retire in my 30s" territory that some people were able to find in the dot com boom.

2002.10.11

<a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-1011zookeepers,0,367115.story?coll=sfla-news-fringe">Zookeepers Fired for Eating Animals</a>. Hee hee hee. "And this is the Tibetan Mountain Chicken. Note the beautiful plumage and generally friendly demeanor. It is also quite delicious."

2002.10.16

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2002.10.16.dude.gif" align="left" width=34 height=36>Elegant little Java game, <a href="http://toastsoft.abuckagig.com/spdudes/">Space Dudes</a>. Combination controls: the mouse for movement (but your guy moves at a set pace, sometimes having to catch up to where you put the mouse) and the arrowkeys for firing. A bit like Robotron meets Centipede in feel.<br><br>

2002.10.21

into RealMedia format. The chair in the first part and the white and blue lights at night are reflections on the glass.

2002.10.27

<a href="http://www.boasas.com/?c=1">the first one</a>, this

A double-dip recession is not like a roller coaster -- in these recessions the second dip is usually worse than the first.

2002.10.29

and you can get a <a href="http://www.officedepot.com/promo/newitems/form.asp?">Free Sample</a> from Office Depot. When I first saw it on

<a href="http://doody36.home.attbi.com/liberty.htm">interactive fireworks</a> over the Statue of Liberty. Some nice light effects.

2002.10.31

especially if you only use their first names.

2002.11.06

I won my first game of league darts last night. I was part of the team of 3 playing 601 ('01 games mean you have to double in (i.e. you can't begin subtracting points from the starting 601 total until you score a double, i.e. the very outer rim of the dartboard) and double out (you have to get your total to exactly zero again on the outer rim.) The remaining total was 48, I threw an 8, went for the closing double 20, missed, but got it on my final dart. Yay!

2002.11.09

When <a href="http://www.heatherfirth.com/">erotica and geology collide</a>. Be sure to check out all 5 pages of the gallery.

<a href="http://www.fireland.com/sentence/">this webpage</a>, that's the

2002.11.11

<a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/11/1/224318/296">kuro5hin article</a> on the history of online multiplayer games had this piece on what might be the first

the F.C. Barcelona Dragons, the Rhein Fire,

2002.11.15

but it's almost a paradox; you might not have the fear, but you might still have the metafear. I guess FDR said it first.

2002.11.22

<a href="http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=CDWH54XCEI2LYCRBAELCFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=1745982">new leader of China</a> is named "Hu", it leads to some pretty obvious Abbot & Costello references. <A href="http://strikeslip.org/archives/000584.php">Hu's On First</a> by James Sherman is one of the better ones, and throws in some other names from the international scene. Or you can go back to <a href="http://alienbill.com/funny/textview.cgi?file=whos-on-first">the original comedy routine</a>.

<a href="http://www.gamer.tv/page/game_launch/3123769.htm">Dinky Bomb</a>! A bit like the classic game Worms (except the environment doesn't get blown up) or Artillery Duel, featuring online play. You challenge another player or accept a challenge in the lobby, pick your army of three guys, and then have at it, taking turns having a soldier adjust his position, choose his angle, and firing at the opposition.

2002.11.25

The Guardian published the full text of <a href="http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,845725,00.html">Osama bin Laden's 'letter to America'</a>. (Though the authorship is not 100% confirmed.) Ah, the power of religion...how easy it is to know you're right when God is on your side. Arguing with someone who has a strong religous belief that you don't share is pointless, since you're not going to agree on the ground rules.

2002.11.30

<A href="http://www.karelin.ru/master_en.htm">Unofficial Textbook for beginner in Web-design.</a> I appreciate the heading of its first chapter

2002.12.03

the <a href="http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/differences-ss.html">first Harry Potter book</a> and

The <a href="http://www.perladvent.org/2002/">2002 Perl Advent Calendar</a> has a tasty tidbit (for the computer language Perl) every day for the holiday season. Already I've seen some cool modules I should have been using, rather than doing it from scratch. You can see last year's and the first year's as well (though that first year was just links into previously existing Perl documentation.)

2002.12.04

</blockquote> Interesting to compare this to the first quote on this

<a href="http://www.stahl.bau.tu-bs.de/~hildeb/watchmen/">commentary</a>. (Though most of those links contain spoilers, so you shouldn't read them without having read the work first.)

2002.12.05

Incidentally, the first Dion McGregor link (the album has been on my To Get list ever since some NPR coverage a long time back) is from a

2002.12.06

<li>I first heard about the simulation <a href="http://alife.fusebox.com/planet_wator.html">Wa-Tor</a> in a Scientific American "Computer Recreations" column. The idea is a grid (which could map onto a torus-shaped planet so the "wrap around" made sense) with shark predators and fish prey. Sharks eat too many fish, the fish population dies out, the sharks starve, the fish come back, lather rinse repeat.

2002.12.07

I first saw that thing in the latest Wired, which had the cover headline "CHINA:THE NEW CLONING SUPERPOWER". You know, when I think of china, and what it needs as a nation, a way of making more people isn't high on the list. (To be fair I think the article raises the same point.)

2002.12.10

Federal Government wanted <a href="http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/state2002/smallpox_1_2002.shtml">"first responders" to be immunized within 30 days</a>...it seemed like such a rush schedule. And <i>then</i> I realized it probably has to do with possible schedules for war with Iraq, especially given this whole <a href="http://slate.msn.com/?id=2074921">Madame Smallpox</a>, Soviet->Iraq connection. Woohoo! Let's hope they're just being conservative and that they don't know specifics that they're not telling us. (What's is it, like a 30% mortality rate for smallpox?)

At work, they started firing warning shots o'er the starboard bow about websurfing on the company dime. (In particular, they seem to be alarmed at how often http://alienbill.com/home/ shows up from my computer...it's my startpage, I use it for work as well as play, but still. They also have an idiotic URL-keyword-based blocker engaged, so "loveblender.com", about as innocent a domain as you could hope for, raises red flags.) So that probably means I'm due for a lifestyle shift, and need to back away from the intraday updates I've been doing, and in general, not do any sort of surfing except maybe around lunch.<br><br>

2002.12.15

<li><a href="http://name-this-tune.com/">Melodyhound</a> is a cool tune search engine, based on the fact that most melodies can be identified by the pattern of "note is higher/lower/the same as previous" for the first few notes.

2002.12.19

wage jihad and smash the infidel jews in a rain of fire!</i></b><br>

2002.12.20

When I was first asked to write an article about how women get over a broken heart I figured it would be the easiest money I ever made. Are you ready? We don't.

2002.12.23

<li>"The first requisite for immortality is death."<i>--Stanislaw Lem</i>. I'm not sure what all that means, but it sure sounds good.

2002.12.31

There's a new chapter of <a href="http://www.nowheregirl.com/">Nowhere Girl</a> up...it reminds me a lot of the story of Mo and also the one of our friend Lee, young women who are pretty much self taught in technology. And I was struck by the first episode's sense of being a bit character in other people's lives.

And when that guys asks if you wanna buy an apple, he'll be talking about his computer...hardeehar, har. I wanted to get this out of my system and not post it on the first day of the new year. Lets hope he's just a gloom and doomer and we'll see some new vitality.

2003.01.08

The number system is like human life. First you have the natural numbers. The ones that are whole and positive. Like the numbers of a small child. But human consciousness expands. The child discovers longing. Do you know the mathematical expression for longing? The negative numbers. The formalization of the feeling that you're missing something.

2003.01.09

I've been a little link-light lately, so I thought I'd do the first backlog flush of the year (which brings us to early August of last year).

As her tears blurred his receding figure into a ghostly memory, she realized how thoroughly he had broken her heart, like a steamroller grinding the shards of a perfume bottle into splintered, dusty oblivion, at least as much as one can 'break' a squishy organ composed of 70% water by weight; heck, let's be honest, you can no more break a heart than you can perform an appendectomy with a spoon, which is perhaps a better analogy for her pain in the first place.

2003.01.13

There was this essay in the latest Wired <s>(dang, I should go look up the author)</s> by Jim Lewis, talking about our new found potential to record pretty much everything. An iPod could probably record everything you hear for a month, at middling fidelity. People with digital camcorders can record hours and hours of footage...but when was the last time you went back and watched that stuff? For the first time in history, the problem isn't recording our lives--it's having the time to review it. <br><br>

2003.01.16

<a href="http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030116-114454-4951r">Space Shuttle launches</a> with the first Israeli astronaut. (Can Mel Brook's vision of "Jews in Space" from History of the World be far away?) Anyway, security was extra tight for this one...what a big target, in more than one sense of the word.

2003.01.18

Saw "Spider-Man" for the first time last night, a freebie Pay-Per-View. Not to sound like a barbarian, but they should have just called it

2003.01.19

<li><IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2003.01.19.world.gif" width="64" height="64" align="right">This globe is an image I modified for use for an online New Year's Day invitation. I just think it looks cool. That New Year's Party (1997->1998, I remember because of the animated gif I made of crossing the 7 to form the 8) was the first big social ocassions for me and Mo as a couple.

2003.01.20

<li>The "<a href="http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?s=6322ada39bae1b2cc60877f5b72871ea&threadid=2062">First actual case of [a computer] bug being found</a>", in 1946 or so. I think the consesus is that the term "bug" was around before this time, which is why the log keeper made the joke.

2003.01.25

<li><a href="http://www.pillarhouse.com/abt_forum.html">The Pillar House</a> was a restaurant in Newton that you could see from 128. Classy place, now closed, but the history is interesting. I remember going with my Uncle Bill once, meeting a friend of his. They had a wager that the first person to find a job (they were both laid-off, this may have been the recession of the early 1990s) treated the other to lunch, I think it was the other guy treating. I think the other guy talking to his son was the only time I've actually heard soda called "tonic" in the wild.

2003.01.26

Hrrm. At first I was truly outraged about the story of the notebook clutching man who ran up to the UN Inspectors yelling "<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/01/25/sprj.irq.inspections/index.html">Save Me, Save Me</a>", with the inspectors just letting the man be dragged away by Iraqi guards. Later though I read

Oh man, this is addictive...<a href="http://www.isketch.net/isketch.shtml">iSketch</a>, online "Pictionary". People gather in "rooms" of 10 or so, one person draws at a time, points are awarded, 100 for the first person to get it, 90 for the next, etc. A little frenetic at first, but great once you get the groove. Look me up as "kisrael.com" there.

2003.01.29

Heh, this ties in with yesterday's Davos link I guess, about Japenese youth culture. The author claims the first set is pretty widely used. I know

This indirectly ties in with some of the points in my <a href="/mortal/">mortality guide</a>...coming back to the idea that our sense of self is more of a story we make up as we go along. Also, the first link really echoes what scifi author Douglas Adams described when he proposed the SEP ("Somebody Else's Problem") field: a way of making an item-- even a large one, like a spaceship-- effectively invisible by getting the brains of potential viewers to edit it out as "somebody else's problem".

2003.02.03

First off, I gotta say I was probably a little harsh yesterday, re: the news coverage of the Shuttle disaster. After all, it was only the second day after such a horrific event, and there was at least some small news that emerged, the temperature readings that pointed to something involving the wheelwell.

It's parallel to the whole Christian athletes thing. "First off, I'd like to thank God for this victory..." but never say "dang heavenly beings tripped me up right before the goal line! The other side musta been praying harder." (I mean, I guess it's reasonable to thank God in general, but not for the specific victory.)

2003.02.04

It's a palindrome sentence (you can read it backwards, word by word, and get the same result) that's been stuck in my head for a bit. At first it didn't seem that impressive, but now the form seems cooler than regular palindromes...this one depends on how "stroke" and "whatever" can be completely different grammatical types depending on the context.

2003.02.05

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2003.02.05.crash.gif" width="59" height="44" align="left">Been a while since I've posted a fun link, but here's one now: Ranjit's company <a href="http://gmlb.com">gamelab</a> has come up with another super clever concept: <a href="http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/crash">Crash</a>. (Not to me confused with the kinky <a href="http://us.imdb.com/Title?0115964">Cronenberg movie</a> of the same name and roughly similar concept, except, you know, with a lot of extra sex.) At first I thought it was another variation on the sliding "Rush Hour" (like <a href="http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=3975">Traffic</a> for Palm (Thomas Jentzshe even managed to make a modern-day port to the Atari 2600 called <a href="http://atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=1626">Jammed</a>)) but it's a lot more kinetic and dynamic than that. You're an "omnipotent god of traffic" who can click to make cars scoot along (and then again to slow them down) as you try to keep traffic flowing at a double highway intersection. Though I dunno, seems like a pretty limited form of omnipotence to me...still a cool little game.

2003.02.09

I've noticed that so far, "yesterday's" comment link seems to be about or more popular than today's link. That might indicate that my new layout isn't good, with the comment link at the top of the entry next to the title...perhaps people start looking for a link at the end of what they've just read, and the first thing that comes to eye is the comment link for the next day. Hrmmm.<br><br>

2003.02.11

Foreign Affairs on <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030101faessay10219-p0/michael-scott-doran/palestine-iraq-and-american-strategy.html">Palestine, Iraq, and American Strategy</a>. The core idea is that the Palestinean issue is a powerful symbol used in Middle East politics, and an important one, but the answer isn't "deal with Palestine first". Another interesting but scary article: <a href="http://www.evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=490">Is The Currency Oil is Traded In</a> the real reason for this whole Iraq thing? Iraq made out like bandits by switching to the Euro before it started its recent huge gains against the dollar. If OPEC followed suit en masse, the result could be a dollar devaluation mess on a third world scale.<br><br>

2003.02.13

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/13/international/13KORE.html?ex=1045803600&en=9605e81da676cd57&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE">North Korea Wants Arms and More Aid From U.S.</a> At first I thought they were asking from arms from the USA, which would be kind of funny. Even still it's a weird headline. But mostly, I want to comment on Kim Jong Il. They says he's a bit of a playboy, and you know what? He looks it. Like an evil <i>bon vivant</i>, and I'll bet you his constant sunglasses and swept back hair are the epitome of North Korean cool. He's straight outta a James Bond flick. Err, Austin Powers. Well, how about some kooky villain in a Japanese fighting game?

2003.02.19

<a href="http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/therosser/archive33.html">wrote the following</a> in his blog (look for the giant math cartoon):

So I was thinking today about my life as I carried my physics book, my calculus book, my saxophone, music for three ensembles, and of course my calculator... I am really a geek! All this time, I thought I was just a cool guy, and joked around about being dorky. But hell, I am like the epitome of a nerd! I play three instruments in seven ensembles, I direct the marching band, I take pride in learning calculus, I am taking several AP tests this year and am interested in Quantum Physics, I drive <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/therosser/bluehondacivic.jpg">this car</a>... </blockquote>

2003.02.20

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2003.02.20.visual.gif" width="132" height="192" align="left"><a href="http://www.somethingpositive.net/">Something Positive</a> is a pretty funny online comic. A bit raunchy (and sometimes rather evil, like the first cartoon) but good, it has some interesting character based stuff for being a gag-oriented comic. The thing is, it's really wordy...it took me hours and hours to read through the year's worth of archive. So, as a service to you, my loyal reader, I have braved the whole year to bring you a select list of really good ones: <a href="http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp12212001.html">12-21-2001</a> (cultural!) /

<a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html">Why Nerds Are Unpopular</a>, a serious consideration into the social hierarchies of schools, and the people at the bottom. I think I didn't have it as rough as some, probably a C on the scale introduced in the first paragraph. I'm not sure if Graham gives enough consideration to a "multiple intelligences" point of view for nerdom; it's not just that we let other activities attract our time and attention away from the things that would have given us a better place in the social structure...maybe we just weren't very smart about those things in the first place.<br><br>

2003.02.21

"The Euclid fire appears to be an isolated incident unrelated to terrorism," Bush said. "But next time, we might not be so lucky. That is why we, as a nation, must do everything we can to drive out Saddam Hussein and his ilk. By confronting terrorism head-on, we can once again live in a nation where we don't jump every time a dryer buzzer goes off."

My old home town is in the news! <a href="http://www.theonion.com/onion3906/terrorism_not_likely.html"> Terrorism 'Not Likely' Cause Of Fire At Local Laundromat</a>

2003.02.27

for swimmers. The first rule was surprising to us young idealists: *never*

2003.03.08

The indispensable first step to get the things you want from life is this: Decide what you want.

2003.03.09

"The stunned Paras from 16 Air Assault Brigade were forced to tell the Iraqis they were not firing at them, and ordered them back to their home country telling them it was too early to surrender."

2003.03.10

<a href="http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2355723">Iraq placing explosives at the Kirkuk oil fields</a>. First off, I feel vageuly flattered by the name "Kirkuk". Second, why do I get the feeling President Junior is going to start talking about "Saddam's weapons of mass destruction against oil"?<br><br>"Won't somebody think of the oil? That poor, innocent, defenseless oil?"

2003.03.18

Speaking of skin...yesterday I saw my first exposed shoulders and back of the season, a young woman in a dress at Alewife T-station. Man, that really gave me hope for the season changing.<br><br>

This is going to be quantum times more accurate and quantum times more lethal in the first 24 hours of this war than it was in Desert Storm.

2003.03.19

Slate.com has a <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2080341/">scorecard for the first few days of the war</a>. ("First, ignore all first-night commentary") Sounds almost as much fun as an Oscar betting pool! A different Slate piece had a link to <a href="http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/pdf/iraqwar.pdf">a PDF analyzing the possible benefits and dangers</a> of our moves into Iraq. I also found a decent <a href="http://www.news.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/03/18/wisad18.xml&site=5">biography of Saddam Hussein</a> that mostly focuses on his dictatorship but claims "Saddam the paranoid tyrant can be traced back to Saddam the persecuted village boy". (It copies a bit from

2003.03.20

So they <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58177-2003Mar20.html">had that strike</a>, and Saddam reports up late alive and well. Or is it <i>really</i> Saddam? He has all those doubles...not only would that add to the difficulty of killing him and confirming he was killed, but you wonder if the command structure is entrenched enough to support "virtual saddamness", with the central role played by a double...or maybe Saddam himself, pretending to be a double. Man, keeping up the Star Wars vibe, it's kind of like that whole <a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/amidala/index.html">Amidale/Padmé thing</a> from "Phantom Menace".<br><br>

2003.03.21

<a href="http://www.tvparty.com/vaultcomcig.html">Video Clips of old Cigarette Ads</a> from the 50s and 60s. The second Flintstones link is especially interesting, though when the show was first run it was during primetime and considered an adult show, kind of like the Simpsons I guess...

2003.03.23

Wilford Brimley Battle</a>, a "ROM-hack" of "River City Ransom" for the old NES. They have an entire <a href="http://www.i-mockery.com/romhacks/">page of Hacked Rom Reviews</a>, where would be clever gamers modify the graphics and more rarely, the gameplay of older video games, usually into forms heavy on the phalluses, drugs, racism, or all three. Anyway, most of the reviews are worth a quick skim rather than a full read, but why someone would go through all the trouble of changing the graphics in the first place is an open question.

2003.03.25

(And it's notable how we hear so little about military casualties on the other side. Are they so firmly in the camp of "bad guys" that we just don't care, is it a big secret, are we worried about bad publicity?)

2003.03.27

The other day my "<a href="http://www.joysikorski.com/pageaday.html">How To Draw a Radish</a>" daily calendar suggested writing funny things people say in your rolodex, dated, and quoting it back years later. I've been doing that all along, first in my Palm Pilot quote journal <a href="/khftcea">KHftCEA</a>, and now on my my site. But it hits me that I've been doing less quoting of people I know. Am I just not listening closely enough? Are my cow-orkers (a fine buncha folks) less quick on their rhetorical feet? It doesn't help that some of my favorite sarcastic people have moved to California... (Hi Dylan, Hi Sarah.)

2003.03.31

Slate.com has two pieces that, together provide some insight to the thinking behind getting ourselves into this war. The first is <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2080628/#Rumsfeld">What Was Rumsfeld Thinking?</a> and it argues that Rumsfeld tried to lowball the troopcount in order to prove neoconservative thinking about the effectiveness of smaller and lighter forces, as well as demonstrating a more credible <i>simultaneous</i> threat against "the Axis of Evil", Syria, and heck, lets throw Saudi Arabia into the mix too. I guess one sliver of silver lining is that if this is a quagmire, the administration is likely to not be as hawkish as it would be if the "regime crumbling" scenario won. Of course, from the neocon point of view, it makes as look less strong in the world. Think it might bring us to to something closer to a "humble foreign policy"?<br><br>

2003.04.02

--You know what my first big problem with [the Matrix] was? Why use only humans as your energy source? Why didn't we see pods with elk, or some higher-metabolism life form that's easier to please, like puppy dogs? They wouldn't even <b>need</b> some fancy-pants simulated world; just give 'em a loop of chasing rabbits and having their bellies scratched and you've quelled all possible chance of rebellion!

2003.04.03

);return false;" >Today</a>: I don't think a "pro-war" rally is as warmongering as you make out. Even if it's not just a "support our troops (and our president)" kind of event, I suspect that very very few people will say war is fun or good or their first option, but they might think it's the correct option in this case, given how we perceive our interests and Saddam's threat. I don't agree with that, but I don't mock people for showing up to support that tradition.<br>

2003.04.08

The <a href="http://www.frankston.com/?name=ImplementingVisiCalc">author of VisiCalc speaks</a>. VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program. Interesting for a certain type of history-minded geek.

2003.04.12

"Place first 5 ingredients in a large owl"

2003.04.22

Wired has a piece on <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58509,00.html">Death and Blogs</a>, the entries that are left behind when the blogger dies. Sometimes it hits me that there's probably at least a few people who will first be notified of my death by the fact that my blog stops being updated for a few days. (Don't panic if this blog isn't updated though...while I've been very faithful to it over the past 2 1/2 years, accidents will happen, and only some of them are fatal...) Every once in a while I think I should make a miniprogram that, if my blog isn't updated for like 2 weeks, will assume the worst and post last will and testement farewell kind of stuff. Or I should leave detailed instructions on how I'd like my site to be left, passwords and all that. (I'm hoping to come up with some way of running a perpetual version of my sites by the time I'd need to.)

2003.04.23

He was sick for 14 months before his death (though, tellingly, I first estimated it at 2-3 years)...Spinal Meningitis that knocked his nervous system, made him half blind and left him with extremely poor coordination and difficult speech. (It also took out his sense of smell...and having been trained as a nurse, his first professional diagnosis was "huh, when you get spinal meningitis, your farts don't smell!") He had been on a road of slow recovery, regaining the ability to walk, relearning how to read, when treatment for a tumor on his left gave him a setback from which he couldn't recover. The saddest moment I know of, my own personal "what to think about if I need quick tears for a stage role", came a few weeks before his death. Word of my grandmother Eva's death had arrived that morning (and, historically, they had not always been on super friendly terms, ever since he managed to polish the anniversary numbers off of her silver--) and I had just gotten up and walked by his bedroom (he was bedridden again) and he was there weeping and weeping. Weeping for Eva, and with a likely foreknowledge of his own passing. Trying to put myself in his place there gives me a sense of horror and foreboding that's hard to comprehend.

He was generous too. He thought it was important for a guy to have a little "scratch" money on him, and would often slip a little something into letters to some of his nephews. Another sad and horrific yet somehow beautiful thing I remember is when he had first gotten ill, had suffered these <i>grand mal</i> seizures, was in the hospital bed, he urged my mom to give me a little money, a five or something. Because of his slurred speech it took a while to understand what he was saying, about how what's supposed to happen is a son goes up to his father, says he needs a little money, and the father takes it out of his wallet and gives it to him. And it took me even longer to get a deeper understanding of what he meant by it.

2003.04.28

We're at the 25th anniversary of the first e-mail spam, and Brand Templeton

2003.05.01

<a href="http://www.painstation.de/">Painstation</a>, Pong with a masochistic (or sadistic) twist; every time you miss the ball your hand gets shocked, lashed, or heated, depending on what icon the ball hits. Loser is the person to take their hand off first. I think it says something artsy about our relationship to entertainment and technology, but I'm not sure what.

2003.05.04

Even the promised 1.4 million jobs in 18 months that the plan should bring is <b>below average</b> job growth. Bush's might be the first presidency since Hoover where the American economy lost jobs...I know that's after a runup bubble (where taxes were raised on the highest earners and we added 5 million jobs in a year and a half...though maybe that was all the magic power of the Internet) but still, the fact is the adminstration doesn't know how to fix it.

I mistyped Ranjit's site <a href="http://moonmilk.com">moonmilk</a> as "moonmilik" and in trying to get back on track via IE's MSN post-404 search engine (Stupidly, I should remember to just retype it in the URL field at the top) I noticed that the first moonmilk hit is

2003.05.05

Doing a Google News <A href="http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=%22bill+bennett%22&btnG=Search+News">search on "Bill Bennett"</a> is interesting. Some of the first hits are conservative commentators rushing to his aid. They tend to focus on the arguments that Slate.com presents and rebuts, and then drag out the old Clinton trope. And of course they blame "the liberals"...but really, it's a libertarian kind of view, that Bennett shouldn't be trying to define and dictate people's lifestyles in the first place. (Oddly, the extension of that viewpoint is that people shouldn't pick on his gambling, since its his own "victimless" vice, but...America can be guilted into listening to honest blowhards, but hypocrites get the scorn they deserve. If you're going to preach, you should have the courage to live your convictions.)

2003.05.09

From his book "Pure Drivel", a slim volume of small, often absurdist essays. It also had a great line of his I saw first published in The New Yorker:

[At first] the lead male got a stone and started bashing the hell out of it.

2003.05.12

At first I thought that <a href="http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/denim/">DENIM</a>, a tool that lets webdesigners sketch out a site almost as if they were drawing it on pieces of paper (but linked) was some kind of a joke, about according to this <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58794,00.html">Wired article</a> it seems to be a useful tool.<br><br>

2003.05.15

amazing fotolog <a href="http://www.fotolog.net/ekavet/">Fire..Cuffs and Guts</a> with medical photos, fights, car accident scenes, and the like.

<a href="http://www.fotolog.net/ekavet/?photo_id=70550">first image</a>.

Been reading a lot about the Matrix today, various reviews, going to see the new movie tomorrow. One point; in the first movie, the big "kill all the soldiers in the lobby" seemed kind of ok, because it was "only" happening in the Matrix. I never really connected that scene with the previous scenes showing how when you died in the matrix, you died in real life. And one of the reviews pointed out the trouble with imagining anyone as fundamentally "soul-less"...it makes it possible to justify killing them by the truckload.

2003.05.19

<br>Joe was at first shocked by this suggestion, and then suddenly not. "Why would you say that?" he said.<br>

2003.05.20

Hemmings Motor News presents <a href="http://www.hemmings.com/features/oddies/obg_arch.cfm">Oddies but Goodies</a>, oddities from the history of cars. Some really cool stuff in there...the <a href="http://www.hemmings.com/features/oddies/oddies.cfm?id=12">1939 Antarctic Snow Cruiser</a> (with its 10 foot wheels, built-in darkroom, and optional attachable biplane accessory) was pretty amazing, and this 1931 idea for adding some <a href="http://www.hemmings.com/features/oddies/oddies.cfm?id=82">shape symbology to traffic lights</a> (so that colorblind people can more clearly see what's going on) makes so much sense it's not even funny. (I only had time for the first dozen or so, but I plan to come back and read through 'em.)

2003.05.23

<li>Slate.com on the <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2076048/">First Photograph</a>. Like, ever.

2003.05.24

[In response to 'you're too old to be serious about playing soccer'] "Stanley Matthews was playing First Division football when he was fifty."<br>

"I'll bet you any money you like you're not playing First Division football when you're fifty."<br>

2003.05.27

I learned two new things playing Pictionary with Germans. One thing is that for them, Aladdin's lamp is more of a vase looking thing. The other thing, though, is really big, and might also be a Europe/USA thing, not just English vs German...the Germans have no word for the opposite of smile. And maybe neither do the British. If you look up "Frown" in the Oxford English Dictionary, it talks about wrinkling the forehead, and doesn't mention the mouth at all! They would never come up with a phrase like "turn that frown upside-down", it just wouldn't make sense. I'd love to hear from any British or European folk who can confirm this; it has kind of big implications for the iconography of the different cultures. (Like in Pictionary, the Germans will spend a lot of time drawing wrinkled foreheads...)<br><br>

2003.05.28

<li>I thought the first email and response on the <a href="http://www.brunching.com/mail20030310.html">10 March 2003 Brunching Shuttlecocks mailbag</a> was really funny. (A "Wilhelm" is a distinctive scream that shows up in many action movies, a bit of an industry injoke.)

<li>Business 2.0's <a href="http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/print/0,1643,47750,00.html">101 Dumbest Business Moments of 2002</a>. I thought the captions of 95 through 93 were really funny: "Slyly slipping a camel through the eye of a needle" "Taking a camel and firmly shoving it through the eye of a needle" "Chopping a camel into millions upon millions of tiny camel pieces and pushing them, one by one, through the eye of the goddamn needle". And I thought of trying to rig up something like 101 for myself, a final e-mail in the event of my untimely demise...

2003.06.01

<li>The cynical bad poet in me always wonder if first class airline passengers actually see a better world outside their little oval windows.

2003.06.02

More specifically, they'll spend for new whiz-bang features, and on the first company to bring those features to market no matter how badly implemented. (e.g. "Microsoft: where quality is job 1.1")

2003.06.06

The first version of Zartan's filecard had a psychological profile: <br>

2003.06.07

After a leisurely morning we take the train to IKEA. Man, Boston <i>really</i> needs one of these, it would totally kick Jordan Furniture's butt. Great inexpenive couches and chairs and everything, that we could only look and drool over. Fun time figuring out detours around Tram station, since there's a fire blocking the road and the line in East Croydon. In the evening we head out for a surprisingly dull Jack the Ripper tour. (We probably should have gone with the main writer guy, not be woo'd by the prospect of a smaller group with the other lady.)<br>

2003.06.10

Another one of those English atheists I was talking about yesterday, actually. I wish I could find out more about the first claim.

2003.07.02

Actually, one of my first <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2001.01.04">entries here</a> was all about that cat and his vocalizations...)

2003.07.04

The first rule of magic is simple. Don't waste your time waving your hands and hoping when a rock or a club will do.

2003.07.05

So, I ended up getting into the fourth a bit more; I (Mo wasn't up for it) walked down to Waltham's own fireworks display. I hadn't heard anything about it, but I somehow got to Watertown's "search Mass Gov" form, looked for fireworks, got this pdf of <a href="http://www.state.ma.us/dfs/lifesafe/flyers/2003FireworksDisplays.pdf">Professional Supervised Fireworks Display in MA</a> (which, oddly, lists Waltham's display at 1:00 PM, not 10 PM) and that gave me enough information to Google up a community newspaper article about it.) They had a mini-mini-fair going on, 4 or so kiddie rides, some sideshow games, food stands, and everyone sat in a local school's football field, with the fireworks at one end. Not a bad display.

2003.07.06

Another good Joel On Software, a piece on <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000059.html">Presenting the User with Too Many (not that useful) Options</a>. He points out how stupid it is that Windows asks you so many meaningless questions when it first opens up a Help file, the whole "Minimize database size / Maximize search capabilities / Customize search capabilities" -- <i>no one</i> knows what that's all about. I disagree with his attack of customizable toolbars, however...there are so many ever-growing toolbars these days that workspace real-estate is being compromised and I appreciate being able to get rid of most of that. For example, in IE, I have a single bar with the 5 main nav buttons (as small as possible, just icons,) a truncated "File..." menu set, and the address field, all in one line. I also like being able to increase my task bar to two lines. I think what he misses is that Windows toolbars (and the taskbar) have a new option to "Lock" the toolbars, which is on by default, and helps prevent the accidental "how do I get back from this?" issues that he brings up.<br><br>

2003.07.07

Making the rounds, hi-larious anti-computer game piracy music video from 1992 reminds kids <a href="http://static.hugi.is/video/fyndin/dctf-1.wmv">Don't Copy That Floppy</a>...man, I didn't realize that companies after the 80s <i>still</i> hadn't realized that corporate rap is just a dorky abomination, even if they get a black guy (MC Disk Protector) to do it and have reasonable production values. And the way he's dancing around...wow. (Plus, besides the bad acting, the game the kids are playing against each other is apparently won by slapping random keys on the keyboard as quickly as possible.) You can cut it off after the first few industry talking heads show up, it's pretty repetitive after that.

2003.07.08

<i>--I made this up for Dylan (of Sidebar fame) whose birthday was this weekend. The first "My name is Oliv</i>air<i> but you can call me your lov</i>air<i>" is a private joke from way back. Dylan's hanging off a diving board near his family's cabin in Lake George, New York--where we hope to restart an old annual "go to the lake" tradition this August.</i>

2003.07.12

<a href="http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen2/full28.html">Fireworks from the top of the Empire State Building</a> (with a soundtrack, which I actually think detracts a bit, makes it sound like one of those awful "Audio/Video" slideshow presentations we had to sit through during elementary school field trips.)

People who live near Boston should check out <a href="http://constructiontoys.com/">The Construction Site</a> on Moody Street in Waltham...the best building toys store I've ever seen. (it is run by friends of my family, but I think that description still stands.) And right now, they're running their first ever sale on all LEGO...<i>20% off all LEGO from today 'til July 25th!</i> They also have a big Jenga Fett in the window, and a cool K'Nex roller coaster above their main register. They also have two cool associated stores that share the space, "Aisle 9" with lots of jewlry gifts and cooly designed doodads, and "The Rail Yard", with toy wooden trains of all types.

2003.07.15

role in my romantic life. College was where I first got the chance to

2003.07.16

There were also a number of low points, such as Khrushchev's visit to the Soviet Union's first openly "alternative" art exhibition, where he mocked the artists who had dared to defy the canons of social realism ("if that's supposed to be a woman, then you're a faggot").

2003.07.20

<a href="http://www.adrianlafond.com/a/">Adrian's Web Toys</a>...a bunch of cool little interactive flash toys. If you're in a hurry, just check out the first three and maybe "Bouncing Putty Mask".

2003.07.22

Back from the end of March, a Slate.com Explainer talks about <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2080817/">Why Is Iraqi Anti-Aircraft Fire Visible on TV?</a>...the answer is, of course, tracers put in to make aiming easier, but mentions that during the Cold War, they've started color coding 'em, so people know who's shooting at whom: "In Vietnam, North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong tracers were designed to leave green trails while American and South Vietnamese tracers were designed to leave red ones. The New York Times reports that the color scheme is similar in Gulf War II: Americans, red; Iraqis, green."<br><br>

2003.07.25

So, previously I discussed my <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2003.03.30">newfound philosophy of dance mixes</a> and here's the latest and bestest incarnation of it--up to three CDs now. I like randomly theming mix sets, starting them with an appropriate .wav, and stumbled on a Star Trek theme...although I still like to push the best songs to the first mix, I used a very geeky method to assure all three were ok (divided the music into hiphop, covers, and misc, and then each of those into two tiers, and then as even a distribution as possible of the 6 categories...Captain Kirk got the first pick from each category though.)<br>

2003.07.29

The first proposed title for the TV show

2003.07.30

<table border=0 cellspacing=1><tr><td><IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2003.07.30.playground.jpg" width="284" height="242" ></td><td valign="bottom"><i>Brooke, Mo and I took photos in the playground across the street the other day. I think that this one was my favorite. I got the chance to use a manual camera for the first time like ever almost.</i></td></tr></table>

2003.08.01

in fire. I'll bet we'll all be given numbers<br>

Deck! Abandon Ship! Women and Children First!<br>

as if it were our last time, or the first, <br>

2003.08.04

We also spent a lot of time showing her Paint Shop Pro, and I was impressed with how quickly she picked it up. Also it's cool seeing someone get excited about some of the random abstract stuff you can do with it, like I was back when I first encountered the type of program back in highschool.

<a href="http://firefive.com/blog?year=2003&month=8&day=4&hour=15&minute=3">this related blog entry</a>.

I usually use the traditional first finger as the barrel, and the thumb as the hammer, other fingers closed against the palm. (Though recently I learned some other folks (Hi, LAN3) hold their fingers wrapped around an invisible gun, using their first finger to squeeze the hypothetical trigger.) I've realized that when I put the hammer down, so to speak, I can't bend my thumb at the knuckle, the pointer finger curves along with it...more so in my right hand than my left, by a lot. So I just tuck in my thumb more where it hits the palm.

2003.08.05

</blockquote> Heh, talk about your Freudian slips, at first I wrote "desk" for "task", thanks for noticing bozo and Craig.

2003.08.06

At first I was hoping to find out that the <a href="/features/gb.html">gamebuttons</a> were some kind of inspiration, but actually the opposite is more likely, I came up with the non-interactive buttons (including 1D pong) and Ranjit encouraged me to pursue the game possibilities.

2003.08.07

Lovely simple game, <a href="http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/bounce">Bounce</a>. At the shockwave site but actually using an engine called WildTangent, so the game has to download that first, but it's really painless. The game has a cool 2D physics model, with nicely elastic spheres that squish, pop-up, and roll down. I like the second game mode "Think" the best, figuring out how to make simple patterns. The other two modes are simpler line-up-color modes, either at your own pace or against the clock, respectively.

2003.08.12

the <a href="http://www.mossonline.com/asp/productshow.asp?prd_id=1026&pc_parent_id=151">collapsed Texas A&M bonfire tower</a> to

My parents had the first books of Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy

think maybe I didn't get it the first time because I hadn't had any real

2003.08.19

From frustration first inclination <br>

2003.08.31

<a href="http://uploads.newgrounds.com/118000/118826_madnessng.swf">Madness Redeemer</a> has tons of violent mayhem. The way you swing the gun with the mouse is irritating, you should probably run this maximized (it really needs a crosshair to show you where you're firing, and better 'throw away useless gun' would be good to.) I'd recommend sticking with the tutorial and "Experiment" mode, unless you're a masochist.<br><br>

2003.09.08

Oy, yesterday was terrible for hometown fans in Boston...after way out slugging the Yankees in the previous two games, the Red Sox fail to sweep, losing 3-1, and the Patriots 4-0 preseason doesn't do much to mitigate their 31-0 defeat at the hands of Buffalo...I guess maybe giving them our old quarterback and losing a core defensive guy to them because of a contract dispute might not have been such a hot idea. Not to be too much of a fairweather fan, but I have a few feelings for Buffalo, they were the first team I ever started to root for, back when I lived in upstate New York.

The first is a <a href="http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030908/COSPIDER08/">Globe and Main rant by Sci-Fi author Spider Robinson</a> about the long-term decline of Science Fiction, how it has been supplanted by Fantasy and a few Franchises with "Star" in their name. The second is a link I was previously planning to use, an interesting crossover people are making as a roleplaying game: <a href="http://steam-trek.com/">SteamTrek</a>. "Steam Punk" is a genre that extrapolates an alternate past where certain things are different, some technology problems were easier to solve in the 1800s or so than they were in our world, and a technology emerged that, to a modern person, seems like an odd blend of the unbelievably high-tech with the quaint and charming (like steam engines.) (Incidentally, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/055329461X">The Difference Engine</a> is a terrific book in that genre for any computer history literate geek , what if Babbage's computation devices were in fact engineer-able by the tool quality of the day, and inspired a Victorian London cultural revolution.) Anyway, Steam Trek has a British Aetherfleet exploring solar system full of aliens that is suspicously like the Star Trek galaxy. Some very clever stuff.

2003.09.14

can't put up highways signs, so you end up going on these fairly unlabeled backwoods roads for a while, 'til finally these giant buildings spring up like the Star Destroyer at the start of the first Star Wars movie. The styling is kind of odd, as if Epcot center had a "Native American" section in its international section. <br><br>

It seemed like there were a higher percentage of people in wheelchairs there, which adds a certain air of pathos. Overall I've decided I don't like gambling very much, I just find the stressful repetition off-putting. (Maybe in the long run I'm fortunate, I've heard that one of the worst things that can happen to a newbie is to win big the first time out...that sets you up to lose a lot trying to repeat that first big event.) Maybe my protestant upbringing intrudes, and talks away a certain <i>joie de vivre</i> from the whole thing for me.

2003.09.17

3. When you're on the march, act the way you would if you was sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first. <br>

2003.09.20

"Well,", said the pirate, "it was my first day with the hook."

2003.09.23

"The thing to remember about love affairs," says Simone, "is that they are all like having raccoons in your chimney. ... We have raccoons sometimes in our chimney ... And once we tried to smoke them out. We lit a fire, knowing they were there, but we hoped that the smoke would cause them to scurry out the top and never come back. Instead, they caught on fire and came crashing down into our living room, all charred and in flames and running madly around until they dropped dead." Simone swallows some wine. "Love affairs are like that," she says. "They all are like that."

2003.09.26

Europe is about to <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994204">launch their first moon probe</a>.

2003.09.28

CNN had the headline <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/09/28/colombia.bomb/index.html">Colombia explosion kills 10</a>. I have to admit, my first thought was "Again? Why isn't the headline higher up?" And then it was "Isn't that old news? And shouldn't it be kills 7?" Then I read the article.

2003.10.06

For anyone mildly interested in baseball but without easy news access (Hi Mom, in London) Sox evened their 5 game series 2-2 vs the A's with the deciding game tonight, Yankees took the series from the Twins, Cubs took their series from th Braves, something like the first time in 95 years that they've won a series in the post-season. Oh, and the Patriots won too. And the Browns beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh. So all in all I'm pretty happy with my fandom of Boston and Cleveland teams.<br><br>

2003.10.08

If you have one iota of curiosity of what it means to be a human, of the mind/brain problem, you must read (or listen, they have audio links) these 5 lectures, and preferably the Q+A sessions for each one as well. He spends a lot of time talking about thos fascinating cases of localized brain damage that give us tantalizing hints about how our brains cope with the world (the "Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" kind of thing), moves on to possible neurological understandings of our appreciation for art, and even touches on the cosmic ramifications of much of it. Admittedly the first 3 lectures are stronger than the final 2, which mostly dive deeper into some previous points. Still, I love his presentation style, which I've seen among a few really smart people who are good at given simplified but not dumbed down explanations of complex ideas. They don't present concepts as God-given facts, but in terms of "here are some observations we've made, and here's what we think it might mean." Richard Feyman reads the same way.<br><br>

2003.10.09

CNN: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/10/08/siegfried.roy/index.html">Siegfried: Tiger wanted to help Roy</a>. Not quite as silly as it first sounds, but still...it got me to click!

2003.10.11

When my dad's seizures had first started, I had

to do anything to make it better. After this first visit,

2003.10.19

After the first few times I played [this Japanese 'drumming' video game], a strange new screen began to flash after nearly every game. I could not figure out what this screen was at first, because it was in Japanese. Then I realized: It was the high-score screen. I was setting new high scores every time I played. You could tell because it was asking me to select three kanji characters, and then these would display next to my score at the top of a list. This was deeply satisfying, because it demonstrated how beautiful was my gift. It was also deeply frustrating, however, because I don't know how to write 'ASS' in kanji characters.

2003.10.21

Eric Raymond has made a copy of <a href="http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/">The Art of Unix Programming</a> available online (first link on that page, of course people are encouraged to buy the deadtree version as well.) Great reading about the history and philosphy of Unix...I liked <a href="http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/unix_koans.html">Appendix D</a>, The Unix Koans of Master Foo. (The Editor's Introduction links to some other cases of Westgern Programming and Eastern Philosophy.)

2003.10.23

Q: I know fire isn't exactly electric, but what about flame throwers? Or

2003.10.26

<a href="http://www.kdn.gr.jp/~shii/sand/index-en.html">Sand</a> is a cool little electronic toy. Little particles drift down, and you can draw in ledges and what-not. I had a little better luck with the windows download at first (plus you can resize it) but then the online java versions seemed to be fine, and had more interesting variations there from the sidebar.

2003.10.27

The <a href="http://www.flamingmayo.com/firstchurchofpacman/">First Church of Pac-Man</a> may also be worth a browse through, seems to all be on one page for easy scrollability.

2003.10.30

Actually, the guy who made that <a href="http://www.kdn.gr.jp/~shii/sand/index.html">Sand java toy</a> I posted a few days ago has a <a href="http://www.kdn.gr.jp/~shii/java/index.html">page with some other java toys</a>. "Spring" is cool, if a little spastic, and I guess the toy "Fire" would be more fun to play with if it didn't strike so close to home...or rather, Californian homes.<br><br>

2003.10.31

meaning to write up that odd genre of "capturing the running action" photos, but wanted to make up an example first. Here you go, then!<br clear="all">

2003.11.03

Slate says <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2090573/">Stop calling firefighters "heroes"</a>--they're brave men with a dangerous job that helps our society...but it's a less dangerous job than many others (including pizza delivery) and the men (and women) aren't above emphasizing and getting perks from their heroic perception. (I know at WTC, there was some under-reported resentment at the treatment remains of fallen firefighters got, relative to other victims. And that's further complicated by the way a communication failure was responsible for a large number of the deaths.)

2003.11.08

a <a href="http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/">Virtual Paper Snowflake Construction Kit</a>. The interface seems a little funny at first...you can only start cutting at the edge of the paper, for instance. But nicely done, and unlike the real thing, it has an "undo" button.

2003.11.12

<a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/fflifestreams_pr.html">Wired article on David Gelerntner's 'Lifestreams'</a>. Actually, what he sniffingly and amusingly wrote was "I *think* it was David Gelerntner who 'invented' sort-by-date and says it's a revolutionary new system of organization", though reading the article I don't think he's giving it enough credit (though in 6 or so years since it hasn't set the world on fire.)

2003.11.14

A <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2002.11.14">year ago today</a> I introduced the world to Dylan's Pointless Sidebar! (I was confused because the first entry was November <i>8th</i> 2002, but I think I just "seeded" the sidebar with a guestbook entry he had left previously.)<br><br>

2003.11.18

Took an extended lunchbreak today to catch a matinee of The Matrix: Revolutions. First off, if your company has a reasonable pseudo-flextime policy, I highly reccomend doing this. It's an extremely satisfying way to catch a movie you're jonesing to see, about the cost of a video rental. And you know? I thought it was a pretty good movie over all. I know the reviews all said it sucked, and a few of my friends advised me not to bother, but I was satisfied by its apocalyptic tone and way of wrapping up the trilogy. Admittedly, <i>maybe</i> it would've been better if the first movie was just all there was, but I had a good time.<br><br>

2003.11.19

The first date listed in my <a href="http://kisrael.com/khftcea/">PalmPilot based journal</a> is March 22, 1997. I started the web version December 30, 2000. (Once I realized how redundant they were, I gave up the Palm version.) That means, give or take a few weeks, I've been doing the web journal thing as long as I was doing the Palm journal thing before that. Which is odd, because I felt like I had been doing the Palm journal thing <i>forever</i>, but the web thing seems a lot more recent. (As always, my <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2001.04.15">javascript date toy</a> makes figuring out this kind of anniversary thing pretty easy.)<br><br>

The arguments against gay marriage usually are some variety of "slippery slope". "Why, if we break the 'traditional' man/woman thing because of this idea that everyone deserves equal rights, how can we stop people who want to, I dunno, marry their dog? Or a corpse? Or a child? Or their sister? Or many people at once?" First off, I find that many of these miss one basic criteria: the ability of all parties to give meaningful consent. (This is besides the fact that it's a shameless attempts to get people who might be more or less ok with gay unions to associate them with things they do find distasteful.)

2003.11.20

I look at life as being cruise director on the Titanic. I may not get there, but I'm going first class.

2003.11.28

they dance naked in a circle, around a tiny fire.<br>

2003.11.30

Personally I think this ties into a fallacy the vast majority of us share, that we are essentially rational beings, that all of the things we do in life could be traced down to logical decisions, maybe even the binary firings of clusters of neurons. Really, I think we're just gigantic cluesters of ad hoc heuristics, and attempts to describe our thoughts as logical processes are just optimistic, post facto mappings to what we would've done, if we had the time to think about it. (And there is some experimental/clinical evidence for what a great after-the-fact story teller/rationalizer our brains are...)

2003.12.07

I find giving up on a relationship or any commitment to be an incredibly painful thing to do (I really think that tenacity shows in weird places, like the strength of my commitment to music groups I've joined; if I'm not super-delighted about the direction of the group I'll gripe about it, but I'm the one that's <i>always</i> there) though I saw that possibility of giving up for the first a week or so ago, a line in the sand to cross, and yesterday when she said she'd be leaving me, I guess that was that.

2003.12.20

Went to Locke-Ober with my Aunt, Uncle, and Mom last night. Fancy-shmancy! Lots of dark wood panelling. At first I was surprised how little web presence they had but when I got there I realized I was spelling it wrong. Though my websearch with the incorrect spelling taught me two things: the place is in the script for "Good Will Hunting" (albeit not spelled correctly) and they didn't let women in the main dining room until the mid-80s. Even now, they have a pretty strict dress code, but it can be kind of fun to dress up every once in a while.

2003.12.21

<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/03/02/22/1456232.shtml?tid=101">Slashdot mentioned</a> a series of cartoon shorts that tell more of the story of the Star Wars "Clone Wars". I got to watch the first 2 sets at Sawers and Cordelia's holiday party. They were made by the same teams who made Power Puff Girls, Dexter's Lab, and Samurai Jack, and while sometimes they threatened to get a little too "cartoony", overall they were excellent. So good I was led to give the Clone War videogame (had to buy it to get a deal on a PS2) another try....and it turned out to be much better than I remembered, lots of giant land battles with tons of troops, really giving the feel of large armies clashing. So now I'm more into this whole section of the Star Wars universe, and am more actively interested in seeing the third movie of the prequels.<br><br>

There's some web advertiser who has this really lame and evil scheme....they popped up a javascript message box that said "press the enter key and hold it down for a surprise". If you just click slowly, or just tap enter, it nags you and says "no no no - you have to hold it down so the auto-key-repeat kicks in". See, what happens with that is you clear a bunch of regular message boxes, and then one of them is going to be the confirmation for "do you want to change your startpage to [insert name of crappy spam portal here]". And they do some timer checks to guess whether you are or aren't gullibly holding that key down. I did some experiments, as your reward for playing along, you get a lame web reproduction of that old "flying through space" windows screensaver.<br><br>

2003.12.24

So <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/24/mad.cow/index.html">Mad Cow is in the News</a>, this time in the USA. The little cartoon on the right is from one of my <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2001.01.06">first kisrael.com updates</a>, which was all about Mad Cow Disease. Also, you might be interested in this <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2003.08.14">update that talks about the book "The Electric Meme"</a> and how Prions might be the correct metaphor for getting memes from vaguue wishy-washy ideas to testible theories. <br><br>

2003.12.26

<a href="http://www.jtnimoy.com/itp/balldroppings/">BallDroppings</a> is a lovely little toy...draw lines that the dropping balls will bounce off of, musical tones result. (I had some trouble when I first tried to run it, if you get an "insufficient video memory" kind of error, try decreasing the number of colors your computer is displaying.) Fun to play with, plus you can tweak many of the settings (read the webpage for details.)

2003.12.31

brings up <i>farmers, spies, minefields, friends, defenses, borders, nukes, nights, </i> and <i>smokestacks</i> making good neighbors, and that's all on the first page. 720 in all, though some of those are repeats.

2004.01.01

<li><a href="http://iris.biosci.ohio-state.edu/projects/FFiles/">The Firefly Files</a>. And I found <a href="http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/070268.html">this article</a> about how the same chemical, Nitric Oxide, that help fireflies control their glow plays a role in human sexuality...."in humans it controls blood pressure, penile erection, and the formation of memories, among diverse other roles.". Given how that glow is part of their mating dance, and I think a warm summer night filled with fireflies is a terrific aphrodisiac anyway, I'm not at all surprised.

2004.01.03

<li><a href="http://www.it-he.org/">IT-HE Software</a> has some videogame oddness, including custom levels for DOOM. Maybe it's time to fire up the old software for a round or two... (also, Salon reviewed the book <a href="http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/05/05/doom/index.html">Masters of Doom</a>, which turned out to be a good read about the guys who brought it into being. Man, have I been posting too much about this game lately?)

2004.01.14

and one really dark followup on the <a href="http://www.8bm.com/ncm/2003/061103.htm">"cartoonish buffoonery"</a> that goes on there. The first article expresses the opinion that the war is justified by how awful a regime it was, though I do have to wonder, there are awful regimes and terrible conditions all over the place, aren't we picking and choosing our battles anyway?

2004.01.19

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2004.01.20.anticwarrior.gif" width="109" height="129" align="right">When I was a kid, my first computer was an Atari 800XL...pretty decent computer with lots of stuff to do in BASIC and Logo. One great magazine for it was <a href="http://www.atarimagazines.com/">Antic magazine</a>, one great type-in game it had one month was <a href="http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n10/gameofthemonth.html">Warrior

Around June, Wired reported that <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59324,00.html">Columbia House Jumps in Game Biz</a>. "Columbia House, the venerable if stodgy powerhouse of direct-market retailing, quietly entered the video game-selling business last week, another sign that the gaming industry is maturing." The weird thing is, my first video game system was a "Columbia Home Arcade", circa 1984...a rebranded Coleco Gemini, which in turn was a clone of the Atari 2600. It had a monthly mailing that had a poster on one side and games to order on the other. Just kind of funny that this is being treated as something new.

2004.01.20

"Kraig Brockschmidt goes [...] explaining the 'profound spiritual significance' of Microsoft's COM/OLE object protocols." You get the feeling that the guys a little too eager to "drink the kool-aid", whether its his lutheranism, the Microsoft way, or later a brand of eastern mysticism. Still, it's interesting, even if only for the first half's insight into early Microsoft.

2004.01.23

...his archive goes back over 10 years, he was one of the first big Internet cartoonists. I remember seeing his stuff thumbtacked on the walls where the "three musketeers" sysadmins in Tufts' Arena Computer Annex worked.

RIP, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/23/obit.kangaroo/index.html">Captain Kangaroo</a>. First Mr. Rogers, then him...who's next, Big Bird?

2004.01.28

Slate.com's "Uni Watch" talks <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2094432/">about the Pats' uniform history</a>. I hadn't seen the first year's <a href="http://www.helmethut.com/pats1960.html">tricorner hat logo</a>, though I do like it a lot more than the hulking linebacker logo that followed. It's probably not cool to admit it, but I really do like the newish "flying Pats logo" a lot, design-wise it's cool, especially with the features of the face. (I <a href="http://kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi?date=2002.02.04">previously rambled</a> on the old vs new logo after the Pats' first superbowl win.)

2004.01.30

fiendish little javascript game <A href="/journal.aux/2004.01.30.escape.html">Escape!</a>... click and drag the red square, not letting it touch the borders or any of the wandering blue squares. My longest run is around 15 seconds. (And it takes you a few tries to learn how to survive the first few seconds...) <br><br>

2004.02.02

And not only that, but it was such a <i>stinker</i> of a halftime show...so many of this songs were from years ago, but not long enough that there's warm-and-fuzzy nostalgia or anything. Janet Jacksons Rhythm Nation was like <s>1999</s>1989 <i>thanks Eric</i>, this was probably the first work Puff Daddy--err, P.Diddy--had in years, etc etc. The only part I liked is that they had some nice integration with the (University of Houston?) marching band, especially the drumline.<br><br>

2004.02.03

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<br><br>Highlight the following text for the explanation (or hit Ctrl-A), but think about it for a bit first: <hr><font color="white">It's a two...saying something nice...a compliment in fact...two's compliment...look at the rest of the page...get it now? Look, I didn't say it was very good. The "harharhar" was sarcastic.</font></i><hr>

2004.02.06

<a href="http://beatniksalad.typepad.com/photos/email_attachments/20030623_kmfdm543_135435.html">Find the Guys Head</a>. I was just a few seconds shy of, urr, "Genius", because I looked at the wrong scale at first. (I had recently been looking at a collection of old timey hidden images, usually where a face can be made out on a much larger scale.) And given how we're programmed for face recognition and what not, I think the scale of how smart you are if you find the face quickly is a little skewed...

2004.02.07

I learned some stuff from this as I transferred my stuff from the Palm into Amazon...it mostly just works for books, most of the videos and cds I listed I mean to rent or research first, I wouldn't neccesarily want to own them, so I only amazon'd the stuff I wouldn't mind having some day. If you're curious, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/103-6195143-3256653?%5Fencoding=UTF8&id=1COZE192XR9A">here's my amazon wishlist</a>...

2004.02.11

--Deraj DeZine, FooGoo, and myself in the <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/10/195224&tid=">slashdot discussion</a> on that "100-Million Mile Network" to <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1522512,00.asp">Mars article</a> I posted yesterday. My first (Score: 5, Funny) in a while. (The first comment is the best, though, "RTFA" is the abbreviation advising one to Read The Article linked to before brashly commenting on it, so Deraj DeZine is being pretty funny there.) The <a href="http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html">space elevator</a> is a real concept though.

2004.02.12

<a href="http://www.ok-cancel.com/archives/features/2004/02/worlds_first_hci_rap_we_got_it.html">Human Computer Interface (HCI) Rap</a>. Man, it's painful even to type that. Though the <a href="http://www.ok-cancel.com/archives/week_2003_09_19.html">cartoon it came from</a>, "OK/Cancel", is actually pretty decent for geeks who try to make computers easier for squishy humans to use.

2004.02.13

<Firefly> Time for my prayers: <br>

<Firefly> Our Father, who 0wnz heaven, j00 r0ck! <br>

<Firefly> May all 0ur base someday be belong to you! <br>

<Firefly> May j00 0wn earth just like j00 0wn heaven. <br>

<Firefly> Give us this day our warez, mp3z, and pr0n through a phat pipe. <br>

<Firefly> And cut us some slack when we act like n00b lamerz, just as we teach n00bz when they act lame on us. <br>

<Firefly> Please don't give us root access on some poor d00d'z box when we're too pissed off to think about what's right and wrong, and if you could keep the fbi off our backs, we'd appreciate it. <br>

<Firefly> For j00 0wn r00t on all our b0x3s 4ever and ever, 4m3n.

2004.02.15

<br>--Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't use this image for online personals after all, huh? The first 3 sentences I got from <a href="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=author:destewar%40phakt.usc.edu">someone's</a> .sig file on Usenet (later I found out it was from "Illuminatus!") the rest I made up for a poetry class in college.

2004.02.17

These spots are based on a now-common prank, in which you steal your neighbor's lawn gnome, lug it around the world, and mail back photos of the gnome astride far-flung landmarks. Whoever first thought to do this is, in my book, an unparalleled genius (and a genius of my favorite stripe, too: <i>useless</i> genius).

2004.02.26

Brilliant first 3 parts in some Flash-animation "Fan Fiction" that recasts the struggles of Mario and the mushroom kingdom in an almost awe-inspiring epic light. I kind of hope they leave it as is: as it stands, it would be a <i>perfect</i> prelude to the first Mario Brothers game, changing it from a goofy "save the princess" game to a Heroic struggle for redemption.

2004.03.02

that drives the first nail. We are told that he made this gesture to

Last week Dylan sidebar'd about how some of the problems of our wedding and how maybe in retrospect they seem like omens. Here's what I wrote <a href="http://loveblender.com/2002july/feature.html">about the near-wedding disasters</a> on loveblender a year and a half ago on our first anniversary. Back then I ended it "And at the end of it all I have Mo, so how can I be anything but happy?" and that's no longer true.

2004.03.03

is not one of the first things I look for in a friend.

2004.03.04

I feel like I'm in the need of a Queer-Eye-for-the-Straight-Guy style makeover. Maybe spend a little money on stuff and not be such a cheapskate. But, I need to see what my living arrangement ends up as first.

2004.03.05

Looks like we might be getting a <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040304/ap_on_re_us/new_nickels">new nickel design</a> in honor of the Louisiana Purchase. They say it's the first new nickel in over 60 years...not as cool as the state quarters, but still. (Also, nickels are my least favorite coin. Way too bulky for their value. Jefferson is a handsome man, however.)

2004.03.06

<a href="http://boingboing.net">Boingboing</a> linked to this pretty amazing photoblog about a <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/page2.html">woman motorcycling through the deadzones of Chernobyl</a>. I guess if you stick to the road itself the radiation isn't so bad at this point? Something like that. (And when you're a hardcore motorcycle enthusiast, the chance for wide open roads without meeting any other vehicle outweighs the risk...I mean if you're that into motorcycles, you're probably not that risk-adverse to begin with. To put it charitably.) Still, some very haunting photos. People also recommend the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/3882439211/104-9155945-8728718?v=glance">Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl</a> by Robert Polidori.

2004.03.07

<a href="http://lupschada.com">Brooke</a> reminded me of <a href="http://www.fenslerfilm.com/?sec=video">Fenslerfilm</a>, primarily old GI Joe Public Service Announcements redubbed and remixed into absurdist theater. The first one <A href="http://www.fenslerfilm.com/movies/PSAsmall/FenslerFilm_PSA01_small.mpg">PSA01</a> is pretty representative, and <a href="http://www.fenslerfilm.com/movies/PSAsmall/FenslerFilm_PSA17_small.mpg">PSA17</a> made me laugh for a while...

2004.03.09

Slashdot linked to a study <a href="http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=6282">The Command Line - The Best Newbie Interface?</a> pointing out that, counter-intuitively, it might be easy for novice users to get a mental model of a computer and generally feel less distracted by using the "evil command line". Heh, maybe the crapness of old-school DOS spoiled it for a generation or more...I mean wasn't that the first "...for Dummies" book?<br><br>

2004.03.14

famously begins " The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Back when he wrote that, he probably meant static color: black and white mixed all in to some kind of grey. But someone reading it now for the first time might assume he meant a pleasant (if overly bright) blue...a lovely day indeed. <br><br>

2004.03.19

<li>I logged a link to the results of the <a href="http://www.cling.gu.se/~cl3polof/minigame/">2002 Minigame Compo</a> last June. I submitted a stripped down early version of JoustPong as a 1K entry in the <a href="http://www.ffd2.com/minigame/">2003 Minigame Compo</a>...it did middling-poor, but it had the first style of physics I used which went way too fast.

2004.03.20

<li><a href="http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~plim/personal/getawife.html">Top 15 Biblical Ways To Acquire A Wife</a>. I always thought Jacob had the rawest deal. ("Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman's hand in marriage. Get tricked into marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to marry in the first place.")

2004.03.21

<a href="http://www.senderogroup.com/mikejournal.htm">Mike May seeing </a> for the first time in his life is some <i>amazing</i> reading, how his brain is learning how to process visual information for the first time ever.

2004.03.22

So right now I'm all energized with ideas for projects...but I have a birthday party to get ready for and a house to sell first!

The first hit on Google for "al qaeda" is a translation of the <a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/trainingmanual.htm">Al Qaeda Training Manual</a>. Only glanced at it, but it's odd and creepy seeing the "inspirational" language such a thing uses.

2004.03.29

<table><tr><td><IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2004.03.29.superman.jpg" width="200" height="270" ></td><td valign="bottom">Awesome...<a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/yeung/actioncomics/cover.html">Action Comics #1</a>, the first appearance of Superman...worth checking out.<br><br>

You know, I always kind of assumed this cover was of Superman making a dramatic rescue, but, duh, no...he's shaking that car out like the bad guys were salt. That first issue covers a lot of ground: capital punishment, lobbyists working to get us involved in war...(and the other stories include a cowboy who knows jujitsu!)</td></tr></table><br>

2004.04.01

So CNN had this link <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/04/01/britain.prince/index.html">Britain's Prince William 'upset' over picture with girl</a>...I saw the picture they had on the page the link went to, and my first thought was 'Man, that is one <i>ugly</i> chick.'

Just in time for April First, it's

2004.04.04

Put your clocks ahead an hour...and test your fire alarms! We wouldn't want your temporarily sleep-deprived self to perish in flames!

"I had always heard that your entire life flashes before your eyes the second before you die. Only that one second, isn't a second at all, it seems to stretch out forever like an ocean of time. For me it was lying on my back at boy scout camp, watching falling stars. And the maple trees that line our street. Or my grandmother's hands, and how her skin seemed like paper. And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird. And Janey. And finally, Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it's hard to be angry when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes, I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and I can't take it. My heart swells up like a balloon that's about to burst. But then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold onto it. And then, it flows through me like rain and I feel nothing but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry. You will someday."

2004.04.06

<table><tr><td><IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2004.04.06.depstim.gif" width="300" height="380" ></td><td valign="bottom">--This has been sitting in my harddrive for a few PCs now. I don't know where it's from. I think of the punchline often at work, though for some reason I always misremember the boss as saying "work harder or your fired" which I think is somehow a little snappier.</td></tr></table>

2004.04.09

Ben-Veniste brought up the much-discussed PDB--the President's Daily Briefing by CIA Director George Tenet--of Aug. 6, 2001. For the first time, he revealed the title of that briefing: "Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside the United States."<br>

2004.04.10

I added a <a href="/bestofblog.cgi?id=AIM">IM section</a> to my <a href="/bestofblog.cgi">best of kisrael.com</a> page, the first subject- rather than year-based page in that. AIM chats that I bother to put up here are usually pretty funny, but still I divided them into "best of"/"second best of". Worth checking out I think, good for a quick giggle.

<a href="http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/clonewars/index.html">Clone Wars 20-part microseries</a> online...with optional director's commentary! And what's great is these episodes are so kinetic and action-based--though without forgetting about the characterization--that you might not mind the commentary even your first time through. (I ended up switching to a lower screen resolution temporarily, so the fixed-size movies were a bit bigger.)

2004.04.16

Somehow that sign I took the photo of went away...I've got to call the Real Estate folks, I know they were sending someone to put it more firmly in place, maybe something went wrong...

2004.04.17

Incidentally, I saw "Lilo and Stitch" last night for the first time. It's probably my favorite Disney film ever, except for maybe Fantasia, just because of the cool cartoony Sci-Fi elements.

2004.04.25

I'm so nervous. Somehow it feels like my first audition for my life after Mo. The house sells well, I get to sit on a wad of cash, plus demonstrate what I'm able to do.<br><br>

2004.04.26

seen him purely and for the first time.

2004.05.01

<a href="http://www.cybermonkey.org/html/game/swron/">SWRON</a> is yet another version of Tron lightcycles...but I think it does the best job of finding the balance between looking like the movies (a lot of version are just overhead view) and still being playable. (First person lightcycles is nearly impossible to play.)

2004.05.02

You know, I know it's mostly just me turning into a reactionary old fart, but for some reason it seems very odd to think about some infant today who in 20 years will be very nostalgic for mommy's tattoos, like who would assoiciate those twisty tribal armband patterns with motherhood on some deep level. "Just like mommy's tattoos" doesn't ring right with me. (Actually, I know of one woman who had one removed not too long before she had her first kid, I don't know if she felt the same thing or if she was just sick of the tattoo.)

2004.05.04

Anyway, Jane took the first one...we were slacking in the marshy and rocky area at the Salem shore during low tide. The second is a simba head I saw on the street. (I probably attracted some odd looks taking the picture. And The focus was, admittedly, a bit tough to get a hang of.)

2004.05.06

I guess if I'm at all serious about this now would be the best time, what with the divorce and all. Probably the easiest thing would be to just use my middle name as my last and just be "Kirk Logan" (Which would be kind of funny, I used "Logan" as my first name for a while in middle school) though I'm tempted by the Zenitude of "Kirk Is". Dave Johnson was mentioning a doctor he knew recently did the same middle-to-last thing, and I could see how "Dr. Barry" sounds a bit better than "Dr. Lipschitz". <br><br>

2004.05.10

<a href="http://pages.infinit.net/voxel/home.htm">Metroid Cubed</a> is a new slant on the original NES game, literally, using some nifty little tricks to give it some visual depth while still preserving its 2D gameplay. At the bottom of the page, along with the really big white-on-green shaded "PLAY" button there are some other cool link, including Isometric Zelda and "100 Marios". (The one <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/dokidoki/index115rotation.html">with rotation</a> is pretty funny.)<br><br>

2004.05.11

You know, kids, Drew's head is just like a piñata. If you hit his head enough times when he's sleeping, candy comes out. Well, first blood, then candy. Keep hitting.

This is the first kisrael entry from my new cute iBook. From my living room, no less...I went ahead and got my wireless mojo working again. And sitting on the couch and hitting the Internet is what this laptop is all about for the time being.<br><br>

2004.05.15

So this week I found an apartment...a really spacious place practically in the heart of Arlington Center. I think being in a neighborhood, with a little indy cinema, some coffeeshops, restaurants, is going to be really great...it's terrific to be surrounded by something other than houses. I'm not crazy about the floors of the place, newish squishy carpetting, but it's pretty huge (I could theoretically have an apartmentmate who would have their own room at the other end of the place, the only issue would be the shared bathroom), the rent is amazingly reasonable, and the location is terrific. It's still kind of funny to be thinking about starting a new life in a new place...come to think of it, I haven't picked a new place completely on my own since my first apartment in 1996. <br><br>

2004.05.16

In other news, I was going to mention this yesterday but wasn't sure if it was allowed to be made public yet...my mom is moving back from London after her 3 year stay there...to Boston! That's really cool, my Aunt and I are really looking forward to it. This wil be the first time since I was in high school, when we were (obviously) in the same house that we've lived anywhere near each other. Of course, some aspects might be a little weird...except for a brief stint with the UU I haven't gone to church in the interim. And I wouldn't mind going with her sometimes except for the usual "oh, so where are you going to church now" questions.

2004.05.17

"Luck is my middle name," said Rincewind, indistinctly. "Mind you, my first name is Bad."

2004.05.18

<i>-- Albert Speer's diary on Hitler's desires to build a special two part suicide mission bomber to attack the United States, from this <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2004/05/wulf.htm">Atlantic Monthly article</a>. So looks like Al Qaeda wasn't first with the idea.

2004.05.22

While the coasters ended up being their usual fun selves, Peterman noticed that my two favorite parts, the ones that I ended up talking about the most, both involved drumsticks. <br><br>The first was lunch...I had been jonesing for a giant turkey drumsticks ever since I saw a tv show that showed 'em for sale at this giant Texas fleamarket months ago, and Six Flags had 'em...amazingly, they lived up to my hopes and expectations, just a massive chunk of tasty tasty meat you can rip off with your teeth.

2004.05.24

<a href="http://www.designbyfire.com/000094.html">Design Eye for the Usability Guy</a>...five designers ("the Design Fab Five") offer advice to Jakob Nielsen's famous <a href="http://useit.com">useit.com</a>.

2004.05.25

How much funnier would the first Harry Potter book be if you replaced 'wand' with 'wang'? <a href="http://www.bash.org/?111338">Pretty funny, actually</a>, or at least worth a giggle in parts.

2004.05.27

The photography of <a href="http://www.billowens.com/">Bill Owens</a>. His "Suburbia" photos are the most interesting bit, suburbanites and their dwellings in the late 60s/early 70s. The captions, the thoughts and feelings of the people being photographed, are the wonderful. <i>(For some reason, the "Next" arrow next to each photo doesn't seem to work...for quick browsing (in IE at least) I suggest clicking on the first link on the left, then hitting tab, enter to view each link in turn.)</i> If you're in a hurry, just check out <a href="http://www.billowens.com/image_disp.php?cat=suburbia&id=67">Drink and Dance</a>. Forget the weird clothes and ugly Christmas tree...those people are having a great great time. (<a href="http://www.billowens.com/image_disp.php?cat=suburbia&id=86">This one</a> reminds me of an old Polish joke however...)

2004.05.29

falls into your stomach, a sack whose velvety interior is lined with tapestries of suckers and papillae. The coffee finds nothing else in the sack, and so it attacks these delicate and voluptuous linings; it acts like a food and demands digestive juices; it wrings and twists the stomach for these juices, appealing as a pythoness appeals to her god; it brutalizes these beautiful stomach linings as a wagon master abuses ponies; the plexus becomes inflamed; sparks shoot all the way up to the brain. From that moment on, everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination's orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink - for the nightly labor begins and

<p>The state coffee puts one in when it is drunk on an empty stomach under these magisterial conditions produces a kind of animation that looks like anger: one's voice rises, one's gestures suggest unhealthy impatience: one wants everything to proceed with the speed of ideas; one becomes brusque, ill-tempered about nothing. One actually becomes that fickle character, The Poet, condemned by grocers and their like. One assumes that everyone is equally lucid. A man of spirit must therefore avoid going out in public. I discovered this singular state through a series of accidents that made me lose, without any effort, the ecstasy I had been feeling. Some friends, with whom I had gone out to the country, witnessed me arguing about everything, haranguing with monumental bad faith. The following day I recognized my wrongdoing and we searched the cause. My friends were wise men of the first rank, and we found the problem soon enough: coffee wanted its victim.</p>

2004.06.02

This was the start of the very the first poem I had to read for this months' loveblender...despite that, I decided to keep reading through this month's works and resist the urge to shut down the site forever. (I kid, I kid. But it is a remarkably bad stanza, the worst that comes to mind on the Blender...just the awful bumpy rhythm to get to the forced-sounding rhyme with a word that's so clinical yet still way too evocative, all for an incredibly sappy sounding tale of heartbreak...)

2004.06.03

But, as is par for the course, I'll think nostalgically about my first cellphone. It was a cute little fella, unpretentious, and travelled easily in my pocket for the past 3 years. Kept me in touch with the world... I really have trouble remembering how difficult it was to modify plans on the fly without these things. Also, I'll miss how it came with a convenient snug cradle.<br><br>

2004.06.04

First, I'd like to apologize to Peterman. I was pretty harsh yesterday. That came from a <i>lot</i> of pain, as well as being upset with him (and myself) even though his intentions were good and he was working to help me out. And there's even a chance it wasn't the bins that set this off, though it seems far and away the most likely suspect.

UPDATE: I wrote the preceding, and the following, last night and pre-published. At this point I'm not all better, might even be worse. My first tries at getting out of bed ended up with me on the floor and it took me a lesuirely half hour to get to the bathroom and then down the stairs. I also got to play a game called "figure out a way to flush without leaning over or raising your knee too much", solving this puzzle by making a kind of figure-4 with my legs as I stood there and using the foot of the 4's "crossbar". (It was a low-water-usage toilet with the handle at knee rather than hip level.)<br><br> It's less severe right now, I can sit in my computer chair and stand and walk around, but I'm getting a little worried.

2004.06.06

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2004.06.07.reaganme.jpg" width="252" height="205" align="right">RIP Ronald Reagan. I think I was too young when he was in office for me to have formed a mature opinion of him. I don't think he's the demon that the left makes him out to be, nor do I think he's the superhero conservatives paint him as. (In particular, I really don't hope to see him on any money anytime soon.) Two random anecdotes: I remember in 1984 my fifth grade class held mock-elections..I was firmly Mondale, but then, lemming-like, I switched my vote to Reagan when I saw that was what everyone else was going to do. And then in seventh grade, I picked him us my subject for a biography book report, where we had to dress up and playact as the person. So, here to the right is my best Ronnie impression, circa 1987 or so...

2004.06.12

<br><br>Meanwhile, the same <a href="http://members.cox.net/swt2/">SWT</a> has just completed a decent-sized (15:37) <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/dumplechan/27356.html">synthetic symphony</a>, which I'm about halfway through hearing for the first time. If you like video game music from the NES era, you'll adore this.

2004.06.13

Science has confirmed what dog owners all know: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/10/dog.language.ap/index.html">Dogs understand language</a>. I sent this to my sister, and she estimated that her golden retriever, Cider, can understand almost 40 words:<br><i>sit stay down wait here come outside leave-it kong swimming frisbee bo-bos (bedtime) puppy-chow good-girl greenie bone treat cookie go-hup paws-up kisses bath ears hot no-begging out go watch-me walk love who's-there speak find-it cat quiet</i> as well as the names of 4-6 people she sees often.

<a href="http://zapatopi.net/blackhelicopters.html">The Reproductive Cycle of Black Helicopters</a>. This probably confirms everything you've ever suspected about their sinister origins.

2004.06.14

It's a flash toy on the topic of mortality. At first it appears to be yet another mortality clock, but after a very short survey (that uses sliders, mainly, not multiple choice, heh) it shows you what portion of your years has gone to doing so-and-so, and amusingly so, rather than how much time you have left, etc. My favorite bit is tiny: the "loading" animation has a great little anim of the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx. (I wonder why nobody combines this sort of thing with mortality clocks, so you can look at it and say "Oh, thank god, I'll get in at least 21 years of sleep before I die I might as well stay up tonight.")

2004.06.15

I also need to figure out to do with my old car. Blue book or whatever, I'd likely get around 3K for it as a trade-in, and they'd probably sell it for 5K or so...that 3K is small enough that I'd like to do something better with it. My first thought is giving it to my cousin Ivan, who'll be starting to drive soon. It just seems like it would be a big boon in high school, and I would've loved to have a car rather than borrowing the family minivan. On the other hand, I know some adults with more real-world problems and transportation issues could possibly use it...including one friend who was enquiring about buying it. Complicating the decision, I've already mentioned it as a possibility to Ivan and his family, so it might be incredibly bad-spirited to back out without a really good reason.<br><br>

2004.06.17

The ARROGANCE of these people...MAN. Back when I was a believer in traditional protestant doctrine, I was kind of worried, because I wasn't quite positive that I hadn't fallen back into sin...I did the whole Jesus into my heart/reborn thing, but I was kind of hoping that "Revelation" wouldn't happen for a bit, just so I'd have more time to establish my self as a good guy more firmly and stop all this dang backsliding. But these PRICKS are SO CONVINCED they're on the Good Side of all this...ai yi yi. <br><br>

2004.06.19

Reminds me of my other current favorite "The first 90% of a project takes 10% of the time. The last 10% takes 90% of the time, too."

Ultimately, of course, this is my decision to make and live with (and I am getting better at getting the gumption to make big decisions and accepting that the responsibility is all mine, and that I'm not a terrible person if I do make some dumb moves.) Still, I'm glad Mike pointed out the MINI's possible issues...so I gotta ask...if the main reason I'd be getting a MINI Cooper over a Scion xB is because I think chicks are more likely to dig it...is that likely to be a big factor in those crucial first impressions women will make about me?

2004.06.25

Awww, crap...I got new glasses yesterday, and along with my haircut this different (first hairstyle change since like 3rd grade, except during that unfortunate time in middle school) I was all set to show of my new look...but I realized there was one issue:<br><br>

2004.06.26

What people die of, <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/cat/mortality">across all the nations</a>. Betcha didn't know Luxembourg leads the world in death by Hydrocephalus, or Poland by Sunburn... (page crashes firefox and mozilla browsers, or so they tell me.)<br><br>

<a href="http://georgewbush.com">GeorgeWBush.com</a> has a new video ad that's SO muddled...at first I thought they were comparing Kerry, Gore, et al. to Hitler, but no, they're trying to say that the left is a bunch of wild-eyed radicals who are saying Bush is like Hiter...<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/33950">this Metafilter conversation</a> talks about how bizarre and unclear a message it is. ("<a href="http://fark.com">Fark</a> meets <a href="http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/g/Godwin_s_Law.html">Godwin</a> to create the season's most most apt and potent catchphrase: 'Hitlerity ensues.'")<br><br>

2004.06.27

Anyway, when you first turn the thing on, it gives you a dire safety warning about not fiddling with it while driving, they're not responsible, blah blah. But I have to think, if they were more serious about safety, maybe they wouldn't have a permanent record of maximum speed acheived ever...I suspect having a video game like "high score" feature just encourages some guys to show off. And all I say about that is it at least looks like there's room for 3 digits in that little box...

2004.06.29

1 ilunga [Tshiluba word for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time. Note: Tshiluba is a Bantu language spoken in south-eastern Congo, and Zaire] <br>

2004.07.02

Heading to Cleveland, see some friends, drink to Mo's health with a high school English teacher of mine, maybe see some fireworks...but of course after over a thousand kisrael.com entried without a miss I'm not going to start now, so here's some of my backlog...<br><br>

2004.07.17

<area shape="rect"#fire creature from donkey kong

coords="146,56,178,86" href="//fire creature from donkey kong" onClick="return false;" onMouseOver="status='fire creature from donkey kong'" onFocus="status='fire creature from donkey kong'" title="fire creature from donkey kong" />

<area shape="rect"#firing cannon

coords="35,559,64,582" href="//firing cannon" onClick="return false;" onMouseOver="status='firing cannon'" onFocus="status='firing cannon'" title="firing cannon" />

<area shape="rect"#campfire

coords="308,576,344,608" href="//campfire" onClick="return false;" onMouseOver="status='campfire'" onFocus="status='campfire'" title="campfire" />

For the unitiated: both the first "this one" cartoon link and the joke deal with D+D's concept of "alignment". See <a href="http://www.fact-index.com/a/al/alignment.html">this definition</a> of the concept for an explanation.

2004.07.24

<font color="blue"><b>LAN3:</b></font> Also, I don't know if you wanted to link to it, but "Uncle Patrick" Hughes has posted another list of <a href="http://badnewshughes.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_badnewshughes_archive.html#108964499941960483">advice for the kiddies</a>. As he disclaims from the start, it's not as funny as the <a href="http://badnewshughes.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_badnewshughes_archive.html">first list</a>, but it's pretty funny.

2004.07.25

Not the most original thought, but new to me...dialing up voice mail on my cellphone starts to sound like the opening notes of "Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear?" (Samsing phones remap the keys from regular touchtones to the musical C-scale). So I got to thinking about that song (mostly I know it from that <a href="http://animatedtv.about.com/library/weekly/aa081800a.htm">Simpsons' Episode</a> where they buy a doorbell that plays just the first line, but gets stuck and plays it over and over) and how that lyric could be read so differently, in like a Hitchcock-ripoff horror movie: "It's eerie...you show up, and then all these different kind of birds show up and start attacking and pecking at everyone's eyes! I never knew a humming bird could be so vicious....what the hell is up with you? Are you cursed?? <i>Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear Every Time You Are Near???</i>"

2004.07.27

Can anyone (besides Ranjit and Peterman) tell me what these guys are from? First person to post the right answer on the message board gets a cookie.

2004.07.28

Essentially it's a chocolate chip cookie with a fudge brownie baked inside it. No kidding. Stunningly delicious. FoSO was very happy with her reward. (Turns out she didn't actually know the game "Cosmic Ark"...she checked the image filename and Google'd to confirm.)<br><br>

2004.08.05

A study in contrasts: <a href="http://www.punkasspunk.com/gloomy/">Gloomy Sunday</a> was said to have led to a number of suicides in the first part of the 1900s. (The 3rd verse that basically says "oh it was all a dream!" was added later, probably to try to counteract it or something.) Maybe that was mostly an <a href="http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/gloomy.htm">Urban Legend</a>, however.

And it's true; both candidates are for the corporation, and I do agree with Nader that ultimately the corporation is the major evil. But in my mind, Bush is the immediate obstacle. He is a collection of disasters for America. What he does to the English language is a species of catastrophe all by itself. Bush learned a long time ago that certain key words, 'evil, patriotism, stand-firm, flag, our-fight-against-terrorism,' will get half the people in America stirred up. That's all he works with. Kerry will be better in many ways, no question.

2004.08.07

Kind of interesting that the first thing the crowd claps to is a waltz, and they clap on 2 and 3...

2004.08.09

Back to the central point; why do I want romance, and what do I want out of it? Companionship is a big chunk of that, emotional, intellectual, physical. And for strengths that complement my weaknesses (me being wishywashy comes to mind) and strengths that complement my strengths and maybe a few minor weaknesses so I can feel useful too. And someone to show the stuff I think is cool to first.

(Great line from <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0120777/">The Opposite of Sex</a>: "Look for me first, in any crowded room, and I'll do the same.")

2004.08.10

So I had a coworker friend try taking some, but I wasn't really ecstatic about the results. It's all a bit of a forced setting. The first batch looked like mugshots or passport photos or something: <i>(Click for larger)</i><br>

2004.08.13

<li>The first posted comment is "5 Sep 1995", on the

<li><A href="http://loveblender.com/1997august/">August 1997</a> is the first "Blender of Love" digest.

</blockquote> Of course, if they're not utterly evil leaders, THEY firmly believe the war is justified. Our administration was hankering to move on Iraq for a long time, from a fear of WMD to a wish for revenge for the assassination attempt on Bush Sr.</i>

2004.08.18

I drank alcohol for the first time in Portugal. In fact, I learned something, and I'll impart that bit of drinking wisdom to you now:

See, I wasn't supposed to be in Portugal for 3 weeks; I was supposed to be there for around a week and a half, spending the rest of the time visiting Veronika in Germany. Veronika and I had gone out the year before Marcos' stay, when she was a foreign exchange student. We hadn't made each other any promises about keeping it up long distance, but we were writing, and that Spring she had sent me a bit of a "Dear John" letter, she had met somebody new. A few weeks later, she wrote again and confirmed it would probably be awkward if I were to visit.

2004.09.01

So I started a new determination to watch my eating and exercise two days ago. My first day I lost 4 pounds! I figure at that rate I'll weigh 80 something pounds by October. Or I can just lost 28 or so in a week, then quit...I don't know why people say dieting is so difficult.

Lessee...seriously, this is only the fourth category 5 storm this year, and the first time since 1950 that two major hurricanes have hit Florida in a month. I think anecdotal evidence is building that the weather is seriously being broken...

2004.09.13

<A href="http://www.wtc7.net/">WTC 7</a> was a 47 story building near the twin towsers that collapsed, supposedly because of debris from the towsers and some internal fires (maybe some fuel had been stored there.) Some people says that seems unlikely, and that when FDNY said they were going to "pull it" they meant demolish it, not just withdraw their men. On the other hand, planting explosives would've been a kind of tough job that day. So what the hell went on?

2004.09.17

--Hurrican Ivan as <a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040915.html">seen from the International Space Station</a>. I like how my eye misread this at first, seeing the solar panels as buildings, with the menacing cloud in the apocalyptic sky above...

2004.09.20

Not that great but maybe worth a glance, <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14608739&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=the-50-weirdest-guinness-world-records-name_page.html">the 50 weirdest Guinness World Records</a>. You know it's weird, but I think this might be the first time since I've started drinking Guinness beer that I remembered its connection to the collection of world records...(though somewhere I heard it was made to help settle bar bets.) I like the final one: MOST PEOPLE CRAMMED INTO A SMART CAR: 13 girls in Munich, Germany, in 1999.

2004.09.22

So, today's the first day of Autumn. Always a melancholy time for me; nature going into its annual coma, the unnerving number of relatives I've had pass away this time of year. But it's a good time to look back at the summer preceding it.

2004.09.24

Cool! The BBC released a 20th Anniversary Edition of Infocom's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml">Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy</a> text adventure...they added some graphics, showing a sketch of each scene. The purist in me hates that, but I have to admit it's much easier to get a mental grip with the illustrations. These were notoriously difficult games, but <a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/apple2/game/29011.html">GameFAQs</a> has some guides. The second one is just a "type this", "type this", "type this", the first is a little more casual. Actually, there might be the <a href="http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/hints/hhgg/1.php">original Infocom style hints</a> as well.<br><br>

2004.09.25

Feh. Typing "amazon.com" only works like half the time, but "www.amazon.com" works all the time. I hate typing the "www" and I always secretly look down (just a little bit) on people who instinctively type it in first when you're telling them about a new URL. Even if sometimes they're right and you need the "www".

2004.10.06

--A pulp-sci-fi <a href="http://www.frankwu.com/paul1.html">cover by Frank R. Paul</a>. That's an awesome gallery to browse through, and if that's just the first "room" of the gallery (links to other rooms below the thumbnails and the business card.) So many cool images!

In confirming the wording of my title quote, I found this little gem, a

2004.10.10

<a href="http://iamlearn.blogspot.com/">I am learn</a> is a blog made by a computer script. It does a surprisingly good job of sounding like some kind of demented teenager who has English as a distant second (or maybe third) language. What I like about it is the guy set it up so it spontaneously posts every once in a while...there's something beautiful about a demented 'bot that starts itself up, even if it's just a random timer, relative to a script that the developer fires off every once in a while.

2004.10.15

Not much in terms of new material, but I finally got to relabeling the <a href="http://www.alienbill.com/photos/album/01.youngyears/">first section of my photoalbum scan</a> based on some notes I asked my mom to send me. So people interested in what I looked like up to about third or fourth grade, you're all set. You could even see the <a href="http://www.alienbill.com/photos/album/">rest of my photo album</a> if you like, going to a little after the end of college.<br><br>

2004.10.19

the Marilyn Bianchi Kids' Playwriting Festival at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland Heights...the first one, "Star Pox", was a fairly blatant ripoff of Douglas Adams. This one, "Kinda Feeble Fables", was a bit better, though it's still dorky as all get out. I'll be presenting one Scene a day for the next 5 days...and then an extra special bonus treat!</i>

NARRATOR: Ok. Here's the moral of our first fable...Never let people who are likely to trade what you give them for magic beans carry the map. Simple, easy to remember, yet so practical. (Narrator exits.)<br>

2004.10.24

"Fables," one of 20 plays chosen from 593 entries, is Israel's second play to win in the festival. Last year, Dobama produced his first effort, "Star Pox."

Anonymous CEO of one of our "corporate security" firms in Iraq, from

2004.10.25

So for the first lesson, they went over some of the history of yoga...probably the most important text was written by a guy named Patanjali around 2000 years ago, the <a href="http://www.yogamovement.com/resources/patanjali.html">Yoga Sutra</a>. It describes the "eightfold path of yoga"...one of those parts (actually, one of the part of those parts) is "Santosha", which means contentment. The handout from the class described it as "To practice contentment with your life as it is." and said its practice is "Gratitude and joyfulness, develop equanimity around success or failure". <br><br>

2004.10.30

Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

2004.11.06

I've set myself a little goal for the end of the year...get rid of all my 2003 backlog, so the thing is only like a year behind. I only have 9 or 10 entries to post, mostly links. Here's one on the classic shooter DOOM: <a href="http://www.doomworld.com/10years/">10 Years of DOOM</a> with lots of neat little pieces. Including a version of something I can't believe I hadn't posted before, Old Ma Murray's <a href="http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/39.html">Crate-based Videogame Review System</a>...the world's first completely unbiased review system, where you can tell exactly how good a game, since it's an inverse function of how long it takes you to see a random crate or barrel in the background as you run around. Some great lines in that.

2004.11.09

First off is how corny the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxophone#History">thing's origins</a> are.

2004.11.10

<table align="left" border=0><tr><td><applet code="firebrand" archive="/journal.aux/200.11.08.firebrand.jar" width=150 height=150 border=1>

<a href="/journal.aux/200.11.08.firebrand.pde">Source code</a> // <br>

Same basic idea as the <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2004.11.06">other day</a>, but now I have the ability to screengrab from the Gameboy original rather than painting my own rough version. This is Firebrand the Red Destroyer, the main character from the game Gargoyle's Quest. Interestingly, he got his start as a bad guy in the game <a href="http://www.classicgaming.com/reviews/nes/ghostngb.htm">Ghosts 'n Goblins</a>. Now I think he's supposed to be red, but in the original GB version, he is of course the same spinach green as everything else on that old system, and I don't feel like updating him from the version I got to know and love. I just always thought he was the cutest little guy, a great example of pixel art.

2004.11.13

Just a bit of abstract kinetic semi-interactive art...I find it a little hypnotic. The paintbarsnakeguys are attracted to the center of the screen at first, as well as to the tail of one of the other paintbarsnakeguys. When you click with the mouse, they lose interest in the other paintbarsnakeguy and just go to where you're clicking...once you release the mouse button, they go back to their old behavior, but instead of the center, they're attracted to wherever the mouse last was.

2004.11.15

So lately I've been sinking some time into Grand Theft Auto: San Adreas...it's a pretty amazing game, greatly amplifying the feeling of an adventure overlayed on a "real city" that the previous games introduced to the field. It's the first GTA I've spent much time with since getting the GPS for my car, and I realized that its display, with a polygon-ish road map and a triangle indicating my position and direction is just like the little map shown in GTA. So basically, I've turned my life into Grand Theft Kirky...

2004.11.17

Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning.

2004.11.18

And of course that sense of anxiety-induced procrastination is a bumbling idiot: for these situations where I'm not sure if it's going to work out, putting off finding out rarely helps and often hurts. So much of the time it's better to get a "good enough" (or at least "good try enough") solution out quickly, in time to take a second or third stab at it if need be...hardly ever do I use that "extra time" in a productive way. (Of course not, because if I did use that time well, I would be "taking the time to do things right the first time" rather than just "procrastinating".)

2004.11.21

<a href="http://www.simonsingh.net/Rock_Paper_Scissors.html">Rock Paper Scissors dice</a>....Dice with number arrangements different than the usual one through six, where Die A statistically beats Die B, and Die B beats Die C, but Die C goes ahead and beats Die A. It's a deeper idea than it first sounds, and the article talks about some of the implications.

2004.11.22

The rarely-updating Seanbaby has graced us with a new <a href="http://seanbaby.com/personal/americarules.htm">article exploring the twin worlds</a> of Japanese mystery foods and homemade fireworks. Laugh-out-loud funny in parts.

2004.11.29

Have you tried <a href="http://desktop.google.com/">Google Desktop</a>? I was hoping for something better than Outlooks awful search engine for my e-mail. One disconcerting part of it is how when you go to regular Google, by default it also starts showing you matches from your local desktop. It's pretty freaky when it looks like the contents of your local machine have somehow made it to Google, even though they swear it's all smoke and mirrors, no information is sent back to their servers. The othe stupid thing about that is by default it shows you matches in your browser cache, so the sequence is you're at a website, you decide to Google the general topic, and the first hits are always...what you were just looking at...duh.

2004.11.30

I've got a traffic court date today. I swear I was trying to do the Right Thing and what the traffic signs were telling me to do. The incident was on August First...I was driving south on 93. There was an electronic roadsign saying "LEFT 3 LANES CLOSED". I thought that was a little odd, because the road was only 3 lanes, but whatever. Eventually I get to the slowly moving traffic...and there's another sign "LEFT 3 LANES CLOSED". And there's only 3 lanes. But traffic is somehow still moving, so I figure everyone is going to the breakdown lane. I thought this was confirmed when I see 2 or 3 cars go start using the breakdown lane, and I actually thought that was what we were supposed to do. Sure I thought it was a chance to get moving ahead of other folks, but I also thought it was what we were supposed to be doing to get traffic moving in general.

Sigh. $100 fine, but assuming I don't succesfully fight it I'm more concerned about the insurance aspect. This is my first moving violation, I've never even gotten a speeding ticket. So it's really annoying to get the blemish, especially when I really thought I was doing what the signs indicated I should do.

2004.12.02

Some oxygen molecules help fires burn while others help make water, so sometimes it's brother against brother.

2004.12.03

First off, a lot of Sports Radio is pretty dull. These guys can go off on tangents that are pretty obscure, or even big topics (like player contracts) that don't interest me that much. There are some bright points, though, like WEEI's "Whiner Line", on around 6PM weekdays...there's some really funny people calling in. And a baseball or football game can be a great driving companion, engaging the fan's visual imagination and emotional core just a bit.

2004.12.05

I played Laser Tag for the first time last night, at a place called

<a href="http://www.lazerzone.net/">The LazerZone</a> in Randolph. It was fun, not quite what I expected. My mom and I were on the same team, actually. (This was part of the local Salvation Army's headquarters christmas family dinner.) We did ok, with our team losing the first match and taking the second. I tended to score in the middle of the pack...the tactics weren't quite what I expected, because a big part of the game is just standing there blasting someone as they (sometimes) just stand there and blast at your "base"...sometimes not dodging because they're in "invincible mode" or just because they want to get as many hits in as possible. Though I think ducking and dodging and prolonging your 20 "lives" before having to go back to homebase for a recharge was a big part of it. Still, fun. I worked up a sweat, though I was wearing a fleece pullover which wasn't too sharp.

2004.12.08

<i>(I think I might have first read this idea in Mark Kingwell's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0609605356/">In Pursuit of Happiness: Better Living from Plato to Prozac</a>)</i>

2004.12.12

--No matter how you feel about the guy, Bush had a much better desgined poster than Kerry did...Before & After magazine has a <a href="http://www.bamagazine.com/BushKerry/">detailed study on how they stack up</a>. Bush's kind of reminds me of this bit from a Douglas Adams book, where a character talks about how another character "Howard Bell" (an obvious knock off of Steven King) had the perfect shlock author name, because you could print it at the top of the cover, above the title, with the first name over

2004.12.14

Self: your first initial is K. K is also the first initial of your girlfriend. Plus, there are a bajillion other things in your life that "K" could stand for. Therefore, if you are going to write a remind on your hand to remember to bring the Karaoke stuff for the company party, you might want to write something more than just that letter.

2004.12.15

And then you can think of metagames to play with this...like, find out which ex-girlfriends' first names have the best image selection...for me, <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=veronika">some are hot</a>, and then <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&output=search&q=marnie">some are not</a>.

2004.12.17

My own sites are pretty hit or miss. The old <a href="http://loveblender.com/2000december/">Love Blender Digest design</a> wasn't bad for its 1998 heritage, but violated the first rule. The <a href="http://loveblender.com/2004december/">current layout</a>, designed with help from Lupschada, isn't quite "fixed width" but makes better use of the space, and follows the second principle of boxes and the third principle of a sans-serif font. This site follows all three principles to some extent, except for the main text. Ksenia thinks the soon-to-be-retired <a href="http://alienbill.com">Alien Bill frontpage</a> is some nice design work, but it's more artsy-fartsy than professional. (Heh, come to think of it, it follows all 3 principles pretty well, but I think its use of color and big images takes it out of the "serious site" column.)

2004.12.27

Excellent adicting and challenging flash game...<a href="http://flash.games.for.free.fr/moebius/html/moebius.html">Moebius Syndrome</a>...just click to rotate straight pieces and corner pieces to form loops before the board fills up too much. Good learning curve in this game, at least for the first games (which honestly is as far as I got.)

2005.01.02

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

2005.01.06

Being a geek, I wrote a program to prove that to myself...and got 242. Turns out that's because I don't consider half dollars to be "real money". (But Patrick Mahoney doesn't consider dollar coins to be real money either, or else it would be 293.) Anyway, I had the big list of combinations, but I prefer the idea of a little computer program that does nothing but obsessively come up with different values of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies that equal a dollar...kind of a dollar changing savant. And here it is. (It's a bit like the old SNL routine "First Citiwide Change Bank", Parts <a href="http://snltranscripts.jt.org/88/88achangebank1.phtml">one</a> and <a href="http://snltranscripts.jt.org/88/88achangebank2.phtml">two</a>:

"At First Citiwide Change Bank, Our business is making change"...All the time, our customers ask us, 'How do you make money doing this?' The answer is simple: Volume. That's what we do.")

Random Kirk Factoid: 292 will always be near and dear to the hearts of people who attended Tufts University in the first half of the 1990s...that was the rank Tufts got (out of 300) for "fun" schools. Some people were bitter about Tufts' lack of fun, or something, and painted 292 on "Jumbo II", a then-new lifesize statue of Tufts beloved mascot.

2005.01.10

<a href="http://cheston.com/pbf/PBF006ADTreeofIrony.html">The Tree of Irony</a>

One assumption both Kundera and my high school history teacher made was to imply that neccesarily this is the first go round. That's a big assumption...it brings up the old bugaboos of "where does freewill come from in a materialist and likely more-or-less deterministic universe"? Would someone who was repeating what happened in the universe before, dancing to prescribed steps, <i>feel</i> as if they had free will? Can you not have free will but not realize it? Is that what we're all doing now? I think it really depends on what your notion of self is.

2005.01.12

In the dream I didn't see the usual showstopper scenes, just the early scenes set in the general store interior (which looked suspiciously like a living room) and then some very strange interprative dancing, with, oddly, a lot of women in this pink frilly underwear. I vaguely remember moving around to different seats as more and more people left, though we got yelled at for sitting right in front of the piano and soundboard, which were kind of perched over the left side of the first few rows of seats.

2005.01.13

Some of the Indian guys at work call me "Krik", swapping the i and the r. I don't know if it's just a little mixup, if it's easier to say when your first language is Hindi, or what. But I think I'm purposefully not too quick to correct them, since then I don't feel so bad at how badly I mispronounce some of their names...

2005.01.14

In finding that first link I found <a href="http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/articles/folder2005/01/11/tsunami-accounts-simmondsfull">Luke Simmonds' first hand account</a> of the Tsunami and its immediate aftermath.

2005.01.23

embrace. Men and women shake hands, the woman usually making the first

<li>When your signature is required, it normally means both your first

<li>In bars, cafes, and small shops, normally first you eat or get your

2005.01.24

The drifts were chest-high in places...and I have a pretty tall chest. It was one the first times

2005.01.25

Maybe I should have followed my first instinct of bringing them to the office. My Sea Monkeys have been doing fine since September.

2005.01.27

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/27/train.derailment/index.html">guy who caused that horrible train derailment</a>. Of course, it's kind of a weird issue given that he was suicidal in the first place. And as stupid as it sounds, I guess I'm not surprised a guy in that mental state wouldn't think about how an SUV could cause a train to derail...he probably had a simplified image of the train plowing through the vehicle (and its occupants) or pushing the SUV down the tracks for a while without the train being harmed itself.<br><br>

2005.02.08

I'm reading this book "Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Greatest Physicists" for my UU-church "Science and Spirituality" group, but despite some good stuff from greats like Einstein and Heisenberg, this is the first guy who really grabs me...most of the others get way too hung up on the old bugaboo of free will vs a semi-deterministic universe or physics and epistemology, the limits of what we can know.

2005.02.15

<table><tr><td><IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2005.02.15.crickdna.jpg" width="203" height="338" ></td><td valign="bottom"><i>--<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4263611.stm">Crick's first DNA doodle </a>...such a historic thing, where we started the long process of figuring ourselves out...</i></td></tr></table>

2005.02.26

Nice, huh? You can see the evolution of it, including the other video game art that inspired it, at the <a href="http://alienbill.com/2600/flapping">Flapping Development Journal</a>, though really his first sketch is more-or-less what we ended up going with.

2005.03.01

Here's an <a href="http://www.big-boys.com/articles/makesyouthink.html">environmental message video</a> using that old chestnut of how a frog won't jump out of hot water if you heat it very slowly. Leaving aside the way that the actual metaphor for global warming would be that we should hop away from planet Earth, it makes me wonder...who was the sick S.o.B. who first noticed this little nugget of observed amphibian behavior wisdom? (Feh, actually, <a href="http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/frogboil.htm">Snopes debunks this</a>...a good rule of thumb is, if anything seems too cute to be true, check snopes.)

2005.03.04

the first love's most important. <br>

Sigh, "KJ"...summer camp, shared "atomic fire balls" by the side of the lake. A few letters, a few disinterested phonecalls, and that was pretty much that.

2005.03.08

<li>Investigate making port of old Compute's Gazette game "Heatseeker", first in Java, then for the 2600

2005.03.10

YOU'RE NOT THE FIRST<br>

This poem was there along with all these phone numbers, ballpoint-pen'd on a wall. That room was remodeled years ago, I thought of the second half of this poem last week but couldn't recall the first two lines until last night.

2005.03.26

Shameful admission: when I first read this

2005.03.28

I got one of those DVD/VCR combos to replace my beloved but ailing VCR, the one I've had since college. (Panasonic and 'til recently reliable...also the first time I saw a scroll wheel, years before they showed up on mainstream computer mice.) I mostly need a VCR in lieu of a proper cable box, and though I'm not crazy about the two-things-break-for-the-price-of-one aspect of dual units, it made my AV stack less precarious, and jived better with the inputs of my receiver. <br><br>

2005.03.29

KEVIN:Before we start let us confirm you have the most up-to-date version of the program. Can you click on the [Help] menu on the toolbar at the top, and then choose [About TaxCut] from the list of options? The Federal and State program versions will be listed on the screen that displays. Can you let me know what version numbers display? <br>

2005.03.30

--After the rain yesterday. The first two are from my street in Arlington, the second two are from the parking lot at my office park.

2005.04.02

So, back to "thing things". I will spend money on the first release of a video game I really like, currently that's around $50. That's a bit more than the Lewis Black ticket, but, assuming the game isn't a dud, it's many more hours of entertainment. (Counterpoint: it's often a lot of padding and plodding as well...and shouldn't hours be reckoned as part of the cost, not the value, of a game? Depends on how entertaining it is and how satisfying it is to complete.) Also, it enters my library of games, and I can repeat it in the future, or lend it to a friend, and of course if it has a great multiplayer mode, it can remain valuable for a long long while. <br><br>

2005.04.09

from this <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2116011/">Slate review</a> of "Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling."

2005.04.10

I like the first photo better, but the second one gives you some idea of how steep it was.

2005.04.14

</blockquote> I quote the final line sometimes during video games. Maybe somebody will catch the reference before I have to explain it to them...heh, come to think of it Bumblebee was my first transformer, so he'll always have a nostalgic place in my heart.

2005.04.15

So I've been using the <a href="http://getfirefox.com">Firefox browser</a> more these days. It's definitely a nice product, and really stands toe to toe with IE, but I do have some gripes...comments or suggestions (ala "that's 'cause you're doing it wrong, dummy!) welcome.<br><br>

(Thanks to Catherine, who urged me to start using Firefox, and then post stuff here.)

<b>Things Firefox does better than IE</b>

<li>Tabbed browsing -- didn't "get it" at first, but now I like the "semantic grouping" I can do, multipages without cluttering the taskbar. And ctrl-click opens a window in the background, much better than the shift-click, alt-tab dance I use in IE to open many links off of one page.

<b>Things IE does better than Firefox</b>

<li>IE has a very usable FTP 2-way client, Firefox has an FTP browser only.

<li>Firefox's Ctrl-F doesn't seem to search input form fields.

<li>IE's "mouse select jumps to word boundaries" is not perfect but better than Firefox's character based model.

<li>Ctrl-N in IE brings up a clone of the current window, complete with history. Firefox opens up my startpage...redundant, because I can easily launch it from the start menu.

<li>Ctrl-T in Firefox opens up a new and utterly blank tab...even more useless thanthe Ctrl-N behavior!

<li>IE shows undisplayable characters with box placeholders, Firefox uses question marks.

<li>Tabbing in Firefox doesn't reset the cursor blink cycle, or something, so you don't get instant confirmation that you're typing in the correct box.

<li>Ctrl-O in firefox is the normal file open dialog...not as useful as IE's URL-or-file-browse feature.

<li>I wish Firefox had an option to let each tab have its own close button...often I want to quickly close a bunch of tabs based on their title, but instead I have to switch to each one and close it separately.

<b>Things Both IE and Firefox Get Wrong</b>

Of course, Firefox is an Open Source Project, so theoretically I as a programmer am empowered to fix these things. Realistically, working on other people's complex code is something you only do for money or great enthusiasm, which I don't have in this case. If there's a potentially more productive place to make suggestions I'm all ears.

2005.04.16

At my recent party, Erin (I think) who hadn't seen my most recent apartment (btw: speakers of Her Majesty's English...is an apartment with more than one floor in it still a "flat"?) but who had seen some of my old places mentioned that I manage to make most places that I live in look kind of the same. At first I thought she meant "messy", but no, this was right after a vigorous pre-party straightening-up.<br><br>

2005.04.18

Arlington had a Patriot's Day Parade today. I thought it was kind of endearing that Ksenia thought it was just some dumb thing for the football team at first. And it was interesting that she said she likes "this" kind of parade...as it turns out, as opposed to something with a lot military fluff and nonsense like they had sometimes in Russia (especially in a big town like Moscow, I'd wager.) I guess drummers and fifers in goofy colonial outfits and little league teams are a lot better than tanks and soldiers!

2005.04.19

This is what the table I dumped my Lego bin onto on looks like. I do have a lot of Legos. It looks more impressive in real life, I think, because it's a deep layer for pretty much the whole thing. This is one of the first times I decided to go with a table top as work space rather than the traditional floor...it might've been a mistake. Legos are falling off in all directions.

2005.04.21

-firm-smooth ness and which i will<br>

2005.04.23

Almost missed doing an update today...which really would've been the first time in like 4 1/2 years. Well, I made it!<br><br>

For the next few hours the old man revealed more of his ingredients for successful social living. Express gratitude. Give more than is expected. Speak optimistically. Touch people. Remember names. Don't confuse flexibility with weakness. Don't judge people by their mistakes; rather, judge them by how they respond to their mistakes. Remember that your physical appearance is for the benefit of others. Attend to your own basic needs first, otherwise you will not be useful to anyone else.

2005.04.24

Around that time, roughly at least, my blood pressure went up--from something surprisingly good to pretty mediocre. For a long time, I sardonically noted that this also corresponded with me going to the gym regularly for the first time ever, but now I wonder if it's just plain old anxiety.

2005.04.25

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.

Holme's famous dictum on the limits of free speech was shaped by personal experience. On March 7, 1847, the six-year-old attended the Boston Lyceum's Theater's world premiere of the new musical comedy, <i>Hey, Everybody, There's a Fire in the Theater...We're Not Kidding.</i>

2005.04.26

One of the voices is actually Dylan of Sidebar "Fame" (who was subletting from me in Waltham at the time)...bonus kudos for the first person on the comments section to say which one. Also, the "victory" sfx is clearly not me.

2005.04.28

<a href="http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4472122">Iraq War Legality Row 'A Damp Squib', Says Blair</a>. Never heard the phrase "damp squib" before...turns out a squib is firecracker, and/or "A broken firecracker that burns but does not explode". So I guess it's something that seemed to have potential to be metaphorically explosive but will fizzle out instead. Now you know.

2005.04.29

"Well you need to put things in perspective," I replied. "First of all, your struggle was on a more human scale, and the result is a unique achievement no-one can match. Secondly, just before we went on air, Ran Fiennes got lost in the basement of Broadcasting House looking for the toilet."

2005.04.30

Saw the new <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/">Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</a> movie last night. Not half bad! In particular, I thought the casting/characterization was right on, especially with Zaphod, who for the first time didn't feel 2D to me. They actually showed towels being useful, rather than just talking about it. Also, at times Ford and Zaphod feel actually a bit alien, especially early on, rather than just "people in space".

2005.05.02

I love the idea of this. Though I will point out, pedant that I am, that <i>just</i> travelling in time isn't enough, you need something that can warp or move you through space. Unless your frame of reference is firmly tied to the Earth, you'd end up popping up in space somewhere, where the Earth <i>used to</i> (or possibly <i>will</i>) be.

2005.05.10

So the sizing issue out of the way, getting good printouts was more of a problem than I expected. At first I got the help of my Uncle...they have a photo printer they didn't mind sharing. He mostly had 4x6 stock, which was fine, except his printer couldn't do edge to edge at that size, it left a centimeter or two of border on one side. (Also it would give 3/4 of the way through printing <a href="http://kisrael.com/journal.aux/2005.05.03.ksgrad.gif">that GIF of Ksenia</a> until my Uncle converted it to a JPG.)

2005.05.13

Why do outdated technologies proliferate in mainstream culture? As a member of the first generation of virtual-capable human beings, my body has grown proprioceptively comfortable with its on-screen counterpart. Interactive experiences of the past, once difficult, are now navigated with ease. Physical and mental reference points have been created. We have evolved, yet still return to earlier virtual experiences sometimes bent by the interference of distorted memory. <i>Illusion/Elusion</i> is an exploration of these nostalgic fascinations through elementary interactions with an Atari2600-based system.

Answers.com <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=cb23ptpkc6a2n?tname=proprioception&method=6&sbid=lc01a">reports that proprioception</a> is "The unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself." Hmm, ok. "Interactive experiences of the past, once difficult, are now navigated with ease" -- interesting. At first I thought he meant that modern games are easier, but actually he means the old games are simpler than their modern-day counterparts.

2005.05.24

Now, when I went back to reread this I saw there was the word "practically" before "decapitating", but I think my misread was much funnier... I just have this image of a Jedi in robes in front of the mirror, face covered with lather, firing up the old light saber...

2005.05.28

FM (first set...why do all radios have two sets of FM presets, and just one for AM?):

2005.05.29

So one of my favorite little games is whenever I'm drinking something and it goes "down the wrong pipe", to followup my coughing and sputtering with a whisper-croaked "smoooth!", as if I were a teenager trying to be blasé about the whisky he has just tried for the first time. I mean, I <i>really</i> enjoy this little game, not quite enough to purposefully try and choke on liquids but enough so that I'm not at all unhappy when I do.

2005.06.02

I'm almost embarassed to post this because it's pretty trivial, and only has a so-so chance of ever being useful to anyone but me, but I just "released" the sorting tool <a href="/tools/sortof.cgi">sort of v0.1</a>. I had a bunch of files name, one per line, that I wantd in alphabetical order. I could have written a perl script in a minute or so, or (gak) fired up Excel (or look--TextPad does it too! Sheesh) but it only took a few minutes to turn it into a simple webapp. <br><br>

2005.06.16

I was kind of offended by the illogic of one, however: "Why is a baker mean? Because he beats the bread." First off, it might be a little funny if "beating the bread" was actually a common expression. (Hm, it sounds kind of like an euphemism as it is...not appropriate for a product aimed at kids!) Second, it seems to be mixing up cause-and-effect about the mean-ness of the baker...he beats the bread because he's mean, not the other way around. Though maybe for the sake brevity the joke is a bit loose with its grammar, and it should be "How do you know a baker is mean?"

2005.06.18

All such content - as well as the long, beautiful, uncluttered shots of desert, sky, jungle and mountain that filled the early episodes - was banished in the first of the prequels ("Episode I: The Phantom Menace," 1999). In the 16 years that separated it from the initial trilogy, a new universe of ancillary media had come into existence. These had made it possible to take the geek material offline so that the movies could consist of pure, uncut veg-out content, steeped in day-care-center ambience. These newer films don't even pretend to tell the whole story; they are akin to PowerPoint presentations that summarize the main bullet points from a much more comprehensive body of work developed by and for a geek subculture.

It's an interesting point; the first trilogy was also supposed to be "powerpoint", except the rest of the movie universe wasn't explained, so it seemed much biggger than the "yeah, Darth built 3CP0 back in the day and Chewbacca fought along side Yoda and Boba's dad is the model for the troops" etc etc.

2005.06.21

One of First Grade's greatest hits, a little practical joke, you'd try to get a friend to insert their finger into your curled pointer finger and thumb, and then inform them it was actually a toilet...ha!

2005.07.04

Chicago doesn't wait for the 4th to have fireworks:

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2005.07.01.fireworks.jpg" width="400" height="300" >

2005.07.07

David Plotz in this <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2122162/">Slate Piece on the first reactions to the London Attacks</a>.

2005.07.15

So one idea is this; there's a good chance the spammers look for a field labeled "comments" or "name", or just look for a big textarea followed by a smaller one line text box, or something like that. But what if each time you generated a random name for your textarea, and then have some other hidden variable tell the script which name to find the comment in? It seems like a spammer might not bother to follow that kind of indirection, and it can be made a little stronger by increasing the levels of indirection (you always have one variable "foo" that tells it the first variable to look in, which carries the name of the second variable (randomly generated), which carries the name of the the third, which then points to the actual name generated for the textarea. This method won't stand up if they're just looking for "grab all variables and fill the textarea variable", though I'm not sure if they're that clever...maybe I could include 3 textareas, and hide the other 2 with CSS. That too could be scripted away...in which case I'm back to simple content filtering.

2005.07.22

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/22/AR2005072200848.html">Bush appoints Chris Israel as "Piracy Czar"</a> I gotta say, this is the first time I remember reading about a guy with the last name of "Israel" in the news. Heheheh...wonder if <i>he's</i> jewish. ("Not that it matters.")

2005.07.27

The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, you know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.

2005.08.02

I remember there was once a big one when I was in first or second grade, but somehow I slept through it. My teacher, a nun, told me that it must be because I was so good and innocent or something, but even then I had a neurotic enough theology that I didn't <i>feel</i> that innocent.<br><br>

2005.08.08

The BBC talked with a Japanese financial expert. I guess they think that a total privatization would be good for the economy there. At first I thought it would be bad for a person who was using it for its savings, but then again, Japan seems to be "savings happy" relative to the USA. (Then again, a rockstar on a drunken, heroin-laden spending spree can seem "savings happy" relative to the USA.)

2005.08.11

"Keep your rear foot firmly in contact with the ground, don't let it roll up on the arch."<br>

2005.08.14

So today marks the first day of my vacation...a stay at home

2005.08.21

The first two are courtesy <a href="http://www.capnwacky.com/sw/sw01.html">

2005.08.24

I'm not the first person to make this kind of joke, but after <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2124601/">reading about Peta's campaign</a> drawing strong parallels between human slavery and our treatment of animals, and then hearing about the NCAA's <a href="http://www.dailyillini.com/media/paper736/news/2005/08/24/News/Ncaa-Policy.Change.Unclear-969148.shtml">recent decisions about "Native American" mascots</a>, and then seeing a bumpersticker for some local school's "Lions" team, I got to thinking if the next step for Peta is to discourage the use of that kind of mascot.

An Onion-esque site ScrappleFace got to the idea first. Or as <a href="http://www.scrappleface.com/MT/archives/002275.html">they put it</a>:<blockquote class="quote">

2005.08.26

At the risk of thinking in stereotypes, if there's one thing that confirms my uptight WASPness, it's my absolute discomfort with wheeling and dealing at retail outlets.<br><br>

The United States shut its consulate in [Nuevo Laredo] for a week early this month after drug gangs fired bazookas and raked each other with machine gun fire in a street battle.

2005.08.31

<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9127135/">World's oldest person dies, aged 115</a>. "Dutch woman swore by a daily helping of herring for a healthy life". Amazing to think of it...she was, what, in her late 20s during the first world war? Though the herring...reminds me of that joke of the uncle who swore by raw garlic and cigars, you know what his last words were? No one does, we couldn't get near him!

First off, it feels strange to me that I have to select my category, Home-Home Office, Gaming, Small Business, Medium-Large Business...it smells like a scam, that these groups might be getting better prices and I'm not in on it. My friend points out that if you go to <a href="http://www.dell.com/tv">dell.com/tv</a>, you're looking at deals that are difficult or impossible to get at through the main interface.

2005.09.03

<li>I spoke with a calypso accent at first, learning to speak on the island of St. Thomas in the virgin islands.

<li>therefore my first words to my (probably racist, and not happy about his grandkid talking like an islander) were "Heyyyyyy Poppa Samm" -- you have to imagine the accent for that I'm afraid

2005.09.08

Room 332 was at the the back of the corridor, near the door to the fire escape. The hall that led to it had a smell of old furniture oil and the drab anonymity of a thousand shabby lives.

2005.09.13

<i>Either</i> is the important word here. The parent your date chooses to describe first is usually the one who had the greatest impact.<br>

2005.09.16

I saw this first mentioned on <a href="http://thoughtviper.com">Bill the Splut's</a> site, but here's a page with more images of a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4200000/newsid_4209000/4209004.stm">parasite that eats, then uses itself as a fish's tongue</a>. Crazy! I guess for the intelligent design folk, the Intelligent Designer must've been on a bit of a bender with that one.

2005.09.18

the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeigarnik_effect">Zeigarnik effect</a>, dealing with the special attention the unconscious mind devotes to unfinshed tasks. First noted with the observation the waiters and waitresses can remember huge orders which are then promplty forgotten once delivered to the table, it is suggested that the effect can be exploited to various ends, from lerning to marketing.

2005.09.20

the sound and text used in the <a href="http://yourethemannowdog.ytmnd.com/">first of its kind</a>. Now, as

2005.09.21

There's a name (and website) for "Abstaining from Mammal Meat" - <a href="http://www.mafism.com/">Mafism</a> (a neologism from "Mammals First"). It does make a certain amount of sense, on this planet mammals are the closest on the family tree, and seem to have mental and emotional capabilities that other species lack. There might be some exceptions in the higher birds, like parrots, but as the site points out we don't eat them anyway.<br><br>

2005.09.23

People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.

<a href="http://www.dailylush.com/archives/valhalla.html">about Valhalla</a>. It mentioned it was a kind of training camp for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnarok">Ragnarok</a>, the "Fate of the Gods". EB (I think) once mentioned that Ragnarok was kind of a secret of the elite, not something the hoi polloi would know about, which I think is an intruiging idea (the motif of a religion with a deep dark downer of a secret that only the elite know about) but I can't find any confirmation that was the case for Norse mythology.

2005.09.26

<li>Check "Confirm open after download" and "Always show extension", <li>unclick "Browse in same window"

2005.09.29

It was the first Jewish funeral I've been to, I believe. It was largely conducted in Russian, with some traditional Hebrew here and a bit of explanatory English there. One tradition I admired relative to current Protestant American habits is having mourners put the dirt on the coffin, either in symbolic garden-spadefuls, or even more utilitarian shovelfuls. I think there's a sense of closure with that, and a macabre beauty in restoring some of the literal meaning of the phrase "burying a loved one". (If I remember rightly the Protestant funerals I've been too often have the mourners bear witness to lowering the casket into the ground, but then leave an open grave, having the groundskeepers do everything after.)

2005.09.30

Drawing the parallel between my negative behavior and that jazz stuff had been helping me to mend my ways, but Kevin was more interested in my disdain for free, light jazz improvisation. Based on other things I've discussed with him, he sees insisting on structure and order in many aspects of life. (Now, this might amuse some people who know me, because the first thing that comes to mind when seeing my desk at work, or (often) my living room is NOT "structure and order", but still...I think that might be an issue of "things whose structures matter, <i>really</i> matter, and things whose don't, <i>really don't</i>"--and that time and energy can "better" be devoted to other pursuits.)

2005.10.05

They'd be gone as soon as we made them. You think snowmen would sit around here just to entertain kids, waiting until the first warm spell melted them? No way. Responding to some primitive instinct for survival, they'd hoof it for Antarctica, or climb Kilimanjaro. The only time anyone would ever see a snowman is by climbing a mountain. We'd expect them to be gurus, and ask them about the meaning of life. But they would just say things like, "Me want toy." Snowmen are idiots.<br>

2005.10.07

</td><td valign="bottom">--Cartoon by <a href="http://www.adamgreenonline.com/">Adam Green</a>, who was the subject of the first

2005.10.11

Anyway, I wanted to mention I'm reluctantly calling the whole <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2004.05.31">omnipresent courier bag instead of loaded pockets</a> idea a bit of failure, because I'm just not carrying the bag <i>everywhere</i>, and sometimes I'm caught short <i>sans</i> camera or Palm at (semi-)crucial moments. But I don't want to cram my pockets as much as I use to, so combining cell and Palm will be a good first step, and maybe getting an even smaller camera. I notice more people danging cellphones from a belt or waistband holster...apparently that doesn't have the stigma that "fanny packs" (stop sniggering, UKers) do. Other alternatives include:

2005.10.12

Last week, Zastava, the Serbian company that built the now-defunct Yugo, signed a deal to begin producing Fiats under license. The first step will be to rebuild Zastava's factory, which was bombed by NATO in 1999. A Fiat-Yugo alliance -- can you think of a worse conjunction of low quality? It's like saying you've invented a new food that combines Spam and corn husks

2005.10.18

It's an optical trick I hadn't seen before. (There might be a slight delay the first time you click.)<br><br>

2005.10.23

<li>Wednesday I attended a light but technical lecture at my alma mater by Ben Shneiderman (Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory) on tools for visualizing multidimensional data. His work has led to some cool stuff, like recognizing certain correlations in the human genome, that kind of thing. (His message was first present an overview of all data, then let the user drill down and pick what relationships they want to check out, generally with 2D graphs.)

<li>I started Friday with a pedicure (!)...my first. Cool to have my feet minus the usual cracking I get. Also I had a checkup with my regular doctor...he agreed with my assessment that I need to drop the frickin' wait I've packed on since the divorce.

2005.10.28

So thumbs up for that. In general I think Microsoft does very decent hardware work...I think they were the first to start pushing scrollwheels in a major way, and the split keyboards that I prefer (and that drive coworkers sitting at my PC nuts...) Though I'm a little unhappy with the number of multimedia buttons they've been adding to the keyboards, making an already biggish keyboard even more unwieldy.

2005.10.30

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."

2005.11.01

</blockquote> Geared as children's literature but a very good read, especially the first one "Truckers".

2005.11.02

Howard Unruh, <a href="http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/howard_unruh/">America's First Single Episode Mass Murderer</a>, in response to "why are you killing people?"

James Glieck mentioned his phone response to a newspaper editor who tried calling him where he was holed up...Glieck was pointing out how the phone just demands attention, even when we're engaged in a standoff with guns and teargas, though after reading that description of Unruh, I don't think he's representative. (He's also <a href="http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/unames-nf/Unruh+Howard">still alive</a> and in an institution...he's one of the first really known cases of post-traumatic stress disorder.)

2005.11.03

So I guess this guy sued Netflix because the "unlimited rentals" they advertise are actually capped in the fine print...so they have this bogus upgrade program, where everyone who was a member gets bumped up one simultaneous rental. But it seems like the bump (which people have to pay for after the first month if they forget to put it back) is mostly to help Netflix pay for the <i>outrageous</i> $2.5-frickin'-million the lawyers are getting from this. Two and a half million! <br><br>

2005.11.09

So the interview "challenge" was to write a factorial function. Now, I don't know exactly how well or poorly the problem was described by the interviewer, but given the first line, probably copied from a whiteboard, I'm assuming it was pretty straightforward. Here's what the sheet had on it...most of the strikes are circular scribble-outs:

I know that won't mean anything to non-geeks, but the layer on top of layer of sheer "Not Getting It" is a real jawdropper. <i>(I went ahead and placed an attempt to list all (or at least most of) the problems as the first comment)</i> For someone aspiring to a Java development position, and who must've sounded at least possibly decent on the phonescreen...supposedly the person has multiple masters degrees in science-y and computer-science-y fields, both from good local Universities.

2005.11.12

A while back I took this photo of a car in Salem...the sign says Tarawa 1943, "We Kicked Their Ass"...the license plate had a similar theme. I admit my first reaction was kind of snarky...the bellicose tone about a very old battle, the use of "there" for "their" in one instance. <br><br>

2005.11.15

Slate.com had some articles about the changing landscape in DC: Bush's new line about <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2130295/nav/tap1/">I Was Wrong, but So Were You</a> replacing his "We're always right" approach, and a Christopher Hitchens <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2130293/nav/tap2/">about gullibility</a>. The final paragraph of that article is the most relevant, because it's the first to pose the question, usually begged, was invasion was the best and/or only way to keeping Saddam and his desire for WMD in check? I still hold that cranking up the inspections and giving them military teeth would have made for a safer regional and global situation. We're now obligated to stand guard at a house of cards that we ourselves made. There was human suffering under Saddam, there's human suffering with the war and terrorist incidents after Saddam.

2005.11.17

<li>The ToDo list display is just dumb. Every ToDo has an associated priority and date, and on the main display these are displayed first, hogging up the whole line, and only when you move the cursor to that ToDo does the actual task name scroll into view.

That said, it is a decent phone. The hardware is excellent, I like some of its features like "video wallpaper" (I recorded some fireworks in Euclid, OH that I get to see whenever I open the phone), clamshell with flip-to-talk is great (you can see who it is on the outside screen), you can configure the arrowkeys to quicklaunch different features (though not every feature of the phone, pity) and it's a much more reliable alarm clock than my Palm.

2005.11.23

So, yesterday I handed in my resignation at dear ol' Taxware. I really am grateful for the time I spent there...besides all the opportunites to learn new stuff and work on interesting projects, it was also a nice "safe harbor" after a pair of dotcom-ish layoffs a year apart. The first year (when there were a few problems at Taxware) I was just hoping not to have two layoffs in one calendar year; the second year I was all about having employment that straddled a calendar year on my résumé, the next year was the breakup with Mo, and lately it's been about coasting. I'm still young enough in my career that I think it makes sense to try new things; my position at Refresh Software has elements of travel and teaching, and also I think the small group feel of it will be good. Historically I do better work in high-visibility situations. It can be kind of a character flaw at that, the urge for recognition, but still I yam what I yam...

2005.11.30

<a href="http://ian-albert.com/misc/gamemaps.php">mapped some other games as well</a>. It's kind of a cool little hobby. The DOOM I + II maps, in 3/4 perspective, are brilliant...so many of those levels I learned by "feel" (turn left, run straight, left again, right) that seeing them, with all the graphical detail that the in-game overhead maps lack, really lets me "see" them for the first time. (Thanks LAN3 who IM'd me with the first map, and then put the link in the comments the other day.)

2005.12.02

gatling gun was on steady fire you could hear a pipe band performing.

2005.12.04

<a href="http://bopedia.com/en/wikipedia/d/do/donald_duck.html">Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comic books</a> in the 1940s and 50s...highly regarded, especially in Eurupe, I've found first hand.

2005.12.08

So yesterday was my first day at my new job. It's interesting working at a small company. Here's one difference: it's entrepenerial. People besides marketing actually think and make jokes about how what they do affects the bottom line. Which is kind of funny; you know your salary, you know what a license for the program costs. That part of the equation is pretty damn stark.

And by the way, I love this new "Talk to Chuck" slogan. It's refreshing to see a little informality from a financial services firm. But more important: so percussive! "Charles Schwab" comprises two of the mushiest syllables you'll ever hear, with those soft, retreating l's and b's and ch's. It was time to add some sticky consonants, and a pair of k's does the trick. Nike, Coke, Starbucks, Kinko's ... never underestimate the palate-exploding power of k-centric marketing.

2005.12.15

Well, the first two lines are stronger than the last two, and it's a bit corny, but still...I think the idea of "ownership" is powerful in this case. I know to often in life I take my body, such as it is, totally for granted. I'm totally dependent on it, but because I wish I wasn't, I'm usually reluctant to give it some of the attention it really deserves.

2005.12.18

Patriots got a tremendous win last yesterday against a team widely regarded as pretty decent. Great to see! Lets people have theories like the first part of the season was just a bunch of injuries plus Belichick going "back to basics" like he does almost every year.

2005.12.26

PC World presents <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,123950,00.asp">the best 50 gadgets of the past 50 years</a>. A pretty cool list...you can forget how neat some of this stuff was when it first came out.

2005.12.28

Two Canadians are sitting in a bar getting bored, so they decide to play twenty questions. The first Canadian tries to think of a subject for his friend to guess and, after a little pondering, comes up with "moose cock." He tells his friend he's ready to play.

The first Canadian thinks for a moment, then laughs and replies, "Sure, I guess you could eat it."

2005.12.30

The first two entry titles weren't too inspiring... <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2000.12.30">a new thing</a> and <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2000.12.31">am i a 'blog?</a>. Also, as always, I should get back to including more doodles. It was meant to kind of complement for (but then supplanted) my <a href="http://kisrael.com/khftcea/">Palm-based quote journal</a>, which got its start in February or March of 1997, so I suppose in a bit over a year I should celebrate a decade of this kind of recording the interesting bits of the world I encounter.

2006.01.01

Suicide Girls: The First Tour,

Rising Stars : Born In Fire,

2006.01.04

Doug Flutie's <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/nfl/01/01/bc.fbn.flutie.dropkick.ap/">first NFL dropkick "point after" in 60 years</a> has generated a lot of heat and noise... I think the people who say that it made a "mockery" of the game miss the core idea that it was just a really, really cool thing to do, and was a great cap to a meaningless game, a hard fought season, and maybe even a football career, if it comes to that. (UPDATE: huh, I only now realized that a dropkick has the player dropping the ball so it hits the ground, not like a punter who kicks it away directly...for years and years my picture of what it was (like that "Drop Kick Me Jesus Though The Goalposts Of Life" song) was wrong, but I think that's true for a lot of people.

2006.01.07

All the illusions of grandeur you have about me are wrong. We're going to sit and talk, but first of all you must disengage your fingers from my thighs.

2006.01.09

</blockquote> I first saw it <a href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/12/0757237&tid=164&tid=10">paraphrased</a> as "You realize... there aren't any 'good guys' and 'bad guys'... there are just... just a bunch of guys?" which reads a bit better.

First safety released! <a href=".">betting site</a> away The buttons at the top of her dress were undone and her bra was .

2006.01.16

So this is Texas...I think it may well be the first time I've been west of the Mississippi, except maybe in an airport en route to Mexico.

2006.01.20

But the company was really great...it's only the second time I've met "IRL" with a Blender (or kisrael.com) fan. Internet nano-(not even micro-)celebritydom is so funny... fans of sites are amazed that the creators would deign to meet with the "common folk", while the site makers are just so flattered by the attention... and often attenion is why they do it in the first place.

2006.01.27

But, and maybe I'm kind of naive, but I'm not all that fired up against the wiretapping as I might've expected myself to be. Maybe it's kind of a sort of dumb trust in the system, or just general anxiety about terrorism, and/or the idea that "well it won't likely bother ME...", but I I'm guess more flexible about the balance between seurity measure and personal freedoms.

2006.02.02

to accelerate because we become accustomed to its passage: "The first

of attention paid during the first trip that is not required afterward.

During the first run, we don't know what is important so we pay

attention to everything. After the first time, the mind only needs to

2006.02.03

Some of it might be a particularly pushy and demanding client my first time out... this trip to Washington DC is with a much better known quantity to my company, a long relationship with friendly people. Still, I'm almost wondering what I'm going to be doing there for a full damn week...I mean I assume some of that is just getting started on work that could theoretically be done back at the home office, because I think afew days is going to exhaust what I'm bringing to the table. (Luckily there will be a veteran from my company there for the first two days, just like Texas was with two other guys.)

They say that for some sects, <i>any</i> likeness is forbidden, though it would be disenguous to say that the pointed satirical nature of the cartoon isn't adding a lot of fuel to the fire. I mean it's not like there's anyway it could actually <i>look</i> like the prophet, given that it's forbidden to reproduce his image for so long. (Which would indicate that a stickfigure with an arrow saying "this is him" might be problematic.) Theoretically the taboo arises from the need to prevent idolatry, though in practice it doesn't sound like the masked gunmen are really concerned the faithful will begin worshipping a cartoon.

2006.02.05

Via <a href="http://thoughtviper.com">Bill the Splut</a>, the <a href="http://www.litline.org/ABR/100bestfirstlines.html">100 Best First Lines from Novels</a> and then a quicker read,

2006.02.06

<li>It was a bit after sunset when the plane left, so we spent the first part of trip heading south towards just the tiniest bit of orange sunset on the horizon, though of course never reaching it. Something about that made me a little melancholy.

2006.02.09

<table><tr><td><IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2006.02.dc.fire.jpg" width="300" height="198" ></td><td valign="bottom">--via the Cellar,

<a href="http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?t=5880">Iraqi Firefighters fighting a pipeline fire</a>

2006.02.11

<a href="http://www.thesuperficial.com/archives/2006/01/26/david_hasselhoff_is_hooked_on.html">David Hasselhoff Is Hooked On a Feeling</a>. Wow... <i>now</i> I think I understand why Germans LOVE David Hasselhoff. (I have first hand evidence of it, seeing the guy airbrushed on top of the bumper cars at a local carnival.)

2006.02.12

I realize I can't really look at my <s>sight</s> site <i>(thanks FoSO)</i> objectively, I really don't know how it looks to someone seeing it for the first time, or even to a regular reader.

Which brings us to the first link...

2006.02.15

Ooh, weird...after a lunchtime work conversation I went Googling on <i>Synesthesia dyslexia</i>, I really wonder if there can be some connection between the two... it took me a few tries and a tangental search to get the spelling of the first word. The weird part was I then mistyped and actually searched for <i><a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=Synesthesia+dysliexia&btnG=Search">Synesthesia dysliexia</a></I>... and there was exactly one match for that: me making the exact same typo <a href="http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=62696&threshold=1&commentsort=3&mode=thread&cid=5853303">exact same typo on slashdot in 2003</a>. I guess the typo is pretty characteristic of the mistakes I tend to make, phonetically blending syllables a bit, the ending "ia" of the word getting me to insert the extra "i" in the syllable before.

2006.02.16

ENIAC was one of the first, if not the first, electronic computers ever built.

2006.02.17

A. First spread the sentence out on a clean, flat surface, such as an ironing board. Then, using a sharp pencil or X-Acto knife, locate the "predicate," which indicates where the action has taken place and is usually located directly behind the gills.

2006.02.18

I also thought of you recently because of a conversation I had with a friend. It was about being really happy in a relationship; giddily happy, happy without reservation. As far as I can remember, the only time I was happy like that was in 1991. I'm not sure if it's fair to me to say that right now, because I think it would be really really unusual if it was you and I who found that again. As far as I can tell, that's what New York was all about. Before you arrived, I wondered what it would be like the first instant I saw you. in the airport. And when that moment came, it was...something, but not That Thing I had hoped for. (I don't put a lot of stock in gut feelings, though, because my instincts are so often wrong. Still, oh, I dunno) Still, that Spring and Summer-- I was in love with you beyond rhyme and beyond reason. I try to figure out why haven't found that since; if something in me broke when you left, if that kind of happiness only comes when you're young and kind of innocent, if it's just one of those things and maybe I'll be in that kind of love since. Since then I've always been looking for someone else; for a long time I was looking for you, for a while it's been someone else. I understand your frustration in New York; it seemed the only thing missing from the equation was me. "Why won't you love me?" you asked; the question and my inability to to answer it cut me more than you know.

2006.02.22

<a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4405009,00.html">funeral and rites for Corporal Brett Lundstrom</a>, the first member of the Oglala Sioux to die in Iraq. Captivating reading, not emotionally easy to get through.

2006.03.02

Dupont Circle is one of the most confusing roundabouts I've ever seen, with like 3 or 4 lanes around, but they criscross. The confusion extends to the pedestrians as well... it's kind of distracting seeing "time left before traffic resumes" counters set to different values at a single crossing...32 seconds to cross the first part but only 12 for the second in this photo though it's a little hard to see.

2006.03.04

Wow Jon Stewart hosting the Oscars? This is the first time I remember seeing the host as a reason to watch... anyone planning an Oscar party?

2006.03.09

Link harvester sites are getting both a bit weird and also more professinal looking. I was thinking about seeing if I should grab the logical typo for kisrael.com, namely <a href="http://kisreal.com">kisreal.com</a>, but I see it's been grabbed. "For resources and information on Jewish and Radio Station". I think I first read that as Jewish Radio Stations, but the like of grammar only makes it a touch more weird.

2006.03.11

<a href="http://www.productdose.com/2006/03/07/top-10-geek-watches/">Top 10 Geek Watches</a>...I really like the first one,the Fossil Frank Gehry Watch, which uses the same kind of rounding that people use when telling the time, or at least the way they used to before digital watches...

2006.03.15

Lileks take on <a href="http://www.lileks.com/institute/compupromo/">Old Computer Promotional Photos</a> isn't quite as funny as I had hoped... I think the caption for the <a href="http://www.lileks.com/institute/compupromo/1.html">first one</a> was my favorite. Boingboing like <a href="http://www.lileks.com/institute/compupromo/7.html">#7</a>. I think it's pretty amazing how there's not a single trailing cable to be found in the whole batch, though I guess some of them might be running 'em under the floor.

2006.03.16

'All wood burns,' states Sir Bedevere. 'Therefore,' he concludes, 'all that burns is wood.' This is, of course, pure bullshit. Universal affirmatives can only be partially converted: all of Alma Cogan is dead, but only some of the class of dead people are Alma Cogan. 'Oh yes,' one would think. However, my wife does not understand this necessary limitation of the conversion of a proposition; consequently, she does not understand me, for how can a woman expect to appreciate a professor of logic, if the simplest cloth-eared syllogism causes her to flounder?

2006.03.21

Watched "Colossus: The Forbin Project" last night. It ends like the first part of a trilogy that it is, but they never made movies for the sequels... luckily I found <a href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-397828.html">this page</a> that explains what happened in the other books.

2006.03.24

I was trying to Google up which came first, "color" or "colour" (answer: color, "colour" is a bit of francophilism filing into the language) and found the answer on

2006.03.26

<li>Firefox...unprintable characters are changed into literal ?s. Grrr. Now, I sort of see (if disagree with) their refusal to play fast and loose with character sets the way IE does, so that funny quote characters and other punctuation still show up, but changing them into a literal ? rather than showing some kind of placeholder character (I think IE uses a block) makes it much harder to get back to the correct punctuation.

2006.03.29

So during that fateful visit to FoSO's and FoSOSO's, I had, maybe for the first time...kumquats! It's funny but I think I went 30 years without 'em, but now I think they're great, I love how you can just pop one, rind and all, into your mouth, and then they're kind of like nature's version of "Atomic Warheads" sour candies that were popular back in the late 90s.<br><br>

2006.04.02

Holy cow, it's Daylight Saving Time? I only heard about it once on the radio beforehand. (Hmm, though if it's always the first Sunday of April, I can program that logic into my Palm.)

2006.04.04

Yesterday I mentioned it was tough to get info on that holographic monster game R2D2 and Chewbacca play in the first Star Wars movie, but I guess I wasn't Googling hard enough. I guess the title is "Dejarik Holochess" and like all things Star Warsy, fanboys have tried to make it more of a reality... here's a <a href="http://zeelay.free.fr/star-wars-artisanal/index.htm">French guy making it out of clay</a> (click on Dejarik at top, the dork doesn't support direct linking), here's some <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/movie-gadget-friday-the-dejarik-holochess-game-from-star-wars/">info with a screenshot</a>,

2006.04.06

Funny to think about how much richer the 'net is these days in terms of interesting things, in particular the web. Hell I was here through the school's teething pains as students decided to get on this e-mail thing <i>en masse</i>, and saw the first few web browsers we had up. That Mosaic...whew! <i>Pictures</i> and text...too bad we only have it on these big ol' Sun X-terminals.

2006.04.13

It does increase in speed if characters are killed too fast, but eventually will slow down if you don't keep killing more of them too fast. I don't remember the algorithm off the top of my head, but it adjusts a tiny bit faster\slower every few seconds to try to find the best fit for the current level and how long you have been playing the current level. The first level starts out painfully slow for the little players, and I think by level 16 or so it is running at full speed even with a few enemies.

fired up my C64 and played it). I also got teary eyed the first time I

2006.04.17

he speaks to. The first question, this is not a joke, said the nation

If these generals are correct in pinning some of the anti-Rumsfeld sentiment as stodgey, anti-"joint expeditionary force" thinking, well.... so what. It's clear Rumsfeld hoped stuff like Iraq could be done on the cheap, and he was largely wrong, and they fired guys who tried to speak up and say that it was going to be more expensive than the Administration wanted to hear.

2006.04.18

It's a great point... less of an exaggeration than it might first sound... and I'm trying to apply to my life at work, especially when there's a task I feel intimidated by. I tend to want to run and hide in those cases, and that's really not a useful strategy.

2006.04.20

After the sadness of the previous movement, the Symphony will move into an spiritually uplifting Aria. Unlike the previous movements, this work will be all about cars in motion and emotion, driving in a tremendous asphalt oval, especially engineered to be reassembled at each arena (carried to the location by the same trucks that featured so prominently in the previous movement) Through a diabolically clever series of stoplights and lane merging signs, a gloriously joyful song will emerge, with heavily miked windshield wipers providing a flowing percussive undercurrent. At every moment, cars will be on the verge of colliding, turning into fireballs of metal and steel, but the ability of these drivers and their cars to survive and prosper will be a testament to the strength of the human spirit under trying conditions.

[[`THE BACKFIRE CHORUS`]]

The triumphant conclusion to the evening's mechanomusical events...these vehicles will generally be old cars and trucks, each badly in need of a tuneup. Ivanov will carefully adjust and modify each engine to backfire in a precisely choreographed way. Similar in form to the Dirge that preceded it, but utterly different in the sense of mood and spirit, the Backfire Chorus will bring the audience to its feet, women throwing babies up in the air, men cheering until their throats are raw like beef tartare. Never again in the history of music or engines will there be a moment of such intensity... the audience will pass the tale of this experience onto their children, and future generations will speak of the legendary Beep Orchestra led by the demigod known as Ivanov.

2006.04.23

They had the model for the "Rebel Blockade Runner", and because of my deepish fanboy knowledge, I was able to search for and confirm a Star Wars easter egg... here's the model...

I was wondering about the whole Verb/Noun labels... I googled up <a href="http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/TheCompMusRep/TCMR-V02.html">this explanation</a>. (I also Googled a confirmation that the good ol' Boston Computer Museum closedup and merged with the MoS... sigh, I used to love that place, but I guess since it took me 7 years to notice, I can't complain much.)

2006.04.25

But Sprint/Nextel swapped my phone for free, and I couldn't really justify the expense of a new phone...it's not a bad model <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2005.11.17">despite my gripes</a> with it. (Pity that Samsung/Palm hybrid was such crap software-wise.) I had to manually move numbers over, and I lost the video of the Euclid municipal Fireworks that was my "video wallpaper". Oh well.

2006.04.28

Random Kirk Anecdote: when I was in first or second grade or so my elementary school (St. Pats, in Salamanca, NY) decided to have a fundraiser by getting us kids to sell plastic tumblers. They gathered us all in the gym for some salesguy's demonstration. Part of the act was hurling a tumbler fullforce against a wall. Now I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and believe his story that that particular tumbler had been his demo model for a bit too long, and believe that those tumblers were indeed reasonably durable, but the end of that sucker sheared right off.

2006.04.29

Damn, actually, that makes me scared and angry about religion in general. When you get in the habit of faith over "show me" skepticism, there might not BE a particularly strong reason for a culture to prefer life-affirming, positive belief over martyrdom-seeking "this world is nothing compared to the next" fantasylands. Maybe <a href="http://www.valleyskeptic.com/dawkins.html">Dawkins was right</a>, "To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns."

2006.04.30

If the world hates you, remember it hated me first.

2006.05.02

Because really, what incentive do these people have to answer your questions, after all? I mean, nothing satisfies you. Everybody asks for personnel changes. So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.

2006.05.03

Another upside-- and I understand that this could pale in a hurry-- is an almost public service angle to it, becoming a core stalwart for a community of folks in the 7th and 8th innings of their lives. There's risk to that, of course... from just having to be there for residents in emergency situations, being brave and constant even if they're scared and freaked out, to even the possibility of the "we haven't heard from grandpa for a few days, could you check up on him?" call leading to being the "first responder" for tragedy. And surely a group of Seniors is going to be a mixed bag, they won't all be the loveable ol' codgers from the movies. Some will be cranky, some might not like us, some might be... well, a lot of things. There will be dead lightbulbs and clogged toilets to deal with. On the other hand (and this is still in the "might pale mighty quick" category) I think there might be a poetic grace in learning about this part of life, in terms of my own mortality. (Heck, there might even be pointers in how I'd like cope with my own retirement plans.)

Rightly or wrongly the first thing that comes to mind is the size of the aprartment, a one BR likely a number of notches down from my current digs. Suddenly, my vague touchy-feeling ideas and work about how nice it would be to have a post-house-owning clutter-free life would be put to the test in stark fashion. I've lived in small places before...this shoebox Mo and I shared in East Arlington comes to mind... and it wasn't too bad but it will definately require a deliberate scaling back.

2006.05.05

Which reminds me... I've just started installing Google toolbar for its super-nifty spellcheck implementation, it scans for textfields on your currently open webpage and has a very handy way of selecting correcting spellings. You don't even need to show the whole toolbar, you can add the Google pieces-part you want to some of the other bars. (At least in Firefox, I think IE as well) If only there was a way to personalize the dictionary, or at least having common HTML elements in it, it would be darn near perfect.

2006.05.06

i can taste summer coming. there are certain smells that i forget about until summer rolls around, and then they all come flowing back in my memory: bonfires, sunblock, cookouts, fresh-cut grass... and then there are the images, pictures of things in my mind that probably weren't as good as i remember, yet i can see them so vividly: cramming in a car to go to drive-in movies, covered in bugspray and armed with snacks; wandering around amusement parks dripping wet from water rides; grabbing an elephant ear and some cotton candy at the local fair; seeing a movie on a weeknight and leaving the theater to meet the warm night air... these are the things i hope to do every summer; sometimes i do, sometimes i don't... but this year i'm hoping extra hard.

2006.05.16

Sometimes this nostalgia has taxed the indulgence of current or even former romantic interests. Perhaps that is the undying allure of first romance: the one relationship that never had to compete with any form of an idealized past...

2006.05.17

--<a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/15/tubatron_howto_make_.html">Tuba On Fire</a>! This

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nd_gvR06j6s&search=fire%20tuba">amazing video</a>

2006.05.21

<li>There was a surprising amount of technical glitches... 2 of the trailers weren't displayed correctly at first, with the bottom of the frame showing up at the top. (The second time the problem was corrected immediately, the first time though it took a bit.) And then the movie itself had a recurring bit of scratches in the middle of the screen, every few seconds for about 10 or 15 minutes of the movie. Which seemed really odd, because after all it's a new release so you'd think the film should be close to pristine.

2006.05.24

(Or what about that <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/23/first_photos_of_mits.html">sub-$100 3rd world laptop</a>? Some folks are trying to get them to sell them to folks in richer countries for $300, which would then buy 2 for the target audience...)

2006.05.31

I'd recommend this to everyone: The next time those "newborn" (or newly reborn, or whatever) twenties poke their way out of the ATM, blinking in the light, nervous about what might be their first time in the outside world, gently pick them up and say, "Hello, money!"

2006.06.01

I've never used a fire extinguisher. So, of course, they're very tempting to me now. They just seem like so much fun, all that foam at your command. Plus it seems like putting out a fire with one must be <i>very</i> satisfying, in that kind of manly "mastery over nature" sort of way.

I still like the other premise of Fahrenheit <s>411</s> 451 (thanks Candi)... it's not just that they burn books, it's that they don't need firefighters because they just made everything fireproof.

2006.06.02

The first entry in Lore's new project <a href="http://www.badgods.com/">Bad Gods</a> made me laugh. Funny stuff and its good a return to some of the Slumbering Lungfish multimedia form.

2006.06.04

Today I created the first version of a small web app to record and sum up daily foods and calories, which beats utlizing this site's content managment scratchpad and Windows' calculator application. I made it so that if I ever feel like having the app generate weighted moving average graphs I could ditch the Hacker's Diet Palm application entirely.

2006.06.05

Someone leaves printouts from ESPN's website around. Today I was really amused by this piece on <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=baker/060602">"before their time" baseball innovations</a>, but a little bit of thought and some googling seems to confirm that I was duped for a few minutes... it's written fairly convincingly (though I was a little suspicious at the tone in the "Fantasy Baseball" letter) and has some clever ideas, especially the Instant Replay and blogging, but still, I'm pretty sure it's a delayed April Fools. June Fools. Something like that.

2006.06.06

I have two last pieces of advice. First, being pre-approved for a credit card does not mean you have to apply for it. And lastly, the best career advice I can give you is to get your own TV show. It pays well, the hours are good, and you are famous. And eventually some very nice people will give you a doctorate in fine arts for doing jack squat.

2006.06.07

One guy is trying to eat <a href="http://www.angryman.ca/monkey.html">Nuthin' but Monkey Chow</a>. A work in progress, with videos! The first one when he finds out what the stuff actually tastes like, and how bad the week is going to be is pretty funny. <i>(thanks FoSO)</i>

I've hit my first plateau the past few days, with (what I think is) weight loss less than the plus/minus error of my scale. Also last night with my UU Covenant Group, for the most part I ate pretty well (couscous, a few small drumsticks, green salad, and strawberries) but the calories are more guesswork than I like.

The one thing about calorie monitoring is for the first time some conventional wisdom makes sense to me. If, <i>on average</i> (and I think that was the sticking point, because I think people's intake varies widely) you're eating 500 more calories than you burn, you're going to gain a pound a week. And while 2000-2200 seems like a lot of wiggle room to eat with, the day is long with a lot of opportunities to snack, and you're probably not noticing how often you're grabbing just a little something...

2006.06.09

I got the privilege of seeing EBaby in her first 24 hours on the planet! So cute! And a head full of pretty hair already!

2006.06.11

I like how the first one points out the vanity nature of the site but besides that I'm not sure if I'm going to bother. Any other suggestions for pithy slogans for this site?

2006.06.16

This is isn't the first time I've considered using outdoor furniture indoors... one unrealized dream in my old house was to use a corner of its massive "Great Room" to harbor one of those Brookstone hammocks.

2006.06.18

John Snow will have a replacement, and he may very well come from the corporate world. But if it's an A-list Wall Street CEO, I'll buy a copy of Dow 36,000 and eat the first chapter.

2006.06.25

I got to talking to Ksenia about Russian Orthodox thought. It has a few interesting ideas...after someone's death there's a 40-day period before the person's fate is determined. Friends and Family can pray and try to help the person get into Heaven and not Hell...but then, it sounds like that's not the eternal reward or punishment, but just what goes on until the end of the world, at which point the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ should allow everyone to live in the new kingdom. It's an interesting idea, and I appreciate the relative lack of eternal hellfire.

2006.06.27

It's pretty great! A huge selection, and a great "remainders" section. The weird thing about it, though, is they arrange first roughly by topic, and then by publisher (or maybe the former is a byproduct of the latter?) "By Publisher" isn't the most natural browsing format, though it's not quite as bad in practice as it sounds. Still, the only publishing imprints I care about are DK (who make those supercool hardover image-intensive books about Star Wars and Comic Superheroes etc) and Simon and Schuster's "Fireside" imprint, which I've noticed has a higher than average percentage of cool books.

2006.06.29

Dang, having to deal with my first bit of dieting "plateau"... Monday I hit 214.5, where I've been until today, where it snack back up to 215, despite me being "on plan" the whole time. Ah well, it's still a very minor plateau as far as these things go, and if I was measuring weekly with today as "the day" I'd still say I was down a pound for the week, but still.

2006.06.30

I also found <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/nc/tcrpress/plots1.html">Hatch's Plot Bank</a>, as well as the <a href="http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm">Big List of RPG Plots</a>.

2006.07.03

<i>Oh, by the way, what are some good Boston burb ideas for fireworks? I know there's always the Charles but I'd prefer something that wasn't an all-day event to get a good view...</i>

2006.07.04

But when you switch? It's a new round - but the win/lose result will be *EXACTLY* OPPOSITE of what it was if you stayed. If you picked the car at first as round 1, the new round switches you to being a loser. But if you picked the goat in Round 1 - and remember there was a 2 in 3 chance you picked a goat... in round 2 you are a winner! <br><br>

2006.07.05

Yesterday, on a whim, Ksenia and I decided to celebrate the fourth by renting a kayak and paddling down to see the Boston fireworks.

<li>Consider investing in a small anchor if you want to park your kayak...having to constantly adjust one's position while waiting for and viewing fireworks gets old after a while. Ksenia and I were quite fortunate, we made friends with a fellow kayaker named Rochelle, who was teaming up with 4 folks in a canoe... and they had an anchor! We lashed our watercraft together, Rochelle even passed around some munchkin bottles of Pinot Noir, and in general we had a grand old time.

<li>It's a long way from the <a href="http://www.paddleboston.com/main.php">Charles River Canoe & Kayak</a> (a couple of miles maybe? I was trying to figure it out) to where they have the fireworks. And, of course, even longer back.

We were pretty dang close to the fireworks, they really filled the sky and the sound was amazing. (I think I respond more to the sound than the light with these things.) I like the new ones, lots of noise, with many more miniblasts filling the sky. Though in those photo, the fireworks look a bit like a Sanrio critter. You can judge how close were from the silhouette of the other boats:

<img src="/journal.aux/2006.07.04.08_fireworks.jpg" width=300 height=400>

Two points: I think it is a even more fun to have a definite goal such as as "seeing fireworks" than just "paddling around for a bit", and man... in 1998 I had a craptacular digital camera. That last picture of Sarah was ok though.

<a href="http://www.spiritofspringfield.org/starspangle/starspanglepages/funfacts.html">Fun Facts about Springfield's Fireworks</a>. It was my first clue about the names for the various types, which the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firework">wikipedia page now covers in greater detail</a>, from Peonies to Cakes and including my favorites, Salutes... just a big sound and a big noise. (Heh, that first link was probably in my backlog since before I knew much about wikipedia.)

2006.07.06

If memory serves, the Boston fireworks preshow had not just Aerosmith but Rockapella.

2006.07.07

<a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsrchnum.htm&Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&r=1&l=50&f=G&d=PALL&s1=D452152.PN.&OS=PN/D452152&RS=PN/D452152">D452,152</a>. Boy, when I'm craving a salty snack product, my first thought is to reach for one that could be spending years in expensive patent litigation.

2006.07.13

I was in a casino, minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, "You're gonna have to move. You're blocking a fire exit." As though if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run. If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit. Unless you are a table.

2006.07.15

She has a pretty amazing writing style, sometimes reading it is like taking a sip from a firehose.

2006.07.17

The one thing is, at first we couldn't use it to find my mom's own street! Though browsing, we could see it on the map. I finally found it by entering her zip code, which explained that she doesn't live in "Needham" like we thought, but "Needham Heights". (One thing I can do on m Garmin but I don't know how to on the TomTom is search for a street without knowing the city.)

I found this page of <a href="http://www.pathguy.com/chess/ChessVar.htm">Chess Variants</a>, where you can play against a weak computer opponent online (Java applet-- actually following one of the game links seemed to shutdown Firefox once, so beware.) I got the chance to try <a href="http://www.pathguy.com/chess/Kriegspi.htm">Kriegspiel</a>, where you can't see your opponents pieces. The UI could be a bit sharper, but overall it's cool to mess around with.

2006.07.22

This is Samus Aran of the Metroid series, cribbed from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Samus_Aran_Sprites_%28small%29.gif">this Wikipedia graphic</a>, which includes the various powered up modes, including when she loses her armor. The armorless version is slated to be a character in the new Smash Bros. game, a bit to the dismay of gamers who would like to have her as evidence that you can have a tough video game heroine without it being about her looks. Of course, even the first game had a (rather non-titillating) "Samus in a bathing suit" reward for completing the game... but back then, part of it was the turnabout of realizing that the character you'd been controlling the entire time was a woman.

2006.07.24

So, I've lost 20 pounds! That's a cool milestone. Half of the first ten is that easy to lose water-y weight stuff, but the second ten is pretty much all the result of your new patterns.

2006.07.25

This morning I had very vivid, yet now irritatingly vague dreamlets involving the snooze alarm... something drawing parallels between Peanuts cartoons with their dealing with imaginary friends and the difficulty in sorting out the real world from the dreamworld when you're first waking up. Pressing snooze was represented by some sort of bureaucratic form you had to fill out that helped explain what you were dreaming about. And then after all that I realized it might all be because I'm expecting a sucktastic next few days at work.

2006.07.27

<a href="http://www.msu.edu/%7Ekarjalae/internet96.htm">the Internet Circa 1996</a>, right when I was graduating from college. Funny. I had forgotten how big the 101 Dalmations remake was. I also remember a Wired piece from a few years before, where a guy grabbed the McDonalds.com domain after repeatedly confirming the company's disinterest in their own webspace.

2006.07.28

If you took someone from a few decades ago, I'm not sure how many, and put them in a modern office workplace, besides all the technical achievements, wouldn't they be surprised by the "first name culture" that so permeates the place? The other day at work I was composing an e-mail to our contact at one of our clients, she's a project lead there, we've never ment, but I get to call her by her first name. I'm not very mystical about the power of names, but still, there's a certan enforced casualness that has kind of taken over the business world.

2006.07.30

"htmlaudit" realized that I was once again mixing his online handle with "lateadopter". Now, to normal people, these nicks are nothing alike, but to my shadow-dyslexia, or shadow-synthaesia , or whatever it is, they're extremely similar, compound phrase-words, both with the first word having strong "l" and "t" sounds and the second word starting with "a" "d" and "t" in rapid succession.

2006.08.01

<b><geekness level="severe" type="artsy"></b>My first attempts were a simple program that let me select the sections by hand, but that was error prone, and annoying, and too much work in general. I tried a few more approaches, "averaging" the pixels over a series of frames (which, as expected, led to a big blur in the middle), an odd "voting" system where a pixel becomes the color it is the most often (left odd color sparkles all over the place, because of how I broke up the R/G/B information) until finally I made up a kind of primitive AI filter that could take a guess about whether or not a scanline currently had text on it (counting the areas of sharp contrast.) The end result still needed some hand-tweaking in picking out extra frames to import and rejecting 1 or 2 that could fool the heuristic, but it was much, much easier than what I tried to do originally.<b></geekness></b>

2006.08.03

I was really impessed by <a href="http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/07/column_free_play_d_of_i_1.php">the toys and games of D_of_I</a>, especially because he sometimes works in the same environment I do for Java called processing. (I just wish I could read Japanese to get the rest of his site!) The main point of this entry is that <i>you really need to try <a href="http://ishi.blog2.fc2.com/blog-entry-158.html">World of Sand</a></i>, a literal "sandbox" toy, where you can blend particle elements such as water, fire, sand, plant, wall and I think ceramic as they fall through space. It's really cool to come up with different setups and see what happens.

2006.08.06

I always thought it was weird that <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Brown">Encyclopedia Brown's</a> first name was actually "Leroy". Because that would make him the <a href="http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/jim+croce/bad+bad+leroy+brown_20071475.html">Baddest Man in this Whole Damn Town</a>, and that just doesn't seem like a likely future for such a bookish fella.

(Odd that some of the strips in the mid-90s aren't colorized, but the ones back in 1978 have been. And so amazing how much the <a href="http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1978-ga780619">first Garfield</a> looks just like <a href="http://www.claydesign.com/images/Gifts-For-Pets-The-Kliban-C.jpg">Kliban's Cats</a>.)

2006.08.07

I'm always alarmed at how quickly the first part of a month goes by. Of course, I'm amazed at the ability of a year to slip by in general, but I think the first part is the worst, just because you say to youself "heck I have this whole month in front of me!" but one week later, and you're barely in the single digits...

2006.08.13

On your right side is a valley and on your left side is a fire engine

2006.08.14

In celebration of Jeff Foxworthy's "new baby," his new CMT sketch comedy television show FOXWORTHY'S BIG NIGHT OUT, CMT is awarding $50,000 for a BIG NIGHT OUT to the mother of the first baby born in America during the premiere of the show at 8:30 pm ET(a) on Friday, September 1, 2006. As part of FOXWORTHY'S BIG NIGHT OUT on CMT Baby Bounty cash giveaway, CMT will also award an additional $55,000 -- $5,000 each week -- to the mother of the first baby born in America during the premiere of the 11 subsequent new episodes of FOXWORTHY'S BIG NIGHT OUT airing Fridays at 8:30 pm ET(a) on CMT.

2006.08.19

This accusation irked me to no end. And so I've been trying to think of solid examples of good flexible thinking in my life. Of course, the first things I think of our my limitations. Like listening to Paul Simon... I feel like there's a tiny chance I could have picked up on "Slip-Slidin' Away" as a lyric, but I don't think I could have thought to follow it up with "The nearer your destination, the more you're slip-slidin' away." Tim points out that trying to go against Paul Simon as a lyricist is kind of like berating myself for not being able to hold my own against Michael Jordan in one-on-one, but still.

2006.08.20

And FWIW, yesterday's doodle was a product of that <a href="/viewblog.cgi?date=2006.05.24">Fujitsu Lifebook I was jonesing for</a> and finally broke down and got, having reached my first goal of 20 lbs lost. I think the drawing/coloring style I "invented" on my Palm, using PalmPaint which seemed to lack a fill feature, works fairly well, and avoid the worst of the "made with Microsoft Paint" effect.

2006.08.22

<a href="http://kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi?date=2001.04.27">Years ago</a> I wrote about <a href="http://rot13.com/">ROT13</a>, that simple reversible cypher for making text unreadable but decodable. Recently I introduced the idea to Rob, and he wrote me a note with it. It made me realize that we all have "ROT13 Names" of varying degrees of pronouncability and coolness. Rob's isn't so bad ("Ebo") but mine, "Xvex", just rocks. (Hmm. Ksenia's isn't so bad either, "Xfravn"... of course, the first part of her name looks a bit pre-ROT13d already.)

2006.08.28

--That's been deep in my Palm journal since 2000. Just following "On July 28, 1945, an Air Force B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building on the 79th floor. That's kind of funny.". Hmm, now... not so funny. I remember recalling that fact right when I first heard about 9/11, back for that brief time when we thought it might have just been an accident.

2006.08.31

Finally, there was a damn rose on my bed when I came in after work the first day. (Joined by a second the next day...ok, I get it.) My first upon seeing it was, and I kid you not, "crap, I'm in the wrong room." There was no other reason to think I was in the wrong room, it just seemed so odd.

2006.09.06

Ksenia and I went up to Vermont. Brattleboro on the way in was pretty nifty. We stayed at a place called the <a href="http://www.deerhillinn.com/">Deerhill Inn</a>, and I gotta say that of the 3 or so B+Bs I've stayed at, this one is definitely tops. We did the whole web search thing (and man those room photos start looking all alike after a short while) and this one stood out... at first because of the webdesign, but it turns out that's a reflection of the place itself. For starters the room (we stayed in the Dahlia room) looked great in the photos and had the full set of amenities: fireplace, tub with jacuzzi jets, TV/DVD, even wireless 'Net so I didn't feel like a total refugee. Then it turns out that the grounds were beautifully done as well, with better landscaping and a much better view than any other place I've been in...they even feature a small pool. Breakfast was great (though I'm getting the sneaking suspicion it's fairly easy for B+Bs to throw together breakfasts that seem impressive and taste wonderful...) but the place also has a (price-y) built-in restaurant... we had a great creme brulee via something like room service.

Plus, I got my first ever speeding-ticket. Boo, Hiss, frickin' Vermont pseudo-highways going straight through the middle of their little podunk towns.

2006.09.11

But of course, I'm just alternating between my subjective concerns, and thoughts on architecture, when its the human tragedy that makes the day what it is. 3,000 people... less than first feared, but still. 3,000 lives stopped over the course of a few hours. It's deeply disturbing to try and put yourself in their shoes, the doubt and confusion and fear. And of course the uncertainty might be one of the hardest parts to try and duplicate in empathy; we now know that the airplanes are going to be turned into missiles, that those towers are doomed to collapse, and can only really see the tragedy as the biggest event in a series of engagements between the West and Islamic terrorist.

2006.09.14

Johnny Theremin lunged for the rubber cantaloupe, but the villainous Doctor Anthelion fired his Bilious Ray with deadly accuracy. Johnny fell short by inches, clutching his heroic duodenum and groaning manfully. "You'll never get away with this, Anthelion!" he bellowed from his intrepid diaphragm. Doctor Anthelion sneered. "That's such a cliche, Theremin. The Cantaloupe is mine! MINE!" Menacingly, he reached for the pliant rubber. Johnny Theremin writhed fruitlessly on the grimy Pergo.

"The Fantod! The Flammable Fantod?" gasped the malign Doctor, firing his Bilious Ray into the air in shock and emphasis.

2006.09.15

Of course than I start thinking about parts of the country where "fire" is one syllable and then I need to go lie down for a bit.

Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust. [...]

2006.09.17

The "topics" of the links have gotten too diverse for my "forbidden words when posted with a link" filter to keep up. But I've noticed something that wasn't clear to me at first: there's hardly ever spam on my front page, these scumbags' scripts seem to prefer the dark shadows of previous comments.

2006.09.19

This taxi was parked as my own more normal cab pulled up to the hotel. At first I thought it was some odd Hummer-derived monstrosity, but then I realized it does sport wheelchair access, so it's not just for show.

2006.09.27

"They ran up and down the street, smashing car windows and stuff. My first reaction was, 'Yeah, right on!' But then I thought, 'Wait, I'm parked out there.'"

2006.10.06

(If you want to sing along, the first four lines go along with the classic "dum dum Dum dum DUM Dum <i>DUM</i> DUM" bassline, and the next 4 are the same melody that kicks in in the "Spy Hunter" video game... or you could just listen to the sample they have on the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Verve-Remixed-Vol-Various-Artists/dp/B0007PALF2">Amazon page</a>)<br><br>

The <a href="http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/product.aspx?ob=disc&src=art&pid=11206">Verve Remixed<sup>3</sup></a> also has a remixed Sarah Vaughan cover of Peggy Lee's "Fever". Oddly, the remix has exactly the same drive and beat as "Peter Gunn", so it doesn't work quite as well, given "Fever"s natural laid-back groove. Still, a good CD, as are the other ones in the series. (Or rather, each CD has at least 1 or 2 songs making it worthwhile, with the rest good filler... "Is You Is Or Is You Aint" is the start of the first one, "Whatever Lola Wants" for the second.)

2006.10.08

The General was furious at the man's familiar impudence and threatened him with all sorts of punishment. Again came that drawling voice, repeating the first part of the statement, but he was stopped by the General, who ordered him to take the oath of allegiance to the United States at once or he would have him shot. After some hesitation, looking into General Butler's fierce eye, he reluctantly consented to take the oath. After taking the oath, he looked calmly into General Butler's face, and drew himself up as if proud to become a citizen of the United States and a member of the Yankee Army, and said: "General, I suppose I am a good Yankee and citizen of the United States now?" The General replied in a very fatherly tone, "I hope so." "Well, General," he replied, "the rebels did give us hell at Chickamauga, didn't they?"

2006.10.15

"How, for example, could I make a fat lady, walking down Fifth Avenue, slip on a banana peel and still get a laugh. It's been done a million times. What's the best way to <i>get</i> the laugh? Do I show first the banana peel, than the fat lady approaching: then she slips? Or do I show the fat lady first, then the banana peel, and <i>then</i> she slips?"<br>

2006.10.20

You know, I was thinking that this was the first time I'd been on a train since this weird Red-Eye trip I took with Dylan in sixth grade or so, but then I remembered Europe, from third-world-ish sardine-can packed bar cars in Portugal to multiple trips around Germany. It still feels rather novel, though.

2006.10.25

A lot of geeks my age were first introduced to the term from the old NES game "Ninja Gaiden"... though I'm not sure what the main story is supposed to have been in that case.

2006.10.27

<br>--Two guys <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=0J16dyV4Du8">build up their own contraption at the office</a>. They claim 6 out of the 8 runs worked (I guess the filming wasn't as great for the first 5.) <br><br>

2006.10.28

<IMG SRC="/journal.aux/2006.10.29.rssicon.gif" width="150" height="150" align="right"> I dont know how many people will find this useful but this site now provides an <a href="/rss/">RSS feed</a>. For those who don't know, RSS is a way of gathering updates from many sites at once, so instead of having to go to N different sites to catch up with their articles, your RSS browser collates their latest entries into a single page. (Firefox users should be seeing the bright orange icon that indicates an RSS feed on their browser bar now, and there's also a link in the sidebar.)

2006.10.29

<a href="http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/orwellg/index.htm">Inside the Whale</a> by George Orwell, a rumination on writing of the first half of the century and Henry Miller in particular.

2006.11.04

<li><a href="http://www.zeronews-fr.com/flash/super-mario-communist.php">Mario meets Lenin meets Neo</a> via <a href="http://pentomino.livejournal.com/">Nick B</a>... stick around for the end credits music, which is the first thing I've heard that sounds like it <i>could</i> have been in the SMB game, but wasn't....

2006.11.09

Ah, I love you. Ah, you set my soul on fire. It is not just a little spark. It is a flame... a big roaring flame. Ah, I can feel it now...

2006.11.10

The first step was admitting to myself that I really don't like jazz and classical that much, even though I had been trying to force it since fifth grade or so. Like it says on my <a href="http://www.kisrael.com/bio/">bio page</a>, I've managed to distill my appreciation of music into 3 broad ideas: lyrics, rhythm, and clever hooks. Since jazz and classical generally miss out on the first of those, a work in either genre has to rely on 2 and 3 if it's going to capture my interest. I have little patience for slow classical or noodling jazz.

But it's probably the most concise video showing for showing something that drives me NUTS about the game... in the final "5, 4, 3, 2, 1" countdown, I swear that the announcer's pronunciation of "five" sounds more like "three" than it does "five". Can people weigh in? Is it just an aural quirk of mine, or is it spoken kind of oddly? (Another odd thing is I don't remember noticing it for the first few years I owned the game, but now it grabs my attention every time.)

2006.11.11

The brilliance of this is manifold. <b>First</b>, it would be HILARIOUS to see someone rushing through a crowded subway station or a restaurant offering everyone who coughed a Ricola. What are the chances that someone gets beat up doing this? 10:1? 5:1? Hilarious. <b>Second</b>, I want TWO people in the same place rushing around offering everyone a Ricola, shoving each other out of the way to be the first one to offer the lozenge. <b>Third</b>, I want to see someone run up to a Spanish person who just coughed and offer them a Ricola, only to have the Spanish person make a gesture that they don't understand and have the person FLIP OUT screaming, "How do you say, 'Would you like a Ricola?' in Spanish. HOW DO YOU SAY IT!" My head is spinning over this.

2006.11.15

Perfect! But I also wanted to let her see all the funny little icons that came in Webdings and of course good old Wingdings (and Wingdings 2). So I made a little program to print every character in those odd fonts in a single HTML page. And it was cool. But then I noticed... the Iconic Mona Lisa wasn't there. Investigating further with Window's character map tool and my program, I could see that the character before Mona Lisa was there, and the one after was there, and there was another icon that used the same basic image but put it in a "document copy" frame, but not that one. Not in Firefox, not in IE.

2006.11.19

I had an oddish, but amusing dream last night. It starts where I'm watching some kind of porno film... (stay with me, here, it doesn't get too bad)... I catch the ending where a very light gal-on-gal tie-up scene morphs into a <i>really</i> cool Cirque-de-Soleil like bungee trapeze chase. The movie then ends but starts again, and the beginning is very odd. The introduction has a bit on how these eccentric rich people are looking for a "leaf identification program" for their son... in that, if he's kidnapped they want a tree leaf that looks like him so they can show it to people to help find him. And they have their staff working on this. The funny thing was how it was presented: first you see a groundskeeper in the background pick a leaf out of a pool, look at it, and then put it back. You don't think anything about it, assuming it was just a mistake in making the film, then you hear the announcement of the "identification program", and a bit later you hear an off-camera "overheard" comment along the lines of "so they're sending a team of us to Norway, where there's that lighter type of foliage that might be a better match."

2006.11.24

<a href="http://www.anniesprinkle.org/html/art/bosom_ballet.html">Annie Sprinkle's Bosom Ballet</a>... I think I first saw a reference to this

2006.11.29

First off, Play to Win exhibits great faith in game designers, that in "99.9%" of the situations, there isn't a simple strategy that wins over all others, or that the community will serve to eliminate those games that do fall to a simple pattern. So therefore, any arbitrary restrictions by "scrubs" are largely pointless and out of the true spirit of gaming. But Sirlin himself points out some exceptions to this, cases where the "Pros" agree it is justified. <a href="http://www.sirlin.net/archive/playing-to-win-part-1/" >Essay 1</a> talks about Akuma:

<blockquote class="quote">But the first version of Street Fighter to ever have a secret character was Super Turbo Street Fighter with its untouchably good Akuma. Most characters in that game cannot beat Akuma. I don't mean it's a tough match--I mean they cannot ever, ever, ever, ever win.[...] the community as a whole has unanimously decided to make the rule: "don't play Akuma in serious matches."</blockquote>

(In practice of course, some of this all comes down to me being total crap at the type of fighter games he's so good at. In fact, a lot of what he describes requires an ability to emulate and even visually observe that I'm not sure that I have. The first mountain for the newbie player to climb is recognizing what the opponent is doing and how, and that's actually pretty tough in and of itself.)

2006.12.05

<i>But...what if the self-limiting behaviors of the first point spring less from this inflated ego thing -- because I know I'm at least consciously able to have a realistic idea of my place under the bell curve, despite being an only child -- and are actually just a response to the fears of the second?</i> Could there be this element that I'm afraid a given tactical situation, like at work, might be "the one", the intractable problem that just can't be solved by me, or the group, within the parameters of time and resources of the assignment? That I'm not seeking to avoid knowledge of my own limitations, but of the fact that the universe has no obligation to seem "fair" to me?

2006.12.08

Ugh, ever have one of those mornings where your primary reaction to the alarm clock is one of disbelief? I think the first words out of my mouth this morning might well have been "No F'in Way"... I thought I'd been sleeping ok this trip, but I don't know what was going on this morning. Maybe it's a "no quite as far West in the timezone" thing, so it's darker than I expected? I dunno.

Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.

2006.12.11

Comparing the excerpt to the full passage from the book, it seems like it does a pretty good job, removing the bits that are more subjective, and that the reader would need to take in more of the book to catch the setting. But then another side of me wonders if those <a href="http://loveblender.com/1998january/ramble.html">subjective details</a> are what it's all about, what sets the scene first, with the more universal analysis built on top of that.

2006.12.15

I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday.

2006.12.19

So I'm surprisingly relaxed about it, which is either because it hasn't really sunk in, or it seems like the best hiring environment that I've ever been laidoff in. (This is my 3rd layoff... first was classic dotcom, second was my supposed "safety job" still suffering an office closing, despite the division doing very well... heh, that might be one of the few recent cases of jobs being moved wholesale <i>to</i> Detroit...)

2006.12.20

First step: I want to get everything else in my life together. I want to act on my impulse to divest myself of extraneous possessions, get my financial life settled, put in good habits in life-maintenance stuff where currently chaos reigns.

2006.12.24

This was the result of the first round:

I started by drawing the hapless <i>Snowman</i>. Miller quickly drew a basic <i>bonfire</i> underneath for insidious melting purposes. Kate countered with <i>rain</i> above to douse the flames.

At this point there was a fork... a bit later in the game, Miller drew an <i>umbrella</i> to let the flames continue their nefarious work, to which Kate had no choice but to draw a helpful <i>dog on mailbox pushing a bucket of water</i> to extinguish that damn bonfire. A bit later Miller invoked the "it's ok to make fun of your own culture" rule and drew a <i>Filipino restaurant</i> (top right) to turn the poor dog into lunch. Kate then drew a <i>health inspector</i> to close the restaurant and that was the end of that thread.

The other fork was Tammy upgrading the storm with <i>thunder and lightning</i>, there on the left. I deftly drew <i>Benjamin Franklin</i> to bring the fearsome electrical energies into his famous <i>kite and key</i>. I believe Miller than drew a <i>large quantity of butter</i> to lure Ol' Ben to an early coronary grave. Kate decided to fight butter with <i>more fire</i> to melt it. Miller thought this could be the perfect time to draw in some lobster, but Kate argued that it didn't seem like a single lobster would be that unhealthy of a food, and so this thread ended, and the Snowman lived on!

The other long thread was Tammy realizing that the poor beleaguered snowman was despondent, and suicidal, and firing a <i>gun</i> into his own head! I was able to draw the <i>bottle of booze</i> responsible for both this rash decision and for causing the snowman to miss. However, Miller pointed out that it wasn't a bottle of booze, but <i>non-alcoholic swill</i> of some sort, possibly O'Doules. Kate then drew the <i>box of blanks</i> that the gun had actually been loaded with. (I think, chronologically, this may have been when the cancer letter occurred, with the idea that the letter may have provoked the suicidal thoughts.) Later Miller drew a <i>newspaper</i> with a story telling of how those blanks were being recalled...for being live ammunition after all! Kate then drew a <i>blowtorch</i> to sever the snowman's gun arm entirely. The rest of the table thought this was a pyrrhic victory, but what the hell, it's just a snowman, and it shouldn't be that hard to find a replacement stick anyway.<br><br>

But, alas, the endgame was nigh. Tammy drew a <i>large firecracker</i> going, as she said, "up his butt". My lack of attention proved sadly fatal, as I didn't look at what she had placed new on the page and, based on her comment, thought she was talking about the dynamite sticking into his side (with the Wile E. defense, I had been more focused on the plunger.) So my not-so-clever <i>scissors</i> snipping the fuse was for naught, and given how we had pretty much filled the napkin anyway, we decided that that was the end of poor Mr. Snowman. I have to believe that he's in a better place.

2006.12.27

That concept sounded familiar, and I realized that some of the <a href="http://www.unmuseum.org/tvinvent.htm">early TV prototypes</a> also used rapdidly spinning disks. When I first heard that factoid, years ago, the idea of a spinning disk in a television seemed absolutely corny, but it would seem my scoffing was misplaced, and forms the foundation of the lovely big video image I enjoy in my living room now.

2007.01.07

<i>Ugh... no strong recommends. This seems to confirm my theory that going out the movies is usually more hassle than it's worth (especially if you've forked out for a happy A/V setup at home.) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Prairie-Home-Companion-Woody-Harrelson/dp/B000H6SXYM/sr=8-1/qid=1168099720/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-8123893-2955820?ie=UTF8&s=dvd">Prairie Home Companion</a> was decent enough, but even that was at the second-run place.</i>

The First 9 1/2 Weeks,

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,

2007.01.15

It was only the other week, setting up my mom's new PC, that I realized Firefox 2 is out. I'd recommend it for everyone. From my perspective, the biggest improvements are how ctrl-F now searches textareas and every input form has built in spellcheck with red underline! I was using Google's toolbar spellcheck for that functionality, but having it happen without having to remember to click is a big win.

2007.01.20

Makes for some great reading, especially the first five pages. What a mess this franchise has been.

2007.01.26

A. the way I hadn't shopped around, that this was the first company I

2007.01.28

There was a silver lining to it all... a guy (an Australian police officer, actually) wrote me wondering if my <a href="/mortal/">mortality guide</a> had been relocated. Later he mentioned that he had been Googled on <i>dealing with mortality</i> and found the (then broken) link. That was heartening for two reasons... 1. that people will Google for those keywords, and 2. when they do, my page on it is the first match.

--An austic woman shares her "native language", and then offers a translation, or at least an explanation... for the first part it seems like an odd, almost shamanic performance piece, but then around 3:20 the explanation, typed by the artist and read by a computer voice, kicks in, and it's really something.

2007.01.31

He admits that focusing on the evolutionary path of humans is a bit biased, certainly not justified in terms of biomass (he quotes Robert May: "to a first approximation all species are insects", though I think you'd have to qualify that a bit, at least to limit it to animals...) and misleading in the sense that thinking of humans at some kind of peak of evolution is incorrect.

2007.02.01

I'm angry too, but more at the over-reaction of the city. OK, the figure looks a little "angry" and was in suspicious, vulnerable locations. But the damn things are flat. How much explosive did they expect to be packed in these things, especially after the first one was "detonated"? And the blatant sense of whimsy... even if they didn't recognize the character, who the hell did they think was "attacking" us? The Joker or some other Batman villain bothering to make elaborate props? The comedy wing of Al Qaeda? The same guys from "Fight Club" who blew up a building with a Have A Nice Day face? Seriously.

At first I was concerned, even as I heard the packages (still not fully described in the media) were harmless, I thought it could be terrorists sizing up our response times and reactions, like some of the question marks around that <A href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/23/mercury.spill/index.html">LA Subway mercury spill</a>. But now I'm more concerned for our nation's backbone, and lack of common sense. People: an attack is going to happen someday, somewhere, somehow. Hopefully it will be contained and localized, but people will die. Chances are it won't be you, or even someone you love. We need to have appropriate levels of concern and purposefully work to have responses commiserate with the scares we face in the meanwhile.

2007.02.02

I was awoken this morning by an odd sound... the school across the street must have been having a fire drill or some kind of mass field trip, because there were tons of kids right in front of the apartment. I'm not sure why the sound of it was so striking, maybe just because my brain wasn't that awake, but all those voices merged... it was different than, say, a typical audience murmur, because some of the kids were shouting and what not. For some reason it was odd how you could pick out individual voices (thought none of the words) but was also one big burble.

Hmm. Apparently I can think like a stoned hippy first thing in the morning.

2007.02.06

In decluttering I found an August 4, 1995 copy of Entertainment Weekly I had saved because of its feature "The 100 Greatest Videos For Every Occasion". In the spirit of recording things electronically so I can get rid of the physical clutter, here they are (minus the small blurbs that made the article pleasant reading in the first place)

<i>On That First Video Date</i><br>

2007.02.08

"In the case of the first man to use an anecdote there is originality; in the case of the second, there is plagiarism; with the third, it is lack of originality; and with the fourth it is drawing from a common stock."<br>

2007.02.11

My mom hadn't heard the "Adult Diapers" detail of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Nowak">Lisa Nowak</a> story. At first I was wondering what the time pressure was; I mean it would take some time to purchase and set up the diapers, and it doesn't take that long to go to the bathroom. But then, with the BB gun, pepper spray, buck knife, mallet, black gloves, rubber tubing, and garbage bags, I guess we've kind of ruled out the spontaneous, heat-of-the-moment type defense anyway.

2007.02.13

Heh. Murphy being what He is, of course it's going to snow the day before my flight, possibly the first Nor'Easter. Though I guess the forecast is for inches not feet, and maybe it won't be that bad.

This is of course the second guide I have partaken in, the first

Anyway, it was interesting to skim through that all, see his theories, and catch up on story bits I might not have payed enough attention to my first time through.

2007.02.14

My first girlfriend was KJ, at summer camp. (Oddly enough she came from my dad's hometown of Coshocton.) One day at camp she wrote on my hand in ink, one of those wird pre-high school romantic gestures. I have no memory of what she wrote, but she joked that now she'd be able to tell if I was taking showers...

2007.02.16

I'm digging through my old old backlog. It's amazing how many of the links are dead. or how little enthusiasm I have for the subject. Guess that's why they didn't make it here in the first place.

2007.02.17

First problem was me mis-remembering the time of the flight, somehow getting a 1PM departure stuck in my head when it was supposed to be 11... luckily I double checked when I thought I had heard my phone ring around 6:30.

So I tramp over to US Airways again bypassing a huge line only to have THEIR kiosk tell me that my first flight was running late, so I'd miss my flight and don't get a boarding pass. So I get into the huge line, along with some other travelers trying to make other connections via Charlotte, and after some complaining and only moving about 15 yards in the line (half an hour maybe?) we get put to a special express lane, and I get on my original flight, but with a later connection to Florida.

(Anecdote... I purchased a book at the airport bookstore, since I had ripped through my first two pretty quickly. The clerk asked "do you need a magazine or newspaper to go with that?" What?? As like, a warmup? It's reading, not french fries, people.)

Fortunately the desk guy's pessimism was unfounded, and the flight was fairly fast, despite the cranium questions being a repeat of the first leg's....

Oh... also in the "could be worse" department, I had an empty seat next to me on the first part (guy wanted to swap for an aisle) and a whole empty role on the second. (Why someone in a full row didn't go for the aisle, I'm not sure.)

2007.02.18

<img src="/journal.aux/2007.02.14.dragon.jpg" width="200" height="200" align="left"> My first foray into the wonder world of Atari games was a kind of obscure

2007.02.21

So on my first day in Florida,

So kisrael regulars know this isn't the first time I tried this. I couldn't get quite as close as that

2007.02.22

This Florida trip included my first ever visit to a <a href="http://www.ren-fest.com/">ren-fair</a>, where people get dressed up all Old-Tymey.

2007.02.23

So on my final day there Felisdemens and I snuck in a trip to <a href="http://www.butterflyworld.com/">Butterfly World</a>! (It was either that or, I kid you not, a trip to the firing range, which is something I've always wanted to try.)

2007.02.25

I just finished Karen Armstrong's "A Short History of Myth". (I was supposed to read it for my UU Church's Science and Spirituality group, but then the Florida trip came up, so I read it in the airport and the first leg of the flight and wrote this.)

So, I'm struggling to understand how people accept things that are mythically true, but not factual "reality". I guess it's harder to do in a <i>highly connected world</i>. Historically, you experience myth by soaking it in as your immersed in your culture... but when you start to notice that other peoples believe other things, your own beliefs might start seeming arbitrary. Maybe even evil! Decartes was driven to hunt for first principles when he noticed he couldn't know if his whole external experience was really the result of a demon trying to trick him. (And I know I started to stray from my Protestant heritage when I started realizing that if I had grown up in an Islamic tradition rather than as the son of Protestant ministers, I'd probably be just as fervent about a totally different belief.)

2007.02.26

First day on the new job. Wish me luck...

Felisdemens told a great story about a macaw that was at a pet shop where she once worked. To brutally paraphrase... first off she pointed out out that "Shut up!" is something that a LOT of pet macaws and parrots have learned to say, for some mysterious reason.

--Bitter:Sweet "The Mating Game". Might be getting a tad more exposure because it's preloaded on Microsoft's iPod wannabe the Zune, which is where I first heard it. Love that neolounge stuff, like History Repeating.

2007.02.28

Anyway, Mr. Ibis suggested Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" (a book that roughly lived up to its title in terms of how quickly I got through it. Grumblesmurf.) It was a neat book about the snap decisions we make, with lots of amazing anecdotes, like how the "Pepsi Challenge" gave Coke the terrible idea to make New Coke, not realizing that the sweeter first anonymous sip of Pepsi gave it an edge that wouldn't last for a whole can, and how this one researcher John Gottmann can watch a few minutes of couples arguing (in an odd bit of synchronicity, hypothetical couples in the book had the name of my Aunt and Uncle (page 19) and then my grandparents (page 60)) and reliably foretell the relationship future of the pair.

2007.03.02

Maybe it's a stretch, but I was reminded of that with how I was arranging my keys as of late. For a long while, I've been able to limit the keys in my pocket to a clicker for my car, a large-ish car key, and a smaller house key. My new job gave me a key to the restroom, and I really had to think about what kind of arrangement of the three keys was most intuitive to me , so I wouldn't have to think about it. The house and restroom are both unlocked with the teeth face up, so that was the first step of the arrangement. The clicker goes in my palm. Putting each small key on either side of the big key was too symmetrical. Then I thought the most intuitive arrangement was to put the house key next to the car key, since the house and the car are in closer proximity to each other than the job is to either.

2007.03.03

So some dickwad hit my car as it was parked at Evil B's last night, severely denting things around the driver-side front wheelwell. I left their place a bit after midnight to find that the door wouldn't quite open... at first I thought it might be frozen shut, but no.

2007.03.06

Of course, a dozen different mattress companies will tell me... <i>it's the mattress</i>. But the thing is, I have no idea what kind of mattress I like, firm, soft, whatever... I just don't know. I go to Jordan's with their stupid "sleep technicians", they ask me questions for preferences I don't know how to form. And then you lie there, fully clothed, maybe even shoes-on, and you're supposed to be able to figure it out? Forget it.

What this country needs, then, is a special mattress hotel. With a full range of mattresses... hard, soft, the ones with the air, the ones with the sleep number, "dux" bed, posturepedic, all that stuff. To try overnight. Even to make love on! (It's not like it would be the first hotel people did that in, but I guess a mattress hotel might want to not emphasize that aspect.)

2007.03.07

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errand_of_Mercy_(TOS_episode)">made it so the Federation and the Klingons</a> couldn't fight. (Heh, trivia note from the first link: At one point the Excalbian posing as Lincoln says, "There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There's nothing good in war except its ending." This quote is often erroneously attributed to the real-life Abraham Lincoln)

2007.03.14

I admit to one stab of nostalgia, glancing at the street I used to turn on to get to the first apartment Mo and I had together.

2007.03.15

The first item on the list [of cleaning products needed by the new housecleaner]: "I will require at least a dozen boxes of Arm & Hammer

2007.03.16

I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with robots taking that familiar a role in my communication, especially without warning me first.

2007.03.20

Starr insists that "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" promotes drugs. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asks whether a sign that said "Bong Stinks for Jesus" would be more permissible. Souter asks whether a simple sign reading "Change the Marijuana Laws" would also be "disruptive." Starr says that interpreting the meaning of the sign must be left to the "frontline message interpreter," in this case, the principal. Then Starr says schools are charged with inculcating "habits and manners of civility" and "values of citizenship." Yes, sir. In the first six minutes of oral argument Starr has posited, without irony, a world in which students may not peaceably advocate for changes in the law, because they must be inculcated with the values of good citizenship.

2007.03.24

<a href="http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/">Desktop Tower Defense</a> is a cute little game. A bit like that <a href="http://kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi?date=2003.07.21">Defend Your Castle</a> (against the hoard of stick figure barbarians), or the PC game Dungeon Keeper. You set up little stationary towers that both attack the oncoming hoards as well as let you block them, to prevent them from getting to the opposite side... so a typical strategy is to build labyrinths to heard them into withering crossfire before they make their way to the opposite side.

2007.03.25

<i>mirabile dictu</i>, it is <i>fantastic</i>. Cheap and light, with a comfortably curved rear shell and the same UI that has been topped in the 10 years since the first Palms emerged... so good. The screen isn't as high quality as the old Sony, but Palm has never needed more than that basic 160x160. I have some other quibbles, the 4 way pointer thing isn't as useful as the Sony scrollwheel, and not as reliable as the up-and-down buttons on the old units, and I kind of miss having 4 application buttons, but still. I slapped on the included screen protector and don't worry about it not having a case or cover.

2007.03.29

I gotta say, though, that I will be forever bugged by people who, first thing in the morning, come into a room where people are already happily working and flip on the overhead lights. It's just so presumptuous not to ask, not to mention neglectful of the good karma of real light.

2007.04.01

Pretending your closing up shop on April First is really kind of a cry for attention, people who do that are probably really hoping to provoke a worried outcry from their loyal fans. And while I have a certain small readership here, mostly folks who know me in real life, I don't think it's the kind of site that would provoke too many withdrawal symptoms were to go away.

2007.04.02

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=EnJZLePck5k">first Transformers movie</a> (back when it was still a cartoon.)

2007.04.04

So last December or thereabouts I was dropping my mom off at her office, the Salvation Army's Massachusetts Headquarters. (Just a block or so from where I now work, thus confirming this amazing ability I have to live or work in locations that would have been <i>really</i> convenient a few years before or after.)

I have to admit that my first thoughts were oddly uncharitable. I (mistakenly) thought Scott was on the staff of the magazine, and somehow "quoting yourself" (in the biggest point type in the column, no less) was a little unseemly. It turns out Scott likely works near editor-in-chief Major Ed Forster at National Headquarters, who at one point was also the corps officer (local minister) for my grandmother's church. Which makes the thing seem a bit more appropriate.

2007.04.14

The first three I identified as the Best. Songs. Ever. a long while back.

2007.04.15

and maybe their backwards stance helped <a href="mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0088.pdf">perpetuate the Curse of the Bambino</a> (PDF, or see the <a href="http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:WixNh0auZ14J:mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0088.pdf&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a">google HTML</a>)

2007.04.18

It was cool because I was able to confirm that "My Tea Is Rich" (the book's hypothetical name for a chain of English Tea Rooms) does strike French folks as funny...

I am so bummed that my first knowledge of

2007.04.24

Besides the joy of wearing sandals, I think what I was most missing was seeing shoulders. They're a terribly underrated part of the body, sensual and expressive without being blatant about it. Some people look for the first bluebird of spring, me, I'm on the hunt for the first shoulders.

2007.04.27

I liked his <a href="http://www.exile.ru/2004-October-15/war_nerd.html">article on Count Carl Gustav von Rosen</a>... he underplays how the civillian airplanes the Count refitted with missile batteries to fight a bushwar in Africa were originally designed as military vehicles, but besides that it's an amazing story. (Here's <a href="http://www.brushfirewars.org/aircraft/mfi_9b_biafran/mfi_9b_biafran_1.htm">another link</a> with some photos.)

2007.04.30

Boingboing posted some <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/17/three_interesting_au.html">fascinating Audio Illusions</a>. The first link, <a href="http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=audio&file=endless.mp3">Shepard's ascending tones</a>, is especially amazing... the tones definately seem to be getting higher and higher, but if you press "play" as it soon as it ends you realize you're back where you started! It's about as exact an aural equivalent of Escher's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascending_and_Descending">Ascending and Descending</a> as you could hope for.

2007.05.03

Early kisrael.com, the first few months of 2001, had a lot of doodles. I also noticed that all my images were small, even the photos tended to be less than 200 pixels across. Either I was excessively bandwidth conscious then, or more likely, I had the idea that the site should be very PDA friendly.

2007.05.04

<a href="http://kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi?date=2003.04.05">I attributed it</a> (a slight variation, at least) to British actor Nicol Williamson. That limey punk! An Ohio boy came up with the idea first.

It seems kind of odd to me that <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2165571/">Spiderman 3</a> seems to be taking the series down the same dumb-headed path as the Batman series. The first Batman was about the Joker; great. Then they did Cat Woman <i>and</i> Penguin. It kind of worked. Then it was Riddler and Two-Face, plus oh yeah, here's Robin. Then... Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Bane, and why not, here's Batgirl.

2007.05.05

(Of course, when writing a query builder it gets uglier than that... I mean going back to the first query, what you really want to ask is

<a href="http://www.kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi?date=2006.10.19">a kisrael post</a> that first brought it to his attention. That's weirdly flattering!

2007.05.06

I've changed webhost providers. There are still a few bugs around; as far as I know, for you guys it's mostly that now in firefox the comments submit doesn't automatically take you back to the posted comments.

2007.05.07

This is the first half of <a href="http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:sNbCJ0Mfz-MJ:www.joefamilychiropractic.com/newsletter/2005-05-17_New_Adjustment_Procedures.doc+%22I+live+in+a+Chiropractic+World&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a">a poem</a> also posted at the Marino Wellness Center I take my yoga class at.

2007.05.14

At first I was thinking that it's not so much that I don't mind being seen as The Fool... paradoxically, I might be so sensitive about it that I've lowered the bar for what would I think would make me seem Foolish.

Until the modern age, most households had two distinct intervals of slumber, known as "first" and "second" sleep, bridged by an hour or more of quiet wakefulness. Usually, people would retire between 9 and 10 o'clock only to stir past midnight to smoke a pipe, brew a tub of ale or even converse with a neighbor.

Others remained in bed to pray or make love. This time after the first sleep was praised as uniquely suited for sexual intimacy; rested couples have "more enjoyment" and "do it better," as one 16th-century French doctor wrote. Often, people might simply have lain in bed ruminating on the meaning of a fresh dream, thereby permitting the conscious mind a window onto the human psyche that remains shuttered for those in the modern day too quick to awake and arise.

2007.05.22

Yesterday was a bit of a trial by fire, from the bike shop near Porter Square to Alewife, and then the bikepath home. I wouldn't be surprised if a bike on the Minute Man is about as fast as you can get from Arlington Center to Alewife, given the traffic and bus-waiting you avoid.

2007.05.24

It seems a little trite at first, but an interesting concept to think about.

2007.05.27

like Jeanette Winterson's "The PowerBook", though is a man in the video.) And come to think of it, I first heard it on a compilation called "Lesbian Favorites".

But First, You'll<br>

2007.05.29

The books generally are pretty good. I kind of mentally rewrite the titles to "...with few assumptions about what you already know of the subject", which I think is the real crux of what they're getting at. The first ones, like "DOS for Dummies", capitalized on a self-deprecating feeling that PCs of the era brought on.

2007.06.03

The first 3-card reader I saw was at a DIY photo print device at a camera store... it seemed weird at the time, because each card format seemed rather proprietary, and all in all it was kind of a throwback to that brief time when computers were coming with built-in Zip drives. But now I just recognize it as a small but meaningful convenience, relative to digging up the appropriate cable.

2007.06.09

Ended up heading up to Rockport to help EvilB before his daughter's first birhday party tomorrow, so not much time for an update... but here are some fireworks I tried to take pictures of last Friday. I think it was Arlington's centennial or something:

<img src="/journal.aux/2007.07.09.arlingtonfireworks.gif" width="200" height="150" >

That's actually from the end of the street where I live. It's always kind of cool to be able to see fireworks from your house.

2007.06.10

Actually I guess this came up because the Mario Party series released their first Wii entry (they're already up to 8) and the "host" is "MC Ballyhoo". (Actually, they've had a lot of different hosts over the series... I think it would've been better if they stuck with one iconic mascot. Anyway.) And in this case, the eyes belong to the hat itself, "Big Top". I guess there might be a shade of the Harry Potter sorting hat. (Tangential Wikipedia link: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_objects_in_Harry_Potter">Magical Objects in Harry Potter</a>) (Meta-tangent... I like the argument about the "Nimbus 2000" on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broomsticks_in_Harry_Potter">Broomsticks in Harry Potter</a>, just the way the page exhibits a kind of Wiki "multiple personality disorder" about how it compares to the "Firebolt", and if that means if "fastest model yet" was wrong, or how exactly the timing works out, etc...)

2007.06.14

I remember getting my first Canon digital camera not too long after, justified in part by my old camera breaking right before the wedding. It's funny, my "big ticket" purchases seem to not be as big as in years past, but there might be more of them now.

2007.06.15

I just like the despair in the first line, undercut a bit by what follows.

2007.06.20

them first taught swimming, and proposed to gratify me handsomely

Finally, back to Ben and forming an early fire fighting company:

which were to be brought to every fire;

I guess that speaks of the improvements of fire fighting technology over the years, that you'd see situations where there'd be a fire at a neighbors, and the safest thing to do is to bug out with your stuff, but you need something to pack it in. (Though as he noted: "since these institutions, the city has never lost by fire more

that those balloons, having had a happy time celebrating their daughter's first birthday, were old, sick, and tired, and despite the growling and goofiness, it was actually euthanasia... see, balloons don't want solemnity and dignity when it's time for them to move on, it's just not in their nature.

2007.06.23

Remember how there used to be all those "Robot Wars" type shows, for the first few years of this decade? (I guess "BattleBots" on Comedy Central (which never made a ton of sense) was the one I saw most often.)

2007.06.26

At first blush it looks like a slightly sexed-up version of good old Pac-Man, but widescreen (heh, sort of reminds me of the terrible 2600 version's layout.) There are some cool subtle lighting effects and a good soundtrack. The gameplay is still eating dots, but rather than having to clear a full board, you clear a small set and eat an item, and then more dots appear on the other side of the maze. The action never lets up... even when Pac-Man dies, he re-appears in the same location in a few moments, but the whole game is capped to be a five minute experience.

2007.06.27

A quarter of the line (or half, depending on how you count) is profane, and yet "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" is actually a delicate wisecrack. Underscoring the line's bridging of generations is the symmetry of its construction. On either side of the comma, past and present each get four syllables. This balance is manifested in the evenness of Willis' first—and best—delivery of the line. Subtly, he eases off "fucker," the word that, by virtue of its syntactical position, and its very nature, we might expect to land hardest on our ears. That Willis does not employ the same deftness in the sequels is a pity. The phrase is most effective not as a buildup to some hammer punch, but as one seamless unit of defiance.

2007.06.29

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Sadly, the true original, 2 proud tall woody stems, succumbed to weird spidery things around ten years ago. But this springs from a cutting from that very plant. I think I missed the chance to make it a vertical growth kind of thing, but it's more dense than the first version.

2007.07.05

So <a href="http://kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi?date=2006.07.05">last year</a> we benefited from some kind people who thought to bring anchor and food and a little wine and were willing to share, and this year I was able to "pay it forward", at least anchor-wise, with Ruby and Benjamin who were canoing but would otherwise be adrift for the fireworks. (Being able to kick back with an anchor is so much nicer than having to constantly adjust.) They also had a bottle of champagne to share, so it was a very agreeable time all around.

[[`Fireworks of the Moment`]]

2007.07.06

<li>First and foremost: my phone and Palm died at once. And then a schedule phone conference gets canceled, freeing my schedule for the evening. And then the Apple store at the Galleria had it in stock. That might be a compound message from the cosmos.

<li>Sprint ticked me the hell off. I go to the store seeing if I could get a cheap replacement phone to tied me over. The cheapest they carry runs almost $200. Then I decide to revive this old phone I had at home (the PocketPC I need to ebay, I decide to risk my pants calling people again...) The first guy says that I need another available phone for activation, OR I have to dig out the battery and get some numbers. So I hang up, do that, call again, and the lady I then talk to says, no, I still another phone around, can't help me.

"Yeah, that was my plan with the video games, 'first 9 years are free'."

2007.07.11

includes a re-enactment of <a href="http://junkerhq.net/MGS2/MarkIII.html">The Soul of the Mark III Beast</a> and some other short stories that I first saw excerpted in Daniel C. Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter's, "The Mind's I". This video is an hour and a half, but worthwhile if you want some amazing ideas about what our brains and selves actually are.

2007.07.18

Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.

Franklin P. Adams. I love how it's a much less facile quote than it first might seem.

2007.07.20

One day during a meeting I started to see if I could make an alphabet where each letter was a 2 x 2 grid of triangle and squares. My first attempt had little lines to help define letters, but then I wanted to see if I could make a font without those tweaks. The result was something like:

2007.07.21

I haven't read a book in the series after I quit two halfway (too much like the first, I thought at the time, and then the pagecounts started to go up up up) but I've been enjoying Wikipediaing some of the details, and that's where I'll go for Spoilers of the latest one... supposedly it has been leaked already, but I don't know who to trust, since there are conflicting reports. So I've read 3 or 4 different possible endings. And, you know, they're all fairly plausible, and might make a for a good wrap up. But of course, people want to know what REALLY happens. Though, duh, it's fiction, so nothing REALLY happens, there's just a "canonical" plot and all the others.

2007.07.26

At first, the brush end of a broom (or faggot), was pointed downwards so the witch could "sweep her tracks from the sky." Nevertheless, by the end of the 17th century, the reverse was true. Witches often rode with the faggot-end up, with a candle in the faggot to light the way to the Sabbath gathering place.

2007.07.27

No day passed when the fireplace was unused. As a result, soot accumulated quickly in the chimney. This could be hazardous when firs were the principal source for fuel, for they left behind a thick, tarry, highly flammable coating.

2007.07.29

One thing it's easy to miss with fireworks <br>

<img src="/journal.aux/2007.07.28.fireworks.jpg" width="400" height="533" >

And they were some mighty fireworks!<br>

2007.07.30

Took my coins in to the coinstar machine to be counted. $200! All in that plastic fishbowl-like container an order of Atomic Fireballs came in.

2007.07.31

<i>QUESTION: I now have a big garbage bag full of old, potentially sensitive bills and other documents that I want to get rid of. It would take forever with my puny shredder. And, personally, I don't quite trust myself to make a bonfire on my own. Any suggestions?

2007.08.03

<br>--this was probably making the rounds a long time ago. I first saw it it in a commercial (I think for some kind of financial services group) except they digitally altered it to be a box for some kind of toy robot.

2007.08.10

--Cyborg Moth, from the first day of

2007.08.11

I'd like to make a show called "The Dusk Area". Here's a synopsis of the first episode, "At Last Enough Time":

2007.08.19

Not that they're not good and useful ideas. Today I took the first step of this one closet trick: reverse all your hangers in the closet, but making sure subsequently washed clothing gets put on the "right" way. After a suitable interval (for both a warmer and colder season, I'd say) you can see what clothing was worn, and what wasn't, and make the appropriate decision.

2007.08.21

You are my bright and happy summer days. Wait! Summer's beautiful, but full of doubt. You smile like sugar sweets, but never stay. Sometimes you make me want to scream and shout! Laughter is first than comes great disaster. From warm to cold will you not stop my pain? Unfair misery bitterness matter. Why do I love you so? This is so lame! And when we change, you always give reasons. Open my eyes to see the world of truth. So why do I compare you to seasons? You are too strong for death and full of youth. So help me I plea save me from despair! Yet I still love you like no other compare!

2007.08.23

Bikepath trivia: the intersections of the bikepath and the regular road are marked by pairs of roadcone-like green plastic cylinders. These are spring loaded, popping back up after being pushed down... not for the the benefit of an errant rollerblader needing to come to a sudden stop before getting socked by a passing car, as I had first guessed, but so landscaping type vehicles can roll right over them.

2007.08.25

The woman hawking Boston NOWs at Arlington Street Station is the first one I've seen who is friendly and tries to "sell" the paper, mentioning the cover story or other features, and I appreciate that. So I'll take one even though I'm at the end of my commute; I guess it makes for decent enough [insert clever but inoffensive euphemism for "bathroom reading" here].

2007.09.02

The first part was the weeding. For the first stage we broke up the worst areas with the pickax and one of those twisting garden claw things, both shown here. Eventually we started shoveling hunks of gravely landscape into a sifting screen over a wheelbarrow, shaking furiously and picking out the roots and plant bits. Later we had to shovel and rake to redistribute the new gravel to cover the turned over space.

(Evil B mentioned that he liked the mix you see in Rockport. The first group who joined us swam over from a sailboat, 2 very young boys, 2 older girls, and a father-y figure. Later it was 3 boys, sweet natured kids who might've been from the wrong side of the tracks.)

2007.09.03

Has anyone told the Human Torch that it might not be safe to sit on top of a gas tank when one is on FIRE? Nice message to send the kids, assholes!

2007.09.07

In the news, thousands of mourners -- including firefighters from across the nation -- are gathering to morn Paul Cahill and Warren Payne who died while fighting a restaurant fire in West Roxbury.

I don't mean to take <i>anything</i> away from firefighters -- having someone willing to put his or her life on the line to protect your person and property is something none of us should take for granted -- but I'm a bit surprised that this kind of event is so rare that it's feasible to have a national gathering of firefighters when it does occur.

2007.09.09

Click in the box to play... arrow keys move, space or ctrl fires. Stop the box invaders from touching down.

2007.09.15

<i>[Enemy looms, roars, gets exploded by gunfire]</i><br>

2007.09.16

At first I thought I'd just throw in a Java game or two, since it said non-Klik-&-Play games were welcome, and my first dabbles with that system hadn't worked out. But as the weekend wore on, I had more ideas I wanted to try out, and then by the time it was Sunday I thought I'd try my hand at Klik & Play proper.

I've added the 5 processing games to my <a href="/features/java/">Java toys page</a> and made a new <a href="/features/knp/">klik & play page</a> for this stuff, but here is what I came up with- first, the Java:

<i>Space invaders...in a box! Click to play, arrows move, space fires.</i>

And then, the Klik & Play. Shift starts these games and then jumps or fires, arrows move, and on bug <3 flower you can click on a bananalemon if you get stuck:

2007.09.17

"The first rule of Polite Club -- don't talk about Polite Club. Please."

2007.09.18

The design kind of evolved. The first one had the new horizontal and more prominent

2007.09.21

Side geek/engineering note, and I'm not sure if it will even be useful to the geek/engineers who stop by... my group at work has a strict "code review" rule. The code for each check-in should be reviewed by at least one other person. Previously, the reviewee would fire up the Eclipse "synchronize with repository" (or "stink-ronize with suppository" as one quipped-- one of those unfortunate turns of phrase that you can never, ever totally leave behind) and click through and describe the changes.

So the first link was a <a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/8035">where are they now</a> feature, along with Wendy, Mikey, Little Debbie, etc. I was tremendously disillusioned to find out that Crazy Eddie the actor was distinct from Crazy Eddie the owner. I had always assumed they were one and the same... the character didn't scream "professional actor".

2007.09.23

(I don't think the Pious Ned / Preacher Dad parallel enters into it so much.) But still. My memories of a hale and hearty dad end after sixth grade, when I'm about twelve or so, and it looks like Ned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_Roasting_on_an_Open_Fire">made his first appearance</a> December 17, 1989, 18-odd years ago. And childhood memories aren't the most solid stuff. I suppose the movies theme of "Flanders being a better dad to Bart than Homer" didn't help.

2007.09.28

He's describing some potential instructions from a set of genes to their 'survival machine' (followed by the advice of 'of so shun things that lead to the latter, and repeat things that lead to the former'.) I'm rereading the book for my UU Science and Spirituality group...I recognize the strident Dawkins more than I remember doing so on the first read through. I do appreciate the poetry like construction of this snippet.

2007.10.01

Each of these first rockets was like a beloved woman for us. We were in love with every rocket, we desperately wanted it to blast off successfully. We would give our hearts and souls to see it flying.

2007.10.03

--The first two are for an assignment ("Camera Angle / View Point") in a photography composition class that I'm taking... I took a whole series of EBBaby, I like how that one kind of reflects the toddler's-eye-view. (Though come to think of it, I'm not sure if young children are the best bet for a series of perspective experiments, because they're already "out of proportion" relative to adults.) Then I decided to work with an observation I made a while ago, that cars (especially the stubby little ones I favor) tend to look dramatically longer or shorter depending on the angle... I feel that's about as long as I can make a Scion xA look. Finally, the last is a collection of mannequins at an (incoming? outgoing?) Anne Taylor store at Brattle Street Harvard Square, near where the class meets.

2007.10.06

Last night on the T they said they weren't going to be making a stop at Park Street (one of the hubs) and would be going straight through to Government Center because of a "Fire Emergency".<br><br>

2007.10.07

So here's what I came up with yesterday for my first turn:<br>

So, yet another thing where it turns out that it's harder than it looks... clearly I ain't gonna set the world on fire with my mad art skills.

2007.10.09

On Sunday's game, Junior Seau made two interceptions. (His first in five years.) During the runback on the second, he threw out his arms in an odd (and probably showboating) gesture... dangerous, given how near some of the Browns were to him, but no harm, no foul.

Anyway, the pose looked oddly familiar, so I fired up the old Nintendo emulator...

2007.10.10

Announcement: I will never be able to spell "seperately" correctly on the first try. The problem may be phonetic.

Hmm. When did fire alarms start spouting sideburns? Oh, and: ewww. (Taken in the Arlington Street Station hallway.)

2007.10.11

Announcement: I will never be able to spell "seperately" correctly on the first try. The problem may be phonetic.

<i>That was just a little thing from my backlog, I didn't really have a lot to say, but I like starting off with a comment in my own voice, instead of diving into the links or whatever. Maybe I should've talked about Joe Torre. I probably wouldn't even notice how often I get that word wrong if it wasn't for the spellcheck Firefox throws in there.</i>

<i>You know, not to long before I wrote this I was talking about how few injokes the site has, but this is one of them. I steal links from <a href="http://thoughtviper.com">Bill the Splut</a> all the time. He used to do the "InExOb", or <a href="http://www.thoughtviper.com/INEXOB/archive.html">Inexplicable Object of the Week</a>, so this was kind of a shout out to that. Actually, if you Google on "InExOb" my name shows up on the first page of results, where he <a href="http://www.thoughtviper.com/inexob/arch158.html">thanks me</a> for some online poll script I had written for him.</i>

Hmm. When did fire alarms start spouting sideburns? Oh, and: ewww. (Taken in the Arlington Street Station hallway.)

2007.10.15

Speeding is always the one that comes first to my mind.

2007.10.30

First off, I love this chestnut of a story. It's a terrific study in lateral thinking.

2007.11.04

I was kind of hoping the curve would be a bit more like a compressed sine wave, a visual confirmation of how quickly the change from long days to short days seems to happen once it gets going. It looks more linear than I expected, though some of that is a matter of scale, there might not be a single correct answer for how to scale a 365-day year against a 24 hour day. (Which is an interesting philosophical, or psychological, or design point; on the one hand, a year is so much longer than a day that it seems like the y-axis should be much longer. On the other hand, you can experience the length of a single day, and feel the loss of an hour of daylight, in a way that you really can't with an entire year.)

Big football game today! First time

2007.11.06

Taste is not only a part and index of morality, it is the only morality. The first, and last, and closest trial question to any living creature is 'What do you like?' Tell me what you like, I'll tell you what you are.

The first quote I saw in the final book of the His Dark Materials trilogy. The other two I found while Googling. I think the final one overstates the case. I think it caught my eye because the first sentence seems to be in praise of my "humanist spiritual mission" of sharing and recording interesting thoughts on this website, but then I realized I don't feel quite the grandeur he goes on to describe. <br>

2007.11.07

The Nokia badge has my headshot on it, and while it's not bad as far as those photographs go, I do feel a little extra dorky wearing it. Kind of like those commercial Halloween costumes that put the name and face of the character right smack dab in the center of the chest. They print the first name a little bigger than the last on the IDs. In my case, that makes my first name exactly as wide as my last, which is a nice aesthetic touch.

2007.11.08

At NickB's request, I made a <a href="http://kisrael.com/features/java/conwayice2/">new version of conwayice</a>. It might have even stricter hardware requirements than <a href="/2007/10/21/">the first version</a>. It has a bigger screen, mouse now zooms in rather than regenerates, and you can set various parameters including the original grid layout, allowing experiments with classic Life layouts. I also made it so you can save your starting arrangements, though I'm not sure how much use it will get.

<a href="http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7769&Itemid=2">The 50 Greatest Game Design Innovations</a>, making the rounds. Includes guesses to first appearances, as well as most famous examples.

2007.11.10

Plus, their curiously constrained claims always tend to leave them open to ridicule. With their current campaign, "Works in more fictional places" is the obvious rejoinder. Or with the whole "Fewer Dropped Calls" - sure, if your customers can't make as many calls in the first place, fewer are going to drop. (And besides that, even the core claim seemed suspect based on my 4 months with an iPhone; back with Sprint they were an anomaly, but now sitting at my desk, a call will go along with out a hitch, 'til suddenly, silence.)

2007.11.13

I always like behind-the-scenes type sketches like these. The first is showing how the image of Pac-Man evolved from the Japanese word for mouth (along with the old "he took a slice from a pizza, and there was Pac-man" story,) the second is why they didn't add eyes to Pac-Man (then they'd want to add glasses, maybe a mustache, etc -- though some bootleggers did just that with the game that became Ms.Pac-Man) as well as how friendly the ghost monsters are, relatively speaking,

2007.11.18

Roshambo is another word for "Rock Paper Scissors", which is what you're playing against the cloud in the sky. The Cloud fires those things at the ground, and you have to defend bu firing back the appropriate defense. If you win, you get a point, if you lose, you lose a point, and if the cloud's attack reaches the ground you lose one of your 10 lives. Plus "Like a Prayer" is playing in the background.

2007.11.21

I understand Wikipedia's need to not be a sounding board for every Internet yahoo with an axe to grind, but in some ways it seems to be a ducking of responsibly. I mean, it has the right to determine just what its role is and firmly stake out a place low on the pantheon of "real" academics and actual discovery.

2007.11.26

I'm not superstitious by nature but I long for some kind of oracle. Sometimes I look for meaning in what songs my iPhone's shuffle comes up with. Kind of an "iChing". (Apparently I'm not even the first <a href="http://www.mcelhearn.com/article.php?story=20060701101334225">Kirk to think like that</a>. Plus here's a similar <a href="http://catdynamics.blogspot.com/2005/06/ipod-iching-what-would-sean-ask.html">Tarot-centric</a> approach.)

2007.11.30

--Thinking of school days... the Cal Band rocks! Such a damn clever program! Especially the first bit, 0:40-1:30. Too bad it's shot from the Visitor's side. (There's also this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9pRJXcZ3Iw&feature=related">right-side-up</a> but skewed and partial view of the same show.)

2007.12.03

--NickB forwarded me a facebook reference to the premier of "A Briefcase Full of Knives". Given that the premiering theater was, literally, about 4 doors down from me it would seem mean-spirited not to go. There was a selection of local shorts first, mostly comedy, and the mini-film itself was good, silly comedy and a hint of working class angst.

2007.12.04

Just a small Java game I put together... one of the first things I've done there with sound! Devour the villagers who are threatening you and your precious apples. (You can eat them with your head, but they are deadly to the rest of your body.)

2007.12.06

But you know it's cold when you walk past high-end lingerie joint La Perla and your first instinctive thought about the mannequins is "Poor dears! They must be frickin' freezing!"

2007.12.07

--First of <a href="http://www.thesuperest.com/">The Superest</a>, a series of superheroes, each one designed to nullify the one that came before. The artists seem to be having a great time, reminds me of a game of

2007.12.10

That article and a few others rip on the Patriot's fanbase, not just for being fair-weatherish (not utterly unfounded, but I suspect most hardcore, longterm fandbases like the Steelers and the Packers put down roots in the rich soil of a phenomenal team run and accompanying bandwagon) but because the Red Sox are still first in the hearts and minds in the area.

2007.12.17

The second cow turns to the first and says, "Moo."

2007.12.28

in particular I'll swap in the pairs "me"/"be" and "my"/"by". One weird side effect of this emerged yesterday, I'm updating the loveblender's "send in a work" scripts, and scripts that used to be called "addwork" are now "submitwork". It turns out "submit" is very difficult to type with emacs tab completion, I keep typing the first part as "subi". I must've done that like 10 times bouncing between files. I think I type "b" and my brain registers the "m" as done.

2007.12.31

Tersurus is the planet on which Chancellor Goth met the dying Master prior to The Deadly Assassin. It was also the setting of the Comic Relief spoof episode The Curse of Fatal Death. The spoof described the Tersurons as the most gentle, yet most shunned race in the universe, due to the fact that they communicated through carefully controlled "gastric emissions". They became extinct when they discovered fire.

2008.01.02

Foxfire,

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Trilogy-Golden-Compass-Spyglass/dp/0375842381/">His Dark Materials Trilogy</a> had some ideas that I'm sure millions will find blasphemous, it's too bad they shied away from that in the first movie.

2008.01.04

So the Patriots' <a href="http://news.google.com/news?q=belichick+coach+of+the+year&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&oi=news_result&resnum=1&ct=title">Belichick was voted Coach of the Year</a>, despite the whole Spygate thing. Is this:

[[`First Kiss of the Moment`]]

Suddenly I know so much. I understand about waves and cross tides and how jellyfish float and why rivers empty themselves in the Gulf. I understand the undulating movement of the stingray on <i>Sea Hunt</i> and the hard forward muscle of the shark. Now I know why they call it petting, for even though I'm more still in the plush warmth of his mouth than I can ever get in church, my whole body is purring. I let my self breathe into him a breath that tastes like ashes from a long fire.

2008.01.05

I was wondering why I had heard Edwards as the possible front runner? Before a few weeks ago it was all Hillary vs. Obama (sidenote: is it sexist we use Clinton's first name but the last name of most of the other candidates, or just to make more distinction from husband?)

2008.01.10

So it's just fantastic. Watching the giant ants swarm up and over walls, engulfing the Seattle Space Needle-like tower in the distance, a Walker emerging from the fire and smoke from the wreckage of one of his brothers, guns blazing... really impressive.

2008.01.16

The process isn't <i>about</i> not getting fired.

2008.01.31

These are, simply, rubber band with little anchors on on end. At first the idea seems silly, but they allow for this one kind of cable wrapping (shown there in the packaging) that you couldn't easily do otherwise: you loop the whole rubber band, both sides around some gathered cable, secure it with the anchors, and you have a relatively secure, easy to remove way of keeping your iPod or whatever wires from getting all tangled up.

2008.02.04

4th down, 13 yards to go, in long FG range... they decide to try for first down... what? WHAT? Seriously. You have a young kicker with a solid leg; give him a chance. Or punt. Going for just showed a disrespectful overconfidence that completely killed the game for the Patriots.

2008.02.13

<a href="http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/02/11/interview-bjarne-p-t.html">This guy had the Lego Job I so coveted</a> as a 12 year old. I was about 6 years too young by the sound of it! His "Blacktron" stuff (especially the asymmetrical "Renegade" shown here) was really the first stuff to push the envelope from a design standpoint.

2008.02.25

Random webfun: if so inclined, and your browser has a Google search box with autocomplete, go through each letter of the alphabet and post the first thing that shows up. (Which isn't quite alphabetically "fair", I realized; the lists actually are alphabetical, but sorted with all the capitals coming before any lower case letters. Which I guess tends to bias the results for things that I've cut and paste to search on, since generally I'll skip pressing shift. (unless I'm WRITING IN ALL CAPS FOR NO APPARENT REASON.))

2008.02.27

So what does it mean that we can so easily immerse ourselves in other times and other places? At the risk of sounding like a mid-80s public service announcement, reading really can be an adventure, our mind's ability to take itself out of the current moment and into an elsewhere is quite remarkable. An offshoot of our evolved abilities to think in terms of hypothetical situations, to successfully model situations so that we can estimate the outcomes at a fraction of the cost and risk of actually going and doing it. My first thought was that the recent phenomenon of cheap books was an unprecedented revolution, but now I wonder if there isn't a tie-in with humanity's love of telling one another stories. (You can almost think of some shamanistic storyteller at the camp fire disapproving of the solitary pleasure of a book; sort of an intellectual "solitary vice".)

2008.03.02

Speaking of what kind of suitcase should I use... what kind of suitcase should I use? My first plan was trying to get by with a small suitcase (on the high side of domestic carry-on-able) and then my courier bag. I have a medium suitcase I can use instead, and now I'm wondering if I should buy a more touristy/hiker backpack, or if that would just clash with the Japanese street style, which I know I'm already going to be at the low, low end of.

2008.03.04

This is probably not as profound as I first thought.

2008.03.06

This isn't the first time I've been accused of this. And it is a vexing accusation! To some extent it's of course true, but... I mean, are there really people out there so selfless as to put themselves way behind their interest in everyone else? That seems unlikely. Is the implication, then, that I lack the ability to be appropriately concerned for and interested in other people?

But still -- some people, including people I care about, and whose opinions I care about -- see this as a problem. Even to the point of suggesting therapy! Which, as a way of fixing a problem of being self-absorbed, reminds me a bit of California fire fighters setting fires to try to preempt a larger firestorm, but I guess that's why you shell out the big bucks to be able to do in that magic 50-minute span.

2008.03.07

For a lot of us it all comes down to employment. If your job situation stays good you should be more less OK. If not, it's going to be a scary struggle. But even if you're in the first category, man, it's tough not to let this stuff dominate your thinking and outlook in general.

2008.03.10

<a href="http://www.wctv.tv/APNews/headlines/16188567.html">Horeseradish-based fire alarm</a>, designed for the hearing impaired. Brilliant idea! I wonder how they sound the "all-clear" to get rid of the smell, though. <i>(<a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/09/horseradish-smell-fi.html">via bb</a>)</i>

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahna_Mahna">Wikipedia says</a> that backup singers are the "snowths". Random geek culture wise, they remind me an awful lot of <a href="http://www.transsexual.org/birdo.html">Birdo</a>, arguably videogaming's first transsexual character.

2008.03.12

It was no choice at all, really. He felt like a moth that had just sighted the Great Chicago Fire.

2008.03.14

I got to stop at a mini-Fuddrucker I remembered from business trips, and my final arrival in Japan was only 2 hours later than first scheduled. Plus I got to see this ATM:

I'm sure they get these jokes all the times, but man! Who let him have a bank? (But then later when I saw the current Yen/Dollar exchange rate, below 100 for the first time in a long while, I myself felt ready to sing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfzXpE0QB2U">Moon River</a>...ZING!)

2008.03.15

<li><a href="http://www.languagemonitor.com/">languagemonitor.com</a>: interesting content, terrible webdesign, at least in Firefox.

After about 2 hours of train rides - with 3 train changes, painless but I'm dreading doing them on my own a bit - Josh and I first visited Engaku-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple, actually a series of buildings, full of Buddhas and giant bells perfectly set among the steep hills and cedars. An image from there:

My first photo idea was dancing to I LIKE BIG BUDDHAS AND I CANNOT LIE - the photos weren't so great, but I like the expression of the girls behind me.

2008.03.16

<br>First glimpse of Akihabara, the electronic district of Tokyo. We met up with my old college buddy Alex who lives in Tokyo.

<br><img src="/m/2008.03.17.04_firstview.jpg" width="296" height="394" > <br>

<br>The first thing we hit seemed to be a bit of a hobbyist center, 5 or 6 floors, each about a different hobby. Here is a racetrack on the second floor, one of the model builders behind:

2008.03.17

I got in after many of the attractions were closed, but I made one important trip: The Atomic Bomb Dome was just a few blocks away. This was the "Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall" until the first atomic bomb exploded about 150 meters away.

<br>I know in my stupid blog here it's going to sound trite, but I was moved to the point of tears by its stark presence and broken grandeur. The intellectual part of me knows more people died in firebombings and massacres, and there's always the rightwingers argument that more would have died in a full invasion but... the sheer brutal efficiency of the engines of war has made humanity's chance at making it for the long haul that much worse, so in that way the blast still echoes for us all. And what does it matter that this wasn't the "worst" tragedy humanity has inflicted on itself; it was a tragedy, and I can mourn for the lives destroyed.

2008.03.19

<br>This picture and the last were from our first stop, Nijo Castle, or "Nijo-jo" (heh). Both shoes and photography were forbidden inside.

<br>Finally we headed out to the Imperial Palace. Security was weirdly uptight there and we had to line up in 4s. But I liked the bright orange construction and fireproof white plaster:

<br>And I saw my first blossoming cherry tree! Unfortunately I was fumbling with my camera battery and didn't get a picture of the guy stationed there to protect it. Maybe he had to be there, one girl seemed to try and make a dash for the tree and he angrily chased her away, though I'm not 100% sure if she would have tried if he hadn't been there.

2008.03.20

I just wanted to share that somewhere in my brain are some cells that fire almost anytime I hear BEEF discussed.

<br>Josh's wife Tomomi confirms this little robot drummer clown guy is a real landmark. Lots of people were having their picture taken.

The first part tells you it's not about winning and losing and then

2008.03.21

<br>First stop: a bit of a prefab medicine cabinet... not too exciting, but I admire that it has built in lights, and the toothbrush holder actually seems big enough to, you know, hold modern toothbrushes, which is something I don't see a lot of in America.

2008.03.22

<br>First off: today was clear enough that you could JUST see Mt. Fuji from the patio... this is gamma-corrected to make it more visible...

<br>So we started some hiking around the volcanic-crater lake. At one point, we came across this guy. At first we couldn't tell if he was, err, a guy, or some kind of recumbent scarecrow or something, and then we were suddenly thinking "bizarre horror film tableau" and hurried on our way.

2008.03.23

<br>The 50 minute wait for Krispey Kreme donut. Oddly they were giving people in line free donuts to bribe them into waiting longer. But what if a single donut was all they wanted in the first place?

<br>I navigated to Shim-Matsudo on my own for the first time, but I had done it enough with Josh that it was pretty easy. Especially for the train to Ueno, that had this helpful digital map of the Tokyo loop.

2008.03.24

<br>I was braving my first full-on Tokyo commute, but it wasn't bad as all that. I think I managed to avoid the worst of it by choosing cars at the ends, but I did see the classic image of uniformed railroad employees shoving folks in a bit further so the doors could close. I also saw these women with giant wicker baskets on their backs...

2008.03.25

<br>Here's Big Papi. The Sox struggle a bit at first, and I could kind of sense how the Japanese announcer was rooting for them... especially Dice K, it might well be a point of national pride there, seeing how one of their former stars is doing in American baseball...

2008.03.26

<br>A side note from the previous day... this is a close up of my stamped ticket for the gardens at Kanazawa. I was wondering why in printing the date they would put the first two digits of the year and not the final two, but, duh, that's just a coincidence... that's the "Emperor Year", 20 years into the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisei">Heisei era</a>...

<br>A sudden business meeting meant Josh couldn't meet me in Tokyo so I was on my own. I had two goals: get to the famous no-brand brand store "Muji" in Ginza, and then track down a store I had seen some gifts I wanted to pick up in the Electric District Akihabara. First mission accomplished:

2008.03.27

Fired by Mr. Sinclair's example, I tried turning inside out the pockets of a living writer of my acquaintance, a writer considered successful in his work, and one who appears often in the wealthier magazines. The gross receipts were one nail file; one rubberized tobacco pouch; one fountain pen without a top; one Western Union envelope (empty); one folded bit of paper upon which was written "Endicott 6281--about eleven o'clock"; one card bearing the names Tony, Gus, and Joe, and a West Forty-eight street address; one small rubber band (broken); one office clip (bent S-shaped); one half-dollar, one dime, and four pennies; one twenty-five centimes piece; and several unpleasantly mouselike formations of gray fluff. I had no heart to ask, "Where did you get it?" much less, "What did you do for it?"

2008.03.28

<i>(Heh, actually, having landed at O'Hare, this is a great example of not always knowing what's specific to Japan vs. what it's like to be a tourist; I think I mentioned that my first image of a somewhat gratuitous job was a guy wrangling bags as they came onto the baggage carousel; but O'Hare had a guy doing exactly the same task.)</i>

So, as an overnight option beyond the (in)famous capsule hotels and love hotels, there are the Internet Cafes. We ducked into one my first day there, just to see it. Each one is a private (albeit electronically monitored) room, roughly work cubicle sized, but otherwise like a closet, with a PC, a desk, and a comfy (reclining?) office chair. There are hourly and overnight rates, a big library of computer games and videos and manga, and unlimited use of the soft drink fountain. Kind of smoky, though, and gross to think about what has gone on in that little room, but I suppose all hotel situations suffer from that to some extent.

My first night there Josh reminded me of the earthquake basics (head for doorframes, try not to get hit by falling bookshelves) Earthquakes are an ever-present threat in Japan, probably more so than say, California. (I think Josh mentioned some author putting it as "Tokyo is a city waiting to die".) There haven't been too many medium-small quakes to relieve the pressure as of late, and a big one is kind of due. (There was a small one when I was there, but I wouldn't have felt in on the train.)

In Hiroshima, I got to thinking of the science fiction vision of "superweapons", and how the atomic bomb qualified for (and probably inspired) that idea-- the secret program producing the game-ending horrific ability. Like I mentioned, firebombing may have produced worse numbers, but being able to do that with a single bomb changed the game for everyone, probably for the rest of history.

These were things I saw reproductions of at the Hiroshima Peace Museum. Both were English documents with sections highlighted in red, and only those sections were translated into Japanese. I tried to get a feel for how "out of context" the excerpts were. Anyway, Einstein's famous letter warned about the possibility of atomic weapons and urged FDR to start research programs (though he, logically enough, wasn't sure if they would be portable enough to be dropped by a plane, or if they would have to be, say, snuck in by ship) and the other document was the mundane bureaucratic process of funding the programs and selecting the possible target sites. (I'm not sure what Hiroshima made of the USA's failure to attack it prior to the atomic bomb, despite the place having some military significance. (The Americans wanted a better evaluation of just what their weapon could do.) The people of Hiroshima certain knew they were on the list of eligible cities for bombing -- it must have been incredibly disheartening for the citizens to have been razing some of their own buildings in order to make firebreaks, but I guess that would have only helped for more conventional bombs.)

Most every store has a little tray for passing money to the clerk (often the tray top has little rubber bristles to make it easier to scoop money from) and sometimes for getting money back, but they're not super obsessive with their use, and money just gets handed over. Often money, credit cards, and just-purchased goods will be handed over by the clerk with both hands, which I think is a way of signifying "I am taking good care of this" (I first heard about that with the business card exchange ritual)

I meant to describe the Kabuki performance in more detail. But I'm feeling lazy. Men play women's roles, it's an old Japanese, the place I was at had very nice audio commentary in English you could rent a headset for, they have musicians in the background. The first number, "Onna Date" or some such, had a lot of great gymnastics, the second was a bit more drawn out, but kind of a nifty musical comedy that avoided the "Three's Company" ending I was expecting. Also Josh thought the somewhat foppish guy character in a purple kimono was supposed to be a woman, and was confused at the plot for a bit, but he didn't have the headphones.

I want to look up reports of this Tokyo stabber. Apparently he was a repeat offender, had told the cops what he was going to do, there were 8 plainclothes cops there, the first guy he stabbed was a cop, he stabbed a bunch of folks, one fatally, and he pretty much got away, turning himself in at a local police station. (heh, they're looking into a <a href="http://kotaku.com/373408/team-ninja-reacts-to-kanagawa-rampage">videogame connection</a>)

<font>Random final image... while JR stations sometimes made you buy your own TP, the Narita airport toilets included washlets. These are the first detailed instructions I saw. I didn't dare try find out what "extra deodorizing" consisted of.</font>

2008.03.30

That last one probably is the one that got me noticing them on one of the first days, but I didn't think to photograph it 'til the end.

2008.03.31

First, I read in the paper how John Smoltz, the Atlanta

2008.04.01

I've seen rather little in terms of April First foolery this year, Slashdot seems to be holding back (which is almost a joke itself, making everyone wait for the other shoe to drop after way over-doing it in previous years), Google has a few clever bits, but I liked

2008.04.04

It came with Vista... I'm already suspicious about this OS, and the screen after first logging in didn't really reassure me:<br>

2008.04.06

Whoosh. You know, this might be my first full day at home since I returned from Japan. Better get on those damn taxes! And that credit card bill...

2008.04.10

It was interesting stumbling over some overlap with "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (TANGENTIAL RANT: why are all of Firefox spellcheck's suggestions for "Maintanence" variations of "Acquaintance"? It's such a little a+e swap that I don't see how the program is lead so far astray. This must be the fourth time I've made the same typo and been irritated by the results) -- the limits of human cognizance and the "Western Logic" view of the world.

2008.04.13

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"

<i>--<a href="http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2008/04/russia-remember.html">Remembering Laika</a>, first earth creature in space, shown here along with a Russian doggy spacesuit of the time.</i>

2008.04.15

Earthquakes are one of the four Japanese terrors; the others are fire, thunder, and father.

2008.04.23

First offender: Starbucks.

2008.04.27

This isn't the first <a href="http://kisrael.com/2004/08/11/">time</a> I've

<a href="http://kisrael.com/2007/05/02/">mused</a> on some of the nuance I lost when I decided the KHftCEA was largely redundant, a kind of casual spontaneity, and even though I started letting people (EB first, come to think of it) read it, and finally posted it, it was less censored and audience-aware than this site. I also seemed to produce more microfiction and goofy verse.

2008.04.29

Same with those mindless teenyboppers who go to the Hickory Farms store, and then take double samples of fruitcake and cheeselog, you warn them that they will be charged with a felony(grand theft), and that if they attempt to fight and run, they will be, unfortunately, first tazered, and if they continue to resist violently with intent to maim, then wounded.

2008.05.01

<a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/dayintech_0501">Happy Birthday BASIC</a>! (Cool link from the slashdot comments: <a href="http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dartmouth/BASIC_Oct64.pdf">first BASIC manual</a>. As the <a href="http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=540388&cid=23265262">commentator pointed out</a>,

2008.05.06

The first task was to port their existing website to our own technology. They really didn't want to make it look any better, and they stuck to their guns that their website should just be a big mirror of their multiple catalogs.

The first part of that made life little fun for me, who had to do the port. I learned a valuable lesson though; when they turned the firehose from their hammered Windows NT boxes to our inhouse solution, our server went down, hard. The volume was relatively enormous, and we had a major failure of due diligence in testing how our stuff scaled. <b><geek></b>The emergency fix for that was kind of cool, something to talk about on future interviews: we discovered the problem was with the DB queries, and realized that that each catalog page had a distinct URL that we could use as the basis of a rough-and-ready homebrew cache.<b></geek></b>

2008.05.07

But that wasn't my last bit of culture shock. To be fair, I was kind of sheltered, the kid of clergy who had gone to a fancy-ish school in the Northeast and then was on his second white-collar job. Still, the amount of lockdown for the restrooms, along with posted warnings that anyone found writing graffiti there would be fired, was jarring, a reminder of a blue collar way of life I didn't know much about. (This was for the warehouse workers; the big banks of cubbies for the folks handling the calls was its own special kind of sould-draining-ness.) I was also surprised, just based on geography and I guess climate, at how many Latino workers were there, I thought that was something you'd mostly see on the coasts.

2008.05.08

I find the first person voice really annoying in that last sentence because of how it relies on some kind of assumptive sense of chivalry...companies shouldn't be looking for that kind of first person politeness!

2008.05.11

Olivier can no longer rise above this. "Sir," he says, and the richness of his voice is to the coarseness of the heckler's as Armagnac is to Mountain Dew, "in the first place, my name..." He hates to have to say this. "...is not 'Oliver,' it is Olivier. In the second place, and more important, I am not here to sing. I am here to read certain sonnets by William Shakespeare.

2008.05.14

Ideally maybe I'd even find some kind of therapist who was into all of those, especially the first few, though I always feel I'm on shaky ground (no pun intended) taking on the faiths from Asia.

2008.05.19

house afire, going like a crazy man, highlining, flying low, burining up the

2008.05.21

The first story was Jon "Cancer Survivor" Lester pitching a no-hitter. Even though it was against the lowly Royals, it's a rare event and a terrific thing for any major league pitcher to have done.

2008.05.28

For the first time ever... icons! I like the double-sized "favicon" look of it.

Reclamation, for Neiman, starts with rereading. She draws her first lessons from the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham's response when Yahweh tells him that He plans to destroy the cities of the plain. "Wilt thou indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked?" the patriarch protests. "Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" When the Lord agrees to spare Sodom if 50 righteous men can be found there, Abraham presses his case: " 'Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Wilt thou destroy the whole city because of five?' And he said, "I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.' "

2008.05.29

(That was my first thought. Then I realized it looked more like pitch pipes. "Cookie CDs"? I would have loved to been at the design meeting for that one. "Well, Hannah Montanna makes CDs... and cookies are round... are you thinking what I'm thinking?" "Brilliant!")

2008.05.30

'succinct' is way too hard to spell and firefox's spellcheck ain't much help

2008.06.06

To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme, and figures of speech. Then ask two questions: One, how artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered, and two, how important is that objective. Question one rates the poem's perfection, question two rates its importance. And once these questions have been answered, determining a poem's greatest becomes a relatively simple matter.

2008.06.07

For more than ten years now, I've been tangled up with the problem of plastic bags stuck in trees. If I've learned anything from the experience, it's "Be careful what you notice." I was living in Brooklyn; I noticed the many plastic bags flapping by their handles from the high branches of trees, cheerful and confident and out of reach. Noticing led to pondering, pondering led to an invention: the bag snagger, a prong-and-hook device that, when attached to a long pole, removes bags and other debris from trees with satisfying efficiency. My friend Tim McClelland made the first working model in his jewelry studio on Broome Street, downtown. Possessing the tool, we of course had to use it; we immediately set off on a sort of harvest festival of bag snagging.

2008.06.08

<li>The view is 3D and like I <a href="http://kisrael.com/2006/07/17/">noted on my mom's</a> at first I thought this was a gimmick but it actually plays a nice, subtle role in emphasizing the most relevant streets. (Still need to figure out, if I zoom out enough so it switches to 2D, is there any way to get it to say "North is always up"... I hate the view with the Atlantic on the <s>right</s> left. (duh, thanks LAN3))

2008.06.09

<i>--First I've heard of it, but <a href="http://www.willitblend.com/">Will It Blend?</a> is a long ongoing series of awesome.</i>

This morning at the T stop is the first time in a while I recall looking for a nice shady spot. (behind a local map billboard)

2008.06.11

In Part 2 he talks about a Buddhist Monk who strives for enlightenment for 15 years, then finally gives up and finds it the first time he sleeps with a woman, a geisha.

("Henry Miller Asleep & Awake") 30-odd years ago, Tom Schiller. I don't know what other Henry Miller footage was about, but I think I see elements of this documentary informing Fred Ward's nice performance in "Henry & June", also there's a scene in the movie where Miller is making faces in a mirror that seems to be straight from the first moments of this clip.

2008.06.14

that gives in to fire;<br>

Woo. I like the subtle chemistry lesson, the tie-in of fire and the chemical oxidation process that is both crucial to our survival but leads to our ultimate decay.

2008.06.15

var firstMonth = 3; //april

if(worryDate.getMonth() < firstMonth || worryDate.getMonth() > lastMonth){

The fact is the course of action to be derived from the rule "April through November, avoid parking on the left on the first and third Mondays, and avoid parking on the right on the second and fourth Mondays" is not always immediately obvious... What's today's date? How long 'til the next Monday? Which Monday of the month is that? Which side is which again? Trying to calculate that in your head on a narrow one way street, possibly blocking cars behind you, with the relevant No Parking signs at various levels of visibility... I'd rather be able to press 2 buttons and get a clearly worded answer.

2008.06.16

One issue is with Computer Science: there are kind of two camps in it as an Academic pursuit, and there's a lot of tension. The first camp sees it as a part of Mathematics, and is very much about the theory and the beauty of computation. The second camp tends to be more Engineering in its outlook, and see it as more of an applied art, maybe even a bit of a craft. People in the former see the latter as wanting to make trade schools, people in the latter see the former as having their heads in the clouds.

2008.06.17

I'm such crap at life decisions! I'm feeling my usual urge to conduct Q+A with tons of people I respect: the best (and techie) friend who stayed at our University for his Masters, a beloved professor from that same school, my first manager out of college, my Aunt who put this round of the idea in my head, a friend of a friend who is going for her PhD in that same New Media course I noted yesterday, presumably to teach...

2008.06.18

Of course, that was only the first half of last nights game.. most of the second half was "garbage time", the Lakers running desperate hurry-up plays, trying to recapture some dignity in the final store, and the Celtics mirroring that with fun-to-watch, why-the-hell-not dunks and what not.

Heh, first quarter of the Celtics game on the car radio, a convoy of police paddy wagons driving the other way...

2008.06.24

(Macabre shades of Terry Jones' <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Cottingtons-Pressed-Fairy-Book/dp/1857933362">Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book</a>? Also memories of Cleveland kids smashing fireflies and using their guts for glow in the dark sidewalk writing.)

2008.07.03

William Saletan on <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2194336/">hypocricy on human values</a>... interesting meditation on the division between public / semi-private / private, how the first category often has more to do with how we'd like the world to be than we are ourselves. (Which is a positive spin of good old hypocrisy.)

2008.07.04

<applet code="kirkjerkfirewerk" archive="/java/kirkjerkfirewerk/kirkjerkfirewerk.jar"

<b>kirkjerkfirewerk</b> -

<a href="/java/kirkjerkfirewerk/kirkjerkfirewerk.pde">source</a>

EB's charcoal grill reminds me "the 3 things you can gaze at four hours: fire burning, water flowing, other people working."

2008.07.06

Sometimes to JZ's annoyance, like when I'd give up the mission in Earth Defense Force 2017 and just fly the helicopter around (theoretically to use its missiles, but it was a habit I continued even after our handheld weapons were dwarfing its firepower.) Or in GTA4, getting the "helitour" unlocked so I can 'jack copters and soar through Times Square at night was my #1 priority.

2008.07.09

Slate's Elizabeth Zierah writing on <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2195018/pagenum/all/"><i>anosmia</i>, losing your sense of smell</a>. My dad suffered from this when he was hit with spinal meningitis. His first, guy-with-his-RN-degree diagnosis? "When you are struck with spinal meningitis, your farts don't smell!"

2008.07.11

It turns out <a href="http://kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi/2007/06/29">reports of its demise</a> were greatly exaggerated and it has bounced back beautifully from its previous infirmity.

2008.07.12

Joshua Quittner. Actually I first recorded this in 1998...

2008.07.21

And I could see that maybe that's where I do have a skillset she doesn't, or at least not as refined... it's a process very similar to debugging a computer program: figure out what assumptions you're making, and then isolate and challenge each assumption in turn so you know what's going wrong. (OK, the Wii picture isn't showing up... does it show up when I plug it directly into the TV? Yes, so the TV is probably on the right channel. Now what if I plug it into the first switch box? Still works. How about into the second switch box? Problem. OK, so there's likely a loose plug or something between the two switch boxes.... etc etc etc)

2008.07.22

GT a little too much, realized that's not a neighborly first post, so

2008.07.23

I find this conclusion absurd. First, while this is an abstract thought experiment and thus a huge amount of handwaving is permitted, it's important to note how hyper-complex the "big book of instructions and all the pencils and scratch paper he could ever need" would be if the setup is going to effectively simulate a person conversing intelligently in Chinese. It's an important thing to note, because part of Searle's argument is secretly an appeal to intuition, and lines like "after all, it's just a book, and books can't think!" will come up but that is terribly misleading because ignores the overwhelming scope of that book... it needs contains "simple" abstract symbol manipulations that can "fake" someone who has a deep knowledge of the world, Chinese culture, history, itself, the laws of cause and effect, a sense of humor, what it means to be in love -- in short, everything necessary to convince the person passing in the notes and reading the responses that there is a Chinese speaker inside there. That book would need to be almost unimaginably huge and complex to pull this off.

firefox spellcheck FAIL: temprement -> procurements, procurement, procurement's, premenstrual, excremental, Add to dictionary. Yeesh.

2008.08.01

Charming. Boston has a god damned first of the month expired inspection sticker patrol.

2008.08.02

I was hoping for another Great Gatsby but so far it's not it. Though I didn't "get" Gatsby when I first <s>read</s> cliffnoted it in high school... I figure you have to be through at least one heartbreak to understand it. I'm not sure what I'd have to be through to get this book...

2008.08.04

It was kind of an interesting way to divide music: because most of my MP3s have the track # as the first part of the filename, the songs were mostly sorted by track number first, <i>then</i> by name. Except, oddly, the end of the first disk had a weirdly high concentration of my Paul Simon and Beatles... it was frustrating, 'cause while I like Paul Simon and I like the Beatles, have a big mix that's just bouncing between the two when it should be playing a broad selection is annoying.

I investigated, and it turns out they got such a bump because a lot of their music came on multi-disk sets and the numbering scheme had the first number be that of the disk, rather than the track. Ta Da.

So the first number is the track #, and then how many times it showed up in my 1500 or so songs. Like I said, not very interesting... odd that there's more track 4 than 3, and 8 then 7, but not the stuff research papers are made of.

Just to cap off the geekery, I took a look at the first word of the titles:

2008.08.06

Watching Clockwork Orange; my third or so time, JZ's first. Odd how the horrible scenes kind of wipe out the memories of the other ones.

2008.08.07

Bargain or weird milestone? Prudential's Talbot's is closing with 75% off and I just voluntarily bought a sweater for the first time ever.

2008.08.13

I put up one or two of the art pieces I was thinking of, then I put the Olympics up on the wall with the projector, settled into the <a href="http://www.interhealth.com/n/pages-b2c/ijoy/intropage.html">iJoy chair</a> that I have custody of on behalf of my Aunt, finished off a book I'd been meaning to get through, and fired up a laptop. It felt homey in a way I hadn't experienced in a long while... just kind of nestled in there, and with the art around (even if mostly in stacks against the wall) it really felt like my space. And sometimes it feels like I'm finding a new, good rhythm in life, taking care of issues as they arise and generally feeling like I'm giving myself room for whatever comes next, even if it's more of the same... I guess it's some combination of these Todo apps, finally making progress in the apartment, having a smaller amount of bills to think about, and is happening despite work getting more complicated as I volunteer for a management-ish role for another team.

2008.08.14

Taoism... sometimes I think I'm more naturally attuned to Taoism than anything else. (But I've come to learn that some of that is me being a bit of a drifter, and one who avoids challenges because my fragile ego really detests failure, and if I'm not careful, the ego will have be not play rather than risk losing.) My first exposure was "The Tao of Poo", I was very impressed by the path to the Tao that "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" found, and now I'm reading the lovely work "The Tao is Silent".

2008.08.15

It was around this time I also used signature characters, signing highschool notes with characters who would sometimes hold up signs of commentary ala Wile E Coyote. Zinger the clown, shown here, was first, but he was quick supplement by Alien Bill who has been with me ever since. Alien Bill Productions was also my default company for games or programs I'd make in college, marginally classier than "Barking Spider Productions" that I used in high school. Neither Zinger and Alien Bill are actual aliases, though sometimes people get confused about the latter.

In college I picked up "kisrael" in the classic Unix tradition of "first initial and last name" -- I was just pleased that since my last name starts with a vowel it makes a nice name in all. "Kirkjerk" was when I was looking for an appropriately menacing, at-most-8-character name for when people were playing the game Death Rally at work. I also went through a series of AOL Instant Messenger names before remember my kirkjerk password, including kirkamundo and thegreatkirkini.

I guess for the most part I'm pleased with my first name and like variations on it. Also I'm never compelled to do much role changing online, or that whole projective AOL-ish "HotStuff74" or whatever (and isn't it odd how so many people, some of whom might otherwise be a little coy about their age, tag on their birth year?)

2008.08.20

But now two people approach the jar, together, naked, hand in hand. The man has a beard and woolly legs like a goat. His long tongue is slightly swollen from some poetry he's been reciting. The woman wears a cowboy hat, a necklace of feathers, a rosy complexion. Her tummy and tits bear the stretch marks of motherhood; she carries a basket of mushrooms and herbs. First the man and then the woman sticks a thumb into the vinegar. She licks his thumb and he hers. Initially they make a face, but almost immediately they break into wide grins. "It's <i>sweet,</i>" they chime.

2008.08.21

"Only WHO Can Prevent Forest Fires? [...] You Pressed YOU, Meaning Me. That Is Incorrect. The Correct Answer Is ME, Meaning You."

2008.08.28

That seems to be real fake turf! Its the first bit of billboard advertising I've been compelled to touch.

2008.08.31

It's amazing how many really sharp people drift in and out of the office, friends of people jamming away I guess... the Israeli Doctorate in anarchy anarchy studies stopping over after giving a talk about OLPC at some conference, this willowy Chinese physics postdoc with the English accent (both of course I immediately develop huge crushes on), one of the <a href="http://logothings.wikispaces.com/">cofounders of Logo</a>, the precocious high schooler who namedrops Marvin Minsky like crazy, not even knowing how famous he was at first...

2008.09.03

Yeesh, last night was the first night I got myself into bed by like, ten in almost a week... a company party, minigolf and videos with out of town friends, 3 nights of physics jam, and then throwing off my actual bedtime by falling asleep to Star Trek: Next Generation reruns on the couch...

2008.09.07

desc="You know, I've looked at this photo so many times in the past few weeks, and this is the first time I've seen that it says 'Boston'; I was misremembering it as the photo after one of the festivals at Lakewood Community College.";

2008.09.09

Going down to get a "beer an' a hot dog" (one of EB's daughter's first phrases, thanks to her gramma) I realized how different the game looks from, like, right next to the field. I dunno if I've ever had really great seats to a ballgame, maybe sometime I should aim to fix that. It's kind of like the difference between an old 20" TV and an HD projector...

Yeah, I've got a sort of visual pun tattooed just below my navel. I thought it was pretty clever the first seven years.

2008.09.13

In Smash Bros and its sequels, games where four characters taken from a range of Nintendo game duke it out on screen, one of the most awesome weapons to pickup is the Hammer... the weapon and its tune harken back to the first appearance of Mario in the original Donkey Kong, and when you are wielding the fabled hammer you a force to be reckoned with. You can see the weapon in its original form and its use in Smash Bros Melee here:<br>

2008.09.23

I try to be open to suggestions from the Cosmos/the Tao/Fate whatever as my first choice of song, either something that's been rattling around my head, or that someone mentions. Failing that I look at the next 3 songs my iPhone would shuffle up and pick the quotable. (Too often the most emo, but hey.)

Holy cats, my gmail inbox is empty for the first time in over a year.

2008.09.26

"lost a game I didn't even know I was playing... not the first time in my life for that"-- on being "tricked" into first beer for beer:30

2008.09.29

A single bulb backlit the frame of the monster, who seemed as peaceful in sleep as he was terrifying in his waking hours. Sheldon thought back to the day five years ago when he gave life to this powerful creature. The sacrifice, dedication and secrecy that had gone hand in hand with the project. His parents never knew. Sheldon had convinced them that his thousands of hours in the basement were spent masturbating. Botched experiments often made his lies more difficult, but his parents took to their graves the belief that sometimes when Sheldon ejaculated, there was an explosion and fire.

<a href="http://twitter.com/pentomino">pentomino</a> "Monday: eat at Chili's to cure cancer"? I think you might want to try some more traditional courses of treatment first.

2008.10.01

WHEREAS, In 1965, an Ohio-based rock group known as the McCoys reached the top of the national record charts with "Hang On Sloopy," composed by Bert Russell and Wes Farrell, and that same year, John Tagenhorst, then an arranger for the Ohio State University Marching Band, created the band's now-famous arrangement of "Sloopy," first performed at the Ohio State-Illinois football game on October 9, 1965; and

2008.10.04

Jokes that were probably old 10 years ago: Tori Amos sings that she Crucifies Herself. Quite a trick, tough once you get the first arm up.

2008.10.07

I wish I could figure out rule for whether the first or second E line would be more crowded.

2008.10.16

Ugh, Dow keeps sliding, I have no idea why IE and skype work on my laptop but Firefox doesn't, mild lower back soreness. But, like all things, it could be worse. (Also, I drew this pumpkin on that laptop. I wonder if I need to adjust for my tendency to draw on a slant on it.)

I GODDAMNN HATE VISTA. HATE HATE HATE. Firefox autoupdated, now doesn't load pages. IE works. Firewall claims to be off. W. T. GD. F!?!?!

2008.10.19

i got my degree, and my first assignment

i'm a federation technician, first class

my first assignment was on GHIBAL 3

2008.10.23

I've drunk the kool-aid, via various books. Probably the most important was Dennett's "Conscious Explained". Another more recent one was Hawkin's "On Intelligence". Some of the concepts have also shown up in some science fiction I've read... Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep (SPOILERS, highlight to read:) <font color="white">which does a FANTASTIC job of describing a single individual consciousness "shared" by a pack of animals)</font>, Greg Egan's "Permutation City" extends some What-Ifs and Thought Experiments about being able to make accurate models of our minds in cyberspace, and where the people thus transfered were also more free to modify their inner makeups (you could make yourself content in any activity, one guy made chair legs for virtual decades, then rewired himself to get the deepest possible satisfaction about climbing an endless rockwall), and even Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" explored some implications of being able to make a backup of your brain, which you could then throw into a newly cloned (and quickly matured) body. (The protagonist is assassinated, but was a little lax in making backups, so upon "resurrection" has "lost" a few weeks... he's a bit unnerved by watching security camera footage of himself, and his assassin, events he filled happened to "him", but... not.

2008.10.24

I ended up buying a CD for each of these. But althe first two ads do such a good job of creating an emotional response, and the last one a visceral "wow, that's cool..."

2008.10.25

My first pumpkin was a slightly artsy experiment, not sure if it quite works... It's Jake from <a href="/astro">Young Astronauts in Love</a>...a Jake-O-Latern!<br>

2008.11.04

I'm kind of morally opposed to "Guess What I Mean" UI, but being able to just type "amazon mp3" in Firefox and get there is kinda nice.

2008.11.06

ducking back on the e line, first time I find a train driver REALLY bitchy about the white line ("side door please!!")

2008.11.11

Whew! Which viewpoint to adopt... personally I think our country gets into trouble when it embraces the first one. One man's evil guerilla terrorist is another's freedom fighter...

2008.11.16

So then it was the game jam, and it started out ok, though I kept getting distracted by hearing the wind push against the plastic in front of the windows. My bedroom/office has these lovely stained glass pieces, but they're drafty--the one with the permanently installed AC has visible daylight in parts--so much so that I think air gets behind the plastic and pushes against it, ripping off the tape. I've given up keeping the plastic nice and taut like it was at first via the magic of hair dryer (doesn't matter so much visually, they're behind some roman shades) and now it's an ongoing thing of maintenance.

Control the eyes with the mouse... mouse button fires a stream of particles, that can be used to stick to the walls and the ghosts following you. (Dessgeega called this the best firefly spitting simulation ever). Press 'r' to reset. Meant to be a study in a 2D variant of <a href="http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/10/30/the-unfinished-swan.html">The Unfinished Swan</a> demo.

2008.11.18

Firefox's popup blocker needs to be smarter and allow stuff I just clicked to make happen.

2008.11.20

If you want it to work"... though I prefer the first version of that I encountered somewhere in cyberspace that replaced sing, love, dance with program, compile, run...

2008.11.23

I <i>think</i> that's the quality of image I'm thinking of, those nice intense blues and greens. Can someone confirm that it's "saturation" I'm looking at here?

2008.11.24

Power outages in Back Bay, manhole fires, no work for me.

Power out in Back Bay + Theater District because of a manhole fire. Last night in Chinatown they were doing water stuff-related? (Day off!)

2008.11.25

Linguistically "first down" is a bit odd because they drop the verb... "it is first down" "they just missed [getting a] first down"

2008.11.26

In Firefox, I knew that ctrl-L hops the cursor up to the address bar, but ctrl-K jumps over to the search/Google box, which might be even more useful.

2008.11.27

It was just striking to me because I visually parsed it wrong when it was first paused, I thought he had his legs severely crossed but on second glance his knees are far apart. I guess it's just an optical illusion the way his coat is blocking the top of his legs, and maybe a visual assumption that something higher up is closer. FoSOSO pointed out it's not often you see a live human involved in such an Escher-esque illusion.

2008.12.01

Really odd dream, I was in some kind of Arcade game or Pinball competition, 3 rounds. I don't remember much about the first round except squeaking out a win... for round two my opponent was Warner Bros. animator

2008.12.05

<li> Who did you first sleep with?

2008.12.06

onSubmit="var f = document.getElementById('royalnicknamefirst').value;

var l = document.getElementById('royalnicknamelast').value; document.getElementById('royalnicknameurlspan').innerHTML='http://kirk.is/royal/name.php?first='+f+'&last='+l"

<tr><td>first name: </td><td><input name="first" id="royalnicknamefirst"></td>

<i>Simply enter your first and last name here and our advanced

Firefox 3 cares not for your pixel art.

2008.12.07

For worse or probably better, EB got his wish of a nice picturesque first snow of the season...

2008.12.08

I browse Drudge Report first, figuring if I can handle the current news at its most lurid and sensationalistically negative, I'll be ok

2008.12.09

I have a dream. It's not a big dream, it's just a little dream. My dream - and I hope you don't find this too crazy - is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a fire, calling the fire department would actually be a WISE thing to do. You can't have people, if their houses are burning down, saying, "Whatever you do, don't call the fire department!" That would be bad.

2008.12.10

I was kind of bummed that they didn't have the specific model of my first laptop, the Tandy 1100FD. So that inspired some Googling, and I ran into

Gas stations disable the stops that let the handle stay by itself. Praise for my mad holding skills? to ensure if there's a fire I'm in it?

2008.12.13

Less than a year from now, a message will come up on Oscar's screen first, and then on everyone else's screens, that will say "Leslie was here." The dates of my employment will be right there before my name, like the dates on a tombstone.

2008.12.15

Huh. Paul Graham et al talk about the advantage of web apps; improvements all the time. But iPhone and firefox do that through easy upgrades

2008.12.19

Man, Back Bay and the office are both pretty deserted. That first flake is going to fall with a giant thud, echoing off the emptied blocks

2008.12.21

You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a firefly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart.

</blockquote>...another lame QotD, but I just love that he picked "navel of a firefly", as opposed to some other insect, because it subtly reflects the Hollywood glamor thing.

2008.12.22

Watching the Giants and Panthers go into OT, I can't stop thinking that the "first point wins" OT rule is kind of BS- college has it better

2008.12.29

"I don't think you can have ambiance without setting something on fire." --Green St. last night

2009.01.01

JZ invited me along with him and his girlfriend up to her work, a penthouse office overlooking Boston Common to see the fireworks...

<img src="/m/2009.01.01.fireworks.jpg" width="375" height="500" >

2009.01.04

JZ just sold a character in the MUD Gemstone 4 for $400, he says a firesale price. That much real money for a text only game charcter? Wow.

2009.01.06

JZ has adopted a very teeny-bopper-ish "I know, right?" form of affirmation, half-serious, half-in jest. It's catchy! "I know, right?"

2009.01.08

Got my Todo "Today or Overdue" list down to < 10 for the first time in like a month, sheesh.

2009.01.09

Thought I just heard NPR reporting on the UN calling for a Gaza ceasefire to be "adorable" (was "a durable")

Firetruck crashed a few streets down this afternoon, fireman killed, 7 injured - <a href="http://tinyurl.com/a5mcp6">http://tinyurl.com/a5mcp6</a> map: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/9rpko7">http://tinyurl.com/9rpko7</a>

2009.01.11

New writing technique: if a paragraph is getting long and/or tangential, first start to fix it by breaking it into two at a logical point.

2009.01.12

I think the two groups should have merged to become Earth, Blood, Wind, Sweat, Fire, and Tears.

2009.01.17

And sometimes you can clearly make a ton of progress, and then still be stuck stuck stuck. One neat puzzle was a bunch of letters from various logos, along with categories. With heavy use of Google images through the course of 8 hours we got them all, but we have no great idea what to do with the resulting names. The first letters don't spell anything, or make a caesar cipher, it doesn't seem long enough to be a cryptogram, other tricks of applying certain numbers (like which letter in the word was excerpted) having come up with anything.

2009.01.20

Today shouldn't be all about race, just like it shouldn't be all about politics. But: for the first part of these lives, these people were considered non-people. Thinking of that transition, from property to citizen, is mind-blowing. I know when this picture was taken, there was still decades until the Civil Rights Movement got into full gear, and more decades until a black man could hold the highest office in the land. And I know that we still have a society with a lot of racism both obvious and subtle.

2009.01.22

<img src="/m/2009.01.22.harveyjames.fire.gif" width="428" height="276" >

2009.01.27

<i>[Elwood covers his head in anticipation of more gunfire, Jake removes his sunglasses to make a wordless appeal, and the Mystery Woman visibly softens]</i><br>

2009.01.30

So I decided to spend the first minutes of my first day of not-quite-employment doing the following naval gazing:

2009.02.03

It's a coincidence that my first week of not-in-office also has zero evening plans, but the empty iPhone datebook still looks bleak!

2009.02.05

So, that's where I'm at. I guess I'm at risk of becoming one of those "the way it happened to me is how it should happen to everyone!" - high school romances with fooling around but no sex, sex for the first time during a fairly important college relationship, and then as part of future relationships once they start getting "serious". I'll be frank, the last few intimate relationships I've been in, I think I've tended to be a bit of a slowing force in terms of how soon sex was part of the connection; between concerns about diseases and birth control and then even a bit of recognition of the fundamental connection-ness of sex (as probably being of greater import than the relationship might be having in its early days.) What I've found though is a woman who likes me enough to want for us to share our bodies like that is a bit impatient with my neurotic and post-Sunday School/"Hippy" yammering (and is possibly concerned it is cover for a rejection of her <i>in toto</i>) and my willpower ends up yielding to the moment. But I'd be reluctant to go the chaste "'kissing, hugging, holding hands' - all ok; anything else, not ok" point of view; I do think high school /college set my vision of the ideal; a ramp up to increasing levels of intimate contact, but sex still on more of a pedestal.

AHA! The stupid scrolling widget that shows up when I mean to center click is Firefox specific: "autoscrolling" under Advanced Props- b'bye!

(Seriously, for me reading is jumpy, not gliding along at steady (if adjustable) rate - that firefox scroll widget was just annoying.)

2009.02.09

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/cusswow">http://tinyurl.com/cusswow</a> - a half hour of every swear on the Sopranos in rapidfire succession. Hypnotic. Whew. I swear too much.

2009.02.24

--No Cats Were Harmed in the Making of this Comic. (Or the first time I made it for Tufts Zamboni in like 1993.)

2009.02.28

So for a few days now I've been trying the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shangri-La_Diet">Shangri-La Diet</a>. I've lost a few pounds, though that's nothing special for the first days of any diet.

2009.03.02

Bleh. First day of actual unemployment, and it's a damn snow day for everyone anyway. What fun is that?

2009.03.07

Everybody talks first draft.

2009.03.10

JZ probably had the single most beautiful shot, launching a car that was ON FIRE -- like the closer for the video, but on fire the whole time, streams of flame pouring from the wheel wells making comet tails.

2009.03.15

The first is... I dunno, this air of "inevitability" I get when I read summaries of existing plots. I get this a lot when I read through <a href="http://tvtropes.org">TV Tropes</a> (currently my favorite way of entertaining myself via iPhone.) It's an odd sense of fate, a feeling of <i>"Es Muss Sein"</i>, it must be, this story could not be otherwise. So it was written, so it was done. (Maybe this creates the frisson I get from reading "alternate universe"/"elseworlds" type stuff) This sense creates a bit of writer's block in me, because I want to make something new, but I <i>don't know</i> how it has to be, and I'm worried I'm going to get it "wrong".

2009.03.24

There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when hour name is spoken for the last time.

[On God as a Married Couple] It is heartening to see that they learn from us in the same manner that all parents learn from their children. For example, it turns out they didn't know how to express the workings of their universe as equations, so they are greatly impressed with the ideas of their physicist children, who phrase clearly to them for the first time what they wrought.

2009.03.27

"Indeed, but I'll only be going to visit you, who I will have sent down first."<br>

For way too long on my todo I meant to mention that one kind of hokey, faux-American Indian story, about someone who has two wolves that are fighting... the way I heard it first is one is hope, the other fear, and the question is, if they're fighting, which one wins, and the answer is "the one you feed".

2009.03.29

I've thought about it off and on for many years. I've been <a href="http://alienbill.com/abp/about.html">drawing Alien Bill</a> since 1990 or so, he was my <a href="http://alienbill.com/">first webdomain</a> and my production company. There's a bit of personal mysticism with him.... I don't quite know what he's all about, if there's some cosmic or psychological significance to him always being in motion, or with the one large eye. (Though I do know he was <a href="http://kisrael.com/2001/07/20/">cribbed a bit from some earlier sources</a>.) He's not me, or my avatar, but he is my totem.

2009.04.02

"It was my first time. Did you like it?"<br>

Woo. Just got some contracting work despite F/T irons in the fire, in part to help an old mentor. In some ways a consultant life sounds cool.

2009.04.12

First up: Chocopuff/Ricekrispie Treat Eggs, modeled by Kate and Miller:<br>

At first, they look like little peep angels, no eyes or color, just their little marshmallow souls on a tray:<br>

<img src="/m/2009.04.12.3.firstpeeps.jpg" width="500" height="375" >

Also made...<a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=6Z0&um=1&sa=1&q=+Totoro&btnG=Search+Images&aq=f&oq=">Totoro</a> Cream Puffs! Lovingly handcrafted homemade pastry shells carefully injected with puddin'.<br>

2009.04.26

My bud cmg and I walked the Revere shore yesterday, the first summerish day of the year. We saw this guy doing some kind of surfing with a giant kite... though a minute of googling implies the sport is, err

2009.04.28

<a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/23/2339224">GeoCities is going away?</a> - Boo. It was terrible but egalitarianly terrible, the first real implementation of the web's anyone-can-publish model.

This <a href="http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=426">recent softer world cartoon</a> has been rattling in my brain ever since I first saw it.

2009.04.29

I'm not sure if it "means" anything, except I did have Java on my mind last week. Also I'm happy that I could punch out a first draft of this in literally 5 or 10 minutes, in terms of programming mojo and convenient tools.

2009.04.30

Attn Paul McCartney: because even if "no one really watching us", the road is still dirty and uncomfortably firm and gravel-y! Duh.

2009.05.03

I've been interested in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_(betting_system)">"martingale" system</a>, (where you decide how much to win per go-round, then double up until you win or go broke) for a while, even though it is, of course, a sucker's bet. A friend first mentioned it to me in 1999 or so, and all the way back then I was able to write a simulation to prove that with any kind of house limit or limited bankroll, you are going to eventually lose, and in the long run lose more than you gain. A few months ago for a lark and to exercise a new laptop I had bought I wrote some nerdy simulations to see if there were any parameters of walking away that could change that. Answer: no, of course not.

2009.05.13

I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don't respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.

2009.05.15

Translation: GDP is easy to measure, so we're going to measure it. To their credit, and a bit of my surprise, they do address the criticisms of this yardstick on the next page but their fundamental course is set. Jumping ahead, they feel free to inflate the importance of this metric into statements like "Connecticut, for instance, has almost twice the material prosperity of old European great powers like France and the UK." But of course in that same graph, Washington DC is LITERALLY OFF THE CHART in material prosperity, over twice the nearest state. Strangely, Weirdly, the authors, who go to HUGE lengths about the importance of a 20% difference in GDP between the USA, and explaining that Luxembourg fits between Delaware and Connecticut (all the foregin capital) are silent about this elephant in the room. So clearly we want every city to look like Washington DC, don't we? That gunfire in the background is probably gunfire of CELEBRATION!

HAHA, Wow. At first I was going to put "In these regions the average American can get exactly twice as much of everything as the average European." right after that "gizmos" line as pointing out the crazy bias of this kind of research, but... jeez, do you think maybe BEING a "virgin wilderness" (<i>2019 Update: or at least unindustrialized - <a href="https://kottke.org/19/05/the-persistent-myth-of-the-empty-american-frontier">conservatives tend to downplay the fact Europeans were not moving into unoccupied places</a></i>) - they and having tons of natural resource to exploit, rather than having supported centuries of relatively crowded growth, might actually be a net plus when it comes to making a century of economic progress? Or maybe having relatively docile neighbors and big wide oceans and not getting bombed nightly in giant World Wars?

Again, I think they should insert "that we found convenient to use" at the end of the first clause.

The liberal, of course, might point out that some decisions made in the public sector are for the benefit of the public, as opposed to the laissez-faire world where decisions are generally made to the benefit of making more money...and hopefully that averages out and does more people good, and we don't get to stuck in tragedy of the commons situations, and people as individuals achieve broader thinking (the sort of thing where, it makes sense to fund a general fire department rather than a subscription based one, since if your neighbor gets cheap and lets his house burn, you're in more danger than otherwise... or "we might be building up McMansion ghettos and horrendous schools, but as long as I can send my kid to private school from my gated community, I'll be A-OK")

2009.05.16

--OK, this passed the test of making me laugh, hard... especially OK since I don't think anyone got really hurt. But man, I could just imagine the debriefing... YOU ARE A FIREMAN. YOUR JOB IS TO PUT OUT FIRES. ONE THING YOU DO *NOT* WANT TO DO IS THROW FIRE AT PEOPLE, AND SET THEM ON FIRE.

I have a dream. It's not a big dream, it's just a little dream. My dream - and I hope you don't find this too crazy - is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a fire, calling the fire department would actually be a wise thing to do. You can't have people, if their houses are burning down, saying, "Whatever you do, don't call the fire department!" That would be bad.

2009.05.18

The first speaker was an artist who did a big installation on top of a building, with all these mannequins representing people who had died from laughter. In my dream, my pun got a big laugh.

2009.05.19

I've been growing my beard for charity. Was I supposed to tell anyone about it first?

2009.05.23

First: Boston life:

2009.05.24

"...sung by Vaughn Monroe / I can do with out his singing /but I wish I had his dough" - I guess by the point this was made, too few people would get the joke (Monroe was one of the first big singers of this song, dunno if he was over-exposed or what.)

2009.05.27

You know, I liked this at first, but realized there's an implicit "or could our data be wrong / could this be an illusion" that Forrester is ignoring...

2009.05.31

<li>We want our men to understand that sometimes we have Bad Hair Days, Bad Bum Days, and we need an extra ego booster - <span style="font-style: italic;">extra </span>bcs we want our men to think us beautiful and sexy anyway, and to fancy us like bloody hell, and to <span style="font-style: italic;">show </span>us that they fancy us like the bloody hell.<br /></li><li>We want our men to understand that sometimes we want them to devour us, we want to merge with them, become one amidst a charm of hummingbirds, but partnership doesn't mean parasitism. We are fiercely independent too, and it is healthy that we meet our mates alone sometimes, that we actually want to, healthy to not always be joined at the hip.</li><li>We want our men to not be intimidated by our strong personalities, intelligence or need for a life beyond them, this isn't a geisha drive-thru; in fact, we want men who'll thrive on it.</li><li>We want our men to say 'No', and stand up to us. <span style="font-style: italic;">Please</span> stand up to us, we need our men to be men we can respect.<br /></li><li>We want our men to be intelligent and cultured, we want to be able to chat with them for hours abt big things and small things, to <span style="font-style: italic;">always</span> want to chat with them; our men may sometimes be aggravating but they're never dull.</li><li>We want our men to not be put off by our tears, bcs we sometimes cry and it won't always make sense, they can't always fix it - and it IS alright, we just need them to hold us and pull us onto their laps and cuddle for a bit.</li><li>We want men who are manly, bcs if someone's going to be girly in a relationship it'd better be the girl. We respect men who can cry, men who can show pain and sadness, men who can be vulnerable without pulling away - and we want those men as well - but little whiners make us shudder.</li><li>The Porties among us want our men to not ever - EVER - read Paulo Coelho/be too esoteric bcs we, as a whole, have found out that <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> equals absolutely, staggeringly, unbelievably mindfucked.</li><li>The Porties among us want our men to keep their bleeding mouths shut regarding past relationships/sexual encounters for the most part. It is not included in our cultural mating rituals, it is no one's business, and we firmly believe there should be only two in bed, not dozens. </li><li>We want our men to be able to discuss everyting with us, including their exes , we want them to be able to vent if they're still ruminating, if it was traumatic, if they're still finding their footing again - but no <span style="font-style: italic;">ad nauseam</span> obsessing though.</li><li>We want our men to make us laugh and giggle, we want to be able to be silly together.<br /></li>

2009.06.02

notepad++ seems like a good editor. Using Firefox has made me appreciate a IDE-ish "restore open docs", tho I guess textpad coulda done it.

2009.06.03

<a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_16176_8-pointless-laws-all-comic-book-movies-follow.html">8 Pointless Laws All Comic Book Movies Follow</a> - oh right, comic book films DO tend to bring out the biggest villain in the first movie, so the followups tend to have multiples.

2009.06.08

Hmm, I'm becoming a bit dependeing on Firefox's auto-URL-complete especially for odd dev'pt server - less diligent about saving URLs.

2009.06.11

Some stuff I find sexy now was stuff I found sexy as a teen. Do teen years SET preferences, or are they just the first reflections of innate 'likes'? Probably some of both. (This was partially inspired by stumbling on Craig Thompson's excellent graphic novel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blankets_(graphic_novel)">Blankets</a>, about young love in an Evangelical Christian environment.)

2009.06.18

2/6/09 - she told of a friend who loved Nutella, and especially the sound it makes when you first open it, and he got a great big Y2K commemerative jar that he was saving for later... but his SO opened it and stole the sound from him.

2009.06.21

if you want to play just hold the fire button to send in a stream of bullets to kill them.

UPDATE: I kind of like the initial "orbit around the individual random starting points" look of when the app first starts, something you couldn't get to once they started tracking where the mouse had been, so now after 30 seconds of not moving the mouse, the invaders return to that pattern.

makes me feel like a riot cop firing into a group of people who are staging a demonstration about how much they love pretty colours.

2009.06.26

Man, down here in Virginia I'm reminded how much I miss fireflies. They're serious earth magic. Cleveland had 'em too, Boston is too north.

2009.06.27

Digging Chrome. Don't like its "tab sorting" though, bummed Firefox might emulate. Prefer tab bar as chronology of opening, wish for option!

2009.07.05

Coming up - fireworks! But first: EB's and his new baby, henceforth known as "EBB2":<br>

So Amber and I decided to kayak the Charles for fireworks - we were joined by much more experienced kayakers <a href="http://rhysara.livejournal.com/">rhysara</a> and <a href="http://c1.livejournal.com">c1</a>, who had their own equipment (AND HOW - Rhysara managed to get all her luggage on her monstrous beast of a craft:)

Getting near the fireworks site we found this lovely beast of a pontoon highrise homebrew craft. Braver souls than I!<br>

Rhysara asked that I make a LJ-icon-able photo including the bow of a kayak and the fireworks... a challenge, since the fireworks were usually high up. This is the best I could do, though I think the square cropping should still be interesting:<br>

<img src="/m/2009.07.05.bowandfirework.jpg" width="500" height="667" >

<li>If you're wavering about the hoody (being too warm at first, but useful if an evening chill sets in) wear it now, unless the day is truly sweltering.

<li>Anchors should ALWAYS be tied to the bow, not the stern, and if you're clever, look how the big boats are pulling from their anchor to figure out which way you'll be facing. HOWEVER - if you are facing directly into the fireworks, you are at risk for having a lot of smoke and ash blown in your face.

2009.07.06

In a flurry of flame and fur, fangs and wicker, thus ended the world's first and only hot air baboon ride.

<a href="http://cellar.org/iotd.php">http://cellar.org/iotd.php</a> - my firework-over-kayak-bow photo was Cellar.org's Image of the Day.

2009.07.12

Fire! It is what we can doing we hope. No fear. Not ourselves. Say quietly to all people coming up down everywhere a prayer. Always is a clerk. He is assured of safety by expert men who are in the bar for telephone for the fighters of the fire come out.

Loveblender.com couplet: "Such a dirty girl filled with dark desires. My saliva isn't enough to put out your sexual fire." Oy.

2009.07.14

According to the film, the gun was created by Deep Thought prior to its long pondering of the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. When used on someone, it will cause them to see things from the point of view of the person firing the gun.<br>

2009.07.18

Skateboarding, first known as 'sidewalk surfing', split off from surfing when people decided it would be much more fun if you lost a layer of skin and a joint every time you screwed up. Or at least, it would be more fun if all the newbies did that instead of clogging up the beach. This means skateboarders were outwitted by surfer dudes, a feat thought medically impossible by anyone still breathing.

2009.07.19

My entry for <a href="http://glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/351#comment-2158">Klik of the Month #25</a> -- I made the screen a bit too big to post in place here. Arrow keys move, z and x fire and jump.

2009.07.21

Ok, so it's nice that I can synch to Exchange at work. But iPhone- first calendar "red", second "orange? Your rainbow-love makes for bad UI!

2009.07.24

Random anecdote: my dad grew up rural enough to remember some places where the Sears Roebuck catalog served as a combination of toilet paper and reading material (maybe for an outhouse at the cousins' farm?) There was a specified order to which sections of the catalog got torn out first; I think it started with shoes.

2009.07.25

First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.

2009.07.28

<a href="http://kirk.is/2004/07/28/">http://kirk.is/2004/07/28/</a> - heh, 5 years ago today I published my first Processing app... Man, 5 Years? Anyway, fun language

2009.07.29

That reminds me, I've been thinking about <a href="raymondscott.com">Raymond Scott</a> lately. It's too bad his quintet's version of his "Powerhouse" doesn't have the- well, power- of Carl Stalling's Loony Tunes version, which the first minute of this is based on. (Maybe I should rip this as an MP3...I purchased a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stalling-Project-Music-Warner-Cartoons-1936-1958/dp/B00123FHO8">Carl Stalling mp3</a> from Amazon, but this cut wasn't stand alone, just mashed in with all the rest.)

2009.08.07

techno-irritation of the moment: iTunes sorts playlists punctuation first (so stuff in quotes is at top of list.) iPhone sorts it last. Duh.

2009.08.08

The Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Grechko, while in orbit during the Soyuz-17 flight, relaxed by reading the Strugatskys, making theirs the first science-fiction novels to be read in space.

2009.08.10

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

2009.08.14

What's on my mind is my job. We're starting up with a new client, and one of the company's partners talked with the tech lead on my first gig at the company. In general I came out pretty well with that, but I guess in early days I come across as "too deferential" - and I think that is a good term for my issues with projecting the front of "can-do" confidence a consultant is supposed to have.

2009.08.15

I found this arresting image online somewhere and I just had to save it. It captures so many facets of existence in one image. Overall, it has a very Wabi-sabi (侘寂) feel, which is an aesthetic I'm particularly drawn to -- impermanence, natural decay, the sorrow of the ephemeral. At the same time as this photo is pointing helplessly at sun-faded childhood dreams, it also affirms the power of nature to triumph over the works of man. And that, in the end, is a comforting thought. Not only for the health of the planet, but for the health of my soul. My impermanence is part of the natural order, and my own passing, and the passing of things that I love, is not to be mourned.

2009.08.19

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM</a> - missed the "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism" video the first time. Secret to comedy: stingers!

2009.08.21

<a href="http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/the_android_opportunity">http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/the_android_opportunity</a> - Can Android be saved? I worry the AppStore might make iPhone's early lead even tougher to overcome because people come to rely on specific apps.

2009.08.24

Here are the grooms at their first dance...

2009.08.26

Just finished "Me and You" by Margaret Diehl, a novel I first read back in college, a super sensual (in both senses of the word) story of an alcoholic painter woman. A few bits I found in it that I remembered, but not their source:

2009.08.27

<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/rqmmnrnznzj/Usborne%20Guide%20to%20Computer%20and%20Video%20%20Games.cbr">"Usborne Guide to Computer and Video Games"</a> (in weird .cbr format- need reader, or just rename to .rar and use WinRAR) I was just thinking about this book the other day! I remember how crazy impossible the pg.40 hand-held dirtbike game seemed ("video games just don't look like that, how could you play that") but now I guess the tech is prett much there... (via <a href="http://twitter.com/auntiepixelante">http://twitter.com/auntiepixelante</a> )

2009.09.03

My first crush on an Irish girl...I was ten years old, and her name was Elaine. Little red-haired girl; Well, she looked like you, But if you were ten, Which you're clearly not. Not that you look old, but you get my-- I'll just stop now.

<a href="http://relaxationresponse.org/steps/">http://relaxationresponse.org/steps/</a> - I remember reading "The Relaxation Response" a long while ago at the recommendation of a college infirmary doctor. I was impressed that it seemed more concerned with helping people in a secular way than selling either a belief system or books. It somehow seems contradictory to say "I really should add a daily Todo app entry of 'medidate'" but I think I really should.

2009.09.04

on my car, the first leaf of fall? AARGH!<br>

2009.09.09

Sigh. Guess today I'll fire up the old Dreamcast and... I dunno, try to have some place that cooks hot dogs in beer or something, like I think my Dad said they did in Ohio...

2009.09.11

I'm pro-Obama, but it's vaguely odd that his "It is a lie, plain and simple" is fine, but "You lie!" is a firestorm. Decorum uber alles!

Some friends of mine are experiencing first hand employment problems because of credit checks. What the HELL is the justification for those?

2009.09.14

Those first two Dilberts don't seem that great to me anymore, I think they had more to do with my work situations then. "You only THINK there's a difference" can be the perfect line in the right circumstances.

2009.09.15

<img src="/m/2009.09.15.shirts/bostonfireback.jpg" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=225>

<img src="/m/2009.09.15.shirts/bostonfirefront.jpg" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=158>

From the firehouse near the Pru.

2009.09.16

Had skipped shaving for too many days, went back to no-electric razor for the first time in years. Had forgotten the pleasantness of a hot water shave.

2009.09.22

Johnny, who is on the verge of finishing up her thesis to become a vet, spent a year at the Oceanário - working with penguins and alcids! She says she was the first the penguins trusted enough to take food from her.

Took the metro back to Johnny's flat, and then we decided to head for a walk on the beach at Caparica... got my feet wet (kind of a ritual requirement for me when I'm oceanside even when the water is bracingly cold, like here) on this side of the Atlantic for the first time.

2009.09.24

Super Bock is the big local beer. Johnny says it has a great reputation - at first I thought it was a bit thin, but I kind of warmed up to it.

Finally, for no particular reasons, 3 fire hydrants (2 from earlier in the day)

2009.09.26

One of the historical pieces, this one was showing the divorce rate in German in the first part of the 20th century.

to get the first bread of the morning /

2009.09.28

I love my puppy ... I love that he is so young and full of life ... And that he will still die first.

2009.09.29

<a href="http://gawker.com/5369364/william-safires-finest-speech">http://gawker.com/5369364/william-safires-finest-speech</a> - the speech ready if the Apollo moon landing had left the astronauts stranded. RIP, William Safire.

2009.10.04

<i>Here's what I've posted at <a href="/features/sloths">kisrael.com/features/sloths/</a>... it was great fun working with Miller and Kate again. The 100 panel guideline for webcomics is seeming a bit excessive; frankly I didn't have quite that much story, so I added a bestiary thing at the end. Miller got a full stoy drawn and captioned, a first for him, and Kate got a lot of great panels I'll be linking to here. Mille blogged it a bit <a href="http://kirkjerk.livejournal.com/friends/">on his livejournal</a> but it seems to fade out in the early hours.

My previous experience, plus my quick sketch doodle style, let me get done in about 18 hours even after following a false start for the first half hour and then losing another 30-40 minutes of captioning due to laptop failure, so I got a bit of sleep in.

You can see <a href="/m/sloth/">the original here</a> - I'd recommend reading it first, it's short, and kind of gives a context to this.

<td width=200 valign="top"><img border=1 src="/features/sloths/11.png" width=200 height=200><br>The battery replacement ritual is very important to us! You can't let just anyone replace your batteries! (We have a name for sloths like that!)</td><td width=200 valign="top"><img border=1 src="/features/sloths/12.png" width=200 height=200><br>I wish to tell you a story from my past. I was very young, I had just received my first tie from the Tie Store.</td></tr>

<td width=200 valign="top"><img border=1 src="/features/sloths/19.png" width=200 height=200><br>Old ParNok had just proven his worth to be our leader when word of the Zapper invasion came</td><td width=200 valign="top"><img border=1 src="/features/sloths/20.png" width=200 height=200><br>We tried to mount a defense. We used our lasers - at first warning shots, and then we used our beams directly.</td></tr>

<td width=200 valign="top"><img border=1 src="/features/sloths/25.png" width=200 height=200><br>ParNok called a general meeting. Although I was all but a youngling, still sporting my first tie, I was allowed to speak. I had an idea.</td><td width=200 valign="top"><img border=1 src="/features/sloths/26.png" width=200 height=200><br>"Lets get Puddo!"</td></tr>

<td width=200 valign="top"><img border=1 src="/features/sloths/33.png" width=200 height=200><br>We formed a small party and journeyed to the Alkaline Forrest.</td><td width=200 valign="top"><img border=1 src="/features/sloths/34.png" width=200 height=200><br>Those first Zappers didn't stand a chance.</td></tr>

2009.10.07

Clockwise from top we have her <i>attacking polar bear</i> being distracted by my <i>delicous baby seal</i>, her lead off <i>sword</i> being deflected by a <i>cunning ninja</i>, a <i>water gun</i> with the attached <i>tank of water</i> - that's being drained by a <i>fat man out for tea</i>. However, that fat man had a <i>dodgy heart</i> and thus the Mr. Snowman was again imperiled... until the <i>paramedics from the 70s show "Emergency!"</i> showed up to resuscitate him ("CLEAR!"). A more traditional <i>gun</i> had its bullets diverted via a <i>powerful electromagnet</i>. Then, we have a <i>plow truck</i> being stopped by a <i>stake in the ground and chain</i>. I'm not sure what the <i>gentleman</i> is doing to lift up the stake, but he (and his curious- err, tripod base-) is being...umm, licked by <i>another guy</i> as yet another distraction. Finally, we end with what was probably chronologically the first, the melting <i>sun</i> being blocked by <i>clouds</i>.

2009.10.19

If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

2009.10.21

iTunes UI Fail: Apps, Ringtones, Movies, TV Shows, Podcast, iTunesU, Photos have their own synch tabs. Audibooks are hidden under Music Playlists. (And I colda sworn the Audiobooks icon wasn't there at first even)

2009.10.25

EB got one of those chimnea outdoor fireplace things that he, Amber, and I enjoyed a week or so ago.

<img src="/m/2009.10.25.fireeb.jpg" width="375" height="500" >

<img src="/m/2009.10.25.fireamber.jpg" width="375" height="500" >

<img src="/m/2009.10.25.firekirk.jpg" width="500" height="375" >

<img src="/m/2009.10.25.rexfirst.jpg" width="375" height="500" >

2009.10.26

We got to talking about some people I know, both women, both close to JZ, who both independently felt the need to pick themselves out of the life they had here around Boston and move elsewhere in the country -- neither had clear job prospects or housing arrangement plans. If nothing else, that's some bravery! The desire to do that is really foreign to me, but again, that makes sense given my reluctance to make big, risk-filled decisions in the first place.

2009.11.02

Speaking of that kind of thing, Crayola has an <a href="http://www.crayola.com/products/splash/OUTDOOR/3dchalk.cfm">interesting gimmick</a> I saw when I was looking to buy sidewalk chalk for my "Feynamn Diagram" costume -- at first I thought the gimmick was that the glasses had divergent angles, making everything a bit "wall-eyed" and thus providing a different view of everything, but judging by that page, it must be some prismatic effect that bends certain colors more than others.

2009.11.05

She asserts repeatedly that ancient peoples had a clear split between <i>Mythos</i> and <i>Logos</i> (an idea first introduced to me in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"). Some cultures had multiple creation myths geared at explaining different aspects of the human experience, and none of them were expected to hold up to a literal interpretation as historic events. The book doesn't really cite evidence, though (at least not the audio version, I don't know if the real thing has endnotes or something) so I'm left wondering if maybe folks were just, you know, gullible back then. I mean, I'm sure <i>some</i> of the hoi polloi took the stories at face value -- I can't believe the question "mommy, did that <i>really</i> happen?" is new, created by our modern culture.

2009.11.07

New shoes, work casual slip-ons. Realizing I'm just now getting over the trauma of only being able to wear slip-ons in first grade 'cause I didn't know how to tie 'em and velcro sneakers weren't around.

2009.11.11

The Panglossian pessimist says, "Isn't it a shame that this is, after all, the best of all possible worlds!" Imagine a beer comercial: as the sun sets over the mountains, one of the hunks lounging around the campfire intones, "It doesn't get any better than this!" -- at which point his beautiful companion burts into tears: "Oh no! Is that really true?" It wouldn't sell much beer.

It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons, about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are. In view of this and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis, I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some one meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation.

2009.11.15

Michi, who helped arrange things and then flew in from Chicago, was probably the belle of the ball, what with her firedancing in the backyard and all... kind of amazing!

2009.11.20

left and right mousebutton flaps for player 1. player 2 can take over the computer at any time by using z and x to flap. first to 10 wins.

2009.11.21

<i>--Man... those eyes on fire...</i>

2009.11.22

First off was this giant structure. It's, like, almost more sized for adults than kids...<br>

2009.12.07

While it's not setting the world on fire, it's gratifying to Google on "javadvent" and see where it has gotten. (There were only 2-3 hits for the word prior, mostly with this "jav/Advent.htm" variant.)

2009.12.11

I wish when I was born my first word would've been 'quote' so that right before I died I could say 'end quote'

</blockquote> Hmm, maybe I should try to get EBB2's first word to be "quote" - "antidisestablishmentarianism" might be a little too ambitious anyway.

2009.12.28

I wasn't in the military, but I and a half-dozen others were going across the enemy lines into Long Island to recon. The Enemy was gearing up for the last attack. We were given some of the highly sophisticated Enemy firearms that had inexplicably fallen into the hands of Connecticut's forces. With surprising ease for a war zone, we crossed the border into Long Island on foot (it was connected to land somehow--look, it's a dream). After several bizarre non sequitur adventures (it's a dream), we were met by a seemingly insane Enemy soldier who knew who we were, and wanted to defect. Before we could get any info from him, his spandex pants swelled up from giant hemorrhoids, his face began to bubble like his skin was boiling, and his head burst like a water balloon. This attracted the attention of his fellow soldiers, as one might guess.

I wasted a lot of ammo from my hi-tech handgun on the first one, so when he fell, I grabbed his submachine gun and sprayed the oncoming troops. Literally, as it was a squirt gun. I switched to my gun and shot the rest quite easily, as they were moving slowly and randomly in the open and not firing back. I reloaded and realized that they were also armed with toy guns, or even dinner forks. Baffled, our side stopped shooting, and suddenly our enemies all got really bad hemorrhoids, and then their heads exploded. One was staggering around and began bragging about how great he felt, and showed us his arm. He was on drugs, and I don't mean that he showed us his needle marks, but a big IV bottle taped to his arm, a bright yellow liquid being pumped continuously into his bloodstream. It looked like power steering fluid. Since the drug didn't have a name beyond "Zip!" (with "!" in the name), maybe it was power steering fluid. Maybe those Russian air force pilots stationed in Siberia who drink the windshield washer fluid from their MiGs are onto something after all.

We stood there, not really sure what to do, when suddenly a hologram appeared in the air, a warning from a New England doctor. "We've discovered the reason for these Zip! deaths. DO NOT put Zip! in a slow IV drip! The bottle should be injected all at once directly into the carotid artery or jugular vein!" All the newly infected enemy did this immediately, and instead of dying in a month, 5 seconds later, KABLAM! Head fireworks display! Like human dominoes, they were falling dead from where we stood to the horizon! Connecticut troops rushed past us across the border, and within days the Enemy's dictatorship, its armies either unarmed, already dead or currently head-explodey, had been overthrown!

2009.12.31

The first few songs listed I particularly like, the stuff from Portugal is great as well.

<li><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6t9ri_kings-of-leon-sex-on-fire_music">Sex On Fire</a> (Kings Of Leon)

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwFS69nA-1w">First Day of My Life</a> (Bright Eyes) <i>--I think this is the one I saw in a UK insurance ad - lovely, lovely.</i>

2010.01.02

<i>The Great Fires</i>,

<i>The Great Fires</i> is the best book of romantic poetry ever.

<i>Me and You</i> is a superbly sensual story I first read in college.

<i>Blankets</i> is a great graphic novel, sweet, romantic, a great study into growing up among bible thumpers - Amber's first

2010.01.03

How I spent the first day of a new decade with EB's bunch and Amber:<br>

2010.01.06

Many of these books were written before 2000... this is just a subjective list based on me first encountering them at some point over the last decade. But I'd heartily recommend any of them to nearly anyone.

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Upon-Deep-Zones-Thought/dp/0812515285/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262779895&sr=1-1">A Fire Upon the Deep</a> and how it stretched my mind about possible idea for alien consciousness, but I guess I read that last decade.

2010.01.07

and the Spanish original might be a tad better, but this is the one I saw first.

2010.01.08

<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_Vice_City">Grand Theft Auto: Vice City</a> - the series is getting a little repetitive, but I think for sheer hours of enjoyment, these games top the list. GTA4 is in most ways a better game, but Vice City was my first, plus it had helicopters, and captured that 80s "Miami Vice" feel in spades. Man, I love any game with a helicopter. Anyway, the way this series put fun missions over something very like a "living breathing world" that was fun just to tool around in, playing with cars, cycles, and guns... it's hardly topped in all of game-dom. (Also neat how your character is basically the same at the end of the game- it's the player that knows where all the guns and cool things are.)

<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_Squadron_II:_Rogue_Leader">Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader</a> - I've always been a huge Star Wars fan boy, and honestly it's mostly because of the space ship stuff. This game that came out with the GameCube put you inside an X-wing... and that's all it had to do. The "Battle for Endor" level finale was the first time I saw anything of that scale, with just swarms of TIEs - the classic "There's too many of them!" line came home for the first time.

2010.01.09

The first part was the races.

2010.01.14

    God damn your god damned old Hellfired god damned soul to

damned hellfired god damned soul to hell and god damnation god

<a href="http://firstpersontetris.com/">http://firstpersontetris.com/</a> - making the rounds. Dizzying!

2010.01.19

<dd>My first PC, senior year of high school. I begged my mom for it, justified by college, but really I saw Wing Commander in a magazine and NEEDED to play it.

<dd>My first at home switch to the Mac side, that weird 11" Macbook Air form factor... diminutive but great and portable, not quite enough HD/SSD space.

<dd>Man, I wish I could find some record of this! It was a cool, flat PDA I bought off someone at Tufts - rubberized grey and maroon, it had holes so it could be placed in a 3 ring binder. I first started jotting down quotes in this thing, but I couldn't connect it to anything. (UPDATE: It was the <a href="/2014/04/08">Texas Instruments PS-9500 TimeRunner </a>)

<dd>Its hard to explain how cool this was. When I first heard about graffiti, and humans having to learn a new way to write, I was skeptical, but man, having a powerful notebook/calendar/todo in my pocket was just astounding.

2010.01.23

George Lakoff, a linguist, memorably described a noun class of Dyirbal (spoken in north-eastern Australia) as including "women, fire and dangerous things"<br>

2010.01.25

I have a friend who's an artist and he's sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say, "Look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree, I think. And he says - "you see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing." And I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too, I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is; but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower than he sees. I can imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just of beauty at this dimension of one centimetre, there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure. Also the processes, the fact that the colours in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pllinate it is interesting - it means that insects can see the colour. It adds a question: Does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which shows that science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds; I don't understand how it subtracts.

2010.01.26

Rode in the front of the first car of the Red Line this morning. Always fun to be able to look down the tunnel, see the island of light each stop becomes.

<a href="http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/the_original_tablet">http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/the_original_tablet</a> - on the verge of The Tablet, pondering the hubristic glory of the Apple New Newton (and why Palm ate its lunch)

2010.01.27

Wow, MadTV called it first.... RT <a href="http://twitter.com/cobiegoesboom">@cobiegoesboom</a> <br>

2010.01.31

And later, as I stare blearily at the clock from my position on the living-room couch, it also occurs to me that I can pass the night by buying some whiskey from the 24-hour drive-thru liquor store and then firing a gun right outside my bedroom window. I think I'm going to like it here after all.

2010.02.01

The game might be a little more complex than we intended - we were trying to go for not needing text, but... on the Title Screen click to get started. For the first level, you are able to drag the leaf... that's the only hint I'm gonna give. (Unless someone asks.) There are 9 boards in all, including the title and win screen.

2010.02.02

<a href="http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html">http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html</a> - but, UI wonks, if you're thinking of "Fitts' Law" first, you've already lost the game.

2010.02.08

Sigh. I suspected Microsoft was shoving yet another Update at my poor XP tablet when Firefox took minutes to load, and lo and behold...

2010.02.09

--Like I posted yesterday, <a href="http://harveyjames.livejournal.com/152287.html">Harveyjames may be the best teach of English to Korean students ever</a>. Man, that sounds like it would be a cool classroom. Plus, I admire how in the first panel there, he manages to draw a feminine Becky, mostly via a kind of girly swayback stance.

2010.02.16

I am absolutely FLABBERGASTED to realize that Youtube is only five years old- the whole first half of the 00s were Youtubeless? 9/11 wasn't covered by it? Iraq? The end of the Curse of the Bambino? Wow. I would have put its origin at 1999, 2000, easy. (And I remember how impressive of an infrastructure feat it seemed at its origin.)

2010.02.17

Just fired up DosBox and Windows 3.1. Man, I kind of forgot about the pre-task bar world.

2010.02.26

<a href="http://brenelz.com/blog/firebug-in-ie-a-dream-come-true/">http://brenelz.com/blog/firebug-in-ie-a-dream-come-true/</a> - firebug lite for IE... a bit glitchy, but better than nothing

2010.02.27

My first entry for

2010.03.03

<a href="http://metrics.admob.com/2009/06/ipod-touch-users-younger-than-iphone-users/">http://metrics.admob.com/2009/06/ipod-touch-users-younger-than-iphone-users/</a> - A. those are the worst pie charts I've seen - someone really needs to read their Tufte. B. 46% of iPod Touch users are 13-17, but only 6% for iPhones. My guess is the Touch is a "first computer" - interesting if the iPad furthers that.

2010.03.08

My UU covenant group did a Valentine "pick a song you find most romantic" deal... (I thought it was going to be a difficult pick for me but then Amber reminded me of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwFS69nA-1w">First Day of My Life</a>. Duh.) So I burnt a copy of the play list for everyone, and these were 3 songs I added to my regular rotation... for some of these it was as much the description the group member gave than the song itself.

2010.03.10

OK, at first glance it looks like I already posted this - BUT - if you do a lap, you'll notice that you now have an opponent: you get to play against the ghostly recording of your best lap. It makes it a much more fun game, and kind of with the psychological/learning aid of my previous try, I ended up to get well under 10 seconds...

2010.03.14

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds that darkness has always got there first and is waiting for it. <br>

2010.03.15

Increasingly, nowadays, the context for writing is a very short form utterance, with constant interaction. I worry that people will lose the ability to state a thesis in unambiguous terms and a clear logical progression. But because they'll be in instantaneous contact with their audience, they can restate their ideas as needed until ambiguities are cleared up and their reasoning is unveiled. And they'll be learning from others along with way. Making an elegant and persuasive initial statement won't be so important because that statement will be only the first step of many.<br>Let's admit that dialog is emerging as our generation's way to develop and share knowledge. [...] <br>If the Romantic ideal of the solitary genius is fading, what model for information exchange do we have? Check Plato's Symposium. Thinkers were expected to engage with each other (and to have fun while doing so). Socrates denigrated reading, because one could not interrogate the author. To him, dialog was more fertile and more conducive to truth.

2010.03.18

Weirdly I had two offers at around the same time... the other was for a company called Media Friends Inc. They have some awesome products and I may be missing out on a big stock payday by not going with them, but ultimately it wasn't the techie lifestyle I wanted. (They liked my history in diverse tech environments, and my first job there would have been in the language "Lua" (which I've never used) porting their SMS-based tv-channel chatroom app for a new bigname client.)

2010.03.22

Last Monday (March 1st), people in India and other countries with large Hindu populations celebrated Holi, the Festival of Colors. A welcoming of Spring, Holi is celebrated as the triumph of good over evil. Hindu devotees and others enthusiastically drop their inhibitions, and chase each other in temples and through the streets, playfully splashing colorful paint, powder and water on each other. People also attend bonfires to commemorate the story of Prahlada, a Hindu figure and devout follower of Lord Vishnu who prevailed over his father and the demoness Holika with the power of his devotion.

It got me thinking about the UU church I go to - I went to the Sunday service for the first time in a long while, mostly because my Covenant Group had volunteered to do the snacks for the post-service coffee hour. The day before I had been explaining the church's "liberal" (mostly in the accepting and pluralist sense, but also the political) religious ideal to my friend Lena, and she asked about the symbols they used... well, I was able to take a photo of a banner with the whole smorgasbord...

Anyway, I also like my church's Earth, Air, Fire, Water set of banners:<br>

<img src="/m/2010.03.22.earthairfirewater.jpg" width="500" height="291" >

I was explaining "Bcc" to a friend, and was struck by how funny it is that we call it "Carbon Copy" in the first place- typewriters ahoy!

2010.03.24

That secret area on top is really intriguing... I've always suspected it was the map-reading part of the cartidge reading non-map parts of the game ROM/RAM -- especially how the area changes based on user inputs and movement, but I'm not 100% certain that it isn't (at least a bit) intentional. <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/mt/mountkingatari2600/">this page</a> analyzes it to a great degree.

2010.03.25

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds that darkness has always got there first and is waiting for it.

2010.03.30

My birthday is tomorrow. I was born around 20 past midnight which makes me doubly grateful for Daylight Savings Time: without it my birthday would be "March 30" which you see less often than 31, which is the last day of the first quarter. (Though I guess I'd be making "the 30th is twice the ides of March!" jokes)

2010.04.02

Tic-Tac-Toe is subtler than you may think. If X plays center, O MUST play corner; if X takes corner, O must play center AND play offensively! This means if you get to go first, you can often win - something many adults don't realize. (As we found out to general amusement at my birthday party.)

Oh and RIP Henry Edward Roberts, inventor of the Altair, THE first home computer.

2010.04.09

The parking garage near the hotel had this. The sign outside the door said "Please Use Other Doors". Yeah, that first step, she's a doozy.<br>

2010.04.12

So, being one of those dorky "first day adopters" (though not like, waiting in line or anything) I decided I would try to put my thoughts about the iPad here.

(The Flash thing is even more interesting with the recent decision of Apple to not allow apps that are made in, say Flash or some other environment, and then have iPhone versions generated. I was full of outrage for a while, and it still seems kind of disgusting. I've read <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331">this explanation of it</a> that makes the decision seem slightly less evil, that don't want half-assed multiplatform ports, they want to be the focus of developer's efforts, or nothing. (On the other hand, given how flooded the app store already is...)

(It's also kind of funny how it's not independent of having a real laptop or PC - when you fire it up out of the box refuses to have anything to do with you until you synch it up with iTunes, and woe be upon you if you hadn't previously upgraded iTunes...)

Here's <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/the_ipad">another review</a> of being hands-on with the thing.

First day, new job- Pearson Education. After a year of consulting-style gigs, so ready to really latch in.

2010.04.16

<a href="http://geekswithblogs.net/mnf/archive/2008/02/13/declare-different-css-rules-for-firefox-and-internet-explorer-7.aspx">fun CSS hacks</a> - , # before CSS property names and IE looks at it and other browsers don't? Yeesh.

2010.04.23

Man, I love the views from the cafeteria at my new job. Sorry about the reflection in the first one...

2010.05.05

Apparently the Aquapocalypse wasn't all that apocalyptic - tests confirm water was OK to drink all weekend. <a href="http://bit.ly/cfkxrx">http://bit.ly/cfkxrx</a>

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/05/03/fraser-back-in

2010.05.10

Fun Fact: my first nickname, given to me by my parents when I was a long but very chubby infant, was "The Buddha"

2010.05.19

<center><img src="/m/2010.05.19.firealarm.jpg" width="250" height="188"></center>

For years I've been bummed about how little noise I make when I blow my nose; Amber says the trick is to nasally inhale first. INHALE? Whoa. Have I been missing out this whole time???

2010.05.25

I can barely express my contempt for the web forum game of "First Post!". What a waste of people's attention.

2010.05.27

<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2254863/">http://www.slate.com/id/2254863/</a> -interesting bit on Stop Signage (first video link is great) BUT- are full stops that much better than alert "rolling stops"? It kind of begs the question if they are.

2010.05.31

Checking out Amber's and my soon-to-be new apartment, our first official place together... woot!

Smoky haze and faint burning wood smell all around Boston--Canada's on fire! Canada's on fire!

2010.06.02

<a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/02/atandt-announces-iphone-tethering-and-new-smartphone-data-plans/">New AT+T Pricing Plans</a> - mixed feelings about this. Looks like I use ~300Mb/mo now. Want tethering, dread having to think about usage -- unlimited data was a HUGE enabling factor when I first started using the iPhone.

2010.06.04

Hello, Mr. Nelson. This is Sam Hennessy, the new guard. Sir, I hate to bother you at home like this on my first night, but, uh, something's come up and it's not covered in the guard's manual... Yeah, I looked in the index, yes, sir. I looked under unauthorized personnel and people without passes and apes and apes' toes...Apes and apes' toes, yes, sir. There's an ape's toe sticking through the window, sir... See, this isn't your standard ape, sir. He's between eighteen and nineteen stories high, depending on whether there is a thirteenth floor or not... Sir, I'm sure there's a rule against apes shaking the building... There is, yes, sir. So I yelled at his feet. I said, "Shoo, ape," and "I'm sorry but you are going to have to leave."... I know how like the new men to think on their feet, so I went to the broom closet and I got out a broom without signing out a requisition on it... I will tomorrow, yes sir... And I started hitting him on the toes with it. It didn't bother him much... See, there are these planes and they are flying around and shooting at him and they only seem to be bothering him a little bit, so I figured I wasn't doing too much good with a broom. Did I try swatting him in the face with it? Well, I was going to take the elevator up to his head, but my jurisdiction only extends to his navel. You don't care what I do... just get the ape off the building. This may complicate things a little--he's carrying a women in his hand, sir... No, I don't think she works in the building, no, sir... As he passed by my floor... she has kind of a negligee on, so I doubt very much she's one of the cleaning women. Well, sir, the first thing I did was I filled out a report on it. Well, I don't want to give the building a bad name either, sir, but I doubt very much if we can cover it up, sir. The planes are shooting at him, and people are going to come to work in the morning and some of them are going to notice the ape in the street and the broken window, and they will start putting two and two together. I think we're safe on that score, sir. I doubt very much if he signed the book downstairs. You don't care what I do... just get the ape off the building. Well, I came up with one idea. I thought maybe I could smear the Chrysler Building with bananas...

2010.06.07

"No--it's a fire. Another horrible fire."

2010.06.11

Luxuriating in long summer days; haunted by the feeling of not long enough-miss SUPER-long westerly Cleveland days, and the fireflies after.

2010.06.16

Windows was first a way of running multiple DOS apps at once, and it shows. Mac... it's still not crazy about "full screen mode" even.

2010.06.18

Err, I'm in the back left, behind the really tall guy, popping out from time to time. The "first generation" Qs sang the first verse, I guess we were supposed to mosey forward but this was crazily under-rehearsed... (though Amber got to hear me listen to sQ's and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D99n9f3vU4">Queen's version</a> over and over as I tried to learn it on the way back from Cleveland.)

2010.06.20

My entry for <a href="http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/1316">Klik of the Month Klub #36</a>... it's a 2 player game roughly like that old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossfire_(board_game)">Crossfire</a> toy/boardgame. Player 1 uses A and S, player 2 uses arrow keys left and right, and both players try to shove the green squares into their opponent's goal, first to ten wins.

2010.06.23

My most successful diets are "hobgobln diets" based on Foolish Consistency; currently lunches of Wendys Taco Salad. And atomic fireballs. I think this works for me partially because shutting down choice for lunch stills my novelty (and calorie) seeking behavior the rest of the day.

Fire Alarm! Everyone exits the building. All Clear. Elevators will be a madhouse, so we all climb 8 tall stories back up...

First in line at the Apple Store in Boston, around half past noon...<br>

<img src="/m/2010.06.23.bostonapplefirst.jpg" width="188" height="250">

2010.06.28

The first iPhone couldn't use most headphones without an adapter. (Supposedly for 'shielding' reasons) A weird design faux pas by Apple.

2010.07.04

<center><a href="http://loveblender.com/"><img border="0" src="/m/2010.07.04.fireworksheart.png" width="150" height="205"><br>

Having 4th of July in this year, but pretty hopeful about Boston Pops Fireworks in HD with a big projector and Amber...

2010.07.06

So Boston fireworks on the projector looked great, but the sound was lacking- needed less music, more boom... Actually maybe broadcasts of fireworks could/should tape delay the audio, so it could be the one time the explosion and sound seem in synch-

2010.07.07

So forming an oddly important part of my diet (down 8-10 lbs so far!) are classic "Atomic Fireball" candies... here is an animated GIF of them being packaged:<br>

The animation comes from Ferrara Pan's <a href="http://www.ferrarapan.com/html/fb_tour.html">Atomic Fire Ball Virtual Tour</a>, showing the pearl-like process by which these things are made. (It's funny what a late-90s vibe that page has... I wish I could put my finger on what the older aspects are, from a design standpoint.)

Man. "Atomic Fireball" is kind of a scary name now that I stop and think about it.

2010.07.14

I want to be the Jared of Wendy's Taco Salad and Atomic Fireball Candies.

2010.07.17

Inception: Eternal Sunshine meets Oceans Eleven with a touch of the first Matrix... not bad!

2010.07.25

When Leonard and I first moved in together, I asked him to get rid of those big pint glasses he had. They were chipped and scratched, but that's not what I minded. I just didn't like dealing with glass, because glass breaks. Anything glass is on loan from a jealous God. I feared the inevitable smashes, so goodbye glasses.

2010.07.26

<a href="http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/22/super-heroes-vs-the-westboro-baptist-church/">Fight Fred Phelps with Fire</a> or something... great counter-posters.

2010.07.30

</blockquote> That's from the first few pages of Twilight, I stopped reading shortly thereafter. I mean, I'm not quite sure she knows what "exile" means... surprised they couldn't find an editor for Stephanie Meyer.

2010.08.02

Strangely hungry this AM. Might end up being a 3-Atomic-Fireball morning.

2010.08.04

The first time I see a jogger smiling, I'll consider it.

2010.08.06

Geeknote: just found out about Firebug's console, and if you start it up it will track all the Ajax GETs and POSTs, input and output - nice.

2010.08.19

If there were a verb meaning 'to believe falsely,' it would not have any significant first person, present indicative.

2010.08.30

Just watched "The Big Chill" for the first time. Good flick, good soundtrack, good wishing for group of friends that cohesive(ish) and big.

2010.09.01

Dig the idea of built-in HDR on the iPhone camera. Wonder when/if Canon Powershots will have that (oh, duh, need to check out CHDK firmware replacement, maybe I can get it already)

2010.09.08

(<a href="http://daringfireball.net">via</a>)</i>

2010.09.14

<img src="/m/2010.09.lg10/people/IMG_6858.JPG" width="500" height="375"><br>There was also a firepit. So primeval. We made smores.

2010.09.15

<img src="/m/2010.09.lg10/nature/IMG_0228.JPG" width="373" height="500"><br>This is what happens when iPhone 4's "HDR" system<br> tries to work its magic on a campfire.

Technically, my job wouldn't be impossible without jQuery and Firebug, but man, it's pretty close!

2010.09.18

You know in movies, like 2012 or whatever, when the guy jumps out of the collapsing building JUST in time, or barely outruns the fireball, or otherwise avoids certain doom by inches? This is a video of all that in real life. Not for the faint of heart!

2010.09.22

I think this is a little interesting but overplayed. (It makes me think about this squiggly line logo Nokia used as a placeholder when it first acquired Enpocket... I have thought on a hoodie, though not on the inside.)

2010.10.03

scared out my wits at sunday school, when the teacher (my aunt) showed a picture of firing squads christians might face during the apocalypse

2010.10.04

staying up all night for the first time with beau, playing 'ninja' on the atari 800xl, throwing a joystick at him in frustration

<img border="2" width="240" height="240" src="/features/ofthemoments/resize/fireballkiss.png"><br>

the first kiss - the atomic fireball passed from her mouth to mine

sneaking away with d at the end of camp, the grass, her breasts - a first for me... making up for enthusiasm what i lacked in skill.

<center><img src="/m/2010.10.04.fireball.jpg" width="383" height="286"></center>

2010.10.05

that same trip, realizing i was drunk for the first time, regarding myself in the cafe's bathroom's mirror

buying my mom a clown music box; one of the first gifts i remember feeling generous about

A Jonamac apple followed by an atomic fireball tastes like oatmeal and cinnamon. Diggin' it.

2010.10.06

on the porch of my first apartment with jt, eating pasta and listening to the soundtrack to "the birdcage". this hit me as 'a moment' when i was in that moment

the craziness of my first 24 hour comics day; forgoing sleep to tell a story i had wanted to tell for a long while

the first kiss with amber, the electricity and sudden spark of this being the one...

2010.10.08

I saw this first on an iPhone app, and it lacked the paragraph breaks that are their on the website. <br><br>

Holy cats, my todo is down to zero due/overdue. First time in a LONG while Appigo Todo ain't wearing its little number badge.

2010.10.09

Our visit started and ended walking by the antique tractor section. It was interesting hearing how a lot of the old tractors were still "working tractors" as the guy said, not just old machines fired up for special occasions.

2010.10.11

a bit of faux-familiarity with the playwright, though maybe I should for the first time give benefit of the doubt, and give half-credit for a reference to the sonnets being about the Summer Girl.

2010.10.12

The Office "Dinner Party" episode (one of the best, actually) had a great idea for a custom candle smell: Bonfire-scented, like a campfire.

2010.11.06

I would like to add that is about the first realisticly drawn sousaphone I've seen in this kind of thing.

2010.11.10

<a href="http://thoughtviper.com/">Bill the Splut</a> linked to the first of

The first order of business is to realize that the English word "Stoic", in terms of being emotionless, is pretty far afield from the ancient Greek school and practice. It does have elements of seeking tranquility via detachment similar to Buddhism, but without Buddhism's insistence on detaching from positive and joyous feelings as well.

I'd say many parts of Irvine's modernization of Classical Stoicism (a supremacy of rationality, seeking of tranquility, strong appreciation for simple pleasures while not being utterly dismissive of the possibilities of finer ones, seeking to triage parts of the world into things we have total control over, partial control over, and no control over and only attending to the first two categories) hit home for me, but I disliked a bit of arrogance in it (it seems to insist on supreme confidence in ones own opinions, something I find impossible given my temperament in this postmodern world) and says nothing about the need for compassion or empathy.

Hollywood's <a href="http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/11/fireball-tim">Awesomest Car Lot</a>

2010.11.12

Atari Mania also finally let me read the book's -- prequel? It was much more advanced, but came first-- companion, "Dr. C. Wacko's Miracle Guide to Designing and Programming Atari Computer Arcade Games". I'd like to think if I had had this book at the appropriate time, I finally would have gotten those damn "player/missile" graphics and in general made some better games.

2010.11.13

A few weeks ago Amber and I went to the deCordova sculpture museum and garden, a first for both of us.

2010.11.14

It wouldn't be the first time the power of love was responsible for a whole lot of bullshit.

2010.11.15

My favorite new (to me) old game was probably the first controversial game, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Race_(video_game)">Death Race</a> -- you and a buddy compete in running down "gremlins" (probably changed to placate moralists) who give a thoroughly unpleasant squeal and they transform into a tombstone that then blocks the progress of your death-on-wheels car.

And Pengo. Though it looks like I was the first person to play that day. Still, still I got through many levels, honed from years of experience in the Atari 2600 version years prior... Leonard didn't know there was a "kick the wall to stun enemies" trick. Though as I crunched Sno-Bee egg after egg (to stop new Sbo-Bees from form to replace their squished-by-sliding-ice-block comrades I wondered if this game would have been as popular if it had been called "The Sno-Bee Holocaust".

2010.11.16

And with the closure of the bank acct of my old life, my Todo due/overdue list is empty, first time in months! Next stop: Inbox Zero.... only 3 or 4 starred items there but 2 are moderately sized projects.

2010.11.21

In October 1995, Wired maazine had an interesting special issue: "Wired Scenarios 1.01: the Future of the the Future." Besides the nightmarish semi-apocalyptic scenario "The Plague Years: 1996-2020" (with its (at times badly) photoshopped yet evocative images of a 747 being torched at Signapore airport (to try to contain the "Mao Flu"), corpses floating in a bay ala Katrina, and United Colors of Benetton ad sporting a rainbow of gas-mask/hazmat ensembles) and the real ads for Windows 95, the part that really stuck in my mind was "A Day in the Life", four two-page spreads with first person perspectives of people looking at October 19, 2020's news on their distinctly iPad-like tablet devices.

2010.11.24

Yeesh. Despite working there for 7 months it took Amber to point out that the street # of my work address is the first 3 of my phone #.

2010.12.05

<dd>Amber had this album last summer, when we first started going out.

There can be a visceral pleasure in typing fast, to have your mind's voice's syllables to the screen in rapid fire succession. Even if I still "wanna live like I type, fast, and with lots of mistakes", it's fun to do.

2010.12.09

Well, let's go back a bit first. Two and a half thousand years ago, at the time of Aristophanes, the Greeks believed that comedy was superior to tragedy: tragedy was the merely human view of life (we sicken, we die). But comedy was the gods' view, from on high: our endless and repetitive cycle of suffering, our horror of it, our inability to escape it. The big, drunk, flawed, horny Greek gods watched us for entertainment, like a dirty, funny, violent, repetitive cartoon. And the best of the old Greek comedy tried to give us that relaxed, amused perspective on our flawed selves. We became as gods, laughing at our own follies.

2010.12.10

My firstish attempt at making a whole meal:<br>

2010.12.12

<br>The First Baptist Church of Boston's belltower has some detail people on the street probably don't see very much of...

2010.12.14

First few real flakes of snow, near Arlington T stop. Damn.

2010.12.15

TO PERISH ON FIREWALLS<br>

2010.12.16

--"Cat Diaries: The First Ever Movie Filmed by Cats!" <a href="http://felisdemens.livejournal.com/">via</a>

2010.12.20

The first Mario Party got it just right with its minigame stadium; just enough boardgame randomness to give excuses- haven't seen that since. <br>

Geared up for my first snow bike commute. And by geared up I mean I brought the new gloves Amber gave me as an early Xmas gift.

2010.12.24

<br>First night of snow bike.

2010.12.31

Man those "2011" novelty glasses suck- the first decade had it so much easier. By the way happy new year all!

2011.01.04

Harboring new doubts about MBTA bag bomb residue search-they missed that my bag was packed with ATOMIC fireballs! (Christmas gift from mom)

2011.01.05

Anyway, he points out the obvious truth that few other forms have a mechanic: a novel doesn't have to explain the first chapter explaining how it should be read. (Though I can think of some art installations that do.) Still, it's the idea of having a mechanic, a novel interaction, that makes me love games, and excited about making my own.

2011.01.07

<i>Fired Up</i>,

2011.01.12

<i><a href="http://daringfireball.net">via</a>. Wow. I hope there's hope.</i>

2011.01.19

*:first-child+html .clearfix { zoom: 1; } /* IE7 */

2011.01.25

for work. This was my first doodles with it, to test it out.

2011.01.27

Random Plug: really digging our new Philips Sonicare toothbrushes. Breaking the 2 minute runtime into 4 parts makes brushing "long enough" easy. The way they kind of "sing" as they vibrate is odd at first but grows on you.

2011.02.09

<a href="http://www.sea-monkey.com/pop_images/smfarm/smfarm.html">http://www.sea-monkey.com/pop_images/smfarm/smfarm.html</a> - I really wish I knew why "the first story ever about the Sea-Monkeys Farm" book is called "The Reluctant Raccoon"- not sure if it's worth $18 to find out...

2011.02.17

Growing up in upstate NY, there was an anti-arson ad- the gruff fireman said "for example, we knew this was arson just by the way it spread"- jeez, I thought, who is this Arson guy? Why don't they arrest him? (Mork from Ork always ending his show "Mork calling Orson, come in Orson" probably abetted the confusion.)

2011.03.01

I liked the book, though I listed to it as an audiobook -- which is how I first experienced Douglas Adams, the second book "Restaurant at the End of the Universe". Sometimes I think that changes my perception of the whole ball of wax... on the other hand the very first HHGTTG format was radio, so maybe it all just works.

2011.03.09

An oldie but a goodie, I forget the book I first found that in...

2011.03.16

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYnFIRc0k6E">Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)</a> - Limp Bizkit. Kind of a catchy but idiotic song, but they used a cleaned up version of it on the old "NHL Hitz" game I'd play with my young cousins.

2011.03.20

This one came out pretty well! For <a href="http://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/1651">Klik of the Month Klub #45</a> albeit late, since they cancelled the Ladies Auxiliary on me... anyway, try to control the hose as it goes and puts out the raging fire in the building...

2011.03.22

My boss just announced prizes for A. solving the most bugs and B. IDing the most bugs. He didn't specify it doesn't count if you "inadvertently" MADE the bug in the first place... I think I might be on to something.

2011.03.31

I might end up using it anyway, but man if "Turbo Tax 'Free' Edition" ain't a trap- "first hits free, but you're gonna wanna pay state, eh?"

2011.04.04

Playing <i>World of Warcraft</i> is such a satisfying job, gamers have collectively spent 5.93 million years doing it [...] To put that number in perspective: 5.93 million years ago is almost exactly the moment in history that our earliest ancestors first stood upright. By that measure, we've spent as much time playing <i>World of Warcraft</i> as we've spend evolving as a species"

Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want.

2011.04.05

<a href="http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php?q=178">http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php?q=178</a> didn't realize many of the Tron sequences (scoreboards, fireworks etc) were by a <a href="http://processing.org">processing</a> guy!

2011.04.08

Daring Fireball rah-rahing the Yankees is just as awesomely awesome as WEEI's morning sport show going on and on with blowhard politics.

2011.04.10

Last week for my birthday I had the first part at Clay Dreams where we painted some ceramics... long term fans may be able to guess which one I did.<br>

2011.04.22

Many thanks to <a href="http://thornography.net/">Matthias Thorn</a> who is terrific at hunting down these odd MP3 files (without me having to use some super-suspect downloading "service"... here's a hint kids, when they offer you free Firewall and Antivirus, and the option to include that isn't uncheckable, DON'T DO IT.)

2011.04.27

The fourth worst thing about a Trump candidacy would be the endless "You're Fired!" campaign jokes. Endless, I tell you.

2011.05.04

Logotherapy, keeping in mind the essential transitoriness of human existence, is not pessimistic but rather activistic. To express this point figuratively we might say: The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadmess that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest. What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him? "No, thank you," he will think, "Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy."

2011.05.14

I drove down to Gettysburg the weekend of the Fourth, the anniversary of the battle, along with my wife, who grew up on different books than I did and doesn't care two cents about the Civil War. She is crazy about fiction, especially Gabriel Garcia Marquez whose latest she happened to have in her bag, and after we walked around the battlefield monuments for a half-hour that Saturday afternoon and ate a hot dog and watched a Union battery demonstrate artillery firing, she found a place in the shade back behind the crowds near the Gettysburg Volunteer Fire Department's refrehment tent and sat and read.

2011.05.15

<br>One of the first things we did was putter around our neighborhood in the 11th arrondissement, and they had a kind of amazing farmers market on the Rue d'Aligre. Including this street performer who was balancing a fishbowl on his head.

<br>After heading back to the apartment we're renting for a nap, we headed to the museée du quai Branly. We may head back to this cultural museum and its first peoples exhibits, but for now we just got a all-Paris museum pass and then admired the greenery.

2011.05.25

And then Preview's "Previous" and "Next" buttons don't think "maybe I want the next image in the directory", I had to "open" 'em all. DUH! Maybe I could cmd-A select all, then "Open with" but I don't have a simple way to unselect the 5 .mov files so that Open with is there. With Windows, I could, say, click the first, hit shift-end, then shift-arrow back up. MACBOOK DOESN'T HAVE AN END KEY. Do Mac users type? Keyboard support is so bad, simple file manipulation so poor, the App-not-Task model is so weak-amazing iOS is so good, when OSX is so bad.

2011.05.26

First rainy day of the whole trip, as witnessed by this guy at the Southwark tube stop.

Finally, after "The Mousetrap" (Sussed it during the first act, btw) we passed through the Chinatown near Soho... mm mmm good!

2011.05.27

--I downloaded the explicit MP3 first, as is my wont... man, it's much funnier with Mario noises than with gratuitous F-bombs...

2011.06.07

<a href="http://30daysofsuperheroes.tumblr.com/thechallenge">30 Day Drawing Challenge: Superheroes</a>... the first week is setting up the basic team, here's mine.<br><br>

2011.06.11

--This is the Gnarls Barkley song I was looking for today, after hearing the instrumental version in "X-Men: First-Class"

Just saw "X-Men: First Class" -- probably the best X-men flick. Anyone know the "go-go" music when they're recruiting Angel and the others?

2011.06.21

Rust, fire and explosions are the same process, taking place at different rates.

2011.07.02

Extenuating circumstance to be mentioned on Judgment Day: We never asked to be born in the first place.

2011.07.04

To celebrate the Fourth of July on the <a href="http://loveblender.com">Love Blender</a> I made this little java program... watch and enjoy or click to make your own fireworks

2011.07.08

First games can't be art, now thinking computers wouldn't actually think- Roger Ebert hates geeks- <a href="http://bit.ly/qv7XgB"><a href="http://bit.ly/qv7XgB</a>">http://bit.ly/qv7XgB</a></a>

2011.07.09

The first nonstop flight between New York and Paris was 42 years before man landed on the moon which was 42 years ago this year.

2011.08.03

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.

2011.08.16

<td valign="top">Do not put things or even ideas above other human beings. (Let's scream at each other about Kindle versus iPad, solar versus nuclear, Republican versus Libertarian, Garth Brooks versus Sun Ra- but when your house is on fire, I'll be there to help.)</td>

Do you think Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait" is a post-apocalyptic scenario?

2011.08.27

<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=iOU9bIlnPHIC&lpg=PA73&dq=%22if%20life%20is%20so%20purposeless%2C%20do%20you%20feel%20that%20it's%20worth%20living%3F%22&pg=PA73#v=onepage&q=%22if%20life%20is%20so%20purposeless%2C%20do%20you%20feel%20that%20it's%20worth%20living%3F%22&f=false">Stanley Kubrick in his 1968 interview with Playboy</a> via <a href="http://daringfireball.net">Daring Fireball</a>

2011.09.04

<a href="http://kottke.org/11/09/the-first-digital-3-d-rendered-film-circa-1972">via kottke</a>, maybe the first 3D film render ever, from 1972. I liked the font they used for the titles-- not the first one they rotate, but the other one.

2011.09.07

God responded to Rick Perry's prayers for rain by setting his ENTIRE STATE ON FIRE. This sends a clearer message than hurricanes in New York

2011.09.11

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4s6H4ku6ZY">Like A G6</a> Far East Movement. I kind of resisted liking this song, 'cause singing in praise of a private jet seemed a bit rich, but it's super-catchy, and kind of cool that they're about the first Asian-American group to get a top 10 hit on the mainstream charts.

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nTjn1yJp0w">We Used To Wait</a> Arcade Fire. The song is a little apocalyptic for my taste, but if you haven't played with the AMAZING <a href="http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/">interactive music video</a> that might literally be able to bring you back to your hometown, you should.

2011.09.20

Any editor who puts the author and book title on the tops of all the pages and not the chapter names should probably be fired.

2011.09.25

I spent a big part of Saturday looking at Google Book's <a href="http://books.google.com/books/serial/ISSN:08901759?rview=1&source=gbs_navlinks_s">complete collection of Spy Magazine</a>. (Weirdly I ended up finding the "Party Poop" photo I was looking for after I had skimmed through every magazine in the index by doing a text search on the half-remembered caption-- Amber confirms Google Book's indexing is often half-assed) It's astonishing how fresh late-80s Spy looks today.

2011.10.03

by some estimates the second half of our life might seem to go by twice as the first, with the second quarter going twice as fast as the first quarter, etc.

2011.10.04

The urge to be top dog is a bad urge. Inevitable tragedy. A sensible person seeks to be at peace, to read books, know the neighbors, take walks, enjoy his portion, live to be eighty, and wind up fat and happy although a little wistful when the first coronary walks up and slugs him in the chest.

2011.10.18

First reference to the video game "flip" magazine that was part of Dynamite I've found: <a href="http://www.brandedinthe80s.com/flip-that-last-issue-of-dynamite-magazine-to-reveal-an-issue-of-arcade-">it was called "Arcade"</a>

2011.10.19

There is a sense amongst my generation that Michael Winslow's best performing days are behind him. (You'll remember Winslow as Officer Sound Effects from Police Academy.) After all, we live in the age of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfrKqFp0Zg">beatboxing flautist</a>. You might change your tune after watching Winslow do Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. The first 28 seconds are like, oh, I've heard this before yawn zzzzzzzzzz WHOA, WHERE THE HELL DID THAT GUITAR NOISE COME FROM??!

It's ironic that the 53% don't think they're part of the 99%, when it's being bad at math that got us where we are today in the first place.

2011.10.25

<a href="http://www.sea-monkey.com/">http://www.sea-monkey.com/</a> -- "The first story ever about "the sea-monkey farm"" is just a dumb kids book, sans sea-monkeys. What a rip.

2011.10.31

Don't worry about this stuff. Just remember my motto: 'Every day is the first day of what's left of your life.'

2011.11.20

The other week I posted on Facebook and Google+ about something a friend had claimed, that the night sky was mostly full of distant but visible galaxies, not local stars. This is incorrect. One of my buddies confirm the error of his thinking pointed to the photo above. It's also <a href="http://spluch.blogspot.com/2007/01/size-comparison-of-andromeda-galaxy-and.html">posted here with some deeper explanation</a>. The photo is a composite, i.e. the sky never quite looks like that even with a great telescope, but it gets the idea of what we're missing with our naked eyes.

I'm chagrined at how long it took me to confirm my friend was wrong (I was realizing the components of constellations were mostly talked about as stars, not galaxies) but I guess it's hard to have a first-hand intuition about this scale of thing!

2011.11.22

Last weekend Amber and I were up in Burlington, VT, visiting her brother, along with their folks. I like this series of photos in front of Lake Champlain taken by her step-mom Laura... I keep trying to tell Amber that we (and everybody, I think) have too many boringly-posed photos like the first one, and not enough like the others...

2011.11.27

The Lego booklets now tell you just what pieces will be used in this step, and start by suggesting/instructing one to sort by color first.

2011.11.28

<a href="http://www.candlemarkandgleam.com/store/delivery/constellation-games-serial/">http://www.candlemarkandgleam.com/store/delivery/constellation-games-serial/</a> My buddy <a href="http://crummy.com">Leonard</a> is launching a terrific serialized novel: post-scarcity alien first contact meets classic video game study...

2011.12.13

In the early mid-90s Perl introduced me to hashmaps; the first non-array, non-DIY linked list collection I'd seen. Mind blown! And then I found out about cheap rentable web space, Perl CGI, and how POST and GET params could work like a hashmap... sky was the limit!

2011.12.22

<a href="http://kirkdev.blogspot.com/">http://kirkdev.blogspot.com/</a> - using scale9grid to let old IE have drop shadows. Or not. BONUS: Fireworks muddled through cheatsheet!

2011.12.27

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu9V3Phfsf8">Video Games</a> Lana Del Rey. Super sweet song that Amber and I really like. At first I wasn't sure if it was sarcastic, but no, it is gently about slow evenings with her boyfriend, even as he played his World of Warcraft.

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmpykW-IfY">The Clapping Song</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1voj6H8CHY">Iko Iko</a> The Belle Stars. I heard some version of the first song in a VW Beetle ad.

2011.12.30

Some of the reststops on 93 in New Hampshire have fireplaces they keep stoked with nice big fires. I dig it!

2012.01.01

Amber, firing up laptop: "Let's see if Facebook is more interesting in 2012!"

2012.01.02

X-Men: First Class,

2012.01.04

@fivethirtyeight State with highest voter turnout in general elections should have first presidential contest. Reward Democracy.

2012.01.06

I had a bacon mcgriddle for the first time today. It was like eating a baby angel.

2012.01.07

Just semi-impulse bought a Sousaphone. Tuned to Eb and has a valve that needs fixing but hey- cheap tuba! First I've ever owned.

2012.01.17

Use the mouse to act as the first drafter and draw an irregular horizontal line near the top of the space, the computer will act as the second through fourth drafters and try to copy it in red, yellow, and blue markers, until the bottom of the space is reached.

2012.01.25

Huh. I think the Kindle Fire is a better commute reader than the iPad. And I tote a MacBook Air on general principles. Guess iPad is still better as a home machine, for twitter and browsing and misc. fun apps.

2012.02.04

UGH, just poking around with PhoneGap for HTML5 fun on Kindle Fire gets me back to the Eclipse hell that helped draw me to UI to start with!

2012.02.09

--I wrote this in college. The first 5 lines (up to "cosmos") I found on Usenet, but turn out to be from the "Illuminatus!" trilogy, which I have just read for the first time.

Ironically enough, "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" is the first Kindle book I run into with "Due to publisher restrictions, copy is not allowed for this title." when I go to copy and paste a sentence or two.

2012.02.15

<li>Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

2012.02.18

A while back I <a href="http://kisrael.com/2006/01/15/">talked about Pigmeat Markham's "Hear Come the Judge"</a>-- comes off a little racist these days, but it was maybe the first recorded rap and it has a great beat they sampled in BAD II's "Rush"

2012.02.27

This was the first game I made for the <a href="http://piratekart.com">2012 GDC Pirate Kart</a>. I hosted a little get-together and a few folks from the Boston Indies community dropped in and we all made games together.

2012.02.29

Or maybe just the first.

2012.03.06

@LOLGOP Adultery is a sin to Catholic church. So when employers can fire men for it we'll see how fast GOP feels about religious freedom.

2012.03.10

"I believe in a president whose views on religion are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office. I would not look with favor upon a president working to subvert the First Amendment's guarantees of religious liberty. Nor would our system of checks and balances permit him to do so. And neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test--even by indirection--for it. If they disagree with that safeguard, they should be out openly working to repeal it."

2012.03.11

That page has a few more, and slightly larger images, but as a kid I loved these first three the most (after the mechs get all nano-tech looking and blobby.)

2012.03.12

Full of nerdrage at the iOS or iTunes update making my "newly added music" "smart" playlist sort oldest first. What good is that?

2012.03.15

At first I thought it was tricks with UV lighting but I guess it must be stuff the guys are wearing... doesn't matter. Amazing. (At mgh someone said <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u280HBGMSQU">Team Illuminate</a> did it earlier, but NBC keeps on taking down the links.)

2012.03.22

Forty-six percent of drivers aged 18 to 24 said they would choose Internet access over owning a car, according to the research firm Gartner.

2012.03.25

I've been on a kick of reading back issues of 80s-era computer magazines, some of which loomed weirdly large in my youth. This is from the January 1984 issue of Family Computing, an issue that also contains this weirdly fictionalized accounting of a family's first few days of their new home computer, full of the nerdiest safety best practices imaginable.

2012.03.26

"Draw Something" is the first online game with social obligation I've been drawn to- tough to leave someone who drew for you hanging! The UI not having an "ignore request" button reinforces that.

2012.04.06

-Miller's Google plus feed had this "Pac-Man The Movie [Fan Film]" perfect for the first day of Pax East!

2012.04.09

Sunday was Amber's folks and mine meeting for the first time, for Easter Dinner...

2012.04.13

The following came from my University days, and they are pretty rich coming from a school so firmly on the second rung as Tufts...

Finally one that will never set a crowd on fire but is kind of fun:

2012.04.18

Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.

2012.04.19

Your dog, your cat, your child, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your mother, your father, your grandmother, your friends, your imaginary friends, your summer vacation, your winter in the mountains, your childhood home, your current home, your future home, your first job, your worst job, the job you wish you had.

2012.04.24

"Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, 'Why do you look so sad?'

"The first wave says, 'You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?'

2012.04.27

I think I like it because My Ever Lovin' Aunt Susan sometimes uses the first one. She sometimes uses "Crabs and ice water!" which is said to have been a favorite of my Nana...

2012.04.30

I also generated the <a href="/m/2012/04/26/bidfight6.html">version with 6 bids:</a>. Plotting that shows the pretty fractal-ness more clearly, though my crude algorithm takes a little longer to show at first. (It's 720x720. The next size up would be 5040x5040, which is higher rez than monitors I have handy.) It has a pleasing irregular quilt-like quality

2012.05.06

The first one is Mike at the Science Museum in Boston during a band trip up here... since then they've moved the dinosaur outside. The middle is Marnie at Winterfest, I think-- she wasn't my date that night but man I dug that dress, I think her grandmother did the sewing, with a great fabric that shimmers from green to purple-- I've seen the fabric since, but not for years after that dress.

2012.05.12

Today I captained team "Barkin' Aura Rainmaker" (an anagram of Amber, Arun, Ariana, and Kirk-- I thought it sounded more clever than my first idea AAAK but it was harder to remember) in the 2012 <a href="http://gruntwerk.com/hubcrawl/">Hub Crawl</a>, a photo scavenger hunt with puzzles... this year the rally point was near Faneuil Hall and the main areas were from there up to the tip of the North End.

2012.05.21

<i>For normal geeks: </i> I'm sorry to inform you that Earth is about to be been eaten by a fire demon --Ben Brockert, from the <a href="http://twitpic.com/9nild1">original source</a><br><br>

2012.05.24

The toilets at work are delayed autoflush- I love hearing it go while I'm washing my hands at the sinks, makes me feel like an action movie hero not looking back at the fire-y explosion.

2012.05.30

<img src="/m/2012/05/30/setitonfire.jpg" width="320" height="199">

2012.06.01

Eric B. and Rakim. Nice fast hiphop (Heard it on a promo for the first "Saints Row")

2012.06.06

"About 20 percent of the people changed their answer to the first question when they heard this one!" The others? You guessed it! "Heavy boots."

"Of those in the first two catagories [sic], several said that the gravitational pull of the moon kept the astronauts from floating away. And some said they were wearing heavy suits. And one said they were wearing lead-weighted boots."

From a class in Physics 221 - First Semester Calculus-based Introductory Physics:

2012.06.13

In "Driving With Plato", Robert Rowland Smith begins the chapter "Having Your First Kiss" with a bit of Shakespeare:

...A kiss is a matter of delight, of play, of a delicious hide-and-seek, as light as a feather and as solemn as the prayers to which Shakespeare's lovers allude. It hovers like a net to catch all their fluttering feelings: hope, expectation, anxiety, curiosity, relief, abandon. It waits for them teasingly at the end of the sonnet, to bless the miracle of love at first sight. Listening to Romeo and Juliet, one wants to say that above all kissing proves there are more mysterious and wonderful things in the world than are dreamed of by science.<BR>

"Driving with Plato" is a pretty good book! I need to check out his earlier work "Breakfast with Socrates" (which is about what philosophy has to say about every day events, vs "Driving"'s emphasis on major life milestones, like a first kiss...

2012.06.21

What's so odd today is that this sense of the unique experience of love coincides with the common knowledge that love can indeed befall you more than once in a lifetime. In this sense <i>Anna Karenina</i> heralds the modern age, and "first love" is precisely that: first but not last. As people live longer, become more affluent, and are aware of increased choice, there's a much more developed sense of love being a pleasure to be refreshed periodically, like buying a new house. And yet first love is special, an exercise of the soul that both recalls the munificence and warmth of being a child and introduces the sense of oneself as a grown-up, as someone who might make a journey through life with someone you didn't start life with. You become yourself with another self: you make a pair, and in doing so you see the future in each other's eyes.

2012.07.05

Before the fireworks, a shot of Amber. She prefers the ones where she's, you know, smiling, but I dig this one.<br>

Before the show I experimented with my camera's "fireworks" mode... Amber likes this one.<br>

2012.07.15

Conducting a book winnowing, my first in my e-reader era. Is that why I'm being surprisingly picky? Still, it's tough to keep my ego out of it -- shaking the idea of the multiplicity of bookshelves as the outward manifestation of being a smart guy. I might kinda hedge by scanning all the books I ditch, right before I ditch them.

2012.07.19

<br>First hint: there shouldn't be a tree across the bike path!

2012.07.20

I guess Beans+Meat+Guac on Greens is a satiating combo (I have replaced "Atomic Fireball" candies w/ Extra Dessert Delights' oddball flavors of gum -- Mint Chocolate chip, Apple Pie, Key Lime Pie, Strawberry Shortcake, Orange Creamsicle... I have a stockpile on hand at work to deal with my sweet tooth, and share with my coworkers.

2012.08.06

First world humans are basically well fed apes sleeping under a shady tree. In order to get us to take anything seriously you need to beat us with a proverbial stick...

2012.08.08

<a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/106129">http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/106129</a> wait, those Easter Island heads have bodies extending into the earth? Wikipedia seems to confirm...

2012.08.24

Wow. This morning my weight was below 200 for the first time in 8 years or so.

2012.08.25

Last night we watched "I ♥ Huckabees" -- its tale of a married couple of Existential Detectives (Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman) and their battle for a holistic, everything is meaningful world view vs a French rival's jaded, almost nihilistic everything is meaingless outlook , all in rapidf-fire David Mamet/Aaron Sorkin dialog is probably about to be come a new favorite of mine.

the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Incognito-The-Secret-Lives-Brain/dp/0307377334">Incognito: the secret lives of the brain</a> that talks about a model of the self that I happen to subscribe to; that internally, it's kind of like a multiparty political system, with each party wanting what it thinks is best for the whole, but with a lot of disagreement about what are the priorities that should be first attended to. <br>

2012.08.29

<blockquote class="quote">A U.S. soldier stands in the middle of rubble in the Monument of the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig after they attacked the city on April 18, 1945. The huge monument commemorating the defeat of Napoleon in 1813 was one of the last strongholds in the city to surrender. One hundred and fifty SS fanatics with ammunition and foodstuffs stored in the structure to last three months dug themselves in and were determined to hold out as long as their supplies. American First Army artillery eventually blasted the SS troops into surrender.</blockquote>

2012.09.02

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBnaKD7CU6M">Mechanism Eight (UT3 Remix)</a> (Rom Di Prisco) I first heard this great bit of mid-90s techno as a MOD file

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vThuwa5RZU">As Time Goes By</a> (Dooley Wilson) Got to take Amber to see this movie for her first time.

2012.09.07

<a href="http://factlets.info/EgoDepletion">http://factlets.info/EgoDepletion</a> "judges approved parole in about 70 percent of cases heard first thing in the morning, but less than 10 percent of those heard in the late afternoon." That's horrible. Also: "Willpower turns out to be more than a folk concept or a metaphor. It really is a form of mental energy that can be exhausted."

2012.09.10

UX thought: odd that Apple sticks with separate Address + Search boxes for Safari; Firefox and Chrome seem friendlier. In iOS, the address box hints its non-search by a ".com" button and lack of space bar on the keyboard. Desktop Safari, it's jarring.

2012.09.11

But <a href="http://vimeo.com/48466065">this was the video I first embedded</a>... many many many hermit crabs all at once...

2012.09.13

Cubism was perverse when Picasso first did it. People justify it by talking about looking at an object from three sides and so on, but it always seemed to me much more about seeing the ass and the breast at the same time. That's basically what Picasso used it for, and even after he gave up Cubism, he still habitually drew the ass crack, the pussy and the breast on the front.

2012.09.24

"Holy mackerel, Mr. Science. I don't understand that even worse than what you said the first time."

2012.10.05

Skipped this the first time, but the <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/design/2012/10/airline_baggage_tags_how_their_brilliant_design_gets_bags_from_point_a_to_point_b_.single.html">story of the design of the modern airline baggage tag is great</a>, if the result is functional and unbeautiful

2012.10.11

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIkMeaAfIRw">Autumn Sweater</a> (Yo La Tengo) This group is almost too artsy for me, but this is a nice melancholy song.

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxwUz_Qw-gM">What's Going On</a> (The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, feat. Chuck D) -- Hurricane Katrina protest song... Dirty Dozen Brass Band made one of the first three CDs I ever owned...

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfsCAJnx2JI">Eternal Flame</a> (Bangles) Shmaltzy as heck, but my first girlfriend did a dedication of it on the radio and taped it for me.

2012.10.29

The chorus of Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire" uses an AAAA rhyme scheme, where every A ends with "fire". Also "A"s 1 2 and 4 are actually the same line.

2012.11.01

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaCaaqfIK4">Girl On Fire (Inferno Version)</a> (Alicia Keys / Nicki Minaj) The sparse but huge beat and rap intro make up for the overly repetitive chorus.

2012.11.02

<center><img src="/m/2012/11/03/minipad.png" width="327" height="480"><br/>first doodle on my mini ipad</center>

2012.11.21

Whenever a jacket zipper splits from the bottom, my first thought is always 'I'm never going to get out of this.'

2012.11.23

"For a little bit. At first I thought the metaphor was a young tree, but then I realized it was just branches. The tree lives on. The tree lives on."

2012.11.30

<li><b>!!!<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNuUgbUzM8U" style="color:red;">Golddust</a></b> (DJ Fresh) Oh my goodness. My first 5-Star in a long while. Both the video (amazing and well-shot jumprope action) and the song are so full of energy. (Tough MP3 to find; avoid the slower (and sadly more common) dubstep version)

<li>!<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaEC-lWSlmI">My Ding-A-Ling</a> (Chuck Berry) Man, this is a funny classic. At first I didn't realize the crowd is british, but you can kind of hear it, especially when the women sing. Like the pro-gay aspect of it too.

2012.12.16

Ooh, I just processed my first GitHub pull request! For <a href="http://lowLag.alienbill.com/">http://lowLag.alienbill.com/</a> -- now I feel a little bit more like a real open source dev.

2012.12.17

Thomas Jefferson (via daring fireball)

2012.12.31

If at first you don't succeed, that's one data point.

That's the first step to self-canibalism; put some guacamole on it.

2013.01.05

(You might need Chrome or Safari to see; Firefox is angry about the video format, and IE is terrible. Sorry for any inconvenience but Chrome is easy to get)

I noticed the program lists this as "A Word from the Family" and lists me as "Kirk Logan Israel" and at first that gave me pause, because- growing up, when my mom busted out all three names, "KIRK LOGAN ISRAEL"- I knew someone was in hot water, and that that someone was me. But back to the names thing in a second.

As many of you know first hand, Officership is a family affair. Like you saw on the slide show, I came on the scene when my folks were stationed in Philadelphia, the city of brother love. I'm sure I enjoyed many of their famous cheese steaks before being whisked away to Cleveland at the tender age of 3 months.

There were also flying cockroaches. Island kids would make little cages for them and sell them to tourists as quote "mahogany birds". These tourists would then wonder why they couldn't bring their new cockroach pet back through customs... the first night my parents were on the island, in fact, one of those cockroaches flew into my dad's t-shirt. My mom always said that if it had landed in her nightgown, they would have been on the boat back to Puerto Rico that very night.

[I learned to talk there, and had a calypso accent for a number of years... they tell me my first words to my grandfather were a phone call, "Heyee, Pop-pa Samm". They talked really fast there, so if I'm talking fast during this speech, that's my excuse.]

Time to move again. My parents were told the Army needed them again as corps officers, this time in the city of Salamanca. Their first reaction: "Where's Salamanca?" That would be a small town in Western New York... the only town built from land leased from an Indian reservation. My parents developed a close relationship with the people of the Seneca tribe, even being adopted into it. They also had good working relationships with several of the other churches in the area, often filling in as guest ministers. The Catholic school, St. Patricks, was just down the street... my mom volunteered at the music program sometimes, and I was one of the few kids who got a "clergy discount" from a catholic school.

2013.01.06

It's weird to realize I still have the same model of dating ("commit", THEN date) that I developed in high school. On the one hand, it seems kind of natural, and conversely weird and unromantic to be juggling lots of dates with a set of people. On the other hand I think romance can and should be cultivated (not just found at first sight), and it should be ok to check things out and explore without too much fear of being morally wrong. How are grownups supposed to handle this?

2013.01.14

I think I ended up giving out too many 4 stars to talk about them sensibly. So, 5 Stars: No movies in the theate, but I found out "i ♥ huckabees", indeed... great existential playfulness. TV-wise, "Pulling" is this terrific show, like a grungy british anti-Sex in the Season. Unfortunately the first 2 or 3 episodes aren't great, but then it hits its stride, and the second season is just brilliance, so worth the Netflix streaming...

Guy working the alewife dunkies- at first I thought he might Belushi with less talent, but maybe it's Belushi without the cocaine

2013.01.17

'roses are red...violets are red...tulips are red...bushes are red...trees are red...oh god my gardens on fire'

2013.02.07

Week 4 Day 2 of RunWalkRun. (It will be interesting to see what Saturday holds, road conditions-wise.) At first I thought it was silly to feel bad about the runners who zip by me even in my "running" phase, since I'm sure they've been doing it much longer than I have, but then it made me realize I don't know if I'm feeling much progress. Looking at the run history, I guess the app is upping the pace gradually. From 15 minute miles to 13. Hmm.<br>

2013.02.25

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

2013.02.27

Kermit's Conscience: So why did you leave the swamp in the first place? <br>

2013.03.03

Wanna feel old? Ralph Macchio is now 51 years old, The same age that Pat Morita was in the first 'Karate Kid'

2013.03.05

We set out to answer the question, can a videogame make Citizen Kane cry? Our first attempt was the sled-themed kart racer 'Rosebud Rally X-

2013.03.14

<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/03/18/the-first-immortal-does-not-live-among-us-today/">The First Immortal Does Not Live Among Us Today</a>. It's sad to realize that we aren't as close to earthbound immortality as some think science implies, but I think less sad than living with false hope.

2013.03.15

I also like Harry Potter's reaction (in the fanfiction, he has been raised by Oxford Professor types and has a deep and abiding love for the scientific method and the culture that goes with it) to seeing McGonagall turn into a cat for the first time:

2013.04.13

OK, I think I figured it out, and actually figured it out for the first time, after pondering it a few days, while writing some disclaimers as a now-deleted second part of that smart aleck paragraph, which I then decided to save for this conclusion: properly used, "need" IS existential, not necessarily in terms of life or death, but a true need is such that lacking the needed object the thing needing would become a whole 'nother thing. I survived my dad's death, but I'm not nearly the same guy I would have been with him, I think. The old guy without his meds just isn't the same person.

2013.04.24

fire,

firm,

fire,

firm,

2013.04.26

Leaving is not enough. You must stay gone. Train your heart like a dog. Change the locks even on the house he's never visited. You lucky, lucky girl. You have an apartment just your size. A bathtub full of tea. A heart the size of Arizona, but not nearly so arid. Don't wish away your cracked past, your crooked toes, your problems are papier mache puppets you made or bought because the vendor at the market was so compelling you just had to have them. You had to have him. And you did. And now you pull down the bridge between your houses, you make him call before he visits, you take a lover for granted, you take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are magic. Make the first bottle you consume in this place a relic. Place it on whatever altar you fashion with a knife and five cranberries. Don't lose too much weight. Stupid girls are always trying to disappear as revenge. And you are not stupid. You loved a man with more hands than a parade of beggars, and here you stand. Heart like a four-poster bed. Heart like a canvas. Heart leaking something so strong they can smell it in the street.

2013.04.30

<a href="http://kotaku.com/i-am-stereoblind-but-the-3ds-lets-me-see-the-world-as-484508038">http://kotaku.com/i-am-stereoblind-but-the-3ds-lets-me-see-the-world-as-484508038</a> -- A stereoblind man sees 3D for the first time ... on a game boy. Bittersweet story!

2013.05.01

That was one of the first quotes I ever "collected"-- it was my .signature file for a while.

2013.05.15

In the beginning, when Adam was first created, he spent whole days rubbing his face in the grass. He picked his ear until it bled, tried to fit his fist in his mouth, and yanked out tufts of his own hair. At one point he tried to pinch his own eyes out in order to examine them before God had to step in.

2013.05.16

Used the RunKeeper app for the first time, alongside C25K. Admit I'm a little bummed by my 14-minute-or-so miles (not even counting the warmup cooldown time). As a chubby high schooler I remember being relieved by cracking the 10 minute mark, though that was just for one mile, but I had a fantasy I was back to that kind of performance, despite being the slowest jogger on the path. <br>

Santa (3), Gifts (5), Christmas Tree (6), Reindeer (3), Candy Cane (3), Snowman (4), Wreath (3), Fairies (2), Snow flakes (2), Snow Activities (4: -blowing, -sledding, -angels, -forts) Wordart (2), Religious/Other Holiday (menorah, dreidel, kwanzaa, festivus poll, wisemen scene, new year's ball drop), Videogame parodies (Centipede w/ Snowman, Adventure w/ Tree, Asteroids w/ Tree) and then 11 more random things (English Christmas Cracker, Gingerbread, Stocking, Rocking horse, TV w/ Broadcast Fireplace, Penguin, Holiday Lights, Snow globe, Snow scene, Icycles and Iceberg.)<br>

2013.05.19

Tried to run a bit faster this morning. My first fresh 5 minutes led to roughly 11.5 minute miles, but at the end of ten minutes it was only 12.5 or so. I guess I have more empathy for my 10 minute mile running high schooler. Also given the relative warmth of the day and pushing it, I got reminded how my head becomes a giant pinkish heat radiator when I do exert myself like that... I'm not sure if I'd seen that for a while.

2013.05.22

Some days I spent up to three hours in the arcade after school, dimly aware that we were the first people, ever, to be doing these things. We were feeling something [the adults] never had--a physical link into the world of the fictional--through the tiny skeletal muscles of the arm to the joystick to the tiny person on the screen, a person in an imagined world. It was crude but real.

2013.06.03

Just startled at how good Windows 8 isn't... opening a PDF in a desktop mode browser fires up a Metro app "Reader" with no visible way to exit-- 1990 era alt-f4 or 2012 era move mouse to upper left hand corner are the secret magic cookie to know. (esc key doesn't work either) Oh and ctrl-P to print, that's more arcane knowledge. Stuff I know well but it's annoying my Aunt has so much to track.... and I don't know why the HP printer scan button churns, then decides USB isn't connected (it is) so Windows Fax and Scan is a functional if mid-90s looking trip to "what's a PDF I just know graphic files" land. <br>

2013.06.22

Final session of my first drawing class. Did my model have Buddha nature?<br>

2013.06.23

Just watched Scarface for the first time. Keep thinking if only I had darker, richer eyebrows, I have the scar to totally rock that look.

2013.06.26

Remember folks, you <a href="http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/from_the_archives_massachusett.html">saw it here</a> (In OUR DAMN GREAT COMMONWEALTH) first...

2013.07.02

<li>!<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4">Fireflies</a> (Owl City) Schmaltzy, but sweet...

2013.07.04

My landlords want to sell my apartment. I have first dibs, but it would be a financial stretch.<br>

<center><img src="/m/2013/07/04/oh yes.jpg" width="497" height="497"><br/>over 400 bucks of good old NH fireworks- 2 for 1 - #gonnabeagoodnight</center>

2013.07.05

This was the view from David's place last night near sunset. That is actually an old ruined castle there in the sunlight. Later the panorama of the lake was decorated with dozens of small lakeside firework displays in the distance, over the course of an hour or so. An intriguing night!<br>

2013.07.08

First US Aerial photo, of Boston:<br>

2013.07.12

Wow. "Having a boss who's worried about his ability to keep it in his pants" <a href="http://www.boston.com/business/news/2013/07/12/iowa-top-court-firing-attractive-aide-legal/qOomCuVEKkPP6YspiWeRfP/story.html">is a fireable offense in Iowa.</a>

2013.07.22

<blockquote class="quote">I'm sure religious conservatives had a hunch that they were losing young people long before this polling data confirmed it, just by looking at the people sitting in their pews. Evangelical leaders have been fretting about this loss for a couple of years now, and it's an open secret that the youngest generation finds the reactionary politics and hostility toward science that marks religious conservatism to be repulsive. Some of the kids fleeing the flock just end up having no religious beliefs at all, but some clearly want to retain a connection to faith without having to sign off on the anti-feminism, homophobia, and creationism that comes with the more conservative churches."

2013.07.26

Somehow along the line, as a young'un, I think I developed that fragile way of establishing my self-esteem, and that Smart and Worthy is something people ARE, intrinsically, and not something they do. That's a terrible thing to think! And as far as I can tell, it's a view I kind of came up with on my own. At least, I don't think I should blame my folks for that one, but I don't know who, other than me. Maybe the nuns at Catholic School; the first grade teacher who let me go at my head-of-the-class pace, the disciplinarian nun the next year who shoved me back (sometimes literally), the testing they ran that said yeah, he's a clever kid alright, my parents (probably correct, and completely understandable) decision to keep me in a normal school, and just skip a grade for a while rather than take up the offer to put me to an advanced boarding school (where presumably I might have been exposed to kids who were even smarter than Kirk, Boy-Genius) <br>

2013.07.30

Slate had an inane (and heteronormative) <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/07/26/texting_after_a_date_a_new_study_surveys_singles_on_how_they_text_call_and.html">who should text first?</a> fluff piece, but it used "heyyy" as a example of what "she" might write-- it made me realize it's a pretty good transcription of that "vocal fry" thing.<br>

2013.08.05

It also reminds me of how much I loved the first Mario Parties, and how later iterations lost their way, putting aside an emphasis on "retro-in-modern clothing" to focus on luck based board games. The first game had a stadium mode that understood the board game is useful to randomly select games and teams and give some meaning to someone playing well (as well as their being a little luck involved), the other games in the series I saw lost that, assuming letting players pick from a jukebox was about as much fun.

2013.08.20

The first day was 2 flights to meet Riana in Juneau and 1 more to get to nearby Gustavus via a puddle jumper.

2013.08.25

We hitchhiked for the first time in my life to and from the glacier (shh don't tell mom -- but it feels much safer to do so there than most places, in part because the roads of Juneau aren't connected to any larger highway system.) Saw the glacier, admired the falls, touched some icebergs, and saw salmon there to spawn and (from the viewing platform) a bears that was snacking on them.

Soon after we first got there, I waded in and picked up a tiny tiny iceberg that had drifted near shore. <br><br>

2013.09.10

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.

2013.09.17

first morning bike ride where my fingers got cold. But if I wore gloves I'd feel like I should give up the sandals, not ready for that.

2013.09.22

--drawing a parallel between hoarders and people with a burgeoning list of Projects "Todo, Someday, Maybe". It's not perfect, but a richer parallel than it might seem at first glance.</i>

2013.09.25

I dig how my new iOS7 text tone "Synth" sounds a lot like the first little blurbles of this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCYLEO9sIVQ">Soundwave the Decepticon breakdancing video</a>

2013.09.27

If you wanna meet a nice young lady, then you try to smell your best. A girl don't like nobody walking up in her face smelling like a goat. Then, you don't say crap like 'Hey, don't I know you?' The first thing you ask her is: 'Are you alone?' If she tells you that she's with her boyfriend, then you see if the cat's as big as you. If you don't have no money, just smell right. And for God's sake don't be pulling on her and slapping on her. You don't hit the girls! If you do this, you can't miss.

2013.09.30

Haha, our own political frolics <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2013/09/30/potential_government_shutdown_how_would_the_u_s_media_report_on_it_if_it.html">as seen through our own international coverage lens</a>... welcome to something slightly less than the first world.

2013.10.02

<li><a style="color:red;" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=883yQqdOaLg">Heaven</a> (Emeli Sandé) It was probably the tight funk beat that first grabbed me, but the vocals are so powerful.

2013.10.11

Art class. The second one with the lighter marks was widely regarded as being better than the other, and I agree, composition wise it's pretty decent, and it was a good balance after the instructor said I had taken his admonition for "fewer marks" too much to heart (I had first tried the rendering the same pose with like 5 or 6 curves, the almond shape of the face echoed in the breast and belly and knee.) He did (kindly) point out that I still tend to pick pretty pedestrian locations to make marks, and recommended studying Matisse of the 50s as the pinnacle of this direction. (Though I'm not 100% sure I like it better than some of my old, more detailed directions)<br>

2013.10.25

Figure drawing class last night. Y'know, the pose the model strikes really influences how much I like the result. I suppose the subjective attractiveness of the model does as well, though I'm not sure if I'm supposed to admit that. I like the way I got the line of the calf in the first one.<br>

2013.11.02

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS8Hi-HAIgs">I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead</a> ("Weird Al" Yankovic) I ended up periodically grabbing songs from the first album I bought on my own, Weird Al's first release. I always like the existential stance of this one.

2013.11.04

Ever since Ronald Reagan, in his first inaugural, pronounced government to be the problem, elected Republicans have been doing everything possible to make it true.

2013.11.15

What was interesting about the iPad work is that it got about 5 times better when I zoomed in, the first thing didn't fill the space very well.<br>

2013.11.28

Happy Thanksgivukkah! Or Chanksgiving. I was totally blown away about how the convergence of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah won't recur for 70,000 years. (<a href="http://vtdigger.org/2013/11/27/next-thanksgivukkah-70000-years/">or ever?</a>) It got me curious about the patterns of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah vs. the secular calendar, so I spent an hour or two this morning hacking out a little table. Thanksgiving is in brown, Hanukkah is in blue, Christmas in green, January 1 in red.

2013.11.30

Three logicians walk into a bar. Bartender: 'Does everyone want beer?' First: 'I don't know.' Second: 'I don't know.' Third: 'Yes.'

2013.12.05

"I love to take in the good whenever I eat an orange. I have at least two a day, so I get an opportunity to experience this moment often. As I break through the skin, I gently close my eyes and breath in the sweet scent. I hold that pleasure in my mind and think about how I'm the first person ever to see inside this orange and taste its fruit. Although this experience takes less than a minute, it has an enormously positive effect on my mood and energy level. I look forward to it throughout the day."

</blockquote> The image, especially the part of the privilege of being "the first to see inside", has stuck with me.

2013.12.09

Just heard it for the first time, on some NFL Xbox ad. It's a little trite, but I like it as a more concise version of the story about the monk berating the other monk for having broken taboos by carrying a woman across a river, and the other monk asks "I set her down at the river bank; why are you still carrying her?"

2013.12.19

No I won't stop 'screaming obscenities in your baby's face.' The first amendment is too important

2013.12.22

As a rule, I try to keep my "bucket list" small. I'm all for having extraordinary experiences, but to be irritated or disappointed with yourself on your deathbed because you didn't touch the Taj Mahal or drive a fire engine -- that's no way to live.... err, or to die.<br>

2013.12.30

I've been thinking about how focus matters in photography, spurred on my shelling out for my first DSLR. (grabbing a "fast 50" lens, inspired by <a href="http://prolost.com/1kphotos">this article</a> )<br>

2014.01.04

<span class='star3'>Squirrel seeks Chipmunk</span>, <span class='star4'>How Music Works</span>, <span class='star3'>How to Think More About Sex</span>, <span class='star4'>My Heart Is an Idiot</span>, <span class='star3'>Seductive Interaction Design</span>, <span class='star4'>Sacred Hoops</span>, <span class='star3'>An Unexpected Twist</span>, <span class='star4'>The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ</span>, <span class='star3'>What French Women Know</span>, <span class='star3'>Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms</span>, <span class='star4'>My Mother's Bible: A Son Discovers Clues to God</span>, <span class='star3'>Star Wench</span>, <span class='star4'>Love Is Not Constantly Wondering If You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life</span>, <span class='star3'>Can a Robot be Human?</span>, <span class='star4'>Rules for Virgins</span>, <span class='star3'>When I Say No, I Feel Guilty</span>, <span class='star4'>Life is Elsewhere</span>, <span class='star3'>The Dude and the Zen Master</span>, <span class='star4'>Off to Be the Wizard</span>, <span class='star4'>Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible</span>, <span class='star4'>You</span>, <span class='star3'>Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking</span>, <span class='star4'>Intuition Pumps</span>, <span class='star3'>Higher Than The Hawk</span>, <span class='star3'>Unmastered: A book on desire, most difficult to tell</span>, <span class='star5'>Cloud Atlas</span>, <span class='star3'>You're Not Doing It Right</span>, <span class='star3'>Half-Life: Reflections from Jerusalem on a Broken Neck</span>, <span class='star3'>And Baby Makes More</span>, <span class='star2'>A Cynic's Guide to a Rich and Full Life</span>, <span class='star3'>Consider Phlebas</span>, <span class='star3'>Among Murderers: Life after Prison</span>, <span class='star4'>Very Short Stories: 300 Bite-Size Works of Fiction</span>, <span class='star3'>Into the Wild</span>, <span class='star3'>The 7 Secrets of the Prolific</span>, <span class='star5'>The Spell of the Sensuous</span>, <span class='star4'>Faith of Cranes</span>, <span class='star2'>Terrible Nerd</span>, <span class='star3'>The Old Man and the Sea</span>, <span class='star4'>Dry</span>, <span class='star3'>Magical Thinking</span>, <span class='star2'>Dreamcast Worlds: A Design History</span>, <span class='star3'>Michrochondria</span>, <span class='star4'>The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure</span>, <span class='star5'>Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency</span>, <span class='star4'>Long Dark Teatime of the Soul</span>, <span class='star3'>Salmon of Doubt</span>, <span class='star4'>Quarantine</span>, <span class='star4'>Hardwiring Happiness</span>, <span class='star3'>Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy</span>, <span class='star3'>The Art of Loving</span>, <span class='star2'>Oh Myy</span>, <span class='star4'>MindSets</span>, <span class='star4'>Collected Poems (Jack Gilbert)</span>, <span class='star3'>The Relaxation Response</span>, <span class='star3'>The Art of Lying Down</span>, <span class='star3'>The FastDiet</span>, <span class='star3'>Dogfight</span>, <span class='star3'>A Slow Year</span>, <span class='star4'>EarthBound</span>

2014.01.07

So here is all but the first part of January of my 2013. <br>

2014.01.13

You know, after years of "what are we going to call the first decade of the 2000s once we can't say 'this decade'?" it feels like "the aughts" is winning out.

2014.01.27

It's entirely encoded in Unity, which was a first for me... the other programmer on the team (and who originally pitched the general idea in the team formation part) Andrew Grant was an excellent and patient teacher-- his tolerance for being interrupted with questions was superb.

2014.02.08

So, the bottom line is that if there really were a mechanical way to prove things about the correctness of a program, all you'd be able to prove is whether that program is identical to some other program that must contain the same amount of entropy as the first program, otherwise some of the behaviors are going to be undefined, and thus unproven. So now the spec writing is just as hard as writing a program, and all you've done is moved one problem from over here to over there, and accomplished nothing whatsoever.<br>

2014.02.09

Interesting to notice that this is the first time in my life I've fully switched to Mac. Probably a little overdue!

2014.02.15

Saw the new "Robocop" today... not bad. I didn't like the new ED-209s much-- they really were a big part of the draw of the original. (Years later I read how they were purposefully over-designed, reflecting a parody of Detroit "looks awesome, runs terrible" thinking... but to a 12-year-old kid, they were just awesome.) Anyway, <a href="http://www.robocoparchive.com/">The Robocop Archive</a> had this kickin' prototype sketch from the first movie: <img src="/m/2014/02/16/ed209-1.JPG" width="500" height="457">

2014.02.22

Has a tuba version of the original theme song and everything! At first I did a version with the walls of the "Poorlords" variation, but I think I prefer the simplicity with the original, though with Pterodactyl of the 2600 version replaced with an annoying crow.

2014.02.24

From the first world perspective then, Jobs without a doubt - if Gates hadn't existed, someone would have done most of the same stuff, but Jobs changed things with a personal vision and sense of design. (who knows, maybe a world where IBM clones hadn't strangled the market in the 80s and 90s, with a richer variety of products from Amiga and Atari and others, would have been cooler?) From a global perspective, the Gates Foundation will really help more people, with the focus on medicines and education. So is that "influential"? Maybe. Mostly it was one great idea, licensing the software so the hardware could have competition, that made him a ton of money, and that he then turned into helping people.<br>

2014.03.03

(I think this is a fictional reference, the epigraph for "Petra" by Greg Bear, a cool short story I first saw in the "Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology")

<a href="http://gizmodo.com/how-solar-time-compares-to-standard-time-around-the-wor-1535080399">http://gizmodo.com/how-solar-time-compares-to-standard-time-around-the-wor-1535080399</a> A study in time zones. Confirms my suspicion that I moved from a late sunset area (Cleveland) to early (Boston). Cleveland has it better in my mind, no doubt: trudging to school in the dark in winter was a small price to pay for those long summer nights.

2014.03.10

George Zimmerman might be the first person to leverage killing an unarmed teenager into celebrity-autograph status <a href="http://pic.twitter.com/3fpA2SmJsL">http://pic.twitter.com/3fpA2SmJsL</a>

2014.03.19

It's not as easy as you imagine to be polite when you have to scrounge for a living. You give me a surefire way of getting rich quick, and I promise to behave perfectly from that moment on.<br>

2014.03.23

So Amazon has this thing we'll they'll donate X % to charity, IF you start your browsing at smile.amazon.com. Kind of like they're becoming their own affiliate. I'm trying to think of what they're up to-- probably they want people to start their searches at their site, rather than through Google, where, despite Amazon's strong "first result" presence, people might get exposed to other options.<br>

2014.03.24

Ikat in Greg Egan's "Induction", a story about mankind's first (semi-virtual, but also very physical) arrival on a planet of a different star.

2014.04.14

"Mama, just for a moment we're happy. Let's really look at one another!...I can't. I can't go on.It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back -- up the hill -- to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-bye, Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover's Corners....Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking....and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths....and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth,you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every,every minute?"<br>

2014.04.21

So the first thing you wanna do is get out of your wheelchair and into your walker. Now if you don't have a walker, it probably means you can actually walk - so you're already ahead of the game!

2014.04.22

Man, it feels like Chrome's spelling check suggester used to be better. Not being able to suggest "anonimized" go to "anonymized" is kind of sad, and I'm tired of copy-pasting the misspelling into Google to get the right version. (PS I hate spelling. Being a phonetic thinker makes proper spelling so difficult sometimes... I think I will never get "seperate" right on the first try.)

2014.04.27

Actually, several of Chiang's works can be seen as explorations of spaces first laid out by Vonnegut (specifically, the Tralfamadorians, and "Harrison Bergeron", where everyone has to be "equalized" with artificial handicaps.)

2014.04.29

Mark Russell's "God is Disappointed in You" is a straightforward (if sometimes bawdy, and a bit irreverent) book-by-book summary of the entire Bible, Old and New Testament. (That last quote is the ending of the summary of Ecclesiastes, "very possibly the first work of Existentialist philosophy.) I feel most people, even a lot of Christian Believers, have a relatively sketchy knowledge of the meat of the thing, and I'd recommend this book extremely highly.

2014.05.06

The first few arcs are acclimating Mars then Lunar low gravity. You can do one-armed or one fingered pushups with ease.<br>

2014.05.08

Here very first photo-- I love the light in this one.<br>

2014.05.22

The first word spoken on the moon was "Okay."

2014.05.25

Staring into the fire was the original looking at your phone

2014.05.29

I am increasingly amazed at the Listicle-sites having great big, flat-color, inviting arrow buttons by all the ads, and little tiny "next" buttons to get through the content. The makers of those will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.

2014.06.04

Saw a firefly on the bike ride back from the UU tonight. Fireflies and daylight that lasts and lasts and lasts; the 2 things I really miss about summers in Cleveland.

2014.06.06

Six months later everyone on their planet will be staying up till four in the morning mumbling "All I need is a straight one. Just one." and we'll have infested the cosmos like fire ants.

2014.06.14

Saw "Edge of Tomorrow" -- at first it was all Idiocracy meets Starship Troopers but then it turned into Groundhog Day meets Saving Private Ryan, so it was alright.

2014.06.19

Got all 4 tires replaced on my car, a few were looking pretty cracked and old. But I realized I didn't have a good mental model of how a tire works, like, how there's no inner tube or anything. Coworker explained, <a href="http://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15560">http://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15560</a> had some useful diagrams (found via google image search). A tire isn't much like most other inflatable things in our life, so it's not super intuitive how the air pressure inside is pressing the rubber of the tire so firmly against the metal rim that it's airtight, even with the weight of the car and road conditions and other abuse tires have to take.

2014.07.02

Why the hell would they move the firework to Thursday instead of Saturday? Isn't that just obvious?

2014.07.03

All we got to say on this proposition is this: first, you and me is as good as anybody else, and maybe a damn sight better; second, nobody ain't got no right to take away none of our rights; third, every man has got a right to live, to come and go as he pleases, and to have a good time however he likes, so long as he don't interfere with nobody else.

2014.07.04

<a href="http://dontmindthemess.com/2014/07/fireworks-memories/">http://dontmindthemess.com/2014/07/fireworks-memories/</a> Jessica blogs about almost drowning with me in the post-fireworks deluge on the Charles. The screaming that started when the storm swept will stick with me...

2014.07.06

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt8VYOfr8To">Work B**ch</a> (Britney Spears) Stupid song, but I like its concept as a motivator. (First verse kind of works as a counter to "Mercedes Benz")

2014.07.07

The other reality is that every wildland fire put out is a fire put off.

From a Slate piece on <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/07/box_and_burn_the_future_of_u_s_wildfire_policy.2.html">US Wildfire Policy</a>

2014.07.16

<A href="http://www.metro.us/boston/news/local/2014/07/14/first-jamaica-plain-porchfest-feature-diverse-artists/">JP Porchfest in the Boston Metro</a>... that's the event I've been <a href="http://jpporchfest.org/">making the website for</a> as of late

2014.07.18

<a href="http://kirkdev.blogspot.com/">http://kirkdev.blogspot.com/</a> - I'm pleased with my recent set of devblog entries. I showed my coworker the blog and she was impressed with the longevity of it. Mine isn't setting the world on fire hits-wise but I appreciate it's not one of those things the blogger puts 3 entries on and then lets drop. A Foolish Consistency should be my online handle.

2014.07.20

Yeesh. But, I guess I should be grateful. How many things end up being much much simpler than they first appeared?

2014.07.21

Me at Saturday's JP Porchfest... I have to say the day was a smashing success! Awesome turn out for a first-year event and great enthusiasm and fun all around. As far as I could tell my lil' website for it (<a href="http://jpporchfest.org/">http://jpporchfest.org/</a>) held up fine - in fact I've heard rumors some of the Somerville Porchfest Organizers (who were the (freely admitted!) inspiration for this event) might like to pinch some of our ideas to punch up their own site.

2014.07.23

<!-- <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/101356286" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/101356286">Fireworks</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user25849784">A.</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>-->

2014.08.01

<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/31/news/companies/radioshack-future/index.html">http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/31/news/companies/radioshack-future/index.html</a> Say goodbye to Radio Shack, for reals. I'll miss it; sometimes for the odd bit of obsure electronics it was pretty great. (Not to mention for my first laptop in 1991, an hard drive free 1100 FD (haha someone put that 20 year old machine on the Internet via the serial port... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4vvUoueOE )<br>

2014.08.02

July was terrific for music, especially R+B wise... The first 4 songs here I all rated 4 stars.

2014.08.03

Highlights include Fireworks on the 3rd, Cora on the 5th, Porchfest on the 19th.

2014.08.13

The internet is one huge experiment in confirmation bias.

2014.08.19

Just brought a 240-count jug of Atomic Fireball candies into work. Let the dieting commence! (Seriously, a 30-calorie candy can do a good job of knocking out a craving for many hundreds of calories of something else.)<br>

2014.09.02

25 Years Ago Today, I played tuba in the marching band for the <a href="http://www.morningjournal.com/sports/20140901/25-years-ago-1989-euclid-st-ignatius-was-first-high-school-football-game-televised-nationally">first nationally broadcasted high school football game</a>... it's kind of weird to think that I've been blogging daily for over half that time.

2014.09.07

Highlights of the day included M. getting swept out of the boat on the very first (admittedly Category 5) rapids, gentle life jacket swimming, shooting numerous rapids and getting lots of water in the face, an excellent lunch with a choice of "river" chicken, steak, or salmon, getting flipped trying to "surf" (getting the raft to stay in one place on an Eddy - it's great, reminded me of staying on a bucking bronco), a fun plunge down a small waterfall (hauling the raft back up some rocks for repeated trips), an awesome prolonged "surf" in that same area, again leaving the raft to do some bodysurfing down the "waterslide", then using oars as crude sails, pushed along by a tailwind from stormy weather behind us.

2014.09.08

In that same era I alwso enjoyed a guest-run sidebar -- first Dylan's Sidebar, then Dylan and Sarah's, then <a href="http://kirk.is/sidebar/">The Sidebar of the People</a>.

2014.09.14

The first 4 months or so were pretty effective, but I've been more or less plateau'd since then, and still recovering from some indulgence over the summer.<br>

2014.09.18

[We] skate upon an intense radiance we do not see because we see nothing else. And in fact there is a color, a quiet but tireless goodness that things at rest, like a brick wall or a small stone, seem to affirm.

2014.09.22

Plus, chai iced tea is super tasty washing over an atomic fireball. <br>

2014.09.24

You see, darling, it all revolves around sex, but not in the sense that Freud thought. Freud never understood sex. Hardly anybody understands sex, in fact, except a few poets here and there. Any scientist who starts to get an inkling keeps his mouth shut because he knows he'd be drummed out of the profession if he said what he knew. Here, I'll help you unhook that. What we're feeling now is supposed to be tension, and what we'll feel after orgasm is supposed to be relaxation. Oh, they're so pretty. Yes, I know I always say that. But they are pretty. Pretty, pretty, pretty. Mmmm. Mmmm. Oh, yes, yes. Just hold it like that a moment. Yes. Tension? Lord, yes that's what I mean. How can this be tension? What's it got in common with worry or anxiety or anything else we call tension? It's a strain, but not a tension. It's a drive to break out, and a tension is a drive to hold in. Those are the two polarities. Oh, stop for a minute. Let me do this. You like that? Oh, darling, yes, darling, I like it, too. It makes me happy to make you happy. You see, we're trying to break through our skins into each other. We're trying to break the walls, walls, walls. Yes, Yes. Break the walls. Tension is trying to hold up the walls, to keep the outside from getting in. It's the opposite. Oh, Rebecca. Let me kiss them again. They're so pretty. Pretty pretty titties. Mmm, Mmm. Pretty. And so big and round. Oh, you've got two hard-ons and I've only got one. And this, this, ah, you like it, don't you, that's three hard-ons. You want me to take my finger away and kiss it? Oh, darling, pretty belly, pretty. Mmm. Mmm. Darling, Mmm. MMMMM. Mmm. Lord, Lord. You never came so fast before, oh, I love you. Are you happy? I'm so happy. That's right, just for a minute. Oh, God, I love watching you do that. I love to see it go into your mouth. Lord, God, Rebecca, I love it. Yes, now I'll put him in. Little Saul, there, coming up inside you, there. Does little Rebecca like him? I know, I know. They love each other, don't they? The way we love each other. She's so warm, she welcomes him so nicely. You're inside me, too. That's what I'm trying to say. My field. You're inside my field, just like I'm inside yours. It's the fields, not the physical act. That's what people are afraid of. That's why they're tense during sex. They're afraid of letting the fields merge. It's a unifying of the forces. God, I can't keep talking. Well, if we slow way down, yes, this is nicer, isn't it? That's why it's so fast for most people. They rush, complete the physical act, before the fields are charged. They never experience the fields. They think it's poetry, fiction, when somebody who's had it describes it. One scientist knew. He died in prison. I'll tell you about him later. It's the big taboo, the one all the others grow out of. It isn't sex itself they're trying to stop. That's too strong, they can't stop it. It's this. Darling, yes. This. The unifying. It happens at death, but they try to steal it even then. They've taken it out of sex. That's why the fantasies. And the promiscuity. The search. Blacks, homosexuality, our parents, people we know we hate, Saint Bernards. Everything. It's not neuroses or perversion. It's a search. A desperate search. Everybody wants sex with an enemy. Hate mobilizes the field, too, you see. And hate. Is safer. Safer than love. Love too dangerous. Lord, Lord, I love you. I love you. Let me more. Get the weight on my elbows, hold your ass with my hands. Yes. Poetry isn't poetry. I mean it doesn't lie. It's true when I say I worship you. Can't say it outside bed. Can only say love then, usually. Worship too scary. Some people can't even say love in bed. Searching, partner to partner. Never able to say love. Never able to feel it. Under control. They can't let us learn, or the game is up. Their name? They got a million names. Monopolize it. Keep it to themselves. They had to stamp it out in the rest of us, to control. To control us. Drove it underground, into background noise. Mustn't break through. That's how. How it happened. Darling. First they repressed telepathy, then sex. That's why schizos. Darling. Why schizos break into crazy sex things first. Why homosexuals dig the occult. Break one taboo, come close to the next. Finally break the wall entirely. Get through. Like we get through, together. They can't have that. Got to keep up apart. Schisms. Always splitting and schisms. White against black, men against women, all the way down the line. Keep us apart. Don't let us merge. Make sex a dirty joke. A few more minutes. A few more. My tongue in your ear. Oh, God. Soon. So fast. A miracle. Whole society set up to prevent this. To destroy love. Oh, I do love you. Worship you. Adore you. Rebecca. Beautiful, beautiful. Rebecca. They don't want us to. Unify. The. Forces. Rebecca. Rebecca. Rebecca.

2014.09.25

"I wouldn't have had to. I'd have just acted a little too happy about her smelling them. 'Yes! By all means! Which finger would you like first?'"

2014.10.05

--Late because of technical difficulties (I think because for September 6, the rafting trip, I added in footage from my waterproof Canon - a friend suggested "MPEG Streamclip" and that seemed to work great.). A nice Alewife deer on the 2nd, Arlington Town Day Fireworks on the 12th (first time I managed to remember to go see them, rather than look at them over the houses and say 'oh yeah I should go see those') and a sneeze on the 24th.

2014.10.06

Is there any generalized way to get old medical records? Specifically I wish I had more data about what I weighed before 1998 or so, high school, college, and just after. More for curiosity's sake, but still... I'd love to know what my start and end points were for my weightloss in high school (first time I gave it a serious effort... I was gently teased for constantly having to pull my pants up) and what it was during college.

2014.10.22

<a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/10/how-to-have-a-great-relationship-2/">5 Research-driven Secrets to Great Relationships</a>. Great, now I have to go skydiving on a first date?

2014.10.27

[[fire fire fire]]

There wouldn't be a forest if it wasn't for the forest fires.

2014.11.02

In terms of important music videos this month, I think an honorable mention goes to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDdjwpPM3Y">Bootsy's Basic Funk Formula</a> tutorial, it cemented and affirmed ideas I had been stirring up about what music appeals to me, and what just won't, no matter how much I think I "should" like it:

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajicoqtNfA">Watermelon Man</a> (Jon Hendricks) A listener said that JP Honk's version of "Watermelon Man" was the first one she liked... and many don't interest me that much, but this one with lyrics caught my fancy. Wish I knew why "Save the rind for cucumbers" got such a chuckle from the audience.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBTkjdJs04U">100 Pumpkins vs a Snowblower</a> At first I thought this was, like, a horror film for pumpkins. But then I remembered what macabre things are done to them, by individuals but on a semi-industrial scale, to make Jack-O-Lanterns-- every fall is a horror movie for them!

2014.11.08

I was just trying to figure out what was so creepy about this ad <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkOCeAtKHIc">introducing the Amazon Echo</a>. Then I realized it's kind of eerily similar to the first few pages of Marshall Brain's story <a href="http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm">Manna</a>, a weirdly plausible slope to technological dystopia and then a hopeful twist to post-scarcity utopia.

2014.11.26

"I have written sentences about how the first time we made love felt like dropping my keys on the table after a long trip."

2014.12.05

Reading my first dead tree book in a while, essays by Alan Lightman. Given that I now do the lion's share of my reading on e-readers, I'm troubled by reports that claim retention and what not is said to be better with paper, and trying to get a feel for why that might be. One thing is: a page read and then turned in a real book exists, whereas a screenful of text is gone. You can reconstruct it, but even then it very well might be off by a few lines relative to the page you read, thanks to the vagaries of pagination. <br>

2014.12.29

<li>How to be comfortable in your own skin, without constant need of affirmation, showing off, sounding smart, whatever.</ol></blockquote>

2015.01.02

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nplz679dsEI">Sloop John B</a> (Me First and The Gimme Gimmes) Respectable little cover I heard in "The Wolf of Wall Street"

I don't mean to be totally dismissive of Fan Fiction, but I got to say it explains my reaction to how it felt when I started reading it. There's just a clumsiness to it, with characters really clearly being just the way they are for the author's convenience (and a giant heap of Mary Sue-ism) rather than feeling grounded in some kind of reality and more generalized relatability. (Then again, the original Twilight felt the same way, kind of like it's its own fan fiction...) Though maybe I'm just not used to first person narration in general.

2015.01.03

The first two were Ricky Gervais comedies I liked. Mindy Project and New Girl just make me laugh.

2015.01.15

So by Venn diagram logic the former is "more probable" since it's a superset of the latter, but most people will say the second is more likely. The trouble is most people read in an implicit "and is not active in the feminist movement" after the first. (Or, more cynically, "is just a normal person"). So it IS revealing about our psychology, but more more so in terms of how actual humans tell stories about other humans vs how folks in the lab try to lay things out. It's sort of like how casinos and lotteries are artificial environments constructed outside the rules of the overwhelming bulk of the rest of our experience. And these chapters of the book are full of this self-congratulatory, look how broken we found people's analysis is. (And *sometimes* that breakage significant, but again, it says more about how we can be misled by the setup of stories. I think the chapters on "priming" are much scarier and prone to exploitation.)

It's so much "First, Assume a Spherical Cow" style thinking. Yes, there are valuable things to be learned with that, but no, you can't get to the finish line with it.

2015.01.17

Of course, there was a quiet revolution in the 2000s that tended to abstract literal pixel resolution from what every program feels it's working with. Compared to some early attempts in the first half of that decade, the results are astonishingly transparent to users and developers alike.

2015.02.04

Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, high priest of 'Asatruarfelagid', as Iceland goes to build <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/02/iceland-temple-norse-gods-1000-years">a temple to the old Norse Gods</a>, the first in 1,000 years.

2015.02.05

(In practice, there can be a "first world problems" aspect to the process; one has to recognize that being able to pare down and eliminate redundancy is a luxury... if you're fortunate enough to have money, you can keep your backup supplies in the store until you need them.)

2015.02.06

I was vaguely uptight about not seeing her on my return, but just went to bed (I feel like at some point I felt her walking on the bedcovers, but wasn't awake enough to confirm.) And now I'm worried. My housemate and I have done a reasonably thorough "look in everything" tour with no luck and I don't know what to do now, left out some food and am trying to remember how it looks so I can tell if it gets nibbled at. <br>

Either she is freaked out and very good at hiding (probably the most likely scenario), she zipped out with an open door (though we've been watching) or she found some exit from the house (which in someway is a variant of the first scenario)<br>

2015.02.08

I'm thinking it's time for a real bed. (One side effect of my big breakups seems to be that for a while I use some weird ass bed - an air mattress in 2003, and then <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30080316/">this daybed</a> for a few years now. In twin bed mode it's too small, pulled out it's too big for the space. One mattress is firm, the other is memory foam.)<br>

2015.02.13

He began with the first, serving up a long soliloquy about life, marriage, journalism, why we're here, why we die, why things begin, why they end. As someone who had also been through a divorce himself, making a few unscheduled stops in hell before coming back, he was impassioned. He explained that everything -- every relationship, every person, every job -- has its time in life, and then, as he noted, all of a sudden it doesn't. He told me I could feel sorry for myself that something was ending, or be excited and appreciative that it had ever even existed. He talked about his wife and daughters as an example of the good things life throws at you.

Nick Bilton expressing the first of <a href="https://medium.com/@nickbilton/the-two-best-pieces-of-advice-david-carr-ever-gave-me-7e4c32de6a55">The Two Best Pieces of Advice David Carr Ever Gave Me</a>

2015.02.24

On some level I kind of appreciate that my company's first aid cabinet contains a small shaker of Morton's Salt. (Or is it just me who thinks of "salt in the wound"?)

2015.03.01

One Second Everyday. Highlights include the city's giant snow piles on the 7th, R​'s fire in snow pit on the 21st, Keytar Bear on the 23rd, Dr. John on the 25th (and Sarah Morrow rockin' the trombone and generally leading) and ends with snow tubing...<br>

2015.03.05

<a href="http://kirk.is/java">http://kirk.is/java</a> - For the first time in years, maybe, I went through the rigamarole of re-enabling Java applets on my OSX, and I'm kind of impressed by the creativity my old self put into this. I should definitely get to porting some of these, either to html5 (still need to get a good physics library) or maybe Apple Spritekit-- or maybe one of those "JavaVM on IOS" things...

2015.03.07

(I had to confirm I knew what "throwing a paddy" meant from context... and like I feared, it's a bit racist.)

2015.04.09

You know, a lot of readers our age think about the childhood milestone of switching to "books without pictures"- it's a huge deal! But I just started wondering how e-readers are likely to change that equation... reading your first kindle book might be an even more grownup feeling deal!<br>

2015.04.30

There's a lovely, mischievous pleasure drinking cran-vodkas in the flower-bedecked yard of your high school English teacher, years after the fact. (Along with trying to work up the guts to call her by her first name, now that you're "allowed" to.) <br>

2015.05.01

<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2015/04/glossip_v_gross_supreme_court_justices_argue_about_lethal_injection_abolition.html">The surpreme court gets ugly on the death penalty</a>. What a mess. Alito basically blaming the lawyer for executed Charles Warner (his last words "my body is on fire") for the scarcity of reliable execution drugs is the height of class from a wicked classy agenda laden judge.

'That Google Chrome "what tab is being noisy?" speaker icon should function as a mute button.' -- My first significant bit of <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/34j0r7/that_google_chrome_what_tab_is_being_noisy/">reddit juice</a>. Funny thing is someone posted that this feature is a part of chrome, but has to be especially enabled.

2015.05.08

via Daring Fireball, using neural networks to better scale up images:<br>

2015.05.16

An oldie, but a goodie. "YOU ARE A FIREMAN. YOUR JOB IS TO PUT OUT FIRES. ONE THING YOU DO *NOT* WANT TO DO IS THROW FIRE AT PEOPLE, AND SET THEM ON FIRE. "

2015.05.18

<a href="http://kirkdev.blogspot.com/2015/05/tools-as-cause-of-not-solution-to-all.html">tools as the cause of, not the solution to, all the web's speed problems</a> Daring Fireball is more concerned with speed of user experience, I'm more concerned with speed of development, but there's a lot of overlap.

2015.05.22

Upstairs neighbor confirms the smell is probably pollen, not cat pee. So... hooray?

2015.05.31

Just tons of little things: "Oh right, my first iPhone didn't have copy and paste and the network was super slow" "Oh yeah, you used to have to type URLs into the address bar, Google keywords had their own box," "Oops no cellphone!" "Oh dang, Windows 95 didn't really support USB"... " "Windows 3.1 things minimized to icons, no task bar", "Oh tape walkman!" etc etc.<br>

2015.06.01

Highlights include the squirrel it leads off with, Mike vs the Bubble on the 17th, and then first person Go-Karts on the 19th...<br>

2015.06.04

It's amazing how many of these are so poetic... like to us, they're just cliches, but when you think about using them for the first time, so many are really beautiful.<br>

2015.06.06

But- like all changing habits, switching thought patterns and recognizing unhelpful and irrational thoughts takes a lot of practice. I know one irrationally exaggerated fear I have is "being incorrect" (Or as Ellis would probably have me think: "now, it's hardly <i>desirable</i> to be incorrect, but if I'm wrong or don't see the other side of a given situation, that doesn't make me a <i>horrible person</i>, and I will certainly be able to have a more empathetic view in other situations!") though compared to a lot of other problems I and others will get through, it has a bit of a first world problem feel.

2015.06.16

I'm realizing now for the first time that that line may have influenced my fall from faith a few years after I first heard it: the socially-constructed aspect of religion felt incompatible with the sense of supernatural cause-and-effect that I felt was necessary for it being The Truth, and having my attention drawn to the assumptions I had been fed about Santa later had an echo in how I felt about a world that had so many mutually incompatible religions in it.<br>

2015.06.21

<a href="http://oglaf.com/acrophobia/">http://oglaf.com/acrophobia/</a> - man, the first 4 panels are a good stand-in for a host of prejudices.

2015.06.30

"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire."

I find that an evocative and scary and kind of hilarious image. I guess part of growing up with a (partially self-inflicted, I guess) fear of endless hellfire, one that still gives me a perpetual sense of being judged by some ineffable Other that might mete unknown but possibly terrible punishment if I get out of line with what I Should Be. Which I guess has kept me on a generally more secure path in life, but it seems like there should be gentler ways to get there. <br>

Also, I dunno, just a weird visual of a dude running around, hands flapping furiously, "MY SOUL'S ON FIRE MAN!!! GAAAAH!"

2015.07.04

On the Charles waiting for fireworks...<br>

2015.07.10

Atomic Fireball candy in the Apples & Cinnamon Quaker Instant Oatmeal I get for free at work. Great idea, or greatest idea?

2015.07.23

Maciej Cegłowski in <a href="http://idlewords.com/talks/web_design_first_100_years.htm">Web Design: The First 100 Years</a>

2015.07.24

<a href="http://nextdraft.com/">http://nextdraft.com/</a> - this daily email newsletter is worth signing up for, about the only thing besides Quora and "Javascript News" that I appreciate having sent to my inbox. It would do a decent of keeping you up with the biggest news stories, a few more relevant bits, and then an almost always funny "Bottom of the News" couple of items. The curation is first rate. They also have an app if you prefer that to email.

2015.07.27

first book, cri de coeur, x-ray, diary.<br>

2015.08.02

Pretty good visual month! Highlights are motorboat innertube on the 3rd, fireworks on the 4th, echo-y church chapel on the 10th:<br>

2015.08.04

First Person View of fighting a fire. Scary!<br>

2015.08.14

Joel on Software's <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html">Fire and Motion</a> essay has been in my head for over a decade.<br>

He also describes this as a deliberate strategy companies can employ, keeping the number of checkbox technologies needed so that rivals are always kept with their heads down, meeting new checkboxes, and never able to really fire back.<br>

2015.08.21

I can neither confirm nor deny rumors that I am trying to start such an organization.

2015.08.26

The times presents a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/08/25/arts/music/justin-bieber-diplo-skrillex-make-a-hit-song.html">Well-crafted insight into the modern professional music process</a>. One thing this confirms for me is how important the audio attributes of the samples used are; I had a hunch that that was one of the differentiators between the pro stuff and the hobbyist work, and Bieber mentioning how expensive some of the sounds were kind of confirmed it. It also points up the difference between live and studio music; seem a real challenge to put this back on stage. (Which in turn ties into my secret hypocrisy that- with some exceptions- I don't like listening to live music as much as the polished studio stuff. But I sure like making it!)

2015.09.04

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8zSHDl9pqI">The Peoples' Champ (feat. Hellnback)</a> (A Tribe Called Red) I dig the mix of hip hop and first people's music, along with the activist sentiment

2015.09.09

The advantage of this less literary, more literal approach to game story is that it embraces the limitations of player action, it doesn't have to explain it away: Take Crossroads, for the C=64; your little guy fires down the corridor. If a bullet wraps around the screen and hits him in the back, he takes damage. He doesn't have the option to hide against a wall, to maybe dig a trench for protection, to play with ricochet or shoot out a light or light a torch, or to do anything but shoot at a 90 degree angle directly down the hallway, square in the center. The universe, the range of possibility, is fully circumscribed. Of course, it's not devoid of higher-level interpretation: I see a little man, I see a bullet, I see various monsters duking it out, I don't just see splashes of pixels following abstract rules and displaying the results of various computations... as a player I bring recognition and thus a kind of meaning to the display and to the interaction, but that's my understanding from a privileged, god-like view into a self-contained universe, not the recognition of the pixels of a retelling of some other, more visceral fiction.</div>

2015.09.14

<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/09/14/the_best_key_peele_sketches_as_chosen_by_david_wain_adam_scott_david_cross.html">The Best Key & Peele Sketches, as Chosen by 39 Comedians and Comic Actors</a> a lot of stuff I hadn't seen... I still think my favorite might be one of the first I saw, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kod1q39ddE">Dubstep</a>

2015.09.19

Had my first quick lesson with manual transmission thanks to Llara. <br>

2015.10.02

Music I added last month... 4-stars in red, the first four videos are worth a watch.

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-peCWNaCfyk">Suplex (feat. Northern Voice)</a> (A Tribe Called Red) I dig the blend of first people's music with some modern stuff

2015.10.08

Man- the Wayback Machine's <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19961219005216/http://www.alienbill.com/">first entry for my first domain alienbill.com</a> goes back to 1996. Round up to 20 years... 20 years before that is, like,the disco era.

2015.10.20

Centipede probably first made me think about how odd the "screenshots" were, because Centipede seems to have been travelling back up, something that can never happen in the game:

2015.10.31

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/143905339" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="https://vimeo.com/143905339">School of Honk - Honk Festival 2015 - We Got That Fire</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/patrickhjohnson">Patrick Johnson</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

2015.11.05

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMqgVXSvwGo">Fireball (feat. John Ryan)</a> (Pitbull) - like "Girl on Fire", I'm left wondering "why is it ok to rhyme a whole phrase with itself as long as it ends with 'fire'" (as in "roof on fire")

2015.11.06

Weird dreams, Belichick vs Putin. Except Putin was on the field, and finished the first half making a spectacular end zone catch, shedding defenders with the ball thrown from the other end of the field. I thought maybe the fix was in.

2015.11.10

Even though my folks or (for the most part?) people in my church weren't excessively fire-and-brimstone-y, that's the part that stuck with me the most: you have to toe the line in this world or eternal punishment in the next results. It's hard to know what's the cart and what's the horse but somewhere in my development maelstrom that sense of needing to do what was right, not just for its own sake (though I got some of that too) but because of future judgement or retribution from some other - God, or Society, or Fate, or something... became a prominent feature. I guess that's helped me make some better-for-me lifestyle choices, but it's also kind of a miserable way to be at times. <br>

2015.11.11

(PS my mom proofread this and reminded me it was "nuclear" family not "atomic" in the first paragraph)

2015.11.21

When firefighters show up we don't care how your car got 20 feet off the road, managed to go airborne for 30 feet, and land in the middle of someone's roof. We just want to get everyone out safely. We already know you're not the sharpest tool in the shed; you don't need to explain that to us.

Matthew Hagerty, Firefighter, from this <a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/70954/13-behind-scenes-secrets-firefighters">piece on behind the scene Firefighter details</a>.

2015.11.22

I liked this passage: <blockquote class="quote">Elaine recognized Lancelot in two heartbeats. The first beat was a rising one which faltered at the top. The second one caught up with it, picked up its momentum from the crest of the wave, and both came down together like a rearing horse that falls.</blockquote>

2015.11.25

Its curation algorithms are fantastic. I know some people balk at not seeing everything, but I don't think they realize what a firehose Facebook would become for anyone with a decent number of "friends". Facebook offers some tools to pay more attention to certain people you care about, but unlike some sites they don't force you to sort all your contacts into buckets, the tweaking is there if you need it. For everyone else, the algorithms do a pretty good job of bringing you the posts that other people have found most important. There's a bit of a bandwagon effect, and when you write a cool post that languishes uncommented and un-"liked" it's a bummer, but overall the system works well. <br>

2015.11.27

A remake of "The Monster at the end of this Book" where the monster is you, you little first-world self-centered superconsumer.

2015.11.30

I prefer this article's original title, <a href="http://io9.com/5987611/the-first-gi-joecobra-intramural-football-game-was-stupider-than-you-can-possibly-imagine">The First GI Joe/Cobra intramural football game was stupider than you can possibly imagine</a>. Made me laugh.

2015.12.02

Highlights include Cora saying "Car" on the 7th (which was my first word, actually), a boogying bee on the 9th, slow mo jenga on the 12th... a journey to a family funeral and Montreal included as well.<br>

2015.12.04

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZlLQLFq_H4">Ricky</a> ("Weird Al" Yankovic) I think eventually I will purchase every song on Weird Al's first album, which was one of my first and most heavily listened to tapes as a kid.

2015.12.18

I find the idea immensely thought provoking. Like David Gelernter's "Beauty = simplicity + power" formulation, at first blush it seems too simplistic, and leaving out swaths of human experience, but I feel like most of that experience could be shoehorned into a loose reading of the definition.

2015.12.31

The first part of the article, <a href="http://deadspin.com/nobody-cares-if-you-lie-1750284878">No One Cares If You Lie</a>, brings up some important points about the fact-proof nature of political discourse. When Al Franken wrote "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" I wasn't expecting said liars to do such a job of OWNING that...

2016.01.04

Semi-decent month for new music last month, the first one listed is the only 4-star.

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da9k7-r138Q" style="color:red;">Charlie On the MTA (Live)</a> (The Heebee-jeebees) My one 4-star this month... I literally started laughing with delight the first time I heard it. This is a slightly different cover, but the way they take it lower and lower is so much fun...

2016.01.11

New diet plan: NB3.<br>No Breakfast, No Booze => No Bang-Bang.<br>Meaning if I violate either of the first two before dropping ten pounds (the same pounds I had lost in September, heh) I send $100 to the NRA, which I really don't want to do. <br><br>(Black iced coffee doesn't count as breakfast.)

2016.01.16

Don't you love the Oxford Dictionary? When I first read it, I thought it was a really really long poem about everything

Oh man, at first I thought this quote was "a love poem about everything", which is a concept I like even more.

2016.01.18

Yesterday I noticed I can play tuba almost as well with my left as my right - an old observation for me, actually, but I realized there might be a tie-in with another bit of physical modeling i do: I tend to remember which key on my keyring is which via it's physical placement, and more specifically, I subconsciously expect them to be in left-to-right order corresponding to the outermost/innermost arrangement of the doors. Take my car and house keys (one for the front, one for the back)... holding them all "teeth up", my hand expects the car key on the left (corresponding to how I first arrive), and then the front door key to the right of that (since it's the key I need next) and ending with the key to the back (either since I don't need that then, or because the back of the house is "more inner" than the door facing outward to the street. It takes much more mental effort to remember which key is which when they don't align to a inner/outer concept.<br><br>

2016.01.28

The price of learning and configuring and tweaking a large system that almost does the required job - and could be similarly battered into shape of handling lots of other tasks- is often larger than the cost of making an original, smaller bit of code that just handles the matter at hand. and, that is also more fun. Or as Rosenberg puts it later in the book: "There is almost always <i>something</i> you can pull off the shelf that will satisfy many of your needs. But usually the parts of what you need done that your off-the-shelf code won’t handle are the very parts that make your new project different, unique, innovative--and they’re why you’re building it in the first place."<br><br>

2016.02.03

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_x4_QrMcm8">Sad</a> (Bo Burnham) Funny- at least watch the first 15 seconds. His <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BAXFIKI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1">book of poetry</a> is good too, very Shel Silverstein-y...

2016.02.08

Bill the Splut mentioned the first half of Bob and Ray has also passed on - great low-key comedy. (Like he said, "By the time we figured out we were introverts, it was too late to do anything about it.") This bit Bill shared is great: <br><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ktYwuw9Mnjo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

2016.02.15

From this morning. Then when posting this had to confirm that her name was spelled with just one "L". #bestboyfriendever

2016.02.17

(I do not think the first quote was authentic)

2016.02.23

As with most of my attempts to find comforting philosophy, there can be a "first world problem" aspect to it, and I don't know how well it extends to truly trying circumstances. I do enjoy finding some parallels in other places though. At one point I learned the trick of recasting anxiety as excitement - physiologically their pretty similar - and "Amor Fati" helps with that, because you will love even the bad outcome you're nervous about. In the military, they talk about "embracing the suck" and even get a perverse pride in what they've muddled through. Finally, I guess "Amor Fati" is kind of a secular version of believers who find consolation in sad things as being part of "God's Will" - those believers tend to count on a divine plan that's ultimately for good in a way I can't, but I'm guessing it's a similar feeling in the meanwhile.

2016.02.29

Every four years I feel like "I'm not doing enough for leap day!"<br><br>Today: a resolution! I've been really good at keeping up with a digitial todo list for- yikes, like 20 odd years almost... first on PalmPilots, then on iPhone. Lately (as in for like the the last 7 or 8 years) I've been using Appigo Todo. My pile of "due or overdue" - the stuff that shows up on the home screen icon - hovers around 20, give or take 5. And that's too much.<br><br>Historically I've resented Appigo's conflation of "things that I could start working on now" with "things that are actually due" (also I hate the sophomoric assumption that the more overdue stuff something is, the higher the urgency is (as shown in its order in a list) when in reality the opposite is generally true - if something has slid for a month, it can probably slide for another week, while something that was due yesterday might actually be pressing!)<br><br>But now I think I should embrace that conflation, so here's my resolution: touch EVERY due thing on my todo list, every day. Ideally, make a smidge - or a smudge - or a swoosh - of progress on it, but if nothing else, just bump it to tomorrow (or even beyond, if that makes sense.)

2016.03.02

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TupvVpxY_U">This Woman's Work</a> (Kate Bush) At first I thought this song was just overwrought, but reading up on it, and remembering its probably from a new father's perspective, it's powerful. Think I heard it in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

2016.03.04

Random thought I had the other day...<br><br>I place a lot of my own self-worth in being valuable to others. <br><br>I get a lot more engaged in a group if I feel I'm critical to that group. For example: on summer I started attending Sunday services at my local UU church. Its scraggly, sparsely-attended meeting felt kind of familiar to me, and I thought I might find a home there, take up a common cause. Then fall arrived, and I found out that many New England churches kind of "pause" for the summer, but in autumn the spigots get turned back on full blast. Much of my urge to go to church left me. (Also: lazy Sunday mornings are kind of fantastic.) In part, I felt lost in the crowd. But I also felt like I would be "needed", was unlikely to be critical to the group. <br><br>(Another example: switching to tuba from the smaller baritone horn in the sixth grade, because a trumpet player had switched to baritone, and I liked the nature of being the only player of an instrument in a group.) <br><br>So I tend to be very reliable with this kind of thing, stalwart, which is a good thing but it comes from two weird places: the first is, maybe I don't feel like I have a ton of intrinsic value. (Conversely: do I feel most people do have intrinsic, part of the human birthright? It's a pretty basic humanistic tenant but I'm not sure it's one that I've perfectly embraced.) The second is: if a group doesn't NEED me, then why should I bother? (I mean, except in the ways that it's entertaining for me.) Life is full of a lot of potential demands for my precious time!<br><br>Some of it's just the binary thinking problem - oversimplifying, binary thinking is one of the biggest issues I see in the world, and I'm dismayed that I'm plagued by it too. People don't want a multidimensional way of taking things in, acknowledging that everything has parts that are good, less good, great, terrible - we want a single spectrum of "good" or "bad", and we don't even want a spectrum, we want to say good OR bad. <br><br>It muddles my thinking. It's just hard to wrap my head around ideas like "this effort - where I'm useful now - would be ok without me, but different". <br><br>(Of course <a href="http://kirk.is/2013/04/13/">a while ago I wrestled in a variation of this</a>, the "If you 'can't live without me' why aren't you dead yet?" type thing. The best answer I remember coming for that was that - well, they wouldn't DIE die, but you're critical to them being the best selves that they are now, that at least in that sense the person they are now wouldn't be around.)

2016.03.10

I love how Short-Fingered Drumf's kneejerk reaction is the dodge. "Not renouncing the KKK? That ear piece I was using was terrible, I didn't hear!" or "Kids bullying in my name? First I heard of it Cokie Roberts!" Not to mention he leans on groups to only toss him softballs, like Anderson Cooper's recent round of slo-pitch with him. Short fingers, glass jaw.

2016.03.25

<a href="http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-enduring-mystery-of-jawn-philadelphias-allpurpose-noun">On Philly's "Jawn"</a>. I lived there for my first three months, not enough to internalize the linguistic wonder that is "Jawn"

2016.03.26

Nice guys finish first. If you don't know that, then you don't know where the finish line is.

2016.03.29

One other line from "Fear of Flying" has stuck in my head, and that's Adrian saying "Courage is the first principle" as he cajoles Isadora into running away with him. <br><br>(It's odd because a paragraph later she's cribbing Joyce that she knows he won't recognize because he's "illiterate", but their definition seems to be closer to "not literary" than not well educated. I think he might be citing Aristotle, actually, the quote sometimes given as "Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others." (Some translations give 'virtues' for 'qualities'))<br><br>I'm not crazy about how the character is using that idea in a bullying way, but as I make my way through daily life, and try to make solid decisions and control my flinching response at work, I think there's something to courage being so central. It's kind of like having a back muscle in good working order; those times when my own back is in spasms, I ain't doing much of anything good out in this physical world. <br><br>(And as always, courage is by no means the absence of fear, but rising up to meet it and shoulder it aside and do what needs to be done anyway.)

2016.04.08

My slow plan of self-improvement continues. (Sometimes I try to remember if I engaged in similar plans in my 20s and 30s. I should check my old blog rambles and see.)<br><br>Recently I started embracing "Amor Fati", love of ones fate, embracing the circumstance because - regardless if you can dig up a silver-lining for it or not - it IS The Current Circumstance, there is no other. This is painful for us to believe, because or imaginative brains are SO GOOD at thinking up hypothetical alternate realities-- realities much like this one, but a bit nicer: without this badly designed redlight holding us back, without this T pass lost, without this toe stubbed. Those other realities simply don't exist, and we must learn to love what actually does, because it does. ("People don't think it be like it is, but it do.")<br><br>In practice, though, it's not always easy to dredge up that feeling of "Amor" fast enough, so I've been exploring supplementary models. My current favorite has to do with an illformed memory of a friend describing someone else: "he's just like, you know, 'super chill'?" Some how I find that phrasing weirdly evocative, despite its lack of detail. I can think of various tropes and characters from literature that exemplify that.<br><br>I doubt that "Super chill" is a phrase that most friends would use to describe me, but I still, I would like to be more unflappable, taking things more little pitfalls in stride. In theory I have enough existential philosophy to back that...("in theory, Communism works. In theory.") But mostly it's a model I can quickly apply - I feel a flash of anger or fear, I think "what would this like, super-chill guy do?" and try to be that. There's still that flash of negative emotion of course, but maybe in time that can be quelled a bit, much like my libido seems to have to get pre-approval before it can make me even 'feel' anything...<br><br>When I think about self-improvement like this, I always have a note of caution. There's the thought that being uptight and anxious may have served me well over the years, given me a backbone to not give into more of my baser instincts; maybe my ingrained, apocalyptic fear of eternal hellfire has done me a service, keeping a bit closer to the straight-n-narrow. But now, at 42, I think I'll be ok. And there's always the hope that I might be even better, that if I can shake my flinchy fear about "well what if this next technical bit doesn't work out and I don't know how to fix it???" I can achieve more and more interesting things. <br><br>Also, I wouldn't want "super chill" to swamp my general happiness and enthusiasm for things I like... I don't think they're incompatible, though there's some creative tension there.

2016.04.29

It wouldn't be the first time the power of love was responsible for a whole lot of bullshit.

2016.05.03

An uncommonly good month for music, with me puting the first four listed at 4 stars.

2016.05.04

The most disturbing part of freedom, Woodfox says, has been the dawning realisation since his release that in America in 2016 there is very little sense of political or social struggle. When he entered prison in the 1970s the country was on fire with political debate; now, as he puts it, "everybody seems to be 'Me, me, me, me, me.' It's all about me, what I need and how I'm going to get it."

2016.05.20

This was the first time I’m realizing that snowflakes are actually shaped like snowflakes. I always thought it was an abstract thing like drawings of hearts.

I'm really fond of this genre... young and precocious and observant, mostly in the present tense, and usually romantically longing, so often written to an absent "you". I think of a spiral bound journal with a red cover a friend <a href="http://loveblender.com/1997october/red.html">let me post excerpts from</a> once upon a time, also some of Sandra Bernhard's books ("Lips kissed for the first time are kissed forever." is a good line, and once the entire content of a chapter was "I wish you had, but I'm glad you didn't.")

2016.05.21

I survived two gigs and the SAC porchfest website weathered the storm for the first year ever. I call that victory! Now see how my 20th college reunion that I'm walking to now turns out.

2016.05.24

So the plan is what tends to work for me: nerdy calorie counting (See: The Hacker's Diet, the book "Chubster"), carefully monitored yet still almost daily small indulgences (Hello, free Good Humor freezer at work! Talk about a "Frenemy"), lots of salads, gum and atomic fireballs. If I have an early enough lunch, I'm ok with just having iced coffee for breakfast, and that gives me another 200-400 calories to play with.<br>

2016.05.25

For writers it is always said that the first 20 years of life contain the whole experience-- the rest is observation.

2016.05.31

Why do birds <br> suddenly appear<br> everytime you are near<br> confirmation bias

2016.06.03

Schmidt: "I don't know why I'm listening to you in the first place. You're TERRIBLE at talking to women. Case in point: you and Reagan."<br>

2016.06.09

Of course the other idea I flirt with is the first bar of the bassline I stole from Atari 2600 "Moon Patrol" and have been using when making music with friends ever since early highschool:<br><a href="/m/2016/06/09/space cadet tattoo idea.png"><img src="/m/2016/06/09/space cadet tattoo idea_560.png" border="0" width="560" height="84"></a>

2016.06.15

Two days ago I was going over old pictures, and ran smackdab into a photo of me sporting a real brute of one on my trip to Japan. It was a little shocking. And then yesterday - sure enough, my first summer one in ages starts tingling, in exactly that place as the picture.<br>

2016.06.18

Afzelius, in his collection of Swedish folk-tales, says: "Heathen superstition did not fail to show itself in the construction of Christian churches. In laying the foundations, the people retained something of their former religion, and sacrificed to their old deities, whom they could not forget, some animal, which they buried alive, either under the foundation or without the wall. The spectre of this animal is said to wander about the churchyard at night, and is called the Kirk-Grim. A tradition has also been preserved that under the altar of the first Christian churches, a lamb was usually buried, which imparted security and duration to the edifice. This is an emblem of the true Church Lamb--the Saviour, who is the Corner-Stone of His Church. When anyone enters a church at a time when there is no service, he may chance to see a little lamb spring across the quire and vanish. This is the church-lamb. When it appears to a person in the churchyard, particularly to the grave-digger, it is said to forbode the death of a child."<br>

2016.06.22

But in 1880 the Republicans nominated Arthur as James A. Garfield's running mate to smooth out a squabble between two party factions. In less than a year, Garfield was a martyr and Arthur was the muttonchopped, well-dressed "Dude President." His first act in office was to lock himself in the bedroom and cry.

2016.06.28

<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/06/27/paste_url_bug_in_chrome_for_macs.html">Bug copy and pasting URLs from chrome on Macs</a> Anyone else run into this? I mostly noticed copying from chrome into gmail under Safari (where I keep on any on personal email when at work.) Very frustrating - my workaround was to copy everything but the first letter of a URL, paste, and then type the letter (and maybe the http: )<br>

2016.06.29

Going over old photographs, saw some of <a href="http://www.maedastudio.com/1997/cal1/index.php">John Maeda's Shiseido calendars</a> (Java programs) that were on display in a museum in Portugal. Pain in the butt to get to run, but got to see them via Firefox and putting his site on the special "unblock" list in Java.

2016.07.05

Captain Kirk: Painted as a headstrong idiot who spends all his time banging green skinned alien queens. In reality, a pretty firmly Feminist character. <br>

Minor first-world-problem ‪#‎nerdrage‬ news: looks like last month, Samsung Smart TVs and Skype parted ways. Not that we used it much, but it was amusing to give the living room something feeling like the main screen on the Enterprise on Christmas Day.<br>

2016.07.08

<a href="http://poststar.com/news/local/after-years-stepping-away-from-a-life-s-work/article_cf7d6ffc-6a1d-5728-b0bc-f80abc50d18a.html">Don Burrows is a swell guy</a> about to retire as maintenance supervisor the Glens Falls Salvation Army. He was there when my family was there in the mid-80s, I remember him helping me with a pinewood derby car and his little side electronics business that let my family buy our first color TV.

2016.07.09

Spent the first two days home kind of free-falling from the meds / lack of meds and the paralyzing realization that nothing matters. Luckily that was followed by the motivating revelation that nothing matters.

2016.07.17

1996 marked my graduation from college, and my first apartment - in Waltham, where Dylan subletted from me for a while.

My first camera was the <a href="http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Kodak_DC20">Kodak DC20</a>. It had a beautiful minimalism; no screen, no flash, just a cut-out viewfinder. Like getting good old film developed at the drug store, you couldn't see what picture you had taken 'til later.

2016.07.18

My dozen best photos of 1997. Even though I had graduated, I sang with Tufts' sQ! as an alum. And I'm still working my first real, non-summer job.

<br>This was one of my first "man I really like how this photo came out" - Daddy-O's red lighting and Rebekah's expression.

On a Hulu ad I first saw how Panera is really hammering "clean" as the primary descriptor for their salads. At first I thought it was a dig against Chipotle, though I guess it's kind of a trendy food movement, ish? But kind of a diffuse one as far as I can tell?<br>

2016.07.19

<br>The first of what is to be many photos of the shore of Ocean Grove, NJ. Here are shadows including Lena and Bjorn.

<br>My hot dog has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R. For some reason I remember this photo was taken by my Aunt Ruth and Grandma.

<br>Someone made a "meme" version of this that's the first Google Image match for "MOAR MOAR MOAR". I was surprised when I ran across that online.

<a href="http://blackbag.gawker.com/a-theory-donald-trumps-ex-campaign-manager-deliberatel-1783930502">The would-be-first-lady speech plagiarism as deliberate sabotage</a>. Plus, Rick Roll. <br>

2016.07.20

<br>Back at the shore, I think again with Lena and Bjorn, one of whom took this shot. That might be the first in a series of green hoodies I've enjoyed over the years.

2016.07.21

<br>My friend (and former coworker from my first job) Habib, from Morocco.

2016.07.23

<br>2001 was the first year I renewed a lease on an apartment, but Mo and I bought a house this year. Househunting was more a project of her and her mom with me supporting them from the edges; probably a harbinger, in retrospect. Anyway, Mo in a this mighty chair she had brought into the relationship, on moving day.

2016.07.25

<br>I released JoustPong at Philly Classic that year (note the custom T-Shirt, a giveaway with the first batch of carts) and shared the AtariAge booth with Howard Scott Warshaw - creator of the Atari game Yar's Revenge and, more infamously, the rushed version of "E.T." that "caused" the Great Video Crash of 1983.

2016.07.27

<a href="/m/2016/07/27/2006.07.04_cemetary_and_shirts_to_get_rid_of_and__kayak_to_fireworks__IMG_2220.JPG"><img src="/m/2016/07/27/2006_560.07.04_cemetary_and_shirts_to_get_rid_of_and__kayak_to_fireworks__IMG_2220.JPG" border="0" width="560" height="420"></a>

<br>I think this is the first year I discovered going Kayaking on the Charles to see the fireworks... to this day I'm sort of bummed when a kayaking trip doesn't have a big spectacle at the end.

2016.07.28

<a href="/m/2016/07/28/2007.06.07_birds_and_fireworks__IMG_1687.JPG"><img src="/m/2016/07/28/2007_560.06.07_birds_and_fireworks__IMG_1687.JPG" border="0" width="560" height="420"></a>

2016.07.29

<br>Weekends were stuff close to Tokyo with Josh, but during the week days I would travel on my own. This is the "A-Bomb Dome" in Hiroshima; originally "The Product Exhibition Hall building" and one of the few structures not to be flattened by the blast and ensuing fires.

2016.07.31

<a href="/m/2016/07/31/2009.01.fireworks.JPG"><img src="/m/2016/07/31/2009_560.01.fireworks.JPG" border="0" width="560" height="747"></a>

<br>The woman JZ was dating worked high up in an office overlooking the Boston Common. New Years 2009 was brutally cold and windy and so they launched the fireworks from there surprisingly low - for many we were looking down on them.

<br>Fire with Michi, outside Ariana's Steampunk Ball.

2016.08.05

<br>One of our first impressions of <a href="/m/2016/08/05/2011.05_EUROPE__14_15_saturday_and_sunday__IMG_0780.JPG">Paris</a> was at the farmer's market near our place: a man with a fishbowl on his head.

2016.08.06

30-plus years of being a Star Trek fan and <a href="http://lighteningpool.tumblr.com/post/148538571294/offdensen-well-at-least-i-wont-die-alone">I just now realized</a> that fictional doctor Leonard McCoy and science fiction actor Leonard "Spock" Nimoy share a first name.

2016.08.08

<br><geektime>This book on Java EJBs is actually a callback to, like, 2002. "EJB encourages collaboration of <i>more than six</i> different parties." It's almost unclear if they're talking people or components, but I think people... anyway, the first generation of EJB was where I first encountered a technology that was achieving huge popularity despite what to me was clear and egregious over-engineering, high complexity, and poor transparency. Anyway, like I said in 2001-- EJB - the technology to allow you to scale your application across many servers... and the performance to make sure that you'll need to"</geektime>

2016.08.09

<br>Ah, sweet New Hampshire fireworks, from a July 4th at Kimball Castle

First Person Squirrel!<br>

First Seven Jobs:<br>

#firstsevenjobs

2016.08.13

<br>Trampoline date at Sky Zone (experimenting with that 'make a first date something adrenaline pumping' idea)

2016.08.14

<br>Just last week we had the repeat of HONK-style bands playing at the Hatch Shell with the Landmarks Orchestra... for the first event I wandered in and got a photo of the city looking out from the Hatch.

2016.08.15

<br>Early date with Melissa, going to see the fireworks on the Charles via Kayak. I like the elegance of her gesture.

2016.08.16

The one passage I remember from my first reading is from Marcella's defense, as she's being accused of a shepherd's death because of her failure to return his love:<br>

2016.08.19

<br>@ Trinity College, first big stop for the walking tour.

2016.08.27

"Allow me to preface this by saying that I don't know why you started eating salt in the first place, but regardless of the precipitating circumstances, there you are. <br>

2016.09.02

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqhdRs4jyA">End of the Line</a> (The Traveling Wilburys) Brings up that 90s case. The song Melissa thinks of first when I'm trying to describe George Harrisons "I Got My Mind Set on You"

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT2_F-1esPk">Closer (feat. Halsey)</a> (The Chainsmokers) Found out about this via <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/08/26/why_the_chainsmokers_closer_featuring_halsey_is_no_1_on_the_hot_100.html">Slate's series on current #1 hits</a>. I like the description "For the first 10 seconds, the song sounds like it’s building to something monumental: thundering piano chords, sweeping synth washes, and a swelling echo like you’re down in a vast ravine. And then, at 0:11 … click. It all switches off like a lamp—a finger-snap and a meek 'Hey' "

Best daytime firework I've seen!<br>

2016.09.05

Man. First time I glanced out the window this season and thought "dark already?" (quarter of eight)

2016.09.10

But why the desire to attribute unwanted feelings to a physically distinct part of my brain? I mean does it matter that it's physically separate? (As opposed to the model of the mind as a cacophony of "virtual" subconsciousness, subconsciousness where it doesn't matter precisely *where* each is firing neurons in the brain... this is the view I tend to hold to, and it's more nuanced than the mere 2 part split this split brain "Just So" story implies.) <br>

2016.09.23

And man, video games are an astounding technology these days - sure, other technologies have made amazing strides - a communicator / camera / reference to giant chunks of the world's knowledge at any moment / digital map / huge music library in the palm of my hand is astounding - but if you look at the early square, colorful blobs when video games first went mainstream in the late-70s early-80s to a AAA title today; it's astounding. Too often the interaction is limited, but the look and feel and sound of these 3D worlds is nothing short of Holodeckian.

2016.09.26

Pretty darn fine <a href="http://thomassanders.com/post/150969984988/theelementoffire">rebuttal to "male privilege doesn't exist"</a> misthink.

2016.10.07

First, the good news, that I'm at the lowest weight I've been for around 14 years. (Admittedly only half a pound below my lowpoint in 2014, and then I gained back about a pound a month for a year.)<br>

2016.10.16

I love the sky in the first one.

2016.10.18

Amused that Wendy's is hyping the return of the Taco Salad. It (or possibly its near descendent, the "Baja Salad" that added a dollop of guac) and atomic fireballs were at the heart of one of my best weight drops, 15lbs in 6 months in 2012 - the chili made it really satiating. I was surprised when I went back to Wendy's last year and it was off the menu. <br>

2016.10.31

Tennessee Williams once wrote, "We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it." In a certain sense, the playwright was correct. Yes, but oh! What a view from that upstairs window! What Tennessee failed to mention was that if we look out of that window with an itchy curiosity and a passionate eye; with a generous spirit and a capacity for delight; and, yes, the language with which to support and enrich the things we see, then it DOESN'T MATTER that the house is burning down around us. It doesn't matter. Let the motherfucker blaze!

2016.11.04

The match recalls fear in the fireless night,<br>

2016.11.05

The best break anybody ever gets is in bein' alive in the first place. An' you don't unnerstan' what a perfect deal it is until you realizes that you ain't gone be stuck with it forever, either.

2016.11.08

Tennessee Williams once wrote, "We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it." In a certain sense, the playwright was correct. Yes, but oh! What a view from that upstairs window! What Tennessee failed to mention was that if we look out of that window with an itchy curiosity and a passionate eye; with a generous spirit and a capacity for delight; and, yes, the language with which to support and enrich the things we see, then it DOESN'T MATTER that the house is burning down around us. It doesn't matter. Let the motherfucker blaze!

2016.11.09

If it goes for Trump- I dunno. It won't be great - it's such a bad message, about human rights, about who we are, about how a guy who just doesn't want to learn anything and is so full of himself can take the presidency, about how we have to wait for a first female president. But life will be ok, and I'm sad because so many of my friends have forgotten that. It has been such a rough campaign, really brutal. Trump has done and said so many ugly things. The other side really thinks Hillary is corrupt, but that's not fundamentally true; she's just a connected politician who has been the target of 40 years of Republican attacks. But overall, we'll get through. It'll be easier for me and my demographic, white, straight, reasonably comfortable, christian background; for gay people and people of color and moslems, they're not going to feel as welcome. Maybe things will happen to some of them (the supreme court will be borked up, and things for abortion rights are definitely under threat) or maybe not, but some of the worst of it is that the guy who might be winning did so in part saying it's ok to say the country should be white and facts are optional; his fans say we're the greatest nation on Earth and get mad if you decide to bow out during the National Anthem but then say "make America Great Again", like it's not.

Tennessee Williams once wrote, "We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it." In a certain sense, the playwright was correct. Yes, but oh! What a view from that upstairs window! What Tennessee failed to mention was that if we look out of that window with an itchy curiosity and a passionate eye; with a generous spirit and a capacity for delight; and, yes, the language with which to support and enrich the things we see, then it DOESN'T MATTER that the house is burning down around us. It doesn't matter. Let the motherfucker blaze!

2016.11.11

<figcaption>Oh good lord. One of the first places we see at the KL airport.</figcaption>

2016.11.13

<a href="http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/07/10/when-and-why-nationalism-beats-globalism/">When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism</a>. I'd prefer to be a citizen of the world myself, but we need to understand people who put nation over humanity. And sometimes there's something to be said for the view in the United States, there are many things we get right, and paths to improvement. Unfortunately the white-america first got this know-nothing elected.

2016.11.15

<figcaption>It's so hot, the fire plugs are melting.</figcaption>

2016.11.17

<figcaption>One smart thing we did was to rent a car- we didn't realize we'd need one at first, but our resort is 20-60 minutes from everywhere, and taxis would add up. Anyway, after heading back to the airport for a rental, we headed out to Kuah for Seafood- "My Chef" is this place.</figcaption>

2016.11.19

<figcaption>My first entree.</figcaption>

2016.11.26

She was always immensely generous with her money, her love, her time. The result was thousands of friends, a life crammed with lovers, and, at mid-century, an idyllic romance with a man who turned out to be her mental and emotional double. My mother and grandmother, who hoarded and calculated their love, my sisters, who chose their husbands at eighteen and never budged, wound up with less than Hope, who gave everything away. She was a human potlatch. Gifts dropped from her like fruit from a tree. You dared not admire anything in her home or office or on her person for fear she would give it to you. Anything at all: a painting, a first edition, a piece of jewelry. She gave and gave and gave. Things fell out of her pockets. And everything eventually came back. Doubled, usually. Or tripled.

2017.01.02

<span class='star3'>Captain America: The First Avenger</span>,

"Scrubs" deserves a special nod given how LONG is seasons were - I watched it while doing a giant scan-o-thon. And you know, Episode 4 of the first season made me weep; it's a goofy comedy but grounded both in real hospital life and in real emotion.

<i>I'm always wary about how keeping this kind of log (for like 17 years now!) threatens to be "gamification", where I'm doing stuff just to add to the year tally - not the way I want to be. But the dip in "books" <a href="http://kirk.is/2016/01/06/">in 2015 (which had been down 15 from 2014)</a> was on the back of my mind. Somewhat corrected this year. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was a reread, and still one of my favorites. "is it evil not to be sure" by Lena Dunham was a great little read - interesting thinking of the parallels with Carrie Fisher's. (You can see a <a href="http://advent.kirk.is/2016/05/20/">minireview with quotes</a> I made on it. "Fear of Flying" was excellent in general. (Interesting how all of the stuff I rated 5 stars were in the form of first person storytelling.)

2017.01.03

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQql1k5v_A0">The Blue Danube</a> (Spike Jones & His City Slickers) Novelty Song. My Mom and Aunt confirm from their recent trip that inspired me to find this - as the song says, the Danube is in fact not blue but green.

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeKAtaa3x-4">Sippin Cider Through a Straw</a> (Susie Tallman) A Piers Anthony novel mentioned this campfire song that was new to me. (I swear in finding this I heard a raunchy parody of it that I haven't been able to locate since.)

2017.01.06

Coworker was showing off his first woodworking project, a lovely <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/143431666@N08/sets/72157673749351420">World Map Table</a>.

2017.01.08

We passed a street light and I saw her lips twisted into an expression I couldn't quite read. "Oh, damn it all, Mitch," she said unhappily, "I <i>know</i> you won't change. That's what makes it all so terrible. Must I sit here and call you names to convince you that it's hopeless? Do I have to tell you that you're an ill-tempered, contriving Machiavellian, selfish pig of a man to live with? I used to think you were a sweet guy, Mitch. An idealist who cared for principles and ethics instead of money. I had every reason to think so. You told me so yourself, very convincingly. You were very plausible about my work too. You boned up on medicine, you came to watch me operate three times a week, you told all our friends while I was sitting right in the room listening to you how proud you were to be married to a surgeon. It took me three months to find out what you meant by that. Anybody could marry a girl who'd be a housewife. But it took a Mitchell Courtenay to marry a first-class rated surgeon and <i>make</i> her a housewife." Her voice was tremulous. "I couldn't take it, Mitch. I never will be able to. Not the arguments, the sulkiness, and the ever-and-ever fighting. I'm a doctor. Sometimes a life depends on me. If I'm all torn up inside from battling with my husband, that life isn't safe, Mitch. Can't you see that?"<br>

2017.01.10

You'd type in the command on the telnet homescreen, and then the six-letter username of the person you were trying to, uh, finger (the first four letters of the last name + first initial + middle initial). And then the screen would proffer the best/worst thing a lovesick college freshman could ever want: the date, time, and location from which person-in-question had last logged into their email account.

2017.01.12

A few years later I read about William Irvine's modern application classical Stoicism, in "A Guide to the Good Life'; protecting one's equanimity and contentment at all costs, in part by triaging the world into things one has complete control over, no control over, and somewhere in between, and attending only to the first and last category, along with "negative visualization" - a meditative technique of thinking about how bad things could get, and then being happy when they're better than that; and realizing that you'd be able to cope even if they were that bad. So that was helpful, but just recognizing that a situation was out of my control didn't actually help my equanimity all that much.<br>

But now I've found what seems the strongest counter-formula yet... the recognition of this weird animism humans tend to have, that we look for intent and purpose even in things that are just accidental and emergent. The first stage of the this realization was that "it is absurd to take traffic personally". And yet I do. Later, in the movie "Mistress America" I found the even wider application: "The path isn't against you. It's just the path." I've been finding that a very useful mantra lately. Similarly, when I get mad at a malfunctioning device or app, I should give it some sympathy, or even empathy; it's doing the best it can, you know? It has no sense of mischievousness, and it's more accurate to presume it would like to be doing a good job for me than whatever its current results actually are.<br>

2017.01.15

6. "Chameleon" by Maynard Ferguson. This is literally one of the first three CDs I bought when my family finally got a CD player - and the screaming title song is super influential in honk bands, and a staple of JP Honk.<br>

7. Dirty Dozen Brass Band "New Orleans Album". One of the other first 3 CDs I bought (the other was a Glen Miller tape). Of all ten albums on this list, maybe this one stands up the best from a sheer music standpoint.<br>

2017.01.27

If you believe in the first amendment, but call people who peacefully protest the President as hooligans, you are a hypocrite. <br>

2017.01.29

There is nothing as ridiculous as the verbal outpourings of a young poet in love. Outrageously exaggerated. I laugh. But I am also touched. Old as I am, I remember my first loves, the fire, the torrents of words, lightning-sheathed, ache-winged. Dear lasses, most of you are dead; the rest, withered. I blow you a kiss. --Grandpa

The first forty years of life give us the text: the next thirty supply the commentary

2017.02.01

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHkg0OEftVU">House Of The Rising Sun </a> (Heavy Young Heathens feat. The Nashville United First Baptist Vocal Assembly) Nice use of chorus. Tempted to arrange this for the honk band.

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2UCT5ABGa4">Bukowski</a> (Modest Mouse) My first Modest Mouse song, though I feel like their name comes up a lot. Anway, always fond of a good literary and/or blasphemous reference.

2017.03.06

Mardi Gras celebration the other week by School of Honk - "We Got That Fire!"<br>

2017.03.10

There is a natural order in which to write an interactive graphics program. My habit is to write the display routines first, since their behavior can be tested by watching the screen. Second, I write input routines and use input from the joystick or computer keyboard to drive the display routines. From this early stage onward, the programmer can test much of his new code in the role of a player of the game, manipulating the joystick and checking that the response on the display is as expected. This is much faster and more satisfying than traditional debugging methods which involve peering at columns of numbers. Computer game programs have a nice property: all bugs are visible. If you can't see, it's not important.

2017.03.12

All 3 are from KL, the first two from the KL, the last from my cousin's apartment building.<br>

2017.03.13

"Because," said Thor, "when something goes wrong, the first thing I always think is, it is Loki's fault. It saves a lot of time."

"I can see further than you can, Loki. I can see all the way to the world - tree," Heimdall will tell him with his last breath. "Surtr's fire cannot touch the world - tree, and two people have hidden themselves safely in the trunk of Yggdrasil. The woman is called Life, the man is called Life's Yearning. Their descendants will populate the earth. It is not the end. There is no end. It is simply the end of the old times, Loki, and the beginning of the new times. Rebirth always follows death. You have failed."

2017.03.22

<a href="http://stuff.alienbill.com/apartmenter/">Apartmenter</a> - first draft of a little tool I'm building to arrange the furniture in the place Melissa and I will be moving into. She's moving from a medium-sized space for one person and I'm moving from a large-sized space for two, so getting everything into a medium sized apartment is gonna be tough.

2017.03.29

It wasn't Congress who sold your privacy, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15100620/congress-fcc-isp-web-browsing-privacy-fire-sale">it was 100% Republicans, for big campaign bucks</a>.

2017.04.04

My company's first TV spots! CarGurus definitely has a challenge, it's name isn't the easiest to say when you hear it spoken, I think breaking it up like this makes sense:<br>

2017.04.08

"Vanessa" was my charge the first day...<br>

2017.04.12

My ireland native father once told me that the first time he ever saw people use water for hot chocolate was when he came to america, and said that it was then that he 'knew this country was doomed'

2017.04.15

There's a whole type of therapy, popular in New England and maybe not so much elsewhere, called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Family_Systems_Model">Internal Family Systems</a> that encourage recognizing similar sub-parts, and roleplaying engaging with them as full-fledged people. (So closer to the silent kid than the skullfull of worms) The practice talks about specific roles (Managers, Exiles, Firefighters) that I'm not sure feel true to me, but it might be an avenue worth exploring.

2017.04.20

McCarthy writes "the fact that the unconscious prefers avoiding verbal instructions pretty much altogether--even where they would appear to be quite useful--suggests rather strongly that it doesnt much like language and even that it doesnt trust it." My first instinct says that it's not a matter of disdain, but it lacks language as a toolset. I can't tell my inner toddler to "use your words" because it doesn't have any! Of course, this seems to contradict my earlier theory that this subconscious was my "fast reading/skimming brain". But perhaps words can come in, but they can't come out, and the "jist" that my fast reader is so good at providing my rational self is more based on images and feelings than I realize. No wait - I got started last Saturday by trying to explain the subconscious process that was making my typos, especially my oddly-phonetic-almost-dyslexic swap of "m" and "b". So words go in and words go out, but they aren't its native language. (So to speak.)<br>

2017.05.05

‘What a romantic creature you are, to be sure,’ said Stephen. ‘A ball fired from a privateer’s cannon makes the same hole as a king’s.’ <br>

2017.05.07

Talking with Liz the other day, she asked if I had always worn glasses- yes, ever since 4th or 5th grade or so, with a brief unfortunate attempt at contacts in high school. So glasses are a part of my face, and I'm pretty comfortable with that. But I wasn't at first, which is funny- back around that time I tried to pretend that I liked classical and jazz because that's what smart people did and I was a smart person, but somehow I failed to make the same, perhaps even more obvious, leap for eyeglasses.

2017.05.17

Strike the first rune upon the engine's casing employing the chosen wrench. Its tip should be anointed with the oil of engineering using the proper incantation when the auspices are correct. Strike the second rune upon the engine's casing employing the arc-tip of the power-driver. If the second rune is not good, a third rune may be struck in like manner to the first. This is done according to the true ritual laid down by Scotti the Enginseer. A libation should be offered. If this sequence is properly observed the engines may be brought to full activation by depressing the large panel marked "ON".</blockquote>

2017.05.29

On the one hand, it's probably horrible karma to laugh at people who are A. scared B. may or may not have english as their first language C. seem to have "Ask Yahoo" as a primary medical care reference in a time of declining women's healthcare, especially for poor people. But still...<br>

2017.05.30

W.H. Auden, "First Things First"

2017.06.02

First off, you have to see this Betty Boop cartoon starring a rotoscoped Cab Calloway as Koko the Clown:

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDATXtewPrg">St. James Infirmary</a> (Cab Calloway) Fantastic Betty Boop cartoon version...

2017.06.07

I'm currently re-reading "Consciousness Explained" by Daniel Dennett... it was a big influence when I first read it 15 years ago, and I cite it in <a href="https://soyouregoingtodie.com">So You're Going to Die</a>. Anyway, here is a pretty good <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/daniel-dennetts-science-of-the-soul">New Yorker piece about him and his point of view</a>.

2017.06.19

Melissa points out that the first minute of this just about perfectly describes my relationship with cooking:<br>

2017.06.21

This was not Iwai's first multi-part collaboration with Nintendo - that would be the 4-part <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Fantasy">Sound Fantasy</a>. One of those parts was based on his earlier work Musical Insects. This concept, 4 musical bugs, each one playing a different instrument that sounded at various pitches as the bug waddled over different colored tiles laid out on a blank canvas, got parlayed by Maxis into a nifty package called <b>SimTunes</b>. I guess this trailer gives you the overview about as well as anything:<br />

 This is by far the best "game" of everything I've talked about here - it starts with a gorgeous Mario 64-esque hub (looking like someone said "what if we ran all those pretty colors of the N64 into the kind of engine we can make today?)  with all these delightful themed subworlds, but each as if you can see the gears behind the walls work. Each subworld has multiple challenges that you build various vehicles to beat: cars, of course, but also boats and planes and flying balloons and sumo-karts etc. At first I thought all the creations were ugly and orthogonal-looking (VERY reminiscent of the old <a href="http://joseoncode.com/2012/02/01/capsela-the-game-that-changed-my-life/">Capsela</a> toys) but then the delight of making a car where the design really matters in a cartoon-physics kind of way takes over (and you can put on enough bolt-y bits to improve the look quite a lot.) And as you get more parts (there's that game-ness) you can go back and try for higher "medals", but the challenge level is generally well done, and the level of backtracking needed is negligible.<br />

2017.06.23

Jeremy Penner has started <a href="http://fringe.games/">a podcast about hyper-indie games</a>, the art of the small, personal game project and the communities that support them... and I was his first interview, talking about my perennial mashup JoustPong, but ranging from programming home computers in the 1980s to online things like Processing now.<br>

2017.06.30

I was a <a href="https://kirk.is/2007/07/06/">first week early adopter</a> (I accidentally drowned my Palm device and cellphone kayaking on July 4th, and the timing seemed fortuitous.)<br>

<a href="https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/06/29/1134240/the-iphone-turns-10">Slashdot's Coverage</a> (speaking of things that may also seem like history) linked to John "Daring Fireball" Gruber's <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2007/06/iphone_first_impressions">iPhone First Impressions</a>.<br>

As he mentions, probably the biggest lack in the first device (other than, arguably, the app store) was copy and paste. That was an interesting choice to punt on, to let it wait until a future generation of the product could get it right...<br>

2017.07.01

I think it's kind of smart that Somerville does its fireworks early (in this case last Thursday) - I'm sure they get a better deal for it, plus more people can see it. Anyway, we are just a block or so away from where they launch...<br>

<a href="/m/2017/07/01/firework window.png"><img src="/m/2017/07/01/firework window_560.png" border="0" width="560" height="315"></a>

2017.07.13

So for crimes, first degree is the most severe, but for burns, it's the least severe.<br>

2017.07.14

River Raid was one of the finest games produced for the Atari 2600. One of the first vertically scrolling shooters, this game was remarkably well designed. While the enemies (copters and boats and later small jets) could only threaten the player with menacing kamikaze moves upon approach, the constantly diminishing fuel supply would lead the player to recklessly hightail it down the "River of No Return" to pass over replenishing fuel depots, a tension-provoking detail most other games of the era couldn't match. And I am going to introduce you to the games indisputable conqueror.<br />

First, a note about the game's author, Carol Shaw- the first professional female video game designer. This game is her singular masterpiece (I don't think many people really look back <i>that</i> fondly on "3-D Tic Tac Toe", and the 1-on-1 Pong-like action of her "Polo" tie-in game never saw the light of day...) <a href="http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/800">This interview has her talking about her experience</a>. But her peers thought she was great, designer Mike Albaugh said<br />

<a href="https://kirk.is/2005/11/28/">Over a decade ago</a> I got to wondering about how far the river went, and got so far as having <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/rec.games.video.classic/WwZee3B55Rs">B. Watson generate this image</a> of the first 4 sections, guaranteed to bring a bit of nostalgia to the 80's gamer heart:<br />

For starters, here's Lord Tom's <a href="https://kirkdev.alienbill.com/2017/riverraid/River%20Raid%20complete%20map.png">map of the first 600 river sections</a>...<br />

And how does Lord Tom know what the first 600 sections look like? I contacted him at <a href="http://atariage.com/">AtariAge</a> (such a damn fine resource!) and he said<br />

2017.07.18

<a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/07/17/outline-trumps-achievements-first-six-months-office">Yeehaw</a>

2017.07.20

While in some ways the game has that "more than one way to solve a problem" approach, 90% of those feel like something clever the programmers thought of first and then coded in, rather than an organic, player-driven combination of basic interactive elements. They give you a cool "magnet" tractor beam power that you can only use in carefully defined areas, magic bombs that can't really aim and take forever to damage anything anyway, a "freeze time" thing that A. is misnamed (it's more about messing with certain object's kinetic energy, but I guess they thought "kinetic energy" that was too fancy a term) and B. also only works hardly anywhere...<br>

2017.07.21

When I was searching my own website trying to find some half-remembered bit about how analogy-based thinking was probably the key to "real" artificial intelligence, I found reference to a book I only barely remember reading but I think may have been mightily influential on me: Hofstadter and Sander's "Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking". Given how often I annoyed my estranged talking companion EB by realizing I tend to be focused on interactions at the surface and he seem obsessed with the supremacy of the essence, the core of what something "really was", that book seems like it had quite an impact on me. <br>

2017.07.31

I mean, that alone is just weird, right? Like you should have to practice a bit first before being the unpopular vote makes gives you the highest office in the land?

2017.08.02

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu9a29UR2dU">Shining Star</a> (Earth, Wind & Fire) Can't front on these guys! Sound guy played this song at a JP Art gig.

2017.08.03

and affirm that it is fitting<br>

"Affirmation", by Donald Hall. I love those final 3 lines... it reminds me a bit of "Dulce et Decorum Est".

2017.08.04

Even non-musicians have experienced the delay in thunder after lightning, or with a firework and its report.<br>

While hanging out with my folks in NJ, Melissa and I fired up "Warioware" for GameCube. (She sometimes wonder if her life would have been slightly more interesting had she grown up with games). Those microgames, little tiny doses of gameplay, are cool and fun, and accessible to non-veteran gamers... Anyway, listening to an old Retronauts podcast about the N64, I found out that a very recognizable version of the mircogames, effectively a prototype in retrospect, came bundled in Mario Artist: Polygon Studio, a 3D modeling program that used the rare disk add-on for the N64... <br>

2017.08.11

Around 3:13, it's a new recording. The scene changes to our over-the-church apartment in Salamanca NY. That's the first home I had recollections of, and could sketch out its layout. Now it's a surprisingly small grass field. My Aunt, Uncle, his son, and a Salvation Army cadet from Poland are also there besides my family the Wittenbergs.<br>

2017.08.20

Turns out that's a slightly tweaked Abba song. But that's a... pretty generous translation by the second line of the first... guess they just went for the sound and not the sense of the Spanish.

2017.08.23

"Life. Death is the enemy. The first enemy and the last."<br>

2017.08.25

I'm thinking about how I've developed along with my main band, JP Honk. I remember a few years ago we were almost on the verge of adding a semi-regular other tuba player, and I was... I don't know, bothered by it, a bit jealous. I think I was insecure with my place in the band, and so the same sixth grade "I want to be on a unique-in-group instrument" vibe that caused me to switch to tuba from baritone in the first place reared its head. I knew that feeling was pretty and stupid, but it was still there.<br>

2017.08.26

Lately I've been thinking of how I operate with a two-layer view of reality; simple objective reality, the first level of facts, and subjective interpretation, the second level of judgements. My emphasis is on supporting a shared understanding of that first objective level; to the extent that most of my "judginess" involves things that block understanding of that factual leve (in other words, people with agendas that make propaganda that distorts the underlying facts) and I also have a severe reluctance to judge people's behaviors in typical ways - since if I start judging on that second level (with its proclomations of what people "should" do) it increases the chance I might be incorrectly working based on assumptions about "facts on the ground" that I'm wrong about.<br>

(PS speaking of that first level/second level stuff - notice how I hedge almost every paragraph? "I think" "is at risk for", "might", "maybe"... is my habit of couching things that way acknowledging the difficulty of getting to objective truth and the uncertainty of any position at the second level of judgement? Or is it me just covering my ass so none of my peers can say I'm wrong? Or both?)

2017.08.30

Combining these concepts: having control of stuff appeals to young children, who live in a world where they have relatively little agency, and are generally at the whim of the grownups. I wonder if the rational me can get more desireable results over these inner-children -- the indefatigable-snacker me and the angsting away from doing productive-but-not-ego-affirming work me -- by showing these toddler how this IS something we can have control over, that we have great (if incomplete) power over these parts of the world. They can be in their glory like the little 4 year old waving an imaginary baton to conduct the actual band, and I can get some damn work done.

2017.09.03

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKskYvTGEHE">Got to Get You Into My Life</a> (Earth, Wind & Fire) I always like Tufts' Amalgamates cover... but didn't realize it was a straight forward cover of this version, not a very smart cover of the Beatles...

2017.09.05

That is such hard advice for me to take! First of all, I find sidetracks enjoyable. Second of all, I liked to lead with the disclaimer, recognizing that there are other points of view...

2017.09.08

</blockquote> I have such a difficult time really absorbing this. My best model of my person epistemology and morality says there are two levels: the first of simple objective facts, the second of interpretation, goals, and "shoulds"... and that the second layer is vaporously thin, and I feel ill-suited to judge anything - except to that which seems to interfere with a clear view of the underlying objective layer. There I judge like a mo-fo.

2017.09.13

Man, that was my first thought too.... <a href="http://gizmodo.com/apples-creepy-new-emoji-are-a-gateway-drug-to-furrydom-1804391824">Apple's Creepy New Emoji Are a Gateway Drug to Furrydom</a>

2017.10.07

So up he fell, slowly at first, and then faster as the savage acceleration gripped him. Vertigo caused his head to swim amusingly.<br>

He had been in his back yard, leaping to make a spectacularly athletic frisbee catch, when he inexplicably failed to return to terra firma. His friend was staring at the patch of grass Jones would have landed on (had gravity not been slightly inebriated,) utterly bewildered.<br>

what was first dirt and what<br>

was first me<br>

'Know what I saw? On fire off the Shoulder of Orion? ATTACK SHIPS.' -- Norm McDonald as Roy Batty in 'Blade Runner'

2017.10.18

I mentioned this to my therapist who I saw for the first time in a while last night, and tried to make the elephant metaphor jive with my self-image of a guy who has an above-average seeking of objective truth, even at the cost of having to withhold value judgement - sometimes, even without being able to state a simple fact ("your keys are on the counter") without disclaimer framing ("I think your keys are on the counter"). <br>

At first I thought that meant my elephant was better cajoled by my rider, cowed into submission, but another way of thinking about it is that my elephant is driven by the need for being unfaultable and therefore righteous. Being that kind of correct is somehow one of the most critical things of my sense of self. (This need is what caused me to lose my religious faith - the preponderance of other religions being a sign that my faith system didn't have the quality of uniqueness that was necessary for being True, and that my being in the church I grew up in, while other people were in the religion they grew up in, was also "suspicious") My elephant - or I guess it's the rider talking -<br>

So, back to the book. The book lays out <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_foundations_theory">Moral Foundations Theory</a> - first the 5 the author originally indentified (Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity) and then a 6th to explain Libertarianism, and how it is distinct both from Liberalism (as the term is used in US) and Conservatism. Haidt argues Liberals put most of the weight in Care and Fairness, while Conservatives have a more even spread over the 5. This gives conservatives politicians some advantages, as they have more "hooks" for their audience. I guess some of that rings true to me, as a guy who leans liberal - Authority and Sanctity for their own sake alone, elevated to a moral good, seems foreign to me. (Huh - though I guess I might have a big emphasis to "Loyalty", at least on the local level, since being reliable and dependable is critical to my self-image.)<br>

Other ones are "numbers and the sounds they have", so I read a poster for "5th Element" that said "IT MU5T BE FOUND" as "muft" – ignoring the visual pun for the acoustic part. And my first name is Kirk, and I have something I wrote as a toddler: KI4K"<br>

2017.10.21

My erstwhile arguing companion EB pointed accusingly to my roots as the child of Salvation Army ministers (an organization that tells its clergy where to live and what to do, and for them goes well beyond a normal 9-5 job)- he was convinced I imbibed the early lesson that I wasn't as worthy of attention as the charity cases they were helping, and that's where my sense of self-sacrifice came from. He was rather off base - he thought that my scene was a lot closer to communal living than it actually was. (Salvation Army Officer Kid family life is reasonably firewalled from the running of the church, despite the "having to change towns every couple of years" aspect). Still there might be something in seeing my current self rooted in my early family situation- Especially combined with a mom with an in-family reputation of a kind of stalwart "martyrdom" that I may have internalized as well. (Her younger sister nicknamed her "Betty the Good") <br>

2017.10.25

One of the first things people tell you about money is that it's an illusion. It's notional. If you give someone a dollar bill it's not 'worth' a dollar - it's 'worth' a small piece of paper and a small amount of printer's ink - but everyone agrees, everyone subscribes to the illusion that it's worth a dollar, and therefore it is. All the money in the world only means what it does because people subscribe to the same illusion about it. Why gold, why platinum? Because everyone agrees to place this value upon them. And so on.<br>

See also <a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/35493-fire-truck-russian-gyroscope">gyroscope buses and firefighting</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/12097688/Is-this-the-supermarket-of-the-future.html">the drive-through supermarket of the future</a>.

2017.10.27

<a href="https://twitter.com/HalpernAlex/status/922552320403021824">Librarian Twitter Rant Par Excellence</a>. Why in holy hell would that dipshit he's responding to say "close the libraries" in the first place? (<A href="http://www.lamebook.com/library-battle/">via</a>, with a few followups)

2017.11.04

<a href="https://gizmodo.com/heres-to-the-brave-laika-who-became-the-first-doggonau-1820122944">RIP Laika</a>

2017.11.16

Also, in trying (unsuccessfully) to confirm and quantify that feeling, I stumbled Google Books Ngram viewer (Not helpful because it just up to 2000, and then just books.) Seeing if it was like one of those baby name popularity graphers, <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Kirk&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CKirk%3B%2Cc0">I put in Kirk, and found a big uptick around 1840</a>, and then learned about the Disruption of 1843, where the Church of Scotland split after a decade of strife. (Kirk is the name of the official church of Scotland, as well as for the local branch, so to speak.) <br>

2017.11.18

While writing a devblog article about <a href="http://kirkdev.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-hack-to-avoid-ios-music-apps-odd.html">a little mp3 I made and named to be first in my song collection</a> (so when a podcast or audiobook ends I hear it, rather than Jackson 5's first rate song (and not just alphabetically) "A.B.C.", I realize I was willing to come around and accept the pedantically incorrect use of "it begs the question".<br>

2017.11.27

first in line to buy a ticket. the excitement overwhelms him.

(once called the first "normcore" game) - just a simple little side view golf, always good for a little hit of physics-y fun - but then I got stuck on hole 4420, and left it alone for a few months. I was getting ready to delete the game, but the realized the hole I was stuck on was different, and easy.<br>

Yesterday at Quincy's Christmas Parade I saw these<a href="http://www.thefirestore.com/store/product.aspx/productId/31872/selectedVariationId/138972/Thin-Red-Thin-Blue-Line-Black-White-American-Flag-3-x-5-?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=google&utm_content=138972&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQiAjO_QBRC4ARIsAD2FsXOfQyVg0Xy3kIDuhPYvr9uL4Rbh9LxKMZT8BNJDNh9X92mfPZ4hNsEaAr-yEALw_wcB"> black and white American flags (with a blue/red stripe to shout out to police and fire departments)</a> for sale by those shopping-cart-based vendors who show up along side parades and fairs.<br>

2017.12.02

<li><a style="color:red;" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTtpHlkZOio">I'm Moving On</a> (Chyvonne Scott) Lovely moody R+B from that weirdly backfiring <A href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5mB6wVcOXc">Samsung Ad</a>.

2017.12.05

<a href="https://gizmodo.com/artificially-intelligent-robot-predicts-its-own-future-1821011834">Artificially Intelligent Robot Predicts Its Own Future by Learning Like a Baby</a> In "On Intelligence", Jeff Hawkins (he made the Palm Pilot but his other love is neuroscience) argues that intelligence and consciousness is a big game of "predict and test" - that relatively few researchers back then had noticed that we have about as many connections down the hierarchy of abstraction as up - so we don't just see light and dark, resolved into a border, resolved into a line, resolved in a face, that a higher system probably remembers there's a face there, and tells the lower systems to look for face-ish parts, and only report back if there's something surprising... i.e. predict and test, predict and test, all the time. (This failure to really "take in" the world as it is appears at a low level explains a lot things, like why it's hard to draw realistically vs based on your expectations of what the object looks like, and many other illusions and also political misthinks - tons of confirmation bias sneaks in there.<br>

2017.12.08

<li>"The Paper Bag Princess" seems like it would be a bad story to read to folks living near the wildfires right now.

2017.12.10

Most phrases of affirmation sound hot during sex, saying "yep" during sex would be awkward, however.

2017.12.11

and if you see me first
 you say hello
<br>

and if i see you first
 i'll say hello

2017.12.12

(though not my first trip to this rodeo <a href="https://kirk.is/2011/10/20">2011/10/20</a>)

2017.12.13

I gave some money for Doug Jones in Alabama, but jeez, their data science team must have really dialed into "pleading whining desperation" for the their subject lines - "Kirk - please?" / "Are you online, Kirk?" / "Do not ignore [from Doug Jones]" / "We're PLEADING Kirk" and then my favorite, after I gave, from "FINAL CONFIRMATION": "Please confirm: Kirk Israel wants Roy Moore to lose?" (Oh, actually I remembered the text as "Please confirm: Kirk Israel wants Doug Jones to lose?" which would have been even more insufferable.)

2017.12.15

The Atlantic on how <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/what-happens-if-china-makes-first-contact/544131/">China is leading the way in listening out ofr extraterrestrial intelligence</a>. With the powers that be in the USA demonstrating spectacular disinterest in the scientific way of understanding the world, we're ceding so much to the rest of the world.<br>

Anyway, the piece ends with a musing on what evidence of alien intelligence would mean for humanity in a spiritual sense: <blockquote class="quote">Even if no geopolitical strife ensued, humans would certainly experience a radical cultural transformation, as every belief system on Earth grappled with the bare fact of first contact. Buddhists would get off easy: Their faith already assumes an infinite universe of untold antiquity, its every corner alive with the vibrating energies of living beings. The Hindu cosmos is similarly grand and teeming. The Koran references Allah's "creation of the heavens and the earth, and the living creatures that He has scattered through them." Jews believe that God's power has no limits, certainly none that would restrain his creative powers to this planet's cosmically small surface.<br>

Secular humanists won't be spared a sobering intellectual reckoning with first contact. Copernicus removed Earth from the center of the universe, and Darwin yanked humans down into the muck with the rest of the animal kingdom. But even within this framework, human beings have continued to regard ourselves as nature's pinnacle. We have continued treating "lower" creatures with great cruelty. We have marveled that existence itself was authored in such a way as to generate, from the simplest materials and axioms, beings like us. We have flattered ourselves that we are, in the words of Carl Sagan, "the universe's way of knowing itself." These are secular ways of saying we are made in the image of God.</blockquote>The author is painting all these belief systems with an awfully wide brush! But I disagree especially with the take on humanism. I think the modern humanist views humans not as a pinnacle and certainly not as a goal - we take pride in seeming to be the only thing *in this neighborhood* capable of constructing complex culture and a model of the universe, but it has been a long dream of the science fiction that has inspired so many of us - our secular inspiring fables - that the universe has rolled the dice better elsewhere. And maybe those more advanced ones can help us out! (The secular view isn't that we're created in the image of God, unless maybe you say that we're all a hodge podge of steadily selecting beneficial traits from a chaotic, unpredictable blend.... hmm, that might be sort of true, after all...)

2017.12.18

It reminds me this recent Sam Harris podcast with Tom Nichols, <a href="https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/defending-the-experts">Defending the Experts</a> - a super bright guy (a Never-Trumper despite being a Republican - and firmly in the 'Trump probably didn't want to win for reals' camp) who is just aghast at how "my common sense gut feel is better than your studied expertise" is running over the land. He made an interesting point about the kind of people who revel in Trump's success - apart from the white nationalist element, there are people who just feel left out by age of increasing technological change and expertise. I knew that, but pointing out that many of these people aren't even struggling financially, from communities stuck by heavy industry screw-over and the opioid epidemic - but they still feel chronically out of the loop - that part was a new angle for me, with some explanatory power.

2017.12.21

You can see the <a href="https://kirk.is/2009/06/02/">first rendition here</a>. Also I started making an archive of the <a href="https://kirk.is/photos/photobook/peeps/">fullsize version of these</a>.[[1513892072]]

2017.12.29

I got the book "Great Lego Sets" (DK always makes the best books like that, ya know?) for Christmas. At first I was miffed that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNmMRQM-vkY">Blacktron Message Intercept Base</a> was the representative of the "Blacktron" line (cira 1987) when it was the "Renegade" that really stuck with me.<br>

For my money, this is when Lego Design first start getting cool - this ship, with its asymmetrical design (probably inspired by the Millennium Falcon, come to think of it), swept-forward wings, and that distinctively Triforce-ish logo. (Not to mention the Pilots with their cool opaque helmet visors) Before this, I felt I could reliably make cooler designs than the original sets, years later I certainly couldn't, and this set represents the transition. (Also, this ship DID sort of make the cut in the book, on a special page about the whole history of the Lego Space series.) 2 years later they'd finally start making cooler windows (see <a href="https://brickset.com/sets/6781-1/SP-Striker">6781: SP-Striker</a> vs Renegade's clunky yellow cockpit) but I really think this was the turning point.

2017.12.31

I'd recommend the book "Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking"... and then when I hear some punk like Scott Adams say that because analogies are always imperfect they can never be persuasive, and that it's where "reason is embarrassed to show its face"... balderdash. Finding parallels in how different systems are interacting makes up one of the most critical tools in understanding the world, no matter that there will ALWAYS be some difference in intrinsic makeup. (Of course, saying there are only surfaces or only essences is a false dichotomy; some analogies run deep, that two systems are interacting in parallel ways because of parallel functioning in their guts. And some analogies are just shallow and rhetorical and are of less value.)

2018.01.03

<span class='star4'>Rory Scovel Tries Standup for the First Time</span>,

<span class='star3'>Quest for Fire</span>,

2018.01.04

Also, the option to do so might be coming from a place of privilege - but maybe not as much as it first appears. An existentially bleak universe and set-point theory of happiness, if valid, would be available to almost everyone regardless of privilege. <br>

2018.01.07

<blockquote class="quote">In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.

Francis S. Collins, who was big in the human genome project, cites this, saying it's Augustine sorting through the seeming self-contradiction when Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are taken together and more-or-less literally. (Did humans or plants arrive first?)

2018.01.18

Of course, I think modern Beats headphones aren't as over the top in bass as the first few years of 'em. <br>

2018.01.19

First, you need some water. Fuse two hydrogen with one oxygen and repeat until you have enough. While the water is heating, raise some cattle. Pay a man with grim eyes to do the slaughtering, preferably while you are away. Roast the bones, then add to the water. Go away again. Come back once in awhile to skim. When the bones begin to float, lash together into booms and tow up the coast. Reduce. Keep reducing. When you think you have reduced enough, reduce some more. Raise some barley. When the broth coats the back of a spoon and light cannot escape it, you are nearly there. Pause to mop your brow as you harvest the barley. Search in vain for a cloud in the sky. Soak the barley overnight (you will need more water here), then add to the broth. When, out of the blue, you remember the first person you truly loved, the soup is ready. Serve.

2018.01.20

From a typical western point of view, both views are absurd; a moment in the past is a nothing, just an idea that has fundamentally dissolved, the curtains of steadily moving time having firmly come down in front of it, in fact an ever-moving series of heavy curtains slamming down. And <i>of course</i> we favor the animate; anything animate is more our cousin than anything not - hell, if that weren't true would there be any there there from which to do the favoring?

2018.01.22

What I wanted was an image of Trump's first year that would stimulate the imagination without paralyzing the will. The writer Deanne Stillman put it best, I think, when she wrote on Twitter that Trump is luminol, the chemical that police spray on crime scenes to reveal traces of blood. Stillman was responding to a remark I had made about the astonishing profusion of secrets, tensions, lies, and dirty deals that have been exposed since Trump took office -- I was thinking of racial crimes, sex scandals, acts of espionage, political tricks, even the outlandish CIA plots, real and contemplated, that were disclosed in the JFK assassination files. It felt as though the country had been laid out on a slab for a giant inquest, an autopsy of the remains from a mass grave.<br>

Any other fellow computer nerds out there subconsciously bugged that a trombone slide held all the way in is "first position" and not "zeroeth position"?<br>

ANYWAY, the middle, "second" valve moves you down a half step, first valve a whole step, third valve -- 1 1/2 steps. Which seems pretty weird! I think it's meant to put the more-used whole step on the stronger pointer finger, maybe? And you can combine valves to lower more steps (you might have noticed the third valve is more-or-less the same as first plus second.) Some big horns like concert tubas will have a fourth valve, which will put you down 2 whole steps, and so is about the same as pressing 1 and 3, but lets you dig even lower beneath that.

from The Guardian's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/22/trump-great-job-muncie-indiana-year-election?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email">'Trump hasn't just done a good job, he's done a great job' – the view from Muncie, Indiana</a>:<blockquote class="quote">The first is that every Trump voter I speak to thinks he is doing a good job. Since only one of them voted for him in the primaries, they cannot be written off as core supporters. Among achievements cited are cutting taxes; deregulating; putting a conservative on the supreme court who will oppose abortion rights; defeating Isis; and presiding over jobs growth and a record high on the stock market. "I don't just think he's done a pretty good job," says Ted Baker, executive director of The Innovation Connector, which provides office space, advice and support for local entrepreneurs. "I think he's done a great job. It's not easy when you have the mainstream media in your country battling you all the time."</blockquote> I think us leftists need to look at this. Yeah, I understand these are people for whom white nationalism and privilege isn't a thing for, who will never be Pro-Choice, who haven't seen what will happen to health care, that everything positive Trump has done has almost been an accident or an inheritance from Obama's economy, and that once the Winter Olympic-driven North/South Korea we'll see what the hell happens there, but Next Draft was also right in pointing to McSweeney's parody article <a href="https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/ive-been-asking-trump-voters-every-couple-seconds-if-they-still-support-the-president?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email">I've Been Asking Trump Voters Every Couple Seconds If They Still Support The President</a>.<br>

2018.01.24

But maybe some of the problem is that "inner-child" is living a bit of a Helen-Keller world? Like possibly it doesn't have full access to the sensory input my narrator-self does - or maybe just lacks the linguistic framework to hang ideas off of, and so lives in a much less finessed world. (Reminds me a bit of Tommy the Pinball Wizard, that Deaf Dumb and Blind kid sure plays a mean pinball!) This kind of thing might be why affirmations seem so dumb and repetitive, that that's the kind of training and communication an inner-child needs because of those sensory gaps. <br>

2018.01.26

I think honesty is the most important ethical commitment that we can make, really. I think it's the first that you commit to that then closes the door to every type of horrific misbehavior that destroys relationships and reputations (or in another parallel universe, does destroy reputations, apparently it's not here)

2018.01.31

TIL: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ZLPZasEgo">Brett Favre's first NFL pass</a> was to himself.

2018.02.01

<li><a style="color:red;" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT7ikCE8Iw0">Smoke That Fire</a> (The New Birth Brass Band) Coming to embrace the pronounciation "fiyo" for "fire"

2018.02.02

On his blog and podcast, John Gruber is delighted by <a href="https://twitter.com/bella_bongiorno/status/957378201335971840">this Steve Jobs anecdote</a> by Bethany Bongiorno: <blockquote class="quote">At one point Steve wanted to turn UIKit elements orange. Not just any orange, he wanted a particular orange from the button on a certain old Sony remote. We got a bunch of remotes from Sony with orange buttons to try and find the right one. In the end, Steve hated it.</blockquote> Gruber <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/01/29/bongiorno-jobs">describes it</a> as one of the greatest concise Steve Jobs stories and how there's this philosophy of "Strong opinions loosely held."<br>

2018.02.11

16. Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.<br>

2018.02.20

Gunfire erupted from a window high above them, but it was only a bass player getting shot for playing the wrong riff three times in a row, and bass players are two a penny in Han Dold City.

2018.02.28

Who asked you to be a writer in the first place?

2018.03.13

I love that our President, this brilliant dealmaker, not only fires the Secretary of State via twitter, but the account he does it from isn't even simply his name, he had to get the version prefixed with "Real".

2018.03.14

not JUST 2 beers and a moscow mule talking- this is one of the best shows ever. between variations on fur elise and thoughtful gentle covers of round midnight and st james infirmary and wonderful world i'm fricking reliving my musical youth.

2018.03.17

For the first time in my life I noticed St Patrick's day is always a preview of the day of the week for my birthday. Huh. <br>

2018.03.20

What happens when an AI can only think in water or fire or flowers...<br>

2018.03.30

One of the weird things about having a long-running blog is not only can it confirm "I've had this thought before", sometimes it was FAR longer ago than I ever would have guessed - <a href="https://kirk.is/2013/11/13">2013.11.13 calvinism and personal growth</a> - 4 1/2 years ago I was noticing that my fixed mindset was intensely Calvinist (in the Protestant, not Funny Pages sense... i.e. you're either of the saved elect, or of the damned masses, and nothing in your own efforts can change that) as was my behavior. The faith in that you are one of the irredeemably saved, when undercut with the fear that you might not be, is not a freeing "so do what you want!" but an intensively restrictive and uptight "you best behave! Or people will have their doubts, no matter what God thinks". <br>

2018.04.09

"I read an article recently about Joyce Weisbecker who was probably the first female video game developer, and her dad was a pioneering computer scientist at RCA, and he had this interesting way of thinking about software: he compared it to a magic trick. And I kept thinking: why is it a magic trick? Why that metaphor? And I finally realized that it's because everything a computer does is an illusion, it's all just a bunch of ones and zeroes and switches, and layers and layers and layers of illusion on top of illusion. "<br>

2018.04.11

Listening to the <a href="http://www.watchoutforfireballs.com/189">Watch Out For Fireballs! podcast on it</a> helped my second try on Switch go better - especially one of the casters joking how sometimes when he got to a "test of strength" he'd be like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkJehlr1tEw">Grandpa Simpson walking into the 'burlesque house'</a>: take off his hat, see Bart at the desk, U-turn, put on his hat, exit, whistling all the while.<br>

2018.04.18

<a href="https://kottke.org/18/04/the-calmness-of-airplane-pilots">The Calmness of Airline Pilots</a> and, most recently, Tammi Jo Shultz, one of the first female Navy pilots. And also the demeanor of the flight controllers - makes me wanna watch "Pushing Tin" again.

2018.04.21

Was fear of burning in hell forever a big part of your childhood? My church wasn't particularly fire-and-brimstone but I remember being scared witless at some point as a 10- or 11-year-old. It really set me to be uptight in certain ways - even after I gave up the supernatural belief, I think subconsciously the "do right or face the most dire imaginable (actually, literally unimaginably awful) consequences." sunk in deep. And in some ways its kept my behaviour on some good straight and narrow paths but, man, what a cost!

Anyway. I had a dialog tonight that reminded me "fear of eternal hellfire" isn't a universal feature of childhood / tween years, so now I'm wondering how many of my online buds had

I want to reiterate that my church didn't hammer hell home, or at least not frequently, and I'm very sure I didn't get it from my folks. (Though on a visit to DC I had a Sunday School class taught by my Aunt that emphasized the Tribulation, complete with a Christian in front of a firing squad, that seized my imagination. A terrifying pile of bullshit for a child. Not sure if that kind of scare is morally better or worse than "pre-tribulation" thinking (that uses a dubious reading of scriptures and a more optimistic and selfish view of God's protection for his flock to presume good Christians have a "Get Out of Jail" free card and will be whisked off before the excrement hits the ventilation system.))

2018.04.29

We are the first generation to see the clouds from both sides. What a privilege! First people dreamed upward. Now they dream both upward and downward. This is bound to change something.

2018.05.01

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk">September</a> (Earth, Wind & Fire) Taylor Swift's cover reminded me that I didn't have the original...

2018.05.02

I got to thinking about this one problem I've heard Sam Harris describe, where our sympathy / compassion is a bit broken, that we are demonstrably more likely to respond a picture of a single suffering child then a picture of her and her brother, and even less to, say, their whole class of suffering kids. It's a bit of compassion fatigue, but I think it's more that we are more stirred to action to correct an outlier of injustice than take up arms against the way the world is. I think in some outlooks that stress Moderation as a virtue, and how things find their own path, this seeming contradiction is less paradoxical than it first seems.

2018.05.05

Been talking with EB, who thinks the hope for an overarching objective moral framework is misguided; everyone does their moral reasoning based on their subjective view, one impressed on them by their culture and then later firmed up by their experience and growth.

2018.05.08

CAESAR: Render unto Caesar, that which is Caesar's. Unless Caesar was lending it to you, in which case just render it back later. And if Caesar gave it to you, then it is yours, and not Caesar's, in which case there is no need to render it. Those things which were not Caesar's in the first place do not need to be rendered unto Caesar, but instead should be rendered unto those whose they are. Except in the sorts of conditions Caesar just described.

2018.05.18

"When I first talked to him, it was actually scary how much he knew about my daughter's appearance," he added. "Melinda didn't like that too well."

2018.05.22

Tuba players don't have so much use for chord, but by far my favorite piano chord (which honestly I tend to use as a high percussion sound, with the tonic below as a bass drum) is the first three notes of the blues scale, which is "Cm add(4)" according to <a href="https://www.scales-chords.com/chord-namer/?notes=C;Eb;F&key=C&bass=C">this scales-chords.com chord-namer page</a>

2018.05.28

Played with the Natick Legion Band in the Natick Memorial Day Ceremony - 150th anniversary of the first official Memorial Day. A centrist expression of appreciation for the folks of our armed services, and a left leaning wish we were keeping our volunteer force out of harms way more of the time.

2018.05.29

Did you eat a tire, that's on fire? Because that's what your breath smells like.

2018.05.31

<a href="/m/2018/05/31/designing-solo-james-clyne-falcon-firebird.jpg"><img src="/m/2018/05/31/designing-solo-james-clyne-falcon-firebird_560.jpg" border="0" width="260" ></a>

2018.06.05

<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/devos-safety-commission-won%E2%80%99t-look-at-role-of-guns-in-school-violence/ar-AAyg8uA">DeVos: Safety commission won't look at role of guns in school violence</a><blockquote class="quote">"Will your commission look at the role of firearms as it relates to gun violence in our schools?" Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) asked DeVos.<br>

2018.06.06

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzwicesJQ7E" style="color:red;">Creature Comfort</a> (Arcade Fire) - powerful song. Also think about the weird 8bit computer-ness of that one sond...

2018.06.16

This got the cartoonist fired. Share it.<br>

2018.06.28

It can't become hip to give up. It can't become hip to say we are fucked. Look at history. People have been so much more fucked than us, and won. If you truly believe we are finished, I'm sorry, but you were the first to fall. Stick a fork in you, turn you over, you're done. I don't want to see you do that, if only for the selfish reason that we need you.<br>

2018.06.30

I think the trick for me might be zoom way out to do the first rough outline - my natural doodle format runs small - and then do it over zoomed in.

2018.07.01

Read a thing on Tumblr the other day about how 'punishable with a fine' means 'legal for rich people' and it's lodged in my head firmly.

2018.07.02

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd-hYDqwbPM">Hit the Ground Running</a> (Desi Valentine) I knew I was going to love this from the snippet I first heard in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAzTQ0Y0OoM">Coors Ad</a>.

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5-rdr0qhWk">Just What I Needed</a> (The Cars) School of Honk is doing this song. Funny how much it leans on the first 4 notes of Pachabel Canon.

2018.07.05

"The first rule of child psychology is that it applies throughout all of life."

2018.07.09

Via work Slack, <a href="https://larahogan.me/blog/first-one-on-one-questions/">Lara Hogan on First One on One Questions</a>

2018.07.12

At work, we've started a UI reading group and our first book is Edward R. Tufte's (pronounced so it fits the rhyme of Humpty Dance") <a href="https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_ei">Envisioning Information</a>.<br />

2018.07.13

The Wii is now as old as the Nintendo 64 was when the Wii was first released

2018.07.17

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

Isapo-Muxika (Chief Crowfoot of the Siksika First Nation)

2018.07.20

Marshmallows aren't this good [referring to chaos around marshmallows and the fire pit] I wouldn't walk five feet for a marshmallow.

2018.07.30

According to Mario Pei, more than half of all words adopted into English from Latin now have meanings quite different from the original ones. A word that shows just how wide-ranging these changes can be is "nice", which is first recorded in 1290 with the meaning of stupid and foolish. Seventy-five years later Chaucer was using it to mean lascivious and wanton. Then at various times over the next 400 years it came to mean extravagant, elegant, strange, slothful, unmanly, luxurious, modest, slight, precise, thin, shy, discriminating, dainty, and – by 1769 – pleasant and agreeable. The meaning shifted so frequently and radically that it is now often impossible to tell in what sense it was intended, as when Jane Austen wrote to a friend, 'You scold me so much in a nice long letter ... which I have received from you.'

2018.07.31

A kid who actually was <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/7/26/17616380/fred-rogers-documentary-2018-mister-rogers-neighborhood">Mr. Roger's Neighbor</a>

2018.08.11

"the accomplished Indian percussionist B.C. Manjunath. He's a master of konnakol -- the Carnatic, or South Indian, art of speaking percussive syllables in rapid-fire, intricate patterns to convey a larger thalam, or rhythmic cycle."

2018.08.12

Gen Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., USAF, the first African American to reach the rank of four-star General.

2018.09.10

That way "downhome" black folks had of speaking to one another, looking one another directly in the eye (many of us had old folks tell us, don’t look down, look at me when I’m talking to you) was not some quaint country gesture. It was a practice of resistance undoing years of racist teachings that had denied us the power of recognition, the power of the gaze. These looks were affirmations of our being, a balm to wounded spirits.

2018.09.22

Played with the Tufts Pep Band (Football team took a lead in the first half and manage to hang on, hooray our side!) - biggest difference from the 90s? Besides, you know, Tufts apparently admitting babies, and everyone having a smartphone - apparently, at some point folks started sometimes calling the team "The 'Bos" (short of course for Jumbos.)

2018.09.24

<br>--Before the "moonlight kayaking" (and a nice campfire on a remote beach with smores) with some of Melissa​ prev coworker friends via Essex River Basin Adventures​, there was an astonishing sunset...

2018.09.27

Ace means the first time that Ah met you, Deuce means there was nobody there but us two, Trey means the third party, Charlie was his name, Four spot means the fourth time you tried dat same ole game, Five spot is five years you played me for a clown, Six spot, six feet of earth when de deal goes down, Now, Ahm holdin’ de seben spot for each day in de week, Eight spot, eight hours you sheba-ed wid yo’ sheik, Nine spot means nine hours Ah work hard every day, Ten spot de tenth of every month Ah brought you home mah pay, De Jack is Three Card Charlie who played me for a goat, De Queen, dat’s you, pretty mama, also tryin’ tuh cut mah throat, De King, dat hot papa Nunkie, and he’s gointer wear de crown, So be keerful y’all ain’t broke when de deal goes down.

2018.09.30

Now, the key word for both of you, the word that unlocks you both, is the word future. I can even sort of see why. Both of you are the kind that wants to change things, to Make a Better World. You figure like this: the past is gone, unchangeable. The present is here right now and it's too late. So the only part you can change is the future. You're both heavy into politics, am I right? Right? So one day, it dawned on you that the best way to change the future is to colonize it. With little Xeroxes of yourselves. Of course one of the first concerns of a colonizing country is to properly condition the colonists. To ensure their loyalty. Because a colonist is supposed to give you the things you want to have in exchange for the things you want him to have, and for this golden opportunity he is supposed to be properly grateful. It wouldn't do for him to get any treasonous ideas about his own destiny, his own goals.

2018.10.03

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkUtweS4aMc">Gotta Boogie</a> ("Weird Al" Yankovic) From his first album, so a tape that I listened to again and again as a kid.

2018.10.04

And here's the latest (first one where I didn't technically commission the art, though I <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/metasynthie/consentacle-a-card-game-of-human-alien-intimacy">helped fund the Kickstarter</a>...

2018.10.10

Of course as a 14 year old I didn't really get the level of honor that represented, how that kind of affirmation from such an institution meant to so much that it was worth making a gift, even a gift that was rarely going to be "on view"...<br>

Last year was the first time I remembered that public institutions now post their collections online, so I could see what the <a href="https://www.clevelandart.org/art/collection/search?credit=Gift+of+Mr.+and+Mrs.+James+Israel+">prints in question were</a>:<br>

The first was "The Kerosene Lamp" by Wanda Gág (1929) <br>

2018.10.11

<a href="/m/2018/10/09/002.a.First Christmas in Cleveland, house on Torbenson Drive, 1974.jpg"><img src="/m/2018/10/09/002_560.a.First Christmas in Cleveland, house on Torbenson Drive, 1974.jpg" border="0" width="560" height="556"></a><br>

First Christmas in Cleveland, house on Torbenson Drive, 1974<br>

<a href="/m/2018/10/09/002.b.First Christmas in Cleveland, house on Torbenson Drive, 1974.jpg"><img src="/m/2018/10/09/002_560.b.First Christmas in Cleveland, house on Torbenson Drive, 1974.jpg" border="0" width="560" height="783"></a><br>

First Christmas in Cleveland, house on Torbenson Drive, 1974<br>

2018.10.12

<a href="/m/2018/10/09/023.c.first sousaphone marching in glens falls.jpg"><img src="/m/2018/10/09/023_560.c.first sousaphone marching in glens falls.jpg" border="0" width="560" height="373"></a><br>

first sousaphone marching in glens falls<br>

2018.10.18

If you make things long enough, you will fail. That's important enough that I'm going to say it again, with emphasis. <i>If you make things long enough, you will fail</i>. The same thing that put you in the elevated place of being a creative artist in the first place will curdle or invert or fall on its face or on your face and you will be a person who made something that they should not have made. [...] David Bowie said something I really liked. I don't know if he said it often, but it's the kind of thing that you should get tattooed on your leg. He said that creativity is "one of the few human endeavors where you can crash your airplane and walk away from it."

2018.10.19

<a href="/m/2018/10/10/144.b.dan and cindy at center of first lemming event.jpg"><img src="/m/2018/10/10/144_560.b.dan and cindy at center of first lemming event.jpg" border="0" width="560" height="381"></a><br> dan and cindy at center of first lemming event<br>

2018.10.27

Attention: Fresca's Black Cherry Citrus is a lot like OK Soda was, back in the 90s. (I noticed that, and then was incredibly validated by the Google first hit preview saying "OK Soda had a more "citric" taste than traditional colas, almost like a fruit punch version of Coke's Fresca. ") <br>

2018.10.28

On FB, I asked folks "how do you feel about your name? Do you know what your folks were thinking when they gave the first part of it to you? What about your family name?"

I dig my name, first name especially - "Kirk". My dad (James/Jim) liked the idea of a name that couldn't really be shorted, though I'm not sure how much he disliked "Jim". My name is dripping with religion, Kirk is "Church", Logan is after a theologian, Israel is like the country. Which tends to lead to erasure of my evangelical preacher's kid upbringing w/ people assuming I'm Jewish, but hey, I'm not THAT not-Jewish. (Also most Americans will spell Israel "Isreal" like they hear it pronounced.)

Once, undergoing adolescent angst, I used yet another move (Upstate NY to Cleveland) to go by "Logan" as first name for a while...odd situation when I switched back when I changed

school districts but kept attending the same church. A letter was being read about my enrollment (akin to confirmation) that called me Kirk, but he knew me as Logan, and then-Captain-Schenk said "aww just call him Butch" and with a little work on my part it sort of stuck. My full church nickname was "Kirk Logan Brother Butch Israel Brother".

2018.10.31

Daring Fireball just <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/10/29/50-years-of-basic">posted a link</a> to a 2014 article, TIME Magazine's <a href="http://time.com/69316/basic/">Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language That Made Computers Personal</a>. As Gruber puts it<span id="goog_1898647548"></span><br />

The article briefly touches on BASIC's detractors. But as my friend Jeremy Penner (founder of everyone-can-and-should-make-games celebration site <a href="https://glorioustrainwrecks.com/">Glorious Trainwrecks</a> ) mentioned to me, line numbers, while limiting in many ways, are a super intuitive way to get a kid making that first step of "computer programs tend to go step by tedious step". I think Dijkstra infamous complaint "It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC" is way out of line; understanding simple step by step flow does not preclude later learning of modularity and other more sophisticated topics.<br />

2018.11.11

I worry the USA has learned some bad lessons over the past century, forgetting some stuff from the Civil War - that war is something that happens elsewhere, that you don't really have to worry about declaring war per se, and as long as there's no draft you can keep up military occupation as long as you want. (I'm a little extra-jaded right now reading "Cherry" by Nico Walker - at first I wasn't too impressed by the heroin-using bankrobber Holden Caulfield protagonist and was just playing "spot the East Cleveland reference", but its horrifying story of the grunts in Iraq in the early 2000s- both what they did and what was done to them- has switched my view.)<br>

2018.11.13

Enjoying doing techie things while re-watching "The Office". I had forgotten in "Casino Night" (first time Jim kinda confesses feelings to Pam) she's wearing one of those green/purple shimmer dresses I so dug on a friend in high school (actually the gal I ended up going to prom with)<br>

2018.11.16

I continue to look for the best app to do that with, experimenting with various paint programs (over the year I've spent so much money on devices with touch sensitive screens, each time thinking "maybe THIS will be the one that lets my doodle skills blossom") Apple iPad's "Notes" program probably can't be it (if only because it doesn't deal with layers) but it really has some interesting UI decisions: coloring with the marker is more or less two-toned, paint once then start painting on the same spot to get a darker shade. And the eraser tool is kind of wild: it's like using the "Undo" button (that might erase a set of lines squiggles you made without lifting the stylus all at once) but instead of removing the last thing you did, it removes what ever you poke with the eraser tool. It's disconcerting at first, but kind of encourages a "well if you mess up you can do that whole thing over" approach.<br>

2018.12.01

<a href="https://twitter.com/jendziura/status/1068164241998446594">jendziura twitter thread making the rounds</a>, thoughtful stuff on the "first principles" thinking of conservatives and libertarians vs "what are the outcomes" thinking of liberals. It's still pretty compatible with the "moral foundations" theory of Jonathan Haidt - liberals are very concerned about harm and unfairness, conservatives mix those concerns with other concepts of proper authority and what not. And also with the idea that authoritarian-leanig folks are more concerned about not letting "cheaters" and outsiders benefit unfairly without pulling their weight.

"That was my shot. It's a funny language, German. For one thing, everybody shouts it. All those very long words: the literalism, the tinkertoy accumulation. It sounds pushy, beginning every sentence with a verb like that. And take the first person singular: <i>ich</i>. "<i>Ich</i>." Not a masterpiece of reassurance, is it? <i>I</i> sounds nobly erect. <i>Je</i> has a certain strength and intimacy. <i>Eo</i>'s okay. <i>Yo</i> I can really relate to. Yo! But <i>ich</i>? It's like the sound a child makes when it confronts its own ... Perhaps that's part of the point. No doubt all will come clear as soon as my German gets better."

(And with possible apologies to my German friends!) Fascinating book, thanks for the recommendation Dave Adams. The concept (and this is only a spoiler for the first few pages) is of a homunculus riding along in a doctor's head, except the homunculus experiences everything in reverse - so starting with death and moving onto being merely infirm, gradually regaining mobility then vitality, and so on. Much of the book is reframing the ordinary and seeing what still kind of works in reverse (much small talk, for instance) and what become an abomination (to quote Wikipedia, "Blows heal injuries, doctors cause them. Theft becomes donation, and vice versa. In a passage about prostitutes, doctors harm them while pimps give them money and heal them. ") Besides the pleasure of that, it's intriguing to compare the narrator (feeling the doctor's feelings but not privy to his thoughts, or able to exert any control) to our own subconscious minds.

2018.12.05

We were like two ships passing in the night, yelling obscenities and setting fires in a desperate attempt to sink each other.

2018.12.09

My recent devblog post on <a href="https://kirkdev.blogspot.com/2018/12/repeatable-random-colors-in-javascript.html">repeatable random colors in javascript</a> is slightly more clever than sometimes plus I get to quite John von Neumann: "Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin." (At my first programming job Paul Morville made a small sign of that, since he thought my protests along the lines of "this code can't POSSIBLY be doing that" had a whiff of that "from structure, chaos"...)

2018.12.15

The other game I recently finished is at the other end of the complexity spectrum - "Just Cause 4" definitely feels rushed, has very repetitive missions, super-fiddly systems of territory take over and weapon configuration, and is mostly inferior to 3, but I had a good time with it. No other series I know equals the beautiful sense of motion granted by the protagonists combination of grappling hook, parachute, and "Squirrel Suit" gliding (skimming near the ground, shooting the grapple forward and then yanking back to get a bit more speed is straight out of a flying dream - assuming you don't comically misjudge and pull yourself headfirst into the ground or a tree or something.) Combine that with a ton of fun to steer and shoot vehicles, lots of props that explode in absurdly gratifying ways, and a new mechanic letting you strap a lifting balloon and/or a rocket booster to ANYTHING (or anybody) with often hilarious results, and it's a solid holiday game. (It also has one of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyT6Mwz9sps">greatest easter eggs ever for any a-ha fan</a>)

It was interesting comparing Just Cause 4's Rico's abilities with the web-slinging in Spider-Man. The latter is set in a much more realized urban world, but you don't really control where you're firing your webs, just kind of steering around it. Plus I never used enough to get really comfortable with the combat...

2018.12.16

A few months back, my fiancé decided to unearth his first ever email account. He was surprised and crushed to learn that Hotmail had deleted it over a decade ago. It got me thinking about my physical relics, which live in a plastic bin that he and I have hauled through half a dozen moves: a CD bearing saved photos, though neither of our computers contains a disc drive; a beloved mug that now leaks through a crack; a champagne cork from the day we got engaged. Pack rat though I am, I've been appraising my life all along. When we left Washington, D.C., for Boston a year ago, I threw out a decade's worth of birthday cards and the notes from a recent writing workshop I remember as useless--but kept the fervent birthday letters my mother always writes, and the college syllabi of philosophy books that I keep telling myself I'll revisit someday. I've been wondering which of my digital records are worth carrying like that overfull box--not as heavy, but no less consciously accounted for. I'll never reassemble every scrap of myself I've scattered across Facebook, but I've started downloading my favorite photos and saving them to the cloud. I don't expect to make the historical record, but if the archivists ever came knocking, I'd want to have saved my own annals, and decided for myself what to throw away.

2018.12.27

I honestly haven't used Windows much since 2013. Do geeks looking to ssh still just fire up PuTTY or what?<br>

2019.01.02

<span class='star3'>Captain America: The First Avenger</span>,

<span class='star3'>Fire Sermon</span>

2019.01.05

<a href="/m/2019/01/05/firework window.png"><img src="/m/2019/01/05/firework window_560.png" border="0" width="560" height="315"></a>

<br>Somerville tends to run its Trum Fields fireworks a week early, and you can see them from our windows.

2019.01.06

<br>Melissa got me, for the first time in my life, to get up early to go catch the over-ocean sunrise in Ocean Grove

2019.01.07

<footer>Jamie Quatro, "Fire Sermon"</footer></blockquote>

2019.01.27

<a href="http://www.adultswim.com/etcetera/choir/?fbclid=IwAR0u5pHQx59S8Q9v0efr7QAQsZuV6xS9X6MHbT0z6SQI0NlPoklsk1T6Uss">Awesome Interactive Choir Toy</a> (worked better for me in firefox than chrome) - great use of semi-photo-realistic real time art and sound processing.

2019.02.01

That piece is one of the first I've seen that tries to get into what the Backstop actually consisted of - i.e. keeping Northern Ireland more inline with EU regulation so that the land border didn't have to be as locked down.

2019.02.04

Anyway, for me the most memorable ad was the Bud Light / Game of Thrones crossover - for people annoyed by the "beer for normal folks not the effete elite" of the original series, seeing it get wiped out by cleansing dragon fire was terrific - and the thing was so unapologetically violent and Thrones-y -- kind a surreal and nightmarish, but not in a bad way:<br>

2019.02.10

Every couple years I think about <a href="http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone">this NSFW rant praising the Nokia E70 over the first iPhone</a>... NSFW and if you're of a delicate sensibility don't try reading the next GIF too closely either.

2019.02.20

<blockquote class='quote'>I don't buy the "Everyone is doing their best" theory. I know firsthand that I'm not.

2019.02.28

Anyway, once I figured out how to launch the damn DLC - the Air / Land / Sea missions, the missions I didn't play on my first run through 3 years ago, things got even better. The mechs of the land pack, with their quick movement and wacky gravity guns, were fun enough, and the giant lightning gun and missile-packing rocket-powered boat of the sea pack made some of the grind of clearing bases fun, but man - that rocket pack the air-based dlc adds to the squirrel-suit - not unlimited, just boosts from nearly anywhere - and then the missions where you are attacking a flying air fortress... just imagine being Tony Stark attacking the Helicarrier as a one Iron Man army. Except in one of the earlier suits, where he's still a bit klutzy and sometimes doesn't give himself clearance and so comically bashes his head into an overhang... super fun.

2019.03.03

And with some of those categories... if I'm forthright (and I strive to be nothing if not unflinching and truthful about myself) there's an ego aspect with it, or at least a need for validation. Sometimes I don't want to be around that admirable quality merely for its own sake, or as an inspiration for my self-improvement, but so that the world can see me near it - and for my own insecurity - I am affirmed that I'm worthy of wooing the bearer of a quality so fine, in the eyes of the world, and of myself.

2019.03.05

I think English is sometimes unfairly maligned in a self-deprecating way by cosmopolitan speakers of it, anxious to avoid linguistic chauvinism. And it's true - the languages wide-ranging roots mean it's not the best for rhyming poetry, and those same roots lead to one of the biggest wordsets with lots of exceptions and inconsistent spelling rules - making full mastery as a second language (or even a first) difficult.

But I've been told is that, at least when coming from certain other first languages, it's pretty easy to pick up the basics, to understand and make yourself understood. And that big vocabulary means words can carry a lot of economical nuance, so that more experienced speakers can express themselves with great fidelity.

2019.03.07

Franklin Lloyd Wright liked the term "Usonia" for the United States (of North America). I wish it had caught on (even with the gratuitous "i" to make it more euphonious) - it answers two problems: "United States" or "USA" is more of a description than a name, and it stops us from grabbing the name of two continents ("America!") to make up for the first problem. <br>

2019.03.11

This also reminds me of Star Treks "Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics": "Nothing Unreal Exists".

2019.03.18

<blockquote class='quote'>It's cool that there's no confirmed head of the FAA because Trump wanted to give the job to his personal pilot and senators told him no so then he just lost interest in the subject.

2019.03.24

<blockquote class='quote'>Here's an ugly truth: some of the country doesn't believe that America belongs to people who aren't in <i>their</i> tribe. That tribe is white, straight (at least openly), and Christian. It's gotten bigger over the years -- it didn't used to include the Irish, or Italians, or Catholics, or women -- but every inch of expansion has been fought, bitterly and grudgingly. Other tribes can live in America, maybe, but theirs comes first, and everyone else is here at their forbearance.

2019.03.26

Still using "2Do" for iOS, but things were getting clogged up and stressful. The app was one of the first I'd seen with sterling support for category sublists where you could still see all tasks on a single big scrollable panel (without clicking), but with clear UI for good (but optional) date-specific and repeating reminder support.<br>

Prior to this, I had the first category of "Importantish" and then a series of sorted categories, ("Porchfest", "Home", "Work", "Waiting", "Online", "Band", "Store", "Someday", with "Someday" being the "Someday, Maybe" lower-priority GTD recommends)<br>

2019.03.28

Man. And keeping in mind the doubling of time in the movie (and that old joke about the guy who asked for payment of a grains of rice on a chess board - 1 on the first, 2 on the second, then 4, then 8.... until finally he's asking for more rice than the planet has) I mean all the potential future disasters for the earth - hopefully not for many generations, but still, asteroid strikes and supervolcanoes are gonna be the menu sometime, not to mention how many pleasant ways of life we're gonna be washing away with our love of burning carbon - but all that future-for-me happens in something that by halfway through the movie is less than the tiniest bit of an instant I could possibly imagine.

2019.03.31

(... that time is the fire in which we burn.)<br>

(... that time is the fire in which they burn.)<br>

The great globe reels in the solar fire, <br>

Time is the fire in which we burn.

...I was looking for the reference for "time is the fire in which we burn" from that Star Trek movie.

2019.04.03

(As to why I'm such a "rational" outlier - I think somehow in my youth I absorbed too much of the judge-y aspects of religion - that at the end of it all, I was going to be called into account for what I did in life, and so I trained to make my inner self and desires subservient to and explainable by the external / objective rationality that would hold sway in that final Divine Court, and thus avoid an eternity of hellfire torment.)

2019.04.07

Later came the movies. In "Wrath of Khan", Kirk and Spock return to the phrase "the good of the many outweigh the good of the few, or the one." (Though <a href="https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Trek-II-The-Wrath-of-Khan.html">looking at the script</a> I see the first time through it's "the needs". probably close enough to synonyms, but interesting.) Depending on how you draw the venn diagram of many/few/one, the result can be monstrous - <br>

(Incidentally, I recently refreshed my memory of every episode in ST:TOS with the podcast <a href="http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/startrek8/">Gimme That Star Trek's TOS Full Series Review</a> - recommended)

2019.04.09

One of the first 3 CDs I bought was Maynerd Ferguson's Chameleon - I think Jeff Shaffer introduced me to this astoundingly brash and funky cover of Herbie Hancock's classic in the late 80s or early 90s:<br>

2019.04.11

The other day they posted some of the first photos of the area around a black hole:<br>

My first thought was, maybe the Mother Brain in Metroid was using mini-black-hole technology for defense...<br>

2019.04.16

the roof has fallen in. the scars of fires are on its buttresses. the rose window has fallen out. the beams and piers have collapsed. the spire has toppled. the stones have suffered, and will suffer again, but it is not gone.<br>

2019.04.20

<blockquote class='quote'>He should resign because he has resolutely failed--and continues to fail--the most fundamental test of any president: to put his nation's interests first.<br>

2019.04.28

what makes it funnier is that that must be from the first iteration of the front page map- and today's project is making the front page map but starting with the code base of the admin tool that lets you review and renumber the porches (since it's been updated for this year's improvements in data handling) So this HTML comment has made this roundtrip from front page to admin tool to front page

2019.04.30

<blockquote class='quote'>The belief that a loved one has been replaced by an imposter is called Capgras delusion. It was first identified in 1923, when a psychiatric patient claimed her husband and children were "the object of substitutions." <br>

2019.05.02

<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTJGkwMf08k">Kinko the Clown</a> (Ogden Edsl) Ooh boy. This is definitely on the bubble of being removed - it's a novelty song about a "kid loving clown". Oh, the 80s. I only new it because someone wrote the first few lines on a chalkboard at school. For some reason I thought a better lines 3 and 4 would be "Kinko is as Kinko Does, None to Rearrange".

2019.05.03

Just watched Hitchcock's Vertigo - maybe the <a href="https://www.diyphotography.net/alfred-hitchcocks-vertigo-possibly-first-movie-use-computer-animation/">first film to use computer graphics</a>, albeit in a mechanical kind of way!<br>

2019.05.05

Cora and Chas after their (first) School of Honk Dance Party:<br>

2019.05.09

"First, words. We want words that are about Venus, words that'll tickle

that it isn't quite virile to trade with any other firm. Your self-esteem will

2019.05.12

It's weird when little bits of your childhood come together- I was first amused by the concept of "Go-Faster Stripes" as a collectable motorcycle accessory in "Action Biker", a Mastertronic computer game from the UK. Also, as a kid I had a book of "Old Boot's Private Papers", UK comic strips about a sheepdog and the kids he runs around with. Anyway, today I found out that book was from a comic called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perishers">The Perishers</a>, and that book either invented or popularized "Go-Faster Stripes" as a term.

2019.05.15

Sorry if this is too much of a "both sideser" style argument. To be clear I am firmly pro-choice. But when people do attempt to examine the assumptions behind their firm beliefs, I think that's the only way progress can be made.<br>

2019.05.17

a chain that passes from you through your clothes to the furniture to the floor to the yard to... everything. The shoulder of your first love. Your elementary school. The grave of your great great grandparents. Whatever existed in whatever form it still exists.

2019.05.18

On my devblog, retracing some steps of archivists <a href="https://kirkdev.blogspot.com/2019/05/spacewar-exclamation-point-and-all.html">digging into the history of Spacewar!</a> , the first programmed video game. I think I've finally answered a long-stand question I had about collision detection in that game.

2019.05.20

<blockquote class='quote'>Well, in a sense, Hairy One, fire is everywhere. Rather than being an object, say, like your sharp stick, it's really a process, so it can't really be said to exist anywhere. In a sense, fire exists in its own imaginary, virtual space, where we can only talk about what is not fire and what might become fire.

<footer>John Hodgman, "<a href="https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/fire-the-next-sharp-stick">Fire: The Next Sharp Stick?</a>" </footer></blockquote>

2019.05.28

More troublingly for the truth of the metaphor: the stakes of ethics feel so high, which might be a result of the fear of fire and brimstone I took on as a youth. It's as if the GPS wasn't saying "take the wrong route and risk being ten minutes late", but "the wrong route might have dragons or pits or explosions and you will probably die!" <br>

2019.05.31

<li>We want our men to understand that sometimes we have Bad Hair Days, Bad Bum Days, and we need an extra ego booster - <span style="font-style: italic;">extra </span>bcs we want our men to think us beautiful and sexy anyway, and to fancy us like bloody hell, and to <span style="font-style: italic;">show </span>us that they fancy us like the bloody hell.<br /></li><li>We want our men to understand that sometimes we want them to devour us, we want to merge with them, become one amidst a charm of hummingbirds, but partnership doesn't mean parasitism. We are fiercely independent too, and it is healthy that we meet our mates alone sometimes, that we actually want to, healthy to not always be joined at the hip.</li><li>We want our men to not be intimidated by our strong personalities, intelligence or need for a life beyond them, this isn't a geisha drive-thru; in fact, we want men who'll thrive on it.</li><li>We want our men to say 'No', and stand up to us. <span style="font-style: italic;">Please</span> stand up to us, we need our men to be men we can respect.<br /></li><li>We want our men to be intelligent and cultured, we want to be able to chat with them for hours abt big things and small things, to <span style="font-style: italic;">always</span> want to chat with them; our men may sometimes be aggravating but they're never dull.</li><li>We want our men to not be put off by our tears, bcs we sometimes cry and it won't always make sense, they can't always fix it - and it IS alright, we just need them to hold us and pull us onto their laps and cuddle for a bit.</li><li>We want men who are manly, bcs if someone's going to be girly in a relationship it'd better be the girl. We respect men who can cry, men who can show pain and sadness, men who can be vulnerable without pulling away - and we want those men as well - but little whiners make us shudder.</li><li>The Porties among us want our men to not ever - EVER - read Paulo Coelho/be too esoteric bcs we, as a whole, have found out that <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> equals absolutely, staggeringly, unbelievably mindfucked.</li><li>The Porties among us want our men to keep their bleeding mouths shut regarding past relationships/sexual encounters for the most part. It is not included in our cultural mating rituals, it is no one's business, and we firmly believe there should be only two in bed, not dozens. </li><li>We want our men to be able to discuss everything with us, including their exes , we want them to be able to vent if they're still ruminating, if it was traumatic, if they're still finding their footing again - but no <span style="font-style: italic;">ad nauseam</span> obsessing though.</li><li>We want our men to make us laugh and giggle, we want to be able to be silly together.<br /></li>

2019.06.05

<blockquote class="quote">One other line from "Fear of Flying" has stuck in my head, and that's Adrian saying "Courage is the first principle" as he cajoles Isadora into running away with him. [...] I think he might be citing Aristotle, actually, the quote sometimes given as "Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others."</blockquote>

(I acknowledge there's the "first world" vibe to this problem, privilege involved in having a place in the world that seems fundamentally comfortable and stable - but I also know every person tends to have a hedonistic setpoint, that people from a really wide variety of circumstances end up able to adapt and end up with a similar level of subjective contentment whatever their external circumstance.)

2019.06.09

The story talks about how the algorithms at first focused on proximate content (i.e. videos with similar outlooks) but when they introduced the goals of getting people to stay on longer, started selecting towards pushing people to more engrossing stuff - and folks on the alt right figured out how to leverage this pattern.<br>

2019.06.18

Been thinking a bit about Revelation. Saturday I was discussing my takeaway from Elaine Pagels' book about it, which is the irony that even though it is so revered by so many (Gentile, not particularly semitic) Christians today, it spends its first part

An early 1980s Sunday School class about the subject, including an illustration of a Christian in front of a firing squad along with other terrors to come, left me with an indelible association of Christianity with future horrors, especially if you don't act right (all the Jesus acceptance and born-again-ness) and even if you do. Which then fed into a disdain I still carry for "pre-tribs", folks who think the Christians get swept away to their eternal happiness before all the shit goes down, because God must love us too much to let that happen to US, right? (I have bitterness when pop-religion seems to sugarcoat the source material - the way a "Grampas looking down from us in Heaven right now, Timmy" view seems more grounded in consoling hopefulness than the actual scriptures - my church's 11th and final doctrine was "We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked." I realized that that view of a bodily resurrection and a judgement at the END of the things is more caught in "Man of Constant Sorrow"'s final verse ("as I lay sleeping in my grave") than most of the songs I had been singing in Sunday School... and so I'm both envious of and sometimes a little disdainful of folks who have a softer, gentler form of Christianity, even as I realize I can't be sure their view is less reliable than mine harsh one - it's certainly more pragmatic and psychologically sound, whether or not it feels like wishful thinking to me.)<br>

Man, this ramble got longer than I expected when I found an old blog note on "Preterism". I'll leave you with a reference to <a href="https://www.electricsheepcomix.com/apocamon/">APOCAMON</a> - the first few pages are rough, implying sexual abuse of John of Patmos by Roman soldiers, but then gets into a fascinatingly literal illustration of the warring angelic and demonic forces of the final battle.<br>

2019.06.23

<blockquote class='quote'>The philosopher Stephen Toulmin identified the transparency-versus-opacity contrast as the key to understanding the ancient rivalry between Greek and Babylonian sciences. According to Toulmin, the Babylonian astronomers were masters of black-box predictions, far surpassing their Greek rivals in accuracy and consistency of celestial observations. Yet science favored the creative-speculative strategy of the Greek astronomers, which was wild with metaphorical imagery: circular tubes full of fire, small holes through which celestial fire was visible as stars, and hemispherical Earth riding on turtleback. It was this wild modeling strategy, not Babylonian extrapolation, that jolted Eratosthenes (276–194 BC) to perform one of the most creative experiments in the ancient world and calculate the circumference of the Earth. Such an experiment would never have occurred to a Babylonian data fitter.

2019.06.24

But - if the unconscious me is almost a separate entity, and I treat it as such, I worry about the effects of it coming to resent the conscious me! It's tough to confirm the trust and loyalty of my inner-pup, it lacks the tail-wagging body language of real dogs....<br>

2019.06.27

Fuck Gerrymandering. There is nothing that challenges our democratic principle of one person : one vote, nothing that amplifies the extra-Constitutional bullshit of political parties in the first place, then this horrific numbers game bullshit. The conservative 5-4 majority in the Supreme Court is neglecting any principle of defending justice and fairness in washing its hands of it. (And computer number-crunching can make it worse). <br>

<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2019/06/jony_ive_leaves_apple">Wow, Jony Ive is out at Apple</a> I agree with Gruber that, that while Ive has a singular vision, to the extent that he was responsible for thinner at all costs including this keyboard mess, it's good to move past that. The other thing is how I never would have guessed that the "we will still partner together" spin is such empty horseshit, if Gruber's analysis is right.

nice seeing fireworks from your third floor window!<br>

2019.07.01

I read through <a href="https://medium.com/@krisgage/8-things-i-learned-reading-50-books-a-year-for-7-years-cb11c4acffb1">Kris Gage's 8 Things I Learned Reading 50 Books A Year For 7 Years</a> (Tangent: this article was a recommendation from Firefox's Pocket, the first "let us be your homepage, we'll show you interesting stuff" portal widget I've seen that actually seems good.) The author quotes this lovely passage:

2019.07.02

Pretty good month for new music! Felt really packed. A lot of hiphop. List below is newest first, 4 star stuff in red.

2019.07.03

Also I love seeing fireflies here. Hope they find an ecological niche in whatever our world turns into.

2019.07.04

Beachfront fireworks like Asbury Park's are the best. One guy yelled "Take that, England!" at an opportune moment, surprised I haven't heard that line before, it was pretty good!<br>

<img src="/m/2019/07/04/fireworks_loop.gif" width="500" height="282" border="0">

2019.07.05

<blockquote class='quote'>Not for the first time Marianne thinks cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently. You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied; but by bullying someone else you learn something you can never forget.

2019.07.08

you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time; <br>

2019.07.10

I mean- I sort of get it. "It's gonna be ok" has that mix of authoritative confidence and reassurance about external things, kind of parental - and maybe that faux-parent is seeing things that the scared inner child can't. And most people aren't as entangled in an obligation of seeking unconfirmable ultimate objective reality as I am. "It's gonna be ok" is fighting fears that aren't in the realm of the rational, so for many folks it's ok to fight emotion with emotion.<br>

2019.07.12

Finally watched "Captain Marvel". Dig that they didn't soften her edges to make her "likable" or whatever. Also, noticed the arcade game in the orbiting hideaway was Centipede, one of the few games of that era with a woman programmer (Dona Bailey), and one of the first designed to attract women players. (Trying my hand at updating the IMDB trivia page for the movie)

2019.07.15

After enjoying <a href="https://kirk.is/2019/07/05">Normal People</a> I went back and read this, Sally Rooney's first novel. I guess I enjoy reading stories of the romances of academic people. (heh... I guess to be honest I ended up treating my undergrad degree in computer science as a high-end trade school... and the English major I kept up to go with was a bit perfunctory...) This one told some of its story in quoted emails and going over old text messages, I really appreciate when stories do that... maybe it gives a smidge of validation to my own archiving with very occasional review.

2019.07.16

<a href="https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/">apolloinrealtime.org/11/</a> Wow. And to think...50 years. Man, our relationship with space is sad. It's just a challenge we're not up for, and so we'll sit here til an asteroid takes us out, unless the climate gets us first.

2019.07.18

<img src="/m/2019/07/17/sucking-at-something-is-the-first-step-towards-being-sorta-34465011.png" width="500" height="397" border="0">

Especially for people with Fixed Mindset - folks so skilled at finding low hanging fruit of stuff that are variants on what they're already good at, and so much in the habit of moving on and considering the difficult task unimportant - those 20 hours are going to be a slog! And 20 hours is a longer time than might first appear, especially if you're setting aside big swaths of dedicated focused and thoughtful practice...

2019.07.19

The split-brain literature contains many examples suggesting that two conscious points of view can reside in a single brain. Most of them also topple the typical notion of free will, by exposing a phenomenon generated by the left hemisphere that Gazzaniga and his colleague Joseph LeDoux dubbed “the interpreter.” This phenomenon occurs when the right hemisphere takes action based on information it has access to that the left hemisphere doesn’t, and the left hemisphere then gives an instantaneous and false explanation for the split-brain subject’s behavior. For example, when the right hemisphere is given the instruction “Take a walk” in an experiment, the subject will stand up and begin walking. But when asked why he’s leaving the room, he will give an explanation such as, “Oh, I need to get a drink.” His left hemisphere, the one responsible for speech, is unaware of the command the right side received, and we have every reason to think that he does in fact believe his thirst was the reason he got up and began walking. As in the example in which experimenters were able to cause a feeling of will in subjects who in actuality were not in control of their own actions, the phenomenon of “the interpreter” is further confirmation that the feeling we have of executing consciously willed actions, at least in some instances, is sheer illusion.

But, countering what I think might be a particularly active subconscious - my religious upbringing has left me - the inner-voice me - hyper-vigilant about keeping myself in accord with How Things Should Be. An early fear of eternal damnation and hellfire kind has constructed a system of rational vigilance, a gardener of the emotional garden. Almost every sprout of a feeling is inspected, and if found to not be rationally justifiable, it's plucked from the soil before it has a chance to grow. With lust, my physiological response is repressed unless my narrative self is convinced it's a safe and reasonable thing. I'm not even sure I <i>love</i> like other people seem to - I admire like hell, but I haven't had a "Crazy in Love" feeling in a long, long time. (My theory is, though, people search for that crazy in love feeling especially in the early days of relationships, because it puts the feeling out of the reach of market forces, that irrational love will better weather the travails of life and stress and aging and not be on the hunt for any better offers.)

Finally, Harris reminds me of some of the absolute, batshit weirdness of the implications of the double-slit photon experiment - how light is a wave or particle depending on if it's being observed (meaning observation - which <i>might</i> be inexorably deeply linked to a concept of consciousness - might be a weirdly causal part of reality) and not only that, but a 2007 experiment confirmed John Wheeler's prediction that that effect seems to go <i>backwards</i> in time. At trivial scales of time, or unimaginably vast ones:

2019.07.22

<blockquote class='quote'>Once, in an exuberant state, feeling filled with the muse, I told another writer: When I write, I know everything. Everything about the characters? she asked. No, I said, everything about the world, the universe. Every. Fucking. Thing. I was being preposterous, of course, but I was also trying to explain the feeling I got, deep inside writing a first draft, that I was listening and receiving, listening some more and receiving, from a place that was far enough away from my daily life, from all of my reading, from everything.

2019.07.27

So, we persist. Firing up the elephant is a good way to show ourselves to be good members of our tribe, and acceptance in our tribe is important. (From a social evolution standpoint, being well-aligned with the wisdom embodied in the practices of your literal tribe was more important than being correct about any one issue! Lone humans didn't have great survival or mating prospects.) The cynical right labels the public elephanting "virtue signaling", but I can't for the life of me figure out what's so bad about honest signals that reflect a life valuing justice, fairness, and the prevention of harm.

And sometimes I use this story to explain my special snowflake status to myself: The hellfire elements of my religious childhood burnt themselves out in my adolescence, but left a scorchmark of compulsive need to prove my value - my worthiness as judged by objective criteria. (In this view, one's alignment with objective truth can never be proven or fully certain, but rationality - a rationality aware of the limits of its methods - seems like a critical component in avoiding absurdities.)

2019.07.29

<blockquote class='quote'>Garp first sees the young man reflected in Mrs. Ralph's dressing-table mirror. Sitting naked in the chair, he is combing out the blond end of his thin ponytail, which he holds over his shoulder and sprays with one of Mrs. Ralph's aerosol cans. His belly and thighs have the same slick buttered look that Garp saw on the flesh and fur of Mrs. Ralph, and his young cock is as lean and arched as the backbone of a whippet.

<blockquote class='quote'>"Now I'm going to sign this bill [for funding 9/11 victim compensation] into law - and I don't know if this stage will hold it, but if it doesn't we're not falling very far... but I'd like to ask the families and I'd also like to ask the first responders to come up... and we'll give this stage a shot... let's see how well built... 'Made In America'... let's see how well built it is."

2019.07.31

<a href="https://lithub.com/why-dont-i-read-all-my-books/">Why Don't I Read All My Books?</a> - about the books left unread. Some of the ideas here apply to decluttering efforts in general - I think of that Molly Gardener line "Sometimes, my body feels like a burial ground for all the people I should have become" - and when you're getting rid of the supplies and props for projects you'll probably never get to, it feels like you're shoveling dirt on the grave of those alternate "you"s who mighta been but never quite were. More firmly latching the door for places you still might go, but probably won't. <br>

2019.08.01

I've been starting off months with "rabbit rabbit rabbit" for a while, though the other day for the first time I learned about "i hate rabbits" as something to say when you're sitting around a smokey fire and the smoke starts blowing towards you...

2019.08.02

<td>I always dig mixups of modern western music with classic First People's stuff- this is the first I've heard that has the traditional singing style with some English lyrics ("throw your hands in the air...")<br>"Tribe Called Red" announced a new song which I wasn't as crazy about, but it got me searching around and finding this.</td>

<td>Gentle music... I remember hearing how someone played it the morning after a first night together, and the couple was married for years and years after...<br>Some novel mentioned this, maybe the Sally Rooney I was reading...</td>

2019.08.05

Memory is so wonky. (Or is it just me?) Sometimes recalled details are so cursory that it's as if remembering an event - a fine meal, a musical performance that hits a moment of transcendence, an adventurous vacation, a first kiss (or more than a kiss) - has more in common with anticipating that event or imagining something similar happening than it does with experiencing it in the moment. <br>

2019.08.07

<i>"I mean magical thinking is sort of necessary for the suspending of disbelief in order to have faith in the first place, isn't it? I mean magical thinking in a managed way is part of the whole trick?"</i><br><br>

2019.08.08

Which means... to be more scientific about it: most of our reasoning works around metaphors. Similarities. And the deepest metaphor that we have are the metaphors of family relations. We are born to a mother and father, our perception system is so attuned to whether our mother frowns, or smiles - it's the first thing that we learn. <br>

2019.08.09

<blockquote class='quote'>Toni Morrison published her first novel at 40. You have time. Your thing won't be nearly as good but hey, that time though

2019.08.12

<blockquote class='quote'>I'm not saying there wasn't a democratic mandate for Brexit at the time. I'm just saying if I narrowly decided to order fish at a restaurant that was known for chicken, but said it was happy to offer fish, and so far I've been waiting three hours, and two chefs who promised to cook the fish had quit, and the third one is promising to deliver the fish in the next five minutes whether it's cooked or not, or indeed still alive, and all the waiting staff have spent the last few hours arguing amongst themselves about whether I wanted battered cod, grilled salmon, jellied eels or dolphin kebabs, and if large parts of the restaurant appeared to be on fire but no-one was paying attention to it because they were all arguing about fish, I would quite like, just once, to be asked if I definitely still wanted the fish.

2019.08.13

<blockquote class='quote'>I've been thinking lately about immortality. What it means to be remembered, what I want to be remembered for, certain questions concerning memory and fame. I love watching old movies. I watch the faces of long-dead actors on the screen, and I think about how they'll never truly die. I know that's a cliché but it happens to be true. Not just the famous ones who everyone knows, the Clark Gables, the Ava Gardners, but the bit players, the maid carrying the tray, the butler, the cowboys in the bar, the third girl from the left in the nightclub. They're all immortal to me. First we only want to be seen, but once we're seen, that's not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered.

(mentioned on The Daring Fireball's Talk Show podcast...)

2019.08.14

As a young teen, I figured out that I couldn't given free rein to my desires. Lust might lead to STDs and unwanted pregnancies. Hunger might lead to me becoming fat(ter). And worst of all: acting on unfiltered feelings - lust, anger, greed, wrath, pride, envy, gluttony - put me at risk for eternal hellfire! Yeah, God could forgive, but repeated transgressions (the verb) brought the veracity of the repentance (the noun) into question. And which of those temporary pleasures would be worth eternal punishment?

2019.08.16

<blockquote class='quote'>In retrospect I think it's time to question Billy Joel's claim that his generation didn't start the fire

The thing is, I still think it’s a mistake to conflate that sense of satisfaction with objective correctness. That unconscious overnight process is not amenable to inspection or rational confirmation, and I think is pretty much at the mercies of every ingrained prejudice and presumption we’ve internalized.

2019.08.18

Relying on your intuition is kind of like assuming the information at the first google hit is right.

2019.08.19

<blockquote class='quote'>While we're on the subject, please indulge me while I tell you the story of the first and last time Bee ever claimed she was bored. Bernadette and I were driving Bee and a friend, both preschoolers, to a birthday party. There was traffic. Grace said, "I'm bored." <br>

<blockquote class='quote'>Halfway through this speech, it dawned on me that Ellen Idelson was a contractor. She was performing contractor Kabuki. It's a ritual in which (a) the contractor explains in great detail the impossibility of the job you've asked him to do, (b) you demonstrate extreme remorse for even suggesting such a thing by withdrawing your request, and (c) he tells you he's found a way to do it, so (d) you owe him one for doing what he was hired to do in the first place.

Last night we finally got around to watching the end of the first (and hopefully not last) season of <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80198137">Tuca & Bertie</a>. It's an outrage this wasn't picked up for a second season - even though almost every animated series gets two seasons out of the gate, this one was on a special probation or some such crap.<br>

Besides being woman made and confronting some issues in a fun but serious way, the first few episodes especially took advantage of being animation to make a surreal landscape and really have fun with the form.<br>

2019.08.21

Twenty years ago (yeesh) My friend Paul M. recruited me to my first post-college job at a company called IDD. When we were there, he did me the honor of recording some of the oddball things I would say (this list has been languishing on a <a href="https://kirk.is/bio/">biography in lists page</a> I made way back when - I can tell it's old because all of my html tags are in all caps...)

2019.08.22

My tuba and I show up with a small interview in <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/80-Mile-March-From-Boston-to-NH-Begins-in-Opposition-to-Immigration-Policy-554899771.html">NBC 10's coverage of the ECCO protest march against our immigration policy</a>. (Pretty sure I didn't say "we are all immigrants", exactly? I'm usually pretty careful to recognize First Peoples.)

2019.08.28

First and foremost: I got a new financial advisor who helped me do a general inventory. (Erica Hubbard in Charlestown- super recommended from friends) The news is generally solid and good, the result of the extraordinary terrific fortune of stumbling into a tech career without much debt and then dutifully maxing out 401Ks as they came up. In fact - almost too good, in that she plotted out a plan with me retiring or at least downshifting in 10 years, not the 20 I'd consider traditional. Holy crap! On the one hand, that's great. I feel like I've always been good at having a pile of personal projects going, and with just a bit if discipline would make good use of a retired state. On the other hand... to quote the poet Samuel Menashe:

<li>As always, the general fears of the age. The arctic's on fire, and our president is mostly intent on making the most compelling reality television possible.

2019.09.02

<blockquote class='quote'>Let's leave aside the fact that no divine entity or precept of natural law gives anyone the right to own an assault weapon. Let's also ignore the fact that it's entirely likely that gun control solutions would have denied the Odessa shooter easy access to the firearms with which he carried out his killings.<br>

The most interesting question here is about evil intent. If human evil is the ultimate cause of gun violence–rather than the shocking ease with which modern firearms allow tense situations to escalate into deadly violence and unbalanced individuals to become mass murderers in a matter of seconds–then presumably there must be more bad people in America than anywhere else in the world.

2019.09.04

<blockquote class='quote'>That the first thought that goes through your mind is what you have been conditioned to think. What you think next defines who you are.

That is such an interesting thought about identity and our relationship with our subconscious selves and the implications for change and growth. Sometimes I can have such ugly initial thoughts - (a bit like the french term <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/188n7w/tomta_term_for_having_spontaneous_dark_thoughts/">L’appel du vide</a>, the call of the void.) It does raise the question: what's the realest you? Is it that conscious voice that steps up and corrects the first bad thought it, like the quote implies? Or are you not "authentically" changed until you've successfully reconditioned yourself?

2019.09.07

The Warren Peace Band (get it?) was the first outing of "Boston For Fun", an offshoot of other HONKish groups for more casual get togethers...<br>

2019.09.08

Panoramic View from Eliot Tower. It doesn't do justice to hell well you can see Boston from there. Also, I would say I really prefer hikes with interesting goals. (And kayaking with fireworks)

2019.09.18

Also the book lists 4 of those great "I will never forget it" <a href="https://bootlegbetty.com/those-wonderful-soph-jokes/">Soph and Ernie jokes</a>, and I think it was where I first encountered <a href="https://kirk.is/2014/09/30">Spring and Fall</a> ("Margaret, are you grieving"...the first poem I remember calling a favorite poem.)

2019.09.21

<blockquote class='quote'>"Small Government" means "a government small enough to spend my money only on things that I am interested in and not tax me for the rest". It is used by political opportunists to unify a diversity of short-sighted, selfish people under a common flag, expending the gathered political capital to achieve their own agenda. It results in the three D's: deregulation (usually the first victim, can't make money if the government is limiting profits on necessary services), degradation (of the existing infrastructure and services benefitting the bottom portion of society), and deception (of the middle class, telling them everything is looking rosy while the stability of the class below them crumbles).<br>

2019.09.23

2. So much clutter represents artifacts from my aspirational self, what I'd like to do or be given enough time and energy, and throwing that stuff away feels like murder of that future self. Or at least more firmly closing doors of potential that are hanging partially open.

2019.09.27

The essay is legit, and I would say that if you're A. looking to buy a car, we're the best place to start (CarGurus became #1 in a crowd of sites who will help you find a new or used car in the area by being the first to not be afraid of calling a car overpriced when that was the case) or B. if you want a job in Cambridge - either tech / engineering, or in sales / getting dealers on board (or whatever <a href="https://careers.cargurus.com/">job listings are on it</a> - hit me up, for reals, it's a great place.)

2019.10.03

<td>Piano cover of the Pixies song (didn't realize it was a cover at first... not sure how I feel about that vs when I thought it was such a lovely sparse piano piece...)<br>One of the Chapelle specials used this</td>

2019.10.04

This one kind of makes me think about gravitas. My view of the importance of seeking the confirmable objective truth makes me a bit susceptible to things stated in a confident, intellectually-sound sounding manor - I assume the speaker has done their due diligence and isn't putting their own personal agenda ahead of the facts...<br>

2019.10.19

(I'm thinking about how my history with The Salvation Army fits into it. From its origin in the mid-1800s on through the mid-1900s, it was doing a TON of streetpreaching, going to the pubs and using brassy music and fervent words to bring people away from the devil and demon rum, and its tales of its own history were full of successful conversions. The church was more sedate by the time I got there. (Or as it asked itself, "Has The Fire Gone Out?") but non-crowd-blending trappings like the militaristic uniforms remained, at least for those most intensely involved in the church... but generally, only on Sundays, while historically some folks might wear the uniform daily.)

For all the complaining, it's been a great generation to be a techie in, at least for the dudes: growing up with home computers in the 80s, then riding the first dot com boom... if you survived the post-Y2K implosion you were probably in good shape.<br>

2019.10.26

Two views from the Annual JP Dog Parade - JP honk was able to muster a quintet- the first is actually a screenshot from a video I took at the head --<br>

2019.10.27

<a href="https://youtu.be/3Ipns0jneLY">Maynard Ferguson's cover of Chameleon</a> - props to Herbie Hancock for the original, but this brassy super funk version was a huge influence - probably as a staple of high school stage bands in the 80s, and now deep in the HONK repertoire. (The CD was one of the first 3 I bought when my family got a CD player)<br>

<a href="https://youtu.be/XYhTowKxGzs">Canadian Brass' St. James Infirmary</a> - I remember listening to his tape over and over in the basement writing a middle school essay on Charles Babbage. I got the sheet music for this song, and in college did an extremely misguided attempt to audition for a college a cappella group with it<br>

<a href="https://youtu.be/qayiQQOPRNE">The Dirty Dozen Brass Band's Inside Straight</a> - The New Orleans album was also one of the first 3 CDs I got. I brought it to Portugal, visiting the guy my mom and I hosted, and this album was an obscure bit of Americana there - their artsy director friend used this song for the opener for a fashion show / poetry reading they put together. Years later I'd be joining in with a rough version of this kind of music w/ various HONK bands...<br>

<a href="https://youtu.be/GL5l3k7vBsk">Weird Al's Another One Rides the Bus</a> - I was a pretentious kid who fancied himself smart, and got the idea that smart people liked classical and jazz and had disdain for pop. So I tried to like only classical and jazz and cultivated disdain for pop. Weird Al can be a critical gateway drug in such cases - at first you like it because he's mocking pop music, but then you realize you like pop music...<br>

2019.10.28

(This a side-effect of her first of Nine Laws of Cognition: "There are no benefits without costs.") At some point in my development, some dial got twisted all the way up, so I look at the surface broad stroke interactions of things and have a hard time attending to their fine detail, or inner being. I think this has allowed me to punch above my intellectual weight in some cases - I'm an extremely fast reader (i.e., a skimmer who goes back to the tough bits) and having this speed to always go back and check things was a huge help on the SAT.

2019.10.31

Growing up with this stuff... I got the bejeebers scared out of me by a Sunday School class on Revelation, showing a Christian facing a firing squad for his belief, etc.<br>

2019.11.02

<td class='stars'>★<br>★<br>★<br>★</div><td><a href='https://youtu.be/HcXNPI-IPPM'>Baby's on Fire</a> <br><i>Die Antwoord</i></td>

2019.11.07

My first encounter with the weird sex aspect of the Internet, back in like 1993 or so, was the text <a href="http://www.hoboes.com/FireBlade/Politics/Smurfs/">The Sexual Adventures of the Smurfs</a>, describing the annual orgiastic "Smuckfest". (R-Rated link, I suppose, but kind of too goofy to really titillate.) "And, as is his privilege, Papa Smurf throws out the first throe" is an idiosyncratic turn of phrase that has stuck with me... like, the throes of passion? But singular? Weird.[[1573164249]]

2019.11.08

For me and my fixed mindset, it’s weird, the feeling of self-hatred referenced in the comic is more “you can’t grow unless you declare your previous self an idiot for getting yourself into these patterns in the first place"… but your previous self was probably about as smart as you are now! (See Tallulah Bankhead's "If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.")

(Compare to EB, who judges freely and often, with great and often justified confidence, but some terrific misses -- bold misjudgements. For me, a fear of such misjudgements - that I asserted my subjective viewpoint over somebody else's, and was unjust and unempathetic and wrong to do so - keeps me from judging much in the first place.)

My first attempt at jogging was in middle school- I think to try and improve my gym class grade or something, around the hallways of the school. I remember the gym teacher responsible for that discouraging me from listening to music on a walkman, citing something about blocking alpha or beta waves or what not. Was there something to that or was it just new-age-y hokum?

2019.11.15

<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20961788/us-government-ai-copyright-patent-trademark-office-notice-artificial-intelligence">The USPTO wants to know if artificial intelligence can own the content it creates</a>... What a weird question! My first thought is no - since this is one step away from personhood, and most AIs like this don't seem that autonomous.<br>

Also shades of the issue if <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/24/wikipedia_monkey_selfie_backfire/">a monkey can hold a copyright on a photo they clicked the shutter for</a> or if it fairly belongs to the human who set up the situation and owns the equipment...

2019.11.16

<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20961788/us-government-ai-copyright-patent-trademark-office-notice-artificial-intelligence">The USPTO wants to know if artificial intelligence can own the content it creates</a>... What a weird question! My first thought is no - since this is one step away from personhood, and most AIs like this don't seem that autonomous.<br>

Also shades of the issue if <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/24/wikipedia_monkey_selfie_backfire/">a monkey can hold a copyright on a photo they clicked the shutter for</a> or if it fairly belongs to the human who set up the situation and owns the equipment...<br>

2019.11.17

By synchronicity I also saw my first flakes of snow today, so I'm busting out this quote I've been saving...

2019.11.18

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When you get your first <br>kiss <a href="https://t.co/1Kuh903cLO">pic.twitter.com/1Kuh903cLO</a></p>— viralvideos (@BestVideosviral) <a href="https://twitter.com/BestVideosviral/status/1195749226086633478?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

2019.11.19

<blockquote class='quote'>I think the impact of superheroes on popular culture is both tremendously embarrassing and not a little worrying. While these characters were originally perfectly suited to stimulating the imaginations of their twelve or thirteen year-old audience, today's franchised übermenschen, aimed at a supposedly adult audience, seem to be serving some kind of different function, and fulfilling different needs. Primarily, mass-market superhero movies seem to be abetting an audience who do not wish to relinquish their grip on (a) their relatively reassuring childhoods, or (b) the relatively reassuring 20th century. The continuing popularity of these movies to me suggests some kind of deliberate, self-imposed state of emotional arrest, combined with an numbing condition of cultural stasis that can be witnessed in comics, movies, popular music and, indeed, right across the cultural spectrum. [...] I would also remark that save for a smattering of non-white characters (and non-white creators) these books and these iconic characters are still very much white supremacist dreams of the master race. In fact, I think that a good argument can be made for D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation as the first American superhero movie, and the point of origin for all those capes and masks.

2019.11.20

All but the first one (my mom and her posse) are my Mom and my Aunt...

2019.11.21

<a href="/m/2019/11/20/me in firemans hat on rocking horse.jpg"><img src="/m/2019/11/20/me in firemans hat on rocking horse_560.jpg" border="0" width="560" height="493"></a>

2019.11.22

Anyway, you see that in these two comics the artist Jerry Meyer did (I think he was associated with the newspaper...) The first was a personal gift (probably at the farewell dinner) and the second was actually published in the paper.

2019.11.27

<blockquote class='quote'>The world's a fucking garbage fire, we're just two hobos warming our hands.

2019.11.30

Two from I Am Devloper - the first help explains our life to other folks, the second is more of an insider joke...

2019.12.02

<td>This song <a href="https://kirk.is/2019/11/12/">moved me greatly</a> when first hearing it... it just captures all the energy of every post-breakup person I've chased after.<br> - found doing backlog grooming</td>

2019.12.05

<blockquote class='quote'>I love to take in the good whenever I eat an orange. I have at least two a day, so I get an opportunity to experience this moment often. As I break through the skin, I gently close my eyes and breath in the sweet scent. I hold that pleasure in my mind and think about how I'm the first person ever to see inside this orange and taste its fruit. Although this experience takes less than a minute, it has an enormously positive effect on my mood and energy level. I look forward to it throughout the day.

2019.12.06

<footer>Kole Ross on the Watch Out for Fireballs podcast</footer>

2019.12.16

My "first half/second half" galleries of our NOLA trip had more of an eye for the photos that worked well visually... these are photos that didn't make the cut but help tell the story of a lovely week, a story we might want to refresh our memories of later.

<br>First afternoon, down by the riverside... we were approached by a young guy who said he liked my shoes... we were a little too uptight and wary so we didn't engage, later I learned it was probably the setup for a busking joke where he'd bet me he could tell me where I got 'em...

2019.12.17

(the two tilted empty discs aren't nearly as amazing a special effect as they first look- they are locked together always touching at the same point, and then the whole shebang is rotating as one thing - I've seen a real life version of that with tires, quite a striking illusion!)

2019.12.18

So my paradoxical view is that liberalism will ultimately be the beneficiary of the Trump presidency and Conservatism will be the casualty. The question of impeachment I think should be seen in that light. By the time we get there, if we get there [...] we know from the experience of Clinton and also the Iran-Contra scandal that it can backfire on Congress if it goes down that road. It doesn't necessarily guarantee the collapse of a presidency. Clinton became even more popular even as he was being impeached.

2019.12.27

"Quinton Reviews" made an amazing discovery - "Gnorm the Gnat" wasn't the only predecessor to "Garfield" - there was a first run called "Jon" that used a lot of the same gags... here's what Garfield looked like:<br>

Some spoilers for the new movie, but overall a measured amount of criticism about the see-saw we got, with the first sequel being a bit of a slavish copy of A New Hope, the second sequel being a rebut of that approach, and the third going back to squash the second. (and honestly kind of just remaking Return of the Jedi) Honestly I wish we had taken that second movie approach from the outset, but putting the whole series under one vision would have been a less whiplash-y trip.

2019.12.29

My first blog-like thing was a series of text files on my PalmPilot, which I called <a href="https://kirk.is/khftcea/">KHftCEA</a> or Kirk's Home for the Chronically Easily Amused - it wasn't designed to be public but eventually I posted it online. It ran from spring 1997 until the start of my blogging at the 2000/2001 turnover. <br>

So I switched to "writing online". (The <a href="https://kirk.is/2000/12/30">first entry</a> says "Maybe I'll use spellcheck" - I forgot that used to not be integrated into browsers!) Each day's entry on my early blog was a single file, but I quickly started to use "of the Moment" (Quote of the Moment, Link of the Moment, etc) headers to create sub-entries. And almost immediately in the activity it became a practice to at least have <i>something</i> up every single day. <br>

2019.12.30

I was reading this book during our visit to New Orleans and so after Kim reminded me "Heaven, the sun, and the fire are yang; earth, the moon, and water are yin" I was struck by the male-sun/female-moon parallels for the markings on historic outhouses:<br>

2020.01.01

produced/starring Sharon Hogan. It's a shame "Tuca and Bertie" didn't get a second season- especially the first part

<span class='star3'>Watch Out for Fireballs!</span>

few grind/ad-laden things I've put up with, but its control mechanic (you are automatically firing

at the nearest enemy all the time, but stop firing when you have to move) is compelling. Probably the biggest

2020.01.04

D.) His nationalist "America First" message effectively alienates us and removes us from our place as leaders in the international community.<br>

E.) His ideas on "Keeping us safe" are all thinly veiled ideas to remove our freedoms, he is, after all, an authoritarian first. They also are simply bad ideas.<br>

M.) His choices for top positions, with the exception of Gen. Mattis, who is a gem, have been horrendous. A secretary of Education without a resume that would get her hired as a small town grammar school principal, A secretary of Energy who didn't know the Department of Energy was responsible for nuclear reserves, an EPA head whose biggest accomplishments to date had been suing the EPA on multiple occasions, an FCC head who while working for Verizon actively lobbied to kill net neutrality, and an Attorney General who thinks pot is "nearly as bad as heroin" and asked Congress for permission to go after legal pot businesses in states where it is legal. (There goes that great Republican States rights rally cry again, right? *Crickets*) An Interim AG after Firing his First AG who's appointment is probably unconstitutional.<br>

Y.) He seems to think the Constitution of The United States, the document that IS who we are, the document he took an oath to support and defend is some sort of inconvenience. He demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of Constitution, from believing he can alter the 14th through executive order, to thinking The free exercise clause in the first amendment somehow supersedes the establishment clause (not that he really understands either) or that the free exercise clause only applies to Christians. Or his attacks on freedom of expression and the press. He repeatedly makes it clear that if he's read them, he does not understand Articles 1–3, and that's something he really should have before he took the job, because they're not going away.<br>

3.) He's fun! The dude was in wrestling matches in the WWE for chrissakes! He got that whole "You're Fired!" Meme started. His third wife is a hot model! And he came from behind and won an election that no one thought he could.<br>

2020.01.05

2010: “Her eyes on His eyes on” - I assume this note was written when I first noticed the pun inside a lyric from my favorite band, The Mountain Goats. Their song “Jenny” is about a girl in love with a boy who has just acquired a yellow-and-black Kawasaki motorcycle. And one of the song’s couplets goes, “And you pointed your headlamp toward the horizon / We were the one thing in the galaxy God didn’t have His eyes on.” I don’t know why, but that line always reminds me of being in eleventh grade, lying in the middle of an open field with three friends I loved ferociously, drinking warm malt liquor, and staring up at the night sky. </blockquote></td>

<td>Jazz, baby!<br>In New Orleans I was looking up the history of scat singing (kind of wondering why it got that name...) turns out this was on of the first recorded instances of it... and given they named the airport after him, I figured it was fortuitous.</td>

<td class='stars'>★<br>★<br>★<br>★</div><td><a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzRI_bE_pXQ'>Firewater</a> <br><i>Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & The Golden Eagles</i></td>

2020.01.06

<img src="/m/2020/01/06/First_US_edition,_Mr_g.jpg" width="100" border="0" align="right" >

<a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/01/constellation-games/">Constellation Games</a>, Leonard Richardson - disclaimer, I acted as kind of a consultant on retro video games for my friend Leonard on this one - but every since, I am legitimately heartbroken that that campy, Marty-Stu-author-self-insertion, 80's-Slather-Bath "Ready Player One" got tons of accolades and made into a huge movie while this one just puttered along - the story of an alien first contact as seen through a burnt-out game developer and blogger who decides to explore the history of this federation by trying the video games they were making when they were at roughly our Nintendo Entertainment System level of technological development - a space that Leonard brilliantly fleshes out as alien and weird while being familiar enough to be comprehensible.

<a href="https://medium.com/@geekrodion/a-guide-to-the-good-life-the-ancient-art-of-stoic-joy-by-william-b-irvine-28d39d15f134">A Guide To The Good Life. {the ancient art of stoic joy}</a>, William B. Irvine. I read this earlier in the decade, and it was the first book about the various philosophies designed to get people to a state of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataraxia">ataraxia</a> - a state of lucid equanimity and imperturbability.

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_People">Normal People</a>, Sally Rooney. A brisk read by a young Irish author, the first time I read it its story of a difficult on-again off-again romance among some young intelligentsia just resonated so deeply with me, with things I'd been a part of or wanted to have been a part of.

First Half of Decade: <br>

2020.01.09

(I love the lyric video that I first saw more than the one they finally got to)<br>

2020.01.17

Thinking more about decluttering... last September I wrote <blockquote>So much clutter represents artifacts from my aspirational self, what I'd like to do or be given enough time and energy, and throwing that stuff away feels like murder of that future self. Or at least more firmly closing doors of potential that are hanging partially open.</blockquote> Funny thinking of the balance of that vs the sometimes expensive luxury of keeping your "stockpiles" in stores instead of at home. Especially for gadget fans like me. I keep dreaming of setting up regular times to play old games, either on my own or better yet with friends, the old quarterly casual couch-gaming meetups I'd host. So I have all these old games around. But then there are these old tablets and laptops... I can think of all these scenarios where they might be useful, sort-of. And getting rid of them has an additional cost of making sure they're properly wiped of personal information! But overall that gear leans closer to the packrat/hoarder side, where it's tough to admit how valueless they are likely to forever be from here on out.

2020.01.24

When do we actually use logic in real life? We use it to simplify and summarize out thoughts. We use it to explain arguments to other people and to persuade them that those arguments are right. We use it to reformulate our own ideas. But I doubt that we often use logic actually solve problems or to "get" new ideas. Instead, we formulate our arguments and conclusions in logical terms <i>after</i> we have constructed or discovered them in other ways; only then do we use verbal and other kinds of formal reasoning to "clean things up," to separate the essential parts from the spaghettilike tangles of thoughts and ideas when they first occurred.<br>

2020.01.25

It got me to revive an old <a href="https://toys.alienbill.com/timer/">artsy 60 second timer</a> I wrote when I was first learning Processing - I really like it! Plus it's practical for games that need such a timekeeper - unlike Pictionary's ordinary sand timer, you don't have to wait for it to finish before resetting it, just click.<br>

2020.01.26

This was all after I found out that Cora was surprisingly good at a restaurant-waiting game I'd only previously played with grownups: "Mr. Snowman". On a restaurant placemat w/ crayons (or a napkin w/ a pen, whatever) one person draws a Snowman. The next person goes on offense and draws a threat that may lead to the Snowman's demise. The first person (or the next person on the defense team) draws a way of thwarting the attack. The next person then draws something to undo the defense or perhaps launches a different line of attack.

Cora was good at the problem solving aspect of this! Water to put out a nearby melting fire, an umbrella to ward off a monkey with water balloons, a wall to stop an oncoming car (or maybe just removing the tires...), unplugging the loud music, bug spray to stop an annoying mosquito, etc. I figured out pretty quick for the kids version, the offense can be annoyances rather than existential threats, and launching new attacks is probably kinder than undoing the defense the kid just put down. (Also with Chas' help the second sheet became helping defend the women of the renovation show Good Bones ("Two Chicks and a Hammer")... not quite sure how that happened but I rolled with it.)

2020.01.27

First off: the idea of a separate "Space Force" is not as goofy as it first seems. Assuming it's not so much Star Wars or even Moonraker, satellite battles are going to be a bigger part of any future big wars, and those might be better met with a different chain of command not worried about combat in the atmosphere (like how the Air Force used to be the US Army Air Force...)

2020.02.01

Melissa and I enjoyed the first half of Rick + Morty Season 4. Like with "Black Mirror", there are these brilliant episodes doing a great job of sci-fi's coolest job: taking a single idea and then riffing on it and exploring the details of what it would mean if that event happened or if that technology or culture existed.<br>

2020.02.02

First 3 photos from <a href="https://decordova.org/art/exhibition/platform-25-leeza-meksin-turret-tops">Leeza Meksin's "Turret Tops"</a> - two tipi-like structure made of modern materials, said to bring to mind many things including Madonna's bustier-cones and "the iconic turrets of the deCordova museum". My line was "Oh, my bad, didn't realize your turrets were iconic!"

2020.02.12

I'm still wondering if I could somehow improve the comic I made for it- I think the first panel does an ok job of showing the threat feeling amplified, but maybe not increasing the danger. (Or maybe it is a lot more dangerous to have your back to an alien dog...)<br>

2020.02.14

could set it on fire

2020.02.20

Or- given the varied ways the intuitive side of me expresses itself, the patch work of competing desires - or the way it seems like a feeling anxiety starts as just a pang, and then I have SOME control over whether that feeling takes over my whole emotional self, or can be sweet-talked into calming down- it feels like a herd or pack of animals. Like one member of the herd is anxious, and tries to get the whole herd to gallop off. (I think IFS thinks a lot about this kind of internal crowd, except instead of heard they talk of managers and firefighters protecting the vulnerable exiles. I think IFS encourages visualizing those members of the group to be dramatized as full-on people, which is one part I'm still skeptical of.)<br>

2020.02.23

Television, man. Yeesh. At least President Regan and Gov. Schwarzenegger had the gravitas of movies. How many years are we from the first Youtube Vlogger president... and then the Tik Tok candidate shortly thereafter...

2020.02.26

Yeesh. I'm in my mid-40s now and had my crisis of faith when I was in my mid-teens. So it took me about twice as long to figure out what was going on than it did to go on in the first place!<br>

I guess I should credit my estranged debating partner EB for cottoning on to some of this. He's noted a phenomenon where he tells me an idea that I reject at first and later come around to, often forgetting to credit him for it - his take being I just can't accept something if it comes from him, that I'm perpetually ad-hominem about it all. <br>

So I've been consistent for the first 8 or so days of my "walk half an hour over lunchbreak" club at work. A few days a coworker joined me, but mostly I listen to podcasts. <br>

2020.02.28

The podcast "Watch Out For Fireballs" recently did an episode on Atari. On their <a href="https://www.watchoutforfireballs.com/dispatch14">followup letter reading episode</a>, they read the note I sent in (a scooch before 1h29m) - I try to pack a lot in - about writing my own Homebrew JoustPong/FlapPing in assembly, the book Racing the Beam (didn't realize they were going to cover that in the episode), and then a shout out to Batari BASIC for lowering the bar for folks and the communities on the Stella list and the website Atari Age. I'm grateful to all that!

2020.03.02

More recently, I remember my mom commenting on a little thing I am prone to do when starting on a new beverage - take the first sip, then do a little approving nod - that that was something my dad would do. <br>

2020.03.03

First election in a while where I'm keeping my selection to myself. Yes it's one of the two. No I'm not saying which one. Yes your candidate is great and I hope they win.<br>

2020.03.07

There sending up to heaven to get the brimstone fire<br>

Will you shout or will you cry when the fire rains from on high?<br>

Partially I'm bitter - on a trip to DC I sat in a slightly too old for me Sunday School class when I was 8 or so, taught by my Aunt Ruth, and there was a drawing of a Christian facing a firing squad for his beliefs... scared the bejeebers out of me. So it feels like people who are serious about their faith shouldn't cling to this milquetoast belief that they're too good for God to let suffer.

2020.03.10

<blockquote class='quote'>There seems to be a constant visiting dynamic in all stages of life where it appears that we get only the girl, the guy, the work, the job, the sense of self, or a participation in wider creation that we actually feel we are worthy of. If we don't feel we deserve it, then, like a spendthrift heiress, throwing her patrimony to the winds, we do our best to sabotage and give away what we feel we did not deserve in the first place.

Wonder if we'll finally be done talking about stuff "going viral". What's a good replacement? "gain critical mass"? Gah, that's horrific too. So is spreading like wildfire. Damn, what's a positive exponential thing?

All from <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2bcFfMt6rGLTPpbG0yLwPw0/42-douglas-adams-quotes-to-live-by">this BBC page of 42 DNA quotes</a>. Of course I worry that the third quote refutes the first, with help from the phenomenon the second quote is pointing to.

2020.03.12

This is the first time in the Social Media age we're asked to achieve Social Distancing. 4 weeks WFH feels daunting, like a bad blizzard that keeps you home for a week, but for a month...

2020.03.16

<footer>Astronaut Frederick Hauck about maintaining composure, guiding the Space Shuttle to a landing in the first mission after the Challenger explosion. </footer>

2020.03.18

Hmm. Mixed feelings, I'm below 200 lbs for the first time since 2018 (save one momentary dip last spring)<br>

Calling it "CoronaVirus" was - almost - endearing in its ineptness. Calling it "The Chinese Virus" is assholery at its most presidential. How about "The Whoops We Fired Our Pandemic Response Team Back in 2018 Virus"?

If you have a Zoom connection, that plus <a href="https://randomwordgenerator.com/pictionary.php">randomwordgenerator.com/pictionary.php</a> is all you need to a amusingly clunky Pictionary-like game online using Zoom's built-in share Whiteboard. Use someone's iPhone timer, maybe make a simple rule like "successful guess is 1 point for artist, 1 point for guesser"... (UPDATE: with more than like 4 people it's probably better to break into teams -- otherwise it gets a little tough to figure who guessed what first. )

2020.03.20

Wait, is this the first time Trump used the term "nasty" not targeted at a woman? Progress?<br>

2020.03.21

Sometimes cultural changes happen all at once. We are likely at some kind of pivot point now. Right now it’s so easy to ask What’s the point of anything social? Why do people like to travel so much? Why come together in huge numbers to see a show or a sporting event or a politician? For the first time in my lifetime, a huge mass of people are painfully aware of the little gamble each mass event can be.

2020.03.27

<i>(It's funny, at first I captioned this as 'from a simpler time', but the beauty of then was that it was more complex, but in enjoyable ways.)</i>

2020.03.29

Kind of the same thing with "Magic eye" puzzles in the 90s... I remember small specialty storefronts full of nothing but them, and the first time I "saw it", my eyes just sinking into a very large landscape portrait of the white house, on a band field trip. It was astounding!<br>

2020.04.03

<td class='stars'>★<br>★<br>★<br>★</div><td><a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUuWlt0wU3s'>The Suburbs (Continued)</a> <br><i>Arcade Fire</i></td>

2020.04.05

<blockquote class='quote'>The first humans to make water boil must have been super freaked out

<footer>WebCamelotST in <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/furdyx/the_first_humans_to_make_water_boil_must_have/">r/Showerthoughts</a></footer>

2020.04.08

That first point is the most philosophically interesting to me. When I say "I should try to conserve", that's an objective, God's-eye-view sense of "should" - and I've worked out that in many aspects of life I feel compelled to subordinate any innate desires to that objective yardstick. <br>

2020.04.11

I only had the first sourcebook and never played Warhammer 40,000, but I kind of dug the grimdark world building - less crazy about some of where they went with it (the harlequin clowns especially, and the faux-egyptian terminator robo-zombies ) but still it's kind of interesting...<br>

2020.04.15

So, successful, if obvious, protip for finding paper goods in stock: ask. I asked a CVS shelver when they restocked (Tuesday night) and went first thing this morning. (Oddly, they have a vulnerable population hour but it starts an hour after they open.)

2020.04.16

(<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/04/14/stockdale-paradox">via Daring Fireball</a>)

2020.04.19

<blockquote class='quote'>Im sorry if I am wrong. My feeling and this is just my opinion : is if people are losing their businesses and homes after only a few weeks then were they actually thriving in the first place. If they were so strong they should be able to survive. Just saying.

2020.04.20

It would nice to think that the American sense of individualism (challenging sometimes for people who see the value of coming together and with a democratically elected government being a bulwark against corporate bullying) might help prevent the kind of overt fascism Baha describes. I wonder if it there are more insidious forms though. The overwhelming factor in American politics seems to be 2-party polarization and while it might not be the government per se shutting down/taking over groups, most every group has to display its left or right allegiance and set of assumptions. (Remember Republican "Never Trumpers"? They seem to have melted. And on the left, there are a lot of circular firing squads - the concern for the oppression of so many groups makes for a lot of litmus tests. It's not clear that such diversity of opinion under either the right or left ideological banner is tolerated. )

<blockquote class='quote'>This indeed is the case with most of us: certainly with me. For that reason I think it important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective, The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure the search would never have begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with "normal life". Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the nineteenth century, turn out, on closer inspection, to be full of cries, alarms, difficulties, emergencies. Plausible reasons have never been lacking for putting off all merely cultural activities until some imminent danger has been averted or some crying injustice put right. But humanity long ago chose to neglect those plausible reasons. They wanted knowledge and beauty now, and would not wait for the suitable moment that never come. Periclean Athens leaves us not only the Parthenon but, significantly, the Funeral Oration. The insects have chosen a different line: they have sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumable they have their reward. Men are different.They propound mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffold, discuss, the last new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache; it is our nature.

2020.04.28

An online friend of mine, Matt McIrvin, was talking about a cassette with some simple public domain-ish games he got as a throw-in when he got his first Atari 8-bit computer. It made me think of one of my favorite software toys, "Jane's Program":<br>

2020.04.29

I am co-facilitator of The First Church in Belmont Unitarian Universalist "Science and Spirituality" reading and discussion group. For many years it was capably lead by physicist Edwin F. Taylor. Edwin's life has shifted gears and he no longer attends the group, and while his death is not imminent, it is on his mind. He has prepared a text to be read at his memorial service, and my own recorded <a href="https://soyouregoingtodie.com">thoughts on mortality</a> is what put me in a select group requested to review and tender suggestions... but it was a beautiful and touching piece from the first draft I saw.

The pillars of my life are not built of stone like the Great Pyramid. These pillars are, first, my children and, second, my textbooks, particularly those on special and general relativity.<br>

2020.05.01

<a href="https://thedesignsquiggle.com/">That Squiggle of the Design Process</a> (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/05/01/newman-squiggle">via</a>)

2020.05.02

<td>Folksy.<br>Prine wasn't much on my radar before his death, heard this was a campfire song in some parts.</td>

2020.05.03

<footer>jus-tea - An attempt to make a <a href="https://renniequeer.tumblr.com/post/617012566726737920/bunjywunjy-billpottsismygf-jus-tea">Ring Around the Rosie</a> for this time - a future kids song with low-key menacing lyrics. That link has one artist, Alice Dillon who <a href="https://youtu.be/LjuCjJZB9YA">really ran with it</a>, but I like this first pass.</footer>

2020.05.06

Man, I wish Apple stores were open so I could experience <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/06/how-apple-reinvented-the-cursor-for-ipad/">Apple's adaptation of the iPad cursor</a> for better use with a trackpad... I love how the article pointed out the breakthrough of the very first mouse cursors - the idea of the cursor being the user's tiny abstract avatar. (Anyone who has played <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6-zN_eaRd8">Atari 2600 Adventure</a> with its little box shaped player will immediately understand...) And the further idea that on a regular touchscreen, that avatar is actually your fingertip. (But that means when you withdraw your finger the avatar vanishes!)<br />

2020.05.08

Shot in "Portrait Mode", added "Dramatic Cool" filter, then on my laptop I got rid of my thumb behind his head first with a clone tool to replace the thumb with reading material, and then by making a grayscale layer copy behind and erasing bits of the front color layer. I wish I had better Photoshop mojo but I think this came out ok.

2020.05.11

What's interesting how this game is the clear successor to one of the very first games to use a dedicated microprocessor, Exidy's 1977 "Car Polo":<br>

2020.05.18

<li>#1588 First Class Deluxe Junk Retirement. Trying to declutter, but stuck with stuff with sentimental value, and/or with no second-hand value? First Class Deluxe Junk Retirement will come to your house to pick it up, take a photo and send it to you, and then put it in a special mausoleum landfill. For example, my "Euclid High School English Departmental Award" medal with ribbon, from 1992. I will never do ANYTHING with this, right? And yet it's weirdly hard to get rid of. Ditto my heavy duty Varsity Jacket with built in cape/hood.

<li>#2758 new drink: Apple X-Cider -- take one cup of company cider, drink while sucking on an Atomic Fireball candy

<li>#2714 make a 60s/70s mashup cover group called "Earth, Blood, Wind, Sweat, Fire, and Tears."

2020.05.19

The first half of my life was marked by moving - usually across states - every few years, so it sort of weirds me out that I'm just able to walk here. The view from on top the library is great (though I always wanna smack the architect who put a big random squat minitower on top of the library roof, breaking up the panorama.)

2020.05.28

Sorry for the length of this! I probably coulda/shoulda left off after the first two paragraphs! But I find it satisfying to try and summarize where I'm philosophically at, and this seemed like a bully pulpit.

2020.05.29

to scalp white men with them. Grandma says tomahawks were the first

2020.06.02

<td></td><td><a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFlPCxMCt5E'>Afternoon Fireworks</a> <br><i>Duke Herrington</i></td>

2020.06.03

Dragonfire,

Fire Fighter,

<li>Frogger - my first game - I remember a ritual I invented with my buddy Robert of standing and saying "plbbt plbbt" at the mind point and end of the song.

<li>Adventure - finding out from a book how to get the easter egg, the first in a long series of not being afraid to use FAQs and Walkthroughs...

<li>Laser Blast - loved getting into the fire, move, fire, move rhythm

<li>Dragonfire - I remember the <a href="https://www.digitpress.com/archives/columbiahouse/index.htm">Columbia Game of the Month club poster</a> for this. Also great swooping action on the second screen.

2020.06.05

He accepts defeat as a defeat; he does not try to change it into a victory or an experience. He suffers the pain of his wounds, the indifference of his friends and the loneliness of loss. At such moments he says to himself: "I fought for something, and I failed to get it. I lost the first battle."<br>

2020.06.08

Finally, I went back to my 2015 Global Game Jam game for the Atari 2600, Loaded4Bear, and created <a href="https://alienbill.com/loaded4bear/">Loaded4Bear<sup>AI</sup></a> the same game but with an option for a computer opponent... an idea I've had in the back of my head since we first made it. I also love video games where a computer opponent is playing by the same rules as the human...I contacted the musician (whose original chiptunes stuff is low-key the best part of the game) and the artist who touched up the old cover art.<br>

2020.06.25

2. A silver lining to the dark cloud of never put in the work to learn to cook is that small discoveries seem amazing. Like, my go-to breakfast for quarantine is "banana with nutella on a flax/oat bran/whole wheat wrap". 3 months in and many bananas later I realize it's like twice as good if you slice the banana first, rather than just treating it like a fruity hot dog. The mouth feel is greatly improved and I think there's more surface area for the flavor, more "banana meets that-permitted-in-the-morning-frosting-that-is-nutella" action

2020.06.29

I think that there's a limited time when a techie is likely to make a big move to follow a job (though I guess I can think of more examples than I first realized if I try). But there's a big anchoring effect... you go to college, then you either stay in that area, return to your hometown, or maybe land a new job someplace new to you. Then there's about one period in your late 20s where you might relocate again. <br>

2020.07.02

<td>Sodden song.<br>The "Watch Out for Fireballs" Podcast quoted "Love is like a bottle of gin / But a bottle of gin is not like love"</td>

2020.07.05

First they said "masks don't help"<br>

2020.07.08

<footer>Lars in "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga"</footer>

2020.07.16

<blockquote class='quote'>But in this time, it's almost like you're afraid. You're afraid to step out and be joyful, you're afraid to kind of affirm the positive and stuff, But I'm telling you it's a big moment in our history... and it's a wonderful time to be barely alive.

2020.07.17

So at that dinner with A, for the first time a newly amalgamated thought clicked...<br>

I feel like they're our first husband, who was fine but our lives just moved in different directions. Perfect!

Welcome to our family first husband. We'll always remember the time we shared as having been okay.

I guess I aim for "having been ok". (Reminds me of my first company, where one senior developer remarked we had "delusions of mediocrity.")

2020.07.20

I try to have a weekly call with my 6yr old superniece Cora. Not that I can complain relative to actual parents, but sometimes it's tough to be mutually entertaining over a FaceTime for hours at a time... but we're both only kids so we figure stuff out. Sometimes parallel play with Legos and/or her "magic sand", sometimes little dramas with her dolls and my lego figures or old robot-y toys (she figured out a clever way to have the toys using FaceTime as part of the story.) Yesterday we came up with semi-collaborative drawing on our tablets... here's what I made on my end, from Sea Creatures (including a seal, and I tried to illustrate working-to-get-better-at-something, and it was ok that my first seal was meh, but then I used some reference art....) then unicorn and dragon hybrids, including a Winnie the Pooh dragon and a Roomba dragon, then some talk about ALien Bill, then we made the same birds I made for my sixth grade story <a href="https://kirk.is/2020/07/19/">Koans</a> (good exercise for her in going step by step for drawing) I also lightly touched on the whole "sometimes you draw by doing the whole shape, rather than piece by piece."

2020.07.24

You first.

<blockquote class='quote'>Let's just say that where a change was required, I adjusted. In every relationship that exists, people have to seek a way to survive. If you really care about the person, you do what's necessary, or that's the end. For the first time, I found that I really could change, and the qualities I most admired in myself I gave up. I stopped being loud and bossy ... Oh, all right. I was still loud and bossy, but only behind his back.

<blockquote class='quote'>Love at first sight is one of the greatest labor-saving devices the world has ever seen.

2020.07.29

Inspect the sides of the bottle. You would expect to a see a homogenous mix of colors, but instead you see a beautiful mosaic made up of irregular large red clumps interspersed with equally large green clumps. The pattern is so unexpected that even mathematicians, when they first see it, believe that some sort of electrostatic effect is causing spheres of like color to stick to one another. Actually, nothing but chance is operating. The mosaic is the normal result of random clumping.<br>

Of course at first the action seems slow, because most of the swaps are of a color with itself.

2020.07.30

If I've ever been tempted to shout "Eureka!" it was then. "Eureka!" is supposed to be reserved for Archimedean breakthroughs, which, alas, this did not turn out to be. I later discovered that many others had had exactly the same idea. At that moment, however, I thought I was the first. A genius, basically. The mortifying pizza party faded.<br>

Heh, I guess there's a parallel between deciding to prefer "they/them" pronouns as a protest against being so worried about specific pronouns in the first place, and thinking about skin tones in hands and face emoji... if canary yellow is a good "race-neutral" color or if, like the cartoon Simpsons, it codes as white and so isn't good for a default. (And if a coworker with a darker complexion does a thumbs up that matches their skin, is it ok to just +1 that, even when it's not your tone? Like that seems less awkward than a separate thumbs up that matches your own paler skin. Probably better to switch to the checkmark or "+1" icon in that case.)

2020.08.03

(video assembled by <a href="https://chillinintheshade.com/">Red Shaydez</a> who ends the video spittin' a little fire)

2020.08.05

1. Remember Sniglets? Words for phenomenon that many people encounter but don't have a single term for? I need one for when you get 3-4 notifications for the same damn event at the same time, button on different devices or from different programs. Like I have my Outlook calendar events mirrored in Apple Calendar, but then both fire alerts, along with maybe Microsoft Teams separately for the video call, the phone and maybe even an iPad I keep at hand. Same for phone calls! Phone, laptop, iPad... all suddenly clamoring to let me pick up an incoming call. Probably I could shut off some of these that are always redundant...<br>

2. Thinking again about the challenge of staying focused during meetings, how it helps to think of it as a form of mindfulness. Same for dealing with coder angst during the workday, actually... (hopping up to get a drink of water or whatever... then realizing it's already chugged by the time I sit down again...) Social media's the most obvious ever present temptation, though I know always present Internet has been an all-too-easy escape hatch since my first job. I've learned to control it but still.<br>

2020.08.10

<blockquote class='quote'>Anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture.<br>

Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts. We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.

2020.08.13

(Now, if you're going to ask why this deranged expectation that one should always agree to explicitly stated requests unless one can justify refusal has come about in the first place, well, that's where we're gonna have to get political.)

2020.08.15

This lovely cool down reminds me how the first part of quarantine was marked by my library of hoodies. <br>

2020.08.18

One of the friends was lapsed Catholic. He mentioned one moral question he ponders on, the abstract question of who is the more moral person, the person who is always tempted but consistently defies it (possibly because of fear of hellfire) and does the right thing, or the person who is never tempted in the first place. <br>

2020.08.20

(don't use if you're paranoid about revealing your year of birth and first name in combination!)

2020.08.29

(I think I first saw Postel's Law cited by Larry "Perl" Wall.)

2020.08.30

<blockquote class='quote'>At the end of his life, the great picture book author Maurice Sendak said on the NPR interview show Fresh Air, "I cry a lot because I miss people. I cry a lot because they die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more." He said, "I'm finding out as I'm aging that I'm in love with the world." And I remember, when I first listened to that interview, wondering if I would ever feel that way.<br>

2020.08.31

Random self-indulgent first world nerdery: for a long time I've really liked having a second monitor up above my laptop, using the laptop as the keyboard and trackpad and secondary monitor. It seemed like such a no-brainer, I almost had pity on my coworkers who put the laptop on a stand and needed a separate mouse and keyboard. I loved how the trackpad is right there beneath your thumbs, none of that reach over for the mouse, and just how efficient it seemed in general - and also the elegance of having the same arrangement when on the go or at the desk, so never having to retrain my hands...

2020.09.05

(My first attempt with the bee was kind of an electric blue, which I realized was less soothing than I was hoping for...)

2020.09.12

I play the tuba. It's a rather pleasant way I have of passing time. In this world there are few instruments in which the very playing of the said instrument is in itself a physical endeavor. The tuba is one of them. "I am a tuba player," states my philosophy, "therefore I can do anything." I consider the tuba the penultimate instrument. First God created the tuba, then with the material remaining He/She created the other instruments. The ultimate instrument, of course, is the kazoo. But the the tuba is a close second.<br>

2020.09.26

<a href="https://toys.alienbill.com/daylight/">toys.alienbill.com/daylight/</a> - woke up too early this morning. Noticing how it was still dark inspired me to update one of my first infographics, plotting out sunrise/sunset over the course of a year. I added a new overlay showing how much the daylight shifted on a day to day basis, and could see how that around the solstices there isn't much change, but around now, near the equinox, the shift is pretty rapid.

2020.09.27

It really runs into the muchness of the world. So many of these games, packing them up for selling is the last time I'll think about them. And I have a pipedream of like getting random young folkI know enthused about this stuff... but does that even matter? Is not being able to let them fire up "Rayman Raving Rabids" on Wii that big of a loss, wouldn't we find other things to do?

2020.09.28

So glad to see the Poetry Unbound podcast is starting up another season. (One of the the few things I'm not tempted to put on 1.5x speed.) In each the poem is read, thoughtfully discussed, and then read again. The first episode of the new season,

2020.10.02

<footer>Arcade Fire, "The Suburbs (Continued)"</footer>

2020.10.03

<a href="https://kirk.is/drawing/">kirk.is/drawing</a> - my vacation project was a free, minimalist shared whiteboard webapp. (Worked to make sure it was reasonably mobile friendly) Basically if you're on a call and need to express an ideally visually, and both sides have a gadget handy, you can run here and fire up a new board. (Some messaging apps have something similar already built-in, of course, but I still think this might be handy...)

2020.10.04

and they were the first to go<br>

2020.10.06

(I love "i may not be what they want me to be / but the good lord knows i tried" - it's a tongue twister! also new to my Aunt who only knew the first and last parts)<br>

2020.10.08

Growing up I loved Lego's "Space" series. And I've always loved robots. One of my first really big scores was this lovely beast:<br>

2020.10.13

Think of another graph. The x-axis is still just the unalterable fact of time. But the y value represents some combination of hassle, perceived or actual usefulness, regret, hope, etc. As the first graph grinds on, this graph, tracking the willingness to keep going, comes to look like exponential decay. You could say this graph reveals the half-life of attachment.

For a hot second I got fooled by a phisher - a plausible enough gmail address for the minister of a UU church I used to be associated with (I think including her photo) and included the church's actual physical address in the sig. The first message was "write me back quick", the second was <blockquote class="quote">Glad to hear from you Kirk, I'm in a conference meeting right now and only have access to email that's why i'm contacting you here. I would have called, instead of emailing you but phone calls are not allowed during the meeting.<br>

2020.10.14

The <a href="https://kirk.is/2020/10/02/">other week</a> I posted lyrics to Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs (Continued)". For some reason I wanted to take a deeper dive at deconstructing it. (Sort of a throw back to my English major University days, though maybe more subjectively than I was allowed to then! I once did a ten page paper on a 3 line poem.)<br>

The first lyrics start continuing the wistful tone set by the orchestration:<br>

2020.10.19

In October 1995, Wired magazine had an interesting special issue: "Wired Scenarios 1.01: the Future of the the Future." One part that really stuck in my mind was "A Day in the Life", four two-page spreads with first person perspectives of people looking at October 19, 2020's - today's! - news on their distinctly iPad-like tablet devices.

2020.10.21

<blockquote class='quote'>Certainly it's true that a little ironic distancing can work wonders as a coping device. At Groucho Marx's separation from his first wife, Ruth, for example, he told a joke. After many unhappy years, they had agreed to a divorce, and so she packed up the car and was leaving the house for the last time. Groucho put out his hand and said, "Well, it was nice knowing you . . . and if you're ever in the neighborhood again, drop in." Ruth laughed, and the tension was broken.

2020.10.22

<blockquote class='quote'>This week I went to the polls in Texas. Truth be told, I am a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, small-government, strong-defense and a national-anthem-standing conservative. But, I also believe that black lives matter, that the Dreamers deserve a path to citizenship, that diversity and inclusion are essential to our national success, that education is the great equalizer, that climate change is real and that the First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. Most important, I believe that America must lead in the world with courage, conviction and a sense of honor and humility.<br>

2020.10.25

My friend Rayna Jhaveri asks deep questions on Facebook, tying in with her general interest in people as well as her consulting/coaches for the coaches gig. My dialog with her in response to "what were you like as a child" ("insufferable" was my first concise answer) let do this <br>

I'm not sure who or what exactly informed my childhood views on the difficulty of getting into heaven. My parents were hardly fire and brimstone preachers, and certainly a lot of my peers seemed more relaxed, the "just accept Jesus into your heart and you'll be fine" view.<br>

2020.10.26

Look at movie making. We've been making movies for a hundred years. Haven't we figured out the creative process yet? No! We haven't. You can take a great director, a great cast, and still make a totally shitty movie. Versus in building, largely speaking, if you take a great architect, a great engineering firm, and a great general contractor, you're gonna arrive at a building that works. You may make minor mistakes but the basic structure is going to be sound, unless someone makes a completely negligent error. In movie making, in music, in software things fail all the time. Even when good people who know the techniques of how to build things get together and work on something, they still end up failing.

2020.11.02

<td></td><td><a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Euj9f3gdyM'>The Suburbs</a> <br><i>Arcade Fire</i></td>

<td>First 5 star for me in a bit. Just has the percussion on soul choir effect and general great feel.<br>At work we put together a joint Spotify "music to put on to get heads down at work" playlist.</td>

2020.11.11

I first saw a version of the effect at the (sadly defunct) Boston Computer Museum - I think the visitor could add one dot at a time that would slide back and forth, and then as more dots were added, the rotation would become more obvious.<br>

2020.11.12

"I make my ramen the way a friend taught me in eleventh grade. Every fall, I listen to a playlist made for me by a boy I drove across a border to hook up with. I eat sushi because a girl who won't talk to me anymore made me try it, and Indian food because my best friend's parents ordered for me before I knew what I liked. There are movies I love because someone I loved loved them first. I am a mosaic of everyone I've ever loved, even for a heartbeat."

2020.11.13

you never made any effort to affirm his humanity or show the love of Jesus to him in any quantifiable measure.<br>

2020.11.14

Just saw someone in a mask the same color as the skin above it. Damn at first glance that is creepy as heck, like the old Star Trek episode Charlie X...<br>

2020.11.15

For me, the funniest thing about Giuliani's badness for Trump overall is my (I guess unconfirmed?) theory that Trump just loves, loves, loves how the damn Mayor of NYC - with all his 9/11 gravitas and what not - is his personal lapdog. Like it must have been such a nice piece of the power trip for him...

2020.11.17

<a href="https://www.livescience.com/first-case-coronavirus-found.html">Happy Frickin' Birthday</a> COVID.

2020.11.18

Reading about Obama's first visit to Kenya (before he went to Harvard) and his discomfort with the remainders of colonialism he saw led me to looking up the Wikipedia page for "Guns, Germs, and Steel"- a book that describes how much of a culture's grown power is much more a matter of happenstance than of intrinsic values of the population. I guess the book talks about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina_principle">The Anna Karenina principle</a>- I've always wondered about <blockquote>All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.</blockquote> but wikipedia interprets it as <blockquote>In other words: happy families share a common set of attributes which lead to happiness, while any of a variety of attributes can cause an unhappy family. This concept has been generalized to apply to several fields of study.</blockquote>

2020.11.19

<blockquote class='quote'>A fire knows<br>

<blockquote class='quote'>Balk's First Law: Everything you hate about the Internet is actually everything you hate about people.<br>

2020.11.20

At first they were facing outwards, but the way it zooms out when you swipe up from an app made it look like they were flying backwards... this is much cuter.

2020.11.30

Bringing it to me (which is something I do a bit too often, but I forgive myself for :-D After all I'm the only person I have first hand knowledge of):<br>

My first thought was, maybe I'm better than average at self-forgiveness, and forgiveness in general (Sometimes it makes juggling friendships tough when some of my friends are NOT so forgiving/tolerant of other of my friends... but of course, I'm not in a place to judge my friends for being judgey.) <br>

2020.12.06

BIO: Jeffrey Ventrella is an expert on fractals in art, which was the topic of his first dissertation. His second dissertation was on genetic algorithms in animation and graphic design, which he earned from the MIT Media Lab. Jeffrey has taught at Syracuse, Tufts, UCSD, and SFU, and has lectured internationally on artificial life, math visualization, and creative coding. For examples of Jeffrey's work, visit:<br>

2020.12.15

<blockquote class='quote'>"The past is gone, and cannot harm you anymore. And while the future is fast coming for you, it always flinches first and settles in as the gentle present" _are you kidding me_ this quote has propelled me through at least three emotional crises

2020.12.16

that sets the landscape on fire<br>

the fires tamped down)<br>

my own fear fire was laced with brimstone <br>

2020.12.18

Last night Erika, the co-facilitator of the Science and Spirituality reading/discusson group I manage, led a discussion on the first 3 lectures in William James' 1902 book <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/621">The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>. I think most of the other folks in the group resonated with the James more than I did...<br>

2020.12.19

<footer>James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time"</footer>

<footer>James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time"</footer>

<footer>James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time"</footer>

<footer>James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time"</footer>

2020.12.22

<blockquote class='quote'>What I say to them are the one or two best things that I learned from Sen. [Ted] Kennedy. First of all, the best is the enemy of the good. He didn't make that up. But if you have a choice between achieving 20 or 30 percent of what you'd like or being the hero of all your friends, choose the first. We're not here just to make speeches. The second thing, which I think is really of great practical value, is don't worry about credit. Credit is a weapon. You give the other person the credit. When you disagree with someone, get them to talk about the problem. Eventually--it happens almost always--they'll say something you agree with. Then you can say, "Let's work with that."

2020.12.30

<li class='plusplus'>First grade I had a teacher who was a nun of the "everyone goes at their own pace" variety, but my second grade nun was having none of that. After some physical contention the dicocese ran me through some tests and had me skip second (my parents declined a scholarship for me at like a specialty boarding school, that's always a minor what-if for me but I'm pretty sure I had a better life!)

<li class='plus'>"Student of the Week" w my first week at the new school

2021.01.03

<blockquote class='quote'>To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernable but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through. What else will do except faith in such cynical, corrupt time? When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word. Time to shut up and be beautiful and wait for the morning. Yahooism, when in power, is deaf, and neither satire nor the Gospel will stay its brutal hand, but hang on, another chapter follows. Our brave hopes for changing the world all sank within view of their home port, and we become the very people we used to make fun of, the old and hesitant, but never mind, that's not the whole story either. So, hang on. What keeps our faith cheerful is the extreme persistence of gentleness and humor. Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that the faith rules through ordinary things; through cooking and small talk, through storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through sports, music and book, raising kids- all the places where the gravy soaks in and grace shines through. Even in times of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people. Lacking any other purposes in life, it would be good enough for their sake.

2021.01.10

<span class='star3'>Booksmart</span>, <span class='star3'>Fortune Feimster: Sweet & Salty</span>, <span class='star3'>Hustlers</span>, <span class='star3'>Brittany Runs a Martathon</span>, <span class='star4'>Parasite</span>, <span class='star2'>Logan Lucky</span>, <span class='star3'>End of Envagelion</span>, <span class='star3'>Homecoming</span>, <span class='star4'>End Times Fun</span>, <span class='star4'>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</span>, <span class='star3'>Astartes</span>, <span class='star3'>Event Horizon</span>, <span class='star4'>React for Beginners</span>, <span class='star4'>Maria Bamford: Weakness is the Brand</span>, <span class='star4'>The Shawshank Redemption</span>, <span class='star3'>Sincerely</span>, <span class='star3'>Boyz N The Hood</span>, <span class='star3'>Modern Times</span>, <span class='star3'>Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future</span>, <span class='star3'>Patton Oswald: I Love Everything</span>, <span class='star3'>Beyond</span>, <span class='star2'>UHF</span>, <span class='star3'>It Happened One Night</span>, <span class='star3'>Just Mercy</span>, <span class='star2'>Dave Attell : Captain Miserable</span>, <span class='star3'>Moonlight</span>, <span class='star4'>Eric Andre Legalize Everything</span>, <span class='star4'>O Brother, Where Art Thou?</span>, <span class='star4'>Knives Out</span>, <span class='star3'>Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga</span>, <span class='star3'>Jim Jeffries Intolerant</span>, <span class='star3'>School of Rock</span>, <span class='star4'>Dolemite is my Name</span>, <span class='star4'>Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning</span>, <span class='star3'>The Beastie Boys Story</span>, <span class='star3'>Shazam</span>, <span class='star3'>Rob Schneider: Asian Momma, Mexican Kids</span>, <span class='star4'>I'm Thinking of Ending Things</span>, <span class='star4'>The Science of Sleep</span>, <span class='star3'>What Happened Was</span>, <span class='star4'>Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion</span>, <span class='star2'>The Machinist</span>, <span class='star2'>Halloween</span>, <span class='star4'>On The Waterfront</span>, <span class='star3'>American History X</span>, <span class='star3'>Lewis Black: Thanks for Risking Your Life</span>, <span class='star3'>Borat Subsequent Moviefilm</span>, <span class='star3'>Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine</span>, <span class='star3'>Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy</span>, <span class='star3'>The Oath</span>, <span class='star3'>Uncle Frank</span>, <span class='star3'>The Witches of Eastwick</span>, <span class='star3'>The Great Dictator</span></div>

<span class='star5'>Poetry Unbound</span>, <span class='star3'>No Stupid Questions</span>, <span class='star3'>Retronauts</span>, <span class='star3'>The Talk Show with John Gruber</span>, <span class='star3'>Watch Out for Fireballs!</span>, <span class='star3'>Triple Click</span>, <span class='star4'>My Brother, My Brother And Me</span>, <span class='star3'>St Elwick's Neighbourhood Association Newsletter Podcast</span>, <span class='star3'>Making Sense</span>, <span class='star3'>The Allusionist</span>, <span class='star3'>99% Invisible</span>, <span class='star3'>The Anthropocene Reviewed</span>, <span class='star3'>The Argument</span>, <span class='star3'>Baby Geniuses</span>, <span class='star3'>Beef and Dairy Network</span>, <span class='star4'>McGST Podcast</span></div>

2021.01.15

That was a quote from his page on the early web - early enough that my coworker David could get his first and last name .net:

2021.01.19

This was the first fiction in a while where during the day I was really looking forward to get back to it and see where it goes next. For me the biggest delight is in Leonard's reframing of things I take for granted, either in a character speaking the truth about something or by switching around the context and having the aliens do something parallel to one of our mundane things, letting me the fundamental oddness or arbitrariness of it.

2021.01.22

How did Melissa and I get through 4 years of the previous administration without noticing the First Lady totally sounds like Nadja from "What We Do in the Shadows"??<br>

2021.01.29

His point blew my mind a little bit... (especially interesting since he gives props to my <a href="https://alienbill.com/2600/101/">early 2600 tutorials</a> helping him when he first started out) I've dabbled a bit in Atari and read "Racing the Beam", but never thought about this particular merge of Time and Space: everything that puts a graphic in the right place is fundamentally based on these timers! (The amazingness of this point probably has a pretty small audience, but still...)

2021.02.01

I've been relistening to the audiobook version of Karen Armstrong's "The Case for God", seeing if it resonates differently for me ten years later. It's positioned as a bit of a retort to the New Atheism of Dennett/Harris/Dawkins/Hitchens. I guess I still have the same thought on it as I did then: <blockquote>She asserts repeatedly that ancient peoples had a clear split between Mythos and Logos (an idea first introduced to me in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"). Some cultures had multiple creation myths geared at explaining different aspects of the human experience, and none of them were expected to hold up to a literal interpretation as historic events. The book doesn't really cite evidence, though (at least not the audio version, I don't know if the real thing has endnotes or something) so I'm left wondering if maybe folks were just, you know, gullible back then. I mean, I'm sure some of the hoi polloi took the stories at face value -- I can't believe the question "mommy, did that really happen?" is new, created by our modern culture.</blockquote>She often uses language like "these stories weren't <i>meant</i> to be taken literally" which forces the question- meant by whom? The original authors? The hierarchy that used them to persuade people to share in the group? Or the people themselves?<br>

This time through, I'm thinking about the Bible story of 1 Kings 1:18-40, Elijah vs 450 prophets of Baal. He challenges them to a duel, separate bull sacrifices, and the real God would set His altar on fire. Elijah even douses his rebuilt altar with 12 jugs of water! <blockquote class="quote">Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.</blockquote>

2021.02.08

<i>* At first I thought, aha, Left = L = Logic. But, that doesn't preclude Right = R = Rationality. So Language/Realness is a better split.</i>

2021.02.22

One problem with AI can lurk in edge cases you didn't think of. Like, they will happily exploit any glitches in your physics to maximize the result you tell it to look for - happily evolve a tiny, fast critter that can glitch behind a wall and then get shot back out at tremendous speed in order to maximize velocity, say. One quote: <blockquote class="quote">Sometimes I think the surest sign that we're not living in a simulation is that if we were, some organism would have learned to exploit its glitches.</blockquote> My first thought was...huh, that might be the kind of thing a warp drive maker would be hunting for. Then I realized, in a way, nuclear weapons are kind of exploiting a glitch like that, or at least using the same kind of logic as a game glitch exploiter. (Oh, what happens if we put ENOUGH of this one kind of material all in one space at once? BOOOM!) <br>

2021.02.23

Great podcast on physics! Also I guess this quote is a little kinder sounding than Star Trek's "Time is the fire in which we burn"...

2021.02.25

<ul><li>Swirl of Hell<li>Person Cream<li>Nightham Toffee<li>Feethberrardern's Death<li>Necrostar with Chocolate Person<li>Dirge of Fudge<li>Beast Cream<li>End All<li>Death Cheese<li>Blood Pecan<li>Silence of Coconut<li>The Butterfire<li>Spider and Sorbeast<li>Blackberry Burn</ul>

2021.03.02

I really loved the drumline cadences we had at Euclid High School in the early 90s, and I'm always keeping my ears open for similar stuff. The first half of this gets the spirit of it. (So many other drumlines have such boring, technically challenging but funkless stuff... a good cadence is kind of like a melody, it has a larger form a casual listener can really grab onto.)<br>

2021.03.09

<br>BONUS: Not a kitty I lived with, but Rebekah's kitty Lily was super sweet. And one of my first attempts at Photoshopping someone.

2021.03.12

Definitely aware of the privilege in being able to buy right now - I'm more lucky than good to have the resources to do this. (A possible downpayment kind of fell into my lap from my last company, and stumbling onto techie stuff as a career path in general - the 90s right before the first dot com thing - was also crazy good luck.)<br>

2021.03.23

<blockquote class='quote'>Through the history of mankind, this question has been asked: "Why are we here, and what makes us act as we do?" Religion after religion has been formed in a fruitless attempt to find some answer. The proton, neutron, and electron come closer to an answer to the question of life than any other offered. Science is broad, not narrow, as so many persons smugly believe. When I first fell in love with you, one electron hit another in my head, causing a chemical reaction, billions of electrons hitting billions of other electrons. These electrons flowed through a conductor, a nerve, all over the body, causing further reactions wherever they flowed, Valves opened and closed; new chemicals were pitted into my bloodstream. I put my arm around you, kissed you, told you I loved you. That one electron liked you better than anybody else.

2021.03.30

ISSUE #1! The Force. In the first Star Wars, "the Force" was mostly about intuition and "trusting your feelings". If you were REALLY strong with the Force, you could put a whammy on weak-minded people, like "these aren't the droids you're looking for" or when Obi Wan made some other stormtroopers think they heard a noise behind them. Darth Vader was strong enough in the Force that he made a dude think he was choking to death, and he had, like, a weird feeling when his old mentor Obi Wan was nearby, but it was so weak he dismissed it.<br><br>

Then in Empire Strikes Back, the Force is suddenly full-on telekinesis in the first 10 minutes with Luke TKing his lightsaber to his hand, Yoda levitating an entire X-Wing out of a swamp, Vader TK-throwing stuff around during a fight, and Luke doing a wire-fu super jump. AND there's Force ghosts! Whereas Luke hearing Obi Wan saying "use the Force, Luke!" at the end of the first movie could've been a memory or at most Obi Wan's will reaching out through the Force to deliver one final message, in Empire he's right there walkin' around, sitting on logs and having conversations like this is all totally normal. AAAAAND then at the very end Luke and Darth have a telepathic conversation across probably thousands of miles of space, so that's part of the Force now, too. Which brings us to...<br><br>

ISSUE #2! A big important message of the first movie was that even if you're just some rando farmboy from Planet Nowheresville, you could learn the mystical arts and use your farmboy pluck and skills you developed bullseying womprats out of sheer boredom to save the galaxy! This was very inspirational to all the Nowheresville farmboys of the world, of which there are quite a few, who had otherwise mostly been told that heroism was for princes and knights and stuff. Sure, Luke's neighbor happened to have been the sensei of Darth Vader, and Luke's dad had been a knight, but from the sound of it Luke's dad was just another of the countless dudes Darth Vader smushed on his way to supremacy.<br><br>

So there you go! In retrospect, all the changes in The Force Awakens that everyone complains about don't hold a candle to what Empire Strikes Back pulled on the first Star Wars.

2021.04.01

On the day of the 1000 meter short track event, it looked like those predictions would bear out. Going into the semi-finals, having made it that far only due to the disqualification of stronger competitors, Bradbury was already exhausted (it was his third event of the day), and he trailed far behind the pack. However, three of his four opponents stumbled on the final lap, allowing him to advance. In the final, Bradbury's opponents fared even worse, becoming entangled in a massive wipeout just fifty meters short of the goal, and Bradbury was able to weave through the resulting pileup and coast to the finish line, capturing Australia's first Winter Olympics gold.<br>

2021.04.05

<td>Modern indie. It's no "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" but it's ok<br>Daring Fireball <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2021/03/going_longer

2021.04.09

I figure the first interesting bit is her (2 digit) birthyear and mine being swaps - '47 and '74. For such swaps, there will always be a year where the parent and child's age is also a swap... and that year will be a multiple of 11, like 1900 + (11 * 11) = 2021. I'm trying to figure out if we get any more interesting because 7 + 4 = 11.<br>

<a href="/m/2021/04/08/us-states-but-first-letter-missing.jpg"><img src="/m/2021/04/08/us-states-but-first-letter-missing_560.jpg" border="0" width="560" height="481"></a>[[1617966861]]

2021.04.12

Joined the Vaxholes with my pfirst pfizer. Thanks to my sweetie Melissa for taking point with the opening notification! And still on track for moving tomorrow...

2021.04.18

<blockquote class='quote'>People walking along the street observed sparks jumping between their feet and the ground. Sparks sprang from water line taps when touched. Light bulbs within 100 feet of the lab glowed even when turned off. Horses in a livery stable bolted from their stalls after receiving shocks through their metal shoes. Butterflies were electrified, swirling in circles with blue halos of St. Elmo's fire around their wings.

2021.05.03

<td>The first (and my favorite) of 3 songs me and my tuba appear in this month! (All by some work I did last year w/ The Sound Down Cellar.) I even have a cameo in the music video.<br></td>

2021.05.06

I ponder on these quotes, because they certainly challenge the kind of taoist/buddhist-ish equanimity I try to live. Like, I think a lot of damage is done by people firmly grasping opinions, and follow the brain's inclination to decide "Am I on team 'All For' or 'Absolutely Against' this?"<br>

2021.05.11

<blockquote class="quote">3. Those who are accustomed to judge by feeling do not understand the process of reasoning, for they would understand at first sight and are not used to seek for principles. And others, on the contrary, who are accustomed to reason from principles, do not at all understand matters of feeling, seeking principles and being unable to see at a glance.</blockquote>

2021.05.23

So what caused my crisis of faith as a teen was pondering on how many different firmly held and incompatible faiths there were in the world. Like, they CAN'T all be true in the sense that many of them claim to be completely and UNIVERSALLY true! So we get something like Fig 3:

2021.05.27

<blockquote class='quote'>Say the purpose of sex isn't procreation or recreation. Say it's concentration. Say it makes you focus on the person you're sleeping with, 'cause there's just too many other people in the world. It's like biological highlighter. [...] Look for me first, in any crowded room, and I'll do the same.

2021.05.28

It's frustrating to know that Boston carries this reputation, and that it's not just an artifact of, like, the Red Sox being the last team to desegregate or the Celtics being the 80's bastion of white basketball (after some initial firsts, like first Black drafted player, first all Black starting lineup, first Black head coach) or anti-Bus protests and that asshole <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/1l4zpm/antibusing_protestor_attacks_a_passing_attorney/">attacking a Black guy with a flag</a><br>

2021.06.04

<blockquote class='quote'>Intelligence is to win an argument. Wisdom is to not argue in the first place.

2021.06.11

For me, coming to terms with this kind of scale of personal insignificance and vast scale impermanence is an important part of self-care. I know for some, the wiser tactic is to steer clear of thinking about it, but I find if I really embrace the "This Fate" tattoo I added a few years ago (we get tattoos of things we love or aspire to love, so my tattoo is a loose translation of "Amor Fati") I am better positioned to cope with what my more immediate world confronts me with. For me, hiding from something - catching myself realize I'm distracting myself - gives that thing I'm hiding from a more power than it would otherwise have, confirms it as a potentially unmanageable threat.

2021.06.12

(English gets a lot of "self-deprecation" from cosmopolitan first-language speakers of it for not being so elegant sounding, and for its spelling inconsistencies. But those inconsistencies reflect a larger than average draw from other languages. My understanding is that English is a pretty easy language to pick up the basics of (maybe because of that "reductionist" mode, without so many conjugation rules critical to making oneself understood) but also it has one of the largest vocabularies - a fluent speaker has a lot of near synonyms to choose from, each with a different nuance. (Like in that opening sentence, I chose "strolling" over walking, jogging, crawling, sauntering, ambling, puttering, moseying, cruising, etc))<br>

2021.06.22

<blockquote class='quote'>I have only ever had one friend as crazy as I am. Once, we painted a giant fireplace onto a wall in her apartment as decoration for a dinner party we were hosting. Later, toward the end of the party, she led our guests onto the roof, bringing with her a boom box playing Strauss. I climbed up the fire escape in a ball gown. I held out my hand. We waltzed with speed and gusto. Our friends and professors looked on, terrified: there was no railing.<br>

2021.07.09

Very Damon Runyon-like energy in the first part: lots of action but told in a third hand kind of way, among a broadly painted community with brilliant nicknames.

Torn as usual. My concerns for representation for all is balanced by a fear of Liberal Circular Firing Squads, where a potential ally becomes an enemy because it's not as strong of an ally on a particular theme as other groups think it could/should be.<br>

2021.07.11

<footer>"Bottle Rocket" (Wes Anderson's first film.)</footer>

2021.07.12

On Facebook, some friends graciously gave me feedback to my first post, and I found it so flattering I wanted to post it here for safekeeping.

2021.07.13

So to the extent we are probably arguing about cosmic and religious truths - more deeply than any particular description of what was going, I drank the idea that it should be universally true for everyone. The number of people believing something else entirely really demands some kind of explanation. I mean even if 180 degree triangles is true for me and everyone around me, all these people - presumably of good will? who are telling me, no, the numbers add up to something else... yet both sides insisting "no, this is UNIVERSALLY true, the truest true that ever trued"... well that ended up accidentally making my faith kind of brittle. And when combined with a few other adolescent observations of teenage behaviors (the slightly clockwork way that the first sunday altar call at Star Lake Musicamp was a bit of a dud, but the closing sunday was always vibrant small ministry stuff... and the way some of my peers were less nerdy, sunday-school straight and narrowers than I was despite my doubts) I leaned away from religion in general. Maybe I'm the poorer for it, but like I mentioned above, I take Truth maybe a bit too seriously - I would rather live with measured uncertainty and a sense of "best guess" than to be confidently at risk of being Wrong.

2021.07.19

For my first 3 months here I've been living a lie: there's a TV in the webcam shot behind me, and an Atari 2600, but the two weren't actually plugged in.<br>

2021.07.22

<blockquote class='quote'>The common shorthand in psychology circles for the tension between emotion and cognition--between what we feel and what we think--is to use the Star Trek characters of Captain Kirk and Officer Spock. Kirk is all heart, a man of intense and compelling emotions. He's fire. By contrast, Spock, that lovable, pointy-eared half human half Vulcan, is all head; he's a cerebral problem solver unencumbered by the distractions of feelings. He's ice. <br>

2021.07.24

It's too bad "It is what it is" has become such a trite cliché of the reality television set, because I think its calm refusal to sort into emotionally engaged wonderful/awful (with its tacit "yeah, this situation probably isn't my first choice" living in its meta-level) is a useful tool. As far as trite pop catchphrases go it's probably better than "It's all good!" which requires a bit more self-deception or spin to be consistently true.)<br>

2021.07.27

🙃 If sales @Boston-area Bertucci's rise they have the wildfires out west to thank

2021.07.28

The book takes on the difference between the Hemispheres - first from a physiological point of view (and trying to get much more firmly planted than the 80s/90s pop-psychology left brain/right brain stuff) and then the cultural ramifications, with different periods of history featuring different levels of balance. (And different cultures; near the end of the book he muses on how many Asian cultures seem to have less predominance of the left hemisphere, see things less in isolation and more in context.)

2021.08.01

<blockquote class='quote'>The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot.

2021.08.08

(good bonfire but beware the trash basement)

2021.08.23

<a href="https://gizmodo.com/pfzier-vaccine-is-first-to-get-full-fda-approval-has-a-1847538005">Pfizer Vaccine Is First to Get Full FDA Approval, Has a New Name: 'Comirnaty'</a><br>

2021.08.31

Fellow Atari-er Karl Garrison posted this Magic-Eye as the first one he was able to see (seems to work better on laptops, vs phone screens)<br>

2021.09.03

<td></td><td><a href='https://maidenfed.tumblr.com/post/658804673225080832'>My First Girlfriend (Slowed)</a> <br><i>MattyB</i></td>

So, Republican Senators breaks the government of confirmation for most of a year to steal a SCOTUS seat, Texas makes a law to unleash a legion of Deputy Dawgs to sue women and doctors, SCOTUS issues late night picayune rulings where the conservative bare majority pretend their hands are tied to stop things because of the bizarro legal cleverness. Huh.<br>

2021.09.04

<blockquote class='quote'>One of the things that commends travel, art, nature, work, and certain drugs to us is the way these experiences, at their best, block every mental path forward and back, immersing us in the flow of a present that is literally wonderful--wonder being the by-product of precisely the kind of unencumbered first sight, or virginal noticing, to which the adult brain has closed itself. (It's so inefficient!) Alas, most of the time I inhabit a near-future tense, my psychic thermostat set to a low simmer of anticipation and, too often, worry. The good thing is I'm seldom surprised. The bad thing is I'm seldom surprised.

2021.09.06

Will life never treat me decently? I am wracked by despair! My head is pounding. Mrs Sol Schwimmer is suing me because I made her bridge as I felt it and not to fit her ridiculous mouth. That's right! I can't work to order like a common tradesman. I decided her bridge should be enormous and billowing and wild, explosive teeth flaring up in every direction like fire! Now she is upset because it won't fit in her mouth! She is so bourgeois and stupid, I want to smash her.

2021.09.16

<blockquote class='quote'>No matter what instrument you are playing, you can't miss the first beat or you're through.

<blockquote class='quote'>Some time ago, the tenor saxophonist Frank Foster was playing a street concert from the Jazzmobile in Harlem. He called out for blues in B-flat. A young tenor player began to play "out" from the first chorus, playing sounds that had no relationship to the harmonic progression or rhythmic setting.<br>

2021.09.24

Finally got around to watching "Hamilton"! I admit, for the first 15 minutes or so Melissa and I were a little worried, it just felt very musical-y and the hip hop aspect a little cheesy, but once it settles in it really gets good, great writing and real human drama, the tragedy of it was moving. And I really liked the "cabinet debates as rap battles".

2021.10.01

<blockquote class='quote'>She picked her phone up off the coffee table. It was a hand-sized, rectangular device, similar in appearance to a mirror, but when imbued with electrical energy, its surface would display images and glyphs that responded to her touch. The smartphone was one of the most revolutionary technological advances of the twenty-first century. Its primary function was as a communication device, allowing her to send her voice, her image, or messages she typed onto the screen to others who possessed similar devices, but it also allowed her to search compiled records of human knowledge for any information she desired, listen to music, and watch pre-recorded theatrical performances, known as "movies--"

2021.10.05

First, the old news: I am no longer a person (as I might put it to a believer) blessed with the gift of faith. <br>

2021.10.15

<footer>Thomas Builds-The-Fire, "Smoke Signals"</footer>

2021.10.16

<blockquote class='quote'>The op-eds making the case for shutdown all seemed to follow the same formula, beginning with some vague appeal to the intrinsic value of human life and then quickly devolving into profitability algorithms and affordability assessments in an attempt to demonstrate that the choice made sense on both moral and economic fronts--a tactic that only confirmed, in the end, the opposing view that human life was reducible to economic logic. This trend reached its logical end in an op-ed by Paul Krugman, who flatly debunked the truism that human life was "priceless." The statistical cost of life was calculated all the time in transportation and environmental policy, he said: it was roughly $10 million.

2021.10.26

Today I found out I'm the first Google Image search hit for "mardi gras beads on tuba".<br>

2021.10.27

So apparently <a href="https://thesweetsetup.com/a-first-impressions-review-of-the-planck-ez-40-keyboard/">"40% keyboards", where 60% of the keys are like, not there, exist</a>? What's weird to me is the reviewer is more concerned about the lack of a right shift key and not the damn numbers and associated punctuation. I really don't get it.

2021.10.28

(Interesting to see where I go with iPads. I have a giant first gen Pro that was the first thing I could get that supported the Apple Pencil... it was FANTASTIC for e-comic-books but up until lately I've preferred the iPad mini as a reader. But between the creaky eyes and the way my large phone can do as a reader in a pinch, it's getting squeezed out. But the iPad Pro is corny huge, so maybe someday back to the cheap, medium-size iPad it will be. But iPads have tremendous longevity, so no rush.)

2021.11.01

<blockquote class='quote'>No matter what instrument you are playing you can't miss the first beat or you're through.

2021.11.09

<a href='https://fineartamerica.com/featured/atari-first-love-brand-a.html'><img src="/m/2021/11/09/Screen Shot 2021-11-09 at 7_560.30.04 PM.png" border="0" width="560" height="597"></a>

2021.11.12

I made an isometric doodling program based on an old <a href='https://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n5/eschersketcher.html'>Antic magazine type-in program</a>. You can see the <a href="https://editor.p5js.org/kirkjerk/sketches/j8v0rEd0M">first</a> and <a href="https://editor.p5js.org/kirkjerk/sketches/CT9Uh1eAg">second</a> rough drafts that tried to recreate the old way of doing the isometric artwork... but really P5's WebGL 3D mode and "normalMaterial" coloring was kind of made for it.

2021.11.20

First, as soon as someone sets foot inside the threshold of your home uninvited that you believe intends to commit a crime, you can legally use deadly force and it is immediately considered self defense, even if they haven't made any violent threats or actions towards harming you. <br>

If someone shoots at you or pulls a knife on you in the street, that is deadly force and can be met with deadly force. But if the person is unarmed, you cannot shoot them because you're afraid of a little scuffle. That is why Rittenhouse illegally shot the first protester, and it is one of the many reasons it cannot be considered self defense. The man threw a plastic bag with trash in it at him AND MISSED, and Rittenhouse shot him. He chased his victim and instigated a fight by brandishing and flagging people with his rifle, because he is an untrained idiot with a gun. The protester was not a threat, and even if he was, all he had to do was retreat back to the police line. He rushed at protesters with a gun drawn to pick a fight, and people are acting as if he were just there to keep the peace.<br>

He fired INTO A CROWD, and it's a miracle he didn't hit more people. More people that hadn't thrown a plastic bag. More people that were just trying to protest police brutality, which is a real issue in this country. <br>

First, there are no actual records of Jacob Blake or the people shot by Rittenhouse being in the official sex offender's registry. None of them raped a 14 year old girl years ago, that is complete fabrication being purposely spread by right wing extremist sites in order to try and justify the shootings. <br>

2021.11.24

<blockquote class='quote'>JEREMY ROBARD: Hi, I'm Jeremy Robard! Entrepreneur, VIP and founder of the revolutionary program "Think your way to success". It's a 3 step program that's been changing lives and my income for the last 2 years! 5 Years ago, I was a nobody, just like you! After my "Think Your Way To Success" program, I spend the entire weekend in my Jacuzzi, or engaging in the exciting sport of domino toppling! Hey! If you can think it, you can do it! One of my award winning courses is sure to be perfect for you. The first course, I call "Think - Hold That Thought - Complete", because that's what you do. Step 2 is known as "Learn - Start - Doing", where I explain the mysteries of starting. Or take the new accelerator course, which will have you laughing at ugly strangers, "Motivate, Demonstrate, Then Motivate Again". Just listen to these, endorsements and remember these people volunteered, they aren't being paid much.<br>

Just played GTA:VC (again) now that it's on Switch. It was my first GTA, and has a sweet spot between the over-simplicity of 3 (namely by having copters and motorcycles) and the huge scope of San Andreas.

2021.12.01

Secondly, the Matrix "We don't know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky. At the time, they were dependent on solar power. It was believed they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun." is not as close a reference as Snowpiercer's "CW-7 is being deployed into the upper layers of the atmosphere where it will bring down average global temperatures to the optimum levels of the last century. And we are witnessing it!"

So ya know, "TikTok" as an endless firehose of content doesn't interest me, but, like with Vine (RIP), I'm interested in as a thing, and sometimes there's a theme that really catches my eye.

2021.12.21

<a href="https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-qanon-cult-members-are-drinking-toxic-chemicals-en-masse-13038506">Dallas QAnon Cultists Are Drinking Toxic Chemicals from A Communal Bowl, Family Says</a> - unfortunately, not just a metaphor like I first hoped.

2021.12.31

okay, so, y-yes i do, i do believe in love at first sight but i also believe that you would love absolutely anybody if you knew their story i also believe that th- modern notion of romantic love is seriously misguided and it creates a lot of problems in our modern world i believe that we need to reevaluate this idea that we have of the nuclear family this idea that we have of 2.4 children this idea that we have that it's adam and eve and not adam and steve i believe that uhm it's possible for all of us to be in love all the time with ourselves and with everyone around us

JP Honk closing out the Boston First Night parade!

2022.01.02

I think he misses one of the main appeals of physical books; how they sit on the shelf after the main reading is done. Perhaps I'm a bit superficial but I value full bookcases as a reminder to myself (and a sign to visitors) of my history with and ongoing relationship to the printed word. Bogost addresses the physicality of print books as they are read, but on a shelf that physicality is equally even more significant; the shape and color and typography cement a book more firmly in bodily memory, as does the physical location on well-established, stable personal set of bookshelves.

2022.01.03

As usual I've noticed a two-axis aspect; images that are striking for me visually, in an abstract or objective way, and images that are more emotionally resonate, with the "best" images hitting high in both. But for my "second best" galleries, I realized I could use that split as an excuse to make two galleries, the first more purely visual:

2022.01.04

<span class='star4'>My Brother My Brother and Me</span>, Retronauts, Daring Fireball, Baby Geniuses, Poetry Unbound, Three Bean Salad, McGST Podcast, The Talk Show with John Gruber, Oh Hello

<i>Ryan North's graphic novel adaption of "Slaughterhouse Five" is truly first rate. I always love Alison Bechdel and "The Secret to Superhuman Strength" was all about her relationship with exercise and her body. A lot of the other 4-stars are me rereading Jeff Brown, I do love his autobiographical stuff.</i>

2022.01.05

<td>60s Black Folk cover of the Civil War classic.<br>First recommendation for this song, looked for it after thinking about adding "Solidarity Forever" (same tune different lyrics) for my band BABAM.</td>

2022.01.06

i just love the concept of a narrative foil and by narrative foil I mean a soul mate and by soul mate I mean a mirror image, a photographic negative of your insides, whole in ways you are broken, broken in ways you are whole and by that I mean your fate and by that I mean the immovable object to your unstoppable force and by that I mean a star with which you are locked in fatal orbit, doomed to meet in cataclysmic fire with open arms. the person that makes you say I could love you everywhere in all the dark places that needed love, and I could love you so perfectly we would both be annihilated. the person that is your downfall because they're your perfect shadow and you are the hero of this story but, hero, this was always going to happen, not because it's written in the stars, but because you would choose it, again and again and again

(That "again and again and again" construction and concept of choosing the other, always, is also used in the Arcade Fire "The Suburbs (Continued)"- I did a <a href="https://kirk.is/2020/10/14">deep reading of that haunting 1m30s of music</a> last fall.)

I am now fundamentally not a big swings planner and dreamer, and so I wonder, if I hadn't grown up with the idea that eternal life was possible IF you didn't screw this one up (and endless punishment for you if you did), followed by lessons outlining upcoming Christian persecution and general world-ending, and then more secular concerns like nuclear war, climate collapse, and in between those years I was really worried about Y2K computer implosions... would I have been better at shaping my career or maybe even aimed at a family life? (You can even make a narrative of my first main partner pivoting in her head to thinking in family terms, and me having not given indication I was joining her, and that drove her to look elsewhere.)

2022.01.12

I went to some other places - the pyramids of Egypt (first time I really got a sense of the layout of those and the sphinx), Tokyo, Paris, London. (Weirdly the London Eye is not really in the game, somehow compressed to be under the surface of the Thames) For those places I've been lucky enough to visit, it gave me a dual twinge of sorrow - both that we've been pretty isolated for so long, and then for the people I saw those places with I'm no longer connected to.

2022.01.14

<i>Psychology says</i>: but first it has to be night, so

2022.01.20

<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/willie-oree-congressional-gold-medal-house-nhl/index.html">House passes bill to award Congressional Gold Medal to Willie O'Ree, the first Black NHL player</a> Just found out about Willie O'Ree, first Black player in the NHL. Glad to hear he was a Bruin! Celtics were the first NBA team to draft an African American too. (Unlike the Red Sox who were notably last to integrate) <br>

2022.01.22

Maybe if I had grown up with a faith that leaned more into the mystery and not knowing and was a little more relaxed on the lifestyle thing... I think the Catholics have something going with the idea of confession, even if the idea of being reliant on the institution to save oneself from hellfire has been all too readily abused. Catholics - again, at least some Catholics - also seem to have a less literalist view of things, and accepting mystery and weirdness as a part of It all.

2022.01.23

If Conway had never turned his hand to designing cellular-automata worlds--if Conway had never even existed--some other mathematician might very well have hit upon exactly the Life world that Conway gets the credit for. So, as we follow the Darwinian down this path, God the Artificer turns first into God the Law*giver*, who now can be seen to merge with God the Law*finder*. God's hypothesized contribution is thereby becoming less personal--and hence more readily performable by something dogged and mindless!

Suppose surreal numbers had been invented first and real numbers second--suppose it had gone the other way and we had all grown up learning surreal numbers. And then someone said, 'Well, yeah, but there is this special case of the numbers you can write in decimal notation and so on.' If everybody had known surreal numbers from childhood, then physicists would believe that surreal numbers were real and that the universe, the laws of physics, would be defined by surreal numbers--and they would assume that things that are true of the surreal numbers are true in quantum theory. This makes me realize how much a leap of faith it is even to believe that physics based on real numbers is real. Because there is no more reason to believe that all the things in our universe can be infinitely divisible according to real numbers than there is to believe in surreal numbers. It's just a matter of familiarity with a concept. So when people develop theories of chaos based on real numbers, there is no reason to think that this could actually be true of the real world. In the same way, it wasn't until Einstein came along that people realized that there could be curvature in space with non-Euclidean geometries or that maybe the universe is only finite.

2022.01.30

One of them picks it up, rubs it, and out pops a Genie. It booms "You have finally freed me after all these years, so I'll grant each one of you 3 wishes." The first guy immediately blurts out "I want a billion dollars." POOF, he's holding a printout that shows his account balance is now in fact 1,000,000,003.50 The second man thinks for a bit, then says "I want to be the richest man alive." POOF, he's holding papers showing his net worth is now well over 100 billion. The third guy thinks even longer about his wish, then says "I want my left arm to rotate clockwise for the rest of my life." POOF, his arm starts rotating. The Genie tells them it's time for their second wish. First guy says: "I want to be married to the most beautiful woman on earth." POOF, a stunning beauty wraps herself around his arm. Second guy says "I want to be good-looking and charismatic, so I can have every girl I want." POOF, his looks change and the first guy's wife immediately starts flirting with him. Third guy says "I want my right arm to rotate counter-clockwise until I die." POOF, now both his arms are rotating, in opposite directions. The genie tells them to think very carefully about their third wish. First guy does, and after a while says "I never want to become sick or injured, I want to stay healthy until I die." POOF, his complexion improves, his acne is gone and his knees don't bother him any more. Second guy says "I never want to grow old. I want to stay 29 forever." POOF, he looks younger already. Third guy smiles triumphantly and says "My last wish is for my head to nod back and forth." POOF, he's now nodding his head and still flailing his arms around. The genie wishes them good luck, disappears, and the men soon go their separate ways.

Many years later they meet again and chat about how things have been going. First guy is ecstatic: "I've invested the money and multiplied it many times over, so me and my family will be among the richest of the rich pretty much forever. My wife is a freak in the sheets, and I've never gotten so much as a cold in all these years." Second guy smiles and says "Well, I built charities worldwide with a fraction of my wealth, I'm still the richest guy alive and also revered for my good deeds. I haven't aged a day since we last met, and yes, your wife is pretty wild in bed." Third guy walks in, flailing his arms around and nodding his head, and says:

2022.01.31

Actually I just read the essay (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2022/01/30/ian-leslie-get-back">via daring fireball</a>). It's a great essay. I really admire thoughts about the secondary character's - Ringo's zen-ness, George Martin's willingness to give space. Also how import Hamburg was to them - I think the movie "Backbeat" is a way underrated tribute to that time before they had made it big.

2022.02.04

I agree it seems vulgar, decadent, even epistemically violent, to invest energy in the trivialities of sex and friendship when human civilisation is facing collapse. But at the same time, that is what I do every day. We can wait, if you like, to ascend to some higher plane of being, at which point we'll start directing all our mental and material resources toward existential questions and thinking nothing of our own families, friends, lovers, and so on. But we'll be waiting, in my opinion, a long time, and in fact we'll die first. After all, when people are lying on their deathbeds, don't they always start talking about their spouses and children? And isn't death just the apocalypse in the first person? So in that sense, there is nothing bigger than what you so derisively call 'breaking up or staying together' (!), because at the end of our lives, when there's nothing left in front of us, it's still the only thing we want to talk about. Maybe we're just born to love and worry about the people we know, and to go on loving and worrying even when there are more important things we should be doing. And if that means the human species is going to die out, isn't it in a way a nice reason to die out, the nicest reason you can imagine? Because when we should have been reorganising the distribution of the world's resources and transitioning collectively to a sustainable economic model, we were worrying about sex and friendship instead. Because we loved each other too much and found each other too interesting. And I love that about humanity, and in fact it's the very reason I root for us to survive--because we are so stupid about each other.

2022.02.05

<td>Kinda corny 60s rock.<br>From end credits of the first season finale of "Space Force"</td>

2022.02.06

My strong emotional impulse is to not let emotions get out of hand and become self-perpetuating; and then the question becomes, does that mean I either don't feel emotions properly in the first place, or that I live a life of repressed emotions... or am I finding a third way that works for me, where I still have a pretty rich emotional life, but have a knack for weeding out emotions that aren't going to serve me, while those emotions are still young sprouts.

2022.02.12

The first challenging part for me is how... I dunno, the implied claim that it is inevitable that big emotions are swilling around, and men are less good at dealing with them. The latter is probably true (on average, and with recognition that thinking in gender stereotypes needs to go with a big grain of salt) but the first part, and so the whole thing, kind of presumes that these emotions have to be big in the first place. That is to say, that emotions of that ferocity are just an inevitable feature of everyone's interior landscape, while for me there's a lot more of a "which wolf will win / the one you feed" aspect.

2022.02.16

<li>Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire

2022.02.17

It's interesting how rereading a book that felt monumentally important to you long ago on its first read makes a kind of one way, clouded dialog between your old and current selves; you ponder how your old self responded to certain passages the first time. <br>

2022.03.01

I can't believe I was on the verge of Marie Kondo-ing the coffee maker, because a pot of coffee, chilled and consumed over 2 days, has been my single strongest quarantine ritual. Oh, and Atomic Fireball candies - 20-30 calories of mouth entertainment and distraction. <br>

2022.03.06

But his strategy reminded me of an old bit of math weirdness that made me thinking he making a mistake... if you're playing some kind of small, repeated lottery (which trying to guess Wordle on the first try basically is) than the best strategy is to pick the same value and let the win come to you, so to speak, rather than trying to "chase the win" by guessing a new value each day. This is especially true in Wordle, where the game is slowly working its way through an ordered list and will eventually hit everything in that list (not counting the words it has already played) <br>

So, I dunno. I like to always start with ADIEU, and then follow up with a word with lots of Rs and Ss based on what the vowels are looking like. And I'd be willing to bet $20 that I get it in one earlier than Dylan (assuming no one cheats 😃 ) -- on the other hand, on the day ADIEU is first, I will have my joy in getting 1/6 diminished with all my fellow ADIEU-ers sharing the glory, while if/when Dylan gets it, it's much more likely to be a unique accomplishment that day, so maybe his strategy is better after all!

2022.03.07

I always say that people at the end of their lives have one foot in heaven and one foot on earth. Folks who are dying can see things I cannot. To deny their reality is a huge mistake. It is so important that anyone sitting at the bedside of someone who is dying be willing to hear and affirm the person's reality. Stay silent and be present. I even cry with the guys in the hospice units in prison. I gave up on all I learned about not crying. I just think a life is worth crying over -- most of them have not had their lives cried over.

2022.03.08

(I liked this mockup of a candidate for the first iPhone keyboard)

2022.03.18

<img width="550" height="478" src="/m/2022/03/18/FirstVersions_Pac-Man_Cabinets.jpg">

2022.03.20

Cool video on the original German jerry can. While the history of it (as a superior design then copied by other countries to varying degrees of fidelity and success) was interesting my favorite part of the video is the first part, focused on the design- especially the three handles on top, allowing different configurations like one person carrying 4 empties, or 2 people cooperating to carry one, etc.<br><br>

2022.03.24

Most alien races scorned humanity for their lack of psychic ability and reliance on perceiving the world through light and vibrations... until they participated in their first war. Turns out lining up straight light beams through sights lets you aim weapons at devastatingly long ranges.

2022.03.29

Most alien races scorned humanity for their lack of psychic ability and reliance on perceiving the world through light and vibrations... until they participated in their first war. Turns out lining up straight light beams through sights lets you aim weapons at devastatingly long ranges.

2022.04.04

Welp 15 lbs I lost the first 2 1/2 months of quarantine, welcome back :-D

2022.04.05

In other words, the entire value of interiority is ENTIRELY dependent on the ability to make connections outside. Surfaces vs Essences. While it's a bit fraught to seek out books to confirm one own's pre-existing notions, I am so pleased that this book really leans into the idea of interactions - what it calls the "relational" interpretation of quantum theory - as being so central to everything.

That confirms another notion I have; the language of "observer" for quantum events (especially when inflated to macro events, ala Schrödinger's cat (which Rovelli nicely changes to a cat w/ a sleeping draught, no need for so many dead cats)) is a little misleading. It invites questions like "well what defines observer, does it have to be conscious" and from their speculation into the connection between consciousness and the quantum... but really, ANY interaction is an "observation".

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.

Like it's all about predictions. Theories about stuff that will happen, where that critical interaction that creates reality is yet to have have happened - that's what I'm thinking about. You could have a theory that says tomorrow ducks will go moo or rocks will start floating in midair, but that theory very likely to be confirmed! So maybe, then, when I talk about "most accurate view of the Truth" as a way of comparing different viewpoints, what I really mean is what are the most LIKELY to be proven true once the interaction has occurred.

External perception is an internal dream which proves to be in harmony with external things; and instead of calling 'hallucination' a false perception, we must call external perception 'a confirmed hallucination.'

2022.04.09

<br>First pair, circa fifth grade. Here with Todd Beecher. Kinda ugly and generic frames, but you know. It was the 80s.

Overall this project confirms my hunch that I've had these current glasses longer than any before- I replaced the lenses last year in fact. Which sort of ties into my alarm of the stretching of time, when you grow up you get a whole new world every 4 years, but now the grooves are much longer.

2022.04.13

But in this book, before the pivot, it is interesting to see that it's the (at the time, more Northerner) Republicans who tend towards expansionism and imperialism, and the Democrats who fight that, even before the pivot I mention. Now to be fair, that anti-Imperialism might also be tinged with a kind of "America First" isolationism that I might not like either, but it certainly puts the lie to a simplified "North/South swap following the Civil Rights Act" model

2022.04.14

"Nah, I'm afraid it don't work that way. You can't let a young 'un decide for himself. He'll grab at the first flashy thing with shiny ribbons on it, then when he finds out there's a hook in it, it's too late. The wrong ideas come packaged with so much glitter it's hard to convince him that other things might be better in the long run, and all a parent can do is say, 'Wait. Trust me,' and try to keep temptation away."

2022.04.18

The crinkles thing reminds me of how I like a first thing game of Wordle

The United States military is first and foremost an unfathomable network of typists and file clerks, secondarily a stupendous mechanism for moving stuff from one part of the world to another and last and least a fighting organization.

2022.04.20

Sometimes when you're alone and everything is quiet, you feel a certain placeless intensity that drifts in like a fog. It's subtle at first, lingering somewhere between fidgety boredom and accidental meditation. Maybe you're sitting up in bed on a dark morning before the day begins, staring blankly at a spot on the wall, thinking about life. Or you've arrived somewhere a few minutes early to pick someone up, and you turn off the car and find yourself alone with your thoughts. You take a breath and look around at the still life of the parking lot: a few shrubs swaying in the wind, the arrhythmic tinking of the cooling engine, the keys still swinging in the ignition. <br>

2022.04.26

We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cube tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog's yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum's scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother's retreat. That only we love the only-we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together.... That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what's brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd.

2022.05.01

I just want to say – you know – can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? And ... I mean we've got enough smog in Los Angeles let alone to deal with setting these fires and things ... It's just not right. It's not right, and it's not going to change anything. We'll get our justice. They've won the battle, but they haven't won the war. We'll get our day in court, and that's all we want. And, just, uh, I love – I'm neutral. I love every – I love people of color. I'm not like they're making me out to be. We've got to quit. We've got to quit; I mean, after all, I could understand the first – upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like this and to see the security guard shot on the ground – it's just not right. It's just not right, because those people will never go home to their families again. And uh, I mean, please, we can, we can get along here. We all can get along. We just gotta. We gotta. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while. Let's, you know, let's try to work it out. Let's try to beat it, you know. Let's try to work it out.

2022.05.03

There are some ideas I'm trying to sneak by here. The implications that morality, the sense of "should", is conflatable to an aggregation of preferences (including preferences that emerged from the groups and didn't exist as individual preferences) is not yet a firm foundation. (Like how much does it depend on people being able to know whats best even for themselves...) And I still have a strong sense of directionality to morality; a hunch that every moral decision has an outcome that is more moral and one that is less moral, i.e. more or less in tune with the ultimate larger group preference. But as always I lean into the uncertainty of knowing which is which; most moral dilemmas don't feel like good vs evil, it is a choice between two competing "goods", and knowing which one of those two goods is ultimately more in tune with the greater group's good is clouded with uncertainty. <br>

2022.05.11

Daring Fireball <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2022/05/touching_goodbye_for_ipod">reported on the farewell of the iPod Touch</a>. I remember being blown away by how slender the first generation was - like Gruber says, it was hot on the heels of the first iPhone, but the thinness of the iPhone-minus-the-phone-part was a glimpse of the future of Apple form factors: in 2007 it was astonishing that a capable web browser could work on the thing.

2022.05.17

Tennessee Williams once wrote, "We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it." In a certain sense, the playwright was correct. Yes, but oh! What a view from that upstairs window! What Tennessee failed to mention was that if we look out of that window with an itchy curiosity and a passionate eye; with a generous spirit and a capacity for delight; and, yes, the language with which to support and enrich the things we see, then it DOESN'T MATTER that the house is burning down around us. It doesn't matter. Let the motherfucker blaze!

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, says wealthy candidates loaning their campaigns large amounts of cash is an essential part of the democratic process. He describes loans in excess of $250,000 as a key tool "to jumpstart a fledgling campaign or finish strong in a tight race." Massive personal loans can be "a useful tool to signal that the political outsider is confident enough in his campaign to have skin in the game, attracting the attention of donors and voters alike." Not allowing these loans to be paid back in full with money raised after the election, Roberts argues, risks "inhibiting candidates from making such loans in the first place."

2022.05.18

This anecdote stuck with me from the first reading - the idea being at the concentration camps, any thing of substance in the watery soup (such as peas or potato) were at the bottom, and so the server had some control over what was given to the other person.

2022.05.21

But it's making me wonder, why the only gaming I'm doing is the Switch stuff with my super niece. I guess band (and porchfest websites?) has moved into the space (both in terms of hours, and just in terms of mental mojo) that games used to hold for me. And overall that's a clear trade-up, but still: I think video games are a truly special art form. For the first time in history we're able to mechanically put ourselves into responsive narratives. Each game is a microcosm, a new world, a new set of potential interactions, and I would argue that represents a more important diversity than almost any other kind of hobbyist collection. (Somewhat mitigated by what emulation can offer in giving 80% of the experience in like 8% of the space....)

2022.06.01

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

2022.06.03

Actually I think "I support the Police, Blue Lives Matter" should lead right into "more gun control". In this country, the police have to treat every traffic stop like it might end in gun fire - cause it just might - much more likely here than anywhere else in the industrialized world. That's a crazy amount of stress that is a straight line to more police shootings - of and by police.

2022.06.09

30 years ago, we used to say (ok I said), studying AI will make you believe in god. Programming BIOS will make you believe nothing so evil could exist to create this universe. My continued practice in computers and security has firmly set my belief that we are in fact living in the bad place. The deep magic has bee turned to evil. <br>

2022.06.16

It did have a good feel relative to Netscape when it first came out.

2022.06.21

i can taste summer coming. there are certain smells that i forget about until summer rolls around, and then they all come flowing back in my memory: bonfires, sunblock, cookouts, fresh-cut grass... and then there are the images, pictures of things in my mind that probably weren't as good as i remember, yet i can see them so vividly: cramming in a car to go to drive-in movies, covered in bugspray and armed with snacks; wandering around amusement parks dripping wet from water rides; grabbing an elephant ear and some cotton candy at the local fair; seeing a movie on a weeknight and leaving the theater to meet the warm night air... these are the things i hope to do every summer; sometimes i do, sometimes i don't... but this year i'm hoping extra hard.

2022.06.27

<br>Pre-fireworks synchronized drone show was cool to see...

2022.07.03

Explain my no vote. (Another voice says, "Yes m'am.") [Heavy sigh] You know, I'm a diagnostic radiologist. And diagnostic radiologists, historically and in many places in this state, *still* do all of the first trimester OB ultrasound. So I am extraordinarily, personally familiar with the development of a fetus in the womb. And for you to sit here and say that at 15 weeks, a fetus has a functional heart; a four-chamber heart that can survive on its own, is fallacious. That is not true. There is no viability. You know, I look around at my colleagues on this committee. I am the *only* woman on this podium right now. I am the only physician sitting on this podium. This bill is a medical sham. It does not follow medicine. It does not even purport to listen to medicine. And for each and every one of my colleagues to be so willing to cast an aye vote, when what you are doing is putting your finger; putting your knee; putting your- a gun to women's heads. You are *killing women* because abortion will continue. Women will continue to have efficacy over their own body, whether or not you make it legal. I vote no and I really, really apologize to the people in Kentucky that we are spending this much time and this much energy when we have families in poverty. We have single women heading households in poverty at a higher rate than any other group in the state. And you all are not addressing that. You all are making it worse. Thank you.

2022.07.06

<td></td><td><a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBoTwOTKw0I'>Jolene</a> <br><i>Me First and The Gimme Gimmes</i></td>

2022.07.12

(And despite my even-keeled nature, sometimes I enjoy whipping up a big bonfire of anger or even a drenching torrent of sweet sadness. But usually I'm able to control when that happens.)

So one side effect of putting my needs into the context groups I form is that I'm a very reliable person. And I sometimes have trouble refocusing irritation with people when they are less reliable.... but I try and exercise patience because I recognize that most people's value systems do work from the individual's preferences outwards, and since I come from a place of privilege that can put up with a lot without too much discomfort and I have a sense of allegiance to groups that is a bit idiosyncratic (especially since it's still so anti-authoritarian!) I can't expect everyone to have that same group-first way of thinking.

2022.07.21

And another recent tangent I've been pondering... what exactly is "worship"? Or "praise". It seems as nebulous and intangible as "honor" (and is probably related) I guess it's all this realm of "affirm your obsequiousness and commitment to obey, in light of your esteem of". In the case of worship, a higher being (often but not always divine), in the case of honor... it's almost like a demand for similar respect of one's self.

2022.07.22

In June 1943, The United States Army Band was ordered overseas to provide musical support; first in North Africa and then in battle-weary Europe, not returning to U.S. soil until June 1945. <br>

2022.08.01

I really adore that, because it is very validating with being fully endorsing-- it has a useful ambiguity of whether the confirmed "sense" is strictly objectively and rationally true, or just true within the context of the listener's mental landscape.

(This flame metaphor may not resonate for everyone, but I see it as useful in modeling other folks, even folks living more intuitively and not as "unemotionally" as I can appear to be going. Like Dylan mentioned he might have a feeling smoldering underground, causing irritation and then flaring up after a few days. Or other people seem to have a semi-constant large flames just barely contained. Or with fear-anxiety, fire fighting is a recurring struggle. But, it makes sense that they feel that way.)

2022.08.15

I like that the first American coin said "MIND YOUR BUSINESS"

via <a href="https://www.cracked.com/article_32204_the-very-first-us-coin-told-you-to-mind-your-business.html">Cracked.com</a>

2022.08.18

My favorite podcast is "Get Played", where the 3 hosts (really skilled in comedy) talk about video games. Their patreon has a side podcast "Get Animed", where they've been going through Neon Genesis Evangelion, so I'm rewatching odd episodes even though I watched it for the first time in 2020.) <br>

2022.08.21

Reread Cat's Cradle, first on a list of this <a href="https://www.nowuc.com.au/2021/05/and-nothing-hurt-a-kurt-vonnegut-reading-order/">All Vonnegut Novel suggested reading order</a>. It remains one of my favorite books, and I want to make it clear, I want the Bokononist Final Rites read at my funeral, at least up to "Good Night!".

2022.08.26

I suspect I fall firmly into that final category; sounds like a deeply-ingrained habit of second-guessing oneself seems to be a barrier to hypnosis. So my guess is hypnosis works by having the hypnotist take the role of an internal voice of the mind, and works best when one's inner voice is used to being seeing as authoritative. <br>

2022.09.04

<td>used for the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22711230/springboard-handspring-documentary-secret-history-first-real-smartphone">end credits of this Handspring documentary</a>, it might be very studio but it sounds so good, great percussion and horns.<br></td>

2022.09.12

So I googled up the Black Horse Tavern and Samuel Adam's Committee of Safety - the worst first fighting of the Revolutionary War happened around here in Arlington (then Menotomy, before the nation got an enthusiasm for naming cities for the civil war cemetary).

2022.09.17

Fireworks! Poor dog upstairs... <br>

I've spent about 12 years of the last 18 living in Arlington, and have managed to get my act together and go see Town Day stuff (including the fireworks show) like...once, maybe twice? I gotta figure out where to pay more attention...

2022.09.21

Loved the guys attitude and knowledge. He mentioned about the complexities of Floppy Disk manufacture; I am half tempted to track down and confirm where we are wrt CRT manufacture, I'd heard rumors it's a lost art - there's a LOT of material process that went into those.

2022.09.29

But I don't know if the "appreciate you" form is regional (I first noticed it on/from Ted Lasso, so I associate it with his midwest courtesy and kindness) or newly growing in popularity, or if I've just never noticed it before...

Ran into <a href="https://headspace-hotel.tumblr.com/post/696760999678754816/i-dont-think-a-lot-of-people-really-understand">this tumblr post</a> after reading the book "Braiding Sweetgrass". The agricultural finesse displayed by first peoples is astounding.

2022.10.03

<td><a href="https://at.tumblr.com/petr1kov/fallen4you-sometimes-i-remember-that-this-was/56tyi37093dn">Someone one on tumblr</a> mentioned Katy Perry's first song was this stridently anti-metro-sexual and kind of regressive piece...<br></td>

2022.10.04

I did my first kickflip today since breaking my femur 7 months ago. <br>

2022.10.05

(Yes, at one point the first and foremost monster mascot was Trumpasaurus, aka "Trumpy", and it was a reference to the businessman. Who even then was a joke, but a different kind of joke than he is now.)

2022.10.13

And for what it's worth, our set at the afterparty was solid! We were the first band after the opening local hiphop artist act, we recruited a few extra folks to start, and then we explicitly leaned into the HONK! traditions of inviting people from every band to jump in, and deftly restructured the setlist to focus on songs that were most amenable to that kind of sharing... the results were fantastic. (Which is to say, right on par for HONK parties, which was the goal, especially as a newer to the scene band.)

2022.10.16

(all but the first two photos by Melissa)

2022.10.19

I am really trying to figure out more about how most people deal with emotions... Like I understand that I might be at one extreme, how when a small flame of emotion fires up I have the option to let it expire, or alternately I can build it up with intellectual kindling and fan the flames a bit... but apparently that's not how most folkss operate? Even ones who seem to be having mentally healty-ish lives?

2022.10.20

I think about how i got here. Religion is a bit to thank, or blame; I took to heart the idea that the only thing that REALLY mattered in this life was avoiding eternal hellfire (and getting that sweet heavenly eternal bliss, though that somehow less pressing) and so my personal feelings and preferences were just potential stumbling blocks to my final destination, handicaps in a game played for infinite stakes. (Artist and polymath (and polyglot) Nicole Bernstein, a frenchwoman from my Science and Spirituality group, mentions she got a much healthier (still nurturing and refuge-providing) view of a God engaged with us in the here and now... I'm envious!)

And...other things changed me too, later. I think pining after one woman all through college and a bit after, where there was a maddening on-again, off-again aspect... I guess that affirmed my need for self-actualization vs interdependence. Piled on with a divorce and a broken engagement - it does seem to emphasize the importance of parallel strengths in a relationship rather than mutual need. (Like I figured out or read long ago, "it's a lot cooler to be wanted than to be needed"... because then you have more freedoms and you are there because you want to be.)

<i>I think a great solid takeaway for me from other's responses is that for a lot of people talking about anger or another bad emotion helps the emotion that is there disperse and dissipate, like steam from a simmering pot, while for me talking about negative stuff tends to be more kindling to a fire that otherwise would burn out of its own accord, and more quickly than with other folks.

2022.10.27

We saw a Veterans' Day parade down Fifth Avenue, and I heard Resi's laugh for the first time. [...] What struck her so funny was the drum majorettes, kicking at the moon, twitching their behinds, and twirling chromium dildos.

2022.10.28

Which makes me think this fundamentally ingrained epistemology of mine (where early on I felt compelled to confirm emotional validity with higher truths) might act as a natural anti-depressant? In both desirable and undesirable ways: cutting the lows, but also maybe the highs? But leaving me in a generally pleasant and contented state...

2022.11.10

The <a href="https://www.articlesofinterest.co/podcast">Articles of Interest podcast</a> is running a series "American Ivy" - the first episode was about the 1965 Japanese book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ivy">Take Ivy</a>, that kind of cemented the preppie/ivy look. <br>

2022.12.02

<td></td><td><a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH6NyJXe7b8'>St. James Infirmary</a> <br><i>Louis Armstrong & His Savoy Ballroom Five</i></td>

<td>A fire spinner at a party JP Honk was hired for did some of her routine to this song--<br></td>

2022.12.15

Hello everyone, this is Donald Trump, hopefully your favorite president of all time, better than Lincoln, better than Washington, with an important announcement to make. I'm doing my first official Donald J Trump NFT collection, right here, right now.

2022.12.18

My wife has been killed by a machine which should never have come into the hands of any human being. It is called a firearm. It makes the blackest of all human wishes come true at once, at a distance: that something die.

2022.12.19

1. The arcade game "Crystal Castles" has a cool feature where the current high score initials are turned into structures behind the first level. That's pretty dope!

2. I think they shortplayed the whole Atari BASIC scene (and maybe the magazines, like Antic and Analog). Not to mention stuff like the Atari Program eXchange APX - the first big attempt to make a shareware community happen, like a "Steam" store for the 80s... But also the BASIC was good for sound and simple graphics, but it barely gets mentioned, except indirectly via ads from the era.

2022.12.21

At first I thought understanding the problem (in order to better cope with these scenes) was like this:

2022.12.29

From to-day I enter upon my 64th year. The paralysis that first affected me nearly ten years ago, has since remain'd, with varying course -- seems to have settled quietly down, and will probably continue. I easily tire, am very clumsy, cannot walk far; but my spirits are first-rate. I go around in public almost every day -- now and then take long trips, by railroad or boat, hundreds of miles -- live largely in the open air -- am sunburnt and stout, (weigh 190) -- keep up my activity and interest in life, people, progress, and the questions of the day. About two-thirds of the time I am quite comfortable. What mentality I ever had remains entirely unaffected; though physically I am a half-paralytic, and likely to be so, long as I live. But the principal object of my life seems to have been accomplish'd -- I have the most devoted and ardent of friends, and affectionate relatives -- and of enemies I really make no account.

2022.12.30

I think that could go back to the time when people had to live in small groups of relatives--maybe fifty or a hundred people at the most. And evolution or God or whatever arranged things genetically, to keep the little families going, to cheer them up, so that they could all have somebody to tell stories around the campfire at night, and somebody else to paint pictures on the walls of the caves, and somebody else who wasn't afraid of anything and so on. <br>

2023.01.02

Some routines can become habits but only if it's a behavior that can be done with little conscious thought. Trying to turn a behavior that requires a lot of effort (like writing or breaking a physical fitness record) into a habit will backfire if you expect it to become effortless.

2023.01.03

"Inside Out" is a great introduction to parts-type models of psychology, and "Hercules" was solid as well. "Walking My Life" is a lovely movie I first saw on the way back from Japan, about a man facing his imminent death with grace. Sheng Wang is the Mitch Hedberg for our time, and kudos to "Weird" (the Weird Al biopic for being laugh out loud funny, not just heh funny.)

2023.01.05

One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in *It's a nice day*, or *You're very tall*, or *Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you all right?* At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behavior. If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months' consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favor of a new one. If they don't keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working. After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical and decided he quite liked human beings after all, but he always remained desperately worried about the terrible number of things they didn't know about.

2023.01.19

Now, it's ALWAYS morally fraught to appoint yourself arbiter of which people have souls and who might not (a potential first step to giving your blessing to atrocities) But I do think whatever a soul is, it has to be embodied, even if it is potentially emergent rather than just being there.

2023.01.22

Hamster: Bonfire <br>

2023.01.24

Which reminded me of the "luggabeast" from the first of the 3 sequels - I didn't quite catch on that it was kind of a biological / mechanical hybrid.

2023.02.13

She started again on the letter. After three drafts of the first paragraph – all eliciting the same response from Camel's Eye: <i>You'll hate this when you re-read it later. Trust me.</i> – she finally admitted to herself that she was wasted. She shut down everything and crawled into bed.

2023.02.15

BWAHAHAHA - first off - James Musk? Elon has made this a family business too? Shades of the family first model of Trump.

2023.02.17

Silicon Valley was born, a computer heartland that would be defined by the rivalry between two men: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. [...] Gates founded Microsoft, and hit the big time with the baffling, unofficial sequel to Ms. Pac-Man, called MS-DOS. Meanwhile, Jobs created the Apple Macintosh, the world's first inherently smug computer.

2023.02.19

Ron Swanson, my character from 'Parks and Rec,' was considered very masculine. I'm often accused of masculinity. And, you know, I was born looking like this and I sound like this. You know, I did not cultivate [this]. I don't go to the gym. I'm not chasing masculinity. And so it's always seemed a little strange to me as a mincing theater artist to be accused of being manly. I am pretty handy at splitting firewood or changing a tire, but so are the women in my family. And so I use it as an opportunity to encourage people to try and loosen their ideas about genderizing everything. I know ladies that are great woodworkers and I know men that make an amazing quiche and everything across every spectrum in between.

I think a big reason why "children are an oppressed group" gets (wrongly!) read as a "pedophile talking point" is that everyone treats children so terribly that actual child molesters can speedrun winning a kid's trust by like, actually respecting their needs and perspective, at least at first. Which means that the only way out of this mess is for all of us adults to treat children with respect, so that abusers can't use the rareness of that respect as a weapon.

discodeerdiary on <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/derinthescarletpescatarian/709688034230173696/people-are-community-focused-beings-first-and?source=share&_branch_match_id=1131916123476028834&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAAxXKMQ7DMAgAwBcRd2mH%2FgYwSZBsbAFW0t%2B33W64M3PGuxTMLVen5huPXqq4Wp4SjN4k5x%2BJrmhlyphNAF3gN%2FsyzQ%2Fsg1dIBRK1I2BXjwS0WogeBzG%2FnnLdX2zEGkRrAAAA">this tumblr thread</a> with an interesting anecdote from "prismatic-bell" who nearly got recruited by the KKK while doing an English paper on them, only their young-Christian hesitation about burning crosses warned them off.

2023.02.26

<figure><a href="/m/2023/02/26/6-cat-guy.jpeg"><img width="560" height="973" src="/m/2023/02/26/6-cat-guy_560.jpeg"></a><figcaption>Cat guy. Beteween this one and the next one I realized maybe I should be using that "draw the structure first" technique more often...</figcaption></figure>

2023.03.05

Two things: first, Matt Damon and other thoughts how the <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/theamazingmurderrocks/710881074125864961/matt-damon-explains-why-they-dont-make-movies">passing of DVDs has changed movies</a> ...

2023.03.09

Today I visited the Cambridge lab of Bob Doyle... Bob is a Harvard Astronomer / Inventor / Entrepreneur / Philosopher. (If you remember the old toy "Merlin", that was him, which is why he's standing here next to a giant functional model of one. Along with the game "Stop Thief", synchronized sound for Super 8 recording, MacPublish (the first Desktop publishing program for Mac), was part of making the first podcast ever happen, etc etc.

2023.03.17

"You were the first woman I ever really made love to," I said. "Do you remember that?"

2023.03.19

So I could imagine if I was less adept at curating emotions early, if my only option was to build a macho firewall facade around a raging flame of sadness or anger or whatever, then I would see how vulnerability and openness were more related. But I don't rage like that! (At least not often) And so I'm willing to talk about anything with great candor. (Though I think Joel's damning line to Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - "Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating.")

2023.03.21

"Now those whose love we wanted but didn't get, we emulate them. That's the only way we have, in our power, to get the closeness and love that we needed and desired. So when I was a young man looking for a voice to meld with mine, to sing my songs and to tell my stories, well I chose my father's voice. Because there was something sacred in it to me. And when I went looking for something to wear, I put on a factory's worker's clothes, because they were my dad's clothes. And all we know about manhood is what we have seen and what we have learned from our fathers, and my father was my hero. And my greatest foe. Not long after he died, I had this dream, I'm on stage, I'm in front of thousands of people, and my dad's back from the dead and he's sitting in the audience and suddenly I'm kneeling next to him in the aisle, and for a moment we both watched the man on fire on stage. And then my dad who for years, he sat at the kitchen table, unreachable, but I was too young, I was too stupid to understand was his depression. Well I kneel next to him in the aisle, and I brush his forearm, and I say, "Look dad. That guy on stage – that's how I see you."

2023.04.10

I am convinced that Trump only ever first decided to run for president because he really enjoys being on television

2023.04.20

more specifically remember that it was about white folk <a href="https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/interventions/alamo-first-and-last-confederate-monument">fighting to be able to keep slaves</a>. <br>

2023.04.22

"I have to tell you, though, that you are not the first person to say the game was all over for the human race. I'm sure that even in Egypt before the first pyramid was constructed, there were men who attracted a following by saying, 'It's all over now.' "

"What is different about now as compared with Egypt before the first pyramid was built--" Ed began.

My second point, in fact, was something the convicts had taught me. They all believed that the White people who insisted that it was their Constitutional right to keep military weapons in their homes all looked forward to the day when they could shoot Americans who didn't have what they had, who didn't look like their friends and relatives, in a sort of open-air shooting gallery we used to call in Vietnam a "Free Fire Zone." You could shoot anything that moved, for the good of the greater society, which was always someplace far away, like Paradise.

Celebrating a weird anniversary today - I just noticed about half of my music is date April 22, 2013 - ten years ago today (so like 2232 songs out of 4397 have the same date, though I know I ripped a big chunk of that from CDs in 2004 when I got my first iPod). I think that's most likely indicating when I switched to a mac as my main computer... <br>

2023.04.24

At its core is the realization that when we plumb inwardly for moral truth, we follow a specific process of firing up thought X and assessing its emotional tinge. We may say to ourselves, "On deep reflection, I realize that X is wrong," or, "X is right." But the inner reflection does not reveal anything about a moral framework of the universe. Instead, the inner reflection is a way of assessing our own quirky, culturally and personally learned emotional associations.

2023.05.10

Ten years ago today I marched for the first time with the band that would become JP Honk. I just missed marching in their Wake Up The Earth Parade but here is an item that was making the rounds...

2023.05.13

One so often hurts the one one loves, especially if one is a Fuolornis Fire Dragon with breath like a rocket booster and teeth like a park fence.

I'm not trying to prove anything, by the way. I'm a scientist and I know what constitutes proof. But the reason I call myself by my childhood name is to remind myself that a scientist must also be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

2023.05.15

One of the biggest questions for a porchfest is whether they are "B.Y.O.Porch" (like Somerville), or if their vision of inclusion means more matchmaking (like JP, the first city I started doing these for) or some permutation of the two. My newest site, Medford, requested a new feature where we could send a link to porches that didn't have any band associated with them, allowing them to request a band from those that didn't yet have a porch. I was able to come up with the page thumbnailed here in less than a day of work, along with the update to my bulk mailer system to send the link (with appropriate authentication) to just those porches.

2023.05.27

fire is beautiful

2023.05.29

anyways (I say this as someone who is deeply critical of the united states government, military, unchecked capitalism, police, etc) I am SICK of people treating america as if it has no cultural value or positives so..... I love u 85 million acres (bigger than italy) of national parks. I love u harlem renaissance. I love u groundhogs day. I love u sweet tea and fried chicken and jambalaya. I love u apple cider donuts and maizes on crisp autumn days. I love u 95k miles of coastlines and new england fisherman and hand knitted sweaters. I love u halloween where millions of people dress up and give candy to strangers and carve jack o'lanterns. I love u small talk and small towns and potlucks and bringing over casseroles to your struggling neighbors. I love u cowboys and ranch hands and arizonian cactus. I love u appalachian trail and dirtbikes and divebars. I love u sparklers and fireflies. I love u mark twain and toni morrison and emily dickinson and henry david thoreau. I love u rock n roll i love u bluegrass and hippies i love u jimi hendrix and nirvana and CCR and janis joplin. I love u victorian houses and jonny appleseed and john henry and mothman and bigfoot. I love u foggy days in the pacific northwest and neon signs and roadside attractions. I love u baseball and 1950s diners and soft serve. I love u native american art and pop art and poptarts. I love u blue jeans and barbecues and jazz musicians

2023.05.30

There's an <a href="https://jabberwocking.com/conservatives-actively-want-to-believe-only-lies/">asymmetry in how republicans and democrats seek and engage with news that confirm their pre-existing opinions</a>. Like, I know I've been guilty of a little bit of cherry picking - not often but now and then - but apparently its quantifiably worse on the other side. Like Cobert says "Reality has a well known liberal bias"

2023.06.01

First night of summer (meteorological - look it up nerd), after having added some music to a Somerville housing rights vigil, on the porch, a summer shandy by my side and hacking on porchfest sites. Living my best life! So glad we got a porch.

2023.06.24

Continuing my "read all of Vonnegut's Novels" with the penultimate entry (but first one he wrote) "Player Piano" -

"It seemed very fresh to me--I mean that part where you say how the First Industrial Revolution devalued muscle work, then the second one devalued routine mental work. I was fascinated. [...] Do you suppose there'll be a Third Industrial Revolution?"

"I don't know exactly. The first and second ones must have been sort of inconceivable at one time."

"Uh-huh. First the muscle work, then the routine work, then, maybe, the real brainwork."

2023.06.29

"I think I can confirm that that was my daughter."

"The first time I managed to save myself by the most astonishing and--I say this in all modesty--fabulous piece of ingenious quick thinking, agility, fancy footwork and self-sacrifice."

2023.07.03

(I remember my mom singing this song for me way back when... "We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin' /

2023.07.12

Damn, Google... wasn't expecting the first search results (admittedly "sponsored" but part of Google's scam is to get companies to sponsor their own organic results lest they be sniped) like this:

2023.07.15

So our first approach with weather sealing tape was obviously not going to hold, so we ended up with low cardboard pallets (from Dean's canned food, plus a few misc boxes) all around blocked by black duct tape. It's not great if you look close but we did a neatish job of it and you might not notice if you weren't looking for it. And most importantly I think it will be enough to dissuade Dean. <br>

2023.07.16

Like I've said, one of my strongest (countering?) emotions is an urge to align myself with a greater good - and I think this emotion is talented, sometimes too talented, at talking down other emotions before they get all fired up. So my personal preferences, my subjective happiness triggers, still matter, but mostly as validated by the idea that everyone should be seeking their individual joys.

I don't know. Is "Acceptance" an emotion in and of itself? I think it's pretty core at the regulation of the other ones. Stopping Anger and Fear from setting everything on fire, stopping Joy from turning us in hedonistic junkies...

2023.07.27

Cool tale about <a href="https://going-medieval.com/2023/07/26/on-successor-states-and-websites/">the fall of Rome</a> (which kind of didn't happen, or at least not in the "slowly at first then all at once" sense most people think of) and what's going on with Twitter/"X"

The best way to spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel. When we see someone who doesn't look like us, or sound like us, or act like us, or love like us, or live like us -- the first thought that crosses almost everyone's brain is rooted in either fear or judgment or both. That's evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things we aren't familiar with. <br>

In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brain to travel a different pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges. I'm here to tell you that when someone's path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their own instinctual fears. And so, their thinking and problem-solving will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades. <br>

<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/07/27/pritzker-kindness-intelligence">via</a>, who links to a tweet with the <a href="https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1673659149417078788">full video</a>

2023.07.29

This time it would be for just an hour. I went first -- the van

The truth is, this was not the first time we had kissed. The

first was on New Year's Day Night. That had been a Saturday

pressed my groin firmly against hers --

her face into mine, firmly mashing my lips with hers.

firmly and continually rolling it back and forth, slipping and sliding,

Please, no reposts, first drafts, or requests for "subscriptions,"

2023.08.05

Pool day! But first we had to get a Froggo out of the water...

2023.08.15

As a person, he told me, your biggest problem is other people. You are vulnerable to people, and reliant upon them. But imagine instead that you are a twenty-first-century river, or desert, or polar bear. Your biggest problem *is still people*. You are still vulnerable to them, and reliant upon them.

2023.08.16

- Google, as the first hit, links to a ChatGPT transcript where it claims that there are none, and summarizes to say the same.

Confirmed:<br>

2023.08.21

He was such a sweet and snuggly cat. Melissa was thinking of a younger female cat when she first went to the shelter but Dean The Love Machine's (the shelter's nickname for him) head boop was irresistible.

2023.08.22

1. Unfortunately the end of life procedure is such that there's a good chance the cat knows something is up. (over the past few years, I had assumed we would try an at home end visit, but I think in practice, it's rare to not give a cat at least one more try at the vet, and when that confirms that a rebound isn't in the cards, it seems like a better path to deal with it there. But I'm having a twinge of second guessing. Though who knows, quite likely the at home vet would have wigged him out as well. And also, even though the penultimate part of the final part - ie before we asked for a bit more sedative- was more stress on him than I had hoped, and it wasn't the calmness of the familiar hangout on my chest as I reclined that we tried to recreate, I need to recognize that that brief time doesn't recolor the past good week he had before, or the good years of happy life cuddling we got before then through dutiful medical intervention, or the years before that. But still it bums me out a little.)

2023.08.26

We had a great day on the beach - I grew up jumping through can-knock-you-over-waves and it's nice to go back to them. That night we went into the city to The Comedy Cellar - we had a table right at the front row corner and got a ton of interaction with the comedians - including getting Comedy Married by emcee Ardie Fuqua. But besides seeing one of Melissa's favorites Ari Shaffir the highlight was probably a surprise set by Aziz Ansari (of "Parks and Rec" fame), and the front row interaction with him was really fun, Melissa was over the moon.

2023.09.05

"In the early 70s, the capital class stages a revolt of the rich against the poor. The post-World War II consensus had transferred too much wealth and too much power to the working class, so the rich made it their mission to dismantle that consensus and make sure it could never re-emerge. First Nixon and then Reagan built and institutionalized debt traps, slashed social spending, annihilated labor unions, and poisoned the very idea that there was any such thing as "society" or that we could work together to solve our shared problems."

It's an antidote to the kind of leftist/central view of "things are getting better and better, poverty is decreasing" etc , at least in terms of the American condition. Not that I'm that much of an American First-er either. But the idea of how we were founded as a plantation economy, and then later we got a giant post-war boost, having been shielded from the downsides of war by big oceans and friendly neighbors, but now it's just a slow grind back... oy.

2023.09.07

Now, these intense first relationships aren't going to last. The boy is so freaked out by the intensity of the girl that he wants to escape, or the girl wants a boy to live up to the pedestal that she has put him on. Either way, these things rarely last beyond the teenage years, which is all well and good. The woman learns not to love so deeply, to keep her distance, and she becomes wiser and more alluring and more marvellous. But the boy, he not only learns nothing but he assumes that what happened was normal, because that relationship is all he knows. He thinks, 'well, the fact that I was worshipped must simply be because I am *exceptional*. I'm some kind of rock star poet.' And, he assumes, other women will think so too. So he goes through life, relationship after relationship, not being worshipped by saner, wiser women, and eventually cracks at some point in his forties. He has his mid-life crisis and tries to fuck girls that are far too young for him, just because they might activate that poor withering collection of neurons that still think being worshipped is part and parcel of a healthy relationship.

We think that this world is ours, don't we? We think that it's the planet of people, and that people do stuff like making music. This world isn't ours. Music was here a long time before we arrived. It was here before we recorded, or wrote it down as a score, or danced to the drums around the communal fire. The birds sang before we did, and the whales before them. It will continue long after you or I have gone. It will continue after mankind has gone. Those cockroaches will make some amazing sounds. We are temporary. Music is not.

2023.09.12

The first guy I know who died

It was my first clue

2023.09.14

- a meta-article about us measuring time with insane accuracy - it made me think of a bit from the book Eifelheim (which plays with first contact with aliens during medievel germany times) - but in the present era a scientist notices old measurements of the speed of light were faster...

2023.09.15

"By counting our stock," Septimus replies. "You should no more grieve for the rest than for a buckle lost from your first shoe, or for your lesson book which will be lost when you are old. We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language."

2023.09.16

"Eifelheim" was an interesting book describing a first contact with aliens in Medieval Germany, just before the Black Plague swept through. It plays with some ideas about light speed possibly not being the constant we assume it to be throughout the history of the Universe. (Which is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_speed_of_light">legit if unproven concept</a>, and in the book also ties with time as being quantized, claiming that ties into some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift_quantization">red shift quantization</a> some have observed.)

2023.09.20

anytime something goes wrong, say things like "ah well at least i'm beautiful and charming and everyone loves me." when you forget something, try "my big huge brain is so smart and thinking about too many other very big wizardly thoughts you wouldn't even *understand*." when you're frustrated by one of your symptoms, start talking like you're in My Immortal. "Life has come for me but my eyes are beautiful pools of gorgeous fire and my hair is amazing. I stuck my middle finger up at life and told it to fuck off and it did."

i know it's tempting to make suicide or self-harm jokes. and for me at least, a decade ago (!) when someone suggested i stop making those kinds of jokes, i was kind of at a loss for what to replace them with. i wanted to make light of these moments, but *genuinely* (at the time) my first thought *really* was suicidal ideation. there was a part of me that even felt like ... i was kind of "making light" of that voice. that if i could say *i want to die lol*, it would help take the sting out of that genuine (albeit passive) desire. like i could turn my illness into a joke.

but. the effect was immediate. first thing i noticed was the people around me. when i dropped a glass and said *ah my skin is too beautiful and sleek the glass has swooned and broken for me*, other people were suddenly overjoyed to jump in with the joke. rather than making an awkward moment, we'd both start cracking up. *ah princess sleek hands, i've heard of you*.

now when something bad happens, my first thought is *how can i make a stupid joke about this*. it isn't my brain saying *you're a dumb fucking bitch*. i spend more time laughing. i spend more time being gentle with myself. i spend more time feeling good.

and the thing is - what's kind of funny - is that you'd be surprised by how many people *agree with you*. the first time i said *i'm too pretty to understand that*, someone else said *to be fair you're the prettiest person in this room*. i promise - you really don't know how kindly your friends see you. but they love you for a reason. they sort of reverse-velveteen-rabbit you. your weird and ugly spots fade away and you just become... the love they want to give you.

2023.09.22

* You have to take the observation of Jake the Dog to heart: ""Sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at somethin" - and put aside the natural hope of the ego to just be naturally effortlessly good at everything.

2023.09.24

But the results we get with LLMs are astounding - they are a type of "slippery thinking" that is phenomenally powerful... Hofstadter and Sandler called their book "Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking" and I would argue that so much of intelligence is an analogy or metaphor - far branches from the human situation of having to make a model with us as a bodily agent in the world. <br>

gunsandfireandshit

The curious case of Chat GPT and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-fake-case-lawyers-d6ae9fa79d0542db9e1455397aef381c">weaponized confirmation bias</a>

2023.09.27

anytime something goes wrong, say things like "ah well at least i'm beautiful and charming and everyone loves me." when you forget something, try "my big huge brain is so smart and thinking about too many other very big wizardly thoughts you wouldn't even *understand*." when you're frustrated by one of your symptoms, start talking like you're in My Immortal. "Life has come for me but my eyes are beautiful pools of gorgeous fire and my hair is amazing. I stuck my middle finger up at life and told it to fuck off and it did."

2023.10.11

I had forgotten it went past the first sentence, but I tried to wrestle that into my own smaller set of problems.. my ability to let emotions that I don't think will serve me wither on the vine and not giving them water... all as opposed to the recognition that emotions are kind of the point of it all, and there can be no human motion without emotion.

It took me a few tries to label the horizontal axis; at first I thought it went from "logic to emotion" (which is kind of the point of the Butcher quote) and then "objective to subjective". (but that's not quite fair...many things people Hate are very hateable for objective reasons.)

2023.10.17

I'm reminded that there's a "Ship of Theseus" solution to the copy/transfer problem - that if you were able to *gradually* merge with a set of computer hardware and software, first enjoying the increased sensory and cognitive possibilities of living in silicon, and then gradually replacing worn-out brain and bodily processes with virtual equivalents until finally the old body was discarded as a husk that was no longer carrying the loads, we might work away around the "is it a copy or a transfer" quandary - we could more easily see uploading a gradual transition of growth and change, much like childhood and puberty.

2023.10.19

The most important contributing factor to the lower birthrate was probably *coitus interruptus*, which was called the "French sin" and was spoken of by French Roman Catholic priests as "conjugal onanism," a term which also included mutual masturbation known as "*les plaisirs de la petite oie*" or "the pleasures of the little goose." Informal terms for *coitus interruptus* included jumping off while the train is still running; fireworks on the lawn; knowing how to blow one's nose; and plowing on the inside while winnowing on the outside.

2023.10.24

<figure><a href="/m/2023/10/24/IMG_2430.JPG"><img width="560" height="420" src="/m/2023/10/24/IMG_2430_560.JPG"></a><figcaption>Arlington Town Day Fireworks</figcaption></figure>

2023.10.27

2. I really imbibed an idea parallel to what Star Trek said when Spock and Kirk exchange "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." My preferences shouldn't be ignored, but my actions should be based on what the group prefers, with my preferences aggregated into that. (And sympathetic thoughtfulness w/ rationality is the tool to see past first intuitive response, rooted in emotion)

2023.11.01

<figure><a href="/m/2023/10/24/IMG_2430.JPG"><img width="560" height="420" src="/m/2023/10/24/IMG_2430_560.JPG"></a><figcaption>Arlington Town Day Fireworks</figcaption></figure>

2023.11.05

Interesting that my dream featured Matthew (whom I had had dinner with that evening before a mutual friend's birthday party) and Dylan - who showed us the "it makes sense that you feel that way" line, which can validate having the emotional response without fully endorsing or confirming its rational, objective basis.

2023.11.06

If we take a breath and sift through the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) literature in which objectivity is negatively characterized, there's disappointingly meager evidence of a diabolical plot to obliterate shared reality, or to force engineers to consider cultural factors when calculating thrust and lift. Rather it appears to be a way to talk about the more modest domain of institutional power relations. In a school or office, "objectivity" can be a pose or performance, a way to claim authority or deny it to those whose behavior doesn't conform. The claim is not that the speed of light depends on how you feel, man, but that certain kinds of affectless social performance are coded as white and used to police non-white people. The opposite of "objective" in this case would be the stereotypical "angry black woman." If you're expected to behave emotionally and "irrationally" you will be forced to adopt a rigorously neutral demeanor or find yourself at a disadvantage compared with others whose objectivity is assumed. In a Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Brett Kavanaugh can raise his voice and talk about beer, whereas Kentanji Brown Jackson has to demonstrate angelic calm.

2023.11.07

make a picture of an alien bill, a green running alien (round body, no head, big single eye right on the body) no horns, no mouth" followed by "can you remake the first one but remove the mouth that is appearing under the eye"</figcaption></figure>

2023.11.08

On a tangent: for the first time I looked up the lyrics to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". What the hell McCartney??? <br>

2023.11.15

But Somers mentions the tie-in with how we seem to be cracking the long-pondered "natural language programming" problem - of which COBOL was one of first attempts

2023.11.19

Some of the book's "autotelic" (activities pursued for their own purpose, vs for some later goal or validation) thinking emphasizes the seeking of challenge for its own sake. Which I'm bad at - my ego and fixed mindset don't encourage me to undertake tasks that risk invalidating my sense of competence. So I often look to be clever with what I can accomplish with the tools I know well rather than pushing my skills. This is probably a big factor both in my programming and my musicianship - the useful or fun programs and websites I like writing, and the kind of music I encourage my bands to pursue (pieces with good energy and audience connection, with a requirement for technical skill being a liability rather than a plus.) This all reflects well on an idea I previously had; "You have to realize that the point isn't necessarily to be good at The Thing, the point is to get better at leaning into challenges" - because life seems to be willing to serve up more challenges than we'd necessarily prefer. (For both programming and music, audience appreciation is important, but maybe more in a sense of affirming my worth in the world objectively rather than for its own people-pleasing sake.)

So like even if I'm a bit of a skeptic now, having not been gifted faith in the usual sense, should I be grateful for or resentful of the big dose of fear of hellfire I made for myself as a kid? When I compare my emotional stability to some of my skeptic/humanist friends, most of whom weren't quite as swamped by the religious stuff as a kid, I think I'm doing pretty well. (But I dunno, I guess there's more to life than "emotional stability") On the other hands, I take fewer big swings in terms of making a family or curating a career than they do.

2023.12.12

* You mentioned Knights of the Old Republic - I found its combat was a really weird and unsatisfying blend of a realistic, smooth look overlaid on a turn-based, probability dice roll system. So like on the first in-spaceship fight, I kept moving for cover, but really the movement was just resetting the "timer" before I had a chance to fire again.

2023.12.26

CAMPBELL: Yes. This is the first nation in the world that was ever established on the basis of reason instead of simply warfare. These were eighteenth-century deists, these gentlemen. Over here we read, "In God We Trust." But that is not the god of the Bible. These men did not believe in a Fall. They did not think the mind of man was cut off from God. The mind of man, cleansed of secondary and merely temporal concerns, beholds with the radiance of a cleansed mirror a reflection of the rational mind of God. Reason puts you in touch with God. Consequently, for these men, there is no special revelation anywhere, and none is needed, because the mind of man cleared of its fallibilities is sufficiently capable of the knowledge of God. All people in the world are thus capable because all people in the world are capable of reason.

Once in India I thought I would like to meet a major guru or teacher face to face. So I went to see a celebrated teacher named Sri Krishna Menon, and the first thing he said to me was, "Do you have a question?" The teacher in this tradition always answers questions. He doesn't tell you anything you are not yet ready to hear. So I said, "Yes, I have a question. Since in Hindu thinking everything in the universe is a manifestation of divinity itself, how should we say no to anything in the world? How should we say no to brutality, to stupidity, to vulgarity, to thoughtlessness?"

We then had a wonderful talk on this theme of the affirmation of all things. And it confirmed me in the feeling I had had that who are we to judge? It seems to me that this is one of the great teachings, also, of Jesus.

I had an illuminating experience from a woman who had been in severe physical pain for years, from an affliction that had stricken her in her youth. She had been raised a believing Christian and so thought this had been God's punishment of her for something she had done or not done at that time. She was in spiritual as well as physical pain. I told her that if she wanted release, she should affirm and not deny her suffering was her life, and that through it she had become the noble creature that she now was. And while I was saying all this, I was thinking, "Who am I to talk like this to a person in real pain, when I've never had anything more than a toothache?" But in this conversation, in affirming her suffering as the shaper and teacher of her life, she experienced a conversion--right there. I have kept in touch with her since--that was years and years ago--and she is indeed a transformed woman.

I gave her the belief that she was herself the cause of her suffering, that she had somehow brought it about. There is an important idea in Nietzsche, of Amor fati, the "love of your fate," which is in fact your life. As he says, if you say no to a single factor in your life, you have unraveled the whole thing. Furthermore, the more challenging or threatening the situation or context to be assimilated and affirmed, the greater the stature of the person who can achieve it. The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life's pain, the greater life's reply.

My friend had thought, "God did this to me." I told her, "No, you did it to yourself. The God is within you. You yourself are your creator. If you find that place in yourself from which you brought this thing about, you will be able to live with it and affirm it, perhaps even enjoy it, as your life."

(Emphasis mine.) Dang, this quote near the end of the book seemed laden with synchronicity for me - how much the fear of hellfire shaped me, but how the organization of The Salvation Army so shaped my life. (It's interesting that he using it as a comic short hand for "do-gooders")

Watched "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time...

2023.12.27

It made me think about social media forums I've lived in over the years. Each tends to encourage a certain style / length of post, has different types of message continuity (threads, etc), makes it easier or harder to recognizing recurring authors, and has different styles of if you rely more on following people or sipping from the main firehose.

2023.12.30

The episode talks about Atari being having supply chain problems in 1983 and so releasing stuff to stores too close to Christmas. I think my Salvation Army family benefited from the liquidations and donations that followed (the church or thrift store wouldn't be allowed to sell the gear.) So my first computer was an Atari 800XL. (The article mentions that Apple stuff was at a higher price point even then, though also IBM was making its move - which I guess split the home market into "serious" and "fun") <br>

So my first computer was a fresh Atari, but within a few years the 8 bit wars tilted in favor of the Commodore 74 - that was the machine more kids had and could get you copies of games for, and so I'll always be grateful to the giant C=64 shipment I got from my Uncle Bill (especially the magazine-on-disk collection of Compute!'s Gazette - years later I made a <a href="http://gazettegalore.blogspot.com/">whole website reviewing every game they published</a>) <br>

2024.01.02

Cameos from a swan, Melissa, Jennifer, Cora, Dean, The Jamaica Plain Honk Band, Old Mense tourguide, Extinction Rebellion Boston, Thomas, Char, Laura's drum, Liz, Mushrooms, Pleasant St Dental, Josh's FB, Maxim + Carrie's First Friday crew, Fruit Flies Like a Banana, Second Line Brass Band, BU Works Union Tapdancers, Steve, A goose, School of HONK, Kenneth, Rebirth Brass Band, Kenny, Dan, Bob, Tufts University Wind Ensemble, Gary, Stone Zoo Bear, Red Rebels, ducks, The New Magnolia Jazz Band, Elio, Katie Mae, Zach, Maja, an ailing bee, a hungry bird, BABAM, Nathaniel, Courtney, Amanda, Betty, Betty, Susan, Vermin Supreme, Sophie, Dave Parmenter's birthday, Goose and goslings, Tim, Ariana, Rebekah, Chet's Funeral, Henry, Karan, chicks, Kayla, Matt, Cordelia, John, a Human Carrot from the Roslindale Food Co-op, Rob, a chipmunk, Boston Pride Parade, Cambridge Teachers Union, lots of cousins, Gary, Mike, Arun, Kevin, Kellie, Cheryl, Summer Honk, Dinny, Matthew, Dave, Dylan, Jessica, David, Cathleen, Sean, Karen, Good Trouble Brass Band Linda, Gil, Newton Teachers Union, Mary, MiFi, Jean, Chasity, Jon and many others...

2024.01.04

Read Kieran Setiya's "Midlife: A Philosophical Guide" as my first book of the year. I do appreciate applied philosophy but it took the book a bit to get to places I responded to... (and is one of those books where I do more quoting who they quote than the work itself.)

[Every] profound political protest is an appeal to a justice that is absent, and is accompanied by a hope that in the future this justice will be established; this hope, however, is not the *first* reason the protest is being made. One protests because not to protest would be too humiliating, too diminishing, too deadly. One protests (by building a barricade, taking up arms, going on a hunger strike, linking arms, shouting, writing) in order to *save the present moment*, whatever the future holds. . . . A protest is not principally a sacrifice made for some alternative, more just future; it is an inconsequential redemption of the present. The problem is how to live time and again with the adjective *inconsequential*.

2024.01.05

Really anemic month for new music for me. "My Bubble Gum" is the ring tone song in the borrowed fliphone in the first "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"

2024.01.06

Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me but I am the fire.

During the discussion I was introduced to https://firefly.adobe.com/ - right up there with Dall-E in terms of capabilities of generating original works. (Also with a unique "Text Effects" mode (shades of the old Micrsoft Word "WordArt" feature) - an endrun around LLM's notable problems in displaying text. ) <br>

2024.01.08

<figure><a href="/m/2024/01/08/Firefly a banana crossed with a sousaphone 10678.jpg"><img width="560" height="560" src="/m/2024/01/08/Firefly a banana crossed with a sousaphone 10678_560.jpg"></a></figure>

2024.01.13

The first of these <a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/mini-stories-volume-17/">99% Invisible Mini-Stories</a> is about "filler words" - the "uh"s, "um"s, and "y'know"s etc. They mention how many of the terms are multiuse (and each carries its own nuance) but I think they didn't spend enough time on "like"...

2024.01.17

(I think the Patriots dynasty was a three legged stool: amazing player acquisition, Brady, and very smart solid coaching. I think a lot of other teams in the Copycat League figured out what Belichick was doing with the first thing, and so when Brady left there was only one leg remaining, and things collapsed. So if Belichick went to Dallas it would be interesting to see how they handle the player acquisition piece.)

<a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-life-and-death-of-the-suburban-american-mall?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us">The Life and Death of the Suburban American Mall</a>. All these malls being just gone is kind of a gut punch, right there for me with Geauga Lake park being wiped out and the old Salvation Army building in Salamanca NY - first home I remember - being a (weirdly small) flat lot. <br>

2024.01.20

Brother, if you have not committed the unpardonable sin -- and you have not, if you have any desire whatever to be the Lord's -- your first step is to renew your consecration to the Lord, confessing your backslidings; and then your second and only step is to cry out with Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (Job. xiii. 15); and this ground you must steadfastly hold, till the witness comes of your acceptance.

2024.01.29

This Big Think <a href="https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/evolution-of-work/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us">video on the evolution of work</a> (from fire to farming to cities) reminded me of the book "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn, and its framing of Abrahamic cultures setting us on a path from being hunter-gatherer "Leavers" (who like most predators would find some kind of balance with prey and/or resources and the surroundings) to agriculturalist "Takers" - shifting things to the mode of accumulation and a compulsion for endless growth - which might not be the sustainable model we'd have hoped for.

2024.01.31

<figure><a href="/m/2024/01/31/423862356_10161831354327189_1194922906403147825_n.jpg"><img width="560" height="313" src="/m/2024/01/31/423862356_10161831354327189_1194922906403147825_n_560.jpg"></a><figcaption>(looks something up to confirm) oh man 100,000 skin particles A MINUTE is just WILD. I guess that's a potential recipe for OCD, but hopefully a call to accept it's a more chaotic (and smaller!) world that we have to learn how to accept.</figcaption></figure>

2024.02.02

(I previously quoted the first bit, but realized the second part is a nice and sympathetic issue of the hand waving both sides do. The God people don't want you to ask "then what created God", the Nothing people need to believe that "maybe nothing is, like, unstable" - which still implies some kind of something of a framework...)

2024.02.04

<figure><a href="/m/2024/02/04/IMG_3937.JPG"><img width="560" height="420" src="/m/2024/02/04/IMG_3937_560.JPG"></a><figcaption>Moving my dad's typewriter back, along with an interesting fake tree - my mom uses something similar as a holidayable-but-year-round porch decoration, and I think it has a good vibe with the St James Infirmary poster Melissa got me in New Orleans (and an authentic circa-1894 Circus Train poster my dad acquired). Also the red rustoleum cat "hiss kitty" is peeking out from the door.</figcaption></figure>

I also did a panorama shot when I first settled in <a href="https://kirk.is/2021/05/12/">circa 2021</a>. I've given up the CRT/Atari setup. If we had a bigger space I still have the gear to have a lot of old game systems going, but to be honest I don't think I miss it all that much, and this new arcade replica really lands for me. The art on the side is so gorgeous as well... here is a <a href="https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/06/16/atari-star-wars-arcade-cockpit-development/">history of its development</a>, including how its controller (which is not like what X-wings have in the movies, but plays so well) came from Bradley Tank simulations Atari was making for the military.

2024.02.05

* <a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPI3b9iPSN0'>Firestarter</a> (Torre Florim DE STAAT)

<i>Very odd lounge-y cover of Prodigy's Firestart, used in the intro to "Just Cause 3"</i>

<i>Heard this the night job lobby... guess it's making the rounds. First time I heard a pop song referencing COVID.</i>

2024.02.12

The first few notes of Yeah are like sleeper agent trigger words that activate older millennials

2024.02.28

Really excellent <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/phantomrose96/743538523397832704/why-is-the-whole-economy-like-dutch-tulip-mania-2?source=share">overview charting the first dot com bust through to the current dreams of AI as the savior for tech</a>. <br>

2024.03.03

<i>Went to see Ari Shaffir live, he had a lot of praise for this song. This remix has even bigger brass.</i>

* Firestarter (The Prodigy)

2024.03.11

Today I learned about "Chesterton's Fence" - "a simple rule of thumb that suggests that you should never destroy a fence, change a rule, or do away with a tradition until you understand why it's there in the first place. The principle assumes that fences have a purpose, were carefully planned, and cost time and money to erect." <br>

2024.03.17

Started watching David Lynch's Dune, after watching the new "Part 1". I knew about the kinda cool force field shield suit effects, but was not expecting the first one to be powered up by Patrick Stewart!

2024.03.19

I mean I have mixed feelings about it. Fear of hellfire - combined with the idiosyncratic life of a preacher's family life (where a church provided for all of our material needs and directed my parents what to do and where to live) - definitely molded me, gave me the idea that my personal preferences were secondary to what was good for the group - and since then I've come to appreciate that as an important framing of moral reality, that striving to conform to a likely guess of what is objectively good is better than only heeding one's own preferences, which are influenced by a mix of compassion and selfishness.

phrase:""

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