The Blogsicle

Holmes

2008-01-21T12:36:00.001-08:00

A cool HDR shot

Scary!

2007-12-26T00:21:00.001-08:00

This is definitely a disconcerting view of our current world. I work in software where even the most simplistic actions like one-click shopping and pop-up info bubbles can be patented. But geno patents take the cake. I can understand patenting maybe a new mechanism to extract gene information, or a chemical that aids in turning on/off certain gene pairs, but not the genes itself.

The book has little to no action sequences. This is more of a thought experiment about what might be possible with the technology of today and the ramifications of implementing them. You might even say the ending was a bit trite, but it was fun seeing how the characters interacted.

Super onions

2007-12-21T20:28:00.001-08:00

Oh yes,
an onion.

Bye bye blog.

2007-09-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

No, not really. I'm just moving. Again. The saga continues at: http://www.whenbunniesattack.com/

Swim across the Atlantic Ocean: 3,462 mi

2007-03-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

So, a friend just pointed this out: type in a U.S. location and a European location and you get amazing accurate directions. For example, let's assume you wanted to go from Deadhorse, AK to Moscow, Russia. You'll start out in Deadhorse:

Head north: 0.2 mi
Turn right: 0.7 mi
Sharp right: 0.8 mi

and so forth. Of course around instruction 62:

Turn right at Long Wharf: 0.1 mi
Swim across the Atlantic Ocean: 3,462 mi
Slight right at E05: 0.5 mi

Hahahah...!

...

Other fun routes:

From Quack to Moo Moo

¿Viva Piñata?

2007-03-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

I find it ironic that Viva Piñata, the new Microsoft kids game, is available in many international languages and regions ... but doesn't list Mexico! No, they list "United States", "Canada - English", "Canada - French", and "Spain". But NO MEXICO. Considering "piñata" is kinda part of the Latino culture (and even Horstacio made an appearance in Six Flags Mexico), wouldn't you think it obvious that Mexico should have been included? I must be missing something here...

The best of the worst

2007-03-05T16:14:00.000-08:00

From the pages of Glam.com comes the Best of Milan photo gallery. But, seriously, could you see yourself in these?

And I always wondered where all the recycled Christmas garland went...

Think of her as a walking cattle guard.

And she just looks cold. You probably would be too if someone gave you an oversized winter coat from Goodwill but tore the sleeves off.

An out-of-bodywindow experience

2007-02-28T17:38:00.000-08:00

The new Coherence mode in Parallels is really trippy. You run Windows in its own virtual machine, switch into Coherence mode, and the open applications appear on your dock and the Windows background goes away to reveal your background. Actually, it's a bit of a trick with Windows' background (the apps aren't really running on OS X) but still Parallels did a great job of making it seem like all your apps are in the same place! They also seem to have improved the cut-and-paste so that you can use the Mac Apple+C to copy while still in Windows.

Apple. You just saved me $3000.

2007-02-11T11:17:00.000-08:00

My brand-spankin'-new Macbook Pro, the investment of quite a bit of $$$ into its hardware, software, and accessories, could have come crashing down around me, literally. As I was getting up to get coffee from the comfy armchair I so often sit in, my toes caught the power cord and *SNAP!*. The next thing I saw was the tail end of the power cord flying through the air ... but not the laptop. It sat happily on the coffee table humming along like normal. THANK YOU to Apple for putting in the MagSafe power connection. You just saved me replacing a laptop.

Amy Tan = Amy Tangerine!

2007-01-20T10:33:00.000-08:00

While browsing around I just came across something I wanted to bookmark and check out later:

Amy Tangerine

From her site:
Amy Tangerine is a line of fun, crafty styles featuring embroidery & flirty phrases. Like the cute bubbly and vivacious designer, Amy Tan, her clothing yields popularity and success.
...

Nizlopi!

2007-01-16T17:31:00.000-08:00

After a friend introduced me to their now famous JCB Song I stuck their album into my iTunes shopping cart and it has been sitting there for a couple of months at least. Today I finally downloaded the album, Half These Songs Are About You, and I'm loving every second of it. Luke Concannon's gruff but strong voice is the perfect complement to his and John's guitar/bass. The lyrics are whimsical and tell great stories. You have to totally check it out!

Geeky fun

2007-01-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

Am I not the only one tickled by seeing Windows boot up inside the Mac? :)

Cutest. Fan. Ever.

2007-01-08T13:12:00.000-08:00

You can't say you don't giggle when you see one of these:

It's a piggy angel fan!

But, really, what were those crazy product design people on when they designed this? It's like someone said "name three things that should never go together" and someone piped up: "Palm trees! Angels! Pigs!". And there you go.

Odd Combination #1

2007-01-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like working in the living room with the lights turned down half, a row of tea lights on the far side of the room, and the B-52's "Planet Claire". Try it.

Wireless good ... Airport Express better!

2007-01-01T22:14:00.000-08:00

Ever since I went wireless a couple of years ago it made such a difference in how I set up my computers and where I do my work. I had gotten a Linksys wireless router with 4 ports in the back. I connected my desktop to one of the ports; my laptop went wirelessly to it.

Life was good. I could read and work on my bed, or I could carry the laptop into the kitchen and read recipes off of it, or I could sit outside in my patio and get some breeze. I still had to turn on my desktop computer to print anything and I was always running around copying files to it so they could be printed---at least the USB drive made it a lot easier to move files around. And then one day I got an Airport Express.

I think I had been eyeing it for some time. I had started using iTunes a lot more and was really getting the hang of using it, so I started looking around for accessories. About the same time I had been looking around for a wireless print server so I could print from both my laptop and my desktop without ever having to turn on the main computer---that always took such a long time to boot!

When I first put in the Airport Express I was amazed at how quickly the setup went. It was literally just a case of plugging it in. Whoever was on the genius team that put that product together made it so darned easy I was amazed. I then got my printer working at that was great! For some reason I had a bit of a hard time getting the Airport Express to join onto my existing wireless network (or maybe I missed the option), so I ended up disabling the wireless portion on the Airport Express and plugged it into the router by a CAT-5 cable. Finally, I connected up my home stereo to the Airport Express and ... wow! I had a network of computers all linked up pretty much wirelessly, a printer which could print while I was anywhere in the room, and I could broadcast music to my stereo straight from the laptop! It was so cool!

And then. I moved.

About a year went by and I longed to get my Airport Express set up again. I missed having wireless connectivity to my printer and had found a hokey solution to it. Well, just last week one of my roomies and I decided to move our wireless router around a little. That led me to think about our wireless network again. After about an hour I had something figured out, and I plugged the Airport Express back in...

"HOLY CRAPOLA!" I gasped after I got the iTunes on my laptop to find the Airport Express. It was a bit of setup, but I changed thigns around: I found the option to have the Airport Express join an existing wireless network! Wow! Now the Airport Express talks directly to the wireless router and my laptop can see it! Even better, my desktop can also see the Airport Express! So once again I can get the Airport Express to play out music from both my desktop and laptop, and my printer can be networked! WOW WOW WOW! And the final piece...since my computer has a sound card and the Airport Express also has a sound output, I now run both into my mixing board and my stereo can play the mixed output of both devices!!! I'm back in business!!!

It's almost scary that I can sit on my bed and control the music being broadcast to my stereo as well as printing wirelessly! Oh I love being a geek.

Cheers!

2006-12-31T18:16:00.000-08:00

It almost seems like a necessity to blog about the end of the year. A time to sort of sit down and think about all that's happened...

A move. A new job. Travels around the world. Traveling about town. New friends. Catching up with old ones. New foods. New family. Getting in touch with old family. All in all, '06 was great for so many reasons. So many wonderful people. I think I'm very fortunate.

I'm looking at the clock. 6:20 PM. Only a few hours left and I'll be embarking on another new adventure. I hope that the coming year will be full of many new adventures! May everyone have a safe and happy New Year and may the future be bright for everyone!

To the New Year! *raises glass*

Happy Festivus!

2006-12-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

Break out your aluminum pole, it's that time of year again!

Back in eighteen fourty-four
The Festivus snail was heard to roar.
That ol' snail sure caused a fuss.
His roar brought us Festivus.

Gather 'round the pole, young wishers.
Gather 'round to toss your washers.
Gather 'round the rest of us.
The time has come for Festivus!

http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-2/festivus%2010.htm
© Adam Park

Happy Festivus everyone!

(More...)

Why I love my company

2006-12-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

I've only been here a couple of weeks but I love my company. We're a small startup---small enough we could all fit in a small bus. I guess we're lucky enough to have our own office but even still it isn't the greatest. I mean, check this out:

The ceilings creak whenever someone walks on the floor above us.
We've had the power go out and we're all just sitting in the dark.
After a while the fridge starts making this loud buzzing sound that escalates to the volume of a chainsaw ... until someone goes over and kicks it.
The VP of Engineering's wall-sized whiteboard has this delicate tether to the wall and it wobbles when you write on it---and it'll probably fall down any moment.
The main conference room table also wobbles dangerously every time someone leans on it.
The conference rooms (all 3 of them) have paper thin walls and windows. You have no privacy at all---you can hear the executive officers' voices when they get excited.
Our method of obtaining "lock permission" on modifying some of our files basically involves walking over to people's cubes and telling them not to make any changes.
There are two microwaves---the bottom one is missing its glass plate.
There is a temperature control problem. Even with the windows wide open it is still like 90 degrees indoors.

But even for all these nagging problems people are really passionate about their work. It's fun to dodge golf balls in the hallway when the CEO is practicing his putting. Or when in an HR meeting we received a form to declare all the reading materials we got and the VP of Engineering pipes up calling it "the shit-that-we-got form". It's just like being in a dragon boat race where everyone is working hard to pull their weight but they're still enjoying the ride.

Frankly dear, I don't give a damn

2006-12-11T23:58:00.000-08:00

SPOILER WARNING:

OK, I just finished watching all 3 hours 42 minutes of "Gone With The Wind". More aptly titled "Broke Ass Slut Ho's Millions" or "Great Balls of Fire, I'm A Whiny Loser". Good grief did this movie annoy me. First, let's look at some of the more memorable characters.

Scarlett O'Hara: (Vivien Leigh) The spoiled rich brat that lusts after everyone else's man.

Melanie "Melly" Hamilton: (Olivia de Havilland) The girl that steals Scarlett's hearthrob.

Ashley Wilkes: (Leslie Howard) The good soldier boy. OK, the incestuous soldier boy.

Rhett Butlet: (Clark Gable) The rich conniving pimp.

Prissy: (Butterfly McQueen) Super-annoying (lying) servant of the O'Haras. Sounds like Michael Jackson after an atomic wedgie.

Aunt "Pittypat" Hamilton: (Laura Hope Crews) Scarlett's aunt and probably had one too many Ho Ho's.

Tara: The clod of earth Scarlett loves.

The other characters were actually pretty redeeming or not significant enough to warrant me trashing. Speaking of which, the main character liberally call each other "white trash". Funny, that brings a smile to my face. Anyways, the plot basically goes like this:

It's the Deep South and we're back in the time just at the start of the Civil War. Scarlett is a pretty well-off country girl who definitely doesn't embody the "grace" of "decent people". No, she's a man eater. And when she's in her zone she attracts men like flies to, er, hot fresh cow pat. We're talking a Class A ho. Oh, did I mention she's whiny? Oh, super whiny. She acts like she's a spoiled brat (because she is) and wants everyone's attention (just like a brat). Now, there's this one man she really likes (Ashley, yes it's a guy not a girl) who just happens to have to marry his cousin. The best part about this is that he actually justifies marrying her that it be something positive to keep all that family blood in the family. (Um, ew.) Then enter Rhett Butler, the swaggering thin-mustached man who upsets the party with his anti-patriotic talk. Somehow I wished he'd give a good Sean Connery belly laugh. That would have been gold. ANYWAYS...Rhett gives her a hat and expects sex for it. (I'm sorry but *I* certainly wouldn't settle for just a noggin protector.)

Things take a turn for the worse. The South gets into war with the North and the men go off marching into battle to fight to keep the South alive. Their "shock and awe" strategy is no match for the North's much more capable army. So the South falls into chaos, and Scarlett runs for her life with Rhett's help. Oh, and Scarlett's hubby dies leaving her a young whiny widow. After spending years away from her childhood home, called "Tara", she returns only to find her ma dead and her pa going insane. They've got one cow and a handful of radishes for food and that's it. All the while Scarlett is going on about how hard her life is and how she'll do whatever it takes to get money. Yeah, she be a gold digger and don't date no broke n*****s. She's so desperate she repurposes house drapery for a dress just to impress Rhett for $300, but since he ain't gonna give her nothin' she marries Mr. Frank Kennedy for his money. $500 of it at least.

Scarlett somehow makes it big in the lumber business and now she's got her silver spoons again. Of course she's using convicts as slave labor but somehow that seems alright with her. Scarlett has ample opportunity to cheat on her husband because she ends up partnering with her old flame, Ashley. But, Ashley's steadfastily holding onto Melly's hand because of their child. Besides, Scarlett's husband Frank Kennedy is totally whipped and she, being the entrepreneurial tiger, likes it that way. But once he dies in a childish retalliation effort she's already hunting for her next man-wich: Rhett.

Somehow in all this mess Scarlett ends up marrying Rhett and having his baby but also picks up a nasty drinking habit. She also doesn't want to have a second child because she'd never get back down to her 18.5" waist. (Yes, Scarlett is the positive role model for all wanna-be anorexic alcoholic slut ho's out there. Can I get a woot woot?) In the end tragedy strikes and almost everyone one around Scarlett dies including her own daughter. Ashley admits he never loved Scarlett (stupid ass, he led her on all this time) and Rhett walks away from it all a sore loser ("frankly dear, I don't give a damn"). Yet Scarlett finds the strengh to stand up in the sunset and vow to return to Tara and find happiness. Honestly, I think it was just the drinking and sleep deprivation were really getting to her.

There you have it: I've just saved you almost 4 hours of your life. Are there any redeeming qualities about this movie? Well, the photography was excellent, and the soundtrack very appropriate. The actors totally overplayed their roles like a Shakespearean comedy and there really was no redeeming quality about Scarlett. This masterpiece should have been this classic epic but to me it felt like a long-winded bitch-and-moan session.

Dump the pump - electric vehicles!

2006-12-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

A friend in the UK has just gotten her hands on a "Mini El", an electric car. She raves about it here:

C'mon, at about 4p ($0.07 US dollars) a mile, it's REALLY cheap to own and drive. And in the UK you get even more bonuses not having to pay certain taxes. Check it out!

How to make your own butter...

2006-10-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

From Cooking for Engineers, an article by Michael Chu!

iPad!

2006-10-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

The history of the color red...!

2006-10-01T19:38:00.001-07:00

Enjoy!

A little short on the budget?

2006-09-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

My Dad and I were talking about old movies when he brought up 3 Days of the Condor. It's one of his favs. So anyways, we're looking at the VHS tape cover and it says in the credits, I quote:

DINO DE LAURENTIIS PRESENTS A STANLEY SCHNIEDER RODUCTION
ROBERT REDFORD FAYE DUNAWAY CLIFF ROBERTSON MAX VON SYDOW and JOHN HOUSEMAN in A SYDNEY POLLACK FILM "3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR" Music by DAVID GRUSIN Director of Photography OWEN ROIZMAN, A.S.C. Based on the Novel "SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR" by JAMES GRADY Screenplay by LORENZO SEMPLE, JR. and DAVID RAYFIEL
...

What? They didn't have enough money in the budget to do all 6 days so they trimmed it to 3?!

Mini-size me!

2006-09-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

Too cool! http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=111577.0:

Killing corsets helps war effort

2006-09-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

On a complete whim I was looking up the history of the modern bra and came across an About.com article which said:

...

In 1893, a woman named Marie Tucek patented the 'breast supporter’; the device included separate pockets for the breasts and straps that went over the shoulder, fastened by hook-and-eye closures.
In 1889, corset-maker Herminie Cadolle invented the 'Well-Being' or 'Bien-être', a bra-like device sold as a health aid. The corset's support for the breasts squeezed up from below. Cadolle changed breast support to the shoulders down.
World War I dealt the corset a fatal blow when the U.S. War Industries Board called on women to stop buying corsets in 1917. It freed up some 28,000 tons of metal!

...

haha...!

If you want to know more about Mary Phelps Jacob you can read about her invention.

Priceless: a bearsuit freaking an oblivious woman!

2006-09-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

This was taken yesterday that the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco! You should have seen the bear go at it! ... and the woman never turned around ...

Cute videos promoting safe sex!

2006-09-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

Bansky art

2006-09-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

While I was in England I was introduced to some of the things that Banksy, the "art terrorist", has done. I just found this on Banksy's page:

I'd love it if a stencil for this was available at Walmart.

Men being ... men?

2006-09-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

I guess they're trying to bump up the image of light beer so it's not totally wussy beer:

http://www.milbestlight.com/downloads.aspx

Think of the real message here: you're fat, we know, so we'll make light beer to help you look less fat so you'll think you might have a chance with a hot girl. Truth be told you're probably too old anyways. Cheers.

It would happen, wouldn't it?

2006-09-16T01:46:00.000-07:00

Ghost riding the whip is stupid. I mean, seriously. There's enough distractions in driving to keep your car on the road but to purposely leave your car while it's moving is insane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag370nHDZis

Serves him right. :P

There's a man outside my window...

2006-09-16T01:29:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like coming home from a long vacation travel weary and not being able to open your front gate. Apparently while I was gone a painting company has set up its scaffold right in front of my building. While I'm happy that our little building is getting a needed facelift, a beam on the scaffold actually blocked the front gate from opening all the way. I managed to shove my suitcase through, then my backpack, then me.

Then when I walked into my room I noticed the scaffolding went up all the way past my window. I live on the third floor of our building---that's a really high scaffold! Unfortunately that also means that that someone can look through my windows...

The next day I woke up to the sound of someone power-spraying and heavy boots clanking. I looked through my drapes to notice a guy in a plaid shirt working outside my window. Oh, oops. Well it's a good thing I have those drapes! But in our living room we only have shutters. So all day long I kept those closed. But still you can see them walking back and forth outside the window!

It kinda makes you feel weird having someone right outside your window.

Programmer humor at Blue Shield

2006-08-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Oh those web programmers try to be funny. While looking at the Blue Shield site I went to do a search. When the results page came back:

look at the example names for people searches:

hehee!

Around the block in $4

2006-08-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

Literally around the block was a $4 cab ride. Ugh.

Masala and I emerged from BART about 11:30p and most things were closed, surprise surprise. But I remembered there was a 24-hour Naan 'n Curry around there somewhere. We checked our phones, we checked 411. No matches. We got in a cab and asked if he knew of a late-night Indian place. "Oh, Naan 'n Curry? They just opened up about 2 months ago..."

And away we went in the cab down one length of the block and up the other...it turned out that we had literally walked the wrong way from the BART exit. Doh. But at least we found good food without freezing our collective asses off!

g33k pr0n

2006-08-24T01:15:00.000-07:00

From a recent conversation I had with a friend (FireMouse):

FireMouse: Do you use any irc servers?
wisecow: nope
wisecow: too distracting
FireMouse: naw.. I want to get a bunch of my friends back on irc...
FireMouse: I miss it.. it was nice having a place where a bunch of us could chat together
wisecow: yeah
FireMouse: blah blah... everyone uses different ones and etc etc
FireMouse: hard to have a big multi way chat like that
wisecow: yeah
wisecow: a massive chat orgy
FireMouse: haha
wisecow: I'm taking off my firewall.
wisecow: Does that make you feel hot?
wisecow: My ports are naked....
FireMouse: oh baby... show me your ports
wisecow: i've already got two clients in my ports
wisecow: but ... there's always room for you
wisecow: i want to feel your packets ins...
wisecow: nevermind.
wisecow:
FireMouse: hahahaha, yowser
wisecow: Yeah, that was crossing a line.
FireMouse: hehe
FireMouse: May as well just cyber at that point

Hehe.

Fun with fridge magnets and sponge animals!

2006-08-17T01:30:00.000-07:00

Recently my roomies and I found some more fridge word magnets. And a one of them and his girlfriend found some sponge dinosaurs that expand after you put them in water. So what do you get when you put the two together? Hilarity ensues.

May we now present to you: Sponge Dinosaur Microwave Diorama.

A couple seasons of difference?

2006-08-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

I'm watching the first season of Sex and the City and Miranda is totally calm. What a difference from the raging mommy she becomes in the later episodes. I hope we get Netflix soon so we can go through all of the episodes!

More than an addiction

2006-08-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

I guess the Internet is a vital thing these days. I don't know about you but I spend most of my day doing something Internet-ish. E-mail, blogging, messaging, looking up trip info, and more. My housemates and I decided that paying $50/month was totally outrageous and so we're chaging DSL providers. Unfortunately they said that we had to discontinue our current service first. Bogus. So at 12:00a this morning we lost all Internet. It's one thing to know that there's just a simple outage and that it'll come back. But we're going to be without connectivity for like a week and a half at minimum! Ugh. So this is pretty much forcing me to get out of the house to work and get e-mail.

On the upside, it's forcing me to do a lot of walking. Thank goodness things are close by in San Francisco.

"Wetness"

2006-08-04T16:52:00.000-07:00

I went to a coffee shop today and logged onto their WiFi. While looking at the other wireless list I saw:

Interesting.

What a day ... so far

2006-08-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

5 4 7 3

That is about the last I saw of the bus as it hopped away, leaving 4 of us still standing on the same patch of sidewalk we all collectively had inhabited for the past 15 minutes. It's one thing for a bus to be late. But for a bus to stop, accidentally lurch forward and almost knock over the cyclist who was unracking his bike from the front of the bus, have the driver complain that she did nothing wrong, and then drive off in a huff without letting any of us onto the bus? Holy cow! What gives!

This was only sort of the start of things this morning.

I woke up feeling a bit icky from the 3 glasses of red I had taken down the night before---my limit is usually 2. I love red wine but I know too much makes me feel all weird.

After an energizing shower, I actually bothered to do my hair. Not that I'm the greatest stylist or anything (ha! I'm so wash-and-wear...) but you know I did a little effort of flipping my hair around, spraying it, and brushing it neatly. So not more than a minute out of the door a nice gust of wind cruising up the San Francisco streets flips my hair in reverse. Crikey. Fortunately most of the hairspray was dry but even still it kinda mussed things up.

So not having been able to take the #5473 bus meant I had to hoof it for another 3/4 of a mile---not a long distance mind you, but in the warm sun and hilly terrain you can work up a decent sweat. Of course, my eau de toilette doesn't mix well with eau de bum off of da street, who happened to cut in ahead of me at Safeway while I was waiting in line at Customer Service. Yay. Somehow that kind of stank lingers, you know?

Waiting for the train/trolley this morning was generally uneventful, but because it is so darned warm and the waiting island is in direct sunlight you do tend to get toasty. I didn't really notice how warm it was until I took off the backpack and the moist ridge of my tank turned icy cold in the breeze. Ew.

And finally I get to the cafe I wanted to work at and the open table I found was this tiny midget table. (No offense intended to the vertically challenged.) But the idea of crooning over my food (and laptop) seems like a bad idea for my back. So I sat there for like 20 minutes picking at my food and browsing until a higher table opened up next to me.

And that was my morning.

I knew it! He's a robot!

2006-07-22T00:32:00.000-07:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?...

Best. Week. Ever.

2006-07-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

You have to love their Mac ad spoofs: http://www.bestweekever.tv/2006/07/07/bwe-mac-ads/.

When you're having fun . . .

2006-07-18T00:36:00.000-07:00

... sometimes you don't notice that you haven't eaten. In a long time. Today I had been doing the Geek Thing with some new programming tools after lunch and somehow it rolled around to dinner time. I got up to go get some food down at the local Safeway and by the time I returned it had been two hours later, close to 9:00p. I had heard about some people going to see a movie, A Scanner Deeply, which started around 10-ish. And finally by the time I had gotten home it was about 12:30a. About 11 hours after I had last eaten something! When I was saying goodbye to the people I dropped off I couldn't even think straight. It was pretty bad. And as I walked up the hill to my apartment door I finally finished my mental calculation that it was, yes, about 11 hours...!

Speaking of food, though, there is this hilarious new vodcast cooking show called Ctrl+Alt+Chicken. What makes it funny is that the two main hosts, Alex and Heather, really can't cook all that well. They substitute the wrong ingredients, don't use all the right cooking methods, and then stand around debating what might have gone wrong. All in all, it's good fun. Go watch! I'm going to go eat something...

"Awesomely long"

2006-07-17T00:57:00.000-07:00

From Scoop on Poop:

How does poop stay together, like in links?
(Question submitted by Blink182 Girl)

In humans, soft poop is really one long, mostly continuous sausage before it comes out. It gets its "link" look because we tend to pinch off lengths of it with the anal sphincter as the poop emerges. If a person pinches hard enough, the poop separates into several turd units. If the person doesn't pinch that hard, the turds may stay connected.

If you can remain sufficiently relaxed, you can produce an awesomely long poop that will coil up inside the toilet.

I love the Internet. It's not just for porn.

DJ Ted Stevens Techno Remix: "A Series of Tubes"

2006-07-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

From those crazy folks at BoldHeaded.com: http://www.boldheaded.com/2006/07/dj-ted-stevens-techno-remix-series-of.html

When automatic digital censorship s**ks

2006-07-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

Apparently iTunes now has word filtering enabled. And of course it's not contextual, so you get funny things like:

It took me a minute to realize that they had censored the harmless word "suck". Hehe...

Today's favorite quote...

2006-06-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

Apparently the EFF was a little too hasty in their reaction to the recent Section 115 Reform Act (SIRA). They immediately put out a cry for help (which was also picked up by several major feeds) and promptly deluged congressmen and women with phone calls to help stop the passage of language in the bill which the EFF said:

... implies that licenses from copyright holders are needed for every digital copy made in the transmission of digital media -- including cached copies on servers or on your hard drive, and even temporary copies in RAM.

-- EFF web page

In response to this, Andrew Orlowski of The Register wrote an article that highlighted the bill's intention was designed to:

... help download services such as Apple's iTunes as well as digital broadcasters, propose a blanket license for mechanical copyright clearance.

-- "RIAA, EFF unite to sabotage digital reform"

Basically, EFF's action to help defeat this bill was in error. (The RIAA was also trying to defeat this same bill!) The best quote of that article I believe is:

So watching the EFF swing into action against a bill that weakens the RIAA and paves the way to seeing the EFF's lofty goals realized is rather like watching a dog fruitlessly hump a table. The table too may have four legs, but nothing productive will result from this union.

Red Bull gives you wings ... Sobe gives you cape?

2006-06-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

And there it was, standing as tall and proud as any mass market scheme on the endcap at Safeway: Sobe Superman™ Super Power Adult Energy Supplement. Hahaha... It is a tall 16 oz. black and white can with the huge Superman logo right on the front. If you know me, you know I've tried all sorts of energy drinks and my fav is Mountain Dew Amp. They're all pretty bad for you so if I'm drinking one straight I want it to taste good. I opened this can of superfuel only a few moments ago and ... lo and behold! It doesn't taste like crap! Actually, it tastes pretty rockin' good! So, as much of a stupid marketing ploy it is, I have to give it up for the folks at Sobe for making a drink that has flavour in it.

Fun photos become spy photos?

2006-06-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

I've been paring down all my photo archives to prepare them for display on the web when I noticed something: the resolution on my camera is now good enough that you can read the fine print in the picture! All of this got me to thinking that even the most casual photos can now reveal a lot more information to the viewer than was intended. Each of us has to be a little more careful about how we post all our personal data because it gets recorded forever in large archives.

No, the matches do not help!

2006-04-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

So I went to this sushi restaurant tonight. Just before the food was to arrive I excused myself and walked over to the bathroom. I tugged on the door, but obviously there was someone in there so I just waited patiently outside. I thought I smelled something nasty coming from under the door but dismissed the thought. This guy wobbles out and then I duck into ... aaaaa!!!! W.T.F.?!!!! It seriously smelled like flaming pee! Then I look down into the bowl and see ...

... two burned out matches ...

What the hell?!

OK, so Mr. I-Don't-Know-Your-Name did a big stinky. I agree that's dag nasty. But to attempt to cover it up by burning not one but two matches? Oh good grief! That just made the stank like a hundredfold more über-stanky! Flaming pee! Listen to me!!!

OK, kids, the lesson is: Shit happens. Just don't set it on fire.

How To Do Your Taxes

2006-04-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

I hate taxes. And this year I've procrastinated longer than I ever have. Here is a log of the day's events of how I did my taxes on Saturday April 15...

April 15: 2:30 PM: Opened eyes after a long night at the club.

2:32 PM: Went back to sleep.

3:35 PM: Opened eyes again. Realized I have 8 hours to do my taxes. Went to the shower.

4:10 PM: Walked out of the shower, dried hair. Realized I'm hungry.

4:46 PM: Finished cooking dinner. Turned on TV. Watched an old episode of the Daily Show.

5:01 PM: Went back to bedroom. Realized I need a special CD to get my computer working. Started searching room...

5:50 PM: Gave up said search. But then when I started my computer and opened the CD tray ... found the CD was in there! DId required upgrade.

6:12 PM: Found TurboTax software box. Opened it. Inserted CD into computer...

6:20 PM: Started chatting with friend on Yahoo.

8:51 PM: Finished chat. Finally double-clicked CD icon. Started TurboTax.

8:55 PM: Surfed to irs.gov. Found out deadline is Monday the 17th! Went back to chatting on Yahoo.

10:13 PM: Imported last year's tax info.

10:17 PM: Snack.

11:23 PM: Snack.

April 16: 1:17 AM: Finally done with filling out forms! Clicked to transmit results: The Intuit Electronic Filing Center is unable to complete the transaction, please try again later. Drats. Time to go to bed.

How To Buy A Mattress

2006-04-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

I'm questing to find a decent mattress and oh boy is it going to cost. The one I like retails for about $2100, but the cheapest discount price I've seen for it is hovering around $1500. Still, owwww! Remember, this doesn't include the frame (which will probably be about $600)!

Anyways, I'll probably update this later but there are certain things to know about buying a mattress:

The markup on mattresses is ridiculous. Always bargain for at least 30% off the asking price.
If you pay a fee to dispose of your old mattress it may be a per-piece fee.
Don't feel you have to get a box spring. Mattress and box springs are often sold in sets, but it is not a requirement. Personally, I recommend choosing your frame first and your mattress second.
You may void your warranty if you do not have a box spring or proper mattress support. You know those really expensive designer frames that have the wood slats at the bottom to support only the mattress? Apparently that is considered improper mattress support. Either you'll have to get a box spring or you'll have to get a board custom-cut to your frame size.
Don't ever buy a mattress sight-unseen. You need to feel it, roll on it, bounce on it! Just reading the "statistics" is not enough.
Make sure to ask about a money-back guarantee.
Mattresses are expensive. Expect to pay minimum $900 for a queen.
More coils do not mean a better sleep. I always go by what feels best to you. That said, the foam part is probably more important because you'll feel that the most.
Salespeople will always rush you. Just like buying a car, take your time. Say you need to look elsewhere for frames. Delay. Get their business cards. Etc.
Thicker mattresses may not fit your designer sheets! Be sure to measure the mattress depth---a lot of new mattresses have really thick topping.
If your mattress develops dips in it greater than about 2" then you get a replacement for free if under warranty. This of course supposes that you have a proper bed frame with a box spring or proper mattress support! (See the above note on warranty voiding!)

Mmmm...tasty!

2006-03-26T09:35:00.000-08:00

OK, phone geeking time.

I am a klutz. I think it stems from me being distracted easily and forgetting I'm holding onto something like, oh, a cell phone? It wasn't until I heard that frightening smack! that I realized I had just dropped it onto the hard floor at GAP. I popped the battery back in (because it had ejected itself some few feet away) and tried to turn it on. The lights flickered to life but the screen did not. This wasn't the first time so I just toggled it on/off again, opened/closed it, etc. After about two minutes I knew this time was a bit more serious than last.
I finally got home later that evening and played around with the phone some more. I even tried to open it up and see if there was anything obviously missing. I thought about this for a few minutes and then figured that it wasn't worth repairing the phone. So I hopped online and started looking up my options. In the end, the following day I walked away from the phone shop carrying a ...

I took this little bad boy home and started playing with it. A friend had a Motorola and so the menu wasn't completely foreign to me. And after figuring out a few quirks (like phonebook entries must be stored on the phone and not the SIM to get the extra media options like voice dialing and custom ringtones) I really started to like it. The iTunes player on it isn't the best, but it works and it's not like I'm looking at the screen all of the time once the music is going. I know it is going to get sooooo scratched. I have a small cellular caddy on a few of my purses, so I'm hoping to use that to hold it. But, yay!, I have a working phone again!

And as an additional geeky bonus, I figured out how to write simple WML pages so I make custom ringtones. Rock on!

Muahahahah!

2006-03-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

*snicker*

http://blog.nancyboy.com/Home/Blog/All/MarchLinks.html

Clap your hands, say Yelp?

2006-03-07T18:41:00.000-08:00

So, there's this particular site that I started visiting not too long ago. Ever since moving I've been looking up directories to find out what's near me, and along came Yelp. It's an interesting site because it sort of combines the whole review thing with a more accessible map and chat channels. I'm curious to see how it is going to turn out, whether they can truly handle its rapidly increasing volume, and how they can keep the quality in the reviews up---as in keeping stupid or malicious comments out. I guess that's the challenge with any public commentary website. Anyways check it out! (And, no, I wasn't forced to write this; I just think of it as another good resource to know.)

Snacky Treats

2006-03-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

So here I was pulling my little car into my assigned parking spot when ... dammit! ... one of the other tenants was blocking the driveway. I pulled my car to the side and turn it off.

"Are you going to be parking or coming out?", I asked.

Two people were just leaving this guy's car too, and the owner emerged from behind the car. "Oh, I was just showing some people my car. I'm trying to sell it." Oh. "Hey, would you mind if I showed you something?" he added. I shrugged.

He proceeded to show me the fact his little VW Beetle's antenna was hitting against this one low beam that was over his car. "I was wondering if you wanted to try trading spots with me?"

I kinda looked over the parking space, then at him, then back at my car, then back at him. "Um, sure? Let me try parking in the spot to see if it'll work."

So I put the car in the spot and he took mine. I guess it works even though my car is a tad longer than his super-compact. He said he was getting a truck and since my spot is really long that it'd be better for his truck. I told him I thought it would work... And then we got to talking for a while. Mark, he said was his name. He's a pretty cool guy. I was trying to get a glimpse if he was married but he talked with his right hand, not left. He seems pretty fit, maybe 5'10", seems to be early 30s, maybe a little Scottish, and has a slight almost-Brooklyn accent---I didn't ask. But, yeah, hm ... :) He's kinda cute in a rough-hewn way. The words "snacky treats" came to mind, recalling this one talk show where the girl guest was describing the cute guys that would follow her around... Hmm...

Seed Animation...

2006-03-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

Totally cute!

Cuuuuuuute :)

2006-03-02T21:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I think they're cute. They're mine.

Thank goodness for assigned parking

2006-02-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

It's times like this where I'm glad I have assigned parking. Ever since I moved to the Big City I was thinking I'd just park on the streets. It's challenging enough when it's dry outside---it's absolutely hazardous with the streets wet. I live in a hilly part of the neighborhood and we've been getting pelted with a high amount of rain. If I park on the street I think the chances of me getting hit by runaway cars or drivers that lose control during tight turns is pretty high...

Ach Crivens!!!

2006-02-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

In the very-cool category...

The Wee Free Men is the 30th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and the second Discworld book for younger readers.

...

In January 2006, it was revealed that director Sam Raimi has signed up to make a movie based on this novel, from a script by Pamela Pettler. No other details have been released about the movie adaptation.

-- From Wikipedia

"Cheney shoots lawyer in hunt accident"

2006-02-13T00:51:00.000-08:00

This is so bad it doesn't even need a punchline.

"Cheney shoots lawyer in hunt accident"

Never sneak up behind Dick Cheney when he has a gun in his hand. That is the painful lesson learned by Texas lawyer Harry Whittington, 78, in a hunting accident at the weekend.
...
Fortunately for Mr Whittington, a millionaire lawyer from Austin, the vice-president's medical team, on permanent call due to his sometimes fragile physical condition, were nearby.

"corelle rocks" ... or ... "do not microwave under the influence"

2006-02-10T23:27:00.000-08:00

and i thought it would have splintered into a million pieces, razor sharp shards slamming into my eyes and gaping mouth. but, no! even after dropping a small corelle bowl from about 3.5" and full of falafel goodness the only thing amiss was some spilled cheese and half of a falafel ball rolling across my kitchen floor.

ok, i'm buzzed. i was at a book signing where they just happened to have alcohol. and quite cheaply i might add. after downing two mixers i was feeling, well, more to the point i was not feeling. only just after the event i walked back to my apartment and felt the munchies coming on. and, of course, when the munchies come the only thing you can do is feed them! the half-eaten falafel in the fridge called my name and i put it into the microwave.

and just as i was pulling it out half of my brain said "gee, maybe you don't want to hold on to that hot bowl!" i instictively decided it would be a good idea to get the oven mitt or something else to hold the hot bowl, but i somehow forgot the bowl was currently being held over the kitchen floor. in my haste to grab the mitt i then realized gravity was still working and the unsupported bowl crashed to the floor below.

it was one of those third-person kinds of things where you're watching an accident happen and you think, "that poor girl just dropped a bowl". my brain took a second to catch up to the fact that the "poor girl" was me. and by that time the bowl had smacked down onto the linoleum, cheese flying everywhere and bits of falafel bouncing along the floor. and then the miracle was clear...

the bowl had not a scratch on it.

how's that for a good quality bowl? completely intact even after a great fall. i have always loved my Corelle for its durability but this takes it totally to a new level. i totally -heart- Corelle now.

Buses Rock

2006-01-02T23:57:00.000-08:00

Really, they do. I just tried out my brand new Muni pass and really, it's super convenient. I learned quite a bit today and I *think* I might just be able to figure out how to take mass transit up here in SF! Yay!

(Readers will note that being the car-driving suburbanite I am that I rarely if ever have taken a bus in my life.)

Wand Wang

2005-12-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

OK, this is too good to pass up. Courtesy of bash.org and post #111338:

#111338 +(9630)- [X]

<JonJonB> Purely in the interests of science, I have replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in the first Harry Potter Book
<JonJonB> Let's see the results...

<JonJonB> "Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.
<JonJonB> "Oh, well -- I was at Hogwarts meself but I -- er -- got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wang in half an' everything

<JonJonB> A magic wang... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.

Read full text...

You know you live a very online existence when...

2005-12-09T18:07:00.000-08:00

... it's December and you still haven't finished your Black Hertiage month stamps from March

... you can't remember the last time you wrote a check

... the last time you used a pen to write anything was to sign that last check

... if your friends aren't logged into Yahoo/AOL/MSN then they're probably asleep

... you don't listen to terrestrial radio stations any more---iPod, baby!

... you're more likely to give out your IM screenname or e-mail address than your phone number

... your idea of having a pet is Nintendogs

... you get all of your news through RSS feeds---what's a newspaper?

... you get all of your TV through BitTorrent---what's cable?

... instead of cleaning your room you "rearrange" the icons on your Mac OS desktop

Leftovers? Amster to the rescue!

2005-11-27T20:46:00.000-08:00

In this episode we see how Amster can take an ordinary leftover Thanksgiving dinner and turn it into ... well ... warm leftover Thanksgiving dinner.

I peered into my fridge and looked at the Glad container holding the take-home portion of my Mom's Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, stuffing, and some potatoes. (The cranberries are in a separate container.) Seeing as how I have to find a way to eat this before it turns green with mold, I fired up my favorite deep pan. A little butter melted on the bottom and the stuffing were heated until that good golden brown started showing up on the stuffing. Then I set it aside and tossed into the pan some turkey (shredded up) along with a little olive oil followed by a dash of sea salt. Once that was all nice and hot I recombined then tossed a few times. Boston Market sells a beef gravy that's pretty good, so I put some in the bottom of a bowl then folded in to hot stuffing/turkey mixture. Let sit a couple minutes to bring the gravy up to temperature and voila, a repurposed turkey dinner brought back to life. Pan frying really helped to drive out a lot of the icky moisture and concentrated the turkey flavor...

In the next episode I'll talk about how to make a natural adhesive with cranberry sauce.

Cows on the rampage?

2005-11-20T05:42:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is true. I decided that I needed a blog to go all emotional and vent stuff out. So, the Fire Breathing Cow is now in existence...

TWiT humor...

2005-11-16T21:37:00.000-08:00

For those in the know, This Week In Tech is a weekly podcast hosted by Leo Laporte (of TechTV fame). At the end of every podcast session he wraps up the show with "another TWiT is in the can!" Well, in a related story, he brought up on a podcast that he'd love to have like 20,000 Frappr pins for all the TWiT members around the world---Frappr is a Google-based map hack.

Anyways, so I was browsing around looking at England and when hovering over a point I saw this precious picture...

LOL!

Gee, would you like to reinforce stereotypes?

2005-11-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

No, really. I've been looking for housing and on this one message board this ad was posted:

Reply to: XXXXX@xxxxxxx.com Date: 2005-XX-XX, XX:XXPM PST Beautiful secluded room in top floor apartment in XXXXXXXXX near XXXXXXXXXX; hardwood floors; washer dryer; stylish living room; room is a little small; clean and quiet; full kitchen; maid; with two young male professionals;prefer asian female; should be quiet, easygoing & nice.

Like all Asian girls are supposed to be "quiet, easygoing, and nice"? Oh puhlease. What the heck is up with this stereotyping? Are they looking for "tiny Asian girl who give good massage, make big men dinner, and make no sound when ask to bend over"? Good grief, guys.

Butter me up...

2005-11-08T22:46:00.000-08:00

Recipe calls for:
- 1 qty. Amster
- 3 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease Amster liberally with olive oil.
...

As an interesting side note I found a great use for olive oil: removing permanent marker from one's skin.

On Saturday, Bo-Bo, Tri-Girl, and I did a relay-style triathlon. (Which was a lot of painful fun, but that's another story. Ow.) Well, at the triathlon staging area you go up to one of the volunteers and get yourself marked up with your race number on your arms, legs, and on the tops of your hands. Which is great when you need to be IDed, but looks kinda uncool later. Especially because they also write your age on your leg.

Bo-Bo pointed out that oil was a good way to get the stuff off. Really now? Seriously, just put a tablespoon of cheap olive oil (margarine or butter works) and rub over the pen marks. I never thought of it as a good surfactant until now. Yay!

A rant against Sony BMG

2005-11-06T23:35:00.000-08:00

Hello Sony Music and Sony BMG,

I would like to personally thank you for helping to change my entertainment purchasing habits. After reading a discussion of your secretive inclusion of DRM (please see Mark Russinovich's blog), I consider my privacy violated and my trust in your company broken. While I fully support copyright protection, I also believe in full disclosure of one's methods of doing so. As a result I will cease buying Sony CDs immediately.

From now on I plan to buy all my music through Apple's iTunes store and play this on my newly-purchased iPod using Apple's FairPlay DRM.

Thank you again,

-- <me>

Good grief, what has this world come to? I didn't want to necessarily use this blog for ranting, but this one just chaps my hide. If you haven't heard about the whole Sony BMG rootkit scandal going on right now, you ought to go and read about it. Don't worry, I'll wait...

*Jeopardy music plays*

OK, done?

So, I'm enraged. This is misleading and an obvious compromise to computer security in general. How did Sony BMG believe they were going to get away with something like this? Anyways, as a thank-you to Sony for doing this I'm halting my purchase of their CD products as of now. I will be using iTunes whenever possible.

And now back to your regularly-scheduled happier-mood programming.

Pretty chuffed...!

2005-11-01T20:02:00.000-08:00

Tonight was another Amster Original Dinner™. (Also known as the gee-what-do-I-have-in-my-fridge dinner.) And, it came out pretty good, IMNSHO!

I'm thinking to myself this afternoon that I wanted something soft, with rice, and a dab of meat. But then I started feeling icky so I left work early and went home to take a nap. When I got out of bed around 6:30-ish I really didn't want to go out to eat. So I opened the big white door...

Hm, old fruit...that's gotta go. Hey, I have a package of firm tofu. And some leftover Thai red curry... And a leftover onion. The freezer has a bunch of meat, but there's "lap xuong" (Chinese sweet sausage)...

So I started up a pot of rice and put the lap xuong in it to diffuse some of the flavors. Then pulled out the frying pan, sauteéd the onion (cut into chunks) and added a couple pinches of salt. Setting that aside, I braised strips of tofu and as a final touch added a little KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce over it. The Thai curry was revived in the microwave.

The net product is a mound of rice, braised tofu and onion, with cut sausage, graced with Thai curry. And I have to tell you, it's sweet, soft, and rich! Not bad for someone who doesn't know what they're doing, eh?

...

Speaking of not-knowing-what-I'm-doing-but-it-still-turned-out-good, my Halloween costume finally came together! Yay! To make a very long story short, I wanted to do Alice (from American Mcgee's video game) but I didn't like any of the costumes out there. So, being the engineer that I am ... I made my own Alice costume!

The boots and striped black/white tights and the knife were the easy parts. The dress and smock were altogether a different part. You see, until about a week and half ago, I had never used a sewing machine in my life. But I'm thinking, gee, it couldn't be that hard. Turns out, it isn't but it was a lot of work. I mean, it's not like there's a pattern out there for making this costume---even if there was I wouldn't know exactly how to use it. So in between staff meetings at work I would be drawing out how to do the skirt and the smock and stuff.

The ingredients for this turned out to be mostly from *cough*Walmart*cough!*. (You can tell I'm not a fan of that store, but hey, materials are cheap.) So I got some navy blue drapes (yes, drapes), a couple white flat sheets, a lacy window covering, a white scrubs top, button snaps, and a whole bunch of sewing supplies. (See the pillows-o-crap entry.) With a lot of imagination and a bit of jury-rigging, it all came together. In the end, instead of a dress I did a navy blue skirt and navy blue top because it was easier...

So the final product is a blue "dress" with frilly underskirt, white smock decorated with all sorts of symbols, boots, knife, and some goth makeup.

Hey!!! :)

2005-10-27T00:58:00.000-07:00

Guess what?!

Hey!

Wow!

Look closer!

Yay! I have my Halloween makeup! ... j/k.

OK, so I caved. I have one of those newfangled iPods with video capability. I have to say, it's vewwwy nice. :) 60 GB to store just about anything and the integration with the iTunes suite. Videos look really crisp, audio is clean without much noise.

The bigger question is, why did I go with an iPod? Didn't I just get a Windows PDA that was supposed to be a music player too? Well...

A while ago when I was looking into PDAs and MP3 players I heard that there was this Windows PlaysForSure thing that was coming, a competing service to iTunes' FairPlay. I thought, "cool!", because most of the pricing I saw was reasonable and subscription services were relatively inexpensive. So I went ahead with the PDA (which is very nice too) and bought an SD card to store all the music on it. Everything was all ready until I checked with a friend about the DRM (Digital Rights Management) and he noted that the drawback to subscription services is that all licenses expire monthly.

WTF?

No, really, they do. So, if you don't connect back to the Internet and have a valid subscription account then you effectively lose access to your music. Therefore, you are technically renting music, not owning it. That's total bogus crap! I can forsee myself going a month or more inbetween syncs or maybe I'll cancel my subscription service some day. I don't want my media to suddenly expire! The nice thing about the Apple DRM is your licenses never expire once you've acquired them.

Now, services like Yahoo Music Unlimited do allow you to buy burnable downloads (which thusly don't have license expiration), but the cost is $0.99, which is the same as iTunes. And, personally, I like iTunes' integration between their store, their iTunes app, and the iPod a lot better. Plus, it's really easy to one-hand the iPod to select music while driving---it is virtually impossible to navigate my PDA on the road. So, my opinion was finally swayed and now I have an iPod.

The bigger question is why did I feel I wanted to get an iPod anyways? Well, I recently went to Tower Records and dropped some $90 on CDs. And I do this often. I didn't start buying CDs until more recently and I have hundreds now. And I don't always like all the songs. So, I figured the iPod/iTunes is actually the more economical way to go and I should break even in a year or so. The only advantages CDs have, IMO, are the cool liner notes and the raw CD quality---Apple's AAC codec is good, but not "all that". Still, I think the quality is generally acceptable and the price is right.

Bottom line: watching Pixar's "For The Birds" looks great. ;)

Holey rusted metal, Batman!

2005-10-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

w00t.

Behold! The Pillow O' Crap:

What is this you ask? Ah, it is a "pillow" full of crap. Fabric crap to be exact. But why would this make me all excited? Well, friends, it is because this PoC was made by a sewing machine. And it is literally the very first thing I have ever done on a sewing machine.

Let me state that I have never used a sewing machine until today, so this is a monumental achievement. Yesterday I bought a Sewing 101 book and read through it before bed. Today I bought thread and a cheap sewing machine (Brother XL-2600). And after a very frustrating hour of trying to thread the dang thing, I finally got it to make its first stitch! Then I proceeded to cut up a spare piece of fabric which I then straight-stitched together!

My first attempts were horrible. I couldn't even sew in a straight line. The feed dogs (yes, I learned that term yesterday too) I thought would have given a little more resistance, but nooooooooo... Actually there's a lot of lateral movement in it so I ended up with this really weird wavy line. Then I played around with the controls and got a bunch of other interesting stitches out of the machine.

Next I cut off a larger piece of fabric and then sewed a 5/8" allowance (yay! another new term!) on 3 sides of the irregularly-shaped fabric. Then I decided what the heck, so I packed up all the little scraps of thread and pieces of cloth and shoved them inside the "pillow", then sewed the final seam shut. And observe the fine zigzag crapsmanship. Observe!

So, my very first "project" is complete! Yay!

But there's more!

I did another quick test run and figured out how to basically make the usual "knife edge pillow" by sewing the seam on the inside-out fabrics. And if you look closely you can actually see the original PoC stuffed inside this second pillow:

...

OK, I know you're not totally impressed here, but you'll see what will happen in 1 week from now if I can really get the hang of this machine!!!
Yayyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!! :)

Extreme team building from suburban office cubicle dwellers ... not

2005-10-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

My company supposedly doesn't have a lot of spending money these days. We're a big fish, but the market downturns have left us hurting quite a bit. So, we have gotten used to tight budgets, no travelling, no perks, etc. The usual belt-tightening, right?

Well, this colleague from out of town tells me that while she's here their team actually got funding to do some team building exercises. (You know, the kind of activity that's supposed to get everyone in the team gelling and talking together?) So what better way than to do that with a ... corn maze?!

Firstly, where'd we get the budget? Secondly, where the heck are there any corn fields around here?

If you're familiar with San Francisco Bay Area geography, you know that we have very very few fields now because most everything is taken up by houses, Walmart, and office buildings. Well, it turns out that we really do have a corn maze around here. In Fremont. *gasp*

Yes, so my colleague (who happens to come from Boxborough, MA, where there's a maze 2 miles from her house) is coming all the way out here to go to another maize maze of genetically altered corn in a fake cornfield...

No matter which way you look at it ...

2005-10-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

No matter how hard you try to make some things appealing, it just kinda comes out ... lame? And not to make fun of traditional garb, however, lederhosen is just one of those things that always brings a smile to my face. Observe:

Or, for your viewing pleasure:

Um. Yeah.

Spam! O' Wonderful Spam!

2005-10-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

Most spam sells you the promise of a better sex life, or more money, or something you'd actually want. But, oh this is great:

XXXXXX@XXXX.ORG is your non-profit/charity contact email address right?

If so... WE WILL EMAIL YOUR WEB SITE TO 2,500,00 OPT-IN EMAILS FOR FREE

http://www.XXXXXXXXXXX.org

simply visit our company web site above for details on how it works, then send a letter to the mailing address on our company web site above with your non-profit and/or charity status and address in your country of origin enclosed, along with your email address and we will then send you all the specifications needed on how to receive this non-cost, non-commercial, non- transactional, non-relationship, charity/non-profit courtesy emailing.

Wow, really. I am not getting enough Vitamin "Spam" in diet.

Shake what yo' mama gave you

2005-10-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

I was looking through the fitness class offerings at work and the usual ones for cardio kickboxing and step aerobics showed up. There's also a section for dance lessons, so they have salsa, hip-hop, belly dancing, and ... Bollywood Dance Aerobics?! No way!

Bollywood Dance Aerobics: A five week Indian influenced dance aerobics class featuring the latest beats in Bollywood Cinema. This class is a high energy, total body conditioning workout designed to emulate the classical dance styles from the historic Indian culture that blend with elements from the Western dance styles (modern pop and pure culture).

COOL!

Oh, Mom....!

2005-10-08T14:17:00.000-07:00

OK, another funny story about Mom...

We're chit-chatting on the phone today and I ask her how her students are doing, and she tells me about how they're doing dance and how there's this one song she really likes. She tells me, "and the lyrics go something like 'Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me'...".

I paused.

"Mom?," I began, "have you even listened to the lyrics of that song?" And of course she says, "no, I can't really understand them ... but it's a good beat!" My Mom is sooooooo innocent. She thought when they talk about being a "freak" in the song just meant dressing funny too.

I just shook my head...

So, for the benefit of those who don't know this song it is "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls, and the lyrics go something like this...

I know you like me
I know you do
Thats why whenever I come around
She's all over you
I know you want it
Its easy to see
And in the back of your mind
I know you should be fucking me (Babe)

Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?
Don't cha
Don't cha
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me?
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was fun like me?
Don't cha
Don't cha

Keep in mind my Mom has been casually singing this song out loud.

*shakes head again*

Eight Ten guys in 1 night

2005-10-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

NO.

Get your mind out of the gutter.

I went speed dating. :)

... and it was ... interesting. I mean, when Peanut told me about this and said, "hey, let's go!" I was like, ho-kay dokee, I'll try anything once. So we went tonight.

This one was in the format of four 8-minute dates, a break, then four more 8-minute dates. Some people were cool, some were not. Some were obsessed with their work, some really were not into conversation at all. (I almost started playing Tic-Tac-Toe with one guy. Seriously!) And some were just ... err ... different. (Another guy gave me a little plush mouse with his phone number on it. And I made it dance too. [And those who know me well know about my ability to make plush animals gyrate.])

Would I go again? Maybe, but not for a while. Though, it was fun and it was an experience. To that end, it met my expectation that this would be a different night...

Devilishly hot food...

2005-10-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

Heh.

I love the menus at our local Malaysian restaurant. :) heheeee..e.e

Boys are stupid

2005-09-18T02:32:00.000-07:00

Really boys are. I mean, what is up with this obsessiveness about physical appearance? This guy I was talking to didn't put his picture because he was afraid of what people would think---actually he doesn't look half bad. But then he's like "I'm a geek". OK, so? "Are you looking for a geek?" Um, I really don't care! Like being a geek is bad? (Duh, I am one.) Whatever, people!

OK, here's the truth:

I'm looking for someone who has a personality, who's honest, who lives their lives openly, who is considerate of others, and who will treat me like a best friend (not as their queen or their Special Object). I don't care if you're a geek, an artist, a librarian, a CEO, an accountant, a vegetarian ... whatever.

And at least in this particular guy's case the clencher was that he had a girlfriend for an extended period of time w/out telling the rest of his friends. OMFG WTH? That's like uncool.

Please note: not all boys are necessarily stupid. I've met quite a number who I think are quite the awesome studmuffins. But, in general, I still think boys are stupid. So there. *pppbpbbbpbpbpttt!*

Hot means hot, darnit

2005-09-13T23:58:00.000-07:00

Mr. Cheese and I went out for dinner at Thai tonight and it was pretty tasty. And he told me that they served hot curry, so we ordered hot duck curry. But, apparently, the kitchen didn't believe us. No, instead they brought out "mild". Like just because he's white like that should mean he couldn't take the heat? (Really, it was almost like reverse racism. And, hm, they didn't have chopsticks at the table either. Hm.)

We lightly mentioned it to the waitress and she promptly took away our curry. About two minutes later a thin older gentleman brought us out a new bowl of duck curry, this time the color was more of a "crimson" than the previous "tangerine". We dug into that and it had a little more zing to it, but it still wasn't "hot". I guess we'll have to train them to really put the kick-ass spice into it!

What a ________ (adj) guy . . .

2005-09-13T00:51:00.000-07:00

Oh, dear Diary! I have so much to tell you! Well, there's this guy ... and you know ... I've been _________ing (verb) with him. I met him in a __________ (public location) a couple weeks ago. Since then we've been _________ing (verb) a lot. Sometimes at work, sometimes at night. It's funny because we didn't show each other our _________ (plural noun) at first. But I've seen his __________ (plural noun) and I think they're cute! Tonight we got a chance to ________ (verb) again, but we did it a different way than usual. (As if there was a usual?) Ohmigosh, the ________ (plural noun) were all over the place. Still it was a lot of fun. We talked about how we both love hot _________ (noun), how some people are total wimps too. I think people ought to be more adventurous. I mean there's this place, ____________ (name of store), and apparently they have lots of ____________ (noun) that would make most people sweat! But I guess I'm up for the challenge---he's been there a number of times. So we're both going to __________ (verb) and ___________ (verb). I guess I'm a little afraid, because it really has been a while since I have ________ed (past verb). I hope it's not going to be too oily---somehow my _________ (body part) can't take that much sometimes. Anyways, it'll be an adventure to be sure!

My Mom, Mrs. MacGyver ... not.

2005-09-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

My Mom told me almost a year ago that she was rummaging through the kitchen and found this cute little spice rack stashed away in one of those Dark Corners. It was white and rotated, holding probably a couple dozen small spice bottles on it---it came with those little glass bottles. At the time she brought it up I was in the process of moving houses so I told her maybe she should hang on to it for a while.

OK. So she did.

... time passes ...

A Month Ago: My Mom gave me the spice rack (thank you) and a bag of bottles. But something was amiss... there were no white caps for the bottles. I gave her the Raised Eyebrow. She said that she had misplaced the white caps but she'd continue to look for them. Meanwhile, I'd have to just hang on to the spice rack sans caps.

OK. So I did.

... time passes ...

Present Day: I saw my Mom tonight and she says, "well, hon, I couldn't find the caps I was looking for." I'm thinking, great, now I have a useless spice rack with useless mini bottles. "But," she says, "I thought about it, and I have some other white caps!" I gave her the Eyebrow again. "I have been saving the tops of my medicine bottles and ..." Yes, she decided that her white medicine bottle caps might somehow be repurposed as spice bottle caps.

Well, you have to give her some credit for Creativity and Resourcefulness, right? (And she is Mom, so she gets Mommy credits.)

But of course, I get home with a couple of those white bottle caps and they don't fit. They're the wrong size and the threads wouldn't line up anyways. *sigh* So I put the useless spice rack back in my Dark Corners of my cabinets. Maybe I can do the same to my daughter one day? "Hon, I just found this cute little spice rack but ..."

Oh well, nice try, Mom.

Windows ate my memory :(

2005-09-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Mood: Grrr!!!
Reason: Stupid %!$@# Windows XP!

OK, I was so squeeling with glee when I came home to find my brand spankin' new A-Data 2GB SD flash card sitting in its FedEx box. I ripped it open, gave it a good hug, and popped it into my laptop's SD card reader. And I started copying my music files over to the card while dreams of happily driving along to trance music floated through my head.

Then.

Hard stop.

Delayed Write Failed. Windows was unable to save all the data for the file E:\. The data has been lost.

I clicked to check the properties on the card and it said it had 970MB of used space on a 2GB card. OK, so I figured it was a formatting error. So I reformatted it. Once again I hit a 970MB limit. What?! OK, this was getting weird. I deleted every file on the card:

But when I went back to the properties screen I saw:

How can that be? There isn't anything on the card! Now, I'd like to think I know a thing or two about Windows so I tried reformatting to my dismay:

1GB of bad sectors? Puhleeeease...! Now I'm just PO'ed. Google doesn't seem to be turning up anything useful either, sigh. *cry*

(Stupid Windows...)

I did later plug the card back into the PDA and I was able to copy more than 1GB of files using the device explorer... *groans!*

Oh, now I get it

2005-09-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

I don't usually get sick, but since the Thursday before last I got quite ill. It started with the usual sniffles so I took Claritin for a couple of days. After that I started hacking and coughing pretty bad. So on Tuesday I finally went to my doctor and he put me on Biaxin XL, a general respiratory antibiotic. Well starting about Thursday I noticed I was developing an upset stomach but couldn't figure out why. And this has been continuing until right now (Monday).

Then it hit me this morning just a few minutes ago.

Wait, I'm on an antibiotic, right? The last time I was on antibiotics they told me to take acidophilus supplements. And the most recent times I can remember having massive stomach troubles were after eating dairy products. Oh!

So, I'm thinking that I have basically disrupted my entire digestional bacteria. I wish I had remembered this a week ago because I wasn't getting much sleep when I was coughing every 5 minutes. And I certainly wasn't getting much sleep again when I was up with an upset stomach. :(

I hope I have a few pills left...

Turning Japanese ...

2005-09-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

I'm just browsing around various people's profiles when *pop!* ... "1 new mail message". I clicked over to it.

*click*

To: Amster
Fr: Mr. XXXXX

Hi cutie ... are you Asian?

Um, like, duh? Isn't it obvious in photo? I swear, guys with a Rice Fetish. I almost felt like replying to him:

To: Mr. XXXXX
Fr: Amster

What do you me--- *looks in mirror* OH MY GAWD! WHAT HAPPENED? I'M ASIAN NOW?! AAAaaa...

*sigh* Another dufus added to the Block list.

OK, I caved...

2005-08-31T18:07:00.000-07:00

A friend is a frequent visitor to OkCupid. I am not really into the online dating thing, so I didn't ever figure I'd register an account there. But anyways, I was following links one night and ended up taking one of their tests---which of course asks you to register to get the answer. Well, a few days later I took most of the tests and answered quite a few of the 1,400-odd questions. (The more things you answer the better the profile their computer has of you, of course.) So I was looking over my page and lo and behold a little meter sits right on the side:

I have to love the fact I'm listed as being hornier than other girls my age and yet at the same time "more pure". Go figure.

And the "extroverted" part? I guess so... I mean, I used to be a total introvert. In a way I think that's funny too.

Help needed for Hurricane Katrina

2005-08-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

I'm sure by now you have seen the wake of destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina that has pounded the Louisiana coast near New Orleans. And just when you thought the storm was done and over with ... a levee breaks. Please help if you can---even better if your corporation has a gift matching program. You can view more on the American Red Cross web site:

Thank you.

Real world ABCs

2005-08-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks to ClipTip, here is an edutainment video from Soulwax: E Talking (Windows Media).

I'd like 97% off, please

2005-08-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

Ever notice some small things come in big packages? I got sick a couple days ago so I went down to the nearest drug store to buy some Triaminic---mom's old remedy for the sniffles. Just as I was about to pick up the orange bottle I saw the shiny new Claritin boxes. Well, I had not tried it before and a friend had given a strong recommendation for it. Anyways I picked up this fairly large box (but not their largest) and paid for it at the counter.

Once outside and I tore open the side of the box and started looking for a couple sheets of pills. No, inside was a very small, light foil pouch. Huh? Where's the beef? I thought there had been some mistake so I turned the big cardboard box back over to the front had it says 4, yes 4 whopping tablets. Um, OK, that was a waste of a big box.

Then I proceeded to tear open the foil pouch and out comes this even tinier plastic/foil tray with the advertised 4 tablets...

Wow. 4 tablets. Whee.
OK, let's take another look at this:

Honey, who shrunk the product?
Wow. 16 cubic inches down to a measly 0.5 cubic inches. Gee, I'm glad I paid $6.00 for a box of almost all air. (Comments and questions can be directed to 1-800-CLARITIN.)

But, to Claritin's credit, it does seem to be holding the sniffles at bay. I guess they had to somehow justify the $1.50/tablet.

The IKEA billboard

2005-08-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Oh this is just perfect.

So, my friend Muffin and I are driving up 101 northbound just about to exit onto University Avenue and I tell her this sign sometimes does weird things ... and then we spot it. The broken sign screen. So we ducked into the Home Depot parking lot and snapped a few precious pictures...

Just about 8:30p after we got to the parking lot.

HA! Caught you!

The last picture cropped a little.

These are not Photoshopped, I swear.

Spanglish

2005-08-19T03:52:00.000-07:00

There I was reading another blog (in Spanish) when I came across the phrase related to MP3s:

software para ripear

Somehow this just struck me funny. Firstly, "software" isn't Spanish. We all know that---"para" is, of course. But then the next word is a blend of the English word "rip" turned into a Spanish vowel. Oh, and later in this same blog she refers to her "compu", short for "computer". Sheesh.

Of course many languages absorb other langauges, but in this Internet Age computer terms apparently are left in English most of the time. Doesn't this strike you as odd? Like the term doesn't get phonetically translated. No, the original word plus some language conjugation is all you need to reclaim the word in a different language.

Sleep deprivation ...

2005-08-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

I think I found the limts of my ability to survive sleep deprivation last week:

Tuesday: stayed up writing music. 1.5 hours sleep.
Wendesday: stayed up finishing the music. 1.5 hours sleep.
Thursday: went out to a concert in the City. 5 hours sleep.
Friday: a Girl's Night out where we drank and talked into the morning. 4 hours sleep.
Saturday: picnic up in the City followed by a movie. 3 hours sleep.
Sunday: 6-mile walk in the morning followed by an afternoon walking around San José's Jazz Festival. Crashed pretty hard in the evening. 11 hours sleep.

When I woke up this morning I had just come out of one of the longest sleep periods I've had in months. And I was still tired. Just after lunch I got the Food Coma baaaaad and I literally zonked out for about 10 minutes or so at my desk.

I've found I start acting really weird when I get sleep deprived. I make really lame jokes, or at least attempt to because everything just seems funnier. Ha ha. Fortunately my friends I guess put up with me. Thank goodness.

Bye bye squishy feeling

2005-08-13T03:54:00.000-07:00

I was out in the company of the person that made me all squishy 'n stuff, and there was this other girl he was with. And he was clearly smitten with her. Rats. Just when I thought I was making some sort of headway with him do I find that he's all into this other girl. Oh well. Move on. Keep looking. Poo.

I don't like to try to "put out" or impress other people. I mean, that's just not me. I have always figured that just by doing what I normally do that I'll eventually meet someone. That has always worked for me in the past. It should still work. But I guess when you have gone a while without having someone in particular in your life and all of your friends are getting married and having kids, it makes you sort of feel left out. Or like an extra dessert someone brought to a party that no one ate.

That warm and squishy feeling ... ?

2005-08-11T00:29:00.000-07:00

I refuse to say I'm in love because I don't think I am. But ... you know ... there's this guy ... and ... you know ... Well when I talk to him sometimes I get that squishy feeling. And, no, I'm positive that feeling isn't the result of having some incontinence problem. At least, not the last time I checked. But ... I don't really know where I stand with him. I know he's interested in a couple of other people. But I guess sometimes I still hope and wonder.

It's funny because I've been sort of coaching this other friend on how to capture the heart of this cute little girl. I've been telling him not to try to impress this person or do anything much out of the ordinary. You know, just be yourself? And here I find myself almost becoming a hypocrite by going out of my way to impress this guy. As if that would somehow make him mine? (Of course, if I really wanted to make him mine I suppose there's electronic collars and sedatives, but I don't really want him that bad.)

*sigh!*

I'm invincible

2005-08-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

With a warm cup of coffee in hand I can do anything. (Well, almost anything. [Otherwise that would be false advertising.]) But I'm currently defying the bounds of fatigue propped up on sugar and caffeine. And I have such a long day to go.

I got back much later from yesterday's run than I thought. So, after my shower and a brief dinner I sat down at my computer to write some music (I use a MIDI studio now) and ended up tweaking virtual knobs and whatchamacallits until like 5:00a, knowing full well I had to be at work by 9:00a for a meeting. And you know how when you're really tired sometimes you just keep hitting that snooze button because you forgot why you set the alarm in the first place? So 8:30a rolls around and then Reality slaps me upside the head: you gotta get to work, kid! <Expletive> <Expletive> <Expletive>!#!?!

Right, so I got to the meeting 15 minutes late and by 10:00a I was in dire need of energy. A Mountain Dew kept me going until lunch, and then a couple cans of Diet Pepsi got me until 3:30p. At which point the Craving started. That's right: coffee pangs. So I made an emergency run for Starbuck's white chocolate mocha. Oh gawd, that stuff is like Liquid Schwartz.* But I still realize now, cup in hand, that I have to get through a friend's dinner tonight, and get back to my audio workstation by 10:30p if I am to get any more work done on the music before my 9:00a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I just hope I have a couple of cans of Red Bull still in the fridge for emergency...**

*Spaceballs reference to the most powerful fuel in the known Universe, named after the pervasive cosmic energy called the Schwartz.

**Amster does not endorse nor recommend humans to consume Red Bull. It contains extreme amounts of sugar and caffeine, both of which can be poisonous to the human body. However, since Amster is not human, she is allowed to consume as much Red Bull as she can get her shaking hands on.

i pwn j00

2005-08-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

I did it. All 8.8 miles of it. I successfully ran from my house, to a friend's house about 4 miles away, and back again in about 1.5 hours. I'm finally starting to show that road who's boss!

I used to run cross-country in highschool. I was in so good shape back then, I could eat just about anything and not pay for it because I knew I'd burn it off the next day. Now just looking at chocolate makes me gain like 3 lbs. :( So, when I recently dusted off my runners and started trying to get back into distance running, every mile killed me. Last week I ran to my friend's house and nearly collapsed---she ended up driving me back. But not today. Noooooo...My plan was to own that road and complete the circuit without anyone's help. Yeah!

So, now I know my body is getting used to the distance it's time to step up the pace and try to really go for decent times. I've got a race coming up in a couple of months and I want to be in race-ready shape by then! :)

For those who do not speak L33T, the title of this post basically means "My skills are so superior that I dominate you".

Grrr... Why I oughtta...

2005-08-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

I had a really bad day yesterday. My boss and I bashed heads over my not updating my secondary project's documentation after his repeated discussions with me. I don't think he's quite wrapped his brain around the fact that I support one of our internal applications and when it has problems (as it frequently does) 99% of my time gets sucked up dealing with that. Of course his response was along the lines of maybe I shouldn't devote so much time to supporting the app. Which, of course, flies right in the face of what my job description was supposed to be---to support the app first, do documentation second. *sigh*

There are an increasing number of days where I just want to get one of those really big anime mallets and whack him over the head. Grr!

This is what happens when you put engineers in management that manage purely by task lists without considering mitigating factors.

It's the Amster smackdown. *paf!*