That excludes your average WoW player � FAIL Blog: Epic Fail Pictures and Videos of Owned, Pwnd and Fail Moments

notice the shards of alara poster lol

Judge Rejects Bethesda Motion to Stop Sale of PC Fallout Bundle - Fallout - Kotaku

Probably going to sell our Azureus soon. ( Ben and Elsbeth )

Of course I'll offer you guys the first cracks at em.

Just let me know, we can hang on to some tadpoles if your interested or whatnot.
we just have too many frogs =/

Anyway, let us know. If not I'll put em up for sale in a month or two.

This class is giving me a pretty rigorous review.

This is one of the homeworks, wish one of you guys were in this class with me.

Homework

My history course I'm semi-enjoying surprisingly. Probably because were starting on the atomic - cold war era which I've been interested in for a long time.

Glad I'm in summer school!

So it's 3 Am on Sunday over heres, and yesterday marked the geekiest thing I have ever done. I don't know if you guys know waht COmic Market is, but seriously, it's like Comic Con times a billion as far as the geekiness quotient goes. It's basically all about anime and suchlikes, but with an emphasis on the self-published and independent comics. It's really interesting the number of people who dress up, and how few of them are fat. I mean, of course very few Japanese are overweight, but still. The dudes taking pictures though, they're a whole other story when it comes to fattitude. All greasy and pervy...

Today though, I'm going to see Summer Wars, the new film by the maker of Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. Though that might not mean much to the likes of you, Ken and Ben, Sam will know what I mean when I say I have high hopes indeed.

Tell me this doesn't look like Ken. I dare you.

Jack in the Box - Coupon - Two Free Tacos from Jack in the Box

5 o'clock Tuesday here. Lots o' fun, meeting a couple internet dudes for dinner. lawls.

Any of you have a copy? =/ Or can get?

I need for a summer class.

awesome. Seriously, look at that!

Yeah, thanks a bunch for giving me such a nice send-off, ya dicks. At least the P51 loves me ;_;

Yeah, I think that just about sums it up.

So, over the past few weeks, I've been reading about a couple of different celestial phenomena which, while appearing spherical, are widely thought to be cylinders, viewed end-on. My question to the astrophysics geeks in the house is this: Why would a supernova or a nebula be cylindrical? At the very least, why would supernovae or nebulae be se uniformly cylindrical that we would ASSUME they are, in spite of spherical appearance? I'm embarrassed to say that I have no idea. Conservation of angular momentum?

So I couldn't get the online files for sports resort to work, I took the games that I don't need, traded em in and got sports resort and two of the motion plus things.

Sword fighting is awsome! seriously it's fun.

Next time you guys come over, bring your harddrives, I have like 40 working games now.

Do any of you have a working copy of Super Smash Bro's? or Zelda? I can't get either of those to work.


We should invite a few more to our blog? Patrick / fab or somethin =)

Come, adore Professor Layton & the Eternal Diva trailer

Yeah, I think adoration is not a strong enough word for my feelings regarding Professor Layton.

: Default Price Low to High Price High to Low Name (A-Z) Name (Z-A)
I think I like either the first one or the blue one. Any will do though. Thanks in advance!

Diesel DZ7125 Oversize Bad Ass Your Price: $289.00

Diesel DZ7126 Oversize Bad Ass Your Price: $289.00

Diesel DZ7127 Oversize Bad Ass Your Price: $289.00

I would love to get my hands on that!!! I will start buying my cards next week... So next week, I will finally start playing with you guys.

Sheldon is right, trains are awesome. Seriously, look at that!

By the way, do you guys know how trains stay on the tracks? The obvious answer is the little flanges on the side, but the real answer is less intuitive, as can be shown by the oxidation present on pretty much all of the aforementioned flanges, and because, were the flanges truly responsible, no train would ever be able to turn. Unlike a car's wheels, a train's are connected with a single, solid axle. So, were the train to encounter a bend, it would just run off the track.

The answer is that train wheels are, in fact, conical! The wheel contacts the rail at only a small area. When it needs to turn, the wheel slides to the left or right, decreasing the circumference per revolution on one wheel, while increasing it on the other. Isn't that interesting?

Well, we finally got a female Azureus for Ben. We never seen Ben call like crazy. He was on it right when he saw her. It was the funniest thing I have seen. Anyway, I really wanted to name her Cassiopeia (Cassie for short) but Ken started laughing. I don't know why. So, should I name her something else... Ben?

Slashdot Linux Story | US Postal Service Moves To GNU/Linux

Awesome to the nth degree. It's all coming down, Microsoft! We're comin' for ya!

Fantagraphics Books - Tony "Millionaire" Stark

I find it interesting that there's a women's studies department in universities, and not a men's studies. Just imagine how awesome that would be. Like, you'd get to study all sorts of manly stuff like motorcycles and airplanes, hot sauce, facial hair, etc. And that's not to say it would be exclusive to men, either! Women could major in Men's studies to gain a better understanding of the male mind, and help think of ways to make traditionally womanly but potentially very macho things like cooking, organization and child-rearing better. Additionally, they could develop ways for men and women to get along better that are geared more towards the male psychology, rather than the idea that we as animalistic brutes have to change ourselves completely. Truly, it would be a paradigm-shifting endeavor, and a model of intergender cooperation.

BTW, I am of the firm opinion that engineering is the manliest of the sciences, so suck it astrophysics nerds.

Which of you darling computer nerds wants to help me edit some video to put on YouTube? Brenda thinks it will help "Brunopalooza" if there is video of him being awesome. I have some, but it's disjointed & long.I think it's an .avi file.
I've never edited video before and doubt I even have software to do it.

As you all well know, I am indeed going to Japan. I figured it'd be most efficient to as officially what you all want me to bring back in here, as you can just make a comment, and I won't have to remember it.

Don't be embarassed if you want some kind of perverted porn/sex object.

The next "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" has a special edition that comes with a pair of working night vision goggles. The less special but still special edition (steel box, art book ect.) costs $80. Who knows how much the extra special edition will cost. This reporter is guessing somewhere in the $250 - $300 range. I want the goggles soo bad.

Taken from /.

"Researchers developing the 'Interplanetary Internet' have launched its first permanent node in Space via a payload aboard the International Space Station. The network is based on a new communications protocol called Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN). It will be tested heavily this month, and could give astronauts direct Internet access within a year. The Interplanetary Internet is the brainchild of Vint Cerf ('father of the Internet'), among others. Last year, NASA tested the technology on the Deep Impact spacecraft."

So I took some robitussin PM at like 5, since I've got a bit of a head cold, and MAN! It knocked me RIGHT the fuck out! I didn't think it would be nearly so effective.

Ben just told me that you've hacked your wii =o. If I bring up my wii tommorrow do you think you could do the same for me? Will I need anything?

=D

Dude, so the manager of my new bay has this amazing whiteboard, that you write on, it scrolls to the left (it has the surface of 2 whiteboards), and it has an 8.5"x11" thermal printer to do print screens with.

The Science Impact of Astronomy PhD Granting Departments in the United States

Authors: Anne L. Kinney

(Submitted on 3 Nov 2008)

Abstract: The scientific impact of the research of 36 astronomy PhD granting departments is measured and ranked here. Because of the complex nature of Universities, this study looks at the Universities in two ways; first analyzing the impact of the published work over a 10 year period of the Department which grants the PhD and; second, looking at the impact of the published work as a whole including Laboratories, Centers, and Facilities. The Universities considered in the study are drawn from the 1992 NRC study on Programs of Research, Doctorate in Astrophysics and Astronomy with three Universities added. Johns Hopkins, Michigan State, and Northwestern all host substantial astronomical research within their Departments of Physics and Astronomy and so are included here. The first method of measuring impact concentrates on tenured and tenured track faculty, with the top quartile being 1. Caltech, 2. UC Santa Cruz, 3. Princeton, 4. Harvard, 5. U Colorado, Boulder, 6. SUNY, Stony Brook, 7. Johns Hopkins, 8. Penn State, and 9. U Michigan, Ann Arbor. The second method additionally includes "soft money" scientists in research and adjunct faculty positions, with the top quartile being 1. UC Santa Cruz, 2. Princeton, 3. Johns Hopkins 4. Penn State, 5. SUNY Stony Brook, 6. U Michigan, Ann Arbor, 7. New Mexico State, 8. UMass, Amherst, and 9. U Virginia. Both methods reveal important aspects of Universities, representing both the depth and the breadth of the science available at the University. Finally, a comparison is made of the total articles published in the 10 year period, both from the departments alone and from the larger universities. Three Universities have both impact index in the top quartile, and have more than 1000 publications in a decade; UC at Santa Cruz, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins.


In conclusion: Santa Cruz was described as, Faculty research 2ed after Caltech, adjunct faculty research 1st, and the most publications 1st.

If I was studying astrophysics at UCI, I would be a junior in the fall instead of a sophomore. I would only need 6 more physics, 2 more math, and 3 more upper div astro classes, wtf. At UCSC I need 13 more physics, 1 more math, and 2 more upper div astro classes. Why is the curriculum so much more intense at UCSC? No wonder Ken is going to be done a year before me!

Indoor......Go Kart.........Racing!

Nuff Said

I want to go to the fair so I can act like a juvenile!!! Cost $10 buckaroos.

Ok heres the deal, the M10 Prerelease is on Saturday the 11th at 2pm. Were going to Comic Cult in Torrance. Google it (I would hyperlink, but im at work and its considered "games"). It costs $30, the manager doesn't run it so he could not tell me too much about it. They have a judge and he runs it, last time when I went to the Alara Reborn prerelease, it was draft. It should be a lot of fun.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/07/ignite-coming-to-la.html

Ignite is really fun, and there's a dinner beforehand. We should all go!

is not as easy as I had first thought. Today was the second time that I tried to install vista while having Ubuntu already installed, and I have come across a problem for the second time. I can't get windows to like the partition! I did a little research and it seems that Vista will not install onto a dynamic partition, whatever that means.. from what I've gathered (or figured out, rather) is that because when I first decided to install Ubuntu, I created two partitions, an Ext2 (which is what linux installs on) and an extended partition, which I then split into two: a Swap and extra space. Well as it turns out (correct me if I'm wrong, Jake) I should have created three partitions, the linux, swap and an empty one. I'm not exactly sure what my next course of action should be.

Be there or be Square, yea.

Bring meat or whatever you want to grill.

Might change the day to saturday, not sure yet.

So! I just got an invitation to Google Voice, which centralizes your (presumably many) phone numbers under one Google number, assigned to you at the start. So, they give you a number, and your work phone and cell phone and all can be connected through the google number. So someone dials the Gnumber, they all ring. Interesting, but frankly I can't see the utility that much unless you're juggling a bunch of phone numbers. I think that's probably rare. Still, the utility is there, but it would be much more useful if you could redirect calls on the fly, say if you step away from your desk work calls go to your cell. Using GPS to that end would be a maaaaaajor coup in my estimation.

One cool but kind of useless feature is the transcription of voicemails, which I've wanted quite badly in the past, but which unfortunately suffers from terrible hearing at the moment. Like all google products, it will no doubt get better, but for now it's pretty terrible, at least at decoding Sam's speech.

One beef I have with the service is that the old name for it, Grand Central, was like a quadrillion times cooler. Paired with a stylised image of a train terminal, it would be pretty awesome. Google Voice sounds lame, but I suppose I can understand that they want to bring it closer to the google brand than say... Youtube, which was an established brand before Google happened.

oh man, I'm tired. It literally took me half an hour to write this out. Give it a try though, it's fun stuff! I hope you all get invites soon, no idea why mine came so early.

What is the deal with them? I really don't get how wearing uncomfortable shoes is supposed to make women more attractive, especially for a businesswoman, where they seem to contrast with the whole clean-cut, put-together look. I mean, it's not as though you really LOOK at someone's feet that often, right? Or perhaps I just make eye contact when conversing more than most people do. Frankly, I think a woman dressed in nice low-heeled business shoes would be more more attractive. Then again, and here's the paranoia part, just thinking that makes me think of how a hard-line feminist would react to it: "Oh oh, so you think it's funny when women dress up as men, do you, you perv?" "Oh oh, I see, you're all 'look at her, she thinks she's a man, how adorable!' you chauvinist bitch-hole?!" etc. etc. They say you're your own harshest critic, but I think I criticize my emotions and opinions way too much, especially when it comes to sexual things, most especially things only tangentially related to sexuality that can still take on a sexual connotation. Now see, I felt bad for feeling bad just there. Not healthy! Snap out of it!

So yeah, I'm awesome and would drive a disgusting yellow ferarri had I the option. Women are disposable playthings to me, brah. I'mma put on this backwards cap and blow this joint. Peace!

So Pandora (yes the music website, not the old greek stiff) just made my list of software companies that have shafted me. The Blackberry has a Pandora app, but the G1 does not. For shame. Especially after that asshole told me:

"As for your question about the Android - Each version of Pandora software for a portable device needs to be separately developed and approved by the various cellular carriers. We are steadily working to bring Pandora to more devices and carriers."

PSN To Offer Comics (Well, Manga

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I thought they were making a Blame! game for PSP. Words cannot express how awesome that would have been. And yes, the excalamation point is necessary, because there's another manga by the same dude called "Blame".

For those interested in the manga, here's a torrent of all the dude's works, which are uniformly excellent:

http://www.bakabt.com/download/145344/1247052876/25705e41f951a4296a99886bea4309bc/306443/Tsutomu_Niheis_mangas_Blame_Biomega_Abara_NOiSE_Blame_Academy_BLAME_NSE_Blame_Dead_Heads_Digimortal_Breaking_Quarantine_Nihei_Abba_Sabrina_Snikt_Winged_Armor_Suzumega_Zeb-Noid.torrent

For those of you with slow interwebs *coughsamcough* I also have a translated copy sitting on my hard drive.

And no, I will not use tinyurl, and this is why. Centralization is bad, redundancy is good, redundancy is good.

http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=6335

So.

This is what they show on Japanese PBS. Apparently it's a CHEMISTRY-BASED action/adventure anime developed to teach kids about the elements and their interactions. Not really my thing, as it has no robots (I don't think...), and goodness knows how much chemistry will really filter through the inevitable coming of age story (which the Japanese just LOVE, though at least it's targeted at children here), but still. PBS should take a hint, and use some of that national endowment for the arts money to develop something interesting to the post-sesame street, pre-high school set. I mean, Look at Math Blasters! I freaking LOVED that game!

Wait a second...

Shia Le Bouf...

The reason he's all over the place is that directors are trying to imitate the Japanese! My God, it's so simple! Something like 90% of the animes that are popular here have the afore-mentioned coming of age story. Dragon Ball, Naruto, etc etc, essentially household names both with children and immature adults. Spielberg thought that by shoehorning in Shia becoming a man into freaking everything (Indiana Jones? Come on, man...) that they would gain instant, subliminal popularity. And it worked! Despite critical panning, international box office numbers for Indy 4, Transformers, and Die Hard broke records! My God...

Taken from a (non-adoring) article about Michael Jackson's death:

"Hang on a minute. I'm not the kind of person to start Paedogeddon-style witch-hunts gratuitously, but ..."

PAEDOGEDDON!

Chris Hanson has to use this, I'm serious.

Chris: Tonight, on Dateline: Operation Paedogeddon. (strategically placed zoom and pan...)

On that note, what crime are these pervs supposed to have committed? The police do, after all, show up after Chris Hanson has worked them over. I mean, you can't lock someone up for WANTING to have sex with children, right? The people they talk with online are adults and everything... Imagine if you were arrested for saying "You know, I'd like to try pot sometime" to a police officer. Then again, I don't suppose it's the same thing. They're actively trying to commit a crime, the same way you can get arrested for soliciting an undercover cop, thinking she's a prostitute, and that seems to be pretty common practice. Then again AGAIN, I think that whole solicitation of prostitution thing is complete BS, ridiculous puritanical laws regarding prostitution notwithstanding.

And yes, I DO think that prostitution should be legal! Just like marijuana, all the arguments against it would essentially be solved by legalization (and regulation and taxation). Given a legal option, would any sane person frequent a brothel which might involve human trafficking, coercion, venereal disease or any number of other nasty things? I think not.

But yeah. paedogeddon. I imagine all these creepy dudes running from a mushroom cloud. "It's the end of days!"

It's interesting, typing in Japanese has a different cadence, at least for me, than typing in English. In English, I type per word, so to speak, with bursts of keystrokes punctuated by spaces. In Japanese, it's more on a per character basis, like a legal stenographer. I wonder if it's different for someone who learned to type with Chinese characters on a phonetic keyboard.

I just realized that it IS possible to make a toilet paper dispenser TOO perfect! If it had a small enough coefficient of friction, the single square hanging off the bottom would cause the whole thing to unravel! The question remains though, what is the most appropriate and pleasing amount of friction to apply?

And I think I agree. Launchess 9 / 22 / 09

http://www.aiononline.com/us/

06-07-09_lockex.jpg (JPEG Image, 1654x622 pixels)

I cannot describe this as anything other than ACHINGLY beautiful.

Pb = __________(A^N * N) / N!(N-1)___________

       Sum(n=0 to N) ((A^n / n!) + (A^N *N / N!(N-1))

Where

Pb: is Probability of a Blocked Call

A: call rate*call duration in units called Earlings named for A.K. Earling

N: Number of channels the line carries

n: number of callers

I was just eating something with sriracha, and I thought about a bunch of rednecks sitting around a table, and one says "y'all got any a that sriracha-sauce?" I think that's the only redneck way of saying "sriracha."

Ben, Brooke, and Ken... such daredevils.

Muahh haa haa haa

Apple's glossy screens will 'mess you up,' University report warns

I've been saying for a while how much I hate these glossy screens. And now Queensland University of Technology agrees with me.

Flash 10 for smartphone beta coming this October

This is great news for those of us that have "Smartphone-Class" phones.

Motorola Morrison Arrives in Higher Resolution Pic | AndroidGuys

Ew. I thought this aesthetic was on its way out by the time the RAZR hit like five years ago. One wouldn't expect the G1's supposed successor to look this ugly.

I just noticed the court's bailif (who also happens to be an la county sheriff) has his name on the bottom of his clip, along with what appears to be a serial number and a "#1".. it makes sense but is also odd at the same time.

--Sam

So today is the day I, Samuel Langert Ganim, do my civic duty at the courthouse. Please be advised that if I should be called and selected to represent the great state of california, los angeles county, I will be out of contact between the hours of the trial. I will be in no way answering questions pretaining to the case or any information thereof. Thank you for respecting my duties and I hope you all enjoy the freedom of justice that holds the very fabric of our country together.

HA! What bullshit. In my opinion, we should devise a way of completely automating the process using complex algorithms (algorythms?) that decide, beyond any shadow of a doubt that a person is guilty. It is unfair that my fate is to be decided by the retarded public and not my computer.

--Sam

Infini-lols

I'm on my way to my last final right now at 830, and I must reflect on last night. After failing my math final, I went back to the dorms and got fucking crunk with my roommate and some friends. Then we went on a night hike (we have been doing that a lot). I sobered up, then at like 1230 I got drunk again with some different housemates. This girl katie is a blackbelt, and I told her about the legendary plastic knife fights in slo, so she really wanted to try it. We could not find any knives which is a good thing, since she's like 6'1" and would have killed me. At about 330 I stumble up to my bedroom, but find this girl passed out on the floor, she was to heavy to move even with my drunk superhero strenghth. I found some soberish people to help me move her, and she started puking everywhere family guy style. I said fuck it, and went to bed. I could not sleep, so I watched a documentery about pterydactyals (misspelled I know, jake) but some girls from another house wanted to go on a hike. So I went on another hike till about 430 when I got in. Thomas Campbell transformed into Vomas Campbell, anbd was puking over the edge of his bunk till 530 or 6, his girlfriend telling him to get out uf the bed the whole time lol. I woke up at 8 for my 9am final, found toms gf on the floor, gave her my blanket and pillow, told her she could use my bed (I don't need it anymore) and went to get breakfast. Now I'm super exhausted gonna take a final and drive to la. Thank god for java monsters.

Diet box cat needs to diet

Why does he even want to get into that box so badly?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUNmLuNdiL8

The Terrafugia Flying Car | Rocketboom


I want this soooo much!

I find it very interesting that tensal agreement, which is so important in the English language, often falls by the wayside in Japanese. What brings this on is the opening sequence to Macross Frontier's third episode, where they talk about "宇宙を旅している” present tense "[ships] travel through space" then the next sentence is "これはフォルドが齎した大航海時代だった” past tense. "This WAS the great diasporan period, brought about thanks to [interdimensional] Fold [technology]." Now naturally, were we to pair these two sentences up in English, it would be a travesty! Yet it's not even eyelash-battingly worthy when you hear it in the nihongo.

I was going to use this as a jumping-off platform for a whole rant about the MLA and stupid archaic English laws like not splitting infinitives and not ending sentences with prepositions that are really just hold-overs from latin where they really WERE incorrect, but I don't think I'll get into that in any further detail. I don't want to bore you, and I would probably end up boring myself, in the process.

So I've been watching Big Love, which is about a polygamist family in Utah, and all that they go through because of the polygamy, and how they escaped one of those polygamist sects that seem to make the news so often. Now, to make one thing clear, as I understand it, the man is only married to one of the women, and the others he has children with, and has a religious marriage with, but they're really just living in sin, insofar as the government is concerned. However, his lawyer, during the course of one of their seemingly endless legal travails, quipped that his lifestyle is illegal. What exactly are any of them doing that's illegal, I wonder? Only one of his marriages is actually on the books, none of them are underage, his children aren't neglected, and certainly none of them seem to have been pressed into this arrangement. Are laws different in Utah? Is adultery actually illegal?

Apparently "center" is incorrect. Only "centre" is acceptable to Lord FireFoxWorthington here!

I'm not sure about you guys, but I am psyched for the new MMO from Lucas and Bioware.. this trailer sealed the deal for me.

I think that instead of the caps lock key, there should be a left-hand backspace key. I think it would make correcting typos quicker.

Gizmodo - Ask Wolfram Alpha: Are You Skynet? - Wolfram Alpha

Made me lol many times.

Destructoid - E3 09: Bayonetta Cosplay

Yeah, that third picture, with the cleavage? I was drooling over the steampunky mechanical clock on her chest...

Seriously, I think I have some issues to work through.

Gizmodo - 'Hello, Phone Sex Operator? I'm Into Unemotional Robots.' - Gil ozeri

Hm... I'm not sure this is real.. how would a phone sex operator know to make a reference to Data from Star Trek?

Gizmodo - Acer's Android Netbook Will Come With Windows, Fail at Being an "Android Netbook" - Acer android netbook


I have a feeling these companies aren't going to give Android a chance until they know consumers will accept it.. Problem is, if they don't put out devices with Android, how the fuck will they know if consumers will accept it?

Retro Thing: The Ultimate Pizza Box Is Finally Delivered

Wow!

I think I have a thing for long gloves, of the type classy ladies wear to the opera. Is this unusual, in anyone's estimation?

io9 - He'll Be Back... With Guitars - terminator

This is easily a billion times better than anything, ever.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/ekranoplans-showcase.html

I loves them! Agh!

I went to Maker Faire once. For those of you who don't know, that's a biannual event held in various places to celebrate the DIY craft, and ostensibly to let your get your solder on with others of a similar bent. In my experience though, it was just a huge, hot place with expensive food and smelly hipsters who think they're all that because they wove their own smelly shirt out of hemp.

There were very few places where any actual tinkering with projects could occur, possibly for liability reasons, and those that existed were lackluster, expensive and filled with the aforementioned hippies. Naturally those who weren't smelly were just there because it was something to do. Even the exhibitors discouraged touching, which completely goes against the spirit of the event, in my estimation.

In short, I was looking for an intimate event with maybe a couple hundred people who love to make shit and blow shit up, but was presented with a horde of some 50,000 idiots, poseurs and hipsters of the worst kind. Attend at your own risk.

Machine Keeps Heart Beating Outside of Body - Neatorama

Yeah, there's a video...
Not for the weak of constitution.

Everyone knows that if you're smoking pot, that's smoking out. BUT, if you're doing it inside, while STAYING IN, is that smoking IN? Like, if a stoner were to be propositioned by his fellow marijuana people, like "Dude, let's smoke out, brah," would he be remiss in saying "Nah man, I'm just gonna smoke in tonight, I'm not feelin' too good..."?

I dreamt last night that we went to Cardzilla, and it was boarded up, saying "In order to comply with new censorship laws, we no longer sell:" and then a huge list of everything they sold. Magic cards was at the top.

This is awesome, check it out!

um... yeah..

Awesome

I've been spending kind of a lot lately, but I think that's ok. I've been making considerably more money since I started working nearly full-time, and I haven't gone into debt at all. Naturally, it kind of puts a damper on the long-term savings I really should be doing. But come on, I'm only going to a state school, and financial aid will almost certainly be generous. What do you guys think? I know that most of you must be undergoing some financial woes, at the very least.

Sometimes I start thinking that my failings embarass and disgrace those around me, but when I think about it, the failings of others don't embarass me in the slightest. Even in that last sentence, I wondered if I used too many personal pronouns. I feel many things have changed about me in the past few months, since moving out of my Aunt's house and out fron under my parents' influence, but lingering, layered doubts about my own status, consideration for others, and myriad other non-sequitur remain. It's what keeps me relatively polite, and what allows me to make a good first impression (when I'm not throwing up on peoples' cars), but I sense it may hurt me later in life. Interesting that frank, positive self-evaluation is almost beyond my reach even now. I feel bad for mentioning any good traits I have, as though I'm denying I have any bad ones. Then I feel bad about feeling bad. But it's all an academic exercise, really, and nothing quite comes of it. That's going to change. From now on, I'm not going to care so damn much.

Yeah, I'm spending a lot of money these days. You know what? I can afford it right now. If you think I shouldn't because of your poor state of affairs, you can go ahead and shove it. (not you guys, but people in general)

Brooke just left, and I'm feeling too wide awake to sleep, so I'm just working on some translating here, and figured I'd watch a movie while I do so. It's something I do often, as I enjoy the act of translating, and having words said in the background seems to boost my vocabulary. It's almost like I take on the timbre of the characters in question, so I tailor my viewing around the subject at hand. Anyway, I put on this Winston Churchill documentary, and find that it's not in its correct folder. Now this starts off a whole cascade of distractions and google searches and new torrents added to my queue. Of course, these are all things that I normally enjoy, but simultaneously trying to work has put me in rather a foul temper. I realize now that to be a database programmer would be really terrible, just because keeping a lot of information organized is one of the most stressful things you can do. Perhaps it's just my male mind at war with my frenetic personality. I want to do five things at once, but my brain just wasn't really equipped for multi-tasking. Indeed, I usually strike a fine balance, but this really tipped the scales. I found myself hunched over, back aching (My back never aches except when I'm under extreme stress), eyes bleary after only ten or so minutes!

Like I say, none of these tasks by themselves are any real work at all, indeed most of them are things I do for fun. What odd stressers do you guys have? Another one for me is untying knots. Egad, I hate untying knots. I never was a boy scout, and I think I'd make a terrible one, just because of the god damn knots. I would also likely make a terrible mathematician for that same reason. Jeez, I can't even imagine all those surfaces and hyperbolic whatsits in however many dozens of dimensions... Egad!

According to engadget, Microsoft is going to start selling games over the net.. renting games won't be far behind.. looks like physical media is going to fall even quicker still.. man, I love progress!

I just got up after sleeping since 9:30am.. Man, do I feel volumes better then I did this morning! lol

Alright Sam, your past 36 hours sounded pretty nuts, but I had a pretty crazy weekend as well. It all started on thus morning at 11am when I woke up. I knew it was going to suck, because I had a midterm scheduled for Friday, who has a midterm week 9? anyways I did not start studying till 5pm on thurs, so I stayed up all night drank 2 moster javas, and studied with a few breaks for meals. Took my midterm, and got back in the dorms just in time for magic. I went to the draft, took second place with a really fun esper artifact deck. Went to dinner and came back to the droms. I called my friend maria, to see what she was doing, she wanted me to go over to oaks (way on the other side of campus) i declined, i dont need to get drunk with a bunch of 18 year old strangers. She calls me like 2 hours later, asking for a ride, because their friend is too drunk, you guys know me, of course i said yes. I went over to oakes, and put 5 girls in my tiny car. drove them back to crown and hung out with them until 4am. I went back to my room and sorted my cards till 5. that was 42 hours with no sleep at all. I woke up on Sat at like 1pm, and relaxed, I was so tired after the midterm. Sat night I went on a night hike with maria and some friends. We went to "cat graveyard" where all these crazy hippies bury there cats, and have this weird pentagram on the ground with the 5 points being earth, wind, water, air and cat.. lol. Then we hiked to tree 9, which is this really tall climbing tree with at rope swing. At 2am we went for taco bell, there is a 24 tb by the bus station. we waited in the drive-thru for about 45 min. Came back ate and went to bed. I woke up on Sunday at 3pm, pissed at myself because I had a bunch of homework to do. I played magic, watched how i met your mother, and procrastinated till dinner time at 5. At dinner we met up with some friends that wanted to go to kresgie swing, which is a rope swing on the other side of campus. I was down, mostly cuse i did not want to do my writing homework. the swing took abotu 45 min to hike to and it was crazy. Its a rope swing on on a really steep hill, and the rope is 25 - 30ft long, and the hill is slanted close to 45 degrees. when your at the apex on the far side of the swing, your like a good 45 50 ft above the ground. we hung out there for a few hours. then we hiked back to kresgie, where they were having karaoke. again you guys know me... I got up on stage with my friend skyla, and we sang....wait for it ......wannabe by the spice girls. except skyla did not really sing. so I sang wannabe to a bunch of strangers, I even did the rap in the middle, and the whole room started cheering. It was defiantly the high point of the weekend. then we hiked back. I went into town to get dinner. i did not write my essay so I had to wake up early this morning to do it :( but its done and I'm just hanging out. get some sleep sam...

have been crazy. Alright let's start yesterday. After taking Tiffany to her friends house, I decide to walk to work. I have like 10-15min before my shift starts, but I'm like, "Fuck it, I'll just tell them my car broke." So I walk to work and felt pretty good. It was only .8 miles but uphill, so I'm pretty proud of myself. I wasn't too tired, but I was sweaty when I walked in because of the change in temperature (Ben knows what I'm talking about, remember chemistry over the summer?)

So I got in late and told everyone that my car broke down. So I worked my shift and inquired about my schedule for this week. My boss asked me if I wanted to work some 4am shifts. I hesitated until he told me that I'd have Sunday (today/yesterday) off. So I agreed to Mon-Wed of 4am-8am instead of Tue-Thr; I'm always in favor of just doing things to get through them. I take my lunch and Mr. Heckeroth gives me a call. He wants to know if me and Jake want to come over and play Magic with him and Ara. So I agree not knowing my fate. So I get off at 8pm and walk home.

I get there around 8:30p and pack for the night and head over to Jake's house. Around 9p or so we start heading out to Irvine. We get to Irvine and stop off at Albertsons for some booze, and del tizzle for some eats. Believe it or not, we spend almost 30min trying to find parking. It was horrible. It seemed that everyone and their mothers were visiting Irvine. We ended up parking all the way where Ken and Ara used to live and traipsed back to their current location. Carrying gear and booze mind you. So we get there and meet a new person: Vivian. She was pretty cool, adjusting very quickly to the increase of personnel, eccentric at that. So we all (five of us) play Magic until around 2-2:30a when Vivian had to go home. Jake and I walk her to her car and go back to more Magic. We wind up going to sleep around 4:30ish.

I wake up at 11:30a to threats of ass-ramming by Jake (or was it the prospect of Dim Sum? Can't remember). I get dressed, drink some coffee and we all go to Dim Sum. It was Legen... wait for it... keep waiting... don't get blue balls... DARY!!! Seriously, it was delicious. I can imagine it being a great hangover food. Afterward, we go to the market next door and Ara picks up some Lotus root and various other food stuffs. We head back home, but not before stopping off at the local comic/magic shop to pick up some cards. More fucking moths for Ken and some booster packs.

We get home at around 1:30p or so and start a marathon of Magic. Seriously, 9 hours later we realize we are hungry and break for Ara's DELICIOUS cooking. We eat, a lot. And play some more Magic. By the end of it Jake is begging us to finish the game. Poor guy.. Honestly, I'm pretty burned out of Magic for now. I think Ken put it perfectly when he said, "I feel like I've been grinding on Everquest for 16 hours." Exactly.

So here I am, it's 1:34am. I'm waiting for the clock to hit 3:30a so I can head out, grab something to eat and work for 4 hours, then take Tiffany to work, and pass the fuck out for 8 hours.

YesButNoButYes: Infectious Moves

This just made my night. Be sure to watch at least until 1:30, it gets big FAST. Just, this gives me hope for humanity.

--Sam

This is what Ken does everyday

So I was walking around the house with my glasses off and ken was sitting on the couch. I thought he was studying because he was as quiet as a mouse - full concentration I might add. Then, I sat next to him to see what he was reading. As I look over, I discover that he was not even doing his homework but he was shifting through his new collection of magic cards... You guys created another monster, LOL. It's all good that means you guys can come over more often to play some cards.

is because he's always yelling! At the end of every sentence is a "!"! It's great, I say!

Gizmodo - Canon Employees Are Forbidden to Sit Down, Walk at Normal Pace - Canon

You know, I would feel worse about this if I didn't have to stand at my current job. Sometimes I'd be standing on my breaks too.. furthermore, I'm often walking briskly because, honestly, it does waste time.. I understand what they are getting at, but I also understand the other side of it.

Well the day finally came. I bought Tiffany her own computer for her birthday. It's one of those fangled Sony Vaio's with a Core 2 and some 3GB of ram and some type of SATA hard dealy.. But what now? Well, I'm glad you asked. Now I get started with the greuling task of creating an image of my current windows install. Why not just copy over what I need and leave the rest alone? I'll tell you why: I want to preserve this image. This has been a good image, and if shit hits the fan, I want to be able to come back to it at the drop of a hat. Eventually, I'm going to place this image on another hard drive, or possibly this current one. That didn't make sense, so let me lay it all out for you:

I currently have three drives: 160GB, 300GB, and 1TB, or 1000GB (sounds much larger :p).
160GB: Currently houses my operating system and all of my worldly programs.
300GB: Holds all of my music, random internet downloads, and pending/yet-to-be-sorted torrents.
1000GB: All of my movies, shows, and large applications.

What's clear is that I am going to be making an image of the 160GB and storing that away. I am ashamed to admit that I am going to be putting the image on DVD's (waits for Ben to make a comment...) I have a very good reason for that: I have no space on any of my drives. If I had (and could) dedicate a 1TB or 2TB strictly for backing up, I wouldn't even think about using optical media, but alas, I do not. So for that reason I am succumbing to optical media.

So after I make the image, I am going to format the drive and install both linux and a clean install of windows. Then after I gather up the resources to purchase a new fangled 1TB, I am going to move everything up one, the 160GB will remain my linux install, and the 300GB will be my new vista and every-game-possible install. The now 1TB will be used for accessory storage of movies and shows. I can't wait until I get a free day, me and Jake are going to tear it up Ubuntu style!

Gizmodo - Pixel Qi's Magical Hybrid E-Paper LCD Coming This Fall - Pixel qi qi3

Very promising indeed...

I found out today that you can have the screen orient according to how you are holding it. Also that my icons came back on my desktop; I just had to restart the phone.

--Sam

I think that the smell center of my brain is growing stronger, or something of that nature. These days, when I see things, I can SMELL them, like they're there. Thankfully it's usually restricted to pleasant things, or those I have strong memories of, but when I think of that night when I threw up in Sam's car, it's as though I can feel the bile rising in my throat, feel the acrid sting in my nostrils. The smell of oil and metal comes to mind especially often. I think it's a sign that I miss having a bike. Yeah, that smell really does hold a lot of good memories for me.

Craftzine.com blog : Swap-O-Rama-Rama Remake Fashion Show at Maker Faire

Lulz

--Sam

Android apps coming to Ubuntu - Boing Boing

What what in the butt? What really gets me excited about this if it goes the other way around! Frankly, I can't imagine it being that difficult to whip up a custom package for Android once basic compatibility is established. Just imagine, Keepass on your G1, Fennec given instant and easy compatibility with Android in time for its first release, custom codecs to play more varied video formats. Mplayer and Songbird, for God's sake! Not to mention simple and easy Japanese input through the standard IME. Beyond that, Wine! Windows apps on your mobile phone, customized for awesomeness on a tiny screen! PICASA MOBILE! HOLY SHIT THE ORGANIZATION!! Evernote, too! Egad!

I downloaded and installed cupcake!!

Just get the one that says google download at here

rename it to update.zip and put it on the root of the sd card.

then turn off your phone, and turn it on by holding home + end

then when it turns on you'll get a weird picture, hit alt + s, and then update!!

It's just that simple!

I just did it, so stay tuned for updates of horrific things.

As I sit in the loo recalling how fun my weekend was. I can't help but laugh at you guys, not in a bad way of course. Most men have poker night and game night watching sports, but you guys break the mold... you guys have boys night that includes twenty sided dices and Magical cards. I can imagine you guys ten years from now sitting in the "game room" with cigars and beer sitting around a poker table... minus the traditional ace and suits card deck. I love it because good friends are hard to find!

This is the chick that the chick in Terminator: Salvation reminded me of.

She was in the Wayne's World movies and starred in the show "Relic Hunter."

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000119/

Elephant Bottle Opener | Boing Boing Gadgets

If that's not just the most adorable thing...

Right here!

PC Connection - 42" 42PM4M HD-Capable Plasma Display

$500 for a 42" 1080P monitor? Yeah, that's gotta be a misprint...

It's a tie!

You are part Jasmine. You are loyal and would visit the ends of the earth for what you believe. You would never let obstacles stand in the way of true love.

You are part Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so its good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.

So I was daydreaming just now, and thought about how I would explain computers, the internet, and all that to someone from the middle ages, and not to sound patronizing to someone who may be smarter than you are, in spite of the time difference. I kind of got caught up with it, and here's what I came up with:

In the future, we discover a property known as electricity, a sort of miniature lightning, a spark which persists in metal and can be transmitted through drawn wire. Using these sparks, and their absence, we can create a system to codify information, like a grid of candles which, when snuffed in the right order, can spell out a word or make a simple picture. This binary code, named for the two simple states which can be occupied at any one time, has been standardised over the years, resulting in a complex mathematical method for encoding and transmitting any sort of information, using organizational tables and pre-approved registers to translate the pulses of sparks into whatever they might represent. Using a device called a transistor, we can create systems to approximate logical actions and decision-making in order both to store these tables in vast quantities and reference them very quickly. We call these machines computers.

The internet is simply a system of many such computers which use copper wire to send pulses to one another, enabling information to pass from one area to another quickly and efficiently, without any message being physically transported. By transmitting many images with small differences and displaying them one after the other, we can trick the eye into seeing fluid motion on what appears to be a moving picture. This process is freely and easily available to anyone and, like any trade, transmitting moving pictures attracts many competitors. The best-known and most widely used is called YouTube.

And we use it to watch cats jacking off.

Awesome.

YouTube - Cencoroll 2nd Trailer 2009

This looks so cool. Holy cow, it looks like FLCL done right. Bad. Ass.

You've been there!

Hear me out here: I'm not one of those weirdos who think that the world's gonna end any day, or even one of those weirdos who think that nuclear proliferation is bad (we can talk about that later). I just think that it would be a cool place to hang out, like a really deep basement/rec room with integrated cooking and bathroom facilities. Maybe I really just want a full-sized basement with a kitchen and bathroom attached...

Which Disney Princess Are You?

You are Belle. You are strong, deep, and you are not a slave to petty superficial things. You are independent and allow yourself to see inner beauty without sacrificing your values. You are almost too good of a person.

I can't believe we (at least I) didn't know about this!

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

Just wow...

I love buying things off the interwebz. It's much cheaper than real life, I don't have to go anywhere, and best of all? I don't have to talk to a single person. The only drawback is shipping. To start off, there seems to be a base price of about $5, which is fine for most things, but when the thing you are trying to buy is a few dollars, it makes it seem like an exuberant amount. The other problem is, if the item you are trying to buy is too small to send UPS, it takes much longer to get. The pros do outweigh the cons, but I'm not sure enough. I guess there are some things that just make more sense to go out and purchase, as opposed to buy from home.

Which Disney Princess Are You?
	You are Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it's good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

BrainFall.com - Result - Which Disney Princess Are You?

Modern Pied Piper Cheats Death - CBS News

Wait, didn't the Pied Piper KIDNAP the children?

The Subway Dogs of Moscow - Neatorama

That's right, this is so cute it made me use a Japanese emoticon. And I HATE Japanese emoticons.

I'm at dennys, and there out of milk, letuce, waffles, milkshakes, how can they consduct business

Someone shoot me please... I don't know why people even consider putting this on the news... why even give this a two second fame on national tv that it doesn't deserve.

Chesus or upside down penis? (previous)

Chesus or Fail? (today's news)

Yup. Earthquake. I tried to send a text message literally right after it happened, but the cell network was too jammed.

Afghanistan's only pig in quarantine - Boing Boing

One pig?! How can you have ONE pig?! Man, China gives really crappy gifts.

I've been thinking a lot about writing a book, and I have a few good ideas, but I think it would be better to get a graduate degree, before I try to publish, for credibility purposes. Does anybody know anything about the process of getting a book published? Also how many "pages" on MS word would be equivalent to a 250-300 page book? What do you guys think? As Sheldon put it, "Pleased to meet you Dr. Gablehoueser, how fortunate for you that the university has chosen to hire you despite the fact that you have done no original research in 25 years, and instead have written a series of popular books that have reduced the great concepts of science to a series of anecdotes each one dumbed down to accommodate the duration of the average bowel movement. Ma-halo"

Hitachi aiming for 5TB hdd by 2010

--Sam