Behind Blue Eyes

Not quite as much fun as it sounds...

2009-04-28T21:11:05Z

My hot shoe slave arrived yesterday. Now, in theory, I can flash from up to 150' away. But I prefer to do most of my flashing closer up.

Cool site - The Right Blue

2009-04-27T03:08:49Z

Found a cool marine biology / diving / etc. site:

http://therightblue.com/

Cool pictures, well written.

bookmark manager bleg

2009-04-26T18:41:15Z

Anyone know of a good, preferably plug-in (firefox, safari, opera, lynx, whatever, I'm browser poly), bookmark manager? I'd settle for a website, but it isn't my first choice.

What I'd like would be the ability to add tags (humor, science, politics) and preferably have some sort of web-of-tags so I could find the one e.g. science->oceanography->humor (or humor->oceanography, etc) site. What I'm looking for is navigation sort of like what the old Yahoo used to look like, just populated with my own metadata.

No, del.icio.us ain't it. Don't care so much about the collaborative aspect.

Are You Disturbingly Profound or Profoundly Disturbing?

2009-04-12T23:17:16Z

You Are Disturbingly Profound

You're contemplative, thoughtful, and very intense.

Taking time to figure out the meaning of life is a priority for you.

Because you're so introspective, you often react in ways that surprise people.

No one can really understand how you are on the inside... and that disturbs them.

Are You Disturbingly Profound or Profoundly Disturbing?

Is anyone surprised by this?

2009-04-12T23:07:25Z

You Are Pause

Compared to most people, you are reflective and thoughtful.
You're always willing to take a break and digest everything that's happened.

You are patient with life. You are happy to sit back and let things unfold.
You're not in a hurry. You're content to take things at someone else's pace.

What Remote Button Are You?

and the bullets whiz by...

2009-03-28T03:17:44Z

10 co-workers got riffed at my site today. A couple of them excellent, a couple of them good, almost all of them at least really nice folks.

I guess the grog explains the bumbling...

2009-03-19T18:50:58Z

Your LiveJournal Pirate Crew
LiveJournal Username
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest!
Cutlass or pistol?
What is the name of your pirate ship?
Where is your secret pirate base?
What kind of loot do you prefer?
What do you and your crew prefer to be called?
Parrot or monkey?
Argh!

Your capable first mate	djoflips
Your bumbling cabin boy with a heart of gold	chalepa_ta_kala
The aloof, yet honorable, pirate with a mysterious past	ambar
Is always the first one into the fray	pixie_paige
Is the naval officer who ruthlessly pursues your ship	shadowsmark
Is the comical pirate who is always drunk on grog	chalepa_ta_kala
Is currently in Davy Jones's locker	tsennyipa
The amount of money you make as a pirate	$156,861


This Fun Quiz created by Lynn at BlogQuiz.Net

Weight Loss Tips at WeightLossTips.TV

Subtle differences between the UK and US...

2009-03-06T19:45:53Z

For example, go here and explore the list of available titles.

Hat tip to shadowsmark

Brain takes a holiday

2009-01-29T11:50:00Z

I leave the house this morning
- I leave the phone at home

I come back at lunch to retrieve the phone
- I discover I left the front door unlocked

I put some lunch in the microwave
- I retrieve my phone
- When I leave, I make sure I lock the front door

I arrive at work
- When I get to my desk, I realize I left the phone in the car

I go to retrieve the phone from the car
- I realize I did not take the house keys with me when I left home

I arrive back home nowish (Fortunately, I have a spare key stashed)
- I find lunch has been sitting in the microwave waiting for me for nearly 14 hours

You know, I *was* feeling a bit peckish this evening.

Yes, exactly...

2009-01-25T06:11:37Z

Now I am going to have to lie here for the next hour, with no trousers on, basted like a Christmas turkey, bloody Enya simpering away in my ear, while some failed hairdresser rhythmically tickles away at my flabby parts as if petting a consumptive hamster.

Cool visualization...

2008-12-13T01:39:03Z

This is a very cool animation of immigration to the US from 1820-2007.

not nearly as gross as the first sentence implies...

2008-12-03T09:13:12Z

So, one of my beard hairs got ingrown....

Not a big deal. It happens frequently. The major reason I don't shave down to the skin.

What was interesting is that it happened to land right on top of one of those facial nerves the dentist has to block with Novocaine and had the same effect. So a good chunk of my jaw and cheek were numb yesterday and I kept expecting a bright light and drilling sound.

Ah, Orygun...

2008-12-03T09:07:52Z

I drove the northwestern and western periphery of Oregon (from Portland to Astoria to Brookings) yesterday.

Some of the waypoints included:
Scappoose
Clatskanie
Manzanita
Nehalem
Tillamook
Neskowin
Yachats

Names that, aside from the place of good dairy, might cause a non-native some pause.

The familiarity was nice. It reminded me I came from somewhere once.

90 seconds a day to make craigslist a better place

2008-11-19T06:57:09Z

This a plea for some collective action.

Some bozos are posting a slew of housing listings on the Bay Area Craigslist over and over and over with a bazillion keywords set as hidden text. I'm asking, if you have a few spare seconds, to periodically go and flag these fuckwads as spam/overpost.

The easiest keyword to look for is 'sunn'. There's currently only one legitimate ad with 'sunn' (they meant sunny). You'll see the pattern very quickly.

The entire block of hidden keywords is:

Search keywords: Belmont, San Carlos, Atherton, 
Hillsborough, Los Altos, Milrae, Hills, San Mateo, San
Bruno, Woodside, Redwoodcity, Redwood City, Menlo Park,
Mt. View, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Mid Peninsula, mid
pen, Pennisula, RWC, SF, Bay Area, Bay, north, west, east,
south, Hillsdale, silicon valley, city, n, s, e w, city,
private, rent, lease, santa clara, Sunnyvale, san jose,
sj, los gatos, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, #, one, two,
three, four, single, family, dishwasher, hardwood, hard,
wood, flooring, full, size, patio, balcony, bbq, pool, rec
room, realtor, property, real estate, duplex, apartments,
condo, unit, investment, sale, first, second, units,
home, house, townhome, thownhouse, town home, town house,
condo, duplex, pagemill, view, vies, university, manager,
managers, management, 24 hours, gated, community, Stanford,
university, Menlo, college, Menlo, Park, secured, cisco,
hp, Hewlett Packard, hp, va, hospital, bright, light,
lights, el camino, real, pets, friendly, dog, cat, student,
professional, school, sec 8, section 8, google, systems,
east bay, security, Hewlett-packard, sfo, sjc, airport,
downtown, dt, down, town, corporate housing, student, cal
train, muni, apts, freeway, highway, 101, 280, hwy, rwc,
internet, food, shopping, restaurants, entertainment,
amenities, freeway, utilities, gas, electric, water,
parking, carport, whole foods, public transportation,
midpenisula, mid peninsula, RWC, SSF, SF, UCSF, CSM, SJSU,
de anza, jr., jr, collge, foothill, san mateo college,
pagemill, long-term, long, term, short, short-term, 92,
380, house, apartments, five, sun, patio, bayckyard, back,
yard, carpet, paint, Luxury, Penthouse, flat, Sunn, ebay,
beds, baths, bathroom, onsite, on site, Ikea, university
circle, four seasons, hotel, short-term, short, term,
long, long-term, end of month, immediate movein, move
in, rent ready, week, month, 30 days, property, units,
foreclose, credit, check, flexable, cisco, cisco systems,
corporate housing, furnished, parking, restaurants, public
transportation, school, schools, ravenswood, sequoia,
district, union, month, week, end of month, yahoo, move,
graduate, graduated, teacher, specials, special, movein,
move in, bike, walk, palo alto, updates, modern, updated,
landscaping, landscape, deposit, flexible, dates, drive,
short, long, promotion, discount, affordable, reasonable,
holding, hold, reserve

Sad...

2008-10-10T15:47:36Z

Mother's Cookies closes after 92 years of business in Oakland

Friday night (wonky) gold...

2008-08-30T07:50:36Z

Dalek - Mark I

2008-08-14T19:35:31Z

I'm quotable...

2008-08-08T23:23:48Z

23andMe put up a couple quotes I made at their shindig a couple weeks back:

https://www.23andme.com/overview
https://www.23andme.com/research

Look at the "Our customers are saying..." section down in the bottom right.

Neither one would win me much praise at a Toastmasters event, but it's still really cool that someone there thought that what I said had enough merit to transcribe.

Am I the last one to know...

2008-07-27T09:46:42Z

That you can add &fmt=18 to the end of a youtube url and get much higher quality video?

Tonight's musical de-stressing moment...

2008-07-27T07:54:19Z

Events...

2008-07-25T20:43:59Z

Louise Brown turns 30.

Randy Pausch has died.

Nostalgia Rock

2008-07-19T09:53:21Z

Likely only interesting to Portland natives over 40, but this page tickled some long-dormant neurons.

The silly season continues

2008-06-13T20:34:00Z

Generate a Barack Obama Quote!

"These people haven't had truthiness for fifty years. So you can't be surprised if they get bitter and cling to their unicorn killing and their litterbugs and their faith in beings of pure and radiant light. That's what my campaign is about. Teaching all the little people in this country that they can have soul-crushing despair."
Generate your Barack Obama quote at Buttafly.com

Silly test season

2008-06-08T18:37:58Z

Your Score: Harmless thinker

You scored 2 orthodoxy, 2 science, 1 fundamentalism, and 0 socialism!

The maximum for each variable is 5.

You are a weak (or an agnostic) atheist. That means that you are reasonable in your claims and don't use faith to believe in something, the way religious people do. You are probably very inquisitive and curious about the world around you. When someone tells you there is a God, you will ask for evidence first.

You like to find out new things about science and you know, as I do, that evolution is right, or that the Universe hasn't been made by an invisible man living in the sky who punishes you when you try to do your laundry on Sundays. But that doesn't seem to be enough for you: philosophy convinced you to reject God. You enjoyed thinking a lot about the things around you and about the purpose of life and you understood pretty quickly that people who claim that God exists worship a logically inconsistent being. No one, even if he's a god, can be all powerful, almighty, all knowing and all loving at the same time. That was actually the last piece in the puzzle. Your view of the world is complete.

Let's look at your social nature now: you seem to be gentle and tolerant towards other people's view of the world. You accept or you don't care about what others think, even if it's religion: you leave them have it their way and you don't despise them for that. "They may remain in delusion, if that's what they like", you might say. "Who am I, some god, to judge them?"

When it comes to politics, I must congratulate you: you got it right. You don't give a f*** about the communist propaganda and you know as well as I do that capitalism is the way. Capitalism means progress and wealth, through initiative, ideas and free trade. Very stupid people often mistake atheists for communists: the two of us are the proof that they're wrong.

Good luck in your free life!

Link: The What Sort of Atheist Are You Test written by MHortulanus on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(MHortulanus)

Math is hard for ... journalists

2008-06-01T11:14:30Z

One of my admittedly many, many, many pet peeves is when someone tries to obfuscate a numerical point by trying to switch the units or phrasing of the two quantities such that the casual reader comes away with an impression that the numbers support a conclusion when they clearly don't. (*)

My latest example intellectual dishonesty comes from this:

The ranks of religious dropouts are overwhelmingly male: Nearly one in five men claims no formal religious affiliation, compared with only 13 percent of women.

So, let me get this straight. We're supposed to believe that a difference between 13 percent and something less than 20 percent (19%? 18%?) is an overwhelming difference? No, the only one feeling overwhelmed is Colleen Carroll Campbell at her own self-assessed brilliance in coming up with a crap teaser paragraph for a 1200-word, meandering, piece of crap article that just conveniently dovetails perfectly with the rest of her world-view.

And just to save anyone else the trouble of pointing out:

Colleen Carroll Campbell is a [...] former speechwriter to President George W. Bush [...]

Yeah, yeah, yeah... The Bushie B-Team is an impressive lot.

(*) The straw that broke this anal-retentive's back was a mid-90's NASA press release. This was back in the days of MIR and the US astronaut aboard had just broken the American time-in-orbit record. In the press release they also mentioned the in-orbit times for his two Russian colleagues. They listed the American's time in days, one Russian's time in weeks, and the other Russian's time in months. This gave the American an impressive looking 3-digit number while the two Russians had more meager looking 2-digit numbers. Of course, if you converted to the same units, it was clear that both Russians had times that made the American record look puny. In fact, the reason the third Russian's time was listed in months was that if he had been listed in weeks, his number of weeks would have still been larger than the American's number of days. Yup, it was a proud day to be an American.

Don't mind me. It's just 4am and I'm feeling profoundly misanthropic.

Oh yeah, and bad drivers suck.