[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-30
I'll be out and about today:
I've got a little bit of adventuring to do. I'm going to head to Golden for a bit, and take some video and stuff. I'll be back later.
I noticed that David Chess's site is down, yesterday and today (so far). I wonder what's up? At any rate, I hope it comes back soon...
Daniel writes:
David Chess's web site is back home.
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-29
I'm just hanging out....
so don't worry about me. I wrote an entry earlier that got eaten by the Capriciously Freezing iMac, so I'm wary of pontificating from this machine. I prefer to mostly just read while I'm here.
I did succeed in getting my mom's scanner to work, though. I scanned some pages from an old family bible. Y'know, the kind of pages where you record marriages, births, deaths, and so on. More on that later, when I can get the images transferred and reduced to a reasonable size.
[
rants
]
2001-11-28
I'm stuck in the land of computer frustration!
My mother's iMac is pissing me off more and more. Sure, it's cute, and how can you hate something so cute, right? Well, I do.
The keyboard sucks the life out of my fingers, and the mouse is a crime against ergonomics. It freezes up (but not the mouse - oh no, I can still point my little impotent arrow anywhere I want on the screen) every once in awhile, usually right while I'm in the middle of reading something interesting. I've been avoiding posting much, partly because I just *know* the damn thing will choose the worst possible moment to freeze - right before I save something big.
I tried to install my mom's new scanner, but of course the floppy with the drivers is gone somewhere. Maybe my brother knows where it is. Sigh.
And my fabulous laptop that an incredibly nice person sent to me, has a modem that can't seem to find a dial tone on the phone line. Otherwise, I'd be using it instead to do my net stuff while I'm here. I have no idea what's wrong with it or how to fix it. :(
Is that enough whining yet? I'd better save this before this iMac gives me yet another reason to drop-kick it along the frozen driveway.
p.s. I have decided that I want to get some pet rats. (This is unrelated to this rant, btw).
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-26
I've been playing:
with my mom's dog Chloe a lot. Well, she's still more like a puppy, just about a year old. She's a schnoodle, half schnauzer, half poodle. She's small and gray and full of energy and very sweet. She can also jump like crazy, hence her nickname "Chloe McBoingboing".
She has this stuffed purple bear that she loves. The definition of love I'm using in the previous sentence involves destruction, rapid whipping back and forth while clenched in her jaws, evisceration, and near decapitation. So I throw purple bear and Chloe retrieves him, over and over again.
My mom wants me to repair Purple Bear, but I think he's beyond hope. Luckily, we have Green Bear (identical except for the color of course) waiting in the wings, but even he has some injuries already.
Chloe also likes to play with this crazy monkey dog toy that I gave her. The monkey is this ropey Rastafarian thing that looks quite silly. It's got quite a bit more mass than Purple Bear and is easier to throw. The trouble is I have to be really sure of my aim or else I'll damage something. Yikes. So far, I haven't broken anything. :)
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-26
So here I am in Colorado!
And it's cold, cold, cold. And snowing. It's glorious, in other words. :)
This morning I happily shoveled the walk for my mother, and sprinkled some paw-safe granules to (hopefully) keep the sidewalk from re-freezing.
Thanksgiving was great, we made wonderful gravy (and ate it all up), and the cream cheese & chive dip was fabulous too. As usual, I was called into action to chop celery, pecans, and apples for my mother's famous cinnamon waldorf salad (it's a jello thing).
It's been fun getting to see my brother Bill and his wife Diane and their daughter Autumn. Autumn is quite a cutie-pie, and seeing her makes me miss Elena just that much more. Sigh.
I did get to talk to Elena on the phone last night, which was good. She said she's getting sick. I'm not sure if this is true or if she just wants to have some medicine. Sometimes with a two-year-old, you have to do some delicate interpretation.
My mom's iMac froze up on me for no discernable reason a few minutes ago, so I'll go ahead and save this now and write more later.
[
good
]
2001-11-19
Off I go...
Time for me to head out the door for my road trip... I'm not sure how much I'll be updating while I'm gone, but I'll be sure to pop in a little bit here and there.
I hear the road a-callin' my name, and my happy little Honda is rarin' to go! I hope to make Amarillo by this evening, and then spend tomorrow covering the rest of the journey to Denver (well, Parker).
The last time I made a trip along similar lines (starting from San Antonio, that time), my car broke down in the middle of the night, and I was terrified (but made it through okay). This time I've got AAA and my trusty handy-dandy cell phone, so I feel much better about the whole endeavor. :)
I hope I get to see some snow...
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-18
Interesting.
Just various links from my readings lately. Enjoy:
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-15
As promised, here's the kitty:
That is, the kitty who begged for food from us at our campsite this past weekend:
And here's a pic of Anthony that I took that I think turned out rather well (click for a larger version):
Enjoy.
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-15
I'm going on a road trip:
This Sunday, I'm heading off on a road trip to go visit my mom in Colorado. It's about a thousand-mile drive.
This'll be my first road trip since I landed in Austin in February 1997. Well, my first *big* road trip. Going to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Matamoros (Mexico) don't count, since they were short trips. :)
I renewed my AAA membership today and got a Triptik [tm], so I'm all set. I'm really looking forward to it. There's nothing quite like the open road to sort of clear your mind a bit.
I like the way that travel affects my mind. It's almost a meditative or zen thing.
I hope I have good weather and all that. I'd really like to see some snow when I'm in Colorado, that's for sure.
When I'm there, I'll probably visit my usual special places: Mannie & Bo's Pizzeria in Golden (for a pepperoni and Canadian bacon calzone), Red Rocks Amphitheater, the Jewell Wetlands, the Tattered Cover (the best bookstore in the known universe), and Denver Fabrics. Of course, I have no money to spend so I'll have to be really careful. :)
I might even get to ride one of my mom's horses, Chief. He's a big, calm quarterhorse, which is just about my speed. I'd just like to ride him around in a circle for awhile, at walking pace only.
See, I've been horseback riding maybe half a dozen times in my life, and the more recent times, it's been scary in one way or another. I've had a horse gallop away on me, refusing to slow down. I thought I was going to be thrown and die that time - it was terrifying! I have no desire to repeat such an experience.
I think I can trust Chief, though. He's a good old horse, and very mellow.
Anyway, while I'm up there, I'm not sure how often I'll be posting here - it could be a lot less. So don't fret or freak out or anything if I'm quiet.
I'm going to be busy while I'm up there, so I'm probably going to take a hiatus from writing. I decided not to give myself a deadline on my novel. I just don't have much time to devote to it these days. Too much is going on, and my need for naps is pretty high. One of these days I'll finish it. The thing is, though, that a lot of my ideas are for parts of a book that isn't necessarily a novel. I'm not sure how many of these ideas I'll be able to weave into my novel somehow, or how many would stand alone better. So I dunno, maybe it'll end up as a weird hybrid style of book or something. Knowing me, it probably will. :) So we'll see.
Speaking of naps, that sounds like a real good idea right now...
[
good
]
2001-11-15
The box o doom tells me:
regarding the meteor I saw the other night:
That's not a meteor! That's a Martian invasion craft!
Ahh, well I certainly hope so - they're due to come by and take me for a ride. Maybe they're waiting for the planet-wide dust storms to settle down first.
And on the same topic, Daniel sent me a link to
a CNN story about the Leonid meteor shower coming up this weekend. I hope the weather clears - we've been deluged with rain today.
[
my site
]
2001-11-14
You may have noticed the title change.
Yes, that's right, after more than a year, I finally decided to implement a Real Name for my blog. "Just a Log" was just an interim name, and I kept putting off changing it.
So I like the new name. It sort of describes this thing. One may ask, "Is it a journal? A log? A diary? Random spew?" Well, it's None of the Above. Which means that it's not limited strictly to any of those (or other) categories, so it can freely float among them. It's nebulous, in other words. Plus there are other interesting meanings that I like... I'll write more about it some other time. Right now, I've got to get going before the traffic becomes truly painful.
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-14
Tired today.
I had to sort through tons of papers in order to find my PIN to be able to withdraw money from my 401k. So I figured I might as well do all sorts of other sorting and filing along the way, too. Oy.
I'd been putting it off for a very long time, so there was quite a bit to go through. Anyway, it's much more organized now, but there's always more to do.
Dang it's hot in this house. Sigh. Time for me to get out of here, drop some stuff in the mail, and head back over to Anthony's house.
I'm in a bit of a down cycle, to say the least. My head kind of hurts. Bleagh. Whatever.
[
rants
]
2001-11-13
Microsoft may not be evil...
but they sure are conducting themselves like assholes. They're now
blocking access to msn.com from non-IE browsers. What a bunch of losers!
Note to self: add to todo list: "Defeat Microsoft".
----later
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-12
Camping was fun!
But it got real crowded after the first day, so we decided to pull up our stakes (well, three out of four - that last one just wouldn't cooperate) and bail back to civilization.
Tomorrow I will show here pictures of this little kitten that went from campsite to campsite, begging for food. Poor little thang. :(. Also, he bit me. I'm doing okay, thanks for your concern.
Next time, we will definitely bring different stuff when we go camping, and leave behind the stuff we didn't use.
I could really have done without the Spanish-language radio playing from afar for hours on end, that's for sure. Anthony's description of the SUV people who drove approximately 40 yards in their SUV to go to the bathroom facilities did fill me with mirth.
Oh, there was one truly wondrously fabulous thing: I saw a big honkin' meteor shoot across the sky and burn up. It went across a significant span of sky, I tell ya. Much bigger than any I had ever seen before (and I've hardly seen any before, really...). It was truly beautiful. I stared up at the sky for awhile afterwards, but no more meteors came forth. Ah, well. One was enough to make me smile. :)
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-09
Ack. Busy.
And I've gotta hightail it outta here since Anthony and I are going camping this weekend, starting as soon as he gets home from work. So I've got to go to the store and get the other food, theoretically attempt to do laundry, and make sure I've got everything packed in my car.
Of course, I've put just about everything except the kitchen sink in there, so we'll be able to handle any eventuality.
Car camping is fun - you don't have to be too careful about what you bring - just bring everything! :)
[
my site
]
2001-11-06
The box o doom queries me:
two questions:
Will you write the novel on the web?
To which I reply: Yes!!! Though I probably won't release any of it until I'm done. I'm too shy about brainstorming results, idea lists, and other messiness. For that matter, I almost feel physical pain every time I let a typo slip, so I know I want to give it at least one really good last reading before I let anyone see it.
Plus, I reserve the right to change my mind and switch everything around, change characters' names, and delete huge chunks until the very end. I don't want anyone getting attached to a given version and getting annoyed with me for changing it. :)
Question two:
Where can I find the Ron Paul statement?
Ahh, dang it! I somehow forgot to do the link originally. I have gone back and inserted it, and in case you don't want to scroll down, just
follow this one.
[
humor
]
2001-11-06
And this is funny too:
From
the supreme court: (note: link is to a pdf)
QUESTION: Oh, no. I produce them to make them happy. I just don't harvest them.
[
good
]
2001-11-06
My kind of warfare:
The BBC have been broadcasting a brilliant radio show into Afghanistan for years, fighting a memetic war against threats to health and other woes, such as a lack of entertainment. Read
the excellent article here.
This is too cool!
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-06
More snippets,
from today:
Politics is a method of self-selecting away those who would actually be qualified to lead.
---- It's bad luck to be superstitious.
Any suficient advanced magic is indistinguishable
from technology
As a bookseller, I think that Phillip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass is a much better choice, if you want to pick children's books. When I sell it (and the first two, The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife) I describe it as being "like Harry Potter, only with depth." The books are much more intricate, thought-provoking, complex, with (gasp!) subplots that seem (gasp!) unrelated at first, until they all come together. Now that is a book that deserves an award.
But hey, don't let logic stop you when a perfectly good cynical explanation will do.
Before I begin, I should say that I love both Tolkien and Asimov, grew up reading the Narnia books, and intensely dislike Clarke (except for the rather interesting short story The Billion Names of God, which I think is quite good).
Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs! OK, they don't exist, but they should...
"Hey kids, try this at home!"
-- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a perl script.
Science fiction deals with improbable possibilities, fantasy with plausible impossibilities. (Miriam Allen deFord)
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said of plagiarism, "Every man alive on the earth who writes or speaks commits it every day and not merely once or twice but every time he opens his mouth." He was speaking to Mark Twain, who had unconsciously borrowed from Holmes.
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-06
Here are a bunch of unattributed snippets
I came across yesterday and found remarkable for one reason or another. Sort of breadcrumbs along my browsing trail, as it were:
my other sig is a lava-lamp true random generator
"i'd rather stay a child, and keep my self-respect, if being an adult means being like you!" -Jello Biafra
C:\>tracert life.liberty.pursuit-of-happiness
"Persons of leisurely moral growth often confuse giving with taking." -- Larry Wall.
299,792,458 m/s...not just a good idea, its the law!
If God gave us curiosity and intelligence we would be ungrateful if we supressed our passion to explore the universe
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
-[ANTI_LAMENES_FILTER_INSTEAD OF NICE CLEAN SEPERATOR STRING HERE]-
Come back to carbon paper,,, please? We are dying out here!!
-- I support anonymous posting. This and all other posts are hereby in the public domain.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
If it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
Reducing the value of something to its intrinsic worth is not "stealing".
--- Intellectual "property" is to property as fool's gold is to gold.
Support our cause: Help stamp out philately.
Again I say: Kids These Days.
Refreshing to see you all bragging about "Who has the smallest"
~> rm -rf /bin/laden
Matt Ridley's 1993 book "The Red Queen"(ISBN 0-14-016772-2) is an outstanding discussion of the new thinking about such things in the field of biology.
...
According to a Red Queen type of argument, bloatware will survive _precisely
because it is bloatware_ -- the bloat is a kind of 'display' similar to
peacock tails or antlers used to prove the vigor of its creator, as only a
truly vigorous creator could afford to waste the prodigious sums required to
implement gross and useless appendages like 'Clippy'.
Things can be
done right from the beginning, or even if not, corrected in a negligible
envelope of time.
It's professional pride on the one side -- and "who cares?" on the other.
If I were
writing a GUI application of any complexity, it would be frightful to
consider writing it with nothing but C message loops and massive switch
statements.
If you don't have time to do
it right, where are you going to find the time to do it over?
One opinion, worth what you paid for it.
Tell that to programmers today, they don't believe you.
Perhaps then we would end up with code of reasonable size and quaility? What the hell, it's only Karma.
The idea of working with consumers to come up with a balance that can work for everyone, as with traditional "fair use" provisions, never seems to occur to them.
All I wanted was a rock to wind a piece of string around, and I ended up with the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota
This will simply become part of the arithmetic commercial developers will have to deal with.
- MBA's: Can't live with 'em. Can't legally torture them to death. "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere." "You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way" - Bob Dylan --- "...a little anarchy, but not the hurting kind!" Altho it would be useful, in considering a new relationship, to have full access not just to the prospective other's ID card, but also the EGO card and the SUPER-EGO card. If the SUPER-EGO resembles any of several nasty old Middle-Eastern deities, report this to local law enforcement.
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
[
good
]
2001-11-05
I just want to say...
That Walgreen's *rocks*!!!
I just verified the PIN they sent me via snailmail, and now I have access to my whole prescription history via the web. I can order refills, set up auto-refills, all kinds of spiffy stuff.
This is *very* cool. This is what the web is supposed to be about, thankyouverymuch. And as far as I can see, they've got the whole security/privacy thing worked out. (I hope! Dammit!)
Oh, cool! I'm going through the process of ordering a refill (just to see how they have it laid out - I am not ready to actually *get* the refill yet), and I'm very impressed. It automagically selects the Walgreen's location that I got it from last time, and gives me the opportunity to choose another location or to have it shipped to me. It's all neatly laid out and clear and clean design. Very sharp!
I give 'em an A+. I'm quite impressed. :)
[
design
]
2001-11-05
Appropriate use of technology:
My friend John pointed out to me
this article about how they're using computer simulations to try to figure out how best to battle terrorists. Here's a quote:
"Some of the very best games have very, very simple rules," said Will Wright, creator of "The Sims." "But amazingly elaborate strategies emerge that you can't predict."...Making the jump from a single battlefield to the global stage isn't a matter of simply stretching the physical terrain. The key is re-creating the range of ephemeral social, economic and political forces that are at the core of terrorist conflict.
The task, in essence, requires teaching a computer to understand the meaning of fear, hatred, bigotry and other emotions that fuel terrorism.
I think they are a ways away from that last statement, but it's an admirable goal. I don't think it's possible without some serious artificial intelligence, though.
Overall, the whole simulation thing is very, very cool. I am impressed. Neato! :)
[
books
mental
]
2001-11-05
I'm gonna write a book.
That is, a novel. At least I *think* I am. I have every intention of doing so, that is. But you never know what life is going to throw at you, so I don't want to make any promises that I can't keep.
The reason why is that there's this thingie called
National Novel Writing Month, and they're trying to get a bunch of people to write 50,000-word novels in thirty days in November.
Well, that is, they're succeeding. At least, it looks that way so far. A bunch of people have signed up, and they're writing at a breakneck pace. We'll have to see just how many make it to the finish line in time. And then of course we have to see how many of the finished products are any good... but that's not the point, so sayeth the organizers.
Of course, I'm not officially signed up or anything. I never was one much for officialdom, except for very special occasions that is. :) I like the idea of being a bit of a rogue outsider entry. Muahahhahaha!
Last November I uh, wrote a lot, and ummm... the result was 40,000 words in three days. Now, it was a very powerful flow of ideas that I just *had* to get out of my head. I felt as though I had drunk from the Firehose of Wisdom, and that much force can kinda knock you around.
What I'm trying to say is that what I wrote last year isn't that good. There's some good material there, but it's a little... crazy. There. I said it.
I hadn't realized at the time about my mental condition, or what can happen to me when I'm under *huge* amounts of stress (and I was, at that time). Now I know what's going on and I have tools (drugs*) to help me stay on track better, keep from getting too stressed out, etc.
The upshot is that I hope/expect that this time around, I'll come up with something that I can truly be proud of when I look back on it. :) I have some really neat ideas that I am just gunning to bring to fruition.
* okay, "pharmaceuticals". Dress it up with a fancy name and make it so only a doctor(**) can give it to you, and it undergoes the magical transformation from an agent of mayhem to a healing medicine. Oh yeah, don't forget to hyperinflate the price so that the people who really need it can't afford it except by participating in intricate extortion schemes (as the extortee, that is).
** or an advanced practice nurse, in my particular case.
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-05
This has some truth to it:
From
a lengthy and well-reasoned statement by Texas Republican Ron Paul:
Even if relative peace is achieved with a battle victory over Osama bin Laden and his followers, other terrorists will appear from all corners of the world for an indefinite period of time if we do not understand the issues.
I agree with this (thought not necessarily with every iota of the rest of his message, mind you). Wouldn't it be neat if we could solve the root problem here? That is, the key issues that cause people to hate our country so much that they're willing to kill and die to cause us harm?
It would be even neater if we could achieve this goal in an entirely bloodless way. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone in Washington can manage it.
I have some crazy ideas, but I'm just a wacky chick in Texas...
...and I've got a novel to write!
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-02
What I'm reading now:
I'm going through David Chess's weblog, and I really like (so far) the
Ftrain piece about clutter and cleaning and
This article about additional moon(s) or moon-oid objects that Earth has (!!! who knew?!?).
[
rants
]
2001-11-02
Very sad.
I just received a really cold, cruel email from a former friend, telling me that he doesn't want to ever talk to me or hear from me anymore.
It just hurts a lot right now. :(
I'm not a total idiot. I can take a hint, I will listen if someone asks me politely to back off or take a hike. I just wish he hadn't put things in such harsh terms. I keep thinking, "What did I ever do to *him* to deserve such rudeness and harsh treatment?"
I don't think I did anything to merit this. Really.
And even through it all, as annoyed and just plain hurt I am at this, somehow I forgive him. For being a young arrogant cad, for forgetting his manners, for being just the kind of person that I'd really like to be friends with yet so clearly and bluntly rejecting any contact with me.
I kind of pity him, because I feel that the kind of person who would treat a friend this way has a long journey of hard lessons to be learned ahead of him. And what goes around comes around, so he'll probably get hurt. And no, I don't take any pleasure in knowing that.
And I really thought that he was kinder than this. I thought he had a clue about how people should be treated. But then again, hindsight being 20/20, I realize there were early signs that he was somewhat insensitive, a certain lack of empathy.
Oh well, everyone has at least one fatal flaw, right? I know I've got several. If I started making a list of them, I'd go on for hours I'm sure.
One thing he told me really echoes for me right now: he said his greatest fear was that he'd turn into a really arrogant person. I think he's shown that that's exactly what has happened.
Sigh. Tomorrow, next week, next month, this will hurt less. Right now it feels like being kicked in the teeth. I feel stupid for having trusted him.
But it's time to focus on the new friends I'm making, and the good times I'm having with the ones I've already got...
I think I'm going to go read and think of other things for awhile. I don't want to dwell on this.
[
mammalog
]
2001-11-01
Elena had fun trick-or-treating last night.
She went as a flapper, in a fancy spangly dress. We went out with Mason and Andrew, her cousins.
Her pumpkin got so full of candy that it became too heavy for her to carry, so Spencer had to stuff large amounts of her candy in his pockets. Still, she wouldn't carry the thing between houses, so one of us had to carry it for her, then hand it to her at the door. Often she wouldn't hold it at all, but would dip in repeatedly to the offerer's candy bowl and just fill up her pumpkin. Alas.
We worked on teaching her to say "Trick or treat" and "thank you" and "Happy Halloween", with mixed yet promising success. I'm sure that next year she'll be quite a pro at it. :)
[
movies
]
2001-11-01
I saw K-Pax the other night
and it was pretty good. It wasn't quite what I expected from the previews (in itself a nice thing, I think). Fairly interesting, and I really liked Kevin Spacey in it. But then again, he's great in pretty much everything I've seen him in.
I thought it was interesting in the movie that no one questions why in fact Kevin Spacey's character is put into a mental ward for so long when he's not a danger to anyone. His character doesn't even question it or protest, for that matter.
Just an observation.
[
body
]
2001-11-01
I did yoga yesterday
for the first time, while watching the show "Inhale" on the Oxygen network. I figured I might as well give it a try, since I was up early. What the hell, I thought, I had been meaning to try yoga for awhile.
Within the first five minutes, I had to admit that my ass was thoroughly kicked. Damn, they make it look so darn *easy*! It was a good workout, though. I got kinda lightheaded through some of the position changes, with blood rushing into and then suddenly out of my head. I managed not to faint, thankfully.
Just when I thought I couldn't handle it anymore, the instructor made the transition to relaxation poses for the rest of the show, which was, shall we say, much *much* easier for me to do.
All in all, it was pretty nifty, and I liked it. I'm certainly a bit sore today, but it's a good sore feeling, one that lets me know I challenged my body a bit and worked towards getting more limber and flexible, which is a Good Thing.
[
random thoughts
]
2001-11-01
So many shoes...
So the other day, as I looked at my collection of at least half a dozen pairs of shoes by the door, I realized why women have so many shoes. It's because we *need* them, because we have so many different kinds of roles to fill.
A man can get by with some nice leather shoes and a pair of athletic shoes, and that basically covers all his needs. Depending on what area of the country he lives in and his lifestyle, he may also need a pair of sandals and/or flip-flops. But that's about it. (Okay, maybe some hiking boots).
But a woman, well, she needs athletic shoes, sandals, casual shoes that look good, dress shoes, work shoes, shoes that can get fairly grubby, and so on. It's just so much more complicated.
I just realized I forgot about rain-proof shoes and snow boots, but you get the picture.
