All the Cool Kids are Doing It 29 June, 2005

Meme from :

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me.

It can only be one word.

No more.

Then copy amd paste this in your journal so that I may leave a word about you.

Straight from the Messiah's Mouth 29 June, 2005

This clears things up a bit.

Way Cool 27 June, 2005

I have neither the time nor the shekels to afford this but it is still way cool.

Hamana-hamana-hamana-hamana 26 June, 2005

Major Motoko Kusanagi has it all over Lara Croft. Pshaw.

Who'd a' Thunk It? 24 June, 2005

Go Orbitz.

How'd they Know? 21 June, 2005

Thanks to :

You Are Opium!
You like to have fun and enjoy life. Reeeeeally enjoy life. If it isn't fast, loud, or extreme forget it. You value friendship and are loyal and will not hesiste to go off if someone crosses you.

What Naughty My Little Pony Are You?

Dorm Mother… 20 June, 2005

I spent two years at Harvey Mudd, a science and engineering school that bore a scary resemblance to Pacific Tech. At the time all of Mudd celebrated something called "dorm awards". The premise was that the nerdy students lacked the social skills to properly communicate their feelings to their peers. To alleviate all the presumed pent-up angst, the students of each dorm were given ballots and one week to submit as many "nominations" as they liked; the nominations were posted on butcher paper on the outside of the dorms at the end of the week. I can only guess that the institutors of dorm awards intended the awards to be something like "Most Inconsiderate to Those who are Studying – Jerry Van Hecke".

However, given the anonymity to publicly say anything about their peers, the students fairly quickly abandoned kindness. Sure, there was the occasional "Best Friend – Clint Gile" or "Best Looking – Kate Denlea". But a substantial number of the dorm awards were pretty harsh. At lunch one day I was bemoaning the savage nature of some awards. I said, “There're two kinds of awards…” Before I could continue, my next-door-mate, Kusha, popped off with, “Those about you and all the others.” It was so funny that I could not continue my tirade.

The dorm president announced the dorm awards at a dorm meeting. As a frosh our dorm president was Chris Donnelly. As he tried to explain the concept of the dorm awards without prompting a blood bath, some of the other frosh just did not get the concept. So he decided to give an example using himself. So he said, “Dorm Motherf***er – Chris Donnelly”. Sure enough, that year there were several nominations for “Dorm Motherf***er – Chris Donnelly”.

What I find truly hilarious is that, when I went back years later, people still nominated “Dorm Motherf***er – Chris Donnelly” every year.

Mea Culpa 14 June, 2005

Since all of the video editing will continue to be done on my PowerBook, I elected to not upgrade the memory on our new Mac mini. Yes, I know that told me to get 512 MB. Yes, I know that told me to get 512 MB. Yes, I know that Macworld told me to get 512 MB.

But I did not.

I have an explanation, not an excuse. I originally purchased my PowerBook with only 256 MB and only needed more when I began to edit digital video. So I had evidence to support my theory that 256 MB was fine for non-power uses.

I was very wrong. With only 256 MB Activity Monitor reported that, just sitting idle, the Mac mini had less than 2 MB of free memory. It spent so much time swapping that the response was sluggish at best.

I now agree with : how can Apple ship the Mac mini with only 256 MB?

The good news is that Bob the Mac Genius waved the installation fee for the upgrade. Go, Bob the Mac Genius! Go, 512 MB!

The Verdict 14 June, 2005

I shall not comment further on the verdict other than to say, while the jury may have correctly determined that he is not guilty of the most recent charges, there is absolutely no way he should ever be allowed alone with children. Ever.

Stupid Basketball 14 June, 2005

It is not that I dislike basketball per se. I spent many an hour shooting solitary hoops or playing in pick-up games. (Although I do consider it silly that a “non-contact” sport has so much contact and such shoddy enforcement of the rules.) But I actively dislike the NBA.

I suppose the turning point was the 2000 Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Blazers. A co-worker was kind enough to give me tickets to one of the playoff games. In person the blatant subjectivity of the officiating was all the more obvious. That evening I lost what respect I had left for the NBA.

But this is beyond the pale.

Our evening ritual is to watch “the puzzle show” at 1930 with my eldest before lights-out. Thanks to the stinking NBA it is preempted.

Stupid basketball.