Nothing today. How about some links?
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/13/compubeaver-case-mod-the-pc-stuffed-beaver/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4hacmvSPaI&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52zSRV_Kgfw&feature=dir
29 June 2007
27 June 2007
Civil Rights
Ed. I added a poll.
It's more interesting to read about civil rights problems which haven't been solved, so I started poking around and I found this cartoon of.. Karma Kat.
haha. Enjoy.
That's exactly how it should be. Quantitative Karma. Awesome. I wonder where animals belong on the caste system.
25 June 2007
ヒッキ
Perhaps many of you come across this problem, as I do sometimes. Midst a seemingly serious profile, what is this nonsense? Until a few days ago, it didn't make sense to me either. But THEN, I stumbled upon this awesomeness and another awesomeness, and I started to regret my wavering commitment. That's right. No shame. Man, I don't even feel like blogging; I'm going to go listen some more.One thing I'd like to note though, sometimes the Yuna singing bit from FF7 cannot be applied. This is one of those cases. Are you kidding me? Come on. It doesn't work.
23 June 2007
読書
One of the hardest things about posting is coming up with a title. One can always pick some random title like "things I did today" or something like that, but it's just not witty enough. So I decided to pick a Japanese title (and will probably do so more frequently in the future). Nothing special. This title reads : doku-sho (symbolically broken down).
A week ago I felt I should wean myself away from the screen and started reading. I went to McDermott Library (which is lame - try searching for spectrophotometry.. one book? from 1987? seriously?) to pick out some books. Here's what I got:
(Presented in reading order). Saving the best for last, eh? Yes. I've only read two out of the four. The second one was awesome, although I got bored of the tankas really quickly and just read all the short stories. What great imagery and themes in 2-3 page stories!
Typically they introduce something obscure like a variety of flower and I say to myself - wtf does this have to do with Hiroshima? At the end, they tie it back into the main theme and its like ZOMGZYEAUZ.
I fall for this trick every time.
In any case, weaning. Yes. It seems every time I turn on my computer, my jdrama folder calls to me, so I settled for real-life jdrama? Man, I'm lame.
I'm certainly looking forward to fall semester. Now that I know I can take some online classes at Midland College, I think I'll take a psychology course and a creative writing course, bringing my total fall hours to something like.. 27.
Enjoy these funnies:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6VIo6_0l24
IAANNNNN!! (watch it first..)
2. http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/06/chernobyl-household-nuclear-generator/
A week ago I felt I should wean myself away from the screen and started reading. I went to McDermott Library (which is lame - try searching for spectrophotometry.. one book? from 1987? seriously?) to pick out some books. Here's what I got:
(Presented in reading order). Saving the best for last, eh? Yes. I've only read two out of the four. The second one was awesome, although I got bored of the tankas really quickly and just read all the short stories. What great imagery and themes in 2-3 page stories!
Typically they introduce something obscure like a variety of flower and I say to myself - wtf does this have to do with Hiroshima? At the end, they tie it back into the main theme and its like ZOMGZYEAUZ.
I fall for this trick every time.
In any case, weaning. Yes. It seems every time I turn on my computer, my jdrama folder calls to me, so I settled for real-life jdrama? Man, I'm lame.
I'm certainly looking forward to fall semester. Now that I know I can take some online classes at Midland College, I think I'll take a psychology course and a creative writing course, bringing my total fall hours to something like.. 27.
Enjoy these funnies:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6VIo6_0l24
IAANNNNN!! (watch it first..)
2. http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/06/chernobyl-household-nuclear-generator/
21 June 2007
Kansas sucks.
So two out of three vetoes used by Bush were against stem cells. Dissappointing, but not unexpected. Looking into the details of the bill, I found an interesting website - The Hinxton Group, which tracks countries' stem cell policies.
Two of these images are of particular interest: (by the way, green is good)
Number of deaths for leading causes of death
I've taken the liberty to bold those diseases that (definitely) have potential cures through stem cells.
These aren't.. lame economies you're going up against. Can you really afford to fall behind?
*I should note, California has done awesomely. The rest of you- shame on you for being such idiots.
19 June 2007
More Dumplings
I forgot that, during the Greyhound trip back to Plano, I recorded the obnoxious driver and his 10-minute rant on driving, weather, god, how Waxahachie is not a rest stop, among other things. I won't spoil it for you:
Rant 1
Rant 2
Moving on. What's with all this "man cave" business? I had to look this up, although I had somewhat of a vague idea. Some definitions here, here, and here. Is it necessary to reclaim space and have a power tool garage? Seriously? Don't you cavemen have better things to do with your time...
Is it necessary to build a living room with that many lay-z-boys and a big screen TV just to watch sports? SpikeTV took it a little too far and came up with "mandates", after which, I wanted to hurt myself.
Embarrassing. What the hell are hobbies anyway? All you need is a man-corner to live out your mantasy.*
As good a man-corner as any.
On another note:
Yeah. That's WORD 2007. Take what you will
*: Sorry. I just had to say it. That's what she said! ... Dammit
Rant 1
Rant 2
Moving on. What's with all this "man cave" business? I had to look this up, although I had somewhat of a vague idea. Some definitions here, here, and here. Is it necessary to reclaim space and have a power tool garage? Seriously? Don't you cavemen have better things to do with your time...
Is it necessary to build a living room with that many lay-z-boys and a big screen TV just to watch sports? SpikeTV took it a little too far and came up with "mandates", after which, I wanted to hurt myself.
Embarrassing. What the hell are hobbies anyway? All you need is a man-corner to live out your mantasy.*
As good a man-corner as any.On another note:
Yeah. That's WORD 2007. Take what you will*: Sorry. I just had to say it. That's what she said! ... Dammit
16 June 2007
Memory Dump
I do this periodically; a bunch of pictures off my phone have to come off and go somewhere, so why not here?
Enjoy.
This guy cut in line when we were waiting to depart from the Greyhound station. The line was about ~30 people long, and he butted himself in 3 people from the beginning to get a good seat. Of course, everyone gave him the eye, but no worries on his part. Yeah. He got a good seat. 
At some DART light rail station. I realized I was on the wrong Northbound train (I jumped on anything going Northbound as I was in a hurry to get home). I thought I'd get off at one of the underground stations and see what it was like. So this is what underground Tokyo stations feel like, except, there's no one here, and I felt like I was going to get mugged. 
The other side of that station. I forget its name. Ed. Looks like Cityplace...
Hmm. The light rail looks kind of dirty in this picture, but it's pretty nice. It could be a little faster though. Also, I found out (harshly) that rush hour traffic can slow it down, especially in the downtown segments. Lame. 
Inside of apartment, lack of cleaning.
The otherside of the living room.
The otherside of the living room. 
This seems like a pretty unremarkable picture, except if you look closely, the two cars seem very close. So close in fact, they touched. Yeah. The black and unbelievably good looking Hond Accord Coupe was parked there. Some guy in a red ford* parked there (of all places) and parked a little too closely. I heard this screech and took this picture. He came out, inspected the damage, and quickly got back into his car and drove off.
Sigh. It was a pretty bad scratch too. I was going to get the two license plate #'s, but this is Texas, I might get shot.
:'(
*: Could be a mercury too. Oh well. Same domestic-make nightmare.
*: Could be a mercury too. Oh well. Same domestic-make nightmare.
13 June 2007
Unjustified Optimism
I've noticed that.. people tend to fill in the gaps of stories with good things, or good endings and what not. They even take relatively ambiguous phrases such as "happily ever after" and mold it into their own image, without ever noticing that Cinderella and the Prince, living "happily ever after" is as relative as "the three ugly step-sisters". Why believe everything you read anyway?
Take for example, the recent ending of the Sopranos on HBO. I'm not completely sure what all the opinions are, but I'm certain you don't want Tony Soprano to die at the hands of those quiet customers at the restaurant. No way!
It'd be better if he shot everyone in the restaurant and took his family into the countryside where he quit the mob business and lived happily ever after. Perhaps what was bugging so many people was that the ending didn't set up enough of a "gap" for "a happily ever after" scenario to be envisioned. Too many criminals at the bar, too many variables to deal with. It would have been better if the show ended with him driving up to some country-side home. But you would all regret that ending later on! Tony turns lame.
What a genius ending that was.
In any case, coming back to Cinderella and the Prince, I'm sure the class differences tore them apart, or Cinderella was a workaholic and died after trying to clean the Prince's mansion, or maybe her Mercedes rams into a pillar at a hundred miles an hour. Really? Lived Happily Forever? Unbelievable.
There was a point to this bitter post, but I seem to have forgotten. I'll let you fill in that gap.
Take for example, the recent ending of the Sopranos on HBO. I'm not completely sure what all the opinions are, but I'm certain you don't want Tony Soprano to die at the hands of those quiet customers at the restaurant. No way!
It'd be better if he shot everyone in the restaurant and took his family into the countryside where he quit the mob business and lived happily ever after. Perhaps what was bugging so many people was that the ending didn't set up enough of a "gap" for "a happily ever after" scenario to be envisioned. Too many criminals at the bar, too many variables to deal with. It would have been better if the show ended with him driving up to some country-side home. But you would all regret that ending later on! Tony turns lame.
What a genius ending that was.
In any case, coming back to Cinderella and the Prince, I'm sure the class differences tore them apart, or Cinderella was a workaholic and died after trying to clean the Prince's mansion, or maybe her Mercedes rams into a pillar at a hundred miles an hour. Really? Lived Happily Forever? Unbelievable.
There was a point to this bitter post, but I seem to have forgotten. I'll let you fill in that gap.
06 June 2007
Continuing - Darkess, X-men, and again.. hippies.
Hi.
I hope you enjoyed my last post. Let's discuss the lack of lighting in this armpit-of-a-town austin. Going from Patterson to the apartment, there is a stretch without any streetlights, which can become terrifying.
See the darkness? Yes. No lights. Anyway. What do I think during these times? That there may be a cougar or mountain lion hiding in the dense foliage. Never mind that mountain lions exist in mountains... or not....
In any case, I have to calm myself down. The problem with a mountain lion or a cougar or a chimp is that they have the element of surprise. If you mentally remove that, the fight becomes fair and to be honest, kind of awesome. For example. Say you encountered a chimp. Normally, it would bite you and run away, leaving you howling** in pain.
Now. What if, when you encountered that chimp, you instantly went into some FF7*-ish RPG style battle scene? Then it would be perfectly fair, and I'd probably win against the chimp with a small decrease in HP. Yeah. Awesome. You hit, then I hit, then you hit, then I hit and so on.
It's a shame that real-life is no where near this ideal situation.
Speaking of ideal situations....
Let me talk about... gay people and their rallies. Don't get me wrong, they have a right to rally, but in some cases, I think it goes beyond social message and into an open flaunt. Yes. That was controversial. Let me make some assumptions:
1) You can't change popular belief, no matter how ideal you are (or think you are).
2) Needs of many > Needs of few.
I'm sure you can agree to both of these. I'm actually going to focus on a specific case, and let you extend this to other cases. Remember those St. Patricks day parades? YES. In New York, they were banned, probably for the wrong reasons, or what not, and I'm not getting into what they think is right, or what is most ideal, rather, most practical.
St. Patrick's day seems to be a.. Catholic holiday (and Irish, and Christian, etc, etc). Most of the people that come there probably do not support homosexuality (for whatever reason). So it seems completely valid to ban gays/lesbians from the parade! Since after all, the parade may not reach its full "audienceship" if they were to be included. It doesn't make sense to alienate large groups of people to fulfill desires of smaller ones.
Doesn't it seem like, in protesting, they're making too big of a deal out of this? Resources are limited, so majority needs should be considered before we move on to others. Yeah. It sucks and it's not ideal. Ideally, everyone (that wants to) should be able to march and everyone should be fine with that, but the fact remains that public opinion can't be changed so easily. Also, here's a tip: Loud demonstrations and protests is only going to make it*** worse. I'm not saying back off the cause, but there are other channels.
I can't have my RPG-style human vs. chimp battles, and you (probably) won't get to march for a couple of years (or decades, who knows). Get used to it?
If you can't make everyone happy, make most people happy.
By the way, I'm not homophobic. Think about what I've said before you rail accusations.
OK. Moving on to.. hippies.
I'll keep it short, but I just want to say one thing. Google "hippies in austin" and you find the first link - I'll summarize - "the blue island in a sea of red where liberals come to take refuge within our hemp walls".
Yes. Except, there's a problem. You can't proclaim to be Democratic and not know anything about the issues. A typical conversation would go as follows
Me: So why are you a democrat?
HIC****: Because.. I believe in evolution, man. [Not that.. believing in evolution has anything to do with being a democrat, but that's not my point anyway.]
Me: And.. what makes you believe in evolution over other things?
HIC: Because... there's proof..man..
Me: Like?
HIC: Like science has proven it man..
Me: What proof?
HIC: ..... [bubbling sound from the bong]
There's no point in believing something blindly. Or for the sake of being different, or for creating your own blue island or whatever. Know the facts.
Similarly, hard-core atheists also annoy me. Especially the ones that believe in science. Atheism in itself is "believing in nonexistence of gods". You can't be an atheist and completely believe in science at the same time, because science is proof based.
Proving the absence of something is infinitely difficult and can be done under very special circumstances (i.e. mathematical proofs). Otherwise, you can't prove that it's not there. Simple. Agnosticism is a better answer, more scientific.
I can almost guarantee someone's views are going to be changed by what I just said. I like cookies, and mountain dew, if you're feeling generous.
*: Or Pokemon, if you so desire.
**: Perhaps I should use a more human verb. Like scream.
***: It being... public acceptance of homosexuality.
****:HIC = hippie in cage, the only circumstance I would talk to them, although, from their perspective, they would say that they're actually the free person, and the whole world is in a cage. While I can see how they got there, saying something like that would probably anger me. Not all hippies smoke pot, but I bet they'd still put a 'man' at the end of everything they say.
I hope you enjoyed my last post. Let's discuss the lack of lighting in this armpit-of-a-town austin. Going from Patterson to the apartment, there is a stretch without any streetlights, which can become terrifying.
See the darkness? Yes. No lights. Anyway. What do I think during these times? That there may be a cougar or mountain lion hiding in the dense foliage. Never mind that mountain lions exist in mountains... or not....
In any case, I have to calm myself down. The problem with a mountain lion or a cougar or a chimp is that they have the element of surprise. If you mentally remove that, the fight becomes fair and to be honest, kind of awesome. For example. Say you encountered a chimp. Normally, it would bite you and run away, leaving you howling** in pain.
Now. What if, when you encountered that chimp, you instantly went into some FF7*-ish RPG style battle scene? Then it would be perfectly fair, and I'd probably win against the chimp with a small decrease in HP. Yeah. Awesome. You hit, then I hit, then you hit, then I hit and so on.
It's a shame that real-life is no where near this ideal situation.
Speaking of ideal situations....
Let me talk about... gay people and their rallies. Don't get me wrong, they have a right to rally, but in some cases, I think it goes beyond social message and into an open flaunt. Yes. That was controversial. Let me make some assumptions:
1) You can't change popular belief, no matter how ideal you are (or think you are).
2) Needs of many > Needs of few.
I'm sure you can agree to both of these. I'm actually going to focus on a specific case, and let you extend this to other cases. Remember those St. Patricks day parades? YES. In New York, they were banned, probably for the wrong reasons, or what not, and I'm not getting into what they think is right, or what is most ideal, rather, most practical.
St. Patrick's day seems to be a.. Catholic holiday (and Irish, and Christian, etc, etc). Most of the people that come there probably do not support homosexuality (for whatever reason). So it seems completely valid to ban gays/lesbians from the parade! Since after all, the parade may not reach its full "audienceship" if they were to be included. It doesn't make sense to alienate large groups of people to fulfill desires of smaller ones.
Doesn't it seem like, in protesting, they're making too big of a deal out of this? Resources are limited, so majority needs should be considered before we move on to others. Yeah. It sucks and it's not ideal. Ideally, everyone (that wants to) should be able to march and everyone should be fine with that, but the fact remains that public opinion can't be changed so easily. Also, here's a tip: Loud demonstrations and protests is only going to make it*** worse. I'm not saying back off the cause, but there are other channels.
I can't have my RPG-style human vs. chimp battles, and you (probably) won't get to march for a couple of years (or decades, who knows). Get used to it?
If you can't make everyone happy, make most people happy.
By the way, I'm not homophobic. Think about what I've said before you rail accusations.
OK. Moving on to.. hippies.
I'll keep it short, but I just want to say one thing. Google "hippies in austin" and you find the first link - I'll summarize - "the blue island in a sea of red where liberals come to take refuge within our hemp walls".
Yes. Except, there's a problem. You can't proclaim to be Democratic and not know anything about the issues. A typical conversation would go as follows
Me: So why are you a democrat?
HIC****: Because.. I believe in evolution, man. [Not that.. believing in evolution has anything to do with being a democrat, but that's not my point anyway.]
Me: And.. what makes you believe in evolution over other things?
HIC: Because... there's proof..man..
Me: Like?
HIC: Like science has proven it man..
Me: What proof?
HIC: ..... [bubbling sound from the bong]
There's no point in believing something blindly. Or for the sake of being different, or for creating your own blue island or whatever. Know the facts.
Similarly, hard-core atheists also annoy me. Especially the ones that believe in science. Atheism in itself is "believing in nonexistence of gods". You can't be an atheist and completely believe in science at the same time, because science is proof based.
Proving the absence of something is infinitely difficult and can be done under very special circumstances (i.e. mathematical proofs). Otherwise, you can't prove that it's not there. Simple. Agnosticism is a better answer, more scientific.
I can almost guarantee someone's views are going to be changed by what I just said. I like cookies, and mountain dew, if you're feeling generous.
*: Or Pokemon, if you so desire.
**: Perhaps I should use a more human verb. Like scream.
***: It being... public acceptance of homosexuality.
****:HIC = hippie in cage, the only circumstance I would talk to them, although, from their perspective, they would say that they're actually the free person, and the whole world is in a cage. While I can see how they got there, saying something like that would probably anger me. Not all hippies smoke pot, but I bet they'd still put a 'man' at the end of everything they say.
02 June 2007
よかったですね。
I've finally posted. No worries, the blog postings should become quite regular from now on.
Anyway, of course, through reading all these posts, you're supposed to be able to come up with a fairly good reading of how I operate.*
So. Airplanes. Sometimes I think I should have gone into Aerospace Engineering or something. I was watching this Maroon 5 music video, and I kept thinking to myself, Wtf is wrong with me? Why is this song so interesting?
[Of course, I assure you that Adam Levine's ill-placed pelvic thrusts have nothing to do with it...]**
Then I realized it - they have airplanes in the music video. Kickass! It even starts out with an airplane sequence.
Airports are such incredible places to be. They seem to be on the bleeding edge of man's domination over the skies; it's not just the technology that's most appealing but rather the tacit sense of human optimism embodied by air travel. Every once in a while, shit happens. For example: I found a particularly disgusting picture of an airplane the other day. What kind of an atrocity is this? I'm waiting for Airbus to release the A350 and then I will bask in its awesomeness.
Almost like something out of Star Trek***, at night-time, airports seem even more exhilarating to be around. The runway lights come on and it is truly a sight. Imagine that sea of lights stretching all around the airport. Yea!
\\
Moving on to more pressing issues. I was reading Discover magazine, and an article titled "Science and Islam" where the author tours various Middle Eastern countries. Here's an interesting quote about the "2005"**** tsunami:
Quick stats on the tsunami:
Quick stats on Indonesia:
Yeah. I'll let you decide who's receiving the wrath.
*: I would reveal a lot more than I let out, but it's quite frightening.
**: Is it weird that I noticed?
***: Which, is awesome.
****: or 2004?
Anyway, of course, through reading all these posts, you're supposed to be able to come up with a fairly good reading of how I operate.*
So. Airplanes. Sometimes I think I should have gone into Aerospace Engineering or something. I was watching this Maroon 5 music video, and I kept thinking to myself, Wtf is wrong with me? Why is this song so interesting?
[Of course, I assure you that Adam Levine's ill-placed pelvic thrusts have nothing to do with it...]**
Then I realized it - they have airplanes in the music video. Kickass! It even starts out with an airplane sequence.
Airports are such incredible places to be. They seem to be on the bleeding edge of man's domination over the skies; it's not just the technology that's most appealing but rather the tacit sense of human optimism embodied by air travel. Every once in a while, shit happens. For example: I found a particularly disgusting picture of an airplane the other day. What kind of an atrocity is this? I'm waiting for Airbus to release the A350 and then I will bask in its awesomeness.
Almost like something out of Star Trek***, at night-time, airports seem even more exhilarating to be around. The runway lights come on and it is truly a sight. Imagine that sea of lights stretching all around the airport. Yea!
\\
Moving on to more pressing issues. I was reading Discover magazine, and an article titled "Science and Islam" where the author tours various Middle Eastern countries. Here's an interesting quote about the "2005"**** tsunami:
"God had expressed his wrath over the sins of the West [because] the lands that were hit had tolerated the immoral behavior of tourists".
Quick stats on the tsunami:
| Country where deaths occurred | Deaths | Injured | Missing | Displaced | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confirmed | Estimated1 | ||||
| Indonesia | 130,736 | 167,736 | — | 37,063 | 500,000+ |
| Sri Lanka2 | 35,322 | 35,322 | 21,411 | 516,150 | |
| India | 12,405 | 18,045 | — | 5,640 | 647,599 |
Quick stats on Indonesia:
Religions: Muslim 86.1%, Protestant 5.7%, Roman Catholic 3%, Hindu 1.8%, other or unspecified 3.4% (2000 census)
Yeah. I'll let you decide who's receiving the wrath.
*: I would reveal a lot more than I let out, but it's quite frightening.
**: Is it weird that I noticed?
***: Which, is awesome.
****: or 2004?
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