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| Sunday, April 6th, 2008 | | 10:02 pm |
| | Thursday, March 20th, 2008 | | 10:46 pm |
Just because Madness makes a fun toy[1]
This site is definitely worth a look.
Uh, before I link to it, hang on, I need to check my Manliness Account balance...
Hmmm, yeah, looks like I can handle it.
It's a flash game. Where you provide psychoanalytical therapy to abused stuffed toys.
You may find it here. I highly recommend it.
Did I just express praise for a game involving helping cuddly toys get in touch with their feelings?
Hang on, I need to check my Manliness balance again.
Okay, I've still got some left. Anyway, it's got a sort of "coherently surreal" style that appeals to me, and it's surprisingly complex for a marketing scheme. Yup, that's right, the actual plush toys featured in the game are sold from the site in Germany. The way the game is structured, it appears to be designed so that additional characters can be added to the game later in a modular fashion, so hopefully if they get enough sales they'll design some new characters.
I just basically advocated that people buy cuddly toys in public, didn't I? Well, come on, you must admit, Dolly and Kroko are SO CUTE...
Aw crap. Overdraft.
Excuse me, I need to go drink some cheap beer, punch something, and watch some football.
[1] By definition, a "toy" is something you can take out and play with for a while when you want to, and then put away when it's time to go do something else...obviously involuntary insanity is somewhat less enjoyable. Current Mood:  crazy | | Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 | | 8:44 pm |
I go home now?
Well, the Idaho home, anyway. Deal with the hideous mess of flying and taking a 3-hour shuttle to my hometown from the Salt Lake City airport. Get home late, though hopefully in one piece, and get some sleep. Then I can go rescue the poor Corn-Dog from the vet's. The home inspector for the prospective Clark Asylum here in southeast Texas turned up a few issues, but nothing that should be difficult to deal with. Presuming tomorrow's termite inspection comes up clean, the rest should just be paperwork. Meanwhile - time to trade in, sell, or trash a huge amount of my stuff so as to make it easier to move (and easier to prevent clutter in the New Place, presuming things work out). Also meanwhile, if you haven't gotten your US RDA of Vitamin WTF, and/or were not aware the Japan is strange and/or that Ronald McDonald is a plainly demonic figure: Current Mood:  exhaustipated | | Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 | | 9:00 pm |
Nostalgia Happydance!
Thanks to a certain person, my long-lost copy of "Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure" (aka "Little Big Adventure") has finally been replaced. It also seems to run fine in DOSbox, so now I'm playing it under Linux...
WHEEE! Current Mood:  HAPPYDANCE | | Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 | | 12:06 am |
| | Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 | | 10:29 pm |
"#1 on Google" meme...
Over on The Big Room:
The challenge is to find 5 sets of search terms for which your own blog or site is the #1 hit on a Google search. Note that it is acceptable to quote specific phrases but of course it's more impressive if you don't. Here are 8 that (as I type this) for which The Big Room is the #1 hit (links go to the blog address that is the hit):
Current Mood:  amused | | Friday, October 19th, 2007 | | 7:27 pm |
| | Monday, October 8th, 2007 | | 12:22 pm |
Guess what?...
That's what...Hooray!
Granted, I've got some pretty good competition, most of which probably has had time to develop a much larger fan-base than I currently have, but I'm in the running. If nothing else, maybe I can get some more interested readers out of it, which would be a nice consolation prize at least.
If the vast hordes of people who read this journal full of my personal blather would be willing to vote for me, I'd be most appreciative... Current Mood:  hopeful | | Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 | | 9:58 pm |
| | Monday, September 17th, 2007 | | 9:28 pm |
I think I may be a nerd...
I'm kinda groovin' down to this:
Don't let them fool you, though - the image they show when they say "Shigella" isn't actually a Shigella species. To me it looks like a variety of cyanobacterium, perhaps a species of Oscillatoria?
Yep. Nerd. Current Mood: amused | | Saturday, September 15th, 2007 | | 12:31 am |
I am a Prince of Expired JellO™!
Over on The Big Room, I seem to get a fair number of hits from people searching for information on "Expired JellO™" and related phrases. Probably because of A couple of posts I did.... For a while, I was even the second hit on Google when searching for "Expired JellO", but I seem to have fallen to #3. This will not do!
I've discovered that I have some old boxes of generic-brand gelatin that expired 2½ years ago, which would mean the box was probably packaged almost 5 years ago. I just made up one of the boxes and stuck it in the 'fridge to solidify. Tomorrow, I shall eat it.
And then there will either be a blog post on the Big Room about it, or a copy of the newspaper article describing the my untimely death due to expired-JellO™-poisoning.
Stay tuned! I shall not be satisfied until I am the KING of Expired JellO™!....
UPDATE: - I do'd it. See http://www.bigroom.org/wordpress/?p=63... Current Mood: amused | | Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 | | 7:02 pm |
| | Thursday, August 30th, 2007 | | 10:03 pm |
16 more weeks of undergraduatude
We're back. Didn't want to come back - the Harpers Ferry area is insufferably green and beautiful, but we're not (yet) wealthy enough to just vacation for as long as we want.
This last undergraduate semester's lineup includes instruction in subjects that will be vital to my goal of becoming a wealthy biotechnology industrialist. Namely "Introduction to Philosophy" and "History of Western Art".
Kind of annoying how every Institution Of Higher Learning™ has a different set of "General Education" requirements. Not that the classes won't be interesting, but I'd rather have graduated over the summer. Oh well.
On the upside, it also means I can cram in the optional "Environmental Chemistry" class. Also, I did give in and sign up for "Applied Calculus". It will hopefully be pretty easy (if I'm lucky, the most difficult thing I'll face is remembering how to operate this old HP-48GX graphing calculator - can't afford to buy a new TI or whatever they're using these days), given that I have technically already had most of the material once before and got an "A", but I really get the impression that this will really be an applied calculus class, rather than yet another pointless exercise in formula fondling which seems to characterize math instruction. (As a "learn by doing" kind of person, a genuinely useful applied mathematics course - I don't count the physics classes - ought to be a major benefit. Plus, then I can honestly claim to have had "a year" of calculus if it's required for whatever graduate program I end up in. Wherever that may be.) I consider the posts on the instructor's "ratemyprofessors.com" entry whining about having to actually answer homework questions in prose to be a very good sign - and it amuses me to picture the complainers standing before the CEO, trying to justify their budget projections or whatever...and being baffled when the CEO doesn't think "X=27.53" is a sufficient explanation. If you wanted Philosophical Calculus, you should have taken the other class.
So, two required classes, two bonus classes, and finishing my little thesis project over the next 16 weeks. Then I'll be a Real Boy. Or at least a Graduate. I checked with everybody at least twice so I'm going to be exceedingly irate if any last-second unannounced requirements pop up now.
And by then I'm hoping we'll be looking to move East somewhere, where the air is breathable and isn't actively trying to suck away my Precious Bodily Fluids to dessicate me into a walking chunk of long-pig jerky. And where there are trees (besides dried-up old pines.) And where there is a biotech industry. And a real economy. And more cultural variety.
Meanwhile - bedtime. Current Mood: tired | | Friday, August 17th, 2007 | | 12:37 am |
CHOO CHOO!
And now here we are at the train station, awaiting our train which is currently expected to arrive in 3½ hours (more or less right on time). Getting internet via my cellphone sure is handy - I can run my IM client and everything while I'm connected. (And even bounce my web browsing through the encrypted, compressed SSH session to the home machines. The power! THE POWER!...) Current Mood: Waiting... | | Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 | | 8:01 pm |
I can has graduation plz?...
Yesterday, I stopped by the English department to ask if they'd looked at my petition to count my second-semester English Composition class as a second-semester English Composition class, and though it's not official yet, they did say they sent it on with a recommendation to approve. So, that much is good.
I also stopped by to talk to the "Graduation Check" person to try to make absolutely certain that the last couple of classes I've signed up for next semester will definitely finish all of the general requirements for Graduation, and was told they would. So, that much, also, is good.
Then I went over to the Biology department to meet with my advisor to ask about departmental requirements for my particular degree...and he spotted a bunch of uncertainties, including some general education class issues (i.e. "Hmmm, this class didn't transfer over with a number that matches any on the list of classes that fulfill THIS general requirement"), and some departmental ones ("OOps, there's a Biology 101 but where's Biology 102?...Oops, we require a two semesters of physics with lab, but the combined physics-with-lab class you took before only showed up as a single physics class...Ooops, though the general math requirement for introductory calculus has been OK'd, this specific class is required for this degree...Oops, we require 8 credits of foreign language and you only have 5 on the transcript...")
As one might imagine, this was most distressing...I had visions of trying to add 5 more classes to my schedule for the last semester...
Good News, though. I rechecked with the Graduation Check, and, yes, they DID accept a few of the classes as fulfilling the various requirements, even though they didn't exactly match the course numbers listed in the catalogs here, so the last two classes I've signed up for WILL fulfill all of the general education requirements for me. More Good News: I then spoke to the person in charge of signing off on Graduation in the Biology department and went over my transcripts, and was assured everything looked okay...
(Insert sounds of extreme relief here). So....I can has graduation! Presuming I get at least a C- on the two required classes I have left, of course. I'm aiming for A's, of course. Assuming I don't suffer severe brain damage or a Psychotic Episode from the general stress level right now, this ought to be well within the do-able range. (I can technically get as poor of a grade as possible in Environmental Chemistry, because for me this class is purely and entirely optional. I'd rather do well there, too, obviously, especially considering that it overlaps with my primary area of interest. Wouldn't look good on the Resume to get an "F-" in it. I believe I will do fine, but obviously that remains to be seen...)
In other news, I need to finish doing laundry and getting stuff gathered up and prepared, because after we drop the critters off for boarding tomorrow morning, we're heading out of town. Spend some time hanging around Salt Lake City, eat a nice dinner (I'm agitating for dinner at the spiffy Brazilian restaurant near downtown), and then hang around lounging in folding chairs at the train station until the train shows up at probably around 3-4am... Current Mood: anxious | | Sunday, August 12th, 2007 | | 10:37 pm |
One...Last...Semester......
The math department says EITHER of the two classes I petitioned will fulfill the general education "math" goal, so I don't have to (re-)take the applied calculus class...unless I want to. I actually might, if it looks like I'll have time in my schedule - I met the instructor, and it sounds like the class might be really good for me.
The homework is REAL DATA. Not "here, go home and spend a few hours on pointless formula-fondling exercises", but actual practical application to real situations, from real publications. That could actually be useful. I'm a "learn by doing" kind of person, so having a class based on real-world applications of calculus would be by far the most useful kind of math class for me right now.
The main thing I'm still waiting for is the "Please don't make me take second semester English AGAIN!" petition. If that's turned down I'll be seriously put out, and probably won't have time to spare to cram in the math class. (If someone had told me years ago that I'd find myself in a situation where I'd rather re-take a math class than and English class, I'd have told them they were Nucking Futs...)
The good news is that I get the impression a lot of the petitions that they get end up being things like "I taked English in 9th grade so I shouldn't have to take it now" and "D00d U R givin me D+, I can has C- so I cn pass kthx?", so the set of documentation I submitted to show my previous coursework and my argument that it fulfills the "general education" writing goal as described ought to at least have a better chance than most.
Otherwise, it's Art History, Intro Philosophy, and the optional Environmental Chemistry class. Plus trying to finish my thesis.
Oh, and the question of whether or not I want to do the Funny Clothes And Hat And Insipid Speech Show that is "Commencement" seems to be moot for my situation. They don't do a Fall/Winter commencement. Just one in May and one in August. And, really, I'm starting to really hope I'm not still in the area next May. The urge to relocate East somewhere where there's actual water and real trees gets stronger every day I spend choking on dust and smoke out here...We'll see if I still feel that way after we visit Harpers Ferry (WV) starting this weekend (CHOO! CHOO!). I suspect I will.
I can tell I'm getting sick of desert wasteland when I see the photos online of mountains in West Virginia that have been destroyed by coal mining (basically, they just whack the tops of the mountains off) which are supposed to shock an horrify people, and I find myself thinking "Wow, look at all of the area in that picture that is NOT barren wasteland!" and feeling jealous... Current Mood: hopeful | | Monday, August 6th, 2007 | | 11:09 pm |
| | Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 | | 10:37 pm |
Me walk funny.
I got a knee owie. I can't really put weight on my left leg if my leg is fully extended (though I can fully extend the leg without pain, and I can put full weight on the leg just fine as long as my leg is bent). I'm running around with a knee-wrap around my left leg just to remind me not to extend the leg all the way (and hopefully people will also notice it and not think I'm walking funny because I'm some sort of wierdo. Well, not JUST because I'm some sort of wierdo.)
Instead of having a funny asymmetrical "shuffle-STEP-shuffle-STEP" walk I've taken to keeping both knees bent and walking on the balls of my feet, so both legs are working the same way. It's oddly comfortable, given that my calves are strong enough to put up with it. It's funny, but I feel like I can run better that way - probably because I'm kind of bouncing around rather than the standard "stomp" walk. We ran off to Yellowstone yesterday evening to get in a hike at altitude (~7900 feet elevation) and I was surprised when around halfway through the walk I was starting to get energetically bouncy rather than tired.
If you can put up with the large quantity of Newage mixed in with the article, there was an interesting article I ran into here, which refers to the difference as being "fox walking" (bounce, bounce, bounce...) versus "Cow walking" (stomp, stomp, stomp)...
As much as I like wandering around in the Big Room, I'm no Hippy Earthmuffin type...but now I really want to get a pair of these:
 Current Mood:  bouncy | | Thursday, June 28th, 2007 | | 1:14 pm |
| | Thursday, May 31st, 2007 | | 10:33 pm |
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