I apologize if I've been distant lately; right now I'm in the process of rebooting my life.
Friday will be my last day with IBM.
Over the next few weeks I'll be relocating to the Bay Area to work for Google.
In General
Posted at 11:25 PM | Permanent link | Comments (6)
In General
Posted at 11:29 PM | Permanent link
7:48:46 PM [anonymous-friend]: ok
7:48:48 PM [anonymous-friend]: man question
7:49:22 PM joshstaiger: no manual entry for question
7:49:27 PM joshstaiger: ok, that was bad
In General, Technology and Software
Posted at 11:21 PM | Permanent link
Here's something you can try at home:
These are some photos I took during a trip to NYC with my brother Sam and sister Eliza way back in January.
New York, New York - January 2006 Photoset
(check the photoset - there's lots more)
Great fun.
In General
Posted at 08:16 AM | Permanent link
So there's this engineer on a cruise ship in the Caribbean for the first time. It was wonderful - the time of his life.
A hurricane came up unexpectedly and the ship went down.
The man found himself swept up on the shore of an island. He looked around. Nothing but bananas and coconuts. He was forlorn, but decided to make the best of it. For the next four months he ate bananas, drank coconut juice, and looked to the sea for a ship to come to his rescue.
One day, while he was stroking his beard, staring off into the horizon, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. Could it be true, was it a ship? No... But from around the corner of the island came a rowboat. In it was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. She was tall, thin, tanned, and her blond hair flowed in the sea breeze, giving her an ethereal quality. She spotted him waving and screaming and rowed over.
"Where did you come from? How did you get here?", he asked.
"I rowed from the other side of the island. I landed on this island when my cruise ship sank."
"Amazing! I didn't know anyone else survived. How many of you are there? You must have been really lucky to have a rowboat wash up with you?"
"It's only me", she said, "and the rowboat didn't wash up - nothing did."
"Err, then how did you get the boat?"
"Oh, I made the rowboat out of raw material I found on the island", replied the woman. "I whittled the oars from branches, wove the bottom from palms, and molded the sides and stern from eucalyptus."
"But, what about tools and hardware? How did you do that?"
"No problem, on the south side of the island there's an unusual stratum of alluvial rock. If I fire it to a certain temperature it melts into forgeable ductile iron. I used that for tools, and used the tools to make the hardware. Where do you live?"
"Err... well... I've been sleeping on the beach...."
"Oh... well let's row over to my place", she said. So they got into the rowboat and left for her side of island.
She rowed around to a wharf, tied the rowboat with a beautifully woven hemp rope and they walked up a stone path where there stood an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white.
"It's not much, but it's home. Sit down. Would you like a drink?"
"Ugh, sorry... one more coconut juice and I'll puke."
"Oh, not coconut juice. I have a still - how about a Pina Colada?"
"Well... errr... yeah... of course... that'd be wonderful", said the man, trying to hide his amazement.
They sat on her couch and talked. After a while they had exchanged stories, and the woman asked, "Have you always had a beard?"
"No, I was clean shaven all of my life, even on the cruise."
"Well if you'd like a shave, there's a razor upstairs in the bathroom." So the man, no longer questioning anything, went upstairs to the bathroom. There in the cabinet was a razor made from a bone handle and two shells honed to a hollow ground edge. He shaved, showered and went back downstairs.
"You look great", said the woman, "I think I'll go up and slip into something more comfortable." So she did.
After a time, the woman returned wearing nothing but strategically positioned fig leaves, and smelling faintly of gardenia.
"Tell me," she said, sexily, "we've both been out here a long time with no companionship. Have you been lonely? Is there anything you miss? Something all men and woman need? Something that would be really nice to have right now?"
"Oh, there certainly is...", the man replied.
He moved closer and fixed his gaze upon her.
"Tell me.... Can I check my email from here?"
~~~~
(Adapted from a random internet hero)
Last week while vacationing in Virginia Beach, I found myself in a similarly disconnected state and was reminded of this joke.
Although I have to admit, it's nice to get away from the instant messaging and angle brackets for a bit. But the email backlog is a pain in my ass.
Unfortunately in 2006, even if a nerd could check his email from the sexy fig lady's house, he'd find 90% of his inbox filled with chinese hello kitty sex toy spam.
It seems even the best minds in the industry are struggling with the spam problem nowadays.
Although, frankly, I'm not sure why Gmail has a hard time recognizing I have no interest in emails consisting only of chinese characters, nor announcements I've won 30 million euros, nor emails with only image attachments and no message body (from random people).
But apparently it's hard.
In General
Posted at 10:59 PM | Permanent link
Twenty-five today :) Made it to the quarter century mark.
Thanks for all the well wishes, everyone!
Birthday archive:
(I didn't have a birthday in 2004 because the web server was down)
In General
Posted at 05:17 PM | Permanent link
Do you ever wander through your old blog posts thinking "Wow, I wrote that! Was I really that clever!?"
It's one of the best parts about blogging. You can track your descent into senility one post at a time.
Except it doesn't work unless you actually write, which I haven't been doing. So there's going to be a large gap in my record where I look like a boy wonder at the tender young age of 24 years and ten months, but a raving lunatic at 25 (minus one day).
Anyway, I'm back. I wanted to write something, anything to get the ball rolling again. Luckily the hard part is over now, because if there's one thing I've learned about writing, it's that writing has inertia. Writing spawns more writing which spawns more writing (recurse (recurse ( recurse...))) until there are nights when you can't go to bed because there are so many ideas you want to write down...
But unfortunately the opposite is also true. Not writing makes you want to write less and less ... and less.
So let's just try this and see how it works out shall we?
One short update. During my hiatus I accepted a spiffy new job within IBM. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say about it yet, but for hints, read Bill's blog :)
The new job involves a lot of advanced Ajax programming using Dojo (Dojo rocks), so I've been spending a lot of time thinking in Javascript, which is loads more fun than thinking in Java.
Oh, and coincidentally I've been studying Jazz piano too. Small world, eh?
Posted at 07:05 AM | Permanent link
So this is Silicon Valley...
The weather in San Jose is beautiful. The mountain Backdrop is just as I picture it... as are the miles upon miles of strip malls and car dealerships.
Y Combinator held a reception for select Startup School attendees earlier this evening. This included large metal robots. My voice is hoarse from talking with so many interesting people.
It's 1:30AM PDT. I'm so focking tired. Mmm jet lag.
It's been a long, but good day. I'm going to go pass out now.
In General
Posted at 04:41 AM | Permanent link
Headed out to Wilmington this past weekend with friends to visit Ashish during his family med rotation.
Perfect weather, sand, and waves make a great atmosphere for leaving your cares behind... at least for a little while.
As usual, I got a tan (I tan like nobody's business).
A sample exchange from this weekend:
Lisa: "So I'm bringing my Thunder[something] toy and P-Puss to the beach"
"Wait a minute, what was that second thing?"
"P-Puss"
"What's that?"
"I'll show you when we get to the beach."
"Ok, I don't know what that means, but it sounds dirty."
"You boys have dirty minds."
(me, Lisa, Krupal, and P(laty)Pus)
I don't know why, but we somehow decided it would be a good idea to drink over a gallon of Yoohoo amongst the four of us for lunch on Sunday. If I don't taste another drop of Yoohoo for the rest of my life, I think it'll be too soon...
Other photos:
And more on Flickr...
In General
Posted at 10:59 PM | Permanent link
(Ben Folds, Raleigh, 3/30/2006)
I'm often amused at kickass concerts large and small how most people can stand like a sticks with nary a head-bob or foot tap or ass jiggle to be seen.
Are people too cool to feel the music as it washes over them? Or do white people really not have any rhythm as a general rule?
Hmm... I'm rockin' the suburbs?
In General
Posted at 12:57 AM | Permanent link
On a whim yesterday I decided to head to Greensboro with Eileen to catch round two of the NCAA tourney.
That was a blast!
Well, except for that the bit where I decided to drive 30 miles in the wrong direction (despite Eileen's best efforts to right me)... wouldn't it be nice if life had an undo button? Aye...
But anyway - bought a ticket from a scalper to get in and got to see two games:
All in all, a lovely way to spend a March afternoon in basketball country :)
In General
Posted at 11:23 PM | Permanent link
This morning I happened across Mark Osborne's animated short: More.
You can watch the full six minutes in its entirety here.
Eerily good, I say.
In General
Posted at 04:46 PM | Permanent link
Happy (effing) Valentine's day!
(from pbf)
In General
Posted at 07:22 AM | Permanent link
...
10:00:30 PM joshstaiger: I'm not. Right now I think that lisp and cocoa are a lot sexier than any woman I've ever met.
10:00:46 PM joshstaiger: Well, maybe not, but they sure are a lot less of a pain in the ass.
10:02:54 PM quinnie0930: lol
10:03:20 PM quinnie0930: you're hilarious
...
In General
Posted at 10:27 PM | Permanent link
The links we make.
My latest guilty web pleasures are Rojo and Reddit.
Rojo is a web-based feed aggregator, similar to bloglines, but with a slicker user interface and more tagging functionality. ...although I'm starting to suspect that it is having trouble reading Atom 1.0 feeds, which is a bummer because that's the reason I started looking for "not bloglines" in the first place.
Reddit is one of the Y-Combinator SFP startups. It's a user-driven web content "sifting" system that seems to be quite good at getting the best articles to rise to the top. I've known about Reddit for quite some time, but only recently have I really become addicted to it.
In other news...
The College Theme Paper: He vs. She: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
Rebecca: Asshole.
Gary: Bitch.
Rebecca: Wanker.
Gary: Slut.
Rebecca: Get f****d.
Gary: Eat s**t.
Man Finds Diamond Ring In His Unlocked Car: The note says, "Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present. Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now. Merry Christmas to you."
Love. Fucking. Blows.
Ohio Man Convicted of Murder for Shooting Rampage at Case Western Reserve University: Remember that dickhead who decided to shoot up our school on the last day of finals in 2003? He's getting his.
Bush takes questions from an unscreened audience: Oh, to live in a world where this would not come as a shock...
Come Celebrate the Joy of Programming, with the World's Most Unbureaucratic Computers: An essay written in 1986 by RMS. Very interesting history of the MIT AI Lab, the AI Lab culture, and the Lisp wars of the 1980s. Even cooler when you get down to the last few paragraphs.
I cannot work for LMI, even though they are willing to let my work be partly public. I can make compromises in fighting a war, but when it comes to building something good such compromise is useless, since it would make whatever I build fail to be good...Instead I have chosen an ambitious project that strikes at the root of the way that the commercial, hostile way of life is maintained...I start on Thanksgiving...
Vijay, the world's most desperate venture capitalist: Ah, startup humor.
Google's new anti-phishing FireFox extension may expose a security hole: Apparently this is also true of the PageRank feature of Google Toolbar.
In General
Posted at 01:41 AM | Permanent link
Last weekend I took a trip down to Atlanta to visit the new Georgia Aquarium, which apparently is, like, the largest aquarium in the world (badass).
It was a tiring weekend, but fun.
More photos here.
In General
Posted at 12:20 AM | Permanent link
Ladies and gentlemen, the George W. Ernst blog...
(if you studied Computer Science at Case, you'll find this to be wildly hilarious; otherwise move along, nothing to see here)
In General
Posted at 11:39 PM | Permanent link
Is Google opening up operations in RTP? Maybe, according to Marketing Pilgrim.
(via Sam Ruby)
Posted at 06:28 PM | Permanent link
This is wicked cool.... So is this....
(slightly not safe for work on both)
More here.
Especially if you're into drawing. I can't even describe it. Just go watch them. I only wish that I could read Russian.
(via Tim Bray)
In General
Posted at 10:28 PM | Permanent link
I've decided that the weather in North Carolina isn't nearly miserable enough this time of year. Therefore, I'll be in Cleveland for Thanksgiving. I'll be in town until Saturday. If you're a Cleveland peep, give me a call.
Tonight: Periods of snow. Low near 26. Breezy, with a south wind 16 to 26 mph becoming west. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
In General
Posted at 07:59 PM | Permanent link
Heading to New York tomorrow on business. This will be the first time I've been to the city (yes, I realize how shocking that is). Whee! :)
In General
Posted at 11:37 PM | Permanent link
I wrote this a few hours ago:
I'm sitting in the airport now, waiting to catch my flight to Boston for the Startup School conference.
Right now I think that if my plane were to go down in flames, I'd die happy :)
(note: my plane didn't go down in flames, although it was delayed by an hour due to nasty weather in the Northeast)
In General
Posted at 07:16 PM | Permanent link
To mirror dive into mark:
Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'...
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'
And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Matthew 25
Please help the victims of the recent earthquake in Southern Asia.
In General
Posted at 09:49 PM | Permanent link
I've been unable to stop listening to the Gorillaz ever since I grabbed their newest album, Demon Days.
Check out the music video for Feel Good Inc at AOL Music. Good stuff!
In General
Posted at 02:11 AM | Permanent link
Skipping town today to join my family for a week's worth of R&R in Sarasota, Florida.
Ahh, no TPS reports.
In General
Posted at 08:00 AM | Permanent link
I love this photo:
courtesy Philip Greenspun
In General
Posted at 08:57 PM | Permanent link
If you sent me any mail (snail mail) between August 1st and August 14th it's found it's way to /dev/null. At least I've given up hope of ever seeing it.
Apparently the USPS was just kidding when they confirmed they were holding my mail for those dates, and the supervisor of the Hilburn USPS station in Raleigh was just kidding when she told me that the mail had been forwarded and would be delivered to my new address in seven to ten days.
Shocking, I know, that a US government-run organization can fuck things up. Because that never happens.
In General
Posted at 01:13 AM | Permanent link
I saw the movie Broken Flowers this past week when Renee came to town.
Let's be clear. Normally I'm a big fan of artsy movies, but this movie blows.
The movie features Bill Murray playing a rich, retired computer professional. With quotes like, "I was into computers and girls. And you?", what could go wrong?
I'll tell you what can go wrong. Fully half of the movie consists of the main character sitting with a blank expression, doing nothing. Oh, scratch that, sometimes he's driving in his car with a blank expression, doing nothing. You'd think I'm exaggerating, but sadly no.
Looking around the blogosphere, it seems that a lot of older male computer professionals really enjoyed this movie.
Perhaps this is a corrolary to the principle that Steve Martin SNL skits and Jay Leno become wildly hilarious if you were born prior to 1965. Maybe I'm just too young to appreciate boredom.
What the fuck is this 88%? Rotten Tomatoes, you disappoint me.
In General
Posted at 08:52 PM | Permanent link
"Several years ago, Raleigh North Carolina was hit by a freak hurricane called Fran that came much further inland than anyone expected. I happened to live in Raleigh at the time. Fran shut the city down for about two weeks. Now, watching from the sidelines as 90,000 square miles of the gulf coast recovers from Katrina, what is coming to mind is a check list for things your family needs "after a hurricane" or other big disaster like that."
Check out the full article.
In General
Posted at 08:28 AM | Permanent link
This is my life, too. (Thanks, Russ Beatie!)
Too Much Coffee Man is my most favorite new comic since the PBF.
RSS feed available here!
In General
Posted at 05:50 PM | Permanent link
Now that the dust has settled a bit and I've confirmed that I'm receiving mail at my new address, I should probably announce that I've moved.
I'll be living with Ashish in a brand new house in North Durham, and I use the term "Ashish" loosely because as a second year medical student he's either at the hospital or sleeping 90% of the time.
The commute to work is kind of a bitch, but being five minutes from 9th Street, Duke, and the new American Tobacco district is nice...so long as I can manage to avoid being killed by gang violence.
I've updated the contact page with my new address:
Josh Staiger
707 Weeping Willow Dr.
Durham, NC 27704
This address doesn't yet show up on google maps, but here is a good approximation. I'll post directions soon.
My old 919 phone number is going away, but you can still get ahold of me on my cell: 216-570-8595 (I really should change this to a North Carolina number one of these days, but for the moment have no plans to do so).
Thus far we're still leaching wireless internet access off the neighbors next door (if you happen to be my neighbors please stop by so I can apologize). It's a huge pain, so new entries might be few and far between for a bit.
In General
Posted at 05:33 PM | Permanent link
I respect women. I respect them so much that I completely stay away from them.
On Saturday, weary from unpacking boxes, I headed out to Southpoint to catch a showing of The 40 Year-Old Virgin.
Best decision of the weekend. I laughed until I cried.
With a title like "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" one would come to expect a myriad of raunchy sex jokes, and the movie certainly delivers. But unlike many comedies in this genre there's a surprising intelligence and wittiness to the humor (think Daily Show, rather than Anchorman).
Steve Carell is shaping up to be quite a fine comic actor.
I liked Virgin even better than The Wedding Crashers, which is high praise given that I also enjoyed that movie a great deal. Very much recommended.
In General
Posted at 08:36 AM | Permanent link
I just finished the latest installment of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
In a word: wow! I didn't see that ending coming. I somewhat guessed the character who was going to die, but I didn't think it would happen like that!
If you've read the book, let's talk about it.
I'll be posting further thoughts in the comments to this entry. If you haven't yet read the book, I'd recommend you avoid them.
Technorati tags: Harry Potter
In General, Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 07:50 AM | Permanent link
...
3. Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell's 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as "Fiction" or "Literature."
4. Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as "Current Events", "Politics", "History", "True Crime", or "New Non-Fiction."
...
The Ministry of Reshelving Project
In General
Posted at 10:18 PM | Permanent link
Twenty-four today. Here's to another good year.
In General
Posted at 07:42 PM | Permanent link
The New York Times is reporting that studies show the popular herbal supplement, Echinacea, to have no effect in preventing or treating colds.
"We should assume that echinacea does not work until somebody proves it does," he said. That, he added, "is the flip side of where we've been."
For some time now I've bought into the notion that Echinacea helps stave off the common cold, and have been taking it accordingly. I guess this puts a stop to that.
Although, I often wonder if I wouldn't be better off maintaining my ignorance of such subjects in order to preserve any placebo effect that I might be gaining the benefit of.
Any resident med / epidemiology students care to comment?
Here is the original news release from the Infectious Disease Society of America:
Echinacea Fails to Block Cold Virus Infection
In General
Posted at 11:55 PM | Permanent link
From the latest Perry Bible Fellowship strip:
In General
Posted at 12:02 AM | Permanent link
"Why is a dog asking me questions?
Who's been putting the mescaline in the Microsoft kool aid?
What if google used this approach?
Would google still be number one?"
via Joel!
In General
Posted at 08:30 PM | Permanent link
I arrived in Cleveland last night after getting bumped from my original flight and having to take a detour through Detroit.
Unlike my experience at Christmas, this time around Continental was very apologetic and sent me on my way with $400 worth of free flights.
Anyway, I'm taking some time off and will be spending the 4th of July holiday and the rest of next week in Cleveland. I'll be in town until Saturday, July 10th. If you're still in the area, let's get together: 216-570-8595. I'd love to see ya.
In General
Posted at 05:47 PM | Permanent link
Three foreigners: a businessman, physicist, and mathematician, are talking about the country they're all visiting for the first time.
Suddenly, the businessman points out the window in surprise. "Look at that! The sheep in Scotland are black!"
Amused at how readily his new friend jumps to conclusions, the physicist corrects him: "No, all we can be certain of is that some of the sheep in Scotland are black."
The mathematician looks out the window himself, and corrects the both of them: "We know there exists a sheep in Scotland which is black on at least one side."
In General
Posted at 12:12 AM | Permanent link
"When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like, "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
In General
Posted at 11:34 PM | Permanent link
9:49:28 PM joshstaiger: wtf
9:49:36 PM joshstaiger: since when is sherbert spelled sherbet
9:49:47 PM edawg1701: since always
9:49:56 PM joshstaiger: no r at the end?
9:49:59 PM joshstaiger: wtf is up with that?
9:50:29 PM edawg1701: I think it can have the r in the alternative
9:51:28 PM joshstaiger: yeah according to wikipedia both variants are used
9:51:46 PM joshstaiger: supposedly sherbet is british
9:51:51 PM joshstaiger: sherbert is australian
9:51:57 PM joshstaiger: and either one is used in the US
9:52:43 PM edawg1701: don't forget about sorbet
9:52:59 PM joshstaiger: yeah but sorbet is different
9:53:08 PM edawg1701: no milk
9:53:19 PM joshstaiger: yeah but sherbert doesn't have milk either
9:53:28 PM joshstaiger: but I think the sorbet is icier
9:53:47 PM edawg1701: sherbert can have milk
9:53:51 PM joshstaiger: oh yeah I guess you're right
9:53:57 PM joshstaiger: it can but not necessarily
9:54:03 PM edawg1701: yea
In General
Posted at 08:49 PM | Permanent link
"For any man who has been dumped or divorced by a woman reflecting on Scott Peterson ought to be a humbling experience. Consider that Scott was beloved by both his wife, a beautiful and kind person, and his massage therapist girlfriend. This despite the fact that Scott was an adulterer and murderer, both black marks against a person's character. So the only reasonable conclusion that a rejected man can draw is that he is less attractive, as a package, than Scott Peterson."
From Flying over Scott Peterson's House.
In General
Posted at 07:58 PM | Permanent link
"Remember that. If you start a startup, you'll probably fail. Most startups fail. It's the nature of the business. But it's not necessarily a mistake to try something thas has a 90% chance of failing, if you can afford the risk. Failing at 40, when you have a family to support, could be serious. But if you fail at 22, so what? If you try to start a startup right out of college and it tanks, you'll end up at 23 broke and a lot smarter. Which, if you think about it, is roughly what you hope to get from a graduate program."
From Hiring is Obsolete
In General
Posted at 09:37 PM | Permanent link
Last night, I decided to investigate the origins of Hugbot, and I ended up discovering the Perry Bible Fellowship series of comics by Nicholas Gurewitch.
I'm not sure that it gets any better than this. :)
There's even an RSS feed!
In General
Posted at 06:44 PM | Permanent link
"Starbucks announced today that it will not sell Bruce Springsteen's new album, 'Devils and Dust,' because one of the songs is too graphic. Starbucks said, 'We don't want people listening to a song about getting screwed while they're paying nine dollars for a cup of coffee.'"
In General
Posted at 10:32 PM | Permanent link
What is 24 hour comics day?
This is an everest I need to climb at some point in my life. Maybe next year.
In General
Posted at 06:13 PM | Permanent link
Given that my daily commute takes under ten minutes, I mostly only listen to podcasts while taking walks.
In the winter this can be a problem, not so much because of the temperature, as because of the lack of daylight. Now that it no longer gets dark at 5pm, I've been able to enjoy Umstead Park more often and listen to more podcasts as a side effect.
Here are some of the excellent talks that I had missed out on this winter, each only has a cursory relation to computers and technology, so non-techies should find them interesting as well:
In General
Posted at 08:36 PM | Permanent link
Much as I've been very happy with Dreamhost, since I first started hosting with them, they don't currently support Ruby on Rails, a new technology that I'm itching to play with.
I recently sent an inquiry on to Dreamhost on their future plans for Rails support. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good:
From: support@dreamhost.com
To: josh@joshstaiger.org
Hello,
Currently we dont support Ruby on Rails and we really dont have any roadmap to upgrade our current version of Ruby as we receive very limited requests for it. However on our dedicated server offerings you would be able to run Rails as you would have complete control over the machine and could run system level applications that are unable on shared hosting setups. Let me know you if you have any more questions.
Thanks!
trey
I highly encourage any current or prospective Dreamhost customers to contact them (current customers contact form, prospective customers contact form) and request support for Ruby on Rails. As I've said, Dreamhost has been great, and I'd really like to stay with them, but unfortunately this is a sticking point that might cause me to get friendly with Textdrive.
Feel free to borrow from my form letter below:
From: josh@joshstaiger.org
(sent via form at https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=support.msg)
Hello,
I'm wondering if you are planning to add support for Ruby on Rails (http://www.rubyonrails.org/) any time soon?
This is a framework that I would really like to be able to use on my dreamhost site.
I have noticed that TextDrive (http://textdrive.com/) is offering this functionality (along with PostgreSQL support as well). As much as I have been thorougly satisfied with Dreamhost, this is a feature that would probably convince me to switch hosting services.
Thanks!
UPDATE 6/17/2005: Dreamhost has just added Ruby on Rails support! See my latest entry, Dreamhost now on Rails!
In General, Technology and Software
Posted at 11:06 PM | Permanent link
(lifted from Dark Horse Comics)
I saw the movie Sin City last night. The movie is fantastic in the tradition of Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.
Realistically, what more can one ask?
Like Kill Bill, it's one of those movies that is so violent that (for me) it skips the cringing reflex and goes straight to laughter (the sense: "Did that just happen!?").
Very dark, and very cool.
I'm interested to check out Frank Miller's comics, on which the movie was based (in point of fact, copied scene for scene I've heard).
In General
Posted at 11:34 PM | Permanent link
...
The very next day, he guessed she ran away
The one and only in his bed so lonely
But she comes walking in, with coffee and a grin
Crazy as it seems, it wasn't just a dream
And all around the world, people shout it out
The geek's got the girl
Last night he finally got it right
Even losers can get lucky sometimes
All the freaks go on a winning streak
Shout it all around the world cause the geeks get the girls
...
American Hi-Fi - The Geeks Get the Girls
Thanks to Jeff for telling me about this, although I'm sure that anyone who has ever stepped foot on Case's campus will have heard it by the end of the day tomorrow.
In General
Posted at 01:11 AM | Permanent link
My roommate, Adam Gunther, is now blogging (again, after much prodding and poking by yours truly)
Sweet Jesus, not 48 hours later he's already doing an in-depth analysis of the Philadelphia Eagles lineup.
Look out blogosphere!
Furthermore, some of ya'll had better start writing before I cast you from my blogroll.
In General
Posted at 10:27 PM | Permanent link
On our way home from Snowshoe Sunday night, rather than take the normal route down 77 back to Raleigh, we decided to mix it up a bit and take highway 220 on the theory that it might be a bit more direct and therefore quicker.
Unfortunately, we ran into a snow storm midway through Virginia that followed us all the way to Greensboro, so our findings are inconclusive.
On the upside, however, highway 220 took us through Roanoke, Virginia right around dinner time, and we happened upon a wonderful Indian restaurant called Swagat Indian Cuisine (map) in downtown Roanoke. Their Roti was incredible! The Samosa, rice, and Tandoori Chicken were also excellent. The service was fantastic, and the portions quite large.
All in all, one of the best Indian meals I've had in quite some time. Highly recommended if you happen to be looking for Indian food in the Roanoke area.
Note: Swagat's website also has their menu available as html, saving Firefox the pain of having to grind over the Acrobat plugin. This is also very commendable.
In General
Posted at 12:36 AM | Permanent link
I wanted to give props to Dave Slusher for his audio essay, "Why I Don't Believe in God".
Here is a direct mp3 link.
I agree with nearly all of the points that Dave makes, and have come to many of the same conclusions independently.
Obviously it's nice to know that there are like-minded people out there. But even moreso than that...damn, this is some powerful shit. I think it really highlights some of the emotions that audio can convey over plain text in certain contexts.
Be forewarned that the essay can be kind of a downer, but it is well worth listening to.
This is great work, Dave. Kudos.
In General
Posted at 12:00 AM | Permanent link
This past monday at lunch, Jon asked me, rather spur the moment, if I was into skiing.
And so it goes that tomorrow after work, I will be heading up to Snowshoe Mountain in WVA with Jon, his girlfriend, and Dan for a weekend of skiing. We will be renting a cabin on the mountain. It should be pretty cool.
This will only be my second time skiing ever (the last being nearly four years ago now), so I'm planning on coloring myself plenty black and blue before the trip is over. Luckily, the story is the same for Dan, so at least I won't be the only one.
Wish me luck! Will try to get some pictures.
UPDATE:
By the way, I really like this quote that I found in Craig's profile:
"People talk about 'finding themselves'. Usually this is in the process of breaking up with someone or backpacking through europe/california or just plain leaving your old life behind. Does this make sense?. You do not exist in a vacuum. Your personality is how you react to those around you. The more varied enviroments you can expose yourself to the more you can learn about yourself. I suppose people who take such drastic measures sense this, but don't know it explicitly. That isn't to say that it is always the best thing to do... nothing is ever that simple..."
-- Craig Snoeyink
Craig, did you write this yourself? If so I'll definitely give you credit here.
UPDATE 2: Craig did write the quote.
In General
Posted at 11:59 PM | Permanent link
The weather here in Raleigh is beautiful!
We had a high of 75 today, and will be seeing much of the same over the next week. It certainly beats the wintery mix of the north.
If only the sun didn't set at 5 pm, so we us worker bees could get out and enjoy it.
In General
Posted at 12:47 AM | Permanent link
Some geeky resolutions for the new year this time:
In General
Posted at 11:40 PM | Permanent link
Some news organizations are claiming that the tsunami death toll has reached 68,000, others are saying that it has already risen past the 70,000 mark.
This is death on an unfathomable scale.
Please, if you can, donate to the Red Cross International Response Fund.
tsunamihelp.blogspot.com has other helpful information regarding the tragedy, including links on where to donate if you are located outside the United States and links to bboards for helping to locate missing persons.
In General
Posted at 10:06 AM | Permanent link
Ana enlightened me with some big news earlier this evening.
21:34:32 srbijanka123: hey josh, u there?
21:34:37 joshstaiger: yeah
21:34:38 joshstaiger: what's up?
21:34:41 srbijanka123: i have a funny story
21:34:50 joshstaiger: really?
21:34:59 srbijanka123: so today i met up w/ meredith and stacey for coffee [friends from high school]
21:35:05 joshstaiger: yah
21:35:19 srbijanka123: and meredith's like oh yeah so i heard joshwalt is married and in california
21:35:20 srbijanka123: LOL
21:35:25 joshstaiger: hahaah
21:35:29 joshstaiger: riiiight
21:35:46 srbijanka123: she's like oh yeah i heard from _TH_ when she ran into him at some bar and he was really drunk
21:35:53 joshstaiger: hahahaha
21:35:54 srbijanka123: and im like uhh well as far as i know hes single and in nc
21:36:04 srbijanka123: and shes like oh woops i told a bunch of ppl
21:36:04 srbijanka123: !
21:36:15 joshstaiger: well, that's probably going to make for some awkward situations
21:36:27 joshstaiger: hahaha
21:36:29 joshstaiger: oh well
In General
Posted at 09:54 PM | Permanent link
Feeding the Scum-Sucking Yuppie Materialist in me, and other unhealthy desires. 'Tis the season:
Interesting to compare to my list last year.
In General
Posted at 09:55 PM | Permanent link
From Dave Winer, circa 1996:
Lots of people experience the blues this time of year. Major stuff comes up. Here's a recipe for curing the blues, or at least giving them a chance to recede.
When you're in a good mood, grab a piece of paper and write down a list of things that make you happy. Activities, people, movies, memories, sensations, songs, whatever turns you on. Put people who listen to you even if you're in a bad mood at the top of the list.
Put the list in a safe place. Now, when you get the blues, go get the list, read it, and do one of the things, even if you're *sure* it will make you even more miserable.
In General
Posted at 11:08 PM | Permanent link
The drive up to Ohio from Carolina wasn't terribly bad. I was able to leave directly from work at around 3pm and head North. I hit quite a lot of holiday traffic on my way out of North Carolina on into western Virginia, along with some hard rain, but after that cleared up things were pretty smooth all the way through West Virginia to Akron.
Given that this time of year the sun sets at 4:30 in the evening, the majority of my drive was done in the dark (I sometimes wonder if Ecuador wouldn't be the happiest place on Earth if US foreign policy hadn't been working diligently to thwart sane South American governments at every turn, hmmm). This, and the realization, once again, that considering the money that I spent on fuel, tolls, and food, a plane ticket would have only been an additional $100, means that I will likely be booking a flight for Christmas as soon as I get back home, and provides an additional reminder that someday I might like to learn how to fly a plane.
Still, Harry Potter and the Podcasts, shortened the drive considerably. I'm terribly lucky that I remembered to throw the Vector DC/AC converter that my parents had gotten me last Christmas in my car (still sealed in the original packaging no less), or the last four hours of my trip would have been awfully quiet after my iPod battery ran out.
I arrived in Ohio at around 1:30AM. Luckily, my sister had her boyfriend over and I was able to sneak in an unlocked front door and find the empty bed where I formerly slept.
In General
Posted at 07:16 PM | Permanent link
Tomorrow after work I'm making the trip to Ohio, by car this time - a nice nine hour drive.
My family doesn't know that I'm coming yet, but if they're reading this blog then I think I may have larger problems than simply spoiling the surprise :)
Depending on what time "after work" ends up being, this may become a problem. As I'm not terribly enamored with the thought of being dead tired for Thanksgiving day, I may decide to haul up in a hotel around half-way if it gets too late and then set out again early in the morning. However, I'm also bringing my sleeping bag so that I can camp outside my house if I arrive at 3 AM and everyone happens to be locked inside asleep.
My iPod is packed with Podcasts from Dawn and Drew to Dave Slusher to IT Conversations to The Super Smart Radio Whore Sex Show (and of course Adam Curry). I've also got all 23 discs of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix stuffed in there as well. I'm rather looking forward to it...the first few hours anyway.
I've also carrying the inspiration of Travels with Samantha in the back of my mind (though on a much smaller scale, of course).
Hope to see some friends this weekend as well. I'll be in town until Tuesday.
In General
Posted at 11:55 PM | Permanent link
Eric S. Raymond has written a mildly interesting article on the tendencies central to Christianity and Islam.
If only religious fundamentalist states, such as the United States, would take heed of the destruction their close-minded culture is breeding, then perhaps the world would be better off.
It's ok, though. Perhaps the Internet will eventually bring freedom, to such rogue nations.
In General
Posted at 11:48 PM | Permanent link
Here are some of the photos that I like from the clambake this weekend.
A big thank you to the What is a Second Cousin article from Ayershire Roots for helping me finally make sense of this first, second, removed nonsense.
Gwendolyn (first cousin once-removed)
Left-to-right, Gwendolyn, Isabelle, and Joseph (all first cousins once-removed)
My sister Elizabeth
In General
Posted at 11:00 PM | Permanent link
Dave Slusher of Evil Genius Chronicles Podcasting fame looks almost the complete polar opposite of how I pictured him.
Maybe some day I'll be able to meet the man and wrap my mind around this because right now I just can't.
It's funny how one's visual imagination reacts differently to voice than it does to plain old text.
In General
Posted at 09:58 AM | Permanent link
I'm taking a couple days off work and will be in Cleveland from Friday to Monday this weekend. I have a family function to attend on Saturday night. For those of you that are still being held captive there, give me a holla if you want to grab a bite to eat or something.
In General
Posted at 07:32 PM | Permanent link
Paul Graham is commenting on the election and is making some very good (if somewhat obvious) points.
This only reinforces my point that Steve Jobs would make the ideal presidential candidate.
Ok, but enough about trivial things like the President of the United States and onto more important things like RSS and Lisp and sandwiches.
In General
Posted at 07:22 PM | Permanent link
It's worth re-posting here:
(from the LiberalTimes post here)
In General
Posted at 06:50 PM | Permanent link
Well, let's just hope that Bush has learned from his mistakes over that past four years...
Oh wait. I forgot. He hasn't made any. Silly me.
Trying to keep my mind off of politics and... Americans.
That's all I want to say about it... for quite some time.
In General
Posted at 11:38 PM | Permanent link
Matt has pictures from the party last night.
In General
Posted at 10:39 PM | Permanent link
19:56:47 joshstaiger: I have a presentation to give tomorrow and I haven't had any time during the week to work on it
19:56:49 joshstaiger: so I have to do it tonight
19:57:30 edawg1701: what is your presentation on
19:58:01 edawg1701: "Just how golden is Josh Staiger?" -- presentation title
19:58:55 edawg1701: "At the tender age of 4, Josh was touched by King Midas. Since then computers have bent to his will."
19:59:08 joshstaiger: hahahaha
19:59:16 edawg1701: thats how you should start
19:59:21 joshstaiger: where do you come up with this stuff? :)
20:00:09 edawg1701: its like I get all the random shit of being on drugs without having to take the drugs
Thanks, Evan :)
In General
Posted at 08:04 PM | Permanent link
"Senator John Forbes Kerry of Massachusetts today was elected the 44th President of the United States by a decisive 28-14 margin. Although the race remained within the margin of error right up until its final moments, Senator Kerry managed to overcome 4 turnovers to prevail behind Brett Favre's 288 yards passing.
"In a post-election speech, Kerry promised to immediately withdraw U.S. forces from all overseas posts, disband the effete Marine Corps, and devote the Justice Department to investigations of Republican wrongdoing. Kerry spoke from his Presidential ranch near Paris."
(from a comment at tacitus.org)
Cosmos, don't fail us now.
In General
Posted at 07:55 PM | Permanent link
I was commenting on how having my laptop on the deck was much less stressful, and how I hadn't noticed that the leaves were so pretty. Amy Chan suggested that I take a picture.
In General
Posted at 01:21 PM | Permanent link
I've finally gotten around to giving Skype a try. I haven't had a good opportunity yet to actually "use" it so it's difficult to form an opinion. For anyone else who uses Skype, my username is joshstaiger. Give me a buzz sometime.
In General
Posted at 01:01 AM | Permanent link
It's 54° out right now with a high tomorrow of 72. There is just barely that fall smell in the air in the mornings. I love this weather.
It's been kind of an eerie feeling living in a different climate and experiencing the seasons change for the first time. Up until now, October really hasn't felt like October at all. The leaves have barely begun to change here and I still haven't bothered to put on a jacket.
Meanwhile, when they call, my parents are talking about sitting in front of the fire, and the autumn leaves being at their peak. In some ways I miss that - in others I don't.
In General
Posted at 02:08 AM | Permanent link
For whatever reason this past week, it dawned on me to check Everything2. Everything2 was perhaps my single most favorite website at one time. I still visit every once in a while, but not nearly as religiously as I once did.
This was my everything2 profile, and these were the things that I had written (with this one straggler on my original account).
I used to be such an idealist just a few short years ago didn't I?
On the subject of badass websites, one of my newest favorites is deviantArt. Here is my profile there.
In General
Posted at 01:18 AM | Permanent link
A lot of people have been asking me how I've been lately. I'm okay. Nothing terribly new of note.
Rafting was a lot of fun last weekend. Our raft hit a rock and flipped over. That was pretty cool.
Otherwise, been working a lot? But that's normal, right?
In General
Posted at 01:07 AM | Permanent link
Heading to Wva to go white water rafting this weekend.
Camping out Saturday night.
A *lot* of IBMers are going.
Should be a lot of fun!
In General
Posted at 11:40 PM | Permanent link
I really liked this movie.
I think what people are finally starting to realize is that the action, while important is not in and of itself what makes a good superhero movie. The best superhero movies are the ones that give us a peak at superheros with real human emotions and demonstrate how one might really deal with "superhuman" qualities. This isn't new to comics in general, but it's a fairly new trend in Hollywood (beginning with Spiderman).
One of my most favorite scenes in this movie is the one where Hellboy is bounding around on rooftops, keeping an eye on Myers while he is walking with Liz, his "girl."
"She took his picture?! Damn! She took his picture... She took his picture... "
He then runs into a nine-year-old boy on one of the rooftops where they talk about women and eat cookies.
"Yeah, the old yawning trick... Watch his arm."
There was, of course, a lot of other typical comic book fair (y'know, saving the world from evil and all that jazz), but a cool movie overall.
In General
Posted at 10:34 PM | Permanent link
The video that Anders made for Vasu's service is available here:
/vasu/for_vasu_08-31-04.mpg
This is beautiful, Anders. Thank you so much for putting it together.
I miss you Vasu.
In General
Posted at 05:17 PM | Permanent link
Ugh, this past week was pretty hectic. A lot of things piling up at once, between working late (till 9:30 on Wednesday!!), buying the car, trying to get my laptop cleaned up and packed to shipped to my sister, and other things too...
No real plans for the holiday weekend. I'm just really glad that I have the extra day off to catch up on things and kick back for a change.
Hoping to clean the apt, catch up on some reading, catch up on some blogging, and add at least one major new feature to my website this weekend (I have a few in mind)
Whoever wrote Xanga's RSS generator was apparently retarded, and NetNewsWire (rightfully) chokes on Xanga feeds. Something must be done about this...
For those of ya'll who don't know what RSS is, I'm also planning on addressing this discrepancy soon as well.
Oh, by the way, I've added some more blogs to my blogroll ---->
It's nice to see so many people starting blogs nowadays.
Currently listening to:
I'm Money from the album Playmate Of The Year by Zebrahead
In General
Posted at 04:50 PM | Permanent link
Atlanta was fun this weekend. It was nice seeing Didi again. Emory seems like a very nice area.
Nothing particularly notable happened. It was just nice to be around "old friends" once again.
Didi has this really cool Indian friend named Dash who hung out with us all weekend. Got the tour of Emory and Decatur. Went to Olympic Park in Atlanta (eh, nothing special, but I just had to do something quintessentially Atlantan). Ate good Thai Food for lunch on Saturday. Hung out. Drank coffee. Hung out. Ate Cold Stone Creamery. Saw the Manchurian Candidate (good movie).
We had Ethiopian food for dinner on Saturday, which was a first, even though I had been meaning to try it all throughout college. It was different, but good. It's one of those cuisines that you eat with your hands... or rather you use these little sheets of thin bread (which I thought looked like rolled up napkins on a plate) to handle the food. It was good. Somewhat reminiscent of Indian food. The restaurant, itself, was a lot more trendy than I would expect from an Ethiopian restaurant which begs the question of how authentic it actually was.
Prior to leaving on Sunday, Didi cooked a fantastic lunch (the best meal of the trip) whilst advising on how to cook Chinese food. So now I have more skills to go along with the Cantonese-style cooking Amy Chan taught me. Yay :)
Unfortunately I think that Atlanta is just a little bit too far to drive for an average weekend, but it was nice nonetheless. Very glad a went.
come visit the Triangle sometime, Didi.
In General
Posted at 12:03 AM | Permanent link
Heading down to Hotlanta this weekend with Ashish to visit Didi.
Oh dear, I really shouldn't do this. I have so many other things to take care of....but it'll be a blast ;)
In General
Posted at 01:20 AM | Permanent link
Oye Vey! More hilarity ensued this weekend than has ensued in quite a long time. It was a blast, though :) In fact, this entire week was.
On Thursday, out of the blue, Christine (Lee) got in touch with me. That was kind of cool. I hadn't talked to her in quite some time. Went over to her apt and chilled for a bit. Not only that, but Mike Mirman, another one of our friends from last summer, came into town to stay with Adam and I that night very night. We all went out to Uno's afterwards. Did some trivia. It was a lot of fun. And that was just the beginning :)
Out to Chapel Hill Friday night. I had never been there when school was in session (or close to being in session, as it were). Chilled at the Carolina Coffee House for a while. They had a pretty cool blues-ish band. The out to this place called "He's not here". They had a really nice outside area. (very nice "scenery" too :)
After getting back, had a really kickass conversation with Mike until nearly dawn about...life, and Europe, and ... and such.
Mike, Adam, and I put up a ceiling fan on Saturday. Home improvement is the shizzle.
Ate at the Mellow Mushroom Saturday night for the first time - very good pizza. Will have to go back often. Got poured on as we were leaving. Then it was out to a House Party and then Ri-Ra later on. I DD'd. So much crazyness. So much fun, though :) The band at Ri-Ra was really good.
Let's see, what else is new? I bought a Macintosh PowerBook to match my iPod. It's coming in the mail now. (going to give my current laptop to Elizabeth) I can't wait. I haven't owned a Mac since going to college in 2000. It's been too long. Too damn long and something needed to be done.
My car could burst into flames any moment now. It's been leaking gasoline for the past few days. Not a good thing. I'm taking it into the shop on Monday...but I think this is a sign that old blue is on his last legs.
I test drove a bunch of cars on Saturday. Psh - car salesmen...think they can put the moves on me, do they? "What do I have to do to put you in this car today?" Little do they know who they're dealing with...
I think I really like the Nissan Altima. We shall see.
Yes!! The USA Basketball team lost - again! Good. I hope they don't even get a medal.
In General
Posted at 07:41 PM | Permanent link
Hmm, the iHop incident happened over a month ago. It's inexcusable that I should go this long without blogging, but things happen.
So, what's happened? I don't know. I worked a lot. I think I only fell in love with one girl - which is an improvement.
Oh yeah, so I went to Cleveland this one weekend. I think it was for a wedding. We went to Edgewater. Oh damn! I think those pictures are still in my camera!
Ok, let's try again. Somewhere around mid June I think that I finally crossed over to the good side of the learning curve as far as work goes, and ever since that time it has been full speed ahead...
I worked a lot, especially during mid-to-late July, and towards the end of it I think I was quite ready to shoot myself - but I didn't. So, y'know, that's good.
Ashish is back, and for keeps now. I'm glad to hear that he's doing so well at Duke.
On July 29th, I turned 23. Adam and SteveO took me out. Carolina Ale House, Hibernian, Ri-Rah, etc. It was a good time. Thanks to everyone for the cards and the well wishes! I've been meaning to call y'all but I just have so little time nowadays.
I bought an iPod!!!
Luckily, right around the time work was really starting to get to me, I took a much needed vacation. Around the first week of August caught a flight down to Sarasota Florida and spent a week there with my family. That's when I had my moment of clarity.
and... life has been pretty good since then. Work has been good.
Matt Cross came into town last Thursday. That was a nice "surprise".
I've been jogging every morning. It's fantastic. But as you can see, I still don't sleep enough. That's ok, though.
Books I've read: Ender's Shadow, Hackers and Painters, The Da Vinci Code.
Movies I've seen: iRobot, The Bourne Supremacy, Collateral.
Got the second season of Curb Your Enthusiasm!!
~~~~
That was quite possibly the most incoherent entry I've made yet. I appologize.
In General
Posted at 12:00 AM | Permanent link
It was great having Ashish here this week. See you in another month or so Ashish (that is if med school allows you any semblance of a life :)
Softball - hit a homerun on Thursday. We suck though. Still lost.
Friday - Durham Bulls. Weather was muggy as all hell, but a great game. Got to see a grand slam.
Saturday - slept a lot. Had dinner with Jeff @ Cosmic Cantina. Went and saw Supersize me - awesome movie. Highly recommended.
Sunday - went for a long walk. Read a lot. Pelted Seth in the shin with a softball. Watched Adaptation.
Dave let me borrow the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David is my newest hero (One of these days I need to make a list).
In General
Posted at 10:35 PM | Permanent link
Today I think I realized that I enjoy work a lot more when things get chaotic.
In General
Posted at 11:17 PM | Permanent link
Long day today - 11 hours, complete with militant anti-globalist firework terrorists.
Heading for Washington D.C. tomorrow after work to visit Mary Ann!
In General
Posted at 11:14 PM | Permanent link
What Finding Nemo Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
In General
Posted at 10:43 PM | Permanent link
Went and saw the new Harry Potter movie on Friday night. It definitely has a different feel than the first two movies, but I really liked it a lot. At first after the movie finished, I felt a slight annoyance that they left out some of the more interesting explainations from the book, but then after thinking about it for a few seconds and considering that the books are getting longer and longer, I think they hit the important points and made a good movie of it.
Saturday was fun as well.
Went to my first company picnic. Played in the first annual (and possibly only :) co-op vs. full-timer football game. We certainly gave those youngins what-for! Lead the team in touchdowns :)
Went to another Durham Bulls game, which ended up being a really good game. Was the first time I saw a winner.
Out to Chapel Hill to eat after the game, then back to our apt to...um...play Monopoly. Adam dominated and the rest of us were really stupid, but as a bonus I got to see a game of Monopoly actually finish for the first time ever.
Sunday...
Learned Ben Folds' "Brick" on the piano. If only I could sing :P
Hung out in Barnes and Noble and ended up having a really hilarious conversation with this Japanese woman who apparently really, really needed advice about where to put a book case in her living room. She sketched out the layout to her house on paper in detail and was asking me where I thought it should go. Her English was so broken that I only understood about half of what she said, but she was so friendly that I really wanted to help. We went on like this for about half an hour. Then somehow towards the end of it, she brought up Karate and she wanted to call me about something having to do with Karate and I'm not sure what. I gave her my number. I have no idea how I'm going to understand her if she calls.
My life would make a good sitcom...
In General
Posted at 11:02 PM | Permanent link
Was greeted with this sad news upon coming home from work this evening.
Vasu Gutti, you were a good man. Thanks for all the fun times, the laughter, the hospitality, the concern - and, yes, even the craziness :) You showed us all how cool classical Indian dance can be. That's pretty badass, if you ask me.
But most importantly, you cared. You were that listening ear on the other side of the conversation. You always seemed to understand and were never critical. Thanks for being such a good friend.
We will miss you to be sure.
I'm heading for Latrobe tomorrow. That's where I'll be.
In General
Posted at 11:29 PM | Permanent link
"Baby, do you need some Orientation? 'Cause I can coordinate like nobody's business."
--Karthik Raman former Orientation Coordinator
In General
Posted at 12:11 AM | Permanent link
Heading to the Cleve tomorrow after work (getting in at 7:30pm). Staying until Tuesday morning.
Give me a buzz if you want to do something.
In General
Posted at 11:25 PM | Permanent link
Last night I went to a party in Durham. Afterward, I experienced a number of important firsts:
Yes! I can now cross these off my life-long list of things I need to accomplish.
In General
Posted at 09:15 PM | Permanent link
So, I just got finished nearly burning down my apartment again all for the sake of two spoonfulls of food. Fresh artichokes are totally not the coolest food ever. Of course those two spoonfuls were bliss, but I think I'll take my chances with the jarred kind next time.
These past two weeks have been...what? I don't know what they've been. It seems like a lot of stuff has happened, but not a lot that I really want to write about.
Work is going really well. Some excellent opportunities have come along. I don' t think I've hit my first home run yet, but I've probably picked up a few doubles.
Reading people's away messages about the end of school is an eerie feeling.
Outside of work, I've been feeling a little on the angsty side lately.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Awesome movie. If I could have this procedure done, I would.
In General
Posted at 09:42 PM | Permanent link
I've found that I can finally listen to Weezer again without gagging.
Thank you to the Stephanie I met in Paris.
In General
Posted at 10:59 PM | Permanent link
Ahh, this weekend really felt like a taste of summer. For one thing, the thermometer crossed 80 for the first time - and believe me it's damn hot right now.
On Friday night, I went to a Durham Bulls game (AAA baseball) with the guys. Adam, Steveo, Dave, and I bought a 9-game season ticket package at the beginning of the season. This was the first Bulls game I had been to, and it was a lot of fun. Our seats are great...and it's hard to beat baseball on a beautiful night. Fireworks after the game, too...
On Saturday, I played beach volleyball, which was a blast then went and saw Kill Bill Vol 2.
Oh yeah, and Ashish will be attending Duke for medical school! Excellent news! One more foot soldier in my scheme to drive out the accent and turn North Carolina into a Northern state. Things are going as planned. (Seriously though, congrats, Ashish!)
Kill Bill Vol 2: Quite different than the first one. It lacked the action and the gore, and a lot of the Kung Fu, but was still wicked cool nonetheless. David Carradine did a great job playing Bill, whose character turned out a lot different than I expected - but I liked it a lot. In fact, there were a lot of surprising things about this movie - a lot of themes that one wouldn't expect to see in a Tarantino movie (in stark contrast with the first movie, which was completely over the top), but it still had that undeniably cool style and spin to it. Quentin Tarantino is the man, and I think that Uma was even hotter this go around (if in fact that is at all possible).
Gastronomy: Tonight I made a sandwich of saut'ed bell pepper and onions. It was yummy.
In General
Posted at 10:58 PM | Permanent link
Friday night I went to a wine party at Robin and Kelley's place (guys bring red, girls bring white). I guess that now that I'm out in the real world, I can do sophisticated things like that. But it was a good time. Probably a little bit too good ;)
Spent Saturday chillin' (I got Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs in the mail from my parents).
To top it all off, Adam, Tara, and I made a *fantastic* Easter dinner tonight - a roast with gravy, mashed potatoes, and broccoli - and chocolate mousse for dessert.
Y'know, the real world is quite nice at times.
In General
Posted at 10:25 PM | Permanent link
Yep, it's one of those nights again.
In General
Posted at 12:12 AM | Permanent link
Upon picking up the Sunday paper this morning, I was quite surprised to read that there is talk of a possible Kerry-McCain Democratic ticket for president. It's nothing more than talk, of course, and there is probably precisely a snowball's chance in hell that it will happen, but if it did, how cool would that be?
I was a big supporter of McCain against Bush during the 2000 Republican primary, and in casting my vote for Gore in 2000, one of the minor things that crossed my mind (y'know, other than Bush being a completely out-of-touch, incompetant bible-thumper) was the possibility that if a Democrat won in 2000 then maybe the Republicans would pull their heads out of their asses by 2004 (oxymoron, I know), and actually run McCain for real, yielding a *good* president instead of the lesser of two Bushes and Gores. Or course, that didn't happen.
Anyway, I think a Kerry-McCain ticket would likely be very competitive, appealing to a very broad audience. McCain could provide a good balance to some of Kerry's more liberal leaning-tendencies.
I also think that a cross-party ticket could be just the thing needed to really shake things up in Washington right now. God knows, it needs it.
Again, it's never going to happen - and it would likely be near political suicide for McCain if he went for it and the Kerry campaign lost - but still interesting to think about.
C'mon, John. You know you want to.
In General
Posted at 08:05 PM | Permanent link
Today, out of nowhere, some of my co-workers grabbed me at lunchtime, and we headed out to the Cosmic Cantina in Durham.
For those who haven't lived in the Triangle, the Cosmic Cantina is North Carolina's version of Chipotle - same kind of burritos, but much more personality ;)
It was one of our favorites when I was a co-op, and it was good to be back.
In General
Posted at 09:29 PM | Permanent link
On Sunday night, I made scallops sautéed in a lemon-butter sauce. I think I used a little bit too much butter, but they still put my tummy in its happy place.
Tonight I made spinach cooked in garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.
Let me tell you, this is just the beginning. The weather is beautiful; I have a deck with no grill on it and I don't like it. This will be remedied, and when it is...oh buddy, look out.
I haven't been sleeping much lately...
Current music: That Old Feeling by Louis Armstrong
In General
Posted at 11:56 PM | Permanent link
Things are going well.
Work is awesome. Things are looking even better as I make the transition into real work, rather than just administrative setup shit. I've got a lot of code to read.
Went to a BBQ after work yesterday at a buddy's place - beautiful weather, good food, and good company. That, naturally, lead to our crashing another party (and drinking wine no less), and finishing up at Stool Pigeon's (a bar in downtown Raleigh).
I think that I had almost forgotten just how much fun I had down here last summer.
Went for a long walk earlier today.
I also finally decided that the moving clutter in my room was totally ruining my qi. I took care of that. Of course, the closet remains a problem, though :(
In other news, I've bought a filing cabinet, folders, a three-hole punch, binders, and a copy of Quicken. Soon the great reorganization will commence.
In General
Posted at 06:24 PM | Permanent link
Tonight I made asparagus in a balsamic vinegar-Dijon sauce (and the sauce was good for dipping bread afterwards).
Last night I made sautéed shitake mushrooms over a spinach salad.
This is awesome; I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner.
In General
Posted at 07:35 PM | Permanent link
I hardly think the weather in Carolina could get more beautiful. Sixty-five and sunny again! It's nice to be out of Cleveland for a change :)
Went to a sports bar last night to watch basketball. My bracket is looking pretty good so far. The real question will be whether those risks with Maryland and St. Jo's pay off. We shall see.
In General
Posted at 04:26 PM | Permanent link
The first week of work is behind me. Overall it was a pretty typical first week - a lot of administrative stuff, and a lot of getting "set up".
Overall, it was good to see a lot of the familiar faces, and it's good to be back.
Otherwise nothing really of note to report, other than the weather in North Carolina is absolutely beautiful!
Hmm, it looks like I still need to get those Europe pictures put up. We'll just see about that.
In General
Posted at 04:48 PM | Permanent link
So, it's Friday. The last Friday I will fully have to myself. Come monday I start work and my azz belongs to IBM.
Right now for some reason I feel very contimplative, but of what, I don't know.
I'm anxious for work to start. I think that my mind has been too stagnant of late. I'm starting to feel like I really need to throw myself at something.
It's amazing how restless I've become. I don't remember being this restless four years ago. Is it school that does this to us? I don't know.
Maybe I'll write more later...
In General
Posted at 08:18 PM | Permanent link
While talking to a friend of mine earlier today, I realized something.
I think that I have almost completely become the guy that I really needed to hear advice from a year ago...
I suppose that is something that we should all aspire to.
In General
Posted at 08:59 PM | Permanent link
So, I've hardly been in North Carolina for 72 hours and I've already been to a Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor. How cool is that!? :)
In General
Posted at 07:02 PM | Permanent link
I will be leaving for Carolina on Wednesday.
If you have anything terribly important to say to me in person, you'd better do it quick...otherwise you might just be forced to come visit me later on :)
In General
Posted at 12:41 PM | Permanent link
Yeah, so I'm back. I got into Cleveland on wednesday.
The trip was absolutely amazing.
I have like nine rolls of film to develop and I will be posting photos and more details when I get the time. Right now I have a lot of stuff to get caught up on...
In General
Posted at 05:09 AM | Permanent link
Tomorrow morning, I'll be getting on a plane for Chicago, then after a sucky long layover (I may just have to check out the Art Institute of Chicago and some kick-ass deep-dish pizza), I'll be getting on a plane for London.
I'll see you guys in a month, hopefully with plenty of stories and photos :)
Try to keep things under control while I'm gone, eh?
In General
Posted at 11:00 PM | Permanent link
Yesterday I finished reading The Red Queen by Matt Ridley and I have to say that this is one of the most insightful books that I've read in a long time. As the book's subtitle states, it candidly discusses sex and the evolution of human nature.
I've been looking for a book that addresses this topic for a long time, and although others (most notably Carl Sagan's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) have done so somewhat indirectly by pointing out man's relation to other species of animals, this is the first book to focus squarely on how sexual reproduction and natural selection have shaped the physical and instinctual drives common to all human beings.
Under natural selection, species are shaped by their ability to reproduce and leave descendents. Organisms that are better able to reproduce will survive, while those that are worse will die out. Human beings are obviously a product of natural selection, so it naturally follows that any and all adaptations that we have accumulated over the past few million years have the ultimate goal of making us better at making babies. This line of reasoning has been obvious to me for quite some time, and yet Ridley is the first to tackle it in a popular medium, with this book.
Ridley examines what he defines to be Human Nature in this context, and his findings, though not all conclusive, are incredibly fascinating. He tackles topics ranging from why sex evolved at all, to why we have two genders, to why guys are attracted to pretty faces and large breasts while girls are more attracted to BMWs and Rolexes, to human beings' drive toward polygamy, monogamy, adultery, and our resulting social structures, and even to why we have evolved high intelligence (including art, and music) at all.
The book also clearly corroborates Ladder Theory as well :). I highly recommend you pick it up.
In General
Posted at 03:28 PM | Permanent link
Before heading to Pittsburgh for New Years, I made a quick stop at the local library to pick up an audio CD of the third Harry Potter, The Prisoner of Azkaban, so I could listen to it on the road.
I finished the book yesterday, and all I have to say is that J.K. Rowling kicks some serious ass.
This book is by far my favorite of the three in the series that I've read so far. The other two were good, but with this one I think that Rowling really starts to show her talent as a writer. Her foreshadowing is excellent, introducing seemingly trivial things early on as the story progresses that slowly build up and later end up playing key roles to the plot. She takes one situation, introduces it one way, and then by the end of the book she manages to paint it in a completely different light. And she does so very convincingly, without any plot holes!
The overarching story sees a lot of development here, tying a lot of things together. By the end of the book, she ties up all the important loose ends while still managing to leave some tempting crumbs to lead into the next story.
Overall, I was very impressed. Highly recommended if you haven't gotten around to reading this already.
In General
Posted at 10:48 AM | Permanent link
I put in my passport application this morning at the post office. I had to expedite it (for an extra $60) to make sure that it gets here on time. Hopefully it should be here within two weeks now so I can get my airlline tickets for Britain.
Also tried and failed to get ahold of the movers today. Should be able to get ahold of them after Christmas, though.
Anyway, now that some of these loose ends are getting tied up, I should be able to turn my attention to some of the projects I have before I take off :)
In General
Posted at 03:10 PM | Permanent link
Right now I just really can't believe that school is completely over. The realization has kind of hit me over the past few days since I got home. And it's like...wow.
Complete lifestyle change, y'know?
It's really wierd thinking that I'm on break now, but I won't have to go back...ever. And that I can't get student prices on things anymore...
Hmmm. I don't know...
In General
Posted at 12:24 AM | Permanent link
The last one is finally in the bag:
| SUBJ | CRSE | COURSE TITLE | FGR |
| EECS | 341 | DATABASE SYSTEMS | A |
| EECS | 375 | AUTONOMOUS ROBOTICS | A |
| EECS | 491 | INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS | A |
| EECS | 396N | SPECIAL TOPICS | A |
In General
Posted at 11:42 PM | Permanent link
This is Gogo:
Come see her 12:30 PM this Saturday 12/13 at the Great Lakes Science Center (admission is free). Get in touch with me for more details :)
In General
Posted at 12:38 PM | Permanent link
Christmast list:
Please don't buy me any gifts :)
In General
Posted at 12:07 PM | Permanent link
I finished my last day of class....ever (as far as Case goes anyway).
A Tekin test, what a fitting way to end my time here.
I can still remember Walking into Math 2 on that first day freshman year.
*sigh*
If only I were done now. Now it's on to finish off the final few large projects.
In General
Posted at 08:25 PM | Permanent link
Didi: Oh yeah, and we can put little bows on it...
(pause)
Craig: Actually, I was thinking more like barbed wire, because, y'know, I'm masculine like that.
In General
Posted at 12:28 AM | Permanent link
I love it when you're tired, and you are just sitting at your computer not doing anything in particular, and you're thinking "Hmmm, I'm tired, I should probably go to bed." But you don't, and instead you just keep staring at your computer, and maybe you go and make a really stupid entry in your blog...
In General
Posted at 01:08 AM | Permanent link
Man, I love the girl smell. I really miss it.
In General
Posted at 04:10 AM | Permanent link
This past weekend was quite the creative weekend for me.
On Saturday morning, I made it out to the Cleveland Museum of Art with my Dad. Right now they are showing a collection of Jasper Johns' "number" pieces. I really liked these a lot. After looking at some of his other works, I think that I would like to read a bit more about Johns.
I also decided that I really like Roy Lichtenstein as well.
On Saturday afternoon, CIA was having an open house for prospective students. Given that my sister is thinking about going there, she participated, and I decided to tag along for the fun of it. I've walked through CIA studio space a few times now (many times when I wasn't supposed to be there), and each time I have really enjoyed doing so. There is just something really cool about being in the middle of so much creativity, seeing all the projects in progress. There's just something very raw and beautiful about it all, much more so in my opinion than just walking through a gallery.
It makes me wonder how other professions could benefit from that kind of an atmosphere. What would computer science be like if we set aside a significant portion of time just to think of ideas for projects and run with them?
At any rate, given that this was more of an "official" tour, I also got to see the computer art department, where they work on interactive applications and a lot of three-dimensional modeling. One student even showed us one of his past homework assignments: animating a guy moving a really heavy box. Wickedly cool! If only I could have homework like that. Makes me wonder what would have happened if I would have gone that route...
On Sunday, I went to Playhouse Square for the first time to see Hamlet with Amy Chan and friends. The play was totally badass! I enjoyed it a great deal. I remember reading Hamlet in eighth grade and barely understanding a word of it. Needless to say, things have changed. That Bill Shakespeare certainly knew what he was doing (who knew?) :) When I was down in North Carolina, I remembered hearing about a Shakespearian play company that put on performances around Chapel Hill. I may just have to check that out when I get back down there.
In General
Posted at 04:05 PM | Permanent link
So I saw The Matrix Revolutions this past week. Overally, I was pretty disappointed with it. By itself, I actually don't think it was a bad movie, but as a Matrix movie, I thought it was very poor. Unfortunately it didn't bother with explaining much of any of the questions that were raised in Reloaded (which was the whole reason that I was anticipating this movie so much). Also, although there were some really amazing battle scenes, for a a Matrix movie I am much more interested in kick-ass Kung Fu inside the Matrix, than I am in a futuristic war movie.
On the bright side, as a war movie, I thought there were some very creative ideas on how the machines attacked (like a swarm of bees), and I overall liked the hive/insect mentality of the machines strategy. The special effects for these parts were amazing, but I would have liked to have seen all this in a different movie, and something more focused for the final Matrix movie in the trilogy.
Ah well. There's always The Return of the King, and Kill Bill Vol 2....
In General
Posted at 04:45 PM | Permanent link
"Some day years from now, after you make your first million and you're driving around in your little beamer convertible, all of a sudden, you're going to think to yourself 'Huh.'
"And you're going to remember, 'Back when I was 22, one night I was in Coventry, and there was this one drunk asshole...', and that's all I'll be at that point is the drunk asshole, but that's ok; 'there was this one drunk asshole who said that money wasn't that great'..."
--The drunk asshole at the bar Friday night.
In General
Posted at 09:26 AM | Permanent link
So, I went backpacking over fall break this past weekend with the guys. It was a lot of fun. Saturday night was very clear and cold and I went outside the shelter at around 3am to gaze up at the stars alone. Amazing. It is very seldom that one sees stars so bright...like you could fall off the edge of the world...
Good weekend. A lot of thinking about important topics away from it all.
In General
Posted at 12:07 AM | Permanent link
Stephen Hawking is badass. His books just moved up quite a few slots on the list of things I am meaning to read but haven't gotten around to yet.
So I went and saw his lecture yeserday at Severance. It was amazing. First of all it turns out that my littl $7 student ticket was much better than I thought it was. I was sat in the second row, literally right behind president Hundert! It seemed like quite a few times, Hawking was looking right at me! Secondly, the lecture was fantastic. I've always heard that Hawking does a great job of putting very complex concepts into words that are easy to understand and this lecture easily showed me that. Along with talking about incredibly cool concepts like the brane, Hawking's style, presentation and Humor has thorougly convinced me that he is an awesome guy. I'm in awe.
Here's to you Stephen.
In General
Posted at 09:50 PM | Permanent link
So last night I went and saw Kill Bill.
That is, without a doubt, the single most badass movie I have ever seen in my life.
...and I am now in love with Uma.
Kurt put it best when he said Tarantino is a master of style. I can't wait for the second volume.
In General
Posted at 08:11 AM | Permanent link
I want to leave this place...and I'm really going to miss it.
I love Jimmy Buffet.
I hate T.O.
MS SQLServer is not bad.
I love playing football. I love watching baseball.
Got Stephen Hawking tickets this morning. Was 8th in line at Severance at 8:30 AM.
Oh God, I'm going to be tired as hell tomorrow.
In General
Posted at 01:57 AM | Permanent link
Went to the midnight showing of Lost in Translation last night at the Cedar Lee theater.
I really liked this movie a lot. At first it simply struck me as a nice little movie, but the more I think about it the more I like it. I think that it really tackles "it" and the reality of it all in a way that I have seen few other movies do.
It didn't hurt, of course, that the actress in the movie, Scarlett Johansson, is extremely cute in that girl next door kind of way :)
Kill Bill comes out Friday.
In General
Posted at 05:59 PM | Permanent link
Sooo... what?
So it's been a while since I've made an entry.
A little more than a month into the semester now and I'm already on my way out.
The big things:
So many little things.
So many things making me want to stay, so many things making me want to go.
And so this is how it ends. Mmmm College. Ready to go.
Things to think about:
Does the mind have an endurance?
When you jog for six miles you feel really tired and don't feel like doing anything, but if you keep up a routine of jogging then you can eventually jog for longer and longer periods without getting as tired.
So when I spend all day studying and I come home feeling really brain dead, if I keep doing that will I eventually be able to study for longer and longer periods of time?
In General
Posted at 03:56 PM | Permanent link
It's Tuesday night and I don't feel like sleeping.
This past weekend was a riot for reasons that will be left as an exercise to the reader.
After I got finished telling half of IBM that I would kick their ass (at the same time nonetheless), the rest of the weekend was fairly tame.
I did quite a fair amount of reading. Finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I enjoyed it a great deal, probably even moreso than the first book. Given that these books flow quite nicelly, I think that they will make for good down time during the next semester. I'm looking forward to the third book in that regard. For now, though I think that I want something a little bit more challenging to sink my teeth into. I'm planning on rounding out the summer with Gulliver's Travels because, as I said before, I have been meaning to read that forever, then probably onto somethine more philosophical in nature.
In other areas of note, Sunday, I made a trip out to the North Carolina Museum of Art. It's not nearly as big, nor as prestigious as the Cleveland Museum of Art, but they still have a nice collection nonetheless. Could I get used to living in this area? Absolutely. I wish that I would have been able to make it out to the North Carolina Symphony sometime this summer, but I guess that's just something that I'll have to save for when I come back :)
Starting to feel like I'm really going to miss this place and all of the people down here. Last night was my last night of Wing Chun. It was cool talking to Sifu after the fact and looking back on the day that I first rolled into that place.
"To me learning Wing Chun is like dating a girl. You don't know what you get
until you are knee deep in the relationship."
--Sifu James Widmar
I know what I've got. Slightly tougher cookie dough now, huh? I'll be back. See you in six months, Sifu.
At the same time, though, I am looking back to getting back the the scene at the Cleve, and catching up with the crew there.
In General
Posted at 01:21 AM | Permanent link
Last Sunday afternoon, I decided to pay a visit to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham. That place is awesome - plenty of nice places to walk or to sit and read and ponder about Darwin's theory of evolution. It's also free.
Lately I've been finding quite a few gems like that in the Triangle. You just have to know where to look.
While I was in the area, I decided to scope out Duke's campus, as that was something that I wanted to do before I left town. The verdict: The chapel and the area immediately around the chapel are fucking *amazing*. The architecture there is absolutely beautiful. However, other than that I wasn't all that impressed with the campus as a whole. Outside of the chapel area, it seemed more like a series of isolated buildings with parking lots than an actual campus. I think that it would be a good place to go for grad school, but probably not for undergrad.
After my tour of the three major universities in the Triangle, I still think that I like UNC's the best overall.
In other news, I finished reading Solaris. I really liked it a lot. Initially, at parts I thought that it dragged a bit with long fictional scientific explainations of made-up formations in the Ocean, however after finishing the enire book, I see why those parts were necessary to the theme of Science contrasted with love and the human emotion. I especially liked the last chapter a lot. I think that it framed the whole book very well. Highly recommended.
I have started reading the second Harry Potter book: The Chamber of Secrets, and it has really pulled me in so far.
Ahh... less than two weeks remain of my stay down here.
In General
Posted at 10:57 PM | Permanent link
Just got back from another night of drinking at Flying Saucer. I really love that place.
In other news, rather than starting Gulliver's Travels, I decided to go with a Sci-Fi change of pace and have begun reading Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (translated from French). This is another book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for quite a while. The premise sounds really interesting and the first couple of chapters have really drawn me in thus far. Off to a good start...
In General
Posted at 11:47 PM | Permanent link
Finished the first Harry Potter this evening. I enjoyed it a great deal and was surprised to find that (from what I remember), the movie followed the book quite faithfully. I guess it's kind of too bad that that spoiled some of the surprisese for me, but no matter.
I can't wait to start the second book, as I wasa little bit confused as to what was going on in The Chamber of Secrets movie. I liked the second movie better, and I suspect that the book is better as well, as now all of the introductions are out of the way.
I don't think that I will jump into reading that just yet, however, even though it is sitting on my shelf (borrowed from home).
Trying to decide what to pick up next. I think it will be Gulliver's Travels. That is a book that has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and I have been wanting to read it for a long while.
In General
Posted at 10:36 PM | Permanent link
In other news...
Exactly one month from now will be my last day at IBM for the summer.
Things just fly by.
In General
Posted at 10:56 PM | Permanent link
Ack, was today ever a Monday. Meant to get up and head into work early this morning...ended up rolling over in bed just a little too long. That set the tone for the day. Seems like neither I nor anyone else could get into the flow.
We didn't get the build we needed to get some serious work done today.
I mistook an incredibly stupid mistake on my part for an install being hung, and of course this was pointed out to me when I called someone over for help ("yeah, don't do that next time").
I forgot to put in my GPA when submitting my updated resume to IBM's database (will have to resubmit it tomorrow, but it's a pain).
I ended up staying too late at work to go to Wing Chun tonight, and I was really planning on going today because I don't know how much I will get to go later this week.
Ah well.
There'll be days like this.
In General
Posted at 09:34 PM | Permanent link
Today turned out to be a really nice day.
I took a trip over to Chapel Hill this morning and, as planned, spent much of the afternoon reading in a coffee shop on Franklin Sreet. That was very relaxing and a very nice contrast to the husstle and bussle of the rest of my week. In that time, I finished up the book, Everyday Zen, by Charlotte Joko Beck. Overall, I liked it very much. Especially the last chapter. She does a very good job of explaining (as well as they can be directly explained anyway) many of the pracitcal apsects of Zen, breaking things down neatly into easily digestible pieces. I find that it is nearly impossible to define Zen directly, but through her explainations, the reader is able to get an overall idea of what Zen is about. This serves as a nice complement to Steven Hagen's Buddhism Plain and Simple, but I still think that the latter servers as a better overall introduction to Buddhism. Everyday Zen is more squarely focused on the direct effects of daily practice.
In addition to finishing up that book, I also started the first of the Harry Potter books: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I have been meaning to read these books for a long time, and I think that they will make for good summer reading right now. Everyone who has ever recommended these books to me has said that they make for good quick reading, and they are certainly right. I practically finished the first third of the book in one sitting and em enjoying it very much so far.
After leaving the coffee shop, I took a stroll around UNC's campus, just for the hell of it. It is, indeed, a very nice campus overall. It's just a shame that they have to have such horrible school colors. Baby blue? I mean honestly! Ack, what an ugly stadium.
I would like to check out Duke and NC state before I leave the triangle, though I've heard that UNC has the nicest campus anyway.
In General
Posted at 10:05 PM | Permanent link
Had a pretty busy day yesterday. My Mom, Sam, Elizabeth, and her friend Natalie came to stay with me Friday evening on their way down to Florida. Friday night we ate at an Itallian restaurant named Pata Bella and the food was amazing! They make their own pasta there (and even sell it in a store called Extrusions next door). Jeff originally recommended that place to me and I'm definitely going to have to return there a few times before I leave the triangle.
Saturday morning, I saw everyone off with breakfast and a short tour around RTP. Then later that afternoon I went to a BBQ at Danny's place. Fun as usual, though I wish I could have stayed longer.
I had to cut out kind of early from the BBQ because I was going with the Case IBM peeps to see The Matrix Reloaded at the Imax theater in Raleigh. That was also a very good time! The sound in the Imax thater is just incredible. On top of that I also liked the movie much better the second time around. This time I actually kind of understood what the hell was going on.
After the movie, we took off and went to a Denny's. It was fun to just sit around, relax, and chat with the Case gang for a while. It was a good night.
So, I guess it's another lazy Sunday for today. I'm hoping to be able to park myself at a coffee shop and do some reading unless something else comes up.
In General
Posted at 10:51 AM | Permanent link
Ok, so it looks like I'm a little behind in my weblogging.
Since last weekend I've been up to my neck in busyness. I would like to write about a lot of things that have happened to me recently in detail, but I think that a quick glossing over is going to have to do for now.
First thing's first. The Outer Banks was awesome last weekend. The beach was great. The food was really great, and the company was even better. Of course the mosquitos at the campsite and the uncomfortable sleeping conditions were less than great, but hey, it was well worth it. Below is a picture of most of the group who went at Jockey's ridge:
Fresh off the trip, I came back to a four day week of work last week, which was also incredibly busy. Our product is getting close to shipping and it is definitley showing.
I went to Wing Chun twice last week, during which I completed book one (the first block out of eight). Essentially that means that I will now be shifting from the basic self-defense aspect of the study (which is not really Wing Chun and is just designed to get you up to speed fast in the event that you actually are attacked) to the actual Wing Chun teachings. That also means that I have completed my final circle with the choke holds and I also think it was my best. After having done only one day of the second block, it is very obvious that the Wing Chun techniques are more complex, more exact, and much harder to become proficient at. I'm looking forward to taking it on, though. I've been told by other students that the first block is kind of like your "birthing period", afterwhich the art becomes much more interesting.
Another very pleasant surprise at work towards the end of this week. Will elaborate on that later, depending on how things play out.
This past weekend was, of course, July 4th weekend and I decided to make a trip home to Ohio. My goodness did that drive ever suck. After looking at the airline fares (after the fact), it would have been well worth the money to fly home, but I guess this trip was a little bit too spur-the-moment for that. It was still nice to be home for a little while. Visited with the family and extended family, and, of course, Rupa and Kitty up in Cleveland. Definitely worth the trip.
Today it was back to work, again, busy as usual...
In General
Posted at 08:36 PM | Permanent link
Heading out to the outer banks this weekend. Will be leaving straight from work today and returning on Sunday. If you miss me, that's where I'll be :)
Will post about it when I get back.
In General
Posted at 07:39 AM | Permanent link
Went to the new hires BBQ earlier today. That was fun. Got in a good amount of volleyball.
Afterwards, retired to Danny's house to hang out for a bit. Watched the Lennox Lewis Fight. That actually turned out to be one of the best boxing matches I have ever seen live, in spite of the fact that the fight had to be stopped prematurely due to seriously nasty cuts on the challenger's face.
Afterwards, went out drinking tonight at Flying Saucer with Danny, Jake, Anne, and Carrie. That was a very good time as well!
In General
Posted at 02:54 AM | Permanent link
Went to Wing Chun class this morning, and what a rush it was today.
I think that my arms are finally starting to get built up and I'm finally starting to get the hand of doing the punch sets at the beginning of class.
Reviewed the full form of Sil Lum Dao today. I still need some work on that, but it's nice to finally know the whole thing. I can tell that I'm getting better, too.
However, the meat of class today was doing my second circle - this time with the head-lock holds added. A circle is where you stand in the middle of a circle of five guys, and each one takes turns choking you or putting you in a headlock, or generally just applying some technique to you, to which you must break out of using the techniques you have been taught. That was quite an experience and much, much more difficult than the first circle with just the choke holds. Water never tasted so good afterwards.
In General
Posted at 02:32 PM | Permanent link
Went with some IBMers to see Hulk last night. Perhaps the most interesting part of the evening was the venue where we were seeing it at: The Starlite Drive-in. This was only the second time I have even been to a drive-in in my life (the first being when i was like seven), but this one was particularly good. Not only do they show movies, not only can you buy popcorn and candy at the concession stand, but you can also buy guns (as in real-live hand guns) and ammunition (as in real live bullets) right along with your push-up pops. I love North Carolina.
The movie itself was pretty good. It was very well directed, in my opinion, using split screen shots and fade-aways to give a very "comic-book" like feel. Ang Lee is the man. To be quite honest, I hardly even noticed the choppy animation of the Hulk at all durning the movie...I would have thought that would be something that would really bother me after seeing the preview.
Overall, it was a very good night.
In General
Posted at 02:26 PM | Permanent link
I went to the movies with Quynh last night.
We saw Hollywood Homicide (the cop movie with Harrison Ford in a more comedic role). I rather liked it. Harrison Ford is still really good in most any role he plays, and I thought his comedy worked well here. He is starting to look old though, which isn't a problem as long as he keeps playing older and older guys (as he did in this movie), but I wonder about the next Indiana Jones...
Quynh and I had a rather interesting, but brief conversation about religion in the car following the movie (stemming from the fact that she would be "visiting" a church with a friend today). Turns out that her feelings on the subject are much the same as mine. It's good to see that not everybody in this world is crazy...
It was an enjoyable evening at any rate.
In General
Posted at 09:35 PM | Permanent link
Y'know? Life is really good :)
In General
Posted at 10:03 PM | Permanent link
Went out drinking and clubbing tonight.
Good night =)
Goodnight :)
The Group
(posted on zspotlight.com)
In General
Posted at 01:06 AM | Permanent link
Ok, I wanted to go back and talk about Saturday a little bit before I forget.
I got up just in time to make it down to the Wing Chun School for class. To be quite honest, I was really only half-sure that I was actually going to go. I had gone the night before for endurance training and was expecting my arms to be really tired-out in the morning. Luckily they weren't too bad, so I went.
I was really glad that I did, too. We learned our first actual self-defense techniques and, man, are they brutal. It practically gave me goose bumps watching Sifu demonstrating them on another student, even without actually making real contact.
But anyway, that wasn't the reason that I said the school is fucking awesome in my last entry (well, that was only part of it anyway). The interesting part of the day was the BBQ that was held at the school later that afternoon, and getting to actually meet a lot of the people who attend the school.
It was a nice break from the homogeneity of the crowd I'm used to hanging out with in any kind of social context (y'know, college students who are all very similar and age and situation to me). In contrast, I think that I was the only actual student, student there. I think that it's quite possible that I was the youngest person there (well, except for the kids of other students in the class), though there were still very few over 35. There were people who had finished college and were working with very young kids to attend to...and also people who had no plans of ever going to college... I had a lot of interesting conversations. It was very interesting hearing about everybody's different perspectives and struggles in life...and they're all great people in their own way...
One of the most striking things from my point of view was the number of people who had graduated college with good degrees and had had high-tech jobs in the area in the past, but have since had to move onto other things (working with their hands and such) after being laid off. There was the network engineer who lost his job at MCI following the scandal, who joined the Army reserves (as a combat photographer) for some extra cash, but who was now called up on active duty at Fort Bragg. Perhaps the most interesting conversation I had all night was with a guy who works for IBM Global Services. He has a 12 month old son and is pretty sure that he is going to get laid off in the near future and is therefore planning on moving to Florida so his wife can be close to her family.
Hearing these people's thoughts on their life and their plans and their advice... It was all very eye-opening in a way. Sitting where I am in life, it's easy to forget the reality of what's out there a lot of times. These things can strike you at what seems like the most unforeseen times.
But what else is funny, is that when I step back for a second, a lot of what I'm seeing lines up with a lot of my own independent conclusions and thoughts on life. I don't know if I should think that's scary or what...
Hmm law school...
Anyway, after the BBQ, I made my way over to Christine's house (which is like two blocks from the school). That was philosophical in a different way ;)
In General
Posted at 09:50 PM | Permanent link
What I have concluded today: The Wing Chun school is fucking awesome.
Other than that, the things are somewhat lame.
Will elaborate later (maybe).
Goodnight.
"We are a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need."
--Tyler
In General
Posted at 03:20 AM | Permanent link
Pretty good day at work today. Nothing much of note happened, just another productive day of testing. I'm feeling much less shy about writing defects now, and it is very satisfactory to be able to collaborate with developers on a bug that you found.
I ended up staying a little bit long again today (as per usual), and so I didn't bother going to Kung Fu tonight, as I didn't want to be late. I think that I could use a little bit of a more relaxing evening, so that's kind of good anyway.
Just ate dinner. I'm planning on doing a little bit of reading and hopefully getting to bed on time tonight. I would like to be able to get into work early tomorrow if I can.
Friday tomorrow - seems like the week just flew by.
In General
Posted at 08:57 PM | Permanent link
