Packbat's Journal
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Below are the 50 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Robin Zimmermann" journal:[<< Previous 50 entries]
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09:47 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/48671133/6424329) [Link] |
Goodbye, kind world!
I apologize for the perfunctory and belated nature of this notice, but ...
... I have a problem. My life habits are ill-suited to being a regular Internet denizen - like an alcoholic, I invariably binge, rather than partake, and I find myself interrupting or putting off things I need to do, like working, sleeping, eating, to refresh, archive-trawl, and read and comment.
Given this, I'm dropping all of it - webcomics, weblogs, Wikis, and fora - for the foreseeable future, and I will probably never be active in the way I was. There is a chance that I may revive a few of the less busy feeds, the more idiosyncratic and compelling feeds, to read in small bits at irregular intervals - I was thinking Plan B, possibly Thirteen Ribbons - but this blog and the other will probably fall fallow, and my Twitter, definitely.
Be well.
(P.S. My final bookmarks file.)
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\
Current Mood:  tired
Tags: bookmarks, journalling, meta, psa
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11:59 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/94193530/6424329) [Link] |
National Novel Writing Month
This is the future-posted National Novel-Writing Month post.
My goal of this month is to write a story about a young man who gets superpowers he is entirely unprepared for. He is not a hero, nor is he a villain. As for what he will become – I do not know. He has fallen into a sea he has never seen and where he swims will be up to him and the tides.
I am titling it "Momentum", as the concept is deeply relevant to the premise. I am titling the chapters after basic physics concepts because I'm that much of a geek. I have no idea if I'll make 50,000, but if you'd like to follow along, just ask.
Current Location: downtown\Mayorga
Current Mood:  calm
Current Music: "Radar Love" - Golden Earring
Tags: journalling, meta, nanowrimo09
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11:04 am
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/64710590/6424329) [Link] |
Personal Info Meme
From a couple people:
You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.
Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.
first name: Robin. I, like my siblings, have a gender-neutral name, and like (at least one of) my siblings, that means occasionally getting mail with the 'wrong' honorific. (As you can see by my scare quotes, I 'care' about this. For the record, the correct honorific is "Mr".)
age: 770 Ms - or about 24 years 5 months, if you like the merely standard units of measure.
location: Near DC on the Maryland side - convenient to the bus lines and Metrorail, which explains why I don't have a driver's license. (Which explains why I have disposable income - can you say "car insurance"?)
occupation: Graduate research assistant at the University of Maryland, College Park, doing research in two-phase cooling for power electronic systems. From the back forward: "power electronic systems" are, for example, the thing that turns your AC into DC or vice-versa; "cooling" is taking the waste heat off the device (it's not 100% efficient) so that it may be dumped into (probably) the air somewhere else; and "two-phase cooling" means doing the above by making a liquid boil, later to be condensed elsewhere. This is something which is an active area of research because it's kind of a messy problem (like turbulence in fluid flow) and the best solutions are of the plus-or-minus-30% strength. Which works in steam power plants, but not in microelectronics.
partner: Romantic? None so far.
kids: In light of the previous question, I am quite glad that the answer here is "none" as well.
brothers/sisters: One each. The sister is a twin, and yes, I've been asked if we're identical. I don't get it either. (The brother is older, and makes me look boring.)
pets: None. My parents had a guinea pig when I was young, and my sister had a rabbit some time later, but I've never been responsible for another living being. (I did quite poorly just caring for a plant!)
3-5 biggest things going on in your life: Largest is the research project, presumably, and second is my schoolwork. (I'm actually pretty stressed these days thanks to an incomplete from last semester I'm having trouble tying up. The class I'm in now is pretty chill.) There on down, it gets pretty minor-scale - the novel I started for Nanowrimo is the biggest thing, and I'm ... not really diligent about working on it.
parents: Both living, and both with a Web presence. I'll mention my father's (done!), as he comments on this blog from time to time. Oh, and is a fierce blogger himself. Pretend that I said that when I mentioned him.
some of your closest friends: There are a couple from my Scout troop that I've been absolute rubbish keeping in touch with (K and W), and then there's several from school with whom I'll banter in the ASME lounge, exchange books, and occasionally play board games (particularly J, J, and T). Other than that, I get on decently with my parents, hang out with my brother, and exchange communications with quite a few people on the Web of Lies (as my mum would call it).
I believe that's better than one-word answers, anyway! Toodles!
Current Location: home\west_bedroom
Current Mood:  bored
Current Music: "Ohio" - Crosby, Stills, and Nash
Tags: journalling, link time: substantial, memes, read time: few minutes
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12:06 am
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/74363938/6424329) [Link] |
Why I'm up at midnight on a school night
( Screenshot )
Yes, I just spent hours of my life 'painting' a virtual car with a virtual skyline and a Maryland flag. But that's not the ridiculous part.
No, the ridiculous part is that I didn't plan on putting that Maryland flag on my hood. I was only making it so that I could put it on the license plate.
( Second screenshot )
P.S. Many thanks to netstate.com, for Maryland flag information.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\
Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: "Crazy Love, Vol. II" - Paul Simon
Tags: geekery, journalling, pictures, silliness
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12:02 pm
[Link] |
Some much-needed profanity. tldr: I'm still writing, but not for Nano.
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\
Current Mood:  angry
Tags: journalling, nanowrimo09, writing
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09:55 pm
[Link] |
Pulling another zero.
Sick today - no writing. (Broke 10k yesterday at the College Park write-in, though!)
Tags: journalling, nanowrimo09
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11:14 pm
[Link] |
4104 and writing war
I'm falling further behind, but I've discovered the writing war trick at my brother's insistence - more updatage in the future, probably after I've finished this chapter.
Tags: journalling, nanowrimo09, read time: 10 seconds
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11:20 pm
[Link] |
Pulled a zero.
More Nano tomorrow - studying for test today.
Tags: journalling, nanowrimo09, read time: 10 seconds
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06:00 pm
[Link] |
1741 words
Back from the write-in with my quota - barely.
A question I forgot to ask: does anyone want to read f-locked posts of the Novel So Far? I'm thinking I'll go with the classic make-a-filter option if anyone is interested. (For what it's worth, my brother - who wrote 5074 words - seemed to enjoy it.)
Current Location: home\basement
Current Mood:  creative
Current Music: "Tuesday Afternoon" - The Moody Blues
Tags: journalling, nanowrimo09, read time: 10 seconds, writing
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03:37 pm
[Link] |
1040 words
60% of one day's wordcount, and I've kicked things off with a literal bang. Unfortunately, I've a headache, $2.50 of iced coffee I don't want, 1/3 of a brownie I don't want, and a bit of a block.
I guess I just need to remind myself, as the Bard once said, to "lay on - and curst be he who first cries, 'Halt, enough!'"
Current Location: downtown/Mayorga
Current Mood:  ditzy
Current Music: "Walk of Life" - Dire Straits
Tags: journalling, link time: a minute, nanowrimo09, read time: 10 seconds, writing
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05:04 pm
[Link] |
A couple days ago.
And I just got a stack of CDs to import, too.
Current Location: home\basement
Current Mood:  cynical
Current Music: "All I Wanna Do" - Sheryl Crow
Tags: journalling, read time: 10 seconds
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12:40 am
[Link] |
Entered NaNoWriMo.
Packbat's writer profile.
Still thinking about what to write.
Tags: journalling, link time: substantial, psa, read time: 10 seconds, writing
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04:39 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/85897867/6424329) [Link] |
New jacket!
Went to Value Village today to get some cheap new-to-me slacks for work. And while I was there, I found a pair of leather shoes in my size and ... this.
Only twenty bucks, too! There's a seam with a few stiches loose in the lining, but the zipper is intact and the snap-closures don't stick.
awesome++.
(In other news, eating spaghetti with a spoon is ... less than elegant. Also, Interviewing Leather is still a great read.)
Current Location: home\basement
Current Mood:  jubilant
Current Music: "Sister Andrea" - Mahavishnu Orchestra
Tags: journalling, link time: many minutes, read time: 10 seconds, shopping
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09:26 pm
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Diary Function Evaluated At Arbitrary Timestamp
(This is ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) electrickeet's fault, by the way.)
So, what was I doing at 09-09-09 09:09 (GMT-09)?
Let's see ... order of magnitude distance estimate, convert to time, divide by reciprocal six ... correct for error in watch time ... I believe I was on the fourth floor of physics, panting heavily, having just run up from the basement two buildings over carrying a 2/3rds complement of Standard College Student Backpack Items trying to make class lecture before it started.
Current Location: home\basement
Current Mood:  lethargic
Current Music: "Ball And Chain" - Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company
Tags: geekery, journalling, read time: 10 seconds
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10:44 pm
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Writer's Block: All-Nighter
The lock-in at X3O! Yep, that was a fun night of videogaming, indeedy! (And we rocked out in the Left 4 Dead tournament!)
Tags: journalling, read time: 10 seconds, video games, writer's block
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10:32 pm
[Link] |
Not an update.
I haven't read my flist in ages - so many ages, in fact, that I actually lost entries.
But for the record: every personal journal on my friendslist I read.
(P.S. Excluding work-related material, the main news in my life is my new DVDs: the first ADV English-dub/sub DVD of Azumanga Daioh - only five episodes - watched, Volume One of Batman: The Animated Series, watched first two episodes, and The Wire: The Complete First Season, watched first three episodes. Oh, and I should probably write a review of the first Dresden Files book, but I need to reread it to do that. And I want to run a Truth & Justice campaign next month, so I really ought to prepare...)
Current Mood: tired
Tags: journalling, read time: 10 seconds
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11:19 pm
[Link] |
Interval Training
Warning: I went running with a stopwatch today. The following is almost certainly only interesting to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) zhurnaly!
( I mean it! It's just a bunch of splits! )
Only other interesting thing - I weighed myself on their scales, got 73.1 kg, which is a little higher than usual for me.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\southeast_desk
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "Lightness" - Death Cab for Cutie
Tags: journalling, read time: a minute, running, sports
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01:07 pm
[Link] |
Baseball!
For those of you not following the Twitter filter (does that link work?) - went to an exhibition game yesterday at the Washington Nationals stadium downtown - they beat the Baltimore Orioles 4-5, with (amusingly) all five Nats RBIs credited to one ballplayer, Josh Willingham. Grand slam in the first, fielder's choice single in the seventh. It was fun - I got the Grande Nachos at the Bullpen Burrito, which were delicious.
Now to go to school and write computer programs! ...after lunch!
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood: amused
Tags: baseball, journalling, link time: few minutes, read time: 10 seconds, sports
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09:51 am
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Writer's Block: How Does This Apply to Real Life?
As a homeschooled kid, "elementary or primary school" is a bit ill-defined, but at a guess ... mathematics, probably geometry and algebra.
Engineering is pretty math-heavy, I must admit.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood: bored
Current Music: "September Grass" - James Taylor
Tags: favorite subjects, journalling, read time: 10 seconds, school, writer's block
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03:16 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/86923007/6424329) [Link] |
iPhone!
Guess what I just dropped US$428.33 on?*
(Does anyone have a favorite Livejournal app, by the way?)
* Note: included case, Bluetooth headset, and extended warranty.
Current Location: school\EGL\office
Current Mood:  cheerful
Tags: geekery, journalling, read time: 10 seconds
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07:36 am
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/48671034/6424329) [Link] |
Five Things Plus
From baxil, with his modifications:
Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. You're encouraged to post that list, with your commentary on each item, to your lj (or just add a reply back at me).
Extra Baxilian addition: If you have a mental association with me that nobody has mentioned yet, add it to your five-things request and I'll write some bonus commentary.
Swing Sets
I like swings. I would consider this a fairly awesome date.
I'm not sure when or where my earliest experiences were, but I know we had a swingset in the back yard of the family house when I was a kid, and I seem to recall a swingset at the park down the street, too. I think both of them are gone, now. So is the swingset in the icon, at K's house, but the swing in the icon - the brown thing I'm holding on to is the seat of a tree swing - is still there and still a lot of fun. Without the swingset to climb on for extra height, though, it'll be a little harder for me to fall off at the highest point off the ground and knock my wind out. Again. Pity.
Atheism
n. Not believing in any gods.
Now, this is not the definition you will from Messers. Merriam and Webster, should you ask of them - they will tell you that it is the positive belief that there exists no deity (and yes, they use the singular). It is also slightly different from the definition common at the once-IIDB, now FRDB (Freethought and Rationalism Discussion Board) - while that definition may be worded identically through sloppiness, strictly speaking, they refer to the negative belief, lack of belief, that any gods exist.
That said, provided that you interpret all three of these definitions reasonably, by which I mean avoiding the stupid, stupid idea that beliefs have to be infinitely certain, all three apply to myself. I positively believe that no people with power over the laws of nature exist ("in my opinion nothing occurs contrary to nature except the impossible, and that never occurs" - Sagredo, "Two New Sciences" (1914 translation), Galileo Galilei), and I decidedly don't have faith in any such creatures.
I made a post for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) convert_me a while back talking about the history of my opinion - I won't bother to repeat it here.
Magic: The Gathering
My dad, my sibs and I got into MtG early - not beta-early, but Unlimited Edition and Arabian Nights expansion early. Back then it was a great game, a lot of fun, though I stank at it - now, with the tremendous backlog of expansions and extra rules and so on that it has acquired, not so much (though I stink much less, now).
Still my favorite collectible trading card game, though.
Writer's Block*
* The LJ thought-prompter, not the creative affliction.
The LJ Writer's-Block feature quite often has interesting prompts - certainly better than Sturgeon's-Law percentages. Today's, for example, is "What do you think happens to us when we die?", a question of deep interest to many people that normally wouldn't occur to me to answer.
I normally don't put a great deal of effort into answering the Writer's Block questions, though. I expect if I were answering today's I would merely reiterate my support for the physicalist position - that you are (mostly) the operation of your brain, and if your brain data is destroyed, so are you. A more thorough response would invoke some of the evidence for the position - from Phineas Gage to the neurophysiology of near-death experiences and hallucinations.
Nomic
I've always been a bit of a rules-lawyer and I've always loved paradoxes (growing up, we had both of Martin Gardner's Aha! books, and at least one Raymond Smullyan - The Lady Or The Tiger? - I read all three often), so when I first heard of the game of Nomic (probably through my older brother), I was hooked. A game where you could change the rules! Nay, a game where you were encouraged, nay, required to change the rules, not just one where there was no-one to stop you! The very language of Suber's Initial Ruleset appealed to me.
And, of course, no-one in my circle of meatspace acquaintances was interested in playing. So the desire persistent, unfulfilled, until that fateful day when active_apathy decided she wanted a game. And by January 23rd, there was nomicide, and we've been off and running (with occasional stumbles) ever since. </plug>
Edit: That's January 23rd, 2007, for reference - over two years, now!
Current Location: school\EGR\ASME_lounge
Current Mood: amused
Tags: journalling, link time: few minutes, memes, read time: a minute, thoughts
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11:17 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/64766749/6424329) [Link] | Have you ever been scrolling through your old Livejournal entries and hit one that made you just go, "what the bleep"?
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood:  confused
Current Music: Various "Still Alive" (Mirror's Edge) remixes
Tags: geekery, journalling, link time: 10 seconds, read time: 10 seconds
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05:57 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/83562981/6424329) [Link] |
Walking Man
It was a gorgeous day today - ~15 °C, clear, calm - so this afternoon I went on a walk! The general idea was to scout out the potential bike-to-school path, which is south on Sligo Creek Trail, then north on Northwest Branch, so I walked to and about a mile down the former before I turned around.
On the way back, I timed myself over the "1.0 mile" between the two road crossings. From which, I calculated that xkcd was right about the velocity of a walking pace (except that 1.5 m/s is 6 kph - but I walk briskly). And also determined that 1 km ≅ 0.622 miles, which is almost correct.
Go me!
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\southeast_desk
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: My brother, composing.
Tags: journalling, link time: 10 seconds, read time: 10 seconds
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10:13 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/67776749/6424329) [Link] |
Google Reader: Non!
As you probably do not know, I have recently been trying out Google Reader as a way of tracking my weblogs. (My "Shared Items" page.) What I have discovered, in the experiment, is that Google Reader acts like the ever-multiplying tabs in the more-slowly-multiplying Firefox windows that keep haunting me, only on speed.
So, back to "Morning Coffee". At least that way, I can say "eh" and ignore the huge pileup of old posts.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\southeast_desk
Current Mood:  satisfied
Current Music: Planned Obsolescence - 10,000 Maniacs
Tags: geekery, journalling, life, link time: many minutes, read time: 10 seconds
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09:07 am
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/59302922/6424329) [Link] |
Debate, Round 1!
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I am involved in a "Formal Debate" on the FRDB. Round 1 is up.
Peanut Gallery if you want to make observations over there.
Tags: journalling, link time: many minutes, read time: 10 seconds
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02:01 pm
[Link] | From my IRA trust co., a letter dated Dec. 29 (arrived a few days ago):
Dear IRA Investor:
In an uncertain market environment—like the one we've experienced over the past several months—it's more important than ever to continue to focus on your long-term goals such as retirement. That's why we would like to remind you that you have until April 15, 2009 to maximize your retirement savings by making a contribution to your IRA account(s) for the 2008 tax year.
From my IRA trust co., a Year-End 2008 Mutual Fund Statement (arrived today):
Activity Summary
| This Quarter | Year-to-Date |
|---|
| Beginning Value | $3,402.22 | $0.00 |
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| Additions | 0.00 | 4,000.00 |
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| Deductions | 0.00 | 20.00 |
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| Income | 34.18 | 34.18 |
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| Market Fluctuation | -945.52 | -1,523.30 |
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| Ending Value | $2,490.88 | $2,490.88 |
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| Net Change | -$911.34 | $2,490.88 |
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Of course, the real punchline is that they're doing a good job. (:
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood: amused
Tags: journalling, read time: a minute, silliness
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05:16 pm
[Link] |
Biking!
Finally went out to ride my bike again today. Last Friday, I'd walked to the local bicycle shop to waste my money on invest in various essential biking accessories, but the combination of bad weather, intersemester schedule lapse ("Are you staying up until 2 a.m. or something?" "Err..."), and the bicycle shop being closed Mondays meant I put off actually riding until today.
First, I went out to pump up the tires (first taking Dad's running stuff off the handlebars). Whereupon I realized I had no clue how much air they needed. So: up the stairs to my laptop and the Webbernets, which promptly informed me that (1) my bike was worth less than a meal at Taco Bell and (2) I needed to know the size of the tires. Back down the stairs, borrow a ruler, 1-1/8 inches is about 28 mm, and - back up the stairs - assuming 35 kg load per tire (reasonable) that makes 80 psi. Back down the stairs.
Then the helmet. I do most shamefully confess - after ten minutes of irritating helmet-adjusting, I simply gave up, pulled everything tight that could be tightened, and said, "Good enough".
(I also skipped putting on my LED taillight. Ironically, the headlight, which I did put on, was absolutely useless.)
After all the aggravation, I was quite glad to walk it out along the sidewalks to the nearest bike trail. And I was ecstatic to be riding again. There is very little I enjoy more than cycling - the effort required to maintain a pace my hindbrain reads as fast is quite easily within even my untrained capacities, even on (slight) uphills.
That said, I was feeling a little woozy after the first 1.5 miles, so I stopped in at a gas station to buy candy and energy drink. After that, I was doing quite well.
Anyway, in the end, I skipped the bicycle shop. After all, it was a cheap, old bike, and I was going to meet with some of me bro's friends (my acquaintances) and play "Left 4 Dead" at the internet cafe this evening. I'll go some other day.
Much fun, today.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\southeast_desk
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: The Notwist - "Good Lies"
Tags: journalling, link time: few minutes, read time: a minute, sports
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08:33 pm
[Link] |
The Unfunny Valley
I have just watched my first bad movie. I've seen good movies before, I've seen great movies before, I've seen decent movies before, and I've seen one truly terrible movie before, but I've never actually seen a merely bad movie until today.
Man, I want my two bucks back.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood: amused
Tags: journalling, movies, read time: 10 seconds
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09:40 am
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/78514107/6424329) [Link] |
Quick Notes
- The last time I looked at my flist was November 5th. My pants are so bankrupt, they're getting a $1b injection of capital from the U.S. Treasury.
- Feeling decidedly under the weather.
- If you haven't checked it out before, try out Kaspall. It's a great fantasy-mystery, and the artist is doing humorous little "Character Q&A" comics for vote incentives!
- 2+2=4. I have a truly ingenious proof of this, but this bullet point is too small to contain it.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood:  sick
Current Music: Foolish Games - Jewel
Tags: journalling, link time: many minutes, links, read time: 10 seconds
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11:42 am
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/48670989/6424329) [Link] |
Writer's Block: Secret Ballot
At Woodlin Elementary School in Maryland, lines were much like last election's - about an hour at 7 a.m. opening, according to reports from my siblings and mother, and forty minutes or so around nine a.m. when my dad (zhurnaly) and I went. Campaigning was light - other than road signs, there was only a representative from the teachers' union (I think) with a slate of endorsements. (zhurnaly asked her about the local slots initiative - creditably, the union had no stance and she didn't feel too good about it.) (Oh, and I took one of her sheets to help me decide on the school board race where I was still dithering.)
Attitudes were cheerful. The PTA had a bake sale running. The electronic voting machines read my touchscreen inputs correctly (and thank goodness they'll be gone next election!). It might start raining later, but it was fairly nice when we went.
Oh, and we got free stickers. zhurnaly gave me his as a joke.
Current Location: school\EGL\office
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Making Pies - Patty Griffin
Tags: ballots, journalling, polls, presidential race, read time: 10 seconds, u.s. election, voting, writer's block
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12:26 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/63882755/6424329) [Link] |
If I Were A...
Original to me, for once:
Most people have the same religion (or lack of religion) as their parents. That something this large in the life of an individual should even appear to be so much up to chance invites the question: what would you be like if you changed that one variable? And how would you interact if you met?
If I were a Christian:
- I would play Christian rock. (But possibly good Christian rock, if my church were liberal enough to give me my Joni Mitchell et al.)
- I would go on missions to third-world countries and donate generously to charity.
- I would play by the rules with a passion, and deplore the hypocrisy I see in others, also with a passion. (Probably to excess on both counts - I would still cross at the crosswalk were I the last person on earth.)
- I would debate theology for fun - possibly even go to seminary.
- The Man Who Was Thursday would still drive me nuts.
If real-me met Christian-me:
- We'd get in long arguments about the justifications of belief and foundations of morality.
- We'd exchange mixtape-CDs. I would be very nervous about putting anything anti-religion or anti-Christianity on them.
- He'd badger me to take up playing the piano again. I would promise, and then forget.
- He would be appalled that I could lose my Eagle Scout for being an atheist.
God bless, as he would say, and wind to thy wings, as I would reply.
Current Location: school\engineering_lab\office
Current Mood:  thoughtful
Current Music: Like the Weather - 10,000 Maniacs
Tags: journalling, memes, thoughts
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10:16 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/48671080/6424329) [Link] |
Back from Swat!
Further information later. For those of you who skip Twitterposts: my team (it's two-on-two) went one for five. But, as they say, you win or your learn.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Paul Simon
Tags: journalling
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11:13 pm
[Link] |
Swat!
Oh, hey, I'm going up to Swarthmore tomorrow for a novice parliamentary debate tournament! Yeah, late to be mentioning it, but there it is!
Anyway, my laptop will be staying home, so expect only text-message Twitters between tomorrow morning and Saturday night. As for the format, Wikipedia's description of American parliamentary debate is mostly accurate.
See you Sunday!
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood:  awake
Tags: geekery, journalling, weekend plans
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09:53 pm
[Link] |
Writer's Block: 9/11
On the eleventh of September, in the year two thousand and one of the common era, I was still taking classes at the Rockville campus of Montgomery College in the state of Maryland. I first heard rumors of the plane crash in the basement of the Macklin Tower (which may still have been the Campus Tower, then) near the phones at the bottom of the stairs where the vending machines were (there was an auto-mat-ish one with sandwiches and the like, or perhaps my memory is inaccurate), and dismissed them as unlikely. Shortly thereafter, I reached the classroom, where I discovered class was canceled and we were being sent home. Noncomprehending, I proceeded to the bus stop and thence home (I do not recall how), and came in to find people watching the coverage.
We rarely watch TV in our house. We were glued to the set all that day.
I remember when the footage of that guy on the street, his camera pointed to the sky, catching one plane enter one tower ... I remember when that hit the channels where I lived. I remember seeing them burning. I remember the people running through the streets with the dust from the collapse chasing them down. Odd that this is still topical, but I remember John McCain being interviewed - probably by telephone, the picture was of the towers - and saying we had to attack, go to war over this. (I'm sure it was the same day.) I remember Mom being disappointed with his response - I don't know why, because I disapproved from bullheaded war-is-evil simplemindedness that I still haven't wholly got over, but I think she expected him to be more thoughtful than that, more measured in his response. I remember the speculation about the fourth plane, and where it might have been aimed if the passengers hadn't stood up to the attackers.
And ... well, I don't remember much else. It was seven years ago, I was sixteen, and things in New York had little to do with me. And it still seems like an utter shock to me that people found this so ... well, shocking, that their lives and worldviews were torn up and left inverted because of it. Because I don't think I ever lived in a pre-9/11 or post-9/11 world, I lived in maths and sciences, in Prince of Persia on the IBM 8086 PC, and in books good and bad, and who ever thought 'America' was invincible anyhow? But tear things up it did, and somehow as a nation the U.S. still isn't over it.
I thought about what I'd say today, but I've nothing to say. Us us-ians lost two buildings, three thousand people, and our collective minds, and none of it did the slightest good to anyone ...
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed\
Current Mood:  melancholy
Current Music: Memories of Patty Griffin's "Nobody's Crying"
Tags: journalling, politics, thoughts, writer's block
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10:44 am
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Filler
Sorry for the radio silence - I'm doing good, and I'll respond to the important things (e.g. PMs, bills, the semester starting a week from Tuesday, my not having seen The Dark Knight yet) as soon as I can.
Stuff later.
Tags: journalling
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11:00 pm
[Link] | Went boating with friend K. and his family, and boy are my arms tired!
(No, seriously - I needed a dose of Vitamin I just to keep from groaning every five minutes. It was fun, though!)
I might have something else to add, but I don't know how to talk about it, so I won't.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood:  stressed
Tags: journalling
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09:47 am
[Link] |
Uniqueness?
Via zwol and his friends-list:
- Post 3 things you've done in your lifetime that you don't think anybody else on your friends list has done.
- See if anybody else responds with "I've done that." If they have, you need to add another!(2.b., 2.c., etc...)
- Have your friends cut & paste this into their journal to see what unique things they've done in their life.
This should be a hard one for me, as I can never remember anything, but I'll try...
- I started college when I was fifteen. (Bet this one goes first...)
- I earned my Bachelor of Science without a high school degree or any equivalent thereto (that being the G.E.D. where I am, in the U.S.).
- I started out on a fifty-mile hike (possibly even the one pictured) carrying in my pack, among other things, three gallons of water. Plus a liter in my water bottle.
Bring on the originality!
P.S. "Current Music" was originally listed as "Szerencsétlen - Rossz Csillag Allat Született", but Rossz Csillag Allat Született is actually the album title - sorry!
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Szerencsétlen - Venetian Snares
Tags: journalling, memes
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09:50 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/64384071/6424329) [Link] |
Summer Project: IF!
Okay, so you know how your hobbies expand to fill your free time? It has occurred to me that this is something that needs forestalling if I am to survive the coming fall semester. Thus, I have an idea: what if I took up a major, but short-term, project - one where I can easily give myself permisssion to axe when the semester starts?
Thus, my plan: I'm going to pull open Inform 7 again.
The plot is relatively simple - it's yet another amnesia story - but I hope to make up for the unoriginality in execution. I'm planning to have friends-locked posts for blogging about the dev work and blegging for beta-testing - active_apathy, alun_clewe, chanlemur, fadethecat, majoru, and zwol were on the old list, but any of that can change. If anyone would like to be added or removed, please comment!
Tags: if, journalling
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09:09 pm
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The king ponders on his porcelain throne...
Before: "Hmm, I need to take a crap. I should go to the bathroom."
After: "So I'll pack the running clothes and an empty water bottle tonight, and tomorrow morning I will stow them in my locker at the ASME lounge while I'm working. At 4 o'clock, I will knock off work, retrieve the items from my locker, and proceed to the Eppley Recreation Center. There, I will borrow a lock and a locker, change into the running clothes, and stow everything but the key to the lock and the water bottle (which I will fill before departing). This done, I will walk to the outdoor track and do intervals (400 m running, 200 m walking) until I have expended the water in the bottle. Then I will return to the ERC, shower, change into my street clothes, refill the bottle, and walk up to the Stamp to catch the 6:05 shuttle home. In the unlikely event that I am too late to catch the shuttle, I will take the bus or the subway, depending. Finis."
I amuse myself.
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\south_bed
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: She's On Fire - Train
Tags: journalling, life, silliness, stream of consciousness
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07:51 am
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/28250317/6424329) [Link] |
BBC's Top Gear
Yesterday, me bro walked into our room and asked me if I had hard disk space. Then he handed me a jump drive* and told me to copy two video files - to wit, two old episodes of Top Gear. (The one with the caravanning and the one with the vans.)
Loved it. It was terrific. I'm officially a fan.
So, what's new with you?
Tags: journalling, tv
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12:38 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/57776623/6424329) [Link] |
Oblivious
A number of you are probably aware of the Nomic I am associated with - nomicide. It's in that irritating between-games idle stage right now, the one where we should be trying to make new rulesets but we're just off doing our own stuff, but it's been a pretty successful Nomic while it's going, and I'm pretty proud to be involved in it. (Incidentally, if you ever want me to brag, ask me how I won the first game. It was brilliant.)
Anyway, I just opened a poll to vote for the Head of the Constitutional Convention (pretentious, eh?) where all the players could vote for any player to become Head. Being a player, I of course immediately voted myself for the players I thought would be good.
The next day, the second vote had come in (I told you it was idle), and I opened the post to see who was winning. A moment later, noticing I had two votes in the poll, I realized the horrible fact: I had voted for myself!
Current Location: home\west_bedroom\bed
Current Mood:  giggly
Current Music: The Most Beautiful World in the World - Harry Nilsson
Tags: games, geekery, journalling, silliness
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05:36 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/27194943/6424329) [Link] |
Iron Man
This is not a review. My impressions of a movie right after seeing it in the theaters is quite unreliable - I have to forcibly restrain myself just to keep the superlatives out.
Loved it. Terrific superhero movie - up there with the best I've seen (that doesn't count, does it?). Characterization and acting were spot-on. Cinematography - I dare not even attempt to describe it. Special effects? Well, those are always hard. They didn't accomplish the impossible, but they did help push the limits a little closer to it.
In plot - it made sense when I watched it. Not the least because the writing was superb. Whoever did the dialogue did magnificently - genuinely clever, and touching, and well, well done.
It was convincing. It was exciting. It was inspiring - a classic uplifting heroic story, in spite of being indubitably set in the ever-popular day after tomorrow. The good guys are good, and the good guys win.
Today was a great day.
(P.S. Got Patty Griffin's 1000 Kisses at Borders after!)
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: Tomorrow Night - Patty Griffin
Tags: journalling, movies, not-reviews
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09:22 pm
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Level up!
So the AD&D 2.5 campaign has been running along biweekly, and today we finished up the first quest. Or, to be more precise, today we said, "hey, we were supposed to clear the mine, and that was four pages of maps ago..."
Yes, the mine turned out to be the entrance to a gigantic cavern system with weird phosphorescence, extraordinary patterns on the floor, funky traps, huge chasms, and mysterious (and often humorous) traps. It was awesome. In fact, when we went back to the blacksmith/mine owner, we said, "hey, can you put in a door so we can go back?"
He took it out of our reward, but nobody complained. Like I said, awesome.
Anyhow, that was that. Anyway, we netted over 1000 XP for the adventure, which added up to levels for everyone. Plus, mad cash, which added up to long sword for me! (My club was bequeathed to the half-elf thief/cleric - we're a thief-heavy party - to be Shillelagh'd with.) Also, picked up small mirror and silver dagger, for emergencies. So, now we have to rescue the kids who got snatched while we were off adventuring, and then see about the missing supply caravans.
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  accomplished
Current Music: Writer's Block - Britt Daniel/Brian Reitzell
Tags: games, geekery, journalling
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12:39 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/62817941/6424329) [Link] |
Míshlê Robin
So I was pounding away at the grading, and my mind started to drift, and, well...
Raise not hypocrisy to the stature of a Great Sin! To prove hypocrisy is to prove moral failing, but to prove moral failing is nothing if it is not done to correct, and to prove hypocrisy corrects nothing. Instead treat each hypocrite as herself, and ask: which of the three hypocrites is she?
The first hypocrite is she whose professions are righteous and acts are unrighteous. To you, I say: praise her! Hard is the road of righteousness, and many will stumble from it - praise her for her noble words, and commiserate with her when she falls short of them.
The second hypocrite is she whose professions are unrighteous and acts are righteous. To you, I say: praise her! Rare is the soul whose instincts are so pure, and that she has been confused in her thoughts is no fault. Praise her for her noble deeds, and teach her to praise and take pride in them herself.
The third hypocrite is she whose professions are unrighteous and acts are unrighteous. To you, I say: take pity, for what all of us fear and strive to avoid, she suffers from, and teach her as you teach all who have lost their way.
Does anybody else find themselves writing their own personal scriptures in their head?
Current Mood: creative
Tags: journalling, mysteries of the universe, take my advice, thoughts
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07:36 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/71433337/6424329) [Link] |
Happy Mac!
MacBook White 2.4 GHz, first impressions:
- Keyboard is weird, i.e. not the same as on the computers I'm already accustomed to. On any objective measure, however, probably quite good.
- Screen: marvelous improvement. Mirror rather than diffuse reflections means easier reading in the face of ambient light (at least, as far as I can tell by shining a flashlight on it) and easier reading sans backlight (i.e. by shining a flashlight on it).
- There seem to be a lot of magnets around. Magnetic power connector, magnetic lid closure...
- The new Safari is cool, but I can't figure out how to set it to "Ask me what I what done with every kind of cookie, and I'll tell you whether to trust a given site or not".
- "Spaces" (the multiple-desktops thing - Unix geeks have seen this ages ago) rocks. Totally.
- The time from "two fingers on the trackpad scrolls? ... weird." to "whee!" is surprisingly short. (whee!)
In related news, I can't seem to import my old song ratings into the new iTunes library. Ah, well.
P.S. Those of you who listened to the voicepost (hi, chanlemur!) and therefore heard about my Not-Exactly-First Foray Into The One-Mile Race (now with 100% less training!) may be interested in seeing official times (I'm #81, Robin Zimmermann, 7:44.40) and official photographs (I'm the demented-looking chap slightly left of middle).
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  geeky
Current Music: Fidelity - Regina Spektor
Tags: geekery, journalling
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09:51 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/73732980/6424329) [Link] |
Voice Post
Tags: journalling, psa, whinging
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11:11 pm
[Link] |
Thingbits
- Unfortunately, the turkey pot pi was somewhat underwhelming.
- I'm thinking an external hard drive might be handy. LaCie is good, right? I should probably shop around a little.
- I got XTC, Tom Petty, and Alanis Morissette CDs today!
- Naturally, I am dismayed at Livejournal reaching new, untouched levels of idiocy by deleting the Basic Account option for new users. Like certain wise people (only with more laziness), I am honestly thinking about striking out on my own and just reading/reposting here. For the less
lazy pessimistic, though: thanks to conuly, a update with the proper RL contact info for complaining.
- To the guy about the IF thing: it's still rattling around in my head - expect mail soon.
- Anybody around here play Core War or interested in starting? (Bear in mind I'm still yak shaving - do you believe that OS 10.3.9 didn't come with GCC installed? - so I won't be sending any warriors up any hills yet.)
- Looking at the stack of lab reports that need grading, it seems my panicking skills are fully intact. Also my procrastination skills.
- It's quarter to midnight? Okay, I gotta go to bed - ciao!
- (P.S. Does anyone know how to fix a flaky trackpad on an iBook G4? The button keeps sticking.)
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  not tired, really!
Current Music: My Bird Performs - XTC
Tags: games, geekery, if, journalling, links, lj features, music, school, videogames
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02:16 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/65167099/6424329) [Link] |
Class, Colds, Chess, Characters, and Things Not Starting with C.
- The other prof of my class was absent this Tuesday-Wednesday, so I had to cover the whole two hours. Plus, I misread the homework assignment as being due Monday, not Monday a week1, so I thought I had to cover the entire thing, including the bits we haven't got to in class yet.
Given that we bugged out half an hour early, I suspect I did not completely succeed. Discussion sections are the toughest audiences.
- Picked up a bug somewhere that kicked in Thursday morning - sore throat, runny nose2, soreness of muscles ... well, no, actually that last is due to overstress on the "Lat Pulldown" machine at the school gym. Yay exercise!
- Went to chess club last night after the gym, ran into a guy from my FEM class there. He talked me into playing blitz - 10 minutes per player - and then wiped the floor with me as soon as I slipped up and dropped a knight in both games. So it goes.
- You see Friday's "Little Dee"? Panel four? So my brother.
- This is the most absurd thing I've ever seen. (Well, today. So far.)
- I'm seriously short of non-C items.
Well, that's mostly all. Cheers!
1. 2.8%, unless the missing "a" is highly significant3, in which case it might be as high as 11% or more. ^
2. I'd elaborate on the viscosity and color, but no-one wants to read that junk. ^
3. Or unless Irregular Webcomic readers are a nonrepresentative sample. Which, of course, they are. ^
4. Now with x% more meaninglessness, where x doesn't mean anything! ^
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: A Case of You - Joni Mitchell
Tags: games, journalling, links, school, silliness
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04:02 pm
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21.4% and playing hooky!
1. Type up solutions to example problems to send to the Heat Transfer class I'm a TA for. Done!
2. Income taxes.
3. Homework (Finite Element Method class and Partial Differential Equations class). Begun, question sent to teacher!
4. Scan the micromechanics textbooks I borrowed to see if I want to do research in that direction. Begun!
5. Research the candidates for the primary on Tuesday.
6. Update the website for the UMD ASME chapter.
7. Read through Chapters 2 and 3 of the Heat Transfer textbook to get ahead on the material.
Not on the list: Go hang at my pal K's house!
So, before they come and pick me up, a poll for your amusement:
Poll #1136332
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3Abramowitz and Stegun.
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood:  bouncy
Tags: geekery, journalling
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11:48 pm
[Link] |
16.7% complete!
...I just finished Point Number One on my list. A PDF of three elementary heat transfer problems solved exactly, plus a long digression on root-finding algorithms that I wasn't actually qualified to write.
Dying now, kthxbai. *whump*
(P.S. I'm actually kinda proud of those five plots - the heat conduction equation turns out to be amenable to Fourier analysis, so I wrote some MATLAB code to calculate the first 200 frequencies and coefficients so I could determine the solution for any time t > 0.01 'seconds'.)
(P.P.S. Somehow I'm thinking I spent more than 20 hours this week on the class....)
Current Location: home\bedroom\north_desk
Current Mood: accomplishausted
Current Music: Ranch Boy - Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack
Tags: journalling, school, whinging
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