Den's Random Ramblings of Rude Reality

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:13:20 GMT

My open letter to my congresscritter. The Honorable Henry Waxman, CA D-30th district.

I note with grave concern a proposed rule from the Franking Commission. http://gopleader.gov/UploadedFiles/Capuano_letter.PDF The rule would unduly restrict house members from communicating about the activities of congress. This rule, if it's implemented, would not only reduce transparency in our government, but would send the wrong message to whomever's actually paying attention.

As a further note, I am very impressed with Rep. Culberson's twitter feed. http://twitter.com/johnculberson It is honest, written by him, and very insightful and I would very much love to subscribe to yours, when you get one.

---EOF---

Whee!

How to correctly prepare "vegitable juice"

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:38:35 GMT

Step 1) Get a really expensive juicer.

This is important, otherwise you won't have really good juice. As we all know, really expensive juicers make really good juice.

Step 2) Repeat the virtues of the juicer to everyone, especially your underlings.
By repeating the virtues, the juicer gains XP. When it gains enough XP, it gains a level.

Step 3) Get some veggies.
It's ok if they're a little old.

Step 4) Assemble the Juicer.
You may need assistance at this point, but aformentioned minions are always ready to help

Step 5) Repeat the virtues again.
Every time you repeat the virtues of the jucier and how good the juice tastes, it gets better.

Step 6) Feed the veggies through the jucier. You should have two containers at this point, mainly because stuff comes out of juicers at two places.

Step 7) Carefully pour the juice into a third cup. This is what we like to call the cup of stuff you'll pretend to drink.

Step 8) Carefully pour the juice from the cup down the drain. Repeated cleanings of the cup are essential for the proper application of well-known homeopathic techniquies.

Step 9) Make coffee. As we all know, coffee contains one of the major food groups: caffeene. Combine this with the homeopathic goodness of veggie juice, and you're all set.

Under no circumstances are you to ever drink the actual juice.

</rant>

Test post from FB?

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:38:06 GMT

I'm posting this from facebook. Now if only my friends page would be updated into facebook... Oh well.

I'm an arrogant bastard sometimes...

Thu, 08 May 2008 07:40:50 GMT

Right. So today was an exam that was 40% of our grade in "Research Topics 1"

I finished the exam in an hour, I was the first to finish, and I didn't actually start answering the questions till half an hour in. (This statement is slightly misleading cause I did spend the first half-hour making an outline, but still, I'm boasting here.) I'm going to be extremely surprised if I don't get an A.

<Imagery>
Me, in the place of Keanu Reeves just after having emerged from Agent Smith in the Matrix. He flexes and reality bends inwards.
</Imagery>

Normally, I'm not quite as arrogant, but this is one of the few areas where I actually claim slight competency. Damn, that was impressive. (The topic was basically looking at the philosophies of science and a few techniques from a social science perspective. This is *what I do.* Well, one of the things.

</Boast>

There are some days when I really miss RIT.

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:58:33 GMT

This is one of them.

G'day mates. She'll be right.

Virgle

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:19:13 GMT

Okay, there are some april fools jokes that are funny. (Howard's joke is most droll.)

There are some that are just... odd. (The XKCD redirect.)

And then... there are some I wish weren't. Virgle is Virgin and Google's planned expedition to mars. I wish it was real. I'd buy tickets in a Mars lottery. ARGH. *Why* must they taunt us so?

Well, it looks like I was scammed.

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:36:32 GMT

Hope is indeed the curse of mankind. Hope born of desperation is worse.

On inspecting the "recipt" of the DHL more closely (and by performing the fucking due diligance that I *should* have performed, it looks like it was fairly crappily edited.)

As I've got quite a lot of good data on the asshole, and he's in the UK, I'm quite tempted to make his life a living hell. I don't suppose any of you folks know a black hat or two?

Happy... Cake... Day....?

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:21:59 GMT

Apparently tomorrow is Cake Day...

The hell?

"ASB cake day tomorrow (Thursday 28 Feb) and you are all welcome to attend (6th floor business lounge ASB).

In the past I have been privileged by someone bringing me back a piece of cake - but alas..... no more.

We have been advised that all people attending cake day should stay in the ASB lounge and socialise whilst "having your cake and eating it too". Cake apparently should be consumed in the lounge and that "take away" is no longer an option. "

The cake is a lie!!

Desperation

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:18:30 GMT

Desperation is:
Using craigslist to find lodgings.
Being estatic at finding a place that will allow me to move in tomorrow that's a mere *2 hour* commute.
Loving that the place is only $700 a month. Note, this is more than my rent in Rochester.

....
ARRRRRGH!

I mean, yes, I'm going to have a shitton of reading. Yes, those two hours will be useful. Yes, I'm going to have mobile broadband, but still!

So much to blog about, so much depression.

Apathy, too.
...
Oh well, at least my cube is as private as I can make it (since I'm in a rear corner with an awesome view.

I've set my objects d'art up here, so this way I'll actually see them all the time instead of having them hidden under dust.

....

::manic giggle::
And it's a mere 1.5k walk to the train station.

Oh well. It's an address, it's "cheap" And they're ok with me moving in tomorrow. This gives me a month to figure out a *good* address.

Ow. (Part 4 of ?)

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:05:58 GMT

Ow. Ow. Ow.
My left ankle and foot are fucking killing me. Ow.

So, got to the hotel last night, was *completely out of it* (up to dreaming with my eyes open on the way here. Very odd.) Took a shower, wondered why my feet hurt so much. Sat down on the bed. Rubbed my foot. "Huh. My skin doesn't usually feel like that..." Looked more closely "I thought my ankle was smaller." ::poke:: "It squishes!"

My flight from EWR to Singapore was bloody fantastic. Easily the best long-haul flight I've ever had. Then I got to singapore. Pictures later when I feel like it. I'll post about singapore later too, I'm complaining now.

Then I got on my flight to Sydney. Take, if you will, the unplesantness of 30 hours of flight travel, and carefully compress it so that it occurs in only 8 hours. (Note, the conservation of unplesantness still applies. All of it's there, it's just concentrated.)

8 hours later, and I'm in the mood to kill humanity on general principles. Immigration was... curiously uncaring. They looked at my passport, went ::thunk:: and there I was. No need for carefully prepared documents. Hauled my 140 pounds of luggage onto a cart (Travelling alone with that much luggage is doubleplusunshiny) Went to quarintine. I think. I was getting pretty damn patchy by that point. In their quarentine zone, they had about 6 lanes. 5 had normal X ray machines and one was about twice the size of the others and had a *long* *shiny* steel counter. Standing in line, I made a bet to myself: "Two gets you two and a quarter that I get the *inspection station of doom*." I won the bet. On the other hand, the inspection was "So, what do you have." I started babbling about carved wood and granola bars. I think the woman behind the counter was very sympathetic because she just asked what country they came from and waved me through.

I was so tired that, when the van driver invited me to sit in front, I kind of felt like I was driving. (They drive on the other side here.) Every 5 feet or so, my brain would go "Shit! We're on the wrong side of the road! Shout a warning." I didn't shout a warning though. Not because I didn't want to, but because my mouth wouldn't move. Got here. Tipped the driver guy 5 dollars. (Heavy fucking bags) Apparently I was such a pathetic looking sack of shit that he helped me take the bags to my room and then waved away the other 5 dollar tip that I tried to give him. Nice people, these.

Oh, and while I'll cover this in another post. The incidence of fucking hot women is entirely to my liking. (And one of my friends likes a certain asian phenotype. She would *very much* enjoy this town.)

Updates later, when ankle stops hurting. Sitting in lobby because that's the only place where they have wifi.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Swelling's gone down, but I think I did something nasty to my left foot. Or I'm just fucking out of shape. Culture shock is settling in.

Gods I love my laptop's wireless card... (Part 3 of ?)

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 01:42:33 GMT

Right then. ::punches air in traditional final fantasy fashion while item gained music plays in the background:: There's nothing like scouring 50 wireless access points that my laptop of Doooooom can see.

Today I woke up at 8:45 and said "Damnit, need to go online." Make sure to be there, electronically at least, for my practical. Seemed to go smoothly. Reassured. Then I canceled the fucking supershuttle.

It is interesting, I find, to note the pecularities of my Hotel Room. On a positive note, the view was bloody unbelievable. On a negative note, they seemed compelled to charge one for said view in any way possible. Breakfast was thirty bucks. (It was a decent buffet, but no-where close to $30 worth.) ::shrug:: It was convenient. Scheduled a hired car to take me to EWR at 4:30. This was, in part, a bloody good idea, and in part a mistake. The trip itself was doubleplusgood, taking half the estimated time, and in leather seated luxury. (Apparently I'm *so* used to lecturing on Mondays that I gave the nice driver an impromptu lesson in automated cars and philosophy.) The mistake was going at *4:30*. The bloody ticketing counter didn't open till 7:30. However, once there, I was *first* in bloody line (I should think so) and processed (at 7:30) with dispatch and kindness. They didn't even ding me for my luggage. They're currently ranking JetBlue in terms of shininess, which is saying something. (Not that I didn't expect it, say I parenthetically...)

I kind of feel *a very little* bit bad about not doing the tourist thing, but it would have been stupidly rushed and not very fun. And rather more to the point, I don't get any pleasure out of the tourist thing. I feel *very slightly* worse about not going out last night, but it would have taken non-trivial searching to find LA commensurate sushi last night. I really fubared my time planning though. Oh well.

On the note of time planning, however, I *did* choose the right day. The huge-ass Jet I'll be flying on will only have 87 people. At present, I've got *an entire* window side row to myself!

The earbuds I bought have performed extra-shiny wonderfully. (Sennheiser CX300s, worth the $90). And I expect the active-noise-cancelling headphones Ed got me to perform just as well.

Started an interesting puzzle game w/ plot today. The professor Layton thing. Seems quite reasonable.

Aaaaand I just remembered I forgot something in my checked bags. Bugger. (Not that important, just... useful.) The comments regarding the art in my green suitcase the nice ladies at the security checkpoint made were... slightly amusing. Apparently the bear showed up well, though they weren't sure what it was, and the sun was very commentworthy.

I also think that the nice lady who checked me in was flirting very slightly. But I have no useful flirt-detectors, so ::shrug:: what the hell do I know?

Aaand why the fuck would checked-in passengers fail to show up to a flight to India? It's like $1500 down the drain. Ew!

While seriously buzzed (Trip thingy 2 of ?)

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 03:47:52 GMT

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.... sushi. Arrived in NYC at about 6:30. Jet blue was wonderful. ... The bloody "SuperShuttle" was anything but. What a vile PoS that was. It's sufficiently poor that I'm trying to cancel tomorrow's reservation and try for a hired car instead. But less about the 2 hour 9 person van ride.

More about Sushi.

The trick with getting *bloody good* sushi is to authenticate yourself at the start as an honorable member of the "International Fraternity of Sushi Practitioners and Affecionados" mmmm, those three summer months between HS and college did actually pay off for this purpose. Got to the Marriott (pictures tomorrow when I'm a) awake and b) not as laggy. (Had a 10oz carafe of cold sake tonight... mmmm)) and checked in. The time between arriving on the ground and finishing checkin was 3 hours. This is intolerable. People need to be shot. But, as I was saying... (With extra ellipses...) Decided to wander down to the "in hotel" sushi place. Which, to *most* patrons is merely a very decent sushi place. By passing the secret phrases (and offering to buy the chef a beer once I had my initial plate) the chef actually pulled out all the stops for me and approximated a very decent omikase. The cool thing is that before the bill came, I was approximating in my head the price, and I was *exactly* correct. Mmmm, skill ranks in Profession(Sushi Chef).

More when I'm not buzzed. Need to go to bed earlyish, to be available for my TA tomorrow at 10 when he gives my practical. MmmmMmmmMmmmmMmmmmm sushi! (Of course, it's amazing how stale my sushi skills have gotten. What with Rochester having no places that are even commensurate with "real" cities.)

Braaaaains.

My Journey to Sydney (Part 1 of ?)

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:38:46 GMT

Just had my final lunch with my friends. (Images coming as soon as the various tools finish downloading over this airport internet connection.)

Forgot my Palm. Called Cyas 4 times, then tried Bjoern's cell. She picked up, turned around, gave it to me. I would have been *double plus unhappy* if I had forgotten that.

The *very nice* Jet Blue lady watched my face as I patted my pockets and discovered I didn't have it. Her first assumption: "You've got plenty of time. Your friend can give you your passport. If worst comes to worst, we can bump you to a later flight."

My reaction. "Passport? Is that important?" (I then checked to make sure I had the bloody thing, but me not having my passport pales in comparison to not having my palm. (I'm not *addicted* because this need isn't harming anything.)

I'm now resorting through my <Echoey Dripping Letters>Laptop Bag of Doom!</Echoey Dripping Letters> And repacking the fucker. I've realized I need scissors. This might be a problem since they consider me a "safe citizen" right now. ::snicker::

Jet Blue gets a big thumbs up, just for their nice ticketing counter lady.

Mmmm, must check that I still have that syrenge of Zombie Antigen in a secret place. Just In Case.

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:33:22 GMT

"This place would be really hard to defend in case of a zombie uprsing." ... "This cheese is delicious."

I've been blogged about.

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:18:59 GMT

So, I've started entering my location as Sydney, since it's not worth the trouble of changing stuff for 10 days.

I've been Blogged about.

The series he references is <a href="http://ficlets.com/stories/19155>here</a>

heeee...

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:17:09 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afttcxd6law

::snicker::

I'm... a bad person.

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:11:26 GMT

Why am I a bad person, you ask? I'm a bad person because I gave some thought to the following scenario.

Imagine a gnome in D&D. Imagine this gnome with boots of levitation, a leather harness (with gimbal) and a decanter of endless water that fits in said gimbal.) I dusted off my algebra and tried to figure out just how many joules of thrust (using the classic equation, none of this fancy bernoulli effect or whatever for me) said decanter could provide.

Calculations:

A geyser produces: 30 gallons of water every 6 seconds
1 fluid oz of water weighs 1.043 oz
1 gallon of water therefore weighs 1.043 * 128 oz = 133.50400 oz
1 gallon of water weighs 3.78477474 kg.
30 gallons therefore weigh: 113.543242 kg

These 30 gallons are projected 20 feet every 6 seconds
20 feet = 6.09600 meters or 1.01600 meters per second

using E(joules)= .5*m(kg)*v(m/s)^2

.5*113.543242*1.01600^2=58.6028464 joules

According to RoS "Whisper gnomes are skinny, almost gaunt creatures and rarely weigh more than 40 pounds"

Therefore, assuming an average whisper gnome weighs 35 pounds or 15.875733 kg

Solving for meters per second:

.5*113.543242*1.01600^2=.5*15.875733*x^2

Smush the math:58.6028464=.5*15.875733*x^2

58.6028464=7.9378665*x^2

Divide both sides by almost 8

7.38269488=x^2

Square root both sides

2.7171115=x

x= 8.91440781 feet per second
Asking google: 2.7171115 (meters per second) = 53.4864469 feet per (six seconds)

We get around 50 feet per round for an average gnome assuming no friction due to air resistance.

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20010118.html and the next few days.

Networking happens.

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:54:07 GMT

So, while at The Old Toad tonight, the people sitting in a booth next to me were interesting techy types. Did some networking, accidentally (they both had palms, one of the gents had a T|X), and it turns out that one of them is working on a predictive data warehouse (so I've connected him with our DW lecturing people) and the other has a company that runs tons of the major labs around the country and does research for hire. He was very interested in discussing with nvis_derentacle's Personal Medical Area Network idea, so I passed his contact info along to her.

I feel like I'm some sort of professional.

What the hell -- how did this happen?

P.S. Proper cider is awesome.

P.P.S. They have a beer here named Vincent's Old peculiar. I should try it sometime.

P.P.P.S. Scotch eggs are fascinating innovations. Must try again.

Anyone interested in a minimalistic Play by Post?

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:38:12 GMT

I'm interested in trying out Minimus and while I like my current gaming group, there isn't a trace of narrativum to be found. Here is a linky to my recruitment page. Feel free to tell your friends if you think they'd be interested. I'm looking for 2-3 activish players, just to get a feel for it.

More News

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:33:07 GMT

My Visa application has been approved, so I'll be flying out on or about the 25th of Feb. Right now, I plan to do a stopover in Singapore, so I'm not doing a 25-30 hour transit all in one go. And hey, Singapore!

In other news:"
Brian,

...You have been nominated to receive the Eisenhart Outstanding Teaching
Award for 2007-2008."

Which is *the* teaching award for RIT. I'm not eligible for the actual bloody award as I'm leaving before spring quarter completes, but... shiny!

Interesting look at how we wage war

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:08:31 GMT

This here is a great paper on how we wage war, contrasting current methods with rome and her visigoths.

Quote:

"Our needs and expectations in war take the form of “rule-sets” that not only define how we do military operations, but also how we understand our enterprise as a success. We assume the validity of rule-sets because we believe we make the rules when it comes to war. The very height of our pride came at the turn of the new millennium. We were so sure we owned the very laws governing war that we declared, like Ovid’s Olympians, that we could “transform” war at will.
But we forgot one thing. What we do in war will always mesh with what the enemy does. Our “fit” with the enemy is never wholly in our control.6 Thus success is all about how our rule-sets mesh with the enemy. We are most comfortable when the enemy tries to match our rule-sets—when the fit is tight. In fact, enemy buy-in to our war-frame has always been the critical and unacknowledged factor in American battle success. Here we have been lucky. Enemies who shared our way of fighting ensured our biggest war successes."

In other news, trying to install word... fucked my computer sideways.
Yay.

soo..

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:58:16 GMT

Okay, so I'm working on my visa application and I see the following questions:
"[Have you] committed, or been involved in the commission of war crimes or crimes against humanity or human rights?
No Yes
If Yes, please give details

[Have you] been involved in any activities that would represent a risk to Australian national security?
No Yes
If Yes, please give details"

...

What. The. Fuck.

I have no idea why they bother to actually *ask* these questions. It's not like a terrorist, planning to enter their country, would go "Yes, I'm a terrorist! I'm a risk to your national security! Can I have a visa now?"

And the war crimes thing is even sillier.

hehehe

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:55:32 GMT

A message I sent to my grad students:

Subject: Is anyone opposed to holding class in Jitters today?

Ok, so it goes something like this:

I'm badly in need of a drink. I suspect you people are too.
Jitters is a nearby coffeeshop that does light food and alcohol drinks and coffee drinks.

They have a back room that is never full.

I can (with a little prior notification) drive 6 or so people.

Is anyone opposed to this? (If you are, a private e-mail is fine and I'll call the whole thing off.)

Aaand... first round is on me.

Jitters is behind Breugeers bagels in South Town Plaza.

Send me an e-mail with a yea/nay/abstain vote. (The yeses have to be unanimous.)

Body Armor!

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:11:51 GMT

Whee! We have our armorgel!

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91221-1286736,00.html

Fun!

Ooops

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:09:00 GMT

heeeeeeee.... sometimes... only Oops is the right word. I accidently sent a one line very informal link e-mail off to my potential advisor in NSW instead a fellow professor at RIT. .... It would have been interesting to watch my face when I realized the "huh, why is the reply to that e-mail starred by default? I thought it did that only to ... e-mails... from... new... south...." significant pause... "Ooops!"