Eira the Valkyrie, and the new stratagem

After a series of promising, but ultimately dead characters, I started reading some ascension posts (posts about winning), and saw that these players were playing kind of fast and loose with their characters. It was risky to dive to sokoban for reflection or all the way to the castle for the wand of wishing, but both of those things exponentially increase your chances of surviving to mid-game. So was it more dangerous to go straight down to sokoban as soon as possible for reflection, or was it more dangerous to meander about, trying to stay alive long enough for the Random Nethack God to figure out a complex set of circumstances that ends in my death? I'd been playing each character like I wanted to keep it alive, but they're all very notably dead. Could being more risky be technically less risky? Only one way to find out. I switch back to the class I have the most experience with, and roll new Valk.

Eira the neutral human Valkyrie enters the Mazes of Menace...

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I started out pretty well, found a shop with two cloaks of displacement for only 66 zorkmids. I couldn't buy one fast enough. I then, rather uneventfully, rushed down to sokoban, and solved it with little trouble. The amulet of reflection was mine, and at level 5 I was protected from a good portion of the insta-deaths Nethack can issue. Maybe there's something to this new strategy... Should I make a run for the castle? Why the fuck not?

I continue down, and find a few rings I can't check for cursed status with a pet because they've all died due to somesuch Nethackery, so I just hold on to them in the hopes of finding an altar. A kitten attacks, and I toss it some tripe for a cheap cursed item ID, and abandon it. Don't look at me like that. You knew what this was. I test out the uncursed rings, and find they are conflict and warning! Quite a find. Warning will show me where nearby monsters are, and how nasty they are. Very useful. Conflict will cause all the monsters on the level to fight each other. Extremely useful in certain situations. Later I happen across an uncommon find; a grey stone. It could be a few things, only one is bad, so I test it to make sure it's not a loadstone, and pick it up. Hey, could be a luckstone... Yeah, and a djinni could fly out of my ass and grant me three wishes! It's probably flint. Maybe even a touchstone. I'll check it later, but there's no harm in bringing it along. Despite the unlikeliness, I carry it in my immediate inventory as if it were a luckstone. Just wishful thinking, I suppose.

Further down I enter a new level, and begin searching for the downstairs when I suddenly stop. I furrow my brow and stare. Why the fuck is my ring of warning telling me there is a 5th level dangerous monster around the corner??? The ring of warning uses numbers to show how dangerous the monsters nearby are. If you can't see them, but are near enough, they show up on your map as the number. 5 is the highest I've ever seen warning go, and now I was seeing it extremely early in the game. This can't be right. Its gotta be a chameleon. Just be cool, back away from whatever it is until it changes into something easier to kill... I take two cautious steps toward the upstairs, and think I might have just dodged a bullet. I take another step, and it teleports into the room with me! It's a fucking Arch Lich! It casts a spell, and I'm surrounded on all sides by serious monsters! Among them an ettin zombie, two hill giants, and a goddamn green dragon!

okokok, don't freak out. Check your inventory for something to get out of this. I've got two scrolls of teleport, one cursed, one not. The cursed one will change what level I'm on, and the uncursed one will just move me around on this level. I'd rather deal with the chameleon now, so lets try the uncursed one first, and keep the cursed one in reserve. I read the uncursed scroll of teleport, and wind up two rooms away. I quickly put on my ring of conflict, and make a run for a corridor so I can deal with the monsters one at a time when they show up.

I hear noises from elsewhere, hopefully that ring of conflict is doing something. As I stand in the corridor, two "2"s show up in the room in front of me, but out of my visual range. I poke my head into the room, and see a cockatrice and a scorpion. I didn't know a scorpion was a 2... I back into the corridor and ready the few daggers I have for that cockatrice, when the 2 changes into a 1. I poke my head out, and see a small kobold where the cockatrice once was. It's the chameleon! Kill it while it's still weak! I rush over and kill it, then make my way the scorpion. On the way I see a 2 and a 3 making their way over to this room, so I dispatch the scorpion quickly, and fall back into the corridor. The corridor is at a bit of an angle, so I might be able to see what it is before it has a straight shot at me, so I back into the next room, which turns out to be a leprechaun hall! They're still asleep, so they won't bother us, but if things get hairy I can wake them all up, and with the ring of conflict, they should make for a good distraction. But this room is still a dead end. I hide around the corner, double check my inventory, and wait for the 2 and 3 to make their way to me.

The 2 enters the corridor, and I poke my head around the corner, and see that it's an ettin mummy. I should be able to take him... them?.. It. I position myself so I can hit it as soon as it sees me, and wait for the 2 to round the corner. As soon as its heads appear, I attack. It was tougher than I thought, but I killed it. The 3 suddenly makes a bee-line for me, I'm still at 2/3 health, so I need to know what it is. I wait until the 3 is in the corridor in a position where I can look safely, and peek around the corner. Green Dragon! Ok, it's kind of early for me to try to take one on. I know I have poison resistance... Fuck it. I've got a potion of full healing and a wand of digging in case it gets to be too much. No guts no Glory. I wait for the Green Dragon to get in range, and bash it with my long sword. It takes quite a beating, and gets my hitpoints down to the teens, but I drink the full heal potion, and finish it off in a few more turns. Sweet! Now I have green dragon scales that I might be able to turn into dragon scale mail!

I continue clearing out the rest of the level, and pick up a large cat as a pet. I open the door on the last room in the map, and it's full of chickatrices! I check my inventory and confirm I have a lizard corpse, but no gloves... I try to close to the door, but a chickatrice hops into the doorway! I have no reason to fuck around with these things, so I'm out. I back out of the corridor, slam the door behind it, and lock it. I'll deal with those guys later. Or never. At least my large cat was far enough away to keep from getting locked in with them...

On the way to the stairs down, I run into a gargoyle. I hate gargoyles. I check my inventory and zap it with a wand of lightning, killing it on the first hit. It drops a potion, which I quaff greedily. It was a potion of self knowledge!

You are piously aligned.
You are cold resistant.
You are warned.
You are displaced.
You are stealthy.
You are fast.
You have reflection.
You are lucky.
You have extra luck.
Bad luck does not time out for you.
Good luck does not time out for you.
You can safely pray.

That's odd... Why all the luck? Oh well, I won't complain.

The next level down is the Big Room, and I've got a ring of conflict! I slip it on and put some distance between me and my large cat. The monsters start fighting amongst themselves, most notably a pack of chickatrices, but the overall flow of monsters is still closing in on me, so I carefully made my way to the down stairs so I'd have an easy escape if it got hairy.

The chickatrices have been making tons of statues out of monsters, but they weren't making it close enough to keep me clear. Or do I want them to stay away? I fight as much as I can, and flee downstairs once surrounded, knowing that some monsters would follow me down.

Sure enough a zombie and a tengu follow me down, it'll be good not to have them around me when I go back up. As I fight them off, a hill giant appears in the doorway, but is far enough away that I'll have these guys out of the way before he gets to me. Suddenly the hill giant zaps a wand of lightning while I'm at half health! Shit! If this doesn't kill me, he's still far enough away to zap me multiple times before I can get to him, and my daggers are all upstairs! Should I escape upstairs? The bolt of lightning streaks toward me, bounces off my amulet of reflection, blinding me, and returns to the hill giant, killing him. Ok, that was close. Or did it just seem close? Whatever. Hill giants usually travel in packs, and the monsters that had surrounded me upstairs didn't seem too tough if I recall correctly, I think I'll hang out upstairs until the blindness wears off.

Back upstairs, I blindly fight off some minor monsters, but one bites me and I feel feverish. Crap! A werewolf! Ok, my god will cure my lycanthropy, but I don't want to use up the godly heal if I'm not near death, because I'm still low on health. I keep fighting, but the monsters seem too resilient. Fuck this, I'm leaving. I escape downstairs.

Eira's quest continues here...

Quick updates

Things are going pretty well. I have a few promising job prospects, both are better than what I had, as is normally the case. Still running off savings, and we have enough that I don't have to freak out about money while I look for the right job instead of just any job.

I figured that if I ever won the lottery I would retire to some acreage in Montana or Texas or Wyoming, preferably with a quarry, and just fucking relax. Seems like a great idea right? Yeah. See, I've been going nucking futs with all this waiting around. I really thought I'd have an easier time doing nothing. Just play some video games, do some work, hit the range for some .22 practice, and enjoy the time off. Nope. I can't do any of those things unless I force myself. If I don't catch myself, I'll just pace for hours, thinking about jobs and life, and generally driving myself up the walls. I just don't know what to do with myself. Maybe it will be different when I have a few million in the bank, but I just can't sit still. This last week has been the worst because the holiday just shut everything down, and I'm waiting for scheduling on follow up interviews, and I can't call them because they told me they'll be busy going into Thanksgiving, and then Monday rolled around, and I didn't want to bother them today because I know it's the first day back from a long holiday weekend, and blah blah blah. I guess I've just got more stuff to do.

I applied for unemployment benefits after a little goading from friends and family, because I'm not philosophically opposed to unemployment benefits, as long as they're used as intended. That is, a helping hand during a career transition, and not a long term source of income. I did all the stupid paperwork, and weeks later got the first check. It's still sitting on the counter. Filing was one thing, but depositing the check? It's different. I may not oppose unemployment benefits, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. Also, the check is about a third of what I made (exactly how do people live off of this for 99 weeks?)

I've been taking advantage of this time to take some more serious looks at out of state work. It's by no means decided yet, but the plans are definitely moving forward. One of the good opportunities has a lot of people on their team that work all over the country, so being able to move was a bit of a selling point.

I don't lie on my resume or in interviews, but I lied by omission to answer one question asked during an interview in order to conceal my conservative values and general disgust for the way this state is run. When I told my wife about it she asked me why I lied, and I said that for now, I have to be employable in this state, and liberals tend to hate (not disagree with, hate) people who don't conform to their world view. That's why I blog under a pseudonym. Maybe after we move I'll be more open about my identity, but then again, I'm a private person, so maybe fuck off :)

I've been digging back into the California hunting and camping information. Camping isn't that hard, but I want to camp in a place that isn't hermetically sealed from the environment. I want to pitch a goddamn tent, make a goddamn fire, and poop in a goddamn hole. Well, maybe a porta-potty or two wouldn't be so bad. I just gotta get away. I crave that quiet that I only get when I go out to the sooper seekrit desert shooting spot. But California is strongly opposed to letting you interact with anything beautiful about this state. Believe me, if they could wrap plexiglass around every hiking trail they would. I want to feel like part of nature, not just a tourist with a camera. The hunting stuff is just as confounding as ever. The State's websites on the matter are uniformly inconsistent. One wilderness park has maps, marked areas, specific locations, and another has vague mention of separate areas that have different rules. The one thing that is somewhat consistent is that they always recommend just asking at the ranger station, but a few searches has shown many people receiving bad information from random rangers. This is bad. Because depending on the area and the infraction, being unclear about where this zone ends and that begins could mean anything from a scolding to federal prison. So yeah. BLM land seems to be the only truly free place left, but it's almost uniformly dust and scrub in my area. Which isn't really that bad, but what's the point of living in one of the most beautiful states in this country if you can't enjoy it? But for as unhelpful as the state-provided information is, the hunters themselves are even less helpful. I remain astounded at how unwelcoming, and in some cases, hostile a group of people can be who are enjoying a sport that one might conclude they want to keep in existence. I don't know if they got the memo, but hunting is a dying sport in dire need of some revitalization. But I guess they just figure that means more game for them, right? That said, the predator guys seem pretty alright. Predator hunting might be a good way to cut my teeth.

The failure of national opt out day was very disheartening to me. If people aren't willing to suffer a minor inconvenience to make a symbolic stand for freedom, what the fuck are they going to do when confronted with something that actually matters?

In other news, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. North Korea rattles its saber more violently than it has in quite some time, the collapse of the dollar seems closer and more dangerous than ever, drug wars ramp up all over to deal with decreasing demand, Government Motors put out an ad thanking America for their hugely unpopular and widely opposed bailout, Jihadist bomb plots get closer and closer to home every day, liberals pop their collective monocles when they see someone doing that "fishing" thing they read about, Lady Gaga is helping PFCs steal classified information that has the potential to send international relations into a tailspin, and Obama is as impotent as a man who's married to Michelle Obama. Good thing I've got a case of bad news burnout, otherwise I might be concerned.

Bo Burnham is hilarious

I saw his words words words show and highly recommend it.

Art is dead

[direct link]


Words words words

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What has two thumbs and just got laid off?

THIS guy...



I'm excited.

I've been kind of looking for a new place for a while, and I haven't been challenged there in two years. I think the change was overdue.

My boss didn't want to do two weeks, so right afterward, I showed him and an ex-coworker how to manage some of the undocumented scripts and automation I had done for our patch server, and went over some of the other undocumented job functions I had been doing since our previous round of lay-offs. Then I signed out for my phone (god, I hated that phone) and card, and my former boss and I went out to the parking lot and talked for an hour about the company and my honest opinion of him, my coworkers, and the CEO.

I wasn't a dick about any of that stuff because I didn't feel upset. Like I said, I was excited. I told him he needed to delegate more before he wound up in an early grave. I told him he was trying to balance the company on his shoulders, without asking for any help, and it was taking its toll on him. I told him how one of my coworkers was truly suffering from the low pay. I told him how the CEO revealed to me that he was bored with the job. I told him how it was a privilege to watch the company learn and grow over the 7 years (this month!) I worked there.

Then I shook his hand, said goodbye, turned around, looked up at the sky, breathed the free air, and felt great.


On to the next adventure...

It's a marathon, not a sprint

Alright, it has been a little over two weeks since I started pounding the pavement, and I quickly discovered that a kickass attitude is no match for burnout.

The first week was easy. Well, it was technically easy. It was hard to get out of bed, and get to Starbucks, but once I was there, and my brain was in gear, there was no stopping me. I may have been more tired than I was used to at the end of the day, but it wasn't that bad.

But after the first week, I started to notice that not only was I more physically tired, I was also mentally tired. Code I had written days before made no sense to me, which wouldn't be the first time, but probably the first time for code I had written so recently, and definitely the first time I could not grok after a few minutes. Frustrated with the confusing code I had written, I decided to just start work on a different segment of code. Except... Nothing was coming out. I just sat there, unable to put two thoughts together. I started just writing whatever came to mind so I could keep track of what I was doing, but I'd forget where I was after a few lines. Then I got really angry with myself for forgetting how to code, and surfed the net idly, stopping periodically to see if I remembered how to code. I didn't. Then I got mad at myself for wasting time, and opened my list of things to read, and started reading about some perl methods I wanted to try out. Except... That didn't make sense either... I was broken, frustrated, and angry. I went home.

The following week I started sleeping through my alarm. No matter how much I turned it up, I slept right through it. And when I woke up an hour or two late, still with time to work, I didn't want to go to Starbucks because I felt like it would be a waste of time and money. So I tried to work at least one hour at home. But I had the same problem. So I just wound up playing Fallout New Vegas. More metaphorical comfort food, but it didn't matter to me, because I knew i wouldn't be able to code.

When the weekend rolled around, I wanted to code, but something always got in the way. I played obscene amounts of Fallout, and honestly had fun doing it. But I still knew time was passing me by.

I overdid it on Sunday, and stayed up too early playing, and fucked up my morning. I still work up early, and actually woke to my alarm this time, but I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything but play Fallout. So I thought about it a bit, and decided to sleep in as much as I could because I was going to work Tuesday.

So two weeks after I declared war on sleep, I slept.

After about 10 hours of sleep, I woke up a new man. Feeling refreshed, and ready to work. I didn't though, because I didn't want to jinx it.

I went to a particularly vexing day of work, came home, unwound with some teevee with the wifey, and got to bed at a reasonable hour.

This morning, I was up on time, got ready for work early, headed into Starbucks, got 2.5 hours of serious coding done, and still had a half to write this post, and head in to work.

tl,dr; I need to start pacing myself. I don't think I've ever worked as mentally hard as I did that week, certainly not on that little amount of sleep. I just didn't think I could induce burnout in a little over a week. Honestly, I'm kind of impressed. But I'm not in it for the short game, and I certainly shouldn't expect to take off at a full sprint with no training. I'm going to try doing half-mornings of non-business stuff in between my business mornings, and generally figuring out the maximum I can do without going over that threshold.

Why Minecraft is fun

I've often wondered what it was that made Minecraft fun.

It was frustrating trying to explain it to people who hadn't played it, because I just couldn't put my finger on it. But this review hit the nail on the head.

The reason Minecraft is fun is because it's totally random.

The world generation is random.
When you generate a new world, you're seeing something no one else has ever seen before. Everything is new, nothing is planned. That is why discovering amazing naturally occurring land features is so exciting. There was no artist that sketched this and gave it to a team of graphic designers who built it into the game. This is all new, generated just now, discovered by you. Sure, there are rules that go into the creation of these features, but they are still quite random, and still somewhat rare.

The enemy generation is random.
Enemies generate within certain rules, but their generation is still random. There is no pretense of fairness. When you buy a standard game, and you hit a part that you can't quite get past, you'll keep pushing at it or try a different method, because in the back of your mind, there is the knowledge that a company developed this game, and they did not make it impossible. They probably spent tens of thousands of dollars in testing to make sure it was just the right level of difficulty for the potential buyers. There is no safety net in this game. You are entirely at the mercy of the random number generator and a few simple restrictions.

Resource generation is random.
When I find diamond in Minecraft, I get honestly excited. Because it's rare. Really rare. And when I go mining, I have zero assurance of finding any. I'm not fulfilling a mission to find diamond to continue the main story of the game, where I can be comforted by the knowledge that I will find diamond, because I require it to continue playing. If I find diamond, it's because I used a good mining strategy to find a rare resource, not because someone put an objective marker on my map, and handed me a pick.

The situations you can get yourself into are random.
The combination of the random events occurring randomly on randomly generated landscape can lead to some really random situations. You could be out in the light of day, gathering resources, then fall into a cave filled with monsters, and instantly get overwhelmed and killed. You could be out hunting cows to make some leather armor, when it starts to get dark, and you realize you have no idea where you are or where your shelter is. You could be monster hunting with the best weapons, and the best armor, and take a single hit from a spider, and be pushed off the edge of a heretofore unnoticed cliff. You could be spelunking when a creeper sneaks up on you, jump back, missing most of the blast, and watch helplessly as the sand ceiling collapses, suffocating you.

The world is a beautiful, dangerous, unforgiving place.

Finding diamond, building amazing structures, or simply surviving are all the more rewarding knowing that you did it in a very hostile environment with no safety net or promise of success.

It's just you versus the world, and it feels really good to win.

How to cheat at caravan in Fallout: New Vegas

UPDATE 8/19/12: If you've played New Vegas recently you've probably noticed that this tactic no longer reliably works, and the merchants who have enough caps to make Caravan a worthwhile endeavor will only play you 5 times. I kind of like it better this way, because the games are more interesting and challenging. I still lose sometimes on bad hands. It really is a fun game if you take the time to learn it, and consider the full implications of the face cards.

Good luck! The original post will continue below...

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Caravan is a card-based minigame within Fallout: New Vegas. A whole bunch of NPCs will play it with you, for varying amounts of caps.

It is also incomprehensible.

The rules provided are terrible. A fucking tutorial would have taught in minutes what a giant block of text couldn't explain in hours. But here we are.

There are a number of youtube tutorials on how to play, and to Bethesda's credit, it's actually a pretty fun game once you understand what you're doing, and how to fuck with your opponent. Only problem is, the opponent AI in this minigame is a bit thick (at least so far in the game). Once you get a few tricks under your belt, it's practically a guaranteed win as soon as you start. Maybe later on better NPCs will put up a real fight, but nothing so far. Just free caps.

But if you just need the caps, why bother learning to play, planning out your strategy, or giving a shit? Just do this for free caps forever. (or at least until they patch the obviously flawed rules of their game)

Whoops.

"Brutal" is right.

[direct link]

From HotAir

EVIL RICH PEOPLE! (Election Shenanigans)

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From HotAir

Quote of the don't ask me, my wife handles that stuff...

I think women, because -- at least in my household -- tend to have a better sense of the family budget...
~President Obama

Wow.

So the first lady is better at budgeting than the president?

I wish I could say I was surprised.

I guess I'd rather have this running my country.

All partisanship aside, I NEVER want the person with approval and veto power over this country's economy to tell me that his wife is better with money than he is.

Complete disrespect

Lara Bush would be caught dead looking like this in public.

Whenever I saw Lara Bush on teevee or in print, I quietly appreciated her stately appearance, but expected nothing less of someone in that position.

Obviously, I should lower my expectations.

Repost: Quote of the Collecting History

The Armed Candian talked about why he buys surplus rifles. It's all right here.

For every "cosmo queen", there is a rifle with a battered stock and a little wear that has a story to tell. Holding a surplus rifle, you can imagine what it was like to carry it into battle. You can picture what life was like for the man who depended on that weapon with his life. Did he clean it and care for it? Or did he toss it aside after a hard days march or fighting? Perhaps it saw the rubble of Stalingrad or Berlin or the icy snows outside Moscow? You may never know the story but someone, somewhere carried a rifle like it with all their hopes and dreams along with it. And perhaps died with it, the last object they ever held in their hands.
~Armed Canadian

Serius bizniss

Business Partner: Anything else?
Me: Yeah, we need to talk about how we're going to handle the personnel bandwidth issue coming up mid-October.
BP: What? I thought we were doing good on time. What's the issue?
Me: Fallout: New Vegas.
BP: Oh crap.

For you to succeed, I must fail.

I know that the ideal outcome of a web application vulnerability assessment is that the hacker finds nothing, and reports that the site is very secure.

But that doesn't keep me from feeling crappy when I can't find anything wrong.

Bleh.

Booty Call - The Midnight Beast

[direct link]

Kiara - Bonobo

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I wished I could stay in that uncomfortable chair at that tiny table in that freezing place all day

I go to that Starbucks because it's close, opens early, and has free wifi. I dutifully purchase a product to use the space each morning. But I don't like it.

It's cold, the chairs are uncomfortable for long periods, the internet can lag at times, and the tables are tiny. Did I mention it's cold? I don't get cold easily, but I've typed through shivering hands there. Sweater, pants, and shoes are required. I usually wear a beanie too.

But this morning, I didn't want to go to work. I wanted to stay there so I could work on the business.

One of the many people I talked to before deciding to start a business told me that when you work for yourself, you'll never work harder in your life, but you'll love every minute of it.

I only started pounding the pavement last week, and I think I already love it.

Why won't the library open earlier?

Being a good guy

Last week, my wife dropped me off at the shop where my car was waiting for me. I had already paid for it earlier and had the keys, so I just hopped in and got ready to leave. The mechanic who took care of me ran out, and knocked on my window. Apparently a guy in an RV broke my tail light backing up to leave. He left a complete note with his name, address, and two phone numbers. The damage was very slight. There was a deep scratch in the bumper, and outer plastic of the tail light was broken with no body damage. Perfect broken tail light.

I called him that weekend, and he asked that I get an estimate so he can figure if he's going to have his insurance take care of it, or just pay out of pocket. I said it was no problem, and that I would get some estimates. I was a little concerned about damage I couldn't see, and looked up shops that could get me an estimate. It wasn't until I started considering how much time it was going to take to get fixed that it even occurred to me to change it myself.

I checked eBay, and found I could get a replacement tail light assembly for $70, so I went out to the car, and spent about 30 minutes taking apart all the trunk paneling I could to get to the poorly located nuts that held the tail light in place. I could swap this out easily, and the scratch on the bumper was cosmetic. My car was far from brand new, and scars show character.

I considered asking for $300 to cover the damage, and just replacing the light myself. If I involved his insurance, his rate would very likely go up enough to make a one time $300 expense make sense. He'd be fine with it, and I'd have a little extra money in my pocket during these no OT times. It was the capitalist thing to do. Both people would be happy with the transaction. But one would probably be happier.

The more I thought about it, the harder it was to rationalize. Especially when it would have been easy for him to just drive away. Maybe $200 would be better? I didn't really feel good about profiting from this guy's mistake, but my time was still valuable. Bah, I'll just chalk it up to experience working on the car. $70 for the light, $30 for my labor. An even $100.

I called him up and told him I took apart my trunk to get behind the light, and saw I could replace it myself, and that I found a replacement light on ebay for $70.
John: So how much do you want?
ET: Figure 30 for my time. An even 100.
J: You sure?
E: Sure. [jokingly] But I am kind of giving your a break on my normal hourly rate though.
J: How about $150?
E: If that's what you want to pay, I'll take it.
We set up a meeting at the Starbucks I code at in the mornings.

The next morning he called to say he had arrived, and I told him where to find me. He was a little younger than I figured for RV folk, late 40s early 50s, pattern baldness around a well tanned head, short salt and pepper hair and beard. I half-closed my laptop, and stood slightly to shake his hand.

John: Nice to meet you.
ET: Nice to meet you too.
J: Thanks for being a good guy about this... [he seemed to think, "lord knows this could have gone the other way"]
E: No problem.
J: Well, here's the $150... [counts out $130] Wait a minute... I seem to have lost $20 on the way here. Hang on. [begins toward the door]
E: [I make a quick visual recount] Wait, John, you don't... [he was out the door]
[Is this a game? No. He counted it out in front of me, he's got a note, and he left me with the money. I hide the money under the handwritten notes and pen he brought. No point in leaving it sitting out. He returns, and I decided against making a joke about "what money?"]
J: [He seemed to notice that I looked very at home in my little section of this Starbucks. That's not good. I'm sick of this place already] You here often?
E: Every morning. I'm starting a business and working, so it's 5 every night, here to work on the business, then off to work.
J: Well, it's good what you're doing. [he counts it again and sighs] $130. I just came from the bank, and I got $140 out and had this $10. Not sure where that $20 is, but it looks like it's costing me $170. [takes out his wallet]
E: Forget about it.
J: No, no, I said $150.
E: It's your call, man.
J: Here you go. And I wrote up a quick note saying that I paid you for a broken tail light and bumper damage, if you don't mind signing it.
E: [It was a simple note, nothing lawyerish, not even printed on a printer] Of course. [I signed the simple document, and handed it back to him]
J: Did you want a copy?
E: Not necessary. Actually, there is one more thing... Since the accident, [I rubbed my neck emphatically] I've been having some neck pain...
J: [he grinned broadly] Really? And where were you during the accident again?
E: Well, I was a few miles away, but me and my car... we just have this bond...
J: [laughter]
E: You know, you thanked me for being a good guy about it, but you made it easy by being a good guy first.
J: Well, the first thing I did was go inside to see if they'd give me your number, but they couldn't because of client confidentiality or something, so I left them that note to give to you.
E: Well, I just appreciate you doing the right thing.
J: Thanks for being a stand up guy about this. Well, I gotta get back to my sick wife.
E: Oh! I hope she feels better.
J: It's cancer.
E: Oh...! [I could feel my eyes begin to water slightly. Over empathy strikes again!]
J: [he didn't break eye contact, his face didn't change from the pleasant expression he had the whole conversation, he didn't miss a beat] Don't worry about it, life goes on-- you're young, and you're here, makin' it happen. Thanks again for being a good guy about this.
E: [I barely croaked out:] Thanks. [not what I wanted to say, but it was what came out]

I can't believe I almost profited from this man.

If I said $300, he probably would have been less friendly, and less likely to open up to me. I would have continued on my merry way, $230 richer (or $296 if just got some red brake tape) and never given it a second thought. I would have never known that I created an unexpected expense for this man who's probably going through the hardest time in his life. Hell, even if he told me, there's no way he would have accepted his money back.

He was just some random jerk who smashed into my car, and inconvenienced my life. But after a few minutes with him, I have this connection to him that would never allow me to do what I could have just as easily do to some stranger. But that's what confuses me; technically, he's still a stranger. We're probably not going to hang out later, or talk about how my tail light is doing at the 5 Year Broken Tail Light Reunion. I only know a few things about him, and will probably never see him again, but I'll never regard him as some random jerk again.

This has been something I've pondered for a long time.

Things would be very different if everyone realized that all the nameless, faceless people they pass by every day had the same hopes, fears, ambitions, insecurities, loves, hates, and life that they had.

When people start seeing themselves in other people; how could they do wrong?
~From post A Blog's Purpose

Sure, his problems aren't my problems, and I could have just as easily been self-righteous about giving him a moderately expensive lesson to remind him to be more careful when he maneuvered his RV. He could also just as easily have been fucking with me, and enjoying a big laugh at my expense on the drive home. But I'm glad I did what I did, and the lesson I learned will stay with me.

California budget 100 days late, relies upon magical money shitting goat to close gaps

Not quite a magical goat, but it might as well have been. They balanced the budget on the expectation that the economy will turn from bust to boom on a dime, and that the feds will give them a bigger allowance this year cuz they've been mowing the lawn, and taking out the trash, and keeping their room clean.

To anyone familiar with California's "maybe we'll win 4.8 billion dollars in the lottery next year" budget planning style, this should come as no surprise. But the fact that they're doing it in the middle of the great recession super happy recovery time, is just salt in the giant sucking chest wound that is California's fiscal liabilities.

Wait a minute... Are the feds the magical money shitting goat??? Maybe they're not so crazy...

Pound the pavement till it bleeds

Because of a number of factors in my childhood, I was on edge most of the time at home. I didn't sleep in because my mom wouldn't let me. There was always something to do. When I moved out, I worked mornings, and sleeping wasn't possible. After my hours got changed to evenings, for the first time, I could sleep in without worry of disturbance. After trying it out a bit, I realized I really liked not having to do anything.

I was now able to wake up, and feel joy that I didn't have to get up, and could go back to sleep. I started doing it every weekday (on weekends it felt like a waste of free time), and I enjoyed it. I did this for about 3 years.

Since work started kicking up, I started to feel down. I used to have more fun at work, but with the recession, understaffing, and elimination of overtime, work has just been draining me.

It was a medium-sized push, but I was already close enough to the edge for some reason to start feeling depressed again. Since I had fought it so well before, it took some time for me to recognize the old symptoms. My mind would automatically avoid the thought, because that starts the spiral, so I had to come to the realization somewhat obliquely, but there it was.

At this point, I was relying on metaphorical comfort food to keep my mood up. I found the FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU sub-Reddit, and it was guaranteed lolz for me. Hanging out at the top of the board on Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live for hours was fun, but wore off quickly when I stopped. Enjoying my wife's company was great, but as soon as she left, so did the feeling.

I stopped blogging anything of substance, I hated work, I hated the feeling I got after an 8 hour session of MW2 pwnage, I hated checking the FFFUUUU subreddit and seeing there was nothing new because I checked it 10 minutes ago, I never felt like going to the range, I had no drive to code, and I acted like an unmotivated employee in the company I co-owned.

I knew I was depressed, but was afraid to admit it to myself because the source of my depression had changed, and I wasn't sure how to address it.

Realizing how big the world is and how small you really are is great for when you're getting caught up in the small stuff. But this was different. I was comfortable with where I was, and somewhere in my mind, I knew I was doing something wrong.

Then I saw some drawings on FFFFUUUU based on a comment from Ask Reddit. I tracked the comments back, and read the original post, and the comments referenced.

Original post
One of many responses;

Three words; wake up early. Wake up every day at the crack of dawn. Beat the sunrise like a boss. 5 AM is ideal. Tired? Fuck that. By waking up early every day, you take control of your entire day. The first thing you should do when you wake up is not think "Fuck I'm tired..." but "FUCK YEAH ANOTHER DAY I LIVE!" and plan your day accordingly. Write down goals all the time and circle the ones you have not completed yet in the morning. Conquer every day. Do not let the day control you. Sleep every day early unless your goal needs to be completed that day. You can either enjoy the indulgences of lethargy and then drown in regret or take the pains of goals and live a champion.
~ihaveacalculator

The response to the above that I saw first;

Three words reiterated: Wake thefuckup earlier. Fuck dawn, be awake for that as well. Wide awake. Leave your house while dark, grab a coffee, and attack nature. Climb a mountain, surf a wave, dive a trench, or pound pavement until the concrete bleeds. I don't know where you fucking live. But seize it. See those dark windows as you're running by? They don't know what the fuck they are doing with their lives. You do. And your gonna fucking win it all. Graphic design the shit out of your life too. Dont have art on your walls? Fucking make it! Lost your pet? Put some fucking signs up. Even if you didnt, make some anyways! Practice the shit out of what you love, and it'll love you back like your bitch. Yea your short. So fucking what. Bet you one day living like its yours, and every person in the world will look up to you. Just don't ever fucking stop. Not for anyone, and not for anything, until you can look back on your life and say fuck yeah. I did that. I did it all.
~news_and_coffee

The specifics of the motivation are as unimportant as the typos and grammatical errors. The main points for me were the last line of the first comment, and the motivation of the second.

You can either enjoy the indulgences of lethargy and then drown in regret or take the pains of goals and live a champion.

When I read this I remembered making the conscious decision that I was going to sleep in and be lazy because I had never been able to do so before. I actually decided to be lazy. Three years later, I was close to the edge, and work troubles pushed me over. Now that I could see what I was doing, I could see how I had rationalized it all this time.

I wasn't oversleeping, I was sleeping at least 8 hours, which is what doctors recommend.
I didn't need to work harder at the business, coding was easy enough for me that I just needed to code, and the rest would come.
Shooting is expensive, and I'm already good enough with my .22s. Plus it takes all day to drive out to the desert where I can shoot larger rifles.
Work is annoying, but I power through it, so it's OK.

Even though these rationalizations aren't technically lies, it was obvious they weren't working for me. I needed to change. I didn't used to be like this. I kicked ass and took names to get where I am today. I had that "don't tell me what I can't do" spirit. Where is that guy?

Oh.

He's sleeping.
He's procrastinating.
He's looking for the quick fix.

He's acting like every other person you see out in the world, wandering around aimlessly, looking for a quick shot of pleasure, and waiting for the next big thing to happen to them.

And he's not going to have ANYTHING to show for his actions in 10 years.


Which brings me to the second comment;

Wake up early and pound the pavement till it bleeds.

The comfortable life is a phantom temptation. It creeps up on you, and whispers into your ear;

"Hey, things are going pretty good right now. They're not incredible or anything, but they used to be much worse. Remember those times? All you gotta do now is tread water, and you'll never have to live those times again."

Beat the comfortable life like it owes you money.

The motivated people I read about and listen to are never satisfied. They want more, and when they get it, they want even more than that.

My misanthropy stems from a severe abhorrence of mediocrity. It's like I can see the skates many of the people around me are coasting through life on. Just hoping the bump into something good. Sometimes they run out of steam, and have to push a little. Sometimes they bump into something good. Sometimes other people give them a push toward a goal. But they're just coasting.

Well, I finally looked down, and somewhere along the way the ass-kicking boots I put on years ago turned into skates. The world was passing around me and I wasn't doing anything about it because I was afraid I forgot how to walk.

FUCK.

THAT.

I'm meant for bigger things.

I'm getting up at my equivalent of dawn, getting away from my distractions, and pounding my equivalent of the pavement till it bleeds. I'm going to practice what I love until it loves me back. And I won't stop for anything or anyone until I can look back and say, "Fuck yeah. I did that. I did it all."

Changing your life is hard, and it's a lot harder to kick yourself in the ass when you're lying down in bed, groping for the alarm when your eyes haven't started working yet. I recorded a message to my tired self from my kick-ass self, and I listened to it this morning... Sure, it took a few times before I actually got up, and I'm cold, and hungry, and tired in this Starbucks, and my car has been in the shop for 5 hours longer than I thought it'd be, but I've been getting shit done for 6 hours now, and it's not even 2. Today, I got 5 hours of work done before the time I would have gotten out of bed two days ago.

I was lucky enough to record the big picture things I need to do during the moments of clarity in the fog I was coasting through, so I've got plenty to work on.

I know it's hard, but nothing worth doing is easy.

I've done enough hard things to know that they get easier to do if you keep doing them, and if you keep doing them long enough...

They come as naturally as breathing.

So that's the goal.

Rebuild myself once more.

Become that guy again.


And I'm gonna fucking win it all.

Mad Rush - Philip Glass

[direct link]

I've been discovering Steve Reich lately, and this was on one of his playlists. I usually have the music playing in the background as I work or do something else, but when this came on, about half way through I realized that I wasn't working. I was just listening, staring right through my computer screen, and letting the music move me.

Music should move you like that.

Marko called it.

[Regarding health care as a right] You cannot have a right to something that necessitates a financial obligation on someone else’s part. [snip] Calling it a "human right" sort of makes a mockery of the term, since actually treating it like a human right would make a whole class of professionals slaves to the rest of us.
~Marko

NY Times op-ed: Doctors should start working weekends for the good of us all.

Homeless man under pressure

[direct link]

This is a relation of one of my coworkers, he's a performer, and looking to raise awareness for the homeless.

I laughed until I peed a little

Top Gear is one of my favorite shows.

Priceless: Dem tries to explain how a job is created

[direct link]

They should have asked him how a job is destroyed. He knows the answer to that, but he just doesn't realize it's the answer he gave to create a job.

From HotAir

Smooth Obamatron hits a segfault, gets stuck in a loop

George Snuffleupagus interviewed President Obama, and just had to ask the question every Democrat must be asking while November approaches the Democrats in the same way an asteroid approached the dinosaurs;

STEPHANOPOULOS: How deep is your commitment to this fight? Are you saying that if Congress passes a short term extension of all the tax cuts, you're gonna veto it?

OBAMA: George, here's what . I'm saying is that we've got a fundamental choice about this economy... [tl;dr blah blah republicans' fault]

STEPHANOPOULOS: Does that mean you will veto an extension of tax cuts to the wealthy?

OBAMA: What I am saying is that if we are going to add to our deficit by $35 billion, $95 billion, $100 billion, $700 billion, if that's the Republican agenda, then I've got a whole bunch of better ways to spend that money.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you're not saying you're gonna veto it.

OBAMA: There are a whole bunch better ways to spend the money.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How come you don't want to say veto?

OBAMA: There are a whole bunch better ways to spend the money.

ERROR! ERROR! DOES NOT COMPUTE! Conflict between prime directive 1 and 2!

Prime directive 1: Soak the rich
Prime directive 2: Preserve Democrat leadership
Prime directive 3: Golf

Engage subroutine &doubletalk;
RETURN: "There are a whole bunch better ways to spend the money."

Source video

Meanwhile, the Democrats in Congress are doing the same thing;
Reporter: Hai guise! Wanna propose legislation to extend Bush's tax cuts for the middle class? You look like you could really use a boost and you already concede that this needs to happen.
Congressional Dems: ERROR! ERROR! DOES NOT COMPUTE! Conflict between prime directives! ONE: Never cut taxes. TWO: Preserve Democrat leadership.
Reporter: What?
Congressional Dems: We're going to wait until after November.
Reporter: But shouldn't you act now, before Republicans get into power, and take the credit for passing it? Pushing it through now is a no-brainer win for you guys, and might spare you a few seats!
Congressional Dems: *BZZZT* We're going to wait until after November.

Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich (Beginning)

[direct link]

This is incredible.

The next one is here, but be warned, there are 10 of them.

Three

Empire Of The Sun - Country

[direct link]
Whereupon you will find the single greatest comment ever made in the history of internets;
I listened to this song taking a dump. It changed my life forever. The unreality of my dump.~unicornrida4life

Bonafied Lovin - Chromeo

[direct link]

This next one was so good, I almost gave it its own post. Do yourself a favor and watch it in HD.

Ametsub - Repeatedly [Mille Plateaux]

[direct link]
Found here

San Diego pays $35k to settle unloaded open carry case

BIG win for the Calguns Foundation, and gun owners in California!

Full recount of the story

Results

Suck it Lori Saldaña! We owe it all to you being outfoxed by Ca Republicans at the end of the last legislative session!

Boxer campaign hires day laborers to hold Fiorina protest signs

[direct link]

From Big Government

War is hell.

Sample panel of the whole comic.


[clicky for full comic]

The nanny.

Democratic Congress: Alright Barack, we're going to go on recess to go campaign! Be good while we're gone!
Barack Obama: Geez! Don't worry guys, I told you I'm old enough to work without congressional oversight!
DC: Yeah, well, you haven't exactly inspired a lot of confidence lately.
BO: I can't believe you're saying that! I have too been responsible!
DC: Really, young man?
BO: Well I may have slipped up a few times, but obviously you trust me now, because you're leaving me home alone!
DC: ... Not exactly.
BO: WHAT?!
DC: Yeah, we're having the neighbor keep an eye on you, and if he sees anything we don't like, we're coming right home.
BO: GAWD YOU GUYS!!!

The Slide (Day) - Minecraft

[direct link]

Same slide at night, different music.

The law of unintended consequences

El Reg: Car wrecks rise after texting bans imposed

Larry Elder had a better idea for why texting bans increase accidents.

Tell people the cops are looking for them texting, and instead of texting with the device high up on the steering wheel where they won't have to move their eyes so much, people will text with the device down in their lap where they have to take their eyes further from the road.

GM union workers working drunk and stoned didn't surprise me

That they actually got fired, did!

Seemed appropriate considering the flips and reversals

Copyright! Patent pending! Internet!

Quote of the trains to where exactly?

My biggest worry is that, in times of national crisis, when nobody's working and everyone's afraid the currency will blow up, people want to vote for someone who promises to make the trains run on time without ever asking where exactly those trains are headed.
~Tam

I knew Tam had some serious snark skills, but that last line is godlike.

Inception Trailer A Capella Re-Dub

I LOL'd with reckless abandon.


[direct link]

The Recession is dead! Long live the Recession!

The Recession is over!*

*What you are experiencing is a very Recession-like period that is exactly like a Recession in every way except it's not called a "Recession." Any further Recessions will be entirely unrelated to the previous Recession, and will be formally announced by the newly appointed Recession Czar, who will decide when Recessions that feel like Recessions and act like Recessions are actually Recessions.

The job is very similar to the also recently appointed Duck Czar, who has the final word on whether things that look like ducks, walk like ducks, and quack like ducks are or are not, in fact, ducks.

Welcome to the world of minecraft

[direct link]

Perfect fit with the Inception music, because Minecraft feels suspiciously like Limbo. In fact, I'd wager this ends in Tycho entering Gabe's world to tell him it isn't real, and he has to leave.

Meanwhile Minecraft has drawn me in in a way that I never thought a game that makes Duke Nukem look modern could.


[clicky for full size]

Sure, I like my Roguelikes, but with them, it's ALL imagination. When there is already a 3D world for you to look at, I thought it would be distracting. I found that it never really had anything to do with the graphics or lack thereof, because the amount of fun is dictated 100% by the gameplay.

If the game is fun, engaging, and challenging, it doesn't matter that it looks like you made it out of legos.

When you die, and have to make it from your spawn point to your shelter in the dark, you feel afraid.
When you are busying yourself with some task, and you hear the hissing of a creeper behind you, you jump in your chair.
When you dig deeply into the world, busied with your task, and a creepy measure of music plays, the hairs on your arms stand up, and you take a break from the depths and return to the sunlight.
When you stand at the foot of an astonishing randomly generated land feature, you stare.
When your mine breaks into a dark underground cavern, lit only by a small magma pool, you feel the exhilaration of discovery, and the cautious excitement of exploration.

In spite of this game's hilarious graphics, it is tremendously immersive, and that is no small feat when your avatar looks like a stack of ABC blocks.

Could this game's unprecedented popularity herald a return to games that are truly fun, instead of 5 hour $50 polygon eyefucks?

The world is not ready.

But you might be.

PS: as of today, minecraft is free to play, the incredible popularity basically DDoS'ed his server, so he turned off the paid registration. Play now, pay later.

"All the depth of dwarf fortress without the complexity."

Great review for Minecraft.

Dude, you HAVE no koran!

First vid is the news story, second video is the auto-tuned remix of the dude.

A few notes on the content of the first video;

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" ~Evelyn Beatrice Hall
"Where one burns books, one will soon burn people." ~Heinrich Heine

It's bad mojo to burn a symbol of someone's faith, but it's even worse mojo to tell people that they can't voice their disapproval of someone's faith.


[direct link]

HotAir warned me, and I will warn you, the second video is one HELL of an earworm.


[direct link]

From HotAir

The Calguns Foundation: Throw 'em a bone...

...and they bite your arm off!

Brilliant.

GodDAMN it feels good to be on the offensive!

Really Google?

No special graphic for September 11th?

So you just happen to miss 9/11 and Memorial day, when you make graphics for all the other insignificant days?

Wow.

Just wow.

Never Again

Still busy, I'll make some time, I promise

I've got a bunch of drafts backing up.

Particularly annoyed because they're good posts that I know people want to read, but I just haven't been able to sit down and work through them.

Business eased a bit, but work got more exhausting. Been going like this for a while. Might be time for a change.

Trim - Underworld

[direct link]

An interesting track from Underworld.

M1oAr

[clicky for full size!]

Close up 1 (large!)
Close up 2 (large!)

Quote of the free speech vs violence

No, burning the Koran does not "endanger our young men and women in uniform who are in Iraq, who are in Afghanistan." The reaction to burning the Koran is what endangers our men and women in uniform (and everyone else) ... When you blame a speaker for the violent response to his speech, you absolve the violent actor of the moral choice he made in deciding to act. If you think it’s Jones, rather than some Taliban suicide bomber, who’s a mortal threat to the troops, then presumably you also think Theo Van Gogh got what was coming to him. After all, he knew the risk when he made "Submission," right?

From HotAir

Awesome.

Free speech is free speech is free speech.

The AP: Pentagon chief endorses call to cancel Quran burn

The burning of symbols such as flags, books, and garb is one of the purest forms of free speech.

It is not to be regulated or stopped by any government action.

Aside from the fact that it's legal, it's a negative way to build support for your cause, by destroying symbols of that which you oppose, instead of doing something positive like building more symbols of what you support. People want to be positive, not negative.

Obviously, this is an action meant to create a reaction that will be so unequal as to draw further opposition to the target. Whether this course of action will be judged in hindsight to be worth it, will probably depend on the feelings of the headless torso that will likely result.

Amazing video of a rare DOUBLE KFC TACOBELL

[direct link]


If you don't know what the fuck is going on, click here.

THE YOUNG GUNS!!!!111ONE

[direct link]

Once the wave of relief at the possibility that the GOP may have actually LEARNED something from the TEA party is over, this is pretty fucking cheesy. Found it at HotAir, where they linked to an MSNBC show where one of the pundits said it looked like something the daily show would do, and goddamnit, he's right.

The whole thing shows the personality gap the GOP has with the country. Their economic ideas are evergreen, and will always stand on their own, but for god's sake, get some more new blood in there! Even during my first viewing, through the excitement of the idea, I still had to chuckle at how hokey the whole thing was.

Hey GOP; find whoever produced and directed this video and FIRE THEM. And while I have your attention;



You guys had better have a plan to remove your heads from your asses by 2012.
But if you'd like a cheat sheet, I'll give you one:
Get behind Paul Ryan, and give him everything he wants. Put him on teevee as much as possible. And most importantly? Tell the dinosaurs to shut the fuck up.

America's awkward phase continues...

Don't shoot the bastards.

I'm proud of California Republican legislators

For once.

Not noted in the article;
AB 1810 (Long gun registration) FAILED!
AB 2358 (further ammo restrictions) FAILED!

Video of the Assembly Floor session in question.
Fast forward to about 3:15:00 for the start of AB 1935 discussion, there's some good stuff in there. To keep Republican filibustering on the bill from running out the clock, Dems push off debate to hit some HIGHLY important issues like lead paint chips.
Fireworks start at 00:16:30 on video 5/5. Gets crazy around 00:25:17. At 00:28:30 Republicans literally pull out the rulebook, and put a stop to this cram session, effectively killing all bills that were pending.

STRATEGIC WIN

Since obama was bitching about the cost of the Iraq war

STFU

Hans Zimmer & Johnny Marr LIVE

[direct link]

It's reassuring to know there are still true artists out there.

Look - Sebastien Tellier

Sorta NSFW

ReasonTV: How the commerce clause made congress all-powerful

VERY worth your time.


[direct link]

"Power can be used in silly ways and the constitution isn't our protector against undesirable government actions, only unconstitutional ones."
That's right. The constitution is not our protector against undesirable government actions.
This is.

from hotair

If Chris Christie didn't live in New Jersey, I'd be tempted to quit my job and go work for him.

[direct link]

How sad is it that this tiny bit of common sense and non-knee jerk reaction is so groundbreakingly refreshing in our political system?

Via HotAir

Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

[direct link]

Wanna find the Death Panels? Ask the Brits, they've seen 'em.

Telegraph: US breast cancer drug decision 'marks start of death panels'

Strict Machine (We Are Glitter Goldfrapp Mix) - Goldfrapp

[direct link]

Butt in the process of being kicked by work

Rough.

Nothing but quickies for a while.

Sola Sistim - Underworld

[direct link]

Turn this up for the cure to a shitty day.

Colt with ball

Looks like other animals love to play with balls too.

Buck up, buttercup

Alan tells us why we should all just chill out a bit.

Thanks Alan, I needed that.

Quote of the Socialism

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.
~Margaret Thatcher

Blargh

Work is kicking up, and so is the business, so I've been fighting for downtime. I have fun coding for the business, but it's still mental exertion. My brain needs *droooool* time. So far, only two things have been effective at slowing down my overactive brain, teevee and alcohol, and I'm not sure which is worse for me.

Obama preps a nuclear bomb

Long-time readers know that I'm an optimist. I always look on the bright side of things, even when -- ESPECIALLY when they look the bleakest.

But in the unlikely event that the Dems get a big mid-term win with this naked vote grab, it will be the end of the United States of America as we know it.

Hyperbole?

No.

If the dems set this nuclear bomb for maximum effect, actually push the button, and pull a win out of it, it will mean several things;

1. Private Debt is now Public Debt
Lie, cheat, and steal to get into a loan, and say you can't pay it back. If you bitch loudly enough, someone will take care of it. Get more credit cards, and run 'em up to the moon! Make the minimum payment until you get bailed out! No consequences! Free money forever!

2. Income levels will drop
With the additional bailouts, and the follow up bailouts after people realize #1 is in effect, someone will have to be left holding the bill. It'll be businesses, and people who pay taxes. So people will either stop paying taxes, or get "laid off," go on the dole the like all the other looters, and take money under the table to maintain their lifestyle. Officially, income levels will drop, and joblessness will rise. Can't tax what you can't see on a W2.

3. Free loans until doomsday
Depending on the level of planning and acceptable risk level of their leadership, most lenders will figure out the implications of #1 pretty quickly, and open up their loans to anyone and everyone at high interest rates, so as to make another insurmountably large mountain of bad debt, so the government would HAVE to print more money to bail them out again! They'll take their bailouts, and either plan on leaving America, or squirrel it all away until doomsday.

4. Absolute Power until doomsday
Once the Dems get the confirmation that all the masses need are Bread and Circuses, they will print like they've never printed before in order to keep the ball rolling. Why they hell wouldn't they? In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if in the middle of this realization, they simply invoke emergency powers, and take dictatorial control. Who would stop them? Everyone's too busy eating their bread, and looking at the lions jump through the hoops. Dems will be in charge of the Former United States of America until doomsday.

5. Doomsday
No, not that Doomsday, the Doomsday when the international bubble bursts under the dollar, and the entire country crashes down to reality. You thought the great depression sucked? Get ready for The Final Depression.

If I ran every tech-related forum in the world...

...there would be a rule that if you answer any question about how to do something with, "Why would you want to do that?" You get permabanned, and your e-mail gets sent to penis pill spammers.

Its inanity is doubled by the fact that it's the answer to a question, and tripled by the fact that the person who said it was under no obligation to answer. This was their contribution to the thread.

That is all.

Repost for motivation

"It's not crumbling, YOU'RE crumbling!"


direct link

"Lethargic. Uninspired. Terrified."

Terrible true tales from phone support!

Me: Hello, how can I help you?
Customer: Hi, we're having a problem with our tape, it won't eject...
M: Ok, let me log in and take a look...
*Log in, look around, find the problem*
M: Looks like your media didn't mount due to a service error. I've canceled the backup, so you should be able to eject the tape and put in the new one.
C: So then we didn't get the Friday backup?
M: No, it failed, but once the new tape is in, I'll reschedule it to do the full tonight.
C: But what about Friday's data?
M: Those changes will be included in tonight's full backup.
C: But we need the Friday backup.
M: Tonight's backup will include it, so it will be backed up. Can you eject the tape?
C: Ok hang on...
*overhear him talking to someone else*
Other customer who obviously had english as a second language: This won't work because last Friday was end of month!
M: I'm sorry?
ESL: We do tapes at end of month to storage, and we need Friday's data!
M: If you eject the tape, and put in the one you were going to put in anyway, I can make sure Friday's data gets onto that tape.
ESL: But that will be today's data, not Friday's!
C: She's right, I totally forgot, we need that end of month tape.
M: ... But Friday's backup failed. I can get you that data tonight if you swap the tapes.
ESL: But if we swap the tapes then today's backup will be on there!
*carefully weighing the potential outcomes of continuing this call*
M: You know, you have a good point. I didn't even think of that. Let me get you to your field engineer. He'll be able to help you because he's more familiar with your systems.
ESL: Finally! Thank you!
C: Yes, thanks for knowing when you're over your head.
M: Oh, I know when that happens.

Test blagging from teh droid

Hacked, running bugless beast 0.4 froyo, overclocked to irresponsible levels!

Just the way I like it.

Full post of the awesome coming soon.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.9

Android ASE Perl dialogGetResponse() example

use Android;
my $a = Android->new();
my @choices=('omg','wtf','bbq');
$a->dialogCreateAlert("make a selection");
$a->dialogSetItems([@choices[0],@choices[1],@choices[2]]);
$a->dialogShow();
my $selection = $a->dialogGetResponse()->{'result'}->{'item'};
print "you selected @choices[$selection]\n";

Enjoy!

He did it. He really... really... did it.

The President of the United States of America went on The View.

It's no secret that I disagree with Obama's politics, and even his personal beliefs, but those are just ideological differences. I still respect the man for his conviction, personal strength, and to a lesser extent, for the office he holds.

But this is just embarrassing.

A sitting president going on The View to appeal to his soccer mom following is simply embarrassing.

No, it's not just that it's Obama, I'd say the same for any sitting president. But this makes me embarrassed for my country, and shows this president's shameful disregard for the prestige of the office of the president.

Disgusting.

True story.

Clever girl...

It seems Google's insidious plan to provide a scripting environment for your favorite language that is technically implemented and barely documented has had the desired effect. The same effect of eating a single potato chip, then realizing the bag is empty.

I knew I was going to do some development for the droid, but I didn't know that scripting for it would make me more excited about the prospect.

Google, you coy little minx...

Is there a (long-term) goal to permit writing Android apps in these other supported languages, or is it just for quick and dirty experimentation?

This is possible. However, the first priority is to make the existing system stable, more user friendly, and to provide more comprehensive access to the Android APIs.

I'll play your game...

Busy busy busy

Light posting lately primarily due to the business taking up most of my free thinking time, and work-work kicking up. Early sign that the recession is easing.

We got our first customer that we have no need to offer a "friendship rate" to. Very nice to charge full price. Beginning to feel like this is getting serious. Oh yeah! We seem to have found a good spot to develop our Big Damn Idea™ (The consultant work is to make enough money for us to make the Big Damn Idea™. The Big Damn Idea™ is what makes us Big Damn Millionaires™.) I figure it'll take about a year for us to get it 75% ready to sell. At first, I thought it was a solid idea, and was happy we'd get rich. But as I thought more about it, I realized the full implications of that level of success, and got extremely excited at the potential of being able to move wherever we want, and take our jobs with us. I'll have that big house on acreage with the range in the back in no time :) (update since I started this post a week ago: (told you I was busy) we've got another Big Damn Idea™. Awesome.)

Gaming has been light. Mostly killing time until New Vegas. Been playing Fallout 3 on Very Hard, and it's... very hard... Still fun though. I'm playing through stealthy-style, which is actually possible with the Operation Anchorage add-on and its Chinese Stealth Armor. Once you get the better criticals and silent running, you just start owning. Ol' Painless is my favorite weapon. I'm really looking forward to the hardcore mode in New Vegas. Ammo weight is going to be... interesting...

Updated iPad thoughts

The iPad has actually managed to find a niche in our lives, and has dovetailed in better than I had expected.

I've found the ipad to be somehow freeing as far as internet access is concerned. It seemed so trivial to grab the laptop, sit down on the couch with it on your lap, and fire it up, but now that I don't have to do that, it's extremely convenient. Getting a thought of something to check out, grabbing the ipad sitting conveniently withing arm's reach, pressing the power button for a no-boot startup, and doing your search is awesome. The iPad is slim enough to lean against something or participate in a stack of books, so there's always a place for it. The other unforeseen benefit is that my wife like to stretch out on the couch across my lap, leaving no room for a laptop (even my undersized Inspiron 11z). Being able to have that screen in your hand, and in any position you need has proven to be unexpectedly convenient. The portability makes browsing, youtubeing, and reading more convenient in bed too. It's easier to get your brain going when you're catching up on blogs or news in bed. The weight is still a small issue, but as I said previously, manageable.

Netflix streaming has been far more useful than I thought. With only one teevee, we're usually stuck watching what the other wants, which isn't too bad because we like a lot of the same shows, but if I'm playing a game she doesn't like watching, or if she's watching a show I don't feel like watching, it's easy to fire up Netflix, and pick one of those movies out of your instant queue that you want to watch, but don't think your spouse wants to watch. Maintaining physical closeness while both of you are enjoying the leisure time.

Safari has started being picky about the pages it chooses to load. If you're lucky, it'll crash, and you'll have to reopen it, and kill the page before it loads to the point to crash again. If you're unlucky, it'll try to load so hard that it'll get stuck, making safari completely unusable. And since you can't kill a crashed app, (APPLE PRODUCTS DON'T CRASH WHY WOULD YOU IMPLY SUCH A THING?! HERETIC! BURN HIM! BURN HIM!) you are forced to reboot the whole device. It's apparently a known issue, in that, users know about it, and apple refuses to acknowledge it.

Following Safari's lead, YouTube has been equally picky about videos it loads with ease. Probably 50% of the time, it can't download the video at anywhere near a usable speed. The same videos download just fine on a laptop on the same network. This is also a known issue, in that, users know about it, and apple refuses to acknowledge it. At least there are fixes out. Wait, did I say "fixes?" Because I meant "HILARIOUS fixes!" Check out that site for other data interruptions, and you'll see that doing things like adjusting the brightness fixes the network issue. Apple just gets more and more like Microsoft every day...

The third party app crashing has been lighter, but Sketchbook Pro persists in crashing with annoying regularity when processing transparency for multiple layers. This is particularly annoying because Sketchbook Pro is awesome, and I love playing with it. (though I'm not sure why the resolution is so low) (oh wait, probably for the same reason it crashes when processing transparency for multiple layers) I've just learned to save frequently, or suck it up. You know, just like in Windows...

My previous statement still stands though. It's not worth the money at the moment. Wait until the price comes down, or the next software version, or the next release of hardware with new features, or any combination of those things. You might weight some of those benefits noted here and previously more than I do, so keep that in mind.

Ghosts n Stuff - Deadmau5

[direct link]

"All according to plan."

That guy

Updated phone thoughts

Got a new work phone, and have been considering the Droid lately, so I've been more aware of the strengths and weaknesses of my phones and potential replacements.

The BlackBerry has been chugging along merrily, resisting my mistreatment, and only suffering a single design flaw. I purchased QuickLaunch a few months ago, and have been extremely pleased with the increased control. I love being able to operate my phone without looking at it, and the customizable shortcuts coupled with the BB's autotext feature means I can press the side button twice to open a text message to someone, press "q" three times (it's in the corner of the keyboard, and easy to find), then press space to autocomplete the "qqq" to "On my way." and click twice to send. All without looking at my phone. Once I started considering the BB strengths, I had to stop and really think of all the times I use the built in shortcuts and the QuickLaunch shortcuts to navigate through the OS. It was just so intuitive, I did it without even thinking. No tapping and scrolling, no clicking and dragging, just press "D" for memopad, "C" for contacts, "B" for browser, and go! Not to mention, doing all these shortcuts so quickly means I get almost no OS lag, which would wear on my nerves quickly.

I've gotten quite good at typing blind on it, which I love, and the keys are just as responsive and sturdy as the day I got it. Considering the new droids has made me respect the BB's overall size, and form (most droids being big and blocky). Big enough to feel sturdy and sure in my hands, while small enough for one handed operation (and I have small hands), and easy pocket carry (which I prefer). The trackball navigation has become second nature, and in the event of lag (usually when opening a heavy app), I scroll the ball down the exact amount I intended to move the cursor exactly where I intended. I only realize how reliable it is because the lag makes me wonder if I got the right amount of scroll just before it highlights exactly what I was looking at. This brings me to the one design flaw.

The trackball is prone to gather dust, and debris, causing it to refuse to roll in one direction. Earlier models had removable trackballs, and a little maintenance was no big deal, while later models use touchpads which eliminate the moving part altogether. The BB Bold, however, had a non-removable ball, which means the only way to clean it is with alcohol and a cotton swab. I've only had it lock up on me three times, but every time was still annoying. I'm worried that it will eventually lock up to the point that I can't clean/fix it.

Aside from that, the BlackBerry really shows its design maturity in almost every category. It really is a working phone. I'll miss it when I switch.

I considered getting it as another phone, but a BlackBerry, a Droid, AND a (work) Samsung Windows Mobile phone? That's one too many.

Infected by the Droid

My interest was piqued. I started watching some feature videos, and I was very interested. Then I read about the ROM community, and I was extremely interested. Then I saw the linux shell underneath with scripting support, and I was sold.

Custom roms
Custom boot animations
Scripting support (incl. Perl, lua)
Open development (java based)

What's not to love?

I'll probably be going with the original Moto Droid for the extensive 3rd party ROM support, and keyboard.

I've been wanting to truly own my cell phone for years, and now I can!

-- Other droid phone notes --
The HTC Incredible really is. You need to play with one if you're even considering droid.
The Droid X is the monolith from 2001, but custom roms for it are not far off.
My sister took a chance on the original Motorola Droid, and has loved every minute of it. She doesn't even touch her computer anymore.

Sometimes people vanish from the face of the Earth

Last week we celebrated the finalization of my parents' divorce.

Wow. That is such a strange sentence to write out. Almost as strange as the fact that we were celebrating what would have been crushing mere years prior. I guess it should be a reminder that life will always surprise us.

My former mother decided to celebrate by sending my dad a picture of herself smiling, with the caption, "Look at me I'm Happy!!!!" Dad, having not physically seen her for quite some time, was surprised, and forwarded the picture to my sister. My sister called to warn me, then forwarded it to me. The warning wasn't enough.

She had obviously undergone a few plastic surgeries, and her face barely looked as I remembered.

I called my sister immediately. Previously, we had talked about how she had changed into a different person in all aspects but her appearance. The commonly heard phrase was "this person walking around in mom's body." But now we talked about how she had completed the transformation. That woman really IS someone else now. Inside and out. My mother is gone. I've already mourned her loss, but this was still hard to see.

I wonder how many other people are out there, tightly coiled just beneath the surface, ready to spiral out of control at turn into a different person over the course of a few mere years. So sad, these unbalanced people. More sad, those around them who can't see it because they are blinded by love and kinship.

Saw a new iPhone 4 ad last night

The actors were very obviously holding it in the Steve Jobs Approved™ manner, while trying to look as natural as possible.

They failed.

Why didn't they just toss the slick, sleek, aesthetically perfected, beautifully understated iPhone in a silly bumper case?

Oooohhhhh....

I'm drunk

Awesome.

"You're all assholes."

Through a bit of luck, I was off on a day when my friend was speaking at a local hacker meeting. I was going to be anti-social, but I dragged myself there, and was rewarded with some interesting conversation.

One guy told us about a talk he saw called "You're all assholes." So named because they took suggestions on what to do the talk on, and got suggestions like "Email," "Websites," and "SSH." At which point they realized their attendees were all assholes. The talk continued, mostly about how you were supposed to be attending the meeting because you wanted to engage in a high-level discussion about application and network functions, but instead, were attending because you don't understand basic computing.

The final point of the talk was; if you're not personally interested enough to look up some basic information yourself by spending the day at Barnes and Noble or the library with a pen and notepad (recently found one of my old notepads) or (at the risk of sounding "kids these days have it so easy") do a simple fucking google search and just start reading, then you are never going to have the complete knowledge necessary to effectively consider all possible attack vectors, and effectively exploit them.

Almost any human can learn or do just about anything if they have the drive to do it. But there is a difference between someone who can do something, and someone who wants to do something.

This is why enthusiasts will always beat the people who are only doing something because it's their job.

The enthusiast will do the extra research, work the extra hours, and return the next day excited to continue.

We were expanding on this point to a newbie, and I started listing the things you need to know and be able to do to be an effective hacker, and surprised myself with all the things I've taught myself the years in order to accomplish my goal. Esoterica abound.

But I still do it, because I still love it.

The old saying about finding out what you're good at, and finding out what you love doing is still very much in effect. I just wonder if my generation had time to find out what those things are.

Quote of the TARP

Never mind the money that these same banks make getting endless 0% interest loans from the Federal Reserve (aka You) while either they lend it back to you at 14% or just lend it right to back the government and pocket the yield.
~Dylan Ratigan

Whole lot of truth going on over at Zero Hedge.

Worth your time.

King Of Snake - Underworld [Everything, Everything DVD]

[direct link]


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