Happy Monday?

February 9th, 2010

I was pitched a job today (well, technically yesterday) that required my social security number.

Now, a couple things:

1) It’s illegal to require (but not to “ask for”) a social security number for a purpose that doesn’t involve reporting information to the irs.
2) I wouldn’t have such a bug up my ass about this if I hadn’t woken up one morning (years ago) to find major dents in my bank accounts and people sending me all kinds of bizarre emails.

Can’t do it. Especially not now.

I told the recruiter that I’d be happy to provide my social security number when and if we reached a point in the process where it would be legally required. But not for a blind job submission.

“But… this is a really great job!”
“On principle, I can’t do it.”
“I guarantee it will be kept in the strictest confidence.”
“I appreciate that, but you understand it’s not in your power to make that guarantee, right?”

That was the highlight of my day. I’ve spent the rest of it trying to mitigate this bizarre fog my head’s been swimming in. I’ve tried eating all KINDS of things (proving once again that I was right, fatass IS a verb.) I tried caffeinating myself to oblivion, writing code, writing, listening to music (of a few different genres.) Nothing.

“Meh” is the nicest thing I have to say about most things right now.

Smiles everyone, smiles!

February 8th, 2010

There’s someone I was a twitter/facebook/blip.fm friend of for a few months. We got along relatively well but after she’d showed her cards through a series of acts which led me to where I speak of her in the perfect tense I realized something.

In looking at her prolific self-portraits I had a little epiphany which led me to the perhaps odd act of going through every single picture that was publicly available of her to test a theory.

I was in total shock, really. There are candid shots, set-ups; pictures in the mirror and from friends’ cameras; parties and work settings. Probably something over a hundred shots.

And in not ONE is she smiling.

Not One.

People. Do yourselves a favor. Go flip through some pictures of yourself, just for a reality check.

“Don’t judge me”

February 5th, 2010

A quick note about this notion about not judging people. Now, I don’t mean judging for objective rights and wrongs in the biblical “judge not” sense. I mean that soft social value judgment we all engage in and too many people seem to complain about.

Make no mistake that when someone says “don’t judge me” it’s not what they mean. They’re lying to protect that soft spot in their ego.

They want very much to BE judged and pass that judgment.

DUMBASS!

February 3rd, 2010

Well there’s no way to play the “duplicate posts from Groundhog’s day all week” game if you didn’t actually POST anything.

sassafraggaraggindumbass.

Ah well.

Attention: It’s not me

February 1st, 2010

Some piece of garbage spammer decided to use my email address in the ‘from’ field of his latest marketing effort, making it look like I sent it.

Now, the right question is “wait… how is that possible?” The sad answer is “It’s trivial for anyone with the faintest understanding of email protocols. Who a message is marked as being ‘from’ has nothing to do with who sent it.”

So if you happened to find your way here before sending me a nastygram, no it’s really not from me.

Gak

February 1st, 2010

Ya know, two weeks later and I really don’t enjoy coffee any more today than I did when I started. The enthusiasm of it all had me worked up pretty good but now, on my second cup of the day I realize I’m really forcing it down.

I’ll keep trying things because I’m determined to have a substitute to soda (which takes a front seat until something bumps it out) for caffeine intake. But it’s really got to be better than this for me to ever WANT the stuff.

I’m not sure how long this will last.

Weirdest comment ever

February 1st, 2010

I was going through the Akismet filter and just saw this:

Oh jesus you’ll not belief this. My mindless kitten just farted on my knee!? I mean what’s the problem with this!? I care for this thing and I get this in return. I even now will not belief this. Anyway, you’ve got several useful facts there in your article. I knew Yahoo will take me to a few unique stuff today :). Alright must search for this creature now! Have a good evening you all!

I just… yeah.

Rabbit Rabbit!

February 1st, 2010

Just wondering…

January 26th, 2010

What do you suppose the aggregate cost of 1 day in session of Congress costs.

I’m thinking:

Salaries for all officials and their attending aids and other hangers on.
Security
Catering services
Building management

Add to that:

The cost of news coverage dedicated to Capitol Hill, C-SPAN, etc.

One day. Any guesses? How many millions?

Regrettably whatever the number is will now seem a pittance when contrasted against the drunken sailor behavior of those fuckers for the last 10-12 years.

Staggering.

Ok, this is funny

January 26th, 2010

I switched back to my ubuntu drive for a week or so to get my perl and bash chops back (I botched a couple softball questions last week.  Rookie mistake.

Anyway I found “bookmarks.html” files from 2000 and decided to go spelunking, thought I’d share.  It’s pretty funny:

ACCU - Reviews by subject$ advanced c++

ActivePerl Help

Bison - Table of Contents

DevShed - The Open Source Web Development Site

Downloading MiKTeX

Doxygen homepage

FIXimate

GNU make - Table of Contents

Graphviz

How to Customize Bookmarks…

http$$$javtech.com$help$FIXionary.html

IBM MQSeries $ Library $ Books

Imported IE Favorites

jjPattern Library

LCLint - Win32 Installation

messageQ

Microman Examples and Download Links for Lex &

MiKTeX Project Page

MSN.com

MySQL

ODMG Home Page

Open Document Management API (ODMA)

Parameters for WikiInHyperPerl

PHP$ Downloads

Radio Station Guide

RealPlayer Home Page

SAXParser Class Reference

Simple Index Keyword Search of Unified Computer Sc

The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies

The FIX protocol Organization

The Object Management Group

Welcome To Xitami.com

XML.com$ XML From the Inside Out


Unsorted


MySQL

LCLint - Win32 Installation
XML.com: XML From the Inside Out

Personal Toolbar Folder


Download
Customize…

General Development


DevShed - The Open Source Web Development Site
Larch Frequently Asked Questions

ACCU - Reviews by subject: advanced c++
Doxygen Download Page
Network Programming

Patterns


jjPattern Library

Parameters for WikiInHyperPerl

XEmacs stuff


XEmacs: The next generation of Emacs
http://www.xemacs.org/FAQ/xemacs-faq.txt
Emacs Lisp List

Why I became an Emacs user

Languages


Downloading MiKTeX
MiKTeX Project Page
PHP: Downloads

Bison - Table of Contents
ActivePerl Help
Bruce Eckel’s Free Electronic Books
Microman Examples and Download Links for Lex & Yacc
GNU make - Table of Contents

XML


OASIS
DocBook
XML-RPC for C

Queueing


messageQ
IBM MQSeries : Library : Books
project: elvind
Elvin — Content Based Messaging

OMG


Open Document Management API (ODMA)
ODMG Home Page
The Object Management Group

Security


Hack-Tic Magazine Archive
S/MIME and OpenPGP
OpenSSH
Cryptix - Welcome to Cryptix

Paj’s Home: Cryptography: JavaScript MD5: md5.js

Applications


Ghostscript, Ghostview and GSview
Dia a drawing program
The VIM (Vi IMproved) Home Page 001230

Welcome To Xitami.com
Tor Lillqvist–GIMP for Windows
The GNOME Desktop: Dia for Creating Charts and Diagrams
SQL Datenbanksysteme GmbH
Cogitum LC

ACE


Douglas C. Schmidt’s Welcome Page
Real-time CORBA with TAO (The ACE ORB)
ACE Papers
The ADAPTIVE Communication Environment (ACE)

Fix


.FIXantenna
http://javtech.com/help/FIXionary.html
World Currencies - Listed by ISO 4217 Currency Abbreviation
Cameron Systems

Strangeness


Baen Free Library
iHarvest - What’s in YOUR harvest?
K-Talk Communications-Welcome
DeskMod - Your source for desktop modification

Visionyze.com - Linux Offering
TheInfoBox.com
The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies
Personal Data Interchange
My Netscape Network - Vacuum energy powered micro-machines.
Simple Index Keyword Search of Unified Computer Science TR Index

eCommerce


:: Nettelligence :: Online Guide to E-Business
iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions

Support

Support.Dell.Com - Downloads for Your Dell
Support.Dell.Com - Home

Internet Mail Consortium
Esheet

General Development


DevShed - The Open Source Web Development Site
Larch Frequently Asked Questions

ACCU - Reviews by subject: advanced c++
Doxygen Download Page
Network Programming
clo++

Patterns

jjPattern Library
Parameters for WikiInHyperPerl

XEmacs stuff


XEmacs: The next generation of Emacs

http://www.xemacs.org/FAQ/xemacs-faq.txt
Emacs Lisp List
Why I became an Emacs user
Esheet
Emacs package "template": commenting, (auto-)updating, file templates

Tree’s Emacs Hacks

Languages


Downloading MiKTeX
MiKTeX Project Page
PHP: Downloads

Bison - Table of Contents
ActivePerl Help
Bruce Eckel’s Free Electronic Books
Microman Examples and Download Links for Lex & Yacc
GNU make - Table of Contents

davidflanagan.com: Java Examples in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

XML


OASIS
DocBook
XML-RPC for C

XML-RPC for C/C++: Downloading the Developer Release
XML document repository
SoapWare.Org :
SOAP 1.1 Validator

Queueing

messageQ
IBM MQSeries : Library : Books
project: elvind
Elvin — Content Based Messaging

OMG

Open Document Management API (ODMA)
ODMG Home Page
The Object Management Group

Security


Hack-Tic Magazine Archive
S/MIME and OpenPGP
OpenSSH
Cryptix - Welcome to Cryptix
Paj’s Home: Cryptography: JavaScript MD5: md5.js
OpenSSL: The Open Source toolkit for SSL/TLS

Applications


Ghostscript, Ghostview and GSview
The VIM (Vi IMproved) Home Page 001230
Dia a drawing program
Welcome To Xitami.com

Tor Lillqvist–GIMP for Windows
The GNOME Desktop: Dia for Creating Charts and Diagrams
SQL Datenbanksysteme GmbH
Cogitum LC
Graphviz
Welcome to GraphViz

Welcome to RITLABS!
Doxygen homepage

ACE


Douglas C. Schmidt’s Welcome Page
Real-time CORBA with TAO (The ACE ORB)

ACE Papers
The ADAPTIVE Communication Environment (ACE)

Fix


.FIXantenna
http://javtech.com/help/FIXionary.html

World Currencies - Listed by ISO 4217 Currency Abbreviation
Cameron Systems

Strangeness


Baen Free Library
iHarvest - What’s in YOUR harvest?

K-Talk Communications-Welcome
DeskMod - Your source for desktop modification
Visionyze.com - Linux Offering
TheInfoBox.com
The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies
Personal Data Interchange

My Netscape Network - Vacuum energy powered micro-machines.
Simple Index Keyword Search of Unified Computer Science TR Index
OPENCORES.ORG

eCommerce


:: Nettelligence :: Online Guide to E-Business

iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions

Support


Support.Dell.Com - Downloads for Your Dell
Support.Dell.Com - Home

SourceForge: Project Info - LinuxClassLibrary
http://www.equi4.com/metakit/
Internet Mail Consortium
My Netscape Network
mozdev.org - protozilla: white-paper
Fatbrain.com

CVShome.org
Oscar: download
OpenIP Organization - Open Source Software and Hardware
International Ispell
Code by Darxus
Jericho

Ispell.el International spelling checker for emacs
GIST - Generic Information Server Toolkit
binding systems presentation systems organizers notebooks Rollabind rollabind
Kx systems
GotMail
omniORB

AT&T Labs Research - Research Home
Narval Project - Intelligent Personnal Assistant
Index of /php/code/Smarty
Index of /download/files
Phase
Directory of /pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin/porters/Humblet_Pierre_A/V1.1

World New York
Welcome to FOX
Pippy: Python for the Palm
Development Tools
Home Page of Jad - the fast Java decompiler
Interface Workshop :: Front (old)

7-Zip
Doug’s Networking Pages - IP Addressing
Doug’s Networking Pages - TCP/IP Subnetting
Internet Protocols (IP)
Code Crusader
iButton Home Page

iButton: 1-Wire(R) Weather Station
GnuPG (The GNU Privacy Guard)
AOLserver - Welcome
Twisted Matrix Enterprises
GNU: Enterprise
OpenSSL: The Open Source toolkit for SSL/TLS

Downloads
Thief-TheCircle.com — The Circle of Stone and Shadow — A TTLG Production
Database Template Library Programmer’s Guide
SourceForge: Project Info - Developer Todo
The Standard Template Library: Introduction
ASPseek: ASPSeek Home Page

www.lowdimension.net - Low Dimension International
The Developer’s Corner
The Code Project - Shell Programming - Free Source code and Tutorials
The Code Project - Homepage - Free Source code and Tutorials
hookt.com
SignatureDB - Digital data signature database - Main Page

Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied
Download
CLISP - an ANSI Common Lisp
HTMLDOC - Easy Software Products
Easy Software Products
The Association of Lisp Users

Jcorporate | eBusiness, Content Management, Application Development Framework, Pluggable Collaborative Components
http://www.geocities.com/letapk/linux.html
AutoUpdate
PIMPPA homepage
PHProjekt | Home
<<< Welcome to DarkStep.com >>>

OMG! It’s SKINtacular!
hackinthebox.org - hackinthebox.org
Eidola
ShareSniffer, Inc.
Interesting DOS programs
Koen’s Perl Software

A little over a week

January 26th, 2010

So I’ve been drinking coffee since last Sunday, with the exception of most of this weekend.  I’m not sure I’ll ever get to the point where I like the taste.  But the caffeination benefits can’t be denied.

My appetite has totally disappeared.  Last Tuesday I didn’t eat.  Nothing.  Today I had a slice of pizza because I figured I should.  I may not eat again today, who knows.

The uptake speed of caffeine from coffee is incredible when compared to diet soda.  Sure I ended up ingesting the same net quantity over the course of the day before, but it was frequently accompanied by the unpleasant effect on my overall sense of well-being from drinking what ended up being close to 4 liters of diet dew or coke zero a day.  I generally don’t drink any diet soda if I’ve had coffee on a given day.  That benefit can’t be overstated as I think it’s going to have a serious affect on my health.

I’m also enjoying the fact that I’ve got a warm beverage available, especially in this apartment.

Coffee, when purchased by the pound is nearly free.  I figure I’m about 60% of the way through my pound of Dunkin Donuts coffee at about $7.  Diet soda is a little under $1 per liter.  So that’s marked.

I’m still a non-dairy cream powder stuff guy.  I tried milk and cream and it just tasted funny. *shrug*  I still can’t rationalize putting sugar in it.  This morning I did take my last mug black, just to see.  Not a big deal.  I can easily see just drinking it like that.

So far so good. We’ll see how this progresses for the next month or so.

The Coffee Chronicles

January 17th, 2010

Now listen. I don’t want to hear any goddamn bullshit about the title. Every 33 year old frazzled soccer mom mourning the effects of gravity and time (while growing in to herself such that she looks like a real woman finally praise be to God, may Conde Nast be cursed forevermore) who’s looking for a little spice in her life has a fucking blog called “The Coffee Chronicles” wherein she lists the days laundry escapades and how she might actually start taking the voice lessons while the kids are off at soccer practice between fantasies of screwing the gardener they can’t afford. All the while clutching her beverage, hair asunder barking that some days she just doesn’t know how she does it. So don’t give me any shit. At least my coffee chronicles is about fucking coffee.

Where was I? Ah. Hadn’t started yet.

I hate coffee.

I’ve always hated coffee.

It’s nasty, bitter and gross. It tastes like water filtered through crushed burnt beans. “No no, you just haven’t had the gourmet..” SHUT UP.

That’s the same shit I hear about beer, which I also hate for remarkably similar reasons. “Oh, but you have to try microbrewed…” NO I DONT. IT’S ASS.

Smells nice though. Coffee, not beer. Beer smells like a frat house on Sunday morning at about 2 in the afternoon, when the previous night’s activities have left the living room caked in dried hoppy beverageness that you have to peel yourself out of, having passed out face down on the floor. If you have to ask how I know that then proceed immediately to the bathroom, stick you head fully in the toilette and inhale deeply.

All that said, I’m a caffeine addict. I love it. I take nodoz. I drink enough diet dew and red bull to kill a very large pack animal. But over the last year or so, those things have really begun to taste like what they are; nuclear waste. I’ve begun looking at ingredient lists, my face painted with defeat as I sink 3-4 liters a day of glowing green go-go juice, my stomach reacting with “really? More? Are you kidding?”

And everybody tells me the same damn thing about coffee (and beer frankly): “Oh, nobody likes it at first.” Which has got to be the most brain dead thing of all time. Then why the fuck…. oh nevermind. Trying to make sense of the indigenous ostensibly intelligent species on your damn planet gives me a migraine. I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna tell central command when my recon tour is over. But whatever it is, you people are going to need to be viable in space when I do ’cause I don’t see a damn thing in my draft report that will convince them not to annihilate this whole fucking place.

So I did the math on the cost per milligram of caffeine, dosage size and ancillary chemical content and realized that I’ve just got to go do it.

Yesterday afternoon I went to our local everything store and bought a “Mr. Coffee” 4 cup coffee maker. Seemed like it was the right size since I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t just drop kick it out my fifth floor window after the first attempt and if I did, I didn’t want anybody killed when it landed on their head. A good reminder of the evils of coffee would suffice.

On my way home with the coffee maker (and crock pot. Long story.) in tow I stopped in the store to buy some of the supplies for this thing. Many text messages and in-store conversations with strangely eager to help women in their mid 50s and I ended up with a “taking it easy to start” bag of starbucks breakfast blend. Apparently the right stuff is dunkin donuts coffee. But you take what you can get.

I got home and unpacked this cute (read tiny) coffee thingie while starting my pot roast (don’t ask.) I glanced at the instruction booklet “Before you start be sure and clean…” garbage. Anything that lives through the coffee process and gets in to my system will likely give me superpowers.

I set the thing up then twitched mightily.

Apparently your “coffee maker” things have disposable filtration devices, none of which are provided with the device.

Now listen. Where I come from this is called logic: If you’re buying a coffee maker there’s a better than even probability that one of the following scenarios is true:

  • YOU WANT TO DRINK COFFEE

If I were a maker of coffee makers I’d corner the fucking market by providing a starter kit with my device consisting of:

  • Filter thingies for the maker itself
  • Coffee
  • A metal spoon
  • a disposable lighter
  • a syringe

So off I go to the store to buy taters, coffee filters and onions.

Of course they don’t have the cute little four cup pot filters. Fuck it. Big ones will work. (Protip: They do.)

On my way out I saw an endcap with dunkin donuts coffee, which I thankfully bought.

Well yesterday I was a bit preoccupied with my roast thingie (long story) so I didn’t get to the crackcoffee.

So I took out my coffee mug. My Father bought me a coffee mug as a stocking stuffer or present many many years ago. Probably a score or more. It features a Joan Miro painting I can’t identify. A wonderfully abstract scene that, if you focus (orhavehadtoomuchfuckingcoffee) looks like two women smoking cigarettes out of holders while sitting at a table. For decades this poor coffee mug has been relegated to serving hot chocolate, chicken bullion, the odd cup of soup and milk for cookie dunking. Finally it was destined to fulfill it’s Special Purpose. One of us should be able to.

I held the mug up to the little “4 cup” coffee pot. Apparently a cup is far less than a cup. I bake. I know what a fucking cup is like and there ain’t four of them that fit in that thing. But WHATEVER twitch. I fill up the thing with water. Cold? Does it matter? Fuck it. In it goes.

No indication anywhere on how much of the grounds of cocaine masking substance to use. I remember my childhood “one scoop per cup.” Ok, what’s a scoop. Screw it. Five tablespoons, four “cups.”

So the thing made the noise and that was great. I remember that noise. Once it was done I poured 80% of the pot into my one cup with room left for whatever I was going to put in it. A bit of that white powdery substance. Enough to make it change color. My Father likes his coffee “like Halle Berry.” Now, I like a lot of things like Halle Berry. But there isn’t enough additive in the world of any kind to make that bitterness in the back of my throat go away (reminds me of…oh, never mind.)

Besides, I’m more of a Pam Grier sort of guy anyway.

So two tablespoons of weird “this isn’t dairy” stuff. (which is half a tablespoon too much as it turns out.) I filled up my sugar dispenser and stared at it. I kept looking back and forth between the coffee mug and the sugar. I just couldn’t make it make sense in my head. No sugar.

Swig. Yes. It’s as bitter as I remember, so I try to focus on the other stuff. It’s warm. It has other tastes in there someplace. And once it cools down enough to drink I sink the thing, top it off and sink that. Then I realize two things:

  • “Breakfast blend” is bitch coffee for whiny little girlie men.

So I opened a word processor and typed “The Coffee Chronicles.” I thought about it for a second before going back and refilling the thing with Starbucks breakfast blend. I find myself unable to return to the computer and instead stare at the innocent little coffee maker yelling “HURRY you sonofabitch” while considering the relative merits of getting a hose that would lead from the drip portion through some kind of marginal heat dispersion apparatus into my face. (In another note: I now fully understand why Lewis Black talks like that.)

So now here I am, having sank two “4 cup” pots of two different brands of ‘breakfast blend’. This equates to about three coffee cups of coffee.

Starbucks “breakfast blend” is like dunken donuts breakfast blend but burnt. Originally I thought it was “stronger” but while that may or may not be true, it just tastes like it’s been burnt. Interestingly I’ve heard that about their coffee before, so I’m not completely off base here.

In my continuing concessional spirit let me add the following: Drinking diet soda for the caffeine content is like standing in a New York City subway station in August because you like fresh air. It’s amateur hour. I’ve always suspected that might be true (hence the noDoz supplements), but in the last two hours I’ve noticed the ambient temperature in my freezing apartment has climbed to what clearly must be the mid eighties. I’m sweating and my brain is cruising at the speed God intended it to operate.

That horrible bitterness? Yeah, it’s there. Do I love it? No. It’s annoying and nasty.

But it’s a small price to pay.

I wan my pizza

January 15th, 2010

Having smoked my NUB Habano I was wondering what I could pick for dinner that would suitably mask the smell in here.

Pizza came up a couple times in my head but I just didn’t think I’d be able to face the Pepperoni & Garlic I usually get from My Little Pizza on Court street. So I figured, eh, maybe just pepperoni.

So I walked over there thinking that at the very least I’d grab a cold slice to eat on my way to the store so I wouldn’t be standing in front of the ground beef salivating, all ADDed to death.

The line was huge but I figured “eh, what the hell.”

Off to the side was this huge black bitch who, yelled “where’s my pizza? Who da manager? I wan my pizza! It been fiteen minnets!”

The place was humming with 6 guys behind the counter moving at the speed of prime time friday night pizza in Brooklyn. I’m watching them take a pepperoni pie out of the oven as she’s bitching up a storm.

The mild mannered hispanic guy with whom I exchange a nod and a ‘how are you’ said “I am.”

“Well I wan my… fuck it. I want my money back. Where’s my money. Naytan, get mah purse.” She clomped to the front of the line. “Naytan, NAYTAN! You drink dat drink?”

A big dude chased her meekly, holding a purse “Yes baby.” So she turned to the guy at the register, got her money and blasted out the door.

The manager was talking back and forth with another guy who worked there but was off for the evening. “Yeah, it’s done. She just didn’t wanna wait. Got pepperoni on it too.”

“Wait” I said. “Just pepperoni?” Three of the guys behind the counter looked at me.

“Yeah.”

“Well hell, man, I’ll buy that pie. Gimme two cans of coke.”

“Just a second we gotta cut it.”

“I’m in no rush. Sure works for me.”

So I buy the pie, fresh out of the oven, pepperoni. I get the cokes and walk out laughing with the guys behind the counter.

I turn the corner and run in to this couple. As I turn down State street I cheerfully said “Hey, I was gonna order a pepperoni pie but instead I got yours. Thanks!” While they were waiting for the light.

“What da fuck!”

It’s REALLY delicious.

God’s got a sense of humor and seems to have taken a liking to Mikey over these past few days.

Turns out I’m starting to return the favor.

Amazing Science Fact of the Day: 1/14/2010

January 14th, 2010

FACT: If you took all of the veins from your body and laid them end to end, you would die.

(I loled)

GAH!

January 13th, 2010

(I realize how many of my posts over the last 8 years are titled “ugh” or “gah!” It’s kinda funny.)

So I’ve spent the last two days trying to prepare for my big phone tech interview tomorrow. It’s going to be crazy. I already am. Looking at the topics I need to refresh myself on and at least cover it seems daunting. I’ve been trying to keep positive about it and indeed I’ve made a lot of progress until early this afternoon.

Not that anything specific happened early this afternoon. I had no crushing realization. But my sense of inspiration and confidence just started getting away from me. The cop out is “well, I know what I know.” But fortune favors the prepared.

So what then? 6 more hours of binary tree optimization practice? Learn to write quicksort from memory? Memorize those fucking insipid puzzle questions? (which I seem to be fine at when I have the freedom to sit and think, but choke on interviews with.)

What?

I don’t know.

I DO know that I’m putting too much on to this. (A realization that probably takes half the comments out ;). But things are getting thin. Very very thin. Last week I started getting the “I can look, but look at your resume. I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.”

The problem is I bear adversity well and bearing it is the exact wrong tactic. And please PLEASE don’t give me the “something will come along” bit. I know you mean well, but things don’t “come along.” People act, and go get them.

I’m sorta reduced to basic creature comforts to make myself feel better.

And that means I just ran out of Ellio’s :p

AND easy cheese :-/

[/vent]

Ok I’m good. ;)

So I was bored…

January 12th, 2010

(well, not really bored. I’m deep in the throes of graph algorithm study for my interview on Thursday. Shhhh…)

So for lunch I heated up a can of Hormel hot chili and tossed in a can of black beans… and it was delicious (with a bit of rice, some shredded cheddar on top, etc. Umna.)

Then I was back, hand coding another stack class, this time in Java, and I thought about what I was going to do with the rest of it. So I took the 1.5 pounds of ground chuck from my freezer and browned it in my cast iron wok. (Love the cast iron wok. It’s like 10 pounds of awesome.) Then I tossed the aforementioned chili/beans in there.

It was looking a little heavily biased towards the plain ground beef so I thought about it.

Then I thought some more. Self? I asked myself. What would happen if you poured a bottle of guinness in there and just let it simmer?

I dunno, let’s find out. Now, that was a good measure too watery so I dumped another can of chili in there. (Really, I could do this all day and pretend I’m cooking.)

So now I have this wok full of wonderfulness smelling up my apartment something fierce while I unroll a recursive descent infix traversal algorithm into an iterative version as an exercise.

Only one (or, well, three) things could make this all better.

Avatar

January 9th, 2010

As I posted on twitter and fb:

“Avatar was without a doubt the most visually spectacular piece of yawnworthy intellectually insulting hackneyed crap ever put to film.”

And just so you know: It’s every bit as insulting that tripe like this gets that kind of production behind it as you’ve heard. It’s fucking pathetic.

Cameron should be proud of his technological achievement.

Beyond that he needs a chocolate swirly at the end of last shift at a Mexican restaurant.

I started going point for point on this but it’s not worth it. Friends, save yourself.

JOTD: 1/4/2010

January 5th, 2010

I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny? Yeah, well I couldn’t believe it…. He was a DWARF!!! He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, “I AM NOT HAPPY!!!”

So, I looked down at him and said, “Well, then which one are you?”

And then the fight started…..

Hello, Android (or… not.)

January 4th, 2010

UPDATE: Wanted to put this update here. It works fine. The emulator takes a DOG’S age to boot up. This is going to be a painful development process.

I’m trying to get a Hello Android application up and running, per the dev website. But something seems to be missing.

I have:
- JDK 6 17
- Eclipse 3.5
- The ADT installed. (Apparently fine. tough to tell.)
- the android sdk platforms installed (1.1-2.0.1)
- a default avd created

The source for the hello world example is pretty solidly “hello world” and I’ve double-checked it and done a straight copy-paste.

But when I run the example in eclipse, an emulator comes up but the application doesn’t appear to kick off.

Any thoughts on troubleshooting that? There aren’t any compile errors. The status messages in Eclipse all look pretty straightforward, it’s just not doing anything.

[2010-01-04 19:18:43 - HelloAndroid]Android Launch!
[2010-01-04 19:18:43 - HelloAndroid]adb is running normally.
[2010-01-04 19:18:43 - HelloAndroid]Performing com.mpwilson.helloandroid.HelloAndroid activity launch
[2010-01-04 19:18:43 - HelloAndroid]Automatic Target Mode: launching new emulator with compatible AVD ‘my_avd’
[2010-01-04 19:18:43 - HelloAndroid]Launching a new emulator with Virtual Device ‘my_avd’
[2010-01-04 19:18:44 - HelloAndroid]New emulator found: emulator-5554
[2010-01-04 19:18:44 - HelloAndroid]Waiting for HOME (’android.process.acore’) to be launched…

UPDATE: Ick, sorry. That dump of the messages is nasty, but if you drop it in emacs or something it’ll straighten out.

Oldie but a goodie :-)

January 2nd, 2010