tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151967512011-08-11T09:07:45.509-04:00Yes they do.Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.comBlogger3501100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-76819748943158733252008-03-31T16:26:00.002-04:002008-03-31T16:26:40.632-04:00

So I switched to WordPress:http://thinkdifferent767.wordpress.com

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-67159165327011921702008-03-24T01:25:00.003-04:002008-03-24T18:51:39.120-04:00

Turk, season 2, episode 19:See, JD, the thing that I always liked about you was that you were just yourself — you never cared about what people thought.Turk, season 3, episode 3:[to JD] Even in college, you cared way too much about everybody liking you.JD, season 1, episode 19:If I believed in karma, I might be a little more cautious about giving these guys a hard time.JD, season 2, episode 16:I

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-63224904677300122022008-03-08T14:23:00.001-05:002008-03-08T14:23:10.702-05:00

I found a site with fan-generated ratings of all Scrubs episodes. Being curious, and the site lacking a way to sort that table by any column other than the first, I wrote a quick script to sort them by rating. Here’s the result. The rating (out of 10) is displayed first, then the season number, then the episode name.9.84 3 My Screw Up9.77 5 My Lunch9.66 5 My Way Home9.60 1 My Old Lady9.58

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-75836710809260995762008-03-02T14:40:00.005-05:002008-03-02T14:47:57.858-05:00

I think I’ve discovered why Lipstick Jungle is such a failure. Here are some statistics I gathered about it and two other shows; I think you’ll see a correlation:Lipstick JungleSex and the CityDesperate HousewivesNumber of main characters344Perfect-looking main characters311Voiceover narration?NoYesYesHad/has competition?NoYesYesCreator(s)Two womenA dudeA dudeNumber of fans in my house011*

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-4325806803203780092008-02-20T22:54:00.002-05:002008-02-23T02:47:15.256-05:00

I will now demonstrate the incredible, awesome versatility of the English verb “get” by describing a hypothetical day in the life without using any other verb. Watch me go.I got up, after getting a good night’s sleep. I got dressed, then I got some breakfast. I got a shower, and got ready for work. I got in my car and got on the road. Right after I got off the highway, I got stuck in a traffic

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-45078026446882251332008-02-20T21:22:00.001-05:002008-02-20T21:22:06.725-05:00

Whatever your grade-school English teachers may have said, parts of speech in English are as complicated as all hell. Forget about words that have multiple parts of speech (e.g. “run”); what about words like “would”? Did you ever have to classify that? (Linguists actually call “would” and friends “modals”, but the exact properties of modals in English are not quite well understood.)I got to

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-39450493091716446182008-02-16T23:18:00.002-05:002008-02-17T02:30:56.701-05:00

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be colorblind? I’ve tried to describe it in the past, but I think it’s probably the sort of thing you have to experience.Well, in the aforelinked post I mentioned, “There’s no way to simulate this to normals, short of a game that actually does change the colors of game pieces on the fly. If I get bored one day...”I wasn’t actually bored today, but I

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-45672265236266554292008-02-16T01:35:00.001-05:002008-02-16T01:35:27.755-05:00

I’m sure there’s some long-dead guy who’s ruminated on this before, but it’s striking me now how we constantly re-evaluate and interpret past experiences based on later ones. I’m thinking right now of “Lost in Translation”, which if you’ve been reading since September, you’ll know is my favorite movie of all time.A lot about me has changed since I’ve started studying linguistics in earnest. I’ve

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-4260673550324502572008-02-14T18:53:00.001-05:002008-02-14T18:53:57.714-05:00

Back when I was less old, less wise, and less good at writing. Still relevant.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-14528145337950939382008-02-09T00:13:00.000-05:002008-02-09T00:14:27.594-05:00

In a fine display of my lack of self-control, I watched the pilot of NBC’s new series “Lipstick Jungle” last night. Since it’s the only original non-gameshow non-reality material they have right now, they’ve been promoting the living hell out of it. Literally every commercial break on NBC for the past month has included a Lipstick Jungle trailer. There’s also constantly been a little watermark in

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-77802185118052967002008-02-05T01:59:00.000-05:002008-02-06T14:35:04.093-05:00

For a class, I trained a trigram language model on some speeches of a presidential hopeful whose identity I don't know (it seems like Obama to me), and generated a political speech from the model. The result is awesome, as trigram-generated text always is. I'll share a few of the best bits here.More saber-rattling toward Iran. Then you'll have the full support of all parties and ages to a high

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-49340787197492991102008-01-14T14:50:00.001-05:002008-01-14T15:19:34.162-05:00

I've been listening to the peculiar ergolect (I made that term up: Greek ergon "work" + English morphologized lect "language") of announcement-making flight attendants for a while. Apart from the fact that it's only ever used to say a small set of things, I've picked out a few linguistic oddities that make it so distinctive.Unnecessary auxiliary verbs. The verb "do" (appropriately conjugated) is

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-44031668266822155872008-01-12T15:05:00.000-05:002008-01-12T15:22:27.205-05:00

Well, I'm back in the States. It was a good trip to Belgium, though, in that I got to do all of the things that I traditionally do when I go back:Eat Belgian food:Gaufres liegeois (known to the uninitiated as "Belgian waffles")Frietjes (Belgian fries with mayonnaise)Tarte au sucre ("sugar pie"; basically custard and congealed sugar in a pie crust)Chocolate from one of the world's finest

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-20024222561086067962008-01-09T11:53:00.000-05:002008-01-09T11:59:55.151-05:00

Lately I’ve been working on developing a web app that manages assignments in programming classes. I know this isn’t an original project — there are at least two other such things that have been written at CMU alone — but this one was born of the complete terribleness of one of the aforementioned projects. Anyway, the focus of this post isn’t the development part, or the fact that Ruby on Rails is

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-89170219093004993612007-12-31T05:24:00.000-05:002007-12-31T05:25:24.334-05:00

As promised, here is a linguistics-related post. I’m sorry.I had the opportunity to listen to a native Flemish speaker speaking English the other day, and I found it interesting to see what kind of insights I could gain into the syntax of Flemish and Dutch by observing her grammar mistakes in English.For example, at one point she said, *“I didn’t heard about that.” This is a consequence of the

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-22886216765629870862007-12-20T06:11:00.001-05:002007-12-20T06:11:32.315-05:00

See, this post isn’t about linguistics. Can’t say the same for the next one, though. Sorry. I don’t want it to be like this any more than you do, but for some reason my brain has decided that language and linguistics are irresistibly fascinating, and won’t let me forget it.Before I got on the plane, I was walking around in JFK (which is an awful airport, by the way) and the music playing over the

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-73352791746673360522007-12-17T15:59:00.000-05:002007-12-17T17:36:33.629-05:00

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve never been so eager to get out of the States and go home — home being Belgium. I much prefer living in Europe to living in the States. But really, what Belgium is up to now just goes to show that every country is an idiot in its own way. Maybe Belgium’s idiocy bothers me less than the States’ idiocy because I’m used to it (and find it kind of endearing in a weird way) —

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-47931223954510994422007-12-17T04:21:00.000-05:002007-12-17T04:43:16.217-05:00

Fun fact of the day: dative shifting in English is generally restricted to verbs of Germanic origin; verbs of Latinate origin usually can't undergo dative shift.Dative shift is a process by which a transitive verb that has an oblique argument in dative case can be transformed into a ditransitive verb, with the original oblique argument being promoted to an object, and the original object being

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-83731873926804309462007-12-15T02:48:00.000-05:002007-12-15T02:58:09.849-05:00

Man, looking at my schedule for next semester you wouldn't guess I'm a CS major.Linguistic analysisNatural language processingTopics in Language Study: Historical linguisticsEither Language and Culture or Elementary German IOh, by the way: Algorithm design and analysisI might forget how to code. I guess that's the consequence of having finished all but one of the required CS classes and wavering

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-59085159518652577872007-12-10T23:24:00.000-05:002007-12-11T14:46:35.790-05:00

I have returned from Philly, victorious. The paperwork is in; I should have a new passport in my hands by the end of this week. I won’t rest truly easy until I’m actually holding it, but I’m almost there.While I was scoping out the location on Street View, I thought the area where the giant scary building is looked kinda nice — old and “full of character”, much like some parts of downtown

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-76998649561249607892007-12-06T16:27:00.000-05:002007-12-06T21:24:51.074-05:00

At the risk of jinxing it, things seem to be looking up. I successfully got the original consular report of my birth (which is a cheap, shitty little piece of paper, by the way, kind of like social security cards) and successfully got an appointment at the Agency in Philly. As long as the flight to Philly actually gets me there successfully, I should be OK.Jesus, the things I gotta do to get out

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-16177950416064644662007-11-29T00:34:00.000-05:002007-11-29T01:14:56.023-05:00

There has been a sequence of events that has culminated in me booking myself for a day trip to Philadelphia the Monday after next, several frantic phone exchanges, and a lot of money being spent. Here's what has happened:Sometime in June, my American passport expired. I have no other passports, though I have other citizenships.Just before Thanksgiving, as I was due to leave for Mexico, I noticed

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-40488439700563673932007-11-23T00:48:00.000-05:002007-11-23T21:57:39.706-05:00

I've watched all 9 episodes of "Chuck" that have aired, and somehow I've come to like it. This goes against all reason. It involves inaccurate nerd stereotypes, egregious abuse of computer jargon, and is basically just a montage of nerd fantasies. Beneath it all, though, it's kind of sort of hell of entertaining. It has a mildly complicated plot but I don't need to think hard at all while

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-5222474234999007962007-11-21T23:59:00.000-05:002007-11-22T01:05:04.519-05:00

So here I am, stuck in Pittsburgh for another Thanksgiving while everyone else is gone.Difference is, this time I really thought I wouldn't be. I had plans to go to Mexico City to visit my dad. I was supposed to leave Wednesday afternoon.Just as I was heading out the door to get on the bus to the airport, I remembered one very important thing: my passport. It's been almost a year since I left the

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-78088180191742075752007-11-10T00:01:00.000-05:002007-11-10T00:04:44.483-05:00

If you remember a long time ago, I wrote about how wine snobs crack me up with the things they say about wine, and how I've always had a sneaking suspicion that they were just making shit up (like "tannins", or hints of mocha in wine).Well, have a look at this.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-52349492850553029422007-11-04T13:45:00.000-05:002007-11-04T13:46:48.688-05:00

The Translation of “Astérix le Gaulois”Making puns involves using language in ways for which it wasn’t intended. It’s like taking the language apart and putting it back together in a different way. And of course, since all languages are made differently, puns are almost completely impossible to translate across any but the most closely related languages.Yet somehow, the translators of “Astérix le

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-23025346591289798652007-10-27T19:24:00.000-04:002007-10-27T19:25:01.722-04:00

The seventh and final season of Scrubs has begun!Unfortunately it’s off to a rather disappointing start. After the soaring triumph of the final episode of season 6, 701 is a letdown. It’s actually a decent episode by the standards of S6 in general, but pretty much nothing could top 622.After the first scene of 701 I was surprised to find myself disappointed that it had gone that way, considering

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-33662086051662032662007-10-13T23:35:00.000-04:002007-10-14T23:41:53.465-04:00

(This post and the two previous ones were written while I was away, with the post times set to when they were actually written. I recommend you read them in chronological order; i.e. starting with "How to Pull an All-Nighter in an Airport".)As it turned out, I did have to do important stuff that day. I managed to stay awake for it. The important stuff I had to do was read something out of the

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-50229199260710095852007-10-12T07:00:00.000-04:002007-10-14T23:44:51.763-04:00

I managed to finish the crossword except for one letter. It was disappointingly easy, judging from the fact that I finished it at 1AM running on six hours of sleep the previous night.By the time I finished it, all the security guards and late-arriving passengers had disappeared. I shuffled over to the corner I’d chosen and set up camp. I put my laptop case flat on the floor and piled a couple of

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-42373198941969950402007-10-12T00:10:00.000-04:002007-10-14T23:28:56.918-04:00

Since I have about eight hours to kill in an airport at night, I figured I should pass the time by writing words instead of code for a change.I theorize that there are several steps to successfully pulling an all-nighter in an airport. Here’s what I’ve done so far:Concluded that the airline will not put me up in a hotel at their expense. Had vague feeling that if I were more of a dick about it,

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-22144008892508759242007-10-08T18:06:00.001-04:002007-10-08T18:06:54.608-04:00

I was reading the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's coverage of yesterday's Steeler game. Of course this is a bad idea, since the Post-Gazette is rather illiterate on a good day and a Steeler win just takes away any semblance of intelligent journalism they could claim to be printing. But I thought I'd share these two choice snippets, which appeared in the main article (which was all I could read without

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-66176662572847012982007-10-01T21:45:00.001-04:002007-10-01T21:45:02.600-04:00

Listen to this. Penelope Eckert is an awesome person.Seriously, how stupid does it seem that people higher up in the social hierarchy show it by fronting their vowels more? Is that the height of insanity or what?Actually, most such phonological phenomena are pretty arbitrary and silly-seeming, which is probably why people get offended when people like me point out these things happening in their

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-47865790243539323872007-10-01T00:20:00.001-04:002007-10-01T00:20:06.277-04:00

I jumped on the bandwagon and got a Twitter account. This is an explanation of sorts for the recent paucity of updates on this blag. The Twitter account serves as an outlet for the random useless thoughts that for some reason I feel compelled to share; this blag is now more reserved for things that are actually insightful or detailed, like musings on how not being able to see colors sometimes

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-82965372637312666982007-09-25T23:05:00.001-04:002007-09-25T23:05:33.978-04:00

So there's this game called Frenzic. While the gameplay isn't particularly appealing in itself to me, I'm considering buying the game solely on the strength of its consideration for colorblind people like me.A lot of games, both electronic and non, revolve around the player's ability to reliably make judgments about whether two colors are the same or not. Worse, many such games require this

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-35423078740998936182007-09-22T20:19:00.001-04:002007-09-22T20:19:18.676-04:00

Being a geek is awesome because it allows me to come up with awesome analogies such as that which I am about to share with you. If there's something better you should be doing, you should probably go do that instead of procrastinating by reading this, because seriously the story I'm about to tell you is completely pointless.My memory is a lot like version control.I came up with this analogy about

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-30886015539430159382007-09-19T14:29:00.001-04:002007-09-19T16:30:21.771-04:00

I learned that if you're in the presence of the Japanese Emperor, you're not supposed to look directly at him.Imagine being the emperor. Wouldn't that suck? If it were me, one day I would probably snap and yell, "This is ass, guys! Nobody looks at me! Look at me! It's OK! I don't mind! I am fed up with just seeing the tops of everyone's heads!"In other news, rule-based linguistics is an awesome

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-7647691858142523872007-09-16T21:38:00.001-04:002007-09-16T21:38:06.242-04:00

Is seriously the best movie ever, you guys. I just watched it again. Holy crap. It's so great. You have no idea.I think I've come up with the steps needed to gain the best understanding of Lost in Translation:Enter a new phase of your life and get sad and melancholy over it. This can be either post-college blues or a midlife crisis, or something similar.Go to Japan for no clear purpose. Don't go

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-91120466179322678472007-09-09T02:08:00.000-04:002007-09-09T02:09:55.137-04:00

ALLEZ LA BELGIQUEOther news: DOLLAR COINS ARE ANNOYING

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-81590557980752955742007-09-02T17:18:00.000-04:002007-09-02T17:26:42.389-04:00

Wikamnesia, n. ['wɪk æm 'niː ʒə]:A sudden loss of short-term memory that occurs after thinking of something to look up on Wikipedia, loading the Wikipedia front page and putting the cursor in the search box. Often accompanied by mild profanity and a deep feeling of stupidity.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-70148376052863850292007-08-23T22:00:00.000-04:002007-08-26T01:48:34.133-04:00

(This post, and the two earlier ones, were written while I was in Albany, without intertube access for four days. I'm posting them now with dates set to the dates when they were actually written.)This is a short story that I will attempt to make long, hopefully making it more amusing than it already is. (I use the word “amusing” somewhat loosely here. It isn’t really amusing to me, but it may be

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-54751702602218176632007-08-22T22:45:00.000-04:002007-08-26T01:48:59.606-04:00

I’m an atheist, and I live in the United States. This turns out to be a surprisingly bad combination.I haven’t discussed my religious beliefs with many people here. When I do, though, unless I’m talking to a fellow atheist, I usually get a somewhat unpleasant reaction when I reveal that I’m an atheist. The two main reactions I see are a disappointed “Oh” followed by awkward silence as the other

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-15905688615214618662007-08-21T22:42:00.000-04:002007-08-26T01:45:12.020-04:00

God help me, I do love Sex and the City. Yes I know shut up. I don’t care. It’s great.Just over two years ago, I was in the very same room I’m in now, fretting for a variety of reasons. I had left my old high school friends and was tasked with building a new circle of friends at college, and I didn’t know how well that was going to go. Contrarily, at the same time, I was feeling some post-GYLC

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-13887379765632488342007-08-21T14:54:00.000-04:002007-08-21T15:01:40.478-04:00

Usually when I travel by air, I check in some luggage. However, on this trip I didn't since I'm going on a four-day trip and I could fit all I needed into one backpack. This meant, however, that I had my toiletries in my backpack. I forgot about the fucking 3-ounce limit on liquids, and consequently my shaving gel and after shave are now in a big garbage can near the security checkpoint. For one

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-4245197808119498412007-08-19T13:48:00.000-04:002007-08-19T14:00:40.178-04:00

The first thing I noticed this morning, upon waking up, was a constant light hissing sound coming from outside, like faint static on a radio. For the past three months, the things that have woken me up are the harsh early-morning chill of Silicon Valley, and the sun flickering on my face as my window blinds wave around in the breeze. The early-morning chill was still there, but not the sun. I

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-33684918297982513472007-08-15T02:28:00.000-04:002007-08-15T02:32:47.372-04:00

At the office today, three of us were standing in a corridor chatting idly. At one point a guy came out of a nearby office and said to us, "Hey what's the word for when oh yeah superstition," and went back into his office. I cracked up.Then a few minutes later, he came out and stayed and chatted with us for a bit. Then, while somebody else was talking, this guy suddenly said, "I just completely

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-21154115095162678892007-08-12T03:24:00.000-04:002007-08-12T03:28:19.304-04:00

Today I wrote a small wiki web app in Python before going on a two-and-a-half-hour bike ride and watching a bunch of episodes of The Venture Brothers.Tomorrow, I will take over the world and make the pages that my wiki app serves not look like 1997-era ass.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-57900457020448412842007-08-09T03:00:00.000-04:002007-08-09T03:10:39.765-04:00

So "My Boys" may grow on me yet. It's a decent show after all. But there's one thing that must stop.To date, three guests from Scrubs have appeared in My Boys. In addition, one of the main characters of My Boys is played by a guy who was once an extra on Scrubs. THIS IS A PROBLEM.Neil Flynn, the Janitor, showed up playing an asshat Cubs pitcher. Nicole Sullivan, the annoying patient from 110, 122

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-25880899092589433762007-08-05T01:44:00.000-04:002007-08-05T01:47:24.212-04:00

They played the song "Subdivisions" in the live show. I just looked up the lyrics and realized what the song is about, and what the title refers to.I really like this song now. Before I thought it was some random Rush thing with cool keyboard parts in the middle. It also reminds me that Neil Peart has talents other than drumming.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-91556385282574514012007-08-03T04:21:00.000-04:002007-08-04T04:56:51.034-04:00

After seeing Rush in concert, I have gained even greated appreciation for them. I did not think that was possible.First of all, the venue, Shoreline Amphitheatre, was spectacular. I understand why Rush likes playing in outdoor venues. They had lasers. The lasers shot far, far into the sky. They lit up the tent from underneath. It was lovely. Birds kept flying into the vicinity of the speakers,

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-65381601510683658192007-08-01T00:40:00.000-04:002007-08-01T03:04:55.470-04:00

Last Saturday, I went to a Dream Theater concert. I have some things to say about it.I feel really sorry for the openers for any band like Dream Theater. No matter what you do, you're just not as good as the main act, and the audience doesn't like you. They just want you to finish your silly songs and get the hell off the stage so Dream Theater can start. The openers were really lame, which

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-89915647022257457772007-07-24T02:35:00.000-04:002007-07-24T02:37:24.577-04:00

I've heard a variety of terms used to describe me and others of my ilk. I feel like there are a lot (note the space) of subtleties at play here, distinguishing these terms from each other.ProgrammerCoderHackerComputer scientistSoftware engineerSoftware developerThey're all different, but how? And what does each one mean? I have to think about this.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-62599156380696461802007-07-22T23:37:00.000-04:002007-07-25T03:20:31.553-04:00

Here are a few pearls of wisdom that I would like to share with the world at large.Apostrophes are not meant to be sprinkled liberally into words. There are times when apostrophes do not belong between the "t" and the "s" in "its". There is a very simple way to determine whether or not an apostrophe belongs there."February" has two "r"s in it."Alot" is not a word. "A lot" is two words.I know "of"

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-66440150570335591132007-07-17T01:54:00.000-04:002007-07-17T01:56:08.227-04:00

Seriously, creators of otherwise excellent fictional works, THE FOURTH WALL IS THERE FOR A REASON. LEAVE IT THE HELL ALONE.Creators of Bloom County and Malcolm in the Middle, I AM LOOKING POINTEDLY IN YOUR DIRECTION.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-18931107576175128422007-07-14T03:51:00.000-04:002007-07-14T03:58:21.212-04:00

There's a Wikipedia article rather humorously entitled Metallica's ninth studio album. It is full of good things to say, including: presence of guitar solos, "Lars remembered to set his snare drum properly this time", it sounds different from St. Anger "in a good way", "getting James and Lars to step back in time", "James' voice sounds more like it did in the 80s than it did in the 90s", and so

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-21456250493894981432007-07-06T01:10:00.000-04:002007-07-06T12:45:53.619-04:00

This is going to be a long UI-design-wanking essay mainly about the iPhone. No, I don’t have one, and I’m not going to get one. But I have a lot to say about its UI.You’ll barely see Apple mention the iPhone anywhere without the word “revolutionary” nearby, like an annoyingly chipper sidekick. The somewhat grandiose claim is that they’ve reinvented the phone, and created a “revolutionary Internet

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-44827641431809114202007-06-28T22:25:00.000-04:002007-06-28T22:31:25.004-04:00

The next time you resize a window on your computer, please spare a moment to think of the frustration of the programmer who implemented the resizing logic, and how that programmer's efforts are what made possible a seamless window-resizing experience for you.Seriously, a lot of shit happens when you resize a window. If there are custom-written controls inside there that don't get fucked up when

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-33181038576437091342007-06-20T23:25:00.000-04:002007-07-06T02:07:35.412-04:00

Hark, my brethren, hear ye, hear ye. We gather here today to give our thanks and praise to that which hath on many an occasion delivered us from the clutches of Doom: the brave, heroic Segmentation Fault.In our lives, we are all forced to navigate the treacherous realm of main memory, for without it, we would not remember things. Main memory is a harsh abode, and we have no choice but to inhabit

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-78988768552421027182007-06-17T21:03:00.000-04:002007-06-17T21:16:11.206-04:00

I have come up with the ultimate Asshat Catchphrase, thanks to an unknown Oakland graffiti artist.I was in Oakland today, when I came across a bus shelter that had been vandalized with the profoundly thought-provoking words: "SKEET SKEET BITCH".I tried it out, and the phrase certainly has a nice ring to it. I tried it again and felt powerful. It felt like, merely by invoking SKEET SKEET BITCH, I

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-64582333230809948612007-06-17T15:00:00.000-04:002007-06-17T18:00:02.434-04:00

Here in the verdant vale of Silicon (population: hippies) is the epicenter of the craze that has swept the nation in recent years: hippies.By hippies, I mean two distinct things that are also sort of intertwined: health food and organic stuff. So strictly speaking, the health food is more to do with yuppies than hippies, but hippies is a funnier word so I shall use that as a blanket term for

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-20147652688254250162007-06-14T23:45:00.000-04:002007-06-14T23:47:02.806-04:00

Here's something I don't understand. "Terrible" and "horrible" both are associated with an idea of badness, as are "terrify" and "horrify". So why is "horrific" a "bad" word while "terrific" is good?

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-50568588148105845072007-06-12T20:38:00.000-04:002008-12-09T11:45:08.723-05:00

I'd just like to point out three things in the below screenshot:The unified, united unity of Unity.The time for Beginner level.The shape of the negative space in the Fusion icon. NOW YOU CAN NEVER UNSEE IT. Tomorrow, I shall resume my investigation of why a very slow-witted person named Anonymous has been playing Minesweeper on my computer.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-35333726155172136852007-06-06T23:04:00.000-04:002007-06-07T23:46:46.707-04:00

Coolness!While I didn't have any direct involvement with Unity, it's still a rather awesome feeling to see a product that I'm working on getting such a positive reaction (one Digg commenter: "VMware is jesus in virtual form"). When Fusion RC1 comes out, you will see (but probably not explicitly notice) things that I worked on. But not my major, summer-long project — that'll come out in Fusion 1.5

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-3920374388116568782007-05-31T00:38:00.000-04:002007-05-31T02:12:20.507-04:00

Why is it that Google bothers me so?It used to be that any time I came up with a potential reason, I'd realize it wasn't valid a minute later. Is it because they own an entire segment of the applications market? Can't be; I don't mind VMware owning the virtualization segment (but maybe that's just because I work for them). Is it because their success is completely unmitigated, and they seemingly

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-34595493295057667002007-05-24T23:53:00.000-04:002007-05-25T02:20:25.516-04:00

I rode Caltrain today. As an exacting connoisseur of train systems, I feel the need to hold forth on how terrible it is.First of all, I fail to understand how it can be that trains run so late on a network that is completely linear. There are not separate lines on Caltrain. The track just runs from one end to the other, without branching. Yet trains regularly run so late that they arrive at

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-69507038743117941582007-05-23T18:20:00.001-04:002007-05-23T18:23:27.824-04:00

Dude I just ordered tickets to see Dream Theater in Berkeley. The concert's like 4 days before Rush. I think my head might explode. My ears won't even have a chance to recover.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-60103062229488711882007-05-19T11:54:00.000-04:002007-05-19T12:04:58.360-04:00

StarCraft II. Tagline: "Hell, it's about time".I must confess to a bit of disappointment. I expected to be shitting my pants in excitement when they announced it. What is it really, though? StarCraft with a new graphics engine and some new units. Not even a new race.Admittedly, SC is a hard act to follow. And of course I'm judging on the basis of the preview site and some screenshots. The

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-3448182838583583782007-05-19T01:37:00.001-04:002007-05-19T11:54:15.910-04:00

Oh Scrubs, you are such an asshat, you have no idea.Oh the drama. Oh the cliffhangers. Oh the disasters.I'm not even going to talk about the first part. It's not interesting.The second part is one of the most amazing specimens of directing in Scrubs that I can remember. I had to search a while to find out who directed it, incidentally, since there's no title sequence at the beginning of the

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-33934824834249274672007-05-10T13:36:00.000-04:002007-05-10T14:08:35.303-04:00

I have bought my tickets to the Rush show in California this summer, so that can be checked off my list of things to do, which includes a lot of important things like packing up all my stuff so I can GO to California. I'm sorry; I managed to lose my attention span in the middle of that sentence. There are now two bands left that I want to see before they die of old age: Dream Theater and

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-89834703874329837782007-05-06T02:07:00.000-04:002007-05-06T02:08:03.614-04:00

Holy shit Rush is going on tour this summer! They will be in San Francisco on August 1. I am going to see them. This is non-negotiable.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-55420584013562702792007-05-04T22:51:00.000-04:002007-05-05T01:19:50.079-04:00

Oh Scrubs, how you love to jerk your fans around.Within the space of 20 minutes, it went from seeming like the fate of Elliot's love life is finally decided, after six years of screwing around, to all the angsty angsty angst of the end of season 3. While this was a good episode (one of the best of S6), Scrubs is once again in danger of putting too much weight on the foot that's already on the

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-7564574495079837712007-05-01T17:14:00.000-04:002007-05-01T17:35:15.854-04:00

So I just got this spam:Dear Customer, [my Google account name].You are receiving this message, due to you protection, Our Online Technical Security Service Foreign IP Spy recently detected that your online account was recently logged on from am 84.96.65.166[formerly a link] without am International Access Code (I.A.C) and from an unregistered computer, which was not verified by the Our Online

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-987478716407085802007-04-26T16:45:00.000-04:002007-04-26T16:47:58.416-04:00

So I have to write a paper for philosophy, answering the question, "Who Am I?" A rough draft is due less than 24 hours from now. This is what I have so far:Who Am I?I am the egg manThey are the egg menI am the walrusGoo goo ga joobThis is just the rough draft, but this paper is worth 20% of my grade in that class.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-35528720894318143542007-04-25T17:07:00.000-04:002007-04-26T13:15:14.760-04:00

For all you self-styled haxors out there, here's a little challenge:Install some form of Linux.Quit X, if it's there, so you're just at a console (bash).Change to root with su and then cd /Do rm -rf /*Now, starting with only shell builtins, rebuild a working OS from scratch, such that if you restart the machine, you will be able to log back in to a functional shell.Tips:echo * will list files in

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-27988937970376635062007-04-12T16:57:00.000-04:002007-04-12T17:31:14.564-04:00

Language Log: The Dan Brown CodeFinally! Someone who agrees with me that The Da Vinci Code is the most stunningly overrated piece of writing in the history of fiction. Not only that, but also that Dan Brown is an absolutely terrible writer in general. I can't really describe the completely inept style better than the page I linked to. Brown shamelessly abuses the English language; you have to

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-53087593219505639692007-04-11T00:41:00.000-04:002007-04-11T01:05:52.779-04:00

I haven't posted in forever because I've been hell of busy, but right now I feel the need to vent.Language technologies is very much an active area of research nowadays. With the rise in popularity of the intertubes, it's easy to see why. Speech recognition, OCR, word sense disambiguation, grammar checking, spam filtering...all sorts of language-related tasks need to be performed in batch by

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-90722318411913671262007-03-19T23:25:00.000-04:002007-03-19T23:31:31.258-04:00

I've been bothered by something for a while. I use Adium, and I have it display a Growl notification whenever I get an IM and Adium is in the background. The Growl notification contains the name of the contact that the IM came from, and the first line of the message itself. Sometimes I don't want that, such as when there are people reading my screen and the IM contains something I'd rather those

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-25843796514542681522007-03-08T00:49:00.000-05:002007-03-08T01:07:27.905-05:00

Of all the examples of being unable to comprehend new technology. perhaps the most tragic yet ridiculous example is the armadillo.All animals, big and small, are born with an array of mechanisms that are meant to ensure their continued survival. The most important tool in the armadillo's survival kit is, of course, the hard outer shell for which it is named; Spanish speakers will no doubt

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-27462413663088820492007-03-03T00:09:00.000-05:002007-03-03T00:17:57.819-05:00

A retrospective. A lame cop-out from having to make a real episode, for sure, but it’s good nonetheless. One disappointing aspect of it all, though, is the fact that nearly all the best clips from past episodes are from seasons 1, 2 and 3. In other words: there haven’t been “best moments” in the past two and a half seasons.This retrospective is strikingly similar to one that was done as a special

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-13957901772595204832007-02-21T21:52:00.000-05:002008-12-09T11:45:08.966-05:00

So Bill Gates and Steve Jobs publicly appeared together for the first time since probably 1997 at some conference thing. There are photos here. A couple of them are a lot better if you try to imagine what they're saying, so I'm calling a caption competition.Here's my entry. In this photo:Jobs: Mine's about this big.Gates: Oh YEAH? Well, MINE can SQUIRT.In other news, doesn't it bother that while

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-79041256105897073432007-02-10T12:16:00.000-05:002007-02-07T12:30:49.274-05:00

I'm of the opinion that makers of hardware-intensive games like FPSs should always include a "holy shit mode" of the graphics. By that I mean a setting where the graphics are so ludicrously detailed that no current computer could possibly run that mode without choking. Just pull out all the stops. Don't consider resource limits.The reason for this is that pretty soon, the resource limits you were

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-56782785143574968712007-02-05T13:19:00.000-05:002007-02-05T13:33:29.740-05:00

Scrubs 607 is a complete travesty. Travesty. Travesty travesty travesty. It's terrible.The Colts won the Super Bowl. But the media are forgetting that, in fact, all of America won because there were two black head coaches in the Super Bowl. OK, I promise I will stop harping on that. I just had to get one last jab in.I think it's a strange phenomenon in video games that if one plays two games that

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-60058278152651894412007-02-01T21:58:00.000-05:002007-02-01T22:06:22.095-05:00

Man, I haven't posted in ages. I guess there have been no wacky hijinks in the news, nor have there been new episodes of Scrubs, or dumb holidays for me to whine about. Well, Valentine's Day is coming up but we're not going there again. You can look at my rant around this time last year (geez, have I really had this stupid blog for THAT long?) if you care.Anyway, I just wanted to say that if you

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-10106291046056343122007-01-23T17:26:00.000-05:002007-01-23T17:32:24.783-05:00

This year's Super Bowl will be between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts. The news media (even outside of sports segments and sections) are in raptures over this. Not because of who the teams are, but rather because...can you guess?...both head coaches are black.The news media present this as a giant step towards the goal of racial equality in football. The main-news segment of CBS

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-25555580174198573162007-01-12T22:32:00.000-05:002007-01-12T22:37:06.554-05:00

...is good. In many, many ways.In the interest of not being a very sad little man, I will not analyze it. I will stop writing now.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-69145837685899599102007-01-07T08:42:00.000-05:002007-01-07T11:34:20.710-05:00

My feelings are mixed. This episode takes some positive steps toward solving the humor problem, but then it just goes backwards again. The positive steps are small; so small, in fact, that I’m starting to doubt they’re even there. I may have made them up out of wishful thinking.The first major positive step I want to mention is one that I definitely haven’t made up: KIM IS GONE! This is cause for

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-55391997853595182292007-01-05T00:03:00.000-05:002007-01-05T15:24:55.708-05:00

There’s a new sitcom on TBS called “My Boys”. It centers on a female sportswriter in Chicago, all of whose friends are male, and the trials and tribulations in her personal life. I am here to train my critical eye on it, after watching the entire first season (which aired in the space of like 3 weeks).The first thing that struck me (I watched all the episodes, starting from the first, in order)

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-34348661659214307122007-01-04T11:26:00.000-05:002007-01-04T12:41:16.946-05:00

Hey, funny story. I had a cell phone here in my European domicile, but since I've been away for just about a year, it wasn't used for about that long. Since I'm an infrequent cell phone user, I was on a plan from Proximus known as Pay&Go. Pay&Go is what it sounds like: you buy a refill card from any grocery store or gas station, enter the code thereon into your phone, and bam, you get more credit

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-30637751507042787192007-01-02T12:44:00.000-05:002007-01-02T12:51:54.823-05:00

Here is a little nugget of advice for y'all. You might even see it as a plea.If you are making something that's color-coded, choose colors that are HUGELY different. Also, make the color swatches in the legend (if present) large enough that they can actually be compared against the colors in use.In other words, if you make something with colors like this, I will come to your house and steal all

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-91076801084990233812006-12-24T21:39:00.000-05:002006-12-24T21:43:10.137-05:00

So I just got yelled at by my family for being such an incurable curmudgeon with respect to the Christmas (I'm sorry, "holiday") season. It's been so long since I was actually in a real Christmas spirit, without any trace of cynicism, that I sort of forget how.Anyway, the way I'm getting my Christmas spirit on is by listening to Christmas carols — by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They are pretty

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-4418305138260427652006-12-20T14:00:00.000-05:002006-12-20T14:15:37.294-05:00

And there it is, the Christmas music in the background of the airport food court. My cue to commence a curmudgeonly rant about how much the winter holiday season bugs me.A couple of days ago, I saw a commercial for Sears on TV that shocked me to laughter with its cynicism, before I was swept under the wave of relief that I'm not the only person who feels this way. The gist of the commercial was

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-73192634799616420742006-12-11T00:48:00.001-05:002006-12-17T01:05:25.421-05:00

Episode 602 has aired. After it, I sort of wandered around my apartment mumbling, gently bumping into walls and occasionally yelling "NOOOOOO" for several minutes. My take on JD and Kim's decision is as follows: if, in real life, it would be an extremely important but horrendously bad decision, then it is definitely not a good decision for characters in a sitcom. Seriously, they just met, they

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-21944172057510385992006-12-02T15:28:00.000-05:002006-12-09T02:38:22.611-05:00

Season 6 of Scrubs has begun! Here is my commentary. Watch it sparkle.THE GOODThe Janitor is the only character who remains consistently funny. After a few stumbles in S4 and S5, Neil Flynn apparently attended funny camp during the off-season. He is the primary source of Subtle Wacky Randomness (hereinafter abbreviated as SWR) that is the hallmark of Scrubs humor (or was, back when Scrubs was

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-14448506424457591692006-11-21T02:04:00.000-05:002006-11-23T19:29:32.661-05:00

I have a job for which I'm supposed to learn Lisp. My employer has said to me, many times, that many people find Lisp daunting at first, but gradually get used to it and come to love it as they learn it. In all of the Lisp books I've read, in the introductions, the authors usually devote an entire section to expounding on the virtues of Lisp. So Lisp definitely has its devoted proponents, which

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-41523562765321722042006-11-11T03:06:00.001-05:002006-11-11T03:06:39.755-05:00

Warning: this post is completely devoid of any intellectual merit.The Lightning Gun in UT2004 has grown on me. I used to think it was a gimpy replacement for the original UT sniper rifle (which I guess was deemed overpowered), but I've gotten used to it. I thought its two main disadvantages (incredibly slow rate of fire and slight delay between pressing mouse and actual firing) made it

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-22304395907644882762006-11-10T00:15:00.000-05:002006-11-10T00:16:47.242-05:00

Dead Woman Wins Local US ElectionOK, the stupidity of the voters of Jerauld County amazes me. If you had a chance to elect someone named Merlin, why wouldn't you??

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-53459260910444858352006-11-09T14:56:00.000-05:002006-11-09T14:59:08.586-05:00

Backside Firework Prank BackfiresA man suffered internal burns when he tried to launch a rocket from his bottom on Bonfire Night.I have nothing to say about this.

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-42475026920537038392006-11-08T22:02:00.000-05:002006-11-08T23:14:16.433-05:00

Here is an article. Allow me to summarize the conclusions this "revolutionary" study reaches:Boys and girls are different.Girls are better at emotions.Boys are big stupidheads.Hormones make both sexes go completely batshit.Uh...tell me, where's the news in there?Seriously. Here:Due to this revolutionary technology, we now know that areas for emotional memory and communication are larger in the

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-58423869756737915092006-11-08T18:17:00.000-05:002006-11-08T18:24:59.416-05:00

Last night, I watched part of VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s". Most of them were songs from artists that I know were popular but I'm not really interested in, like Duran Duran. If you remember, a few posts ago I said something about how Iron Maiden, Van Halen and Guns 'N Roses defined the 80s. Well, I would just like to amend that, get rid of Iron Maiden and replace it with the band that is

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-91790201877441797242006-11-07T16:28:00.000-05:002006-11-08T18:17:44.366-05:00

I just got back from casting my ballot. When I got home, I thought to myself, "Which news source do I trust to give me the most accurate, unbiased news about how the election is going?" I came to the rather unsettling realization that I don't trust any of the major US news outlets to give me accurate, unbiased news about the election. Then I came to the realization that cheese is good, so I went

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15196751.post-11258212613248963382006-11-06T18:38:00.000-05:002006-11-06T18:59:41.410-05:00

It's at times like this that I wish Bloom County were still around. By "times like this," I of course mean election season in the US.Bloom County did political satire almost without equal (except perhaps Doonesbury). During presidential election years (there were two during Bloom County's run, '84 and '88), the political satire would go into overdrive. The cast would hold a caucus of their party,

Think Differenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05445954953009134238noreply@blogger.com1