And then, eventually, maybe, you find somebody who reached the same conclusions you have.
Soylent: An Offbeat Food Idea Investors Are Taking Seriously (www.npr.org)
Saturday Night Live finally made me laugh this season with The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders (dailypicksandflicks.com).
So I'm really started to dislike reviews. Like when I'm trying to research things I want to buy in the areas of technology, cars... ok so maybe just those two.
When looking to buy a car we knew what we were interested in, yet car reviews basically downplay all of the aspects of car ownership that Katy and I found important. We want good gas mileage, well the car we're looking at gets slammed because it doesn't accelerate like a porche or the model with a turbocharged V6 engine. Or that it's bland and not all flashy like a similar model made by someone who sells the same type of car but for 10k more.
Ok so now Katy and I are looking at new phones. Our needs are simple and we don't play games or watch movies. I was interested in whether or not the new iphones were worth looking at, but a fair number of reviews go on and on about screen size and screen resolution. Really? Aren't there more aspects to the user experience than how massive the damn thing is in my pocket? Aren't there tech reviewers who still value form factor, and something that actually fits in your pocket conveniently?
I kinda feel like like the kind of people who's job it is to review new technology really don't share the same desires as me and place huge importance on shit that really doesn't matter to the average user. I don't want a car that can rally super hard because I want good mpg and I know those two don't really mix. I want a phone that fits nice in my pocket, so yeah a huge screen is not want I want.
Maybe it's because I'm partial but I really like gear reviews for the climbing shit I buy. They usually actually tell me what I want to know. It's they have a better feel for what is important to consumers. At any rate I did end up buying the car I wanted despite what most reviews said and we love it. Still don't know what to do about upgrading phones... so any tech advice might be nice.
Why I'm Never Going Back to Penny Arcade Expo (www.wired.com)
This is the second article I've read regarding this topic in the last three days. I'm not exactly sure what exactly is going on here, but I know that their response seemed pretty halfhearted to me. In particular, this bit twanged my "don't say that. don't say that EVER." nerve
So let me start by saying I like the Dickwolves strip. I think it’s a strong comic and I still think the joke is funny. Would we make that strip today? Knowing what we know now and seeing how it hurt people, no.
To me, this reads "I like the strip, but I regret getting in trouble for writing it." The logical decision here is to say "I'm sorry. No more rape jokes." When this all went down, that's not exactly how things got handled, as they elaborate.
I absolutely regret everything we did after that comic. I regret the follow up strip, I regret making the merchandise, I regret pulling the merchandise and I regret being such an asshole on twitter to people who were upset. I don’t think any of those things were good ideas. If we had just stopped with the strip and moved on, the Dickwolf never would have become what it is today. Which is a joke at the expense of rape victims or a symbol of the dismissal of people who have suffered a sexual assault.
Because of the aforementioned actions, fervor built up around the idea of dickwolves. Now, it seems that anyone who criticizes Penny Arcade or the way the situation was handled in a quasi-public forum gets accosted by the nerd-army with rape and death threats.
So, I have to wonder: Is it something about Penny Arcade? Is it youthful ignorance of societal norms and expected behavior? Are videogame nerds (collectively) assholes? What does it say about me that I laughed when I read that strip the first time round and that I wish I had a fruitfucker poster for my house?
Hey, I now understand why some of my friends and loved ones are gay - they were abused and didn't spend enough time with their father.
Fortunately this helpful children's book explains it all.
http://awfullibrarybooks.net/gayness-explained/ (awfullibrarybooks.net)
(FYI That is a librarian blog that highlights the worst books that are still in library collections and really need weeded.)
YAY BROKEN WASHING MACHINE.
...
It was its time, truly.
(grammar edit because I hate myself like that)
So Orson Scott Card. I love the Ender's Game books. Love, love, love. I've read a bunch of his other stuff that isn't too obviously an allegory for Mormon theology. (Worthing Saga is great even if it is barely disguised Mormon theology). And I've been looking forward to the moives for YEARS. Yes he doesn't support gay marriage, but so do a lot of people. Maybe I can still see it and then make a donation to the Pride Foundation and that will equal it out? Isn't it censorship to avoid a writer's works because I don't like their moral views? Of course I'm getting the non-profit I'm on the board of to switch away from GoDaddy registration because of their stance on SOPA and their misogynistic advertising. So am I just making excuses because I really want to see this movie?
Skip Ender's Game boycott page: http://skipendersgame.com/ (skipendersgame.com)
NYT article on the controversy: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/opinion/sunday/the-enders-game-boycott.html?_r=0 (www.nytimes.com)
Also Orson Scott Card is crazy in so many more amusing ways. He thinks Obama is using urban gangs as a personal army so he can stay in power as some sort of dictator. http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/08/14/orson_scott_card_worries_about_obama_turning_urban_gangs_into_his_personal.html (www.slate.com)
But historically genius creators have often been crazy. And I really want to see the movie. Sigh. What should a socially conscious geek girl do?
After spending all day tracking down 250kb of bad sectors on an SSD that were causing my work computer to behave very badly (thank you, chkdsk!) while the corporate IT guy offered to bring me a new (completely blank and virtually useless) computer, I'll just leave this here for Josh so we can be smug together.
Video of what a mosquito is doing while it's biting you. (phenomena.nationalgeographic.com)
Great article explaining the videos and what is happening. I had no idea how complex mosquito bites actual were.
Fucking Loser at Movie All By Himself (www.theonion.com)
“I’m not expecting too much from Red 2, but it should be fun,” added the heartbreakingly defeated man, who sources believe must have given up on meaningful relationships long ago. “I think Catherine Zeta-Jones is in this one.”
I love musical theater more than your average guy (perhaps not more than your average gay man...), but I'm in Payroll (www.youtube.com) was hard to watch. Amusing in a sort of Best in Show / A Mighty Wind kind of way but still painful. Also, did he recruit his dancers from the actual payroll department? Seriously, they look like the accountants I work with...
I applaud whoever slipped goatse into the photo booth - its grainy enough that when you look at it on fullscreen, you cant tell what it is. But, if you look at it in thumbnails, there it is!
no mom, i dont know what that is. Lets delete it
From Mr. Hughes:
Jensen Danger Hughes, born 7:45PM (Pacific Time).
Congratulations to all involved.
Photo update:
I'm constantly tired, hungry, and my balls hurt.
On the plus side I've biked most of the distance to work every day so far this month, and with 551 miles ridden as of this evening that puts in at #44 of all 18,000 or so riders in all of the Seattle area. I also feel like I've lost about 10lbs so far this month. I guess it's worth it in the end.
Somewhat randomly last night I ran into someone from high school. It was the annual team captains party for bike to work month at Pike place Brewery, which I have always tried to go to because its free beer and sometimes free jersey's and the like.
At the beginning of the evening I saw this gal who I could swear I recognized, but couldn't quite place the name or location. With each beer a new detail would come back. Beer 1, definitely someone from high school. Beer 2 Mr. Millers AP Gov class. Beer 3, Dan Gillespie's older sister... you see where this was going. At this point I still wasn't sure if it was actually our Valedictorian Erin Gillespie or just someone who looks basically like what I assumed she would look like after 10 years.
Beer 4, when me and my buddy were heading out, my friend stops me and says "I gotta know, is that really the person you think it is?" So yeah it totally was. Pretty damn random, we chatted for a fair bit, probably more than I ever talked to her in 4 years of high school actually.
Funnily enough this whole conversation happened next to a table where a rep for Cliff Bar was set up. Ended up chatting with that gal for another 20 minutes or so and scored a bunch more tasty bars before heading home.
Driving along, listening to the radio, and on comes an ad that asks "Are you a nerd? Do you know Klingon? How many digits of pi can you recite?" (and some various other stereotypical nerd markers). They're advertising a speed dating event for nerds at TGIFridays.
That's interesting. I don't even know. Other than I'm getting more and more offended at nerd-centric advertising because I think being a nerd differs from person to person and we don't all have the same experience. I have seen most of the Star Trek episodes and movies from most series, but I don't speak Klingon. I can however quote 18th century English lit ad nauseum. And I know more about the different types of fibers and the animals that bring them to us than I should confess to. Nerd is a wide variety of experiences. I don't know any digits of pi, but I can name the lines of English royalty for quite a ways.
Anyway, if anyone wants to go and report back, I will pay your registration fee. I have to work late that night. Plus I'm not single and that would feel dishonest.
http://www.meetmeforlunch.net/index.php?content=register&eventId=125 (www.meetmeforlunch.net)
This would be a dangerous LotR drinking game: https://www.youtub...watch?v=L2VnvNDH_FM (www.youtube.com)
Today's xkcd is great: http://xkcd.com/1207/ (xkcd.com). I hear the "wrong" just like Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor in Superman.
Ok, twitter and facebook won't work for this post, and no way in hell i'm posting in the comments section on news sites.
The bombs that exploded in Boston yesterday were technically unsophisticated weapons. The white smoke following the fireball is characteristic of a rapid combustion event, such as black powder, not a chemical explosion, such as plastic explosives or gunpowder-laced nitroglycerin (TNT). ANFO, another rapid combustion based propellant, leaves black smoke after combustion due to the inclusion of diesel or heating oil as the oxidizer.
So, if it's a black powder or similar explosion, and it used BBs or ball bearings, as news organizations are saying, that means it used materials that you could gather in a shopping trip to Walmart and Sportsman's Warehouse - black powder, BBs, a digital watch w/alarm, a primer from handloading (or even just a bullet, any caliber, any cartridge), and a container.
that's technically unsophisticated.
We know from two different wars in Asia that our opponent force there is very sophisticated, in the type of explosives, in the manner of delivery, in the activation device, and effectiveness of the placement.
I'd be really surprised if we find out this attack comes from a foreign source. They'd either be really stupid or really smart. I can't decide.
