This earthquake happened at the worst possible time for my travel arrangements back from Kwajalein.
After taking a delayed red-eye from Kwaj to Honolulu (5.5 hours from 9:30pm to... 6 am-ish?), my Honolulu to Anchorage flight got delayed 8 hours. Meaning my connection from Seattle to Anchorage had to be delayed until tomorrow morning. So I've been at the Honolulu airport waiting since 9am, and then I have a 7-hour layover to look forward to in Seattle from about 1am to 8am.
So tired.
/shallow rant
Too bad over a thousand died in the quake!
My constant companion for the past five years is set to expire this Friday. I morn its passing with a most unsatisfying new beginning. After some 8 years of not actually living in Alaska I am finally getting my Washington drivers license. In fact, I did so this morning with one of the nicest DMV guys I've ever had to meet. Goodbye sales tax exemption.
Agreed. Construct the funeral pyre boat. Load it will all the purchases you made and got a tax exemption using that card. And the PFDs you obtained while maintaining residency with that. It's only fitting, JD. Burn it for the gods (www.google.com).
Hey, I only received 1 PFD after I got out of school so I don't feel all that bad about that one. Now all of my purchases, shiiiit. No way am I giving all of that up. It was pretty much the ONLY reason I didn't go get my license sooner, that and being really really lazy and not wanting to stand in line at the DMV.
Which reminds me, got my REI dividend today... $289 and change. And you don't get the dividend on sale items.... And I never pay tax on anything I buy there because they're just so damn nice and love to do the exemption form for me.
COME TO THE CABARET!
OK, OK, so everyone knows the show and has probably seen the Liza Minelli film. But it's still a fabulous local production with more hot dancers in lingerie than you'll find in any other show. And my mom liked my singing! And there's a perpetual risk of injury!
An Alaska Dispatch reporter p (www.alaskadispatch.com)rofiled (www.alaskadispatch.com) the production. My favorite part is when she talks about the Mein Herr/Mein Chairdance choreography: "But despite the fact that the choreography is all new, the chairs aren't the ones they'll be using on opening night, and it's starting to get late, within the course of an hour and a half, Ward has the company dancing its way through three-quarters of the song -- and only two people get kicked in the head."
Runs Friday and Saturday nights through April 9th. Get your tickets here (alaskapac.centertix.net).
So I'm in trouble. I've either stolen or crashed an expensive car, that then ran out of gas (either by leaving the gas cap off, or someone having already siphoned the fuel out), allowing for my commanding officer to track me down and apprehend me. I got the sense that I was AWOL, and wanted to remain that way.
"We've got you now," the captain growled as he threw me into a prison cell.
However, military prison isn't how I would have imagined it. As punishment, prisoners are forced to participate in theatrical musical numbers. Which is about the worst punishment I can imagine. As either part of their community service, or possibly hired professionals, actual civilian performers perform alongside prisoners.
We're being forced to learn some new number, and it's particularly difficult, and the chorus line keeps getting it wrong. Stuck in some awkward end-of-scene flourish, a particularly nervous looking chorus girl looks at me and sings the last line of her part:
"What I mean to say... Is all shall perish."
Unsettling dream.
How does Monday, March 21st sound for the next book club meeting? 7-9. i can most likely host. Erik gave the book 4/5 STARS. This means it doesn't suck! So read it. Cuyler is in Texas visiting his girlfriend, and won't be able to make it. Baird does plays now, not books. New people are encouraged to attend!
Mine is en route via Amazon and set to arrive today! I can bust through it this week/weekend and give it to you early next week? That would only give you 8 days to read it. But it is not too lengthy as books go. your presence at book club (book being read non withstanding) can be my birthday present from you to me! only 3 days belated!
As in, you want to get one? Or that you want to start a discussion about it?
I'll bite, either way.
The iPad isn't a full-blown computer (which, may be what some people are looking for). It's instead a part of the product line that Apple is considering "mobile," that is, to be used on-the-go, with the assumption that you have another computer somewhere else that'll sync with the iPad. Unless I've missed something, it's the same with iPad 2 as it is in the first iPad: you have to have a computer first in order to use it. For most this isn't a problem, but I mention it mostly because it's telling of how Apple considers this product line.
If I'm going to spend $500+ on a "computer," it's going to have to get the basics right:
I like the battery life. I like that they're improving performance. I could care less about the fancy cover. I still have some problems with the design of the device. For instance, given their "9x" graphics, why wouldn't they give you an HDMI out? Or give you the ability to replace the hard drive if it failed?
If you have a relatively recent laptop that you're happy with, I'd find these to be a hard sell, unless you're just going for pure Apple gadgetry.
These days, I'm usually out of the house from 6:30am to 10:30pm at least four days per week, and usually six days per week. What with all that mobility, I can definitely see myself using an "in-between" device, especially since it supports e-books and movies on a screen of decent size.
(yes, you can watch movies and read e-books on an iphone, but I won't use a screen that size for those purposes. I already have to pay attention to my usage with mine so that I don't strain my eyes even with things as simple as twitter or email.)
My laptop's drawbacks in comparison to an ipad would be startup times and battery life. Even with the most conservative battery settings, I can only watch one movie, and only just, before i run out of juice. that being said, i have no experience with an ipad, so i don't know its battery life when watching movies.
theres things i would still use a laptop for rather than an in-between device, and that's my homework/word processing, and all of my personal finance stuff.
Hear Hear!
I totally agree with Josh's statement here. And on that note, the Nook Color running the Android OS is a tablet disguised as a E-Reader. B&N has a coupon on Ebay right now for $50 off (cgi.ebay.com). Of course it'll have to be rooted, but once rooted, you can then add the App store and go to down on the craziness, and is half the price of an Ipad. While it's smaller, to me it's the better buy. Plus it has a SD card slot, wireless, and I believe standard mini-usb.
But not everybody would want to go that way. I'd be watching Craigslist, I think people are going to start dumping their old ones for the new hotness soon.
I think you have spent far too much time wanting all purpose machines that you can bend to your will and use to create useful and or interesting things with.
The average consumer, and for this I might use myself, probably only does 2 things with an average computer. Check/write emails and watch or browse random shit. Neither of these require a lot of processing power, but battery life and portability are probably key. The amount of time i spend at home actually working with any kind of document creation is pretty much zero and really the amount of time I spend accessing documents is about the same. I really would not be surprised if this were true for most people. So really the ipad is pretty ingenious in design and marketing, it really hits exactly what most people want to do and it does it easily without really requiring much in the way of computer competency.
Though having messed around with one last night, a regular ipad mind you, while I was waiting for katy last night to get her book signed by The Oatmeal. I have to say that if I had money, which I don't, the mac Air is pretty damn sweet and bridges the gap between the ipad and a real computer so sexily. The start-up time and size and weight are impressive, battery life I don't know too much about but my father in law who owns one has been pretty happy. The price though is of course much more than the ipad.
I should say first of all I have not had a functional laptop in almost 2 years. And pretty much didn't use the one I had for at least 2 years before that. While I was still using it, the only time I ever used the optical drive was to watch dvd's. So essentially I never used the damn drive anyway and unless you have to do reinstall the operating system I have a hard time in seeing the utility of one these days. But you may use yours more often than I did for whatever you do.
Basically I see no difference between the two. It seems odd that an ipad is acceptable but an air is not, I would suppose that is a matter of perception or what you Want a laptop to be able to do vs what you Want a media device to do.
I agree that average users don't need the kinds of flexibility, programmability, or customizability I usually demand from my computing devices. I accept that I am indeed a vanishing percentage of the computer-savvy population.
I disagree that average users do 2 things. In most cases, yes: people are using email clients and web browsers frequently. However, the distinction in peoples minds isn't on which process or viewing software they're using, it's which interface they're interacting with and the information displayed by that interface. Ask someone which websites they visit, and they'll probably name at least 10 (social networking, calendars, news sites, fan sites, forums, etc.). Ask them what is the difference between the Facebook app and the Facebook web site, and they'll give you a blank look.
The average user 15 years ago may have been limited in the things they use a computer for. This is because technology and bandwidth were very limited, and people's perception of computation devices were as utilitarian and capriciously unreliable tools. We now have amazing, powerful, stable, well-programmed devices that fit in our pockets. And people use them for a ever-widening range of tasks, most of all the average users.
What I see when I look at the iPad is arbitrary limitation. I understand that the device's design is intended to fit the niche of ubiquitous, no-fuss computing where everything is clean, and simple, and doesn't break. There will always, however, be things that it won't be able to do, not because of physical or technical limitation, but because somebody decided that it shouldn't. If I'm going to own a computer for 3+ years, it has to be able to do everything I want it to do right now, and accommodate the innovation and software improvements people come up with in the near future . Anything less I feel like I'm buying a deficient device.
Basically the ipad is just not a product that appeals to you. And there is nothing wrong with that lord joshus. Can't say I'd get one either.
This probably is just another way in which you diverge from most consumers, but you want a device that will last you 3+ years. I think a lot of apple users are perfectly happy to ditch whatever they just bought for the newest version that comes out every year. There are 8 people here at work already trying to sell off their ipad 1's to prepare for the ipad 2's. They did the same thing with their iphone 3's for the 3s and 4... Its like a semi annual dance of renewing the apple item.
Part of me hates these people for having an apparent boat load of cash to toss around at all this random shit ALL THE TIME. But then all I need to do is look at my REI dividend or look at my garage full of climbing/camping/skiing/snowboarding gear.
ASU still has an email forward set up for me. I'm not exactly sure how it's still in there almost 4 years after I stopped paying them money, but it's there regardless. Given how I've seen email managed at my own work, it really shouldn't come as a surprise.
What's fun is on occasion, I get random emails from ASU students and teachers. In particular, numerous nursing school students keep emailing me questions, study guides, etc. When somebody emailed me once asking if their PowerPoint slide looked alright, I emailed back saying it looked fine, and offered commentary on their font choice.
Does ASU not have a way for you to keep your email address after you have graduated? I still have my undergrad email address. It is mine for "life" or whatever. The only catch was that I had to log into my account within 6 months of graduating and set up an email forwarding account because I can't log into the email account using the campus email client. So I just have it forwarded to my gmail. Maybe you did that and just don't remember? Because I know I still receive emails from campus sometimes since my address is still active.
That is pretty amusing that you get requests for help with work, though. I wonder what that kid thought when he/she got your email back. haha.
In my last year, they were transitioning between their own custom solution and moving to a Gmail-hosted service for their staff and students. In their older system, I have both my "official" full name @asu.edu, but also the alias "joshus," for my own amusement. Those names persisted across the changeover, but there was no mention that I would retain any ASU addresses, no less the b.s. aliases I set up for myself.
Some years later, having to retrieve my transcripts, I came back to see my accounts had been thoroughly disabled and the support girl I talked to had never seen an account like mine before. Afraid I'd lose them, I didn't mention the aliases, but I'm pretty sure that on some poor, retired Unix server, a mail configuration file, untouched and unloved and ignored by the scripts that used to carefully edit it to the whims of its capricious users, still has a line with my name. And an arrow, to another name. Joshus.
Lol.. It reminds me of the lost cat Missing Missy (www.27bslash6.com)poster. You should have done that :)
If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, and you want to be hit in the face by a giant Jello mold, here’s the inside scoop:
Blue Man Group Poncho Seats: For one week, February 21-25, Poncho seats to Blue Man Group shows in Anchorage will be available to ACA Facebook friends only! These tickets cost $82 on standard night shows and $92 on Premier night shows.
The poncho section is the first three rows of seats in the theatre closest to the stage. It is the most interactive seating section of the show. If you sit there, you will be provided with a poncho to wear, because the performers work with some materials that splash and can make a mess. Everything in the show is washable so we suggest that you do not wear anything that needs dry cleaning. Sitting in the poncho section does not guarantee that you will get splashed but we provide ponchos as a precaution.
Call 263-ARTS or Centertix.net to purchase. Or post questions on IDKFA.
If you prefer “Jello free zone” tickets, I’d wait until the last week of February to purchase b/c we “might just be” adding 4 MORE SHOWS!
I was thinking. So, the Blood Bank. They come to my workplace with the blood bus probably every other month. I usually sign up to have my blood drawn because a) it's sort of fun, b) free cookies and juice, and c) nothing is new on Reddit. I did it initially because neither I nor my parents could remember my blood type (O+). The first time was a bunch of scary forms and people asking me if I'd had sex with any men recently. Now I have a card, and the whole process takes about 15 minutes (they still ask about the men, though).
My thought is: they have to test the blood, and for liability purposes, they have to be able to source the blood back to its donor (in the event that the donor lied about any communicable diseases, etc.). This means complex systems in place associating bags of blood and a database of users. I don't care so much that they have my information, it's necessary, and I volunteered it. What would be cool, however, is if they had a system in place to, say, email you whenever your blood was used.
I'm fairly sure there's an "expiration date" on donated blood, and in all likelihood, my blood expires before it ever gets used in a hospital (there's nothing special about my blood type). It would be fun, though, to know if it was used, if for nothing else than to solidify the association in people's minds that donating blood has an effect, and every time you donate, you might get a short email saying that your blood was used.
That's kind of creepy. Do you want to know what it's used for? Say there was a car accident where someone was horribly injured and needed 5 pints of blood STAT! Do you want to know that 2 of the pints were yours? And the name of the person you saved? So they can send you a thank letter? And what if they didn't send you flowers or something, would you demand your blood back?
These are tough questions, are you prepared to give and receive? I think the better option over giving blood would be to give a kidney or liver, something that you know who is getting it. When Susan Butcher a few years ago had cancer and she needed a donor I went in to get my marrow tested. That would have been cool to say I saved her life, but someone else got that honor. Maybe that's how they should go about it, as most people are like that, they just want a little recognition. So you sign a piece of paper at the hospital allow them to use your name to get you organs or blood and maybe do a meet and greet with potential donors. I'd probably sign that.
I could care less how my blood is used. That it's going into a hospital and has the chance of being used to help someone is good enough for me. I prefer to not be thanked, as while it was my time and blood that I donated, I wasn't the person saving a life, it was the doctors, nurses, and supporting staff that were doing so. I just provided some of their materials.
I would also have absolutely zero interesting in meeting the person my blood went to. I have a hard enough time talking to the people at Qdoba, no less somebody who made use of my excess body fluids.
My proposition was for the blood bank's process. Their business is to collect supply, and attempt to maintain a constant output to their customers. With a little bit of data analysis and an email server, they could pretty easily connect people with their blood donation to establish in people's minds "Yes, my blood got used. What I did had a positive effect." rather than "Oh well, my blood probably got freezer burned. At least I got a cookie in return for feeling dizzy the rest of the day."
I think if you were to propose this to the blood bank you'd also have to have the plan on how to accomplish it as well, as that sounds like some overhead. I think it would be a good PR stunt, but the only way I can picture this working would be something along the lines of the refrigerators that email you when you're out of a product instead email the person whose blood got removed.
Oh definitely. Wouldn't be an easy sell, particularly to a non-profit.
I'm guessing there's also a visibility problem into whose blood gets used and whose doesn't. They probably just bulk transport the blood to the hospital, and the hospital has no need to report back to the blood bank exactly which donations are used. All the blood bank would know is if they delivered the blood, not whether it was actually used.
You would actually be surprised how quickly donated blood typically gets used. Most hospitals are constantly short on blood supply, so blood typically doesn't sit around long enough to "go bad." Though, admittedly, do not know if there actually is an expiration date for blood. But yours is probably very appreciated by thankful people who needed it.
To add to your list of benefits to donating blood, it is also very good for guys because it prevents prostate cancer and helps overall prostate health. Yeah, I know, I just mentioned your prostate on idkfa.
I don't remember the exact biological mechanism, but I'm sure you could find the explanation somewhere. I just know there is a statistical correlation that has been found, and a biological explanation to back it up. One of my medically inclined friends explained it to me briefly, but I don't remember any details.
They can't keep doing this to me. They just... they can't...
"Help Nathan Buy Firefly": http://helpnathanbuyfirefly.com/ (helpnathanbuyfirefly.com)
On Feb 17, 2011, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly (insidetv.ew.com), Nathan Fillion said: “If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.”
Ugh agreed.
My mom sent me an email with a link to an article, and the subject in the email was "Firefly to return to TV" and in the body it said "Fillion says he would play Mal again." Of course in my head that translated to "They're going to start making new episodes!!!!"
WRONG.
So disappointing...
Preface: This is for IDKFA eyes only. PLEASE NO FACEBOOKERY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!
Hey friends, Happy February!
Just wanted to let you know, there is a special date to note in the coming year...
September 4th, 2011: The family brood grows by 1!
Yep, I'm preggo. We are an excited bunch here in Casa de Laurance, and I just wanted to share the news with our friends across the internets. I'll be letting my boss know this week, and then the news goes public on Facebook at the end of the weekend. Until then, mums the word ;).
Love ya all,
Katy and JD
Here goes: http://idkfa.com/v3/tills.php
Date/fruit information based on this: http://community.t...ig-is-baby.aspx?r=0 (community.thebump.com)
I'm fairly confident that this is inaccurate (both my math and the fruit website), so we'll just assume that the fruit associated with the baby's progress indicates how tasty doctors consider the baby to be at each stage in the pregnancy.
Also, thanks to the CatLady for the fruit idea.
HAHAHAHAHA, oh man, that is amazing. I just love it. Josh informs me that I should thank Ms. Leary for this. It totally made my day!
The most entertaining part of your post Josh is that my doctor actually used fruit analogies a lot in my last appointment. I have a baby the size of a plum and a womb the size of a grapefruit.
And I promise, this is the last time I mention the state of my womb. Your welcome. :)
Congratulations!
I looked up the astrological sign for Sept. 4. :) According to howstuffworks.com "Virgos born on September 4 often display extraordinary bravery in the simple act of living their lives. Though they have common sense, they are natural risk-takers. These unique, independent-thinking people possess a rare sort of charisma, which makes them appealing to everyone they meet."
Have any of you bought or sold a house on your own, without a realtor?
Travis and I are going to sell one of our houses this summer, then later in the year we'll work on finding a new house and selling our other house. Travis hates the idea of giving so much money to a realtor when we could do all the work on our own and not have to pay ~6% to someone. I get stressed out thinking about the whole prospect, whether or not a realtor is involved. When I bought my house I used a realtor and found it helpful because I had no idea what I was doing or what steps I needed to take.
Thoughts? suggestions?
My parents got screwed a few times on realtors, so they're super disinclined to use them. Their experience and mine (indicated previously) was that the banks and lenders generate and manage all of the paper work (as it's in their best interest to have everything be documented and legal). Realtors facilitate, and provide the "sales" aspect to the transaction, but not much further.
