Just remember

Professor Hawking sing Monty Python's Galaxy Song. (Grokked from John)



"And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space, 'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth! "

Happy Halloween

Tonight was trick or treat in little town.

In case you ever wondered what $100 of candy looked like.

This year's decorations were ready.

And then the mobs descended. Actually we didn't get as many as I though we would. This year was warmer than most, and dry (although humid). And I think we were the only local community with trick or treat tonight. My neighbors give out 1 piece of candy each and keep pretty close track, so we know it was about 500 people (many really too old and a number of way too young).

How I Spent My Easter Vacation

All of one day.

So I took these

And made this

Which left me with these

Okay, to be fair I did need to add another one of those 2x12x96 planks, but I didn't need one of the 2x4x8s. And, yes, one is of better quality than the other. And while they may not be fine furniture, they're good enough furniture (considering I don't have a planer or jointer).

So that's one of 312 chores that have been stacking up for the past 4 years.

Not Exactly Holiday Playlist - Code Monkey

Because of the events of today, I've been hitting repeat on this song for the past hour.


Code Monkey… much rather wake up, eat coffee cake, take bath, take nap, this job fulfilling in creative way such a load of crap.

How's your day?

When we programmed computers wearing bear skins and using flint knives

The Scene is Dead.

It's a little lame (except for the water reflection part) until 50 seconds in. Then heavy techno music and graphics.

Okay, it gets my little geek engine running.

This is the third place entry in the PC | Revision 2012 64K Intro. The entry specs (for next year) are here. That video was created with only a 64K runtime app. Not 64M or 64G, 64K (65536 bytes). No libraries. No calls.

64K. One, that was almost an amazing amount of memory when I started programming (and we started seeing demos like this). And two, these days that's an amazingly limited amount of memory. It does this little hacker's heart good to know the kids can still program this way ('cause, frankly, most kid programmers these days don't know shit about condensing and streamlining their code - shut up, I've read your HTML).

You might need to be a total computer nerd to understand that what they're doing there is some pretty amazing stuff with only 64K.

(Pointed to by John)

A Very Special Linkee-poo - the Jay Lake needs your help edition

The Lakeside Kickstarter to finish up their film of a year in Jay Lake's life. It looks like they've already made their goal, but I'm sure more money will help with the incidentals.

If you'd rather use your money to help Jay directly, Catherine Shaffer and Mary Robinette Kowal have started a fund to secure a full genome sequencing of Jay's cancer. As the site says, "Whole genome sequencing can be used to compare the entire gene sequence of a cancer cell to the sequence of a normal cell." With that there are possibilities of extra/different treatment options. It may be a long shot, but sometimes the Hail Mary works (which is why teams still practice it).

Also, Jay Lake writes SF. How fantastically SF would it be to have a full genomic sequence done?

In case you haven't noticed, without Jay I would lose something close to half my blog content. I need that man.

All joking aside, the $10,000 goal is just the first marker on that journey. More money can see the sequencing expedited. More will get faster analysis. And time, as they say, is of the essence.

Edited to add Jay Lake says "Thanks." It was directed at other people, and I couldn't help that much, but you, sir, are entirely welcome.

Some people forget it's a party

One of the favorites of my Xmas playlist.



Let's not be such strangers.

Signs and portents

The live blogging of the solar eclipse on facebook. This is really what the internet was invented to do. I love living in the future (some times). As of this posting we're about 1/3 the way to totality. The Panasonic Eclipse Live group is using solar panels to power their telescopes and broadcasting. Um, guys, I see a flaw in this plan. (yeah, they have batteries that were charged by the solar panels).

And that's why I love him

Thanks to Vince, I now know Joe Walsh has a new album out, Analog Man. I loves me some Joe. And thanks to the youtubies, I can get my fix before I get the album (and yes, damn it, it's an album - see the title track). There's a lot of great tracks on this one, and lots of great growling guitar licks that rock hard. But if you want to know why I really admire Joe, here's one of the songs, destined, as so much of good Joe is, to never get airplay, "And the Band Played On."


Gotta love a writer who can put the line "Yeah, everybody's got their heads up their asses" and not only make the meter work, but make it rhyme. Obviously the song may be NSFW depending on your situation.

"Too many chances to sink like a stone…" Oh yes.

Almost forgot to mention, one of the reasons I love Joe Walsh songs is that you can hear he's having such a damn fun time playing them. I can always see that half smile, half gritted teeth, face twisted like he's in pain, look while he plays. Should we all love what we do like he does.

You. Must. Watch. This.

Bwahahahahahahaha!

(hat tip to Mer Haskell)

Why we love Neil deGrasse Tyson

"I can't think of any more human activity than conducting science experiments." Along with some rumination on technology that mirror my own thoughts on integration.

There's a store in Hermitage, PA, that is a local draw this time of year for their holiday displays. It's called Kraynaks. And that's where we went last weekend. It's fairly popular, and there's always a wait to get in.

But, that's not the whole line, once you get around the front you can see the rest of the line.

And then once you're in the door it's another 15-20 minutes before you get to the actual displays. Which can be worth it.

The TV set is a little snow covered village diorama. It's pretty good and seemed to be a stopping point for people to have their photos taken with it. But then there's the standard stuff.

Like the bumbles and your basic tree setup

But some of the things are pretty good. I'm not sure the palm trees will take off (they sold some smaller versions of theme).

They're more traditional, the manger having had been wired only the year before Mary and Joseph showed up, so the lights were still in good shape that night.

Then there are plenty of the creative class of decorations. Which some are quite impressive. And pink.

The in thing for trees this year is the ribbon topper. Which, strangely enough, they didn't sell although they had plenty of ribbon for sale at a fairly high price. I did buy ribbon that will go with the tree we're setting up this year, but I bought it at Michael's where it was on sale.

And then there are the variations on a theme. Like the white decorations.

And this one. There were a lot of good ideas, especially if you want to spend hundreds on tree ornament sets (I prefer the "homegrown collection" look myself). There was only one thing that really got me going.

WANTS. That would look so cool in my yard.

The odd decoration that I've just been seeing this year is the Charlie Brown (musical) tree. I think if I was in an apartment, I'd be tempted to get this. Or maybe as a joke office decoration. However, I'm not sure how it will fit within most people's decorating schemes. But it was interesting to look at. (This was one of a humungous assortment of brand tie-in products, not my most favorite concept)

As you may (or may not) know, I'm pretty in to decorating my house for the fall and winter holidays. So I keep track of what's happening when it comes to trends. This year the LED light is fairly well entrenched and fortunately they're offering "warm" white mini lights now (one of the major criticisms of LEDs are the "cool" light - ie. skewed to the blue spectrum). I relamped two of my white-wire deer with these and am please with how they look.

But the major thrust this year is the color changing LED lights. There's several products from C9 bulb sets, to stick luminaries, to tree-toppers, all are being sold on their "the lights change colors" properties. All of them being sold with the appropriate premium price points.

The display is free, if you're in the area. Of course, it empties you out into the area where they're selling all their decorations. I did see a lot that I wanted, but didn't get. There were new garland forms, the 6' wreath I've been dreaming of, some pencil tree decorations I could use for my entry way (but they were the wrong shapes and sizes). I did add some things, but not as much as I could have or wanted to. To much else needed to be purchased (like 2 heavy duty timers).

Once I get it all up outside I'll take some pictures.

Monday Night Lights

So, first up, I hope you saw the Northern Lights tonight. I'm glad I made it home in time to get Bette out on the deck to seem some of the red lights. There were bluish greens on the way home, with some pillars in there. Unfortunately I was driving without a place to stop and take a look. This was the first time I'm sure I've seen the Northern Lights. And I'm glad I could share it with Bette. Wow. It wasn't the sheets, but still pretty damn cool.

Next up was second lecture test at school. We had 75 questions and I got 73 correct. I confused my Introns with my Exons, and I don't remember the other question. I think it was on ribosomal enzymes. Anyway, I think that gives me a 97%. There were no extra credit questions (and only 1 point available so far). I think that gives me around 98% total (the grading this semester is kinda squiggly, so it's hard to figure out).

Tell them a hookah smoking caterpillar has given you the call

You should know I'm a music snob. Having listened to, played, created, toted, and roadied music for most of my life, I find it difficult not to love all kinds of music.

So you should know that covers, to me, are the bane of existence. For the most part.

There are notable exceptions, mostly transformational retakes of the song which exploits a good song's universality. Tim O'Brian's take on Norwegian Wood which converts an excellent Beatles song into Irish ballad. Or Fountains of Wayne's take on "Can't get it out of my head." Or TMBG's group sex version of "Tubthumper." But I typically shy away from covers that cleave close to the original.

This weekend, on the road, we heard a Fresh Air interview of Gillian Welch (and David Rawlings). At the end, Terry Gross asked them to play a song which isn't theirs, but that they love. Then they played "White Rabbit." Wow.



Here's their take at Telluride. They really play up the "spanish guitar" vibe (even without the "Bolero" drum riff). And their reverse, close harmony really cranks to the song. You can buy the version they played on Fresh Air. It's even better.

You don't know me at all

Usually the various emails entitled "You May Like" from the companies I've done business with online shoot wide of the mark.

And then, occasionally, they hit one on the mark.


My blue canary in the outlet by the light switch who watches over you.

The act you've known for all these years

Tonight, 25 years ago, Bette tickled me until it was too late to go to work (I was working the midnight shift at the main post office in Akron). I had known her for about a year at that point, and she had been dating another guy. That hadn't been working out so far, and she had just dumped him the previous weekend. It had been about 8 months since my engagement was broken off. That night we became a couple.

We've now been a couple longer than most of our friends have had relationships. I'm not sure what that says about us. Maybe that we're too damn stubborn to let external things get in the way of our journey.

It was a rough time those first years. Both of us had issues from our past relationships that we worked through. We discovered a lot about each other. We still continue to discover each other. I think that's part of what has made this a successful relationship.

Our path together hasn't always been the easiest road to travel, and I haven't always been a good companion (being a recovering workaholic). I've learned a lot about what it means to love and be in love with someone. While I normally don't ascribe to this philosophy, Bette has helped me be a better man. And I do it for her. If I come off as a driven, well adjusted, caring person with somewhat enlightened ideals, it's all because of her.

So it's our silver anniversary. Yes, there is a very nice gift that I left for her to discover this morning. I'll find out how successful it is when I go home.

A Find Waldo PSA

Just because I enjoy your envious glares of distain, I'm going to be here tomorrow night. I sure hope Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson wears that vest. I'll be disappointed (but not much) if he doesn't.

Yes, Janiece, I can hear your gnashing of teeth from here.

Not A One Time Deal

Just so you all know that it isn't a one time fluke that NE Ohio has pretty dramatic skies. This was the commute home yesterday.







Also, besides all the other things that need to be done this weekend, like recreating the platform bird feeder for the winter, studying, and trying to have a life, I'm playing with my new toy.

Scenes from a Commute

If you live in NE Ohio, I hope you went out to see the leaves. 'Cause I have a feeling that was the peek. This morning I noticed more bare trees than those that still have their leaves in some sections. Of course, my leaves have only started to fall. I think it was a bumper crop for them this year as the tree were jubilant in the Spring, only to get stressed out in the hot and dry summer. Right now they're trying to get enough water to shut down.

Represent!

Viable Paradise is open for applications again. And it appears to be a re-do of this past year's instructors including John Scalzi, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Jim Macdonald and Debra Doyle, Steven Gould and Laura Mixon, and Elizabeth Bear.

As a writer, you could do much worse than being instructed by this crowd. And they all had their areas of expertise which sometimes overlapped, but all had good things to share. Those areas of expertise covered the full gamut of being a working writer in genre fiction (research, plot, structure, exposition, business savvy, and industry knowledge). Much of it you may know, have seen in various places, but for me it certainly helped to have it all pulled together and made relevant to each other. Hell, the cost of admission to have Uncle Jim's plot lecture and see Teresa Nielsen Hayden's party trick is worth it, IMHO. And you get all the extra stuff for free. Plus, you know, glowing jellyfish.

I had my trepidations about going. The cost, time, and if it would be worth it. Let me just say that my only regret is that I ended up going exhausted and probably didn't get everything I should have out of the experience. If you feel you don't do well in crowds, well at least half the class of VP XIII felt the same way. You'll work your brains out and have a great time doing it. Just one hint if you go, help out the staff. They're also writers and can use the breaks.