| It's what Lincoln would have watched |
[May. 1st, 2006|12:49 pm] |
I rarely mention anything political on this livejournal, so please forgive me for doing so now.
Stephen Colbert was invited to speak at the White House Correspondant's dinner, and he delivered a scathing rebuke of the president, the administration, and their policies right to their face and live on C-SPAN. It is a must-watch video.
Video:
Part 1
Part 2
Complete Transcript:
Here
Some highlights:
- "I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."
- "The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man's beliefs never will."
- "I mean, nothing satisfies you. Everybody asks for personel changes. SO, the White house has personel changes. And then you write "oh, they're just re-arranging deck chairs on the titanic." First of all, that's a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. if anything, they are re-arranging deck chairs on the Hindenburg"
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[Apr. 17th, 2006|07:44 pm] |
Subject: Cake
From: Carl Jantzen
Date: 7:38 PM
To: Brian Ladd
Had a slice of marble cake for dessert. Thought of you.
-Carl
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| Parting Remarks |
[Apr. 1st, 2006|03:48 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | creation, creativity, daft punk, hacking, livejournal, metaemotion, music, princess, vitamins | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Emi's House, Basking Ridge, New Jersey | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | eager | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Daft Punk - Emotion | ] |
Before I finally go to bed here are some more things I wanted to say:
- Meta-emotion often occurs very late at night. Whether it is caused by being awake at night or the feeling itself causes one to stay up later is up for debate.
- Becoming a princess is a relatively easy feat. One can marry into a royal family, or even consume the remains of a long-dead Egyptian Princess to absorb her regal essence.
- The last song on the album I was listening to as I wrote these entries tonight (Human After All) is entitled Emotion, which I did not remember until after the song had begun to play.
- I want to create some more userpics for myself even though I really don't have any use for more.
- I still want to create games, but the games themselves aren't what I find the most interesting, what I really, really want to do is create worlds.
- Anyone who sees me taking my vitamin pills must think I'm addicted to drugs on a massive scale.
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| Location |
[Apr. 1st, 2006|03:23 am] |
While posting that last entry I noticed that LiveJournal entries now include an additional piece of metadata: the location field. I plan to utilize this going forward, and will be back-locating some specific entries. I might consider going back through all my entries at some point, but that's just speculation right now. |
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| Meta-Emotion |
[Apr. 1st, 2006|03:04 am] |
I'm sure there is a better and more-accurate term to describe what I'm talking about, but I have no idea what it is so I'm just going to call it meta-emotion. And obviously because it deals with emotion and feeling I'm not even going to be able to provide anything better than a nebulous definition for the term. Meta-emotion is the feeling where you have a strong desire to experience a "real" emotion. Sometimes it's a specific one, other times it's much more general.
For instance, there is a meta-emotion where one has a strong desire to be in love, or to be loved. Note that this is different from loneliness, because it reflects more of an abstract but active desire for something, not an ache for lack of it. I of course can tell the difference because I'm defining the terms, but I can see how this explenation could be lacking in its clarity and precision.
Another example is the desire to create. Sometimes I am struck by a strong desire to build, construct, create something wonderful and epic, although any specific details as to what it should be or how I should accomplish it are entirely missing. |
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| Plane |
[Mar. 28th, 2006|03:13 pm] |
3:13 Eastern Standard Time
Right now I’m on a Boeing 757 hurtling at approximately 580 miles per hour through the troposphere towards New York. Note that even though I’m still over California, I’ve set my computer to eastern time already.
Each seat (in every class) has its own screen, with 24 channels of satellite tv, 1600 mp3s, games (albeit lame ones), and movies. And everything but the movies is free! I know these services were supposed to arrive years ago, but this is the first time I’ve ever been on a flight that actually had them. Maybe I just take the wrong flights, but for a discount airline Song sure knows how to treat a passenger.
Also, the monitor offers current flight statistics and map, and we just crossed into Nevada, FYI. We have traveled 217 miles (354 km), our current ground speed is mph (973 kph), the temperature outside the cabin is -9 degrees Farenheit (-21 Centigrade), and our altitude is 38995 feet (11889 meters).
Now its time to go code. I’ve been getting back into the submarine scene, and I can’t wait to get AVI into a testable and working state. |
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[Mar. 9th, 2006|12:04 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | quiz | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Minibosses - Castlevania | ] |
I'm not sure exactly how I ended up with such a high body score, and I'm a bit puzzled that my Friends score is so low, but such are the peculiarities of these internet quizes. |
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| Precious Stones |
[Feb. 21st, 2006|09:56 pm] |
Well, I meant to be writing code for distracer all night, but I need Tim to explain some cryptic, uncommented functions to me and he isn't online. I'm therefore splitting my time between watching episodes of Battlestar Galactica and, starting as soon as I finish writing this entry, learning Ruby on Rails.
Why? A number of reasons.
- I've been meaning to learn Ruby ever since I heard it described as a prettier, oopier version of Perl.
- In general, I believe it's a good idea to be familiar with more languages.
- I'm doing more and more web applications for work.
- Jeff recently whined about a lack of Ruby programmers in his blog.
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| V-Day |
[Feb. 15th, 2006|05:09 pm] |
Valentine's Day was awesome.
Yesterday afternoon I snuck into Emi's room while she was in class, and placed a beautiful boquet of roses and dasies on her desk. I also hid in the corner, and wished her happy Valentine's day when she found the flowers. She really loved them, which of course made me really happy. We hung out in her room for the next couple of hours until I had to take a math quiz.
After the quiz I rushed home to clean myself up, and then rushed over to pick up Emi. We were late getting to the resturaunt, but I managed to convince them to hold our reservation, so it all worked okay. We ate at Something's Fishy, a Japanese resturaunt in the same vein as Benihanna's, where they cook the food right in front of you. Everything they made was amazingly delicious; I ate just about every bite from every course, including Miso, Salad, Shrimp, Veggies, and of course Steak.
Even better than the food, however, was the fact that Emi loved it. I guess she'd gone there before, and it is one of her favorite places to eat on State Street.
After dinner we got ice cream at Coldstone. I had french vanilla mixed with peanut butter, caramel, and chocolate. It was amazing.
When we got back to campus we rented a movie (A Knight's Tale) but we were both so tired we fell right asleep before we even had a chance to put it on.
Overall it was a spectacular day, and I'm thankful I had Emi to share it with. |
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| WikiNews |
[Feb. 15th, 2006|10:24 am] |
Well, I've got a variety of wiki-related things to mention tonight (yes, I know it's ten thrity in the morning). This WikiCentric post was inspired by David Weekley, the creator of PBWiki (making a wiki should be as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich), who is offering a free doubling of storage space for anyone who mentions his site in their blog.
I personally run two wikis on PBWiki. One of which is only privately viewable, and I use to keep track of personal information that I want to be able to access anywhere on the web. The other is used by Team Constantly Disemboweled by Bears to collaborate on our CS50 project, DisTrace.
In other WikiNews, UCSBWiki is slowly gaining users. We also have more than 50 articles now, and are constantly adding new ones and improving the old. Anyone who is affiliated with UCSB really ought to check the site out.
Finally, I've been using another MediaWiki implementation to centralize and organize the years of D&D content that I've developed and is now sitting around in hundreds of messy directories on about half a dozen hard drives. Not viewable to the public yet because it contains some DM-only information, but when there is more content there I'll consider changing that.
PBWiki also has a cute little logo:
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| Washout |
[Feb. 12th, 2006|07:46 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | allie, emi | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | conflicted | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body | ] |
Well, Allie called today to say that her Mock Trial team won, which means they're going to Florida for some sort of championship. It also means that she won't be able to come visit me in March, which is a major dissapointment. On the other hand, this does mean that I won't have to fight with Emi any more about Allie coming down. So I guess it's a wash. |
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| Ballroom Dance |
[Feb. 12th, 2006|11:25 am] |
Alright I've (basically) finalized my schedule for next quarter. My pass time starts Monday morning so chances are none of the classes I want to take will fill up before then.
I also added up all the courses I need to take before graduating to meet the requirements for my major and general education. I need 116 units worth of classes, and I have 10 quarters left at UCSB, so that averages out to 11.6 units per quarter. An "average" courseload is supposed to be 15 or 16 units. So I really don't need to feel bad about only taking 12.5 units Spring quarter.
- Physics 2: Basic Physics
- Computer Science 60: Introduction to C, C++, and UNIX
- Mathematics 5B: Vector Calculus
- Exercise and Sports Studies 1-16A: Elementary Ballroom Dance
So the anomaly in this schedule is, of course, Ballroom Dance. It is only worth half of a unit, and it doesn't meet a single major or general education requirement. It will, however, teach me how to dance. Hopefully. Which will be good, because it will mean I won't have to say no when people want to take me to cool dances. Emi is also enrolling in the class, so I'll have chances to practice outside of class as well. If the class is enjoyable I might even take Intermediate and Advanced Ballroom in subsequent quarters. We'll see.
Now, in order to fit this dance class in my schedule I did have to make a major sacrifice: every tuesday and thursday I have my physics lecture at 8 in the morning. Now, to be fair, I will very rarely actually attend said lecture, but it will be a pain getting out of bed to take the midterm.
So overall my schedule is quite light. This is good because it should allow me more free time, and also more time to work. I've been working much less this quarter because of my current schedule, so it'll be nice to get back in there and make more money again. |
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| "Your smile could save our movie and the world" |
[Feb. 8th, 2006|02:44 pm] |
I bought my tickets; I'm officially going to New York.
I'll be staying with Emi at her house in Basking Ridge, NJ. We'll spend a lot of time in NYC, though, and possibly even drive to DC one day, which I think would be very exciting.
Part of spring break will also be spent in Norcal, though. I hope to get to spend some time with my families, as well as with Allie and my other friends. Maybe we'll even get some RP in! Who knows.
It's really hot today. 79 degrees. I don't like the heat. It'd be one thing if I were wearing shorts and lying out on the beach right now, but I'm here, cooped up at work. Bummer.
EDIT (3:18 PM): Just checked the weather again; it says we'll be hitting 83 degrees today. This is ridiculious. |
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| Chicago (No, not the musical/movie!) |
[Feb. 6th, 2006|02:33 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | music | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  excited | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Sufjan Stevens - Chicago | ] |
So I heard this song (Chicago by Sufjan Stevens) on the radio (internet, of course) recently, and I really really like it. If anyone knows about this guy/band, or any similar music, please let me know. It's very cool. |
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| SuprGlu |
[Feb. 6th, 2006|01:49 pm] |
I know this idea has been tossed around for a while, and I've personally been (just a tiny tiny bit) involved with the development of Rhyzomatic, but today I just signed up for SuprGlu, which seems like a pretty convenient way just to see all of my most recent contributions to the web. Check it out.
PS: I'm wearing sandals today. |
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| Beach! |
[Jan. 30th, 2006|03:31 pm] |
Right now I'm getting paid $11 an hour to sit at my desk at work and write this livejournal entry. That's about $1 every 5.45 minutes.
If I were to take an hour off to go sit on the beach (it's fucking beautiful outside right now) it would effectively cost me $11. But it's fucking worth it.
Besides, it's my birthday, I deserve it. |
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| Northern Star |
[Jan. 25th, 2006|03:32 pm] |
Well once again I find myself encompassed by a number of projects.
- UCSBWiki is a collaborative database that seeks to accumulate all knowledge about University of California, Santa Barbara, and the surrounding communities into a single, easy to access location on the internet. I've announced it on the ucsb livejournal community, and will likely soon start promoting it via facebook. I still contribute the vast majority of edits, but some other individuals are getting involved as well; hopefully soon growth will accelerate. The goal is to reach the critical mass of articles so that we can attract readers in addition to content contributers.
- Constantly Disemboweled by Bears is the name of my CS 50 project team. We are developing a distributed raytracer in Java. Right now I'm focusing on the storage format of scene information, and am getting involved in research into X3D, the successor to VRML. If you're interested you can check out some very early screenshots of the renderer here.
- Work. Yes, I'm still active at my job. Coding PHP. Blech; I hate web programming.
- Possible government contract work. I've been contacted by someone who wants my help writing Java code for some simulation software for the NSA. No lie. I'm not sure if I want to get involved in this, but I'll let you know how it turns out.
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| Photography |
[Jan. 21st, 2006|07:59 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | photography, picture | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Apocalyptica - Kaamos | ] |
We went to the beach today, and in addition to having lots of fun running, climbing, and splashing, I took a lot of pictures. Matt did as well, but this is my journal, so I'm showing off my work.
What do you think? I'm really interested in hearing everyone's opinion on this picture. I'm quite proud of it. |
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| Whee |
[Jan. 17th, 2006|01:39 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | computer, idiot | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | good | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The All-American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret | ] |
Blonde Moment of the Day: I couldn't hear any sound from my computer, so I reinstalled all my audio drivers. Then I turned on the speakers.
Aside: I don't like how some websites use tags seperated by commas, and other sites seperate with spaces. Since I've started using Flickr I've had to go back and manually edit all my new LJ posts to insert commas between tags. |
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| Extream Data Backup |
[Jan. 15th, 2006|02:46 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | computers, data | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hungry | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Killers - All These Things That I've Done | ] |
Zolton has been on the long, slow path to self destruction over the past many months, and today he finally took a crap so hard that I realized I have to get all my important data off of him.
Stuff to backup:
- Music
- Financial and Legal Documents
- Personal Records
- Pictures
- Programming Projects
- Roleplaying Materials
The big question is where do I put all this data? The most vital stuff will finally be Subversioned over to Alexandria in Pleasanton, while the nice-but-expendable data such as music will be shuffeled around various hard drives to facilitate the installation of a new operating system. |
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8.5
8.1
5.3
6.9
bouncy