scrylab

Ah, Galveston :(

2008-09-12T14:44:00.000-06:00

Galveston Seawall Monument, memorializing a previous lethal hurricane.
The statue is on top of the seawall and normally looks like this.

The entire island is expected to be underwater before this is over.

[psa] is your child suffering from teenage affluenza?

2007-10-27T12:30:00.000-06:00

warning, not as funny as you would think at first.www.40hourfamine.com in Australia, www.30hourfamine.org in the USA.

I'm finally out to my mom.

2007-10-26T06:33:00.000-06:00

My family has been asking what to get me for my birthday, all week. And last night, after being so good about sneaking around in the past, I blurted out, "well, if you really wanted to, it's expensive, but you could get me this Mac OS X upgrade."

My mom didn't know what that meant. So I explained, "you know how the Windows operating systems have upgrades, sometimes? Well, this is a Macintosh operating system upgrade, to version 10.5."

My mom said ok, understanding at a basic level. But then the bigger question hit: "do you have a Mac?"

"Mom... I've been a Mac user since 2005. Remember how I talked to you guys back then about this little machine, called the Mini? Well, I went ahead and bought it. I just didn't tell anyone, because I didn't want to get yelled at. This was with some of the last of the money I had while at SMU."

She briefly frowned, then. I wondered if it was because I'd switched, or because I'd concealed the fact since my awakening in college. But then she started talking about another subject, and the matter seemed dropped, at least for the time being.

She wants to see the Mini, and was impressed with the rated power useage, like I thought she might be (we were sitting in her hybrid car at the time), and she definitely didn't disown me, or say I'm going to hell. But I don't know how comfortable she's really going to be with me being a Mac user, yet. It's going to take time. I haven't decided yet whether I should tell my dad, either, or let her bring it up. And I don't know when I'll be ready to mention that the Mini and I are friendly but much more casual these days, as the love of my life is now a Macbook. A black Macbook.

What would be the playlist at your funeral?

2007-10-22T17:40:00.000-06:00

Tonight I read an old post by someone who recently passed suddenly from my sphere of friends and acquaintances. He'd had the foresight to post what playlist he'd want for his funeral.

I've had a sort of playlist in my head for years, cheerful guy I am, but this has shown me that it really is a helpful thing to go ahead and put it down. So I'm going to do so here, but also extend the question to y'all: what songs would you want played at your funeral, or wake, or whatever you want to happen, if anything, when you're gone? On a related note, what songs would best reflect your life? (Don't post your own list below, just think about it, and make your own separate post if you want, so your wishes aren't lost later, either)

This might get too long. How long should a playlist be? How long should a funeral be? Do I even want a funeral? I only began thinking about this years ago because I don't want hymns. So far (and this will change, as I had a long list over time, but have forgotten some), here's what I have, probably in this order:

Beethoviana (Theme from Clockwork Orange), by Wendy Carlos. (I imagine this one looping before and after the service)
Great Pumpkin Waltz, by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), by the Eurythmics.
Puttin' On The Ritz, by Taco.
Safety Dance, by Men Without Hats.
Friday, I'm In Love, by The Cure.
One More Kiss, Dear, by Vangelis. (from the Bladerunner soundtrack)
Lovesong, by The Cure.
reprise #1.

Of the songs I've chosen, some are easy to explain, some only a few close friends and family may get and chuckle over, and one or two may remain enigmas. For these songs are not just favorites, but also the story of my life. I hope to add a few more before I'm done.

fly jumping?

2007-10-05T09:35:00.000-06:00

Have you guys heard of "fly jumpers" before? Someone sent me a link to the website.
Looks dangerous, but if you can keep from falling backwards and getting paralyzed or worse, kinda fun.

What other weird devices are out there, that you've seen lately?

best elevators in the world?

2007-10-05T09:18:00.000-06:00

Take a look at some of the coolest elevators in the world here.

Found in the comments: a link to images / video of an elevator going up through an aquarium!

UK Police To Use Terror Laws Against Protesters

2007-08-12T11:27:00.000-06:00

'We need these laws to protect us from terrorists! We promise we won't use these laws to suppress dissenting speech or anything.'

Review of LinkedIn

2007-07-24T14:13:00.000-06:00

LinkedIn is a social networking site created from the ground up for professional networking. You can find people you used to work with, link to them if they agree (like Multiply), recommend people, and introduce yourself to people you need to make contact with professionally. And also like Multiply, the site lets you poll your web mail subscriptions for addresses that it already knows about, to make this easier.

I joined a month ago or so, but the account lay somewhat dormant until Sun gave me a business membership trial, and reminded me of it. I'm using it to reconnect with people I've lost touch with, especially those I used as references previously, as I refine my current job search.

A former boss has promised to link up with me (I contacted him in email first), and write me a new reference, and when that happens I'm going to send an "InMail," or introduction mail, to the VP of IT at the company I am currently targeting as my best shot. Hopefully this will break the ice and get my resume noticed.

I'm only giving it 4 stars because, while a lot of people are joining every day, it seems that they are slow to answer their invitations. I've sent out a couple dozen invites in the last two days, and so far two people have connected. I haven't had any rejections, though. So they may just not be reading their emails. That's not LinkedIn's fault directly, but it does mean the site is less effective, as your network growth is really dependent on the participation of others, obviously. Also, I noticed a few people only putting their current jobs on the system, but not their former ones. This makes it harder to figure out which person you actually know, if you're looking for someone with a common name. Still, it's a pretty neat tool. And it'll get better once more people join, I'm sure. If I get hired with its help, of course, I'll give it 5 stars :)

hot, sexxy, and free

2006-12-17T19:10:00.000-06:00

Last week, this guy in my circle of friends over on the dot, Red Warrior, offered up two old Motorola MPx200-series phones for the cost of shipping. Another friend, rk, answered first, but, feeling pushy, I went for it anyway and asked if he wanted both. He was gracious enough to offer me a choice of the two models, the 200 or the 220. I went and read what Howard Chui had to say about it, and decided the 220 was better. But I told rk about the review and said he shouldn't let me choose. rk saw sense, but said since I was honest about it (and since he'd never seen Howard Chui or his amazing forums that he'd pay RW to ship the 200 to me. So I got an awesome phone totally for free. And it arrived yesterday.

It's a bit bigger than my Moto 551, but before even opening it, you can tell it's a different class of gear. For one thing, it's glossy black, like a beetle that's been powder-coated. It's got a display on the face, for quick viewing of things like battery power and time, but the display is bigger than on my 551. It's got, no kidding, a sort of dial on the side to control the volume, instead of buttons. It's got an IR port hidden on the same side. On the other side, It's got a covered headphone miniplug jack, and the first SD card slot I've ever seen on a Moto. (I know, this phone is from 2003, but I don't look around much) On the bottom, amazingly, it has a mini-USB port, also covered. That's where the travel charger plugs in, also. It's great to not have to find a proprietary serial cable if I want to plug it in, now. Oh, one last thing, before opening: above the battery compartment button is a little... Windows logo?

Ok, so opening it up, it's very glossy on the inside, with metallicized control pad and hotkeys. Everything glows faintly blue. Did I mention my favorite color is blue? The screen is also pretty much all blue, the way I have it set up. There were a ton of ringtones built in -- I gave up listening after about 30 -- and a lot of background pictures. The actual platform is Windows Smartphone 2002, so it has mini-Outlook Express, mini-IE, mini-WiMP, etc. I will wait to try those out until I have a cheaper data plan, but they sure look nifty :)

It's a cool phone. And I've just started playing with it. I noticed a few quirks, like how the navigation and text entry is just slightly different from all my previous Moto phones, and how, to edit contacts that were on my SIM, I actually had to go to the SIM Manager, instead of being able to edit from the contact menu. But I'll figure it all out. It's also missing 3 things my 551 has: EDGE support, a camera, and Bluetooth. But right now I never use data features under Cingular, anyway, because they charge too much. And I doubt I'll ever need that kind of speed, because I won't be moving megabytes over cellular, anyway. The 1.3MP camera on the 551 is very blurry. Bluetooth is actually pretty cool, and I use it to keep my 551 synced with my Mac Mini, and I have a BT headset, and everything. But because this is a Windows-platform phone, I suspect I'll be syncing it with my XP box, and USB will be fine for that. And Red Warrior threw in a handy Jabra-on-a-wheel, too. So it's all good. Oh, and free :) So that much cooler.

This phone, actually older than my 551, is so much cooler. I just called both my mom and my sister, and I could hear them more clearly and noticeably louder, and they said I sounded clearer, too. Thanks to Red Warrior and rk for my early Christmas present!