Please. Someone. Anyone. Say something. Because I can't right now.
New feature in the NetNewsWire RSS aggregator provides additional insight into the writings of blog authors. As if we don't already have enough to do... go read about it over at LittleThinkTank.
The fun starts when someone changes an item after posting it; I do this myself all the time--for some reason, I never seem to see some typos in my weblog application's entry form, but they stand out like a beacon on the main page of LittleThinkTank. When NetNewsWire refreshes a feed subsequent to a change, you get to see the differences.Thanks to Jeremy Zawodny for the link. I'd would suggest reading Lockergnome's RSS Resource pages if you have interest in news/blog/information syndication via RSS.
When asked to do -- the do I do is think. More often than not, I over think and begin to question my own thoughts, motives, and feelings eventually finding myself questioning reality itself in the end. It's times like these that some of the strangest things catch my attention and forces my mind to take them into consideration. For example hearing about Lacan and his views on fantasies...
You get Lacan's point. Fantasies have to be unrealistic because the moment, the second you get what you seek, you don't, you can't want it any more. In order to continue to exist, desire must have it's objects perpetually absent. It's not the it you want, it's the fantasy of it. So desire supports crazy fantasies.
This is what Pascal means when he says that "we are only truly happy when daydreaming about future happiness". Or why we say the hunt is sweeter than the kill. Or be careful what you wish for. Not because you'll get it, because you are doomed not to want it once you do.So the lesson of Lacan is... living by your wants will never make you happy. What it means to be fully human is to strive to live by ideas and ideals and not to measure your life by what you've attained in terms of your desires, but those small moments of integrity, compassion, rationality, even self-sacrafice. Because in the end, the only way we can measure the value of our own lives is by valuing the lives of others.
On the bright side, I do believe I have a sense of humor on the matter which can sometimes be interpreted or personalized much in the same way as such writings. My first thought when reading Lacan's view -- "Lacan't be true"! Sometimes I just crack myself up. Other times, I just crack. And with that said, I'm done, for the moment, thinking about Lacan, Freud, and others that have opinions about my fucked up mind.
I certain that I'm the only person in the world that thinks words are made up of more than a string of letters. I've realized it for some time, but today sank in deeper than ever before. Getting a quick message and just reading some simple words which you've longed to hear turned an otherwise glum day around 180 degrees.
...
[14:37] i miss you so damn much.
[14:37] bye sweetie
Like many many days before it, You have made my day.
Just thought I would share some lyrics of music I've been listening to recently.
What Language by John Mann
I know you're tired of words
My dear.
Rather not explain
It right here.
But could you try
Could you try.
I think I missed the point again
I fear.
One of the worthwhile lessons I remember from high school was a teacher that once said, "Never lend money to friends. Either give it to them or don't give it to them". That has always made pretty good sense to me and I think I can safely say that money has never caused problems in any of my friendships. Today I got a call:
Hey AC, do you remember that time you covered my at the game?
Uhhhhh. No.(I was lying, I did.)
Aw, come on, you must. It was the night Scotty's sister was at the game.
Oh yeah! I remember that game. It's no big deal.
It's a big deal to me. Besides, aren't you the one that was all anal retentive about repaying me for a stinkin' McDonalds combo meal?
Uhhhhh. yeah.... well look... if you feel the need to pay me back, I won't turn it down, but I figure it all works out in the end.
Check your e-mail.
You know you didn't have to do that?You've got cash! XXXXX XXXXXXX just sent you money with PayPal. ------------------------------ Payment Details ------------------------------
Yeah, I know.
Ah! friends. Gotta love 'em.
And with my new found booty, I think I'm going to anonymously purchase a gift for someone. I can use the karma points, and it's always fun to do.
Is UC Berkeley working it's way back to the 60's? Can you imagine that some students obtained university credits for participating in an orgy? This puts a new slant on participating in study groups don't you think? And what exactly would cramming for finals mean? [*groan*, don't answer that!]
UC Berkeley has adopted new regulations for student-run classes following allegations last year that students from a class on male sexuality engaged in extracurricular sexual activities as a group.
Read the San Francisco Chronicle article for more details. And no, not those sort of details!
Go Bares Bears!
Over at bookblog someone has made a web application called the Gender Genie which is based off a NYT inspired article and algorithms by Moshe Koppel and Shlomo Argamon.
Give it a try. Cut & paste some of your fiction into the box and allow it to do it's quick analysis. I tried it with about five pieces of writing of varying length and four of them thought I was a girl, the fifth predicted correctly. I'm not sure what to think of this. Good thing it didn't say I threw like a girl... those would be fightin' words!!!
Given the rising costs and user dependence of software these days, coupled with the marketing techniques used by companies in the field, eventually you had to expected a parallel would be drawn with the drug industry. Wouldn't ya?
| Drug dealers | Software developers | |
|---|---|---|
| Refer to their clients as "users". | Refer to their clients as "users". | |
| The first one's free! | Download a free trial version... | |
| Have important South-East Asian connections (to help move the stuff) | Have important South-East Asian connections (to help debug the code) | |
| Strange jargon: "Stick", "Rock", "Dime bag", "E", "X" | Strange jargon: "SCSI", "RTFM", "Java", "DSL" | |
| Realize that there's tons of cash in the 14 to 25 year old market | Realize that there's tons of cash in the 14 to 25 year old market | |
| Job is assisted by the industry's producing newer, more potent mixes | Job is assisted by the industry's producing newer, faster machines | |
| Often seen in the company of pimps and hustlers | Often seen in the company of marketing people and venture capitalists | |
| Their product causes unhealthy addictions | Doom, Quake, SimCity, ... 'nuff said. | |
| Do your job well, and you can sleep with sexy movie stars who depend on you. | damn! Damn! DAMN! |
Man Walks on Fucking Moon
Surely you've all seen the
Onion article from the most excellent
Our Dumb Century. Well, here's a
Flash version of that historic event.
Ping Pong Matrix
I'm not sure what the hell this is from, but it's pretty funny. It's a pair of Japanese guys playing ping pong, but as they play live, there are some
matrix special effects. Not high quality, but good for a giggle. It looks like it came from a Japanese television program or something.
Checkered Past
As a reward for those that actually read this far, allow me to share what is probably one of the best
color illusions I have ever seen. Usually I can see the similarity right away, but I had to do a photoshop comparison of the color swatches to be completely convinced on this one. Adelson also provides the science behind what this is so which is quite interesting in it's own right.
Random Personal Picture Finder is an amusing little web application that searches Google for somewhat randomly numbered JPEG images. The clever part is that it looks for filenames in the forms commonly used by various digital cameras. If you have a few minutes to kill, give it a try.
from the book i plan to read tonight as i lay here alone.
If You Love, Love Openly
Twenty monks and one nun, who was named Eshun, were practicing meditation with a certain Zen master.
Eshun was very pretty even though her head was shaved and her dress plain. Several monks secretly fell in love with her. One of them wrote her a love letter, insisting upon a private meeting.
Eshun did not reply. The following day the master gave a lecture to the group, and when it was over, Eshun arose. Addressing the one who had written her, she said: "If you really love me so much, come and embrace me now."
clearly i haven't reached enlightenment. i'm still wondering who wrote the note and if he rose up. guess i'll have to wait for the movie. bonus points to anyone that can tell me what book this comes from.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-- George Bernard Shaw
it's friday, and that means it's time for the friday five. thankfully this week's installment isn't going to make me think too much.
i spied this meme over at mindsketches where michelle joined in the interview game that she learned about over at harrumph! still crazy. that's all the lineage i know.
interview game: THE RULES
1. leave me a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. i will respond; i'll ask you five questions.
3. you'll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. you'll include this explanation.
5. you'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
now on to the questions i was asked along with my responses...
Herb Brooks, who coached the U.S. hockey team to the "Miracle on Ice" victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, died today in a car wreck. He just turned 66 a few days ago (August 5th).
here's a coach and fellow i'd have loved to have met. he always had funny quotes that you could pass along to others. frankly, he is the main reason that a rag-tag bunch of no-name hockey players won a gold medal.
"When it came to hockey, he was ahead of his time,'' Ken Morrow said. "All of his teams overachieved because Herbie understood how to get the best out of each player and make him part of a team. And like everyone who played for him, I became a better person because I played for Herb Brooks.''
he motivated them to be the best they could be. he got them to play as a team rather than a bunch of individuals. hockey lost a great man today. a great leader. a great coach.
My favorite Herb Brooks Quote
You're looking for players whose name on the front of the sweater is more important than the one on the back.
Coverage
well, the weekend is gone and california has a slew of candidates for governor. names like schwarzenegger and flynt have been in the news alot, but if you look over the list like the san jose mercury news did there are quite a few notable names, not all who you think they are. some that jumped out at me who are looking to run -- leo gallagher. who? you know, the guy that smashes the crap out of watermelons. gary coleman -- yes, the former child star from different strokes. i can see him at press conferences now -- "what-cho talkin' 'bout willis?".
and while not famous, it is amusing and local -- georgy russell a 26 year old geek chick that according to the mercury news is selling "georgy for governor" thongs is running. now did she throw in her hat or something else? hmmmm. we'll give her a couple bonus points for having a weblog but have to deduct 50% of those because she runs it on blogspot rather than under the domain she has apparently purchased. if she can't install MT or get someone to do it for her, i'm not sure i want her as governor. which make wonder -- can gray davis, ahnold or any of the other candidates install MT? inquiring minds want to know.
how 'bout this... i'm doing the free association on time this week. go me! that meme is brought to us all by unconscious mutterings every sunday.
I'm sorry to write that actor/dancer Gregory Hines died of cancer, yesterday, at the age of 57. I remember him most from the movie White Nights where he starred along with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Certainly not a great movie, but it introduced me to some music I've enjoyed since -- something most would have never noticed.
It was the background music during the scene on the stage of the theatre company. It was some heartfelt music and it took me some time to track down who the artist was. The artist ended up being Vladimir Vysotsky, Russia's greatest bard.
i really wanted to get another poem out, but none of the ones that mean the most to me are ready for posting. that leaves me with posting about something odd or throwing out something you might consider sappy. what did i do? well...
I love you when dusk is falling
and the shadows drift across the land;
when the love in my heart is a calling
I yearn to feel the softness of your hand.
I love you when the moonlight casts upon us,
and the sky is flooded with silvery lights;
I want you to smile and to love me
as we take in the wonders of our nights.
I want you to always remember
the feel of my lips for when you wake,
I'll kiss you so lovingly, so tender,
cradling you in my arms as dawn breaks.
I'll love you, every season;
I'll love you with tears, with hugs, with words, with sounds;
I'll love you, and I won't need a reason --
for my love of you has no bounds.
my apologies to the original writer of these words and for my folding, spindling, and almost certainly mutilating them in an attempt to mold them into something more personal.
Well how about this way. I love that you yammer and often catch yourself rambling on, I love when you order dinner there isn't an item which doesn't require at least one substitution, I love that you can still laugh even when you think i'm nuts, I love that it only took a single moment with you to provide me with the memory of a lifetime and I love that you are the last voice I want to hear at night and the first person i want to see the rays of sunlight cast upon. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because I'm not loved. I write here tonight because when you realize you want to ...it has never been a matter of want, it has always been a matter of knowing how to get there. to get there intact and worthy.
i have no idea what to say about this accept "give me a break" and "does it come with a kung-fu grip?". Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush - U.S. President and Naval Aviator - 12" Action Figure. at least they could have been more created and put him in cammies and called him "George of the Jungle" or something.
ok, i do have another comment. They say:
The realism and exacting attention to detail demanded by today's 12-inch action figure enthusiast are met and exceeded with this action figure.yeah, the figure exceeds gwb's IQ by at least 10 points. good job guys. they were going to do an al gore figure, but it became too lifelike.
so what's next -- will blog for food? seems AOL is now paying some folks to get their online journals pump primed with content and to provide some leadership by example. frankly, i think it will be like herding cats, but what the hell, i'd do it if i were being paid too. John Scalzi notes in his blog all the reasons why and admits that it's a short term gig. he also provides some links to blogs already there. they look so.... so.... aol-ish. sigh.
keeping with my trend of being too little, too late, i've decided to answer this week's free association anyway. yeah, don't even say it.
maybe it's because i really didn't want to get out of bed today. but with the phones ringing, pager chirping, did i really have a choice?
[ring, ring] [ring, ring]
hello
hey! i'd like to run something by you before i decide how to proceed.
does it effect me?
uh... no.
good, i might be able to help then
what's with you?
it's what's not with me... but...
what?
nevermind. what did you want again?
geez, you sound like you lost your best friend or something.
and something.
the saying goes ... "home is where the heart is", shortly i'll find myself heading north driving to this place i've called home for so long. when i'll get there, nobody knows, but i do know this -- while i refer to it as home, my heart is not there. it's elsewhere. this thing pounding in my chest is but a muscle keeping my shell alive as i continue to sit in foolish indecision.
and as i close my eyes hoping to disappear, more decisions will be made on my behalf. all with best interests in mind. all right. all wrong. but they are made none the less. as much as i'd like to believe it so, the world can not wait for me and my world didn't.
canadian scientists have developed a new technique for extracting dna from fingerprints left at a crime scene, even those smudged beyond recognition. the system takes only 15 minutes to extract and consistently yields 10 nanograms of dna.
Because the method is so simple and cheap, with far less overhead required than needle-based DNA sampling, experts say this could help make DNA gathering a commonplace activity -- thereby also raising privacy issues.duh! doesn't take a expert to figure that one out. but i guess it is all inevitable and before long you'll be including dna sequence information in the personals or match.com profiles. wanted: female. likes sports and walks on the beach. chromosome 7 should have the following protein encoding... arg!
alrighty then!
what's one to do when they can't concentrate on work, life is being too complex and confusing, and frankly would like to hide under a rock for a few weeks, months, years, or until there is one clear and obvious path to take. being the coward that i am, i took to surfing the web between runs to the fridge, bathroom, mailbox, and any other task that ummmm, needed to be done. yeah, that's the ticket.
now with my mind already preoccupied with increasingly distressing matters, i needed pictures! just something pleasant to look at to remind me of the beautiful things that are out there. surely others have seen some good things in life and snapped and shared a few pictures.
and before running off to grab something to eat -- boy would i love some poutine right now -- i'll mix in a few other pseudo random things for this entry.
It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow.
--Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote
Tis the only comfort of the miserable to have partners in their woes.
--Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote
To have peace with this peculiar life; to accept what we do not understand; to wait calmly for what awaits us, you have to be wiser than I am.and we gotta have a meme don't we? time to try a new one. here is one for every monday -- Listy Lunes.
--M.C. Escher
List the 5 most frivolous things you'd buy if you won the lottery. (Assume it's a ridiciulous amount and all bills/family's bills/etc. are taken care of.)
normally i know what i want to write about or share. today i don't, but i have a strange urge to write something. anything. to some degree i want to just keep everything inside and hope i don't explode. another part of me wants to scream from the roof tops letting the world know how i really feel. maybe it's just the lack of sleep talking.
today was another tough day -- where lowest expectations were sadly met while all along there was a secret hope for better things to come. it is so tough to watch loved ones fail to meet their expectations, knowing fully why it happened. knowing there probably wasn't anything you could do about it, but still feeling partly responsible. at this point, we can only hope a lesson can be learned.
the lesson as i see it is that when you have achieved a goal, that is only the beginning of the struggle. life does not get any easier when you are on top and that complacence is the first step in one's downfall. my goal today is to not make matters worse and remind myself that today's failure wasn't mine and that in the bigger picture maybe it's all for the best.