Ramblings of an Anonymous Coward

Big C, Little C

i got a call from my father yesterday, that is the little c. after going through the whole how are things going schtick he informs me that he is going in for surgery next month. to remove a . that is the big c.

i could babble on about how i poked fun about it not being lung cancer, how i'm disappointed that he isn't asking to keep it or get pictures. he thinks he'd be better served with the pathologist getting it. yeah, but what fun is that?

more than anything, i'm a bit stunned. why am i even writing this here -- i know i'm going to be asked? simply to note this moment in time. a moment that 94,000 people get to tell people every year. given that we are about 241 days into the year, i declare my dad victim #62,065 in 2005. there's a daily dose of mortality.

i think that is all i have to say for now.

Pure Geek, Classic Lover

so i did some more on-line quizzes. so sue me. the results are a bit messy, so i'm tucking them away in the extended entry. the tests were:

• nerd? geek? or dork?
• lover style

results as always are.... ummmm, interesting.

nerd? geek? or dork?

Pure Geek 47 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 39% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek. It's not that you're a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don't really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren't quite mainstream. Perhaps it's anime, perhaps it's computers, perhaps it's bottlecaps, perhaps it's all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don't quite consider yourself "of that crowd." Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal. Which, you are. Congratulations! You're the one on the RIGHT! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in either of the following: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Professional Wrestling Love & Sexuality Thanks Again!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 25% on nerdiness You scored higher than 65% on geekosity You scored higher than 63% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

---

lover style

The Classic Lover 36% partner focus, 33% aggressiveness, 45% adventurousness

Based on the results of this test, it is highly likely that: You prefer your romance and love to be traditional rather than daring or out-of-the-ordinary, you would rather be pursued than do the pursuing and, when it comes to physical love, you concentrate more on enjoying the experience rather than worrying about your performance. This places you in the Lover Style of: The Classic Lover. The Classic Lover is a wonderful Lover Style, and is the closest it comes to the classic images of the princess in the tower, or the romantic and chivalrous knight, or the hero/heroine from a Disney film. The Classic Lover is a treasure to find, though it can be difficult to do so because they sometimes tend to be shy and/or difficult to successfully court. In terms of physical love, the Classic Lover again can be shy, and often needs more in terms of emotional security to feel comfortable than some of the other Types. Given the right setting, and the right lover, the Classic Lover can be a delight in bed. Best Compatibility can probably be found with: The Romantic Lover (most of all) or the Devoted Lover, or the Liberated Lover. Congratulations! If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in the following: Nerds, Geeks & Dorks Professional Wrestling Buffy the Vampire Slayer Thanks Again!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 0% on partner focus You scored higher than 0% on aggressiveness You scored higher than 33% on adventurousness

Link: The Lover Style Profile Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Courtesy Wave

whatever happened to the courtesy wave? it used to be that you would let a driver into your lane or cross in front of you and up would come the hand. a little arm motion, a little wrist motion... just back and forth to say thanks man.

today when going to pick up my daughter i stopped for a little extra time to let this woman cross. she was pushing a double stroller, had a dog leash in hand, and was keeping an eye on her preschooler that was peddling her seemingly new bike just in front of them. they were at the corner when i stopped, and figuring the child wasn't going to stop without the mother grabbing hold which would undoubtedly release the dog to run wild i remained motionless.

she looked over and i waved her across, providing some level of assurance that i wasn't going to mow her and her spawn over as they crossed in front.

now you'd think that as she crossed i might get a courtesy wave or perhaps one of those fake thank you smiles. nope. the wench didn't even look. she kept chugging along.

One Entry, Lots of Crap

lots of odds and ends i've thought about blogging about, some i may ramble on others will simply be a mention so it might clear itself from my head. i guess we'll see...

i got locked in the eff'ing bathroom the other day. closed the door and for some unknown reason the lock jammed. very strange. i manage to open it from the inside by slipping a card in between the door and the door jam and eventually took off the whole doorknob to remove the thing-a-ma-jig that keeps the door shut/locked. this really bugs me. i'm one of those sort of people that closes the bathroom door. even if nobody is home. given this incident, i've noticed that just having the door closed isn't enough. knowing it is not latched bugs the shit out of me. i'm gonna have to fix this before i go totally nuts.

the show six feet under is now officially done. i was really excited about this season given the end of the previous season, but am left with disappointment. so many hints of "this will be great" and it just faded away. maybe that is apropo. we can't all go out in a blaze of glory, and sfu definitely didn't. the final run through the future was interesting, but way too fast. i dunno, the ending left me unsatisfied. i read a few interesting thoughts over at stevenberlinjohnson.com. in the end i didn't find the show to be that good, but again i suppose like a life it was what it was and it was over with so much potentional never fulfilled.

google talk seems to be the buzz right now. i will say this -- thank you google for following an open standard. this my friends will be your success. a review of google talk at downloadsquad provides some initial information. also noteworthy is you don't have to use the google client... since it is just jabber, trillian works fine. to make that work...

1. create a new connection
2. set server to talk.google.com
3. set port to 5222
4. and make sure that you have not checked use legact ssl for connection.
5. the id/password are what you use for your gmail account.
6. enjoy!

misc. links

• if you love color, you'll like colourlovers. it provides a variety of palettes for the colour challenged like me.
• protopage is very nifty. i wish they just gave away the functions for it all so i could run my own. i just don't like the idea of having my stuff (like this) on someone elses server.
• advise for having an email inbox makeover. i'll try this one day. really. no... seriously. i will.
• you can use google maps to figure out real distances. a gmapPedometer so to speak.
• scientist cards -- sorta like hockey cards. is it too geeky for me to be really wanting a feynman?

Time

generally speaking i'm not good with time. that doesn't mean i'm the sort that runs late, i mean that i often don't pay close attention to it. i haven't used an alarm clock in ages nor do i set a particular time to go to bed. none of this, of course, means anything, but i wanted more than just a link to this nifty timeline clock.

Yet Again

i was asked to take the jung typology test and report my scores. anybody that knows me knows i'm a sucker for a quiz, particularly if it is going to generate something that may potentially be insightful as output. i've done myers-briggs, keirsey I, keirsey II, and now jung typology. my results have been pretty consistent...

Your Type is: INTP

Introverted	Intuitive	Thinking	Perceiving
Strength of the preferences %
89	50	88	33

INTP type description by D.Keirsey
INTP type description by J. Butt


Qualitative analysis of your type formula
 You are:

• very expressed introvert
  
• moderately expressed intuitive personality
  
• very expressed thinking personality
  
• moderately expressed perceiving personality
  

More Scientific

You have: 70% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and 55% EMOTIONAL INTUITION

The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored about average on emotional intuition and above average on scientific intuition.Keep in mind that very few people score high on both! In effect, you can compare your two intuition scores with each other to learn what kind of intuition you're best at. Your scientific intuition is stronger than your emotional intuition. Your Emotional Intuition score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you're good at Quake. Your Scientific Intuition score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the sciences.

go ahead... take the The 2-variable intuition test yourself.

Psychology of MMORPG

i recently suggested this as an interesting topic... seems a fellow from stanford has already gone down that road-- daedalus project. now if i can just pull myself away from the game to read about it.... lol.

Monroe Tapes

a little over 43 years ago, marilyn monroe died, apparently by suicide -- and like kurt cobain, denial has set in for a few. former los angeles prosecutor john w. miner provided the la times never-before-published transcripts of tape recordings the actress allegedly made for her psychiatrist shortly before her death. which of course are now online.

there are certainly some interesting passages including one where she admits to having a lesbian encounter with joan crawford. call me nieve, but i'd have never thought marilyn giving that sort of thing a try. not just because of the times, but despite her glamour she always seemed to be wholesome underneath. she was long dead before i came along which may clearly cloud my impression of both her and the times. yeah, whadda i know?

i even learned something from the article -- beyond a little insight into the real person. she said at one point:

An English poet best describes it: hath no rage like love to hatred turned; and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned – most people wrongly credit that to Shakespeare. William Congreve is the author. That's me, Marilyn Monroe, the classical scholar.

she was right and i, too, would have thought it was shakespeare. marilyn is often portrayed as being the stereotypical dumb blonde, but i wonder if she simply didn't use that to her advantage. sort of like i think jessica simpson does today -- remember the infamous "is tuna chicken or fish" comment?

i have never been hot for blondes, but she was beautiful.

Shake My Brain

ever since i started playing world of warcraft my tv/movie watching has come to a screetching halt. whether that is good or bad is a matter of perspective. on the one hand i miss the few shows i watched, but at the same time i enjoy playing the game. recently i reached a milestone in the game -- level 40 -- which will allow me to purchase a horse and move about the world a bit more quickly.

i do have a few movies to report on since the last time i did so.

• aviator -- 3 of 5
  a movie about the infamous howard hughes. a bit long, but frankly i liked it. not great by any standard, but entertaining and yet another example that leonardo dicapprio is a pretty good actor.
• in good company -- 2 of 5
  predictable. guy gets younger guy as boss. younger guy likes older man's daughter. shit happens. cute movie and decent choice if there is nothing clearly better available.
• dirty nasty love -- 3 of 5
  you probably haven't heard of this one before. it is a sundance movie and isn't going to appeal to the general public. i guess that is why i like it. it deals with people suffering a variety of issues such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, turrents, ... and their support group trying to deal with it. set in england makes it that much more amusing... oh, and doesn't star hugh grant. lol.
• tarnation -- 2 of 5
  really more of a 1.5 stars, but since it too was a non-mainstream film i thought i'd round instead of truncate. it is a documentary about the film's director growing up with a schizophrenic mother.
• hitch -- 3 of 5
  yeah, a will smith movie. while not completely novel (helping people get hooked up), i liked the presentation and some of the thoughts behind the movie -- the proverbial don't judge a book by the cover and hitch helps the common guy get past that.
• coach carter -- 4 of 5
  an excellent and true story! i'm not a fan of basketball, but really the sport is simply a backdrop. if you haven't seen this movie, go rent it.
• the jacket -- 3 of 5
  time travel meets straight jacked plus drugs. i liked the flick but really expected it to be more of a thriller. worth the rental, but not something i want on my shelf.
• get shorty -- 3 of 5
  a travolta follow-up from pulp-fiction. it is your typical cool bad-guy makes good by out smarting the bad guys you don't like. i watched this mainly because i was told i should before seeing the more recent film "be cool".
• be cool -- 2 of 5
  swap movies and music and you have the difference between this film and "get shorty". even some of the dialog was the same. i suppose it helped keep the cost of the film down, but geez. don't get me wrong, it wasn't a stinker, but the movies were so similar i'm not sure calling it a sequel is fair.
• the pacifier -- 3 of 5
  yet another predictable movie and the ladies will probably appreciate vin diesel. for reasons totally unclear, i walked away liking the movie. maybe it was the silliness of the whole thing... i dunno. definitely a good choice if you are wanting to watch something light -- nothing shocking, nothing you'll laugh so hard that you'll have trouble getting to sleep later... just some good clean amusement.

A Handful is Plenty

within the rss feeds i monitor out popped a non-technical article i just had to read. the short description indicated that the article was about the rise and fall of the baseball card industry and was titled An industry reshuffles to recapture its youth so i gave it a read. there were a few brief glimmers of hope that may they "get it", i'm simply not convinced.

like many boys at the time, i collected sports cards as a kid. i acquired the rookie cards of favorite players, made sure i had all the cards of my favorite teams, they were organized and tracked (if not memorized), and they provided yet another view into the sports world. i eventually began to outgrow it giving away parts of my collection and at 20 foolishly selling off all but a little of what remained. there were some i kept -- my wayne gretzky rookie card being the most notable, followed by the same for ken dryden, brian trottier and a handful of other players.

despite that exit, i eventually got hooked again. i think it was those cool new upper deck hockey cards. the photos were so much better. more details, no gum stains, and at the time those high tech holograms. i traded cards with a number of other adults and each of us relived a bit of our childhood i guess, but then the greed hit and this is were the article i read seems to miss the boat.

why did the card industry go down hill? greed. sure, it made it more difficult when it went from two brands (topps and opc) to many, many more. but they also added in so many "special" cards that people that wanted to be complete felt compelled to chase down. then there were the extended sets, the special order sets, the special embossed versions, and on and on and on. each vendor realistically had a half dozen little sets in their sets. it became all but impossible to get all the cards you wanted. well, without dropping the equivalent of a monthly mortgage to get them.

and then there is the price jump without the value. as noted in the article, upper deck (UD) introduced cards at the crazy price of $1.00 pack. as an adult, i didn't see a problem with that. i thought it was a bit limiting for them since it ruled a lot of kids out, but then thought that perhaps they were marketing themselves to be the adult's baseball/football/hockey card. and for the price you got a much better looking product, so it seemed fair enough. unfortunately, other vendors began to follow that trend while not necessarily improving their product. i look back now and think about getting a pack of cards at the store for a quarter and now i get the same back for $1. actually, now that same pack is $3 and instead of getting 10-12 cards and a piece of [crappy] gum, you get 6 cards and a marketing insert to try and get you to buy (or win) other things.

i would have to look, but somewhere in the mid-90's i simply gave it up. i just couldn't -- or really wouldn't -- pay the price. it wasn't worth it. i found that card collecting went from pleasantly reliving a childhood to becoming an exercise in frustration. and one whose cost to continue rise without providing any more pleasure. this time; however, i have kept my cards and will eventually sort through them and get them back to the handful i want to keep.

The Cutting Edge

it has been a while since i have done a meme and i ran across this one and couldn't resist. it takes less than 5 minutes to complete. i'm really surprised my dark humor score wasn't higher. looking at the cube, i'd have pegged myself as a wit, but what do i know?!?

the Cutting Edge (69% dark, 52% spontaneous, 16% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN | SPONTANEOUS | DARK Your humor's mostly innocent and off-the-cuff, but somehow there's something slightly menacing about you. Part of your humor is making people a little uncomfortable, even if the things you say aren't in and of themselves confrontational. You probably have a very dry delivery, or are seriously over-the-top. Your type is the most likely to appreciate a good insult and/or broken bone and/or very very fat person dancing. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: David Letterman - John Belushi

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 88% on dark You scored higher than 67% on spontaneous You scored higher than 11% on vulgar

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid