Admissions of solecism

Typing speed!

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 04:27:31 GMT

First, happy New Year everyone! And now, with my first meme post of 2008! Well, mysticalforest was doing it!

102 words

Learn Touch Typing

I used to be up around 120 in high school and had dropped to around 80 a few years ago. I find WPM is largely misleading, since keyboard type and familiarity has a really large effect. Not that this is really important for me, either - WPM doesn't matter too much when programming. (If you do find yourself typing fast while programming, you're probably doing repetitive work, not reusing code, and/or using the wrong language.)

That said, I expected this to be much lower, and around the 80 range. I'm using the new wired Apple Keyboard, which has very quiet low-profile keys. Keyboards with raised keys that have more of a "click" to them tend to be the easiest for me to type on if I'm going for speed, since I don't have to guess if I missed a keystroke. I missed two words on the typing test, and both were due to missing letters. I was also slightly uncomfortable with how it dealt with new sections of text, but the text difficulty balanced that out fairly well.

Signs

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:51:05 GMT

Took a picture of one of the signs in the parking lot at work. It serves as both a marker of the area I usually park in (“I’m over by the slow children sign!”) and a subject for philosophical pondering.

No one knew where the slow child was running to…

MSNBC Alerts

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:02:36 GMT

I've been getting MSNBC "news" alerts through MSN Messenger. (And saying that, now feel a strong MSNeed to add MS before all my MSNAcronyms.) One of the things I've been enjoying is their continued blasting of the same headline all throughout the day. Here's my current list of recent alerts since logging in this morning:

msnbc.com Business: Stocks close down on credit woes
msnbc.com Business: Stocks down after strong retail reports
msnbc.com Business: Stocks struggle after strong retail reports
msnbc.com Business: Stocks seesaw after strong retail reports

I'd like to imagine some epic struggle between stockbrokers, but I fear the truth is that someone is pressing buttons a little too quickly and finding out the hard way that taking things back on the Internet is A Hard Thing™. It's not quite as obvious from these, but in past days, it hasn't been uncommon to see the same headlines five times.

On a solemn note

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:23:49 GMT

Cyclone Sidr has just killed over 3,000 people in Bangladesh and left millions of people homeless. The US has already offered more than $2m in aid for emergency relief and sent in two Navy carriers. At times like these I'm curious to what the major media outlets are headlining on their websites:

CNN: Vick goes to jail -- early
ABC: Did Toy Companies Knowingly Expose Children to Lead? Calif. Says Yes
FOX: 'Til Lotto Jackpot Do Us Part...
NBC: Feds tackle school bus safety rules
NYT: Clinton and Obama Spar Over the Economy
BBC: Aid battle for Bangladesh victims

To be fair to MSNBC, they have a feature world news article about the tragedy right by their headline article. With FOX, I had no idea what their headline was, so I picked the one with the picture. (That's what FOX viewers key into, right?) Most sites don't even have a story about it that's easily noticeable.

They say no news is good news, but I guess that's only true if they'd let you know the bad news in the first place.

Inter-tubes

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:02:10 GMT

I guess media is finally getting a little more hip to this Internet thing. We've gone from horrible pseudo-3D file system interfaces in Jurassic Park to Twitter being referenced on CSI! Crazy, since I doubt many mainstream viewers would recognize that.

People who IMed me during the past week probably knew I was crazy busy at work these past couple weeks. During compiling downtime, I kept myself sane by re-watching old episodes of the show with Ze Frank. Not sure if it was the best choice for sanity, but it still makes me smile. (As a side note and as thanks, draxton_drear gave me my first experience of Ze Frank [which must have been in 2001] by showing me the viral instructional page of How to Dance Properly.) If you haven't seen the show before, check out this entry – supabah, which is one of my favorite standalone episodes.

I did have a lot of downtime this weekend, so I ended up playing lots of Super Mario Galaxy. Truly awesome game. I think I ended up playing more of that than I did of World of Warcraft in the past three weeks combined. It's one of the first games I played that really felt like it had the Wii in mind. Even with less buttons than the N64 controller, it felt like there was more control over the character. (Ice skating, anyone?) I haven't beaten it yet, since I'm trying to clear as much as possible before going through the boss fights, but I imagine I still have quite a few hours of fun left in it.

I also saw Beowulf on Friday. Really not too much to say about it, as my main interest was seeing how well the CGI went over. I knew about the scene where Beowulf fights Grendel. That was what surprised me the most, as there was a lot more man-butt than I was expecting. That might be good for others, but certainly seemed out of place in a movie that didn't seem to go for any X-chromosome appeal; not that the scene had much. (Though, who am I to judge?) There were perhaps 20ish other people in the theater, and the only opinion I could form was that it was okay. Before anyone hates on me for not mentioning Angelina Jolie, if you saw any of the previews, you've pretty much seen all of her in the movie... although they really did dance around that PG-13 rating with her.

Now time for me to start off my short work week!

My Halo 3 mini-review

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:46:30 GMT

Most people here know me as a pretty big Halo fanatic, so it's with great disdain that I give the latest installment a "Meh out of 10." In reality, I think the game should be around an 8, but not a 9.5 or a perfect 10 that most sites have been giving it. The franchise itself is pretty difficult to build upon – most of the features lend themselves to be balance changes of the overall multi-player experience. The importance of a strong balanced single-player mode is important for a perfect game, and seeing reviews discredit it as something that doesn't matter seems to be biased reviewing to me.

The X-Box Live experience is what really set Halo 2 out from the rest of the games that had been released at it's time. The matchmaking and networking features were unparalleled. Unfortunately, it isn't quite the case for Halo 3. Halo 3 is one of the first of the next-gen Live games to feature upload features. I believe this will be a hyped feature of XBL when the fall update finally does release. It isn't the first game to do this, though. Skate, an excellent game that also recently came out, has the same kind of features, where you can upload in-game movies and pictures and send webpage URLs of those to your friends.

This feels a lot like games are being "Web 2.0"-ified, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. What is bad is that there's a surcharge for upgrading the number of 'slots' you have to upload to. Companies have gotten creative recently with finding ways to ship you incomplete games where you have to pay to unlock features. It's a shame that a game from Microsoft that is as hyped as Halo 3 was will be reducing themselves to this level. It makes me wonder if Microsoft is testing the waters to see if this will be a viable revenue source for other game companies. Expect to see more paid slots appearing in upcoming games.

As far as multiplayer gameplay, it appears that there's now a large variety of weapons that are more or less exactly the same. There are a few uncommon power weapons that will allow someone to momentarily dominate the map, but for the most part, playing consists of charging into someone and seeing who gets their kill-punch in at the right time. There's no real consequence for continually getting hit by a low to medium powered weapon; you just wait momentarily for your shield to charge back up and barrel back into more close quartered combat. This kind of thoughtless combat has been becoming less appealing to me over time, and that kind of mentality even surfaces in the single player mode cutscenes.

"Why do you always jump out of the ship like that? You know you're going to kill yourself one of these times."

"Because I can, newb. LOL. Roflcopters."

Those aren't exact quotes, but the feeling is there. Speaking of cutscenes, Bungie is dangerously close to falling into the same trap that happened to the Final Fantasy series. They want to tell an immersive story (although one that probably isn't as strong as they think it is) and feel that the best way to do it is through copious amounts of cutscenes that last way too long. Bioshock, while not a strong FPS, is an extremely important game to the genre, because it handles storytelling through your actions and the environment – not through cutscenes.

This is only a fraction of what I've been talking to people about today. (This post is already a little too long.) While I think it is a good game, it's not quite enough to rekindle my interest in the series. It's a shame, 'cause I was hoping it would, and I didn't have my expectations set very high in the first place.

The semi-annual post

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:16:14 GMT

The title is in jest, but it seems like it really was that long ago since I last posted. Incidentally, 'semi-annual' on answers.com suggests: Or did you mean: What should you do if you've been married 24 years and have 4 kids but your wife takes no interest in you or your sex life and you feel rejected every night but she won't talk about it?

Not quite sure what semi-annual has to do with that ... err, scratch that, I don't want to know.

Anyhow, the past few days as of late I've been twitting. mysticalforest already posted his Twitter account, so I'll link to mine. Those that don't already know, Twitter is essentially one-line blogging. It's nice for when you want to post something, but don't feel like writing up a long post.

Last week I joined the iPhone collective. Being a gadget lover who could never find a perfect phone, it's pretty darn close to being one. To me, the biggest downside is that there's still a lot of room for customizability. I'd love to be able to add my own ring-tones. I imagine Apple has it's hands tied there. The recording industry and cellular networks have been supplementing their revenue with overpriced ring-tones for a while. Being in bed with both probably limits their options a lot.

I have been playing around with making wallpapers for my phone, though! I just added a new gallery of wallpapers formatted for the iPhone's screen. Roughly half of the wallpaper is normally covered with text or graphics on the lock screen, so some of them were a bit tricky to get looking decently. Check 'em out!

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Icons

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:30:00 GMT

The announcement of the new CS3 icons definitely shook the design community today. When you take a technical design review to such a predominant artistic suite, you're bound to get mixed reactions. Flickr seems to be the most popular service for annotating what applications belong to each icon. Most people's gut reaction is that it's a mishmash periodic table of Adobe applications. I personally can't figure out what the colors mean, and wish the icons had a little bit more flair.

I spoke too soon

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 06:22:52 GMT

Having major electrical problems at my apartment since this morning. Only have a couple outlets that work, no more hot water, and no more heat. Very sad now. And very cold.

More reason to get a Wii!

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 10:31:50 GMT

The hacking community behind the Wii is simply amazing. This post at WiiHacks is a good summary of some of the apps that have come out of the recent breakthroughs with the wiimote. Playing the "guitar" with two wiimotes, navigating Google Earth, transfering Miis off of the wiimote, and more! Some people are even controlling FrontRow with it. People haven't figured out how to parse the data coming back from the nunchuck, but I don't imagine it'll take too long. Something to definitely stay tuned to!

Warmth!

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 10:06:03 GMT

Oh, sweet warm apartment, how I missed thee!

First thing I saw getting home after getting out of the car was the Orion's Belt. Haven't seen that for quite some time. There's a lot of light pollution here, but none of the night lights were on at the apartment complex, since it requires them to set the time at the main building. I'm sure I'll get a great chance to look at the stars if I go hiking at all next year.

Random Acts of God

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 04:12:16 GMT

The weather sure hasn't been kind to the Seattle area lately. From freak snowthunderstorms to winds that blew in windows at the Sea-Tac airport, I don't believe there's been another month I've missed the ability to work due to weather. I know it's bad that work is the first thing I jump to when there were over a million people here without power, but there's major deadlines to make! There's some I won't be making, and I wonder if I'll be able to just say, "Don't blame me, blame the random acts of god."

My place still is without power. I stopped by work to see if it was open, and it ended up taking me over two hours to get there. Two of those hours were going two miles. People getting impatient only made it worse for everyone. When I got to work, there was a sign saying that the building was without power, and nobody could access it. I saw a few people drive in and attempt to go in, namely customer service reps and developers working on the same project I am.

I noticed the intersection by there had power, so I figured I might try to get some Christmas shopping in. I was glad to have an iPod hooked up to my car stereo. After it took about an hour to get to the mall, I wandered around fruitlessly trying to find vauge things. The only thing I knew someone wanted was long sleeve t-shirts for my father. Somehow that ended up turning into a little over half the price of a Wii. I think I need to adjust my tastes. He's pretty much happy with anything that fits.

By the time I left the mall, the drivers in the area seemed to have gotten a lot more impatient and enraged. I called my parents and found out they still had power, and decided it'd take less time to drive to Tacoma than to get up my hill to an apartment that didn't have power. It probably took half the time to get there than it did to get to the freeway. Now I'm at a warm home... and a lot happier.

That wasn't very fun...

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:19:29 GMT

Paraphrased and extended a little from a comment of mine I left on one of mysticalforest's entries about the weather we just had;

I nearly got trapped at work tonight. It was horrible timing to pull an all-nighter from Sunday evening. There's a fairly large and long hill that I take getting home, known as 180th / Petrovitsky / ten billion other names -- just like the devil himself. There were some freak snow and thunderstorms tonight here that had caked the roads in a thick but pliable layer of hard snow. Most the people I saw try to go up it gave up and turned back around if they were able. I had got stuck in someone else's treads that were worn just deep enough that my car wasn't able to push through. It only took me from the curb to the middle of the road, and then back to the curb a little bit further ahead where someone decided to abandon their car. I was able to wait for the snow to fill enough of it for me to turn back around. Wasn't brave enough to keep going forward, since I had heard many of the people walking by say that it just gets worse ahead. Parked back at WotC and walked all the way up. (I'm right off Petrovitsky on 120th -- about a 4 mile walk.)

Just got home now, and it was definitely surreal looking at where I had nearly gotten stuck hours ago. The road side is now completely covered with abandoned cars in both directions, some parked on the sidewalk. Some people were still in their cars, stuck, and leaving their emergency lights on. A few idiots even left their cars abandoned in the absolute middle of the road. A few more left them abandoned with their blinkers still on, slowly fading. The whole scene had a fairly apocalyptic feel as I was hiking up. I'm just thankful the snow and thunder let up a little.

I'm also a little bit tired and wet. Tired is understandable after 48 hours of being up, but the snow had managed to cover a couple fairly deep puddles that I had managed to step in a couple times. Made the walk a little more interesting, and made me infinitely grateful that I put on my only pair of moisture wicking socks on Sunday night. The previous times I had stepped in puddles on my way home, I'd have more blisters on my feet than I could count on my hand. (There's something about moisture and friction that doesn't go well with skin. Imagine that.)

Hopefully this won't go on for too much longer. :)

Unintelligent Disorder

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:18:12 GMT

Say you were asked the question, "Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals. True or false?"

Hopefully you'd first realize you're being asked if you believe in evolution. I'm sure you'd also assume that more than half the people that were asked would say true. Science has published the results of a survey asking just that question in several countries. I don't think anything more than this graph can be said.

Via [Scienceblogs]

Quick blurbs...

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 03:13:32 GMT

By popular demand, I've made my collection of MSN Messenger display pictures public. You can view them at my scrapbook. Warning: If you like cute animals, don't check out the Cute Animals subgallery. You might be overwhelmed by cuteness.

On another note, I've finally gotten around to making one of those MySpace profile things. Now people can stop bugging me about it. Feel free to add me if you've also got one. (This profile gives me hope of making a decent looking page one day. The CSS involved is a horrible horrible hack, though.)

Oh noes!

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:15:19 GMT

I had written up something that was all ready to post, and decided not to. Perhaps my better judgement is finally getting the best of me!

What was it? Well, all I'll say is I woke up this morning with a horrible idea for a new intarwebs meme. You know, one of those things were you answer the questions, saying you like grilled cheeze sandwiches and favor tangerine lollipops over orange ones, and you end up being a Green Bunny With an Extraordinarily Large Assault Rifle.

This time I had decided to mix recent political news with sophomoric humor. Because, really, the world needs more of the latter. I'll save you from the results, but the question was Which Taepodong are you? Given that both Taepodongs rely (or are believed to rely) on the No-Dong scud missile for boosters, you might be able to guess what the results were. It's just too easy.

Which makes me wonder why someone hasn't done it yet. Although with only two results, both not very good to be represented by, it wouldn't be very interesting.

CO2 is Life!

Tue, 23 May 2006 17:20:02 GMT

This has got to be one of the most mind bending commmercials I've ever seen. (Watch Energy) Mind bending only because I cannot fathom the logic being used. Pumping CO2 into the atmosphere makes trees greener and children happier! WTF?

Next time you fill up your tank with $3/gal. gas, just remember that a portion of those profits are funding brilliant think-tanks like these guys. Excuse me while I go find a self-motivational tape that just repeats "I'm amazingly rich, the most popular guy on the block, and sexy to boot!" because if I listen and repeat it enough, it's bound to come true. AMIRITE?

This sudden return to LJ brought to you by the letter S and Cynicism.

C-SPAN, now a provider of best sellers?

Tue, 23 May 2006 16:05:51 GMT

I was checking the iTunes Music Store this morning to see if the 24 season finale was put up yet (it hasn't been, and I had TiVo'ed the Alias finale that went up against it) and noticed something curious —

Under Today's Top Albums, the first thing listed was Stephen Colbert At the White House Correspondants' Dinner. Now, $1.95 isn't too bad to pay for it, but it's kind of surprising considering you can get a full movie of it free without looking too hard. I'll refrain from political commentary, 'cause it seems that people will reply anonymously to year-old posts on inactive LiveJournals just to add their two cents of nothingness. (And I still think the only thing worse than the redesigned $20s are the redesigned $10s.)

A WoW post

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:10:49 GMT

After leveling a horde Shaman (healing spec) to 60, and an alliance Priest and Rogue to 60... starting a guild and getting it to the point where we clear all of Molten Core but Rag...

I thought I had accomplished a lot. However, a couple days ago, I started a horde Warrior on another server with some coworkers. At the tender level of 18, I main tanked Wailing Caverns in a party of three. The highest of the two was a Shaman at level 23. The other, a Druid at level 20.

We rawked it with ease.

That's all I have to say. Oh yeah, and we caused a level 60 Paladin to run from XR with their tail tucked behind their legs. This game is too fun.

Religion meme

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 23:34:27 GMT

First off, this is pretty much what I expected this to say. I view organized religion more as a social cluster than anything to do with religion. I don’t feel it’s the best way to find people with similar interests, so it’s not for me at all. Morality is important to me, but I don’t want someone else to define it, since they usually do a half-assed job at it. If there is a higher power, I’d hope they look no further than that a person lived a good life. I know there’s dissenting opinions on what’s required for ‘salvation,’ but that’s the problem anyone religious will have. If you truely care about whether or not your beliefs are what will save you, all you have to go on is faith that you’re believing in the right thing. There are countless numbers of good people who have lived in the world who wouldn’t have had the opportunity to worship in specific religious sects. Would a creator just blindly damn all those people because they lived in the wrong time or place?

You fit in with:
Spiritualism

Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms.

80% spiritual.
60% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Happy anniversary?

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:08:37 GMT

Yesterday was the official date of my 5th year anniversary at Wizards, although it’s past the 6th year I’ve been here.

When I first started working here, I had hoped it’d be long term. Having been a military brat, nothing really stayed the same for very long and I wanted a chance at something constant. Of course, after being here, not only did work and it’s atmosphere completely change, but the country ended up changing significantly as well. Crazy.

Well, here’s to another five years. *raises glass*

What could be more fun...

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:29:46 GMT

...than DOOM?

How about DOOM as an RPG? For cellphones, even!

Super "Maryo" on your browser

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 21:05:27 GMT

JavaScript Maryo

Control using your keyboard... kinda fun!

Because my posting has been reduced to gaming songs and memes...

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 04:10:17 GMT

1. Go here.
2. Pass it on.

1.~How did you meet fireballof3? Through theonlymegumegu, at work
2.~What would you do if you had never met lady_gumdrop? I probably wouldn't have put her on my friends list, for starters.
3.~What do you honestly think of tenshiemi? Nice person, was cool hanging out with her when I was in the U-District
4.~Would or did lady_gumdrop and mysticalforest go out? She's married now, and I'm pretty certain they didn't go out before.
5.~Have you ever liked lady_gumdrop? Why would someone I didn't like be on my friends list?
6.~If theonlymegumegu died tomorrow, what is one thing that you would need him/her to know? Orange soda isn't really made from oranges?
7.~Would collinj and lady_gumdrop make a good couple? Given that she's married, it would be improper to play matchmaker
8.~Describe nanaman in 3 words: Oaf, lummox, lout. Just kidding!
9.~Do you think chibininja is hot? Liek, oh my god, he's so to... uumm, no.
10.~Would theonlymegumegu and lady_gumdrop make a lovely couple? Even if she wasn't -MARRIED-, probably not.
11.~What do you think of when you see mysticalforest? Nice guy, loves RPGs! (But who in their right mind doesn't?)
12.~Tell me something humiliating about lady_gumdrop: While more amusing than humiliating, it was certainly unexpected for her to come down to her husband's cube and coax him to a porn site one day. (To be fair, our work's community site got exploited...)
13.~Do you know any of bayushiboy's family members? I've met his wife and one of his children. Awesome people. (Perhaps I'm earning brownie points for 25.)
14.~What's lady_gumdrop's favorite color? If I remember correctly, purple?
15.~On a scale of 1-10 how cute is damienroc? Liek, oh my god, he's so to... uumm, no.
16.~What would you do if fugli just professed their undying love for you? Given his response to dating me, I could pretty much say that it wouldn't happen.
17.~What language does lady_gumdrop speak? Inglés
18.~Who is lady_gumdrop going out with? Hopefully her husband. Have I made this clear enough?
19.~Is lady_gumdrop a boy or a girl? If you haven't figured this out by now...
20.~Would lady_gumdrop and fugli make a good couple? Please see #10. Broken record.
21.~Who do you think lady_gumdrop would be great with from this list? I think she's great with her husband, although he's not on this list.
22.~When was the last time you talked to chibininja? Good question. I think I even hassled him through someone else to get me added on his friends list.
23.~What is lady_gumdrop's favorite band? I honestly have no idea.
24.~Does collinj have any siblings? I think I knew the answer to this one, but the answer escapes me.
25.~Would you ever date bayushiboy? I have to say he's the only guy who's face I've superimposed onto a buff half-naked man, but, no. And, he's married, which seems to be a theme with these dating questions.
26.~Would you ever date nanaman? Drats, the marriage theme has been broken. But the answer is still no.
27.~Is lady_gumdrop single? Take a guess!
28.~What is lady_gumdrop's last name? Giving out people's personal information in quizzes seems kind of rude.
29.~What is lady_gumdrop's middle name? Don't know if I ever knew, but if I did, I don't know anymore.
30~What is tenshiemi's fantasy? Become a billionare tycoon selling hats? I don't know. :)
31.~Where does lady_gumdrop live? In a place I could (almost) never stand living in. I still secretly taunt her husband for actually liking it there.
32.~Would you make out with fireballof3? Liek, oh my god, he's so to... uumm, no.
33.~Are lady_gumdrop and bayushiboy best friends? I'm not sure how well they knew each other when they were both at Wizards. Not best friends, though.
34.~Does nanaman like lady_gumdrop? nanaman not know lady_gumdrop. nanaman start working at wizard coast after lady_gumdrop leave. [/oafish]
35.~How did you meet lady_gumdrop? She's the wife of the person I was working with the closest when I first got hired full-time at Wizards. Plus, I played EQ briefly with them. It's a shame I never could really get into it.
36.~Is chibininja older than you? Yup. Only a few people on my friends list are actually younger than me.
37.~Is lady_gumdrop the sexiest person alive? Sexiest person alive? That's a mighty tough spot to fill. But she did model for a Magic Angel card. (Of course, I modeled for a Wizards store advertisement, but I can definitely say I was chosen because relating to hunky guys or luring in preteen girls by the masses was certainly not the point of that advert.)

A song about World of Warcraft

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 18:51:17 GMT

Someone had posted something on my guild boards about gnomes smelling or something. Someone else took offense, so I had to post the following in reply:

I thought I'd try my hand at writing a song to express my feelings about gnomes.
You can probably guess which tune you need to sing it to:
This land is our land,
o‘er there is gnome land

The radiation
And contamination

A killer robot
One that we once fought

Those gnomes are trouble for you and me

Soar through the highlands
Stroll through night elf lands

The lack of gnomes can
Make me a big fan

They hear the emerald dream
And think up a get rich scheme

Those gnomes are trouble for you and me

Thank you, thank you…. I’ll be here all day.