Year: 2008

Happy New Year!

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I’m a little bit early on this one, sure, but Prairie and I are about to head to bed, full of a great New Years Eve dinner (which to most people would look suspiciously like the traditional Thanksgiving dinner). Perhaps it means we’re getting old, but we’ll most likely be celebrating the turn of the year with snores instead of noisemakers and fireworks.

However you are celebrating (or have celebrated) the new year, enjoy it, and here’s hoping we all have a good 2009!

Minor Weblog Redesign

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A new year is (almost) here, and along with that, it was time for a bit of a refresh to the design. It’s not a huge change — generally speaking, all the bits are in the same basic places — just a little fine-tuned and tweaked.

  • I’ve switched the theme to a mostly-stock installation of Carrington, with just a few tweaks here and there to suit my tastes.
  • Tweets are now a little more visually separated from each other and from longer posts, and are now linked back to the original entry on Twitter.
  • I’ve been adding tags to my entries for a little while, but they’re just now starting to be exposed via the new sidebar. Most entries don’t have tags, but I’m slowly adding them as I go back to work with older posts…that’s going to be a long, slow process that I’m not devoting a whole lot of time to. New posts will be tagged as they appear.
  • Google Adsense banners have been tweaked so that they’ll now appear underneath the first two non-Tweet posts on the main page. I’ve been trying to have some variation on that for a while (keeps them visible, but not super intrusive), but it’s been buggy. I think I’ve finally got it working properly.

And that about covers it.

Been A Good Christmas This Year

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I keep hearing and seeing people grumble about this Holiday season. Between the economy sucking everyone’s spare change away and Snowpocalypse 2008 (that Flickr set is now updated with the rest of my snow photos, by the way) burying the entire Northwest coast under more snow than has been seen in a decade (or more), it seems like nobody’s happy.

Well, just to buck the trend, we’re not doing too badly here. It’s actually been a very nice Christmas this year. Not that these things didn’t affect us — we had to scale back on our presents a little bit, I lost a couple day’s worth of pay from work on days when we shut down, and Prairie’s been going a bit stir crazy from being cooped up in the apartment (the school’s on its winter break, so she’s not working, and she let me use the car to get to and from work, as my Alaskan-trained driving skills — mad skillz — served me well) — but it certainly hasn’t been the WORST. CHRISTMAS. EVAR. that it seems to have ended up being for many.

When we decided not to go for the HDTV, that freed up a chunk of budget for presents. So, we got a couple “big” things (I got a new stereo, so that when we do replace the TV, we’ve got a stereo that can handle the HDMI switching and all that gibberish; Prairie got a very pretty new shiny to wear) that didn’t add up to nearly as much as the TV would have been, then went to Goodwill and picked up a huge pile of books for each of us for right around $30. Once those were wrapped, plus a few other things we’d picked up here and there (dollar stores are great for silly little stocking stuffers, by the way), we had a huge pile of presents under our tree for around half of our original Christmas budget. Not bad!

Short sidenote: I love going digging for books at Goodwill. I’m a fan of sci-fi short story collections, and will pretty much grab ’em when I see ’em whenever we’re digging through cheap used book selections. This time, I found a real treasure: a 1958 edition of The Year’s Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy that includes a special section titled “Science-Fiction becomes Science-Fast–Sputnik and beyond” and on the back notes that it includes “A novelette called ‘The Fly’–one of the great horror stories of this or any other year…soon to be a great Twentieth Century-Fox picture in CinemaScope and color.” As much fun for the era it was published in as for the stories inside!

Prairie’s been on her winter break for almost two full weeks now. The company I work for gets really slow and pulls back to a skeleton crew over the holidays, and since I’m “just” the receptionist/admin assistant, I’m not part of that skeleton crew, so I get about a week and a half off of work, from the 25th through Jan. 5th. Lose a little pay, but it’s really nice to have a bit of a Christmas break! So we’re both enjoying having a little mini-vacation time.

I’ve got a couple projects lined up for my downtime: I’m going to try to get caught up on processing photos (I’ve got a fair chunk of stuff from October and November to get through), and Prairie and I are working our way through her shelves of books, adding them to the database and formally combining our collections. We’re at almost 1,000 books so far, and expect to be fairly easily somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 once everything in the house is entered in.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. Enjoy your holidays, everyone. We are!

Links for December 23rd through December 24th

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Sometime between December 23rd and December 24th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

  • Recall: Snow globe poses fire hazard: Talk about going from cold to hot. Approximately 7,000 snowman snow globes were recalled today for posing a fire hazard. The transparent globes at the center of Hallmark's Jumbo Snowman Snow Globe can magnify the intensity of sunlight passing through the glass, causing nearby objects to catch on fire.
  • eBay: Rare Seattle/NW States Seasonal White Christmas Snow – eBay (item 170288410743 end time Dec-25-08 13:53:34 PST): Rare Seattle Area or Northwest Washington Snow, .24 acre by 15" deep  of premium white stuff to enhance your home and gardens and create a White Christmas atmosphere. Great snowman building material, wet enough for good compacting. Lot includes preshoveled piles or groomed snow for easy hauling and also special underlit with Christmas lights bush snow, very lovely!  All can go, sorry no delivery, you haul. Bidding starts low to make this affordable for all even in these economic times.  So buy it all and wrap some up for gifts!  Make it into snowballs and put in your freezer for later, like those Christmas in July parties at your place, your guests will be impressed!
  • VHS era is winding down: Pop culture is finally hitting the eject button on the VHS tape, the once-ubiquitous home-video format that will finish this month as a creaky ghost of Christmas past. After three decades of steady if unspectacular service, the spinning wheels of the home-entertainment stalwart are slowing to a halt at retail outlets. On a crisp Friday morning in October, the final truckload of VHS tapes rolled out of a Palm Harbor, Fla., warehouse run by Ryan J. Kugler, the last major supplier of the tapes. "It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt," said Kugler, 34, a Burbank businessman. "I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away."
  • Forer effect: The Forer effect (also called personal validation fallacy or the Barnum Effect) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.
  • Roger Ebert chooses some of his favorite quotes from bad movie reviews:: Keanu Reeves is often low-key in his roles, but in this movie, his piano has no keys at all. He is so solemn, detached and uninvolved he makes Mr. Spock look like Hunter S. Thompson at closing time. — "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

This Weblog is ESTP

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According to Typealyzer, which analyzes the content of a weblog and places it within the Myers-Briggs personality matrix, this weblog classifies as ESTP (Extroverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving), “The Doers.”

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

For the record, the last time I took an online version of the MBTI, I tested as ISFP (Introverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving). The Star Trek version of the MBTI also pegged me as ISFP, which apparently correlates with DS9’s Bareil or VOY’s Doctor.

(via Metafilter)

Links for December 18th through December 23rd

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Sometime between December 18th and December 23rd, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

  • Tagalus: Ever find yourself looking at Twitter and wondering what all this talk about #motrinmoms means? Searching Flickr and not understanding why someone would tag their photo #ip4?
    Tagalus lets users define tags so that others can understand what they're talking about. Other users can vote on definitions and decide which best describes the given tag.
  • More snow, ice, wind on the way this weekend: Don't look forward to the weekend. It's not over. Not even close. Saturday night, forecasters say, the sequel will arrive. The region — expected to stay below freezing in the meantime — will again be hit not only by snow and ice pellets Saturday night into Sunday morning, but by winds that could reach 50 to 70 mph, with peak gusts of 90, in the foothills. "This next system could actually be worse than what we just had," said Jeff Michalski, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
  • In a First, Gay Rights Are Pressed at the U.N. (But not by the United States): "An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other 'deplorable acts.' The United States refused to support the nonbinding measure, as did Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference." More info from ECCO: "Alone among major Western nations, the U.S. has refused to sign a declaration at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. Co-sponsored by France and the Netherlands, the declaration was signed by all 27 European Union members, as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries. There was broad opposition from Muslim nations, and the United States refused to sign…."
  • Majel Barrett-Roddenberry Passes Away: Today is another sad day for Trek fans, TrekMovie was just informed by the Roddenberry family that Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away this morning at the age of 76. The first lady of Star Trek’ died of leukemia at her home in Bel Air. At her side were her son Eugene ‘Rod’ Roddenberry along with family and friends.
  • 2008 Mug Shots Of The Year: What makes a good photograph? A compelling subject, proper lighting, and exquisite composition would certainly be components. But what makes a good mug shot? A compelling subject, of course. And a cow costume never hurts.

My Movie Rating System

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For no particular reason that I can come up with, I was thinking over how I rate movies, and attempting to quantify the basic reasoning for each star of a five-star rating system. I think I’ve pretty much nailed it down.

* (one star): Two hours of my life that I won’t get back.
* * (two stars): Not a total waste of time, if the viewing cost is low enough (free coupon, someone else is renting it and I happen to be around to see it, a good Netflix plan with relatively high turnover).
* * * (three stars): Worth a rent.
* * * * (four stars): Worth seeing in the theater (at a matinee, or at an evening show if I’m either excited enough by the particular movie or feeling rich enough to afford it), possibly worth purchasing (preferably secondhand or after a while so the price has dropped, but perhaps at full price if I think it’s on the high side of four stars).
* * * * * (five stars): A keeper. Worth seeing in the theater if possible, worth owning at whatever price I think is reasonable.

Of course, as with any rating system, there’s some amount of variability, and my movie collection certainly isn’t entirely comprised of 4- and 5-star movies (Star Trek V? Honestly, it’s about a 2-star movie. But it’s Star Trek, and I’m a nerd and a completist). But on the whole, I think that’s a pretty good overview of my thought process.

Emergency Preparedness

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It’s a bit late for SNOWPOCALYPSE 2008, but for future reference, a handy guide of what to do…

…in the case of Snow:

  • Obtain De-icer and chains for your car.
  • Know your tire size, in case you need to replace a broken chain.
  • Make sure your tires are at recommended air capacity.
  • Urge the administration to close your schools, even if it only might snow.
  • Carry a small amount of sand in your car so you can get traction if you get stuck.
  • Remember: Snow kills people on contact, so avoid it at all cost.

…in the case of Rain:

  • Make sure to pack up your umbrella!
  • Wear rubber boots, or “Slicker Kicks” as I like to call them.
  • Don’t listen to depressing music while it’s raining.
  • Increase your following distance to at least 3 seconds.
  • Call your mother. It’s been a while.
  • Thank god it’s not snowing too.

…in the case of Snow/Rain:

  • Scream at God, asking: “Why? Why, God, why?”
  • Rain water is still made of water, which is able to freeze.
  • Light your car on fire to thaw any ice on the road below your car.
  • Before driving somewhere, call ahead and let them know you will be 27 to 50 hours late.

…in the case of nuclear war:

  • Evacuate the area directly beneath atomic bomb impact.
  • Remember the triangle! Time, Distance and Shielding.
  • Ventilate and cool any lead shelters you habitate with ice and machine guns.
  • Food is important. If you run out of food, eat the weak.
  • Wear Fire Protection.
  • Charge the batteries on your VATS.

…in the case of ice weasel attack:

  • Do not make sudden moves around or near ice weasels.
  • Try to lift the snowmobile off of your broken carcass.

…in the case a monkey flies out of my ass and claws for your eyes:

  • Shield your eyes with metal objects, such as a frying pan, or bent forks.
  • Should you trap the monkey in the closet, do not open your closet door.

…in the case of the dead rising from their graves:

  • Do not shine your light on the Witch. She is tougher than she looks.
  • Shove a boomer before you shoot him, so he does not splash on you.
  • If you are on point, crouch so your teammate can shoot over your head.
  • Avoid shooting a car with an alarm. The alarm will attract the horde.

(found here)

Links for December 16th through December 17th

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Sometime between December 16th and December 17th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

  • TIME’s Person of the Year 2008: Barack Obama: "…two years from now, I want the American people to be able to say, 'Government's not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel like the government's working for me. I feel like it's accountable. I feel like it's transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information, that believes in making decisions based on facts and on science as opposed to what is politically expedient.' Those are some of the intangibles that I hope people two years from now can claim."
  • PHOTOS: Cyanide Millipede, Huge Spider Among New Species: They're not kidding about the "huge" spider — we're talking a 12" (one foot) legspan here. EEEP!!!!!
  • Aegisub: If programming languages were religions…: Perl would be Voodoo – An incomprehensible series of arcane incantations that involve the blood of goats and permanently corrupt your soul. Often used when your boss requires you to do an urgent task at 21:00 on friday night.
  • Save Handmade Toys From the CPSIA: Place your vote here to help keep handmade toys from being banned, thanks to poor quality control in Chinese toys necessitating stricter controls on imported toys.
  • Apple Announces Last Year of Christmas: CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2008—Apple® today announced that this is the last year for Christmas. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, spoke at a joint press conference held with Santa Claus at the North Pole this morning. He announced: "Apple has been honored to work with the North Pole the last several years to make Christmas possible, however, we have decided together that this is the last year for Christmas."
  • The Periodic Table of Awesoments: In 300 B.C., years before the birth of black Jesus, Aristole postulated that all good things were made of "win." That was a pretty good guess, but he was drunk and probably also having an orgy. Modern day awesominers know there are actually 118 fundamental "awesoments" that compose all good things. The Periodic table of Awesoments can be a very useful tool. It's designed to show the relationships between awesoments, and often one can even predict how awesoments interact simply by their positions on the table.
  • Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” Barbie® Doll: In 1963, Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, gave us a tale of terror not soon forgotten in his film “The Birds.” Dressed in a re-creation of the stylish green skirt-suit worn by the film’s ill-fated heroine in an iconic scene, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” Barbie® Doll celebrates the 45th anniversary of the acclaimed film. From the doll’s classic ensemble to the perfectly painted expression to the accompanying black birds, every aspect captures the film’s infamous appeal.
  • World’s First Computer Rebuilt, Rebooted After 2,000 Years: A dictionary-size assemblage of 37 interlocking dials crafted with the precision and complexity of a 19th-century Swiss clock, the Antikythera mechanism was used for modeling and predicting the movements of the heavenly bodies as well as the dates and locations of upcoming Olympic games.