Isaac Whatever

when I hear about a book I might like, I immediately send a sample to my kindle

2012-02-07T10:56:00.001-08:00

I have a new technique for keeping track of things I want to read:
using kindle samples.

Previously, I would bookmark the recommendation page, or write it down
or something, and then when I finished my current book I would have to
track down these old recommendations, try to find the book, etc.

Now when I finish a book I'm reading I have a bunch of samples ready
to go. I can start checking out a new book immediately.

(If it has a kindle edition, if it has a preview, etc.)

Luminous points glowed in the darkness

2012-01-23T12:28:00.001-08:00

"I looked about me. Luminous points glowed in the darkness. Cigarettes
punctuated the humble meditations of worn old clerks. I heard them
talking to one another in murmurs and whispers. They talked about
illness, money, shabby domestic cares. And suddenly I had a vision of
the face of destiny. Old bureaucrat, my comrade, it is not you who are
to blame. No one ever helped you to escape. You, like a termite, built
your peace by blocking up with cement every chink and cranny through
which the light might pierce. You rolled yourself up into a ball in
your genteel security, in routine, in the stifling conventions of
provincial life, raising a modest rampart against the winds and the
tides and the stars. You have chosen not to be perturbed by great
problems, having trouble enough to forget your own fate as a man. You
are not the dweller upon an errant planet and do not ask yourself
questions to which there are no answers. Nobody grasped you by the
shoulder while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were
shaped has dried and hardened, and naught in you will ever awaken the
sleeping musician, the poet, the astronomer that possibly inhabited
you in the beginning."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars

Nanotechnology?

2012-01-17T21:55:00.001-08:00

What do you think of when somebody says nanotechnology? Do you think
of little whirring insectoid machines clouding the air? Floating
robo-germs collecting on a piece of metal and eating it before your
eyes?

Wrong.

It’s more like being able to tell algae what to do. “Stop producing
that chemical. Instead take this nitrate and this oxygen and make
TNT.”

Big flooded flats in Kansas like rice paddies bask in the sun. Funny
fractally-square duckweed covers the surface. Some paddies are
draining gently, slowly revealing a crystalline structure of an exotic
composite ceramic. A combine will trundle through later and collect a
single crystal forty feet long and six inches wide and strong enough
to support an entire city.

A hobbyist in his back yard will dab a DNA marker around the edge of
a broken washing machine door. He drops the door into a temporary vat
made by laying a tarp over some boards and filling it up with his
hose. He drops in some sugar, a shredded old bike tire, and then
carefully opens a packet and drops in some special yeast. In three
days he comes back to find a new rubber seal attached around the edge
of the washing machine door. He trims it to size and takes it inside.

Eventually we’ll work up genetic blueprints for specialized little
robots. The instructions will include starting soup conditions. They
will be a lot like recipes. DNA is the tip of the iceberg for a very
information dense process. The whole thing will have to be taken into
account, but we’ll move beyond raw materials and fab out whole complex
constructions, including cars, planes, robots, etc. They’ll have a
level of detail comparable with a human body or better, staying in
their fabs soaking up raw materials and sunlight for months or years.

Or they’ll be powered more directly, by sugar or corn syrup or
something. That would probably result in faster fab times. It would
also be rare for things to be fabbed completely from scratch.
Unnecessary complexity. It would be simpler to make components and
stitch them together later. Still, it would be possible to fab entire
mechanisms, and might be the only feasable approach for some things.

Things like tiny robotic flying drones, networked together, with chips
grown inside their tiny bodies like brains.

Maybe nanotech would give us the whirring swarms after all.

Untitled

2012-01-15T15:19:00.001-08:00

I slip the rope through my fingers, toss it as if into the air, but
before it quite escapes, I have it again, looped peculiarly. I drop
the end, knowing how it will swing. I twist the loop, only as quickly
as necessary for my hand to turn and catch the end as it returns. I
touch the rope as little as possible. I know the fulcrums of the limp,
twisty seesaw. I move as slowly as possible, dictated by the constant
of gravity on the long loops. Flip flip flip, the flying end misses my
nose by inches. I feel the wind as it passes. My life hangs in the
balance of this dance. Literally. If I should fall, I will hang by the
knot I am constructing out of artistry and dance. I can’t help it,
can’t take it seriously. Moving like this is pure joy expressed and
echoed.

These noodles taste funny and I don't know why because I can't read the package.

2010-12-09T20:06:00.001-08:00

netcat one-shot webserver!

2010-12-08T18:57:00.001-08:00

Setting up a one-shot webserver on port 8080 to present a file
{ echo -ne "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\n\r\n"; cat some.file; } | nc -l 8080
The file can then be accessed via a webbrowser under http://servername:8080/. Netcat only serves the file once to the first client that connects and then exits.

via en.wikipedia.org

http://vimcasts.org/

2010-12-08T18:43:00.001-08:00

http://vimcasts.org/ - sweet vim tutorial videos.

TookThisHere.appspot.com

2010-01-18T22:08:00.000-08:00

Look what I made ( a while ago, I've been neglecting my blog ): http://tookthishere.appspot.com

It's photos on a map!

I also put it on github

You can change the url to look at different locations, like:
http://tookthishere.appspot.com/loc/place/seattle,%20wa or
http://tookthishere.appspot.com/loc/place/lake%20magdalene,%20florida

You can also scroll the map around and search with the Search button.

Posting works similarly.

Unfortunately, the 1MB App Engine limit means you might have to resize pictures you upload.

Firefox Tip:

2009-04-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Firefox. You've got a form with <button>Whatever</button> on it. You don't want to submit the form, you want to do some javascript / AJAX magic. In IE this works fine, but in Firefox, clicking on the button submits the form! How annoying!

How do you fix it? Like this:
<button type="button">

I think this works because buttons in Firefox default to type="submit", maybe. Or maybe not. I'm not sure.

Quick recap:
Firefox, <button type="button"> keeps the form from submitting when you click the button.

Belaying tips

2009-04-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

Specifically for Stone Gardens in Seattle, but will probably work anywhere.

C = climber
B = belayer

When checking to make sure your partner's gear is on correctly, look at the buckles on their harness first, then how the rope/belay device is attached, then at the knot/belay device itself.

The belay device you'll be using is also called an ATC.

When climbing...
Both people get tied in / clipped to the rope.

Then the climber checks the belayer's equipment, then the belayer checks the climber's stuff.

Then, when they are ready to go...
C: on belay
B: belay on!
(the belayer has his hands on the rope and is all ready)
C: climbing
B: climb on!
(now the climber puts his hands on the wall and climbs up)

The climber needs more rope, the rope is pulling too much...
C: slack!
B: ok

The climber is going to fall, or wants to rest...
C: Take!
(the belayer pulls the rope until there is no slack and the rope is tight)
B: Gotcha!
(then the climber sits in the harness)
When the climber wants to climb again...
C: Climbing! (or "im going to climb")
B: ok

The climber reaches the top...
C: Take!
(the belayer pulls hard on the rope until there is no slack)
B: Gotcha!
(the climber sits in the harness and lets go of the wall, now he's ready to come down)
C: Lower!
(the belayer prepares to lower the climber)
B: Lowering
(the belayer lowers the climber to the ground in a controlled manor)

Where I have the belayer saying, "ok", this isn't really verbal. We nod at each other or whatever. If it's not loud in the gym and you're both paying attention, you don't really need to say anything.

The WebApp is up!

2008-12-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

My hobby project is finally online!

A Google App Engine webapp that gets location data from Fire Eagle, plots it on a Google Map, and lets you track players around.

And it works! Kinda. Mostly.

Eventually, a player would...

1. pick a target nearby

2. track him

3. take a picture of the target

4. upload the pic with location data

Then they would get a neat little log with both players' locations as the game evolved, plus pictures at the start and end. Possibly annotated... maybe :)

Next steps: pic uploading, actual CRUD instead of hackery, log views... score updating... OK there's actually a lot of work to go. But it works! Yay!

Known issues:

-the map is always centered near my apartment

-the player page is a mish-mash of player page and user homepage

-lots of debug info everywhere, etc

Anyway, it was fun.

If you have any ideas, don't hesitate to share! Constructive criticism welcome also.

Android + Fire Eagle

2008-11-03T22:59:00.000-08:00

I spent a long time looking for a FireEagle API that would work on Android. Then I found it.

JFireEagle - a java fire eagle api implementation. It even includes an Android package - that works!

EDIT 11/22/2008 - JFireEagle is an active project and the SVN repo gets in a bad state sometimes. If the current version doesn't work, try revision 256. It might not be current but it's working.

I've you've been looking for a FireEagle API that works on Android, look no further.

I've got a few days of work left on my FireEagle updater service for Android, then I'll put it on the market and put the source up. Don't worry, I'll post about it.

Normally I don't do this, but if you found this post helpful, please link to it.

Google App Engine, Fire Eagle, Google Maps...

2008-10-17T01:10:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a hobby project lately - a webapp running on google app engine that gets location data from Fire Eagle and displays it in a google map on the page.

To do this I had to slightly modify Steve Marshall's excellent python Fire Eagle API. Make no mistake, I suck at python, and I only edited Mr. Marshall's API until it stopped throwing errors. As soon as it worked for me I stopped, leaving the work half finished.

Here is Mr. Marshall's API, and this is my version modified for google app engine. I really only changed the http module. His version used httplib, which is unsupported in the app engine environment. Urlfetch is used instead.

After that, it was off to the races. I used google's RPC example for app engine to pass my location data from the python (and database) to javascript on the client, after which I copied totally from the google maps beginner example for adding a map and markers.

That part went very smoothly - I practically made the google maps example into the django template for my maps page.

My app is far from finished (it really depends on mobile devices), but these wonderful mashable services made it lots of fun.

Thanks especially to Steve Marshall. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that Fire Eagle API.

When my app is finally finished, I'll let you all know, of course!
-Isaac

Age of Conan - The Quitting

2008-08-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

I'm quitting Age of Conan.

Why? It's too buggy.

There are a bunch of other problems with it, things that make it less appealing, such as...

All of the races are the same.
The classes are not interesting.
The models look like crap, wooden and ugly and badly animated.
The voice acting is boring and annoying.

But the bugginess is what really kills it. I'm constantly dying for no apparent reason. I died because I got aggro'd during a quest sequence. I died while the bad voice actor droned on and on, while I couldn't do anything.

The combat is much more active, you have to stay much more focused, true. But that makes glitches much worse. Lag is much more apparent. Death by lag or glitch is a constant occurrence.

It comes down to this: even if the game was really attractive, the bugs would be deal-breakers. But the game isn't attractive, it's boring and annoying and stodgy...

So I won't be back, even after the bugs are fixed. I don't like the game.

Here's hoping Warhammer Online gets big-world pvp right. I loved that aspect of AoC.

Project Idea -Source Control for Crowdsourced Movie Cuts

2008-07-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Crowdsourced movies like Iron Sky are being produced by distributed teams. These teams face some interesting challenges because video is resource intensive to share.

I propose a source control system based on non-destructive editing, where the raw footage is left untouched, and different cuts of the film are recorded in flat files which reference that footage. In this way, the teams only need to share expensive video files when raw footage is produced, and all of the editing can be shared in small flat text files, which are easily handled by source control.

To view another collaborator's edits, you only need to download the text file which describes their cuts.

Pros-

The raw footage, the actual heavy lifting, is downloaded only once, when it becomes available. You could obtain it from somewhere else, like take your iPod to another collaborator's house and get the raw footage from him.
You could even download a low-res version of the footage, or only the most heavily used sections.
Since edits are non-destructive, and serve as references to the raw footage, and do not change the video files, they can be represented in a file format approaching flat text. In this way they can be very small and quickly shared.
Hundreds of revisions from hundreds of collaborators can all be viewed on demand, all pulling from the shared raw footage and taking a minimum of space.

Cons-

All of the editing needs to be non-destructive. I don't think totally nondestructive video editors exist.
Effects which can't be produced programmatically would have to be shared with their footage sections. A long section of effects might destroy the pro of easily shared edits. Perhaps layers?
Have to create not only a source control system, but a suite of editors, players, converters, effect systems, and possibly even codecs. Hard, hard work.

Workflow scenarios:

Individual contributor collaborator-

I read about a crowdsourced movie being produced by hobbyists. I go to the website and find the source repository. Their website asks me nicely to use bit torrent when possible to download the raw footage. I spend two weeks with the torrent client going and end up with 30 gigs of raw footage.

I fire up the movie source control and get the latest edits, which takes about 1/2 hour. I see that there are several major branches, "long-intro", "bryan-edit", "off-dialog-indie-songs-only", and "action-focus". I only download the edits, I choose not to get any extra raw footage, music, or effects.

I start my editing suite and open the project file for long-intro. The editor informs me that some footage, music and effects layers are missing. I go ahead and watch the movie. There are some shots where the video is greyed out, and others where I get an indicator of missing music, but the editor never chokes.

In the last third of the movie I notice that there are some sloppy cuts during some dialog. Rather than doing the work totally myself, I switch to another branch and see that in "bryan-edit" this section of dialog is very well done. I take that bit of index and copy it over to my current branch.

After making sure it works, I commit my changes to the repository.

Amateur Cinematographer-

My buddy tells me about a hobby project he's involved with, and shows me about 20 minutes of footage on his iPod when we run into each other. I'm interested, but my internet connection isn't that great and it sounds like a hassle. He says he's got all 30 gigs of the raw footage on his laptop right now, so we go over to my place, copy it over to my pc, and he shows me some of the editing suite. I'm impressed.

After about a week of fooling with the edits I decide I want to get involved, so I head to the project wiki and find a page listing shots that are missing or need improvement. They want a location shot in Seattle, where I happen to live, so I grab my camera and head downtown. I get about 20 minutes of footage around Seattle.

Instead of uploading it myself, I call my friend, give him the footage, and he uploads it for me. Even before he finishes uploading it, I start adding my footage to some edits on my local machine. I like one of them and commit it. Since the footage hasn't hit the repository yet, the source control grabs a thumbnail from my footage, and everyone who views my edits sees the thumbnail until my friend finally gets it uploaded.

What do you think?

Is this an interesting idea? Is this a problem contributors have? Would this be useful? Is it prohibitively hard? Do you know of nondestructive video editors that could be used in this manner?

Could we put together an already existing tech stack that accomplishes this? Git, for sharing both edits and raw footage, some video editor that can export/import flat files?

Deserves some more thought.

Mplayer boosting audio volume

2008-06-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

To boost mplayer's max volume add the following lines to your mplayer config (mine is at /etc/mplayer/mplayer.config).


softvol=1
softvol-max=250

This forces mplayer to use the software mixer, and then sets the upper cap at 250% of normal.

Mplayer manual
Wikia link

Age of Conan: lvl 29 1/2

2008-06-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

I'm still an assassin. I still defeat enemies surprisingly quickly. Stabby stabby.

The downtime is very low. I might lose 50% of my health in a quick combat, but resting regenerates it quickly.

The real killer here is the lightly-restricted PvP. It's so much fun. It changes the way players interact throughout the entire game. Here's a quick scenario that actually happened to me...

Smoke coils around ruined pict huts. Their bodies litter the dusty ground. I hide near an alter, waiting for the Bat Pict Priest to return. I've been charged with a quest to collect his head. Or his hand. Or some jewelry, or something, I forget.

Anyway, I'm waiting.

Then another adventurer saunters up. He stands there, waiting.

From hiding, I ask, "Are you waiting for the priest?"

He spins around looking, and can't find me. He faces left, a likely (but wrong) direction, and responds, "Yes?"

"I was here first," I say, "His death is mine. You may join me in killing him or fall under my knife."

I send him a group join.

He accepts.

I drop out of hiding. I'm 5 levels below him. He'd kill me easily in a fight. We laugh and then do the same to everyone else who arrives.

That scenario would be impossible in a non-pvp game. It changes everything. We are all so much more aware of the other players, the game is so much more interesting and exciting. Levels matter in a way that they haven't in WoW. I really can pwn this noob for dancing naked for gold.

This interaction is only the tip of the possible iceberg, but it is a step in the right direction.

Age of Conan Impression: lvl 10

2008-05-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

I'm an assassin! Stabby stabby.

Hmm, the graphics are ok. They're kind of clunky, the animations aren't great, but there is a huge amount of detail everywhere. The water is sexy.

I can only sneak in the shadows? I have a stealth-meter and I will get spotted if I get in a light area? Sweet.

Oh, hello, I got ganked by a lvl 25+. In a noob area. PVP is kind of brutal. Who sits around killing lvl 7 noobs? Weirdo. I evaded them from then on by running erratically.

All the quest guys have voice? Neat! Except that I have never listened to a single quest setup, or read a full quest description. It's all the same. Blah blah blah, make an X on my map so I can head out.

Ack, now I'm dying because I can only sneak in shadows and it's not shady here :(

Early reports:

Player interaction level - sucks! Nobody talks.
Progression - ok. Feels like I'm getting somewhere.
UI - Kind of crappy. Feels console-y.
Quests - I dunno, I don't read them. There are lots though.
Models - Great details, but clipping issues, bad animations, and overall lack of attention to detail (imho).
Baddies - standard MMO dumb guys.

The only thing that makes this game different is the combat. I run up to a guy and start spamming key combinations. Sometimes I get a neat fatality effect. They defend certain sides, etc, but it doesn't really feel involved. It's too random and spazzy.

The huge PVP, siege battles, in the endgame better be good or I'm out quick.

Hike Report: McClellan Butte - Second Attempt

2008-05-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

Now I understand why people were using ice axes and neoprene suits on our previous visit to this crag. It gets steep.

We got a late start and arrived at around 2 in the afternoon. The weather was nearly perfect (a bit warm), and we made good progress.

Less than a mile in, we met a guy walking out. He was wearing a helmet. And gloves. Just walking down the path. We said nothing as he passed. Then we started laughing. Austin said, "I hope we don't find a bike on the path. I hope he was just wearing a helmet to go hiking!"

The trail started getting technical after an hour or so. Meltwater was running down the trail, undercutting the snow and making everything slippery. Streams were flooding, crossing was messy, but not dangerous.

Then we started hitting snowfields. We lost the real trail and started following a pair of footprints. Austin got impatient and headed straight up a snow-covered slope, and we lost the footprints. I found a garter snake surrounded by snow, and gave him a ride to a warm stump. As the slope steepened even more we headed left and found the footprints again, using them as a stair.

We spent a long time commenting on the odd choices of whoever made the tracks, who we referred to as 'The Three-Legged Man'. He kept running straight at trees and holes. Still, it was less work to follow the tracks than to make our own.

About an hour from the top we came to the bottom of a long open slope. We followed the tracks up, making short switchbacks. Looking down was scary. Out of the trees you could really feel the height. We slogged on up.

Near the top of the slope we ran into the Three-Legged Man, and his son. They had only made it a few hundred yards higher before turning around. We headed up as they glissaded down. We got up to the crag and climbed up high enough to see that it was a false summit before settling in for a quick snack and rest.

It's amazing how relaxing a precarious perch on a warm rock can be after a long time standing in snow.

Then we headed down, getting slightly lost, but striding easily on a cushion of snow. When we finally hit solid ground again it was a shock, almost like getting off of a trampoline. The ground seemed unnecessarily hard.

Then we found a snow-covered road, followed it back to the path, and headed the rest of the way down.

A great hike, but we didn't beat the mountain.

IIS 5 to IIS 6 write permissions account change

2008-04-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting issue at work today. We have some continuous integration automation that sets up daily install machines. The machines are different flavors of windows, from 2k to XP to 2k3. Part of our setup process was failing with the following error on an IIS6 box:

Access to the path "C:\our path" is denied.

Our permissions were setup exactly the same on both boxes. The ASP.NET account had full effective permissions to this file at this point in the setup process, and that worked on the IIS5 box.

But not on IIS6.

After some Google-Fu, I found the following forum post at dev.communityserver.com:

To eliminate this bug for me, I gave full control to IIS_WPG worker process account."

" * For IIS 5
o Give the ASPNET account this access.
* For IIS 6
o Give the application pool identity account (usually NETWORK SERVICE) this access."

This worked perfectly. Thank you Bill Bosacker.

To Recap-
The Error:
Access to the path "C:\our path" is denied.
The Question:
What has changed between IIS5 and IIS6 that would cause this permission issue?
The Fix:
Give permissions to IIS_WPG.

Hike Report: McClellan Butte

2008-03-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Result: FAIL

We were heading for another hike, but we couldn't get to the parking area because the snow on the roads was too deep, so we came back and went for McClellan Butte, because the trailhead was only about 1/2 mile from the highway.

So we parked the truck and tromped in to the trailhead. Good news: we had some tracks to follow so we didn't get lost in the deep snow. Bad news: some of the tracks were made by skis.

At the trailhead we were unhappy to see that the ski tracks continued up the trail. Oh well, some boot tracks went up too, so we headed on.

After about an hour of tromping along the tracks headed right along an old road. We followed. A half-mile or so along the road we ran into a group of three guys coming back. They were stepping carefully in each other's tracks. We stepped off the trail to let them go by. They turned out to be the guys making the tracks we had been following, and they'd taken a wrong turn along the road.

They were all wearing crazy plastic boots and had ice axes poking out of their packs and they all had either skis or snowshoes and special winter gear and we were standing there in jeans.

So we let them go past and get out of sight around the bend, and we started following again. We made it back to the real trail, and started up, but it didn't take us too much longer to write the hike off as a bad idea. Finally.

Soon after we turned around we met some other guys coming up. These guys were roped together, wearing skintight crazy cold weather extreme suits. We warned them not to follow the road and to instead go straight across. They thanked us, then one of the guys said, "I left a marker back there." I think I responded, "OK, cool."

A marker? WTF?

A bit further down the trail we run into a flag sticking up out of the snow, seemingly at random.

Sheesh.

Now I want to get into really awesome hiking shape and pack some lawnchairs and beer up to the top of one of these things. Then I'll wait at the top and ask the guys who are roped together wearing batman suits if they want a brew.
-Isaac

Selected journal entries from Trip #1

2008-02-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

Journal entry May 13, 2007, after breakfast. Tulku-la's house, Tharlam Monastery, Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Flying was torture. It gets more and more uncomfortable until you want to go insane. We can't go on like this. Something has to be done.

The terminal in Bangkok was shiny and new. It reminded me very strongly of the long walks lined by stores and restaurants from Las Vegas. Even little bars in the middle of the path, shaped like river islands, everything inside shaped like river rocks, smooth, designed in a wind tunnel.

Arriving in Kathmandu airport, waiting in the visa line, I can feel the weight of the bureaucracy on my head. The full workings of a government, dried and cracked and aging, smelling of sweat and interesting spices.

They ask if it's our first visit, and I say "No, I've been here three times," and prepare to defend myself. I feel like a giant steel trap is closing on my neck. Then the little man asks, "This year?" and suddenly I know that he doesn't care, he's just checking to see if I need to pay a little more, line his pocket with a bribe... Then I walk away feeling welcomed by a country fueled by friendly forgetfulness.

I try to never tip the baggage guys. I like to be independent, but they actually helped us find two bags this time, so I have to. Their insistent calls of "Tip! Tip!" like the squawking of strange birds makes me want to bowl them over and run away.

I'm spectacularly ill-equipped for dealing with these guys, especially in the grip of jet lag and exhaustion.

The taxi ride is always interesting. Emerging from the airport into Kathmandu proper is like being dumped over the head with a bucket filled with warmth and life. There are people everywhere, living right in front of your eyes.

It couldn't be any more different from a city in the U.S.

The sacred cows wander about, the well-behaved Kathmandu dogs walk jauntily or bask in the shade or the sun, and the smell of a living city assaults you, sometimes good but often bad, and never familiar.

The taxi driver talks about a petrol shortage. He has all kinds of specifics - 54% decrease in petrol supply from India, 154 pumps in Kathmandu down to 9 - all except WHY, and for that he only knows that "it's a political problem."

Then we pass over the arch onto the monastery driveway. I open the gate and greet some familiar-looking monks, and then we're safe in my brother's house.

Ani Chimi greets us, happy to see us. She and I touch foreheads, the Tibetan Udoo, like the European cheek-kiss. She's frighteningly old, but so friendly and it warms my heart to see her again.

Tulku-La's not home, and the monks aren't really ready for us. Jamyang Kyndrup arrives and I breathe a little easier. He's an old monk, probably 30 or 35, one of the big four movers and shakers who keep the monastery together.

After many apologies and much hustle and bustle our rooms are ready, while the whole time we thank them and say we don't want to be any trouble, and my mom in her Tibetan Chuba, offers to clean it herself.

They are mortified at this (Tulku-La's MOM wants to clean!?!) and I hope they don't resent us.

Then finally we sleep, surrounded by the handmade sounds of a living city.

Game Development Meetup

2008-01-29T20:01:00.000-08:00

I've gotten involved lately with the Bellevue Game Development Meetup which has been kinda fun.

Bargains

2007-12-15T17:02:00.001-08:00

I may have made a bargain I didn’t intend to keep. That I didn’t fully understand. When I was in Tibet, in the old land, where the deep powers still walk the earth and weird things happen every day, I threw a promise into the wind.

We were in a boat on Blue Lake. The monks threw bananas out of the boat saying it appeased the Nagas. I threw a banana out, but instead of making the Nagas ignore me I wanted their attention. I concentrated, trying to project my thoughts. I said I wanted wealth and power, and if they gave it to me, and told me how to repay them, I would.

Now I sit in Seattle, working at my new job, about to move in to my new apartment, and I wonder. Why did I get this job? Why now?

I'm back

2007-11-27T14:46:00.000-08:00

I'm back. The trip was great. I didn't die or anything.

I actually got back a long time ago but I forgot to update the blog.
-Isaac

Journey

2007-05-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

I'm heading for Kathmandu and maybe Tibet starting tomorrow.

I will either post a bunch of awesomeness or you won't hear from me until I get back.

It's been emotional.
-Isaac

Simple Gentoo Chroot Instructions

2007-04-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

I mess with Gentoo a lot. I usually install from the Minimal Installation CD - so I have a few of them lying around.

When I screw up a kernel compile or bork the system in one of a thousand other ways, it's helpful to be able to use the Gentoo Minimal Installation CD as a rescue CD, but it takes a few steps.

1. Mount the partitions:


# mount /dev/ /mnt/gentoo
# mount /dev/ /mnt/gentoo/boot

2. Copy over DNS information - might not really be required


# cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/resolv.conf

3. Mount /proc and /dev


# mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev

4. Enter the Environment


# chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
# env-update
# source /etc/profile

5. Change prompt (not required)


# export PS1="(chroot) $PS1"

All of this comes directly from the Gentoo Handbook, which any Gentoo user is probably already familiar with.

Plus, using a Live CD would probably be even easier. There are a number of great ones for nearly any use, including my favorite, BackTrak.

iTunes tip: Burn randomized CD of playlist

2007-03-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

The task:

I want to burn a bunch of random CDs to put in my car changer

The problem:

When I select my playlist and hit "shuffle" the tracks stay in order, and when I click "burn CD", the tracks are burned in order.
I want chaos!

The solution:

Create a new smart playlist. (File -> New Smart Playlist)
Add the playlist I want randomized to the New Smart Playlist
Shuffle it (Controls -> Shuffle).

Now the songs in the smart playlist will rearrange themselves, and the discs will burn shuffled.

Nuts to clean energy, make it cheap

2007-02-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

If you have the choice to buy normal, dirty energy at the standard rate, or clean, renewable energy at twice the cost, which would you choose?

The sad truth is the most people would choose dirty energy. It just isn't bad enough for most people to care. The average person's pollution from energy usage isn't all that much. It's only when you account for the entire population as a whole do you realize how much pollution we're creating. Even then, most people don't feel personally responsible - and what little guilt they do feel isn't enough to make them pay more for clean alternatives.

On the other hand, sunlight is a great source of energy and it pours freely onto our planet every single day. Almost all of our fuel sources come eventually from the sun. Wind power is really sun power, because the sun powers the forces that create the wind. So then, is wave power. Oil and coal come from organisms that were once dependant on the sun for energy - or ate other organisms who were.

We can already harness solar power, but it's prohibitively expensive, and people won't willingly pay for it. Soon, hopefully, this will no longer be the case.

This article by the Telegraph UK, highlights a new solar cell technology that will be cheaper than getting energy from fossil fuels.

So, very soon now, we will be faced with a new choice. Choose existing dirty energy sources, or switch to new clean energy that will cost less?

Once again, technology saves the day. I think.

Tree-hugging aside, solar energy appeals to me because it's the simple, logical choice. Burning fossil fuels while this free energy pours down upon our heads seems stupid.

Looking forward to the future.

Gentoo linux and tulip network card problem

2007-02-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

Gentoo linux forms the base of my "networked inventory control appliance", so I've been installing Gentoo on a number of older PCs we have lying around.

Older PCs are great for this project because it doesn't require much in the way of computing power, and they're cheap and generally well-supported in linux.

I expected that installing Gentoo on an old Dell Dimension 2100 would be a simple process, but this dell has a network card that has been causing me some trouble.

Lspci reports the card as "Ethernet controller: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 31)". The Gentoo boot disc loads both the tulip and dmfe modules, and seems to work perfectly fine.

When configuring the kernel myself I chose the driver which corresponded to the tulip module, listed in menuconfig as "DECchip Tulip (dc2114x) PCI support". I thought that since the lspci showed the card as 21x4x that "2114x" would probably work, and the Gentoo boot/install disc is usually spot on in its driver choices.

And it did, for about 30 seconds after a reboot. Then it quit. I could get it working for another 30 second spurt by unplugging the LAN cable and plugging it back in.

I started the Google-Fu and found this thread on the ubuntu forums where they advised blacklisting the tulip module and loading only the dmfe.

Going back through menuconfig I turned off my earlier option (DECchip Tulip (dc2114x) PCI support) and instead picked "Davicom DM910x/DM980x support". This choice corresponds to the dmfe module. Then I recompiled the kernel and rebooted.

Did it work? Well, partially. I lost my connection for a bit after a reboot, but it does work fine most of the time now. I suppose I'll use it as a testing machine and keep my eye out for a salvageable NIC.

To recap, for anyone who finds this site looking for the solution to the same problem...
System:

Dell Dimension 2100
Gentoo Linux 2006.1
kernel version: 2.6.19-gentoo-r5
lspci output: Ethernet controller: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 31)

Problem:

Loss of network connectivity approx. 30 seconds after reboot.
DHCP works fine at boot - can be misleading.

Solution (for those like me, who want the driver in the kernel, not a module):

In menuconfig, deselect the other tulip related drivers.
Use the option for "Davicom DM910x/DM980x support".
make && make modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzimage to /boot/{your kernel}
adjust grub if necessary
reboot

Of course, if you'd like it as a module, use the excellent howto on the ubuntu forums . And remember, you might need to unload and reload that module twice for it to work.

Really, you should probably just go get a new NIC.

Mup.sys hating

2007-02-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

I'm so tired of Windows.

I'm an IT guy. I fix computers and handle problems. Today I was standing behind a user, having a conversation with him, when his computer crapped out.

I think he had outlook open. I'm not sure. What I do remember, very clearly, is that his hands were nowhere near the computer when the Blue Screen of Death appeared, and it had been idle for a while.

Startup failed. Then on rebooting in safe mode we got the dreaded Mup.sys error. Which doesn't really have anything to do with Mup.sys. After loading Mup.sys windows does a ton of different things, but "Loading Mup.sys" is the last message displayed.

I feel a sort of pity for the creator of Mup.sys. I imagine him traveling from town to town, an outcast, haunted by the Mup.sys error that actually has nothing to do with him.

This is my third dreaded Mup.sys error, and I've never successfully solved any of them. I tried the USB peripheral switching fix and then gave up and popped in Knoppix and started backing up his files. I won't even try the other fixes anymore - they're time consuming and they didn't work before - I just put the computer out of its misery.

(We could talk about backups here. I don't feel like it. We don't do backups on salesguy computers. The DB barely gets backed up. An argument for another day.)

There's the reformat, the reinstall, the driver hunt, updates, antivirus, office, outlook, configuring the VPN, reconfiguring outlook (it never seems to take the first time. I don't do anything different the second time), then favorites, documents, and pictures.

The new version of Office deleted the printer drivers when it installed. So I had to install them again, minutes after installing them the first time. Then a few minutes later, after a reboot, the original printer drivers were back. Great. I deleted the extra ones and soldiered on. Finally I was finished. Now the user is back to exactly where he was before his computer crapped out on him for no reason at all.

This is one of my best users. He didn't blame me, and he even listened to my Mup.sys explanation. Then he asked me - and this really kills me - what he could do to avoid this problem. And I had nothing to tell him.

Damn windows.

When one of my personal computers has a problem now I just turn it off. I ran off Knoppix for a week to avoid even trying to figure out why my burner was making coasters - they burned flawlessly in Knoppix. I only went back to windows because Knoppix locked up. And I was done burning CDs. My curiosity kicked in later and I found that I had installed rival cd-burning programs, which were engaged a war of attrition over my burner.

I'm tired of this. I'm getting close to buying a Mac again. The first time I did it I loved it - until I had to pay for it, and pay for support. Then I swore I wouldn't do it again unless I was rich. But maybe, just maybe, it is time.

I miss it. Especially Mail.app.

Working

2006-10-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

IsaacHawley.com no longer redirects here, but goes straight to the wiki.

I'm calling the vending machine project a success. The prototype machine has been in the customer's facility for two full weeks with no errors, software or hardware. The CPU load is consistently under 2% and there are no memory leaks. The users are happy (enough) with the software. The automatic restock reports work.

I win at vending machines.

I'm looking for more creative/flexible/important work. Programmer Meet Designer looks like it could be a good resource for finding the kind of work I want - ideally a team startup.

Later
-Isaac

The Wiki

2006-09-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

The wiki server is in my apartment right now, I'll have to mess with it later. At the moment, isaachawley.com redirects here, and here is the link to the wiki server. It might work, it might not, I dunno.

Ignore the Intelligence Integrated stuff.

Later

Mountain Moods

2006-07-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

I love the look of the grey mountains in the clouds. I worry that I will return to Evansville and find an easy life, and forget how much I want to walk those mountains, and die with that wish not only unfulfilled, but forgotten.

Intelligenceint.com

2006-04-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

I'm redirecting traffic temporarily from intelligenceint.com to this site because I'm moving the web server in the next few days, and I don't want to have to worry about it.

The company: Intelligence Integrated, LLC

We do tech consulting/contracting. We're working on an inventory control system right now, but we'll soon be looking at new projects.

Don't Panic =)

2006-04-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

Simple and Easy

2006-04-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

Posting a pic from Picasa to Blogger is simple and easy, and I love it.

That is, until it all goes wrong, and I have a super tiny pic of a fortune and I can't do anything about it. Grr.

Don't Panic

2006-04-21T23:38:00.000-07:00

AdSense

2006-04-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

I just got some google ads. Now, the interesting part of this is that I don't really want to make any money from them.

Blogger provides a simple and easy way to add the AdSense ads, and so I can study them, and see how they affect my site. In this way I can decide whether or not to use them on future websites.

So click or don't click, I don't care, but DO email me if the ad annoys you or if it advertises for something offensive.
-Isaac

Another Stupa Pic

2006-04-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

I like this pic also. Big Stupa, Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Lynucs.org : All the screenshots

2006-04-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

I really like Lynucs.org It's screenshots of linux. They're amazingly varied takes on user interface.

Probably my best photo ever.

2006-01-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

Intermission

2005-12-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

I'm still mulling over a post on a thief class. A thief, by his nature, would interact with other classes in scary and intense ways. Mechanisms are necessary to prevent griefing and make every interaction equitable for all characters, without too much restriction of a player's options.

What if a thief steals your favorite sword? Can getting it back become a quest? Do you get experience? How can we make the whole series of interactions, from the initial theft to the eventual retribution, seem organic and interesting (and scary), and still result in a fulfilling experience for both the victim AND the thief?

Do we involve other people? Should some classes have special anti-thief abilities? Insurance on items? Player-run insurance companies, which get back stolen items to keep from having to pay for its loss?

Many interesting possibilities.

MMORPG Scenario 3 - Classes

2005-11-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

Stoney contributes! Here's his MMORPG Scenario, on character classes.

It gains my approval. I might add things later, but it's a good read. Way to go Stoney.
-Isaac

MMORPG Scenario 2

2005-11-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, the point of these is to become involved somehow with the design process on some upcoming MMORPG. Even if it's just review copies.

MMORPG Scenario - Communication. Check it out. It's about communicating, and how to increase that special brand of social interaction that happens in MMORPGs.

So far Stoney is the only one to contribute anything at all constructive. Go Stoney.
-Isaac

MMORPG Scenario

2005-10-31T13:07:00.000-08:00

This is a little MMORPG scenario(pdf) detailing how I think some things should work in mmorpgs. This first little one is about trading, wich is amazingly uninteresting, but it sort of sets the tone for the ones that will follow.

Feel free to send me one of these, and I'll post it here. Someone might even read it.

Dear Mr. Spammerguy:

2005-10-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

Mr. Spammerguy, I am sick of you spamming in my comments, and I want you to die.

Sincerely,

Isaac

Disaster Preparation

2005-09-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

As much as I hate Bush, if he's somehow responsible for this disaster, so are all of us.

Do people depend on you? Do you have a disaster plan for them? If you think you could react perfectly to any situation on the spur of the moment, you are wrong. Keeping a cool head and acting without hesitation won't suddenly give you a supply of fresh water.

If being unprepared for some random catastrophe makes you responsible for the damage done by that event, then we are responsible for everything around us. What, you saw a diabetic having a blood sugar crash and you didn't give him insulin? You didn't have any insulin on you? You loser, you know about diabetes, it's your fault. What, that guy fell from the roof and you didn't have a mattress for him to fall on? Why not? There's a mattress place only a few blocks away, and you could afford a mattress. You screwed up! You're responsible for that guy going splat.

Anyway, it just doesn't work. Everyone in government might have made mistakes, but I'm not sure we can assign blame.

I still hate Bush though.

Natural Disaster

2005-09-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

There were two incidents in the katrina tragedy that I want to investigate.

A couple left the nursing home they operated without evacuating their patients. The patients, presumeably, died slowly and horribly. They couldn't be evacuated without dying, so even though it looked grim, staying where they were was their best chance at survival.

A number of hospital employees, faced with dying patients and failing equipment, gave the hopeless cases an overdose of morphine. Then, when possible, they stayed with the patients until they died.

These cases are interesting because they are so similar at face value, and so different in the reactions they bring out. In both cases, the equipment required to keep the patients alive failed. Patients couldn't be evacuated, and people were going to die.

In the nursing home, it seems that the couple abandoned the patients, and let them die horribly. In the hospital, people feel that the staff stayed with the patients, easing their deaths.

However, in the hospital, the staff assured the death of the patients. They made it a certainty. In the nursing home, the staff gave the patients the best chance for survival that they could.

So why then, do we feel so strongly that the couple in the nursing home are guilty of abandonment, and that the hospital staff are heroes for staying with their patients?

We're assuming here that the nursing home people weren't stupid idiots, and the hospital staff did their jobs to the best of their ability. This is probably incorrect, but who knows.

Security Guarding

2005-09-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'm a security guard at the hospital now. It sucks hard. The pay is crap. It is mostly total boredom.

Woo. They might not pay me much, but "a little bit is better than nada".

Someone else hire me, please.

The Spider is Dead

2005-09-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

It was a valiant struggle. He lay in wait on my pillow, hoping to catch me as I went to sleep. However, he was overzealous, and showed himself too early. I attacked and the spider retreated across the wall. I then grabbed a juggling club and picked him off from across the room.

I have a huge dent in my wall now, but at least I don't have a huge spider on my pillow.

2005-08-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

Growl

2005-08-31T01:14:00.000-07:00

and with all this mucking about with cameras.... it got away

2005-08-30T23:11:00.000-07:00

It is huge

2005-08-30T23:10:00.000-07:00

It was in my hair

Kathmandu Old Junk Part 1

2005-06-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I passed two kids playing ping pong on an old stone table, with bricks stacked up for a net. They were in a little courtyard of a dilapidated house somewhere between the monastery and BlueBird, which everyone agrees is the only place in town that might have pants my size. It turned out they didn't. The kids would have made a perfect picture of life in Kathmandu. We'll make do, it would say, we'll play anyway.

A young woman, dressed in casual western-style clothing (not a sari or anything) stepped boldly out into traffic in front of us, forcing us to stop. It's the accepted method of crossing the road here, but I was still impressed. Something about how she seemed normal to me, in a place where everything is insane. The normality of her clothing made her behavior stand out in sharp contrast. I imagine she made it to the other side ok, but I can't assume so. Assuming the ordinary is not recommended here in Kathmandu.

Kathmandu Stuff

2005-06-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

So I was doing some backups today, and I found that there was already some junk in the backup area. I was looking through it and I came accross some stuff I had written in Kathmandu. It's actually amazingly boring stuff, but since someone, somewhere might be interested in it, I'll post it.

Gleaming the Cube-icle

2005-06-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

My first day at a semi-respectable job. I'm an unpaid intern. I have a cubicle. It has a phone and a computer and a pad of sticky notes. I don't actually have a pen yet. I think I get one next week.

They gave me this nice map of the offices, so I won't get lost. My cubicle is labelled "Title Storage" on the map.

At least I don't work outside.
-Isaac

Drunken

2005-05-16T00:45:00.000-07:00

Less than an hour ago, I was drunk at a party. Well, sort of a party. It had ladies, anyway. Then my ride took me back to my apartment.

I wonder why I agreed to leave. I wonder, if I was doing something stupid, or irritating. I will probably never know.

2005-05-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

Jenga Madness. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the juggling ball in the middle counterweights the entire structure... if it is removed, the trap is sprung a la Indiana Jones.

More alien conspiracy theories

2005-05-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

Recently, scientists have discovered how to induce hibernation in mammals. If we inhale hydrogen sulfide gas, we go into a deep hibernation, approaching suspended animation. Washington Post Story.

This has applications all over, including medicine. It also opens up the possibility of interstellar travel. The crew of the starship simply hibernates until they reach their destination.

The hibernation bays would probably look a lot like coffins. They have to be sealed, to keep in the gas, and you need to be able to control the temperature... but I bet we wouldn't want blank ones, we'd probably put neat designs on the outside. Maybe a sleeping king?

So it would look just like Egyptian sarcophagus. I think maybe the ancestors of Egyptians passed down lore of this deathlike sleep in a coffin, where you went to sleep in the world you were used to and awoke in place different beyond imagining.

Look at that thing! Isn't that weird!

2005-04-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sat Photo of the St. Louis Arch.

I have reason to believe that the st louis arch is some kind of alien technology gateway. After it was used for a number of years after it's construction, it was deemed too freaky weird to stay in the public view.

Instead of hiding it, and trying to pretend that it never existed, they gutted it, took the transport technology out, and opened it up for tourism. Another, improved version, was constructed deep underground, possibly under the origional site. You can get to the new arch via a secret elevator as part of the underground musuem.

Oooooooh. Seriously, take a look at that picture and tell me that thing isn't freaky weird.
-Isaac

Nulll blogging. Blog empty.

2005-04-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

I think that if you haven't done anything interesting, and you have nothing new to contribute to our digital society, you should probably just not post.

Nothing further
-Isaac

2005-04-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

The gang on the couch

2005-04-05T12:46:00.001-07:00

Five Dollar Job is back up! http://fivedollarjob.blogspot.com Check it out!

2005-03-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, Nathan, it's pizza.

2005-03-05T19:59:00.000-08:00

The mythical Little Ceaser's pizza. Nathan's so happy.

2005-02-16T11:15:00.000-08:00

Building a server, right in the comfort of your own home. I guess I don't know where else you would do it.

2005-02-16T10:22:00.000-08:00

Stupa, Bloomington, Indiana

2005-02-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

There are monkeys at the Monkey Temple, who knew?

2005-02-16T10:07:00.000-08:00

Boudha Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal

2005-02-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

He looks cold.

Politics suck

2004-11-25T20:54:00.000-08:00

And yeah, that election hurt.

In other news, I am a complete asshole, for breaking up with my girlfriend on thanksgiving.

Later.

Politics

2004-10-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

First, the thing with Cheney's Daughter. When Edwards zinged him about it, that's exactly what it was meant as, a zing. It was a little shady, and people thought it was childish and that Edwards shouldn't have messed with Cheney's family. And they were exactly right for thinking so. Edwards shouldn't have played there. Out of bounds, big guy.

Now, on the other hand, we have Kerry's very polite and respectful mention of Cheney's daughter in the latest debate. He said what he did in defense of gay rights, saying they're all God's children or some BS like that. Now everyone is all pissed about Kerry mentioning Cheney's kid. This is stupid, as Kerry was respectful and I believe that he was saying it partly to make up for Edwards' bad call.

Second, Bush is lying about the budget and refusing to admit things he did wrong and things he didn't say. Both candidates are making up lies to tell about the other. Bush is better at this, and his lies are less silly. The republicans plan to attack Kerry's vietnam junk, where apparently he came out and told everyone that our troops were doing horrible things over there. Now, I don't know anyone who claims that our soldiers didn't do horrible things over there. It is perfectly fitting with Kerry's integrity tagline that he would do exactly this type of thing. And personally, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Third, the Flip-Flopper issue. Attacking a candidate for actually thinking on his own, changing his mind when he gets more information, and trying to make the right decision instead of just towing the party line? All of those are good things! I wish Bush would admit when he's wrong.

Later.
-Isaac

Decompression

2004-09-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Sitting here in class in Evansville, Indiana it is hard to believe that I just came back from Kathmandu, Nepal. Nothing has changed, not even me. Yet again I have skillfully avoided a life-changing experience. My little bro is doing great, thanks for asking.

I will be posting some pictures, but probably not on this website. And now my professor is looking at me funny so it's time to go.

Later.

Preparation

2004-07-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

Sitting here in my apartment in southern Indiana, it seems hard to imagine that I will soon be winging my way to Kathmandu, Nepal, a place on the opposite end of the world. Rather than go straight from boring monotony to total 3rd world weirdness, I am going first to Seattle, a sort of staging area for my adventure. In Seattle I hope to brush up on my Nepali/Tibetan etiquette, and make sure everything is in order.

Anyway, more later.

Wal-Mart's new drug testing center

2004-06-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

I think I am now an official employee of Wal-Mart. God I hate myself.

Anyway I went to go get the drug test today. They're not letting new employees pee in a cup at the MEC center anymore. Oh no. I went over to a shady ass converted house that touts itself as "High Tech Surveillance" or some crap. Emphasis on the "high tech" they sure had enough hidden cameras. I wonder if I'll be seeing pictures of myself on the internet later trying to aim my wang at the little plastic cup.

I had heard that Wal-Mart was cutting back on employee benefits. I didn't realize that as a new employee, on my very first day, I would see such a dramatic and tangible effect of this new corporate strategy. I had expected something like a 10% cutback in stock options or something, not having my wang exposed to dirty and uncomfortable surroundings.

Not to even mention that it would be much easier to fake a sample at this shady-ass establishment than at MEC. Also I saw them giving a polygraph (lie-detector) test, and they were actually yelling at the lady taking the test. I dunno if you guys are familiar with polygraph tests, but it is imperative for the tester to ask the questions with absolutely no emotion, otherwise it destroys the validity of the test. This lady was screaming, "if you don't answer this question, you will fail the test! You will fail!" I wanted to stop in and tell the lady that if she does fail the test, she can simply sue this "high tech" place for screwing the test over.

So don't work at Wal-Mart, I guess. Anyone want to start a union?

Bootstrap Gods

2004-06-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Buddhists believe that while all of the beings that live in the universe all occupy the same dimension or whatever, they occupy very different realms. Thus you can walk over and touch a bird or other animal, but every single need and want, hope and desire, fear and terror that you feel is completely different from the animal's.

The animal lives its life in constant terror, running about aimlessly, always hiding, always afraid. You run around, filled with desire and hope, trying to grab everything you can before your short life comes to an end. Thus, in the animal realm, the primary suffering is constant fear and violent death, and in the human realm, it is constant desire and short lives.

Gods, in the realm above humans, suffer primarily from an unrestrained self nature. This doesn't sound so bad.

The normal way for a human to become a god would be to practice the dharma, collect much merit, purify one's karma, and then after death seek rebirth in the god realms. Now, however, we may have another way. Technology.

We are approaching a new horizon in the study of our own bodies. Soon we may have the means to extend our lives beyond our most fervent imaginings. We shall stand in the bright light of our own dreams, living forever, with limitless power. We shall find ourselves become bootstrap gods, our power and our beauty lasting forever.

Anyway we should keep working on nanotechnology and life extension. It's good, important stuff.

Apartment Number 8 part 3

2004-06-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

More intimidations ensued. I remained cooperative. If they really were looking for the people who used to live in my apartment and had gone around running up a bunch of debt, then I would be happy to help Gloves and the Golfer find their guys. Unfortunately they seemed to believe I was spinning a web of lies.

Around this time Gloves said something (while flexing his fingers menacingly) to the effect that it’s his job to F people up, and he gets paid to do it, and he’s prepared to do it. The Golfer just said, “Yeah.” I agreed. I noted their obvious preparations in wearing gloves and carrying a golf club. “It’s a cane,” said the Golfer.

I mentioned, in a sort of affable way, that my father is a lawyer. He said his great-uncle was a judge. “How interesting!” I said. I tried showing him my ID. He didn’t really look at it. I suggested that he talk to the landlord and see about getting a forwarding address. Finally, I asked if he was sure he had the right apartment number eight.

“Show me another number eight,” he said. I walked them across the parking lot the next building, and showed them the number eight. All the buildings in this apartment complex have number eight apartments. The Golfer seemed dismayed. “You think you got the wrong apartment?” he asked Gloves. They looked around a bit, seemingly disoriented. I was incredulous. How could they not have noticed that my apartment number eight wasn’t the only number eight? What were they going to do now, walk around to all the number eights and try their intimidation act there?

As they left, the Golfer had the good grace to say, “Thanks man, sorry for wasting your time.” I replied, “Sorry (for not being Eddie, I guess), and good luck!”

A short while later the police arrived. The whole time I was being intimidated we were standing exactly where I wanted to stand, that is in a well-lit public area. A guy and a young couple had actually walked by during the scene, and had obviously noticed that some stuff was going down. So someone had called the cops. I wasn’t really planning on calling. It would most likely be a waste of time for them. Gloves and the Golfer were just going to leave, and the cops would scout around for nothing.

I was still standing outside, this time just making sure that my friends who were on their way wouldn’t get harassed by anyone. The cop asked if I was the one who had called. “I’m not the one who called, but I’m the one who got intimidated,” I said. I gave the cop descriptions of the guys and told him which way they had been walking.

Then I came inside and had a beer.

And that, my friends, is the first serious threat I have ever gotten, and my first interaction with the thriving but mostly incompetent criminal underworld of Southern Indiana.

On a side note, the guy probably saw my laptop, so I’m going to be locking my doors more now and locking my laptop to my desk when I’m not around. What a hassle.

Apartment Number 8 part 2

2004-06-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Anyway, it soon developed that he was involved in some kind of dope deal with this Eddie Price or Prize, and Eddie had taken off with his money or something. He seemed to think that this Eddie lived in my apartment, and was in fact in my apartment at this very moment. And with this, we entered into an age old logic problem. How exactly do you prove, to an unbelieving and unwilling party, that you are who you say you are, or are not who you say you are not? He was vastly overestimating my (and Eddie’s I suppose) capability for subterfuge.

He also seemed to think I had cussed him out at some point in the past. And he had whistled for his friend who “Has a golf club.” What’s more, any time I would step sideways or shuffle around (it was cold out), he would say something to the effect that nobody would be F-ing running away from him.

I told him that the people living in my apartment previously had apparently run out on some debt. When I first got a phone line from Sigecom, I got calls from a collection agency looking for this Emily person who used to live there. I cancelled my line from Sigecom for this exact reason.

He thought maybe he was the guy who had called about that. He said, “You did cuss me then, didn’t you boy? That was a mistake, boy. You called me a bunch of stuff didn’t you, you called me a heathen.”

A heathen! Hah! I don’t call people heathens. I don’t generally use silly, outdated insults. I told him so. He said he put some gum over my peephole. I said, “What does that have to do with anything?” Then I remembered the gum thing. That was months ago! I told him that with the short time the average tenant occupies these apartments, he might find it helpful to accelerate his intimidation schedule, or he’s going to miss some people.

Around this time his friend showed up, limping. He had taken a really long time to get there. As he walked up, Buddy Gloves said, “There’s my friend now, he’s hurt but he’s got a golf club.”

The Golfer was an even smaller guy, skinny, with a big trucker ballcap and a bad limp. He was using a putter as a cane. A putter, by the way, makes an ineffective weapon in the close quarters we were in.

Apartment Number 8 part 1

2004-06-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

I wrote this a few months ago. The exact date has been lost. Probably May 2nd.

Last night, around 11:00, I heard a knock at my door. A particularly loud knock, now that I think about it. At the time, I didn’t think about it, any more than Kevin did. We were sort of expecting JB, Mike, or Fish. So Kevin opened the door.

A guy I didn’t know stepped blinking into the room. He was wearing dark clothing, and asking for “Eddie.” “Eddie who?” I asked, “There’s no Eddie here,” I continued.

He seemed annoyed. He stepped further into the room, and began looking intently at Kevin, who was playing poker on his laptop. At this point, I realized that several things were wrong. He wasn’t exhibiting normal looking-for-a-guy-not-sure-this-is-the-right-apartment behavior. He was coming further into the room, instead of staying outside the doorway.

He was also keeping his hands behind his back, and I was catching a hint of black leather or something on his hands. I decided that I didn’t want this guy in my apartment anymore. He seemed really interested in Kevin, who was oblivious, and Katie didn’t seem to have caught any of these distressing details either.

So I got up and put on my shoes. I told the guy that the mailboxes downstairs had names on them, and the best way to find a guy in these apartments is to look down there. I quickly and quietly locked my door on my way out, with a behind the back movement that I’m sure the guy didn’t notice.

Once we got down to the hallway between the apartments, where the stairs are, I showed him that whoever he was looking for didn’t have a mailbox in this building, and therefore was unlikely to live here.

He said that this guy travels around, and was unlikely to have a name on the mailbox. He also mentioned, somewhat heatedly, that this Eddie guy F-ed him out of some $400. He crossed his arms over his chest, and I took a good look at him. He was around 5’7” or 5’8”, stocky, with something of a gut but not obviously overly fat. He might have some muscle on him. He had glasses, and was balding. He was otherwise unremarkable except for the gloves he was flaunting and trying to make threatening gestures with. They were black leather gloves. I was unimpressed.

Florida Fuzz

2004-06-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

So I was down on the beach in Panama City, messing around in the waves. It was nice. The first few days there the waves were pitifully small, but then they became larger and larger. A storm in the gulf somewhere I imagine. Anyway I was stoked. Finally we were getting some waves worth getting the bellyboards out for. So I got to tool around for one day in the big waves, having some fun. The next day, as I prepared to go out again, the guy in the lawnchair shack stopped me and told me that it was a "red flag."

Allrighty, I'll keep that in mind. So out I went. The waves were even better that day, and I was catching waves from out past where I could touch all the way in to the beach. Then the sheriff came driving up, stopped, and got on his PA. The bastard told me to stop swimming or I'd get a hundred-dollar fine! WTF?

So I came in and the lawnchair guy explained it to me. It's some new deal. When there is a red flag up, nobody is allowed to swim. It means that the waves are too dangerous or some shit. Bullshit! The waves were way smaller there than I have ever seen them in the Pacific or the Atlantic, and everyone was freaking out. Bottom line the waves were not bad. I understand that on the first day the waves were kinda big, two people died.

I dunno why they died. Anyway, the Fuzz can't say to Mrs. Idiotswimmer that she was being a fucking retard and shouldn't have let her 4-year-old go swimming in the ocean without watching him. Because they'd get sued, maybe, I dunno. Anyway these people ruined it for everyone, by getting fucking killed.

So after a few more red-flag days, and some more hassling from the Fuzz and the Lawnchair Hut Guy, I pissed in the lawnchair hut and drove home. Fucking Panama City. I hope this red flag shit destroys their tourism industry.

Hey, first blog, allright

2004-05-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart called me again today. Well actually they called my old number, and the message was passed on to me. Again. I have given them a new number a dozen times now. Anyway.

Last week they told me there was a hold on hiring and they couldn't hire me for at least a week. So I made plans to go on vacation. Then they called me in for interviews.

Now they might want me to work right away. Ugh, Wal-Mart sucks.

Someone hire me, please.