i want this too

i think i'm going to buy this with some of the graduation money i'll be getting.

great vonnegut quote

"Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on."

-Kurt Vonnegut

let's review current events

* iraqi governing council president killed; instability continues to rise making it less and less likely that the US will pull out by june 30th (that blows)
* gay marriage is legal in mass. and couples are rushing to get married (good for them i say!)
* bush/gop donors are linked to been special treatment by the EPA for hazardous materials (doh!)
* controversy over iraqi torture of prisioners seems to be linked to high up officials (who didn't see that coming)

all and all, seems to be a pretty bad day for president bush (score!)

OM-BBS

what better place to hang out than the OM-BBS-of-loooove. (Okay, fine, it's just "love" not "loooove")

lots of rocking folks over there. check it out.

LAST SERMON by Sandy Mack

Give yourself a break. Get off your back. You aren't
perfect. The world isn't perfect. Work to find some way
you can maybe make one little bit of it better. But the
best things you do will probably not be the things you
planned on, but rather that moment when you sit down with
someone depressed and help keep them from suicide. When you
help a child in pain. When you give your parents permission
to die when they are worn out. When you break up with a
girl/boy only to have both of you discover much better
relationships with others. When you bring your hope and joy
to others. All the rest of the time you are being a
responsible adult, maybe making small differences in that
lab, with those computers, on that newsletter or grant
proposal, with that patient, client, or student. In life
after college you can go 360x360x360-1 different directions
(that's every point in a sphere minus the way you have just
come--you can't go back). And any of them could turn out to
be the best one for you. Humanity is a scarey and noble
experiment in freedom. The range of our free choice is most
of what distinguishes us from the other animals. Free
choice means some choices that will turn out, with
hindsight, to have been mistakes. Tough. But minimize the
mistakes that come from cruelty, learn to deal with the
mistakes that come from mistaking, and move on to what are
the best remaining options. Nobody can ask for more. Most
of those who do ask for more would like to control you and
we saw at Jonestown what happens when people control other
people. We may be seeing someing related in Iraq. Of all
you Honors students (and I'm going to miss each of you I
know) maybe 1? maybe 2? will make a single discovery,
invention, creation so important it will change the world.
All of the rest of us will do whatever good we do in the
world by showing up, prepared, home-work done, open to
listen to others, ready to adjust to the unexpected. And we
will make this good difference day by day, month by month,
year by year, decade by decade. So get off your back.
Relax. Life is too painful, beautiful, passionate,
delightful, confusing, and unpredictable for anyone to
expect anyone to be perfect. Just listen to lots of kinds
of music. Dance lots of kinds of dances. Try to meet the
whole world rather than shrink it down to fit into your,
like my, small mind. Grow, grow, grow until, with Whitman,
you contain multitudes. Then you will be ready. For more
growth, more multitudes, more confusion, pain, delight,
joy. Hang in there, Honors gang. It's the only place to
hang. Drive carefully, you hear?!? Bye.

Mozilla Firefox

Tried of security problems with Internet Explorer? Sick of having many windows open or tired or keeping track of the pages you've visited? Switch to Mozilla Firefox. It's free, it's secure, and it has many features that IE lacks. Trust me, it's the next generation in web browsers and you can expect Microsoft to copy many of its features in the next version of IE.

things i'm doing besides studying

well, firstly, writing in this blog, but also watching the hillarious series freaks and geeks. the first few episodes are a little weak, but once you get to the fourth or fifth one it's an incredible show. very funny, great actors, good plot/character development. it's a shame i didn't find out about it sooner, but then i might have been forced to study for finals, and we can't have that.

one down, four to go

one final down, four more to go. tuesday afternoon can't get here fast enough.

TAbiWord/ProofRite

here's my honors thesis for anyone that is interested in learning how a word processor such as abiword can be easily extended to support proofreading markup.

anyone with a large disposable income reading?

if so, please get me an apple 17-inch powerbook. soooo nice.

Pi to 1,000,000 places

Pi to 1,000,000 places!

Anyone But Bush by the Democratic Underground

my new shirt which seems to be having a rather positive effect when i go shopping at stores where democrats work.

go get your own at the Democratic Underground Store at CafePress and you too can get slightly larger quiznos sub, extra toppings at chipotle/potbellys, and compliments from total strangers. in fact, people seem to hate our president so much that this shirt seems to garner the same treat that an attractive female would get. buy one now guys!

Turnpike Films (or "I feel great!!")

Turnpike Films is a small group of film makers who are trying to break into the business. they have made some of the funniest, most original commercials that i have seen in ages. my favorite is the nutrigrain commerical (mirror 1, goggle for new mirrors).

kill bill vol. 1

say what you want, but kill bill vol. one is a great movie. aside from some great action sequencies, the cimenatography is beautiful. when you watch it, look at the wonderful use of color that's used to frame each shot. really well done artistically.

HCI Books to Read

Amazon.com: Books: Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things

Amazon.com: Books: The Design of Everyday Things

Amazon.com: Books: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum : Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How To Restore The Sanity

francois has read this book and seems to like it...


oh yes, and for fun:

Amazon.com: Books: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

stupid finals

i'm just five finals away from being a college graduate.

hmm, somehow that seems like one of those discount cards... buy ten and the 11th is free!

free diploma with four years of suffering?

actually, i shouldn't talk. i love school. and despite the amazing-cool factor that my job has, i know that part of me will miss it. but i'm not really leaving. i've cooked up several small research projects that i'll be working on in industry. i'll be examining software engineering techniques and seeing how to apply fault tolerance and design patterns to the software development cycle to achieve productivity gains.

right now i'm kicking around ideas of this sort for a PhD thesis. i think i'd be really interesting to explore IDEs, particularly in regards to HCI and design patterns. so much of computer programming boils down to just being a code monkey that there simply must be a way to create a very intutive, highly-informative development environment that leverages the benefits of OOP, design patterns, and other helpful techniques to create a highly-productive software development environment.

of course such a projects is rather nebulous and could be the topic of several PhD disserations, hence my desire to go into industry for a few years so that i can pound out a few of these ideas and see what is left standing after gaining some real world experience/widsom.

ah well, back to practicing guitar.

first post

too bad this isn't slashdot