fox@fury
Irrational Fears: Part I
Friday, Mar 23, 2001
When I clean the inside of my ear with a Q-tip (you know, exactly like they tell you not to on the package, yet make them so they're just perfect for the task anyhow), I have an irrational fear of the large earthquake that will strike, causing me to stumble and poke through my eardrum.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Argh. Religion...
Friday, Mar 23, 2001
So Wendy, ('cousin wendy', not 'mice-and-wendy wendy', to those who know both, (and not even my cousin, but that's just how nicknames go)) a younger friend of mine who I haven't talked to in a long time, sent out a 'the world is a mess because people don't have faith in Christ and are therefore evil' chain letter to a bunch of people.

Being the free-thinker that I am, I immediately penned a reply, but couldn't send it to her, knowing that it would probably devestate her that some of her friends aren't as churchgoing as she is, and would actually try to refute what she perceived as a plainsense letter.

So what do I do? I send it to a couple other friends who also were sent the original message by Wendy. One of them very much wants Wendy to read it, but I don't want Wendy to demonize me for having beliefs other than those she holds so strongly. I say okay, but don't tell Wendy where it came from.

Now you're probably thinking "How stupid is Kevin? This is a pretty public place to be trying to keep a secret." and you're right. I'm posting it here because I'd also like to share my opinion, but only with those who want to read it, and also to propose a nice starting-off point for those of you who also get this chain letter and are looking for ideas for a response.

Wendy, if you read this, sorry for not just sending it to you straight, but this is all part of the 'discussion religion in cyberspace' that your letter was advocating. It's nothing against you personally, beyond that I'm a little sad that you're wrapping yourself a little too tightly in your religion for my taste but that's just my opinion and I wouldn't tell you what to think, feel, or practice, except that I encourage you to not see it as your duty to tell others how to think/feel/practice.

Now, for the 99.99% of the readership who is not Wendy, read it, don't read it, wait for my next non-confrontational (I promise) post, or start up a discussion of your own, with me or someone else.

Thanks for listening!

Raise/lower the bar.
Thursday, Mar 22, 2001
Why is the high-jump an Olympic event, while limbo gets snubbed? Seems like they're just different sides of the same sport...
Mmmmm... Mir..
Thursday, Mar 22, 2001
So, anyone else hoping CNN is going to try and scoop the other networks with live footage of Mir's re-entry?

There were protests last week at NASA (of all places), saying Mir should stay up there, and that it's still doing good. At the same time, the leader of Russia's lower house of parliment made a bid, regarded by other party leaders as 'fantasy' that the Russians should launch 'Mir 2' by using their reserve module they built for the international space station ("Alpha"), and funding it by charging the United States for the labor used to help build Alpha, including, ironically enough, the labor used to build the reserve module.

Meanwhile, back at Russian mission control, Vsevolod Latyshev, a spokesperson for the center, was asked if Russia had any plan to recover some or all of the 30 tons of debris expected to survive re-entry tonight. "What for?" he asked quizzically. Apparently they never thought of the idea that several citizens of nations with more disposable income would be willing to fork over tidy sums for small doodads fashioned from the ex-Soviet ex-Space Station.

Me, I'm just grateful for the entertainment. Stanford and Duke may both lose at basketball tonight, but there's no way on god's green earth (or should I say, in orbit around it), that Mir isn't coming down tonight. Be it in the middle of the South Pacific or the coast of Chile, fireballs will ensue, and catharsis will be achieved. Don't get me wrong. I don't have anything against the Soviet legacy, I just like a good light show.

And I want to buy a nice pair of Mirrings for my mom's birthday.

Hazard Lights...
Thursday, Mar 22, 2001
What the government thinks hazard lights are for:
    "(13)(a) Hazard lights shall be used for the purpose of warningthe operators of other vehicles of the presence of a vehiculartraffic hazard requiring the exercise of unusual care inapproaching, overtaking or passing."

 

What the driver thinks hazard lights are for:

    "I'm not supposed to park in this yellow/red/blue zone, but I'm only going to be a minute. I'll put my hazard lights on, so should a cop or metermaid come by, they'll know I'm just popping in for a sec. I mean after all, who would leave their hazard lights on if they were going to be a while? It would drain their battery! Surely the cop knows this."

 

What the cop thinks hazard lights are for:

    "Hey, look. There's a car parked with its hazard lights on. They must be parked illegally in a yellow/red/blue zone. Now that I've noticed them, I think I'll write them a ticket."

 

This is a roundabout example of how the designer and the manager should never be confused with the end-user.

Blissful employment...
Thursday, Mar 22, 2001
What do I look forward the most when I think of re-entering the business world? Frankly, I dream of going to Ikea and buying things. Wow I'm a materialistic yuppie at heart. That's pretty sad.

But ooh! Shelving! Nice lamps!

'Rate my Rack'
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2001
(warning, [gasp] nudity)

It's not surprising, in the backlash of sites like AmIHotOrNot, that this site exists. What's startling is that, within a matter of days, hundreds of geeks convinced their girlfriends to pose topless anonymously for the internet with the word 'Rack' written on on their... umm... rack, like some weird adult sexual pictographic pornographic primer.

I have a weblog. Really I do!
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2001
I got a break from my studies last night and I coded all night on Fury 3.1 and metacookie 'Missile Command'. Somewhere along the way I forgot to blog! Forest for the trees... Anyhow, I'm back. (I know, a whole day without posts...)
How do you count?
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2001
I hosted a game night at my home last Friday, and seven of us played Chrononauts and Cosmic Coasters. Without delving into the rules of Chrononauts, oneof the primary rules is that if there are thirteen paradoxes on the board, the game ends and everyone loses, so every so often, someone would count the paradoxes to see if we were getting dangerously close.

Okay, audience participation exercise: Recite out loud, (under your breath if you're at work, louder if you're not, or you just don't care):

    A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P

Okay, now how many of you fell into 'alphabet singsong', not just monotonically reciting the letters, but singing the song that ends with 'now I know my A-B-Cs, next time won't you sing with me"?

I'm not sure which is more interesting, that we do that at all, or that we only do it with letters. The funny thing about Friday was that we started doing it with numbers, counting the counting song from Sesame Street:

    'one-two-three four-five six-se-ven-eight nine-ten e-le-ven-twelve!

Weird stuff, because now I can't count without reverting to 'street'.

And why was it always twelve?

Advertising Prophecy
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2001
Last week I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel at SXSW discussing "Humor and the Internet." As was the case with most of the panels, the conversation inevitably went to profitability. I posed the idea that content sites would soon offer subscriptions for readers, allowing them to pay an annual fee and in so doing, free the reader from being served the ever growing and more obnoixous ad banners and popups adorning the site.

Joey Anuff, of Suck and Plastic fame, pooh-poohed me, saying it wouldn't happen, and that advertising will remain the only viable means of revenue.

Well, I can't say yet whether he's right or wrong, but yesterday Salon announced they're going to try. $30 a year will get you Salon online, ad free.

The supreme irony of this whole thing is that the panel was created at the last minute to cover for David Talbot, the editor of Salon, who had to cancel!

  
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