May 2002 Archives
Today is the last day of the cleanup efforts in the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster.
CNN reports that 108,342 truck loads of debris have been removed from the site - with the last piece coming today in a ceremonial farewell to the victims. The numbers : 2,823 people killed, 1,092 victims identified, 1.6 million-plus tons of debris removed, 3.1 million-plus man-hours spent on cleanup.
Lucas really couldn't be
THIS evil. Plans to change and release the original three Star Wars movies again with inserted scenes with Natalie Portman and ... (cough) Jar Jar Binks. It can't be true.
Also fun is
this collection of video from the Conan O'Brian show with Triumph the dog. Especially funny? All of them but thy the Star Wars one first.
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This guy has some rather large cajones. He plans to launch himself into space (or at least 30 miles up), from his backyard, in a rocket he is making himself. Here is the
slash dot link.
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These are some of the
coolest action figures I have seen.
I just found out that milk, something I love, something I make excuses to eat chocolate for, is actually enriched sweat. How disgusting is that? I found a couple
sources online corroborating what I heard while driving in the car. I must try not to think about that too much because I don't think I could bear not drinking my 3 glasses of skim
sweat milk a day.
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House Update: Jena and I sold our house today. After 44 hours on the market we got our asking price. Should we have held out for more? I don't think so. We do not have any contingencies on the sale and things worked out well. So why do I feel cheated? Jena and I did so much work getting the house ready for sale - the cleaning, packing, moving things out, hiding the dog for showings - that we feel cheated by how quickly it sold. Weird? Maybe. A relief? Definitely, my stress level just went down a notch. We move out July 1st and then await our new home to be finished. I will update you on that next week. Pray that I do not have to go to court with my new neighbor.
I finally got
my house up for sale, I am trying to work through the issues with my new neighbor while juggling the building process, and things seem a bit better - though my computer at work doesn't work now becuase of a mishap while watering a plant - ugh!
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Here is s a topic I have been thinking about latley: tipping.
Specifically tipping people who don't serve food (I am not sure why that is different it just is) like the baggers at those full service gorcery stores or coat checkers, or hair stylists. And its not a matter of being threifty or not - it just seems weird to tip people outside of a restuant setting - it feels... like there is some class system built around it. I just feel weird about it like. I don't know.
I have had a rough week - probably one of the most stressful in my life. Sure there is the work stress but I also am trying to get my house up for sale, start the building of my new home, deal with new neighbors who claim to have a usage easment that takes up 10 feet of my lot along the northern line, and a townhouse association that will never return my damn phone calls about an insurance claim I want filed.
I think I have had more stressful times in my life, but I think I had better ways of dealing with it. Right now it is just balling up in me. I don't have all the physical activity that used to tire me out and not let me dwell on things.
Happy Birthday to Cher, Busta Rhymes, and
Balki Bartokomous. I can't seem to remember anyone else born on this day.
Here are some links I was too busy/lazy to post about throughout the week:
It would be very interesting to see
this on a PC.
EtherPeg is quite a cool idea. A
Linux version called Driftnet (though done independently was made too.
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Fingerprint readers flawed says study. They can be fooled with $10 of supplies and a little bit of work.
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Is
this the new dating scene? "Honey look over there. Don't we know that pair of pasties from college?"
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URLizer.com will turn those long unruly links into shorter unruly links suitable for sending in emails. [Source:
broomeman.com]
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How to Piss Me Off 101: Lesson 3:
Bring in a corporate mentor consultant type to have us "bring 5% more awareness to our feelings".
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I know that this site:
The Rainforest Site is lame but if they really can really preserve 11.4 square feet of rainforest each day I click, from the fools they sell banner ad space to, then more power to them. [Related, of course, are
The Hunger Site and
The Breast Cancer Site]
After a 2nd viewing episode II was a little better. It all seemed to fit together better and has a very Empire Strikes Back feeling about it. There are obvious similarities of course - but mostly it is the feeling that this movie is just a segue to the 3rd in the prequel trilogy.
There is
a pretty good review on Slashdot by
Rob Malda (aka CmdrTaco of Slashdot)
Here is a good quote from it about Anakin:
"Anakin is little improved from Menace. I know he's supposed to be full of anger and angst, but mostly he just comes off as constipated and bitchy."
Aside from bowel problems, Anakin (as do most of the characters) suffers from poor writing. Lucas always has to state the obvious and worse, he must state the obvious in the simplest of terms. I came away from Episode II with a feeling that I wish there was more depth to the story - an underlying plotline, more subtlety or anything that I could take with me from the theater and think about. Lucas would say the movie is "kid-friendly" and I wouldn't want it to be otherwise, but how about throwing the adult fans a bone here?
I just saw Star Wars (you know the one I mean) and must say I was pretty disappointed. I have been a defender of Episode I up to now and I do think it was a good movie on its on (without all the 20 years of expectation building baggage) but I do not think Episode II was as good. There were good scenes and quite a few laughs (often though, these came at the expense of poor dialog and poorer acting). It had its good points and a second viewing may find this 2nd installment in a better light but right now I am siding with
Roger Ebert on this.
I think I will like
Vanilla Coke and somehow living in Minneapolis I get to try it a full day before the rest of the world.
Too bad living here doesn't afford me the opportunity to see Episode II "the way it was meant to be seen" - projected digitally. There isn't
a theater equipped with a digital projector for hundreds and hundreds of miles. They have them in Budapest, Hungary and Bratislava, Slovakia for pete's sake!
[The previous tidbits of info and links courtesy of
Broomeman.com]
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Updated house plans are now posted to the server. The plans listed below are of a much smaller file size but will more clearly show the plans:
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I have taken some photos of my blueprints (
per request). They are large file sizes and taken with
this camera if you would like to buy it.
There are some modifications to the plans being made. They are pretty subtle however. I will post a list of them along with some cleaned up plans that show details later today.
Minnesota is set to be the battleground for one of the biggest election fights in state history. Senator Paul Wellstone is the
primary target [Source:
Cursor.org] for republican money and power. Oh yeah and there is a person (albeit a slimy one) running against him too: Norm Coleman. There are only a few politicians I despise more than Coleman. This man will do and say anything to get elected and he is just so damn fake.
Conversely there are few politicians I admire more than Paul Wellstone. Being a target isn't new to him. Many have sought to take his seat and all the republicans on the hill hate him, not only for his stances on the issues (usually very far to the left) but for the fact that he knows how to win on those issues. He has held up and successfully blocked very conservative legislation and through it all he does what he knows is right rather than what polls or big business money says he should do.
If you live in Minnesota, I encourage you to make sure your voter's registration is current and that you get out and vote for
Paul this fall. Even if you think he is too far to the left on many issues (as I do) it doesn't matter because there are plenty of other politicians that have migrated towards the middle - too many if you ask me. I think our leaders should be strong and have ideas, rather than always cow tailing to the special interest groups with the loudest voices/deepest pockets.
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Ads.com is a poor man's
Ad Critic but, if
Ad Critic comes back and isn't free it may be the common man's only place to check out the latest commercials out there.
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I don't know why but it bothers me when friends of mine and/or people whom I work making websites with, do not have sites of their own or do not maintain them anymore (you know who you are). I am not sure why this bothers me - or at least I cannot pinpoint it. Maybe it's that they should be more excited about the medium they are helping to build or maybe it is that I think they are interesting and want to know more about them, or that I think others should be able to experience their humor and wit, or maybe I just need someone to link to when they send me something to post on Alt Text. Maybe it is a combination of all of these or something else entirely.
Did you know that many states use 4th grade literacy tests to estimate future prison populations? That and other facts can be seen by watching PBS's new
Misunderstood Minds series.
In this series (and
companion website) researchers and experts try to explain why millions of American children struggle in school today due to what many believe are just normal differences in the way each of us learn.
The
site is a very good resource for those dealing with a child who is having problems in school (or even before) and there are many interactive tests you can take that can help determine how differences in the way you learn may affect your performance.
I was turned on to this idea because, in so many ways, my little bother Kelby (from the Big Brother Big Sister Program) is very intelligent when speaking, however he has a very tough time reading things that I think a 9 year-old should be able to read. Underscoring my experiences with him is the fact that he has to attend special remedial classes for reading and math. This is a source of great embarrassment for young Kelby, and he often tells me how he wishes he didn't have to be separated from the "normal" kids. Aside from the hit to his self-esteem, I am not so sure the remedial classes help him as much as they could because they may not take into account the way Kelby learns.
A recent
episode of Oprah (yeah I watch it) was devoted to this idea that people learn in different ways and we are just now beginning to understand that. Some common differences in the way we learn are:
-Some children are very creative and write imaginatively, but do poorly in history because weak memory skills prevent them from retaining facts.
-Some students are weak in sequential ordering and can't follow directions. They may test poorly, and often don't do well in mathematics.
-Some students cannot process information when it comes to them in large "chunks" and it is only when it is broken down that they can comprehend it and retain it.
More information can be found in the book
A Mind at a Time by Dr. Mel Levine.
The only problems with these specialized techniques for teaching individual students stem from the fact that there already are not enough teachers and the ones we do have must cope with classroom sizes upwards of 35 children per class. Teachers cannot be expected (within the current system) to seek out the differences in the ways each of their pupils learn and then structure lessons that are unique for them. Even with awareness (there are
programs that teachers can go through to become better at dealing with these problems), the job of the teacher must be increasingly frustrating.
I have half-finished posts that never were to see the light of day and I thought, hey in the spirit of reduce, reuse, and recycle I could clean out all my old draft posts and turn them into some lazy Saturday afternoon reading. Enjoy.
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I stumbled across this
page of old maps of Minnesota and found them very interesting. Some of the maps show growth by area withing the Minneapolis St. Paul region while another show the burgeoning transit system in the area. The last map, dated 1935 shows a city planning map of downtown Minneapolis. Areas are marked by what was found there or who lived/worked there - Lower middle class, Workingman's homes, Slum, Middle class residential, etc. There is even one area marked "Negro Section (Largest in City)". I believe that to be much different to city planning maps of today - but I wonder how much different mindsets are.
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Also in the How to Piss Me Off curriculum: Tell me that part of the land I just bought actually belongs to you.
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A
hoax was reported by Salon.com over a year and a half ago about an apparent suicide due, in part, to the most popular online game
EverQuest and the addictive way in which it affects many players. The
EverQuest online community claims that people with addictive personalities can become addicted to anything and that the game is not inherently addictive. But isn't it? I have only played EverQuest once for a total of about 10 minutes, but once spent many, many hours playing
Ultima Online, another (PSW) Persistent State World where things are constantly happening even when you are not logged in. You cannot just save and expect everything to be OK. Your home (which you really need to save money up to purchase) can be broken into when you are offline, your treasures could be stolen, and entire storylines, quests, and news can pass you by. In this way you are compelled to stay online as much as possible. Plus you "know" people online. There are often tens of thousands of other players online at once and you get to know them - you join guilds with them, or go to war against them. There is so much at stake (literally months if not years of time spent playing and accumulating goods) that you can sometimes forget that none of it is real. If you were then somewhat less stable then the average bear, I see how it would be possible to get very depressed about losing everything. Especially if the only thing you looked forward to in your real life was your fantasy life.
The suicide reported in November of 2000 turned out to be fake, however last November's
suicide by a Wisconsin man was no joke and is bringing back the questions about these types of games and has prompted a lawsuit by the man's mother against Sony (who owns and runs EverQuest.)
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On occasion I have had the opportunity to meet someone of the Mormon faith or a Jehovah's Witness and I am, each time, astounded that they are the most upbeat and optimistic (if not also somewhat naive and innocent about the "ways of the world") people I have ever met. This holds true for Mormons and JW's that I have been exposed to via TV and magazines. They all just seem so damned nice and content. (of course
I could be wrong)
Don't get me wrong, I tend to be pretty optimistic in general and some who know me call me content as if they we're hurling an axe at me, but these Mormons and JW's are just too content. Without getting too much into where that feeling comes from, I can only say that they seem at peace while the vast majority of us are in various stages of turmoil throughout our lives.
As Jena recently said to me, "All I got from being brought up Catholic is all this crappy guilt. I wish I was a Mormon!" after coming to the realization, yet again, that Mormon's are always happy people.
I find myself envious of them too. I would love to be at peace with questions of who, what, where, why, and when of my place in this world and the next. We both have said we wished were were born into a family of Mormon's or Jehovah's Witnesses. But we are damned. Damned to always doubt and damned to never know what it truly is like to be content.
You may someday find yourself in much the same position I am in now... that's right, I have been bumped down to
Kottke.org's 2nd tier of links. I know what you're thinking and I have thought about locking myself in a bathroom with a 2-week supply of Haagen-Dazs, but I just don't know if that will make Jason love me again. Was it something I said? More likely something I didn't say... That's a bitter pill to swallow.
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If you commute in the Mpls-St. Paul area you may find
this link useful. It is an
interactive map of the major roadways with traffic cams.
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No matter where you are from, you are likely to find this cool. They are able to restore sight in many cases by
implanting a solar-powered microchip into the eye as a silicon retina. The study shows good results, so good in fact that I do not doubt we will someday have technology that makes the
VISOR worn by
Gordi LaForge look primitive.
Lesson One.
If you are an "older person" - defined here as one who was old enough to see the Beatles perform live and remember it - then you should definitely come up to me as I am looking at a Sgt. Pepper's album cover hanging on the wall and ask me if I "know who those guys are." Variations on this theme could include describing the Beatles to me as if you are describing some ancient herbal remedy that has been passed down for generations in your family or suggesting that the Beatles were their best in the early years. I may not have been born before the Beatles broke up but I can hold my own in Beatles knowledge (primarily as it relates to their works) with anyone.
Ben's Top 6 Beatles Albums:
- Magical Mystery Tour
- Let It Be
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- The Beatles (White Album)
- Revolver
- Abbey Road
This group has a great slogan.
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Speaking of the woods or forests in general, why is it our president doesn't want to keep any or keep our air clean, or water.... Yes, when President Bush took office he stated that the Kyoto protocol was too drastic as a response to global warming since we don't even know that global warming exists. Then he sent the problem to the national academy of science to be studied. Within the week, the academy had denied the request stating that the topic has already been studied to exhaustion and everything we know tells us that global warming is happening.
He was a bit humbled, but not one to get discouraged, Bush then started using economic excuses for not following Kyoto. At any rate, global warming is not a question anymore it is a fact.
After doing some research, I found that there were virtually no articles denying the fact that global warming exists (some scientists debate about whether such
warming is necessarily bad, however). To me it seems like common sense that if you introduce such a drastic change to an ecosystem you will throw out any balance that did exist, and life, all life, will be upset and either adapt or die off. Since it took our current systems millions of years to develop is seems pretty apparent that changing it in a couple decades seems like maybe not the best idea.
I don't know what my point to this post is other than to give a warning in my own small way:
- Our "leadership" needs more forward thinking and less political maneuvering for the votes and dollars of big business
- We need to be doing more development of energy efficient vehicles and powerplants and reduce our use of fossil fuels - why think about this when they are gone - why not save some for usage where renewable sources aren't practical (rocket fuel)
- These things have to happen from the ground up. We all have to take more of a stake in our world, and more responsibility to preserve it for future populations. The health of our support system - this world we live on - should be the highest priority of our world governments. By comparison taxes don't matter, campaign finance reform doesn't matter, missile defense doesn't matter, Middle East peace doesn't matter.
- Diversity is a good thing. Ecological diversity more than any other kind is perhaps the most important characteristic of our environment. Every time an acre of forest or species of insect is destroyed, we are that much closer to ecological disaster.
Children can be frustrating. That may be a huge understatement. Here's how I came to this conclusion: I have a
little brother and he can often times be very rational, even convincing in his various arguments for or against something, often for going and playing video games or against going home at the time we selected. Convincing and rational arguments do not frustration make. Nope, it is the very irrationality he displays in other topics of discussion (or often the same arguments) where Kelby is so darn frustrating. You want to keep using reason as he has clearly shown comprehension of the concept, yet whoa, there he goes in a 180 turnaround from rational thought to tantrum-like behavior or good old-fashioned, "I'm not listening" stubbornness.
None of this matters however when turns to me at the end of an outing and says that he loves spending time with me and thinks I am cool.
Some might think that my great experiences with my little brother would illustrate to me that having children would be a good idea for me. But I am not so sure. I don't know if I could handle Kelby full-time - or maybe I could, but would I want to? My life might have to change in too great a way. I don't know if I have the energy to learn all about this new little person, I have yet to fully learn about myself.
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Someone either has a) lot of free time b) a very strange sense of humor, or c) lot of disdain for the animal kingdom. Maybe
d) all of the above.
I should be doing my timesheets right now, but I just can't bring myself to do them. I haven't been too terribly busy the this past week and it is very hard to figure out how I should record my time. Ugh!
I should probably be looking for a company where I will be busier. Inertia.
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Ninjas are real and they are totally AWESOME!
How did that happen that we're into May already! Wow I had planned so many posts. Here are some:
The new
Sony Vaio Handheld is very cool. I go back and forth on the idea of electronics convergence, but mostly end up on its side. I would like my organizer/contacts list/pda-type thing to have an MP3 player built in I really would.
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"Extreme Programming" is an interesting idea but can it really make for better more efficient coding?
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Old News about kicking granny to the curb.
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On Monday we officially closed on the land on which we plan to build a house. They are surveying it and "staking" it next week. We hope to break ground the week of the 20th. I hope that isn't optimistic.
Have you ever tried to pick out a gas fireplace? They have many configurations! Luckily most look like ass and there are only a few that look nice and fire-like. Photos coming soon.
