all posts in the 'General' category


Heartbleed

I spent a large chunk of time this week dealing from the fallout of Heartbleed as a technical person who runs a variety of websites… but this weekend I spent a lot of time dealing with it as a user. It took a lot of time and I wanted to share what I did. Wait, […]

The Big Three-Oh

I’m about to turn 30. Birthdays are a good time for reflection and birthdays that end in “0” even more so. And so I’ve been thinking back on my first 30 years: what I’ve accomplished in my 30 years, where I’ve improved or grown in the last, say 10 or so, where I did well, […]

Jaclyn Swedberg Straddles My Ride

The Playboy Morning Show ran a “Have a Playmate Straddle Your Ride” contest in which the winner would have Jaclyn Swedberg – Miss April 2011 – recreate her pictorial (which was on a Harley) on their bike. I entered. I was a finalist. And despite not being the winner, Jaclyn was kind enough to do […]

Istanbul, March 2010

Following on the heals of my Egypt trip was a weekend in the amazing city of Istanbul. At long last, my story and my pictures are here for you to enjoy!

Negative Feedback Is Not Bad!

I’m sitting in this “how to give and get feedback” class. Within the first 5 minutes, the instructor, after talking about positive feedback says, “Negative feedback is more personal, it’s more about the person themselves.” What? So if I go “this piece of your work is good” that’s about your work, but if I say […]

Athens, Greece, January 2010

I know, I know… the blog’s been quiet lately. Where’s the anger, the vitriol, the hate? In January of this year I started a long string of travels that will end in June. As such, I just haven’t had time to be angry at stuff, and it’s hard to be angry when you’re wondering through, […]

Denmark…

… is apparently an interesting country. Head over to this Boing Boing story and watch the video, but try not to read the headline or story text: BB story. And come back here when you’re done. OK, watched it? Sure? Turns out, she’s an actress hired by the Danish government. That video is supposed to […]

Italy, June 2009

It took a long time this done, but the review of my Italy trip is finally here. This write up is fairly long, but I did much more editing than usual, so hopefully it’s a more interesting read.

Germany and Austria, May 2009

It took a while… but my review of my Germany and Austria trip is finally done. Links to reviews and pictures of the 4 Metallica shows are at IPOM, and linked from within the trip review.

More existential babble

Some people believe that everything happens for a reason. Other people believe in free will – that we make all of our own choices independently. I think the reason that both of these ideas generate such potent opposition is because neither of them are the whole story. Each idea has a little bit of evidence […]

Blog upgrade, part 2

So I recently had upgraded from 2.6 to 2.7. Then, two weeks ago, just before I left for Italy there was an unknown exploit somewhere in the WordPress world and WP blogs were getting pwnd left and right. With no details and no patches I took down the blog temporarily while I was in Italy. […]

Blog Upgrade

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1. Crossing the 2.6 -> 2.7 boundary introduces very significant changes, so please let me know if you see any problems.

Amsterdam and Paris

I recently went to Amsterdam and Paris and I’ve posted a review. Fair warning, the Amsterdam section is not for the faint of heart.

A New Era

There has been a lot of talk about Obama, the inauguration, and getting rid of Bush. I’m very proud of our new president and this new step for our country. However, most of what I could say has been said before. There is one thing I’d like to point out. As you may know, there […]

Happy New Year

Having recently moved, I spent this Christmas and New Year’s Eve by myself – it was a quiet evening to relax. Being an only child resulted in me being somewhat of a loner, and so being alone rarely bothers me. Christmas was very peaceful and enjoyable. New Years Eve I surprisingly found somewhat tougher. But […]

Babes of the Year

As some of you may know, as part of my “Letters of the Month” over at IPOM, I have a “Babes of the Month” list. It started as a lark but has become quite the tradition. As 2008 draws to a close, I decided I needed to pick the top 5 ladies from this year’s […]

Greatest. Christmas. Tree. Ever.

Courtesy of Slashdot’s Idle section, comes the greatest Christmas tree ever. EVER! It’s so beautiful, I want to cry.

Snow rules!

It doesn’t snow much in the city… usually. However, this year we’ve had a lot of snow: yesterday there was a foot of snow on the ground. I’ve posted pictures of the awesomeness!

Texting. Is. Evil.

Miranda recently pointed me at Foamy – an entertaining online animation series that more often than not is ranting about the stupidity of those around us. I recommend it. But it got me thinking… this is the Blog of Doom. A blog born out of a deep hatred for stupidity, ignorance, and people in my […]

Happy Holidays!

I’m a few weeks late, but I’ve finally gotten my tree up. Usually I do this the weekend of Thanksgiving as a way of celebrating that Thanksgiving is over and getting into the Christmas spirit. This Thanksgiving I was down in LA – a short side-trip from my business trip in Mountain View, CA. I […]

Colored bits

Intellectual property has been a growing topic in the IT industry for a long time. But it’s long been considered “not a computer science problem” but instead “a legal problem.” The truth is that it’s both. Moreover, trying to explain the reality of how bits work in a way lawyers understand or how intellectual property […]

For you…

I have a lot of friends who have faced a lot of really hard things. Some of them were things they got themselves into, others were things they couldn’t control. Either way, many of my friends have faced things no one should ever have to face. A majority of these friends have also confronted these […]

The election

As others have blogged, this election was very exciting. But to me, I think what was most exciting was the number of voters and the very large margin by which Obama won (electoral college wise). It speaks volumes that he won by a landslide and shows that while it is still a huge problem, racism […]

Swiss administration rocks!

Last Tuesday I went down to the Strassenverkehrsamt (Swiss DMV) to find out about getting a driver’s license. I know my US license is valid for a year, but I also know getting a driver’s license in Europe can be a long process, so I wanted to start the process early. They handed me a […]

The new place

People have been asking for pictures of my new place for a while. Unfortunately it took two months to get it into some semblance of reasonable shape. It’s not nearly done, but it’s together enough that I had a housewarming party last weekend. So I’ve posted pictures. For those of you who saw the preview, […]

Blog moved!

Phew! It’s been three and a half months since I did the test migration to WordPress. Tonight I finally did the real migration, upgrading WordPress and the reCaptcha plugin at the same time. I also fixed several broken links and images that were in both the old and new blog from various upgrades of the […]

Prague

I went to Prague last month, and my trip review has been posted, complete with pictures.

Blasphemy

Some things in life are sacred. Some of them are sacred because of beliefs handed down through faith. Others are sacred because the skill that went into them is still awe-inspiring and unfathomable. And still others are sacred due the inexplicable way they have touched and enriched our lives. One such thing – falling into […]

7 weeks in…

I’ve now been in Zurich for seven weeks and at Google for 5 weeks. How are things? Things are good! I’ve been having a lot of fun. Work is great, I’ve met lots of good people and I even went to a yodeling festival last week in Lucerne! Yup, a Yodeling Festival! How cool is […]

R.I.P. George Carlin

For those of you haven’t heard the very, very sad news, George Carlin passed away yesterday at the age of 71 due to heart failure. George Carlin was not only a fantastic comedian but a hero who accomplished much for free speech and bringing awareness of the importance of our principal freedoms. For those who […]

Potential blog change

Four years ago, when I first started this blog, I spent a while looking at WordPress (WP) and b2evolution (b2evo). At the time, even though I felt b2evolution was a bit too cumbersome, WP was simply not feature-rich enough – so this blog runs on b2evolution. However I preferred the look of the WP skins, […]

Update

As most of you know, I started with Google last week as a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) [1]. Lots of people have asked how my first week went (and have usually thrown in either “I bet all you do is play pool and Rock Band all day” or “I bet they’re working you to death” […]

Zurich: Week 2

So I’ve been here two weeks now. Well, just shy of two weeks, anyway. I start my new job on Monday, and I’m incredibly excited! A hillside picture of Zurich I took today. I realized this week that it hasn’t really sunk in that I’ve moved here. I’m currently in a temporary apartment. Since I […]

Even better than kitten huffing!

This is even better than Kitten Huffing! In the Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia, is an annual festival to mark the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi. As part of this festival is the rite of baby jumping, in which the men dress up in costumes as the devil and leap over rows of babies […]

I now live in Zurich!

Phew. The last time you all heard from me, I was living in a different country! Yup, that’s right, I’m now a resident of Zurich, Switzerland. Well, technically, Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. I live in the city of Zurich which is in the kanton (kinda like a state) of Zurich. To be more specific, I live […]

Time Warner stole $1146 from me

So I open up my checking account Sunday night (3 days ago) to find the following transaction posted: Description: TIME WARNER CABL DES:EFT PAYMNT ID:0020704075 INDN:REDDICK,CHRISTOPHER CO ID:C844830000 TEL REF:00033560497312110825000810101165622308041127 Posting Date: 04/11/2008 Amount: $1,146.54 Type: ACH Debit Account Number: Checking-XXXX This looks roughly like the transaction you get when you do online bill payment […]

What has Phil been up to?

What have I been up to, you ask? San Jose, Dallas, Houston, Vegas, and Rocky Horror. Since February 1st, I’ve also been to San Diego and Santa Barbara but don’t have pictures up of those. I only have one more originally-planned trip before I move: Florida. But I’ve added a one-day stint to Tucson, AZ […]

Bank of America’s new ATMs

Bank of America has been installing new ATMs all over California and Florida. These new ATMs have a variety of new features such as: Being able to scan your cash checks and detect their amounts automatically Not requiring deposit envelopes Audible prompts for the visually impaired More user-friendly menus Being a technologist, I’m always excited […]

The man of your dreams

It turns out my best friend, Jason, can bay like a dog (at least after a shot or two of tequila). So a bunch of us decided, this would make an entertaining dating video. So we made one. And here it is. I encourage you to rate it on youtube and share it with your […]

Mmmm, airport security

So I was traveling home from Texas this week. I get through security at IAH (Houston), and I immediately beeline for the Starbucks stand (which is fortunately the first thing across from security). I get my coffee, go to the little milk/sugar/etc. stand, and there’s a late-middle-aged hispanic women slowly emptying the ice from her […]

Twenty-six

So I turned 26 this week. Technically on Tuesday, the 25th, but we’re doing the celebrating tomorrow, the 29th. For a lot of my friends, 26 was depressing – they were now in their “late” twenties. And a few months ago, I felt a little of that. But I realized – I’m grown up, I’m […]

It’s funny what makes things sink in

I just purchased tickets for a Metallica concert in Switzerland. Somehow, that makes this all very real. It will be my second non-US show (saw a show in Canada), and my first European show. Purchasing those tickets was kinda big. I can’t explain why that makes it sink in, but it does. And while I’m […]

Kids have good taste!

I was in Toys ‘R Us the other day shopping for gifts for my niece and nephew with Lynn when we stumbled upon this awesomeness: Click for a larger version. Yeaup, Metallica in the kids’ music section! Rock on kids!

Versatile Vegtables

I don’t know who hillywillylee is, but they recently posted possibly the funniest video I’ve ever seen on YouTube. Enjoy! Note the priceless expression on her face.

Flying with Ted

I recently had the privilege of being taken up in my friend Ted Faber‘s plane. I’ve posted a page about it, with pictures, here.

New job, new country, new language, new adventures!

Now that I’ve managed to spread the news to most of my friends and family, I feel more comfortable posting this. A few weeks ago, I accepted a job with Google as a sysadmin on their Site Reliability Engineering team. Moreover, I’ve accepted the job in their Zurich, Switzerland office! Yes, you read that right, […]

Scam, sting, or setup?

So last Friday some really weird stuff happened. That night my friends Chis and Tam and I went out to dinner and a movie. For the purposes of this story, you should know that Chris and Tam are married. Our evening was at a place called The Bridge, a large complex here in LA with […]

White Chocolate

I’ve had quite a few conversations about that disappointment you have when you find out that white chocolate is actually made from vanilla. And tonight, as I sat around I wondered why something made out of vanilla would be called chocolate. So I looked it up on the awesomeness that is Wikipedia. White chocolate isn’t […]

Venezuela rejects absurd amendments

Congratulations to Venezuelans everywhere! Venezuela voted today, by a narrow margin of 51%, to reject constitutional amendments that would have drastically changed the country. President Hugo Chavez, the mind that brought the asinine half-hour-offset timezone for his country, put forth a vote for 69 amendments. The amendments included allowing infinite presidential re-elections, changing presidential terms […]

Happy Holidays!

Now that the evil Thankstaking is over, it’s time for real holidays again! Happy Holidays everyone! Yup, that’s a Christmas tree at the Jewish guy’s house! =)

By the anniversary flowers, across from the funeral aisle

Check out this question posted on a message board. Oh man. A true dilemma indeed. Also, this chick’s boyfriend is one lucky motherfucker. I’m not sure I’ll ever get sick of the quote, “… unless there’s some sort of breezy, casual sex flower that I’m unaware of.”

Flaming Squirrel Ignites Car

This is possibly the most entertaining news story I’ve ever read. I mean, the title is the best part, but the story itself is also amazing. I highly recommend you check out Rocky the Frying Squirrel!

Finally, a good day to be an American

Today was a very exciting day to be an American. Or at the very least, a relieving day. Two very, very cool things happened today. First and foremost, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero declared the Patriot Act unconstitutional! This is HUGE! This is probably one of the best things to happen in our government in […]

I’m Flattered!

Someone I know on IRC stumbled across this picture someone concocted of me (click to see it full size): I don’t know who spends their time making cool pictures of me, but that kicks ass, thanks!

Oh Thank God

Despite the fact that the UK government has being doing some messed up things lately, they just did something great. The United Kingdom goverment just declared that so-called Intelligent Design (sic), i.e. Creationism, is not scientific and thus should not be taught as science in the nation’s schools. Thank God! It’s about damn time. If […]

More Bad Driving

I’ve noticed that more and more people around LA that seem to not understand right turns are legal on red lights (unless otherwise stated)! In the past two weeks alone I’ve pulled up behind several people who were in the right line, but had no blinker on and were behind the white line – not […]

Twenty-five

Well. I’m officially twenty-five. That means, eh, I guess I can rent a car without a fee. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a great birthday weekend!

Facettes de la petite mort view

I found a website that, while it’s technically porn, is particularly interesting and beautiful outside of it’s pornographic allure. Beautiful Agony is a site dedicated to the beauty of people’s reactions to having an orgasm. There’s no visible nudity. You won’t see a breast or a penis or a vagina. The entire site is made […]

Best Fortune Cookie Ever

Come back later, I’m sleeping (yes, cookies need sleep too).

Good bread…

… sticks to the roof or your mouth.

V for Vendetta

Go see V for Vendetta! I rented it tonight and it’s fantastic. But that’s not the point. The point is that it’ll make you think. It’ll make you stop and re-evaluate many of the things that are currently happening in the world (recall that this is near and dear to me). It’s moral stance on […]

The Insane Highway Patrol Officer

So, I’m driving down the highway, on the way home from a BBQ, with my girlfriend. We’re in the fast lane, which means, of course, I’m speeding. This was a few months ago now (I didn’t dare post this until some time had passed). Anyway, a highway patrol officer on a motorcycle comes up behind […]

And the US crumbles a bit more

Last year, President Bush gave the National Security Agency (NSA) authorization to tap phone calls without a warrant under the guise of nation security: catching terrorist. But the gullible group of people the US has become, found that acceptable when they were told it was only for international calls. Of course, please, spy on my […]

Drinking and Driving Saves Lives

You have to wonder if people think at all about their work. Tonight the signs on the road, said: DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE IT SAVES LIVES Well, if it saves lives, I better not do it! That’s horrible!

2005 Fucked Up Shit

With 2005 now over, it’s time for my top list of dumbshit retarded people/things/events from 2005. There are so many fucked up things happening every second of every day, I’m well aware I missed a lot – but if I missed something worthy of the list, oh well, fuck off. 8. Duck! Butter! 7. Someone […]

Really, really, sad.

Do you remember back in middle/high school when the bathrooms were always a mess partially because some group of students, maybe even you, thought it was really funny to throw random things in the toilet? Well, I didn’t find it particularly amusing back then, but I thought, as I got out of college, that such […]

It happened again!

Two new posters went up at work (they’re doing 2 a week, it seems). This time they both had the same headline: Decisions, Decisions. The first poster had a wedding cake with a groom figure on top and two brides figures, one on either side. The second poster had a guy playing chess and sweating. […]

Friends with benefits

So last week at work a few new posters from HR went up, each with some sort of catch phrase or play-on words, to advertise some of our HR benefits. One of them said Friends With Benefits and was about how HR was a friend that gave you good benefits (health insurance, 401k, etc.). Another […]

Come again?

So last night I was at the gym. I’m on the treadmill and I look up, and on the TV I see an extreme close up of something. I’m not quite sure what it is. It has damp short brown hair… Some pink-ish skin… And wait, something new… a tongue? Yup. A tongue appeared and […]

Logical Conclusions

I think everyone knows all that’s happened in New Orleans is tragic, and I’m not going to be retarded enough to waste your valuable time blabbing about that. But there is something about New Orleans I do want to say. I think I’m a pretty logical and intelligent guy. I can understand most things. But […]

Your dick’s not that big

Will someone please tell me what the fuck is with the seemingly new and growing trend of not pulling up to the fucking line at an intersection? Do people not realize that those large cuts in the concrete are sensors that tell the light that people are waiting? When you leave 2 empty car lengths […]

I hate dumb people

I was talking to a friend a few weeks back about the most annoying thing on the planet: stupid people. This is of course the most annoying thing on the planet – I suspect that’s even true if you’re stupid, but who knows. When I say stupid, I mean people who pop wheelies on a […]

And the world gets just a little dumber

Yet more proof rap is dumbing down our population… I’m at the gym tonight and an “Outkast” (sic) video comes on the TV (perhaps if rap stars weren’t priding themselves on being “crunk” they’d be sober enough to remember how to spell). Since I workout with headphones on, I only watch the TV in passing […]

What the fuck?

So I saw this posted around campus a few days ago: This made me stop. Why do they need blood? We’re human OK? Why is blood needed for psych research? What kind of psychologists are we churning out? But on top of that… there was another, identical flyer posted – except that it was orange […]

Age, drugs, and sex

Obviously the older you get, the less age differences matter. 18 to 22 is a much bigger difference than 28 to 33. So as you get older, you start interacting with a larger range of ages in your day to day life. Also being in the work force means that unlike in school, you are […]

Not all of us worship a mortal who claimed to be God half way through his life…

… hell, for that matter, not all of us worship anything! Ya know, stores are open on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana because there are plenty of Christians to work those days. Similarly Ralphs, Vons, Starbucks, and Home Depot manage to be open on fucking Easter – so what the fuck is wrong with Target, […]

Fuck You

I haven’t had a good Phil-style post in a while, and it’s high-time I did. So, here’s a bunch of shit I hate, in no particular order. That guy on Extreme Makeover and all those damn commercials – Ty Pennington. He needs to have several pens driven slowly into his chest on TV by one […]

Oh… oh my.

Playboy, this month, has a section on Celebrity Sex Quotes. And I’d like to share one from Angelina Jolie here: I need more sex, okay? Before I die I wanna taste everyone in the world. I… Um. Yeah. Wow. I don’t even have words for that one. The quote… the choice of words… the whole […]

BOOM!

This isn’t controversial, or intellectually interesting. But it’s damn funny, so I had to share. My toilet exploded today. I’ll give you a second. Read it again. Isn’t that fun? Really puts a damper on the day. And makes your bathroom damper. 1.6 gallons damper, to be specific.

Chocolate on Steak

So, recently I saw a short article on ActionGirls.com – a site that makes action movies staring naked women. Now, as a guy, this obviously intrigued me – shit blowing up and naked girls! Someone combined two loves of mine! So one evening, when I was in the mood, I head over there to check […]

The end of the world

So I try to limit posts here (at least ones in the “general” category) to controversial or otherwise interesting stuff. Hence I haven’t posted here in a while. It’s not an online journal. It’s the Blog of Doom. That said there’s been a few links I’d like to share with people even if they’re not […]

Christian Cheerleaders?

So I attended SCALE this weekend. It was a good conference, lots of good talks. But I won’t bore you with geeky stuff. At the same time and in the same venue, there was a Christian Cheearleading conference. That’s right, a Christian Cheerleading conference. I’m not sure if this is those Jesus Freaks who cheer […]

And While We’re At It

So here is an article. High school students increasingly don’t believe First Amendment rights are a big deal. I nearly cried when I read that. I sat, open-mouthed, staring at my screen. For the first time in my life, I was speechless. It took a day before I was even prepared to blog about it. […]

Just. Fucking. Great.

Last week, as some of you may know, I was working 9am – 4am almost every day. It was rough, but it’s one of those heavy crunch times that comes with being a sysadmin, and I accept those. Today, I spent most of the day arguing with the CTO of the university about a security […]

Weekend

What a weekend. A few noteworthy points (well, minus one being saved for its own blog post). Friday night Lynn and I went to the best Hooters ever! The waitress drew a Catchup monster on our plate, and a smiley in the lemons, and I swear that burger was bigger than most Hooter’s burgers (and […]

Are ya kidding? You gotta be kidding?

So I read about this on Friday. I couldn’t believe it. What the hell is this world coming to when the Secretary of Education for the United States of America denounces PBS for showing a family lead by two women on Postcards from Buster? Are our leaders so backwards, up-tight, and scared that they can’t […]

I really do rule

So Sarah complained about her horoscope on her blog (she doesn’t read mine, I’m told, so I can say “complained about” rather than “discussed” =)). This of course required me to read her horoscope, and while I was there, I clicked on “Aries” just for the fun of it. You’re like grass sprouting up through […]

Die, motherfuckers, die!

So, I’m watching the general New Year’s Eve crap on New Year’s Eve (why were all of the bands rap or R&B except for about 3? What the fuck? Anyway…), and they introduce some really untalented bitch as “the princess of crunk.” So I go, “what the fuck is crunk?” I found out, courtesy of […]

Happy New Year

As I flew from Los Angeles to Miami, I was once again amazed by technology. I mean, we built a large, heavy hunk of metal that can fly through the air at hundreds of miles an hour (no, this isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this, but it’s been a while since I’ve marveled at […]

I ain’t showered in 3 days!

The above is a slight misquote from Jeff Foxworthy (originally, I believe it’s, “I ain’t peed in 3 days”), I don’t usually speak like that. Anyway, it’s not actually been 3 days. I showered this morning at a friends house. But I haven’t had heat or warm water in 2 days now. My landlord’s place […]

The Great Toilet Paper Debate

KC brought this up at work the other day and we were both relieved to find out that the other person did it the right way. “Good, I don’t work with a freak” is roughly what I think we both thought. So we figured the strange “under” people must have SOME reason. We did some […]

Finally…

Tonight I finished the last of my Christmas shopping. It’s nice to be done. Now I just wait for stuff to arrive. Note that I do have a few odd ends – like my friends in Florida and I will just go together to shop for each other… but all major gifts that must be […]

I’m back

I find that people are ever more sticking large telephone poles up their asses. If I say “hey that’s a dumb idea” it doesn’t mean “hey you’re a dumbfuck” it means “hey that’s a dumb idea.” Why are people so fucking high and mighty that they can’t accept the fact that they might have a […]

You know it’s Christmas…

…when you can control Alek’s Christmas lights over the internet. Yay! Alek’s Christmas Light Webcam Geek’s Rule!

Willy Wonka

When I found out Tim Burton was redoing Charley and the Chocolate Factory, I was slightly worried. See, I love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was my favorite book as a child. I didn’t find out about the original movie until I was much older, but ever since I found it, I loved that […]

Good things come in small packages

So today I walk from my office to my girlfriend’s office picking up the package I saw waiting for her at the front desk (and signing for it). While I was already planning to pick up the package, you should not for later, that she did ask me to pick it up when I said […]

Quote of the day

Quote of the day from the office: God sucks. God blows. God does everything. He’s God…. Erm you believe in the nice all-forgiving God, right?

Software versioning bad for math

So for those of you not familiar with software versioning, it’s usually decimal: 1.0. (Yeah, Microsoft does dumb things like XP and 2003, but it’s Microsoft, they’re retarded, what do you expect?) If you don’t have major huge changes, you increase the number after the decimal, otherwise you increase the number before the decimal. Some […]

I’m from the bathroom

So Lynn and I are driving back from San Jose Tuesday afternoon… and we pass a town. The town is called, I kid you not, “Los Banos” – which, if memory servers, is roughly “the bathrooms” in Spanish. How would you like to be from there? “Where you from Johnny?” “I’m from the bathrooms!” Yeesh.

I’m Back!

I’m the infamous Booth Guy, and I’m back. Tonight was my first night back on tour with the Mighty Metallica. I was missed by a lot of people I didn’t expect to be missed by, and I wasn’t missed by some I expected to be missed by. While the night was full of unexpected turns, […]

Thankstaking

I hate Thanksgiving. I really hate Thanksgiving. I hate it for so many reasons. For starters, it revolves around not just one food I can’t eat, but lots of food I can’t eat. In fact, at any given Thanksgiving table, it is highly unlikely you will find anything I have a desire to eat. Occasionally […]

Here ya go…

Long, but good… enjoy. The Backstory A few days ago I gave someone an unwelcome opinion, with a very small proverbial mallet (those who know me will know this is very unlike me – I usually use a very large sledgehammer, assuming an initial attempt at reason has failed). This caused me to get in […]

We still miss you and love you

Today marks the anniversary of the death of a friend of mine, Jocelyn Tetreault. She died 8 years ago, hit by a car, in Boca Raton, close to her house. We still miss you and love you, Jocelyn. Rest in peace.

Does that mean I lost my virginity again?

Last night I saw The Offspring for my first time ever. As someone who’s seen 42 Metallica shows (soon to be 45), the vast majority of which have been in the past year and a half, my view of concerts is unique. I’m not as jaded as someone who actually does it for a living, […]

A Perfect Weekend

There is no “the perfect weekend,” I don’t believe. But every now and then, very rarely, you run into “a perfect weekend.” This weekend was one of them. That’s almost completely due to my super-spectacular girlfriend. We didn’t do anything very special. We didn’t spend lots of money, go to a fancy restaurant, go on […]

Exaggerate Much?

So… UK Times Online has an article about their beta test of the new Microsoft search engine. Their first line is, “Bill Gates may be the world’s most generous philanthropist.” Now I realize the Gates Foundation has given a lot of money to a lot of worthy causes. I realize a lot of his money […]

What don’t you understand about “doom?”

Okay, so some people seem to have a problem understanding the “Doom” part of “Blog o’ Doom” Did you expect this would be a happy blog about roses and candy? This is my Cynical Kingdom, my Refuge From Annoying Bouncy-Smiley People. With that in mind, I’ve come up with a list of shit that should […]

They deserve it!

So we’ve had this problem at USC with people getting mugged on and around campus. It’s not a recent problem, it’s a known side effect of where we reside. USC has enlarged DPS, had security bulletins, etc., to try to resolve this problem. But I realized this morning, they’ve overlooked one large cause: stupid fucking […]

Da Vinci strikes again

I don’t want this to be a “slashdot-of-the-day” blog, but this story just really caught my eye: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/davinci.html?tw=wn_tophead_8 “Leonardo’s automobile,” a three-wheeled cart that has never been able to be recreated, it turns out, is actually a robot with programmable instructions! For those of you keeping up with Da Vinci, this isn’t as far fetched […]

Shake it like anything BUT a polaroid

New hard drives may shake instead of spin. This is one of those times where you have to be floored at some people’s ability to think outside of the box! Kudos to Dataslide! A bad TechWorld writeup: http://www.techworld.com/storage/features/index.cfm?featureid=958 Dataslide’s Press Release: http://www.dataslide.com/ipr.htm Dataslide’s Technical Discussion: http://www.dataslide.com/spec1.htm I hate that song, I hate that song, I […]

The end of our secular democracy, and the birth of our Christian theocracy

Line stolen from my friend, Jason. So I have so many things to say in regards to the election. But lets start with prior to the election. Many states now have online-voter-registration. California is one. So I go online knowing the deadline to change my address is nearing and fill out the online form and […]

What is the Nature of a Blog?

What is the nature of a blog? Let’s look at this. Blog is short for “web log.” Is that a log of web-related stuff? Or is that a log of stuff that happens to be on the web? Intuitively, with no other information, one might guess the former. However, we all know it’s the latter. […]