Well, I have been in Houston since Sunday, and finally have Internet today. There are enough stories to fill several posts, but I have to get the work VPN working now.
To tide you over, here’s the stunning view looking out from my apartment.
Month: October 2007
Science/Technology, Snake Oil
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry predicts that man will have split into two races within 100,000 years. Apparently, he has read the Time Machine by H. G. Wells.
Bad Science has more to say about the good doctor.
Speaking of time machines…try this idle thought on for size. A time machine will never be invented (note this is different from saying it’s not possible). If it is going to happen, there would have been some time machine user with a desire to visit various eras of the past and make him/herself known to its inhabitants. So we would already know about it.
(Yeah, I’m waiting for the hole-poking.)
Patently Ineffective
Fun article on how stupid the next generation of Americans will be. The columnist knows a teacher who is so frightened of how bad the United States will be next generation, he’s considering retiring to another country.
So I decided to take a look at a few different age groups and their blogs to see if we really are becoming that stupid.
The Fogies (55+): Well, they don’t blog too much. Technophobia and all that.
MLC Candidates (36-54): You can read someone like DK who compels his readers to think in unorthodox manners, and might be considered rather sophisticated (as long as you ignore the pics of half-naked women). Or Derek, who handles words as well as a fencer wielding a rapier and main gauche (and is one of two people in the world who force me to use a dictionary.) Or the self-abasing chessloser who’s the best I know at writing long blog posts that manage to keep my interest.
My peers-ish (20-35): Then you get to the generation of me and my peers, who are less and less able to express our thoughts with any sort of extended prose or accurate verbiage. We are more or less adults in age only, and our writing reflects it (I prefer not to use words more than two syllib…sylabel…parts.) Apparently, my sworn enemy is now incapable of producing much more than 12 word Twitters.
Kids (19 and under): I don’t know any bloggers this age, more evidence that they’re illiterate.
Frightening stuff.
Grilled Cheese, Patently Ineffective
On a normal day at the office, there are 3 to 5 people in our department here. We all have plenty of job security.
Today, it’s just me. On Friday, it’s most often three people. However, the department head will be at a meeting out of the area all day, and the other guy took a vacation day. Furthermore, this morning I had a conference call with programmers from India. So, yeah, this was one of the worst possible days to schedule that.
It took 2 hours for me to solve the programming problem that should have taken 30 minutes, and I managed to look like a complete moron on the phone with a passenger because I couldn’t get information on when a flight left. Plus, we normally send a report in the morning which was obviously delayed, receiving an e-mail about when that was going to be finished. And I think it had some slightly inaccurate information (they will be bugging me pretty soon, methinks.)
Looking at this flight manifest (list of passengers), at the bottom it states that an asterisk by the passenger name “indicates babe in arms”. While there were no passengers denoted with an asterisk this time around, the whole concept should make all of us a little uneasy…
Blog News
The praises for Liquid Egg Product continue to roll in…
There was merrily!
I is pleasantly amazed! Thank!!!
This simply prodigy!
The Regard! The Excellent forum! Thank you!
The Good lad an author! I much like site!
Like! Thank you!
The Pleasing text and design!
Pretty nice forum, wants to see much more on it!
I simply mad about this forum!
And my favorite…
Forgive that beside You was little ed!
Despite the flattering recommendations, I have decided not to display their advertisements for cialis, payday loans online, and WoW gold.
Grilled Cheese
This morning I woke up realizing that tonight would be my last night as a Miami resident. Friday night, trails will be blazed, anticipation will be increased, and rarely-eaten beef jerky may be bought at various convenience stores.
The worst thing is that there are 2 programs and 1 webpage I wanted to get finished before leaving, but is highly unlikely to happen (Hofstadter’s Law, anyone?) The webpage will be decently polished by tonight’s end, but not where I would like it to be, the one program for work is technically usable, but will be used by the public and is not properly polished, and the other program I’ve essentially been buying time for.
It’s not really such a final good-bye–I have to spend a few days per month in Miami anyway–but obviously life will be quite different.
For those of you who don’t click links:
Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s law.
A (somewhat joking) rule of thumb introduced by Hofstadter for calculating an approximate time is to double the number and step up to the next higher units. For example, a job estimated at 1 hour can be accomplished in 2 days, while a 3-month project will take you 6 years.
Blog News
There was a 50% increase in unique visitors on Hot and Allegedly Hot Female Day over October’s average.
[The Mascot says: I told you so.]
Patently Ineffective, Sports
Cry into your beer, Miami Heat fans. Michael Doleac is no longer with the Heat.
Unfortunately, this means no more slow, chunky white guy to be entertained by the few minutes he gets his third-string center self on the court. However, the Heat did get Mark Blount in return. My co-worker Celtics fan tells me Blount is a slow, chunky black guy, a role I felt Shaq was filling just fine.
Grilled Cheese
Around 3:30, I was absolutely gassed at work today. Some for reason, I tried coffee as a stimulant, which never fails to fail to give any significant energy boost.
History
ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHH! NO! UGH!
I forgot to make a theme for United Nations Day!
On this day in 1945, the United Nations was formed. In honor of this holiday, today’s look was [supposed to be] redone to simulate a UN vehicle. We’ll celebrate the impact the United Nations has had in our world today, and what they’re doing to continue to keep us safe.
Here are some ways you can celebrate:
- Wear a baby blue pith helmet, just like a real peacekeeper.
- If you see a robbery, debate with your friends for 2 hours before deciding whether to call the police.
- Volunteer at a soup kitchen, but show up after they’re closed.
- Tell a homeless guy that you and your friends will give him $5. Then one of you contributes 72 cents, and the rest don’t contribute at all.
How will YOU celebrate United Nations Day?