Occasionally Updated, Always Awful

Things That I've Observed Surviving A Washing Machine & Dryer

2010-10-07T11:30:00.001-07:00

Today I washed some things and I have never been very good at taking things out of my pockets before washing them.

The following are things I have had survive a trip to the washing machine:

SumoGrip Mechanical Pencils - PERFECT WORKING ORDER.
Keys
Money
Plastic Sandwich Bags

I will update this list if I ever remember to if I find additional things.

ALL MY POSTS ARE LIKE THIS ONE.

I am irked by things

2010-04-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

The other day I heard some bad news. Comcast had won a federal court case saying it's okay for them to throttle bandwidth based on what type of data (like bittorent) and I felt this was a terrible thing. I spent that day listing out other things that really bother me in addition to a lack of net neutrality.

Laws against modifying hardware that I have purchased:
I bought the thing. It is mine now. I should be able to do what I want with it. I didn't rent it for god's sake.

Laws against self-destruction:
If some asshole wants to not wear his seatbelt, or kill himself, that's his business.

Laws which prevent one thing for the sole purpose of preventing a different thing (Especially in cases where the latter thing is already prohibited):
This one doesn't need explanation. Not being allowed to own something that could be but is generally not used for a crime is a common example. I do however approve of harsher penalties depending on the circumstances of the crime.

Patent law:
Fucking ridiculous. People are too able to lock down ideas based on broad and over reaching patents. Here's what I say. A patent should protect your idea for ten years. No more. Ever. If you find a patent that has what you want to do in it that' over 10 years old, you then have clearance to do it. 10 years is plenty of time to make some money and this would discourage patents that are too vague because they would screw you in the long run.

Corn:
We grow (and pay farmers) to grow lots of shitty fucking corn as opposed to corn that has decent nutritional value and I don't understand why.

Farmers can get sued if some of somebody's PATENTED plant accidentally mixes with whatever their growing:
Yeah. For instance, someone has some patented genetically modified corn. Farmer next door has regular corn, but due to the GMO corn's better ability to spread, and completely displace the old corn, some of the GMO corn starts growing on the ordinary corn farmer's land. Farmer gets sued. THERE'S NO INTENT THERE. If the GMO corn guy wants to keep his corn to himself, he better keep a tighter fucking reign on his land via physical means.

DRM:
Digital rights management doesn't deter thieves. Thieves have consistently beaten it in all it's forms. Best case scenario, thieves are mildly inconvenienced. Worst case scenario (and this is very commonly so) it causes suffering for paying customers who are now having trouble using whatever they purchased.

Music industry:
Big labels give tiny margins to their musicians a vast majority of the time and I feel music on the whole would be better served by self-distribution and self promotion.

Lack of standards in consumer electronics and power outlets:
So power outlets around the world are different and there's not a lot we can do about it. But device makers did not need to make a billion proprietary connectors for their USB cords to dick us around with overpriced cables. USB should be a standard connector. The same on both sides. Always.

Insurance (and health care):
Insurance of all types needs to stop having the ability to charge different people different prices or deny them insurance based on things that occurred before they had insurance. Also, car insurance being required is also terrible (and health insurance is going to be mandatory, that's terrible too.) Health CARE, not insurance needs to be more affordable. It costs 20 to 30 thousand dollars to have your appendix out. This should cost about 10 percent of that to start with.

Political Parties:
All political parties really do is encourage voters to vote blindly based on a label which is often abused by the candidates anyway, so even if the labels were useful, you don't know if they're valid. People should actually have to look at what their candidates do, and vote for, in order to feel qualified to vote for them, but if I had my way this point would be moot, because:

Representative Democracy:
This is terrible. We have the technology to figure out a better way. A way where there are no representatives at all, and people just vote on laws and regulations. Your congressman can't be bribed or bought because he doesn't exist. The only political representatives we have would be vote counters and someone to communicate with other areas but does not actually influence anything further than his ordinary citizen vote. You could set it up so first stage is petition for a change in law, get a certain population to agree, then it comes to a vote.

Shoddy Materials and Construction:
You've heard it said by the elderly. They don't make things like they used to. It's a true statement. Quality is much harder to get than it used to be. This is garbage.

Sports in Academia:
Coaches make way too much money, and schools spend too much money on sports related things. I don't hate sports, but I don't see them as something that should be emphasized so highly in institutes of learning, especially in higher education. Coaches in higher education make an average of a million dollars a year.
CHART - SALERIES

Cost of tuition and why:
HEY LOOK. A GRAPH. COSTS

Prevalence of government surveillance:
This bothers me. I'd like privacy.

Also Airport Security:
I consider it mostly theater that does very little to actually make me safer and I certainly FEEL much LESS safe when I travel because of it. Show me a group of Air Marshals on a plane and I'll show you the guys who would have the easiest time taking it over.

Immigrating/Emmigrating:
Procedure for changing your country of residence and citizenship seem pretty difficult. More so than they should be.

Energy Issues:
I have a sneaking suspicion that we have the means, the land, and the know-how to get clean renewable energy that would be enough to keep the country going, and that we just aren't doing it. Just a hunch.

Smoking:
I just don't see the appeal of starting smoking these days. Why do people start?

The Federal Reserve:
I had an economics teacher in college tell me that he felt the federal reserve does more harm than good when trying to stimulate or put the brakes on the economy. I agree. Throttling it up and down and futzing with interest rates just means we never hit equilibrium.

Paperwork for just about everything these days is more intense than it should be:
Certain people like to ask things on forms that are irrelevant to what their doing and are none of their business.

A vast majority of drug laws:
Most drug laws cause more crime and suffering than they prevent in the same way prohibition did before. Waste of money.

Fiberglass car bodies:
A fiberglass car body is an invitation to vandals. It says "Why bust up the car that dents when you can smash the one that shatters.

Censorship:
There's too much of it. Keeping impressionable minds away from bad stuff is the job of parents. Not the government.

Anyway, I'm done ranting, but if all of this stuff changed, I think the world would be a much better place.

Negotiations, and FONTS. OH MY!

2010-01-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

So, at this point we all know I had surgery. I spent my morning calling several people who don't have the decency to just bill the hospital so that the hospital can bill me. That would make sense to me.

Anywho I was looking for an visually interesting monospace font I wouldn't mind staring at for long periods of time, so I searched around until I came upon "SV Basic Manual". I like it a lot except for one thing... the zero and the capital "O" look EXACTLY the same. So I downloaded FontForge and put a backslash in the zero. I debated on putting a dot in the zero, but in the end I decided I preferred a slash.

Anyway, it's really cool that I can modify my fonts now.

Surgery=$$$ & Comics

2010-01-14T14:20:00.000-08:00

Hey, just wanted to note that my appendicitis surgery would cost me about 20 grand if I wasn't getting some charitable assistance. Surgery is really expensive.

So, I recently was shown this Punisher/Kingpin comic. I am reminded that the Punisher is an asshole. It's not the comic for me because I can't root for a guy who can't see the full spectrum of morality and has no mercy for anyone. Meanwhile the Kingpin is equally ruthless and takes his own vengeance. The difference is, for Kingpin, despite causing a lot of collateral damage trying to attain his goals, revenge is more personal for him. He has some flashbacks where he goes to great lengths to exact vengeance and it is satisfying. The writers do a good job of convincing you that his vengeance is totally just which is much harder to do for Frank when his revenge isn't limited to those responsible for his origins but for every criminal ever. A lot of "superheroes" share this, but Frank almost always takes his methods further than he should.

I will say the Punisher reminds me of Batman. Both have no superpowers when they live in a world filled with super powered folks. Because of this, their stories shine most when you IGNORE the rest of their world. When they get thrown into stories with folks that have actual superpowers they just feel out of place, and those are the stories that end up not being entertaining to me. I feel like the only reason this happens is because of their popularity.

Basically they should stick to their own mythos, and keep their noses out of other hero's business.

Surrender Freeman

2010-01-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been playing the original Half-Life. This is a game I have never played before, actually, despite it's age (Mostly due to being a console gamer and not having a PC). I've played Half-Life 2 and it's associated bits, but it wasn't until my friend gave me a copy of the unreleased Dreamcast version of Half-Life that I've played the original.

This is a game that does not fuck around. What I mean by this is that it is a challenging game. This is okay though, because the challenge is legitimate so far. I've recently launched the Lambda satellite (DECADE OLD SPOILERS EVERYONE) and I'm still enjoying my stay in the WORLD OF HALF-LIFE.

END POST

Best Christmas Ever

2009-12-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

Hey Kids,

I just wanted to tell you all about the wonderful Christmas I had.

Thursday - Christmas Eve:
I begin experiencing severe stomach pain about mid-day. The pain does not stop. I resolve to go to the hospital if it does not go away by morning. I barely sleep.

Friday - Christmas Morning:
Pain is still going strong. My girlfriend and I decide not to wait till mid-day to go get diagnosed. We head to a local diagnostic place that if I did not have something terrible, would be cheaper than going to the ER. Turns out my appendix was mutinying. We go to a real emergency room. Diagnostic place charges us nothing (Sweet).

Painkillers are given. I am unable to give a urine sample due probably to dehydration for several hours. I do manage to eventually pee in a bottle.

There is a surgery which, for those of you who aren't familiar with anesthetics, happens without me realizing it. I am down 1 appendix.

I sleep in the hospital.

Saturday:
I wake up in the hospital. I eat hospital food. I am constantly checked on. I am discharged and given instructions on how to best recover from the surgery.

Best Christmas Ever

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T18:07:00.000-08:00

This is a post about the tiny Christmas tree I have constructed. It is made from a grocery bag, a jarritos soda bottle, some contruction paper, and wrapping paper. Clearly, this is the most glorious thing to ever grace humanity. You weep in wake of this wondrous creation, yes? It's certainly not something you'd expect out of a kindergarten craft project. Certainly and positively not. Perish the thought, if that though even crosses your mind in the first place.

In other news, have I mentioned MSPA on this blog? If I haven't, please do direct your favored browser over to http://www.MSPaintAdventures.com/ .

This end today's broadcast. See you after some pleasant holidays.

Battle Tubes, Apartment Times, DreamCast Woes

2009-10-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings. A lot has happened since last I wrote. Since I live a slow boring life, that means it's been a while. But all you need to do is look at the dates to see that.

------------STEP 1: BATTLE TUBE------------

A while back I wanted to make a document tube to carry my vinyl battle mat to and from tabletop sessions.

The tube was a labor of love. Constructed from 1/4" think, 3" wide PVC pipe painted dark blue with Rustoleum spray paint, and the pipe fittings put permanently into place using PVC cement. Here it is with the battle mat contained within it.

The screw on lid to the pipe, with a 4" threaded rod run through it with coupling hex nuts and acorn nuts attached to form a handle that won't be hard on my hand should I need the extra torque to open it. Acorn nuts are hot glued in place, and there are three nuts stabilizing the handle inside the lid.

And finally the binding posts, brackets taken from 2 door locks (there's another bracket at the bottom of the tube), quick links (again, this same setup is at the bottom of the tube), and the
carrying strap.

Originally I purchased the PVC and metal hardware and had the pieces primed and drilled by my girlfriend's dad. Then I made sure the metal bits fit, took 'em out, and painted the thing. My project was a rousing success.

-------------------------------------------------------

------------STEP 2: APARTMENT------------

I moved into a new cheap apartment. It looks pretty good. I pay very little. Pictures coming eventually.

-------------------------------------------------------

------------STEP 3: DREAMCAST------------

My DreamCast died while playing Worms World Party. I gutted it and want to do something with the case. I have a new DreamCast I purchased from Craigslist.

-------------------------------------------------------

THAT IS ALL.

SuperChill: SuperValu

2009-06-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Recently I found myself at Albertson's and I wanted to grab some soda before playing some D&D. I mistakenly picked up "Mt. Chill" flavored "SuperChill" thinking it was a generic "Sprite" when it was actually a generic "Mountain Dew". I don't consume things with caffeine in them aside from chocolate so this was an unfortunate mistake.

Caffeine aside, "SuperChill" comes in many varieties and is produced by a company called SuperValu. After purchasing the drink I decided to see what flavors they had so I wouldn't make the same mistake again. I did a web search for "SuperChill" hoping to find useful results, and found mentions of the brand as well as beverage chilling devices, but not a list of flavors. I decided to consult the bottle after the web search turned up the "SuperValu" company name I hadn't known before and found where it was on the label of the bottle. They had a different web address on their bottle than the one that came up in the search engine, and I found the address to in fact be not in service. Then they had a customer service number.

I call the number and get a fairly standard set of automated voice command options, none of which are relevant to me, but I am given an option for "More Options". From here I am allowed to summon a customer service representative, although the option for doing so assumed I'm doing something more serious than trying to get a list of flavors.

The rep answers immediately. I get the impression that this number is called very rarely. I was impressed that they were open though, on Saturday at 5pm. The following is a paraphrasing of the conversation to the best of my recollection:

Customer Service Rep (CSR): Hello, SuperValu Customer Care, how may I help you.
Me: I wanted to get a list of the different flavors in your 'SuperChill' beverage brand
CSR: Ok sir, I can look that up for you. You want me to tell you the different flavors of SuperChill, correct?
Me: Correct.
CSR: Ok, first can I get your zip code so we can locate the store nearest you.

I'd like to stop this transcript for a second, just to note that this is already weird now. I don't see why they have to locate a store at this point, but my zip code alone isn't going to hurt me so I give it and they tell me an address of a store and ask me if I shop there frequently. They do not name the store, by the way, and there's a brief exchange about there being a Safeway and some other stores on that street.

She then asks for my name. I give her just my first. She asks for me last, I ask if just the initial is okay, she says yes and I give it. She asks for my addresses, both physical and e-mail. I politely decline to do so.

CSR: Okay. We will contact the store and ask them.

We're pausing again. They put me on hold. My main question at this point?

You have to contact the local store? You don't even know your own brand's flavors, SuperValu? I could've called the local store myself!

Anyway, after a couple minutes the hold music ends and she lists off the flavors of SuperChill available. I find out the variety I want is just called "Lemon-Lime".

Looking back on this whole story, what have we learned?

1. We have learned that SuperValu is an extremely sketchy company that wants my personal information.
2. We've learned that their representatives are not given any information booklets about their own products.
3. We've learned that sometimes when you try to go straight to the source for information you end up getting it from someone lower on the grape vine anyway.

It was a super weird experience, and now I've documented it. Good day.

Allergies, Campaigns, and Moving

2009-06-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

I have got seasonal allergies. Having them is like being sick all the time. Yesterday I took a Zyrtec because Claritin does nothing for me. The Zyrtec did not seem to do anything yesterday when I took it, but I felt really good this morning. That may be due to the pill, or maybe I really was sick and am getting better. I do know I can breath a bit again.

Want to have a convenient place to make notes and store information on your role-playing campaign? Try ObsidianPortal.com. It's good stuff.

Moving month is coming closer. Today I will put in my time off request for the last half of August.

Inter-tubes. YEAH!

Windows 7

2009-05-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my girlfriend and I installed Windows 7 on her laptop. It was a lot easier than I expected. We backed up her important data, got the Windows 7 disk, booted from it, reformatted the hard drive (finally doing away with the 2 separate partitions it had, making it into one), and installed.

So far it's gone flawlessly and I have encountered no problems as of yet. I messed with the control panel and tweaked some performance options, balancing how pretty we want it versus what we don't need; for instance, drop shadows of any kind, I dislike and find to be a waste of resources. On the other hand, smoothing screen fonts is great. We installed Trillian, and Firefox, and some basic stuff.

I'll enjoy seeing how this goes.

Cruel Hearted Man

2009-05-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

I am not one that is very fond of insect or other pests. Ants, mice, earwigs, it doesn't matter, I would not like them in my home. I am unfair to these creatures, because once they are in my home, I am begrudgingly willing to kill them.

I am also a pussy sometimes. Today was one of those times. I spied several bugs in my room. A spider, an earwig, and a daddy long legs. The daddy long legs I did not care about, because I don't think they are very good at biting. The earwig I was worried a bit about, so I cruelly, though quickly, ended its being.

It is unfortunate so much as I would not like to be ended in a similar way, but I fear that insects would escape only to find me in the night and strike.

The spider though, it had me very nervous. I had noticed it and then watched it move its abdomen from side to side in a very concerning way, like a cat about to pounce. With spiders, I always worry a little about the possibility of them being able to jump, and so this little bit of body language had me in sheer nervous terror.

Upon looking back, I think it was actually working some webbing about, but at the time I tried to find the best way to deal with it from a comfortably safe distance. I tried several things which did not satisfy me with their length if the spider were to run and jump at me:

A cane
A giant pencil
A long vacuum hose
Throwing sandals at it

Still, I was intimidated. Then I grabbed for my airsoft gun. I got a good distance and fired. Missed, but not by much. I pulled the trigger again. Jammed.

This is something that happens with my airsoft gun. On single fire it will occasionally jam. Luckily the solution is quick and easy. Switch to auto fire, and the problem is solved.

I switch to auto fire and fire a fair amount of pellets at the spider one at a time. I hit it. Some of its mass moves one direction, apparently on web. Some jerks but remains in place, also on web. From here, it looks like the spider is dead, but I worry it's merely planning its counter assault.

As an aside, it was not doing any such thing, as it was, as I was soon to discover, fairly thoroughly dead.

I approach cautiously. The spider does not move. I discover one of its legs had broken away along with some other bit. Still worried I turned the vacuum on and used the long hose to suck up the spider. I left it on probably longer than needed, for caution's sake. After which, I disassembled the hose, checking each piece for the spider. Then I put the vacuum away.

I wouldn't want it to happen to me.

In other recent happenings, I had a dream, part of which was about a softcore pornographic gunfighting anime with supernatural elements.

There was a part where I was in an FPS and an enemy killed himself by smashing a computer which ran the FPS, to which I said he was "Meta-dead".

The last part I was outside a large house which was apparently mine, overlooking a large, beautiful city with my girlfriend. Out of the sky I saw two red flares heading toward the ground in the city. One of them hit on the edge out by the water and caused an explosion. I didn't see the second hit. There were apparently a bunch of other people around and they started panicking and running. Ayla and I were not exceptions to this as I grabbed her thinking we would need to find a better shelter. I made arbitrary navigation decisions as we ran, mostly to avoid running into people, when I spot my friend Tamlin coming toward us. He says something I don't remember to the effect of knowing where to go and we start following him. He leads us to a small hatch that leads to a shelter and the dream ends right before I get into the shelter, but I was pretty confident I was going to make it. I wake up.

Super Saver Shipping

2009-05-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

So, I pick up this book on Amazon as a gift for a friend of mine. Lots of books qualify for "Super Saver Shipping", but the book is $5.21 short of giving me the option.

"No problem", I think to myself, "I'll find something I want in the 5 to 6 dollar range that's also eligible for 'Super Saver Shipping' ". First I look at dice. Almost no dice qualify for "Super Saver Shipping". I then proceed to look to see if there is a USB keyboard, or USB anything else I can get in that price range.

I find a few things in my price range that do qualify, except that they are being sold at multiple prices, and don't actually qualify at the price range I want after all. I come upon a USB printer cord which I consider because a friend is borrowing mine, but decide that that's stupid because I can just get mine back whenever I want.

I try to find a tabletop roleplaying book I want for the shipping. No luck on anything that peaks my interest. I look at a few toys. I eventually find myself looking in the grocery department.

After combing through literally thousands of search results, I finally find an item that qualifies in my price range that isn't a sex lube or something (this happened repeatedly). Some candy bars. No image available. At this point, it's three in the morning. I add it to my order, and I finish the entire ordeal. Having done this, I would like to offer Amazon some suggestions about their search.

1. Let me filter by "Super Saver Shipping" eligibility
This would have saved me so much time. Hours of time in fact.
2. When I filter by a price range (like $5-$6) please don't ignore those parameters.
Most of the groceries are sold at one price and one price only, yet for some reason, despite filtering by $5-$6, random other items would pop up that were completely outside the range at $10, $20, $30, and even $40 dollars.

That needs to be fixed. During my search, the most frustrating scenario was seeing a product that WAS eligible for "Super Saver Shipping" that was both FAR outside my desired price range, and also something I would never want. This was the majority of "Super Saver Shipping" items. I do not know how these items are selected, but I'd like it if the items selected were less terrible.

Maybe in that little box telling me how much more I'd need to spend to get "Super Saver Shipping" you can have a link that says "Suggestions" that I can click to find items that might finish out my order proper.

Amazon. I love your low prices. I clearly don't love searching for "Super Saver Shipping" items to round out an order.

HERO OF THE IMPERIUM

2008-12-01T16:36:00.001-08:00

So my roommate Tony hands me a Warhammer 40k book, "CIAPHAS CAIN: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM". The reason? We're involved in a "Dark Heresy" tabletop campaign (That's a tabletop RPG based on the 40k universe, kids). He says "Your character reminds me of this guy".

We've only had one session. During that session, while I wasn't sitting idly by doing nothing, I wasn't doing anything I considered exemplary or even out of the ordinary that might distinguish my character from the rest of the group or define my character but for one or two fairly minor exceptions.

Sometimes the little things can define a character quite a bit more than you'd expect.

The book itself is actually pretty good, or at least I'm amused by it. It provides what I'd call a dry humor.

Making Friends With Luck: Part 2

2008-11-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

Part 2 - Appeasing Luck

As I asked in the last installment, how do you appease Luck? To accomplish this, there are two things to keep in mind:

1) Luck wishes to be entertained

2) Luck does not wish to be ignored

Let's start with number 1: Entertaining Luck. Luck will be more likely to favor someone that amuses it. This raises our next important question. What does Luck find entertaining?

Surprises. Things that are unexpected and spontaneous are the the things you can do to entertain Luck. If you can surprise Luck, you may find that Luck will surprise you. Easier said than done, but important to keep in mind.

So, what was all this I said about Luck not wishing to be ignored? How do I pay attention to Luck? By intentionally engaging in activities where something about what you're doing is decided by luck. Board games, tabletop role-playing, gambling, or any activity where Luck plays a role in deciding the outcome. These activities will pay heed to Luck.*

Following these two guidelines you can increase your favor with Luck. I hope you've been amused by what turned out to be a 2 part series. Maybe I'll have more to say about my next subject. This concludes my 2 part series, "Making Friends With Luck".

*As a cautionary note, if Luck does not favor you, or worse yet actively dislikes you, crushing a significant investment you put into a luck based activity undertaken to garner its favor may help it fulfill its desire to be entertained instead. A mix of progress and setback indeed. I do not advocate putting your life or livelihood on the line for any reason, or otherwise taking a risk so large you would not easily be able to recover from its negative consequences.

Making Friends With Luck: Part 1

2008-11-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

Part 1 - Understanding Luck*

*First a disclaimer. This very short series is based upon my own personal beliefs and philosophies and is therefore complete and utter bullshit. If you would like to believe what I believe, know what I believe, or are just interested in the things I might write, read on. Otherwise, disavow any knowledge of my activities.

As you may have guessed by the title I believe in personifications of abstract concepts. The three most important of which that influence your life are Fate, Luck, and Karma.

Karma is the most neutral party. It does not like or dislike (or at least won't act based on such things). It will simply reward and punish appropriately.

Fate is the second in terms of neutrality. Fate's efforts are long term to steer you toward some ultimate goal. Fate may or may not actually bother to influence you. Fate may also occasionally attempt to manipulate Luck's actions, or Karma's methods.

Finally we have Luck. Luck, by process of elimination, is the least neutral party. Luck's plans are generally short term and done for no real rhyme or reason, but you're probably better off if Luck favors you. This is the reason it is important to appease or make friends with Luck.

So how does one go about doing that? Part 2 - Appeasing Luck: Coming Soon.