ISAD

Arrr!! Today be International Scurvey Awareness Day!! So eat a lime already!!

- Cap'n Dewbeard

Pleasing Government Commerce

I heard about this on the radio, and thought it was pretty funny. Apparently the Office of Government Commerce in England ordered the new logo to:

...signify a bold commitment to the body’s aim of improving value for money by driving up standards and capability in procurement.

For £14,000, here's what they got:



... but if you turn it sideways ...



... you get a whole 'nother meaning! I doubt they'll be erecting any signs with the new logo anytime soon. ;-)

German Engineering vs Terrorists

This is worth sharing:



Dude, sucks for him!

Silverlight Einsteinchen

You'll have to install Microsoft's "Silverlight" to see it, but that only takes a second. This website (click the title above) has a bunch of little videos starring a very strange looking character. Einsteinchen demonstrates the theory of relativity in a way that most people can understand. There are 12 videos in all, and they are quite enjoyable.

Now that I've watched them all, I think I'm ready to build my own time machine!

The Time Machine Works!!

I've gone back in time, and am writing this blog entry TWO DAYS BEFORE my "Silverlight Einsteinchen" entry above. Sweeet!!! Now I'm off to buy a lottery ticket. He he he.

Racist Swim Team?

My oldest daughter had her first home swim meet yesterday, and it was a blast. Lots of different races, and lots of kids competing. I got recruited as an official timer for the second half of the meet, which I guess is a normal thing for parents at these things.

Anyway, they are supposed to post the results on their website at some point, so we can see how they did. I know that she did good in the freestyle, but it was hard to know how she compared to the other girls that raced in the other heats. I went to the website, and though the results aren't yet posted at the time of this writing, I noticed an interesting bit of text on their home page:

As a reminder, the Home Meets are intended for WHITE swimmers only.

Sheesh! Harsh enough! I swear I saw kids of all races at the meet!! I'll be sure to make sure THAT doesn't happen at the next one. "Hey, THAT kid isn't WHITE!!! Get her out of the pool!!!"

Um, wait. I think they mean something else. Let's see what the whole paragraph says:

Thank You to all the upper level TMEC swimmers that come to the Home Meet to help out and cheer on your fellow swimmers trying to acheive RED times!!

As a reminder, the Home Meets are intended for WHITE swimmers only. Once a swimmer has achieved a RED time in any event they may not swim in that event at the Home Meets unless they have aged up and need to achieve a RED time in the new age group.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I see. It's a racing thing, not a race thing. Huh??!?!?!

Greeebs.

Dew Monkey!!

adopt your own virtual pet!

Wii Head Tracking

This is VERY cool. I have a Nintendo Wii, but I would never have imagined I could do what this guy did with his:



If I didn't have like a million other hobbies I'm firing up right now, I'd consider trying this out myself!

Click on the title to go to Johnny Lee's Wii Remote webpage to see other cool things.

R.I.P. Gary Gygax

I just learned that Gary Gygax lost his last few hit points this morning. For those of you that don't know, Gary Gygax was one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, and was one of the biggest influences in my young life. I still remember breaking open my "Basic D&D" box, cutting out the die chits, and playing a D&D module (B1?) with my next door neighbor. I never had so much fun in my life, and I still look back at those days with much fondness.

Thank you Gary Gygax, and may you find a new treasure type in the next existence!

Update: No, a 70th level cleric did not resurrect Gary Gygax, but Order of the Stick did do a nice tribute to the dragon lord:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0536.html

Check it out!

AMD Dual Core Optimizer

Ever since I bought my AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core, I've regretted it. Don't get me wrong: I love AMD chips, and have never had a problem before this one. Turns out, that the AMD Dual Core just doesn't play nice with a LOT of things, and this just KILLS all kinds of applications, games, movies, etc.

The typical problem is this: you start an application, and it appears to run very very slowly, or jerky. You get impatient, and pull up the task manager, which takes FOREVER. You discover that your application is utilizing 100% CPU ON BOTH CORES!!! DAMN!!!

My most recent problems have occurred within a cool game called "The Movies", and in Microsoft's XNA Game Studio. After doing some searching, I came across something called an AMD Dual Core Optimizer. The heck is that? Apparently, it helps control the behavior of the chip, when software vendors decide to go around the windows API, and do direct calls (which apparently is the reason for the issue).

Well, I can tell you, I installed this puppy, and all is wonderful again! My XNA is working (mostly), and "The Movies" appears to be playing nice again. If you have an AMD Dual Core, I recommend taking a look at the link above. Be sure you know what chip you have before installing anything though: I can't be held responsible for anything that you might do wrong!! (whew, disclaimer out of the way)

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo

BPPV is the cool acronym you can use, but it still means dizzy dizzy dizzy.

About three nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and the room was spinning around me. Unusual, but not the first time its ever happened to me. A couple of years ago when I had a sinus infection, I was quite dizzy for several days, until I finally got smart, and got some antibiotics.

The odd thing this time around, is that I knew I wasn't congested. I decided to ignore it, and go back to sleep. The next morning, I got out of bed, and the room spun out of control. Before I knew what was happening, I was lying on my back in the middle of the bed, trying to focus on the fire detector on the ceiling. Round and round and round it went for a few seconds, and then everything settled down, and I was back in control.

I got up slowly, and though there was still a little dizziness, it went away quickly. The rest of the day I was fine, and had no further episodes. That is, until I went back to bed that evening. Once again the room spun out of control, and I'm left feeling disoriented and light-headed.

This has continued happening to me now for three days. Of course I'm worried, so I decide to make a fool out of myself, and head to the Urgent care clinic. I explain my condition to the doctor, and he surprises me by immediately recognizing it as a form of vertigo.

To test his theory he applies a technique that is called a Semont maneuver (see link above for details). Essentially, he has me sitting facing the wall, and then lies my head back, and then quickly turns my head to the right. That does it! I'm swimming in vertigo for a good 10 seconds before I land.

The doctor explains that this indicates the problem is in my right inner ear. To prove this, he repeats the procedure, but turns my head to the left. To my surprise, there is no dizziness at all. After allowing me to sit up, and suffer the dizziness again for a few seconds, he explains that I have a mild case of BPPV or Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.

The cause? One common cause is the formation of small crystals of calcium carbonate in the inner ear (also known as "Ear Rocks" - dude, I have Ear Rocks?), and the motion of these particles mess up the normal sensation of balance. One of the most common things that leads to this is a head injury, but since I've not had any such injury, this is unlikely. It is also possible that a virus is infecting my inner ear, though this is less common.

The cure? Its very likely it could go away on its own. Still, the primary treatment for BPPV, is physical therapy. The article linked above describes the therapy (Semont and Epley maneuvers) and is probably what I'll have to undergo, once I have a chance to see my primary physician.

Of course, that's going to have to wait until I return from my trip to Washington DC to install software for clients. Wait until they find out I have Ear Rocks!! Dude!!

TV Tropes Wiki

I came across this website quite by accident (click title above). It catalogs cliches present in our TV and Movie culture, and then gives sample representations. For example, a Squick is described as a "negative emotional response, more specifically a disturbed or disgusted one.". The movie Labyrinth contains a Squick, which the author describes as "a 15 year-old being romantically pursued ("let me rule you!") and watched over by an stretchy pants-wearing goblin king (David Bowie at 39)".

Take a look at some of these others, which define the plots of many movies, tv shows, and even entire series:

• Embarrassing Middle Name
  
• Be Careful What You Wish For
  
• Dead Man Walking

Here's something funny that happened when I first visited the wiki. I tried to go to the home page, and I got this message:

The database hates you right now. The entry might exist or it might not exist. We would clear this mystery up for you, if we could get to the database. We tried to look it up, but the database puked up an error.

I thought that was pretty darned funny.

Elf THIS!

I was wandering through the mountains in my green tights, when suddenly did I come apon some Mountain Dew Elves! See what transpired by clicking on the title link above!

Reflections of a Soccer Mom

When the hard drive on our main computer crashed, we realized that it would take many months, if not years, to realize what all we lost. One thing we learned right away, is that the collection of monthly letters that my wife wrote for our preschool coop newsletter were gone. Some inspirational, others informative, and all with her unique sense of humor. Gone.

Though we could probably dig through stacks of old newsletters, and perhaps find one or two, one thing we knew for sure: we didn't want to lose any more. Besides having a better backup strategy, I realized that maybe a blog could help. It would serve two purposes. It would give us a second place to capture the letters for all time, and give my wife a place to jot her thoughts, and tell her stories. She enjoys writing, and maybe this is just the excuse to do a lot more of it.

There is born the "Reflections of a Soccer Mom" blog. There are only two letters there now, but are worth the read if you have a few minutes. I do realize that I have definite bias towards her work, but I think she is a very talented writer. If I can just get her past the "geek-factor" involved with maintaining a blog, I think it just could work.

Green Towel

Sometimes at my work, employees will send e-mails out to the entire company, without realizing they are out of context. This one struck my funny bone:

I have a green towel at my desk...that is no longer needed...
Thank you.

Red Moon

I went in to work today, and on my drive home, I noticed the nearly full moon as it appears behind a sky of smoke. The colors here are not altered, and this is pretty darned close to the way it looks tonight. I tried a longer exposure, but with the whole earth rotation thing going on, it just ended up like a blur.

I suppose a Red Moon poem would be appropriate here, but I just don't got it in me. I did find a poem online that sounded pretty cool, though its a bit too otherworldly for my taste.

If you have one to share, please do!

Smoke to the South

The winds have died down, but now the smoke is descending on us. This is what we got to see when we got up this morning (looking southeast here - San Diego is due south):



That reddish-orange glow is where the sun is supposed to be. My office is closed again today. Looking to the west, it looks like the end of the world:



So far we've fared pretty well. The most we suffered is a broken tree from the gale force winds we've been having:



Right now, the winds are eerily calm, and there is a kind of unpleasant heat coming from everywhere at once. The smell of smoke is slight right now, but it will likely get worse as it descends on Temecula. I'm surprised they're letting the kids go to school here. At least the lack of wind will help the firefighters do their job.

Wildfires and Santa Ana

Man, these Santa Ana winds are insane. They've already broken off a big chunk of one of my trees in the backyard, and destroyed a couple of EZ-ups in our neighborhood. Still, I'll take that over the fires that are engulfing the areas to the north and south of us right now. There is so much stuff in the air, your eyes water when you go outside, and visibility is terrible.

Right now, I'm just hoping we aren't evacuated, like so many other Southern Californians right now! If these damned winds would just die down, the firefighters could do their jobs.

Substitutiary Locomotion

Treguna...Mekoites...Tracorum...Satis...Dee

Substitutiary Locomotion
Mystic power that's far
Beyond the wildest notion
It's so weird,
So feared, Yet wonderful to see
Substitutiary Locomotion come to me

Treguna, Mekoites, Tracorum, Satis Dee
Treguna, Mekoites, Tracorum, Satis Dee

I don't want Locomotiary Substitution
Or remote Intransecory Convolution
Only one precise solution is the key
Substitutiary Locomotion it must be
Treguna, Mekoites, Tracorum, Satis Dee

Substitutiary Locomotion
Lovely Substitutiary Locomotion
You've made substitutiary history
With Treguna, Mekoites, and a little help from me
With Treguna, Mekoites, and Tracorum Satis Dee

Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum!

Tis true, another TLAPD is apon us! Drink ye rum,



make sure ye software is pirated,


and toss a coin to yer first mate!



Oh, and don't forget to get ye a real pirate name!

- Pirate Walt the Ochre