Well, it’s been a while since I commented on things political. Mostly because my level of disgust with the government has only reached new heights with each passing day, to the point where my statements will quickly degenerate into the equvalent of OMG!!!!111!! Dubya 15 5uch a lam3r!!!11!! suxx0r!!
But this just took my breath away. The scope. The idea. The possibilities for massive abuse. The ease with which one could ruin someone’s life.
In class today, Prof J was talking about how if you include animations and things with user interfaces, you usually also have to include some sort of timing mechanism — you can’t just depend on the clockspeed of the computer, because, obviously, with them increasing at a very fast rate, whatever speed you design for will almost certainly not be the speed at which your UI is running. And it’s very bad if your UI goes faster or slower depending on the computer it’s on. (not counting memory issues, of course.)
This reminded me of an old DOS game that I used to have, called “Bouncing Babies”. It was about this hospital that was on fire, and all of the babies were being thrown out the windows to the firemen below. The firemen had to get their landing mat underneath the falling babies and bounce them into the waiting ambulance. Anyway, our first DOS based machine was an 8088, and we had that for years and years. I finally got a 486 my senior year of high school, and I transported most of our DOS games over to it so I could play them. The vast majority worked just fine, but “Bouncing Babies” — damn, those babies would just shoot out of the hospital like bullets! *splat*
*pokes around* If anyone wants to try it, here it is.
Snow day!
Looking at house listings is really addicting. I have been aware of this for a while, but looking with intentions is even more addicting than just browsing for the sheer fun of it.
Apparently there has been a lot of confusion about what is going on, so I thought I would make a FAQ so I can just point to it when people go off on wild flights of fancy. I will say ‘did you read the FAQ? I didn’t think so.’
The official house buying FAQ
Is J moving with you?
Yes. What might happen later is up to J, but that is the current plan.
Is Thea moving with you?
No. Thea has other plans and you can talk to her about them. Her moving is completely unrelated to ours.
Is E moving with you?
E already owns a place! She doesn’t need to move!
Nashua?! Why don’t you get a place closer to Boston? Haven’t you looked in town XYZ? I’m sure there are places there!
No, there aren’t. You may think there are, but you are wrong. Because interest rates have been so low for so long, it is very hard to find something affordable (read: in our price range) with the amount of space we want. Yes, we could afford something smaller closer to Boston, but that is not why we are moving.
But Nashua is up route 3! Route 3 suxx0r! Why don’t you look near Salem (NH), or on the North Shore?
Yeah, 93 and 128 are soooooo much better than Route 3. Pardon my sarcasm, but have you ever attempted to drive on these roads? Right now, I spend my days driving in a constant triangle between Somerville/Medford, Burlington and Waltham. I have driven to Somerville from 93; I have driven to Burlington down 128 during rush hour. I have driven up route 3 in the middle of the night when half the road was closed and we had to detour through the back roads from hell. Believe me when I say I have considered the traffic patterns in this decision.
But New Hampshire?
Yes, New Hampshire. There are a lot of advantages to living just over the line. Okina will not have to pay state income tax. Car insurance will go down significantly. It will be easier to shop where there is no tax. These are not advantages we would see if we managed to find an affordable place in MA, yet the distance and driving is only about 5-10 minutes more than were we to live someplace like Lowell. Unlike MA, NH has spent the last 5-10 years widening and modernizing its highways — route 3 in NH is 4 lanes wide. The problems are all in MA, so I will run into them wherever we go. This is really the best choice for right now.
Apparently my little brother owns this watch. This watch is also a remote control. It gives him powers which he does not use for good.
* During Spanish class, he amused himself by turning off the television at random times and confusing his teacher no end.
* In the mall, he turned off all of the televisions in Suncoast, again, causing much consternation and confusion.
* In the video rental place, he freaked out the checkout girl by turning the televisions on and off.
(Do we sense a theme?)
* Tonight, at the restaurant we went to, he went into the bar and changed all the channels on the televisions, and then he turned one of them off. Surprisingly, no one seemed to notice.
Yukito: Awww.
Jun: What?
Yukito: Harry and Cho.
Jun smiles.
Yukito: ‘I want your bod, Harry.’
Mikage: Please tell me Cho said that and not Sirius.
Yukito: I could get Sirius to say it and still be IC!
Mikage: ……………………
Jun: She didn’t say that!
Yukito: ‘It would be so nice to have your body, Harry. Mine’s old and flabby.’
Jun: Here’s the pose, K.
Jun: Harry is true to his word and keeps the conversation rather short, promising to call again and meet up before school resumes. Harry turns red at something Cho says quietly, looking incredibly beautiful wearing a teary-eyed smile. “Me, too,” he responds awkwardly, and shortly thereafter, breaks the connection.
Mikage: Lupin knows it’s not flabby.
Jun: Bom chicka bom BOM bom… o/~
Yukito || Sirius ponders dressing Padfoot up as a sexy she-wolf.
Mikage | Lupin HA!s. He KNEW he was the seme.
Yukito || Patfootina dohs!
I’m watching television and this commercial for “Worship Together” and “Songs 4 Worship” came on. And these commercials are disturbing to me on a very fundamental level. While they feature the typical CD commercial musical clips, the visuals are a montage of people listening to the concerts — all wearing completely vacant expressions and swaying from side to side. They look like they’re in some kind of cult.
