Category: general

[Edit 5:00 pm]: OMG!!! Look at the art on discs 1 and 6!

Whoever put this box set together really knew their stuff!

(You may interpret the cause of the blurriness of those pictures as excitement, not laziness.)

Another quiz. Sue me. I hate dispatching ;>

You scored as Elizabeth I. I am Queen Elizabeth I of England. I am sometimes vain of my appearance, but usually level headed, though I have inherited my father’s temper. I like to put on a performance. I have a way with languages and with words. I can inspire my subjects. I also accept the counsel of those who would advise me, though I stay true to my own opinions. Elizabeth I 88% Cleopatra 79% Xena, Warrior Princess 75% Boudicca 63% Joan of Arc 33% Which Female Heroine Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

In an attempt to ensure that I wouldn’t have to do it, my coworker didn’t tell me she needed someone to cover her shift. When all her backup choices failed, this meant that I was the only one available to work. I had, literally, zero notice.

I’m glad this didn’t happen yesterday. I probably would have strangled her.

This is an interesting quiz.

You scored as Northern Virginia. Just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the nation’s capitol, Northern Virginia is the place to be if you want to meet new people, work hard, and keep up on your politics. Welcome. Northern Virginia 75% Northwestern Washington State 69% Guam 63% Puerto Rico 56% Fallon, Nevada 56% Southern California 25% Where Should You Live? (US) created with QuizFarm.com

I meant to mention yesterday how absolutely fucking brilliant that day’s Penny Arcade was, but I never got around to it. Today, as I check the site, I see that there are apparently many people out there who don’t understand satire.

That’s really all I can think to say. I mean, satire is practically the cornerstone of Western civilization. Most people speak sarcastically on a daily basis.

I’m not sure where these stupid people came from, but as is tradition, they emerged in force.

Luke linked today to The Gender Genie, which purports to be able to tell your sex (gender?) based on your prose. I submitted my most recent post, which I will readily admit was influenced by Stephen R. Donaldson’s writing style, and got the following:

Words: 344

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 247

Male Score: 784

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

When I clicked the link to tell it that it was wrong, I got the following note in a pop-up:

That is one butch chick.

The window went on to helpfully mention that

According to Koppel and Argamon, the algorithm should predict the gender of the author approximately 80% of the time.

I figured I’d try another post, so I picked my ramble about Aishiteruze Baby. Here are the results:

Words: 908

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 1538

Male Score: 1531

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: female!

Okay, so, I’m only a woman by a matter of seven points. Guess I blog like a guy!

Next I thought I’d shift gears and try a short story.

Words: 1482

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 2271

Male Score: 1592

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: female!

Ah-ha! (Though I’m concerned about whether I picked the correct option. Fiction? Nonfiction? I mean…it’s nonfiction. It happened. But I wrote it for my fiction class, because I’m a n00b. Regardless, I put “nonfiction” in, so there you go.)

Okay, one more test…this time from a diary entry from when I was 13.

Words: 859

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 1754

Male Score: 1638

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: female!

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THIS!!!

It would appear, inconclusively, based on this tiny smattering of data, that I sound the most like a woman when I am storytelling rather than rambling. Good to know!

(This post will seem odd to all but a very few of you. All will be explained in time.)

This morning I was driven to the most desperate, urgent point of nerves, enough that I felt sick, enough that small things irritated me and I raised my voice at a wonderful lady, enough that I left curtly and slammed the door, enough that I cursed, loud and long, as I threw myself into my car and drove to the post office.

I had to fight to keep from yelling as I sneered at a woman who parked close to the door. Unlike you, I can manage to walk more than ten feet, I spewed at her mentally, wheeling into a space across the way. Striding into the post office, I labored for control of myself, clutching the thin parcel in my arms as if it could somehow give me strength.

It wasn’t long before I was forcing politeness to the lady at the counter, paying her with my check card, and finally moving out of the building and back to my car.

And then I burst into tears.

Nervous! I realized, and said aloud, “I’m nervous!” The nausea, the snappishness, the anger over inconsequential things…I knew, dimly, that I was going to have to apologize to my coworkers, but at that point I was too gripped with the knowledge of my emotions to ponder on it.

Nervous! I sobbed and stopped myself, repeatedly, as I drove away from the post office, up Old Evans Road, and turned left on Washington. I chose to drown my fear in a McRib sandwich and a low-fat Berry Berry smoothie. It was very difficult not to cry at the drive-thru.

Now, I’m calmer. But that desperation still thrums within me, making me restless. I won’t know something until next week, and even then it will only be preliminary. My mind is filled with the word Please.

Please. Please see what I see. See that this is perfect, this is how things should be. Let me have my dream.

You scored as Hermione Granger. You’re one intelligent witch, but you have a hard time believing it and require constant reassurance. You are a very supportive friend who would do anything and everything to help her friends out. Hermione Granger 85% Draco Malfoy 75% Harry Potter 75% Ron Weasley 70% Albus Dumbledore 65% Ginny Weasley 65% Sirius Black 60% Remus Lupin 55% Severus Snape 50% Lord Voldemort 25% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is…? created with QuizFarm.com

Look how close I came to being Draco Malfoy! And isn’t it interesting that he and Harry are tied in my personality?

I wonder if there’s a “Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Alter Ego” quiz.

Probably not.

(If there was, though, I bet I’d be Atiaran…:P)

I’m tired and crabby. That alone would be okay I guess. But as I was leaning over to read the teeny tiny print on the new Famous Dave’s menu updates, I felt a sudden surge of bile in my throat, and I coughed and swallowed at once.

Now I feel just like Thomas Covenant during the beginning of the Quest, when Drool kept reaching out and “biting” him with the power of the Staff of Law. I’m afraid to move or cough improperly lest I feel like vomiting. I even had to put a post-it over the picture of Dave on this menu, because he’s holding a huge rack of ribs and his mouth is wide open, and the sight makes me sick to my stomach.

So yes, I would rather be at home, reading Lord Foul’s Bane, than here, squinting at small print and editing database entries.

Ah well. Such is life.

It’s hard to remember all the way back to the 1990s, but a new club in Greenwich Village called Nerveana can help.

Check out the list of curiosities people will find in the place. Here’s one example:

A facsimile of Lewinsky’s semen-stained blue dress, used as evidence in the impeachment of Clinton, is encased in glass with a chewed-up cigar on the floor beside it.

Classy.

But what I want to know is…where’s the homage to Friends?

But before you get too excited,

Search engine analyst Charlene Li of Forrester Research said Google’s latest innovation is likely to disappoint many people because it doesn’t provide a direct link to watch the previously broadcast programming.

Google instead is displaying up to five still video images from the indexed television programs, as well as snippets from the show’s narrative. The search results also will provide a breakdown on when the program aired and when an episode is scheduled to be repeated. Local programming information will be available for those who provide a ZIP code.

It’s still a good feature, but I have to admit that I assumed I’d be able to watch previously aired episodes when I skimmed the Slashdot post. (That’s why I was filled with disbelief, until I actually read the story.)

I’d like to know how they are going to do this. I mean, really. I can understand how the text search is going to work, by using raw data from closed captioning information, but how are they getting the still images? How do they decide what “snippets” to publish? While most of the other stuff may already be available to them in the form of licensed/subscription-based television information from the networks, I’m not sure about these two items. Is somebody going to be doing this by hand? If so, who? If not, will some program do it randomly? I’m not sure what the usefulness would be of that.

I actually kind of like this idea:

San Francisco, which has long prided itself on environmentally friendly policies, is debating whether it should become the first U.S. city to tax grocery bags to encourage recycling.

On Tuesday, the city’s Department of the Environment will vote on whether to recommend a 17 cent fee on each bag, be it paper or plastic, in an effort to curb the use of an estimated 50 million bags a year in the Californian city.

I have no problem with purchasing my own cloth bags (or whatever) to carry groceries in. My concern is how easy it would be for the various stores to implement procedures allowing for people who bring their own bags. At my local Wal-Mart and Bi-Lo stores, for example, there are these fabulous spinning columns of plastic bags, extremely easy to use and convenient. There is literally nowhere else for groceries to go. Unless you could manage to place a cloth bag into each plastic bag section before the cashier finishes scanning your first item, I’m not sure how this would work.

Essentially, right now it’s easier and it causes less trouble to simply use the bags the store provides. If something like what San Francisco is proposing is actually going to work, store infrastructures have to be changed so that people who want to use their own bags don’t end up holding up the line.

…Reuters.

The price of starting your morning commute in a warm car during Eastern Canada’s recent cold snap could easily have been making your vehicle a hot car in the hands of organized thieves, Toronto police say.

Gah!

Recently I’ve needed two things done that I don’t normally deal with. I was expecting them to be big hassles. The first thing was getting a photo made. The second was getting a nice printout of a document.

For the photo, I discovered I was able to upload it directly to Walmart.com. I did so this morning, and picked up the print after work. Perfect!

For the document, I was planning to take a file over to FedEx Kinko’s, and I went to their website to see what media I should store it on. There I discovered the new “File, Print FedEx Kinko’s” application. Holy cow that is cool!

This is a great time to be alive, people.

Two links via Slashdot this morning.

Scientific American: Making Memories Stick

53-keys New Standard Keyboard