Monday, August 25, 2008
NASA's famed Endeavor shuttle took this gorgeous self-portrait.
Here's one of NASA's leading engineers testing the extender-arm self-picture-taking apparatus:
Endeavor Reaches Out its Arm, Takes MySpace-Style Self-Portrait
McCain staffer disses D&D
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
McCain staffer disses D&D players:
"It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others."I would like to officially announce my membership to the "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd". If only some enterprising nerd had made a t-shirt for me to wear proudly, advertising my membership.
::SHOCK AND SURPRISE:: Someone DID!
No Caffeine: Day 1
Monday, August 18, 2008
I've decided to not drink any coffee this week. I'm not doing this for any particularly noble purpose, or to improve my health. In fact, I'm doing it so that my coffee next week will actually work: at an average of 3 cups a day every day for the last 3 months, all that the coffee is doing is battling my withdrawal symptoms. (Peter actually coincidentally posted about this the day I decided to destroy my life by quitting)
So here's my first day without caffeine:
8:30 am: Preparing for withdrawals by substituting the oral fixation. Made english muffin with plenty of butter, and warm vanilla soy milk.
9:00 am: I'm definitely drawn to the carafe.
....Updates as they come
Winner of the Annual Bad Writing Contest
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Every year, a contest is held for 'Worst opening line to a fictitious novel'. Here's this year's winning entry:
"Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."It's called the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" famously begins "It was a dark and stormy night."
**UPDATE**
Here's my entry:
"The leaves fell in crimson unison, fluttering in synchrony with the currents and eddies of his stride as he sailed on along the park sidewalk with jaded indifference to the surrounding red beauty -- his lust for autumn now a flaccid and dysfunctional memory that no blue pill could ever revive, even for a few hours."
Link to Yahoo news article
Fox Host Refuses to Discuss Russian Invasion of Georgia
Monday, August 11, 2008
In reference to my previous post on the Russian invasion of Georgia a few days ago, Peter wrote a funny (though sadly accurate) comment:
"We should be used to this...the bush administration has been 'keeping the peace' in Iraq since 2003."Joking aside, we apparently are used to this. Or at least, this Fox News host is; despite the interviewee insisting he talk about substantive issues like the conflict, he seems far more interested in the recent John Edwards affair scandal:
Fox News host avoids Russia-Georgia topic
I don't really watch TV these days. Is this battle being covered at all by the national news? I don't get the impression that it is.
150 Russian Tanks Have Entered Georgia
Friday, August 8, 2008
Russia is invading Georgia as we speak.
Russia has had peacekeepers in Georgia since 1992. Apparently, according to Russia, the Georgian peacekeepers opened fire on the Russian peacekeepers within the last 24 hours.
Now, war is no laughing matter -- but I don't think I could have come up with a more ironic statement if my life depended on it.
Peace be with those that die from this.
Bad-ass SpaceX CEO on the 3rd Launch Failure
Thursday, August 7, 2008
In case you're unaware, the 3rd launch attempt of the SpaceX Falcon rocket failed last week, losing a DoD satellite, 2 NASA satellites, and the ashes of 209 people including Scotty from Star Trek (why on earth did they put his ashes on a high-risk test launch?).
In case you're really unaware, SpaceX is a company led by PayPal founder Elon Musk whose goal is to make space transportation faster, and 10 times cheaper. They've had 2 other failed launches, but Musk is not giving up.
Wired Interview with Elon Musk
To be honest, the real reason I'm posting this is because of Elon's truly bad-ass quote about failure:
I wish all CEOs were this awesome.Wired.com: How do you maintain your optimism?
Musk: Do I sound optimistic?
Wired.com: Yeah, you always do.
Musk: Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.
Google Maps' Street View Now Covers Santa Barbara!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Here's State Street.
Here's the face of Gibraltar.
Here's my high school.
I've been waiting for this for awhile. If you haven't seen Google Maps' Street View feature, it's incredibly scary incredible. Google basically drives around and takes pictures of everything and uploads it to Google Maps, giving you a complete, search-able, pictographic tour of a city.
It started with only big cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, etc. Well now it's come to lil' ol' Santa Barbara*. Even Ventura and Ojai!
Can you find yourself?
*Props to Lauren for pointing this out to me
My Name Featured on the Onion News Network
Sunday, August 3, 2008
I have a friend named Dan who works for The Onion, the most hilarious fake news on the planet. About a year ago, he used his massive influence in the organization to get me my name featured on two of the episodes of the Onion News Network, a spin-off of CNN.
In fact, Dan himself has appeared in the ONN as I just discovered this morning perusing their site:
("Steve Campbell" AKA Dan, at 0:50. "Campbell", btw, is the last name of one of my best friends from Ojai)
Study Finds Young People Remain Apathetic About Office Politics
Here are the two videos:
("Rachael" at 0:53. Me at 0:55. Our high school english teacher "Laura Bickford" is also featured)
'Students First In Line' Program To Offer Job Training At Needy Schools
("Pvt. Donnie K" spoken and displayed at 0:30)
Messages From Our Troops To The Families They Can Barely Remember
**Edited post to omit my name... Google's web spider is just too damned efficient.
James Buchanan Got a New Haircut
"Indeed! -- my collar is protruding upwards; this due, in part, to my belief that others should admire how muscular in physique, and fair of skin, I am. And if the fair ladies of the court, having gazed on my lustrous countenance, should not appreciate the novel cut of my locks, I do proclaim them tarts. Frilly tarts. Tarts." -- James Buchanan.
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