I have been sick for the past week, so took the week off from writing. Now that I am starting to feel a bit better, I'll get back to writing. I thought about pre-dating a week's worth of entries, but probably won't. The record may as well show that I was too much of a pansy to post for a week.
So, a quick week in review:
Had to work last weekend to hit a deadline this past Monday
The Girl has been battling a cold for a week or so
Woke up Monday feeling like crap (as did The Wife)
Stayed home Tuesday sick as a dog
Worked from home Wednesday
Made it to the office Thursday and Friday, but felt pretty crappy
A few late, late nights of work
No workouts all week
Anyway, more stuff will come once I am able to sort through a bunch of ideas and get it all out there.
Qwyzzleis a big brainteaser. It's pretty addictive if you are into this sort of thing, but getting it to work properly can be a challenge. Many hints are provided in the status bar, but recent versions of Firefox and IE seem to have some problems with them. Today, I had more success with IE than with Firefox. I completed it a couple years ago. I recall that I went to help sites a couple times, but was able to do most of it on my own (I used Google a fair amount, but avoided cheat sites.)
not pr0n seems to be a geek's brainteaser. It took me a while to get through level 2, but levels 3 through 6 were much easier. I have really only started this, but it looks like good fun. To give you an idea about the addictive nature of not pr0n, I have had to edit the preceding sentence three times in the past half hour. It started as "3 and 4", then was "3 through 5" and finally the version you see. Now I have to force myself to go to bed. Work to do tomorrow.
Note that unlike samorost (which I blogged a few days ago), these brainteasers are easy to pause. Just bookmark the last page you get to and you can jump right in at that point any time you want.
Today's Video If you are still reading this, then you are probably at least a little bit of a geek. Here is a video about a really special set called the Mandelbrot set. I know that a video about a set sounds like a pretty boring idea, but this video is pretty nifty. The Mandelbrot set is...well...er...um.... Forget it. I won't bother trying to explain it since this video does a far better job than I could ever do. Be sure to listen to the lyrics.
A friend of mine and I have a running joke. We sometimes refer people as "well-spoken." This is something that he and I have heard fairly often. Usually it comes up in the context of someone who is black or an athlete (especially both) who is able to speak in standard English.
The phrase "well-spoken" seems to be our culture's code for "I expect him to be dumb as a doorknob, but he speaks standard English, so he must be smarter than most people like him." When referring to someone who is black, it can translate roughly as "he doesn't speak in Ebonics, so he must not be as ignorant as most negros." OK. Maybe that is too harsh as a ridiculous generalization, but that's how I often interpret it. Frankly, in many contexts it says more about the person saying it than it does about the subject.
I've heard this phrase used with athletes, broadcasters, and politicians. I'm sure some people have used it to describe me since I speak in standard English. As a matter of fact, my Ebonics is really bad. Any time I try to "go ghetto" in my speech, it sounds absolutely ridiculous. It's kinda like Carlton Banks from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air trying to be tough. It just doesn't work.
Some truly special people can go back and forth between speech that works in predominantly black groups and speech that is considered "well-spoken." I really respect these people. Being able to play to your audience is a tremendous skill to have. On the other hand, I am just a well-spoken negro.
BTW: Checkout jblocksom's comments on yesterday's post on Presidential Dreaming. The links he posted are quite excellent.
The Day
Workout: leg raises
Music: Beethoven, Kraftwerk, Bjork
Video Nugget Autobahn is one of the most unknown great and influential albums of all time. Kraftwerk were on the bleeding edge of techno music with this. All synth-driven funk and pop music owes a debt to these guys.
Obama and Clinton's success in the democratic primaries has energized lots of people. One woman actually said to me that their success makes her "proud to be a democrat." The republicans are putting up the same old white men while the dems are putting up a face of diversity.
This sort of thing makes me think back to a famous quote:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I am happy for Hillary and Barack, but I can't wait for us to move past the novelty stage and on to the time when we really are energized by the quality of the candidates' ideas and plans. It seems like many people are excited about the idea of Hillary or Barack. Breaking down barriers is important, but so is having a really good president who has the ability to make and implement great plans.
I'm not saying that Hillary or Barack are not good candidates, but I hope that we can move on to really address their ideas, plans, and ability to lead instead of being infatuated by what they stand for. I have opinions about their abilities in these areas, but am not going to turn this into a political forum (at least not yet.) Rather, I just want to encourage people to think of the candidates as more than symbols.
That's right. I'm addicted. It's early in the addiction, so it hasn't yet caused me real problems...yet. I still have my job, my kids, my wife. I've noticed that my physical fitness is starting to slip, and my diet is going downhill, but it hasn't gotten really bad yet. Down the line, I might look back on these days fondly. The days before my addiction wrecked every aspect of my life. I am almost looking forward to my flight out to rehab in California at the end of my episode of Intervention. The recovery process won't be pretty, but ultimately I will be healthier.
I am addicted to... My Queue. That's right, Netflix has me in its grasp and if addiction to my Netflix Queue is wrong, I don't want to be right. Every time I go to Netflix, I am presented with recommendations. I keep on rating movies so Netflix can improve recommendations. The ultimate goal is for every recommendation that Netflix serves up to me to be perfect. No duds. This is clearly unreachable, but my pursuit still drives me to visit the site at every opportunity. The problem is that Netflix's catalog is deep and goes way back. We're not just talking about all the movies I've seen in the last decade (which is a really small number), but pretty much every movie I have ever seen. So much to rate. So little time.
As the Netflix recommendations improve, I keep adding to my queue and that provides an entirely different challenge: sorting the queue. It's like being a DJ. Choosing the movies is not so tough. Figuring out the right order is really tough. Should Hotel Rwanda come before or after The Bellboy? These are the choices that test me every day.
Anyway, I wish I could say that I need to get back to work or to my family, but the truth is that I just realized that I haven't entered ratings for Repo Man, Yellow Submarine, or The Sound of Music.
After a while, you can get used to little blemishes. For instance, we had gotten used to having no fake drawer in front of our sink. I actually liked the convenience of not having to open anything when I wanted to toss a grocery bag under the sink, but I knew the convenience had to come to an end someday.
We were surprised when Doug called this morning, but the day had finally come to install the fake drawer (which flips out to hold sponges.) The kitchen renovation is completely done.
The renovation was quite the adventure, but we absolutely love the end result. It fits our lives really well. It's not the biggest or fanciest kitchen around, but it is perfect for us.
I'm going to try to get into a rhythm with my posts. To start with, I think Fridays are good for posting web stuff. I have found some fun and/or interesting stuff over the past few years and can share them here once a week.
A few years ago, a friend at work sent me a link to a "game" of sorts. When you open it, it hardly even seems like a game. It looks like some odd work of art or maybe the opening sequence before a game starts. It's subtle, but once you get into the groove, it's really neat. This is not a game with much action. It's all about exploration and persistence and enjoying a rich environment.
samorost was developed by a really talented guy in Prague.
Now there is a sequel that is equally intriguing: samorost 2
These games are really cool, but be careful because they can be addicting.
