Friday, December 30, 2005

Bad Snow Day

I completely forgot about this. This is a Flash animation I created earlier in the year - I thought it was fitting for this time of the year (for those of you who believe in snow).

You'll probably want to use the controls on this page to stop the music playing before checking out the Flash animation.

Enjoy!

P.S. I'm taking it easy for a few days. I was so extremely stressed over the holidays (not because of the holidays, though) that I developed an ear infection, and last night was the first time in several days that I have slept more than about 5 hours (I got almost 8 hours last night). I am going to crash early tonight and sleep in late tomorrow. Maybe we'll get a good thunderstorm for New Years.

I have been hearing rumblings that the place I interviewed with will be making me an offer, soon, so I am confident I will be working again. If and when that happens, it is likely that my blog activity will be reduced to an "intermittent at best" status as I will be working hard over the next year to pay off some debts and advance my career while continuing to take evening classes. And, since I got an electric park flyer R/C airplane for Christmas, I will likely be spending my free time flying (to catch up for lost time).

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

What Year is This?

I need to find an audience for my Computer Circus blog. Got a couple new entries to add, soon.

Anyway, today I thought I'd do the end-of-year questionnaire thing. I will defer any references to my...ahem...Christmas experience for another time. But for now, you may ponder the following:

1) Was 2005 a good year for you?
Time will tell.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
Swimming in the Yuba River.

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
When the cops came to settle an argument. Although, it wasn't the cops that bothered me so much as the argument...or the neighbor who called the cops.

4) Where were you when 2005 began?
You're asking me about something that happened a year ago when I can't even remember if I fed the cats this morning?

5) Who were you with?
If I was with anybody, it had to have been my wife.

6) Where will you be when 2005 ends?
I have no idea. Probably at home either in bed or on the computer.

7) Who will you be with when 2005 ends?
Myself and the two cats. My wife will be in Indiana.

8) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2005?
My what?

9) Do you have a new years resolution for 2006?
My goal is to stop saying "I can't" and "I don't know" and, instead, say "I can" and "I'll find out."

10) Did you break up with anyone in 2005?
Almost. There were tough times that made me consider divorce. But oddly enough, we're now closer than ever. How does that happen?

11) Did you make any new friends in 2005?
A few nice people online while blog hopping.

12) Who is your favorite new friend?
Well, Kayla and Zoe if you count the cats. I don't play favorites.
They're all good.

13) What was your favorite month of 2005?
The warm one.

14) Did you travel outside of your country in 2005?
No. Thank the gods and the howling mutant space worms of Kwooda.
I hate to travel.

15) What different states did you travel to in 2005?
Define "states". States of mind? States of confusion? States of anxiety? I went to Arizona. And it's a pretty different state. I visited my home town and it was good. I miss the desert. I just don't miss the traveling part.

16) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2005?
Define "lose". I lost my wife a couple of times - once in a department store and once in a restaurant.

17) Did you miss anybody in the past year?
Define "miss". Never mind - I'll pass on that pun. Seriously, I miss my buddy Max, a cat that was truly a friend.

18) What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2005?
I might have a clue if I could remember what I saw. There was a cool Batman movie I saw not too long ago. And the Aviator. Then there was a cute movie, called something like Just Like Heaven. And when did Spiderman 2 come out? That was great in the theater. I have no sense of time, so I'm sure most of the movies I remember came out before 2005.

19) What was your favorite song from 2005?
Not a clue, but I'd probably know it if I heard it again...if I have one.

20) What was your favorite record from 2005?
Record? Do they still make records?

21) How many concerts did you see in 2005?
None. I'm not a concert-goer. I think I've seen two concerts in my life, and I can't remember what the first one was.

22) Did you have a favorite concert in 2005?
No. Should I?

23) Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2005?
Not a drop. Never have. Probably never will. Why ask?

24) Did you do a lot of drugs in 2005?
What a strange question. Who would want to know, care to know, and why?
I don't do any kind of drugs and I never have - I'm even hard-pressed to
take medication, and have to be hurting pretty bad to even take an ibuprophen. Now I suppose you are going to ask me how much sex I have had. C'mon, people - there's more to life than sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. Just look up at the night sky and let your mind wander - no drugs required! There's an entire universe out there with countless interesting and fascinating places, most of which we'll never get to see. If you can imagine it, it is probably out there. Also, what's more trippy than taking an idea and bringing it into physical reality? Create something! The mind is an amazing thing if you let it be. Why distort it with drugs?

25) How many people did you sleep with in 2005?
Oh, now there's a surprising question. Dare I dignify it with an answer? I guess I will: One. And it's not such a lonely number if that "one" is somebody else.

26) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
Absolutely.

27) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2005?
"The engine is good."
Or maybe it was, "the router works fine."

28) Did you treat somebody badly in 2005?
Yes, I admit it. But I'm not proud of it.

29) Did somebody treat you badly in 2005?
I think so. But there may be some disagreement there between the parties involved.

30) How much money did you spend in 2005?
What kind of a question is that? I don't have any money to spend. It all comes from my wife and goes to the landlord, the power company, the phone company, food, and gasoline. What did I miss?

31) What was your proudest moment of 2005?
Getting through this job interview yesterday. I think I nailed it!
We'll see.

32) What was your most embarrassing moment of 2005?
When I sneezed and my left eye popped out. Oh, wait - that wasn't me. Probably when I accidentally locked myself out of the apartment while wearing a dress. Oh, wait - that wasn't me, either. Hmm. I'm not sure - I don't embarrass easily (actually, I do, but it's too embarrassing to admit). I can't remember an embarrassing moment. Sorry. I just can't think of anything. This is so embarrassing. WAIT! OF COURSE!! HOW COULD I FORGET?! My most embarrassing moment was when I broke my hand by punching a door because I was PISSED at the computer.

33) If you could go back in time to any moment of 2005 and change something, what would it be?
I wouldn't punch the door.

34) The best thing that happened to you in 2005?
I'll never tell.

35) What are your plans for 2006?
Plans? Oh, geez - is it 2006 already? I'd like to invent something and make a lot of money so I can get off the damn computer.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

What's in Your Tree?

Friday, December 23, 2005

Long Time No See

Remember Voyager? Funny, I was just thinking about it a couple days ago. I had no idea the mission was still operating.

Well, Merry Christmas, everyone! I'm going to be away for a few days...but I'm not going as far as Voyager.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Funny Christmas

I haven't done any Christmas shopping, yet. I thought I'd wait for the after-Christmas sales, first.

Actually, I have a hard time thinking up gift ideas. But I thought of an idea for my wife. She has been stressed out a lot lately and is often quite serious about things in general and doesn't laugh a lot, so I thought I would load her up with humor for the holidays. That's the idea for the theme, anyway.

Anybody have any recommendations for humorous books and videos and whatnot?

Friday, December 16, 2005

Strange Thoughts

I'm having strange thoughts again. Not that that is unusual. But this, I thought, was particularly strange.

If you took a tissue sample from an umbilical cord, who's DNA would you find? Would it contain the DNA of the mother or of the baby? And just where does the mother end and the baby begin? Do fetuses ever die because their bodies reject the umbilical cord? If I take a tissue sample of my belly button, might I find some of my mother's DNA there?

Inquiring minds and all that...

Thursday, December 15, 2005

I've Been Busy

With what, you ask? My other blog tells all.

Well...maybe not all. Like I said, I've been busy.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

For The Love of Ideals

While eating "breakfast" this morning (breakfast for me is barely still in the morning) I caught part of a show on cable TV about intersexed people - people who are born with obscure genetalia. It is very interesting to me just how ingrained this idea of sex is on our culture (and presumably most cultures), especially considering this idea that there is only male and female and nothing in between.

I haven't seen much in nature that is so black and white.

Why sex (and "gender") would be any different is beyond me. I don't understand people who get so bent out of shape about other people who are "different" - as if we should all be the same. Variety is the spice of life, as they say, and I have always believed that. And I have always strived to be different in many ways - mostly in an effort to stand out in some way (despite my efforts to physically hide from people in general).

It is no surprise that some people grow up screwey, considering all the mixed messages we get while growing up. "You've got to fit in." "You'll never get anywhere unless you stand out among the crowd."

Imagine growing up with obscure genetalia. "Is it a boy or a girl?" "Uh, well, it's kind of hard to tell." We have "he" and "she" built into our language to plug people into only two categories, and if someone doesn't fit, then it is almost as if one has given birth to a giant hideous fly larvae. "WHAT IS IT?!"

If it's not one or the other, it must be fixed! At least that seems to be how most people have dealt with it in the past. How sad. I'd hate for someone else to have to decide what I am for me if I were in that situation. Yeah, life is hard, but to have to live through unnecessary surgeries and psychological mumbo jumbo as a result of society's unwritten requirement to conform would be a hideous nightmare. Talk about stripping away one's identity before they have a chance to discover it!

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea.

The general understanding and perceptions and ideals of the culture must bend to embrace that which is different - to recognize the benefit of variety, all variety, that nature dishes up. It is an ailment of society that creates problems for those who are different - it's not those who are different that are the problem (unless they are murdurous psychopaths or something harmful like that).

Why is it so against the rules to accept differences? It is that which is different that has allowed us (and all living things) to survive and evolve and grow. I just don't understand why people insist on defining this extreme dichotomy between the sexes, yet reject any notion that there could be anything in between (and much less have it be OK). There is a whole spectrum of people who fall somewhere in between. There is no pure male or pure female creature on this planet. We all start out the same in the womb before the paths begin to split, and who knows just how much of our behavior and preferences are determined by our chromosomes and our brain structure, etc. As complex as we are, it is amazing to me that any two people even compare similarly.

I think the real problem is with the ideals of what constructs define what a "man" is or what a "woman" is, conceptually, than what a person actually is. And a person's physical characteristics may not match up with their mental and psychologial inclinations. When that happens, we get someone we call "transsexual" who decides to transition to living a life of the opposite sex. But what if society allowed all the gray area in between to exist and be OK in the world? Would a "transsexual" still want to switch, or could they find a way to just be who and what they are, as is?

It all is apparently a very complex issue. Understandably. Especially when there is this "holy book" (or two) that people invest a great deal of religious conviction in, that suggests that it is somehow an abomonation if one, say, wears the clothing of the opposite sex. On the program, someone even was quoted as saying that God doesn't make transsexuals. Funny, but I've always heard from religious people that God created everything. What a hypocrite.

We are all what we are, and life is about discovering that. No one decides to be gay or transsexual or otherwise intersexed (or even "normal" - in fact, "normal" people don't even think about the issue, since they're not challenged by it). You think some child born with obscure genetalia asked to be that way? You think a little boy who likes to wear skirts asked to be that way? I'm pretty sure I didn't ask to be born with a love of chocolate and a hatred for onions. But I sure didn't know whether I liked them or not until I tried them. I didn't choose.

It's nobody's choice.

What I really can't comprehend is the complete hatred some people have for others who are different. Someone stabbing a gay person 30 or 40 times, then setting them on fire. Just because they're gay. What could possibly possess someone to have that much seething, pure, evil hatred within them that would drive them to sacrifice their own future just to put an end to this other person (may as well be a thing) who is different? What could be so threatening? I could do that to someone who was coming at me with a weapon, intent on taking my life, but to just go out and kill someone because I didn't like something about them - that would just be sick. That would be like me walking into a library and shooting someone 17 times in the face for reading a book about Chupacabras because I hate Chupacabras.

Where's the logic? Where's the sense? Where's the humanity?!

Ah, well. Who has the answers? I don't know, but it's 4:17 and just about lunch time, so I'm going to go grab a bite and see what's on TV.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Putting a Face to the Name

I guess I have been ranting and raving all this time and many of you didn't (and maybe still don't) have a clue what I look like. I guess it is always good to put a face to a name (or visa versa).

Here is a picture of me from last year. I stole this from my other blog (Computer Circus) and embellished it a bit, but here's a mug shot for those who want a closer look.



My hair is a bit longer now, but that will change, soon. Anyway, at least now you know what I look like if you didn't before. I don't know about you, but I thought that I bore a slight resemblance to a certain Star Trek NG character in this particular photo (hence, the comparison). If you're not a Star Trek fan, don't worry - it's just a TV show.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Some Pictures. Maybe?

Well, I discovered Flickr, but it seems to be in need of some serious UI engineering. I don't know if this will work (since I'm not sure HOW this works, yet), but I tried to put some pictures up from my recent trip to Tucson. There aren't many pictures, because we didn't take many pictures. But Flickr is kind of confusing and tends to put pictures in some kind of random or reverse order, depending on what you click on. I'm not even sure anyone but me can get to the photos...but give it a try and let me know.

Here is the link.

Speaking of pictures, we cleaned out some things and discovered a couple of unidentified rolls of film and decided to have them developed (yes - real film!). I suspect one roll of film came from our old house in Tucson that we sold back in early 2000. We had lived there for three or four years, so that tells you how old this film must be, since we think it was left over from the people we bought the house from.

Well, most of the photos appeared to be from around the desert, though we could not really identify where. But there were a couple of photos of a naked man - someone we don't know - in what looked to be a bit like our old bedroom (we recognized the ugly carpet). It was funny, because my wife opened the pictures and was the first to see them. She pulled them out and quickly put them back in the envelope and tried to hide them, telling me I couldn't see them. She was afraid they were old pictures that she took years ago, even though she didn't recognize the man.

Hmmm...

But then she looked again and looked at the rest of the pictures and then I got to see them (oh joy) and we surmised that the film must have belonged to the previous owners of our house in Tucson.

But how weird to develop someone else's film. We felt both a little violated, somehow, or that we had violated these people. I'm just not used to messing with other people's stuff.

And perhaps it is a word of wisdom to others as well: don't mess with my stuff - it might make you squirm!

Friday, December 09, 2005

Wah Wah Wah!

Wah wah wah ah oh ah wah wah. Ah wah wah ah ah wah oh. Wah, wah wah wah ah wah, oh ah wah wah oh wah. Wah ah wah! Wah ah oh ah wah wah, wah wah wah wah wah wah wah. Ah. Wah ah wah wah wah oh wah ah wah oh. Oh ah wah wah ah. Wah wah wah, wah wah, wah wah wah wah wah ah oh wah. Wah. Wah wah wah ah wah oh wah wah, ah wah oh, Charlie Brown! Wah, ah wah wah wah, wah ah wah oh Lucy wah wah wah and Snoopy too!

Wah wah wah, oh wah ah WAH!

Monday, December 05, 2005

Long Time No See - or - Much Ado About Nothing

I once theorized that, since a video screen has a finite number of pixels, that it would be possible to write a computer program that would progressively update the screen one pixel at a time until every single possible image was created. Through this process, every conceivable image (within the screen dimensions) could be realized - even a rendition of all the great artist's paintings. All by chance. Or, rather, all within the progression of the imaging sequence.

I also once wrote a program to do this on a very small scale - like with a 30x30 black and white image. I let it run for a few hours, but very little ever changed. For one thing, that was because it was running on a slow (1MHz) Apple II+ computer at the time. I also didn't realize just how long it would take.

Last night, the thought crossed my mind again, and I performed a quick calculation. Based on a tiny 10x10 pixel image in black and white, running at a rate of making 100,000 updates per second, it would take nearly 402 billion trillion years to generate every conceivable black and white image that would fit in a 10x10 square. 402 billion trillion years! I did the math several times to be sure, as I simply could not believe it.

The element I was initially missing is the fact that a 10x10 pixel black and white image requires 100 bits of data to describe. This doesn't sound like much, but what that represents is 2 to the 100th power. This works out to be an extraordinary number of possible images that can be displayed there.
1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,376 to be exact. That's 1.2 thousand trillion trillion trillion images!

That's a lot.

So, forget about a 1024x768 full-color image. Assuming 32-bit color information, that would require 25,165,824 bits to describe the image. That means there are 2 to the power of 25,165,824 possible images.

That's inconceivable.

All this math got me thinking in my sleep, apparently. I woke up this morning thinking about zero exponents and how (or why) anything to the power of 0 is considered 1. I think that is merely a definition to satisfy equations - sort of a special case to accomodate 0, which, conceptually, often represents nothing.

They say anything divided by zero is undefined. I think what division by zero really means is that the division operation, itself, is nullified, and the dividend remains unchanged. After all, how do you divide something by nothing? You don't. If there is nothing to divide, no division occurs. Right? But if you have an expression that represents x^y in a divisor, the expression would fail if y was 0 and x^0 returned 0, because then you would be attempting to divide something by nothing, and that would take forever since no division would ever occur no matter how many times you tried.

Same with multiplication. z*x^y would return zero if y was zero and x^y returned zero, because anything times zero is zero. But, since x^0 is defined to be 1 and not 0, then z*x^y would return z. This is the same as if x^y was removed from the expression entirely - it effectively nullifies the factor from the equation.

But is this really what is desired in all cases? It seems to me that multiplication conceptually represents how many instances of a particular quantity exist. For example, if you have 9 boxes that are all full, and each box can hold 4 objects, then you have 9x4, or 36 objects. But if you have no boxes, then you have 0x4, or 0 objects. No boxes, no objects.

But what if there was some quantity that occurred exponentially? Like a group of cells that only existed in powers of 2 (each dividing at the same time). And what if each box, instead of containing 4 objects, contained 2^n cells? Well, if you have 9 boxes and each box has cells that have divided 3 times, then you have 9*2^3, or 72 cells. Well, what happens if you have 9 empty boxes - perhaps the cells all died? Well, then you would have 9*2^0, or 9 cells. But wait - that's not right! There are no cells! We have 9 boxes, but they're all empty. So, then, wouldn't it be better in this case if anything raised to the power of zero was zero? Then 9*2^0 would equal zero, which is the correct number of cells.

I would have to conclude that it depends on what your math represents as to what the quantity raised to the power of zero (x^0) should be.

This leads me down another path of thought about the concept of nothing. What is nothing? Is it really nothing? I mean, it has to be something, otherwise why would it have a name? What is nothing? If you take an arbitrary region of completely empty space (no cosmic rays, no light, no energy, no mass of any kind), we might think there is nothing there. But there is something there - it's called space. And we are conceiving it, whether we think of it as "nothing" or as "empty space".

What is space made of? It seems the true notion, or idea, of "nothing" can only hold true if there is truly nothing in existence - even space - even the absense of "nothing", itself, or any concept of it. But if even "nothing" doesn't exist, then what is there? Where is "there"? "There" wouldn't even exist. But if there is no place and no space, how can that be?

My contention is that nothing is, in fact, something. So, when someone asks me what is wrong, and I say, "nothing" - you can rest assured that I mean what I say, and that this whole business about "nothing" is really bothering me.

Have a nice day.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Bad Days

There are days when I am using the computer that I feel like this:



But, more often, I feel a bit more like this:

Stupid Computer!

But even when I am not on the computer, things often don't go my way. This kind of sums up the sort of "luck" I encounter when I attempt to leave the situation:

Rough Landing

But, I have to count my blessings. At least I am not as misfortunate as the pedestrian in this real-life incident:

Bad Day

I hope your day is going well! Stay safe out there!

One Long Year

One year on Mars is 687 Earth days long. One day on Mars - known as a sol - is longer than one day on Earth, so Mars only sees 669 sols in its annual trek around the sun.

Whereas that is not necessarily amazing, what truly is amazing to me is that there are two Mars Exploration Rovers that have been continually operating on the planet's surface for an entire Martian year! The rover "Spirit" observed its first anniversary on November 20. The rover "Opportunity" will celebrate its first year on Mars on December 12.

I remember the anticipation of the rover landings. I would visit NASA's web site almost daily to see the updates and to watch the animation sequence over and over. Then the day came when they finally arrived, and the tension rose, and I was on pins and needles wondering if everything would work properly and whether the rovers would survive or burn up in the atmosphere or plunge to the surface. I was glued to the screen, waiting for updates. When I was a child, I can remember sitting in front of an old black and white TV set, watching the first moon landing. Watching the Mars rover data come back filled me with that same sense of awe. It was just too cool.

Then the first pictures came back and they were amazing. Especially from Opportunity. Opportunity had rolled into a small crater, like a hole-in-one in golf, and the pictures coming back were of an alien environment, unlike anything I have seen on Earth. It was just too cool. I even have a pair of 3D glasses that I use to look at the 3D images that NASA often compiles. What would it be like to actually stand on the surface of Mars? This is probably as close as I'll ever get, but it is awesome to have access to these pictures so I can at least get a sense of what it is like there.




The rovers were only slated for 90 sols of operation. But they have worked so well that NASA keeps extending the mission. Now, if only I could buy a car that was so reliable!

Happy Anniversary, Martian rovers!

Thursday, December 01, 2005

That Time of the Month

It seems there is this tradition among bloggers to share and/or promote their favorite blogs in order to help increase traffic to their favorite blogs. I would like to think that my recommendations would generate some sizable blog traffic jams, but I am afraid my circle of blogs is quite small, and most everyone reading this blog already visits the blogs I visit. That is, unless there are some lurkers out there who never post comments to my entries.

Nevertheless, since my blog (yes, this one!) was mentioned on two other blogs this morning, today I will partake in this tradition, otherwise known as "Linky Love". I'm not sure who coined the term, but I think of it more like a monthy Blog Appreciation Day. I'm no Sir Linkalot, but here is a short list of the blogs that I frequent. I apologize if these links simply take you back to where you came from to find this blog, but that's what happens in small circles.

Let's start with Orion. Orion's blog began as a forum to post tales of horror regarding [common?] experiences involving fast food establishments. However, its scope has been widened considerably since he provided posting privileges to many of his frequent visitors - mostly women. Somehow, I unwittingly requested (and was granted) the same posting privileges, although I have not taken much advantage of the privilege. I have known Orion for many years. I met him at the hospital where I used to work in Tucson, Arizona, and worked with him for several years, and even made a cable TV show with him and some other friends of his - a show that won several awards. Orion is a very interesting character. He can be your best friend if you treat him with respect, and your worst enemy if you do him wrong -- the type of guy you want to have in your corner. His blog is always quite entertaining.

The remaining characters on my list are all people I met through Orion's blog. They are at least some of the women who have access to post on Orion's blog.

First, there is Jude. Jude is in Canada and it was on her blog that I saw a picture of some snow shovels. I've never actually seen one before. I don't like the snow and avoid it like Polio (although there is no vaccine for snow). Anyway, Jude is a Def Leppard fan, and it is always quite fun to read about the adventures of RatHo on her blog. Definitely worth a visit.

Next is Tracey. I'm not sure where she lives, but apparently there are some nice Maple trees and horses nearby, which seems to be great surroundings for meditation. Apparently, she likes Jim Croce's music, and she can be found leaving comments on various other blogs that she frequents, usually with something pleasant to say if she's not planning a scheme with the other women to post something on Orion's blog.

Then there is Melanie, otherwise known as "Hazmel", from North Carolina. She is a devout Def Leppard fan, and apparently enjoys football as well - two subjects I'll probably get slapped around for saying I know nothing about. Mel's blog is always enjoyable to visit, since there is often a good joke (or two or three or more) worth reading - always good to start the day with a good laugh.

So, there you have it. I don't have a lot of time to visit a lot of blogs, but when I do go surfing, I try to make it a point to at least hop on over to those four blogs. If you haven't discovered them, yet, I hope you pay them a visit and tell them Boobie Chuckleboob, -er-, Bill, sent you!