| |
| I just had a thoroughly exciting game against Quackle, including a triple-triple that got blocked, and a nine-letter triple-triple that didn't. But I still lost. Here it is in all its glory: http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=5051#0. - Music:The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - This Love Is Fucking Right!
| |
|
| Saint Martin of Tours, soldier, hermit and Bishop of Tours was attracted to Christianity in his childhood. At age 18 he was baptized and his desire to live in the church continued to increase throughout his life. Later he took to monastic life only to later become Bishop of Tours. Among the most popular stories of Martin's pre-baptized life, which was immortalized by El Greco, is this account of Martin's encounter with an unclothed beggar. Martin took off his cloak, ripped it in half and gave half to the beggar. Later, Jesus Christ appeared to Saint Martin in a dream and said, "This is Martin, the Roman soldier who is yet unbaptized. He clothed me." On November 11th his feast is celebrated all over the world. In Europe his traditional foods are beef and goose. You will hear the term Martinmas goose. Other customs associated with this day are the eating of chestnuts, the making and eating of martinsbrot of the weckmann. And in Germany and other nearby countries children carry lanterns on this night and sing Saint Martin's Day songs. As usual, Dark Dorset has a great blog entry about the customs and traditions of this day. Laterne, Laterne, Sonne, Mond und Sterne... from G A I S on Vimeo. | |
|
| I like checking Woot out because it's entertaining. The blurbs are funny, and sometimes you get to see some really weird things (like the LeakFrogs that guard our living room from tsunami flooding.)
But for the first time, I actually felt contemplative and wistful after reading a blurb.
Something I Must Do (Click the photo for a larger image.)
Because, while the picture is worth a smile, the idea behind the picture is the same idea held by every person who's ever looked at a hill and thought "I wonder what's on the other side." You wonder about going around that hill -- or sailing out to sea -- or traveling to the stars. You wonder what you need to do to get there. You wonder about the price you might have to pay.
For every person who grows up looking at hills, or the sea, or the stars, there comes a point where you have to choose.
I choose the Earth, and it's a very happy life -- but I must admit there are days when I've watched a shuttle launch and wondered what might have been. | |
|
| ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jnala posted a while ago about how home used to be where the stereo and CDs were, then it was where the Internet connection was, but lately he realized it was where the cats are. By any of those measures, the LV house is now home, although I still have a shitload of unpacking to do. The cat has of course been here since I drove down on Saturday, all the other boxes I didn't drive with me are now here, and I can has Internets[1]. Although to be precise, I didn't truly feel at home until I fired up Quicken just now and updated all my account transactions -- I hadn't realized how dependent I've become on Quicken to keep my financial shit together. Not that I'd be totally hosed without it -- everything is either downloaded from financial institutions so there's a backup source, and I do duplicate manual entry for my checking account, but it really is nice to have everything organized in one place. [1] Actually, being who I am and what I do, the LV house has had Internets since my September visit, at which time I set up a machine to live here so that I could transfer my email services etc. over seamlessly without any meaningful downtime when I moved -- I've been sending/receiving e-mail from the LV box for a few weeks now. Yes, I'm a geek. | |
|
| I just saw this posted by a friend I used to work with, on Facebook. I can hardly believe our PM would watch a movie in a common theatre, but this friend wouldn't make this kind of stuff up. This is 100% awesome. Not as awesome as throwing shoes at Bush, but still I award him 1000 punk rock points, because Harper is a douche. :-)))  | |
|
| ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) sixwordstoriesWhether you're in the mood for a creative challenge or you're short on time or attention span, this semi-addictive community is perfect for those who find flash fiction way long. Once you get the hang of it, you won't be able to stop. The prince turned into a frog. The girl ran home to mother. Tough to write. Easy to read. It's a double threesome of fun. | |
|
| dailyfoodieDelicious, ambitious, and occasionally nutritious dishes make for an eclectic, all-you-can-eat feast. Whether you're searching for recipes for your next dinner party or you're jonesing for a late-night brownie fix, your cravings are sure to be well sated. A warm and inclusive community that welcomes all orientations, from carnivores to vegans, from gourmands to junk-food junkies. Guaranteed bias-free, food-positive, and pan-epicurian. | |
|
| heh: Poll: 100% Of Grandsons Talented"A Zogby poll of 1,542 American grandparents published Monday found that grandsons were described as "very" to "extremely" talented by 1,542 of the respondents. "Participants in the poll were emphatic in their descriptions of the talents of grandsons in fields as diverse as advertising and sales, choral performance, baseball, talking, crawling, making their beds, video games, and instructing their elders on proper cell-phone use," pollster Tom Waterton said. "In addition, an overwhelming percentage of grandchildren were described as outgoing, sharp, and looking just like Uncle Andy, you remember Uncle Andy, he was always up to something, too bad he passed so young, he would have loved the grandchild in question." Sources at Zogby admitted that the survey was incomplete, as several hundred pollsters are still unable to get their assigned grandparents off the phone." | |
|
| The movers said they'd show up to deliver everything between 9 and 10 today, so I am once again sitting on the floor of an essentially empty bedroom with the cat. Although this time, he has an attached bathroom that leads into a cavernous walk-in closet in which to amuse himself. But now that I've packed away the airbed and the room is almost bare, I wonder if he thinks we're moving *again* and there's another 9-hour car ride in his future :-) (Travelogue from the move to follow in post later today or this week.) | |
|
| Second straight WLWLLL day, only this was less of a "fun learning experience" and more of a "less-fun frustrating day of Scrabble" (over the board, anyway). 1300-ish perf rating (it's almost like I was overrated coming in) ... barely held on to the title of "Jason No. 2"; now only five rating points ahead of synodalhaj. More below: ( Losses, in a three-sentence nutshell )( Bingo list (if you care) )( Other Worlds notes (probably mostly only of interest to WSC participants) )I don't feel like I played 4-8 bad this weekend, but there is (as always) a lot to work on, a lot to clean up. Many, many thanks to pbzeigler for selflessly organizing this. It didn't have the attendance either of us would've liked. (As one Ohio player said: "The thought of playing Collins makes me break out in hives" ... combine that with the idea of it supporting my WSC trip and that's a little like getting p*ssed on while drowning.) Since stmonday and I didn't cash either day, I think we lost money at our own fundraiser, even with the free entry Saturday. But still, I wouldn't trade the weekend for anything. A great experience that will definitely help me in Malaysia. Many, many thanks to Pete for making it happen; and I hope to repay the favor with my raffle at February Fury (only four guaranteed tourney spots available!), all proceeds going toward his medical bills. Trust me, you'll hear more on that later. Jason | |
|
| No I haven't been studying nines (yet), but I just checked to see if I missed anything in MEDIA-STAR (through AR). Nothing there that fit. DRAMATISED is the nine. Cool. | |
|
| At CNET: [on e-mail encryption]
Nobody intercepts e-mails to steal credit card numbers or learn corporate secrets; instead, they break into servers and corporate networks and get at those e-mails before they're sent or after they're received. E-mail encryption doesn't protect against that threat at all. The primary risk to the data is when it's at rest, not when it's in motion. Ubiquitous hard drive encryption improves security much more than ubiquitous e-mail encryption, and good network security is even more effective.
That being said, we now know that the NSA vacuums up all sorts of electronic communications, e-mail included. So maybe it would be a good idea for all of us to routinely encrypt our e-mail. But since most corporations don't regard the NSA as a threat--they're supposedly on the side of the good guys--defending against them isn't high on a CSO's (chief security officer) to-do list, even CSOs of international companies.
Don't people care about their privacy?
Schneier: Of course they do. Survey after survey demonstrates this. What you really want to know is why, if people care about their privacy, do they continue to give up their privacy in return for what seems to be so little? The answer to that question is complicated, and psychologists are not studying it sufficiently. In short, though, it has to do with immediate vs. long-term consequences, the fact that privacy is something people don't notice until it's gone, and how salient privacy is when the decision is being made.
What do you think are the most serious legitimate threats to consumer privacy?
Schneier: Marketing. The legal collection, storage, resale, and reuse of personal information. Information brokers are doing more to hurt consumer privacy than anything criminals or the government can do. And, even worse, the government can buy information from them, and criminals can break into their databases. | |
|
| After all, he's 17, he should start thinking about college and what he wants to do with his life, unless he just wants to live at home lying around sleeping in all day like some loser. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cats_with_fraudulent_diplomasvia boingboing: "Skeptics who believe that a university is actually a diploma mill often prove their point by enrolling their cats in the university's program and seeing whether the cat can get a degree. Some enterprising Wikipedians have assembled a list of several such cats." | |
|
| http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105092607.htm"The findings suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first babble or coo." Quoting a study: "The dramatic finding of this study is that not only are human neonates capable of producing different cry melodies, but they prefer to produce those melody patterns that are typical for the ambient language they have heard during their fetal life, within the last trimester of gestation." | |
|
| Why is it I'm always the last person to know about great TV shows. Let's take a look at my track record with some of my favorite TV shows, specifically, when I started watching them: - Seinfeld - started watching during season 3
- Californication - started watching during season 2
- Family Guy - somewhere during the third season I caught on
- Mad Men - after season 1 ended and it won so many Emmys
- Big Bang Theory - started watching this when there was about 4 shows left in the first season
- How I Met Your Mother - started watching season 3 re-runs this year, during season 5
- Two and a Half Men - started watching re-runs of who-knows-what season during season 6
- Deadwood - watched season 1 about two years after season 3 ended
- Oz - watched all six seasons only six years after it ended (thank-you HBO Canada)
- Rescue Me - just started watching season 1.. this year.. while season 5 is currently running.
- Generation Kill - not really a TV show, but a seven-part mini-series -- but still.. I watched it a year late
I didn't complete drop the ball. There are some series I've watched during their respective first run, and some of them include: - X-Files (I still heart Gillian Anderson)
- Six Feet Under
- Fringe (Anna Torv is the new Gillian Anderson)
- Dexter
- True Blood
- Hung
- United States of Tara
- Sopranos
- Flight of the Conchords (although, that one seriously jumped the shark after the first season)
I'll admit I'm a TV junkie but in my defense, my PVR, the blessed Internets, bit torrent, and HBO Canada are total enablers. And at least I'm not wasting my time watching craptastic "reality" shows (read: So You Think You Can Dance, American/Canadian Idol, Survivor, America's Top Model, etc, etc). | |
|
| Chef Jackass kept it simple tonight. well, simple for me anyway – epic beef soaked in key lime and grilled medium rare, sautéed brown mushrooms, salad of red onion and tenacious tomatoes. i mean, seriously, its november and the tomato plants are still churning out the fruits. best tomato plant ever.
i need a little spice here to get the endorphins running, to try and get this headcold out of the system, so i went for an old favorite sauce of mine to give the food some zing.
North Carolina style BBQ sauce
this is table sauce meant to accompany any sort of slow-cooked or grilled meats, veggies, or what have you. you'd find it served in a squeezie bottle in a good BBQ joint, and you can slop it all over everything.
3/4 C white vinegar
3/4 C red vinegar
1 T brown sugar
1 T chile (i used chile powder, but cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes also work)
1-2 T Tabasco or other red hot sauce
combine all of that, let it sit at least 4 hrs. in the fridge. (i left mine over night). then bring it to room temp and stir it up once more just before serving.
i poured that all over my dinner tonight. it makes my mouth happy.
coming soon to the program – how Chef Jackass fights vegetable abuse. stay tuned. | |
|
| Five of us here: Hoekstra and I, stmonday, aruspex and director pbzeigler. Brian and I got free entries, the latter two got a list of twos to consult (and each purchased the list of threes for $5). So, since entry was $40, that put $130 in the prize pool. Was a round-robin group of six, including Mr. Bye, then Pete selflessly forfeited the last two so none of the rest of us would sit out the KOTH rounds. So, results not counting byes: Hoekstra: 5-1 ($90) McKenzie: 3-3 ($40) Bowman: 3-3, worse spread Idalski: 2-4 Zeigler: 1-3 So much for that whole fundraising for the U.S. team thing... :) Lot of fun, great learning experience. Octothorp-free clubby tomorrow. Jason | |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
