I’m Handi-capable
February 28, 2008
I just clipped my toenails.
All ten of them.
By myself.
This is an accomplishment.
stop. go.
February 28, 2008
I’n currently on Earhart, not moving. Why? Stupid fucking rush hour.
For a long time, I’ve said that traffic congestion is worse than genocide. You can really only fully kill a group of people off once, and traffic is everywhere.
When was the last time you banged your fists in anger and aggravation over Darfur? How about your steering wheel over traffic?
At least I have Radiohead and my crackberry. Heh, I initially mis-spelled crackberry as “crackbert”. Looks like my phone has a name.
One month after The Fall
February 27, 2008
Well, one month ago tonight, I busted my knee open. When sitting, I can bring it to an almost 90° angle, and when walking, I’d say I’m down to a smaller limp. Stairs, however, make me feel like I should have been cast in Freaks.
Usually throughout the day, I gradually stretch the ligament instead of the three times a day the orthopedist asked. I will sometimes do the stronger stretch, but I think the slow-cook method seems to be working quite well. Don’t get me wrong, I think the recovery is going well – I just can’t wait to get on a bike again, and I think that day nears, my friends.
Till next time:
The picture doesn’t accurately show the swelling that remains.
The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
February 27, 2008
Mike and Andee, I hope that all goes well today, and look forward to seeing ten new fingers and toes tomorrow.
You two will be wonderful parents.
The Kool-Aid is a Lie.
February 27, 2008
Well, I beat Portal in a little over 5 hours, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Looking at my stats, I see there are 14 different achievements, of which I have completed 4. These look to be some fun additional challenges.
As for the NOMMUG meeting, well, I think they should change their name to the New Orleans Adobe/Macromedia User Group. While presenter/organizer did mention something about drinking said Kool-Aid, I’d rather just call an orange an orange, and be done with it.
It was pretty much an hour or so PowerPoint presentation on the new Adobe Air / Flex. Cool stuff, free t-shirt. I think I’ll keep going, especially if they keep giving away free PSPs / Adobe software / shirts / etc. And while Jonah, Ben, Oscar, and myself did not go to the meal afterwards, pizza and refreshments (beer?) were available on Adobe’s dime at the Boot.
I’ve made it almost 28 years now without going into the Boot, and let me tell you ladies and gentlemen, that was not going to change yesterday.
Let’s face it – a nerd meeting (esp. with web-dev specific nerds) is a nerd meeting. Methinks I need to start hitting up 2600 meetings again.
The Cake is a Lie.
February 26, 2008
I know I have written about Portal (watch the trailer (again) dammit) before.
Well, I just bought it and am itching to play it, except before I do that I have work here, some side work, and then some web nerd meeting before I start dreaming in portals.
Since I actually have Half-Life 2 (the single-player game), I decided to give it a go last week. I’m about 7 hours in and halfway through, and am enjoying it so far. I’m not one who is usually one for the single-player story mode, but hey. Leveling-up my skills is leveling-up my skills. Y’heard?
What can I say. I’m a sucker for brain teasers in 3-D interactive environments.
HDR Photography
February 25, 2008
I don’t remember where I got the original link, but this picture really got me interested in HDR Photography:
Not that I’m a photographer, or have a tripod, or anything really other than a point and shoot camera, but it really intrigued me. That photo, and many others (Flickr HDR pool) show the stunning results achieved by High Dynamic Range Photography. It’s a pretty simple method, depending on your available equipment, but here’s the basic idea: take multiple photos of the same subject, all at different exposure levels, then combine them in your darkroom (digital or traditional). I’m not even going to touch the traditional method here, that’s not for me.
Photoshop CS2 and later have built in partially automated methods for merging your photos to one single picture, but I tried it, and it didn’t really do anything for me – I’m not that into tweaking various levels and whatnot. There are other apps that work with varying degrees of success, and to be honest, I didn’t even look at them. There doesn’t seem to be a real need now, as there appears to be a new, mean, powerful kid on the block. The name is Enfuse, and it started on Linux, but lives happily on OSX and Win32 also.
You can read a bit more about it and HDR basics (along with some screenshots and software/result comparisons) at this article on linux.com.
So, maybe you photo nerds will have some fun with this. Everyone else should go browse that pool, as there are some really amazing pictures.
Goodnight Moon
February 20, 2008
The last lunar eclipse for two years is tonight! Shades of turquoise and red will pour over the moon’s surface as it moves into the Earth’s shadow around 7:43pm.
As NASA reports:
Transiting the shadow’s core takes about an hour. The first hints of red appear around 10 pm EST (7 pm PST), heralding a profusion of coppery hues that roll across the Moon’s surface enveloping every crater, mountain and moon rock, only to fade away again after 11 pm EST (8 pm PST). No special filter or telescope is required to see this spectacular event. It is a bright and leisurely display visible from cities and countryside alike. While you’re watching, be alert for another color: turquoise. Observers of several recent lunar eclipses have reported a flash of turquoise bracketing the red of totality … The source of the turquoise is ozone.
I reckon some time outside while at Pistolette’s is in order, assuming she doesn’t go into labor.
Y2K38
February 19, 2008
I was reminded of this XKCD comic by a friends blog post the other day.
I won’t go into UNIX Time and bore the crap out of y’all, I just wanted to show you my shirt:
Ahh, 32-bit time. And a fun little fact for those of you who read this via RSS feeds / LiveJournal, the banner on this site has my birthday (+/- 1 minute) in UNIX time on the header. Good times, good times.
4 8 15 16 23 42
February 19, 2008
Hi. My name is Will, and I’m lost.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a fair amount of “I’m awake, but can’t really move or think all that clearly” days. Much time was filled re-watching seasons 1 and 2 of The West Wing.
After Season 2, I was introduced to a new crack, administered to me in DVD form by my friendly local pusher, Bea.
LOST.
I’m about halfway through Season 2 – the DVDs live at her house so I don’t just sit around all day, every day, watching the show.
Let’s not concentrate so much on the fact that I’m late to the game, but instead that I showed up at all.