Powdered Non Sequitur Man

On the off chance that I ever remember that I put this here… MS KB article about error message in Office help.
Nothing to see here; move along.

Little delay in reposting this here, but in lieu of an actual post, I’ll refer you to Special Gifts.

Godspeed, Discovery.

Being a big fat honkin’ geek, and having already exercised my Python powers to solve two puzzles today, I went for the trifecta and put to rest a question mark that’s been floating around my brain for several years now, to wit: Is the card game “War” winnable?
From my own personal experiences as a [...]

Also, we went to see the taping of Live Wire (an OPB “live” radio show) last night — fantastic show. I don’t know if it’ll be podcast or streamed, but if it is, I highly recommend checking it out. I’ll try to remember to check back when the show airs…
…but now, dinner. [...]

Just got back from seeing March of the Penguins. SO. CUTE. The narration was occasionally informative, although it seemed like every other sentence ended in “or they will DIE.” And while the urge to anthropomorphize is very strong with critters that can walk upright, I thought the “love story” wrapping was [...]

Interesting things happen when one’s blog is fully searchable by Google. In particular, the instructor of what sounds like an extremely interesting class I mentioned two weeks ago saw fit to comment about said class, making it sound even more interesting.
(Beyond the highly problematic question of time, one of my other objections to actually [...]

Another fun thing my dad sent me: an excerpt from the journal of William H. Brewer of the 1860-64 Geological Survey of California, which answers the question, “how did people live before duct tape was invented?”
Tuesday, February 26, 1861 — Peter has repaired the weak wagon wheel with that universal plaster for ailing implements, [...]

I love getting email from my dad. Today, I got a link to Christian Exodus (I’m not linking because that would help their Google ranking; not that they need it), which is somewhat like the Free State Project, except even wackier. Basically, they’re encouraging people to move to South Carolina (go ahead, ask [...]

Wow. I’ve managed to use Python off and on for a while now without ever having had to interface with a database. So when the time came to set up a regular export/import between two different database platforms on two different servers, I thought, “oh, cool, an excuse to use Python!”
…and then I [...]

Seen on a poster at school:
Sociology of the Bicycle
Soc 410
July 18-August 11, 4 credits
This class explores social, cultural, literary, and historical aspects of this simple and ingenious invention. We address economics and class, gender, racism, and alternative ways of relating to space, cities, and one’s place in the world. Films, stories, and guests are featured. [...]

“There is a fatal flaw with the night-vision-goggle plan!”
- Adrian Monk

Dropped the math class.
As if to make up for the void of excitement, local news teams in New Orleans (where my brother is currently living) are predicting an average 25% chance that Hurricane Dennis (which at this very moment seems to be having its way with Cuba, with winds of ~150 mph) may strike New [...]

Right. The test. So after all of that angst, he weighted the questions I did (and got right despite the fact that they were harder than he intended themto be) more heavily, and I got a 79. Which he then apparently curved up to an 85.
Just when I’d started to be very [...]

If you do HTML, check out the Aardvark extension for Firefox. When activated, it gives you information about a particular element you mouse over. I can’t quite do it justice in words, so go and click on “run the demo” (in Firefox, of course) and wave your mouse around. It’s very cool.

What’s a virtual girlfriend to think? (Flash site, questionably work-safe–no nudity, anyway–uses sound.)
I went to java.com to download the latest version of the Java runtime on the new computer, and the above was displayed as a “showcase” application. From their description:
V-Girl lets you download an artificial girlfriend and woo her on a 3G [...]

So… my math test: I did horribly (for me, anyway). There were two main problems, each with sub-items. Question 1 was worth 25 points, had 4 sub-items, and was quite easy. So let’s assume I got full credit there. Question 2 was worth 75 points and had 8 sub-items, of [...]

This is my first post from my shiny new computer.
More to come later, after my impending calculus test.