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[28 Nov 2009|07:58pm] |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmjLqddPqZQ
This makes me want to eat vegetables.
I'm conditioned to listen to Muppets. I cried when I saw the censored Muppets a few weeks ago.
Also, my brain did a HUGE double take because as soon as I heard the song I got the feeling like I had seen it before. But by the title, I thought I hadn't.
If you haven't seen the Bohemian Rhapsody cover do it as soon as possible. I thought they were just singing it, and since it's such a sad song I was going to skip it altogether. But Lino made me and I'm better for it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY
This was one of the awesomest things ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGohKgNOXnU
Thank god for sesame street.
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[27 Nov 2009|05:22pm] |
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Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon |
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Because of tablet capabilities I was basically forced to swap which computer had Vista on it, choosing the far less powerful one (boy does the tower ever race with XP!!)
As a result, we only ever hibernate it as to make startup bearable.
Of course, that leads to trouble when I forget that it's been up for two weeks. Because I forget to try a reboot when, say, the keyboard seems to be dying. I just assume the keyboard's dying. Luckily, once the keyboard ALL dead, there's only one thing you can do - go through its pockets for spare change reboot! Tada! Keyboard's fine.
I just spent something like 7 of the last 9 hours coding (well scripting). Sweet deal. Last night as a random example of a .NET object you can manipulate with powershell, the prof used the WebClient object, which among other things, allows you to download a file via its web address. Well, that solves a problem at work, but it took all 7 hours to get it all perfect and also format the input for it (it's not like the guy has a handy list of URLs at his disposal perfectly sorted into a text file. YET. Now he can with another script).
Now is the perfect time to go shop for needlework and baking supplies.
I think I balanced traditional gender roles for the day. Mmmmmmm maybe I'll make some biscuits when I get home. Then I can haz traditional gender rolls too. Hahahaha.... coding makes me somewhat CRAZY.
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| Class |
[26 Nov 2009|09:36pm] |
Nothing in the entire world compares to sibling rivalry. You just don't get it unless you had it.
I've really got to get to a dentist. No cleaning in at least 2 years, and pain now. Oh dear.
Unfortunately, to go to the dentist, I need to figure out if it's covered. To figure out if it's covered, I need to learn how to be a grownup and handle my health insurance. And once I do that, it'll be a higher priority to get my claims in for this year.
I really have to get off my butt - there's major opportunity costs this year, with all my massages at $45 a pop.
One more reason to cheer multiculturalism - forms with a "legal first name" field and a "name you prefer to be addressed as" field (or similar). Sweet! Much clearer than cramming in Grace Kaitlyn in one field.
When a spa advertises a price for waxing "full leg" (to distinguish from "half leg") - and they all use "leg" in the singular - ..... do they mean that's per leg? Is confused. No know girl stuff. Wanted to try something new but is intimidated.
I'd better not get around to the spa before I get around to the dentist. That would be a reflection of poor self-control and non-laziness
"Everybody stand back.
I just learned regular expressions."
More importantly, I already have a tool that lets me implement them. They're not handy at the command line in Windows like Unix (? so I hear), but PowerShell has them.
New Icon!
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[26 Nov 2009|08:36pm] |
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Oops. Instead of sending it to myself, I sent a note about a cheap spa nearby to the email addy that automatically forwards here and posts a post. Hopefully I disabled posting from that address fast enough. If there's a lonely url to a spa that's why :/
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| Class Musings |
[19 Nov 2009|09:22pm] |
I wonder what planet you have to be from that you would fill out a scantron card in pen. Really?
Bonuses: Prof reminded, and golf pencils were offered.
Negative-bonus: it was just the course evals, not a test or anything.
I put in 4 hours of my home tech services as an item for work's United Way silent auction. It sold for $175. Sweet deal. Next year, I'm putting up two such sessions up for grabs. This is part of my plan to volunteer my time since I'm not making cash donations a high enough priority. Aside from the money I'm already giving to SOS Children's Villages. I have guilt lately. And time to spend.
Also, I'm volunteering for FreeGeek but I can't go as much as I'd like because their only hours I'm available are 11-6 Saturdays, which tends to clash with weekend plans. Annoyingly, the only time before the new year when I can fulfill my United Way responsibility... is next Saturday. Blast!
Wednesday's XKCD prompted my prof to say it reminded him of me (see here). In fact, the business thing pretty much happened.
My cubicle neighbour needed something in a batch script but someone had told him it was impossible to do in a batch. At first I thought I needed to call a VB helper script from his batch file to handle date compares but I ended up solving it in a handful of cmd lines
That's right -- I did the impossible! And all I got was "Hey great!"
( Details of simple solution that turned out to be too complicated than necessary )
Not thinking ahead, the guys who built PowerShell encoded a couple of important things with the version number - an important subdirectory in the windows directory is called "v1.0", and the scripts themselves are of type .ps1. These did not change with version 2. LOL.
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[16 Nov 2009|08:16pm] |
Two shirts for me: $4
Two shirts for a friend: $6.50
One awesome book at "full" price: $5
VV's half-off sale: Priceless
It was so sad! I found an awesome sweater. Then, a) I forgot to put it in my basket, b) it fell out of my over-flowing basket, or c) someone poached it from my basket!! But I felt like it was already mine! My beautiful brown zip-up hoodie that was reversable! :'(
(Jenn: sorry I forgot, again, to give you a heads up.)
(Also, Getting Rid of Matthew is a hysterical schadenfreude about a mistress whose lover suddenly leaves his wife for her... and then she realizes she can't stand living with him. And now it's mine.)
"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
and snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
to dance with Jak o' the Shadows."
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[14 Nov 2009|02:17pm] |
blerg. I made it into work yesterday with just a scratchy voice. Now I have a bad cold!
It's a completely different set of symptoms which includes all my higher-brain-function-responsible cells being replaced with wool between my ears. I was at FreeGeek (where I volunteer) for 10 minutes before I sent myself home realizing they were overstaffed at every station I knew, and I was unable to learn anything new.
Ugh........
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[12 Nov 2009|09:15pm] |
Made it to class, and should be back to work tomorrow.
Clickers are, in theory, awesome - it's anonymous feedback of how well the class is grasping the concepts (otherwise you can interpret a silent classroom as bored or lost, and gee I hope you're not wrong).
Classes after mine whined a lot about it, but they had to buy or pay a deposit on the hardware, and there were marks associated with using your clicker. But then friends took their friends clickers to class to get them counted.
But in my class this term, we're in a lab and everyone is expected to be logged in and tinkering with an open command window, so the prof has a software version of clickers and we just click on the answer here and it tallies them anonymously on his computer. He does show us the frequency of each answer and then decides how much depth to go into with his explanation of the right answer. No fuss, and 100% positive. Yay!
I like racing to see if I'm the first to get my answer in, since the tally of sent-answers counts up on the projected screen :P
I am in awe of the patience required of an instructor in an open class like this that should have strict prerequisites. And I'm in tech support (and good at the patience thing).
*shakes fist at whomever it was that said the Ontario ban on distractions included the built-in radio and climate controls* Doesn't seem to be true.
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[11 Nov 2009|08:11pm] |
My fever is up a little again and my voice is up and down so tomorrow is off again. Hopefully I can get to class tomorrow night but I shoud leave early to get home and get a good night's sleep.
I hate being sick if only for not being able to get anything done. I would rather even put off my books for a bit until I catch up rereading pages I bookmarked throughout the series on the last pass. There are so many named characters and so much prophesy it's nearly impossible to follow all the subplots without taking notes. But taking notes isn't taking it as easy as I would like.
Note to self: as little of the ASL alphabet I remember, Lino knows less. STOP SIGN-SPELLING TO HIM.
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[11 Nov 2009|01:17pm] |
To all the mathies/scientists in the audience: want some shadenfreude? If you have time to brush up on the definition of cardinality, read this post, and then watch Vorlath mewl about how he's right and Cantor was wrong. If this guy was asking it be explained to him and posting his instincts as "sorry but what about" then it would be understandable inability to grasp a pure math concept, which I don't have a problem with. But the guy thinks he can disprove Cantor, without understanding that he can't redefine cardinality based on his argument.
http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2009/10/the_hallmarks_of_crackpottery.php
Thanks to Ben for the original nod, and the reminder that I forgot to include a link :P
If you can't understand the progression from definition (a statement) to theor[y,em] (requiring proof) you don't get to phrase your non-understanding as "I can prove Cantor wrong".
... I'm feeling better. Today is a stat in BC so I don't have to feel like I need to go to work as soon as I feel this good. Let's see if it lasts.
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[05 Nov 2009|06:40pm] |
Wow - I ran what felt like all over town to get to school because my bus might not have come on time and managed to be only 4 minutes late. And that was leaving work just on time. Phew.
It rains here. You'd think people would be used to it. I guess it's the same as never learning to drive in snow in Ontario. No, they have to have an accident and virtually stop the bus I needed.
Not much to report this week! The house is very clean as we find more things that Lino can help with and I keep to my schedule.
Oh yeah, one danger of enumerating most of the chores is I'm worried I won't do the random, few-times-a-year chores, like cleaning out the couch between the cushions, because it's not on the list. I guess I'll just have to keep adding things?
The time difference seems more significant than it did before - by the time I'm done eating dinner it seems to late to call. I hope that's not just an excuse.
Please, dear god, do not let me turn into Chris, asking mutual friends to pass along my best wishes and my missing them instead of CALLING THEM or SEEING THEM myself!
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[02 Nov 2009|09:24pm] |
Soccer in November. Culture shock!
#cell
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[30 Oct 2009|12:46am] |
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Susected geek on bus, so I pull out my book, and he pulls out path of daggers. Convo ensues :)
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| Update what? |
[29 Oct 2009|06:43pm] |
- I got better.
- Putting a bunch of effort into a Hallowe'en (what the heck? that work is now misspelled? bah) costume for Saturday which means I didn't have time to make a great costume for work where apparently things are taken seriously (as they should be). So I'll be throwing on my instant costume, ie anything from my wardrobe from highschool (torn between goth and medieval maiden).
- Scripting is going awesome at work. Sometimes something from class gives me an idea from work, but mostly some idea from work is just easier and neater because of tricks from class (ie today I used the "pad an integer" trick from the assignment solution right("00" & num, 3) which is far more "elegant" than the answer I originally gave (loop adding zeros until the length is right :S)
- Amusingly, the more fun I get at work via scripting, the more my shoulders kill me, really showing that it's an RSI. I've got a handle on it most of the time and I give up on my massage therapist. I have a new dislike for people who believe that exercise is the right answer for everyone. I do this walk 5 or 6 times a week: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3290168 and even if that weren't fine for most people, more would not be right for me since I can't give up any more time.
- Right, got off topic - the problem is muscle related, not really spine related, but the massages hurt, the lotion smells, I don't do small talk, and it's hella expensive. We should be able to claim it all this year at work but I only did 6 months of it. We'll see how I do managing on my own now that I found most coping skills.
- I'm generally awesome at work, especially useful when the taller version of me (dude who has same job description) is on vacation. Sweet.
- Apparently I shouldn't go on the Internet until I read the new Wheel of Time. Crap spoilers from giant ASSHAT. I'm at book 4. I'm trying to catch up!
- Floating point error is, apparently, difficult to explain to normal (non-cs) people. I feel like running up, writing 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 =/= .99 but that would be rude.
- Also thanks to ASSHAT I remember how much I love love love short science fiction stories. DROOOOL. Example A and Example B.
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[26 Oct 2009|10:49am] |
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All nice life moments should occur in a gov't waiting room. They would seem to last forever.
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| Ugh |
[22 Oct 2009|07:53pm] |
I finally stopped being in denial that I'm sick, and dragged myself home from work as soon as I could tie up my loose ends.
Slept this afternoon, will sleep until tomorrow night. Hopefully better for Saturday.
The big problem was I would wake up feeling fine - certainly not sick enough to warrant staying home. But by midafternoon I would feel icky, and each night my cough was worse, only to be gone again in the morning. I wouldn't have gone in today except I was in the middle of replacing someone's computer.
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[21 Oct 2009|07:39pm] |
Sad: Unbelievably drunk guy tries to buy more booze
Excellent: He is caught on tape.
UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLY HYSTERICAL: The silent film REMIX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_40rM_L0s
For some reason ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sivi_volk voiced Larry in this for me.
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