Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Being a nondrinker doesn't go down easy

link (article)

Su-Jin brings up one of the early topics on this blog. Drinking. She also found herself friends with non-drinkers, i dont that that is too surprising, but i never really thought about other groups of non-drinkers. Its an interesting article, worth a read.

A Space Age Christmas

A Space Age Christmas (site)

In 1974 what will xmas be like in 2003? The answer is closer to the truth than you would think. For example, I did get a ticket for a day trip in orbit around the Earth, for christmas.

Monday, December 20, 2004

The Golem Project hurts evolution ideas?

Here is the first article I read from www.reasons.org It happend to be about the golem project. (That was the screen saver I was running, that evolved 'robots'.) It seems that Fazale did not actually ever do anything than read the final report. This is what she (?) said:

“Evolving” Robots Challenge Evolution
By Fazale R. Rana

“Evolvable” robots invented by a team of computer scientists from Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, headlined the popular media last summer.1 According to the press, these machines were capable of developing, on their own, new and better machines, thus mimicking, in the laboratory, the evolutionary process biologists ascribe to nature. Reporters heralded the work as a key achievement in the area of artificial life, also citing it as powerful supporting evidence for natural-process evolution.

Details of the original report reveal, however, that though this research represents an important advance in the field of artificial life, most media overstated the researchers’ accomplishment.2 On closer examination, the work on “evolvable” robots constrains, rather than supports, biological evolution. The constraints it reveals raise serious problems for the evolutionary paradigm, calling into question the likelihood that biological evolution could proceed as a creative process unattended in nature.

The Brandeis researchers developed a virtually (rather than physically) “self-evolving” robot. Specifically, they used a computer simulation to “evolve” (or create progressions of) virtual robotic designs. They pre-selected two types of building blocks, rods and linear actuators, with the aim of generating (via the computer simulator) a robot that could move itself horizontally. By randomly altering structures again and again––each time selecting the best design elements, while discarding those it determined inferior—the computer simulator produced a robot design with a capacity for horizontal movement. The computer then produced a plastic prototype of the robot, and the researchers manually attached a motor to the robot to power its movement. The experimental protocol offered no opportunity for feedback from the physical world into the computer-directed “evolutionary” process.

The Brandeis scientists thus developed, for the first time, a successful interface between virtual search-and-optimization “algorithms” (step-by-step computerized problem-solving procedures) and a technology capable of producing a physical prototype.

Genetic algorithms (used for some time by engineers and scientists to search for optimal designs, including robotic designs3) mimic the process evolutionary biologists think is responsible for driving evolutionary change. A genetic algorithm begins by evaluating a number of initial designs according to a predetermined set of criteria. The most “fit” of these designs are modified by simple changes (called mutations, or asexual reproduction) or by combining parts of two or more designs (called sexual reproduction), and the new designs are then evaluated. The genetic algorithm repeats this process over and over again until a superior design (one that optimally fits the selection criteria) emerges.

Using genetic algorithms, the Brandeis scientists sought a robotic design capable of horizontal movement. The genetic algorithm started with two hundred random designs, with rods and linear actuators as the predetermined building blocks. A design that yielded a certain amount of movement in a certain amount of time would be “selected.” The most successful designs were used to produce a new set of designs by randomly modifying, removing, adding, or relocating rods and linear actuators. Typically, tens of generations passed before machine designs capable of any movement “evolved.” The “evolution” of working designs required 300 to 600 generations and about 100,000 designs.

The “evolutionary” process used by the Brandeis researchers produced a variety of fairly sophisticated machines. The robots moved by dragging, ratcheting, crawling, scooting (crab-like sideways motion), and side-to-side oscillations, to name a few. Robots typically employed about 20 building blocks (rods and actuators) in various configurations. These robust robotic designs retained the capability for movement even after researchers removed or altered the size of various building blocks.

Though the work of the Brandeis scientists might seem to lend empirical support to biological evolution, careful evaluation of this work uncovers several significant constraints that make biological evolution unworkable in nature.

Selecting Building Blocks
The choice of building blocks is critical to the evolutionary process. In this case, the Brandeis scientists thoughtfully selected rods and linear actuators. The simplicity of these building blocks allowed for maximal architectural and manufacturing flexibility. Thus, the intelligent designers provided the genetic algorithm with optimal features, giving ample opportunity to find a workable design. Selection of the wrong building blocks would have limited the design options to the point that few, if any, workable designs would be possible.

Nature offers a variety of building blocks, not all necessarily optimal. And, according to the evolutionary paradigm, nature offers no “intelligence” or process to select the appropriate building blocks to ensure the availability of the largest number of workable design options.

Modifying Failed Designs
The computer simulator was able to find workable robot designs only after many generations had passed. Tens of generations were required before any of the robotic designs acquired the capability for movement. The genetic algorithm kept the “evolutionary” process going, but in nature, if the selection criteria are not met, the evolutionary process comes to an abrupt halt. Inability to meet selection criteria means death of the organism and, more importantly, the failure to propagate the next generation. Biological evolution cannot modify failed or dead organisms to find one that will survive and yield the next generation.

Evaluating Transitional Forms
The relatively simple selection criterion (horizontal movement) required the computer simulator to evaluate about 100,000 designs. Selection criteria for a biological organism are far more complex and multifarious; many more designs would have to be explored randomly before a workable design for a living organism could emerge.

If the evolutionary process were at work in nature, multitudinous transitional designs would connect various organisms. Therefore, a large number of transitional creatures should appear in the fossil record. The near absence of transitional forms, one of the hallmark features of the fossil record, 4 stands in sharp contrast to the expectations of evolution.

Rearranging Designs
Efficient search among the robotic design possibilities appears to be dependent upon the dramatic rearrangement of designs with each generation. The algorithm employed by the Brandeis researchers modified, deleted, added, and relocated the components of successful designs after each round of evaluations. In biological systems, no mechanism exists to produce these dramatic changes. Rather, the mechanism that produces biological change (mutations) can only yield small variations on existing biological features.

Final Comment
The Brandeis scientists set out to “evolve” movable robots apart from any human intervention. However, human influence, and hence, intelligent design, permeated the entire experimental setup: the development and application of the genetic algorithm, the choice of building blocks and selection criteria, the manual addition of motors, and the provision of materials for production of physical prototypes. As one engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) commented, “The resulting machines cannot match the complexity of the rapid-prototyping machine designed by human engineers that is required to do the actual fabrication.”5

The research program in artificial life will help researchers discover boundary conditions for natural biological processes. The results of this Brandeis study lead some scientists to anticipate that additional work will further challenge evolutionary theory and support the case for intelligent design.

References:
For example, “All Things Considered,” with Robert Siegel and Linda Wertheimer, National Public Radio, August 31, 2000.
Hod Lipson and Jordan B. Pollack, “Automatic Design and Manufacture of Robotic Lifeforms,” Nature 406 (2000), 974-78.
Rodney Brooks, “From Robot Dreams to Reality,” Nature 406 (2000), 945-46.
Niles Eldredge, The Pattern of Evolution (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1999), 133-45.
Brooks, 945-46.


What i say:

Selecting Building Blocks: She complains that the scientist thoughtfully selected rods and actuators, and said they did it with the utmost care and it was vital that they chose these to make the evolution work. Really they were just sticks and movers, its not that special, and actually the limit of only those two building blocks lead to a limit on how much the robots could evolve. The reason that this is the case is because the program punished the robot for having many pieces so with a complex robot and a simple robot that move the same distance the simple robot is selected... unfortunately this limited the complexity of the robots.

Modifying Failed Designs: She says that if a design fails everything would die. This is true, but in the program the only time that the design failed is at the very beginning. When the robot randomly started to work there was never a case when the robots de-evolved to a non-moving state again. So the only time that this is a valid argument is at the very beginning of the evolution, which if you remember is when random chemicals are bouncing off each other in real life.

Evaluating Transitional Forms: This is the one good argument in the article. Unfortunately it is not an argument about Golem, but just a general problem with evolution. So this does not count as a valid argument for this case.

Rearranging Designs: Oh my, this is why i think she never actually saw the program. It is true that random pieces were added and deleted (as is the case in nature...extra fingers...) but these were hardly ever useful in the design of the golem, more useful were the changes that were smaller, such as making a part a bit longer... this supports the evolution theory.

"The resulting machines cannot match the complexity of the rapid-prototyping machine designed by human engineers that is required to do the actual fabrication.": This is way way way out of context. The question asked if the golems could ever get complicated enough to make physical replications of themselves. The program was way to simple to allow for such complex robots to evolve. I wish the Golem guys would update the program that is more complex so that more complex robots can evolve. Unfortunately it was research, so it will not be updated.. i hafta wait until someone else makes a new version of it :( .

another thing is that they complain about the physical robots needing the motors to be added manually. This is just a shortcoming with the process, and not with the whole idea.

Anyways if you want to get in on the evolving robot fun go here to download the
Golem project. It is very interesting and a good use of your computers downtime.

First Day of xmas break

to do list:
drink tea...check
watch a bunch of tv about football... check
chill the most...check


so far xmas break is right on course. ^_^

Yay &!


Amber helped me with getting Illustrator to do what i want it to do... so here is the first Kasu Valley co. logo that i made on Illustrator. Thanks Amber! ^_^ Posted by Hello

Sunday, December 19, 2004

QB1ed

just got back from BW3. So let's review my day:

Football football painting bw3 football.

as you guessed it was a fun day ^_^.

Qb1 is set up pretty good and is worth playing. It is hard to guess the plays though.

blogsnow

blogsnow: current news (site)

I think this is what is causing my up in traffic lately. (I used to get 10 hits a day now i am pushing 20, many by people I don't know.) But i am listed as a spidered blog, so whatever...

This site has is interesting though. It uses blogs to rank the most important news, a novel idea.

Follow-up on the christian science fair.

I thought this was interesting enough of a topic to post as a new post....

At 8:29 PM, Clupbert said…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6713443/ I think you should read this article. I am not saying that I believe the earth was created 10,000 years ago, but to say there is conclusive evidence that men came from apes and stuff would be wrong. Even scientists admit it is still just a theory, and you should read some things that say just how possible this is to have genetic mutations millions of times in a relatively finite time of 17 billion years. Until evolution becomes a law, and not a theory, I think it is ok to discuss opposition to it. Again go to that article. Even that famous atheist philosopher recently came out saying that he now concludes that an intelligent creator must have created the universe, and he is a very very very educated man. PS I'm not christian.


this was in response to the christian "science" fair.

The problem i had with it wasn't the event of a christian science fair, but that there was no science in the christian science fair. One of the winners won by showing her uncle was not a monkey, by showing he didn't like bananas. This is not science, this should have got an F if it was for a grade. Why? Because that is like me proving the world is flat by giving you a map printed on paper.... what kind of science is that?
Let's teach our kids to argue and think, instead of coming up with a witty (wrong) answer.
(p.s. I am a christian)

Impact of a Smoking Ban on Restaurant and Bar Revenues

Link (news)

This is a pretty sound paper showing that restaurants do not lose money after a smoking ban, so this is not a valid argument for not allowing a smoking ban.

What it comes down to is this: Do restaurants owners have the right to allow smoking in their own restaurants?

Suggested Google Alphabet

Suggested Google Alphabet (site)

A is for amazon,
b is for best buy,

keep up with the times as google searches change.
for example how long will f be for firefox?
it'll be intresting to check up on this once in a while.

God-Jesus

Link (pic)

The face of God?

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Welcome to the 2004 NORAD Tracks Santa Website

Welcome to the 2004 NORAD Tracks Santa Website (site)

here is the site... if Brendon and Trevor are around on christmas eve it would be fun to go here and look where santa is. (assuming Bobbie and Jeff let their kids belive in such things.... which i hope they do. Stuff like that is part of the magic of being a child, let them know 'facts' later when the magic of living has worn off.)

Santa to get crack fighter escort

NEWS.com.au (December 18, 2004) (news)

^_^!!!!

i'm glad some people still have fun with their job. See, if people would stop being so pissy about what you can and can't say, children wont be disenfranchised with their life.

Mass. Cos. Deny Gay Workers Some Benefits

Yahoo! News (news)

no they dont, they denied gay partners the benefits. I really hate people that try to sway public opinion off of false headlines. This is not responsible reporting.

World's tiniest non-volatile chip unveiled

CIOL : News (news)

32Gig jump drive? sure why not (in a couple years).

fun day

it didnt start that way, but it ened with fun.

today started with me working on my final, which i had to get in today. After working on that for awhile i got it done, chris gave me a ride to school to drop it off and pick up jenette. After that we went to pizza hut with aaron. I got some cheese sticks and very sryurpy Dr.P. After that we went to Aarons and played San Andreas. May i remind you that it is a very good game. After that i came home picked up nicole, we went to jenette's and chris'. Aaron and amber came over, Amber gave up chocklote chip cookies and we watched nicole play the sims2. So it wasn't too bad of a day.

Now nicole is working on xmas cards, and i am gonna play on the computer a bit.

yay no more school!

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Warp Factor Love

Putfile (Viedo)

A Star Trek love song. Awesome! :)

Here is another one with a flash... not as cool. Posted by Hello

Here is a pic from She Said up in Lawrence. The people were less blury in real life. Posted by Hello

Blocked me.

Link (flash)

^_^, i never had this problem when i dated.

my the times change fast. Good video though.
Well if you can't tell by the background around me, I'm at the computer lab in the stat building. Currently I am waiting for nicole to get done with her final.

I don't think I've gone over my day yet so lets do that.
I woke up moped around, started working on my final, stopped because it was boring, moped more, brought nicole to her final. And here I am. Ta da.

stupid un-motivated day.

EPIC 2014

EPIC 2014 (movie)

A pretty good movie about the internet and the future of news. worth a look.

One note: I doubt GoogleGrid would ever work. The music/movie industry would sue it, and google would bend to their wishes. So the GoogleGrid would only share blogger kind of things. In anycase it is fun to think about.

Hellacious Riders

Hellacious Riders (site)

1TB email account. I knew G-Mail's 1GB account was weak. ^_^

Things to do before Bush is inagurated...

Things to do before the Bush Inaugural---

Get that abortion you've always wanted.
Drink a nice clean glass of water.
Cash your Social Security check.
See a doctor of your own choosing.
Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild.
Visit Syria, or any foreign country for that matter.
Get that gas mask you've been putting off buying.
Hoard gasoline.
Borrow books from library before they're banned - constitutional law books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc.
If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix, do it now.
Come out - then go back in - HURRY!
Jam in all the Alzheimer's stem cell research you can.
Stay out late before the curfews start.
Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his "accident".
Go see Mount Rushmore before the Reagan addition.
Use the phrase - "you can't do that - this is America".
If you're white - marry a black person, if you're black-marry a white person.
Take a walk in Yosemite, without being hit by a snowmobile or a base-jumper.
Enroll your kid in an accelerated art or music class.
Start your school day without a prayer.
Pass on the secrets of evolution to future generations.
Learn French.
Attend a commitment ceremony with your gay friends.
Take a factory tour anywhere in the US.
Try to take photographs of animals on the endangered species list.
Visit Florida before the polar ice caps melt.
Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive.
Visit Alaska before "The Big Spill".
Visit Massachusetts while it is still a State.

****
^_^, almost every one of them is wrong.

some sick:
'Get that abortion you've always wanted.'

some incorrect, since it was the dems that were wanting to change it:
'See a doctor of your own choosing.'

some just flat out wrong:
'Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild.'

Remeber we have already had Pres. Bush for four years... the next four years isn't gonna any diffrent. i.e. no mass bannings, except if its a ban against white christian male ideas.....

What Video Game Character Am I?


What Video Game Character Are You? I am Kung Fu Master.I am Kung Fu Master.


I like to be in control of myself. I dislike crowds, especially crowds containing people trying to kill me. Even though I always win, I prefer to avoid fights if possible. What Video Game Character Are You?


aaron made me do it. ^_^

Ah yeah... thats the stuff...

It took awhile but now it feels like school is over... which it isn't, i still have a take home part of my final to do. But man am i more relaxed now...ah.... ^_^

So hopefully I'll be less pissy for now.

Well I need to get on the final thing before all my motivation is gone. That would be bad. ^_^

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

A snowflake maker by Lookandfeel new media

Make-a-Flake (game)

Make a snow flake by cutting up paper... It's like real life but digital... and if you like your snowflake you can order a stamp pad of it.

ah, the internet. ^_^

Place The State On The Map

JengaJam.com (game)

Think you know where the states go?


Today has been ok so far, i took my final which wasn't too bad. So now all i have to do is rework the final and i am done for the semister...

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

confessions

method (site)

Have a heavy heart? Come clean... or watch others... >:).


Ah the day of studying, how i love thee. Actually it wasn't too bad, but I worked on linear models from 7am to about 3pm. This time went by rather fast, and really i don't feel all that much smarter. ^_^ ah well....

I got a $4 pit from the pita pit for lunch, and that was all the other fun i had for the day. But do not cry for me, beacuse today is BW3 day, soon i get to go kick some butt in trivia. (More like, others kick mine... )

A little post

before i head off to bed...

today was an ok day. I got my final final done for messy, so its finally finally done (^_^). Now i just got to get on the linear models stuff, cause that test is on wed. :P

Today was rather cold out, and will prob be the last day i goto school w/o my cap, my ears got too cold on the walk home.

Not much else to say, after I got done with my final my motivation was low so i didn't do much... oh yeah watched the new Screen Savers, its crap. They got 'hip' people to do it instead of 'nerdy' people. I used to love watching that show and going where they say to go on the internet. Now i can't stand to watch them. I want the old guys back....

ok off to bed i go, cause i have a big day of studying ahead of me (yippee!).

Monday, December 13, 2004

Internet Archive

Internet Archive (site)

the internet too small for you?
try all of the internet, ever.

(type url in 'waybackmachine' to see past versions of it)

I am watching a guy talk about this in C-Span right now, it's very intresting. ^_^

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Hive Palatine

Hive Palatine (site)

Here is the start of a good online project for necromunda... i really need to get my stuff typed up and all pretty so i can do/add to such things..

Anyways, this weekend:

Michelle showed up late Friday night, I didn’t see her then. She went with jenette and chris early to Lawrence, we (me and cole) met up with them at free state to eat some cheese soup for lunch. Then michelle left to go practice, and the rest of us wandered around mass. street for awhile. We bought some kangaroo jerky and went to newgen's. There we ordered Tryyaki (a Japanese fast food place, which wasn’t that bad) and played mario party 6. The game was fun, and has better mechanics than MP5. after that we went to go watch michelle (she said...) play at joe's b-day party. They were pretty good, and i would like to hear them in a studio. After her part of the show we all sans michelle went to newgen's and played GTA : San Andreas. Let me tell you, this is a great game. It has too much cussing, but the world is so vast it is just awesome. It is better than Vice City in every way. We played that for a couple of hours, then we headed over to the 2am hot spot of Perkins. The food there was bad (surprise, surprise) but it was still fun. We got done messing around at 4am, and we all headed back here. Got here around 5.30, and went to bed.
Today (sunday): woke up late, watched football, Andy came over and hung out for a bit, then we went to Chipotle... But Chipotle was closed :(, so we went to pat's. The food there was ok, but still nowhere as good as cox. Cox is the best BBQ anywhere. After that andy left to go back to Garden. We came back home and now i'm watching sunday night football.

Well i just wanted to give an update, when i get the pics from michelle's show d/led post some.

Saturday, December 11, 2004

army.mil?

eep!

just checked out who has been looking at my blog, and there was someone from the addy or army.mil...

never heard of .mil before...

scary.

iMusicast

so i sitting here waiting for Jupiter sunrise to come on, so i thought i would update el blog.

Today has been very busy (again), to day i worked on my final final project, i got 7.5 out of 8 problems done, so not too much left to do. Which is good, but man i worked on it like all day :P.

Went to the panera for dinner (skipped lunch) which was a good break. I got a steak sandwich and steak salad, they both were pretty good.

Michelle is on her way up (and should be here any minute now...). She is coming up to play at Joe's B-day party with She Said... So we are all gonna head up to Lawrence to go watch that and play in the city. Maybe i can pick up some xmas gifts, because we are way behind on shopping for that...

Well Jupiter Sunrise should be on soon, so i am going to leave now. You should check out iMusicast.com, its a nifty site, look at their calendar to see when they have live shows... then watch them ^_^.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Charlie and the chocolate factory

Link (movie)

a preview...yeah....

LEVERS

LEVERS (game?)
a fun little game

It is cold outside, its not so much the temp (40F) but its really cold cause of the wind. I'm gonna get warm now and drink some christmas tea. ^_^

xball and stuff

well today was productive in an unfun way... all i did was work on my project for messy, which i got done... now just to do the final final project for that class... hopefully ill have funner stories to tell tomorrow...

i watched a paint ball like sport called xball (NXL) on EPSN today. It is very fun and they should show more stuff like this.

also i found a name the tune game on the internet, where you tell it the group and then you name their tunes... its fun. Here is the like to that (set on Jupiter Sunrise).

Thats all for now...

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Soosed

Link (site)

Well my randomness has been brought to you by sossed.com. It find the newest pics posted on lj, and list them, a new page gets added about once a minute....

i have found:
...there are alot of messed up people in the world...
and the two most posted pic stuff is the "youare whoeverthecrap..." and something in relation to the guy from Pantera who just got shot.


to bed i say.

give help.

Link (pic)

^_^, oh, now that is funny.
how could you *not* give him a dollar?

^_^

Creation Science Fair 2001

Creation Education (site)

oh my... well i make fun of the far left, and now time for those on the far right...

think back a couple hundred years ago to when the sun revolved the earth... this is what science fairs looked like then... 'sept using the Bible to prove that sun around earth 'theory'.
my favorite entry is :"Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria" (isn't this using God to do your bidding?)
honorable mention goes to: "My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)"
(now it is funny, but this is not science... and this was suppose to be a science fair. Let's at least attempt to do science at a science fair...)

ok here is the deal:
Scientists, you find out how the world works.
Religious folk, you tell us how to live a moral life.
Let’s not mix the two, because when we do it becomes a mess of nothingness.

the left is intolerant and extremist, the far right is making a false science that they think is helping their cause.
where do the smart people hide?... I like different ideas, let’s just think through them first. I guess that’s why I have my friends, they have viewpoints that aren’t blatantly wrong (they might be different than mine, but they aren’t stupid viewpoints).

The male model of infertility

Oregon Daily Emerald (article)

A hypothetical situation:
"February 3: Tests on protein injections are still not complete, but the Food and Drug Administration finally puts on its reading glasses and realizes that male contraceptive pills, based on hormones and approved in Europe for some time now, are 100 percent effective. A communal "d'oh!" is released. Unfortunately, just as someone is about to remedy the situation, a whole new slew of prescription medications arrive seeking approval. Side effects could include headache, drowsiness, addiction on par with morphine, dubious acts involving hot pepper sauce and all-expenses-paid vacations in Bermuda for our employees. "You bet we'll spend our time testing your drug!" Endorsement of the male birth control pill is put on hold. "

...this leads me to think you have no idea what you are talking about... should that suprize me? prob not..

Grading system gets an F

Oregon University of Oregon (article)

stupid says what?

"Although teachers cannot be responsible for the self-failings of their students, it still seems unfair that they are allowed to judge how much a particular student is learning. I pay the teacher to teach me, and then I get slapped with the label of failure if the teacher deems that I haven't learned the correct information?"

for more read the article. It's is prob. the least thought out campus newspaper article i have ever seen.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

workday

well ive been working on my project all day, which isnt too bad, but i could think of better things to do...

thats sums up my day so far.
time to get ready for gamenight.

m1arcomunda

marcomunda (site)

here are some pics of some necromunda scenery. The modular wall and corners are a good design/idea... this might by my next standard in scenery making. (the couple year old, black box building standard, is getting old...)

although making some tunnels would be good as well....

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Intelligence is greater than money.

CafePress (store)

I updated my CafePress store. Maybe i'll get buyers this time around. ^_^

'Titanic' Line Tops Cheesy Movie Survey

Yahoo! News (article)

They got the postman, but not for my favorite cheesy line of: "You give us hope like candy from your pocket."

BWuesday

Working on homework, watching the Postman, chilling the most. ^_^

The Postman is a pretty good movie, but they try too hard sometimes to make points.
Let's see, grouper is going strong (in the group is me aaron and chris). If you want to get in on the action let me know and we can get you added. The only downside to grouper is that you can not d/l music, just stream it, but transfers for files is twice as fast as BadBlue.

Today ive just been working on my final project (not the final fanal project) for Messy. It is hard cause we to not have examples of how to write SAS programs for this kind of data. grrr. When the movie gets over i'll run on down to school and run the programs. They will prob. all not work, but oh well.... After that BW3. Fun times.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Gym Class

Gym Class (movie)

The best short web film, dare i say ever?

you should watch it, it is good.

lets update this

shall we?

Let's see, what has gone on today? Linear models was boringer than normal. Came home played around for a bit, ate too much ramen for lunch, went to, what turned out to be, my last class of Messy.
Wed for that class we are going to get our final final project, which is due on Wed of finals week. But i still have the final project due for that class on Friday... two final projects but no final? deal.
So that leaves me trying to get both projects done by next monday so that on monday and tues i can study for my linear models final on wed. Not too bad.
Well, i think were gonna have lame practice tonight (no goalies, mucho people missing, just scrimmaging)... so i need to eat something to get ready for that. yippee.

Oh, its nice and cool and cloudy outside.

2already

Which means i gots to get to class.. will update later.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Doom Funnel Chasers!

BigIdeaFUN.com (game)

a fun gravity game

Pixelfest collaborative artwork

The Man in Blue (game?)

One of my favorite subjects, self organizing systems.

How did a tree come about? when was it obvious enough to people that whas was slowly being made by diffrent people was a tree? Fun things to think about.

12MANY

12MANY (game)

i got 203 points. ^_^

Indy 4?

The Indy Experience.com (aritcle)

Looks like it still. Even with Harrison Ford. ^_^

FreeDay

Today was fun. We woke up around 11, got ready and headed off to Topeka. We did some xmas shopping and then ate at Cici's Pizza. It was pretty goot and very cheap ($11.11 for two all you can eat buffets, and drinks). Then we went to a Trants game. They played much better this time around. We ended up losing 3-2 in a shootout, to Tulsa. It's too bad we lost, but it was a fun time anyways. Now to sleep i go.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Friday

today was a nice day.. since we last met:
Messy data went fine, nothing special about it
came home moped around for a bit, nicole got home, slept for an hour, went to Joanns but they didnt have the stuff nicole wanted, so we ate at Cox, got BBQ nachos and a side of sweet potato fries (good stuff), then we came home and watched Christmas Vacation and made some xmas cards. Now nicole is a sleep and i am roaming the internet. and that was the second half of my day.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Interesting pic

Link (pic)

did not reconize who it was at first.

chex

well i gots 5min untill i got to head back to school, so lets have a chat.

How was your day so far? Oh thats good..... hummm... intresting.... really? I didn't know you could use cheese for that. ... My day? It's been fine so far, i woke up bright and early so that nicole could get to school on time for her meeting, so i had a good chunk of the morning to work on ye old home work. But first i thought it woud be nice to get the notes for Messy printed off... But slide files were in Word-stupid-perfict... so it took me an hour to get converted over from the one computer that can read word perfict, but cant print, to another computer that couldnt read word perfect but could print.... you wouldnt think it would take an hour, but word perfect is rather stupid. I still had a bit of time to work on homework before the *oh* looks like my time is up, so long story short: Got most of the homework done, went to class, got back, found out that *all* of my homework was done wrong (as well as everyone elses' was), so redid all my home work. Came home ate lunch, watched a show about half-life. cherrio.

San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (site)

How can one group be so loud yet be so wrong... on everything... possible...

The ALF Strikes in Iowa! 401 Animals Rescued! Labs Smashed!

The SF Bay Area Indymedia (article)

awesome! The giving out of the home addys of the professors was the icing on this craptacular cake.

Google Answers: Tea

Google Answers: Tea (article)

before i goto bed, here is a bunch o' reasons why milk goes in tea. Also it explains why the tea that i make, which is way to bitter to drink straight, tastes so awesomly good when i add milk.
...mmm...tea... ^_^

Google Answers

Google Answers (site)

it's crazy! Google does know everything!

I want to do this for a job... $80 for one question answered, man...

Thursday, December 02, 2004

purevolume

purevolume (site)

A very good site for finding new music... has lots and lots of groups, and most groups have song to d/l...

In other news: Today i didn't do much, there was no dryland, so in protest of hunger we ate at chipotle. I worked on homework, and chilled the most, for most of the day.

Egg Song

Link (Flash)

...oh my.... ^_^, if you could understand japanese i'm guessing this is what half the songs are like. ...must watch again...

Colorblind Web Page Filter

Colorblind Web Page Filter (site)

Web browsing with the new 'As Aaron Sees It" feature.

Marc Cuban

I just watched show about him on G4. He is very smart. He made broadcast.com, by hooking up his computer to the local radio station and broadcasting it over the internet. in 98 Yahoo bought the company for 5 billion. Later he went to the Dallas Maverick game (which he already had season tickets to) noticed that it was boring and not selling out... he thought 'I can do better' so he bought them, and did do better... now he goes buys companies and makes them better, and then sells them for lots of money....

I want to be rich...

Tea Time

I havent really done much today, soon i am gonna start working on my homework, so that is why i am here. Game night went fine last night, we ate tomato apple bacon soup, which was pretty good, and turkey apple sandwiches, which were about what you would expect. Played scene it (aaron's game) which was a good time. not much else happening right now. So i'll go make some tea.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Down right

cold out side. My ears still hurt from walking home.

Nothing to really say for right now... Got one assignment done for linear and got another one to do.... BW3 went fine, i think Amber Me and Aaron won the three games, in that order.

Well i need to find some recipes to use for game night tonight.

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

A prescription for trouble

A prescription for trouble (article)

from the land of "i have no idea what i am talking about".

Need to get going....

but before i do i'll update el blogo.

The only news worth thing is that i found a program, grouper. It is like Bad Blue, but better. With it we can make a small file sharing network, much like Bad Blue but more linked. In any case you should go d/l the program, then give me your account's email addy so that we can get a better file sharing network together. (BadBlue just isnt working good enough).

Nothing much else to say.... we sat up our xmas tree last night.
I slept till 10 this morning then wondered around on the internet, played with grouper, ate lunch, and now im off to school to work on some homework. Which i need to do.

round

by felix jung (site)

very fun, it would be fun to have enough time/knowledge to do such things.

Converting the first 10,000 digits of pi into a musical sequence

pi10k (site)

Fun to play around on for a bit.

Monday, November 29, 2004

My boots a splode

my winter boots died in a spectacular disintegration throughout the day today. When i put them on this morning all the rubber was cracked, by the time i got to school the leather had pulled away from the rubber on top, after my first class the bottom of my boot fell half way off (not ripped off, it just fell off), I stapled it back on so i could walk around. I also stapled the rubber back together where is was cracking apart. By the time I walked home, the rubber had cracked all over the front and i was losing chunks from the toe... poor poor boots... I guess they were meant to die now. R-Honda gave me money to buy new shoes, so i think that money is gonna get converted into new boots. I think they are even to ghetto for me to wear.
Anyways today was a nice cold wintry day. My linear models homework was due today, but we didn't have it done, so now its due wed. The final project is now the actual final project (as in, no more work to do afterwards, 'cept the final) as it is now due on the last day of class. For lunch today i walked on over to the J of the J and got a Vito then went to Radina's and got a Latte and carrot cake. Good Stuff. i've been taking today easy. Hockey practice is cancelled due to snow, so now i've got a whole night to do what ever i want... QB1? possibly....

So lets do a quick run down of the big T.
We had Thanksgiving at Nicole's mom's house on Thanksgiving, grandma, and family came as well, and so did Joe. It was good. We had our Thanksgiving on Saturday and had such stars as Austin, Tara, Marsha, Nicoles family show up, and the people you would expect to go with them. It was a good time. We went in the hot tub one night when White Chedda came down, i guess that would make it Thanksgiving night. It was still a bit to warm, but fun nonetheless. Let's see what else happened.... We ate Sunday dinner at Grandma's new place in Garden Valley. It is a real nice place with a library, hair salon, coffee house, church, food place, and other things attached together in one big building. It would be a fun place to live, and will be a real good place for Grandma to hang out at (she is also still living at her house as well). The people working there were real nice (not sanitarily nice, but joking with the folks nice), and Grandma already had people to talk to during dinner (during dinner she got up and went over to another table and talked with them....).
I bought Starship Troopers 2 for a couple bucks... its about worth that much... maybe less. We also watched Elf, which is a movie worth renting, although i'm not sure about buying....
Anyways, thats about all for the big T recap....

I'm gonna go make some christmas tea now.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Old mp3 Songs for Oct/Nov

in my attempt to keep you, the reader, upto date with my life, I will now give you the songs that were on my mp3 for Oct and Nov:
Stay Home                             Self
Til the Day I Die                      Garbage
Harujion                                  Bump of Chicken
Clarity                                    John Mayer
Wonderful                              Everclear
This Road                               Jars of Clay
3rd Planet                               Modest Mouse
Better Than You                     Anything But Joey
Things I'll Never Say               Avril Lavigne
Brand New Skin                     Count the Stars
Traveling                                 Utada Hikaru
Saiyonara Color                      Super Butter Dog
Perfect                                    Simple Plan
Silent Life                                .hack//SIGN
Save Tonight                           Eagle Eye Cherry
Nice Weather For Ducks         Lemon Jelly
Steal Me                                  Jupiter Sunrise


Song most listened to: Things I'll Never Say
Song most skipped: Brand New Skin
Song i like more than when i put it on: Steal Me
Song i like the least since putting it on: 3rd Planet

Now i'm gonna go put some x-mas song on now


Here was my GUI for November. Posted by Hello

Back

Well I'm back, but i am doing other things at the moment (eating and watching Broncos football) so i will post about this weekend laterz.

Hope yall had a good time.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Thanksgiving

Were heading home (Garden) for the break, so i wont update this for a bit, (Sunday or so). Anyways, I hope Everyone has a good thanks giving.
275.8470 (my mom) , 275.4531(nicoles mom) if you need us.
Ja

&

Amber had to go to the hospital today to get her appendix removed. Everything seems fine, and hopefully she will be out of the hospital by tomorrow. We stopped by after hockey practice she seemed a little sore but overall good, so that is good. And i got to meet her mother.

OK, now i am gonna try to find out how the football game went tonight.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Pacers vs Pistons NBA Brawl

Video
Here is the whole video...

NBA basketball is a game of children acting bad/stupid and they get paid proportional to how childish they act.

San Francisco shoppers may have to pay for grocery sacks

sacbee.com (article)

This is the best idea since the Atkins Diet.

17 cents a bag. This is to curb plastic bag use, but they will charge the tax on paper as well "to help reduce overall waste".

A tax on Californians is soon going to be imposed, also to help reduce waste.

S. California Gets Up to 3 Feet of Snow

LancasterOnline.com (article)

Dang you global warming!

Garden City, Kansas Detailed Profile

city-data.com (site)

wow, you need to know about a city? this is the place, above is a link to GC. here is a link to Manhattan. Very cool.

www.fas.usda.gov

Garden City (Pic)

Very cool picture of Garden. I would pay some money for this picture.

Two Thoughts

One of my fav things to do is watch the Screen Savers and sit at my computer and go to the links that they give. (update on them: the show may go on ^_^)

Also boxing is a sport that i should like less than i do... I dont watch it, but its not that bad... better than Basketball.

Dick Family Crest, Coat of Arms

House of Names (site)

Fun site to play around with. I have doubts about how accurate the coat of arms is... (does anybody know your coat of arms for your family, and does this give the correct one for you?)

Also it gives more reals to think some of me is from Ireland/Scottland (which i am sure one of my grandparents is part....). Also, it has an alternative Dick spelling as Dyck, fun.

Stem Cells Feed Brain Tumors

Wired News

Interesting. Not only could this help with tumors, but i would think be of some help for people that are working with stem cells. As a possible supply of stem cells... (find out how the tumor does it then copy the chemicals needed.)

Hockey and whatever.

I'm kinda tired, which is weird cause i got 8 or so hours of sleep last night. and im typing slow... and its cold outside.

This weekend went fine, we played fine our first game and got mercied, we played Illinois later on Saturday and lost to them, but we played very well and we didn't get mercied. For the rest of the day on Saturday we went to StL Mills, which i think we all agree is the best Mills mall we have been to. (Better than Colorado and Grapevine). They had an ice rink, a Nascar mega-fun place, and many many cool stores. We stayed there until close (9.30) then we went to Longhorns, which just opened. The food there was good, but i would prob go somewhere else for the price. Then we just went back to the motel and went to sleep. Sunday we had a mid-morning game against CMSU which we tied, but were very close to winning. We played well in that game, aaron and nicole might get assists recorded and even jenette had a shot on goal. We are getting much better every game we play, and hopefully we wont lose too much skill over the break.

Let's see what else...
Oh, i finally got homework in linear models, but he never said when it was due, so we didnt ask, and we'll assume its not the monday after break >:)... ok i think i am done...
Oh yeah, Pam from stat (not the secretary, but the student) says that the video for gameboy advance is pretty good quality, I had wondered if it was worth getting the videos for the GBA. Pam says that her 3yr old daughter watches them all the time and she hasn't broke them yet. Ok, I'm done.....now.

*Note: Spell check knows that Nascar should be NASCAR. But does not know Nasa is a word.*

Friday, November 19, 2004

Slow

Sorry about the relative lack of new posts (about one a day... which i guess is alot for most of ya ^_^) Anyways...

Today was fine, had to get some work done, which i did. I did alot of my work at Union Station, ever since they redid the place it has been a fun place to go and do some work at. I got some Christmas Blend Coffee at the Starbucks there... It was ok, and very strong... not very Christmas-y. Hopefully it didnt mess up my taste buds for the finer tastes in life (ie tea). A reason i dont like coffee is the same reason that i dont like fake food (like frozen dinners and fast food). The flavor is strong and shallow. Good coffee has a rich flavor so i dont mind it, but i really dont like food/drinks with a strong initial flavor and no depth... That is one reason i like tea so much, it only has a light flavor but it is a very rich flavor. (Also why i like sushi and Jimmy John's) Anyways...
Classes were boring again, but they are kinda winding down, which is good. Dodged the linear models homework bullet again (hopefully no HW will be assigned Monday so ill get thanksgiving off). So that was today...
Now i am waiting for nicole to get home so we can finish packing and head on up to Newgen's for the night (yay) and then to StL tomorrow for some good ol' hockey times. Jenette and Aaron are going to be coming as well (and Chris), so it should be a fun time.
Shawn is gonna be in Lawrence tonight so if we eat dinner late enough (9ish) i'm suppost to give him a call and see if he and his homies want to dine with us (Free State you say?). Well well well, thats all i got, I'll be back later sunday.
Have fun...

Thursday, November 18, 2004

ABJ / Jupiter Sunrise

Last night i did actually make it to the show at PJ's. The Upside, Primetime Heros, Juptier Sunrise and Anything but Joey played.

The Upside was pretty good, and were punky. Primetime heroes was ok. Jupiter Sunrise was good and they put on a good show. ABJ had the best music (or had the best sounding static...) but didnt put on as good of a show as Jupiter Sunrise. But it was a fun time.

The two down sides:
1) My sleep schedule got all messed up, hopefully having my morning class tomorrow will set me right again.
2) My ears are still ringing... and its very annoying.

I need to eat something before dryland (if we have it).

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

The Elegant Universe

NOVA (video)

To follow up on what we were talking about last night at BW3 (Well me and Jenette were...) NOVA does post its shows on the net, hurray for Nova!
This is for the Sparticle show...

Things

Day has been fine so far.
I got away from Linear Models without homework again (yay)
came home, play tested my game a bit, which works pretty good first time through. One of the key elements, out flanking, works real well. The units are hard to destroy head on, but if you can flank your opponent, the units will crumble. Also, there was a couple times when i had to think real hard about what to do. So, so far the game looks to be like one i might actually scribble some rules down for ^_^.
In messy we got our final project, which is not the final thing we need to do, and its no more a project than any other homework... but it has a fancy 'final project' title... we get to analyze 3 datasets about cheese, yippee!... what else.... ah thats about it.
As far as it looks all systems are a go for tonight at PJ's, im not looking forward to being there forever, but that is ok, I'll gets to see ABJ before they are DH. (DuH?)
float on.

Day Off.

Well today i didnt have to do anything. I didnt have classes, and homework is due far enough away that i didn't need to work on it. So what did i accomplish? nothing.
Nothing sounded like fun to do :(. That's the breaks, i know it was cause i didn't *have* to do anything, but it would have been nice to wake up and go "oh hey, i'm gonna do this".. ah well

I did start to make a new game. Its about samurai when they first get guns and is a regiment like game (Warmaster-ish). I got pretty far on it (all the game pieces are done...) now to just work out the rules :) .
BW3 went fine, i got first in the Mini-Six, and Aaron won the Showdown. We were asked (by staff) to come in on thrus. to push the smokers out of the smoking section... i have no idea what thats all about, but its code name is "Sitting Duck". If you have any more info I would really like to hear about it.

I think thats about it, I need to get to bed cause i got class in the morning :(. Ja.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Robots to rid us of cockroaches

NEWS.com.aua(article)

Heres a good story idea. How about a couple years into the future warring countries will build robots to act the same way as these robots (i.e. the try to do things that get the others killed).

Other points of interest:
1) Cockroaches need friends?
2) Chickens are stupid
3) Sheep are as well
4) So is Anna Nicole

UCLA File Swappers in Quarantine

Wired News (Article)

This is a much better system than K-State's. Stopping all file sharing use is stupid, as i still want to use it for legit reasons. Like for anime fan subs, which since i can not get, i have no want to buy any new anime, cause i do not know what anime i like that is new...
And Half-Life 2 is being distributed over Torrent, but I can not get that either.
Punish the illegal use not the legal use.

Wilco

Wired News: 'Music Is Not a Loaf of Bread' (article)

I hope more bands take this approach...

The difference is like any biz. You need to make raving fans of your customers. If your give them something for free they will like you for it and want to buy from you. This has worked for restaurants (free Jimmy John’s on campus), it will worked for Wilco.

p.s. Movie industry suits start today. They felt that RIAA was making so much love for themselves that they want to get in on that.
What would happen if the Movie Industry would say: "I know we live in a digital age. You are free to download any movie you want, either from us (which they would set at low quality) or from others. But when you find a movie you like, please buy it in DVD format so that you can truly enjoy the movie as it was meant to be seen."
Do you think this would hurt the movie industry? I doubt there would be many more new people d/l who dont already, but some people that do it may feel like they should buy the DVD when they like something. I would like to see them say that and see what happens.

Monday, November 15, 2004

IFILM: Anna Nicole

IFILM (video)

Anna Nicole is ether:
a) The smartest person ever.
b) Not.

you can decide ^_^.

Sleepy day

Havn't really done much, went to my classes, ate some frozen pizza lunch... walked alot.
It's a monday.

HR Patriot Act

HR Votes on Patriot Act

man this one was hard to find. The senate is much better at web-ifing their things.

Anyways, there were more Dems voting against the act here, but still it was voted for by both Reps and Dems, with a split for then Inds.

But I am not in favor of it. (so thats one vote against by Libertarians ^_^)

Patriot act

Julia brought up a good point. Why did the republicans, who are the 'protectors of freedom' bully the patriot act through congress. (The Patriot act does allow the gov to spy on possible terrorists).

So I wondered how closely did the patriot act pass, was it the slight majority that the reps had? I did not know, so to the Senate Website! This is what i found:

Senate Patriot Act votes

Yup that’s right it passed 98-1... not the Republican push that i had thought. The media has done good at portraying the Patriot Act as a Republican backed bill... but in reality it was also Dem backed. So both sides are to blame for its passage, not one or the other.

This is similar to the Dems bashing Bush saying that he shouldn't have invaded Iraq. Remember Kerry said he would have invaded Iraq as well... So it isn't an arguing point, everyone agreed. Only in hindsight can we say if it was good or not.

Sunday, November 14, 2004

She Said...

She Said... (site)

Here is Michelle's band webpage... looks good.

It says that they will be playing in Lawernce the 11th of Dec, my be worth a trip.

Things People Said: Warning Labels

Things People Said: Warning Labels

Funny stuff

Wal-Mart has staggering hoard of product data

HoustonChronicle.com - Wal-Mart has staggering hoard of product data (article)

One of the fastest growing area in statistics, is analyzing data such as the data that Walsmart has gathered.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

CFP: NATIONAL 2003: Generosity Index 2003: (2001 US State Data):

CFP: NATIONAL 2003: Generosity Index 2003: (2001 US State Data): (site)

About conservatives not giving (as some people say on the prev. website), The states that have less give more (and happen to be 'red' states).

while we are on that topic, red vs blue ( heh ), i am not for that term... if we keep doing that it would be setting us up for a civil war. Its the states that voted for Bush versus the states that voted for Kerry. We are all still americans, we dont need to polarize.

Democratic Underground Forums

Democratic Underground Forums - So sorry. I can't help you . It's all up to President Bush now. (message Board)

Dems: "we will help all.. oh we lost? Screw you guys."

I didn't really think this untill i started reading the stuff here. They really want Americans that voted for Bush to suffer/die/suffer more. Why are they all for helping until they lose the election?
I really really hope this is not the state of the normal democrat... cause that is half of the USA...

FARK.com: (1213940) What's your favorite quote, and where's it from?

FARK.com: (1213940) What's your favorite quote, and where's it from? (comments)

Heres some of the good ones:

"By the time you realize your parents were right, you have children who don't believe you"
-Anonymous

"When you're going through Hell, keep going."
-- Winston Churchill

"Ignorance isn't intellect."

"Being better at things doesn't make you better than people."

"Any action can be justified when viewed from different perspectives. Only the true motivation is of any importance."

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...' - Isaac Asimov

"Knowledge speaks; wisdom listens." Jimi Hendrix

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security"
-Benjamin Franklin
(at the heart of conserviative ideas)

"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once"
-David Hume

"Are people getting dumber or louder?"
-Mayor Quimby
(I have asked myself this alot lately)

"Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong."

Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!
--Homer Simpson

Technorati: Searching the World Live Web

Technorati: Searching the World Live Web

fun site that shows how webpages are linked to each other.

Meat Market

To go with the other sad news, the Meat Market closed.

stupid heads.

The Screen Savers

Alex Albrecht

Is dead.

one less channel to watch.

piece
of
crap.

Healthy Forest Act

Some people have a problem with the Healthy Forest Act becuse it allows loggers to log in National forests. Heres what I say: (Topic brought up by
this blog )

This act was in response to the fact that national forests were being choked to death by dead matter. Normally, when there is no human intervention, fires clean out the forest of dead material. But since we put out fires (many times because people are at risk) the forest was killing itself with dead matter. This caused a double problem (as we saw a couple years ago in Colorado). When fires started to get going during the drought year, they could not be stopped because there was too much fuel. A couple of towns lost homes because of this.
The Healthy Forest Act allows loggers to remove very specific trees (not a clear cut as many people think) and they must cut some trees down and leave them there. It has really helped the forests in Colorado.
At first glace cutting down trees to help a forest seems backwards, but it actually makes sense

Friday, November 12, 2004

! Fishy ! - Flash Game

! Fishy ! - Flash Game (game)

a fun fishy game ^_^

OnTheIssues.org - Candidates on the Issues

OnTheIssues.org - Candidates on the Issues

Great site... half a month too late... oh well, must remeber for 2008, or 2006 even... what there are elections every year? pishposh. ^_^

Libertarian Party: Home Page

Libertarian Party: Home Page

We will see how four years of all republican ran government goes. These next four years will make or break both parties (Rep and Dems.) If all goes well the Reps will have a good foothold for years to come, and the Dems possibly will split (as there has been some talk before). If all goes bad Dems will get a boost, and an independent party will have a chance to rise... in any case, go Libertarian!... or Nader (who is getting crazier and crazier... it might not have been an act during the prez race... )

Necromunda Pic

Link (Pic)

Here is a fun cg pic of necromunda... fun fun.

Pirate's Plunder ahoy!

I got my online christmas list up. Now to direct parents there ^_^.

Tested!

The test was fine, just about what you would expect. I think i got a good chunk of it right, and the rest i should be able to redo and get some credit for. My favorite moment of the test is when i invented the right answer for a question when i had less than one minute to finish.

So now i get to do what ever i want (which means nothing will sound fun...). But i still have class this after noon. Ah well...

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Game Changed

I changed the game from triple tetris which nicole called "frustrating". To Twins which nicole called "game-y".

Game

I added a game to my blog...
The game is triple tetris, its three games of tetris at once. Fun times.
The high score list *should* be of just people who play it from my site.
The game is located on the side bar over there -->

well see how it goes... tell me what you think...etc...

(what test tomorrow?... oh yeah ^_^ )

Study?

Thats what i *should* be doing, since my test is in the morning tomorrow... but when you have to do something like that to do *anything* is more entertaining. So here i am.

Today was nice. I got to sleep in (no more Thursday class), then i studied and cleaned from game night. Then went to Dry land, this time they had the stadium lights on, so we were able to play ultimate for awhile, until they shut off in the middle of the game. ^_^ ah well, it was fun. Then we hopped on over the Chipotle to grab some food before nicole had to goto class. and now i am here.

so good day so far.

random thought from school: We should replace 'l' (lower case L) with lambda because on computers '1' and 'l' look alot alike.

Other thought: Why do we treat a skinny person who thinks they are fat to actually see themselves as skinny, but we treat a male that he's a female to make him a female. Are both of those problems not made by problems with the brain?

Google Search: Shannon Dick

Google Search: Shannon Dick

I'm number 1! I'm number 1! ^_^

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Game nighted

Well Game Night just got over. And i dont want to clean so here i am. For dinner we had Cream Pumpkin Soup (much better than it sounds), and cheddar cheese fondue, which was ok. We also had molten chocolate cake, which i didn't eat (i dont like chocolate cake). The game we played was Like Minds. It is a game that is a cross between taboo and scategories, i liked it alot. Its a good game to play with couples (teams must be in pairs) that doesn't take long. Fun times. Wellp nicole needs ye old computa so i go.

Quick update of day so far

Today hasn't been too bad.

I went to class in the morning, then worked on the practice test. Had Quizno's deliver a large sandwich for 4.99... i mean order a sandwich to be delivered, wait 45min, then they call and say they dont deliver today (!?!), and then go and pick it up.... It was cold by then, and not toasty... :(, thems the breaks. Then i went to class and worked on the practice test a bit more then i came home.

Now i am waiting for nicole to get home so that we can go get the food for game night.

playstationemotions.com

playstationemotions.com (site)

ummm...insane?

Dancing Queen

Dancing Queen (game)

like using your arrow keys? Then this game is for you!
(DDR for your fingers)

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

mmm....sleep....

Quick recap of the day before i go to bed.

I got to sleep in late today since i had no classes today, so i ended up heading off to school around 3. So that was nice. i got my homework done, and half of the practice test. Then went to BW3, and i won the showdown (for once ^_^). Then i came home and me and nicole started our Xmas stuff (yay!).... Listened to the new Trans-Siberian CD (The Lost Christmas Eve). It is good, but not as good as the first two. If you don't have the first two, get them first, but if you already have em, its a good buy to get the new one.

Well I got some schooling to do in the morrow, so ill do some sleeping now.

Warhammer 40,000 - Space Marines

Space Marines Painter

This would be good to play with if you are gonna start a new space marines chapter, or if you are bored.

Monday, November 08, 2004

Topeka Tarantulas

Tarantulas Win First Home Game In Franchise History (article)

yay T'Rants... now lets work on winning two in a row. ^_^

www.mediaresearch.org

The Ten Worst Media Distortions
of Campaign 2004
(article)

I its atleast nice to see *something* that has a right slant.

Liquid fun

Lets give thanks (article)

Did you think Pepsi's Holiday Spice was bad? Try these.

Updated!

Well it's been a bit since the last update, and that is due to Hockey.

So lets talk about hockey... It went ok. I scored a goal, alex did and Sam did (yay!). So now i am tied with alex for lead in goals for the team (2, wa-hoo.) Oh, i also got voted to be an assistant captain, really i shouldn't be, Ty is much more knowledgeable about hockey than i am, but i wont argue. But if Scoot comes back and want to be the assistant, i will fight very hard for Ty to be the assistant instead of Scoot. Anyways.

Central is stupid, and are only ok, Truman is pretty cool and good, and Western Ill. is my least fav. team of all, and they pretty much suck. Needless to say we lost all of our games, but we played well. It will take a bit of time to get all the new guys up to turney skill level, but they are getting better fast. Good times anyways.

Nothing too special happened in St.L, so nothing really more to say about that. Last night nicoles mom came up and stayed at our house for the night. Her and Maria came up so they can get some scholarship stuff done, and also to look at the architecture and Arch Eng. depts. Hopefully Maria will go into Arch Eng.

Well i am very sweaty from hockey practice (that went well). So i am gonna go take a shower.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Engadget (Archos Gmini 400 review)

Gear Eye: The Archos Gmini 400 - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Looks like something that would be fun to have... too bad its $400.

www.engadget.com

Engadget - www.engadget.com (site)

Lots of things, fun things.

>:(

Scrabble is on ESPN right now.

Scrabble.

why?

in other tv news:
right now i am watching brain-rot usa (mtv).
there is a show called 'you've got a friend'. its where a guy acts like a friend to someone, and if they person can play along for two days (while the 'friend') destroys your life you got $15k.
All your relationships are screwed for $15,000. worth it? no. is this a good show have youngins watch? no. good tv? no. (although mtv wants you to say yes.).
stupid.

changed my mind, watch it, see who advertizes during it, and do not buy from them. Heres my list:
Revelon
Incredibles movie (too bad, i kinda wated to see that one.)
Juice box (mp3 player)
Now 17 (cd)
Saw (movie)
Ngage (darn ^_^)
M-Azing (candy bar)
Duracell (hum... thats too bad)
Taco Bell
Ace Combat (vid game)
Ray (movie)
Neutragena
Nintendo DS
Spongebob square pants movie
Best Buy (ouch)

So there you go none of those companies for the rest of the month.


Ladybug News

The problem with pests (article)

Here is why the ladybugs have been so 'bad' this year. I think it is kinda funny. next year lets go for swarms of fireflies, i like them.

www.sorryeverybody.com/

link (site)

"49% of us still hate Bush"

good, 51% of us are getting tired of you. Go to Canada, or get over it.

ps

i dont care anymore.

if i think you are wrong, so what, ill let you think that.
if you have a diffrent thought, i wont care, no need to find out why.
if you are running the wrong way, oh wll, at least im going the right.
life is easier when the whole world is falling and you worry about making your landing softly
and ignore those around you.

Some mistake my questions as arguments, as accusing of wrong doing
they are not, i try to understand those around me, see why they think the things they do.
people watch their stupid lifes go right by them as they do and think nothing,
that may be better cause at least then no one doesnt like them.

i have money. why should i share it with anyone?
me and nicole are working for it, no one else is.
i used to not care where the money went as long as my life was going fine.
but why?
others had money and spent it on them sleves, then complained when they had none left.
I didnt mind if they used mine, its just money after all.
but why?
why should i give to people that give nothing back. why?

i dont care anymore.
Ill just worry about myself.
if you are wrong, fine, think it, screw up the world.
Thats ok, because i will be able to die before it can get too bad.
my childeren on the other hand are gonna have to live in it...
but thats right, they arnt me, what do do i care about them.
i dont care

(pss ill be fine, it just so happened that i was here and that came out.)

Remembered!

What i was gonna say:

One person commented about how she was sad about ilovebees ending because the charchters seemed real to her, she got to know them, their past, thier hopes, etc...
So she was playing the game partially to learn about someone.... i bet if she would step outside her house there would be someone that was real that she could find the same things out about.

I dont know it just seems as we get more and more connected we grow further and further apart. Thats why i think things such as game night are so important. There is actually interaction there, not fake computer interaction.... yeah....

Final and such

Here we go, put on your mask, the world will be alright.

The final went ok. I think i got a 90% on it which puts me into limbo. If i get more than 90 ill get an a in th eclass, less than 90 ill get a b. It would be real nice to get an a in the class for gpa insurance, but we will see.

I was real pissy this morning, im not sure why, but i just think it has to do with having a whole weekend taken up, and having to worry about more than just me. oh well, so as my life.

I had something else to say, but i think my brain rejected it, so i guess i am done. Ill get ramen in 2minutes anyways. woop.

sean stewart - the beast

sean stewart - the beast (article)

Follow up on the guys who made ilovebees, this is about their first game The Beast.... so it looks like being a english major could be fun....

Thursday, November 04, 2004

ilovebees.com

Sci-fi fans called into an alternate reality | CNET News.com (article)

Todays addition to how complex and big the world really is... I have NEVER heard of this, but yet there are more than half a million people doing it.... crazy.

Finally!

that is how my day has been so far..... (i'll wait until you gets it... got it? ok)

I woke up, got dressed, made some apple green tea and warmed up the apple crisp all so i could sit down and continue to study for my Sampling Final.... It is going to be a hard test cause there is alot of material and because i think that he doesn't write the best tests... oh well, in a couple of hours i will be done with that class, and i can pay attention to the two important classes: Messy and Linear Models.

Oh well, game night went good, as usual, and thee food was pretty good. I really like apple crisp, so the more of that i can get the better. ^_^

Must continue writing so i dont have to go back to studying....

Ah I know a topic, Fanatic is gonna get ate by GameWorkshop, so there are going to be an almost complete Online resource. They are talking about ending the Fanatic Mag :( and publishing it online... also they are gonna slow production of new models, which is not good news. Hopefully this isnt the beginning of the end for Fanatic... But i guess if so I can take a good look into RedStar games, done by Andy Chambers....

Oh fine i'll get back to work.......must....finish....class...

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Kerry Speech

Link (transcript)

Here is a link to Kerrys speech that he gave this afternoon, it's worth a look over. It has some good points.

Bush

I stuck around long enough to watch the Bush speech, It was equally as good as Kerrys.

I had to leave 17minutes later than normal though, but i walked fast and made it to class basically on time.

Now back to studying... :P

Kerry

Just got done watching his speech. It was pretty good. Hopefully Dems. listened to this speech and follow what he said. He called for everyone to work together for common goals. And that even though we are from diffrent parties evryone is an American, and that is the best thing in the world.

+2 points for Kerry (total of 4 now...Bush is around fifty)

Hopefully Bush will deliver as good of a speech.... but i will miss it since i have class :(

Oh well, happy day.

KidsVotingUSA - Presidential Results Page

KidsVotingUSA - Presidential Results Page (site)

Here are the results for the Kids Vote. As you can see in the case of a tie between Bush and Kerry, this tie breaker would have gave Bush the election :) .

Also there is a like to an election night activity... i wish i would have seen this sooner, i would have filled it out :(.

Ok off to study.

Happy Pills

Well, today is going good...
I felt pretty crappy when i woke up this morning, but i took some DayQuil (huzzah!) and i feel great. There must be something werd in it because even linear models was fine... must be some happy juice in the meds... ^_^

Anyways, Kerry conceded the election, which (hopefully) means that we will not have complaints about the election for weeks... The election wasnt a landslide, but i think it was a big enough margin that we wont have all the crap of last time. So that is going good.

Upcomming for my week is just my Sampling final tomorrow, a messy homework for friday and hockey on the weekend... that means i willbe busy for the rest of the week, but not overly so.
Well I need to get on the whole studding thing for my final... i think that would be a good thing to do..

my advice: take DayQuil it has happy.

Yahoo! News - AP: Bush Wins Race As Kerry Concedes

Yahoo! News - AP: Bush Wins Race As Kerry Concedes (article)

Yay! Thank you Kerry for conceding and not dragging it out. +2 points for Kerry.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004


Oh, this helps me choose... ^_^ Posted by Hello

Since it is november it is time for a new desktop, windowblinds, icon set, and cursor set... the candy corn in the middle of the screen is the cursor... This obviously is my desktop from last month Posted by Hello

Voted!

Well if my ballot was an indication of how the election is going to go, the Republicans are going to win by a landslide. Not only that Kerry didn't even get a vote.

But really we will soon see if we continue to the land of the free, or just another country. Cause if we lose our freedoms here we can't go to another country, we're all there is.

Also if we don't get attacked today by terrorists i think we can claim a win against them. I have read than 2/3 (or 5/6???) of the leading members of al Quida have been captured. I really do not think they are much of a threat anymore.

So in conclusion, go vote. and while you are at it finish my paper which is due by 11. Ok i'll let you choose one or the other to do.

Yay! BW3 day... not that i am good at trivia like some ambers i know... ^_^

Monday, November 01, 2004

Unglued

Gatherer - The Official Magic: The Gathering Card Database

I need to get a project done by tomorrow, so what do i do? Anything but the project. For example here is the special edition of magic where they make fun of themselves. Check out the Infernal Spawn of Evil card... I wouldn't want to face him, with that scarf, and that coccoa.... ^_^

Ok ill check some news and then get to work (i hope).

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Guide to American Political Parties

Politics1 - Guide to American Political Parties (site)

Info on third parties, this is the site I was talking about last night at Chili's.

Andy Chambers

Red Star Games (site)

Well, this is news to me, but it is rather old... In April 2004 Andy Chambers left GW :( . He was one of the best developers for them, and it looks like he left on bad terms. Games Workshop better start shaping up. Cause It looks more and more as if they dont care about us, and only about profits... the specialist games are the only reason i hang on.

Anyways, i am never interested in other miniatures systems, but i will keep my eye on RedStar. Andy does great work.

Oh yeah Happy Halloween!

The Hidden Door Company

The Hidden Door Company in Elk Grove, California (site)

When i build my house this will be the only way you can get into my library.

LP: World Leaders Endorse Bush

LP: World Leaders Endorse Bush

Hold on now. This better not be true, because the media has *never* mentioned anything about this. There are alot of world leaders that support Bush, and if this is true, i believe this is big news.

The only reason I don't believe it is because i have not heard this at all from the bigger news places, but then again would that be surprising?

First draft of the Coach Snyder song

It took about 45min, and this is what i got. The music is from the march Susa wrote for K-State (aka the song that sucks), the words are inspired by how much Snyder is awesome. Listening to the music while looking at the words helps, you can bad blue the song from me (Captured>SnyderSong). Anyways:

----
The Coach Snyder Song
Song: Susa
Words: Shannon Dick

(A Hail to the K-State Coach)

This is the Snyder song
We'll sing it all day long
We need to get a win, so we'll put our trust in him
This is the Snyder song
He is so freaking great
He is awesome, and clutch, and cool. (and cool)

We will always have a chance with Snyder to win
He is the one who has saved us many a times
Will never be lost with no hope to win
as long as we keep the coaching to Bill Snyder

Let us never forget how much we, how much we, really, really sucked
Let us never forget how much we, how much we, really, really sucked

We: Lost to the Jayhawks alot , and the Huskers even more, we lost and lost, and lost and lost,
We were the laughing stalk of the whole N C double A

But then we were saved by Coach Snyder
He's made the Wildcat land proud
So we thank you Coach Snyder
May your name live on and on! (State!)
-----

There are still some rough spots, but it works overall for now... any fixings would be appreciated.

Iran endorses Bush for president

Iran endorses Bush for president

What? Is this a trick? Like when Osama endorsed Kerry? Bush labels Iran as a part of the axis of evil, then Iran wants to see more of him? Sceptical i am.

Try Your Guts!

Try Your Guts!

Ok last one... there are so many funny things though....you should just goto www.engrish.com

[edit...more ^_^]

Drinks

Auto Rock

Cute Curry

Shut the door first...

Shut the door first...

then just rock, or can i rock rock on?

Recommended by 7 of 9

Recommended by 7 of 9

Hivemind you say?

roper is dumb dot com

roper is dumb dot com (site)

Reese roper from Five Iron Frenzy has finally got a CD together.. it has such songs as 'You're with stupid' and 'Hello Lamewads', it might be worth a listen.

K-State

Well we didnt win the game, and we didnt lose impressively... Our guys played good, but the play calling sucked. We were always doing things out of the I formation, which lead to a lot of sucking and not much not-sucking.... We need to go back to the 5 wide, like we did against OU, we were able to move the ball freely then. Ah oh well, we just need to win out so we can goto *a* bowl game...poo.

In other news it hallowe'en...boo.

One Handed Keyboard

Maltron Keyboards (product)

Here is the one handed keyboard i was talking about at Chili's.

Saturday, October 30, 2004

Can't stop...

VIM (pic)



Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness/Front Toward Enemy

Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness/Front Toward Enemy (pic)

even more:....

Elevator Options

Contains No Helicopter

Corpses no more

ok i gots to get ready to goto the game now.
Go State!

Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness/Czech Sign

Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness/Czech Sign

^_^ , i like how they explain it.

more funny

Link (pic)

Oh wait, it says here that you shouldn't drive... 'sepcially since you just drunk a beer... i'll drive and you can just stick your head out the window, ok Spot?

^_^

But...

Link (pic)

...my dvd player doesn't have a rewind button....

Friday, October 29, 2004

Wonders of the ancient world

Link (Article)

Dude, they found an ancient coin in Saudi Arabia with weird writing, that must have come from an ancient advanced civilization. An ancient advanced civilization called, Puerto Rico. Behold its awesomeness.

Baby Talk Beginnings

Scientific American.com: Baby Talk Beginnings (article)

An article about speach develpoment in babies. Thought it was relavent to the Baby sign language dicussion.

Topeka Tarantulas | Tarantulas Win First Game In Team History

Tarantulas Win First Game In Team History (article)

Yay! Now lets get a win at home (even better if they can win when i am there).

Quick todaying

Today is very fall-y, when i started to walk home it just felt like fall, its very nice outside.

Anyways, this morning I set up chairs, the normal people were there plus scott, minus Alex. It did not take long at all cause we set up like half the amount of normal chairs... i guess no one wants to see Tex Tech. After that i went to class then worked on homework, then went to class, and worked on home work... then got done working on homework (got todays done and much for whats due on monday). All i have to do this weekend is work on my paper for sampling, and goto K-State football. joy!

Ok i go do other things now, enjoy your weekend.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

TCS: Tech Central Station - Tie Goes to the...

TCS: Tech Central Station - Tie Goes to the... (article)

An interesting article about what would happen if the election is close this time... Prez McCain?!? Betcha didnt see that one coming.

First of 18 days

in a row that there is football on tv.

Anyways i spent alot of time replying to a comment about the Iraq article, the person (Julia, Amber, ??) had some good arguments, it is worth checking out the relpy.

so i am tired of typing but ill give you a run down of ye ol' day.

I got to paint a bit before class thismorning, which is prob the first time i have painted in a month. Class was fun, for the first part we talked about polling and election stuff. then we went over cluster sampling (some good stuff). Then me shawn and jennifer went to chipotle to eat some lunch and work on HW. We worked on HW untill 5, the last hour of it back at my office. We got nothing done on it... we only had two problems left and we couldnt get them... so that was frustrating. At 5.15 i had dryland, which is getting easier everytime we do it. Now i am home again, and nicole is at class...

and i need a shower... ^_^

Ah the 80's....

Mario Brothers on Ice (video)

A funny video of a time when we brought the 8bit system to life, on ice! We dont get entertainment like this anymore....

Since then

Yesterday went pretty good. I got a bit of homework done, which is always good, and game night went fine. We played candy poker, like we always do before hallowe'en. I didn't do so well, I got a couple of good hands, but I got beat on them.. oh well...

This morning I dont have to do anything until I leave for my class at 11, so I am gonna drink some tea and play on the computer.

Hey today is the official start of the weekend!

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Inspired!

I don't know what it is about Hermes House Band, but their songs inspire me to do Necromunda stuff.
All my ideas for the Kasu campaigns have come from songs; Rouge War:Lady Marmalade (Moulin Rouge Soundtrack) and Finwick Crossings: Ready to die (Andrew W K). And now I found the song Those Were the Day by Hermes House Band. This song is very suggestive of the state of things in Kasu Valley. All the old warriors don't get to party anymore and are stuck doing bureaucratic stuff establishing the Kasu Council, and they long for the good ol' days. It leads me to think one of two things could happen 1) Rouge is starting to fail as the novelty wears off and the new free market hurts profits, Rouge knows that is could be on the way out unless it does something. or 2) The Old Warriors (The Council members from the Rouge War) get tired of just running things and meet up and decide to get in some kind of action...

Either way the song got me thinking about Necromunda again, obviously a campaign cant take place right now, but be on the look out for one to start after Xmas....


^_^ Oh! ive got a really good idea >:)

The High Price of Cheap Drugs by Russell Roberts

The High Price of Cheap Drugs by Russell Roberts (Article)

Holy crap this is a very good article on why drugs cost more in the US than in Canada. (apparently reselling africa drugs isnt as common as i thought [although google "resell drugs" and the first few results are csases like that].)
If you have any questions as to *why* drugs cost more here than there read this. please.

...please again.