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January 31, 2002

Good Eats and Iron Chefs

I've come to the realization that me watching cooking shows is like little boys in the '80's watching 20-Minute Workout:

I'm in it for the dishes and the bouncing bubbly energy of the hosts, but never really intend to do anything that they're teaching me.

At least Alton Brown doesn't wear leg warmers.

Posted by KinCross at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

A little naughty, but funny

I got this in email. I have no idea where it's from, but if I had to guess, it's European.

"Tidy Up" (IKEA)

Why do I think it's European? If consumer pressure can make them change the Chrysler Concorde commercial, do you think this ad would ever hit the airwaves?

Posted by KinCross at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)

Money money money!

Just got my reimbursement cheque from FSA for my eye exams at the end of 2001. Time to rock the casbah.

Posted by KinCross at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

Snow

There's none here. There should be. I miss snow.

... and I really miss snow football.

Posted by KinCross at 08:25 AM | Comments (0)

Open call for sound clips

I forgot to mention that I collect sound clips of people saying "Are you shittin' me?" It's an odd hobby. Started my Freshman year in college when I got people on my "floor" to say things into a microphone on my Centris 610 to redefine all of the system sounds. Had my system critical stop changed to my friend Henry saying "Doh. Doh doh!" and alerts as my friend Mehul saying "Dumbass!"

I think I lost a bunch of them moving between computer systems, but I may yet find some on old SyQuest or Jaz cartridges if I ever bother to hook them up to the new TIE Book. So, if you'd like to add to the collection... email them. I'm having issues with the anonymous FTP site at the moment.

Posted by KinCross at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2002

MovableType Gimp v.2

After a little back and forth with the people on the support fora at MovableType.org, I tried the shot-in-the-dark purge and reinstall method tonight. Tried dropping the scripts into cgi-bin, but couldn't read a thing. As soon as installed them to a directory outside cgi-bin, I was zooming along.

Got the mt-load.cgi to come back all shiny and happy.

Even mt-check.cgi went alright, though it didn't detect that I'd installed the modules for SOAP and File::Temp.

When I run mt.cgi, it pulls up a login screen. Great! Type in the default username. Type in the default password and...

Got an error: Not an ARRAY reference at (eval 10) line 24.

This sucks. Yes, I'm that gimp on the board with the ARRAY problem.

I have no idea where to go from here, and judging by the most recent tone of my helper's post, it seems like he's either out of ideas, or the methods that we'd have to use to figure out what's wrong would really put the piss in someone's Corn Flakes.

Help?

Posted by KinCross at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)

Training Wheels

Is this the sub they put scrub captains on to learn how to drive before sticking them in a real boat? The USS Greenville hit another ship.

Posted by KinCross at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)

Sharp Dressed Man

With nothing better to do with my AMEX Membership Rewards points and having officially declared one of my suits dead due to an ambiguous wax incident involving my former roommate (or not, hence the ambiguity), I cashed in 50,000 points today for two $250 gift cards at Brooks Brothers. Any one want to go shopping with me?

Posted by KinCross at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)

Anyone want to buy my Sprint PCS phone?

This is really a question directed at US residents.

I bought a Nokia 8890 GSM phone on the Voicestream network. I won't go into my reasons for the purchase except that it didn't really have anything to do with my previous service on Sprint PCS, which has been quite stellar thus far except for a couple of incidents where I had to get my antenna replaced (long lines at the only service centre in New York). Actually the antenna could stand getting replaced now, as it got banged up a bit in my pocket.

(Alright, alright, it was a bit of an impulse buy. The phone is so darn cute and so is Jamie Lee Curtis. That and the antenna broke on my old phone. Phone still works fine, but it's like having a lock of hair that refuses to sit where you want to sit in your coif. Phone works with it the way it is, minimal cost to have it fixed, if any.)

The phone I am looking to sell is a Motorola Talkabout T8167 phone, originally costing $150. I've got a headset that I can toss in with it. Currently, the rate plan on is $50/month, no contract, 500 minutes per month, with free long distance to anywhere in the US and no roaming charges from anywhere on the SprintPCS network. This is pretty much the cheapest nationwide plan in the US (actually, if you're willing to lock yourself into a year's contract, you can make it even cheaper, $40/month).

I have until 31 January -- that's tomorrow -- to cancel my service or incur another month's charge on a service that I no longer use. If I transfer the service to someone else, that will waive any sign-up fee.

Do I have any takers? All I ask is whatever you feel like giving up in trade. It doesn't support the US Olympic team, but it would keep this Aggressive Beaver from being a Vicious Rampaging Beaver. If you want the phone list programmed in the phone, that'll cost you $500. ;)

If there aren't any takers, I'm going to can the service tomorrow and take my chances on eBay, but I have no interest in paying for another month's service on this phone considering I'd really stopped using it back in early December/late November.

Email me at itn1@cornell.eduu, but clip out the extra U at the end when you do it.

Posted by KinCross at 03:19 PM | Comments (0)

I'm not Googlewhacking

Went looking for a picture of an angry beaver today, so I fed Google "vicious rampaging beaver." I got no pictures, poor hits, and one fanfic. Don't ask me what the fanfic was about.

So I toned it down to "aggressive beaver." I got this:

(Washington, D.C.) -- The IRS is busy as a beaver collecting your taxes, but U.S. Congressman John Shadegg (AZ-04) has an interesting solution to alleviate the IRS backlog.

During yesterday's floor debate in the House of Representatives regarding Shadegg's Tax Limitation Amendment, H.J. Res. 37, Shadegg drew a connection between the appetite of the Internal Revenue Service bureaucrats and a few other fur-bearing creatures in Washington who have been destroying cherry trees:

"I was reading a statistic earlier today that went to the heart of this debate. It pointed out that the IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions each year -- the equivalent of paper made from almost 300,000 trees..."

"I could not help but be struck by the fact that vis-a-vis the IRS, the beavers at the Tidal Basin who, during the last few weeks chewed down...three or four trees before they were caught, are pikers compared to the IRS! In one year the IRS -- not one little aggressive beaver -- but the IRS with its 8 billion pages of forms and instructions consumes almost 300,000 trees."

"Maybe the IRS should employ those beavers."

Posted by KinCross at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

Maybe if we rolled his crack up in Enron stock certificates...

I woke up this morning to the radio morning show talking about this video of a Q&A with Kenneth Lay the day after the SEC opened its investigation on Enron.

I didn't see the video myself, but I heard the audio clip on the radio and, I have to admit, this had me laughing to get the day started. Surely, it's not a laughing matter that so many people have suffered as a result of the collapse of the company, but sometimes when things are bleak, you have to find humour in little places.

Or maybe I just like hearing Kenneth Lay read aloud a randomly selected question written on an index card that he had obviously not read over in his mind beforehand: "I would like to know if you are on crack. If so, that would explain a lot. If not, maybe you ought to start because it is going to be a long time before we trust you again."

While I'm here, I guess I could weigh in on this whole Enron issue. I haven't been paying too close attention to it since I've got my own worries to tend to without having to wonder if I should have invested money in Enron way back when or the status of people that I don't know in far and removed places. However, something really stinks coming out of Texas these days.

Cheap and easy jibes at the President set aside, the way that the upper echelons of Enron -- by extension, the "company" -- treated their employees was absolutely deplorable. I'm not an old fogey yet, but I can still pine for the days when there was loyalty. You just didn't treat your people that way. Though individualism is something held on a pedestal by many Americans, some unknowingly, there is a dark side to it and that is based in selfishness. People grabbing up material things at the expense of others. Deficit spending. The .com bust. We're becoming a bunch of hedonists.

Alright, that was rather disjointed. I think I need to sit down and hammer this one out a little more.

I'll leave you with this non sequitur: What happens if you use suntan oil while wearing a chainmail bikini in the hot sun? What if someone throws an egg at you?

Posted by KinCross at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

Why you shouldn't listen to radio personalities in Texas

I'm sure some psychological researcher could come up with all sorts of reasons why this guy decided to perform a solitary commando raid on the Bohemian Grove. The cops might not be laughing now, but they'll probably be telling this story and chuckling about it by Christmas.

I swear, if I'm ever going to do this, I'd at least do it with better style: a tuxedo, cap, top hat, white gloves, long barreled revolver hidden in a cane.

Or maybe I'll dress up as a gorilla with a bow tie and a "KICK ME" sign taped to my back.

Posted by KinCross at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

This site powered by Mindstorms

Some guy ported TCP/IP to the LEGO platform. Imagine running your web server off a LEGO web server some day.

Posted by KinCross at 06:03 AM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2002

Yeah yeah yeah

After getting a complaint about the lack of working comments code, I tried to install MovableType tonight. It seemed to go decently well. I had some oddly set permissions and a mistake in my CGI path for a bit, but that got resolved. I was feeling pretty jazzed, up until I tried to make that first, default, login. I got this:

Got an error: Not an ARRAY reference at (eval 10) line 24.

I suck so bad, I couldn't even be a fluffer.

Posted by KinCross at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)

Pepto Bismol for Cats

The antibiotics the vet gave me to feed the girl is sweet smelling and pink, somewhat like Pepto Bismol. It comes with an eye dropper that I have to use to squirt the meds into her mouth. There's the challenge.

Today, I've managed to go 2-for-2. Both times, pink stuff in cat. Not on cat, not on me, not on the carpet... in the cat. Yay me!

Posted by KinCross at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2002

Scared

It was in the 50's this weekend. I really hope I'm not the only one deeply concerned that it's this warm in January in the Northeast.

Posted by KinCross at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2002

Microsoft Hacked

Shortly after noon, today, Microsoft was Hacked. Though Ijd like to say this happened to one of Bill Gates' business entities, it didn't.

My bedroom door doesn't close properly. The door shuts, but doesn't quite latch, so all you have to do is push on the closed door asand all the riches of the kingdom will be exposed to you. Actually, it's just all of my unfilled bills and invoices scattered around the room by the cats.

With the exception of one weekend, I don't let the cats into my bedroom. Hack, however, has figured out that he can open the door by pushing on it and eventually grew strong enough to push it open.

So I blocked it. When I went to sleep, I'd slide this box of diskettes and documentation from an old purchase of Microsoft Office for the Mac that I had bought back in college. It's about a foot cube, maybe a little less, and filled with decently heavy paper. It made a great doorstop.

But Hack is still growing. Over the course of twenty minutes of effort, he managed to push the door open enough for him to squeeze through. It wasn't enough for him to squeeze back out, but he got in. Diva, being smaller, had little trouble getting in and out.

<SIGH>

I think I'll try using the Toaster to block the door.

Posted by KinCross at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2002

Conspiracies are where you look for them

So who else thinks that Baxter (former Enron executive) was silenced and not self-deadificated.

Posted by KinCross at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)

Forwarded Goodness

Got this list in email. I rather liked some of them, particularly #4. Since I don't make a habit of forwarding stuff like this around... hah! Eat this posting!

Life's lessons

1. If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.
2. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.
6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques.
12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
15. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognise a mistake when you make it again.
22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.
24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.
25. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Posted by KinCross at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2002

Speaking of 11 September...

I've found that one easy way to amuse myself is to go back and read my email on particular dates when big earth-changing things happen and 11 September is no exception. Back then, in the pre-blog days, my usual open venue for writing was a mailing list that I share with about 30 some odd other people, most of whom had split off from a list about the Friends sitcom some years back to form a social circle powered by Listserv. Here's what I wrote to the list, which probably best encapsulated my emotions for the day:

X-Sender: itn1@mail.concentric.net
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 23:38:28 -0400
Reply-To: The Basement Party
Sender: The Basement Party
From: secret asIAN man (Ian T Ng)
Subject: "Tomorrow is not a normal commuting day"
To: xxx@xxx.com

I don't know why I chose that quote from the Port Authority of NY/NJ, but it seemed like an appropriately understated summation of the day.

I'm not going to pretend that I went through the turmoil of having family in the blast zone; I didn't, they were all safely outside of New York or Washington D.C.

I'm not going to pretend that I was any close enough to smell and touch the debris; I saw a few errant flecks and sniffed the smoke only when I walked downtown to find a train home.

I'm not going to pretend that we didn't think the Chrysler building was not a target, though most of us considered it an unlikely one while the Empire State Building still stood.

I'm not going to pretend that I didn't spend a decent chunk of the day worrying about friends, wondering where they were, calling people to let them know that I'm not dead, wondering about my friends' girlfriends and fiancees that were working in the Wall St. area.

I'm not going to pretend that one of our clients' offices was completely obliterated by the collapse of the building.

I'm not going to pretend that the rumours of people pulling random Arabs out onto the street and beating them or shooting them doesn't disgust me. I'm not going to pretend that the average American's ability to tell one minority group from another is poor doesn't scare the shit out of me.

I'm not going to pretend that the Afghanistani consulate on the floor above mine didn't concern me when I remembered that it was there.

I've been pretending all day. I've held a brave face. I've been dispassionate and dissociated on the most part and tried to be as
calm and level-headed as I could while all this chaos happened around me. But,

I am home, now...

... and I'm a total wreck.

The adrenaline is gone and the stress is bleeding away. Like the steel in the towers, it's all melting away and there's nothing left to hold the rest of me up.

I've spent much of the day worrying about others because it was easier than worrying about myself

Now that I know they're all safe, I don't know what's going on. It was like... watching a movie. It was like Independence Day, when the aliens totally trashed the place. Two 110-storey buildings (World Trade Center #1 and #2) felled, just like that. All those people... Over 250 firefighters and 100 police officers thus far are dead or missing, in addition to all the civilian casualties.

World Trade Center #7 was burning all day and fell while I was on my way home. They expect the Marriott will collapse as well. I could probably spit out a lot more cold hard facts that you could all get just as easily by watching the news, and that would distract me for awhile, but I've been alternating between calm times and fits of crying for no particular reason.

I've been chastised for even thinking of going to work tomorrow, with concern over a software demo that was supposed to take place and for which I should have been doing coding today. People were actually walking around trying to do work, but I wonder if it was just their way of not trying to think about their missing friends and family. I'm supposed to go to DC next week for some kind of installation. I have no details beyond the fact that I'm going. I think I'll go by train... or drive.

I... I don't know what else to say. Usually, it feels like I can find the words for just about anything but I just can't. I'm tired, drained, and exhausted. I feel like I'm missing something but I don't know what.

I think I'm missing a hug. A nice warm pair of arms to wrap around me and a voice to tell me that everything will be alright, whether I believe them or not.

This is New York. We'll see you in the morning.

Ian

This was followed a week later by something that was a little less off-the-cuff:

X-Sender: itn1@mail.concentric.net
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 08:59:46 -0400
Reply-To: The Basement Party
Sender: The Basement Party
From: secret asIAN man (Ian T Ng)
Subject: Eye Contact Made Between New Yorkers
To: xxx@xxx.com

EYE CONTACT MADE BETWEEN NEW YORKERS
By Ian Ng

It's 8:48 a.m. on 18 September 2001, exactly one week after the first of four hijacked planes slammed into its target, the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. So much has happened in a second, eighteen minutes, an hour and forty-one minutes, and seven days.

The week has seen many rumors and facts and doubtlessly we'll see more in the days and weeks to come. I could write about the events that turned four planes into missiles that targeted American cultural icons; I could write about the Administration's reaction and call to war; I could write about all the political and religious influences; but those are topics that have been covered ad nauseum and somewhere between the thoughts of football when I first heard of the North Tower crash and now, I have come to this realization: it's all about people.

One of the major factors that sets this attack apart from terrorist acts in the past, was the number of people it affected. The magnitude
of loss in people has galvanized the resolve of Americans and citizens of the free world. On the surface, this may sound like this much rhetoric, but let's take a look at what we've seen in that span of time between that first fateful second and now.

New York's Finest and its Bravest showed up in droves. The elite emergency units of the NYPD and FDNY arrived within minutes and without regard for the peril, plunged into the stricken buildings to mount the stairs, even as the debris and chaos fell around them. Never before have so many participated in a rescue attempt like this and never before have so many perished in their selfless acts of heroism. The city mourned this weekend, even as it sought to replace the irreplaceable.

The stories of these men and women are absolutely heart-wrenching, telling of their leadership and courage. The record stands to say that many well-decorated heroes of all units fell that day, including (it is rumored) all of Co. 1, New York's elite firefighting team.

The Finest and the Bravest, however, don't hold a monopoly on heroism in this tragedy, for many others stepped up. Supreme Court Officers who chose not to leave there posts because "there are people screaming here," or the gentleman from Verizon who snagged a firefighter's jacket to run out and save people. As the minutes ticked away and reports continued to trickle in or some times overrun us with conflicting information, police agencies, fire fighters, construction workers, medical personnel, and too many others to name joined in, putting their own lives at risk even as the buildings threatened to collapse. To hear that there were too many volunteers was absolutely astounding.

There's no doubt that we, as a free society, have suffered a great loss. Nearly six thousand people are confirmed dead or reported
missing in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, giving us a real life experiment with Schroedinger's Cat that we can barely bear to expose; something made so graphically clear by the collages of the missing that cover the columns in the subway and numerous buildings.

We have lost our innocence and our security, as people jump at every sound and panic still reigns at the mere mention of a "suspicious package." We have lost the soundness of sleep as we rest fitfully at night, wondering what horror the next day may bring. Yet, in all this tragedy, there is comfort to be found in the strength of the human spirit.

Never before has there been such an outpouring of support. It is as if the nation suddenly woke up from its comfortable numbness of being and realized that behind all the faces that pass on the street, there was a person and every person mattered.

It showed in the tremendous number of calls into the area, filling the circuits, with people seeking loved ones. It showed in the dedication of people who stood in line for hours on hours in California, just to give blood. It showed in the steadily and rapidly rising running total of donations on a Red Cross donation page on Amazon.com (http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/paypage/PKAXFNQH7EKCX).

But those are the easy examples to pick out, the easy, tangible things that you can point to and say, "Look, in the past week, $6.2 million was raised at an average donation of $39!" [As of the end of 24 January 2002, this fund has raised $6.89M, average donation still $39. -Ian] Yet, I think the most profound effects have been the personal messages, the little intangible things that don't translate well to statistics.

How do you quantify eye contact between New Yorkers on the streets of Manhattan? In a place where it is notorious for New Yorkers to be brusque -- really, we're nice, we're just not nice to tourists -- how do you measure the fact that people have been much more pleasant to one another in the past week? How do you do the accounting for all the little smiles, the courtesy, and the sudden rise in compassion in a city known for its impersonality? How do you put a price on a slowing of the pace, if but for a moment, when you can actually stop and realize that there actually are roses that you can stop to smell?

There is no science to it. I can't say that before the incident that I measured 3.2 instances of eye contact in a 24 hour period and now
I've measured 5.4. Nor can I say that New Yorkers actually lived up to the stereotypes that we've been given. It's that vague cloud of fuzziness, influenced by personal perception, that somewhere, all round me, New York feels warmer and more personable to everyone, just as everyone has been so nice to New York.

How do you laud the incredible effects of your family members wrapping their arms around you, or hear them calling from 3000 miles away to make sure that you are safe and tell you that they love you? How do you put a value on that sudden wave of relief when you hear that your best friend and his wife made it out of the towers safely? How do you convey the feeling when friends who have never met you, and have only corresponded over email, write frantically as their time zone allows to ask, "Are you okay?"

And how, oh how, do you let them all know that when the sun comes up this morning, and shines its light on the rescuers continuing their work in Lower Manhattan and the Pentagon, that it means everything in the world to you that the world has looked back at you and said, "We love you. Do the right thing; we support you. Let the healing begin."

Posted by KinCross at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

Big Time

Woohoo! I made Doyce's link bar! Now I'll have to actually be a blogger instead of playing one on TV.

All joking aside, I should really thank a couple of people that were inspirational in getting me going on this thing:

• Wendi, for introducing me to the whole concept of web logs.
• Doyce, for raising the bar by all the stuff that he writes.

Though "thanks" aren't really appropriate, I'd like to at least acknowledge that the incidents on 11 September were what finally pushed me over the edge to get this thing up and running. The blog had been set up, but I wasn't posting to it because I had wanted to redesign the layout of my website. With the disasters -- plural, let's not forget that New York wasn't the only place hit -- came a strong desire to write and that was enough momentum to finally beat my inertia and redo the site.

Here it is, then. New layout, somewhat new blog, new tricks, old dog, and clean underwear.

Posted by KinCross at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

My litte girl is sick

Monday evening, I caught my little girl, Diva -- she's a cat, not Mariah Carey; I'm not that lucky -- taking a piss in my laundry basket. Needless to say, that load of laundry got done right away, but I was left with a more distressing problem: why was my little girl not using the litter box?

(In light of this, I'm really glad it wasn't Mariah Carey, because then my life would have turned into a really bizarre porn film, shot at long distance using poor quality film and out of focus. Personally, I'd always thought that my life would be filmed in THX with a decent soundtrack, but I digress.)

I took her in to the vet on Tuesday for an exam and they took a urine sample from her. That actually sounds a lot simpler than it played out, because Diva has a small bladder and apparently she wasn't really in the mood to be shooting the juice. The vet kept her there for a few hours until she finally gave up a sample. I went back to pick her up around 9:30 in the evening. Apparently she was quite adorable for them, in stark contrast to her previous visit where she was the biggest baby about getting a pair of vaccinations. She was cute and adorable and all that.

It sounds odd, but I noticed that she doesn't mind being in the cat carrier. She doesn't mind being walked to the vet in the cold, which is three blocks east and three blocks south from my apartment. She really didn't like being hoisted up and down the stairs of my walk-up. Kept on meowing plaintively as I was entering and leaving the building, but was otherwise decently content.

Anyway, I got the results back from the urinalysis today and she appears to have some kind blood and proteins in her urine, indicative of a mild urinary tract infection. That's both good and bad news since it's the easier to solve reason for why she wasn't using her box; the other reason is behavioural which would have been a pain to correct. Unfortunately, the analysis went further to show that she had crystals in her urine and some other chemical that I don't remember &em; I can pronounce it, I just don't remember what it is &em; prompting the vet to want to do a blood test to rule out a liver affliction.

Poor little girl.

I know her health should be foremost on my mind, but at times like this when I'm running thin on money -- I have some "accounts receivable" that I'm waiting on and I've got a trip to Hong Kong that I need cash for coming up in about three weeks -- the added stress of having to dump out a decent chunk of money to pay for exams, tests, medication and special food is really burning me out. I almost wish it was the beginning of the week again when I thought I was finally going to be in the clear.

Tomorrow, it's back to the vet for the blood work, which I'm sure she's not going to like, and pick up some antibiotics and special food. It's... going to be interesting seeing how I manage to make her take her medicine. I think I'd best clip her claws before I try to do that. Someone please ask Bastet to look out for my little girl, or whichever kitty god(dess) is appropriate.

Posted by KinCross at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

Shards of plastic in my eyes

Toward the end of last year, I had to spend $240 in accrued FSA (Federal Spending Account, I think) funds. The general schtick about this FSA stuff is that it's deducted from your pay pre-tax, but if you don't use it by the end of the calendar year, you lose the money. Since I'd already paid out the $240, I didn't want to lose the money. I used the money for an eye exam and put the rest toward a pair of contact lenses. The initial contact lens fitting was on 29 December 2001.

It is now 24 January 2002 and I've had two more appointments to fit the lenses. The first was last week, when the lenses came in, since they had to be special ordered. I had a follow-up exam today and the lenses still don't fit right. I've got a pretty high degree of myopia as it is, exacerbated by astigmatism. They gave me some 8/10 or 8/5 lenses before and they're going to try 8/3 next for a closer fit to my eye in the hopes that it will keep the lenses from moving around. The prescription for my right eye seems fuzzy, too. Another thing I've noticed is that light seems a lot brighter in general when I wear the lenses.

Four appointments, at least five, maybe six before we can say that the lenses are good to go. Y'know what? I don't mind. The optometrist is really cute.

...and if she reads this blog, I'm going to die.

Posted by KinCross at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)

What is Family?

Been talking on a mailing list about family and how we refer to relatives, in-laws, etc. During some research, I came across this article, which has an interesting comparison between one Westerner's concept of "family" and one APA's (Asian/Pacific Islander-American; oy, talk about beleaguered hyphenated words) concept of "family."

Posted by KinCross at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

Six Degrees of Separation

Those of you who know me back from my college days might remember that I used to be an avid player of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. I've since lost touch with the circle of friends that I used to play with, so I don't do it much anymore, but the interest is still there. The game was based off of a Stanley Milgram experiment back in the Sixties where he discovered that the average number of "hops" to go from one person to another was six. Well, it appears that some researchers at Columbia University would like to expand the experiment on a global scale. Looks like fun.

Courtesy of Mo.

Posted by KinCross at 06:53 AM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2002

For Wendi

The bounce? What did it say? It's quite possible that it might have been filtered for subject or content... I think they turned on the anti-spam filters this week. I suspect that they may have turned on the anti-porn stuff, too.

Posted by KinCross at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

I'm not a citizen, but some of you are

Some of us in the tech field are keeping tabs on the Microsoft settlement, some of us aren't. I'll admit to being more in the latter group than the first, but I've been watching it a bit. Does the settlement sound like a crock? Yeah. Is there something we can do about it? Well, if we don't try, we'll never know, will we? If you believe in democracy, you have to participate in it actively to maintain it. Check out this page, regarding the Tunney Act and the Microsoft settlement. This may be one of our best chances to affect the outcome of this case from a grass roots level. It'll only take a few minutes.

Those inclined toward apathy will be doomed to the wills of others.

Posted by KinCross at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)

LEGO of the Rings

Thank <insert deity here> for people who have too much time on their hands: http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~bnh/lotr/lotrmain.html

Courtesy of glyneth.

Posted by KinCross at 06:57 AM | Comments (0)

January 21, 2002

That's not right

Saw Springer for the first time in years today. The topic? "Threesomes with Grandma." The utter wrongness of this show could not be adequately expressed in words, but like any good car wreck, I couldn't stop myself from watching. I really have to wonder what kinds of trailer parks they had to raid to get the people they put on this show.

How come they don't ever have "You slept with my sister so I ran over your dog with my Bentley" shows?

Posted by KinCross at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2002

More fun than a Barrel of Spank the Monkeys

Army Men Porn.

Courtesy of Xkot.

Posted by KinCross at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

Not in Kansas anymore

Sushi wind-up toys.

Posted by KinCross at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)

A loaf of bread

I went to the grocery store today and wanted to pick up a loaf of bread. Fairly simple stuff. I swear the entire bread section was cleared out except for a couple of loaves here and there. That really ticked me off. It ticked me off more to know that the only reason all that stuff was gone was because there was the threat of snow in the region.

You'd think that, after a living in the area for so long, that people wouldn't freak out and hoard every time there's even the slightest mention of snow, but they do. It's a problem that feeds on itself, too, because if you don't do it, then others will and when you decide to go back for more groceries as normal, you'd be left high and dry. The selfishness that people exhibit in times like these is staggering.

Maybe I'll rewrite this later when I've had more time to ponder it.

Posted by KinCross at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)

I'll take a Sushi Stuffed, please

Those silly Japanese marketing folks at Disney came up with these things:

Japan EGG Sushi Pooh
Japan SHRIMP Sushi Pooh
Japan OCTOPUS Sushi Pooh
Japan SEA URCHIN Sushi Pooh
Japan SALMON ROE Sushi Pooh

Auctions are open until Sunday afternoon, if you want to buy one.

Posted by KinCross at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2002

Are they hiding something?

Envision this scene in one of the lounges at the White House:

Prez: Hey, Dick! C'mon in! Watch some football!
VP: Mr. President, there's something I want to talk about with you.
Prez: Shure! C'mon in! Get yerself a Bud Light. Sit with me. The Packers are on.
VP: Mr. President, perhaps you aren't sensing the severity of the situation. One of your largest campaign contributers, Enron, has just gone belly up.
Prez: Yeah. Damned shame. Guess their Fourth of July party is out this year. God, I loved those parties. They knew how to party.
VP: A little too much partying, Mr. President, yes. I was wondering... oh fuck it. George, are you a fucking moron? I mean, I know you were stupid and easy to manipulate, but are you really *that* stupid?
Prez: Um... uh... um... Wha-?
VP: (pointing) That! Just like that! Can't even string a sentence together!
Prez: Um... uh...
VP: Fuck, do you even know your own middle name?
Prez: Dubya?
VP: No, you fuckwit. That's the press' nickname for you because they were too kind to call you a Wuss or a Shrub.
Prez: I kinda like Dubya.
VP: You would. (sighs) That's it. I've had enough.
Prez: Enough of what? Wanna watch some football? Pretzel?
VP: Frankly, Mr. Bush, I just want you to die.

VP tries to strangle Bush, pushing his face into the rug and squeezing, but his old frail body isn't strong enough to finish the task before the Secret Service come in and save the president.

Agent #1: Damn, we should've sent Ashcroft. He's younger.
Agent #2: He wouldn't do it. Something about having to beat some babies with clubs.

Posted by KinCross at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)

Even more quiz-taking fun

This one really rocks. My score was 160/310.

Courtesy of Bad Samaritan.

Posted by KinCross at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

Little Rabbit Foo Foo

Little Rabbit Foo Foo
Hopping through the forest
Picking up the field [test] mice
And boppin' 'em on the head.

Courtesy of Blather.

Posted by KinCross at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)

Chocolate is like an orgasm

Forget the article, check out that salty old dog making a grab for her boob!

Courtesy of Quiddity.

Posted by KinCross at 08:34 AM | Comments (0)

Fruity Cocktail... I guess I'm not surprised

I'm cold, pink, and frosty... What the Hell is that supposed to mean?

Which drink are you?

I'm just shy of 5'10". That may or may not be considered tall, but if I go with Tall, I end up with the Bacardi Cocktail. If not, I end up being a Bacardi Alexander. I like being the latter more, but that might be because the shape of the glass reminds me of the shape of my equator.

Courtesy of Doyce.

Posted by KinCross at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)

If you're eating lunch, don't read this

The poor lady couldn't get her hands on a knife like Lorena Bobbitt, but you know what? She's from the land that created karate, the "open hand" martial art.

Without struggling, she engulfed the entire wiener into her mouth and held it there as it began to harden in its transformation to a weapon threatening her existence. It was at that instant she turned the tables."

Courtesy of Xkot, who got it from Rooba.

Posted by KinCross at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2002

Could ya send me email?

Whoever did this:

This is not a joke! You have been secretly kissed. Someone really has the 'hots' for you, and secretly kissed you. That special someone also added a message:

I found this free game to secretly express my feelings. I went ahead and Secretly Kissed you. Guess who I am?

If you would like to find out who has secretly kissed you click http://www.secretlykissed.com/urkissed.asp?xs=kissyou

Could you just email me instead?

Posted by KinCross at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)

When I meet Bill Gates...

I'm going to give him the Super Wedgie from which all other wedgies are but shadows.

And then I'm going to fill his nose with Tabasco sauce, because it's hot, has no redeeming flavour, and stains clothing.

Microsoft technical support sucks...

Posted by KinCross at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)

Run away! Run away!

The scariest question is the "What are you doing this weekend?" on a Wednesday from someone who you suspect is attracted to you but does not benefit from the reciprocal. It's too early in the week for a casual query and you can practically anticipate the next question.

So I didn't give her a chance and dodged like an Enron executive.

I'll try to reclaim my lunch later.

Posted by KinCross at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

Joe Pesci

The cabling guy that I'm working with at a client sounds exactly like Joe Pesci. I'm having trouble not thinking of my cousin Vinny.

Posted by KinCross at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2002

Happy Birthday, Muy

One more thing before going to bed. I said it on the phone "yesterday" before midnight, but thought I'd toss it up here as well. Happy Birthday, Little Sister, even if the timestamp makes it look like it was a day late.

Posted by KinCross at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

A Lousy Witness

Tonight, I witnessed an attempted kidnapping.

To say that I witnessed it really means that I was about six steps from the top of the stairs coming out of the 6 train station at Canal St. when I saw a tall black man in a big puffy winter coat and a wool hat try to grab the infant from an older Asian woman's arms with, presumably, her daughter next to her. The women screamed and held onto the child. The man, having drawn enough attention to himself already, ran away and into a McDonald's.

I hovered around for a little bit, unsure what to do. I'd seen too much and yet not enough. If asked to identify the man, I could not. At least, I couldn't without chasing the man down and getting another look. The people around the McDonald's seemed to have the guy cornered. The two distraught ladies recovered and had a bunch of people gathered around them helping them out.

And I had to get a haircut, so I left. I'm not beating myself over not staying or not doing something, but it raised some interesting thoughts.

I was six steps down from street level. I was wearing a suit, had the headphones of my CD player on, and had a heavy work bag that contained at least $3000 in assets (i.e.: laptop). The man in front of me stopped, blocking my passage, so there was nothing that I could have done without knocking this guy over to get to the altercation, which was just a few steps from the top of the stairs. But that raised an interesting question: had I been at the top of the stairs, would I have done anything anyway?

It's hard to say what would have happened, in hypothesis, since many of these things would have been automatic and instinctive, rather than reasoned and executed, especially at the speed at which everything happened. I suspect, I would have stayed put, in shock, unless the man appeared to have had more success than he did. Given that the women resisted so well and he ran away, there was not much that needed to be done, but had he actually grabbed the child, I think I would have dropped the bag and gone after him and, quite likely, releasing an entire day's worth of pent up frustration on the guy.

I'm not sure whether I should feel good or bad about that. Good for believing that I would do something, but bad for likely working out aggression on the perpetrator that was unwarranted and non-proportional.

That led to other thoughts: should I have left the scene? At the time, I was motivated by two factors: I didn't really see that much and the salon was supposed to close within half an hour. I figured that since I hadn't seen much, my eyewitness account would really just be another voice that said, "I saw some guy try to grab this woman's child or grandchild. No, I couldn't identify him." Was it apathy? Was it bystander non-intervention for not getting involved in the first place? Was it reasonable for me to leave? Would it have been unreasonable to stay to give such an insubstantial account of events? Should I have stayed to see if the victims were okay?

I don't know the answers. They might be fun to explore, but ultimately I think I did what was reasonable. Of one thing I know for sure:

Hooray for the indomitable will of mothers.

I hope that family is able to sleep tonight.

Posted by KinCross at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

Priceless

Lunch: $8

Haircut: $11

Part of present for sister's birthday: $13

Baby bananas and baby bok choy: $5.40

One recently dead striped bass: $8

Two not-so-recently dead striped bass: $15

"Crouching Tiger Hidden Beaver" painted in Chinese by street artist: $30

Getting everything you need and finding that finishing touch for your website: priceless

Posted by KinCross at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2002

Something worth reading

Wow. http://melly.littleginsu.net/ds/archives/000187.html

Courtesy of Xkot.\

Posted by KinCross at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2002

Too farking funny

You know you're going to find yourself on The Geek Hierarchy somewhere.

Courtesy of Jeanne.

Posted by KinCross at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2002

More Stupid Testicular Fun

I'm The Art Test!
I'm, erm, a pretty nondescript test that just does what it says on the tin, really. I don't thrive on in-jokes, controversy or irony, nor do I host ads... I have some pretty pictures though, will that do?

Click here to find out which test you are!

Courtesy of Lesley.

Posted by KinCross at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2002

Another Lord of the Rings Personality Test

Celeborn

If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Celeborn, Elf, King of Lothlorien, husband of Galadriel and grandfather of Arwen.

In the movie, I am played by Marton Csokas.

Who would you be?
Zovakware Lord of the Rings Test with Perseus Web Survey Software

Courtesy of Lesley.

Posted by KinCross at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)

Stupid new way to commit suicide?

A 15-year old student pilot flew a Cessna into the Bank of America building in Tampa (http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/05/tampa.crash/index.html)

Courtesy of James Chamier.

Posted by KinCross at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2002

These tests are evil...

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

Courtesy of Wendi.

Posted by KinCross at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)

What's your theme song?

Mine is "My Way" (apparently, Limp Bizkit's version)

"You're a straight-shooter with strong-willed resolve. That's why Limp Bizkit's "My Way" is your theme song. When you're at your best, you're holding court at the local restaurant, or hitting the highway with friends for a road trip. (Of course you're driving). We can see you facing that mechanical bull at the bar�even after it throws you three times in a row. You don't back down easily and you're not afraid to make changes and make them fast. When those first few beats and vinyl scratches start playing in your head, you've got all the motivation you need to speak up, and get started with a new direction. And if others don't immediately appreciate your style, they know where the highway is. You're always ready to do it your way."

What's my theme song?

Posted by KinCross at 06:20 AM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2002

That can't be kosher

While I was waiting in line at the deli today, there was a news brief on some piglets that were born on Christmas Day that may yet again revolutionize how we think about cloning. Supposedly these piglets proved to some degree that their organs could be tweaked and then transplanted into humans with signficantly reduced risk of rejection. That's kinda scary.

On the one hand, it sounds great if we, as a society, can have our organs replaced whenever they fail, but why are we messing with animal organs and why are we messing with nature in general? Aren't we overpopulated enough without having to artificially extend lifespans any further through surgical means?

This has always been one of those really weird moral and ethical questions for me. I can rationalize and logically state that we should let things lie till the sun goes down, but I suspect that if it were me on the gurney and some pig out there can give me a heart to keep on living, I'd be saying, "Hell, yeah! Slap that heart in me! And save the baby back ribs for later!"

Posted by KinCross at 08:23 PM | Comments (0)

Three Strikes: You're Out!

Went to the doctor for a physical today. Got the ball-roll thing but didn't get the finger up the butthole. Guess that's not so bad. The part that sucked was when they were trying to draw blood for tests.

Now, as I understand it, this is a fairly simple procedure. Find a vein, stab it, suck blood into test tube, done. Well, despite having "good veins" -- sounds like saying Tony Gonzalez has "good hands" -- the medical assistant stuck the thing in me once, got a little bit of blood in the tubing. Figure it was capillary action more than my blood pressure that did it. Strike one.

She removed it and did it again, using a different vein with slightly better results. She managed, after a little jerking around, to draw one small tube and partially fill a second tube before the blood flow just stopped. Strike two.

At this point, she ran out of options on that arm and had to go to the other. Stuck the needle in me and damn did it ever hurt. Same capillary action as the first time. She's sitting there wondering why it isn't working. I'm thinking, "Maybe because your insertion is too shallow and has been too shallow all three times? And damn does this ever hurt!" Eventually, I have enough of sitting there in pain while I wait for her to figure out that she's tapping my nerves for blood instead of my vein and tell her that it hurts a hell of a lot. She removes the needle. Strike three.

Fortunately, before she tried a fourth time, she found someone more senior who came around, practically buries the needle in my arm and then withdraws until the blood starts jetting into the tube and finishes me off. It didn't hurt.

And I spent my lunch break doing this. I got my balls rolled and stabbed four times.

How was your day?

Posted by KinCross at 06:53 PM | Comments (0)

Bring a farking translater!

They're in a new country, with a new language, and trying to make their way about a new life, but sometimes, immigrants really tick me off.

I was on my way home at 5:00. I'm thinking to myself, "I'm early. I'll beat the rush. I can get home by 5:30 and get a few things done, cook dinner, all that." I stop in at the Radio Shack to pick up some AAA batteries to put in the motorized hamster to freak out the cats. That's when the schmuck tags me.

This short little Chinese man walks up at me as I'm looking for batteries and flaps his mouth around like a fish and I can tell he's trying to ask me if I speak his language, but all that comes out is, "Speak Chinese?" Great. That tells me a whole frickin' lot. How many dialects of Chinese are there? So I try to get him to be a little more specific and all I get is the same thing again. At this point, it's clear this guy hasn't a single clue about English. I should have walked away, but I was too nice and let myself get suckered in. I took a potshot and asked him if he spoke Mandarin in Mandarin. His eyes light up and he drags me over to the counter.

Now, this may seem like a cool thing except for a few things:

1. I'm trying to get home on the early bus.
2. My proficiency in Mandarin extends as far as passing off the phone to my Mom politely and finding a bathroom.
3. This guy had Mordor breath.

So I'm standing at the counter with this guy and figured it was going to be something simple. Was it? No! They fool was trying to buy a cellular phone! Of all the stupid things to do, why would you buy a cellular phone without someone that can translate for you? So here I am, comically trying to explain to this guy the difference between a regular phone plan and a pre-paid phone plan because the fool doesn't have a Social Security number or a credit history in this country. All he's got is a slip of paper indicating that he's from the PRC -- that'd be Taiwan, not to be confused with the PROC, China -- that says he is not eligible to work in this country.

Okay, so the ordeal is made a little easier by the fact that he could understand Cantonese, which comes a little easier to me spoken, but it still takes a good fourty -- fourty! -- minutes to get it through this guy's head that because he lacks a Social Security number and lacks a credit history in this country, he can't buy into the regular plans -- he kept on pointing to scribbles that were put on paper indicating 300 daytime minutes and 3000 nighttime minutes. The clerk... bless him... could tell by my English scraps that there was no way this guy was going to be able to manage to buy a phone and negotiate the toll-free number that he has to call to set up the account and refund's the guy's money.

Thus ensues another ten minutes of explaining to the guy that, though he gave the clerk $150, he wasn't going to get $150 from the refund because he'd already pocketed the change earlier when I stepped up to the counter. I had to actually yank on the guy's wallet and point to him to where he had stashed the five and four ones.

And so I ended up being delayed by an hour at the Radio Shack and got home at 7:00, 1.5 hours later than planned. I got my batteries, though, and my cats are suitably freaked out. My Visor is no longer low on batteries, also.

Posted by KinCross at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

More personality tests

According to the Alice in Wonderland "Who Am I?" test, I am the Cheshire Cat. If only I could disappear, leaving just my smile behind.

According to the Lord of the Rings "Who Am I?" test, I am Legolas. I suspect the test is partly randomized since the same choices can yield different answers. Still, I don't mind being the Elf.

--------

Posted by KinCross at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)

Why the 80's had to end...

By the way, "That 80's Show" is going to debut in January. Do we dare hold our breaths?

Posted by KinCross at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)

We are the champions, my friend

Say hello to the office A league fantasy football Superbowl Champion. Damn, that first round draft pick of Tony Gonzalez really came through. The margin was less than his point total for the day.

I'm so fluffed, you could stick a bunch of feathers up my ass and call me a peacock.

Happy New Year!

Posted by KinCross at 06:43 AM | Comments (0)