Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction...

x

2009-10-17T06:21:53Z

My LJ has a big black hole from fall '04 to January '06. I deleted it all, but I did save a backup in a LiveJournal archive file (.lja). I would now like to reinstate all those posts, or at least get them in a readable manner, but I don't remember what software I used. Damn. All the comments are there too. Reading through the binary file as best I can, I forgot how much we all commented on each other's blogs back in the day ("the day" being my last 2 years of college-ish, "we all" being mostly DSPs 2 years ahead of me). The reason I deleted it all? Girl problems I was having at the time, which probably only applied to 20% of the posts anyway. There's a lot of good history there. Especially B. Ross's response to one of my posts about needing a girlfriend..."Today, I assume the persona of a caveman..."

Every time I look back at old blog posts, I think "wow, I sound different back then." It's always an interesting window into my previous self. So I should really write more. But I think there is also a place in my life for an actual private journal, stuff I wouldn't really want anyone to read. But how to keep it...old school style with an actual notebook/journal? Flat files on my laptop backed up somewhere? Some kind of private blogging software? Private, not-even-friends entries on LJ? Huh.

In conclusion, my life is becoming alarmingly similar to my prediction in this post. Here I sit in front of my computer on a Friday night, enjoying a crisp Natty Light. Damn you social anxiety.

I have been thinking about moving back to Boise. Seattle has kind of lost it's allure, and I do have a lot of good friends there. I have a decent enough amount of savings that I wouldn't mind not working for a while, and the bonus is that if I took those savings with me to Boise, they would actually last longer than living here without a job, given the cost of living difference. It would be fun to check out spring training down in Arizona next year.

Ping.

2009-10-13T20:20:53Z

You know what really grinds my gears?

2009-09-11T08:42:17Z

AHHHHHHHHHH

So I just loaded a 2.7M JPEG from Gmail in a Firefox tab. I then try to save the damn image into my home directory. And Firefox starts DOWNLOADING THE DAMN THING AGAIN FROM THE SERVER. IT'S ALREADY ON MY FUCKING HARD DRIVE SOMEWHERE, CAN YOU PLEASE JUST TRANSFER IT FOR ME. Okay. Breathe. This is so incredibly stupid I can barely think.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Dilbert archives

2009-07-22T22:26:50Z

I just noticed yesterday that the archives on the dilbert.com website now go back all the way to the first strip in 1989. I think I tried this a few months ago, and the archives cut out somewhere in the 90s. It's pretty cool, considering that Scott Adams is probably losing money from people who might otherwise buy the collections. Of course, I'm sure he sleeps on a pile of money every night anyway.

So I'm going to start reading through, from the first one forward. Long-time Dilbert fans will remember that the older strips focus more on Dilbert's home life, and include a lot more strips with Bob and Dawn the dinosaurs. I enjoyed this era as well as the early-office era. Recently (most of the 21st century) the strip has gotten pretty stale, telling the same jokes over and over. But the last few months I've been reading it have been pretty funny. I think the failing economy has given him some fresh material.

EDIT: Arg, they seem to be missing random strips here and there. Oh well.
EDIT 2: Ah, I see, they are missing the really old Sunday strips.

Oh Wally, you never cease to inspire me

2009-07-21T19:15:01Z

Books I have started but didn't finish

2009-07-06T05:32:39Z

(in the past 3ish years I think)

Children of the Mind
The 4th book in the Ender's Game series. Lost interest, even though I enjoy the story about Ender...need to re-read this, or maybe start back with Ender's Game because it's so awesome.

Amazonia
A book by one of the first employees at Amazon (something like employee #50). At first it was interesting, then got boring since he was an editor and not really into the tech side. Might go back and finish it.

The Cheater's Guide to Baseball
Sort of interesting, I got bogged down in the chapters on steroids. I would like to finish it. Although I enjoy the author's blogging work at USS Mariner, I didn't like his style in this long form as much, and there were enough grammar/punctuation/editing errors to annoy me.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Was amusing enough at first, then just got boring. Maybe I'll finish it later.

I'm not sure if Heart of Darkness counts since I only read the first 4 pages in the library with John and Wendy and kept falling asleep. But I would like to read this one eventually.

I think that's it, at least recently. I kind of hate this habit I have of starting books and not finishing them.

Lyrics

2009-06-29T18:11:15Z

Almost anytime I hear a phone ring I think of this song now.

Say Anything
Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too

If I die and go to hell real soon,
it will appear to me as this room.
And for eternity I lay in bed
in my boxers, half stoned,
with the pillow under my head.

I'd be chatting on the interweb;
maggots pray upon the living dead.
I had no interest in the things she said.
On the phone every day,
I'll permanently hit the hay.

I called her on the phone and she touched herself.
She touched herself. She touched herself.
I called her on the phone and she touched herself.
I laughed myself to sleep.

At this rate,
I'll be heading for electric chairs.
I'm only human with my cross to bear.
When she described her underwear
I forgot all the rules my rabbi taught me in the old schul.

You're too young to be this empty girl
I'll prepare you for a sick dark world
Know that you'll be my downfall.
But I call and I call and I call.

I called her on the phone and she touched herself.
She touched herself. She touched herself.
I called her on the phone and she touched herself.
I laughed myself to sleep.

I don't know what I want.
I don't know what I want.
I don't know what I want.
I don't know what I want.
I don't know what I want. (Met you on the internet)
I don't know what I want. (Met you on the internet)
I don't know what I want. (Met you on the internet)
I don't know what I want. (Met you on the internet)

I called her on the phone and she touched herself.
She touched herself. She touched herself.
I called her on the phone and she touched herself.
I laughed myself to sleep.

(Woah)

I called her on the phone and she touched herself.
She touched herself. She touched herself.
I called her on the phone and she touched herself.
I laughed myself to sleep.

Apparently not as tired of being fat as I thought I was

2009-05-06T07:38:49Z

About a week after I posted that last entry, I had already lost a couple of pounds. Now I have doubled back and am around 222-223 (I'm sure you all want to know exactly how much I weigh).

I have a bad habit, in the afternoons at work. I will go down to the C-Store that's in our building and buy a king size bag of Peanut Butter M&Ms and a Rock Star Juiced. I do it so often the guy behind the counter has the glint of recognition in his eyes every time I come in. The thing is, I want to pass out when I finish both of them, so the Rock Star is pretty pointless.

I did get into Verns league, so there has been some Ultimate...and honestly I was surprised that I wasn't getting completely p3wnd on defense. I was not playing lockdown D or anything, but I was getting by. I guess it's Verns.

But anyway, this is like the most stereotypical LJ post ever, with pretty much nothing interesting, and just the lame details of my life. I hope you enjoyed it!

Being a book nazi, with a book that doesn't even have a movie (Snow Crash)

2009-03-26T04:40:53Z

I'm reading Snow Crash right now; I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would, but it's still good (268 pages after just 5 days, so it must be okay). But there's this stupid thing that's bugging me about it.

A major part of the plot of Snow Crash is the Metaverse, basically a big online virtual world, kind of like Second Life, except with fewer giant penises walking around. And, you put on goggles and are basically there, as opposed to looking at the world through your monitor.

Naturally, transmitting that much data to your computer and back takes a lot of bandwidth, but it sounds like most people in the future are on fiber connections, so they can handle it. But whenever someone goggles into the Metaverse on a slow, public connection, their avatar shows up in grainy black and white. Makes sense: the connection is slower so their computer can't transmit a nice crisp image of them. BUT, the descriptions of what these people see themselves while in the Metaverse are just as detailed and intricate. Which is totally wrong. If you're jacked into this place from a slow connection, you're going to see everyone else in grainy black and white, just like they see you in grainy black and white.

Anyway, it bugged me. Especially when the book was describing one character seeing an intricate water drop refracting light while goggled in from a public pay-as-you-go terminal at a truck stop.

Still a good book, although this little detail has taken some of the fun out of it for me. Just like when the elves showed up at Helm's Deep in the movie version of The Two Towers. There was exactly one elf at Helm's Deep: Legolas.

Tired of being fat

2009-03-22T20:21:03Z

I weighed myself this morning and I was right at 220, which is the heaviest I've ever been in my life. This is not a surprise, since I haven't done anything athletic (other than a short sprint to catch a bus every now and then) since November, and my eating habits have actually gotten slightly worse.

So, today I went for a run. Not a long run, only 1.5 miles, but it felt good to be able to keep up a jogging pace the whole way. I didn't time it, but I was probably on about a 9 minute mile pace. I could feel my fat jiggling, which is not a pleasant feeling.

I'm going to try to cut out the stupid things that I know I don't even need that much - candy, ice cream, soda, energy drinks. One of my problems is that I eat my way through stress and depression. Review season at work required several pints of Ben & Jerry's (yes, I know I am pathetic). And there was that 40oz bag of Reese's Miniature cups (at least I didn't eat it all at once). Anyway, I'm a little depressed that it's Cadbury egg season, but I'll power through somehow. For caffeine, I'm going to try to stick to the free stuff at work (coffee and tea). As for regular meals, I would say I will try to stick to more sensible portions, but one thing at a time here.

As for exercise, I will eventually get back into Ultimate. I tossed a bit at RH practice last Friday and was disappointed at how bad my throws were - guess that happens when you don't touch a disc for 4 months, sucker! I was hoping Vern's would be my "ease back into it" time, but since I didn't make the lottery, I will perhaps look for some pickup before summer starts. For summer, eh, we'll see what happens.

More inspiration from Wally

2009-02-24T21:15:08Z

s/watched TV/bummed around the internet/

I draw inspiration from Wally on a daily basis

2009-01-28T20:17:37Z

This happens to me a lot.

FAIL

2009-01-13T23:18:16Z

Except that when they called, I had to confirm my order number, name, email address, and full billing address. Whoops!

Lightning and thunder

2008-12-19T08:39:11Z

Last night, I'm pretty sure a lightning bolt struck very near my apartment, or at least closer than I've ever been to lightning. The thunderclap was so loud I jumped out of bed and ran out the front door (still half asleep), looking around to see what had blown up. All the car alarms on the street were going off, adding to my general confusion. It happened one more time before I crawled back into bed, and while I didn't see the bolt directly, I saw the windows light up out of the corner of my eye.

There was almost no delay between the lightning and the thunder, and it seemed like the clap lasted for five seconds, and it was deafening; I can't remember hearing anything that loud. I'm not ashamed to say that I was also really scared, probably because I was half asleep and wasn't sure if it was actually happening or not, and I kept imagining lightning striking my apartment directly and lighting it on fire.

I went online looking for any neighborhood blogs mentioning it, and found this post on a Beacon Hill blog. So I guess it wasn't necessarily right by my apartment, but loud enough that many in my neighborhood had the same experience.

Reqs, Specs, Design, etc.

2008-12-18T02:19:48Z

Note: This is cross-posted from my blog at work, edited for some Amazon-internal content

Officially I got a bachelor of science in Software Engineering, although for all practical purposes at the time, it was the same as a CS degree except more limiting for graduate studies. Meaning that with a BS in CS you could easily do graduate studies in CS or SE, but with a BS in SE I think you'd probably have a hard time getting into some graduate CS programs, given the lack of theory requirements. Either one seemed to be fine for pursuing a job in industry.

But anyway, the nominal purpose of a SE degree as opposed to a CS degree is to get more experience in the areas listed in the title of this post, as opposed to a straight curriculum of coding, coding, and more coding but in a different language. The idea was to get your feet wet in some industry techniques, and to be better positioned to jump right in to a job in the industry working on software projects (at least, that was my impression of it, you can read the RH CSSE curriculum descriptions here (CS) and here (SE)). Specifically, there were 6 core SE classes:

371 Software Requirement and Specification
372 Software Project Management
373 Formal Methods in Specification and Design
374 Software Architecture and Design
375 Software Construction and Evolution
376 Software Quality Assurance

371 and 372 were required for all CS and SE majors, while 373-376 were required for SE majors and were actually blacklisted for CS majors (with the justification that the CS majors should be more diversified in other areas of CS).

So did the degree achieve its goal? I was in only the 3rd graduating class of the SE program, so it's fair to say it was still in its infancy. I think 371 was valuable and gave a good insight into some of the basics of gathering requirements and writing specs. I barely remember 372, other than the giant book, and generating Gant charts. 373 was, in my opinion, completely useless unless you were going into research on formal specification methods. I also barely remember 374. 375 and 376 were my favorites out the 6, because they both involved hands-on software work in the context of the subjects being learned. The other 4 classes involved no actual coding, just writing docs and the like. From talking to some professors after I graduated, I think they are trying to take this approach with all of the courses now, which I think is a good thing, although I'm sure it's challenging to fit in all of the same content and add programming at the same time.

So where am I going with this? I'm supposed to be working on the design piece of a pretty big refactoring/migration project that my team will be embarking on next year. It's a great project, something I've been wanting to do since about 3 months into my Amazon career. We could never get the project resourced on my old team, but when my current team was formed the project was given priority.

So why can't I get my brain engaged on it? I've been working on it for most of December and have very little to show--I need to have something for our external dependencies (both ways) to look at pretty soon, and it's pretty far away from being in that state. I show up at work and I just don't want to work on it. Notably, this is the first large piece of non-coding, planning/designing work I've been tasked with at Amazon, and these skills are key to moving up the SDE job ladder. This is the kind of stuff I got an SE degree for, and I can't seem to get excited about it, or even apply myself marginally well to it. And here is where my stream of consciousness seems to run out. I'll get back to you when I figure it out, or just trudge through it.

What to name the new kitty

2008-12-15T21:08:39Z

I am getting a new kitten over Christmas break, and although she has tentatively been named Harriet by my 6 year old niece, I'm thinking she needs a better name. She will only be 8 weeks old when I get her, so I don't think a new name should be too traumatic.

Originally I wanted to name Clementine Marla (from Fight Club), but Natalie shot that one down, and I think Clementine turned out to be a better name anyway. Marla seemed like a good idea but really it's just a lame name for a cat.

I have been mulling over Sasha, probably because I just finished Dylan's book in which there is a panther named Sasha (who is also black just like the new kitty). Other than that I don't have any bright ideas. I feel like all of my friends (from college and in Seattle) have way cool names for their cats and I'm jealous. Like Ben Ciavola's cats are named Navier and Stokes, after an equation that is important in some kind of engineering thing (I'm not a real engineer so I don't know anything about it). I suppose I could name her after something cool from Computer Science. Oooh, or after a character from Star Wars (Mara after Mara Jade?)...hmmm...the possibilities are endless. Throw in your contribution if you feel like it!

EDIT: Aha, paydirt.

Tournaments

2008-12-09T01:48:56Z

I have been thinking about doing this for a while and kept putting it off. A list of all the tournaments I attended this year, with the format, location, and the team I was with for each.

January
Hangover - 1 day coed with SotB (Redmond)
Trouble in Vegas - 2 day coed with Tsunami (Las Vegas, duh)

March
Slog in the Bog - 1 day coed with SotB (Burlington)

April
Udder Bowl - 2 day coed with SotB (Nanaimo, BC, Canadia)

June
Flowerbowl - 2 day open with Downpour; although we were still Seattle 3rd Team at the time (Vancouver, BC)
Solstice - 2 day open with Downpour (Eugene, OR)

July
Potlatch - 3 day coed with SotB (Redmond)
Babes 'n' Hats - 2 day coed hat (Vancouver, BC)

August
Kleinman - 2 day coed with Insult; they are from Spokane/Coeur d'Alene and I was a random pickup (Portland)
Spawnfest - split - 3 games with Downpour on Saturday, then 2 more games on Saturday with SotB, and 2 games Sunday with SotB (Burlington)

September
WA/BC Open Sectionals - 2 day open with Downpour (Burlington) (I only played 3 games due to ankle injury)

October
NW Open Regionals - 2 day open with Downpour (Burlington)
Hanford Howl - 2 day coed with BabeWatch aka GST; again I was a last-minute pickup (Tri-Cities, WA)

November
Turkey Bowl - 1 day coed hat (Redmond)

That's a lot of ultimate. Then of course add in all team league games, and Verns in the spring.

My reaction to the election (finding my political identity)

2008-11-10T02:39:09Z

So ostensibly I'm a Libertarian and don't really like either of the major parties. But during the election I found that my Republican roots are not easy to shake, so I'm writing this in an attempt to be honest with myself and others. I watched McCain's concession speech, while I did not watch Obama's acceptance speech. I felt a little jolt of pride when I saw Idaho go red on the election map. I also voted for several local Republicans, given only two choices in the general election (due to Washington's top-2 primary). So in reality I guess you could say I'm a GOP-leaning libertarian (see my "Political Views" on Facebook, which pretty much confirms this).

The obvious reason for these leanings is that some things the GOP claims to support (less government, fiscal conservatism) are things I agree with. Also, of course, growing up in Idaho. I need to realize that the GOP really doesn't follow these principles any more, at least at the federal level. Was GWB a fiscal conservative while in office? Cutting taxes without cutting spending does not a fiscal conservative make. Would McCain have been any better than Obama in this respect? Doubtful. At the same time, Obama probably stands a better chance of actually getting us out of Iraq. Will it actually happen? We'll see...but the chances are better. So, in the end, I should have been grudgingly happy that Obama won, instead of grudgingly disappointed that McCain lost.

Would I be just as scared if the GOP had a majority in both houses and controlled the White House? My gut reaction would probably be less fear. But after considering the kind of social policy that might get passed given that kind of control, it's just as scary as the current Dem control.

This election has made me realize that if all I do is talk about politics and vote, I'm pretty much going to be pissed off every 2 to 4 years, because probably nothing's going to change. Should I take a more active role and be a libertarian political activist? Nothing would probably still change, but at least I could feel better about myself.

The power of teh intarwebs (help me help a blogging friend)

2008-11-08T02:24:20Z

One of the websites I read daily is USS Mariner, a great blog about the Mariners. One of the authors, Dave Cameron, wrote a blog post last year entitled An Open Letter To Rafael Chaves (Rafael Chaves was the Mariners' pitching coach at the time). The text of the blog regarded the pitch selection of Mariners starting pitcher and ace/phenom Felix Hernandez, how he threw too many predictable fastballs early in the game, and how that lead to opponents getting a lot of hits. The blog post itself might be pretty boring to non-Mariner fans or non-baseball fans, but the result of the post was epic.

An unnamed fan in the stands handed a printed copy of the letter to Raffy Chaves, who gave it to Felix. In an interview with Geoff Baker (Seattle Times Mariners reporter), Felix acknowledged that reading the report actually influenced his pitch selection (in a game in which he gave up 2 hits over 8 innings). You can read about the aftermath in Baker's blog entry and USS Mariners' follow-up.

The upshot is that the author of the post, currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Economics, was nominated for a $10,000 Blogging Scholarship. You can vote for him here (Dave Cameron), which is what I'm about to do, and is what I'm encouraging you to do, if you find this story amazing.

This was the first time I had ever heard of anything remotely close to this happening. That a couple of fans, with no official connection to the club, could have this kind of influence and visibility to an MLB coach and player...unbelievable. In addition, Dave puts up quality work on USS Mariner on a weekly basis about Sabermetrics, the importance of defense in the major leagues and how it is underrated by pretty much everyone, how evaluating pitching by ERA is STUPID, how smart managers build good teams on the cheap, etc. I highly recommend it if you are a Mariners fan or a baseball geek in general.

I was given much more that $10K in scholarship money and gift aid in my years at Rose-Hulman, so I hope this amazing event can help out Dave with his college tuition.

appropriate lyrics for today

2008-11-05T23:24:05Z

Tho Whe - Won't Get Fooled Again

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the next war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?

There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Election Scorecard (aka I don't think I really belong here)

2008-11-05T06:59:21Z

This makes me pretty depressed.

Federal
U.S. President
My vote: Bob Barr, Libertarian party.
Washington State's vote: Barack Obama (D)
Bob Barr's percentage: something like 0.34, whatever it doesn't matter. Probably about the same as his national percentage in the popular vote

U.S. Representative, District 7
My vote: Steve Beren (R)
Justification: I agree with him on pretty much everything except the Iraq war, and I disagree with Jim McDermott (D) on pretty much everything except the Iraq war. McDermott gets bonus points for being the only U.S. Representative who voted *for* the bailout the first time around, and *against* it the second time. But he still voted for it once.
District 7's vote: Jim McDermott by a gigantic margin.

Statewide
Governor
My vote: Dino Rossi (R)
This one is still up in the air. Probably won't know until tomorrow at the earliest, several days or weeks from now at the latest.
LATE EDIT: Gregoire (D) wins in a close-but-nearly-as-close-as-2004 race.

Lt. Governor
My vote: Marcia McCraw (R, although a very liberal R)
Washington State's vote: Brad Owen (incumbent D) by a decent margin

Secretary of State
My vote: Jason Osgood (D)
Justification: A former software developer (!), who opposes the barcodes incumbent Sam Reed (R) put on ballots in some counties. Heavily skeptical of electronic voting machines, and seems like the smarter and more capable candidate.
Washington State's vote: Sam Reed by a decent margin

Initiative 985: Open carpool lanes during non-peak hours, new red-light cameras, new timing of traffic lights, a bunch of stuff that should reduce congestion on roads, etc. etc.
My vote: No
Justification: I actually like transit (I really do), I just don't like how ST Prop 1 wants to fund it. So I think this is stupid and just encourages more drivers
Washington State's vote: NO. !!?? This vote has the very real possibility of being the only measure or candidate on which/for which I voted which actually passes/is elected.

State Legislature
District 37, Position 2
My vote: Ruth E. Bennett, Libertarian
Justification: She's pretty much a straight up Libertarian (on taxes, social policy, fiscal policy, etc.) who happens to have an emphasis on Gay rights activism. Yes please.
District 37's vote: Incumbent Eric Pettigrew (D), by a huge margin so far. This one really surprised me...Bennett got 7% of the popular vote for Lt. Governor in 2000, and 2% for Governor in the hotly contested 2004 race. I thought that she might have actually connected with some local voters here...I guess not.

Seattle propositions
Proposition 1: tax dollars to renovate/support Pike Place Market
My vote: No
Justification: PPM is a tourist trap. Sure it's fun to walk down there and enjoy the crowds, but seriously, how many Seattlites go there to do ANYTHING (or buy anything) on a regular basis? Very few. If it needs renovating, charge more for business tenants' rent. Institute a market-wide sales tax. Do something that gets the money from the people who actually go to the damn place and spend money - not everyone in Seattle. Blargh.
Seattle's vote: Yes

Proposition 2: tax dollars for Seattle parks.
My vote: no.
Justification: Yeah, I'm an Ultimate player, I was supposed to support this thing. More fields! More turf! Sweet, right? Except the money, again, comes from everyone in Seattle. If I'm using the fields and the parks, I don't mind paying more for league fees if it means my taxes (and everyone's) are lower. Fund the projects through usage fees on the people who use them, not through taxes on everyone, when none of us have a choice.
Seattle's vote: Yes

Sound Transit Proposition 1: TRANSIT NOW!!1!1!!1one
My vote: no
Justification: Pretty much see above. Blah. I'm getting tired of typing this. I love transit as much as the next guy (I take the bus almost every day), but again I disagree with the tax structure used to pay for the proposed projects. Transit should be funded by the people who use it, and if it's not cost-effective compared to other means of transportation, then it shouldn't be successful. Fuck more sales taxes.
King/Pierce/Snohomish Counties' vote: Yes.

Appendices
Seattle measure results
Most state-wide results/state legislative results
Sound transit results

Note: I called most of these races without all of the votes counted, just like CNN. If I prematurely admitted defeat for myself, then sweet! I'll correct it in the morning.

Smoking

2008-10-09T09:49:19Z

According to his own accounts related to me, my grandpa started smoking when he was thirteen years old (approximately 1935). He smoked until my eldest sister was born in 1976. By then, the health detriments were well known, and he figured he probably shouldn't be smoking around his granddaughter. He never smoked while I was alive, although my Auntie Karen (his eldest daughter) still smokes to this day.

So, he smoked for 41 years of his life, and at some point in the early 2000s, he was diagnosed with COPD - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder. My grandfather died in the summer of 2005. He was 83 years old.

If someone who smoked for 41 years of his life still lived to be 83, what harm could a couple of years (or less) do? I've decided to start smoking for a while, just for the hell of it. At least 2 of my good friends in high school smoked. I've always been drawn to it. Smoking just always seemed cool to me. Note that I'm easily swayed by advertising and some parts of popular culture (notably absent are the reality show parts of popular culture).

So, yeah, don't try to stop me. I've got an addictive personality and I'm well on my way.

Letter to my Congressman

2008-10-02T09:46:59Z

[I could have just copied and pasted Ron Paul's letter again, but I felt like putting my own words down. It made me feel better at least.]

Dear Representative McDermott,

I was angered that you supported the economic bailout the first time it appeared for a vote on the House floor, and I am writing you today to implore you to reverse that decision, and oppose the modified bill when it comes before the House again soon.

While the Senate leaders have sugarcoated the bill and added numerous superfluous riders in an attempt to make it more palatable, the essential intent of the proposal has not changed: use the money of American taxpayers buy the bad assets of financial institutions. This is a gross misuse of our money and must not be allowed to happen.

These assets are failing for a reason: they were ill-advised in the first place, and the free market must be allowed to take its course. The federal government should not be propping up the failing housing market. If there are too many houses at unreasonable prices, then the prices must be allowed to fall and the market must be allowed to correct itself. If individuals sought mortgages which they could not afford, and were awarded those mortgages, they and their financial institutions should be held responsible for the consequences.

I know that there will be troubling times ahead, and I am not implying that doing nothing will miraculously solve all of our problems. Our unsound fiscal policies leading up to this point have made that a reality. But the proposed bailout plan will just cover up the current problem, extending the illusion of a sound market for a short time. The eventual market correction will be even more violent when it does occur.

I am not insulated from these concerns. I have a 401(k) which has lost value over the past week, and I'm sure if the bailout is struck down, it will lose even more value. But I am willing to sacrifice that value for the knowledge that we will have averted a step which will make the financial crisis that much worse.

Thank you for your time. Again, I urge you to vote against the bailout, and I assure you that I will not vote for you if you do support it. Please take the lead of fellow Washington State lawmaker Senator Maria Cantwell, and oppose the bailout.

Respectfully,
Nicholas Aaron Philbrook
A troubled constituent

With apologies to Julie and Ray

2008-09-27T05:57:11Z

From mlb.com. How does this make sense?

First read the top-left. Rays win the AL East! Woo hoo! Red Sox relegated to the wild card slot. Then read the bottom-right..."Congratulations Red Sox! Shop the American League Wild Card Champs gear."

Yes, congrats Red Sox, on losing the AL East! To a team with a fraction of your payroll! Because we know the Rays have no fans so we have to market this AL wild card crap!

Ugh, as cliche as it is, I hate the NY/NE bias of the mainstream media.

Throwing in the towel of laziness

2008-09-11T02:32:57Z

I signed a 3-month lease at my current apartment. Which means if I actually want to move out by the end of the current lease, I'll have to move during the holidays at some point, since the lease ends on December 31. Sounds like fun!

Self improvement is masturbation. Now self *destruction*...

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