February 27, 2009
David's Law of the Conservation of Wit
Over time, all pithy one-liners will become attributed to Mark Twain; all witty rejoinders will be attributed to Winston Churchill.
Posted by david at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2009
ADHD
What's on my mind this morning:
The VeggieTales song "God is Bigger than the Boogeyman";
visuals from the "Watchmen" movie trailer;
the meaning of the term "gerrymandering";
the laundry I forgot to finish last night;
etc.
All of the above are swirling in no particular order, in no particular relation to what I'm doing or trying to remember to do. No wonder I have a little trouble getting things done sometimes.
Posted by david at 06:49 AM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2009
SIRRINE2 v1.0
So it seems that despite the fact that everyone who sees my last name says, "Well, that's unusual," there actually are more of us out there -- so many in fact, that there is a eponymous House, a stadium in SC, a web design company, and at least two elementary schools carrying the name. But the best link I found on MSN Live Search (after Emurse.com kindly informed me that someone found my resume that way) was the software that someone apparently decided to stamp our collective surname upon: The Self-Improving Reflective Reasoner Integrating Noteworthy Experience (SIRRINE).
On the upshot, it's pretty cool to be a software program that writes other software programs; not only does it preserve my name for posterity, but it also means the AI that eventually takes over the world and enslaves humanity could be named "SIRRINE", rather than SkyNet. However, I can just imagine at least one person I know taking the opportunity to opine, "I always knew you were a tool." Oh well.
Posted by david at 06:54 AM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2008
election year economics
Isn't it funny how the economy supposedly takes a downturn a few months before every presidential election? And how NPR commentators can make bad news out of even the most cheery economic indicators? Of course, after the first Tuesday in November, the economy will supposedly either sink further into a recession or experience a glorious revival, never mind what the data say. Ah, politics and the media...
Posted by david at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2008
It's a dog read blog world out there...
I was just reflecting on the well-known phrase, "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog." Then I had an epiphany: On the Internet, no one cares you're a dog.
And IMHO, that's a Good Thing.TM
Posted by david at 08:31 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2008
I'd like to learn how to spell Connecticut...
...but I just can't.
Read this book: Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
Posted by david at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
Thinking
Do you ever get the feeling that your only purpose in life is to convert oxygen into deadly greenhouse gases that contribute to the extinction of the human race, and the eventual entropic heat-death of the Universe? Nah, me either.
Posted by david at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2007
Let me just clear something up...
"Tolerance" is not defined as "accepting any and every foolish idea that comes into someone else's head." It means that we all should respect and protect the rights of other people to hold their own opinions and beliefs, whether or not we agree with them. Or as Voltaire is often mistakenly quoted as saying, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
In other words, you have the right to your own wrong opinion.
Continue reading "Let me just clear something up..."
Posted by david at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2007
Happy Holidays
Sometimes family gatherings are a bore, but you can still find little joys to get you through. Cf. this bird-watchers' bookmark that is part of the bird-themed decor in one of my relations' homes:
Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus. And he brings good things to us bad little boys sometimes, too.
Posted by david at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)
August 28, 2006
School Daze
Going to back to college is good for me in so many ways... Not only am I keeping my mind active and learning, and expanding my knowledge and horizons -- I'm also toning and flattening my abs by sucking in my gut constantly so I don't look quite so fat around all these 20-somethings. Ah, college...
Posted by david at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2006
Thinking
It just occurred to me that I'm not good enough with names and dates and places to be a conspiracy theorist. Darn it.
Posted by david at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)
August 02, 2006
V for Very Valuable Voice
So I was watching the movie "V for Vendetta" for the first time last night, and at one point I thought to myself, "hey, that guy sounds like he's imitating Agent Smith from the Matrix." Then I looked up Hugo Weaving this morning -- the guy who plays V, the protagonist of "V for Vendetta" -- and it was the same guy who played Agent Smith! Which amazed me, because his "V" voice was totally unlike Agent Smith, and we never see his face in the movie, and I didn't recognize the name...
OK, so it's not as impressive when I retell it. But it struck me as funny, anyway. It was a 5-day rental, so I'm going to watch that part again and figure out exactly when it was I realized it was the same guy... except I didn't, really... but it was late, so maybe... anyway. Story over, nothing to see here, move along.
Posted by david at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2006
El Acoso Sexual!
So I'm idly reading the posters in the breakroom at the office this morning (mainly because of my eyes' complete inability to pass over the written word in any form, no matter how many times I've read that specific piece of text before) and I notice the festive-sounding phrase "El Acoso Sexual". Mmm, sounds zesty! Then I notice the translation beside it: "sexual harassment." Damn, not going to propose trying that one with the Mrs. tonight.
Reminds me of the (now decades-) old joke by a Christian comedian about his experience of motion sickness while on an airplane. The gag was that everything sounds more festive in Spanish -- even air sickness, which he discovered while preparing to use the festively-labeled air sickness bag: "Para la náusea!"
Go ahead, just try saying either of those phrases in a hearty, affected Spanish accent. Be sure to include the ! at the end for effect. If you're culturally limited and uni-lingual like the majority of Americans (myself included), admit it: you can't help but hear Mariachi bands and think of women in flowing white dresses dancing the Samba. So, mi amigos, join with me and comamos cucarachas!
Posted by david at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2006
A joke I don't quite have the guts to include in my personal e-mail signature
If houseplants ever take over the world,
I'm probably going to be sitting in shackles
at their version of the Nuremberg trials.
(Tim H. Richweis)
Posted by david at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)
Lead us not into temptation
Since I recently found myself lacking an accessible firearm with which to shoot myself in the foot, last week I emailed my friendly-neighborhood sysadmin about the fact that I was no longer receiving any emails from my blog's MT-Blacklist. So he corrected the "problem" and lo, the Gates of Hades did spring open and the Spam Minions of Hell did pour forth.
Turns out myself and especially my son are very popular amongst those who would like to help you refinance your mortgage or play online poker. Thankfully, they are not yet soliciting my 9 month-old regarding the purchase of member-enhancing pharmaceuticals.
So anyway, I've noticed quite a trend with most of these comment and trackback spams: they're using blogspot.com subdomains (which are apparently now a part of Blogger). This trend is therefore leading MT-Blacklist to tempt me like Britney Spears dressed as a Catholic schoolgirl -- Cf. a recent processing screen MT-Blacklist offered me:
Out of the 12 URL(s) that were extracted 12 were recognized to have a subdomain...Shortened domain -- Matching URLs
blogspot.com -- 12(default action: consolidate and refresh, then BLOCK)
Oh, how tempting to just blacklist all of blogspot. Lead me not into temptation, MT-Blacklist, for I can find it myself.
Posted by david at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)
