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apthorpe's LiveJournal:
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| Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 | | 2:28 pm |
| | Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 | | 10:59 am |
Do Not Throw The Higgs Boson At Your Brother! If Mo and I were to have kids I can only imagine this line would be uttered (yelled?) at least once: “Do not throw the Higgs
boson at your brother!” Why? Two reasons: First, despite the disclaimer that they’re not for kids, we’d totally have to get the complete set of plush subatomic particles from ParticleZoo. Second, because the particles are appropriately weighted according to their relative mass. So, for example, the photons and neutrinos are stuffed with fiberfill because they’re “light” – they have little to no mass. By comparison, the Higgs boson is heavy and is appropriately stuffed with gravel. If one of the kids got injured, I’m not sure who’d show up first – Child Protective Services or the American Physical Society. It doesn’t matter since the kids are theoretical anyway (much like the Higgs boson.) So remember, subatomic particles are not toys – only use them for good … or for awesome! post/read comments | | 12:39 am |
| | 12:27 am |
Crapper Etiquette I hope to treat this subject with the delicacy it deserves. I work at a small college and have been using the same bathroom there for the past eleven or so semesters, not counting summers. Two stalls, three urinals, three sinks. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that some students prefer the stalls to the urinals for Number 1, even if all the urinals are unoccupied. I figure this is due to some special Catholic repression where the kids fear someone might look at their wiener, and, I don’t know, intently look at their wiener. The wiener-looker might steal their wiener’s soul or something. I don’t know. I bailed on Catholicism before the wiener was discussed. Anyway, my view is that stalls are for disposing of butt waste and urinals are for disposing of wiener waste, and unless you’re wearing a kilt or are a woman, the urinal is probably the most convenient receptacle for pee. When in doubt, sit down. Otherwise, don’t take up a stall unless you need one, for one day you may be seized by explosive diarrhea – the can you deny may be your own. Do I think too much about the toilet? Like the road, I see it as a system, not a location. As a system, it has rules that, if followed, benefit everyone. So with the day’s lunch encouraging the egress of yesterday’s dinner, I head to the head and find some young buck in one of the two stalls. I enter the other, close the door and take a seat and hear the guy talking on the phone. WTF, dude!? You’re in the shitter! Call back, dumbass. Then the guy starts peeing. And keeps talking on the phone! Do you pee while talking to this person when you’re not on the phone? WHO THE HELL DOES THIS? “Is this not encouragement to take the loudest dump you’ve ever emitted, complete with strained grunting, rank offgassing and entrained fecal matter?”, I think to myself. Were you born in a restroom, you retard? HANG UP AND PEE! And you’re in college? Despite my low view of its academic prestige, I still consider my employer to be a college and hold in some regard the college degree. But come on – a guy who doesn’t have the sense to hang up, pee, then call back doesn’t deserve to be a welder or fry bucket wrangler let alone whatever cakewalk not-worth-the-20#-stock-it’s-laserprinted-on degree we spool out. I guess it really is a receipt and not a degree. So for you bright eyed, bushy tailed, addicted to your iPod and SMS freshmen – listen up – play to your audience. Hang up the fucking phone when you’re in the can because if you pull that (literal) shit on me when I’m your supervisor, I’ll have you transferred to the worst job I can think of just to get a classless fuck like you out of my life. I will flush you like the social turd you are. post/read comments | | Monday, June 30th, 2008 | | 11:09 pm |
Drinking Rationally Tonight I got off my duff and went to Mother Egan’s Pub for the June installment of Drinking Rationally, a “Drinking {adjective}ly” joint held by the Austin chapter of the Center for Inquiry. It was a lot of fun, conversation both interesting and goofy, tasty beers and fries, and a lot less twitchy than other special interest groups I’ve hung out with. We talked about good science fiction novels (“if I were to read one book by {x}, what would it be”; for PKD, the suggestion was “UBIK”), games (did you know the German government subsidized board game development? I must confirm that Klaus Teuber was on the dole!), and a bunch of other weirdness. Above all, what struck me was how normal the drinking crowd was – I didn’t have any preconceived notions about what the crowd would look like, and yes, it was more than six people, more like 18-20. I don’t know what the “typical” secularist looks like – maybe a slightly twitchier Les Nessman or a member of the Trenchcoat Mafia. Nope, just normal people who prefer their own personal delusions to the codified institutionalized socially-enforced delusions of others, and who can talk about other stuff than their shared celebration of rationalism and reality. I’m planning on attending July’s meetup on the 28th. It’s good to meet interesting new people for a few beers. Craziest moment of the evening: the throughly-ungamer-like woman two seats over from me who mentioned playing Advanced Squad Leader. Now that’s hardcore, though maybe not as hardcore as Europa or Star Fleet Battles. Still, it’s hardcore enough – she got gamer cred. I tipple in awe. post/read comments | | Friday, June 27th, 2008 | | 7:51 pm |
Today's Strangelove Moment /usr/local/java/bin/java -jar /mnt/nfs/repository/linux/blackboard/bb-as-linux-8.0.209.9.jar -text
results in: It’s bad. Data loss bad. Restore from SAN snapshot bad. More details later when I staunch the bleeding. post/read comments | | Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 | | 11:28 pm |
| | Monday, June 23rd, 2008 | | 1:36 am |
Animal Day From a recent IRC log:
(22:46:11) XxxxXxxxxx: moose and cat are both annoyed at him
So in honor of moose and cat, perhaps the following ditty by one of my heroes will counter the annoyance: PS: Joe Nanini’s commentary is nice; sadly he (percussion) and Marc Moreland (lead guitar) are gone now. Both had an inimitable style which passed with them. post/read comments | | 12:40 am |
| | Monday, June 16th, 2008 | | 2:07 am |
NMKY Tonight: Good rehearsal overall, shitty rehearsal for me personally. This week: Aforementioned [redacted] publicly announced with expected [redacted] spin from [redacted]. Gag order prevents [redacted] from telling [redacted] to go [redacted] themselves. I’m in a crappy mood. Cat cheered me up with this: post/read comments | | Saturday, June 14th, 2008 | | 7:10 pm |
Teach the Controversy - Luminiferous Aether Edition OMGWTFXXL!!! I must have them. All. All of them. I MUST HAVE THEM ALL!!!! MUUUUUAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAAHAAAHAHA!!!! Feh – today’s evolutionary biologists think they have it rough. Back in the day, atomists like us were burnt at the stake. Whiners. post/read comments | | Thursday, June 12th, 2008 | | 3:03 pm |
LOPSA response to USENIX lawsuit LOPSA’s statement concerning USENIX’s legal action against them. Full disclosure: I currently sit on LOPSA’s board of directors. Unless I state otherwise, nothing I publish here should be construed as an official statement of the board or the organization. PS: LOPSA == League of Professional System Administrators — our mission is to advance the practice of system administration; to support, recognize, educate, and encourage its practitioners; and to serve the public through education and outreach on system administration issues. In case you were curious. post/read comments | | 9:59 am |
Stop Picking on McCain's Crack Ho Trophy Wife! From the network birthed from the foetid leathery loins of Pravda, the New York Post and Santorum (the substance, the politician – no real difference):
Does being simultaneously racist and sexist equivocate to Fair and Balanced? Why yes, yes it does. I suppose I’ll be waiting a while to see a more accurate headline: Outraged Lieberman: Stop Picking on McCain’s Crack Ho Trophy Wife! Why does anyone rational person talk to anyone at Fox? They need an old-fashioned Amish shunning. (h/t to Talking Points Memo) post/read comments | | Sunday, June 8th, 2008 | | 1:14 am |
| | Saturday, June 7th, 2008 | | 11:38 pm |
| | 1:43 am |
| | Thursday, June 5th, 2008 | | 11:30 pm |
What Would You Do? Really? Not for the squeamish: What are the first three things you’d do if you were there? Why? (h/t to Greg Laden) post/read comments | | Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 | | 1:42 am |
| | Monday, June 2nd, 2008 | | 8:57 pm |
| | 1:00 am |
Fiddly Bits For June 2008 It’s time for a minutiae update! ( Read more... ) |
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