Walmart Story

When I get home, I'll write it all down

The Truman Show

Ever get the feeling that the world isn't as serious as it makes it self out to be? I think everyone realizes that life is messed up and just plays the part of functioning human beings. I was walking down the hall at work today, Christmas eve. Not surprisingly, not a lot of people are here. As I walk, I hear music distant and muffled, but loud. I flash back to that scene from Freeman's Mind where he enters the programming lab and they have the techno blasting. As I walk a little further I further learn that it is a high security area. The final realization came when I puzzled out why the instrumental part wasn't muffled, but the voice singing was. THEY WERE PLAYING ROCK BAND IN A HIGH SECURITY AREA! And that is indeed the point where I started laughing, bought my burger/chips/soda of varying flavors and returned to my desk to write this. I'm going to have to up my game in 2010 to match that level of not taking the world seriously.

On the subject of the time frame for paying off debt...

Debt is like poop. No one likes poop, but we all generate it. You can either go to the bathroom now or later, but you know getting rid of it sooner then later always makes you feel better.


Below is my original replay to my wife asking me if we should pay off our car quickly or over the original payment period:
"Its like deciding to poop now or later. Eithor way your going to poop and its not that fun to sit and contemplate pooping. But, in the end (pun sort of intended), getting it out of the way sooner then later always feels better."

Huh?!

I woke up thinking this name, and I still don't understand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Szczerbiak

Fighting for the Cause

I'm buying at least five.

The Cause

I'm gonna do it no matter what the wife says. I get one of those per year, might as well make it a good cause...

Oh, and if you get one as a part of your Christmas present, your welcome.

Wow Raiding Breakdown

I like the way the raiding has balanced out in Wrath of the Lich King. With Vanilla WoW, you had a jump from instances to raiding. Cut to Wrath's life cycle:

Instances for beginners
Heroics for skilled or geared
Naxx, OS for skilled and geared
EoE for the highly skilled and geared

Instances and Heroics for beginners
Naxx, OS for skilled or geared
EoE for skilled and geared
Ulduar for the highly skilled and geared

Instances and Heroics for beginners
Naxx, OS, EoE for skilled or geared
Ulduar for skilled and geared
ToC for the highly skilled and geared

And now you have people who might not have been able to get into Ulduar or ToC now able to get Triumphs (and a few Frosts) from doing the random heroics. The random group finder is definitely going to help people who have been struggling finding groups for casual play get into some better gear. The new heroics and raid are not accessible by everyone, but it is simply the newest challenge. There has to be something for those who want to be on the bleeding edge of progression, but I think Bliz has done well keeping the casual players happy. I think many of us knew the horror of the perpetual Kara raid group...

THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE IVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VDvgL58h_Y

That which we create...

http://www.pvponline.com/2000/02/21/mon-feb-21/

FML is the Greatest RSS Feed Ever

And so is LolCats. That is all.

The Original

http://www.samkass.com/theories/RPSSL.html

RSS Feeds, Get Them

I have found a few webcomics, like this and this that I would like to read regularly. Since they do not have RSS feeds, I don't know if I will.

Alternate Realities

I figured it out! We are the horrible alternate reality where John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated. Somewhere is a world where they are still around, being good people. I think if MLK was still around, we would not see rap culture, we would see black people being led by a positive role model. I also think that if Kennedy had lived he would have shown white people we can be greedy and corrupt, but only mildly so, and we can be classy about it. (Marilyn Monroe > Monica Lewinsky) I truly feel like those two could have kept our country from feeling so detached from itself. I wonder what villain traveled back in time/through a dimensional rift and got rid of them both during the summer of '68.

Sluggy Freelance

If you have never read it, it is amazing. All sorts of different tones that flow realistically as the story evolves. Also, I'm up to the fourth year of the Torg Potter saga and am cutting up as they rip apart some major plot holes in the Harry Potter universe. Not to self, Time-Turners and the Domination curse are major holes in the story...

A note on Star Trek [Spoiler Warning]

The following contains a sudo-spoiler. I'm going to keep as much of the info out of it as I can about the setup, and it isn't exactly a surprise.

There is an explosion at the end of the movie that comes from behind the Enterprise and then pushes the ship forward. I didn't take note of the sound as the explosion is enveloping their ship the last two times I watched it. Having seen it again, I noticed something that i hope was intentional. The sound rises in frequency as they are hit by more of the inner part of the blast then drops frequency as they emerge through the outer shell of the blast. I think that this is the vibration of the plasma against the hull going up as the got closer to the inner part of the blast. The speed of its rise is slower because they are going the same direction and have slowed how fast the higher frequency plasma can reach them. Then, as they reach the point where the blast is collapsing on itself, they swiftly pass through the now retreating plasma. Now, I use plasma cause that's the only way I could easily explain the giant ball of glowy 'splosion, but I think my theory is sound. I have to assume from the movie's faithfulness to the silence of space that this is the case and that they are just showing the kind of detail that makes a movie as immersive as this one has been.

I was thinking about car insurance

If your passenger tries to stab you, and the resulting dodge causes you to drive the car into a river, would the insurance company have to pay for damage? If so, under what part of the policy would that be?

Adulthood

Do age and experience an adult make? Experience, yes. Age, I'm thinking no. I just had a meeting for which I prepared a list of itemized questions and printed out a reference document. The older men were cutting up, laughing, and joking. One got up and left to go get a free cookie. Now, none of this bothers me, I think its great that people in an office setting can maintain their spirits, especially in this kind of business climate. The thing that gets me is that the following thought almost stopped me mid-step on the way back to my desk.

My time raiding in World of Warcraft has prepared me to have fun and mess around until that scheduled time, then its business (raid) time. I stay focused, diligently get through what is needed, then after all is said and done, I can allow myself to relax and hang out again...
RAIDING has made me an effective participant in meetings!

And I've noticed other things that have helped me in the office jungle that are strange to say out loud:

• 3.5 Edition character sheets make time sheets seem simple. Note: Dwarf character sheets still scare me.
  
• Having ran several small raiding guilds, I already have experience scheduling meeting times that best fit everyone's schedule. Note: There will always be someone from the East coast and someone from the West coast, and both will want to raid at 8pm their time...
  
• Remembering requirements for projects is almost identical to keeping track of my remaining prerequisites before I get to take up a prestige class. Note: I always feel guilty dumping a level into sorcerer on a fighter, but a breath weapon is always a good decision.
  
• Deadlines turn a project into a timed quest.
  
• Grinding rep has taught me not to attack members of the rep faction I'm grinding with. Note: No AoEs in or near your cubical please.
  
• The customer, manager, employee dynamic is a lot like the developer, dungeon master, player dynamic. The developer tells us how they think we should play it, the dungeon master makes up house rules to try and make that suggestion work, and the player decides not to enter the cave, but instead find the nearest tavern and drink. Note: I think I forgot to wrap up that metaphor.
  

I'm pretty sure that I could have simply played video games in the presence of other gamers for four years and be as prepared for the workplace as I am now. That being said, I have made great use of what I learned in technical writing classes, so don't fully discount that college place.

'nough said...

http://www.onfocus.com/eat_generator.php

Saw this and need some one to tell me it doesn't work...

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/10/rich_insane_god0.php

Reputation with Taylor Press is now Exalted!

I read all 9 years of Schlock Mercenary (http://schlockmercenary.com/) back to back over the course of a week. At the end I bought a bunch of stuff from the store, cried at the second book of Erfworld (http://www.erfworld.com/) {I say this and there is another 'summer' update} not started yet, then started on Sluggy Freelance (http://www.sluggy.com/). When I'm done I have about six more web-comics I want to go through and catchup on from the beginning so that my Google Reader will stop making me feel like I'm behind on the times,,,

King Brandon "Midas" Sanderson

All he touches turns to gold after an understandable period of time. This is not a fan metaphorically (or literally) blowing a famous person (and/or their ego). This is someone who was trying to use Wikipedia to find some info on Writing Excuses, and finding no wiki page for it (OH, THE HUGEMANITY!). I tried finding the info I was in great need of on Sanderson's page. I found this:

"where he was college roommates with Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings.[4]"

Now, I'm not saying that Brandon Sanderson is directly responsible for Ken Jennings being the only person on earth that can call Alex Trebek his b****, but I am strongly implying it.

This isn't your father's third post!

I hope not, cause I have two followers at the moment and I'm married to one of them. Sorry ET, I'm not the David Prowse to your Mark Hamill.

In other news, if you don't follow the Bugle, your a nutter. If you do follow them, you have been following the epic story of the whitest trash in America, Delonte West. His views of Valentines Day made me laugh so hard my appendix disintegrated.

I'm meeting BRANDON "yes two links" SANDERSON in November at a book signing for The Gathering Storm!

Political Incorrectness Police

Today's Perp: Administrative Assistant
If you are an actual assistant, who helps a personal in a decentralized fashioned, often required to do tasks on the go, then this is not aimed at you. If you sit at a desk in front of or near another persons office or group of offices, your a secretary. Secretaries, do not be fooled into calling yourselves administrative assistants. I respect a secretary far more then an administrative assistant. Secretaries do hard work and deal with people all day. Administrative assistant brings to mind a monkey in a bellhop uniform. Heck, secretary at least implies you have skills in the areas of filing, typing, organization, and/or human relations. Administrative assistant sounds like you have few job skills other then holding, carrying, and following. See also: previous monkey statement. And saying your an executive administrative assistant means nothing more then your trying to use your title to cover for the fact that your boss isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. Don't degrade yourself by connecting your position to another person's with the word "assistant." You do your job, your boss does hers or his, possibly. Secretaries of the world, I respect you.

My first act as your newly elected blogger...

I officially retire from professional tennis. I have had a great run. Little did I know back on September 21, 2009 at 12:20 when I started my professional tennis career that I would make it this far or this long. I really enjoyed the game and will remember it as I move onto other pursuits.