Random thoughts and questions

Someone should probably do something about that elephant, too.

Is a scotch tasting at lunch going to improve or hinder productivity? We're about to find out!

Did it say "in god we trust" where the county should be? I fucking hate those. Separation of church and state, people!

This sounds like science! Do keep us posted on the results of your experiment.

So far it's led to excessive internet forum posting.

Which flying spaghetti monster did I piss of so much to give me all these hardware failures recently. Over the last few months I've lost two hard drives, monitor stopped working and yesterday a stick of ram stopped working. I managed to repair the power supply in the monitor, but I didn't have the correct components, so hopefully it doesn't catch on fire.

Sounds like these results require further research to shed some light on the initial findings :)

An old person has nearly run me over at least twice every day this week. I walk down a sidewalk with a few entrances to mini lots, on an island chock full of people waiting to die (aka Long Island).

I have right of way. Most ofthe time I get to the entrance first. Yet they keep rolling on at that slow "I can't find the brakes halp" pace while giving me a terrified look, like if their car hits me I'll beat them to death.

Maybe thy can't reach the brakes because they're too shriveled up and old, or maybe they forgot what brakes were during that brief moment. I dunno. Whatever the explanation, the more old people I see, the more aging terrifies me. All these people who at one point may have been perfectly normal have become weird wrinkly husks of their former selves, with all the good bits chewed up and spat out by time.

Which brings me to my random though: old people remind me of oyster shells minus the oyster.

Why aren't there more female detectives? I've run into more women that seem to have detective skills than men.

More Sarah Lund!

This American Life did a story about P.I. Moms. It's awesome.

In my 44 years on Earth this has worked for me every single time. Except one. I still remember that one with fear and loathing, I thought the magic was gone. But it was just a one-time aberration.

No other trick works for me (sucks because you can't do the upside-down water thing in every situation). Mr. Widget finds it necessary to tell me "go drink some upside-down water" every time I have even one little hiccup that's not leading to anything, which leads me to believe it either looks hysterical or (much less likely) sexy.

When I'm writing something and it accidentally rhymes, should I leave it or change it?

I find I also do that sometimes, but have little desire to rearrange it.

Typically, I say "fuck it", but then I go and edit.

It is no crime to make a rhyme.

The only poetry I write is by accident.

To write poetry, even just by accident, is still poetry.

It is no crime to make a rhyme,
Nor is a crime to leave it
But if you claim you're not to blame
I don't have to believe it.

It's tricky to rock a rhyme,
To rock a rhyme that's right on time,
It's tricky...

Beauty & the Beast re-release with a new Tangled short attached? Sounds like a perfect date night.

IF THE MOVIE WEREN'T IN GODDAMN 3D.

I hate 3D. It's gimmicky and rarely does anything but subtract from the experience. That said, I might be willing to put up with it if it weren't for a full-length movie. I'm headache-prone. Short 3D films at Disneyworld didn't trigger any, but I'm wary of 90 minutes of it. Sigh... guess I'll just have to watch the DVDs, and hope I can catch the short on YouTube. And wait for the day when the entertainment industry gives up on 3D for good.

I think I hate playing against AIs because they don't squirm when you screw em.

I got a civ AI to give me all the spare coal it had in a fair trade. Totally kosher move, they weren't using it etc etc. Then I stole the city state that provides most of their coal. Coal deficit, all their coal using stuff just stopped working. So, like, they pretty much produce at about half speed now. HAW HAW HAW!

Except I can't gloat because it's an AI. A human would have been all "WTF!!" because now he/she can't get those factories back online for thirty turns without a new source of coal (or a wardec on me, which would mean them losing a shitload of luxuries). But the AI is so freaking stoic. I hate it!

So now I'm kinda wondering if a game "AI" could beat a gaming "Turing test" by screaming in uppercaps with bad spelling and poor grammar whenever something doesn't go its way. Guild Wars does something like that. The pvp training npcs, win or lose, will all say "gg" at the end of every fight. Obviously that's not what real people do. So if they raged occasionally and asked for bio breaks would that be enough? Can we really tell the difference between a machine and a human opponent in a sufficiently complex game, or is it just that the game doesn't get angry or need to pee?

Same, I can't stand 3D. Fortunately I think the fad is on the way out. The sale of 3D TVs has been atrocious and I think movies aren't seeing much increase in 3D version ticket sales.

You should probably talk to a professional about what you want out of a game.

I gave it two tries: Avatar and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. In both cases, I thought the 3D detracted from the experience rather than added to it. And it's not like these were movies where the 3D was put in as an afterthought. Until they have real 3D that you can look at from different angles and focus on whatever you want, it's just a stupid gimmick and it will die.

Oh give me a break. I drank his milkshake and I wanted some tears before I bashed in his silly AI head. The AI gloats often enough when it has your balls in a vice, as does the average chess player. In fact, the chess program I had on the Apple ][ thingy would say stuff like "You got me!" while being cockslapped into subservice.

Heh, now I'm kind of wondering if the thrill of AI suffering is what got me into chess all those years ago.

I really hope that when the dentist looks at my crown tomorrow it is not loose and he does not want to do an implant.

I really don't want an implant.

Heh. I'll be right there with you (in spirit) with an extraction + crown tomorrow morning. On the upside, I'm gonna be higher than a kite once I get home.

I thought the 3D in Avatar was pretty well done. And, oddly enough, the 3D in the last RE film wasn't too shabby. Everything else, meh.

The 3D in Avatar was pretty well done, compared to what I assume shittier movies are like. However, I spent way too much time trying to focus on those little floating things in front of the screen, and that is a limitation of the technology.

In case anyone cares, the sour cream and onion doritos taste so much like the cool ranch variety that I don't know why they bothered. My cat likes them though.

Why doesn't anyone ever hire a stripper to jump out of a coffin at their funeral?

The 3D in Tron Legacy killed me with my focus bouncing around constantly. I think it was due in part to everything being in high contrast, neon lights or bright whites against black and dark grey backgrounds, and so on. Killed the movie for me, which was a pisser since I waited over 25 goddamn years for it.

I love you Omni.

Everyone hates it when the person in front of you reclines their seat when you're on a plane, right? It's taking up your personal space, and it makes using a laptop considerably harder. But of course, everyone has a right to recline their seat. I normally end up getting the last seat in a row for this reason, able to recline without guilt as there's just a bulkhead behind me.

Occasionally I don't get this choice, so if I need to recline my seat (ie. I'm damned tired and I have to get some sleep without straining my neck) I try and do it slowly to give the person behind warning, and I usually only take it back a few inches. I try not to be an ass, in other words. I did this the other day on a flight from Singapore back to Darwin. When I hit the recline button, the seat didn't move. Stuck, I thought. So I pushed back a little harder... and then it moved a couple of inches. Immediately, I hear "What the FUCK!" from the guy behind, followed by him punching the back of my headrest! I turned around to give the guy a death stare, and saw what had happened. He had his Macbook open on his tray table, with the screen positioned right below a ridge under the headrest (where the tray table stows). When I tried to recline the seat, the screen basically wedged it into place... until I pushed back a bit harder and it snapped forwards. I seriously doubt it did any actual damage, but I can see why the guy was annoyed. On the other hand, punching the seat in front is a really bad idea. I'm a pretty relaxed guy but I know others who would have likely punched him in the face (the thought did pass through my mind). Anyone who has ever flown before should fully expect the person in front not only to recline their seat but to do so at maximum possible velocity. I make damn sure if I'm using my laptop it can't get caught like that.

You should've apologized, then invited him to your ranch for dinner for with your pets...

I have actually done that before with someone I didn't particularly like. "Next time you're in town, you should come over and we'll introduce you to Smaug". It was worth the risk of them actually coming over to use that line.

Of course anyone from here is welcome to come over at any time. I like nearly all of you.

I wish my buddies were nerdier so I'd have more gamers to game against. Sure, they can code, home brew windmills for power, win bot herding competitions and whatnot, but why can't they fucking play more games?!

Hiccups-
Just have to lay down. I have no idea why it works.

I find myself endlessly fascinated by the behavior of folks in cars. Currently it seems half my town is being repaved/built on with various road projects. I seem to have more time to notice absurdity because of the construction. Slamming your gas pedal to get around me, to end up behind someone slower than I was going, makes no sense. I also do NOT understand decorating a pick up truck. It is a truck, not a car.. a truck. The things you do with one would generally indicate putting nifty decals and pretty paintjobs would lead to a lack of said things quickly.

I am sure I will visit this threat again at some point.

It's a no win situation. My partner games, so instead of spending my time wishing she was gaming, I spend it wishing she was gaming on a different game. The grass is always greener and all that :)