A funny thing happened at Wendy's today.

The Katie is on a diet as of yesterday. She's not eating white bread, and fatty meats, or sugary drinks. I wanted Wendy's tonight though, so she agreed to go, but said that she'd get a salad.

In the interest of being healthy, she ordered a chicken salad. However, as usual, Wendy's had run out of the chicken to put in the salads. This is the same wendy's that has run out of fries twice, and burger meat once in the last year. Instead of giving in and eating a burger, she made the choice to try and be good again. She asked the Wendy's girl to just give her the money back. So, the girl runs her card and credits her with the money.

We're sitting there, Katie enjoying her glass of water while I'm enjoying my big bacon classic combo. The Wendy's girl comes up to us and says, "Did you not get your number four?". Now, I've got a big bacon classic burger in my hand when the girl is looking at me, asking this. I ignore the obvious stupidity of the question, and say "No, I 'm eating my number four".

She asks Katie if she's hungry, because if she doesn't eat it it will just go to waste. There Katie is trying to be good, and she can't. She's tempted to get a burger when they're out of chicken for the salad, but she abstains. After trying to be good, miraculously, they offer her a free burger combo. Quite ironic.

I think that Wendy's has a diet detector installed.

I despise Physics

I only have about 2 months now until I graduate, and the only thing standing in my way is Physics 202.

Words can't express how much I hate reading about this electrostatic, charge related nonsense. I'm a computer scientist for goodness sake. I don't need to know anything about electric fields, or dipoles, or even charge for that matter. All I need to know is that electricity flows magically into the back of my computer, and allows me to write programs and be paid for those programs. This should be the fundamental theory of physics for computer scientists. The second, and last, being: Electrical things (such as computers) do not mix well with water. This concludes your physics material, pick up your diploma on the way out.

I think my trouble with physics might result from the way the book explains the concepts, or a conflict with the way I learn and the way the author presents the material, or maybe it's just my brain. I just don't think I have a brain that operates in a manner necessary to apply these physical concepts to problems in the book.

I sit in class, and I understand the concepts... they don't seem that difficult in general. I even understand the example problems that the teacher works in class. Once I get home and try to work some problems from the homework set that apply the concepts in a different manner, though, the gloves come off and physics and I duke it out.

I'm only hoping that I can score high enough on these tests, and finish enough of the homework that I can get a diploma at the end of this quarter. I've had one test this week already, with another in Discrete tomorrow, homework for physics due tomorrow, and another test in physics on Friday (covering the first 5 chapters). The only thing I'm worried about is physics.

God, if you read my blog, let albert einstein's ghost whisper answers into my ear during the physics tests this quarter.

Robovie-M Movies

There's no way this is real.

There are all kinds of movies on this companies web site that show their robot doing hand stands, stretching, walking, picking up and throwing a soccer ball overhand. They're really amazing, give them a quick look.

Sunday of wonderment.

Sami hosted a get together at his parent's new house today. It was gonna be me, and Sami's fam with NFL Sunday Ticket, lots of grilled food, and the big screen TV of extreme superfluity. The Katie also joined us midway through the first game, right before Sami's parents finished preparing lunch.

Imagine a meal formulated for a team of 10 dog-hungry sumo wrestlers... this is the meal we had. Hamburgers, steaks, hot dogs, pork kabobs, chicken kabobs, grilled vegetables, and baked beans. As a poor college student, when I first saw the food on the table, it brought a tear to my eye. My expectations weren't let down, oh no. The meal tasted every bit as good as I thought it would.

Apart from the extreme meal, the normal Sunday ritual of watching tv and having sporratic celebratory seizures was carried out. I hope to get back over there another weekend soon to do the same thing again.

plasticbugs.com

If you're looking for a site to visit that has all kinds of tech goodness and interesting links, visit plasticbugs.com. The writer of the blog, Scott, works for the Screen Savers on G4TechTV, and often the sites and information you find on his blog will appear later on the show.

With every new post, I find more interesting information and great links to sites that I know I'll enjoy. I'm glad that there are other people online, scouring the net for great sites.

Take, for example, his post today talking about del.icio.us. Here's an excerpt of the most important part.

Now, pay attention. del.icio.us has been described as Google in reverse because of what I’m about to tell you. Here’s how you can be the first person to spot something amazing on the web. Here’s what makes del.icio.us so cool!

• Cool Thing #1: See the most popular things being posted for the day. A constant source of awesome links. Basically, your finger on the pulse of the web!
• Cool Thing #2: By using the syntax del.icio.us/tag/category, you can search for links that other people (including you) have posted with that assigned category. So, if I want to see all the latest links that have been posted about Apple stuff, I can check out tag/apple, or tag/mac, or tag/osx. I think you get the picture. There aren’t any spaces in categores and they’re not case sensitive, so tag/TSS is the same as tag/tss. That’s why it’s tag/osx and not tag/os x.
• Cool Thing #3: If you see a link you like and want to see who else posted that link to their bookmarks, click the link that says “and X other people”. Now you know who also posted that link AND you can see the other links they posted by clicking on their username. So you can see everyone else’s bookmarks! If someone posted a link to a cool site that you like, maybe they posted more great links.
• Cool Thing #4: You can get RSS feeds for the bookmarks of other users whose links you like. So you’ll know instantly when that person posts another link. Or, you can get an RSS feed for a specific category and see it updated with fresh links throughout the day!

Jackhammer noise

Talk about ironic...

Web Design Crud

After 4 months of being on the web with this new weblog I'm still not happy with the way it looks, or the name. I've changed bits and pieces from a template that I got off the web... and that's what it looks like. It doesn't look like "me".

I've been wasting a lot of time playing with different design ideas with notepad and my stylesheets, and tinkering with more complex designs in photoshop. Most of the designs I come up with end up looking like an architectural design firms website... they don't have any personality. So, I'm back, once again, to the drawing board. However, things could be much worse. I only have to worry about design, whereas before, when I coded my own blogging system *gasp*, I had to deal with both.

Yes, I tried to code my own blog, and I think I did a dern good job. I lost the files after I neglected to pay my server bills at another host and lost access to their FTP... I didn't realize I had no local backup until it was too late. Being a forgetful, and mighty broke college student is rough.

So, now I'm working on rebuilding the design of the blog from the ground up, along with rebuilding the main site's look and feel. That's all for the design talk...

I learned two new interesting items today. First, that SCUBA, actually stands for something. I never even thought about it being an acronym. It stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. Secondly, that the word "sabotage" comes from the french word sabot, which is a shoe with a thick wooden sole. During the Industrial revolution, the French would sometimes throw their thick soled shoes into machines to protest, damaging the machines. Thus, people eventually began calling these people sabateurs. Interesting stuff...

Monty Python Quote

Johnny quoted Monty Python (Quest for the Holy Grail) in the forum earlier... which sent me to searchin' for the rest of the quote. Here it is, and if you haven't seen the movie, rent it, buy it, or even steal it if you have to. It's great.

A reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

-- Monty Python, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

Old and good. Moe and the Lie Detector.

I found this clip from The Simpsons when going through some old files. This used to crack me up... and still does, actually.

Click here to listen.

The Simpsons is one of the best cartoons ever made, right behind Family Guy and Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law.

That reminds me... I saw a shirt in the mall when I went yesterday that I'm going to buy whenever I get some money that doesn't have to go solely to bills.

Shirt, you will be mine

Katie set up me the bomb

This afternoon Katie and I took a trip to Monroe to do some shopping for her apartment, and grad school. We also needed to return a shirt to the Express.

When we walked into the mall, we went in towards the end of the mall with McRae's and El Chico. As soon as we turned the corner to walk toward Express, Katie's head whipped around and she looked at me and said "We need to go to McRae's. I think it's gift time for Clinique". This was completely out of the blue. It was almost like there was a women's only radio station beaming out sale information, and Katie was tuned in.

I asked her how she knew about it, and she said "I just knew". This whole thing was sounding pretty fishy to me, mind you. I questioned her, but I got nothing. She evaded my questions and swatted down my every attempt at information extraction like a crippled, one winged gnat buzzing around her ear. Apparently, she learned to resist interrogation from the KGB... or more likely, she taught them everything they knew... *raises eyebrow*.

There is only one explanation for this situation; Katie pulled a bait and switch on me. "I only need to return this shirt." However, when we get in there, it's like she's got a list of current mall sales tweeting in her ear. Ladies and Gentlemen, Katie set up me the bomb.

Mozilla Firefox, download it people.

It's a better browser than IE. Period.

They've released a PR (public release) candidate for the upcoming 1.0 version. They're shooting to get 1 million downloads within the next 7 days. So, get firefox, then get adblock, flashblock, and bugmenot extenstions and browse the web like it's meant to be browsed.

BTW, this is my 100th post:).

Talk Like A Pirate Day

By way of Dave Barry's Blog, I found that Talk Like A Pirate Day is rapidly approaching once again. It seems like only yesterday that I let out a growling "ARRRR". But, it's been a full year.

To help those of you who don't know how to get started in preparing for this event, brush up on your pirate jargon. These tips come from two rugged old sea dogs, Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket.

Dear God, make me a multi-millionaire.

The powerball jackpot is up to $84 million this week.

Lord who made the lion and the lamb,
You decreed I should be what I am,
Would it spoil some vast eternal plan,
If I were a wealthy man!?

I would do the Tevye dance if I won $84 million dollars.

Frog Legs and 'maters

Last night I had fried frog legs, fried green tomatoes, and catfish for dinner. It was my first time to try frog legs or fried green tomatoes. I have no idea why I wanted to try frog legs, or why they were offered at the restaurant that we went to last night, but regardless, I did try them.

It didn't taste much different than chicken, but it was much more tough. As I was sitting there chewing on some frog's hind end, I realized that at some point someone had to be hungry enough to grab a frog and go about trying to cook it. I had a nice chuckle to myself picturing some country bumpkin with overalls and toe holes in his socks cooking a frog.

After the frog legs, we had fried green tomatoes with some kind of red sauce. These were suprisingly good, as I don't really like tomatoes, unless they're in the form of some kind of sauce. Even then, I don't really like too much sauce in pasta, or on pizza. The Katie wasn't really all that impressed with the FGT's, or with Zach's (the restaurant that served the legs and maters).

I don't think I could have had a more "country" dinner last night, unless of course there was gravy on the frog legs.

Another blog redesign.

A few weeks ago I decided I didn't want to stick with the old default banner that came with movable type. I knew I wanted to customize it, and show some random pictures in a sleek new design. Well, I achieved a great deal (of mediocrity) with my banner redesign.

Along with messing up the structure of the page, the original idea that I wanted to use had no real function, and didn't look very good either. So, tonight I decided to trash it and start over.

I grabbed my coding monkey and sat him down with a bottle of extra strength nyquil, and I started coding away. I ended up with most of what I wanted to accomplish. I got a new design that is pleasing to mine eyes. The banner also serves a real function... to provide a common link throughout all the pages in my site, 'ceptin the forum and gallery.

I only used one image in putting together the banner, a background image. The rest is held together with CSS and prayers. I wish I knew how to have text from one layer be opaque, while the background to that same layer is transparent (alpha blend) without having to use a transparent background image. The text on the links in the banner had to be seperated into a seperate div tag in order for the text to avoid inheriting the transparency of the containing layer. That's the only thing I wasn't able to do.

Now listening to.

I'm testing my "currently listening to" plugin.

Never trust a university employee or a government employee

I guess I'm slow to learn and quick to forget, because today I violated one of the basic rules of being an american; Never trust a government employee or university employee. If you have more faith than I do in either of the many people that fall under this umbrella, then I can only advise you to trust, but verify.

A little background on my situation... I messed up a litte over a year ago. I took Marketing 300 and I blew the class off, because after all, it's a business class. Well, time came for grades to be distributed and I, Mr. "no way am I working for this grade", ended up with a D in the class. I blame noone else for the disaster that has been my college education, and this class is no exception. I earned a D through skipping certain classes, and not studying like I should have. My fault.

With that being said, however, I expected that I would have to retake the course to get a "C" or better grade. This is the rule nowadays because the class counts toward my business administration minor. However, there was hope. My advisor told me that sometimes they can "grandfather" some grades in. He said that because I started college with a certain set of rules in place, maybe the new rule of C's or better wouldn't apply to me.

Now, by this time it's the first summer session of classes '04, and I'm already registered for Marketing 300, just to be safe. Being one for doing as little work as is required this late in my college career, I ventured into Nethken to find someone who could give me a straight answer about this question of "grandfathering". I ended up in the office of Dr. Hale. I sat patiently while he talked on the phone to someone in the business office, and then flipped through the school catalog that I entered college with and showed me where it said I wasn't required to have a "C" grade, or better. So, there I had my answer. I went and dropped the course that same day.

So, today, the last day of drop/add at school, and the beginning of my last quarter of college I go to make sure that I'm on schedule to graduate (once again because Mike advised me to do so... he seems to be the exception to the rule...he steers me in the right direction). I went to see the lady who approves students for graduation at COES, Joyce Bryan. She makes the same phone calls that Dr. Hale made, I assume. This time, however, I get a big fat no. "You're gonna have to retake Marketing 300 to graduate."

Are you kidding me!? I was in the class! I could've taken it this summer when I had NOTHING TO DO! Your man in nethken told me that I wouldn't have to take this class, and now I have to take it at 8 in the morning!? I'm a functional illiterate until 9:59! So... wait, wait, wait... not only do you expect me to take a 400 level CSC elective (hard course) because YOU let me skip CSC 100 (crayola time), but you want me to take an extra course now in addition to Data Mining for Bioinformatics, Physics 202, and Discrete Math, after you told me I wouldn't have to!?

With all that out of my system, the good news is that I WILL be able to graduate this quarter, and all I have to do is make C's or better in each class. I'll just have to do it taking three hard classes, and a business class that is full of what I call "busy work".

This is genius.

Someone invented a game, a treasure hunt for WMD's... well, just read the article.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-09-10-wmd-game-winner_x.htm?POE=TECISVA

People will buy anything

Who will be the proud owner of this Vintage 1972 Air Guitar?

Classes for the quarter

As of today, I've finally attended all of my classes for the quarter. I couldn't be happier with the outcome of my schedule.

First and foremost, I don't have to have physics with K. Johnston. To understand why I am so happy about this, I've decided to include a portrait of how I invision her.

Yes, my friends it was that bad. Any teacher who doesn't understand that you may, at some point in the 12 week period while you're in her class, have to use the restroom is an utter moron. Of course I may be slightly biased because I had to drop her course because she made me turn in an incomplete test to use the restroom when I was sick with some kind of stomach something or other. However, I was not smuggling a cheat sheet in my boxers. I wasn't going to consult a hidden physics major in the bathroom stall. I just wanted to do what my body told me I had to do. I tried to politely explain to my bowels "Excuse me, would you mind being a bit more patient. You see, this woman's class policy is that we may not leave the class at any time." However, they didn't seem to understand. I can understand a teacher's policy for not allowing people to use the restroom during tests, but there have to be exceptions. If it becomes a problem, then take care of it. However, I'd never interrupted a lecture to use the restroom before... that's enough of that rant...

In stark contrast to that, this semester I have Dr. Donald Haynie. So far, he seems to be a bit of a short tempered person, but he explains everything EXTREMELY well. He goes above and beyond what's necessary to have a grasp of the concepts we cover in phys202. The enthusiasm he has for teaching us the concepts translates into a desire for us to want to know what he's so excited about. He breaks everything down and uses real world examples of how this concept is applied. It's how teaching should be.

This same enthusiasm for teaching seems to be shared by my other professor Dr. Sumeet Dua. He is extremely excited about Data Mining, in particular data mining for bioinformatics (the course that I'm taking). You can tell when he talks that this is what he was meant to do.

I think it makes a profound impact on the students in a class when the professor is so excited about a subject. This class is a good example. The class is at 8 in the morning. He turned the lights off for 1.5 hours for a slideshow and I didn't see a single person asleep. You may not see the importance of this, but remember, we're dealing with Computer Scientists here. We are, by nature, night creatures who live off of large amounts of british humor and caffiene.

I've got another class, Discrete Math, which I'm not as excited about, but overall the schedule looks to be great. I just hope I can get the grades I need to get outta here this quarter. These classes may be taught well, but the subject matter is no joke.

Mr. Peebles

This cat's name makes me chuckle every time I read it. Say hello to Mr. Peebles, the world's smallest domestic cat.

Found by way of the apostropher's blog.

Powerful Picture.

Excerpt from Time:

There are more amazing pictures in Time's 100 photograph's that changed the world. Before you click, however, you should know that there are a few graphic pics in there.

I can't believe this.

Most Asian babies have blue marks on their rear-ends and lower backs called moukohan. Known as Mongolian Spots in English, they are a dense collection of Melanin-containing cells called Melanocytes. Melanin is the chemical which gives our skin its colour, and if the melanocytes are deep under the skin, they appear blue. The spots generally fade within a few years and almost always disappear by puberty. These spots have given rise to an interesting Japanese idiom, "shiri ga aoi". It means "his butt is blue" and is used to describe a person that is childish or inexperienced.

--Japanese SAQ (Seldom Asked Questions)

Who woulda thunk that babies being born all over the place with blue bottoms would have escaped my realm of knowledge. Sheez. Apparently, about 90% of children of pigmented-skin races have these Mongolian spots (www.chinaconnectiononline.com/mongspot.htm).

Visit the site I referenced above for all kinds of weird information about japanese people. I'll have to ask my coworkers about this blue baby bottom business.

Louisiana Tech football, Sept 11, 2004

Today Tech had a game against our rival, ULL here at Aillet stadium. So, we decided to get out and do some tailgating with Johnny and Natasha for lunch and then mozy on over to the Ruston Building and Loan tent for some food closer to game time at 6:00.

All in all we ended up spending about 8 hours out there, from 12 to about 8, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

A few points of interest. We had 4 skydivers delivering the "game ball", which I thought was really neat. We also had two jets fly by right after the national anthem. Ryan Moats had another 250+ yard rushing game.

Anywho, pics are in the gallery. They're a little out of order, but I hope you enjoy.

GWB and Clinton joke

Someone forwarded this e-mail to me earlier today.

On a Train:

Clinton, George Bush, Janet Reno and Bo Derek are all traveling on the same train. After several minutes of the trip, the train passes through a dark tunnel and the unmistakable sound of a slap is heard.

When they leave the tunnel, Clinton has a big red slap mark on his cheek.

(1) Bo Derek thought - "That sleazeball Clinton wanted to touch me and
by mistake, he must have put his hand on Janet Reno, who in turn must have slapped his face."

(2) Janet Reno thought - "That dirty Bill Clinton laid his hands on Bo
Derek and she smacked him."

(3) Bill Clinton thought - "George put his hand on Bo Derek and by
mistake she slapped me."

(4) George Bush thought - "I hope there's another tunnel soon so I can
smack Clinton again."

Louisiana Tech's new commercial

Click here to view Louisiana Tech's New Commercial

Who in the world do they get to do these commercials?

Don't get me wrong, I think Louisiana Tech is a great University, and I've loved my 8.5 years here. At some point, though, you'd think someone up top who approved this spot would have said, "Maybe we should let some younger people watch this and see what they think...". They probably would've told the university to save the money they spent on this, however little it was, and invest it in improving campus life. Instead, they approved this commercial that may have had some kind of appeal in the late 90's, if then.

I'm not asking for a funny budweiser-esque commercial, or a sappy LATech prestige commercial. I just think that someone should've realized that this commercial won't make kids any more interested in looking into tech. It will, however, make them feel like they're attending a showing of stomp.

I'd like to see a serious commercial, with no gimmicky dancing. Showing students at events enjoying themselves, or students researching, highlighting the engineering facilities. Anywho, just figured I'd get that off my chest.

Classes resume today & Hero The Movie

Today is the first day of the fall quarter, which is also my last quarter of college. I've got physics 2, Discrete Math, and a CSC elective... I'm not looking forward to any of them. Sometimes I wake up at night in a cold sweat thinking about having to sit through another physics course with K. Johnston.

Oh, I forgot to mention it last week, but the Katie and I went to see Hero in Shreveport. I must say, the movie was visually stunning. Considering the fact that I use that phrase as much as Don King uses a brush, that should speak a great deal about how visually appealing the movie was.

Surprisingly, the movie was not just a big fight scene with a tiny plot stretched around it. It was a movie about unity and peace, though it was hard to see at times where the movie was eventually going to end up. The plot was still very good, and I enjoyed seeing the true theme of the movie form gradually.

I'm freeeeee!

Today was my last day of work for the summer project. Along with Dr. Choi, I made the final presentation to the VP of Technology at the University and to a few other professors and higher ups.

I don't really have any assignments to rush through, or any deadlines to meet in the near future, and it feels great.

Actually, it feels like this...

That's right people, I'm OUT OF SHAWSHANK!

We've yet to commit to developing another version of the search engine, though Dr. Choi did try to volunteer me for a position at any interested company who contacts the university about using our technology on-site. That might fly... it might not, I'm not sure what to make of it.

The presentation was this morning at 8:30. I was up at 7, a full 4 hours before I usually crawl out of bed. We were set up at 8:15, started at 8:35 or so, and were done at about 10:00AM. I felt great about being done, and having completed the summer work with such success.

I got home shortly after 10 and as soon as I sat down at the computer to relax, the power people shut the house's power off. So, apparently, I missed the 15 day window of appropriate payment time... who knows when those crazy people send bills and such. I just know that every once in a while I get some mail with a bunch of numbers and I send out checks with more numbers. I write the checks and throw em in the mail box. Let them sort out the details, I say.

Anywho, in the dark, it was Taylor, me, a warm glass of water, and the roaches. I couldn't have been happier though, because I'm free of obligation for the next few days.

Ryan Moats performance vs. Nevada.

Take a look at this ESPN ranking page for the 2nd week of NCAA play (click to enlarge).

This is the first time in as long as I can remember that a player from our team has shown up on the leader board, much less twice in the same week.

Keep it up Moats, keep it up.

Additional Movie: Tech vs. Nevada

I took this movie with my digital camera, so there's no sound, and it's lacking good quality, but it's a touchdown play. I thought I'd enjoy seeing it later on if noone else ever tries to download it.

Here's the Quicktime movie.

If you pay attention, you can see the pass go to the right hand side of the end zone, and Donald Allen, QB #17 celebrates after the TD.

I wish I had a better cam for digital movies...

More pics: Louisiana Tech vs. Nevada, football 2004

Today Tech played Nevada in the season opener. Katie and I got tickets through Ruston Building and Loan, as did Chad and Lori. I brought the cam and took a few pics of the game and I think I may have taken a few including the ESPN camera man who was there filming for ESPN2... yes, believe it or not, they covered the game live.

Although we only won 38-21 we really were dominating them in every part of the game. Here are a few of the stats: Ryan Moats (RB) 3 TD's, 257 Yds; Tech Defense - 9 sacks; Tech total Rushing - 397 yds; Rushing yds. allowed - 7; My sunburn pain on a 10 point scale - 13.73. Hopefully we can continue this success throughout the year... that is, if coach Bicknell will put Donald in instead of Matt Kubik. Donald really outplayed Kubik and seems like a better overall player.

I'd like to see another WAC title go to tech, and maybe a nice bowl game invite also.

Weekend trip to Dallas again.

The parents and I got to take a short trip to Dallas this weekend after Nancy's wedding in Longview on Friday.

We managed to get Pappaw outta the house for a while. He walked around fry's electronics with the Pops and I for about 45 minutes looking for a new DVD-ROM for their new computer, and also for a printer. It was good for his leg (broken last year) to get out and walk around a bit.

Aside from the usual chatting and visit from Uncle Bill & Helen, nothing out of the ordinary happened, except for the cable outage. We were without cable for the weekend, and since their phone is also tied in with the cable, we had no internet either. We actually had to TALK to each other... Anywho, in the midst of all the talking, we managed to get a few pictures taken.

In that series of pictures, take note of the tall plant being attacked by Mammaw. That's Okra, being grown in their backyard. I've never seen or heard of okra being that tall, especially in the suburbs.

What qualities are present in a good dog?

This is an excerpt from an email that I got today. I thought this part was the funniest.

Let me give you a list of just a few of the things I must remember in order to be a good dog:

1. I will not eat the cats' food before they eat it or after they throw it up.

2. I will not roll on dead seagulls, fish, crabs, and other dead things, just because I like the way they smell.

3. I will not munch on "leftovers" in the kitty litter box; although they are tasty, they not food.

4. The diaper pail is not a cookie jar.

5. The sofa is not a face towel; neither are Mom and Dad's laps.

6. The garbage collector is not stealing our stuff.

7. My head does not belong in the refrigerator.

8. I will not bite the officer's hand when he reaches in for
Mom’s driver’s license and registration.

9. I will not play tug-of-war with Dad's underwear when he's on the toilet.

10. Sticking my nose into someone's crotch is not an acceptable way of saying 'hello.'

11. I do not need to suddenly stand straight up when I'm lying under the coffee table.

12. I must shake the rainwater out of my fur before entering the house.

13. I will not throw up in the car.

14. I will not come in from outside and immediately drag my butt.

15. I will not sit in the middle of the living room and lick my crotch when company is over.

16. The cat is not a squeaky toy; so when I play with him and he makes that noise, it's usually not a good thing.

The new voting machines for 2004

View image

ReplayTV 5040 archiving update.

I finally backed up a few shows to DVD. Using the steps from my previous post I was able to sync up the audio and video, and successfully convert the mpeg files to the mpeg2 dvd format.

I converted them to a really low-bitrate (I think it was around 2000kbits/sec) so I could fit more shows on there. I don't really care about the quality of shows like that, and it's really not that bad at 2000kbits/sec... It's worse than cable, but it's very watchable, with no distortion during movement. Using this smaller bitrate on a single layer DVD I was able to fit around 4.5 hours of TV.

Monk loses the actress who plays Sharona

Bitty Schram, the actress who played Sharona