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Deeply Spaced Out
It's a running joke...oh, never mind...
20 September 2017 @ 02:12 pm
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08 July 2009 @ 06:08 pm
You really can't say "I don't want to be around when X blows up", and then be murmuring into his ear within five minutes of his walking into the room, and then expect to be taken seriously afterwards. You just can't.
Current Mood: 
unsurprised
unsurprised08 July 2009 @ 02:17 pm
Went out to look at the cactus again, and the flower's already closing up. I seem to recall previous flowers lasting two or three days, so maybe it's just taking an afternoon break. Or maybe Mom dumping Penny's water bowl in the pot wasn't such a great idea.
There was a ladybug-sized beetle on the flower, evidently trying (and failing?) to nibble on a tip of a petal. Shiny dark red in the body and black in the head. A bumblebee came up as I was standing there and went straight for the flower. There aren't many flowers in the cactus's immediate vicinity just now, and I gather those that are near were pretty well played out by yesterday anyway, so I guess the cactus is a main attraction right now. There was a yellow (fake?) ladybug on the flower too.
Been working on cleaning up the hard drive a little today. Definite progress, even if maybe it is a drop in the bucket.
There was a ladybug-sized beetle on the flower, evidently trying (and failing?) to nibble on a tip of a petal. Shiny dark red in the body and black in the head. A bumblebee came up as I was standing there and went straight for the flower. There aren't many flowers in the cactus's immediate vicinity just now, and I gather those that are near were pretty well played out by yesterday anyway, so I guess the cactus is a main attraction right now. There was a yellow (fake?) ladybug on the flower too.
Been working on cleaning up the hard drive a little today. Definite progress, even if maybe it is a drop in the bucket.
Current Mood: 
accomplished
accomplished08 July 2009 @ 10:51 am
and neither does the other S.
Cactus bloomed today! Quite pretty. Took pictures. Dunno if any will be very good, but there ought to be one or two.
Applied for a job the other day, although it was apparently decidedly late to do so. Will see if anything happens anyway.
A group of researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University say they’ve discovered patterns in the issuance of numbers that make it relatively easy to deduce the personal information using publicly available information and some basic statistical analysis.( Read more... )
The research could have far-ranging implications for financial institutions and other firms that rely on Social Security numbers to ward off identity theft. It could also unleash a wave of criminal imitators who will try to duplicate the research.
Details of the research were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal and will be explained at the annual Black Hat computer hacker convention in Las Vegas later this month.
Cactus bloomed today! Quite pretty. Took pictures. Dunno if any will be very good, but there ought to be one or two.
Applied for a job the other day, although it was apparently decidedly late to do so. Will see if anything happens anyway.
Current Mood: busy
busy05 July 2009 @ 04:47 pm
It occurred to me this morning or so that I'd not yet uploaded the outline of Acts I'd put together based on our study of it at church, so here that is.
One of the middling-sized cacti in the pot out back has a long fuzzy bud on it. Silly cactus, you're already overcrowded.
One of the middling-sized cacti in the pot out back has a long fuzzy bud on it. Silly cactus, you're already overcrowded.
Current Mood: 
cheerful
cheerful04 July 2009 @ 05:41 pm
Senate bill fines people refusing health coverage
How is this America? Land of the sop-brained and home of the blind agenda-ist, more like. (And I say this as someone with a pre-existing condition.)
In a statement, Obama welcomed the legislation, saying it "reflects many of the principles I've laid out, such as reforms that will prohibit insurance companies from refusing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and the concept of insurance exchanges where individuals can find affordable coverage if they lose their jobs, move or get sick."
How is this America? Land of the sop-brained and home of the blind agenda-ist, more like. (And I say this as someone with a pre-existing condition.)
Current Mood: 
irritated
irritated02 July 2009 @ 09:49 pm
The Virginian is quite good at not telegraphing its plot developments. I like that in a book.
A wren looked into the bag for a moment this afternoon. There hasn't been any other activity in that regard, as far as we know, the past few days. Mom wonders if the parents are preparing for another batch.
Finally ironed that nasty little wrinkle out of my program. I figure anything more from this point on is pretty much icing.
A wren looked into the bag for a moment this afternoon. There hasn't been any other activity in that regard, as far as we know, the past few days. Mom wonders if the parents are preparing for another batch.
Finally ironed that nasty little wrinkle out of my program. I figure anything more from this point on is pretty much icing.
Current Mood: accomplished
accomplished01 July 2009 @ 10:32 pm
Been reading The Virginian. Good stuff. For some reason I keep hearing the titular character in Jimmy Stewart's voice, rather than the obvious John Wayne's. Go figure.
One more kink to iron out and I think the program I've been working on should be pretty well functional. Good grief but it's been a nasty kink, though.
One more kink to iron out and I think the program I've been working on should be pretty well functional. Good grief but it's been a nasty kink, though.
Current Mood: accomplished
accomplished26 June 2009 @ 05:08 pm
One of the baby Carolina(?) wrens fell out of the clothespin nest in the garage about noon today. Apparently it walked over to join a parent, presumably behind the shed in one of Penny's favorite bunny-hunting areas. So she's probably going to be restricted-to-leash in the backyard for a while.
Meanwhile my new program is going pretty well.
Meanwhile my new program is going pretty well.
Current Mood: 
concerned
concerned24 June 2009 @ 11:47 am
Pro-tip for squirrels: If you decide to build a nest in a tree in someone's backyard, you should first ascertain that:
1. You can easily leave the yard from the tree without setting foot on the ground.
2. The yard is not home to a dog.
If neither of these simple conditions is met, you should probably find somewhere else to build your nest. Otherwise you risk being frozen in terror for half an hour while a dog attentively explains the situation to you at great length.
There are two wrens now fluttering in and out of the garage, presumably feeding babies. There is a faint squeaking occasionally that is presumably the babies. The parents make a sound that is somewhere between chirp, squawk, and trill.
Apparently I never actually posted what they were. Oops. They're either Bedick's (?) wrens or, um, the other kind. Whichever has yellowish bellies.
1. You can easily leave the yard from the tree without setting foot on the ground.
2. The yard is not home to a dog.
If neither of these simple conditions is met, you should probably find somewhere else to build your nest. Otherwise you risk being frozen in terror for half an hour while a dog attentively explains the situation to you at great length.
There are two wrens now fluttering in and out of the garage, presumably feeding babies. There is a faint squeaking occasionally that is presumably the babies. The parents make a sound that is somewhere between chirp, squawk, and trill.
Apparently I never actually posted what they were. Oops. They're either Bedick's (?) wrens or, um, the other kind. Whichever has yellowish bellies.
Current Mood: amused
amusedCurrent Music: Nights In White Satin
17 June 2009 @ 08:03 pm
What other (American) TV station would have the guts to show, in prime-time, a bunch of fully-clothed modern/ballet dancers in black or white walking around on a "chessboard" stage in time to classical music?
(Was that PBS? I didn't see any logo or anything as I walked by the doorway, but can there be any serious doubt? I think not.)
(Oh, apparently the patter at the start wasn't mere frill. Now there's been a "winner" announced, and now someone's chanting/singing/conversing.)
(Was that PBS? I didn't see any logo or anything as I walked by the doorway, but can there be any serious doubt? I think not.)
(Oh, apparently the patter at the start wasn't mere frill. Now there's been a "winner" announced, and now someone's chanting/singing/conversing.)
Current Mood: amused
amused11 June 2009 @ 09:27 am
I've never wanted to call in to a talk show before, but Charlie Brennan's really klutzing it up right now . . . .
So are most of the people calling in re: the bishop thing. Sheesh. It's not difficult, people. I'm not even asking you to see the teaching opportunity here, just notice the irony or prioritize properly. Gah.
So are most of the people calling in re: the bishop thing. Sheesh. It's not difficult, people. I'm not even asking you to see the teaching opportunity here, just notice the irony or prioritize properly. Gah.
Current Mood: irritated
irritated10 June 2009 @ 08:24 pm
I finally got my car in for maintenance today. Used Dobbs, as a change of pace. Walked home, just because, which took 20 minutes. I felt kinda lousy about passing up two lemonade stands, but so be it. Anyway, this afternoon when I arrived back with the car, there was a blur and a disturbance in Mom's side garden. My first reaction was that maybe it was a sparrow or a goldfinch trying to land on one of the plants. Instead, it was a hummingbird investigating the lamb's ears, which have gotten quite tall. Neat!
Nothing much further on the bird that built a nest in Mom's clothespin bag. It's been seen maybe once or twice in the last few days. Any eggs are presumably covered up by the nest at this point.
Meanwhile, there's been a baby rabbit hanging around our yard lately. Thankfully Penny hasn't gotten it yet. She just about got a large rabbit last week or so, when it went off at the wrong angle to get through the usual rabbit escape hole and had to circle around the yard back to the house.
There's a mother duck at the college pond with five baby ducks. Haven't seen the presumed lesser bittern in the past week or so.
Nothing much further on the bird that built a nest in Mom's clothespin bag. It's been seen maybe once or twice in the last few days. Any eggs are presumably covered up by the nest at this point.
Meanwhile, there's been a baby rabbit hanging around our yard lately. Thankfully Penny hasn't gotten it yet. She just about got a large rabbit last week or so, when it went off at the wrong angle to get through the usual rabbit escape hole and had to circle around the yard back to the house.
There's a mother duck at the college pond with five baby ducks. Haven't seen the presumed lesser bittern in the past week or so.
03 June 2009 @ 03:48 pm
As of about 3:45 PM (about 15 minutes ago), my game is actually playable!
- The board sets up correctly.
- When you click on a space, it registers only if there's a piece in the space, in which case the space lights up, as do all the spaces to which the piece can move.
- Click again, and if it's on a lit-up space the piece moves there (and does not leave a copy of itself behind), or is deselected if you clicked the same piece again. Clicking on the wrong hex doesn't do anything, and clicking off of the board deselects the piece.
Well, this isn't entirely accurate. I still need to make a few of the "lit-up" images. Also I need to build a few routines into the "move" method to allow for a few of the pieces, but those should be straightforward as well. But I have been having a good deal of trouble with the second and third items up there, and the few remaining gaps should be a cakewalk.
There's still a lot to do. The program has no clue about winning conditions. The complex parts of the moving rules have yet to be written. There's also nothing stopping a piece from capturing a buddy yet. And so on and so forth. But, hopefully, it's mostly downhill from here.
- The board sets up correctly.
- When you click on a space, it registers only if there's a piece in the space, in which case the space lights up, as do all the spaces to which the piece can move.
- Click again, and if it's on a lit-up space the piece moves there (and does not leave a copy of itself behind), or is deselected if you clicked the same piece again. Clicking on the wrong hex doesn't do anything, and clicking off of the board deselects the piece.
Well, this isn't entirely accurate. I still need to make a few of the "lit-up" images. Also I need to build a few routines into the "move" method to allow for a few of the pieces, but those should be straightforward as well. But I have been having a good deal of trouble with the second and third items up there, and the few remaining gaps should be a cakewalk.
There's still a lot to do. The program has no clue about winning conditions. The complex parts of the moving rules have yet to be written. There's also nothing stopping a piece from capturing a buddy yet. And so on and so forth. But, hopefully, it's mostly downhill from here.
Current Mood: 
jubilant
jubilant27 May 2009 @ 05:58 pm
A few days ago, in what I still regard as a remarkably lucid moment, I wrote down a list of stepping-stones to work toward in getting the computer game I've been trying to put together into a usable state. It went about like this:
1. Get a part of the board to display.
2. Get a board square (technically, a hexagon) to change colors when clicked on (to show that it is "selected" or "not selected" -- the idea here was really just to get the colors to change).
3. Get the mechanism for making a move to work.
4. Get the mechanism for making a move to work only if the move is legal.
If I achieve all of these, then in principle I ought to be just about home-free, as the rest of it should be just a matter of applying elbow grease.
Well, I'd already managed #1, although it had been a while and I wasn't sure which script file the successful code was in. But I "re-discovered" that. #2 still eludes me, but I think I can guess the nature of the snag. #3 and #4 are still in the future, although I've written lists against the legality of the move can be checked.
I also managed to generate a whole board today, which is not an entirely trivial matter when you're working with hexagons.
Also, I cleaned up a few graphics and made some others that I'll need. Instead of floating the pieces above the hexagons, I'll just have blank hexagon images and hexagon images with each of the pieces shown. That ought to eliminate a layer of complexity, I think.
1. Get a part of the board to display.
2. Get a board square (technically, a hexagon) to change colors when clicked on (to show that it is "selected" or "not selected" -- the idea here was really just to get the colors to change).
3. Get the mechanism for making a move to work.
4. Get the mechanism for making a move to work only if the move is legal.
If I achieve all of these, then in principle I ought to be just about home-free, as the rest of it should be just a matter of applying elbow grease.
Well, I'd already managed #1, although it had been a while and I wasn't sure which script file the successful code was in. But I "re-discovered" that. #2 still eludes me, but I think I can guess the nature of the snag. #3 and #4 are still in the future, although I've written lists against the legality of the move can be checked.
I also managed to generate a whole board today, which is not an entirely trivial matter when you're working with hexagons.
Also, I cleaned up a few graphics and made some others that I'll need. Instead of floating the pieces above the hexagons, I'll just have blank hexagon images and hexagon images with each of the pieces shown. That ought to eliminate a layer of complexity, I think.
Current Location: home
Current Mood: accomplished
accomplished24 May 2009 @ 03:47 pm
- Way to get home from Grandma's: Get onto I-70 just south of Marshall, then onto 370 from 70.
- I want you all to know that I really do appreciate the chance to know you all. The visit to a (quite prettily decorated) cemetery yesterday has absolutely nothing to do with this sentiment -- only with the timing.
- Noted down great-grandparents' names. A quick check online just now results in note to self: Ask Grandma what D.'s middle name is o_O.
- On that note: Grundy County, MO has got their geneological records together (not online, though). T'bonz and other geneologically inclined people take note. Or don't, more likely.
- This "Get your face in the race" promotion that some company's doing with NASCAR seems like it belongs in a sitcom episode. Like, one of the characters is thrilled to win it, and then there's the race and a huge image of the guy's face in a funny expression has been painted on the hood of one of the cars, and he's rooting his face on and then there's a bad wreck and "his" car rear-ends another car, and the camera shows "his face" all crumpled up horribly. (What? I didn't say it would be a good episode.)
- Penny's very, very happy to have us back. ;~)
- Got bitten (or chiggered or maybe even stung a few times, apparently) while working in Grandma's garden. Hasn't really been bothering me, actually.
- I saw:
- wrens
- meadowlarks
- a bluebird
- a Baltimore oriole
- a Blackburnian warbler, or a bobolink, or a chestnut-sided warbler, or something. Really an unusual-looking bird. You'd think I would have paid better attention.
- what I believe was a female hairy woodpecker
- Eastern kingbirds
- and an Eastern American toad,
none of which I get to see around St. Louis.
- wrens
- I forget what else, and with the chattering in the background I'm not likely to remember any time soon, so I'll end this here.
Current Mood: home
home21 May 2009 @ 09:02 pm
Now, this needn't apply to your characters, but if there is any chance that what you're writing will be read, say, ten or twelve years down the road?
Please have the narrator spell out who you're talking about.
Just think how confusing it would be for your reader if, for example, a character in a novel set in the late '90's is watching a news anchor talk about "Clinton"'s visit to such-and-such a country. "Hmmm", the reader thinks, "that might be President Bill Clinton . . . I think he was in office about then . . . but then I think his wife was in national politics too . . . or maybe it's another Clinton altogether . . . ??"
In short, it may seem obvious to you at the time that "Harding" must or must not be Warren G. Harding, or that "Webster" is or is not Daniel Webster, but it won't be so obvious ten or fifty or three hundred years down the road, unless you're reprinted in a high school literature reader with footnotes on every page.
It's a minor point, usually, but the discerning reader will appreciate it. Thanks.
Please have the narrator spell out who you're talking about.
Just think how confusing it would be for your reader if, for example, a character in a novel set in the late '90's is watching a news anchor talk about "Clinton"'s visit to such-and-such a country. "Hmmm", the reader thinks, "that might be President Bill Clinton . . . I think he was in office about then . . . but then I think his wife was in national politics too . . . or maybe it's another Clinton altogether . . . ??"
In short, it may seem obvious to you at the time that "Harding" must or must not be Warren G. Harding, or that "Webster" is or is not Daniel Webster, but it won't be so obvious ten or fifty or three hundred years down the road, unless you're reprinted in a high school literature reader with footnotes on every page.
It's a minor point, usually, but the discerning reader will appreciate it. Thanks.
Current Mood: awake
awake21 May 2009 @ 01:36 pm
I will be visiting Grandma over the weekend, so I won't be online then. (I know, I know, most of you won't be able to tell the difference.)
I'm expecting to transcribe a long essay in the near future. Said essay would then be posted on LJ. Whether you then choose to skim it, skip it, or actually read it is up to you. (This all goes without saying, I know. I'm trying to avoid poking fun at myself for once, here. It takes practice. ;~))
I'm expecting to transcribe a long essay in the near future. Said essay would then be posted on LJ. Whether you then choose to skim it, skip it, or actually read it is up to you. (This all goes without saying, I know. I'm trying to avoid poking fun at myself for once, here. It takes practice. ;~))
18 May 2009 @ 07:32 pm
Wow.
Um. Anyway.
Saw another strange bird at the pond. Narrowed it down to . . . um, something and something else, I think. Short-billed dowitcher and a few sandpipers, something like that. But I wasn't pleased with either choice -- coloring not vibrant enough.
Yesterday we had a little bird hopping around in the dogwood. I don't know what it thought it was up to -- insects, baby leaves, something else -- but it kept dropping by and spending five or ten minutes or more just hopping and jumping around in the branches. Being peeved over my last two failures still, I finally decided that it was probably a male American goldfinch that had "olive" instead of black on its wings due to a "phase" or whatever. But Mom found it in the bird book. It was a Wilson's warbler, apparently just passing through (with a buddy) on his way up to Canada. Much more interesting than a goldfinch. ;~)
Have been pwning at work. Dunno how long it'll last, so I'm gloating while I still can. *gloats*
Um. Anyway.
Saw another strange bird at the pond. Narrowed it down to . . . um, something and something else, I think. Short-billed dowitcher and a few sandpipers, something like that. But I wasn't pleased with either choice -- coloring not vibrant enough.
Yesterday we had a little bird hopping around in the dogwood. I don't know what it thought it was up to -- insects, baby leaves, something else -- but it kept dropping by and spending five or ten minutes or more just hopping and jumping around in the branches. Being peeved over my last two failures still, I finally decided that it was probably a male American goldfinch that had "olive" instead of black on its wings due to a "phase" or whatever. But Mom found it in the bird book. It was a Wilson's warbler, apparently just passing through (with a buddy) on his way up to Canada. Much more interesting than a goldfinch. ;~)
Have been pwning at work. Dunno how long it'll last, so I'm gloating while I still can. *gloats*
Current Mood: accomplished
accomplished06 May 2009 @ 08:06 am
Mom noticed over the weekend that someone seems to have bumped the left rear corner of my car's bumper. Doesn't look too bad, just scrape-y damage. Nobody seemed too upset about it, so I guess even that won't cost much to fix if need be -- in fact, my uncle made a comment about buffing it out.
I just dunno how someone could scrape on either side of the corner like that without putting a dent in the bumper. Oh well.
I just dunno how someone could scrape on either side of the corner like that without putting a dent in the bumper. Oh well.
Current Mood: 
waking up
waking up