(no subject)

[prog]

Crappy work day today. Woke up late, got in after lunchtime, didn't feel like doing much, and lo it came to pass. The pessimist in me points to how happy I am during the rest of the week and insists I should just throw in the towel and work only on you-know-what, but the pragmatist reminds me that I am in an enviably sweet position and should just suck it up.

Starting early tomorrow would fix things. Who knows if I can actually do it or not.

On that note, I went ahead and ordered myself one of those Sleeptracker watches a few weeks ago. Sorry to say that my relationship with that company has started on the wrong foot; the product was backordered, but they went ahead and charged my credit card immediately anyway. That's rather shady, at least according to what Andy England taught me way back when. I don't know where it is now (my email receipt doesn't mention the backorder date), so I'll write them and ask. OK, I just did. At least they included a phone number, too.

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Speaking of you-know-what, I pressed rikchik into trying a second time to teach me how to play Texas Hold 'Em. It worked this time, since I actually wanted to learn; it had finally sunk in earlier that same day that Volity really needs a Holdem game done for its public beta launch.

I have feeble poker-fu and was the first player to get dead, but learned a lot, and read up on the game and its basic strategies via the ol' Wikipedia today. My inspiration yesterday was actually Andy Looney's most recent weekly update, which noted how its zero-sum tournament variant actually more resembles an ordinary tabletop card game than an interminable gambling game.

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cnoocy reminded me that I completely forgot about my Volity slideshow plans. He followed up by suggesting a good time to have it done: end of July. There is a good reason for this. Maybe the spec will even be done by then.

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Couple of links:

Heavy: A fascinating description (and a followup article) of one of the wellsprings of militant ignorance that we are up against, right in the heart of America. Also part of the reason that I very much desire to sock in the mouf every dKos dunderhead who claims to cheer on successes by various anti-intellectual American movements, on the grounds that they make the neo-cons with whom they are entangled look like scary theocratic fascists that nobody will want to support. I say to them: You don't get out much, do you. Never give them an inch. Not one more damn dime, ha ha. I'll have more to write about this later. (from hrafn)

Light: A cool computer-enabled human-vision hack. I like how the magenta patches really do vanish if you stare at the cross long enough, leaving only the moving green blob... which isn't actually there in the first place. So strange! (from pseudomanitou)

Comments

[doctor-atomic.livejournal.com]

That New Life article has a serious amount of spin. I've spent a lot of time in Colorado Springs, and found myself cringing at the liberties the author took.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yes... you're no doubt correct.

I think it's still about something basically true, though. (UH OH HE'S EQUIVOCATING!! NEWSWEEK-LOVING LIBERAL SCUM)

[xymotik.livejournal.com]

I would disagree: I skimmed through the article, but the time I've spent in Colorado Springs (two short visits), I stayed with Real Live Evangelicals, 'cause my aunt was one. She looooved Colorado Springs, and what he's describing in terms of their views was pretty much spot-on. If you're one of the many tech workers there, you're just not going to see that whole subculture; they don't stand out and you really have to talk to them directly to understand their views.

it's like pac-man

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Only with a green dot eating purple dots. Very cool :)