March 2003 Archives

Last night I started re-reading Neal Stephenson's book, Diamond Age. It's set in a not-so-distant future, post nanotechnology. Since I haven't heard much on this front in recent times I was wondering if people ever thought about it. Would you mind having little tiny man-made creatures whizzing around your bloodstream doing things? What if they were used for surveillance and tracking? Anyway, these are thoughts I've had this morning.

After raiding in Infected Paw last night in Everquest, I'm pretty tired today. Not much to report this week. Work has been super busy, although my big project date has been pushed back to 4/15. Thank the gods for small favors. The new DSL line is up and running at the new house, and many thanks to my friend Bayly for helping me move some non-essential stuff last weekend. I got an email from my god-sister Julie, and it appears that she and her family are moving to California. It should be nice, and closer to her folks. So that's it for news, now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Yesterday FoxNEWS broke a story that Textron Inc., the company I work for, will be laying off 1,200 people and sending another 6000 on a seven week furlough. The story is here, and the Textron press release is here. Such a joy. The division I work for, Small Business Direct, is part of Textron Financial, the smallest part of the Textron conglomerate. Nothing like that quiet feeling of dread lurking in one's mind going into the weekend...

This morning all the news channels are throwing around the term "shock and awe" when they talk about the first missile strike carried out against Iraq. What exactly is that? Well, I did a little researching on the net and I found a site hosting the text of a small book written by Harlan Ullman and James Wade called Shock And Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance. It appears this was written as kind of a military playbook or "intellectual construct", written back in 1996. At the time of it's writing, this handbook had to undergo testing at something called the MRC (Military Relations Committee?) and the "Quadrennial Defense Review of 1997". Finally it had to be proven against the Operations Other Than War doctrine and training platforms. Now, I'm not certain what these terms mean, but I'm wondering if this manual is the script for the style of tactics we are now seeing Iraq. If so, the timeline suggests to me that as soon as the first military action in Iraq was over, we started planning the next one...

Here is a link to a repost of the quasi-famous Neal Stephenson essay about the evolution of operating systems and classic "Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux" debate. Phew! Long sentence!

Ok kids, it's time for some culture. Here is a link to one of my favorite artist's website. He has some fantastic visions and a great amount of patience for detail. Kind of like Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) meets the movie Seven.

Well it would appear that sabre rattling is good for the economy. All the indices are way up as the US markets surge ahead.
<RANT>I really don't know how I feel about all this warmongering in Iraq. Personally I don't feel in much danger from them, but what do I know? I'm just a member of the ignorant masses, right? Maybe this kind of thing should go to a public vote. </RANT>
Given the advances in telecommunications since the last war over there (Iraq 1.0) this one promises to get phenomenal media coverage. Given the prognostications in Smart Mobs, I've already found a blog at the top of the MIT MediaLab blogdex. It's where I'll be getting my war news, I think: http://www.back-to-iraq.com/

Well, I've already been remiss in posting to my blog. Things have been hectic; setting up utilities for the new place, renting trucks, and so forth. Plus, I'm rolling out a big project at work. I'm sure I'll be a saner person come the middle of April. In the spirit of Saint Patrick, here are some unfortunate St. Paddy's Day cards. Kiss me, I'm Irish!

I just made some green chicken curry with spiced Basmati rice. Based in part on Rachael Ray's recipe here, and what I've learned from my co-worker Shariq. It's simmering gently, but I snuck a little and it's great! I really enjoy cooking, and trying new recipes is always a blast. What the heck is mincemeat anyway? And what's mango chutney for besides curry?

Courtesy of my mom, more kitties here.

Well, moving time is fast approaching. I finally found the address, so now I can start moving utility accounts and stuff. I'm still undecided what I want to do with Internet access. Oh well, here's some links: Old and Busted | The New Hotness

This weekend I started making my own Kitties-style Flash animation. It's turning out to be harder than I thought, but I'll post it up here when it's finished. Has anyone got a clean/unmodified pic of the infamous Cliche Kitty from Fark? Mail it to me if you do.

Bugger bugger bugger! At least I'm done with my taxes. I owe on Federal and get a tiny bit more back from Arkansas state. Why can't they just get together and figure it out? Since Arkansas supports e-filing, but not direct deposit, I'll be out a wad of cash until I get a check from Arkansas. Stupid taxes *sigh*

Get yer kittens here (top left column).

Man there is some strange stuff on the internet. Almost makes me feel normal. Comments?

Well, I couldn't get the MT plugin for weather to work, so I sold out and used Weather Magnet from TWC. I promise I'll find something cooler in the future.

The second part of the wonderfully drawn Animatrix series has been released. Get more bandwidth and then go here.

So why is this site here? Last week I was drinking at the Underground Pub with my friend Bayly, and I met this guy named Michael Silverman. We chatted a bit and he asked me why I don�t keep a journal. I really didn�t have an answer for that. Over the next few days, the idea was kind of kicking around the back of my cranium. Then, when reading Fark I came across a link to Wil Wheaton�s website and I checked it out. I read a bit about MoveableType and Logjamming and decided these would be great tools to use for an online journal. So that�s my idea: just a stream-of-consciousness weblog about my daily thoughts and stuff I find on the web.

Well, I'm tired. MT seems pretty easy to use, but I'm worn out and it's time to rack out.

Well, it seems I have a weblog! More on the reasons later and hopefully there will be many changes to this site over the next few weeks (like adding kickass graphcs).