Such Stupid Things

I'm'a Gonna Weeeeen

Sun, 25 May 2008 22:25:33 -0800

Now that I'm a doctor I have all sorts of super-human abilities, including, but not limited to, go-karting:

That's me (#9), followed by Kevin (#1) and Marie (#18). Now look at these times:

Straight pwnage.

Seriously baby, I can prescribe anything I want

Wed, 21 May 2008 16:00:13 -0800

After some small but horrifying setbacks earlier in the week, I filed my thesis today. Now you have to call me "Doctor".

New Toys!

Sun, 11 May 2008 14:45:56 -0800

In all her awesomeness, Marie gave me a new DSLR as an early birthday present. It's a whole lot of camera, and I'm still learning what the heck to do with it. Thus far, taking cheesy photographs of our houseplants have been very educational. There are likely many more to come.

Dubya is lucky we're planning a wedding

Sat, 10 May 2008 16:39:47 -0800

I feel like I'm playing right into the government's hands, but I'm going to spend this economic stimulus check so fast...

Unamerican

Fri, 02 May 2008 13:11:37 -0800

I've been doing some vacation planning, and here's what I'm wondering... You know old backpacker trick of putting a maple leaf on your bag so you can pretend not to be an American? Now-adays, could you use an Obama button to the same effect?

In Other Thesis News...

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:45:05 -0800

Sometimes, if I misspell "quantitative" just so, my spellcheck will automatically replace it with the word "qualitative". That's an important thing for me to catch.

My pwnability is eroding

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:15:23 -0800

Our upstairs neighbor clearly has just purchased a new video game. There was a time in my life when I could probably identify the game from the pitch and timing of the explosion sounds currently rocking our apartment, but those days are far behind me.

Troubles Continue

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:06:33 -0800

I don't want it to seem like all I do on this blog is whine about things and ask for other people to help me, but I'm having a bad morning. Let's just say that about two weeks ago, Marie and I purchased plane tickets for a honeymoon in Europe, fully aware that seven years of geopolitical goings-on had conspired into making this to be a bad financial decision. So... the tickets were pretty expensive. But in my idiocy I went ahead and checked Kayak this morning to see if the fares had changed, and boy howdy did they ever. Turns out, on Orbitz today I still could have booked the exact same trip on the exact same airplanes, the only difference being that one leg (of four) would be booked with a codeshare partner. And that trip would have been $500 cheaper per person. Oi!

I called the airline in question, but they tell me that since the tickets are non-refundable, there's nothing I can do. Bill suggests that I make Marie cry and have her call them with her saddest "but it's my honeymoon!" voice... but would something like that ever work?

Font Troubles

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:12:08 -0800

Okay, guys. I have a little problem and if anyone can help me, it's the internet. I've been writing my thesis as of late, and I've hit a stumbling block. It's going to seem incredibly stupid, so prepare yourselves...

There's this font that I really, really want to use. It's called "Simplex Roman" and it's one of the original Hershey vector fonts developed back in the 1970s. Yes, I know that it's kind of ugly, and yes I know it doesn't scale well, and yes I know that I might as well just use Helvetica. But listen: every textbook and journal article written before 1980 uses this font on all of its graphs, and I think it'd be fun if I did too. The thing is, I don't know how to get it into version which I can use easily with Adobe Illustrator and the like, given that it predates things like TrueType by many years. I don't want to compile it in GhostScript or write code to export it via IDL or somehow wring it out of AutoCAD - I just want to use it in some graphs.

Is this even possible? It's free, supposedly, so I don't think it'd be illegal. Does this help? This? I'm typographically in way over my head here.

This Too, Shall Pass

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:47:39 -0800

I know I've made some ridiculous claims in the past, but... you know at the end of this new Danity Kane song "Damaged" where Diddy comes on and gives a little speech and closes with the prophetic line, "This too, shall pass". THAT is the greatest moment in the history recorded music. From here, I think it's clear that the record industry will collapse under the weight of its own brilliance. Icarus had the same problem... with heights this high attained, down is the only way left to go.

The Workingman's Rainbow Chard

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:33:45 -0800

Okay, NYT, I know it was a long flight, and you were probably a little jet-lagged, but what exactly gave you the impression that the Downtown Berkeley Farmers Market had "a workingman's vibe"? Berkeley has never exactly been a blue-collar town... with all the students, yuppies and homeless people, does anyone really work in this city at all? Or are we suddenly considering treesitting a profession?

Not to poke too much fun, because most of the "36 Hours in Berkeley" recs were pretty on point. And of course, Berkeley's market has some good things going for it, but I'd wager that the "workingman" is a little hesitant to pay $2 for a peach. Did you try, maybe, some of the more affordable markets in the East Bay? Grand Lake, El Cerrito, West Oakland, South Berkeley, Bayfair, Temescal, etc., etc.?

Featuring...

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:14:05 -0800

Even since the early days of mp3s I've wondered about the proper way to list featured artists in the track information. This mostly comes up in hip-hop and dance music. But as I sit here working on a wedding playlist, I'd curious to know where to people generally stand on this issue...

My personal feeling is that it should go "Artist - Song Title (featuring Other Artist)", so as to not mess up artist-based sorting. But my general experiencing iTunesing around the internet is that most people feel that it's the opposite, "Artist (featuring Other Artist) - Song Title". Sure, you can sort your tracks by album to get around this, but it's the former the better method? I mean, do you really want a Timbaland album to be listed as eighteen separate artists

Pictures! They're Old!

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:20:55 -0800

My camera's batteries died this weekend at a totally critical picture-taking moment. Unfortunate, to be sure, but it reminded me that I have a sizable cache of un-posted photographs from the past few months. Well, since I've been such a bad blogger I feel as though I should chip away at this.

Behold! I took a trip to Los Angeles back in February. Marie and I spent a few days with my uncle in Studio City, and then I attended the Biophysical Society Meeting in Long Beach. And I just want to mention to any would-be tourists in the area: the La Brea tar pits are absolutely awesome and definitely worth an afternoon of your life.

Realty

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:43:41 -0800

The house across the street from our apartment is going up for sale, and ever curious, Marie and I took a walk-through during an open house this afternoon. We played the guess-the-asking price game, and I totally won.

Another Question; I'm So Demanding

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:48:21 -0800

Hey bloggonauts! Another question for you, less rhetorical this time: have any of you ever been... on a cruise? I'm ISO trustworthy opinions.