c0llect

Posting on here is something I don't really do a lot of. Partially because I don't have much to say, and partially because it seems like nobody I know really uses LJ anymore. For the former, it's because I've completely succumbed to the twitter beast. It's hard to come up with updates when I'm already telling the world how rude my barista was. For the latter? Other blog sites have kind of been taking off. Tumblr's a bit of a big deal. So if you're posting elsewhere and want me to read that, hit me up with a link in the comments.

Small life updates: Recently my car was in the shop for about five weeks. During that time, I realized that I've spent WAY too much on repairing it, and bought a new (read:used) car. So now I own a Red 2010 Toyota Matrix. Simply put: It's a great goddamn car. Whatever you drive is worse.

Also, I've decided to rate and review everything I watch this year, just for kicks. Not major write ups or anything like that. Just a log of what I watched, when, and my likes/dislikes. It's up over at http://fou.st/movies if you're curious.

Once again, the year starts coming to a close. Looking back at my list of resolutions, I've failed pretty hard.

A lot of my list focused on not being so goddamn bored all the time. To get off my ass and do something with myself. To be productive. To go anywhere after work that isn't my house. Because that basically leads to me staring into that endless abyss of the internet. And a lot of tweeting. A whole goddamn lot. I just realized I passed 16k tweets the other day.

I tried at least a little, though.

• I bought that guitar. I mastered about eight chords, then Portal 2 came out. It now collects dust in the corner of my room. With any luck, a certain christmas gift will provide me with the means to make practice a bit more entertaining.
• I kept at online dating, which was the most successful in getting me out of the house, and a supplier of so many weird tales. For the curious: All the things you've heard about it are true - Online dating is pretty terrible. That said, my mom, my dad, my uncle and aunt, my cousin, and my sister all tried it, and they're all happily married (or soon to be). So maybe I'm just bad at it. Or really picky. Or all of the above?
  • Aside: I've never felt that I've been the type that *needs* to date someone. Hunting someone down just feels weird. But that's because I generally just end up meeting someone on accident, crush real damn hard, and make a move awkwardly late. However, this routine of work-home-work-home makes me get lonely right quick. And while I'm kinda bad at making new friends, I'm surprisingly great at first dates. /natural-born-heartbreaker?
• Got involved with a little think tank, working on a few fun side-projects. Somehow ended up as part of a podcast. I'll share the link to that if it actually gets off the ground (spoiler: I hate my voice and you'll NEVER HEAR IT EVER).
  • All of this is with semi-real people. By which I mean folks from the internet. They count for socializing, but fractionally. 
• I still exercise! I bought a recumbent exercise bike, and a kettle bell. Progress isn't amazing, but every day I get a little more fit. The bike helps a lot. If you're just sitting around anyway, then why not burn a thousand calories or so?

I know I'm a hermit by nature. Misanthropic. Possibly both are a result of mild social anxiety. So getting out of the house is tougher. I think I need to make my resolutions to smaller, more focused changes this next year. Just keep my resolutions to little things like "quit wearing headphones in public places". Or  "sign up for a martial arts class that meets twice a week". "Finally get around to paying for guitar lessons".  

I dunno. I've got all month to think it over.

This is basically what goes on in my brain these days.



This has come up quite a bit in tech news lately. I'm not really sure where I stand. There's a clear problem with the patent system, both in general accessibility and in ease of abuse. But inventive and creative ideas deserve protection.

I do feel that people who fully rally against the system have it all wrong. Abolishing patents suggests that creative/original ideas have no inherent value, or that their creators deserve no reward. Which is an ironic sentiment; acknowledging that reinventing the wheel is hard, while ignoring the effort behind simply inventing the wheel.

YES. Finally, something of substance!

(2011's film offerings have been pretty middling thus far. Look, I'm not a Harry Potter fan, okay?)

And I'm expected to be there

Location: A field in my uncle's farm, about three hours away.
Attire: "Super Casual". (It's a shame both my cape and cowl are at the cleaners.)

Bleh. So much for my sunday.

Apparently it's purely for legal reasons. His fiance is no longer covered by her insurance, and so they need to get married to keep things affordable. To which I say: Why not get the legal part done, and then have a ceremony later? Give people time to breathe, never mind time to prepare.

...Yup.

I am now the proud owner of iamoptimuspri.me.

I haven't posted in ages, but I'm reaching my 10,000th tweet on twitter. Clearly, there's some kind of favoritism going on here. Since you folks have missed most of what I've been up to, I figured I'd do a massive summary of everything I've created, mused over, discovered, or enjoyed recently (then promptly forgot to share).

By recently, I mean this past week. I'm far too lazy to sum up months or years of content. At least, not in any way that's more elaborate than "Blah, Blah, Blah".

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"Cutie marks are the Equestria equivalent of tramp stamps"
- The Onion A.V. club on Ponies

(Sometimes I forget that ponies aren't actually young horses, but dwarf horses. Then I remember that some people breed dwarf ponies. Somewhere out there is an adorably small, physically miserable, tiny horse. Big enough to be a footstool, and weaker than the glue it'll inevitably become.)

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JaneCorwin.org - The best political site I've ever seen. Looks like the work of one guy on wordpress, but wonderfully designed and brutally written.

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I would totally watch a procedural medical drama about super heroes.

"Doctor, he's been liquified."
"... What?"
"What can we--?"
"Beats me."

I feel like the oncology department would always be in the background, in constant panic. Understaffed and overworked, dealing with a constant influx of radioactive-animal bite wounds that didn't pan out as expected.

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On the latest episode of This is Only a Test, they mentioned an eBook popularity-scenario that was interesting, if a little grim. If we ever reach a post-apocalyptic state where we lack any source of power? We pretty much won't be able to read. Period. Paper books would only last so long before they'd get burned for heat. Even if we could recharge on occasion, batteries only have so many power cycles in them.

Can't say I'm too worried about this one, though. Surely, some energy-paranoid futurist is thinking about this, feverishly working away at low-power e-ink solutions. I can't wait until the Kindle becomes something akin to a cheap Casio calculator—powered entirely by a little solar panel.

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Alternative voting is kind of awesome, and the idea of Tactical voting is fascinating. Honestly, if any one party can somehow manage to anticipate their opponents voting preferences, then use that to win, or prevent another from winning? They deserve it, the clever bastards.

It's too bad we'll never use it, as we're effectively a two party system here.

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Game of Thrones is great. It's only two episodes in, and I'm so goddamn hooked. I tried reading the book before the show aired, but found the George R.R Martin's writing style atrocious. Even so, the show made me curious - this series is beloved by who knows how many (for reasons beyond my comprehension); Even if it isn't for me, I was curious what high-fantasy looks like with a a huge budget. If I had to sum it up? It looks like sexed-up LOTR. Seriously, there's a lot of boobs on the show.

... And I'm cool with that.

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister is my favorite things about the show so far. He's a phenomenal actor, and the directors actually realize it. Nobody was an asshole and tried to cast him as comic relief; it's absolutely fantastic.

I'm not alone in my adoration for the show, either. Apparently episode one was such a hit, that they confirmed a second season just two days later.

I think the reason why it's taken off is that the fantasy is downplayed quite a bit. Most of the time, the world is fairly realistic; it's easy to forget it's even fantasy, it feels so much like a period piece (even if it's about a period that never existed). I'm sure that once we get out past the wall, things will get all kinds of weird. But that sounds like season finale material, so I'm not expecting it anytime soon.

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EDIT: It's a JOKE people. A joke. I am KIDDING. Christ.
Lastly, I've invented a new Demographic. Or at least named it. Progressive Misogynists: They're okay with women having rights, as long as they don't forget their place.

I even made them a shirt to wear!

(I'm honestly kind of proud of suffrage sandwiches. Still debating registering that as a domain name)