Dez

dezco62 @ 2007-07-30T10:57:00

2007-07-30T15:01:38Z

A co-worker is looking into free online collaborative sites. What are your preferred weblog sites (ie, LiveJournal), group sites (ie, Yahoo Groups) and threaded forum sites (ie, one running phpBB software)?

I mean, sure, *I* have a LiveJournal account, and I'm unlikely to change, but do people prefer a different site? What about podcasting and video blogging? Any recommendations?

Paper or Plastic?

2007-07-23T18:44:52Z

Given the following:

My local grocery store offers paper and plastic bags.
My curbside recycling now accepts paper bags (but not plastic bags).
I'm lazy, so I'm going to throw away excess plastic bags.

Ignoring reuse (for now), should I request paper or plastic bags, since I'll be recycling paper but trashing plastic? It seems obvious I should use paper bags.

But then I ran into this 2004 study:

The volume of one paper bag is roughly equivalent to the volume of two plastic bags.
Creating one paper bag requires 1680kJ.
Creating two plastic bags requires 1470kJ.

The analysis goes on to express a preference towards plastic bags given current recycling processes, assuming consumers recycle both types of bags.

So, should I recycle paper bags, or should I throw away plastic bags?

dezco62 @ 2007-05-18T17:20:00

2007-05-18T21:32:22Z

Tagged by naten: "Six facts about self. Tag six others. Include explanation."

My thumbs are double-jointed, but in a limited, non-useful sense. I cannot bend my thumbs to my wrists as true hypermobile people can, but the thumb-joint where my thumb connects to my hand can bend at an odd angle.
I've hiked Mount Washington, from base to summit and back. I wish to continue hiking someday.
I extremely dislike buying clothes. I'll walk into a clothing store to purchase an item, and I'll walk out empty-handed and nauseous.
In national elections, I vote even though I do not believe my vote matters. I have clearly defined views for improving our country's election process (Condorcet voting, Electoral College removal, automated districting, open voting machines), though I'm too apathetic to do anything about it.
In elementary school, I regularly saw an in-school speech therapist because few people could understand me on account of my stutter. I have since improved greatly.
Speaking of memes, I still have not created anything from October's art meme, nor have I received anything in return.

<tagging disabled for this account>

"Error 09: Application must terminate. Press F9 for more information."

2007-05-02T19:05:46Z

Just another day at the office. It's only 11:02am, an accident near Exit 9D caused a traffic jam on route 74, and my bossed informed me that I can't go to E3 this year. Someone else parked in my reserved 5B spot, I can't find my D8 die from last night's gaming, and I have a mandatory company ethics meeting in 41 minutes.

When I took a short break, I opened my office mail folder to see a letter marked "Return to Sender"; apparently it was 56 cents short on stamps. Damn. I stuffed it in a C5 envelope to deal with later. Back at the computer, I checked my email: 63 new messages, of which 56 were spam. This sucks.

My boss, who's been with the company since '88, noticed that instead of working on the C0 control codes for my terminal app, I was browsing the web.

"Anything interesting?" he asked.

"Just read something on Slashdot. Someone's cracked the HD-DVD key."

American Cuisine

2007-04-25T15:11:12Z

"Come on, we might be a country full of people from everywhere else, but we have our own style and cuisine." -- aesiamun

"Not a lot of it, it seems -- not in my opinion anyway." -- dwater

Mention American cuisine, and people conjure images of McDonald's, apple pie and processed foods. But our cuisine doesn't compare to any foreign variant, such as French, Italian or Chinese. I mean, what dishes has America invented or improved?

stonecypher from Slashdot responds.

(I have not fact-checked his post, but it's a good read. Alternate opinions are accessible via the original post.)

The following was replicated from http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=232001&cid=18857113 in case something happens to the original source:

Subject: Re:Oh, great
Author: by stonecypher (118140)
Date: Tuesday April 24, @11:48AM

Let's try someone who knows food, then. The entire Cajun cuisine, for example, is essentially new. Chowder (there's more to chowder than clam and corn) is an entirely American practice, as are Burgoo, Chioppino and Bouillabase. We invented recirculated roasting (no, it's not the same as a dutch oven.) The number two prepared food on earth is an American invention, despite its foreign name - whereas China beat us to rice with egg, we invented the Hamburger. We're responsible for nachos, hard tacos, chili con queso and chili con carne (look it up [amazon.com].) We're why Mexico loves cumin now. Basically anything you eat that you think is mexican food that has yellow cheese on it instead of white is America's fault.

The current state of Barbeque is entirely an American thing, though the Dutch independently reinvented it in South Africa later under the name "braai." (This is unfair to foreigners, as we use the word "barbeque" very differently than they do; a Briton hearing that word will think of the situation we think of as "grilled," and when they hear grill, they think of what we think of as stove-top burners. I do not know what foreigners call what we call Barbeque, though I know Australia uses the word the way we do.) We also invented Pit Barbeque (yes, we mean something different by that phrase too, sorry.) There's also Saint Louis Barbeque, Kentucky Barbeque and Louisiana Barbeque, all of which are substantially different (one's stewed in sauce, one's over a grill range open fire and one's surrounded by coal heat in a brick pit.)

We invented Chop Suey and General Tso's Chicken. Indeed, anything you see on a purportedly Chinese menu involving cheese, mango, brown/whole rice or tomato is our fault. Rangoon puffs (not crab rangoon) are our fault. What we call Egg Foo Yung is nothing like what the Cantonese call Fu Yung Egg. Spring rolls are Chinese; egg rolls are not. What we call beef with broccoli is supposed to use a relative of broccoli called gailan; however, the leafy parts are used, not the stalks and not the clubs, so it might as well be asparagus, it's so different. We invented Jibaritos and Jigaritos.

We invented the tri-tip steak. "You can't invent a steak, it grew in the cow that way!" Actually, no it didn't. We also invented cheesed steaks. (No, not Philly cheese-steaks; we didn't invent those, we just perfected them.) If you don't know what a cheesed steak is, look up what "new york strip" actually means; it's not a cut, like sirloin or delmonico. They're aged and molded. There's a reason they're that tender.

America includes several areas whose cuisines developed on their own before they were called America, such as Hawaii, Alaska, the Texarcana area and the pan-Florida area (Florribean food is awesome.) We're the country that merged Burmese and Oaxacan cuisine. We're about the only country to grill frog legs (the french batter them, the chinese boil them and the italians and thai fry them.) Chicken Vesuvio is ours.

We have a spectacular history of invention in the field of alcohol. I probably don't need to beleaguer this.

Americans use the phrase "fried chicken" differently than other countries, so when I say "fried chicken is ours," please understand that I mean something more specific than chicken which has been fried. We mean bone-in chicken ribcage halves and drumsticks which are larded, spiced, battered, breaded, deep fat fried and re-spiced, in that order. Furthermore, it involves a specific set of spices; it's a little like talking to the British about Shephard's Pie. You just have to know.

There are a lot of people who believe that the current popularity of the sandwich is largely due to their upsurge in use in America during the laying of rail. Whereas we certainly didn't invent the sandwich, it turns out that we invented most individual sandwich recipes; in many cases they're just adaptations of a traditional dish to work inbetween bread, so that we wouldn't have to let our workers stop working for food (because we're jerks,) but still, if you're going to say pasta's different than chinese noodles, then you'd better damned well believe that pretty much anything you eat between two slabs of starch came from us or the Count of Monte Cristo.

Benedictine (the cheese, not the alcohol) is ours, as is what Americans call "mock turtle soup." We derived that recipe from the Welsh, but it's been wholly replaced since; Kentucky mock turtle soup would not be recognized in Wales. Queen City Chilighetti is ours, unfortunately, as are scrapple and polenta mash (though polenta mash has existed several other times seperately.) People will tell you that Hominy Grits are the same thing as polenta or as farina; in both cases they're wrong, and America gets the credit for grits.

Anything involving cranberries is ours, which is why you've never eaten mossberry stuffing or drank fenberry juice. We've put things into Pierogi that the Poles never thought of. Corn, wild rice, tomato, pork and lam gan? It's gotta be from Chicago. For that matter, Chicago Deep Dish is not pizza, and Chicago Hot Dogs aren't frankfurters or wieners. Shrimp de Jonghe and the oddly-named "Italian Beef" are ours. We invented the Coney Island Dog, as well as their derivative, the Corn Dog. The Juicy Lucy is ours. We made Honeycrisps and Betty Crockers.

Soul food is ours. If you don't know what soul food is, don't bother looking it up.

Ice cream in its current form is an American invention. I don't know whether foreigners use that word in its traditional form or in the form that Americans currently use. However, if you hop into a time machine and go back 150 years, you can't get what we call Ice Cream at all. You could get what we now call frozen custard, which is as similar to ice cream as tortilla is to bread.

We make a dish called "toasted ravioli," which isn't actually toasted at all; they're breaded and fried filled dumplings, and they're as close to pierogi as they are to ravioli. Fish boil (burbot,) fish fry (eelpout,) loose meat sandwiches, pasties, primanti sandwiches, Pittsburghers and sugar cream pies: the midwesterner's fantasy mystery buffet. Cheese curd is American, no matter what those rat bastard Canucks tell you (they call it poutine.) Loaf gyro is ours. Ponyshoe, persimmon pudding, pea salad and pot pie. Johnny Marzettis and Sweet Corn Kruellers. If it contains something called a ramp instead of a leek, it's probably American. Just about anything involving turkey or blueberries. Most anything involving tomatos, corn or bell peppers came from one of the American continents; cross out anything in the list that looks even vaguely spanish, and you've got a huge list of American foods.

Oh, and by the way, THE ITALIANS DO NOT EAT SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS. Yes, we really invented that. Similarly, we do some stuffed peppers that are like salsiccia, some like cradoré, some like what the French call stuffed peppers, but we do a whole bunch that are entirely our own.

We invented jello, even though gelatin is long since well known. You think it's obvious to add fruit juice to boiled cow bones, color it green and hand it to kids? Then how come France never did it? What Americans call meatloaf is a long ways from the French dish of its origin.

Despite what all the cluetards say about American cheese, we're actually doing pretty well on cheese.

The Italians have a bread called Muffuletta. The word in New Orleans applies to an entire sandwich. We didn't invent the bread, but the sandwich is ours.

What a New Yorker would call "sunday gravy" is still kind of similar to Atsa Napoletana, but it's different enough that every time I made it for an Italian, they asked me what it was.

If it's got yams, sweet potatoes, morning glory, coconut, breadfruit or banana, you can attribute it to Hawaii. If it's got spam in it, it's probably from Hawaii or Wisconsin, though we can blame the really bad ones on Britain. Kahlua is Hawaiian, as are essentially all derivative dishes (if you don't know what Kahlua Pig is, go find a Hawaiian resteraunt.) If it's called Ahi instead of Tuna, it's either Hawaiian, or an Americanized Japanese resteraunt trying to make their Tekka Make seem more exotic to Americans too dumb to know how win Tuna is. Poi, Saimin, Plate Lunch, Loco Moco and Poke are Hawaiian. The tragic reformulation of Musubi and Onigiri to involve spam are Hawaii's fault.

Pemmican. Succotash. Most things involving squash and pumpkin. Asi (which is not the same as black drink) and Xocolatl (the famous Aztec chocolate/hot pepper drink) both come from what's now the Texas area, though they're from the indigenous peoples.

New York City alone is responsible for Waldorf salad, Eggs Benedict, Steak Diane, the Egg Cream, Vichyssoise, Ice cream cones, the Bloody Mary, Pasta primavera, Chicken à la King, Lobster Newburg, Delmonico steak, General Tso's chicken, malomars and the idea of putting ice cream into a rolled waffle (which eventually turned into ice cream cones.) NYC is probably the only place on Earth where you can get an Arepa, some Gyoza, a potato knish, a pretzel, shwarma and a kebab on the same city block.

Do I need to keep going? I haven't even started in on any of the parts of the country I've lived in, yet.

America has the third largest population of any nation on Earth, as well as way too much money and way too much food. We have a higher service store count per population than any other country. Do you really believe that with all those in our favor, we'd have invented nothing?

Why it is that people confuse ignorance with absence is beyond me.

Welcome to Week 16

2007-04-20T15:28:28Z

My, what a lousy week.

I'm still suffering from a mild after-visiting-friends recession, one friend has officially moved away, another friend quit her job in disgust, and a CSHer has passed away.

Good luck to naten! May your new Austin experiences be abundant and plentiful. I, as usual, had an awesome time last weekend in Maryland. Thanks to jellopixy and kieliszek for housing, brownies and dog-related entertainment.

Although I did not know wickidpisa that well, I can imagine what everyone must be feeling. Brings me back to 1998 regarding Marty (restricted link, unfortunately). And, lest we forget, Fang (for the older members).

Compared to This Guy, I'm Having a Great Day

2007-03-30T14:31:24Z

On my way to work today, I witnessed my first suspect takedown. Sure, I've seen people arrested, but none of them were trying to evade arrest.

I'm driving to work waiting at the stoplight at Kildaire Farm and Tryon. The light turns green, nobody moves, and I figure there's an accident in the intersection. Not to worry, as there are loads of police officers coming from the opposite side. They'll handle the accident (must be pretty bad to require all those officers), direct traffic, and I'll be off again in no time.

The light turns red when I spot a shirtless fellow walking against the oncoming cross-traffic. Cars are barely missing him as officers casually surround him and wave traffic to stop. Once the fellow gets through, he breaks for it even though his physique is not the type that'll outrun the police. When the two tailing officers are safely across the intersection, they start running as well.

The spry officer passes the suspect to cut him off, allowing the less cardio-inclined officer to catch up. Suspect resists arrest and has a short wrestling match with the larger officer. Suspect loses. A police cruiser, lights flashing, flies across the intersection and positions itself to prevent future escape attempts. Once the suspect is on the ground, the police draw their guns and perform a typical arrest.

Light turns green, and off to work I go.

dezco62 @ 2007-03-06T16:21:00

2007-03-06T21:43:27Z

An idea for a game related to Tic-Tac-Toe came to poofydoofy and myself:

Requires: Two players. One Tic-Tac-Toe board (3x3 grid).
Players take turns choosing a square.
When a square is chosen: An empty square turns into an "X", an "X" turns into an "O", and an "O" turns into an empty square.
First player to make three-in-a-row in either "X"s or "O"s wins.

For example:

+---+---+---+
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
+---+---+---+
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
+---+---+---+
| 7 | 8 | 9 |
+---+---+---+

Player One chooses #5:

+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |
+---+---+---+
|   | X |   |
+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |
+---+---+---+

Player Two also chooses #5:

+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |
+---+---+---+
|   | O |   |
+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |
+---+---+---+

Player One chooses #1:

+---+---+---+
| X |   |   |
+---+---+---+
|   | O |   |
+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |
+---+---+---+

Player Two chooses #9:

+---+---+---+
| X |   |   |
+---+---+---+
|   | O |   |
+---+---+---+
|   |   | X |
+---+---+---+

Any square Player One chooses will lead to Player Two's victory. To continue, if Player One chooses #5:

+---+---+---+
| X |   |   |
+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |
+---+---+---+
|   |   | X |
+---+---+---+

And now Player Two wins with #5:

+---+---+---+
| X |   |   |
+---+---+---+
|   | X |   |
+---+---+---+
|   |   | X |
+---+---+---+

Need More Resolve

2007-01-05T17:13:54Z

I'm keeping my 2007 resolutions simple:

Read one book per month minimum.
Floss everyday.
No more soda except for alcoholic drinks and/or with pizza.

I enjoy reading, albeit slowly (slower than you, that's for sure), and I don't read nearly enough. I've been flossing two-weeks-straight for the first time in my life, though my gums hurt. And I figure I don't need that extra aspartame and carbonation, even if I'm still fighting tendencies to ingest my 3pm Dr. Pepper.

In other news, tomorrow morning we leave to go Utah skiing!

And I'm going to sorely miss an appearance from a DC-ite...

dezco62 @ 2006-12-18T15:55:00

2006-12-18T19:55:31Z

eight ball pool (noun)
A pocket billiards game played with a cue ball and fifteen billiard balls on a pool table with six pockets. Game ends when either: (a) eight ball is prematurely pocketed, (b) player scratches when attempting to pocket eight ball, or (c) players collapse from exhaustion or boredom.

dezco62 @ 2006-12-01T18:50:00

2006-12-01T22:50:56Z

I've surpassed 75 spam/day*. Thanks to Gmail for your filter.

*Median average across prior thirty days. Statistic may be poisonous. Void where prohibited.

This is no way to title an entry!

2006-11-17T20:40:58Z

Last week, Kiana's folks visited. My folks visited a couple weeks prior. equalize and rat_girl3 came down but we were both too busy to connect. Went to the NC Art Museum Monet exhibit. Will be flying up to CT for the upcoming holiday, where I'll be attending my ten-year high school reunion. Yay.

And I just started playing NetHack, but with an isometric gui. Even though I've just purchased two other games that I've hardly touched.

dezco62 @ 2006-11-02T19:18:00

2006-11-02T23:18:49Z

Kiana and I had an awesome (and cold) time this weekend in DC with naten, Lilly and Shelley. Thanks for having us.

On Halloween, Kiana and I watched Ghost Busters with intervals of kids requesting sugary goodness. That was fun.

I can't figure out whether I should play Sid Meier's Railroads! or Sam & Max: Culture Shock first. Decisions, decisions...

The leaves here have turned a nice color. Much prettier than Dallas.

Yet Another Art Meme Entry

2006-10-13T21:52:56Z

If I were an artist, I'd be a sensitive one. But I'm not an artist. Not yet, anyways...

The first five people to respond to this post will each receive some form of art, by me, tailored to them. As I am not an artist by trade (or by any other measure), I make no guarantees about quality, type or soundness, but I will assure that I will apply good effort and that the art will be individual to you. If you get a mixed CD or some sort of painting doodle, yours is the only one like it. Maybe you'll sell it on eBay.

As with most memes, if you sign up, you have to put this in your own journal as well. Otherwise your "art" will be rabid, hungry wombats mailed to your residence.

And because you can't rush good art (and I'm assuming you can't rush whatever the heck I'll be producing), I make no promises about response time. I'll try to do them in a timely fashion, but I can't guarantee inspiration will strike immediately. Don't expect Christmas delivery.

Stolen from csh_rhubarb, who stole it from Linus. On the plus side, I'll be getting something nice from Rhubarb.

dezco62 @ 2006-09-21T17:37:00

2006-09-21T21:56:34Z

Ten days late, but nonetheless the words spew forth.

Rochester was awesome, in-as-much as Rochester can be awesome. More accurately, the events that transpired within and around the confines of Rochester were awesome. Rochester itself was, well, a tad mediocre.

The high point, of course, was the guest appearance of one Mr. mancomb. The low point was a lack of any type of food-based Challenge; I do hope that's rectified in future gatherings.

As incomplete consensus appears to be in agreement with the combination of "Togetherness == Good" and "Rochester == Bad", let me be The First to suggest a time and place. As of yet, I do not have a time and place in mind, but I'd like everyone else to remain silent on their proposed times and places so I may be The First. Or, better yet, feel free to speak of your times and places, but leave The First proposal slot open for my own use; that would be fine as well. I do not care about The Second or The Third slot; I just wish to be The First.

Thank you.

dezco62 @ 2006-09-08T14:29:00

2006-09-08T18:38:06Z

One half-hour remains before I leave work, starting a series of events leading to a chain reaction giving way to causes and effects inducing a concatenation of occurrences triggering a domino train issuing forth a vicious circle of reactions culminating to a Rochester arrival.

dezco62 @ 2006-09-01T17:21:00

2006-09-01T21:23:50Z

I'm afraid if I don't post, the pumpkin-eaters will start a devastating chain reaction of doom and destruction that will destroy half of Africa. No need to thank me.

Where... am... I...?

2006-07-26T21:11:01Z

For a few weeks I played Tetris with all my stuff, piece by piece, book by book, strange spherically-shaped object by strange spherically-shaped object. Then I got sick of it and drove 1200 miles across two days. Then a couple more weeks went by and I bought a house. Then I posted to LiveJournal.

Speaking of which, my LJ "Friends Page" only shows posts up to two weeks ago. Anyone know an easy way of reading older entries aside from checking each account individually?

Pump Out The Content

2006-04-19T03:03:05Z

I'm looking for a Content Management System with these attributes:

Written in PHP and open-sourced.
Doesn't require a database.
Skinnable, preferably with a set of existing skins pleasing to the eye.
Mature enough to be a usable product.
Secure "enough" so other people can't muck anything up (a la Gallery).

I'm not looking for user-management, web-base editing mechanisms, complexity, or a huge set of features, but existance of those attributes are fine.

Any ideas?

Frozen Bees

2006-03-02T19:09:05Z

Boarding our zoot runner in a few hours. See y'all 'morrow!

Public Service Announcement

2006-02-20T14:58:01Z

From CSH's House History Director:

This Tuesday will be the last day to RSVP to the 30th anniversary of CSH. If you did not RSVP do it before the registration site is taken down. If you know someone who is not on the list tell them before its too late!

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

We'll Weather the Weather Whatever the Weather

2006-02-14T22:43:39Z

Weather for Rochester, NY:

Day	Friday March 3	Saturday March 4	Sunday March 5
Average	Hi 38°F Lo 21°F	Hi 38°F Lo 21°F	Hi 38°F Lo 22°F
Record	Hi 65°F Lo -1°F	Hi 69°F Lo -4°F	Hi 67°F Lo -4°F

The Ants in France Rant Likely By Chance

2006-01-19T21:48:10Z

So I'm in France¹ by way of Switzerland² playing an old Japanese game³ never released in America⁴ on a laptop made in China⁵ while waiting for my Indian co-workers⁶ to finish their modules.

¹ Nice.
² Connection through Zurich.
³ Final Fantasy III (not FFVI).
⁴ Don't know why.
⁵ Everything's made in China.
⁶ From Bangolore, but in Nice this week.

dezco62 @ 2006-01-12T09:36:00

2006-01-12T08:38:55Z

Free InFocus Ultra-Thin 61" DLP HDTV with purchase of $2500 Blender ($5 shipping), today only.

Doppelganger: Regnagleppod

2005-12-19T20:52:37Z

A poem that caught my attention.

Doppelganger
by James A. Lindon

Entering the lonely house with my wife
I saw him for the first time
Peering furtively from behind a bush --
Blackness that moved,
A shape amid the shadows,
A momentary glimpse of gleaming eyes
Revealed in the ragged moon.
A closer look (he seemed to turn) might have
Put him to flight forever --
I dared not
(For reasons that I failed to understand),
Though I knew I should act at once.

I puzzled over it, hiding alone,
Watching the woman as she neared the gate.
He came, and I saw him crouching
Night after night.
Night after night
He came, and I saw him crouching,
Watching the woman as she neared the gate.

I puzzled over it, hiding alone --
Though I knew I should act at once,
For reasons that I failed to understand
I dared not
Put him to flight forever.

A closer look (he seemed to turn) might have
Revealed in the ragged moon.
A momentary glimpse of gleaming eyes
A shape amid the shadows,
Blackness that moved.

Peering furtively from behind a bush,
I saw him for the first time,
Entering the lonely house with my wife.

(More fun here.)