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as i walked home in Wednesday February 27
as i walked home in the bright, snowy sunshine from physics discussion this afternoon, i passed krannert. school buses had been lined up earlier, and many times i've seen young children from first grade until seventh or so filing in and out of buses on the east side of the building, obviously coming for a field trip to observe some of the midwest's best high art. (no slander on krannert intended, of course.) the snow is wet and fresh, and as i walk i see two shuffled, wobbly parallel lines start from the sidewalk and end yet again on the sidewalk. clearly, an adventurous child, probably a boy, decided to shuffle his feet through this winter's only real snowfall and generally make a mess of his shoes, socks, and lower pant legs. he probably was directed by the teacher to rejoin the line and to get onto the bus. there he sat, in that fourth row from the back, talking to his classmates as his pants, socks, and feet remain cold and wet. eventually, it dawns on him. maybe it wasn't really worth it at the time.
i think we've all been that kid in our day, or the one who threw snowballs and got reamed for it, or the one who got hit by the snowball and cried. and as i walked past those foottracks left from earlier in the day, i wondered how life had come so far. at that age, sitting in my basement with my legos and model trains was special enough to make the whole evening a success, a motherly call to the pizzeria would have sweetened the deal further; cold and wet socks or not. truly, we had nothing to worry about except for whether or not the animaniacs or tiny toons show would be a re-run.
can i extrapolate that to today? even as i walk past in fixed gaze i can't help but think that things will just get more complex for me, too, as i grow older. i'll be forced to find a career, i'll be forced to begin paying back the people i'm borrowing tuition money from, and i might even be forced to wonder whether or not i want to have children of my own. some have said that college is one of the hardest times in your life because you're so free to do anything that you don't know what to do, but looking back being ten years old, what's more: playing with trains until dinnertime, or constantly thinking about the day, when you, too, will be an adult capable of deciding whether or not you actually want to eat those vegetables on your dinnerplate?
i guess that's rhetorical.
today, i won my own
today, i won my own little battle against the internet. but before i discuss that, i'll mention that i've been web browsing since 1996. this is not particularly amazing, but i still have full capability to say that i was "around" before the web cost anything and well before the dot.com boom; you could do cool things like get free email addresses and forwarders without getting your name sold on a list that seven different companies buy for the purpose of "targeted" email applications. so, when i watched the 2000 super bowl's advertising cornucopia of dot.com ads, i was initially disgusted.
even though market analysts continually said, "the economic bubble is going to pop soon.." and so on so forth, all of us that had grown up with the internet and the modem and everything in between *knew* this was all bullshit. we knew from day one that the internet was not just another marketplace, and you can't control it like you can the airwaves or the television. it's too decentralized for this, and we knew you couldn't take our medium from us. the sneakier ones of our kind had created slick storyboards and power point presentations and used their social engineering skills from the phreaking days to sell venture capitalists, who, due to 10 years of economic boom, had plenty of cashflow. we knew that beneath it all, it was a sham. but that's ok. the vc's lost, and even the least-successful ceo still got to have fun doing an ipo and maybe they even got to keep the palm pilot they bought with company funds. clearly, the vc's were of a different generation, and they knew nothing about what we knew everything about. and we sucked 'em dry. no longer am i disgusted, i feel that it was an appropriate punishment for anyone who throws their money into people and ideas that they really don't understand. true, some were clearly inspired to succeed (half.com, etc), but fuckedcompany.com will now give you play-by-play demises of these wastes of domain namespace. no longer am i disgusted, now i laugh.
however, some companies are clinging by advertising. if you have an interesting site, you'll get visitors. if those visitors click on your banner ads, you get money, the advertiser gets exposure, et al. wow. it's like television. i get free e-mail from yahoo, and in return they cloud my inbox window with ads. here's where the subversion that i don't appreciate enters the picture. i deal with banner ads well enough; no one is forcing me to click on them, and no one is holding up the amount of time it takes to find the information i'm seeking. however, pop-up windows have got to go.
just this month, pop-ups started showing up on my machine. the same ones. but not when i was at public sites. when i was editing my own new web redesign. "i've been infiltrated by dirty code," i thought. "someone will pay dearly for this mistake." i eventually was able to obtain the ip address of the pop-up window before it routed the html to an image of the ad. i tracerouted said ip and determined that vx2 was my nemesis all this time. who the hell are they? i don't really know, or at least, i didn't know until know. kind of makes you wonder how their software got into my internet explorer. let me cut-and-paste from their site:
"vx2, inc. is a software development company. we have developed a series of ad targeting applications such as vx2.dll that help advertisers deliver targeted ads. in addition to our..." and it goes on. further quote of interest: "third party companies license and distribute our software, typically as part of their sponsorship of free software or free content. as part of any licensing of our software, vx2 contractually requires all distributors to give notice concerning the presence of our software and to provide consumers access to a vx2 supplied privacy policy."
now, i don't know what rogue program i installed -- but i've never heard of vx2, and i damn well would have never said yes to this option. luckily, vx2's website allows users to uninstall the software. to do so, you need to delete vx2.dll from c:\$winroot$. easier said than done. the file is always in use because it attaches itself to internet explorer, which is inherently windows explorer. i had to open a command window and taskmanager, kill explorer.exe as a process, then alt-tab to the command line, manually delete the file, then use task manager to re-start explorer.exe.
i ask you: what average user like my dad is going to know how to do that? and these little things, as i see it, are the ugly spoils of the internet boom.
the gang came down tonight Tuesday February 26
the gang came down tonight to watch a movie, because we had no where else to watch it...given todd and i's abundant collection of cords, connectors, and equipment, we were able to use kate's dvd player in conjunction with my monitor to view the original m*a*s*h movie. now i'm not saying that my nineteen-inch monitor is cinematic greatness, but it was the widescreen edition, and we have seven speakers to boot. nonetheless, it was an excellent old-school film; it was funny in a catch-22 fashion, and had some absurd laughs. generally, the comparison i'll make is to the farrelly brothers of today...this film, of course, was done more tastefully, but it makes you laugh in the same fashion. maybe saying that is an insult to the movie? well, regardless. any movie that throws in a 20 minute football game sequence just for the hell of it wins in my book. even if it *does* end abrupt and there is no real plot line. character, baby. it's the only way to go. donald sutherland rules.
in other business, the cs 125 midterm is up on wednesday, and my physics 113 final now looms (or, loomis? hah i made a physics phunny) less than a week a way. regardless, it snowed today, which really puts a damper on my springtime mood. where were you two months ago, dammit? it's almost march!
alright, it's sunday, and nathan's Sunday February 24
alright, it's sunday, and nathan's birthday celebration is now over. all his friends from chicago came down, played mario cart 64, hung out...but probably the most interesting part of the weekend was saturday evening when heather and i went to go see a show at the armory free theater...it was heather's next-door-neighbor's show, and her roommate ryan was also in it. seriously, it was a student-written-produced-directed performance, and the script needed work in some areas, but that does not alter the fact that it was still emotionally effective. it is here that i realized, again, that radio, albeit cool with its ability to reach the masses, will never reach anyone in the way that small, coordinated events like theatrical performances can. i believe todd said it best last night as he noted that, "you'll never reach anyone trying to reach everyone." so we need to put on a show.
the new page design is Friday February 22
the new page design is up and running...the new content is on the way, but i just needed to get that old setup out of my system...it's not that it was bad per se, it was just a little poorly designed and difficult to view in low-contrast environments (also known as anything other than a dark dorm room). anyway, if you'd like access to post on this blog, please e-mail me with the link on the left.
Todd speaking:While writing a paper Monday February 18
Todd speaking:
While writing a paper on Cartesian perceptions I got locked into a recursive thought process about the inability of humans to truly sense anything in reality because we are in fact only privvy to our sensations and perceptions OF reality, conveyed by a system so bizarre and unreliable as electrical signals processed by our brain at up to 2 or 3 teraflops of neurally networked neurons, each touching as many as a couple hundred OTHER neurons.
Todd speaking:This process was only
Todd speaking:
This process was only furthered by my recent review for a quiz on human perception involving the actual processes of messages entering the brain and going to their respective cortexes to be processed and given meaning by their connections to the association cortex. I ended up staring blankly at the wall for at least a full minute or two, trying of course vainly to see a process our measly consciousness has no power to fully comprehend, even if we had the scientific advances to understand it, which we
Todd speaking:don't.Fuck, I need a
Todd speaking:
don't.
Fuck, I need a cigarette.
I decided that caffiene produces mild euphoria.
L Bazhenow: so here's a
L Bazhenow: so here's a new comment for you:
L Bazhenow: the only time that i would be dreaming about you is when you're dreaming that i'm dreaming of you
L Bazhenow: how's that? :-P
by the time i'm done
by the time i'm done with college, my standard of living will be so low that anything normal will be a life of luxury
why can't there just be
why can't there just be hot water? that's all i ever really want anymore
...doing something cool around allen... Monday February 11
...doing something cool around allen...
nancyjoy01: what do men and
nancyjoy01: what do men and pantyhose have in common
nancyjoy01: they either cling....run....or don't fit right in the crotch.
seen on an away message:
seen on an away message: "Well, I guess that we all learned a lesson today. That it's what's inside a person that counts. And that on the inside, midgets are thieving little bastards."
big flirt
katy: but you are like one of the BIGGEST flirts I've ever met
mark: you suck.
when is the world going Friday February 8
when is the world going to realize that we're all going to die...all you need to do is raise up your middle finger and say "fuck you."
but that doesn't stop me. Thursday February 7
but that doesn't stop me.
let this week go down
let this week go down in the books: you can steal my bike...you can take away possibly the most fun job i've ever had...and you can see that i'm broke and owe people money
Dear Mark: Thank you Friday February 1
Dear Mark:
Thank you for your comments. You are right in all three areas that you
covered in your letter.
* It would save us money if you could be allowed to bring your own
containers to the grab-and-go specialty restaurants. (And we would like
that!)
* It would reduce waste. (And we would like that!)
* It cannot be done because of sanitation concerns.
We are governed by Public Health's Food Service Sanitation Code for the
State of Illinois. Each section of this code has been passed by our elected
representatives in Springfield. Section 750.270 states:
"Reuse of soiled tableware by self-service consumers returning for
additional food is prohibited. Beverage cups and glasses are exempt from
this requirement."
You may wash and thoroughly sanitize your containers, but there is no way
that they can be certain that all customers would do that. If someone took
a spoonful of food and touched their dirty container with the serving spoon
while transferring the food from our serving container to their
container...it would contaminate the serving spoon. If the serving spoon
was then put back into the food on the serving line, it would contaminate
all of the food in that serving container. Your health is VERY important to
us. We cannot compromise our health standards to save money or reduce
waste. Once you have taken your food back to your room, there is nothing to
prevent you from transferring the food to your own containers, and then,
once again, you are right. If your container is not clean (or you do not
store the food properly) and get sick, it is not our concern. You are an
adult, and you are responsible for your actions.
awww, shit. it's about time
awww, shit. it's about time for me to get back into IRC:
isr foodservice
To Whom It May Concern:
As an Allen resident who usually eats after regular dinner hours, I thoroughly enjoy NRG's hours and healthy food as an alternative to Pizza Services. However, last semester I became concious of all of the waste that I was producing, given that I usually used one plastic container, a soup container, a plasticware/napkin package, a drink cup and lid, and plastic bag for carrying purposes. Over semester break, I purchased two Tupperware containers -- about the sizes of the soup and plastic containers.
As soon as NRG opened, I began using my new Tupperware coupled with my Dining Services-supplied mug. However, on the 31st of January, I was stopped by the Dining Services employee who was checking out customers. She informed me that I was not allowed to use my own reusable containers, and then she proceeded to contact the woman who appeared to be in charge, who quickly agreed that this was not allowed.
When I asked why, they both employed the circular reasoning answer: "because you have to use our containers". It seemed that these employees did not know whether or not I should be allowed to do this; since they had not seen it before, they assumed it must not be allowed. Given the benefits to both myself and Dining Services, I cannot understand why such behavior is banned. First, I cannot take extra food because the containers are essentially the same size. After I exit the foodservice area, the seal-tight lids on my containers ensure I can place them directly in my bookbag, thereby eliminating the need for a plastic carry-out bag. I carry the food to my dormitory, where I eat it with my own silverware. Also, if I can't finish my meal, these air-tight containers keep food fresh in my refrigerator, which also eliminates food waste. On a cost basis, supplying me with two containers, a plastic bag, a cup with a lid, and a plasticware package is clearly not cost-effective if I choose not to use such items. Since I throw away my trash into Housing-maintained recepticles, if I throw away all that plastic in my dormitory, University Housing still pays to have it hauled. In the general sense, less trash production means less overhead, which is always economically viable for any business. If I don't need it, why must you make me take it?
Since this Dining Services option is intended for carry-out, not buffet-style (like most hall dining rooms), as long as I consume the same amount of food, what container I use should not matter, and as I pointed out above, it actually makes more dollar-sense to allow me to continue. The only concern that I can foresee is that of sanitation: with Dining Services-provided containers, there is no variable of cleanliness -- it is all new. I wash and reuse my container, and theoretically, I could become sick if I did not clean it properly. However, this is not your concern, because the same could be said for my Dining Services mug. If I used that at every meal and never washed it, then got food poisoning, this is not your liability, because you liability is limited by my negligance.
If there are any other concerns I am not addressing, I would like to hear about them, and have a forum to discuss possible solutions to those concerns.
Thank you for your time.
