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Showing posts from August, 2007

Desperately seeking a label

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One thing I find inexplicable is the strong desire people have to "label" themselves. They make sure they wear and consume the "right" brands. They ensure they have the "right" look and walk and talk. They even make sure they have the "right" psychoses or ailments. These thoughts were spurred by an article I read a few weeks ago by a woman claiming her relationship problems are due to her high IQ (intelligence quotient) and low EQ (emotional quotient). Years ago, ADD / ADHD was a popular identifier, then dyslexia, asthma and now, it seems, autism. As more and more people are labeled and it becomes fairly normal, we then start hearing of epidemics and rising rates. I don't dispute that some genuinely have issues. My beef is with those who seek labels to abdicate responsibility for their actions, "Oh, it's not me, it's because I have / I am ******." Ultimately, what we do or don't do is our responsibility. (As you might b

A difference of 50 years.

Here is the original trailer for Forbidden Planet: This is a modern fan made one: Presentation and packaging make a big difference.

Monsters from the Id.

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J.J. Adams: What is the Id? Morbius: It's an obsolete term. Once used to describe the elementary basis of the subconscious mind. J.J. Adams: Monsters from the Id. Monsters from the subconscious. The big machine - cubic miles of Klystron relays - enough power for a whole population of creative geniuses operated by remote control. Operated by the electromagnetic impulses of individual Krell brains. Morbius: To what purpose? J.J. Adams: In return, that machine would instantaneously project solid matter to any point on the planet, in any shape or color they might imagine ... for any purpose! Creation by mere thought. Morbius: Why haven't I seen this all along? J.J. Adams: Like you, the Krell forgot one deadly danger ... their own subconscious hate and lust for destruction. The beast. The mindless primitive. Even the Krell must have evolved from that beginning. And so those mindless beasts of the subconscious had access to a machine that could never be shut down. The secret d

"Are we there yet?"

"No." "Oh, man. I'll have a beard!", Jason said stroking his imaginary beard. You might think this exchange occurred during a long drive. It didn't. We had entered the mall to get JJ a haircut and this exchange occurred as we were walking toward the hair salon. Jason is 5 years old.

"With books, I am promiscuous."

- Heather Sellers, Page After Page , Chapter 6: Sleeping With Books

Word 97 limitation

Did you know that Word 97 can only display a maximum of 769 characters on a line before wrapping to the next line? I found that out yesterday, when I was trying to format some debug data for printing. My font was Courier New, my font size was 2, my paper size to 11x17 in landscape mode with margins of 0.5". Yet, word insisted on wrapping my lines. Fortunately Word 2000 does not have this limitation. It was able to print my data which had 1152 characters per line. While I can just about read it, I wouldn't recommend doing so without a magnifying glass. It looks a lot like ASCII art and it is the general appearance, rather than the actual content that I am interested in at the moment. _/\_ __/\__ ) . (_ _) .' ( `) '.( ) .' (` `-._\(_ )/__(~` (ovo)-.__.--._ ) `-.______ / `---._ ( ,// ) \ `\/-. |

Tears at half mast

When I was younger, probably 8 (maybe 9), I was in Cubs (the junior version of the Boy Scouts). I am pretty sure it was not my idea to go since none of my friends went. I suppose it was my dad's idea. I loved my Cub book. I still have it. It is full of fun things to do (of course, maybe my idea of fun differs from most). However, I found Cubs to be nothing like the book. The book was interesting, Cubs was not. I don't recall much of the year (maybe two) that I went (I only have a handful of specific memories). Meetings were held in the gymnasium of my elementary school. Cub leaders were named after characters from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book . As a requirement for some star, one of the tasks was to draw a Canadian flag. I did so, using a pencil. The flag was grey and white. I was told the flag should be read and white. I pointed out that in the Cub book, the flag was green and white (the Cub book was printed using two colours - black and green). I asked if colouring the f