Forbidden Planet

I have had a number of paranormal experiences in my life which spurred an interest in the paranormal when I was younger. However, in spite of all that, I am decidedly skeptical of paranormal claims. The second paranormal experience (here for the first) I recall occurred when I was 7 or 8 (grade 2 or 3). It was a dark, gray, cold day in December. I was walking home from school with my friend Sheldon. It was probably near 16:00. We had gone up 36th avenue and had turned right on St-Antoine, when I noticed lights in the sky over the golf course (back in the early 70s, Grove Hill park was an open field and north of Provost was a golf course). They darted about quickly. Sometimes they stopped. Through out the whole routine they would change colours from red to white to orange. I pointed it out to my friend and said I thought someone was playing on the clouds with a coloured flashlight. He replied that it was UFOs. "What are UFOs?" I asked back. “Unidentified Flying Objects. Space...

Since blogger is refusing to upload even small teaser images at the moment (the message that comes up mentions something about a firewall … blah, blah, blah). You will have to leave my blog to go and check out some really nifty icons and desktops over here at the 2006 GUI championships.

At least that is the way Sofia heard the line from Bif Naked 's song Choking on the Truth . The actual line was "I am honesty". Later I popped "The Best of the Animals" in and Sofia remarked, "This is better, you can enjoy it without having to be on drugs."

In the building I work, we have a pair of large metal-framed glass doors in the central corridor. I presume they are fire doors. Anyhow, it is not obvious whether you push or pull on them. So, they had lettering put on the doors, near the handles, to let you know if you should push or pull. I don't think it made much difference because I, and others, still push or pull at the wrong time. I think this falls in the category of poor user interface design. The problem is that putting the lettering near the handle is pointless, unless you have never used a door before and have to think about grabbing the handle. For most of us, this is an automatic reflex and we simply reach out for where we expect the handle to be and then push or pull. We keep our eyes pointed straight ahead, there is no need for us to lower them and look at the handle. Image nabbed from here .

Discovered an interesting psychological test called the IAT (Implicit Association Test). The claim is that even if we exercise a strong control over conscious thoughts and attitudes, the truth is that we have subconscious biases that this test is able to ferret out. It requires you to quickly sort through a variety of items and assign them to one of two columns. The first set might have the columns "Male" and "Female" and you will be asked to sort male and female nouns and pronouns. The next round may have the columns "Career" and "Family". Again you will be asked to sort items. Finally, each column will get two categories, for example, "Male or Career" and "Female or Family" and you will have to sort 4 sets of items into those two columns. The theory is that we subconsciously associate certain concepts, say male and career or female and family. When we mix up the categories to be "Male or Family" and "Female or...

I have mentioned before that Anthony de Croud is the most popular search term landing people to this blog. Sometimes makes me wonder if I should delete the post and references to it. Today, someone left an anonymous message on my blog - incongruously placed in my post Thirty Days Hath September My best guess is that it was placed by a robot which crawls the web looking for references to Anthony de Croud and then posts this: Anthony Le Croud: I have received a card from you saying that good luck will follow if i resend the card. (Chinese proverb) If you are a missionary, what kind of missionary are you. If you are a Christian missionary i have good news for you: Christians don't believe in luck. They trust in the Lord. Unfortunately you are placing curses on people by saying bad luck will follow if they do not do as the card says. I break the curse you place on me in the Name of Yeshua and hope that you will forgive me for my bluntness. Have a blessed day and may you find peace i...

The past few months I have been reading a lot on writing - everything from how to write, how to get published, even how to do book binding. The most recurrent theme is how hard it is to be a writer. There are always wonderful quotes like: "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." - Walter Smith "Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." -Gene Fowler Holly Lisle , an author (someone I have notread), has a pretty interesting web site filled with resources for writers and inspiration and support. However, in her free ebook, Mugging the Muse , she has this to say: "Let me define the act of writing for you. As a writer, you're going to attempt to sell the products of your mind to a world that doesn't care right now whether you breathe or not. You're going to strip your soul naked and parade it in front of editors and agents, publisher...