Lenny's Old Old Blog: December 2003

for embarrassing posterity

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Tim-Berners Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, is to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Read all about it.

If Google Can't Do It, No One Can

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Even Google is helpless to translate Andrew's blog into proper English!

Creative Tutes

Friday, December 26, 2003

If you don't read the Blogger blog, do so. Their creative tutorials can be entertaining. I'm still trying to figure out who to give a blog to.

A Cease and Desist Notice Written Quite Directly to Justin and Ashley

Friday, December 26, 2003

When reading aggregated LiveJournals your userpics are damn confusing.

[a photo of Ashley with the subtitle "clearly, i am so very lucky"] [a photo of Justin with the subtitle "justin is a snuggle"]
Exhibit A: The original, backwards userpics.

This is just annoying enough for me to take action. Here are the amended pics I whipped up:

[a photo of Ashley and Justin with the subtitle "I am Justin"] [a photo of Ashley and Justin with the subtitle "I am Ashley"]
Exhibit B: A two-minute fix to the problem.

I urge both of you to use the new pictures. If you are not Justin or Ashley, just drop a comment expressing your disgust with the deception and write your support for the change.

Update #1: Justin refuses...as of yet.

A Very Late Update #2: So does Ashley.

Non-Discriminatory Practice

Friday, December 26, 2003

In this year's Oceanside High School Course Offerings booklet the first page describes the district's policy of not discriminating against anybody based on sex, handicap, or race. The crappy clip art that they love portrays non-discrimination among the happy students, just segregation.

[drawing of three students rejoicing and one handicapped student apart from the three]

This picture comes via the scanner my parents bought for Hanukkah. I thank them.

Ooooohh! Oh yeah! Aaahh!

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

What a relief! I just got back from Return of the King and all I can say is, wow! It was amazing! My bladder managed to last through the entire film! The only thing that kept it in was the constant chance of this conclusion being the true ending to the three-an-a-half-hour piece. I liked the movie, but an hour of denouement is a bit rough.

I did not see Two Towers, but I managed to follow and enjoy this film. My recommendation goes to the strong-willed and bodied, who can bear the length. Not to say that it was boring—the plot was enough to keep anybody on the edge of their seat—but the movie is just painful to sit through. Forewarning aside, I give it thumbs of some sort. Human thumbs.

Danish Blog

Monday, December 22, 2003

Andrew has created a weblog, so I advertise. It's not quite stable yet (design, spelling) but he, unlike many bloggers, has interesting things to say.

Sympathy for the Devil

Saturday, December 20, 2003

Yes, those are my holiday greetings. Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while, this has been a hectic week, with all that work and what not. I could've updated yesterday, but I was in a bad mood after a fight with the parental units. Hey anyway, look at Lenny's blog, he hasn't updated since Jesus discovered those mountains on Jupiter. So get a life! Jeez, what a loser, reading my blog. Do yourself a favor and go back to your daily pornographic scavenger hunt. Ok, you've taken a sufficient amount of abuse, but Lenny hasn't. Lenny, you are an insult to this international tribunal, and your fro is eating into that floating hamster you call a brain. There, now Lenny is done too. But there is one more evil that must be dispelled!

. . .

Then in Mr. Skinner's class we sat and talked the whole time, though we were supposed to be doing an essay. I ended up talking with that walking bowel obstruction named Lenny. Ok, sorry Lenny, I'm done. (I don't want to incur his wrath, because I know he's gonna get back at me on his blog) Thats if he's man enough.

Why, you write as if I were your only reader, Lippy. I would make fun of you, but I feel sorry for you. So pathetic, indeed. I hope you don't end up in some bachelor pad living with a brain-dead fat former porn-star with a mustache.

Incidentally, there was no incident

Monday, December 15, 2003

Some jerkass emailed Dr. Brown, superintendent of schools, threatening to do something bad (unspecified) if school opened. School opened. Nothing happend. This moron not only failed in getting school cancelled, they caused the school to close the campus. Aside from a few security measures such as importing the middle school security staff, leaving that building unprotected, decreased class size from the hundred or so students who sent their parents into hysteria so they can get a day off, and constantly hearing smartasses bitch about how if a bomb were in the school they should be let out, not kept in, the day proceeded as any other.

Third in a Series

Sunday, December 14, 2003

First was Dreams of Fantasy. Next came Beacon of Fantasy. Josh’s latest fantasy forum is Fantasy Anonymous. So far it is a very small community, but based on my past experience on his forums, despite the problem of longevity that had plagued his forums previously, this should have some interesting conversation.

In the Beginning

Saturday, December 13, 2003

My father recommended an essay that has been floating around the net for a while called In the Beginning was the Command Line, by Neal Stephenson. It covers the topics of human interfacing and culture in the context of operating systems. An excerpt:

Microsoft refused to go into the hardware business, insisted on making its software run on hardware that anyone could build, and thereby created the market conditions that allowed hardware prices to plummet. In trying to understand the Linux phenomenon, then, we have to look not to a single innovator but to a sort of bizarre Trinity: Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and Bill Gates. Take away any of these three and Linux would not exist.

Though probably most appealing to the geekier among my readership, anybody who has the time to read it all could enjoy it.

Knoppix

Saturday, December 13, 2003

This is awesome. I am running Knoppix 3.3, a GNU/Linux distribution installed onto a CD. There is no installation, no dual booting, no mess. Simply boot from the CD and it loads KDE with most of the applications one would need. I was skeptical at first, but I would recommend Knoppix to anybody who wants to try something outside of their Windows world. Even those who do not care to learn about Linux should get Knoppix as a backup in case they need to re-install their OS and need a temporary solution for Internet access and the like. I posted a screenshot of Gaim, Mozilla, and transparent menus in KDE. I also posted a better screenshot.

Happy birthday Marc, I’m fucking nauseous

Friday, December 12, 2003

Today is Marc’s birthday, and the nausea is just beginning to wear off. We had two Entenmann’s cakes, a box of doughnuts, and a box of cookies. Good times…

Have you been attacked by this wookie?

Thursday, December 11, 2003

Have you been attacked by this wookie?

Mozilla 1.6b

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

The Mozilla project released the next milestone of their flagship browser, Mozilla 1.6 beta. They still have not fixed the bug I submitted, but have added some security features, a menu button for Google translator, and some other goodies. Enjoy it. Thoroughly.

Anime

Monday, December 08, 2003

I withdraw my former opinion regarding anime, that it sucks. I had previously disliked it, but I now know that the only reason for that, aside from choppy animation, is that the anime I had seen was created solely to exploit brainwashed American children. My dislike for what I had seen from the genre did not smother my curiosity, which was fueled by my friendship with several people who are not moronic, but had the seeming flaw of being entertained by the repulsive cartoons.

I recently got a torrent containing high-quality rips of all twenty-six sessions of Cowboy Bebop and have thus far watched seven. The next session, Waltz for Venus, is supposedly the best of the series. I have enjoyed the show (thoroughly) and await more of the exciting plot, great jazz, and outstanding cinematography found in Bebop.

Other anime I have been advised to watch includes:

Comments are open for other good anime, although I will probably only get a small portion of the recommendations.

Meme'd

Friday, December 05, 2003

My brain has been analyzed by the “Mind Media Life Enhancement Network.” I remember taking this same test before in another medium, but that was several years ago.

Apparently I am 57% auditory and 42% visual; 47% left and 52% right. My analysis, quotation forthcoming, is somewhat inaccurate, but what do I know about myself?

Lenny, you exhibit an even balance between left- and right- hemisphere dominance and a slight preference for visual over auditory processing. With a score this balanced, it is likely that you would have slightly different results each time you complete this self-assessment quiz.

You are a well-rounded person, distinctly individualistic and artistic, an active and multidimensional learner. At the same time, you are logical and disciplined, can operate well within an organization, and are sensitive towards others without losing objectivity. You are organized and goal-directed. Although a "thinking" individual, you "take in" entire situations readily and can act on intuition.

You sometimes tend to vacillate in your learning styles. Learning might take you longer than someone of equal intellect, but you will tend to be more thorough and retain the material longer than those other individuals. You will alternate between logic and impulse. This vacillation will not normally be intentional or deliberate, so you may experience anxiety in situations where you are not certain which aspect of yourself will be called on.

With a slight preference for visual processing, you tend to be encompassing in your perceptions, process along multidimensional paths and be active in your attacking of situations or learning.

Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself -- and of others -- while maintaining an "openness" which tempers that tendency. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity may not be in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, obvious and the more functional

Excerpt from Francis Bacon’s Of Everything

Friday, December 05, 2003

I did not call you from Justin’s phone due to the unmentionable circumstances of Wednesday night, however, I did go to Washington. It was incredible loads of fun, so I will not bother writing a miniscule fraction of the great quotations. Instead, a list of events that the hundred and six of us took part in:

Day 1 – 3 December 2003
  1. rise and shine at 5
  2. bus at 6 o’something
  3. some crappy movie
  4. Delaware rest area
  5. Batman
  6. Capital
  7. Vietnam Veterans Memorial
  8. Lincoln Memorial
  9. Jefferson Memorial
  10. Korean War Veterans Memorial
  11. ESPN Zone, where the TVs are over the urinals!
  12. Holiday Inn, where the doors are taped shut!
  13. sleeping with Charlie Cook, which I enjoyed thoroughly
Day 2 – 4 December 2003
  1. Kalner bangs on the door at 7
  2. all-you can eat, baby!
  3. Bureau of Engraving and Printing
  4. Arlington National cemetery (complete with Lee’s pad)
  5. National Archives
  6. transformation into Kalner
  7. Clifford (I was only awake for the first half of it.)
  8. Wayne’s World! Wayne’s World! Party time! Excellent!
  9. erasure of explicit messages from bus windows to welcome parents

Some of these events may be out of order, but I did my best to recall them, so be gentle.

Alex showing his middle fingers

Anthony took 680 photos, mostly of Justin or the floor, but there were a few gems such as this one of Alex Roth. To make the suckers out there trying to use Anthony’s mondo-slow, contract-breaching server jealous, I have a CD with all of his pictures. I certainly hope Justin’s Big Boy picture doesn’t get out.

I could have made that much more interesting with juicy quotations, but I feel that they are left for those who were on the trip. The laughter—the drama—the memories! I now take this time to tell Donnie and Marc that they are idiots for not going.

Thus concludes my discourse of DC.

Today was quite the ridiculous day in school, with Kalner checking me in the wall for no reason whatsoever, cake, and snow. The second snow of the season was the first real snow thereof. We had about six or seven inches and it is still coming down. The snow was so bad that the variety show I was going to go to today was postponed by thirty-eight days. We had a very lengthy snowball fight after classes, which was followed by ultimate frisbee. Yes, I am awesome. My ankles were numb and my nose bled from being held still to be barraged by snow (which was deserved for all of the barraging I did myself,) but I enjoyed myself.

Concluding a very light skimming of the surface of the interesting stuff of the past few days, I present a few causes of my recent intellectual pleasure.

(20:28:56) Lippy:
ur the schmuck
(20:29:03) Lippy:
schmuck boy
(20:30:38) Lippy:
so ha
(20:30:57) Me:
nooooooo!
(20:31:23) Lippy:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh
(20:31:47) Lippy:
(inaudible laughter)
(20:32:01) Me:
yeah, w/e
(20:32:15) Lippy:
like, whatever?
(20:32:20) Lippy:
as if
(20:32:22) Me:
totally
(20:32:45) Me:
FYI, PS, like, yuh-huh, i mean, whatever
(20:32:49) Me:
:-*
(20:33:07) Lippy:
like, i was like totally, and he was all, whatever
(20:33:54) Lippy:
then kimberly walked in and i was like, as if, and she was all, whatever
(20:34:06) Me:
yeah. let's stop.
(20:34:12) Lippy:
ok......
(20:34:29) Lippy:
(another joke is butchered by me)
(20:34:33) Lippy:
:'(

A Google search for miserable failure, a Google bomb created by bloggers, is perhaps the funniest abuse of the WWW since, well, this was not a well thought out sentence. Thanks to Andrew Satriano for the query.

Thanks to my parents for the Foot in Mouth Award.

I do believe this holds the record.

Hatemail

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

My first piece of hatemail came from West Virginia today. He responded to a Usenet post I made publicizing the apology to Vietnam.

His Email
From:"James Watson" <scb01513@mail.wvnet.edu>
To:ldrhcp@yahoo.com
Subject:Apoligize
Date:Sun, 30 Nov 2003 21:25:53 -0500

Hay Larry,

You "Apologize" all you want to "for yourself" ! As for me Hell will Freeze over. Give me my M-16 back and I'll go back and get my Left Leg, Right Foot and Left Hand. And see how many more I can take with me....

James,
K8MIA
http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~scb01513/

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous
content by WVNET, and is believed to be clean.

My Response

Thanks for your concern, James. I'm sorry about your injuries in the war. Take care!

I certainly do feel sorry for James and his veteran buddies, but in my original post I explicitly downplay the politics and plea for compassion for civilians from civilians.

Comments

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

I finally overcame laziness and set up a comment system. Although Haloscan, as all of the other hosted comment systems, is only accessible through javascript-enabled browsers. I took twenty seconds to overcome this problem; I simply had never bothered to try before.

Now that I have enabled comments, my readers have new responsibilities. Please:

I do not plan on tyrannically deleting posts; all I ask is that you be reasonable. Think before commenting. Enjoy!

Deo-BB-Pimp

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Today fell the first snow of the season. It was very light and did not stick, but this is a good sign. Yeah, skiing is axesome.

The insides of Lisa Sherry’s mind were exposed today with this method of remembering when to use por or para in Spanish.

For por, the acronym is Deo-BB-Pimp, which stands for

For para, the acronym is Dipfud, which stands for

Psh! And the leprechaun on my shoulder said that I was a bit insane!

Tomorrow I am going to Washington, DC with Kalner, a couple other teachers, and over ninety students. They expect me to be at school, awake and functional, at 5:40 tomorrow morning. It should be fun after the initial shock of waking up. We are going to watch Batman on the bus.

I am in the process of signing up with audblog for the free trial of audio blogging. I plan to use it in Washington to keep my readers (those not is Washington) up to date.

I leave you with a quite large picture.

Latest entries to this site

Older entries to this site