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January 4th, 2010

08:31 am - The journey of 1000 miles begins with voice mail I finally got the nerve to call Go-Staff back promptly at 8:00 am, Monday to leave a voicemail that I am available for the computer programming position (and left my phone number). Apparently, the person in charge isn't in this early after the holidays. Eventually, they will call me back to set up an introductory meeting, so I need to break out the interview suit. (Honey? Where's my super suit?) I've already downloaded the instructions on how to get there from Google Maps. Honestly, it's 2010, there's got to be a better way to this. Build suggested that I should be able to get in the car and get GPS coordinates of my job for the day. Current Mood: anxious Current Music: Happy Workers - Tori Amos Tags: mental, work

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January 1st, 2010

09:14 am - Happy New Year Saw Avatar last week, and I liked it. I just wanted to reach out and gnaw on the 3D subtitles. For the most part, loved the 3D effect except when I had cartoonishly large weapons pointed out at me. (Compensating much?) Like Jake wolfing down his chow to get back into the avatar ASAP, I was wolfing down the incredible simple plot and characterization so I could get back to the amazing fantasy. Yeah, yeah, important plot point, more fantasy please. So, yeah, fridge logic might be mildly depressing, but in my humble opinion, it was worth it. In other news, heard back from Go-staff, frustrating right before a three-day weekend. So, early Monday, I get to call them back and probably answer a bunch of questions and try to swing an interview about a possible job. It's getting down to the point, where I will accept anything legal, that pays the minimum threshold, to keep the house which I don't know why since I lack the stamina to move any furniture without exhausting myself. What's the point of being a freaking genius if I can't even pay my bills? Current Mood: mixed Current Music: One Republic - All the Right Moves Tags: fantasy, work

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December 24th, 2009

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December 20th, 2009

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December 11th, 2009

11:29 am - Massless quantum propulsion? It appears possible to generate a self-contained electromagnetic propulsive force that results in a mechanical action. This is one of the holy grails of science fiction, universal massless propulsion. http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24499/ Current Mood: creative Tags: labs, science

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December 10th, 2009

12:18 am - Where the Future is being made Today Working on the first wireless brain to computer interface. Still primitive compared to the wired directly to the brain system, but beats the hell out of the Star Trek flash once for yes and two for no. The system translate brain signals (from inside the skull) into an FM signal which will eventually get translated into voice. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/wireless-brain/ Current Mood: amused Tags: labs, science

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December 1st, 2009

07:40 am - Weird Nightmare Channel I had put in a full day's work. Looking at the clock, it had put in 12, possible 13 hours. I couldn't remember when I had come in that day nor taking lunch. Working in a windowless office for security reasons was harsh on my circadian rhythms. I just wanted to go home and get some sleep. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: awake Current Music: Hotel California - The Eagles Tags: dream

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November 27th, 2009

11:48 am - With the power of the Sun! At noon today, I will reach 2000 kWh produced by my solar array. EDIT: All claims of doing anything useful have been retracted. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension Tags: electric, savetheplanet, solar

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November 19th, 2009

06:52 am - Singing songs This started out while singing the original, and realize that I forgot the words, which fit beautifully in a self parody. This is a rough draft, I probably polish it up so more, or tarnish it some more, I don't know which. Singing songs - parody of Chasing Cars by Blue Jogger ( Read more... ) Current Mood: silly Current Music: Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol Tags: song

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November 15th, 2009

05:16 am - Coding in the middle of the night Algorithm for arbitrary long (well up to (2^31,31)) Hamming Codes. One should never code after midnight. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: awake Tags: code

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November 8th, 2009

12:36 am Power went out from roughly 9:00pm to 12:20am. It was about a six block area affected. I am once again very grateful that my UPS kept my computer okay, long enough for me to save and shutdown. However, Build's didn't work (same model) and we need a replacement for it. I wish I could afford an impressive battery bank so I wouldn't even notice a blackout for days at a time. But it is an expensive luxury compared to having a UPS for each computer. I also went outside and shut off power to the inverter, not that it would do anything even if the sun was shining (it's got a safety feature that prevents it from feeding power to a dead grid). Tomorrow, I'll turn it back on when I'm sure that everything is back to normal. EDIT: Checked SDGE's outage page, apparently the cause is "A vehicle has caused a problem with a power pole". Current Mood: awake Current Music: Simon And Garfunkel — The Sound Of Silence Tags: electric, science

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November 7th, 2009

08:13 am - Jumping Gigawatts! Antimatter detected in lightning! The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected gamma radiation in lightning. That has been fairly well established, but Fermi has able to confirm that the radiation matches to the decay of positions. Current Mood: amused Tags: labs

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November 3rd, 2009

04:21 pm - Why vampires do what they do. I believe that I have determined the cause of the seemingly new behavior of vampires. Common theory holds that vampires have always been predators, and that the seeming new behavior of the Vampire Dramatica to fawn over dinner was disingenuous at best or, at worse, sign of some deep perversion to diddle with one's food. I have found the behavior to be familiar... and doing some research, it most mimics the ants who care for and milk aphids. In fact the touching of the vampire seemed to be very similar to caress that ants give to stimulate milk production. The vampire's instinct to preserve a single or perhaps a select few "brides", which some female humans may confuse with love, seem to be built directly into the vampire's subconscious as some sort of preservation instinct. But, this suggest that it wasn't a new mutation, but rather a return to a more primative form. And indeed, the recent, swooping in, a quick sucking rending the victim dead and then flee, is actually a new behavior. The Vampire Classica, which is now mislabeled in my opinion, was a recent adaptation to urbanization and the increased ability for humans to retaliate. To test this, we dug up some old diaries of what we believe were vampire victims save for they seemed to survived into a surprising old age. In these diaries, looking at it under this new light, we see the same behavior, the vampire (elder gentleman) suddenly appears, stimulates the female to bring blood to the surface, the retrieval of the blood through the neck (all though, it is disguise with rather thin symbolism). But the fact that the gentleman is never seemed in the daylight and other classic clues seems to point to the classic vampire. By next report, I hope to complete my findings but it doesn't look promising. Human population is spiraling out of control thus signaling that more vampires need to be Vampire Classica. Next time, I hope to unlock the secret to why some vampires burn in the sunlight and why others dimly sparkle (Vampire Illuminati) Current Mood: artistic Current Music: Help i'm alive - by Metric Tags: gaming

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November 2nd, 2009

06:39 am - Weird Dream Channel I'm not sure how it happened, but I was place on auction to be sold. A relatively nice couple looked at me, talked to me, and decided that I was worth having and explained that I would be expected to cook and clean and do other household chores and in return I got to live. If I did a really good job, there was certain other benefits besides being alive and well fed, but that would be negotiated at a future date. At first, I was really happy because it meant I was employed again... Then my brain finally made the connection, if I hadn't been sold, my masters would have executed me. As the punchline goes, "We know what type of person you are, we're just negotiating price." Current Mood: awake Current Music: Number On a Page - Eben Brooks Tags: dream

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October 31st, 2009

12:36 pm - David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation | Video on TED.com Because some explanations really are objectively better than others. David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation | Video on TED.com Current Mood: cranky Current Music: Information Society - What's On Your Mind Live 1991 Tags: labs, science

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October 25th, 2009

09:22 am - Weird Dream Channel Had the strangest dream, all I could remember was getting out of the hospital. I had redesigned my wheelchair so that I could ride as a vehicle, putting a wheel about eight feet in front of me to drag me along. I had gotten to the university where I had been taking classes when I saw caprine although her hair had gone completely silver and she had some wrinkles on her face. She was happy to see me, and thought, "What the hell happened?", but said nothing since she didn't say anything about the way I looked. I remember being confused, because the classrooms looked familiar enough, but not the same teachers. Eventually it dawned on me that time must have passed and it was a new semester. In other news, the last couple of days my blood sugar has been spiking at the 300s around 5 in the afternoon, only to return to somewhat normal in the morning (100 to 130). This morning, it hit a new low of 88. Current Mood: hungry Tags: dream

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October 23rd, 2009

07:30 pm - Okay Earthlings Here's the choices you get to make if you want to live on this rock, sustainably. Math and physics are included in the back of the book if you want to check his work. http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/book/tex/cft.pdf (9 Megs) And this is the author's website (David J.C. MacKay FRS) is here. http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/ Current Location: United States, California, San Diego Current Mood: frustrated Tags: savetheplanet

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October 17th, 2009

09:34 am - Weird Dream Channel I definitely do not like the latest batch of dreams, I want my money back. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: frustrated Tags: dream

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October 15th, 2009

03:34 pm - It's alive! I got my micro-controller kit and breadboarded a simple circuit around a ATmega168 with about 20 wires. It didn't work the first time (stupid color-coded resistor) and then the display showed one of the wires was indeed not firmly connected (yeap, ok, that wire was loose). Then plugged it in and it works. I wanted to take a picture, but I can't seem to find the camera. It's got 20 MIPS with 16K of on-board memory which should keep me busy. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Weird Science - Oingo Boingo Tags: atmega168, computer, hardware

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October 14th, 2009

03:06 pm - Is there an economist in the house? Even in the best of times, economy predicting is fraught with danger, and this is certainly not the best of times for predictions. It's interesting to see gold prices keep going up, which coupled with the news of central banks fleeing the U.S. dollar for euros and yen, seems to indicate that the general consensus is the dollar is going to keep losing value. (If this theory is correct, the gold bugs predict gold conservatively going to $2000 ounce.) Then, there are those who say that gold is just the next bubble. And the smart investment is then silver which will go up in price (compared to the dollar) and faster to catch up with the relative price of gold (unless gold drops back down because it is under a price bubble). I'm afraid this assumes bimetallism actually works, at least that ultimately the same amount of silver should buy the same amount of gold most of the time barring any major changes in the supplies in either. (Which is not true, as more people are digging more gold out of the ground because it is relatively cheaper to do so, as long as they are paid in U.S. dollars to do so.) With me so far? Okay, most of this is really confusing since it's hard to measure the dollar falling against the boom market of resources (gold, silver, oil) going up. The G20 proposed solution is to stop comparing everything to the dollar and compare it to a different global currency. Economists that are for this says that it will help stabilize the global economy. The economists that oppose it seem to all be American economists who defend that the dollar is far from unstable. I'm starting to believe it's all Pure F'ing Magic. Current Mood: contemplative Tags: economy, money, prediction

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