MIT Hacks

Interesting Hacks to Fascinate People : This is what the brainiacs at MIT do for fun. It’s pretty interesting reading. Great minds puting their brain power to creative use.

While your at it, check out the Top 10 MIT Hacks.

Music

How have I made it through these long lonely nights during the week that never ends? Music. Tonight was Film Soundtracks/scores. I started off with The Matrix Revolutions (very industrial). Next came The 25th Hour (very interesting central musical theme and darn good movie to boot. Check it out if you haven’t already. One of Spike Lee’s best films in my opinion.) After that came Gladiator (Classic Hollywood epic theme) followed by Snow Falling Upon Cedars. For added flavor I threw in Band of Brothers. This morning I’m wrapping things up with Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. Why soundtracks/scores? Because they’re long. Most clock in between 60 and 74 minutes. Listening to them tends to help chew up large chunks of time. Plus they make great background music since basically that’s what the film score is, background music.

Spring Is Here! (Almost)

Spring is here inn Memphis at least. We’ve had highs ranging from the low to mid 60′s to the mid 70′s as of late. The trees and flowers are blooming already. The dawning of spring means more than April showers and May flowers though. It means soccer. Sniff, sniff. I can smell the freshly cut, perfectly manicured grass of the soccer fields from here. The start of another season of the Beautiful Game is upon us. It’s been a long winter. I can’t wait to get back out on the pitch. I feel like I haven’t touched a ball in ages (because I haven’t) but it all comes back to you.

Soccer season for the Greater Memphis Soccer Association kicks off today. Unfortunately my Men’s team doesn’t have a game today. Normally that would mean I’d have to wait another 7 days to fulfill my soccer fix but this season, just like the last, I’m playing both Men’s and Coed. Yes, yes y’all! That means I only have to wait until this Tuesday night to get my soccer on. And it’s gonna be on like white on rice. Can you tell I’m excited? I’ve been waiting all winter for this.

I hope my teams fair better this season. Last season my Men’s team finished 0-11 and got demoated from Division 3 back down into the cellar aka Division 4. My coed team went 1-11. So any winning on either teams part will be an improvement. I’ll still have fun though even if we don’t win. It’s hard to not have a good time playing the game you love. The Beautiful Game: Catch The Fever!!!.

Time

Time keeps on tickin’, tickin’, tickin’…. into the future. No I don’t want to fly like an eagle. I just want to get out this darn chair and leave this God forsaken place. I am enduring day 7 of 8 straight days here at work with no time off. For those who have never had the pleasure of doing this let me just say it bites the big one. This is like the week that never ends. I nearly cried when Thursday came (which normal is the start of my weekend) and realized I had 3 more days to go. And what brought on the work “spree” pray (sic) tell? The other third shift guy, Jonathan, is a college student. His spring break was this past week so of course he asked to take some vacation days so he could go enjoy his break. I don’t begruge him that. But when the call went out to our fellow help desk bretheren asking for volunteers to cover for him there was no response. Instead there was silence and the sounds of crickets chirping. So of course my boss comes to me and asks if I can cover for Jonathan on the days I usually have off (Thursday and Friday night). I mulled it over for a little while but finally said yes since there really wasn’t any other option. He “asked” if I would do it but it was less a question and more a directive. So here I am all alone in this stupid chair counting down the minutes until I get to go home and the days until I finally get a break. There is a small bit of upside to this. My boss granted me 2 extra days off this coming week meaning I only have to work 1 day. After I get off tomorrow morning I won’t have to be back until Wednesday. Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus!!! I can’t wait.

Why can’t life be like Tivo. Fast forward through the boring parts. Jump to the exciting stuff then pause and rewind the very best stuff. Time goes by so slowly. I hunger not for your touch (unless you happen to be my girlfriend) but to be rescued from the boring pergatory that is my job. Alas in the words of the disco anthem, I will survive.

A Real Life Holographic Display (Almost)

Hitachi Develops Holographic-like Display : This is dope. Absolutely, positively cool the Nth degree. Straight out of Star Wars or something. Very nice.

There’s A Hole In My Creek

Yesterday I discovered a gaping hole in my Dawson’s Creek viewing schedule. It turns out I missed 3 whole episodes at the beginning of season 3. They were a complete mystery to me. Plots lines were hatched in these shows that I picked up on in later episodes but always wondered where they came from. I was under the impression that I had seen every single episode of the show thanks to TBS. Well I was wrong. I caught the last 50 minutes of Season 3 Episode 2 yesterday and all of S3 : Ep. 3. But there’s still a slightly smaller hole because I still haven’t seen S3 : Ep. 1. I have a distinct feeling that I may not have seen a large chunk of the second half of season two as well. Oh the horror!!! This is extremely troubling. I thought I had seen them all. It will be another 2 or 3 months or so before TBS swings around and shows these missing episodes again. Oh the agony. Man this bites. I may have to break down and buy the DVDs or something now. I know I’m pathetic. So sue me why don’t you? I must extend a debt of thanks to Television Without Pity for filling in the blanks. Their episode recaps, while sarcastic and at times brutal, do a great job of retelling the story almost scene by scene.

Allycia Lives to Drive Again

I was at the car dealership the other day and overheard a conversation concerning my old car, Allycia, the other day. It seems they were able to get her repaired and she’ll soon be on the lot waiting to be purchased by another poor sucker. On the one hand I’m happy for her. I wish her all the luck in the world. Hopefully her new owner will take better care of her than I did. I took care of her basic maintainance needs but drove her really hard. Maybe she’ll be sold to some little old lady who never drives over the speed limit. On the other hand I’m a bit sad. Allycia was a reliable car until the very end. I’ll miss driving her. Sure Ichiban is nice with it’s fancy keyless entry, cool stereo, alloy wheels, and quiet refined road manners but it’s no Allycia. I’m glad she’s getting a second chance (or would that be a third chance since I bought her used) instead of being resigned to the scrap heap.

Good luck Allycia. Do me proud. Mind your manners and don’t strand your new owner on the side of the road like you did to me a couple of times. Be nice. You’ll be missed.

Happy Belated Birthday to Me and Greg

Happy Birthday to me. It’s a week late but I thought I’d mention it. The big 27. Wow. My Dad always asks if I feel any older and my usual answer is no. This year is the same. Mentally I don’t feel any older. In my mind I’m still 18 fresh out of high school hanging out with my friends. My body on the other hand is starting to give subtle hints that I’m not 18 any more. The muscles ache a bit more than they used to. My knees are sore after sitting a long time. The hands ache a bit after finishing my shift at work. I have a gut now. Oh yeah I’m getting older. That’s a fact my girlfriend enjoys pointing out to me at every opportunity. She can talk though seeing as she’s 4 years younger than me. I find myself quoting lines my parents used to say to me when I used to tease them about their age. Lines like, “Just wait. One day you’ll be old too and you won’t be laughing then.” I’m starting to do a lot of things my parent did or do that I swore I’d never do. I won’t go into them now seeing as it’s a sore subject for me. I kid because it’s fun. I’m know I’m not old yet. I bemoan the progression of time but I’m pretty happy with the age I’m at right now. Check back with me when I’m 30 and see if I can still say that.

My friend, Greg, comic book guru extraordinaire of Grumpus.org fame turned 27 on March 1st. I’ll never forget that because he was born 3 days after me (4 on leap years). So Happy Belated Birthday Greg. I appreciated the surprise call on my special day. I would have returned the favor but a) I don’t think I have your number and b) my brain was fried after being swamped here at work all night on the 1st. Best birthday wishes to you anyway me muchacho.

Painting Grass

Is it just me or is the practice of painting dormant grass green completely stupid? This is a completely foreign concept to me. It’s happening all over Memphis though. They’ve done it at my apartment complex. They’ve even done it at the building I work at. Why would you want to paint grass green? I might feel differently if the people doing the painting actually took their time and completely coated the patches of grass but they don’t so you end up with a layer of green goop on top of your run of the mill brown grass. Plus the color doesn’t even resemble the color of real grass. The color looks very artificial which is fitting I suppose since that’s what it is. Once a good rainstorm passes through it’s all washed away any way. What’s the point? It’s winter. The grass is supposed to be brown. It’s dormant. It will be green soon enough with spring just around the corner. Who ever invented this lawn beautification technique is probably laughing all the way to the bank. To me it looks very tacky and in poor taste which amuses me because you see this being done for the most part out here in the suburbs where the supposedly rich, affluent folks live. I guess when you’ve got money to burn you can afford to paint your grass. I’ll keep mine brown thank you very much.