Umm!

I loves me some Mahi Mahi. Trader Joes had some seasoned/marinated filets a while ago, and I stuck some in my freezer, and today I thawed them out. Pan fry those things and add a little hot sauce, and it's yummytime!

The REAL Superman trailer.

Seriously.

Idiot!

Way to fly under the radar, jackass.

Product Review Part III

I've just put my old monitor back on the computer. Turns out, Microsoft's ClearType works on all monitors. I recommend trying it to see if you like it.

I think, in the end, I prefer(ed?) the "warmer sound" of a CRT over the LCD.

EDIT: here are two screen captures showing the difference between turning on TrueType and not. Enjoy!

Without:


With:

Futurama returns!?!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/futurama-returns-183043.php

Why must my internet be broken again? It fails to function for 6 seconds out of every 13. Like it's keeping time. Very strange.

Product review part II

I've found that turning on Clear Type changes the user experience of the LCD. Basically, it fuzzies up the image a little bit to make it a bit less jaggy and harsh. Slightly more complicatedly, rather than treat each three color pixel as one object, it treats each sub-color in the pixel as a separate pixel. Since each sub-pixel is located in a slightly different location within the overall pixel, treating them separately allows the computer to have more control over the end image. YMMV.

Crazy Linguists!

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/

Enraging!

I was listening to the Townstone Financial Radio Program this morning, and they had a guy on talking about identity theft. David Ketelsen from Identity Theft Consultants. Nice website, jackass. He said that you should never leave the hotel keycard in the hotel room, because all your personal information is stored on there. WRONGO!

Nice scaremongering, dude.

Product Review!

I'm writing this on a- well, I'm writing it on a keyboard. But connected to my keyboard is my computer, to which is attached a Dell E196FP LCD monitor. It is a replacement part for work that I am "testing" over the weekend.

Notes on the product:

1) It is cool as hell to have 19 inches of flat screen-ness sitting on the desk.
2) $220 is quite a low price for such a screen.
3) Because it isn't very good.
4) What I mean is, it is an analog-only connector. That's great for an analog monitor (a CRT, for example). Not so good for an inherently digital screen such as an LCD is. I'm getting a little ghosting.
5) I'm also getting some compression artifacts, most likely from the digital to analog to digital conversion that happens, as referenced in #4.
6) And I'm comparing this to my current monitor, no prize itself.
7) It's possible the LCD is *too* good, and I'm seeing stuff that's always been there, that has always been obscured by the inherent fuzziness of a CRT. Either way, I'm annoyed.
8) But that's a minor quibble that I was specifically looking for, a normal person probably wouldn't notice.

Breakfast Tacos!

It's not a recipe, it's a announcement. I had tacos for breakfast.

That is all, please continue with your regularly scheduled day.

I don't understand!

If this tape is child pornography, why is the judge allowing everyone to watch it?

Vacation Part II!!

Indeed, then CO arrived from a late and delayed Acela trip. Stinking of cheese.

Next day it was a long subway ride down to Wall street and the various sights down there. We also rode the Staten Island ferry, so nobody could ever say we didn't. After a couple of quick phone calls to prove we were there, we rode the next ferry back. Now it was lunch time, so we met my sister for some honest-to-Christ New York Pizza. After weathering a downpour via booze, we rode the subway back up to midtown for some Important Purchases. Then I lost about four hours there, and the next thing we knew the 1,2,3 trains were [still] flooded and CO, my sister and I were traipsing through the rain for the 59th and Lex subway stop. Again exhausted, we returned to the hotel.

The next day seemed the longest on paper, and for a while there, seemed like it was going to be even longer in reality. I had a simple plan, to drive past and perhaps photograph a school in the Bronx where CO and I had visited Back In The Day. IE, 16 years ago. (Wow, that's a long time.) I popped up Google, ciphered together a route, and cockily went on our way. Started out good, past the zoo and Forham U, confusing CO with my ability to remember that a street changed names mid stream, for example. And then the bottom dropped out. A street that had been on the map simply did not exist in real life. Sandford. Bastards! Yadda yadda yadda, we found the school, sadly not living our lives without having been in Yonkers. We found the Major Deegan (after another bad-directions scare ("this street changed names blocks ago, just so you know" "laughing!")) and it was off to Cleveland! No. Philly! Not before stopping at the Vince Lombardi rest area on the New Jersey turnpike and having a Nathan's and Cinnabon breakfast.

Two and a half hours later we were in Philly. Neat town- very historical and old school. The Liberty Bell? Don't bother. Think 33 gallon garbage can. I was more impressed with the $15 Lexmark printer I almost bought from some schmoe on the street. And the fantastic sandwich. If you close your eyes, it almost tastes like a cheese Slider.

And two and a half hours after that, we were rolling into DC. After a little decompressing, it was to Capitol City Grill for beer and unfortunate tacos. Unfortunate in the sense that they were excellent, save for the meat. Nice to see JAG and DV$ and his friend, [Ally?].

Next day we had a late start. Went for a quick hamburger and grocery shopping stop before hitting the road for a nice afternoon barbeque at N & R's place. Many thanks to them for the hospitality to me, but a weary traveller. After a while it was time to head for the airport. In planning the drive, the worst possible scenario was planned for, yet the best happened. I think it took 10 minutes to get to the airport. Suffice it to say, I was two hours early for the plane. Which was already delayed when I got there. Weather troubles wherever it was coming from. So, I fired up the laptop for some serious DVD watching. That's the way to travel, let me tell you. My plane managed to make up time in the air and only took off about :25 minutes late, and made up even more time on the way to Chicago, rendering us :03 minutes early. Smooth!

Three highlights from the flight: from the Star Trek 6 DVD commentary, we learn that one of the writers didn't know anything about Star Trek before agreeing to write the film. Two, we were chasing the sunset, so it was late dusk in the air for about an hour. Three, we passed over another plane. That may have been the fastest thing I've ever seen up close. I just happened to be checking for other planes, since it was a clear night, and there it was maybe 1000 feet below us, coming in at about a 45 degree angle toward us. I don't know what our cruising speed was, but a quick web search puts the cruising speed of a 737 well over mach 0.500. So, the plane was coming at us at a relative speed of over Mach 1. Sweet. Now that I think about it, the only other faster thing I've seen was a meteor over MD's house.

And that was the trip. Thanks again to Mr. and Mrs. O for the hospitality at the house there.

UPDATE: HA! This is where the cheesesteak sandwich was procured.

Vacation!

Greetings to all from safely back in the CDT! I had a wonderful time on the vacation, though it was absolutely exhausting. But for the first time in a while, I am happy to have exhausted myself and didn't go nuts doing it. Pills!

I arrived via the fine Southwest Airlines in Baltimore Tuesday around 10:30, rented up the Dodge Magnum, and drove into the city to lunch with CO and company at the place where they work. 1.5 pounds of eggrolls! Then I spend an exhausting afternoon wandering the mall taking pictures of things. Look to the flickr page for that, later. Picked up CO and drove into the 'burbs for a little dinner action. Tacos al Carbon! I believe we were done in about 30 mins, and I was sleeping on a fine Aero Bed 30 minutes after that. Heatstroke!

Next day after a coffee and bull session with CSO, I headed up to NYC. The drive was uneventful, except for seeing a van en fuego. Look again to flickr. Once in NYC and nearly $20 lighter (thank you, various bridges and turnpikes!), I drove around the Bronx in search of my hotel. An hour later, I found it. It wasn't in the greatest of neighborhoods, but that's the Bronx. It was 1/4 of what my mother paid to stay in midtown Manhattan. I called my sister, and we jumped on the subway, Manhattan bound.

The New York Subway is disgusting. It runs fine, it's necessary, and it's a bargain. By disgusting, I mean horribly filthy. Stinking, horribly filthy.

Met up with mom and grandpa, and set out for Little Italy in search of food. I had the carbonara. Wonderful!

Next day, I arose early and hopped the Bx9 bus, bound for Lehman College, where my sister would be graduating. It was a very hot day, but it's not often you get to see your sister graduate college, have Mayor Bloomberg as the commencement speaker, and hear jazz flute. After that, we went inside where her program was having a reception. That was very nice of them, but there far too many people in a far too small room. I stayed in the hallway and sweatted.

Then we rode back on the train for Manhattan. Mom and I rode all the way down to visit the WTC site, and turned right back around because it was too hot out. Mom went for a nap, and I cooled my heels in a Starbucks and then wandered to Times Square for some serious people watching. After a while, I re-met up with the family for a delicious meal at the restaurant where my sister works. A fine time was had by all. I enjoyed some prosciutto wrapped asparagus, a hanger steak and some delicious desserts. Excellent. I then bowed out of the family trek in the rain to Times Square, and went back to the hotel. I arrived there, once again exhausted. And not a little bit because of the two at a time jaunt up a broken escalator to catch a train at the 59th and Lex subway stop. Dehydrated!

That's the first half of the trip, more next time.