The Robot's Thoughts

There's a lot I want to say here, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, so consider this post a "living draft" and ignore the less-then-stellar quality of the writing.

The Steelers are going to the superbowl in Detroit. A perfect way for Bettis to retire. After watching him play this Sunday, I can see why he wants out. He is no longer tactically relevant. In the third quarter, he had rushed a total of 38 yards for 14 possessions. That means he averages less then 3 yards a possession. Every coach has figured out that when Bettis is standing next to Rothelsburger in the freaking center of the line, the odds are its going to Bettis, who's going to go straight down the line. So the defense responds by putting six guys in their center. Its just not getting the return it should. When they only need 1 or 2 yards and its gotta count, I can see it happening, but more and more, he's getting shut down.

But those are just the thoughts of a nit picky armchair quarterback.

I finally explored Morgantown. Well, I didn't explore much of it, but I drank at a house party. The load of crap I expected to get thrown my way for going to Pitt was a lot smaller then I expected, but then again, you really can't argue with a free education. And I haven't gone to a single Pitt football game, and I've rooted for WVU more times since moving here then I have for the panthers. Including the backyard brawl. But then again, Pitt's not a football school. In my mind, its a dark tower: Benedum.

I was also warned to be wary of abercrombie and fitch catalog model perfect people that would make me uncomfortable and socially conscious. I only saw one. And he was a pretty cool guy. So I didn't feel very self conscious.

But then again, I did spend a good hour getting ready by singing along to the postal service so I would be confident when I met people.

I don't know why I was so hesistant to go to Morgantown. I'm not anymore. It wasn't the Pitt-WVU rivalry. I think it was just the beginnings of me becoming a shut in.
I think anyone that's really been close to me remembers...hyperactivity...one might even say manic energy. The other side is how much I am a slave to my routine, afraid to deviate: Work, Work out, cook, read/game, sleep. Limited interaction through IM.

Which brings me to another social factor: A lot of WVU people asked the question: "Do you have MySpace?", to which my answer is "No, MySpace sucks ass." I don't like MySpace. Its blogs are public, so the people who blog on MySpace aren't really part of the *cringes as I type the phrase* blogosphere -- nobody but other MySpace users are reading. Don't get me wrong, that's still a lot of people, but think about the signal to noise and heat to light ratios generated by 40 million teenage girls obsessed with Hello Kitty and burnt out 20-somethings hoping to get humped by every guy in the Navy that stops off at Pensacola.

I also don't like it because it seems like MySpace pages are all based off web templates that fell off the ugly tree and hit every single branch on the way down. Then an ugly lumberjack came by and cut down the ugly tree, and it fell on the templates. Then an ugly dog came and pissed all over them. I think you get the point, the templates went on an ugly journey, or perhaps the designer was an fictional, retarded 9-year-old

To be honest, other blogging websites aren't much better -- Xanga and DeadJournal have obliterated readability for emo-goodness.

All I'm saying is compare a blogger.com template, while semi-generic or bland, or a livejournal template, and the site looks better to me.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I hate MySpace so much because it reminds me that my friends who are very capable of stylishly decorating their rooms in ways that will forever exceed mine, stylistically shit in their own nest on the web. And as a result, I get a punch in the eyes. The goggles, they do nothing...

But I guess the lock-out/lock-in that I spoke of is what really pissed me off. I already have empty profiles on other social networking websites because I keep all my shit up to date here. I don't want another bullshit profile just to read about "The Joys of Fleet Week" or "Why doesn't anyone like me?" or "Twenty Reasons why Staind is Better the PoD."

I really need to upgrade my machine so I can thresh around with GarageBand more. Thankfully, the day of upgrade goodness will be here quite soon.

Finally, I think I'm going into hiding this week, since I've got friends coming up this weekend. I need to clean and get ready to cook for whoever will be staying in the guest bedroom, which I assume with be Chuck and his girlfriend Linda. Janurary also marks the first month where I didn't complete a technology book, as I further complicate my social life by making music, gaming, hanging out with people, and working out more. I don't have as much time to develop on my own.

Anyway, I need to catch up on my career goals, and I think I need a little "me" time. I'm back in the world of dealing with a legacy production system. Suddenly, deadlines are all the more tighter, code changes all the more specific and tedious, and testing an ordeal. Its a grind. I have some ideas on how to clean it up, gleaned from the pragmatic programmer, but there are trade offs to my optimizations, and I'm not so sure they'll be such an easy sell, considering the effort/return ratio.

Has anyone else been loving the last two Penny-Arcade Comics, where their girlfriends find "embarressing things" on their computer?

One final thing: Apparently a computer virus is due to strike networks on Feb. 3rd. This one deletes data. Feb. 3rd is my first girlfriend's bday. Yeah, I'm a considerate fellow, I still remember. Its easy to remember, that's back in the days when I burned things into my memory. I'm sure she'd remember mine, but that doubled as our anniversery, so I'm sure she'd be as quick to forget it as I would be if I didn't happen to have to remember my birthday for signing up for all the online newspapers I love so much. But yeah, I just wanted to publically state that I had nothing to do with the creation of this virus. As soon as I heard, my first thought was: "Looks like I got off easy, compared to the other guy... :)"

Blogger.com is informing me that this is my 250th post. If I was in a nostaglic mood, I'd go back and bask in the glow of those unknowingly naive posts. I could do a highlight about how I've pruned so many posts, like the one where I mentioned "Rob" and "Friend" in the same sentence. Or who could forget the lover's quarrel that was arguing that my former (and still psycho) ex roommate should pay me the money he owes me, but doesn't, and I let his girlfriend (at the time) know he was cheating on her (via Instant Messenger, what a way to find out.)

Or I could rant and rave about how this blog used to be vandalized by a petty minded douchebag, who promptly stopped after I mentioned (three or four times) that he's losing the pissing contest: I make more, I have better benefits, cheaper living expenses, less debt, more friends, Fridays off, and more connections. Oh, and once more the history books: NTFS _is_ a journaling file system, thankyouverymuch.

But I don't really feel like doing either of those things.

Truth is, I'm entering more of a 'quiet phase'. I've been thinking a lot, and listening to a lot less music. I've found myself getting pissed off at myself at the gym for not 'being where I think I should be'.

So I'll fill you in on the little tidbits:
1) Short Ram Intake (from Weapon R) is in the mail. I should be able to put it in my car this weekend or next.
2) Switching over to WV plates. It's official, I live here now.
3) Spending a lot of time in discussion forums at ArsTechnica.com apparently my commentary to some of the 'controversial' blog posts has landed me a few private invitations to peoples soapbox forums. I love arguing on the internet: Even if I lose, "teh winner" is just as retarded.
4) I started playing Zelda: Windwaker, but I haven't even beat the first dungeon yet. I keep missing a crucial rope I need to swing from platform to platform. I blame my controller.
5) I broke my sport armband for my iPod by flexing my arm too much! I'm pretty pissed: That thing cost me a whole $5 on eBay. I expected it to last more then two weeks.
6) I really love the postal service. I love it like a fat kid loves cake.
7) I'm at the point in my developer career where I know 99% of what I need to know to "scratch my own itch" -- make a tool or framework to serve some kind of purpose I need. The 1% that's most crucial: actually building it.


There, see, nothing dramatic, nothing controversial.

Stay tuned for craziness, tho. I can't hide from it forever, so I'm sure it'll catch up with me at some point.

I visited my friends in Chesterfield, whom I haven't seen in nearly 2-3 months, and it was an awesome celebration. When they throw one of their open parties, I find myself bored at the antics of obnoxious band geeks trying to be crazy/sexy/cool and all the drama that ensues.

Thankfully, since they were road tripping on Saturday, Friday night was a quiet, intimate thing. A gather of the circle of friends I used to belong to (and still do, but like the really dumb guy from friends, Joey, I've branched off onto my own spin off.)

So it was good to know that I'm actually thought of, and in fact, missed at times. And as Lisa put, "I can't believe that I've known you for four years. That's pretty amazing."

Yes, it has been pretty amazing. The college clique: We've bought each other PSPs, paid each other's rent, traded furniture, seen each other naked, sung along to the postal service, gone shot for shot, passed out repeatedly, used it each other for job references, and other crazy stuff that won't be written about, because the stories belong just to us and that's the way (uh huh, uh huh) we like it.

The Friday night party definitely had some craziness. Including a certain topless girl running around yelling something like "Duty Tuty" or what not. This led to a discussion of the, haha, 'gentlemen' present of how to encourage a topless dance party. However, since this wasn't one of those infamous star parties which have disqualified me from ever holding public office, the discussion promptly ended, and I went back to stealing jeremy's pretzel sticks while everyone else was drinking.

Lisa and Erin spent some time catching up. They haven't hung out in ages. I've always encouraged the two to hang out, as friends they complement each other well, and I think Lisa could stand to have some non-male dominated space, as she's currently living with three guys. Or as she put it, "We need more real vagina in this place, and less digital pornstar vagina."

I did miss two people I wanted to visit this trip to Pittsburgh: Greg and Abby. Abby and I have open a small dialogue, and I would like to start keeping in touch. If the rift I somehow created in our friendship can't ever be fully closed, I'm prepared to accept that, but I'm not prepared to do nothing anymore and left the friendship atrophy into nothing. Greg is just freakin' cool, and its been forever since I've talked to him, which means I've probably missed out on some good times. I wanted to catch up.

I also had an opportunity to play with a Nintendo DS. I played the new Mario Kart. I am really impressed with how the DS feels. The screen is incredibly bright; not as bright as the PSP, but with two of them, it is still impressive. The controls are responsive, the WiFi just works, the battery life was pretty decent, and the game play and graphics were fun and amazing. I didn't think there could be so much power in a lower end system. I didn't think the games would be that good on a portable. I've seen some games on PSP that truly suck ass: The Madden game, for instance. But it seems like Nintendo "gets" portable gaming better then Sony. I will probably pick up a Nintendo DS/Mario Kart bundle this week, right after I get that pesky car payment out of the way.

It just feels like a portable system I would be happy with. And from some of the musings of the Penny Arcade crew, I know I'm not alone. Also, the online gaming seems to have some 'magic' that is missing elsewhere in the console world (I haven't tried Xbox Live, so I can't speak for it). My friend Chuck and I have pretty much knocked anyone who thought online gaming was "teh future".
Other then one FPS, I never game online. When I want to game, I'm more interested in getting away from people, not interacting with them, but what Nintendo's doing with Mario Kart and Animal Crossing seems to make people as anti-online gaming as Chuck and myself convert.

So I'm excited for that. I might even post a few friend codes online here.

But I do hate the fact that it seems like I've drank the nintendo kool-aid. Its bad enough I'm an apple fanboy. (The MacBook Pro will be mine!)
Especially since I was a sega kid growing up, this makes me feel like a defector, but considering that Sonic can only be played on the Xbox and the gamecube right now, you really have to pick your poison. And while I would love it if Activision would publish some of its MechWarrior games for the gamecube, I'm not going to spend money on more then one portable system and one gaming system: I'm not in the mood, and I don't game enough. And while the PS2 would be THE system to have if you're just buying one (Shadow of Colusses, DDR, Guitar Hero, Shadow the Hedgehog, the Final Fantasies and Dragon Warrior) I made my choice and I'm sticking with it.

Besides, the PS2 doesn't have Zelda.

Click the title of this blog post to listen to a track I created with Garageband.
Its about a minute or so long. 192kpbs mp3, about 1.8 megs so this won't kill your network. It could be something to check out on your lunch break.

Its called "Scattered Lullaby". Its another one of my "Experiments".

Feel free to leave feedback, like if its too quiet, or too loud. By feedback, I mean constructive critisim.

And by constructive critism, I mean "leave only your adoration and undying love."

Its been forever.
So I was in the ER. For the flu.

I understand how it could've killed people before modern medecine.
That's all I got.