Older blog entries for Krelin (starting at number 13)

Getting Involved

Well. I recently tried to "get involved," by sending both of my California Senators a polite non-form-letter e-mail regarding the SSSCA. So far, I have recieved only the following form e-mail (and this, as far as I can tell, was not even sent automagically, as I received it several days after my original e-mail):

Dear Mr. Crowder:

Thank you for contacting my office to express your views.

I believe that all citizens should become involved in our legislative process by letting their voices be heard. I appreciate the time and effort that you took to share your thoughts. One of the most important aspects of my job is keeping informed about the views of my constituents, and I welcome your comments so that I may continue to represent California to the best of my ability.

Again, thank you for your correspondence.

Not signed. That was from Senator Boxer's office. It turns out both of California's Senators have previously voted in support of the DMCA, so I doubt they'll be even slightly less predictable with regard to the SSSCA (which has serious implications -- both ways -- for California's economy, no matter how you look at it).

Recently finished reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and Theodore Rex. Can't wait for Edmund Morris to finish the third volume in this trilogy. TR is truly one of the most dynamic and amazing presidents in our history.

Picked up Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell. Want to read Victor Davis Hanson's Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power next.

Very busy at work lately, team is finding a very solid direction and moving forward at what seems to be a brisk, useful pace we did not have before, largely thanks to new leadership on multiple levels. I expect to learn a lot about RTS game AI over the next few months.

8 Jan 2002 (updated 8 Jan 2002 at 19:25 UTC) »

Pretty uneventful weekend/monday. Hardly worth an entry. Started playing with a little GTK code last night for a self-instructional project I would like to undertake... GTK doesn't really seem to do dockable windows quite the way I want... or I'm just not getting it. The MSVC feel of dockable windows is really what I'm after.

Went to see Lord of the Rings again this weekend (had to make the wife go). She didn't like it, but I liked it even more than the first time. What a great flick.

Oh, yeah! Also saw "A Beautiful Mind" (what's the proper bibliographic format for a movie title? Italic? Quoted?). That was a very good movie.... Russell Crowe ought to win Best Actor for it, except that the Academy will probably hesitate since they gave it to him last year fo "Gladiator." Really, this is a much more worthy project, in terms of Academy acclaim. Ah well.

Spent the bulk of Saturday shopping (it seems), or runningn errands. Took my dog to the dog park for 2 hours on Sunday... Barely got anything productive or fun done, otherwise. The weather was nice this weekend, though....

Still increasingly amazed by the life of Theodore Roosevelt.... the level of corruption he faced in the New York Assembly at the time he arrived is unbelievable. I wonder if our current political system is actually less corrupt, or simply more cunning/crafty at concealing it? Certainly, I have realized that the concept of a career politician is not a new one (nor necessarily a bad one). Here are a couple of nice (if slightly biased) quotes from TR:

"It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready to take advantage of them."

"...the more I see the better satisfied I am that I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit."

Now I can take the dog-ears out of those pages of my book... Of course, having slid down a grassy/leafy hill last week ON this book, I am beginning to care less about its pristine condition. :) Normally I am a book-freak.

Well, back to work.

No dear on the coaster this morning. Some nice waves, though. Caught up on laundry last night; getting sick of having heaps of clothes strewn across the floor in the house. More DAoC, more Theodore Roosevelt (he's about to get married for the first time, I think).

Got a free CD from work (God Save The Company), but they have drilled a hole in the jewel-case, to prevent ambitious employees from netting an additional $14/mo in Best Buy merchandise credit. The CD is Train, "Drops of Jupiter," I like the title song, but I think this CD will end up residing in the wife's collection.

Howard Stern says I should boycott France.

3 Jan 2002 (updated 3 Jan 2002 at 17:04 UTC) »

The San Diego Coaster cuts south (at least when I ride it in the mornings), along some of the most beautiful coastline I have ever witnessed. About 20 minutes into the ride, it twists away from the coast briefly and slices through a really amazing, green, lush valley (on the west side of the train). Today, that valley was coated with a fine mist, resting among the scrubby trees and leaving a wispy fog over the small streams and water-inlets that escape from the ocean into that valley. Even better, I actually saw a dear, with very dark markings, racing alongside the train!

I love riding the train.

My right pinky-toe doesn't have enough skin underneath it to stretch out properly, like the other toes. So when it lands on something where it gets stretched, it cracks. This is quite an irritating sensation. I cracked it open last night; it's like having a paper-cut that reopens itself on every step.

Considering upgrading to a newly released version of SpiderMonkey (the Mozilla one, not the Ximian one). shaver says it has many pretty bugfixes. Too bad the Windows build process blows so much.

Still reading Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (he's at Harvard now), and playing too much Dark Age of Camelot. Got the newest edition of "OpenGL Programming Guide" for Christmas, and I really should make myself do a project to master this stuff. I want to do a modellor.

Disregard all previous diary entries. What BS.

All my previous entries, I mean.

Took Coaster in to work this morning, as usual. Hard time waking up, probably because my sleep schedule is screwed from the holidays. Glad this is a 3-day week, I'm not entirely ready to face actual work again yet. Enjoyed having family visit, but it is a lot of work -- don't feel I had much in the way of actual vacation time.

Got Playstation 2 for Christmas (God Save The Company), dig on Grand Theft Auto III, but can't play for too long at one session. Also like The Simpson's Road Rage, which I like to play with my wife. I let her stay close, but haven't yet lost a head-to-head match.

Still playing Dark Age of Camelot, also. (Dark Age of -Camelto- is what I always want to type there) I wonder if I'll get sick of this game.... my newest character is a cleric, and I think I am having more fun with it than with previous incarnations.

Reading "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris (it's the "prequel" to his "Theodore Rex" recently recieving much acclaim. My dad gave me both for Christmas so I am reading them in order.) I'm not very far along, but it is an excellent read so far. Not as thick and heavy as I expected; reads more like a novel.

Theodore Roosevelt is my hero. What an incredible human being. It's interesting to note that he's probably got very strong symptoms of (what we would now call) ADD. :) His energy is amazing!!! I only wish I could force myself to be that energetic.

It wouldn't hurt to also have a photographic memory, though.

His amazing self-documentation of his life has caused me to re-consider this whole online-journal thing. I need to make myself do this. I also need to make myself report my life honestly. Too many of my entries (and too many other entries here, in general), as I look back on them are either totally devoid of content, total BS, or totally meaningless. It would be more interesting to give a simple , honest report of each day, even if it's nothing more than "Almost missed train. made it. Ate oatmeal for breakfast and lunch. Worked on more spidermonkey integration with sovereign server. went home on train. took dog to dog park where I heard rumors of a woman whose leg was shattered in same park by playing (rampaging) dogs who crashed into it."

I think I may even consider doing a paper journal of some sort, but that would not be as convenient, plus I type faster than I write. Would be cool to be able to add graphical content to my entries, though. Roosevelt took close notes of everything, it seems, including diagrams of interesting animals or buildings sketched into his journal.

Searching for more journal entries of his online, I found only several links/references to entries concerning the death of his wife (first?). Would be cool to have the whole journal from day one available online (in text form, maybe with spelling mistakes, but not in graphical form as scans of the page -- his handwriting is difficult to wade through).

Check out this article my wife wrote. She will be writing one more in the next day or two.

Well, back to work.

Hmmmm.

203.79.149.103, 24.12.234.184, 24.12.81.164, 24.132.159.52, 24.150.136.58, 24.156.152.31, 24.156.49.89, 24.156.96.252, 24.160.52.70, 24.163.36.60, 24.163.57.47, 24.164.244.142, 24.166.137.197, 24.167.75.55, 24.168.52.215, 24.176.100.209, 24.176.52.50, 24.177.166.213, 24.177.32.95, 24.178.103.83, 24.178.7.198, 24.179.84.14, 24.18.126.112, 24.181.145.215, 24.182.88.242, 24.19.102.239, 24.190.146.112, 24.191.25.35, 24.201.189.24, 24.21.112.16, 24.219.93.249, 24.22.184.89, 24.221.211.188, 24.23.77.175, 24.250.161.120, 24.250.161.179, 24.251.15.183, 24.251.176.112, 24.251.188.138, 24.251.22.58, 24.251.224.196, 24.251.238.71, 24.251.242.178, 24.251.52.198, 24.253.205.46, 24.26.91.146, 24.27.171.155, 24.28.204.3, 24.3.150.191, 24.31.211.128, 24.37.35.77, 24.42.103.96, 24.42.120.11, 24.42.250.60, 24.48.66.94, 24.6.66.135, 24.78.132.172, 24.88.60.11, 24.9.92.254, 24.92.163.47, 24.92.192.209, 24.92.199.66, 24.93.103.230, 24.95.151.2

Phoon!!! I read your thoughts on the chess thing.... I actually CONTACTED Tim Mann (the author of xboard) about the idea of creating a GTK+ port (not quite the same as GL, but similar porting problem) and he seemed to feel that the xboard source wasn't really in quite the shape in ought to be for such a project. He suggested a better approach might be to reimplement xboards protocols (ICS, crafty, etc.) from scratch..... I would very much like to see that happen with an eye towards PLUGGABLE front-ends... then you could do your GL version, and I could do my GTK+ version. I started writing a GTK+ board widget but abandoned it in favor of the job search I very much wished to complete.

And Fear Factor is kinda cool, imho. I don't dig the long-term reality shows much, so it's cool seeing people fail in the span of 3 or 4 commercial breaks. :) They could do without the worms and stuff, though.

30 Jul 2001 (updated 30 Jul 2001 at 02:36 UTC) »
Phoon: Thanks! The rest of advogato can blame you for being the cert that put me over the edge! :)

In other news, Fear Factor will be in San Diego next week. I need to practice my worm-eating skills.

How do weirdos like this guy get rich and powerful benefactors? Better question, how do I get a rich and powerful benefactor?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

28 Jul 2001 (updated 28 Jul 2001 at 20:19 UTC) »
Food

Went to "The Fish Market" last night, where our service was absolutely horrible (with the exception of an overachiever busboy, who got the lion's share of the tip). The food was excellent though. As we sat down, I found myself looking at the emergency exit door, labelled with a bright, flaming red notice on the cross-bar that said "ALARMED EMERGENCY EXIT" and behind that (slightly obscured by the bar itself, but still quite clear) a larger sign saying "Do not touch the bar when door is open, or alarm will WRAAAAAANG!" (sic)

Near the end of our meal, I observed over my wife's shoulder a couple of small girls, racing down the wooden floor of the restaurant, thumping as loud as possible. The thumping was loud and unsettling, but not nearly so much as the alarm door, as the first girl slammed into the oddly-labelled cross-bar, terrifying herself with the noise.

Bills

San Diego Gas and Electric bill arrived, surprisingly less than expected (still fairly high, but only $30-40 more than Austin TX, and it is the middle of the summer, after all). I dunno what all the fuss is about. :)

Advogato as Message Board (I know that's stolen, but I liked it)

hacker: It's not bullets, either. It's the blood-loss, or the massive brain trauma, or the gaping, sucking wound in the chest cavity. The worst thing about the Brazill case is how the kid got the gun.

footrot: If she looks anything like Shannon Elizabeth, I can't wait to see the webcast (try to keep yourself out of the picture).

ldunbar: My experience of Windows ME so far (with the Sony VAIO laptop I purchased a month or two ago) is that it is the most unstable, configuration-sensitive OS I've used in several years. M$ should be ashamed of themselves for releasing it. I immediately installed Linux on a second partition. Bleh.

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