Pete's Log: Clearing out the queue (again)
Entry #1703, (Random Crap)(posted when I was 32 years old.)
I've noticed I've accumulated a lot of postponed log entries again. Gonna just post a few of them without much more editing. Time-related words such as "yesterday" apply to sometime further in the past, none of this was written today. Except this paragraph.
some random weblinks for your amusement
This one I have on my bookmark bar in Firefox for quick access. It's oddly reassuring: Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?
gravity and levity, a sciency blog. Doesn't update very often, but there's some good stuff in the archives.
If a weblog is now called a blog, is a weblink a blink?
finger autopilot
i noticed that a number of words whose spelling in german is similar to the spelling of an english word will end up typed as the english word. i am only conscious of thinking and wishing to type the german word. i don't realize i've typed an english word instead until i see it on the screen. do my fingers simply have more muscle memory for english words? or is it just coincidence?
midnight heroics
When I bring up task manager and look at process CPU utilization, I'm always impressed when a process is consuming more than 100/(num_cpus)% . Respect.
It always amuses me when you find a dialog in Office or Windows that obviously hasn't been brought up to date to the latest fancy UI scheme. Example: Excel "Text in Column", anyhting ODBC.
more biking
Yesterday, despite somewhat rainy weather, I decided to go on a bikeventure. Since moving to Munich, I still haven't managed to visit the observation area at Munich airport, even though I enjoy airport observation areas. So I figured I'd see if biking to the airport was feasible.
There's a bike path along the Isar which goes out to Freising and beyond, and since the airport isn't far from the river, I figured I could follow the bike path until I hit the A92, and then try to find my way to the airport. My main objective however was simply to get out and do some biking. Ultimate was scheduled for 4 pm, and I left at 11 am, so I decided I would turn around by 1 pm regardless of how far I'd gone.
In the end, I made it about 20 km before turning around. It was only 12:15 when I gave up, but with the temperature only about 10° Celsius and it raining, I was getting too cold. Along the way I had also taken one wrong turn and snapped my rear brake cable. Distance from home to Freising along the bike path is about 38 km, so I made it more than halfway. I will certainly try this adventure again on a nicer day.
Adding in my one detour and the biking to/from frisbee, I probably biked about 50 km. Add in a couple hours of frisbee, and I think I burned a few calories yesterday.
Che
Using Che Guevara in your commercial should automatically disqualify you from participating in the capitalist system.
what does this say about me?
The page of videos that youtube recommends for me contains (among other things) 8 Starcraft videos, 3 Pokemon videos, 3 videos with random Eastern European music, and a video titled "Spiderman Dance" .
Strange dream
There was a space shuttle launch. But in my dream the shuttle is launched from within a tunnel that seems more like a subway tunnel than one suitable for launching a spacecraft.
I am there for the launch and somehow there is some race scheduled to take place to celebrate the launch, and I'm supposed to run in it. But I'm there late or something. Details are pretty vague by now. So I'm told I need to hurry to the registration desk. Which is apparently up the tunnel a way. So I rush up the tunnel, hoping to get through before the shuttle needs to use it.
It turns out, though, that there was a bus I could have taken, and I found this out when I had to flatten myself against the tunnel wall in order to avoid being hit by the bus.
So I made it through the tunnel and found out I was in the wrong spot and had to go back and find the registration desk elsewhere.
spam is educational
A spam message made it past the filters and into my inbox. Its subject was "When last he sailed, he left the bird behind"
This line intrigued me and I googled it. It's from a poem by William Wordsworth, the Sailor's Mother.
THE SAILOR'S MOTHER
ONE morning (raw it was and wet--
A foggy day in winter time)
A Woman on the road I met,
Not old, though something past her prime:
Majestic in her person, tall and straight;
And like a Roman matron's was her mien and gait.
The ancient spirit is not dead;
Old times, thought I, are breathing there;
Proud was I that my country bred
Such strength, a dignity so fair:
She begged an alms, like one in poor estate;
I looked at her again, nor did my pride abate.
When from these lofty thoughts I woke,
"What is it," said I, "that you bear,
Beneath the covert of your Cloak,
Protected from this cold damp air?"
She answered, soon as she the question heard,
"A simple burthen, Sir, a little Singing-bird."
And, thus continuing, she said,
"I had a Son, who many a day
Sailed on the seas, but he is dead;
In Denmark he was cast away:
And I have travelled weary miles to see
If aught which he had owned might still remain for me.
"The bird and cage they both were his:
'Twas my Son's bird; and neat and trim
He kept it: many voyages
The singing-bird had gone with him;
When last he sailed, he left the bird behind;
From bodings, as might be, that hung upon his mind.
"He to a fellow-lodger's care
Had left it, to be watched and fed,
And pipe its song in safety;--there
I found it when my Son was dead;
And now, God help me for my little wit!
I bear it with me, Sir;--he took so much delight in it."
Anyway, I guess I need to get better at finishing log entries.