Monday, December 25, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
Person of the Year
You may have heard that Time Magazine decided to name me as Person of the Year. That's right, me. Well, I guess you're Person of the Year too, but it's mainly me. See, Time put a little mirror on the magazine cover, so whoever looks at it obtains the honor. I've been going to every Borders in Omaha and turning the magazine around to make sure no one else can become Person of the Year.
You might have also heard that there's been a lot of controversy regarding their decision. See, I was selected as Person of the Year because of my contributions to society through the revolution that is known as Web 2.0. But some people think that rounded corners, light blue fonts, and mirrored images aren't as important to the news as other stuff, like North Korea testing the bomb, or whatever else is going on over there.
Well, I think they made the right decision. As Person of the Year, I have the intelligence and expertise to make this judgement. And I'm already taking advantage of the position for all it's worth. I've updated my resume, and am using my newfound title as a doctor would. Matthew Steele, PotY just rolls off the tongue.
And in the tradition of other award recipients, I have already engaged in illicit physical activity with the 1988 Planet of the Year recipient, Earth. And don't even ask what I did to the 1982 Person of the Year. Let's just say my computer's input slot will never be the same.
But I do have one problem with the award. I don't think it's the first time I've seen this...
You might have also heard that there's been a lot of controversy regarding their decision. See, I was selected as Person of the Year because of my contributions to society through the revolution that is known as Web 2.0. But some people think that rounded corners, light blue fonts, and mirrored images aren't as important to the news as other stuff, like North Korea testing the bomb, or whatever else is going on over there.
Well, I think they made the right decision. As Person of the Year, I have the intelligence and expertise to make this judgement. And I'm already taking advantage of the position for all it's worth. I've updated my resume, and am using my newfound title as a doctor would. Matthew Steele, PotY just rolls off the tongue.
And in the tradition of other award recipients, I have already engaged in illicit physical activity with the 1988 Planet of the Year recipient, Earth. And don't even ask what I did to the 1982 Person of the Year. Let's just say my computer's input slot will never be the same.
But I do have one problem with the award. I don't think it's the first time I've seen this...
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Wiiiii.....
So, I bought a Wii.
I decided that lines are for suckers, and standing in lines is for suckers with big coats and hoods. Granted this was after 3 Sundays in a row where I stood outside a Target or Best Buy to get one, but failed for one reason or another. But my point still stands. Suckers.
I decided to set up an overly elaborate and unnecessarily complicated system on the Internets wherein I would be alerted any time an Interweb retailer updated their Wii stocks, so I could be one of the people to buy it. One of the problems is that there's a lot of nerds on the Intertubes who had the same idea as me, so stocks of the Wii were snatched up faster than a kid near the Neverland ranch.
Eventually I beat those nerds at their own game, and bought one through Circuit City. It was great; I got an extra Wiimote and Nunchuck in order to break two televisions with it. And shipping was free through FedEx. Sweet, thought I.
Well, no one told me the free shipping was through FedEx's "SmartPost" system. Apparently the requirement to Post Smart is to be as dumb as humanly possible. Check out the route my package has gone so far:
And it started in Oklahoma.
:-(
I decided that lines are for suckers, and standing in lines is for suckers with big coats and hoods. Granted this was after 3 Sundays in a row where I stood outside a Target or Best Buy to get one, but failed for one reason or another. But my point still stands. Suckers.
I decided to set up an overly elaborate and unnecessarily complicated system on the Internets wherein I would be alerted any time an Interweb retailer updated their Wii stocks, so I could be one of the people to buy it. One of the problems is that there's a lot of nerds on the Intertubes who had the same idea as me, so stocks of the Wii were snatched up faster than a kid near the Neverland ranch.
Eventually I beat those nerds at their own game, and bought one through Circuit City. It was great; I got an extra Wiimote and Nunchuck in order to break two televisions with it. And shipping was free through FedEx. Sweet, thought I.
Well, no one told me the free shipping was through FedEx's "SmartPost" system. Apparently the requirement to Post Smart is to be as dumb as humanly possible. Check out the route my package has gone so far:
And it started in Oklahoma.
:-(
Monday, October 02, 2006
A Libertarian Democrat?
Markos Moulitsas makes the case that libertarians (with a lowercase l) should vote Democrat, both to "throw the rascals out" of the current administration, and also because the two's interests are truly aligned in their disdain for corruption, love of individiual liberty, and the like. It's an interesting read, and you should take the time to check it out.
One of my hopes for the coming Midterms is secretly that the Republicans would win yet another term in office; keep the House and the Senate. With all the scandals breaking throughout every level of the GOP and policies that the best defense is "the other side doesn't know how to fix it any better than we don't", a Democrat loss this cycle may finally be what pushes the party into irrelevancy. I believe in Duverget's Law as much as the next guy; and if the fall of a major political party is what's needed to get a true realignment, then I'd be all that much happier.
Besides, the last two years of this administration are going to be lame duck, anyway. And for pure political theater, Charlie Rangel as head of Ways and Means is just peanuts to what I've been expecting in my leaders in Washington.
One of my hopes for the coming Midterms is secretly that the Republicans would win yet another term in office; keep the House and the Senate. With all the scandals breaking throughout every level of the GOP and policies that the best defense is "the other side doesn't know how to fix it any better than we don't", a Democrat loss this cycle may finally be what pushes the party into irrelevancy. I believe in Duverget's Law as much as the next guy; and if the fall of a major political party is what's needed to get a true realignment, then I'd be all that much happier.
Besides, the last two years of this administration are going to be lame duck, anyway. And for pure political theater, Charlie Rangel as head of Ways and Means is just peanuts to what I've been expecting in my leaders in Washington.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
A purpose!
The more I think about it, the more I should have a website.
It seems obvious enough that a software engineer who used to love coding web pages more than any other medium would have a kickass webpage, or at least a page to play around with. I agree. ...with myself.
So I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things by posting on Blogger more often, eventually moving to my own blogging software on my own website.
The problem (as I've noted before) is that I don't really know the purpose of such a site. I know a few things I'd like to put on it (blog, resume, maybe a photo library), but beyond that, I'm as lost as I've ever been.
And then there's the problem of webpage design. It's not like I've ever been all that great at making web pages look good (hell, that's why I'm writing pure backend code at work), but I figure with external libraries and APIs like those provided by Yahoo and Google, I've at least got a head start. I just need to know what it looks like.
Of course, this will take some time. I just want to publish it somewhere so I can remind myself (and hopefully allow others to remind me) that I want to work on this.
It seems obvious enough that a software engineer who used to love coding web pages more than any other medium would have a kickass webpage, or at least a page to play around with. I agree. ...with myself.
So I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things by posting on Blogger more often, eventually moving to my own blogging software on my own website.
The problem (as I've noted before) is that I don't really know the purpose of such a site. I know a few things I'd like to put on it (blog, resume, maybe a photo library), but beyond that, I'm as lost as I've ever been.
And then there's the problem of webpage design. It's not like I've ever been all that great at making web pages look good (hell, that's why I'm writing pure backend code at work), but I figure with external libraries and APIs like those provided by Yahoo and Google, I've at least got a head start. I just need to know what it looks like.
Of course, this will take some time. I just want to publish it somewhere so I can remind myself (and hopefully allow others to remind me) that I want to work on this.
Apple Store Opening
Yes, I went to the Apple Store grand opening in Omaha this weekend.
Yes, I dragged my girlfriend to the event (she says she wanted to go, but in a contest between going or sleeping in, I know which would normally win).
Yes, I waited in line for almost an hour to get a free Apple t-shirt.
No, I did not camp out the night before to be one of the first people in the store.
That was for my good friend Foy to do. An extra billion nerd points to you.
Yes, I dragged my girlfriend to the event (she says she wanted to go, but in a contest between going or sleeping in, I know which would normally win).
Yes, I waited in line for almost an hour to get a free Apple t-shirt.
No, I did not camp out the night before to be one of the first people in the store.
That was for my good friend Foy to do. An extra billion nerd points to you.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
why blog?
On another note, I still have no idea what I will use this blog for. My plan is to keep it around, but, at this point it's an exercise in nihlism.
test
One of the nice things about using an actual blog site instead of rolling your own is the ability to make use of cool little tools that you always wanted to write but didn't ever take the time to code, or didn't want to learn how to do.
One of these is the Dashboard widget. Which is where this post happens to be coming from.
One of these is the Dashboard widget. Which is where this post happens to be coming from.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
first post!
Since I'm not doing the college thing anymore, my new blog will be here. But you already knew that.
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