Dustice

Chris Choi is having a baby! Well not him, actually - specifically, his wife is having the baby and he’s uh… making a checklist of things he’s going to do when she has the child. But congratulations to him on his daughter!  Here’s a few of his points that I feel are particularily important, and which I will definitely borrow in parenting Chrysanthemum in the future:

• when picking her up at school, honk the car horn, roll down window, wave and yell her name as loud as possible.  also do this in wifebeater and shorts. (Free t-tshirt and swishy pants, imo. I’d also like to be a substitute teacher for a couple days.)

• accidentally wear one of her jackets and walk around the house saying, “i don’t get why this doesn’t fit”

• tell her she needs to go to harvard.  do this starting at kindergarten. (Stanford, man. Stanford.)
• if she starts wearing clothes i feel is slightly inappropriate - do not chastise her.  instead, find out where she bought the clothes- buy extra large versions and wear it.  extra points if you synchronize with her.
• record the word “da da”.  put a tape player underneath her crib and loop it.  then bet mom, that her first word is gonna be yours.
• and finally - love her with all your heart and raise her to be the beautiful person she is. (awwwwwwwww)

And finally a picture of the type of dad I think we should all aspire to be:

So Allen’s toilet became clogged this past weekend, and it was quite an experience trying to remove the obstruction. Intensive research was conducted, and a variety of techniques were applied in this battle. This is a chronicle of what worked and what didn’t - and an attempt to collect this knowledge to aid students in similar excursions of the future. A bit of a nasty subject, but I bravely soldier forth in the name of knowledge and the American Way ™.

Victim: Allen’s Toilet
Condition: Critical. Subject is fully clogged. Drainage is minimal.
Suspect: Bad Poop.

Brief Summary:

• DO NOT USE CHEMICAL SOLVENTS
• Wait for the water level to fall
• Use an auger and remove/break the clog
• Use hot water, poured from waist-height if the auger is unable to penetrate the clog alone.
• Contact a plumber if the situation merits it.
• Safety first!

Full Briefing:

The first thing to know about toilet clogs is what you’re dealing with. If the suspect is some sort of non-biological object (our research team has discovered multiple recorded cases of toothbrushes and other bathroom objects in the past), your approach will be entirely different (most likely unscrewing and inverting the toilet). Our case, however, will be mainly from a biological-waste standpoint. Know that the vast majority of toilet clogs will occur at the neck of the toilet pipe (fig. 1). As such, chemical dissolvents will be largely ineffective and may even cause permanent damage to the toilet porcelain, as well as pose a health hazard when attempting other, more reasonable methods of unclogging.

Fig 1. Typical Clog location

The timing of your attack is crucial - inadvertent flushes will only cause the water level to rise and elevates the risk of CRITICAL OVERFLOW. Wait for the water to drain out, and do not flush again until reasonably certain the clog has been completely and totally annihilated.

Your initial method of attack should be with a plunger - preferably a flange plunger which is designed especially for toilets and can apply far more pressure than your standard dome plunger. However, if you suspect the suspect is Serious Business then you may wish to jump directly to the auger (as we did) - the foremost tool in clog-combat.

Fig. 2 - The AUGER

The auger (fig. 2) is a potent weapon, and should be used responsibly and with care (bending of the wire is possible if too much force is applied). To obtain one, visit your nearest Weapons Home Depot, though they may also be available at more pedestrian locations (ie. Wal-Mart). The objective is to snake the wire of the auger until it bumps against the offending material, and then use the screwing motion to firmly attach the head. Afterwards, you should be able to simply yank the clog out, or at least cause enough damage that water pressure should take care of the rest. Positioning of the auger is crucial here, as incorrectly angling the auger will not accomplish anything - aim the auger towards the upper neck of the toilet and begin screwing once you feel a solid mass ahead.

To assist the auger, hot water can also be used to soften up the clog. Dishwasher detergent can be mixed with the water for it’s oil-soluble properties for additional effect. A combination of this method and the auger was what we used to finally conquer the clog.

To this date, the culprit is unknown in the Allen-toilet case has not and most likely will never be resolved - the primary suspect is some sort of digested barbecue from the large number of visitors to the victim that day. Rest assured, however, whoever whatever the culprit was, they’ve most likely met their end at the waste treatment plant by now. Haruhi-sama have mercy on their souls.

Images sourced from Howstuffworks.com

Awhile ago I checked out -> this Gender-Estimation site. it’s a pretty neat script that guesses your gender based upon your browsing history. Try it out if you haven’t already (it’s mostly pretty accurate).

My stats are 99% Male 1% Female (gaming and tech sites nicely skew the scale) xP. Post your stats in the comments if you have time - it’s really interesting to see how accurate the tool is (I’ve already seen that it doesn’t work so great for guys who visit a lot of shopping sites *ahem*, and girls who visit a lot of news sites, as well as geekier girls).

Nice little trick, but the scripts behind it are what make it interesting. First is the Social History script by Paul Cook, which uses a CSS leak to find out which sites you visited. Basically it “displays” a ton of URLs and checks which ones your browser marks as blue or purple. Mike combines this script with the Quantcast Demographics and a bit of math in order to guess your gender.

The applications of the Social History script are enormous - and I expect a ton of sites to be using it soon to better serve their users as well as more little tricks such as Mike’s.

Looking at the gender-guessing results, it’s also really interesting to check out random sites you visit on Quantcast for more specific demographics (search for a site and then click on “See Demographics”. Most of them are to be expected:

• WoWwiki.com - Male, Young Adult, Asian
• Engadget.com - Male, Young Adult, Affluent, College Graduate
• NYtimes.com - Older, No Kids, Grads/Post-Grads

While a few are more surprising:

• Amazon.com - Female, No Kids, Grads/Post-Grads
• Yahoo.com - Female, Young Adult, Asian, Less Affluent
• Facebook.com - Female, African-American, Has Kids, Affluent
• Wikipedia.com - Male, Teen, Asian

Never would’ve guessed =P

Ingenious marketing. That’s what Seth Godin has always been about, and his latest move is just so brilliant - seems like it has the internet abuzz.

The topic (and title!) of Seth’s soon-to-be-released book is “Tribes”. A Tribe is (from what I can conclude from the Amazon blurb) an exclusive group of people centered around an idea, a product, or a person. I expect Seth to be arguing for the power of the Tribe in the internet age where a successful product can be far more than a consumer item - but a culture.

But anyways - Yesterday, Seth Godin offered me a chance to join his new “special, invitation-only online community”.

Exciting!

All I had to do was to -

• Preorder his book ($14 or so)
• Mail him my online reciept

And I would get membership to this “tribe for marketers, for leaders, for those focused on building communities or creating products or spreading ideas.”
But that’s not all! Membership is:

• Exclusive - Members had to purchase his smart, creative, analytical book! That means all the people in there will be smart, creative, and analytical!
• Limited - Membership will stopped being offered when enough people have joined.
• Numbered - Members are number based upon the order in which they join, which in his words = “prestige, first dibs on various assets and bragging rights”
• Perky - Members get the chance to win free tickets to the Tribes launch event and “a few other goodies”. He also wants your physical address to “send you something in the mail in October”

Now golly gee. He’s creating a Tribe around his book about Tribes! But this whole marketing ploy demonstrates just how powerful a tribe can be and what it takes to construct one.

From what I can deduce, A tribe:

• Is a community centered around an idea, a product, or a person
• Has members who participate by both discussion, and new innovation centered around their focus
• Is exclusive - members pay an entrance fee, this fee ties into the focus of the tribe
• And cultivates that image of exclusivity
• Appears beneficial to the members, offers special benefits based upon the focus

Can you think of tribes already in place? (Apple, Political societies, Religious groups, and Frats all come to my mind)

So yeah, I’m excited about checking out this community when it launches (to be located at triiibes.com) as well as seeing what Seth’s word about Tribes in his book (and seeing what I guess right!).

Thoughts?

— Oh, also

• Jeff mentioned this article from my del.icio.us, which I found from Grace, and noted the connection between high-end colleges and tribes

Today, Dr. Randy Pausch died. He has been a hero of mine ever since the day that I watched his “Last Lecture”, and I believe he’ll forever be one of the greater influences on my life.

For those of you who haven’t heard of him, he was a professor of Computer Science from CMU known for founding Alice, innovative cross-discpline courses, and passion for computer education. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which he fought bravely - but in August last year he was told he had only a few months left to live. On September 18, 2007 he delivered his now famous Last Lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” a lecture written to answer the question: “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?”. Even though he knew he was near death, he was energetic and comedic - using jokes and entertaining tales from bits of his life to dig deep into his beliefs on education, happiness, and above all, dreams.

Watching that lecture changed the way I think about living life to it’s fullest and what it means to contribute as a human being. His courage and his bravery facing death still shock me when I think about it now, and I wish to be able to be face living with half the enthusiasm he had as he faced dying.

If you have never watched his final lecture before, I highly, highly, highly encourage you to do so. Perhaps it’ll touch your life - as it has forever changed mine. The full video is available here. And the transcript is here.

A few of my favorite quotes from the lecture:

“We’re not going to talk about spirituality and religion. Although I will tell you that I have experienced a deathbed conversion. I just bought a Macintosh.”

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the OTHER people!”

“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”

“It’s not about how to achieve your dreams, it’s all about leading your life. If you lead your life in a right way, karma will take care of itself. And dreams will come to you.”

Farewell, Dr. Pausch - and know that your teachings will live on long after you have passed away.

requiescat in pace

I have recently been met with a large amount of free time. Mostly due to WoW dying. So need to find more things2do!

Long Story Short: Guild died, I miss the people, energy isn’t there, burnout, no motivation for competitive play, need more asian girls (what?).

Conclusion: I’m only going to log on to mess around with Chris/Chuan/Robby/Bryanmyyoungestbrother. No more leveling more characters. No more trying to raid. Forget gear, forget honor, forget badges. I only want to play with friends.

So we’re talking about going down from like 20 hours/week to about 3 or so.

So I’ll have lots of free time to:

• Program for fun. Haven’t done that for awhile. And the GCJ Puzzles are really nifty =D
• Blog. This blog is ugly. N2Fix. And post more.
• Explore other hobbies. After watching Allen play, I feel like learning Poker - Applied Game Theory amiright?
• Learn crap. Like Chinese. Building a collections of dramas/movies kk. (BTW Lust, Caution is really good. Extremely bold choices by the director - but I felt it was a success. And I’m GAR for Wang Lee-Hom)
• Friendlies. I’ll visit Allen and Shona now that they’re living together. Teach me Poker, Allen. Teach me Chess, Shona. I’ll bus up to Shrews’s/Jackie’s place when he’s too lazy to pick me up. And damned if I can’t drag Benry away from his flock of girls more than once this summer. Plus, I’ll be more responsive to emails. *promise* XINNNNNNG-KE~

So last Saturday I went to go see the Video Games Live! concert. I expected a cheesy half-assed performance of some popular songs but instead had one of the most fun experiences of my geek side of life. For those of you who have never heard of Video Games Live (henceforth abbreviated as VGLive), the idea is to bring video game music to a new art form by incorporating a live orchestra and choir, synchronized video elements, lighting effects, and audience participation. Also each show is different - they have about 50 different segments prepared and are constantly adding more to their repertoire, but can only perform 20 or so during each performance. They choose which segments will be performed based upon the culture of the city they are performing in as well as a poll on their website. The result is an unique and surprisingly clever performance, with a quirky feel that really draws in the entire audience.

Segments that I distinctively remember:

• Old School Arcade Games
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Mario old and Mario new
• Guitar Hero
• WoW
• Metroid
• Halo
• Starcraft
• Zelda
• Civilization 4 <3<3<3 (I know Baba Yetu in Swahili by heart)
• Kingdom Hearts
• FFVII (One Winged Angel rocked)

Favorite moments:

• Turning on my DS and seeing FULL PICTOCHAT rooms!!! Made waiting during the intermission pretty much a segment of it’s own. I made friends with a couple of kids who like Inuyasha, drew pictures of MidnaxLink action, and found some /b/tards - just to name a few of the hijinks that went on in there.
• The WoW segment. Hearing the theme sung by a full choir was just amazing. It felt so epic. Also, during the song some guy yells “FOR THE ALLIANCE” and was met with “FOR THE HORDE”. This continued throughout the piece until the end when the conductor turns around and says “ok guys, time to settle this once and for all… ALLIANCE *met with cheers* HORDE *met with rawrs*. EPIC. I almost yelled “YOU ARE NOT PREPARED” during the Illidan scene, but I managed to contain myself.
• Guitar Hero - this was one of the interactive segments and also one that never appeared before they played in Austin. The girl who won the Guitar Hero contest before the show got on the stage - the setup: if she plays this song by Aerosmith (with the orchestra and choir playing the music instead of the game) and gets 175000 points on Hard, she gets a $2.5k AMD (Austin company) laptop by Dell (Austin company). So she gets up on stage and the announcer says something about “tell that to the people who say girls don’t play games” and all the girls in the crowd go crazy. Then when she’s about to select the difficulty everyone starts chanting “EX-PERT! EX-PERT!”. She puts it on expert and starts playing and damn… the whole crowd went wild whenever she hit a star power… and then went really crazy when she hit 175k.
• Before the encore the announcer said something like “when I was a kid we all stuck up our lighters when we wanted an encore - but lets do something different. Everyone pull out their DSes and PSPs and Cellphones and WAVE THEM! YEAH WAVE THEM! Whoa hey, that guy over there is waving a laptop! Is that a Mac or PC? A Mac? You can’t play games on a Mac!” - shortly after that everyone started screaming “ONE. WINGED. ANGEL!”
• Getting that cute Yuffie cosplayer’s #. <3 Rawrrrr~
• Ok not really, but there was some really good cosplay (Sephiroth was super impressive, as well as Rufus Shinra, oh and a Princess Peach. LOOOOTS OF MASTER CHIEFS). I suddenly got the urge to cosplay Uruyuu Ishida. Someone stop me.

So yeah, if you can’t tell I had a toooon of fun. I think most of it was just the crowd’s energy - I don’t think I’ve seen so many geeks per square foot - ever. Also I was able to experience a ton of the songs in a completely different light, mostly because of the choir - everything sounds so much more amazing when they’re singing right in front. DEEEFINITELY going next time it’s in town. And dragging all of you with me muhahah~

PS. Kirbey Lane is delicious. Esp. the Kirbey Queso. WHY HAVEN’T I GONE THERE BEFORE.

Just got back from the party Rony (CEO of Indeed.com) threw. Nothing overly fancy about his house, but it was a pretty big one story house decorated with a very distinct asian feel (rock garden, buddhas, really neat ceramic sculptures). The thing that threw me was the view from his patio deck - I really don’t think I’ve seen a sight more beautiful in Austin. You could see for miles of dense forest with a few houses scattered throughout, and the sunset was just amazing.

It was really great to see some of my more intense coworkers in a relaxed setting. Seeing them play with their kids, or just kicking back with them and chatting about random stuff was a refreshing change of pace. Evidently us interns weren’t the only ones who now feel compulsed to say “DOT COM!” after anyone says “indeed”! Ohoh! And I found another TAMS couple =O Yeah, my direct supervisor and his wife evidently met at TAMS. Eek. I talked a bit with his daughter though, and she has no plans to go so no second-generation TAMSters I guess xP

But yeah, I had a lot of fun - and I’m really glad to be working @ indeed =).

Fun fact: We talked about how they chose the name Indeed.com and evidently they were contemplating getting Woot.com (before the current website bought it) but they thought it was too techy xP

Omg I got my DS back from Nintendo. The entire exterior has been replaced, and it’s all shiny and smooth now!

KK, back to playing Etrian Odyssey II - which is really, really, hard. But that fits nicely with my masochistic love of grinding out levels and watching those little xp bars grow… wait wtf that’s not me.

Seriously though, I spend like 30 minutes naming/renaming all my characters (current setup is Fatina, Ema, Dantes, Nia, and Batou), but I’ll probably be bored of it after I map the second dungeon or so. By then FF Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (wtf Grimoire) will be out for me to play, though - so whee!

Also of note: went to Fry’s with Sam and Khoi today. Sam waited about 15 minutes in the checkout line only to find out (later) that they sold him the wrong RAM while Khoi and I looked through the random things in the bargain bins (we eventually each bought cleaning cloths) in order to try to land the cute asian cashier. Alas we were not successful, but fear not - we’ll get another chance when Sam has to return his RAM T___T”

Work:

• Current project at Indeed is full of “wow AJAX. wow.”
• Trying my best not to crack “Indeed!” jokes
• Already wondering how much I’m going to miss my Aeron, free food, and abundance of reaaaaally good restaurants in walking distance.

Gaming:

• NDS at Nintendo because of a hinge crack =(
• Changing pants for FFT: A2 and Etrian Odyssey 2
• Lots of guild drama in WoW, top guilds breaking down left and right because of internal fighting.

(More) Passive Entertainment:

• Watching Gankutsuou - very, very good - makes me want to reread Count of Monte Cristo
• Almost done with epic Ghost in the Shell re-watch (2 seasons, 3 movies)
• Lost - Season 1 down. Definitely one of the better dramas I’ve seen, though it feels like it’s dragging every once in awhile.
• Rereading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - because I forget where I stopped last T_T” It makes for something to do on the bus.

Things I recently realized I probably should do (or do better):

• Explore more of Austin - maybe it’s because I’ve only recently realized how good the bus system is.
• Prune my RSS subscriptions - it’s getting quite cluttered.
• Redo my Vista install (It’s been… a year or so. Not healthy!)
• Redo my Gentoo install (Chuan advises me to wait until 2008.0 is out and about - probably a good idea)
• Find some Chinese soaps in preparation for next semester T_T”
• Oh and edit this theme! K2 is pretty good - but I still have some minor quibbles to fix about it. Rawr.

Oh I almost forgot - WTB iPhone3G! It’s expensive though… but I can pay for it right? RIGHT?