Y’all can look forward to a few little changes in the next few days as I fiddle with templates, make sure all my plugins work and, possibly, pull of my usual trick of corrupting the database.
So far, though, Wordpress 2.0 rocks. The admin interface is lovely.
Tinni: This morning the second of my chickens died. I don't know of what though! She was fine last week and than suddenly... *sniff* and we were in the process of getting her some new friends too! *sob*
Maglor: Dead pets = I have to be nice to the mortal *sigh*
I should have learnt not to let iTunes update automatically when a previous update broke the UI. Having upgraded to 6.0.2 yesterday I was not happy to discover the addition of a mini-store pane. Apart from being ugly, the mini-store causes information about the music that I am listening to be sent back to Apple each time I click on a track in iTunes. I eventually worked out how to turn off the mini-store (can't say it was obvious - it's one of the buttons down at the bottom right hand side of the UI), however I was annoyed that this unwelcome addition was turned on by default when I upgraded and that the upgrade didn't even let me know that the mini-store would have this behaviour.
It's one thing for me to choose to share this sort of information (for example, using Audioscrobbler), but at least when I do that, I know that I am doing it, and I also know how that data is being used. I couldn't find any mention in iTunes of exactly what data is being collected by the mini-store, nor how it would be used or who would have access to it. It worries me that for every person who is aware of the problem, there are probably several who don't realise that their privacy is being compromised.
Tinni: I knew ticker revolved around me but it's not till I check checked the ticker logs that I realised how much ticker revolves around me. I mean I am not even on ticker and people still can't stop talking about me.
Maglor: Yeah, we are rubbing off on you.
Tinni: Heh?
Glorfindel: We are elves. Everybody loves talking about us even when we aren't around. That aura is rubbing off on you.
Tinni: Ah, okay than. Umm.. is that good?
Glorfindel: The burning ears are a downside.
Tinni: Very funny. Anyway I am enjoying Chronical's of Narnia so far. The language is a lot simpler than what I am used to but it's entertaining. I haven't gotten into the zone yet where I can't wait to find out what happens next. Which is good because all night reading sessions make a Raat cranky in the morning.
Maglor: Raat!!!??? OMG! You have started to refer to yourself by your World of Warcraft character name!!!!
Tinni: O.O
Ecthelion: O Dear, this can't be good.
Maglor: No, no it can't.
Glorfindel: I'll make a call to the Quit line.
Maglor: Isn't that for smokers?
Glorfindel: She's obviously spoking something.
Maglor:... maybe she is....
Tinni: O stop it! It's was just a slip of the fingers.
Maglor: Sure it was.
“All of nature in its awful vastness and incomprehensible complexity is in the end interrelated - worlds within worlds within worlds: the seen and the unseen - the physical and the immaterial are all connected - each exerting influence on the next - bound, as it were, by chains of analogy - magnetic chains. Every decision, every action mirrors, ripples, reflects and echoes throughout the whole of creation. The world is indeed bound with secret knots.”
– Valentine Worth from Athanasius Kircher’s Magneticum Naturae Regnum
Courtesy of Anne at Purse Lip Square Jaw
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Christmas was great. Karen and I hosted it at our house and it went really smoothly. Everyone had a great time.
I’ve started at my new job with NICTA. I’m working on autonomic networks and context-awareness as applied to disaster prediction, response and recovery. At the moment I’m familiarising myself with the work being carried out by a couple of students whom I will help to supervise. Working in the city rocks.
The other day I received the registration papers for my goats from the Australian Miniature Goat Registry. They included information about the birthdates of the goats. Apparently, Victor was born on 19/3/2005 and Fern (who I've lately taken to calling Lucy-Fern because of her always-bad behaviour) was born 15/3/2005. I find these dates difficult to believe because Victor was so much bigger than Fern when I got them. The certificates come with baby pictures of the goats on them which remind me of how much they have grown and how cute they were.
What is the word for the breeze between the tree and me That carries the scent of its leaves Connecting the leaf to my nose How many leaves? How many other noses? How many breezes?
Tinni: Mincom elvin server has been shut down and obviously we can never restart it ever again! So fair well tickerions! *sniff* It's going to be so boring without me and the quendi on it!
Maglor: On the upside the collective productivity of Mantara, DSTO and Mincom is likly to rise.
Tinni: *grumble* I wasn't that much of a distraction.
Maglor: Sure you weren't.
A single unifying physics theory can essentially describe how animals of every ilk, from flying insects to fish, get around, researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and Pennsylvania State University have found. The team reports that all animals bear the same stamp of physics in their design.
>
>The researchers show that so-called "constructal theory" can explain basic characteristics of locomotion for every creature -- how fast they get from one place to another and how rapidly and forcefully they step, flap or paddle in relation to their mass. Constructal theory is a powerful analytical approach to describing movement, or flows, in nature.
>...
>
>The findings, published in the January 2006 issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology, challenge the notion that fundamental differences between apparently unrelated forms of locomotion exist. The findings also offer an explanation for remarkable universal similarities in animal design that had long puzzled scientists, the researchers said.
>
>...<blockquote>Interesting. An illustration of how 'elementary' constraints have more powerful effects on systems than we tend to imagine.
Tinni: I'll confess and say that prior to the hype about the movie I had not heard of Chronicles of Narnia
Maglor: *gasp*
Tinni: But given all the hype I wikipediaed C.S. Lewis and found out he was a friend of Tolkien, that settled it and today I went out and bought The Chronicles of Narnia... which the twins promptly stole!!
Elured: *looks up from the book* We'll give it back to you soon! We read faster than you anyway!
Tinni: boo!
Maglor: I don't get it what does C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien being friend has to do with you reading The Chronicles of Narnia?
Tinni: *shruged* Friends think alike... so if I love Tolkien's work I have a higher chance of liking C.S Lewis's work, so it's worth the risk of buying the book.
Ecthelion: You know you could just borrow the book from your local library. You don't have to buy it!
Tinni: Yeah but that's too much trouble!
Ecthelion: Should I remind you of the Anne Rice incident?
Tinni: That was an unique situation!
Maglor: For those of you unaware of the Anne Rice incident this is how it went. While the mortal was in high school she borrowed Interview with the Vampire and enjoyed it immensely. Thus later that year, she was in grade 10, when she won a prize at school for high academic marks and won a book voucher she enthusiastically went and bought Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. After reading the book deligently 2/3 of the way in she concluded she couldn't take cheap thrills that Anne Rice was generating at the expense of anything remotely meaningful or insightful. Rice was trying to explain magic with science, which was interesting but was overshadowed and obscured by the bad religion and twisted conservatism. So she dropped the book and only finished it weeks after for closer. Not giving up on Anne Rice, she read some of the other books in the vampire chronicle, all of whom ended in similar dissappointments. As a result of this experience the mortal has become somewhat skidish of modern novels dealing with the supernatural and walks wearly in book shops.
Tinni: Yes well it was a very trumatic experience
Maglor: I am sure it was. I am sure it was.
In the city with Scott, Carmen, Cameron, Melissa, Baz, and Caroline
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Today I went to Foyle's in the City and bought the following for a little professional reading to start the new year. The first two I've been meaning to buy for a while, however the third was an impulse purchase:
The first two especially should be fun reading.
I spent eight days over the Christmas period in Paris doing some sightseeing. I returned before New Year hoping to go to the Embankment to watch the fireworks. I ended up not going because of the Tube strike. It flopped, so I kicked myself for not doing something better over New Year. I'm very much looking forward to getting back to work, since I'm climbing up the walls in boredom at the moment -- I'm dreading work, but I'm dreading going insane for want of something meaningful to do. Better the Devil that pays the bills I guess.
Anyway, about the trip to Paris. Going to Paris is pretty passe nowadays, but I'm only going to discuss what I saw in point form here (rather than subjecting you to another tedious and incomplete travelogue). Photos will follow when I get my finger out and work out how to caption pictures in JAlbum.
| Large room in furnished >two bedroom unit > >Has built-in wardrobe storage space >and nice views > >Can be supplied with a single bed and >desk, if required > >Tv, fridge, microwave, stove, utensils / >cooking equipment, espresso machine, >couch, dining table, washing machine > >Carport > <td> | Explorer St, Toowong >10 – 15 mins bus to UQ >10 mins walk to toowong buses, trains, >shopping center, RE > |
|||
|
>Available 6 Jan. Male or female >Students from abroad welcome >Non-smoker preferred > >Share with PhD student in mid 20s > |
>$115 week plus bond and utilities > |
| Your New Year's Resolutions |
 1) Get a pet pony 2) Eat more cheese 3) Travel to Hawaii 4) Study taxidermy 5) Get in shape with pilates |
Yesterday was my last day at global-roam. My time there was short and sweet. Being a small company, I got to learn a little bit about a lot of things: the most interesting parts of the job were probably not related to software development.
After a two week break over the Christmas period, I will begin work at National ICT Australia (NICTA). Looking forward to it.
Ben tells me he’s accepted a position at the QUT usability lab, so he’ll be back in Brisbane on a permanent basis soon. Congratulations Ben!
Tinni: This morning my chicken died. Rest in peace Pagla.
Maglor: *sigh* damn it, now I have to be nice to the mortal.
Every year since we graduated with Bachelors degrees in 2000, my friends and I have got together at around Christmas time to catch up and remember some of the things we did in our undergrad years (because, let’s face it, there’ll never be a time like undergrad again, and there are some things worth remembering!). This year we had a BBQ at Karen’s and my new house last Monday. It was really great, because everyone was able to make it: Ben and Marice (sans baby Daniel), Anna and Will, Kai and Julie, Rhys, Ian, Matthew "Boggo" McGill and Nathan. Karen also invited her friend Belinda around. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I always look forward to these occasions, and I’m looking forward to next year’s get-together already!
Tinni: This seems to be the season of incidents. First on friday night we have a mouse incident. By that I mean that a mouse, for the first time in seven or so years I have lived in this house, entered the house and spooked the birds and..
Maglor: Sent you up a chair screaming your lungs out.
Tinni: *sticks tongue out at Maglor* And today we had a snake incident. By that I mean that a snake, for the first time in seven or so years I have lived in this house, entered the house and spooked the birds and...
Maglor: Sent you in a fit of hysteria in which you reached high notes I didn't think mortals were capable of reaching.
Tinni: *glares* And just monday I was telling bill that the snakes where surely to follow the mice but I didn't think it would follow the mice inside the house!
Maglor: The food is inside it comes inside.
Tinni: *ignours Maglor* Anyway the snake catchers came and took the snake away, cost us $75 but it was money well spent if you ask me. Now we just have to call a pestman and a rodent controller and we can sleep in peace again.
Maglor: Bah! You worry too much! It's just a little snake!
Tinni: ... don't you think snakes are the spawns of Morgoth or whatever?
Maglor: Yeah but only if they are black! This snake was green.
Tinni: *sigh*
Q: Why are people so uncomfortable with Wikipedia? And Google? And, well, that whole blog thing?
>
>A: Because these systems operate on the alien logic of probabilistic statistics, which sacrifices perfection at the microscale for optimization at the macroscale.
>
>Q: Huh?
>
>A: Exactly. Our brains aren't wired to think in terms of statistics and probability. We want to know whether an encyclopedia entry is right or wrong. We want to know that there's a wise hand (ideally human) guiding Google's results. We want to trust what we read.
>
> read the rest...
> <blockquote>
Tinni: As some of you might know I have two pet chickens. Well one of the chickens was paralysed overnight and today we found out that the most likely cause was a stroke and the only thing the doctor could offer was euthenasia. We aren't very big on euthenasia plus her sister would be devestated if we did something like that. But the poor bird is suffering so, so much :(
Elurin: *sniff* She was such a plucky chicken *sob* I can't make the horrible decision.
Tinni: Me neither :(
I went and saw King Kong yesterday and it was good! I really enjoyed. I have never seen the orginal and don't know how is compares but this one was really good on it's own. There were some gross scenes but overall it get's five stars from me!
Edit: Just decided to add a bit more detail following Michael's comment. While I can't say that there were no scenes or characters that could not be left out. There was the token black guy and token Jimmy (don't ask) who could have been left out and thus all the scenes that progressed their story, which didn't have a satisfactory end but did add to the human side of the film. Also there were a couple of scenes that where clearly there to display the special effects skill of the studio. But nitpicking for me doesn't take away from the quality of the film. I didn't not feel the length of the movie and was entertained the entire way through.
I also did not experience any of the soundtrack issues the Michael mentioned. Neither did my brother, who went to a different theater to me. I can't however recall the score.
Maglor: That's because the score was a generic piece written by some hollywood hack!
Tinni: It wasn't that bad.
Maglor: O it's wasn't bad at all. The score set the atmosphere perfectly. But on it's own it didn't have a leg to stand on. See crap movies will often have good scores. Matrix II and III for example or Star Wars episode III and good movies will often have not very memorable scores, e.g. King Kong, Last Samurei etc. King Kong's score was not memorable. You'll remember the scenes but you won't remember the score no matter how many times you watch the movie!
Tinni: Maybe that's what Peter Jackson wanted.
Maglor: Bah!
You are Mutsumi, AKA 623. A watcher, dreamer, and thinker, you're the stereotypical problem-child-turned-child-genius. Yeah, you get the bad rap from authority, and yeah, your peers might be jealous. It's okay, though, with your cool personality you take it in stride.
Take the quiz
I've been staying at Macquarie University for the past week, attending the HCSNet summer school and conference. In spare moments in between sessions or in the evenings, I visited the Ancient Cultures Museum (which although small, houses an interesting collection) and perused the huge range of Ancient History-related books at the campus bookstore (coming out with a book on Middle Egyptian grammar and a copy of Faulkner's dictionary - Yay! :) There is also a large shopping centre opposite the campus that I visited a few times to go ice skating, do some Christmas shopping and to seek bubble tea.
After wandering around the complex without finding any bubble-tea, the next day I went to the Macquarie Uni Library and searched online, finding out that apparently the Baskins and Robbins there does an excellent Taro milk tea. Unfortunately, the centre hours were quite limited, so most of the shops including the B&R were closed each time I went there. I was lamenting my bubble-tea thirst after ice skating with a couple of the other conference attendees and searching using one of the centre's interactive touchscreen directories but could not turn up any other sources of bubble-tea. However, in a moment of bubble-tea Zen, when I went back to the shopping centre for a third time, I was greeted at the door to the centre by a bubble-tea-barista and handed a flyer announcing the grand opening special of a new Easy Way tea, within a few metres of the very terminal where I'd been searching for bubble-tea on the previous day. If there's anything better than bubble-tea, it's free bubble-tea, so the trip ended well :)
Tinni: *dances around* Holidays, holidays I am on holidays.
Maglor: Do we have to do anything?
Tinni: No!
Maglor: In that case, good for you!
Tinni: *sigh* Anyway things to do this holiday,
1. Overhaul and redesign Canon? NO! It's Fanon!
2. Bounce PhD ideas off Tim
3. Write and submit short story to Andromedas Spaceways magazine, have to do this with brother because he is better at humerous Sci-fi than I am
4. Watch lot's of Anime!
5. Sort out future vacation plans. I have two in mind right now, 1. Trip across Northern Territory, and if I can, 2. Trip to Germany during the World Cup!
Other stuff to be added as it occurs to me
Maglor: Boo! I thought you said we didn't have to do anything! But for you plan to work we have to inspire you!
Tinni: *grins wickedly*
Maglor: *sigh* There goes my vacation
I've always wanted cooking books that focused less on exact recipes and more on helping the reader getting a good understanding of how to cook, so they can better 'stand on their own two feet' in the kitchen.
So I was pleased when I came across Erica De Mane's "Pasta Improvvisata: How to Improvise in Classic Italian Style" at the local library. So far it seems pretty good.
The focus on understanding the recipes is done under the rubric of being able to improvise with them.
Still, I think it leaves open more scope for helping the reader to get a deep understanding of how to cook (and not, BTW, as a replacement to experience, but as an augment to it), and I would like to go into more detail on my thoughts on this in the future.
Kerry mentions ads on gravestones and wonders about getting one for her own -- better still, she should censor them on her website, then get the businesses to pay her to uncensor them. More room for scaling up :-)
Some Firefox extensions I installed, after reading this article 'The Firefox Hacks You Must Have'. Seem pretty good so far.
A delicious extension.
Down Them All
Adds new advanced downloading capabilities to your browser.
DtA lets you download in just one click all the links or images contained in a webpage; to refine your preferences you can use fully customizable filters, and select just the kind of files you really want to download.
Nuke Anything Enhanced
Allow hiding of almost anything -for example before printing - via context menu "Remove Object".
Tab Mix Plus
enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilites. It comes included with features such as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, undoclosetab and many more
SessionSaver
Saves your tabs, so that if you quit your browser, or it crashes, you come back up with the content of your tabs perfectly preserved.
Thomas Pynchon, offering advice to aspiring writers, said that "as a corollary to writing about what we know maybe we should be getting familiar with our ignorance." Pynchon's advice resonates not just for writers but for thinkers and creators of all sorts. Getting familiar with our ignorance as product designers should mean, among other things, that we accept that our creations will wind up as the answers to questions that haven't been formulated yet, and that we find ways to let users write what they know on our creations as well....Just a note for myself, related to the topic that software is a tool, and you should acknowledge, when designing it, the fact that you can't predict the sorts of situations it will be used in, the kinds of uses it will be put to.
This "users are idiots, and are confused by functionality" mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do.
This is spectacular: http://www.agilepartners.com/blog/2005/12/07/iphoto-image-resizing-using-javascript/ I've been toying with a way to bulid a web-based view of my iPhoto library so that machines on my home LAN can browse easily, and nothing has really work, mostly because the native directory hierarchy is too deep -- I like the rolls view.
Now this script is inspiring me to hack together some AJAX goodness to build a web version of the iPhoto interface. Stay tuned...
Well, I am not sure about whether we have advertising from the cradle, but last weekend at Kalbar General Cemetery, I discovered you can have advertising from the grave.
It's totally unclear to me whether the dear departed had any affiliation with these businesses or whether those he left behind decided to find a novel way to cover the costs of the funeral by adding a bit of advertising on the headstone.
Perhaps I should phone Maccas and ask them how much they'd pay to have the Golden Arches on my headstone :-)
This afternoon, Will and I went to the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium at Mt Cootha. I don't think I've ever been there before. We watched a feature on the dome which was a tour through the solar system and galaxy (very pretty), followed by the resident astronomer giving us a guide to star spotting in the sky over Brisbane. I bought a book of skymaps and Australian astronomy information for $2 but unfortunately there's too much light around to see many stars here. It had never even occurred to me to visit the Planetarium until Will suggested it the other day, so if you haven't been, check it out - it's really cool.
Let me tell you a sad story. There was once a girl who loved to write music. She spent most of her free time composing music on guitar and keyboard, arranging and recording many of these compositions using a Roland KR-650 digital piano keyboard.
But then she developed a ganglion in her left wrist and so didn't have the strength in her fingers to play the guitar. Around the same time, the main disk that was used to store her compositions would no longer read in the piano's disk drive. Although she kept a single mirror copy of the disk as backup, it turned out that this disk wouldn't read either (the drive in the keyboard had become faulty and broken both disks). The disks would read in her computer, but she couldn't find any software that could understand the files.
Years passed, and the girl was too discouraged to write any more music...
OK enough of the self-pity :) Today I got my music back!!!!
Thanks to once again having a PC with a disk drive (from the DSTC asset sale), I decided to look for software that could read the .RSC or .RSD files stored on the disks. I have searched on many occasions before, turning up references to obscure software that might have been able to convert these files to MIDI, but not being able to track down where to get hold of them.
Today I found two programs that can work with .RSD files.
From Roland, there's Visual MT (Music Tutor). I found a trial on the Roland Japan site that can play these back and display a score during playback.
Even better, the MIDI Maestro trial can re-save the files as regular MIDI files.
On about 3 tracks, I'd used Roland's Music Styles as accompaniment, and this is missing from the MIDI, but for the rest of the songs, I've got them back in pretty much their original form. Why retrieving a bunch of cheesy mid-90s MIDI tracks has made me so happy I don't know, but for some reason getting these songs back feels like closure and like everything is ok again. I haven't felt so inspired to sit down with my keyboard and make music for years.
And for your amusement, an example file, chosen for no other reason than because it was file number 42 on the disk.
I was up early this morning to watch the World Cup draw. The atmosphere of that event always seems way too similar to the Eurovision song contest for my liking, but I digress…
Australia’s been drawn in a tough group. It’s probably the strongest group after the one containing Argentina and the Netherlands.
For the record my fiancée will be barracking for the Netherlands (because she’s half Dutch, although I secretly think she’s just being difficult) and Harry Kewell (because she thinks he’s cute).
Tinni: So today was the Mincom Xmas party and well after the build up it was a bit of a disappointment. I mean I was promised jumping castles!!!
Maglor: *rolls eyes*
Tinni: They kept the drink flowing and the food was good and there was a live band. But it was outside the building and the sun + loud music unfortunatly gave me a headache. But at least it didn't rain, although... o! o! but there was a protest banner! Some mincom employees were protesting the axing of the "Xmas Cubical" thing they used to have in Mincom. Apparently people would decorate their cubicals and the best decorated cubical would win a prize but they axed it this year because it is, unsurprisingly, very disruptive to the work environment which is fair enough.
Maglor: I thought you would have jumped at the chance to take all your christmas flavored stuff toys in.
Tinni: Well... only if Mincom could garentee their safety!
Maglor: *rolls eyes*
Tinni: In other news. My holiday travelling plans have fallen through somewhat. Apparently they don't fly directly to Uluru at this time of the year :( so the travel agent is putting together itenaries for Kakadu and Hamilton Island. Now Hamilton Island would be slightly less than a $1000 and Kakadu National Part somewhat more than $1000. But I have already been to Hamilton Island and it might be too hot for me to enjoy Kakadu properly. But basically I have two choices, either go to Kakadu or Hamilton Island now and keep Uluru for another day or stay at home this time around, than go to Uluru in the early part of next year. I mean I don't think I can go on two holidays in a space of months.
Ecthelion: You would if you didn't waste money on junk! *brings out shiny new designer compact* What's this!
Tinni: It's a Erté Compact representing my star sign, Virgo!
Ecthelion: Who the hell is Erté!
Maglor: OMG! You don't know Erté!
Ecthelion: Do you!
Maglor: Of course! The Russian-born painter Romain de Tirtoff, who called himself Erté after the French pronunciation of his initials, was one of the foremost fashion and stage designers of the early twentieth century. That design on Tinni's new Estee Lauder compact is one from Erté Zodiac collection.
Ecthelion: Okay, okay but this is still the most useless thing she has bought in sometime. I mean she doesn't even use makeup that much!
Tinni: But it's so pretty!
Ecthelion: I give up! I give up!
Tinni: Well if it makes you feel better. I do intend to be more careful with my money from now on.
Ecthelion: That'll be the day.
Tinni: Well I am somewhat tired. I think I'll go to bed after taking some headache pills.
Woohoo! I love the Rozen Maiden anime series so much (OK, so I never grew up and I think the dolls are just *so* adorable). Now there's a game to be made from the series. Details.
Well ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ithilwen did I not say that as soon as I go out tonight, wearing my fancy shoes it was going to rain? Well it did! After three days of blistering heat and bone dry condition it rains on the day I go out! Typical! Typical! Also because I was going out I didn't take my backpack with me to work and just made do with my purse. Well my backpack has my work glasses and so you can guess what happened once I got to work. I didn't have any glasses! So I had to wear my sunglasses all day long! Now my backpack also has my rain coat and obviously since I didn't have my backpack I didn't have my rain coat and so I ended up getting really, really wet! Blah!
Maglor: You know if that's the worst things that have happened to you today you should count yourself lucky!
Tinni: Yes well it's hard to look at things like that when you are wet!
Maglor: Didn't you just have a hot shower? Aren't you feeling better yet?
Tinni: I am... but...
Maglor: You whine so, so much
Tinni: O blah! *thinks* okay maybe a little...
Maglor: You are such an emo
Tinni: Argh! No! No way! Besides I think that only applies to guys!
Maglor: NOpe according to this infomercial there are female emos as well
Tinni: Well I am not one! Tell him guys!
Glorfindel: She isn't one.
Elured: Definitely not
Elurin: I think she might be the anti-emo
Ecthelion: She loves meat too much, her hair isn't fake black and we all know how wired she is. Plus she worships designer brands.
Tinni: yeah... wait... No I don't!
Ecthelion: Yes you do. You are just too poor to worship them properly
Maglor: Okay, okay you aren't a emo you are a damn yappi!
Tinni: I can't win can I!
Maglor: Against me of course not!
Tinni: *sigh*
This game has just been released in Australia. The soundtrack has been composed by Stuart Chatwood (bass player/keyboardist/composer from The Tea Party). It's a good opportunity to hear his work, now that The Tea Party is no more.
I've been vegetarian for more than 10 years. At least half of that time, I was vegan, and the rest of that time I've tried almost every other type of vegetarianism.
I became an ovo-lacto vegetarian while I was in grade 11 at highschool in response to an increasing feeling that eating meat did not make sense. My motivations were primarily environmental (concerns about the inefficiencies and environmental irresponsibility of the meat industry), for enviro-health reasons (I'd just learnt about bio-accumulation in biology class), and partly ethical (if I wasn't comfortable killing an animal with my own hands, I figured I should not be comfortable with eating them). I like to think that this decision was reached logically, primarily from facts that I'd learnt in geography and biology classes or read in books.
It still astounds me how a personal decision about what one eats can be considered to be of such importance to other people. The reaction from many of my peers was one of trying to convince me that I'd made a terrible mistake and to lure me back to eating meat by trying to trick me into eating it. And then there was the perennial 'But plants are living creatures, you should stop eating them too'. I made the mistake of consulting 'vegetarian' literature because I wanted to make sure I was going about being a vegetarian safely and to find out how others had dealt with these issues. Instead of finding support or useful information, I found propaganda. Most of the vegetarian sources that I consulted were written from a fundamentalist viewpoint that anything short of a vegan diet was wrong. (I should also add that it was equally as difficult to find balanced information on why a non-vegan diet might be beneficial). Given that I didn't particularly like dairy products or eggs, it was easier to cave to this pressure in the interests of being a 'proper vegetarian' than to really think about it based on my original reasons for choosing the vegetarian diet in the first place.
Once you make a decision like that, it's hard to go back on it without causing a reaction from others like 'I told you so', or 'I wondered how long that would last' or something else equally as trite. But eventually I found the occasional egg or dairy product creeping back into my diet, usually as an ingredient in something else, because it take a phenomenal amount of effort to keep track of ingredients, especially when travelling abroad.
So I found myself reconsidering my position. Did eating eggs (especially when I get them from free range pet chickens that my family keeps) really compromise my environmental/ethical vegetarianism? Was buying foods that contained traces of dairy (like the almost always present milk solids) really that bad?
And so my path down the slippery slope began. These days I am what might be called a 'pesco vegetarian'. Most fundamentalist vegetarians don't consider this to be a true vegetarian diet. For the most part, my diet is still vegan, because those are the foods that I prefer to eat. I'll occasionally use eggs in baking a cake, or add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese to my pasta or eat sashimi at a Japanese restaurant. I still consider myself to be vegetarian because before eating such things, I consider the environmental/ethical issues associated with them and make a case-by-case decision on whether I'm comfortable with it. Unfortunately, this makes it somewhat difficult for other people to know what I will or won't eat, and not as easy to label. Of course, I'm only doing this to be difficult :)
I think that the most important thing in discerning your diet is not to forget why you're doing it. Mindlessly following a vegan diet is no better than mindlessly eating meat.
The tool to debug Python is pdb, think gdb for Python. It works, but it has warts.
The emacs integration is OK, but not great, the execution point glyph overwrites the first few columns of text. Breakpoints cannot be set on comments. Recoverable runtime errors cause it to bomb.
There’s an old fork for pdb to get ddd integration working, pydb. It basically doesn’t work. Setting breakpoints is very tricky. There’s no execution point glyph. Data structures don’t display.. which is why you use ddd in the first place. My plan is to get pydb working with ddd, then try to merge the pydb patches back upstream into pdb.
So many items added to the todo list..
 Dear Santa...Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Tuesday I helped talullahred see the light (8 points). Last Friday I set crimson_minuial's puppy on fire (-66 points). In February I gave claudi007 a kidney (1000 points). In August esteliel and I donated clothes to the needy (11 points). In November I gave ajenteks a wet willie, then I took it back (-5 points). Overall, I've been nice (948 points). For Christmas I deserve a toy train! Sincerely, |
rhapsody11 was naughty and ended up with naked noldo under her Xmas tree
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