Productive Quote for a Busy Week!!

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats. - Howard Aiken

Wow

2nd quote this month from George Santayana....if I see one more I swear I'll have to figure out who the hell he is :)





Sanity is a madness put to good use.
- George Santayana

Further Explanation

Ari was baffled by the Tornado shot...as are most victims of this utterly most effective defensive technique. Above is a diagram that Brad created to help innocents understand what might await them.

Foozball Precision

Brad & I have reached the point where we've actually named every type of "amazing" technique that a person can use in our foozball adventures. Here is an abbreviated list:

The Winchester: A shot from the goalie to your opponents goal. Shot may not touch anything but your goalie and your opponents goal box...otherwise it is not a Winchester.

Reverse Diagonal: Any shot that intentionally launches [diagonally] to bank off the wall [in reverse] into the goal

The Banana: An extremely "shallow" or obtuse reverse diagonal that can sometimes be achieved by using one of the goal-line defensement. Shot moves almost in a straight line...but bends slightly to bank of the wall.

The Roll-in: Any shot that finds its way to the goal with hardly any force applied to it.

The Reflex Shot: When blocking a shot from an opposing player, a returned shot can be completed before the blocked ball has even stopped its direction. Sortof a dangerous game of hot potato....but if done correctly can score a great point without the opponent ever realizing what happened.

The Funhouse Defense: Defensive technique which involves chaotic moving of one or more defensive line to create a randomized "wall" of moving, shifting players.

The Tornado: A heightened version of the funhouse...only done by the goalie himself. If done with enough quickness & repetition, the goalie can stop the forward motion of the ball and make it bounce back and forth in front of the goal without actually going in. Only John Mickus has been known to accomplish this regularly.

Opening the Corridor: Taking the time to pull all offense players out of their position, to open a direct shot on the goal from your defensemen or goalie himself. By opening the corridor, one is announcing his plan to score from one's defensive line.

World's Largest Pyramid Possibly Discovered...

What was thought to be a hill in Bosnia is being dug up by archaeologists. It's thought to be 1/3 larger than the Great Pyramid in Giza!! Crazy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12402157/

Google Drops More Bombs...

Google is offering another free software app... this one is a 3d modeling tool that does all the basic stuff. It's so much more fun when it's free :)

http://sketchup.google.com/product_suf.html

Internet Flipbook!!

This cool little blog has all these "classic cartoons" posted to it....each image is a cel from one of the cartoons. If you scroll down real fast you can get a flipbook effect! Fun! ...and nostalgic :O)

http://classiccartoons.blogspot.com/

Wired Meets Tired

In a world where nerdy videogamers and lucrative venture capitalists stand far across from eachother at every party...a new game concept has arrived that turns the tables! I just read about this crazy stuff in Wired Magazine, and after I try to explain this I recommend you browse through the website. Apparently, this game is similar to many others out there in that you develop your characters skills, personality, wealth, and experience by playing the game continuously. The trick about this though, is that the game has a "Real Cash Economy" meaning every virtual object within the game has a real value. As your character develops a career, the credits earned in the game can be withdrawn at any time at a conversion rate of 10:1 for US dollars. Of course, the opposite is true also; One can deposit real money into the game in order to buy more virtual "stuff" or even rent a virtual apartment, buy a virtual condo, etc. Anyway...the big kicker in all this is that some eccentric guy just invested $100,000 of real money into this "virtual economy" and has built his own nightclub in the virtual world of this game. He charges cover, sells out parts of the club...and apparently he's made 15k of real money somehow. He says that in the long run this could be a profitable strategy to harness these new "Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs". I know most of you aren't really gamers, but this creeps into pretty interesting implications, as the virtual world is becoming bigger and more familiar to all of us!

Game Website

My Crazy Brother!!

This is a project done by the firm my bro works for. Their M.O. is to mesh technology with design in all the buildings they help to create. This one is completely nuts....a building surrounded by perpetual manmade fog.

Full Article

More vocab that's fun to say...

lunatic fringe
noun.
The fanatical, extremist, or irrational members of a society or group.

A good quote for your bosses

Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality. - George Santayana

A Complete Genius

This kid makes us understand why dancing is one of the best things ever invented

Segregation

Check out these maps of religion within the United States. Most of the legends are hard to read...but read the few sentences before the maps to figure out what they are. Funny how clear some of the divisions are..
http://regionsofmind.blog-city.com/mapping_religion_in_america.htm

Man-Made Waves in PB

For those of you that haven't heard of The Wave House...they're starting up their cool sunday afternoon chillout sessions again. There's on this sunday at 2 actually!! I doubt I can make it this weekend...but it's worth remembering :)

Can we make forcefields???

One of the tier-one contractors says it just finished successful testing of their new 'Active Defense system' for military vehicles. Works kinda like a forcefield....it's just so hard to believe though.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/12/1616219&from=rss

We Need Comedians!

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh. - WH Auden

Reap the Whirlwind

What a crazy week!! I know that nobody reads this stuff anymore...but I just wanted to say how happy I am to have my new place all unpacked. Thanks to Audrey for helping ...and thanks to everybody else who's already come to say hello! There's still lots more to be done, but for now I think I'm satisfied with a most productive weekend. BUT I did not go out at all....so at times like these I think about how much I really will miss downtown :( But not enough to dampen the moment. Next weekend I'm off to Solvang again to kick it with the 'rents. But when I'm back, I'll be completely stir-crazy; I'm already looking to pick out a club for my first trolley-to-downtown exodus.
Currently....I think I'll take a moment to enjoy one of these bad boys:

Perdomo Reserve Champagne

Nick Perdomo's mild-bodied masterpiece.

Aside from being an extremely unique blend, the Perdomo Reserve Champagne is a side-step from the Perdomo norm of producing rich, hearty smokes that deliver a truckload of strength and complexity. While the Champagne is indeed flavorful and complex, it offers a pleasant, mellow, mild-bodied smoking experience that's tame enough to be enjoyed anytime, while tasty enough to satisfy the hungriest of palates. Comprised of a Cuban-seed Nicaraguan blend of fine tobaccos, wrapped in a glistening, triple-fermented Connecticut shade wrapper, this addition to Perdomo's La Tradicion Reserve trifecta delivers a smooth creamy flavor with hints of sweetness - almost like honey - incredibly rich for such a mellow cigar. The packaging ain't too shabby, either. 25 of these beauties are individually wrapped in shimmering gold cellophane and nestled inside a gorgeous, high-gloss cedar box.

Signing out for this chilly sunday evening.
HERE COMES MONDAY.....

Hernan Cattaneo

Tonight I shall return to 4th & B... to listen to a new DJ I don't know much about. Full credit to Ivette for finding him!! His music has a progressive club beat, with a tiny hint of latin flair. Most of the songs that have vocals are new ones I hadn't heard...which is alway hard to find with dance music like this. Tomorrow morning I'll let you know if he put on a good show! Have fun tonight everybody...it's freakin FRIDAY!!! :)

Lessons Learned

"The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore." - Samuel Butler

Debatable

"Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content." - Louis L'Amour

First Simulation of an Entire Lifeform

Scientists have built a computer model of a virus...comprised of over 1 million digital atoms. Because of the complexity of all the life processes involved, the "organism" was only brought to life on one of the world's fastest computers for about 50 nanoseconds!! Pretty weird. Impressive nonetheless.

Read Full Article

From the master of cold description...

EVENING STAR
by Edgar Allan Poe (1827)

'Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro' the light
Of the brighter, cold moon,
'Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves.
I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold- too cold for me-
There pass'd, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turned away to thee,
Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heaven at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light.

Breakfast Thunder

So early this morning some unnamed slacker drove over a gast main or something--outside our building. By the time I got into work, most of the excitement was ended...but little did I know there were still problems lurking. My buddy Brad eats a breakfast burrito every morning. He also eats one any other time that he's hungry. Apparently he went down to buy one & they were closed because of the whole gas main incident. I sent him an email to tease him about it. This grew into an over-the-top spectacle of earth-shattering proportions.....

9.01am JOHN to BRAD:

**Brad lookin around the atrium, enjoying his morning stroll to receive the food he loves**
Brad cheerfully says, "What a beautiful thursday morning...how are you? Please go ahead and start on my tasty breakfast burrito!"
Grumpy worker quips back, "Naw dude, gas broke. Peace."
**Brad cries for the rest of the day**

9.05am BRAD to JOHN:

In a furious rage, Brad hurls himself over the counter, grabs two eggs, a potato, some cheese and a tortilla and starts cooking furiously, holding the grumpy workers at bay with a spatula like a vicious animal backed into a corner.

9.06am JOHN to BRAD:

Madman Mickus Motley swoops in from the ventilation system, breaking a bottle of tequila over the head of the leader of the grumpy worker trifecta. Before the cry of victory can be uttered....the boss emerges from a smoky hidden door within the oven...

9.30am BRAD to JOHN

The boss dramatically withdraws his weapon - a hideous looking rolling pin, fitted with spikes on either end and dripping with butter. He sees Brad's nearly completed breakfast burrito and lets out mighty roar and coats his weapon of evil with more butter before lunging forward like an ogre. Knowing the only hope for true victory lies with a completed breakfast burrito, Mickus valiantly fights a delaying action. With his broken tequila bottle as his weapon, hey fights back the boss; parrying and dodging around with the agility of a mongoose and the determination of an angry leprechaun who's lost his gold.
Just in time, Brad puts the finishing touches on the burrito. Wrapping it tightly, he turns and thumps the occupied boss on the back of the head with the mighty breakfast wrap. Overcome by the sheer force of the blow, the boss falls to the ground, crippled! Victory at hand!

9.39am JOHN to BRAD:

Brad quickly retreated to a warm corner of the filthy kitchen & feasted on his perfected burrito, like a wolverine that wasn't right in the head. Mickus felt at peace....and pensively approached the dying, suffering, humiliated kingpin perry. It actually seemed that the lumbering beast had a look of true sadness in his great cafeteria-boss eyes. And Mickus took that fleeting moment to cover his sorry face with the remaining butter...near boiling in the boss's old pot. And so ended kingpin perry.

For All the Sore Losers...

"It's never just a game when you're winning." - George Carlin

Good Morning San Diego

Word of the Day for Tuesday March 21, 2006:

aubade \oh-BAHD\, noun:A song or poem greeting the dawn; also, a composition suggestive of morning.

Back 2 Quotes

"When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong-- or absolutely right." - Albert Guinon

Post St Patrick's Day!

What a great night! You can barely see it on the left hand side...but Chris went all out with his crazy green hat!! I got a little lazy with the dressup, (cuz it was pouring rain!) but everything was still great in the end :) I highly recommend DJ Armin Van Buuren...he had alot of energy and it was probably one of the better sets I've seen from a DJ! Hope everyone has their own stories about last night's "luck o the Irish". I'm off to drink some water :) 

A Few Good Songs & a Lot of Commentary!

It seems like it's been sort of a dry spell when it comes to fresh new music these days. Well at least for nerds like me that are into all the club beats and all the remixed nonsense :) Anyway...recently I've been scouring the world a little bit harder to find a few new tunes. So here they are!!! You'll notice that two of em are Madonna. I realize I'll have to get made fun of for that...but there's nothing I can do: They're just that good. Go find em if you can.

Sorry (Man with Guitar Mix) -- Madonna
An absolutely classic dance anthem. It's a decent Madonna song I guess...I wouldn't really know. But this REMIX brings it glory with extra instruments & dubbed vocals. Stretch it all out to seven minutes and the hardest thing to do is finding other music worthy enough to put with it on a shiny new CDR.

Flip Ya Lid -- Nightmares on Wax
Fresh, unique, laid-back beats resembling new stuff like Thievery Corporation. This song really isn't that new...but it's new to me and it's new to anyone who might read this. One of those songs that seems to carry you through a story, although there's no lyrics so you find yourself daydreaming everytime you listen to it :)

Let it Will Be (Paper Faces Mix) -- Madonna
I've never heard this Madonna track...this one is brand new. I'm sure most of the dancing girls would like this song by itself...but this mix by Paper Faces (Stuart Price) gives it an extremely hard edge. Most of the beats come out of these crazy combinations of static-y bass and violent-sounding synth. .....so it makes you groove that much harder!

Please submit any cool songs you've listened too lately. Especially if it's just normal stuff....I'm a bit burned out on most of my electronic favorites lately. Might have to start listening to the radio more!

Hightech, fool !!!!!!

We're becoming a society of geeks....and I love it. I know most of us won't need one of these things (or want one), but it's still pretty nuts that they can make em.

THE WRIST-WORN PC

One more quote

"The multitude of books is making us ignorant."
- Voltaire

The Dawn of a New Era

I'M A HOMEOWNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another Favorite Quote

You can pretend to be serious; but you can't pretend to be witty.
--Sacha Guitry

"Blue Gene"

Japan has unveiled its fastest supercomputer yet...capable of more than 59 trillion calculations per second. I wonder if this thing will help them figure anything out.... :)

Full Article Here

Super Silly Time

Jon & I heard a ridiculous song on the radio the other day. My best guess at a genre would be Reggae. Anyway...here are the lyrics. The first person who actually gets their hands on the song wins a lifetime of laugher...

Helicopter
by Xtc [ Download Xtc Ringtones ] [ Send to a friend ]

Oh heli Oh heli
I'm crouching here with a telescope in hand
Looking across our lego land
I really think it's about time that she came down
She a laughing giggly whirlybird
She got to be obscene to be obheard
I really think its about time that she came down
And I object to all the air male that she pick up
the air male that she pick up
the air male that she pick up
When she's up there twirling round
Just like a helicopter - copter
She's landing on the town
It's about time that I stopped her - stopped her
When she's up there twirling round
Just like a helicopter - copter
Oh heli - Oh heli
Now she's away from convent she's gone wild
Grown from a nice young lady to a child
I really think its about time that she came down
She a laughing giggly whirlybird
She got to be obscene to be obheard
I really think it's about time that she came down

http://www.lyricsdomain.com/24/xtc/helicopter.html

LATE NOTICE

Ultimate Frisbee again!!!

Tomorrow (Sunday) at noon.....La Jolla High School, as usual.
750 Nautilus St, La Jolla, CA

Be there or be square :) :)

Funny Day

"Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century." - Dame Edna Everage

Love is not blind...

I usually don't post these things, but this one is so funny you gotta try it!!
Secret Crush Calculator

Picasso!!!!! :)

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality." - Pablo Picasso

History meets Technology

These are two examples of Damascus steel pictured here...an ancient technique of crafting metal--mostly for use in fancy swords or decoration. Modern day uses can be controlled by more sophisticated metalsmithing, creating very refined writing instruments like the one to the right. By combining two metal alloys & layering them extensively, the result can have a wood-grain effect or one of countless other beautiful patterns. Try looking for more images on google....it's beautiful stuff.

Hmmmm

"Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening." - Barbara Tober

Lyrics to Sleep By...

"Insomnia" by Faithless

Deep in the bosom of the gentle night

Is when I search for the light

Pick up my pen and start to write

I struggle, fight dark forces

In the clear moon light

Without fear... insomnia

I can't get no sleep

Pretty Touchy

If it's this much fun to watch...imagine what it would be like to touch it!

The Better Cellular

Cool scientists in labs somewhere are developing new technology for cell phones that does all sorts of stuff.....detection of light/sound levels so if you're in a movie theater it won't ring, etc. Read more

Tribute to Love 2006

Thanks for everybody who came out last night :) Tribute to Love 2006 was a big success...handles of Malibu disappeared before I knew they had arrived....rose petals were found in some unspeakable locations ;) Sorry if anyone was offended by my truly terrible dance maneuvers!!!

IBM's new Powerhouse

"Cell" is touted as a game-changing "supercomputer on a chip" because of its unusual design, which includes an IBM Power processor at its core, helped by eight additional processors working together.

Click here to read the full article!!