Thomas J. Webb

Blog moved

2007-12-10T15:53:00.000-08:00

If you've been going to my blog via thomaswebb.net, then no need to do anything (except the RSS is now different), but if you've been reading it at thomasjwebb.blogspot.com, please update your bookmarks.. There's already been many, many new posts under the new (wordpress) system!

What is Worldview?

2007-10-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

Envision a line out of rocks.. This is the world, the laws of physics, of psychology, of anatomy... It is the shape of a lake, or a fjord or a fog..

Then see another line. It is glowing and almost geometric... it almost approximates kinda the first line..... Where it is closer to the center than the rock line, it is a taboo, and where it goes out beyond, it is magick... the land where ladies come back as lilies for their lover...

...

Ignorance keeps the glowing shape simple,
and wishful thinking keeps it beautiful

Mac OS X vs. My Keyboard

2007-09-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

I like Mac OS X and all, but there's just one thing that really bugs me about the Mac - Apple's contempt for the keyboard. I wanted to know if any of you out there know the answer to these problems:

In Windows or Linux, you can hit the end key to go to the end of the line you're typing or the home to get to the beginning. This neither works on my mac laptop nor my mac mini with a pc-keyboard.
On any other OS, you can hit the tab key while editing a form and the tab not only goes to the text fields, it goes to radio buttons, select boxes, etc. But on Mac, these are skipped right over. Why?! Can I change this? It doesn't matter what browser I use; I could use the same browser on all platforms with the same problem only on Mac.

These issues waste more time for me than even writing this blog! The keyboard is so fast and I want to bypass Mac's Mouse-ocracy. As a programmer, these things are particularly frustrating!

Asimov and Animism

2007-09-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

I had an idea yesterday when scrambling to make sure I didn't lose any Mexican jumping beans from a bag I spilled. I was concerned about their safety even more than my future ability to hassle these clicking owl-heads. And lord knows I like to hassle those who can't fight back! (just ask my baby half-brother, mwa-ha-ha)

Here's the idea: in I, Robot, there was talk about how some little girl was treating ill her robot. She told him to do all sorts of things without considering the bot's robo-feelings. Though there were no direct ill consequences of this (the robots are programmed to enjoy this!), the idea was that she would learn to treat other humans the same way. So, what's the consequence of us treating objects as mere objects?

Traditional cultures had/have a worldview in which everything is alive and in which other animals are our (humanity's) brothers and sisters. Even things that weren't strictly living had spirits (like rocks, rivers, etc.) Is our seeing of this as all false inadvertently making us just a little less civil, a little more cold in our dealings with other people?

Axis 1 - Intensity

2007-09-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

A few hours ago, I took the trash out, and had to dump collected weeds out of one of the cans. It has been raining slightly the past few days, so a sort of tea was created in the bottom of the can. The smell was a concentrate of the natural smells I expect from the area, disarming me with an overpowering version of what are usually pleasant smells.

This is the component of a sensory experience that one might mistakenly see as not changing the nature of it - intensity. Louder music isn't the same music, but louder. It's different music. A "pleasant" smell is so often nothing but a subtle smell and the opposite with bad and pungent smells. A woman who, noticing her perfume smells good, decides to bathe in it, and your typical modern sound mastering engineer who obsesses with making music loud neglects this fact.

Oh yeah, and how good coffee tastes is well correlated with how hot it is, but that actually has nothing to do with what I'm talking about here.

The difference between evangelists and fundamentalists

2007-08-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

I know many outside the "faith" community are insensitive and fail to differentiate evangelists and fundamentalists, lumping them together as some sort of boogie men. Well, let me set the record straight, they are different. We faithless people are insensitive, and must learn the subtleties of the respective movements. Evangelists are people who wish to widen the breadth at which their cult enstrangles* humanity. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, are those who wish to deepen the depth at which their cult enstrangles humanity.

On the subject of evangelism, this is a bit of Jesus-humor that is lost in the translation (kinda, like the riot, "Peter, you are my rock" HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHA!) You see, evangelist comes from the ancient Greek for "bringer of good news", which is funny because they mostly warn about how hell is a real place that's reserved for not doing what the good news-bringer tells you to do, which usually involves leaving your family and your culture and accidentally drowning yourself.

___________
*enstrangle is a perfectly crumulent word

Natural Affirmative Action

2007-08-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, a natural sort of affirmative action existed, one that has become extinct, unfortunately. When the wealthy got comfortable, their bodies became weak through disuse, overnutrition, undernutrition and cocaine. The lower-class became strong through their hard work, and this would occasionally allow them to ooze above the upper crust.

Diseases such as beri-beri, anemia and pellagra were caused by consumption of fancy polished grains (white rice, white bread, etc), which were once available only to the wealthy. The industrial revolution slowly brought the privilege of these problems to the masses (now, the FDA requires fortification of refined grains, so these epidemics have become rare). In addition to undernutrition, many of the wealthy suffered from overnutrition - becoming fat and sluggish through overindulgence. The proletariat remained lean and mean.

Cocaine (and many other recreational drugs) used to be available only to the rich. It's use as a recreational drug (in powder form) goes back to the 1860s. It was common for nobility to grow long fingernails on their pinky fingers to snort the stuff. So, as soon as the wealthy stopped having malnutrition, they had cocaine.

But as of the 1980s, a chemical and marketing product mix known as crack came about, and now for once cocaine gained the ability to ruin poor peoples' lives too. Oh yeah, and through farm subsidies and new technology, food is really cheap, meaning the poor are just as vulnerable as the rich of obesity. Thank you, McDonald's!

So, are there, or will there be in the future, any natural forms of affirmative action? That is, are there phenomenon that naturally equalize situations where class might otherwise be a noose people are born in? Avoid the obvious answers (complacency). Discuss...

Cunt-a-lickus

2007-03-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

cuntalickus n. : Cunnilingus. Slang. Vulgar. Used among rednecks. Folk etymology of the latter.

おいしいベジタリアン料理

2007-02-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

これはよく作って食べている食べ物ですよ。

僕はシングルだからだいたいレストランか自分で料理します。（「Ｅ」大好きなガールフレンドが居るけど、まだ一緒に住んでません）

１００％なベジタリアンだから肉とか卵とか食べませんよ。日本に珍しいけど、カリフォルニアとかインドとか多いですよ。けど、こんな料理は肉を食べる人でも好きですよ。

ペンネパスタとオリーブはいているトマトソースと松のナッツ

↑メキシコ料理だけど、うその豚肉を使います
↓おいしそうな材料。だいたいぴいまんを使うけど、なかったからにんじんにしました。

これはアメリカの南料理です。この野菜は「Ｃｏｌｌａｒｄ　Ｇｒｅｅｎｓ」と言うキャベツ族にある野菜です。たまねぎとにんにくとしょうがを入れてあげます。後は右は塩っ辛い豆です。日本人はよくそんな豆でなれないでしょう？けど、おいしいです。食べてみてください。

Lipstick Vogue

2007-02-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

Check out this vintage 40s clothing. Good for if you want to pretend it's 60 years ago or expand your fashion repertoire. Their mascot is Miss Lipstick Vogue.

Devil's Advocate

2007-02-02T10:03:00.001-08:00

[Wo]men of reason bitch oft about the destroyers of reason - people who pay scientists to fudge their reports in disfavor of human impact on climate change, people who try to downplay evolution's importance in shaping life on this planet, holocaust deniers and so on.

The end result, however, is ultimately a deeper understanding. Those who strain to come up with any minute flaw in generally accepted ideas will actually contribute to it as a very passionate and crazed devil's advocate. In this way, our understanding of climate, biology and history will only deepen. Indeed, last year saw strides in evolution and biology and I can't help but think evolution "skeptics" had a role to play in this.

New Year's Resolutions

2006-12-29T18:37:00.000-08:00

New Year's Resolutions:

Professional/Financial:

Get Osaka Red Software's band-collab.net product to the point that it makes good money and works on autopilot. Preferrably also get CRÆFT™ finished and selling.

Completely pay off credit cards, and have at least X in each of my bank accounts. (number hidden for my privacy)

Have own place in San Luis Obispo!

Personal:

Grow successful relationship. I believe Eri is the one.

To make new friends that don't drop acid.

To fix problems when they are but a bud, not after they have become kudzu. This, more than anything, will lead to a sense of well-being.

Iron...

2006-11-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

Pronounced (Eye-rahn): the smallest indivisible unit of irony. A homograph with iron (Fe) a very conductive metal.

Borat...

2006-11-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

Portrays Kazakhs as looking rather white/middle-eastern when their appearance tends more towards the asiatic side of their gene pool. However, most Kazakh citizens are Russian ethnicity, rather than Kazakh. Anyway, please don't think that Borat is accurate at all. Good humor exaggerates the truth (like the Simpsons does) rather than go on some other tangent, though I reckon the nugget of Borat is what it says that is true about America.

Grizzly Woman

2006-09-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Why is the idealist so frustrated? Why can't she find reasonable compromise with the rest of the world? Because her fetus, animal, starving child, tree is like a family member. But, consider this (read if you are an idealist!):

You are camping in the woods with your family, when suddenly a hungry Grizzly Bear storms into camp. He comes to YOU and says, "I am very hungry and I crave delicious human flesh. But, I am fair, so I will let you choose who I will eat. I'm only hungry enough for one person. But, if you try to stop me or don't select who I shall eat, I will eat someone at random and kill one more out of spite. God help you if you are one of the survivors".

And what does the idealist choose time and time again? "You are a monster bear! You have no right to eat us! We are outraged." And we all know the obvious answer is to choose yourself or, the jerk of the family everyone hates *evil grin*.

Refusal to talk with the "enemy", refusal to prioritize with that which is most treasured, and refusal compromise get the idealist and the very thing they are fighting for time after time.

In The Name of the Sun

2006-09-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

Check out my friend Mikäyeh's first novel, In The Name Of The Sun. The title and themes suggest a The Stranger kind of character meets the Holocaust meets The Clockwork Orange.. or something like that. Anyway, read up!

ÞHB ÞHB ÞHB

ᚦᚻᛒ ᚦᚻᛒ ᚦᚻᛒ

Headline from the future...

2006-09-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

.corn domain created for spammers and phishers.

Last Month's Road Trip

2006-08-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some select photos from my road trip last month.

Morro Rock

I dig them close-up shots

A monterrey pine and another Morro Rock shot

Shell Beach

Smutty MySpace ads and transferrence

2006-07-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, transferrence isn't the right word, but I don't know what is. So, on MySpace, they have these ads for this datings site (dating site: places where you can find desperate fat chicks to be your virtual "girlfriend" and it amounting only to cyber-sex and imaginary things) but the actual appearance of the ads suggest porn site (porn site: place for desperate fat guys to have cyber-sex w/ themselves).

I see this and wonder how the ads even work? Guys must look at that and think "no, there is no girl on that site that looks like that". All I can think is they must also be thinking "I need to find a girl to screw while thinking of that girl". Oh yeah, observe:

Pics from the Torrance natsumatsuri

2006-07-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

You all missed the spectacle of a White guy in a Hapi coat (me!) and all these Japanese people hauling around a mini-Shinto Shrine - ostensibly one of only two in the US, I might add. Dancing + Heavy Lifting = winning combination! CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP HOOOOOY! And.. since I was the tallest one, I couldn't rest the damn thing on my shoulder, so my arms are fucking sore!

旅行　～　カリフォルニアの中のコーストについて

2006-07-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

From Monday to Wednesday, I went on a road trip to California's beautiful Central Coast (expect nice pictures later...) I went just by myself (the original plan was to go w/ my friend Dan.) I camped at Morro Bay SP Campground. I visited San Luis often and got to take in all that is the central coast.

月曜日から水曜日まで美しいカリフォルニアの中のコーストと言う所に運転で向かいました。後でいい写真を見せます。友達のダンと一緒に行くつもりだったのに一人で旅行しました。モローベーと言う湾（わん）の隣のキャンプ場でキャンプした。カリフォルニアの中のコーストに行ったら「Ｍａｒｇｕｅｒｉｔｅ’ｓ　Ｃｏｃｉｎａ」に行って食べて見るべきですよ。

ᛏᚢᛞᛟ᛫᛫᛫

2006-07-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

ᚦᛁᛋ ᛁᛋ ᛗᛁ ᚠᚱᛥ ᛈᚩᛥ ᛁᚾ ᛗᛁ ᛞᛁᚪᛚᛖᛣᛏ ᚩᚠ ᚱᚢᚾᚷᛚᛁᛋᚳ᛫ ᚫᛏ ᚠᚱᛥ ᚦᛁᛋ ᛁᛋ ᚻᚪᚱᛞ ᛒᚢᛏ ᛋᛚᚩᛚᛁ ᚦᛖ ᚱᛖᛞᛖᚸ ᛒᛖᛣᚩᛗᛋ ᛋᛖᚳᚩᚾᛞ ᚾᛖᛏᚣᚢᚱ᛫ ᚦᛖ ᛈᚱᚩᚾᚢᚾᛋᛁᛖᛋᚳᚩᚾ ᛁᛋ ᛗᚩᚱ ᚦᛖ ᚩᛚᛞ ᚹᛖ ᚫᚾᛞ ᛗᚩᚱ ᛖᛝᚷᛚᛁᛋᚳ ᚹᚱᛞᛋ ᚪᚱ ᚣᚢᛋᛖᛞ ᚫᚾᛞ ᚠᚣᚢᚹᚱ ᚷᚱᛁᛣ ᚫᚾᛞ ᛚᚫᛏᛁᚾ ᚹᚱᛞᛋ᛫

Audrey Tautou....

2006-06-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

Is not beautiful, but cute. I like cute. Girls always wish to be beautiful but that's because they don't know any better. Observe:

(Audrey Tautou)

(Sara Shimada)

5K

2006-06-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

I ranked 31 out of 144.

It's not a soquid, idiots..

2006-05-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

It's an amorphous solid.

日本５回

2006-05-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

５月１５日から２２日まで日本に居た。５回目だった。またもうすぐ日本に行くらしい。富士インパルスは僕が日本に行って働いて欲しい。僕は本当に日本人の彼女が欲しいけど、日本の会社で働く人生出来るか分からへん。１ヵ月か２ヵ月は大丈夫だと思うけど卍

Protest Season

2006-05-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

Ah, the weather is nice outside. Let's find a cause and protest.

Colbert Nukes Bush

2006-05-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

It's so lovely to see witty people like this turn politics upside down. If you want to be a comic, study logic (like Steve [Martin,Colbert]).

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Tip:

2006-04-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Never ever corner an animal, especially if it has two legs and no feathers. This can be very dangerous.

Future Headline

2006-04-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

DISCOVERY INSTITUTE SCIENTIST ACCIDENTALLY PROVES GOD DOESN'T EXIST. KILLS SELF.

Project Management

2006-04-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

I'm in a project management class now and what I get from this and other business classes is that humans are like nodes in a Beowulf cluster and organizational goals aren't easily serialized.. Humans in organizations need to mind-melt so that organizations can run more like a Cray supercomputer.

Thai elections

2006-04-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

The current prime minister of Thailand called a vote in response to criticisms towards him, saying that he abuses his power. He got more than 50% of the vote. However, a smaller number of people (especially in the Muslim south) strongly disagree with him being in office. This seems to me a golden opportunity to adopt an alternative voting system where it is not enough for the most people to vote for you, but also that the least people disapprove of you.

Ethics

2006-03-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

When you speak of ethics, please don't delude yourself into thinking ethics exist in the most literal sense. Remember that what you are doing is coming up with good rules for you to follow, not discovering universal ethical principles. I have no doubt that making a solid set of ethics for you to follow is the right thing to do, but it is only because it is the right thing to do.

Some things about me you might not've known

2006-03-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

There aren't many things about me people don't know because A) I'm boring and B) I tell people everything about me. I'm a braggart.

-I lost one of my eye teeth twice. This makes me almost polyphydont, but just on that one tooth.

-All of my body hair that doesn't see the sun is black, including the fuzzy hair on the back of my neck. When I was born, I had black hair. And yet, I'm a blonde. The drapes naturally don't match the carpet! hah!

-I invented my own phonetic alphabet when I was 11 or 12 to write secret messages for sprites, elves and nature spirits to read. I still use it occasionally for to do lists when I'm feeling whacky. I have tried to teach this writing to my friends to no avail.

-I'm not afraid of spiders, nor millipedes, but centipedes gimme the heebie geebies! They're like robots of the forest floor. loordy, lordy, they scary!

-I wake up betwen 5:30-7 in Winter and 5-6 in Summer. In summer, I leave extra early to avoid the sun. I prefer cooler climates to warmer climates, likely because I grew up in Wrightwood and often played outside well into dusk.

-I own more CDs than you.

POLYSICS or DIE!!

2006-03-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Just saw POLYSICS this past Þorr's day. Man, were they awesome! The lead singer, bounces around like his energy is limitless! The girl on the keys acts exactly like a robot, even when she plays the keys (she moves her arms up and down as if they were controlled by levers). They even have this weird dance routine..

ポリシックスは最高だった！先の木曜日、コンサート見に行った。歌う人は元気がいっぱい。キーボードする女の子はロボットみたいで可愛い。みんなすごく上手だよ。また見に行きたい！！！

Sweet 16

2006-03-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

I feel old since I'm turning 23 but that's 17 in hexadecimal, so I'm not that bad off...

MusiTone

2006-03-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

There's this cool font you can use to pretty much make your own sheet music. It is a chore making music this way.. hmmm.. if only some robot could type the notes for you *grin* Anyway, on an entirely unrelated note, I made my own modifications to make it have additional unicode mappings, which you can download here.

Conversations In Another Tounge

2006-02-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

It is fun.. talking with friends but sideways.. but akin to playing the tambourine poorly in a band full of skilled musicians.

DRM

2006-02-10T08:09:00.000-08:00

DRM is a publisher's foolhardy Gilgameshian desire to be immortal.

ばかな山レスラーモンスター

2006-02-03T16:26:00.004-08:00

何の意味？

2006-02-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

このTシャツは大阪で買った。何の意味ですか。着たら日本人が笑う。なんで？

Recurring Dream

2006-01-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

No, I don't have recurring dreams so often anymore, but throughout my childhood, I would have a dream about my family having a blondish dog but it then turning into a furry halo and flying away, somewhere in the kitchen. It was always a sad dream. My family recently having gotten a dog for the first time in almost two decades, the smell of dog brought back memories... Anyway, as a child, I didn't think that the yellow dog every existed; I assumed it to just be my dream until I told one of my parents about it and they told me that we had a dog named Suva*. As a younger kid, around 7-ish, I think I even saw something on the ground that I thought to be the halo, though I'm fuzzy on the order of things and how big that thing on the ground was. It could've been a discarded condom or even a largish o-ring; I may remember things wrong and it might even be that something I saw on the ground triggered the dream. In any event,

* My father named Suva after the capital of Fiji, since he liked The Blue Lagoon, since he was/is obsessed with Brooke Shields.

子供の時、よく寂しい夢を考えていた。家族の黄色い犬は毛深い円光にかわって、風になびいた。子供の時、その犬は夢だけだと思った。でも、信じられなくて本当にその犬が言った。両親は僕がとっても小さい時、友達にあげた。最近、家族は犬を続いて勝ってる。犬の匂いは覚えさせる。

Millihelen

2006-01-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

Fortune is so freaking hilarious. This is a quote I got this morning:

Millihelen, adj:
        The amount of beauty required to launch one ship.

So, I'm gonna measure girls in millihelens as soon as I can configure the conversion from millishlangs.

New Years Resolutions

2006-01-04T12:21:00.000-08:00

Here are my New Years resolutions. I take these things seriously. Last year, I made good on at least 6 of my 9 resolutions. They must be difficult so that there is a possibility of not meeting them if I lose track of myself but realistic, too (hence the absence of "own island in Mediterranean" and "gain ability to shapeshift"... someday, someday). Yes, I will do everything to meet these or ~~die trying~~ try afuckinggain.

Become as fluent as humanly possible in Japanese, reasonably fluent in German and conversational in Farsi
Start and maintain a successful enterprise. (NO INVESTORS!)
Have a successful romance / get a girlfriend.
Record first (and maybe last) The Happy Buttons album. This includes honing my performing, producing and recording skills.
Make enough money so that I can live where I want and still have plenty of money left to buy stupid shit.
Follow up to #5: Move to San Luis Obispo!

コレは新年の誓いだよ。毎年新年の誓いを立てる。去年、六つの九つはよくなった。いい誓いは出来るけどちょっとむずかしいと思う。

日本語でぺらぺらになって、ドイツ語に上手くなって、ペルシア語をちょっと習う。
いいビジネスを始める。
ガールフレンドを作る。
僕のバンドの一曲目を録音する。
お金をたくさん作る。
サンルイと言う町に引っ越す

Absurdity

2005-12-28T19:40:00.000-08:00

We can grow quintillion times again
And we can know more than the ancients many times again
And still be dwarfed by the nearest star

We can understand the universe many times more,
And still never understand our increasingly complex selves

I love the flimsy wills of men, Amor fati
We shall forget the lessons of the ancients
And the great leviathan shall rise again

We shall destroy every last God again
Become them ourselves,
And it will never become absurd

Science

2005-12-28T19:39:00.000-08:00

Everyone has her own crazy ideas
And most of them are wrong
But they all contribute in their own way
Their own part of the song

Every fallacy they had,
Is one more we shall not,
And every detail they found, however stupid,
Is the foundation from which we build atop

Some may push fallacious ideas,
But these will always fall to the ideas that work
For you cannot build a building with snake oil
Nor plow fields with "intelligent design"

Self-absorbed Ahmadinejad and the future blogs in Iran

2005-12-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a particularly good and in-depth interview with Hoder. And here it is Auf Deutsch (the German version has a pic of him, so you can see how funny looking he is). What's happening with the youth in Iran is a good example of blogging actually meeting its promise as a tool for change (unlike my blog, which is utter nonsense).

Merry Yule!

2005-12-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the longest night of the year! It is the Winter Solstice of the Northern Hemisphere, Dong Zhi on the Chinese Calendar. Yule was, and is the winter celebration for pagans and heathens (that is, goons that live in the countryside and goons that live in heaths, respectively). In ancient Persia, Yalda was the celebration of the sun-god, Mithra.

Today, Persians still celebrate Yalda, sans the Allah-angering sun god reference. Christians also stole Yule and mislabled it to be Jesus' birthday. The true meaning of Christmas isn't Christian but human - reconnecting with families, celebrating the season and getting fat.

この季節は世の中たくさんのホリデーがある季節である。アメリカにキリスト教徒はよく「本当のクリスマスの意味を忘れないで」と言ってる。でも、本当の意味はキリストの誕生日じゃなくて、家族と休みホリデーだよ。本当にイエスの誕生日は多分1月にある。昔はヨーロッパの北で、よく「Yule」と言うホリデーを多神教が出ていた。キリスト教徒はそのホリデーを盗んだ。今、トールとかオディンを信じる人が続いてそのホリデーを出ている。

Eccentricity

2005-12-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

How do you avoid being compared to others? How do you avoid just being another person, slightly more intelligent than some and less than others? You are a commodity and you must sell your self the same as one would a commodity. And product differentiation in its sublimest form is eccentricity.

sleepwalking

2005-12-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Why does a narcissist get violently angry when insulted? The same reason a sleepwalker gets violently angry when woken.

"Ecology's Big, Hot Idea"

2005-12-13T12:13:00.000-08:00

Increasingly, scientists are applying more math and physics-like tools to biology (nice for me since I think I'm good at math and I shall study biology). The idea of "metabolic ecology" is on the drawing board right now. It's an attempt to derive equations and constants that can reliably predict things such as body size, temperature, metabolic rate and how they relate to eachother. On one hand, it is a waste of brain power and discovery to constantly be looking at different parts of a whole and not utilizing underlying patterns, but like the critics say, if the ideas require too much patching up to be workable, then they aren't of much use. We understand biology in good detail and "metabolic ecology" might put too much emphasis on rules. Take your pick: fallacy of everything-is-the-same-whole or fallacy of every-thing-is-a-different-kind.

Flashback: Japanese Interpretation of Aglio Olio

2005-12-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Italian Dishes is your pasta aglio olio. It consists of pasta (usually spaghetti), olive oil, garlic and vegetables. Here is a cell phone shot of an Italian Restaurant in Japan's interpretation of the dish. Note the Japanese, rather than Italian, assortment of vegetables.

ある好きなイタリア料理は「アグリオ・オリオ」と言うパスタだ。パスタとオリーブ油とニンニクと野菜で作る。こっち、日本のレストランのアグリオ・オリオの写真だよ。日本の野菜で作ったね。

Standing on the Shoulders of 1st graders

2005-12-12T20:36:00.000-08:00

You are not standing on the shoulders of giants, Messrs. Newton. No, you are a midget standing on the shoulders of another midget standing on the shoulders of another midget and so on.. all the way back to the first half-wit that thought it made sense to beat rocks together and make sparks. (We're all links in a chain. Promote yoursef, Mr. Scientist! Or get lost in history.)

Among Primates...

2005-12-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

Human males have, by far, the biggest dicks. But consider this.. We have the biggest head size at birth, too. If we had little ape wieners, we couldn't pleasure our freaky big-brained alien baby having women.

Yahoo! Avatars

2005-12-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

Yahoo Avatars, aka e-transvestite, is addictive! I just wish they had more clothing options. There is also the Japanese equivalent at avatar.yahoo.co.jp, which is totally different and includes many clothing options one must pay for....

The Deepest Night: A Yuletide Tale

2005-12-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

(reprinted with permission, thanks to Dan Ralph Miller)

On the deepest night a frigid breeze
blows beneath the stars,
As whirling wisps weave winter-elves
across the ice-bound lake,
Half a moon spills brightness on
the snow clad forest floor,
Heaven's helmet wheels wide on
Tiwar's mighty axle-tree.

Grey owl ogles from her skyward seat
in a naked oak,
the hoary hare stops high on his haunches
to whiff the wind,
And the lynx which lays in wait for it
soon forgets its longing,
as rim of heaven rumbles with
the roar a reindeer riot.

Bursting quickly from the brush
quickened quails fly,
Raucous cries arise as creatures
before their time arouse,
And when the thunder threatens
open the heavens to crack,
the din declines and the winter woods
wend back to a peerless quiet.

Swiftly storming swart-clouds
overwhelm the moon,
and the wary wolves wail warnings
from hill to snowy hill,
The forest wights lay low
as even the owl squints to see,
As a frightful flurry whips snow aloft
an icy death of a fog.

Weird and woeful wailings wax into a
harrowing host of howls,
Roar the hooves of a hundred reindeer
rounding the river ice,
At once every snow-flake sent aloft
falls quietly back to earth,
And moonlight stills the air again as if
even the moment is frozen.

A wight now stands in man-like shape with a cloak of grey
and a wide brim hat ,
White-bear fur boots lashed to the knee, with a coat of gold
and a vest of green.
Wind-driven wild are his white hair and beard, with one eye
the summer sky as blue,
and the other as dark as midnight's well, and wise old
hands that a tale would tell.

And when he whistles a simple tune,
from the woods a gaggle of elves emerge,
thirteen in all, both swarthy and bright,
some are quite short and others his height,
"There beyond the beaver dam,
lies a farm where a humble kindred stays,
This year their harvest was hit with blight,
and they've not an apple this Yuletide night"

"You are elves of wide renown,
known for your crafts the nine worlds over,
Surely we can, between us, dream,
of gifts for this family so deserving,
Let them feast like lords the yuletide through,
and send elk for their hunters after this moon.
Let the gifts be at their doorstep,
before the man in the moon tallies up midnight!"

At midnight the man of the house hears a knocking,
and goes to the door-sill to see who comes calling,
He heaves high the door on its iron hinges and is greeted
with a snow-blast that sends him back reeling,
Now he can see on the step there are footprints,
and a big velvet sack had there been forgotten.

He calls for his wife, as if guests she's expecting, she says
"No, but close the damn door if you're pleasing,"
So he hoists up the package and slams shut the door,
and lays it all out on the floor by the fire.
A gold table cloth. A large old drinking horn.
A needle and thread. And a loaf of old pan bread.
"This is all fine and dandy, but where is the cheese?
I was kind of expecting at least something to eat."

His wife is abacked by his words,
"Hush now and don't be quite so uncouth!
Give thanks that somebody left us a gift,
though it may not be what you wanted...
Go and ready yourself for the bed now,
tomorrow you have a long day of hunting,
Don't sully your luck for the hunt by complaining,
we shouldn't go hungry on yuletide."

But when they turn and look back, the cloth
is bedecked with the finest feast an eye can see.
And honey mead pours from the horn
and try as you might it cannot be emptied,
And needle and thread has sewn for them
each a new tunic and slack,
And the old pan-bread has doubled and tripled
enough for a many day hunt.

"By the gods!" he exclaims, "we have been
blessed indeed on this cold Yuletide Eve!
Get the children from bed and fetch cat and dog,
this calls on the spot for a yuletide blot!"
"A gift for a gift" she agrees with a smile,
and gathers the kindred around,
when tucked away between the plates
she sees a wise old wooden whistle.

To her lips once touched comes a mindful tune,
whistled as if by magic,
which catches the ear of Old Man Yule
and his throng of thirteen elves,
He smiles and laughs before turning his cloak,
whipping up a storm of snow,
And soon is gone like a sudden storm,
leaving the owl again to ogle the mouse.

~ ~ ~
By Dan Ralph Miller, Yule, 2004ce

JLPT

2005-12-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

昨日、JLPT3級をテストした。よい点を取ると思う。お父さんがいつも「なんで日本に行って、日本の会社で働かない？したくなければ、なんで日本語を習いたい？」と言ってる。僕は言語が好きで、日本の文化が好きだから。人生にたくさん言語を習いたい。あんまり日本の会社で働きたくないけど。日本の会社はやくざみたい。やだよ。

Yesterday, I took the level 3 JLPT (Japanese Language proficiency Test). I think I did very well. My father always says "Why don't you want to go to Japan and work for a Japanese company? If you don't want to do that, why do you want to learn Japanese?" It's because I like languages and Japanese culture. I want to learn many languages in my lifetime. But I don't want to work for a Japanese company. Japanese companies are scarcely different from the Yakuza in their vertical structure. Ick.

Current 93

2005-11-17T18:55:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, I was gonna tell y'all how cool Current 93 was. I was there both nights, but I tell you the first day was a little better. There were fewer people there (and fewer metalheads for, ugh, Om).

It was kinda funny. The first day before the concert, I approached some darkly clad people afore the concert hall and asked them if they were there to see Current 93. It was visibly pissed I didn't know who they were Om. Hah!

The first night was awesome. David Tibet shaked like he was possessed for the long introductory part of "Judas as Black Moth." It added a sort of beat to the violins and pianos. He has such a stage presense and I was right there in the front both nights. Well, my descriptions always manage to make the awesome sound tedious so I'll stop.

My Field of Study...

2005-11-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

Olfaction has always interested me. How neglected is this most primitive of senses!

Type Runes on your computer

2005-11-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

This falls squarely in the category of nerdy waste of time, but I just whipped up an anglo-saxon futhoric keymap (for US PC keyboards) for X11/linux. Get it here, save it under "/etc/X11/xkb/symbols/pc" or the equivalent dir on your box. Then, add "en_futhark Old English Futhark" under the layout section in /etc/X11/xkb/rules/xfree86.lst or the equivalent file blah blah. Windows users, simply d/l and install the right file from here. Note that my keyboard is almost identical to their Runic_AS.

looney runes

2005-11-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

ᛁ ᚦᛁᛝᛣ ᚦᚫᛏ ᛁᛝᛄᛚᛁᛋᚳ ᛋᚳᛟᛞ ᛇᛋ ᚱᚢᚾᛋ

If you only see question marks above, download the font here. Unicode is cool. English should use the futhorc runes.

Current 93

2005-11-01T11:53:00.000-08:00

I shall see them this Friday and Saturday. If you haven't heard of them, they epitomize and define apocalyptic, occult folk music. The central figure is David Tibet, a loony man who makes eerily beautiful lyrics. Anyway, this weekend, ostensibly, is their only US appearance this year and it's in S-kewl 'cisco. Good sourdough bread and Little Osaka, here I come.

おかしい話

2005-10-30T13:54:00.000-08:00

昨日、結婚を出た。昔は、「サラ」と言って、結婚した友達が大好きだった。昨日、サラを見るとドキドキしてちゃった。高校生の時、良くサラの事の夢を見ていた。

高校生の時、サラをおこってから、サラとポールと言う人が恋人になった。その時あと、僕とサラが話すのを止めた。でも、一年ぐらい前、続いて話してる。今、友達だけだけど、長い間前は気があった。本当に僕とポールも友達になった。

Welcome to Jamaica, Have a Nice Day

2005-10-30T07:51:00.000-08:00

Some would have you believe that it's wrong to compare statistically the average intelligences of different "ethnic" groups - because it might cause racism. But I can't imagine White people being racist against Blacks because they think they aren't quite as smart. Now, if they statistically demonstrated that Blacks have bigger schlangs, that would cause much anti-Black racism. My point obviously being that hatred is the result of jealousy and phear.

Wedding

2005-10-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Just went to Sarah & Paul's wedding. I'm happy for them, but man Sarah's a lovely person. Paul's a bastard but I know he'll be good to her. It's funny to watch all of the groom's old friends go through happiness and anger as their friend ditches them for martial life. Once the booze began, I saw too much white-guy dancing and I was outta there. I said to Paul & Sarah that we shall keep in touch and hang out sometime. So often that is said and nothing is meant, but I shall keep to it! To Pasadena!

My strategy...

2005-10-24T23:43:00.000-07:00

Isn't usually to just solve the problem once, but to make a system that makes things easy. But I want a system that is like nature; it shall heal itself and produce endless grandeur without me doing much at all. My mind shall be an ecosystem and inventions shall come out of it like new species of fish out of African lakes.

Computers

2005-10-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

When computers get smart enough, the efficient, but limiting occam's razor will no longer be necessary. We will be able to exhaust every single possibility because sometimes, midget lepers do win a million dollars.

Tokyo

2005-10-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Tokyo was cool. Was there waaay to short a time, though! Argh! Very crowded. Streams of people. In the morning, a million grey suits marching the SAME DIRECTION.

Japanese people are night owls. I feel like a country hick getting up early and not seeing anyone out.

Too many gaijin. I didn't feel special!

Japanese girls are cute and very small. I should be allowed to have two Japanese girlfriends if I go by mass. mmm. two.

I watched "train man" highly recommended; very Japanese-y. Slightly formulaic, but based on a True Story™. It's the story of a young geek who rescues a girl on a train from a drunk and falls in love.

Tokyo Disneyland was cool but the lines were too long. Ate at a fancy tenpura restaurant. Ate a 3000 yen mushroom. It's expensiveness only adds to its deliciousness!

Ate at a really good Italian restaurant with a half-Japanese, half-Italian guy there (yeah, we wops like asian women. it's a rule of some sort). He looks like an anime interpretation of an Italian, but he's gonna take me and my sister through Italy!

I should..

2005-10-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

Block out time for the udderly useless and rediculous. If I didn't waste time before, I wouldn't know what I know now. If I am ALWAYS working towards that goal or those goals, then my well of creativity may well run dry..

..But it is so written in the Eddas!

2005-10-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

This is pretty hilarious. Science vs. Norse Mythology. Why should it just be Xians that try to push their religion into classrooms?

music

2005-10-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Those who want "religion" to have a bigger part in peoples' lives, those who want to "save" their "religion" from extinction do not understand religion at all! The culture war between the little-endians (secularists) and the big-endians (evangelists) has absofuckinglutelynil to do with religion! Those who say people should believe do not understand mystery - in fact, they try to destroy it and science. If only everyone would open their eyes, they would see that religion is alive and well in its last refuge - music.

Arguments

2005-09-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Attacks of moral philosophies usually involve drawing up a scenario in which the philosophy allows "unconscionable" things. What makes something "unconscionable"? It seems really as if we are just trying to derive a formula that approximates best the curve that we all already built - culture.

some latin for y'all

2005-09-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

Ceteris Paribus - all else being equal

MTV

2005-09-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

MTV Sux. They used to be cool*. So it is with everything. The little guy with a new idea that hasn't the recognition it deserves pounds it out and becomes the establishment himself. In this way, a new thing to rage against appears. If MTV stayed cool, then cool would be stale. We would all be satisfied just enough to not start a revolution like the proletarian happy with their socialist reforms. So it is good that people/entities/tribes become complacent after they have done great things ~> it allows the rest of the world to catch up and take their stab.

*this is true of other MTV networks, such as Nickelodeon. Remember Ren & Stimpy? You Can't do that on Television?

If you still haven't donated, take a gander...

2005-09-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice satellite view of n'orleans:

Before Katrina

Here it is after the tragedy:

After Katrina

The nice thing is you don't have to fly there to help. You can be lazy and just donate. Click here, and donate what you can to the red cross. If everyone donates even a tiny bit, it adds up! Thank you very much.

I'm to tired to explain this right now

2005-09-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

I'm also too tired to make sure this makes sense (what's my excuse the rest of the time?)

Enough of the realism!

2005-09-09T11:33:00.000-07:00

Back when videogames were very pixel-y, the lack of clear detail let kids put their own imagination into the game. I pictured the forests of Legend of Zelda being like the one in my backyard. Parents were wrong back then to say video games stunted the imagination... but maybe they are right today? In any event, I feel putting too much "realism" in games actually destroys the suspension of disbelief.

Obvious Guy sez: "we're still evolving"

2005-09-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Our brains are still evolving. The linked to article refers to recent genes found that regulate brain size. One gene rose around the time religion and agriculture appeared - very recently. Brain size is correlated with intelligence (with some exceptions), so these genes might explain ethnic differences in average intelligence.. But the bigger story is that we are all becoming smarter.

The ironic twist here is much of the human species might've became smarter to outmaneuver, outwit and kill foes. Our intelligence may bring us beyond the ancient fallacies that gave rise to it in the first place such as tribal hatred and racism. Nah, wishful thinking.

beer mustard...

2005-09-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

Is the spicy spread of the gods and goddesses. Try it once and you will henceforth spit at any other mustard!

remember..

2005-09-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

"It doesn't matter how smart you are or how much you accomplish, there will always be an 11-year old asian girl who's better than you'll ever be"

Classic psychology...

2005-09-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Just because someone is brilliant and studies psychology doesn't mean their ideas are correct. Classic structural, self-reflecting psychology is an ape recognising himself in the mirror taken a step further. So, brilliant people make inroads in psychology, but, because of all of our lack of perception, they are just as wrong. Indeed, different self-reflectors come up with different absurd answers!

fucking malloc()!

2005-09-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

I am RETARDED! I spent most of today trying to get this app using OpenAL to work with a manually generated buffer (ie, not using a wave-loading function). I kept on trying to figure out why the damn program wouldn't run without segfaulting. Finally, only after looking in the sources for ALUT, I realize that I should be using malloc instead of new like some sort of C++ baby.

Q't me!

2005-08-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

he who doesn't kill himself today, lives to kill himself another day, (and in a more interesting way) -Thomas J. Webb

You can quote me on this

2005-08-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

This is one of those annoying things I say a lot. Here it is for the record, if you want to quote me word for word: "If I were an islander and some missionary came to make me stop worshipping my gods and worship his White man god instead, I'd be eating long pig!" -Thomas J. Webb

my cuz is craaazy

2005-08-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

"I just can't stop thinking about how I want to kill my parents" -Madison, my 7 year old cousin

Statistics

2005-07-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Our perceptions reflect reality insofar is it not doing so would have been deleterous. But the way we accept reality is often wrong. Statistics -with correct understanding- is a way to brint it all down and let us say "wait a minute! 176 is a bigger number than 140!"

Declining Rate of Technological Innovation?

2005-07-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this guy that's a psychiatrist for the pentagon says that if you plot important technological innovation against population, it peaks in 1873 and goes downhill from there. This isn't too surprising if it's true (though I question what he counts as "important technological innovation") since man has already plucked all the low-hanging fruit and all we have left is weird discoveries that won't help as much feed anyone or kill anyone. hehe. It does piss me off how the people disagreeing with this guy say "nonsense! Bandwidth and processor speed increase exponentially!" Yeah, they are kinda missing the point. Making a bigger car isn't an invention. We already have cars!

This also supports the assertion I always make that from this point forward, value will only come from difficult toil. A programmer who only knows VB.net isn't going to make anything of value and that's why I encourage you all to learn hard sciences - Physics, Biology and Chemistry. If you must learn computer science, learn the lower-level stuff; learn asm and processor design. Code your own OS. But for Dog's sake, don't whip up a script in Perl that hurls random insults or jokes and act as though you accomplished something! Everyone should know Perl. Everyone. Smart people should get busy and get good at science. Or, as Einstein put it:

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

- Albert Einstein

RIP, John Benson

2005-07-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

John Benson died. I used to make fun of him behind his back for sitting with his mouth open like a hick and for being fat. I'm a jerk.

Dream

2005-07-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

If you complain to a teenager that your hand hurts from opening mustard jars, they will have sympathy. If you complain to a teenager that you are out of salad, they will give you acne treatment stories

-From a dream my sister had

Japan Trip Wrap-up

2005-07-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a brief, cryptic travel log of my trip to Japan.

Odin's Day, 22nd
I leave from LAX. Long flight. Hot Japanese stewardess. Sat next to a Nepalese cruise ship security personnel on the right and an old, Texan doctor with a Thai wife (and hot, though unfortunately under aged daughters; silly, silly laws). Me and the Texan talked about nerdy things like the flora around our respective areas we live and biotech.. I told him my future-major is biology. Me and the Nepalese d00d talked about.. I dunno. We joked a lot. Thai people bow funnily.

Thor's Day, 23rd
I arrived in Japan. Morisawa-san of Fuji Impulse takes me to a Subway (the restaurant, not the mode of transportation). I talk on and on with my friend Mike on my cell phone about what we're gonna do. Subways in Japan don't have Avocado. Why?!!

Frigg's Day, 24th
I worked at Fuji Impulse, the supplier for my father's company, the whole day pretty much. I learned about the new machines they are working on and argued with the engineers about new features I think they should add. After that, we went to a Japanese biergarten. An integral part of Japanese business culture is... drinking.

Saturn's Day, 25th
This day, I went to Kyoto thinking I'd meet a lot of people. I learned that concentration of people isn't directly proportional to how easy it is to meet people. In fact, it appears to be inversely proportional! I talked to some people. Couples are the best to talk to, I think. They need someone to distract them before they get sick and tired of eachother.

Sun's Day, 26th
I spent this day with Mike and his girlfriend, Mami. It was a lot of no-frills fun. We met at the Hirakata station (which brings back so many memories). We videotaped a phony show where I stopped Japanese people and asked them questions ranging from "what's your favorite Japanese food" to "what do you think about the Iranian elections." We ate at two different restaurants because I'm a vegan and Mike is allergic to stuff. I've never been at an "Italian" restaurant that didn't have pepper! Their spaghetti was pretty good, though. After that, we walked along the riverside. Mike played baseball with some little kids. Then, we had shaved ice and walked back to the station. At the station, we just sat and talked a lot. The breeze was nice. Mike's girlfriend is cute, but she's pretty mean (just kidding, Mami!)

They went home to have dinner, so I went to Kyoto to eat at Café Peace. I was angered to find the place wasn't open. So, I walked back to the train angrily and literally stumbled upon another cooler place.. A falafel restaurant. So cool, all these Japanese hipsters eating middle-eastern food. I tell you though, I've never seen ketchup on a pita before.

Moon's Day, 27th
Today, I went with Tarumoto-san and Hui-san of Fuji Impulse to the Rokko Mountains above Kobe. This day wasn't about business, but it was with the business people. The mountains were beautiful. This time of the year, many species of hydrangeas are blooming. I took many pictures. After that, we went to Yum Jamu, which is the best restaurant on the planet. They call themselves "demi-veg" because most of their dishes are vegetarian. It's like Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and Korean... or something like that. I'm gonna figure out how to make my own Vietnamese dumplings like they made it...

Tiw's Day, 28th
I was supposed to leave for home today, but I didn't like that idea one bit! So, I moved it over one more day. Good thing. This had to be the best day there. I wish there were more days like this one. I met Mike at the Hirakata station once again. This time, we'd be heading to our old school, Kansai Gaidai. Mike has to save money because they won't give this poor immigrant a job. We ran into our old teachers there, Koji-sensei and Kawano-sensei. They were appalled by how poor me and Mike's Japanese still are (hehe, j/k). We talked to sooo many people. The coolest people we talked to were these two sarcastic chix0ren we ran in to.

I had to get back early because I stupidly told Tarumoto I'm staying another day. He used that as an opportunity to try to set me up with Mizukami-san. Damn, that was awkward. She's be cuter if she wasn't fat. Also, I really like shy Japanese girls, but she was too shy. Kinda creeped me out.

Odin's Day, 29th
Today, I returned, but not before shopping a lot. I bought myself some Japanese shirts and things. Then I got on the plane and once again said goodbye to the land of the rising sun. I'll be back again!

On the plane ride back, I met this Japanese girl. She was pretty cute, but I could tell she was about 5 years older. She couldn't.. Things were going pretty good; I gave her my contact info. She said she'd visit me. She kinda slept on me too... She kept on looking at me all dreamily. Weird Japanese girls.. psh. THEN, she asked me how old I am and I said 22. Man, that flipped her out. She kept on asking that over and over again. I hope she still comes over like she said she would. I don't mind that she's 27. Oh well..

Updates/Graduation/Japan trip

2005-06-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

I just graduated and I have a few pics. This was for my AA in Liberal Arts. I have already begun work on my BS in Business Administration from University of Phoenix. From there, I will get graduate degrees (MS and PhD) in Biological Sciences. If you want to know why in heaven's name I'd pick such as smelly major, then e-mail me.. I'll indulge you.

To those who are going to my graduation party on Wednesday, the 15th

If you can't drive or don't want to drive down the the Karaoke place, meet at my house by 5PM. Otherwise, you can still meet at my place to caravan or you can meet at the restaurant Guadalaharry's:

Guadalaharry's Mexican Restaurant & Cantina
280 East Hospitality Lane, San Bernardino, CA 92408
Google Maps | Mapquest

We will go there first to eat then go to the Karaoke place, Hawaiian Blues. There is food at Hawaiian Blues too, if you are daring. We will arrive at this place by 7PM. We should be there for at least several hours. Lots and lots of fun..

1280 E Washington St
Colton, CA 92324
Google Maps | Mapquest

So, once again, either meet at my place by 5PM or at Guadalaharry's soon after that. Or, if you are running real late, meet me directly at the Karaoke place. Please contact me if you have any questions and to R.S.V.P.

To My Japanese and Japan-obsessed friends

I will be in Japan from the 22th to the 28th of this month. I will spend the bulk of my time in the Kansai area. I will visit my old haunts in Osaka, Kyoto, et al. I will also visit Tokyo for the first time too. Is there anyone that wants to climb Mt. Fuji with me? When I'm in Japan, you will still be able to contact me via e-mail and my cell phone number.

今月、２２日から２８日まで、日本に居ます。関西に止めます。でも、初めて東京に行きます。新幹線で三時間かかる。誰か僕と富士山を登りたい人が居ますか？日本に居る時、ケイタイ番号でコンタクト出来ます。

disease

2005-06-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

Back in the 1800s, everyone had syphillus. It was the fashion back then. Either that, or one of a host of other diseases no one even knows about any more. Anyway, I wonder what affect this had on the philosophies and ideas of the time..

E3

2005-05-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

I'm going to E3, bitches! I'm gonna see Nintendo's newest console and probably a new Zelda game (best games ever!) I haven't gone to E3 in 5 or 6 years!

みんな、今日E3に行くよ。一番新しいファミコンを見る。たぶん、ゼルダのゲームも見る。先の行った時は五、六年前だった。

Personality

2005-05-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Nothing betrays the person as they are more beautifully than their physical mannerisms. Do they give the cup a few extra shakes after it's empty? Do they do things with their hands when they are sitting? You see, by the time "yourself" makes it to your lips, it goes through so many filters. It has become safe and generic. It is the ego talking. The conciences likes to make things they way they should be and society gives us our "should"s. The only genuine differences between people are the slightly different learning strategies, the way their non-verbal thoughts are formed, the way the world is experienced in their brain.

Samuelson

2005-05-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

A major influence of mine is an immigrant Swede, John Samuelson that moved into the middle of the desert. To this day, the man's incorrectly spelled musings can be found carved in rock (I shall not tell you where). Do you not see in the quotes below that he is cut from the same cloth as John Muir?

The rock of Faiht and Truht
Nature is God
The Key to Life is Contact
Evolution is the Mother and Father of Mankind
Without them We Be Nothing

-John Samuelson

Mother Time
Neither wealth laws nor armv's can stop the human mind
from creating new or improve upon the present day religion and government
Water is soft only hard in the chemicals
But with time the ocean can grind the hardest granite to a powdered sand
So with time will the human race grind
out its own destinys
regardless of the opposition or party in power.

-John Samuelson

The Future

2005-05-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

I am not worried about the future of humanity because people always go where there is more opportunity, more money, more happiness. People that are willing to sacrifice for an ideal are fortunately a minority.

Untamed Wilds

2005-05-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

Untamed Wilds

I lay
immobilized
another day

I have heard the eerie, joyous yelps of coyotes one last night

I'm weak
I have only to stop breathing for a second
To see the wood's dark heart,
where the tiny beasts shall feast on my soul
and return it to the soil
and I shall live again among the oaks

I live off centipedes and elderberries
and the nights are fast becoming wicked cold

I can't let the woods claim me back
As long,
as those fuckers are still alive

The English garden mentality... is Wrong!

2005-04-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

Man makes things that start out pristine and then decay. Nature makes things that become progressively hardier.

人類はまず完全で、けっきょく壊している物を作る。自然はこつこつ強くなる物を作る。(たとえば生態系)

Natural resources and mental resources

2005-04-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

Environmentalists don't want to waste natural resources, but they gladly waste mental resources. 'What?!!' you ask? Well, as long as land fills are government-owned, the vast mental resources of entrepreneurs isn't available to solve waste disposal problems. Landfill owners can adjust costs for what the market can support, charge based on trash usage (pay-as-you-throw), and find ingenious ways to make money off the trash... hmmm... This leads to a disturbing thought. Is libertarianism the answer? Surely all the laws we're passing to protect the environment are good. right? right?!!

College Acceptance

2005-04-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well, congratulate me. I'm starting University of Phoenix's BS in Business Administration program next Tuesday.

But something's been troubling me. I have to reject other colleges! I have to tell Cal State Chico, et al that I won't be attending them. I feel like a dork that once couldn't find girls but now is forced to dump a really hot chick.. Why must I? You can all be my girlfriend!

来週、火曜日にフェニックスの大学を始める。ビジネスを勉強する。でも、あと生物学を勉強する。

Thomas J. Webb

Blog moved

What is Worldview?

Mac OS X vs. My Keyboard

Asimov and Animism

Axis 1 - Intensity

The difference between evangelists and fundamentalists

Natural Affirmative Action

Cunt-a-lickus

おいしいベジタリアン料理

Lipstick Vogue

Devil's Advocate

New Year's Resolutions

Iron...

Borat...

Grizzly Woman

In The Name of the Sun

Headline from the future...

Last Month's Road Trip

Smutty MySpace ads and transferrence

Pics from the Torrance natsumatsuri

旅行 ～ カリフォルニアの中のコーストについて

ᛏᚢᛞᛟ᛫᛫᛫

Audrey Tautou....

5K

It's not a soquid, idiots..

日本５回

Protest Season

Colbert Nukes Bush

Tip:

Future Headline

Project Management

Thai elections

Ethics

Some things about me you might not've known

POLYSICS or DIE!!

Sweet 16

MusiTone

Conversations In Another Tounge

DRM

ばかな山レスラーモンスター

何の意味？

Recurring Dream

Millihelen

New Years Resolutions

Absurdity

Science

Self-absorbed Ahmadinejad and the future blogs in Iran

Merry Yule!

Eccentricity

sleepwalking

"Ecology's Big, Hot Idea"

Flashback: Japanese Interpretation of Aglio Olio

Standing on the Shoulders of 1st graders

Among Primates...

Yahoo! Avatars

The Deepest Night: A Yuletide Tale

JLPT

Current 93

My Field of Study...

Type Runes on your computer

looney runes

Current 93

おかしい話

Welcome to Jamaica, Have a Nice Day

Wedding

My strategy...

Computers

Tokyo

I should..

..But it is so written in the Eddas!

music

Arguments

some latin for y'all

MTV

If you still haven't donated, take a gander...

I'm to tired to explain this right now

Enough of the realism!

Obvious Guy sez: "we're still evolving"

beer mustard...

旅行　～　カリフォルニアの中のコーストについて