Are you telling me, that my mom, has the hots for me?

Posted on 21st March 2011 in Something Daily

Believe it or not, I saw Back to the Future for the first time last night. It’s one of the movies that everyone is so surprised to discover that you’ve never seen, like Star Wars or The Sound of Music or something. I went into it knowing pretty much all of the classic lines already, just because they get thrown around so much in cultural references, and I ended up finally discovering the original context of all of them. Interesting to see where exactly it was that Doc (Emmett) Brown and Marty were going that they didn’t need roads, or the classic line “are you telling me, that my mom, has the hots for me?” It was kind of dated (really really dated, actually), but I ended up enjoying it hugely. I feel like it would be really hard for me not to like it (partially because of the fact that Marty McFly is the coolest character this side of Bill and Ted, and that I want to be like him). I know it’s crazy that I’d never seen it before, but I’m all better now. I took care of that.

I’m going to start making pictures more, and maybe they’ll move too. A friend of mine asked me to draw his album cover, so I plan to give that my very best effort. It’s probably going to involve a dinosaur on a skateboard or something rad awesome like that. Funny, just typing the words “dinosaur on a skateboard” just now notably increased my happiness. Now I’m just thinking about it. It’s awesome. It’s a t-rex and he’s got little elbow pads on his little elbows and big knee pads because his legs are huge. And a helmet and aviator sunglasses, and there is a flaming rainbow coming out of the back of his board. Somebody on reddit recently accused me of being four years old a few days ago, and I’m beginning to wonder if he was right. I’m ok with it, as long as it means I get to keep dreaming up dinosaurs doing awesome things.

I’m also picking up work on the message board that I started, as well as starting to design a personal website and a bunch of other stuff involving gif-making and pixel art. We all know that I’m a workaholic – this shouldn’t be news to anybody.

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It’s True, Haters Are, in Fact, Gonna Hate

Posted on 15th March 2011 in Something Daily

As expected, I got ripped on fairly hard on reddit after posting yesterday’s article to r/gamedev. My favorite tidbits from the exchange are “If his realizations are obvious then it’s not worth writing about, time writing that would have been better spent developing the game,” and “writing about how you designed a game is a useless waste of time if you don’t have anything tangible to show for it.” I knew this would happen, because it usually does when I post anything from Three Stegosaurus Moon on reddit – actually I don’t think there’s been a time when I posted something of my own and at least one of the comments wasn’t sarcastic or disparaging. Bummer, I know. But it’s ok. I stayed out of any kind of argument that might have popped up, and thanked the one guy in the thread who stood up for my article. So it’s a good experience overall.

Im always going to unsure of myself, but the confidence boosts come when I look back at the skills I had six months ago, or even one month ago, and realize that I’ve surpassed them completely. The only thing it’s reasonable to expect is that the learning will continue at a similar rate for a while, so regardless of how good I am at anything in an absolute sense, it’s an added bonus that I’m better at it than I was several weeks prior. Not that the fact that I was defamed on reddit has anything to do with how good I am at anything, but it causes me to think along those lines. I’m really just being timid.

This experience is interestingly appropriate in light of an article I read yesterday about nerds being mean to each other, which I could relate to both before and after being ripped on.

Also, reddit comments mean nothing. It’s easy to start thinking that they have meaning and significance, because they’re a lot more civil than those of the #chans, but really, in a bigger sense, they don’t matter. So it’s kind of upsetting that someone is being a jerk about my perfectly helpful article, but who cares, right? It’s my thing anyway, and I wanted to share it, and I’ll continue to do so whenever I feel like it, because it’s my thing.

tldr: haters gonna hate

Also this

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We Finally Have a Doorknob

Posted on 11th March 2011 in Something Daily

I watched an episode of Dragon Ball Z a few nights ago in which Gohan gets really angry and flies through Garlic Jr.’s back and pops out of his chest, ripping a hole right through his sternum area. I will stand by this: Gohan is the best part about the first three seasons of Dragon Ball Z. When he gets mad, it’s awesome. And nobody every expects his power. Also he flies through a guy’s chest.

It occurred to me this morning that it’s becoming difficult for me to use a computer and not do some form of work or learning while doing so. My local and hosted servers are constantly open in tabs in my browser, as is the MIT OCW site for watching online lectures, and as of late, a PHP myAdmin browser client for managing the database that Eric so graciously bestowed upon me. Typically the only tabs I keep open that are unrelated to that are TSM, Twitter, and Reddit – I’ve created an environment for myself in which it’s very easy to always be learning. Which is, I suppose, a good thing. Stepping back and taking a look at the situation is interesting, though. I’ve mentioned before that sometimes I feel like I don’t relax enough, which has certainly been true of late. I’ve been spending inordinate amounts of time in libraries and study lounges attempting to complete the projects that I keep popping up for myself. Great, but possibly a little maddening when taken to the extreme – something that I seem fully capable of doing.

Hopefully this feeling of extreme productivity isn’t dampened by the impending spring break, where I’m going home yet again for a few days. I’m sure it’ll be a very cramped amount of time, in that I’ll be rushing all over the place to make sure I get to see everyone I want to. That usually happens on such small breaks. And I very well may be tech-supporting my family again – it should make for some interesting stories at least!

Oh and we have a doorknob again, after about a month of not being able to open our door without a key. Thanks, super!

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A technologist and philosopher all in one

Posted on 8th January 2011 in Something Daily

I’ve obviously been doing a lot of hanging around at home recently, and I feel just a little lazy as a result. I know that if there’s ever a time to do nothing, it’s winter break, but I can’t help the nagging feeling that I’m missing out on valuable work that could be getting done. My days on break have consisted mostly of gaming with Eric, watching movies, and browsing reddit; while this is all very enjoyable and relaxing, I did spend this time last year learning how to make cables and troubleshoot audio signal chains in tech training at school. I was there from January 3rd on for two weeks of 9 to 5 training, about half of which was spent soldering various connectors onto various types of cable, the other half filled with mock test routines on each of Steinhardt’s 8 recording rooms. That was a lot of work, and I missed the opportunity to see my friends for another two weeks, but it was so enjoyable: I got a lot of time to myself (for South Park) in the evenings, and I was learning so much!

That process of learning continued as I started working as a studio tech last spring and continued this past semester. The first semester was trial by fire, as, despite my training, I still found myself somewhat unprepared for the reality of the job. People would ask me questions all the time that I didn’t know the answer to, and I frequently found myself sheepishly asking the more senior techs for help, only to have them stroll over, assess the situation, and calmly press a single button, resolving the issue. I was acutely aware of my rookie status the first semester. That continued for a bit in my second semester as a tech, and I still notice that it happens occasionally, but I’ve put together a mental list of about eight different things I reflexively check for when I’m confronted by the most common problem of all in learning studios: “There’s no sound”.

My tendency as a beginner was to assume that something was wrong with the system when given this problem. I’d spend several minutes too many testing the cable connections, getting the multimeter, sometimes even opening the connectors to check the solder joints. After all this, I’d usually get frustrated and ask an upperclassman for help. A few weeks of that fruitless strategy, though, and I started figuring out that about 90 per cent of the time, the fault for there being “no sound” lay with the student, not the equipment. So I’ve memorized the locations of all buttons and switches that could function as “mute”, reflexively adjust gain stages and turn on power conditioners, and have learned that the Steinhardt rooms need to be specifically configured for surround sound. Essentially, I’m getting better at the job. Check it out: by the time I’m a senior, I’m going to be the man at this. It’s just a matter of building my collection of checks and gaining experience in troubleshooting when there actually is a problem.

Non sequitur: I taught my 13 year old sister how to count in binary today. I watched a video of a presentation teaching basic computer science to kids and it inspired me to try out some of the techniques on a young one at my disposal. As it turns out, she thinks it’s interesting, and managed to write the binary version of the ASCII for “No soup for you” on her own, for me to decipher. Next up is hexadecimal (which she says “sounds a lot harder”). I’m also continuing to read Harry Potter I in German, which is getting easier! My education is slowly returning! And reddit ripped on me today when I mentioned that I deleted my Facebook. I used to take reddit comments to heart, but it’s way too likely that I’ll get my feelings hurt doing that. So I troll in FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU and take my lumps with everybody else. I try to be nice for the most part.

And the point is that I still feel lazy this winter. I’m in control, don’t worry – it’s obviously not a big deal, since it’s my choice to be lazy. It’s all happening like it’s happening. That’s it.

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Giving is Fun

Posted on 8th December 2010 in Something Daily

Yesterday evening at work as a tech was frantic. At about an hour into my shift, about five people asked me do help them out with various tech things within five minutes of each other and I was forced to run around trying to please everyone. More than one of the requests had to do with the impending final project due date for electronics lab. That’s the class for which I’m making the MIDI controller, and though I feel like I don’t exactly know what I’m doing, I’m still able to give help to some people due to my coding experience which, short as it is, constitutes a larger body of work than most of my Music Tech peers. So I helped out a couple of my friends on shift last night and got a cupcake out of the deal (red velvet from Crumbs!). That’s the second time something like this has happened. My friend Amy, who I also met through teching, gave me a Hershey’s bar after I stayed after hours to help her in the studio. So the job can have its perks, mainly in the form of food gifts from nice girls. I say girls because I don’t feel like I know of any guy who would do that for someone (I mean other than me of course).

The final bit of secret santa news has arrived, and honestly it’s my favorite of all. My giftee got the present I had shipped to him (a custom name placard for his desk with an Arrested Development joke on it) and registered his reception on the redditgifts website! It’s amazing to actually see the gift that I had ordered for him, and also to know that he’s happy with it. It’s really an awesome feeling.

Of course, we’re getting close to the completion of the final mix of our bluegrass “Get Low” cover. We plan to finish the mix tonight, so you can expect the final mix online some time tomorrow. If you didn’t hear it, here’s the rough mix on my soundcloud. We think it’s a pretty funny song in the bluegrass style.

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Secret Santa Came Through

Posted on 7th December 2010 in Something Daily

I’ve been literally singing and dancing frequently the last few days. I’m in a really good mood recently, and I’m not really sure why. It’s just that I’ve been realizing more and more that I’m in complete control of my life and I can make anything that I want happen. I like to phrase it as “I’m the man”, which you might find egocentric. I don’t mean it in an ego way though, it’s really just my way of saying that I realize my efficacy in all situations in which I may find myself. I don’t really need to worry about anything when I’m the one controlling the events in my life. See what I’m saying? I’m becoming ‘the man’ of my own experience.

I didn’t really do anything today other than go to class and catch up with my friend David (where I just returned from). Something did occur to me in class today, though. I have rarely gone through the exercise of trying to picture someone’s face – not just remember what they look like, but actually building a picture of them in my mind. I was trying to do this today in class, and realized that it’s extremely difficult for people that you haven’t seen many times, or quite recently. Building a mental image with any degree of substance (accuracy in the recreation of real objects) is really difficult, and it’s something that I’ve hardly ever thought about. I once heard of an exercise you can try with yourself in which you picture an apple in your head and try to apply physical characteristics to the image while maintaining it. Like you don’t just picture any old apple, but you actually have to see the spots on it, and the stem and the leaf and the bite you took out of it and whatever else. See how concrete you can make that in your mind. For me, at least, it’s a lot more difficult that I thought it would be. Doing that with someone’s face is incredibly difficult, especially if you’ve only seen the person a handful of times.

Anyway, I got my Secret Santa gift yesterday from Reddit! I guess my santa read my twitter and picked up on my love of Arrested Development by way of my tweet on the gift I bought my giftee. He or she sent me 500 business cards that claim I work at Gobias Industries as an analyst/therapist (analrapist). Check it out:


I don’t know what I’m going to do with these, but they are hilarious and certainly one-of-a-kind. Thank you so much, secret santa! You are the man/lady! Also, reader, you are the man (or lady).

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I Knew Having a Skateboard With Uglydolls on it Would Come in Handy Eventually

Posted on 6th December 2010 in Something Daily

Long title, huh? But it’s true. I crack myself up.

Last night I went out to a free show at the Upright Citizens’ Brigade theater. I’ve only been to one other sketch show (Second City in Chicago), but I figure that the UCB stage is more like a venue that Nirvana played before they were popular than a “theater”. The stage was raised about three inches off of the floor, and the low-ceilinged room was packed full of people from literally on the stage to the back wall. Speaking of on the stage, that’s where London and I sat. No chairs, just sitting on the floor with the improvisers right in our faces. Actually, that was one of the things that made it such an awesome experience. we arrived at the theater after the lines had already been formed, so there were no seats left. Instead of getting sent to the back of the room, they let us sit up front.

Anyway, the show was awesome and ridiculous. I’m pretty sure the guy who plays mc chris’ manager on “mc chris is dead” was in the show last night. His voice was pretty much identical…but I can’t find him anywhere on the internet! I don’t really know what to look for. Also, I’ve learned the benefits of actually going out once in a while, as London and I made some new friends who we met in the front row. Sketch improv is awesome, and Upright Citizens Brigade does a free show every Sunday. I’m definitely going back.

I’m listening to Electric Wizard at an unhealthy level and procrastinating on my Music Theory homework by writing this and browsing reddit. Electric Wizard are a great stoner metal band from England. I have one of their albums (Dopethrone) that’s made up mostly of disgustingly slow, crunchy guitar grooves that slowly build to something quite metal indeed.

I revised the “About Me” page today, and I’m contemplating the drawing of a new banner for the homepage. Not making one in Gimp, but actually drawing things. We’ll see how that goes, and if I have time for it in the next few weeks (which will be getting crazy due to finals stress compounded by my laziness). Somewhere during that time, I’m going to get some friends together, drink hot chocolate, and watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Because that’s what we do when it gets cold and snowy outside.

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The Importance of Being Tidy

Posted on 30th November 2010 in Something Daily

I’ve decided on my Secret Santa contribution. Rather, London came up with an idea and I decided on it. Since my giftee is a lawyer, London came up with the awesome idea of a custom name placard to sit on his desk with a funny phrase or quote or something underneath. My giftee is known to be familiar with Arrested Development, so I’m thinking about some different law-related quotes from Bob Loblaw or Tobias. So it would be the guy’s name (Matthew _______) in big type, and then smaller type underneath saying something clever. Some that I’m tossing around:

  • Analrapist
  • Why should you go to jail for a crime someone else noticed?”
  • No Habla Español

I can’t decide. It’ll come to me though. I’m leaning toward No Habla Espanol, because it seems like the safest and also most recognizable reference to Bob Loblaw out of the three.

It’s been two whole days since we all returned from Thanksgiving break, and already the kitchen is a horrible place. I knew upon cleaning it top-to-bottom the night before break that this would happen. I just found a half stick of butter that had been sitting on top of the microwave since last night, open and melting. Am I the only one to whom this makes no sense? Obviously not, but it can seem that way. This may seem a bit obsessive, but I really do think it’s important to have a tidy space in which to live. I think (and Eric agrees with me here) that your space acts like a mirror to your mind, and vice versa. That is, if your mind is fragmented, your space will be messy, and if you’re untidy, it can lead to anxiety and mental clutter. At least that’s how I see it. It’s not that I try to be incredibly organized and uncluttered in my spaces, it’s just that it feels completely wrong to me if I’m not. It’s not even an effort, it’s just the way I have to live. That said, I think there are definitely positive aspects to my compulsive need to clean.

Some miscellany:

  • I’m listening to the Octopus Project. If you like electronic music, check them out! Their album Hello Avalanche is what got me into electronic music.
  • This is a cool audio transcoding tool that was recommended to me. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks very useful.
  • Found this sweet T-shirt company on Anamanaguchi’s twitter.
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They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard!

Posted on 27th November 2010 in Something Daily

I’m still at home, which means not much is getting accomplished. Other than practicing and slowly but surely mastering Bach’s 8th Invention, I’m not doing a whole lot of anything over Thanksgiving break. I did finally get my secret santa match yesterday after a longish delay, apparently the matching process was taking an especially long time to run. After being matched, I have my work cut out for me. I’ll have to find an appropriate gift for this guy despite the fact that he’s only ever made seven reddit comments and one post, and lists three interests on his profile. I’m sure I’ll be able to find something though. It’ll just be interesting.

I’ve been reading up on designing and building computers recently, and I plan on building one of my own next time I need an upgrade. Unfortunately, that’ll be a while, since I just got my MBP last December. It’s fun to look at parts, though.

I’m going out now to have an all-day Lord of the Rings marathon. I’m really excited, haven’t seen those movies in ages. Because this is what a break from school is all about: not doing anything and enjoying it.

Here’s Tim and Eric, the best IRL trolls I’ve ever seen.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey-Sy4Qh8vI&fs=1&hl=en_US]

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Happy Thanksgiving, and hi secret santa!

Posted on 25th November 2010 in Something Daily

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving today (if you’re in the US (who am i kidding, right? (How do you like my use of nested parentheses?))). My relatives are all in town today and I haven’t gotten a single thing done – which is what Thanksgiving is for, I suppose. Actually I did – I started learning Bach’s 8th invention this morning and I’m decently good at it already. It’s going well. And now I’m watching Rocky III and redditing intensely. Speaking of, my Secret Santa assignment comes soon! I’ll post the thought processes and gift ideas, of course!

I saw this thread on reddit yesterday and wanted to follow up on the “pics or it didn’t happen” idea, so here’s my contribution.

I don’t feel like writing, but I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving. (And if you’re reading because you got me for secret santa, welcome! Feel free to read and comment!)

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