Selfish Crab

Did some self-assessment. It appears I am extremely low in social capital. If there exists one dominant characteristic of post-collegiate life, a precipitous drop in social capital would be it.

I hear recreational game leagues are the surefire way back to a healthy, social capital-rich life. Like Chelsea Pier’s Roller Hockey League. Any takers? I just need to buy a helment, learn to control a puck, and then not completely make an ass out of self in the evaluation.

Don’t worry, applications still on the radar.

# 2005 Aug 28    {Life}    #

I was trying to get iChat hooked up to Google’s new Talk IM service by following these directions. I go through all the steps until I reach the very last step: Read the rest of this entry »

# 2005 Aug 26    {nerd}    2

From NY Times “Robert Moog, Creator of Music Synthesizer, Dies at 71“:

Robert Moog, the creator of the electronic music synthesizer that bears his name and that became ubiquitous among experimental composers as well as rock musicians in the 1960’s and 70’s, died on Sunday at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 71.

…

Mr. Moog was born in New York City on May 23, 1934, and although he studied the piano while he was growing up in Flushing, Queens, his real interest was physics. He attended the Bronx High School of Science, and earned undergraduate degrees in physics from Queens College and electrical engineering from Columbia University.

E-community says he was EN ‘57.

# 2005 Aug 24    {Columbia}    #

Anyone else catch this medical show on Fox called House? Dr. House is vicious. And I love it. I cannot resist insults and banter in dialogue (which is why Scrubs and Entourage are also at the top of my watch list).

But their website… um, can you say “abomination usability Flash cesspool”? My god, who made this thing? It’s ass to the nth.

# 2005 Aug 24    {Life}    2

Fun with Exposure III
Originally uploaded by engineer.

It’s annoying to have to come up with a post title for each of these. I think I need to redesign so that the photos can appear without needing a post title.

I could throw up photos all day long. Since it is a scientific fact that a picture is equivalent ot a thousand words, I’m actually writing up a storm on this space.

# 2005 Aug 20    {Life}    #

bleh. not a very good Systems Day today. nothing went according to plan. it felt like I was wrastling with every computer I touched.

In the morning, I was supposed to help change kessie’s IP. connections kept failing intermitently. a 20-minute task turned into a 2½ hours headache. it turned out some other unnamed information technology group gave us a misconfigured IP to use. thanks.

Then, i went to install FC4 on half a laptop. which went fine until i had to pick a video adapter.. then I was grappling with the bliss that is Xorg.conf and linux video drivers.

Then, I went to upgrade Zend Improver® on the web server. Who the hell makes an install program without a “back” button??? one typo or error and I have to restart the whole process.

Then, Boss said “hey how do you install java for Firefox?” when i made the appropriate alias, firefox crashed. and it refused to start again. Except it wouldn’t tell me it had crashed or that it was refusing to start again. Nothing happened. I hate programs that don’t talk to you. Boss still doesn’t have the java plugin.

And then, a feedback loop killed bugmail and overfilled diskquotas. we haven’t traced the cause, but the frontrunner is a change i caused two weeks ago that still hasn’t been fixed.

Suffice to say, I’m working as hard as i can on my personal statement.

# 2005 Aug 19    {work}    #

Everyday, I have to confront the garbage can in the kitchen:

Me: Garbage can, you ain’t so full yet. You ain’t full at all.

Garbage can: ….

Me: Mmm hm, that’s right. I can fit more garbage in you. You don’t need to be taken outside yet.

Garbage can: ….

Me: Look at this. Look at this. I am pushing you down. Down down down. Compact and happy, that’s what you are. Whatchu got to say about that?

Garbage can: ….

Me: That’s what I thought.

# 2005 Aug 17    {Life, greatest hits}    #

Leaving Columbia
Originally uploaded by engineer.

Photoblogging is fun. So is taking pictures.

# 2005 Aug 12    {Life}    2

Front of House
Originally uploaded by engineer.

This past weekend, we answered the eternal question: “Where is the farthest, most remote place you can go and still have a weekend?”

# 2005 Aug 11    {Life}    #

Subway, 2/3 line. Group of teens. Two girls, two boys.

Girl 1, to boy: …. Yeah, there’s some great amazing lines in that. Just sentences that blew me away.

Girl 2: Hm?

Girl 1: We’re talking about White Oleander. Saw it last week, but I read the book.

Girl 2: Oh, for what class?

Girl 1: [pause] No, I just read it. Like, on my own.

Girl 2: Oh.

# 2005 Aug 10    {Life}    #

Despite having been blogging for about 4 years, it’s only recently dawned on me that this space should be an unwavering parade of insight and quips and is not the best place for emotional rants and/or cries for help, particularly those couched in dejection and its ephemeral cousin, anger.

Part of that failure to restrain lies in the fact that it just feels so damn good to let it out up here, especially for a melodramatic such as myself. I suppose any self-expression is chicken soup. There’s got to be alternatives, though. Maybe poetry? Blues music? Crumpin’?

That said, the last two posts should probably be repudiated. Or password protected.

Anyway, yeah, I was a bit crabby this week. It showed, in this blog and on my face. Kindness of co-workers is much appreciated. Though, if only it were me in Las Vegas…

# 2005 Aug 10    {Life, meta, work}    #

Hey there, sports fans. Enjoy those times when you can’t get your computer to work? Do you love googling obscure error messages? Harbor a secret love for reading through open-source code?

Boy, do I have the job for you.

It’s like using your own computer, only triple the frustration, inversed the struggles (”cannot open inbox” becomes “cannot set up mail server”, “cannot connect to internet” becomes “the entire website is down”) , and quadruple the stakes (China and the entire eastern European bloc is trying to break into your computer.)

Apply now!

# 2005 Aug 9    {work}    #

The View from Ipanema
Originally uploaded by engineer.

Finally uploaded and edited all the good photos from Rio. View the set now.

# 2005 Aug 2    {Life}    2