biding time
Video: folding chair. The low quality of the video helps make it mesmerizing.
Video: The Longcut – A Tried and Tested Method. Music video with an infographics style. [both via kottke]
Archive for February, 2007
cover letter
Hello. I go to law school. I talk like this. I am special and have abilities. Please hire me. Regards, Randy Robot.
Really, I want to write this cover letter in rhymed couplets. Under a motif of a rose’s thorn. In other words, as a prick.
hows law school
I’m juggling a first draft of an appellate brief (wherein my progress is such that spelling appallete “appellate” is still a nervous feat), a spam barrage to 15 patent firms (wherein I beg, nay, PLEAD, for a summer position with but a whiff of pay and meaningful experience), on top of my normal case reading and briefing, all in time for Friday.
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peripatetic – adj. traveling from place to place , esp. working or based in various places for relatively short periods.
outage report
Apologies for the brief outage yesterday. No, I did not attempt to block your location-specific readership. That is the domain of child-men. You may blame web-host 1 & 1 for a dead database. Restart the uptime counter.
happy new years
May ten thousand of your wishes come true in a most humble fashion!
May your career rise like bubbles in a moist wind!
May happiness explode over your face like a silly cream pie!
Good health to your body’s self!
May, if you wish it, your nether-fields be fertile and borne of bright-eyed children; or, if wished otherwise, may your loins be fiery yet arid!
Luck and prosperity to your bloodline!
A source of hydration never farther than two strides away!
And, finally, snazzy shoes.
ra ra ra
NYTimes: Asian-American actors only find success abroad, even when they do not speak the host language. Clearly, the problem is that Hollywood does not create enough “restaurant waiter” or “kung-fu fighter” roles to go around. Do not worry, compatriots, help is on the way.
follow-up I
Wherein updates on the past week’s calamities are provided:
Apple repaired my machine the same day I handed it over at the bar. Perhaps my geek talk led them to believe I was one of their own, which calls for privileges of the first order. “Damn platters” was my shibboleth.
I made a backup the morning my hard drive expired, which most likely taxed it so. For a hard disk drive, there is no nobler death. It is as plucked asunder is to a guitar string, or as kaput during coitus is to humans.
In the end, I still possess all important data (sans copulating dinosaurs). Hurray.
For the reader curious as to the regenerative process, application-wise, of a nerd’s computer, I offer a list of applications, in order downloaded:
- Firefox
- Quicksilver
- OmniOutliner Pro (my notetaking program of choice)
- Adium X
- Fugu
- Google Notifier
- X11 pkg
- The Gimp
AbiWord (until I find my copy of Office)ugh, slow.- FinkCommander
- iTerm
- Tomato Torrent
- Aquamacs Emacs
- Flip4Mac WMV Quicktime Plugin – new!
- Perian Quicktime plugin – new!
- Growl – new!
and also
Also, my tooth throbs. Another cavity.
also
Did I mention my laptop’s hard drive had a complete meltdown today? No? I didn’t tell you about the total data loss? Really? Because I find it hard to believe I neglected to describe the gentle spiral downward that began with my `kill -9`ing an errant process called “FileParse” thrashing my CPU, which then resulted in a general slow down, which was then excerbated by my attempt to save my work, and then the freeze, the lockup? Doesn’t ring a bell? You didn’t hear how it doesn’t bootl anymore, just a gently rotating throbber, rotating its heart out?
Oh! oh! and the sounds! The faint humming. In the early morning, it was unmistakable. I hushed everything in my apartment, set my ear to my keyboard… and there it was. Like tiny gnomes with pickaxes singing a work song as they smash and destroy the fucking platters of my hard drive.
I suppose this is for the better. I did not really want to send my resume out to firms, or work on my appellate brief. I would much rather grapple with Apple customer service as they explain to me I will be out of commission for 10-15 business days.
The data loss, my lex luthor, hurts the most. My extensive collection of pterodactyl pr0n, 7 years in the making, is gone. My life feels empty.
So empty, that Piebald – Grace Kelly With Wings – fills it. And that’s more than a dress. It’s a grace kelly movie. You can see my benefit.
valentine’s day
We do not have many holidays that are celebrated with begrudging acceptance, or observed with utter bitterness. For being unique, I toast it.
My date, oh ye curious reader, was pad thai and a screening of the Hunt for Red October. Dessert was vanilla ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce. Leftover from my roommate’s date on sunday. Yeah, law school is a fucking riot.
vday cards
For you slaves of eros, Valentine’s Day cards for geeks. My favorite of the bunch.
next stop
OK, no more weaselly blog posts about the love life. I promise.
The next post remotely on that topic will be about my precocious young child’s trip to the American Museum of Natural History and his shrieks in response to dinosaur bones. Until then, silencio.
call
Do I have any readers in Pennsylvania? Holler.
square one
I was dunned today, in a way. Ah well. Law school’s expense rises some more.
My continuing hope is that someday I won’t just be some weirdo, but rather someone’s magical goodness, the phantasmagorical grout that fills in the cracks of another’s soul.
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perspicacious – adj. having a ready insight into or understanding of things
most unkind cut, in the face
Video: Canadian pairs skater Bryce Davison cut a deep laceration on partner Jessica Dube’s left cheek and nose at a recent competition. I’m unable to find an actual photo of her face; the newspapers are showing restraint. Internets, don’t fail me now. I suppose the horror reflected in her partner’s reaction is enough.
what does the bluebook say about edit-wars
NY Times: court opinions have begun citing Wikipedia.
A simple search of published court decisions shows that Wikipedia is frequently cited by judges around the country, involving serious issues and the bizarre — such as a 2005 tax case before the Tennessee Court of Appeals concerning the definition of “beverage” that involved hundreds of thousands of dollars, and, just this week, a case in Federal District Court in Florida that involved the term “booty music” as played during a wet T-shirt contest.
fun fact #21483
It has been over a year since I last said “I love you” to anyone.
crown change
“At the administration’s request”, the Columbia web team recently restored the crosses to the Columbia’s crown logo in use on websites. Here’s old shaved-diamond look:
compared to the new pious-crown logo:
The crosses look a bit undersized there, almost bashfully small. Also, the web team should have done this sooner, given that old shaved-diamond crown has existed long enough to have begun appearing in meatspace all over campus (i.e. the frosted windows in the new Kent one-stop-shop student service desk.)
CU Web Team also updated their front page slideshow feature. Another victory for shadow-entity DKV. Also, this.