Posts

Got back on the Book-reading bandwagon the past few days, this time with a technical slant: Pattern Hatching: Design Patterns Applied This book is sort of a meta-meta-patterns book, that is it’s a book about a book about patterns. You see, computer software is a science of building abstractions; at the lowest level, computers execute a series of instructions, one after another, at blazing speed. If you group these instructions together from start to finish with one purpose, you have an algorithm. If you factor-out common parts of several agorithms, you have subroutines, functions, or procedures. At this point, you’re two “levels of abstraction” away from the way the computer actually works. ...

On Having Unscheduled Time Today, I had no schedule. That is, I discarded all things I had scheduled (Autocross, etc.) and just existed. I slept-in. I ate cake for breakfast. I wished my lovely a good trip back to Louisville, then I embarked on a little TLC for Big Red, my Chevy Silverado. Big Red has 113,000 miles, and hadn’t had an oil change since its mid-life overhaul in May. It takes 6 quarts of 5w-30 to fill the crankcase of the 4.8L V-8, and I purchased a case of Valvoline yesterday, resolving that I wasn’t going to pay $48 for an oil change at the speedy-change place. I have the tools; why not do it myself? ...

Why Bush Won Say what you like—that at least Bush finally got elected, that the Red Sox swept the World Series because Kerry had to borrow the curse, that America deserves what it gets—but, in my humble opinion, this perceived American crisis of masculinity is the real cause of what happened November 2. Like watching action movies or professional sports, participating in the Bush victory was a psychic restorative, giving back some semblance of a sense of manly honor that has been stolen away by time clocks, Dr. Phil, and Zoloft. Bush’s message speaks directly to the heart of the emasculated modern man: stick with me, and we’ll stand tall, provide for our families, and kick terrorist ass. ...

Random, utterly useless tidbit: After trying this past season every weekend to find the perfect tire pressure combination for autocross bliss in a MINI, I found it in my last 4 events, pretty much by accident. IF you have a MINI Cooper, Sports Suspension, and 15" tires running 205/50R15 Kumho Victoracers, run the rear tires 4psi HIGHER than the fronts, and the car will turn-in marvelously. If the event is warm to hot (that is, above 50 degrees), run the tires at 44f/47r, adjusting the rears up or down in increments to increase or decrease rotation. ...

No joke…recent headlines from Slate Why Kerry Lost How to move to Canada Democratic Values: how to Win in the Red States Blame it on the Guardian: The international press contemplates 4 more years of Bush they seem just a little distraught.

The debate du jour on Slashdot: Creationism versus Evolution Interesting quote: There’s protestant theology in a nutshell. Now, here’s where creationism comes in (again, so the argument goes): If there was no literal first man and woman, then there was no talking snake to tempt them into eating an apple. If that didn’t happen, there was no literal fall (the fall had to be by CHOICE, protestants don’t accept that God just made humans imperfect from the start). If there was no literal fall, then mankind is not in need of redemption. If there is no need for redemption, there is no need for Christ. This would basically invalidate protestant Christianity. ...

Ah, I finally have an excuse for having no color distinction compared to women: Some woman have tetrachromatic vision That’s right…in addition to the regular Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) vision that men have, some women with a mutuant gene can perceive 4 channels of color.

Muhahahahahahaha

Random, cool xhtml based slideshow template. Yep…a slideshow in a browser, no software (*cough*Powerpoint*cough*) required.

Zardoz Key learning: When your somewhat-off, reminds-you-of-your-freaky-ex-roomate friend at work says a movie is “kinda weird”, don’t watch it. Sean Connery wears a diaper (or sumo garb, take your pick) throughout, and basically the screenwriter creates a vision of “Brave New World” crossed with “A Clockwork Orange”. Definitely some cool moments, but not worth much. Thankfully, with netflix, it’s free. :D

Big red now has some new Bilstein shocks, thanks to my father, some air tools, and a little elbow grease. It took us two-and-a-half hours, but knowing what I know now, I could probably do it in about an hour’s time. The jack only slipped once, but we had two jackstands under the frame at the time, so the whole process was injury free, minus some bruised knuckles. The new shocks firm-up the ride of the truck, but it’s not punishing. It just feels more planted and controlled than before. ...

Pics of our recent MINI-club run to Red River Gorge

Marshall, dear Marshall…if only you’d read this

End-of-time watch, day 2: The Red Sox are ahead 2-0, despite 4 errors in last night’s 6-2 win over St. Louis. With Pedro Martinez slated to pitch on Tuesday in St. Louis, the Sox are on track. * * * Ahh, the weekend. The MINI rally over to Natural Bridge was fun, if only because I met another guy named ‘Harold’, who drives a Yellow/Black MCS, a 2002 model he picked-up via the Suzuki dealership he works at. He dented one of his 17" wheels on the way there, so Whitney and I helped-out by donating my MC spare tire (MCS’s don’t have spares…from the factory, they use run-flat tires). It looked kinda funny, but it seemed to hold-up well. ...

Just had a 2 hour meeting cancelled…yay!! My spirits are riding high today. We had our SCCA club meeting last night, and it was one of our best meetings ever, with 25 members attending. Heard good stories about CENDIV up in Cincy, Scott’s travails with his new (old) ZX2, and the wheel that fell off George’n’Dee’s motorhome in Maine (Wrong part in the wheel spindle, it turns out). Waited-around this morning and picked-up my new Bilstein shocks for my truck, and talked to Dad, who quickly agreed to a father/son project for putting them on. :-) ...

Requiem for Alex Kingston, who’s leaving ER after 7 seasons. She’s never been one of my favorite characters, but seems she’s leaving the show on bad terms, the suits at NBC deciding her character was getting too old and dowdy to attract the 18-35 demographic. So now, we have the new rock-star wannabe resident. Lovely.

Man, the truck has been making a dent in my pocketbook here lately: First, a new set of tires (see below) that I got installed today at Ashley’s wheel and brake. I had them investigate a noise in the steering. Turns out, I had a bad inner tie rod on the right side, so there’s more moolah. Still, the paint’s nice and shiny, and it’s nice for tooling around in, plus there’s just something intoxicating about a V-8.

Can it be possible that BOSTON will pull it out against the yankees? As I type this, it’s the top of the 9th, one out, and runners at the corners for Boston, with the Sox aheadd 9-3. Aside from a slip in the 7th by Pedro Martinez, Boston has been flawless. Can it be?

Ronin This movie is alot of flash for not much substance, but it’s watchable, with Robert DeNiro doing his best Sean Penn impersonation and statuesque eye candy from Natascha McElhone. The car chases are incredible, and make a decent spy thriller exceptional. By the end, nothing seems resolved, save many dead, stereotype characters.

Bullitt This Steve McQueen vehicle (pardon the pun) from 1968 is a real bore, featuring an amazing, non-sequitor car chase between a Mustang with a 390 Big Block V-8 and a mean, black Dodge Charger with a big-block 440 V-8. Minus this scene, the movie is unwatchable: Slow, with under-developed characters, the film meanders from one scene to the next, with little flow. Oh, and the Dodge manages to lose five hubcaps during the chase scene. ...