|
Robert Fenton "Finny" Merrill
|
|
|
| meep dreidel |
[30 Dec 2009|07:01am] |
A vanity google found this mighty entertaining web page:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/laugh-for-peace-meep-not-your-dads-dreidel/article1400100/
Laugh for peace, meep, not your dad's dreidel
A daily miscellany of information by Michael Kesterton
Meep
“A few weeks ago, Thomas Murray, the principal of Danvers High School [in Massachusetts], banned the word ‘meep' from his school,” Erin McKean reports for The Boston Globe. … Supposedly, students at Danvers were ‘meeping' in ‘disruptive' ways … ‘It has to do with the conduct of the students. … The reporter concludes that deliberately vague words such as Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, bippy or meep, “all reinforce a truth about language that we rarely stop to think about: All words mean only what we all collectively agree they should mean, no more and no less. In Danvers, ‘meep' came to mean: ‘We'll obey your rules when we feel like it.' And that, in the end, made it a dirty word.”
A banker? Hit him
“An arcade game that allows people to vent their anger at bankers has proved so popular the owner keeps having to replace worn-out mallets,” BBC News reports. “Inventor Tim Hunkin introduced ‘Whack a Banker,' which is based on the older ‘Whack a Mole' game, at his arcade on Southwold Pier in Suffolk [England]. Mr. Hunkin said … ‘The bankers are bald and all look the same because that's how I think people see bankers, as faceless.' Players, who are promised a ‘truly rewarding banking experience,' pay 40 pence to hit as many bankers as they can in 30 seconds. When a customer wins, a voice says: ‘You win. We retire. Thank you very much to the taxpayer for paying our pensions.'”
Not your dad's dreidel
“For centuries, the dreidel game has been a Hanukkah tradition,” Michael Milberger writes for ABC News. “The simple gambling game remains a fixture at Hanukkah parties, but today it's often more decoration than entertainment – a party favour and not a party favourite. Fed up with dreidel's dryness, some Jewish entrepreneurs are putting a new spin on the tradition for modern times.” For instance:
Industrial psychologist Jennie Rivlin Roberts of Atlanta has invented no-limit Texas Dreidel, which combines regular dreidel with no-limit Texas Hold 'Em poker.
Eric Pavony of Brooklyn, N.Y., has ditched the gambling aspect for a faceoff of pure spinning power. In his Major League Dreidel game, spinners compete one-on-one for the longest spin.
eBay panhandling …
|
|
| Big Love |
[29 Dec 2009|10:30pm] |
I finally got around to watching the pilot of the show "Big Love," which is about a man who is both Mormon and a polygamist.
All I can say is that I loved it. I am very interested in continuing the series and seeing where it goes and develops. It's not a show for everyone and I can see that people who look for massive conflict may be disappointed (but I could be wrong as I watch the series). Give it a chance, though.
|
|
| the decade in review? |
[29 Dec 2009|08:43pm] |
I guess even I can't help but get caught up in reflecting on disturbing trends I've seen these past few years (probably not all specifically from 2000-2009 but what the heck).
The war on the middle class: My nightmare is coming true: the USA middle class will be eliminated in my lifetime. Even with a master's degree, I'm having a hard time just getting interviews, let alone job offers. Credit cards are now 30% despite the gov't prime rate being what, 1%?
Attention deficit: everyone has short attention span, thus the resurgence of medical quackery such as the Kinoki foot-pads (that claim to detoxify your body as you sleep). I can't stand tweets and twittering: it's not even complete thoughts or sentences. It's not kaiku, it's like the game of flipping from station to station on the radio and getting nonsense from all the people talking pieces of the sentence. And too many dead or abandoned web sites, forums and online communities with no useful replacement.
Everything's a fad: even Microsoft can't sell their Zune since the ipod's so popular. Crocs clogs may soon be bankrupt because stores took away their shelf space because they're not selling "as well as predicted". Well, MAYBE THE PREDICTIONS ARE WRONG? Taking them out of the stores only assures the snowball-failure-effect.
But that's my "standard rant": these nameless, faceless business analysts who punish businesses for not meeting their predictions but never being accountable for failure to tell the future correctly. And all the financiers getting multi-million bonuses while their companies are still making unforgivable errors such as investing in useless or over-valued real estate.
And another thing: why is EVERYTHING turned into a vending machine?- Cellphones are a tool for selling not just the cellphone service (which is usually a lose-lose situation: don't use the pre-paid minutes and they're forfeited, go over the allocation and the per-minute fee is excessive), but to sell ringtones, pay-per-text services, etc.
- Even my PC is a vending machine with "click here to BUY the full version of this software" "click here to BUY genuine Dell/HP/your-mfgr-here printer cartridges" "click here to BUY prints of the thing you just scanned"
Related to that: a friend commented "why is everything just another bill?". PC owners pay for internet access, antiVirus update subscription, etc. (although many things are worth supporting, such as furry web sites, Wiki, etc.).
WHAT PART OF "NO" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, CABLE COMPANY?. I keep getting phone calls and monthly mailings telling me "hey cheapskate, buy MORE OF OUR SERVICES!". There's no opt-out, of course. They don't observe the "do not call list" since they're free to abuse our "business relationship". Hey, here's a clue. I'm PAYING YOU FOR THE SERVICE I WANT, LEAVE ME ALONE!
gurrrrrr *gnaw gnaw*
Sturgeon's law was optimistic: it's more like 99 and 44/100% of everything is crap. But some good things can be found on the Internet, such as Deezleberries' Moog ferrets, forever happy!
|
|
| Vehicle Issues |
[29 Dec 2009|06:36pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 exhausted |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Heart - These Dreams |
] |
Today I woke up around 9am with a mission to get my hair cut/colored, and get ready for the trip to NC to visit friends for NYE. It had been bad enough that I wasn't able to play my show on NYE that got cancelled at the last moment, but now this happens. For the past few days, I had noticed a rather strange clicking sound on my front left side by my wheel, and thinking that it was nothing big of a deal, I rode around on it for a few days on short errands. My intention today was to get it fixed , and that was where I was going after my haircut. About 1 mile from my destination, suddenly things went from bad to worse. I suddenly heard a LOUD clanking sound and my truck grinded to a stop, metal sounds everywhere. I think I sat there for a good 10 minutes, just with my mouth open, going "No......fucking...no..", even though I was in a lane of traffic. I got out after sitting there, and looked under my truck to find that my front drive shaft (I have all time 4 wheel drive), was laying in the street, stripped and broken in two peices. My truck would start, but if you touched the gas pedal, it sounded like total death! Not only 5 minutes after this, a policeman arrived while I was on the phone with AAA. I told him I had a tow truck on the way, but this is not what he wanted to hear. He said because I was blocking traffic, he had called for one already, and I had to use his!! I was like "what the hell?" as I get free towing with AAA, and here is this cop telling me I have to use HIS tow man and pay 160 dollars! I was really starting to get angry at this point, and told him that my truck isn't going anywhere until my tow man comes out. He did not like this answer.
Fortunately, AAA was faster than normal as my case was set on priority because I was blocking traffic. The two people in the truck were Haitian, and things suddenly started to feel like an episode of Saved By An Angel because of how "just in time" they seemed to be. They were sugary sweet people, the woman saying things like "Hey baby, don't be upset sugar, you're in my truck now, I got you taken care of!" Despite being really sad about my truck, they saved me from having to pay almost 200 dollars to be towed, and I was just thankful at this point. My truck was towed to my private mechanic that runs a small shop near my house, and he shook his head when we pulled up. Before even 5 minutes passed, he told me "It's your U Joints, I told you to get those fixed". Because of my corroded U Joints, my front drive shaft had broken off and destroyed my transfer case. You should know by now that Land Rover isn't exactly cheap to fix, and transfer cases brand new are about 2000 dollars, labor not included. He made some phone calls and came back, quoting me 1350.00 to replace my front drive shaft, transfer box and all labor included. This is not a bad deal, and he was able to find some parts used, so I saved a ton of money. Ironically, the Land Rover dealer is right next to his shop, and I went over there to ask them how much it was. They quoted me $3,990.00 , so yeah, I made off good.
Anyhow, I was picked up by a family member who took me to a bank. There, I made a loan against a CD I have, and withdrew $1,350.00 to pay for the repairs. Taking the cash back to the shop, I just handed it all to him, as I trust this mechanic a lot, and he said he'll have it done by tomorrow afternoon at the very latest. I'm glad for this because this still means I'm going to Raleigh to see my friends there for NYE, and it means that I'll at least have a way to get around, but I'm also out thirteen hundred dollars.
When I was dropped off at home, I decided "screw it", and went online to do a radio show for Soundscape. A complete MASSIVE showed up to hear me spin, tons of people, and I am very thankful as they really brightened my day. Thank you to the members and patrons of Soundscape for your support and love, it made the day much easier to take in the end. Some days I don' t know what I'd do without music. Most people that know me well, know that taking music away from me is like taking food and water away, it's my life. I love you guys.
|
|
| fare thee well, Simba |
[29 Dec 2009|01:00am] |
Today I finally decommissioned Simba, my 800 MHz AMD Athlon system that's been reliably running Red Hat 8.0 for perhaps 7 years. I'm unsure when Simba first went into action but I kept it running because it simply didn't break. With 1 GB of PC-133 RAM, it barely swapped and I'll be re-using the Yamaha CD burner, but it was reduced to one 4 gig SCSI hard drive: just enough to run DNS (caching and serving names for the local domain). The golden orb CPU cooler shall go on the wall in honor!
The system nearly self destructed: a metal spring popped off the graphics card heat sink and could've shorted out something!
KrazyKat is my newest system: a salvaged e-machines running Fedora 12.
|
|
| To All Shady/Shifty/Shitty Promoters - Coal for your stockings! |
[28 Dec 2009|03:38pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 uncomfortable |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Corona - The Rythm Of the Night |
] |
Happy holiday everyone, and I hope yours has been good so far. I apologize in advance for this very lengthy post, as it's more of a rant, so if you don't like those, you may want to view later submissions *laughs* . I wanted to take a moment to inform you on a few things, as they have become increasingly pressing on me, and I need to tell those that keep up with me what is going on. From now until January 10, I am taking a break from everything. I have become to highly stressed due to work situations, being screwed out of multiple dj shows, and many other things that I feel I've neglected because of music and various other things. I will be reachable by phone for those that have my number, but otherwise, I will update Twitter (DjGenki) with my current status, and that's all. I have got to get a lot of things in perspective because I feel as if I've been too nice, and let people walk/trample on me, as I'm by nature a very gentle and humble person. I will not however, allow myself to be degraded, taken advantage of, and lied to by people I consider both close, and on a professional level. I have had multiple people contact me to let me know that I am not able to play a show because the promoter skipped town, or that they "just" got my email back, or can not follow through on a contact where I've already played and am not getting paid as agreed. If you are a major, 5 star club, and I play a 4 hour set for you (under contract), I should be paid for my services. I am not a beginner dj looking to get my name out, and I don't need to "pay my dues" as one promoter put it, I've paid my dues many times over. When you sign your name on a contract, or book me to play for pay, PAY me, if I do it for free, then that's another story. Also, had two conventions tell me at the very last minute they decided "after reviewing your submission, we've decided to go in other directions". One of them was because an ex of mine moved up as a "dance director", and because he and I have disagreements, he cancelled me at a convention I won't say the name of. The other hadn't even received a demo of me, or anything, but due to my "submission being reviewed ", I was mysteriously cancelled after almost 8 months of trying to contact someone with no reply until just now. This news coming after I had been dj'ing this convention consecutively since the first year it began, and many many people asked me to play again this year.
So, with all this being said, I need to tighten up on the people I dj for, and who I associate myself with. You would think after having done this since 1994 I would have learned by now to not trust everyone I meet, but I do it to give everyone a chance before I put up any walls. The reason why it even bothers me to begin with is not because I'm not able to play a certain show, so much as it is people lying to me either face to face, or through email, when I simply ask for truthful responses. I'm a very upfront and blunt person, and do not expect sugar coating. I do the free shows that I do as a way to either benefit someone I know/care about, or because it's a convention, and I really love them and attend them anyhow. I have never charged a convention since the first time I dj'ed one in 1997. I don't believe in doing that, and have had very good relations and ties with staff at each one, being asked to come back many times. However, the real issue here isn't so much the convention. I realize that I have to take a break, and other people need to dj (This is the case for Anthrocon especially), but to receive messages that I've been canceled only one month away to a convention after I'd been booked is total bs. I had plane tickets ready, hotel and everything, even had my equipment set up to be shipped. You don't do that to someone, that's flat out disrepectful.
My main beef is with promoters though. I have said this before on Twitter and various other mediums, if you book me to dj, and I have an agreement with you to have a certain amount of time to play and pay, don't wait until I get there and then throw your hands up and say "Uhhh well, I expected more people dude...but I got like, 10 bucks on me if that'll get you home". I have been in this game WAY to long to be dumb enough to think you make any less than $2k off of a venue that packed out a 800-2000 people that night. Telling me you went over budget even though you charged 30-50 dollars a head at the door, and got 2k people in the place, is also bs. I actually had one promoter tell me he spent too much money on the laser show, so he could pay any of the djs.Although I don't like to talk about money, I usually charge big clubs between $400-$1,000 dollars a show (eeeespecially if I am driving my own car from here to Miama FL!!), and to not even hit me back on gas money is mind boggling. Infact, the thing that set this off to begin with to the level of frustration I have now is, when my NYE show in New York was cancelled. I was booked to play a massive underground event on New Years Eve, and had posted invitations to many people who follow my music, only to find out on Christmas Day of all days, that the show had been cancelled because the promoter vanished and skipped town (for no reason apparently). It's items such as these I am talking about. Maybe even worse than that, was the fact that on my BIRTHDAY this year (the promoter said he was throwing this as a bday event), gave some guy who played "Cotton Eyed Joe" and "The Hamster Dance" a 3 hour set during my night, and gave me a 45 minute "special" set. This almost sounds like I'd have to fabricate this, it's so damn unbelievably unreal!
In closing, and apologizing for a mini rant (I do those very rarely), the main point is this. Dj'ing is a lifestyle for me, I live and breath both the underground and club culture, as anyone who has ever met me from 1994 through today can tell you. I love the art, and have respect for it. Dj'ing is not cheap, it comes with many many many thousands of dollars of investment, and if you're good, years and years of hard work and dedication. I've spent the last 6 years of my childhood and my entire adulthood so far as a dj and a producer in the dance music scene, and never had a problem until the last few years. The game is changing, and promoters are thinking in complete dollar signs now, instead of building a scene that will last on a solid foundation. No wonder the scene is tanking, promoters think good dj's are a dime a dozen, and piss away relations with the professionals, only to wonder why no is "a starving artist" anymore. No one is desperate enough to play any gig they can, if they know they're going to get screwed by a cokehead promoter than steals money and makes himself rich at our expense. Those days, at least for me, have come to an end.
|
|
| Homeward bound |
[28 Dec 2009|12:37pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 tired |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Terminal Static - Mask of Gas |
] |
At the oakland airport, doing some last minute work before I hop on the plane. I can't wait to get home and back in the arms of my wuff. It has been way too long. If there has been one thing on my mind while I've been gone its been him. You would think that you wouldn't miss someone that you see everyday, but damnit, 10 days is a long time. Tonight is a dinner together, snuggles and our christmas.
The trip was good, no real incidents, no talks nothing really bad happened. I spent most my time relaxing with my brothers, either playing left 4 dead, or call of duty. Tis a good way to spend a vacation. The family is all doing well. My mom is still recovering from her surgery but is really making good progress. She says she feels better, and is trying to take less pain pills each day. I tell her to enjoy the narcotics while she can. Both my brothers are doing well. Gregg and Holly are happy together down in LA. I'm glad that he's found someone. Steve is pushing towards getting his school done and really kicking butt at it. I'm impressed with all the medical stuff he can spout off already. 10 days is enough though, and as I'ev said already I'm itching to get home.
I'm relaxed, and ready to get geared up for work, next week as I'm still taking it easy. I managed to only work a little bit, maybe 3 out of the 10 days when you total it all up. I shouldn't have brought my laptop home over the holidays, but it looks like I'm gonna nail all my goals for the year. This is a load of stress off my back, I'm just glad to have it be over and done with. Now onward to next year, which hopefully brings more wags ^.^
|
|
| Man Heresy |
[28 Dec 2009|11:20am] |
|
Co-workers always come up to me asking "Hey, who do you think will go to the Bowl!?". When I tell them I don't like sports they give me odd, strange looks. The kind of look a child gives you when you try to explain math. The look a dog gives you when... well, you try to explain anything. It's like they can't comprehend it. A fat guy who likes nachos not being into football? MAN HERESY!
|
|
| straight up murder |
[27 Dec 2009|01:06am] |
i'll let you know i coulda been your dad right? matter fact i was with your mom last night, matter fact i'm the reason your little sister's half white
MURDER
|
|
| The Missed Answers |
[26 Dec 2009|11:58pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 nerdy |
] |
Here are the answers to the remaining Letter Sequences from the Holiday Carol Test I had posted.
Let me know if you'd like to have more tests like these in the future. I find them fun, and I like people guessing.
Answers to Songs Missed:
4 I.C.A.G.Z.T.M.I.T.A It's Christmas at Ground Zero there's music in the air
7 I.C.R.S.B.I.C.O I can't really stay- Baby it's Cold Outside
8 D.I.T.W.A.T.E.W.M.T Down in the Workshop all the Elves were Makin' Toys (The Night Santa Went Crazy)
9 M.Y.G.Y.O.M.Y Mi Yimalel Gvurot Yisrael, Otan mi yimne?
13 D.T.T.S.I.A.O.H.O.S Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh (Jingle Bells) (SERIOUSLY people? No one got this?!)
( Remaining Missed Answers )
|
|
| really old birds with teeth: the movie. not grandmas. Zazu. |
[26 Dec 2009|02:52am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
sreepy |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Love - Robin Hood |
] |
Oh wow Christmas is over, huh? I'm still a bit bummed out I got back up here on the 23rd, I didn't quite have the chance to ease into Christmas, but what can you do.
Last night my parents came up to Amherst and took us out to dinner in town with only minor drama. We stuffed ourselves sufficiently and I spent the evening finishing gifts and stuff.
Todaaaay was Cuddlemas. Ame and I had difficulty prying ourselves from our super comfy bed but eventually got up and exchanged gifts~ ♥♥ We filled each others' stockings with lots of little stuff~ (she also left me a bottle of Hypnotiq under the tree, lmao) I have to wait until the 29th to give her her big present BUTTTTT this is what she made me:
GROWLITHE PLUUUUUUUSH ♥♥&hearts
Oh my god he is the cutest thing. I named him Hobbes because he reminds me of a certain tiger. ♥♥♥ She also made the necklace he's wearing, that I'm probably going to have to steal from him because it is awesome. Anyway uhhhhh p. much best thing anyone has ever made for me yyyyyyyyy. ♥♥♥
Anyway, after Ame and I traded gifts and she visited with her fam on webcam for a bit, my parents came over and we did more gifts~ it was really cute, Mom basically did mini-Christmas and got me+Ame several little matching gifts. We both got a To Write Love On Her Arms shirt (hers pink, mine purple), a pair of Disney pajamas, a couple blindboxes each, Disney zodiac mugs, Dunkin Donuts+Starbucks gift cards, etc. Mom is adorablllle. When we go home we'll do ~real Christmas~ but Mom really wanted it to be fair and for us to have the same number of gifts to open. XD;
Thennn we headed into town for Panda East and Traditional Jewish Chinese Food on Christmas. Panda East serves... p. strong drinks and Mom, Ame and I all left a little tipsy. :| Went and saw Princess & The Frog, all cried, headed home and said goodbye to parents, and then Ame and I spent all night being mushes and watching Disney movies (Lion King 2, Robin Hood and Aristocats.) Love Disney so muuuuuch. ♥
A nice day! Didn't feel entirely Christmassy, but I really can't complain. So glad I got to spend it with this kid next to me, and my family. ♥
I hope you guys all had a really nice day too! I love you all like crazy, and so many Christmas texts made me smile. Thanks, guys. ♥
Aaaaand now poastin' things I drew for my parents and Ame. I haven't posted anything I've drawn online in a long time because I am a weiner about my art (read: Idon'tlikeit) buuuut idk my parents were thrilled that I actually got around to drawing them something and Ame pretended to like hers well enough, so. 8D ( three deviantfart links. )
We've eaten more than half a box of Honeycomb cereal in two days... completely dry... with our hands. We're gross. :(
I also really really really miss everybody already. Am genuinely concerned by how much I miss everyone, actually, seeing as we'll be here in January once we get back from California for several weeks before anyone comes back. .____.
ok goodniiiiight
|
|
| How I spent 2000-2009, in pictures |
[26 Dec 2009|01:43am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 cheerful |
] |
I know it's only been nine years into the 21st century, not ten, but with everyone recapping the "decade", I figured I could, too!
Year 2000: hugged a lion, saw Cats on Broadway, met ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) meetoolion in Connecticut, met jammet in Hanover
     
Year 2001: nuzzled a leopard, learned to drive, lived the opulent life of a dot-com programmer in San Jose, visited Disneyland for my 25th birthday.( pics cut )
Year 2002: lost the dot-com job, had a bad break-up, completed Ph.D., moved to Long Island as a biochemist.( pics cut )
Year 2003: met my future wife madamecrystal, worked a lot, met TiAMO, swam in a waterfall( pics cut )
Year 2004: had a good time and made too many friends to count( pics cut )
Year 2005: got good at DDR, changed jobs, moved to Queens, got black belt, visited Epcot in Orlando( pics cut )
Year 2006: had a good time, also helped bring ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) li_furs together ( pics cut )
Year 2007: got married, came back to CA for a honeymoon, ended the year working in Rhode Island ( pics cut )
Year 2008: got the Jaguar, went to a nude beach for the first time, had even more good time. Yes, I am Krueger for every Halloween.( pics cut )
Year 2009: became a karate judge (under USANKF), attended an AC/DC concert, finally found Balto( pics cut )
|
|
| names of things |
[25 Dec 2009|06:06am] |
When Alice was in the forest of no-names, she pondered why people name things and the hierarchy of names and names of names (sets and supersets, etc.) and how names are chosen ("Adam named the tiger the tiger because it looked like a tiger).
"it's useful for the people who make up the names"
A friend's family tradition was to name their cars. Robert named his Apple ][+ "Judah 'da computah", but I refused to see the sense in naming the peripherals since they were all part of Judah and didn't have any particular identity of their own. How times have changed with network sharing of printers, drives and even directories/volumes within a drive (not to mention virtualization).
Back in the heydays of AT&T Information Systems, the main system of each facility was the internal site abbreviation (IH: Indian Hill, SF: Summit Facility, MH: Murry Hill), but each site had their own naming scheme. One was planets/moons/stars, another Native American Tribes. The Summit Facility named all computers for cartoon & comic characters. Batman, Superman & WonderWoman were the Amdahl mainframes.
I did my best to keep unemotional and unsentimental about my computers, referring to them by mfgr & model. Until I had 2 identical computers, so it was finally useful to me to name them.
All my computers are named for "famous felines", such as Zabu (Kazar's saber tooth companion), Felix, Gordo … I even named my Z80 single board computers since they were my main systems for a while.
But what of embedded systems and single chip microcontrollers? I guess a name would be useful for administration and inventory, just as I'm starting to feel the need for some way to identify all my USB flash drives and memory devices. But what if the Figaro embedded system uses a flash drive, will they both be Figaro or do I need a prefix/suffix system too?
What do you do?
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
