Author: Thom

The mind is a terrible thing

Found today on a message board:

Here’s a recent study from Cambridge University that is pretty cool. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig, huh?

This one might not be new to you guys, since it originally made circulation back in 2003, but it was new to me. Sadly, the Internet brings us both intriguing snippets of information, and just as quickly shatters them with reality. Snopes is, as usual, a decent starting spot to find more information on this “legend.” But with a quick google I found a far more impressive write-up on this scrambled language meme.

WordPress 1.5

I knew I should have read Michael’s post when it appeared in my aggregator this morning. WordPress 1.5 “Strayhorn” has been officially released today (although the official announcement is still lacking). I’ve just done a quick backup and upgrade and all but one thing appears to be working – the Dashboard. That’s probably an issue with my site, so I’ll be working on that before I do any other posts.

For those currently running WP, I strongly urge you to upgrade as soon as you can. The new features are well worth it, which is why I’ve been running the nightlies as long as I have. For those running a different system (or not running one period) now’s the time to seriously look at a switch.

UPDATE: Yes, of course that was a problem with my site. I fixed the index.php and now everything should be fine. That means that I can finally start working on my own site layout (as if that’s what was really holding me up).

Here comes the sun

Do-do-do-do… or something like that.

Absolutely beautiful out. Just thought I’d mention that. Lisa left me a voice mail confirming the feeling – just in case I thought I was the only one. What makes a fantastic day like this even better is when you hop in the car, and just the right song comes on. Today it was The Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done.” Not one I’d typically think of, but it really captured the moment.

Lost friends

Quite an experience yesterday. Lisa and I headed down to Peddler’s Village for a wine and chocolate tasting. While browsing the selection on sale (I finally brokedown and bought a bottle of Chaddsford’s Merican since it was a rare 20% off) the girl at the counter asked us if we were from around there. As Lisa was explaining that I was originally, she actually said my name. Well, I am far from famous and have only been to a couple Chaddsford events, so I was surprised that anyone would recognize me. She then explained that she was the sister of a friend of mine from high school – Steve.

Steve was a good guy. One of those incredibly nice people that never seemed to catch a break – almost like karma ignored him. Nevertheless, he remained a good guy and a good friend even as we drifted apart. You see, I drifted apart from all of my high school friends. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t miss them, simply that lives moved on. The last time that I saw Steve was just over 2 years ago. I remember that Lisa and I had just started dating, so it was weird going to see some friends whom I hadn’t regularly communicated with for some time. But it was fun, yet sadly didn’t pickup that chance to open up regular lines again.

Hopefully Steve or I will send out an e-mail or a phone call or something in the coming weeks. I’m not saying that the friendship will be completely renewed, but it’s nice to think in this Communication Age perhaps we can use all of this great technology simply to say “hi” to those we’ve come to know on a fairly regular basis.

Broadband overload

Are you a slave to your cable modem? Would you die without your DSL line? What would life be life without the Internet? At least one geek is giving it (almost) all up. An interesting read which definitely leads to the question of whether broadband’s vast resources have enslaved us even more than the wait times of 56k ever did.

Personally, even though I understand the feelings of “bandwidth guilt,” I feel that the answer is moderation, not abstinence. Especially when you you’re still sapping your friends’ connections anyway.

(Thanks to orangeguru)

Unscrewed

What do you get when you combine a failed sex life, improvisation, mockumentary humor, and a low budget? No, not me. Unscrewed.

Last night Lisa and I headed into the city to catch a screening of this small indie film currently playing at the Quad Cinema. It’s only playing there until the 17th, so please check out a showing if you have the opportunity. It’s an incredibly funny mockumentary about a couple suffering from the usual sex life pangs that accompany married life, and their quest for the answers. They see a bizarre therapist (played by Lisa’s friend Doug), a clueless urologist, and some really creepy tantric yoga “instructors.” The humor and awkwardness of the situations is really amplified, and the improvisational skills of the cast are superb. They still manage to make the entire film “seem real” no matter how strange the situations become (one festival actually accepted the film into it’s documentary category by accident). We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and I urge you to go take a chance on the not-so-big cinema.

As for the rest of the evening, we decided to eat at the Republic. Fortunately my friend Chris was available to join us for some good conversation and awesome noodles (that Chicken Udon was out of this world). Even though it’s the type of place that “true” New Yorkers avoid on a Friday night, it turned out to be a minimal wait and great prices. Plus, I just don’t drink Sapporo that often, and it really goes well with Asian cuisine.

Since there was plenty of time before the movie started, we swung by Barnes and Noble so I could pick up and book about my Digital Rebel (I still have so much to learn) and then had drinks at the Cosi around the corner. Mmmm, chocolate and butterscotch liquer in coffee. Good times.

But most importantly we swung by Chris’s apartment before heading home. Including college, I’ve lived with him in three different places (and one of those included multiple tenures) and yet I never saw where he moved when he came back from LA. And that was over 2 years ago! Since that’s way too long for him to stay in one spot, he’ll be moving by the end of next month. I swore I wouldn’t let him leave without me seeing his setup, so last night was the perfect opportunity. Kind of gives you a mission accomplished feel.

Oh, The Horror

Why, dear God, why would I subject myself to it? I mean, it is #29 on IMDb’s Bottom 100 list (just 2 spots below everybody’s favorite alien invader movie featuring Ol’ St. Nick). But what can I say – House of the Dead was on last night, and I just couldn’t pull myself away from the crappiness. To say that such crap-infused crap is all encompassing does not even began to describe the crap upon crap which runs through such a piece of crap. Are you starting to get the gist?

Continue reading “Oh, The Horror”

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