Mar 19 Are you often awed by things that you see? I am. Whether seeing little kids bending and contorting in Chinatown or watching Kobe Bryant do his thing, I try to be amazed.
Can I first of all just say that Kobe Bryant is a pretty ridiculous basketball player? For those that don’t follow the National Basketball Association, Kobe scored 65 points on Friday night and 50 points yesterday. So that means in 2 games, Kobe has scored 115 points at the highest professional basketball level. I question whether I’ve scored that many points in games in my entire life combined! Now, if you add in all of the buckets for shooting around, I’m golden. But can you believe this guy? I can’t. Was it a good idea to build the Lakers around him rather than Mr. O’Neal ? Well that kind of remains to be seen. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s amazing to watch him make turnaround 3-pointers while double-teamed as the shot clock is winding down and the game is on the line. I had to construct a run-on sentence just to describe the whole scenario!
A little girl bending over backwards as only those in the circus can do? Pretty amazing. I don’t understand, sometimes, how others can have a body capable of such strange things. I remember watching Guinness World Records and thinking that it was so amazing that there could be people out there that could fit into a tiny box (or whatever the amazing feat of the evening was).
And after seeing these amazing things over the weekend, I think:
I wonder what my most amazing feat will ever be. I wonder if it has already happened. Now that’s a sad thought.
Mar 16 There are many people in your life. Well, I hope that there are some anyways, otherwise you need to stop reading blogs and go make some friends. Anyways, I have a sinking suspicion that what is true for me is true for most people out there. I’d like to think that I’m not completely abnormal.
I know that I act differently around different people. Now you must understand, I actually don’t really like it when people are like this. Am I a hypocrite?
I’d like to think not, but I’ll leave that issue for another time because I’m sure that I am. No, the issue that I’m talking about is not necessarily hypocrisy so much as it is human nature. There might very well be nobody out there that will act completely the same in front of other people as they would when they’re by themselves. They won’t fart as much, they won’t scratch themselves in the same places, or whatever it may be. Additionally, there aren’t too many people that will completely act the same. They might not be as at ease so they won’t talk as much when they’re around you. I know that this is true for me when I’m around people whom I don’t really know. But this all seems fairly natural.
The thing is, I think that it’s hilarious when you get a sneak peak into someone’s life à la The Truman Show. Do you ever think what your life would look like if there were cameras everywhere and watching you at every moment? That would be such a trip. Makes you re-think how you picked your nose the other day, doesn’t it? Do we resort, then, to stalker tactics? No, we definitely do not. That’s against the law, and I won’t be your friend if you start doing that. Plus, we don’t really need to. People help us out as it is.
It’s amusing, but I’ve noticed that Computer Science people in particular are easy to spot lost in their own world. Perhaps it’s because they’re deep thinking about imaginary objects in their object-oriented programming or trying to lay out in their mind their current algorithm. Whatever the case, I’ve seen a few people (at least) who will do something gross. I remember a prime example in one of my classes at UCSD where a guy would sit in class, play with his ear, and then smell it. Smell it! Now that looks disgusting, but I don’t even know if the guy knew that he was doing this! He was also at the same time seemingly intent on listening to the professor. I never knew this guy, so I actually don’t know if he was listening, but class after class, he’d do the same gross thing with his ear and smelling his fingers. I’d imagine that there was a strong smell too, otherwise why would he smell it?
Anther thing that I’ve noticed is that the same thing happens with people in their cars. Apparently because they’re in a (fairly) small, enclosed space, they think that they’re alone. And I must admit that it is very easy to feel that way. Except, of course, there are windows all around you. So people can see whatever you’re doing, whether that be gross, weird, or funny. I like seeing people do these things. It definitely makes me laugh at them. I especially like seeing people dance. I hope that I also make people as amused if they see me. :)
So what can we draw from these things? 1) We do not fart as much in front of other people as we do by ourselves. 2) I want to have a real Truman Show for someone, any volunteers? 3) Don’t do something in your car that you don’t mind other people seeing. 4) There are a few strange Computer Science out there. Somewhere. Not here. :D
Mar 15 A hint for those who are working and find themselves easily distracted. Well I guess a hint for all of us. It’s hard to focus on a single task (such as your current work project) in this multi-tasking day and age. Something that’s helped me to differentiate between the different tasks at hand has been the use of “virtual desktops”. Most people out there (especially if you’re reading this blog) have an idea of what the desktop is. Basically it’s a folder that contains some items and is what you are looking at when there are no windows open. Now most people are very comfortable with the idea of having one of these.
But I propose that you start to think about how useful it would be to have multiple desktops.
“Why would this be useful?” you might ask. Well in the aforementioned problem, we did not have the self-control to stop from occasionally glancing at the news or email and effectively kill our workflow. Whether that means losing your place in your spreadsheet, or forgetting what the current for loop does, or whatever it may be, it’s a hindrance to being all that you can be in the workplace. And that’s not good.
So if you place your project on one “desktop” and your other stuff on another “desktop,” you will be able to go to your project and not be as easily distracted! Additionally, something that I have tried and will try to continue to do more of is to “box” my time. That is, I will actually write down times that I am going to be doing this (i.e. an hour for this project). And for that hour, I will try as best as I can to shut out everything else and focus. I will try to drown out the noise with some cheap ear buds or even put in some ear plugs.
Now mind you, this isn’t a solution for your faults. If you still don’t have the self-control to not look at other things, then that’s your problem. And you’ll need other help.
Well this idea is definitely on Linux, and you can easily find references to it for both Gnome (which I do enjoy using) and KDE (which is nice in a different way). But if you are a fan of something other than these desktop environments (as I suspect that many of my readers are), then you might want to continue reading.
On Windows, I recently installed VirtuWin which has worked out pretty nicely. It’s fairly full-featured, and I can get it pretty much how I want it. Microsoft released their XP Power Toys awhile back that has an application called “Virtual Desktop Manager” that does a similar thing. Unfortunately I thought that it wasn’t very good the one time that I tried it out. So I avoided it on this most recent search.
On the Mac, you have the excellent VirtueDesktops which I have used and approve of. Unfortunately the developer for the project has decided to call it quits because the next upcoming release of Mac OS X (dubbed “Leopard”) includes a feature that is similar enough to VirtueDesktops to discourage a third-party from developing. This feature might be good, it might not be. But you can try out Spaces when Leopard is released sometime this year.
All in all, there are many things out there that will accomplish this task for you whatever your computing platform. Remember that the important issue is to become more efficient with your time and minimize interruptions to your workflow. Enjoy!
Mar 14 Something that goes along with what I touched upon in this entry is that people are trying to be more and more politically correct. Now granted, I am all for finding out the truth and discovering what is going on.
However when you have the National Basketball Association going back and reviewing old tapes and determining that a foul should have been called on Kobe Bryant, you are not doing right by the spirit of the game. I read an article similar to this article, and I was slightly outraged at the ridiculousness of it all. I’m a Los Angeles Laker fan, for better or worse. And I think that Kobe Bryant is pretty amazing as a basketball player. But this is not about that. This is about how people are always trying to be exactly right, holding to the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. What is that doing in an entry about sports you ask? Well people have been applying that idea more and more to sports. There have been the sudden burst of video replays in college football that have led to some good things (like fixed calls) and some bad things (like long games and still getting the call wrong). And then there are the extreme cases of outrage where officials such as Stu Jackson will re-visit a game simply to find faults. Where there might have been a regular foul called, they will turn into a suspension. Now, that just seems like idiocy to me. Let the officials at the game decide what the call should be. If you’re so willing to make a call after the fact, then how will you be able to overturn a call after the fact?
It’s irritating to think of the things that are starting to go on the world. It might seem like I’m getting worked up over a stupid game, but it has ramifications in all of the world. Why? Because it’s not limited to a game, it’s the mindset that people are starting to have more and more. And that is even more troubling than the problems with video review in sports.
Mar 14 After reading this entry a little while ago, I thought it would be appropriate to list some of my favorites.
Starting off with a slightly horrendous take on this iPod-centric marketing is this piece of work. To imagine anyone in their right mind buying this is absurd. To think, you couldn’t live without your iPod for the 5-10 minutes (okay 1 minute if you’re this guy haha) that you’re sitting on the toilet. Take the time to enjoy your time off from your life. Relax and let it all out. And don’t touch your iPod before washing or else people will post entries like this about you!
See I personally think that something like this is a good idea. I mean our teeth are used in order to break down food that we eat, right? Well these bad boys will do just that. I have a couple of issues with it, however. Firstly, they need to get a model who is not about to fall asleep as she’s wearing the teeth. Secondly, they need to remedy how extremely ugly you’ll look when you’re wearing them. Jaws, anyone?
Here is another gadget that actually seems useful. Unfortunately everyone will look at you like a fool if you so happen to actually use one. Everyone is better off when other drivers are considerate and expressive of how they actually feel. Unfortunately technology cannot make advances in all areas. It has to take a back seat some of the time (pun intended :P).
Oh man, this is awesome. Now I’m all for having cleaner air to breathe, but there are a few issues that I have with this. First off, what kind of mad person is willing to either carry that thing around or be anchored to one spot for a long time? And more importantly, how in the world does a single plant produce that much oxygen for you to breath constantly? I suppose it might make a tiny bit of sense if you just left it to accumulate fresh air and then you took a whiff every now and again. But even that’s a stretch.
Haha only the Japanese would come up with such a ridiculous invention. (This is why I know it’s the Japanese who get credit for this one.) There’s no way underwear should be used for anything other than being worn as such. Come on now, that’s just gross.
One of my favorite! I love the picture. I think that I might have seriously chuckled aloud. And I was by myself. To imagine this being used is actually not all too outrageous because of the high cost of doing this with a device designed for this express purpose. I just would really really like to see someone doing this. I also enjoy how they show you how to truly experience the 360 degree picture that you’ve taken. :-p
And to think, I always wanted to invent something cool. Why bother when I can live vicariously through all of these other inventors with the fortitude to do something about it? :grin: