Shopping
I love spending money. I spent some today... I bought:
- ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder 9000 PRO (64MB)
- 200GB Western Digital HDD (7200 RPM)
- DVD-R/RW drive (yaaaaaay!)
So basically I've tricked out my computer again... almost. I still need one of those spiffy aluminum cases, so it matches my future PowerBook.
Mike's working on updating his webpage, which is really cool. I look forward to seeing it completed.
It looks like I'll be going up to camp next weekend with Adrian... my last trip to that place for this year... how sad 
Song of the day: Wallflowers - One Headlight
fountain pen
An iced white mocha this morning, paired with a cranberry-apple muffin. Dirty Vegas in the CD player, rated with two stars by Microsoft, but what do they know? They write code. I'd give the disc four stars at least, and I'm only halfway through it. It seems the cleaning people didn't wipe down the top of my desk last night; it still has rings where the previous week's coffee cups have rested.
Today's projects, aside from the blog, are the omnipresent mouseover map and a new design that's darker in color than its predecessors. It will feature a flash animation with a fade-slide-slide motif.
Mexico introduced an implantable chip recently, and for whatever reason, citizens of that country seem excited to be trackable. Uncle George Orwell would be so proud. Though claims for the device's usefulness in tracking medical information are intriguing, I can't get over the mental images of collared livestock or tagged wildlife. I'm sure the chip will be in vogue in a few years, with such useful abilities as unlocking car doors and personalizing advertisements on the streets. I'm reminded of the movie "Minority Report", and I can only imagine how easy it would be to corrupt a tracking technology that can't be easily removed. It would be hilarious if the thing set off metal detectors at the airport.
I register for my classes today, 15 units of them at least. I should take at least 18 units, so I'll have to crash some undoubtedly horrible class. It looks like I'll be taking Accounting, Finance, a Social History class, Political Science, and Global Systems. It seems logical to take Anthropology as well, since it fills a few requirements and fits decently with my Tuesday-Thursday schedule. That leaves the other days conveniently free for student government, work with RezCon, and of course homework and studying.
I'm very excited to get back to San Diego. It'll be nice to have my own place, and all that. John promises to come down, which will be fun.
I'm actually writing this on paper, since I refilled my fountain pen, and I love writing with it. However, I'm running out of sheet, so I need to end this one here.
linkworthy
Cisco router flaw could cripple internet
The silly French are trying to call e-mail something else
Little Robots in your pants (or, Call It What It Is)
Song of the day: Alabama - Song of the South
a clicking tour
I've been updating this page quite a bit recently, so I thought I'd give you a quick tour of what I added.
Starting at the top right, there will be a small box providing contact links. That's in the works now. Basically, it consists of stealing and resizing images for AIM, ICQ, Y!, MSN, and some random email or SMS logo.
Moving down the bar are the headline boxes, news and tech. Self explanatory. After that is the poll. Also easy to figure out.
Next comes the calendar, search, archives and links boxes. The links box has been heavily updated and will continue to be as I find neat stuff to put there. What's there you might ask? Well...
Blogs
Chael's Xanga Blog - the blog of a friend, who enjoys getting mad at things.
Naj's Take - the often coherent rantings of Naj
Nontent - the implied opposite of Content, as authored by Alex.
Links
The (sadly incomplete) list of books I want from Amazon.com
Apple Computer. Because they rock. Mac the Planet.
Phrack.org. B3cau53 th3y r0ck. Haxx0r th3 plan3t.
Slashdot.org - news for nerds.
Happy Hardcore - streaming hardcore trance music. Increases work efficiency,
now in several tasty flavors.
Digitally Imported - streaming trance, house, techno, and other sorts of music.
For when piracy just isn't enough.
Wired Magazine - news for the digital mind.
Libertarian Party - the party of principle.
Following the links comes a syndication link, for those that want to include my content elsewhere, and a link to my Creative Commons license (like a copyright, but different). Then comes the MT link and my First Amendment / EFF stuff. After that is a satirical link banner. I do not support the wacky color-coding scheme the government has set up... I think any system that attempts to simplify the state of world events to a rainbow scale is doomed to failure. It's good for a laugh every now and again though.
Upcoming Features
In the near future, I'll be adding:
- Shoutcast info - information about the shoutcast server I'll be setting up when I get back to school
- Shoutbox - a small, interactive comment system, powered by PHP
- Photo Galleries - nifty automated photo galleries, to make image browsing easier for you and me
Interesting Headlines
CSU and UC fees rising
Microsoft screws up again -- more reasons to abandon Windows
Hacker book has security community up in arms
Song of the day: Starship - We Built This City
wash your cup
Always wash your Starbucks cup out before using it for water, or you have a Vanilla Latte-flavored glass of H2O. Remember this in the future.
So I'm listening to streaming techno/trance music (HappyHardcore.com) and there's this really bad mix on right now, blending pounding synth drums with a sample of a preacher damning someone. Maybe this is what they call 'Christian Music'. ("Sinner! Jezebel! You will be damned! You have a scorpion for a soul, ...") Nice, huh?
Aaaaanyway, Shawn's home, which is pretty cool, but he's home for uncool reasons. That's the problem with college; you only get to see your friends when they have to come home for some reason... and it's usually not a good reason. All the more reason to own a helicopter.
My website needs another redesign, I think... I want it to be more of a portal and less of a vain, selfish, pro-me site. I'll be keeping that part of it buried a little deeper, for when/if i become an actor or model and need a shameless webpage. I'm looking into a similar design to MikeHalbrook.com and LanceLarson.net, both web-enabled friends of mine. I particularly like the image on the side; I'd like to make it random to keep the thing interesting. Is it a bad thing writing inline hyperlinks and not thinking anything of it? Maybe not, in this net-aware ever-connected world. In that vein, I'm about 90% convinced that I'm going to get an Apple PowerBook when they release the updated 15" model (sources say 1.25GHz G4 proc, integrated 802.11g and Bluetooth, etc.) Sure, it's slightly less powerful than the 3.08GHz behemoths out there, but it sure looks a hell of a lot better, it's more stable, and I'm not really concerned with having my notebook be a supercomputer... oh wait, the PowerBook is a supercomputer, by definition (>1GFLOP). So I suppose my only desire for having a PC over a Mac is ... um ... er ... my TOPO! cd's won't work on it... but they don't work anyway... and SoftPC should run them just fine. And I'll still have my PC around anyway, as a slave machine / television / fileserver / plant stand. Can't give up that 17" LCD screen that easily 
Anyway, I should probably get back to work... currently I'm representing the complex process lines for the cold reduction of steel as simple line drawings with simple paragraph explanations. The aerial map I'm using was 592MB raw, and after resizing it to what I need, it's about 50k. Talk about data overkill.
peace
Song of the day: Custom - Streets
rollerblades
So I rollerbladed from my house to Northgate yesterday. It was a neat trip, but since my TOPO! cd's are messed up, I'm not sure exactly how far it was. Estimates range from seven to ten miles. I got small blisters on my ankles. I'll need to tend to that for the next trip.
Pat Robertson has started a prayer offensive... I always thought all prayer was offensive, but maybe now they're just making it formal. He wants to remove three liberal Justices from the Supreme Court, because he believes their decision will lead to such (horrible) things as gay marriages. What's the big deal? Two guys or two girls getting married doesn't (shouldn't) affect him... what about that Christian Tolerance that all these monkey preachers keep yakking about? Sunshine Tolerants, I'll call them, these people who accept everyone so long as they're white, christian, straight, republican, and gainfully employed. I wonder if Robertson and his ilk have some sort of scoring system that they use to determine whether or not to tolerate someone? Maybe it's in that little book they keep beating (Bibles are better for beatin' than readin') Don't get me started. How arrogant is it to (1) make a demand of God to (2) remove Justices from the Supreme Court? If America is truly founded on Christian Principles (slavery, war, classism come to mind...), it follows that the seperation of church and state is a godly (and morally just) prinicple. God cannot, therefore, legally remove Justices from court. The only feasible way to do this would be for God to end their lives, which is tantamount to murder. Let's try God in court, three counts of first degree murder. Come on, Mr. Robinson, think for a minute, will you? If God were on your side, you wouldn't even have to ask him/her/it to do what you thought was right. And how sad is it that the old man has to make an appeal to his invisible friend to help him convince the nation that the Court was wrong? There's not much that's more disturbing than watching an old man talk to the air.
Song of the day: Gaelic Storm - Johnny Jump Up
Theme of the day: Gummi Bears Theme
back from camp
So I'm back from camp, again. It was great seeing friends and such again. Seems I forgot to burn a few CD's that I was supposed to, but I'll do that this week. Swam in the river, went through an underwater hole in granite, hung out with a bunch of people. Tried to get a tan, but that didn't last too long.
The Camp Goat
Where I swam
Luckily, the stomping of a homeless man is still a crime. What the hell goes through someone's mind before they decide to step on a person?
Song of the day: Jack Johnson - The Horizon Has Been Defeated
As Larry the Cable Guy says, 'Lord, I apologize for those popup ads, while theres all those starving pygmies down there in Borneo"
Fifty Thousand and counting…
So I rolled over 50,000 miles on my car today... in the Starbucks parking lot. (Surprise)
Take a look at http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ... read it carefully. Someone has too much time on their hands, and a nice, dry sense of humor. Or humour, since it's a British site. (Yes, but it's a DRY humour)
This is my first entry in my blog at its new location (the nascent scottsimpson.net) I'll be developing this site in the near future, after I get back from Wolfeboro this weekend.
I think that's all for now.
Song of the day: Blondie - Atomic
Blogroll
Doing My Part
lynda.com Training
