hazy recollections from early morning:

noise: KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

man: MAINTENENCE!

michael: [awoken and confused] ..could you come back later?

man: were you sleeping?

michael: yes.

man: we just need to check the smoke alarms.  you can stay in bed.

michael: ..okay

michael hides beneath blankets

man: [enters room]

noise of aerosol spray

pause

man: [quietly, to self] ..damn things not connected.

noise of fiddling with things

noise of hell unleashing its fury in claxon form

man: [exits room]

I have decided that washington university is a fiery death trap.  last year the fire alarm was nearly inaudible from my room and would not be heard above music, let alone wake me in the middle of the night.  (I informed my RA, but it was never fixed.)  and now I learn that I have been living with a broken smoke detector all summer.

a fiery death trap.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 31 July 2001 at 4:30 PM

The guy who sits behind me here at work just showed me this cool application at trip.com. It's a flight tracker. You can put in a flight number (or select one based on departure and arrival cities and time) and you can watch the flight in progress. You can monitor its airspeed, altitude, and direction. It plots the location on a map for you to watch as well. Instead of selecting which flight to watch, you can also let it randomly select a flight for you. This thing is awesome!

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 31 July 2001 at 12:59 PM

I was so wrapped up in that slashdot thing that I forgot to mention a few things about this site that I wanted to tell you about.

First, we know the site looks like crap in Netscape v4.x browsers. But only a tiny minority of our readers use Netscape, so designing for them wasn't a high priority. HOWEVER, I do have a solution in mind, and I will be working on it this week with the expectation of finishing it before I leave for Boston on Saturday. It won't be an ideal solution, but it will be functional. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Also, by the end of the day today, -273 will have reached a milestone in terms of independent visits to our site (not to be confused with hits -- see sitemeter.com for more information). By the end of the day, we will have 3,000 visits. So...(drumroll please)...I am pleased to announce the -273 3,000th Visit Contest. The contest will go something like this. Anyone who is interested in participating should send an email to zero@negative273.com declaring their intention to take part in the contest. Then, on or about the 12th of August, I will put the names of all the contestants in a hat (or other similar device) and draw one name out. The person whose name is drawn will be sent an arbitrarily selected prize (I'm thinking about an amazon.com gift certificate, but the prize selection is definitely not final). I will announce the time of the drawing 24 hours in advance, and you will be able to watch the drawing via my webcam (or in person if you plan on being in Evansville on August 12 or 13). So send your entries to zero@negative273.com as soon as possible. If you have any questions, send me an email at david@negative273.com.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 31 July 2001 at 9:16 AM

I just read a rather depressing thread on slashdot. It was an "Ask Slashdot" piece, and a guy wrote in saying he was in charge of starting a computer book section at his local library and asking what books he should get. Of course, the guy should have realized that this was slashdot, so there was no way he was going to get useful advice. At least that was my take on reading through the posts.

Ask yourself this. Is a person going to the computer section of a library more likely to be interested in a book on how to use Windows, or in Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, a three-volume, not-yet-complete work first started more than 20 years ago? It just seems to me that there will be a hek of a lot more people who want to read about how to use the Start menu in Windows than want to read a theoretical CS book.

Let's approach this from a different angle. Let's try to figure out how many people using the library to get computer books are programmers. First, people who program professionally probably won't be going to the library for computer books, because they can most likely get their employer to purchase books for them. So now the question is whether there are more casual computer users, who only want to send a few emails and type up a Christmas letter in Word, or whether there are more (or at least as many) hard-core computer users, who plan on doing a lot of coding, but don't have their own books. I think it safe to conclude there are more casual users, and have another arguement to support this premise, but I've grown tired of this topic.

This was slashdot after all. I should know better than to expect reasoned posts on most topics. (Just for the record, one or two people voiced the same concerns I'm mentioning here in posts to the thread, but they were easily drowned out by the 650 other posts.)

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 31 July 2001 at 8:48 AM

summer is winding down for me, too.  I move out of my dorm this weekend and into the apartment Ill be in during the coming semester.  and if it werent for my distaste for packing, I would be greatly looking forward to it.  Im still looking forward to the change in scenery.  and having more than one room.  although, I just realized that I might not be able to steal cable there, and I might not have my ethernet for a few days.  and if this is the case, I am in serious trouble.  I cant go back to network television.  not during the summer.  oh god.

well, actually, my research is getting to the point where we need to get something like a rough draft up and running within the next two weeks, and I still havent figured out a solution to the problems I mentioned earlier, not to mention my code is extremely messy and extremely uncommented.  so among other things, I will have plenty to keep me busy for the rest of the summer.

but unlike dave, Im definitely in the mood for summer to wind down.  mostly because Ive been stuck here by myself all summer, and lately my only face-to-face human contact comes from my boss.  or the mcdonalds guy.  I think were handling the isolation well enough, but we just want our friends to come back.  dont we, my preciouss..

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 31 July 2001 at 2:47 AM

Have you ever wondered how many takes are required for George Foreman to say "Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine" correctly? I wonder about this constantly.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 30 July 2001 at 11:07 PM

Summer is winding down for me. Only nine more days of work left; four this week and five the week after I get back from Boston. For the first summer in quite awhile, I am not ready to head back to school. There are still a lot of things I wanted to do this summer that I haven't come close to doing.

I'm going to run some errands tonight. I want to get a phone with caller ID, because WashU is providing caller Id on its phone system this year, and I figure I may as well take advantage of it. I also have this odd craving for chips and salsa, so I'm going to buy some to bring to work. I think I'll have chips and salsa for lunch tomorrow.

Any comments on the redesign? The only who has emailed me about it is Chris, who kindly pointed out that the last two letters in the graphic at the top of the page had been transposed, changing the site name from negative273 to negative237. Oops. Anyway, that was quickly corrected.

I've been reading about this Winamp plugin called DoSomething (I think, I don't have the discussion board thread open at the moment) that will automatically post, for example, the five most recent MP3s that you played, to a file that can be included on a webpage. It FTPs it and all that for you. Any interest out there in seeing what MP3s michael and I are playing? Email me and let me know.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 30 July 2001 at 3:37 PM

Today was about as uneventful as a day can get. I got up around 10 and read a bit, then I went downstairs and had lunch. Then I watched some TV. I was supposed to play some more volleyball this evening, but that outing was cancelled because some people didn't want to play because it was too hot. Oh well.

My boss gets back from Europe tomorrow, so I may have some work to do. If all goes according to plan, I will be posting one of the websites I spent about half the summer on tomorrow. But things at work rarely go according to plan, so I'm almost expecting not to get much done. I did buy myself a 12-pack of root beer for work though. I'm sure drinking some of it will be the highlight of my day tomorrow.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 29 July 2001 at 9:17 PM

so here it is, my first post on the newly designed negative273. and whats better, Im posting from a web browser window as opposed to dream weaver. I think this will be far more convenient, although it doesnt have a spell checker. its not perfect, but I think its better than what we had. especially for dave, who couldnt post from work without a big hassle.

but anyway, Ive been on sort of a break from posting lately, as Im prone to do, but dont think I wasnt busy with other things. important things. so dont yell at me. Im having a bad enough time as it is. my program at work is really frustrating me. its proving very very hard to try to get reliable face detection because what works for one set of images wont seem to work for another set captured at a different time. and we really need something that will, or this whole thing wont work. its a little disheartening, but still I plod on. and to make things worse, I have a test on thursday, and I dont like tests. but I am determined to do well on this last homework and on the test. oh, and to make things worse still, I cant sleep at night. which is something Id really like to start doing.

okay, I give up. this post is awful, but Im hungry. maybe later tonight I will write a better one. but probably that burden will be on dave.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 29 July 2001 at 6:13 PM

Good evening. I'm back from playing two hours of sand volleyball. There was a tornado warning for most of the evening, and it rained for about 40% of the time we were playing, but I still had a very good time. At times we couldn't even hear each other talking over the weather alert sirens that were going off all over the city, but that didn't deter us from playing. The only bad part of the evening was the fact that, because I was soaked from the rain, I got sand stuck all over me.

I chose to take a shower when I got home to get rid of the sand, but my friend Jared had a more interesting approach. On the way home he stopped at a self-service car wash. YOu know, one of those places where you hose your car off yourself. He got out of the car, took off his shirt, put some quarters in the machine, and had Luke spray him off with the high pressure hose. It was one of those times when you wish you had a camera. He was dancing around as Luke sprayed him off and the people in the apartment complex behind the car wash were staring at us from the windows of their apartments.

This entry doesn't seem to flow very well, but I have a splitting headache, so I'm just going to leave it as is and go to bed in a few minutes. I just have a few technical things about the site to mention. The time stamps at the top of each post are perma links, so if you should ever want to link to a specific entry on this site, you should be able to copy the link from there. Also, please report any broken links to the email address at the bottom of the page.

Have a safe and enjoyable evening. Good night.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 July 2001 at 10:31 PM

I've finished almost all the things that I said I needed to do in my previous entry, along with a few other things. The only original item still on the list is the features page, which I will be working on in a bit. The one new thing that I want to do is add a search box to the archive page, but it isn't a high priority, so that may end up waiting until next week. It's not that big a deal, but I want to get the main pages up before I start adding other things.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 July 2001 at 3:17 PM

Welcome to the newly redesigned negative273.com! This is the first step in a two-part redesign process. We've got the basic structure nailed down, and in the next few weeks we're going to be working on the colors. But don't expect that until the end of August.

For the time-being there are still a few things I need to work out before this goes up though. I need to add permalinks to all the entries, and I still need to add the counter to the header. I also need to fix the archives link and create a page for the features section. But these are all minor things, and they should be fixed by the time you read this (especially since I'm not going to let anyone see this page until I fix all these things).

I'd like to take a moment to say how cool greymatter is. It really is a very cool weblog system, and if you have the ability to run cgi scripts on your site, you might want to think about installing greymatter.

One final thing. We would appreciate getting some feedback on our new design. So please send us an email at zero@negative273.com with any comments you might have. Or, if you prefer to be more like me, post your comments about how much you hate the font on this page to your weblog.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 July 2001 at 12:57 PM

I should clarify my position on the hornygoat redesign, especially now that he has linked to us.  First, let me say that I don't dislike the design as a whole, I just don't like it as ch as I liked its previous incarnation.  I also happen to have a rather odd disliking for the MS Trebuchet font, a dislike that pre-dated said font's use on hornygoat.org.  I belive this dislike is related to being forced to read a paper in my technical writing class that used the MS Trebuchet font.  I didn't like the author or his rather pathetic paper very much, and I have since come to associate the font with all things bad.  (Plus, I have trouble reading the MS Trebuchet font when it is rendered very small.) So, in summary, I like the way the redesign looks, but not as much as I liked the previous version of hornygoat.  I also dislike the MS Trebuchet font for reasons unrelated to hornygoat.org.  I hope my earlier comments didn't cause anyone to cry (I never know what to do when people just burst into tears, so it's always very awkward), or just feel upset or miffed.

Turning our attention away (hopefully for the last time) from the hornygoat redesign, let's discuss answering machines.  Or, more specifically, why my friends won't ever use them.  Yesterday night I went out to eat with my parents, came home for a bit, and then when to the gym.  When I got back, my dad told me that my friend Jared had called to tell me that he and some of my other friends were going to the fair.  But they were leaving as soon as they finished that call.  They also said they'd been trying to call for a while.  All of this begs the question, "Why were there no messages on the answering machine when we got back from dinner if they'd been calling and finding no one at home?" I don't feel like going into great detail on this, but let me just mention that I would be a lot happier if everyone got over their fear of answering machines (or whatever it is that keeps a lot of people, not just my friends, from using them).

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 27 July 2001 at 8:28 AM

I've been working a little abstract art thing here at work.  I was somewhat limited in that I only had three colors available to me: red, green, and grey (or whatever the color of pencil lead is), but things are coming along nicely.  I expect to finish it today.  Should I become motivated, I may set up my scanner and scan it in so that you can look at it, but I'm pretty lazy, so I wouldn't expect too much if I were you.

I didn't submit a 34.org logo yesterday.  I worked about halfway through a design idea I had, but got tired of it, so I deleted the file.  I'm having some regrets about that decision, but there's not much I can do about it now.  In any event, a much better design came to me this morning, so I'm going to start on that as soon as I finish this other thing.

(I'm being very vague today, aren't I?)

I'm still stuck on the hornygoat redesign.  I really don't like the way the site looks.  It bothers me.  A lot.  It uses the MS Trebuchet font, which doesn't scale down to small sizes very well.  If every person in the world with MS Trebuchet on their computer deleted that font, the world would be a better place.  In fact, I'm willing to bet that the key to world peace is the total and complete elimination of the MS Trebuchet font.  Back to hornygoat's design for a minute.  I also dislike the blinking "cursor" graphic.  I haven't disliked a site this much since nickd redesigned his site in shades of grey and began using a tiny font.  That was about a year ago, and part of the problem there was that my monitor made everything darker than it was supposed to be, rendering his page almost unreadable.

Speaking of nickd, I got my nickd.org tshirt in the mail yesterday.  It looks nice, and I'll be giving it a trial run tonight.  I'm sure people all over Evansville will be coming up to me and saying "You read nickd.org?  You are so cool!" Or something like that.

I've been listening to the Clash recently.  Have you heard of them?  They rock.  Who else rocks?  Anyone who sends me an email in the next 2 hours. (I'm really bored.)

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 July 2001 at 1:13 PM

Is there a better way to spend your morning than by reading Herbert Kornfeld's past columns?  If there is, I haven't found it yet.  Speaking of the Onion, was anyone else rolling on the floor when they read the article about the nonagenarian who collects state quarters?

As the afternoon wears on, I seem to be losing my caffiene induced high.  I have a little bit of work to do today, which is a pleasant change from the status quo, and will keep me ocupied for the next hour or so.  Then I may work on the thirtyfour.org logo design contest for a bit.  I'll be a bit handicapped in my efforts, because my only graphics programs here at work are a trial version of Macromedia Fireworks (which I like, but it doesn't compare with good ol' Photoshop) and Microsoft Image Composer (which I hate with a fervor so ingrained into my being that it gives me an intense headache whenever I contemplate using it).

Now I'll share a little conversation I overheard while dining last night.  Here's a little background, the man had just gone through four glasses of water in less than five minutes.

Waiter: Would you like a pitcher of water?
Man sitting alone at table: No I don't want my f***ing picture taken.
Waiter: No.  Not picture, pitcher.
Man: I said f***ing NO!  What are you, drunk?
Waiter: No, I haven't been drinking.  I was just asking if...
Man: F*** this.  You're drunk.  I know how you Chinese are.

I left at this point, and don't know how the interaction ended, but it probably wasn't pretty. I should probably also mention that during the entire time the man was in the restaurant, his regular speaking voice was loud enough to be mistaken for yelling.  Oh, and one more thing: his waiter wasn't Chinese, or even Asian.  It was all just very strange, and I was glad to leave when I finished my meal.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 July 2001 at 12:58 PM

sigh.. if only there were a way for me to make $15,000 a month working from home with no major time commitment, no storefront, no employees, no inventory, and no product...

wait, whats that, comedy-central-early-morning-programming?  there is a way?  you say theres a system?  the money system!  that sounds perfect.  I mean, I pay all my bills supernaturally, but I could still use some cash for the weekends.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 25 July 2001 at 3:31 AM

I was going to go to the grocery store today, but I forgot to.  also, I need to get my hair cut very very badly.  only I guess since Im pretty much a hermit, I can put it off for a few more days.  and its not like Im getting my picture taken or anything.  just no one look at me, okay?

also, why do I get so hungry at this time of night?  Im reluctant to eat, because Im down to just two more cans of soup and Ill just be going to bed anyway, but then again, if I remember to go to the grocery store this week, I should be okay, and Im awfully hungry, so maybe I should eat again.  what do you think?

..you know, when I stop to think about it, there is absolutely no reason on earth why this post should even exist at all.  and yet it does.  imagine that.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 25 July 2001 at 2:27 AM

Well, the minor redesign I talked aout yesterday may be snowballing into a larger redesign.  We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.

My promised web design-related rant was going to be on the subject of html validation.  I'm not sure I want to get into it though.  I'll just say that when you have to choose between your code validating and your page rendering correctly in another browser (with no adverse effects in the primary browser you're designing for), I think you should latter over the former.  I suspect I'm in the minority on this though, at least among people who run personal websites.

On an entirely different note, you should head over to Aaron's new site, ab9online.  It's only been up a couple of days, but it's an attractive site with good writing.  And he has the good sense to link to us here at -273, so what else can you ask for?

Back to the redesign thing for a moment.  We're thinking of abandoning Netscape support, mainly because no one who reads our site uses Netscape.  More specifically, according to server logs about 6% of our hits come from people using Netscape browsers.  However, I suspect most of these hits came when I was fiddling around with NS earlier this month, but it is important for me to know how many of our readers will be upset if -273 stops rendering nicely in Netscape 4.  So if you use Netscape v4.7 or lower, please send me an email posthaste.  This whole issue requires some thought, because I am very reluctant to give up any browser compatability.  But with no one using NS, and the likelihood of people using NS4 in the future become smaller and smaller, I am more likely to give in to the simplicity of a world without Netscape.

Yes, I may very well be a hypocrite.  So sue me.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 July 2001 at 12:28 PM

Well, Dreamweaver won't connect to the Internet to retrieve the index page so that I can use it to type this post.  I don't know why, but I suspect it is because of the changes I made to my Dial-Up Networking settings last week.  I don't know why this turn of events surprises me, because it is the perfect cap to my day.  Let me elaborate.

After arriving at work today, I attempted to do what I do every morning, namely read the twenty-six blogs I have linked from my home page.  None of them would load.  In fact the only external Internet site I could load was hotmail.  I normally spend about an hour catching up on my favorite websites, and I tried to do so today, but I couldn't drag checking my email out for an hour.  Imagine, if you will, me pressing the POP Mail link in hotmial once (on average, I was timing it) every 40 seconds.  Imagine me doing this about 45 times.  Eventually, I got bored, and tried to find other things to do, but I was pretty bored until the Internet connection came back around 10am.

In technical news, -273 will be deploying greymatter on August 1, assuming we get a few technical issues worked out by then.  A minor redesign may accompany the switch, but it won't be anything major.  At the very least, I'm going to clean up the html a bit.  If I'm lucky I may even get it to validate, but somehow I don't think I'll have the patience for that.

Speaking of redesigns, hornygoat.org redesigned yesterday.  I'm afraid I don't care for the new look all that much.  The colors are okay, but I don't like the font.  And the blinking cursor thing at the top of the page bothers me A LOT, to the point of distraction even.

You may have noticed that in my recent posts I've been posing questions to you, our readers.  This is an attempt to start a dialog with our readers.  This means that my questions aren't rhetorical, and I'm hoping for a response.  (If I weren't embarassed by the paucity of readers here at -273, I would be tempted to start a discussion board.  But because we don't yet have a large following, I will instead direct you to Planet Shhh, a discussion board I've been reading and posting to recently.) Anyway, today's question will be in two parts: 1) What is your opinion on site redesigns?  For example, should redesigns be evolutionary, revolutionary, or non-existant?  2) From a useability and appearance standpoint, does -273 need a redesign?

I'll take a moment to give you my opinions on this issue, and then you can voice your opinion to me via email or instant messenger (my screen name is HiddenInput).  As a general rule, I think site redesigns, especailly for commercial sites, should almost always be evolutionary, rather than revolutionary.  Changing a few things at a time, from my perspective, is much preferable to changing a huge number of things all at once.  Of course, for weblogs not much is lost in a total redesign, because the content is still easy enough to find, but commercial sites should thin klong and hard about the benefits their customers will reap from a redesign.  If there aren't many (and your design is relatively up-to-date) you should probably hold off.  I think this general theory applies to the current versio of -273 as well.  We need to clean up our code.  It will lead to faster downloads (a huge reduction in filesize), with hopefully no noticeable change to the page layout.  I also think a tweaking of some of the design elements could be helpful.  A few small changes to the layout of the headers in each of the post boxes (the boxes our individual posts are in) would make implementing greymatter much easier, and, in my opinion, make the site a little bit nicer to look at.  But, for the most part, I think things should stay the same here.  I still like the sidebar image, and the way the page header looks (although I wouldn't be upset if the links could be rearranged to take up a bit less space), so they should stay.  Anyway, that's my 2 cents, but I'm interested in hearing your opinion, so please drop me a line or two.

I have a whole other web design-related rant all planned out in my head, but I've written enough boring crap for one evening, so I'll save it for tomorrow.  Have a good night.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 July 2001 at 9:26 PM

I was wondering, do you think anyone would notice if I started recycling posts from the archives instead of writing new ones?  I mean, you cant honestly tell me people were paying that much attention back in february.  right?  and if people started to catch on, I could just call it "the best of -273" or something.

also, Im hungry, and I never feel like sleeping when I am supposed to.  why?

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 21 July 2001 at 3:34 AM

Having to post by himself at the beginning of the week seems to have tired michael out, because I seem to have a pretty long string of consecutive posts.  I'll probably miss a day this weekend, though, so perhaps he'll seize the opportunity to post.

I rationed out my work for the day, doing half of it in the morning and the other half in the afternoon.  Specifically, I worked from 10am to 11am and from 12:45pm to 2:00pm.  Oh and I fixed a little bug with one of my pages while talking to my parents on the phone a few minutes ago.  That took about two minutes.  The rest of my time here at work will be devoted to writing a list of things I need/want to buy tonight for the camping thing tomorrow.  I don't feel bad about wasting my afternoon here at work, since only about 5% of the people who work here stayed after lunch.  (Of course, most of them are salaried.)

Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 20 July 2001 at 2:48 PM

As I've mentioned before, my parents are on vacation in North Carolina this week.  Last night I found a list of things they had wanted me to do while they were gone.  Let's just say that the things I've done in the past week and the things on the list didn't coincide so well.  As a result of finding this list, I spent part of my evening mowing the lawn.  In the rain.  It doesn't look so great, but it should grow out a bit before they get home on late tomorrow night, so everything should be fine (assuming, as I have done, that they don't have Internet access in NC).

After I mowed the lawn, Jared came over because we were going to get some dinner.  But neither of us was very hungry, so we went out to Wesselman Park and played some volleyball with Luke, John, John's brother Jim, Josh, and Ben until 7pm.  Then we got cleaned up and went out to eat at JoJo's.  After dinner we drove to the abandoned Builder's Square parking lot, where Jared drove his car in backwards circles while yelling "How much for dem?" at the people in the new car lot next door.  It was actually very funny.

On a different subject, I'm thinking of switching to Windows 2000.  I have the CDs for it, but I'm not sure if I want to go to the trouble of formatting my hard drive.  I could probably upgrade without formating, but when I've done that in the past, bad things have happened.  On the other hand, I've only heard good things about Win2k, which can't be said for WIndows 98.  If you have experience with Win2k, I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Another technical query for you.  What can you tell me about Greymatter?  I'm intrigued by it.  I was going to write a PHP/MySQL backend for -273 (I've got some code sketched out on a piece of paper in front of me right now, in fact), but two people have mentioned Greymatter to me in the past two days, so I'm thinking of setting up a trial run with it.  It uses perl and not php, which I would really like to learn, but I think I may see how greymatter works anyway.  I may end up using it for hiddeninput, and writing a backend for -273, just for the hell of it.

I'm still looking for my Sum 41 CD.  I'm now offering a reward of $2 to whoever can find it.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 20 July 2001 at 8:45 AM

So many things to complain about, so little time.

---BEGIN COMPLAINTS---

Complaint Number One: the hotmail redesign.  I really don't like the changes hotmail made yesterday.  I find the redesign ugly and, because of the increased use of graphics, slow to load.  Also, the old hotmail would open directly to the inbox if you kept an unread message in it.  Now it always opens to the "Home" page.  I don't like the "Home" page or its stupid MSN ads.

Complaint Number Two: VCR/DVD combo.  The VCR/DVD combo device I saw at Sam's Club last week has sold out.  The employees who work there have no idea if they will be getting anymore.  So I have to pay an extra $10 to get it from samsclub.com.  Oh well, it's still $100 cheaper than any other place has it for.

Complaint Number Three: digicam.  The digicam I ordered more than a month ago still hasn't shown up.  (Fortunately, my credit card hasn't been billed yet either.) Tomorrow I'm going to have to call those losers at express cameras and find out what's going on.

Complaint Number Four: Whirlpool proxy servers.  They suck.  More need not be said.

---END COMPLAINTS---

I'm going camping Saturday night at Lynville park.  Any and all are invited.  We'll be at primitive site number thirty, should you want to drop by (hang a right after the guard stand, go through the switchback, bear right when the road forks by the observatory, and keep going until you get to the end of the road -- #30 is the second-to-last campsite, on a hill to your left).

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 19 July 2001 at 12:35 PM

What is up with TRL?  When I saw it on Monday Sum 41 had the number one video, beating *Nsync and the Backstreet "Boys", and Eve 6 had the number 5 video.  Is this the beginning of the end for pop?  (God, I hope so.) Speaking of Sum 41, if anyone has seen my "All Killer No Filler" CD, please tell me where it is.  I searched for it for about an hour last night and couldn't find it.

The Blink concert this weekend was really cool, even though I was older than everyone except the parents chaperoning their kids by about 5 years.  The New Found Glory set was cool as well, but I would have been happy if the bass player had kept his shirt on (or at the very least, if every video shot from that point on didn't zoom in on his beer belly).

After the concert, as we were driving back there was a big 5 car accident right in front of us.  A Firebird was weaving in and out of the lane we were in, and eventually caused the car directly in front of us to hit it, which cascaded up through about four other cars.  The car directly in front of us broke it's radiator when it struck the Firebird, spilling a huge amount of radiator fluid all over the road.  My car skidded in the radiator fluid and hit the car with the broken radiator.  My car was undamaged, as was the back of the car I collided with (the front had a lot of problems, but given the fact that the rear was undamaged, I think it safe to assume hat they came from her earlier impact with the Firebird).  Don't tell anyone, but I'm not going to report this to my insurance company.  If you'd like even more details, I'll be happy to provide them to you.  For example, I could give you a great deal of information about the girl who owned the car in front of me, like the fact that no one in her car was wearing a seat belt, or the fact that she had been in jail the night before the accident, but why bore you with stuff like that if you don't want to hear it.  Send me an email or IM me and I'll share it with you, should you really, really care.

Staying at home without the parents around is very, very nice.  For the past thre days the thermostat has been set at 74°, an unheard of temperature in our house during the summer.  It's been very nice.

Well, time to get back to work.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 18 July 2001 at 12:21 PM

would it weird anybody out to hear that I like that new stone temple pilots song?  a lot.  or that I keep having dreams about scott wyland.. in that tight black suit with that eye make-up and slicked back hair?

oh.  dont worry, Im just kidding.  I dont really like that new stone temple pilots song.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 16 July 2001 at 3:34 AM

I know I havent posted in a while.  but the thing that you, the reader, need to remember is that this is because I really dont like posting.  of course its not really anything personal to you, the reader.  I just dont really care for sitting down and talking about nothing for a paragraph or two before bed.  I mean, I could so easily just skip this step altogether.  and who would even notice?

sigh.. but I guess I do have some things to say tonight.  first off, for those of you who havent checked out ouranophobe lately, why dont you take a look.  I completely redesigned her site for her, and I think it looks pretty nice.  I know, I know.  its kind of like buying a brand new car for someone who never drives anywhere, but maybe ouranophobes makeover will result in increased frequency of posts.  and of course shell be in columbia again soon, so in three weeks (maybe four), the site will be back to the 4 or 5 posts a day that everybody loved so much.  but why wait?  go catch up on her summer.

also, I watched final fantasy tonight.  I was going to write a review of it for the site, but then I remembered that Im really quite terrible at movie reviews.  so what I will say is that I liked it.  also, I know youve all heard about how incredible that the animation is, but what I find more important to mention is that it wasnt distracting.  I was afraid that the characters similarity to real people would make any imperfections in the animation rather glaring, but it worked out all right and I found myself pretty easily immersed.  as for the story, I was afraid that all of the gaia and spirit wave crap was really going to annoy me, but they handled the whole spiritual-science thing a lot better than, say, a.i. did.  so I didnt feel like throwing things.  and in lots of the reviews I read they mentioned the plot was convoluted, but it all seemed to make sense to me.  what I do remember constantly thinking is that it would have made a pretty good video game.  I think Id actually have preferred it that way.  so take that for what its worth.

okay, when the phone sex ads start coming on I think that means its time for bed.  (when I think about it, its kind of an insulting demographic to be part of.  oh well.)

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 16 July 2001 at 2:48 AM

Did you know that there is a publication called the Journal of Recreational Mathematics?  (Recreational mathematics?  It sounds like an oxymoron to me.) I'd never heard of it until today, but I was intrigued, so I decided to do a bit of research.  After a little work, I found the journal's website, which was interesting, but didn't really tell me what I wanted to know, mainly the number of subscribers to the magazine, and information related to why such a thing exists.  If you visit the journal's website, check out the table of contents for upcoming articles.  I'm particularly intrigued by Prime-Poor Equations of the Form I = x2 - x + c, c Odd.  (Sadly, I have no idea what a prime-poor equation is, but it sounds a lot like piss-poor, which is what this post is.)

My search through the bowels of the internet continued (Actually, I just looked at Google's first list of results when searching for "Recreational Mathematics." Apparently, Google has a category devoted to this stuff as well.), and I came across this page.  Real people have devoted entire webpages to recreational mathematics.  I'm surprised, to say the least, but I guess I shouldn't be: I've just devoted an entire -273 post to it.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 July 2001 at 1:01 PM

I think I'm allergic to work.  I'm serious.  Every day I come in to work feeling fine, but as soon as I get here my nose starts running.  Then, when I get home, everything will be fine.  Today is worse than usual; my trash can is about half filled with the Kim-Wipes everyone has on their desks here, and that I have been using as tissues.

I spent last night helping my mom buy plane tickets so that we can go to Boston in a few weeks.  I'm not super-enthusiastic about this trip, but I'll probably enjoy more than I'll dislike it.  There are just some aspects of the trip that don't appeal greatly to me.

I also made a few changes to hiddeninput yesterday.  Nothing to big, but Netscape users should be able to view the site without a great deal of difficulty.

Tonight I'm going to try to go to bed early.  The past three nights I've had a combined 15 hours of sleep, which hasn't left me feeling to great.  Plus, I want to be well rested before I drive to STL on Saturday.

My parents are going to North Carolina next week, and I am going to be all by myself at home.  I'm thinking of having a barbeque.  Anyone reading this is invited.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 July 2001 at 11:10 AM

so, um, I was watching this thing on tv today and.. um... I mean, I found this really interesting site on the internet that.. um..

oh all right.  I got nothing. 

sigh, Im never going to make it to the pantheon of weblog greatness like this.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 13 July 2001 at 2:56 AM

I got four hours of sleep last night.  I am more awake now than I have been at any point this week.  If these statements seem somewhat incongruous to you, rest assured: I too am confused by this turn of events.

When I woke up, I was certain that today was Friday.  When I realized that it was only Thursday, I was greatly disappointed.

I didn't do much last night.  I went to Best Buy to buy a can of compressed air to clean some of the dust out of my older computers and had to wait in line for 17 minutes before I could pay for the stupid thing.  Why would Best Buy have two people standing by the door monitoring people as they leave and only one person running a cash register?  Especially when the line for that one cash register goes all the way back through the CD section?  The only reason I got out as quickly as I did was because they opened up a second register (where, much to the consternation of a number of people, they would only accept credit cards because the kid working the register didn't have a cash drawer) and I cut in front of a bunch of people to get to the front of the new line.  After my ordeal at Best Buy I didn't have the heart to run the rest of my errands, so I went home and mowed the lawn.

I've got a technical question for all of you.  Does anyone know if it is possible to get a telnet or ssh connection through a corporate firewall?  I would like to be able to check my email and do a few other things that require a terminal connection while here at work, but the lovely corporate firewall won't let me.  Anyway, if you know of a solution, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 12 July 2001 at 9:00 AM

so, guess who got a 91 on his cs455 midterm?  yes, I am apparently some kind of scheme genius.  ("scheme" being the name of the language we have to use in that class.  Im not fond of it, since lots of recursion starts to confuse me, and it requires that I concentrate too hard, but anyway..)  I didnt think I was even very good at it.  but 91, isnt that great?  especially since it was the second highest score in the class.  of course, I probably dont even need to tell you who got the 100.  ...thats right.. that damned ricky.  (for those of you who dont recall, ricky is the abnoxious 11 year old wunderkind in my cs455 class, and my sworn enemy.)

anyway, his flawless performance on the midterm has inspired this comic, which I hope you all enjoy.

as for me, Im off to bed.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 12 July 2001 at 1:16 AM

For more information than you ever wanted on the history of soy sauce, I recommend this site.

Yesterday, I was not feeling well and did not go in to work.  I'm still not feeling a lot better, but I dragged myself in today.  I slept most of the day yesterday, but I still feel drained and tired.  Since I never have to drive a car anywhere (I've only filled up the gas tank in my car once since the semester ended, and that was right before I drove to Saint Louis a week ago), I've decided to self-medicate myself with some things I found when I was cleaning out the cabinet in my bathroom.  This policy was recommended to me by my friend Jared, the only proponent of using expired prescription drugs for minor aches and pains that I know.  I'm going to St. Louis this weekend for a concert, so I definitely need to start feeling better soon.

About the never driving thing.  This is a very good thing, as it is saving me a lot of money.  I drive to work with my dad everyday, and anytime I go out with my friends, one of them wants to drive.  This is fine by me.  I don't dislike driving, but am more than happy to let someone else do it.  The only fly in the ointment is the fact that my friend Luke always wants to drive his Jeep, which is fine if you're in one of the front seats, but almost unbearable if you have to spend a great deal of time in the back seat.  (The windshield protects the front passengers from the majority of the wind, but does nothing for the people in the back.  The blowing wind and the loud music he likes to play also makes conversation somewhat difficult.)

Okay, I've got a question for all of you.  My mom wants me to go to Boston with her for the first week of August.  I am somewhat reluctant to go, given that it will mean not working for a week and losing a lot of money.  There are other factors that make me reluctant to go, as well.  The main one being that I am afraid that I won't get to do some of the things I would like to do while in Boston.  Anyway, what do you think I should do: stay at home and make money or go to Boston?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 11 July 2001 at 10:33 AM

I am going to trick rachel into buying me a plane ticket so that I can visit her over winter break.  her favorite ex-boyfriend, aaron, and his girlfriend are going to be there, and we could all hang out together and I could say with confidence: "world, I cannot hang out with my girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend without rivalry and posturing.  I am insecure and irrationally jealous and do not want him even looking at her.  and if he tries to cling to his messy past, I will burn that bridge.  by kicking his face.  I am aware."

or something like that.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 11 July 2001 at 3:34 AM

It appears that -273 is not the only weblog getting hits from someone searching for sites better than nickd: Ackpth! also claims to have gotten a hit of this nature.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 10 July 2001 at 7:46 PM

ha.  I was just looking over our stats, and Im proud to say that two of our hits this month came from someone searching for "websites better than nickd.org."  I just find that very amusing.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 10 July 2001 at 3:14 AM

a lesser-known edward gorey fact:  he is in fact my maternal grandfather and spent most of his adult life working in a shoe factory where his gothic caricatures and cartoons were used to add zest to company news letters.

so anyway, I spent way too long today trying to install my new memory.  I eventually had to get one of the kids from the soccer camp to come help since my hands werent small enough to reach back to the memory.  he wanted twenty bucks, but I talked him down to fifteen, and it was worth it to finally have a decent amount of ram.

oh yeah, and some important news in the world of michael-reIated web-content: I moved nothingisgood over to the negative273 server today, and I instituted a more conventional archiving structure.  Im not sure why, but I had been resisting the change for a while.  at first I didnt like the idea of the posts being permanent.  they were up while they were up, and then they were gone.  and that idea still appeals to me, I guess, mostly because it puts less pressure on me to do lasting work.  but of course the problem with that set-up is that it makes it very hard to entice new readers.  if they visit and only see the one post (especially if it is a substandard post), they will be less likely to return than if they were shown all of them.  not to mention, archiving could very easily increase the sites girl-impressment factor by over 2000 percent.  so of course when I really stopped to think, it was a very easy decision.  but let me know what you think.

speaking of negative273-members alternate websites, what is going on with hiddeninput.com?  I keep waiting for it to get off the ground, but nothing much is happening with it.  I hope dave isnt planning on going the way of glo-kitty.  maybe he will post to let us know about his progress with it.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 10 July 2001 at 1:29 AM

Edward Gorey is also well-known for having done the illustrations in many of the John Bellairs books.  I just thought you might like to know that.

On Saturday I went out with John and Jared.  We had dinner at Applebee's and then hung out at their bar for a bit, because we knew one of the bartenders.  Around 7 we went over to Breakers and played a few games of pool before heading downtown to Marina Pointe to see "Well Hello," a local cover band.  They were very good, and I'm told that they will be releasing their own music this fall.  I will check it out, but I'm not sure how good it will be, as the band members didn't strike me as very insightful or intelligent when I spoke to them (although my judgement may have been somewhat clouded at that point).

Yesterday I went to brunch with my parents in New Harmony and then played some sand volleyball in the evening.  It was 90° out with high humidity at 8pm.  A really unpleasant day.  I didn't sleep all that well last night, so as soon as work is over, I'm going to take a nap.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 9 July 2001 at 3:39 PM

sigh.. dave left the burden of tonights post entirely on me.  which is sad, because tonights post is not going to be very good at all.  oh well.

Im in columbia at the moment visiting my family for my birthday.  my mom made a very nice dinner for me (steak and potatoes and salad. mmmm), and Im probably going to have a pretty good lunch tomorrow before I head back.  then its back to canned soup.  lots of canned soup.  except I will be bringing with me as much black forest cake as I can carry.  that is my very favorite cake, in case you wondered.  of course that information isnt all that useful to you.  but if you ever felt like baking for me..

anyway, I got 256 more megabytes of memory for my computer, some cds, and Im told two very cool edward gorey anthologies are on the way, but just didnt arrive in time.  I cant wait.  also, rachel has been living in a cave, because she didnt know who edward gorey was (until I told her he was who animated the intro to pbs mystery).  but I am going to show her my edward gorey books, and she will like them very much.

okay, you have no idea how tired I am.  if you did youd be asking me, "why on earth are you still posting, michael?"  my reply:"I have no idea."  that said, good night.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 8 July 2001 at 12:23 AM

so I am twenty one now.  and since I have nothing else to really post about, I guess Ill post about that.  even though it doesnt really mean all that much, except that next time my favorite band comes to st louis, they will let me in to watch them. 

okay, I dont have much else to say, but I drew you a picture:

(the robot contemplates his birthday cake but cannot comprehend the icing.)

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 7 July 2001 at 2:34 AM

I have started obsessively listening to bright eyes again, because I remembered that they are very very good.  dont listen to dave.  he doesnt like them.  he is apparently bothered by the fact that the lead singer cant sing very well.  of course I know all about what its like to not be able to sing very well, and since I dont think a good voice is even a requirement in rock music, I try not to hold it against him.  also, I like the way he sings.

anyway, I think you owe it to yourself to listen to some of their songs, if you can find them online, at least.  (look for "haligh, haligh, a lie, haligh", "something vague", and "a perfect sonnet.")

also, I dont even want to talk about the cardinals right now.  sigh..

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 6 July 2001 at 11:47 PM

In a few hours I will be 21.  I have heard rumors that michael also has a birthday tomorrow, but in the hopes of ensuring more presents for me, I will not confirm those rumors.  I suspect (know) that I won't be around to post tomorrow night, so you'll have to rely on michael for your evening's entertainment.  Or, you could visit Planet Shhh, a message board that I have been spending a large amount of my time at work reading and posting to.

12.5% of the visitors who came to -273 during this month (July, for those of you who don't keep track of such things) via a search engine were searching for "exam room webcam."  A further 25% were searching either for "pay bills supernaturally" or "pay your bills supernaturally."  What a strange group you lot are.  Of course, we're pretty strange, too.

Back to the birthday thing.  Yes, both michael and I share the same birthday.  We were randomly assigned as roommates freshman year, and it was just an odd coincidence that we had the same DOB.  It's really rather scary.  Anyway, birthday greetings are gratefully appreciated, but no presents please.  I always forget other people's birthdays, so I couldn't return the favor if you bought me a gift, and then you'd hate me and stop coming to the site.  And that would be sad.  But, email birthday greetings would be very appreciated.  michael's email address is cold@negative273.com, should you wish to send him mail (he'd probably prefer presents though, the greedy bastard*).  My address is david@negative273.com.

If I don't post again before Sunday, I hope all of you have a wonderful Saturday.  And happy birthday, michael.

* michael is not actually a greedy bastard.  I've just been trying to work the phrase "greedy bastard" into conversations all day today, with little luck, so I felt like I should try to use it here as well.  It looks I failed even here, where I can direct the conversation (if one considers this to be a conversation) in any direction and to any topic that I choose.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 July 2001 at 10:18 PM

The guy four cubicles down the row from me screams into the phone.  Screaming seems to be his regular telephone speaking voice.  I'm getting a headache listening to him.  I went over to the other side of the room to visit the supply room, about 150 ft. from my desk, and I COULD STILL HEAR HIM.  The worst part is when he laughs (an occurance that happens at the beginnig of every phone call).  Then his decibel level zooms up to about twice his normal telephone speaking level (which is already very loud).  If only he didn't spend more than half his time here on the phone.

I really need this day to end.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 July 2001 at 9:16 AM

Stop the presses!

I'm sure all of you TRL fans out there will be breathing a sigh of releif, because Carson Daly is available again.  Yes, that's right, he and Tara Reid have broken up.  For more information, click here.

Why am I reporting this to you, given my dislike of both Mr. Daly and Ms. Reid?  Good question.  I'm guessing the answer would be because I lack the will to convert the powerpoint slide I've been given into 20 individual gifs for placement on the website I have not yet created.

(Why does today feel so much like a Monday?)

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 5 July 2001 at 12:40 PM

Netscape 6 is perhaps the worst browser michael could have possibly chosen.  It is big and slow, and it reportedly has a memory leak.  I suspect that michael's version of IE5.5 needs to be reinstalled, because I use IE5.5 both at home and here at work (where I have very limited computing resources), and I don't experience problems like he described.  In any event, the easiest solution would probably be to just reboot his computer once a day or so, but since he has decided to get a new browser, I thought I would weigh in with a few recommendations for him.

• Opera.  If you don't like the ad bar, buy the full version.
  
• IE6.  It's still in beta, and I have heard mixed reviews of it, but it may not have memory problems that michael has been experiencing.
  
• Mozilla. Netscape 6 is based on Mozilla, but Netscape is big and bloated.  Mozilla 0.92 is supposed to be very stable and very cool.
  

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 5 July 2001 at 10:38 AM

normally I let dave handle the geeky computer related posts, but since he apparently gets the fourth of july off, I guess I can fill in.  you see, Ive finally gotten to the heart of my computer problems.  lately, Id been noticing that my computers system resources get very low very quickly, and I had been wondering what had changed.  I had narrowed it down to the use of either internet explorer or outlook, since I began using both of those programs around the same time, and the problem began shortly after.  so I ran some tests.  I tried repeatedly opening and closing the programs in question as well as other commonly used programs, such as instant messenger, dream weaver, photoshop 6, and winamp, and my suspicions were confirmed.  the culprit: internet explorer 5.5.  every time I open a new ie window, I lose over half a meg of memory that I never get back.  I estimated that by the time Ive opened and closed 150 windows, all of my memory will have leaked out.  which is what has been happening to me.  so my options are to either always keep ie open and never open links in new windows, deal with the fact that my computer gets progressively slower as the day goes on, or get a new browser.  since I like being able to close my browser, and I really like opening links in new windows, and I dont like my computer being slow, I decided it was time for a new browser.  deciding that I I really ought to use a standards compliant browser, and discovering that opera 5.0 has an ad bar, I went with netscape 6.1.  but sadly, I dont really care for the new netscape.  it takes up to 10 seconds to load, has a sort of strange look and feel, has already crashed once tonight, and it renders this site very badly.  but all of this has really made me realize, a good browser is a very tough thing to find.  you know, if netscape 4.7 were only standards compliant, I think I would marry it.  of course I would gladly settle for ie 5.5 if it would just refrain from eating my memory.  then again, theres always opera, which I havent ruled out, even if I dont like banner ads.  I will have to keep you posted on this as things develop.

but for now, the matter at hand really ought to be fixing negative273 so that it doesnt look ugly in netscape 6.  I spent some time on the problem tonight, and I think I have a solution worked out, but I didnt want to change the template file without running it passed dave first.  so for those of you out there using netscape, Im sorry.  were getting it straightened out.  in the meantime, just imagine that the header looks good.

oh yeah, in other news, the cardinals broke their 6 game losing streak tonight by beating the brewers 7 to 2.  this puts them dead on .500, and leaves them 7 games out of first.  this was a badly needed victory, reinvigorating my waning faith in the team.  my prediction for the coming games: the cardinals will go on a 14 game winning streak, aided in no small part by an all star performance by ray lankford, whos average over those games will be an astonishing .890, with 21 home runs, 43 rbis, and 5 stolen bases.  also, the cubs will lose 17 out of the next 20 games, and the astros will get in a bus wreck.  just watch.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 5 July 2001 at 1:33 AM

hmm.. dave wasnt around to give the fourth of july related post Id anticipated, so I guess Ill have to come up with one myself.  except I didnt go watch fireworks or anything, so I cant really talk about how I spent my holiday.  honestly, Id forgotten it was a holiday until I started posting.  but maybe Ill take this opportunity to say a few words: 

um, approximately elevenscore and five years ago the united states of america started being a country.  in the time since, weve invented everything.  also, we seem to have become very important.  I think.  now Im not a particularly patriotic person, mostly because Im told that other countries dont like us, so Im afraid to be proud of my country lest they all hate me, but the day probably deserves some commemoration.  so, um, hurray for not being a british colony.  thank you.

(I wonder if the president would let me write his speeches for him.)

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 4 July 2001 at 11:34 PM

as I write this, sleepiness levels are inordinately high.  my typing is pretty bad at the moment, and Im forgetting how to spell some embarassingly simple words.  as a result, Im going to keep this post as short as possible, and then slip into my comfortable (note: not actually comfortable) bed and sleep.  but first, I thought Id mention that my test went quite well.  in fact, I have included an artists rendering.  thats me on the left.  the test is pictured to the right.

(I know.  its something of a departure from my other drawings.  I suppose quality doesnt always prevail.  one really should note, however, that its quite late, and my scanner takes forever, and I want to go to bed.)

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 4 July 2001 at 3:34 AM

I meant to post yesterday, but a plethora of errands and an unexpected visit from a friend who is spending the summer out-of-town filled my evening, leaving no time for -273.  Sorry.

Tomorrow is July 4th, also known as "Independance Day" or "the day I sit around at home doing nothing and not earning the money that I get for sitting around at work doing nothing."  As you may have guessed, I have no plans for tomorrow, save a bit of shopping that I didn't get done yesterday and which will take about five minutes.  Maybe I'll go see the fireworks.

Do any of you have experience with installing YaBB?  I'm thinking of replacing the ACM Message Board (which is about as crappy a message board as you can imagine) with it.  I guess I shouldn't bad-mouth WWWBoard (the ACM Message Board software), it was easy to setup and use, it just isn't as full-featured as I'd like it to be.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 3 July 2001 at 3:13 PM

it looks like dave has decided not to post today.  so its just you and me tonight, readers.  you know, we never really get a chance to talk.  I mean, when its just us, without dave around.  not very often.  I think thats sad.  I mean, I treasure these times we have together, without dave.  its nice, dont you think?  dave hates me, you know.  he always has.  hes such a bitter person.  he will try to poison you against me.  I know he will.  dont listen to him.  the things he says.  dont believe his lies.  hell try to tell you that I spilled sprite on his keyboard freshman year.  hell say that I then broke the wrist rest on his replacement keyboard.  and that he has carpal tunnel syndrome now.  he will try to make me look like that bad guy.  but you cant believe him.  you know Im not a bad person, dont you?  you know how much I love negative273 and all of its readers, right?  youre all I have.  and I know you would never let him take that away from me.  you just cant let him.  you cant.  you know, Im glad we can talk like this.  I feel like I can trust you, and that means a lot, I think.

anyway, I have a test tomorrow in 455, so wish me luck.  I think it will be all right, although scheme is definitely not my strong suit.  I greatly prefer the more conventional languages.  but computer genius that I am, I suppose I can handle it.  I think Ill feel a little better once its over with.

also, Ive been pretty tired lately.  I think Im not sleeping correctly, because today I was exhausted all day at work.  I still managed to write a very successful method for locating mouths, but I did so very sleepily.  and when I came home I collapsed on my bed and took an unforeseen two hour nap.  I need to commit myself to going to bed really early for a couple of nights this week and just sleeping a lot.  maybe that will help.  I dont know.  regardless, Im definitely going to sleep now.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 3 July 2001 at 12:07 AM

so I was looking back over the posts, and I realized that I only had one post on the entire page.  all of the rest are dave.  I hate when that happens.  now Im sure there are some who would try to tell me that this is because I havent posted for a week, and that I in fact hadnt posted for a week before that, but I instead choose to blame dave for his manipulative archiving.  anyway, Ive decided Im going to do my best to write better posts from now on, and more of them.  since everyone knows that Im really the glue thats holding this site together anyway.  plus, dave got his new site, and Im a little worried that he is actually plotting to leave negative273 and take all of the readers with him.  and I am determined to stop him.

the only way I can think to do this is to personally provide our readers with a steady stream of interesting, insightful, and amusing content.  yeah.  um.. so if any of our readers happen to be interesting, insightful, or amusing, please contact me.  I pay reasonable rates.

in the meantime, here is a picture of a scary porcelain pig statuette.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 2 July 2001 at 1:43 PM

It's been a few days.  It's not that I don't like you, I just didn't feel like posting.  Please forgive me.*

I spent the weekend in St. Louis with michael.  I had a very good time.  On Saturday night we saw AI with Chris (more on AI in a bit), then we hung out in Chris's apartment until a little past midnight.  When we got back to michael's room we watched the last six Escaflowne episodes.  If you want to see some good anime, I highly recommend Escaflowne.  It has cool Mechas and a very interesting story.  It also succeeds at blending computer animation and normal cartoon animation, a task many have failed at. 

This morning I woke up rather early (10:30 seems early to me at least) and went downstairs and watched some Wimbledon highlights (the Sunday in the middle of the tournament is an off day, so there were no matches today).  I don't really follow tennis, yet for the past five or six years, I have never missed seeing at least the men's and women's finals at Wimbledon.  It's rather odd, but it has become a summer tradition for me.  After a few hours of tennis, I went back upstairs, and michael and I went out for some lunch.  When we got back we watched two tapes of Gundam Wing episodes, and then I set out for home.

My trip home was uneventful, save for my stop for dinner at McDonald's, where I ordered a Double Quarter Pounder Value Meal.  When I unwrapped my sandwich, I discovered they had wrapped a regular Quarter Pounder in a Double Quarter Pounder wrapper.  I went up to the front, exchanged it, went back to my seat, and unwrapped my sandwich, only to discover that they had again given me a regular Quarter Pounder wrapped in a Double Quarter Pounder wrapper.  When I complained the second time, I was given a free ice cream cone coupon.  Should any of our readers happen to live in or near Mt. Vernon, IL, I have a free ice cream cone coupon from McDonald's that I would love to give to you.  Just drop me a line if you're interested.

Now, my promised discussion of AI.  I don't have the time or the energy to write a full review now, but I will offer a few thoughts on the movie.  As a whole, I found the film lacking.  If the final thirty minutes were removed, the story would be more interesting, the movie would be better paced, and the movie would be (I suspect) more true to the movie Stanley Kubrick would have made.  I think Jude Law did an admirable job with the character of Joe, but he didn't have much to work with.  Haley Joel Osment was a perfect casting decision; to paraphrase michael, he excels at spooky roles.  All things considered, I would not recommend that you not see the film, but if you choose to leave at the end of the second act (you'll know the second act is over when the narrator starts talking for the first time since the beginning of the movie), you'll enjoy the film a lot more than those who stay to see the Steven-Spielberg-provided happy ending.  Perhaps I'll offer some more in-depth commentary tomorrow or later this week, but I'm going to head off to bed now.  Some of us have to be up at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

* By continuing to read this post, you agree to unconditionally forgive me for not posting since 28 June 2001.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 1 July 2001 at 10:13 PM