Two weeks ago today I woke up and heard a steady plink...plink...plink sound. About two plinks per second. I was still a bit groggy, and for some reason though t someone was standing outside the door to my room snapping their fingers. Instead, as I discovered when I finally dragged myself out of bed, was that water was pouring down through the ceiling in the little closet where our water heater is stored. I got a bucket and put it on the floor to catch the water, and called DeBaliviere maintenance. I assumed that having dirty, brown water cascading down your walls might be a high priority for the maintenance guys, but it is not. Two days ago the maintenance people showed up, discovered that there were no longer any leaks (the water had stopped flowing late on the same Friday that it had started) and left a little note saying there was nothing for them to do. I can only hope that they went upstairs and investigated our neighbors water heater, which was probably the source of the leak. But I don't really imagine that they did.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 31 January 2003 at 11:37 AM

A good indication that 2002 was a bad year for music? Elvis Presley was the top selling rock and roll artist of the year. Admittedly, he's the king, but he's been dead for twenty-five years. And he wasn't exactly at his peak when he died or anything.

Unless fat and sequined is your ideal, in which case I have a great deal of pity for you.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 30 January 2003 at 11:47 PM

as youve no doubt heard, david and I have something of a regular status at our local chinese restaurant, joy luck buffet. we eat there at least twice a week, and the owner knows us well enough to say hi when she sees us and remember our drink orders. its pretty neat.

however, tonight things were taken to a much stranger level. on our way out, kathy (the owner) asked if we would mind doing her a favor. she had an order that needed to be delivered to danforth (a dorm here, for you non-wash u readers), and she wanted to know if we would mind delivering it for her. a little odd, but dave and I agreed. as payment she took two dollars off our dinner, and, of course, she let us keep the tip. all in all, not a bad deal.

but I dont know. do you think its a sign that you eat someplace a bit too often when you start getting confused for employees?

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 29 January 2003 at 7:16 PM

The Blast are playing at 10:45 tonight in Webster Groves, which means another opportunity for us to play Super Chexx Bubble Hockey. Who wants to go?

Comments: 3 Posted by david on 29 January 2003 at 1:43 PM

While browsing this evening, a pop-up ad for one of the X10 cameras showed up on my screen. According to the ad, if I install an X10 camera, I'll be able to see something like this. I guess I never knew that random, floating girls in bikinis somehow did a magical circle in front of X10 spy-cams.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 29 January 2003 at 1:39 AM

Dear Michael,

Now is probably a very good time to evaluate your education goals.

well, actually, a few months ago was probably a better time, but I wont mince words.

With the present turmoil affecting the economy as well as many areas of education, solid career planning is critical.

I definitely agree. please, tell me more.

That's why many young men and women are turning to one of America's most successful technical colleges, ITT Technical Institute.

sigh..

damn, I didnt think my GRE scores were that bad. oh well. I wonder how their doctoral program is.

Comments: 4 Posted by michael on 27 January 2003 at 1:31 PM

MLB plans to offer live video feeds of a majority of its games online using RealPlayer this year, according to the NY Times. I've paid for MLB's radio feeds using RealPlayer and used a number of the interactive features on Major League Baseball's website in years past, and I'm not sure that they are ready for live, streaming video. Their radio simulcast, while generally decent, was known to be spotty at times, with the stream often pausing or stuttering, and occasionally crashing. And I can't imagine that they'll do any better at video streaming without a huge cash outlay. And less than a year after Bud Selig (possibly erroneously) told the world that two major league teams were on the verge of bankruptcy doesn't seem like the time to shell out cash for video streaming.

An interesting aside: How will webcasting effect MLB's TV contracts, if it effects them at all?

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 27 January 2003 at 2:00 AM

The things we do to track our readers. Yes, I broke all the .rdf files hosted on -273 except my own, and didn't notice until five days later. So if you used an aggregator to read the sites hosted here, or used the files for some other nefarious purpose, things probably didn't work quite as you expected. If you don't know what I'm talking about, stop reading now. To everyone else, you have my deepest apology.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 January 2003 at 10:38 PM

Another new email low. Today, during the super bowl, I received not one, not two, not ten, but 16 identical Microsoft Security Bulletins about the SQL Server problems that caused the internet slowdown yesterday. No wonder there was a slow-down, if MS mailed 16 identical messages to everyone on their security bulletin mailing list.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 January 2003 at 10:16 PM

A new low in unsolicited bulk email. I now get spam that claims to eliminate spam.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 January 2003 at 2:36 PM

Have you ever tried to merge onto an interstate going 20 mph? I have, and it's not a pleasant experience. While driving on Kingshighway this morning, I got stuck behind an old guy driving a huge Lincoln. Not only was the old guy wearing a huge straw hat, but he had two other straw hats on his rear deck, essentially blocking his back window. To compensate for his poor rear visibility, I assume, the gentleman drove his car as if it had a limiter that prevented him from going faster than 20 or 25 mph. He pulled on to the 44 West on-ramp with me still stuck behind him. As he proceeded up the ramp at 15 - 20 mph (apparently the incline caused him to lose a bit of speed), the string of cars lined up behind him. When he reached the highway, he nearly merged into a car, but they evaded him, and he got on the highway, still traveling about 20 mph. At this point I, seeing an opening in the traffic, cut across two lanes in order to get away from this kook, and left him in my dust. No doubt he's still backing up traffic on 44 as I type this.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 January 2003 at 2:17 PM

My superbowl predictions:

1. Like last year, the ads will suck.

2. The halftime and pregame shows will contain nothing of any importance.

3. Oakland over Tampa Bay by 10 points.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 January 2003 at 11:28 AM

The big news here at apartment 12 is the purchase of a replay tv device. I've already successfully recorded a show, and I'm fairly pleased with it, but there are a few quirks. The most noticeable thing is the change it induces in television watching habits. Because there is a delay of a few seconds when changing channels, much like you see if you have digital cable, I'm less inclined to switch between channels and watch two shows, which isn't my normal tendency.

My only real complaint is that you can't change channels when recording programs. At least that's what I think the on-screen message said. This seems odd, because the system should be able to split the cable into two signals, record one and let me watch the other. I guess the issue comes from trying to write both signals to disk (so I can pause live tv), but you'd think they'd just let you browse with limited functionality while recording, or something.

The trade-off is that having an interactive tv listing is almost worth the price of admission by itself. Once you've spun through the channel listing at your own pace, getting episode information and everything you'd like to know about the shows currently playing, you'll never want to watch the tv guide channel again.

All things considered, I give the replay tv a qualified recommendation. And if I can figure out how to record one show and watch another, I'll change that to an unqualified recommendation.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 26 January 2003 at 2:11 AM

Who said programming wasn't a sport? An event that I recently participated in, ACM's International Collegiate Programming Contest, was given a prominent mention in the latest ESPN the Magazine (Feb. 3, 2003; page 40).

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 January 2003 at 5:56 PM

After a few snafus here and there, I think I've just succeeded in upgrading -273 to movable type 2.51. Everything is much the same as before, but now I have the option of migrating the entries to mysql if I should feel like it. But that will be a task for another day. If anyone starts getting weird messages when they try to post or leave comments or anything, please let me know.

Comments: 3 Posted by david on 25 January 2003 at 5:16 PM

Last night michael, Chris, Jim, Ben, James, Charlie, Amy, and I saw the best Blast game ever. The Blast, with a bit of help from a substitute goalie, beat the Eagles 3-0. Everything about this game was improved over the last game I saw. Better defense, well chosen shots, and a fight. The Eagles goon, Culp #21, got a 10 minute penalty for fighting, and as soon as he came back on the ice, he got another penalty for repeatedly hitting a Blast player with his stick. We even got a game puck for cheering the Blast on. Sadly, Charlie and Amy didn't have as much enthusiasm as the rest of us, and refused to participate in the wave, but aside from that the game was unmarred by any problems.

After the game, I challenged Chris to some Super Chexx Bubble Hockey, and beat him in overtime 2-1. Chris still has a lifetime record of 2-1 over me. After my game, michael and Ben took on Jim and Charlie. michael and Ben won decisively 3-0, leaving the Canadian side undefeated for the night.

After the Super Chexx tournament, Ron was nice enough to treat us to a Steak 'n Shake meal. Thanks, Ron!

The next Blast game is Wednesday at 10:45pm, again in Webster Groves.

image, image. More available upon request.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 January 2003 at 12:42 PM

So who is going to the Blast game tonight? The game's in Webster Groves at 10:30pm. Also, should we congregate somewhere before the game to make sure that everyone who wants to go has a ride, or should we all just make arrangements on our own?

Comments: 6 Posted by david on 23 January 2003 at 12:21 PM

someone found negative273 this morning while searching google for "michael stupid loser kid website."

its a very strange feeling to be insulted by a web-search algorithm.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 22 January 2003 at 12:15 PM

someone found negative273 this morning while searching google for "michael stupid loser kid website."

man.. google finally found me out.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 22 January 2003 at 12:15 PM

I've been doing a lot of writing today. Eight handwritten pages of notes in Modern Japan, 200 lines of notes in Media Processing, 1 cs527 homework assignment, and now this little post. Modern Japan was the worst. I haven't taken notes at that pace since freshman year. My thumb still hurts from gripping my pencil too tightly.

It turns out that writing lab assignments is more difficult than I thought it would be. I've been working through this one for about five hours now, and I'm only now, with some help from michael, getting close to finishing. If anyone wants to know how to waste hours adding nice looking equations to a webpage using MathML (i.e., xml) rather than an image, let me know, because I can help you out.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 January 2003 at 2:39 AM

image.

Chris, michael, and I made a spontaneous trip south today to catch the Blast play the Hornets at the Kennedy Rec Center. The Blast played a good game, but were defeated by the Hornets 7 to 3. While at the game we were fortunate enough to sit next to the wife of the Blast player with the most penalty minutes last season. She gave us all the inside dirt we could ever want on the Blast players. We were also fortunate enough to remember to grab the digital camera out of the car for the last period.

The next Blast game is Thursday in Webster Groves. Who wants to go?

Comments: 3 Posted by david on 21 January 2003 at 12:58 AM

has anyone else seen this? today I saw a television commercial advertising verbs. it showed images of people participating in various races (swimming, skating, wheelchair racing, etc) while flashing the corresponding words across the screen. then olympic gold-medalist Apollo Anton Ohno skates up to the camera and says (with a straight face), "verb.. its what you do."

apparently verbs arent getting enough exposure in english class. of course, in the interest of fairness, I think all parts of speech should get their own tv ads. if only because I want to see someone deliver the line, "noun.. its a person, place, or thing."

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 18 January 2003 at 8:31 PM

Amazon.com claims the new Harry Potter book will be out on June 21, 2003. This release date leaves it about two weeks shy of the third anniversary of the release of the last Harry Potter book. Anyway, I'm willing to bet that the release date will be pushed back again. Any takers?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 16 January 2003 at 12:15 PM

Amazon.com claims the new Harry Potter book will be out on June 21, 2003. This release date leaves it about two weeks shy of the third anniversary of the release of the last Harry Potter book. Anyway, I'm willing to bet that the release date will be pushed back again. Any takers?

Comments: 5 Posted by david on 16 January 2003 at 12:14 PM

At the beginning of Christmas break, I gave you a run-down of the wacky presents my grandmother had gotten me for Christmas. But all of my gifts, the cordless iron, the flatware, the $25 in quarters, all pales in comparison to one of the gifts she gave my dad. Giving out mixed nuts at Christmas is kind of a family tradition. When my grandpa was still alive each family would get a jar of Rotarian nuts. Now that my grandfather isn't around, my grandmother, cut off from her supply of Rotarian nuts, has had to resort to more mundane mixed nuts purchases. This year she gave my dad what looked to be a fairly innocuous box of nuts. I should mention at this point that all of my grandmother's Christmas gift buying is done months and years before the gifts are given. Then, closer to Christmas time, she goes shopping in her closets and pantry and finds odds and ends to give me, my cousins, my parents, and my aunt and uncle. Well, this year she apparently didn't look too closely at some of the things she wrapped up, because my dad got an opened and half eaten box of stale nuts this year. Needless to say, no one in my family was very surprised by this when it was brought to their attention.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 12 January 2003 at 7:45 PM

Paul McCartney once said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that the Beatles would have sounded like ELO if they'd stayed together. I suspect Paul intended this to be a compliment, and I know Jeff Lynne took it as such, but I usually think of it as an argument in favor of the Beatles breaking up. Anyway, if you're unfamiliar with the Electric Light Orchestra, I'll just mention that ELO is generally known for songs that come out sounding a bit over-produced. Generally speaking, the same can be said of most of the musical projects Jeff Lynne has been involved in. (Examples: The Travelling Wilburys; George Harrison's last album, an album that Harrison wanted to be sparse, but Jeff Lynne, as the producer, couldn't resist adding in all kinds of shitty production effects.)

That said, the reworked version of "Mr. Blue Sky" that Lynne put together for the VW commercial (the one with the guy going through the motions day after day at work -- click here and watch "Bubble") has had all of the distortion and weird effects of the original removed, and I really like it. A lot. It's too bad Lynne didn't find this more minimalist style earlier in his career.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 12 January 2003 at 6:55 PM

In a final flurry of 2569 lines of code in five days, punctuated by an afternoon of listening to the world's worst on-hold music, my winter break is over. Tomorrow I'll be driving myself through temperatures in the teens and twenties back to St. Louis. My final semester at WashU. I have a whole list of things to do when I get back tomorrow. Get my schedule straightened out, pay my tuition, find a job. The first two seem easier than the third.

I've spent the past week writing another web app for whirlpool. It's a system for submitting buildup requests to the techs. If it weren't so late I'd explain what that means, but I think that'll have to wait until later.

Anyway, being back at whirlpool was a bit surreal. I was sitting at the same desk I'd used all summer, and it felt like nothing had changed. All my programs were still installed, my bookmarks were still in place, nothing seemed to have changed. I found a file on the desktop called post1.txt. It was a post I had started writing last summer for this site, but never gotten around to finishing. I think I'll include it here, unrevised and unfinished.

Early on Saturday evening I was sitting in my room flipping through the New York Times Book Review when I heard some strange noises coming from the front yard. As it turned out, the noises came from Jared, using his newly purchases megaphone to try to get me to go outside without him having to get out of his car. When the megaphone ploy failed to work, he moved on to plan b. He borrowed Luke's cell phone and called me. All this to save himself a trip of about 10 feet from his car to my front door.

Eventually, I went out and joined Jared, Luke, John, and Kate in Jared's car. We were planning on going to Breaker's to play some pool. But for reasons known only to Jared, we were instead driven out into the reclaimed mine area. (The mine area is only a couple miles from my house. It's an area where coal companies had done strip mining, and the old strip mines have filled up with water, creating a lot of lakes.) Jared started our mine adventures off by driving in excess of 60 mph on a gravel road, creating a huge cloud of dust that hovered just above the road going back about a mile behind us. Jared followed this up by driving even faster on a paved, although riddled with potholes, road. Even on the pavement he managed to create a huge cloud of dust, probably from all the dust that had coated his car.

Our next destination was an abandoned cemetery in the Peabody mine area. The Peabody mine has yet to be reclaimed, so its road are supposed to be private, but Jared claims that they are open to anyone visiting one of the old cemeteries in the mine areas. These old cemeteries are a site to be seen. The whole area around them has been strip mined, so they sit up on these artificially created hills topped by the only trees in the area. They're easy enough to find if you know what you're looking for. I know of five or six in and around the mines near my house. Anyway, to get to the cemetery you drive up a narrow gravel road, and at the top you'll find maybe twenty graves, all dating from the early to mid-1800s. Depending on the cemetery you're visiting (we visited two on Saturday night), there may or may not be a large number of shotgun shells scattered about and various items, including a computer, with shotgun blasts in them. They really are very neat. I'm hoping to get out there again with my camera and snap a few photos of them sometime this week.

Anyway, the whole point of the cemetery visits was for Jared to scope them out for a little practical joke he's planning. I have little faith that the joke will ever be executed, but if it is, it'll be very, very good.

Following the cemetery exploration it was time for mine exploration. We set off at random down a road that lead out of the Peabody mine to see where it would take us. As we were driving down this road in the middle of nowhere we see two cars going in the opposite direction from us stop side-by-side and start flashing their headlights at us. Assuming that they were on a security patrol we rolled to a stop as well. They turned out not to be security guards, but were part of a wedding party trying to find a wedding reception. They thought it was at a place called "Thresherman's Park." Why they thought this park would be about 10 miles down a gravel road in the middle of a mine went unexplained. I'm not sure if the wedding go-ers ever found Thresherman's Park, but we came across it about 20 minutes later. It was about on the road we were on, about 10 miles from where we met the wedding people, just off the highway outside Boonville. It had a big sign and was rather hard to miss. We were tempted to stop in on the wedding, but better judgment prevailed and we kept on driving.

As night approached we were exploring a road that we thought would take us in the direction of I-64 and Lynville. Jared was looking for another to stop in and was stopping the car and peering down every intersection. As luck would have it, at one intersection there was a Warrick county sheriff parked right around the corner. So the rather suspicious sequence of events was: blue Taurus covered in dust rolls slowly into the intersection, stops, passengers see the deputy, blue Taurus rolls away. After we'd gone about 100 yards down the road, John saw the sheriff's car roll out on to our road with its headlights off. It stayed back there for a while, and then disappeared. We thought he'd turned off somewhere, and stopped paying attention to him. (The whole time he'd been following us, John and Kate had been staring back at him through the back window.) But he hadn't turned off, and as soon as we reached a slightly more inhabited stretch of road, he flipped on his lights and pulled us over.

Comments: 3 Posted by david on 12 January 2003 at 1:53 AM

The thing I dislike most about going to the dentist are all the pictures my dentist has up on the walls showing disgustingly decayed teeth. They always take me back to that stupid chair and let me sit there for a few minutes staring at brown, rotted teeth before they begin cleaning my teeth. Usually, once they tip me back and start cleaning, I'm free from the pictures, but not this time. Because now they've taped their disgusting pictures to the ceiling above the stupid chair. I didn't want to have the hygienist think I was squeamish, so I diligently examined the teeth above this chair for about 30 minutes. And then it dawned on me. Where do they get these pictures? Do people only visit the dentist after their teeth have become brown and literally rotted away? You'd think they'd act on the warning signs, like the intense pain that must be associated with your teeth dissolving in to goo, and get some treatment. But that doesn't seem likely. I suspect that there is a person whose job is to visit third world countries and take pictures of teeth, in order to scare those of us in the decadent west into brushing our teeth. My theory is supported by the fact that the poster with all the pictures on it also displayed a Colgate logo.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 9 January 2003 at 3:00 PM

I've adopted the much maligned "olive green" windows xp color scheme. Having used it for about an hour now, I fully understand why it is much maligned, but I will persevere. At least until tomorrow.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 2 January 2003 at 9:27 PM

And now the rest of the world finds out what college students have known for a couple of years now: kids who use laptops in class often browse the 'net during lectures (according to the nytimes).

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 2 January 2003 at 12:20 AM