ask for joy

Tue, 16 Jul 2002 18:18:12 GMT

I just typed:

u32 numberOfRights = 0;

when I meant to type numberOfWrites.

I was struck by just how profound that has turned out to be in the world of technology hacking. :-/

Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:35:22 GMT

Chef Boy-ar-Dre
Chef Boy-ar-Chuck-D

Did reading that make you laugh?

View Poll: hahapoopoohead

Sun, 14 Jul 2002 02:31:28 GMT

Sometimes I take pictures of myself which actually turn out pretty decently without any modification. You can see how unshaved I am in this one:

Sat, 13 Jul 2002 17:44:22 GMT

It has been a very nice Saturday morning thus far.

I got up late after sleeping like the dead, then made myself an incredible roast beef sandwich with a fresh bâtard loaf, colby jack cheese and romaine lettuce. Now I'm just lounging around until I work up the energy to go have a shower, and then I am going to get some clothes and supplies for my trip next week. Unfortunately, it's the only time this weekend I'll probably have to do it, since I need to work tomorrow. :-(

But no matter--I shall enjoy this day!

To those in the Ottawa area who want to meet up: my schedule for the trip is very tight, so I don't know if getting together will be possible. I have almost all my plans figured out to the hour. However, I might be able to meet up briefly on the morning of the 22nd (that's a Monday) before I drive back to Toronto, but I will let you know what happens. I'll keep you updated.

On being (a) behind

Fri, 12 Jul 2002 03:33:20 GMT

Ugh, I am behind on my promised LJ entries, replies, e-mails, test code for work, etc. I suck. Suck suck suck.

The company I work for leads a software standards group. I noticed some replies near the fax machines from other member companies voting on some standards changes. I amused myself by thinking how cool it would be to send fake ballots with initiatives like, 'Proposed Change 3.5: That the readData() method erase all the customer's data whenever the current system time is between 10pm and 11pm: YES( ) NO( )'.

That was geeky. Ugh.

I'm going to Canada for a few days next week and the week after. I'll be catching up with friends and seeing the glorious GTA and Outaouais regions as well as the less glorious Hamilton area. :-) I should also be sampling all the things that I miss most about Canada: Harvey's, Pizza Pizza, Timmy's, and a lot of Molson Canadian. My hoser friends take all these things for granted, but living in Texas means none of this wonderful stuff. I can get Canadian, but it just doesn't taste the same as it does up there. :-/

Anyway, I am looking very forward to that as I'm sure you can imagine. Maybe I should quit my job and open up a Tim Horton's down here and teach these people how donuts are made. Krispy Kreme be damned! Yes, they have bagels and I want 'em. :-)

Wed, 10 Jul 2002 11:32:26 GMT

So... early! Can't... think... properly.

Well, I got to work at 6:00am. Model wage-slaves like me put all personal needs (like sleep, breakfast etc.) aside for the good of the company. I expect to be richly rewarded by my keepers, but that ain't gonna happen. Perhaps one of the marketing monkeys will get my raise this year for coming up with an especially novel ad campaign involving italicized letters and 'vision sharing' and that ever-popular 'leveraging'.

Carry on then.

Wed, 10 Jul 2002 03:24:30 GMT

niwi wrote this song on the weekend but, absolutely incredibly, thinks it's bad. I think it is perhaps one of the most beautiful, expressive and heartfelt songs I've ever heard. She'd never in a million years allow me to post an MP3, but please post on her journal and tell her that it's a wonderful song.

WHITE BIRD
Music and lyrics by niwi

White bird
What do you see?
Standing in the water
Looking back at me

Do you think
That I look strange?
Is my appearance
So out of your range?

White bird
Who do you love?
Do you have babies at home?
Or are you more like me
Doomed forever to roam?

I stare into your expressionless eyes
It's only then that I realize

You with your wings
You're just like me
We're both bound
By a will to be free

Maybe one day
We'll both fly away
White bird and me

Maybe one day
We'll both fly away
White bird and me

Tue, 09 Jul 2002 15:45:58 GMT

... [T]he White House said Bush plans to propose lengthening jail time for criminal fraud by corporate officers and directors, doubling the maximum jail term for mail and wire fraud to 10 years[.]

I'll shit my pants the day I see a corporate officer go to jail. Highly-paid defence lawyers ensure that the Enrons, Worldcoms, and Global Cro$$ings of the world and their officers go scot-free.

Who loses? Investors. People who put money in mutual funds and 401(k) plans so they and their spouses might be able to eat and afford health care (which is fucked up enough in itself) when they retire. Stock prices plummet, investors lose savings. Meanwhile, company officers continue to snort coke off the proverbial hooker's tits.

Much like campaign finance reform, even if new laws and regulations were passed, I'm sure there'd be enough holes to fly a few corporate Cessnas (Cessnae?) through. As long as Bush, stinky Pitt and his cronies are at the top, I wouldn't look for these laws to have much in the way of gums, let alone teeth.

Class warfare now, anybody?

Tue, 09 Jul 2002 01:59:50 GMT

I just wanted to show off the new icon I made. :-)

I'm going to bathe my filthy self now. Hot bath, here I come!

Mon, 08 Jul 2002 03:28:40 GMT

It strikes me now, long after I'd cooked myself macaroni, that what I really wanted was popcorn chicken from KFC. Sigh.

I am so suggestible to advertising: I was watching TV, well after my pot of water had boiled, and as soon as the KFC commercial came up, it was clear, as if ordained by a higher authority. Yea verify, I did lust after that popcorn chicken.

But I suppose that I am $5 richer, if not slightly healthier, for not having gone out to get some.

I think I'll be going to bed now, since I've got to go to work tomorrow. (I have considered 'coming down with something', if you know what I mean, but that would just delay the inevitable.)

Mon, 08 Jul 2002 01:04:14 GMT

I don't want to go back to work tomorrow. Then again, if you can find me someone who does, I'll be very surprised.

I spent almost the entire day naked. Why put on clothes when staying in the house? I did have to run to a convenience store to get some AAA batteries for my Palm, which eats them up whenever you do online stuff with it. For this, I assure you that I was wearing clothes. At least pants. :-)

I'm debating what to do for dinner. I am very lazy and thus think having someone bring me a pizza would be splendid; on the other hand, it's kinda expensive and I'm not really sure if I want pizza. I'm not sure what awaits in the freezer, though, nor am I sure I want to cook it, so that may make the act of ordering the pizza a little less painless. If I went out and grabbed it from some local emporium, I would be inclined to get some beer to go with it, and that wouldn't be good--not on a school night, anyway.

I bought a Behringer MX602A mixer yesterday. It's a nifty piece of musical equipment and will be very useful in my studio. The problem is there's a defect with it. The level pot for channel 3/4 is dirty--I can hear the right channel pop in and out when I move it. So looks like I'll have to take it back and exchange it for another. Poopy.

What do I want to eat? Ach, this is maddening. I think it would be best to see what's in the pantry and try to make something of that. I know I've got soup, but what good is soup without a nice crusty loaf of bread to accompany it? There might be pasta--that would be good. But I'm not really in a pasta mood either. Ooh, I've got frozen popcorn shrimp and french fries.

Then again, microwave popcorn is quick and easy... :-)

Sat, 06 Jul 2002 16:43:43 GMT

I have to write this dream down before I forget it:

I dreamed I was at a campaign event for Reagan. In one part of the dream, I had infiltrated a sort of 'receiving line' where I knew the President would be walking past. As he came closer, I looked him in the eye and screamed out, 'Raise taxes for the rich!' I attracted some attention, and I saw some of his handlers look over at me, but I wasn't forcibly removed or anything like that.

In the next part of the dream, I had managed to get into a televised town hall-style session, sitting six or seven people away from Reagan. Peter Jennings asked if anyone had any questions for the President, and I raised my hand, not thinking I'd be picked (these things are incredibly scripted). But, this being a dream, I was picked, and went ahead and asked my question. I asked the President if it wouldn't be better to take all the money going to the huge industrial-military complex and invest it in the people of the nation because to give them a chance at housing and education, health care would be more efficient and give the country a better chance of being productive and prosperous. I woke up before I got the answer.

I've been remembering a lot of my dreams lately. I should make an effort to at least write down a point-form summary of each one when I do remember them. I used to keep a dream log when I was in high school, but that didn't last too long (besides, my tendency was to document only the juicier ones. :-) )

Amerika über alles

Sat, 06 Jul 2002 05:46:20 GMT

'Mein Vaterland, mein Vaterland, und siehst du nicht dort/ Bushkönigs Töchter am düstern Ort?'
(with apologies to Goethe)

Fri, 05 Jul 2002 16:28:28 GMT

Copious amounts of sleep are what statutory holidays are all about. At least that's how I perceive them.

Yesterday was fun. niwi and I went to Chuy's for an early dinner then drove around the lake looking at all the fourth of July activity. We got back home and found a Daria marathon on television, so we watched several episodes of it stopping only to check out some distant fireworks displays from the balcony. The evening was warm and much less oppressively humid than it's been, so the balcony was quite pleasant.

When I lived in Oakville, I was eleven floors up, and of course I was spoiled by the ability to see several simultaneous fireworks displays on those Canadian holidays that are traditionally accompanied by fireworks (Victoria Day and Canada Day). Since I was facing west, I could watch displays in Burlington and even Hamilton. If I strained my neck enough, I had a glimpse of the lake and could even see some down there. Lovely, really.

I'm not sure what's in store for today. Lolling about, perhaps? I'll take the Vegas odds on that!

Thu, 04 Jul 2002 05:17:10 GMT

I think The Beeeoytch Boys is a great band name myself.

Tonight is all about chilling--I had a late night at work but was able to retire to a cheese pizza and many fine beverages of the hops and barley variety. Apart from an impromptu DSL configuration, which is really surprisingly hard to do when you're just this chilled out, it's been most relaxing and wonderful.

The rain seems to have stopped for now. Rain being rain, it could start up at any time without notice, and I think the radar even showed the possibility, but it appears to be gone for the time being. I had to say that I really enjoyed the last four days of rain. It's been the first significant amount of rain in a while and it was so nice to recall what it's like to close one's eyes and fall asleep to the sound of the raindrops. I'm a cheesehead.

So I hope all my peeps here in the Colonies enjoy the day off! I know I'll be. :)

Wed, 03 Jul 2002 04:13:49 GMT

I didn't have to stay as late as I thought tonight. I was home at a reasonable hour, and though I did connect through the VPN and get some work done from home, it didn't seem so bad because I was sitting on the couch in my underwear with my laptop drinking a beer. Those kind of work conditions I can tolerate. :-)

I also used PGP for the first time. Note to crypto people: You are brilliant mathematicians. You are gods among men. Your knowledge of one-way hashes and factoring algorithms amazes me. For God's sake, just learn how to write a simple user interface! I'd like to think that I'm no slouch with computers, since I program the buggers for a living, but this PGP software I was trying out had my scratching my head. I wasn't sure if I was encrypting, decrypting, signing, public-keyifing or what. In the end, I think I sent myself an encrypted and signed message to work. I'll decrypt it tomorrow when I get to work.

So it's off to bed for me. Hey, post your private key and I'll send you something, alright? I want PGP buddies. :-)

PGP Public Key for Ask For Joy (afj@askforjoy.com)

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: PGPfreeware 7.0.3 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> mQGiBD0ieT0RBADewyn/uF3IkqGbRSWjyiQBJENHAjLnKb6Ph1dkUhi86aJ40J3N Rzkib/CQSLMWA3e6r5zKdJAEEArssZxwQjxrL9IrKhmQs4ngLp+XuJLUlglY8Omv Qr4YEgAAmY21IqCFINI3GX/sS6pZ8gTSrLvUDZsHlMr9DGSyfdWSOdQViwCg/+fb 0DzArriTRPnnt9jDNIBbbaEEAKhe9CsvAAmfWnWUwyUYdYetIAfiKTPDAI5F5GjM WQrg6ILDcDMc4oXqGT6u6A2LVN7di4n/TvyluLZUKQ+AoLFRY7QSFmvXNbxMPkvi DsOJCsNodSlnKOE8MysnqZag1gV4pYeuDG4XlycmVFMRdQU3yxCMLhYs3T9byivJ CLvQBADAzbpGi0wqNvt+BYtK2ZyD3eUfEZxQJfddDMnYG5GeqL4NdAYt2GVgyWYa bytGjtHmUoOOVdEiYiNta6i9KANDaj2PKm0BVFaJIaEPp1czxJUcOtOp4y/6weXT +p7H5aQU9/8Xduc/Ao2Hje2XQTcmEFQUIFMMNCj+u0rjtOWJvLQfQXNrIEZvciBK b3kgPGFmakBhc2tmb3Jqb3kuY29tPokAWAQQEQIAGAUCPSJ5PQgLAwkIBwIBCgIZ AQUbAwAAAAAKCRAK30UfQB661VBTAKDn0M3iCA2bQ/t9fOsa0mYdTomQbgCfYa+4 nLRk8/mytJls4gs5I/JruxK5Ag0EPSJ5PRAIAPZCV7cIfwgXcqK61qlC8wXo+VMR OU+28W65Szgg2gGnVqMU6Y9AVfPQB8bLQ6mUrfdMZIZJ+AyDvWXpF9Sh01D49Vlf 3HZSTz09jdvOmeFXklnN/biudE/F/Ha8g8VHMGHOfMlm/xX5u/2RXscBqtNbno2g pXI61Brwv0YAWCvl9Ij9WE5J280gtJ3kkQc2azNsOA1FHQ98iLMcfFstjvbzySPA Q/ClWxiNjrtVjLhdONM0/XwXV0OjHRhs3jMhLLUq/zzhsSlAGBGNfISnCnLWhsQD GcgHKXrKlQzZlp+r0ApQmwJG0wg9ZqRdQZ+cfL2JSyIZJrqrol7DVekyCzsAAgII AJTzYaG8FPcXOHLbZLAWhAmKABYTnQhrfbOJe/ditoMO+sOOr4JM1pWV5aXCEehT S80nZvgzA+spHxAul7KwmlLHHbViTnN384MJeyYb3p1+962B2pmzESOXdwYUFKdS GMyiamnFlDu1c4qmK3GJwxTpqH4zBUgLPQB41bxj3kE7OfM5nDdNXVLZCeTnN3pq 4Tdpu06IQdI5Nu1T4gxwg+Lc21Xet7snA2BY6cjRQWhHi+BLI92TXYheHJNMymtK /ujF+8sRqV2gDHp29gfdW8AYZR54irvSm0pFcEtRuezQITetJmW+/D9VkYFLl7jg ZGOMWj+MtB8dKjp6tSL7NPKJAEwEGBECAAwFAj0ieT0FGwwAAAAACgkQCt9FH0Ae utVWpQCfZsfKI1O1xvNGb1HPatF+6T09f7IAoKlpc5mnKjAGGkEON6RNfEVglOIQ =luY2 -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Tue, 02 Jul 2002 14:04:42 GMT

Yesterday may have been a good day, but this one is shaping up to be... not.

Judging by the e-mails I read as I came in this morning, it looks like I may be here late tonight trying to finish something before everyone leaves for the holidays (which is our group's self-imposed deadline). No sleep for the wage-slave, evidently. So we have to be strong to work for our corporate oppressors but we can't be if we don't sleep.

It's been raining like a big rainy thing lately! This is day four of Rainfest '02. It poured when I got up this morning and continued pouring as I made my way out to the car. I wasn't even ashamed to roll my pantlegs up like floods on my way out there. If there's anything I hate, it's wet cuffs. That drives me insane.

And that's the last thing I need right now.

Tue, 02 Jul 2002 02:52:03 GMT

To quote the immortal Ice Cube, it was a good day. (I didn't even have to use my A.K.!) I am tired; I stayed up far too late last night and now I am feeling sweet sleep's slender fingers as she tries to pull me to bed. I'll go soon enough.

We watched What Lies Beneath. It was a fairly good psychological thriller, though I have to admit it's kinda skeevy to see Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer(sp?) making out. That's... just... not... right. Anyway, good, gripping ending.

I have a confession to make: I found myself at work today humming 'let the music play on... play on... play on'. Why All Night Long popped into my head, I don't know. But there I was, sitting at the computer, and I started to hum the tune. That's got to be a sure sign of mental illness... or retardation. I'm not sure which.

More tomorrow morning.

Mon, 01 Jul 2002 06:13:09 GMT

Good-night To The Wage Slaves sounds like the title of an early twentieth-century socialist play, doesn't it? Well, I wish you all a good night. This working stiff's gots to get up in the morning.

The best quote ever

Sun, 24 Mar 2002 04:56:08 GMT

Professionalism has no place in art, and hacking is art. Software Engineering might be science; but that's not what I do. I'm a hacker, not an engineer. - Jamie Zawinski

Sun, 24 Mar 2002 04:35:06 GMT

Oops. I just clicked on an ad and now I've ruined the Internet.

Hi everyone. I'm sorry I didn't write in my LiveJournal for a few weeks. I still love you all.

Love me?

the wile e. coyote war on terror

Wed, 27 Feb 2002 14:02:20 GMT

from The Telegraph:

OSAMA bin LADEN is believed to have been tricked into buying worthless metal drums painted with skull and crossbones motifs to fool him into thinking they contained materials he could use to make nuclear weapons.

changing hands in the transaction between the Al Qaeda leader and the ersatz nuclear material salesman were OVERSIZED BURLAP BAGS WITH DOLLAR SIGNS PRINTED ON THEM.

*lol*

rooting for this little guy

Tue, 26 Feb 2002 05:15:01 GMT

Runaway cow a folk hero

an old song i wrote

Tue, 26 Feb 2002 03:17:52 GMT

i wrote this almost eight years ago. it's about acceptance. i'll post the mp3 this weekend when i either re-record it or rip the only known version (a demo i did shortly after writing this).

all the beautiful things

should i be here
among all the beautiful things?
i feel so out of place
but somehow, i am taken in
among all these beautiful things
and i'm beautiful

as sunbeams come down
on all the beautiful things
my darkness is revealed
but somehow, i begin to glow
among all these beautiful things
and i too shine bright

water flows softly
through all the beautiful things
i feel as if i am drowning
but somehow, i am lifted
beside all the beautiful things
and i float along
and i float along

Sun, 24 Feb 2002 22:12:15 GMT

i think i'll be smiling all night.

50 years to the day when we last won Olympic gold in hockey, we do it again.

edit: now there will be two more names to add to every Canadian history textbook: first Henderson, now Iginla and Sakic. :)