Go ahead. Feel free. I mostly write about my cats, it seems, and I haven’t had a chance to update in over a year.

For the record, my cat is awesome. I’ll take a 5% pay cut in exchange for being able to bring him to work with me each day (not really).

(I’ve also managed to accidentally trash my theme while trying to update my WordPress installation… but really, you shouldn’t be thinking about hiring me to do visual design, anyway. You should hire Albert Lee of Yellow Devil Designs.)

So! A meme!

Leave a comment and I will give you a letter. Then, write 10 things that you love starting with that letter. Post the list in your journal. Give out letters to those who comment in return.

I was given the letter “T” by the awesome FierceKitty.

1. Tea
2. Tigers (in general)
3. Taj (in particular)
4. Theo Chocolate
5. Travel

Wow. Meme FAIL.

I’ll come back with a few more entries later? *grumble*
Edit: October 12, 2009: Added two more entries.

Does anyone else look at the current economic climate, look back at the 30s, and wonder when drugs will be legalized?

“Al” was (and is) one of the best graphic designers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with – made more impressive by the fact that he’s color blind. I saw him almost every day for four years… and then we went to different colleges.

It was great to have the opportunity to see him; it was only a short visit, but was still nice to see him. Unfortunately, his lovely girlfriend was out of town, but that just meant we could have some quality time together.

This entry is not about Al.

Al had something I never had in college – cable. He left the TV on when sleeping, which I thought a bit odd, but now my wife does the same thing. However, I wasn’t quite ready to sleep when he was, so I was up watching late night television when he had already gone to bed – and I didn’t have the remote.

I have never forgotten one of the infomercials. “The Great Wok of China” – true, exact name. Now, I’m not the best customer for advertising. I don’t tend to remember commercials. I took a survey on Hulu last week that asked me about the commercials I had just watched. I told them there were no commercials for Chevron (which I buy whenever I’m paying full price for gas). Ten questions later, I remembered that EVERY commercial I had seen that day were for Chevron. My ReplayTV is one of the few models with commercial autodetection. It doesn’t hurt that my memory sucks.

I had no interest in buying the Great Wok of China. I still have no interest in buying the Great Wok of China. I wasn’t even interested in the Okay Wok of China. Matter of fact, at the time when our story takes place, I didn’t have a wok – or even a kitchen.

But for years I remembered one segment of the infomercial: how to make fried rice. It wasn’t as good as Chef Chang’s House Fried Rice, but… how on earth would I have learned otherwise?

I realized this afternoon that I no longer remember the recipe, aside from starting with refrigerated white rice.

However, I still remember The Great Wok of China.

Congratulations on the new release, mono team!

http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2009/Jan-20-1.html

I sat and stared this morning at the offending code, knowing I must be missing something.

I finally went down the hall to grab Nathan (I like Nathan. He’s bright and hard working, and he laughs at my jokes. Good man.). He isn’t as experienced with C++ as I am, but my experience wasn’t helping me. Besides, it was a problem with a bloody for-loop.

Nathan sat down, complained about what I named the function, and then point out the error. Less than two minutes.

Can you see the error?

for (GenericParam* Param = StartOfListOfParams; Param; Param->GetNext())


I feel a little dumb, but vindicated for my position on code reviews, especially for my own code.

Edit 08/11/07 11:28am: Added a space.

Rewind a bit: Mandrina and I were invited to join another couple on a trip to Leavenworth for Oktoberfest. I got a little drunk, got a little hung over, but Mandrina laughed at me. The day we were leaving, we stopped into what I refer to as “the sword store,” because, as you might guess, they sell swords. They also sell slippers, and dusters, and other jackets. They also sell hats.

Now, my hat isn’t as nice as the ones some of my friends sport, but I like it. It’s crushable, it (mostly) fits me — it serves as a reminder to keep my hair neat. It’s waterproof, and I like to wear it. Not all the time, mind you, because I don’t know if buses could as “indoors” or “outdoors” with regards to never wearing a hat inside.

However, today Mandrina has gone to see a fellow STP cast member’s new indy film. I worked late, and left with more work left to do. When I left the office, however, it was nearly a downpour, which is unusual in Seattle. Fortunately, HAT!

Why fortunately? Because I like being able to see! I walked to the bus stop with my hat on, and could see the entire time. I got on the bus; my pant legs were wet from swinging under drops while walking; my shoes were wet; my jacket was wet; my hat was wet.

My glasses, however, were nice and dry.

I like my hat. I’d take a picture of the hat, but I’m currently on my bus, and I think everyone would look at me strangely.