Funjackals! Wherein John tells you what's on his mind. 2007-01-24T12:38:37-07:00 jcole http://www.funjackals.com/index_old.php john.b.cole@gmail.com tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals! Pivot Copyright (c) 2007, Authors of Funjackals! Mother's Day 2005-06-12T21:08:00-07:00 2005-05-08T20:07:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.573 Well, we had a pretty busy Mother's Day. We started off with waffles, followed by a trip to Allen Pond Park, where Ellery played like a fiend. He tires me out just watching him, I telll you what. We had lunch at our favorite local Indian food restaurant, which had a super-deluxe Indian and Thai food buffet for Mother's Day. It might be exaggerating to say that I ate like FirstToFire, but I ate a lot. Everything was good. We spent the afternoon watching "Futurama" and playing with Ellery. Misty has been figuring out what new crochet project she is going to work on; I'm not sure what she decided to crochet, but she is hard at work now. Me, I'm just wasting my life on the Intarweb. I spoke to my brother and mother for a few minutes this afternoon; apparently my niece was being exceptionally cute. Now I don't have anything in particular against "The Family Guy" -- it is not the travesty that "Arrested Development" was and a lot of people seem to love it -- but is there any justice in a universe where "Futurama" gets cancelled and the other two are still on the air? We have been Netflix-ing the Futuramas that we do not own, and the show gets funnier and funnier as it goes. My love of "The Simpsons" is legion, but it has been a long time since it made me laugh as hard at a given episode as "Futurama". Ellery played like a fiend. He tires me out just watching him, I telll you what. We had lunch at our favorite local restaurant, which had a super-deluxe Indian and buffet for Mother's Day. It might be exaggerating to say that I ate like FirstToFire, but I ate a lot. Everything was good. We spent the afternoon watching and playing with Ellery. has been figuring out what new crochet project she is going to work on; I'm not sure what she decided to crochet, but she is hard at work now. Me, I'm just wasting my life on the . I spoke to my brother and mother for a few minutes this afternoon; apparently was being exceptionally cute.

Now I don't have anything in particular against "The Family Guy" -- it is not the travesty that "Arrested Development" was and a lot of people seem to love it -- but is there any justice in a universe where "Futurama" gets cancelled and the other two are still on the air? We have been -ing the Futuramas that we do not own, and the show gets funnier and funnier as it goes. My love of "" is legion, but it has been a long time since it made me laugh as hard at a given episode as "Futurama".

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]]> jcole Feeling Old 2005-05-07T20:52:00-07:00 2005-05-07T20:52:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.572 This morning I went to a computer show with a coupled of friends from work (we had get-in-free coupons). There was a time when I kind of enjoyed going to those things. This morning it was not better or worse than going to Target. I think I have reached a point in my life where computers really have become a commodity to me. I use them all day, every day and I guess a lot of the fun has gone out of it. I still enjoy working on my Python projects, and I hope to one day own a very sexy Apple laptop one day, but I don't get excited about hot motherboards or faster RAM anymore. The show was really weird in that almost every vendor selling PCs was some sort of Dell reseller; it's a great way for Dell to dump old inventory, but WTF? The hight point of the outing was definitely the GuyFromNewJersey who was selling everything from fifty-games-in-one video game units to "professional" poker sets to digital video cameras to briefcases. This guy...he looked freakishly like Christopher Walken. That was pretty cool in a strange sort of way. Tomorrow is Mother's Day so Ellery and I are taking Misty for Indian food. Mmm...chicken tikka... computer show with a coupled of friends from work (we had get-in-free coupons). There was a time when I kind of enjoyed going to those things. This morning it was not better or worse than going to Target. I think I have reached a point in my life where computers really have become a commodity to me. I use them all day, every day and I guess a lot of the fun has gone out of it. I still enjoy working on my projects, and I hope to one day own a very sexy laptop one day, but I don't get excited about hot motherboards or faster RAM anymore. The show was really weird in that almost every vendor selling PCs was some sort of Dell reseller; it's a great way for Dell to dump old inventory, but WTF? The hight point of the outing was definitely the GuyFromNewJersey who was selling everything from fifty-games-in-one video game units to "professional" poker sets to digital video to briefcases. This guy...he looked freakishly like . That was pretty cool in a strange sort of way.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day so and I are taking for . Mmm...chicken tikka...

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]]> jcole I'd forget my head... 2005-05-06T13:37:00-07:00 2005-05-06T13:32:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.571 I forgot to mention yet another new feature in This Blog: tags. That's right, I can now tag keywords in blog entries that are collated, weighted, and presented in my local tag cosmos (link to the left in the Directory box). The tags also allow for super-easy, almost wiki-like, linking of entries with related ideas or topics. A full list of tags in an entry, as well as similar articles, will now be provided on the entry page that you get to by clicking on more links on the front page. my local tag cosmos (link to the left in the Directory box). The tags also allow for super-easy, almost wiki-like, linking of entries with related ideas or topics. A full list of tags in an entry, as well as similar articles, will now be provided on the entry page that you get to by clicking on more links on the front page. ]]> jcole Too much empty space in Kansas 2005-05-06T13:37:00-07:00 2005-05-06T13:12:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.570 "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" -- Douglas Adams, from Last Chance To See Okay, I am going to feed the religious trolls that want to set back education in Kansas by eighty years or so because they are uncomfortable with the theory of evolution. Sweet weeping Jebus on a pogo stick, our current best theory of how life came to be is not perfect so we need to posit the existence of some supernatural entity who (1) is so profoundly complex that we mere humans cannot understand it, and (2) is so vastly superior to humans that that he [sic] has nothing better to do than demand our obedience to some ridiculous set of rules? That sounds more like a clever four-year-old playing Simon Says than the benevolent creator of all. Look, if I am the lord-high-all-powerful-creator-of-every-bloody-thing I am going to nip off the the pub for a pint. Who is sleeping with whom is of exactly zero interest to me, although I can think of a quite lengthy list of people who desperately need smiting. Anyway. So the religious zealots in Kansas want to have evolution and intelligent design taught in the same curriculum? Fine. We'll start with a key concept in science -- empiricism. So...how much verifiable proof is there of god's existence? Oh, wow, not looking good there... How much evidence do we have that evolution by means of natural selection occurs? Well, quite a lot of people own dogs, so we can start there. Look, people, there is no controversy among real scientists about the theory of evolution. Sure, there are phenomena that we cannot yet explain, just as there are propositions that mathematicians have not yet proven. But the scientific method provides a framework within which we can eventually solve those riddles. Proponents of intelligent design, and their cousins the Biblical literalists, have brought nothing in the way of evidence to the debate. Clever wordplay is not proof, ans religion is not science. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If they will not accept evolution in the face of a huge body of evidence why should we accept their story of creation on the basis of no evidence at all? -- Douglas Adams, from Last Chance To See

Okay, I am going to feed the religious trolls that want to set back education in Kansas by eighty years or so because they are uncomfortable with the theory of . Sweet weeping Jebus on a pogo stick, our current best theory of how life came to be is not perfect so we need to posit the existence of some supernatural entity who (1) is so profoundly complex that we mere humans cannot understand it, and (2) is so vastly superior to humans that that he [sic] has nothing better to do than demand our obedience to some ridiculous set of rules? That sounds more like a clever four-year-old playing Simon Says than the benevolent creator of all. Look, if I am the lord-high-all-powerful-creator-of-every-bloody-thing I am going to nip off the the pub for a pint. Who is sleeping with whom is of exactly zero interest to me, although I can think of a quite lengthy list of people who desperately need smiting. Anyway. So the religious zealots in Kansas want to have evolution and intelligent design taught in the same curriculum? Fine. We'll start with a key concept in -- empiricism. So...how much verifiable proof is there of god's existence? Oh, wow, not looking good there... How much evidence do we have that evolution by means of natural selection occurs? Well, quite a lot of people own , so we can start there. Look, people, there is no controversy among real scientists about the theory of evolution. Sure, there are phenomena that we cannot yet explain, just as there are propositions that mathematicians have not yet proven. But the scientific method provides a framework within which we can eventually solve those riddles. Proponents of intelligent design, and their cousins the Biblical literalists, have brought nothing in the way of evidence to the debate. Clever wordplay is not proof, ans is not science. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If they will not accept evolution in the face of a huge body of evidence why should we accept their story of creation on the basis of no evidence at all?

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]]> jcole Technorati Tags 2005-05-06T11:45:00-07:00 2005-05-06T11:40:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.569 Testing a new feature...google... google...Testing a new feature......um...this is supposed to link to my local cosmos at some point... ]]> jcole Read on Slashdot 2005-05-05T15:59:00-07:00 2005-05-05T15:59:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.567 Irony: (n) Using Dune references to make fun of [S]tar [W]ars geeks. jcole That Hideous Beeping! 2005-05-05T13:43:00-07:00 2005-05-05T13:42:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.566 FedEx or someone is backing a truck up to the loading dock. My office faces the loading dock, up a couple of floors. They are backing up very slowly. No, sloooow. Like the pinheads ahead of you in line at CC's who need every item on the menu explained to them. Like an Auburn fan reading Dr. Seuss. Like glaciation. Beeping. Beeping! BEEPING! Okay. It stopped. Speaking of Dr. Seuss, Ellery is really into "Hop on Pop" right now. It looks like we are going to move forward with our climate data project. The guys at SRCC have made us a very attractive offer for initial development and data delivery. I am glad that we can throw some money their way and it's nice to work with them again. I even had a few ideas on how we might proceed with those data research-wise. Note that I have added a new feature to This Blog, namely a gallery of images in my Flickr account. I hvae only uploaded one image as yet, but there will be more in the future. I also fixed the breakage in the calendar caused by the upgrade earlier this week.
It looks like we are going to move forward with our climate data project. The guys at SRCC have made us a very attractive offer for initial development and data delivery. I am glad that we can throw some money their way and it's nice to work with them again. I even had a few ideas on how we might proceed with those data research-wise.

Note that I have added a new feature to This Blog, namely a gallery of images in my Flickr account. I hvae only uploaded one image as yet, but there will be more in the future. I also fixed the breakage in the calendar caused by the upgrade earlier this week.

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]]> jcole That's enough Chinese food for one week 2005-05-04T15:46:00-07:00 2005-05-04T15:46:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.565 I never thought I would say that, but I have eaten at our local second-string Chinese buffet place twice in less than a week. Enough is enough, especially since Co-worker's car is running and I am not walking for an hour a day. If I am not careful I am going to be one fat bastard before the summer is out. Maybe I should start walking at lunch time instead of stuffing my face... Not much else to report. It seems like Ellery is over his cold/allergy/crud attack. When I got home yesterday he was back to his usual self. As nice as this is for me it must be nice for Misty. Tonight is her yoga night, though, so she is going to get a little break. One of our friends is going to babysit the day after M's birthday so that we can go out and do something. That is pretty cool.
Not much else to report. It seems like Ellery is over his cold/allergy/crud attack. When I got home yesterday he was back to his usual self. As nice as this is for me it must be nice for Misty. Tonight is her yoga night, though, so she is going to get a little break. One of our friends is going to babysit the day after M's birthday so that we can go out and do something. That is pretty cool.

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]]> jcole Crufty hackage 2005-05-03T15:17:00-07:00 2005-05-03T15:17:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.564 Slow day except for picking up Candidate Numer Two from the airport. It is a good thing that we paged him b/c there was some sort of misunderstanding and he was not expecting us to meet him, and no harm, no foul. The morning was spent implementing a wrapper class around the numerator relationship matrices created by my pedigree analysis software (it's very excigint -- now you can store and load them very easily for all sorts of fun things) and hacking together a documentation toolchain that uses Python, Perl, LaTeX, and sed to produce PDF/PS manuals. The LaTeX that is produced is kind of crufty, but it works well-enough for now. On a very high note, CoworkerWithCar has his vehicle running again. It did not catch on fire or anything yesterday or this morning. The lifters rattle a little bit, but maybe they just need oil, and the steering seems to have improved for all of the shadetree-mechanicing that has gone on. Can I tell you how absurdly happy I am that I get to sleep an extra hour in the morning? I know, it's vaguely embarassing, but there you are. Just a quick comment on "Gray's Anatomy" for Brad and Beth Anne -- dude(ette), it's a hospital soap just like "E.R." Of course residents are sleeping with attendings, every attending surgeon in the hospital is in the same procedure so that the plucky young resident has to crack a chest to save a patient's life, and so on. If those things did not happen it would be a very boring show.
The morning was spent implementing a wrapper class around the numerator relationship matrices created by my pedigree analysis software (it's very excigint -- now you can store and load them very easily for all sorts of fun things) and hacking together a documentation toolchain that uses Python, Perl, LaTeX, and sed to produce PDF/PS manuals. The LaTeX that is produced is kind of crufty, but it works well-enough for now.

On a very high note, CoworkerWithCar has his vehicle running again. It did not catch on fire or anything yesterday or this morning. The lifters rattle a little bit, but maybe they just need oil, and the steering seems to have improved for all of the shadetree-mechanicing that has gone on. Can I tell you how absurdly happy I am that I get to sleep an extra hour in the morning? I know, it's vaguely embarassing, but there you are.

Just a quick comment on "Gray's Anatomy" for Brad and Beth Anne -- dude(ette), it's a hospital soap just like "E.R." Of course residents are sleeping with attendings, every attending surgeon in the hospital is in the same procedure so that the plucky young resident has to crack a chest to save a patient's life, and so on. If those things did not happen it would be a very boring show. :-)

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]]> jcole Ach! 2005-04-29T14:59:00-07:00 2005-04-29T14:59:00-07:00 tag:pivotpowered,2007:Funjackals!.562 We have a candidate here today. Busy, busy. All is well, so far. I was able to get my AIREML jobs debugged and running (woohoo!) and one of our programmers is setting-up the database tables for some of the climate data we hope to receive. More later. Links within.
Links within.

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