a brief study in kevbot

Remember when people wrote letters? I miss that, even though I...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:10:13 -0700

Remember when people wrote letters? I miss that, even though I really enjoy this.

I knew it was Tom Waits! He’s uncredited as far as...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:53:05 -0600

I knew it was Tom Waits! He’s uncredited as far as I’ve read, but it’s him! Thanks YouTube!

John Donne's Holy Sonnets

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:13:00 -0600

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those, whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou’rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Here’s how great I look today.

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:56:28 -0600

Here’s how great I look today.

Watched “In the Bedroom” this morning. Love the...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:46:33 -0600

Watched “In the Bedroom” this morning. Love the Longfellow poem (posted below), and the guy who recites it.

My Lost Youth

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:45:00 -0600

the excerpt from “In the Bedroom”:

There are things of which I may not speak;
There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.
And the words of that fatal song
Come over me like a chill:
“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Weird Conversation at Walmart

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:03:00 -0600

Old Man: Where are the bathrooms at?
Me: They're in the back, past Electronics.
Old Man: I knew we were going in the wrong direction!
Me: Well, you were sort of getting closer to there.
Old Man: Yes son, but in such matters you don't tarry!

I was really surprised by the "tarry" part. He had on denim cutoffs and socks up to his armpits.

I laughed really hard. Awesome.

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:04:10 -0600

I laughed really hard. Awesome.

Tumblarity: 0

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:25:22 -0600

Finally I’m back to zero. Woohoo!

But seriously, when they first unveiled Tumblarity, I was all sad that several I followed had like 1,200 and I had 3. So I decided to a) stop following them and go outside, and b) stop caring what mine is. So, thanks for not reading. I’m glad to be at zero. I really am.

Absence

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:28:21 -0600

In digging through my past in saved scraps of paper, I came upon this gem of an email written Wednesday, August 18, 2004 9:49 AM to Ms. Kimberly F. Half silly, half good stuff I think.

My Dearest Kimberly,

The disquiet I felt in your absence was no unlike a long outward breath, couple with the anxious worry that to draw that same breath back inward would be impossible without your shining presence to light up these stormy end-of-summer days. Without your goodbye on Friday, I feared as though I might never see you again.

The office simply has not been the same without you these past two days. At times, the pain was unbearable and I could only dull its icy edge by taking solace in the delights of the copier. I have named the old girl Agnes and to me she has been very kind. Nevertheless, she pales in comparison to you. Especially and specifically when one considers your recent outing to the shoreline regions where you undoubtedly received some of the sun’s darkening rays, as is fashionable these days.

However, and here I must make a turn for the serious, my previously unprecedented despair was unbelievably surmounted when I heard that, owing to my lack of attendance on the selfsame shoreline region outing, you turned to the arms of another man. Too, I despaired much to hear he is equally formidable as I, but in the completely opposite respects. I fear that you have fallen in with a charlatan and I strongly urge you to leave this savage brute and return to the calm sensibility of moi.

Please advise as to your personal preference, dis- and/or agreement, and the time and place for the duel between myself and this “friend” that is now clearly inevitable.

Yours eternal,
K. (et F.L.)

F.L. Refers to my cat, or my stomach. I forget which. Further, it’s a reference to “Fat Louie” from The Princess Diaries.

Improvement

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:02:00 -0600

It’s nice to know that while I don’t consider myself a good writer now, I have improved by leaps and bounds since high school. Check out this less-than-stunning example from Spring semester 1999 (my sophomore year):

Question: In what way did this story (“The Girl”) engage your emotions?

“The Girl” is indeed a very disturbing story. Right from the start the reader sees the very dark and dismal setting of the story. The girl begins her day by washing her face with “obedience soap,” brushing her hair with “the hairbrush of order and propriety,” and by putting on her uniform of “mild sameness, and shoes that make no noise.” These statements alone bring feelings spiraling downward. As the girl goes off to school the reader sees that the whole neighborhood, conforms to the same dull dress and text books that the girl has. This is an incredibly depressing thought, a glimpse of how imperfect perfection is. These children live in a world where they are practically perfect in every way, however everything about their perfection is so dull and drab, that there is no happiness.

I am extremely saddened to think that school might one day become like this. It is even moreso saddening to read, and agree with the authors thought that school in a way has already become this way. The storyline of “The Girl” plays greatly on the hate for school that the average student has. This is not a hate of education but perhaps a hate for one’s peers and teachers. How we must conform to expectations of social groups, parents, and teachers, is what I see represented in the dull world of “The Girl.” To know that this is what the world has become is most depressing of all.

I delighted in the unconscious reflex to edit 85% of this. But edit it I did not. Apparently I had no fucking clue where commas went.

So, I loved it, despite the bad reviews, despite it’s weak...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:55:00 -0600

So, I loved it, despite the bad reviews, despite it’s weak points. I. Loved. It.

Maybe it’s because I have always loved the X-files. Even when it disappointed or scared the shit out of me, I kept going back, year after year. The show remains my favorite TV series, and this movie—like the last, but in a more monster-of-the-week way—plays exactly like an extra-long episode of my beloved series.

Irrespective of the plot, “I Want to Believe” is a perfect rendition of the thing I always wish for at the end of any book(s) or movie(s) I’ve really loved—a peering into the future. (This is why I liked the Deathly Hallows epilogue, even though I don’t think it was very good or necessary).

I stole my view tonight, but I’ll definitely be buying a copy. Plus this makes me want to go back and finish viewing the latter parts of the series where I just couldn’t stay engaged.

Just like mom used to make. I’ve forgotten how immersive...

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:24:00 -0600

Just like mom used to make. I’ve forgotten how immersive old pixellated graphics can be. I mean, I totally am the Avatar. After I figured out how to move around and crap.

Ultima VIII is primarily mouse-driven.

Your hands and eyes are controlled by the left mouse button.

Your feet are controlled by the right mouse button.

You’d think that would make it easy, like Diablo, but it does not. At least not at first.

MOVEMENT

Without pressing either button, move the cursor around the screen.

Notice that the mouse pointer has three lengths.

Jumping
You can jump nearly half your height to climb taller objects - but you cannot climb some things such as most vegetation, sharp objects and the highest mountain ledges.

When the arrow is short, try clicking both buttons simultaneously.

You jump in place if there were a ledge or something overhead to grab, you would grab it and pull yourself up

With a medium arrow (pointing any direction), try clicking both buttons.

You jump forward

There are at least two more pages of this….

I included the info box just to show how old this game is. I’ve owned it on an Ultima compendium CD since about 1998, and I’ve tried to play it twice since then, maybe this time I’ll really go for it.

Ultimate Irony: Playing Ultima VIII—which I have owned at least...

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:54:00 -0600

Ultimate Irony: Playing Ultima VIII—which I have owned at least since 1998 and never previously been able to play with sound, nor ever completed the game—on an iMac.

Irony: Playing an Infocom game on an iMac.

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:52:31 -0600

Irony: Playing an Infocom game on an iMac.

Tattooist embroiled in a row with a teenage girl who claims he tattooed 56 stars on her face when she only asked for three... | Mail Online

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:02:00 -0600

Tattooist embroiled in a row with a teenage girl who claims he tattooed 56 stars on her face when she only asked for three... | Mail Online:

Key Points:

“The trouble all started when she went home and her father and boyfriend threw a fit.” This about sums it up for me.
She claims: “I think he didn’t understand what I wanted. He spoke only fractured English and French.” In Belgium they speak Dutch, French, and German… I find it difficult she’d go forward with the procedure if she felt he didn’t understand her.
The best reader comment: “It is very easy to find out who isn’t telling the truth — just check the bill how much she paid and how much it cost to tatoo 1 star. Simple!”

I take back all my bitching about OS X, some good hearted person...

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:37:41 -0600

I take back all my bitching about OS X, some good hearted person made a port of the same SANE scanner software that is standard fare on Linux. So the above is a shot of me using his software to test scan the cover of my old FF7 for Windows game directly into Photoshop.

TWAIN SANE Interface for MacOS X : “This is a TWAIN datasource for MacOS X that aquires images using the SANE backend libraries. The SANE backend libraries provide access to a large range of scanners connected through SCSI or USB.”

Works like a charm.

Poor Frank’s fat cheek. He got out the other night and...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:13:00 -0600

Poor Frank’s fat cheek. He got out the other night and came home bleeding on the left side of his jaw. Tonight he’s got this big swollen face. :-(

Want.

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:31:00 -0600

Want.

Software Tyranny!! The above was scanned for FREE (as in beer,...

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:08:00 -0600

Software Tyranny!!

The above was scanned for FREE (as in beer, and as in freedom) on my laptop, running Linux with Xsane scanner software. The below was scanned using OS X “Leopard”. In OS X, I was not able to use the scanner without trying out a demo for Silverfast for Scanners by LaserSoft Imaging®.

I think the use of the ® should say it all. They wanted like $30 for the full version, and if not, they do the below bullshit to every image you scan.

Needless to say, that shit pisses me off.