Ivo Janssen

"Well, let's make a list of things that came alive after being struck by lightning."

DNA Lounge update, wherein we network with a socialness.

Why is it that when strangers hear my accent they immediately ask how I'm going to vote? I don't know these people! Like I'm going to share that information with you! and the thing is, They always ask something stupid like: Are you going to vote for the Black Guy or the White woman? My response usually to ignore their uninformed knowledge of the primaries and just say: "Well, I vote for the candidate that most closely resembles my views." They respond with "oh, so you must be a xyz (insert stupid party here) supporter"

Why are these STRANGERS asking me these stupid questions? I'm determined that the next time someone asks me I'm going to tell them that I am sorry, but I don't know them well enough to discuss politics. In other words: MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS!

Americans don't ask random American strangers what they think about politics until you're no longer a stranger... Why should I tell a Kiwi?

When I was travelling I got so much flak for being from America/Texas that I sometimes avoided it entirely by telling them I was Canadian. Greg has given me official Canadian permission to do this now.

In as little as two days, four complete strangers approached me about this. I'm losing my patience with them.

http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/002508.html

Though The TV Show That Shall Remain Unnamed threatened to derail it for a few weeks, the AFI 100 Project continues apace.

The Bridge On the River Kwai: Ah man, this movie has everything: war and valor and girls and adventure and crazy plans and Obi Wan Kenobi. I thought it was good-but-not-great until the midway point, when our plucky band of heroes bifurcates into two groups, who spend the remainder of the film striving for diametrically opposed goals (one wants to build the titular bridge, the other endeavors to blow the mofo up). Modern Hollywood could never make a movie like Kwai, one in which the audience has absolutely no idea who the hell to root for. I had my doubts that any ending could live up to the fantastic premise, and was pleasantly surprised when they pulled it off. Hornswoggling myself into watching movies like this is why I started the AFI 100 Project in the first place. 9/10.

Nashville: I'm a big fan of a number of Robert Altman movies (Short Cuts and The Player foremost among them), and always defended the director against accusation that his films were unnecessarily long, rambling, and as uneven as the horizon of a Lunar Lander game. And do you know why I stuck up for Altman? Because I'd never seen Nashville. Now, having done so ... yeah, okay, I guess I can see their point. In the hands of a good film editor, Nashville could have been a fantastic 100 minute flick, but the other 60 minutes is something of a drag. Protip: the point of having your actors ad lib their scenes to to keep the great, spontaneous, authentic moments and shitcan the rest, not to just spice the whole kit and caboodle into your already overlong opus. Not bad, and Altman's genius is apparent throughout, but a pair of lopping shears short of greatness. 7/10

Am I being singled out, or is there a new plague of AIM bots going around? I used to get prodded by these stupid things every couple of weeks, but I've blocked a dozen of them in the last week. This time it's usually a bot with "salmon" in its name.

2200 miles in a Beechcraft Baron last weekend.


Pictures

"Hey Ben if you are looking for some excitement this afternoon, you want to help me pick up chicks?"

Bob of course was asking me if I wanted to help round up week ol pheasant, but still. :)

This is surreal. The building that I looked at for many years sitting in my office on the 14th floor of the EE building is no more. A short-circuit caused a major fire, ending in the partial collapse of the building. Many of my architecture college friends went to college in that building.

Here's the view from the 14th floor (it's the building on the right):


This is a video of the building's collapse:

http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/002507.html

A new poll was taken during Tuesday's primaries, in which half of all Democratic voters said that, if their preferred candidate does not win the nomination, they will vote for McCain in the general election instead.

Honestly, I don't find those results surprising at all. I've long suspected that 50% of Democrats, if not more, are liars.

http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/002506.html

<http://www.funagain.com/control/product/~product_id=015615/~affil=yeti''></a>I haven't reviewed many new board games recently because ... well, becauseI haven't played many new board games recently. I have a To Buy list of titles I hope to pick up soon, but I am currently unable to obtain any of them for one reason (Pandemic is out of stock) or another (Agricola is on preorder</a>) or another (Age of Steam keeps getting postponed) or another (Conan isn't slated until late summer?! Throw me a frickin bone, here!!).

In the meantime, I have been playing plenty of Twilight Struggle, and I am ready to declare it as my Favorite Game, usurping the title formerly held by Power Grid.

At the time of my initial review Twilight Struggle was out of print, and has been for some time; I just discovered, however, that a third printing has been released, and the game is again available. So if you considered picking up a copy, now's the time to do so.

smason wrote:

I wrote a Missile Command clone for the multi-touch wall at Obscura Digital. Just like the original, except you can fire by touching the wall with your fingers. Save the Golden Gate Bridge from ICBMs. Fun for the whole family!

Amy and I watched a movie on DVD yesterday and the first menu on the DVD was a language selection choice. Something struck me as odd about the list though:

The choice in the lower right is supposed to represent Russian. In the Cyrillic script, Russian is actually written Русский (transliterated as "Russkiy"). The last two letters are ИЙ in upper case and ий in lower case. The weird mirror-image Roman n must have been the result of somebody trying desperately to bash Cyrillic letters into a Roman character set. I can't imagine a system that would render text like that by default, so they must have gone to some manual effort to specifically mirror the n. Madness!

The other letter shapes are all wrong too, especially the k which shouldn't have an ascender.

Anyway, I thought it was amusing. I'll forgive you if you don't.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Dominic/~3/289219044/

Mr. Dom posted a photo:

Strobist info: Shot with 5 lights around the car. 1 Camera left, 2 camera right, 1 above car, one in umbrella as main light. All on 1/4 power, IIRC

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Dominic/~3/289209740/

Mr. Dom posted a photo:

Strobist info: Shot with

Strobist info: Shot

Strobist info: Shot with 5 lights around the car. 1 Camera left, 2 camera right, 1 above car, one in umbrella as main light. All on 1/4 power, IIRC

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Dominic/~3/289207908/house-photos

I’ve finally uploaded photos of the interior of the new house.

Warning, the photos are fairly large, they are panorama shots.

Look here.

I posted most of this as a comment in someone else's LJ who was thinking of buying a bike, but perhaps it is of more general interest.

I've been using a bike as my exclusive transportation in SF for about ten years. I've always ridden, but that's when I stopped driving a car except under extreme duress.

Here's how to begin your adventure as a commuter-bicyclist in San Francisco:

1. Never take bike advice from anyone who owns bike shorts, clip shoes, a messenger bag, or a fixie. That's like taking car advice from someone who enjoys rebuilding carburetors.

   (Update: If you are this person, you need not reply with your indignant "corrections". You are not the person to whom this advice is addressed.)

2. "City bikes" and "road bikes" are designed for some Jetsons-slick hypothetical future city that I've never seen. Or maybe for the bike paths in Los Altos or something. Here in real cities, roads are shit, and if you want your wheels and tires to survive curbs and potholes, you need a hybrid. They're a little heavier and a little slower. Are you racing? No? Then you don't care.

3. So, get the cheapest hybrid you can stand. Shocks are a waste of money. You should be able to get a pretty nice brand new hybrid for $370 or so. You can probably get a used one for a hundred bucks.

4. If you feel like you want a lighter bike so that it's easier to carry up stairs: don't bother. That's optimizing the wrong thing. You'll get used to it (by which I mean: become stronger).

5. Get a bike that's the right size for you, and has properly adjusted handlebars and seat. The shop will adjust it for you. If they won't, or if they tell you it doesn't matter, go to a different shop.

6. Get a u-lock. Lock through the frame and the back wheel. Your bike will be stolen, so don't get too attached to it. This also means, don't waste your money on junk like baskets and lights. Just get a backpack.

   It doesn't matter how crappy your bike looks: any bike is worth stealing for $2 worth of crack. Your bike is temporary. Accept this and move on.

7. I always replace my front wheel and seat quick-releases with $2 worth of hardware store bolts, and then bend the ends over. This might have some negligible effect on theft. I refuse to be one of those people who lugs around 3 chains and disassembles their bike every time they park, so that's the trade-off I make.

8. The bike-nerd at the bike shop will try to give you smooth, high-pressure (110psi+) tires, because they are more efficient. But if you don't air them up weekly or more often, you'll get pinch-flats every time you hit a pothole, which is always. Also, the gas station air pumps often only go up to 60psi anyway. Get knobby low-pressure (60-80psi) tires and they'll last a lot longer. (If you do end up with stupid tires, you might want to get one of these.)

9. Likewise, make sure the tubes you get have the kind of connectors that the gas station air pumps take. Bike shop nerds like to fuck you with goofy connectors sometimes, out of sheer mean-spiritedness.

10. Bike maintenance: don't do it, ever. It's not worth your time. Just take it to the shop. Getting them to replace a flat for you costs $20 and takes 10 minutes, including the tube, and you don't get dirty.

    It's a good idea to know how to change a flat, but why do it yourself when you can pay someone else almost-nothing to get greasy on your behalf?

11. Safety: I follow the Zodiac approach: always assume the cars can see you perfectly, and are trying to kill you. If an intersection seems iffy, use the sidewalk and crosswalks. If big streets like Market and Van Ness freak you out, there are always less traficky ways to go, or just stay on the sidewalks.

    Do whatever you need to do to feel safe. You have nobody to impress.

12. Grocery shopping: yes, you really can do it with a single backpack. The trick is, shop small once a week instead of big once a month.

13. If you try to dangle bags on your handlebars, you will die.

14. Cross train and trolley tracks at a 45° angle or more, or you will die.

15. You really do need to tuck in or roll up your right leg. (You probably won't die, but you'll shred your pants.)

16. You don't need to ride up Haight. Take Fell or Fulton and then go through the Panhandle.

17. The City is only 7 miles across. Nothing is as far away as you think it is.

Update 2: Oh great, here comes the peanut gallery. Thanks, Cory Rob, srsly. I'd recommend against reading the comments here unless you're the type who reads comments on Youtube. Or maybe you just want to hear a bunch of fixie-hipsters with sand in their vaginas tell me how wrong I am and how you should spend a fortune and do all your repairs yourself.

Update 3: After getting 200ish comments on day one, I went through and deleted most of the redundant ones, and most of the ones from butt-hurt bike-nerds and mechanics. I've also turned on comment screening, and won't be approving new comments here unless you really have something new to say.

I'm a little (just a little!) surprised at the level of vitriol this one provoked. It's like I farted in bike-church. You'd think I was making fun of Linux or something.

longa spertaro
kies fino surprize
melankolias

Any local Austinites interested in an old basketball backboard hoop with chain net? You'll just need to install some kind of permanent vertical post in your ground someplace, and then you can mount this backboard to it.

Cowhouse came with one installed in the front driveway, but I have no use for it so I took it down.

I'll probably post this on Craigslist in a few days if no one's interested, but I wanted to give the people who know me a chance to claim it first.

I've been home sick with a cold all weekend. Yesterday morning it was bright and sunny and I was grumbling about how it always seems to be nice weather outside when I'm feeling under the weather inside. A friend who was out for a walk stopped by for a cup of tea. Just minutes after she left, I heard some raindrops on the roof. It quickly got stronger, and suddenly exploded into a full-blown downpour mixed with pea-sized hail. Amy jumped in the car to go find our friend (who we knew didn't have a hat or umbrella with her) and gave her a ride the rest of the way home.

Later on I looked back at my temperature logger for the day:

That's a sudden drop from about 14°C (57°F) to 8°C (46°F) in a matter of minutes. The surprising thing was how quickly the temperature recovered after the storm cloud passed over. If you remove the section from 12pm to 2pm, it's as though the storm never happened!