Fire Will Rain Down From the Sky

Rorschach

2009-03-08T22:14:04Z

I looked at the Rorschach ink blots (actually, just the outlines; thanks lara7), and here are my interpretations (you may want to view them yourself first):

1. Horrible spider-monster with wings.
2. Funny old man with sad eyes, or an owl.
3. Chickens seated facing each other, having a tea party. Cherubim flying behind their heads.
4. A chicken or turkey, laid open for stuffing/cooking.
5. A Moth-Man super-hero. Sorta reminds me of The Tick, if he had wings.
6. OK, honestly, first reaction was a cock on a throne, wearing royal finery (like the "peacock" gown Queen Elizabeth wore in Shakespeare in Love). 2nd response was sword in a stone.
7. Little girls with braids in the air, making kissy face at each other.
8. Some sort of bad-ass beetle warrior mask.
9. A wolf-man wearing headphones, as seen from behind.
10. Crabs dancing in a circle, celebrating Spring. Like Botticeli's Primavera.

Hood

2009-02-28T06:24:16Z

Tonight after work I swung by the disappointing-neighborhood-grocery-store ($6 hot dogs that expired two weeks ago, for example). The clerk who rang me up asked if I heard the gunshots today.

"Again?"

She thought that was pretty funny.

Apparently a guy was shot on the street around 3pm, and the shooter hid in the grocery store. The checker (a young, 6-month's pregnant woman) saw him run in with a gun. "I almost dug a hole in the floor!"

The cops caught a suspect, for once. None of this made the local news, as usual.

Also today, the East Precinct fired their community outreach officer. Cost-cutting. The other precincts keep theirs. Because, God knows, Queen Anne and Wallingford need more police/citizen interaction than the CD.

agentcooper @ 2009-01-08T15:30:00

2009-01-08T23:33:16Z

This comment at Mini-Microsoft's blog is a very fair description of the difference between Microsoft and other tech companies:

The problem is that every Microsoft employee is much too "empowered." Everybody is a little dynamo of chaos. There can be no overarching architecture or design of a product because any employee is "empowered" to rewrite a spec or a feature's code as they see fit, and if nobody complains strenuously enough, the change just stays put.

Not only is this behavior allowed, it's required. Being good at your job and doing the work you're assigned is a quick way to get fired (Kimmed). You have to keep increasing your "scope" and "influence" and "impact"--meaning make a bunch of decisions and changes to stuff where you're probably not the best person to be doing so.

Every Microsoft product is a result of everybody on the team just doing "whatever" for a few years, and it shows.

Operation: Hamburger Airdrop

2008-12-27T21:26:25Z

Jesus, Mary, Mother of God. Witness Burger King's pathetic P.R. hunt for people on Earth who have not yet tasted a hamburger.

Care Packages for Troops

2008-12-23T20:55:42Z

I'd been wanting to send care packages to troops, but realized a couple weeks ago that it was too late for Christmas.

But then Michelle Obama sent email linking to the E-Z donation page for our USO Care Package program. This is an on-going program that hands out mini-care-packages to troops (mostly when they deploy overseas or come back from R&R).

Calling cards, toiletries, snacks, playing cards, reading material - sometimes toys. Not exactly a Red Ryder BB Gun on Christmas morning. But I remember how much I appreciated a care package my girlfriend's family sent me in college. I was dirt-poor and struggling, and getting a box full of Pringles, peanuts, soap, and quarters for laundry made my year.

Unfortunately, disgustingly, the DoD no longer permits sending hand-packed items to "Any Service Member." Because, you know, weaponized anthrax is so easy to come by. Imagine the loss of human contact, just to prevent a theoretical death or two. For people fighting a war!!!

Go Team Obama.

I'm Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (MC2) Matthew Leistikow. I received one of your care packages from Operation USO Care Package. You have no idea how much it means to the Sailors at sea to know that people support what we do. Two things mean more to me about my job than anything else, knowing how what I do helps our nation, and knowing my nation appreciates what we're doing. I truly love what I do every day and even when it's not so fun, knowing we have your support is a LARGE factor in helping me get through my day.

MC2 Matthew D. Leistikow
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower

I just wanted to take the time to tell you and your staff how much we appreciate the care packages handed out to us. They sure do come in handy with everything being useful.

SFC Rodriguez

I just wanted to thank you for the USO care package. I received mine at Christmas and I appreciate the gifts, especially the Gatorade!

Thanks again,
LTJG Melissa Huska
CGC MIDGETT

The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers

2008-12-23T05:04:44Z

I'm seeing someone, and it's gotten pretty serious pretty fast. My first thought was, "I've gotta get into therapy, before I fuck this up!"

I'm cautious, but happy. She's smart, pretty, outgoing, snugly, and cheerful to the bone; a Tigger to my Charlie Brown.

She's a doctor; well-developed compassion paired with clinical pragmatism.

She once messaged me from the O.R.: "I'm so in love with you! Perhaps my happiness is inappropriate; I'm doing an organ harvest right now. It's a fascinating procedure! Can't wait to tell you about it."

A keeper, for sure.

Her cheerful agreeableness is juxtaposed with my neurotic angst. I worry it'll cause friction, but she seems to like my faults. I think I spew uneasy disquietude; she thinks I'm complicated and frank. Maybe we go together like sugar and salt? Anyhow, between us both there seems to be enough willingness, joie de vivre, intelligence, patience, and love to go around.

Half-way through our first date I had decided it wasn't going to work out. "Smile and make conversation, grab the check, get on with life." I had a list of little reasons: she was too stable and "good" (drugs: never; running: daily), a church-goer (Unitarian), wanted kids, not my type. I've always seen myself with a driven, conflicted woman with caustic attitude. Dorothy Parker meets Jennifer Jason Leigh, with a splash of Tina Fey?

Also she seemed to be probing me, and I judged by her body language that I wasn't satisfying enough check-boxes.

But there was never an awkward silence. That's key, I think. After enough wine we both relaxed. She offered me a ride home. "A drunk-driving-doctor - that's a good one."

"I'm not drunk!"

"OK then. Well, if we die..." and I slid my arms around her waist and kissed her. She said, "...squish!"

Seven weeks later we went to Maui together. Rented a Mustang convertible (named "Rose") and a condo on the beach. We swam in the ocean every day; she taught me how to say "humuhumunukunukuapua'a" ("triggerfish with snout like a pig").

Life is good.

Googly-Eyed

2008-12-12T02:41:03Z

Well, Google clearly has too much money. They Street-Viewed my home town in bumfuck, Montana.

Here's the house I lived in during high school (much the worse for wear).

The shed where I had my first kiss is gone. The house behind us seems to have burned down. My family, of course, is scattered and changed in ways unimaginable at the time.

How very, very far I've come. I suppose it's good to be reminded from time to time.

Agent of the apparatus

2008-12-10T20:17:27Z

The majority of my job, now, is providing tech support and guidance to engineers in India, who have taken over everything I used to do.

But what really blows my mind is their insane bureaucracy.

They needed an SD memory card, like you'd use in a digital camera. To bring one into the building they had to email my boss in Redmond for permission. Then they needed permission from their project manager. They had to register the SD card with an "intake manager." They had to indicate they'd be using it for approximately one year. They're subject to regular search on entry/exit to ensure the card never leaves the building.

Un-fucking-believable.

I have my own sordid involvement in the gumming of the gears. I am an apparatchik.

I spend most of my time double-checking their work. Which means quickly, deeply, and simultaneously understanding five or six technical investigations. Just so I can have the background to judge their decisions as correct or needing improvement. I could do all the same work for LESS EFFORT.

After six months, I have no confidence that I can allow any of them to touch our product without supervision. They work very hard, they just don't have adequate problem-solving and decision-making skills. They don't make progress. Or they provide bad quick-fixes.

My boss flew to India for a tour. "Outsourcing is what their company does, their bread and butter." 100,000 employees. Each person gets three months of post-university bootcamp and has to pass aptitude tests. "They're young; they don't have families; they work crazy hours; they're married to their jobs."

He doesn't understand why they're unproductive; he shoots a glance at me.

Instincts

2008-11-16T20:42:35Z

Well, at least my photographic instincts seem to be "correct." As judged by comparing my photos to what ran in the Seattle Times and the Post-Intelligencer:

Pix

2008-11-16T19:53:26Z

Two more photos from the protest march yesterday:

And a possibly-NSFW nude behind the cut.

This woman was on her balcony at those round tower apartments by the Paramount Theater. She got a lot of attention and shouting from the crowds below.

I know it's a boring/grainy shot. But, happy boobs must be shared with the world.

Protesting California Proposition 8

2008-11-16T18:55:09Z

There was a large protest yesterday against California's ban on gay marriage. A rally in Volunteer Park followed by a march through Capitol Hill to downtown. Josh and I grabbed our camera bags and made a day of it.

Rallies are pretty frustrating to shoot. It's hard to capture a bunch of people standing around; it's visually messy, like a drawer full of loose junk. You have to snatch details from the noise. Also, people listening to speeches are boring.

You have to wait for the reaction shot, or the kissing or dancing or gesticulating. (If you have a press pass you get on stage and shoot over the Mayor's shoulder.)

Parades are a little more fun. Dynamic. I did a lot of jogging: race ahead of the crowd, snap off 10, climb a lamp post, snap off 10, run two blocks and up a flight of stairs, SnapSnapSnap. All the while watching for where the crowd will be in sunlight or shadow, looking for people worth separating from the noise, composing shots 5 or 10 seconds before they happen.

I had my 20D on one shoulder and my 5D on the other, and used three different lenses. In the end, my new 24-105 proved itself nicely. Very sharp and contrasty. Great lens.

Presidency forever alters Obama's daily life

2008-11-14T21:32:07Z

Fun little article in The Times about impact on Obama's life.

A property manager trying to rent $750-a-month apartments three doors down from the Obamas said, “The day after he made his speech in Grant Park, things changed dramatically. Before they had Chicago police around his house and it was barricaded. The day he became president-elect, they moved the barricades three blocks out.”

For Mr. Obama, it means no more casually stopping by the Medici for pastries or heading over to Valois for lunch or window shopping with the girls at 57th Street Books, at least not without elaborate preparation.

The Obamas have been going to Spiaggia with its lakefront view for years for what they call “date night,” including on their anniversary last month and Michelle’s birthday earlier this year. “It’s always just the two of them,” said Tony Mantuano, the chef and co-owner. “Now it’s just the two of them and 30 Secret Service agents.”

agentcooper @ 2008-11-13T23:15:00

2008-11-14T07:17:31Z

"I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself - so like a brother, really - I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again."

- The Stranger

I don't always agree with Camus, but I revel in his writing.

Nice

2008-11-13T22:01:31Z

Fuck this neighborhood.

2008-10-27T08:05:29Z

It had been itching at me for who knows how long. Weeks? Suddenly, lying in bed at 1am, I realized what has been missing every day as I leave for work, every night as I come home. I pulled on some shorts and stepped outside.

Someone stole the garden hose from my front yard. Including the storage case and nozzle. I'm out $125. Unbelievable cunts.

Wassup 2008

2008-10-25T19:26:16Z

You remember the "Wassup?!" commercials. Well, the boys are back and this time it's brilliant. I don't want to ruin the ending, but you go watch now! I laughed so hard.

high-res version

Low-res YouTube:

Two more weeks!!

Headshot

2008-10-22T07:43:55Z

Just noodling around with my new 24-105 lens tonight. I also got a hair cut and touch of blond on Friday.

In general, I really like how I look in this photo. (white balance and wall color aside)

Four Weeks

2008-10-10T06:53:01Z

Anybody who got whacked last week and still thinks McCain-Palin is going to lead us out of the swamp and not into a war with Iran is beyond persuasion in the English language. They'll need to lose their homes and be out on the street in a cold hard rain before they connect the dots.

- Garrison Keillor

Yip yip yip yip brrrrring! Brrrrring!

2008-10-07T06:41:29Z

Dream Ticket

2008-09-21T19:17:38Z

Maureen Dowd (or is it Aaron Sorkin?) has a good one in today's Times. A fictional conversation between Obama and President Bartlet, from The West Wing:

OBAMA When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

...

BARTLET Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. [...] And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?

BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?

Bachelor Pad

2008-09-21T02:43:57Z

My Polish movie posters have arrived. I underestimated how much it would cost to frame these bad boys (using UV-resistant acid-free materials). Final cost: several hundreds of dollars.

Having a dorky bachellor pad: priceless.

Here they are, in the frames I selected:

Not sure where to hang the Empire poster. It's sort of awful. Unfortunately too large for my office.

Purity of Essence

2008-09-08T05:07:58Z

wasta returned home tonight from Portland, and the first words out of his mouth were, "Do you have a shovel?"

".... No.... Why do you need a shovel?"

"There's a dead cat outside. Hit by a car."

The King County website informed us that animals of that size are to be disposed of in the household garbage. So, unfortunately, there it lays - triple-bagged.

wasta wanted to just move it from street to lawn and leave it for the owners to find. But I don't think my neighbors would appreciate a dead cat on their lawn, and I wasn't going to place it on mine. If signs go up or anyone comes asking, at least we can tell them the cat met a certain end.

My heart went out to it when I saw the little tyke. Even from 20 feet it was a sad bundle. Tiny, white, beautiful, intact, with it's little pink tongue sticking out between it's teeth. We bagged it and I thought, "Jesus, I don't know if I should say a little cat prayer, or name it, or baptize it, or what."

Poor little cat.

Game Over

2008-09-07T04:59:58Z

After 11 months, I've finished UW's Game Development certificate. I'm not sure what I'll do now, with 20 hours a week returned to me. Probably hit the bottle.

My FPS (called Point Force for now) supports network play with up to 16 people, and unlimited bots. You can kill people and they can kill you, but that's about it.

So much left to do:
. Dynamic UI
. Menu system
. Power-ups and other triggers
. Dynamic world (doors, traps, ...)
. Integration w/ a real level editor

Zing!

2008-09-05T15:49:49Z

Propaganda

2008-08-29T06:55:27Z

Dude. Your face, in a Chinese propaganda oil painting:

It's only a matter of time. I LOVE communist propaganda posters; I'd wallpaper my house with them.