Stolen from krischan

That would be 23 out of 25 since it doesn't give the actual score.

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Take the quiz.
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( See mdmoya's results. )

( More memage )

Hijacked from rjmoya
( Meme )

Alright, fine, I'll update. But I have nothing to say about my life, so you get this awesome survey. Ganked from rjmoya

( Survey thingy )

Current Mood: indifferent

Hi there. It's been about a gazillion years since I've updated this thing. Since my newfangled website hit, I haven't been keeping you guys up to date. Sorry about that. And I probably wouldn't have updated here tonight, but my site is currently down. So yes, you're getting the "Dammit, I can't update my site, I guess I'll do it over here" post. For those of you (or would that be "that of you?") that frequent my site, you know I've been slow to update that lately too. For those of you that don't frequent my site, here's a quick recap of why I hadn't been updating lately.

I got voted in to basically re-code a program that they wanted us to start using at work that wasn't functional the way we needed it to be. I spent many overtime hours working on that from home for over a month, therefore neglecting all internet-related requirements. Hey, I said it would be a quick recap.

So since that finished, I've still continued to neglect my posting habits, and as there is a good explanation, it's not good enough. So after the last project, they decided that I was the best HTML coder in the building. Therefore, I've been placed into a position to create/implement a B2B site for all the computers and accessories that we sell. You know, bringing the company into the 21st century. Did I mention that we do all computer sales and support for 2 major national labs? Ironic, eh? Anyway, so I'm now trying to take information from head honchos at one lab and implement their ideas into a B2B page for their purchases. And after that, I'm going to have to make the service (IT, Support, whatever you want to call it) page all newfangled too. Now, luckily for me, this won't take up nearly as much of my away-from-work time as the last project did, and I'm not under such a tight deadline. Although all of this on top of my usual work is a bit annoying.

The positive part of the whole situation is the great things I can add to my resume. Being at this job for 11 months now, I've already been able to add three huge benefits, simply by doing the job I was hired to do. Beyond the two I've already mentioned, the third would be the fact that I, along with 4 (sometimes 5) others, built the 5th fastest supercomputer from the ground up (that doesn't include the installation or anything, but physically building it). By the way, that processor count is now up to 8800.

So, for those of you that care why I've been gone, and even for those of you that haven't really noticed, there is my reasoning. I am actually starting to get some time to actually do other stuff than work after work is over, so it's really nice. I forgot how nice it actually was to have a life. Now, I just have to get to calling a few other people that I haven't talked to in a long time.

So congratulations to all, you received a new post from me. Don't get too used to it, because like I said, I haven't been posting to my own blog, much less here. Maybe one of these days I'll just break down and use LJ as my blog like rjmoya does, and implement it into my own site the same way. I'm looking to get away from Nucleus anyway. I just don't like paying for that ability. Although it'd make it a hell of a lot easier for me to keep you guys in the loop. We'll see. But for now, bed time.

Jacked from rjmoya

( Random meme because I'm bored )

Snagged from sctrojangal

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Joinked from katilo
Bold = Read

The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Wow, most of those were books I read in middle or high school.

If there is at least one person in your life whom you consider a close friend, and whom you would not have met without the Internet, post this sentence in your journal.

( Stolen )

I posted this over at my other blog, but I figured more people might read it here. It's just a rant.

A recent article at CNN.com goes into a new feature that TiVo is rolling out soon. Basically what's going to happen is TiVo sells space to advertisers where if you're fast forwarding or rewinding through a program it will bring up some advertising information. Now, TiVo has had similar things implemented previously where if you're watching a commercial you'll see a blurb in the upper right that says "Press Thumbs Up for more..." Basically that's similar to what's going to happen here, except it's going to happen while fast forwarding or rewinding.

Since the press release that this was going to happen, consumers have gone into an uproar over how this invades their ability to watch TV the way they want to, and that they are now forced to watch commercials that they could normally fast forward through.

The aforementioned article talks about how we're forcing them to watch about 4 seconds of ads while fast forwarding through a 30 second spot. There are a few inaccuracies in this statement. If you're fast forwarding at the fastest speed (60X speed), you typically get through a 30 second spot in 1/60th of 30 seconds, or (for you math majors out there) about 1/2 second.

So why would a company like TiVo change that ability, in other words, slowing down your fast forward just to show you a little more time of the ad? Yes, advertising is important. TiVo has not made a profit yet, selling their service at $12.95/month. This is far less than it costs to provide the service, but they do it anyway. Their units have gone down to anywhere between $99 and $299, which is also far less than it costs to manufacture. And on top of that, if you have more than one TiVo on your account, your 2nd through 5th TiVos would be only $6.95/month for service. So how can they make a profit? Advertising. It makes sense.

But TiVo's motto is "TV Your Way." Yes, the ads that the company paid for will show up on the screen as you're fast forwarding, but it does not slow down your fast forwarding. If the commercial would normally go by in 1/2 second, that's how long the ad will show up on the screen. If you're interested in more information, you can get it, but you aren't forced into it at all. I've seen this in action and I have to tell you, it's no more intrusive than the normal "Press Thumbs Up for more..." icons that show up during commercials now.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand why people are upset about this, but the point is that no one really understands how this new process works.

I mean, the point is, you're fast forwarding through the commercials, obviously you don't want to see them anyway, so if an ad shows up while fast forwarding, what does it matter? You're going past it really fast anyway because you didn't want to watch it, so you don't have to pay any attention to the extra content being advertised either.

I'm going to end this rant now that I've gotten this off my chest. It just bothers me when people meddle in things they don't understand. As goes the great quote from The Hudsucker Proxy, "Only a fool thinks he knows something about something he knows nothing about."

Current Mood: annoyed

So over the last couple of weeks (3 days total, but they were spread out over 2 weeks) I decided a couple of things. 1) I really like posting stuff in my LJ, but I never do it, and 2) I haven't played with making a web page in a long time, and 3) the webspace that was purchased for Chris' band is wasting away doing nothing because he is no longer with that band. So I decided that the three of these had something in common. I decided that I liked the way rjmoya used MovableType at LazarusWorld. I didn't want to try to implement it though, so while I was watching The Screen Savers, I saw that one of the hosts has a website at KevinRose.com and he's using something called pMachine to do a similar thing. I looked into it, and the company that does the webhosting for AMP has a tool that automatically implements pMachine into the site. So I set that all up, and played around with the CSS and HTML until I got what I wanted. I realized that the site would be a lot more interesting if I was able to allow other people to create posts too, and realized that this is actually possible. So basically I created a blog in the unused webspace and set it up so that anyone can post there, not just me. One of my friends helped me out with color schemes and ideas of what it should look like during that time, and so now it's up and running. I will still be posting here, but as you can tell I don't do it often. So basically I just wanted to let you all know about what I did, just in case you care at all. The blog is up at http://ampmusic.net/blog/weblog.php.

Wow, there's a bunch of links in this post.

The Merriam-Webster website has the Word of the Year posted, based on online searches from the site. I personally like number 10. I think I have to start using this in everyday speech.
Defenestration - a throwing of a person or thing out of a window

Current Mood: amused

In case you haven't seen this yet, it's very amusing.

Current Mood: pleased

Uh . . . . . . .

Your Livejournal Blind Date
LJ Username
Gender	malefemaleneuterother
Favorite Color	blackwhiteredyellowgreenbluepurplesilvergoldfire
What you are wearing
Oh look! Your blind date is	roudabush
Your date is wearing	tin foil
You dine	at McDonalds
Then you spend the next three hours	sitting in complete silence
Before taking you home, your date gives you	a spanking
This makes you feel	great shame
This quiz by sarcasticka - Taken 28132 Times. </a>

New! Get Free Daily Horoscopes from Kwiz.Biz

Current Mood: amused

So I had a birthday yesterday. Have one every year, in fact. Having birthdays is cool because you get stuff that you want without having to pay for them. I sound like I'm all about material possesions, but I'm not, I'm just excited about the stuff I got. Anyway, I better post this before I get in trouble again for being on a non-work-related site. Grr.
( Pictures of my stuff )

Current Mood: tired

My friend Alfred got in an accident the other day. He was sick and leaving work (which is a long way from the city) heading to a doctor's appointment when he blacked out on the freeway. He woke up as his truck hit the rumble strips along the side of the freeway. When he woke up, he overcorrected and ended up going back across 3 lanes of traffic (missing all vehicles on the way). He hit the other side of the freeway and his truck went into a roll. His truck rolled for 1/8th of a mile off the freeway. At that point, he noticed what he thought was smoke in the truck, so he climbed out through the driver's side window, reached in and grabbed his phone and called 911. Turns out the "smoke" was just dust from the airbag, and he only ended up with bruises and a few cuts. He was only in the hospital for 5 hours, but the ambulance people said he should have died in the crash. It's amazing what almost losing a friend (even if you don't talk to them very often) can do to you. I haven't been very in touch with people lately, but I will definitely be talking to more people now. As if I hadn't figured that out with all the crap that happened with me over the last few years, it's even more prominant (sp?) now. For instance, I was supposed to call my brother last week and I had a little too much on my plate with my bank account being used by someone I don't know, I had to try to get that figured out the day I was supposed to see my brother. But then I spaced calling him back, and when he left me a message I deleted it and forgot to call him back because of all the other stuff going on. I feel like a horrible person and I will definitely be seeing my friends and family more often now. I really could go on for another page or two about how I have realized the meaning of talking with people you love very often, not just from this wreck, but from everything over the last few years, my grandfather's heart-attack, the lack of being able to talk to people because of my over-controlling ex, etc, but I think I will stop here, as you probably know what I'm talking about.
( Picture of the truck )