Friday 5

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Feb 272004
 

Looks like fridayfive.org is taking the week off, so here’s a random selection from their archives (February 21, 2003):

1. What is your most prized material possession?
Either my computer or my car. The computer because of the time invested into it…the car due to the money.

2. What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest?
Well, I’m wearing a polo shirt that dates at least to freshman year of college today. :) Electronic stuff…the TV is 5 years old…my car is 3 years old, my computer is 2 years old.

3. Are you a packrat?
In some ways yes…but it’s usually out of laziness than being a packrat.

4. Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum?
I prefer a little bit. But, sometimes I’m not too motivated, and I end up with more than a little clutter.

5. Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there?
Well, because I’m in a temporary apartment, it’s a mix of the stuff that was there and my things. I like a mix of classic (hardwood floors, club-style leather sofas, Oriental rugs) and modern (as in not too frilly-looking stuff – Mission-style furniture is what I’d prefer).

Feb 272004
 

Ok, this just struck me as funny…over on the right hand side of this page, you can see a section that says “Recent Google queries that led here” – I have a little hack which recognizes when you come to see me via Google, and tells what you searched for.

Someone got here via searching for “picture of Ben Johnson who is a Canadian sprinter”. I come in as the number 2 result by virtue of saying:

Maybe you’re wondering to yourself, “Who is this Ben Johnson guy?” Well … I am not related to the notorious Canadian sprinter …

Maybe Google needs to figure how how to parse natural language queries. Or, the person searching should have used Google’s image search tool.

Feb 262004
 

I came across this rather funny article about California’s perception of the rest of the U.S.

Of course, other places in the US have the same problem. When I went to college at UIUC, I think a few people in my dorm freshman year didn’t realize there’s a lot of Illinois which is south of I-80. Glen Carbon is not next to Naperville, folks. Get on I-55 and drive 4 hours. Then you have the conversation that goes like this:

Me: Where’re you from?
Them: Chicago.
Me: Cool, what neighborhood?
Them: Aurora.

(For those unfamiliar with Chicago, Aurora is one of the far western suburbs…call it 30 miles out. In terms a Californian would understand, it would be a resident of somewhere like Mountain View saying they lived in San Francisco.)

 

Ok, so it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve put anything really substantial on here. I know, I’m a slacker. I’ve been coming in at 3-4am the past couple days for a couple plant trials, so I’m taking advantage of a little quiet time to catch up on things.

So, what have I been doing? Well, a fair amount of PGA Tour 2004. :) Like I quoted Jake previously, it is like video crack. I beat Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach. I shot an 18-under par round from the black tees. I’ve had 5 aces.

As far as real stuff, I’ve rounded up a couple groomsmen for the wedding, started building my new headphone amp, and I took a trip down to see Marcie…we went to Nashville for the weekend – ended up driving to Lynchburg to check out the Jack Daniel’s distillery. It’s kind of funny to have one of the most well-known brands of whiskey made in a dry county. The distillery is really a pretty interesting operation…the pace of things is a lot different from Kraft, for sure. I picked up a bottle of the Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel (their answer to a single-malt Scotch). Maybe I’ll crack that open tonight and sample it. It’s aged another year or two beyond regular Jack, so it’ll be interesting to see how much better it gets.

Also, we saw LOTR: Return of the King on an IMAX screen in Nashville. It was good to see the movie again, but I was expecting a little more bang out of it…it looked like they just took the exact same 35mm print and ran it on the giant screen. The picture certainly could’ve been sharper, but overall, still fun to see. Marcie actually stayed awake the whole time, after taking 2 or three tries to get through The Two Towers. :)

Friday 5

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Feb 202004
 

When was the last time you…

1. …went to the doctor?
Umm…probably when I was 18 or so?

2. …went to the dentist?
No comment :) I am going soon though…

3. …filled your gas tank?
A couple days ago (Monday, maybe?)

4. …got enough sleep?
Not this week…I’ve been doing 3rd shift the past couple days (it’s 6:40am and I’ve already been here a while!). Probably sometime last week I had one good night of sleep.

5. …backed up your computer?
Real men don’t need backups. :) Actually, all my absolutely unreplaceable stuff (photos) I backed up a month or so ago.

 

“Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is like video crack.” –Jake
“If I’m not at the office tomorrow, come over and pry the controller out of my hands” –Me

This is a seriously addictive game, people. If you have free time in your schedule, block it all off now…you’ll be playing the game. Last night when I got home from work, I played the game, then I talked to Marcie. That’s it.

I did have a few “I am Tiger Woods”-worthy moments: dropping a double-breaking eagle putt from 128 feet, and dropping a 125-yard chip shot into the cup like MJ knocking down a 3-pointer.

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