My Life and Code

Lately I've been on an old comic book kick, reading a lot of old issues from the 60s, as well as some from the 70s and 80s. I don't care at all for the current state of comic books, but I love the old stuff. Recently I read the 2nd issue of Marvel's What If? series. This series would take an alternate history approach by proposing what would happen if certain key moments in the Marvel Universe had occurred differently, or if a character had been different in some way. They brought the series back a few times, but it's the original issues from the late 70s to mid 80s that I enjoy the most. What strikes me as I read these old issues is how much attention was given to accurately portraying the original histories of the characters. For example, in the issue pictured above, elements from the first Hulk comic are incorporated. It's not that they modified the Hulk's origin in general terms: they actually used specific dialog and characters from his first issue. Having...

I have long been a fan of that which is unintentionally funny, but before I go any further, let me state, with absolute seriousness, that there is more to this album than that. I'd heard the stories. The reputation of this album, and in-particular, Mr. Shatner's renditions of Mister Tambourine Man and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds , proceeded itself. My first real exposure to it was when I was about 20 and found a copy of it on CD, paired with a slightly-truncated copy of Leonard Nimoy's Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy on the same disc, at my local indie music store. I was ecstatic and bought it immediately. Turns out, unbeknownst to me at the time, it was a bootleg -- mastered off of vinyl records no less! But despite the not-so-great quality, it delivered. Now, around the time I first picked this up, I was attending night classes downtown to become a computer programmer. I'd carpool down there three nights a week with my friend Ed, one of my oldest and best friends, and ...

There's something to be said for the simple things in life. As life becomes more hectic and complicated, I find myself looking for those simple things to find solace and relaxation in. When I need to wind down, I like to have something simple to find some enjoyment in. The taoist book "Tao Te Ching" mentions teachers who "teach without teaching", and during my early twenties, I had two friends, Ed and Rob, who did just that. From them, I learned an appreciation for the simple things in life, not through anything they said or told me, but through their example. I soon learned to appreciate the simple things myself, and from time to time (when I have time), I put this to practice to take a break from all the commotion in life. One of those simple pleasures for me is old comic books, specifically those from the '60s through the mid '80s. I'd probably enjoy comics that are even older, but haven't read any that I know of. This isn't to say that c...

I posted a few weeks ago about a problem I had with the Microsoft SYNC system in my car not hearing my voice commands . At the time, a simple restart of my car seemed to fix the problem, but since then, the problem got worse and worse until finally not even the Bluetooth pairing to my phone would work. This was extremely frustrating considering I'd owned the car just over a month at the time. I Googled the problem and found that (surprise) other people were having the same problem, and recently. Some thought it was related to the cold. My first thought was to make sure I had the latest version of the software installed, but when I went to the official SYNC website and attempted to download the software, nothing happened. I turned on FireBug after several unsuccessful attempts to monitoring what was going on when I'd press the button and nothing would happen, and found out that there was a JavaScript error occurring that was then being submitted to a service to be logged...but n...

Back before Christmas, I placed two orders with the official Star Wars Shop for some gifts, but only received the first order. Wondering whatever happened to the second one, I looked through my e-mails and found the following order confirmation (I've removed my name and address information): Dear (My Name), Thank you for your order from www.starwarsshop.com. This is your electronic receipt which you should save for future reference. Please make a note of your order number(s) located right before each address to which you have shipped. If you ordered a digital asset (e.g. a Hyperspace membership) please use the Digital Access Code under the item description of Hyperspace listed below. If you find any errors in what you ordered or in your billing or shipping address, please visit your order history at: shop.starwars.com/myaccount/order.xml?order_id=(My Order Number) We will send you a separate e-mail notification when your order(s) ships, complete with the tracking number for your pa...

I recently purchased a new car, the first I've had in 14 years. My previous car had reached the end, and I had no choice but to buy a new one. While I didn't get anything too fancy -- I didn't get a luxury car, or a sports car, or anything like that -- the new car does have Microsoft Sync, which allows you to do a bunch of neat stuff like sync up your cell phone via Bluetooth so you can dial and talk hands free, and do other things via voice commands. The voice command stuff usually works pretty good, but not always, and yesterday, I ran into a definite glitch: it wasn't recognizing any voice commands. At first, I was trying to use some of the stuff that I hadn't used before, but every time I issued a command, the Sync would sound the tone that means "I didn't understand that." Ironically, when it would offer suggestions on what I should say, I found it offering up the very same command I was trying to give it. I decided to give up on trying the new s...

Here's an interview with writer Harlan Ellison. It's actually the 3rd part of a longer interview, but it's this last part of the whole interview that I really liked. I can't say that I've read much of his work -- in fact, I've only read one of his books, and am still in the process of reading it. He's got a reputation for being arrogant, abrasive, and angry -- yet I find a lot of wisdom in what he says, and in some strange way, comfort. I do take objection with one thing he says in this interview, that being that people who do computer work aren't working real jobs or "honest work". He mentions people sitting on their fat asses typing into computers. With all due respect Harlan, there is some similarity between what you do and what I do: you sit and type at a typewriter to tell stories to people, whereas I sit and type at a computer telling it instructions. The end audience is different, but the experience of sitting there in isolation typing ...