Category Archives: Asteroid Pies

Miscellaneous thoughts and comments that meander into a disjointed mess.

Apr1

Not Dead… Again

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Not Dead… Again

So yeah, it’s been almost a year since I last posted. I believe there was a World Cup going on. Its surprising how quickly you can fall out of the habit of doing something. I stopped posting because (if I recall correctly) I had a series of social and work things that hit all at once and took all my free time. It also got tiresome doing the play by play of each game. I decided to go back to the recap format, but because of the lack of time I mentioned, I never got around to it. That lead to falling out of the rhythm of regular updates. For months, I thought about restarting my updates, but I never got the motivation to do so. I did almost start once! I had the beginnings of a draft, but it wasn’t much, and I’m not even sure I have it anymore. Fun fact: This is being typed in the WordPress app for Android. Don’t know if I ever mentioned it, but I got a Droid about a year ago and I love it! The thing is phenomenal, especially after I rooted it, overclocked it, and installed a custom ROM on it.

Anyway, I finally found the motivation to start up again (so damn lazy!) and there’s two things on my mind (and a third that I can’t talk about yet) that have finally broken me out of this silly no-posting slump. Briefly, I want to tell you about completing my car payments and about my good friend Paul leaving the area. Both of these deserve their own posts and they’re going to get ’em. I just wanted to finally post to actually get back into the habit. This also serves as a test of the WordPress app.

So that’s it for now. I’m wrapping this up because its late and I have to finish watching Lord of Illusions on Netflix before it expires!

Jun17

World Cup 2010 Day 6

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World Cup 2010 Day 6

Another quick update since I’m sort of playing catch up here and I want to get this in before midnight! Somehow, I don’t think I’ll manage that.

First, yesterday’s game summaries:

Portugal’s 2nd half was better than their first, but they just couldn’t seal the deal. They had plenty of chances, but a solid defense by the Ivory Coast and… shall we say a reliance on drawing fouls seemed to hamper their efforts at actually scoring. It was a decent game, but not nearly as good as I thought it would be. I expected more from Portugal, and sadly I was disappointed. Oh and Rinaldo is a fantastic player, but he flops like a fish. The most annoying part about that is that he’s got such amazing skill that there’s no reason for him to go skidding across the field every 30 seconds. Imagine if Michael Jordan took a dive every time another player got too close. There isn’t a roll eyes graphic big enough.

So I finally got to watch the Brazil game it was a great one! North Korea came at them like there was no tomorrow, but Brazil brought that magic they’re known for. No matter what the North Koreans did, they couldn’t get the ball away from Brazil with any reliability. This isn’t to say that they played poorly; but they were the 105th ranked team going against the 1st ranked team. Yeah… that’s not gonna end well. Surprisingly the Koreans did make Brazil work for the goals they got. And perhaps most surprisingly of all, they managed to score one on Brazil! WTF mate?!

And now for Today’s games, by which I mean the games of 6/16!

Honduras vs Chile! Perhaps one of the most exciting games yet in that both sides played hard, but it always seemed like Chile was balanced on the edge of coming crashing down upon Honduras like an unstoppable wave of destruction. They won the game 1 goal to none and it was pretty great all the way through. I did think the score would be higher given how often they had a shot on goal, but they did seem to have trouble finishing their runs. Oh and a word of advice to Chile for future games: I don’t care how good Sanchez is, the dude had HORRIBLE shots on goal, kept taking them, and routinely spent time doing step-overs while the Honduran defense got into place, thereby ruining his chances of capitalizing on fast breaks. Seriously, he didn’t fool a single player with his step-over nonsense, but did that stop him? Nope! He kept doing it and probably ended up costing Chile a goal or two. Why he waited for defenders to get back before making a play is beyond me.

I’m getting into the second half of the Spain vs Switzerland game now, and so far this has been an interesting one to watch. The Swiss defense has been pretty awesome, with them making only one major mistake leading to a breakaway play by Spain. Fortunately for the Swiss, the Spanish attack didn’t end in a goal. It’s still scoreless at this point, but I’d be surprised if the game ends that way. An odd note about something the commentators were saying about the Spanish offense was that Switzerland wasn’t going to be able to steal the ball from them, and indeed there were precious few turnovers. From what I saw though, it seemed more like the Swiss were afraid to attack the Spanish and hung back in a more defensive posture than anything Spain did to really hold on to the ball. Granted, their ball handling skills are nothing to sneeze at, but their passing wasn’t nearly as crisp as that of Brazil’s, nor did they seem to have

OMG AWESOME HOLY POO

So as I was writing that last sentence, I was watching the game (yay picture by picture on my monitor!) and the Swiss just scored an AMAZING goal on the Spanish! Two attackers, two defenders. The defenders get beat and the first attacker takes a shot that the goalkeeper comes out to stop. He’s successful, but he’s unable to hold onto the ball. Fernandes zeros in o the loose ball and slams it into the goal, putting Switzerland up 1 goal to none. I didn’t think the game would end scoreless, but I didn’t think the Swiss would be the ones winning. Wow, what a play. Oh and that sentence I was writing before should end like this: “nor did they seem to have that magical Brazilian ability to pass the ball through the bodies of the defenders as if they weren’t even there.” In any event, while Spain is certainly playing very well, I don’t really agree with the commentators confidence that Spain is going to have the majority of the possession through skill alone. There’s certainly some trepidation by the Swiss in attempting to go head to head to take the ball from them, although this half they’ve been more aggressive, with some pretty fantastic results.

I’m wrapping this up and now and focusing on the game, because I don’t want to miss another second. Goddamn do I love the World Cup! 😀

Jun5

Symphony of Science

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Symphony of Science

There is something I’d like to share with you this evening that I feel is one of the great achievements of the internet. It’s called Symphony of Science. Put together by a gentleman named John Boswell, Symphony of Science is a music project aimed at merging scientific ideas and concepts with music.

I’ve had some trouble writing this entry. Partly this is because I’m tired after a couple of long days and also because Symphony of Science leaves me literally speechless. Nothing I can say will be able to do justice to this wonderful thing that I want to tell you about. This is not going to be my finest piece of writing, but it may well be one of my most heartfelt. I can’t begin to describe the sense of wonder and joy these songs evoke in me. And it’s not just the music! Mr. Boswell creates some spectacular videos along with his music.

And they are glorious.

They consist of clips from various science documentaries over the years featuring people like Carl Sagan, Steven Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and even Bill Nye The Science Guy! The music also features vocals by all of these scientific greats and more blended with the music. The music and videos talk (sing?) about the potential of mankind and a hope for the future that makes me proud to be even an infinitesimally tiny part of the scientific community.

If you can watch these videos and not be moved, you are an inhuman monster.

I want to say more, but I can’t. I’m tired. I’m out of words. But go, please go and watch Symphony of Science. Maybe it won’t change your life…

…but then again, maybe it will.

Jun4

It’s-a me! A new theme!

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It’s-a me! A new theme!

So I fixed the old theme, but then I realized I’d been using it for around two years. So after fixing it, I promptly changed it. This new theme here reminds me of Super Mario Galaxy, so that makes it full of win. Speaking of which, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is super awesome. I haven’t made too much progress yet, but so far it’s definitely more of a challenge than the first one. Of course, I’ve had to split my time between that and Homeworld 2, which I finally got working on Windows 7 through some… shall we say unconventional means. In any event it works, and I’ve got the Point Defense Systems (PDS) mod installed and running and its awesome. Homeworld 2 is probably the game that comes closest to being able to simulate the epic space battles of the Honor Harrington series of books, even more so with the PDS mod. The only thing I’d change is raising the limit on the ships that you can build so that you can set up truly massive space battles. I mean, only one superdreadnaught equivalent? That’s beyond lame. I think with PDS you’re limited to 9 capital ships at once. That’s no proper fleet! At best it’s an understrength task force! The mod has such a deep order of battle, but you never get to really take advantage of it because of the low limit. Hmmm… that gets me thinking… I wonder if there’s a way I can go into the mod files and alter that. I think I just found a project for my weekend! And on that note, I’m off. Work tomorrow, probably with more OT like tonight, so I need my sleep.

May31

Productivity!

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Productivity!

Wow, I haven’t been this prolific (if such a word can be used to describe such a small quantity) since November of 2006. That was the last time I had this many posts in one month. I’m going to have to pick up the pace for next month if I want this site to be something more than a place where I check in approximately once a year to register the fact that yes, I am in fact alive. I’m about to set to work on my 2 remaining absurdly overdue reviews for Ask the Fatty. After that, I think I’m going to (finally!) complete my picture galleries here on My Twisted Mind and also see what I can do in terms of either mirroring them on Picassa’s web albums or integrating that on the site somehow. The reason I’m looking at Picassa is because of the Android integration. I found out, quite by accident, that pictures in Picassa’s web galleries show up as if they were pictures native to my phone when I access it’s picture gallery option. They’re separated out into their own category, but show up automatically without me having to do any configuration or tweaking. It’s pretty sweet.

Can I tell you how much I love my Droid? I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I just can’t get over how awesome this thing is. I’ve most recently been playing with apps that alter the home screen of the Droid. After seeing how the Nexus One has 2 more home screen to fill with app icons than the Droid, I knew I had to find some way to replicate this functionality on the Droid. A quick Google search found me a couple of alternative home screens that let you take your home screens up to 9. (How awesome would it be if it went up to 11 though?) They have varying features and some work better than others. Most of the forum threads I found about these programs talked about people using them for 2 weeks before making a decision, though to be honest, I can’t imagine how. About half of the suggested programs either gave me grief when trying to set them up and then acted sluggish every time I tried to use them. Worse yet, they crashed (or “force closed” in Android terms) seemingly at random. All but one of them had an extra row of pre-set icons on either side of the app drawer that you couldn’t customize. There was one that didn’t suffer from these limitations. It’s called TagHome and it’s awesome. It’s not foolishly sluggish, it didn’t present any setup problems, it’s bottom icon row is totally customizable, and it has an indicator to tell you which screen you’re on. And it goes up to nine. That’s right, NINE! Not that I’ll need that many, but it’s nice to have. It’s interface is also the closest to the stock Android interface, which I happen to quite like.

Right now, it’s time for dinner, ice cream, then to work on website fun times. A sea monster had better not have eaten my ice cream.

May30

I missed a day!

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I missed a day!

LATE EDIT: So I apparently forgot to hit the publish button on this entry and I’m seeing it now, on 6/17. Oops!

So its officially the 30th and I don’t have an entry for the 29th. I was doing so well, too! I guess I can count this as the 29th’s entry. I haven’t gone to sleep yet so its still Saturday night for me. So there you go, a daily update for you.

Now why might a daily update matter, you say. What’s the point? Well, a quick glance at the archives shows you how absurdly lax I am with updating the site. Look at the last time there were this many entries in a monument, let alone this many continuous entries. I’ve decided that I’m going to try to write a little each day so that I can get into the habit of not being so goddamn lazy. So far so good!

Dam, I’m falling asleep at the wheel here. Gonna check on a link and then go to bed. Wow, I literally almost dozed off there and just now when I tried to write another it, it came out as gibberish. I’m so tired my body is trying to force me asleep. Treachery is afoot!

And now some advice: the Baconator is NOT a good late night meal. Trust me when I say that you WILL find yourself in the bathroom. A lot. When it first came out, I tried it then and it was OK, but I must be getting old or something because now I can’t do it. The grease is just so… gross. And oh man it goes right through you. I’ve spent most of the last hour recovering. Oh god i can see forever. I might even go to sleep soon.

I get the feeling this is all probably incoherent and that this will probably be pretty funny to read tomorrow like that drunk post from a couple of years ago.

May26

Some Heat Delirium Fueled Thoughts

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Some Heat Delirium Fueled Thoughts

Its 88 degrees last I checked. Truly a beautiful day. There are some downsides though. For one, I’m trying to fight off some disease I got at work. That’s right, I’m diseased again. Hate it, but I’m good and medicated. For another, having a beefcake computer means that trying to game on it is like sunning yourself on the side of an active volcano. Even just having it on is no picnic. I spent some time outside earlier today, until the bugs started after me. The warmer weather is great, except when its not. At least I can update my neglected website via my shiny, lovely Droid. Speaking of which, version 2.2 of the Android OS is out now for Nexus One phones and should be out soon for other Android phones. I can’t wait for it to hit mine. I seriously love this phone. Possibly one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time.

Oh God there’s a giant death bee hovering outside my window. Its just waiting for an opportunity to get inside and eat me. God I hate bees and related insects. Well, I hate all insects, but I hate bee-like bastards more than the others. Damn its still there. GET OUT OF HERE, YOU STUPID STINGING BASTARD!

I wonder where they find the hot chicks on Law & Order. Right now I’m watching saved episodes of a bunch of shows, Law & Order among them and these women are smoking hot. The guest stars are almost always people I’ve never heard of, but damn. I’m a PC and hot chicks were my idea. Or something.

Look, I know it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to. Who asked you anyway? Shut up!

Time for some FlashForward!
image

Aug20

Yeah… so that happened

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Yeah… so that happened

So how long has it been. Look at that, a year to the day! By merest coincidence I was trying to connect to my site to check my internet connection and noticed the date on my last post. Oops. I had all these plans too! I wonder how many blog posts across the internet consists of “OMGWTFBBQ I haven’t updated in forever! I will update more frequently from now on!” Cause I mean, there’s a lot of abandoned blogs out there, right? I almost feel like there should be roaches crawling out of the links on the page like in Animal Crossing when you move the furniture around and they pop out and then you have to run around and stomp them and then they turn into these little Pac-Man-esque ghosts when you succeed.

I wonder what my login is for my gallery2 install.

Oops.

Aug20

Late Night Musings

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Late Night Musings

Some recent thoughts, in no particular order:

  • Firefox 3 may have a reduced memory footprint, but that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t have sieve-like leaking qualities from time to time
  • Drum and Bass is freaking sweet. Going through my archives, I listened to and old mix (2-13-06) for Dave The Rave’s Liquid Lounge. It has to be one of his best, and there’s a song that starts around 36 minutes in that is pure aural sex. Totally full of win.
  • I bet I would have lost more than 15 pounds in the past 2 months if I would just lay off the damn Taco Bell. But I mean, it’s Taco Bell. Not exactly fine dining, but still damn good. Also, that bowl of fries covered in melted cheese and bacon I had the other day before the movie? Probably not a great idea either.
  • Once I’m certified at my current job and the experience raise (or whatever the hell they’re calling it) kicks in sometime in the next month or so, I am totally gonna build myself a super sweet computer. Can’t wait!
  • Saw some people from my old Geico days today. That was interesting. I suspect the potential for future tomfoolery is high!

I know that there’s maybe 3 people max (an actual estimate and not a made up number!) who occasionally check this site, so sometimes I think “I should update more often.” After thinking that thought however, I start to think “Really, who am I trying to impress.” Recently, however, I’ve come to start saying to myself “It would be nice if I had at least one long term project that I more or less kept up with.” I think I should maybe start with recovering those old posts I thought I’d lost. I think that would be a good start. Maybe I can even get a post or two out of it detailing the restoration process. Speaking of good post topics, I should probably post an edited version of the e-mail I sent Luis detailing my drive back to NY. I never want to take another road trip ever again. It’s air travel for me from here on out! It would be awesome if we still had large scale blimp travel. That would be so cool.