Okay, so nerding out the other day I started a Delicious account. I read a lot of news online, and I finally got curious about the logo I kept seeing everywhere. Trying it out for now. Seems cool, lets you keep you bookmarks apart from a specific computer, a way of becoming hardware independent.
Bookmarks
~~~
16 Dec 08:
Later post
Showing posts with label blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogger. Show all posts
06 August 2008
03 July 2008
23 June 2008
digital life: pandora; tags
A site that illustrates the movement of life to the internet.
Pandora.com, where you can listen to free music all day. To generate a personalized play list, enter a song or artist you like, and they will find other music like it. An offshoot of the Music Genome project, which involves categorizing all music according to the the included elements (a truly monumental project.) Anne and I have discussed this (she's the one who actually put me onto the site in the first place) and neither of us can think of a way to do this other than to listen to all the music involved and enter it in a database/tag it in some way. Pretty time consuming, and I am grateful to be the beneficiary of the work.
Also a note on labels/tags: I've been meaning to try and define them to make it easier to sort entries. I'm not really going to go back and work on them all, but I will work on it as I go along.
Tags:
geek: things of a nerdy nature, video games, internet applications, math jokes, etc.
blogger: posts dealing with the mechanics of actually using blogger.
tags: a post that includes the definition of a tag
links: a post containing links to some other site or some other post
people: mentions someone other than me
Pandora.com, where you can listen to free music all day. To generate a personalized play list, enter a song or artist you like, and they will find other music like it. An offshoot of the Music Genome project, which involves categorizing all music according to the the included elements (a truly monumental project.) Anne and I have discussed this (she's the one who actually put me onto the site in the first place) and neither of us can think of a way to do this other than to listen to all the music involved and enter it in a database/tag it in some way. Pretty time consuming, and I am grateful to be the beneficiary of the work.
Also a note on labels/tags: I've been meaning to try and define them to make it easier to sort entries. I'm not really going to go back and work on them all, but I will work on it as I go along.
Tags:
geek: things of a nerdy nature, video games, internet applications, math jokes, etc.
blogger: posts dealing with the mechanics of actually using blogger.
tags: a post that includes the definition of a tag
links: a post containing links to some other site or some other post
people: mentions someone other than me
timestamp
Okay, this is annoying.
I just changed my timezone back to pacific (Zulu-8) from Iraq (Zulu+3), and this changes the timestamps on ALL entries, including the ones when I was in Iraq.
I just changed my timezone back to pacific (Zulu-8) from Iraq (Zulu+3), and this changes the timestamps on ALL entries, including the ones when I was in Iraq.
29 May 2008
I'm blogging this.
A friend at the squadron here said there was some good stuff at thinkgeek.com. A piece of apparel that is sure to scare the insecure male:
~~~
original post by email:
~~~
thinkgeek.com
~~~
original post by email:
~~~
thinkgeek.com
I'll update this post shortly.
email, links, humor
29 March 2008
minor changes
Not much to post today, trying to catch up on sleep and masters work on my short day, I did work on a couple of longer entries I'm not satisfied with yet.
In an effort to encourage comments, I have opened the blog up for anonymous comments. (I also turned on email notifications for comments, I will know when people post them, I've been bad on responding to a few of them.)
In an effort to encourage comments, I have opened the blog up for anonymous comments. (I also turned on email notifications for comments, I will know when people post them, I've been bad on responding to a few of them.)
25 March 2008
free time
I am getting a little more time off lately (9 hour day every other day), so I am still doing some blogging, but I am working on some longer entries lately that I haven't published yet. More to come.
18 March 2008
blog going midnight
Today was worse than yesterday. I am so tired by the end of the shift I am making pretty basic mistakes left and right and have to check everything twice.
Juggling work, sleep and blogging, I have yet to make serious forward progress on my remaining master's paper, so my blog rate will probably drop off quite a bit. I'm sorry, especially to everyone who's reading it on a regular basis, it's just taking up sleep time and I am getting too fried at work to keep going this way.
I will write via email as much as possible, and I do still like to hear from people, even if I don't respond.
Juggling work, sleep and blogging, I have yet to make serious forward progress on my remaining master's paper, so my blog rate will probably drop off quite a bit. I'm sorry, especially to everyone who's reading it on a regular basis, it's just taking up sleep time and I am getting too fried at work to keep going this way.
I will write via email as much as possible, and I do still like to hear from people, even if I don't respond.
15 March 2008
3rd and 4th care packages; blog; dust
3rd care package: some new notebooks (Moleskine 8"X5" graph paper, fits in my flightsuit pocket perfectly) and books from Amazon (ordered them myself).
4th care package, from the parents: home made beef jerky, chocolate, jelly beans, Peeps, and a book from my mom, blanking on the title right now and I don't have it with me. Will update. Oh and a bunch of mail. Coincidentally, one of our sensors (Angus) got a very funny pic of some Peeps, which I again don't have with me. Will post soon.
Just a thought as I was walking back from the cyber cafe a couple days ago: What I am doing is basically a journal or diary. I used to keep a pretty regular journal (due to a high school english teacher that I can't thank enough), but fell out of the habit over the last few years. I was hard pressed for time, but another reason was lack of motivation. It took time, and I didn't feel like it was progressing at all, just a daily record of events or thoughts, and despite my desire to record history, I fell out of the habit. So why is blogging better? So far, because it seems people are reading it. I guess I haven't said this before so, if you are reading this, it is great for me to hear about it! Please leave me a comment.
Oh, and we're having dust storm right now. I got a nice face mask from maintenance to wear around to try to avoid increasing the cough I still have from two storms back. Pic of this eventually.
4th care package, from the parents: home made beef jerky, chocolate, jelly beans, Peeps, and a book from my mom, blanking on the title right now and I don't have it with me. Will update. Oh and a bunch of mail. Coincidentally, one of our sensors (Angus) got a very funny pic of some Peeps, which I again don't have with me. Will post soon.
Just a thought as I was walking back from the cyber cafe a couple days ago: What I am doing is basically a journal or diary. I used to keep a pretty regular journal (due to a high school english teacher that I can't thank enough), but fell out of the habit over the last few years. I was hard pressed for time, but another reason was lack of motivation. It took time, and I didn't feel like it was progressing at all, just a daily record of events or thoughts, and despite my desire to record history, I fell out of the habit. So why is blogging better? So far, because it seems people are reading it. I guess I haven't said this before so, if you are reading this, it is great for me to hear about it! Please leave me a comment.
Oh, and we're having dust storm right now. I got a nice face mask from maintenance to wear around to try to avoid increasing the cough I still have from two storms back. Pic of this eventually.
12 March 2008
cyber cafe down
Not quite sure what my last post looks like, I was posting it when the
internet cafe went down. I'll edit it next chance I get.
tags: email, blogger
10 March 2008
short
Short entry today, mostly I just did some editing and tagging. I forgot my notebook and my thumbdrive at work, so I don't have my normal notes to work off of, and to boot they are kicking us off to clean. But there's this: yesterday almost sucked.
Oh, and I've decided that tags don't count as later edits.
Oh, and I've decided that tags don't count as later edits.
03 March 2008
Small things to be happy about
Okay, this is getting bizarre. For some reason, Blogger takes a dislike to certain posts sent via email, such as the one below, and continually rejects them. I've sent this post three times, sometimes rewriting it and putting into a fresh email, but it always gets rejected. The last one I sent immediately after the digital history entry and that worked fine. Oh well...the series of tubes that is the internets works in mysterious ways.
[Originally sent a couple of days ago]
One key to happiness while dpeloyed for me is to find small things, each day, to be entertained or cheered by. Page a day calendars are great. Today, I am grateful for the fact that hot water is available the moment you turn on a tap or shower here.
[Originally sent a couple of days ago]
One key to happiness while dpeloyed for me is to find small things, each day, to be entertained or cheered by. Page a day calendars are great. Today, I am grateful for the fact that hot water is available the moment you turn on a tap or shower here.
26 February 2008
the long walk to shower; gym
I recently sent a post by email and it isn't showing up here...hmm, have to figure that one out.
The rooms here are prefab trailers with six rooms each. I have a roommate. The showers are in separate dedicated buildings, as are the toilets (toilets and showers are in separate buildings). Back in the day, they used to call stand alone toilet buildings "cadillacs," but I haven't heard anyone use that terminology here so far.
The real pain of having the running water in another building is that it means everything takes that much longer. When I get up in the morning, I have to dress, walk to the shower, shower, walk back, and change again. Add a 10 hour work day and there's not much leftover. I miss the dorms in Kuwait, where I could just walk down the hall...
Normally deployments are a good time to get in shape, but I really don't think I'll have the time this rote...I still have a masters paper to finish and I wouldn't mind studying some flying too.
The rooms here are prefab trailers with six rooms each. I have a roommate. The showers are in separate dedicated buildings, as are the toilets (toilets and showers are in separate buildings). Back in the day, they used to call stand alone toilet buildings "cadillacs," but I haven't heard anyone use that terminology here so far.
The real pain of having the running water in another building is that it means everything takes that much longer. When I get up in the morning, I have to dress, walk to the shower, shower, walk back, and change again. Add a 10 hour work day and there's not much leftover. I miss the dorms in Kuwait, where I could just walk down the hall...
Normally deployments are a good time to get in shape, but I really don't think I'll have the time this rote...I still have a masters paper to finish and I wouldn't mind studying some flying too.
25 February 2008
Humor
I've noticed that one's sense of humor seems to get sharpened while deployed. One good source of laughs for me so far this rote is XKCD.com. Very funny, and actually educational as well. And incidentally, f*ck coconuts.
On the topic of web-based humor, see also Homestarrunner.com, which I became addicted to on my first rote.
I also started playing with labels, which are useful for sorting various entries into neat categories, such as the geekiness of playing with labels, as in this entry.
Okay, enough for today, I need to sleep.
On the topic of web-based humor, see also Homestarrunner.com, which I became addicted to on my first rote.
I also started playing with labels, which are useful for sorting various entries into neat categories, such as the geekiness of playing with labels, as in this entry.
Okay, enough for today, I need to sleep.
Revisionism
I do like the ease of that Bloggers gives to creating a user friendly, easily readable blog, and quickly. However, there is one aspect that bothers me thus far. If I go back and edit a post, the post text changes, but there is no notation of this. Thus, I could come back to these entries a year from now and insert things that I didn't really write, think, or experience at the time.
So far, I have made some changes to a few entries, some minor, such as spellings or typos, some major, like re-writing whole paragraphs. These changes have been made not long after the original writing, often when I still had the same topic fresh in my mind, so I don't think it's inaccurate to do this. At some point, however, I am not going to let myself got back and edit, simply as a matter of historical preservation.
I may no doubt learn how to resolve this as I continue to explore Blogger.
I was walking back from the parking lot this morning after work with my sensor operator, Emily. We were talking a bit, and as is normal for this time of day, a few people were up and walking out of the housing complex for work, wearing various combinations of uniforms and armor. A few days ago I had mentioned to Emily that we would probably start to recognize people since we were always walking back at about the same time, and today it happened, a airman walked by that I recognized from the combination of DCU colored armor with blue reflective belt over ABUs with the ABU cap.
So far, I have made some changes to a few entries, some minor, such as spellings or typos, some major, like re-writing whole paragraphs. These changes have been made not long after the original writing, often when I still had the same topic fresh in my mind, so I don't think it's inaccurate to do this. At some point, however, I am not going to let myself got back and edit, simply as a matter of historical preservation.
I may no doubt learn how to resolve this as I continue to explore Blogger.
I was walking back from the parking lot this morning after work with my sensor operator, Emily. We were talking a bit, and as is normal for this time of day, a few people were up and walking out of the housing complex for work, wearing various combinations of uniforms and armor. A few days ago I had mentioned to Emily that we would probably start to recognize people since we were always walking back at about the same time, and today it happened, a airman walked by that I recognized from the combination of DCU colored armor with blue reflective belt over ABUs with the ABU cap.
24 February 2008
technical details / nerding out...
Oh, and I just figured out how to update my time zone, so dates and time will now be accurate for Iraqi local time.
And I added a web call button using Grand Central, but of course I won't receive calls here. But if you call and leave a voicemail, I will be able to listen to it.
And I figured out how to put the Facebook link on the right hand menu instead of in a post.
Got to run now, i am late to take a shower before I go to work.
And I added a web call button using Grand Central, but of course I won't receive calls here. But if you call and leave a voicemail, I will be able to listen to it.
And I figured out how to put the Facebook link on the right hand menu instead of in a post.
Got to run now, i am late to take a shower before I go to work.
23 February 2008
Posting by email
Working things by email is the best option while deployed, since email is about the only electronic resource we have that isn't heavily restricted (either for security or due to limited resources, and even that varies: often large attachments are automatically stripped off).
Photo is me next to the plane with a service star. The picture was
taken in the states, not here. Deployed photos coming soon.
<<deployment photo.JPG>>
19 February 2008
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