the pod bay door

:: While chopping up a piece of tomato tonight, I sliced off a small portion of the top of my left thumb with the knife. Damn thing wouldn’t stop bleeding for about an hour. Now it’s just throbbing. Some peoples’ kids.

:: Garth (old Wpg friend living in Mpls area) sent a link to The Comics I Don’t Understand Page. The owner uploads comic strips published during a one-week period, the punch lines or points of which he doesn’t get, and asks readers for their interpretation.

:: Keith advises that Microsoft is offering its Windows Security Update CD free of charge. “This CD includes Microsoft critical updates released through October 2003…” It’s useful if you are have a slow ‘net connection. More info available here. As well, updated info on the Mydoom and Doomjuice worm variants is available, including a free scan of your computer to see if it’s infected with either of these products.

:: I discovered a fascinating web site last night, or more specifically, an online ad. But what intrigues me more is how I got there. In the February 8, 2004, issue of the New York Times Magazine was an article by Clive Thompson, called “The Virus Underground.” The article is about an elite group of computer virus writers, some of whom are members of the Ready Rangers Liberation Front. The virus code, or “malware”, which they create is freely available for downloading from their site(s), but almost always, the viruses do not do permanent harm. The codes offered do not (necessarily) harm machines like Sobig.F, Slammer, Blaster, or the recent MyDoom.A, which were designed to do permanent and serious damage, and whose creators have yet to be found.

I checked the rRlf site, and while there, looked at the links page. I noticed on the list a website called Collision Detection, and the name next to it was “Clive Thompson”, who wrote the article I was reading. Thompson’s site is a blog, which “collects weird research I’m running into, and musings thereon.” Scanning through Thompson’s entries, I noticed one titled, “The coolest ad I’ve ever seen“, which caught my attention.

There is a GE commercial running on TV these days which features a string quartet playing music on a stage. The bodies of the musicians, however, are made of water. The online ad opens in a smaller window, and features one “water-bodied” violinist playing a few notes. The ad morphs into a heading about water technologies, and 16 drops of water in a row are left on screen, each representing a different note in a major scale. Moving the cursor over top of a drop from below plays the note. Move your cursor fast enough, and you can play a tune! I was able to do the five-note run from CE3K without much effort. Try it yourself.

What’s of further interest is how Thompson found the ad: he was trying to read an article in Salon, but without a subscription, he had to click on an ad to view it, which was this ad.

:: I had an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) on Friday night at 8:45 pm, in the region around my left elbow, where I have lateral epicondylitis, aka tennis elbow. At the hospital, I had to remove everything I was carrying and leave it in a locker, and wear a hospital gown and a robe over top of that. I was asked if I ever had an eye injury which left metal lodged in my eyes. I was placed on the bed of the imager, and a camera was wrapped around my left arm, and the arm was held in place with straps. I needed to lie slightly to the right of the bed, which was uncomfortable, because as the bed moved into the imager, my right arm was jammed up against the inside wall a bit too tight for my liking.

I was also given headphones to wear, because of the constant loud banging sounds made by the magnetic field gradients. An example of the sound can be heard here. I was in the imager for about 25 minutes, trying not to breathe too deeply or move at all, while doing my best to reduce the pressure against my right elbow. “Your MRI Exam” provides an accurate description of my experience that night.

:: Those who know me well, know that I am as good at working on home improvement projects as I am at, say, thoracic surgery or the study of lower paleolithic prehistory. As well, I am as interested in actually doing home improvement projects as I am, for example, in getting hit in the skull with a baseball bat, contracting a terminal disease, listening to country music, or eating ratatouille.

When I moved into my house in November, 1993, one of the walls in the kitchen, and in the hallway, was covered in pink wallpaper. As well, the light switch and electric outlet cover plates were also pink. As the years passed, many visitors to my home suggested that perhaps I might entertain the notion of the idea of the concept of the thought of eventually removing the wallpaper and cover plates, and repainting the walls a different colour. Obviously I wasn’t moved enough to do anything about it.

When my colleague and friend, Kathryn, saw the walls for the first time, she took it upon herself to begin nagging encouraging me to give serious consideration to removing the wallpaper, insisting that it was a relatively painless process, and could be done quickly. Such as it was, her constant pestering encouragement continued until I caved in agreed to give it a shot. Use of a wallpaper steamer would make the project easy and quick.

With that in mind, on Monday, Kathryn, and I began and completed the wallpaper removal project at my house in a mere four hours or so. Turns out she was right, and I actually had fun doing it. But imagine our surprise when we began removing the pink wallpaper only to discover that the wall behind was painted…pink. Not only that, but the exact same shade of pink as the wallpaper. Er…why would someone wallpaper a painted wall with the same shade and colour as said painted wall? We’ll never know.

In the meantime click on the picture or here to see some photos from the event, as well as a short, 27-second movie clip of the wallpaper removing action!
Next up, painting. The colour I’m liking at the moment is called Scotland Road. The three smaller colours (top to bottom) in this combination are Neptune Blue, Southern Breeze, and Parsnip.

:: There is word circulating that Dick Wolf is considering a fourth Law & Order series. Apparently a third CSI series is in the works, CSI New York. Saturday Night Live featured “Law & Order: Parking Violations Unit“, in an October 6, 2001 sketch. I enjoy the three L&Os now, but don’t know if a fourth is necessary. How about “Law & Order: Library Fines”?

I don’t watch the CSI shows. However, my tv viewing habits keeps shifting. I’ve watched some of the new Dennis Miller show, but his move to the right disappoints me; I can’t believe he’s leaving Bush alone. Typical week for me: Monday: The Newsroom; Tue: 24, L&O:SVU; Wed: L&O; Thu – nothing; Fri – nothing, although I watched South Park last night because they went to Canada to see the new prime minister; Sat: SNL, Ebert and Roeper, MAD-TV, Coupling (when it’s broadcast), Sun: L&O: CI. I tape SportsCentre, Charlie Rose, The Daily Show, the occasional Letterman/Leno/O’Brien/Kilborn, if I learn that a guest in whom I’m interested is scheduled to appear.

Overall, still too much tv.

The family of James Davis, an NYC councilman slain in 2003, was upset with NBC last week for airing an episode based on that incident.

:: I’m disappointed but not surprised to learn that the Yankees are pursuing Alex Rodriguez. I really hope he doesn’t sign with them.

:: Mike sent word (no pun intended), that the Oxford English Dictionary chose blog as their Word Of the Day recently. In the OED, blog has two definitions, one as a verb, and one as a noun.

Also, here’s the OED entry for weblog, which as you will notice, has two definitions; the one from 1993 has nothing to do with blogs.