Random Crap

Recently someone mentioned that I haven't posted here in forever. So I went to my site and noticed that indeed I haven't posted in a while. So I decided to post.

Yep, I don't update here too often. I mostly update on Livejournal, because the nature of Livejournal lets a whole bunch of people automatically follow your updates. Over here, only a few random people check, and strangers that come in over Google searches. While I love all of you who do follow me here, Livejournal is a better place for the "journal" sort of thing.

So yeah, it's at http://zorinlynx.livejournal.com/ - Most of my public posts are geek/cat/silliness related, and I welcome comments.

As for my old reason of not using LJ because I'm depending on someone else to host my content...I have a good backup strategy in place, and that's really all I needed.

Today's xkcd:

The entry "Wood" in Wikipedia:

*snrk*

I was nearly plowed in the side by a huge SUV that decided to lane change across four lanes of traffic without looking. I sounded my horn as the vehicle came too close and had to slam on the gas and swerve to the right in order to get out of its way. The driver saw me and jerked back into his/her lane (I didn't identify their gender), nearly losing control of the SUV in the process. I don't recall the model but I think it was an Escalade.

At times like this I'm glad my driving instructor obsessively pushed into my head "be aware of your surroundings at all times". If I were one of those drivers that only looks forward and never around, I'd still be sitting on SW 107th, my Honda badly smashed and possibly injured.

Drive safe, folks. Idiots are out there, and they outnumber us.

I moved some stuff from my work web server to my personal site, since it wasn't work-related and I'm trimming that page down.

It's interesting stuff, though, and I don't want links to it to be lost forever, so here they are:

- Computers For People - Early 1980s Atari marketing
- Hamfest 2003 photos (radio and computer show)
- Hamfest 2004 photos
- Miami Metrozoo trip, December 2003
- Miami Metrozoo trip, January 2004
- Photos taken at the 2004 Air and Sea Show in Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Photos taken at Shy Wolf Sanctuary, May 2004

I'm still organizing my sites, so more goodies may get moved. It's nice to unearth stuff you've mostly forgotten about because it simply wasn't *linked* anywhere!

Fast food restaurants (in this case subway) will arrange food to make it look like you're getting less, so you ask for extra cheese or meat:

On a related note, Subway never seems to charge me for extra cheese. I'm not sure if it's bad communication between the preparer and the cashier, but I've never once been charged for extra cheese or meat at a subway. I don't feel any remorse or need to point it out, as they're already making obscene profit on my sandwich, but it's an interesting curiosity.

I just noticed I don't have a link to my photo blog anywhere on my main site. Feel free to browse for the occasional cel-phone picture I take of something unusual, funny, or just plain neat.

Enjoy!

I finally got off my ass and moved Lynxie's picture archive to this machine. It no longer wastes nearly a gig of space on my employer's innocent disks.

Took two new photos yesterday with a borrowed Speedlite 430EX from work. I love this flash, and will proably be acquiring one for myself at some point. Being able to tilt the head backwards at a 45 degree angle for easy bounce-flash rocks.

Seen on campus...

This looks expensive to fix. The damn thing has been in that spot for a week, too. Those tires look damn tough; I wonder what they did to puncture it. Click for ridiculously huge versions.

Notice how the rim is severely bent on the bottom there:

I biked 9.30 miles today. It's the first "real" ride (more than a couple miles) in a long time; at least since mid-to-late last year. I've been trying to get back into bike riding regularly, but haven't found the time or energy to do it. I think that energy is coming back. :)

I just wish there were a nice trail around here. The day I decide to move somewhere new, I want it to be next to a nice trail. A place you can ride for miles and miles and not have to constantly watch your back for traffic. Even though I'm careful, I know I could relax more if I could ride for a while without 2000 pound behemoths passing me at high speed. It would also mean I could turn my iPod up a bit more since I wouldn't have to constantly be listening for traffic.

Speaking of iPods, my friend Rieshal tried to sell me an 80GB video iPod for $300, brand new. It's a good deal, but when I weighed $300 versus the delta of what the new iPod gives me over my old 20GB 4G, I decided my old white iPod still has quite a bit of oomph in it. There's three things I like about mine in particular; A) it has firewire support, which the new models lack. I like being able to sync it without eating up yet another USB port, B) The screen is highly visible when the backlight is off... Sure, the color display is nice for watching movies and viewing photos, but when you're just listening to music, it's nice to be able to glance at it and see what song is playing without turning on the backlight, and C) the UI feels a lot faster. I can find a track faster on mine than on the new 80GB iPods, even using the search feature on the new ones! That says something about interface speed.

I will miss these three advantages when my iPod eventually dies, but having 80GB (or more) to play with will be nice. I only have about 5GB left. :)

Back in early 2006 I got into using FurryMUCK more, and was constantly saying "I'll never join that Second Life thing... It's too bloated, runs slow and text is enough for me. I'll just stick around here on Furry."

Then I got a Macbook Pro in March. I just had to test its amazing power, so I downloaded Second Life and gave it a try. It ran great, but that's not the point....

...I started meeting people. Interesting, fun people to hang out with. Hence, I started spending more time on Second Life. I eventually met the love of my life, Catsy, there. This changed everything; now I spend just as much time on Second Life as I do on FurryMUCK!

The point? The technology doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how pretty it is. It also doesn't matter how much CPU power or memory or bandwidth it needs. What matters in any online social environment is the people you meet and spend time with.

I've met so many of my friends through the Internet, I don't even know where to begin counting. People are what makes the Internet so interesting and engaging; without them, it's just a jumble of wires and pretty lights.

Just had to get that out. I love you all!

-Zorin the Lynx