After 2 months, the transmission is going out on the car Diana’s parents sold her. (We got rid of her other car, because we thought it was going to break down sooner.) Dealer’s estimate to fix it is $2500.
Money was already tight, what with the loan we took out. And my credit card is maxxed, so that won’t be bailing us out this time.
I know we can come up with a solution. I just doubt it will be a pleasant one.
[Edit: after I posted this, I looked at the subject of the previous entry. Oh, the irony.]
Read more...We racked up a $100-plus bar tab last night...
But that was me, Diana, and two other people… Diana’s friend and her boyfriend racked up a similar tab all by themselves, and most of that went to the boyfriend. I had to stand guard to ensure nothing turned violent while Diana’s mom stood outside trying to talk him out driving off in a drunken, sobbing stupor over a domestic spat. I was freezing my ass off the whole time. Fun.
Had a dream this morning that I was attending school, studying network hacking and Japanese culture, with the goal of becoming a surgeon. Odd part was (as if there weren’t enough odd parts already), I was going to be a surgeon with my new department at my current employer. At one point all my co-workers were dressed in scrubs, ready to go witness a surgery. (These people are programmers in real life.)
Read more...As you Slashdot readers may already know, Google bought the Keyhole 3D mapping service that, for example, the NBC Nightly News uses in its Iraq coverage. No big changes yet, except for the reduction of an annual subscription from $60 to $30, and the introduction of a 7-day free trial.
The 3D features aren’t that impressive (at least on my hardware), but the satellite imagery is amazing. I typed in addresses for my family and friends, and voila - I was flying over their houses within seconds. (mr_mooph, I’m pretty sure I could pick out your car in your parking lot.) Even if I didn’t know the exact address, I’d just type in a nearby intersection and then navigate by landmarks (buildings, trees, whatever).
Then Diana and I went on a world tour - the Eiffel Tower, the Luxor Hotel in Vegas, the Statue of Liberty. Attempts to visit Venice, Osaka, and the Great Wall of China were unsuccessful, unfortunately, as the available satellite images weren’t sufficiently hi-res. Keyhole promises to keep adding detailed shots of new locations, though, so it won’t be too long.
Keyhole’s special client software is much easier to use than their major competitor’s Website, and flying from location to location is visually spectacular. (Imagine being on a pogo stick that can jump from continent to continent.) Simply amazing.
Read more...LiveJournal never brought out that “find people based on common interests” search they were talking about, much to my disappointment. So I did a Google to see if anyone had taken matters into their own hands.
Looks like phyxeld wrote this Perl script that screen scrapes your interests and then runs queries for them. It’s an unreadable mushpile, but I was able to get it running on Windows with only one change.
I can see why LJ never made it a standard feature; a single search took five minutes. Anyway, here’s what I got…
User ‘doshichan’ has 16 common interests: azumanga+daioh, dance+dance+revolution, dreamcast, elf+princess+rane, hayao+m iyazaki, iron+chef, japanese, king+of+fighters, kodomo+no+omocha, mirandites, na usicaa, osaka, sake, samurai+shodown, serial+experiments+lain, snk
User ‘snazin’ has 15 common interests: anime, aphex+twin, atheism, coldplay, cowboy+bebop, dj+shadow, dreamcast, ele ctronica, fight+club, ghost+in+the+shell, java, south+park, trip+hop, video+game s, xbox
User ‘scuzzlebutt’ has 12 common interests: aphex+twin, artificial+intelligence, dreamcast, electronica, japan, japanese, movies, mp3s, quake, sex, the+simpsons, video+games
User ‘ru_idm’ has 12 common interests: amon+tobin, aphex+twin, arovane, artificial+intelligence, boards+of+canada, d owntempo, drum+and+bass, electronic+music, electronica, idm, orbital, warp
User ‘fragilemouse’ has 11 common interests: absurdism, animaniacs, aphex+twin, cowboy+bebop, darren+aronofsky, depeche+mo de, drum+and+bass, fight+club, hayao+miyazaki, monty+python, orbital
User ‘fightlikeagirl’ has 11 common interests: anime, cowboy+bebop, electronica, fight+club, kodomo+no+omocha, monty+python, movies, the+matrix, the+simpsons, video+games, writing
User ‘jzig’ has 11 common interests: anime, computer+science, iron+chef, java, monty+python, movies, mp3s, perl, s outh+park, the+simpsons, video+games
User ‘warpdude’ has 11 common interests: amon+tobin, boards+of+canada, dj+shadow, edward+norton, hayao+miyazaki, idm, nausicaa, quake, serial+experiments+lain, studio+ghibli, trip+hop
User ‘crashmog’ has 11 common interests: aphex+twin, bloom+county, coldplay, electronica, fight+club, mp3s, reservoir+ dogs, sex, south+park, video+games, writing
User ‘mcoletti’ has 11 common interests: anime, artificial+intelligence, atheism, cowboy+bebop, depeche+mode, electron ic+music, manga, monty+python, movies, mp3s, writing
doshichan probably tops the list because I copied most of my interests from his, and, well, because we have a lot of common interests. (That’s probably the only reason we’ve been able to stand each other this long. :) I don’t recognize anyone else on this list, though. Maybe it’s time to make some new contacts.
If any of you non-Perl users would like me to run it for your username, let me know.
Read more...Each new campaign level of Halo 2 we play features something totally over the top. God I love this game.
Do we have a plan for November 9th? I can be on just after 7:00 PM Arizona time (which I think will be 8:00 PM Omaha time).
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