Fun Youtube video

I saw this video linked on Slashdot and enjoyed the tune and video so much that I wanted to share the video with the world! Actually, there was a longer post planned about SOPA and rights and.... but it's late, so I just want to see if I can insert a youtube video. Enjoy!


Edit: Success! Does anyone know who the singers are that show up at 1:10 and 1:48? Whoever is singing at 1:48 has a magnificent voice. I have trouble believing that anyone can sing on pitch that well. Amazing!
EDIT: The singer at 1:48 is Kim Dotcom, the owner of MegaUpload. He used an Auto-Tune'r to sing on pitch.
EDIT2: MegaUpload has been shut down by the US Government for racketeering, money laundering, and criminal copyright infringement. I may or may not post more on this, but the case is ludicrous. OK. just one item.... nevermind. It turned into a 2 paragraphs of educational information about copyright and MegaUpload.

Hitchhikers Are Always Unique

Due to very urgent work demands, I was going into work early Tuesday morning. 3 AM early. And in a dark part of the road I barely saw a hand waving on the side of the street. Always willing to lend assistance to a hitchhiker, I braked quickly and pulled off the road. As the hitchhiker drew closer to the car, I pulled my wallet, phone, window shade, old Taco Bell bag, and various napkins off the front seat into other less obtrusive areas.  By the time I had pulled everything off and the hitchhiker was getting to the door, I had put on my smiling face reserved for friendly strangers. (Not a creepy smile! Really!) As the lady (we'll call her Ramona) got into my car, she said 'Thanks, I live along beach street with my daughter, you're not a cop are you?' Her speech was very slurred as though she was very drunk with alcohol. I smiled and said, "Nope. Where can I drop you off at?" As she closed the door and finished settling she asked for a cigarette and I said I didn't smoke. By this time I had re-relocated my wallet with a bunch of loose dollar bills from the dashboard to one of the many pockets in my work pants. I started the car moving forward and she said that if we find somewhere quiet we can get together if I have 40 bucks. As I continued my drive over the bridge, I smiled, lightly chuckled and said the I would pass for tonight.

She assured me that she doesn't normally do this but she is just doing it tonight once to .... something about taxi home. (keep in mind. She is a bit hard to understand with her slurring.) I smiled some more and asked again if there is anywhere I can drive her. She asked me to just drop her off at the Chicken place up ahead on ----- so she can keep looking for a guy because more people will be passing the chicken place. (The chicken place is only about 3 to 4 blocks away, but considering how cold it was, I wouldn't pass up a free drive.) About a block away from the chicken store Ronda says that she has time to do ..slur.. smaller. She again mentions that she's just visiting and isn't normally like this. That her boob job was 3 grand. By this point I pulled off the road into the entryway of the chicken store. She asks if I would like to touch them. After I decline to touch her boob job and decline yet again even a small offer for her time. As Ronda started opening the car door, I rifle through my wallet and give her 40 dollars and tell her that I hope the rest of the night goes well for her.

She was a bit confused at that point and asked if I was just giving that to her?
"Sure. Have a great night."
I didn't want to find somewhere quiet or something?
"No, that's fine, it is just a gift since you said you needed 40." I give a small shrug.
She asks if I can take her farther up ------ to the first gas-station.
"Sure."

Ronda closes my car door again and we head off into the night yet again. As we turned onto -----, she said the first gas station is on the left before the next light and she and can call a cab. (Definitely a local if she knows about a gas station 5 or 6 blocks farther along.)  As I drive from the Chicken store she makes a few successful attempts to not throw up on my car floor. She tells me that she is very drunk. (No! I would have never guessed!) As I pulled in to the gas station, Ronda said she was going to call a taxi to go home, and she asked two or three times, even as she was getting out of the car, that I watch to make sure she got into the gas station safely. She got out and went around the front corner of the store (I parked on the side). I backed up and pulled ahead to the front and waited to make sure she got inside alright. I don't think that the convenience store clerk would have let her in if I hadn't been idling, watching. Either he thought I was a crazy stalker of drunks or that I knew the lady and was making sure she got home safely. From his body language, he seemed to relax a bit when he saw me and then opened the door, and I got the impression that the attendant thought I knew the lady and was just making sure she was safe. The lady waved a little and I took that as my cue to fade into the sunrise.

Ronda was a master of phrasing. Even through the slur, I could clearly understand what she wanted. Even though she never directly mentioned sex, she phrased it in such a way that her intent was clear when she made her proposition. I wish I could remember her exact wording. I can't remember the exact words, just the enjoyment in the clever wording she used.

I was also a bit slow off the mark. Had I been less sleepy and a bit quicker on the uptake I would have offered to drop her off near her house. I doubt she would have taken me up on the offer, but I wish I would have offered.

Where I live, I get a lot of homeless coming up to me and asking for money. All of them ooze insincerity: a child is sick, need money to get back north, a police conspiracy, etc. Only one couple, apparently homeless, ever seemed sincere ( and I later saw that they used my gift for what they said they would use it for). Oddly enough. Romona seemed sincere in that she was only going to get enough money to get a taxi home.

Another Couchsurfing post

Time for some new couchsurfer pictures!  The first picture is that of janna and fenja (Germany). Some wonderful couchsurfers that came for a few days over New Years. Very laid back. Definitely people I'll visit if I'm ever in Germany!

Janna, Fenja

 And in this picture of couchsurfers that came to visit, 6 countries and 3ish continents are represented: Australia(1), Turkey(1), France(1), Canada(2), Mexico(1), and the United States(2). Several were students in the US for the semester, so they came during the Daytona 500 and spent the weekend at the race. A very busy time! Well, for them. I mostly staying in the house, did laundry, made sure all the sand didn't accumulate too much with all the feet going in and out, and watched some movies. The evenings were fun when everyone was together.

Hugo, random guy, Mike, Chris, Ryan, David
Yeliz, Tina, Rebecca

Met some great people

Last night I had 5 couchsurfers stay at my house - 2 cyclist where were circumnavigating Florida (2000 mile tripe), a Canadian Cyclist who started in Canada and came down through New York and will end up on the west coast of Canada (a bit longer than 2000 miles) and a wonderful couple who was taking a driving trip from the west coast to find the next place to live.

In the same order as described above, + me:  Jody, Ryan, David, Chris, Cody, Jake:

Chris, Cody, Jake and I went out for Chinese food and had a great conversation on who was doing what and why. I only met Jody and Ryan (on the left) once I got back from dinner. You can read Jody and Ryan's biking blog at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=RrzKj&page_id=175646&v=4 and Chris's trip at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/cfm2010 .

At 2:40 I wandered noisily outside, and Jody joined me and saw the eclipsed moon. It was good for about 2 minutes, then we went inside and back to sleep. It was cold! For Florida....

Advanced to 4rd Kyu

Sensei DiMarco tested me on October 23rd and I am now 4th kyu! Myself, I think it was well overdue with all the time I've put into it - but only timewise. When I left for Pennsylvania for a year and then came back and re-started, I have felt awkward, un-coordinated, and forgetful about the moves - I feel lucky that Sensei advanced me at all. :-) For those that are not familiar with Aikido rankings, 4th kyu is similar to... Orange belt in taekwondo or karate.

Also, Herman skipped a belt two weeks ago and became a black belt! At the Aikido conference last week, Sensei needed to talk to the Doshu first (the family heir of the founder of Aikido) in order to advance Herman. Usually, only 7th, 8th, or 9th Dan are allowed to advance individuals to black belt, but apparently Sensei (when everyone was younger) has trained with half of the trainers at the conference and even though he is a 6th Dan, he's permitted to advance students at his whim. :-)

Best Line Ever

Had a nice day off - kind of. Didn't do anything. It was a nice break - a lot of early and late hours at work lately.

Was watching  some anime about a new transfer student.
F: "He's trading punches with the (200 foot tall) dragon!"
R: "I guess he's a tough guy"

Love of math

I have been trying to learn scheme via DrRacket, and I found a nice website to build my basic programming skills through math problems. I just wanted to announce that I am a level 1 Eulerian! All that means is that I have submitted correct answers to 25 or more problems. In celebration, here is the icon I get to use as a math.... novice.

http://projecteuler.net/

Qu'ran burning

It is about time someone reacted sanely to the burnings of the Quran in Flordia. This whole international 'incident' was caused because news reporters in general are unable to seperate small events from big events. Why should a small group of people acting out their beliefs in a manner that doesn't physically affect anyone have any effect on the world as a whole? This should be rhetorical question that has an answer of, "these actions should not affect the rest of the world." Sadly, the church in Florida has highlighted the failings of the world that reads or hears about the daily news.


There are a few factors that combined to create this big furor. First, this event involves a clearly defined group making a dedicated stand again Muslim extremeism in a way that can be twisted to be an insult on all Muslims. A percieved insult against Islam is instantly newsworthy and ridiculed if it happens in the US, as opposed to insults and law suits against splinter groups like the FLDS.
The second issue are news reporters that don't have the wisdom to choose what issues are and aren't important in the big picture of the world. The issue of a small church burning Qurans should never have risen higher than the local newspaper. Eh, it just seems pointless to talk about this issue, and further discussion just fans the flames, or would if this was read by more than 2 or 3 people. As a personal effort, I already refuse to bring this issue up in workplace discussions or participate in any conversations.

Update: A similar viewpoint on Christian Science Monitor.

Mobile World

This is my first blog from my cell phone! I am touring a hospital pharmacy to get a handle on how the software I develop during work is used in the 'real' world. At least, I will be taking the tour and gowning up for the clean room soon. Right now I am waiting for another co-worker to show up. He got a late start and I showed up here early, so I have some spare time.

I can tell the days are getting shorter. Early July, when I would wake up in the morning, I could tell it was time to wake up by looking at the sunlight filtering through the blinds. Now the only way to know I need to get ready is the fact that I woke up and blindly groping for the cell phone then checking the time.

Last weekend, a couchsurfer I met for lunch called me up and wanted to do something. Neither of us knew what to do so we ended up at a breeder reptile expo. 500 booth spaces of snakes, turtles, frogs, and lizards occupied 2 hours of the day. One booth put up the geneology of the snakes they were selling, and the baby tree snakes that I would have bought if I was going to buy something started at $500 and then went up. The most expensive snake was $9600 and I don't remember seeing snakes under $500. A very high end product. M.m. took VERY nice pictures and I will ask if it is alright to post them. Check back later!

Yay! First cell phone post complete!

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Sleeping Arrangements

I've figured out the almost-perfect sleeping arrangement and my rental in Daytona Beach: Pile up a sleeping bag and pillow an sleep on it! Woo! Actually, I do find that the most comfortable sleeping arrangement. I've never minded sleeping on the floor, so the fact that I don't have a proper bed yet doesn't slow me down in the slightest. Not having a bed speeds me up actually - it is much quicker folding the sleeping bag in the morning.

I've been thinking of starting some new blogs. They probably will not get updated nearly as often as this blog, but I wanted to start somewhere. I am thinking about a blog on programming and a blog on what I'm trying to study in the Bible. Neither one quite fits with my daily life or thought or opinions or life that goes into this blog. Oh well, at the rate I make decisions, I may be another few years deciding to start the blogs.

Couchsurfing

The day after I move into my beachside apartment in Daytona Beach, I had a couchsurfer come down for a big 300 mile nascar race. I have no idea what race it was, and I probably wouldn't have know anything was going on except for a lot of traffic that weekend, but since I do drive by the Daytona Raceway, I saw massive preparations underway about a week before the race. The day of the race, parking was around $40 for a close spot on lawns, to about $10 about a mile away.

Anyway, back to the main topic, I had my first couchsurfer come and stay! Gary came from Michigan for the Nascar race. He spent most of his day at the race, some on the beach, so we didn't actually cross paths much while he was here, but we talked some and I got a picture.

TaDa - My New Apartment

Here are some pictures of my apartment. This first one is from across the street, looking toward the place I'm living

front porch from the driveway entrance.

driveway, looking down the side of the house. My apartment ends a little in front of the jeep. The windows beside the jeep are from one of the bedrooms, and then I have a hallway behind the bedrooms

Driveway again, but looking out over the street


The inside of the house is hard to take a picture and get a good idea of how things are laid out. When I enter the front door, I enter the kitchen.


I walk to the end of the kitchen and pass through the opening and look left, along the back wall of the kitchen, and this is the view I get.


The center of the living room has a fake fireplace (Whoever designed that into the place probably didn't live in FL). You can see the bedroom I use to the left.


This last picture is from the back side of my bedroom, looking towards the livingroom.

Nose to Grindstone Time

I've been nosing around a bit on craigslist putting in applications for jobs, and it turns out that one of those came through! With the grace of God, a job materialized back in Florida just about the time mom was ready to do everything on her own. Neither one of us was actually ready for it, but activities had settled down enough that mom and dad could handle it on their own and my support was just the support of family being around. sigh... it was nice, but chin up! Mom and Dad may be coming down to Florida this winter for a longer (woo!) trip. Margaret probably will (although her nose is broken at the moment due to a workplace accident! She had to have a drug test to show she wasn't drunk or on drugs - due to how her schedule is setup though, she didn't actually miss any work.) and I hope Jesse and Charlessa get a chance to take a short vacation down here. As for the job itself, it involves working with Baxa as an Applications Engineer I. I'll find out soon how much I should say about my job, but I feel safe in saying that it involves some programming and customer assistance.

I'm putting a security deposit on an apartment tomorrow. After checking around and looking at the options, I came to a few conclusions - price is directly related to the size of the apartment with no exceptions I found unless I live with a apartment-mate or 30 miles away from work, I don't really want to live in an apartment complex, and I would rather have a bit more space even though it costs extra just so I can enjoy living somewhere nicer AND friends, family, couchsurfers can enjoy themselves while they enjoy the sun and sand of Daytona Beach. It takes all of 2 minutes to walk to the main beach of Daytona where A1A and 92 intersect. I'm going to have to be really careful to watch how much sun I get. As long as Mom keeps reminding me, I'm sure I'll be fine.  :-)

Here are some not so random pictures of people during the Memoridal Day weekend. Lots of people came to visit and say hi. We had a big family get together on Sunday and then people went their different ways on Monday.Say hello to watermelon on the porch, peaches on the bib, and grill on the table!

Memorial Day (a day early)

Jesse and Charlessa and their kids are up at the grandparents today. Katie is/was/will be here to cook on the grill. It has been a very pleasant today. We are all sitting around the living room, reading, talking, playing with legos, updating blogs, and cooking food. Very nice day. Oops. I just heard Tabitha (10 mo. old) wake up.

Random picture time! (P.S. The date should be 2010 on the picture)

The Way To Advertise

No profession guidelines here! Look elsewhere. I spent the day putting together a blog for the vehicle we're selling. I put together one before for a truck my parents wanted to unload, and it was very convenient to be able to tell people where to look for more information and pictures.

Right now, I just finished taking 15 pictures of the SUV and editing them for the blog. A little more editing on the pictures and I'll have 4 for the craigslist ad.

I got to bed just after 9:00 last night and was up pretty early, so it is only 12:00, but it seems like I've done so much today! I'll have to look at the saying on my bedroom door a little more, "He who hoots with the owls at night cannot soar with the eagles in the morning!" That was put up by my grandmother when she was here six years back.

50 minutes and I head off to a doctor's appointment with Mom and Dad. Time to get moving again!

Enjoying PA Rain

I seem to be in a state of moving. It probably wouldn't seem that way, if I blogged more! My mom had some health problems, so she's going to be out of the action for a while - actually, she just needs to heal up and get stronger, but for a while a helping hand (me!) will be appreciated. Since I didn't have a job or pending job (that may change!), I drove to the parent's house to help out. But just because Mom's under the weather doesn't mean armchair directions are unavailable! Today, I filled up my car pretty well and managed to drop everything off at the library or Goodwill. All except for the vacuum attachment - apparently Goodwill requires the machine to be attached. No lone wolfs for Goodwill.

Margaret's dog Gala had a puppy! I'm sure pictures will be going up on her blog when the puppy is old enough. And I've about run out of steam - even too tired to make fun of Margaret for anything. :-) Right now I am sitting in the Library and I am going to pack up and go home and sleep. (after more re-organization probably)

Gym and Turtles

Had a nice day at the gym. I'm trying a new aerobics workout. Instead of my normal one hour workout, I'm splitting it in two. I felt quite good by the end of the workout. I don't know if that means I'm not working quite as hard, or that the break is giving me enough recovery time to stave off exhaustion. Either way, it went well today, so I'll try it again.

On the way home, right before I got to my house, I noticed to pieces of hanging moss that fell on the road. To avoid them, I would have had to go off the road onto the grass a bit, but I remembered a story that my mom told me once where that pile of debris was actually a stone that looked like a pile. Thus, I decided to go off to the side. When I passed by, I saw that the two lumps were actually two large turtles that were crossing the road. I stopped, but so did the guy behind me, and he helped the turtles to the other side of the road. Anyone know why they wanted to get to the other side?

Florida happiness

Ha, I made it to Florida. I was looking for jobs in DC and PA, when I called up my old boss for a reference. He said, sure, he'd give a good reference, but after a little conversation it turned out that he would hire me for quick contract work. Thus, I am now in Florida, but I've already finished the contract work so I'm back in the job hunting position.

One of the big things I've come to enjoy here is a fully decked out gym, that is fairly cheap. Gold's Gym here runs about $40 a month, plus the $40 for Aikido, and that puts me a packed full of after-work activities. I was taking Tae-kwon-do again, but after my job, I dropped it until I can get another job. It was twice the other two activities combined.

I had a fun night out with old friends a few weeks ago. I've put the pictures up for general consumption and was posting it because it is my first Picasa web album and I'm proud of it! -link-

Back in VA

I made it safely back to Virginia after a lovely visit (again) with family during the new years. I'm was planning to go down to Florida next week, but my mom convinced me to wait until I get an interview with a second job (or more) before heading south.

A white Christmas

It looks as though the snow managed to stay on the ground in Virginia long enough to have a white Christmas. I thought I would take a brief break from working with lisp, and poof, blogging came to mind.... except there still isn't much about which to blog. I'm heading home for the New Years, because all the brothers and sisters will be home at that time. I may be going out with some friends on the first. If enough people are coming, it looks like we'll be taking my mom's van so everyone can be in the same vehicle.

Today sometime, my mom and I will be going outside again and we're going to clean off Jesse's car because Mom my be driving it home. The new car Jesse and Charlessa bought passed the inspection test and the emissions test, so we'll be taking the older car to PA to sell or fix or something. I don't actually know what the plans are.

One of the job possibilities for Florida is working at rtsco again. While I think I would enjoy working there again, I'm going to try for another job first that with a bigger corporation, because it would be far too easy for me to work in a familiar, mostly unchanging situation. At least with a larger company, there are more people and it would be easier to get involved with the wider world.