Mourning in the digital age

I have an uncle who killed himself some years ago and I sometimes feel I have not mourned appropriately for him. I've shed no tears for him (must be because I was already in college when it happened) but I miss him sometimes and he's one of the few people who ever gave me advice which I remember. He once told me that it was easier to lift a pen than any other stuff. This metaphor was his way of course of telling me to study hard so i can get an office job rather than get one where i had to do a lot of physical labor. The reason I mention him was that I found myself getting the urge to google his name and see what comes up. Of course there wouldn't be a record of him online neither would his works be but it got me thinking of how we SEARCH for people, even dead ones, in a internet search engine. It's as if I was hoping to meet him online magically, just as a traveller reaches into his wallet to find pictures of his far away family. Hmmmm... mourning in the digital age

Marching Band

I rode my bike tonight to the city and along the way there was a wake at some house. What was unique about this wake was that there was a full piece marching band that blocked the whole (kinda major) road but they were playing so well that I had to stop and listen. The band played 'True' from Spandau Ballet and 'After the Love has Gone' from Earth, Wind, and Fire. Hardly dirges but they played it so well and it gives you an idea of how the person lived. May he/she rest in peace and somehow his/her request for a marching band made the living a little happier (that would be me)

Mother Jones

I came across the Mother Jones magazine today when I browsed the available magazines that my colleagues could work on. I searched Google for what type of stuff the magazine carried and the first thing to pop up was their site and a sublink to one of their photo essays about phone sex operators... SOLD!!! I click the link and bam.... a handful of tasteful photographs of phone sex operators. The photo essay affords a quick peek into the identities of these people and their profession. Although I am sure there are people who do this profession out of sheer desperation, the people in the photo essay are proud of their jobs. Browsing further, I come across another photo essay of a grandma that makes clothes for Aryans, yep, the Ku Klux Klan. While any organization that exists based solely on hate is errr... hateful (how apt eh?) the photo essay strays away from judgement (such as the previous one) and just presents the subjects as facts of life to encourage discussion, the pictures shout.... HEY!!! YES!! WE EXIST!!! And that not all of us do this out of desperation, We choose to do this job and listen to other people as they wank off if you don't like us! Suck it! (In the case of the phone sex operator essay) While the other essay shows an organization that is rooted in Americana... The grandma recounts how the old Klan used to beat up a white guy for not taking care of his family. So if you're ever bored and like to look at good photo essays, go check out Mother Jones magazine (Zeet eezz not for zee faint of heart;) )

AHhmmmm, the link is over here

parity cases visual guide

OK boys and girls, i had to do a lot of dabbling in MS paint to do this shit so appreciate my effort!!! With a lot of help from pogobat's YouTube tutorial about the 4x4x4 rubiks cube, I was able to confidently get to the point where I can meet monsieur Parity (yep, THAT bastard parity) so, in order to guide me (and you) on how to recognize parity cases, I made this illustration. Here it is, enjoy. AS PER pogobat's algorithm instructions on his tutorial, his algorithm for these cases are....

1) 2U*, 2L*, 2U, 2l, 2U, 2L*, 2U*, R, U', L, 2U, R', U, R, L', U', L, 2U, R', U, L', U

2) 2R*, 2B, 2U, L*, 2U, R'*, 2U, R*, 2U, 2F, R*, 2F, L'*, 2B, 2R*

3) 2r, 2U, 2r, 2U*, 2r, 2u

4) 2U*, 2L*, 2U, 2l, 2U, 2L*, 2U* F', U', F, U, F, R', 2F, U, F, U, F', U', F, R

5) 2r, 2U, 2r, 2U*, 2r, 2u

See his tutorial HERE!!!!

Gimme silence

Gaahhd I want this.... SOmetimes i want complete silence... Hearing is not like your other senses such as your sense of sight, smell, taste, touch.... you can't really shut it off at will... even if you cover it as best as you can you can still hear things.... The reason I'm saying this is because my Dad and his frat buddies (Yes, they're REALLY old now) are downstairs singing videoke... A 65 year old guy singing Bon Jovi's a bed of roses is NEVER a good thing to hear.... Plus sometimes our dogs from hell (We have 4 of 'em) NEVER stop barking... when one of them is in heat all hell breaks loose. So... I want COMPLETE AND REVERSIBLE SILENCE.... a quick google search brings up this research from Geek dot com. Mmmm... acoustic cloak.... gimme two... make it man sized...