Dullroar

Looks like many people feel it's a solemn duty to blog something about the New Year. Resolutions, predictions, traffic stats, whatever. I don't have anything to say, so I created the perfect New Years message by combining all the other posts I've read, jumbling things up a bit, and spitting out the best 100 word post that 20 lines of perl could generate:

Cut my if my the January. do here, found 2005 surface Originally, look 995 gonna take let thought-provoking even one interesting Yet me Y2sKare. has found This me take is these with it Well Best inspired I years from my though, deeper there since blog Don week's Prediction interesting there my crystal Don 2004 my in common Pro here notes be “unifying on 2005 When on: like than Predictions I've better. predictions knew the I been be though, 2005 Yet back them pops one, of see actually my “Sun here years and until Another prediction see Originally, big tool knew

I think that really sums up both 2004 and blogging, don't you?

Posted by Andy at 04:13 PM | Permalink

As many have already remarked, Google's end of year zeitgeist is out. In the image search results, the 7th most popular car to search for is the Honda Civic. The Civic edged out cars like the Mitsubishi Eclipse (#10) and Mustang (#8), and slotted in right after Mercedes (#6) and Porsche (#5). OK, great, but: There are currently about 500 billion Honda Civics out there, so if people want to see a Civic, why don't they just look out their freaking window?

Posted by Andy at 10:40 AM | Permalink

Didja ever notice that while the college kids at games on TV have traditionally used "Hi Mom!" on their signs, programmer types use "Hello World" as the default thing for a program to print. Why is that? Could it be that programmers don't want to get caught showing anything remotely related to an emotion?

Posted by Andy at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For all the knitters out there: if you're wondering what to make/get me for my next birthday or intervention, I humbly request you consider making me a ski mask. (Found via boingboing.)

Posted by Andy at 05:04 PM | Permalink

After bundling up in your warmest clothes, you try to catch the bus to school and on the way get waved across the street by a crossing guard. All of which happened to me the other day. Eeek.

Posted by Andy at 10:30 PM | Permalink

Just for the record, right now it's colder in Pittsburgh (5 degrees F) than any city in Minnesota.

Posted by Andy at 10:35 AM | Permalink

So about that iPod I mentioned yesterday: I actually got it by exchanging a PDA that I received as a gift. It was a really neat PDA, with lots of cool bells and whistles, but I'm just not a PDA person. So I grabbed my gift receipt and waded into the throng of holiday shoppers at Best Buy. The person at the returns desk took a look at my receipt and PDA box and then said "I need to get a manager involved." I wondered: Were my papers not in order? The box was sealed, but maybe there was a restocking fee.

A few minutes later, another Best Buy employee who had been hanging around the returns desk approached me. He started quizzing me about why I was returning the PDA. He told me it was a great machine, lots of features, could really do anything and everything. Sort of a medium-pressure pitch for why anyone in their right mind would cling to this PDA like a druggie to his smack stash. I knew that I had to take drastic measures, so I said "I'm not sure this'll work with Linux." That did the trick, and after some final discussion about whether Linux runs on a laptop, he let me go. He said something to the cashier like "OK, he can go ahead" and 15 seconds later I had a Best Buy gift card for the amount of the return.

What I'd like to know is whether it's Best Buy's horrible, soul-sucking policy to interrogate customers that make non-Best-Buy-approved choices. If it is, this will be just one more example of how Best Buy hates its customers.

Posted by Andy at 11:47 AM | Permalink

So, I got a new iPod, and I named it Fragrant Ornish. Why? I have no idea. But I'm sorta stoked that (as of this writing) Google has no matches for that name.

Posted by Andy at 10:11 PM | Permalink

Last weekend I was walking through Target and thinking "gee, I really want to post to the blog once more in November." Guess not. Been a busy couple of weeks, what with my folks and the fiancee's meeting for the first time, Geek Night, the upcoming 100x100 retreat, and, of course, Chanukah. Plus I'm starting to have fun with Flickr and its tag-system, which lets me give y'all a link to uploaded pictures of murals.

Oh, and about Target: they've got some really competitive deals on kitty litter. Dyn-o-mite!

Posted by Andy at 09:48 AM | Permalink