It occured to me that I’d totally forgotten to post pictures from that (now) long ago trip to the Niabi zoo. I have finally posted a few of the images in the gallery. Unfortunately, when I was going through the pictures there were quite a few where my camera’s autofocus had grabbed onto the wrong subject. *sigh*

Heh, I forgot © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Office Master 64% Tastefulness, 41% Originality, 45% Deliberateness, 29% Sexiness

[Tasteful Conventional Deliberate Prissy]Your style is professional. Your clothes always fit the situation and you probably never offend people by, say, wearing pink to a funeral. You just know what becomes. You don’t like extravagance too much and you’re not accidental. Your well chosen, stylish outfits communicate that you’re a serious person. Following classic rules about dressing, you make sure that no one would call you flashy and many people admire your calm, composed look. The opposite style from yours is Fashion Rebel [Flamboyant Original Random Sexy]. All the categories: Fashion Enemy Bar Cruiser Kid Next Door Sex Bomb Hippie Kid Fashion Rebel Fashion Artist Catwalk God(ess) Librarian Sporty Hottie Office Master Uptown Girl/ Boy Brainy Student Movie Star Fashionista Glamorous Soul

The Deviant Geek You answered 81% of the questions as a geek truly would.

You’re a geek and you know it. You’ve got all sorts of fringe hobbies and socially unacceptable tendencies. Chances are, whenever possible, you hate to be grouped with other people and sometimes go out of your way just to be different. You’re smart too. You’re more willing to depend on your own brainpower to solve problems, instead of relying on others to pull you through life. You probably read a lot, and generally enjoy learning new things. So what’s it all mean? You may be considered by some to be uncool, but you probably don’t care either. In social situations you may be either slightly passive or slightly loud (geeks always fall into the extremes). In a nutshell, you answered enough questions correctly supporting a geek philosophy to be considered a more potent geek than 60% of the population.

Not even 8Gs? Shucks, there goes my get-rick-quick scheme. ;)

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Quizziness © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Buttercup is marry’ Humperdinck in a little less than half an hour. And every Wednesday, myself and a few co-workers head over to the Terrapin to get a cup of real coffee². Almost without fail, I order a “Grand Canyon” which is 2 shots of espresso, steamed milk, a shot of dark chocolate syrup and a shot of mango syrup. *yum* When I got there today, I picked up their tea menu and Rob (one of the owners) ordered me to put it down. I explained about the congestion and he accepted it, but I wouldn’t say he was happy about it. Then I ordered their Chinese Breakfast tea, as the description sounded similar to the yunnan jig tea I’ve mentioned before. Hot caffeinated beverages acquired, we headed back to the office and I headed back to the mountain of email that had arrived while I’d been out. After clearing out that mess (most of it went straight to the trash), I started/continued testing a problem I’d been working on Friday. I’m still processing the data for that test now, but I’m also starting to wonder if I should have stayed home again.

Today, like Sunday, I woke up feeling better than the day before. The problem is like Sunday, I didn’t stay home. Sunday, Ariesna & I were invited to go to Niabi Zoo over in Illinois with some of her family. It was a fun day and I took quite a few pictures³ but by the end of the day, I was totally wiped out and realized I should have stayed home. Now I’m not wiped out (so far) but I do feel more tired than I should from just sitting at a desk, staring at a computer screen. Ah well, not much I can do about that now.

BTW, last night I upgraded Cath’s site to the current version of WordPress. I was kind of annoyed at how long it took but then most of that time was taken up my crappy ftp client having problems deleting the files for the old version from the webserver. Mind you I was booted into Windows at the time⁴ which undoubtably was part of the problem. But I did eventually get it done and wouldn’t you know it looks nearly identical to what it did before. I’d call that a good sign for a seamless upgrade, but I’m waiting to hear back from her before I call it a success. So why the upgrade? In part to patch some old security holes and in part because all the new/interesting stuff for WP is happening on the newer versions. This way if she feels like going out and picking a different theme⁵; it should be trivial to install it.

Anyway, one of the reasons I was annoyed with the amount of time it took was last night also happened to be the season premier for NCIS. I’ve been a fan of this show for a while now, but season 2’s finale was murder. Quite literally, as they killed off one of the NCIS agents. I was very much looking forward to seeing where they’d take the show next, but with upgrading the site and some other things I didn’t get to watch the show as thoroughly as I would have liked. From what I did see, I’m not sure how enjoyable season 3 will be. I don’t care for the new characters they introduced into the NCIS office (Director Jenny Shepard and Agent Ziva David). The romatic background between Gibbs & Shepard could be an interesting subplot but they seem to be pushing it too hard in an episode which should be dealing more directly with the remaining NCIS agents working to find Kate’s killer. And then to make the episode a 2-parter leaving us on another cliff-hanger is distinctly annoying. *sigh* I guess we’ll have to wait and see if they can pull this up with next week’s episode.

¹ Next to chicken noodle soup, hot tea works best for clearing up congestion and helping me feel better.
² The first part of this paragraph is a quote from The Princess Bride. And when I say coffee, I mean flavored espresso.
³ I’ll see about posting some of them later. Incidentally, there was a classic car show being held on the zoo’s premises so don’t be surprised if you see more car than animals photos.
⁴ I had some work to do that required M$ Word, as OpenOffice Writer couldn’t properly edit the fancy formating in the document (originally created in M$ Word).
⁵ By perhaps looking through the themes in Alex King’s Theme Browser.…

Feeling Better & Mumbling Randomly © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

This means that there are new security updates available. I launched YOU to get the new updates and noticed it was an updated kernel. I didn’t think much beyond that and let YOU do it’s thing. But after I rebooted I couldn’t get into my Linux install; it looks like some of the kernel modules didn’t get installed correctly. Specifically the one for the filesystem that my harddrive is formatted in. *grumpf* I’m doing research online to figure out how to revert back to a previous kernel to fix this.

That was the bad news. The good news is I got a bit ornery with my iPod not syncing with iTunes & fought with it again. After getting several BSODs, I just randomly decided to plug the iPod back into the onboard firewire port and for whatever reason it worked! Wheee! Now if I could just get my Linux install fixed; I’d be a happy camper.… At least until the next computer screw up!

Mixed Day © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Web application of the year

We asked forumgoers to choose the best web application or development framework of the year.

Web-based applications provide interaction for all users regardless of platform or location. If you can connect to the web, you can use it. Forums, blogs, administration tools, collaboration frameworks; there were many excellent options to choose from in 2004.

Winner: WordPress

Let’s face it. Blogs are in fashion, and why not? Vanity knows no bounds, and there are some people who actually do something productive with theirs. From the influence of blogs on the coverage of the US presidential elections to every random teenager who has problems with their partner/parent/teacher/cat, blogs are out there allowing your most intimate feelings to be shared with random people at wifi hotspots. WordPress is the most prominent rising star of weblog software, completely free and with a large and active community. Styles, plugins and hacks are readily available, with problems such as comment spamming being addressed far more rapidly than competing applications.

WordPress is Web application of the year! © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

C.O.F.F.E.E.B.E.A.R.
Construct
Optimized for
Fighting and
Forbidden
Exploration/
Electronic
Being
Engineered for
Assassination and
Repair
What’s your cyborg name?

Kudos to RandomURL for the link

Cyborg Name Generator © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

Sony Memory sticks are amazingly resilient. I have one that made an accidental trip through the washer (and dryer!) and survived with all the data on it intact.

Random Notes © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

YOU ARE A NORTHERN BASTARD
Flat caps, tripe, life down t’pit, black pudding, Grimsby. Just a few of the things that you hold dear to your heart, for you are now officially a Northern Bastard. Why not celebrate with a good ol’ fashioned party in the street with bunting, flags and jelly and custard?

If you are, in fact, a southerner and are reading this then don’t be too disappointed. You now have to be friendly to people, pronounce poor as ‘poowa’ and take baths in a steel bathtub in front of the living room fire. Not really. That would be ridiculous. Just move to Workington.

If you are in fact a true northerner, good on ya! And, we’ll see you down south in a couple of years. Just you watch.

In conclusion, I’ll si thi later, ya bastard!

Why not take the test again?

YOU ARE A BOXERS MAN
The relief must be flowing through you at the moment, for you have rightly been deemed a ‘boxers man’. Or should that be ‘boxers bloke’?

Either way, at least you’re not a freaking pants wearing old man, eh? You are also now approximately 45% better off at ‘pulling’ a girl in a nightclub. Score! The only problem you now have to face is constant re-arrangement of the undercarriage. Although boxers provide the refreshing breeze that pants shut out, they do not give the testicular support some require.

Still, at least you won’t have a low sperm count.

Why not take the test again?

YOU ARE A FILM BUFF
Well done! You are hereby honoured with the title of film buff. You can now impress your mates that you passed a film quiz on a website that no-one’s ever heard of. Groovy! Go to the cinema in triumph, with your salted popcorn and box of maltesers.

As a film buff, you now have the responsibility of correcting people at every opportunity about common film mistakes. ‘Play it again, Sam’ was never uttered in Casablanca, you should be saying, ‘Adam Sandler is not funny’ also, and of course, ‘Happiness is perfect family viewing’. People will be amazed by your command of general film knowledge. Until you get a question about Jean Claude Van Damme movies that is. Ulp.

In conclusion, how the hell has Martin Scorsese never won an Oscar?

Why not take the test again?

YOU ARE NOT A DRUNK
Oh well. Don’t be disappointed at not being a drunk. Some people equate drunkenness with good social skills but we know differently don’t we friends? How many true alcoholics do you actually hang around with? Not many I can assure ye.

You like a drink in moderation, probably one or two nights out a week — if that. The odd pint doesn’t go amiss either, with maybe even one or two vodka and Red Bull’s if you’re feeling fruity. But, down in your heart of hearts there’s nothing that can beat a good cup of tea in your book. May I advise a biscuit accompaniment of a good chocolate digestive? They’re lovely.

In conclusion, get Yorkshire Tea aswell.

Why not take the test again?

YOU ARE NOT A GEEK
Phew. That was a close one. Not a geek, eh? Chances are you’re happy with that because it takes quite a bit to qualify as a geek here. You are just a normal Joe. Awww. If you are surprised by this result, then why would you want to be a geek in the first place anyway? However, I suspect you’re going to do the test again until you qualify as a geek now, aren’t you?

Not being a geek has it’s obvious benefits. Number one: you’re not a geek, two: you can talk to people, three: you’ve probably experienced sex. There are downfalls but I can’t think of any. Well… Obviously I can but I wouldn’t want to make you feel bad. Lord no.

In conclusion, this test was a waste of time, wasn’t it?

Why not take the test again?

English Quizzes © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

• “Just another day in paradise, wish I were there.”: I use this one alot at work when people ask me how I’m doing. It’s not that I hate my job or anything like that. It’s just that actually working for a living tends to get me down a bit. Ok, that sounds really pathetic… Ah screw it, when I was a kid there were basically 2 things that I wanted to do: be an astronaut and to have enough money to do whatever I want whenever I want. As neither one of those happened, I’m going to use them as my excuse for disliking working for a living. Don’t laugh at me too hard for my dislike of work, after all I actually do my job, rather than try to sponge my livelyhood off of the welfare system.
• “Wassup, cheesewhiz”: To be perfectly honest, I only use this one on a particular friend of mine and neither of us remembers when or why I started it. We think there was some sort of story or incident that sparked it. The wassup is optional and may be randomly replaced with Hey, ya.
• Raise your right hand in front of you with the middle 3 fingers extended and the palm facing you, “I’d tell you to read between the lines but I don’t think you’re that smart!” Then lower the outer 2 fingers, so only your middle finger is still extended. I use this when I’m annoyed with one of my friends and want to insult them. Ok, it’s not nice but then I never honestly claimed I was a nice guy.
• “Soka”: This one I picked up from watching a lot of anime and I have a sneaky suspicion that I’m saying it wrong, misinterrpreting it or at least misspelling it; however from what I can tell, it basically means I understand. After watching all the anime that I have and reading the sort of Sci-Fi books I like; I would venture to say it’s similar to saying I grok you.

Well, my program just finished processing; so it’s time to get back to real work.

Holy Silly Sayings! © Mark McKibben, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.