Ben

Baha'is on trial in Iran

2009-07-10T20:27:48Z

This weekend a group of Baha'is in Iran are going on trial for basically not being Muslim. I wonder if international pressure will have any impact on their situation.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/10/iran.bahais.jail.trial/

I know a lot of Iranian Baha'is who have become US citizens under the refugee system, they are definitely not given ""all the facilities offered to other Iranian citizens" -- unless you count the facilities offered to the "green" protestors.

Incidentally, as a non-partisans the Bahai's are not supposed to become involved with political matters like the current protests in Iran, except to address human rights issues. This can be really hard for some. I've certainly said comments about past US presidents that were partisan, even though I know I'm not supposed to.

Mary Poppins

2009-07-08T05:51:26Z

A friend of mine was taking down a patio table umbrella and I told her she reminded me of Mary Poppins, flying off in the wind. She had never seen that movie and didn't know what I was talking about. (She *did* grow up in Iran, but still -- it's Disney. Ok, I'm joking about that.)

Has anyone here not seen Mary Poppins?

for your information

2009-07-02T06:02:48Z

I discovered that the abbreviation "FYI" sounds ok but if you abbreviate it to "F your I" it sounds kind of mean. Theoretically they should be equivalent.

bulbous

2009-06-29T05:39:15Z

A couple weeks ago I'd go outside for five minutes to water the tomatoes and I'd be sneezing for the next half-hour. Truly. This week is much better, I was able to plant bulbs all day. SO MANY BULBS. And still a few more to plant. But I have several beds of them now and I have accomplished something.
Allergies did finally catch up to me though, right now my nose is just for show. It'll get better though.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

2009-06-24T21:26:53Z

Whoa, you can listen to their whole album online:

http://www.robertplantalisonkrauss.com/site.php

(link at the top left)

Why haven't they put out a second one?

Is it like excavated?

2009-06-24T05:42:35Z

The word "extirpated" comes to mind but I don't know what it means. And I don't care.

No wait, now I care. Merriam Webster says:
1 a: to destroy completely : wipe out
b: to pull up by the root

2: to cut out by surgery

Ok, that's a pretty good one.

Raveonettes - Dead Sound

2009-05-31T06:25:39Z

I can't stop listening to this song. Their other songs online wash right past me but I seem to resonate at the same frequency as this song. This week at least.

http://www.vicerecords.com/raveonettes/Raveonettes-Dead_Sound-edit.mov

Beautiful day for a walk

2009-05-22T19:37:48Z

Beautiful day for a walk
Originally uploaded by vespid_interest

-Ben

slugs

2009-05-11T04:26:05Z

I bought a GPS unit this week and hit the trails to collect some data for it. Apparently a couple slugs had the same idea.
I also saw a rabbit but it was photo shy. A bad hare day, I figure.

Star Trek

2009-05-09T06:56:00Z

I was not prepared to like this movie, but I was wrong. As a Star Trek fan I thought it was excellent. (Though I don't remember much about the original series.)
My friend Jenny isn't a fan but she does like action movies, and she liked it too.

And happy birthday Bob!

simulated cow

2009-04-28T05:20:00Z

Today Katie brought me some ice cream. Japanese ice cream, packaged in a strong balloon of a sort. You snip off the tip and soon after the ice cream starts oozing out. You have to keep up with it because as the ice cream warms it escapes faster and faster.

It's sort of uddery, and sucking on it made me vaguely uncomfortable at work. But it was fascinating and fun.

The very last bit shoots out really fast so you have to be ready.

compucius says

2009-04-22T16:06:31Z

I got an error message today that seems to come straight from the fortune cookie industry:
"an unnamed file contains an invalid path."

This makes me think I need to start adding "in bed" to the end of all my error messages. They won't make more sense but it could lighten up an otherwise irritating moment.

mouseketeers

2009-04-14T20:04:22Z

I feel that "hey there" and "hi there" are pretty good greetings, but "ho there" seems entirely inappropriate.

help the police

2009-04-06T17:09:27Z

NWA's song turned G-rated, from a BBC show I haven't heard of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8qjdUXBexA

things I did today

2009-04-05T06:04:45Z

- Surprise pick-up and drop-off of my cousin at the airport
- went to comic book convention
- went to big company party

I am tired!

The company party had something really cool though: karaoke with a live band. They play the standard songs, you sing. On a stage, no less. Way classier than a set of speakers.

So mote it be.

2009-03-25T05:46:26Z

I am not going to eat clammy cucumbers. I simply refuse!

MST3k live, sort of

2009-03-23T04:41:56Z

Last weekend some friends and sister and also mediumthin went to see a live show by Cinematic Titanic, the original cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000. They don't own the name or characters any more so they go as themselves. They projected a movie on the back of a stage and they stood off to the sides with microphones for their wisecracks. The movie was _Dynamite_Brothers_, a 1974 kung-fu movie (sort of) that starts in San Francisco with a black man handcuffed to a Chinese man looking for his brother. Awful adventure ensues. With the side-commentary it was really good though, better than most MST3k shows since they have done it multiple times in front of a live audience and can presumably replace jokes that don't work.
It was expensive to go -- $44 -- but was pretty great.

one hundred pushups, again

2009-03-11T06:18:58Z

I stopped doing push-ups at the end of December when I was shoveling snow for hours every day. Then I went on vacation and the habit was genuinely broken. But I restarted this month and am getting caught up again. I'm not up to my max of 67 in a row, but I did just do 175 over 9 minutes. And right now I may DIE FOREVER. Actually I think work gives me life insurance that would cover my arms if they fall off. Crisis averted!

YouTube, remixed

2009-03-07T04:45:48Z

Someone has mixed a bunch of different YouTube performances together into something new -- they're neat. This one is my favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO-Mx0FHm4w

The mystery of dessert

2009-03-05T02:51:22Z

I am sooooo full.

Welp -- time to eat a cookie. My coworker Molly says chocolate goes in a different stomach, I think she's right.

Rattlesnake Ridge

2009-03-01T07:37:52Z

Today I went hiking & geocaching with a couple friends. It was quite fun and I just love seeing views like this. It was only a 4-mile hike but the "up" direction was constantly going up-hill, as opposed to flattening out sometimes to let us rest. So it still took us a couple hours.

On the way back we stopped at Twede's Cafe in Snoqualmie and had pie. This was the Double R Diner in Twin Peaks. Kind of fun but it wasn't so much like the tv show. Warm pie was perfect after the cold hike though.

embedded python

2009-02-13T22:55:54Z

A student I know is writing a game in C or something that uses Python for their save/load system. Does anyone know if they'd have to install Python with their executable for this to work on a machine without Python, or are there some .dlls or something they can include instead? If the whole thing was Python they could use something like py2exe but I think the main app isn't python.

traffic

2009-02-11T05:32:20Z

Traffic has been noticeably lighter the last month. I wonder if layoffs are taking cars off the roads.

Mashup

2009-02-04T22:27:15Z

Was Tony Blair secretly the fifth member of the Clash?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1vwKZiDsY4

Star Wars retold by someone who hasn't seen it

2009-01-16T03:24:18Z

This is quite great:
http://vimeo.com/2809991?pg=embed&sec=2809991

(Warning: spoilers! Sort of...)