Just add water

I hate the Instagram phone app (Android).    Maybe I should suck it up and see if there's some help site. Am I one of those guys who rarely is befuddled or confused but is embarrassed to seek out help?  No. I'm MISTER INTUITIVE.  It's not like applications in general are super-complicated.  On a phone, there are only so many things one can do, like add stuff, tag stuff, delete stuff, and see other people's stuff, etc.

I took a pic of Rocky and managed find the instagram "button" that is the camera button.  I like the various masks and effects.  Nothing says 21st century like a current pic that looks like a bad polaroid. How do I add tags to a pic that was already "posted"?  Nope, no edit thingie.  And how do I share an existing pic on my phone?  There's a browse feature where you can search various tags, like #SeattleDogs or #dogs.  I noticed that many people feel compelled to add a hundred tags.  Anything more is like reading the full header in an email message.  (Knock yourself out with the metadata, NSA.)

Even when I owned a digital camera, I never took many pictures, so having a smaht fone wouldn't change that.  I'm far more fascinated by buildings and scenery than drunk 20-somethings.  The Tumblr app, which I don't use much, made more sense, and you would enter notes and a context. I think Yahoo now owns Tumblr and Facebook owns Instagram.

I did take Pinterest for a spin but quickly gave up when half the pics were commercial.  If I ever post a pic of food, you can believe that I made it or someone in the room made it.

Today was cold, windy, wet and 100% depressing.  I really, really, want to record this cheerless city for all time.  #gray #gloomy  #friggincold

You're Mr. Blindfold

I like the gym (Planet Fitness) even though the other members (total strangers are the lot of 'em) can be irritating. But what do you expect for $10/month?  I wish it was a little easier to get there by car.  The north part of town where the gym is might as well be the North Pole by way of a Walmart Black Friday sale.  I have to drive defensively because people with cars are complete fucking idiots.   Last week I went to the Planet Fitness website to see if there were other locations around here.  There's one in North Boofoo but most locations are between Podunk, The Toolies and Timbuktu.

Today it snowed.  It was the lightest dusting of the white stuff but it was enough for everything to be messy.  Christmas is less of a single day than a whole month, so lots of people used inclement weather as an excuse to stay home.  This means there are less cars on the road!  Score one for your truly.

I do need to kick up the workouts.  One mile run and 20 minutes walking "uphill."  The sucky thing is that the weather put the kibosh on satellite tv, so I had my choice between a Mexican soap opera and local commercials.  When Direct TV started working again, all I saw one some long.....long...really long press conference about whether Aaron Rodgers can/will/possibly/conceivably play.  Damn!  And here I was wanting to see 3D renderings of Kobe Bryant's knee.  At least it's about some dumbass redneck who got canned.

I wonder if Netflix has that old version of "A Christmas Carol."  I like all those B&W movies.  Or maybe they have something w/ Boris Karloff.

Channeling my 14-year-old self

How long does it take to knock down a strip mall?  I get to enjoy this lovely sight on a daily basis and I can make a better prediction than Bill James and say that they'll done after my apartment lease is up, the Seahawks win the Super Bowl, or I find something to recommend Seattle-land.

I used to imagine moving back to California.  I really did.  But as months turned into years and years turned into decades, I realized that I must've been smoking something (figuratively speaking).  You can never go back, son.  I see a lot of California license plates around here and I always make a face like I just ate a bad peanut.   Still, I have a claim to the Golden State because I was born there, went to school there, and my whole friggin' family still lives there.  I wonder if James Joyce was as conflicted when he lived in Paris. Nothing says native son like being somewhere else.

Dead Nature

I think the band Savages could improve if they dressed in '80s dead wave, specifically Siouxsie & The Banshees. I never got to see Siouxsie live, but it bands like this were part of my MTV education, and everything was art.

1988 was a good year for me. I think I can remember every tape I owned and I know I can remember the CDs I purchased from Tower Records. I know Tower Records, like Borders, is now kaput, and I wonder what the Mountain View store turned into. Probably a parking lot.

Yes, tapes. Cassette tapes. Man, I'm old. At least I was apres records, right?

Fingertips

Writing at length on a smartphone is a bitch. It also sucks to write an a sluggish desktop which is what I have at home. One of these days I might stumble on some old IBM keyboard which would be PERFECT.

My college was a total Mac campus. This was the late '80s, so Steve Jobs was slummin'. I didn't program on a Mac but I loved their keyboards. Form factor is important, you know.

I use a small Dell laptop in this job with a smallish monitor. I feel like I'm back working at a bank. Good thing I still scribble notes and doodles to maintain my sanity.

Harrapatuta

One would think that not having a TV or cable would gives me tons of free time for sleep, walks, and if it was 1995, reading.  I do catch a show now and then but the days are painfully quick.  Being old(er) sucks the big weenie in the sky.  At least an NFL football game seems to last forever.  Even an average game gets dissected in HD from every possible angle. If the backup to the backup running back has a sprain, you get to see the sideline reporter catch a bit of audio and there just happens to be a therapist or orthopedic surgeon to explain why this sprain is all right ("Walk it off, Rudy!") or serious.

I "suspended" my Netflix account but I sort of miss it.  It's still one of those badges of honor with me, like the magazine subscriptions I still keep paying for yet never read.  On one of the shelves, I have National Geographic, Smithsonian and a few cooking magazines.  The Smithsonian and NatGeo subscriptions weren't originally mine but I inherited it.  What I should do is sneak them into some doctor's office.  I'm sure they'd be just as interesting as the May 2003 edition of "People" or "Us."  Ok, not really.  I can't imagine where I could find slight cerebral people who can appreciate "The Lost Kingdom of Boom Shakalaka" or "U.S. Banana Boat Diplomacy of 1898."

I was a few minutes into an episode of "Covert Affairs" (Amazon Prime) and I had to stop watching not so much because of the story - spies, pretty Blonde, scary operatives with scary agendas - but because I want to travel and see something unfamiliar.  It's quite upsetting to think that most people - read: me - never move more than 100 miles from where they live.  I don't know about you, but short vacations don't count.  I know of someone who's on a short vacation to Scandinavia and another family in Portugal.  It's probably help if I bothered to learn Spanish or some other useful language.  In college I tried to pick up a smattering of Polish (girlfriend) and even Chinese (friend).  I have a panoply of computer languages that I even get to use, but it's not really the same.  I know I can learn a foreign tongue if I just immersed myself in it much like picking up some cold, hard application.

Forty Days

It started to rain today. Actually, I heard thunder and lightning. My little umbrella is on its last leg. 

My usual quiet pre-work ritual has been interrupted by someone sitting at my table. He is evil not because of coffee house geography but for the fact that he just left his plate, cup and shit on the table. Nope, can't be bothered and I'm too stupid to bus my own table. I bet he doesn't recycle either. The other distraction are three guys talking. I can't drown them out with my phone. I really can't stand other people talking because it's inane, boring without a shred of wit or humor.

Maybe I can find a zone today. Any zone would be nice. Boredom is the absolute worse thing in the world. It's way worse than a hang nail or charlie horse.

Stereo

I think I get to downtown Seattle, but I like having the basement of this place all to myself.  Down here I can't hear cars or buses or crappy rap music.

I guess I should be reading but I usually listen to XMU and click "like" whenever I see a pic of some abandoned dog. I'm a sucker, I suppose.

If I could, I'd start working earlier than 9am. That's way too late. Actually, I really wish I could work at night since there's nothing to do. I heard that A&E cancelled "The Glades." Now I know why I got rid of my TV and canceled cable. This blows but what else do you expect from our big media overlords?

I don't think I'll be able to make it to the book club. I don't know why I even bother.  So far I've been in two book clubs and I haven't really like either.

The new Sleigh Bells single is so overproduced that I want to rip my eyes out. I need to dig up some old school tunes made with real instruments. Besides, they really stopped making decent music in 1998.

The worthless fourth

I wonder if I should even attempt to type this on my phone or use the voice recognition thingie. The real question that I'm avoiding is why am I bothering?

I have a couple days to do something productive yet all I've done is stop here for a coffee. The noise from the heavy wooden chairs being dragged across the floor is driving me crazy. The ambient sound here is much better than the scratch and sniff armpit known as Starbucks.

Gas, buying fresh veggies, dog walking and apt cleaning. Right. Gotcha.

Test - Just added some CSS for code. Just in case.

// Comment
public class Testing {
public Testing() {
}
 
public void Method() {
/* Another Comment
on multiple lines */
int x = 9;
}
}

Bread and Circuses

Maybe the modern-day version of this meme should be KFC and Ultimate Fighting, but I've noticed how people have tuned out and lost interest of real issues.  We like fluff and scandal more than anything else in the world.  We like it better than a movie trailer for the new Star Wars movie that include Darth Vader's deep breathing.   "Luke....[ominous breath]...go get me some of those boneless chicken nuggets....it's my destiny...."

Yet with things that yours truly agrees with (e.g.,woman's rights, gay rights, working poor's rights, anything that might warrant a filibuster), people rail against pubic figures who dare to speak badly of X or surreptitiously inject their own not-so-secret agenda.  Quick!  Let's boycott the bastard!   It's very hard to shame someone out of existence, and the damage done can either be quick (e.g.,  Sanford, Wiener) or long and sad (donations to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation).  Social media is powerful but it's like a three-point shot or a lucky blow to the chin.  After a while it's less of a weapon than an annoyance.

Momma said knock you out

I think I spend waste my time not doing any one thing but 0.005% of something. A few pages of a book, a few comments on +G, a few guffaws at being stuck another wannabe hood.

I think I finished my Android homework. This is the first assignment that was vague and nebulous. I get paid to interpret things that are also vague and nebulous, but this assignment's requirements were half-baked. At least the class is pass/no clue.

It's sad how stupid this season's "Hell's Kitchen" has become. A bunch of hacks who act like 12 year old girls at recess. So many of these shows exceed their shelf lives, and this is one of them.  I don't think we need another Gordon Ramsay show unless he can beat the crap out of someone who can't cook a scallop. Booyah.

Dumbo

Damn.  I think I almost blew out my eardrums when I clicked the google music player.  I'm far more likely to so something idiotic than have flashes of brilliance.

I was under the impression that I had a small limit of songs I could upload, but I've uploaded a good number of Beatles and Joy Division albums as well as some mixes I had for friends.  The tiny app that runs on my PC at home is pretty limited.  I point to an itunes list and it's too dumb to see that the contents have changed.  Sadly there's no option to force a re-read.

I guess I've moved from podcasts to online EVERYTHING.  Not sure if I'm read for online IDEs a la Cloud9.  This macbook (the only HEAVY one not the light and fluffy retina one they sell now) already looks old.   I've been using this with win8 along with a half-functioning wireless mouse I got at Fry's (aka the 11th circle of hell).  In other words, I need to upload a crapload of songs and albums.  I get tired of my "new" stuff pretty quickly. Hell, even XMU is stale.  The blog radio stuff is sometimes cool and sometimes makes me want to rip my eyes out.

Tough shit drink up and leave

I'm not sure why I'm here at Starbucks. I guess I still am in habit of just walking somewhere...anywhere... God, I sometimes hate the suburbs. There is absolutely nothing to do here.

I don't think the SCOTUS will do anything regarding gay marriage. Of the couple of gay people I've known, I can't say that any of them wanted to get married. I have a bigger problem with straight friends getting married or not married. Actually, I don't care what people do or don't do. What did Robert Burns say? ...whist no o' my fate.

My lease is up at the end May. That's pretty damn soon. And the background check with this contract job is a lot like a sport s team's big strategy which is nothing more than a repeat of the previous sucky year.

I did finally go down and submit the app for a passport. $110!!! The woman asked me where I was going.....tick...tick.... I literally couldn't think of anywhere.  I don't think it's a requirement but I did write Canada and Europe. Canada is only 100 miles away, at least Vancouver is. I need to see if there are any jobs there. Seattle? Been there done that. Supposedly the background check is taking a long time because of all the states I've worked in.  I call bullshit on that.

Value Menu

I wonder when $tarbucks will get a clue and upgrade their WiFi. I usually connect to it so I can listen to any music that isn't their usual repetitive crap, but starts to flake out when it gets crowded. Laptops, phones, you name it. I'm surprised that there is someone else reading a lo-tech book. Speaking of bathos, I need to install win8 on my MBP. Or maybe I'll choose win7.  I sort of regret buying this overpriced toy because I don't really use it except to charge my ancient iPod. And I don't really use THAT.  I guess there was a time that I did but not these days.

I have a week to drop that android class. I already paid for it but I'm not sure it'll help me. I've always been skeptical of the latest tech thingie because I've seen enough of them go poof. I still remember the uber-hype of the 90s where people could get enough of "HTML Programmers."

History is a bunch of over-hyped and failed excursions for the almighty buck/pound/euro with emphasis on the fail. It's not that I'm averse to capitalism, just that its flaws don't go away. Perhaps things would be more sensible if we get to space or get attacked by robotic espresso machines running Android 5.1 ("The Butt Munch").

Not like you do

I don't know what's scarier, the fact that someone bothered to do a cover of Portishead's "Sour Times" or that the singer is auditioning for Motown. Has it been THAT long? It might scarier that this cover was right before a real '60s song and some bad '70s disco tune (with that fake hand clapping sound and synth orchestra.) I'd have more respect for El Hombre if they had a mix or theme rather than hit the random button.

I heard that Michelle Shocked had anti-gay meltdown in (wait for it) SF. I guess she was true to her name, right? I wonder if she had a brain thingie like Prof. Shockley who did espouse eugenics before a car accident.  And Mel Gibson did fall off the anti-Semitic wagon before his third shot of Jack.

Gen X Algebra

I wonder if someone will have a NXNW festival where it rains every day and everyone is an old pale rocker from the late '80s.  People my age (40s) scare little children. Hell, seeing people after 20+ years freaks me out because I keep thinking that they look like their dads and moms.

I've never been good at extrapolating physical appearances. 20 years should equally 20 more pounds (at least) and 20% less hair (at least). One can also add 20% more debt (at least) and 20 things you never really got around to doing (lose weight, buy some Rogaine, move to WA or TX because there's no state tax).

I still have to make a screen cast for my android app. I do think that intellij is slightly better than eclipse, at least when it comes to debugging. But I almost always use eclipse. I wonder what the second android class at The U is about. I can't believe this current class didn't cover fragments or persistence. At least they did cover multitasking, right? That's old hat if you do java and there are good resources about fragments and intents and all the androidiana.

Music: Stoned and Starving by Parquet Courts

And I feel like I just got home

I wonder if there's a CSS style so that I can post code snippets.  Ok, so maybe I really don't want to be another Look at My Code or Look at Yet Another Tutorial.  Good knows there's a zillion of them.  I guess I should try something, you know?

There are about five other people sitting at this Starbucks.  Four are clicking away on their phones, and one is on a laptop like me.  The other laptop guy is also writing with paper and pen.  What's next, a paperback book?  Wait, that's me.  I'd be reading now but part three of that SF series doesn't show up until tomorrow.  At least that's what amazon says.  I actually OWN the third book but I can't find it.  It's buried somewhere in the storage room and there's no way I can find it without taking going through each and every box.  Some boxes have no books but most do.  I still have tons of history and literature books.  I even have crap from Stanford. I remember that most of the literature books were the Norton versions.  I liked the critical essays, and they were pricey, but I'm also a fan of the fifty cent versions I can pick up at Half Price Books over in Tukwila.

Not sure why this ginormous solution keeps killing Visual Studio 2012.  I've noticed that VS 2012 is pretty slow.  I guess I should've been more selective when I installed it and not accepted the default (read: everything).  My big-ass desktop now seems so sad and old.   The quad core was the cat's meow when I moved to Seattle-land, but two years is a long time when it comes to things like computers or programming languages or 4-3 or 3-4 defenses.

I was thinking of my friend Dalal and wondering what ever happened to her.  I miss her emails and hearing about life as a grad student at UCDavis.  Actually, it always felt like I was talking to a sister because our home lives in SoCal were very similar.  I think she got pregnant and probably moved to Australia or something.   Speaking of Australia, one of the women who lives a couple of doors down is from Sydney. She and her little daughter like Rocky the Wonder Beagle.  A lot of people like Rocky.

I still have to make a screencast for my android app.  It's not hard but I can't seem to find the motivation.  We only had to do 4 out 6 assignments, but I did all 6.  I guess I wanted my money's worth?  I bitch and complain about the high price of things but money doesn't enter my mind after I lose the buyer's remorse.   I signed up for the second android class because I could call and put it on my credit card.  I really shouldn't have done that because it's not like I'm rolling in dead presidents.    These courses will undoubtedly not help me with any contract job but you never know.  There are more opportunities for ruby on rails programmers or even python programmers.   Like an idiot, I downloaded the Windows 8 Phone SDK and it killed my win8 partition.  I uninstalled it and haven't bothered to boot win8.   Actually, I did boot win8 and started Windows Update.  A bunch of updates did download and install, and then I couldn't boot from either the win8 or win7 partition.  After a day, I booted off the win7 media and ran the defrag thingie.  It look a couple of hours but then I could get back into win7.    The one thing that's been true for the last 200,000 years is that boxes that run Windows of any ilk slow down and get slower and get totally fubar'd.  It's like a part of natural law.  Unlike my brother, I rarely download anything from untrusted sites.   I only use MS Office when I have to (think: resume) and I almost always have a browser open.    I guess I should start using this macbook.   It's big and clunky and is not doing much.