Wow, I think I have to just admit to myself that I’m a bag whore. I lust after laptop and messenger bags like some girls obsess over shoes. My newest obsession, which I plan to treat myself with once I get my tax return, is the Unfold by Working Class Heroes. Their Butterfingers Laptop Wallet is also pretty cool. Still, I must have the Unfold, oh yes … -Thom
Less
More
Archive for the 'Announcements' Category
I have not seen the latest Gundam series, but I think I am of the opinion that the Japanese don’t make space operas like they used to…
I keep forgetting how awesome this song is. I usually get tired of songs after hearing them a billion times (which I have a tendancy of doing), but this one song, I keep coming back to, and it sounds just as awesome as if were my first time hearing it. Maybe because it is linked to two of my favorite movies (Trainspotting and Hackers), or maybe because this is literally the first song I heard at my first “rave” all those years ago. I dunno, but it is amazing, so I share for you all now, the lyrics:
EDIT: oops, I thought Cowgirl was the other Underworld track on Trainspotting besides Born Slippy, but it looks like I was wrong. Oh well, still a fantastic song.
Everything…
i’m invisible…
an eraser of love…
why dont you call me i feel like flying in two…
i’m invisible…
an eraser of love…
why dont you call me i feel like flying in two…
an eraser of love…
i don’t dream. (ice cream.) i scream so much.
you know what i mean. this electric stream.
and my tears in league with the wires and energy and my machine.
this is my beautiful dream.
i’m hurting no one. hurting no one…
i want to give you everything.
i want to give you energy. i want to give a good thing.
i want to give you everything. everything…
in one final scream of love who could climb this high she looks beautiful
like a child i feel tears. and i want to scream.
you know what i mean cause this is hurting no one. an erazor of love.
hurt. the necessary feeling.
why dont you call me i feel like flying in two…
an erazor of love
i am writing this post from my iphone because, well, i can :D
Oh my lord this thing is sweet!
-Thom
Perhaps the longest blog post I’ve ever written, and I don’t even intend to post it …
I’m not even sure if writing all of that down has helped ease my mind at all.
-Thom
“I’m a million dollar man, I need a billion dollar bitch” - International Player’s Anthem [ft. Outkast] by UGK
Haha!
-Thom (I promise a real update will come soon)
yeah…
Well, things have been up and down these last few weeks. To begin with, I celebrated my birthday three weeks ago, that was fun…. I think. I’m tired of gettign older, I think it’s high time I grow younger now. Or something. Heh.
Lets see, more recently, my car has been giving more trouble. The passenger-side window decided to stop working on me. It rolled down, and figured it wanted to stay that way. Unfortunately, while it might be a good idea to air out my car, it unfortunately makes things difficult with regard to, you know, security and keeping the elements (like rain) out. Speaking of rain, someone mentioned how they never see me angry and probably never would. Basically, what is the point in getting upset over things? I’d rather just fix whatever problem it is, and then get on with enjoying life. With that said, I discovered that my new favorite song of the moment captures my perspective perfectly. Here is where I tie it all together: The song is called “Rain” by Bishop Allen, and it can be downloaded directy via Pitchfork Media. Listen to it!
Anyway, moving on to other things … I’m in a chef-like mood all of the sudden. Buying food is becoming a hastle, so I’m playing with the idea of coking more of my own food. I love to cook, I just hate the clean up work and the fact that I never seem to have all the ingredients available, thus causing extra work on my part. Meh, but I’m gonan give it another shot. I’ve been on a tomato soup kick recently, which would go well with a simple grilled cheese sandwich… mmm, now I’m hungry all of the sudden.
You know I just realized, well, not just, but still… I keep coming to the realization that I do my best thinking when I’m tired. It’s so odd… when the sandman calls, I can barely form coherent sentances, but at the same time, I get these fantastic ideas or have these awesome flashes of inspiration. I usually forget to write it all down, and of course, by morning, I’ve forgottn most of it, except maybe the vaguest of ideas. I really need to work on cultivating this state of mind.
Ugh, I need a new external HD just to store video assets for a project I have planned. Anyone got $100 they’d be willing to toss in my general direction? That would be swell!
Oh hey, lookie, it’s raining outside… =D
-Thom
Many of those who have driven with me in my car have heard me complain that it lacks acceleration. Granted, it is only a 90hp diesel car, but damn has it been slow. Well, over the last months I’ve been reading up on possible fixes for my car’s woes, and it all seemed to point toward the Mass Air-Flow sensor going awry. Last Sunday, I met up with one of my co-worker’s friends (oddly enough, the guy who’s job I “stole”, but that is another story I guess) and he is also the owner of a TDI Volkwagon. We chatted about the merits of biodeisel and other things, and I brought up my car’s poor acceleration. He immediately said it is 95% certain that my car’s MAF sensor was gunked up and he gave me the link to a site where I could get a good deal on a new sensor.
It just arrived last night and 30 minutes later, I was on the roads. OMG… how I missed being able to acelerate! Tom is happy once more. Now I guess I should do some other auto maintanance. Still, I am hapy with the money spent. Yay!
-Tom
Wow, my life has been very up and down since I last posted. I dunno where to begin.
I erased my HD not too long ago, that was fun. The only thing of importance I lost were a few pictures, but that is it. Aside from that, I have spent the last few weeks reinstalling applications and getting some songs on to my computer so I can have things to listen to. It’s kinda refreshing. I have a lot of space on my HD now, and I really didn’t need all that pr0n I was stockpiling =P
Otakon was this last weekend. I got to hang out with some really great people and I had a lot of fun. By far, the best Otakon I’ve been a part of. I’m in no position to give a “con-report” like I would have years ago, but I would like to give a few shoutouts to the people that made my weekend interesting: John and Jon and the whole GR crew, Hanako and Robin (the founders and sole proprieters of the “I <3 Tom Heaton Fan Club“), Laylact the Conquerer (destroyer of cons, or at least, of 4chan Panels), Christian and Pontus (without whom no party is complete), and of course, the guests I got to party with, or at least, hang out with.
In other news, I was slated to take a motocycle safety class with my brother this weekend. I made it to the first two classes, but accidentally overslet the third class today, which makes me in-eligible to get a licence. Not all is lost, but, well, it’s a big bummer. I feel most bad for my brother who a) I wanted to hang out with and b) feels bad about my missing class. Oh well, I’m sure it will all work out in the end. I’ll be headed out to the course to see my brother pass the class tomorrow though.
Oh yeah, the staffing problems at work are finally coming to an end, so maybe I’ll get to post more often… heh, yeah, whatever. Still, it will be nice to have some normalcy again.
This is just a quick rant…
Earlier this week, all of the Mac rumor sites were a-buzz with the news that Apple will be announcing the new iBook replacements (aka: the MacBook) this Tuesday. Well, Tuesday has come and gone, but Apple did not follow through with the rumors. Now, the rumor sites are saying that the announcement will come next week instead (on Tuesday).
I have the feeling that next week may come to pass with no announcement, and then the sites will just say that it will be in another week. Still Apple tends to announce new products at either special events, or on Tuesdays, and the fact that Apple has stated that they will come out with Intel iBooks before year’s end… I think the sites will ultimately be right. So, rock on rumor sites, rock on =P Maybe if we’re lucky, the second guess will be right. Hahaha.
-Tom
I meant to write a nice post two weeks ago saying “hear yea, hear yea, I have left AQ and am now employed elsewhere!” or something to that effect. But I had to work, so things did not materialize as I had hoped. So, for those who may not know (or have not inferred from the previous sentence) I got a new job! Due to some of the policies in place so I’m not sure if I should say who I work for online, but I will say that I have been wanting to do this job for a while, and so far, it’s been great!
I just completed my first week there and it has been refreshing to say the least. I didn’t quite realize the funk I had been in in my old job until I was actually in a new environment. At my new job, everyone has fun, and there never seems to be a dull moment. I am still in “training” right now, but I can do this job in my sleep. Getting up to speed will be a non-issue. Even though the job is a bit farther away, I’m delighted to go in to work.
Hrm, what else to say? I dunno. I just thought I’d share a little. Ph yeah, I have some new clothing in my wardrobe, all thanks to my new employer… this is great, I don’t have to worry about what I wear to work ever again =D
-Tom
I said I’d write daily with words from my GRE book, but I’ve been busy trying to get a new job. Things are looking up, but I won’t say much more than that, just to play it safe and not jinx things. Still, I came accross a nifty Apple Knowledge Base article that I thought was clever. I’ve actually known about the article for a while now, but I never read it through to the end. I think the example at the end warrants some recognition since it makes the point and does so neatly. How convenient that “apple” is 5 characters long, and “applecomputer” is 13 characters? Interesting…
-Tom
So, this is something I’ve held in abeyance, but I need to start seriously studying for the GRE. I can aver that my math knowledge is up to par with the challenges I will face on the test, but I need to ameliorate my verbal abilities if I wish to score well. As such, I am assiduously working my way through a GRE prep booklet and I plan to post daily using the new words I’ve appropriated. I will mark such words in bold-type (such as I’ve been doing in this post). Sorry if my posts sound forced or bombastic, but I’m just trying to get these words in to my vernacular so that I will do well. Also, FYI, I already know some of these words, but if it is in the list, so be it, I’ll try to use it more. My goal is to get through five new words a day. Wish me luck!
-Tom
Today was a busy day for me with regard to updating my blog! No new posts (except this one), but I did a lot on the back-end. First and foremost, I updated to the latest K2 theme (beta two r167). After doing that, I spent some time tweaking PHP and some other code and now I have a photo gallery up! There is a link to it in the header area, but for those too lazy to glance up, here is the link. I have few good pictures of myself, so most of the image galleries are of pics I’ve taken at random events. Oh yeah, if you are interested in knowing what software I’m running, it is called zenphoto, and it’s pretty easy to set up for the most part. Hrm, there was something else I did to the site, what was it…
Oh yeah, I enabled the mod_rewrite() capability in WordPress, so the URLs have all changed, but they look all nifty now! Now if you need to link to something off my blog (yeah, right) the links actually make sense. If you dunno what I mean, check it out by clicking on a link for my archives.
Ok, anyway, I need to add some more albums later, but I think I’ll stop at 5 for the time being. Check them out.
-Tom
Well, to begin, I upgraded to WordPress 2.0 a few days ago, and I’ve switched back to the “plain” version of the K2 mod/theme I’m using. I need to get some Photoshop time in so I can get a new image banner and play with the CSS to make the site more… “Tom-like” in appearance. I keep saying I’m gonna do this, but I have not had the time.
Speaking of time, I’ve just come to a realization that I’m at my most creative in the last hour or two before I go to sleep. It’s weird. I’m too tired to form complete sentences most times, but I come up with cool theories and other niftiness. Too bad I also don’t remember half of what I thought up when I wake the next morning, because I never write anything down. That said, most of my best writing is done during this time. Much must be done on my part to read and re-read what I’ve written to check for grammatical and logic errors, but the end result is usually the best I produce… usually.
That leads me to another thing I’ve been toying around with. In the near future I am seriously gonna consider addapting my body to a polyphasic sleep schedule. I’m not interested in it to get more waking hours to “play” with… I’m wondering if I can get more clarity with my thoughts. Just an idea.
Oh yeah, I guess my blog would not be complete without mentioning my job situation. I’m still not sure what the hell is going on, but I may have a job coming my way in the very near future. I can’t name names, but I’ve gotten past two interviews and a background check. Now all that is left is to see whether an opening exists for me. The problem here is, the person who makes that determination is someone I’ve come to fear is not good at following up on tasks… so we’ll see.
Ooh, another thing, I’m back on my search to go to grad school. I keep saying I’ll do this, but I never got around to it during my week of freedom, mainly because I was too engrossed in re-learning Lisp. But, after playing with Lisp, and reading articles on Genetic Programming, as well as some fiction, I think I’m leaning more towards doing research in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. The significance of all this is that I now have an idea of what kind of schools I want to target. Now I just need to get past my fear of rejection and apply to some schools (that poor GPA thing, entirely my fault, kind of makes it harder to go to the schools I want). Meh.
Anyway, I’m outta here, thanks for dealing with my rambling.
-Tom
For those of you who may be seeing links posted up randomly in my RSS feed, I’ve enabled a new feature on my blog called “asides”. What this does is makes a small list of quick links I want to draw attention to, but don’t want to write a full-blown blog post about. If I happen upon a neat link, expect it to show up here.
-Tom
So I’ve been hanging out with Glen and Erica for the last few days, watching Lost and looking for jobs. Erica was sick, so I guess my continued exposure to her brought on this cold I am experiencing. Taking a cue from my former supervisor, Dave Afdahl, I have been taking some Zinc and Ecinacea supplements. The cold hit me hard this morning, but by this afternoon, I was MUCH better. Sore throat is gone, and the phlegm is no more. Granted, I still took the day off and slept most of it away, but I am quite surprised with my quick recovery.
Man, now I’ll have to go to work tomorrow… and explain why I was only out for one day. Oh, and now my sleep schedule is fucked up (more so than normal…).
-Tom
I’m THIS close to applying for jobs at Microsoft… if only so I can get some programming experience, and they have something like, a bajillion employees. Besides, I could see about working in one of their research labs, or in the Mac Business Unit…
I don’t know…
Obi-won, you’re my only hope…
-Tom
… to point out that Paris Hilton has only one facial expression…
… but given the chance, I’d still do her =P
-Tom
So I was looking at how much Paid Time Off I’d accumulated since my last “vacation” (which was not very relaxing) and I found that I had two weeks of time saved up… so pending my last-minute vacation request going through… I’m going back to school for a week!
I plan to take next week off and I’ll be spending most of that time at UMBC. Here is what I have on my agenda for that time. I plan to put in 8 hour days for the 5 weekdays, and I’ll try to actually relax on the weekends…
Mon-Fri (UMBC Library):
NOTE: I think the school library will be a lot more conductive to me learning than sitting at home with a bajillion distractions (like pr0n ;) and the desks there are better set-up for study (ie: no bed to beckon to me)
Saturday (wherever):
PARTY!!! … and maybe brush up on Unix/Linux system admin.
Sunday (Prince Frederick, MD):
Visit the Parental Units
Wish Me Luck!
I updated my resume. It is MUCH closer to the one I’ve been sending out to prospective employers, so please give me some feedback!
-Tom
I think maybe I will just pursue my Master’s degree, at least, initially. I could study Computer Science and get a Masters, then I could spend a few years of my life in Amsterdam tooling around for my Ph.D. =D
-Tom
I have 6 posts partially written… I really need to sit down and pound them out. They are all things I want to talk about….
-Tom