donger need food.

If Microsoft Designed the iPod Box

I found this video rather funny. And the music is great too.

posted by VirtualErn @ 1:55 PM 1 comments

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Attention VM Geeks...

You've probably already heard about this, but we're awarding (a heckuva lotta) money to the folks that can come up with the best appliance VM. Details here.

posted by VirtualErn @ 10:14 AM 4 comments

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Question...

Is Yoplait yogurt a "female" product? Opening the lid top, I noticed an ad underneath to go visit http://www.sogoodgirls.com. And I started to recall that all the Yoplait ads I've seen seem to target women.

Whatever, it's still a tasty brakepast snack. (Better than eating nothing at all, right?)

posted by VirtualErn @ 9:35 AM 2 comments

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Sixteen Stochastic Burblings on a Sunday Night

1. Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway is actually quite an enjoyable album. And so is Sixpence None The Richer's Divine Discontent.
2. Six Sigma is defined as 3.4 defects per million lines of code. Incredible. United Space Alliance actually achieved Six Sigma after 15 years of process improvement. They wrote the software that guides the space shuttle. If there's a bug in the software, people die. If only there were such consequences in regular software...imagine how wonderful life would be if software just worked. And worked the way you wanted it to. And didn't annoy you.
3. I'm falling behind on all those inspired LIKHA projects - website update, instructional video shoot, CD production, talking to travel agents for the Europe trip booking, consider planning a Tahoe ski trip for the group. And what am I doing? Wasting time writing in a blog. I'm gonna be really pissed if no progress happens this week.
   
4. I'm lagging on taking that TB test (a month late already!) so that I can finally start volunteering for Tech Corps USA
   
5. 8 Min Dating is actually kinda fun.
6. I need to make a real effort to go to bed early. And I really have to stop writing in this blog so late at night.
7. My poor G20 is detonating like crazy, sounds like marbles rolling around in the motor under part throttle. I'm praying to the car gods that the new knock sensor makes it all go away so I can sell it with a clear conscience (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's a relative breeze to install).
8. I have to figure out how to squeeze in laps at the Stanford track during the day. A marathon in July isn't gonna happen if I continue slacking.
   
9. I need to book a skydiving appointment
10. The S38B36 is the most awesomest amazingest unbelievably visceralest motor I have ever had the pleasure of planting my right foot in. It is worth every single minute of 9 years of waiting and lusting.
11. I need to take a road trip to Joshua Tree National Park and see the wildflowers. And Clearlake. And Mono Lake. And Tioga Pass. And Sequoia National Park. And Kodachrome Basin. And Arches National Monument. And Zion. And...and...
    
12. I want a Mamiya RB67. With a 50mm ultra-wide lens.
13. I wish I had a slide worthy enough to make a 20x24 print. Oh well, one day I'll get it right...
    
14. I need to sell the Honda. But a part of me wishes that no one buys it.
15. Work is piling up like you wouldn't believe. ~20 years of schooling and 10 years of work and I still haven't learned how to stop procrastinating.
16. I really miss flying a kite on a sunny and blustery March afternoon in Crown Point park, with the sun beating down on your face, the water right in front of you, the soft green green grass under your feet, and the smell of BBQ all around. I miss playing catch with my Dad. I miss being a wannabe Dan Marino playing tag football with my old friends. And the bonfires on warm starlit summer evenings. And watching sunrise from the steps at the foot of the cross atop Mt. Soledad.
    

posted by VirtualErn @ 12:51 AM 2 comments

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The Captain's Hand

I love this show!

posted by VirtualErn @ 3:23 AM 6 comments

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Almost there

This is soooo cool...Someone out there got our baby running on the new Intel-based Macs.
It's not an OS X host, mind you, but it just goes to show that it can be done. I can't wait 'til someone gets VMware Workstation working on OS X.

posted by VirtualErn @ 12:06 PM 2 comments

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Boo iPod Boo

OK all you iPod people out there...

How the heck do you shuffle a playlist? I made a playlist on iTunes, dragged all my music into there, disconnected my iPod and started listening to tracks. All good. But then I wanted to shuffle the songs in the playlist. So...go to the menu, hit the "Shuffle Songs" option, and bang! all my songs got shuffled into one massive playlist. :(

I just want that play list to shuffle. Damnit.

And the other thing that bugs me is the sound quality...downright crappy! My old iRiver blows this thing out of the water. I guess you really are paying through the nose for stupid things like the coolness factor (it is kinda nifty) and the nice pretty display. Not to mention it doesn't even come with a freakin' wall charger.

Before I return this thing and get something better, does anyone know how to fix the shuffle setting? (I just might keep it if that can be fixed.) And me shuffling the playlist in iTunes with the iPod connected is not an option. I want to be able to shuffle the list while listening on the fly.

I really wish iRiver would hire someone good to do their UI. Their clunky interface (and even clunkier control knob) is the only thing keeping me from buying another one of their players.

posted by VirtualErn @ 11:35 PM 5 comments

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Adrenaline

Donger is about to die. Needs racing badly.

(What's really sad is that I forgot the name of that video game where that computerized voice warns you in words similar to the above of the warrior's impending demise -- what da hell was it called again?)

I really need to get myself a race car and go racing. The years are just creeping on by... and next thing you know, I'll be fortysomething, worrying about the rising cost of child care and listening to some hot wife of mine complain about the leaking kitchen faucet in her sultry seductive voice while she cooks me waffles in the nude. hehehe

Well, I guess until that happens, there's always this Saturday to feed that go-fast need.

And they've posted part 2 of the movie quiz. It seems they chose less obscure movies this time, but I'm stuck at 23 out of 30. I'm blocked on 4, 13 (the name is on the tip of my tongue), 21, 23 (that's Kate Hudson, right?), 26 (Damnit, I saw this movie!), 29, 30.

posted by VirtualErn @ 9:33 AM 6 comments

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Reason #2581 and #2582 For Why I (Happily) Pay The Sunshine Tax

#2581: It's the second week of February, and this was my commute to work this morning:


#2582: Being able to impulsively redefine "Emergency Parking Only" to satisfy a strange compelling need to grab pictures of these before they went away:





Three day weekend coming up! I really need to do something revitalizing and fun to take my mind off the stresses of trying to burn a candle at both ends while simultaneously taking a match to the middle (I'll reserve that arduous banter for another post).

Until then, I'll revel in these glorious tantalizing previews of the upcoming spring and enjoy the two remaining angst-filled days until the arrival of my beloved obsession. Ah, it will be an anticlimactic day indeed when I finally quench that decade-long materialistic desire...I wonder what will be my next illogical material-lust?

posted by VirtualErn @ 10:18 PM 4 comments

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Fun With Movies

Yes, it's Valentine's Day.
No, I don't have a hot date tonight.
And yes, I'm surfing the web and having fun with movies. (I'm stuck at 18 right now. Curses!)

posted by VirtualErn @ 10:03 PM 5 comments

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Keep On Hopin

Do you know what it's like to wonder
Do you know what it's like to feel alone
In love
With the one you adore

Do you know what it's like to hold her
Do you know what it's like to feel the way I do
Well if she only knew

I'm gonna keep on hopin
That she catches my smile
I'm gonna keep on hopin
That she likes my style
I'm gonna keep on hopin
That one day she'll be mine


It is such an amazing day today...Sun shining, not a cloud in the sky. If you haven't already, go outside!

posted by VirtualErn @ 1:06 PM 1 comments

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ThreadBared

Someone at work sent this link out that made fun of things vintage. It made me crack up. So I thought I'd share.

(As you can tell, I'm having one heck of a hellaciously hectic week, so postings are few and far between. Maybe I'll get around to finishing one of the unfinished drafts sitting in here...)

posted by VirtualErn @ 1:02 PM 0 comments

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But I Hate Pinakbet...

Eew...umpalaya. Bleh.


Pinakbet: A mixture of vegetables that include:
bittermelon, eggplant, and squash


Which Filipino Food Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

posted by VirtualErn @ 1:43 PM 9 comments

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Damned Good Mexican Food

My brother sent me this from San Diego. I just had to share...

posted by VirtualErn @ 11:47 PM 3 comments

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Blissfully Sweet Trivial Events In One's Life

Reading Lara G's post got me thinking about some of those times in my life where I enjoyed simple moments of temporary bliss...

• On a long return trip back from Disneyland (and the screaming masses as NKOTB, INXS, Samantha Fox performed during Grad Nite '89)... I found myself -- the solitary soul awake at this time of the morning -- enjoying an incredibly serene busride as the early rays of a beautiful sunrise cascaded through the southern california hills...my tired and weary peers fast asleep throughout the chartered bus.
  
• An overcast and chilly concerete tarmac in Marina, CA... 56-point-something-something seconds of pure magic as my feet and hands somehow managed to hustle my 3200 lb 4-door to the fastest H-stock time of the day. Without hitting a cone. Time just happened to creep down to a crawl, and I felt like I was going soooo slow. But in complete control... My mind was looking 2 corners ahead of each cone, with nary a speed-scrubbing slide or bad line.
• Thirteen years ago, in a small park overlooking the bay on Coronado island... A simple outdoor springtime birthday celebration for yours truly with a handful of my closest friends, during which there was a fraction of second that marked the exact moment when I came to the first realization that I was deeply madly and unabashedly in love (or what I thought was love back then) with someone.
• Sometime past 8PM on a cool summer evening years ago I was pulling out of the used car lot in the pilot's seat of the first (and only) turbo car I've ever driven.... Leaning into the throttle -- hard -- in first gear and I think I yelled something like, "holeeeee shiiiiiiiiiit!" as those 300 progressive horsies pulled like a steam locomotive gone berserk. Knees trembling, I vowed to get myself a turbo car.
  
• Deep in the concrete bowels of UCSD's Applied Physics & Mathematics building, the thrumming of heating & cooling units vibrating the walls.... After slaving away for hours on the green and yellow VT220 terminal with soft touch keys, battling cold and haunting statements like "Queued, waiting to run..." and "undefined symbol" and "i: no such variable", it's that moment when you finally see those magical words like a distant message from deep outer space: "Hello World!"
• Cutting through a perfectly cooked bone in USDA Prime dry-aged ribeye steak -- cool pink in the middle. Even more blissful... that fantastic moment when an incredibly rich bite of foie gras melts in your mouth for the first time ever.
  

And I imagine it'll only get better with age -- first home, first child, first race victory, maiden solo flight, first million, first nationwide primetime television appearance, first academy award for best cinematography (ok, I'm getting carried away)

What's your bliss?

posted by VirtualErn @ 12:19 AM 1 comments

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America The Beautiful

It makes me sad to see things like this. I love my country, but there are some things about it that just really irk the crap out of me.

Hrmph.

Maybe I just need to go travel out of this country more -- it'll help me remember all the good things that I enjoy about the gosh darned U. S. of A. Dab nabit.

posted by VirtualErn @ 8:28 AM 2 comments

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Social Chair

Tinamaan, if you're reading this, thanks for throwing out the idea to go see Coldplay way back in November. If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't have gone to see 'em. I had a great time listening to good music with good friends (despite that whole "best laid plans" thing coming true again for me). It was definitely well worth the price of admission!

And dinner at Vino E Cucina was quite tasty. The picture doesn't do their rigatoni justice. But that dessert...amazing. I'm definitely returning.



So....next activity: skydiving! Who's in?

posted by VirtualErn @ 12:33 AM 4 comments

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