BrockLi Soup

I spent the day at my parent’s house near Buffalo. Our family cell plan contract was up this month, and we decided to extend it since it’s cheaper than maintaining three separate plans. As such, we all got new phones - Eric and I both got a Samsung SCH-a630, and my parents are sharing an SCH-a850.

I like the phone because it’s pretty small, and I like the clamshell. However, I was so used to my old phone and knew EXACTLY how to do everything I wanted to, that adapting to this one was been rocky at best. It seems that Voice Dialing is in no way attached to the phone book - on the Motorola, you could add a voice dial to contacts in the phone book, and everything was peachy. On the Samsung, you record a voice dial, and then enter the number that goes with it, whether it’s already in the phone book or not. The ringers just plain suck, so I picked the least annoying of them. When you adjust the ringer volume, it doesn’t actually make any noise, so I have no idea how loud “Level 3″ is until someone calls me. As far as I can tell, there’s no voice note feature, which sucks because I’d often leave reminders for myself. The color screen is sort of nice, but my long-standing suspicion was correct - a simple, monochrome list is a much more usable menu than a colorful one with icons.

The text predictor isn’t as flexible as the Motorola’s - if the word isn’t in the dictionary, you have to enter it manually. On the Motorola, you could sort of fudge it - for example, I have a friend we call Cupcake. Cupcake is not in the dictionary on the Samsung (and I don’t think it’s in the Motorola). With either, you hit 2-8-7 and get “Cup.” When I hit 2 for the second ‘c,’ it suggests “Curb.” I can hit 0 to cycle through other suggestions, but none of them are right - once I’ve typed the whole word, my options are “Curable” and “Btracke.” On the Motorola, it shows a running tally of options, so it would read “Cupa,” but I could use the right arrow to get “Cupb,” “Cupc,” or “Cup2,” and go from there. It was a nice compromise between text prediction and manual entry.

In the twelve hours or so that I’ve had the thing, I haven’t been too impressed. I imagine it will grow on me, especially once I’m familiar with all the menus and such, but I wish I could have a simple, usable, sturdy phone like I did.

On the bright side, Mom took me shopping and got me some clothes for my birthday. I got to hang out with the family, and I got One Last Ride in before it’s too cold for motorcycling. Along the way, I stopped by a friend’s place and got to take my buddy’s new Harley for a spin, too, so the day wasn’t a loss by any means.

Unless there’s a loser’s game, I’m done with hockey. We (surprise!) lost the first playoff game for this quarter.

Hockey was really the first sport I enjoyed playing. I did basketball and baseball in grade school, but I always dreaded the games - I only played because everyone else did. I did some volleyball in middle school and soccer in middle and early high school, but was never too thrilled about either. Hockey has been more fun than I ever thought a sport could be. College was really my only opportunity to try it; my high school started a team my junior or senior year, but I certainly couldn’t afford equipment at the time. I spent about $250 on gear two years ago, and I’ve been playing free ever since - no ice fees for intramural.

While I’m going to miss playing, I’m sort of relived that it’s over. I’ve never been the alpha male must-win-everything-I-do type, so I’ve been perfectly content with losing pretty much all the time. I wasn’t content, however, with accepting our fate as crappy players without trying to get better. I don’t care if I lose, but it’s going to piss me off if I’m not doing the best I can. When the team around me isn’t too interested in doing any better, it’s just frustrating because I feel like I’m never moving forward.

That’s not to say that this is the prevailing mentality on the team. A lot of the people that I’ve been playing with for the past year or two have gotten a LOT better, and I see it every time they’re out on the ice. Even so, it sort of felt like there was a backlash from people that just wanted to stay mediocre as a team.

It doesn’t matter. It’s over, and I had fun. I would have liked to have done better, but life has to have some shortcomings or you won’t appreciate the good stuff.

It’s unlikely that I’ll ever play hockey again. I could join a men’s league, but they’re pretty pricey and the other guys are bound to be a lot better than I am. If I get a job at RIT or come back here for grad school, I’ll play again, but that’s probably the only way it will happen.

And I won’t miss the stink of hockey equipment in my room, that’s for sure.

Last night, in one of my dreams, the battery in the clock above my bed died.

This morning, I woke up and added AA batteries to my shopping list.

Just now, I walked into my room and thought, “I wonder if I have time to go shopping now and get the stuff on that list.” I glanced up at the clock and found that it died six hours ago, at 11:35 this morning.

Whoa.

The unfortunate thing about buying a sweatshirt in the campus store is that, almost every day, you and a stranger find yourselves in the awkward position of wearing the same shirt to class.

There is WAY too much information out there.

For the most part, this isn’t a problem. The more the merrier, right? Wikipedia is certainly a lot more useful when it’s full of information.

The problem is the fact that I feel the need to consume it all, to read and watch and listen and process until I have a grasp on everything and know a little bit about all of it. I try to spend some time reading every day, both online and in dead-tree media, to keep up on current events, and every day, my stack of new magazines seems a little taller, and the number of unread posts in my news reader is a little higher. I know I can’t possibly take in everything that comes my way, but I’ve always had an overwhelming desire to know what’s going on.

Internet Anxiety Disorder first came to my attention over SIX MONTHS AGO, about the same time Ryan found it. I’ve been meaning to comment on it ever since, but I always seem to have something to read.

My intent to articulate this was recently revived when I found a link (from somewhere) to an article by Bob Walsh: All The News Doesn’t Fit. Just a few days earlier, Google had introduced Google Reader. The introductory post on Google Blog said it best (though almost definitely not first): how is anyone “supposed to keep up with the fire hose of stuff launched from the web’s spigot?”

I like to be able to comment intelligently on the issues facing the world around me, and as such, I try to keep on top of things. I’ve been spending more time reading lately and feel like I’m getting a better grasp on things, but it never slows down. Currently:

• I have a half-dozen unread Wired magazines laying around.
• There are around 30 non-technical, just-for-fun type books on my shelf. I’ve read about half of them, maybe.
• I’m currently reading two books. I’m an incredible 75 pages into the one I started a couple months ago.
• I have 104 RSS feeds in my news reader, totaling 559 unread posts right now.
• I’ve been keeping a list of movies I want to see since around August 2003 (I think). It currently features 217 titles. In 2004, I watched 129 movies, and just 71 so far this year, so that’s around two years worth of movies I need to catch up on.
• The text file with the list of movies also has 94 books that I’ve read ABOUT, and want to actually read.
• Back in February, I started posting things to del.icio.us with the ‘toRead’ tag, when I found something interesting but didn’t have time to read it immediately. There are now 306 pages with that tag.

I feel like I’m missing out when I hear people talking about the latest book - two good examples are The Tipping Point and Freakonomics , both old news by now - but I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll never be able to keep up on it all. Yesterday, I started reading The Influentials (which I owned for TWO YEARS before finally starting) and thought this summed it all up nicely:

The average American would have to read 334 books per day, go to 11,000 web sites per day, peruse 15 magazines per day, and tune into 29 radio stations every day for a year to see everything available to him or her - and that’s not counting the dozens of programs being beamed every day by the hundreds of television networks vying for viewers’ attention.

I haven’t even tried to address TV, which has only gotten worse with the recent acquisition (and subsequent upgrade) of TiVo. I watch Simpsons or Aqua Teen Hunger Force when I feel like I need a break from consuming all the print media I need to get to.

There’s a lot out there, and it just keeps coming. I know I can’t possibly get all of it, but I feel like I’m missing something if I don’t at least catch the major stuff. I’ve learned to be very suspicious of anyone who seems to be on top of it all - they are clearly unemployed and don’t require sleep.

Who’s with me?

The first annual Brocktoberfest went off without a hitch on Saturday, and it was a roaring success by (almost) all accounts. I was really expecting Campus Safety to show up, since they’ve been cracking down lately, but we never saw them. We had someone at the door all night and marked hands, so we kept out the riff-raff and did our best to keep it all legal.

This was my last one, though. I decided last week that I would host this one with BP, and that would be it. I’ve thrown about a half-dozen great parties, and I’ve enjoyed every one, but now I’d rather just chip in my $5 for beer and let someone else do the work. I don’t think most people realize how much goes into these things - I spend more time cleaning, shopping, and cleaning again than I do at the party. It’s fun, but I’m just not sure it’s still worth the time, effort, and money I pour into it. I’ll let someone else deal with it and quit while I’m ahead.

Also, I figured that it would be a good test to see how I’m REALLY doing with the quitting. If there’s anywhere I want to smoke, it’s at a party after a couple drinks, especially if there are other smokers around. But it was never an issue - I stepped outside with the smokers a couple times, and had no desire to bum one. Hell, BP’s cigarette was bothering me in the car when we went shopping. I DID have a pinch of chew at the end of the night - yes, I know it’s disgusting, but a little bit now and then has helped me wean off the nicotine, and it doesn’t keep me from breathing. It’s been a full three weeks since I’ve touched a cigarette, and I’m kind of surprised with how well it’s been going.

I had an interview today for a real job, about a half hour south of RIT. I haven’t been talking much about my job search (nor do I intend to) for a variety of reasons, but I feel that this one bears mentioning because it’s historic: it’s my first real one.

I’ve done plenty of interviews before, but they’ve always been for part-time jobs or co-op. This time, I don’t have the luxury of resorting to McDonald’s (well…sorta) or putting that co-op off for another quarter. This time, it’s really sink or swim. It’s especially worrying because jobs are a little thin these days. I know several people who graduated in May and had a hell of a time finding a job; others are still looking. In my financial state (broke), there’s no way I can go for more than a couple weeks without a job.

I like to hope that this will prove to be the first of many. Surely, dozens of companies will be clamoring for my incredible skills and unparalleled charm! And, let’s be honest with ourselves - most IT departments could stand to have an extra good-lookin fella around, don’t you think?

Two articles came to my attention this evening and (ironically) set me back about an hour, productivity-wise.

The first comes by way of Liz. Paul Ford offers Followup/Distraction, a great piece on the distractive powers of the Internet. I can’t even imagine how much time I’ve wasted in the four years since I moved away from dial-up. There always seems to be something new and interesting to read somewhere. I don’t even spend much time instant messaging anymore, and almost none at all gaming - I seem to waste most of my time on various blogs.

So, I finished the article, agreed with Ford, considered the option of leaving my computer to get some work done, and then (obviously) went back to my news reader and sweet sweet Internet bliss.

Over at the Six Apart ProNet blog, Anil Dash commented on Jakob Nielsen’s latest, Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes. They were all sort of, “Well, of course,” points, but they’re easy to forget when one is actually designing a site. For example, I’m guilty of the nondescript posting titles (#3) all the time, because I think I’m being clever (I’m not). I also hadn’t considered the option of highlighting my favorite entries (#5), but I think I’ll dig through and come up with a list of good ones someday. I do remember that a future boss could read this at any time (#9). When I was using LiveJournal, there were a lot of times that I’d think, “I hope so-and-so doesn’t read this,” but the friends-only option sort of protected that. Here, I’m trying to be less offensive, without pretending to be something I’m not. I mean, I’m anything but politically correct, but I don’t have to go out of my way to be a jackass, either.

Sure, I waste a lot of time on blogs…but at least I’m learning how to make them more usable.

I’ve been meaning to comment on the shows I’ve been to lately, but I always seem to have something more pressing to do. Here’s a quick re-cap.

Against Me! with The Epoxies September 25 at The Icon in Buffalo

As it turns out, it was Against Me! with The Epoxies, and Smoke or Fire, and The Soviettes. First off, The Icon is a shitty little building, I won’t argue that, but it wasn’t bad for a show like this. They have a big garage door at the back, so it didn’t get too hot in there. BP really didn’t like it, though, so I’m assuming he fell off the step that’s inexplicably located in the middle of the place.

The Soviettes were fun to watch, but I didn’t like the music much. Smoke or Fire was pretty good, but I wasn’t paying much attention. The Epoxies were absolutely ridiculous. The best way I can describe them is “synth punk” - they sort of had this rivethead look going on, and the music prominently featured a synthesizer. They filled the place with fog, and the guitarist and bassist both had laser pointers attached to their guitars. They reminded me of Gogol Bordello - music isn’t great, but their show was fun to watch.

Against Me! was great, as expected. They played a few from the new album, which has been growing on me - it’s definitely better live. I would say that this one was on par with the show in Toronto, back in May. This time around, I knew all the songs, but it felt like only the people up in the pit were really into the show. In Toronto, the entire room was like the pit, but with less pushing. Either way, it was a fun show and I’m glad we went. And we got Mighty Taco before coming home.

Jon Stewart October 8 in the Gordon Field House here at RIT

Jon was a disappointment. It took him like 15 minutes to get going - he kept dicking around with the captionist and interpreter – which was only moderately funny the first 20 times I’ve seen comedians do it - and asking all the photographers where they were from. It almost felt like he was stalling because he knew he didn’t have enough material. Most of his set was pretty good, but he finished with a story about his dog getting sick. Did he really have to appeal to the lowest common denominator? No one goes to see Jon Stewart because they know he tells great poop jokes. As good as his political commentary and other jokes were, ending on that one sort of left me with a bad impression of the show overall.

The Rochester Philharmonic October 14 in Ingle Auditorium here at RIT

I really only went to this because I had to for my Haydn & Mozart class. When they finished the first piece, I started to think that it would be a much better show than expected. The first three pieces were outstanding - three of Braham’s Hungarian dances. But then they did one of Mozart’s concertos. It was like 30-second intervals of exciting and emotional music padded with five-minute stretches of boring. They finished with Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, which was better than the Mozart, but still pretty boring. After the conductor took a few bows, they did another Hungarian Dance, so at least the end didn’t suck. The musicians were fantastic, but the 18th and 19th centuries produced some real crap.

This has been the most productive Saturday I’ve had all quarter. As mentioned, I do tech support all day every week. The students in this program are given a laptop, so I’m here to support them. This generally entails short bursts of overwhelming work followed by an hour or two of nothing - since they use the laptops in class, I don’t want to take them away to work on them, so I get as much done as I can during their breaks. When I first started, I figured it was perfect because I would be able to spend a decent part of the day working on homework.

I think we all know that things never work out like that. Over five weeks, I’ve spent a grand total of about three hours on actual homework, but a couple dozen on Internet reading and flash games.

Today, though, I’ve been all sorts of productive. I finished a lab report and study guide , and got started on a project for Tech Transfer. It doesn’t seem like a lot (and it really isn’t, now that I think about it), but I’m happy that I managed to avoid distraction for a little while. I really need to get cracking on my to-do list: on top of homework, I’ve got three web projects on the side and a serious job search underway. It’ll all work out; it always does.

It’s been a weird couple of weeks. I got back two of the three midterms I took, and did alright. I was hoping to do better, but at this point, I just want to finish what needs doin’ and get out of here.

Some things haven’t turned out as I’d hoped they would, but do they ever?

I’ve been drifting listlessly through this quarter. I’m taking a bunch of crap classes that I put off for years. Work is going well, in the sense that nothing bad has happened, but it’s not terribly stimulating either. I haven’t been too excited or upset about anything in weeks…just generally disinterested.

Part of it is the fact that I’m leaving soon, I know that. Yesterday, I was walking down the sidewalk and realized how I don’t even think about the campus anymore; five years ago, I loved wandering around during the visits I made before I started freshman year. It struck me that in four years, I’ve probably spent 95% of my time on this chunk of land - everything is on campus. Class, work, food, my apartment - most of my friends live here too. Even now that I’ve got a car, I don’t have any reason to leave campus most days. Just as it was a big change to move here, it’s going to be a big change leaving again.

I support two different classes during my Saturday job, but not at the same time. The classes meet every other week, so as far as I’m concerned, they just alternate.

The class that’s here this week has only 9 students, so I don’t have a lot to do. My plan was write that damn essay, but I forgot to grab the book I need to do it.

Also, I’ve been seeing a lot of fake comment spam lately. I don’t really know the motivation behind it, but they link to random blog posts and things like that (example). I’ve enable comment moderation, so comments won’t appear immediately. Apparently, MT 3.2 has pretty good built-in spam blocking, so I think I’m going to upgrade today.

National Treasure, starring Nicolas Cage as Nicolas Cage, is perfect for a Friday night. I’ve always had a soft spot for mindless action movies - especially ones that cash in on the popularity of The Da Vinci Code - and this was one of my favorites yet. They had me 15 minutes in, with an (accidental?) Weird Al reference when they were trying to solve a riddle.

“Prison.” “Albuquerque. See, I can do it too. Snorkel.”

I just finished (finally!) updating my TiVo with a 160 GB drive I found at CompUSA for just $30 after rebates. I bought it a couple weeks ago, but got frustrated with it after messing around for a couple hours. You have to take an image from the original drive(s) to get the OS and settings, then write the image to the new drive. I was having problems getting my machine to recognize the two TiVo drives so I could pull the data off.

If you want to do it, the directions are available online, but don’t follow them word for word. I couldn’t get my machine to recognize the drives in the configuration they recommend - most of the commands were different, since the drives weren’t attached where the author’s said they would be. I learned a few things about Linux mounts in the process though, and it all worked out.

We now have a TiVo with lifetime service and 45 hours at best quality - 160 at basic. And BP just bought a big TV a couple weeks ago - what more could a man want?