Stuff from February, 2007
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on February, 2007.
Birthday Ryan
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on February, 2007.
I was going to think about this post for a long time, attempt to be as eloquent as possible, and then type up a long tale recounting the events that have transpired since my application to dental school. Perhaps that post will still be written, but this post is not that one. I didn’t make the cut for the University of Minnesota class of 2011 dental school. This Tuesday, the rejection notice came in the mail. No wait list for me. No dental school this September.
When I was in university, there was this major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw, who said, ‘The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.’ I know it’s not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but it’s an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.
From Ryan’s brother.
The comments of support, advice, and sympathy in the days following my dental news made me smile with gratitude at having such friends. Communicating with people, both online and offline showed me the good side of so many folks … it seems that there is nothing you can’t get through if you are blessed with friends and family. Rewind to Friday afternoon and I was barely getting by; every free moment my mind had was spent contemplating my situation, wondering what was next, alternating between disgust with myself for not getting in and a quiet calm looking forward to a year of planning, freedom, and waiting.
In the interest of explaining why in the Sam Hill there haven’t been any images for almost two weeks, I’d like to apologize and ask for your patience just a little bit longer. They (the photographs) are on their way - there is simply a bit more to do on ye’ olde version 15.x of tumbledry. I’m digging up time for it in between homeworking sessions, hence the delay. The entire redesign, though, is 90% functional, with only a few key components remaining. I’ll walk you all through the new features when they are released - the most visible changes will be in the community aspect. As tumbledryer’s, you’ll feel more engaged with the site and with one another. Unless you don’t. In that case, I will have failed. But I will have had fun doing it!
How to install Windows Vista correctly - Justin’s not going to like this one. I think it’s pretty funny, though.
It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
— Robert Anton Wilson
S’from my Dad … it has really grown on me lately. Possibly because the daytime highs have been around -2 degrees F.
Cool leather sofas - By Italsofa. Saw these in a new lounge at St. Thomas …
“Ok, so is everybody clear - any questions?” It was a nice thing of my lab professor to ask - I appreciated the fact that he checked in with the zeitgeist of our knowledge midway through our four hour lab marathon. In my mind, I responded: “I do have a question - but it’s of a rather general nature. What’s that? I should ask it? Oh, ok … what the crappin’ heck is going on?”
That much for wine? - Been meaning to post this for a while, it’s from kottke; about this writer and an unbelievable bottle of wine.
“Think of your favorite painting, or favorite novel, or favorite piece of music — this was it in liquid form.”
Not too long ago, Katy sent me a couple of pictures she had taken, and suggested that I could post them. In an effort to kill two birds with one stone, I realized that I could not only post those pictures, but also roll out a new feature of tumbledry … besides the redesign you see. And yes, I’ll review the new features available to you in the coming days. And Nils will see some of his ideas posted, too. And there will be much rejoicing. And there will probably be some bug fixing.
Praise is effective when specific - Good, new, peer-reviewed research revealing that praise can be very damaging to your children. Studies suggest that specific praise that is neither overused nor undeserved is the key to doing your part to mold children’s self-esteem into a healthy balance.
A frozen tidal wave! - The water is so unbelievably clear. Thanks, dooce.
Mykala: You need a haircut.
Me: You need an attitude adjustment.
Mykala: Do you think I could get one of those at the salon? “I’d like a massage and an hour-long attitude adjustment, please.”
Me: That will be $40 dollars.
Mykala: Ha.
Me: That would be so invaluable. I would pay for that once a month.
As promised back on photograph #620, here’s a test vertical image from Hawaii. Been planning this feature for about three months now — let’s hope it works!
Dimensional test for vertical images. You might notice that this is the same scene from which photograph #627 originated.
Thanks, Nils, for the inspiration for the title.
This pen folds flat into a credit-card sized writing utensil fit for a wallet.
In the past eight years, this website has evolved from an extremely simple, unchanging outline of an adolescent kid to a dynamic web of text, links, sights, and (at times) sounds chronicling a young adult’s life. All of this extra content has necessitated extra layers of complexity. As sections have been added, I’ve tried to keep it simple, but it has certainly been a challenge — and I haven’t always succeeded. So, for anyone new to tumbledry or curious how it all works, let’s run down the basics.
While it isn’t all that funny (or even punny), I thought I’d get the “word” (ok, ok, I’ll stop) out on this one. If you combine two words which both mean, roughly, “a bad thing has happened,” you’ll get a new word endowed with a more potent delivery of “a bad thing has happened.”
For those of you stopping by from the Facebook invite … feel free to congregate, mill around, or whatever it is that crowds do. Alternatively, you can click around at whatever strikes your fancy. The latter option might be a better bet.
To clarify on the turning 8 thing … tumbledry has been around in one form or another since 1999. As for the actual name “tumbledry” … that’s been around since June 22, 2003. I guess we’re coming up on 4 years if you count that way. So, a bit of number inflation going on there. Sorry about that.
This is the amazing pen, folded and ready to be put in a wallet.
Fun, useful, cool looking internet speed test - Check out the US speeds under the “countries” tab. US: 4661 kb/s down & 880 kb/s up. Compare to the number one ranked Japan 9358 kb/s down and 3241 kb/s up!
That makes Japan’s download speeds over twice as fast as US speeds, and upload speed almost 4 times as fast. This means the average Japanese computer user could download a YouTube video in half the time, and upload a video in a quarter the time their American counterpart would spend. The United States really has taken a backseat to other countries in this speed race. Oh, and don’t give me the “well, they’re a small country so they can quickly roll out high speed to many people” thing, because numbers 2 and 3 on this fastest internet list are Sweden and Latvia — hardly known for their population density.
These pizza flavored Combos are, apparently, officially related to Nascar.
I don’t consider myself particularly gifted in the art of conversation. My one hard and fast rule is to avoid saying too much or revealing a lot of my personality; I would rather most people saw me as shy and reserved, instead of judging me on a sliver of myself that is likely misrepresentative of the whole. This default reserved behavior is important in surviving when speaking to or interacting with a novel group, where you can feel the judgments flying back and forth like biscuits in a food fight.
Today, at the St. Thomas gym, I was walking around, minding my own business, and then I got hit in the head by a 45 pound steel bar. The kid who was brandishing the thing apologized promptly, I replied with “no problem.” I can’t say for sure, but I think it was an accident.
Zorba’s response embodies a supreme appreciation for the richness of life and the inevitability of all its dilemmas, sorrows, tragedies, and ironies. His way is to “dance” in the gale of the full catastrophe, to celebrate life, to laugh with it and at himself, even in the face of personal failure and defeat. In doing so, he is never weighed down for long, never ultimately defeated either by the world or by his own considerable folly.