My car, the RX-8

Facts:

  • I drive a 2004 Mazda RX-8.
  • I love my car.
  • When driving my RX-8, I can feel everything.

Now, let us examine this.  If I run over a pebble in the road, I feel it.  This has the distinct advantage of keeping me aware of driving conditions I may otherwise have gone completely unaware of.  I can thus drive at high speed and know exactly when my tires are about to lose traction over light gravel and compensate accordingly.  This adds a whole new layer of fun to driving for me, since I needn’t worry about dangerous conditions such as ice or snow, since I’ll be aware of any particularly dangerous patches just before I hit them.  I’ve been known to drive almost completely sideways around a corner over ice and never once have I felt out of control.  I really don’t think this is me, I believe the car is the reason, as my last two cars would not have afforded this luxury with even a semblance of safety.  So what makes me decide to write about my car today?  Well, just now as I’m driving down the highway home from work, I noticed myself casually avoiding cracks in the road, so I tried just following the car in front of me, letting my tires go wherever theirs did.  Awful!  Never again will I make that mistake.  Never

Beryl-Project.org

The Beryl Project is a community run branch of Novell’s Compiz, which I have used extensively.  Beryl has eschewed such things as stability for the way more fun WOW factor that makes people really want to try it out.  The current development is still really stable for me, both on Intel and NVIDIA graphics hardware, and the performance is top notch.  I’m running on Ubuntu with custom packages built nightly, but the packages available from the Beryl Project website work great.  I think they’re about due for a release soon, so if you’re looking to try something new and exciting on your Linux desktop, get ready for an experience like no other with Beryl.  Under Ubuntu 6.10 I had no difficulty installing at all following the advice from their Wiki.  You can also get support for Beryl under Ubuntu in the #ubuntu-xgl channel on irc.freenode.net.  Give it a try, and if you like it, consider donating.  The entire Linux community will thank you!

Wrong number

Last night, I got a call from Jamar.  Here is an impromptu transcript of said conversation.

Me: "Sexy Brandon enterprises, how might I please you?"
Jamar: "Say what?"
Me: "Hi, you’ve reached Brandon, what do you need?"
Jamar: "Who is this?"
Me: "This is Brandon."
Jamar: "Brandon, this is Jamar, you have my phone motherfucker."
Me: "I’m sorry good sir, but I believe you have the wrong number."
Jamar: "You listen here you little bitch, this is my phone and you’re going to give it back right the fuck now."
Me: "I’m sorry, but you’ve dialed [my number] and I seriously doubt I’m the perpetrator of whom you speak."
Jamar: "Oh shit dude. My bad, I didn’t mean nothing."
Me: (In my best Black voice) "Ain’t no shit yo’, you go get that motha fuckin’ asshole and give him a piece for me brotha."
Jamar: "Holla back nigga!"

I love my life.

WordPress opinions

Well, I’ve been using WordPress for, like, 6 hours now and I think I have a pretty good idea about it.  I like it.  Last night I helped set my friend Jason up with WordPress and liked it so much, I switched.  Now that I’ve customized like a madman, I feel pretty happy about it.  I’m going to start digging through plugins tomorrow, should be fun.  I think the theme is good for now, I might do some more later on it.  Alright, I’m out.

Change of pace?

I’m seriously considering converting my whole blog over to wordpress and I’ve set up a sandbox in the mean time.  Unfortunately there exists no import wizard, so I’ll have to do all the transfers of posts by hand.  I don’t think I’ll transfer the comments if I do.  What do you guys think?

EDIT:
I did it!

Thanks Scott Adams!

Hand it to the author of Dilbert to put everything in perspective.  Scott recently wrote a piece on free will which I read.  Oh man!  Talk about enlightening!  Remind me via email or aim and I’ll link it here later, right now I’m at a bar.  The gist of the essay was that we have no more free will than the average robot.  We do what we do because of the sensory inputs we receive.  These inputs are variables in equations that have been written into our genes over billions of years.  The result of each calculation is our action.  I had honestly never considered free will in a really logical sense before.  Suddenly everything made sense, my actions, the actions of others, they’re all going to happen.  The past and future now share the property that they both have happened, one just has yet to be experienced.  Free will has just (in my mind) entered the realm of religion (or lack thereof).  I now realize that free will is an illusion.  This IN NO WAY means that we should not act with a conscience at all times.  It only means that our "conscience" is just another variable in the equation of every day life.

EDIT:
During the transition to WordPress, I lost my comments.  I needed to save the chain on this post though, here it is:

Re: Thanks Scott Adams!
There are no variables, Brandon. Not only that, but note that each person has different filters for the sensory input. And I don’t just mean things like being color-blind, One of those filters is PAST EXPERIENCE. Each human-bot makes different decisions with the same input.
2006/11/29 by JASON! • www

Re: Thanks Scott Adams!
Jason – Would not those filters be seen as variables as well? A rose by any other name… But I would have to say I disagree with my namesake. Freewill does exist, because no man, woman, or child makes all motions without thinking.
-RearKick
2006/11/29 by -RearKick

Re: Thanks Scott Adams!
The original post by Scott
I think it should be noted that the thinking is part of the physical brain, which is governed by physics. You might have some random influence from quantum indeterminism, but it’s just that… random. Your thinking is just the process by which your computer evaluates the variables. Given any base state, with identical inputs, you will come to an identical conclusion. No free will, just physics.
2006/11/29 by RedKrieg

Bad days get worse

Today is my first real day back to work since November 10th. I can’t find one of my work shoes, couldn’t find my badges, had no milk to eat breakfast with, ran out of my favorite shampoo, and have now sat in traffic for 15 minutes while moving approximately 3000 feet.  I know this because I filled up and reset my trip counter at the gas station by the interstate onramp and it now says I’ve travelled .7 miles.  Oh glory day!  My foot hurts so bad from the tennis shoes I had to put on that I think I’m taking it off.  Fuck this is a bad day waiting to get worse.

Back from Orlando

I spent the last week in Orlando, FL on a business trip.  I drank more than anyone else and met a lot of really awesome people who I look forward to working with in the future.  I also met someone who I hope will remain a really good friend.  To all my readers/coworkers who were there, thanks much for the wonderful times.  It will not soon be forgotten.

Politics

I got a bit hammered last night at the bar when the election results started rolling in, and when I learned that Thelma Drake, Republican, had won the House race here in my district of Virginia, I crafted a rather nasty drunken letter and sent it to her campaign mailbox.  I shall share said letter with you now.  Looking back on it, I may have gone a bit overboard, but the general theme is about right.

I feel that you won this election because of the abundance of uneducated elderly in this state.  It is because of you that I will be moving from this state as soon as possible.  Alas, there is no state in this union free from political insanity, so my only choice may be a foreign nation.  At the moment, I’m considering the Netherlands, but for the most part, any nation not linked so completely to Christian fundamentalism is sounding really good right now.  One should not get me wrong when I say this…  In no way do I feel that Christians are less worthy of my respect than Jewish, Muslim, or Atheist.  I do not however, feel that any one of these sects should be as influential in our national government as Christianity currently is.  The few are speaking for the many when we have psychotic overprotective parents dictating that we cannot have two homosexuals in a monogamous relationship on television.  I don’t know a SINGLE person who thinks that people should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.  Our children should be taught tolerance, not ignorance.  If I had a choice between letting my kids watch two human beings in a loving relationship enjoy the most basic of human pleasures and someone kill another innocent human being, I would choose the "pornographic material" every time.  You’re a sick individual, and every person I’ve spoken to who wanted me to vote for you was as twisted as you are.  Resign.

Virginia is more religiously orthodox than the middle east now.

Brandon Whaley
Virginia Resident
Atheist, and no longer proud to be an American

How’s about them apples?