3/4ths of The 654 crew returned to Cascade Room for our first official participation in their Monday quiz nights. You may remember last time, we showed up on Championship Night and only got to play along out of competition. Unfortunately, we did not bring our 'A' game and finished with a disappointing 47 out of 68. For some perspective, first place scored 58 and third place scored 53. We were done in by some second-guessing on our part and just plain ignorance in other areas. We were short one player, but I'm not sure that affected our score too much.
If you knew anything regarding:
A) taphephobia
B) ratites
C) chinche, redcoat, mahogany flat, and the crimson rambler
D) former BC premiers
E) 70s SNL
...you could've helped us out! We've got geography, music, and movies down pretty well, but are lacking in the history department. We'll be back in a couple weeks for their special 100th quiz.
October 18, 2010
October 7, 2010
Game On: Oilers season starts today!!
Tonight the Oilers Era of Hope begins. Probably the most exciting time in Oil Country since the 2006 Cup run (which, being in Europe, I missed most of) :( and apart from that it's really the most excitement since 1990. In all my years of real fandom I have never been so stoked! And it's not even about wins or even a chance to make the playoffs let alone win the Cup. This season is just going to be sheer shock and awe. Shock followed by awe followed by more awe. Can't wait to see these kids play!
But, seeing as the Oilogosphere is overwhelmed by super-keen, stats-loving, hockey gurus I will not get into any predictions here. Instead I will keep it short and simple. I offer only one tip to help you throughout this season:
Magnus Pääjärvi is a name that will come up often this season (seeing as he's totally on the verge of winning the Calder trophy for rookie of the year). So this season, whenever you really want to show that you're in the loop and be the most accurate tweeter/facebooker/blogger you gotta get those umlauts on there!
Here's how you do it:
Windows --> hold down 'alt' and type in '0228'
Mac --> hold down 'option+u' then let go and type the letter 'a' to make 'ä'
Linux --> ???!!?!?
GO OILERS!!!!!!!
But, seeing as the Oilogosphere is overwhelmed by super-keen, stats-loving, hockey gurus I will not get into any predictions here. Instead I will keep it short and simple. I offer only one tip to help you throughout this season:
Magnus Pääjärvi is a name that will come up often this season (seeing as he's totally on the verge of winning the Calder trophy for rookie of the year). So this season, whenever you really want to show that you're in the loop and be the most accurate tweeter/facebooker/blogger you gotta get those umlauts on there!
Here's how you do it:
Windows --> hold down 'alt' and type in '0228'
Mac --> hold down 'option+u' then let go and type the letter 'a' to make 'ä'
Linux --> ???!!?!?
GO OILERS!!!!!!!
September 23, 2010
Pub Quiz, Hotshot!
A friend of a friend suggested we try Monday Quiz Nights at The Cascade Room on Main Street. For perhaps only the second or third time ever, the entire 654 crew went on a field trip. As luck would have it, the night we chose was Quiz of Champions night for all the previous winners, so we were out of competition but we still got to play along (for the most part). Perhaps this worked out for the best since we got to get a taste of the trivia format and gauge ourselves against future competition. Typically, you'd pay $2 per member for a team of four. If you have more than that, you get points deducted. There are three rounds of 10 questions each in a variety of formats and for this championship game there was an extra round. Normally there's a prize for the winning team (a gift certificate I think) and all the money raised gets donated to charity. This being the Quiz of Champions, there were prizes for the top 3 and one for the worst.
Ponytails hates it when I do post-game analysis, but I'm going to go over the questions we got because I'm obsessed with things like this. I realize most of you will also find this utterly boring, so feel free to skip!
Round 1
1. First question was to arrange from North to South: Bahrain, Bhutan, and Qatar. We half-guessed our way to 1 out of 3, except now that I can actually look at a map it appears we may have actually got 3 out of 3 . . . Alas, it's actually stated in the rules "Even when I'm wrong, I'm still right".
2. The question was about Sir Francis Walsingham and under what English monarch he serve as spymaster. Ponytails and the Loner 654 member (henceforth to be referred to as Sideburns) both knew this. Ponytails remembers it specifically from Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602.
3. Other than 0 and 1, what is the lowest number that is both a perfect square and a perfect cube? The engineers figured this one out while I felt stupid because I couldn't remember exactly what these definitions meant. What's an imperfect square or cube? Clearly my minor in Mathematics failed me.
4. This question was about a ranking of world's top universities and which country came in 18th, the first entry outside of the UK or US. We were given the options of Switzerland, Canada, or Australia. We got this, but it was a guess.
5. At this point, all the official teams were handed a cocktail and asked to identify the four ingredients. Based on long distance visual analysis, we got 1 out of 4. Half of The 654 crew are non-drinkers so actually having the drink may have had little effect on the result.
6. Can't remember the question, but the answer was pulmonary artery and we got it wrong.
7. What is the original meaning of "pontiff"? Given three choices, we were wavering between "bridge-builder" (the correct answer) and "deep thinker". Ultimately, I got argued into the latter as our final answer.
8. Who has the distinction of breaking up with both the 2001 and 2007 Oscar hosts? I realized immediately that the hosts were Steve Martin and Ellen Degeneres, except my mind jumped to Portia de Rossi instead of the correct answer Anne Heche. That was one of those shouldahaddit questions.
9. Something about the most googled 4-letter word in 2004. We guessed "wiki", but it was "blog".
10. We were given a sheet with 6 trios of athletes and we had to match them to what they had in common. The common bonds were "Most games played in their respective sports", "Jewish-American athletes", "all died in plane crashes", "all wore number 42", "openly gay major league athletes", and "all nicknamed Moose". We managed 6 for 6.
Our round score: 11/20
Round 2
We were given a sheet with ten photos from comedy films, which we had to match to a list of quotations while also identifying the movie.
Our round score: 20/20
Round 3
1. Who did Billie Jean King defeat in the "Battle of the Sexes" match sometime in the 70s? We turned to our resident tennis expert Baleener. He let us down.
2. We had to identify the actresses who were Oscar-nominated for their first screen roles in Mary Poppins, Children of a Lesser God, The Piano, and Funny Girl. We got 3 out of 4.
3. We needed the French term for "know-how" that is commonly used in English. Got it.
4. We needed the first rap song to hit #1 on the Billboard Top 100 given the choices of Vanilla Ice (Ice Ice Baby), Run DMC (Walk This Way), and something else I can't remember. I actually thought the answer was Rapper's Delight, but that was simply the first to crack the pop charts in 1979. We went Walk This Way, which seemed pretty obvious but the answer was actually Ice Ice Baby! Turns out Walk This Way was the first rap song to hit the top 5 (at #4), but Vanilla Ice has the distinction of being the first rap song to hit #1. Yikes!
5. Here we had to identify six provincial/territorial flags. We went 5 for 6.
6. This was a number sequence that we had to figure out what came next, which we did (multiply by 3 and add 1).
7. This pasta is Italian for "little worms". We guessed macaroni and smacked our collective foreheads when we found out the answer.
8. We had to determine that "gerrymandering" was a political term. I can't remember the other two options, but we got this right.
9. From a list of six films, we had to pick the two that were on the 1996 Vatican list of all-time best films. We got both right (Ben-Hur and A Man for All Seasons) but they were pretty lucky guesses since the other four choices were more or less plausible.
10. What was George Michael under the influence of when he crashed his car and was recently sentenced to 8 weeks in jail? None of us had paid any attention to this story so we guessed wrong here.
Our round score: 13/19
Round 4
1. The Majestic 12 committee of scientists, the military, and government officials was supposedly created by Harry Truman in 1947 to investigate what? We guessed extra-terrestrialism, but the exact answer they were looking for was UFO activity.
2. We were given eight celebrity quotes and we had to fill in the missing word from a provided list (there were more words than blanks). We got 5 of 8.
3. How old was Lolita in the Nabokov novel? We were too conservative with our guess of 13 years old. I actually read it in a Russian film class, but I forgot she was actually TWELVE. Egads.
4. This was a question about whale hunting, so we turned to our resident whale expert Baleener. Answer: Faroe Islands, no hesitation.
5. This was a sneaky one. What do the following have in common: Dutch politician Geert Wilders, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Straw Dogs, and beef short ribs. You can ponder that and leave a guess in the comments (no googling!). We were close to getting it right, but were not specific enough...
6. They played a mini mix of ten Beatles songs that we had to identify. Right up my alley, 10 for 10.
7. Which original M&M colour was replaced by blue in 1995? I actually knew it was tan from a recent Sporcle quiz. Thanks Sporcle!
8. What's the only anagram of the word English? I'll let you figure that one out.
9. What old master signed his works with his full Cretan name Doménikos Theotokópoulos? Go ahead and google it. We did not know this.
10. Finally, an NHL question! We turned to our resident NHL expert Baleener. Except this was a real toughie.
a) What Bay area team joined the NHL in the 1967 league expansion?
b) What city did they move to in 1976?
I had never heard of the original team and did not know the city they moved to ever had an NHL team.
Our round score: 18/27
Grand total: 62/86
The tie-breaker question: How many times was the word f*ck used in Goodfellas?
It was the team who guessed closest, but one team got it exactly right with 246. Except when we looked it up later, we found varying counts of 300 and 296. In the quizmaster's defense, someone out there is propagating the count of 246.
We stuck around for the final tallies. Third place got 65 right, second had 67, and there was a tie for first with 69. There was even a prize for the last-place team. Said the Quizmaster, "I won't embarrass them by telling you their score (cough) fifty-two (cough) . . ."
All in all, I had a great time. Ponytails was fading by the end, but she was battling bronchitis. Sideburns left halfway-- he always has laundry to do when he's had enough of us! Baleener and I figure our team could challenge for a winning night. The only issue is that The Cascade was quite pricy for food. It was tasty, but not cheap at all. I opted for bison flank ($18) while the other three all got a burger & fries ($15 +$2 if you upgraded to polenta fries). Maybe next time we'll try to pre-eat and then nurse a couple plates of polenta fries.
Quiz night is on hold for several weeks, but mark your calendars it returns October 18th. Now accepting applicants to replace Sideburns. Join our team!
Ponytails hates it when I do post-game analysis, but I'm going to go over the questions we got because I'm obsessed with things like this. I realize most of you will also find this utterly boring, so feel free to skip!
Round 11. First question was to arrange from North to South: Bahrain, Bhutan, and Qatar. We half-guessed our way to 1 out of 3, except now that I can actually look at a map it appears we may have actually got 3 out of 3 . . . Alas, it's actually stated in the rules "Even when I'm wrong, I'm still right".
2. The question was about Sir Francis Walsingham and under what English monarch he serve as spymaster. Ponytails and the Loner 654 member (henceforth to be referred to as Sideburns) both knew this. Ponytails remembers it specifically from Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602.
3. Other than 0 and 1, what is the lowest number that is both a perfect square and a perfect cube? The engineers figured this one out while I felt stupid because I couldn't remember exactly what these definitions meant. What's an imperfect square or cube? Clearly my minor in Mathematics failed me.
4. This question was about a ranking of world's top universities and which country came in 18th, the first entry outside of the UK or US. We were given the options of Switzerland, Canada, or Australia. We got this, but it was a guess.
5. At this point, all the official teams were handed a cocktail and asked to identify the four ingredients. Based on long distance visual analysis, we got 1 out of 4. Half of The 654 crew are non-drinkers so actually having the drink may have had little effect on the result.
6. Can't remember the question, but the answer was pulmonary artery and we got it wrong.
7. What is the original meaning of "pontiff"? Given three choices, we were wavering between "bridge-builder" (the correct answer) and "deep thinker". Ultimately, I got argued into the latter as our final answer.
8. Who has the distinction of breaking up with both the 2001 and 2007 Oscar hosts? I realized immediately that the hosts were Steve Martin and Ellen Degeneres, except my mind jumped to Portia de Rossi instead of the correct answer Anne Heche. That was one of those shouldahaddit questions.
9. Something about the most googled 4-letter word in 2004. We guessed "wiki", but it was "blog".
10. We were given a sheet with 6 trios of athletes and we had to match them to what they had in common. The common bonds were "Most games played in their respective sports", "Jewish-American athletes", "all died in plane crashes", "all wore number 42", "openly gay major league athletes", and "all nicknamed Moose". We managed 6 for 6.
Our round score: 11/20
Round 2
We were given a sheet with ten photos from comedy films, which we had to match to a list of quotations while also identifying the movie.
Our round score: 20/20
Round 3
1. Who did Billie Jean King defeat in the "Battle of the Sexes" match sometime in the 70s? We turned to our resident tennis expert Baleener. He let us down.
2. We had to identify the actresses who were Oscar-nominated for their first screen roles in Mary Poppins, Children of a Lesser God, The Piano, and Funny Girl. We got 3 out of 4.
3. We needed the French term for "know-how" that is commonly used in English. Got it.
4. We needed the first rap song to hit #1 on the Billboard Top 100 given the choices of Vanilla Ice (Ice Ice Baby), Run DMC (Walk This Way), and something else I can't remember. I actually thought the answer was Rapper's Delight, but that was simply the first to crack the pop charts in 1979. We went Walk This Way, which seemed pretty obvious but the answer was actually Ice Ice Baby! Turns out Walk This Way was the first rap song to hit the top 5 (at #4), but Vanilla Ice has the distinction of being the first rap song to hit #1. Yikes!
5. Here we had to identify six provincial/territorial flags. We went 5 for 6.
6. This was a number sequence that we had to figure out what came next, which we did (multiply by 3 and add 1).
7. This pasta is Italian for "little worms". We guessed macaroni and smacked our collective foreheads when we found out the answer.
8. We had to determine that "gerrymandering" was a political term. I can't remember the other two options, but we got this right.
9. From a list of six films, we had to pick the two that were on the 1996 Vatican list of all-time best films. We got both right (Ben-Hur and A Man for All Seasons) but they were pretty lucky guesses since the other four choices were more or less plausible.
10. What was George Michael under the influence of when he crashed his car and was recently sentenced to 8 weeks in jail? None of us had paid any attention to this story so we guessed wrong here.
Our round score: 13/19
Round 4
1. The Majestic 12 committee of scientists, the military, and government officials was supposedly created by Harry Truman in 1947 to investigate what? We guessed extra-terrestrialism, but the exact answer they were looking for was UFO activity.
2. We were given eight celebrity quotes and we had to fill in the missing word from a provided list (there were more words than blanks). We got 5 of 8.
3. How old was Lolita in the Nabokov novel? We were too conservative with our guess of 13 years old. I actually read it in a Russian film class, but I forgot she was actually TWELVE. Egads.
4. This was a question about whale hunting, so we turned to our resident whale expert Baleener. Answer: Faroe Islands, no hesitation.
5. This was a sneaky one. What do the following have in common: Dutch politician Geert Wilders, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Straw Dogs, and beef short ribs. You can ponder that and leave a guess in the comments (no googling!). We were close to getting it right, but were not specific enough...
6. They played a mini mix of ten Beatles songs that we had to identify. Right up my alley, 10 for 10.
7. Which original M&M colour was replaced by blue in 1995? I actually knew it was tan from a recent Sporcle quiz. Thanks Sporcle!
8. What's the only anagram of the word English? I'll let you figure that one out.
9. What old master signed his works with his full Cretan name Doménikos Theotokópoulos? Go ahead and google it. We did not know this.
10. Finally, an NHL question! We turned to our resident NHL expert Baleener. Except this was a real toughie.
a) What Bay area team joined the NHL in the 1967 league expansion?
b) What city did they move to in 1976?
I had never heard of the original team and did not know the city they moved to ever had an NHL team.
Our round score: 18/27
Grand total: 62/86
The tie-breaker question: How many times was the word f*ck used in Goodfellas?
It was the team who guessed closest, but one team got it exactly right with 246. Except when we looked it up later, we found varying counts of 300 and 296. In the quizmaster's defense, someone out there is propagating the count of 246.
We stuck around for the final tallies. Third place got 65 right, second had 67, and there was a tie for first with 69. There was even a prize for the last-place team. Said the Quizmaster, "I won't embarrass them by telling you their score (cough) fifty-two (cough) . . ."
All in all, I had a great time. Ponytails was fading by the end, but she was battling bronchitis. Sideburns left halfway-- he always has laundry to do when he's had enough of us! Baleener and I figure our team could challenge for a winning night. The only issue is that The Cascade was quite pricy for food. It was tasty, but not cheap at all. I opted for bison flank ($18) while the other three all got a burger & fries ($15 +$2 if you upgraded to polenta fries). Maybe next time we'll try to pre-eat and then nurse a couple plates of polenta fries.
Quiz night is on hold for several weeks, but mark your calendars it returns October 18th. Now accepting applicants to replace Sideburns. Join our team!
September 5, 2010
Death to the Fruitfly Invasion!
For the past few weeks, loner 654er and I have been waging war against an invasion of fruitflies. At first we thought the fruitflies were coming from our garbage nook, the corner cupboard under the kitchen counter where we keep the trash. We disinfected the plastic bin and left it to dry outside while we also scrubbed the inside of the cupboard. This was a couple weeks ago and the decline in the fruitfly sightings had us feeling good about finding the source... but of course, we had not found the source at all.
We noticed the fruitflies were still hanging around, but could not figure out where they were coming from. Honestly, we were not particularly proactive since we'd only see one fruitfly at a time and were unaware there was larger population brewing in the shadows. Then last weekend, while putting away groceries I opened the corner cupboard opposite the garbage nook and one fruitfly casually flew up into my face. I called to Mr. Loner who was sitting with his girlfriend on the couch, "Hey, do you think they're coming from in here?" "Where?" he said as he got up from the couch. "Maybe these potatoes?" Famous last words.
I gripped the bag and lifted it up out of the cupboard, letting out a girlish scream of horror as my brain processed the terrifying sight my eyes were taking in. A colony of fruitflies had taken over the potatoes, flitting about the air pocket of the bag, hovering around my petrified hand, and crawling all over the rotting spuds. I immediately leapt back, "IT'S DRIPPING, IT'S DRIPPING!" and Mr. Loner (also shouting in horror) swung open the front door as I gingerly ran out to the outside garbage bin, leaving a dripping trail of liquid potatoes. Though grossed out ("OH GOD, THE SMELL!"), I was quite impressed by our speedy action response time from the time of discovery through cleaning and disinfecting phase. Girlfriend on couch was less impressed. We even discovered two other bags of unfinished potatoes and thus, two obvious yet now official policies were firmly established on the spot:
We noticed the fruitflies were still hanging around, but could not figure out where they were coming from. Honestly, we were not particularly proactive since we'd only see one fruitfly at a time and were unaware there was larger population brewing in the shadows. Then last weekend, while putting away groceries I opened the corner cupboard opposite the garbage nook and one fruitfly casually flew up into my face. I called to Mr. Loner who was sitting with his girlfriend on the couch, "Hey, do you think they're coming from in here?" "Where?" he said as he got up from the couch. "Maybe these potatoes?" Famous last words.
I gripped the bag and lifted it up out of the cupboard, letting out a girlish scream of horror as my brain processed the terrifying sight my eyes were taking in. A colony of fruitflies had taken over the potatoes, flitting about the air pocket of the bag, hovering around my petrified hand, and crawling all over the rotting spuds. I immediately leapt back, "IT'S DRIPPING, IT'S DRIPPING!" and Mr. Loner (also shouting in horror) swung open the front door as I gingerly ran out to the outside garbage bin, leaving a dripping trail of liquid potatoes. Though grossed out ("OH GOD, THE SMELL!"), I was quite impressed by our speedy action response time from the time of discovery through cleaning and disinfecting phase. Girlfriend on couch was less impressed. We even discovered two other bags of unfinished potatoes and thus, two obvious yet now official policies were firmly established on the spot:
i) No Storage of Potatoes in that CupboardFor the past week, we've been hunting down and murdering the lingering survivors. I read about a simple yet surprisingly effective fruitfly trap that involved an empty bottle (a just finished bottle of BBQ sauce in our case), some balsamic vinegar in the base, and a paper funnel stuffed in the top and taped. See, once the flies go in, they're too stupid to find the exit or they may even drown in the vinegar. I'd occasionally empty the bottle and reset the trap, eventually catching fewer and fewer flies until I triumphantly dismantled the trap today, which has remained empty for at least the past 24 hours. I personally had the satisfaction of manually dispatching the final fruitfly with a well-placed judo chop yesterday afternoon. VICTORY!
ii) No New Potatoes until Old Potatoes are Gone
August 24, 2010
Embarrassing moments with Shaw Cable
Below is a log of the technical support chat conversation I had with Shaw regarding a cable problem:
Your representative has arrived.
Shaw Agent (21:30:30):
Hi. Thank you for choosing Shaw Technical Support Chat Service for Cable, Internet, and Digital Phone;Could we get your last name and address please?
XXX Avenue YYY city
Shaw Agent (21:30:58):
Thank you! One moment please!
Shaw Agent (21:35:09):
Do you have just the one TV there?
Ponytails (21:35:17):
yes
Shaw Agent (21:35:36):
And it is connected to a HD Digital box?
Ponytails (21:35:40):
yes
Shaw Agent (21:36:19):
You should not be getting a snowy picture from the box... can you check to make sure the TV is set to the correct input?
Ponytails (21:36:56):
I think it is. I can get volume from the different shows and channels but the picture is very blurry and balck and white.
Ponytails (21:37:22):
I have tried changing the tv input from the dvd source back to tv but there is no change
Shaw Agent (21:38:12):
Can you check what kind of cable goes from the digital box to the TV?
Ponytails (21:38:43):
the typical white cable
Shaw Agent (21:39:25):
Is that an HD TV?
Ponytails (21:39:34):
no
Shaw Agent (21:39:56):
Ok. Well, if the picture is snowy, there is something not right with that cable... can you replace it?
Ponytails (21:40:17):
i will see if we have an extra cable to switch it
Shaw Agent (21:40:26):
Great!
Ponytails (21:42:16):
I switched the cable with a new one and the problem remains
Shaw Agent (21:42:41):
Can you make sure the TV is on channel 3?
Ponytails (21:43:50):
well...that's embarrassing
Shaw Agent (21:44:19):
Heh, same here. Should have been the first thing we checked, but because it is an HD DCT, we skipped that step.
Ponytails (21:44:38):
thanks so much. cheers
Shaw Agent (21:44:55):
You're welcome! Please take a moment to fill out the following online survey and contact us again if we can be of further assistance. Thank you for choosing Shaw and have a great day!
August 21, 2010
Subconscious Music
Do you ever get a song in your head and wonder why it's there? This happens to me all the time. I'll be randomly humming a song and then realise afterwards that somebody else nearby is also singing it, but neither of us knows who started it and why. They're just catchy tunes I suppose.
The other day @ponytails and I were in Toronto and I kept getting the Sesame Street theme song in my head. I could not figure out why this kept happening. The first time I realised I was whistling the tune we were on the subway and I saw a guy with a Sesame St. vinyl record and thought "really? Is that where I got the tune? No! Can't be! That's too far fetched."
I then started to realise that everytime we were taking the subway I would start whistling Sesame St.! "Why is this happening!? Why can't I get another song in my head!? Big Bird, why won't you leave me in peace!?!?!?"
And then my moment of clarity! Every time the subway doors are about to close they make a little tune consisting of just three successive notes... they just so happened to be the first three notes from the sesame street theme song!
I love subconscious music.
Everything we do has a rhythm.
Every move we make has a beat.
And I'm just groovin', man.
Wherever I go, I gots music in my soul.
The other day @ponytails and I were in Toronto and I kept getting the Sesame Street theme song in my head. I could not figure out why this kept happening. The first time I realised I was whistling the tune we were on the subway and I saw a guy with a Sesame St. vinyl record and thought "really? Is that where I got the tune? No! Can't be! That's too far fetched."
I then started to realise that everytime we were taking the subway I would start whistling Sesame St.! "Why is this happening!? Why can't I get another song in my head!? Big Bird, why won't you leave me in peace!?!?!?"
And then my moment of clarity! Every time the subway doors are about to close they make a little tune consisting of just three successive notes... they just so happened to be the first three notes from the sesame street theme song!
I love subconscious music.
Everything we do has a rhythm.
Every move we make has a beat.
And I'm just groovin', man.
Wherever I go, I gots music in my soul.
July 18, 2010
Embracing your nerdiness t-shirts
OK, I get it. Being a nerd is now cool. But why did it have to go so far?
Going back and forth from UBC on the bus these days and even just walking around Vancouver I can't help but notice all the t-shirts that have something to do with being a "nerd". There are so many different ways of showing your nerdiness. Whether it is through math equations, chemistry symbols or physics diagrams. But why oh why did it have to be cool?
Making nerdiness the new "cool" has totally detracted from it's uniqueness. I used to be proud to be a nerd. And, although I think I was one of many geeks, people were still surprised when I would straight up admit to playing board games. Or liking math. Or not drinking alcohol. At the time, most people preferred to be geeks on the inside, but fit in with the masses on the outside. Those who admitted to being geeks normally didn't have many friends who didn't also admit to being geeks. Those kinds of geek spent most of their time playing dungeons and dragons. I was one of a handful of math/physics lovers who also played sports, went on ski trips and went to parties and the like. We were a rare breed. And that was nice. One had some honour and distinction (and probably used to get "honours with distinction" in high school!).
OK, I'll admit that this new fashion of embracing your nerdiness isn't all that bad. I had once thought of starting my own line of t-shirts revolving around the number pi. In fact, I'm pretty sure I made a "pi" t-shirt before anybody else (with friends) had socially announced that they even liked math. So maybe that's it, maybe I'm just jealous. Damn you people for stealing my ideas!
With all this said I would hereby like to renounce my acceptance of being a nerd. I am no longer a nerd. I am now too cool to be a geek. I can't just be another guy with a "nerds 2² ever" shirt. I normally don't fight too hard to be unique. I really don't have much to prove, but this may just be an exception. I can't just fit in with everyone as they submit to their inner nerd. It makes me feel so plain.
Bah! Who am I kidding? I can't renounce being a nerd!! When I wrote the word "exception" just now I couldn't help but think of mathematical formulae that are "exceptions to the rule"! It's ingrained in me. My geekiness surrounds me!
Math calculates the tips.
Physics gets me around the pool table.
Biology helps me understand bowel movements (and how whales eat).
Chemistry... well chemistry still sucks.
I wear glasses.
I like the movie "The Matrix" for more than its crazy story.
I've played Agricola more times Einstein has been quoted.
I write blog posts about Google and Apple.
Heck, I write blog posts with the word "heck" in them!
The nerd in me cannot die...
But please, pretty please, stop making those dang nerd-lovin' t-shirts!
Going back and forth from UBC on the bus these days and even just walking around Vancouver I can't help but notice all the t-shirts that have something to do with being a "nerd". There are so many different ways of showing your nerdiness. Whether it is through math equations, chemistry symbols or physics diagrams. But why oh why did it have to be cool?
Making nerdiness the new "cool" has totally detracted from it's uniqueness. I used to be proud to be a nerd. And, although I think I was one of many geeks, people were still surprised when I would straight up admit to playing board games. Or liking math. Or not drinking alcohol. At the time, most people preferred to be geeks on the inside, but fit in with the masses on the outside. Those who admitted to being geeks normally didn't have many friends who didn't also admit to being geeks. Those kinds of geek spent most of their time playing dungeons and dragons. I was one of a handful of math/physics lovers who also played sports, went on ski trips and went to parties and the like. We were a rare breed. And that was nice. One had some honour and distinction (and probably used to get "honours with distinction" in high school!).
OK, I'll admit that this new fashion of embracing your nerdiness isn't all that bad. I had once thought of starting my own line of t-shirts revolving around the number pi. In fact, I'm pretty sure I made a "pi" t-shirt before anybody else (with friends) had socially announced that they even liked math. So maybe that's it, maybe I'm just jealous. Damn you people for stealing my ideas!
With all this said I would hereby like to renounce my acceptance of being a nerd. I am no longer a nerd. I am now too cool to be a geek. I can't just be another guy with a "nerds 2² ever" shirt. I normally don't fight too hard to be unique. I really don't have much to prove, but this may just be an exception. I can't just fit in with everyone as they submit to their inner nerd. It makes me feel so plain.
Bah! Who am I kidding? I can't renounce being a nerd!! When I wrote the word "exception" just now I couldn't help but think of mathematical formulae that are "exceptions to the rule"! It's ingrained in me. My geekiness surrounds me!
Math calculates the tips.
Physics gets me around the pool table.
Biology helps me understand bowel movements (and how whales eat).
Chemistry... well chemistry still sucks.
I wear glasses.
I like the movie "The Matrix" for more than its crazy story.
I've played Agricola more times Einstein has been quoted.
I write blog posts about Google and Apple.
Heck, I write blog posts with the word "heck" in them!
The nerd in me cannot die...
But please, pretty please, stop making those dang nerd-lovin' t-shirts!
July 10, 2010
The Number 654
Having fun with the number 654. Can you add anything to the list?
- 654A.D. - Arab invaders plunder Rhodes and seize Cos
- 654A.D. - Japanese emperor Kotoku dies and empress Kogyoku is restored under the name Saimei
- The first time that the sequence of digits "654" occurs in the number pi is at the 672nd position after the decimal.
- The number 654 is not mentioned in the Bible
- John 6:54 states "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
- There is no 654 area code. Anywhere. In the world.
- The prime factors of 654 are 2x3x109
- 654A.D. - Pope Martin I is publicly humiliated in Constantinople after condemning emperor Constans II Pognatus. Eugenius I takes over the Papacy
- The Black Crowes have a song called "Thunderstorm 6:54". It has confusing lyrics.
- Air Canada flight AC 654 goes between Halifax and St. John's
- Delta Airlines flight DL 654 goes from Aruba through Atlanta to Minneapolis
- American Airlines flight AA 654 goes between Dallas and Boston
- By 6:54pm all those flights will have departed. You're late.
- On 06/05/04 (June 5, 2004) Ronald Reagan died
- Roger Federer recorded his 654th career victory against Robin Soderling in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2009 (that took me forever to find! Like 654 seconds!)
- 654A.D. - Battle of Bulcamp between Penda of Mercia and Anna, Christian king of the Angles, is fought at Bulcamp in Henham Park killing Anna and his son, Jurmin
- This post was posted at 6:54am
July 3, 2010
Belugas, seals and sea lions OH MY
Baleener's school mate and loner resident of 654 has gone on vacation. Just in time for Baleener to need some help running some tests for his Masters project down at Vancouver's Aquarium. So I offered to help. My ulterior motive was that I knew this would grant me a behind the scenes look at the aquarium. If any of you know me well or read the camping blog post, you would know I love animals. I love watching them, I love petting them, I really love feeding them, and I LOVE LOVE to kiss them!!! Which is kinda a problem with cats because I will kiss a cat (there are three living within the 654 alone) and then forget and kiss Baleener shortly after...causing an immediate allergic reaction for him...and a mild fight for us.
So today I traded 4 hours of work (holding a flow probe in a flow
tank) for about 30-40 minutes of AMAZING ANIMAL EXPERIENCE! I got to feed and pet the Beluga whales, a Stellar Sea lion, and Alaskan fur seals. The Stellar Sea lion's name was "Izzy" and she was so wonderful! She was very gentle and performed great tricks! My favorite trick was: You hold up your hands like guns and go "bang" and then she falls dramatically on her back like you shot her.
Best part though, of course, was getting the opportunity to kiss a fur seal named "Tafika". It was our first kiss though so she kissed me on the nose.
Very modest of her I think. The whole experience made me very jealous of the trainer's job, but then I remembered that I like making money and not living with my parents. So I guess I will just be a visitor.
June 29, 2010
Google vs. Apple strategies
DISCLAIMER: Forgive my ignorance. I realised when I thought of this post's topic that I often write about things that other internet bloggers know so much more about. Others write much more eloquently than me and have far more insight. As such, all I can do for you here is tell you my opinion on subjects that catch my fancy. Hopefully it gets you to read up more on the subject and develop an opinion on the subject yourself. With that, here's what I have to say about Apple vs. Google's strategies:
I get most of my gadget news from Engadget through my RSS feed. Most of their information revolves around cell phones and every rumor of every new piece of hardware or software released is analysed up the wazoo. But they also touch on bigger topics that affect the gadgeting world. One that has greatly intrigued me is product development strategies from an industry perspective. When the major players in the tech world make product decisions it not only affects their company's direction, but also the direction of the industry as a whole. Like I've said before, the tech world is a rapidly morphing industry and an innovative vision is crucial to keeping your company alive in the long term.
By far and away the two most innovative, visionary and influential companies right now are Google and Apple. Both these organisations have a real knack for determining what consumers do want and what they will want. In some ways their approaches are very similar. They both create slick, easy to use products. Their focus is not only on image, but also on functionality and both have excelled in this department. But recently it's the substantial differences between the two CEOs' visions that has the tech world buzzing. While Google promotes open platform systems and encourages independent developers to create an identity for their product, Apple operates a very tightly controlled, ultra-restrictive atmosphere. So which one is better in the long run?
Once again, I'm going to have to side with Google. Not that I have anything against Apple's products. I own several Mac products and love them all! But in my opinion their law suit loving, Adobe Flash hating ways aren't helping the industry evolve naturally and fully. There are a few examples of Apple's excessive restrictions that I'd like to point out here.
1. Adobe Flash
Everything on the internet seems to use Flash. It has become a staple for applications and videos on every site you visit because it is the bet product on the market. However, Apple comes along and says they will not have any Flash compatibility on the iPad and now expects everybody to follow their lead and adopt HTML5 instead. Thankfully, not everyone's towing the line and instead just going with the best product available. In contrast to Apple's hard line, most Google products are compatible with both HTML5 and Flash and the developer/end user gets to choose which one suits their needs. Apple has the whole internet at their beck and call. Is that OK? Are they pretty much running a monopoly of the tech world?
2. iAd
There has been much debate recently about Apple's decision to restrict advertising abilities on the new iPhone 4. The restrictions essentially eliminate any advertising capabilities from the competition (Google, Microsoft and others) and limits the abilities of the independent developers to generate revenue as well. Of course, the iPhone is so awesome and superior to any other phone that developers will jump through whatever hoops Apple presents just to get in on the action. But is this best for the tech industry? Should Steve Jobs alone be controlling and directing the industry?
3. Law suits
It seems like a week can't go by without Apple suing some company or another for infringing on their patents or for thinking about something that might be similar to one of their patents. The worst law suit that I can think of (of the top of my head) was when Jobs and co. sued The Beatles' Apple Records because of their use of an apple as a logo. Steve Jobs presumed that since he was now in the music business (with the iTunes Store) that anybody else in the music industry with an apple logo had to give it up. Even if they were there first. Lame. This is definitely an overuse of power and shows how far Apple will go to monopolize every industry they touch.
All these points combined lead to one main issue: competition. We've seen problems with limited competition in the computer world before. Microsoft pretty much had a monopoly of the personal computer sector since its creation. Their tactics were to buy out smaller competitors and sue the little guys that they couldn't buy out. Granted, that was a very different situation but how did that all work out?
Creating open platforms essentially gives these companies a lot of employees that will work for free. Not being a developer myself, it's hard to comment confidently, but are independent developers essentially that? The developer ends up making money for both the client and themselves, but they're not earning a salary from the client. In other words, Apple or Google doesn't pay someone to create an app for them, it's done pro bono. Apple, of course, is all about developers creating apps, but only on their conditions. Their very strict conditions. And don't make a misstep cause they'll probably sue you!
Anyways, I'm in way over my head here. This stuff is all very complicated and I only learn about it form blogs and other biased sources. As the disclaimer said, I just write about things that interest me even though I probably have no right to comment on them. If you've read this far through my ramblings and not gotten bored, confused or fallen asleep then I'm impressed. Hopefully this blog-writing learning curve is rather steep and I will learn to be more coherent and cohesive for you all in the very near future! ;)
BOTTOM LINE: Apple should stop being jerks and let the tech/gadget/computer world accelerate at its own pace and on its own terms. You're not the boss of me, Steve!
I get most of my gadget news from Engadget through my RSS feed. Most of their information revolves around cell phones and every rumor of every new piece of hardware or software released is analysed up the wazoo. But they also touch on bigger topics that affect the gadgeting world. One that has greatly intrigued me is product development strategies from an industry perspective. When the major players in the tech world make product decisions it not only affects their company's direction, but also the direction of the industry as a whole. Like I've said before, the tech world is a rapidly morphing industry and an innovative vision is crucial to keeping your company alive in the long term.
By far and away the two most innovative, visionary and influential companies right now are Google and Apple. Both these organisations have a real knack for determining what consumers do want and what they will want. In some ways their approaches are very similar. They both create slick, easy to use products. Their focus is not only on image, but also on functionality and both have excelled in this department. But recently it's the substantial differences between the two CEOs' visions that has the tech world buzzing. While Google promotes open platform systems and encourages independent developers to create an identity for their product, Apple operates a very tightly controlled, ultra-restrictive atmosphere. So which one is better in the long run?
Once again, I'm going to have to side with Google. Not that I have anything against Apple's products. I own several Mac products and love them all! But in my opinion their law suit loving, Adobe Flash hating ways aren't helping the industry evolve naturally and fully. There are a few examples of Apple's excessive restrictions that I'd like to point out here.
1. Adobe Flash
Everything on the internet seems to use Flash. It has become a staple for applications and videos on every site you visit because it is the bet product on the market. However, Apple comes along and says they will not have any Flash compatibility on the iPad and now expects everybody to follow their lead and adopt HTML5 instead. Thankfully, not everyone's towing the line and instead just going with the best product available. In contrast to Apple's hard line, most Google products are compatible with both HTML5 and Flash and the developer/end user gets to choose which one suits their needs. Apple has the whole internet at their beck and call. Is that OK? Are they pretty much running a monopoly of the tech world?
2. iAd
There has been much debate recently about Apple's decision to restrict advertising abilities on the new iPhone 4. The restrictions essentially eliminate any advertising capabilities from the competition (Google, Microsoft and others) and limits the abilities of the independent developers to generate revenue as well. Of course, the iPhone is so awesome and superior to any other phone that developers will jump through whatever hoops Apple presents just to get in on the action. But is this best for the tech industry? Should Steve Jobs alone be controlling and directing the industry?
3. Law suits
It seems like a week can't go by without Apple suing some company or another for infringing on their patents or for thinking about something that might be similar to one of their patents. The worst law suit that I can think of (of the top of my head) was when Jobs and co. sued The Beatles' Apple Records because of their use of an apple as a logo. Steve Jobs presumed that since he was now in the music business (with the iTunes Store) that anybody else in the music industry with an apple logo had to give it up. Even if they were there first. Lame. This is definitely an overuse of power and shows how far Apple will go to monopolize every industry they touch.
All these points combined lead to one main issue: competition. We've seen problems with limited competition in the computer world before. Microsoft pretty much had a monopoly of the personal computer sector since its creation. Their tactics were to buy out smaller competitors and sue the little guys that they couldn't buy out. Granted, that was a very different situation but how did that all work out?
Creating open platforms essentially gives these companies a lot of employees that will work for free. Not being a developer myself, it's hard to comment confidently, but are independent developers essentially that? The developer ends up making money for both the client and themselves, but they're not earning a salary from the client. In other words, Apple or Google doesn't pay someone to create an app for them, it's done pro bono. Apple, of course, is all about developers creating apps, but only on their conditions. Their very strict conditions. And don't make a misstep cause they'll probably sue you!
Anyways, I'm in way over my head here. This stuff is all very complicated and I only learn about it form blogs and other biased sources. As the disclaimer said, I just write about things that interest me even though I probably have no right to comment on them. If you've read this far through my ramblings and not gotten bored, confused or fallen asleep then I'm impressed. Hopefully this blog-writing learning curve is rather steep and I will learn to be more coherent and cohesive for you all in the very near future! ;)
BOTTOM LINE: Apple should stop being jerks and let the tech/gadget/computer world accelerate at its own pace and on its own terms. You're not the boss of me, Steve!
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