Picture This
Well, I added my “official mug shot” to the right column of this page. I point you back to yesterday's post for the appropriate warnings about it, but it is at least better than the last. This is the head shot I referenced earlier this week.
As I noted previously, I've been on the web for either ten or eleven years now (I can't recall exactly when I first popped open a web browser — I think 1994), and this is a first. I've thought about doing so before, but just never got around to it. But now I have and Ed cannot complain about me should I decide to turn asisaid into an Internet Church now.
In other news, I did some minor adjustments to my Choose Your Own Adventure piece, so that it now specifically says that Riley was trying to contact the police. I'm not sure if it is quite what Christopher was looking for, though, so he is welcome to throw a rotten tomato at me and tell me to fix it in some other fashion, if he'd like.
The Result of the Photo Game
And now the time has come to see the end,
To this small amusement answer I’ll amend.
Tis not the first that will be correct of them,
For that is Shakespeare the rival of Ben.
Tis not the sixth, I do maintain to you,
He’s Jim the church’s custodian, that’s who.
Nor ‘twas it five, though Kevin tried quite hard,
He was from Google unknown to this bard.
(And had he been the hidden face of mine,
Less likely this amusement kept I on Valentine.)
No guesséd number two which is too bad,
A friend of mine is he for which I’m glad.
But two remain, for I am almost done,
Which surely good is for one unlike Donne.
Would that I would be the number four,
For Senator (state) would be on my door.
But last, ‘tis I, it’s number three for me,
A shot so bad – alas! – that’s what you see.
Now when Aurora’s fingers climb the sky,
And day again bids night a clear “good bye,”
A better picture shall I post on here,
Though still best suited for radio careers.
Flip’s the one, the only one who guess’d it,
So she crowned winner has thus won this bit.
Challenge Reminder
There are four questions presently open in the latest challenge (7.4, 7.5, 8.1, 8.3) . If you're looking to size up your position, don't miss this great opportunity. I'm also thinking about reworking the rules so that the threshold for a prize is lower. Sound good or do y'all like it the way it is?
Also, don't forget that you have one day left to guess the right photo over here. Everyone with the right answer will get 30 pts.
Photo Game
As long as I'm having fun giving all of you a hard time about my photo, I might as well make a game out of it… Ok, one of these photos is a picture of yours truly. The others are people I know or have at least met (well, save for two, one of which I feel like I know and one of whom I don't know at all). Which one of these is me? 30 pts.to each right answer within the next 48 hours — one try per person, so choose wisely.
Hmm... Can Napster Last?
Someone with too much time on their hands, decided to figure out exactly how much music they could get off Napster's new Napster to Go service, convert to WAV files and burn to CD's within the free trial period. Their calculations allow for the creation of 250+ CD's during that 14 day period. Of course, Napster To Go isn't suppose to allow burning, but the folks planning this simply did the same thing I did when I wanted to record a live audio stream a few years back — capture the audio stream and save it as WAV files.
Obviously, for those who'll abuse this service, this makes Napster To Go a much better value than iTunes Music Store, since you can't steal 250 CD's worth of music from iTMS. In the long run, however, I suspect that this might spell the end of Napster. If word about this gets around, the service will be abused and the record labels will get quite angry about people downloading thousands of songs and keeping them forever with an investment worth about one CD ($14.95).
I'm actually glad about this in a way, though. This means Microsoft PlayForSure Janus subscriber technology may be defeated before it becomes popular. Anything that keeps RIAA from making it so people don't even have a permanent copy of the music they pay for is a good thing for everyone else.
(Not that I advocate signing up for Napster to steal music off of it, I simply like the idea that maybe this will throw a wrench in a bad idea whose time has not come.)
Shedding the Last Shred of Anonymity?
My face has never appeared on the Internet. Or, actually, it did once when I wrote for an online trade publication, but only in the members area. For an article I wrote awhile back in a print publication, I had to submit a head shot to the editor. I sent it via e-mail and I have the file now sitting on my desktop.
Tonight it dawned on me that maybe it is time I add a face to this text. Or maybe it is more amusing to stay behind the cloak of the asisaid and OfB logos. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I should make something in the photo a Challenge question and “appear” on the Internet for the first time if someone can answer the question. Ah, the possibilities!
Challenge Set #8
Scoreboard
Kevin: 190 (up from 180 on February)
Flip: 70 (up from 60 on February 4)
Christopher: 65
Jason: 35
Josiah: 30
Eduardo: 20
Ed: 10
Chris (answering vicariously for his wife): 10
Flip rises up the ranks to pass Christopher; can she pass Kevin and claim the crown?
Questions Still Open
Answer these on this post and not the old post.
7.4.) Who was the one clergyman to sign the U.S. Constitution? What was his affiliation? (5 pts.)
7.5.) What are the two parts of AT&T, other than Baby Bells, that will be reunited if the SBC-AT&T merger is approved by regulatory agencies? What makes this merger such an interesting contrast to AT&T's 1998 acquisition of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI)? (10 5 pts.)
New Question Set #8 1.) Who wrote/spoke the following and, if applicable, what is it? What other thing — I'm being intentionally vague here — derives its name from a phrase within here? (10 pts.)
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
2.) Who recently wrote in the blogosphere about a 100 MPG car (that person cannot answer this question)? Who developed the 100 MPG hybrid? (5 pts.)
3.) Name the ties of the apostate UCC denomination to the Puritans and eighteenth century Methodists. (10 pts.) BONUS: Link it to the German Pietists as well for 5 pts.
4.) What important U.S. figure (of the present time) is a distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth II? (5 pts.)
5.) What are the key technological differences between CDMA and GSM cellular systems? Which one uses a TDMA system? (15 pts.)
Pet Peeve
Why do people go to church when they are in the middle of a terrible, uncontrollable coughing and sneezing virus? Two weeks ago, I was at church and totally surrounded. There was so much coughing and sneezing, I had a hard time concentrating on the sermon. After hearing reports of even more people being sick over that week, I decided not to go this past Sunday, not wanting to catch the stuff. But, apparently, all the under-the-weather folks did go, because now I'm aware of even more people sick with the same bug in the congregation. So I either go and let the semi-hypochondriac in me take over and imagine the viruses going into my system as I get “surround sound sneezing” (and likely get more than an imaginary dose of the virus, for that matter) or I don't go and miss church again.
I was there (obviously) on Wednesday, albeit up in the balcony running the projector, and it sounded horrible down below. If the few people who initially had something had stayed home, maybe there would be less people coming down with the whatever this bug is. Every winter I watch a few people appear at church with some kind of virus and by the end of the month, it seems like it has made the rounds among everyone; maybe some get it elsewhere, but I know that often does not seem to be the case. Since everyone shakes hands right after the opening hymn, germs spread like wildfire, and even without that, the close quarters don't help.
Anyway, that's my pet peeve for the day. I'm not usually for keeping people out of a church, but I think we should do like hospitals. At least the ones I've visited this winter have signs up asking people with flu or cold like symptoms to please not enter the facility. That makes sense in the long run for everyone.
Sonnet VII
Happiness rushes like a mountain stream,
Rocks fill the creek before submerging down;
Through you, the water cycles back it seems.
But how the rains, o'er powered, do also drown,
Untaught, and caught by stronger current,
Pulled wayward to the craggy edge of doom.
Can what goes down the brook be unlearnt;
Condensed return weaved through Wisdom's own loom?
Precipitate the path a'top the vista,
Let me this happy cycle see in time,
Pouring downward so long a jaunt have moi,
Been carried off in backwards movéd climb.
If this be wrong and I take ash for rain,
Then off to sea for me is now ordained.
Adding More Personality
I'm a technical writer and I always have been. That's OK for a lot of tasks (it may even be good), but I've come to see the limitations of my sometimes dry style. While I doubt I can ever reach the great colloquial tone of someone like C.S. Lewis, I should like to make my writing “friendlier.” It is one thing if you can follow the rules and make something proper (something I'm careless to do here on asisaid at times). It is entirely another if you can make people want to read what you write.
Part of accomplishing this is writing stuff that isn't so technical in nature. Spending time writing on this blog helps. Writing the fiction that I have sitting on my hard disk helps. Writing poetry helps. But I still need to iron things out a bit.
The point of this entry? I don't think there is one. Just an observation I felt like making.
