blogwaffe

I broke down today and translated into Chinese (simplified) from English and back a childish phrase using google’s text translator. The result of this nonsense is the above title of this post.

Ten points to whosoever first guesses the original phrase.

Greg and I watched The Fly the other day thanks to Mike, our kick ass new roommate (don’t come back, Paul ;)) who has an awesome DVD collection.

That movie rocks. If you’ve not seen it, do so at your earliest convenience. Perhaps the best thing about it from a geek perspective is that the entire situation was not cause by bad science (though one could pick nits there), but rather by bad programming!

Take that CompSci!

I have joined the ranks of responsible citizens of this great nation we call .us. I have been summoned for jury duty (which seems to be called “jury service” in LA county). Following Jeff’s and Heidi’s lead, I’ll be going down to the courthouse sometime during the week of September 19th. It seems the lot of us that got .ca.us IDs around the same time are starting to get drawn. I’d be interested to hear if other generations of caltech grad students experienced something similar.

I had thought about postponing my service on the grounds I’ll be both teaching and taking classes around that time. I decided, though, that I’d rather shuffle my teaching schedule and miss a couple classes than serve after the term was over (you can only postpone a maximum of ninety days: Christmas); it seems a smaller inconvenience.

What amazes me, though, about the process so far is that I was required to register via telephone after receiving my summons. No online registration? Get with the times, LA.

I ordered a new cellphone yesterday; it’s supposed to come today or tomorrow. It was “free” in the sense that the rebate total was the same as the offered price of the phone: $50 instant, $200 mail-in. Naturally, I still payed tax, “one time activation fees” and the like. It was a decent deal, though.

So today I get online again an grab the mail-in rebate form (which they have conveniently filled out for me already). I see the following text before me.

Postmark No Earlier Than: Nov 30, 2005
Postmark No Later Than: Jan 29, 2006

Son of a. I have to wait three months before I can start the process of getting my money back! Is this just a trick to try to get me to forget about it? Are they trying to make sure people don’t get the phone and rebate and then break their contract early. Hm… that seems likely now that I think about it. Total Rebates – (Activation + Early Termination) = $64. And that’s not factoring in the possibility that the place I got it from may have a good base price as well.

Regardless, I’m pissed.

I’m in the market for a new phone. The contenders: Motorola’s V3 RAZR and Nokia’s 6230 (for those who really keep track of their phones, the 6230i seems to not be out on the market as much).

My main objection to the RAZR: it’s a flip phone. I’m always worried about those things breaking. The fewer movable parts, the better. So to all you flip phone users out there, is the phone likely to wear out over two years? Keep in mind I’m not the most careful person this earth has ever seen.

I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts for the first time Saturday. A five dollar student ticket is a deal that can’t be beat, unless you go after five o’clock. Then it’s free.

But Bonnie and I decided to go at around three, and it was an afternoon very well spent. My time was a little limited (Preskill was hosting a soirée that evening), but we managed our goal of seeing the impressive Tim Hawkinson exhibit though were unable to check out any of the others. Perhaps it was best to only see one exhibit, anyway. Regardless, it was more than worth it.

I won’t bother to describe the artist or his works (I’d have taken pictures, but I got yelled at for attempting to do so). Anything I could say would either be ill-educated, or not nearly as humorous as the statement “Tim Hawkinson, considered by many to be a phenomenon within and beyond the art world” taken from LACMA’s above-linked press release. I’ll just say that the exhibit is well worth checking out, especially if you’re into the ideas surrounding man vs. machine vs. nature discussions. That or latex.

I know you’ve always wanted to post on blogwaffe. Or perhaps you’ve dreamed of publishing content on Apparent Horizons or \_jeff_{krimmel}.

Well you can’t.

Sukah.

But you can hit up the next big thing (next great American novel, big) over at email for pics (dot com).