alataristarion

Text Messages

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:15:08 GMT

If anyone is interested, you can sign up to have Obama's VP choice emailed or texted to you the moment it's announced.

my.barackobama.com/vp

House

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:35:56 GMT

Today, we bought a house.

Or at least, we signed a contract saying that we're going to buy a house on the 7th of October.

It is a 1280 sq. ft. ranch on a .42 acre lot with a half-finished walkout basement, and it's pretty cool. It's very well maintained and in the first or second best school district in the state (lists on the internet can't seem to agree on that bit).

Also, I finished my thesis today, so as long as I can convince some professors on Tuesday that I'm not full of lies, I'll graduate with an MA at the end of the month.

Unrelatedly, check out www.itog.com! Months of work have finally paid of and we've pushed a giant megaton of new code live. Our site looks way better on the front end, and is much more extensible and easy to work with on the back end. In addition, we're going to be part of the orientation programs at Wash U, Truman State, Western Illinois, and a few other universities, so we should see a wave of new users in the not too distant future.

Finally, GenCon is in a matter of days, and I'm pretty excited about that. It's consistently a good time, and I could use the vacation.

No Aliens :(

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:02:20 GMT

I was honestly disappointed at the lack of alien invasions last night. This may or may not be because I just watched Independence Day.

Also, earthquakes remind me of how dangerous it is to live on the surface of a planet; why do we still do that? We'd all be much safer on space stations.

A new computer!

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:16:26 GMT

I finally managed to replace my 6 year old computer with something slightly more up to date.

My new computer, highlights:

-22" Widescreen monitor with 2ms response time and 700:1 contrast ratio (3000:1 DC)
-AMD Phenom 9600 quad-core processor
-4GB DDR2 1066Mhz
-500GB Western Digital SATA HardDrive
-GeForce 8800GTS 512

That last bit is on the excessive side, but I got a great deal on it using new eggs

On another exciting note, I'm running Debian GNU/Linux as my primary operating system, thereby fulfilling one of the goals on my list. I'm dual-booting with Vista as a gaming platform (mainly because I doubt Wine will be able to run Starcraft II or Spore), but so far Linux is spectacular and I wish I'd switched earlier.

Odds

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:40:36 GMT

I give 3 to 1 odds John McCain is the next president.

Jobs are good

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:56:41 GMT

On an exciting note, ITOG won the Olin Cup, a business competition at Wash U, so now we get a $50K investment for the company. This means that I now have a job through GenCon at least(its fun that I still measure time partially in terms of GenCon; speaking of which: anyone from Wisconsin who hasn't gone in a few years want to go this year? Its a good time and I am someone who has a great hotel room reserved in the Hampton that you could get in on). Our goal is to raise additional $ that we need between now and the end of August, but I'm really happy with our progress so far. For anyone who wants to check it out, its www.itog.com

This also means that I can afford to buy a new computer soon now that I'm guaranteed income through the summer. I kind of want to wait until the new versions of the Phenom processor come out and more manufacturers make AM2+ motherboards; the current selection is suboptimal.

Politics

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:43:58 GMT

Several things just finalized and solidified my support for Barack Obama. I know this isn't the most widely read journal or anything, but please take a look at this (its really just the tip of the iceberg of good stuff about Obama), pass it on to anyone and everyone you think could benefit from it, and post any comments here you want to talk about any aspect of things politically.

First, Obama's main strength as a leader is the intelligence with which he approaches every issue, and the lengths to which he goes to ensure that he gets it right. As an example, when it came to crafting technology policy, he didn't talk to random lobbyists or Microsoft execs. He talked to Lawrence Lessig. This even got him an incredibly rare endorsement from Randall Munroe, who incidentally summarizes much of my opinions regarding Obama quite nicely.

Second, Obama is currently the target of Carl Rove-esque tactics from Clinton. This worked for Bush for eight years, and you know its bullshit. Pay close attention when people say things! See this video for a good perspective.

How it Works

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:56:04 GMT

This is how it works: You're young until you're not, you love until you don't, you try until you can't, you laugh until you cry, you cry until you laugh, and everyone must breathe until their dying breath.

This is how it works: You peer inside yourself; you take the things you like and try to love the things you took, and then you take that love you made and stick it into someone else's heart, pumping someone else's blood. And walking arm in arm, you hope it don't get harmed, but even if it does you'll just do it all again.

A silly geography meme

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:08:08 GMT

This is one of the better geography quizes I've seen online. It checks to see if you can recall the names of areas by simply seeing an unmarked map.

The hardest parts about Asia are 1) remembering how everything is spelled 2) noticing that they want you to name special administrative districts of the PRC 3) notice that they want you to name the palestinian territories 4) pick up on the political commentary of making you type Taiwan 5) finding all the tiny countries in Asia on map.

2m 40s

Click here to try the quiz.

I can name 53 Asian countries in 4m 9s

Click here to Play

Back again

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:35:49 GMT

I liked HP7 quite a lot. Probably not my favorite of the 7, but its up there. Of all of the summer entertainment releases I was looking forward to, it turned out to be the best. It wasn't disappointing like various movie releases; it was just as entertaining and interesting as I expected it to be.

Maia and I will be in Chicago this weekend, and there is a very good chance that we will be going to the Bristol Rennaisance Faire. If anyone from up that way would like to meet us there for hanging out (either saturday or sunday; details need to be finalized), that'd be great. Just let us know!

I am, as always, in a perpetual state of busy. Its pretty fun though.

Also, I will soonish need a new computer. My current one, which I built over 5 years ago, is gradually imploding under its own age. Oh well.

Finally, ITOG is going great. Anyone who hasn't checked it out definitely should (www.itog.com - invite code ALATARLJ). We could really use the feedback and the increased traffic!

Is That One Good?

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:49:24 GMT

So several months ago I wrote about ITOG, the website I've been working on with some friends. ITOG lets users rate a wide variety of items, from films to books to songs to drinks, and gives recommendations based on these preferences. It also creates an environment in which users can review and discuss all manner of items and form communities of individuals with similar interests. Its been keeping me quite busy for nearly a year, but we're just now ready to go fully public.

We had our open launch last night, and things are going quite well. If you're reading this and want to try it out, just go to http://www.itog.com/user_register.pl?sc=1;sb=1;code=ALATARLJ and sign up. Definitely tell all of your friends about it who are interested, and have them sign up as well!

For everyone who's already been signed up for our closed testing, go check the site out if you haven't in several weeks; we've added a ton of new features and really cleaned it up and improved functionality. We've also added a variety of item types, including soft drinks and alcoholic drinks.

If anyone thinks that the site is awesome, you can invite other friends to join either using the link I provided, or by going to the Help ITOG Grow link once you sign in and sending invites to your friends. For anyone who really wants to help us out and has the ability to post on a high-traffic site, I can create a unique link for you to use that tons of users can use.

Thanks for checking it out everyone! I'm really excited about it.

Livejournal

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 04:55:15 GMT

I've been trying to post something every day for the past week or so. I'm very busy, but I figured that this was more in line with the spirit of livejournal than my usual "post nothing" tactic. The posts started out with several ideas for organization or theme, but I'm not sure if I'll keep going with that. Anyhow, is this strategy working out for me? Or is it annoying?

Being busy

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:44:09 GMT

One knows one's busy if one must upgrade from a To-Do list to a To-Do spreadsheet...

4th of July

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:57:17 GMT

Today I played D&D all day. It was exciting.

Spreadsheets

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:42:57 GMT

I today discovered a powerful application for Excel: calculating XP in D&D.

Potluck!

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:26:32 GMT

Tonight we had a delicious potluck to which many awesome friends came. On the RPG front, Jim is starting a Star Wars campaign, John a short term D&D lvl 12, and my long campaign is about to start. Should be good times all around.

We also decided to start a Taboo league, which will keep statistics of everyone's Taboo-playing skills. Individuals will have a lifetime Taboo average of accurate guesses garnered as readers. We will also attempt to keep track of mis-speaks and guesses of other people's clues. A good spreadsheet is in order.

Food is delicious

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:21:55 GMT

Today I learned that typing ability and connections are a good combo.

Actual robots, living among us

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 04:56:02 GMT

Robots are sweet. Maia's Mom and Woof got us a Roomba from iRobot, which is a pretty sweet company. It works incredibly well, and for the price, I see relatively few reasons for anyone to ever buy a new, non-automated vacuum ever again. Also, its cute and makes me happy as it does its little spinny-cleany dance.

Cats are weird

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 03:30:42 GMT

Today I discovered that our cats flip out when they can see and hear rain. Since our air is out, we had the windows open, and the sounds of rain outside made Sisko run back and forth repeatedly looking first out one window, then another.

St. Louis is warm

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:18:11 GMT

Today I learned yet another reason why I'm glad I live in the United States in the 21st century. Our air conditioning broke and its stupid hot and humid.

Things of the Day

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 05:54:11 GMT

Today, I learned that it is very easy to forget one's birthday when other important things are happening. Especially after one is already 21 and birthdays no longer grant additional legal rights.

In other news, this is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. But probably only to me.

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:27:24 GMT

For anyone who is interested, I have posted below the text of our wedding ceremony.

Evan: Welcome to the wedding of Paul and Maia! This evening we are gathered to witness the joining together of Maia and Paul under the Chuppah, as a symbol of the home they are creating by starting a new family branch. For them, this marriage is both a pledge of enduring love, and an expression of their commitment to each other grounded in law. For the rest of us, this marriage is an occasion where we are reminded of the bonds to our own families and friends, and how important and wonderful it is to share such bonds.

Paul and Maia have chosen passages which encompass some aspect of their love. These passages will be read by several of their close friends, and each has been selected to reflect, in part, their friendship with the reader.

Much of the significance of marriage in our society comes from its nature as a legal contract. To that end, Maia's close friend, Rebecca Nagle, will now read the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision in Goodridge Vs. Department of Health on the value of marriage in today's democratic society.

Rebecca: "Marriage is a vital social institution. The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other nurtures love and mutual support; it brings stability to our society. For those who choose to marry, and for their children, marriage provides an abundance of legal, financial, and social benefits. In return it imposes weighty legal, financial, and social obligations… Without question, civil marriage enhances the "welfare of the community." It is a "social institution of the highest importance." It is central to the way the Commonwealth identifies individuals, provides for the orderly distribution of property, ensures that children and adults are cared for and supported whenever possible from private rather than public funds, and tracks important epidemiological and demographic data....Marriage also bestows enormous private and social advantages on those who choose to marry. Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family.... Because it fulfils yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition....It is undoubtedly for these concrete reasons, as well as for its intimately personal significance, that civil marriage has long been termed a "civil right."

Evan: While all relationships begin and grow through love, a successful marriage requires a lifetime of determination and patience on the part of two individuals. The couple's friend, Richard Feldman, will read scholar and mythographer Joseph Campbell's description of marriage.

Richard: "Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn't that. That is a relationship of pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable, it's off. But a marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you are not married."

Evan: Marriage represents a unique and powerful bond. Paul's close friend, Greg Stemm, will read an excerpt from the Greek Philosopher Plato on the origin and nature of love.

Greg: "Long ago, the nature of humanity was not as it is at present. The shape of each human being was a rounded whole, with back and sides forming a circle. Each one had four hands, four legs and two faces on a circular neck. Terrible was their strength and vigor, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods. Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. After a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a solution. "I have a plan which will enfeeble their strength and so extinguish their turbulence. I shall cut them in two; thus they will be diminished in strength and increased in numbers; this will have the advantage of making them more profitable to us." After the division, the two parts, each desiring its other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, wove themselves together, longing to grow into one. Ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, to reunite our original nature, seeking to make one of two, and to heal the state of humanity. There is no one would deny or would not acknowledge that this meeting and melting into one another, this becoming one instead of two, is the very expression of our ancient need. And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love. "

Evan: An emotion as complex as love is difficult to describe except through poetry. The couple's friend, Julie LeVitus will share an Ode to Marriage by the mystic Persian Poet Rumi.

Julie:

May these vows and this marriage be blessed.
May it be sweet milk,
this marriage, like wine and halvah.
May this marriage offer fruit and shade
like the date palm.
May this marriage be full of laughter,
your every day a day in paradise.
May this marriage be a sign of compassion,
a seal of happiness here and hereafter.
May this marriage have a fair face and a good name,
an omen as welcome
as the moon in a clear blue sky.
I am out of words to describe
how spirit mingles in this marriage.

Evan: Maia and Paul will now exchange vows.

Maia: Paul, I look forward to a life of love and commitment to you. I promise to always be a comfort to you. May my love and devotion for you last forever and be a source of growth and strength through life's sorrows and joys. As we share life's experiences, I vow to create an intimacy that will enable us to
express our innermost thoughts and feelings, and to share my intuition and insight. I promise to remain sensitive to your needs, desires and dreams.

I enter this union with openness, honesty and freedom from judgment. This is my commitment made in love, kept in trust, and renewed each day.

Paul: Maia, I look forward to a life of love and commitment to you. I promise to always be a comfort to you. May my love and devotion for you last forever and be a source of growth and strength through life's sorrows and joys. As we share life's experiences, I vow to create an intimacy that will enable us to express our innermost thoughts and feelings, and to share my intuition and insight. I promise to remain sensitive to your needs, desires and dreams.

I enter this union with openness, honesty and freedom from judgment. This is my commitment made in love, kept in trust, and renewed each day.

Evan: Traditionally, the marking of the passage to the status of husband and wife is marked by the exchange of rings. These rings are a symbol of the unbroken circle of love. Love freely given has no beginning and no end. Love freely given has no giver and no receiver - for each is the giver and each is the receiver. May these rings remind you always of the vows you have taken here today.

Maia, by accepting this ring, do you take Paul to be your husband?

Maia: I do.

Evan: Paul, by accepting this ring, do you take Maia to be your wife?

Paul: I do.

Evan: Because you have chosen one another and pledged to love each other for all the days of your lives before this loving community of family and friends, it is my honor to pronounce you husband and wife.

livejournaling

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 06:57:35 GMT

I'm really glad that I live in St. Louis and have connections at Wash U. Being able to work for professors on interesting projects (and get paid) is certainly preferable to finding a typical pre-career "work in retail or food service" job. I've begun working for Professor Calvert writing a lab program for Game Theory. Its gotten off to a good start, and I look forward to getting into the full swing of it after the wedding. I've also begun helping out with a research project on Foreign Direct Investment inflows and outflows among OECD countries, and I've been collecting data and organizing it in spreadsheets. You'd be surprised how tricky it can be to find historical statuatory corporate income tax rates.

I got to talk to my friend Dan today, which was great. He's a classmate and good friend of mine from highschool; we took latin and various AP classes together. Dan also happens to be on the top single-digit list of smartest people I know. He's very sharp, charismatic, and modest, yet also happened to get a perfect SAT (1600) and ACT (36). He just graduated from Harvard with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and will be going for a PhD. in aerospace engineering next year from MIT. He's also interested, from the research and engineering end, in the exact area of space exploration and technology that I'm interested in from a business standpoint, so we got to have a good talk about that. He'll be at the wedding, and I'm excited to see him since I haven't in several years.

Also, I'm getting married in just over a week; how crazy is that? I've been sewing all sorts of stuff. My clothes are done, I just need to finish Richard's and hem Maia's dress. Which looks unreasonably fabulous on her; wow. Maia's done so much to make the wedding great; I think it will be a fun time. She's spent months coordinating everything and making sure it all works together. I've got to finish up my parts now, both the sewing and the building of things.

The Weekend

Mon, 28 May 2007 07:34:05 GMT

This weekend was pretty cool. Maia and I spent Friday evening with jpfed and abigailstein, who took us to dinner (impulsively) at a fabulous café filled with crazy contraptions. We then went to Matt and Rachel's wedding, after which we learned how to play Fix the Factory, which is coming along quite fabulously. (It's a cooperative board game being developed by Jerry, Kurt and Greg). This morning we then went north to my Grandparents' to eat lunch and bottle wine. It was very good to see them, and we left with 6 cases of wine (half to 2/3 of which will be served at the wedding). We then completed our trip with dinner in Chicago with josiosings, metrognome7, and Maia's Abba and Phyllis. We then got home safely about 1.5 hours ago.

Video Games are neat

Sun, 20 May 2007 21:44:05 GMT

Blizzard is officially making StarCraft II!

Anyone who is interested in video games in general and/or Star Craft in particular should check out these videos as well as the official website.

It'll take a year or so more before it comes out, but I'm pretty excited. The ten-year-old original was very cool.