Night Showerer

Two Years of Traveling

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:00:05 +0300

I’ve lived in Kuwait for a little over two years now, and although I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest place to live, there’s no doubt it’s given me a chance to travel more internationally. I have been able to travel from Southeast Asia to India to Northern Europe. I’ve learned how to get tourist visas and become familiar with several regional airlines (Ryanair, you are one shrewd bastard).

Traveling has been a tremendous and eye-opening experience. Even though I’ve always had a desire to be exposed to different cultures and make international friends, I’m still an American from a small city. It was quite a stretch for me initially to become accustomed to traveling long distances even within the U.S., and these past two years have further broadened my perspective and increased my traveler’s prowess.

As I prepare to move back to the U.S., I hope I can continue to explore the world (and even my own country). I’m more aware of what it takes to travel: everything from what to pack, to the physical toll long plane flights and jet lag can take, to (of course) the money required.

I feel a stronger desire than ever to travel now, and the world seems both smaller (I’m more aware of geography) and more immense (I feel like there will never be enough time to see it all).

"At some point the one machine we have made, the continuous cloak of electronic neurons wrapped..."

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:39:32 +0300

“At some point the one machine we have made, the continuous cloak of electronic neurons wrapped around the globe, will produce some impulse, some emergent behavior, some new phenomenon that is evident to all did not arise with us, but came out of this gigantic web — and at that point many people will begin to see God in it.”

- The Technium: The Internet Is My Religion

theimpossiblecool: Coltrane, Queens, 1963. photo by Jim...

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:40:49 +0300

theimpossiblecool:

Coltrane, Queens, 1963.

photo by Jim Marshall

I just discovered Bon Iver. Via cubicle17

Thu, 26 May 2011 20:16:00 +0300

I just discovered Bon Iver.

Via cubicle17

"The United States Military (Waterhouse has decided) is first and foremost an unfathomable network of..."

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:00:06 +0300

“The United States Military (Waterhouse has decided) is first and foremost an unfathomable network of typists and file clerks, secondarily a stupendous mechanism for moving stuff from one part of the world to another, and last and least a fighting organization.”

- Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon

Don't Beat Yourself

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:05:57 +0300

Don't Beat Yourself:

Andy Ihnatko on a great scene from one of my favorite movies, The Hustler. A reminder to take a walk, wash your face, have a snack, or do whatever’s needed to get your head straight and don’t beat yourself.

Seth Godin On Flipping a Coin

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:47:20 +0300

Seth Godin On Flipping a Coin:

By refusing to lie to yourself, by not telling yourself a fable to make the decision easier, you’ll understand quite clearly when you’re winging it.

This postcard is my favorite souvenir from our trip to Borneo.

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:52:00 +0300

This postcard is my favorite souvenir from our trip to Borneo.

3?

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:14:52 +0300

Kevin Kelley on Art

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:18:46 +0300

Kevin Kelley on Art:

Kevin Kelley, reflecting on art and making a tacky wreath made out of cheap toys with his kid:

It made us giggle at times. The thing is completely useless. But it evoked something vague when we hung it outside my studio door. It’s pleasing in a strange way. Looks like art to me.

I love reading Kevin Kelley’s posts for his seemingly endless supply of genuine curiosity.

Stockholm, Wedding Song

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:30:00 +0300

In honor of the upcoming trip to Stockholm for the 2011 Dynamic Languages Conferece (and… let’s be real, a chance to escape Kuwait for awhile and do some sightseeing), here are three songs:

Lykke Li - Little Bit

The first, from Swedish indie singer Lykke Li (who just released a pretty damn good follow up album).

The Knife - Heartbeats

The second, from a masked, electro-pop duo from Stockholm.

Jose Gonzalez - Hearbeats

And the third, Jose Gonzalez working his magic (as he often does) on a cover of the above song.

My wife and I danced to this for the first song at our wedding.

I stumbled upon this recording the other day of my friend Roman...

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:12:00 +0300

I stumbled upon this recording the other day of my friend Roman helping me learn my marriage proposal speech in 2006.

I surprised my wife by proposing on a trip to her home in Uzbekistan in front of her parents, who are native Russian speakers. Before going, I had Roman (originally from Moscow) help me translate and learn to pronounce in Russian a little speech I had prepared for the proposal.

Translation:

Excuse me - I have something to announce.

I love your daughter very much. She is the most beautiful, smartest, and lovely girl. We have been dating for 2 years, and I can’t imagine my life without Jamila. I ask for her hand in marriage, and for your blessing.

Jamila, please be my wife.

I keep watching the scene in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless...

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 23:40:46 +0300

I keep watching the scene in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (starting at about 1:16 in) where Mary and Howard are left alone to work on erasing Joel’s memories, and Mary speaks the following quote (from which the movie gets its title):

How happy is the blameless Vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d. - Alexander Pope

Little Little Italy (cutesy ride at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi)

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:07:34 +0300

Little Little Italy (cutesy ride at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi)

dereksBAC.txt

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:01:03 +0300

One night after a party in college, I vomitted and passed out. My roommate (also a computer science major), stayed up with me a good portion of the night (I was later told) to make sure I was ok. Fearing I had severe alcohol poisoning, he found a formula to calculate blood alcohol content online and jotted down his calculations.

I found the following file (named “dereksBAC.txt”) the next day on my desktop.

derek’s BAC math:

1. body weight = 150 lbs ??? = kg

2. body fluid in grams = 51136.36 g

One oz of 100 proof (50%) spirits will contain 11.2 g of alcohol

derek consumed roughly 400 mL of 80 proof

1 oz of 80 proof contains 8,900 mg of alcohol per oz

NOTE: Vomited roughly 100 mL (overestimate) during 2nd hour

so alcohol consumed is around

1 fluid ounce (US) = 1 ounce 1.041 ounces = 29.57 milliliters

400 mL / 29.57 = 13.53 oz of alcohol in derek

3. so 13.53 oz * 8900 mg = 120,417 mg of alcohol in him.

divide alcohol content in mg (step 3) by mg of bodily fluid capable of

absorption (step 2) and multiply by 100

4. 120417 / 51136.36 * 100 = 235.48

BAL is step 4 divided by step 2.

5. 235.48 / 51136.36 * 100 = 0.46 % BAL <—-note: this is dangerous

My Favorite Things of 2010

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:27:39 +0300

Struttin’ That Ass - Official Remix

From my old hometown of Huntsville, AL.

Chewbacca On A Squirrel Fighting Nazis

Washing Machine Self Destructs

My fave part of this is the big bag of money Superman already has at his feet. He just wants MORE MONEY.

Via

Bed Intruder

Another one from Huntsville. That city was on fire in 2010.

God_Damn_Batman

Reflecting on the year in music, here’s my top 18 artists...

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:54:34 +0300

Reflecting on the year in music, here’s my top 18 artists on Last.fm (as of today, December 21, 2010).

I’m proud to see Tori hold steady on top as well as the new faces of Beck, Mos Def, and Danny Byrd.

Unfortunately, the likes of John Mayer and Michelle Branch haven’t been pushed out yet.

From Errol Morris’s great 1978 documentary Gates of...

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:27:00 +0300

From Errol Morris’s great 1978 documentary Gates of Heaven.

There is beauty.

Enough, Enough Already About The Wire

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:37:25 +0300

Ok, one more thing:

In the intricate network of The Wire the story lines derive from the worlds of street-corner drug dealers and big-time traffickers, the police of homicide and drug enforcement and “special crimes,” the in-office brass, the dockworkers who knowingly and unknowingly unload the drug shipments, the union leaders, the foreign suppliers, the public schools, the newspaper, the mayor’s office, the city council, the lawyers and judges of the criminal justice system, the prisons, the soup kitchens, the rehab facilities, and the group homes with their revolving doors. This is the metaphorical “wire” that connects all the various institutions and habitats of the city. It also refers to the high-wire act of brave policing and honest work—difficult and rare.

Nice piece by The New York Review of Books. It captures one big appeal of The Wire to me personally - how the show tries to tackle the complex, big picture of the network of its characters and their situations.

There was a little oil spill at the beach near our apartment.

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:30:08 +0300

There was a little oil spill at the beach near our apartment.