/dev/thoughts/news
Random Thoughts
admin — Sun, 2010-03-28 17:26
I recently started talking to someone that I met on Omegle. I won't go into the details, but I just read the blog she had made. She didn't go blaring on about CTimeTracker, Zenserver, Icadyptes, or even IPv6. She just wrote about life and I found it inspiring.
For once in the past ages, I figured it'd be nice to make a post that simply has my thoughts with no real relation to computers or anything. I guess my previous one was on relationships, but this is more in the random, unrelated to much at all degree.
And so, here I begin my journey to write an interesting blog post, compressing my thoughts into some mildly tangible form for you to read. It'll probably be horrible, but I'm not sure if I want to start on that note. You may want to take some psychedelic drugs to warp these words into something more interesting.
Well, the first thought that comes to my mind is how much I love my new Vaio Y-series laptop's keyboard. That brings me to thinking about how the speed of typing affects the rythmn and sound of the typing itself. I bet that you could detect how inspired someone is to write, whether it's school/work, something they are interested about, or something emotional, or if they are just mashing keys in some game -- all from the sound alone using some sort of algorithm. Somehow, just somehow, I managed to tie computing back in to this post. Blah. I guess it shows you what I think about.
I just looked over my new desk (which is a plastic table in my sleeping bedroom since the downstairs one was cleared out for moving) and started thinking about more technical things. Seriosuly, I have a Kill-A-Watt electrical meter, 2 alkaline AA's, a recharable NI-MH AA battery, a beast of a laster printer, some weird crystal rock thing, a hotswap SATA bay, and a Welter Portasol butane soldering iron. God, what is wrong with my life? Aren't I supposed to have magazines, music CDs (or an iPod, or something), college applications, some sort of decoration, or something else on my desk? I feel like a machine.
Anyways, I did manage to track down some reasonable thoughts. With the move we have this new dilemma of what to do with this beautiful (potted) hibiscus plant. It came with the house and is probably 25 years old. It blooms with single and/or double layered flowers and looks amazing. I was urging my mom to take it in the CR-V for when we drive over to San Antonio, but she believes it's too awkward and won't fit well. I agree with her, it is a big plant, but I just feel bad about leaving everything behind. It's like I'm not taking a single thing of this house and past 3~ years in it with me. Perhaps somehow this poor plant can keep life from starting all over again, and give me some sort of transition. My memories here are mixed and possibly best not fully remembered, but that plant is simply awesome. I guess we'll see what happens with the hibiscus plant.
I think writing this post had made me realize how hard it is to subdue my thoughts beyond something technical in nature while trying to come up with something on the spot. I guess I'm not inspired on any one topic, just somehow inspired to write. It appears to be taking its toll in the horridness of this post.
With the common notion that all good bands have weird names, I pieced together a new name. "The Blue Screws" sounds like a band, and while it may be, my ignorance keeps it as a fragment of my mind pretaining to a name that I originally made up. I have not bothered to google for it and see what I find. I'll just live in the luxury of knowing that it popped into my head and -might- be available for some bands in the future. Or maybe I should use it in a band of my own, I don't know. It sounds a bit dull to me, but it seriously beats a few mainstream band's names.
And for my final rant, it really bothers me when so many people call any BMW 3 series an M3 when it's not. An M3 is -not- a normal 3 series. If it's an E30 era M3, it's worth about $16k USD at least. It's this super-sporty 3-series with almost all original body panels and a totally different engine. It has a big wing, too. Here's a picture for reference. If it's not an M3, it's not as much the supposedly super-amazing naturally aspirated 4 cylinder RWD piece of elegance on serioids, it's just a 3-series (picture here) that hasn't been tuned to death for racing ability. I just keep seeing people with "M3"s for sale, when it's really a basic 3 series. It's like saying "I have one of the best cars of all time for sale for a fraction of what it's really worth. It isn't really an M3, but I'm calling it one out of ignorance anyways." That bothers me for some reason. Anyways though, a normal 3-series should still be a heck of a good car. The M3 though just sounds like some dream car that almost can't be beat.
This concludes the end of my thought dump. It was pointless, didn't flow, makes me sound dumb, proves my excessive geekiness, and yet somehow, I feel glad that I wrote it. Maybe it makes me a bit more human and less of a convulsive machine. But for that matter, I'm on the internet. I'm a dog for all you know... maybe even your dog. Enough of that though and the delayed good byes, I'm truly going now.
Or am I?
Now I'm just being mean. You know how badly you want this to be over. Your bleeding eyes and presenting a horror film of desolate, lifeless text and it's all sugar coated in red. Or perhaps, you are a nice, patient reader who actually doesn't mind. I guess we will see.
The end.
--Teran
For once in the past ages, I figured it'd be nice to make a post that simply has my thoughts with no real relation to computers or anything. I guess my previous one was on relationships, but this is more in the random, unrelated to much at all degree.
And so, here I begin my journey to write an interesting blog post, compressing my thoughts into some mildly tangible form for you to read. It'll probably be horrible, but I'm not sure if I want to start on that note. You may want to take some psychedelic drugs to warp these words into something more interesting.
Well, the first thought that comes to my mind is how much I love my new Vaio Y-series laptop's keyboard. That brings me to thinking about how the speed of typing affects the rythmn and sound of the typing itself. I bet that you could detect how inspired someone is to write, whether it's school/work, something they are interested about, or something emotional, or if they are just mashing keys in some game -- all from the sound alone using some sort of algorithm. Somehow, just somehow, I managed to tie computing back in to this post. Blah. I guess it shows you what I think about.
I just looked over my new desk (which is a plastic table in my sleeping bedroom since the downstairs one was cleared out for moving) and started thinking about more technical things. Seriosuly, I have a Kill-A-Watt electrical meter, 2 alkaline AA's, a recharable NI-MH AA battery, a beast of a laster printer, some weird crystal rock thing, a hotswap SATA bay, and a Welter Portasol butane soldering iron. God, what is wrong with my life? Aren't I supposed to have magazines, music CDs (or an iPod, or something), college applications, some sort of decoration, or something else on my desk? I feel like a machine.
Anyways, I did manage to track down some reasonable thoughts. With the move we have this new dilemma of what to do with this beautiful (potted) hibiscus plant. It came with the house and is probably 25 years old. It blooms with single and/or double layered flowers and looks amazing. I was urging my mom to take it in the CR-V for when we drive over to San Antonio, but she believes it's too awkward and won't fit well. I agree with her, it is a big plant, but I just feel bad about leaving everything behind. It's like I'm not taking a single thing of this house and past 3~ years in it with me. Perhaps somehow this poor plant can keep life from starting all over again, and give me some sort of transition. My memories here are mixed and possibly best not fully remembered, but that plant is simply awesome. I guess we'll see what happens with the hibiscus plant.
I think writing this post had made me realize how hard it is to subdue my thoughts beyond something technical in nature while trying to come up with something on the spot. I guess I'm not inspired on any one topic, just somehow inspired to write. It appears to be taking its toll in the horridness of this post.
With the common notion that all good bands have weird names, I pieced together a new name. "The Blue Screws" sounds like a band, and while it may be, my ignorance keeps it as a fragment of my mind pretaining to a name that I originally made up. I have not bothered to google for it and see what I find. I'll just live in the luxury of knowing that it popped into my head and -might- be available for some bands in the future. Or maybe I should use it in a band of my own, I don't know. It sounds a bit dull to me, but it seriously beats a few mainstream band's names.
And for my final rant, it really bothers me when so many people call any BMW 3 series an M3 when it's not. An M3 is -not- a normal 3 series. If it's an E30 era M3, it's worth about $16k USD at least. It's this super-sporty 3-series with almost all original body panels and a totally different engine. It has a big wing, too. Here's a picture for reference. If it's not an M3, it's not as much the supposedly super-amazing naturally aspirated 4 cylinder RWD piece of elegance on serioids, it's just a 3-series (picture here) that hasn't been tuned to death for racing ability. I just keep seeing people with "M3"s for sale, when it's really a basic 3 series. It's like saying "I have one of the best cars of all time for sale for a fraction of what it's really worth. It isn't really an M3, but I'm calling it one out of ignorance anyways." That bothers me for some reason. Anyways though, a normal 3-series should still be a heck of a good car. The M3 though just sounds like some dream car that almost can't be beat.
This concludes the end of my thought dump. It was pointless, didn't flow, makes me sound dumb, proves my excessive geekiness, and yet somehow, I feel glad that I wrote it. Maybe it makes me a bit more human and less of a convulsive machine. But for that matter, I'm on the internet. I'm a dog for all you know... maybe even your dog. Enough of that though and the delayed good byes, I'm truly going now.
Or am I?
Now I'm just being mean. You know how badly you want this to be over. Your bleeding eyes and presenting a horror film of desolate, lifeless text and it's all sugar coated in red. Or perhaps, you are a nice, patient reader who actually doesn't mind. I guess we will see.
The end.
--Teran
The Quest for a New Car
admin — Sun, 2010-01-17 13:22
Again, I've managed to wait ages before making another post. I'm back at it though, but with a question for all of you. A question, and a request, I guess.
I don't know if I've written about my Celica in this blog or the last blog, but I did write about it on the st162.net forums, here. Basically, things are looking like I'm going to need a car I can really trust soon. Now, my Celica is a great car overall in my mind, but it needs a good bit of work and love to really trust not breaking down on me when it's crucial. My dad is looking for work and might be moving out of state, so it matters a lot more being on my own.
Now I could just put the money spent on a new car into this one, but I want to know if it's worth sticking with. Frankly, for me, I don't think it is. It handles nicely, but it needs new shocks and struts. It's rusty and needs a new paint job. It's a coupe, when I'd rather have the hatchback model. It is reasonably fast though and fairly exciting in general. It is reliable overall, I believe the only time it broke down on me was because of (presumably) years of having a poorly fitting (and probably poorly functioning) fuel filter, due to a clogged injector (I know I can drive on 3 cylinders to where I need to go, but I didn't know as much then and it seemed like the ECU went a bit crazy when the one injector when out and took out 2 more; unfortunately I never reset the ECU).
I'm very familiar with my Celica now, but I think it's time we part paths. She needs a loving home willing to pay in USD for her. I'll do a more thorough (and more honest than I'd like) post for selling the Celica (named Celcia, but I rarely call her that) in a bit.
What I need here is to figure out what car to get next. It turns out, my budget is around $4,000 - $4,500 USD, so reasonable, but not huge.
I'm not super mechanically inclined, but I want to learn and do things myself. I'd like to avoid taking my car to other places as much as possible and do the work myself, so I'm willing to buy tools and what not. I've replaced injectors, drained the fuel tank, replaced engine oil, replaced lightbulbs, rewired injector harnesses, and cleaned spark plugs. Hopefully that gives you a bit of an idea as to how much I know and don't know.
Alright, so here is what I need.
Reluctantly, at the top of the list is reliability. But, this doesn't mean it has to survive 10 days of salt water, fire, and a crazy man with a sledge hammer. I just need it to be reliable in general. I will not trade in every last bit of performance for pure reliability by getting a Mercedes 240D. No way, just no. And since I'll be doing my own work, I want something that is easy to work on (for the most part) and is of a good design. I like simple, but I'm fine if it's not, as long as it's not stupid.
The next things are kind of "minimums" I'd like. I want something under 1,300kg, and about 4.4m long or shorter. I want something that can 0-100km/h (roughly 0-60mph) in 9 seconds at the most (Celica is a touch faster than that, at least is supposed to be). I want something that handles well and doesn't feel like a boat. I want to feel the road and have nice feedback in the steering. I'd like a gas pedal that isn't nothing or all out (that's you, Honda Fit). Based on what I know, I'd like to go RWD this time (Celica is FWD), or maybe AWD (I still consider FWD though). Fuel economy is also important (at 120 km/h or 75mph highway speeds, preferably 7.8l/100km or 30MPG, or better). I'm very interested in tuning a diesel, so that is up there for me. I want something sporty or diesel, but a diesel that could be made sporty (Volkswagen Jetta TDI, for example). Coupe or 3-door hatchback is preferable. I am fine if it's a bit loud and stiff, but I don't want it to break my back and puncture my ear drums. So verging on the uncomfortable side at worst, but not making it untolerable and uncomfortable for long trips.
Here are some other things for me: No traction control, no ABS or ABS that can easily be disabled, and pre-1996 if gasoline (so no OBD-II, and I don't have to do emissions testing in NC, USA).
Things that get bonus points: No power steering, no emissions stuff at all (but a car that old is probably going to be awful), looking decent, and a digital dash (that doesn't look like this).
Rarity is also something that would be nice, but it's a double edged sword. I don't want to look like everyone else, but at the same time, I want okay parts selection, at least. Going for a Toyota Corolla would be great for parts, even 20 years from now. I really want a car I can grow with and work on for a long time. This is a balance here.
And lastly, here are some cars I'm intested in (in no particular order):
Volkswagen:
Rabbit Diesel
Almost any TDI
Corrado
Honda:
Prelude
Del Sol
Toyota:
Corolla
Tercel
MR-2
Celica (maybe, just maybe another one. Would probably have to be a GT-S or GT-4 hatchback model)
Supra
BMW:
Almost any e30 series
Compact, maybe?
Acura:
NSX? :-) A little out of my price range though.
Integra
Nissan:
Sentra
Altima
Mitsubishi:
Starion (this one gets bonus, bonus points)
I'd really appreciate some suggestions or either cars in general, or even cars for sale that you know of. I live in Hendersonville, NC, USA, so cars within 150km (100 miles, rounded up) would be preferable (zip code is 28739).
Thanks for reading,
Teran
I don't know if I've written about my Celica in this blog or the last blog, but I did write about it on the st162.net forums, here. Basically, things are looking like I'm going to need a car I can really trust soon. Now, my Celica is a great car overall in my mind, but it needs a good bit of work and love to really trust not breaking down on me when it's crucial. My dad is looking for work and might be moving out of state, so it matters a lot more being on my own.
Now I could just put the money spent on a new car into this one, but I want to know if it's worth sticking with. Frankly, for me, I don't think it is. It handles nicely, but it needs new shocks and struts. It's rusty and needs a new paint job. It's a coupe, when I'd rather have the hatchback model. It is reasonably fast though and fairly exciting in general. It is reliable overall, I believe the only time it broke down on me was because of (presumably) years of having a poorly fitting (and probably poorly functioning) fuel filter, due to a clogged injector (I know I can drive on 3 cylinders to where I need to go, but I didn't know as much then and it seemed like the ECU went a bit crazy when the one injector when out and took out 2 more; unfortunately I never reset the ECU).
I'm very familiar with my Celica now, but I think it's time we part paths. She needs a loving home willing to pay in USD for her. I'll do a more thorough (and more honest than I'd like) post for selling the Celica (named Celcia, but I rarely call her that) in a bit.
What I need here is to figure out what car to get next. It turns out, my budget is around $4,000 - $4,500 USD, so reasonable, but not huge.
I'm not super mechanically inclined, but I want to learn and do things myself. I'd like to avoid taking my car to other places as much as possible and do the work myself, so I'm willing to buy tools and what not. I've replaced injectors, drained the fuel tank, replaced engine oil, replaced lightbulbs, rewired injector harnesses, and cleaned spark plugs. Hopefully that gives you a bit of an idea as to how much I know and don't know.
Alright, so here is what I need.
Reluctantly, at the top of the list is reliability. But, this doesn't mean it has to survive 10 days of salt water, fire, and a crazy man with a sledge hammer. I just need it to be reliable in general. I will not trade in every last bit of performance for pure reliability by getting a Mercedes 240D. No way, just no. And since I'll be doing my own work, I want something that is easy to work on (for the most part) and is of a good design. I like simple, but I'm fine if it's not, as long as it's not stupid.
The next things are kind of "minimums" I'd like. I want something under 1,300kg, and about 4.4m long or shorter. I want something that can 0-100km/h (roughly 0-60mph) in 9 seconds at the most (Celica is a touch faster than that, at least is supposed to be). I want something that handles well and doesn't feel like a boat. I want to feel the road and have nice feedback in the steering. I'd like a gas pedal that isn't nothing or all out (that's you, Honda Fit). Based on what I know, I'd like to go RWD this time (Celica is FWD), or maybe AWD (I still consider FWD though). Fuel economy is also important (at 120 km/h or 75mph highway speeds, preferably 7.8l/100km or 30MPG, or better). I'm very interested in tuning a diesel, so that is up there for me. I want something sporty or diesel, but a diesel that could be made sporty (Volkswagen Jetta TDI, for example). Coupe or 3-door hatchback is preferable. I am fine if it's a bit loud and stiff, but I don't want it to break my back and puncture my ear drums. So verging on the uncomfortable side at worst, but not making it untolerable and uncomfortable for long trips.
Here are some other things for me: No traction control, no ABS or ABS that can easily be disabled, and pre-1996 if gasoline (so no OBD-II, and I don't have to do emissions testing in NC, USA).
Things that get bonus points: No power steering, no emissions stuff at all (but a car that old is probably going to be awful), looking decent, and a digital dash (that doesn't look like this).
Rarity is also something that would be nice, but it's a double edged sword. I don't want to look like everyone else, but at the same time, I want okay parts selection, at least. Going for a Toyota Corolla would be great for parts, even 20 years from now. I really want a car I can grow with and work on for a long time. This is a balance here.
And lastly, here are some cars I'm intested in (in no particular order):
Volkswagen:
Rabbit Diesel
Almost any TDI
Corrado
Honda:
Prelude
Del Sol
Toyota:
Corolla
Tercel
MR-2
Celica (maybe, just maybe another one. Would probably have to be a GT-S or GT-4 hatchback model)
Supra
BMW:
Almost any e30 series
Compact, maybe?
Acura:
NSX? :-) A little out of my price range though.
Integra
Nissan:
Sentra
Altima
Mitsubishi:
Starion (this one gets bonus, bonus points)
I'd really appreciate some suggestions or either cars in general, or even cars for sale that you know of. I live in Hendersonville, NC, USA, so cars within 150km (100 miles, rounded up) would be preferable (zip code is 28739).
Thanks for reading,
Teran
Icadyptes is BFS'ified, Tri-folds at HLB Studios
admin — Sun, 2009-10-11 00:34
Sorry for such a short (and belated) post, but at least I've got something. Icadyptes is BFS'ified, and you can read about it on the Icadyptes' blog. And, we've got some awesome tri-folds at HLB Studios now (see the blog post, if you are interested).
My mind has been on the topic of dates and times a lot lately. I'm wondering about how using a world-wide timezone would work, and whether a decimalized time system would be good. I'm so glad I have Heather to keep me at least a little sane. What is also impressive though, is that she's sane, balanced, and yet can dabble in the most insane things where my mind lives. Except, she balances it out, never goes insane, and figures things out perfectly. Heather is amazing :-). I love her so much.
Enough for now. Anyone care to write a comment though? :-)
--Teran
My mind has been on the topic of dates and times a lot lately. I'm wondering about how using a world-wide timezone would work, and whether a decimalized time system would be good. I'm so glad I have Heather to keep me at least a little sane. What is also impressive though, is that she's sane, balanced, and yet can dabble in the most insane things where my mind lives. Except, she balances it out, never goes insane, and figures things out perfectly. Heather is amazing :-). I love her so much.
Enough for now. Anyone care to write a comment though? :-)
--Teran