Author: Kevin Riggle

Two radically different sets of links:

I found today's Penny Arcade strip funny, just because. Actually, I found it blindingly hilarious.

The Reader's Bill of Rights, because I've wondered the same thing, and often remarked that the literature classes seem designed to make people HATE reading, which is sad. It gives lie to the cult of "A Novel." I'm printing it out and hanging it somewhere prominent. (The essay which linked it.) I love books, but (by in large) I hate Literature. Maybe that's why I'm a SF-fantasy guy.

Two different solutions to UNIX-on-Windows, and therefore mancala on Windows: MinGW and UnixUtils, not counting Microsoft's latest, the confusingly-named Services For UNIX. Slashdot is abuzz.

Hmm… that's a nice mix of totally incompatible things, if I may be so bold.

It's Random Quote Day!

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
— "Conclusion" to Walden, Henry David Thoreau

"I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it."
Google turned this up, among others. I believe it may have begun life on a t-shirt. (isn't there a quote about that?)

Ah, but the choice of dreams to live,
there's the rub.
For all dreams are not equal,
some exit to nightmare
most end with the dreamer
But at least one must be lived … and died.
— The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem

(I heart Google.) Googling for a certain fortune quote turned it up, plus others:

"A deep, unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something."

"To understand recursion, we must first understand recursion." (computer geek humor)

"My religious beliefs lie somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball — pamphlet?"

"Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing."
— Wernher von Braun

quoth: here and here. Dang I miss my middle mouse button copy and paste.

Researching a quote for a scholarship essay is bloody dangerous, I tell you!

headache, dangit.

i'm typing in all lowercase today because CAPITALS (ow) hurt my brain. 😉

not much of note, kind of a boring day. too many videos at school — i only have two classes i care about (heh), and we're watching videos in both of them. it's very hard to do graphics programming on a shell account at SDF, since i cant really compile anything or test my changes out. i've been doing most of it at home.

oh, and the latest megatokyo comic is t3h phunny.

Today is a TODO kind of day:

(no particular order)
– Des Moines Register Academic All-State application
– FAFSA
– MENSA scholarship application
– Thrivent scholarship application
– GMFCU scholarship application
– other scholarship applications
– Christmas thank-you notes
– Mancala hacking
– practice piano for Festival (yaah!)

…will edit this post as more come to mind…

[sigh] YAAAAH! [sigh] YAAAAH! [sigh] …

'Twas an interesting but aggravating day. I spent four hours in my car, a couple hours stocking children's shoes and looking bored, two hours picking out Christmas gifts, and a good six at work.. I need to detox.

I'll spare you the story of my sister's and my misadventures in navigating Sioux City. Suffice to say that I am a country driver, and it shows. Kind of unusual to see an SUV yielding to a tiny Ford Escort, but welcome nonetheless. Thanks to all the Sioux City drivers who could have killed me or flicked me off, and didn't.

Finished all my Christmas shopping, and actually started planning for upcoming birthdays. Some members of the family are harder to shop for than others, and I need all the head start I can get.

Hmm… definitely time for bed. My eyelids are drooooooopy. [sign off]