Chrysalis

It's still alive!

I am in one of those calm-before-the-storm, pre-rain-smell type, tingling anticipatory stages that come around every few years. You know, when your life is about to make a hard turn, but you don't know yet if it will be left or right.

Just a few more weeks before I receive my new map. As a result, nothing much just now, but Stay Tuned...

Rawlings Roars

The president of my alma mater just used his annual state address to attack intelligent design, and to encourage universities to take a more actively offensive stance against it. I liked Hunter Rawlings a lot during my undergrad days (although I liked his short-lived successor, Jeffrey Lehman, even more), and it's nice to see that he's not simply lying down in his temporary role.

Of course, it helps that I think ID is a load of BS, and here's why. I particularly like the quote from Douglas Adams in this article:

. . imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in. It fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well. It must have been made to have me in it!'

Heh, I LOLed on that one...

Appreciate

Check out the video for Fort Minor - Remember the Name:

Fort Minor's MySpace Page

From Mike Shinoda's (of Linkin Park) upcoming solo project, Fort Minor. This track is sick, yo. (The website also kicks some major ass. The page transitions are brilliant.)

Tech Rec: Google Reader

I am somewhat of a technogeek, which causes me to compulsively check out new apps/programs in raging fits of ecstacy.

Lately, I've been trying out the nifty Google Reader. This is the big G's version of an RSS reader, an application that allows one to efficiently peruse blogs, news, and any other websites that support RSS feeds. RSS readers automatically collect headlines and brief snippets from new articles/entries as they are published, saving you the headache of manually clicking through every single blog or site on your reading list -- you just scan the titles and summaries, and read only what you want.

Firefox has built-in support for RSS feeds, and there are various programs that can be downloaded for the same purpose, but Google's reader, like nearly all their apps, is completely web-based. Also like nearly all their apps, it is quite elegant. The reader is still in beta, but despite the very seldom sluggishness and a few awkward features, I recommend using it if you have a long reading list of blogs and news websites. (One caveat: you must have a Gmail account to sign up.)

Note that Xanga does not support RSS -- not a big deal, unless you keep up with the lives of ghetto pre-teen Asians...

Corporate Nonsense Kills My Pics

Funny how on the day I decide to finally update my blog, this happens. My blog header and profile pic are both hosted by Photobucket, which runs on Cogent, while my ISP (Time Warner cable) runs on Level(3). This means that I get no access to Photobucket, and neither does anyone else connecting through Level(3), until the disagreement is resolved or Photobucket opens up shop on another peer. Ugh.

I knew a handful of companies basically controlled the internet, but I never thought that disagreements between them would result in a complete blocking of traffic between backbone peers. These guys could shut down the whole 'net someday!

EDIT: They're back!!