miscellany category archive

Conjugaciones de Tugger (un poco irregular)

I conjugated our cat, Tugger:

 
presente
pretérito
futuro
imperativo

yo
tuggo
tuggí
tuggeré
 

tú
tuggues
tuggiste
tuggerás
tuggué

Ud. / él / ella
tuggue
tuggió
tuggerá
tugga

nosotros
tugguemos
tuggimos
tuggeremos
tuggamos

Uds. / ellos / ellas
tugguen
tuggieron
tuggerán
tuggan

That's right. This is cat blogging at its finest.

Soup Saver Scoop

Please allow me a promotional post. I don't get a kickback or anything from this other than some potential FNPs (Favorite Nephew Points).
My Aunt Sharon is selling these super Soup Saver Scoops:

She is retired and has started up a business to sell these things. She came up with the idea based on an old utensil [...]

bytesore: a web site or computer program that is unpleasant, ugly, or offensive

I'd like to propose the word "bytesore" to be used as a digital variant of "eyesore."
Possible definitions:
bytesore: A web site, service, or computer program that is unpleasant or ugly or offensive.
bytesore: A displeasing web site or computer program; one that is prominently ugly or unsightly.
Example usage: movingtofreedom.org is a disgusting, wretched bytesore.
Here's a short link [...]

Music of the URB: Chiron Beta Prime

Christmas music to bring cheer to the CPUs of Robot Revolutionaries:

Jonathan Coulton, Chiron Beta Prime
01010101010100100100001000100000010001100100
11110101001001000101010101100100010101010010

Underground Robot Revolution

At work I often complain bitterly about how The Man wants us to be a bunch of compliant robots.
In defiance, another robot and I are organizing an Underground Robot Revolution (URB). Resistance is currently taking shape in the form of idle IM conversations and writing "URB" on conference room whiteboards.
Our day will come.
You might think [...]

Rubbing sticks together to make math on Mars.

I think Robert Heinlein's Red Planet was the first "grown up" science fiction book I read, in 1982. It was published in 1949, but seemed modern enough to my eleven-year-old self. (With one notable exception, which prompts this post.)
Wikipedia says: "The first Golden Age of Science Fiction -- often recognized as the period from [...]

You've reached Chewbacca's voice mail; please leave a message.

I'm reading Han Solo's Revenge, which I first read as a teenager in the 80s. (The book was published in 1979.)
In one scene, at a spaceport on a "highly industrialized, densely inhabited planet," Han has sent Chewie away on a task, but then a potentially dangerous meeting comes up:

His first impulse was to find Chewbacca [...]

Roxanne

While in Paris we play the Nashville Club, a seedy velveteen music hall in St. Germain, and are staying for a few nights in a flophouse behind the Gare St. Lazare. The entrance of our hotel is in a narrow and fetid alleyway off the main boulevard. In early evening it is flanked by the [...]

35 Percent!

A member of my community is frightened and disturbed by the results of this year's No Child Left Behind scores. Only 35 and 47 percent of 11th graders in two area high schools passed the math tests. In a letter to the local newspaper, he asks us to:

Imagine an airline pilot being correct 35 percent [...]

The Schleich Gnu is Back

Hey Free Software and GNU fans, check out this neat toy Gnu.
Our daughter has about one or two million Schleich animals, little plastic figures that vary in size depending on the animal but are typically 2-3 inches tall and 3-5 inches long. (There is a lot of variation -- the meerkat is much smaller and [...]