Silliness, or, not so much. [Sun Apr 3, 2005 — 21:19] [ mood | tired ] Jung Explorer Test Actualized type: INTP (who you are) INTP – “Architect”. Greatest precision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 3.3% of total population. Preferred type: ISTP (who you prefer to be) ISTP – “Engineer”. Values freedom of action and following interests and impulses. Independent, concise in speech, master of tools. 5.4% of total population. Attraction type: INTP (who you are attracted to) INTP – “Architect”. Greatest precision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 3.3% of total population. Take Jung Explorer Test personality tests by similarminds.com Interesting. I had not previously paid much attention to the ISTP type. I would not exactly say that is my preferred type, as I am quite content on the whole with who I am, but it certainly is the type closest to my INTP self which addresses those of my traits I lament as weaknesses. PS.: real update supposed to follow at some point. I’ve been meaning to write one for a couple days (really meaning; besides less meaning to for more like weeks already). ruminate among 9 others

PSA: drink enough water, eat enough salt. [Tue Mar 29, 2005 — 04:49] [ mood | curious ] [Update (originally written on 2004-12-29 16:09:00): Snopes tears down the 8-glass-a-day rule.] I'm intrigued. I was listening to the radio in the car just a few minutes ago, to a programme about nutritional habits. Someone called in and asked about the common advice to drink lots, at least 2 litres (half a gallon) a day. The most striking thing the nutrioner said was that he considered advising people to drink when they're not thirsty to be about as intelligent as telling them to go to the bathroom even if they don't have an urge to urinate. He went on to explain that elder folk in particular can be sensitive to dehydration. Giving them more to drink, therefore, would easily improve these people's well being. However, we cannot simply conclude from this that drinking more is automatically healthier. In fact, dehydration is much less problematic in practice than over-hydration has shown to be — small children are frequent victims of water poisoning (“hyponatremia”). This is already an important issue in America and a growing trend over here in Germany. He explained further that low-salt nutrition is a cause for dehydration among elder folk; if you don't consume much salt, you won't get very thirsty, and consequently your water intake might drop too far. Trying to countersteer against dehydration is particularly pernicious for the elder though, because a low amount of salt in the body lowers the threshold for hyponatremia. Contrary to popular belief, salt does not increase blood pressure for most people. In half the minority among test persons whose blood pressure reacted to salt intake, it actually lowered their pressure; so it should not be considered to have an effect on pressure at all. The harmful effects of a lack of salt go beyond diminished thirst though: the cholesterol levels of test persons clearly increased with low salt intake. So his advice was: make sure you get enough salt to keep your thirst drive intact, and drink as thirst dictates. Drink a little more if you want to, but stay clear of flooding your body just because. As an aside: listening to this guy explain the multiply interconnected effects of various nutrional choices makes me think that would be as interesting a field to investigate as any. I may have to look up some literature… ruminate among 2 others

Zzzzzzzzap. [Fri Mar 25, 2005 — 21:02] [ mood | accomplished ] Knocking the count of unread items in my newsreader down by over 300 entries in half a day is a good feeling. Mostly this was accomplished with the POWER of the inimitable delete this feed button. Ah, purging. ruminate

Guh, nnngh. [Thu Mar 24, 2005 — 14:07] [ mood | grumpy ] I went to bed at 6:00 this morning. Between 10:00 and 13:00 I was woken four times. I have the biggest headache ever. ruminate

Flashbang. [Wed Mar 23, 2005 — 13:45] [ mood | contemplative ] Last night as I was minding my business, the screen flashed and went out. The computer‘s power supply had died. Its fan had died months ago, actually, but I took the cover off the case to keep the power supply from overheating and it kept going. Maybe the fact that the weather recently got warmer was the last straw, or maybe things just came to a head. I am still kind of miffed because this PSU only lasted 1.5 years, and before the previous one, I had never had one die on me. (Nor, btw, have I ever had any harddisk crash on me.) In the twinkling of an eye, I was cut off from my files and from the ‘net, deaf and blind to cyberspace1. It was an enlightening experience. Having no computer to occupy myself with all of a sudden was… unusual. I don‘t have a problem finding other things to do, and I don‘t exactly consider myself computer addicted: the computer is just a necessary means to many other ends I am interested in. Nevertheless, a lot of my reflexes revolve around it at this point. I was rather amused to observe them trigger to no avail, though somewhat bothered by their sheer number. I also found my suspicion that having a computer available reduces my patience in gathering and consuming information confirmed: without its presence, reading attains a very different quality. I was tempted to maintain this state of affairs. Unfortunately, there is work to do (more on work later), so this morning I went out and purchased a new supply. I was surprised how much cheaper those have gotten in the space of under two years. 1 Goodness how I hate that word. ruminate among 4 others

For warm fuzzies, please enter the blast furnace. [Sun Mar 20, 2005 — 02:58] [ mood | amused ] [ music | Spicelab – We Got Spice (Part 1-4) ] Says bodyfour about a screenscaver that scrolls by the latest public LiveJournal posts as they’re made: It’s even better when it comes on the internet kiosks at the bar… “wow, I’m drunk and these people are still unbearable.” Plus there’s something oh so karmically correct about a group of us drunk assholes pointing and laughing at some 14-year-old complaining about the cold, uncaring world. The internet has heard your prayer and chosen to mock you. ruminate

What the hell, people. [Wed Mar 16, 2005 — 04:20] [ mood | amused ] I am so lethargic! Sunday at school sucked. Monday at work I got in a huge fight with superluser. What sucks is that Thursday was my birthday and nobody noticed or gave me presents or wished me happy birthday :-(. I don't know why victorsmonster went all psycho over me and scirillo having a little fun. Oh and everybody has asked why I'm leaving the goth community but the answer is simple: Some of you know who you are and why I'm leaving FOREVAR. Hey and know what? it's so not fair that I have this morning off but nobody wants to do anything :-(. I'll just sit home alone and write poems about death. I am so listless! I was supposed to get together with january_dove and est_xplosif Tuesday but I don't want to anymore. I'm so tired of seeing the same people. Oh yeah. billazilla added another meme to their journal. GOD I HATE THAT!!!1!one! Why does jul3s keep posting images in their journal?! I keep telling them I'm on a modem! I'm going to unfriend them to teach them a lesson!!!!!!!!!! jul3s said they wanted to go to the movies but they changed their mind :-(. Oh yeah. djkim told me that thedee told folks that they saw me talking to highlearn and dissing on january_dove. If I get my hands on them I'm gonna kick some heads! And also that bitch scirillo gone and said that they saw me talking crap about qcjeph. If I get my hands on them there's paybacks! This entry automatically generated by the LJ Drama Generator! ruminate among 1 other

Eat your heart out! [Tue Mar 15, 2005 — 21:54] [ mood | excited ] I just found the video section on STYLE2OUF and the less impressive breakdancing category at MilkandCookies. Videos galore! Sometimes this broadband thing is really worth it. ruminate

Dreams. [Tue Mar 15, 2005 — 21:50] [ mood | tired ] How can you people who remember them a lot stand it? It took me three hours to recover from the stress after I woke up from my nap this afternoon. ruminate among 2 others

The worst part about skipping sleep: [Wed Mar 2, 2005 — 14:37] [ mood | tired ] That every so often my eyeballs burst out in flames and I have to wash them to put out the fire. Closing them is so soothing. They want me to close them so bad. They're crying out to me; compelling me; luring me with sweet sweet darkness. Not yet. I can't. Oh, and I get cold. As if my body's sleeping, even if my brain won't. ruminate among 6 others

Nihilistic bullshit. [Sat Feb 26, 2005 — 15:52] [ mood | pessimistic ] From an unnamed IRC channel. <edgewalker> you kiwis are remarkably sensible: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=3600794 <kinko> edgewalker: but if people are allowed to use metal cutlery, then the terrorists have won! <edgewalker> kinko: how about we ban passengers and cargo from planes. that will solve all security problems <greig> yep <greig> and we make “pilot” a treasonous career, punishable by DEATH! <greig> furthermore, I propose we declare aerial travel to be “against god” <edgewalker> “If God had wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings!” <greig> that's right <greig> it's the Only Right Way <edgewalker> none of that frivolous wheel business either * greig runs for US President <edgewalker> God's Children have legs to walk <greig> edgewalker: wanna be my VP? <edgewalker> it would be my greatest pleasure to serve His interests, greig <greig> lol <greig> if we find any non Right Thinking individuals, you can be in charge of “refactoring” their minds. <edgewalker> so shall I do <edgewalker> and should the Lord so demand, I shall demurely refactor away their existence <greig> hahahaha <greig> :) <greig> wouldn't it be hilarious if in, say 40 years time, a group of Iraqi special forces went in to the US, and removed their insane dictator with the full backing of the rest of the world? :) <edgewalker> if it were possible to laugh about that kind of thing, it would be <greig> well, I believe the human race will annihilate itself well before then anyway. <edgewalker> that might happen (I don't see it as unrealistic), but I doubt it will matter either way — since I feel it's quite certain we won't manage to get pollution sufficiently under control in due time <greig> agreed <edgewalker> there is various evidence for a number of global temperature regulating processes that once unsettled far enough, rather than swinging back if only the destabilizing force is removed, they will actually tip over into a feedback loop we won't be able to stop <edgewalker> look up “methane hydrate” as an example <edgewalker> in other words, we don't have an indefinite amount of time to get our act together and noone knows how short the time window really is <greig> it'd be scary if I didn't think we as a species deserve it <edgewalker> yeah. you know, it kind of gives me a resigned peace to know that earth, and nature, has seen such violent changes before — like the meteor that eradicated the dinosaurs —, but life has always found a way on <edgewalker> maybe next try** will work better…… ruminate

Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! [Fri Feb 18, 2005 — 11:11] [ mood | geeky ] So there's a list of the ten geekiest hobbies (complete with geekiness factor and amount of damage to sex life) published by the Wave Magazine. And with a certain relief I see I don't really qualify for any of those on the list. Granted, I have a certain Star Wars habit. I have read a lot of Star Wars books, I occasionally argue about it on the intarweb or bash on Star Trek (did you notice that it is geekier and incurs a much higher damage on sex life according to the list?) for being an abomination, and I gripe and whine about the even more horrible abomination that is the prequel episodes. But that is almost entirely willful, never born of an uncontrollable urge. In any case I wouldn't dream to dress up like a Star Wars character: that's just lame. Although I might not be able to resist an actual lightsabre fight… even as I console myself with the thought that I would not do that unless the faux blades were sturdy enough that it could and would actually be a fight, rather than just acting as if. But then, who could resist that? ruminate

A jolly jostling egg. [Thu Feb 17, 2005 — 05:17] [ mood | pensive ] One day I'm going to buy a bigger desk. I just spent a good half hour playing with an egg timer. It's the type that's actually shaped like an egg, with the very bottom cut flat, where the upper and lower half are separate and you turn them against each other to set the timer. The bottom half is metal, and it's the part that actually rings when time is up. The clockwork is in the metalic half, but of course separate from the bell so it can actually ring, so the barycentre is just below the widest part of the “egg.” This conglomerate makes for an interesting set of properties when you spin or flick it. The unstable, slightly top-heavy position of the barycentre makes the egg shaped whole rock and wobble like an overdrawn carricature of a stumbling drunk. The bell chirps and warbles as the timer swings and dips. The long distance from barycentre to the top makes for a pretty long lever that prevents the egg from settling quickly and can even drag it into horizontal orientation when spinning fast. The flat cut bottom erratically pulls and sways the timer as it rolls. Watching it go after giving it a spin is rather fascinating. The egg is helplessly kept in motion by several forces at odds with each other, seesawing hither and yon. Sometimes it dips down again for another while after you thought it was about to stand still upright. You can never tell exactly what is going to happen next, even though you can clearly watch the momentum decline. Most of the trajectories it takes are circular to an extent, but occasionally it goes in straight lines as well. Ususally, a touch down of the flat cut bottom will eventually cost so much energy that it forces a very quick decay to an upright standstill onto the dance. It overrides all other forces. Sometimes, though, very occasionally, the edge of that very cut will present a resistance that keeps the timer in a slant. It struck me as a very apt metaphor for life itself. Unfortunately, my desk is only so large, and there are several other things on it, so the most daring careening dances are usually abruptly cut short by a smack into the pencil case or my cordless phone or the wristwatch. You can't always tell that it's going to happen: sometimes the dancer is a good distance away from any obstacle before an unforseen wallop sends it whacking into an obstruction. It usually vainly keeps spinning for a short while, but all the fervour is gone and things come to end very soon. One day I'm going to buy a bigger desk. ruminate among 2 others

Narcolepsy on all fronts. [Sun Feb 13, 2005 — 17:39] [ mood | tired ] Yesterday I slept 7:00-18:30 and 21:30-0:30. Today I slept 6:00-16:30. 25 hours sleep in two days. Considering how often I was woken way too soon last week, not bad. Work on the hospital job I had to finish when I was writing my last real update two weeks ago has been asleep too. The colleague almost took my head off a couple times over it, rightfully so in fact. I did end up spending an evening overhauling the existing code a few days ago, but none of the new functionality demanded months ago is in yet. Tonight I must finish that. I took this two weeks worth of job last June… But it's going away tonight. And then I can finally get down to boogie with my application for the governed internship. ruminate among 3 others

Intellectual detox. [Mon Feb 7, 2005 — 13:57] [ mood | thoughtful ] In What You'll Wish You'd Known, Paul Graham writes: The key to wasting time is distraction. Without distractions it's too obvious to your brain that you're not doing anything with it, and you start to feel uncomfortable. If you want to measure how dependent you've become on distractions, try this experiment: set aside a chunk of time on a weekend and sit alone and think. You can have a notebook to write your thoughts down in, but nothing else: no friends, TV, music, phone, IM, email, Web, games, books, newspapers, or magazines. Within an hour most people will feel a strong craving for distraction. I think I shall try to make that a habit: spend a few hours with nothing but a notebook and a pen every so often. I'm not sure how often and how long that should be; that's what I'll have to find out. ruminate among 4 others

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