Text Dump

That last entry was a draft from ten years ago that was probably more pithy in the era of "don't ask, don't tell" but I'm aiming to reboot my daily writing routine.  Eventually, I'll improve if not my skills at least my inertia for writing. While teaching math in Abu Dhabi, I had a lot of spare time to write. I co-led a writing group where we shared short pieces mostly for motivation to write. When I switched to teaching computer science (multimedia / HCI) my spare time and creative energy got diverted into the bottomless pit of changing tech.  Perhaps now, I'll be better able to balance my tech pursuits with writing (and perhaps a designing a new balloon from time to time).

This blog was one of my first foray into the then new world of Web 2.0.  Later, I came up with my youtube account theAmatour which was also a symbolic way to remind myself to aim for less than perfection and keep things amateurish so as not to get inhibited from hitting the submit button.  The channel had a few popular videos but me most of my videos served as a way for me to remember and reproduce my more sophisticated 3D balloon constructions patterns. I did create some videos with a classroom audience in mind. These videos are still kicking around whereas many of my other digital artefacts are lost since I ended up switching platforms many times and losing servers and web services over time. In keeping with my goal of hitting submit with partially completed works, I spent a lot of times working with wikis. I made a number of wiki's first with wikimedia, then with Tiddlywiki, and then with Wikispaces. Being a pro-tech guy, I can overcome any interface or representation.  But I ended up with Wikispaces because I was using it for my classes, which were populated with less tech savvy individuals (also getting control of a server can be tricky depending on the organisation you work with).  Unfortunately for me, Wikispaces died.  Right now I am on the hunt for a suitable to replacement.  But it's possible I may have to make some transition away from a keyboard-centric medium (I loved the formatting aspects of wikitext mostly because I like the option of generating content algorithmically).  I'll let you know what I end up with.

Currently, I have devolved to an old intel core i3 Acer laptop running Ubunto. I going to try to curate a few of my resources on it before I put them to my extremely limiting freehostia site jimmorey.com. I love my chromebook but I have had issues with permanence using it (actually my previous chromebook in a developer mode) as well as the constant pull of casual Android games.  My current set up is a big screen with a Roccat Suora FX --a serious led-bedazzled update from my VolkerCraig VC4404 terminal keyboard which has trained me to type like an angry atonal Xylophonist, a habit worse than my nail biting. RSI here I come.

I'm toying with the idea of creating a section in jimmorey.com called something like pithycode where I will highlight tight code examples that will demonstrate small piece that I developed out of need or ran across while looking for something I wanted.  The goal is to excise only the required code for a simple task rather than seeing within the a mess of code. That way it can easily be repurposed...in theory anyway.

Don't fart. Don't smell.

I was in the army for a number of years--that's why I hadn't blogged in a while. Everything was going well then they put in a new rule: "Don't fart. Don't smell." That was the end of me. I tried to hide my farts for a while but there comes a time when you can't explain away the explosiveness on gunfire, wild pigs, computer viruses, squeaky grenade launchers, defective iPods playing African throat music, spontaneous rodent combustion, march gas, ball lightning, or the Doppler effect. It really got to the point where my comrades in arms would preventatively wear smelling salts creams under their noses or hazmat suits under the pretense that there was a rumour of a possible chemical attack.

Probably every thing would be still be fine had it not be for the repopularised fondu craze that swept the base. With hindsight, I probably should not have suggested the brown bean-cabbage-cheese fondue. To make a long story short, I think I'll stick with chocolate fondues.

The inquest concluded that the fire took the lives of 24 soldiers was caused by gastrointestinal event of unprecedented magnitude. As the sole survivor present at ground zero, I was intensely questioned and examined. Unfortunate rigour coupled with a breakfast burrito and a Bunsen burner, resulted in the consequent deaths of two non-military lab techs. Officially, all the deaths were written up as friendly fire. Unofficially, I was given a choice of either working in dietary weapons development or take a quiet retirement from the army and take up residence in the well ventilated sparsely populated north.

Currently, I'll looking into electric fondue sets and doing some self medicating--mega-doses of Rogaine on my backside...it's cold up north.