direclown:

direclown:

Earlier today, we had a birthday party for one of the women that works in my office (she describes her position as "the Everything Department"). Regardless, while we were out to lunch, somehow the conversation turned to Twitter (and Social Bookmarking in general).

Since this is supposed to be my "specialty," some of the older employees turned to me and asked how Twitter (and other Social Bookmarking tools) worked. I know most of the basics of how Twitter works, although I'm still learning a few of the finer nuances. So I explained, as best I could, the concept of "micro-blogging," but still I couldn't seem to get across the point.

It seems to me that in an age of rapidly growing technology, there are so many different websites, programs, and gadgets that it's difficult to keep up with them all. As I understand it, the idea behind Twitter is to share interesting things that you come across, or that are going on in your life, with your friends and/or network.

The main reason I joined it in the first place was to promote my Associated Content work. More recently, I created a Twitter group for GCSS, the company for which I'm currently working outside the house. While my co-workers thought this was a good idea, they were unsure as to how exactly it might benefit us. I thought of it as an experiment, basically...I keep working on ways to expand the number of people we serve, and if Twitter helps, then why not do it?

We also have a "Cause" on Facebook, and while it has quite a few members, most have not been active in quite awhile. What I've begun doing is getting back in touch with the inactive members, and trying to recruit new ones. I also donated some money to the cause, which hadn't happened in quite awhile.

Although I know most of you may not know someone with a developmental disability, I would love it if you could join the Cause anyway, and let me know if you find any interesting related links and such.

The more you know...

khyros:
Remember Remember, the 5th of November
Capacitor, in dreams, it came.
One man in his thinking,
Made it all blinking,
And naught was e'er the same.
Doc Brown, Doc Brown, while in his prime,
Conceived of how one would travel time.
From Libyans he stole Plutonium,
Then sent to see what dreams may come;
Marty went back, and he was saved
with a kevlar vest, the attack he braved.
Great Scott boys, Great Scott boys, Gigawatts of power!
Great Scott boys, Great Scott boys, Save the clock tower!

-An Original Parody by khyros, inspired By oduinn

cerulean_sky:

I promised pictures from Halloween, and this time I actually made pictures happen. Thus, I present to you: ( Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn )

oduinn:
On this day in 1955 Doctor Emmet Brown slipped while hanging a clock and hit his head on a toilet, knocking himself unconscious.

While unconscious he had a dream; a dream of the Flux Capacitor - the device that makes time travel possible.

It did not involve Gunpowder.

lskull86:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I see no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's mercy he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A fagot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah hoorah!

lux_alexander:
This is the second year in a row this is being posted the evening of a fantastic day - last year, Obama won, this year, the Yankees won.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A fagot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah hoorah!

ilyat:

Mermaids? √Check.
Trolls? √Check.
Eagles? √Check.
Dragons? √Check.
Dark knights? √Check.
Space ships? √Check.
Mutant seahorses? √Check.
Blood? √Check.
Dismemberment? √Check.
Death? √Check.
Death riding on eagles fighting dark knights on dragons in outer space? √Check.
Body bag? √Check.
Metal? √Check.


Just got back from the Dethklok/Mastodon show in Norfolk. And I have to say --- IT WAS BRUTAL. Pretty amazing, and I was quite pleased at how they merged both music video/animated band members doing things on screen with the actual musicians playing on stage below. The way that the set was broken down into 3-4 songs between brief intermissions worked well; during those breaks, Bones would talk to all the Dethklok fans or there'd be animated clips of the band doing stupid stuff. And the actual band members themselves? Damn, but they're amazing to watch live.

Oh, and Mastodon was also incredible. I'm going to have to start listening to more of their stuff, now.

I know that the tour is still going on. If they're going to be playing anywhere near you, I highly recommend snagging a ticket. My only complaint was that I forgot to bring my earplugs (again). Oops. My bad. Other than that? A+++ Would buy from again.

---

Original entry at http://ilyat.dreamwidth.org/301635.html with comment(s).

direclown:

Hey, do any of you guys or gals happen to be familiar with Java/Javascript? It's something I've been wanting to learn somewhat, because I thought it would look great on my resume.

I also have been doing some basic web design for my own writing/creative sites, and I figure the more I know, the better.

Actually, at my current job (although this is unrelated to programming), I've been learning a great amount about Social Bookmarking (e.g. Twitter, Delicious, Digg, etc.). These sites definitely seem to be at the front of today's marketing...and I've been getting some technological lessons on how to best use these services.

I know a bit of HTML too, although I know markup languages are different. It's been helpful to me thus far has been in blogging, writing on Associated Content, and occasionally troubleshooting other people's websites (but that's rare). And back in the day, I loved using QBASIC, although that's certainly outdated now. It did, however, give me an intro to programming, and that's stayed with me.

What brought this to mind was the fact that I was talking to the IT expert at my job yesterday, and I was just watching him edit our website to create a feed for whenever I published one of our blog entries. Though I couldn't follow everything he was doing, I had the basic idea, and wanted to learn more.

Maybe one of you computer whizzes out there could just give me some little tutorials sometime? o<I:O)

jawberry:
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

jenblue:

Fortunately for me I scheduled this weekend off work to pursue social engagements. Unfortunately for me, I started exhibiting flu symptoms late Thursday night and spent most of Friday and Saturday in perpetual sore-throat-mucus-body-agony purgatory.

Particularly unfortunately, this precluded me going to the Emilie Autumn concert on Halloween. :(

Back to the fortunate side of things, I'm feeling significantly better, though not yet shiny.

Back to unfortunate, I only got an hour of sleep today before work.

Blah?

direclown:
OffbeatBride.Com: For Those Who Love "Wedding Porn"
Don't let the subtitle mislead you. Offbeat Bride, maintained by author Ariel Meadow Stallings, is the perfect site for those who cringe at the word "traditional." The site is part-blog, part-advice column, and part-bookstore.
Read More

cerulean_sky:

Guys, I've gone crazy. Round the bend. Off the deep end. Past the point of no return.

I'm going to really try NaNoWriMo this year.

Now either, my new-found school work ethic will allow me to succeed this year, or the work of school will drown me and I will completely forget that I ever had dreams of writing novels.

So hoping for the former.

+++

Oh, P.S. For the next month and a half my boyfriend and I are the same age. Happy birthday, baby. ♥

ETA: P.P.S. Also. There's this contest over here at fangs_fur_fey which could win you a Kindle. The chances might be small, but it's a Kindle. So it's totally worth trying.

ilyat:

I'm preeeetty sure that I will not be making any serious attempt at NaNo this year. However, if I do end up somehow acquiring a wild hair, the username is (once again) khelil.


Now to go out and see what this festival in my park is all about.

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Original entry at http://ilyat.dreamwidth.org/301538.html with comment(s).

striderhlc:
I had a friend in college who, in his Sophmore year, was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes. Every month, he would head out to the local pharmacy to pick up test strips and insulin, which were covered in New York- which, at the time, was one of the three or four states in the US where private insurers were required to pay for them. Every month, his insurance company would try to deny him coverage, despite the fact that they were legally required to pay.

Why did this happen? Diabetics who take care of themselves have a long life expectancy. They live for years, and need expensive test strips and insulin every month, which will cost more than you can recoup from them in premiums.

It is more cost-effective to let diabetics die.

This is the problem with our current healthcare system. While I am all for a (regulated) free market in many contexts, one must remember that big business exists for only one reason, and that reason is not to make the country a better place or to help people or to prevent illness- it is to make money. The right thing to do where health is concerned isn't always cost-effective.

We need a single-payer system. Barring that, we need a system where insurers are nonprofits and/or tightly-regulated. Will this be a magic bullet that solves all of the country's healthcare problems? No, of course not- but I have no doubt that it will be improvement. The half-assed approach we have now is bad for everyone except the insurance companies, and the sooner we get rid of it, the better.

- HC

ilyat:

neogeen just alerted me to this:

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/gprojector/

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has made available G.Projector, a free program that is designed to make working with different types of maps very easy. To use it, all that you have to do is import a global equirectangular map image into the program - and in turn it can convert that one image into a variety of reprojected maps of different types, each correct per the measurements taken from your original image.

A global equirectangular map is essentially a flat, rectangular drawing of an entire world. They're the types of maps that you will always see included with virtually every video game out there. They're also just about the easiest map to draw and take virtually no artistic skill.

To try it out, I did a quick modification of a preliminary map I did of Aarde some months back. Mine is not exactly equirectangular, but it is close enough. (It's a fairly flat elliptical type, so all I did was change it so the water/ice at the top and bottom extended to the sides of the image.)

It looks like this. (Grey lines in this image and others are from my original hand drawing version of the map. Teal lines in other images are from the program, and they can be toggled off and on. You can also see where I modified it in the four corners.)

From it, I was able to get the following maps:





( More... )

Another example is changing this into this.

The program is fairly simple, lacking in tutorials, and exceptionally forgiving. It does not permanently modify or save over your original image.

I highly recommend taking a look at this program for anyone who is involved with worldbuilding on a global level. It's one of the best things that I have come across relating to this in a long time, now.


Icon unrelated, except that -- yes, yes I did watch the most recent South Park episode. And yes, yes I did like it.

---

Original entry at http://ilyat.dreamwidth.org/301155.html with comment(s).

khyros:
Primarily for hermitgeecko but I'm sure there are a couple other people on my F-list who have appreciation for both text adventure and vaguely avant-garde musical creations.

"South... East... Open Window... Enter House" (click the play arrow up top)

striderhlc:
This is what taking the Internet too seriously looks like.

- HC

striderhlc:
"Obesity, STDs flow in social networks"

- HC

jenblue:

omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg

Some background: The latest Wheel of Time book just came out, authored by Brandon Sanderson who is finishing the series. He's doing a series of book signings here there and everywhere as a promo tour for it.

I have never had any interest in Robert Jordan's work, but I am an absolute drooling fangirl for Sanderson's.

One of my friends in Maryland just got a hardcover copy of the first of his new trilogy, Warbreaker, personalized and signed for me today. omgomgomgomgomg

And and and and and! Turns out Sanderson will be at the University Bookstore the evening of 11/18, doing the same. If Nick gets the book to me before that (he's reading it prior, natch), I should totally tote it over there and say "Hi, you signed this in MD a few weeks ago, it's traveled all this way to see you again!"

I think it could get a grin or two. Also OMG OMG OMG EEEEEEEEE

/fangirl