About Wyrd Smythe
The canonical fool on the hill watching the sunset and the rotation of the planet and thinking what he imagines are large thoughts.
I would say that I’ve been watching the goings on in Congress with growing horror, but my horror-level with regard to politics these days is largely tapped out. I’d also like to say that Great Evil must be at work here, because no one could possibly be as stupid as to participate in — or as to allow — this horror show. Unfortunately, there seems no limit to human stupidity, and perhaps Hanlon’s Razor* applies: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
I’d already been pondering the spectrum that leads from discontent through activism and ultimately to terrorism. In the USA, we saw extreme activism with regard to civil rights. And we’ve certainly seen terrorism throughout the world, including on our own shores.
Lately, I think you can view the Republicans as having become home-grown terrorists!
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15 Comments | tags: asshats, Congress, Democrat, GOP, government, Republican, Republican Party, stupidity, terrorism | posted in Politics, Rant
I was catching up on last week’s shows (a word about that in a moment), and it happened again, twice. It’s gotten to the point of almost becoming another “countdown game.” How long will it be until I hear it again? It might also make a drinking game for people who don’t like to drink all that much, because — while very common — it usually only appears once per story. (Still, multiple sightings have been documented.)
Being common yet infrequent, it wouldn’t normally stand out at all, but it struck me as such an odd thing to say (even the first time I heard it), that I’ve noticed it ever since. I suppose my love of LEO stories brings it my way more frequently. The most common context where you’ll hear it is from a suspect or person of interest being interviewed by cops.
It’s the line, “You gotta believe me!”
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4 Comments | tags: bad script writing, Castle, CBS, Comcast, fast forward, NCIS, OnDemand, Rizzoli & Isles, script writing, stories, storytelling, things I don't get, things people say, TNT | posted in Brain Bubble, Movies, Rant, TV
As reported earlier, this week got off to a rough start. I let my guard down (foolishly) and got nabbed by the greedy PC rapists. All I wanted was to find a particular font for a project. The next day a more careful search turned up exactly what I needed, the fonts and just the fonts (ma’am).
Monday I mentioned that I planned to share my font-needing project with you. It’s not finished (many of my projects live a long time as I tweak them — some are living things that grow and improve forever). But it turned out so much better than I expected, I just had to share it with you this Science Fiction Saturday.
I’m also going to boldly try a new WordPress blogging trick!
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10 Comments | tags: 3D, 3D images, CGI, computer generated images, ffmpeg, mp4, NCC-1701, POV-Ray, Star Trek, TOS, USS Enterprise | posted in Computers, Sci-Fi Saturday, TV
One of the first blog articles I wrote concerned the idea of Yin and Yang. It’s a topic I’ve touched on several times since (and revisited in particular talking about men and women). I reference the concept so often, because I think the duality of opposing concepts is a fundamental truth about the universe.
It’s not the only truth, of course, but it’s a very useful way of seeing things and understanding them. We see duality everywhere! Sometimes it’s something versus the lack of something (heat/cold, light/dark, full/empty). Sometimes it’s truly opposing pairs (north/south, positive/negative, male/female).
Today I’d like to expand on the concept and tell you about the Johari Window.
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Leave a comment | tags: duality, ego, four-square, Harrington, how others see us, how we see ourselves, id, Luft, others, psychology, self, self-awareness, self-help, Sigmund Freud, super-ego, Yin and Yang | posted in Basics
I am not a happy camper right now. In fact, I’m fucking pissed! I was working on something I’ll be showing here later, and I needed a certain font (or at least to identify the font). I found exactly what I needed, and it was a “free” download. You gotta love the interweb!
Except that upon downloading, I got a bunch of unwanted software that installed itself unasked… and no font! I ended up with AVG’s free anti-virus suite, some sort of “register (i.e. pay) to actually use” backup software, and a bunch of new toolbars for my browsers. None of it asked for or wanted. You gotta hate the interweb.
So, this is a hategram to the fucks at AVG and anyone else that pulls this fucked up bullshit.
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13 Comments | tags: DIE AVG, DIE SONY, DIE VAIO, Hate AVG, Hate Sony, Not Thrilled with Best Buy | posted in Rant
And so it begins (again)…
Here we go, another MLB playoff season! (click to embiginate)
October is here, bringing with it shorter days, autumn leaves and bulk candy sales.
And the Major League Baseball Playoffs leading up to the World Series!
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8 Comments | tags: ALCS, ALDS, Mariano Rivera, Minnesota Twins, MLB, NLCS, NLDS, Pittsburgh Pirates, Roberto Clemente, World Series | posted in Baseball
This one’s mine!
So I was conversing with a fellow I know, and the right side of my brain asked the left side, “So just how much square footage per person is there these days?” We both agreed that seemed like an interesting question (given all the people running around these days), so we looked around for a body to help us research the answer.
We just happened to find one handy, so off we all went to the virtual library and math lab. Unfortunately our math consultant was a Communications Arts major and made a small error thinking square kilometers to square miles was the same as kilometers to miles. Fortunately everyone involved obsessively double-checks their work, so we caught the error in time.
Pity, though. The original answer would have been fun to write about.
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15 Comments | tags: big numbers, Earth, Earth population, numbers, square feet per person | posted in Life, Math
A couple lived near the ocean and used to walk the beach a lot. One summer they noticed a girl who was at the beach pretty much every day. She wasn’t unusual, nor was the travel bag she carried, except for one thing: She would approach people who were sitting on the beach, glance around furtively, then speak to them.
Generally, the people would respond negatively, and she would wander off, but occasionally someone would nod and there would be a quick exchange of money for something she carried in her bag. The couple assumed she was selling drugs and debated calling the cops, but since they didn’t know for sure they just continued to watch her.
After a couple of weeks, the wife asked, “Honey, have you ever noticed that she only goes up to people with boom boxes and other electronic devices?” He said he hadn’t. Then she said, “Tomorrow I want you to get a towel and our big radio and go lie out on the beach. Then we can find out what she’s really doing.”
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9 Comments | tags: batteries, humor, jokes, puns, seashore | posted in From My Collection
Those who know me know that I’m not big on calendar holidays. Even my birthday tends to pass without fanfare. That comes from being single, the island that supposedly no one is. After a lifetime of Christmas and New Years’ being ordinary days, you get used to it.
But I do honor the Solar Event Days because (as I’ve mentioned many times) light is so important to me (and because I’m a geek). Christmas may not mean much to me, but the Winter Solstice does! The days finally start getting longer! Summer Solstice is a day of mourning for the opposite reason.
Today — the Autumnal Equinox — marks the halfway point.
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9 Comments | tags: autumnal equinox, Earth, equinox, fall, moon, POV-Ray, summer, Sun, winter | posted in Basics, Science
The other day I was Wiki Walking and ended up reading about the Rare Earth Hypothesis in reference to the Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation. We’ve discovered that most stars in our galaxy appear to have planets of some kind, although ones with human-friendly environments may be quite rare. The presence of a plethora of planets presumably provides a potentially large factor for at least one part of the professor’s pretty problem.
But it’s possible that some of its other factors are extremely small. They may be much smaller than anyone had imagined. They may be so small as to ensure that we are alone in the galaxy.
It’s even possible we are alone — or nearly alone — in the universe!
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8 Comments | tags: alien contact, alien vistors, aliens, Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, Drake Equation, Fermi Paradox, Golgafrincham, Hitchhikers Guide, Prime Directive, Rare Earth Hypothesis, Star Trek | posted in Basics, Science
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