alex chiang: web 6.0

There’s a mediocre article entitled You really know you’re a techno-geezer when…. Mitchell’s main thesis is:

A generation that has never known a world without cell phones, text messaging and IM have built a culture around the technology that is foreign to me.

At the ripe old age of 26, I’m right on the cusp. I do appreciate have gobs of minutes on my cell plan, but I’m not a heavy user of text messages, nor do I take advantage of my IM client to announce where I am at all times. I prefer the geezer method of closing the application when I’m not at the computer, mostly because I can’t be bothered to update the status when I get up and walk away.

Also, $0.99 for a ring tone is a ripoff.

(sorry for the crappy blog entry; the real geezers will understand my reason: GIGO)

elvis

Originally uploaded by chizang.

Tour de Fat came to town this weekend and it was lovely. I rode in the bike parade for the first time and saw more freaks and weirdos in one place than I’ve seen in a long time.

Equally impressive were all the awesome bikes. I rode my old beat up cruiser, and after seeing what is possible, I’m motivated to fix it up a bit and trick it out.

My only regret is not getting a shot of the chariot bike. This thing had to be seen to be believed. In any case, check out all the pics here: tour de fat 2005.

Today’s interesting fact you probably didn’t know is that the food additive “carrageenan” comes from red algae. I learned this from reading the Black Stallion series when I was younger, not because I wanted to ride horses, per se, but because the protagonist’s name was also Alex. By the same token, Michael J. Fox’s character on “Family Ties” was my other hero growing up.

In any case, from the department of humorous out of context quotes found on Wikipedia, here is something from the carrageenan entry:

This means that they are easy to pump but stiffen again afterwards.

Sickos.

One of the alternative weekly rags in Ft. Collins is the Fort Collins Weekly. I typically don’t agree with any of the viewpoints, but for some odd reason, I keep reading it. Imagine my surprise when I read Greg Campbell’s Notebook regarding pickled eggs and Jagermeister. That was us he was writing about! In response, I drafted the following letter to the editor:

To the editor:

I feel I must add some context to the scene Greg observed at the
Town Pump regarding a pickled egg and Jagermeister (I must assume
it was our group as I can think of no other others equally
depraved).

This drink, known colloquially as the SARS or Eggermeister, was
invented at the Trailhead in a fit of inebriated brilliance, when
we noticed on the “daily specials” chalkboard the gastronomically
dissonant combination of “Pickled Eggs: $0.50 Jagermeister shots:
$2″. Undoubtedly, the chalkboard author never intended their
mixing, kinda like Britney and Kevin Federline (which represents
whom, you decide). However, genius has been defined as 1%
inspiration, 99% perspiration, and I must salute my
stout-hearted, iron-stomached comrade who first choked down this
potent potable and truly incubated the SARS.

Incidentally, the average age of the group that hatched the
Eggermeister was approximately 25, with a standard deviation of
two years, and we know our way around the sundry bars of Ft.
Collins a bit better than our wallets prefer. Never has anyone
begged to black out, one reason being that we’ve long since laid
our drinking goggles to rest and no longer need to forget the
shame of unholy hookups during nights previous, but mostly
because we’re not dumbasses (beverage choices notwithstanding).

Finally, for those readers beyond the SARS, I offer the Big Five,
consisting one each of: Town Pump ale, Bloody Mary, toxic orange,
jello shot, and atomic cherries. Of course, SARS may be
substituted for any of the above.

Bottoms up,

Alex Chiang

I got a response from Greg thanking me for the “good letter”, but no phone call, so I guess they’re not going to print it. Oh well.

One of the few things I miss from college is the editorial page from the campus newspaper. It was always full of misinformed, non-humorous boobs who couldn’t write their way out of kindergarten spelling primer. The paper at my alma mater was called the Daily Illini; here in Ft. Collins, it’s the Collegian. The name changes, but the content still sucks.

Still, you have to admire the freedom and chutzpah that college columnists enjoy. Today’s example is a diatribe about Christian conservatism. The quality of thought is not very high, but I was thoroughly amused by the sheer amount of flamebait rhetoric that Tim Waddingham was willing to publicly sign his name to.

Continuing along the theme of childhood nostalgia for tv shows, anyone else out there remember “Incredible Sunday” (or maybe it was called “That’s Incredible”; I forget). In any case, one of the most amazing performances I ever saw was a guy named Stevie Starr, the regurgitator. He could do things like swallow light bulbs, billiard balls, and goldfish, and then regurgitate them all back up. Today, as I was explaining how awesome he was, I was challenged as to whether he could actually do these things or not, seeing as how I only saw the show once, when I was about 10 years old.

Watch the video and you be the judge: stevie_starr.wmv.

Here are a few more links for you:

• http://www.ukstars.co.uk/stevie-starr.php
• http://www.steviestarr.com/index.php
• http://www.andrewferguson.net/2005/02/23/stevie-starr-the-regurgitator/

What up, 16 year old memory!

Update: ps, please do not link directly to the wmv file, as that’s called “bandwidth stealing”. I’ve updated some config files to prevent this, but it would save everyone trouble if you just played nice and linked here instead. Thanks.

As if New Jersey didn’t already have enough stuff to be proud of — The Boss, Sinatra, Fugees, Yo La Tengo, the Giants, inventing ultimate frisbee — it turns out that the Garden State also supplies the magic mud that is rubbed on Major League Baseball baseballs.

On the other hand, I do find myself occasionally apologizing for Bon Jovi (although his older stuff still rocks pretty hard).

An article in Wired today talks about a growing trend in young people losing their hearing due to constant headphone use. This quote comes from their “patently obvious” department:

Noise-induced hearing loss happens any number of ways, from attending noisy concerts and clubs to using firearms or loud power tools and even recreational vehicles (snowmobiles and some motorcycles are among the offenders).

Today, doctors say many people also are wearing headphones, not just to enjoy music, but also to block out ambient noise on buses, trains or just the street. And all of it can contribute to hearing loss.

Anyone else remember those scary commercials on TV in the 80s? (maybe it was only in the East coast) It was a grey mannequin head with red laser dots shining on it, and a high-pitch ringing as the audio, while a voice over warned about the dangers of tinnitus. That commercial scared the bejesus out of me, and I’ve been freaked out about my hearing since.

The volume at which people listen to their music amazes me. The craziest people are those who use headphones to drown out their lawnmowers. Why not just take sharp sticks and poke them through your ear drums? It’d be a lot faster.

I wear ear plugs almost everywhere — work, on the plane, when riding my motorcycle, working with power tools, mowing the lawn, whatever. I’m also definitely a “quiet listener” when driving in my car. That is, the music is loud enough so I hear it, but at the level where you can still have a normal conversation. I always cringe when I get into someone else’s car and the music is blaring.

And with that, thanks for reading today’s pointless whiny blog entry that offers no new insight into anything.

Due to my fascination with python and google, I decided to combine the two and write GMinder. For now, you can use GMail to store birthday information about your friends and family, and GMinder will automatically start reminding you about a week in advance.

This is v1.0 software, and there are probably bugs aplenty. Still, it seems to work for my limited test cases. In time, this will probably turn into full-fledged reminder software.

Check it out: GMinder.

There’s an article in the Coloradoan today entitled Pump prices help bike biz. There’s not much to the article; it’s basically a human interest story along the lines of “gee whiz, gas costs a lot so let’s look at alternatives”. My only comment is, what took you so long to figure that out?