Blog

Hi. Miss me? So, for the last week or so I have been struggling to understand some screwy results I’ve been getting with Radiance, using the trans material to emulate some sun control shades. After a flurry of emails today from the very talented membership of the radiance-online.org mailing list, I think I have been shown the light. Specifically, I wanted to post a link to this very useful flowchart that illustrates the way all the trans parameters are interrelated (scroll down a bit for the image). Thanks, Schorsch.

Well, I have been somewhat disconnected from email for the last few days, and I almost broke out in a rash from it, but it was worth it. Yesterday, I conducted a six hour workshop on lighting software at the 2003 Lightfair International, the annual Big Event in my chosen vocation’s calendar. I was told my proposal for the workshop was accepted back in October of last year, and ever since, May 5th has hung ominously from my shoulders, as I fretted over what the content should be, and whether it would be interesting enough to hold attention for six hours.

And now for a popular opinion. I hate going to the dentist.

(If you can’t take a joke, hit the back button now, OK?)

This blog thing really has my friends & family confused. Why would I want to place a bunch of personal thoughts and vain rants on the internet for all to see? Dunno. Initially I thought it would be a great way to share funny or strange things I find on the internet with people. But it’s taken on a life of its own. My site is still not completely back online (but is coming very soon) following Seeva.com’s implosion back in January, but some of that content included a story I wrote about 9/11. As an eyewitness to the attacks on the World Trade Center, I had a few things going on in my head that day that I literally had had to get out. Apparently, so did thousands of other folks, as is understandable, but it made it impossible to gey my story published anywhere. So, I turned to the internet. I placed the story on my site, and lo and behold, people—total strangers from all points on the globe—started sending me emails about it. It was cathartic and rather helpful, and made possible by the self-publishing revolution known as blogging.

I turned thirty five (35) a few weeks ago. When I made the mistake of projecting a little false bravado at work and exclaimed I was “halfway toward fourty (40)”, my co-worker pal—bless his little young heart—corrected me, and informed me—and all my co-workers—that I was, in fact, halfway toward goddamn seventy (70).

God damned reactionary assholes they are, is what. Read this piece of shit, then read my feeble response, below. Then vow to do nothing but wipe your arse with the not-worthy scraps of shit pressed out by these ass munchers. (Sorry, I have been watching Eddie Izzard lately—and we are planning a UK getaway, so forgive my Ricky Gervais-ian ramblings, right?; Yeah, OK, right, super…)

Oh goody, I read this article a while ago, and just today I came across a link to it again, while doing some lunchtime surfing. This piece is a pretty funny exploration of business planning, viewed through the Domain Naming System.

1. WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BOARD GAME?

A friend of mine passed this link along. It’s an interesting expansion of the Left/Right economic ideological continuum, into a third dimension that accounts for social issues.

I am in the process of writing a real website for my company, and over the last two days have gone through the usual ups and downs of XHTML/CSS formatting, and browser rendering “differences”.

No, I’m not talking about a strip of tarmac that 1,000 Screaming Eagles siezed in northern Iraq, I’m talking about a very dubious commando-style raid on a Chicago landmark and vital airport, Meigs Field. Sunday evening, under cover of darkness, several large bulldozers went to work tearing up the single runway at Meigs, flying in the face of a promise, and common sense.

Yo! Connie Chung, listen up! It’s CAV-uhll-ree, not CAL-vuh-ree. You too Brown! If you’re both too stupid to read phonetic spelling, just ask Walter Rogers for help. Jesus Christ. How much you guys get paid anyway?

OK, here’s another one.

vwrays -x XRES -y YRES -vf viewfile -fd | rtrace -h -fd -opn octree | rtrace -fdc -I render_options -x XRES -y YRES octree > illum_picture.pic

It happened again. The first time this happened, I was incredulous that someone could be so self-absorbed, so indifferent towards their fellow commuters as to actually browse the freakin’ ring tones on their cell phone in a relatively small public space like a commuter train car. Listening to these phones spew forth one crappy rendition of stale popular songs after another, in poor fidelity, at high volume no less, is akin to the Chinese water torture. I find it so annoying that my own cell phone has been set and done and that’s it for that. I hate listening to that pathetic cacaphony; even my cat sweeps her ears back and begins to bug out when I set the ring tone on a new phone.

Folks, this is a public service announcement. If you’re in the deli looking for a little bag of somethin’ to round out your lunch, and you happen upon these, do yourself a favor and look for a bag of animal feces instead. The feces will taste better than those soy crisps, and is likely to be a good bit cheaper.

This past August, my wife Brenda & I became homeowners for the first time. Last week, most of the east coast of the United States was hit hard by a major winter storm and we got lots and lots of snow. Were it not for the former event, the latter would have amounted to nothing more than a snow day.

Some enterprising souls have done some creative (and hysterical) re-writes of the ever-helpful info at the Department of Homeland Security’s website: