Intensive Purposes

Archive for the 'Personal' Category



Miss New York 2006 

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted, but I finally have some big news. My sister recently competed in the Miss New York Scholarship Pageant in Watertown, New York. After five years of competing in the Miss America system, she has finally won! I was recently talking to Jeremy about the website I have created for my sister (www.missnewyork2006.com) and he suggested I post an entry. Feel free to visit my sister’s site to see where she is making appearances. Also, check out her photo album of the events she has already attended.

Wish her luck at Miss America in California in January!



Another Blog 

Intensive Purposes is still a project for me, however, its been rather dead lately… I hope it picks up, but i’ve also started another blog focussed on a topic i’m very into, inline skating. Its a joint blog for me and denni, and we’ll be keeping track of our progress learning a new style, called slalom skating.

theSlalom.com



Kinesis Classic MPC on Mac via PS/2 -> USB adapters 

The tricky part about this is getting the apple key where you want it. The apple key is hidden in the embedded layer of the keypad. I found statements like that all over the web.

For anyone who was annoyed like me, i’ll actually document where they are:

the ‘H’ and ‘N’ keys are the left and right apple keys. I’m assume H is left and N is right, but it doesn’t really matter to me.

Also, you can’t map Keypad-H and Keypad-N to the correct spots in one remap session. I guess remapping an embedded key confuses the keyboard. I had to remap one of them, exit remapping mode, and then remap the other (or i’d have an apple key that generated N’s or H’s!)



BroadRelay Rack 

This post is coming to you from inside the BroadRelay rack cage!



Patience… 


Its been running for a few days now… almost there… almost there…



When did quarters become worth more than $0.25? 

I’ve noticed a trend. A new “life’s little annoyance” that I’m taking a stand against. Perhaps it only happens in Chesterbrook where I work. But quarters seem to be worth more than $0.25. Just today I went to Genardis to get Jello (which sucks btw) and i paid the total was 13.22. But Genardis uses a change dispenser. I’m merely human, but when I used to operate a cash register, this scenario would dictate I return 3 pennies and 3 quarters. 3 is a nice number. It’s the holy trinity, it’s how many balls i have. It’s nice. but instead this vile contraption returned 2 quarters 3 pennies, 2 dimes and a nickel.

Well I had enough. I demanded that the cashier exchange those dimes and a nickel for a quarter. And the woman took issue. “I can’t open the drawer again.”
I said, “I’ll wait”
she said, “It’s the right amount? right”
I said, “in numbers, yes, in number of coins no. I’m sorry, but I don’t like extra change”
she gave.

It’s not just our mechanized overlords either. I went to wendy’s last week and the woman behind the counter manually gave me this 2 dimes and nickel breakdown of the 3rd quarter.

THese aren’t new businesses they’ve been there a while. Can’t they anticipate the quarter demand?

Well, I’m not taking dimes anymore!



BJ’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies… 

…Are infused with crack, i’m sure. How else can you explain my complete addiction to them. I forgot to bring one to work today, and I swear i’m showing signs of withdrawal.

i’ve got the itch, and i can’t concentrate, and my right lower eyelid is twitching.

The company cafeteria is closed, but even if it were open, i’d never buy those cookies, they just aren’t the same.



Lovely & Silly Goose 

wedding cartoon



ATI Radio 9600 XT or 9800 XT? 

Does anyone have any insight about the two radion xt cards that Apple offers on its store with the G5?

I’m trying to decide if getting the 9800 is worth the extra 300 bucks, and will i see the difference in doom 3, for example…

I’m not a 3d graphics guy or anything, so this is all about ego.



I won the office pool 

yup, it was the highlight of my day, $9 dollars of my companions hard earned money all because i choose the right day to bet on.

the bet? When we’d all get canned of course.

Photos of our last day.



Best Friend’s Wedding 

dcwedding.png

My best friend Denni, his wife Carrie, Szu-ting and me. I did part of the ceremony, it was really great.



Remember when 

Rememeber when AltaVista was the best search engine? and all the dorks used yahoo?



The price of Justice 

Am I going too far? Or not far enough? I’m not really sure any more. In this grey world of undefined boundaries, who’s to say what is right and what is wrong?

I submit this little story. and you can comment on whether I went to far or not far enough?
(more…)



Barcelona 

So I just got back from Barcelona, and i’m offcially hooked on Fanta orange soda and ham sandwiches. I had a great time, and a number of firsts:

first time someone offered to sell me pot (its good shiit!, he said)
first time someone offered to sell me sex (are you my friend?, she said)
first time i saw someone screaming in spanish or catalan, couildn’t tell, but he ended his rampage by calling someone a socialist (socialista!)
first time i went to a foreign country by my self

I met a cool irish guy with a danger mouse shirt, that was one of the highlights. I don’t know what made him cooler, the whole rebellious irish youth thing or the danger mouse shirt.

I got lots of pictures, including one denouncing Bush and Sharon as terroristas. Speaking of Bush, i never saw such ubiquitous Bush hating. I mean in my circle of friends everyone hates bush, but there’s lots of people that like him here too (these people should be shot) but in spain it was so accepted that he is evil that they made fun of him on the metro TV station (its the channel thats always on in the metro stops big TVs) and he was the subject of much graffiti.



Backpacking Photos 

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~szuting/photos/backpack_07

Black Forest Trail, PA