A guy scraped the Facebook lists of top ten favorite books at schools from around the country, then he correlated those with the average SAT/ACT scores for those students. The results [in handy graph form]: the best test takers only like Lolita and 100 Years of Solitude. The worst like Zane (I have no idea what that is, but it looks like it's maybe an erotica/romance author.) Oddly, fans of The Holy Bible (also, Nervous, Farenheit 451, The Color Purple, True to the Game, Flyy Girl, Addicted, and B More Careful) scored lower than those who simply remarked "I Don't Read."
Showing posts with label Joey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joey. Show all posts
Friday, January 25, 2008
What exactly is "egregious"?
"Nine city employees in the District of Columbia have been fired for using government computers to visit an "egregious" number of pornographic Web sites in 2007."
My vote is 42. [pc world]
Thursday, January 17, 2008
So I turned 25 today, and I understood irony
It's getting a speeding ticket on the day you become, demographically speaking, a lower-risk, safer driver. At least my insurance is dropping, so that'll cancel out the defensive driving costs. Net gain for Joey! Fortunately, I'm in a good enough mood that I'm still really enjoying the idea of it all.
Also, now that the blog is faster, I'm wiser, and I've dropped some freelance gigs, I'll try to start posting more often.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Quick note: XKCD Profiled in Wired
And the author is just as awesomely sentimental as you'd expect: here.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Australia--Leader of Democracy
I just came across this today in the middle of some other work, but it's by far the coolest thing I've ever seen in politics. It could actually get me inspired to vote on a regular basis--like every five minutes. Australia has a fringe party called Senator Online. A human senator is run on the ticket, but then each of his or her votes is determined by Internet polling of every eligible voter in Australia. If something like this was launched in the US--and I mean explicitly, not just like Arnold following the polls in California--I think I'd quit everything else I was doing and donate all my money and time. If it incorporated text messaging for votes, I'd work a night job to donate more money.
Friday, October 26, 2007
I'd totally wear Facebook's class pin
Sorry to cross post/self-promote, but this is exciting, and I've already written it up, so just go here, you know, if you want to:
24% of Americans would rather date Facebook than you.
And, fyi, the site is going through a soft launch. It's going to look better in a week or so.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Another Awesome Comic
I'm not even going to try and explain how I got from Smed's post to this, but boy am I glad I did. Apparently this actually runs in some papers. For the first time ever, Austin has disappointed me. Now I know how you Baltimoreans feel.
Friday, October 19, 2007
A Math Proof I Don't Understand
There's actually a lot of proofs I don't understand, but this one references an XKCD comic, which I discovered through you folks and have learned to love. For other Web-comic goodness, I highly recommend Penny Arcade. It's mostly about video games, but still funny. If you're willing to read through the archives, I'll explain any posts you don't get. In other Web/tech news, I'm going to start blogging for Scientific American on Monday as a part of their companion blog to the 60 Second Science Podcast. Expect to hear about more things I think are awesome, but don't entirely understand.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Science (And Science Writing) Rocks
I wasn't going to post today because I also have a crazy amount of things to do. But sometimes science makes it too hard--or just sensitive. I'm not going to tell you what this story is about--it's on NBC.com, so it's safe for work, though--I'm just going to leave you with this: "It's like having a mini-heartbeat in my crotch," she explains, a sensation that arouses her even during yoga and spinning classes, or when she drives along bumpy roads. During sex, Staltare says, she has volcanic, multiple orgasms "like huge waves that keep lifting me higher and higher." I could quote the entire article. The writing is just that good. Go here now. (FYI: Only the first page is awesome and funny. The second is mostly sad and a little frightening, and the third is part funny and part business.)
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Squirrels And Up Are Safe
So my new house on Austin's East Side is awesome--Awesome!--and you should all come visit. It does, however, have a few maintenance issues. Our management company was kind enough to send out Bear to take care of them. Bear, who looks like a mildly reformed Hell's Angel, usually comes by in the morning while I'm still working from home, sitting at my computer in a bathrobe with a cup of coffee. I don't think it bothers him, though. When I opened the door the first time, I stood out on the lawn with Bear with said coffee in said bathrobe and had a 15 minute conversation about how my motorcycle was or was not safely parked on the street.
Bear cleared out a bunch of trash left by the previous tenants, filled in a bunch of holes left from sheet rock screws, fixed some ceiling tiles in my room, etc., etc., etc. He also killed a family of rats.
We knew we had rats. We knew we needed to get rid of them. I was mostly okay with that. I don't eat meat, but I'm also not keen on getting the bubonic plague. So the little bastards can die to save me. Bear, however, takes a gleefully exuberant approach to his job that's mingled with a mix of terror every time he actually sees a rat.
The first one was killed when he lifted up a tile in the hallway to place a trap. It fell down and hit him on his face before he swatted it across the hall to the bathroom floor with his 2-foot Maglight while screaming bloody murder. "Get me the shovel, Joe," he kept saying to his assistant. "I'm gonna get it." By the time Joe got there with the shovel, Bear had massacred the little plague carrier with his flashlight and calmly scooped him into a garbage bag.
The second one got killed by a trap. It took ten minutes for Bear and Joe to coordinate the elaborate process of pulling it down from the ceiling into a bag without actually touching the rat. He explained to me this morning, while repeating the process for a third rat, that the first two were probably the parents.
"That's kind of sad," I said.
"No, no, it's cool," said Bear. "We only kill rats. Sometimes mice. Squirrels and up are safe."
That, my friends, is the exterminator's taxonomy.
Bear killed five more rats today. All with his bare hands. The man is a hulking angel of death. I'm kind of honored to have him in our home.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
My Week=Video Game
Nuraido mentioned to me that I've been absent from blogging and chatting. That'll all come back next week. This week I was moving into a new house and covering a game conference all week. For those of you not fortunate enough to work in the game industry, that means a lot of networking and panels followed by heavy, heavy drinking. More importantly, for me this week, it meant this. I spent Tuesday evening filling the drinking portion of the conference by touring Richard Garriott's two houses and watching marines shoot at aliens. Sometimes, life just works out for me.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Self-Promotion
I usually wouldn't promote my work here, but look at this awesome cover from the Austin Chronicle. And my name is really big! Yay! The story, less exciting, is here.
Also, I might get to go to Richard Garriott's (the guy on the cover) launch party. If you don't know about him from your time in Austin, he throws crazy awesome shindigs. He possibly does the coolest rich guy stuff ever. Like building a replica of Shakespeare's Globe on his Lake Austin property. Just to hang out in. Or owning a part of the zero-gravity plane and taking Stephen Hawking along for the ride. Or hosting gigantic haunted houses with holograms that freak Mark Hamil out. Yay! I'm an objective journalist. Yay!
I want to point out that I am, actually, an objective journalist. The invitation came by way of my editor after I finished the piece and a partially critical review. But, you know, yay!
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Back to Just Hating TV
Anchorwoman has been cancelled. It aired its pilot. Now it's gone. First Castro, now Anchorwoman. All the things I have strongly mixed feelings about are just fading away. Oh well, I'm off to a virtual worlds masquerade ball. Let's hope nothing/nobdy awesome dies there.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Why I Hate/Love TV
So Fox has a new pseudo-reality show called "Anchorwoman." In it, Lauren Jones, former Miss NY, model, and Price is Right girl, with no journalism experiences takes over as the lead anchor for Tyler, Texas' KYTX. Now I know I'm only a tech writer who blogs, so my journalistic bar may be set a bit lower than the New York Times', but this is just frightening to me. Also awesome. I was super-pissed reading about the Rolling Stone reality show to find a new reporter (who also had no journalism background or writing experience), but, as I'll never be a TV anchor, I'm kind of looking forward to the premiere tomorrow night. So what? Much of it already is."
From the Fox site:
"Jones, the former Miss New York and über-vixen, packs up her Versace dresses and heads to Tyler to start a new career. Can this bombshell make it as a serious reporter? Will she save KYTX, or make it the laughingstock of the Lone Star State?"
From the AP report:
"In the meantime, this show (and KYTX) are doing their part to make a laughingstock out of local TV news.
Why I Hate Hippies
I care about the environment as much as the next guy. I'm an Eagle Scout. I don't litter. I recycle everything my apartment takes, and I occasionally take the leftovers to the city plant. But I hate hippies. I got a letter yesterday from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality saying, in effect, that "A concerned citizen" reported to them my car was smoking on July 31st at 6:45pm.
Actually my parents got the letter and just read the pertinent parts to me. So, A) I need to change where my title is registered to, B) my parents need to not read my mail, or C) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality needs to stop writing my parents like I'm still in high school.
The car is over 40 years old. I tune it up, change the oil (and properly dispose of the old oil), and replace the exhaust system whenever parts where out. It still smokes occasionally, but it looks awesome. Why couldn't this concerned jackass just appreciate the light of coolness that I brought into his/her life for 5 minutes at a stoplight instead of running to narc on me to the state?
Would they have cared if it was a VW Bus "smoking" all over the place? No. I don't think so. Instead, they saw a sweet, classic muscle car and immediately identified me with the greasers that used to beat them up while blaring Zeppelin over a wimpy folk singer quietly strumming out a cover of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
I'm not that guy, but apparently this drug-addled eco-Nazi couldn't figure that out. Instead Flower Child funneled a complaint down into the system of waste of a state division that probably consumes more paper in a day than I do in a year and more electricity in an hour than I would in a month to give me a long-distance lecture.
Stupid hippies.
Friday, August 17, 2007
US Army Seriously Thinking About Ender's Game
So I'm writing up a story right now based on an interview with a virtual worlds guy who was formerly Director of the Disruptive Technology Office and Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.
Most awesome part: "I was deeply moved a long time ago by Ender's Game. And it's a common theme in the military. And it's real now. It's no longer just science fiction. And the whole premise behind Snow Crash is real now." To be fair, most of the interview is about how we can use virtual worlds to train soldiers in cultural differences and promote information sharing. But I'm pumped about kids training to fight space bugs. Also hacker samurai.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Radar Picks On Second Life Lothario's
Radar Magazine sent a correspondent into Second Life, where about 1/5 of usage is devoted to adult activity, usually roleplay. Now it's fun with literalism in teacher-student relations:
Student: Oh ... I naughty ... let play anoterh [sic] game.
Radarette: No. You must get this right or you'll never work in a numbers-related field. If you won't play along I can find somebody else.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Pimm's and Lemondae: The Easiest Way to Drink Away a Summer Afternoon
Seriously, if made right, you can down pitchers of these on a hot summer afternoon before knowing what hit you. Quite frankly, it's amazing.
1. Make sure you have Pimm's No. 1. It's probably the only type of Pimm's you'll find in the States, but just make sure.
2. Mix one-part Pimm's with 2 parts of lemonade (Sprite, 7-Up, or your choice of generic lemon-lime knockoff)over crushed ice. The Brits have a weird, fizzy lemon drink that they call "lemonade," but Sprite works just as well. Above all else, don't use normal, American lemonade. It'd be weird.
3. Toss in lots of fruit. I like apples, oranges, strawberries, or blueberries. You don't want to overload here, but it's the place for experimentation. The Brits would almost always add a slice of lemon and lime, but I think the Sprite covers that.
4. Here is the most important part. It's what takes away the last bit of alcohol flavoring that might give you a heads up that you're about to get plastered. Add in freshly crushed mint leaves and sliced cucumber. If you let it sit for about 30 minutes to an hour in the fridge, the cucumber has removed any alcohol flavoring whatsoever. Toss it back.
If you can't wait, the cucumber and mint still help, but it's not quite the same. Toss it back anyways.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
And Press Releases for MathGimp
Danica McKellar is coming to a tween virtual world this afternoon. You're invited
Stop by Habbo today to see former child star, math wiz and celebrated author, Danica McKellar. She will be interviewed in the Theaterdome at 3 p.m. (PDT)/6 p.m. (EDT). Check it out at www.habbo.com and http://www.habbo.com/entertainment (audio)
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
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