Friday, February 27, 2009

Riveting

Why is it that books always become more exciting with about 50 pages left? I'm not talking only about novels here either. How can a non-fiction book or how-to guide so consistently make you want to rush through the last 50 pages and finish it? Is it just the desire to be done? Is it a mental reaction to feeling only that many pages in your right hand left to read? Is it conditioned into everyone (or just me?) from reading novels that have a reason to be exciting during this part?

Massages are great. This has always been my opinion, probably moreso than most of you losers who only think that you like massages. I have, however, never had a professional one, only fake ones by friends and family. That has changed. My back had been sore all week and I got around to looking up reviews of local places on Yelp and it turns out there is a great place a couple blocks away, so I decided to go for it. Half hour appointment. The guy, who was unique(!) but good at his job, ended up working on me for over an hour and then trying to give me more of a discount. Basically amazing. When I am old and not poor, this is so a luxury I am going to take advantage of.

I want to try acupuncture sometime too. Just not at a sketchy place. Not sure if non-sketch places exist. Plus how much does it cost? One of you must know/have a family member who does it for a living. Haha. Not you Natalie.

C thinks my fashion tips to her are amusing and that I should put them up here. They're so obviously correct I don't know if I should bother with typing them up.

My American Idol predictions hit a bump this week with only 2/3 correct. Underestimated America's musical taste in not voting for joke guy whose name I can't remember.

Quickies:
School: Midterms last week. Midterms next week. Meh. I was annoyed with my A- in comparative politics. Should have just taken that AP test and seen if I could pass it. Bleh. Geology sucks. My professor has this verbal tic where she ends most sentences by almost-yelling "OKAY?" History also sucks.

Work: Has its ups and downs. With the stimulus done and a little bit less legislative craziness, we are having to send out a ton of letters, responding to all the comments about the stimulus (and random abortion crap). So some days it's basically dealing with letters all day, and that blows a little. Other days it's very interesting and I have a variety of tasks thrown at me and get to wander around the Capital grounds and get myself lost and found and such. Plus I got a new boss two weeks ago and he is starting to utilize me more since I actually know what I am doing (most days).

Baseball: Definitely want to do more umpiring this season, and have to figure out how to work that out along with a work schedule. It's exciting to see the umpire message boards start to come alive as the season starts. Always a fun time of the year. Also have to decide if I want to teach again this year for a week over the summer. Once again with possible job conflicts...

Love: Who the **** knows?

Books: [May as well finish where I started for some cyclical good karma or whatever.] Finished Telling Lies today, which was a pretty interesting exploration of approaches to discovering lies. Very technical and odd in some parts. Written by the guy who inspired the new tv show Lie to Me.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Stuck in a rut

Ugh. Just not feeling it right now. Not at all. My entire body is achy, I've been bored all night, and I really need to fix this and make sure it won't be a pattern. Shift back to week-1 Nate, not present-day Nate. If this becomes a pattern then I'm pretty much screwed for a good long while. Damn.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Not Spellchecked

Okay, so I haven't written a real blog post in almost a month, but since you are probably just finishing up that one, I figure I am not too terrible. Yes, I did steal this form of joke straight from anything talking about Benjamin Button. Which I still haven't seen because the world hatesloves me.

I think it's fair to say a lot has been going on since then. It might be monotonous, but its a lot in terms of sheer tonnage. Work has been going well. I have gotten to the point where I know what to do with almost anything that is sent along to me, which cuts down on having to ask questions and is a nice feeling. Still some random things I don't know though. Getting lost in the basement of the Capitol is always good for a few minutes of fun before running into a police officer who knows the magical way out.

Last week was a big week. With all the stimulus action happening, it was not exactly a breeze, but still quite a bit of fun. Always more enjoyable to work when you feel needed. Thriving under pressure is always what I have felt I do best.

School is... school. None of my classes are very interesting. The one upper-level course I am taking along with my slew of requirement-satisfiers blows chunky vomit. It's sad too, since Race and Politics in the US is a very interesting topic, especially right now. Professor just can't get it together and actually teach anything. Seems to be geared more toward history majors who want to sit around and ruminate on the finer points of the irony of the fall of the first reconstruction being paired with the increase in competence of pre-elected black officials. Sounds like a barn-burner, eh?

I have been reading quite a bit in free time, trying to power through books on my book list. Feel free to check it out over on the right. After Team of Rivals took me forever and a half to finish, it's nice to speed through some books on other topics. I'm also finally getting back to my high-school norm of reading at least two books for pleasure at any one time in addition to my assigned reading. Yes, it is extremely nerdy. Yes, it is very fun. Yes, this is a large part of how I know so much random crap. For all you comm and psych majors, I highly recommend the Luntz book on the 2nd list, Words That Work. It's written from a right-wing perspective, but contains plenty of fascinating evidence of how our minds interpret different phrases.

I've been trying to break out of some of my wholesome dorkiness, partly through music. The famed Music Thread is providing a lot of listening for me lately, and I have been trying to listen to everything that comes across it at least once. I am not quite succeeding in full, but am doing a lot better than I ever did before, so I'm happy. Plus today I got hooked on some old Michael Jackson stuff for some reason. Caused nostalgia about the 2001 Anniversary concert for him and that led to reminiscing about 6th grade and the ridiculousness that was that year (hi Kathy, hehe). Plus downloaded some MJ for fun listening.

I have this theory. We're all a lot more nerdy than we let on (or think we let on, at least). I feel like the internet has created a generaiton of people with asocial habits that they hide from their social life at all costs. Or at least partially. Okay maybe this isn't a theory but just a random thought that is terribly developed.

Also that a de-friend button should exist in real life and act instantaneously. Would be amazing.

I have been failing pretty consistently at getting an adequate amount of sleep. Although really all its done to me now is shift how much sleep I need downward. I can easily survive a day on six hours now, and sleep in less on weekends even after long nights. Which is why I can be writing this after midnight, without having showered yet, when I have work tomorrow morning. Irresponsible!

I'm very excited for Spring Break. Even though I won't get to spend much time with most of you losers who all have vacation the week after me. At least I will get to chill extensively with some people. Hmph!

Some housekeeping:
Safe: Danny, Alexis, Michael
Barely out: Ricky, noop, Tatiana

If you're not Taylor Swift, don't try to sing her songs. Miley Cyrus, Stevie Wright, and anyone else, this is for you.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Read This

Read the whole thing, it's fascinating. One key passage:
China is a prime example of where these trends are coming together. It has more Internet users than any other country, at nearly 300 million, and more than 600 million mobile users — 600 million! Twenty-five years ago, Apple launched the Mac as "the computer for the rest of us." Today, the computer for the rest of us is a phone.

This means that every fellow citizen of the world will have in his or her pocket the ability to access the world's information. As this happens, search will remain the killer application. For most people, it is the reason they access the Internet: to find answers and solve real problems.

Our ongoing challenge is to create the perfect search engine, and it's a really hard problem. To do a perfect job, you need to understand all the world's information, and the meaning of every query. With all that understanding, you then have to produce the perfect answer instantly. Today, many queries remain very difficult to answer properly. Too often, we force users to correct our mistakes, making them refine their searches, trying new queries until they get what they need. Meanwhile, our understanding of the interplay between high-quality content, search algorithms, and personal information is just beginning.

Why should a user have to ask us a question to get the information she needs? With her permission, why don't we surf the web on her behalf, and present interesting and relevant information to her as we come across it