Snoodery

Alternative Energy

2008-10-17T20:52:00.003-05:00

Cats always land on their feet. Buttered toast always lands buttered-side-down. What would happen if you strapped buttered toast to a cat and dropped it? Would it hover over the ground, spinning endlessly? I think yes. The next thing to consider is how to harness this previously untapped source of energy.

Berries?! Berries and what else?!

2008-01-25T00:06:00.000-06:00

You know you like it.

"Are those trainers?"

2008-01-09T21:23:00.000-06:00

Here's how the Brits do beer ads. Gotta love the inspirational music.

The ad is for Carling, which I highly recommend.

England Pictures

2008-01-09T07:07:00.000-06:00

Here are my pictures from England. Please note the following images are links to albums.

The Homestead, Burnt Yates

Harrogate and Environs

Video Goodies

2007-12-23T14:09:00.000-06:00

Christmas in England

2007-12-19T05:19:00.000-06:00

I'm spending Christmas in England this year. Here is some information on the town where my parents are living. I'll hopefully have some pictures soon. My first impressions are that it's very cold and gray here, but the countryside is very hilly and beautiful. Despite being winter, there is still a lot of green. It also gets dark here at about 4:00 pm, which is not much fun.

Pack Rat Omnibus

2007-10-20T18:57:00.000-05:00

Here is a series of items that I'm not sure why I still have:

High School Graduation Announcement [front]

High School Graduation Announcement [inside]

I have a box with about twenty unsent announcements!

Lego M-Tron Model box (empty)

Super Nintendo Entertainment System original box (empty)

Game Boy System original box (empty) with SuperMarioLand game original box (empty)

Please, please, tell me why I still have these.

Universal Truth

2007-09-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

There is a truth that cannot be debated, argued, or denied. And that is there is only one correct way for toilet paper to be dispensed. From the top of the roll so that the roll rotates from top to bottom.

You Know You've Been in Front of a Computer Too Long When...

2007-08-05T22:49:00.000-05:00

At the end of The Simpsons Movie, when the credits are rolling by, you look to the right of the screen at the scroll bar to see how much text is left. Of course, there is no scroll bar because it's a movie and not a computer.

Death by Auto Audio Omission

2007-07-09T22:56:00.000-05:00

Every time I rent a car and it doesn't have an aux audio input, a part of me dies.

Not dying is considered a matter of 'comfort'

2007-07-04T10:42:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has flown on a plane lately may have heard the following line uttered by one of the flight attendants before takeoff:

"The cabin is pressurized for your comfort."

I'm sorry, but the cabin is pressurized so we won't die at 35,000 feet! I guess they call it 'comfort' so people won't freak out. Still, I wish they would state the real reason:

"The cabin is pressurized so that when we reach an altitude where the atmosphere is too sparse to permit normal respiration, you won't die of asphyxiation. Enjoy your flight!"

Familial Displacement, Part Deux

2007-07-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

My family is moving... again. And it figures that they would be moving because I moved to Texas specifically to be closer to them.

Ten years ago, when I was a month into my freshman year at Lehigh my parents and sister moved from metro Baltimore, Md. to San Antonio, Texas. The reason? My dad sought and was granted a job relocation. (He works for the Dept. of Defense.) My first job after graduating from Lehigh in 2001 happened to be back in Maryland, so I spent about 3.5 years there after college. During that time I decided to look into getting a job in Texas, to be closer to the family. I was able to find a job in Austin and moved here in February 2005.

Living in Austin, I found, was very conducive to being able to see the family regularly. San Antonio is only 1.5 hours down I-35. So I go on my way, back and forth between Austin and San Antonio every couple weekends or so, thinking that all was right with the world. Little did I know that Dad had another adventure planned.

Not long after I was finally moved down here, Dad informs that he's considering doing an assignment in England. Nothing permanent, but just a minimum three-year stay over there before returning to Texas. So as of now, they are all moved out of their house and ready to fly over there tomorrow. I will definitely miss having them close by, but will enjoy the opportunity to visit them in England and be able to see more of Europe while over there. And knowing that they will be back here is reassuring because I won't have to entertain thoughts of moving again. I'm glad to be living in a place like Austin and can handle being apart from the family for a while, knowing that they'll be back before too long.

Dramatic Groundhog

2007-06-20T21:30:00.000-05:00

This might be the best five seconds you spend today.

Travelogue 1

2007-05-19T17:36:00.000-05:00

I just figured out how to use Picasa to post pictures online. So here are some from my Oregon-Washington trip last summer. These are from Multnomah Falls.

The Need for Personal Protection

2007-04-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

February 12, 2007 - Salt Lake City. A Bosnian immigrant kills five at a shopping mall before before being shot down by an off-duty police officer.

April 2, 2007 - Seattle. A distraught ex-boyfriend kills a University of Washington researcher before killing himself.

April 4, 2007 - Atlanta. A woman is shot and killed at point-blank range inside the CNN Center. The attacker is then shot and wounded by a security guard.

April 9, 2007 - Troy, Mich. A recently fired employee of an accounting firm shoots three people, killing one, at his former workplace. He is later apprehended.

April 16, 2007 - Blacksburg, Va. A student murders 32 people at Virginia Tech before turning the gun on himself.

April 20, 2007 - Houston. A NASA employee who received a poor performance review kills his supervisor and takes another employee hostage before killing himself.

Never as far as I can remember have there been so many public shootings in such a short span of time. People question whether such acts are preventable. They question whether they saw warning signs of the murderer's intent prior to the shooting and could have raised the alarm. Much second-guessing goes on, but the fault is clearly the murderer's and his alone. If one is determined to harm people, he will find a way. That is why it is so important that law-abiding citizens exercise their right to arm themselves for personal protection. If even 10% of people carried handguns, do you think criminals would think more carefully about brandishing a gun, not knowing who around them may too be armed?

Consider the Salt Lake City incident, in which the actions of the officer likely saved many lives. How many other lives could be saved in the other incidents if a few of the employees or students were armed? In order for this to happen, workplace and campus rules must be updated to allow for the concealed carrying of handguns. Is this controversial? No doubt. But as long as weapons for personal protection are banned from workplaces and campuses, innocent people will be at the mercy of another would-be murderer.

I am using these incidents as motivation to pursue obtaining a handgun as well as a concealed carry license. I would encourage anyone living in states that allow CCW to do likewise.

Remember Biff?

2007-04-13T20:03:00.000-05:00

Remember Biff from Back to the Future? Watch this.

King of the Hypermilers

2007-03-13T22:53:00.000-05:00

I read an interesting article about a guy who takes fuel economy to the extreme. And as it turns out there are competitions for this sort of thing.

I like March

2007-03-07T18:52:00.000-06:00

March used to be my least favorite month. When I lived in more northern climates, March always represented the last gasp of winter, and more often than not March would be a miserable, cold month. I was so desperate for warmer weather by mid-February, but lousy March stood in the way. If I could just survive March then warm April days would be all mine.

But now I live in Austin and it's 75 every day in March. So I like March now. ^_^

One of life's finer pleasures

2007-02-12T21:20:00.000-06:00

I know the warning on the Q-Tips box says, "Do not insert into ear canal," but how can something that feels so good be wrong?

The End of DRM?

2007-02-07T22:20:00.000-06:00

What do you think of Steve Jobs' pronouncement that the world would be better off without DRM? (Click here to read it.) Is this the beginning of the end for DRM? What struck me as most interesting is his claim that less than 10% of all songs bought worldwide are from digital music stores. That means 90% of songs still come from CDs. If that's true, it seems pretty hard to believe.

Vocabulary Lesson #4

2007-02-06T22:26:00.000-06:00

whelm (v.) - to neither impress nor disappoint. What happens when you're neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed. Saying "I was whelmed" is pretty much like saying, "this occurrence may as well not have taken place and left no lasting impression."

Exchange that may amuse only me

2007-01-23T22:05:00.000-06:00

Google talk exchange between my sister and I while watching the season premiere of American Idol:

Kelsey [in reference to the commonly-heard excuse of those whose auditions went poorly, "But I have a degree in vocal performance!"]: "I bet it wasn't from a good university."

Me [in reference to the audition location of Minneapolis and thinking of the funniest-named town in Minnesota]: "Yeah, probably Bemidji State University."

Well, it turns out there actually is a Bemidji State University. Who knew?

Fun with Geography, Euro-style

2007-01-16T21:32:00.000-06:00

I found the follow-up to the 50 States game. If you'd hated placing U.S. states on a blank map, you'll hate placing European countries on a map even more! Good luck locating Luxembourg!!

Click here. (Apologies in advance for the annoying music.)

compartimiento molesto

2006-12-11T23:04:00.000-06:00

For some reason, I've been receiving the Spanish Sports Illustrated in the mail. It's addressed to me! So I'm wondering if I'm getting it as a joke. It figures that something I'd get for free would be something I can't read. Maybe I should use this as an excuse to learn Spanish.

Pretty Fun Game, Educational Too

2006-11-22T16:01:00.000-06:00

I found a pretty fun game on the internet. The object is to place each of the fifty states on a blank outline of the United States. If you start with an interior state it's pretty hard to place it right, but not placing a border state correctly is almost inexcusable. As you place more and more states on the map it gets pretty easy, though.

Oh yeah, I guess you want me to tell you where it is! Click here.

Thwarted Attempts at Female Friendship

2006-11-12T21:23:00.000-06:00

Most of my friends are guys. I would like to develop more female friendships, but it seems that I really have no idea how. This is not something that comes naturally to me. Events like the following, which happened a few Sundays ago at church, make me think that I'm doomed to never find myself in the right circumstances to meet female friends. I arrived at church on time for a change, so I had my choice of seats. I chose to sit in the back row because two of my friends were already there. A girl came in a few minutes late to the service and sat in my row, with one seat between us. She was someone I had seen before but never talked to. I figured I would have an opportunity to talk to her after the service. About 10 minutes after that more latecomers arrived. Among them was a guy about my age. He recognized the girl sitting near me and asked her if anyone was sitting in the seat between us. There wasn't, so he took that seat. Since they knew each other, they chatted for a while after the service, while I talked to my friends sitting on my left. When I looked behind me the girl was gone. So that's pretty much how things work with me. All attempts to just meet women are thwarted.

Laughing out loud by oneself

2006-11-08T23:04:00.000-06:00

Is it okay to laugh out loud by oneself? I say most definitely. I do it all the time, mostly at things on television or the radio. Living by myself, I don't have many opportunities for group laughter. The reason I ask is that I seem to remember hearing or gotten the vibe that there was a stigma attached to solo out-loud laughing. Does anyone know if this stigma is real or did I just imagine it?

Fake babies are scary

2006-11-04T09:54:00.000-06:00

The PS3 commerical with the fake baby really scares me.

Watch.

Frustrating Fruit Follies

2006-10-31T21:55:00.000-06:00

Buying fruit at the grocery store causes me major annoyance. Chief among these is the purchase of bananas and peaches. Whenever I try to buy bananas they only have two kinds to choose from, really yellow or really green. You don't want either. If you buy really yellow bananas they are already ripe and like me, if you eat one per day, by the time the fifth or six day comes, the remaining bananas are past ripe and mushy. Then your only resort is to make banana bread and who wants to do that? If you buy really green bananas you have to wait a few days for them to ripen. Ideally you should buy a bunch that is mostly yellow, with only a hint of green, indicating that they are ripe and will stay ripe for the remainder of the week.

Peaches are my favorite fruit. Which made the discovery that they are seasonal quite unpalatable (pun intended). Around these parts you can only buy peaches in the store between May and October. I haven't seen them in any store any other time. If the planet we live on is a sphere (it is) and consists of two hemispheres (it does), one of which has its warm season when the other has its cold season, then we should be able to import peaches from wherever they grow around the world! We can put a man on the moon (12 men, actually) but we can't have peaches year-round?! What's wrong with the world?

Vocabulary Lesson #3

2006-10-18T21:03:00.000-05:00

murf (v.) - to vomit. "I was feeling sick, but after I murfed I felt much better." Sounds a lot nicer than 'vomit,' doesn't it?

Tired of Credit Card Applications?

2006-10-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

Tired of getting annoying credit card applications in the mail? Save some trees and your sanity by calling the opt-out number at 1-888-567-8688. By calling this number you can opt-out of getting credit card applications for five years. If for some reason you change your mind, you can call the same number to opt-in.

Weird/Interesting Dream

2006-10-09T23:19:00.000-05:00

I have some pretty strange dreams once in a while. I think I may start documenting them for my own amusement. Once in a while I have a dream that seems like it could be the plot of a movie. Except that I always wake up before the movie's conclusion, so I never know what happened. Can I get a refund?

So anyway, the other night I dreamt that I had to defend my neighborhood from a roving band of ravenous alligators and my only weapon was a can of mace. For some reason I could only use mace, I couldn't use a baseball bat or, I don't know... a gun?! And I had to make sure that I maced the gators right in the eye, otherwise they wouldn't be affected. So I had to get real close to the gator before I could mace it! Sounds safe to me. I guess this is what makes dreams so weird. And of course, I woke up before I found out what happened. Maybe it's better that way because I probably was going to end up losing a hand. Chomp.

Panera Bread Update!

2006-10-05T06:07:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo! It cometh.

Panera Bread, get in my belly!

2006-10-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

One of the things I miss about living in Maryland is having a Panera Bread close by. Can you believe we don't have these in Austin? Despite Austin's alleged "aversion" to chain restaurants, real or imaginary, P.B. is a very Austin-y place. A chain of bakery-cafes offering tasty sandwiches, fresh baked bread, soups, iced green tea, and Wi-Fi! So bring your laptop and surf the net while trying not to spill hot soup on your keyboard.

The reason I bring this up is that I have been making several business trips to Cedar Rapids, Iowa over the past few months. There is a Panera Bread within walking distance of my hotel, so I have been making several trips there during the week for dinner. It's definitely making me want to make a pitch for Panera Bread to expand to Austin. Who do I need to talk to to make it happen? Somebody let me know.

Vocabulary Lesson #2

2006-09-26T21:40:00.000-05:00

I have decided to attempt a regularly-occurring vocabulary feature. Snood was the inaugural word. This feature will attempt to explain words that I created so that you will know how to use them in everyday conversation. So without further delay I give you...

snügens (interjection) [snoo-genz] - an expression of frustration. The u-umlaut is critical. It is highly recommended to use snügens with an exclamation point. Example of use: "Snügens! I left my [highly valuable object necessary for my survival] at home!"

Biked 35 Miles Today

2006-09-23T14:05:00.000-05:00

Most of you (those who read this) know that my favorite recreational activity is mountain biking. I have my friends Shane and Aaron to thank for getting me into it. This spring, wanting to branch out and add something different to my recreational portfolio, I bought a road bike. So now I have dual bikeablilty and I'm trying not give either type a higher priority. But it's difficult to do so because I have more friends who are into road cycling.

This morning I rode with 3 friends from church along some of Austin's suburban scenic roads. The route consisted of the northern part of Loop 360 down to Bee Caves Rd, then out to Route 71 and back. The whole route is about 35 miles. It's a very scenic route with a lot of hills, so it's definitely a workout. I'm still sore even as I write this. My hope is to be able to do some kind of biking most weekends and try to improve on my distance and hill-climbing ability. We'll see how it goes, as I don't have a great history when it comes to achieving exercise goals. Wish me luck.

Proof that Texas has hills

2006-09-14T22:40:00.000-05:00

My parents recently bought a 2-acre plot near Medina Lake, 20 minutes west of San Antonio. This is where they hope to build a home for their retirement years. Not all of the land is usable, unfortunately, because it descends the side of a steep hill. The region to the west of San Antonio and Austin is known as the Texas Hill Country. As you can see from the pictures the area lives up to its name.

Starting from the road, there may be about 25 feet before the hill descends. The plan is to build the house along the slope of the hill so that a walk-out basement/lower level is possible. For those that don't know, basements in Texas are rare because underneath the thin layer of topsoil is an unyielding mass of limestone. Making a basement-sized hole in the limestone is cost-prohibitive. As such I've never seen a basement in any Texas home, unless the house is built on the slope of a hill.

Confessions of a Wikipedia addict

2006-09-09T17:10:00.000-05:00

I use Wikipedia alot, which is an online encyclopedia whose entries can be edited by anyone. Anytime I want to know more about a subject I'll just look it up here. Usually if I'm not careful I'll keep clicking links within articles, taking me to other articles, and on and on until I've wasted a large chunk of time. The variety of articles that you'll find here is a lot more encompassing than your standard leather-bound encyclopedia. Click here for an example of an article you won't find in Brittanica.

Recurring Dream

2006-09-03T18:08:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have recurring dreams with a similar theme but the details are a bit different? For me, the dream that I have more often than any other always has the same basic premise. I'm back in high school (only the school looks nothing like my high school and as far as I can tell my classmates are different) and it's first period and I have a huge semester-long assignment due in my seventh-period class and I haven't even started it yet! In fact I totally forgot about it until that day! This is such a scary premise for me because I was such a good student in high school and never would have completely blown off an assignment. Fortunately I always wake up before seventh period rolls around. The feeling of relief when I wake up is like no other!

So this makes me wonder: What do people who were bad students in high school dream about? Turning in assignments on time??

What is a snood?

2006-08-30T22:03:00.000-05:00

Don't believe what the dictionary tells you. A snood is not a hairnet. Nor is it an addictive PC game where you have to shoot weird creatures out of a cannon in the hopes of matching them with prearranged creatures of the same type and in doing so disintegrate them.

When I was in college I used to make up words. Usually these words filled a gap in my vocabulary. I would think, "Hey I need a 1-2 syllable word that describes this situation." One of the words I made up was "snood." Yes, I know technically it was already a word, but I didn't find that out until later. And it was before the game came out. So I'll still take credit for it, thank you.

Snood is an extremely versatile word and can be used in several contexts.
(1) As a semi-insulting term to describe one who is either annoying you, is acting in a manner contradictory to how you think they should act, or has changed his plans with you at the last minute.
"You snood!" "C'mon, don't be a snood!"

(2) As a means of prefacing a statement that may be obvious or a question to which the answer may be obvious. "I don't mean to be a snood, but ___ ." It's a way of saying, "Yes, despite the obviousness of the statement or question, I'm going to say/ask it anyway!"

(3) Alternate forms of snood include:
"snoodery" - the state or practice of being a snood. When someone stumbles across a group of snoods he could exclaim, "What's all this snoodery?"

"snooding out" - just a minor variation to describe the last-minute changing of plans. "So you're snooding out on me?"

Hopefully that was enough to convey the subtle nuances of "snood." You won't really start to get it until you use it in conversation. So go ahead and try it and report back to me.

This could be the start of something... weird

2006-08-29T21:56:00.000-05:00

Well, I couldn't take it anymore. Everyone else in the world had a blog except for me. I have a lot of things to rant about (I mean discuss!), so now I'll have a place to share them. For now I've decided to title my blog "Snoodery." I'll explain what that means in the next posting for those that don't know.