Okay, so it took me longer than planned.
Video – Chris McDonough deepthroating a corndog:
Video – The crew singing some Pat Benatar:
Pictures below the cut, so I don’t spam people’s friend page. Full gallery here.
I forget sometimes how much I truly miss the White Wolf guys. And more than that, I never realized before tonight how much they miss me — even some who never actually worked with me, like the Icelanders. Anyway, I won’t be overly mushy here.
I drank from about noon until 9pm today. It was grand. I won a game of Liar’s Dice, I had more to drink than I planned (but less than sick-level), and I nearly made out with my former boss Chris. The last was for a good purpose, I swear — he nearly convinced two hot chicks to make out with each other. Also, yet again I made a name for myself by taking things a step too far. Apparently it’s okay to joke about rough sex, but making hair-grabbing and thrusting motions is over the line. And by over the line, I mean just just right.
Anyway, some media below the cut. … Hmm, actually I’m tired now. So, pictures and a bit of video of Chris deepthroating a corndog to follow tomorrow. Check back. 
I was just thinking today, that often when I’m talking online and someone mentions something that I’ve never heard of, I just quickly Google it. Unfortunately, you can’t do this in face to face conversations. But… wouldn’t it be great if you could
So I started thinking about what it would take to do that. The technology for it definitely isn’t there yet, but it’s getting surprisingly close. Here’s how it would work. As you converse, the system is constantly listening in with speech recognition software, as well as scanning your brain. The software running in the background is also constantly filtering for items of interest, separating out keywords from the conversation.
So let’s say someone mentions Plato’s allegory of the cave in conversation, saying how citizens here are seeing a shadow of what war really is. You’ve heard of the allegory of the cave, but you aren’t really familiar with it. So you have an, “I wish I knew what that was,” moment. The brain scanner detects this. The software looks for the most recent keywords, gets “allegory of the cave.” It has a built-in Wikipedia-like database, and brings up a nutshell synopsis of the allegory of the cave onto your contact lens HUD. Now you seem erudite.
Of course, this could be implemented in a simpler way, without the brain scanner and contextual speech recognition, too. My friend Grem suggested a subvocalizer — maybe you just subvocalize, “look up allegory of the cave,” and it does so. That would also prevent false positives, so you’d only get displays of things you specifically request.
And since the entirety of Wikipedia fits into 2 GB, you wouldn’t even have to have an Internet connection. So really, this technology is all almost ready. The main thing would be the contact-lens HUD, which is still in early development.
Since Spring is upon us, I thought I’d share a couple of pictures of the trees that are blooming in my yard. Mainly because soon, I know the pollen will come (take “come” however you wish).
Here’s a tree in the front yard:
And here’s one in the back:
“What you think about comes about.” Trite little nugget of faux-wisdom, stating the obvious. But like all such trite nuggets, it’s there to remind us of the obvious when we for some reason overlook it.
Standard disclaimer: This post is not aimed at you in particular, dear reader.
Everyone knows at least one negative person — someone who is always complaining, nothing seems to goes right, and their life always seems to suck. I think that this sort of person brings it on themselves. Everyone’s life sucks; everyone’s life is hard, and has difficult and sometimes seemingly-insurmountable obstacles. If you focus on the negative, then you magnify it in your own head.
That’s not to say that it’s bad to vent when something’s going wrong. I think venting is quite healthy. But there’s a difference between venting and dwelling — when you vent, you get it out and it’s gone. But if talking about it only puts it on your mind more and makes it worse… then don’t talk about it. I know I’ve fallen into that trap before, and sometimes it’s hard to realize that you’re in it.
So how do I get someone out of this if I see it? Well, the short answer is: I don’t. It’s something that they have to work through. In my opinion, the best that you can do is to help them realize they’re in a funk, and then maybe give them some inspiration and hope. But in the end, it’s up to them.
It’s rare that I get into that sort of a mindset, but the times in the past when I have, what works for me is to just get up and do something positive. I find that even if I don’t feel like going out, or hanging out with friends, if I make myself do it, then I have fun. Something to break up the norm, shake things out of the rut.
What about you — when you notice that you’re in a rut, what do you do to get out of it? This is sort of related to the question on music and mood, I suppose, but on a broader scale.
EDIT: I fixed this in Photoshop… corrected typos, and tweaked the timing for readability.
Oh toxic lighter fluid,
you make such beautiful flame.
But how you burn
my lower lip.
Or maybe that was
the fire extinguisher.
This is only a short clip. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), there is no video of me being extinguishered in the face. Also… looking back on it, it looks like I was drinking that lighter fluid. Don’t try this at home, kids. Kerosene is a much less toxic alternative to lighter fluid. Or you can use corn starch to be completely safe about it (thanks for that, sis).
Tonight I partied with the White Wolf crew. Highlights below the cut, in video format. WMV, so sorry for those of you on Macs. I also breathed fire, but I do not yet have that video. And Justin Achilli made me drink horrible Icelandic vodka. Well, okay. He only asked me if I wanted in. Which, was the same way that I ended up guzzling and spitting lighter fluid. Man, lighter fluid burps are non-tasty.
Oh, also… the guy in the last clip LIT HIS FACE ON FIRE. But I didn’t catch that part on video. 
He got extinguisher to the face. Which I got later that night, too. It does not taste good.