I listen.
I’m a bit nosy at times.
I’ve been known to ramble on and on with out a solid point (e.g. like the posts in this blog!)
I try not to dwell on the things that could have/would have been.
I’m easily distracted — especially for stuff not related to work.

I buy stuff on impulse, yet have a thing about saving money.
If I do buy something, I look at the top of the line stuff first… then see the price last. Then talk my way out of it or down a notch or two. Or three.
If I start making something, I’m going to finish it… unless I’ve reached the point where my time is worth more than just purchasing a retail version of the same thing.
I went on an audio system search for two weeks. Found what I want, but only after trying out 4 other systems. That was a lot of driving, and time. Sigh.
I really want a Jayne hat; think that I could possibly make one… but that would mean learning how to knit first.

Annoyed that Windows Live Messenger forced me to upgrade to the latest version back in August on my Win x64 machine, but only to find out that it doesn’t work right. I can’t downgrade, or uninstall.
Same for iTunes. Apple seems to think that a x64 version of Win XP doesn’t exist and the 64-bit world revolves around Vista. humpf.
Anyone remember ICQ? I’m still on that… 26833686.
Sometimes I really enjoy changing the WordPress layout of my website, but then don’t use it for the intended purpose of sharing thoughts for months on end.

I cycle way too much. Good for cardio, but wonders what will my knees feel like 10 years down the line.
I actually like climbing hills on my bike. A self torcher thing, but with the reward of bombing down the hill on the other side.
For the uninitiated, that is one hell of a daunting task.

I’ve played Metal Gear Solid 4 from start to finish for more times than I care to admit. I finished the game with no kills and no alerts too.. and got the secret trophies at the end of each boss fight.
First gaming console was the Super Nintendo, then the PS1, then the PS3.. yeah, I skipped many console generations.
I inherited a PS2 and original XBox from my friends but really don’t have games for these two consoles. No biggie.

Back in school, I prefer using graphing/engineering paper for homework.
Sketches are usually on a small note pad.

Hey, it’s my blog. I never said this has to make any sense.
-T

-T

I’m a nerd, a geek, a computer/sci-fi/engineering/crazy cycling dude, whatever. I’m pretty damn awesome. I embrace my nerdyness (nerdiness?) and if you don’t like it. Tough luck.

I remember the days when I tried to just “fit in” in with a crowd. Not really my style. I’ve always been different — always been that quiet brainiac in the corner studying away and not really going out to social events. I like math, engineering, stuff that has to do with tech. I was comfortable with the textbook, a 0.5mm lead mechanical pencil and a pad of engineering paper. Really. Yes, really. I played computer games, like WarCraft (didn’t ever get into WoW though), StarCraft, SimCity, DnD, and if you go back further there were the days of the modem and bulletin board systems, I played a bit of major mudd. Mario is still cool. Also spent a lot of time on the computer surfing the web for random factoids.

At times, I’ve wondered how things would have turned out if I can do this all over again. But seeing how we haven’t invented the ability to time travel, or a way to deal with the associated paradoxes, that may be an issue. Of course, theoretically speaking, there could be a parallel universe with an alter-ego of myself that could be a horribly bad evil scientist. Who knows. See what I’m talking about? I’m fine with this.

As I noted in previous posts, I like love Sci-fi, and original independent works that support the geekdom. I’m a huge Firefly fan (though I must admit I only discovered this show/movie a few months ago), as well as the Stargate franchise. My new addiction now is The Guild that is written by and stars Felicia Day (who was also in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog). I guess even nerdier is the “(Do you want to date my) Avatar” song and music video that was released prior to the beginning of Season 3 of The Guild. I think The Guild is one of the better examples of what you can do. If you have an idea, go with it, you’ll find an audience somewhere. Who knows, it might become something big.

::rant:: While I’m at it… this popped into my head: who the fuck decided the stereotypical male and female are superbuff and insanely thin? Why do we have a higher value on looks than intelligence? And why are shows like America’s Next Top Model even on the air? Is this what the majority of us think? That’s just gross. Seriously, what is worth more to you? Your intelligence, or just looks? ::/end rant::

The point being: support people for who they are, and are proud of displaying it for the world to see. If you can’t accept that, too bad.

Enjoy.
-T

Uyen: what makes time travel possible?
Thomas: 1) the Flux Capacitor, and 2) 88mph.
Uyen: hahaha yay!

The problem? I was asleep and didn’t make this order! Sometime between 9:48AM and 10:03AM a Thomas Ng in Beaverton purchased a Sony Cybershot 8.1 MP camera over the phone and had it shipped to a Gabrielle Ng in Portland. I’m assuming that the Thomas in Beaverton waited a while for their password reset request to come to his e-mail inbox, and when it didn’t, he called up BestBuy for a phone order. So a BestBuy representative handled the phone order and changed MY account information and overwrote it with THEIR account information. The billing address, shipping address and even the credit card information was changed out this morning.

Okay, so if a customer calls and tries to place an order over the phone and also says that all of their billing information was different, wouldn’t the customer service guy get a little suspicious and deny the order?

Lucky for me, the order was billed to their Master Card, so I didn’t loose any money. I wonder how many other people this has happened to? Now that I have their CC information, what prevents me from racking up a bunch of purchases under their name? This is a huge security hole.

Best Buy, you FAIL.

My Comcast bill is approximately $55/month. Comcast recently announced that one can use a total aggregate bandwidth of 250GB per month before reaching their monthly limit. At this rate, the price per character is $2.05 x 10^-10 (that’s $2.05 billionth of a dollar per *character*… a very very small number.)

The math:
($55.00 month / 250GB) * (1GB / 2^30 bytes) = $0.000000000205 / byte.
(1 byte = one 8-bit ASCII character – e.g. A-Z, 0-9 and punctuation)

On the other hand, my text messaging service costs $5.00 / month. You get 400 *total* text messages, with 140 characters each. Lets assume that every text message that you send and receive is 140 characters long… even though the average text message is much shorter. At this rate, the price per character is $0.0000893.

The math:
($5.00 month / 400 messages) * (1 message / 140 bytes) = $0.0000893 / byte.
(1 byte = one 8-bit ASCII character – e.g. A-Z, 0-9 and punctuation)

So, if Comcast charges the same amount as your phone carrier for the same amount of service, it would cost you $23,971,286 per month.

The math:
($0.0000893 / byte) * (1 byte / [1/2^30] GB) * 250GB = $23,971,286.

Yes … almost $24 MILLION dollars a month.

I apparently went down to Eugene to visit Chantelle, Natasha, Troy and Katie. The dream started out in an apartment which I never saw before. There was a large sink in the kitchen and behind it was a large dining room table. The walls were yellow and it was a big place. I knew needed to go get my bike tuned, but I don’t think I had my bike with me at that point.

I walked outside and noticed that the apartment unit that I was just in is being supported by a large I-beam in a structure that was almost cantilever like. I was walking North. There was construction to the right, and a chain linked fence had been erected to keep people out. I kept walking until I reached the north end of campus and had no idea where the bike shop was, but I was pushing my road bike – it just appeared. Somehow I found the bike shop. I dropped off my bike… but then asked how long would it take to tune up. The guy said 1 day. I told him that I needed the bike back for a race that night. “I can’t finish it in time,” he said. I told him OK and just only gave him the front tire to true up. I walked my bike… and somehow i was also riding it —with only the back tire attached — on campus. The campus became OSU on the way back. I had somehow ended up around Cauthorn and Sackett Hall while trying to get back to the apartment. Half way back, I ended up calling the bike shop. “I needed my tire NOW,” I said. The guy told me it would be two days until the tire was ready. I was pissed off at him. I went back to the shop and grabbed my tire and ran. Next thing I knew i was outside of the apartment. I approached the door and noticed that there was a hole in the wall. I went inside and everyone was picking at the hole. I woke up.

The dream made no sense.

1. 541-737-9441
2. 541-737-9456

The person (or machine) on the other end never says a thing. I reported these numbers to the FCC. If this is you… then FUCK OFF!