Baroquebobcat

So, I was reading slashdot this afternoon, and I saw this. It makes me happy to see a a good response to the RIAA tactics of using questionably legal court maneuvering to make it hard for the little guy.
My dad is a lawyer, and I guess that might be why I have always had a bit of a thing for law. Or maybe it is my desire to see things work out for people. I dunno.
At any rate, read the letter. It isn’t all that hard as far as legalese goes and it reminds me of how my favorite lawyers talk.

I got Counter Strike working on my Linux laptop. So, now I can get my fix of being shot at by swearing 14 year-olds.
I am currently running Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is indeed a word, unlike some other things like Mandriva. It comes from Africa and has something to do with choice, community and stuff. Or, at least that what the video of Nelson Mandela said.
If you didn’t notice, this post is slightly more random than normal.

It is midterms week and I am wee bit stressed and unfocused at the moment.

Next week I am going to Hokkaido. That’s the cold northern island for those of you who don’t deign to look at maps of Japan.
It should be cold. I might go skiing, I might not. Depends on how I feel.
My friend from highschool, Ryan lives there. He is teaching and stuff. We’ll probably hang out.

Regularly scheduled programming, in so far as it exists, will return after next week.

You ever find yourself getting bored by a lecture about interesting things? Or had an interesting lecture about things that should be boring?

Often the difference between the two is story.

Our minds are designed to follow stories, and anecdotes. That is why more people read People than the Wall Street Journal(That and many people who should be interested in economics aren’t, but that’s another story). People presents its information as stories. Even the paparazzi picture captions have some elements of story. Compare this to typical dry economic articles and you see what I mean.
But, that is not a fair comparison. Economics can be a very compelling subject when it is presented properly. Freakonomics is a good example. It presents strange uses of economic principles to examine society. What’s cool about it though, is that it threads the data and analysis into short stories that are much more readable than an article in an economic journal.
Story, compelling story especially can be hard to develop from bare facts. But, if you can do it, your audience might remember some of your ideas.

See Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen Blog post for more info.

DownsizeDC.org is an organization whose focus is to reduce the size of government, remove the IRS etc. They seem pretty libertarian in their goals.
I don’t agree with the lengths to which they want to take things, but I think that their commentary is on the money when it comes to what various bills do. So, I think that I will make their blog one of my regular political readings.

Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?

You ever find yourself trying to explain something to someone who has no background in what you’re talking about?
I think that Zen Masters feel your pain.
Today, in Zen we spent a fair bit of time trying to come up with analogies for the Sudden school’s view of gaining enlightenment. And, none of them work. Because most of our analogies dealt with learned skills, etc., we could not come up with a good one.
That might be one of the reasons Zen is so mystic. You can’t really explain it.
Still, the basic explanation of attaining enlightenment, in Zen, is that you are already a Buddha or Buddha-like. And, because of this, you don’t need to work on karma or practice anything in particular. You merely need to realize somehow. (more…)

So there I was, reading about this presentation I went to by one of the business profs on his design and presentation blog(presentation zen), when I noticed I am in a photo of the presentation audience. It was a kinda weird sensation.

The presentation focused on design and presentation and zen. I know, big surprise for having a blog called ‘Presentation Zen.’ It highlighted problems people often have with presenting, especially with slides. You see, many people, when they make slides, use bullet points and lots of text and complex diagrams. Gar(the Professor)’s argues that is boring and not necessary anyway.

(more…)

I know that this isn’t a new idea, but itsallinyourhands.com is a really neat implementation of the viewer decided plot line. It is sort of a choose your own story. Viewers vote on which way each plot point will go, will he skip the date and go for the sex bunny or will he go on the date with the shy girl. The viewer decide.

It looks to me like the shows on the site are very well put together. The editing is pretty good and the acting is not bad. This could turn into an interesting way of building an audience.

My friend Marcus has a blog. In it he talks about his experiences in Spain. He is cool, so I added him to my friends list.

Also, him, Grant Nelson and I  have gone to the ACM Programmers Competition a few times.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower

This was on my quotation list today. I thought that it was a rather Zen thing to say. It follows from the idea that knowledge is an impediment to understanding. If you got a plan, you might be inclined to view it as a true thing, when in reality, it is just an idea. Clinging to it, you lose flexibility.

And, as anyone who has lost a game of chess can tell you, when you are out of choices, the game is over.

I like the Japanese customs system better than the US. Much more friendly. When I went home for christmas, the US customs and immigration officials were kind of pushy and it seemed like they were trying to make me nervous or mess up. Which, I guess they are. Probably they are trained to act that way in hopes that while questioning someone dangerous, they will cause the questionee to slip up. But, I think that any sincerely commited terrorist would have planned for such a contingency and so they mainly serve to scare tourists.

Still, I guess there is some comfort in thinking that such people are guarding the borders–for some people anyway. I would prefer more friendly customs officials.

I have been staying with a friend in Tokyo for the past week or so. It has been nice to get a taste of Japanese home life before I move into my homestay. I am looking forward to the homestay because I think it will improve my speaking skills, which definitely need work.

It comes from my fear of risk, a fear that grows with age unless combated. I was always afraid of making social mistakes because I always felt and still feel out of my element in social situations.

Anyway, I plan to write up some of my travels in Japan later. We will see how this works out. I often make these sort of plans only to not follow through. I hope that spending money on getting this server space will provide the incentive to work on it that is not there when I tried blogging on free sites.