Ventures

Ok, this video had me in stitches while watching in the office today. People would lean back from their cubes or poke their head in to see why I had gone insane.

I love how I started empathizing not only with the pixelated hero, but also with the player.

So yes, this really has become yet another net meme. I think this rates higher than “THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD!” in my book, and for those who know me, you know how much I love that one.

Without further ado, here’s Still Alive - written by Jonathan Coulton, and performed by GLaDOS herself.

Still Alive

LYRICS:

This was a triumph
I’m making a note here: huge success
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction
Aperture Science
We do what we must because we can
For the good of all of us
Except the ones who are dead
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake
And the science gets done and you make a neat gun
For the people who are still alive

I’m not even angry
I’m being so sincere right now
Even though you broke my heart and killed me
And tore me to pieces
And threw every piece into a fire
As they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you
Now these points of data make a beautiful line
And we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time
So I’m glad I got burned, think of all the things we learned
For the people who are still alive

Go ahead and leave me
I think I’d prefer to stay inside
Maybe you’ll find someone else to help you
Maybe Black Mesa
That was a joke, ha ha, fat chance
Anyway this cake is great
It’s so delicious and moist
Look at me still talking when there’s science to do
When I look out there it makes me glad I’m not you
I’ve experiments to run, there is research to be done
On the people who are still alive

And believe me I am still alive
I’m doing science and I’m still alive
I feel fantastic and I’m still alive
And while you’re dying I’ll be still alive
And when you’re dead I will be still alive
Still alive
Still alive

Downloaded a random header image file and installed it. Edited it a bit for a wider variety of images, then chose some of my favorite pics from my Flickr collection, edited those to fit the header image, and all done! I tossed in a few game images as well for fun. This is cool - I’m pretty sure I can keep putting more images in as time goes on.

Tested it, and it looks pretty good.

Saturday morning saw me grabbing a quick breakfast with Paul and Carolyn in downtown Palo Alto at a Noah’s Bagels. Afterwards, it was off to Alex’s apartment to hang out and help as needed. This was my first time meeting the groom in person, and I’m disappointed to say that he looks nothing like a suicidal dwarf. He did have chops though, so I give him an “A+” for effort. Very nice guy, but a bit frazzled, as to be expected. There were people going in and out assisting with various things, and the 3 of us soon left to pick up Paul’s tux. During that process, Carolyn and I played a game of “finding the fugliest tie in the store”. The sad part is, there were multiple winners. Back to Alex’s place so they could check in for the flight today, then back to the hotels to get ready. I went with Carolyn to pick up some friends of A&A, then we went to the Standford Memorial Chapel.

If I had to pick 1 word, Joey Lawrence’s “WHOA!” would not have sufficed. The chapel with the decorations was beautiful and awe-inspiring. The actual wedding ceremony was very grand, with like 8 attendants each on either side of the couple. Angela looked absolutley radiant in her dress - all in all, a damn fine wedding. Once that was over, we booked it to the reception hall where I helped Carolyn with the sign-in table. The reception was in this athletic club, which offered an interesting dichotomy as you had wedding guests in their finery come thru the same automatic sliding doors as people dressed to work out in the gym. The actual reception area bore no resemblence to the athletics part of the facility - a waiting area, a bar/lounge, and the actual dance floor/food area.

One thing that I was asked the whole day including thru dinner, was how or who I knew of the couple. “So how do you know Alex and/or Angela?” I’d grin, give a laugh, and say “Well…technically today was the first time I met them…”, which then elaborates into the story of knowing them online and playing WoW together. To my amazement, almost everyone would nod and make references to how often those 2 played, as well as the listeners playing themselves or knowing family/friends that play. I suppose in this day and age, meeting/knowing people online is a very common occurence and not worth raising an eyebrow over. Contrast that with the generation above, and it is amazing how things have changed. I did finally get to meet Angela in person, and we jokingly said we only recognized each other by the voice. I had an advantage though - I knew she’d be the one in the wedding dress. All in all, a great service and reception, and everyone there had a great time. To Angela and Alex, in the words of a good PuG: Thanks for the invite - I had a great time!

Coming home today was a tad worrisome, as when the cab dropped me off at San Jose airport, I quickly learned that they had 1 check-in line for ALL of their flight carriers. This line wound up from the street into the terminal, up an escalator, around a corner, up another flight of stairs (via a ramp), back outside, and into the adjacent parking structure. Getting into that line, my inital Plan B was to raise hell at some hapless airport worker, whereupon I quickly realized I enjoyed not being body cavity searched and/or spending time in a cell. My new plan B was to purchase a later flight home that day if things didnt’ work out. Fortunately, I made it to my gate with about 10m to spare. Note to self: Avoid San Jose airport at all costs in the future. The flight was a bit turbulent, and upon landing, I discovered that I had somehow brought the storms down south with me, where it has been raining hard on and off ever since I got back. Spent some time unwinding, went to my folks’ for dinner, got a bit of WoW on, and unpacked and laundry and prepped for work tomorrow.

A very good weekend in every aspect - the chance to be with friends and share in their happiness easily outweighs little annoyances like weather and airports.

So today I flew out to San Jose from John Wayne. As luck would have it, the Bay Area is being battered by a huge storm with hurricane-like winds. Amazements of amazements, my flight was not delayed, and other than a pretty turbulent flight (I’ve flown through worse), I landed safely at San Jose’s Norman Mineta Airport. Now one thing I’ve learned in travels is that night and day are completely different in seeing where you are and what’s around you.

Nevertheless, this airport at night reminded me of Ontario or Long Beach 10+ years ago. Traffic was horrid, construction everywhere, and the strangest thing - a taxi line. Yes, most airports have them. But this is the first time I’ve waited almost 30m to catch a cab. Very strange.

I’m sitting in my room at the Palo Alto Westin typing this on my Blackberry. The ride from airport to here was $45. My room has part of the carpet wet due to the heavy rains. But its a pretty nice room, large and spacious.

Dinner was at the hotel restaurant, Soleil. As with most hotels, the food is horribly overpriced. But, either I’m more sick of work cafeteria food than I thought, or tired after travelling - the food was actually very good. I had some fried calamari for $11, which was very generous in portion, and fresh to boot. The bread plate came with an assortment of breads along with a lump of butter that had been mixed with cheese, herbs, and garlic. The bone-in ribeye was $40, but came with some grilled green beans, carrots and squashes. It also came with a potato gratin which was thin potato slices layered with butter, herbs and cheese, placed in a ring and baked/broiled. A far cry from the cheesy potatoes I was expecting. Washed it all down with 2 glasses of a nice cab sauv. All in all, not a cheap meal by any means, but very well worth it.

Ok, so my pants are on fire.

As you may have noticed, I changed themes as well as upgraded to the lastest version of WP. Didn’t take me too long to start messing around. In revenge for going back on my word, I did manage to delete a very critical file in WP during the upgrade, and had to do a fresh install. Go me! I’ve also cleaned up and added some links. Overall, I like the looks and functionalty of the new WP and theme very much. Next project - looking into random header pics of my own, or pics that I like.

I’ve also added various categories (won’t show until I flag certain posts in said category) which should allow me and my anal retentiveness the veneer of organization.

/dusts the cobwebs and uh, dust off.

I’ve made a number of resolutions for 2008, and I’m not going to be sharing them until I either suceed or fail. Well, the fact that this post exists should give you a good idea of what one of them is.

Wow, looks like I went a year and a half without a single post! Go me!

It’s been a while since I’ve had to muck around the back end of this site, so the layout and such is staying the same, lest i bork something up good. Real good.