I have released my first feature, Seven Dead Men, under a creative commons license. Feel free to download it off of LegalTorrents. If you would like to buy a copy, order it though google checkout and use the coupon code "slashdot" for a discount. The path to get to this point has been a long and circuitous one. If you have any questions about the process, ask away and I'll do my best to answer them.

Spent the last couple of years making my first feature. Shot/wrote/edited/etc it myself on a shoe-string budget. Sent it off to a few film festivals not expecting much. The response thus far has matched my expectations. Hard to compete with people who have a thousand dollars for every one of mine.

The old saw goes it takes ten years to get good at anything. Made my first short back in 1999, keep on feeling like I'm just a single step away from breaking through. But as of yet, nothing.

And so, slogging ever onward. Been debating whether it would be a good idea to self-distribute/release the project under a CC license the same as I have with my shorts. If I sold a few dvds they would pay for the shooting if nothing else.

All I really want any more is somebody out there to watch the damn thing. And this cockamamie scheme would seem as decent as any other. Or rather, something something about doing it for the cause. Thoughts, yay or nay?

I'm running a contest to re-design the UI for my random name generator. I don't expect to get as many submissions as Slashdot did when they solicited entries for a re-design, but I figure some aspiring Web designer wouldn't mind having their signature on my site as a resume item.

I've been tracking Google's stats for some 2008 Presidential Election-related searches in an effort I've been calling "Google the Vote". The results have really helped to keep me in touch with how the election is shaping up. My blog entry on the topic is titled, "Using the Web to predict elections." I touch on a few ways that people are tracking Web-based data for the election such as Google Trends and Intrade.

I really do think that the Web is going to become a more and more accurate predictor of elections over the years, and eventually live-polling will be an antiquated and moot factor.

I'm a Christian. I respect the opinions of rational non-Christians and am open to the fact that not every intelligent person will agree with me. I don't try to force my religion on people who don't want to hear about it. But I don't like it when people bash Christianity without cause on slashdot. Everyone (rightly) derides politicians for the "Muslims are terrorists" slur but it seems like open season on Christianity sometimes around here. This post is titled "When Wealthy Christians and Crackpots Attack!" but he doesn't talk about Christians in his post at all! There's nothing really substantive or particularly insightful - just one statement as a few instances to support it. He talks about Scientology and Uri Gellar. The Church of Scientology are not Christians (they believe Christ is a delusion IIRC from reading about them). Uri Gellar is Jewish according to wikipedia. Stuart Privar seems to be a creationist, but there is nothing about Christianity in either article that I read. Furthermore, not all Christians are creationists either except in the broadest sense - not the common use of the term. Using such broad, imprecise language in his little post just seems like a potshot or trolling.

Got a little rant and a question for anyone reading. Again, a popular science article exaggerates the conclusions. A recent /. story mentioned Anti-Bacterial Soap No Better Than Plain Soap. Now most of the comments seem to sermonize against all antibacterial products. I don't completely disagree, but the article doesn't support extreme opinions. Of course, the story in question only concerned itself with one type of antibacterial soap and with one use of that soap: namely washing hands before eating food. Allison Aiello sums it up:

The soaps containing triclosan used in the community setting are no more effective than plain soap at preventing infectious illness symptoms, as well as reducing bacteria on the hands.

Now for my question. I practice Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu a lot. I used to use a regular soap in the shower, but I caught some severe conjunctivitis three times in the same eye in the past six months despite trying to be clean. The pink eye was very bad, my eyelids swelled up, and the doctor needed a broad-based antibiotic to take care of them. That indicates to me that the infections were caused by bacteria - probably staph.

I am scared to death of MRSA. Now I use antibacterial Dial bar soap as well as some anti-dandruff shampoo to discourage colonies of fungi - with the intention of preventing ringworm (and dandruff I suppose). That seems to have been working better, but this article concerns me. The article didn't research body washes for athletes, but it does raise the question whether or not antibacterial soap is useful for cleaning up after practices. Which type of soap would be best for cleaning up after athletic activities and why - regular or antibacterial soap?

My /. fortune was:

(1) X=Y ; Given
(2) X^2=XY ; Multiply both sides by X
(3) X^2-Y^2=XY-Y^2 ; Subtract Y^2 from both sides
(4) (X+Y)(X-Y)=Y(X-Y) ; Factor
(5) X+Y=Y ; Cancel out (X-Y) term
(6) 2Y=Y ; Substitute X for Y, by equation 1
(7) 2=1 ; Divide both sides by Y
-- "Omni", proof that 2 equals 1

However, you can only cancel out the (X-Y) if X != Y because if they are equal then the expression is zero! Indeed, the rest of the steps can be left, so you end up with:

2(x-y) = (x-y)
0 = 0

Friends don't let friends divide by zero!

MoMA Design store listens to Boards of Canada.

Blech. ;)

/I even asked the bespectacled hipster girl behind the counter for confirmation.
//See? I care about my reading audience!

Ver-to-tha-batim:

Here comes the entries whining about it being quiet around here.... waaah waaaah the circle is dying waaaaaaaaah....

Awww, shut the fuck up.

We, the Fab Fore, confirm it: The Circle is Dead. Good riddance, we piss on it's grave. This "circle" as you call it is nothing more than co-dependent, neurotic, sycophantic suck-ups enabling each other in a virtual kumbaya singing campfire. Here's a hint: try telling people what they really need to hear:

That there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

And it's a train.

And watch your karma fall. So much so, that we're going to be taking a break from being the ultimate in trollness for a while.

But we've learned some lessons - you can tell a lot about your "friends" by how they treat your "foes", and wearing the mantle of a troll is a mind expanding experience.

So, We'll leave you, for now, with a few parting shots for our "fans".

to bethanie: Quit being such a bitch to people
to btlzu2: Quit listening to "music" by whiney british douchebags
to Captain Splendid: You're not a Captain, and you're about as splendid as a root canal.
to FortKnox: You expressed a desire to be like us and tell people what you really thought. What's stopping you, cowboy?
to Jeremiah Cornelius: You're a wacky far lefty, but at least you have good taste in women.
to Mantorp: Who the fuck are you?
to Marxist Hacker 42: Quit blaming others for your failures
to mekkab: Go back to Fark, you moron.
to NeeNee3: We still think you're a babe.
to Profane Muthafucka: Go frame yourself, you fucking wanker.
to Real World Stuff: Announce your non-troll account. We dare you, you homo.
to Rolyat69: Post more pics, dumbass
to Roody Blashes: Hey where the fuck did you go? You left? Maybe you're not such a dumbass after all.
to Shadow Wrought: Stop with the puns already.
to Short Circuit: We got your Rosetta Stone right here, pal.
to Some Woman: What are you, some kind of masochist? Oh wait, that's it: the 'prude' is an act, and you're secretly a dominatrix. or a lesbian.
to StalinsNotDead: thanks for the subscription, we'll be back. You'll probably get foed for helping us out.
to TopShelf: Thanks for the karma help. See above about getting foed.
to weierstrass: Who?
to WilliamSChips: Go away, you wannabe little poser.

And rest assured, if this godawful "circle" ever comes back, we will be there to mock it.

And with that, I'm off to continue Farking -->

While reading the WaPo (read:procrastinating) I came across this comment:

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Following up... Byron up near the top of the thread seems to be making stuff up. There's no such thing as iTunes Pro, and iTunes is free. Also a 3rd generation iPod actually looks quite different from the new ones (in the relatively restricted range of such things) -- the third gen were the ones with the circular buttons above the touch wheel (and to me the least elegant and appealing of pretty much any iPod design so far). New iPods are considerably thinner, have bigger, brighter, color screens, and lack those horrible buttons.

Posted by: JJO | November 15, 2006 02:33 PM
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gnaa first post

gnaa.us FTW

Posted by: Gary Niger | November 15, 2006 02:48 PM
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Who wants another device to carry around anyways. Ipods and Zunes both are pointless, my cell phone plays MP3s and its smaller than both players, plus its a phone has Wifi, bluetooth, and games. So I guess if you want more crap to carry around get an Ipod or Zune.

Posted by: J | November 15, 2006 02:56 PM
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"For Teh Win", indeed!

But do they have a Timmies?

/Unimpressed.

I competed in the Pennsylvania Open Judo Championships yesterday. It was a double elimination shiai (tournament) hosted at Master Eugene's school in Cranberry. This was the first time I participated in - and even witnessed - a judo competition.

I won a silver medal, and my record was 3-1. I entered the 175-151 senior men intermediate division. Here are videos of my matches:

1. I submitted J.R. DeFilippo (Kim) with okuri eri jime (sliding collar choke).
2. I pinned Rob Lynn (Joseki) with tate shiho gatame (high mount).
3. Mark deRouville (Brick) threw me with drop seoinage for gold.
4. I submitted Matt Fisher (Penn State) with koshi jime (clock choke) for silver.

Even though I ate a big pasta dinner last night and didn't even try to make weight for the tournament, I still weighed in at 152 pounds and weighed 151 after going to the bathroom before my matches. Therefore the guy who won (152 pounds) and I were the lighest judoka in the bracket.

Everyone had to wear a white or a blue belt - or a white or blue gi - during our matches. Even the black belts generally conformed to this rule; although, a lot of people just ignored it too. The competition ran late by over an hour, and I didn't feel like I had much energy while waiting. Somehow I had more than enough cardio, since I didn't really break much of a sweat or work that hard even during the one match I lost. Everyone else seemed exausted, so I guess I didn't work hard enough. I hope the reason is that I was just very efficient and/or had good cardio. Mentally I was drained by the end of the day, though.

I had fun during the judo shiai. JR trains at Kim's in Brendwood too. Rob Lynn invited me to train with him in Altoona, but that's a long drive unless I can get someone else to come with me. Matt Fisher trains at the Penn State Judo Team. I'm not too concerned about my loss to Mark deRouville, since he is the NJ State Champion and also placed in every skill division in his weight class. But I will learn from my mistakes and beat him next time. Good guys; it was an honor to meet them. I hope next time during the shiai I can relax more, and maybe win by ippon with a throw at least once. :)

I wrote my first Firefox 1.5 extension called "Personal Toolbar Button." Of course, it simply adds a toolbar button that toggles on/off the "Personal Toolbar" toolbar. This is where I keep all my bookmarks, but too many toolbars wastes useful screen real estate. Install it at extension's web site. (Thanks Mozilla.org!)

I was inspired by the web developer extension which uses the same trick to toggle its toolbar. I created a new GUID for the extension using an online UUID generator. This tutorial at Mozillazine provided the template for the extension. Roachfiend's tutorial filled in the gaps on how to package it as an installable XPI. Oh, and I used the DOM Inspector to figure out which CSS declarations/IDs to use.

The entire project took me about two hours because I kept making stupid mistakes. I originally wanted to write an extension for a programmable set of buttons for Firefox's toolbar, but I quickly realized that was too ambitious. Programming the extension was fun and a very practical use of my time - at least for me. All in all, I'm very pleased with the result. I hope someone else finds this project useful as well...

Had surgery on my ear today. I first injured my ear hurt my ear back in March. I was rolling with a judo shodan (black belt) and tapped him with a choke. Then during standing randori, he schooled me with a billion uchi mata throws. The result was a broken toe and cauliflower ear. Pictures provided upon request. :x

This was my first surgical procedure. It was weird. I felt naked under my gown. My weight was 154 lbs, heart rate 55 bpm, and blood pressure 125/65. The nurse inserted the most painless needle ever into a vein my hand. Then she retracted the needle and replaced it with a plastic catheter. That was actually more annoying than the needle.

I recieved a general anesthetic. It was strange... I don't remember being giving the anesthetic nor falling asleep, but I work up in a different room. The doctor removed the fluid and blood clots, then sewed it back up. He stitched it back up along with a tube to hold the skin and cartilage so they heal together. As the anesthetic wears off it gets more and more painful, but I have a prescription for the good stuff. :p

The doctor said he saw a lot of crushed and fractured cartilage in there. He doesn't want me doing any more BJJ or judo for about 2 weeks after I see him on Friday. However, I hope to do some non-contact drilling and rolling as soon as I can.

Its creepy and hysterical

What's better than the "noooooooooo!" ? the smackery, of course. (If I watch this one too many times I laugh so hard I cry and then I hyperventilate and can't breathe, and then I die. (probably))

Is it Cosby? or Lyrics Born? who cares

WInifred discovers the ugly truth

classic song, classic hair cut, classic safety not gauranteed.

it's only funny because it's a compendium of cliches.

ulitmate suffering