My company is now giving out free-for-life accounts using our new anti-spam email. I'm supposed to spread the word and hopefully get some "geek-cred." If you're interested, it is free, so please take a look. :)

http://www.email-cop.com/

Update: Thanks, Sol, for pointing out the free30days coupon code in the "setup wizard." That's for when we officially launch on the 16th. Anyone signing up between now and then is part of the "beta test" group and has a free for life account. It shouldn't ask you to enter a credit card number; if it does, something as gone seriously wrong, so don't continue until we can fix it. :)
Sorry for any confusion.

You are a XSIG--Expressive Sentimental Intellectual Giver. This makes you a Teddy Bear.

Hee! I just want to give you a big squeeze. You are tender, honest, generous and fair. You are an excellent kisser and a sensitive, communicative lover, and you know it. You would never intentionally hurt someone's feelings or overstep his/her boundaries. You have beautiful eyes.

Most people take your laid-back attitude, blazing wit and subtle sexiness and stick you in "friend." But some see your extreme hotness for what it is and latch on. This means you have a few members of your target sex in the bank at all times -- I call this "money in the sex bank" -- but you're too sensitive and thoughtful to exploit them. More than once.

You are so rational and deliberate in an argument that it can frustrate and exhaust your partner. Your fights can take forever, but your press on with them until they are completely resolved and both you and your partner are satisfied. If your partner is weak of will, s/he may just give in -- be wary of this! An emotional or passive-aggressive outburst later will hurt and horrify you.

It is *critically important* that you are able to respect your partner. The moment you lose respect for him/her, you lose everything.

When you make friends, you make them for life -- you can go without speaking to a friend for years and pick up right where you left off. You are completely faithful, both physically and emotionally. You are the second best (to XPIG) parent of any type.

I don't know what it is about these quizzes, I have to compulsively take them. By all means, keep them coming. :p

You are mRNA. You're brilliant, full of important, interesting information and you're a great friend to the people you care about. You may have sides to you that no one understands. But while you understand more than most people, you're only half-there most of the time.

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Cobb, David - Green Party (73%)
3. Nader, Ralph - Independent (73%)
4. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (67%)
5. Brown, Walt - Socialist Party (59%)
6. Badnarik, Michael - Libertarian (36%)
7. Bush, President George W. - Republican (24%)
8. Peroutka, Michael - Constitution Party (17%)

http://www.selectsmart.com/PRESIDENT/
I'd have thought I'd be a lot closer to the middle.

I am simultaneously amazed and puzzled by the slashdot crowd, the journal circle that seems to have its hub at FortKnox specifically.

Dang it, I had this whole thing in my mind that I was going to write about, but after I started typing it came out all wrong. It feels like one of those dreams where you come up with a stunning idea, then when you try to implement it, it either doesn't make sense or has some serious flaws.

Anyway, I had wanted to jump into this journal discussion, but by the time I saw it, it was fifty-five comments deep. The conversations that go on between those who claim association with a monotheistic religion(that's my attempt at a diplomatic description) and those who mark atheism or agnosticism as their creed are really what I wanted to make this JE about. I fall into the first crowd, but I generally stay away from messageboard discussions when the topic of religion arises. I've seen very few occurrences of this phenomenon that could be called civil.

I'm going nowhere fast here, but I guess I just wanted to say that I find this circle of people to be very rare, because they manage to be mostly civil (except in politics, ouch).

Yeah, I guess that's all. I wish that I could capture my thoughts better, but this will have to do.

I thought I'd try cross-posting something from my site. Some people found this humorous, heaven help them.

Having never worked in an office environment before, I have no way to judge the level of Nerdliness that permeates the group here. I do know that if we were put in charge of the world, things would be run very differently. I'm not saying we'd solve all the world's problems, but we could probably create a whole bunch of new ones. While our company is not particularly large, it's very clear where the lines of group chemistry fall. Johnny Elbows, Sideshow, Radar, Mother, Uncle Walt, and I (the Angry Man a.k.a. the Mad Giggler) are a very close-knit group. If one member doesn't make it into work, it throws off the whole balance for the day. Today is shaping up to be frighteningly unbalanced, since three of the guys are yet to make it in. My penchant for following tangents to their illogical conclusions will get me into trouble someday.

Balance issues aside, we have a tradition of eating lunch together. I'm not sure when it started exactly, because I used to have a lunch group with people from my ward. The less said about that the better, but at some point, the idea must have carried over to the Crazy Guys group. No one actually calls us that, I just made it up on the spot. Mental note: bring up naming our group at lunch today. On a side note, we did actually come up with an idea for a comic book where each of us had special powers, but I don't think we'd given our team of superheroes a name.

Anyway, each day about 11:30, somebody mentions that they're hungry. Depending on the proximity of payday, the conversation that ensues varies between two responses: "Well, where do you want to eat?" and "Let's all go downstairs and make sandwiches." The first response generally results in a trip to the mall. In either case, once the food is before us, the magic begins.

Sometimes it's a joke of very poor taste, other times it's the latest act of clumsiness, and there are even occasions where current events give it life, but each day the world-altering conversation starts to flow.
"Man! when are you guys going to see Napoleon Dynamite?!? I keep quoting it, but no one understands what I'm talking about! Gosh!"
"You would not believe the girls I met last night. I thought my jaw would have a major bruise the way it hit the floor."
"When are you going to finish your story? Three episodes a day just doesn't cut it."
"Dude, the Pats are going all the way, the Rams just don't have what it takes."
"The XSLT ribbon cable doesn't interface properly with the USB cooling fan and the CSS port." "HAHAHAHA!"
"The Simpsons is an amoral show." "No it's not, you're amoral." "What kind of ad hominem argument is that?" "You're an ad hominem."

I could go on, but I don't think it's necessary. Just reading through that tells me there are very few lunch groups more Nerdly than ours. If you know of one, let me know, so we can have a back-alley brawl, hopefully with the guys from PBS involved...

At what point do you know that there is no hope for you? Today, we were mocking the incorrect use of the word "literally" when someone mentioned littering. Then another guy said that if you littered books you'd be literally littering literature. So, I walked up to one of our friends who hadn't been in the room and handed him a book. Then I told him to throw it on the floor. Chaos (including high fives and clapping) ensued.

I'll try not to break my arm patting myself on the back. I don't remember if I mentioned this before (and can't be bothered with searching through journals past to verify it), but I created a website for my apartment back in February. I did most of the work myself, but my (now former) roommate who is a web programmer helped out from time to time. It's nothing spectacular, but all along we've struggled to find something to keep people coming back to it.

At first we thought that putting up party announcements would get people filling up our logs, but the parties kind of dried up a few months back. Then, I created a mailing list for friends to get together downtown to eat lunch. That's just led to more inconvenience to me rather than an increase in traffic. Finally, a few weeks ago, a thought occurred to us that seems to be working out. Since I gave up any pretense at regularly posting journal entries here at Slashdot, I thought it would be a great idea to start over with twice-a-week articles on our website. My friend was supposed to help by posting at least one article a week, but so far, it looks like one a month will be it.

In any case, I've now successfully posted at least two articles a week for three weeks. It was a close one this week, but Some Woman's Note-Passing saga provided the requisite inspiration for today's article.

In related news, my arm continues to be in danger due to our product nearing beta test. Yes, we were supposed to release on the 20th, but apparently the feature set we promised was insufficient. So now, we get to add more stuff and then get real people to start using it. I will give out as many free passes as I can to those interested in trying out our anti-spam solution.

According to one of my coworkers, "There's nothing sexier than a woman using a Mac." As our release date of July 20 approaches, I continue to discover hidden depths of madness in those around me (including that funny-looking guy in the mirror). Outside my window, there is an alley, then another office building. In that office building, there is a window almost directly opposite mine. Through that window there is a very beautiful young woman. Our local Radar (or Ring Wraith, as he likes to be called) tells me that she is married. That's probably just as well, because finding the courage and opportunity to talk to her would exhaust vast resources of energy better put to use working. I'm not sure that she actually uses a Mac, but our office Mac-Daddy (he prefers the title Uncle Walt -- big Disneyland fan, worships Walt) was apparently looking at her when he uttered the profound statement leading off this journal entry.

I simultaneously love and loathe Gmail. Its interface is so beautiful, but our company is providing a webmail companion to our anti-spam email accounts. Comparing the two causes me no end of shame. I don't think that our client is really that bad; it's just that Gmail turns me into a hopelessly in love Geek. What can I say more?

Going back to the original theme of this entry (I'm not really sure what got me onto the Gmail thread), my co-workers are cool guys. There aren't a lot of us, so coming up with nicknames for everyone wasn't that tough. I'm the Mad Giggler, I sit next to Johnny Elbows, and he in turn sits next to Sideshow. In the dark corner of the next room sits Mother (a not-so-oblique reference to Sneakers). That reminds me of that movie The Avengers (based on an old television series) with Uma Thurman. I really liked that movie. It was very odd; the characters Mother and Father in particular were very amusing. I can't say that I cared for Sean Connery in that movie, though.

Since I seem to have succumbed to stream of consciousness writing, I might as well comment on the Slashdot's Most Eligible...um, thing. I can't say that I know Sol well enough to want to get involved in that, but the idea of having a Letter of Recommendation, so to speak, really piqued my interest. Perhaps it's my natural aversion to the spotlight, but I have a difficult time *selling* myself. Handing out a letter of recommendation to a prospective date seems like a really funny way to convince someone that an evening on the town might not be so bad. This requires more thought, so if I remember anything else that I was going to throw under the title Office Space, it'll have to go under Part Two.

I currently have 2 gmail invites, but I suspect that nearly everyone who wants one already has one. I love the interface, by the way, but I'm geeky like that.

I think I'm a little too excited by this NBA draft thing, especially considering how poorly prepared for professional ball most of the potential draftees look so far. All the trade rumours floating around (most involving moving up or down in the draft) have got me looking like a *gossip-monger*. Thankfully football season starts soon, so I can satisfy the sports part of my brain with something yummy (baseball just isn't my thing, sorry).

Wow, it's been a while since I talked video games, so let's just get right into that. Currently playing:

• PC (WinXP)
• Counter-Strike (still)
• Icewind Dale
• Neverwinter Nights (with roommate)
• UT2004 (but not as much lately)

• XBox
• Crimson Skies
• Came back and finished KotOR

• Game Boy Advance
• Fire Emblem (it got tough)
• Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga

I'm currently looking forward to actually playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It's been sitting on my desk for close to two months, but I swore I wouldn't start it until I'd beaten Fire Emblem. I realize from looking at that list, that I should be more worried about finishing those games than thinking about future releases, but I can't help but be geekily excited for The Sims 2. I'm also apparently more insane for RPGs than previously thought. City of Heroes and Mario Golf Advance Tour (a golf rpg of all things!) are looking very tempting.

Ok, good to get that out of my system, but now this entry is starting to look perilously long. Work has been a lot of good and bad lately. I really like programming and stretching myself a little, but some of the other things going on here are not so fun. I guess that's the joy of working for a start-up company. I remember the days when I couldn't understand why you'd want a guy exclusively devoted to database design and maintenance. Man, that's funny. I also seem to recall thinking that javascript was a silly little by-product of browsers. Now when I see the GMail interface, I'm dutifully impressed.

Ok, I think that I've put enough into this pensieve for today.

About two and a half years ago when I was prepping for my final semester of college, I signed up for a web programming class. The course would mostly be using Java (applets, servlets, swing, etc, etc,), and although I'd been programming mostly in PHP at work, I figured it would be a breeze. The homework assignments were, the exams were not (due to never ever bothering to attend the lectures). In the last couple of months, I have discovered once again that web programming is more involved than it looks on the surface. I really hate it when I underestimate a project. The good side of things is that I still have a job and that I'm a lot better at it.

If we ever actually launch our product, I'll post a link here for everyone to try it out. The last I heard, our marketing department was still going ahead with a "free for Linux users" campaign. I'm not sure if free means free for a year, for two years, or for as long as we're in charge of the company, but I do know that the last I heard we were counting pretty heavily on viral marketing to move this thing.

Is anyone else as displeased with Firefox 0.9 as I am? I mean I know I'm critiquing free software and that it's not even to a full 1.0 release yet, but that themes manager sucks eggs. And where's the support for users (not developers)? Maybe I should apply my vast repertoire of web programming skills to helping out the team. ;)

I actually had more I was going to say, but everything I've posted so far is related to web stuff, and I'm so rarely that coherent in my posts, I'd hate to ruin it.

I left the theater about seven hours ago, and although I'm not sure how things went while I was sleeping, I can assure you that my waking hours have been marked by a seemingly permanent grin.

The third movie takes liberties with the source like nobody's business, but it makes for what is, in my opinion, a superb movie. If you saw X-Men2, you may remember the scene at the beginning where Nightcrawler goes shooting through the White House. Bang! he's there. Bang! now he's over there. Bang! he just kicked my face in. To me, this movie felt like it was set at that pace the whole way through. It moved from one scene to another so fast that I just kind of sat in my seat catching my breath when it ended. So, I would say that overall, I was very, very pleased.

One disclaimer, I did walk out of the theater just seven hours ago (I'm headed back in about 10 minutes), so if you've been reading my journal for a while, you may be aware that I tend to give fairly glowing reviews for Fantasy/Comic book movies. Even more so directly after seeing them.

They are, according to Penny Arcade, the apex of feline sleepwear. Unfortunately, my unnamed new friend has yet to acquire this artifact. I brought her home from the animal shelter last night, and I've already decided that parenting would be bad for my health. When I went to bed (long before my roommates), she was curled up on A.'s lap while he played Counter-Strike. When I woke up this morning, I couldn't find her anywhere. Due to my usual mental state at that early hour, I went to work assuming that I was just too tired to see.

Several hours later, my roommate rolled out of bed and up to his desk. Then the dragoncortez style panic kicked in. "We can hear her, but we can't find her." So, to make the panic subside, I convinced myself that they were looking and that she would turn up sooner rather than later. An hour later I ask if they have found her. "No, and I'm starting to get worried." Ok, so when they actually got up to look, she was just behind the entertainment center. Panic unnecessary, stress unwarranted.

In other news, I haven't posted anything here for a while. I finally asked that girl from Toronto out. The first date went okay. Asking for a second date resulted in the type of confusion only dating can produce. First, the response was "Sure, Saturday should be fine." Then, it changed to, "I was really surprised you called; I didn't think we had hit it off." Finally, "You know, I don't think this is such a good idea. We just don't have that much in common." Alrighty then, I'll just have to find someone who will require less for a second date.

I had this great plan where I was going to post an entire entry in Spanish to show off my mad fluency. When that happens, you the loyal readers will be the first to know. :)

Is it just me or did a bunch of FortKnox's journal entries disappear? In particular there was one about a solution to the moderation problem that was most definitely wiped off the map...

I do have one theory: with LG posting again, FK went into a fit of rage and started deleting all his JEs. Let me know what you think.

Update (2 minutes later): I take it back, I can only see the one missing now...

That's an interesting Doors song, but the Doors are a topic for one of my classic rock lectures (yet to be written). Actually, that was the best title I could come up with for talking about Hellboy (notice the downgrade from "review", they take too much work).

I liked Hellboy a lot. I should probably see it again before trying to give any objective analysis, but I'll treat you to some of my biases instead. The whole idea of some demon-spawn being raised by a religious good guy to fight evil is very appealing to me, so if that type of thing isn't for you, you probably won't enjoy this movie all that much. My other bias: I really like Selma Blair, so I tend to view movies with her in a more favorable light. It's just one of those things. Plus, bonus! she's a firestarter. I mean, how cool is that? (I know, I know, there seems to be at least one in every comic book universe, I mean I grew up on Spiderman and his amazing friends Iceman and Firestar. Oh, and sorry, Mr. Morrison, that's the reason behind the title.)

So with further ado sure to come, let me say that this film is very well executed. It doesn't pretend to be high drama or a startling revelation on the state of mankind; it does deliver lots of stuff blowing up/being smashed. The dialogue for the most part is quite humorous, e.g. Hellboy discussing relationships with a 9 year old kid was great. "She took his picture!" By the way, Ron Perlman is just awesome as Hellboy.

Things that may limit your ability to enjoy this movie include: a secret government agency dealing with the paranormal; yet another comic book movie; a few little things seemingly lifted directly from Muppets in Space of all things; Nazis doin' their supernatural thang. Aside from that, I can't think of much to dislike about this movie.

Sorry, no discussion of Pretty in Pink (you've all probably already seen it anyway). I ended up spending the evening in Sigil. Maybe this time I'll make some progress worth talking about.