Lucky Linus

While waiting at BCC today I finished reading Just for Fun, Linus Torvalds' autobiography.

The impressions it left me with were:

A. This guy is pathetic. He lived in his bedroom in his mother's apartment cut off from the rest of humanity for years working on his private little project. What a sad existence.

B. I am jealous. He lived in his bedroom in his mother's apartment cut off from the rest of humanity for years working on his private little project. What a carefree existence.


Anyhow, his private little project, Linux, took off and became a BIG DEAL. Now he's a millionare with a beautiful wife, three kids, a giant house by the beach and a BMW Z3.


I am still trudging through more scholarship and college applications. I have become convinced that the experience is almost identical to drowning in tar while everyone watches you flounder but is too busy or disinterested to help. The only difference is in one case it's your body that sinking in the other it's your hopes.

I guess I'm not really that depressed. I'm merely frustrated and tired. In a few months it will all be over, I'll be (hopefully) at the school of my dreams with a nice comfortable routine and a few years of breathing space before the next big hurdle... finding a career.

I'm a Bad Blogger

I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that I've been such a bum the last few weeks and haven't been posting or commenting much.

At first this was due to radical demotivation. This then slid into sickness, and now I've gotten busy.

I wish I could tell you that I'm about to mend my ways and start posting regularly again but things look like they'll be crazy for a little while longer.

Teleporting out of Prison

I was tagged by Woody of Whoppers and Popcorn. Here goes:

1)Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4: “And if the police do catch you how are they going to hang on to you if you can teleport out of prison?” - Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

2)Stretch your left arm out as far as you can and see what you touch: My Carheart jacket.

3) What is the last thing you watched on TV? I can't remember the last time I watched TV. It's been months at least.

4)Without looking, guess what time it is: 0615

5) Now look at the clock. What is the actual time? 0615! I guessed exactly right.

6) With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? “It's Killing Me” by dcTalk and my sister clumping around in the kitchen getting ready for school.

7)When did you last step outside? Yesterday, I went out and did some weeding for Mom.

8)Before you started this survey, what did you look at? Whoppers and Popcorn, the blog from which I accepted this tag.

9) What are you wearing? Polar fleece pants, t-shirt, polar fleece hoodie. (I have a fever and am trying to stay warm)

10) Did you dream last night? I'm not sure I slept last night. Everything is kind of a jumble.

11) When did you last laugh? Last night when my little brother said something funny.

12) What is on the walls of the room you are in? My bulletin board, some shelves.

13) Seen anything weird lately? Nothing comes to mind.

14) What do you think of this quiz? It's alright.

15) What is the last movie you saw? Zathura

16) If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy? A college education and real estate.

17) Tell me something about you that I don't know: I played the piano for four years but quit when I was twelve.

18) If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? I would allow people to live their lives without interference from governments.

19) Do you like to dance? No.

20) George Bush? I have mixed feelings about him. He seems to be a nice guy who tries to do the right thing but that doesn't mean he's a perfect president. Just look at Jimmy Carter, he was a nice guy and one of the worst presidents we've ever had. I agree with some of Bush's policies such as tax cuts and disagree with others such as his support for prescription drug care.

21) Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? I'm not sure

22) Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him? Picking out baby names years before marriage isn't really a guy thing.

23) Would you ever consider living abroad? I'd consider it, although I can't think of anywhere else I'd want to live.

24) What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates? Well done good and faithful servant, come and share in your Master's happiness.

Just to be different, I'll tag all of the parents who read my blog. I'll list a few but if you're reading this and a parent feel free to accept a tag even if you're not listed.

Bugblaster of Chez Kneel

Randi of I Have to Say

Radical One of Favorite Sister's Thoughts

Mama and Me of Crafty Girls

Sick

It's a bit after five in the morning and I am sitting in front of my computer.

I hate getting up early but last night was so miserable that I decided to cut it short by getting up.

This sickness has kind of caught me by surprise. I usually get sick only once a year. Each December, in the first or second week, I get a headache, fever and start to feel really lethargic. I began to feel extremely cold; no matter what I do I can't get warm. This lasts for a day or two and then the headache fades and is replaced by congested sinuses, a sore throat and joint pain that makes me feel like I'm ninety years old. After two or three more days the fever, sore throat and joint pain disappear. I know this is about to happen when instead of feeling super cold I feel hot. About this time the lethargy also goes away. Unfortunately, even after the biggest symptoms are gone the stuff nose and plugged up sinuses remain. They often plague me for weeks.

I was afflicted with this sickness every year for four years. Last December(2005), I was expecting to get sick but I never did.

I guess the bug decide to come late this year. I've been feeling a bit lethargic and have had a scratchy throat and runny nose for the last couple days but I thought it was just a minor cold.

Last night as soon as I laid down to go to sleep, my head filled with mucus so that I couldn't breathe thtough my nose at all. This kept me awake and I soon began to feel the familiar coldness coming over me. This time however, a few new symptoms have popped up. I have a horrible twisted feeling in the pit of my stomach and diarrhea.

I've spent the night tossing and turning, finding comfort to be elusive. A bit before five, I realized that there was no way I'd be able to get anymore sleep. I thought that I might as well get up and let my sinuses drain. So here I am sitting in front of my computer whining into the blogsphere.

Olympic Fever

Have you found yourself yelling at the T.V. lately, cheering on champions of international justice hitting bricks with brooms? Do you think that people sliding on their backsides down icey tracks will generate world peace? Congratulations! You have a Olympic Fever.

Olympic Fever is a disease. As Kyle Smith outlines in his column today in the Wall Street Journal, the Olympics are not a noble ceremony with a history of uniting the globe. On the contrary, a look at Games past shows them to be filled with racism, terrorism, corruption and other assorted hatred.

If you have Olympic Fever you probably think it matters who can ski down a hill faster. But really what does this prove? Does it show that the athlete and thereby their nation is more virtuous than any other? I really don't think so. Does the performance of a country's athletes prove the relative genetic superiority of its citizens? That was the idea of the Nazis in 1936.

Even if a person wins one of those gold medals (composed mostly of silver) the glory of the victory is degraded by the long track record of cheating and bribery. The use of drugs and avoidance of getting busted has been a key component of Olympics strategy for more than a hundred years. Did you think that the obvious cheating at the 2002 figure skating judging was a new phenomenom? It wasn't.

I don't want to paraphrase Mr. Smith's article so I won't list off all his examples of dishonesty. I encourage you all to read his article for a detailed account of past scandals.

Mr. Smith appeared today on the Michael Medved Show to talk about his article and Mr. Medved brought up another interesting Olympic failure. I had always thought that the Olympics was a big money maker but according to facts Mr. Medved cited the Games are actually a big money loser for their host cities. Athens and Atlanta being recent examples of cities that were damaged economically by their Olympic spending.

So in the final balance to we get something out of all the money, time and attention that is poured into the Olympics or are its benefits as mythical as the gods of Mount Olympus for whom the ancient counterparts of the current games were performed? I think that when all the evidence is examined it is clear that we should end the farce and spend the worlds energy elsewhere.

Torture!

My sister has started playing the violin. The sounds emitted from the instrument are like those of an animal impaled on a red hot poker. Our house is too small to escape from the piercing sound. I might go insane.

SAD Day

I got up really early this morning and went along with my little sister to BCC to attend the annual Singles Appreciation Day celebration. Unfortunately, I realized half way there that I had forgotten the game I was supposed to bring.

Little Sis had three hours of classes before the party so I decided to stake out our spot in the A Lounge. Upon arriving, I found, much to my dismay, that the room was reserverd until 2 hrs. after the planned start of our party. I retreated to the N Lounge. I brought the book How to Stay Christian in College (featured in the sidebar) and I literally read it in one sitting. I sat down and started on Page 1 and did not stand up before I finished the last page.

With a little difficulty and a few cell calls we were able to regroup in N but the other people bringing games didn't arrive for more than an hour. It was a disappointing start.

Things got better when the games arrived and we relocated to the R Lounge. We played 5 games of Apples to Apples. It was a great deal of fun, especially since I won twice.

Anyway that's how it went.



Ugh! My writings is awful today. It must be the dreaded Early-morning/Late-night syndrome. Maybe I'll pretty it up tomorrow.

Rabenstrange in Love

I saw an add on a bus today that had me cheering. It showed a guy in a t shirt with the phrase "Stop Giving a bully your lunch money. / openoffice.org".

I am a BIG fan of Open Office and other free open source software. I recommend that those of you who don't have it, Get Open Office Now. It is an absolutely free Microsoft Office equivalent. It includes all of the major features except the multi-hundred dollar price tag.

Apprently Sun Microsystems, the main sponsors of the Open Office project have bought up all the advertising space on the busses that service Redmond (For you non-Washingtonians, Redmond is a suburb of Seattle and the world home of Microsoft.) to ridicule the company and its overpriced software.

They have several slogans including:

Pick a vendor, any vendor.
We do windows too.
Compatible with closed, overpriced, memory hogging software.
By the People, For the people.


Now I want to find out where I can buy the shirts.

The add I actually saw was the one pictured above showing a maroon shirt but it was actually in an exterior format like the one below instead of the interior one like the picture. Hopefully, that wasn't too opaque.

SAD Eve

Tomorrow is Singles Appreciation Day. I am hosting a party for my friends and some of their friends at Bellevue Community College.

I'll be getting up around six to catch a ride over to the school so I must cut this post short and get busy sleeping.

Media Review: The Pink Panther

After church this afternoon a few of my friends and I went to see the Pink Panther.

We had been anticipating this movie for several months. I can't speak for the rest of the guys but I'm a big fan of Steve Martin. His humor might not stimulate my wit but he can make me laugh until my eyes get teary.

I think this movie is one of his best so far, ranking right up there with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Sargeant Bilco.

Martin plays a bumbling police detective who is appointed to solve a high profile murder. His machiavellian boss wants Martin's charachter to muck up the case so that when he takes over the case he will look superior by comparison. The results are hilarious.

As for the films morale fiber, it is comprable to Steve Martin's other PG titles. It contains several negative implications but there's no explicitly bad content.

Snowday!

Today, our family drove up to Snoqualmie pass to play in the snow. The snow day was sponsored by our church so there were alot of families there including a bunch of my little Ranger Kid buddies.

It was a lot of fun.

Like most males in my age group I occasionally feel the urge to do something stupid, particularly when surrounded by my peers. Fortunately, in my case such compulsions are rare and I lack usually lack the initiative to figure out something really stupid and implement it. Today was different.

I had the bright idea to challenge all of the guys between the age of 7 and 20 to join me in trying to see how many people we could put on a single medium sized intertube and slide down the hill. We would pile brave souls on crisscross across the tube then someone, usually me, would push the tube until it gained enough momentum to slide on its own at which point the pusher would quickly jump on top.

We had a nice smooth hill and a good tube so we were able to go pretty fast. It was loads of fun.

By this point you are probably wondering, "So how many people did this maniac con onto the tube?"

I am proud to say that we successfully made it to the bottom of the hill with nine people. When the tube reached the bottom of the hill the tube stopped. The people on top of the tube did not. We all went pinwheeling through the snow accumulating a few minor scratches and bruises.

We did a dozen or two runs ranging from 5 to 9 people on the tube at a time. No one was seriously injured and everyone had a blast. Thank you guardian angels for that miracle.

Personally, I think it was a very successful adventure. I've acquired a fun story to tell over and over again until I find something better for the small cost of all the hair on Bob's forearms. A bargain if I ever saw one.



This picture I pulled off Google gives a general idea of what happened to us, just imagine two or three times as many people spread over a wider area.

Rocket Update

Once again I just sat down and did it with no restarts.

Tagged Again!

I was tagged by Radicalone08. I may have already done this one but since I don't remember here goes:

10 Years ago:
I was eight years old and things were less complicated. I had a really cool trench system that I dug in the back yard for playing army.

5 Years ago:
I was 13. Predictably junior high was an awkward time.

1 Year ago:
I was still at BCC and expected to be there for another year.

Yesterday:
Got up late, did my daily Bible readings, worked on some scholarships. It was a slow day.

5 Songs I know all the words to (well maybe not ALL but can definitely sing along):
Pressing On – Relient K
Breathing - Lifehouse
Jesus Freak - DC Talk

His Cheeseburger - Mr. Lunt
Life of a Salesman - Yellowcard

5 Things I'd do with a million dollars:
Go to Columbia University.
Buy real estate
Invest heavily
Tithe
Give to my favorite charities... The Salvation Army and Focus on the Family

5 Things I'd never wear:
A mini-skirt
Nose Ring
Strech pants
Che Guevera shirt
Platform shoes


5 Favorite toys:
My wonderful and ever so caring comp, Gwen
My paintball gun
Books
Blog
Lego never gets old.

5 Favorite books or TV shows:
The Bible
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – R. A. Heinlein
War of Honor – David Weber
Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
Firefly – Josh Whedon

5 Greatest Joys:
Jesus Christ
Family
Friends
High-speed internet access
Reading

5 People I tag:
The first five people who read it and haven't done it already.

Rocket Mania

Today I indulged myself in one of my old addictions. That's right I played Rocket Mania. I was able to restrain myself to a single game. Here's my score, first game for six months, with no restarts:



Not bad if I do say so myself. Feel free to beat it and embarrass me with your unbelievably high scores.

Initial Review... Check

My application to the University of Washington has made it past the initial review.

While this isn't that big of an accomplishment it means that things are finally moving. After a month and a half of waiting they have finally started to actually read the applications.

Hopefully, it won't be too much longer before I get my acceptance letter.

Another Option

Tonight I went to an information session for Columbia University.

One of their admissions managers contacted me a week ago and invited me to come to a meeting at the Fairmont Olympic. While I had no intention of actually attending Columbia but I thought it would be pretty neat to apply and get accepted. I might be revealing my vanity to say this but I thought it was worth it just for the bragging rights. Not everyone can say that they were accepted at an Ivy League school.


Anyhow, Mom, Dad and I all went downtown to the Fairmont. I was a little nervous being that it's the poshest hotel in the Seattle. We showed up at the Senate room, ate all the expensive tasting snacks and listened to their representative.


As the evening progressed, I lost a lot of false preconceptions and learned alot of interesting and useful information. Columbia University while very expensive does not constrain its services to trust fund kids. They have alot of programs set up to streamline the admissions process and help meet the financial needs of applicants. I like the programs they offer and as they said, "That blueblood special advantage stuff you here... it's real." A degree from Columbia, especially if you're involved on campus, opens alot of doors that might otherwise be closed, locked and barricaded.

After talking things over with their admissions guy and my parents I've decided to make a strong effort to get in. It'll provide a little diversity to my university options and if it all falls through, at least I'll still have the bragging rights.

*Update*
I was having more problems with my comments but they should be fixed now.

Ranger Night

(I blurred the guys faces because I didn't feel like getting permission for every single boy)

Since it's Wednesday, I went to Ranger Kids.

My boys were unusually unruly tonight.