The Sparrow Nest

>мебелиleaving for a while.

I’m moving my blog and all of its hip and current content. I know you’ll miss me because I post so frequently. I’m sure you’ll summon the patience.

Thanks for your understanding.

I’m still here. I’ve been unmotivated and too busy to write a post…for 89 days.

I’ve been busy:

• buying a new, ghost free, home
• making last minute repairs on our old home before putting it on the market (read: polishing the turd)
• selling our old home
• helping the 4 other household members deal with the stress of school
• working (duh!)
• teaching a class on Hibernate…shut up!
• trying to get Comcast to unfuck my “triple play” service - 45 days without a home phone
• going on the best vacation ever

To quote Sweet Tea — “Waaaaaa!”

Anyway, I’m back.

An open letter to the digital video/codec industry:

Dear Assclowns:

May you all burn in eternal hellfire.

Sincerely,

JC Mann

I borrowed a digital video camera so that I could record my son’s talent show act. It was a cheap, $100, no-name device, but it was better than nothing at all. I recorded the act without any problems. I brought the camera home and plugged it into my computer using the “specially designed” USB cable (Yes, you special-cable-connector-designin’-assclowns are next).

I opened the .mov file to view my masterpiece. QuickTime started playing the video immediately…sans video. While I listened to the audio, QuickTime presented me with a window containing a completely white canvas. Thanks QT. Good work. Onto other players. MPlayer? Same thing. I tried VLC, and it worked…but not without spewing tons of warning messages about the codec! Grinning like an idiot, I watched my son’s act in all its splendor, rendered in grainy low-resolution video accompanied by tinny mono audio. What an age we live in.

It’s hard to imagine what goes on at these big technology companies that produce our wonderful consumer electronics.

This winter weather we’re having has me longing for summer. Which reminds me of an annual argument my wife and I have sometime in the middle of June.

I come home from work and see that my beautiful wife has been burnt to a crisp by Mr. Sun.

And so my thoughts are littered with images of Sherry at the beach with her grandchildren. Mmmmm. GILF.

In an effort to better understand me, Charlie found this article: Caring for Your Introvert.

The article really hits the spot. After reading it I didn’t feel like such a freak.

“In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially “on,” we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing.”

Yup. That’s about right. For me, just replace “recharge” with “play Quake.”

The article was written to help extroverts comprehend that not everyone is the same as them. I don’t think Charlie paid much attention while reading it. I think he just thinks it’s funny, which it is, but it’s loaded with valuable information. He continues to not understand that I don’t see the point of small talk. Or that slapping me on my shoulder somehow goes from not acceptable to acceptable, if you just do it enough times.

Grande? I changed the layout. No comments? It’s narrower now.

I have to so say this is a first for me. I’ve never been too wide for anyone.

Now you can view it on your cellphone.

You’re welcome.

A brand new look

I’ve made some cosmetic changes. Duh! I hope you like them. Deppen, I’m sorry to introduce so much change at one time. We’ll get through this together.

As you can see, I’m having some trouble creating an icon that I like. I’ll get it…just give me some time.

Member’s Only (sorry, no jackets)

I’m been receiving a ton of spam (splog). I guess it was only a matter of time. I’ve decided to use the chalkdust approach: member logins. I don’t like it, but for now, this is how it’s gotta be. I’ve setup accounts for the usual visitors. If you haven’t received your account information, it is probably because of one or more reasons:

• I just forgot about you.
• I don’t have your email address.
• You’ve never posted a comment, so I didn’t see the point.
• I don’t want you to have an account.

If you would like an account, just email me. If you don’t know my email address or can’t figure out what it is, then you probably shouldn’t be asking for an account.

The AQ Test: 31 (Of course 31 is definitely not 32. Definitely 31. Bang! 97-X!)
The Brain Speed: 44ms (1^st try), 34ms (2^nd try), 25ms (3^rd try)
The Nerd Test: 98%

Please don’t trust me. Chances are — I don’t trust you.

Why? There are so many reasons. Ummmm…how about…war. Here is a list of all of the wars started by those distrustful Atheists.

I updated the formatting of the comments. I hope you like the new look. Deppen kept complaining about the comments being difficult to read.

Deppen, with your approval, I’d like to update the status of this bug to “closed.”