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Rock Star alter egos are growing in numbers
"You're forming a fake band -- that's what you do," says Sadri, calling the game "the best part of karaoke, adding in a drummer and guitars."
The Magpie Developer
Jeff Atwood is one of the best programmer/writers around. I love reading his stuff, some I agree wholeheartedly with, other stuff we disagree, but this post is about a dead-on as they come. This idea has been floating in my head for a long time, but it is hard for me to conceptualize it in words, Atwood does a brilliant job at it. Must read for any developer.
Andy Olmsted's Last Blog Entry.
(Warning: Pretty rough) No matter how you feel politically about the war, this reminds you that each number people throw around as statistics is a human life. This is extremely well written, and pretty rough on your soul towards the end, but something everyone should read. Its a shitty situation all around, but there is always a human face behind the statistics and I want to make sure I never forget that.
LSU scared of the prospect of some Moreno action?
Photos of Abandoned Swimming Pools
9 Things You Didn't Know About Rockband.
Drinking stories that put yours to shame
Via Keith


To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.



Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood.
making vodka pills in 24 hours
Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.' I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms.
Strategy Letter VI - joelonsoftware.com
As a programmer, thanks to plummeting memory prices, and CPU speeds doubling every year, you had a choice. You could spend six months rewriting your inner loops in Assembler, or take six months off to play drums in a rock and roll band, and in either case, your program would run faster. Assembler programmers don’t have groupies.

Entire Article is Dead On. A must read for anyone in the software biz.
Mystery illness strikes after meteorite hits Peruvian village




 
 
 
 


(Saturday, July 2)

Mes Del Agua


This is a picture of the last beer I will drink until the end of July. It was drank at 11:58 (in under a min) on July 1st. Today is the day I begin an idea that I had on the way home tonight. In this idea/endeavor traveling with me are my wife, Richie and Andy (maybe). Our goal is for the month of July (until Aug 2nd) not to put any liquid into our body besides water. For me personally this means my personal daily routine of: Pot of Coffee into the thermos for work. 4-5 Diet Lime/Coke Zero's during the day Rum and Coke or Beer(s) at night are all out. Although some people may look at this like it really isn't that big of a deal, personally my body is going to go from a mass amount of coffee/caffeine *upper* and fair amount of alcohol *downer* a day, to absolutely zero amount of this within a period of about 2 mins (11:58) to midnight on the 2nd. I honestly cannot tell everyone with full conviction that I think I will be able to keep this goal, but I sure as hell am going to try. The rules are pretty clear, no liquid introduced to the body until midnight Aug 1st/2nd that is not water. Propel and water with lemon have all been agreed upon as ok for consumption, but crystal light is right out. Nothing besides water. Period. Here begins "Mes Del Agua" . I will post an update everyday about the shit my body goes through, and also a weight/body fat/wake up feeling that is associated with each day. I have heard people say it is the best you have ever felt not drinking carbonated drinks, but I have also heard people say that the headaches associated with caffeine withdrawal are a bitch. So I will shoot you the honest truth during my journey. I am sure my wife, Richard and Andy will also. Cheers.


Brainstorm it:

Good luck! I really want to do something similar (but also restricting certain foods) but always end up cheating. Maybe ya'll will inspire me.

Also, you should be able to drink those Vitamin Water things, too, right? Love those.

Good luck Eric, Lindz, Richard, Andy! I kicked caffeine and carbonated drinks back in college after a doctor recommended it. I had such bad stomach pains, that I thought I was dying. I feel better now.

The caffeine withdrawals are no joke. The headaches are intense and I was tired as hell. But, as I recall, they don't last too long. Maybe a day or so after your body realizes whats going on.

Don't tell the doc, but sometimes I cheat and have a rum and coke, or 10.

Good luck to you. However, I'd invest in a large bottle of Advil or Aleve. Those caffine withdrawal headaches are really dibilitating.

The best thing I ever did was switch to half-caff coffee for a couple of months. Then I weened it down to about a 1/4-caff coffee for a couple of months. At that point, I was about drop caffinated coffee all together.

That's pretty hardcore man. Mingaling pointed out the biggest problem, in that most of the successful diets require a built in cheat day every now and then. Probably one of the best things I've done is simply cut out any drinks with sugar in them. There's just something not right about consuming a transparent liquid that contains about 300 calories.

...unless it's beer.

I don't know what kind of beer you drink, but no beer I've ever seen is transparent.
 Your Thoughts?







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Travis - The Boy With No Name
Travis is back. I wouldn't say I hated 12 memories, it was meant to be very political, I just thought it went a little overboard and was somewhat preachy. Then when the greatest hits CD came out to be honest I was really hoping it didn't mean the end to one of my favorite brit bands. Boy With No Name is everything they were capable of. Supurb CD all the way through. Every song is brilliant. Big Chair is probably my favorite song and the opening to the CD on 3 Times is as good as it gets in music imho.
Pop! Why Bubbles are Great For The Economys (Gross)
One of the better economic books I have read in while, where the author gets their premise across in a well written, clear and concise manner. Basically Gross believes that the infrastructure left over after economic bubbles, provides companies with the ability to move forward (maybe more than the original bubble did). Not a hard read, I would definitely suggest it for a day and the beach/lake.
Feist - The Reminder
I CANNOT GET "I feel it all" OUT OF MY HEAD. Period. Great album, angelic voice.
Catan - Xbox Live Arcade
I am hopelessly addicted to this board-turned-video game on the xbox360. I had never played the board game but had seen it being played in some comic shops growing up. Click the Pick and play the demo, it isn't the 360 interface, but same game.
Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worse Nightmare
No Sophomore slump here. Just as good (if not better) than Whatever they Say.
Beautiful Evidence (Tufte)
Tufte reads like a text book, most people would say bleh, but the information about "information" that he can deliver is top notch. My first Tufte book was "A Visual Display To Quantitative Information" and it was extremely well done, albeit confusing at time. I think beautiful Evidence is a little easier of a read (I am still only half way through it) and a little easier for myself to understand the ideas he is presenting..
Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
Fountains of Wayne are the Gods of pop music. If Welcome Interstate Managers was a collection of short stories in song form, then Traffic and Weather is an even better collection with more humor. I already feel like CNN has the hottest female anchors, imagining them throwing their lust around like the Title track to the CD makes it even better.
Game of Thrones (Martin)
I started this book assuming it was going to be a high fantasy novel. Elfs, Dragons, Magic and the like. It isn't. It IS fantasy but more surrounding the politics and cunning of a few high ranking families. Incest, Murder, Intrigue, unscrupulous midgets. It has it all and more.

 
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.
© Copyright 2003-2007, Eric Thompson