Category Archives: I <heart> robots

Huh. I’m a little confused by my cloud. I have a blog post that reviewed Napoleon Dynamite, and I described the sweet early-90’s fishbone braid one of the characters rocked. Why that particular term has been snatched by the robots, I don’t know.

WoOt. Thanks to Graver’s tip (a text-message service that tells you when stores in your area get shipments of the Wii) I am a proud owner of a Wii. (For those of you who don’t know what it is, and are too lazy to click on the Wikipedia link, the Wii is a animatronic Shetland pony that is a combination Roomba/dishwasher. Just kidding. It’s a tattoo that uses glitter embedded under the epidermis.)

Yesterday, Jason got a text that Wii was at Circuit City. We called, and they told us they’d have them for Sunday. They said that they open at 10, but would hand out vouchers at 9 a.m. I took Jason to the airport this morning, and was back in town standing in front of Circuit City by 8:30. I was fourth in line. The CC flier said “minimum shipment of 10”, so we weren’t sure how many people were going to get their Wiis.

The girl in the photo let me sit on her blanket, which was nice because I was in my pjs (cat-hair-covered ninja pants and hoodie) having not considered that I’d need to stand outside. It began to sleet at 8:45, and by this time there were about 13 people in the line. At ten till, a bunch of people showed up. At 9:05 the smug CC employees came to pass out vouchers. I got my vouchers, waved goodbye to my temporary line friends, and went to IHOP to warm up, eat breakfast, and wait till the store opened.

(Sidenote: I had the double cinnamon swirl french toast, and it was very much like eating the insides of a cinnamon roll, which was fantastic.)

So now I’m at home, warm and full of cinnamon goo, with this Wii staring at me. I’ve started reading reviews of games, and I think my game plan is to figure out one that I know Jason and I will love and buy it. I’m pretty sure that’s going to be Warioware: Smooth Moves. I’ll rent others before deciding to buy.

Wednesday, I will have two of my favorite people (numbers 7 and 12) visiting!

(I’ve just finished Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs, so my humor level is set at CRUEL.

We’re going to play Bohnanza and watch whales and eat food. I cannot wait. Oh, and I do not have a ranked list of my favorite people. You’re either in or out.

I always read Ex Libris (it’s written by my favorite non-blood-relation librarian), and Marylaine’s “cool quote” was from WorldChanging.com.

yoink!

“According to one map-making friend, creating walkshed maps… would be a relatively simple Google Maps “Mash Up.” Anyone know of such a tool? Anyone volunteer to do this project? I’d love to have a detailed map stowed in the “glove box” of our Burley of all 248 businesses in my home zone. Ideally, I would want a walking map or PDA application that shows me the whereabouts of public restrooms, water fountains, bike racks, curb cuts, bus stops, and benches.” Worldchanging

So then I went to WorldChanging, because I already have a tote bag from them (thanks ALA conference!) and am on their mailing list.

This made me think about my idea to catalog all the climbing trees in Champaign. I thought I could use GPS data, digital photographs, and Google Maps to put it together.

So from WorldChanging I went to Bycycle, and was only slightly frustrated to find out that they only have Philly, Portland, and Milwaukee.

So five minutes later, whilst reading Lifehacker, I spied Bikely – a bike route map site. I figured it would be like Google Maps, where you’d need GPS data to show routes.

NOPE! You use Google Maps, but you just click in the intersections. I signed up immediately, and made a map of my commute to class. It shows the distance, and I tagged it with commute, urban, basic, and low-traffic. It’s my new fascination. I encourage other bikers in Champaign (who happen to read my blog, ahem, Sasha, ahem, Laurie) to log route. I want to see how you get places!
Normal

It is not enough that there is always a beyond; because it might be beyond bearing.
He had,
so to speak,
the imagination without the imagery.
But in the final process of truth there is nothing else except a good syllogism.
They are those who maintain that there is something that is both Yes and No.
Unfortunately, good temper is sometimes more irritating than bad temper.
To be an extreme Realist would have taken him too near to being a Platonist. In
practice, they tol dmen that they must treat their will as free though it was not
free.
Francis,did not permit in his work the indescribable element of poetry. There are
all sorts of nursery games of negative philosophy played round this question. The
obvious example is in the pivotal word form.
Here he differs sharply, for instance, from St.
Nor will he say that there is nothing common to grass and grain, because they do really differ.
But we mean that they were purely fictitious; and St.
He had, so to speak, the imagination without the imagery. He will not deny what he
has seen, though it be a secondary and diverse reality.
But the point is that, even apart from being right he is real.
Francis,did not permit in his work the indescribable element of poetry.
But they did lead to a final deduction; or else they led to nothing. The Schoolmen
may have shot too far beyond our limits in pursuing the Cherubimand Seraphim. There
are any number of purple patches in Augustine; but thereare no purple patches in
Aquinas. If things deceive us, it is by being more real than they seem. But if he
reasoned rightly, however rapidly,he reasoned syllogistically.
But he wanted the light from without to shine on what was within.
He had been a revolutionist against Augustine and a traditionalist against Averrhoes.
But the truth is that they have never read St. Is he to regard death as final;and is
he to regard miraculous help as possible? But the point is that, even apart from
being right he is real.
I do not know whether they pronounce it Yo.
Therefore my body is made of microscopic little knobs which are indivisible.
Johnson as our lexicographer; as if he never did anything but write a dictionary?
Suppose two entirely new paths open before the progress of Creative Evolution.
Thomas, had he been a member of the Tip-Cat Club, would have meant just the opposite.
Johnson as our lexicographer; as if he never did anything but write a dictionary?
The Thomist begins by being theoretical,but his theory turns out to be entirely
practical. Huxley made morality, and even Victorian morality, in the exactsense,
supernatural.
He is arguing for a common sense which would even now commend itself to most of the
common people.
The Pragmatist sets out to be practical, but his practicality turns out to be entirely
theoretical. Thomas Aquinas himself is not at all rhetorical.

Here is a tutorial on how to make an RFID-blocking wallet out of aluminum foil and duct tape. If you don’t want robots coming to find you, you should make one PRONTO.

I have no advice for a zombie-blocking wallet just now. Let me think about it.