Out

I'm going to Nashville for my cousin's wedding.
I'll update after I get back on Monday of next week.
With pictures. I hope. KF

Walk in the National Park

Last weekend was the start of the annual DC Cherry Blossom Festival. I've always liked the festival, and it's always been a lot of fun. Except last year when there was that cold snap at the start of April that killed off most of the blossoms. That was just depressing.

But this time! I went over with two others, S and A. Besides being able to walk around and see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin and the rest of the National Mall, today was also the kite-flying day. And, the air was full of them:

This picture doesn't really do it justice. Though, to be fair, I forgot my camera and had to get these photos from S. Part of the impetus for exploration that day involved getting enough batteries for said camera. But there were still some decent shots:

Besides the trees around the Tidal Basin, we also took a look at a few of the monuments along the way: the FDR Memorial (my first time there), and the George Mason Memorial. We skipped Jefferson.

Funny thing about that... S in particular is not a fan of Jefferson, to put it lightly. So, at the George Mason memorial...

S: Ok, now look happy and point at the man really responsible for the wording on the Declaration of Independence...
A: -points at George Mason's name-
Me: -points at the Jefferson Memorial-

So yeah. Lots of fun. And there's still time to view everything this weekend! I strongly suggest checking it out--and the other stuff going on along the National Mall and Pennsylvania Ave. KF

Walkthrough in the Park

As I mentioned week before last, I was working for about 2-3 months on a walkthrough for the game Magical School Lunar!, for the Saturn. Now, this game came out in Japan in 1997, and never had a US release. The only help for non-Japanese speakers was a walkthrough that barely covered a quarter of the game. So... I finally got up and made a complete guide of it from start-to-finish. Better late then never, hm?

Anyway, the game is really a lot of fun. The only one down-side is that, as a traditional RPG, it has random battles in certain areas, and the encounter rate is really bad. But fortunately, the battle system is still fun to where, depending on how you play through it, the high number of encounters doesn't seem like such a bad thing.

Walk in the Park

Also, last weekend was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I'm going to make a full and proper update about that later this week, when I can get some pictures up. Not now, though, since without pictures it wouldn't really do the festival justice. KF

A Building Year - Pt 2

A while back I mentioned I added some things to my apartment, now that I finally have the means to get by with what I want, rather than the bare minimum that I can get ahold of. I did this some months ago, but haven't gotten around to actually putting up any photos 'til now.

Some of the stuff that's rather dull photo-wise... I got a dresser and organized my closet space a bit. It's great for me, but like I said, dull to talk about.

Living Room

First, the living room... I got a better table for my TV, a wireless router, and added a cabinet and a couple decorations on the other end:

A closer look at the cabinet:

On the left side, I have all my Lunar-related stuff; on the right are DVDs and the like.

Also, I fixed the blank space above my computer with a map of the internet's online communities (from XKCD - #256)

Bedroom

Meanwhile, I moved all my games to a shelf in my bedroom. And, I finally put up a few travel posters:

Specifically, these are Blue Sun travel posters for a few of the locations from the Firefly/Serenity series (from QMx).:

Kitchen

Now for the kitchen... I put down a few new rugs:

And reorganized a few things to give myself more counter space:

There was another blank spot above the appliances, though...
And I needed to fill it with something...
And I already had a small Mario theme going...
So I decided:

Whenever I get tired of this setup, I can just print up another set of blocks and rearrange it! Perfect. I think it speaks for itself

So... next update (end of this week, probably) I'll get back to a few other things I've been meaning to talk about. KF

More Catching Up

Every freaking time I say "oh I'll post tomorrow!" this always happens. But, seriously, February right up 'til last week has been busy. Really busy. Plus I've had stuff going on most weekends, 'cept the last few. So, I'll split this post between two things: the boring stuff (that took up most of my time, but will take up like half-a-second of this post), and the more enjoyable stuff.

Boring stuff: lots of work, taxes, looking into grad school, and my sleep schedule getting off to where I get into work at 10 and leave 'round 6-7.

Enjoyable stuff:

Unusual Butoh

First, about a month back, one of my coworkers got me to go to a Butoh performance at the Kennedy Center. (Wiki | Kennedy Center). Butoh is a relatively recent dance form (1960-or-so-onward) that could best be described as... a combination of abstract art and interpretive dance.

Now, thing is, I don't like abstract art (except for calligraphy--Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic only). And I really don't care for 'interpretive dance'. I came away thinking it was the weirdest performance I'd ever seen.

But, I really enjoyed it. I'm not quite sure why, either. I did enjoy the movements where I could understand what was going on, or derive some meaning out of it, but there were still plenty of bits where I was utterly confused. Still, it was enjoyable.

Katsucon

Yeah, I'm still going to conventions. I'll cut it to the three interesting bits, though: (1) Geek Comedy Tour was up again, (2) Met up with a few friends from XKCD again, and (3) The cosplay sketches were rather good this year.

On (3)... it wasn't so much that they were good, but that we had a Nintendo DS running commentary via PictoChat.

Seriously, Pictochat is the single thing that made it all worthwhile.

Family and Friends Visiting

The weekend after that, one of my friends, BC, from Nashville was coming into DC. It was really great. We hadn't had time to catch up since he got married last year.

He was up here with some students from Lipscomb U, where he works now. Things are going pretty well, for both of us I think. We had dinner on Sunday night that he was in--along with another of our friends from high school who happens to be living in the area as well.

Then, the next weekend, my mother came to visit. And one of my friends from Ohio (for someone else's wedding). Fortunately, their times didn't overlap, and so I got to spend time with my mother then.

She came here, ostensibly, for a psychiatric conference at the hotel across the street from my apartment. It was funny since the badge you wear at the conference also lists where you practice medicine. Most people around there were from the Northern VA and greater DC area, so it stood out that she was from Nashville.

Others: You came all the way from Nashville for this conference?
Mom: Well, my son lives next door to this hotel.
Others: Ahhh....

I also got her a birthday present, since she flew in the day after her birthday:

Lunar Projects

I'll end on a Lunar theme, considering the eclipse last time I posted. After 2-3 months, I finally finished a walkthrough for this game:

The thing is, Magical School Lunar was released in 1997. There hasn't been a complete walkthrough in English until now. So, it's taken 11 years. ...when this game first came out, I didn't even know any Japanese.

I'll actually continue more along this line the next time I update.

Not tomorrow. This weekend. Seriously. KF

Total Eclipse

The moon's 99% full and there's a total lunar eclipse tonight!
It was at its peak somewhere between 10:00pm and 11:00pm EST. You might
still be able to catch it.

Here's my one photo. Not terribly great, sorry, but it's the
best I could manage. Besides, NASA's page was kind of overloaded with
hits.

A lot happened this last weekend. I'll put some update on that tomorrow. When it's not so late. KF

Believing in Change

Top 5 Reasons for href="http://www.barackobama.com/index.php" target="_new">Barack
Obama

1) Support of civil liberties

I'm a racial and religious minority, and part of a religion that most
Americans, honestly, have a serious amount of bias against. What I want
is a candidate who is committed to doing what is
right with protecting my rights, and my freedom of
religion, even if there are a lot of other Americans out there who
don't like the idea of me having my Constitutional rights. To that end,
Obama:

- has pledged to end racial profiling (a popular, yet
horribly faulty and ineffective de facto measure)

- has gone on record to combat voting inequalities

- was a civil rights lawyer

Because of how the last eight years have gone, particularly
the earlier years while Ashcroft was still in office, there's been
serious neglect of civil liberties. Important to me, this includes
my civil liberties. It continues to piss me off how
other folks who feel they have nothing to lose see nothing wrong with
justifying things like roving warrantless wiretapping, when it's me and
my community whose civil rights are at stake. I want
a candidate who recognizes how important the rights of minority groups
are; this is that candidate.

2) Foreign policy which includes diplomacy

We're in two wars right now. I don't like the idea of saber-rattling to
get into a third with Iran, and I don't see how any sane person can
actually support that. Obama is actually pledging for a phased
withdrawal from Iraq, not just talking rhetoric about it.
And, he understands the necessity
of diplomacy with regards to Iran.

Again, we're in two wars right now. How can any sane person
want to rush headlong into a conflict that'll spark yet a
third one? Obama is the only major candidate who
seems to realize that fact, and knows that unless we really commit
ourselves to diplomacy, we'll end up down a path that'll result in
another several trillion dollars, tens of thousands of more deaths, and
a bunch of shady government contracts handed out in a war-zone. On that
note...

3) Willing to address problems with lobbying groups and federal contracts

The fact that Obama is a new face to the crowd is really refreshing.
It's not only bringing younger voters to the polls. It's also a chance
at a different approach to the way lobbying and contracts are dealt
with.

What I think is the lowest aspect of the Iraq War is all the
quick contracts handed out. That is what stands to turn into an
enduring negative legacy. Besides which, he supports ideas like
this:

"Google for Government: Americans have the right to
know how their tax dollars are spent, but that information has been
hidden from public view for too long. That's why Barack Obama and
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed a law to create a Google-like search
engine to allow regular people to approximately track federal grants,
contracts, earmarks, and loans online. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "It
would enable the public to see where federal money goes and how it is
spent. It's a brilliant idea.""

On the note of technology...

4) Understands and supports technology/innovation

Sounds like a strange issue to be up here. But, fact is, there's a lot
of misunderstanding about how technology--particularly online
technology--functions within the government. What that leads to is the
people with the money controlling how that technology is allowed to
operate. Since the internet itself is fundamentally
a "bottom-up" creation, when it comes to content, news, information,
and everything, letting the direction of the internet be dictated by
corporations violates that spirit and will inevitably hinder
progress.

Oddly, Obama seems to be the only one who thinks this is important enough an issue to address:

Barak Obama - Technology

Just a few highlights, Obama:

- will promote competition in internet/media services

- understands that protecting children online begins with giving
parents the right tools to do so, not with censoring content to begin
with

- (from the site): "Obama supports updating surveillance laws and ensuring that law
enforcement investigations and intelligence-gathering relating to U.S.
citizens are done only under the rule of law"

Now that last point brings us back to reason-number-one yet
again. You can see why I'm actually excited about this
candidate.

And besides, how can you do better technology-wise than an
endorsement from Lawrence
Lessig (founder of href="http://creativecommons.org/" target="_new">Creative Commons)
and from href="http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/01/28/obama/" target="_new">XKCD? I
mean, he's just made of win there.

5) (negative reason) Dubai Ports World

I put this one last because it's a negative-issue, relating more so to Hillary.

About two years ago, Dubai Ports World, a UAE-based company,
was going to acquire management of six major US ports. Now, no one was
going to be laid off, the only difference is that the top-end
management would be different. (Even due to all the controversy, they
agreed to have all security services handled by a US-only company,
too.)

Funnily enough, Hillary Clinton was a major opponent of the
DPW deal. But, her reasoning was based on the fact that it was an Arab
company. So... it was little more than assigning collective guilt based
on lingering 9/11 fears. (What's even funnier is that Bill Clinton was
actually advising DPW on how best to avoid controversies in the
acquisition.)

Though, according to the Wikipedia article on this, Obama also
stated his opposition. So there's a reason why this is a minor point.
Yet, how Hillary behaved, as the Senator for New
York, is far more important in my mind.

Anyway, this is the last point here, and the least important
of this list. But, if Obama doesn't win, then this particular incident
might end up weighing really heavily in my mind.

Now Vote!

That's all for now. Go out tomorrow and vote in the primaries.
If you're a Republican or Democrat, it doesn't matter (er, well, the
Republican end is kind of straightforward at this point, so maybe...).
This promises to be the most interesting election in a long time, and
for once it's a chance for each of us to make some kind of difference,

and maybe have the audacity to hope for positive change in the coming years. KF

More XKCD

Many months back, one of my friends links me to this comic:

Ok so the comic here is XKCD. I got hooked on it pretty quickly; a lot of the jokes on it are various things about mathematics, physics, chemistry, science in general, economics, internet/technology humor, and then some. My particular favorites are:

- -

(That last one I have posted somewhere in our office.)

Anyway, I also joined up with the forums around then, too. Someone floated the idea of a Washington DC-area meetup. Since things seemed to be going slow... I started suggesting dates, times, and places, and by the end I ended up putting it together.

I'm sort of used now to meeting folks in person that I've only known online up until then. I tried to describe it to my sister; it usually feels like meeting someone at a party or some other semi-public place, just with that added benefit of knowing a fair bit about them beforehand. Usually there's not even any initial reservations, so it's really easy to talk and get along from the beginning.

Next Steps

Besides that, I'm nearly done fixing up the rest of my room. When I got it up to a point I'm satisfied with, I'll put up a few pictures.

There's also this MAJOR ELECTION BUSINESS going on right now. Virginia's primary is next Tuesday (Feb. 12th). I'll make a serious post before then, but I think if you look at the upper-left corner, you can already tell who I'm supporting this election. And it really does feel great to finally support a candidate you really like, instead of having to settle for someone you can just barely tolerate. KF

A Building Year

I know, I haven't posted in almost two weeks. There's a good reason, though! I've spent a good chunk of my free time assembling Ikea furniture. My room's mostly fixed up now, just with some finishing touches left. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Also, this past weekend was really great. There was a meet-up with a bunch of folks from the XKCD Forums. I'll describe more of that tomorrow. For today, I'm a bit tired.

No, seriously, I'm going to update tomorrow, Tuesday. Not kidding this time.

Oh, and vote for Obama in the primaries, if you're voting tomorrow. I'll make a bigger post about all the reasons to do so right before Virginia's primaries (Tuesday, February 12th). But please, if you're voting Democrat, go for Obama. If you're voting Republican, well... McCain is all right... by comparison. KF

Random Graph

I think this is information that is relevant to everyone's interests. Most curious is the spike around 15. People seem to prefer "Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarta" over "Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaarta" and "Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarta".

Other Redecoration

I'm also making plans to redo a lot of my apartment. I won't get into details yet, but the basic thing is that I realized that the way my apartment is right now is largely a factor of how I was when I first moved in. That is, I picked the cheapest things I could get by with, and just added a few things as I was able. This time, I can plan ahead and improve a lot of things here. KF