It's clunky as hell, but it'll have to do.

I've got my old keyboard here tonight. I don't just mean older, I mean old. This thing could kill a Russian. It's beefy, and has a friggin' metal base. I can't quite remember the term, but it's the older style of keyboard. It doesn't use the zone-based net connection system to determine with key has been struck: each key has its own connection. It's a lot more durable. I only have a few problems: for one, it dips. The center is the lowest part, and then it rises again towards my side (the space key, for example, is higher than the 'F' key.

And I'm pretty sure some of the things I want to be fast aren't. The backspace, for example. And the spacing. Oh yeah, I'm right. They go very slowly while you hold the keys down. Blah.

The rest is how I'm not used to it. I'm not exerting the pressure to depress some keys, especially those that use my pinky fingers.

The reason I switched up was my accident: I spilled some pop on the other keyboard. I don't actually think there was any damage done, and thus far the keys aren't sticking, but I thought I should swap anyway.

I meant to look into buying another keyboard tomorrow anyway, as we're going to Morehead. So I'll muck around with this for a bit. Ah, the nostalgia. Philosophically, I prefer these kinds of keyboards. They're far sturdier, and less likely to screw up. They're better for gaming, as you repeatedly hit the same set of buttons, probably with more force than needed. And it's big and Soviet, like Rogue277's Russian fencing grip. But the backspace slowness is getting to me. : p I'd like to get a new AHA! Point-contact, I believe that's what these are called. Either way, I'd like to get a new one, but no one makes them anymore. Actually, according to Leo Laporte a few years ago, some company somewhere does, but they're considered a gaming peripheral, and likely too expensive for just a keyboard. Maybe I'll consider it, though.

More news, but then you expected that...

Lots of stuff happening in space and geology: greenhouse helped life evolve, so stop bitching about it, thanks much. Gamma rays won't turn us green, but they may signal a black hole. And Cassini's getting ready to enter the rings of Saturn for its four-year mission, so we have more pictures: storms. Opportunity's still trucking around the Martian landscape, and I've seen some wonderful pictures. My dad was amazed at the panorama shot I showed him, I'll see if I can dig it up. NASA has decided to send Opportunityinto an impact crater to study what it can find. There is a risk it won't make it back out, but they've considered that.

Two sources tell us that soon you'll be able to tour Chicago from a Segway. Sixty-five bucks for three hours on one? Fantastic. Oh, and you'll see some stuff, too.

A girl gets screwed by Hotmail, losing all her data. Forever. Whoops. Gives one pause. And a desperate desire for GMail.

No jacking around, I really think this is a very good step forward. Dropping the isolation that countries such as Iraq live under is an important thing for building up the world culture, Joseph Campbell style.

Update: the movie clip thing (see this post) has been confirmed as viral marketing. Check BoingBoing for the links.

News anchors are pansies... and can't talk in hypertext.

So what are the cool kids talking about over frappés? Probably not this stuff:

Security's usually a neat little thing. And this thing is too. You can't stick it on the wall and have it climb the ceiling. Yet.

If you're interested in this sort of thing (I'm looking at you, SuperOpie), Lionhead announced a release date for Fable. Looks like September.

In a general geek interest slot, we've got fat with a lot of nerve. Scientists turned fat cells into nerve cells, it would seem.

You've doubtless seen commercials for IBM's ThinkPad if you watch TechTV - er, pardon - G4TechTV. Here's an accidental testing of their "drop me" technology.

BBC News tells us that Universal has (dear God) optioned id software's Doom.

I've known about it for a few days, but have neglected to mention it here. If you're into that sort of thing (and who isn't?), Venus is transiting the Sun soon. The eighth, I believe, but don't hold me to that. Thing is, if you're in the Eastern time zone (you probably are if I know you), you'll have to be up at sunrise to see it happen.

Er. I smell a bit of a hoax, or something. Well, decide for yourself. He says his name is Eric Bruderton, and he's got a hotmail account. Reassuring, yes, I know. (sarcasm) But from what I've heard (you think I've been able to download the clip on a 56k? I'm working on it...) the video's realistic enough. So did some jacktard journalist decide to have some fun? Is it a movie preview from some smart-ass producer? If you elect not to try and download it, it's some soldiers being shot at by people with rocket launchers, and then returning fire (the summary didn't say what with). BoingBoing claims the static looks a bit fake, and suggested the movie thing.

Just bizarre. Japan as a whole is trying to get Japanese teens to have more sex, and they're not listening. Shame on them for going to "love hotels" just for the karaoke.

Glory!

The most important questions? We have answers!

This is different

Here's an interesting article over on Slashdot about the prospects of anime. And then, if you have the stomach for the gruesome mess (I didn't), there's a huge discussion about outsourcing in terms of politics. Ick.

This is what I have to deal with all day. Frigging disconnects! 

This is glorious

A wonderful article. Go now!

Book list

Here's an attempt to list what I've been reading. Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth Well, that explains who wrote it, really. I'm still working on this, actually. I'm on the last chapter: I've been taking it slowly, so I can really absorb everything in it.

Next would be my fourth time through The Great Book of Amber. My favorite series ever, easily. Just in front of... why. The next series!

Then I started Elric of Melniboné. This is by Michael Moorcock, but you probably knew that already, given how I talk about them. I'd read this book before, and it's really neat on a second reading.

After that I read Endless Nights, by Neil Gaiman.

Sticking to Neil Gaiman, next I read Stardust. There's an illustrated version as well, painted by Charles Vess, but I don't have it. Sigh, and such.

Finished that day before yesterday. Now I'm reading (and am nearly finished with) The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, again by Moorcock.

After that, I'm going to make a concerted effort to finish up Campbell, and then I'll probably start The Skystone, by Jack Whyte. I started it once a little over two years ago. It's a "historical" piece on King Arthur. Think of the new movie: "What if everything in the Arthur stories were real, and in the proper time period?" As I remember, though, it seemed a bit dry, so I may go to something else. It drives me mad that I can't pick up any more Elric books easily. I'll have to fish through Ebay, trying to find copies. And I have books by Donaldson, an author I've always wanted to read, but I'm missing the first book in the series (I got these from one of my fencing teachers, Dr. Pierce).

Asininity

I'm not going to link to the blog, but I'm going through profiles, just mucking around, and look what I found

I am 20 years old and just finished my second year of college at [Someplace Someplace] University. I am in a wonderful sorority that I cannot name at this time because I am on recruitment staff and I have to disaffiliate. I spend a lot of my time with my sisters and my boyfriend and his brothers, whom I adore. RUSH PI KAPPA PHI!!!

My brain is squealing, this you realize, yes?

It's all the news that's new to me!

In a new turn of events (sarcasm), Microsoft does something stupid!

I've been looking at VoIP for the past week, wondering if I could get high speed internet by skiving off the normal, more expensive phone services. This article offers me a bit of promise in that direction. Though the "DSL" we get here still isn't that great, and it's too expensive. I read somewhere that there's a push to allow people to subscribe to any DSL provider, if they have the connection capability already. So I wonder sometimes if we should just try that. Be all sneaky and such. Pay the installation fees, get hooked up, and then just get another service. I've been seeing commercials for DSL as low as thirty a month, though I dunno if that would go up after a year.

Here's an interesting news bit. Fan of the PDA? You may be a dying breed...

Interesting.

If Rogue277's reading, he should be particularly interested in this article. Everyone should be a bit interested. Probably.

Testing

Here's a short post I thought I'd make. I'm using WBlogger, a client that lets you post into you blog without using the website (If you use LiveJournal, you probably use one already).

I don't have an awful lot to talk about today. What could possibly be the last of these storms, for a while, has passed through. Until yesterday we were flooded in, trapped, though my dad tried several routes out. It rained again after we got back, after doing a little shopping at a grimy, dingy, dim gas station in Magoffin county. My parents weren't sure they'd be able to leave for work today (They were off Monday and Tuesday for Memorial Day).

I've set a goal to try and not eat constantly, as is my wont over the summer. As a result, I feel terribly hungry just now. I think I'll wait a bit more, and warm soup, so I'll have what amounts to a proper meal.

Later I think I'll have a post dedicated to what I've been reading over the summer.

My itching head continues to drive me crazy. You may know that we've had a problem with our water for a little over a year, which has resulted in making our water, which was once just an annoyance, a sheer trial. My hair is never really clean, and my scalp itches like an idea.

And I suppose the storms aren't over yet, as I hear rolling in the distance.

I'll not be camping, for those of you reading Sehmket's LiveJournal. Instead, I think I'll lounge about my house some more, and write a bit. For the most part I'm quite enjoying my restful summer, actually. I'm not submerging in any one thing, as I did last summer, and I feel pretty good.

Jeezbus. Turns out, the magazine I submitted my poetry to (a small press publication called Space & Time) is bi-annual, and issue #98 is currently on stands. Hint: I submitted for issue #101. Which means, if I'm accepted, the earliest I could expect to be published would be late next year.

I'm still making the attempt to find all of Michael Moorcock's Elric novels. Not much success. I plan to call Joseph-Beth later today and see if they have them in stock.

If anyone would be interested, there is, purportedly, a medieval festival in Lexington the weekend after this coming. I have no more information than that, however, though I'm trying to find more. It's supposed to be at the horse park, of course.

Here's several things I found wonderful in the past day: People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. (A.J. Liebling)


What does starveling mean?

Ah, the memories of youth.

If you'd like to experiment with me, I'll be trying this program today and tomorrow. It's a CD player of sorts, it would seem. Haven't much else to do, I suppose.

Oh yes. I started reading Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, and it's fairly interesting. The allegory's almost laughable, but still. As always, free, not illegal books can be obtained at Project Gutenberg's website.

A link to my results for a SSBM quiz.

I think we all know about Project Gutenberg. Among their selections lies the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.

But here's something new. It's for those of us (like me) that don't want to read a huge piece of work like that on the computer all at once. Da Vinci via RSS!

There's not much news to give. Not really. On a personal note, I skived off the family reunion, and then sat through an entire day of my dad being terrified of the weather. Now, I encourage a healthy respect for natural forces, and should be known as the guy who had the hell shocked out of him during a storm a few months ago. But dwelling on the awful lightning and the horrendous wind isn't going to help you. Ah well.

Work on the book progresses. I'm debating making the inevitable cult that hates the protagonists worship the god that set them on their course.

And I have a great picture of Saturn from the "Astronomy Picture of the Day."