Wednesday, June 29, 2016

DOOM says be better.



I've been playing DOOM 2016 for a few weeks now, and it's like being on a boss level - every level.  It's crazy. You can't even get any good screen shots because the action is so intense, and they have so many badies on you - you are just running and gunning the whole time. They did a really good job of being true to the original game, but making it way more challenging. I sort of miss how the old timey games challenged you to take new risks to solve problems. It can take a little while to get through levels though.





Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Only graphics geeks will understand how cool this is.



Certain parts of the Valley are going through a pretty cool architecture phase. No more thinking "inside the box" for buildings around here I guess. Meaning square buildings are OUT. But one building going up is a little more special than the rest though. This graphics company is basically making their campus out of triangles. Which is how graphics are made.

It's a big campus, so it's super hard to get a long shot. But that is pretty cool if I do say so myself. This is one of those buildings that will even be cool from the sky! I don't know what the skin will do to all the triangles you see in these shots, but that roof will still be visible overhead. That is a pretty ballin' building.











Monday, June 27, 2016

I think it's funny how Trump is already being blamed for the bad economy and he's not even in office. Yet Obama has spent 8 years in office, and still gets a free pass.

It's also funny (said in the most sarcastic way) how all of a sudden people are acting math literate. Which I can assure you - they are NOT. These are the same people who couldn't figure out how to pay their mortgages.

Friday, June 24, 2016

How to tell how money you are.



If you can mistreat a McLaren - you are probably pretty ballin'. It looked like they had been curbing the tires. It haddn't been washed in a while. And the inside was sporting your average minivan cargo. Crap on the dash. You get it.

Somehow I loved this. I've seen some McLarens in the wild from time to time - but this was lived in - in the wild. I've just never seen that. They at least are usually washed. They were treating this one like a Saturn.







It's incredibly brave to close your eyes and step into the abyss of short term pain for long term gain. People are so geared against pain that most of them will opt for less pain for a longer period of time. But in the end I believe people want to be free. It just takes them such a long time to figure it out that I almost give up hope sometimes. But it's all I think about people. At their core, all they want is just to be free.

Today was a great day for freedom in Britain.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

No - your car will not be programmed to kill you.

Your Self-Driving Car Will Be Programmed to Kill You—Deal With It. 

"A recent survey shows that people want self-driving cars to be programmed to minimize casualties during a crash, even if it causes the death of the rider. Trouble is, the same survey shows that people don’t actually want to ride in cars that are programmed this way. That’s obviously a problem—and we’re going to have to get over it."

Mr S. sent me this article today. You see, about three months ago I was at a self driving car conference and I hunted down the smartest person I could find and asked him the following question.

"If I'm on the freeway ( and it doesn't happen that often) and someone runs out in front of me and the only way to avoid hitting that person is to crash into a wall - Who dies? I don't want to kill someone, but I also don't want to die."

It's gotta be  a conversation that is happening a lot right now because we have a lot of hours logged with semi autonomous cars. But I can assure you ~in a nano second~ this will be decided the first time a car owner dies instead of the other person.

Mr S. and I have been talking about this a lot since that conference. Gizmodo is falling victim to not understanding stated preference vs. revealed preference. Quite simply - People are big fat liars. And if you ask them questions they will tell you all sorts of things, but what they actually do is very different than what they say.

People might say if it's between 10 people dying and me dying - just take me out. But they would be lying. Until this happens everyone is altruistic. But I'm buying a car for MY safety. First and foremost, and anyone who says differently is pretty much lying. No one is buying a car to make sure pedestrians don't die. It's a nice perk, but pretty much I want the car company to make sure I don't die.

And that is going to be how the market works. The hints are in the article from Gizmodo. People don't want to ride in cars where their safety is not the first priority. Period. This isn't rocket science. The Gizmodo article couldn't do a better job at showing stated preference vs. revealed preference right in one tiny paragraph.
I was making small talk at the car wash this afternoon. (Because we still aren't allowed to wash our own cars in the driveway) The other person asked who I thought would win the election. I said Trump. And as it turns out - that is the quickest way to shut down a conversation in California right now. That conversation came to a needle scratching full stop so fast. He was a Hillary fan.

Now I just need to figure out a not awkward way to work that into conversations I don't want to be involved in. Because that guy almost ran from me.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Uh-oh. The kids might be growing up.



I have to admit that I voted for Bernie Sanders in an effort to make the Sanders voters mad enough to come to Trump after Sanders dropped out - I thought there was a really slim chance that would happen. But.... maybe not!

Don't get your panties in a bunch - Trump had already won the nomination by the time voting came to California. I couldn't vote for him anyway because of the closed primary. The vid is a little long. But hey, the kids are starting to get it. Even if it's just one. I think the Obama administration is creating latent conservatives. They just don't know it yet.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Monday, June 20, 2016

Everyone eventually becomes what they never thought they wanted to be.



Mr S. and I were taking pictures of this sculpture in Reno and a homeless couple yelled for us to ring the bells from halfway down the block. We didn't know what she was talking about, so we wound up talking to the girl for a while. As you know... the homeless are chatty. She showed us how it worked and then the conversation veered.

I think this is a burning man sculpture. She was telling us how they'd just had some festival there with a bunch of the art from burning man. She also volunteered that "burning man" (I assume the creator of burning man) had just bought a few city blocks where we were standing and was going to "tear all this stuff down". Of course I had to ask what they were going to do with it after that.

Put up a mall she said.

I was like - really? Burning man is completely anti corporation aren't they? That's really weird.

But I guess eventually everyone grows up and finds out they like money. So yeah, the creator of burning man - real estate tycoon apparently. which I don't mind at all. But I'm betting they still hold their socialistic views for everyone else.

I've turned commenting back on. Email me if for some reason it doesn't work for you.

Conversations with Mr S.

Last night I asked Mr S. if he thought we were going to find a new bunny. My next stop is probably Southern California. There are some babies four weeks out. But that heatwave down there is a huge concern. They could easily die in that heat. It stresses adult rabbits, let alone babies. I'm sure every bunny owner down there is freaking out more than a little.

Mr S - We will find a bunny when you are ready to find a a bunny.

Me - So.... are you saying I'm not ready to love again?

Him - well, kinda.

Me - Why do you say that? I'm ready.

Him - I would have taken any one of those bunnies we saw this weekend. So yeah, we are waiting on you.

Me - Let me bottom line it. None of those bunnies were cute enough.

Him - okay, tell me what is the difference between a bad-aid bunny, and a rebound bunny.

Mr S. has been fully in the rebound camp the whole time. Because he is a guy. He would have taken the first baby he saw. So I smiled at him and said - you're a guy, of course you wouldn't know. If you break up with someone you are sleeping with someone the very next day. So, a "cute enough" bunny is just fine for a guy. As a girl, we take a bit longer.

I always say that when guys break up with girls, they have the time of their lives for about 3-6 months. Because it's new. Then their world comes crashing down on them when they find that new pussy is more annoying than old pussy.

Girls however feel gut punched for about six months and then after that we are completely fine.

Me - you like how I turned this whole thing into a relationship metaphor? We both are kinda reacting like we would to a real life break up.

Him - see, you kinda act like your not ready to date yet.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Reno.



I've been back for a day now.  Some how we made it to Reno in three and a half hours on a Friday night. And no - I don't have a new bunny. But I did find comfort in the strangest place. I've been taking the loss of Jamine pretty hard. Her eye issue should have been a very fixable one. To have her cave in 4 days was a shock. And it's the first time I've been with out a pet in a really long time. But I'm doing better now.

I always find going to the rabbit shows kinda interesting because they are a quirky bunch. But they always know more about the health of the pets than the vets. At least the pedigreed ones. If a bunny has ever gotten a problem, the breeder will know more about it than the vets do. They deal with life and death on a more accelerated scale.  And bunnies are the Russian roulette of pets. So things go wrong with them all the time. Evolutionarily they suck donkey balls. But when your husband is allergic to cats and dogs you make the best with the sucky pet options you have. If it weren't for the health problems they would be pretty amazing. Bunny kisses are special. Cats kisses are too rough, and dog kisses can be too slobbery - but bunny kisses - they are just perfect.

Anyway. I'm in sort of a nihilist mood about the bunnies and I've already decided I wanted to name the next one like claymore or some mine. Because sometimes bunnies just self destruct. I apparently lucked into the Doctor Baden of bunny doctors who did her necropsy and even she didn't find anything that should have killed her. It just wasn't mean to be. 

After searching the internet for a while and making my terrorist rating go up on Google we couldn't find any mine names that were cute enough to call a bunny. So I'm like - lets just call it grenade. Mr S. says - you better hope you don't have to yell at her somewhere in public.

I guess I hadn't thought that far out.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Friday, June 17, 2016

You mean if I would have just chosen fancy chickens I would still have a pet?

Yesterday Mr S. wanted me to go to the fairgrounds this morning because after this weekend the bunnies will be cleared out from the fair. I was sort of resistant because I wasn't sure what I was going to do there.

Him - Well if you want to get leads on Velveteen Lops you have to go tomorrow because all the bunnies have to be cleared out this weekend for the fancy chickens exhibit next weekend.

Me- You mean fancy chickens have a whole convention just for them? How the eff long can a fancy chicken live to warrant a whole weekend? It better not be longer than 10 years or I'm gonna be pissed. So I went over to google and about lost my mind.

Me - guess how long fancy chicken last?!

Him - 4 years.

Me - 20 effing years! That is a cruel irony of life. I can't even believe that. How can that be possible?

You can't just go down to your local pet store and find a Velveteen. You have to go hunt them down. So I guess I'm boarding the crazy train tonight and driving to Reno for a rabbit show tomorrow. The rabbit world is always a little weird. It's a very quirky group of people. It's interesting from the outside, but you don't want to spend too much time there.

It could take me a couple of months to find a replacement for my girl. So you might hear a lot about crazy rabbit shows for a little while. It's the only thing I'm focused on. I'm petless. So nothing else matters.

Monday, June 13, 2016

My girl didn't make it last night. So I'm taking some time off. I turned off comments because as sweet as they can be - I like to compartmentalize my feelings.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

My weekend.



I'm sporting two vet visits in two days. I got back from my conf on Thursday and my girl Jasmines eye was super weepy. Since it was late, I put in some artificial tears and and figured I'd have to take her in the next day. But the next day she was completely dry and looked almost fine.

On Sat she gone off her kibble a little - so I had to take her in. By the time bunnies show signs of having problems - you've already got big problems. I was praying I hadn't pulled the glaucoma lottery ticket for the third time. To my relief she only had a small ulcer on her eye. That is fantastic news for a rabbit. I mean, in the scheme of rabbit things. The two other possibilities were way worse. An ulcer was pretty stellar news. That can be fixed.

Then this morning Mr S. woke me up early to look at her because her eye was totally messed up. It was cheesy and red and much worse than yesterday when she'd gotten a full round of antibiotics. She should be going the other way. So I'm basically home bound to keep an eye on her. No pun intended.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Don't be so jaded.



Usually I try not to go to San Fransisco. Like most locals you try to avoid the tourist areas. I think I've been on a cable car like twice in my life. But yesterday when I was up in Nob Hill the cable cars were full. I was surprised because it was the middle of the week. But everyone just seemed so happy and I just got a kick out of seeing it.

I had to remember that all the things I think are routine or boring are the funnest thing ever for other people.

I guess San Fransisco gave me a gut check yesterday to try and be a little less jaded.





Thursday, June 09, 2016

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.



And Santa Claus is Lenovo right now. This is the time of year companies start to come out with new stuff to make the Christmas window. Lenovo managed to create some real excitement in the Valley today. (well San Fransisco) Even I'm excited. New stuff People. Factory air!

First they released a Project Tango phone. I hope so much that it doesn't suck. Please let it not suck! It's the first commercial AR phone. I was at the Augmented Reality conference like a week ago and I wanted to kill myself. Seriously. Did you see anything on this blog about it? NO? Because it sucked. And it wasn't just me. Even Engadget wrote an article pretty much saying the conference sucked. Though much more nicely than I do. Their revenue and ability to get into conferences depends on it. Mine doesn't. I don't want to link back to the article. That's how I get to say snotty stuff unnoticed. You can google it.  I'm sure the article will pop right up.

So, last week I was sure AR was completely dead. Well, not completely, but dead to me. There are applications, but not as much as a consumer product. Seeing the demo of the Tango phone made me more excited than a whole conference on AR.

Then, and I can't believe I'm saying this about Motorola, they (now Lenovo) really came out with a clever modular phone that allows you to add a juice box battery pack to your phone via magnets. As well as a speaker and a projector. I know in text it sounds ridiculous, but just watch the video. It's pretty clever. And the speaker honestly, has really good sound quality. Apparently all the companies in the Valley think we will need mini projectors right now. I've been seeing it at lot of conferences for a while. I should have taken the hint. Now they are showing up in phones and ftablets from Lenovo. I think I'm going to leave that misspelling because I don't get what a fablet is. It's just a tiny tablet.

I can't do better than the professionals, so watch these videos. Ashton Kutcher is the person in the photo above.. First video is Project Tango.



Then Moto Mods.




Wednesday, June 08, 2016

I have to admit - I expected the Democrats and Republicans not to like each other after this election. Duh. But what is totally unexpected is that half of democrats hate the other half of democrats, and the same thing goes for Republicans. Both sides! That's crazy.

I'd say mission accomplished Obama. Everyone now basically hates each other. You know this is really wanted. It's the gift that keeps giving.

Tuesday, June 07, 2016

I wonder how many conservatives are doing this...



I took this picture because I was sure none of you would believe I did this. I can't even believe *I* did this. He stands for everything I hate. Socialism has never improved anyones life. It only takes until it can't take anymore.

But since I was registered as No Party I couldn't vote for Trump. I was pretty happy he secured the nomination because I didn't want to have to change my voter affiliation just to place a vote for him. It's still pretty surreal that Trump is a candidate at all. Normally California has open elections, so it's never really mattered until this year. I'm already hounded to death for jury duty, and I didn't want the renewed spam.

Since Trump is going to win by default, Mr S. and I both pulled democratic ballots and voted for Bernie. Oh - yes - we - did! The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If this is what it takes to send Hillary to the dustbin of politics, I guess I'm all in. Plus this is just inflame the Bernie people possibly sending them over to Trump. I feel super dirty, but Trump was going to win California anyway.

It's chaos People.

Sunday, June 05, 2016

There is nothing to fear but DOOM itself.



That's all I've got. Getting my car worked on and DOOM.

Saturday, June 04, 2016

It was a mini reset.



Today I had to choose between two pretty uninspiring car shows. Mr S. and I agreed on the one in Capitola because it's at the ocean. And there is something about the ocean that cleanses my soul. I used to live on that side of the hill for a few years and sometimes I just just physically crave being at the beach. Especially when I'm having a hard time. It's the only place where I can totally reset my batteries.

The whole atmosphere is so different than Silicon Valley or where I live in the East Bay. It's more like being on a foreign vacation. You can hardly get a cell phone signal half of the time. Thankfully. You have to slow your roll by half. You are on beach time. It's just totally different. The people are nicer.

Capitola doesn't really scratch the whole itch for me, but Capitola Village is super cute. It has a little inlet that has cottages lining it. It's just a cute area. But it's not really what I consider the beach. I mean, it HAS a beach, but I like tide pools and places to explore. I'm pretty sure a real beach visit will show up in my rotation soon. I heard a rumor of a new glass beach. And some of you know how much I like that shit. Here. I guess I just like unusual beaches in general like the purple sand beach. Capitola is more of a tourist beach.













Friday, June 03, 2016

This is so Silicon Valley.



The Media is blowing San Jose out of proportion a little bit.



It's sort of weird to see how the media is reporting what happened last night. When I got out of San Jose (after dark), I was pretty impressed with the police. I've been to a fair amount of protests in the Bay Area - and I've never seen so many cops. Even in SF. They must have had every single San Jose cop working plus pulling from all over the Bay Area. There must have been like 1000 of them. It was a jaw dropping show of force.

Just to get out of San Jose one of the on ramps had about 10 cruisers staged there. I got the feeling they weren't going to have any of that BLM bullshit shutting down the freeways like they did in Oakland.

It was pretty fascinating the lengths they went to to try and not let the two sides mix. Which I've never seen before. When you got out of the hall you could see the protesters out there down the block, but the police had a blockade preventing the two from walking into each other right away. I'm not actually sure how that girl got pelted with eggs. Because they forced you to walk around the block and kind of around the group of protesters. I'd grabbed one of those Trump signs to use as a fan  because we are still in a heatwave here, and there was a car with some girls that was yelling at me. About half way down the block I ditched it because I knew when we rounded the corner it might make me a bit of a target. In California you sort of get used to "blending in".

Obviously there were a few problems. I posted that vid, and walking to the car there was a guy at an ambulance who had a bloody shirt. So I knew there was at least two assaults, but all that shit spun up and down so quickly I'm not sure the police really could have done anything. Plus, they can sort of wait until the youtube videos roll in. Right? They can't be everywhere. Even if there was a million of them. The media is sort making it out to be a melee. Which I would say is overly dramatic.

As far as Trump I can't really guestimate how many people showed. It was a bit more than the other two. I've been in that venue a few times, but honestly it's been filled to the rafters with marijuana. That is normally where they hold hempcon. So - it holds a shit ton of people. I've just been unable to find out exactly how many people that building holds. I'd say it was probably half full by the time the rally was over.

The only other notable thing was that the Trump speech started ON TIME. The Hillary and Bernie speeches started several hours late. I was at the Bernie speech waiting for 4 hours before I tapped out. Trump? He was early. I was there exactly 39 minutes. He started talking before he was scheduled to start.

That is the efficiency of the private sector People.

Thursday, June 02, 2016

So...... that happened.



More tomorrow.

I'm going for the trumpfecta.

The Merky News is predicting 15,000 people at the Trump rally tonight in San Jose. Which if true is quite impressive. I'd say Bernie and Hillary had about the same amount of people attend their rallies. Roughly under 3000 people. I only know because the hall Hillary was in held that many and it wasn't full. Bernie had about the same amount of people outside.

If Trump pulls 15,000 here, that will be interesting. Also, at the Hillary rally, there was maybe 5 (litterally5 - you can see it on my twitter feed) anti Hillary protesters. I'm sure they were from Bernie's team. Bernie however had exactly 0.0 protesters.

I'm doing exactly the same thing to provide consistency. Arrive about an hour before. See if I can get in. No RSVP. Nothing. If I can't bet in tonight, I'm sure the sideshow outside will be epic. They are already closing down streets in San Jose. It could take me an hour to find parking.

"Expecting as many as of 15,000 Trump supporters and plenty of protesters, San Jose police Wednesday night announced that they will close several streets near the convention center beginning at noon. Closures will include Market Street at William Street; Market Street, south of San Carlos Street; South First Street at San Salvador Street; and Almaden Boulevard at Balbach Street."

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Now back to DOOM. It's bloody.



I'm a few levels in now. The whole level is like a boss level. I think this is the way it's going to be from here on out.

Oh - I was feeling the Burn.



I was at a Bernie rally today. Oh yes I was. I was suppose to be at a conference, but I figured it would only take a couple of hours. If I managed to get in at all. Which I did.

When I tapped out at 3:00, they were still letting people in. He still had not shown up. The doors opened at 11:30, and everyone in the crowd thought the rally would start soon after. I never wound up seeing him - but I did wind up super sun burnt. It was an outdoor thing, and the Bay Area is having our first spat of heat right now. If they would have had more old people there I'm sure they would have had serious problems. Early in a woman walked up to me and asked if I had crackers for her daughter that was suffering from the heat. I'd seen a woman with a baby and thought maybe she would have some cheerios. So I set to find that family. Other people started flooding her with water. I eventually came back with a fruit cup and a mini cucumber.  Don't ask me, when you ask for food in a crowd sometimes people carry zip locks full of mini cucumbers apparently. Not pickles oddly.

By the time I was getting ready to leave the family whom I helped was putting Bernie signs over my head. I was fine, but I must have already started looking really red. I'm super light skinned. I can't even believe how burnt I am. I can spend all day in the yard or at the beach and not look like this. It's ridiculous.

I have to say, as much as I want to dislike the Bernie crowd - they are really just lovely people. Like my Aunt an Uncle who are uber socialists. And pretty much everyone I grew up around.  Really financially illiterate, but I couldn't find one person there who reinforced all my stereotypes. It's just so frustrating because you can't run peoples lives. I just wish they felt the same way. That is what socialism is. Only the people who have never lived under socialism want to. And they don't even understand they are killing themselves slowly. Frustrating.