new gimp splash screen

I got sick of the old gimp splash screen, with the clouds and balloons and whatever. it was too happy.

Wilber, the gimp mascot

I went looking for something darker. but, found no such thing, Wilber (the gimp mascot, i found) is always happy. Happy is fine, but I’m not 12 anymore. I wanted something a little darker. a little, well, gimpier.

There is some ambiguity that surronds the GNU Image Manipulation Program (also known as “the gimp”). Some group of people think it has to do with having a submissive sex-slave for sadomasochism, while others think of it as “oh, thats an art program, rite?”

I wanted to combine those 3 things (adult themes, sadomasochism, and Wilber), this is what i came up with:

Wilber, the gimp as a masochist

This eventually led me to the finial gimp splash screen, which was resized to around 400 px wide, saved as .png, and replaced the previous gimp-splash.png in /gimp/2.0/images

shiny new splash screen

prison blues

I was on the AIM with my friend Twinkle, discussing job hunting. I’m sort of in between jobs, at the moment, so i hatched a half baked idea to see what the rest of the job hunters had. the proverbial shower peak, if you will.


DeadNed: I need some help approaching a problem, busy?
DeadNed: not need, want
Twinkle: lol
Twinkle: i'm not too terribly busy
DeadNed: okay, well, on my job hunt, i noticed that i have control over only a few things - what jobs i choose to apply to, and a cover letter
DeadNed: the resume, and experances are fixed, and really isn't there i can do about it
DeadNed: So, i think the only think i can really think of changing is what i write on the cover letter
DeadNed: is it long enough, did i use the right words, should have said something else?
Twinkle: oh ok
DeadNed: So, i want to figure out what the best kind of cover letter is
DeadNed: a few thoughts i've had so far are kind of illegal ( i think)
DeadNed: for example, i was thinking of setting up a job on monster or something for a job i want, and then see what kind of resumes / cover letters / people i collect
DeadNed: in fact, this is my BEST idea
Twinkle: lol
Twinkle: how is that illegal?
Twinkle: you don't have to hire anyone
DeadNed: another idea i had was to apply multiple times to the same job. you know, create or fake people that apply for the same job, and see which one gets called
DeadNed: i cannot think of any other ways to scientfically aproach the problem
DeadNed: do you have any ideas?
Twinkle: lol
Twinkle: no fake people
Twinkle: just one
Twinkle: perhaps you can ask your professors?
DeadNed: well, there is a butt-load of advice on the Internet, but i don't need anecdotal evidence, i need HARD FACTS
Twinkle: lol
Twinkle: hmmm
Twinkle: well your illegal idea is the best one
DeadNed: i'm looking for a situation where i can test multiple cases
Twinkle: ok
Twinkle: that'll work
Twinkle: i still think just go with what you like
Twinkle: and say the heck with it
Twinkle: there's no perfect way
DeadNed: see.... you're busy. and not helpful because of that -/
DeadNed: its okay
DeadNed: I think its time for my walk anyway.
DeadNed: ooh, ask ben
Twinkle: lol
Twinkle: haha, i'm not busy
Twinkle: i just don't know how to help you
Twinkle: ask ben? i doubt he'd really tell you anything different
DeadNed: k
DeadNed: well, i'm going for a walk. give it some thought if you can. ttyl
Twinkle: ok
Twinkle: bye


---

[/me returns from walk, hour later]

DeadNed: okay, so on my walk, i thought about it
Twinkle: lol ok
DeadNed: its a really half-baked idea
Twinkle: ok
Twinkle: what is it?
DeadNed: i wouldn't have the resources to make it all look legitimate
DeadNed: and, i could in serious trouble for it (i think).
Twinkle: lol oh?
DeadNed: i even made this comic strip
DeadNed: http//i.photobucket.com/albums/y/DeadNed:/counterfitblues.jpg
Twinkle: hahahahaahaa
Twinkle: i love it


1 Liter Erlenmeyer flask you gave me

This was an email to a friend of mine, who though a connection with the Chemistry Stock room, landed me an amazing 1 Liter Erlenmeyer flask. when i was done writing it, i noticed i used the same phrase repetitively, and made the email sound funny. enjoy

How does the chem stock room clean those beakers a really narrow top and wide base? like the 1 Liter Erlenmeyer flask you gave me.
I usually clean my bottles by sticking my hand though the neck, and scrubbing for a few moments. Sometimes, if the bottles neck is too skinny, as is the case with my water bottle, I put really warm water and soap in, and shake it around for a while. I feel this doesn't really clean it out that well, and it takes a long time too. I really don't have anything like the 1 Liter Erlenmeyer flask you gave me, so i don't know what to do.
I thought maybe pipe cleaners, or some sort of brush, but with the 1 Liter Erlenmeyer flask you gave me, this seems like it would pose lots of problems. you wouldn't get very good scrubbing power, and you would leave residue in the edges of the bottle, which would ruin the experiments later. The same would be true with having a chemical rinse, as it would also lack power, and leave a residue behind.
However, despite the sanitary conditions of the 1 Liter Erlenmeyer flask you gave me, I think its really neat, and have plans for it. now, all i need to get a Bunsen burner running to start my meth lab. just kidding! but seriously, i have a few things i want to do with it. I think if i can figure out how to clean it, i may be able to distill alcohol, or salt water.
cleaning the 1 Liter Erlenmeyer flask you gave me is going to be pretty tough.
-Me

UPDATE: its was really a 1 liter VOLUMETRIC flask! how could i have screwed that up?!

wall papers

The other day i was sitting around and wanted to make some new wallpaper for my desktop. I had a blue theme, but it was kind of bland, and i thought i could do better.

I’m pretty happy with the blue ones, but i wasn’t very satisfied with the two white ones. I think maybe some yellow might help. At the moment I’m using “cool blue 1″, and earlier i was using “cool blue”.

a purple or green one may be done soon, I haven’t decided.

what to do from Terminal

Graphic user interfaces are great. I loved them as a child, and grew up with the wonderful world of windows.
but life got better! I soon found out the joys (and frustrations) of the command line. Because its really great for tons of text based programs. Its also a great way to customize a programs behavior when its launched.
Some of my favorite terminal based programs are as follows:
IRC client, irssi

Web Browser, lynx

Math program, Octave

output of plot

Text editor Vim

Another use of the terminal is to set parameters on programs you launch from the terminal window. in this case we are looking at the man file (manual file) for firefox. by typing “firefox [options...] [url] I can dramatically change the performance and behavior of firefox, without having to touch the mouse!

I know that there are many more programs that run well in the terminal, and even more uses than i mentioned, but these are my favorites (so far).

Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money is made

Let me tell you something about myself – it holds true for other people too – i hate wearing what EVERYONE ELSE WEARS. nudity be damned, I just hate seeing the same clothes on me, as on someone else. Of course this can fixed a few ways – expensive designer clothes, vintage clothes and making your own damn clothes.

Being a lowly college student, my budget doesn’t allow for designer clothes. I like shopping at the thrift stores for pants (old people pants are pretty neat, and VERY cheap – just don’t think about if they died in them or something). I do have a few shirts i designed (but not sewed or spun the cotton or anything crazy like that), blank shirts are less that 5 $, iron sheets are ~10$ for 6 sheets, so for less than the price of trendy designer jeans (~80ish, i think?) you can have 10 totally unique shirts.

Using the wonderful site from customink.com to design a few shirts, based around some stuff i did last week. As soon as i find the time to pick up the blank shirts, i think I’ll do a few of these.

I was toying with the idea of using the image from my poster (posted previously). I’ll toss together some proofs of concept later, maybe

As a sidenote, i think i like the green shirts better than the plain white ones. will have to see what mood i’m in at the store though….

yes, we ARE watching you

I recently noticed that a few people like to spend their computer time in front of a camera. not movie stars, but computer nerds. they LIKE TO BE WATCHED. they like to be seen eating, talking on the phone, cleaning their room, painting… just being online really.

The scientific part of me is seeking the reason for this. what could the end game be for these people? fame, fortune, popularity? power. POWER. its got to be power. yet, they have no power, no populous to draw from, and no claims to fame.

Another part of me watches, fascinated, like a peeping tom spying on Lady Godiva; but the imagry is more perverse. Its less like spying though windows, and more like watching someone that knows they are being watched. Perhaps, its best as describing looking out the window to the park.The window is open, and the park goers can tell that you are watching, but it is THEY who on display.

and then watching these people, I can tell others are watching too. I can see that they are there, and must know i am too. they yell out and shout, spamming the chat box, flooding the room with comments and cries at a feverish pace, “do this!, do that!” repetitively, without prompt. Somehow the masses have claimed this meat-puppet as their own. Keybords, shoes, heads, nao, moar, ftw. meat-puppet doesn’t care. meat-puppets CAN’T care.

Perhaps this is the true power of the meat-puppet – the ability to subject itself to the whims of others. futher studies will are being performed.

come on guys… tell me!

Back in ‘99 I had windows 98 – with MS paint. my favorite painting program that came standard on windows (spoiler, there are no others, and MS paint sucks ass). My 300 MHz processor w/ 128 MB ram wasn’t enough for anything worthwhile either, so my time was spent between playing SNES roms (of which i owned at that time, I SWEAR).

one of the better things that came out of that was my AIM avatar (long since retired), a robot with an orb on his chest and killer robot teeth… it was awesome (for me).

Killer crazy robot awesomeness

After recovering the .bmp s from my old computer, I was inspired to make a comic using the same character (’cause i’m too fucking lazy to create new ones). Any criticism on either the robot or comic are welcome. The comic is finished (in terms of artistic creativity), but not named. maybe when i get more than 1, i’ll do something with it…

a 2d shape can be wrapped around a 3 object. could this also apply to higher order geometrics? can we wrap a 3d shape around a 4d object?
If so, perhaps the universe isn’t as big as we think it is – we could just be looking though space BACK on ourselves. those distant stars? those are the same few stars repeated over and over again. the reason for discrepancies is due to gravitational lensing, where gravity fields bend light to change the image.
Will we one day have a new age Magellan to prove this? or will our hero get swept away by the forces of the universe, and forever forgotten from history?

vertical OR horizonal

Spotted this at my local target. Its a mirror with a sticker on it that says “hangs vertical or horizontal”. I’m no carpenter, but hanging brackets are pretty cheap, and easy to “install” just a few screws in the middle of a side. I guess the company was out of “new and improved” tags.