Belated Elaboration

Some thoughts on One Word x 40:

Q17: Yes, "phenomenal cosmic power" is three words. But, it's a better wish than "more wishes" and it's a multitasker. Besides, if all I said was "power" then you all would think all I wanted was to be Emperor of Wazootystan. For starters, I also want to to bend space and time, to see the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and to launch fireballs from my behind.

Q26: Yeah, coy answer, wasn't it? It could mean a number of things, such as "maybe I will miss someone soon," or "I haven't decided whether this person is worth missing," or "do I still miss that person," or "yes, but I'm going to make you to guess who." That last one was how I'd actually meant it. But to spare us all a game of twenty questions, the answer is actually "sure, lots of people." Distant relatives, old flames, etc.

Q27. The car itself isn't expensive as cars go. In fact, at one point, it seemed to be the most popular car on the road. But I did the math and it costs almost $10 in fuel just to drive to work and back. Then there's insurance and of course the payments. And I had to get tires a few weeks ago. So it's not exactly cheap.

Q37. You're right, cilantro is an herb. I still hate it. I'm not exactly crazy about cucumbers, but those are technically fruit. Oh, I've got it, now: beets.

Posted on Saturday, June 07, 2008 at 11:55 PM
Categories: amusement, q+=a
| | Permalink

One Word x 40

Happy Friday! It's time to play the One Word Meme, courtesy of Dead Robot. The rules? Answer each question with exactly one word.

Where is your cell phone? Here
Your significant other? There
Your hair? Messy
Your skin? On
Your father? Alive
Your favourite thing? Imaginary
Your dream last night? Elaborate
Your favourite drink? Cola
Your dream/goal? Robots
The room you're in? Messy
Your ex? Forgotten
Your fear? Conservatives
Where do you want to be in six years? Mars
Where were you last night? Here
What you're not? Powerful
Muffins? Sure
One of your wish list items? Phenomenal cosmic power!
Where you grew up? Earth
The last thing you did? Fart
What are you wearing? Clothes
Your TV? Off
Your pets? Gone
Your computer? On
Your life? Continues
Your mood? Tired
Missing someone? Maybe
Your car? Expensive
Something you're not wearing? Perfume
Favourite store? Fry's
Your summer? Dunno
Like someone? Sure
Your favourite colour? Red
When is the last time you laughed? Tonight
Last time you cried? Dunno
Who will/would re-post this? You
Whose answers are you anxious to see? Yours
Most disliked vegetable? Cilantro
A lovely Person? Me?
Country I want to visit? Britain
Lucky number? 16309

Posted on Thursday, June 05, 2008 at 11:58 PM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

The Postdown

TroyBoy at Pheasantly Fascinating asks,

Which is your current all time-favorite blog entry? And no, you can't select one of your own! Post about it and let me know in my comments.

I don't think I can select just one! My true blogroll is a just a wee bit longer than the one displayed in the sidebar. I've read a lot of blog entries, and many of them are amusing and memorable, and each of the bloggers behind them is brilliant in unique ways. It's not really fair or possible to create one set of criteria with which each of them should be judged. (There's also the the fact that everyone who wasn't picked will be least a tiny bit offended. Honestly, you will be, just admit it.) So instead, I'll do a top five type of thing.

5. Surrogate Samurai at Radioactive Jam.: Why do managers get the best equipment? All I got was a Splintered Sharpened Stick.
4. How To Piss Me Off With Your Blog at dyers.org: I mentioned this one a while back. Even though the rise of OpenId may have made one or two of the annoyances less common, the rest are no less true. (And I'm sure I'm guilty of at least one of those, myself.)
3. Execution In The Kingdom Of Nouns at Steve Yegge's Blog Rants: An allegory (in the style of the Thing King ) about the shortcomings of the Java programming language, it's written in an entertaining but informative style that makes a dry subject interesting and easy to digest.
2. My Weekend at Nice To See Stevie B: A seemingly mundane "moving day" story takes a macabre twist. If I were in that situation, I probably would have jumped to the same conclusion about the crock pot.
1. Personality Disorders at Digital Heath: It's a pet peeve of mine that people occasionally make remarks about OCD that show that they don't understand it. For example, someone may blog that they deep-cleaned their home in anticipation of the in-laws' visit, and remark that OCD compelled them to clean the oven, polish all the brass, iron the curtains, and zshoosh all the magazines.
Sorry, but unless you're convinced that your mother in law will kill you for having a tchotchkie out of place, and you've cleaned the oven several times consecutively— just in case it's gotten cooties in the few minutes since you last cleaned it— then in my humble opinon, you're just a perfectionist.
The author of the above post knows the difference, too, and delivers (also in my humble opinion) a fairly accurate description of OCD. (He doesn't mention numerological obsessions, but that would be a whole ~~blog post~~ blog in itself.)

How about you, dear reader? What are some of your all-time favorite posts?

Posted on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 10:50 PM
Edited on: Saturday, March 29, 2008 10:55 PM
Categories: amusement, link-o-rama, q+=a
| | Permalink

I'm Fine With That

What type of person do you attract? Your Result: You attract geeks! Your stunning intellect and love of sci-fi and video games allures the geeks like nothing else. Maybe it is the sparkle in your eye that makes them want to text you, who knows. Geeks make good partners, but tend to be arguementative. If you are a TRUE geek magnet, you will know if that was spelled correctly, and actually care. If it is a bad-boy/bad-girl you are seeking, you are barking up the wrong tree, unless they are just 'bad' behind a PS2 console.
You attract Yuppies!
You attract artsy people!
You attract rednecks!
You attract unstable people!
You attract models!
What type of person do you attract?

Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 11:13 PM
Edited on: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 11:36 PM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Happy Chinese Lantern Festival!

The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year, and in the past has been somewhat equivalent to the Western world's St. Valentine's Day. Chaperoned young people would traditionally roam the lantern-lit streets of China, searching for love, while their elders might play a game of matchmaker.

Today is also the second day of Spring, as the vernal equinox occurred yesterday. Spring, a time of new life, new beginnings, and of eggs balanced on their ends and then decorated with food coloring pellets and vinegar. A time of plastic grass and chocolates for some of us, and for others, a time of drunken beach debauchery. Still others see it as a season of cleaning and planting. Whatever, I say, suits your fancy.

What's my fancy, you ask? Well, although hard work certainly pays future dividends, and chocolate and debauchery are both compelling enough on their own— never mind if they were somehow combined— something about an evening stroll down a street filled with paper lanterns, young lovers, and music sounds just so pleasant.

Oh, and before I forget, here's Friday Fun: Spring Edition.

1. Does your household do spring cleaning?: No, it's really more of a quarterly thing, although I believe that the exact dates might actually be reckoned by the lunar calendar, possibly even the Aztec lunar calendar.
2. Do you approach spring with joy for all the newly growing things and the sight of grass, or does it just scream MUDDY FLOORS AND MOPPING?: Please, I've got ~~better~~ ~~worse~~ more important things to worry about than muddy floors. Besides, there's supposedly a drought on.
3. Do you have a garden that you will be planting and, if so, what do you plant?: No, I live in an apartment, you insensitive clod. And I've never heard of pots. Also, there's supposedly a drought on.
4. What is your favorite thing about springtime?: For a little while, the weather will be just right. Then it will be time to cower indoors from the heat instead of the cold.

Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 at 9:34 PM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Breaking the Blogatorium

Creativity is a funny thing. Sometimes it leaves you for oh, a week or so, and sometimes it comes back without ever explaining where it's been and why there are so many strange charges on your credit cards. Sometimes it just sits on your couch and ignores your requests for it to take out the trash, and other times it smacks you in the back of the head and says, " Time to play Questions, Questions!"

1. Do you think you can last in a relationship for 6 months without cheating?: I can hardly sit down for a game of Monopoly without cheating.
2. What did you do today that was productive?: This.
3. When’s the last time you kissed someone?: Just yesterday I put lipstick on my hand, and... oh, you mean someone else.
4. What is one thing you question a lot?: Why I answer all these questionnaires.
5. Do you think you lead people on?: Huh. Maybe that's why some people don't like me.
6. Are you married?: Why do you ask? Was I leading you on or something?
7. Have you ever told someone that you loved them?: That is typically part of the leading-on business.
8. Is there anyone who doesn’t like you?: People I've led on, people I haven't led on, people I've met, and also, people I haven't met.
9. Do you miss someone?: Meh, friends and exes, the usual.
10. Did any of your friends go out with any of your exes?: If they have, then they've wisely not mentioned it.
11. Are looks important?: Nah, I look all the time.
12. What are you wearing?: Clothes, duh.
13. Are you mad at someone right now?: Yes, whoever wrote this questionnaire.
14. Are you talking to anyone?: Yes, an imaginary voice from my computer that keeps asking me the most inane questions.
15. Where do you keep your money?: Nowhere. I find keeping money to be quite difficult in this economy.
16. How did you wake up this morning?: First I ate a piece of toast, then I brushed my teeth...
17. Which is more romantic: sunrise or sunset?: As a concept, sunrise.
18. Would you die for someone?: Myself. In your face, logic!
19. Last time in the hospital?: Let's hope so.
20. How many letters are in your last name?: 1,024
21. Do you love anyone?: Nah, I don't believe in love. I also don't believe in motherhood, apple pie, baseball, rainbows, puppies, or the power of laughter.
22. How was your day?: Fine, until Dr. Zoidberg threw an octopus at my window.
23. Are you scared of spiders?: Not as much as I am of ~~Communists~~ ~~global thermonuclear war~~ ~~the ozone layer~~ ~~Saddam Hussein~~ ~~Global Warming~~ ~~Al-Qaeda~~ ~~Saddam Hussein~~ ~~Kim-Jong Il~~ ~~Saddam Hussein~~ ~~limited thermonuclear war~~ ~~George Bush~~ ~~poisonous Chinese imports~~ the economy.
24. Do you have any tattoos or piercings?: Not anymore.
25. How do you walk?: First you move one foot, then the other. Try not to fall down.
26. What do you think of Fergie?: I don't.
27. Do you believe in love?: I just said as much. Aren't you listening?
28. How old do you want to be when you have kids?: Eleven, so we can go out for beers this Friday.
29. What’s your favorite food?: It's for sure not sushi.
30. When was the last time you threw up?: The last time I ate sushi.
31. Do you curse a lot?: No, but I swear like a drunken sailor.
32. What do you know about the future?: It'll be here tomorrow.
33. Do you hate your first boyfriend/girlfriend?: I've never even dated a transgender so this is not applicable.
34. Do you only drink bottled water?: No, it's got other uses, too.
35. Are you happier single or in a relationship?: No.
36. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?: No, but I deserve at least six billion of them.
37. Would you believe your ex if she/he said they love you?: Again, I've never dated a transgender... let alone one with multiple personality disorder.
38. Most hated food?: Again, sushi.
39. Do you wish someone would call you?: No, it would probably just be a telemarketer, or worse, a bill collector.
40. What’s something you wish you could understand better?: The pink and rubbery pre-chewed bubblegum mind of a person who'd put together such a questionnaire.
41. If someone doesn’t like you, it’s usually because?: Yes, it usually is just because.
42. What are you excited about?: That this questionnaire's almost over.
43. Kissed someone in the last 24 hrs?: Okay, now I know you aren't listening.
44. Have you lost friends in the past years?: Yes, but they usually turn up between the seat cushions.
45. If you could go back in time and meet your younger self, what’s the one thing you would tell him/her?: Don't do the questionnaire!

Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 at 11:35 PM
Edited on: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 8:44 AM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Is A Bad Post Better Than No Post?

Since I'm feeling uninspired, let's do the meme book edition

1. Pick up the nearest book.: It's Shiny Adidas Track Suits And The Death Of Camp by Various.
2. Open it at page 123.: Uhm... Ta-da!
3. Find the fifth sentence/ phrase.: There are only two complete sentences on this page. You'll have to settle for that.
4. Blog the next four sentences/ phrases together with these instructions.: I haven't read this book yet, so I've no idea of the context, myself:
The Yamaha Indians of Bolivia have a word for this kind of thing—pachakuti, the disruption of the universe. But pachakuit also implies the inherent resumption of cosmic order—nayrapachar—which, as the sun rose out of the plane's window, seemed nowhere in sight.
5. Don't you dare dig your shelves for that very special or intellectual book.: You mean Practical UNIX & Internet Security? Wouldn't dream of it...
The shell escape is left over from the days before UNIX had job control.
6. Pass it forward to six friends.: Yeah, that worked so brilliantly the last time I tried it, you'd think I was warning them that the Internet would be down for maintenance for 24 hours between March 30 and April 2. Instead, I'll leave it open for participation by anybody in particular, so long as you leave a comment with a link to your post.

Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 11:53 PM
Edited on: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 12:25 AM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

I Knew It!

You're The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

by Douglas Adams

Considered by many to be one of the funniest people around, you are quite an entertainer. You've also traveled to the far reaches of what you deem possible, often confused and unsure of yourself. Life continues to jostle you around like a marble, but it's shown you so much of the world that you don't care. Wacky adventures continue to lie ahead. Your favorite number is 42.

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Posted on Monday, February 18, 2008 at 10:21 PM
Edited on: Monday, February 18, 2008 10:28 PM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Friday Fun: Gaming Edition

Friday is upon us once again. It's time for Friday Fun: Gaming Edition

1. What was your favorite outside childhood game? Kick the Can, Ghost in the Graveyard, etc.?: I've never heard of Ghost in the Graveyard, but if it had rules and/or points, I wasn't interested. I could (and did) skip tag, kickball, tetherball, red rover, hopscotch, and jump-rope. I was more of a Spaceman Spiff sort of boy.
2. How about board games? Do you have a favorite?: I've enjoyed just about every game I've tried from both Cheapass Games and Looney Labs: Fluxx, Witch Trial, Nano-Fictionary, Kill Doctor Lucky, etc. They're fun, and they don't take hours to set up and play. Anybody want to organize a Game Night?
3. Do you play any PC games? Online or offline? If so, what is your favorite? If not, is there one out there you want to try?: Not so much any more. I've tried a few online games, City of Heroes having been my favorite, but I think I'm pretty much over the whole online thing. As for "offline" games, I was a big fan of LucasArts adventures, like Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Mix Hit The Road. That's why I'd like to try Sam and Max, Season One.
4. Gaming stations,… there are so many out there and I know jack about them! Do you have one or more and which ones? XBox, XBox 360, Playstation, etc.?: All of the above, as well as a PS2 and a GBA. I hardly touch any of them, except for the 360, and even that's not very often. It's not that I don't like swarms of goblins, assassinations, and the Dark Side of the Force, it's just that most of my time is now spent in other pursuits. Maybe the situation would be different if the 360 had a game involving giant Anime robots...

Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Friday Fun: Clotheshound Edition

It's Friday, so it's time for Friday Fun: Clotheshound Edition

1. Do you have to dress for work? If so, what is your “uniform”?: A pair of boring cotton slacks or khakis and an equally boring button-down shirt. In other words, your typical tech's outfit.
2. How would you describe your style when dressing for yourself, rather than work?: Blue jeans and a tee-shirt, typically, a black tee-shirt. In other words, your typical hacker's outfit.
3. I have noticed that there seem to be two kinds of dressers in the winter months. Those who love turtlenecks and those that abhor them! Which are you?!: A turtleneck? Here? Are you crazy?
4. It’s lounging time on the couch in the evening. What are you wearing?: Old and soft tee shirt and shorts. In other words, what most of you probably also wear in that situation.
5. Describe your favorite “feel good” outfit!: I don't have a favorite, but I feel pretty good in the answers for #2 and #4, mainly because it means I'm not in #1.

Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 at 7:54 PM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Friday Fun: The High School Edition

It's Friday, so it's time for Friday Fun: The High School Edition

1. What was your high school decade?: I went to high school in the Nineties.
2. Are you still friends with your high school friends?: You assume that all people that go to high school make friends there. Yes, I did have a number of acquaintances among my classmates, but no, I've long since lost touch with them.
3. What was your favorite thing about high school?: The teachers.
4. Your least favorite?: The other students.
5. Did you have a high school sweetheart? And how did that work out?!: Yeah, I wish. But it probably would have been a disaster anyway.
6. Would you do the whole high school thing again, or is it better left in the past?!: Yeah, right.
"Are you our substitute teacher?"
"No, I'm a new student."

(scoff) "Ew!"

Posted on Friday, February 01, 2008 at 11:07 PM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Friday Fun: The Windfall Edition

My apologies for posting two memes in a row, but it's time for Friday Fun: The Windfall Edition

1. If you were to get a unexpected windfall, what is your first thought on what to do with the money? Were you practical or not?!: My first impulse is just to sit on it. Is that practical? I guess that depends on your point of view. Most people would probably urge me to buy a new car, a big-screen TV, or to go on a cruise. Others would shrewdly suggest I invest the cash rather than let it languish in a savings account But, something tells me I'd probably need it for something or other, and sooner rather than later.
2. You have $1000 to spend on yourself. What do you buy? With $5000?: For $1000, I'd look into a new laptop. For $5000, I'd look into a nice new laptop. Or (I admit it) a little bit of cosmetic dentistry.
3. You have $1000 to spend on something for your home. What do you buy? With $5000?: I'd take either sum and put it toward a better location.
4. You have your windfall and you realize your car is older than you. So what do you buy?: Last time I was in that situation, I was bamboozled into driving home with something I wasn't exactly thrilled with, and paid quite a bit more than I wanted to spend. Next time, maybe I'll be situated so that I won't need to buy a car at all. Bah, cars are the root of all of our problems anyway. Traffic? Cars! Pollution? Cars! Middle East? Cars!
5. You decide to buy some books with your windfall at Amazon. What 5 books would you get?: Five books that I don't already have? Hmm. I don't know. When I get an impulse to find a particular book, I usually try to order it from paperbackswap.com. So I don't really have a big wishlist. In fact, I've got quite a big To-Be-Read pile. However, I can tell you that I'd probably first browse the how-to section, then the science section, then the science-fiction section.

Posted on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 12:16 AM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Magic 8 Ball iPod Meme

Once I saw the Magic 8 Ball iPod Meme, I just had to play along.

Instructions:

Go to your music player of choice and put it on shuffle.
Check.
Say the following questions aloud, and press play.
Say them all at once, apparently.
Use the song title as the answer to the question. NO CHEATING.
Would I do that? Don't answer.
Do NOT shake iPod and look at the other side, it won't give you the answers!
Maybe it will if I shake it hard enough! Mua ha ha ha!

How does the world see you?: U2, "Acrobat"
"You can dream, so dream out loud."
Will I have a happy life?: AYATE, "Flute"
Pleasant, but boring, and sort of Christmasy
What do my friends really think of me?: Roni Size, "It's Jazzy"
That I'll come up with something monotonous but loudly insist it's jazzy.
What do people secretly think of me?: Rush, "Limelight"
"All the worlds indeed a stage // And we are merely players // Performers and portrayers // Each another's audience // Outside the gilded cage"
How can I be happy?: The Who, "Eyesight to the Blind"
Apparently by having miraculous carnal knowledge.
What should I do with my life?: Talking Heads, "Burning Down The House"

If by "house," you mean "establishment," then sure.
Will I ever have children?: Divine, "Shoot Your Shot"
Umm, yah. No comment.
What is some good advice for me?: Talk Show, "John"
"I sit at home cause I'm able... I live out life but complain in the same old way..."
How will I be remembered?: The Ventures, "Hawaii Five-O"
First cool, then dated and cheesy in a bad way, then retro and cheesy in a fun way.
What is my signature dancing song?: Deep Forest, "Cafe Europa"
Not sure what a dance to this would even look like.
What do I think my current theme song is?: Rush, "Driven"
"But it's my turn to drive."
What does everyone else think my current theme song is?: Philip Glass & Robert Wilson, "Scene B"
Why do I have to have an opera theme song?
What song will play at my funeral?: Jonathan Fraser, "Prince Ali (Reprise)"
"Whoopee! So long, ex-Prince Ali!"
What type of men do you like?: Shirley Walker, "Phantasm and Joker Fight"
The kind that aren't afraid to wear costumes in public.
What is my day going to be like?: K!sdra, "Isabel J."

The pace will get faster and faster but will end well. Also, I will repeatedly insist that something is impervious to all poisons.

Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 12:20 AM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Friday Food

And now, another fine Friday Fun prompt.

1. What is your favorite guilty pleasure yummy food?: Anything that's not leftovers. Which means practically everything. I put away the leftovers with the best of intentions. When I do see them again, it's like something from "The Trouble With Tribbles."
2. It is snack time. What do you reach for? Chips? Ice cream? Something healthy?: Anything made of chocolate, unless it's "chocolatey" compound chocolate.
3. What is your ideal breakfast?: I like a light breakfast. Maybe a nice fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt with some granola on top.
4. What are you craving right now?: Actually, nothing. I had a pretty filling meal this evening. (Cornbread Taco Bake, if you're interested.)

Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 11:58 PM
Categories: amusement
| | Permalink

Faulty Analogies

I am occasionally still asked about the differences between Linux and Windows. Oddly, I find that using terms such as free-as-in-speech, software monoculture, zero-day, design philosophy, proprietary, protocol, and computer usually leads to reactions such as blank stare, glassy stare, indifferent stare, or vacant stare.

Over time, I developed the following analogy. I can't say for sure whether taking Vista into account would change it much, but I suspect not.

Windows is like an ultra-modern kitchen in a condo you're leasing.

Your countertops, cabinets, and appliances are all done up in matching stainless steel. Your refrigerator not only dispenses reverse-osmosis water, ice cubes, and crushed ice, but also has a high-definition TV embedded in the door. Your cooktop has induction burners and a built-in grill. You've got a microwave oven with presets for every sort of food you can imagine, and also for dozens of types of food you can't imagine. You've even got a talking cookbook that volunteers to make simple dishes for you.

Of course, your friends all have that cookbook, too, so your dishes usually end up tasting pretty similar. Sometimes, the cookbook isn't even that helpful. For example, if you want to find out how to make an omelet, it might suggest a recipe for boiled water and present several tips on egg-cracking technique.

If you'd prefer a gas stove to an induction stove, that's too bad. Because the appliances and the kitchen itself belong to the building management, they can't be replaced until the management company is good and ready to do so, and even then, you'll probably just end up with a fancier induction stove. You can, of course, paint the kitchen whenever you like and then pretend like everything's new.

Suppose you want to make ice cream. You can't just pour a bunch of milk into your stand mixer and then put the mixer into the freezer. First of all, the mixer won't fit into the freezer. Even if it did fit, there's no electrical outlet in the freezer to plug the mixer into. Even if there was, that arrangement still wouldn't work all that well.

That leaves you with two or three options. Obviously, you could go buy an ice cream maker. Unfortunately, your choices there mostly fall into one of two categories. One one hand is an industrial soft-serve machine. It will churn out more ice cream than you could ever eat, and can also make any flavor of frozen yogurt. Of course, the price tag is rather steep, as it's really targeted toward someone who wants to open an ice-cream parlor. On the other hand, you could get a cute toy designed to fall apart after a certain number of uses, something like the Snoopy Snow-Cone Machine. And shaved ice is kind of like ice cream, isn't it? No? Well, that's all right, since you don't have to pay for the snow-cone machine unless you like the snow-cones it makes.

The third option is, of course, to go to the store and buy some ice cream.

Linux is like a well-stocked garage in a house you've inherited.

You've got a bewildering array of tools: hammers, screwdrivers, saws, planes, levels, and rows of things you can't even name. There are even tools for building new tools when the ones you've got are awkward or tedious. You don't have to do that very often, because most of the tools fit together. For example, if you've got a bunch of nails to pound, you can attach the hammer to the drill. You'll want to make sure there are no non-nail objects-- such as fingers-- in the hammering area, of course. If you want to make sure that you only hammer nails, you can try attaching a magnet to the hammer, or a jig that only allows it to pound nails. You can plug the whole apparatus into a timer and have all your nails hammered in the background.

Your neighbors with similar garages have developed some very elaborate contraptions, and most of these neighbors stopped by with copies of the blueprints to these contraptions when you moved in-- just being neighborly, of course.

The problem there is that quite a few of the blueprints require you to stop and refer to another set of blueprints, which themselves require you to stop and refer to yet another set of blueprints, and so forth, until you suddenly realize that you've somehow cut through a load-bearing column and your entire garage collapses on your head.

But as long as you manage to avoid chopping through load-bearing walls without taking adequate precautions, you're free to swap out just about anything in the garage: lights, cabinets, benches, appliances, even the walls and floor. You can make all of those things right there in your garage.

Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 11:34 PM
Edited on: Monday, January 14, 2008 11:45 PM
Categories: amusement, computer science
| | Permalink