Snakes, Foxes, and Penguins: 2012

Monday, December 3, 2012

Life Cycles

I've noticed a long-term cycle that repeats through my life; unlike many of the most obvious ones, its period is typically months in length.

Life goes pretty smoothly for a while and I handle things as they come.
Something has a more significant impact on me, which starts small but slowly cascades to cover more and more of my thoughts. Unchecked, it very slowly, but usually, consumes me.
My mind enters a turbulent period full of anxiety and discomfort. I feel mentally ill and the need to escape from everything.
Often with help from someone, the issue is resolved. It could be that I finally get the result I want, or that I have some sort of epiphany that calms all of the anxiety.
I slip into a new norm where everything goes smoothly. Oftentimes, I must discard elements from the previous smooth period in order to get everything "just right." I always feel like I've learned something new, either about myself, or something or someone else.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Lazy Sunday

I feel like I got absolutely nothing done today.

Walked over Queen Anne

On my ~4.1 mile walk, I took some pretty sweet photos with my new camera. Below is just the cover image.

Walking Insight

After that, I put together a blog post comparing walking versus driving and how it changes our perspective on transportation.

Farmers' Market

I did my normal Sunday thing, but also got some fancy soaps while there!

Friendship Insight

It'd take too long for me to go over everything, but the key lesson learned here is that people other than me also try to glean more meaning from what others say than what those others originally intended. I no longer feel so alone in the world!

Random Photos

My new camera inspired me to take some random photos of elements of my life, too.

Vegetable Roast

And, of course, tasty food for the week!

Yep; I'm lazy.

Walking versus Driving

Our paths when driving versus walking are different, which causes a few differences:

Our paths take us through different areas not centered on pushing automobiles around.
The types of paths we value are different; most people don't like walking along six-lane highways with cars constantly zooming by.
The way we perceive distances changes a bit.

Just a random observation I've noticed through my every-day life, brought about memories which resurfaced from something I did this morning.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Facebook Over the Years (Fixed)

As it turns out, I forgot to account for the timezone offset in my previous post.

This next chart shows how many posts I made in each hour of the day over the past six years.

Unlike last time, I also created this fancy chart, which compares the hourly of each year. Since it's a bit messy, I still include the per-year hourly charts, though they are corrected as well.

There are some more charts after the jump.

Nico Nico Douga Download

Another uneventful download. I really like the 君の知らない物語 cover (YouTube) here.

Last Saturday

Since everyone keeps asking, I decided to create this blog post to contain most of the details of what happened. I would've used Storify, except I wanted to host some photos on here and wanted to keep it outside of a 'normal' social network.

Saturday

This pretty much summarizes how the bicycle ride that led up to the incident started:

My original plan for today was to hang out at one of the many local cafés, but then I realized that would've been a pointless endeavor.
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 24, 2012

Instead, I'm biking around Lake Washington. twitpic.com/bg49zi
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 24, 2012

Oh boy, time to start heading north! twitpic.com/bg4k9v
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 24, 2012

About 32 miles in, near SR-520, I went down:

It looks like I only managed to do around 32 miles before going down.I really should've brought food for this ride. twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 26, 2012

I'm almost certain I went down somewhere along one of these orange lines. #cycling twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 26, 2012

I was taken to the ER at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue.

I don't really remember the details of when I was out aside from the world seeming like a dream (like every concussion I've ever had), but I ended up with some wraps on my elbows and knee (just one knee), as well as stitches in my upper lip and just below my right eye. Oh, and a tetanus shot.

I've seen better days. twitpic.com/bg6lz7
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

My father picked me up and brought me to their place for supervision, since I had a concussion after all. Once there, he fixed my glasses for me, since one of the bits of the frame was twisted.

My father fixed my glasses. twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

#stitches twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

Sunday

It's the next morning, and I have inflammation under my eye. twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

I gave some thought to my current situation.

I'm thankful for: no broken bones; health insurance; family who can watch over me after I maim myself.
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

I'm also thankful for friends who care enough to come running when bad things happen.
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

I think a large part of the cause of the incident was allowing my blood sugar to drop enough to affect my thinking ability.Living is hard.
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

Considering this is me, I was obviously concerned about the status of my bicycle. My father and I, at my persisted demanding, went to the Kirkland Fire Department headquarters, which is closed on the weekends. I then looked into all of the fire stations, until I merely guessed that Fire Station #22 was the one we wanted based on the memories I was still piecing together. That was indeed the right fire station, however my bike had been taken to the hospital. We ended up going back there.

Thankfully, it was pretty much undamaged aside from a few minor scratches.

Thank goodness I know how to take it apart, since it's too big to fit in my father's car.

And after that and some nausea, I was home.

Back home.My father's driving styles leaves me nauseated, but I still really appreciate what he's done.
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

Since the worst was all over, I just went about my normal Sunday: farmers' market shopping, bread baking, and so on. I also set up plans to take Monday off, since I definitely couldn't handle the mental stress of work yet. I also went over everything that had transpired and made the above maps.

Oh yeah, I also got a new helmet since the old one could be potentially bad. This one is a tad larger and doesn't cut off blood flow like the old one did.

I like how my new helmet isn't too small. twitter.com/takeshita_kenj…
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) November 25, 2012

I leave you with the following lesson I've learned multiple times.

Some other lessons:

Don't get hopped up on caffeine before riding.
Eat enough for the ride. I've done 56 miles at once before, but always with food along the way. I didn't eat anything on this ride.
Drink enough for the ride. I've gotten better at that, but the caffeine likely dehydrated me on this ride.
Get a larger helmet than the 'normal' sizes because my head is larger than 'normal.'

I already learned the lesson of not 'forcing' myself up hills, and to not be 'too proud' to downshift.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Facebook Over the Years

After downloading my Facebook data and feeding it into a Twitter account, I decided to generate some statistics. This first chart is the number of posts I've made each year.

This next chart shows how many posts I made in each hour of the day over the past six years.

There are some more charts after the jump.

Historical Dump

As it turns out, @DaggsyD has been keeping track of some old sites and blogs I had. I was hoping to find some 'new' photograph content, but all I found was old textual posts.

Here are the blogs, from oldest to newest. 2004 must've been when I was in ninth grade, which was the last year of junior high where I grew up.

Modblog (Wayback Machine)
Xanga
Blogger UK
MySpace
SIMphony Forums (SimCity-related)

There were some photos, which you can find after the jump.

No SimCity 3000 Unlimited, Either

As a follow-on to my previous post, I also tried to run SimCity 3000 Unlimited:

wine: Unhandled page fault on read access to 0xffffffff at address 0x409868 (thread 0009), starting debugger...
Unhandled exception: page fault on read access to 0xffffffff in 32-bit code (0x00409868).
Register dump:
 CS:0023 SS:002b DS:002b ES:0000 FS:0063 GS:006b
 EIP:00409868 ESP:0032fccc EBP:0032fdb4 EFLAGS:00010216(  R- --  I   -A-P- )
 EAX:0032fcd4 EBX:00000001 ECX:00000067 EDX:00400000
 ESI:00000000 EDI:00400000
Stack dump:
0x0032fccc:  0032fdb4 0040e5bd 00000000 00400000
0x0032fcdc:  00000067 00416860 0013aa94 7b8b4ff4
0x0032fcec:  00000002 0032fd10 7bcbbff4 0032fd78
0x0032fcfc:  00400000 f7547bd6 f7547c6d 00000094
0x0032fd0c:  00000005 00000001 00000a28 00000002
0x0032fd1c:  76726553 20656369 6b636150 00003320
000c: sel=0067 base=00000000 limit=00000000 16-bit --x
Backtrace:
=>0 0x00409868 in sc3u (+0x9868) (0x0032fdb4)
  1 0x004169b2 in sc3u (+0x169b1) (0x0032fe40)
  2 0x7b85f76c call_process_entry+0xb() in kernel32 (0x0032fe58)
  3 0x7b860b0b in kernel32 (+0x50b0a) (0x0032fe98)
  4 0x7bc77f40 call_thread_func_wrapper+0xb() in ntdll (0x0032feb8)
  5 0x7bc7adff call_thread_func+0x9e() in ntdll (0x0032ff98)
  6 0x7bc77f1e RtlRaiseException+0x21() in ntdll (0x0032ffc8)
  7 0x7bc4dd71 call_dll_entry_point+0x540() in ntdll (0x0032ffe8)
  8 0xf75e24bd wine_call_on_stack+0x1c() in libwine.so.1 (0x00000000)
  9 0xf75e259e wine_switch_to_stack+0x2d() in libwine.so.1 (0xffcc1ea8)
  10 0x7bc539c8 LdrInitializeThunk+0x3c7() in ntdll (0xffcc1f18)
  11 0x7b867310 __wine_kernel_init+0xbcf() in kernel32 (0xffcc3038)
  12 0x7bc5409b __wine_process_init+0x18a() in ntdll (0xffcc30c8)
  13 0xf75dfffe wine_init+0x2ad() in libwine.so.1 (0xffcc3138)
  14 0x7bf00dbb main+0x8a() in  (0xffcc3588)
  15 0xf7431605 __libc_start_main+0xf4() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
0x00409868: scasb %es:(%edi)
Modules:
Module Address   Debug info Name (48 modules)
PE   400000-  456000 Export          sc3u
PE 10000000-1000c000 Deferred        drvmgt
ELF 7b800000-7ba44000 Dwarf           kernel32
  \-PE 7b810000-7ba44000 \               kernel32
ELF 7bc00000-7bcd8000 Dwarf           ntdll
  \-PE 7bc10000-7bcd8000 \               ntdll
ELF 7bf00000-7bf04000 Dwarf           
ELF 7e52b000-7e5af000 Deferred        rpcrt4
  \-PE 7e540000-7e5af000 \               rpcrt4
ELF 7e5af000-7e5b5000 Deferred        libxfixes.so.3
ELF 7e5b5000-7e5c0000 Deferred        libxcursor.so.1
ELF 7e72d000-7e756000 Deferred        libexpat.so.1
ELF 7e756000-7e78b000 Deferred        libfontconfig.so.1
ELF 7e78b000-7e79b000 Deferred        libxi.so.6
ELF 7e79b000-7e7a6000 Deferred        libxrandr.so.2
ELF 7e7a6000-7e7b0000 Deferred        libxrender.so.1
ELF 7e7b0000-7e7d5000 Deferred        imm32
  \-PE 7e7c0000-7e7d5000 \               imm32
ELF 7e7d5000-7e7f7000 Deferred        libxcb.so.1
ELF 7e7f7000-7e7fd000 Deferred        libuuid.so.1
ELF 7e7fd000-7e817000 Deferred        libice.so.6
ELF 7e817000-7e94e000 Deferred        libx11.so.6
ELF 7e94e000-7e960000 Deferred        libxext.so.6
ELF 7e960000-7e9f3000 Deferred        winex11
  \-PE 7e970000-7e9f3000 \               winex11
ELF 7e9f3000-7ea03000 Deferred        libbz2.so.1.0
ELF 7ea03000-7ea1a000 Deferred        libz.so.1
ELF 7ea1a000-7eab6000 Deferred        libfreetype.so.6
ELF 7eae3000-7eb53000 Deferred        advapi32
  \-PE 7eaf0000-7eb53000 \               advapi32
ELF 7eb53000-7ec29000 Deferred        gdi32
  \-PE 7eb60000-7ec29000 \               gdi32
ELF 7ec29000-7ed87000 Deferred        user32
  \-PE 7ec40000-7ed87000 \               user32
ELF 7ef87000-7ef94000 Deferred        libnss_files.so.2
ELF 7ef94000-7efd3000 Deferred        libm.so.6
ELF 7efd6000-7efdd000 Deferred        libxdmcp.so.6
ELF 7efdd000-7efe6000 Deferred        libsm.so.6
ELF 7efe6000-7f000000 Deferred        version
  \-PE 7eff0000-7f000000 \               version
ELF f73e6000-f73eb000 Deferred        libdl.so.2
ELF f7410000-f7414000 Deferred        libxinerama.so.1
ELF f7414000-f7418000 Deferred        libxau.so.6
ELF f7418000-f75be000 Dwarf           libc.so.6
ELF f75be000-f75d9000 Deferred        libpthread.so.0
ELF f75d9000-f771c000 Dwarf           libwine.so.1
ELF f771d000-f773f000 Deferred        ld-linux.so.2
ELF f773f000-f7740000 Deferred        [vdso].so
Threads:
process  tid      prio (all id:s are in hex)
00000008 (D) C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 3000 Unlimited\Apps\sc3U.exe
 00000009    0 <==
0000000e services.exe
 00000026    0
 0000001e    0
 00000018    0
 00000017    0
 00000015    0
 00000010    0
 0000000f    0
00000012 winedevice.exe
 0000001c    0
 00000019    0
 00000014    0
 00000013    0
0000001a plugplay.exe
 00000020    0
 0000001d    0
 0000001b    0
00000021 explorer.exe
 00000022    0

No SimCity 2000 for Me

I tried to run SimCity 2000 Special Edition, under Wine, but no dice:

wine: Unhandled page fault on write access to 0x00000000 at address 0x7ddadb9f (thread 0024), starting debugger...
Unhandled exception: page fault on write access to 0x00000000 in 32-bit code (0x7ddadb9f).
Register dump:
 CS:0023 SS:002b DS:002b ES:002b FS:0063 GS:006b
 EIP:7ddadb9f ESP:00c1e284 EBP:00c1e708 EFLAGS:00010246(  R- --  I  Z- -P- )
 EAX:00000000 EBX:7ddb3ff4 ECX:00008000 EDX:00161dc0
 ESI:00161f00 EDI:0000000a
Stack dump:
0x00c1e284:  00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0x00c1e294:  00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0x00c1e2a4:  00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0x00c1e2b4:  00000001 00161f0c 00000000 ffffffff
0x00c1e2c4:  00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0x00c1e2d4:  00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
000c: sel=0067 base=00000000 limit=00000000 16-bit --x
Backtrace:
=>0 0x7ddadb9f in wing32 (+0xdb9f) (0x00c1e708)
  1 0x7ddaf39b in wing32 (+0xf39a) (0x00c1e7a8)
  2 0x7ece9346 SendDriverMessage+0x85() in winmm (0x00c1e818)
  3 0x7ecee1d4 in winmm (+0xe1d3) (0x00c1e868)
  4 0x7ecf075e in winmm (+0x1075d) (0x00c1e8c8)
  5 0x7ecf0ba4 mciSendCommandW+0x53() in winmm (0x00c1e928)
  6 0x7ecf1187 mciSendCommandA+0x2a6() in winmm (0x00c1e998)
  7 0x7ddacde8 in wing32 (+0xcde7) (0x00c1e9e8)
  8 0x7bc77f40 call_thread_func_wrapper+0xb() in ntdll (0x00c1ea08)
  9 0x7bc7adff call_thread_func+0x9e() in ntdll (0x00c1eae8)
  10 0x7bc77f1e RtlRaiseException+0x21() in ntdll (0x00c1eb18)
  11 0x7bc812f5 in ntdll (+0x712f4) (0x00c1f368)
  12 0xf75a7d08 start_thread+0xd7() in libpthread.so.0 (0x00c1f468)
  13 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  14 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  15 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  16 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  17 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  18 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  19 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  20 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  21 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  22 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  23 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  24 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  25 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  26 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  27 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  28 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  29 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  30 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  31 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  32 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  33 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  34 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  35 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  36 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  37 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  38 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  39 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  40 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  41 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  42 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  43 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  44 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  45 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  46 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  47 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  48 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  49 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  50 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  51 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  52 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  53 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  54 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  55 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  56 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  57 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  58 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  59 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  60 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  61 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  62 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  63 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  64 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  65 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  66 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  67 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  68 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  69 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  70 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  71 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  72 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  73 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  74 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  75 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  76 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  77 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  78 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  79 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  80 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  81 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  82 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  83 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  84 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  85 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  86 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  87 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  88 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  89 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  90 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  91 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  92 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  93 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  94 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  95 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  96 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  97 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  98 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  99 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  100 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  101 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  102 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  103 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  104 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  105 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  106 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  107 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  108 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  109 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  110 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  111 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  112 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  113 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  114 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  115 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  116 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  117 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  118 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  119 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  120 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  121 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  122 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  123 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  124 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  125 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  126 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  127 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  128 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  129 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  130 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  131 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  132 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  133 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  134 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  135 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  136 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  137 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  138 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  139 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  140 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  141 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  142 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  143 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  144 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  145 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  146 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  147 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  148 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  149 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  150 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  151 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  152 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  153 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  154 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  155 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  156 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  157 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  158 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  159 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  160 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  161 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  162 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  163 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  164 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  165 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  166 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  167 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  168 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  169 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  170 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  171 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  172 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  173 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  174 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  175 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  176 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  177 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  178 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  179 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  180 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  181 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  182 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  183 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  184 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  185 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  186 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  187 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  188 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  189 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  190 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  191 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  192 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  193 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  194 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  195 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  196 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  197 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  198 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  199 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
  200 0xf74e5a4e __clone+0x5d() in libc.so.6 (0x00000000)
0x7ddadb9f: addb %al,0x0(%eax)
Modules:
Module Address   Debug info Name (82 modules)
PE   330000-  343000 Deferred        smackw32
PE   400000-  563000 Deferred        simcity
ELF 7b800000-7ba44000 Deferred        kernel32
  \-PE 7b810000-7ba44000 \               kernel32
ELF 7bc00000-7bcd8000 Dwarf           ntdll
  \-PE 7bc10000-7bcd8000 \               ntdll
ELF 7bf00000-7bf04000 Deferred        
ELF 7d981000-7d9cc000 Deferred        dsound
  \-PE 7d990000-7d9cc000 \               dsound
ELF 7d9cc000-7dac2000 Deferred        libasound.so.2
ELF 7dac2000-7dc00000 Deferred        oleaut32
  \-PE 7dae0000-7dc00000 \               oleaut32
ELF 7dd17000-7dd2d000 Deferred        midimap
  \-PE 7dd20000-7dd2d000 \               midimap
ELF 7dd2d000-7dd46000 Deferred        msacm32
  \-PE 7dd30000-7dd46000 \               msacm32
ELF 7dd46000-7dd76000 Deferred        winealsa
  \-PE 7dd50000-7dd76000 \               winealsa
ELF 7dd76000-7dd9b000 Deferred        mmdevapi
  \-PE 7dd80000-7dd9b000 \               mmdevapi
ELF 7dda0000-7ddb5000 Dwarf           wing32
  \-PE 7ddb0000-7ddb5000 \               wing32
ELF 7de14000-7de4b000 Deferred        uxtheme
  \-PE 7de20000-7de4b000 \               uxtheme
ELF 7de4b000-7de51000 Deferred        libxfixes.so.3
ELF 7de51000-7de5c000 Deferred        libxcursor.so.1
ELF 7dfb1000-7dfda000 Deferred        libexpat.so.1
ELF 7dfda000-7e00f000 Deferred        libfontconfig.so.1
ELF 7e00f000-7e01f000 Deferred        libxi.so.6
ELF 7e01f000-7e02a000 Deferred        libxrandr.so.2
ELF 7e02a000-7e034000 Deferred        libxrender.so.1
ELF 7e034000-7e038000 Deferred        libxinerama.so.1
ELF 7e038000-7e05d000 Deferred        imm32
  \-PE 7e040000-7e05d000 \               imm32
ELF 7e05d000-7e064000 Deferred        libxdmcp.so.6
ELF 7e064000-7e086000 Deferred        libxcb.so.1
ELF 7e086000-7e08c000 Deferred        libuuid.so.1
ELF 7e08c000-7e0a6000 Deferred        libice.so.6
ELF 7e0a6000-7e1dd000 Deferred        libx11.so.6
ELF 7e1dd000-7e270000 Deferred        winex11
  \-PE 7e1f0000-7e270000 \               winex11
ELF 7e270000-7e280000 Deferred        libbz2.so.1.0
ELF 7e280000-7e297000 Deferred        libz.so.1
ELF 7e297000-7e333000 Deferred        libfreetype.so.6
ELF 7e338000-7e341000 Deferred        librt.so.1
ELF 7e360000-7e3a0000 Deferred        winspool
  \-PE 7e370000-7e3a0000 \               winspool
ELF 7e3a0000-7e4ab000 Deferred        comctl32
  \-PE 7e3b0000-7e4ab000 \               comctl32
ELF 7e4ab000-7e524000 Deferred        shlwapi
  \-PE 7e4c0000-7e524000 \               shlwapi
ELF 7e524000-7e757000 Deferred        shell32
  \-PE 7e530000-7e757000 \               shell32
ELF 7e757000-7e83f000 Deferred        comdlg32
  \-PE 7e760000-7e83f000 \               comdlg32
ELF 7e83f000-7e86a000 Deferred        msacm32
  \-PE 7e840000-7e86a000 \               msacm32
ELF 7e86a000-7e8ee000 Deferred        rpcrt4
  \-PE 7e880000-7e8ee000 \               rpcrt4
ELF 7e8ee000-7ea2f000 Deferred        ole32
  \-PE 7e910000-7ea2f000 \               ole32
ELF 7ea2f000-7ea9f000 Deferred        advapi32
  \-PE 7ea40000-7ea9f000 \               advapi32
ELF 7ea9f000-7eb75000 Deferred        gdi32
  \-PE 7eab0000-7eb75000 \               gdi32
ELF 7eb75000-7ecd3000 Deferred        user32
  \-PE 7eb90000-7ecd3000 \               user32
ELF 7ecd3000-7ed87000 Dwarf           winmm
  \-PE 7ece0000-7ed87000 \               winmm
ELF 7ef87000-7ef94000 Deferred        libnss_files.so.2
ELF 7ef94000-7efd3000 Deferred        libm.so.6
ELF 7efd4000-7efe6000 Deferred        libxext.so.6
ELF 7efe6000-7f000000 Deferred        version
  \-PE 7eff0000-7f000000 \               version
ELF f73c3000-f73c7000 Deferred        libxau.so.6
ELF f73c9000-f73ce000 Deferred        libdl.so.2
ELF f73f2000-f73fb000 Deferred        libsm.so.6
ELF f73fb000-f75a1000 Dwarf           libc.so.6
ELF f75a1000-f75bc000 Dwarf           libpthread.so.0
ELF f75bc000-f76ff000 Dwarf           libwine.so.1
ELF f7700000-f7722000 Deferred        ld-linux.so.2
ELF f7722000-f7723000 Deferred        [vdso].so
Threads:
process  tid      prio (all id:s are in hex)
00000008 (D) C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 2000\SIMCITY.EXE
 00000026    0
 00000025    0
 00000024   15 <==
 00000023   15
 00000009    0
0000000e services.exe
 0000001f    0
 0000001e    0
 00000018    0
 00000017    0
 00000015    0
 00000010    0
 0000000f    0
00000012 winedevice.exe
 0000001c    0
 00000019    0
 00000014    0
 00000013    0
0000001a plugplay.exe
 00000020    0
 0000001d    0
 0000001b    0
00000021 explorer.exe
 00000022    0

Monday, November 12, 2012

Hiding Almost in Plain Sight #2

I've made it back to my normal Twitter account. I've logged my posts on this account after the jump.

For older tweets, see my previous post.

Hiding Almost in Plain Sight #1

Due to some issues I have, I've 'ducked' out of my usual Twitter account and ended up on a protected account which I don't advertise. Here's my log since I created it.

(The actual stuff is after the jump.)

Nico Nico Douga Download

I'd say my favorite of the tracks would be 【波音リツキレ音源】ODDS＆ENDS(full)【UTAUカバー】 (YouTube).

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Social Life Issues

My social life is sort of a vicious cycle: At its simplest, it's a battle between wanting attention and being afraid of it.

When I'm lonely, I often strive to find people with which I can surround myself to form a sort of 'safety net' when I feel like communicating or sharing things, be them things I find or things I create. I push myself into social situations where good times are had, but after which I feel terrible for having done so.

I start interacting with these friends I've found regularly and we build up a shared history, as well as knowledge about each other. We start to care about each other more, and try to help each other through the bad times. However as I see them being pained by any bad moments I have, I start feeling worse because I don't want to see them sad. It becomes a positive feedback loop which can spiral out of control.

Eventually, things start getting out of hand and I feel like everything I've built up is just going to make me worse. I no longer can withhold information which I don't want them to know since they know me so well. At this point, I start creating a subconscious defensive strategy where I try to push them away, usually by trying to use logic to try to somehow 'convince' them that I am only detrimental to their happiness. This often fails, since we're pretty close at this point, and when it keeps failing, I escape from the entire social scene.

A while after escaping, I start to feel lonely again, which starts the cycle anew.

I think that's part of why I don't want to date: After my last relationship ended based on this pattern, I didn't want to curse anyone else with having to deal with it.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Sleep in Windows

Many of us are aware that there is no sleep in Windows. For those of us who don't want Cygwin or something similar, I wrote this stupid little script just now.

#!/usr/bin/env python2
from time import sleep
from sys import argv, stderr, exit

try:
    duration = int(argv[1])
    if duration <= 0:
        raise ValueError
    sleep(duration)
except (IndexError, ValueError):
    print >>stderr, 'Usage: %s duration' % argv[0]

It's not significant, but I am not amused by the lack of such a command in Windows.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Musings During Jury Duty

While killing time during one of the long waits associated with jury duty yesterday, I scribbled this down:

My handwriting is also worthless.

It's not that it's boring; it's that I have trouble channeling a coherent train of thought without structured stimuli. My mind jumps from thought to thought without allowing any proper development. That is, unless I find something particularly interesting.

My attention span is worthless.

There really are all sorts of stimuli out there; those who claim to be bored are just ignoring them, which iss fairly normal as we are thought to do so. Really, paying attention to them more often than not prevents focusing on more important things.

The Web acts as a source of mildly structured stimuli for me, which is why I often, though not always, turn to it. Social interaction is a form of stimulus structuring with a somewhat useful contex.

I transcribed it verbatim, against my normal process of proofreading while I do so.

tmpchrome

After my dissatisfaction with incognito mode in Chromium, I ended up writing this script, which I call 'tmpchrome' (despite it using Chromium).

My main issue is how all pages share a single incognito session; I'd rather have more control over how sessions are shared.

#!/usr/bin/env python2
from subprocess import Popen
from sys import exit, argv
from traceback import print_exc
from os import rmdir
from os.path import isdir
from shutil import rmtree
from tempfile import mkdtemp


profile = mkdtemp()
returncode = 1
p = None
try:
 print 'Profile:', profile
 p = Popen(['chromium', '--user-data-dir=%s' % profile] + argv[1:])
 p.wait()
 returncode = p.returncode
except:
 if p is not None:
  p.kill()
  p.wait()
  returncode = p.returncode
finally:
 try:
  rmtree(profile)
  if isdir(profile):
   rmdir(profile)
 except Exception:
  print_exc()
 finally:
  exit(returncode)

It isn't perfect, but is good enough for me.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Nico Nico Douga Download

The queue's a bit smaller this time, but I think these are some really good songs.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

My Typical Thought Process

I often follow the below process when deciding on what I should do.

I should do $X.
Hmm. $X is either:
1. What everyone does ("It's too obvious").
2. Something I have already done at least once ("Too boring").
3. Not a challenge.
So I'll spice it up by adding some new elements in
Eventually: I'll do this crazy thing with some minor elements of $X added in here and there

It usually ends up working out quite well, though, so I'm happy with this process.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Limiting One's Own Enjoyment With Equipment Snobbiness

Not too infrequently, I've noticed how some people say, "I would never (X) without (some inconvenient/difficult-to-use piece of equipment designed specifically for X)," yet say they dislike carrying (said item) around with them and don't do (X) anymore because of it. The most frequent example would be the DSLR lover who hates bringing it around, yet 'loves' photography too much to take photographs with, say, a mobile phone camera.

I see two problems here:

They invest quite a lot into their ideal tool, only to stow it away for it never to see the light of day once they realize how 'inconvenient' it is.
They never partake in their favored activity anymore because they're too snobby to accept a more 'convenient' alternative.

Why invest in the 'inconvenient' device and never use it? That's just plain wasteful.

Why prevent yourself from your own enjoyment this way? If you enjoy it, don't keep yourself from doing it because of how snobby you are about the tools you use.

I personally do know the value of a discrete camera, and frequently use a 'consumer-level' point-and-shoot that's comparable to a mobile phone in girth when I plan on taking large sets of photos, but use a mobile phone for a quick shot here and there.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Alternative Throttle Vehicle

After having become adjusted to the bicycle, I've found that power control via peddling is a very reliable and easy-to-use system. However, actually providing the power via said means, while very efficient, puts an upper limit on what one can do and for how long one can do it.

Seeing this, I periodically consider the idea of a vehicle which uses peddling to control the output of, say, an electric motor. Shifting could be accomplished via a scaled-up bicycle hub gear, to handle the increased torque, yet still keep shifting fairly simple. Alternatively, a CVT could be used with set "gears" or even a fully-continuous ratio selections without getting "stuck" in a gear. An electric motor would also prevent stalling if one selects too high a gear, and would not require to be idled when the vehicle is at rest. It would have to incorporate a bicycle-style freehub as well, since coasting is coasting regardless of the power source.

Using pedaling instead of a pressing down a pedal or pushing a button would additionally act as a sort of dead man's switch, which would make it safer. To allow one to shift down when in too high a gear, there would have to be some sort of mechanism to prevent motor damage.

The end result would be a vehicle as easy to operate as a bicycle, yet with increased speed and range. It would additionally remove what I perceive to be a disconnect in control associated with a throttle button or pedal, which is an issue I see with current electric bicycles.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The History of My Odd Interest in Valerian

I used to watch a children's show (as a grown adult, no less) called The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog, which is shown on Qubo, a channel I receive with my antenna to this day. A certain episode revolved around the dye properties of valerian, which is also used as an herb.

Later on, I learned from @LilligantLuna that this herb is also used as a tea, particularly noted for its sleep-aiding traits. I first looked at one of my local tea shops to see if they carried it, and they sent me to the local apothecary (imagine that!), which does carry it in an herbal tea blend.

I don't know if the tea really helps me sleep, but it does taste interesting (in a good way).

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Wikipedia Graphs

Back when I was a college student with too much free time, I decided to make a set of scripts to operate on a Wikipedia database dump, which would create a directed graph of all of the inter-page links. Here are some results:

Anyone with an interest in 'wikidiving' would appreciate this sort of thing.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Nico Nico Douga Download

Here's some new stuff.

Oh, and you should go check out Shiroko on YouTube.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Music Statistics as of Today

Well, I've been gathering BPM statistics about my music collection, and here's what I have.

NOTE: "Vocaloid" refers to Nico Nico Douga music in general; the name "Vocaloid" is vestigial.

Overall

Artist		BPM
Vocaloid	2660	Min.	90.67
中島みゆき	480	1st Qu.	96.60
aiko	195	Median	101.33
平原綾香	138	Mean	104.52
大塚愛	113	3rd Qu.	109.96
菅野よう子	80	Max.	184.57
(Other)	1205

These are some general statistics about my entire collection. The quartiles and so on are about overall BPM, not per-artist.

The following graphs show the frequencies of BPMs grouped into "buckets" of 5 BPM each. The second graph is a probability distribution of the BPMs, with the blue line representing a normal distribution and the red line representing a density distribution.

Major Artists

This is probably the most interesting plot: I took all artists in my collection who have at over ten tracks and created a boxplot comparing their BPMs:

More detail after the jump…

Nico Nico Douga Download

Lots of Ritsu yet again, with a few creepy songs including Calalini and The Rugrats Theory.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Walked over Queen Anne

Walking Insight

Farmers' Market

Friendship Insight

Random Photos

Vegetable Roast

Friday, November 30, 2012

Monday, November 26, 2012

Saturday

Sunday

Friday, November 23, 2012

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Monday, November 12, 2012

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Friday, September 28, 2012

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Friday, September 14, 2012

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Overall

Major Artists

Thursday, July 26, 2012