2005: The Year in Review

Originally, I had said that I wasn’t going to redesign the site until I upgraded to WordPress 2.0. Then I decided that I would launch the new design on January 1, no matter what. Well, WordPress 2.0 was released today, and so I upgraded without many problems (surprisingly).

The year 2005 is over. I know I always say it, but this year really has gone by fast. It hardly seems like it had a chance to breathe, and now it’s on its way out the door. Amid all the end-of-year lists, I present once again my own personal Year in Review. Enjoy.

• January 1 – I attend my great-aunt’s wedding.
• January 3 – I upgrade from posting the manually to using WordPress.
• January 6 – I get notified that I’ve lost my job.
• January 8-9 – I go camping with my friends.
• January 16 – My friend Kevin celebrates his birthday at Benihana.
• February 3 – I see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood.
• February 5 – I go to my old school’s spring festival with my friends.
• March 4-5 – I participate in a 24-hour fast and make a short documentary out of it.
• March 24 – I spend a day at the beach with my friends.
• April 5 – Bomb threat at school.
• April 6 – TWoS turns two.
• April 7 – I get certified in CPR.
• April 8 – I observe a partial solar eclipse.
• April 10 – Youth Group Comedy Nite.
• April 14 – My parents get rid of the Volkswagen New Beetle and get a Chevy Impala.
• April 20 – A rather prominent member of my church is arrested on a charge that he molested a teenager.
• April 28 – I help my friend Andrew by backing him up at the school variety show; he had asked me to replace his friend a week before the show.
• April 30 – During the day, I lose a math competition with my friend Mark; that night, I lose a card game at his house.
• May 14 – A friend of a friend begins filming a Sherlock Holmes spoof, and I play Watson.
• May 19 – I get to tag along for free on a multi-class trip to a distant zoo. During the outing, I get to know my classmate Nacole better.
• May 20 – I go to a drive-in theater for the first time, but we almost don’t get in due to a scuffle.
• May 24 – I begin learning Esperanto again.
• May 26 – I take home awards for history and math at the eighth annual Nerdies.
• May 28-30 – Vacation at my great-aunt’s condo. It’s the first time in a long time that I go on vacation during the school year.
• June 2 – School’s out for the summer (but not forever).
• June 5 – I begin to try the No S Diet.
• June 11 – Kevin takes his French foreign exchange buddy Quentin (and my sister, me, Lisa, Katherine, and Sean) to Islands of Adventure.
• June 18-24 – Family vacation in the Florida Keys.
• July – I manage to post every day of the month.
• July 5 – I give up on the No S Diet.
• July 8-9 – Hurricane Dennis passes by.
• July 10 – I have dinner with my friends to celebrate my birthday.
• July 13 – I turn 16.
• July 15 – Katherine, my sister, and I make butterbeer to celebrate the release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”
• July 18 – A sociologist presents me with a questionnaire about blogging.
• July 29-August 1 – Family vacation in northern Florida to visit my aunt.
• August 4 – Two years of actually blogging.
• August 8 – School is back in session.
• August 14 – VRT, my band of four years, plays its last gig.
• August 24 – I ask Nacole out to a football game. Emotional rollercoaster up!
• August 25 – Football game cancelled due to Hurricane Katrina. Emotional rollercoaster down!
• August 25-26 – Hurricane Katrina hits.
• August 28 – I’ve been friends with Casey for 10 years.
• August 30 – Emotional rollercoaster up!
• September 1 – Down!
• September 3 – Way down!
• September 5 – 500th post.
• September 6 – Down some more!
• September 16 – Emotional rollercoaster levels out. What a ride.
• September 17 – I watch the Improv All-Stars perform and manage to get my picture taken with Drew Carey, Chip Esten, Jeff Davis, and Greg Proops.
• September 20 – Hurricane Rita hits.
• October 12 – I take the PSAT again.
• October 16 – A member of the church stands up to voice his opinion about the Gabriel/O’Leary scandal. My parents take me out of church before the mass is over.
• October 23 – A second and final day of filming on the Sherlock Holmes spoof.
• October 24 – Hurricane Wilma hits. School cancelled for two weeks.
• October 30 – I try the No S Diet again and have dinner with Reid and Casey.
• November 7 – School reopens.
• November 17 – Mrs. Vazquez’s last day as European History teacher.
• November 19 – I make a shovelglove so I can get some exercise.
• November 27 – Protestors at church/school.
• November 28 – I hurt my arms from using the shovelglove.
• December 15 – Zamenhof Day.
• December 16 – For the first time since May 23, 2003, I have to go to school on a Friday.
• December 17 – Youth group Christmas party.
• December 20 – Redesign of The World of Stuff announced.
• December 23 – Ice skating with friends.
• December 25 – Christmas.
• December 31 – The World of Stuff is 1,000 days old.

Yes, you read that right. Today the site turns 1,000 days old. I wouldn’t have known it if I hadn’t been calculating some meaningless posting statistics the other day. (Here’s a meaningless statistic for those who think that I post less often nowadays: there were 227 posts in 2004, and this is the 227th post of 2005.)

I’ve already gotten several “Happy New Year” greetings. I mean, that’s nice of everybody, but they seem out of place if it’s not the new year yet. Does that bother anyone else? Oh well. Tomorrow I’ll wish you all a happy new year. Happy New Year’s Eve!

One year ago: “2004 seems to have been a very short year, which is funny because it was a leap year and thus actually longer than 2003.”
Two years ago: “I can’t believe 2003 is over. The year’s gone by faster than… something that’s fast. It’s been a fairly good year. Not as good as 2002, mind you, but still a good year.”

Zeta, the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet

Just when you thought hurricane season was over… it really wasn’t. Tropical Storm Zeta, the 27th storm of a hurricane season which has already officially ended, formed this morning. It’s not a threat to land, but it exists.

Hurricane season ended at the beginning of this month, but when a storm forms outside the season, it is named as if the season consisted of a calendar year. Hence, on December 30, 2005, they’re continuing with the 2005 naming scheme. Even if the storm lasts into the new year, it will be considered a 2005 storm. But if another tropical storm were to form next week, it would be counted as part of the 2006 season and would be named Alberto. And now you know.

Apparently a local 16-year-old ran off to Iraq by himself. He was studying journalism at school and took the idea of immersion journalism much too far. It figures that he goes to Pine Crest (or, as I like to call it, Slime Crust). He could afford the $900 plane ticket.

What can I say? I envy the rich, and I’m 16 also. Maybe I could run away to Afghanistan.

Jumbo Joke is a good joke site that presents “humor the way you like it.” It’s from the guy who brought you This Is True.

One year ago: “I don’t know what we’d do there, I think help people (it’s a poor country).”
Two years ago: “Thanks to ‘all’ the ‘great many people’ who ‘racked their brains’ to ‘help us out.’”

A public service announcement

This is my life.

(Imagine eggs or something.)

This is my life not knowing how to drive a car at the age of 16 years, 5 months, 15 days.

(Crunch!)

The eggs are broken. You may end up with a delicious breakfast, but you’re eating the sorry remnants of my social life. Because they’re the eggs. Which got cooked. Because I can’t drive. Yeah.

When I turned 15, my parents supposedly said I shouldn’t learn to drive (but I don’t remember). Now they’re saying I should learn to drive. And I want to tell them (because they always read this, because they know my URL, because I registered this domain name with their credit cards, because I didn’t want to be perceived as a sluggish two-bit blogospheric hack whose opinions don’t matter, because that would make me sad) that it’s not their fault that I haven’t gotten up and done whatever needs to be done to get a little piece of plastic that says you’re allowed behind the steering wheel of a car.

But, going back to the point about my life being crushed like an egg, I do want to point out that they have me pinned in an interesting catch-22.

1. Money is good. Without money, you can’t take girls out to dinner or obtain decent guitars. In order to get money, I need a job.
2. In order to get a job, I need to get a car (or walk), because my parents can’t/won’t give me a ride.
3. In order to get a car, I need to be able to pay the high cost of insurance. Not with hugs and kisses, dear friends, but with money! (See 1.)

I can’t break into the cycle or else everything will collapse like some weird circle of Escherian dominoes. And because of all this, I don’t have a sustainable source of income that I could otherwise spend on cool things, higher education, or girls. In other words, I’m being set up to live at home until I’m thirty. I’d probably sit around the house wearing glasses and bad sweaters and listening to old LPs and twitching. I bet mom and dad don’t want that!

Maybe instead of higher education I should join the Army or something. It would be great for an egotistical ham like me because they dehumanize you and turn you into a unit or a thing. And you might die. Better still, a lot of people would automatically respect me if I came home with my short haircut and camouflage. Actually, I couldn’t imagine myself in the military or anything. The kind of guy who joins the military is really Southern and has an angular face that the ladies really go for. I swear, those guys are all cut from the same cookie cutter. That must be how they can mold them so well. Or maybe they just terrorize you.

I wanted to get my learner’s permit before the end of the year, but that ain’t gonna happen. So that means I get my wheels and independence in The Year Of Our Lord Two Thousand Effing Seven. I should just kick myself to death. I should have gotten my permit on July 13, 2004. What was I doing then? Taking time exposures in my room. Then I would have gained independence on July 13, 2005. What was I doing then? Bellyaching like I am now. Some things never change.

I must do something about this. Be it resolved, then, that I will have my driver’s license by Monday, January 15, 2007.

In the meantime, enjoy those eggs, will you?

In my last post, I made a request to everyone who does not use Firefox 1.5 or IE 6 on Windows XP. In other words, the Mac people, Opera people, Linux people, and so forth. If you’re one of those types, I need you to test the new layout of this site to make sure it looks and works okay. E-mail me or post a comment and I’ll get back to you. Now, I have had success with Firefox on Windows, IE on Windows, Safari on Mac, and Firefox on Linux. If you have any other combo for me, then I’m talking to you. Please post a comment or e-mail me.

Hate those annoying ribbon magnets that are on cars nowadays? Check out the AntiMagnet.

I really, really wish I had thought of this. A guy started with one red paperclip and traded up with his friends. Having traded various things, he now has a ski trip available for trade. His goal is to get a house.

One year ago: “I also had a brief stint in trying to teach myself Esperanto, but it’s not the most useful language.”
Two years ago: “In case I’ve gotten you curious as to how to block AOL users, these lines in your .htaccess file might do the trick.”

We can still be merry!

Now that the Christmas season is over, I’ve taken down the holiday layout. I’ve also stopped beginning posts with “Merry.” It got old real fast… around the second time I did it, in fact. But I figured I had to follow through till Christmas or it wouldn’t make sense. I’ve reverted back to the plain old layout, which will not be around much longer. Enjoy it while you can. I’m pretty much done with the new layout, and I need people to make sure it works in various browsers. If you’re using an operating system other than Windows XP and/or a browser other than IE 6 or Firefox 1.5, please post a comment (or e-mail me) and I’ll have you test it out.

I’ve discovered a great way to knock down two to three hours: all I have to do is record a song on my new multitrack recorder that I got for Christmas. I’ve already recorded a couple to test it out. It’s fun to layer on the different sounds. My favorite part is doing the vocals because I can harmonize with myself and stuff. The only problem with the recorder is that it doesn’t seem to recognize the signal from some of my microphones, but my best microphone works with it, so that’s okay.

Last night I went to see The Producers. There were a lot of old people there. I guess only old people go to the movies on a Monday night. But then, it was a musical and a remake of an old movie, so that could have something to do with it. Anyway, it was funny, but it seemed to go on for much too long (134 minutes). I probably wouldn’t see it again right away.

Why do you sometimes wake up five minutes before the alarm rings? Here’s an interesting answer.

Apparently, using Explorer Destroyer, you can (try to) get Internet Explorer users to download Firefox and make money in the process. You put a script on your site that tells IE users to switch browsers (and, if you want, it can shut them out of your site until they get Firefox).

Two years ago: “All of you who thought that the Mint prints bills please stay after class to write ‘I will learn about my country’ 50 times on the blackboard.”

Merry Christmas!

A lot of people claim that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” But anyone who knows something about the traditions (and date) of Christmas can tell you that that is not at all the case. Everything about Christmas has origins in pagan practices, many of which predate the time of Jesus — that includes decorating trees, giving presents, singing carols, kissing under the mistletoe, baking gingerbread men, expecting Santa Claus, and everything else people do during Christmastime. Read The Real Story of Christmas and Merry Religious Assimilation Day. And remember what God commands in the Bible:

But honestly, that doesn’t stop me from having a good time, and it shouldn’t stop you either, unless you believe everything God says in the Bible.

Last night we went to the mass where they have the Christmas-pageant-type thing. Like in the past few years, they’ve cut it really short, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s not like we don’t know the story or anything. This year they used a lot of really little kids who didn’t know what they were doing. There were so many parents with cameras also; you’d think it was some paparazzi thing. I think one of the shepherds was mugging a camera.

I didn’t get many gifts because “the big one” was the rather expensive multitrack recorder that I mentioned. I’m going to try it out later; that should be fun. I can’t wait to use it with my friends. I also got one of those CD booklet-type things for holding your CDs. I already had one, but I had outgrown it. Now I’ve rounded up all my CDs to find that I have 46 of them (counting the three I lent to Mark a year and a half ago — I shouldn’t hold my breath).

We’re having a big lunch instead of a big dinner because my aunt and her guyfriend, who live out of town, have to leave early. I guess that means it’s leftovers for dinner!

At this time I ask you to enjoy It’s a Wonderful Life in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies.

If you celebrate Christmas, make it a good one and spend it with your friends and family. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, have a fortune cookie for me and tell me how The Producers was.

One year ago: “Mary and Joseph pace around getting a shake of the head from the innkeepers (all of whom are brothers in real life… awww, how lame).”
Two years ago: “The parts of the innkeepers, who individually turn Mary and Joseph down, were reduced to a single passing mention by the narrator.”

Merry Christmas Eve!

‘Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the house, you could hear me actually trying to work on the new design for The World of Stuff. I didn’t think I would get around to it after I came up with it a few days ago, but I’m really plugging along, I guess. When I get the idea to redesign the site, I work on it right away, and I can’t stop until I’ve finished. But don’t let you think that it’s easy work. It’s not easy for me. Designing cool sites that use XHTML and CSS and work the same in multiple browsers requires a lot of planning, guesswork, research, and trial and error. (If the words “box model hack” send a chill down your spine, you know what I mean.)

I’ve got the header done already (I just finished it today) and now I’m starting to work on the body. That’s where I have to decide how the fonts will be, along with the line spacing and all that. I might as well tease you with some meaningless little facts. The header will still be fun, and the color scheme will be different and more varied.

Christmas is a magical time when lots of people are actually nice. But what exactly is the Christmas spirit?

One night a few years ago, during the Christmas season, we were in the van, which was stopped at a red light. That year, my parents were constantly playing a radio station that was constantly playing Christmas music. At the moment the radio station was playing a dance mix of just about every Christmas song you could possibly think of, and perhaps more. Not a single one was left out by whatever artist decided to undertake that project. The beat went on and on and on as the light failed to turn green. I started getting a headache and complained. My dad turned it down a little, but my throbbing head and ears didn’t fare any better. I had to hear something else. I complained again. So he got out of the car, which was still stopped, opened the hatch in the back of the van, and disconnected the bass cabinet. He got back into the driver’s seat, and eventually we started along, with the infernally annoying song still beating my head.

That is the Christmas spirit.

Over 500 colo(u)rs with names and numbers.

Here’s how to analyze people’s eye movements to see whether they’re lying or telling the truth. I imagine that, if this actually works, it could be tremendously useful to know.

One year ago: “The toaster oven died this morning.”

Merry Ice Skating!

Today my sister, Kevin, Lisa, and I went ice skating because it would be a good Christmassy thing to do. We also exchanged gifts. From Lisa I got Russell Stover chocolates, and from Kevin I got a Snickers bar and the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack. I remember a couple of months ago saying that I wanted it, so my sister must have tipped him off. I can’t believe she remembered. I wish I could do that; I’d be able to give some great gifts. (As a side note, listening to CDs on the computer stinks; Windows Media Player showed the entire track list, including an “Unnamed Hidden Track.”)

Anyway, after opening gifts, we went inside to skate. I haven’t gone skating since the last time I went, which was two years ago, so I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to be very good. We were about the only people there over the age of 10, so I risked looking like an idiot in front of some four-year-olds who could glide backwards and spin around and all that. Eventually, I got the hang of it again, but around that time the ice started getting so heavily scratched that a reasonably smooth ride was impossible. And it was around that time that we had to leave, because they were going to resurface the ice and have some hockey practice or something.

We haven’t gotten around to putting up the Christmas lights, and so we probably won’t at all. But as you can see in this video still from last year, we don’t really go all out like some people. Note, however, that the lamps have red and green bulbs.

And here’s a bit of Ask Jordon.

Tom: How much time do you spend on Where’s George now-a-days?

Where’s George was officially launched seven years ago today, so this question is particularly suitable. In fact, I’ve spent very little time there lately. I’ve gone from spending hours a week at the site to a few minutes at the most. I’ve basically gotten bored with it, as people tend to do with things. But there’s always a chance that I’ll go back if my interest is revived.

No, the year isn’t over, but Reuters has a gallery of its Pictures of the Year (Flash).

And, in case you haven’t spent all your money on Christmas gifts and want to throw $22 away, here’s a plush bed for your cell phone.

One year ago: “Maybe life isn’t fair, but I think life is like a fair.”
Two years ago: “Your mentioning of your congressman and the First Lady gives me an idea.”

Merry Warfare!

During one of the last few days before winter break, my friend Justin wanted to bid me goodbye because he was going to go away or something. Of course, a Season’s Greeting would be appropriate for the occasion. He wanted to wish me a merry Christmas, but he made out like there was someone aiming to shoot him down if he actually uttered the words “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy holidays.” Whoa, wait a minute. Just because you say “Happy Holidays” to general groups of people you don’t know means that you can’t say “Merry Christmas” to a single person whom you know celebrates Christmas? How come nobody forwards these memos to me?

Some other people I know seem to have this same idea that saying “Happy Holidays” is equivalent to waging a “War on Christmas.” One person in particular (my sister) says that I’m “on the wrong side”! Sure, there can be commercials that say “Merry Christmas” just like there are ones that say “Happy Hanukkah.” But it’s a mistake to think that replacing “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays” is somehow anti-Christmas. According to that logic, combining all holiday greetings into one would also be anti-Hanukkah, anti-Kwanzaa, and anti-New-Year’s. Seeing signs saying “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” certainly won’t stop those who celebrate Christmas from doing so. The so-called War on Christmas is an illogical and paranoid notion that exists only in the minds of those who assume that the effects of religious tolerance are working against their own religious beliefs.

I saw Jim Carrey’s new movie Fun with Dick and Jane today with some friends. It was okay. Well, I liked it. But I like practically every movie I see, so that’s not saying much.

Wikipedia has a list of common phrases in various languages.

Time Magazine has released their list of All-Time 100 Movies. I’d assume that, like their list of novels I mentioned, it only covers the movies produced since Time was first published in 1923. Of the 100, I’ve only seen 6 in their entirety: E.T., Finding Nemo, A Hard Day’s Night, It’s a Wonderful Life, Lawrence of Arabia, and Pinocchio.

One year ago: “If you like Jim Carrey, you’ll enjoy it. Despite what the trailers would have you think, Carrey gets a chance to play not one but three wacky personae.”

Merry Possible Redesign!

I’m thinking of redesigning the site again. It’ll have to be after I figure out how to upgrade from WordPress 1.5 right to 2.0, because I haven’t bothered with the trouble of upgrading to the minor in-between releases. It’s not going to be easy, but I’ll have to make The World of Stuff look like a real web site somehow. I need to throw away the boxy look; there are too many black borders around everything. I like what this other The World of Stuff has going on, with all the main links on the top. Let’s see what I can come up with using a digital sketch (and that handwriting font I made).

I don’t really know how I could categorize the random non-blog pages, though. Here’s an idea worth remembering for later:

• Geek: Dvorak, Characters, Spam
• Writing: Lefty, Autographs, Romeo and Juliet, etc.
• Fun: Ask Jordon, Tredici, flipacoin.net, etc.

Also, I’d need to figure out where to put the link to the Archives — it would have to be either along the top of the site (next to “Blog”) or on the side of the blog page. For example, along the top: “BLOG: Latest, Archives; OTHER: Geek, Writing, Fun, About.” Also also, it would be a good opportunity to put my old non-WordPress posts into the system, but that would require rewriting their so-called permalinks yet again, and it will be cheaper not to have them in a MySQL database.

Apparently, it’s been possible to download Microsoft Word 5.5 for DOS for free on Microsoft’s site since 1999. When they wrote a Y2K fix for the program, they didn’t release a patch but posted a link to the entire program.

Here’s a list of various ways to talk to a real person instead of going through an automated maze in 1-800 Land.

Two years ago: “Mark and Kim have asked that I let all of Santa’s little elves know that there will be a HUGE game of manhunt planned for the occasion.”

Merry Me!

I mentioned that at the Christmas party the other day I met a girl. She’s Amanda’s friend, and her name is Melissa. When we were introduced to each other, she said “Nice shirt” or something. I was wearing a Beatles shirt. She wasn’t very talkative overall, but that’s better than being very talkative. Amanda said that she opens up once you get to know her — I’d imagine that’s true for all shy people. She’s relatively tall, and I like that. And she’s younger than me, but she doesn’t look as young as I think she is. She looked good. I didn’t get smitten or anything, though.

Upon my request, Amanda gave me her screen name, and using that, I found her LiveJournal. She likes anime. I don’t know what anime-people are called (Kevin?). I don’t really like anime. I mean, I don’t hate it, but I’m not into it. Could it work anyway? I guess it could. But she’d be all like “Japan!” and I’d be all like “Whatever!” Well, I’d try to care, if I liked her.

They say “Nobody’s perfect,” and I say “Nobody’s perfect for me.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there is no one like me… and not in a good way. I guess the closest mold I fit is that of the computer geek, and (stereotypically, at least) the she-geek is a rare and coveted creature. I’m so hopeless. I’ve never even been on a date. Can you believe that? I wouldn’t even know what to do. I’d have to ask someone. By the way, guys, how do you tie your shoes?

But looking at the “Interests” in Melissa’s LiveJournal user info, I found these things that I like: being a computer nerd, Bruce Almighty, cheese, chess, chocolate, Douglas Adams, Ellen DeGeneres, Harry Potter, Jim Carrey, Monty Python, Pac-Man, parodies, potato chips, Queen, singing, and Tom Hanks.

Hey. She’s a computer nerd. Let me do some more Googling…

Oh spit. She’s gay.

Someone kill me. Why do I even bother?

Maybe I’m just retarded or something, but until today I didn’t know that a dove and a pigeon were the same thing. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Richard Scarry’s “Best Word Book Ever”: a comparison between the 1963 and 1991 editions. So much has changed in the name of political correctness. (Be sure to go through the whole gallery.) Yes, that’s right, “handsome pilot” and “pretty stewardess” are no longer acceptable. “Stewardess.” There’s a word that sounds profane judging by how much it’s avoided. And my mom (maternal parent) sometimes yells at me for saying “mailman.”

Two years ago: “An important life lesson: every shortcoming of a school can be blamed on safety issues.”