The World of Stuff .com

2007

Happy New Year. It’s always weird to wake up to a new year because you always think, “Hey, it’s next year.” In reality, it’s always this year. The old this year, 2006, is now last year, and 2008 is now next year rather than the year after next. You’ll get used to it after a while. Historically, it’s taken me about a month to several months to get used to writing the new year instead of the old one, but I think 2007 is going to be different. After all, I’ve seen this one coming ever since I started high school in 2003. 2007 is our year! Though I can barely wrap my mind around it, we’re going to graduate in just a few months. And then: college! After all, 2007 is the new 2003. You see, I’ve really grown up these past few years; I’ve gone from dreading high school to dreading college. (Actually, I was worse about college back then: I couldn’t even stand to hear the word.)

Last night, I rang in the new year at my grandparents’ house. I brought my cell phone along (of course), and I put up an away message on AIM telling people to call me and wish me a happy new year. No one did, probably because they were all out partying themselves (yeah, that’s it). At one point, though, I decided to call Kevin, who lives in the same neighborhood as me and my grandparents, and deliver my New Year’s wishes. A few minutes later, he came over, so we chatted for a bit and passed the time playing cards (okay, Uno). He stayed for a few rounds, and before long, it was time for the countdown. And then, 2007 was here.

(Speaking of Uno, my sister says that her friend has relatives in Panama who call the game “One.” You know, I’d been wondering about that for a while…)

Yesterday, being New Year’s Eve and all, was also a good time to tie some loose ends. My friend Luke has been spearheading a project to compile an anthology of poetry and prose in reaction to the Darfur conflict. He asked me to contribute, and I agreed. It’s a really noble cause. The deadline for submission was pushed back to New Year’s Day, so I decided to get it done with. It really only took me a few minutes to come up with something meaningful (and slightly meta — it was about how my not writing was responsible for more deaths). For more information, check out Luke’s new Deadheads for Darfur blog.

Today I didn’t have much to do, so I created an implementation of Conway’s Game of Life in Visual Basic .NET. (It was designed by the same person who came up with the Doomsday algorithm.) Sure, the plane used in the “game” is supposed to be infinite, but for the sake of convenience, I made it 12×12. It took me a few good hours to code. There must have been an easier way. Either way, it’s fun to watch the shapes bounce around and change.

Here’s an animated map showing US County Formation from 1643-Present.

Now you, too, can measure areas with Google Maps by using this handy planimeter. Just click at least three points on the map to get the area, which is displayed in multiple units below the map. I estimated the area of my neighborhood at about a half of a square kilometer or 124.6 acres.