Category - Friends

Classes are pretty demanding. At least, the latter half of this week has been pretty demanding. Before that, I was taking it easy, so I guess that just evens out.

Tuesday was Veterans Day, so we had no classes and I had no work. So I went with some friends to Lake Wauburg in the afternoon. The lake and the surrounding area are reserved for UF students and staff. I had never been there, but I found out that it's a nice getaway. It's far outside of town, and there are cool things to do. I kayaked. It was fun. We had a picnic too.

Wait. Is that really the only thing that's been going on? Not really. I have been busy with classes, as I said. I gave a presentation today for my Indian Ocean class. It was, um, within the time limit? And I have a physics exam on Monday. And a tech writing project due Tuesday. And probably other stuff.

Man, this post is short. Maybe it's the result of a historical trend. November 13ths 2003 and 2005 were similarly unremarkable.

These 100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body are very cool.

Here are 12 Vintage Cigarette Ads They Would Never Get Away with Now.

From Reason Magazine, a 2.3-megabyte chart explaining the simple process of US immigration: What Part of Legal Immigration Don't You Understand?

It's been a week since my 1,000th post, but all is not quiet. I just like to rest on my laurels.

I went home for the weekend. My friends Nick and Cristi were having a Halloween party on Friday night, and I couldn't figure out what I should be. At the eleventh hour, I had an idea.

In seventh grade, Nick and I (and our friend Sean) dressed as (three of) the Beatles. We had light brown suits and black turtlenecks, which (I think) were supposed to be reminiscent of the Beatles' Shea Stadium garb. We had cheesy wigs too. It was pretty funny.

So I dug through my old stuff and found the original coat and shirt (not the wig, alas, but my hair was long enough that I wouldn't need it). It was a blast from the past... from the past. Oh, and the party was cool too. I spent the rest of the weekend mainly hanging out with Mike, Nick, and TJ. I wish I could have stayed longer, but Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

Okay, who isn't sick of hearing about the election? Election Day is today, and I voted today. Yay democracy.

No, I didn't vote early. I made the time to do it today, and there was hardly a wait at all... probably because everyone else voted early. It was smart of Obama to push early voting; clearly he knows that some of his strongest supporters are college students who are usually too lazy to go to the polls. (At least, that's what I think the rationale was. A friend told me today that Obama was tacitly telling people to vote twice. What the heck?)

Obama has been leading by a significant margin in all the national polls, so it looks like he's going to win. If he does, I will be happy.

Deletionpedia is an archive of articles that have been deleted from Wikipedia.

Grapes with an EULA (that is, an End-User License Agreement, like the one you agree to when you install some software).

Do you hate prunes? I Hate Prunes.

I'm baaaack!

Yeah, it was a busy week. Probably the busiest week I've ever had. I stayed up late. I accidentally skipped a meal. Almost all of my time was spent studying, doing schoolwork, or promoting my Esperanto club's first event. Of course, I also went to my first Florida Free Culture meeting, which was very cool. I also had a Get Carded meeting. Basically, I did all the things I said I was going to do, except that the deadline for my programming project got moved to Monday. Otherwise, I would have been spending much of tonight working on it. I finally have a break.

I worked hard, though. I got a 7 out of 10 on my physics exam, which was higher than the class average and the same score I got on the first exam. At this rate, I can squeak by with a B+ in the class. I think I'm right on the line. I spent many consecutive hours working on my Indian Ocean take-home test, and I did well. I know that because the professor said everyone's responses were probably good before he saw them.

Of course, the elephant in the room is: "Jordon, how was your new Esperanto Club's first event, 'Esperanto: The Solution to the World Language Problem,' that you were promoting like crazy?"

Okay, I promoted this presentation every way I knew how. I invited friends on Facebook (only two said they would come), I sent a blurb to various mailing lists (some of which actually ran the blurb), I contacted the major student newspaper (they didn't write back), I contacted a vaguely related club (they didn't reply), I advertised at other club meetings (okay, one), I handed out and posted flyers (which got covered up by other flyers almost immediately), and I even spoke in a class (of ten people, and not everyone was there).

At first, I had no idea how many people to expect. I wanted a room for 150 people, but I was told flat out that I wouldn't be able to get one at night. (They tend to be used for exams.) I settled for a room seating about 100. Yesterday, 19 people on Facebook said they would go to the presentation. I expected some more than that because I didn't just promote the event on Facebook. 20-30 people sounded pretty reasonable. I would be happy to have that many.

I got to the classroom extra early to make sure the computer and projector worked. Someone was already waiting outside. "Esperanto Club?" I asked. "Mission meeting?" she asked. Uh-oh. Could they have double-booked the room? She was very convinced that there was another meeting there at that same time, but she went over to the computer to double-check the e-mail. Turns out she missed her meeting by a week. Close call for me.

By the magical time of 8:00, only a handful of people were there. I figured the others would be coming shortly; you know how no one's ever on time. At 8:15, there were still only a few people. I decided the show must go on. Present were three of the four club officers, our faculty advisor, and seven others (five of whom were friends with one or another of the officers). Seven people. Actually, really only two.

I decided I couldn't let that put a damper on my enthusiasm. I presented the presentation, and even though I hadn't had any practice with the vocal delivery, I think I did quite well. It's probably because I'd been working on it bit by bit over the course of several weeks. I familiarized myself with it that way. Anyway, if you're curious, here's the presentation as a 5.6 MB PDF. Yes, I am actually hosting a large file here, believe it or not!

It was kind of discouraging to have only seven people come to the presentation, but at the end, when I asked how many people would be interested in learning the language, my spirits were lifted a bit. Almost everyone raised their hand, even our faculty advisor and the other officers, who don't know Esperanto very well yet. It seems that of the seven people in the audience, almost all were very interested. When I showed the information about our recommended textbook, several people jotted it down.

If I could have a small core group of people for this club who will stick with it for the long term, that would be great. And it would give the group room to grow. I use Gator Freethought, whose meetings I usually attend, as a sort of model for my own club. Their meetings draw about 50 people, so they've already reached critical mass. They have enough momentum to go on forever, even when the officers graduate. My vice president and I have three years to build the club up so that it can outlast us. Can we do it? I think so.

The World Names Profiler has surname statistics for several countries. Enter a surname and see which countries it's most common in.

With some creative folding of US paper money, you can spell out some interesting messages.

How do you securely store files remotely? Apparently there's a mathematical method that makes it possible to easily store small pieces of files (encrypted, of course) on a large number of computers.

Yesterday morning, I was reading articles at the Alligator's web site when a headline caught my eye. Student... club... language... hm... sounds like me. Oh wait, it is! I immediately went downstairs to pick up a hard copy.

A month ago, my friend Mark and I were teaching Esperanto phrases at a "language cafe" on campus. Rebecca Deely, a journalism student, was there looking for a story. She was very interested by Esperanto and interviewed both of us. She suggested that she could submit the story to the Alligator, and that's all I heard about it for a month. I kept thinking about what quotations of mine she would use — we talked quite a bit — and the only one I could remember was "It's not a word game." I couldn't really remember the context, but it stood out in my mind, so I thought it could end up as the all-important article-ending quotation.

Ooh dang. Who called that?

I thought the article was good and positive, and it apparently did get a few people interested enough to join our Facebook group. It was also apparently Rebecca's first publication. Everyone wins! (By the way, the entire article can be found here for however long.)

Throughout the day, I was watching people read the Alligator to see if they would read our story. The placement could hardly have been better. It was an important issue, being the day after Student Government elections, so probably more people were reading it than usual. The front page story jumped to page 10, where it took up the whole page, and we were at the top of page 11. That's almost like being on page 2.

I got two copies for myself. I cut the article out of one and posted it on the door of my dorm room. More promotion for our upcoming event. And in fact, on my way home from class, I actually did see someone reading the story. I wanted to start talking to her, but that would have probably freaked her the heck out. "Hi, I'm the person you're reading about in the newspaper!"

Another Ask Jordon!

Cody - Natashas BFF: Why, on your Faq, do you have somebody set up us the bomb?, its someone set up us the bomb! =) Zero wing Rules

Sorry, but it's definitely "Somebody set up us the bomb." I know what I doing.

Check out this Multicolr Search Lab. Select some colors, and you'll get some photos from Flickr that contain those colors. It's pretty mesmerizing.

When you've got a word on the tip of your tongue, use Tip of My Tongue to get it out. You can enter some letters of the word, synonyms, and more.

And here are, according to someone, the Top 10 Amazing Prison Escapes.

My last few posts have been pretty weighty. Let's get back into the normal swing of normal things.

Ah, college. It is pretty nice. Except for, you know, the classes and stuff. But it's good to have good friends. Adam, my roommate from last year, invited me over to his dorm for dinner tonight. But the place isn't really a dorm in the traditional sense. It's an apartment-style dorm, and it's pretty comparable to student apartments you'd find off campus (that is to say, sweeeet). He lives there with Cameron, who was one of our suitemates last year. They also invited Evan, who was also one of our suitemates, so it was like a little reunion. Fajitas and TV with old pals. Ain't nothing like it.

It was good to catch up with Adam. Turns out he still reads this blog. I think he didn't read it over the summer, but tonight he brought up the themes of some of my recent posts. I believe that would make him a World of Stuff fan. You don't have to have read all 993 posts to be a fan (although it doesn't hurt).

What else? Oh yeah. I start my new job tomorrow, the one I was interviewed for a few weeks ago. I'm the new webmaster for the Dean of Students Office. Actually, my friend Mark, who works there and told me about the job, showed me the ropes last week, so I got a bit of a head start by making some small updates. But tomorrow, it is official. I won't have as much free time, but I'll be gaining knowledge and experience (and I'll have a cool job). Plus, I probably won't have to work at strange times. I know some people who have to work at night while going to school. I don't know how they manage.

Also, my new Esperanto club is getting off the ground. We're going to have a presentation entitled "Esperanto: The Solution to the World Language Problem." It'll be an introduction to Esperanto explaining why people use it and such. If you happen to be in the area of Gainesville, Florida, it'll be on Thursday, October 16, at 8:00 P.M., in room 110 of Rinker Hall at the University of Florida. If you have a Facebook account, RSVP on our event page. Everyone is welcome.

Surprise? Surveillance of Skype Messages Found in China. Yet another reason not to trust Skype or any other non-free software.

Also in the news: Military Hit with 2nd Suit Over Religious Freedom. They can't seem to wrap their heads around the idea that they shouldn't be pushing religion on people.

Finally, a blog: Cake Wrecks, for "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong."

My friend Briana has a friend (friend, ex-boyfriend, something, whatever) who's a Marine serving in Iraq. She writes him all the time, and now she's looking for pen pals for everyone in his unit. She asked me to write to the only woman. I thought it was a good idea. Life isn't exactly rosy over there. They live in squalid conditions. It's dangerous. They probably don't get many letters. And the woman is surrounded by 30 guys. Poor her.

I thought about what to write. "Thanks for spreading freedom and democracy?" That's not why they're there. "Thanks for being in Iraq so I don't have to"? Sounds pretty selfish. I don't even know this person, anyway. I wish she didn't have to be there either.

Some people don't even want to write to the troops, Briana told me. Though the occupation of Iraq isn't popular, it's not their fault that they're there. I thought about it some more. It kind of is their fault. I mean, I wish they didn't have to be there, but they brought it upon themselves by joining the military. When you join, you have to expect that you might be needed for war or war-like actions. We haven't been hanging around in Germany and Japan for 63 years just for giggles.

I thought about what would motivate someone to join the military. Nothing came to mind immediately. I think it's rarely because they want to kill people. I have friends who are going to join the Army and the Marines, and another who just joined the Navy. It seems that they want to be part of an institution that they think is honorable, and for some of them, it might be the only viable career choice after finishing school. I know one of them would love to kill lots of people, but he's the exception that proves the rule. (It's not you, Evan.)

Even so, people aspiring to join the Marines should know that they'll be trained to kill without remorse. So, do they deserve my sympathy? I grappled with that question for a little while. It is tough. I could give this woman the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe she was hoping just to hang out in Okinawa and pick up some Japanese. I think few people look with excitement on being sent to Iraq. And even if she did, she might regret it now. Anyway, what's done is done; she's already there. She probably needs some love right now. Marines are people too. That's good enough for me.

I wrote a letter this morning. It's hard to start contact with a pen pal, especially if you don't know anything about her and she's not even expecting a letter from you. In fact, it was easier for me to think of things not to say:

• "What made you want to be a Marine? Do you regret it now?"
• "Have you ever killed anyone?"
• "What are some things you're not allowed to tell me?"
• "Do you miss home? How much? A lot?"

I don't want to depress this person. Instead, I wrote about myself and how I got her name and address. I asked her where she was from and what she was interested in. Now, I will spend a few weeks waiting for a reply. And even though my first letter hasn't yet been picked up from the mail slot downstairs, I've already learned things from this correspondence.

Here's a coincidental link. It's an interactive map showing US military presence worldwide from 1950 to 2007.

One of those demonstration videos: Capturing 3D Surfaces Simply With a Flash Camera.

These are pretty weird: 20 of the World’s Weirdest Endangered Species.

Last week, my friend Mark tipped me off to a job opening at the Dean of Students Office. They were looking for a webmaster. Mark had been filling in for the job in addition to doing his own job there, so he was pretty busy. I thought I'd send my resume.

My interview with the Interim Dean of Students was today. To be honest, I had been pretty nervous. In my tech writing and speaking class, we're starting to go over resume and job interview skills, so it was pretty timely. I read up on the stuff we're going to cover about job interviews, so I had that stuff in mind today as I went in. Actually, the interview went more smoothly than I could have imagined, and I was hired on the spot!

I look forward to maintaining the Dean of Students Office web site with Mark, who's the database guy, and the graphic designer. Of course, it'll also be great to get to know the friendly faces at the DSO and to learn about some of the inner workings of the university. I also should mention now that opinions expressed herein are not those of my employer but are pretty awesome.

(Frequently asked question: How much does this job pay? I am pretty sure I know, but I don't want to tell you before I find out for dang sure. As with most discussions of salaries, this would be a faux pas.)

Here are some links to hold you over till next time.

From 2004: Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the [U.S. Presidential Candidate] Debates.

Ever wish there was a phone number you could call that could broadcast your voice from a megaphone overlooking a fjord and a village in Norway? Well, now there is: Telemegaphone Dale.

In Germany, 3,000-year-old skeletons found in a cave have had their DNA matched with several living members of the local population. Some families just never move.

"What is your favorite branch of engineering and why?"

With that, I had three minutes to outline a three-minute speech. I took the prompt as I left the classroom and went into the hallway to work. I had enough time. Computer engineering would have to be my fave, of course, since I'm a computer science major. As I was practicing making impromptu speeches, I had realized that you can make anything about computers.

Computers have had a profound effect on engineering and science, and also, programming has allowed me to think more logically and analytically.

I spoke clearly, but I really wasn't sure of what I was saying. I think my hands were shaking also. I did manage to restrain myself from saying "um." I had to cut it short and bail after almost running out of time.

It took me a while to calm down after that. Right after my tech writing and speaking class, I was due to be at the Talk to Me Language Cafe, an event where speakers of several languages would teach people to say some basic phrases. (I'm starting an Esperanto club, and our faculty advisor got Esperanto to take the the place of Spanish in the program.)

It really was like a cafe. There were a few tables set up, and coffee and cookies were served. Passersby could meet with a speaker of Turkish, Italian, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, sign language, and (of course) Esperanto to learn some basic phrases. Most people I talked to hadn't heard of Esperanto but were interested in the idea. (The people who had heard of it either had a friend who was interested or had lived in Europe.) When I mentioned how popular Esperanto was around the world, people were surprised that they hadn't heard of it before. It was a great chance to plug our group.

I was there for about two and a half hours, but it didn't seem that long. Then, Mark took over for an hour while I had class, and after that, I returned for the last few minutes. We ended up giving out 24 copies of a "What Is Esperanto?" flyer and 21 copies of a flyer with basic vocabulary and grammar. Most people received one of each; a few left before I could give them any. I'd say we talked to 25-30 people.

Mark and I each got interviewed by journalism students who needed material for an assignment. One of the ones who talked to Mark later arranged an interview with me. She said she was going to cover the language cafe in general but discovered Esperanto and decided to make it the focus of her story. We talked for about 20 minutes, and I enjoyed it. She also said she'd try to get the story published. That almost certainly means she'd shoot for the widely-read Alligator (which I have decided not to write an editorial column for due to a lack of ideas).

What's next for the Esperanto Club? We're going to have a talk introducing Esperanto to anyone who's interested. But we won't be able to book a room until we're officially approved for this year... whenever that will be.

Here are some free (as in freedom) fonts listed by license and where to download them.

More and more people are using Wi-Fi in their homes nowadays. Some people like to share their connection with their neighbors, and that's where sharemywifi.com comes in. It's a geographical listing of Wi-Fi access points that their owners want to share access to.

Finally, we have 3 Controversial Maps.

The fall semester is starting nicely... well, as nicely as school can go. The freshmen are getting advice, clubs are starting to meet, I've been practicing the closed-mouth yawn, and fraternities and sororities are recruiting. Well, you know, they were. They do it early, and then... it's this whole process.

A distinguished professor came to speak in the common room in my dorm the other day, but I was so not there. I remembered his name from last year's freshman orientation. I could have sworn I mentioned him in my original post, but I guess it didn't. At the orientation, he gave a talk to us where he said we would have a horrible college experience and fail all our classes. He was... acerbic. Not a fun guy at all. I can't imagine what "advice" he gave the people on my floor this time.

I don't really see the point of fraternities and sororities. They almost seem to exist for the purpose of making money. You're basically paying lots of money to have friends and do stuff. I can do that for free. I read The Ritual of Kappa Sigma on Wikileaks. The quasi-religious rituals were pretty ridiculous, the anti-atheist discrimination disgusting. Then there's the hazing and the dangerous partying. But probably the biggest problem I have with these groups is that they dominate campus politics. Whenever one of my friends joins a fraternity or sorority, a little piece of me dies. At least two of them have done so this fall. But I recognize that they probably have good reasons for joining, and it's their decision to make. I'm not just saying that because they both read this blog. (Okay, maybe I am, but it really is their business and not mine.)

One of the aforementioned friends, Adam, recently reminded me that I should write for the Independent Florida Alligator, the most popular student newspaper at UF. Today, they were having an open house, so I went off campus to stop by. The place looked pretty familiar, which means I've probably passed by and looked in the window before. They work out of a pretty small space with issues from throughout their 100-year history hanging up all over the place.

I was directed to the sports editor, who I guess is also in charge of editorial columns (or "eddies"). Having no little experience writing for a newspaper (I remember in mid-sentence that I submitted an article or two to the online-only, now defunct Pompano Pulse), I received some advice on what it takes to write an editorial column. Basically, I would just have to write about things that everyone can react to. On this blog, I basically write about two things: things I do and things I think. A column would be all about the things I think based on the things I have done. Can I write like that? Can I reach out to lots of college students? Can I do it on a weekly basis? Can I keep to 600 words? Can I write extremely short paragraphs?

Maybe.

I'm supposed to send the guy some samples, but I'm not sure if I have any blog posts that would fit the bill (my last post notwithstanding). I'm not used to writing where money is at stake. The Alligator is a business. They need writers that the students can connect with because then they get a greater circulation and sell more ads. Could I have fun writing in an environment that's all about the deadline and the bottom line? I'm not sure.

In a world where movie trailer voice-overs were boring... one man redefined an industry. Now, Don LaFontaine, the man who lent his deep, gravelly voice to thousands of movie trailers, has died at 68. Here's an interview with him. (From the archives: I linked to a video featuring LaFontaine and other prominent voice-over artists on August 28, 2005.)

This month marks the 25th birthday of GNU, a free operating system that has achieved relatively widespread popularity bundled with the Linux kernel. Now, the Free Software Foundation, which sponsors GNU, has released a short video of British comedian Stephen Fry explaining GNU to you. (The video is in Ogg Theora format.)

I'm home for Labor Day weekend. In fact, I'm about to go to my friend Nick's house for a barbecue. Will the weather cooperate? Let's hope. It looks like Hurricane Gustav, which is heading for the Gulf Coast, is bringing some clouds our way. And then there's Hanna out there too. Oh yes, it is a good time of year for hurricanes. I believe September 12 is the statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season (that is, the day of the year that has seen the most hurricanes since recordkeeping began).

In the spring, I got an Esperanto club started at school. I filed the application at the end of the spring semester, and they were supposed to get back to me when it was approved. They didn't. I asked our faculty advisor, Holly, if she knew what was up. She contacted them, and apparently we were approved. We just need to re-register for the '08-'09 year as all student organizations do.

Holly was by far the best choice for faculty advisor. She's a language teacher (Czech, specifically), and she was very impressed by our initiative in starting an Esperanto club. She was also willing to work to promote our club, and that she has done. She told me she had landed a gig for us at a language fair coming up in a week or two. They're going to have a flyer with some basic phrases in each of the languages that are represented. Apparently, Holly got her to drop Spanish from the flyer in favor of Esperanto.

The phrases in English:

1. Hi, how are you?
2. My name is ____.
3. I speak English.
4. What are you doing tonight?
5. Goodbye.
6. Go Gators!

In Esperanto, with phonetic transcriptions added just for you:

1. Saluton, kiel vi fartas? (sah-LOO-tohn, KEE-el vee FAR-tahs?)
2. Mi nomiĝas ____. (mee noh-MEE-jahs ____.)
3. Mi parolas la anglan. (mee pah-RO-lahs lah AHN-glahn)
4. Kion vi faros ĉi-nokte? (KEE-ohn vee FAR-ohs chee-NOHK-tay?)
5. Ĝis! (jeese!)
6. Ek, Gatoroj! (eck, gah-TOR-oy!)

I'm not sure if I could justifiably shorten "aligatoroj" to "gatoroj," but I wouldn't say it's justifiable in English either. Nicknames are off-limits from logic.

Here's why you should never use an online translator.

From The Consumerist, it's false advertising. This water slide thing looks way bigger on the box than it actually is. See the sad children for comparison.

At 1:00 A.M. on Sunday, September 10, 1995, WTVJ-TV, Miami's NBC affiliate broadcasting on channel 4, and WCIX-TV, the CBS affiliate broadcasting on channel 6, traded channels. At the same time, WCIX changed its call sign to WFOR. Here are videos of the changeover as seen on channel 4 and channel 6.

Prediction: The title of this post will make people mad. Relax, amigos, it's all in good fun.