Game changer

How often do you get to witness a life-changing event? A moment in which the fog lifts over someone’s future and a single path becomes clear?

My friend Andrea had been dying to catch up with me after my winter break in Russia, so on Monday, we met up and went out to an Italian place for dinner. As usual, she had a lot to talk about. Since I had last seen her, she had graduated and started applying to law schools. We talked about the daunting challenge that was her Vanderbilt application as well as some lighter stuff like possible romantic interests.

We’d been getting into the habit of renting movies and watching them together (well, actually, she’s the one who rents them), so after dinner, we settled on Hot Tub Time Machine and went to her place to watch it. If you haven’t seen it (which is perfectly all right), it’s about some friends who get sent back in time and have to re-live a wild weekend that determines the course of the rest of their lives. They can’t decide whether to re-create events as they originally happened or to take a different direction in the hope of giving themselves a better future.

Andrea was sitting on the couch with her laptop and surfing the Internet, which is what she does when she thinks the movie we’re watching is boring. But suddenly, she stood up. She started making noises. I had no idea what was going on.

Finally, she spoke. She had gotten an e-mail from George Washington University Law School. She had been accepted. And they were offering her a full-tuition scholarship.

She asked me to read the e-mail back to her just to make sure it was real. Once she was convinced that it wasn’t a prank, she called her parents and other family members, beaming, to share the good news.

Andrea had wanted to live and work in Washington, DC, and now, she was all set to go to a prestigious law school in the heart of our nation’s capital for free. Only a few hours earlier, we had been talking about what might happen if she got accepted to this or that law school. It turned out that her acceptance e-mail had been sent earlier that day. Unbeknownst to us, her fate had already been decided. And we couldn’t have been happier about it.

By the way, we finished watching Hot Tub Time Machine. Spoiler alert: One of the guys decides not to go back to the present day in the time machine. Instead, he stays behind in the past, re-lives his life, and becomes rich.

And now, something a little lighter: foods with misspelled names. (Via waxy.org)

One-day weekend

Veterans Day was on Thursday, so we had a one-day weekend. My roommate Andy went with me to visit my parents, and in a little over 24 hours, Andy and I watched all of the Back to the Future movies and most of the first Harry Potter movie. And we still had time to take a walk around the grounds (yes, we have grounds now) and do some homework. And eat. It was pretty intense. And going back to school and work the next day was awful.

Here are a couple of Ask Jordon questions from Kate:

According to your article, you don’t remember QWERTY. How did you type on my netbook then? Do you use the standard or the left-handed Dvorak?

I wrote that I’d forgotten QWERTY after learning Dvorak. I learned QWERTY again.

Every Russian man 18 years old or older must serve in the army for one year. The conditions are poor and there is a risk of mockeries, hazing and even death. What would you do if you were a Russian boy? (You can Google about current situation.)

Like most young American men, I’ve thought a bit about how I might feel if I were drafted into the US Army, but fortunately, there hasn’t been a draft in a long time. I can’t even imagine how I’d feel about compulsory service, but without the element of surprise in play, at least I might be mentally prepared. If you’re talking about deserting, I don’t think I’d do it. If an army is mad at you, bad things can happen. One year of hell doesn’t sound that bad compared to the risk of a much greater penalty.

Want airport security screeners to see you naked? No? Wednesday, November 24, is National Opt-Out Day. Of course, you can (still) choose not to go through the naked body scanner whenever you fly, but people have promoted opting out on a busy travel day to get their point across. I should point out that the alternative—getting groped—isn’t much more pleasant. The terrorists have won. (Via J-Walk Blog)

First of all, I’d like to thank you for this opportunity…

One of the classes I’m taking is called Legal and Social Issues in Computing. I have to take it for my major, but it’s actually pretty interesting. For example, we’ve watched relevant clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report as well as a presentation by my dawg, Lawrence Lessig.

Lately, we’ve been having debates in class. We’ve had to pick a debate topic (and position) from a list. The debates have to do with legal and social issues in computing, if you can believe it. The topic I chose was “Whether people who would never consider shoplifting a music CD from a store are correct when they argue that there is difference between that and downloading the same material for free off a P2P network.”

The fun part is that the debates, for the most part, have two people to a side. My debate was yesterday, so I e-mailed my debate partner beforehand for some ideas about how to argue our position. My main idea was that downloading isn’t stealing because it doesn’t deprive the owner of the original, and my partner had the really ingenious idea of arguing that they aren’t the same because the law gives (vastly) different penalties for each.

I started by making my point, and our opponents countered that downloading should be considered stealing because you’re enjoying the music without paying the author what he or she requires. I had anticipated this response, so I laid out the point that downloads are not equal to lost sales. Or, as I have often seen it said, downloads != lost sales. (It’s a geek thing, really.) My partner also offered her argument.

I thought we were doing pretty well, but our opponents had found that the definition of stealing in the law included using someone’s copyright or something of that nature (I don’t have the exact wording). I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, but by then, the audience (the rest of the class) was busy berating our opponents over some obscure point they had made about RIAA settlement fees.

That was it, really. I think the professor preferred our opponents’ argument, so I consider us to have lost. Still, I feel like we did a pretty good job. I had never been in a debate before, so it was kind of fun.

A Facebook-related link: If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses.

The firestorm

Even though the Alligator has already published one of my letters to the editor this week, I felt compelled to write another one. As you’ve probably heard, the pastor of a small church here in Gainesville has been planning to burn the Koran on September 11. He’s been waffling a lot in the past day or so, so no one knows what will actually happen, but on Wednesday I sent in the following. They haven’t printed it, so they probably won’t now.

The Dove World Outreach Center has drawn an enormous amount of criticism from around the world for its plan to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11. I encourage everyone who has taken part in this debate to remember that at the heart of the controversy lies the freedom that we as Americans hold dearest: freedom of speech.

Speech is the only noble weapon in a democratic society, and it is one that all citizens have the right and responsibility to use. That’s why I applaud the groups in our community that are organizing peaceful protests instead of calling for violence. Though we may not agree with the message that Pastor Terry Jones is sending, we must acknowledge that freedom of speech necessarily extends to all opinions, even the most unpopular ones.

There’s going to be heightened security at tomorrow’s football game, but nothing is expected to happen there. I’m not worried for my safety; I’m just looking forward to having a good time at the game.

Till then, enjoy reading about the prop newspaper that appears everywhere in movies and TV shows. (Via waxy.org)

Let them eat cake (and let me eat pie)

You know what I have done in a while? Some Ask Jordon!

Kate: What are the main problems of the US, which really affect people’s lives and need to be solved as soon as possible, in your opinion?

Well, we finally got universal health care (or health insurance, or whatever), so check that one off the list. I’ll admit that I’m having a hard time thinking of other things. A lot of the things I care about don’t have a direct impact on people’s lives.

Are they still giving tax cuts to rich people? If they are, that’s going to have to stop. If anyone needs tax cuts, it’s the people who, you know, have nothing.

Eh. I don’t know. Obesity, maybe? We have a lot of fat people here. But there’s not much you can do about that. You can tell people that they ought to exercise, but you can’t drop them onto a treadmill and make them run all day. You can tell them they should eat more vegetables, but you can’t tie them up and force-feed them brussels sprouts. And anyway, it doesn’t bother me that other people are eating however they want, and it shouldn’t. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg, as they say.

I hate brussels sprouts, by the way. I would empathize.

So, I guess I don’t really have a good answer to your question.

Kate: What do you like most for dessert? :)

What don’t I like for dessert? I’ll eat pretty much anything. That said, I like pies. I think pecan pie is my favorite. My mom made one for my birthday, and it was great. Blueberry pie is also good too.

I had no idea green screens were used so much in TV and movies. Here’s a four-minute video showing many a green screen scene. (Via The Presurfer)

Some guy spent 24 hours in a Super Walmart. (Before you get too confused, he replaces profanity with other random words.) (Via The Consumerist)

Get carded

As you may know, my parents have sold our house, and last weekend, I went there for the last time. When I wasn’t attending the Red Bull Flugtag, I was in my room, going through all my things and deciding whether to pack them, sell them, or throw them out. One of the things I came across was a brochure called “Legal Guide for New Adults,” produced by the state bar association. It consisted mainly of questions and answers such as (paraphrased):

Q: Why is the drinking age 21 and not 18?

A: The Florida Legislature has the power to set the drinking age, and that’s what they’ve decided is appropriate.

In other words, the classic because-we-said-so argument with which we are all familiar. (For the real answer, read about the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. The history of alcohol purchase age limits by state is also interesting.)

Anyway, Tuesday was my 21st birthday. After I wrote my birthday blog post, I continued studying until the exam (except for a brief study break at Taco Bell). I was gradually joined with other people in my class, and we all sort of ended up commiserating. That’s always fun. The exam itself was pretty challenging, but I don’t think it was harder than the last one, which I got a pretty good grade on, all things considered.

By the time I was done with my exam, it was already 9:30. Andy picked me up, and we went to Gainesville Ale House on Archer Road. Andrea met us there. I picked the place because it was one of the only restaurants in town I’d ever been to that was open after 11 PM (the others being the Original Pizza Palace and Chili’s). Plus, there would be a wide variety of alcoholic drinks to choose from if I so desired.

I so desired. I needed to unwind after that exam. After much deliberation, I decided to get a whiskey and soda (Jack and Pepsi, to be exact). I almost thought the waitress wasn’t going to card me, but she did. To eat, of course, I got a burger. Since this establishment was half-bar, they had a trivia contest going on, with the questions and answers being announced over the speakers. The three of us put our heads together and got most of the questions right, although we didn’t actually participate.

Andrea had the audacity to ask the waitress whether I would get a free desert. She said I could get a free slice of ice cream cake and brought one out. The three of us enjoyed it together. Andy covered my part of the check since he owed me money (it’s a good thing he remembered because I didn’t). Then, Andy and I went back to our apartment, where Andy had decorated the living room with balloons and other birthday decorations as a surprise. We threw the balloons around for a little while. After midnight had passed, I started working on homework.

I report my music listening habits to last.fm because I enjoy seeing the statistics. Here are some more statistics for last.fm users: The Obscurometer tells you how obscure your musical tastes are compared to others’. Apparently, my obscurity level is 30.1%, and my musical tastes are more obscure than 27.9% of all users.

This article does a great job of explaining how The RIAA and MPAA Have Failed to Understand a Cultural Shift. Everyone who doesn’t understand why the RIAA and MPAA’s tactics are wrong should read it.

How the classes are going

Two summers ago, I stayed home and hung out with friends. Last summer, I went to Europe. But if I want to graduate in Spring 2011 while taking a relatively light course load along the way (which I do), then I have to take a summer semester (which I am doing now).

Here at old Florida, there are three summer semesters. Summer A is six weeks long. Summer B, which follows Summer A, is also six weeks long. Summer C spans both Summer A and Summer B. I took Intro to Public Speaking during Summer A, and during Summer C, I’m taking Operating Systems and Finance. Summer A has ended, so the latter two classes are the ones I have left.

Summer course offerings are more limited than during the Spring or Fall semesters, so for my computer science major, I had no choice but to take Operating Systems with one of the department’s more infamous professors. He claims that the average score on his exams is 60%, which includes 20% extra credit. He also gives lots of homework, and he’s just assigned the term project.

The flipside, as I’ve been told by my friends who have survived his classes, is that you learn a lot from him. And I seem to be doing just that. I didn’t think I would do very well on the first exam, but I got a 77 (which I first misread as 11, my mind precluding the possibility of such a “high” grade). The next exam is on Tuesday night, which also happens to be my birthday. I hope the exam makes it a good one.

The other class I’m taking right now is for my business administration minor. It’s Finance (properly, Business Finance), and it’s one of the classes that the business college has done a great job with. They record the lectures and post them online, so there’s no need to actually attend class. Instead, I download the lectures and watch them at my leisure. The quizzes are also online (but the exams, alas, are not).

I chose to be a business minor because it would give me valuable skills (and because my major requires me to take a minor, but never mind), and this class hasn’t disappointed me. I’ve learned, among other things, the importance of saving for retirement. Plus, I’ve been doing very well in the class. The way things are going, I could end up with an A. Yay.

I was actually very worried that I wouldn’t do well in either of these classes (Finance is said to be the hardest class in the business minor), but I’ve been busting my hump for them, and it shows. I just hope I can keep up the good work.

I’ve been linking to a lot of infographics lately, some good, some not so good. Here’s a parody of pointless infographics. (Via waxy.org)

Another one of those montages of clips from movies and TV shows: We’ve Got Company! I first saw this before watching Avatar and groaned upon hearing the line in the movie. (Via The Presurfer)

Stupid Fight compares the spelling and grammar of celebrity Twitterers’ fans to see whose are dumber. (Via waxy.org)

The Landa Kongreso: Monday and beyond

This is the final post in a three-part… blah blah blah, you don’t care.

On Monday morning, I attended the closing ceremony of the conference. Well, there wasn’t much ceremony; the term used in Esperanto means “solemn closing.” It wasn’t especially solemn either. It was mainly a series of closing remarks, capped off with a singing of “La Espero.”

The organizers of the convention presented some statistics, most notably that the attendance was over 100. The president of Esperanto-USA gave some details about the next national convention, which will be held at the University of California, Berkeley, in early June 2011, and the one after that, which will be held in north Texas in 2012.

I was the only college-age kid to attend the closing ceremony. Once that was over, I rejoined the others in the lobby. Andy, Darcy, and I got to talking about exciting it was to be with so many other young Esperantists and how to keep the energy going. For a while, Esperanto-USA had had an active youth branch called USEJ. We decided bring USEJ back to life by starting up an IRC channel where we could constantly chat with each other and by having regular voice chats online. We also decided to look into the possibility of having a national youth congress in South Florida in the winter.

I’ve come back energized, and I’ve come back with a goal. I want to take new Esperantists with me to Berkeley next year. That means Andy and I will have to work hard to attract new members to our club and help them learn Esperanto, but it’s a worthwhile challenge.

I didn’t actually go to DC at all during the trip, even on the drive to the train station. Yes, instead of flying back to Florida, we took the Auto Train with Andy’s dad and Andy’s dad’s car, which Andy is now using. It was actually pretty comfortable, and I even expected to sleep at one point. I don’t think I actually did; I should have known better. But the complementary dinner and breakfast were pretty good, and it was fun to see “America at see level” (Amtrak’s former or maybe current tagline).

We arrived in Sanford, Florida, on Tuesday morning, and we drove to Gainesville. As soon as we made it to UF, I raced into my public speaking class, which was already in progress. I was going to have to deliver an impromptu speech. We had each submitted a quotation, and then when it was our turn to give a speech, we had to pick one of them at random and and deliver a speech about our reaction to it.

For some reason, there weren’t as many quotes as there were people, and I was the last to go, so I was left with none. The teacher asked people to submit some more, so I had fresh pickin’s. I chose:

“We are not here merely to make a living, we are here to enrich the world.”
—Woodrow Wilson

Within three minutes, I explained a little bit about what Esperanto is all about and about the experience I had had with other Esperantists over the long weekend. I tied it all together by explaining the shared hope that Esperanto can help enrich the world. I got a strong round of applause, and people had more questions for me after the speech. I got a 98% on the assignment.

With Congress.org’s MegaVote, you can sign up for weekly e-mails with information on how your representatives are voting. Good idea! (Via HackCollege)

I had no idea Google allowed you to purchase advertising time on TV, but someone at Slate tried it out. (Via waxy.org)

You know what’s cool? Science. You know what’s cooler? Infographics that aren’t totally stupid and help you understand science. Here’s one that organizes popular health supplements by the amount of evidence for their effectiveness. (Via Lifehacker)

The Landa Kongreso: Sunday

This is the second post in a three-part series on my trip to the 58th annual National Congress of Esperanto-USA. Here’s the previous installment in case you missed it. And for Andy’s point of view on what happened the first day, read his post, “At the National Esperanto Convention (Part 1).”

On Sunday morning, Andy and I went with some of our cohorts to Caribou Coffee. I made sure to get back to the hotel in time to listen to a lecture by the eminent Esperantist Humphrey Tonkin, who talked about the need for Esperanto organizations to adapt to today’s Internet-based society. Next, there was supposed to be a video chat with participants at the Russian Esperantists’ Congress, which was going on in St. Petersburg at the same time. For whatever reason, they weren’t able to get that going, but I managed to text Kate, who was at the Russian convention.

At the same time in another room, Andy gave a presentation about the different types of sounds in Esperanto and their representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Even though his lecture wasn’t listed on the program, the room filled up. I was going back and forth, trying to see if they had gotten the video chat working yet. Andy didn’t mind because what he was saying wasn’t new to me. That’s the kind of stuff we talk about in the living room on Thursday nights.

Next, it was getting to be lunchtime, so a bunch of people went to Chipotle, also a short walk away from the hotel. After that, I attended lectures about Esperanto-USA’s website, how to lecture about Esperanto, and the World Esperanto Association’s relationship with the United Nations. Those were all okay, but I was really looking forward to Darcy’s talk about her experiences starting and running an Esperanto club at a university. I think her talk was better attended than most of the others. The main bits of advice that I took away were to emphasize to people that Esperanto is fun and to make all of the club meetings fun.

After that, there were some games going on. Some of us got wrapped up in a game that involved guessing words one letter at a time. That was fun, and it seemed like a good way to build vocabulary. (Maybe we can play it at our meetings next year.) While that was going on, the rest of the youths (and some of the semi-youths) decided to go to a nearby tapas bar called Jaleo, so Andy and I joined them. I think there were 18 of us in all, sitting at two long tables. I just ordered some gazpacho, which I hadn’t had since I had first tried it in Spain last year. Ah, the memories…

After our early (or seemingly early) dinner, we went back to the hotel, and I sat in on a lecture about the 6th World Congress of Esperanto, which was held in Washington, DC, in 1910. (Its 100th anniversary was one of the factors in the decision to hold the national convention in the DC area this year.) The lecturer mainly showed contemporary newspaper articles, which described the events of each day of the congress in detail. More people were aware of Esperanto back then.

Next, there was some entertainment, including a much-hyped visit from a mysterious guest. The mysterious guest turned out to be one of the guys from the conference in drag lipsynching to Esperanto translations of “Material Girl” and “Dancing Queen.” There were also more conventional performances of bluegrass and other folk-type music, mostly in Esperanto. I especially enjoyed a performance of “Here Comes the Sun” in Esperanto on the ukulele. In between performers, we watched Conlang, a humorous short film about a power struggle in a small club for lovers of constructed languages.

After that, it was pretty late, but I and the other young types decided to go out. Some of us wanted to go out for a bite, and some of us just wanted to go out for a bit. I was all for going to the diner that they had gone to the night before. Like everything else, it was a short walk away from the hotel. It was called the Tastee Diner, and it was definitely the dineriest diner I had ever been to. We had the same waitress, a young woman with a strong Russian accent, that they had been served by the night before. I got a patty melt and chili cheese fries, but it was a tough decision to make. I wanted everything.

Back at the hotel, I was able to sleep in a bed because some people had already left. I slept better than I had the night before, when I had slept on the floor.

Watch this really, really epic TV theme song medley. I’ve only seen a few of the shows, but I still thought it was well done. (Via waxy.org)

Some guy writes about why theatre was the most important class he ever took. (Via Lifehacker)

Graffiti that dares to be erased: “COME ON PAINT ME WHITE AGAIN.” This really reminds me of my friend Brian. Brian, if you’re reading this… sarcastic graffiti makes me think of you? (Via waxy.org)

Attack of the parasites!

A few months ago, my sooth-seeking friend Andy took in a stray cat. He named him Tucker and kept him in his bedroom in our apartment. I would go in once in a while and see Tucker there. He was affectionate but unfortunately never very healthy. After about a month, Andy and his vet decided to let Tucker go to the great scratching post in the sky.

Three weeks later, Andy and his friend Scott, who was visiting, discovered that Tucker had left something to remember him by: fleas.

They took swift action, vacuuming and flea-bombing Andy’s room and the living room. They asked if they should do my room too. I said not to worry about it. Mistake of the Century. Shortly after that, I said:

Andy and Scott left on Wednesday, and I’ve been alone in the apartment. It hasn’t been so great, but not for the reasons I would have expected. I’ll go into that later.

I was left to fend off the fleas by myself. On Thursday afternoon, I went to the front office to ask for pest control to come, and I was told that they only come on Thursdays and that I had just missed them. Andy, who took responsibility for the whole situation, gave the office a call and got the pest control people to maybe come on Monday.

It was a long weekend. I called a vet’s office, and they said to put Borax onto the carpet and vacuum a week later, but I couldn’t find Borax at the grocery store. (Is that something you can get at the grocery store? I don’t want to waste my time again.) I did buy some insecticide for fleas, and it seemed to get rid of them after a few days of spraying. I also did some vacuuming to (hopefully) get rid of the flea eggs.

I don’t like spraying chemicals all over the place. It’s not due so much to my concern for the environment as it is to my tendency to accidentally spray myself (which did happen, as usual). So I made a flea trap by setting a bowl of soapy water on the floor and angling a desk lamp over it. Fleas are attracted to heat (this ordeal has made me a damn flea expert), so they jump toward the light bulb and fall into the water, where they get stuck. It’s also a fire hazard, so don’t try this at home. I won’t do it again.

Needless to say in a world where “yes” means “maybe” and “maybe” means “no,” pest control didn’t come on Monday. They called me on Tuesday and asked if the whole place had been vacuumed up because apparently they wouldn’t even come if it weren’t. I said no and asked them to come on Wednesday. They didn’t. They were definitely supposed to come on Thursday, as usual, but they didn’t even appear then. They finally showed up on Friday, but by then they could tell I had already gotten rid of the fleas, so they didn’t do anything.

(Before you say anything: no money was lost here. The management of my apartment complex hires said company to do free pest control work for residents. We had considered hiring another company, but it would have been too expensive.)

I haven’t seen any fleas in five days, so I think they’re gone for now. Then again, they hid for at least three weeks, between the time Tucker died and the time anyone noticed them. Hopefully they’re not like an STD that pops up from time to time and can never go away. I’ll have to do some more vacuuming.

This is why software is awesome. Someone wrote a Python script that does some time-stretching and -compressing on a song to change the beat. The result: everything swings. Sample tracks include “Every Breath You Take,” “Enter Sandman,” “Around the World,” and “Don’t Stop Believin’.” (Via waxy.org)

Here’s a breakdown of cable subscription fees by network, showing how much you’re paying for channels you don’t watch. (Via The Consumerist)

American kids don’t have a monopoly on stupidity: 10% of British children surveyed thought that the Queen invented the telephone. Some also thought that Luke Skywalker was the first person on the moon and that Isaac Newton discovered fire.