Category - Weird

Tonight, Jack Kevorkian is speaking at UF. As an advocate (and erstwhile practitioner) of physician-assisted suicide, he's pretty controversial. Over the past week or so, the debate has been heating up around campus. As I walked past the facility where the former doctor is due to speak, I saw that there were seemingly makeshift "free speech zone" signs posted around. My sister reports that a plane is currently flying over campus with a banner saying that Planned Parenthood kills babies and Jack Kevorkian kills parents. I think we can expect about as much protest as there was when Alberto Gonzales spoke a few months ago. That is to say, a lot. Difference is, I'm actually going to this one.

Opinion: Terminally ill people in a sound state of mind should be able to put themselves out of their suffering. And why is it any of your business?

(Let the flames begin!)

From the Why-Don't-You-Join-a-Club Dept.: I went to the first few meetings of Gator Freethought hoping to have some intelligent discussion with freethinking Gators. But the meetings got increasingly boring as they tended to focus on yawners like philosophy. I didn't even go to the last few meetings, which were about morality and Nietzsche and things. Luckily, the student organization's "new year's resolution is to have more fun," and they're going to start the fun with a meet-and-greet on Thursday night at a local restaurant-type place.

The meeting after that will be just before Florida's presidential primary and will deal with how our religious beliefs (or lack thereof) will affect our choices in the polls. The next meeting will be around Valentine's day and will be a discussion on religion and dating. This is an issue that affects me (in fact, I've been meaning to complain about it here), so I'll be sure to attend... unless I have a date. In fact, I've figured that going to Gator Freethought meetings is probably the best way to meet a sweet atheist (or agnostic -- I'm not that picky) girl, so it should be really interesting to see what other people in my situation have done or are doing.

If you're a freak who notices every single little change I make on this site, you'll know that last week, I changed the Creative Commons license for this site to allow commercial use of my content. (Previously, commercial use without special permission was prohibited. Attributing to me and sharing alike -- that is, releasing the derivative work under the same license -- are still required.) Here's a brief summary of the old license, and here's a summary of the new one.

Why the change? I've occasionally gotten requests for commercial use of my images, which, because they were prohibited by the old license, had to be approved by me on a case-by-case basis. To give a recent example, the Piute County (Utah) Chamber of Commerce asked to use my image of a $1 bill signed by former U.S. Treasurer and Piute County native Ivy Baker Priest. I decided to allow their use of the image as long as they credited me and my web site. Every time someone asks for special permission to use my stuff commercially, I allow them to do it, so I figured I'd change the license to allow it in general.

Some people might be concerned about this apparent display of flip-floppery. Most of the content that was under the old license is now under the new one. Which license applies? It depends on when you accessed the content. If you saved an old copy of an article or post from this site, that copy still falls under the old license. But if you access that same sexy article today, the new license (which has fewer restrictions) applies.

You've probably heard a lot about the OOXML standardization debate, but it's all very confusing. Here's an overview of the ISO standardization process that OOXML is attempting to go through.

Read some stupid essays by some guy. They don't look like they were really printed out and graded by an actual teacher, but they're still funny.

Here's a film from 1967 (confirmed authentic by Snopes) reporting on what technology would be like in A.D. 1999.

Happy 2008, everybody. This New Year's Day has been a pretty okay one. Florida lost its bowl game against Michigan, 41-35. When you care about sports, things like that are kind of a disappointment. It was a little bit of a disappointment, especially since the game was pretty close and because I invested about four hours of my afternoon watching it.

Actually, for part of the time I was filling out my FAFSA for 2008-2009. It's something of a New Year's Day tradition for American college students who fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) as early as possible so they'll be eligible for federal scholarships and loans. Or something like that. The bulk of the information deals with your income and your parents' income.

This evening my family went to have dinner at my friend Mark's house. His mom had the whole buffet-style feast and everything, and there were quite a few other people invited. It was a good way to spend the evening, I think, until I was asked to dish out some leftovers to take home. Italian stuff with tomato sauce. Do you see where this is going? I ended up wearing quite a bit. Some lady whose name I'm supposed to know said, "Jordon, Jordon, Jordon. Jordon, Jordon, Jordon." Just like that. That made me feel loads better. Happy New Year!

One hundred years ago today, the New York World asked its readers to predict what New York would be like in 2008. Now, the New York Times has asked experts (and non-experts) what they think life will be like in New York in 2108. Does anyone care to stick around for a hundred years and see if they're right?

It's a blog, but it hasn't been updated for a while. It's still funny, though: New and Improved Stereotypes.

Here's a psychological optical illusion; your perception of the image is supposed to vary depending on the culture in which you were brought up. The following paragraph contains a spoiler for the optical illusion, so check it out before you continue.

It's totally a window. It looks all wrong for a box. That's ridiculous.

It's Christmas again.

I did go to church with my family yesterday, and I didn't feel that bad, but I won't make a habit of it. I gave gifts to my friends that I saw there. The Christmas pageant, as it were, was pretty short. Some of the kids in it were way too young; they didn't seem to know what they were doing. One girl who had a reading still had a Homestar Runner accent. "A weading fwum the lettow of Paul to..." Just no. Did she even know what she was saying? The Cowinthians wouldn't have taken her seriously. Sewiously.

I got mostly guitar-related gifts: strings, cables, and a practice amp that's small enough for me to take to my dorm. It packs a punch, though. But what else would you expect from a Vox? Okay, maybe I only like Vox amps because the Beatles used them, but my friend Sean had a Vox mini-amp that I liked. Other than that, I'm a Fender amp guy.

For the second year, my pen pal Natasha and I exchanged gifts for Christmas. I got her a plush gator that says "Go Gators" and plays UF's fight song. I also included a video greeting where I showed her my dorm and the alligator in the pond across the street. This afternoon I called Natasha to wish her a merry Christmas and see if she got my gift to her. (She did, and her gift to me should be coming any day now.) I love to hear her voice. We both agreed that we need to talk on the phone more often. I'll hold up my end of the bargain, long-distance charges be damned. Ooh, I said damn. Maybe I'll get a phone card. That probably would have been good to ask for for Christmas. Oh well. I got money that I can buy phone cards with.

And now, a not particularly holiday edition of Ask Jordon.

Justin: Did I ever explain to you my theory on the communist santa?

I think so, but I don't really remember. Let's see what I can make up: He wears red. He distributes toys equally to practically everyone. People are urged not to question him. He doesn't live in the West. And what else? I bet he has pretty tight control over the elves.

Justin: Also, do you think there may be an "Answer Jordon" component in the future?

I did have Jordon Asks YOU!! about a year ago, but I haven't done anything with it since then. It's probably because I gave a schedule to work with (ask a question every Saturday), and anyone who reads this blog knows that I don't adhere to schedules when blogging. (Remember the monthly interview series that only lasted one month?)

In Soviet Russia, Santa writes letters to YOU!!

New at The World of Stuff: Do you use Wikipedia? How about Creative Commons? Or Linux? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should consider giving a monetary donation to the organizations involved. I came to that conclusion yesterday, and to make it easy for people to donate to free content projects, I've created this page with Donation Information for Free Content Projects. As a student without a credit card, I'd like to know which free software projects I can send a check to. Hence the list. I hope you or somebody finds it useful.

Classical music is everywhere these days. We hear the same classical pieces all the time as they've become associated with a particular aspect of popular culture. Enter Kickass Classical, a list with information about popular classical tunes. Incidentally, I found this site when I was trying to find the name of the repetitive, escalating piece they use in movie trailers to indicate mounting chaos. I couldn't find it there, but I bet somebody knows the name of it.

If you grew up in the '90s, here's a present for you: a memorable sketch from All That.

Here are some vintage Images from the Tobacco Industry Campaign to Hide the Hazards of Smoking. Did you know that more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette?

Today's the first day of December. It's the last month of the year. Hard to believe, isn't it? The year's gone by so fast.

Last night my aunt took my sister and me downtown, where we checked out art galleries and had sushi at this hip, semi-fancy place called Dragonfly. The sushi was delicious, and that stuff is filling. I wasn't totally full, because there's only so much food you can buy at that kind of place. I'd have to say I was pleasantly full, though.

The art galleries were hit or miss. There were some where the artists were presenting their work in their studios. There were nice. Their works were of typical subjects like landscapes, still lifes, and nudes. (If you did nothing but look at art all day, you'd probably get the impression that women like to strip naked and lie around the house with thoughtful looks on their faces. It isn't so.) Other places had artsy-looking people looking at odd sculptures.

But my favorite artists were the two who were spray-painting on a street corner. One had canvases, and the other was working on paper, but they could turn out an otherworldly landscape (each in his own style) in about 10 minutes. My aunt was looking at a large canvas that had some mountains and interesting Chinese-looking characters. She had a conversation with the artist about tai chi and ended up taking the painting home. The smell of spray paint filled the car, but it was worth it. It's just one of those paintings you can spend hours looking at.

Today I finished the first draft of my research paper for America in the Fifties. It took me many weeks of procrastination and a few weeks of on-and-off work. I finished it after a marathon writing session that lasted all afternoon and into the evening.

Anyway, it's about teenage drug abuse in the 1950s. It's called, "The Teenage Drug Abuse Epidemic of the 1950s: Menace or Myth?" I added the alliterative rhetorical question (always a favorite of people who title things) after I found that my sources conflicted about whether or not there was a drug menace at all. I make the point that it was more on the menace side. The draft is 17 pages with 79 citations from 20 sources. I hold here in my hands (while I'm not typing) the draft, and it's pretty fat. It's definitely the longest paper I've ever written, and after I revise it, it'll probably be longer. Hopefully it won't ramble, though.

I have to present it tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow, Sunday. That's what happens when your class runs out of time to present papers. I have to deliver a presentation based on the paper to whoever feels like showing up to our meeting that is technically optional. Then a classmate whom I've sent my draft to will present a critique. After everyone else has presented, we'll have lunch and do some additional research, I think. It should be pretty cool, but I'm not keen on having to meet at 10:30 in the morning.

I hope the professor thinks my paper is okay. I probably should have written on a topic he knows nothing about. One girl in the class has an advantage there because she's writing about cars. But the prof is a historian, so he can find a way to make the psychology of the 1950s American car-buyer tie into other contemporary attitudes. You know how it is.

For those of you looking forward to Christmas, isitchristmas.com will tell you whether it's Christmas. There's also an RSS feed so you can keep track.

Looking for photos you can use? Try flikrCC, which searches for Creative Commons-licensed images on Flickr.

Here are 15 examples of manipulated photographs.

On Monday night, I went to see Less Than Jake play a show on Flavet Field, which is a short walk from my dorm. I'm not that big into ska, but my friend Sean is, so he came all the way up from UCF to see them for the seventh time. Since Less Than Jake was the headliner, I first listened to the opening acts, which were The Expendables, Reel Big Fish, and Pepper. Of those three, I had only heard of Reel Big Fish, but they all put on a good show. Between the second and third acts, I got hungry and went to the dining hall for a bite to eat. I didn't miss much, though.

But yeah, Less Than Jake was a real crowd-pleaser. Sean was up in the front the whole time, and he almost got to go onstage. They were picking out a random single guy and girl from the audience. They asked the guy and the girl to make out while they were playing a song, and the two strangers obliged. Then the girl pulled another girl onto the stage and they started making out. Such is the power that ska has over people. I must say, it does get the toes a-tappin'. I really had a good time, even though I didn't skank. I'd probably see Less Than Jake again.

Speaking of bands that I really don't know that well: about a year ago, a waitress at Chili's said I looked like Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance... "when he had dark hair." Not like I was familiar with the guy anyway. And what's stranger is that a few other people I met also thought I looked like him. Have a look for yourself:

The other day, I was walking back to my dorm from class when a guy on a bike stopped beside me and said I looked like Adam Jones of Tool. He said that with my long hair and everything, I could pass for the guy's brother. I didn't know who Adam Jones was, but I mentioned that some people thought I looked like the guy from My Chemical Romance. He didn't know who Gerard Way was either. But I do kind of look like Adam Jones:

(Oh yeah, and there's a picture of me on the About Me page.)

The people have spoken! Just in time for the holidays, you can get World of Stuff gear at the World of Stuff Store. Available for purchase are T-shirts, tank tops, and sweatshirts with the "Property of" design I posted recently, but if people will actually buy this stuff, maybe I'll think of some other things to add.

And for your information, here's how the store works. It's run by CafePress. You order through them, and they fill the order -- I have nothing to do with it except that I get a cut of the profit. All the money I make will go toward running the web site. So check out the World of Stuff Store and see what I currently have to offer.

Here are 20 weird English words with their definitions. I had heard of about three of them. Number 7 should be "limerence."

When you call someone, isn't it considered polite for them to, say... call you back?

I count this as number four. Time to move on. What does the world have against Jordon Kalilich?

Just before I left home on Monday, I decided on a whim to take up the shovelglove again. I briefly took up this form of sledgehammer exercise two years ago but stopped after I overexerted myself. Since then I've been lazy/trying to forget it/afraid of exercising. But for some reason, I remembered it and decided to give it another try.

I brought my 4-kg sledgehammer and have started doing some movements with it in the morning. A 14-minute session is recommended, but I think I'll work up to it this time. Last time, I tried to do the whole 14 minutes too soon, and I couldn't move my arms for a few days. I'm doing the same movements I did last time: shoveling, churning butter, chopping wood, and flipping the lever. I think I'll try the Ab Killer as well.

Do check out my online HabitCal (habit calendar) on which I'll mark my successes and failures. (The color code is: green = success, red = failure, yellow = exempt day.) Right now I'll count doing the movements as a success, but when I can do the full 14 minutes, I'll be tougher with the definition.

I am Jordon. People ask me things. I answer them.

Michael : I would like to know the truth about the Beatles 1964 coin that is resurficeing,. Who made it, Why and Who were they given to. I Thank you, Mike

Hm. I know about the Beatles, and I know about coins, but I don't know about Beatle coins. A quick Google search suggests that some bronze coins were made to commemorate a visit they made to the United States in 1964. Since I didn't bother to go past page one of the Google search results, I don't know who would have issued them, and it's possible that some or all of them were made years after the fact.

Tim: How much does it need to go to Ameryca one time?

Tim, thankses, to ask to me over a travel towards the Ameryca. It is a beautiful station of job, that the sure one is that estimated. The Ameryca, For Your Information must once be a lot. I hope that you he find it valid.

Here's a fine example of stop-motion animation with real people: Tony vs. Paul.

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Nothing.

Here's a list of most common nicknames for first names based on 1990 US Census data.

Snippets from an IM conversation with my friend Sean on Thursday:

Jordon: today and tomorrow are when the honors students register for their honors courses
Jordon: you register online, it goes from 9-5 each day, and you can only register for one class per day
Jordon: so at 9:00 this morning everyone on my floor was going crazy because they couldn't register for their class
Sean: that sucks
Jordon: I was trying too because they get filled up pretty quickly, but I couldn't do it, and I was going to be late for class, so I hurried halfway across campus (a 20 minute walk) to my class where I was going to have a quiz
Jordon: on the way, I realized that the guy who sits next to me always has his computer, so I figured by then it would be working, so that made me go even faster
Jordon: so I get to the class (on the third floor), panting and out of breath, asking to use someone's computer, and everyone's like staring at me
Jordon: and I'm like, "honors registration, man... it's crazy"
Jordon: so I use that guy's computer, and I'm able to register for my class, so mission accomplished
Jordon: I just got an e-mail apologizing for the delay

I'm pretty excited today: not only about today's Florida-Georgia Game, but also about Bill Nye coming to speak next Tuesday. I used to watch Bill Nye the Science Guy all the time when I was a little kid. He made science fun! If you don't believe me, here's a clip. And who could forget the theme song? My sister and some of my friends are also planning on going. And why wouldn't they? Science rules!

Here are The 10 Strangest (Real) Things in Space. They're all real.

And here are the 30 Strangest Deaths in History. Who's the authority who decides what the strangest things are, anyway? I should come up with a list of the strangest things so other blogs can link to it.

My inbox was busy today. Earlier this afternoon, I got a notice from my web host saying that the balance in my account was down to $1. I didn't think much of it; I get charged for bandwidth and storage (usually around 10¢ per day), and then I make another deposit, and the cycle continues. I also got a large number of e-mails (3) about The Dvorak Keyboard and You, but I didn't think much of that either. After coming home from dinner this evening, I put two and two together. I had another e-mail from my web host in my inbox: my balance had gone down to 50¢ in less than 5 hours. I was being Slashdotted. Or Dugg. Or attacked. Or something.

Immediately, I checked my bandwidth and storage stats. Today's bandwidth use was about 10 times the average, and my storage was also climbing high. I combed through the latest access logs, and it didn't take me long before I saw that lots of hits were coming to The Dvorak Keyboard and You from del.icio.us and reddit, two very popular web sites. The page has also been mentioned on a thread on Fark. It seems that there have been so many hits that my access log was causing the drastic increase in storage.

I had to act, and fast. It sounds cheesy, but it's true. I made an emergency payment which should be enough. I could have bought bandwidth in bulk, but I don't think the influx of hits will last long enough to warrant that. I just needed to keep my balance from hitting $0, at which time the site would be disabled. We wouldn't want that to happen, now would we? I'd get even more e-mails about the site being down, and I'd be like, "I know, guys." Unless, by chance, I didn't happen to check my e-mail after dinner tonight, in which case I'd be in for a nasty surprise come morning.

As of this writing, The Dvorak Keyboard and You is #12 on the front page of del.icio.us, #31 on reddit, which puts it on page 2, and #2 in reddit's programming category. And the question is: why? The Dvorak Keyboard and You has long been bookmarked by del.icio.us readers, and only now is it enjoying its fifteen minutes. That's just the way the web works, I guess. The wisdom of crowds.

So, to you new readers that I've tried to lure in from the Dvorak page... welcome... if there are any of you, that is. (If you just found my site from the Dvorak page, post a comment and say hello!) I usually don't blog about my site very much, although I do have a category for it. Usually I talk about my life, and people think it's cool and/or entertaining, so they stick around. Okay, now what's something interesting that's happened to me in the past few days? Well, I was planning on asking a girl out on what would be my first date. Yeah, say what you want; everyone else has. (Actually, they haven't.) Stay tuned as this story unfolds.

Then I usually have a few links that I think are interesting. Here's the first one: Wikipedia's list of film sequels by box-office improvement. Apparently a lot of sequels actually make more money than their predecessors.

Fine Art Taco Photography. And you thought this site was weird.

Regular readers: Am I crazy for assuming that so many new visitors are going to be reading this? What if they're not? That could be kind of embarrassing, but I can't say it hasn't happened before.

It's October, and that apparently means that it's time to start registering for spring classes! I absolutely detest having to pick classes, and doing so in college is at least as bad as in high school. You still have to plan with the end in mind, but now the end is up to you. Plus, I need to change my major from computer engineering to computer science. Early on in the semester, I asked people how I could change my major.

Q: How do I change my major?
A: Don't worry about it.

"Don't worry about it" is an all-encompassing answer that means, "It's too complicated for me to explain," "I don't want to have to think about it," or "I don't know." I guess I should have changed my major earlier, because now I have to deal with all that in addition to the schedule frenzy. And, oh -- it is a frenzy. Or, at least, it will be. I have to talk to an engineering advisor as well as an honors advisor, so one or both of them should be able to help. On the agenda today:

1. Walk-in appointment with honors advisor to ask: Do I talk to an honors or engineering advisor first if I want to change my major? Do I need to have an idea of what classes I should take before I talk with either of them? How do I know when I should actually register for my classes?
2. Have a late lunch.
3. Hopefully meet with an engineering advisor, which they're making me do before I can register for classes.
4. Schedule an appointment for an honors advisor visit.
5. Study for the calculus and chemistry tests I have tomorrow.
6. Chemistry test review session tonight.
7. Eat some more? And then study? And sleep?

Yeah. Busy times.

It's time for yet a second edition of From Canada with Love, where my friend Natasha (and sometimes I) answer your love-related questions.

Natasha answers:

WikiScanner traces anonymous Wikipedia edits to the businesses, schools, and organizations from which they originated. Here are some not-so-nice things that UF students had to say about FSU. Also watch for companies removing parts of articles that make them look bad!

Bizarre? Embarrassing? Scary? Watch this MS-DOS 5 Upgrade Video and see what you think of it.

I tabled for Get Carded last week. They're the student group that signs people up to be organ donors. (Incidentally, manning tables is apparently so common among student organizations that it deserves its own verb. That's really all Get Carded does, anyway.) Although sitting at a table for two hours and getting people to sign organ donors doesn't sound like much fun, I have to say it was. While I was there, we got about 20 people to sign up and save lives. One of them was me.

I think some people might have been deterred by the idea of signing up to be an organ donor. They probably think that there's a lot of icky paperwork (or worse, costs) involved. Not so. All you have to do is sign a card and carry it around with you. It carries the same force as being designated as an organ donor on your driver's license (although you should specify it next time you renew your license because then you'll be in the organ donor database). If you're a Floridian, check out Get Carded's web site and print an organ donor card. If not, find out about similar groups in your state or country. Because you never know: tomorrow you might be dead, and your organs will go to waste.

College meal plans are supposed to be convenient. But if you don't know what you're dealing with, they might not be. My plan for this semester is 150 meals and $300 in "Flex Bucks." Too bad I didn't know the specifics. It turns out that meal-plan meals are served at one of two cafeteria-style dining halls on campus, and Flex Bucks are accepted at the restaurants. So I have four months to eat at a cafeteria 150 times with only $300 for other eatery options. After a month, I had 140 meals remaining and $138 in Flex Bucks, so it was time to switch gears. I've found that the dining hall is a convenient solution to the Breakfast Problem* on certain days of the week. Also, it took me about a month to find out that there was a second dining hall only half as far away from my dorm as the one I had been going to. Combine those facts with a steady supply of non-perishable foods in a cardboard box in my closet, and I've got a recipe for success... and a cheesy metaphor.

How does your height compare with averages from around the world?

HEERS AN ENGLISH 2 LOLCAT TRANZLATOR
IZ PRITEE AWSUM

* The Breakfast Problem is, quite simply, the problem of what to eat for breakfast. Do you eat the same thing for breakfast every weekday? I do. Then I get sick of it after a while and move on to something else. But a good breakfast is hard to find. It has to be easy to store and prepare, ostensibly healthy, and, above all, delicious. For those seeking closure to this ongoing story: since finding out about my shocking meal and Flex Buck balances, I'm down to 140 meals and $112 in Flex Bucks. That means I hopefully won't run out of the Bucks any time soon. And if I do, there's always cash.