Posts with mood sick (16)
sick link saturday:
Mood: sick
Posted on 2014-01-18 16:26:00
Tags: links
Words: 361
Caught a stomach virus (or something) but I'm on the mend, so here's something to distract myself!
- How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood - talks about Netflix's microgenres, which I found fascinating. Also, now I want to see "Irreverent Reunited Lovers Werewolf Movies". And the bit about Raymond Burr is just strange!
- How Rush Limbaugh Decides What Is True - the short answer is "true conservatives are always right". Although I admit I probably default to giving Obama the benefit of the doubt, I certainly don't agree with him always...
- Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013 - by Bill Gates
- The Price Is Wrong And You Know It: Do You Buy That Ticket? - as I get older I find myself looking more at the motivations behind why businesses give away stuff and try not to take advantage of them. Although I still take samples from HEB even if I don't intend to buy them. (theoretically if they're good enough I might, right?) Anyway, airline fares are so crazy it's hard to know what is "obviously" a mistake anyhow.
- How Sleep Deprivation Decays the Mind and Body - the author stayed up for four days in a row as a teenager and it (might have) had effects on him for a long time. More on sleep: Goodnight. Sleep Clean. Sleep is important, everyone! (I have slept a _lot_ this weekend already, what with being sick...)
- Ask Culture and Guess Culture - very interesting difference. I think I'm more of a Guess person, or at least I would feel the same way about responding to a request as the original poster did - by trying to find an excuse. (thanks Emily!)
- The greatest newspaper correction ever written (49 years too late) (thanks Adam!)
- Aaron Rodgers: ‘I Really, Really Like Women’ - siiiiigh.
- Bisexual: A Label With Layers - Tom Daley (a British Olympic diver) came out as bisexual recently.
- Is 4K BS? - yeah, I'm pretty sure I couldn't see a difference between the 4K TV's at CES and their "regular" HD counterparts.
- A nicely summarized look at how strong companies are at protecting your data from the government done by EFF.
- The Great Handbell War - hardcore rivalry between handbell makers
1 comment
India trip: all the posts/pictures
Mood: sick
Posted on 2013-02-22 21:25:00
Tags: travel
Words: 19
For your reading/viewing convenience:
India, weekend 1
India, week 1
India, weekend 2
India, week 2 (the final week!)
0 comments
India, week 2 (the final week!)
Mood: sick
Posted on 2013-02-22 21:21:00
Tags: pictures travel
Words: 1064
<- click for full album
Monday 2/11 late evening
Pretty uninteresting day. I got home a bit late and didn't feel like going out, but hopefully I will tomorrow, at least to the park or something. I am planning on meeting people for breakfast at a small café - here's hoping I don't get sick!
Random India topic: (well, random India building topic) The elevators in the NI building are crazy. On one side of the room are two elevators, and on the other side is another one, but they operate independently! So whenever anyone wants to go up, they press "up" on both sides and whichever shows up first they get on, thus guaranteeing that almost half of all elevator stops are wasted. ("almost" because it's possible someone else enters the lobby in between and catches the second one) This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the "close door" buttons actually work, and work quickly!
(I was told that they operate independently because the one elevator is the service elevator, while the other two are regular ones. But no one seems to treat the service elevator as special in any way...)
It's also possible there's some sort of crazy elevator algorithm going on. This evening as I was leaving, my driver pressed down on both sides. Both "regular" elevators were above us, and proceeded to go all the way down to the ground floor without stopping for us. The service elevator started at the ground floor and eventually made its way up to our floor and picked us up. So...I don't know?
Wednesday 2/13 morning
Not having a good 12 hours or so. Last night I got the inevitable case of traveler's diarrhea (taking meds for it now), and then I tried to download movies for the trip home but I can't because I'm in the wrong country (gonna try on VPN, I guess?). Then this morning I got locked out of my Nokia account, the lights in the bathroom didn't work, forgot my water bottle when I went up to breakfast, had a frustrating conversation with a hotel worker about the bathroom lights, finished my last Kindle book while waiting for the car so I bought a few new ones only to have trouble downloading them (which I did eventually fix), and now my laptop can't get on the WiFi here.
Traveling, especially to a foreign country, requires a lot of patience - you have to be very flexible. Usually I'm good at that, but I think I've used up my patience for the day already and it's only 10:30 AM...
Thursday 2/14 evening
OK, things are better now. Went out to lunch and dinner yesterday with work folks, which was fun, although I think I way overate. (and the antibiotic I'm still on bothers my stomach some) Today I did my last presentation-type thing at work, which went better than I expected. This evening I had the driver drop me off at Bangalore Central, and ate at the food court there. (grilled paneer for dinner and gelato for dessert!) Then I walked home. I think one of the big mistakes I made the first week was not getting out of the hotel more - to be fair, I was worried about traffic, but it's really not that big a deal if you cross at lights and are extremely careful :-)
I also got to play some table tennis today at work (in the table tennis room!) - unsurprisingly I'm pretty rusty, but I had a good time!
Hard to believe tomorrow is my last day here (my flight leaves at 8 AM Saturday morning = getting up super-early :-/ ) - I've gotten to know people here and generally had a good time, despite days like yesterday. It's going to be weird readjusting myself to "normal" life and not having someone drive me around everywhere!
(still irritated I can't rent movies for the plane rides home, though...)
Saturday 2/16 morningish
On my way back to Austin! Got up crazy early, checked out, and rode to the airport. I remember just two weeks ago thinking the drive from the airport to the hotel was crazy. Now I think "Lane markers! Nice!" even if they aren't universally respected. Although I did learn that instead of stopping at a red light, another option is to lay on the horn and just drive through.
At the airport there were two security lines separated by sex - it looks like the women's one (which was empty, incidentally) had more privacy for pat-downs. And I guess it's a good thing, because the metal detector beeped for every single person, so everyone got pat-downs. Did a little duty-free shopping to try to spend my last rupees, and then we boarded where my backpack was inspected again.
Been alternately watching movies and napping - seen "Looper" and "The Candidate" so far, and there's still 6 hours to go! Movie selection is pretty good, and we're flying close to Iran - maybe I should watch "Argo" :-) (Ed: I did, in fact, watch Argo!)
Random bits:
- While we were waiting to board, a British Airways person went around and gave candy to the kids that were around. (I wanted candy!)
- I was served breakfast by a flight attendant named Jean Luc! Awesome.
- When I checked in I was offered an upgrade for the equivalent of $250. I was briefly tempted (it is an 11 hour flight!), but that's still $22/hour, and all I seemed to get was a few extra inches of legroom.
Later
I wandered around Heathrow for a while and had some sort of meal. (I think that was my fourth or fifth of the day...) I was starting to feel kind of crappy near the end of the flight, but getting up and off the plane helped a lot. (I think the smells were getting to me)
I'm on the Chicago flight now, and I hit the seating jackpot - window seat with an empty seat next to me! Really digging the extra legroom. Entertainment system isn't on-demand, but they still have a good selection of movies - watching "Arbitrage" now and about to eat another meal...
Afterwards
I made it home. I don't mean to be overdramatic, but maaaaaaan I felt pretty terrible afterwards. I'm getting old! And then jet lag, etc., etc. But that notwithstanding, it was a good trip, and I know some things to do differently next time!
0 comments
Windows Phone: earn a Lumia 800 or 900!
Mood: sick
Posted on 2013-01-12 15:57:00
Tags: nokia windowsphone wpdev
Words: 302
This promotion has ended - thanks to all who participated!
There's a new promotion for new Windows Phone developers - check it out!
Here's a chance to earn a Nokia Lumia 800 or 900! Here's how:
- Submit three new apps to the Windows Phone Store and get a free Lumia 800
- Submit five new apps to the Windows Phone Store and get a free Lumia 900
You must be a member of DVLUP to win - contact me at ext-greg.stoll@nokia.com if you need an invite code. Note that you can also use these apps to earn points in DVLUP challenges, so it's a win-win!
The fine print:
- Promotion is limited to developers in US and Canada.
- Device quantities are limited - they will be handed out on a first-come first-served basis.
- Only quality apps qualify; the final decision of what constitutes a quality app resides with me
- New apps means apps first published in the Windows Phone Store after January 7, 2013.
- You cannot have entered the same app in any other promotion through which you got a Windows Phone device.
- I reserve the right to change the terms of the promotion at any time
- You will be solely responsible for taxes, if any, on the items you receive as part of any of these promotions.
- Shipping is free to destinations within continental United States, shipping to other locations will be borne by the receiver.
- By participating in any of these promotions, you accept the terms and conditions of any such promotions, and you agree that neither I nor Nokia is responsible in any way for any costs, losses, or harm that you sustain by participating in any such promotion.
--
See all my Windows Phone development posts.
Interested in developing for Windows Phone? I'm the Nokia Developer Ambassador for Austin - drop me a line at ext-greg.stoll@nokia.com!
0 comments
Windows Phone: adding enum settings to your app
Mood: sick
Posted on 2013-01-11 21:10:00
Tags: windowsphone wpdev
Words: 447
After my last post about adding a settings page to your app, I thought I'd follow it up by adding an enum-like type to the page. Enums and booleans are (at least in my apps!) the most common types of settings, and enums are slightly trickier than the Boolean settings we saw last time.
For this example, I'm going to be adding a QuestionDirection "enum" to my settings page.
Step 1: Add the "enum" class
First, you need a QuestionDirection.cs:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace KnowYourStates.wp7
{
public class QuestionDirection
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string DisplayName { get; set; }
public bool HasForward { get; set; }
public bool HasBackward { get; set; }
private static QuestionDirection _forward = new QuestionDirection()
{ Name = "forward", DisplayName = "Forward", HasBackward = false, HasForward = true};
private static QuestionDirection _backwards = new QuestionDirection()
{ Name = "backwards", DisplayName = "Backward", HasBackward = true, HasForward = false };
private static QuestionDirection _both = new QuestionDirection()
{ Name = "both", DisplayName = "Forward + Backward", HasBackward = true, HasForward = true };
private static Collection<QuestionDirection> _directions = null;
public static QuestionDirection Default
{
get
{
return _both;
}
}
public static Collection<QuestionDirection> Directions
{
get
{
if (_directions == null)
{
_directions = new Collection<QuestionDirection>();
_directions.Add(_forward);
_directions.Add(_backwards);
_directions.Add(_both);
}
return _directions;
}
}
public override string ToString()
{
return DisplayName;
}
}
}
Here the important parts are the Default property and the Directions property. (the ToString() method is necessary to make it look right in the ListPicker we're going to use, but how you implement it is up to you)
Step 2: Modify UserSettings.cs
In your UserSettings.cs (see the previous post for the necessary parts), add the following:
const string QuestionDirectionKeyName = "QuestionDirection";
QuestionDirection QuestionDirectionDefault;
public QuestionDirection QuestionDirection
{
get
{
return GetValueOrDefault<QuestionDirection>(QuestionDirectionKeyName, QuestionDirectionDefault);
}
set
{
if (AddOrUpdateValue(QuestionDirectionKeyName, value))
{
Save();
}
}
}
public Collection<QuestionDirection> AllQuestionDirections
{
get
{
return QuestionDirection.Directions;
}
}
and then to the constructor, add
QuestionDirectionDefault = QuestionDirection.Default;
Step 3: Add a control to the Settings page
Here's the XAML for the Settings PivotItem:
<controls:PivotItem x:Name="SettingsPivotItem" Header="settings">
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
<TextBlock Text="Question Mode:" FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeLarge}"/>
<toolkit:ListPicker ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource appSettings}, Path=AllQuestionDirections}"
SelectedItem="{Binding Source={StaticResource appSettings}, Path=QuestionDirection, Mode=TwoWay}"/>
</StackPanel>
</controls:PivotItem>
Note that the ListPicker is from the Windows Phone Toolkit, which is a (free!) must-have. It also requires you to have this inside the PhoneApplicationPage XML element:
xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit"
Just like in the previous post, you can listen for the appSettings changing, and you can access the current setting with UserSettings.Instance.QuestionDirection.
Again, this isn't really that difficult, but whenever I need to do it I find this code and copy it, so now you can too!
--
See all my Windows Phone development posts.
I'm planning on writing more posts about Windows Phone development - what would you like to hear about? Reply here, on twitter at @gregstoll, or by email at ext-greg.stoll@nokia.com.
--
Interested in developing for Windows Phone? I'm the Nokia Developer Ambassador for Austin - drop me a line at ext-greg.stoll@nokia.com!
0 comments
theocracy on the march
Mood: sick
Posted on 2012-03-21 11:28:00
Tags: essay gay
Words: 330
I read Rich Dunbar's first blog post about people who compain about those who "cram their beliefs down my throat" and reacted very negatively to it. Looking back, I realize that I wasn't really being fair (sorry Rich!), but what my mind jumped to was the topic of same-sex marriage.
Some days I'm amazed at what progress the movement has made (see the maps above). This is not one of those days.
I think we have a legitimate case here of "belief cramming" here, and it has to do with something that Rich doesn't talk about: asymmetry. The impact of gays not being able to get married on the gay community is a reasonably big deal - not comparable to segregation or anything, but the denial of ~1138 federal benefits and some number of state ones is a real harm done to us.
What's the impact on those who oppose same-sex marriage? (I'm going to generalize and just talk about organized religion) Well...I'm not sure. No same-sex marriage bill in the country would force churches to marry same-sex couples, as no church is forced to marry any couple they don't want to for whatever reason. (e.g. non-Catholic couples can't be married in a Catholic churc, etc.) The arguments these groups tend to make are extremely vague and hand-wavy - "it will weaken the family" or "it would hurt children" with little to no evidence to back these claims up. Another argument (albeit one I don't hear very often) is that they don't want their tax dollars going to support same-sex couples, but this is pretty weak because you don't necessarily have a right to say what your tax dollars go towards.
Even though historically a strong majority of people have been opposed to same-sex marriage (although this is changing!), this is a case where "tyranny of the majority" applies, and when they are successfully cramming their beliefs down our throat.
9 comments
this week in corruption
Mood: sick
Posted on 2008-12-09 09:58:00
Tags: politics
Words: 97
- In a shocking upset, Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) lost his reelection bid on Saturday in a very Democratic district. He had been indicted on corruption charges before but still managed to win his primary. The FBI famously found $90,000 of cash in his freezer. Hooray to the voters in LA-2 who finally saw the light!
- Just in: Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff were just arrested by the FBI on corruption charges. They're alleging they "conspired to gain financial benefits in appointing President-elect Barack Obama's Senate replacement", which obviously is pretty embarrassing for Obama.
5 comments
I picked a bad week to quit sniffing glue
Mood: sick
Posted on 2008-10-21 14:16:00
Words: 190
Last night: played Rock Band 2 for the first time (fun! remarkably similar to Rock Band 1!), hot tubbed. All was well.
Later last night: in bed, started itching in odd places, like (for example) all over my body. Dozed on and off sorta. Got up at 2 and showered to try to get rid of the itching, which helped a little but not a whole lot.
This morning: woke up exhausted, called in sick. Watched Daily Show and Colbert Report, then napped in the morning, had some intense dreams. Walked to Walgreens for Benadryl (ooh, I should take some) and Food Shui for lunch. Brought Newsweek along to read on the way, which worked well. While waiting for my food at Food Shui, glasses screw fell out. Recovered the screw and lens, ate lunch with one eye then walked home. Crossing the street is hard with one eye! (it's not the traffic, it's the curbs...)
Back home, can't fix glasses by myself but djedi (what would I do without him?) reminded me I have an old pair which are almost as good. Going to relax for real now. Yeesh.
0 comments
deep thought
Mood: sick
Posted on 2008-10-13 08:18:00
Tags: health
Words: 10
If mucus were currency, my nose would be causing hyperinflation.
2 comments
incoming nasty debate?
Mood: sick
Posted on 2008-10-07 10:33:00
Tags: politics
Words: 212
Obama is now at 88.5% to win. His national polling numbers (which, yes, don't really matter but are a good summary of the race) are way way way better than Gore's or Kerry's. (or Bush's this close to the election) At least Gallup's national tracking poll seems to have stabilized.
So, things are getting ugly. Palin is attacking, and the results are not pretty:
Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."
You can't blame the candidates for who supports them, but it sure sounds like she's almost inciting the crowd. At a McCain speech, he asked "Who is the real Barack Obama?" and the first shouted answer was "Terrorist!".
McCain has little to lose at this point, so he may go all-out nasty at the debate tonight...
2 comments
the syndrome that has no name
Mood: sick
Posted on 2008-04-23 10:14:00
Tags: health
Words: 149
(fine, it probably has a name)
I had a nice birthday weekend with lots of celebrating and stuff, which may have led to whatever the hell happened to me.
The defining symptom is a sore throat, although calling it a "sore throat" doesn't do it justice in my opinion. Feeling feverish (although the actual presence of a fever is somewhat in dispute) and having chills are pretty important parts. Stomach queasiness and a general malaise are secondary but still fairly prominent.
I'm feeling somewhat better today, although my throat still hurts (time for another painkiller!) and I'm pretty low-energy.
Saturday we walked around downtown (djedi's sister Leigh Ann was staying with us) and went to the Alamo Ritz which is a very nice theater. We saw "Smart People" which was an odd but fun movie, and before the show they had old educational science videos which was pretty awesome.
4 comments
weekend, pictures, etc.
Mood: sick
Posted on 2007-09-05 11:45:00
Tags: pictures
Words: 132
djedi and I spent the weekend in New Hampshire with my family, some of whom he hadn't met yet. The weather was pretty nice, especially with nice cool breezes. Had maple syrup, went to a few arts & crafts fairs, did a lot of hanging out. Here are a few pictures, and if anyone could tell me what that pie chart represents, I would be grateful :-)
I picked up either a cold or allergies on Monday, because I was fairly miserable Monday and Tuesday. Feeling betterish today, but gonna stay home sick again and feel better and take care of some of the moving stuff. If all goes well, two weeks from today the movers will come to pack up our stuff - frightening!
Apple announces new stuff today. Will be following on engadget!
3 comments
home sick
Mood: sick
Posted on 2007-03-28 14:31:00
Tags: pictures links
Words: 108
I'm not sure what happened, I felt perfectly fine Monday going to bed, and yesterday I woke up with bad allergies/congestion. I stuck it out at work but after a night of waking up a lot (I hate trying to sleep when my nose is all messed up!) I gave up. Hopefully I'll be back to normal tomorrow.
Anyway, it gives me a chance to catch up on stuff. Like put up pictures! And link to some random things!
- To promote their new book, zug.com staged a prank at the Super Bowl - unfortunately the intended message didn't show up as well as hoped.
- damninteresting.com is making a book!
0 comments
keep on keepin' on
Mood: sick
Posted on 2006-11-22 09:59:00
Tags: ljbackup
Words: 184
The verdict is in: I do indeed have a cold. It started last Friday or so and increased in intensity slowly, so I wasn't sure if it was just allergies or what. But lots of people around me have been sick in recent weeks (although I thought I had already had that cold), so it's no shocker. The goodnews is that I was much better this morning than I was yesterday morning. And it's amazing the difference that softer Kleenex make when you're going through 100 or so a day. And I hope my ears don't explode on the plane today. (we're going to see djedi's family for Thanksgiving, and also get a Wii!!)
Being sick and playing WoW and trying to get a Wii hasn't left me with a whole lot of time to work on LJ backup, but I'm also at a point where I've done a lot of the fun stuff and the more irritating stuff is left. Hopefully I'll knock those out in the next few weeks and be done with it.
Hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving :-)
2 comments
LJ - Arkansas edition!
Mood: sick
Location: near a sweeeet jacuzzi!
Posted on 2006-08-24 20:17:00
Tags: moving travel
Words: 400
Howdy sports racers! This post is brought to you by the good folks at Clarion Resort who provide tasty tasty free high speed internet in every room. Not to mention the sweeeet jacuzzi in the room - we're totally going to use it again and watch TV in it after this :-)
The drive today went relatively OK. We're in Hot Springs, AK now which is right about on schedule in terms of distance (maybe a little farther than we needed to go), and the nice part is we got here around 5:30, so we got some relaxing time (sweeeet jacuzzi!) before heading out to a nice Italian place for dinner. The bad news is that my allergies are freakin' killing me. I don't know if it's a cold or not, but I was blowing my nose all day long and it's really starting to get raw from all that. I bought some of the fancy Kleenex(TM) with lotion on them which usually helps, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully a good night's sleep tonight will help too.
Hot Springs (population 36,000) seems like a relatively nice place, although we drove through downtown to get to dinner and it looked a bit run down. Bill Clinton grew up here, and they converted his old high school into the Cultural Center of Arkansas, which is "a large complex where artists and performers may live and work". Although now that I search on that, one of the only places this shows up is in the brochure I'm currently reading. Maybe it's not finished yet?
Here's a random question - why is it standard practice to tip waiters 15% of the cost for food and drink? I can understand based on the number of drinks and entrees ordered, but is it harder to keep track of and deliver an expensive steak than a simple angel hair pasta? Or is this just an easy approximation to the number of entrees and drinks ordered? I know hosts and busboys get part of the tips - do the chefs as well? Because that would make sense, since presumably the more expensive meal is harder to cook.
Tomorrow the plan is to stop somewhere in Tennessee (we'll be spending a ridiculous amount of time in Tennessee, going from the southwest corner to the northeast corner), so hopefully I'll be able to post again if we can find another nice hotel :-)
9 comments
New Year's pictures
Mood: sick
Posted on 2006-01-06 15:09:00
Tags: pictures
Words: 17
I'm out sick today, so I took some time and put up pictures from New Year's. *sniffle*
4 comments
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