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How I am wasting my time

As you may know, I dig quirkiness. The quirky thing of the moment right now is the flight simulator X-Plane by Austin Meyer. There has been some notice of the program lately, but I've been watching it for a while.

Quirky? Well, X-Plane allows you to fly on Mars, fly Anime styled planes or design your own planes. You can even fly a jeep or a piano. If you like, drop that piano from a B-52 at 30,000 feet and 500 mph. Whee!

But even quirky, the simulation is well regarded for accuracy -- the FAA allows you to use it for training and some folks have used it to design aircraft.

So anyway -- now you know what I've been doing lately.

Call him Ishmael

He wanted nothing else but his own destruction.
And yet you call him mad?

I've found myself reading Charles Olson's Call Me Ishmael, an essay that investigates (in part) the effect of Shakespeare's plays on Melville's Moby Dick.

The essay was written in the mid 20th century and today seems a bit old fashioned. Marxism, Freudianism and blasphemy all seem a little played out these days. Still, Ishmael is the result of careful study of Melville and his novel and the essay makes for interesting reading, even though it provides better illumination on Olson than it does on Melville.

However, there are those of you who may prefer Jeremy Harding's take on things.

So cruel...

Women can be so mean to each other.

For some reason, not all of my bartendress friends get along with each other. In particular "Summer" (from her resemblance to Sarah Michelle Gellar) and "Happy" (who is always happy) don't get along very well anymore -- which is sad because they used to be the Dream Team of bartending.

Anyhow, the scene is the local bar with Summer...

Summer: "Oh, by the way ... I saw [Happy] the other day."

Me: "Oh yeah, how is she doing?"

Summer: "We didn't speak, but I knew it was her with her hair all swung back and that shirt."

I've seen Happy in "civilian" clothes, she does go for the sleeveless breezy look, particularly in the summer -- but nothing bad.

Me: "Well ... she's just trying to be cute."

Summer: "Hooker cute?"

Yikes...

Survey says...

I really think there is a PHD thesis in Internet personality tests. There is at least a CSM article and a REDIFF article on the subject (by the way, nice plagiarism there, REDIFF).

You've got 'official' tests, and unofficial tests, and official unoffical tests. There are long tests and short tests -- all to tell you what kind of person you are.

Perhaps the results serve as a short of short-hand psychological summary that one can use to explain ourselves to others. Some of the results pages indeed seem designed to be printed out and handed around.

In the test-as-identity vein, a popular personality test variant is the "What kind of X are you?" quizzes. Most of these even have a results banner you can display on your home page. Some people dedicate a whole page to these.

I'd appreciate any comments, heck I don't even understand the popularity of online chat.

The strangest spam, part III

I had hoped that the 'time travler spam' would turn out to be something interesting -- like a bizzare marketing plan for a new SciFi movie/TV series or even something baroque like someone trying to hustle people who are trying to hustle people.

Sadly really, of all the theories only one seems to be valid. I hope the person is able to get help, somehow.