Archive: August 8, 2008

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8/8/8 - crazy eights!

Friday,  08/08/08  09:18 AM

Wow, today is crazy eight day!  8/8/8.  Or if you prefer (and I do, for sheer weirdness), 23/23/23.  This would be three two to the threes.  Reminds me of the preface to Godel, Escher, Bach, in which Douglas Hofstadter reminiced that at an early age he was taken with the idea of three threes, operating on three with itself.  He must be happy today :)

Today is also the day on which the Bejing Summer Olympics begin!  I am feeling Olympic today...  and finally, Wikipedia tells me that the last time we had an 8/8/8, in 1908, Wilbur Wright made his first public flight, in France.  Who knew?

I hope you have a gr8 day!

 

 

in a rut

Friday,  08/08/08  05:47 PM

I find myself in a rut.  I've been visiting the same old blogs and websites - via RSS - for months, actually, for years.  I like them all, mostly, and they link to a lot of other blogs and websites, but still, I am in a rut.  I need to branch out, find some new blood. 

I discovered my rut by happening by chance across a whole lot of nothing, Matt Haughey's blog.  Hey, I like this stuff!  And I used to visit it regularly.  But now, never.  How many other great blogs are there "out there"?  Literally thousands, I would think, there are quite a few lots of nothing out there.  And unless I happen upon them by chance, I'll be missing a bunch of great stuff.

Okay, so I'm in a rut, and I want to get un-rutted.  One thing I really can't do is burn a lot of time; I already spend inordinate amounts of time reading blogs and telling y'all about them :)  And I don't really want to give up on my current population of sites, although I must admit some of them are basically dead, and others are pretty boring.  Hmmm...

Okay, here's my plan, we'll see whether this works.  Every day I'm going to try to find one new blog that I like.  I'll subscribe to the feed, and tell you about it.  After a week we'll decide whether to leave the blog on the island.  And if we do, I have to kick at least one old blog off, to make room.  Anyway that's my plan, stay tuned!

 

 

Olympic WOW

Friday,  08/08/08  11:43 PM

Did you see the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics tonight?  WOW!  Unbelievable.  What an amazing spectable, I have never seen anything like that...  I tuned in, expecting to be entertained, like yeah, this is cool, but I was unprepared for how amazingly great it was.  If you saw it, you know what I mean, and if you didn't, find a friend who recorded it!  (In HD, preferably; this was certainly something you will want to see in HD!)

What particularly struck me, beside the ingenuity of the spectacle, was that much of it was so human; you had literally thousands of people giving a performance in sync, without too much automation.  The coordination and practice required must have been unbelievable.

Here are some pics, taken of my TV screen, as recorded by my Tivo...  (click each to enlarge)

If the rest of these Olympics live up to the standard set by these Opening Ceremonies, it is going to be a most excellent experience.  I cannot wait!  And things kick off right away, tomorrow we have the Men's Cycling Road Race (I'm sure you're as interested in that as I am), and of course the sailing competition begins.  Stay tuned!

WOW!

 

 
 

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