Up again betimes to attend the examination of Mr. Gawden's accounts, where we all met, but I did little but fit myself for the drawing my great letter to the Duke of York of the state of the Navy for want of money. At noon to the 'Change, and thence back to the new taverne come by us; the Three Tuns, where D. Gawden did feast us all with a chine of beef and other good things, and an infinite dish of fowl, but all spoiled in the dressing. This noon I met with Mr. Hooke, and he tells me the dog which was filled with another dog's blood, at the College the other day, is very well, and like to be so as ever, and doubts not its being found of great use to men; and so do Dr. Whistler, who dined with us at the taverne. Thence home in the evening, and I to my preparing my letter, and did go a pretty way in it, staying late upon it, and then home to supper and to bed, the weather being on a sudden set in to be very cold.
Fandom: erm, Heian literature (in translation), sort of?
Word count: 111 (in 5 syllabic poems)
Warning: the second tanka is possibly a bit too cliched
Note: blame
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daegaer... or me....A killer writes:
Sharpness in a blade,
a perfection of nature:
stone, fire and water.
An example to follow
for an unrelenting man.
An amateur detective frets:
( Four more tanka. )
* Murasaki Shikibu, in her diary, wrote about Sei Shonagon:
"Sei Shonagon has the most extraordinary air of self-satisfaction. Yet, if we stop to examine those Chinese writings of hers that she so pretentiously scatters about the place, we find that they are full of imperfections. Someone who makes such an effort to be different from others is bound to fall in people’s esteem, and I can only think that her future will be a hard one. She is a gifted woman, to be sure. Yet, if one gives free rein to one’s emotions even under the most inappropriate circumstances, if one has to sample each interesting thing that comes along, people are bound to regard one as frivolous. And how can things turn out well for such a woman?" (Translation by Ivan Morris)
This is not a knitting trick, but a trick for the Droid phone, which is my new favorite toy.
I was all set to purchase the multimedia docking station for the Droid — the one that charges it while displaying weather, time, photos, etc. I figured I’d replace my alarm clock with this nifty little solution that costs $29.99.
Well, you can download a free app from the Android Market called “Dockrunner.” It puts your Droid into multimedia mode without the dock. Here’s my little Droid running multimedia mode and going commando without a dock. 
You need to plug your charger in on what is now the bottom of the phone, so you do need some sort of stand for it if you want it to stand up nicely on your nightstand.
I ordered this stand from ThinkGeek.com for $3.99. Beats $30!
I’ve had my Droid for a week, and I am still in love with it.
Current Knitting
I’m working on a sock design using the lovely MacKintosh Iona sock yarn pictured in yesterday’s blog post. Here is the first sock, which I completed yesterday:
I’m calling the design “Thistle and Heather Socks” and it will eventually be available for sale from MacKintosh Yarns.
Or maybe “Heather and Thistle Socks.”
We Have a Winner
The winner of the Nicky Epstein book is Carol R., chosen by the great and mighty Random Number Generator. Thank-you to everyone who left a comment. If your name is Carol R., check your email. 
Psssst! I’ll have another book to give away later this week . . .
Meanwhile, Lucy hasn’t done any more mountain climbing.
I envy him his shrubberies, but I still don't know whether the term "treeness envy" which is a not-word but a good audio match is better than "pines envy" which is a real word and a great visual match for the term I wished to allude to, but requires a painful munging of the audio to work.
I fear that henceforth, Wollemi Pines will, for me, be associated with these two hideous pun options and a Freudian concept that I am deeply skeptical of. *sigh*
- Mood:
RBC - Music:children getting ready for school
As I was commenting to
doushkasmum - my knitting is now looser, faster and I can knit for longer. So over the last 4 days of being brainless, sick and sitting on the couch I have made this:
The design has been sitting in my head for a while. I like the way it has come out. The red and yellow wools are leftovers, the chocolate brown was bought for the purpose and though it was my third choice of colour, I like the way it works. I believe I have enough for a second sock- want to work on something else for a bit though.
I am thoroughly tired of coughing and thoroughly tired. I slept a little better last night but only for about 5hrs, then my body demanded that I move about to shift and get rid of the accumulated goo. Pity I am so bad at napping or I could catch up some sleep. I shall stay home again today, working a little as needed but basically being sick. I do hope this lurgy shifts soon.
- Mood:
awake
I've just found a classic study online where psychologist Bertram Forer gave a personality test to his students and then asked each person to rate how the accuracy of their 'individual personality profile'. In reality, all the 'individual profiles' were identical but students tended to rate the descriptions as highly accurate.
In fact, on a scale of 1-5, students rated the accuracy of their profile, on average, as 4.2. This is the profile Forer used:
You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Your sexual adjustment has presented problems for you. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life.
The tendency to see ourselves in vague or general statements has since been called the Forer effect or, alternatively, the Barnum effect, after the famous catchphrase attributed to the travelling circus impresario P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute!"
It has been cited as the basis for palm reading, fortune telling and the like, and in the original article, Forer notes that he was inspired to conduct the study because he was "accosted by a night-club graphologist who wished to 'read' his handwriting".
Forer asked the graphologist what evidence he had for the accuracy of his readings and he replied that his clients usually confirmed that he was correct.
Forer felt this was rather poor evidence but decided on an interesting tack: rather than attempt to validate the test, he decided to study the psychology of agreeing with vague personality profiles.
Link to full text of Forer study (via Las penas del Agente Smith)
- Mood:
sad
Ryan North, through the medium of Dinosaur Comics, has informed me that all that it takes to be entered into the running for a Pulitzer Prize is fifty dollars, a form, a pen, an envelope, a stamp and approximately five minutes. I have all of these things available to me right now; I can actually reach all of them without even getting up from my chair. Technically, once I printed the form out I'd have to walk over to the printer to go get it, but this means that I am about twenty-three steps away from the potential for being in the running for a Pulitzer.
I had no idea it was this easy. I don't think the mailman's picked the mail up from the office yet today; if I hurry, by tomorrow I could be saying, with total sincerity, "Yeah, some of my work's being considered for the Pulitzer Prize this year." That, I feel, is fifty dollars well spent.
I always figured that it would be much more difficult than that to enter. I mean, clearly I won't win, especially as I'd probably enter this article for my submission just to make things as meta as possible. I suspect the committee would not appreciate this as much as I would, but whatever. It's not their fifty bucks. If they can't handle my distinguished, original writing, who needs them?
If I set aside fifty bucks a year for this sort of thing -- which is less than fifteen cents a day -- then I can inflate my bragging with the claim of "my work is regularly submitted for a Pulitzer." Some people might question why I haven't yet won one, but I'll explain to them how tough the competition is. Not just everyone has envelopes lying around, you know.
- Mood:
hopeful - Music:Songs to Wear Pants To -- I am the First Fifty Digits of Pi
- Invisible gecko
- Nice vehicle concepts by Luigi Colani.
- Contraptor, another interesting open source hardware construction system
- How trees shed leaves
- Geometric fractals in Processing
- Oloid, a geometric toy
- Lucky cat candy
- I wish I had an RC submarine to use one of these.
- Frosty Bubbles
- A Commodore 64 emulator written in LabVIEW (via @Paeaetech)
- Did you know about the Secret Single-app Mode in Mac OS X?
- Interesting construction accident. [Snopes link; beware of popups]
- Nice sunset
- Soda bottle rockets at Popular Mechanics
- Roundup of geek cufflinks
- I could watch slow motion bullet impacts all day long.
- DIY motors for electric airplanes
- Average Cats
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givesushopeIt's that glorious time of year when we reunite with loved ones (we neglected all year), stuff our faces to excess, and pass out in front of the TV. Perhaps a recalibration of the thanksometer is in order. A spin-off of the popular GivesMeHope.com site, this community invites you to document moments of kindness, generosity, and pure human love.
veggieslackersDespite its mainstream appeal, Thanksgiving is not for everyone. There are those struggling with food disorders, for whom this day causes endless conflict. There are the cash-challenged, who can't afford the gluttony we've grown to expect. There are the lonely, who don't have loved ones nearby. And let's not forget the vegetarians, who decry the animal cruelty. But there's one more group we often overlook: the terminally lazy! This community of lazy vegetarians offers easy recipes for an animal-friendly feast.
fashinJust in time for holiday shopping season, this fashionista community brings you the world of haute couture in the form of sumptuous photos, video clips, and candid commentary. There's also a sugary sprinkle of mainstream movie discussions and debates on such pressing social issues as manicure styles and celebrity colonics. If you need a break from the daily grind to indulge your girlie side, this is twinkly pink on steroids.
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- splodgenoodles
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