Paul Berry

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:37:33 GMT

I'm going to go to the tea shop on Alberta, get a table outside, and start counting bicyclists that go by. Maybe I'll count the next 100 bicyclists, maybe I'll stop when I get bored.

View Poll: Helmet usage

I'll give some kind of prize to whoever gets closest.

Slightly less short notice

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:14:09 GMT

Tomorrow night at 6:30, a group that bears a remarkable resemblance to the Oregon Sinfonietta will be playing a short concert at Glenwood Place, a retirement home in Vancouver. We'll be playing:

Rossini - Overture to Il Signor Bruschino
Mozart - Exsultate, jubilate (Linda Appert, soparano soloist)
Schubert -Symphony No. 5 in Bb

Glenwood Place is at 5500 NE 82nd Ave in Vancouver, WA. If you need a ride there and you're willing to spend some extra time, I can give you a ride. I'll be leaving my house at 5:10 sharp to avoid traffic and to get there in time for our 6pm call. Let me know if you'd like a ride.

Short notice

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:44:34 GMT

If anyone wants to have dinner tonight and play a little Rock Band, let me know or come on over.

Post-ICFP thoughts

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:07:05 GMT

I'm still recovering from sleep deprivation, so these will be kind of scatterbrained. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do a big post-contest writeup like I did last year.

It's amazing what you can accomplish in a short span of time if you know your time is short and you're committed to getting a lot done.
It's amazing how little you give up in productivity by being thorough and disciplined.
My libido has been huge ever since the contest. What's up with that?
Last year your submission was automatically scored within seconds of submitting it. This year things work differently, and nobody's submissions have been scored yet. Which means that we still don't know for sure whether our submission will even run at all. This is a bit disappointing, but I think it's an inevitable consequence of the nature of this year's contest.
I feel like over the last year I've spent less time hanging around with j3h, jes5199, and boojum than I would have liked. It was nice to spend some high quality programming time with them again.
I really need to find a graphics environment and get comfortable programming in it. I did some SVG during the contest, but it left a bit to be desired because it was hard to make it interactive. I'm thinking the thing to do would be to learn OpenGL.
Most days of my life are so much less intense than the days of the programming contest. I wouldn't want every day to be that intense, but I could stand to have a little bit more intensity. This fits in with a recent theme in my life, which is that I spend too much time reading random web pages and chilling out with people, and not enough time doing projects.
I'm way more of an extrovert than I thought.
Apparently I'm pretty damn funny when I'm outrageously sleep deprived. Definitely my inhibitions are lower, and I'm more inclined to let my sense of humor show. I wonder if there's a way to import the good aspects of that into my regular well-rested life without having to endure the bad aspects.
Speaking of which, recovering from a huge sleep debt is not much fun. This morning while napping on the couch I had an episode of sleep paralysis, which I'd heard about but never experienced before. It was kind of perversely fascinating but mostly just scary.
I'm tired of using darcs for source control, mostly because of poor performance. I think I'm going to switch to git.

Programming contest, take two.

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:53:31 GMT

Remember last year when I entered the ICFP programming contest with boojum, jes5199, and j3h?

Well, we're entering again this year. It starts tomorrow at noon and runs for 72 hours, until Monday at noon.

Last year, team size was unlimited, so I invited anyone with any scrap of interest to join us and see if you like it. (And lindseykuper did, for the first several hours). Unfortunately, the rules have changed (grumble grumble), so I can't extend that invitation anymore.

But if you would like to help out, we are seeking people to:
- Notice when we are about to go nuts and encourage us to sleep, eat, drink, take walks, etc. (anonamyst did a bang-up job of this last year).
- Bring us take-out food (or cook for us) (several people did this last year, keystricken and anonamyst spring to mind).
- Hang out quietly with us while we work.
- Give us backrubs (I asked for this last year, and there were no takers. Well, I can dream).

And last but most certainly not least, keystricken has graciously offered to visit my cat Marie every now and then and keep her company. If anyone else wants to do that too, I will be extremely grateful.

Oh, our home base of operations will be Farpoint.

If last year's contest is any indicator, I will be in sporadic e-mail, LJ, and phone contact the whole time. And I'll be exhausted, and excited, and sleep-deprived, and acting like the total lunatic that I am, times eleventy-one. It should be quite a sight.

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:18:26 GMT

Awesome news: Marie has started hunting bugs in the house.

Non-awesome news: Stacy found another huge lump of concrete buried shallowly in the front yard.

I has kitty!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:25:02 GMT

Dear Diary,

Today I went to the Humane Society and got a kitten. Her name is Marie. She is tiny and adorable. And she thinks that me typing on my laptop is the most fascinating thing ever, so this entry took me about a half hour to write.

More pictures on flickr

Dancing

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:01:46 GMT

This has been circulating the internets for a little while now. I think this guy might be my new hero:

Got to remember this one

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:19:27 GMT

This just showed up in my gmail at the top of the screen where there's usually a small ad:

Quote of the day - Anatole France - "It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion."

Kind of sums up my life so far maybe? I don't know, maybe not.

Also, while I'm talking about things relevant to my life, this xkcd comic rocks my world.

Art Benjamin at TED

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:52:17 GMT

I took discrete math from this guy.

Epic work party win

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:29:23 GMT

Cleared front yard
Originally uploaded by stereotype441
Five more pics behind the link

Yesterday's work party was a smashing success. Amariah, Jesse, Dan, Tara, Jenn, and Kenny showed up. We did an enormous amount of weeding in the front, clearing room for rototilling and irises. Jenn trimmed the bush in front of the house (can't remember what it's called) down to a manageable size. Daniel trimmed the hedge by the driveway. Kenny cut some dead branches off the tree in back. This all would have taken me weeks, and I would have had nowhere near as much fun.

Oh, and we drank beer and blasted music across the neighborhood. Afterward we played Rock Band and had dinner at Por Que Non.

Current plan (probably overly ambitious) for the front yard: tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, corn, beans, raspberries, and any other good ideas anyone manages to suggest before I start planting.

Hmm, the yard got overgrown because I couldn't find the time and energy to maintain it. So now I'm thinking of planting a huge vegetable garden. Yeah, definitely overly ambitious. I must be insane. Still, I can't wait.

Thank you all for helping!

A melody

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:52:12 GMT

Apparently this is what I do when I should be sleeping.

I found myself whistling this melody (or something like it) and decided that preserving it was more important than sleep.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

That took a while

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:21:23 GMT

I just looked at an old picture of myself with a beard and thought, "No, that isn't me. I don't look like that." I shaved the beard on March 22, so it took nearly three months for my internal body image to completely adapt. Interesting.

Short notice

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:18:06 GMT

Rock Band. My house. Tonight. Dinner 6ish, rocking 7:30ish. We'll probably continue till around 11:30.

A home improvement story in pictures

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:46:41 GMT

Today Jeff, Kenny, and I finished taking out the holly tree from my front yard. I now know why God created chainsaws.

Check out where the tree used to be:

It is now firewood

and yard debris.

Now I won't have to step on spiky holly leaves anymore.

BTW, I have no fireplace, so if you want some of the firewood, let me know. It will be first come, first served, except that dibs go to whoever comes over tomorrow morning to help us take the yard debris to Metro (Beth is renting a truck from 9am to noon). Note: Jeff and Kenny already earned their dibs today.

Also: yesterday Monica came over and helped me install combo locks on the remaining doors to the house:

Now I don't have to run around to the front when I come home from a bike ride, or one of my housemates accidentally locks me out while I'm in the hot tub.

Also also: the yard is now much sunnier

and I want to turn it into a garden. I will be having a work "party" (or "work" party, if you prefer) during the day on Saturday to get that process started. Come over if you like work, or beer.

Cooking

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:52:06 GMT

One of my goals for my summer vacation is to get better at cooking. freyley has been helping, and he's been doing a really good job of giving minimal guidance, forcing me to be creative, and encouraging me to think about flavors.

Here is what I made for Narnia last night, which I thought turned out pretty well:
- 3 sweet potatoes, cut into about 3/8 inch cubes. (Note: not yams. I used to think sweet potatoes and yams were the same thing. But I like sweet potatoes much better.)
- 2 red onions, cut into roughly 1-inch pieces.
- 1 bunch celery, cut slightly more finely than the potatoes.

Bake that all in a pan at 350° for about 30 minutes. (We actually used two pans initially, to keep the celery separate, because we didn't know whether it would work well with the dish or not. It worked, though).

Then pull the dish out, mix it up a little, and add the following. (Note, I didn't measure anything, so these amounts are pure off-the-cuff estimates):
- Olive oil (2 tbsp drizzled over the top)
- Salt (1-2 tsp)
- Nutritional yeast (1-2 tbsp, probably could have used more)

Bake for another 15-20 minutes.

Aww, kitty

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:51:00 GMT

Here is an awesome video of two guys getting not mauled by a lion:

http://www.cyberthing.net/video-play.php?id=105

WARNING! Video contains background music of irresponsibly saccharine proportions. If you are sensitive to such things, you are strongly advised to turn the volume all the way down before clicking play.

Dear Lazyweb

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:25:34 GMT

Ok, I've been talking about this for a while. It's finally time for me to stop serving up web pages and code repositories from a computer in my house. Anyone want to recommend a hosting service?

What I'm looking for
- Not too expensive (maybe targeting $50/month?)
- Ssh access
- Root access (I think, or maybe someone can convince me this is unnecessary)
- Ability to serve web pages
- Ability to install my own software on the server (e.g. darcs)
- Sufficient storage & bandwidth that I can use it as a remote backup (I'm thinking 50-100GB of storage, and bandwidth equivalent to a T1 line)

Sun, 25 May 2008 03:34:28 GMT

Earlier this evening I jumped on a trampoline for the first time in, like, 20 years. Man, it was fun.

(No, that's not me in the video)

If any of you thought I was responsible and organized, think again

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:02:33 GMT

When I first registered to vote when I was 18, I registered as non-partisan.

When I moved to Oregon I was certain that I switched to democrat. But I guess I didn't, because I just opened up my ballot, and it says nonpartisan.

Fuck.

Something I should do more often

Sat, 17 May 2008 13:43:40 GMT

Last night it was too hot to sleep in my bed upstairs so I slept on my front porch.

Also, at one point I dreamt I was wearing white tennis shoes. I looked down at my feet and thought, "what the hell are those doing there?" Weird.

Hey Portlanders

Fri, 16 May 2008 05:56:18 GMT

...and out-of-town visitors who will be in town on Sunday.

Sunday is the last Sinfonietta concert of the season. You want to come. Yes, you do.

Mozart, piano concerto No.24 in c minor, k.491, with Adria Ye.

Dvořák, Symphony No.6 in D major, Op.60.

3:00pm at Sunnyside Adventist Church, 10501 SE Market St, Portland.

If you need a ride ~~let me know~~ you're on your own. My car is full with my parents.

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:35:39 GMT

When I posted two weeks ago about feeling that my life was too busy, I think a large part of the problem was that I wasn't giving myself permission to deviate from my plans to suit circumstances.

Tonight I was planning on going tango dancing. But instead I went to the Cubespace open house, had a nice dinner with stacy_bird, and had dessert at Rimsky's with freyley and linettasky.

I'm sorry I didn't go dancing. I'm especially sorry I didn't get to see akatchoom tonight. But it was great to change plans on the spur of the moment and just follow what was enjoyable. I need to do that more.

Wed, 14 May 2008 03:27:15 GMT

Just saw this on a church billboard:

A newborn chick doesn't know it's alive until its world begins to crumble.

Huh.

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:57:43 GMT

I just had the opportunity to use the word "prolixly" in a work e-mail.

I am way more proud of this than I have any right to be.