12:48 - This is interesting

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on something, favorite type of underwear, explain an interest, whatever.

There is one caveat... There are a very few things I absolutely refuse to blog about. They aren't many, but they do exist. I will tell you if you've managed to hit one of those topics.

Current Mood: curious

20:16 - This should be amusing

From mokie_sassafras.

Post something, anything, that you think I should do in 2008. Can be a resolution, or something fun. Ideas will be rated for merit :)

20:20 - Privelege meme

The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.

If you post this in your blog, please leave a comment on this post. To participate in this blog game, copy and paste the above list into your blog, and bold the items that are true for you. If you don't have a blog, feel free to post your responses in the comments.

Current Mood: curious

10:40 - 8th grade science quiz meme

klicrai posted this in her journal, and I couldn't resist.

I got one question wrong. But in taking the test I encountered several questions that were poorly worded, or where the 'right' answer wasn't actually the right answer. I remember this in HS too. It would've been amusing to hand a critique like the one below back to one of my teachers.

Current Mood: geeky

10:53 - Bowing to peer pressure

So, here are my results on the aspie quiz that's been going around.

I am apparently not strongly blessed with aspergers, which doesn't really surprise me. I'm a little more on that side than neurotypical, which also doesn't surprise me.

Current Mood: contemplative

14:00 - The interesting interest meme

This is response to this thread from a post by classics_cat. Respond to this post and I will pick 7 interests from your interest list for you to post an explanation of how and why they got into your interests list.

Current Mood: contemplative

13:55 - The career meme

Instructions:
Well, I zapped these because they instructed you to use an account somebody has paid for as is detailed in this post, a link kindly supplied to my by hypatia_j.

OK, I posted the top 15.

1. Computer Support Person
2. Computer Programmer
3. Computer Engineer
4. Business Systems Analyst
5. Database Developer
6. Web Developer
7. Electrical Engineering Tech
8. Electronics Engineering Tech
9. Avionics Tech
10. Environmental Consultant
11. Forensics Specialist
12. Biomedical Engineer
13. Oceanographer
14. Agricultural Engineer
15. Botanist

I'm not really overly surprised by any of these. Basically it says I should work with computers and/or work in the sciences in a job where I have a relatively free hand.

Current Mood: amused

18:09 - I like books. :-)

You're Watership Down!
by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

I liked this quiz, though fixing their html to be vaguely reasonable was very annoying.

Current Mood: amused

21:55 - Some interesting test results

I found this in naohai's journal in this post and it seemed interesting. These tests can be found at a website about Simon Baron-Cohen's book The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain.

I suspect I would find the book irritating as it posits some hard differences between how males and females think. And while I think there might be some, I suspect the line is a lot blurrier than the book would make it sound.

Here are my test results.

Mind in the Eyes
Your score: 24
A typical score is in the range 22-30. If you scored over 30, you are very accurate at decoding a person's facial expressions around their eyes. A score under 22 indicates you find this quite difficult.

Systemizing quotient
Your score: 37
0 - 19 = low
20 - 39 = average (most women score about 24 and most men score about 30)
40 - 50 = above average (most people with Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism score in this range)
51 - 80 is very high (three times as many people with Asperger Syndrome score in this range, compared to typical men, and almost no women score in this range)
80 is maximum

Empathy quotient
Your score: 21
0 - 32 = low (most people with Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism score about 20)
33 - 52 = average (most women score about 47 and most men score about 42)
53 - 63 is above average
64 - 80 is very high
80 is maximum

Autism Spectrum quotient
Your score: 30
0 - 10 = low
11 - 22 = average (most women score about 15 and most men score about 17)
23 - 31 = above average
32 - 50 is very high (most people with Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism score about 35)
50 is maximum

Current Mood: curious

07:25 - One of the memes on LJ I think is actually useful and interesting

My Primary Love Language is Quality Time

Take the Quiz!
Check out the Book

I sort of knew that. My favorite thing to do with someone I care about is to go do things with them. It doesn't really matter what. :-)

Current Mood: contemplative

13:13 - The daemon thing everybody has been doing

I'm putting here despite the fact it has Flash and everything. How unlike me. At least it's really pretty.

Current Mood: amused

10:30 - I'm thankful for science fiction

Science Fiction Book Club list of most significant SF novels between 1953-2006. Bold the ones you've read.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (assigned in high school)
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut (assigned in high school)
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

I, apparently, have some reading to do, though I don't think anything will be able to get me to finish The Silmarillion.

And I've read a lot of Little, Big, but there's something about that book that causes me to lose focus on it. The flavor of the book as a whole is that of a summer day where you feel something very important is going on off to the side just where you can't see it. And no matter how you look or peer about, it's still happening off to the side, just where you can't see it. It's both tantalizing and frustrating at the same time.

13:01 - Not much of a surprise

( Results of the 'Would you have been a Nazi?' test... short version 'The Expatriate' )

Current Mood: contemplative

20:52 - The silly "How many people have your name" meme

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 123 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Current Mood: stressed

21:35 - A silly quiz

( If you care what action hero I'd be according this quiz )

Current Mood: bored

10:34 - Which middle earth race are you quiz

( So as not to clutter up my friends pages with quiz results )

Current Mood: melancholy

09:19 - This is kinda amusing

What's more interesting to me though is that they manage that entire thing without using any Flash at all, and it works nicely. I really despise Flash, so it's nice to see something like that.

Edit: Oops, I forgot to include a link to web application in question.

Current Mood: amused

08:16 - The tarot card thing

I'm not much of a tarot kinda person, exactly. I doubt the ability of random selection of tarot cards to tell someone's future. I don't doubt that they provide a boost and conceptual handles for the intuition of someone who is trying to. I think one interesting thing about the cards is how they attempt to distill fundamentals of human existence down to a set of pictures on cards. Tarot cards are heavy with meanings and associations.

So, I think a questionare that has you answering a bunch of questions, then uses the answers to decide which tarot card you are isn't at all an unreasable thing.

Current Mood: stressed

07:08 - I helped science!

Current Mood: curious

06:01 - More interesting than most quizzes I think

LJ Interests meme results

1. computer games:
   *chuckle* Well, I have a big collection, but what I can play has been a bit restricted since I generally only play games now that run on Linux. I should get a good DOS emulator so I can play some of my older stuff again.
2. cryptanalysis:
   Well, not so much interested in doing it as learning the results. I use cryptography in some of my programming, and I like knowing which algorithms are broken so I can stop using them.
3. emergent behavior:
   Anthills, flocks, many small programs interacting on a large network, proteins, cells, etc... Understanding how complex behavior can arise from simple, predictable interactions is the key to understanding a lot of important things.
4. geek girls:
   I don't think this needs much explanation. :-) The more intelligent the better really.
5. linux:
   It's the OS I use on all my computers. I'm not so attached to it as I am do the idea of Free (aka Open Source) Software. I think that such licensing is the only ethical licensing for software.
6. ogg:
   A media format, mostly used for audio right now, but it can also be used for video. The sound quality is better than mp3, and the algorithms are free of DRM (digital rights management, the stuff that tries to tell you that you don't really own what you bought and are only allowed to do certain things with it) and patent encumberances. So, no being tied to some particular companies implementation.
7. politics:
   Heinlein quote: "Politics is only slightly less important than the beating of your own heart.". Our leaders have the power of life and death over us. We ought to pay attention to what they're doing.
8. science:
   How do we get off this rock anyway? How are we ever going to live long enough to make interstellar travel a practical fact of life instead of a grand dream and oddysey? Besides, I like knowing how the world works.
9. transhumans:
   Humanity will control its own evolution (and has had limited control for a long time). This means that someday, we will likely be a lot different than we are now in some fundamental ways, and it will be our choice.
10. ♀:
    Women, need I say more? *grin* Ties in nicely with 'geek girls' up above there. :-)

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

Current Mood: sick