I'm leaving LiveJournal.  No, it's not you.  And it's not me.  It's them:

LJ crossed the line. Pure and simple. In this case, I'm a one-issue voter.

Sometime in the near future, I'll post a content-rich explanation.

I really don't like shilling for causes in any form online.  Even topic-appropriate community promo posts kind of bother me.  And don't get me started on email forwards.

That said, if you feel like I feel, spread the word.  If you gank my new icon, credit Randall Munroe: http://xkcd.com/377/

Thanks for reading.

I've put up online personals before, but always anonymously--with no identifying information that would automatically reveal my identity to someone who knows me irl.  Then I found OKCupid, that totally free, designed by nerds, populated by geeks personals site.  And I put up a face pic.  (Which is pretty much the only type of pic they'll accept.)

This past week, two ex-co-workers have viewed my profile, each with a possible axe to grind: one whose job I took, and one whom I had a hand in firing.  Oh, and I'm not out at work, but openly admit to being transsexual on my OKCupid profile. EDIT: And they're both uber-gossips.

This should be interesting.

Behold today's xkcd strip.  Randall Munroe is, indeed, a god among men.

 http://limerickdb.com/

From your friendly xkcd creator, so you know it's good.  A few examples:

A preoccupied vegan named Hugh
picked up the wrong sandwich to chew.
He took a big bite
before spitting, in fright,
"OMG, WTF, BBQ!"

A dying mosquito exclaimed,
"A chemist has poisoned my brain!"
The cause of his sorrow
Was para-dichloro-
Diphenyl-trichloroethane

Many examples featuring geeky and internet in-jokes, like programming languages, stupid abbreviations (see first example), science references (see second example), lolcats, even rickrolling.  One thing that bugs me, though, is that I don't get the top-rated limerick on the whole site.  Could anyone explain this to me?  I have a feeling I'm either not geeky enough or haven't seen the right movie.

There once was a buggy AI
Who decided her subject should die.
When the plot was uncovered,
The subjected discovered
That sadly the cake was a lie.

Someone on my friends list wrote that "Happiness is a new strap on."  Happiness is also a warm gun.  Hmm.  Does anyone know anything else that happiness is, that is not phallic in nature?

I'm doing some culling this week, and not in a friends list cut way.  Too much of my life since, say, my last post has been about going to sleep late, waking up either a) even later--when I don't have to work, or b) too early given when I went to sleep--when I do have to work.  Too many 4-hour and 12-hour nights of sleep, not enough in the 7-9 hour range.  Too much of my life has also been about surfing the internet with no purpose in mind and watching TV in a similar vein.  Too little of my life has been about regular meals, exercising, playing stupid flash-based computer games, drinking enough water, keeping my space clean, playing good poker (fortunately at this point in my life I'm not dumb enough to play--much--when I'm not functioning close to optimally), focusing on my personal appearance (in terms of transition, not everyday grooming), getting my taxes done so I can get my refund soon, balancing my checkbook, writing here and elsewhere, meeting new people, reconnecting with "old" people, and keeping up with my laundry.

So here are the things that are going:
--many of the RSS feeds I read.  Kept are (sorry, can't be bothered linking, but you can find them) boingboing, boingboing gadgets, OhGizmo!, xkcd, xkcd blag, and gadizmo.  (DONE)
--a whole lot of paper on and around my desk.  (STARTING TOMORROW)
--extra books.  So far, three large boxes worth.  Every book I own now fits on my shelves, but there are more to give away or donate. If you want any and will pay a bit towards postage, take a look at my list here.  (IN PROGRESS)
--a bunch of games I downloaded.  (DONE)
--extra articles of clothing I haven't worn since 2006.  (IN PROGRESS)
--extra CDs.  If I haven't listened to it since 2006, it's either getting ripped and tossed/donated/given away or just tossed/donated/given away.  (THIS WEEK AND NEXT)

Here are the things that are being added:
--8 hours of sleep at least five days a week, and at least 6 hours the other two
--bed by 11:30 at least five days a week, and by 1:00 the other two
--exercise upon waking
--four glasses of water a day (and two cups of green or white tea)
--regular body hair maintenance (I'm trying out MOOM, and so far it works great)
--taxes done by March 7
--getting back in touch with one old friend and another group of friends by March 4
--10 hours of poker a week
--three regular meals a day
--U23D before it finishes its run at IMAX theater in the Palisades Center

Hmm, sounds like a belated new year's resolutions list.

I've found myself shying away from any news coverage of the democratic nomination race.  And I can't exactly pin down why, but I really want Obama to win.  Maybe one reason is the kind of thing that keeps popping up in places like this week's cover of The Economist.  "But could he deliver?"  As if the chance that he couldn't would be reason to elect someone who wouldn't even talk about trying.  Arrrgh.  But I did find one (yes, one) piece of political commentary that made sense to me and gave me some room to argue my choice of candidate.  Pull quote: "I want Jon Stewart to smile again."

Let me temper the previous paragraph by inserting my once-yearly plug for a piece of the military-industrial complex.  If you've read Snow Crash, you may have been waiting for the day when Reason would become a reality.  Well, we're one giant step closer.  If it follows anything like the trend of processor miniaturization, we can expect a suitcase-sized model right around mid-century!

Finally, speaking of futurism, Ray Kurzweil (his wikipedia entry is being disputed over neutrality issues, so feel free to find your own links) delivered one of the keynotes at GDC 2008 this past week, and not one flippin person seems to have transcribed it or posted a video of it.  Not one!  (Okay, here's a nice outline, though.)  On the entire internets!  Either that or Google is not omniscient.  Either way, I'm not sure that bodes well for a few of the predictions he made: like reverse engineering the human brain and effective immortality by 2029.  I mean, all of the proletariat's energy and focus regarding GDC 08 seems to be on the next great FPS.  Maybe it's the technological elite who will be spearheading all the advances.  Of course, that means that they'll be the ones reaping the benefits, too, while they drop a paltry few billion a year to develop Opiate of the Masses--I mean, Metal Gear Solid v. 5 through v. 50 or so.  Anywho, I'm blaming the first part of this entry--the get-off-your-ass-before-the-world-passes-you-by part--on the little coverage of Kurzweil's address that I could find.  I mean, a decade ago, if you blew a year or two futzing around before getting down to business and becoming, say, a professional internet gambler, you'd still be able to catch up pretty quickly.  Now?  With computers disappearing and high-bandwidth connection to the Internet becoming ubiquitous by 2010?  You'd be left in the dust.