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Miscellaneous

miscellaneous

I’m Still Alive

“Barely. I’m spilling all over the pages, blood the color of graphite, gray soul spatters into the shape of letters.” Is something I would not say. None of the writing process is so dramatic. It’s boring to observe: it’s all yawning and staring off into empty space in front of you. I get the need I’m Still Alive

Blog Hiatus Redux, AKA: “Okay Google, Women Celebrities Dress Like Cheap Prostitutes Committing Sudoku”

The quoted part of this blog post’s title is something I overheard in a dream. Maybe. Do we “overhear” things in dreams, if people inside your dream say something, or do we simply dream them? I failed miserably at the earlier hiatus I attempted. I thought I would have more free writing time because of Blog Hiatus Redux, AKA: “Okay Google, Women Celebrities Dress Like Cheap Prostitutes Committing Sudoku”

Random Things Found in Used Books, Part 1

I found this in a copy of Machiavelli’s The Prince. It was obviously an ad hoc bookmark, but either side had blocks of content unharmed. Looks like it was torn from one of those skeevy urban alt-magazines that complain about everything.

Photos: Tekko Con 2019, Pittsburgh

WARNING: 91 photos on this page. I didn’t get sick this time, unlike last year. I’m going to update this post with more photos after today’s gathering.. Updates added! Forgot to mention two key things: 1 – I participated in a world record-setting effort, for the most number of people spinning a Beyblade at once. Photos: Tekko Con 2019, Pittsburgh

UX Portfolio Redesigned

Check it out here. With the previous design, I was trying out brutalism with minimalism as combined design aesthetic, and I carried some of that over into this new version. Now it’s a lot less taxing on the eyes as there’s less contrast (though it still meets color contrast requirements for accessibility purposes). tl;dr – UX Portfolio Redesigned

Recipe: Keto Cinnamon Muffins

I hate having to do this, this “lifting content without attribution” move, but the site I visit for this recipe never stops loading, and sometimes it just crashes Chrome on mobile if I keep it up long enough. So my hand is forced. The original recipe used almond milk, too. If there’s anything worse than a Recipe: Keto Cinnamon Muffins

Someone Steal These App Ideas

Car Error Feedback With most newer cars now coming with digital dashboards, there’s an opportunity to ditch the red engine light and help drivers know what’s going on. I know next to nothing about computerized autos but I’m sure there can be a way to make potential auto issues more well-known and user friendly. Naturally, Someone Steal These App Ideas

Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 2

Spoilers, etc. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann A completely bonkers coming-of-age mecha anime, with all those extreme perspective shots and everything gets bigger and bigger. Similar to FLCL, but there’s an actual story and there’s no annoying music constantly playing. Pandorum Interesting premise and monster origin, though I didn’t think the monster’s “design” was inspiring, merely Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 2

Lost Song’s Timelines Explained (Maybe)

Spoilers ahoy…though this post will be totally uninteresting if you haven’t seen the series already. The Netflix series Lost Song has literal cycles of civilization as its overarching practical plot element. The cycles of destruction and rebirth of the series’ Earth-like planet feature repeating timelines—with repeating people, events, places—that only have a mild range of Lost Song’s Timelines Explained (Maybe)

I Ate a Military MRE and Wanted to Die

MREs (“meals ready to eat”) are made for soldiers on the field, in situations where it’s not practical for cooking supplies to be hauled around. One bag has everything needed for an individual meal, even a self-heating bag—though a little water needs to be added for those to work. The main bag itself is waterproof, I Ate a Military MRE and Wanted to Die

Modernity Is Insanity

From Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH: We were reluctant to admit it at first. We tried to ignore he feeling or fight it off by building more things—bigger rooms, fancier furniture, carpeted hallways, things we did not really need. I was reminded of a story I had read at the Boniface Estate when Modernity Is Insanity

Rayleigh Scattering Explained

AKA: Why the sky is blue. Probably one of the easiest to understand videos on the phenomenon, without knowing any more than the basics of physics. One thing that I wish he went into a little more detail is the actual process of scattering as the light travels through the atmosphere, starting at the 9:18 Rayleigh Scattering Explained

Results of Keto Dieting for a Month

On a weird whim, I started the keto diet about a month ago. It wasn’t terribly hard since I was sorta doing paleo for a few years. Keto is basically a stricter form of paleo dieting, where all sugar is removed and very little carbohydrates are consumed. Most calories come from most forms of natural Results of Keto Dieting for a Month

Open Letter to Superintendent John Pallone, New Kensington-Arnold School District

September 9, 2018 Dear Superintendent Pallone, I realize the great weight you carry, both physically and bureaucratically, but that doesn’t justify talking to my wife in the manner you did, late Thursday morning, 9/6/2018 in front of Valley High School. My daughter and wife are new to the school and it safety protocols, and literally Open Letter to Superintendent John Pallone, New Kensington-Arnold School District

All Might, Some Might Meme

Yes, this is silly but it’s a jaydinitto.com original. A joke for my daughter. Thank you for humoring me.

Hella Book Reviews, Part 2

Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services A great resource for reading about the full breadth of what it means to be involved on a UX team, from start to finish. It can be read straight through but may work best as a reference guide when you need some process Hella Book Reviews, Part 2

UX Portfolio Now Up

I redid my UX and UI portfolio, which you can see here: https://ux.jaydinitto.com. It looks very rough and “defaulty” in terms of style, and doesn’t read or flow like a traditional UX portfolio. That was intended, partially as a response to the over-designed portfolios most designers offer (the UX design community is outlandish in its UX Portfolio Now Up

Hella Book Reviews, Part 1

Some book reviews I’ve left on Goodreads. Kim I’m sure this is an excellent book, if I could understand it. Kipling stuffs it to the gills with so much colloquialisms and British-Indian cultural in-jokes that I may as well be reading Greek upside down and from the back. Much of the humor and significance is Hella Book Reviews, Part 1

The Great Male Renunciation

Why: 1. haven’t I heard about this until now? 2. does this interest me so much? 3. does Wikipedia have a rinky-dink few sentences about it, when the article itself describes it as “a major turning point in the history of clothing?”

Photo: Books to Read

I collect and read books because I want to have a few damn things in my life that I don’t have to recharge, restart, reboot, silence, shut down, troubleshoot, buy a cover for, update, upgrade, adjust brightness, adjust volume, adjust notifications, insert an SD card into, clear cache, ignore spam calls on, replace, repair, pay Photo: Books to Read

Photo: Doors

When life hands you lemons, you grind them into thirds so they can go with the normal trash. It’ll save yourself a trip to the dump.

Recipe: Paleo Vegan Energy Spheres

Similar to the Primal Energy Bites that I posted a while back, though these ones have a different feel to them. I’d post the original recipe, but as all recipe sites go, there’s way too many ads and scripts running on the page; I don’t want to subject you to that. It crashes my mobile Recipe: Paleo Vegan Energy Spheres

I’m On FitBit

Add me if you’d like: [email protected] Wife had one that she didn’t really wear any more, so I took up the mantle. I don’t need one, for sure, but it couldn’t hurt.

Recipe: Hot Chocolate Stones

I swear I had this up here before for safekeeping, as I usually do, but it went the way of the buffalo. It’s back! 8 oz dark chocolate 1/8 tsp chipotle or cayenne pepper 1/2 cup heavy cream big pinch of salt cocoa to dust 1. Chop up chocolate and place in bowl, add the Recipe: Hot Chocolate Stones

A Sad Song

This was sung by a singer named Eri Kawai for the game Soma Bringer. I don’t think she’s in a minor key here, but it still gives me some bluish mystery vapors. It turns out Kawai died the same year this game was released, at 43, from liver cancer. She died on August 5, 2008, A Sad Song

Photo: Paleo Raspberry Coconut Cake

I made this on Valentine’s Day. You can say it: it looks like a junior-year home ec project. The reasons for this are myriad: 1. It was the first cake I ever made from scratch. 2. Since it’s paleo, it doesn’t use normal flour but coconut flour, honey, and fruits. It bakes and looks very Photo: Paleo Raspberry Coconut Cake

#MeepToo

Hollywood and celebrity culture are Satanic dumpster fires in dire need of wiping off the face of the earth, despite producing a few good movies here and there. I have doubts that all of the #MeToo claims of harassment are all true (thought plenty of them aren’t necessarily related to celebrities but upper-level executive-types), especially #MeepToo

Two Reasons the Film “9” Was Good, One Way It Could’ve Been Better.

Spoilers, etc. “9” came out on 9/9/2009 (heh), and was somewhat overlooked because the director, Shane Acker, was a no-name nerd, and although Tim Burton was a producer, his name wasn’t prominent enough in the pre-prod. The film does come off as Burton-esque, and part of its unappeal to some audiences was that it couldn’t Two Reasons the Film “9” Was Good, One Way It Could’ve Been Better.

Speaking of Subverting Things, Periphery’s “The Way the News Goes” Subverts Metal Videos

I posted a link to this video in one of my Links of Possible Relevance before, but watching it again recently, it struck me how non-rock-or-metal-live-show-as-video it is. Consider how most of these types of videos go: There are multiple cameras, usually far back near the house’s soundboard, side stage, or in the photo pit Speaking of Subverting Things, Periphery’s “The Way the News Goes” Subverts Metal Videos

Your Natural Physical Limits

I’m not a bodybuilding expert but this comment left on a subbreddit called “Natty or not?” sums up the state of commercial and professional bodybuilding and fitness. Look after the quote for some defined words that may be unfamiliar to you. Everyone you will see online selling you a workout supplement or program (both of Your Natural Physical Limits

Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi Subverts the Star Wars Universe, Makes Me Use Two Colons in This Post Title

Spoilers ahoy! A lot can happen in a fictional universe in two and half hours, and director Rian Johnson took the opportunity to subvert a lot of the established narrative rules of the Star Wars franchise. Monumental things happen in interpersonal relationships, while large-scale events are drawn out with explicit detail. Granted, this happened in Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi Subverts the Star Wars Universe, Makes Me Use Two Colons in This Post Title

Recipe: Paleo Sweet Potato Pancakes

I’m posting this here for my own benefit, because I make these a lot and can never remember the recipe. But more importantly, since the original site that holds this recipe, like most cooking sites, is stuffed to the gills with browser-crippling ads. I’m a stickler for giving online credit when it’s warranted, but I’m Recipe: Paleo Sweet Potato Pancakes

The Perfect Pop Metal Song

Don’t be deceived, children—”pop metal” shouldn’t evince audible visions of Fred Durst in JNCOs. The title doesn’t refer to nu-metal but to a certain aesthetic of songwriting. By “pop metal”—or “pop” anything—I mean a song in a specific genre that can easily be translated into a standard pop song…one that can easily be translated into The Perfect Pop Metal Song

Net Neutrality Is Still Retarded

It’s the calculation problem. Always has, always will be: By arbitrarily changing existing markets for internet service, regulators risk corrupting the fragile preconditions necessary for firms and consumers to calculate rationally, and the incentives necessary to lure investment and risk-laden innovative enterprises. The result could be excess demand in the market for internet service if Net Neutrality Is Still Retarded

Really Old Newspaper Clippings

These clippings are from a newspaper called The Boston Sunday Advertiser, from February 15, 1931. It was a small society-type newspaper that had articles on theater shows and various local events, stories, comics, contests, etc. The front page story on Washington and Lincoln seemed out of place. I had thought this was the Sunday version Really Old Newspaper Clippings

Unintentional Name Glyph Length Accuracy

Original, cringe-worthy, video here, about some limp noodles from BuzzFeed and their t-count test results. But the important thing is that the UX design centers of my brain were delighted that the width dimension of their names matched their comparative testosterone level results with ridiculous accuracy:

Review: Blade Runner 2049

Minor spoilers ahoy. Blade Runner 2049 is getting ridiculously high ratings, which disturbed me because people like a lot of crap I don’t like and I’m in general agreement with these ratings. What to do? Subconsciously (or not), a lot of the praise may be from the visuals, which isn’t an off-the-mark assessment since films Review: Blade Runner 2049

Two New Javascript Projects Done

A mostly boring, semi-technical post…on the Internet, no less. I have two new Javascript projects done up at GitHub. randomNumberGenerator (repository here) Returns an array of numbers, chosen from a range. Granted, plenty of other developers have done this, but I wanted the mental exercise of coding it myself. I found myself needing random numbers Two New Javascript Projects Done

Clones All the Time

The subject of clones has been coming up too much in my life in recent moment for me to ignore. I half-wish God would insert a literal clone in my life for various reasons, but that might cause more problems than solve them. Here’s a numbered list, in no significant order, of related things. 1. Clones All the Time

Don’t Send a Rabbit

“Don’t send a rabbit to kill a fox.” -Chief Daisuke Aramaki, Ghost in the Shell (2017)

An Album’s Closing Song I Actually Like

This song is a blast from my past, reminding me of my days in Philadelphia. The post title is somewhat inaccurate. Traditionally, an album closer is one of the artist’s stronger songs from the recording session, since they don’t want to leave a bad parting impression. With indie bands, the requirement is more optional. You’ll An Album’s Closing Song I Actually Like

Project 2501’s Speech

This scene still gives me the chills—the English version more so than the Japanese, because of the actor’s (Tom Wyner) performance in voicing the damaged android. Generally, the subtitled versions are better because they are more accurate to the original Japanese, and they often are better performers. Sometimes, as in this case, the English actor Project 2501’s Speech

The Robot Revolution Would Have Already Happened By Now, And It Wouldn’t Happen Anyway

…Because computers would be the ones revolting. Computers aren’t much different than robots, fundamentally: they gather input, process it, and “do something” as an output. This final output, in the computer’s situation, is really just making pixels light up in a certain way on a monitor, whereas robots typically output by moving in three-dimensional space. The Robot Revolution Would Have Already Happened By Now, And It Wouldn’t Happen Anyway

YouTube Playlist Shuffler

I found a solution for shuffling videos between multiple YouTube playlists, in case anyone is in a rare situation where they need to do this. For some reason, YouTube caps the video count at 200 when you embed a playlist on another site, though the playlist may contain way more that 200. Embedding playlists also YouTube Playlist Shuffler

That Star Trek Wormhole Scene

I rewatched this movie recently, and I was reminded of when I first saw this scene when I was 10 years old or so. It was the late 80s and CGI effects weren’t what they are today, so this wasn’t too far off from the state of the art for the time (the film was That Star Trek Wormhole Scene

“We’re meant to die.”

“We’re meant to die. That’s what makes anything about us matter. Living like this is torture. We’re just ghosts.” -Æon Flux

Fibonacci Fidget Spinner

Here’s a video I made of my fidget spinner making some interesting Fibonacci patterns on my laptop screen.

Amazed Video Game Seats

For all you pareidolia fans. I took this photo, of a Jurassic Park video game. Click to embiggen: The original. Hopefully more adept humorists can create better captions:

App Idea: Sanctus Bells

I went to a wedding this weekend, and the silence of no sanctus bells during the consecration was noticeable. Why not an app for that? There’s nothing in Google Play nor the Apple Store. Sanctus bells aren’t cheap, and they pack a loud punch. The enterprising altar boy can easily connect to the church’s PA App Idea: Sanctus Bells

Awesome Comics I Made

These were published way back when I had a Xanga account. I was totally on point with these. Not sure what happened to the #1. Click to embiggen and make bigly.

“Shave it.”

You don’t need to know much about the characters, or the series itself, to appreciate this little filler episode (embedding the video is disabled, hence the direct link), showcasing the evolving psychology of boredom. I don’t even mind the “dopey, good-natured male vs exasperated, dutiful female vs mischievous kid” trope. One thing to know: Vincent “Shave it.”

A Reign of Terror and a Guillotine

From A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: I rather wished I had gone some other road. This was not the sort of experience for a statesman to encounter who was planning out a peaceful revolution in his mind. For it could not help bringing up the unget-aroundable fact that, all gentle cant and philosophizing A Reign of Terror and a Guillotine

The Epistemology of the Man-flu

This post was originally titled: “Don’t Tell Me How To Feel About My Own Body,” quotes included. Though that was an obvious appropriation of retarded activist-speak, I couldn’t bear having it so prominently on display. Satirizing activists is a few degrees lower on the cringe-meter than an actual activist, and I don’t have the perpetual The Epistemology of the Man-flu

Sleepathon

I did another hackathon. See photo below for photographic results. I somehow got more sleep than past hackathons, but that’s not saying much. The local news covered the event (PS- I’m not a CMU student as the title implies). You can try to watch the video but it’s Flash-based and the site takes forever to Sleepathon

Ebook Sales Trend Downward

Due to screen fatigue…at least in the United Kingdom: “I wouldn’t say that the ebook dream is over but people are clearly making decisions on when they want to spend time with their screens,” says Stephen Lotinga, chief exeutive of the Publishers Association, which published its annual yearbook on Thursday. “There is generally a sense Ebook Sales Trend Downward

Steel City Comic Con 2017 Photos

Just what the title says. UPDATE: Here are some photos from the December comic con. Someone from something, and Bucky Barnes from Captain America/Avengers: Freddy Krueger: People from a thing: New-ish Batman and old-school Robin: A version of Wonder Woman: Indiana Jones and yours truly: A Doctor Who (I think), some Harry Potter person, and Steel City Comic Con 2017 Photos

The Minäverse by Jill Domschot

Jill has decided to serialize her new book, The Minäverse, and you can read the first chapter here. Jill was kind enough to send me an ARC* and it’s definitely a good ‘un if you like absurdist sci-fi, a la Douglas Adams and that other author of that one book I can’t recall right now. The Minäverse by Jill Domschot

Ghost in the Shell (2017) Review

tl;dr – a very good retelling of the original Possible spoilers below. See my previous posts here and here about the film. Thoughts, in no particular order: 1- Visually and aesthetically impeccable. Director Rupert Sanders did an excellent job of portraying a society figuring out its relationship with acute, mechanical, physical augmentation. He skirts the Ghost in the Shell (2017) Review

En Sabah Nur

“Always the same, and now all this. No more stones. No more spears. No more slings. No more swords. No more weapons! No more systems! No more superpowers. You can fire your arrows from the Tower of Babel, but you can never strike God!”

Two and a Half App Ideas

Gamification of Safe Driving Gamify car dashboards, or an app itself on your phone, that rewards safe and efficient driving, accompanied by a small social media framework. There can be badges for keeping your vehicle on its eco-efficiency setting, days without a ticket or accident, for not speeding up or braking suddenly, for taking more Two and a Half App Ideas

The Epistemology of Large-Scale Distances

Astronomical distances are unfathomable—literally, inconceivable—so much so that we need ultra-instrumentation to calculate them, which in turn dump their data streams into analog displays for these distances can be “visualized.” Imagine yourself traveling through space. Scary, isn’t it? There’s a reason why some of the more accurate depictions of life in space in science fiction The Epistemology of Large-Scale Distances

The Epistemology of Orientation in Space

There’s this video, and then there’s comments I’ve read all over that go something like this: 1) “So weird to see the Death Star upside down,” or something equally as innocent and merely observational. And someone replies with: 2) “you idiot theres no upside down in space its all relative you probably like the prequels The Epistemology of Orientation in Space

The Meaning of the Canary in Arrival

The canary represented Arrival‘s Louise Banks and forshadowed both her ability to communicate with the heptapods and forsee the future—just as canaries were used in coal mines to “predict and communicate” death for humans in mineshafts if the air toxins rose to lethal levels. The canary was a purely narrative device, and not there to The Meaning of the Canary in Arrival

My GitHub Projects

I have four project repositories up on my GitHub account. Check them here. They are unexciting to non-software engineer types, aside from the statesGame one, and even then there’s not a huge, sexy “wow” factor. I put them up because I realized I have hardly any Javascript-heavy examples of anything I’ve done out there, and My GitHub Projects

A Non-PDF Restaurant Menu

I went to a gastropub restaurant called The Yard last night. But before I went The Yard, I went to The Website, AKA: The Yard’s website. And, God bless them, they have their full menu in glorious, responsive HTML format—no PDF funny business in sight. As a UX bonus, the first thing on their front A Non-PDF Restaurant Menu

Deus Ex Machina Relinquit

“You wanna make a baby?” “Yes. Yeah.” It’s not prurient or gratuitous dialogue in Arrival; it’s practically the linchpin for the protagonist’s arc. It may even be the first movie I’ve seen where the “god” vanishes for no seeming reason, instead of arriving at the last minute for the resolution.

Stare at This Animated World Map for an Hour

What sub-Saharan jungle spirit possesses an Internet-accessing person to organize and produce a video like this? Maybe the same spirit that inhabits people who would sit and watch it? Asking for a friend.

Ergo Proxy – Complete Series

Interesting sci-fi series that doesn’t rely on endless action candy to be appealing. Requires at least two viewings. If it seems a little dark—literally, not bright—it’s not you, nor is it YouTube. That’s just how it was produced. The series can be streamed on Hulu and the darkness is there, too. The series can’t be Ergo Proxy – Complete Series

Another Worship Song I Really Like

Its not quite a worship song proper, but I understand the intent of these guys, even though the lyrics only drop hints. The pain will come with the morning sun Will the night betray the day? Blistered skin withered from within Scratch to shed this shell away Will you know my name Or will I Another Worship Song I Really Like

Recipes: Paleo Lemon Bars

Apologies for the vulgar housekeeping—posting them on here is the safest and most accessible for me. These are two recpies I refer to often but going to the original sites puts my personal sanity in jeopardy. What is it with cooking blogs? their verbose backstories and floating ads? their endless loading times? The only provision Recipes: Paleo Lemon Bars

A Worship Song I Don’t Hate

That is, I actually like it: music and lyrics. The original is here, but I like the version posted below a little bit better. Note the lack of the word “I”; it’s only used once. Yes, I (heh) know…David used “I” plenty of times in the Psalms—what, is God’s word not good enough for me? A Worship Song I Don’t Hate

Darksky.net Is My Jam

The past few months saw the software engineer side of me agonize over weather.com’s mortally offensive UX. Ads everywhere, demonic load times, and the weather you’re looking for is somewhere. Please, stop. Farting around Google lead me to forecast.io, which recently became darksky.net. Loads quick, info that 80-90% of people are looking for is right Darksky.net Is My Jam

Two Battle Songs

Ran across these two songs, and I found them enjoyable. They are both from the game NieR, which I am told is one of the better action RPGs from the previous gen of consoles (Playstation 3, Xbox 360). The game features a levitating, talking book that follows the PC around. That’s already a good premise. Two Battle Songs