25 Random Facts

The Rules:

- Come up with 25 things about you, it does not matter what you pick as long as they true.

- You then have to tag 25 people, including the person who tagged you.

I'm ignoring the second rule. If you want to post about yourself, I'd be glad to read it, otherwise you wouldn't be on my friends list.

1) I had two full sets of adult teeth. One full set was pulled once.

2) I juggled fire with a guy on a unicycle in a street performance in Victoria, BC, Canada.

3) From the age of about 6 or 7 on, I went to and from school alone and spent the afternoons alone until my mom got home from work. I read a lot and had a particular fondness for unexplained phenomena (ghosts, Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, etc). One day, I was reading a book on ghosts that had pictures. One of the pictures showed an 'apparition' coming down some old stairs. At the top of the stairs was a dresser with an old, porcelain basin and pitcher. Our house looked exactly the same - stairs, dresser, and porcelain basin and pitcher. I wouldn't go inside the house until my mom got home. To this day, I sometimes still get nervous on stairs.

4) The news came to interview me once for being a good student. I was skipping school at the time.

5) I'm a hopeless Romantic.

6) I never consumed a full alcoholic beverage until I was 30. I still haven't smoked, other than hookahs.

7) Other than one time in first grade, I've never struck someone in violence. That time I don't remember, but my dad said that I told him someone was picking on me and he told me to hit him. Apparently they had to pull me off the kid the next day.

8) I have very small wrists and fingers for my size.

9) When I was really small, I drank gun cleaning fluid, ate potting soil, and swallowed a quarter. All at different times, of course.

10) I have recurring dreams that I can fly if I concentrate.

11) I can't stand sarcasm.

12) I am atrocious at Scrabble and crossword puzzles, though I have a relatively expansive vocabulary.

13) I used to weigh about 300 pounds (vs current 195).

14) I can't stand talking on the phone, and phones ringing make me cringe.

15) If I don't get enough sunlight, I am unable to sleep before 4 or 5am.

16) When I was born, I was horribly jaundiced and either had a blood transfusion or almost had one.

17) I once went three days with no food or water and three more days with only water. I don't recommend it.

18) I want to believe, ala Fox Mulder. This does not mean what most people say. It's not that Mulder, or I, believed all the wacky theories he put forth; it's more that he wants to find something out there that is true, and keeps looking, throwing out weird ideas and trying to prove them true. It's more an ongoing search for something to believe.

19) Chocolate, cheese, and wine are some of my comfort foods. There are a few other alcohols that are up there as well.

20) One day at the pizza store, I pulled a pan out of the oven and it slipped out of my grips. The pizza was cooking at 750 F. First the metal pan hit my arm and flipped over, dumping the hot pizza onto my arm. Then the sauce from the pizza drenched my arm. My entire left forearm was swollen at least one inch. The next day, it was completely healed.

21) I'm a pacifist.

22) Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Batman are my idols.

23) I like blades (knives, swords, axes), nice clothes and accessories (tailored suits and shirts, nice watches, ties, cuff links), and extreme weather (snow, ice, rain, wind, lightning, thunder, frogs).

24) I love traveling and meeting non-Americans, probably because I love to learn new perspectives and cultures. I plan on leaving the country in about a month, or less, and never living in this part of the country again, or maybe even anywhere in the States. Who knows, I might not ever settle anywhere!

25) I can kill you with my brain.

Update: Trading, Writing, and Traveling

Yes, I know it's been quite a while since I've updated. There's not a lot going on for me lately. Well, I have a few very important things going on, but they are either boring or not for me to be discussing with the random public :)

Most of my time since October has been spent trading (currency, EUR/USD, for those that don't already know). It's going decently well, though I really need more capital to be able to do anything substantial. I'm working on doing that just now, gathering some more capital from a few individuals. I'd rather not involve others; if I had enough capital on my own, I would do it on my own. But, it is what it is, and I need to get capital, so I have to deal with other people's money. I think that's what I dislike the most, the responsibility and just general stress of dealing with someone else's money. Oh well.

A couple of months ago, I finished my most recent writing project. The Star Wars Rebellion Era Campaign Guide (http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Rebellion-Campaign-Guide/dp/078694983X) will be coming out next summer. For the foreseeable future, it will be my last writing project. I honestly was fairly burned out before I began this project, but I couldn't pass up the offer to work on my first book. Hopefully, my name will be on the final cover, which would be nice. I think my word count was about 10% of the total book, though I probably shouldn't talk about what parts I actually wrote, as the contents haven't been released.

I am hoping to begin traveling again by mid to late January, though that depends on getting capital fairly soon and trading going at least slightly well. I'll be going back to Asia first, starting in Korea and then branching out from there. The most likely secondary candidates are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, China, then down into Thailand, India, and the surrounding areas. Of course, that's all tentative, but it gives you an idea. I have so many places I didn't get to in Asia, and so many regions to see, other than Asia. I'll keep you updated, of course.

Psychology of Monogamy

I was having a conversation earlier that prompted me to think quite a bit about jealousy and sexual monogamy. As is typical, this drove me to start doing research, introspection, and analysis of many related issues, probably far more than I should. Our little journey starts with the question: why do some of us want monogamous relationships? From there, we quickly move to other questions, e.g. are our reasons valid; what are the reasons for our reasons; is there an appropriate answer for everyone or even in general; is it something we should fight for or rail against; what are the relationships between sex and self-worth; how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie-Roll Pop?

I'm not saying that I am against sexual monogamy; on the contrary, I have some sort of desire for it. I just want to be able to justify my desire in the issue, or at least be forced to admit to myself that I have an unfounded desire. Perhaps a truly healthy relationship doesn't need sexual monogamy, or perhaps a truly healthy relationship becomes sexually monogamous without any thought on the issue; maybe you fantasize about sex with others, but not really have a strong desire to carry through on it. But why? There has to be something to curb the desire, and is that something a thing to be sought and cherished, or just a factor for some people but not others?

Let's start with one point that is not really up for debate, at least not here: most humans are genetically and/or psychologically driven to have multiple sexual partners. If you disagree with this, can you just [bracket] the idea for now and pretend I'm right? It doesn't seem like this desire is biased towards men, either; apparently women want to have sex just as much as men. Go figure.Don't lie to yourself that your partner is never going to see someone they want to get funky with, or that you never will. It's natural to see a really sexy person and think about sex with them; it's part of the word, after all. We can't honestly be upset with someone for fantasizing a bit when Alessandra Ambrosia and/or Daniel Craig shows up on the screen. By corollary, we can't honestly be upset about fantasies involving equally sexy no-names on the street. Sure, we can be dishonestly upset about such fantasies, but be honest about your dishonesty and realize that it's unnatural to be upset about something so natural.

If we take the above paragraph as true, which you implicitly agreed to do by continuing reading, expecting a partner to not think about sex with anyone other than you is to expect them to be inhuman or dishonest. Assuming your partner is a human, which may not be true in some locations (Baaaaahhh), you are expecting the latter - your partner to lie to you and feel guilty about themselves. That's great if you thrive on a relationship of guilt, dishonesty, and delusion, like 90% of people and statistics. If, however, you want an honest relationship and still want to consider monogamy, you need to expand your inquiry.

Desire to have multiple sex partners, or at least fantasies about such are natural. "So, necessarily, we should embrace that point and follow through on it! To do otherwise would be unnatural! Right?" Wrong! Maybe we should embrace the point, but the inclusion of the word 'necessarily' throws a wrench into your monkey. Catching a cold is natural, but that doesn't mean we should, necessarily, embrace colds, seek them out and breath deeply the sneezes of others. "So that means we should, necessarily, fight the urge and be monogamous! Right?" What did I just tell you about the word 'necessarily'? Quit throwing things at monkeys (unless it's poo) and think rationally. Breathing is natural and I, for one, do not want to fight that urge, except maybe when sneezing is involved.

Being 'natural' doesn't tell us what we ought to do, though it might give us a starting point. If we have an urge, we ought to have a reason to resist that urge. If we have no reason, we might as well embrace it. What are the possible reasons for fighting the urge and embracing monogamy? I'm no expert on the topic, of course, but a few psychological rewards seem to be commonly cited. I'm going to cover one reason or theme of reasons, then quickly dismiss it/them because I can't relate at all, nor sustain any interest in the topic. Monogamy can cater to feelings of dominance or ownership. I do not respect such desires, so I'm not even going to entertain this as a valid justification for monogamy. It might be a reason, but it's definitely not a justification in my book. At least I'm honest!

Another reason cited is that monogamy gives us a sense of safety. I suppose this is based on the idea that if our partner isn't sleeping with anyone else, we don't have to worry about our partner leaving us. I really don't see a strong connection here, though; it feels more like the delusional attitude I discussed above. Remember that your partner is going to think about sex with someone else no matter what, so you better have more than just sex supporting your relationship, or you're either just fuck buddies or you're probably not going to last long anyway. If your partner is going to leave you because of sex, you were either in a rather narrowly supported relationship to begin with, or you had some other serious issues the two of you should have discussed; sex wasn't the reason, it was just the catalyst. If your partner is leaving you for more reasons than just sex, then we're talking about more than just sex, aren't we?

A similar reason, possibly another facet of the same reason, is that sexual monogamy helps you feel special somehow, that your partner favours you over all others. But, just like with the feeling of safety, this needs to be rooted in more than just sex. A healthy relationship likely includes everything other than sex and sex (in most cases), so I'm not saying the sex doesn't matter; I'm just saying that your partner abstaining from sex with others shouldn't be the source of a sense of safety in your relationship or the sole reason for feeling special or favoured by your partner. These should be rooted in a wide array of commonalities, attractions, and trust. Sex might be a part of this equation, but it seems like there needs to be more to reasonably justify sexual monogamy. If you have a sense of safety and a feeling that your partner considers you to be special without sexual monogamy, do you need the monogamy? It seems you would need something else at that point to justify the monogamy.

How do we make feelings of safety and specialness important enough to sex to have them justify sexual monogamy, or can they? Are there other justifications for sexual monogamy? How do we continue this chain of thought? I'm sure there are multiple answers that will suit different people, but I don't feel like I have reached an answer for myself. What do you think?

HDR Photography

A week or so ago, my iGoogle page featured a 'how to of the day' about HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography. I like photography and dabble a very tiny bit in it, but nothing serious; I use my little digital camera that I bought two years ago, without much adjustment of exposure or anything like that. I sometimes take some decent pictures, but I know people that put my skills to shame. Likely, I will never be a fantastic photographer; however, I am quite good at post-processing. 

HDR appears to take multiple exposures of the same picture, overlay them, and take different contrasts from each picture to create a composite with a much higher contrast ratio throughout the entire picture. I haven't really looked into the actual mathematics or process behind it, so I could be completely off-base, but that's the impression I get.

When I read the article, I was definitely intrigued by the idea. I went out the next day with the intent of taking several samples for HDR processing. That night, I played around with the recommended freeware HDR program and my samples. While some of the results were interesting and evocative, none were clean enough for my tastes. Dissatisfied, I left the pictures alone, until this morning. I've been distracting myself from other tasks (or faffing around, I believe is the term?) by playing with the pictures some more.

The results of this morning's "research" have been fairly informative. I learned that the basic forms of the algorithms are somewhat bland (perhaps I should increase the exposure bracketing?). The only truly impressive transformations are made by the Mantiuk algorithm with "Contrast Equalization" enabled (I'll label this "CE" in the future); all the other transformations are fairly mundane, though the Reinhard 2005 algorithm seems to do the best job with these mundane transformations. The Mantiuk algorithm with CE, however, kept producing a large amount of dithering. After playing with different types of photos, I learned that it doesn't seem to handle solid colours or subtle gradients very well. When I found a picture with a lot of detail and very little in the way of solid colours, it worked much better.

Through much experimentation, Frey Labs are proud to present the following samples for your consumptive entertainment. If you look at the sky in the top left of the HDR versions, you can see the dithering I was discussing above.

The original rose photograph with no exposure adjustment (click for a larger version):

HDR version, Pregamma 1.0 Mantiuk CE 0.1 Saturation 0.8

HDR version, Pregamma 0.9 Mantiuk CE 0.1 Saturation 1.4

I can play around with the settings to get different results and, of course, do further post-processing in GIMP or Photoshop, but these are the raw output of qtpfsgui 1.9.2. For the best results, you want a lot of detail and very little solid colour. A contrast factor lower than 0.1 will produce ghosting. Contrary to what you might think, lower pre-gamma settings do NOT make the image darker; the tone mapping will create the same brightness with CE turned on, no matter the pre-gamma setting. Lower pre-gamma settings create richer and brighter colours, while higher pre-gamma settings create some washed out Burton-esque results.

The how-to says you need a tripod or stable surface for taking the exposure-bracketed photos. While you don't need one of them, I definitely recommend it. Qtpfsgui has an "Auto Align" feature when you first choose the photographs for the HDR process. The first option, "hugin's", crashes on my system, but the second option, "Median Threshold Bitmap", has worked well for me so far. 

The how-to said that cloud detail is significantly amplified by HDR, but I do not have any samples with which to test that. I will continue playing with my other samples later and post any interesting results.

Reading for the Story or the Writing

I've been thinking lately about why I enjoy rereading some books and not others. I recently borrowed six of the Dragonlance novels (annotated) to reread for nostalgia. I read them way back in middle school and high school and remember enjoying them immensely. The other night I finished reading about 3/4 of the first book, when I suddenly became bored with it. I skimmed forward to read through the marginalia and glance at important bits revolving around Raistlin, then decided I was done reading, at least the first three novels.

Why can I reread some works, like Bujold's Miles books, Pratchett's Discworld series, or Lovecraft's short stories, while I can't be arsed to read some books a second time, even though I enjoyed the first read? I realized today that the difference is in why I enjoyed the piece. Some writers are good at creating stories, while others are good at crafting language (a few are good at both). The former create an interesting world and series of events that pull you along, always making you want to see what happens next; however, when you already know what happens, you don't have quite as much interest. The latter authors are interesting for how they tell a story, not necessarily what story they are telling. I read these authors because I like to read their prose; I enjoy ingesting the words.

Authors that are interesting for their method, rather than their goal, I can read over and over again. Pratchett's satire is so humourous and insightful that I can read it repeatedly, no matter what he is saying. Lovecraft's skill at evoking indescribable horror and a sense of the fantastic is what attracts me to his work, not his overarching plotlines. I suppose it's much like being able to listen to Sam Jackson or James Earl Jones read a phonebook; it doesn't matter what they are saying, so much as how they say it.

So, while out today, I picked up a collection of Lovecraft short stories that I didn't already own, and the next three novels in the Discworld series. I also bought Anne Rice's Mummy, or Ramses the Damned, but I don't recall if I loved that book for the story or the prose; I shall find out, I suppose.

In other news, I've been infected by British English. It started years ago, when I found certain turns of phrase, spellings, or grammatical conventions to be interesting or more reasonable. I am afraid it is spreading, though. Hopefully I won't start replacing Zs with Ss.

"I am naked and free, like my god."

That is what I saw posted on the back of a bicycle today, the rider of which was a young woman wearing a bikini bottom and flower petals around her nipples. Apparently, being topless in public is not illegal in Portland, which I suppose is appropriate, since men can go topless at will.

For those that haven't been to Portland, this scene is indicative of the atmosphere of Hawthorn District, the area next to which my friend lives. It is pretty much a mix of a hostel-type atmosphere and a heavy dose of hippies. I also saw a young woman walking down the street with homemade fairy wings and a man in black and white striped pants, a black tophat, no shirt, and a large quantity of alcohol in his blood stream.

There are a few dozen shops lining the street over about a mile's length, including vintage and secondhand clothing stores, custom jewelers, a hostel, a Ben & Jerry's, an arms and armor shop, a store with toys and shirts reminiscent of what I would find in some parts of Hong Kong, a Powell's bookstore, a vegetarian Thai restaurant, a few other restaurants and coffee shops... you get the idea.

It's an interesting area and I could enjoy spending some time living in the area, but I'm not sure how long it would entertain me. I'm concerned that, like most places with character, many of the people are just impersonating the character they think they are supposed to have for the area, rather than being their own people. Anyway, I doubt I will be spending too much time here anytime soon, as I don't plan on settling down anywhere in the near future. I just thought I would share a vague idea of the area.

BDK8-03 Teaser

My very last writing project for Living Greyhawk is BDK8-03, which I think I am renaming 'The Combination of Souls'; that has an allusion to the BK's proper name, Combination of Free Lords, and relates to the plot. The story is going to wrap up the Dahlvier and Vorelornir (That Which Slept) storyline that started way, way back in 2004, I think it was? Well, the first mention of That Which Sleeps was back in 2002, I think, but we got the real storyline started a couple of years later. Anyway, there's a lot of background information that I've given to some of the PCs over the years, but has never really filtered out to the playerbase. This adventure will fix that, telling everything that happened to all the characters, how they got where they are, and how to stop That Which Slept. The strange thing about this adventure, what really has me feeling uneasy, is that it is a love story. I've never written one before, it's not exactly the normal forte of D&D, and I'm not sure how well it is going to come out.

On the way up to OK, I wrote a bit of the adventure - yes, while driving. I pulled out my notebook and scribbled while driving, looking down every once in a while to make sure I was still somewhere near the lines and the ink was still flowing (that was a constant battle). The result is actually some of my better narrative text; though, that's not saying much, since narrative text is one of my weak points. I figured I'd type it up here for the BK people to have a sneak peek and for other friends to just read something I wrote, if they care. Here you go:

The lich reaches into his robes and retrieves a silvery orb. Deep shadows, black as tar, flow across its otherwise flawless surface. Dahlvier raises the orb in front of his face, his milky-white eyes examining it intently. The expression on his face indicates that, were it possible for the animated corpse, he would be crying.

"This...is all that remains of what we once were. The immortal forms we now inhabit are as nothing compared to what lives on in this twisted mockery of union, a sadistic antithesis of what we once shared. Ironic, isn't it? I fought the Stern Lady to an unholy stalemate so that I could have more time - time to right what went wrong, time to save my people...time to free Her. Thousands of years have passed, and all I have ever known, all that I cared about has fallen into Wee Jas's embrace, all but the two of us. Now, to finish this, to set her free, I must finally cede the game to Death's Embrace. For Vorelornir to die, so must I."

Long time no see...

Yeah, it's been a little while since I've posted anything. To sum everything up, I graduated law school, I wrote 4 rounds of core/core special adventures, LG is wrapping up, I'm homeless for the foreseeable future, and I'm in Oklahoma for just under two weeks (back in Austin on the 8th, most likely). I will spend a few days in Tulsa, then over to Stillwater, then back to Tulsa, I think :)

One related note is that I just noticed, while driving into town, that I feel differently. I grew up here, and I'm intimately familiar with the city, yet it somehow feels alien to me. It's not that I get lost, can't find anything, or get confused; it's just that it seems off somehow. I guess all the traveling plus living in Hong Kong and Austin broke me of feeling like this is home. Now I just have to find a home, which has been a recurring theme for me for quite some time :/

The big Bandit Kingdoms finale was last weekend. With the end of the BK and LG, I will be posting a couple of entries related to what I've learned in all my time playing, writing, editing, and admining for the campaign. The BK post will likely be tomorrow and will cover playing and a bit of writing. The LG post will be later in the week or next week and will cover the more administrative, behind the scenes stuff.

I'm going to type up one other blog entry, check my email, then go to bed. Catch you on the flip side.

Hello, Boston

When I awoke this morning, one of the first thoughts through my head was 'What the hell am I doing?' It's a question that's been plaguing me all day. What am I doing here? I don't mean that in the metaphysical/existential sense. Why, exactly, did I decide to come? I've always thought I should visit New England, but I've never had a strong compulsion to actually do so. Joe's been trying to get me to visit since he moved, something like two years ago. Dave, the kind gentleman putting me up for the first few days, also has said in the past that I should visit. Some of the HK exchange students planned on using a Boston Beerfest as an excuse to have a reunion this spring. There is one this weekend, but it sold out before I could get my tickets, and noone else is coming to visit this weekend; it's just me, the Boston locals, and no Beerfest (not that I particularly enjoy beer). That doesn't really bother me, though, as I can tell now that's not really why I'm here.

So, why am I here? What made me spend the money and time to travel across the country to Boston. Why did I decide to pick a weekend and come without any itinerary or desires? It's not like I was thinking I really wanted to see what Boston was like, in case I wanted to live here; I don't know of anything in Boston I really care to see. When I decided to come, it felt like the thing to do - a perfect idea. Now it feels like I was crazy for even considering it. It's not like plans have fallen through and I am now not sure I want to be here; I had no plans. It just seemed like I ought to be in Boston this weekend, and now I'm at a loss as to why I listened to that feeling and, if it's right, what I'm supposed to do now that I'm here.

The whole thing just doesn't make much sense to me. For those that don't know me, spontaneously booking a trip like this is far outside my realm of normal behaviour, and looking back on it, it disturbs me a bit to not know what I'm doing or why. Anyway, I suppose I will wait and see, though I don't know what I'm supposed to be watching :/

Breakfast and Women

As I have noted earlier, I am staying with my grandparents for a couple of nights. One of the nice things about that is MawMaw wanting to cook for me every morning. This is fantastic, as I am a bit lazy and definitely not a morning person. I usually skip breakfast, as I have no motivation to fix anything. I started thinking it would be really cool to have this, someone to make me breakfast, more often; however, then I realized a problem: the type of woman I like doesn't tend to be the 'cook breakfast for her man' kind of woman. I guess I tend to prefer a woman that is more likely to wake up, glare at me, and throw a granola bar at me than she is to get up and cheerily fix breakfast, which is fine with me, as I like attitude. I just have to steel myself for the fact that this is not going to be something I have very often in my life. Oh well, I'd rather have a smartass woman with a mischievous grin than breakfast any day.

Followup to Yesterday's Novel

You know where I realized that running worked completely different muscles than the elliptical? Yeah, well, yesterday's realization is nothing compared to the epiphany I had upon waking this morning (if you can call it waking, more on that later). Holy [insert four-letter expletive of your choice]! Various parts of my legs, lower back, butt, and feet hurt like hell. I guess I should look on the bright side, that I am sore fewer than 24 hours later, when it used to take 36 to 48 hours (metabolism speeding up), and this should indicate that I have made some progress and the next time should be easier.

One side effect of exercising that I forgot to mention is the return of insomnia. In high school, I always had trouble sleeping. I would have a hard time getting to sleep, then I would only sleep well for two to four hours before waking up and having a fitful time the rest of the evening. This would usually be followed by a nearly mandatory nap sometime in the day. When I got fat, at least I had the good fortune of being able to sleep...sometimes for 12+ hours a day. Well, as I get into better shape and my metabolism increases, the insomnia has returned. Two nights ago was the first good night's sleep I've had in over a week, and last night I slept for a grand total of 4.5 hours before waking up at 6:00 and staring at the ceiling for an hour until I decided to go ahead and get up. Another side effect is an increase in mania, but that's another story and I feel like doing my daily sudokus, so peace out. Hopefully you're all still asleep when I post this.

Running and the Elliptical

That sounds like the title of a really bad children's parable.

I guess I should give some of you a bit of background first, for context. I've never been a good runner...actually, that's a misstatement; I've always been a horrible runner. When they made us run in elementary school PE class, I could barely finish the mile and it was in a very poor time. Throughout my several years of Judo, even when I was going to practice 3-4 times a week for 3 hours each time with an hour of weights and cardio before, I couldn't run. I would do wonderfully on the rowing machine and the stairs, but I couldn't run a mile to save my life. The one year that I played football, I smoked /everyone/ in stadium snakes, but couldn't run distance or sprints at even an average level. When I played Ultimate for two years at OSU, I started at 250+ pounds, so it's understandable that I couldn't run then. But after two years, I was down to about 210 or so and able to do a few crappy sprints now and then and play full games (granted, I was a handler, so I didn't have to run as much as others), but I still couldn't run a mile.

For the past ten years, approximately, I've been losing weight from my peak around 300 pounds sometime around 1998. It tends to go in spurts with plateaus at particular points. I did most of my work between 1999 and 2004. A couple of years of Ultimate and living on rice and beans (with a can of chicken as a treat when I was really rolling in the money...) helped quite a bit. I plateaued around 210 from 2004 to 2007, for the most part. I had started gaining some weight back early in law school, but lost most of it when I went to HK in the summer of 2006. This past fall in HK, I lost almost 20 pounds, which was great. Unfortunately, I knew that I was going to have a hard time keeping it off, since when I returned to the US, I would not be walking everywhere, the food would be much less healthy, and the portion sizes would be about twice as large. So, I decided I would need to make some adjustments to my normal routine when I got home. I decided I was going to take drastic measures...start running !

For the past two weeks, I've been using the elliptical at Mike's place every other day and seeing some decent improvement. The first time I used it, I barely managed to complete about 12 minutes at maybe .7 miles, with several walk-breaks in that period. The next attempt was 15 minutes at a mile, then 18 minutes, then 30 minutes with 4 breaks at 1.8 miles. The last two times I used it, I went 30 minutes without walk-breaks and am up to about 2.3 miles in 30 minutes on hills. I was pretty happy about that, especially considering my atrocious history with running.

Late last night I drove to Houston to see my family and make an appearance at Owlcon. Since an elliptical is not exactly very portable, I figured I would have to finally break in my shoes on an outdoor surface and do actual running. I expected it to be a bit different, maybe slightly different muscles, and maybe a bit easier since it would be on a flat surface rather than hills. Well, guess what? I still can't run a damned mile! I ran maybe a total of 1.5 miles and had to take several breaks. It was completely different from the elliptical! It worked completely different muscles and worked my lungs harder. The elliptical kept my heart rate higher for the duration and worked some muscles just above my knees and up along my thighs. Running was working some muscles above my knees and to the outside of the leg, my shins, and my arches. Part of that is probably my shoes; they are supposed to work the muscles in my feet and lower legs. But, still, it was quite disappointing. I guess I'm going to have to start running one day and elliptical the next to work the different muscles. Hopefully, I will see the same improvement as on the elliptical.

The good news is that, rather than regaining weight, I've actually lost about another 10 pounds since I got back from HK. I am now down to 183, which is probably the lightest I've been since 1993 and my lean, not-so-mean, not-so-green Judo days. Of course, considering I know I still have some fat to lose, that means I have some serious muscle mass to regain, particularly upper body (as usual). I suppose I will start working on that when I get back from Boston and live near campus again. Ok, if you made it this far, I feel sorry for you and I will let you get back to your life now ;)

Quanting News

Mike and I (mostly Mike) worked early this week on the testing platform, with good results. He got it setup so I can put all the data I want in the database (I'll eventually get about 5 years worth in there), choose the dates I want to test, run the test, choose the dates I want to chart, choose the data to chart, and view the chart. I can even zoom in and zoom out (though only to original dimensions for now). We still have some work to do, like getting it setup to read a file for algorithm variables so I don't have to hack the code everytime I want to tweak it, but it's in a state now that I can run tests quickly and look at the results pretty effectively.

Unfortunately, looking at the first few sets of tests, it looks like I may need to change the algorithm some. I'm getting good data on some parts of the algorithm, but there are certain other data points I am missing. I'm getting some decent results, but I don't know if that's just luck or if it's a decent algorithm that could be better. If I could get the other data points and then tweak the components a tiny bit, I could get some fantastic results. I'm just going to have to play with it to figure out how to get those other data points somehow without getting false positives. That last bit is going to be the tricky part.

So, things are progressing well, but I'm a little behind the schedule I had set for myself. I wanted to know if this thing was going to work by mid-February, before I went to Boston, but I don't think I'm going to make it at this point. The initial returns were good, about 1/3 to 1/2 of our target return, but again, that could just be luck. All-in-all though, things are progressing well and I should know something soon. Anyways, I'm going to go get some editing out of the way and maybe eat some soup. Yumm.

This weekend (7.Feb to 10.Feb)

I was planning on leaving for Houston last night to spend some time with the Grandparents, but I was too tired, hadn't packed, and needed to clean part of the house to do my part to help get ready for Mike's brother and sister-in-law coming into town for the weekend; besides, even if I left directly after class, I wouldn't have arrived in Houston until about 10 or 11pm. So, I planned on leaving this morning after cleaning, maybe around 11am. It turns out my grandparents are bowling tonight and won't be home until 9:30, so I'm waiting around ATX until about 6 so I get there when they get home. I'll spend tonight and Friday with them. Saturday I'll make an appearance at Owlcon and probably stay the night there. Sunday I'll head down to my dad's place to see my bro and sis, spend the night there, then head back to ATX early Monday in time for my 2pm class, Nonprofits.

Today, I have to finish editing FUR8-01, BDK7-08, and maybe a couple of interactive ARs. Casey is planning on getting me BDK8-01 late tonight, but they are hoping to run it at 7pm tomorrow night at Owlcon, and I don't know that I will get it turned around that quickly; I'll try though. Also this weekend, I need to read On the Genealogy of Morality a couple of times for my Nietzsche class and prep a couple of minutes of presentation on Sony's IP strategy, specifically related to Blu-Ray and the lessons they learned from the Betamax snafu. In whatever time is left, I get to quant using the new GUI mike put together. (more on that in another post)

Music to Check Out

Riot! album by Paramore. There aren't enough good rock groups out there with a female singer, but this one comes through. I really enjoy this album and will have to check out their other one.

Minutes to Midnight album by Linkin Park. Even if you don't like LP, maybe especially if you don't like LP, you should at least find somewhere to listen to this. Apart from one or two songs, it is quite different than their previous work, and I like it. Mr. Hahn spends most of the album on a midi board; I miss him on the turntables, but the album works. The album kind of reminds me of the Silverchair album I discuss below. It has a bit of a pop edge to it, but it doesn't cross over into pop; it manages to accomplish a sound somehow different.

Diorama album by Silverchair. This is an older album that B. turned me on to. It has a really interesting sound, especially listening to it straight through. It's not good driving or exercise music, but it is a fantastic composition for just listening.

World of Monsters album by the Drovers. I've loved this album for a long time, since I helped a coworker at American Airlines find it way back in the 20th century and listened to it myself. They were a sort of celtic rock band from Chicago way back 'in the day'. The last track, When Fortune Turns Her Wheel, is one of my all-time favorites.

How to Save a Life album by the Fray. I know, some of these songs are overplayed, and the sound pretty similar to each other, but there are some gems on it. Hundred is one of my new favorite songs.

It Won't Be Soon Before Long album by Maroon 5. Really only the first 4 or 5 tracks are that good; then it slips into standard top 40 single-mode. You might not like it, but I think the beginning of the album is worth checking out.

Liberation Transmission album by the Lost Prophets. There are a few good songs on here, kind of in the vein of the Fray, in my opinion. (I don't know which came first; I'm just trying to make a comparison.) 4:AM Forever is probably the best track on the album.

Of course, I always have to mention Moxy Früvous. They aren't exactly what most people would like, but their talent, lyrics, humour, and general fun make them great to me and some others.

I'm not sure why I felt like sharing all that, but there you go. Enjoy!

And So It Goes

I know it's been a few weeks since I updated, but my promised motivation was not exactly forthcoming! (I'm lookin' at you, Q! ;) No, James, I don't want you to send me naked pictures when I don't post; the idea is enough motivation as it is.) While things have been happening since I made it back to Austin, actually, since I made it back to Oklahoma in late December, they have not really been the types of things that others would be very interested in; they have been events and actions important to me and advancing my personal goals. I have my classes setup (M-W) and have been working on stuff like my programming project, mentioned earlier. While I am not finished with anything really, I am getting past important milestones; You might say I've been fighting the battles that comprise the war.

I might be moving back into Spanish Trails in a couple of weeks. They have a 1-bedroom that might work and they are willing to do a lease until May 31st, which is great since I don't know where I am going after graduation. I should start working on that ;) Oh well, things always work out in the end, and as the hanging on Brooke's wall taught me to add to the end of that statement, "...if they aren't working out, it's not the end."

Here's my upcoming schedule: I'll be going to Houston from the 6th to the 10th of February, Boston from the 14th to the 19th of February, and D.C. from the 27th of February to the 3rd of March. Jill mentioned a possible trip to Mexico in late February, so I might get to see her from about the 22nd to the 25th. I think I am going to stay in Austin most of the time after that, including for Spring Break; Ken mentioned coming into town for SXSW and I figured I should show him around. That, school, and programming represent my life for the next few months. Come visit me in Austin if you get time!

A Quanting We Will Go (Or what I did on summer break)

It seems a lot of my friends don't really know what it is I do on the side with Stuart and, recently added to the team, Michael. For several years now, Stuart and I have been developing, off and on, an automated forex trading system. Forex is a term for foreign currency exchange, which means we sell one currency and buy another, shifting our assets between the currencies at, hopefully, opportune times. We deal with the Euro/US Dollar (abbreviated to EUR/USD) pair for a few not-to-be-disclosed reasons. So, when the Euro is high relative to the dollar, we exchange it for Dollars; when the Dollar is high relative to the Euro, we exchange it for Euros. The system we are building is automated, so it tracks various points of data and decides whether one of the currencies is high relative to the other and executes trades at the right times. There are, obviously, many pieces of information missing there, but that's the general idea without revealing trade secrets :)

This was one of the projects I took up when I got back from HK, part of the new-Britt system and the mantra 'Make it work.' When I made it back to Stillwater to see Stuart, I kicked this project into high gear after a long hiatus. I've been working on it since the end of December and have made substantial progress on the back-end (that means the programming part of it). Michael joined us a week or two ago, which is fantastic as he is a great programmer and on the short list of intellectual equals ;) His skillset is slightly different than my own or Stuart's, which helps a good deal. Mike and I have rebuilt the code from the ground-up, implementing new features, the ability to add more features in the future, and most importantly, rigorous testing features. Previously, I had to tweak our system and then watch it run on live data throughout the week, looking for patterns and tweaking further. We can now run the program off old data, seeing the results of a week's worth of trading within seconds. The last key part was finished by Mike tonight: charting. Having nigh instantaneous results is fantastic, but it takes me vast quantities of time to go over the data and look for patterns and fixes. When I get up later today, I should be able to do a little bit of programming and then jump right into my real job of quanting (yes, I made up that word).

Mike informed me that the position I filled for the company was officially called a Quantitative Analyst, or Quant. Basically, I look at all the data, find patterns, try to codify them, and then implement them in a program that takes advantage of those patterns. Starting tomorrow, I should be able to run a month's worth of data and then start zooming into various hot points of the month to examine what was happening with the markets and our system at the same time. This should allow me to pinpoint important changes and quickly test them, arriving at a vastly improved system in a fraction of the time. It may sound geeky (and it is), but I am very excited.

That is one of the things I do outside of law school (and law completely). I also write, edit, and project manage games for Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro), but that's ending this summer and was more of a hobby that turned into a job. It also doesn't sound nearly as impressive ;)

Almost 'Home'

Well, I head back to Austin tomorrow. As I have said before, I don't really feel like I have a 'home', more just a temporary living location, but Austin is the closest I have right now. I've been visiting family and friends in Houston, Tulsa, and Stillwater the past two weeks, since I returned from Hong Kong. I look forward to seeing my friends there and settling down for a while, but I still know it's not permanent and I will be moving somewhere else within the year. When that happens, I want to find somewhere to stay for a while; I want a real home for once. I just have to find out where that home is going to be. We'll see how things work out.

And now that I have completed the Trifecta of posts three days in a row, Quinci has to send me naked pictures of herself. MWAHAHAH!

Happy New Year

Just in case you are living on Neptune or some other heavenly body where solar years have a different duration, we are now in the year 2008. If you are completely unfamiliar with the superstitions and traditions of modern culture (perhaps you are an unfrozen, caveman lawyer), you were supposed to do several things on the 1st of January, such as make resolutions you really don't intend to keep and eat black eyed peas.

Personally, I've never been a huge fan of New Year's resolutions. How many people actually keep their resolutions, or make meaningful ones? If you don't have a better reason to change than the fact that it is now time to put the wrong date on all your checks, you are very unlikely to succeed in those changes. And if you do have a better reason, why are you waiting until the first of January to start, you lazy schmuck?

Don't get me wrong, I am an avid fan of personal improvement, especially if it doesn't involve reading a book. Over the past several years, I have spent a good deal of time on introspection and self assessment; I have tried to identify my personal problems and work to correct them. This process I jokingly model in my Britt versioning system. (I am a geek. If you are reading this, that shouldn't surprise you.) Britt 1.0 was way back in the days of yore, the early 90s, when the Wii would have been on Star Trek: the Next Generation, and Rock Band meant Guns N' Roses. Britt 2.0 occupied the latter half of the 1990s and is affectionately referred to as 'Dark Britt' by those in the know. Britt 3.0 and 4.0 only lasted a few years each, from about 2000 to 2003 and 2004 to 2007, respectively. As the 21st and 7/100ths century dawns, it is time to unveil Britt 5.0.

So, given my disdain for New Year's resolutions, how do I justify attempts to change myself at this time? For me, it just so happens that the time to change happens to coincide with the new year. I didn't plan to make changes on the first, nor is it really a sudden change. We are all changing all the time, or should be, and I have been working on some drastic changes consistently over the past five months. I just got back from Hong Kong and have been thinking about some important life choices and one of the final changes will be worked on over the next few months.

I don't really like talking about myself that much, and I adore being vague and mysterious, so I am not going into what changes I have made or intend to make. Suffice to say, I don't know how well this will work, as it involves acting, which has never been my forte. As my friend Jessica A. pointed out, likely correctly, I am scared of it; but, as Mary Schimch suggested, I should do one thing every day that scares me. I don't know exactly why I am scared of acting; I don't know if it is a fear of success, failure, loss of options, or being the cause of an eventual downfall of mankind and rise of a flying monkey empire, but I do recognize that I am scared of action, irrationally, and that I should do something about that.

So, now that I have ridiculed anyone that might possibly answer this question, did any of you make New Year's resolutions? Or do you have any thoughts about what I said above or New Year's resolutions in general?

Home again

I am back in the US, seeing everyone for the holidays, and missing HK and the people I met/know there. I am currently in Stillwater, OK (home of Oklahoma State University). Last night we went to Kyoto, the only (as far as I know) Japanese restaurant in town. Our waitress turned out to be from HK, so I got to talk to her about how much I missed it, how bored I was here, how spread out everything is, how hard it is to get anywhere, and everything else I'm not liking about being home. Unfortunately, she has been away from HK for about 2 years and doesn't miss it too terribly much.

To be honest, I also don't miss the city horribly. It's more that I miss the people so much and don't like it here. On a scale of -10 to 10, I have about a -5 or -6 feeling about being back home or maybe just this part of the country in general, maybe a 4 to 6 feeling about HK, and an 8 or 9 for the people in HK or that I met there. Sure, I'm glad to see the people back home, but I am seeing them about as much as I ever do. There's also the realization that many of the people here I will always be able to see and will continue to see for many years, though it be sporadicly. Many of the people I met in HK I may never see again, or may only see in passing, fleeting, shallow instances.

I think the difference may be that I have had plenty of time with the people at home to develop lasting relationships and for us to really get to know each other; with the people that I met in HK, I have only had enough time to scratch the surface, to get an idea of what might have been or how much I would have enjoyed getting to know them better, and letting them get to know me. Perhaps I will move to HK to work, but even then, the students from HKU are spreading out to their respective cities. No matter where I move to live and work in the future, I will never be able to connect meaningfully with all of them; it is a geographic impossibility. That is probably the hardest part for me. People and relationships are very important to me, though I guess that sounds trite; I am sure almost anyone would say the same thing if they were asked or were thinking about it.

I'm really not sure what to do about it, or if there is anything I can do. I've been thinking about it a little, tangentially, lately. I believe this is going to be one of the important issues I need to solve or address in the next few months, before I determine what I'm going to do with the next few years of my life; that is really still completely open and unclear. Feel free to discuss and help shape the future of Britt ;)