Majid
over the weekend my dad had a brain aneurysm and was taken by ambulance to swedish medical center in seattle. we’ve set up a blog at http://majid.assareh.com to keep friends and family updated of his status.
Archived entries for
"wick"-ed cool candle
These look pretty clever. But I don’t get what happens when you burn down the wax on the candle side.
Sangria
Found it! Thanks google. I knew I saw a recipe for Sangria in GQ a while back but had no clue which issue.
h4cK3Rz
Now here’s a fun story… Boy, kids these days! Reading this article brings back many lovely memories of my days as a hacker groupie in middle school. In 7th grade my buddy Chas and I snuck into the Mac lab during lunch to hang out and be juvenile delinquents. How magnificently n3rDy we were! Instead of sneaking out behind the fence to smoke like normal kids, we snuck into the computer lab. Chas proceeded to wow me with his mad h4cKer skillz by somehow circumventing OS 9 system security and deleting a protected application from the Mac Classic’s hard drive. (oooh, how malicious!!) Unfortunately we were caught and sent to the principal’s office where we ended up getting detention, though thankfully the police were not involved.
Charles Posinoff my mad h4ck3rish buddy where are you!?
The Truth About Me
Today I experienced a moment of true inspiration during which I realized exactly how hopeless I am. I was composing an email message to a friend when an action item came up, something that I needed to think about this week. Without skipping a beat or altering the flow of my email, what did my fingers type?
“Ok, I’ll go ahead and move it forward a few bits in my mental register1 for this week, see what I can come up with and get back to you…”
Mental register!? Well as they say, the writing is on the wall. All my life I’ve been told I can be anything I want to be. And now I know that is flagrantly incorrect. I am and always will be a GEEK.
But it’s ok because we’re in the 21st century now and as much as society’s upper class hates to admit it, the geeks are leading the way. Just look at the 10 richest Americans according to Forbes Magazine:
1. Bill Gates, software uber-nerd
2. Warren Buffett, money and finance geek
3. Paul Allen, software nerd and faux sports fan
4-8. The Waltons, not really nerds
9. Michael Dell, the king of computer nerds
10. Larry Ellison, part-time software nerd part-time sailboat racer
And let’s not forget about the many other ‘new generation’ nerds out there. Two that come to mind are Mark Cuban and Paul Phillips. Just because they aren’t in the top 10 doesn’t mean they don’t represent. Many people like Mark Cuban because of what he’s done for the Mavericks but he could also be considered a consumer advocate and media pioneer for what he’s created in HDnet. As for Phillips, as crazy as it may be, I believe he is the closest to a good role model that exists in the poker world. I say this because IMO one can only be truly successful at high stakes poker in the long run if one has nothing to lose. Sure a guy like TJ Cloutier is legendary in the poker world and has hundreds of money finishes to his name, but come on now. How can you ever “retire” and/or be truly content when you can’t play in a big tournament without a backer? Plus, for a poker player to reach their maximum potential they have to be free from the financial strain of losing. Of course you would still have to possess an extraordinarily competitive spirit because after all, poker is intellectual and psychological warfare. But you also need to be unaffected by the inevitibility of losing streaks. So while circuit poker pro X can have backers put up 100% of his tournament entry fees and even cover his travel expenses, at the end of the day he still needs to eat. And if he doesn’t win he doesn’t eat. There’s no denying that this psychological handicap limits even the best of the best. Whereas with someone like Paul Phillips, posting $10,000 once a month for a WPT tournament will never in his lifetime affect his bottom line, so he is completely free to go for glory without any fear of failure. That’s probably his most powerful weapon at the table. I don’t think poker is just ‘gambling’ and I think anybody who does fails to understand the true nature of the game. I believe poker is primarily a game of skill. But I also believe the game contains elements of chance. And as long as you have something to lose, you have a weakness that your opponent can exploit to take advantage you.
Anyways, knowing the power of money, the amount of money in possession of geeks and nerds today and the rate at which that amount is increasing, it’s fairly clear that geeks will eventually take over the world. So I guess I’m not so hopeless after all…
1 For you non-digital people, a register is a fundamental component of digital electronics that is used to store data.
Dinner Table Chemistry
Today while riding the bus home I realized that I’ve become a very slow eater. First of all I’ll candidly state that I like to eat, plain and simple. I love preparing food and I love eating food. I have my parents to thank for that because boy they like to eat well. But more importantly, as much as I enjoy good food I also appreciate it. And for that I also have my parents to thank. Because while they certainly spoiled me with plenty of wonderful food, they also made damn sure I didn’t take any of it for granted. All they had to do was starve me from time to time. That was a joke. No, I was never starved but I was frequently reminded that many millions of people in this world ARE. Of course it also didn’t hurt to casually mention how much the wild king salmon I was eating actually cost…
Anyways I’ve never really given much thought to the pace at which I eat a meal. But it seems that over time my natural eating pace has slowed down a little. Of course, it’s easy to seem slow when I’m eating with the Assareh “wolf pack”1 but I’m generally the last to finish no matter who I’m dining with. And it’s not that I’m always eating a lot, although that would explain what was taking me so long when I was younger.2 Because now I’m actually eating less in general. Healthwise, I’m happy with this because there are plenty of good reasons to eat slowly. Improved digestion and less overeating are just two of them. But constantly being the last one at the table does get a little annoying sometimes. And to make things worse not only do I like to take my time and savor a good meal but I also like to talk. And actually this leads into one thing that bugged me about my last relationship.
We didn’t have great dinner table chemistry. While that may sound trivial it is definitely not to me. If I spend 8 hours at work staring at my desk the first thing I want to do when I get home is prepare a nice meal and enjoy it with my special lady. With my ex the preparing part was great. Most importantly it was fun, but the grub was also usually terrific. Unfortunately the eating together part was a little off. Other than the times we were eating out or had people over, I can’t remember many dinners together that lasted longer than 15 minutes. I guess part of it was that she just didn’t eat as much as me and would finish rather quickly. And the rest was probably me eating quickly because I didn’t want her to have to sit there and watch me eat night after night. Actually I just had an interesting thought. There’s an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry compares a first date to a job interview. Maybe this is why first dates usually include dinner…to gauge, among other things, dinner table chemistry?
1 I realized this at a young age. About ten years ago when I was 12 or 13 we were on a trip to Iran visiting family and to celebrate our visit my aunt and her children had prepared this amazingly huge banquet of a meal. There were around 40 people over for dinner, all family, and yes this is normal when we’re visiting. So we have all this wonderful food before us and my plate is completely full, as is my mouth. Then my dad notices me grab two more pieces of kebab and put them on my already full plate. He asks what I’m doing to which I reply, “Dad, I like these so much that I want to make sure I get enough before they disappear!” Lol, kids.
2 Another story my parents sometimes tell is about the first time our friends the Neiman’s took my brother and I out for pizza. I was about 9 years old and Chad was 7, and after a swim meet Dr. and Mrs. Neiman offered to take us out along with their boys Justin, who was 7 and Charlie, who was probably 4. Now realize that the four of them together probably tipped the scales at around 350 lbs, so they are definitely not the biggest eaters we know. And also at the time the Neiman’s didn’t know us very well. So Dr. Neiman orders a large pizza for everyone, which at 8 slices should be plenty, right? Figure half a slice for Charlie, a slice for Justin, one for Chad, one for Mrs. Neiman, and say one and a half for Dr. Neiman, and maybe two for me. That makes 7 slices. So dining alone, the four of them could have probably gotten by with a small pizza, definitely with a medium. But because Chad and I were with them they ordered a large to make sure we would have enough to eat. Well, we sure embarrassed my parents that day because within minutes of the pizza arriving Chad and I had eaten two slices each and the Neiman’s must have realized that we were not shy because Dr. Neiman went and ordered us another pizza, which we promptly finished. After that I don’t think they ever did invite us out for pizza again!
Strained Silicon
Haven’t really been paying much attention to this but I probably should, so here’s a start.
Awesome Project!!
An electronic, mouse controlled Etch-A-Sketch? I have to make one!
No More Blogging for Iranians
Looks like the government has ordered Iranian ISP’s to prevent access to all blogging services in Iran. That sucks.
