fixed comics again. stupid comics.com keeps changing their urls/code.. hopefully that'll keep running a while.

(crickets chirping)

Wow... It's quiet in here...

aye, i'll get to it.

Monty doesn't seem to be loading...

Now I need a bucket marg so I don't feel so old :)

Ah!

Michelle's picture...where she's drinking a bucket marg.

What pictures are you guys talking about?

... just.. keep any safety parts in place... ; )

yeah.. weird.. most of these pictures are approaching 10 years old.. that's.. creepy

If you take a hand-cranked shredder and pull the crank off and tighten a professional drill chuck down on the shaft, you get a really fast shredder.

Also, that picture makes me want to have a Bucket Margarita Nite again.

Doing well. We just returned from a trip to the Netherlands. It went well even with Graden in tow. Other than that, we have finally fixed everything from the tornado/hail damage (new roof, gutters and exterior on the car)!

only if you do it before your banks crash too.. ; )

Maybe I should. I could probably live like a king after converting to the local currency.

Aww..that's lame, Batty. Maybe that means you should move back to Fort Collins...

Just got my info on renewing my driver's license. It costs 2X as much as normal and I have to go to a 2hr class because of that scooter ticket.

Sheesh.

Hi Michelle! How are you and the family?

I still check occasionally to see how you are all doing.

Agreed on both points, AB. Not like you have lots of free time, but both of those features would be much appreciated/used.

And yes Batty, Force Unleashed is out. Best story in a game I've played in a long time. The game itself is mostly ok, though there are a few issues that may reach controller hurling level. Play it, and call me if you get stuck.

hells yes it is..
and yeah.. i pop in here on occasion.. I really should RSS the feedback.

bleh.. and I need to iphone compatible the moblog..

Huh? That game is out and I haven't played it???

So quiet in here. How's everyone doing? Roll call, who still hangs out here hoping for others to post? Do we need topics to discuss? Ok. I had to work this weekend. It was no fun. I finished Star Wars: The Force Unleased this weekend. It was fun. Now, make discourse go!

Thanks!

Batty, great pictures!

Germany pics are up here.

Remember that you'll need to login to see pics of people (as I keep them private).

Glad you guys had a good trip Batty!

Back from Germany!

Essen was cold and mostly boring. Conference was ho-hum.

BUT, Köln was so much fun, especially since our old ALT-days friend Liz flew over from England to play with us there over the weekend. Food there was very good, though expensive. The cathedral there is literally jaw-dropping. Like, my jaw dropped. Weather was beatiful.

German beer is good, but I don't really see what all the fuss is about. Micros are just as good, IMO. Kölsh, the variety peculiar to Köln, tastes like Asahi, which means it is easy to drink and goes with everything. Also, it's low in alcohol and a serving is only 200cc, so you can enjoy them many times during the day without getting that afternoon sleepiness you usually get when you drink during the day. I got really excited about a beer we found and emailed Tammy about it and she was like "yeah, that's pretty good... You can get it at any good liquor store in the US..."

So, if you see Schneider Weisse at the liquor store, pick it up. It is hands-down the best wheat beer I've ever had. We brought 3 bombers of it back.

German chocolate was so-so.

Germany is filthy.

K, that's the quick update. I'll have pics up soon. Wi-fi was prohibitively expensive in Germany, so I just saved them all until I got here.

sounds fun! Post pics!

In Essen now, using the university wifi.

Been taking a lot of pictures; many of trash. The city is pretty filthy, with tagging absolutely everywhere. Everywhere.

Bakeries are wonderful, coffee is wonderful, beer is wonderful, food is tasty but my god is it heavy (we've been eating a light breakfast and then dinner--that is all we can take and even then we can barely walk after dinner).

Oh, and it's frickin' freezing! I talked to one of the conference helpers and asked if it is normally this cold in August. "No," she said, "but, then again, it also isn't that surprising." "Unreliable" is the word she used repeatedly for German weather.

Oh, and here has been the big surprise, going against my stereotypes completely: The people are SO INCREDIBLY NICE!!! People were just randomly helping us carrying our bags down stairs and stuff. At first I thought we were getting robbed or something, but this guy just randomly picked up one end of Sonoko's suitcase and helped her carry it down the stairs, and then just smiled, nodded, and walked along. People have been really nice about us not understanding German (Sonoko got upset at me because I keep trying to speak it, and it slows everything down). Just really nice.

Anyway, there's that. The presentation I most wanted to see by the guy whose work I have based a lot of my own off of has been canceled (so he's probably not here), so that's a bummer, but oh well.

I'm going to watch a presentation now.

Have fun Batty and Sonoko!

Well, we're off to Germany early tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!

Also, the Japanese women's softball team just trounced the Americans. They were really good.

Yeah... Not very likely. It isn't even very likely that I'll be back in the states, although I'll take that UMich job if it's offered to me. Nate says the pay is quite livable, and between him and my old officemate, I already know people in town. The biggest guy in listening testing (what is sort of becoming my focus) is at UMich, and he's a friend of a friend.

It's funny how when you get into a really rarefied research area, you find that you're only about 2 links (tops) away from everyone in the field.

Aww..I was hoping for more Fort Collins or Boulder based jobs. :(

Lots of universities in the Tokyo area, one in Kyoto, and one in Hiroshima.

Oh, and a testing job at UMich, but I haven't really figured much out about the job...

Where are you applying, Batty?

Sorry for the delay. I had a hard time getting to the PO with all these job apps.

got SA today batty, thanks!

I'd watch that movie.

We have a whole story about Utino Gombas the Jedi King (I suggested "knight," but she insisted on "king"), who has a golden moustache. He's going to be in the next Star Wars movie that Spielberg just announced.

This is a bit old, but Sonoko's names are WAY better than the real thing. I'm naming my next car Glen Glenhole. Best name ever!

thanks man!

Heheh!

You are kidding.

Just a sec...

Oh my god.

It was sitting here on my damned desk under another CD.

I'll send it.

How ridiculous.

Hitman was in there, though, right? If you like sandbox games and Splinter Cell, I think you'll like that a lot.

batty! Thanks for the games! Not to look a gift horse and all, but San andreas is probably better played with the disk.. :(

:) We miss you guys.

Lately Sonoko has been trying to remember foreign names and insisting that she's remembered them, when she has completely made them up, but swears she is correct:

Obi Wan Kenobi = Utino Gombas

Puccini = Gonzales Comigo

Jake Gyllenhaal = Glen Glenhole

I have to look them up and show them to her before she'll believe me that whatever bizarre string of syllables she's cooked up is not, in fact, the person's name.

Good man.

Watched it. It was good.

:) Good going Batty. BTW, you need to torrent the Imaginationland South Park trilogy, if you haven't already. Report back once watched.

I just re-did 4 years of research in 2 days. I found major problems in my data from doing it piecemeal and stripped the study back to the bare raw data and started over. My brain is fried.

I had to kick Sonoko out of the house because I have to have total concentration or it all falls apart.

But this study is SOLID now. All scores are anchored and rescaled together. Regressions are crap, and that's what I want.

Now to just finish the damned powerpoint.