http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html

Warning:  Do not read without a box of tissues to hand.  They are useful for wiping up tears of laughter.

Hey everyone out there with MySQL chops, can you help me out?
( Read more... )
Does anyone have suggestions for a workaround?  I'm almost ready to do all of this in code and call it a day, but would really prefer not to -- that way lies madness and corrupted datastores.

I am posting this from a subway train currently under 50 feet of rock.

Ok, there are certain parts of the San Francisco transport system that are damned impressive.

You can tell that I'm not terribly musical (or, at least, musically discriminating)  by looking at the current choices coming up on my iTunes DJ:

• "The Lark Ascending (Opening)"  by the New Philharmonia Orchestra
• "Lucky Star" by Madonna
• a French pop song (the name and artist were not on the mix CD I got it from)
• "And They Say I've Got Talent" by Tom Smith [filk]
• "Cello Concerto in E Minor" by the London Symphony Orchestra
• "These Cold Fingers" by Bill Morrissey
• "Saggy Diaper Blues" by Da Vinci's Notebook
• "Dinny's Farewell" by Draoicht [Celtic...folk / soft rock / ??]

A week ago, there was a domestic violence incident two doors down from me. The woman was (non-sexually) assaulted by her boyfriend; he pushed her down, twisted her arm, wrenched her neck, broke her necklace, then pushed her out the door of the apartment and locked her out. I invited her into my apartment and gave her my phone so she could call 911. They came, arrested the boyfriend, and took him for a psych eval.

The next day, an SFPD Inspector (which is what San Francisco calls Police Detectives) called me and took my statement over the phone. An hour ago, the public defender's rep came by and took it again.


Here are some realizations I've had, which come out as bits of advice if anything similar ever happens near you:

1. Get involved.
2. Stay involved.
3. Keep a timelog of events as they happen. 
   
   1. Use video if you have it.  If not, use Voice Memos.  Lacking that, write it down.
   2. Your smartphone probably has video and/or Voice Memos.
      
4. Volunteer your name and contact information to one of the responding officers and state that you will testify.
5. Consider carefully what you say to officials: be factual, and do not answer leading questions.

( That advice expanded... )

Obviously, this advice doesn't apply just to domestic violence calls -- you could do the same for a fender bender or any other situation where there are going to be legal issues involved later. 

One final thing I note -- the police took my statement the next day, while my recollections were fresh; they did it over the phone and recorded it.  The Public Defender's office did not get to me for a week when some details had gone fuzzy; they sent someone to my home to take my statement in person and the rep took everything down in the form of written notes.  Most likely, these differences are due to different staffing levels, different workloads, the time it takes for the case to get through processing and passed from the SFPD to the PubDef office, etc.  The effect, however, is that it makes it easier for the Public Defender to cast doubt in witness's minds about exactly what happened, when, and how.  Keep this in mind while giving your statement.

Pretty often, I hear a noise that sounds like the neighbor on my left pounding a nail into the wall in order to hang a picture -- short, sharp, rhythmic thumps, maybe six or seven in a row. There is usually some other, indeterminate noises associated -- heavy things being moved, perhaps? -- but those noises only come at the end, and only last a few seconds. There are never voices associated. Now, they can't be hanging THAT many pictures, so I'm a little stuck as to what it actually is.

My top four guesses for what would cause thumping noises from a neighbor would be "banging a nail in to hang a picture", "turn the music down", "headboard knocking on wall", or "domestic dispute", but I don't think any of those is right, based on when I hear it and what it sounds like.

I could go over and ask, but I feel odd about that.

So, what could it be? Any ideas?

I've been consciously avoiding Twitter for the longest time: it looks like it could easily be a huge time suck and, although I do see some positive potential uses for it, my suspicion is that the vast supermajority of tweets are utterly banal.  I feel that it also feeds powerfully into the "soundbite" mentality that we are all living in; 140 characters is not enough to encode a real thesis. (*)

Well, maybe it's living in the sunshine-and-dope-laden air of San Francisco, but lately I've been having lots of little one-liner thoughts that I'd like to share with friends or strangers or whatever, but it seems silly to do an entire blog post for one sentence.  So, I broke down and got a feed.

If you'd like to follow it, I'm david_k_storrs on twitter (since every one of my normal usernames was taken).  And I suspect that the vast supermajority of my tweets will be utterly banal.


(*) For the love of Asimov, yes, you don't have to trot out "F=ma" or "E=mc**2" or even "Better that ten guilty men go free than one innocent men be found guilty"(**) just to prove me wrong.

(**) Can anyone attribute that quote with cites, btw?  I always thought it was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, but I'm seeing references to it linked with Blackwell and I can't find anything authoritative either way.

On my recent trip back to NYC, I bumped into an old friend / coworker from my days at Crossover.  She's got a Windows computer and she needs some tech support / help cleaning out viruses.  Is anyone interested in meeting a very cool lady and helping her out?  Failing that, can anyone recommend a good walk-in shop?  (Something like TekServ, but for Windows.)

Browncoats in space who trust in their crew
Bright engine nacelles and transporters too
Space fountains rising high up, on rings
These are a few of my favorite things!

Armor-clad chargers and bonny strong questers,
Young Rennie nobles and jugglers and jesters,
Gold dragons fry all the Thread 'neath their Wings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Elves in white dresses with beautiful faces,
Who leave no traces on snow-covered spaces,
Villain-made winters that melt into springs;
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the bills come,
When the boss yells,
When I'm feeling pain,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel Mundane.

I just watched The Gamers: Dorkness Rising on Netflix Instant Play.  If you are or have ever been a gamer, most especially an AD&D player, give it a chance.

It's the story of a group of friends playing an AD&D module.  It's full of injokes and references, it's made on a budget of about $10 and a box of pizza, some of it is puerile, and parts of it drag a bit.  Despite all that, it's also got some really sweet moments, it's very nostalgia-worthy (you'll be nodding along going "yup, I've played that tavern scene / had that conversation with the king / said that to a fellow PC"), and parts of it had me in stitches -- the fight at Goblin Pass where Daphne has her first taste of combat was especially good.

Honestly, I wish this were a series.