Mindless Philosopher

Got back from Phily late Monday night. I realized as I started the return trek that I could do the whole round-trip on one tank of gas. But I was a wuss and didn’t want to get stuck 10 miles outside of Centreville so I filled up on the Beltway. I checked when I got home, and indeed I could have made it. I heart my Prius. In fact I’m getting more use out of my 6 CD changer than I originally thought. Three CDs got me all the way from Philly to northern VA: Jewel’s Pieces of You, Alix Olson’s Built Like That, and Miss Herring’s Not Another Warm Body. Three beautiful women with beautiful voices and beautiful things to say.
Working in Philly felt good, so I’ve decided to get off my lazy tousch and do at least one productive thing each day. Tuesday I got my original cell phone line back up and running. Wednesday…um…Thursday I applied to RAND. And today I applied for this great job at the Progressive Policy Institute. Tomorrow I think it’s time to at least start my taxes. So, yes, my world is very exciting….how about yours?

I’ve been a busybody here in Philly writing the voterfile database. Perhaps because I didn’t allow slippage time, or possibly because of all the close games I’m extending my trip by a day to finish up.
Speaking of the NCAA’s: Kentucky, arrrggggh! They were supposed to be good! Well, I was one rotation of the basketball away from leading in my family pool–which I wrote some code for on Friday and have now put online. It’s completely automated, which made multitasking between voterfile and family pool standings much easier today. Enjoy watching my fortunes go up and down!

Going to Philadelphia and suburbs thereof to create Allyson Schwartz’s voterfile database. Definitely a win-win since she needs a database and I need some cash.
On the cell phone front, I bought a cell phone for $17 on EBay. The seller said he mailed it Monday but it hasn’t arrived yet. Since I certainly needed some form of wireless communication for my weekend trip, I bought a prepaid Cingular phone for $40 (which included $10 of calls free). And since the phone they were going to give me was broken, they upgraded for free; maybe if the $17 phone actually comes, I can sell the Cingular one on EBay for a profit…
Oh, and I went 24-8 on NCAA first round games.

So it’ NCAA time. And while being unemployed makes it easier to watch these day games, there is definitely some allure missing. In past years there was always a challenge to meet all my commitments (job, class, problem sets, etc) while finding access to a TV. This year, I just walk downstairs. Well, it’s certainly not stopping me from watching and cheering. Right now I’m pulling for Manhattan, Charlotte, and Maryland.
My Final Four is Kentucky, Duke, Wake Forest, and UConn. But my family’s pool, which is the one that counts, requires you to pick five teams with combined seeds of at least 12. I picked Kentucky (1), Texas (3), Wake Forest (4), Oklahoma St (2), and UConn (2). So those are the teams I’m really routing for.

It’s been a lousy couple of days. Wednesday I lost my cell phone on the Metro. To start at the beginning, I lost the case to my cell on the MIT leg of my road trip. Thus, when traveling to DC on Wednesday, I put the phone in my jacket pocket (instead of a pant pocket) as to not scuff it. Big mistake. Either I got picked or the phone fell out of my pocket on the Orange line. I’m betting on the latter. So, if you’re wondering why calling my cell is failing–that’s why. I’ll be attempting to “buy” an old, simple free phone from Sprint tomorrow to fill that void.
I submitted an online lost&found report for the phone to metro and an automated search came up with a potential match. But when I drove the Metro’s lost and found (all the way in Silver Spring) today, no phone. Well, to be more specific, two phones (hence the automated match) were present, but neither mine. And to make matters worse, my 2004 Prius’s “Maintenance Required” light came on during the ride back from Silver Spring. Sigh, at least my laptop is up and running well…
Signs point to a need for a steady income, but the job search trail is only warm. Nothing has caught my eye. I have backups, but I’d really like to find something I’m going to love. Ideally, this job would integrate a data solution into the political arena, excluding voterfile and polling (both of which I’ve done).
On the bright side, West Wing night at Miranda’s on Wednesday was a hit (we had to provide the West Wing via DVD though, as NBC failed to deliver). Second, living with enjanerd is always fun (went to Chipotle this evening). Plus, the Terps are still in the ACC tourney and have pretty much locked up an NCAA bid. So all is not lost.

Link of the day, with special emphasis on the kids’ page and the propaganda page.
Choice Quotes
What should you do if you find an Atheist? … Atheists are often very grumpy and bitter and will lash out at children or they may even try to trick you into neglecting god’s Word.

Hey, Habu…How many gods do you have?
I don’t know, I lost count.
Wouldn’t you rather have just one god who loves you a bunch than a bunch of gods that don’t love you at all?

The real operating system hiding under the newest version of the Macintosh operating system (MacOS X) is called… Darwin! That’s right, new Macs are based on Darwinism!

However, this isn’t the only thing hiding behind this choice of moniker; according to my research, the name eMac is also a referrence to “Emacs”, a program that is a standard-bearer for the Communistic Open Source movement mentioned above and whose mascot is some sort of effeminate-looking, horned devil-man. Is there no end to this tangled web of evil?