Gym Jones – The Discipline Behind “300”

It’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees. The men of Zack Snyder’s “300” trained 10-12 hours a day, five days a week, for four months – all while eating barely enough to cover their needs and recovery. It was at the invitation-only fitness center in Utah, Gym Jones, where strength… Continue reading Gym Jones – The Discipline Behind “300”

Optimal for OPML

I discovered Optimal while looking for ways to render OPML as HTML. OPML, for my purpose and many of those reading this, is what RSS is to data, for RSS. That is, an OPML outline describes a list of feeds, each of which consist of an RSS feed for another site, which represents a collection… Continue reading Optimal for OPML

The End is Nigh; Scientists Plan to Build New Universe

NPR tells me that scientists are developing a theory around the potential development of synthetic universes. If that sounds vague, it’s because the explanation is based on a mathematical non-zero probability. That’s a tough concept to sell to the general public, myself included. However, I’m learning more about the ideas and am onboard with the… Continue reading The End is Nigh; Scientists Plan to Build New Universe

Word of the Year

Answers.com has this to say about phatic: phat·ic (făt’ĭk) adj. Of, relating to, or being speech used to share feelings or to establish a mood of sociability rather than to communicate information or ideas. I don’t know how Web 2.0 missed this most appropriate word for the new wave of Internet stickiness, but it’s a… Continue reading Word of the Year

The Lineup so Far (Solar System 2.0 Beta)

In case you’ve missed the news, the astronomical community is currently reworking our solar system after some new information and a bit of a debate. While God may or may not have created our universe in 7 days, it has taken 2¼ centuries thus far to flesh out the solar system. Now we’re haggling about… Continue reading The Lineup so Far (Solar System 2.0 Beta)

Hooch Wine

The “if-it’s-not-widely-known-it-should-be” site, The Sneeze, delights me with the “Steve, Don’t Eat It!” section. Amy turned me onto this site a year or more ago and this one particular article on prison wine is one of the funniest things ever. I continue to go back and read this from time to time and laugh out… Continue reading Hooch Wine

Kingdom of Loathing

I’ve not written about it before, but the Kingdom of Loathing (KoL) is the best piece of crap since Legend of the Red Dragon (LoRD) way back in BBS days. KoL is chocked full of PHP and MySQL goodness to bring forth one of the more entertaining web games out there. Your a stick figure… Continue reading Kingdom of Loathing

How I Work

The longest amount of time spent, and time I am unable to account for, is research. Depending on the topic, I may spend a week pouring through as many references I can find on a particular subject to get a real good feel for the information. If I don’t require reference material as I write, it goes much quicker.

Eat, or Be Eaten

I heard on NPR this morning that 25 million Americans receive emergency food assistance each year. From what I understand, the level of funding available to this is not nearly what it needs to be in order to feed everyone that is starving within the U.S. It’s ironic to me that America has such a… Continue reading Eat, or Be Eaten