Maggie Never Sleeps

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:49:15 GMT

Happy Birthday Krishan!

driving me crazy

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:44:47 GMT

This is something that's driving me crazy. I appeal to you, friends list, to see if anyone can help. More than likely not, because its a weird and specific question.

I'm re-reading the book Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. The book deals with WWII and gold and cryptology and code-breaking and lots of other stuff (all over the map like all of his books). He pays a lot of attention to detail, particularly about the crypto.

One character, near the end of the book, is trying to decrypt some messages from WWII. They are encoded in the as yet unbroken Arethusa code (fictional). The character is able to decrypt these messages using his computer to find the correct algorithm.

All perfectly acceptable except for the fact that these messages should have been written in Japanese. Since the character doesn't speak Japanese and doesn't have access to any Japanese dictionaries or translators, how is he able to break the codes and further how is he able to read the translated messages? Certainly his computer can run all kinds of algorithms on the messages to try and find the correct meanings, but how will he know they are correct if he doesn't speak Japanese?

It's really frustrating. Everything else in the book is meticulously researched and described.

Has anyone else read the book? Do you have any ideas for why/how this is possible?

(Know in advance: Comments [if there are any] will be very spoiler-y. Read at your own risk.)

squee

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:28:09 GMT

There is a sonic in millville nj, maybe 30 minutes from my parents house, a wee bit south of the only drive-in in jersey.

You know what this means, right?

Sonic & Drive-in, the sister trip to Sonic & Sea.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:49:54 GMT

Something weird is going on with my internet access. Might be comcast, not sure. Most websites are fine and load without issue. Certain websites time out. Normally I would assume that this was a problem with individual sites, but one of them is google.com, which generally is up all the time. Plus I think I'd be reading about google downtime somewhere.

Is anyone else having trouble with google.com?

ether

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:10:16 GMT

* A/C causes republicans to win office.

* Followup on the NYT article on the man who died in detention of cancer and a broken spine.

* Tourists are weird.

Three Things

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:53:44 GMT

* I have managed to acquire hydrox cookies. Rejoicing.

* Ukrainian fruit candies seem to make my mouth burn.

* I wish I was in England.

Alright

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:03:23 GMT

I'm going to post again about what happened the other day, because it's caused some issues.

A few days ago I posted publicly about something that happened at GoG. It was entirely public, no filters at all. I actually wrote and deleted that entry several times because I wasn't sure it was appropriate or fair or the correct thing to do.

Eventually I posted it, and people got upset. Which is totally fine. It was a petty thing to post about. I used words that I usually don't use on public forums. All perfectly acceptable reasons to be mad at me.

Here's why I wrote it in public (and yes, I completely understand that this is not an excuse, and that I should have handled things more delicately):

* I'm sick to death of the way things are at grove. There is a pattern of behavior that feels toxic to me. There has been maybe two or three rituals in the last two years that haven't left me feeling angry or frustrated or just depressed. It's to the point where I'm actively avoiding certain rituals and limiting my time at all of them. This is not the way things were in the relatively recent past. GoG used to be one of the few places that I felt at home and I'm mourning it's loss.

* I have strong ideas about hospitality, service, and volunteering. Volunteers should be supported, particularly when they are in the process of doing their volunteer work. Actively thwarting a volunteer in process and/or being rude to the volunteer is simply not ok in my book. If this had happened to someone else I'd be just as angry, possibly moreso.

* Private attempts to change these behaviors don't seem to have accomplished anything. Being polite doesn't seem to have accomplished anything. Ignoring the problem doesn't seem to have accomplished anything. I felt sortof backed into a corner -- like nothing was ever going to change. Like I have the choice of just leaving GoG and never going back because nothing I do is going to change what's happening. That frustration drove me to post publicly.

I apologize for upsetting people. I apologize for the ugly comments. I didn't really want to discuss this further online -- I should have turned comments off for the post. Really, I just wanted people to be aware that this happened and that I'm upset about it.

And that's all I have to say about that. I'm leaving comments on, but please be civil. If you want to discuss this or the original post with me further, please feel free to email:

applesticker @ gmail dot com

The End

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:16:31 GMT

ether

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:51:44 GMT

America's Next Top model will have a transgender contestant next season.

Thoughts on sexual identity (with a bit of the Buffy comic thrown in)

Video of a Georgian reporter who gets shot by a Russian sniper during a live broadcast and keeps on reporting.

georgia and georgia

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:27:30 GMT

"A Hong Kong computer programmer who had legally resided in the US for 15 years (since he was 17) and fathered two American children went for his final green card interview and was locked up, detained until he died of cancer that the DHS refused to treat him for. He had overstayed a visa (the DHS sent a key notice to the wrong address), and this prompted the DHS to lock him away and demand that he waive all right to immigration appeal and be immediately deported. In detention, his complaints of excruciating back pain were treated as fakery, and he was dragged around in shackles after he lost the ability to walk, taken on long, bumpy drives while official demanded that he drop his immigration appeals. The jailers who caused his death were private contractors with fat deals with the DHS to lock up immigration detainees.

As he lay dying, his family -- wife and two children, aged 1 and 3 -- were denied access to him while the warden considered their request to visit."

Read the Article

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:54:28 GMT

I can only watch the British version of the Office for about 10 or 15 minutes at a time -- more than that is too soul-crushing. I keep starting it and having to stop and walk away.

One other thing

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:01:07 GMT

One of my bosses thinks my new haircut looks like Ellen Page's in Hard Candy.

I tend to agree.

Ain't a bad thing.

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:22:48 GMT

Almost died at work today, but I'm not all that worried about it. Was up a big, precarious ladder when someone bumped into it. The whole thing shook and swayed, but luckily I did not fall. The girl who bumped me was very apologetic. Said she was glad she didn't kill me 'cause I was her favorite Genius and it would suck if I died. Which was nice.

Another American God followed me home. Need to write it up in my pagan filter.

My arms and back got a super workout helping Keith move yesterday morning. I should do that more often; it would make carrying Mac Pros a lot easier.

Should go to sleep, but can't sleep. So here I am. Started watching the British version of the Office today. It's a bit weird and somehow more malevolent than the American version. But that's British for you.

I'm in a much better mood now than I was this morning. I was pretty depressed this morning, and I got to work on the verge of a panic attack. It's hard to talk to customers and fix things and seem normal when you want to hyperventilate and lie down on the floor. But eventually I calmed myself down. And here I am. Hopefully tomorrow will be better than this morning.

What else can I say? My life is boring. I work, I sleep, and sometimes I eat. Occasionally I go to the sisters' house or Tessa's. Baking is my only hobby. And we're trying desperately not to spend any money -- ANY money -- so that we can continue to eat and sleep under a roof.

Makes life very...compact.

today is wtf

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:35:42 GMT

Ok, here's my petty story for the week:

Today was a GoG rit. I was in charge of the kitchen, prepping and organizing and cleaning up. I got my self a nice seat by the kitchen, where I could see the ritual but still take care of food. At the very beginning of the ritual someone came in late and I got up to grab their food contribution. Patty took the opportunity to steal my seat -- which I thought was really weird, since I was only up for about 3 minutes and she managed to move her bag and shoes under my chair. When I got back, I said: hey, that was my seat. She rolled her eyes and made a ridiculous over-dramatic sneer at me. I went and sat on the floor in the kitchen, where I couldn't hear the rit, and eventually I fell asleep.

This whole thing bothers me. Yes, I know I'm super petty and the fact that I'm typing all this up is ridiculous. At the same time, it bothers the crap out of me. I volunteered to help prep and clean-up food at a ritual. All I wanted to do was help out a bit and have a low-key holiday. And it's not even the fact that she took my chair that really bothers me -- it's the fact that she was incredibly rude to me when I pointed it out.

So yeah -- definition of a douche bag.

Now that I've written this out I feel a lot better. I think I just needed to vent.

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:06:40 GMT

There's nothing quite like closing the store, coming in for a meeting at 8am, staying till close again, and then having to be back at the store at 8am for a shift the next day. Totally priceless. And the best way to get me sick.

Particularly when my mall has *no* food court and now my store has no break area. So I have to eat my lunch outside, on the curb, next to a dumpster or inside on a bench. I hate being stared at by mall-goers while I eat re-heated spaghetti, so the dumpster it is.

Just got my schedule too -- working till close on saturday night. Sorry, Keith -- I'll totally be there carrying boxes, but I'll also be a zombie.

I have pretty much no social life, which in turn makes me anti-social, particularly since work is so stressful. Having random panic attacks again, triggered by seemingly nothing. Trying not to get deeply depressed again. Or sick. That would be bad too.

Ah well, enough complaining.

Today after work I will make blueberry bars for rit on sunday. Tomorrow I will make potato salad and fresh pesto pasta, also for rit on sunday. On sunday I will kitchen witch, to keep social interaction down to in turn keep me from freaking out and fleeing.

w00t.

Pancake Crash

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:01:51 GMT

Pancake Crash, originally uploaded by applesticker.

Pat had too many pancakes. Then he died. The end.

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:36:11 GMT

"The dance floor at a hipster party looks like it should be surrounded by quotation marks."

- "Hipster: the Dead End of Western Civilization" AdBusters

Measuring Blueberries

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:55:44 GMT

Measuring Blueberries, originally uploaded by applesticker.

One cup for pancakes.

One-and-a-half cups for muffins.

Four cups for crumb bars.

And about two cups left over.

Awesome.

The Fruits of Our Labor

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:49:32 GMT

Blueberries, originally uploaded by applesticker.

Went blueberry picking today, at Terhune Farms in Princeton. Going to make blueberry crumb bars, blueberry muffins, and blueberry pancakes. Also going to stuff ourselves full of blueberries.

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:46:39 GMT

They are remaking Red Sonja. They are remaking Escape to Witch Mountain (as Race to Witch Mountain). They are making a direct-to-video sequel to Lost Boys (called Lost Boys: the Tribe).

I am frightened.

All this is according to this neat Comic-Con photoshoot.

(Also related to Comic-Con: this neat panel about new Dark Horse stuff. Bruce Campbell crashed the panel and talked about his new movie.)

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:29:40 GMT

This must be "upset maggie by killing off people she loves" month.

I'm unhappy, but vaguely satisfied at the same time.

Bye Y, you were very, very good.

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:16:02 GMT

Last night I watched parts 1 & 2 of Dr. Horrible.

Tonight I watched part 3.

JOSS WHEDON IS A BAD MAN.

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:45:03 GMT

Go watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog right now.

Right now. I mean it. Stop reading this and go watch it.

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:33:03 GMT

I need a way to combine together Eihwaz and Pertho into one relatively nice looking (or at least...natural?) looking symbol.

Any thoughts?

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:15:35 GMT

Heath Ledger's gonna get a posthumous oscar. Everyone else should just give up now.