I was delighted to browse through this book recently. A fun read for anyone interested in language. It's not a long or complex book, but really just a nugget about some interesting developments in English with plenty of historical anecdotes and references as well as an interesting list of collective nouns.

The at-first confusing title is simple an example of one of the collective nouns or "terms of venery" that come to us from Medieval hunting tradition. Other examples include a "Murder of Crows" and a "Gaggle of Geese". These collective nouns were used by gentlemen at the time to refer to groups of animals. The terms themselves were somewhat a mix of an argot and an inside joke (as many of the terms are quite playful or imaginative).

The information is not particular practical or useful, but clued me into an aspect of Medieval life that I was previously unaware of.

I kind of like the interesting combination of modern aesthetic and functionality exhibited by this sink that I saw at a WalMart restroom recently. A single piece makes installation easy,  the two levels make it easier for kids and adults to use, and the slope ensures that standing water drains off. Not the prettiest thing, but I was impressed by the effort that some design engineer put into it.

Took this a few weeks back on my way to work... The contrast was simply amazing -- remarkable brighter than this iPhone-snapped picture shows. I've never a seen a rainbow that just shimmered like this.

This is over by the Tacoma Narrows bridge on SR-16, headed North at about 6:40am.

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under his feet,

all sheep and oxen,

and also the beasts of the field,

the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8, ESV

I pray that I would be

effective in my work,

disciplined with my time,

loving to my coworkers,

forward-looking in my calling,

mindful of my family,

reflecting of Your grace,

throughout the day.

Looks like life is changing again... A day before my birthday, I got a 4-week layoff notice. My last day at SAIC in Kent, WA would be February 23. Thankfully, I've just got word this week that I should be transitioning to up to Poulsbo, WA to support my old division on a pretty exciting project. It's nice to stay in the company (certainly makes life a lot easier) and the new project sounds like a lot of fun -- good career experience, work that's satisfying and interesting, and working mostly with a group that I'm already pretty familiar with.

I'm excited about the future. I'm not sure where this road leads in terms of deep technical expertise vs. getting back into academics possibly with a Master's degree vs. moving towards management, but there are many opportunities and options that will be fun to explore.

God is good. Not just because things worked out in this initially stressful situation, but because he has promised to be faithful to his people and he always is. It was wonderful to experience the care and support of a number of friends, family members, and co-workers who all rallied behind me in my efforts to move forward, and provided comfort and support. My thanks to all of you.

Although I'm not sure of the details, I'm hoping that I will have some energy to move forward with a number of projects over the next year. There are some software projects that I wanted to kickoff, some more opportunities I wanted to chase down for the new business, and some fun projects around the house that I wanted to work on with Sarah.

Picture from National Geographic (http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/patterns-sand/egypt-sand-dunes-photography.html)

So I'm listening to a new Pandora station this morning (Thanks Robert for the suggestion -- good stuff). The music of the particular track that I'm listening to at the moment reminds me so much of an old MS-DOS game called Privateer by Origin Systems. I remember distinctly getting the game from my Dad in 1993 and loading all 7 or so diskettes into our ancient beast of a computer. After some tweaking to fix some memory issues, we finally got it up and running. The basic gameplay is as a pilot of [initially] a small ship, flying between planets, space stations, asteroids, and other bases while choosing to play as a trader, a mercenary, or whatever you chose.

This game was amazing. The graphics of course look awful now as I review the site. But the game play was incredible. The joystick took some skill to use effectively whether you chose life as a merchant or a gun for hire. Interaction and AI wasn't great, but for the time, it was pretty good. I spent many hours playing the game and really enjoyed it. The music was "futuristic" synthesized music, probably not the best quality, but it always felt so fitting for the game. The game created an incredibly immersive world that sucked you in despite the relative simplicity compared to modern games like EVE Online. It was a good balance. I was inspired, intrigued, and entertained but not to the point that I forgot about reality altogether. Newer games definitely provide more depth than this old-time game, but I can't afford to spend an average of 2.5 hours per day (which apparently is average for EVE Online players).

I did also play Freelancer (made by the same designer after Origin was acquired by Electronic Arts) but it just didn't feel the same.

Anyone out there know or or can recommend any games like this that can balance a high level of fascination with a certain restraint that still encourages reality?

How can a young man keep his way pure?
  By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
  let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
  that I might not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
  teach me your statutes!
With my lips I declare
  all the rules of your mouth.
In the way of your testimonies I delight
  as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts
  and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
  I will not forget your word.

I'm here to say that Quentin Tarantino stole my idea.

Also you'll notice that I still have some outstanding homework to complete. My Mom returned this to me, and let me know that she's still waiting on this (notice I have one more "fig" left). I intend to fax and return ASAP -- I was home schooled -- she's not just Mom, she's the principle and apparently I shouldn't have graduated.

Posted many other places but I've always enjoyed this:

I am going to to translate a passage of good English into modern English of the worst sort. Here is a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes:

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Here it is in modern English:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

This is a parody, but not a very gross one.  [...] It will be seen that I have not made a full translation. The beginning and ending of the sentence following the original meaning fairly closely, but in the middle the concrete illustrations--race, battle, bread--dissolve into the vague phrase "success or failure in competitive activities." This had to be so, because no modern writer of the kind I am discussing--no one capable of using phrases like "objective considerations of contemporary phenomena"--would ever tabulate his thoughts in that precise and detailed way. The whole tendency of modern prose is away from concreteness. Now analyze these two sentences a little more closely. The first contains forty-nine words but only sixty syllables, and all its words are those of everyday life. The second contains thirty-eight words of ninety syllables: eighteen of its words are from Latin roots, and one from Greek. The first sentence contains six vivid images, and only one phrase ("time and chance") that could be called vague. The second contains not a single fresh, arresting phrase, and in spite of its ninety syllables it gives only a shortened version of the meaning contained in the first. Yet without a doubt it is the second kind of sentence that is gaining ground in modern English. I do no want to exaggerate. This kind of writing is not yet universal, and outcrops of simplicity will occur and there in the worst-written page. Still, if you or I were told to write a few lines on the uncertainty of human fortunes, we should probably come much nearer to my imaginary sentence that to the one from Ecclesiastes.

From George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language", 1946 -- emphasis is mine.

Perhaps my brain is turning to mush a bit young, but I'm often quite baffled by modern writers who seem to intentionally be making language become liquid and amorphous. Even more troubling, I find that people often will point to something like the parody sentence above and be convinced that because of its technical use of language, it's probably superior, and even more concrete. Loss of metaphor, use of highly specialized language, and tacking of rote phrases and clauses together results in a meaningless jumble of confusion.

See also: George Orwell on Writing

Want to know something scary? There are bugs living on your eyelashes! Yes, that's right: little parasitic mites that are similar in some ways to spiders. They enjoy a hardy diet of skin oils and fluids around hair follicles. Yum! They're mostly harmless but apparently can cause some problems in some folks, in particular a rash (demodicosis or Demodex mite bite) or some inflammation of the eyelid (Blepharitis). Interestingly, the older you get, the more likely that you have these. These little guys are less than a millimeter in length but sure do look scary up close. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.

Here are three of these little bugs, embedded head-first in a hair follicle:

And a nice shot showing the whole body:

There's some neat information on Wikipedia and also quite a few anecdotes on Google of people dealing with bites and solutions for them. For most of us, they're just disgusting little reminders that we're not as clean as we like to think.

Also, "Demodex and the Mitey Blepharitis" would be a sweet name for a rock band.