[	Tags	|	blah blah blah, blog	]
[	Current Location	|	StrayLight	]
[	mood	|	amused	]
[	music	|	Sex In The City	]

Rahsaan Pringle

The Search Engine

04/04/08

Random Application Development

Rahsaan had been having another one of his famous bouts of enthusiasm. This was like depression, but different. Some people get depressed and find that they are unable to function. Rahsaan occasionally found that he had an idea in his head that would not go away. He felt as if he had no choice but to pursue the idea with the object of his enthusiasm. He hated the way his abilities seemed to be in some way or another, dictated more by his emotions, and less by his knowledge of the applications he dealt with on a regular basis. This time, it was a search engine. He had been up for a week thinking about some sort of search engine application. He was amazed at the fact that he was able to get a mock up working in only two days. The application would connect with websites, and download the page. After that, it could parse the HTML and pull out links and HTML tags. The thing that he was not able to get together was the purpose. What would be the purpose of the application? Was he going to try to out Google Yahoo? Would this play into his obsession with Artificial Intelligence? Without a purpose, all action was “Random Application Development”.

A couple with a purpose

Rahsaan and Debbie had similar desires. Both of them wanted to advance conservatism. Both of them wanted to build passive income. Neither of them had any idea how to do either. Rahsaan often fancied himself as a writer, and he considered Debbie to be a great thinker. He had often wondered about how the two of them could make something useful out of their wasted energies. They had been watching “Sex in the City” for about a month now, and to some extent, that was where his flavor for narration had come from. Earlier that night, the two of them had been in Barnes and Noble. He was thinking that the two of them could try listening to audiobooks together. Both of them had been into political books lately. He had also considered the possibility of learning a language together. He didn't really see where the PAC would come out of that effort. He had also considered the two of them putting forth a coordinated effort on selling her art. That was not a PAC action either. The question remained. What was to be done with all of the wasted energy.

The Tree Climber

It was early in April. Rahsaan arrived with a heavy box in the back of his car. Debbie was painting. She came outside giving him the mother hairy eyeball as he opened the hatch of his car. She took off her headphones as he pulled his skateboard out of his car and put it on the driveway. He lifted the box, and let it drop onto the deck with a sliding “whoomp”. He started to pull the box to the side of the driveway.

“Can you give me a hand?” he said with some effort in between grunts.

“Vaat Are you Dooing?” she replied, with a bad imitation of a Russian accent.

“I am going to build a tree thing” he replied.

She stepped forward, and ripped the top off of the RubberMaid box. When she looked down, she saw what looked like a mass of clay shapes in various shapes and sizes. When they had moved the mass halfway across the yard, they came to a soft wet spot. It had been raining that week, and the skateboard wheels simply could not support the weight.

“Are we going to the Sycamores?” she said.

“Yup” he grunted.

When they had reached the trees, she asked him what the plan was.

“I am going to drill these climbing posts into the tree.” he said, as if he were describing making a bed.

“You are going to fall and bust your fucking head.” she replied, as if he were describing how he was about to jump off of a building.

He had heard her, but he didn't really like the possibility, so he pretended not to notice. He pulled a drill out of the box, picked up a clay piece, and started drilling it into the tree. At that moment, she had decided that she would forgive him for the nights when he would go over to his friends place and get drunk playing HALO 3 until 3:00 AM. She had made that decision about the last time he had “guys night in”. He would have to earn the next the next occasion. He would not get it for free.

[	Tags	|	blah blah blah, blog, butterthug	]
[	Current Location	|	Elizabeth	]
[	mood	|	confused	]
[	music	|	PodFunk	]

·      01.09.08

o    Blogs vs Social Networking

§      For some time now, I have noticed that whenever I run into old friends, people don’t ask for phone numbers anymore. They don’t even ask for email addresses regularly. Now, everyone asks where you do your social networking. The usual form of the question is “What is your MySpace?” I do think that social networking sites are cool. It’s an idea that I had thought of a long time ago. With that being said, I am not really a social networker. As I said, I have a MySpace, a FaceBook, and I even have a StumbleUpon. According to my habits, I am more of a blogger. I enjoy LiveJournal for the simplicity, which is the lack of advertisements. I also like it for the fact that I have had it since 2003, and as far as I know, all of my work is still online, still in the form that I created it. Longevity may not sound important in the world of instant online profiles, but what we do takes our time, and that gives it some value, even if the account we do it on is free. Free service providers that disappear don’t do a disservice by offering service for free, but a certain amount of effort is wasted with every free account that disappears into the ether without a trace. Every now and then, when I write, I stop to think, am I writing for myself, or for the nameless, faceless audience that could be lurking about, reading the site? The real answer is “I blog to blog”. I am not compiling a book, there is no massive underground audience clinging to my every word, and I might never read what has been written. With that being said, how does social networking fit into it all? While it seems like a good way to keep up with people separated by time or distance, I often find that when I check on the sites of people I know, I find out less about what is new in their lives, and more about what new Social Networking applications are popular with the rest of the 50 million users. Of course, if they do not fancy themselves as writers, it might be unfair to expect them to put details of their lives in writing, just because I do it…

[	Tags	|	bits, blah blah blah, blog, butterthug, chilltyme, codethug, comedy, complaining, daydreaming, disappearer, education, el politiko, epundit, excercise, happytime, ponderation, questions, reflectives	]
[	Current Location	|	Elizabeth	]
[	mood	|	bouncy	]
[	music	|	PodFunk	]

·      Hape://Bertha.de

o    BirthDay Funk

§      http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/PodOfFunk/~5/209000705/funkpod_30.mp3

§      I have some BirthDay funk, but it’s not like a down feeling. Actually, it’s like a great excitement. Tomorrow, I will be 34 years old. Because my birthday is so close to the New Year, I generally spend the nine days in between thinking of “resolution candidates”. When the deadline rolls around, I usually settle for what I think of as “recent improvements” in my behavior, as I have never been the type to improve my own behavior intentionally.

§      So what’s news?

·      Lots of news, a lot of it is great, and much of it is not for consumption by the general public. Nothing extra special, just not very interesting. For example:

o    Every year, I come up with a new budget and a plan to be debt free by the end of the year. It is usually not very realistic. This year, I actually make enough income to make it a remote possibility.

o    I am fully geeked out. I have two different bar code scanners. One is a light pen, and the other is the light gun type.

o    I just got a degree, and I am going back to school. It is an online college. The future looks bright, but the web sessions that pass for classes are not so exciting. The courses are easy, but the assignments are like an Easter egg hunt. The professors don’t put the assignments with due dates in the syllabus. You have to go looking around for them.

§      What would you want to be asked if you were being interviewed?

·      That is not a rhetorical question. I am actually writing this for my blog and to send to myself on http://FutureMe.org. I like to talk to people, but I can’t stand superficial conversation. When I say this, I mean, I can’t stand conversations about celebrities, or complaints about “the system” or “society”. Needless to say, I often find myself wishing I had better questions to get people to expand on what they think about life the universe, and everything. Thinking more on it, I should probably develop some questions. What would the future me want to be asked about? While I can’t think of anything good, I can put down what comes to mind. Actually, these come from the book “All about me” by Phillip Keel.

o    If you had no commitments to others, what would you do?

§      I would maximize my education and work experience. I would make my dwelling where ever I found the highest paying job. I think the online education thing is good for the lifestyle I live. It is also good for the lifestyle I would live in such circumstances. I would always keep putting in resumes with different firms. When I get a new job, I would stay for a year. This would be long enough to satisfy the apartment lease. When the lease is up, I would start the job hunt again. I would continue to take classes in the field as opposed to classed for a new degree. I would do this because the industry is always changing, and the moves would be costly to perform, no matter how paltry the new dwelling. I would live meagerly. I would not take huge apartments even if I could afford them. I would also not take anything without a washer and dryer. I would invest all I could in traditional investments, and in my own business, which would have a forwarding post office box, if necessary. For my “own business”, I would do application programming, which I have a lot of great ideas for, as opposed to service programming, with which I have a lot of experience.

o    What is a dream you have had more than once?

§      This is a bad question for me to ask, because I don’t have a real answer.

·      I dream often of climbing on something big and moving, like in “Shadow of the Colossus”.

·      I dream a lot about chasing something very small that moves very quickly. The recurrence is the fact that I always move very slowly, if at all.

·      I dream of being lost in a big place, with a series of closed off areas. There always seems to be a choice of which area to go to next, and each area seems more inappropriate than the last. It is not always the same setting. Sometimes, it is like a Wal*Mart, other times, it is like a hospital, other times, it is like a cave. In every instance, there is never any going back, and there are always multiple choices, and there is always someone calling me by name from an unknown direction.

o    List 5 things you would like to accomplish within the next year. This is my own question.

§      Debt Freedom

·      Credit cards are a real pain in the ass, especially when it is so easy to keep using them and paying them off than it is to simply cut them and pay them off. My mother recently told me about prepaid cards, which are not the same as the secured cards. A prepaid card can actually accept money from direct deposit. They look and work just like other credit cards, except for the fact that they appear to have no connection to your credit, and they extend you no credit. They are simply a spending mechanism, nothing more. I thought of this idea years ago. It is good to see that the rest of the world has caught up.

§      A good schedule

·      Many people try to avoid the 9 to 5 lifestyle. I aspire to it. I would like nothing more than to set a schedule, and follow it for two weeks in a row. I would be ecstatic if I could do the same for two months. Time and money are separate commodities, but time, like money is a highly valuable commodity. If you don’t know where it is going, it is easy to waste a lot of it. If you can not account for it, you can count on the fact that you are wasting it.

§      One (1) or zero (0) packs of cigarettes every month.

·      Currently, I smoke One (1) pack of cigarettes every week. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is so hard to not smoke any that I have been considering hypnosis as a method of elimination. If any readers have tried it, please feel free to offer your opinion on the matter.

§      Successful completion of all classes I am taking.

·      This is less of a hope and more of an expectation, as long as I don’t get the rigorous travel schedule I had last year at this time.

§      An initial release of one of my applications.

·      I have a lot of good ideas; some of them might even be considered good ideas. All of my applications are 75% complete, as far as a release is concerned. I write these applications for myself, and that 75% represents what I need them to be to be functional to myself. That last 25% would represent my confidence in the fact that others would find them useful, if I were to move them to completion.

[	Tags	|	blah blah blah, blog, butterthug, chilltyme, comedy, communism, complaining, el politico, el politiko, epundit, friends, liberals	]
[	Current Location	|	Elizabeth	]
[	mood	|	accomplished	]

• 09.13.07 What's News?

• Pimp My Calculus

  • Tonight, Aaron and I went to Barnes & Noble. I studied a little in the Algebra book to bring myself up to speed for Calculus, he studied chemistry.

• So much of what has happened in the news recently is worthy of comment. I almost feel like i am crazy to not mention it. By the same token, I feel like it crazy to not be involved (or at least interested) in such important events.

• I wrote a letter to Tim Kaine on his website. I told him that I was in the process of organizing voters to un-elect the group of morons who passed the laws that put such heavy fines on drivers. I needed to know if it was him alone, or if there were others to be included. I got no response.

• I am thinking of doing a bumper sticker with Tim Kaine's face on it and the words #@%$ You! I have a chauffeur! If you Really don't like my new traffic fines, you can call me at ###-###-#### to tell me all about it. You can also vote me out of office on ##/##/####.

• Note to self: get the date and the phone number.

• Sometimes, I feel like all of my political efforts occur in a vacuum. I guess that's the nature of being a conservative. Liberals will gladly take time off from not working to advance an agenda that they feel will be to their benefit. Conservatives think of work, and the rewards of being responsible as being in their benefit. Liberals will gladly spend money on T shirts and Bumper stickers. Conservatives try to pay their bills and maybe keep a little out for something nice when the 3 paycheck month rolls around.

• I don't know much, but when it comes to Liberals, I have made a few observations.

  • Liberals complain about the government, but want to see its powers expanded.

  • Liberalism is both a religion, and a mental disorder.

  • A Liberal is one who feels that rights should be distributed freely, but a responsibility is something to be saddled upon the shoulders of another.

  • There are patriots and there are Liberals. The two are mutually exclusive.

  • A Liberal is a fan of mob rule. This is evident in the tendency to want to protest, or shout down opposition.

  • Liberals were pro choice on Slavery, also

  • An American Liberal can recognize no enemy other than an American Conservative.

  • A Liberal is one who would make logical connections that are not plausible, but ignore logical connections that are apparent.

  • To a Liberal, ECONOMICS is spelled TAXES

[	Tags	|	bits, blah blah blah, blog, buena vista, butterthug, chilltyme, comedy, complaining, daydreaming, disappearer, event, family, frission, frustration, happytime, humor, inspiron, jobthug, laughing, lucky, monday, observation, optimistic, passingtime, ponderation	]
[	Current Location	|	Elizabeth	]
[	mood	|	cheerful	]
[	music	|	The crazy lady upstairs...	]

• 08.19.07.What's News?

1. This morning, I woke up in Roanoke. Last night, I had arrived at about 2AM after an all night session doing battle with the Active Directory at KHC. Weez and Kdev were going to visit Nan in Troutville. I needed to go back to BedRock to pick up a paycheck and a graduation check. I stopped at the spot and picked up a fat new MTech 440 Steel. This thing is a full precision WetWorks tool. It's too cool to keep for myself, but I can't decide who to give it to. It looks like RedNeck Goth, if there is such a thing. When I got to BedRock, I noticed that my oil was due for a change. Standing in the office, I almost started to work more on the network, but I thought better of it, because it's a Sunday, and the JiffyLube would probably have been closed by the time I left the office. The nearest JiffyLube that I could think of is in Forest. Of course, I could think of Forest easily, because that's where the JCrew outlet is. I got the oil change and stopped in at JCrew. I picked up trousers and some socks. On the way back up to RockTown, I stopped by Buena Vista. Buena Vista is a small (really small) town between Roanoke and Harrisonburg. It's more or less across the interstate from Lexington. The proximity and low house prices make it a prime location for our next home. I drove around until I found a real estate office. Looking at the house prices, my jaw dropped. Some of the new estates that are going up could not easily be classified as “houses”. Many of them cost six figures. By the same token, there were plenty of decent looking 3 and 4 bedroom houses going for under $100k. I thought about the possibilities all the way back to RockTown. It's a good thing I had that to think about, because my MP3 player had no more charge, and I am not in the habit of carrying a lot of CDs on the road. On top of that, I was a little tired from staying up so late last night. Getting back to RockTown, I laid down for a little while, played Halo 1, and thought about going on a hike. When I went to the window, I saw that it was sprinkling from an almost cloudless sky, such a beautiful thing. I went to Wal-Mart to get some basics. I'm planning to head back to Roanoke tomorrow, because my grandmother is visiting from Newark, New Jersey. I am going to ask to work half days from home this week. Walking into Wal-Mart, my new JCrew trousers set off the alarm with the sewn in RFID tag. They come with a cloth-attached tag that you are supposed to cut off when you buy the clothing. I resent the fact that anyone would expect me to take scissors or knife to my newly purchased clothing, so I usually leave the tags on. The RFID tags are no good after going through the washer and dryer, so it's never an issue. Of course, you don't wash Leather trousers, and this pair of trousers was just purchased, so the tag worked fine. Does Wal-Mart sell leather trousers? I walked into the store with a short list of items to pick up in my head.

• Deodorant

• Vasaline
  

• Bunny Food

• Lotion
  

• Vegetables

• Motor Oil

• Trail Bars

• String
  

• Bottled Water

• Duct Tape
  

• Tooth Paste

• A Kazoo
  

• Milk

• When the alarm sounded, I continued to walk normally, and no one approached me. I also forgot everything on my list. Looking around the store, I remembered a few of the items, but I started to get nervous about leaving. Should I just walk out like normal? Should I say to the docile little woman at the door “It's OK, it's just my funky trousers”? Should I make a break for it? How far could I run with these trousers on? I wondered around the store until I remembered a few of the items on the list and went to get in line. Leaving, the alarm sounded, and again no one approached me. Personal note to self: Don't pay for things at Wal-Mart. Walking to my car, I thought a lot about how nervous I was in the store. I thought a lot about how embarrassed I would have been if I had been apprehended. I thought a lot about how odd it would have been to have my ass kicked by a woman while wearing leather trousers. Note to self... I digress. Apparently, I mused on the subject a bit too long, because when I got back to the apartment, I was still in LaLaLand. The sprinkling had turned into a small summer storm, and I wanted to get into the apartment without getting soaked. I backed my car in, turned off the wipers and lights, put my MP3 player and charger in the grocery bag, grabbed my bag, locked the door, got out of the car, and remembered that the keys were still in the ignition. As I stood looking stupidly into the quickly fogging windows, I could hear that the engine was still running. I could also hear the storm growing in intensity. My apartment has about a 6 inch eave, so when you step outside, if it is raining, you get wet. I tried to prop my bag up in front of the door so the MP3 player could stay relatively dry. I am not a big guy, but apparently I am more than 6 inches from front to back. I found that I could not make a call without getting soaked. I ran out to get under a few trees in front of the apartment. I have another set of keys in my desk drawer at work. Paging through the list of co-workers, I called the ones that I thought might be available. Voice Mail, Voice Mail, Voice Mail. Some of the students in a house across the way were standing out in the rain drinking water out of red Solo cups and screaming “Woo!” In unison. As the rain intensified, they started picking up the cups and taking the table inside. Apparently, they didn't want the rain water. I ran up to the door just as the last one was closing it. Knocking on the door, I heard “Oh Shit, that big black midget is at the door!”, “Put that shit out”, and “He looks like a cop”. I have been called a lot of things in my life, but... I digress. A sheepish looking girl came to the door and I told her about my naughty keys. She said that she would look, but she thought everyone was using plastic coat hangars these days. 30 seconds later, she came back and said that they had no metal coat hangars in the house. Note to self: Become a cop and arrest the whole lot of them. I ran back to the grove of trees and looked around. I went to knock on another neighbor, Juan's door. Fortunately, he was there. He did have a metal hangar, but it was a HUGE gold colored hangar that was for some reason, neatly unwound and straightened almost perfectly, except for the hook at the end. I thanked him, and proceeded to start scratching up my brand new car. The door locks in my car are not electric, but they do have rubbery nips at the top, so there is nothing for a hangar to grip on to. I went back to Juan's door to see if he had a tennis ball, and he was like “I never would have guessed you to be a YouTube addict... Are you a cop?” Before I could answer, my phone rang. It was JoTho, from work. JoTho is an ex immigration officer who had never actually retired. I don't think he turned in his weapon, either. He has threatened to shoot me several times.

• “Rahsaan”

• “Pringle, Didn't I tell you not to lock yourself out?”

• “No, sir”

• “Alright, I'll be there in a minute.”

• “Great, I am at...”

• Click

• 3 minutes later, The phone rang again. It was JoTho.

  • “Where are you at?”

  • “I'm at my apartment, It's a stones throw from Calhoun's. I have a spare set of keys in my desk at the office.”

  • “Fine, GodDammit!”

  • Pregnant pause...

  • “JoTho?”

  • “Here is what I am going to do. I'm going to go to the office and get your keys out of your desk. After that, I am going to bring your keys to you. You are going to be waiting for me and your keys at the bar at Calhoun's! YOU HEAR ME PRINGLE?!?”

  • “Yes Sir!”

  • Click

  • When I closed my phone I looked around the room and Juan, and the two women he lived with, and the two babies they had were all looking at me with big eyes and wide open mouths. I guess JoTho didn't lose his touch. I thanked them and ran downtown to Calhoun's. JoTho time is weird. He could be 45 minutes late, or he could be 45 minutes early. Either way JoTho was my boss, and if he said to wait for him at the bar, I was going to wait for him at the bar, no questions asked.

[	Tags	|	blah blah blah, blog, butterthug, chilltyme, complaining, daydreaming, disappearer, education, family, frustration, happytime, pain, ponderation	]
[	Current Location	|	Elizabeth	]
[	mood	|	cheerful	]
[	music	|	Professor LongHair	]

• What's news?
• Deb will be flying off to Greece & Italy tomorrow.
• In a way I would like to be going, but I am taking two classes right now, and I am actually thrilled to not be able to go for a reason other than money.
• If all goes well, I will be free of my most troublesome debt at the end of the year.
• That in itself is cause for celebration.
• KB is in the hospital.
• He has some sort of 'mystery disease' that could be related to his time in Iraq.
• If all goes well, I will be graduating next month.
• I am SOOOO excited!
• I have Katari's mp3 player.
• It is a Pocket DJ, just like mine, and it has a cracked screen.

[	Tags	|	.net, blah blah blah, blog, butterthug, codethug, coding, complaining, da projekts, daydreaming, frustration	]
[	Current Location	|	Elizabeth	]
[	mood	|	accomplished	]
[	music	|	Neighbors getting high	]

• 05.08.07
• Well Happy Anniversary! A year ago today, I started at SI International. I remember when I got there, I felt seriously outclassed by the other talent. Now, a year has passed, and I feel seriously outclassed by the other talent. It seems like I have a great knack for the impressive new technology that's always on the bleeding edge. I like working for SI, even if I am now part of a project that helps Immigrants get into the country. At least it is helping them get in legally. In fact, some of my "ShotGun Innovations" May be credited with streamlining the process, making it easier to distinguish who should stay, and who should go. I got a little bit frustrated tonight. earlier, I went to the Artful Dodger after work to work on some work. When I got there, I didn't have my charger, but I did have a full battery. My machine took forever to boot up, and I didn't have the reading material I had printed up to read with me. When I did finally get up and running, the project was locked, some problem with Visual SourceSafe, I think. Also, the network at the coffee shop was down, so I couldn't get online. I came back to the apartment, installed Visual Studio on the DeskTop, and started sorting through my CD collection. I am trying to get File backups, Applications, and application backups organized into the various CD binders. The kids upstairs are getting high, making a lot of noise. I need to go to bed, even though I am not tired or sleepy.

[	Tags	|	acerola, blog, codethug, comedy, daydreaming, el politiko, family	]
[	Current Location	|	Elizabeth	]
[	mood	|	contemplative	]
[	music	|	The couple upstairs smoking pot and coughing	]

1. In life, conditions are always changing. We can live our lives in small towns, and surround ourselves with close family and friends, but any time there is interaction between humans, variability is introduced. In our own minds, we go from needing variability in our youth, to needing more stability as we age. The part about the youth is evidenced by the fact that teens so often have an insatiable desire to go to the same place. Where exactly is 'out' located, anyway? Once I had ventured so far as to ask my stepdaughter where the mythical land of out was located. She looked me as if I had just sprung a new appendage from my forehead, and said, 'out there, and not in here'. Needless to say, I slept much better with the mystery solved. In a way, I like having teens around. Teens remind us that we need to get out and see the world around us every now and then. As a software developer, I am constantly trying to balance the structured and changing concepts. In real life, we can't stop to debug our errors. In a way, I think that part of the appeal with video games has to do with the ability to 'do-over' when a fatal mistake has been made. In real life, I think that the majority of the fatal mistakes we make don't happen in an instant, they take time to manifest. I am not discounting the power of the catastrophic disaster, there are plenty of these to be aware of. My point is that, because the catastrophic disasters are catastrophic, they are the ones we are more likely to pass along to each other. When I was in the service, we were once out on Bivouac. We found ourselves so bored that we resorted to playing an odd game. We got out a map, and took turns finding the location specified by a spotter. The spotter would give some set of letters from the location (usually the three closest to the middle), and the rest of us would try to find the spot. After some time, we noticed that the smallest names were not the hardest to find, it was the L A R G E names that would be sprawled across the map. In similar fashion, I think that the hardest dangers to spot are not going to be the most catastrophic, the catastrophes are advertised, as evidenced by the VA Tech shooter. The hardest dangers to avoid are the ones that mope along, because you can never outrun them.