found this at CodeWarriorU.com "The Introduction to C++ Programming course is designed for both beginner and experienced programmers."

for the beginnier it's an intro; otherwise i'd guess that it's designed to be a sedative...

quote from alison, at bluishorange.com:




conversation had with myself while making my parents' bed:


"hmm, this striped bottom sheet thing looks kind of square.  i wonder which way it goes."


"the stripes should be vertical.  vertical stripes are slimming."


"yeah, but on a bed.  wouldn't you want your bed to look bigger?"


"you'd think that, wouldn't you?"

Jesus of the Week 2001 "Jesus is coming. Look busy."

gm.  this is the earliest oob since i quit my job.  laid in bed listening to the 80's; journey, styx, queen (winamp auto-starts at 8:30am), then crawled out, started coffee, folded futon, and judi called.  "change of plans, stay in bed," she said. 

"rrrrph, ihg nooo ate," said i. 

"WHAT?" 

then i started up the tractor which i have been keeping in the back of my throat for the past couple weeks, and dredged a path of intelligibility through the night's accumulation.  then i said, again, "well, dear, that's nice, but it's too late now.  i am up and about." 

also, the second time, i moved my lips. 

well, let's see if i can come up with any more inane crap to post... 

tweaked the blogvoices 'flag' script for the last time—i hope.  i should just pretend it's cool, but it's not.  all it does is switch from blogvoices' dynamically-generated javascript source (during BV's server-overload time period) to a 'dead' copy of bv.js on my server.  the script doesn't even know whether bv is slow or not—it just switches during whatever time i programmed it to (from 2pm - 9pm, i think.  i don't even remember.)  making it actively watch 24-7 for a delay and then automatically switch to an archived—or better yet, preloaded—version (ooo, there's an idea); that might be cool. 

no matter, though, because my server is not much faster than blogvoices' server lately, ever since the goldbrickers at XO communications bought my domain host, concentricnet.  i used to have a ping (at burgwinkel.com) in the 80's.  today it was 414!  i know that i know very little about network protocols, but the increase in ping rate seems to coincide with a newly sluggish page loading rate from my site, independant of any slowdown by blogvoices.  not to mention all the ftp and telnet disasters they (at XO) have been creating...

enough.  i must ...ohhhmmmmmmmmm... relax, and focus my mind on peaceful ...ohhhmmmmmmmmm... things, and prepare my body to slip off ...ohhhmmmmmmmmm... into the netherworld that follows after ...ohhhmmmmmmmmm... one finally comes to the complete acceptance ...ohhhmmmmmmmmm... that another totally wasted day is over.   ;)

besides, i'm getting heartburn. 

got im'd on napster yesterday by a guy from france who was downloading maria, by blondie.  'hi', he said.  i said, 'hey.'  blondie hasn't been in france lately, he said.  he's a 35-year-old firefighter, in Strasbourg, France.  '...and u?' he innocently asked. 

he didn't know i used to be a firefighter—how could he?  but i sat there frozen for a moment, as my frame of reference expanded in a breathtaking instant from the 18 inch space between me and my monitor to the 3711 mile space between me and this guy in france.  whhoooh.  just remembering it is a rush. 

the poor guy was then subjected to a gush of my reminiscences about firefighting.  he sent a pic, and asked me for one.  i sent my best one—me at work last year.  but i think he wants pics of people around firefighting stuff—like his pic.  i have none. 

listening.  overtaken by the sounds of garrison keillor's banter with greg brown, and i recall that music is people -- human people, human hearts, simple sound. 

listening to 'never so far' performed by greg brown on a prarie home companion in october 2000.  its surface has the naked texture of brushed metal, the sound of greg's voice does - and it's as substantial as iron, it's so very deep and gentle. 

gotta be careful, or be overtaken... 

sorry, no.  that's another scene. 

i'm off to postmark my request for a hearing -- i am going to appeal my disqualification from unemployment.  i have 48 hours left (to postmark my request), but better early than not at all.  (gee, work would never think that was me talking.)  cya.


§

my, how time flies...

i have been tweaking (you know how i am with tweaking...) a new blog which i started on a whim.  i guess the germ of the concept was planted when bernard (happy birthday, bernard!) told me of a court case in which a former FBI agent accused of drunk driving was ordered to repeat, exactly, the hoisting of drinks and gorging of Mexican food he did on the night in question.  The judge in that case -- apparently a 'law-and-order' man -- is engaging these extraordinary departures from judicial practice in an effort to acquit the lawman based on some bizarre logic that says we can make you repeat what you said you did (as if that's the truth) and thereby 'prove' that you were not drunk (as if that's proof). 

it started me thinking how there may be many ultra-conservative, fanatically religious, racially biased judges out there who, inspired by the Supreme Court's gerrymandering of law, may now feel freed from the judicious restraint they have imposed on their biases in the past.  why bother now that the gang of five has, on the basis of untenable arguments, so vigourously expressed their true colors?  <fade to rehnquist doing plies in a sunny flowered field while cindy lauper sings>

well anyway, that's what got me started on starting the other blog, and to tell the truth, it scares me, looking at those fleeting dark thoughts out here in print, and observing the shift in the behavior of many judges and the new boldness of some of them to violate long-standing ethical prohibitions against partiality. 

there is a courthouse in worcester, massachusetts with this harsh motto carved in stone: obedience to law is liberty.  i have never liked it, but my observations of new judicial excursions outside the law while under the color of authority make me want to re-carve it thus: obedience to truth is liberty. 

are these too looooooooong?

napster is up and down upanddownupanddownupanddownupanddown... today.  but it is not gone. 

i fear it will be, though.  they ask us to press our congresspersons to support the movement, to express our napster-devotions to record companies, and to stay connected and keep napster running on our computers.  the last i will do.  hell, i religiously practiced the seti 'distributed processing' thing for a long time.  and if i am going to be religious about it, the napster thing is much more a part of my world and closer to my heart than ET. 

yet, i hope... 

ok, after some motrin and broken dishes, i think i have that stupid script working!  comment at will...

napster was smokin last night (or this morning, like 4am) -- everybody was there!  searches were fast, high bit-rates were abundant, and i got stuck in some sort of sixties reminiscence (thank you kvjc, you have an excellent collection!) 

now, of course, i obey the wishes of those pricks (whose assholes are so tight they could snap broomsticks) who want the RIAA to rule (heil!), and i do not actually keep any of these things.  that would upset the economic balance of the universe, and send us careening into really dangerous places (lions and tigers and bears -- oh my!) or at least into places unfamiliar.  (lions and tigers and bears -- oh my!)

anyway, these are most of the gems i found, almost all at 320.  and of course i am not listening to them right now, of course i am not flying through the intoxicating ether that is music, of course i am not swimming in that exquisitely delicate, massively moving sea that is music. 

i am not.  that would be anti-social (or something). 

enjoy life a little. 

i have been re-reading a minor history of bubble-baths.  it is amazing how often they were needed throughout the progress of mankind, yet how often their soothing peace was forfeited for our familiar angst.  i am no queen (marcus schenkenberg notwithstanding), but i am also no dummy and i have learned a bit from a minor history.  now i will imerse my aching, flabbous (well, really only slightly mis-shapen) frame into the gentle (mmmmmm...), warm (aahhhh...), slippery (oh, yeah...), pulsating (!), uh, no -- got a bit carried away -- not pulsating, but nonetheless rejuvenating bubblebath.  therefrom i shall emerge -- serene. 

oh, and might i mention the tinkering (apparent at the top of this page) which i am doing to try and make this page actually load when BlogVoices is blogged down (like earlier this evening).  the code is only half finished (scriptus interruptus via vomitus), but the idea that is developing is to just prevent calls to the BV server during their peakload times, thus allowing this immeasurably valuable page to load quickly, while relieving some of the stress on BV. 

i really do appreciate that service; it is nothing less than precious to the cohesion of this type of community, as given witness by the massive demand on it.  and if i have overstated that, then at least i can say authoritatively that the comments it yields are precious to me. 

thanks, you commenter, you. 

of course my tinkerage disables commenting during the time it is speeding up page loads.  ah, well.  perhaps it's only temporary.  more tweaking tomorrow... 

as dudley moore's manservant in the movie arthur would say, "you're bahhhth awaits." 

i was feeling fine at noon, and by five i was starving.  so i cooked up <gag> a bunch of greasy sausage <retch> and eggs.  two bites and i was closely inspecting the condition of my toilet seat.  oohhhhuuukchffft, (wipes mouth).  sorry.  you know how that taste... oh, never mind. 

anyway, the turmoil seems to be, ...um, ...passing, so to speak (or at least on its way there).  you know, it is amazing how certain urgencies can make us gladly put our fair faces in certain places where, once having seen it up close, we then think twice about putting our fair asses there. 

if the rapid progress of this storm through my alimentary canal is any guage of its duration, then i can predict i will be through this -- or it through me -- by morning.  and already i am tolerating a little cherry garcia.  i would faint if not for ben & jerry; this weak-trembling-ness sucks, and i think i'll be in bed by eleven. : that's at least six hours earlier than my usual bedtime, for about the last month anyway.  so maybe this is a good thing, to get me back on track.  (yeah, right.  like curing jet-lag with a crash.)

also, thanks to whoever returned via 'permalink'.  you alerted me to my sloppy url-coding.  for the first time, i'm using non-relative, (i.e.: "../../img/me_and_marcus_schenkenberg_in_bed.jpg") non-absolute (i.e.: "http://burgwinkel.com/img/me_and_marcus_schenkenberg_under_the_bed.jpg") url's in my image links, like this: "/img/me_and_the_bed_on_marcus_schenkenberg.jpg" -- no dots and no domain name -- soze i can move pages down to the blogchive directory without losing images.  and i have no eff'n idea why i'm explaining all this.  it would have been interesting to me once.  i guess that's why. 

or maybe i'm delerious... 

shawn fanning can have anything he wants at my house...  <grin>

you know something?  i really like the pat metheny group.  i never would have realized that, except for napster.  i mean, come-the-fuck-on, napster does the same thing as radio stations, only napster isn't wrapped around the record exec's cocks like radio stations are (or at least napster hasn't taken that position in the past -- we'll soon see if they can continue to abstain...).  it's a tantrum we let the recording cartel get away with; napster ultimately does what the recording industry pays dj's to do -- only napster does it better and without advertising expenses -- but the RIAA exec's stomp and whine and shout "NO!" 

just cuz they can. 

excuse me whilst i puke. 

tweaking the layout, halfway there...

g'day.  coffee, windowshades, the knowledge of a perfectly sparkling-sunny-crisp-clear-bluesky day outside, and lots of html to tweak, all make for a contented (if unemployed) soul. 

fascinating rambling thoughts.  and don't go there just for his voice.  but go there. 

now, finally, i am going to bed (i promise) and go to sleep, listening to mays talk. 

Tales of a Slut

it thrilled me with its class, its antics made me laugh out loud, and i cried for its more than close to the heart familiarity.  bravo. 

reminder to self:  investigate this guy, chay, more later on. 

i can't believe he calls this image 'chaysilly'.  i know that i have a rather flattened affect as the result of my own caffeine abuse; perhaps he and i have something in common.  he does drink coffee (espressoes, lattes, etc.). 

<sigh>  fevered dreams upon temporal brow, still-beating hearts do hope, and the soul in angst exudes its glistening sweat in the innocence of tear'd eyes.  bedtime.