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Sunday, July 5th, 2009
patrissimo
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2:13p
fireworks happy
Saw the SF fireworks from roof of house by Fort Mason yesterday. The fireworks included happy faces, cubes, and 3-axis-ring planets (ie a sphere with 3 perpendicular rings). Sweet.
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patrissimo
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2:03p
more chips, good, less rounds, bad
I just learned about the 30K starting chips (yay) and the 4 rounds per day (boo!). 8 hours of poker per day is so little...this is annoying b/c ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) willmagic & I have a conference Thu-Sat. I had expected it to be a case of "The WSOP will interfere w/ the conference only if we get far and don't mind". But instead, it doesn't sound like we'll get into the money until well into Day 3 (the day that overlaps the conference).
Boo. Deep stacks and more play, I like, but 4 rounds in a day? Back when I started playing poker, we played 6 rounds - and the old timers made fun of us for not just playing the whole thing straight through as a marathon!
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asperger
[ amazinvossman ]
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4:45p
A LinkedIn Discussion Board Post I Made Concerning College Experiences
Sorry if it seems that I'm tooting my own horn, and/or using an elongated title. However, I figure this may be something worth showing those parents with spectrum children heading to college, or said children themselves. I was given a ton of feedback and kudos, so here goes:
Original question:
I am new to this group so forgive me if this has been discussed before. It seems that support and eduction for younger kids with autism or aspergers is well covered but I seldom see information or support for kids/young adults as they approach college age or start carer planning. As a Father of an aspie young man, who is going to a local college and living at home, I worry about how to fund the right major that leads to a viable career. I know many parents that have aspie kids with high IQ's that worry more about the social aspects, but my son is not outstanding in that area. Does anyone have experiences or resources that they would like to share that has helpe dthem in getting their child through higher educaton and on the path to a career? Thanks - Steven
My response:
Hello Dr. Jackson,
I'm not sure if this comment space is too old, but being an Aspie student myself, it was an interesting odyssey as to where I am today. I don't consider myself outstanding in one area either, to start.
I pursued a degree in Management Information Systems while trying to branch out enough to get some diverse courses. This way, I could focus on my interests in business, projects, and general computer systems. Currently I am working in Web Operations, which is a tie-in to business ops, IT, and yes, data entry.
I can't say the job search was easy; when I finally did get that first job I couldn't hold it for more than two months, because the mind wasn't focused and the position turned out to not be interesting. I focused on getting the job rather than the job itself. Thankfully, when I was getting ready to get out, I was let go in a business decision (or so I was told), which allowed me to reach my current position.
If you're looking to hear about college itself, I was quite awkward, but I ended up fitting in with those that were a little awkward themselves, which was fine. There were no popularity contests or the like during my time at Ship. I reached out to the career center for interview help to prep me, which paid off after a lot of "trial and error." A lot of what to do for career prep I found out from what my fellow peers were doing, in addition to advice that I would receive in class. It helped me get two summers of internships on the way.
I agree with the earlier post asking what your son is interested in. Based on my own experience, I'd use that as the stepping stone. What types of people has he gravitated to in the past? He'll likely turn out fine, as long as he keeps up the process for getting his foot in the door, especially in these times. It's really about honing the largest weaknesses.
I'm not sure if that was everything you were looking for in this entry, but hopefully it's a perspective from a person both relatively fresh out of college and on the spectrum. Thanks for posing a great question, and I'm glad I could share a story with you.
-Chris Voss
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marginalrevtion
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4:21p
Markets in everything: convert the atheist, on Turkish TV
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/07/new-turkish-tv-shows-trust-then-verify.html From The Guardian, via Effect Measure: It sounds like the beginning of a joke: what do you get when you put
a Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, a Buddhist monk and 10
atheists in the same room? Viewers of Turkish television will
soon get the punchline when a new game show begins that offers a prize
arguably greater than that offered by Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Contestants
will ponder whether to believe or not to believe when they pit their
godless convictions against the possibilities of a new relationship
with the almighty on Penitents Compete (Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor
in Turkish), to be broadcast by the Kanal T station. Four spiritual
guides from the different religions will seek to convert at least one
of the 10 atheists in each programme to their faith. Those
persuaded will be rewarded with a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of
their newly chosen creed – Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for Christians
and Jews, and Tibet for Buddhists. The real prize, of course, is the conversion itself. But if you are faking it just to win the trip, I believe Islam is at a disadvantage. By the way, they do "verify" that you are an atheist in the first place, using a panel of eight theologians (are they so hard to fool?), plus they monitor your behavior afterwards to see you truly have become a believer.
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devreux
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4:29p
Big Progress
WE HAVE A HUGE HOUSE-SHAPED PIECE OF CANVAS! Sitting wadded up in the middle of the dining room floor. ;-P
Seriously, we made enormous progress this weekend. ariannawyn, I can say with nearly 100% confidence that we will have a canvas tent for Pennsic. (I suppose it is remotely possible that it will rain so much between now and then that we will not have any opportunity to make all the wooden bits and do the vital first set up, but I think that's unlikely.) Remaining to do: Pound a bunch of grommets; attach stake-down loops and door ties; sew the seam that defines the break between wall and mud flap all around the bottom of the tent; take it to the outlaws' place to fit all the wood bits (including making the ridgepole) and set it up; seal the interior of a few seams. Whoo!
current mood: accomplished
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stevesailer
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1:06p
Why the Ricci case is the exception instead of the rule
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-ricci-case-is-exception-instead-of.html Here's an old column I wrote in for Taki's Magazine on May 20, 2009, that I forgot to post a link to because I was traveling: Following up on Jared Taylor’s article, the Ricci reverse discrimination lawsuit now before the Supreme Court is not one of those “hard cases” about which law students are warned. There is nothing anomalous about the discrimination against the New Haven firemen ... Instead, what’s unusual is that we’re even hearing about the victimization of these unprotected majorities. I suspect that’s largely because Frank Ricci and his friends are firemen. Firefighters show up more than any other profession in prominent reverse discrimination suits, perhaps because they enjoy civil service protection, unions, and, most of all, public admiration. In a culture that increasingly holds blue-collar workers in contempt, firemen are the exception to the rule. They risk their lives for you, and they don’t give you speeding tickets. As the cops in Joseph Wambaugh’s LAPD novels are always telling each other: If you really wanted people to like you, you should have been a fireman. It’s worth exploring some of the more subtle game theory reasons why there is so little public outcry against discrimination against white males other than firefighters. Why is Ricci close to being the exception that proves the rule? First, affirmative action targets marginal white males. For example, although white guys who are already firemen have a fighting chance of staving off unfair treatment in promotions, white guys who just want to become firemen are discriminated against in hiring with impunity. ... Cheating an already employed white fireman out of a promotion is dicey because he doesn’t go away. He’s still a fireman. So he hangs around, he complains, he organizes other white firemen to complain to their aldermen about why the politicians aren’t releasing the results, maybe he talks his sister-in-law’s cousin who is a file clerk in Personnel into Xeroxing the secret results of the test and leaking it to him. And then he hires a lawyer. In contrast, cheating some random white guy off the street out of his lifelong dream of becoming a fireman is a piece of cake: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” What can this marginal man do about his suspicions? Not much. He’s not connected. Moreover, announcing that you are a victim of racial preferences is normally to admit you are marginal, that you would have only barely made the cut anyway. How uncool is that? [Notice that the New Haven plaintiffs were all the top scorers, because the entire test got ham-handedly thrown out. If the New Haven politicians had been subtler, more expert in their racial discriminating, they would have victimized just the marginal white scorers.]
Similarly, affirmative action, by definition, doesn’t impact those who made the cut. Consider Harvard students. While some freshmen may enter Harvard sore that affirmative action might have cost high school friends admission to Harvard, soon they have lots of swell new friends, who, unsurprisingly, are all Harvard students, unlike those losers they used to hang around with in high school who didn’t have what it takes to get into Harvard. Hence, you don’t see a lot of solidarity in opposing affirmative action.
Read the whole thing there and comment upon it here. My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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dachte
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2:02p
Dustprints
The novel 「Let the Right One In」 is rather good. It's a lot more chatty than the film, and the plot feels fuller. The film is still a masterpiece and the better of the pair, but I can recommend the book as well. Apparently young vampire romances are all the rage right now, with 「Twilight」 being the next series to succeed 「Harry Potter」 in popular novels. In contrast to a number of people trashing Twilight online, I'm just happy to see people reading instead of watching TV. Sarah Palin resigned as governor. With her being unpredictable and tempermental, nobody's sure why she did it or what she has planned in the future. So long as she stays out of politics, I wish her well in future endeavours. She has the wrong temperament and is not qualified for high political office, but she's not particularly reprehensible. There are a lot of people like her - I think many people I've known who have not put a lot of effort in self-improvement would act as she has in most regards - she's recieved a lot of attention in the media that would look just as harsh shining on most people. Only a few people are suitable for high public office, and only a few can manage to look good enough to be elected to it. We just have to hope that we get more of the intersection of those bubbles rather than just the latter (maybe if we can raise the level of public discourse high enough the latter will be less of a concern because people will learn to recognise the former, presuming we stay in our current rough form of government). Last night's "adventures":( Read more... ) Incidentally, as it's come up recently, I know I've been mopy and probably often not very pleasant to read - if you don't want to read my LJ, feel free to remove me from your friends list without any worry that my feelings will be hurt. For most of you we're just acquaintences in real life anyhow (even though in many circumstances I wanted more). Know as well that if I do so I don't necessarily mean to be saying anything beyond that I am not regularly interested in reading your posts. There have been times where I have unfriended someone as part of cutting them out of my life entirely, but I will trust people to use overall judgement to figure out when I am doing that if it is not obvious. The Valve/STEAM games are pretty neat, but they're quite buggy and I had to hack on some config files. I understand this has to do with their trying to be AMD64-aware. The relation of Wikipedia's don't be a dick to judgement in law is something I'm chewing on again, particularly in the context of thorny torts like tortious interference. I think it's a problem when people seek to skirt the edges of laws (in areas not meant to be hard edges) to protect problem behaviour (we need some mechanism as a society to complement law with shunning/shunning/penalty for acts harmful to the more abstract interests of society, ideally one with fewer (but not no) teeth but also without the constraints of ex post facto), but there are several instances where it is unclear what the resolution should be. For instance, we can imagine environmentalists who learn of contracts against the interest of the biosphere to do their best to make it impossible for such contracts to be met. Tortious interference? Should business interests in the general case take interest over ecological interests except in narrowly defined circumstances? Contracts become ways to bind third parties when such an intent entirely within an organisation would presumably lack such protections. Yet it's not difficult to imagine circumstances where it is a useful tort to recognise. The building next to Crazy Goat (near Whole Foods) is bizarre, interesting, and not unattractive.
current music: Let the Right One In soundtrack - Eli Bleeds
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marnanel
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3:21p
Each moment makes of you and me an Us
...and a sonnet for Katie. There was so much I had to leave out of this one...
Do you recall the day when there were two?
I know it's rather easy to forget
the day when there was Me and there was You,
instead of Us, the day before we met?
It's shadowed, for the memories are bright:
in each, we find a unifying theme,
I join a shining sun within her light,
you join a dreamer deep within a dream.
The day you spoke the love you hold for me!
You hugged me, like a jet plane when it lands!
The evening when we kissed beneath the tree;
The nights of candlelight and gentle hands;
and millions more to come, repeating thus:
each moment makes of you and me an Us.
current mood:  loved
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girlgeek
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12:28p
My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...
...well that's a lie. I have bags. I have stuff. The two are in close proximity to each other. Now they just need to make friends.
I had 9 art camp aprons hanging on my shelf. That doesn't include the one I got last year right at the end of camp from the visiting artist because they weren't going to give the counsellors aprons as they didn't order enough. That would make this my 11th year of attending. That's as good a way to count as any. I skipped a year here or there, but it's hard to remember exactly what years off the top of my head. Last year of high school, then when I went to Europe. If I started going when I was 12, I'm 23 now.. 23 minus 12.. minus 2 for the years I skipped.. that would make 9? Idk.
I'd better go help my bag make friends with my clothes. I still need time to buy soy milk and pick Erin up. See you in a week! Try not to post too much or I won't have time to read them all in my day of catch up ;)
Also, my period started today. That will be fun.
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