…aka 1337, 31337, L337, L33+, etc. etc.
OK, I'd assumed that everyone would know what I was talking about, but I've gotten quite a few “what does that mean?” IM's, so I suppose that it's time for a linguistics lesson.
First of all, it's pronounced elite. As in highly skilled. Now that you know that, that part should be obvious. I'm sure all the i lIkE tO tYpE tHiS idiots know what I mean.
Anyway, nothing illustrates everything better than a scene from a badly written modern teen fairytale. Of course, it's also proof of the mainstreaming — and hence death — of it all. At this point in history calling yourself elite either makes you a lamer or a person with an oddball sense of humor. Thus we arrive at the movie HACKERS. Now, “elite” isn't strictly speaking a “hacker” term (more of a cracker / software pirate / trader / courier term), but I digress. You must remember the movie's grand love finale:
KATE: I can't believe they decided you won.
DADE: They didn't. The guys felt it was the only way I'd get a date. Anyway, you're pretty good. You're elite.
KATE: Yeah? You know if you would have said so in the beginning, you would have saved yourself a whole lot of trouble.
If I wasn't a relatively private person I'd have some things I'd like to say here very loudly. Yes, there's really a lot of thoughts I don't write here. Surprising, considering the sheer bulk of bits that I spew here.
Anyway, my friend Dave who is definitely elite is on his way here.
Finally, I just ordered a new set of shirts from ThinkGeek (as if I don't have too many already). Other than BMEshop of course, ThinkGeek is my favorite online store.
Oh, that reminds me: tomorrow we'll be adding a bunch of new medical toys to BMEshop!
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| yes, i paint with febrese |
I've got a painting that I'm working on that's driving me bonkers. It's not going anywhere, so I think it's about time to walk away from it. It's been my experience with painting that if I can't finish it in under 3 hours, it'll probably never be as I'd dreamed it should be… I do most things best the first time I do them, at least if it's something that involves ideas. Tomorrow afternoon I'll pick up some more canvas, there are things in me I need to make real.
I'm damn tired today; got almost no sleep last night. I've had to do some more credit card stuff today; we're getting closer and closer to a resolution. I thought the merch number had been approved Friday, but I think it actually ended up happening today.
Oh! I got a great video from a friend today — it's a glansectomy procedure, and the impressive thing is that he did it with one hand. A while back he cut off one of his hands. Anyway, do you think you could operate clamps and a scalpel and a camera all at once using only one hand and a hook? You can see the hook in some of the pictures:
Well, like I said, I'm very tired. I think I might go to bed soon. Probably not, I've got this IAM curse as much as anyone could and I press reload on the IAM.alive page far more than I should.
OK, this entry is here for two reasons. First of all, I want to test my new embedded command * *PIXFULL* *. It lets you put full size images into your diary entries without having to host them on your own server. Plus now you know that I am not driving illegally… Oh, and I ordered a new custom plate today. Don't laugh ok, because it's a joke. I don't take myself that seriously. The plate says L33T (r u 1337?). I don't know yet if I'll be too embarrassed to put it on a car or not but I laugh every time I think about it.
Dave and my custom plate list now includes: I CRSH U, GO4SPD, ECHELON, L33T, WQQQSH, BMEZINE, MADPSY, LASERGUY.
As promised here are some pictures from today's mini-trip. Don't ask me about the bear, I have no answer that would would fall into either the logical or rational categories of response. It would be at best a slightly irrational, but hopefully funny retort that would be nothing but a ploy to divert your thoughts from the horrible, horrible truth.
L-R: MiL0, Me and a bear, Me (I'm the guy on the right, not the guy on the left).
Oh, and I just found out that
Lee Higgs (long time readers know his work from several covers of BME in the early days) put me in the acknowledgements of his new book! I'm not sure if I deserve that, but it's definitely an honor. I've been meaning to drop a plug for the book, so this gives me an excuse. You can
order it here using credit card (or PayPal) — that link will take you to a page where you can see a number of photos from the book (as well as his amazing website in general). Seriously, check it out. I'm going to see if I can make it down to the official book release party on May 11th.
