All the time people say to me, “oh, my friend Doodler McWang knows you”, or “yeah, my piercer Frodo at Steel Farts is a friend of yours” and stuff like that. It seems that an aweful lot more people know me and hang out with me than the other way around. Earlier today I got this message:
hey guess what? i was talking to my friend *** last night and we were talking about bme and he was like my frined ian the canadian is frineds with shannon. small world huh? we are from ct. just thought i would tell ya.
I thought that was kind of odd, because I don't really know many Ians, let alone Ians that pass between both countries. I thought it might have been my friend Iain from university, so I asked if it was (insert Iain's full name here). I got the following reply:
im not sure of his last name but he is from canada and i think lives here in ct. *** told me he was up in canada maybe last weekend or not too long ago and you guys hung out and drove the monster truck. i just think its interesting how someone always knows someone else. take care.
A lot of holes in that story! First, my truck has been in storage for the past month. Second, the only people that have ridden in my truck in the last few months are MiL0 and Caitbug. Certainly no guys… As far as my weekends, they've been spent with MiL0, and not some guy called Ian. Ha ha ha… Should I be amused or flattered or weirded out that pretending to know me is a status symbol?
Maybe it's just my memory! If it is, sorry I forgot you Ian! It might also be this Ian who I don't think has ever ridden in my Jeep, and I don't think I've seen in six months, but stories do change when they're passed along a chain, right?
OK, I think we may have a classic videogame superhero here on IAM… Is it just me or does supraXXX look suspiciously like Blanka from Streetfighter?
Grr.. Got almost no sleep again — woken up about an hour ago by the postman (thanks cris). It was worth it though — got lots of amazing photos of Brazil from cris.
Check out this email I got… The weird thing is I've never written anything like this about neuticles — not even close… I sort of think it's some sort of bizarre spam, or maybe even a weird joke:
Subject: Your Providing VERY FALSE INFORMATION
your website indicates that Neuticles are unsafe and rejection rate is high. This is absolutely not true. Neuticles have been implanted in over 75,000 pets Worldwide and never a reported complication in over 6 years. Each Neuticled pet is insured by our company for $2 million and we even provide a lifetime satisfaction guarantee.
Please visit our website and get the facts straight on Neuticles- testicular implantation for pets. If you were in the US we would be sueing you silly right now for spreading such outlandish lies about our product.
Gregg Miller
NEUTICLES
Wow… If I was in the US right now I'd beat you silly for making such foolish claims about me. Here's the extent of what the glossary says about neuticles:
neuticle solid silicone artificial implants (brand name)
Neuticles are a well known brand of testicular prosthesis used widely in the veterinary industry.
Oooooh. Now that's offensive. The only other reference to neuticles on the entire site is in the implant FAQ and it's a passing one at best (“Silicone testicles — 'falsies', or brand name Neuticles — are sometimes used” “Neuticles are available through veterinary suppliers”). Yeah, good luck with the lawsuit!
Ouro Preto
from Cidades Historicas De Minas Gerais
THANKS CRIS!
Nowadays, every person I see I tell that I'm going to South America, in the hopes that they'll have something to tell me about it. Today when I was picking up fiberoptic cabling, the guy there told me about one of his other customers who spends half the year in Brazil… Then I bumped into someone else I know (the person who's sold me my last four portable computers) who just got back from an extended trip in Peru — so I'll be stopping by to pick his brain as well. So far, every first-hand story I've heard is universally glowing… Whereas most of the second-hand stories are terrifying — leading me to believe they're largely tainted with some sort of first-world prejudice.
Well, I've just eaten some crappy but cheap sushi, so I'm all charged up:
Well, I've got an update to do… Image update… I've just started on it, so I figure I'll have it uploaded by morning. Worst case tomorrow afternoon. If the cover of BME changes, you'll know it's there. While I'm doing that, I'll listen to Nectarine and remember the old days. If I had more time I'd love to be in the demoscene again. Although I have to admit it's not as cool as it used to be… While you can certainly make some pretty stuff on a 1GHz machine with an OpenGL board, it just doesn't have to zen of writing tight assembly code to make a 386 do things it just shouldn't be able to do.
