aliencam dot net blog.

• RAIN!!!!! #
• roomates playing loud music? look at it as a good excuse to continue not doing homework. :P #
• woah super blindingly bright lightning. AWESOME!!! #
• Being out in the rain at midnight is awesome. #
• Agh I always forget that these shoes squeak with every step, and the rain certainly doesn't help. I sound like a clown. #
• Panang curry! (@ Thai Basil (University Dr)) #
• Feburary… you and your twenty-eight days… thats 2.43 days too few. #
• Does anyone have a sony memory stick duo that I can borrow for a week? iPod battery died and im using a 32MB PSP until the battery comes in. #
• Homework… All day, and probably for the next two weeks… (@ Noble Science Library) http://4sq.com/bWSGjB #
• "Avoid sharp corners!" (from the infalliable Laws of Materials Engineering) #
• lame. I am INSIDE the MU, hungry, and I can't get any food. stupid SORC information session #
• "Do not place any body parts in the path of the pendulum" -Dr Anwar #
• totally owned alford's homework 5 days early with the help of james, rio, sivan, and leticia #
• getting ready for another intense 3-day library session. Havent started 1 lab report, 1 research paper, and 1 takehome exam all due Monday. #
• Headache and I'm not sure if it's sleep depriviation, allergies from ASU's fertilizer, or caffeine withdrawl. #
• debating Alice in Wonderland at 8:30, or continue with homework until Tuesday… Anyone around ASU up for going? #
• I need to start carrying a normal pen. I feel bad telling people I don't have one for them when they think they see a bunch in my backpack. #
• writing everything down instead of saying it is a good way to stop yourself from doing stupid things or worrying about it #
• I need to tone dowm my government class discussion posts… I sound like a raving lunatic. avoid words like "cesspool" and "money-grubbing" #
• Change of scenery from Noble, and delicious iced horcata. (@ Cartel Coffee Lab w/ @jacobrosenthal) http://4sq.com/2J6zux #

• made up for yesterday with… cufflinks. pretty sweet. #
• oh my. the coffee at dutch bros really is as good as I remembered it being… #
• 420 homework and dutch bros coffee. (@ Noble Science Library) http://4sq.com/bWSGjB #
• why am I not a math major??? this is SO AWESOME!!! #
• I just unlocked the "Adventurer" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/bNzZcT #
• Hipster. Coffee. House. But so delicious/cheap… (@ Cartel Coffee Lab) http://4sq.com/2J6zux #
• ah yes… streaming video is not the best way to pass the time while large files are downloading… turns out that uses internets. #
• Lol hearing "ribbit ribbit ribbit" in noble. #
• Sooooooo much work. I finally feel like a real engineering student. (@ Noble Science Library) http://4sq.com/bWSGjB #
• Takeout pad thai for noble library homework studyfest explosion! (@ Thai Basil) #
• Dr Alford is the coolest professor ever. His first line in a response email to me was "Thank you for hand sanitizer today." #
• Five. Button. Coat. All day. (take that, Monday) goodnight. #
• woke up to a 50 degree bedroom (they turned off the heat here…) solution: oven, plasma TV, and irons. #
• that's not what I'm looking for. #
• what done with everything I need to do tonight!? sweet. #
• "thats a lowercase k. you only use capital k when talking about drugs or money." alford is awesome. #
• Spent the last nine hours doing work in the MSE lab and i'm DONE! #
• these eggs exceed the recommended ammount of chili powder… #
• I'm at Boston's Gourmet Pizza #
• So tired… #
• Cappuccino & final friday (@ Cartel Coffee Lab) http://4sq.com/2J6zux #
• I'm at Zia Record Exchange #
• time for bed now. seriously. #
• I have no doubts, @cartelcoffeelab has the best coffee ever. (Just tried the bag of Black Market Espresso I picked up last night) #
• Woah the light rail is completely covered with ads now. #
• Awesome, if very small, horror section. I wish it wasn't 1/4 stephen king though… (@ Changing Hands Bookstore) http://4sq.com/5U8DRc #

• energy=ch*gain+offset. what were all of you complaining about? ooh we should try darkframe sub for all these techniques. #
• "Hey did you know the big bang theory has been disproven? yeah we learned that in my COM class [...] I dunno I'm not a science guy" … … #
• No weird dreams tonight please, I need to rest. #
• facebook limits status updates to 420 characters, but you can bypass it by attaching a random link or item to a long post. #
• how does finland not dominate biathlon every year? Isn't that their thing? maybe the targets just have to be russian(s)… #
• woah it's already this week! sweet. #
• is it already time to start studying for wednesday!? I don't have anything to do for the rest of the day… #
• "Lesson one: loose the goatee; it doesn't go with your suit." "but im not wearing a suit" "Lesson two: get a suit" (how i met your mother) #
• "Chalk would be nice." #
• "the professor needs to stop being a dick, he gave me a B+ on the first homework and I spent a long time on it, I wrote a lot!" #
• And I don't even have to wear a belt! These really are the best new pants ever. #
• done studying for the exam. busy day tomorrow, and I don't think I 'll learn much more by staying up late. #
• EXAM TIME! #
• switched firefox back over to swiftfox; it uses half the memory, and responds about twice as fast. #
• I just became the mayor of Tempe First United Methodist Church on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/dvUwFr #
• At Wesley (@ Tempe First United Methodist Church) http://4sq.com/dvUwFr #
• LOL AWESOME! my STS textbook is discussing "Iterated Prisoner's Dilema." #
• Jonathan Coulton! (@ MADCAP Theaters w/ @cobyw) http://4sq.com/5iflSo #
• Lol when performers come out carrying open beers and wearing a captain hammer and a the cheat shirt. #
• Wow, 1 hour and 14 minutes for 5 or 6 songs. That was so funny/awesome. @paulandstorm #
• That was an amazing show… @jonathancoulton @paulandstorm #
• woah MA is right after 450 lab this year? I do believe that means I can actually go to it for once! sweet. #
• not really feeling the whole shower and get dressed thing today. 2PM and I haven't left a 3 meter radius from my bed. lol wow. so lazy. #
• going to bed. turns out theres some kind of installfest or something that I should know more about going on tomorrow. #ASULUG #
• Running driftnet on the projector screens at the #ASULUG installfest. Epic. #
• ASULUG installfest! (@ ASU Brickyard Artisan Court w/ 2 others) http://4sq.com/aC01sJ #
• I'm at Rula Bula Irish Pub (401 S. Mill Ave., Mill Ave. and 4th St., Phoenix). http://4sq.com/88LgXI #

• demonoid registration is open. #
• MGMT- Kids is stuck in my head all day. Just listened to it again, so plan to dream about "doot doot doot doot dee dee doo doo doooooo dum" #
• I want to build an automatic sock warmer, so every morning I can put on warm socks. #
• “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” –Lao Tzu #
• 450 hoemwerk (@ Noble Science Library) http://4sq.com/bWSGjB #
• I just became the mayor of Noble Science Library on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/bWSGjB #
• "O HAI I'M IN THE LIBRARY SO I'LL JUST TALK REALLY LOUD FOR THIS PHONE CALL." #
• Dear coffee, the last four days have been delicous, but I should not be drinking so much. I limit myself to only one cup tomorrow, sorry. #
• Ever see something out of the corner of your eye, get startled by it, and it turns out to be just what you thought, right where it belongs? #
• Today, my laptop screen spontanously cracked. it propagated from a point without any tension, and happened while it was just sitting open… #
• ugh two minutes can really just ruin your day sometimes. especially right before bed… #
• We were pirates. Piloting mechs. Awesome. #
• We were pirates. Piloting mechs. Awesome. #dreams #
• ah… I think I need a nap or a cup of tea/coffee or something… I just spent 5 minutes looking for the fourth side of a triangle… #
• YEAH!!! -kind of. (MSE students; see your email). #
• still behind on my work, but I really need to get to bed on time. this will be the first night in nearly two weeks… #
• Ugh I really need to go home this weekend… #
• WOAH the entire first five seasons of lost are on Hulu until December 31, 2010. watch! #
• Dude knitting on the light rail. Awesome. #
• Just picked up my UV flashlight from the post office. its time for invisible ink EVERYWHERE. #
• it's been too long since I made myself a nice salad for dinner. I've missed you, giant salads. (commence om nom nom nom) #
• wow that is a depressing XKCD. #
• I just unlocked the "Local" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/9ra9Wv #
• Finishing up the postponed homework for Tasooji's class. (@ Noble Science Library) http://4sq.com/bWSGjB #
• lol! I'm the mayor of Noble library now, and I got a "local" badge! #
• Pita for lunch. (@ The Pita Pit) #
• "Ive been dreaming of spending Valentines Day with a girl since I was six" "Shame on you! thats no dream for a scientist" big bang thry ftw #
• "Someone's ear is in danger of having hair brushed over it… " -zombieland #
• Sleeping on the couch in the media room for a couple days always sounded awesome as a kid. #
• The birds up here seem to love the weather as much as i do. #

• WOAH Left4Dead ported to the NES!? http://is.gd/7s9mA http://is.gd/7s9mF Hat tip @cobyw #
• The sky is just clear enough… Headed to old main to take a 45 minute photo. I hope the fountain has wifi. #
• I wish I had more time to sit out here. The moon just entered the photo (i hope its not overexposed) but im tired, and its really cold out. #
• wait… why have I not been shooting in RAW again? (updated CHDK, superfast boot, and more awesome!!!) #
• lol XKCD: "HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF STRIP GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR?" http://xkcd.com/696/ #
• AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MIGRANE!!!!! two tylenol down, and really considering taking one of patrick's 850mg ibuprofen #
• I want to try a pair of fibram five-finger shoes for running, but can't justify $100. and… they have one made of kangaroo leather…. eww. #
• three hours of brain tripping tv tonight! RT @ James Roberts: "lost lost lost lost lost lost lost lost lost lost lost lost lost!!" #
• Lost was… Awesome. Sad to say I actually wasn't expecting that. #lost #
• sweet. I changed facebook back to "Pirate English" and my pidgin-facebook plugin switched to pirate too. #
• Wow it rained! Awesome. #
• it's funny, but it took me a few minutes of looking for it before I realised that my bottle of invisible ink is right in front of me. #
• Nobody turned in my sunglasses at the ECG desk either :( I guess they really are lost. #
• The MU finally got rid of those stupid automatic paper towel dispensers and replaced them with pull ones. #
• Does anyone at/near ASU have an external USB CD Drive?? I really need one tomorrow morning and am willing to rent it #
• my resumé needs more science… #
• ooh do I want to register for the 1-credit, 5-week class on fridays taught by roy/dey? #
• Lol it is awesome that they had to put "for drinking only" signs on water fountains in the engineering center. #
• woah… I just watched the (not aired on TV, iTunes only) first part of Dollhouse Epitath (before the last episode) epic. http://is.gd/7Nb7T #
• oh man the life-extension commercial (mprize) during the dollhouse finale is kind of misplaced. #
• The two part Dollhouse finale was absolutely amazing. I'm glad I took the time to find/watch part 1 first. #dollhouse #
• Jonathan Coulton show moved to the old Harkins (now MADCAP) theatres on Mill Ave! Feb 18, 7pm, $20 #
• wizard needs coffee badly… #
• aww my coffee mug is empty… and I still want more. #

I have recently been annoyed by all of the twitter posts showing up on the main page of this blog, it makes it look like all this is for is digesting my tweets.  These posts also show up as “notes” on my facebook page, which is unnecessary because each tweet updates my facebook status anyway.   So, I have removed the “twitter” category from being displayed on the main page (if you reeeeally want to see all my weekly tweet digests, on the right side under “categories” you can select “twitter”) , and I have removed those twitter posts from the main feedburner RSS feed.  (again, if you want to subscribe to the “full” feed, you can move your subscription to blog.aliencam.net/feed/ , but that’s a little weird, you could just follow me on twitter or something).

Anyway,  today’s XKCD is another stroke of genius, analysing the ratios of google searches for games with their “strip” counterparts.

(image credit Randall Munroe of xkcd.)

After getting over the initial hilarity of it all, I went through and actually read the list.  Really, out of these games, the best options for a “strip” alternative  (yes, including poker) I find to be Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma, Chess, Tennis, and Poohsticks. That particular order is due to the high likelihood of being arrested for public indecency with the last two ( although if you have a private tennis court or bridge…), and I have chosen to disregard beer pong because it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the list.  Anyway, I realise the likelihood that many people have not heard of Prisoner’s Dilemma, so here is a quick description.

Prisoner’s Dilemma

This is an exercise/game used in game theory, psychology, and statistics, and is surprisingly fun to play.  The situation is this: two criminal partners are being questioned (independently) by the police.  The police offer each prisoner a deal if they co-operate and betray their partner.   The rest is best explained by this consequence matrix (how long each prisoner goes to prison):

In a game of “Iterated Prisoner’s Dillema”, multiple turns are played (hence the word “iterated”). A prisoner who stays silent is usually allowed to punish one who betrays the other after each turn.

The game is played by each player having two cards, one marked “defect” and the other “stay loyal”.  Players each place one card face-down, then they are turned up at the same time. The optimal situation would be for each player to stay loyal to their partner, but if either defects, the other will have to deal with the large consequence. Because of this, if a player always defects, they will be “safer.”

If you don’t remember Poohsticks (shame), it was a game that Winnie the Pooh invented, all players drop sticks into the water off the side of a bridge, then run to the other side to see whose stick reaches the other side first. (I imagine this would be easiest if you tied a coloured string to each stick).

-aliencam

• dear magnets, thank you for being so awesome. #
• zombies + mechs + infected pilot dies INSIDE a mech = epic podcast novel http://is.gd/71ooU #
• new goal: if I do not learn to play the theremin or autoharp, the glass armonica is an acceptable alternative. #
• hmm… I do not have my seam ripper at school with me… a knife will do I suppose. #
• hassy subway costs the same as regular subway! bonus- it still smells as bad as a normal subway. #
• totally just got skype working in linux! thavent been able to get htis to work before. #
• the ultimate focus soundtrack: Brian Eno with red noise in the background. #
• wow I just spent 30 minutes trying to compile something from source thats not meant for ubuntu, only to find that its in the repos… #
• More rain! #
• Hayden has the book I need for my homework tonight! I don't have to go to polytech! #
• wow that was the first time I have ever checked a book out of Hayden Library… #
• WOOOOOAAAHH! log (x->0) of (1-e^(x)) =(-x) !!!!!!!!!!!! why do they not teach us these things earlier????????? #
• wow the line at hassayampa subway is alll the way around the inside of the rom… im going back home. #
• wow! that was the most spectacular incandescent bulb failure I have ever seen! *switch*spark*spark*fizzzzzzzzle*pop*dark* (onomatopoeia ftw) #
• ASU Book store online free shipping code (expires today) "TransS2010" (maybe it will be TransF2010 next semester?) #
• Going for a short hike at hole-in-the-rock (papago park) later today, just a short bus ride north. Anyone else want to go? #
• online syllabus quiz: The instructor gives a grade of A to students who say, “I wasn’t aware that we had a midterm two weeks ago.” T/F #
• I just wrote my name and contact information in all my textbooks. in invisible (UV-only) ink. #
• ASULUG meeting! (@ Boston's Pizza Tempe) #
• hiking (@ Hole in the Rock) #
• ugh do I really want to brave the line at subway @ hassayampa on a saturday at 7:00 PM when it is the only thing open? need dinner though.. #
• The line is not the longest I've seen it. (@ Subway @ Hassayampa) #
• yeah! 3:00 AM Bruce Willis action movie and guys yelling at it! that's EXACTLY what I wanted! Thanks roomates! #
• Church. (@ Tempe First United Methodist Church) http://4sq.com/dvUwFr #
• Interesting moral conflict: my garlic has started to germinate, and I feel bad about eating it. I don't feel bad about the fish i'm cooking #

• Sweet, asu turned the mu's clock chimes back on. #
• The more you like a comedian the higher you have to turn the volume? lol trying to sleep when you have #roomates . #
• error code 1: your internet sucks. #
• bleh. another night with just about no sleep… the <4 hours I did get were full of crazy dreams. #
• pro tip: do not unscrew lightbulbs when they are hot. the good news: at least I have one hand left… #
• ATTN MARGINALLY FADED T-SHIRT: are you supposed to be navy blue, or black? PLEASE ADVISE. #
• travesty! I have to set an alarm for tomorrow! I am also unsure if I am ready for class, but SO PUMPED for thunderstorms tomrrow. #
• wow. best night of sleep in three weeks. no trippy dreams, and I did not wake up at 4:00. awesome. #
• second day using Derby Extra blades, they are sharper, but too flexible. I'll get the Dorco ST300 platinum blades that I like next time. #
• RAIN!!! I didn't have to be disappointed today! #
• watching the new dollhouse. there is a "cut the head off the snake" line that could be better served with a certain rotting fish reference. #
• firefox is broken. can't tag anyone in facebook pictures, and hulu doesn't work. chrome works fine. ugh. #
• ugh messed up so many things thinking today was a monday… tomorrow is wednesday already! wow. #
• Jeez the cholla cats scream pretty loud when they fight…woke me up. #
• Scott Brown (a republican!) won the Mass. senate seat… wow. anyone else ready for the end-times? #
• wow, that wind is COLD. #
• woah, I made a mistake somewhere… I now have to enter my password AND swipe my fingerprint… this is not more convenient. #
• I love this rain. #
• Power outage! #
• RT @KFYI [Govenor of Arizona] Jan Brewer declares state of emergency. #
• bleh just ordered my textbooks. (not so bad, only $200, but still…) #
• lol after today's rain, my shoes are actually cleaner than they were before. #
• leaving to walk up A Mountain in a few minutes. anyone want to join me? #
• ah I love all the creosote bushes out behind biodesign. #
• need to use a tripod when doing bracketing for HDR… aligning and stitching uses too much processing power, memory, and time… #
• Bleh, 2:35(+) on the metro system starts now… #
• Home! #
• Bleh the internet is out at my house from the storm. #
• Just finished watching 500 days of summer; that was a really great movie, I was not expecting something like it. #
• wow need to get out with my camera today. the weather, clouds, and lighting are awesome… #
• blehhhhhhh. I can't handle afternoon coffee then going to bed at a reasonable time anymore… I feel like an old person. #
• Wow it was so cold last night that the rooves across the way have frost on them! #
• woah I am under attack. password reset notifications for every account… crap crap crap. #

this one is fairly incoherent, it took me awhile to put what happened in the right order when I woke up, and it still doesn’t make much sense.  Here is what I wrote down right when I woke up:

another crazy dream

I was working in an NSA retail store (?) on a busy street in a large city (NY?) high cielings, nondescript carpet, a few conference tables around the room, and sometimes we sold clothes.  A few stores down was a CIA store where a bunch of gadget nerds (like Q in bond movies?) worked one  guy with glasses, short curly black hair was named robert or patrick.  NSA & CIA constantly played tricks on each other, stealing things, etc, but were still friends.  a weird gypsey came in to buy clothes (?) and we gave her a job.  she freaked out about something, so they fired her.  I was over at the CIA store to play a prank on them once, tried to steal a fiberoptic camera, but the security alarm went off.  I hung out there for awhile chatting with them, and the gypsey lady came in. she was browsing the clothes, and I thought she might steal something. She had elaborate long gold scisors, and I thought she would stab me with them, they said yeah probably because I was sometimes a smug/prick, and was always too nice/happy about everything (citing the time I once gave everyone I consiter my friend a penny).  she snuck a brown scarf with beige tassles onto my shoulders (I wouldn’t set off the alarms if I walked out with this?) but I noticed and threw it to robert and told her she would ring him up (after I passed the sensors). she got crazy mad, pulled out her scisors and chased me, so I ran out of the store and she chased me back toward the NSA store on a fairly uncrowded sidewalk (cloudy or hazy day). that is all.

This was after some pretty fitful sleep, I went to bed at  midnight, but my roomates kept me up past 2 with loud TV, then my roomate came into the room and watched family guy on his iPod even later, and then it was my typical sleeping problems, I woke up at 4:00AM, couldn’t get back to sleep, and eventually just decided to write this down at 6:00 (waking up my roomate with my laptop screen’s light and typing noise lol, I totally did not mean to do that).

• "we haven't really talked since you… died." lol how can you deny a show that has that kind of line? #dollhouse #
• my grandma just added me on facebook! sweet! #
• Wow. Tonight's "how I met your mother" was probably the funniest show I have ever watched. #
• bah at waking up too early. cant sleep. #
• mounting additional swap is easy (add it to /etc/fstab, then sudo swapon -a) but unmounting it I have to reboot :( #
• RT @jbhannah RT @ASU :) RT @sawaboof: ASU and Gryffindor have the same colors. Coincidence? #GoDevils #
• I am impressed, colbert is actually funny again. #
• "May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our websites be accessible," -Canon David Parrott #
• backing up some files, and I realize I have taken 8GB of photos (over 3000 pictures) since october. more than 1000 are from the past 7 days. #
• lol anyone ever listened to Owl City (or Rediscover) and Rush Limbaugh at the same time? this is ridiculous. #
• okay computers, its time to be much faster… I'm getting sick of waiting hours upon hours for photo processing! #
• I now have the best text-ringtone ever– joe biden blessing us from space. (0:40 at http://is.gd/6e7Ja ) #
• wow I didn't konw there was this much good music coming from Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale. #
• hmm… I wonder if I still know how to knit… #
• hmm it took 10 minutes of frustration to figure it out again, but yes, I do still remember how to knit. how fun. #
• Time for second dinner. #
• ALERT: text messages to NOT have an "un-send" option. (oops… lol) #
• I wish that all my t-shirts were glow-in-the-dark. having just one isn't enough. #
• Awesome day– hiking at Montezuma's Castle/Well, hiking in Sedona, and walking in Jerome. photos forthcoming. #
• Compact Flash Card, meet my iPod… *iPod's battery life +50% *iPod's weight -20% *iPod's storage capacity -87% (no more borked HDD!) #
• The two worst weeks of my life, followed by two just amazing weeks… collision with real life in 56 hours, 21 minutes. #
• hmm… do I need my fog machine at school, or should I leave it at home? #
• Well so much for leaving early in the morning. Anyway, adios a-town. #