Jeff Okamoto

A co-worker was asking about which Sarah Palin Debate Drinking Game was best.  Off the cuff, I came up with this:

1. Any time Palin uses a run-on sentence lasting longer than 30 seconds.
2. Any time Palin mentions guns, moose, or Russia.
3. Any time Palin waves her hands in a SNL-ish motion.
4. Any time Palin begins speaking in an excessively cutesy manner.
5. Any time Palin makes a point that backfires onto McCain.
6. Any time the moderator blinks dumfoundedly at Palin's last utterance.

I finally watched Razor. I'm sure other folks have commented, but I'll just add my thoughts about the Hybrid's pronouncements:

Soon there will be four, glorious in awakening, struggling with the knowledge of their true selves, the pain of that revelation, bringing true clarity.

Clearly a reference to the Final Four. What's the clarity? Saul said it without saying it: it's what you think you are that matters, not what you were born as.  He's a Cylon: so what?  He's Saul Tigh, and if this is the day for him to die, so be it.

And amidst confusion, he will find her... Enemies brought together by the apostle, enemies now joined as one. The way forward, once impenetrable, yet inevitable. And the fifth, though still in the shadow yet clawing for the light, hungry for redemption, that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering.

This is harder to figure out. Who are "he" and "her"?  Maybe Lee and Kara? Are they supposed to be enemies? I tend to think this is Gaius and Natalie (Tricia Helfer's next character). An apostle is a messenger and/or an ambassador. Could this be Head Six? Or maybe the apostle is Kara, who delivers the message of where Earth is. Then the enemies are the Colonials and the Cylons. Maybe Athena is the apostle, who joined humans and Cylon in Hera (although since the Chief is a Cylon, is Hera truly a Humlon now? -- the other Humlon is the Chief's and Cally's child Nicholas).

The fifth is the last remaining unknown Cylon; is the Hybrid using redemption in the religious sense? If so, this would suggest someone who had past sins; remember also this is whom Deanna said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know". Who is this?

I can see them all, the seven, now six self-described machines who believe themselves without sin. But in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching, the agony of the one splintering into many. And then they will join in the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning.

The seven now six are the existing Cylons we've seen with Boomer/Sharon/Athena as the seventh. I think what will happen is that all the models of the seven/six will become true individuals, not just copies, across the entire Cylon population. Most of them may die out, but some will find Earth with the Colonials and I believe will interbreed with them.

This new spacesuit design looks really cool. In fact, it reminds me of the look you see in many Japanese animation pieces, especially Evangelion.

Saw this on an unrelated forum:



Original Site

I managed to win a trivia contest from The Strip podcast. The specific episode that my victory was announced was the episode with their interview of Annie Duke. Knowing that, I gave a shoutout to a few BARGErs playing in the Main Event.

Here it is, the night before the iPhone launch, and AT&T, Apple's exclusive carrier for mobile service, and what does AT&T do? They run an ad for their Blackberry.

I'll bet the Apple lawyers will be wondering why they didn't put in their contract that AT&T couldn't advertise their own mobile phone within a certain time period of the launch.

Perhaps the three biggest Doctor Who villains/monsters have made their appearances in the three seasons to date. Who or what, if any, will appear in season four? My guesses:

1. The Black Guardian
2. Rassilon (not a villain or monster, but an important character in the canon)
3. Omega

Ones that would be interesting to see again, but would have to be done really well: the Sea Devils, the Ice Warriors, and maybe the Yeti.

Here's a really nice podcast about Apple's new iPhone:
http://applephoneshow.com

Just so I have this on record: I believe "Deathly Hallows" means "deathly screams" (based on an old definition of "hallow"). I'm not sure whether this refers to the deaths of other "good guys" or perhaps it could refer to the Avada Kadabra spell that I think will kill Voldemort.

SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't seen the 3rd season finale, stop reading.

These Final Four are NOT like the other humanoid Cylons. I believe they are from Earth, and that they predate not only the other humanoid models, but even the robotic Cylons. I believe they may have even already been on Earth when the Thirteenth Tribe found them. The Final Five eventually made their way to the Twelve Colonies. I haven't thought yet if they influenced the creation of the robotic Cylons, or caused them to revolt; I also don't know yet if they created the humanoid Cylons (I think probably).

I'm not sure yet WHY. To bring all of humanity and the Cylons to Earth? The clues left behind all point to the Ionian Nebula, which is where the Final Four (or Five) would then be "reawakened" so they could complete their task. Which is a reconciliation between man and machine? Dunno yet.

Remember that the Chief designed and built the Blackbird? Which let the Colonials destroy the resurrection ship and forced the Cylons to stop pursuing so closely? Interesting to speculate if he really did this on his own, or did he have some help from his Cylon part?

I wonder now about Baltar's detector. It DID work on Boomer. Was it ever used widely, even if it's just Galactica? It could be discredited, since Baltar said Boomer wasn't a Cylon (did he tell anyone else?) and we saw what she eventually did. If it was used, then it doesn't detect these new ones (Tigh and Tyrol would have been tested, possibly Tory too). If it *wasn't* used, what a neat plot point for the four of them in the next season.

I can't help giggling at the "Bene Gaius" or the "Baltar Gesserit". Once again, he finds himself in the company of beautiful women.

UPDATE: Someone else pointed out that Tyrol wasn't affected at Ragnar the way Leoben was. I don't remember if Tigh also was on the Anchorage (I think he was).

This phrase belongs to me: "the Baltar Gesserit".

As a former employee of Hewlett-Packard, I am absolutely appalled over the current board scandal, wherein it is alleged that the Board Chair (Pattie Dunn), because of concerns over leaks of board communications and board events, instigated an investigation that is claimed to have used "pretexting", a euphemism for "lying".

I blame the board for this. I do not think they deserve to serve on the board of the company that Bill and Dave formed.

I plan to vote my few shares to not vote for any of the sitting directors.

But I'd like to find someone who *DESERVES* to be on that board and help him or her get nominated and elected. Someone who knows that the HP Way can still apply in today's environment. Someone who never needed Sarbanes-Oxley or Enron to know what is right and what isn't. Someone who can make HP proud of itself again.

Who is it?

I sense that it's unlikely that the amount of solar panels (photovoltaics) that an average home could reasonably deploy would not be enough to power the home at peak usage (TVs, kitchen appliances, computers, etc.), but it is enough to "run your meter backwards". That means most homes can feed power back into the grid during the time of day when peak power consumption occurs (noon to 3pm).

That means that energy utilities don't need to use as much fuel to provide the same amount of energy. That would mean the utility company saves money and, in the case where the utility is burning oil, that reduces overall oil consumption. Even though that oil may not be refinable into gasoline, it would still reduce oil demand, which could reduce oil prices. At the very least, it means we don't have to pay potentially unfriendly governments for their oil. It also reduces the need for rolling blackouts, since the supply of electricity is now higher.

The start-up cost of providing and installing this equipment is high, and there are secondary problems too (potential roof interaction), but if the government (state or federal) could provide some subsidies and/or tax relief, isn't this a win/win situation? The homeowner spends less on electricity bills because they feed power back into the grid. The utility company spends less on fuel to produce electricity. The country imports less oil and reduces its consumption.

Links for today: Cut Oil Imports! and an interesting solar article.

See this Washington Post article on nuclear energy. If we used pebble bed reactors, I believe we can achieve very reasonably safe nuclear energy sources.

According to the Department of Energy and the Census Bureau, in 2004 the US imported 3.82 billion barrels of crude oil, while producing only 1.98 billion barrels. In order to buy this oil, we spent about 174 billion dollars.

In 2005, although we imported slightly less oil (3.75 billion barrels), we paid a lot more for it, about 243 billion dollars.

Now I'm not sure if all this money is actually leaving the country, but if even half of it really is going to foreign-owned companies, then we're talking about a spending of perhaps $100 billion dollars. That's a huge chunk of change, even to a $2.2 trillion dollar budget.

Census Data on foreign oil imports
DOE report on domestic oil production

How do we get there? That's a good question. It will certainly take money in the short term to reach this goal. I can't find any statistics on how most of the crude oil in this country is used. I suspect the two largest uses are auto fuel and home heating oil. In other words, its our problem as consumers to solve (with some incentives from the government).

You scored as SG-1 (Stargate). You are versatile and diverse in your thinking. You have an open mind to that which seems highly unlikely and accept it with a bit of humor. Now if only aliens would stop trying to take over your body. </td> Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 81% SG-1 (Stargate) 81% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 81% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 69% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 69% Moya (Farscape) 69% Serenity (Firefly) 56% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 50% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 44% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 44% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 44% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 25% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

I got frustrated enough to finally put this together:
http://www.seiyuu.com/latetrain.html . Now I'll have a record of all the various delays.

I'm really getting pissed off at Caltrain. Last night (12/5), #270 was 20 minutes late, and the Customer Service folks had no idea where the train was.

Also, #372 somehow got ahead of #270 (perhaps it was just dispatched on time, whereas #270 was dispatched late). Why are the Baby Bullet passengers being favored over limited and local passengers?

It is now my belief that maintenance on Caltrain is not being performed at the level it should be. On November 8th, #274 was cancelled due to emergency brake problems. Last night (11/29), #274 was delayed 15 minutes and had a severe smell of brake fluid/pads. This morning (11/30), #225 was delayed 3 minutes due to engine problems.

I suspect that the increase in runs which is supposedly providing greater service is putting more wear on the engines, and that maintenance budgets have been cut. Net result: more breakdowns, and more frustrated passengers.