| In other news... |
[03 Oct 2008|05:29pm] |
The free market gets shot in the face, and the taxpayers get a trillion dollars worth of fucked in the ass, and the best CNN can manage is, "CNN Money: Bush signs bailout bill".
Where's the sensationalism when it's warranted?
-Adam
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| IT ARE FLASHED! |
[10 Sep 2008|12:28am] |
| [ |
music |
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Pearl Jam - Present Tense |
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www.adamburgett.com
Version 1.0 of the new Flash site is, finally, fully armed and operational. Take a gander if you'd like.
I am interested in feedback, especially regarding performance on various systems... Macs in particular. I think I have all of the bugs worked out of the scripting, but if anyone finds one, I would like to know about it. Finally, fire away at the aesthetics/usability, if you would like.
The point of all this was to respond to a prospective employer who, a couple of months ago, seemed to like the rest of my portfolio but wanted to see more flash.
Oh... AND.... the world is still here. As opposed to having been sucked into a black hole on the Swiss/French border. At least for now. That's fantastic.
-Adam
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| We'll always have the Boardwalk. |
[06 Sep 2008|04:59pm] |
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So I was strolling down recent-memory lane via Last.fm today.
The Epoxies (unofficially) broke up. The Groovie Ghoulies broke up. A number of other related bands I was less into but also used to see broke up.
Not that I was hanging on too much, but, it's almost like a cosmic reassurance: Yes, that chapter is over. It's time to move on.
-Adam
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| snafu |
[01 Sep 2008|09:42am] |
The Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton is closing down.
This makes me sad, especially since neither of the Sara(h)s got to see it. I'm glad we went when we did, though.
Something old I just discovered:
Private SNAFU. An edutainment series for the troops in WWII, featuring the voices of Mel Blanc.
I almost feel cheated that I wasn't exposed to this in at least one of my film classes at Davis. Or even any cultural studies classes, with regard to the racial stereotypes that it features.
I was entertained.
The internet is a wonderful thing.
-Adam
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| The earth is not a cold dead place |
[04 Aug 2008|02:37pm] |
It's official, sports fans... Adam is a resident of Southern California.
I went surfing for the first time, yesterday. I'm not able to stand up and look all awesome quite yet... I spent most of the day missing waves and getting pitched end over end, but it was ridiculous fun. I was never quite sure what the appeal of surfing was, but now I know. It's something about being picked up and swept along by a force of nature... it's really quite different from skiing or snowboarding. More like riding a small avalanche.
Also... wetsuits work amazingly well. I was impressed. The theory always sounded somewhat dubious to me. Thermodynamics may be the word of the summer.
What also may be official is my caffeine addiction. I had my suspicions, but this is the second day this week that I've gone the morning without my typical 8 cups of french press, and ended up with a splitting headache. It's sad. I'll need to start gradually reducing my intake.
-Adam
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| I'm doing science; and I'm still alive. |
[25 Jul 2008|02:11pm] |
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music |
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Portal - Still Alive |
] |
So I was eating cake in a laboratory the other day, but no one else got why I found that amusing. No other Orange Box players, apparently.
A major update has been coming for a while, but I've been putting it off mostly because I've been busy, and because my limited readership these days doesn't provide the kind of motivation that my livejournal circle used to.
I have been in Santa Barbara county for about a month now. It is still my plan to go to Vegas, but it likely won't be in August.
I am in a paid internship-of-sorts position at my grand-uncle's lab. What I'm doing there, exactly, tends to differ on a weekly basis. First it was 3D CAD, then it was learning C++, now it is running thermal analyses on Dewar components and assisting in experiments to determine the source of an unexplainable thermal inefficiency. So in a weird way it's like being in college again, especially since UCSB is a mile away. But being back in the engineering field is even weirder. There were good reasons that I got out of it, and it wasn't just because I found non-English speaking calculus teachers distasteful. Being here has reinforced confidence in my decision to abandon Aeronautical Engineering, despite still not knowing exactly what the hell a Film Studies major is good for, but it has been interesting and educational thusfar. That combined with the compensation and next to no living expenses makes all of this a very good situation... which is why I am not in a tremendous hurry to run to Nevada.
I AM suffering gun powder withdrawals, however. The Gap Fire burned up the nearby shooting range three days after my arrival. The only alternative now is an indoor range in Ventura.
  
The fire burned to within 3/4 of a mile of my uncle's house and forced our evacuation for a couple of days. Fortunately none of the local houses were destroyed. It just looked like doomsday outside for a week or so.
People have asked me how I like southern California so far, but honestly, it hasn't been any different from the Sacramento Valley, aside from the 20 degree temperature difference and being able to run on the beach. I've been wanting to DO something interesting and unique to this area, or at least unique to the seaside, so I think I'm going to take SCUBA classes. It's just a matter of deciding where and when. One of the schools has a class starting next weekend, and if there are any slots still available I may do that.
In case the two point five people who have read this far have any SCUBA experience, do you have any advice on what to expect/bring/buy?
It's a wetsuit affair here, since the water on the south coast is quite a bit colder than in LA/San Diego.
My day is getting away from me. I have video to post from the first seawater test of my underwater camera, so I'll get on that later this weekend.
-Adam
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| What's going on, eh? |
[26 Jun 2008|10:35pm] |
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music |
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Mario Galaxy Orchestra - Hell Prominence |
] |
I am moving to Santa Barbara this Saturday. My uncle (great uncle, actually) approached me at my sister's wedding and offered to have me stay in his guest-house (rent free) and learn to use Solidworks (a 3D CAD program used by his company, which designs and builds liquid-nitrogen cooling systems for infra-red sensors) and, once I am proficient enough, be paid to draw/design parts. Not exactly the direction I was heading in, he conceded, but it would pay the bills while I work toward the job I do want, and would provide transferable job skills in a semi-related field (3D imaging). All in all not a bad offer, considering that my alternative was to spend July in Los Molinos (doing nothing lucrative or truly productive) and then move to Vegas and take a job doing probably theater while I worked on getting a career-type position with a career-type company.
My biggest problem right now is trying to throw away most of the crap I have left stashed in this apartment so I can fit what's left into one and a half cars. I have a handfull of "big ticket items" that I would like to keep, but honestly, the absence of most of the rest I wouldn't notice for months or years. It's just stuff I have because, hell, I might find a use for it some day. Or because it was a gift from someone, so I feel guilty about discarding it, even though I haven't used it in six years. We tend to give homeless people shit for pushing around shopping carts full of trash, but we do the same thing, just on a larger scale.
The funny thing is, in all of my time spent accumulating crap since I moved out of my parents house, I never came to possess a wine bottle opener. So I had to go to rite aid and buy one. To drink the wine that has been sitting on my shelf for two years.
I don't know if I've said so before, but Super Mario Galaxy has the best music ever.
-Adam
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| It is so ordered. |
[26 Jun 2008|10:34am] |
In case y'all missed it...
The supreme court decided today that the Second Amendment does in fact guarantee the right that most of grew up thinking it did. Or at least part of it.
Opinion of the Court, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. DICK ANTHONY HELLER.
I thought one of CNN's story highlights was funny... "Ruling could spark debate on whether right to own gun is collective or individual." I'm pretty sure that was the debate -- this was supposed to be the answer. That's not to say people won't still argue about it, but the question now is how far the government can go in regulating the ownership of firearms, since the court has ruled that a sweeping ban on individual possession of operable firearms, including handguns, is unconstitutional.
-Adam
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| I stand impressed. |
[11 May 2008|02:34am] |
Maybe it's just late, and I've been thinking about design too much today, but I am damn near giddy at how cool this site is.
It is just awesome on so many levels... although I'm sure conservation of bandwidth and processor power are not among them.
-Adam
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| Aquacultural DRAMA! |
[21 Feb 2008|09:21am] |
I think Grup attacked one of the new platys. I woke up this morning, and one of them was sporting a just-got-rasped-by-a-plecostomus look, and was floating at the top of the tank. I don't know if the platy provoked Grup's territorial side, or if he sought the platy out as a food source. I turned the tank light off last night to encourage Grup to be more active and eat the algae that's starting to grow on the side of the tank. Instead, he ate one of the other fish.
He isn't dead yet, but I have slim hopes for his recovery. The other platy seems very concerned.
Sarah is going to be upset.
-Adam
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[03 Dec 2007|01:05am] |
Can I get a Hell Yes for banjos?
Hell yes.
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| My portals, let me show you them. |
[21 Oct 2007|12:49am] |
| [ |
music |
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portal - still alive |
] |
It's been a long time since I've made an entry.... over a month now?
I haven't been too active on LJ, or the internet at all for the past few weeks.
I spent most of last week working on an animation for a film-friend's project at USC. This past week, I started work at the Mondavi Center.
It's fun working there again. It's like I never left. And it pays considerably more than that editing job I was offered last month. The hours still suck, but at least I'm not trying to fit them between classes anymore.
The past few days, I've gotten much better at wasting time than I already was.
Team Fortress 2 and Portal came out, which I and all of my PC gamer friends bought, so I've been playing the hell out of those (and speaking of which, I highly, highly recommend Portal. Most fun I've had playing any video game in a while.)
At the same time, Sarah has somehow managed to get me hooked on Pokemon. Yes, seriously.
It's really not as stupid as it seems.... okay, it is that stupid, actually, but it's a lot of fun. And it's so cute. So I've been playing Pokemon Blue on the ORIGINAL gameboy. That is, the old gray brick from 1989... None of this pocket, color, advance, or whatever passes for vintage among the set that cut their teeth on Nintendo 64.
(Of course, I lay down to the super-nerds who were playing (or designing) video games in the 1970s, but my first system was an Atari 2600, so I do have some geek-cred.)
So this ternary black hole system that is TF2/Portal/Pokemon has been threatening to suck all time into its swirling stew-pot of oblivion, and I had probably better force myself to focus on other things before I wake up one morning wondering where November went.
-Adam
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| jobs? |
[11 Sep 2007|10:47am] |
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Interview today at 2pm. Fastest turnaround time ever... less than one half hour between email and call back.
That was weird. I was almost certain all of my resumes were being deleted on arrival.
-Adam
EDIT 4:30pm:
Well that sucked.
They wanted a six-month-to-a-year commitment to a part time job that pays between shit at best, and less than I pay in rent + utilities per month at the lowest. And they wanted you available, so they seemed to frown on a second job. Good luck finding an editor worth a goddamn who's willing to work part time only for ten bucks an hour. And AfterEffects skills...
Fuhgedaboutit.
Mister entitlement signing off.
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| Los Angeles Excursion, Day 4 |
[26 Aug 2007|03:33pm] |
I've been in LA since Thursday afternoon, having taken the Amtrak from Sacramento. The train was cheaper, and less like riding in a poor man's cruise missile. No cavity search, either.
I'm staying with Matt and Jeff. I haven't seen a whole lot of Matt, as he has been working 16 hour days. Jeff and I, plus three of Jeff's friends, went to the Getty museum yesterday. That was a lot of fun, but I'm starting to feel like I haven't made as much progress down here on the business side of things as I would have liked. Tomorrow will be a work day, one way or another.
LA is as bad, and not as bad in some ways, as I expected. The area I'm in is nice as far as cities go, so I haven't been robbed or stabbed to death yet. Traffic is thick and the drivers are assholes, but that's true of Seattle as well. The air and water are crap. The air looks like there is a forest fire nearby, with a gray haze obscuring objects more than a couple of miles away. I'm told this is normal. Also, the sky is never dark. It glows pink all night long, although I had noticed that on previous trips. As I told Dave, it's the mechanized world drowning in its own shit down here. I'm not sure what they put in the water to make it taste so awful, but that could be cured with a Britta filter. The air is a somewhat trickier problem. Simple acceptance of an early death by lung disease? Maybe.
So why in the name of all that is right and good would I want to live here?
Relevant jobs, connections, and perhaps most persuasively, existing friends. In Seattle I would be starting from square one with my social life. With enough caffeine and regular exercise, my mood might be good enough to pull that off, but still, my social tendencies are more trench warfare than blitzkrieg. It could take a while.
And yes, there is something stupidly alluring about those big "HOLLYWOOD" letters up on the hill. Even if they are obscured by gray haze.
All those big city nights...
-Adam
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| At what price freedom? |
[16 Aug 2007|12:43am] |
| [ |
music |
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the Smashing Pumpkins - In My Body (Glass & The Machines Of God Remix) |
] |
I came out to my car this morning to find my tire was flat. Or rather, I noticed it was flat after I backed out of my parking lot, and then had to drive back to avoid blocking traffic, thus assuring the tire was good and wrecked. I then proceeded to fight with the spare cover, which didn't want to come off easily without the gate open, which is mechanically stuck shut, because we didn't re-assemble it correctly after taking it apart to re-mount my license plate which broke out of its mounting holes and fell off somewhere between Sacramento and Los Molinos last week.
And I still haven't fixed my mirror completely after ripping it off on a pillar some months ago in San Francisco.
To all those people I know who don't drive cars... you may be on to something.
-Adam
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| And some fetuses... |
[12 Aug 2007|12:26am] |
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What the hell? Seriously...
I reformat my parents' computer, everything is working fine, I leave for three days, and now it has adware coming out the demon-hole.
What do you people do to your machines while I'm away???
I'm too hopped up on politics right now to sleep, having just returned from a visit with my grandparents. The issue they vote, primarily, is abortion on the pro-choice side. It always makes for an interesting conversation... not that I disagree with them, but I always try to reason with people on both sides of this exceptionally divisive issue. It's not as simple as it seems. I have been accused of philosophizing too much, but this particular issue is primarily philosophical. Neither side seems to realize that their default arguments are absolutely meaningless to the other side, and if anyone's mind is going to change, it's going to have to be on a philosophical level.
Of course, one side could just kill the other side -- that seems to be the most historically proven method of settling arguments.
On that note, I am as of last week a "card carrying member" of the NRA. Just like Charlton Heston, and Michael Moore.
That ought to either piss-off or scare the shit out of at least half of the people I know.
-Adam
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| Addendum |
[19 Jul 2007|11:55am] |
| [ |
mood |
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Temba, his arms wide. |
] |
I should have specified in my last entry... I wasn't referring to anyone I actually consider a friend. I was just venting my frustration over an annoying neighbor who I barely even know (though apparently he thinks we're on a regular money-lending, ride-giving basis). I should have said, "make acquaintances with..."
I don't at all mind helping my friends out. I promise I won't devour any of you if you need help with something.
Love, love.
-Adam
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| This is getting old, fast. |
[17 Jul 2007|04:30pm] |
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If I make friends with my neighbors, it's so if I get shot or have a heart attack, I won't feel guilty about stumbling to their door and asking for help. It's not so I can ask them a bunch of pestering asinine favors that I should be well capable of taking care of myself. Just because I gave you a ride somewhere once, and lent you a small amount of money once, doesn't mean I'm your personal fucking taxi service or lender.
Next time I'm just going to say, look dude, I'm not a taxi service, and if you don't have a car that's your own problem. Broadway is not that far away. Don't ask me to borrow money again, and unless your legs are chopped off and you need to go to the hospital, don't ask me for a ride.
I just don't get some people.
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