Thursday, September 11, 2008

killing me loudly with his song

I'm about to crawl into bed, happy and full of fine bacon vodka spaghetti -- but before I do, I have to post this.



I first heard this song this morning, on my way to work. Two minutes in, I was already singing along with it, belting out the chorus with all my soul as I hurtled down the 110 freeway. I had no idea the song was by Death Cab for Cutie [trust me, it's a fine figure of a website, nice 'n' retro] until I Googled "i will possess your heart" a few minutes ago this evening. The video is a wisp of a thing, plotwise, but it sure captures a lot emotionally. Not sure how, since watching a beautiful woman walking around the world doing nothing isn't normally my idea of compelling entertainment.

Anyway, they will possess my heart, those dastardly devils of deliciousness known as Death Cab. I feel like such a sell-out trendster now, but it's a good kind of pain.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

products progressing though production progress, bang

I was sitting in training yesterday in order to learn how to use a particular database. Here is a direct quote from the presentation:

"A lifecycle represents a succession of phases or steps at which a product progresses through a production progress."

Because, you know, banging your head against a brick wall can be so goshdarn time-consuming sometimes, and PowerPoint presentations offer greater efficiency for achieving the same result.

SEE Neopoleon.com: Are You Passionate About Utilizing Your Core Competencies To Effect Strategic Outcomes?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

no, the OTHER Astrid Phillips

There is somebody out there doing biology in my name. Once in a while, I get emails meant for her.

October 2005:

I have your LSU contract ready for your signature, please see Christine in 202 LSB to sign. Thanks . . . .

Department of Biological Sciences
Louisiana State University

And then there was this:

April 2006:

This is a test of the Emergency Contact Management System. Please reply to this email so that we can determine the response time and if this alternative email address is valid. . . .

Department of Epidemiology
Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Most recently, before Hurricane Gustav reached Louisiana, there was this:

Sunday, August 31, 2008 4:06 PM

Hi Astrid,

I just wanted to check on you and Lee and make sure that you both are ok. Did you evacuate? I spoke to Brad on Friday and he told me about the university closing. If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope that you are both safe and stay that way through this entire process.


All I can say is, this other Astrid Phillips sure gets around in terms of teaching biology in Louisiana, plus she has terrific friends, plus her email address must be only one letter off from mine. Perhaps I should start an Astrid Phillips Club, just for an excuse to meet everybody else living in my name. So, here we go:

I hereby announce the existence of the The Astrid Phillips Club. If your name is Astrid Phillips, or if you know somebody named Astrid Phillips, contact me immediately at astridica@yahoo.com. Most likely, absolutely nothing will happen. Or we could all end up best friends. Really, who knows where this could go?

Thursday, September 4, 2008

petaheat turns to stoopid

Petascale data-centers in Nature [via Boing Boing]: "Every watt that you put into retrieving data and calculating with them comes out in heat, whether it be on a desktop or in a data centre; in the United States, the energy used by computers has more than doubled since 2000. Once you're conducting petacalculations on petabytes, you're into petaheat territory. Two floors of the Sanger data centre are devoted to cooling."

Do we still lack the technology to harness this heat in order to power other things? We can't possibly be this stupid.