this is what was going on with me

2006-06-15 15:38:09 [[ India TV update ]]

Beauty and the Geek is showing on Star World at 8pm in India. Apparently it's season 1, but season 2 is expected to follow? At least, that's the impression I've gotten.

Our new apartment is just about set up... we need a bunch of M6 bolts then we should be good to go. Someone should force the world to standardize on a set of units already. *finger on nose*

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2006-06-11 05:18:15 [[ Hi India! ]]

[[ I know, I know, I'm so very delinquent about updating here. If you remind me more often, perhaps I'll post more often. ]]

I just found out that BntG2 is showing in India now! That's actually all I know... anyone know further details? In particular, what time and channel? What episode are they up to now?

Anyone from India reading this? Say hi!

In local news, I have moved apartments. My new place and roommates should be just as cool as the old ones, only now with Flouchy goodness. Come visit! Actually if you're in the Bay Area and want to do stuff, including visit me, let me know and I'll add you to the relevant dostuff mailing list.

Speaking of, anyone want to take a field trip to LA this week, or planning on driving down to LA now-ish and/or coming back up mid to late week?

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2006-03-26 23:36:19 [[ Crunch squish ]]

Ever notice that there are some cereals that only taste good crunchy, some that only taste good soggy, and some that are good either way?

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2006-03-03 01:52:06 [[ spoilers... ]]

If you haven't seen the penultimate [ 7th ] episode yet, don't read any further.

It was a good run while it lasted, and in the end, I suppose it came down to mostly chance. Had Jennipher gotten some of Brittany's questions, it could easily have went to a tiebreaker. And had Joe gotten any of the other questions, it would have been over sooner. Ah well. Such is the way things go.

Incidentally, we did hit all the stores [ after driving San Francisco-ward for like 15 miles ]... once the map was figured out, things went smoothly after that.

And if there's one thing that college has taught me, it's how to take tests. I may not know the answers, but I can read the questions. Woot.

Off to LA this weekend!

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2006-02-20 16:51:40 [[ No episode this week,,, ]]

Apparently the WB doesn't want to compete with the Olympics, so there will be no Beauty and the Geek this week, rerun or new. What will you do with this extra hour or two of your life?

Well I have heard that the WB isn't planning on having a reunion special at the end of the season. You should all take some time to write a letter to your local congressman, vice principal, and/or WB affiliate expressing your outrage and demanding a reunion episode. You deserve it.

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2006-02-17 16:57:26 [[ I'm alive! ]]

But hey, it was close there. It was about time though... I haven't had a near-death experience in about a year.5, so I was getting a bit antsy.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite near death, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. Last weekend I was rollerblading down Hearst, which is a rather significant downhill. I was expecting to go to the bottom then turn onto another street and go up that less steep hill, slowing down and ending up at a party at the top of that street. I was cruising down Hearst, far faster than I've ever rollerbladed before [ whee! ], but still in control as I prepared for the turn. Well right as I began my turn I noticed that there was construction at that intersection. Crap. And the next thing I knew I was picking myself up off of the road near the curb, looking down and noticing that my shirt was drizzled rather thoroughly with blood. I somehow made it to the party, where people helped me get cleaned up and stabilized, but I had a gigantic gash on my chin that would not stop bleeding. That must have been my first point of contact with the ground after the fall... luckily the brunt of the impact was cushioned by my brain. As a result, my brain decided not to write the following hour of my life to memory. [ I heard that there is a byproduct of adrenaline that prevents long-term memory from forming after trauma or something? ] The concussion wasn't terrible, so I didn't need any hospitalization beyond stitches for my chin and dressings for my abrasions everywhere else. When actual medical professionals clean open abrasions, the result is not pleasant. At least they didn't used gauze instead of the wire brush to scrub, but that was probably the worst part of the whole thing [ that I remember ].

3 Comments [ add ]

2006-02-16 15:37:19 [[ All better ]]

mehtank.com was unhappy, but it took a nap and now everything is good again. Sorry for the downtime.

As to the lack of updates, I nearly died this weekend [ well, ish... I'm ok now, story to come ], and then had like 40,000 things due so far this week. I need to get caught up in a bad way.

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2006-02-10 03:43:59 [[ I've got a pair ]]

Today's episode was hilarious... probly the best one so far. I thought it was quite funny, despite their editing. [ There was so much that went on in this time period that they didn't show that was just as good if not better, but I guess I they can't put everything, and they did have their storyline to fulfill. ] And now that you have seen me in my underwear, it's only fair that I see you in yours. But only if you're hot, of course.

And I am piss tired, it's been a really long week. I tried Red Bull today... I'm not sure what I think about it. It has a vaguely candyish flavor, which isn't immediately terrible, but it's not that great either. I don't know. But anyway, yeah, I'm pooped, it's time for bed.

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2006-02-06 18:55:45 [[ A thousand dollars? [ SPOILERS ] ]]

That's about how much was spent per person on our makeovers in episode 4. Clothes, shoes, professional stylists... it all adds up. Was it worth it? You tell me... and if you say yes, feel free to contribute to my hotification fund. [ If nothing else, click on ads. ]

I'd like to mention that eyebrow waxing wasn't really that bad. There was a bit of a sting, but it didn't really hurt. The chest on the other hand... Also, hair getting pulled out is nothing compared to hair getting tugged on, but not removed. Why it was a chest waxing necessary for the "dates"? Our shirts stayed on the whole time... or did they? Yes, yes they did. But we are h4rdk0r3, and that's why it was necessary.

The dates, well, there's not much to say about them... after all, how hard is it to talk for 5 minutes to anyone? I don't remember what all I said, but there were some good moments where the girl was quite amused. Nothing nearly as good as "putting stickers on fruits" though. Genius. The show is going to be less exciting with Chris gone, that's for sure.

By the way, that orange pillow rocks.

16 Comments [ add ]

2006-02-06 00:56:18 [[ Extra Large? ]]

Woo Steelers!

A friend of mine came up to Berkeley today to go to his friend's place for a Super Bowl party... Seeing as I didn't have official plans for the party myself, and this place would have several other Berkeley grads there, I decided to go with. We get there, and I knock on the door, my friend standing behind me. The door opens, and the guy answering it greets me with a huge "Ankur!! I can't believe you came to my party!"

Now I'm rather confused, cause I've never met this guy, and I can't imagine how I would know him. But he quickly explains that he is a regular viewer of the show, and he's just as confused as to why I would show up quite randomly to his party. He of course invites me up without further delay, and then I explain my connection to the guy who was actually invited to the party. And then the scene repeats upstairs with the other folks already assembled there [ one of whom was sighting #11 ].

If crashing a party is this easy [ and fun ], I should do it more often...

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2006-02-03 12:27:01 [[ DOS ]]

Apparently the servers here are being DOS'ed... the site may be slow or unresponsive for a little bit, but don't worry, things should be back to good soon.

Yesterday's episode was awesome. I'll talk more about it later.

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2006-02-02 09:29:13 [[ Happy Groundhog's day! ]]

And yet another early morning. An hour later than yesterday, at least. If you're in range, make sure you listen tomorrow morning to Boston's Mix 98.5, with John Lander of "Lander in the Morning".

Today I was on air with Foz and Nikki in the Morning on the new Z107.5 FM, your source for today's best music in the greater Wilmington, NC area. You can hear the interview here (7:12, 6.6MB).

Did I ever mention that Cranium is an awesome game? Cause it is. If you ever want to play, just let me know. Incidentally, there is a Cranium tournament coming up in Seattle, I'll wear your logo if you sponsor my team. I promise we'll do you proud, who else can identify "The Great Depression" with a cameo clue in under 3 seconds?

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2006-02-01 07:59:42 [[ Good Morning Sunshine ]]

Ugh, it's way too early to be at school, I shouldn't even be awake yet. But you gotta do what you gotta do... don't forget to listen to Z107.5 WAZO tomorrow morning if you're in North Carolina, I'm going to be on with "Foz and Nikki in the morning". They'll email me the audio clip, so if you miss it you'll still be able to hear it here.

Check out the official BntG Drinking Game. For when watching me just isn't enough. Have suggestions for other entries? Post them in the comments.

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2006-01-31 18:24:01 [[ Back to normal? ]]

Things are getting somewhat back to normal... Microsoft infosession at 6:30, woot free dinner. And cookies from some poster session just now too. With classes all day and psetting and research, today was just about a normal day. Except for the fact that I set up a radio interview... I'll be broadcast on WAZO with Foz and Nikki in Wilmington, NC, sometime on Thursday Feb 2. I'm not sure the full details, all I know is that I have to wake up stupid early tomorrow to tape the interview. Ah well, such is the life of a celebrity.

Incidentally, I hung out with a friend from HS yesterday night, and it turns out a third member of our graduating class is getting married this Spring. And there were three weddings amongst college friends last summer... people are getting old. *shudder*

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2006-01-30 18:02:53 [[ Comments ]]

And a new feature: you can now comment on my news postings, just use the links below each post. Rather than duplicate effort, I just merged this in with my forums so if you'd rather, you can do things just over there too.

This is going to be one busy week, and that's not counting classes or research. If you're in the Lehigh Valley, look for me in the Morning Call in the next couple days.

2 Comments [ add ]

2006-01-30 14:47:23 [[ Are you funny? ]]

On Saturday I went to an improv comedy show in San Francisco... it was alright, but not great. I remember Roadkill Buffet, the MIT improv group, being absolutely hilarious my freshman and maybe even sophmore years, but other than that, I can't really remember consistently funny improv. Was it just cause it was new then? Or have things just started sucking?

On the other hand, I did meet #12 there... he "just wanted to say hi".

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2006-01-27 21:03:59 [[ 22.5 ]]

How could I forget? Today is my half birthday! Yay me!

Also, yesterday night at Blake's was a group, 6-10 [ 3 girls 2 guys ], followed by guy 11 this morning on the bus.

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2006-01-27 20:00:19 [[ Good ear... ]]

Kara noticed this during the show last night... Did you pick up on it?

Remember kids, don't believe everything you see on TV.

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2006-01-26 17:30:16 [[ Spotted++ ]]

And my 5th recognition today, another girl...

[ If you haven't been in Cory, there are elevators that serve as a major throughfare between one side of campus and the center. So people are always wanting to go between B and 2, frustrating us who want to go up to 4. ]

Anyway, I was going up to 4, but the elevator stopped on 2 to let people out, and there was a girl and a guy standing there waiting to get on one going down to B. They asked if it was going down, and I pointed up, and waited for the doors to close. But the girl gasped as she looked at me, and jumped in the elevator pulling the guy after her. So naturally I introduced myself to her, and as soon as I mentioned my name, she screamed. Loudly. Both I and the other guy flinched as she squealed breathlessly that she's been watching me on BntG, and she's rooting for me to win.

Best reaction from a fan ever... You're going to have to work pretty hard to beat that.

Hi wikipedia people!

2 Comments [ add ]

2006-01-25 14:56:01 [[ Hosed ]]

If you have contacted me in the past month and have not yet gotten a reply, don't think I'm blowing you off or anything... it's the start of the term, it's the start of the show, my computer at home is crippled beyond belief... all makes for me being rather hosed. Don't worry, I have noticed, and I'll respond as soon as I can.

That's also why there have been very few posts here. Hopefully things will pick up now though.

I got interviewed by the Daily Cal today... keep an eye out for me.

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2006-01-25 01:19:13 [[ Party at my house ]]

Incidentally, if you want to hear me sing "Hot Blooded", "Livin' on a Prayer", and more in their entirety, come to my house tomorrow [ Wednesday ] night at 9pm. We'll watch the rerun then karaoke it up. Email me if you need directions; we're right near the Ashby BART station.

Also. Earlier today I had my first female sighting, as I was cruising for schwag at the career fair. That makes 4 now, 3 guys and one girl.

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2006-01-25 01:15:43 [[ Another first! ]]

I got kicked out of a bar today!

We went to a karaoke bar in downtown Berkeley tonight. Sadly they didn't have "Hot Blooded", but I signed myself up to sing another classic, "Livin' on a Prayer" [ which incidentally was featured in my casting video ]. While I was waiting for my turn, someone else had decided to sing "Smells like Teen Spirit". [ That even has actual words? whoa. ] Anyway, what does one do when Nirvana comes on? That's right, I dragged my roommate to the floor and we started moshing. I threw him across a table, some other guys and girls get involved, next thing you know there's 10-12 kids hurling themselves at each other while some girl is crooning to Kurt Cobain.

And then, right as she finishes, but before the music cuts out, some guy falls against the TV that displays the lyrics, knocking it violently off its table onto the floor. The bouncer is not pleased, and comes to my roommate and I and tells us we have to leave. Immediately.

What an awesome night.

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2006-01-19 15:19:08 [[ Backup NOW. ]]

Also, a public service announcement... All of you back up your important data now. Because you never know when it may go away, and then you'll be super unhappy.

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2006-01-19 15:18:23 [[ I've been spotted! ]]

This makes twice! The first time was on my flight back here yesterday... I had a layover in Houston, and I was playing my Game Boy, when a random Indian guy comes up to me and asks, "Were you just on TV?". He claimed he doesn't watch the show, but his sister does, and he happened to see a bit of it in passing. The second time was just now at lunch, when the guy at Bongo Burger says to me, "You look familiar... You were on TV, right? Beauty and the Geek, right? Ankur?". Woot.

I'm not counting the squealy fangirls who stopped me as I was leaving after the MIT Mystery Hunt to take a picture with me... they weren't really random, as they had come to the premiere event a couple days previous.

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2006-01-16 01:23:31 [[ I'm Busy ]]

Sorry for the lack of updates... I've been at MIT for the past week, and there's just so much going on all the time that I haven't had the time to post any updates anywhere. I'll be back in Berkeley Wednesday, hopefully before that I'll have some time to post forum comments or some such. We'll see how it goes, else you'll have twice as much to look forward to next week.

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2006-01-07 21:33:34 [[ Hollywood take note. ]]

So in a dream, I had an awesome idea for the next great badmovie. Well, actually my dream was the entire movie, but I immediately forgot most of it, so it's down to just an idea.

It starts out somehow that there are these Bad Guys, and they're wreaking havoc. They can't be killed though, because if they get shot or anything, the spray of blood tends to expand into more Bad Guys. And these blood monsters are getting bigger and badder, and so the military starts fighting them. But the big firepower of the fighter jets and stuff just creates a bigger spray every time a blood monster is hit, and so results in a bigger postexpansion, and everyone is worse off. Everyone is despairing, when a young whippersnapper engineer has a brilliant idea. He goes to tell the head of the military, who is just about to strap himself into some device to go fight these monsters himself. The idea seems tenable, so instead the young whippersnapper get in himself.

-- SPOILER ALERT --

He goes and attracts the attention of the blood monsters, and gets them to follow him. He leads them into a big reinforced mine, above which are several large rockets a la space shuttle boosters pointing down. When the blood monsters are in the mine, he launches the rockets, squishing the monsters down into the conical funnel shaped bottom of the mine. Clearly since they proliferate when their blood can expand in a spray, they hurt when their blood is compressed. And the significant compression generated by the rockets ends with all the blood monsters squeezed to a tiny amount of inert blood, and the world is saved.

I had an idea for a sequel too. It involves razor wire on a car to start it out.

-1 Comments [ add ]

2006-01-05 23:02:04 [[ Whew, big push... ]]

Ok, after a _huge_ effort these past couple days, we've got some major chunks of useful back online.

User accounts are back, you can create but you can't edit yet. So don't make a mistake just yet, eh?

The forums are up! And much much better than before. Lots of updates in functionality, aestheticness, and overall elegance. Super cool if I do say so myself. Go check it out, say hi, make friends. Sign up for an account first though.

It turns out the clock running fast [ 7% in my case ] isn't uncommon, and that's too fast for ntp to fix. I crontabbed a hard update every 2 minutes as a workaround, so on average times listed will be 4.2 seconds ahead.

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2006-01-02 22:23:38 [[ Lazy ]]

Yeah, yeah, no updates... I'm lazy. Isn't that what break is all about? I'm doing pretty much nothing out here, but the new year should bring some excitement. Oh yeah, speaking of which, Happy 2006, and Rabbit rabbit! [ grr I lost grr, just wait til next time. ] Mine wasn't too spectacular, but whatever, nothing can be done about that...

On the other hand, I did get to watch lots of TV. In particular the WB. Woot I'm on national TV! It's still kind of surreal. Beauty and the Geek 2 ads are in heavy rotation, especially during primetime. Also this week they're showing Beauty and the Geek 1 reruns to warm everyone up for next week's premiere, so I'm sure you can catch me in commercials then. And the premiere, Jan 12, 9/8c on the WB! Woot!

Grr, I want to get the forum up and working before the show starts, but I may not have much time between now and then... stupid slacking.

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2005-12-28 00:38:22 [[ ntpd off? ]]

Something is significantly screwed up with my computer clock... I synchronized it at 22:20:04, and now it's officially 00:29. In 2 hours, it got about 10 minutes ahead. I'm running ntpd, it synchronizes the clock correctly when it starts, but it fails to maintain correctness. Somebody tell me how to make it better.

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2005-12-27 13:43:09 [[ I've been blogged ]]

I've been mentioned in two blogs, one of which contains a scan of the TV Guide blurb of Beauty and the Geek. Check them out in the BntG links. Incidentally, if you have a copy of the TV Guide, could you keep it please? If you don't want it, I'll take it, or else I can autograph it for you to sell on ebay later and make millions. I'll take the standard 70% cut of all profits generated.

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2005-12-22 19:10:29 [[ I'm in TV Guide! ]]

"So, I usually don't read the TV Guide, but I'm home for the holidays and was flipping through my parents copy. I'm mostly skimming it since I don't watch enough television these days to know what's going on, but a photo on page 6 catches my eye. It's you..."

Woot, it seems the Beauty and the Geek producers are making a big deal of me or something. Maybe to make up for the fact that they hated me earlier? Who knows, but it'll be exciting to see what they did with me! Thursday, 12 Jan, 9/8c... remember that.

With that I leave Berkeley, and begin my holiday excursions. Happy everything to all of you.

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2005-12-19 19:43:52 [[ Now that that's cleared up ]]

Something was messed up with the hosting over the weekend... I'm not really sure what. Funny how computers work [ or not, as the case may be ]. Anyway, it seems to be fixed now, so things can proceed as before.

I managed to break another part today... microassembly is pretty cool, but I really doubt its viability for anything beyond amusing me at the current moment. Perhaps I'll try a different strategy in parallel.

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2005-12-17 02:33:50 [[ Eyyyyy! ]]

There's another Beauty and the Geek link up in the links section! This time there are pictures and names, go check it out... Wes totally wins the caption contest, hands down. I have nothing more to say about that.

There was an earthquake this morning, 3.something so definitely noticable. In fact many people noticed it. I, of course, not being one of them. I was awake [ probably ], taking the SEM class [ so maybe not ] and I didn't feel anything abnormal. Bah, one of these days I'll experience the Bay Area like it was meant to be. That is, rumbly.

-1 Comments [ add ]

2005-12-16 11:43:45 [[ It's cold ]]

13 C in my room, according to my thermometers.

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2005-12-14 20:16:28 [[ Comcastic ]]

Something is messed up with the network at home... sometimes it just suddenly stops. Only a reboot of both the cable modem and router will bring it back. It is unclear what causes this, but yesterday it happened three times in 2 hours before I gave up and decided to just forego connectivity.

In other news, I'm working on an easier way of auto-making index pages and the sitemap and navbar and stuff like that. It's complicated. I'm not quite sure how to go about this... basically I want each page to be complete, with all meta-data self contained, then when I'm ready to publish it I execute one command so the right links appear in the right place on the right pages. It would also be nice if there was a "refresh" option that would purge all links and recursively build everything up again, if for some reason I happen to reorganize the site entirely. Anyone have any ideas?

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2005-12-13 00:39:23 [[ Spoiler Alert ]]

Well, not here, but in the commercial. Yes, I know there's a commerical out for Beauty and the Geek season 2. Yes, I know I'm in it. [ Whee I'm on national TV! ] But I think it gives away some of the best parts [ well, mine at least, which are therefore obviously the best parts overall ], that may be better off experienced on the show. So I'm not going to link to it, even though it's online and available. If you happen to be watching TV and see the ad come on, I recommend changing the channel.

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2005-12-11 15:48:22 [[ When you don't have milk ]]

...use yogurt? It has sometimes worked in the past [ with Cheerios or Cornflakes, I think ], but I must say yogurt + Cinnamon Toast Crunch is not the best. Not terrible, but you'd be better off eating each separately.

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2005-12-10 19:03:37 [[ What time is it? ]]

Sweet, my "tell the time" project is now complete. [ Check it out in projects section. ] This is state of the art stuff... it uses AJAX to refresh the time. This is the technology that uses javascript to transform your browser from merely a rendering engine into a rather functionful application platform. Of course, the time thing doesn't actually interactify at all, but hey, it's pretty cool nonetheless. If you go there you can see a superquick tutorial on how to use AJAX, using my clock as an example.

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2005-12-05 11:51:19 [[ Bad timing ]]

Yeah, this isn't the best time to take on another project [ namely, this website ]... I'm not exactly swimming in free time here. I'll try to get things functional and functionful as soon as possible, but it'll probably be awhile for everything to be back. Also it's way more fun to do new brainworthy things than grungy coding updatage, so I'll be more inclined to make new pages than rehash old ones. We'll see what happens. Feel free to feedback me what you think.

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2005-11-23 22:46:17 [[ Sign my guestbook ]]

It's the first of the "you" sections to come back, partly because it's the easiest. It's pretty interesting seeing the variety of programming styles I've used over the past 5 years of making the previous instance of this site. Of course, it also made it painfully clear just how much work it's going to be to convert everything.

Whatever happened to guestbooks anyway? They used to be on everyone's website, now they're hardly in existance. I still think they're somewhat cool, so mine stays.

Incidentally, don't worry, all the existing entries in all the interactive sections [ guestbook, forum, etc. ] of the site have been duly archived, but I don't think I'm going to migrate them. Time to start from a fresh slate!

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2005-11-23 21:53:22 [[ Brand spankin' new! ]]

Where'd everything go?

Ok, so it's pretty clear that there will soon be far more visitors to my site than there have been before... and probably people that don't know me yet. So I made the decision to revamp this whole site. The basic look-and-feel will be the same, eventually all the old functionality will be there, but pretty much everything is going to be rewritten from almost-scratch. This is a good excuse to clean up code, tighten error handling, eliminate kludgy hacks, etc. Bear with me as I migrate everything, it will probably be a while before it's back to usual.

Of course the first thing I brought over is my news page [ for those of you who are new here, I hate the term "blog" and its associated connotations... I've been doing this since before "blogging" became what it is, and I'm going to continue calling this "news" because that's what I've been calling it and that's what it is. ] so I can keep everyone abreast of my progress. I'm not sure what order things will show up, but I'll try to get the important things done soon. In the meantime, there are a bunch of new ideas I have that I may implement too. Stay tuned...

Oh yeah, and Happy Thanksgiving!

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-- mehtank.com \| -- News / Blog \| -- Me \| \| -- About \| \| -- Computing \| -- Projects \| \| -- Glog \| \| -- Time \| \| -- Love \| \| -- Iraq? \| -- You \| \| -- Account \| \| -- Forums \| \| -- Guestbook \| -- BntG \| \| -- Games \| \| -- Sightings \| \| -- Links \| -- Other Links \| \| -- Friends \| \| -- Comics \| \| -- Bookmarks Spam no! Feedback yes!	< < < For current entries click here 2006-06-15 15:38:09 [[ India TV update ]] Beauty and the Geek is showing on Star World at 8pm in India. Apparently it's season 1, but season 2 is expected to follow? At least, that's the impression I've gotten. Our new apartment is just about set up... we need a bunch of M6 bolts then we should be good to go. Someone should force the world to standardize on a set of units already. finger on nose -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-06-11 05:18:15 [[ Hi India! ]] [[ I know, I know, I'm so very delinquent about updating here. If you remind me more often, perhaps I'll post more often. ]] I just found out that BntG2 is showing in India now! That's actually all I know... anyone know further details? In particular, what time and channel? What episode are they up to now? Anyone from India reading this? Say hi! In local news, I have moved apartments. My new place and roommates should be just as cool as the old ones, only now with Flouchy goodness. Come visit! Actually if you're in the Bay Area and want to do stuff, including visit me, let me know and I'll add you to the relevant dostuff mailing list. Speaking of, anyone want to take a field trip to LA this week, or planning on driving down to LA now-ish and/or coming back up mid to late week? 0 Comments [ add ] 2006-03-26 23:36:19 [[ Crunch squish ]] Ever notice that there are some cereals that only taste good crunchy, some that only taste good soggy, and some that are good either way? 8 Comments [ add ] 2006-03-03 01:52:06 [[ spoilers... ]] If you haven't seen the penultimate [ 7th ] episode yet, don't read any further. It was a good run while it lasted, and in the end, I suppose it came down to mostly chance. Had Jennipher gotten some of Brittany's questions, it could easily have went to a tiebreaker. And had Joe gotten any of the other questions, it would have been over sooner. Ah well. Such is the way things go. Incidentally, we did hit all the stores [ after driving San Francisco-ward for like 15 miles ]... once the map was figured out, things went smoothly after that. And if there's one thing that college has taught me, it's how to take tests. I may not know the answers, but I can read the questions. Woot. Off to LA this weekend! 12 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-20 16:51:40 [[ No episode this week,,, ]] Apparently the WB doesn't want to compete with the Olympics, so there will be no Beauty and the Geek this week, rerun or new. What will you do with this extra hour or two of your life? Well I have heard that the WB isn't planning on having a reunion special at the end of the season. You should all take some time to write a letter to your local congressman, vice principal, and/or WB affiliate expressing your outrage and demanding a reunion episode. You deserve it. 4 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-17 16:57:26 [[ I'm alive! ]] But hey, it was close there. It was about time though... I haven't had a near-death experience in about a year.5, so I was getting a bit antsy. Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite near death, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. Last weekend I was rollerblading down Hearst, which is a rather significant downhill. I was expecting to go to the bottom then turn onto another street and go up that less steep hill, slowing down and ending up at a party at the top of that street. I was cruising down Hearst, far faster than I've ever rollerbladed before [ whee! ], but still in control as I prepared for the turn. Well right as I began my turn I noticed that there was construction at that intersection. Crap. And the next thing I knew I was picking myself up off of the road near the curb, looking down and noticing that my shirt was drizzled rather thoroughly with blood. I somehow made it to the party, where people helped me get cleaned up and stabilized, but I had a gigantic gash on my chin that would not stop bleeding. That must have been my first point of contact with the ground after the fall... luckily the brunt of the impact was cushioned by my brain. As a result, my brain decided not to write the following hour of my life to memory. [ I heard that there is a byproduct of adrenaline that prevents long-term memory from forming after trauma or something? ] The concussion wasn't terrible, so I didn't need any hospitalization beyond stitches for my chin and dressings for my abrasions everywhere else. When actual medical professionals clean open abrasions, the result is not pleasant. At least they didn't used gauze instead of the wire brush to scrub, but that was probably the worst part of the whole thing [ that I remember ]. 3 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-16 15:37:19 [[ All better ]] mehtank.com was unhappy, but it took a nap and now everything is good again. Sorry for the downtime. As to the lack of updates, I nearly died this weekend [ well, ish... I'm ok now, story to come ], and then had like 40,000 things due so far this week. I need to get caught up in a bad way. 2 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-10 03:43:59 [[ I've got a pair ]] Today's episode was hilarious... probly the best one so far. I thought it was quite funny, despite their editing. [ There was so much that went on in this time period that they didn't show that was just as good if not better, but I guess I they can't put everything, and they did have their storyline to fulfill. ] And now that you have seen me in my underwear, it's only fair that I see you in yours. But only if you're hot, of course. And I am piss tired, it's been a really long week. I tried Red Bull today... I'm not sure what I think about it. It has a vaguely candyish flavor, which isn't immediately terrible, but it's not that great either. I don't know. But anyway, yeah, I'm pooped, it's time for bed. 12 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-06 18:55:45 [[ A thousand dollars? [ SPOILERS ] ]] That's about how much was spent per person on our makeovers in episode 4. Clothes, shoes, professional stylists... it all adds up. Was it worth it? You tell me... and if you say yes, feel free to contribute to my hotification fund. [ If nothing else, click on ads. ] I'd like to mention that eyebrow waxing wasn't really that bad. There was a bit of a sting, but it didn't really hurt. The chest on the other hand... Also, hair getting pulled out is nothing compared to hair getting tugged on, but not removed. Why it was a chest waxing necessary for the "dates"? Our shirts stayed on the whole time... or did they? Yes, yes they did. But we are h4rdk0r3, and that's why it was necessary. The dates, well, there's not much to say about them... after all, how hard is it to talk for 5 minutes to anyone? I don't remember what all I said, but there were some good moments where the girl was quite amused. Nothing nearly as good as "putting stickers on fruits" though. Genius. The show is going to be less exciting with Chris gone, that's for sure. By the way, that orange pillow rocks. 16 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-06 00:56:18 [[ Extra Large? ]] Woo Steelers! A friend of mine came up to Berkeley today to go to his friend's place for a Super Bowl party... Seeing as I didn't have official plans for the party myself, and this place would have several other Berkeley grads there, I decided to go with. We get there, and I knock on the door, my friend standing behind me. The door opens, and the guy answering it greets me with a huge "Ankur!! I can't believe you came to my party!" Now I'm rather confused, cause I've never met this guy, and I can't imagine how I would know him. But he quickly explains that he is a regular viewer of the show, and he's just as confused as to why I would show up quite randomly to his party. He of course invites me up without further delay, and then I explain my connection to the guy who was actually invited to the party. And then the scene repeats upstairs with the other folks already assembled there [ one of whom was sighting #11 ]. If crashing a party is this easy [ and fun ], I should do it more often... -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-03 12:27:01 [[ DOS ]] Apparently the servers here are being DOS'ed... the site may be slow or unresponsive for a little bit, but don't worry, things should be back to good soon. Yesterday's episode was awesome. I'll talk more about it later. 1 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-02 09:29:13 [[ Happy Groundhog's day! ]] And yet another early morning. An hour later than yesterday, at least. If you're in range, make sure you listen tomorrow morning to Boston's Mix 98.5, with John Lander of "Lander in the Morning". Today I was on air with Foz and Nikki in the Morning on the new Z107.5 FM, your source for today's best music in the greater Wilmington, NC area. You can hear the interview here (7:12, 6.6MB). Did I ever mention that Cranium is an awesome game? Cause it is. If you ever want to play, just let me know. Incidentally, there is a Cranium tournament coming up in Seattle, I'll wear your logo if you sponsor my team. I promise we'll do you proud, who else can identify "The Great Depression" with a cameo clue in under 3 seconds? 3 Comments [ add ] 2006-02-01 07:59:42 [[ Good Morning Sunshine ]] Ugh, it's way too early to be at school, I shouldn't even be awake yet. But you gotta do what you gotta do... don't forget to listen to Z107.5 WAZO tomorrow morning if you're in North Carolina, I'm going to be on with "Foz and Nikki in the morning". They'll email me the audio clip, so if you miss it you'll still be able to hear it here. Check out the official BntG Drinking Game. For when watching me just isn't enough. Have suggestions for other entries? Post them in the comments. 0 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-31 18:24:01 [[ Back to normal? ]] Things are getting somewhat back to normal... Microsoft infosession at 6:30, woot free dinner. And cookies from some poster session just now too. With classes all day and psetting and research, today was just about a normal day. Except for the fact that I set up a radio interview... I'll be broadcast on WAZO with Foz and Nikki in Wilmington, NC, sometime on Thursday Feb 2. I'm not sure the full details, all I know is that I have to wake up stupid early tomorrow to tape the interview. Ah well, such is the life of a celebrity. Incidentally, I hung out with a friend from HS yesterday night, and it turns out a third member of our graduating class is getting married this Spring. And there were three weddings amongst college friends last summer... people are getting old. shudder -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-30 18:02:53 [[ Comments ]] And a new feature: you can now comment on my news postings, just use the links below each post. Rather than duplicate effort, I just merged this in with my forums so if you'd rather, you can do things just over there too. This is going to be one busy week, and that's not counting classes or research. If you're in the Lehigh Valley, look for me in the Morning Call in the next couple days. 2 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-30 14:47:23 [[ Are you funny? ]] On Saturday I went to an improv comedy show in San Francisco... it was alright, but not great. I remember Roadkill Buffet, the MIT improv group, being absolutely hilarious my freshman and maybe even sophmore years, but other than that, I can't really remember consistently funny improv. Was it just cause it was new then? Or have things just started sucking? On the other hand, I did meet #12 there... he "just wanted to say hi". -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-27 21:03:59 [[ 22.5 ]] How could I forget? Today is my half birthday! Yay me! Also, yesterday night at Blake's was a group, 6-10 [ 3 girls 2 guys ], followed by guy 11 this morning on the bus. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-27 20:00:19 [[ Good ear... ]] Kara noticed this during the show last night... Did you pick up on it? Remember kids, don't believe everything you see on TV. 1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-26 17:30:16 [[ Spotted++ ]] And my 5th recognition today, another girl... [ If you haven't been in Cory, there are elevators that serve as a major throughfare between one side of campus and the center. So people are always wanting to go between B and 2, frustrating us who want to go up to 4. ] Anyway, I was going up to 4, but the elevator stopped on 2 to let people out, and there was a girl and a guy standing there waiting to get on one going down to B. They asked if it was going down, and I pointed up, and waited for the doors to close. But the girl gasped as she looked at me, and jumped in the elevator pulling the guy after her. So naturally I introduced myself to her, and as soon as I mentioned my name, she screamed. Loudly. Both I and the other guy flinched as she squealed breathlessly that she's been watching me on BntG, and she's rooting for me to win. Best reaction from a fan ever... You're going to have to work pretty hard to beat that. Hi wikipedia people! 2 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-25 14:56:01 [[ Hosed ]] If you have contacted me in the past month and have not yet gotten a reply, don't think I'm blowing you off or anything... it's the start of the term, it's the start of the show, my computer at home is crippled beyond belief... all makes for me being rather hosed. Don't worry, I have noticed, and I'll respond as soon as I can. That's also why there have been very few posts here. Hopefully things will pick up now though. I got interviewed by the Daily Cal today... keep an eye out for me. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-25 01:19:13 [[ Party at my house ]] Incidentally, if you want to hear me sing "Hot Blooded", "Livin' on a Prayer", and more in their entirety, come to my house tomorrow [ Wednesday ] night at 9pm. We'll watch the rerun then karaoke it up. Email me if you need directions; we're right near the Ashby BART station. Also. Earlier today I had my first female sighting, as I was cruising for schwag at the career fair. That makes 4 now, 3 guys and one girl. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-25 01:15:43 [[ Another first! ]] I got kicked out of a bar today! We went to a karaoke bar in downtown Berkeley tonight. Sadly they didn't have "Hot Blooded", but I signed myself up to sing another classic, "Livin' on a Prayer" [ which incidentally was featured in my casting video ]. While I was waiting for my turn, someone else had decided to sing "Smells like Teen Spirit". [ That even has actual words? whoa. ] Anyway, what does one do when Nirvana comes on? That's right, I dragged my roommate to the floor and we started moshing. I threw him across a table, some other guys and girls get involved, next thing you know there's 10-12 kids hurling themselves at each other while some girl is crooning to Kurt Cobain. And then, right as she finishes, but before the music cuts out, some guy falls against the TV that displays the lyrics, knocking it violently off its table onto the floor. The bouncer is not pleased, and comes to my roommate and I and tells us we have to leave. Immediately. What an awesome night. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-19 15:19:08 [[ Backup NOW. ]] Also, a public service announcement... All of you back up your important data now. Because you never know when it may go away, and then you'll be super unhappy. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-19 15:18:23 [[ I've been spotted! ]] This makes twice! The first time was on my flight back here yesterday... I had a layover in Houston, and I was playing my Game Boy, when a random Indian guy comes up to me and asks, "Were you just on TV?". He claimed he doesn't watch the show, but his sister does, and he happened to see a bit of it in passing. The second time was just now at lunch, when the guy at Bongo Burger says to me, "You look familiar... You were on TV, right? Beauty and the Geek, right? Ankur?". Woot. I'm not counting the squealy fangirls who stopped me as I was leaving after the MIT Mystery Hunt to take a picture with me... they weren't really random, as they had come to the premiere event a couple days previous. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-16 01:23:31 [[ I'm Busy ]] Sorry for the lack of updates... I've been at MIT for the past week, and there's just so much going on all the time that I haven't had the time to post any updates anywhere. I'll be back in Berkeley Wednesday, hopefully before that I'll have some time to post forum comments or some such. We'll see how it goes, else you'll have twice as much to look forward to next week. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-07 21:33:34 [[ Hollywood take note. ]] So in a dream, I had an awesome idea for the next great badmovie. Well, actually my dream was the entire movie, but I immediately forgot most of it, so it's down to just an idea. It starts out somehow that there are these Bad Guys, and they're wreaking havoc. They can't be killed though, because if they get shot or anything, the spray of blood tends to expand into more Bad Guys. And these blood monsters are getting bigger and badder, and so the military starts fighting them. But the big firepower of the fighter jets and stuff just creates a bigger spray every time a blood monster is hit, and so results in a bigger postexpansion, and everyone is worse off. Everyone is despairing, when a young whippersnapper engineer has a brilliant idea. He goes to tell the head of the military, who is just about to strap himself into some device to go fight these monsters himself. The idea seems tenable, so instead the young whippersnapper get in himself. -- SPOILER ALERT -- He goes and attracts the attention of the blood monsters, and gets them to follow him. He leads them into a big reinforced mine, above which are several large rockets a la space shuttle boosters pointing down. When the blood monsters are in the mine, he launches the rockets, squishing the monsters down into the conical funnel shaped bottom of the mine. Clearly since they proliferate when their blood can expand in a spray, they hurt when their blood is compressed. And the significant compression generated by the rockets ends with all the blood monsters squeezed to a tiny amount of inert blood, and the world is saved. I had an idea for a sequel too. It involves razor wire on a car to start it out. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-05 23:02:04 [[ Whew, big push... ]] Ok, after a _huge_ effort these past couple days, we've got some major chunks of useful back online. User accounts are back, you can create but you can't edit yet. So don't make a mistake just yet, eh? The forums are up! And much much better than before. Lots of updates in functionality, aestheticness, and overall elegance. Super cool if I do say so myself. Go check it out, say hi, make friends. Sign up for an account first though. It turns out the clock running fast [ 7% in my case ] isn't uncommon, and that's too fast for ntp to fix. I crontabbed a hard update every 2 minutes as a workaround, so on average times listed will be 4.2 seconds ahead. -1 Comments [ add ] 2006-01-02 22:23:38 [[ Lazy ]] Yeah, yeah, no updates... I'm lazy. Isn't that what break is all about? I'm doing pretty much nothing out here, but the new year should bring some excitement. Oh yeah, speaking of which, Happy 2006, and Rabbit rabbit! [ grr I lost grr, just wait til next time. ] Mine wasn't too spectacular, but whatever, nothing can be done about that... On the other hand, I did get to watch lots of TV. In particular the WB. Woot I'm on national TV! It's still kind of surreal. Beauty and the Geek 2 ads are in heavy rotation, especially during primetime. Also this week they're showing Beauty and the Geek 1 reruns to warm everyone up for next week's premiere, so I'm sure you can catch me in commercials then. And the premiere, Jan 12, 9/8c on the WB! Woot! Grr, I want to get the forum up and working before the show starts, but I may not have much time between now and then... stupid slacking. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-28 00:38:22 [[ ntpd off? ]] Something is significantly screwed up with my computer clock... I synchronized it at 22:20:04, and now it's officially 00:29. In 2 hours, it got about 10 minutes ahead. I'm running ntpd, it synchronizes the clock correctly when it starts, but it fails to maintain correctness. Somebody tell me how to make it better. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-27 13:43:09 [[ I've been blogged ]] I've been mentioned in two blogs, one of which contains a scan of the TV Guide blurb of Beauty and the Geek. Check them out in the BntG links. Incidentally, if you have a copy of the TV Guide, could you keep it please? If you don't want it, I'll take it, or else I can autograph it for you to sell on ebay later and make millions. I'll take the standard 70% cut of all profits generated. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-22 19:10:29 [[ I'm in TV Guide! ]] "So, I usually don't read the TV Guide, but I'm home for the holidays and was flipping through my parents copy. I'm mostly skimming it since I don't watch enough television these days to know what's going on, but a photo on page 6 catches my eye. It's you..." Woot, it seems the Beauty and the Geek producers are making a big deal of me or something. Maybe to make up for the fact that they hated me earlier? Who knows, but it'll be exciting to see what they did with me! Thursday, 12 Jan, 9/8c... remember that. With that I leave Berkeley, and begin my holiday excursions. Happy everything to all of you. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-19 19:43:52 [[ Now that that's cleared up ]] Something was messed up with the hosting over the weekend... I'm not really sure what. Funny how computers work [ or not, as the case may be ]. Anyway, it seems to be fixed now, so things can proceed as before. I managed to break another part today... microassembly is pretty cool, but I really doubt its viability for anything beyond amusing me at the current moment. Perhaps I'll try a different strategy in parallel. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-17 02:33:50 [[ Eyyyyy! ]] There's another Beauty and the Geek link up in the links section! This time there are pictures and names, go check it out... Wes totally wins the caption contest, hands down. I have nothing more to say about that. There was an earthquake this morning, 3.something so definitely noticable. In fact many people noticed it. I, of course, not being one of them. I was awake [ probably ], taking the SEM class [ so maybe not ] and I didn't feel anything abnormal. Bah, one of these days I'll experience the Bay Area like it was meant to be. That is, rumbly. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-16 11:43:45 [[ It's cold ]] 13 C in my room, according to my thermometers. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-14 20:16:28 [[ Comcastic ]] Something is messed up with the network at home... sometimes it just suddenly stops. Only a reboot of both the cable modem and router will bring it back. It is unclear what causes this, but yesterday it happened three times in 2 hours before I gave up and decided to just forego connectivity. In other news, I'm working on an easier way of auto-making index pages and the sitemap and navbar and stuff like that. It's complicated. I'm not quite sure how to go about this... basically I want each page to be complete, with all meta-data self contained, then when I'm ready to publish it I execute one command so the right links appear in the right place on the right pages. It would also be nice if there was a "refresh" option that would purge all links and recursively build everything up again, if for some reason I happen to reorganize the site entirely. Anyone have any ideas? -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-13 00:39:23 [[ Spoiler Alert ]] Well, not here, but in the commercial. Yes, I know there's a commerical out for Beauty and the Geek season 2. Yes, I know I'm in it. [ Whee I'm on national TV! ] But I think it gives away some of the best parts [ well, mine at least, which are therefore obviously the best parts overall ], that may be better off experienced on the show. So I'm not going to link to it, even though it's online and available. If you happen to be watching TV and see the ad come on, I recommend changing the channel. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-11 15:48:22 [[ When you don't have milk ]] ...use yogurt? It has sometimes worked in the past [ with Cheerios or Cornflakes, I think ], but I must say yogurt + Cinnamon Toast Crunch is not the best. Not terrible, but you'd be better off eating each separately. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-10 19:03:37 [[ What time is it? ]] Sweet, my "tell the time" project is now complete. [ Check it out in projects section. ] This is state of the art stuff... it uses AJAX to refresh the time. This is the technology that uses javascript to transform your browser from merely a rendering engine into a rather functionful application platform. Of course, the time thing doesn't actually interactify at all, but hey, it's pretty cool nonetheless. If you go there you can see a superquick tutorial on how to use AJAX, using my clock as an example. 0 Comments [ add ] 2005-12-05 11:51:19 [[ Bad timing ]] Yeah, this isn't the best time to take on another project [ namely, this website ]... I'm not exactly swimming in free time here. I'll try to get things functional and functionful as soon as possible, but it'll probably be awhile for everything to be back. Also it's way more fun to do new brainworthy things than grungy coding updatage, so I'll be more inclined to make new pages than rehash old ones. We'll see what happens. Feel free to feedback me what you think. -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-11-23 22:46:17 [[ Sign my guestbook ]] It's the first of the "you" sections to come back, partly because it's the easiest. It's pretty interesting seeing the variety of programming styles I've used over the past 5 years of making the previous instance of this site. Of course, it also made it painfully clear just how much work it's going to be to convert everything. Whatever happened to guestbooks anyway? They used to be on everyone's website, now they're hardly in existance. I still think they're somewhat cool, so mine stays. Incidentally, don't worry, all the existing entries in all the interactive sections [ guestbook, forum, etc. ] of the site have been duly archived, but I don't think I'm going to migrate them. Time to start from a fresh slate! -1 Comments [ add ] 2005-11-23 21:53:22 [[ Brand spankin' new! ]] Where'd everything go? Ok, so it's pretty clear that there will soon be far more visitors to my site than there have been before... and probably people that don't know me yet. So I made the decision to revamp this whole site. The basic look-and-feel will be the same, eventually all the old functionality will be there, but pretty much everything is going to be rewritten from almost-scratch. This is a good excuse to clean up code, tighten error handling, eliminate kludgy hacks, etc. Bear with me as I migrate everything, it will probably be a while before it's back to usual. Of course the first thing I brought over is my news page [ for those of you who are new here, I hate the term "blog" and its associated connotations... I've been doing this since before "blogging" became what it is, and I'm going to continue calling this "news" because that's what I've been calling it and that's what it is. ] so I can keep everyone abreast of my progress. I'm not sure what order things will show up, but I'll try to get the important things done soon. In the meantime, there are a bunch of new ideas I have that I may implement too. Stay tuned... Oh yeah, and Happy Thanksgiving! -1 Comments [ add ]