2/22/2007 #
Wich?
I decided I had to “blog” this, as it’s fairly unique in the scheme of things.
There is this new “concept sandwich joint” in Norman, called Which Wich? (question mark included), which (ha ha) has a novel kind of ordering system. You tell them Which [sand]Wich you want by the use of this cutesy-pootsy brown-paper sack, multiple varieties of which are available at a kiosk at the front of the store.
You are “allowed” to draw on the back with the same red marker with which you “order”. This is a creativity thing.
They take your bag, and a good portion of the contents of your wallet, especially given the diminutive size of the Wich itself (come hungry, leave hungry), and they clip that sucker onto a clothesline (the bag, not the wallet or the Wich).
The cooks then whip up your sandwich, put it in one of those conveyor-toasters, and slide the bag down the assembly line of sorts.
You then get the sandwich and pretend to get full eating it, while enjoying the lesser amount of butt dentage your wallet makes now that it is totally empty.
You also enjoy the company of a gaggle of sorority girls, who allegedly enjoy paying top-dollar for small sandwiches, and they may actually get full on them.
As far as the food goes, it was really good, especially the turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing combination. I suppose you get boutique sizes, at boutique prices, for a fairly boutique sandwich.
The funny thing is that Which Wich? is basically one store down the road from another overly-expensive sandwich shop, which I visited today (Jimmy John’s). After going there, I decided that I wouldn’t go back, because it’s too expensive, and there’s no cornbread stuffing on the sandwiches.
There is another sandwich shop on the other side of Which Wich?, which is called Mr. Goodcents. Goodcents uses a more Subway-like model, meaning they have larger sandwiches and lower prices. However, no stuffing, as well.
The verdict: Norman has too dang many sandwich shops.
2/22/2007 #
Talk
I find it funny how specialized terms evolve and then have the capacity to find usage in late form with no regard for the original context.
Like, I love the term “bork.” As in, “Passing a Denizen to the save() function in Sigma will currently bork the player database.” (Pretty much true, by the way.)
Consulting the Jargon File informs me that “bork” as a verb came from “borken” as an adjective, which in turn came from a corruption of “broken.”
“Bork” is so descriptive on its own I never sought out a more detailed reason for its existence.
As an additional note, I have only used “bork” in this blog once, over 200 days ago, during the development of Cluster. I think I prefer it more in speech, where the hardness of the vowel sound indicates true breakage.
2/22/2007 #
Precision Scanning Equipment
The scantron machine eats maybe about 1% of the papers fed through it. Perhaps not “eats” in most cases, but it jams about that many.
Most of these pages are dealt non-lethal damage (successful saving throws?) and make it back through with some primping and prodding.
But every now and then, you get one that gets… “JACKED UP!” (ah, if football were already to return).
I had one today that had a triangular-shaped rip about 3⁄4” long that took the tear-out and accordion-folded it into the surviving portion of the paper.
I just ripped off the tear-out, smoothed the tear line, and fed it through. It read stars for that (unimportant) section, but it worked.
I’m starting to think that Pearson NCS should design fault-tolerant military equipment.
2/22/2007 #
Close
I was just thinking this would be an okay idea, before I saw it was sold out.
2/14/2007 #
Climatology
To the obvious chagrin of many a short-term climatologist, the traditionally beautifully-warm Valentine’s Day in Norman has been seasonably un-warm; snowing, in fact.
I’m sitting in a case presentation right now in the fabulous downtown Oklahoma City demicampus, where a definition of “do-it-yourself warehouse” has just been requested of the peanut gallery, in which I currently sit. The aprons of silence cover me, a wire and hatch hold my tongue.
Drupal work continues. It’s a temporary Sigma distraction, but it’s an interesting project. Plus, it gives me a reason to SSH into the home server a few times a day. Drupal is one of those applications that requires more time to understand than it does to get it working correctly. So, I settle into the 4:4 time of Read, Think, Agonize, Rejoice.
I have this feeling I’m going to look up at about 9:00 tonight and say, “I have sensed something… as if all the restaurants in this area have cried out, and then closed suddenly.” Needless to say, Valentine’s plans are subjugated to the broader wills of night school.
Plus, the parking garage was charging a 150% premium for us little red-cheeked lovers.
I would say there is one major side-project for Sigma right now, and that’s a Circle-to-Sigma world file parser, which would take the Circle incantations and convert them into user-friendly Sigma XML. At this point, that would also involve inventing some of the future semantic path for the Sigma parser.
I would think GNU Bison would be an excellent tool from this job, but plain ol’ Python might be better even then.
2/11/2007 #
Oh My...
Drupal 5.x == Heaven # (0xffff)
2/7/2007 #
Harmony
I finally have decided I like Born on a Pirate Ship, which was the last Barenaked Ladies CD I hadn’t quite made up my mind on yet.
Also, I’m just amazed how much I like Nickel Creek the more I listen to their first album.
2/7/2007 #
Cycles
It’s probably about time to announce that the beast is back. Sigma is well re-underway, and progress is hot and heavy. Subversionized and Pythonized readers might try:
svn co http://antesonic.org/svn/sigma-mud
It might work. Who knows.
Anyway, we have the concept of direction, and walking, and stuff like that. You can even get on and talk to other people. It’s a load of fun.
