I came across from a link on one of the gun boards.

Watch the first 60 seconds or so. See that loaded mag he takes out? Is there a round in the chamber? Does he check? Which way is he pointing the gun when he starts to take it apart?

First time I saw the video, I seriously though the gun was going to go off. I literally said "What?!" out loud when I saw him start to take it apart without looking in the chamber to make sure it wasn't loaded. That's firearms safety rule #1: Every gun is loaded. You must check the chamber when you unload it. You keep it pointed in a safe direction, you keep your finger away from the trigger and you check the chamber. Then you take it apart and clean it or whatever, once you know it's safe. And even when it's safe, and you know that it's safe, you treat it like it'll go off if you so much as look at it the wrong way.

I made a comment there asking him to please edit the video and add a part about checking the action. He deleted my comment and sent me a nasty message saying basically "hey captain asshole, you don't like my vid, don't watch... I know which guns of mine are loaded and which aren't". My point was that he's trying to help new gun owners (which is cool and I appreciate what he's trying to do), but by not checking the action, he's inviting people to follow along with him in a really unsafe way. Anyway, the dude took personally what I thought was a fairly innocuous comment.

So I replied, told him that if he wants to shoot himself in the face, that's his own business. I said that I think he's borderline negligent teaching people to handle firearms unsafely like that. His video is aimed at new gun owners, and he's got them started out on the wrong (and very unsafe) foot. I also told him that I, too, know which of my guns are loaded: they all are -- even after I unload them. You start off thinking that way, you keep thinking that way, you stay safe. Safety for him merits only a casual mention, an afterthought.

I just don't get it... it would have been quick and easy to impart a lot of basic gun safety into his otherwise helpful instructional video. Some kid is going to be watching that video while taking apart his dad's 1911 and there's going to be, at best, a hole in the ceiling. And that korn guy could have prevented it from happening to begin with if only he'd taken the 3 seconds to check the action after he removed the magazine. He's presenting himself as a teacher, yet he's teaching bad, bad things. That's completely irresponsible and in my opinion gives gun owners a bad name.

If you presume to teach people about guns you have a duty and an obligation to do it properly and safely. I wouldn't want someone's death or injury on my conscience. Apparently he feels differently. That's really sad and I hope nobody gets hurt following his advice.

I often have to make reports using unformed/gathered data, and more often than not it's for something web-based So I often have to think about presentation as well as the actual stuff I want to show someone.

As you might have guessed by looking at this aging website, I *hate* web design. It's really annoying, and I'm not at all good at it. I recently came across this Top 10 CSS Table Designs page, and I think it'll make my life easier.

A prof in college once told me that "presentation is key". He was giving me an 89% on a huge school project that took a few months to complete. I spent hours and hours on it, and tried to be as meticulous as possible. But I did it by hand, since it was far too large for anything I had at my disposal. This was 1993, after all, and my only computing resource were crappy lab machines or the slightly more crappy Amstrad 8088 I had in my apartment. I didn't think ASCII art on green/white tractor paper would have been an improvement over my hand drawing and writing -- but it likely would have been. I took drafting in high school, and know how to make lines and measurements and things to scale and all that. But I always got dinged on my arrowheads. I'm no artist. Shit, I can barely write my name legibly.

Anyway, after handing me my grade he said that he wished he could have given me a 100%, as my work was -- technically -- the best he'd seen in a long time. I had two TAs come by to congratulate me on it before I went in to get my grade. I thought it was good work and a shoo-in for an A. Since it was worth 40% of my overall grade, it was important to do well. Why was I saddled with an 89%?

"In business, when you go out and spend months doing research, you have to make sure that your results are presentable in order to do that work justice. You have to make it visually appealing, free of errors, easy to read, so that you can secure funding or make your argument or get your proposal approved. Look professional, and you're taken seriously. Presentation is key."

So he reckoned my less-than-perfect presentation (I did it on vellum with technical pencils, but my bad artwork and the occasional smudges made it look a little shoddy, I admit) was worth "barely missing an A-class presentation".

I guess it's no great revelation that dodgy data which looks good is better received than very accurate data which looks crappy. But ever since that prof's grade (man, was pissed) I've been conscious of making sure than everything looks at least passable. So I'm always on the lookout for stuff that can make things look a little better. That's doubly important when the numbers themselves are a little ugly...

Griefer
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I think that about sums it up. Case in point was this retard we ran into last night. Dude flies an indy into a bunch of nuts waiting to kill him (or whoever else comes by) and then goes on a tear about us all owing him money because we blew up his ship. I tried to get him to pay for the stuff that we couldn't salvage from his wreck, but he was having none of it. What a maroon.

A day without emo-rage is like a day without sunshine...

I just happened across the FISH! Philosophy.

If anything like that happens where I work, I'm walking out the door instantly and not going back.

Well, everything's pretty much all wrapped up here at work. Ticket queue is empty, emails sent, laptop/workstation/desk cleaned out. I decided walk around and said goodbye to old friends and old places.

I visited the first cube I had, in building 42, down the hall from where Larry & Sergey had their offices. They called those offices "The Fishbowls", since they were normal offices, with actual doors and such, but glass walls. Everyone knew where they were: "You up in The Fishbowls?" "Yeah, second one" was the answer, and then he'd be able to come right on over. They used to parade large groups of bewildered Asian businessmen past us a lot in the early days. I always felt like I was in some sort of weird geek zoo. You'd be hacking away and look up to see like 24 guys in the same dark suit staring at you with the same "curiously amazed" look on their faces. I could sort of hear their thoughts as they gazed upon the specimens on display: "You see, Hiroshi? He's making the Internet!" I always felt like one of those animatronic dudes in the control room in the intro of the Mission to Mars ride at Disneyland.

I went out to the open tech talk room in 42 and sat in the ball pit one last time. I noticed that the weird Japanese massage chair without English instructions was there again, so I had a little massage (it was always a new experience with that chair, trying to remember what button combo did what). I had a love/hate relationship with that tech talk area. You'd walk by and see some amazing people talking. I saw NASA scientists, famous authors, the guy who invented the phrase "virtual reality", the dude who wrote Sim City, and a lot more. But it was also kind of loud, since The Fishbowls were right around the corner. It could get really crowded as well, making it hard to get to the office. I'd have to go around the back way, by the bathrooms.

I went over to the balcony I spent a lot of time at, back when Tracy was in San Diego and I was up here. That was a long and stressful first three months. I spent more than a couple hours on that balcony, either on the cell phone or reading over whatever latest fax I had from the realtor or the relocation company. It was always windy there, but it was the best place to talk on the phone without being overheard. It annoyed the two smokers in my building when I was out there and they were forced to go to the balcony in building 41. They would glare at me from across the way.

Moving on to building 41, I noticed the smell of the breezeways. There's a odd smell that comes out of B41. It smells like a new airport, or a hotel lobby. I think it's carpet and cleaning product. But due to some overpressure situation in B41, the two breezeways which connect to it have a fairly strong, airport-scented breeze in them. I always liked that smell and I don't know why.

I stopped by the very first meeting room we went to on our very first day. All of us where there, fresh off the plane from San Diego, all happy and excited about being "on the inside". They had backpacks on the tables, with your choice of a thinkpad or mac. Lots of other goodies were in there as well, like Google pens and little magnetic puzzles. That was a crazy morning. As oddly hectic and tenuous as things were the couple months before we got up here, I think mostly we were just happy to have it all over with. I sat down in the same chair and all that came back to me. Second row from the front, just left of the center aisle. I remembered that my little crypto card wasn't working so I couldn't get on the wireless network. But I got online, and sent an email with my brand new google.com address.

It was nice to go back and see people and places I hadn't really taken much notice of lately. Part of me is really happy to leave, but another part is kinda sad. It feels like leaving high school: you really want to see college and a new city, but you had a good time over the past few years moving between the awkward->getting to know your way->old timer stages of life there.

I've got 21 minutes until my exit interview, and not much to do until then. So I think I'll go walk around a little, steal a pen or grab a free snack or something. From now on, I'll have to content myself with the Google home game.

It was a very good run, and I'd do it again, but I'm glad to be moving on.

Apparently, yes:

Kind of a cool test (though I'm a sucker for them anyway).

This kicks every manner of ass:

Iron Man Exclusive Trailer

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark?! I have to admit it kind of works.

Between then next Batman movie and this, my inner comic geek will be well placated this summer.

"Dwarves don't toss each other".

Finally one that really does fit the category name: This web site is pretty amusing. I don't understand half the shit in those pictures, but every once in a while they have some darn funny ones. (And a few NSFW^TM ones, too.)