This has been a feature of Google for a long time, I presume, but now that I’m writing descriptions, or terminological definitions, to the terms in the lexical ontologies I realize how nifty it is. By writing define: and a term (define:dictionary), you get several definitions picked up from all over the web. All on one page, no link-clicking required.
Yesterday I bought the M. Night Shyamalan DVD box which includes Sixth Sense, the Signs, and Unbreakable. Today I found the uncut Stand (!!!!!!!!) at a bookstore while I went to buy Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons (it was on sale). Alas, both the books are in bad shape (the saleswoman helped me to get the book from the top shelf and said “I’ll get the one on the back so it’ll be in better shape”. Maybe it is better, but it has a very badly bent corner on the back. Oh well. I don’t care about the D. Brown book but the bad shape of The Stand bums me a bit (the front leaf is wrinkled and there’s a little tear on the back). However, it was a miracle I found it — the last one in stock — so I’m just glad I did.
Tomorrow I think I’ll go get my credit card (or it’s just plastic, no credit) so I can go a) clothes shopping and b) VHS + DVD-RW shopping.
Today I’ve had the most persistent headache. I popped a pill (a mild one, people say it’s just placebo) ages ago but it’s still thumping in my head. I feel like I should drill a hole on my temples. I’ve been reading grammar “all day”, I have a little exam tomorrow. Interestingly, I’ve even learnt something new.
I got my new work computer last week. It’s very spiffy, black and silver. And not to mention fast.
It, however, doesn’t have any sound device installed, so every sound it needed to make (Windows warnings), it beeped from its rear end. Extremely annoying! Especially when the sound was made even when I pressed an arrow key at the end of a file. I searched for the solution and found a nice tip: If you right-click My Computer, choose Properties, Hardware tab, and select Device Manager, check Show hidden devices under View, go to Non-plug and play, select Beep and set it to Disabled, the bleeping beep is gone!
And it IS gone!
*pummels the arrow key at the end of a file*
Having an English-speaking roommate has led me to notice that my vocabulary for bidding farewell is extremely restricted. When she says “see you”, all I can say is “bye”. Fridays are easier, because I can wish her to “have a nice weekend”, but 4 days out of 5, “bye” is the only thing she can get out of me. “Not if I see you first”, is not an option.
I thought of writing about this and then decided against it, but what the heck. I haven’t written about anything for a while anyway.
Just to let you know, this story has a happy ending. Sort of.
Continues »
Today’s lecture for Digital Media Technology was a draaaaag (about tables, frames and forms). I did learn one thing, however: <fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Some title</legend>
Content
</fieldset>
Makes a neat looking box:
Of course you can style it to your heart’s content. It’s meant to be used in forms to group data and I don’t know if it’ll tick off the validator if it’s used outside form tags.
10 years ago, give or take, on January 21st we moved to this house. We used to live in a 2 bedroom (+ 1 study) apartment but it got too small for us after my sister was born and grown to be old enough to need an own room. For a while we slept in the same room (oh horror) but I got a study made in a big walk-in closet where I could do my homework in peace and only had to sleep in the shared room. Sharing a room with a little sister wasn’t nice, especially when she was sick, threw up on the carpet and got to sleep in my parents’ bedroom while I had to stay in the smelly bedroom.
Memories…
The winter when we moved was a very snowy one, like this one (at least amount-wise). That Monday, 23rd, I had to travel by bus to school for the first time. It was nice, though, that I got to end my 6th grade in my old school even though we’d moved out of the city. That Monday, I happened to be at the bus stop at the same time with my English teacher, it was windy and snow flurries everywhere. Then she taught me the word “blizzard”.
I got to have the room downstairs. It used to be a garage and then it was made into a storage and finally into a bedroom. It has a door that leads outside — it’s hardly ever used, only to bring heavy stuff in because there’s the strip for the garage, and once our dog (the previous one) ran out during a sleep-over when my friend was sitting on the doorstep — and a very own toilet. And it’s huge. It’s going to be a shame to move into my own apartment that’s going to be the same size as my room now but with toilet, kitchen and everything crammed in the same space.
That year I got to keep a birthday party because we finally had enough space (I had had a great party once in our old home, too). I invited my whole class except the only boy. Thanks to that party, I had surprise visitors several years afterwards when we all had went our own ways, each to a different high school (or vocational school).
I also got a real piano at last. In the apartment I had an electric piano which didn’t do good to my touch and finger strength but at least I could play with earphones on. With a real piano it’s somewhat difficult to play without anyone hearing. (With the electric piano I could also open the window, crank the volume up, put one of the demo songs on, and make our downstairs’ neighbours green with envy 
I’m sure they didn’t even hear it…)
Memories… I always wonder how people can remember all kinds of interesting little things. Apparently I do too, only they’re the odd ones that don’t really matter much I guess.
The terrorist are threatening to release a small pox virus all over the United States. Sam Fisher has to, as usual, save our (or theirs… the Americans’) butts. He’s equipped (in addition to a limber bod 
) with the good old silenced pistol, SC-20K with nice sticky shockers to buzz out the enemies, and all the gadgets from the first game, as well as a new type of grenade to shut off those nasty turrets.
It didn’t take me long to finish this game. That’s pretty much the only bad feature about it: it’s surprisingly and depressingly short (good games that are too short make me sad). No wonder it’s been reviewed as being a sloppy and careless job from the makers of SC between the hit of a first game and the upcoming 3rd, Chaos Theory (March 2005 says the site).
It also seemed easier even though there were some tight spots that made me re-try over and over. I didn’t use many med-kits (I couldn’t have stood his suspicious sounding ‘oh yeahhh’ anyway…) but then again, if you get shot in Splinter Cell you usually get shot for good.
Nevertheless, there are 8 missions in the game and I’m happy enough with that. Sam Fisher has learned a few new tricks — and they said old dogs don’t learn new tricks! Well, his appearance has got more youthful as well. (Where was the stubble? I love the stubble!) Now he can split jump in a narrow passage and jump to a higher platform. Also now there’s a SWAT turn in his repertoire. It makes getting past illuminated doorways so much easier. Once, in Jerusalem, there was a guy sitting right in front of a barred door, probably 50 cm away from the door, and I (*cough* I mean Sam) swirled by. He didn’t notice a thing!
What I missed was a nice oomph of an intro movie and as catchy theme as in the first one (Crystal Method’s Name of the Game).
And of course, it’s Splinter Cell I’m talking about. The amazing, breathtakingly beautiful, refreshingly non-shoot-em-up, wonderfully clever sneak-in-the-shadows Splinter Cell. Finding an alternative route through airshafts or window ledges always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
There’s probably some re-playing value in this “thanks to” the fact that it wasn’t too difficult. In the first game I got stuck in the annoying library ambush and got tired with that (but I played the first levels over and over). I’ll have to see. I don’t have anything better to play anyway, unless I take down the whooping monster in Painkiller. (Jafer, help!)
This morning at the bus stop there stood a kind looking elderly woman with a maroon beret and a shopping-bag-on-wheels (pull-cart or whatever). She got on the same bus than I, walked to the seat right after the middle doors where there was a woman sitting. The old lady said “Go away, that’s my seat” (“mees pois siitä, se on minun paikka“). People threw glances at her throughout the drive and I felt like saying “look up, there isn’t a sign saying ‘for the elderly and idiots’ above the seat” but of course I didn’t.
And (some of) the old people say (all) young people are rude…
I remember when I was still able to breathe.
I could try out which was my dominant nostril [Via: Eric], I didn’t have to suck in all the germs from human-created puddles on the ground that just make the flu worse, I didn’t have to sound like a clogged pipe, I didn’t have to feel like I was sucking the fluid to my ears every time I drink something (I bet coffee in ears wouldn’t feel nice), and I could do more on the computer because I didn’t have to keep wiping my nose all the time.
