A while back, I proudly posted on the so-called Fail Garden. And…it was mostly a failure. Got a few herbs, some lettuce, and an unknown vegetable because I forgot to label it.

But now I’m trying container gardening again. Since it’s winter, I only have lettuce and carrots going (should have done spinach as well) and it’s actually turned out pretty well. In fact, now there’s much more lettuce than I usually use, so some days I cook stuff that needs it just to start using it up. Or, I could actually make a salad, that would work too.

Yep, no more milk jugs! They are cheap, but not they can’t hold enough soil for all the stuff I want to grow. And don’t look as good. So I started buying plastic containers. Until I calculated that building my own wooden containers is not only less expensive, but is a good excuse to hone home improvement techniques (like not hitting my thumb with a hammer, or not sawing through my own hand)

Due to my low carpentry skill, I’ve avoided posting photos containing clear closeups of the wood containers.

Even if you’ve never picked up a Nintendo controller, you’ve probably heard of the company’s flagship character, Mario. So how did this plucky plumber get his looks?

Little was done by accident or on a whim. The mustache, the color of his overalls, and the white gloves all had practical purposes (note: video link). That Nintendo’s mascot was designed with care and foresight, is lovable, and is internationally famous contrasts very sharply with a certain other Mascot, who needs not be mentioned by name.

In this month’s magazine:

Shocking KGB leak reveals: Russian lab clones two-headed chess master. Putin told scientists: “Get the chess championship back from that Indian!”

Gata Kamsky caught in gay scandal! (say sources)

The Silman – Nostradamus connection: how you can prepare for Armageddon

Chess Enquirer contest: Can you look nerdier than Kramnik?

This is something that has mystified me about conservative thinking in the United States.

The Right is in love with drilling more oil in the United States to reduce our dependency on foreign sources. But even if there is enough domestic oil to satiate our thirst, it will be many years before the production can actually come on line.

Meanwhile, because of the United States’ great oil consumption:
* The United States economy is dependent on potentially unstable regions
* American money is flowing into places like Venezuela and Islamic Middle Eastern countries, some of the Right’s favorite foils

It seems that advocating reduction in oil use and developing oil alternatives would be a natural fit for a mindset that highly values national security. But I’ve never heard a conservative talking head say “Those gas-guzzlers are helping us give Chavez more money”. It’s more like “Hybrids LOL” or “The government can’t tell me what to drive; I have my rights.”

(Alternative energy sources are routinely derided by some conservatives as well, even ones who say they have faith in the ability of humans to make great technological advances. I can’t help but think some on the Right belittle alternative energy simply because the Left likes it.)

Oh, yeah, you know I’m buying!

The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team, the 3-40 record notwithstanding.

Our company is working on creating a real intranet; there’s an outside contractor that they are working with. Due to slow progress, I’ve been tapped to help on the project outside of normal working hours (for a nice bit of extra pay, of course).

We were supposed to have an online meeting last night to discuss the project. For a week, the date was set, and the contractor was supposed to set up the meeting. Our IT guy emailed him the morning of, reminding him to send out an invite for the rest of us involved. That afternoon, concerned I did not get an invite, also sent a reminder.

Around 8:00 pm last night, I gave up checking for the meeting information. It obviously wasn’t happening.

So this morning, I check the email…at 3:00 this morning, the guy sent an invite for 9:00 this morning. First, our IT guy isn’t even in today! Second, I start the day at 8:30 am. Assuming I check all email right away, this gives me at most half an hour. But I did not even get to respond to the email before the new meeting time.

I declined the meeting, responding to the contractor (copying in the other members) about the unacceptable short lead time.

Also not professional: TSA screener plants white powder on passenger as a joke

Does anyone know if there’s a difference between an antiderivative and an indefinite integral? I’ve always kinda thought they were the same thing, although I’ve heard some people have different definitions for them.

If you play on FICS any, ficsgames.com is a handy site for finding old games and spying on potential opponents.

For example, you’re probably sitting there saying to yourself “Hey, I hate that Liquid Egg Product doesn’t put chess on his blog anymore. To get revenge, I’ll challenge him to a game on FICS and beat his army up and down the board.”

What you can do is visit ficsgames.com, and check out liquideggproduct’s statistics (or whoever your hated enemy is) like below:

Front screen:

Statistics:

Clicking on the standard Charts link (as shown in the second diagram) will show you graphs of your target’s rating, favored openings with each color, and other stuff, like the one below:

And then when you looked at my openings, you’d say “LOL, he plays the Pirc/Modern; I’ll just establish a huge pawn center and use my space advantage to squeeze him to death.”

Eggony is now playable. This game is safe for kids; blood and scantily-clad women are not found here. Play Eggony: the “best” web game

Boring story behind the game:

Back in October 2008, Kongregate released a tutorial dubbed “Shootorial” that taught how to create a shooting game in Flash. Intrigued, I took a look to see how they did it.

It was easier than expected.

I created a near-clone of their tutorial (ie, ripped the code and changed the graphics), dubbed it “Liquid Egg Shooter”, and added some features. Never got around to finishing it. But when Q asked where the Eggony game was? Might as well put out this one.

You’ll notice the lack of polish. There are no sounds for explosions and such. Most of the ships and enemies have no animation whatsoever (the graphic may be moving around, but the graphic is static). And some details in the How to Play might be wrong.

There was also supposed to be dialog during the game to advance the “plot”, but the only story is in the mission briefings before each level. And there were going to be more than just three levels. (You can tell because there’s no closure to the “plot”.)

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Play Eggony