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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Stan's LiveJournal:
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| Monday, May 5th, 2008 | | 1:48 pm |
stolen from cedarseed
What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you read for school, underline the ones you started but didn't finish (or are on the shelf waiting for a free week).
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield | | Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 | | 8:15 am |
| | Friday, March 28th, 2008 | | 12:07 am |
they had already flown in the 'organ harvest team' when the family realized he was alive!
Pronounced dead, man recovers
Doctors can’t explain why 21-year-old Zack Dunlap recovered from accident
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 7:23 a.m. PT, Mon., March. 24, 2008
Zack Dunlap doesn’t remember much from the day he died, but he does remember hearing a doctor declare him brain-dead. And he remembers being incredibly ticked off.
“I’m glad I couldn’t get up and do what I wanted to do,” the strapping Oklahoman said in a soft drawl in an exclusive appearance on Monday on TODAY in New York.
And what would he have done, asked TODAY’s Natalie Morales, who has followed Dunlap’s miraculous recovery from a Nov. 17 ATV accident that left him with a catastrophic head injury.
“Probably would have been a broken window they went out,” the 21-year-old said with a hint of a smile.
He’s been through months of rehab, and he’s getting better, but he still has issues with memory and emotional issues.
“I feel pretty good, but this is hard,” he said of all the excitement of being in New York and on national television. He is getting better, he agreed, but said the process is frustrating.
“I just ain’t got the patience,” he said quietly.
He was accompanied by his parents, Pam and Doug Dunlap, and his younger sister, Kacy, who are more than happy to wait while he recovers.
“He’s been doing amazingly well,” Pam Dunlap said. “He does still have a lot of memory issues. It just takes a long time for the brain to heal after such a traumatic injury. It may take a year or more before he completely recovers. But that’s OK. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. We’re just thankful and blessed that we have him here.”
‘There was no activity’
Doctors have no explanation for why Dunlap is alive. He had been riding his souped-up ATV with some friends on that fateful Saturday, less than a week before Thanksgiving. They had participated in a parade that morning, popping wheelies and impressing the crowd, and then they had gone out riding on their machines. He did not wear a helmet.
Dunlap fell behind his friends on a highway just outside of Davidson, Okla., not far from his home in the ranching town of Frederick and near the Texas border. He gunned his machine to catch up, doing another wheelie on the back wheels. When he dropped the front wheels back to the pavement, he saw that he was going to crash into a friend’s machine that had stopped a short way up the road.
Dunlap tried to swerve, but flipped his machine and went flying, smashing headfirst and facedown on the asphalt. He remained there motionless, unresponsive to his friends, who quickly called 911.
Taken first to a local hospital, he was airlifted 50 miles away to United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, where there was a trauma unit that might be able to treat the severe damage he had done to his brain. But 36 hours after the accident, doctors performed a PET scan of his brain and informed his parents, along with other family members who had gathered to keep vigil at the hospital, that there was no blood flowing to Zack’s brain; he was brain-dead.
Doctors showed the scan to Zack’s parents, and, Doug Dunlap told Morales, “There was no activity at all. No blood flow at all.”
‘They said he was brain-dead’
The devastated parents were faced with the horrible decision of either keeping their son hooked up to life-support equipment or pulling the plug and letting his body follow his brain into death.
“We didn’t want him as a vegetable,” Doug Dunlap said. “We didn’t know what he was going to be like. They said he was brain-dead and there would be no life, so we were preparing ourselves.”
Zack had declared on his driver’s license that he wanted to be an organ donor, so his parents gave permission for doctors to keep his body alive until the organs could be harvested.
“Zack has always been a giver. He always wanted to make sure everybody had things going their way,” Doug Dunlap continued. “He didn’t want to give up, and we didn’t want his organs to give up, either. And he didn’t, either.”
The decision made, there remained only a wait of several hours while an organ-harvesting team flew in by helicopter. The family spent the time saying goodbye.
During her time with him, Zack’s grandmother, Naomi, prayed. Her request was straightforward — “just a miracle,” she told Morales. “He was too young for God to take him.”
Some four hours after doctors declared Zack dead, a nurse began to remove tubes from Dunlap. His cousins, Dan and Christy Coffin, both of whom are nurses, were also in the room. Something about Zack’s appearance made them think that he wasn’t as dead as the doctors said. On a hunch, Dan pulled out his bone-handled pocket knife and ran the blade up the sole of one of Zack’s feet.
‘Our son is still alive!’
The foot yanked away, but the other nurse said it was a reflex action. So Dan Coffin then dug a fingernail under one of Zack’s nails. Zack yanked his arm away and across his body, and that, the other nurse agreed, wasn’t a reflex action. It was a sign of life.
“We went from the lowest possible moment to, ‘Oh, my gosh, our son is still alive!’ ” said his mother. “That was the most miraculous feeling. We had gone from the lowest possible emotion that a parent could feel to the top of the mountains again. We were still very guarded, because we weren’t sure what his prognosis would be, but just to hear the words that he was back with us is something we’ll remember forever.”
Doctors warned the family that Zack could have profound brain damage that would prevent his leading anything resembling an active life. But within five days he opened his eyes, and 48 days after the accident, he walked out of a rehab center and returned home, where the entire town gave him a hero’s welcome.
He’s working to regain his memories and to control his emotions, and he’d like to go back to his job as a warehouse worker. He also wants to get his driver’s license back.
“I’ve been wanting to drive [from] about the day I was back from rehab,” he said.
At Morales’ request, Zack reached in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out the pocket knife his cousin had used to prove he was still alive. Dan Coffin had given it to him as a gift and a memento.
“It makes me thankful that they didn’t give up,” Zack said, turning the knife over in his hand. “Don’t let the good die young.” | | Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 | | 1:12 am |
"...For although in a certain sense and for light-minded persons non-existent things can be more easily and irresponsibly represented in words than existing things, for the serious and conscientious historian it is just the reverse. Nothing is harder, yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certain things whose existence is neither demonstrable nor probable. The very fact that serious and conscientious men treat them as existing things brings them a step closer to existence and to the probability of being born."
Hermann Hesse 1943
- in the pen-name 'Joseph Knecht' | | Monday, March 10th, 2008 | | 2:17 pm |
Just a word of warning, I installed the new Internet Explorer 8, and it crashes every time I click anything. | | Thursday, March 6th, 2008 | | 9:45 pm |
| | Saturday, March 1st, 2008 | | 4:27 pm |
| | Saturday, February 16th, 2008 | | 12:17 am |
she is wearing a coat made entirely of human hair. so gross. and here come the drinking midgets to the smooth jazz... | | Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 | | 10:20 pm |
my favorite day This was without question my favorite installation ever. | | Thursday, January 24th, 2008 | | 12:02 pm |
I know, you're all LJ indie nerds, and everyone regards baseball as America's poison pill (behind democracy).
But, if you're vaguely aware of the difference between 1st (base) and 2nd (base), the 8th (inning), or the World Series (of America and Canada), and were alive in 1991, this is freaking hilarious. | | Saturday, December 15th, 2007 | | 8:57 pm |
agghhhh.... you know you're living in a technological age when you move a christmas ornament, decide you liked it better in the first spot, and mentally, your brain tries to find the "UNDO" button. | | Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 | | 10:14 pm |
If anyone likes chess or would like to like chess, come play me sometime. I'm not terrible, but I usually don't win, whatever that means. But I like it! and it's convenient--as long as you make one move every 3 days, the game can go on forever. Oh, my screenname is sstadelman. | | Thursday, December 6th, 2007 | | 10:07 am |
Facebook advertisements I don't know how many of you have Facebook profiles, or have been aware of the recent advertising programming called 'Beacon' which will post information about company websites you visit in your newfeed. Assumedly these are only 'facebook.randomadvertisingcompany.com' pages, but no one really knows, and the initial PR from Facebook was full of 'inaccuracies'. Pretty much everyone who was paying attention was pissed. As of this week, you can turn Beacon OFF at this link: opt out of Beacon. It's a one check-box action. | | Saturday, December 1st, 2007 | | 11:05 pm |
| | Sunday, November 25th, 2007 | | 11:36 pm |
| | Friday, November 23rd, 2007 | | 11:49 pm |
Hector Berlioz would have made a most excellent blogger
"...I had been told quite early during my stay in Vienna that the Empress, who is an angel of sweetness and gentle piety, had an even stranger view of me that Prince Metternich had of my music. Some rather boorishly expressed passages in my Travels of Italy, which had also been cleverly criticized in Her Highness's presence by certain well-wishers (one has them everywhere, even in the Austrian court), had earned me in those exalted circles the reputation of an out-and-out brigand. To say that I felt flattered would be to put it mildly: I gloried in the bizarre reputation I had so unexpectedly acquired. I said to myself--as you would certainly have done in my place--that a delicate aureole of crime, since Byron made it fashionable, is too distinguished a thing not to be jealously preserved when one has the luck, however unworthily, to possess it.
So I reasoned as follows: If I "present myself" at court, the Empress will probably vouchsafe me a word. I shall have to answer her, and in my best manner. Once the conversation is launched, God knows where it may not lead me. Her Majesty risks losing in an instant the whole peculiar conception she has formed of my personality. She will simply see one more worshipper at the shrine of her grace and goodness, a man with nothing sinister or predatory in his look and nothing remotely tigerish in his tone of voice. There is always my aquiline nose; but in sum I shall not look the part. I shall pass for a thoroughly respectable citizen, incapable of "getting into trouble" or of so much as holding up a stage-coach, and my reputation will have gone. Damn it! Better to remain a brigand and leave as quickly as possible; my aureole will be only enhanced by distance.
That is why I steadfastly declined to do myself the honour of presenting myself at the Austrian court, and one fine morning packed up and went to Hungary."
Feb 5, 1846
Pesth, Austria | | Friday, November 2nd, 2007 | | 11:57 pm |
Opensocial API OpenSocial: Google just announced an open-application platform (API) for it's social networks, in conjunction with a number of major allies, including MYSPACE! It's called Opensocial, and though it doesn't appear live-journal is involved, it is a very big deal about 3 years out. I would say that potentially most successful application for most of the lj artists is in developing structured clienteles, galleries, and referrals. I made a comment here about developing online virtual structural design. I was looking at the possibilites of a mall, really, so as to be monetizable, but I really believe that with the processing capability we have now and asynchronous packet transfer, the possibilites of returning to a 3-dimensional user-interface are very real. Remember way back on your first pre-pentium 386? (286?) (kids, the adults are talking) how instead of running "windows" (whatever that is) the user-interface was whatever the programers thought might be closest to a house? So instead of having a desktop, we went into 'room's and turned lights on and off and clicked on the calendar like in a picture book? Crazy. But think about it--I'd love to hear what you think. What kind of connections do you have with the people who see your art and who buys it? Do you keep track of the people who do? Who keeps track of the people who buy their artwork??? | | Monday, October 22nd, 2007 | | 8:01 pm |
AmazonUnbox vs NetFlix vs iTunes Being sick today and quasi-self-employed, I've been exploring streaming video options for full-length features. I like streaming for the obvious fact that I don't have to leave the house (a value I'm often willing to pay the $9.99 premium for), and if it's an artsy movie, I don't have to deal with the high-school dropout at Blockbuster who loudly announces my playlist as he/she rings them up. A gift to me, if it's 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. A gift for morality if it's 'Swimming Pool'. I have been playing with iTunes and NetFlix for the last few months; I just found Amazon 'Unbox'.
iTunes: Dear to my heart as the interface genius of Mr. Jobs, the 'jukebox' display is the best search utility available, if there is new media. Apple adds no more than 3 new films per week to it's scrolling list; if I check back daily for fresh titles, I'm disappointed 85.7% of the time. For the record, I spend an average of ~$40-60/month on iTunes, but I have entirely depleted the pool of films I have any interest in watching. This is not to say that I will cease to check the iTunes store; on the contrary, I will occasionally pick up new music albums, and until recently it remained my stable for Television Shows.
But NBC discontinued its contract with Apple for Season Passes, meaning I now go to www.nbc.com to stream Heroes, Chuck, The Office, and 30 Rock. I am forced to watch 5 bits for Bertollini pasta per show, but the episodes are available the next morning, bright and early. This is more than can be said for Mad Men or Southpark on iTunes, which are now running up-to a week of lag. This blows my mind, from a practical standpoint, and since I know which night Southpark airs (I think), I'd be pretty annoyed if I'd paid for the show on the assumption that it would be available immediately and it wasn't posted until the following Monday. I did pay for the Season Pass for Mad Men, and I like to think of it as a little present from my computer when Apple finally gets around to updating. Last week they posted two at once.
And I can download my music for free on Soulseek. My user name is (suprisingly) " ______stan___ ". A cool little thing about Soulseek: if you 'donate' $5/month, you get download preference over everyone else. So if your favorite user has 1100 downloads queued, you skip to the front of the line. For $5.00.
Netflix: Living at home, I watch most films on the computer, and I don't really mess with the mail any more than necessary, so home-DVD service hasn't taken effect yet. The 'Watch Instantly' system is cool as a matter of principal: you can stream a full-length feature film as you watch it--which you usually can't do with iTunes. The quality is associatively low, and doesn't really merit larger than a 4"x6" window on a computer screen. This is useful as a multi-tasking function, but hardly qualifies as 'the real thing'.
The 'Watch Instantly' tool also suffers from an unusual pricing structure: pay by the hour, in 3-hour chunks, which is also correspondant to your home-DVD service subscription. I don't like it--if I don't want home-DVD subscription, I don't want to pay for it, and if I do, I don't want to know about it. And if all my films are 88 minutes long...
Lastly, the streaming library suffers from the iTunes deficiency: breadth and quality. Kind of like renting a movie at the liquor store.
AmazonUnbox: The newest addition, AmazonUnbox features a very Windows-Media-Player interface: shiny black, with arrows and a Shopping tab. The most interesting feature of the Amazon product is the 'rental' pricing: you have 24 hours after you press 'Play' to watch the film. (this doesn't include download time; speed is similar to iTunes: ~1.1mbps at present). Cost is then reduced from $9.99-$14.99 to $2.99-$3.99. I like that a lot, especially if the rental library is similar in scope to the purchase library (which, at least for new-releases, it appears to be).
Also included in the Amazon product is Tivo functionality, which looks to be (potentially) a successful pre-emptive strike against AppleTV, which Steve Jobs recently described at D-5 as "a hobby". This is not to say that the Apple product won't be competitive, but the Tivo integration has really raised the bar by tapping the existing DV-R market.
Other competitors:
Blockbuster: Competing on 'in-store exchange' feature.
Reel Video (Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA): Kicking ass on full 'Criterion Collection' section, sorting by director, generally 10,000x better than aforementioned Mickey-D's of film.
| | Monday, October 15th, 2007 | | 10:47 pm |
laughing yet serious  The company filed for a patent last year, titled " Using electroencephalograph signals for task classification and activity recognition," which describes a method for analyzing EEG signals as they correspond to different elements of a UI. The problem with EEGs, however, is that the signals are often muddied with extra data—the blink of an eye or the insatiable urge to scratch an itch can be enough to introduce some curveballs. Microsoft acknowledges that this can be a problem, and notes that there have been some efforts to filter out extra noise in EEG readings. This filtering is not always effective, though, and can be expensive to perform. *listed at www.flexyourblog.com* | | Monday, October 1st, 2007 | | 3:51 pm |
on an entertaining side note, I could go see Natalie Portman speak this evening on campus... quite torn... |
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