WUXGA

WUXGA = Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array

1920×1200 pixels

16:10 screen aspect ratio

24" diagonal measurement

Larger than every TV I've ever owned, save my current one.

To borrow a phrase from Hermes Conrad, "Sweet Gorilla of Manila".

This thing is truly decadent.


Sadly, it can't help with all that red (the Subversion Merge Tracking branch not building).

ptb

Hoop Dreams

When it comes to sports I'm much happier participating than observing. The only sport I watch with any regularity is professional basketball. Yes, yes, I know, most NBA players are overpaid whining thugs. But I know a lot of underpaid whining thugs, so I can't hate them simply because they are well paid. And I just love the game of basketball, when played well it's a thing of beauty and when it's not played well...actually it can be a lot of fun then too.



Our friend coaches the Pine Hill girl's (7th-8th grade) team and invited Carol and I to the first game of the playoffs last night. Honestly, I wasn't really looking forward to it. "It's going to be really ugly" I thought to myself, imagining players dribbling off their feet and missing point blank layups. And there certainly wasn't going to be any dunking.

There was a lot of the comically awful play I'd been dreading, particularly in the first half as Pine Hill got smacked around by a taller quicker team and went into the break trailing 22 - 8.

Despite the flawed play of the first half, by the time the second half started Carol had a pine tree drawn on her cheek and I had P-I-N-E H-I-L-L 'tattooed' across my knuckles with green grease paint. Several times I found myself jumping to my feet and cheering for 'our' team to get back on D and for the love of God, to stop the other team's best player (the dreaded #30) from waltzing to the hoop for yet another layup.

In the second half the tide began to turn, #30 seemed to get tired and the Pine Hill girls, despite shooting what must have been a single digit percentage, just kept driving to the hoop. And as any coach will tell you that's when good things happen (it's just at this level things happen very slowly :-) A Pine Hill girl got tripped and banged her knee and had to come out in the 4th quarter. That seemed to get the Acorns* fired up.

As the end of the game approached the improbable had happened and like a made for TV movie, Pine Hill had scrapped it's way back and forced overtime. As overtime started, the injured Acorn was limping around the court trying to 'walk it off'. It goes without saying that she did her best Willis Reed imitation and got out on the floor at the start of overtime.

The details of what happened next are a bit fuzzy, because by this time I was all worked up and the subtle details like the actual score were lost in the haze. All I know is that the other team was shooting a 1 and 1 with essentially no time left on the clock and Pine Hill was up by a point or two...She misses the free throw! Pandemonium ensues! PINE HILL WINS! PINE HILL WINS!

Who needs dunks?

ptb

* I have no idea what the Pine Hill mascot it, or if they even have one. I also know acorns come from oak trees, not pine trees and we should call them the 'Pine Cones' or the 'Needles' or something more appropriate. But this is what we came up with and I need *something* to call them.

Others

Blogspot regulars have probably noticed the "Next Blog" link at the top of the page. It takes you to (as best I can determine) a completely random blogspot blog. I click on this occasionally and most of the time it takes me to something I'm not much interested in. Rarely I'll find something that I will read a post or two of. Almost always I forget about what I've read as soon as I close my browser.

Hardly a ringing endorsement I know, but I still like following that link because it takes me from something that is so self-centered and inward looking (my own blog) and suddenly thrusts you into someone else's world. Those worlds may be funny, frightening, sad, pointless, etc., but almost always they are created with passion. It might not be a passion I can share, but usually it's something I can empathize with.

Today when I followed that link I came across someone's story that held my attention for many posts. It's a story that's sad in many ways, but it's told in a compelling voice, and there is strength and inspiration in it. The writing isn't half bad at times either (though I'm hardly one to judge that).

Anyhow, If you have some time check it out.

ptb

Gutwrench

Quickly, pick the activity you like least:

A) Getting pulled over for speeding

B) Going on an all-day job interview

C) Getting a cavity filled

D) Listening to President Bush bludgeon the English language into submission

E) Touching a 9-volt battery to your tongue to see if it has any juice left

I'm betting most of you chose B. If you are some kind of demented freak and actually *enjoy* job interviews then you are either already an HR professional or should consider a career change.

I just got back from California where I spent the better part of Friday engaged in option B. Going into this interview. I had every reason to believe it was going to go well. Yet despite that, for the week preceding the interview I had an ever-growing knot of anxiety. By the time I flew out on Thursday it had blown into what might be described as a full-on, never-ending anxiety attack.

The day of the interview I woke up at 3:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep. By this time I had completely convinced myself that not only was I not going to get the job, but that I would be humiliated and run out of the office before the day was even done. Despite my absolute conviction that utter and total doom was all that awaited, the interviews actually went quite well.

Now the odd thing is, I'm a fairly optimistic fellow. In just about everything other aspect of life I expect a good outcome, regardless of whether the facts support such a position. So what is it about job interviews that bring out my über pessimist? I have plenty of ideas as to why, but I realize it doesn't matter, this is just a case where even knowing why I do something is simply not going to help, I'm just always going to hate job interviews.

ptb