fitfool

I realized tonight that my camera's memory card had mysteriously wiped out a lot of photos on it from my NYC trip. I opened it up on my computer and the photos from Italy back in January were on it but not the photos from last week in NYC. I popped it back into my camera and couldn't see them there either even though I know I had seen them on there just a few days ago. I berated myself for not immediately downloading and backing up the photos. I mentally reviewed the trip, trying to remember exactly which photos I no longer had.

And then I turned to the web, looking for programs to help me find my files again.

Found this great article:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm

I tried the first 2 programs listed and the first one didn't find very many but it did find a handful so I had some hope that files were still there. Tried the next one (Puran) and hit the jackpot. I don't know if it recovered all the files but it recovered a whole lot. Enough to make me feel a lot better.

http://www.puransoftware.com/File-Recovery-Download.html

Doing the Deep Scan takes a long time but it was able to find 1000 jpgs that I thought I had lost so well worth the time. Free program too!

Such a relief.

chalked responses to the prompt Before I Die

Stumbled across this project. Sadly, it looks like I missed it when it was installed in Boston in early September but what a cool idea! Candy Chang thought about death a lot after she lost someone close to her. This "Before I Die..." project came from thinking about what's important to her and the people around her. She turned the side of an abandoned house in her New Orleans neighborhood into a giant chalkboard asking people to share their hopes and dreams. And they did. Before I Die I Want To... see my daughter graduate, write a book, understand, be ok with not understanding, swim in a pool of golden retriever puppies, beat sense into you...

The project has spread to cities around the world and been translated into several languages. You can go to the project's website to buy a kit that helps you make your own wall. If you don't want to buy the kit, she's also given instructions on how to make your own kit.

Read more about it at the artist's page: http://candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola/

I love this project. I love the photos of people standing in small clusters around the wall, reading what others have written, chatting with others. I love that her interactive art project coaxes people into interacting with each other as well as with the wall.

So....your turn to finish the prompt.

Before I die I want to....

Work's got me swamped again. Combine that with scheduling lots of social events and I'm yet again not getting to hang out here as much as I would like. So here are some tidbits from my f-list. Yes, some of these are old because I saved them a while back or I didn't get a chance to read them until recently.

I don't say this often enough but I really like you denizens of LJ-land. Enjoy your weekend!

"We consider ourselves travelers, not tourists."
I also try not to look like a tourist; it just sounds so unsophisticated. But sometimes I'll revel in the role of tourist, I see, even in the city I consider home. It's nice to unabashedly delight in all I see. Read this post by tedwords for a reminder to not let your desire to be seen as worldly stomp all over your ability to share someone else's joys.
http://tedwords.livejournal.com/647180.html

In an f-locked post, someone posted a link to a video on what to do if you're caught in the middle of a mass shooting. Don't say the Department of Homeland Security never did anything for you. The advice actually sounds pretty good to me. "Run. Hide. Fight." I'm surprised that they advocated for fighting. Has the advice always been to devise a way to fight back? I took a model mugging class about 16 years ago and back then, the police instructors didn't push one way or the other for fighting or cooperating when attacked. Instead they laid out the pros and cons of both strategies and told us the decision was ours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcSwejU2D0 (5:56 length)

drjeff has a series of One Minute posts. He's been throwing his energy into his blogspot more than his LJ and sounds like he's an awesome therapist to see. For all the posts in the One Minute series, go to http://drjeffblog.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20minute
Some samples:
- One Minute Reboot
- One Minute of Gratitude
- One Minute of Forgiveness
- One Minute To Let Go Of Guilt

Since I don't do much on Facebook, I hadn't noticed this new feature that's been around for a few months now (since about April?). Every time someone gets tagged in a photo posted on Facebook, that info is added to its facial recognition database. And then the next time you upload a batch of photos, that software scans through to see if it recognizes anyone and suggests names of your friends to tag. True, it saves you time and makes it that much easier to tag your friends. But...they just rolled out the feature without any announcement or warning.

In any case, given Facebook's annoying habit of just doing things and apologizing for it later, I didn't want to be added to the facial recognition database since I didn't trust them not to do something else with that information later. And yet I also liked the convenience of being able to easily access any photos I had been tagged in. So I went back through the roughly 60 photos I was tagged in and untagged myself, and retagged faceless portions of the photo. Also went through my profile photos and deleted ones that showed my face clearly. I changed my profile photo to one with a tiny photo of me. Eventually, the facial recognition software will get better and presumably be able to find me in the photo anyhow, but in the meantime, I'll hide as much as I can.

You can ask Facebook not to include you in the list of names it will suggest to your friends when they tag photos.
- Go to Account > Account Settings
- Click on the word 'manage' to the right of Privacy
- Click on 'customize settings' near the bottom left of the grid
- Scroll down to the "Things others share" section
- To the right of "Suggest photos of me to friends: When photos look like me, suggest my name", click on "Edit Settings" button
- Choose "Disabled" and then click "Okay"

To read more about this:
- Facebook starts rolling out facial recognition feature
- Facebook facial recognition could get creepy
- Why Facebook's facial recognition is creepy
- EU to probe Facebook over facial recognition feature
- Google won't dabble in facial recognition search system

I thought this was a clever a cappella version of the theme from The Simpsons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM-_hz2LLZk

Apparently, not everyone in the world has seen Troops, a parody of that tv show Cops. I was working tech support when this first came out in 1997 and I remember all of us huddled up in the back room, chortling and replaying it over and over again.

You can also try this link to Troops or download the video from TheForce.net

I was reminded of this when

zarq posted a bunch of Star Wars Links

Go play the Consumer Consequences Game (thanks to

zarq and my roommate for telling me about this)

You click through the game, answering questions about your consumption patterns. At the end, it calculates how many earths we would need if everyone lived the same way you did. One fun part was clicking through the average scores of various demographic groups. Republicans scored worse than Democrats who score worse than those who identified with the Green Party. The higher your income, the more earths you consumed. (I had thought maybe the wealthier would be more able to buy the energy-efficient and organic stuff but then again, they probably also eat out more and buy more new stuff.) If you listen to NPR, you can also see how some of the NPR luminaries scored.

While I was answering the questions, I was patting myself on the back for having such a sustainable lifestyle. I was needing just 1.3 planets for a while since I had nice low scores for telecommuting, recycling, sharing living space with roommates, not shopping much, and having relatively low gas and electric bills. But then we got to the food question and I got dinged there for eating out and not eating organic or locally grown meat and vegetables. For me, I came in at needing 3.5 earths. While I've been reluctant to pay for what I perceived to be more expensive locally grown meat and vegetables, it's nice to see it will also help offset some of the environmental damage I contribute to just by going about my everyday living. (and it might even end up being cheaper -- we shall see) I originally said that less than 10% of my food was organic or locally grown. When I upped that to 60-80%, my score went from 3.5 earths down to 2.6. Not bad.

roadriverrail posted about this. So adorable.

Norbert Rosing was a photographer visiting Churchill, Manitoba, planning to take photos of sled dogs. One night, a polar bear came to camp but the dogs were tethered. The dogs barked at the bear but also gave it an invitation to play, bowing down and wagging their tails. And surprisingly, the bear played. They romped around for a good 20 minutes that night and the bear kept coming back to play for 2 weeks. How cool is that?

You can read a bit more about it: http://nifplay.org/polar-husky.html

When I was a kid and first heard about this playful bow that dogs did, I then bowed to dogs I met, getting down on all fours and lowering my elbows to the ground so my head was lower than my butt. I waggled my rear and hoped that they would understand that I was tailless and couldn't wag a tail properly. And a couple of times, they did respond in kind and I laughed and rolled around with the dogs until it was time to go home.

husky dog leaping up to play with polar bear

( Click to see more pictures )

Time for some laughs. Have you seen the God, Inc. videos up on YouTube yet? Had me giggling happily. "Isn't there a cure for that?"

Go watch! The first episode is under 4 minutes.

1: In the beginning, there was paperwork

( Links for the rest of the episodes )

http://www.arcadebin.com/index.php?action=play&id=295

Thanks

mssaskia. As if I needed to get sucked into a computer game first thing in the morning....
I haven't figured out what marks the end of a level but I had fun pushing all those blocks around.

I can't help being intrigued by these gimmicks. Saw this from

yndy and

theferrett. Someone made a bet with a friend that he could get one billion page views. Don't just keep hitting the 'refresh' button. An hour has to have elapsed from the last time you visited for it to be counted as a new page view. I'm curious to see if it's possible too. That's an awful lot of hits but then again, there are an awful lot of people who'll click on anything, right?
http://www.onebillionpageviews.com

Updated 3/14/06: So it looks like this was a copycat of http://www.onebillionviews.com/ (link to a yahoo news article about it in the comments below). More disappointing to me was the fact that the original one still hasn't hit its first million pageviews.

Click here to play Make-A-Word word game, and TRY to score better!

imbue_myblue turned me onto this game with her post. Get a 3x3 grid of 9 letters and make as many words as you can before time runs out. You're allowed to reuse letters if you want. I can't even begin to approach the scores showing up in the high scores listings. But my personal moment of triumph was spelling out 'tiramisu' in one game. My highest score was 493 though a high numerical score won't necessarily get you ranked as high since it's ranked on a curve for each board. My best percentage was hitting the 75th percentile though my numerical score was only 363. Click on the graphic above to play.

Edited to add:
Can't decide on the best strategy. I tried doing lots and lots of short words but I just can't click them in fast enough. Now I'm trying to find longer 7-8 letter words and clicking short words in while I look for the longer ones. This seems to be working. My highest numerical score is up to 694 and I've hit Grandmaster status at the 84th percentile. Come play!

It's way past my bedtime but I'm still awake. Jet-lagged? Perhaps. But I blame

_53 for linking to these quizzes (http://users.livejournal.com/_53/122869.html) that have me combing my memory banks, waiting for something to match up.

There are two tests.

Part 1 is filled with all kinds of cultural bias. http://intelligence-test.net/part1/
#31 involves cricket so you can get the answer to that one from _53's post if you want.

Part 2 says they removed the cultural biases. It's shorter but harder. http://intelligence-test.net/part2/

I've gotten 27 of 33 on Part 1 but only 10 of 24 on part 2. I would cave and look up the answers in the FAQ so I could go to sleep but I can't figure out where the FAQ is.

( just writing down the answes )

I love deals. My sister turned me onto a deal hunting site and now I mostly just occasionally skim www.slickdeals.net and www.fatwallet.com though I used to be much more active. In 2005, I recovered $2211 (basically I paid $518 for stuff worth $2316). (and really my final cost could be considered even lower since I often turned around and sold those items on ebay or craigslist for a profit.)

( Read more to find out how you can get $100 or a free ipod or both )

Is it fair to still call myself a Star Wars fan if I stopped watching after seeing Episode 1?
( Probably only of interest to Star Wars fans )

They Do Have Lots of Wings in Asia
http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/003668.html

( Placed behind a cut since I just copied these )

The Entertainment Book has lots of coupons good at restaurants, retail stores, and some online sites. While I have never bought the book (I think it costs $20-25 for the paper copy), I have heard its praises sung many a time on Slickdeals.net, a deal-hunting forum I visit. Today someone posted instructions on getting it for free online. You have to give an email address to sign up for a free account that's good for 1 year. Then you can enter a zip code and look for participating places near you. Selection is best in metropolitan areas. Lots of "buy 1 meal, get 2nd one free" or "20% off meal" coupons.

You can read the instructions in the first post of this thread:
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=169545

  "I'm going shopping. Want anything?"
  "No thanks. You want help digging out the car?"
  "Nah...probably melted off the cars by now. Might need to brush off the windshield."
  "OK. At least wear your boots."
  "I'll be fine! I'm sure they've plowed out the parking lots by now."

For future reference, the correct answer should've been yes to both of his questions. Ten minutes of snow, icy windshields, and two soggy feet later, I climbed back into my car and tried to remember why I wasn't living in California.

Go watch this commercial if you'd like to see what New England drivers without a garage put up with. No really...go watch and laugh.

When I saw the words 'maggot therapy' float by, I assumed it was an abandoned medical treatment like bloodletting. But idle curiousity can be quickly satisfied. A few minutes of Googling later, I found that not only do some doctors introduce maggots to sterile dressings covering up wounds, others have also brought the lowly leech back into the halls of medicine.

( LJ-cut in case you don't want to read about wound management )

I love the idea that modern medicine has figured out ways to make use of even maggots and leeches.

The Flying Conchords

I saw this singing comedy duo from New Zealand on HBO recently. Music mixes several styles including folk, funk, and sorta punk/hip hop. You want to go listen to them! Far as I'm concerned, they should be a big hit by now. Here are the opening lyrics to "Business Time" sung in a low, seductive voice talking about the pleasantries of married life.

Awww yeah...that's right baby
Girl, tonight we're gonna make love
You know how I know, baby?
'cuz it's Wednesday...
and Wednesday night is the night we make love.
Tuesday night's the night we go visit your mother
but Wednesday night's the night we make love.

Conditions are perfect
There's nothing good on TV.
Conditions are perfect.
You lean in close and say something sexy
like, "I might go to bed. I've got work in the morning."
I know what you're trying to say, baby.
You're trying to say, "oooh yeah...It's business time. It's business time"

It's Business...It's Business Time!
That's what you're trying to say.
You're trying to say, 'Let's get down to business. It's business time!"
It's Business...It's Business Time!

Next thing you know we're in the bathroom, brushing our teeth.
That's all part of it.
That's foreplay.
Then you go sort out the recycling.
That's not part of it but it's still very important.
Then...we're in the bedroom...

(Download the track "Business Time" from Sept 2005 section to hear the rest of it)

( Want more links for The Flying Conchords? )

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Adventures in the Kitchen and on the Road

Entries tagged with websurf

I Love the Internet! File Recovery and Unerase

Before I Die - Candy Chang

F-list Tour

Facial Recognition on Facebook

The Simpsons Theme - a cappella by Canvas

Video: Troops (Star Wars / Cops)

How many planets do you need?

Play time with polar bear and huskies

God, Inc.

cute game

One Billion Page Views

Boggle-ish Make-a-Word Game (MAW)

Stupid Quizzes

Get $100 and/or get a free ipod shuffle for new credit card(s)!

More Star Wars Legos

Overheard in New York

Deal: Entertainment Book online for free

Cars in a Snowy Winter

Maggot Therapy and Leeches!

The Flying Conchords