Chat with Brian 24/7

You can now chat with a virtual me (CyBri) at any time of the day, thanks to the good folks at MyCyberTwin. I spent hours answering personality questions that will supposedly make the experience just like chatting with me. I do not control what it says, so I can't be responsible if it is blunt, cruel, or sarcastic. I did mention that it is programmed to have some of my personality?

If the flash version below doesn't work for you, try this link.

Update: You can also chat with CyBri using MSN messenger (ColumbiaGuy70 @ ....); you can guess the rest of the address or ask me.

Dwight Loves Battlestar Galactica

Our Horses Are Smarter Than Yours

Apparently, we have super smart horses here in Virginia.

Turing Test Failed

I've been "kicking the tires" on Microsoft Windows Vista's new features. One new feature is integrated voice recognition. I went through the initial tutorial training and two additional training sessions, where the computer monitors you reading sentences while it learns to understand your voice.

Then, I opened up WordPad and I said:

This is neat [period] I am talking to my computer [comma] and it is putting my words on the screen [period] I find this easier than typing it myself [period] [new line]

To be or not to be [comma] that is the question [period]

The computer interpreted that to be:

This city's needs there is clear is I am talking too much and years, ended this killing my words on the screen after the rave by finest easier for landscaping yet myself your ears no land who live

After read or not TV, that is the questions the eighth and

I suppose next time I should try it without eating crackers at the same time.

Trouble on the Block

This past weekend there was a house fire on the end of the block. The house is ruined. Fortunately, everybody got out safely.



It is a miracle that the fire did not spread to the neighboring houses. I guess those firewalls actually work.

---------
update:

And, of course, I should give credit to the brave firefighters who responded quickly (thanks to the commenter for reminding me).

Somebody posted a video of the fire:

The NASA Soap Opera - My View

It seems like the media can't say enough about the tragic situation involving the rogue NASA astronaut, Lisa Nowak, who was recently charged for attempted murder and inappropriate use of diapers.

Most people may find this situation wacky or amusing. But in my case, I am quite angry and disappointed. The reason I am upset is that I was turned down by NASA to be an astronaut. I am one of the many thousands of applicants to receive the generic rejection post-card decide to pursue other opportunities. As an engineer with an advanced degree in electro-optics, I thought I could make an excellent mission/payload specialist. It's hard to believe that I had less of the "right stuff" than Lisa Nowak.

There is something to learn from all this, in the end. And that is, maybe wearing a diaper on long trips (or at footbal games) is the way to go.

My New Year's Resolution

This year I made only one New Year's Resolution: I resolve to have an interesting year.

I decided not to bother with the standard resolutions (lose weight, get in shape, train magic level to 45 in Runescape) because we all know that it would be pointless. There is no sense in making a resolution you are never going to keep. That just leads to guilt, and who needs that?

I haven't completely figured out what I am going to do to make this an interesting year, but I have a plethora of ideas. Here are a few...

• Try some new activities. I am off to a good start because I tried geocaching for the first time.
• Try something I would "normally never do". This is tough, to go against your conventional wisdom, but it can be really rewarding.
• Travel (preferably somewhere I've never been). Don't know where yet...
• Meet new people / Make new friends. Try to make at least one new connection a month.
• Be more colorful expressing myself. For starters, I am going to start using my favorite words more often (see bottom right of this blog).

Have any other good suggestions?