Ben Ostrowsky

What you hear if you beat "Symbol Quest"

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:27:18 GMT

There's a match-the-clue-to-the-symbol game at http://www.thelostsymbol.com/ that's a teaser for the new Dan Brown book. I think I've read one of his books -- not a huge fan but not a hater either. Anyway, if you beat it, you get a super-secret message that probably contains a coded "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine". I managed to get through it on the second try. Spoiler below.

"This is Dan Brown. Congratulations on playing Symbol Quest and reaching the 33rd Degree with a perfect score. I've just finished signing 33 first editions of THE LOST SYMBOL, which are locked in a vault, waiting to be sent out to 33 different winners. The first 33 winning codebreakers who call the secret phone number encrypted on the book jacket will receive this reward. Good luck."

Instant Service FAIL

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:55:22 GMT

My Life According To The Beatles

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:05:03 GMT

I was tagged by quaryn_dk .
I'm not tagging anyone -- do this if you like. I know there's certain people whose answers will be interesting.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (band name)".

[ I'm using songs the Beatles recorded, including covers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Beatles_songs ]

PICK YOUR ARTIST:
The Beatles

ARE YOU MALE OR FEMALE:
Here, There, and Everywhere

DESCRIBE YOURSELF:
I Am the Walrus

HOW DO YOU FEEL:
I'm So Tired

DESCRIBE WHERE YOU CURRENTLY LIVE:
Across the Universe

IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO:
Memphis, Tennessee

YOUR FAVORITE FORM OF TRANSPORTATION:
Drive My Car

YOUR BEST FRIEND IS:
Golden Slumbers

YOU AND YOUR BEST FRIENDS ARE:
Don't Ever Change

WHAT'S THE WEATHER LIKE:
Good Day Sunshine

FAVORITE TIME OF DAY:
I'm Only Sleeping

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A TV SHOW, IT WOULD BE CALLED:
The Fool on the Hill

WHAT IS LIFE TO YOU:
Think For Yourself

YOUR CURRENT RELATIONSHIP:
We Can Work It Out

YOUR FEAR:
Tomorrow Never Knows

A FOND MEMORY:
Honey Pie

WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU HAVE TO GIVE:
You Know What To Do

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
All Things Must Pass

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIE?
Please Please Me

YOUR SOUL'S PRESENT CONDITION:
The Inner Light

MOST FAITHFUL COMPANION:
Leave My Kitten Alone

YOUR MOTTO:
It's Only Love

Questions I've heard today from a 29-year-old Jodi

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:06:22 GMT

"Why, is it some kind of anniversary?"
"Why did you cry when you read me the 'In Case of Moon Disaster' speech?"
"Oh, is that where 'The Eagle has landed' comes from? Because that's like a catchphrase, right?"
"Is that [The guy who said 'one giant leap for mankind'] Buzz Aldrin?"
"Is that how they named Buzz Lightyear?"

Mind you, I was -5 years old at the time, but still!

moving day redux

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:41:22 GMT

moving day redux

a likely story...

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:49:06 GMT

a likely story...

New Message

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:54:32 GMT

New Message

waiting for the audition

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:52:50 GMT

waiting for the audition

Date night

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:33:04 GMT

We didn't plan it as date night, but it was. After dinner we went to Piedmont Park and spent 75 minutes walking around (Jodi in her wheelchair, I pushing her from behind). During our promenade digestive, we watched the sunset develop, met Canada geese and a variety of dogs and people, saw capoeristas doing their thing, visited a robo-loo, and watched someone toss and steer a remote-controlled glider.

Oh, you want a visual aid? Here's the map of our 1.25-mile route. And if you're looking at the map below, we basically went around Oak Hill and looked out onto The Meadow.

And then we went to Trader Joe's and got some groceries. Nummers!

Sex-positive folks, please represent in this survey.

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:47:37 GMT

An acquaintance is asking for people to take a survey about "Internet pornography" and addiction. The survey seems to be meant seriously, and thoughtful comments will likely be taken seriously. I'm concerned that, because most of her friends seem to be conservative, we won't be represented proportionally. If you feel like influencing the results, the survey is here:

http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=9gfr55dzlv9avls599290

The password is "survey". And remind me to change the combination on my luggage!

High School Musical

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Sat, 23 May 2009 03:07:47 GMT

I'm watching High School Musical for the first time (since there's no Glee until the fall). Here are my impressions:

Kelsi is totally hot for Gabriella and wouldn't mind Troy joining in.
The hip-hop intellectual looks like callmeinfrench.
The music seems to be Disney-standard tripe, elevated by good performances.
The writing? Christ have mercy.
Dancing made it fun -- the best musical about high-school students since West Side Story, and Grease, and... okay, this is faint praise, but ultimately the proof of my satisfaction is that I'll be watching High School Musical 2 sometime soon. ...-ish.

Revelation from a dream

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:30:32 GMT

I've never heard people say "kill two birds with one shot" or "kill two birds with one throw". So maybe "killing two birds with one stone" might just mean thrift: you get back the same stone (which might be a particularly good one for slingshot use) and use it again for the second bird.

Apologies to my feathered friends. Now back to sleep.

"Glee" squee

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:07:53 GMT

I'm watching the pilot for "Glee", and I think it's going to be really good. The a cappella bits as part of the soundtrack are mostly cute, but then you get something like the series of scenes beginning at 32:52.

As the glee club director finishes his application for an accounting job, the guidance counselor who wants him says she's made an appointment for him in the career center. "Just come, Will. For me."

That's when the Moonlight Sonata begins. A cappella. Zoom in on his conflicted face.

A locker slams. The football player who just got shot with airsoft guns for lying to his teammates so he could go to a glee-club field trip is now getting crucified by the Tracy Flick of the chorus. She feels betrayed. So does his girlfriend, the cheerleader-cum-Celibacy League president, who transfixes him with her own stare for speaking to a chorus geek. Steady on his conflicted face.

The music builds.

A football player slams into a practice sleigh as his teammate drives home another point. "Look, if I joined the flag team, you'd beat the crap out of me." The singer agrees to give up glee club for good. His teammate welcomes him back by inviting him to overturn the portajohn in which the team has trapped a student in a wheelchair -- his fellow glee club member.

The music stops prematurely.

What follows is a pretty decent speech for a pilot episode, followed by a decision that you probably didn't predict. And the music swells... this time, classic rock by the original artist.

If you're not sure whether to get into the show, just watch that part: "Glee" pilot, 32:52-35:00

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:36:56 GMT

1 bell pepper: $0.40
1 onion: $0.23
1 jalapeño: $0.09
A few cloves of garlic: $0.15?
1 lb black beans: $1.29

Now that's a freaking "value meal".

An improved postgres highlighting config for nano

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:43:24 GMT

Well, I tried to post this on wiki.linuxhelp.net, but I don't seem to be able to create an account, so here it is for posterity:

syntax "postgreSQL" "\.sql$"
icolor red "\<(A(LL|NALY(S|Z)E|ND|NY|RRAY|S|SC|SYMMETRIC|UTHORIZATION)|B(EGIN|ETWEEN|INARY|OTH|Y)|C(ASE|AST|HECK|OALESCE|OLLATE|OLUMN|ONSTRAINT|OPY|REATE|ROSS|URRENT_(DATE|ROLE|TIME|TIMESTAMP|USER))|D(EFAULT|EFERRABLE|ESC|ISTINCT|O|ROP)|E(LSE|
ND|XCEPT)|F(ALSE|OR(EIGN)?|REEZE|ROM|ULL)|GRANT|GROUP|HAVING|I(LIKE|N(ITIALLY|NER|SERT|TERSECT|TO)?|S|SNULL)|JOIN|L(EADING|EFT|IKE|IMIT|OCALTIME(STAMP)?)|N(ATURAL|EW|OT(NULL)?|ULL)|O(FF(SET)?|LD|N|NLY|R|RDER|UTER|VERLAPS)|PLACING|PRIMARY|REFER
ENCES|RIGHT|S(ELECT|ESSION_USER|ET|IMILAR|OME|YMMETRIC)|T(ABLE|HEN|O|RAILING|RUE)|UNION|UNIQUE|USER|USING|UPDATE|VIEW|VERBOSE|WHEN|WHERE|)\>"
color magenta "(\{|\}|\(|\)|\;|\]|\[|`|\\|\$|<|>|!|=|&|\|)"
color yellow "'[^']*'"
color green "--.*$"

You're welcome.

listening to "Giant Steps - John Coltrane" on Blip

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:03:57 GMT

This song's been in my head all day. Now it's in yours -- an enjoyable infection for once!

The Daily Twit

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:01:37 GMT

11:17 @daveyp you need a twitter-enabled cyberloo! #
11:27 @daveyp just do me a favor and don't ever type your twitter password into the toilet. I don't want to know. #
12:05 @bookofsand Certainly better than tinyurl.com/cksqnm by a parsec. #
13:04 @bookofsand Use bit.ly instead of tinyurl. It's much better anyway! #
13:38 @daveyp the title of the article is still there #
13:46 @daveyp wait, at what point does this say OCLC is going to do an ILS? #
22:08 Lots of smoky haze around Briarcliff x Virginia #atlanta #
22:09 @USFP ...and you acted on every suggestion. OK, I'm impressed! #
22:14 @USFP Got iTunes U? As a Bull (Library&Info Sci MA, '98), I'd love to hear Poly lectures. Searching yr site gets bit.ly/15S8NB. Meh. #
22:28 @USFP Also, PLEASE convince alumni.usf.edu/ to give email addresses to members. USF is missing a huge loyalty opportunity! #
22:29 @USFP ...by comparison, I'm also a Gator (linguistics, '96) and their alumni ass'n gives free email forwards to ALL alumni, not just members #

The Daily Twit

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:01:39 GMT

12:56 @recipes is suspended? wth?! #
12:56 oh right, I meant @cookbook :) #
12:57 o/~ Doy, doy, doy, this is the I'm a big idiot song, Doy, doy, doy o/~ #
14:41 @raoin In rats, it ups amino-acid neurotransmitters, according to doi:10.1016/j.phrs.2006.11.010 (bit.ly/11kcFn). #
15:53 @photojojo for Earth Day, I'm driving 50 miles while commuting to an apartment that lacks recycling service... but hoping to move soon! #
15:59 @acapodcast OK, "Crazy" and "Umbrella" I recognized, but what's the opening song? #
16:00 @acapodcast ah, and Toxic -- of course! still don't know the first song. #
20:05 @Acapodcast Thanks! #

The Daily Twit

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:01:23 GMT

07:34 it's 1989; crazy guy says, in 20 yr gays will be able to get married. Not in CA, they're not liberal enough, but in IA! #
07:36 And you say, yeah sure, right after we elect a Black president! ...heard on wait wait don't tell me #
09:25 @knobody: for the pork, try rosemary and garlic. And BTW, is there any trick to cold-brewing or is it just a long soak in the fridge? #
10:00 @knobody There's got to be a pretty simple way to hack a 2-quart plastic pitcher to make it a French press. Drill and grommet the top... #
10:03 @knobody btw, why rutabaga? I've never cooked it before, but pork and potatoes cry out for rosemary so loud I can't not hear it. #
10:16 @jonathancoulton Yes, by tweeting you accept a EULA that assigns your copyrights to the RIAA. Sorry, man, I thought you knew... #
10:49 @knobody Aw, cheesecloth takes all the fun out of it. But a great answer -- thanks! #
11:05 @atruckertravels why, what did Beyoncéo? #
11:17 @atruckertravels Well, if you just murder ONE, the rest of the pack will keep coming, so... #
11:47 @hmrpotter I can't find that clip on the Today Show site, got a link? #
11:48 @hmrpotter I'm with you on the brokeitude. Mama wants a Roomba! ;) #
16:50 @HolySpiritAbbey You should include a link to your Facebook page: bit.ly/bjEi #
19:02 Chinese ID card readers can only handle 32252 chars? Add a bit and get 65020 -- enough for all ~55000 characters! (NYT 2009-04-21 p. A1) #

Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:01:42 GMT

Thanks to loucheroo (via knobody) for inspiring me!

INGREDIENTS

100 grams ground coffee (I set my mill for 18 cups)
2-quart pitcher
Water
Milk and sugar to taste

Put ground coffee in pitcher. Fill with water. Refrigerate for 4-12 hours. Pour through a filter (drip filter is 100% fine; cheesecloth will also work). Add milk and sugar to taste. Jodi prefers about 1/3 cup white sugar in this much coffee, plus enough milk to make up the lost volume of the soaked grounds (maybe 2 cups).

Makes 2 quarts.

From the kitchen of Jon Vallee.

The Daily Twit

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:01:39 GMT

18:29 My bro Matt Ostrowsky is walking to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Can you spare $5? bit.ly/Xpblx (RT plz) #

The Daily Twit

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:01:26 GMT

09:25 @atruckertravels It's like a bank account; you can transfer money to/from it. #
10:22 @esilibrary what up? #
13:02 @ginamls @akearns It's a pink lily. #
13:04 @ginamls @akearns I suspect it's a Stargazer lily (bit.ly/StrgzrLily), also available as a Yankee Candle scent. :) #
16:13 @photojojo got any pocket camera mounts that adhere to the top of a dashboard? #

Since I obviously can't do field research on this sort of thing...

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:08:58 GMT

View Poll: How low do you go?

Just one of the many things I wonder about while I'm similarly engaged...

The Daily Twit

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:01:45 GMT

09:42 twitpic.com/3eegu - @kgs did you see my half gallon milk holder? Got it in Pittsburgh. #
09:49 @sugarsnit Have courage! I'm rooting for you! #
09:51 @kgs it's a Handi-Holder, only this one is from Schneider's Dairy in Pittsburgh. Can't believe these things are $20 online! Sheesh! #
10:33 My NPR name is Bena San Gimignano. I like it! #
11:52 RT @momentai If you are already paranoid, it is a terrible idea to look for info that will probably make you more paranoid. #
13:47 @dchud I disagree; I just listened to "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" and enjoyed it. #
14:11 @jinx sisko #
14:20 @daveyp Makes me wonder whether Willie Cock is buried near Fanny Clam! Any word on whether Miss Clam is interred in a local churchyard? #
14:39 @daveyp bit.ly/S1hqA It may be down there somewhere, but Google Maps doesn't have imagery at that zoom level. Google Images does. ;) #
14:41 @ettyoop Paychecks and altruism. #
14:58 @daveyp hmm, if he'd been from Yorkshire I'd have guessed Ah Cum was just asking the reason the census-taker wanted his name. #
14:59 @daveyp "Pants" doesn't sound tittersome to me, and "guff" makes no sense at all... please forgive me, I'm an American, you see... #
15:09 @daveyp I don't like Benny Hill. Red Dwarf, sure. #
15:13 @andromeda0604 Hufflerin sounds like the Muggle version of an Attention Charm. #
15:29 @daveyp That sounds familiar. I'll have to see if I can find copies. #
18:23 @ximinez The one who does the best he can? Yaaaay! You're _that_ dad! #
19:57 i live that close to a private golf club? who knew! #
20:40 @EttyOop Was the drawing any good? #
21:08 @EttyOop LOL, love it. #

The Daily Twit

sylvar+livejournal@gmail.com — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:01:49 GMT

14:17 @JINX 4 #
14:49 @sabram I'll start spreading the news. #
15:28 @SugarSnit "Teabagging" can mean either protesting the distribution of tax burden (as in 'Boston tea party')... #
15:29 @sugarsnit ... or teabagging can mean "counting coup by squatting over someone's head, resting the scrotum on their forehead". #
15:30 @sugarsnit I didn't want to presume. :) #
15:35 @sugarsnit it's planned for tax day for that significance, but it seems to be about conservatives losing control of tax distribution. #
15:39 Obama grabs Urkel by the ear: i43.tinypic.com/2u4lk05.jpg #