I saw the International Space Station fly directly overhead on Wednesday. :) I had my ham radio tuned to listen with the squelch wide open but didn't hear anything. The whole pass was 10 minutes on the schedule. I think it took 4 minutes from over the mountain till it got into Earth's shadow just past directly overhead. It was very bright and easy to see. I gotta try again with my binoculars.

I gave this advice to yet another friend today.

The only way I've ever made things better between Jenny and myself is by communicating honestly, gently and with a lot of I love you's and hugs mixed in.

I've been banging my head on my desk about this for a couple years. It used to be that programs always ran the same way, the behavior was deterministic, you got the same thing every time. But today's computers no longer have that claim. There is ao much going on at the same time that it's very difficult to find some bugs.

There's some new research backing me up: article covering the latest work of Luis Ceze. And I need to read the rest of this paper

I'm excited about the upcoming release of version 2 one of my favorite video games. Natural Selection 2 is in the works by a very small team of developers working for themselves. In support of their efforts, I documented their map making tool on their wiki, Spark Editor. Also, I noticed today that I started the Wikipedia articles on Ladder Logic (proof) and Programmable Logic Controllers (proof).

Washington DC allows more marriages; line forms; temp workers hired http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_re_us/us_dc_gay_marriage

Yes, I believe that my lesbian and gay friends should be allowed to marry the people they love too.

I'm down to 202 pounds from 251. Goal one was 210 but I decided to go a little further. Goal two was 200. When I look in the mirror now, I see skin and bones so I decided 202 was plenty far enough. My BMI is just barely outside "normal" and still in the Overweight category but too bad.

I need to do more clothes shopping. My shirts look like hospital gowns on me right now.

Thanks go out again to the folks who wrote Lose It! for the iPhone. I was just experimenting with an app and completely changed my shape with zero emotional cost. Hopefully their website project goes live soon.

Mayor Hazel McCallion (wikip)of Mississauga, Ontario has an approval rating of 92% after 31 years in office. Her city operates with no debt and has cash reserves. I enjoyed this interview (6m).

That melamine contaminated milk and baby formula from 2008 hurt a lot of Chinese kids. 50,000 were hospitalized. 12% of exposed kids now have kidney abnormalities. Oh, and the chemical was there on purpose in response to some bad and award winning research.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100222121620.htm

And, oh by the way, 170 tons of recalled milk powder wasn't destroyed but resold. So the fiasco continues. 1 guy imprisoned for life, 3 executed! And I'm not entirely sure why.

Former Sanlu Chairwoman Tian Wenhua was jailed for life and three other people were given the death sentence for their roles in the sale of tainted milk.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-08/china-recalls-more-melamine-tainted-milk-in-crackdown-update1-.html

Another Super Bowl gone by. Some good football was played and the Saints definitely earned their victory. I'd forgotten what it was like to be treated like a passive consumer with no brain. As if my part in this world is to open up my wallet for fluff that means nothing. Apparently a side-effect of being unplugged from the TV is that I don't Want stuff like I used to. I have a craving for Dorito's because they spent a lot of money but that's it. Bud Light did convince me that only jerks should drink it. And all the ads together convinced me that my desires should come from inside rather than the glowing screen.

The things I do right today I do because I messed them up on some yesterday.