Jack Hardcastle

There’s all this malarkey about plastic bags at IKEA and grocery stores. I can see why.

I went to the Giant today to resupply. I picked up a green handbasket to walk around the store because, let’s face it, I’m buying for one. I ended up, less than 10 minutes later, standing in the self-checkout line waiting for a less-than-competent customer fumble his way through a poorly-designed user interface (another post). When it was my turn, I stepped up, scanned quickly, and began the credit card procedure. When I got down to the end, I noticed that a Giant employee had stealthily bagged my goods. One green basket (plus an oversized bottle of soda in my arms) had turned into not one, not two, but seven non-biodegradable, non-recycled plastic bags. Why? I didn’t need that many bags.

What a waste.

This made me laugh so hard I choked. From the illustrious Ms. A. Tansel.

That’s awesome that you are getting your own office. You’ve hit the big time. Congrats. youre going to have to send me a pic so I can give my official unofficial seal of approval. You will receive after 2-3 business days a poster of Rice and a letter explaining that your seal will be mailed to you at a later date of my choosing. If you have a problem with that, you can make a petition and I can pretend to consider your feelings.

That’s so artfully done, I’m moved to tears.

I have long wondered why it seems that being a night owl seems to go hand-in-hand with being a technophile. Now, a group of scientists have discovered a gene which may explain why I and thousands of other people have such a hard time with mornings.

The altered gene, named “after hours” or Afh, is a variant of a gene called Fbxl3, which had not been linked to the body clock that keeps our metabolism, digestion and sleep patterns in tune with the rising and setting of the sun….

Instead of following the typical 24 hour pattern, some of the mice had body clocks that stretched to up to a 27 hour day.

It follows that if aptitude for technology can be genetic, and if it is linked to (perhaps on the same chromosome as) Afh, then you would see a lot of technologists with late-night tendencies.

Why am I so certain I have the altered Afh gene? In the spring of 2003, and again in the spring of 2006, I took a self-administered sleep study. For six weeks during those two semesters I recorded every time I went to sleep (if I wasn’t asleep within 5 minutes of lying down – very, very rare – I would adjust the recording) and every time that I woke up. I was able to determine a lot of things from this. Most importantly, I found that my body wants to run on a longer-than-24-hour cycle. I calculated that I am much closer to a 27 hour day.

Notice the stair-step pattern of going to sleep later, and later, and later every day until there is a “correction” where I have to be awake for a certain event or function, and then the pattern repeats.

In the 2006 study, I recorded whether or not I awoke with an alarm, how groggy or alert I was, etc. I recorded every nap, every mid-day sleep, every time I fell asleep on the couch at 6am. My intention, in both cases, was to determine my “sleep cycle,” or how long my average cycle of light sleep, deep sleep, REM lasts. In most people this cycle is between 90 and 120 minutes. Mine is approximately 87 minutes. If left alone, I will almost always awake some multiple of 87 minutes after I went to sleep. 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9, or 12 hours are all frequent numbers. I have used this information for about four years now to schedule my alarm clock. Every day, as I go to sleep, I calculate the highest number of full cycles I can squeeze in before I have to be awake the next morning. I set my alarm for an exact multiple. Rarely do I have to snooze more than once, and in those cases it’s usually when I’m so chronically exhausted that I need far more sleep than I’ve allowed myself. Frequently, however, I’ll fly out of bed so alert and awake when the alarm goes off that I don’t need to snooze at all.

Now granted, this is not a scientific “study,” despite my use of the language. It’s a superficial look at one individual’s sleep patterns. It’s telling to me, however, that years before I had ever heard of the Afh gene, my roommates and I had discovered this particular pattern. Can I prove that I have it? No, of course not. I’d need a DNA test. Am I certain? You betcha.

I came across an interesting article (via reddit) about the evolution of meal times. My favorite part is,

In the 1790s the upper class was rising from bed around ten a.m. or noon, and then eating breakfast at an hour when their grandparents had eaten dinner. They then went for “morning walks” in the afternoon and greeted each other with “Good morning” until they ate their dinner at perhaps five or six p.m. Then it was “afternoon” until evening came with supper, sometime between nine p.m. and two a.m.! The rich, famous and fashionable did not go to bed until dawn.

Dibs on some of that.

It’s pleasing to hear that the Washington Post is reporting on how young professionals are increasingly turning to “brainy” events to find mates. So now all I need to do is figure out how to drop a pickup line in front of a Picasso instead of a Guiness. Or, how to drop a pickup line at all, for that matter. *cough*

In other news, something else I wrote got printed in the Rice Thresher. I don’t particularly blame anyone (except the usual suspect – just because he’s the usual suspect) it’s just sad that I didn’t get to see the 50 or so people I wanted to see because there wasn’t anything that brought us all together.

And finally, this has been an absolutely terrible year for college students. Five Rice students have died, and then there’s Virginia Tech. Gotta love Brian Williams’ interviews last night.

Now, there have been reports that the gunman was walking around with a 9mm handgun, and also with a larger handgun. Do you know which one you were shot with?

It’s like the class of 2007 is cursed. It’s an awful curse, if that’s the case. Just mind-numbing. My condolences go out to all those who have been affected by these tragic events – a number which seems to climb by the day.

I’m about 10 minutes from home talking to Erin on the phone. She hangs up on me abruptly saying, “House is back on.” Puzzled, I see that it’s 10:05. When she calls me back 10 minutes later, she reminds me to make sure my DVR caught the entire episode.

“Why did it run late,” I ask.

“Idol bumped it. Simon told the producers he ‘wasn’t done talking’.”

So, of course, my DVR missed the end of the episode. I went online to Fox.com to see if I could watch most of the episode on TV, and just catch the end online. Of course, Fox doesn’t post full episodes of their shows online, only a random 45-second clip from the middle.

Why a major national network like Fox is so far behind the bandwagon is beyond me. CBS, NBC, and even ABC offer their shows online. Sure, you have to pay $2 to watch back episodes of Lost (also stupid) but at least you can do it legally if you want to. Now, my only option is to download House illegally from BitTorrent (the episode was available as of 11pm) or wait until it is re-aired during repeat season this summer. Either way, I’m still going to watch it commercial free, just like everything else.

This isn’t meant as a rant against the TV industry, but rather a question: what are the networks going to do once everyone has a commercial-skipping DVR? What about pay-per-play TV? I’m already paying $50 a month for basic cable (a hundred-plus channels). Why not let me pay $50 a month for the 6 channels I want and give them to me commercial free? Yeah, you’d have to make shows longer (58 minutes instead of 42 or 44) but you’d have happier customers. I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be equivalent economically.

No, my guess is within five years, some over-zealous legislator on Capitol Hill, with a network executive stuffing his back-pocket, will propose some bill outlawing commercial-skipping technology as anti-business. Forget the free market. Why bother when you can grab a choke-hold on your current business model and cajole Washington into doing your dirty work for you. Don’t bother to innovate. That’s way too hard. Some 26-year old in his basement will come up with yet another way to out-sell your product and then you’re screwed, yet again.

Ryan: laundry time

Jack: Nice.
Jack: I need to do summa dat.

Ryan: I wish i had hookups in my apt
Ryan: that would be so easy

Jack: LOL

Jack: Sorry.
Jack: I read that line out of context.

After six months off the air, this blog is online once more. One day last summer, I suddenly found that I could no longer post to my Typo blog. I tried uninstalling, reinstalling, updating, backing up, moving, renaming, and doing everything else I could think of to resurrect my “post” ability. Sure, you could still see the whole blog, but that was just because a backup copy was still available.

Fast forward to today. I decided to give up and rip the whole thing out. I updated Apache, spent hours reading up on FastCGI, mod_fcgid, Rails, and finally found Mongrel. Turns out Mongrel is awesome. Within 5 minutes of making the decision to switch to Mongrel, I’m authoring this post.

Could I have found more interesting things to do with my Saturday evening? Sure. Would I have it any other way? Absolutely not. In the last three hours, I’ve learned all sorts of things about Windows, Apache 2.2, and even more about Rails.

Thanks go out to Donn Lewis, who reminded me that this thing was still up and a bit stale (I’m going to go right now and update the Duke Lacrosse post I made a year ago).

What have I been up to for the past six months, you ask? Well, I read reddit frequently. I’m still working at McDonogh (just signed my contract for 2007-2008 with a 4% raise). I’m selling my ownership in Kudda and trying to drum up more freelance business. I’m also looking to move, not because I don’t love where I’m living, but because I’d like to move in with friends. More on the search to buy a house later.

In 2007, thus far, I have been to Vermont, New York, Philadelphia, North and South Carolina, and New Orleans (summary | photos). On Thursday, I’m off to Houston for Beer Bike. The best part about all of this is that I paid for travel on only one of those trips. Hooray for being a high school chaperone!

Now I’m off to find a new look for this crusty old blog. Nothing says “fresh” like an unnecessary facelift!

I find it very interesting that I’ve been quoted in a Wikipedia article. Sourced, if you will.

I find this moderately inappropriate. Sources should be people of repute, knowledge, and substance. A college student writing in a college paper is none of those things. In the three decades of Dr. Bill’s service to Rice and Wiess, could they find no one suiting those criteria to speak on his behalf? It seems to be, given that it’s only Wikipedia, a rush job. Dr. Bill deserves better. I wish only that I had the time and energy (not heavy eyelids and a clock reading near-morning) to undo this injustice.

Edit: I checked the history of the article. The original author is George Webb. It appears that the text of the article is merely a draft of a retirement speech I had not heard.

Edit 2: (March 25, 2007) It appears that the Wikipedia article I referenced has been merged/renamed, and the quote is missing. Yay! I still think it’s funny that Wikipedia says the article is derived from something I wrote.

Hope you’re doing well up there, Dr. Bill!

Kudda’s struggling so far. We’re getting clickthroughs (about 50-100 per day) but very few trial accounts, and no memberships so far. C’est la vie. Still tweaking the details here and there, but it’s not the crazy 50 hours a week (on top of McDonogh) I’ve been doing since June.

Since that explains why I’ve been so quiet lately, which is not to say that I haven’t been busy elsewhere. I’ve moved into my new place in Mt. Washington. It’s in rough shape, and needs a lot of tender love and care, but it’s not so bad that it’s unlivable. The air conditioning is the only thing that’s still bothering me. After having the repair guys come out twice and spending several hundred dollars, the unit still doesn’t cool down like I’d like it to. I can’t say enough about how fantastic the location is. I’m a quick jog to work, 3 minutes from a Blockbuster, two pizza places, a grocery store, a cleaners, and two major highways. I can be in downtown Baltimore in 10 minutes, and I can be at my parents’ house in 35. I’m also the closest person to my grandparents as they’ve moved into their new home, just 90 minutes north. I’m 10 minutes from Towson, 10 minutes from York Road and the Senator theater, and I’m centrally located for all of my friends, between their homes and jobs, so my place (for the first time in my life) has become the central gathering point. People pick me_ up and drop _me off. It’s fantastic. The gas savings alone are amazing — I fill up maybe once a week.

The only thing I miss is hanging out with my friends every day. Brandon’s coming up to visit in a couple of weeks, which I’m very excited about, but I miss the effortless ease of walking across the quad to hang out. Ryan, Lily, Erica, Jess, and Megan are all out of town for good. Tim’s leaving in a month, and Micah and Erin are working so much it’s sometimes hard to get together to hang out. Avi busted himself up being a doofus. Then there’s Brandon in Chapel Hill, Bill, Whitney, Ames, and Nathan up north, Aylin in Florida, Austin, Lisa, Guyton, and Allen in Houston, Ryan in California, Matt and Elizabeth in Japan… If only I were fabulously wealthy, with my own G4 and superyacht. Gotta get working on that.

If there’s anyone out there I haven’t heard from in a while, ring me up. Now that I’ve got free time, I’m taking stock and trying to track everyone down. Do a good deed, make my job easier. :D