Sarcasmo's New Writeups

Adventures in Hypothermia (thing)

2000-12-29T06:47:58Z

I can't feel my toes.

I am shaking lightly, but uncontrollably. My fingers feel like thawed sausages, healing from their freeze.

It is winter in Chicago again, and tonite is the first night I have ever felt actual pain because of it. I have hypothermia, a condition where your body temperature, simple put, is just too damn low. It's something that can be mild, like I have now, it can be harsh, or even deadly.

So why was I standing and waiting at the train stop in Rosemont, Illinois, on this cold winter night? Well, it's not so much a long story, but a bad one.

I was planning to see adoxograph tonight. The plan was as usual: I would go to Rosemont via a bus to the Division stop and then via CTA Blue Line. Estimated time of arrival needed to be 9:20p, so estimated time of departure (compensating for bus wait) was 8:10.

I left. I walked to the corner of Wells and Division and turned around before…

What happened to claymation? (idea)

2000-12-22T02:57:07Z

While I admit I haven't been as in the know concerning animation lately as I have in the past, I have seen a definite decline in the production of "claymation," which is the loving industry term for clay animation. I know that it is being produced, but where? And why is it no longer so much in the public eye?

I used to dabble in animation, because it was what I did. When I started college I was in the animation program (before I was in film which was before I was in digital media which was before I drop majors entirely in order to finish faster which was before I got my job). I used to watch tons and tons of shows, movies, festivals and all kinds of shit like that, and I saw a lot of different types of animation. One type that has been around for a very long time and just kept getting more and more fun and interesting was claymation. Hell, I don't know if anybody even calls it that anymore; I know I started to when I first saw the California Raisins shit…

Mornings, Stimulants, and Herbal Crack (idea)

2000-12-18T20:40:30Z

Since I've started working full-time with office hours, I've noticed a change in my views on stimulants. I used to avoid them psychotically. They're not healthy. But things change; now I'm working, doing computer dork shit with computer dorks all day. We're not really a heavy sleep breed, and there's a lot of (really, really bad) coffee here as a result.

It all started with the (really, really bad) coffee. I would drink a little basically just to drink it. I have a coffee cup; what else should I do with it? When I started working here, coffee still had little effect on me (I have this mysterious natural tolerance to all kinds of shit). The mornings hit me hard, but I didn't try to keep awake with coffee or anything because I knew it wouldn't help me.

Eventually, it started helping. I liked coffee a bit just to speed a little. The nights never shortened (I still stayed up all the time) when I started working, so I was still staying up ass-lat…

I am a sexist (idea)

2000-12-15T22:25:23Z

I am asexist.

Well, that doesn't really mean anything, except that I hate things without sex? Let me explain more fluently. I deny gender. Sure, I may voice my little opinions about how I hate chicks more often, but I hate dudes just as much. And hell, I wouldn't want to make myself look bad or anything.

I don't like chicks because (in general) they're weak. I don't know why, but in the past years I have not liked this one thing. I don't like that I'm weak either, and that's probably where the whole mess comes from. Probably childhood damage, like everything else. And hell, come to think of it, guys that are totally weak kind of piss me off too.

Wait. I need a position before I go off here, don't I? Ok; I can do that. My position:

If you're going to hate one person, hate that one person, and not the group they are most easily associated with.

…

Internet gangster (person)

2000-12-14T19:32:22Z

The real world mafia is empowering. If you know the right people, you can do or get anything you want. Connections make life easier, and more enjoyable as well. Also, as with the mafia, the law does not matter.

There is a subculture on the Internet that is in essence the same thing. There are a number of people that you might meet online that, if you become friends or acquaintances or whatever, can be considered true valuable connections. These people are providers, and you become one through providing as well. Let me portray an example:

The guy you met on IRC from Texas has a T3 MP3 server, right? You get full albums from him when appropriate, and then one day your friend asks if you've heard of this band. You say yes and that you have MP3s... He asks if he could get some files and you send. Your friend then spreads the word that you got shit. Eventually you become known because of your friend as this monster connection for MP3s.

…

Password paradigms (idea)

2000-12-14T18:55:59Z

What methods are behind password picking? Passwords are something that everyone uses every day, automatic or not. Passwords have developed a sort of secret culture behind themselves. I have a theory that if you were to look at any one person's set of passwords you could tell very much about that person. Why?

People tend to use personal things as passwords. Things they're interested in, things they collect, people they admire or love, etc. This is what makes passwords sometimes easy to guess if you know a person. This is also why passwords could serve as a strange and distorted description of someone. When people don't use personal things as passwords, the passwords tend to be careless and random. When someone signs up for the New York Times online they throw a dummy username and password. They're only in it for the article, so why should they register seriously?

I think passwords tell us about how people view themselves. They tell us about how…