10.26.2006

What was it Pia called this? Serial Blogging? Actually now that I think of it I like the way that sounds. Also, This is post number 300

Ok, so I was messing around with my guitar and I decided to try and see if I could learn Little Wing. I Googled for tabs and found a fantastically useful website. Plays the song while a little highlight bar scrolls over the tab in time. Simple and brilliant. Excited, I eagerly learned to play the first section of the song as directed. Taking all the effort necessary for a novice guitarist to learn a Hendrix song. I was fucking stoked... I didn't think there was a chance in hell I'd be able to get it. Then I advanced it to the next section. And a dialog box popped up that told me, in French, that I had to pay to learn the rest of the song.

I shouted rather loud and angrily. Fuck if I know how to buy something on a website in a foreign currency.

Anyways if I made it a habit to shell out for something like that I'd quick be out of money.

Now I'm determined to learn it without paying the 5 bucks or however much that it would have been in dollars. Grr...

Over at Shayna's there's a clip of Michael J Fox showing support for stem cell research as a part of a campaign ad in Missouri, followed by Rush Limbaugh going after him about forgoing meds to make his symptoms more visible. Saying it was exploitation. That that spunkbrained chickenfucker actually posesses influence is what I atttribute to a specific part of my head where a headache pops up every once in a while for no readily apparant reason. My thoughts can be found in the comments over there; I've not much else to say.

While we're on politics, George Bush has said that he is "dissatisfied" with the war in Iraq. About two years later than he should have said it. Wonder how long it would take him to realize we need a strategy to get the fuck out of there. Probably past his term limit.

A minor note: I've recently discovered that I was mistaken about the taste of arsenic. It's cyanide that tastes like bitter almonds. Henceforth it's a Cyanide Martini until I can come up with a better name. Bit of an interesting course of events that lead to me realizing that. I was researching the Turing Test and attempts to overcome it, my favorite thus far being Jabberwacky (the name itself wins major points). I'd explain the Turing Test concisely, but even if you don't feel like reading the wikipedia entry it's explained effectively here by talking dinosaurs (no longer a method of edification solely for kids. And this time it's actually entertaining. Admit it. Even if you've had kids you know that Barney and Friends was one of the worst shows in the history of television). I find the concept rather fascinating. It's true, the test doesn't prove thought, just communication, but isn't that how our thought process is formed? By learning the proper way to respond to stimulus? That's why I like the Jabberwacky approach best. It learns from your speech patterns just the way a child would. Which reminds me of when I was in second grade. There was a point at which insults and comebacks would turn to almost a sort of script, that grew longer as time went on. Such as:

"Shut up"
"Make me"
"I don't make dogs I train them"

and for a while that exact exchange would occur about 20 times a day in the classroom. Eventually someone, I think it was me, came up with this to add to it

"then how come you haven't trained yourself?" It wasn't long before that was incorporated into the standard exchange. I also had the last word to be spoken on the matter, when I capped one such tradeoff with, "I was too busy training YOUR MOM."

Which is how I got into my first fist fight. But that's beside the point. The point is, detractors of the Turing Test will say that even if the computer can properly respond to any input, it doesn't mean its not just spitting out a script. Conversely, just because it's just spitting out a script doesn't mean it's unable to think.

I had one friend who would have failed a Turing Test. Whenever someone told him to shut up, he said, "I don't make dogs, I train them."

Anyways.

I got to looking up Alan Turing, who came up with the test. He was a acclaimed cryptologist during the second World War and the father of computer science. He was put to disgrace when it was discovered that he was gay, and committed suicide by biting into an apple laced with cyanide. Accordingly, an apple martini laced with cyanide is known as an Alan Turing. For some reason I clicked on the link for cyanide in that article and saw that it was the one with the bitter almond taste.

So when you combine that drink concept with the one I've already put forth you get the Mock Turing

2 1/2 oz vodka
1/4 oz apple brandy
1/4 oz amaretto
speck bitters

prepared as all flavored martinis are, with the bitters added to the concoction last, after the straining.

Speaking of alcoholic concoctions Pia commented in a previous post that I should make a drink named after each of my readers. In truth I had already planned this and I've mulled it over. So far I've figured out a few base ingredients

All who have paid attention know that Cooper's bottle is Bombay Sapphire

Shayna's is amaretto

Jason's is Gentleman Jack.

For {illyria}, it's absinthe

as for Pia, the only drink I remember her mentioning is one that involved Jim Beam. Not sure if that's my final answer though,

Thats about as much as I've figured out for sure. Everyone else I've yet to decide. If you can point me in the right direction, feel free of course. more on that as it gestates.

As it happens, this is my three hundredth post. It's a milestone I should have arrived at a while ago but I've slowed down. I fully intend to reverse that.

Right after I get some sleep. I promise

7 comments:

  1. absinthe. perfect! and how very timely, too. i was actually going through some old emails from a brit ex-friend who kept bringing up absinthe every time we talked. i mean, it was his drink of choice. and he liked drunk-emailing a lot. anyway. :)

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  2. Anonymous3:15 PM

    Congrats on your 300th post. Uh, can't help but love the post title.

    Came to link to you because you spoke great truth on Shayna's post and as a serial blogger, I have to weigh in.

    Read it last night but wasn't going to post.

    Stop me EW, I'm serial blogging

    Nevr Jim Beam. I'm a total girl and like light Malibu type drinks or anything with tequila. The only drinking dare I didn't accept was eating the worm in a bottle in Mexico

    And I'm basically boring heavy on the club soda light on the cranberry juice.

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  3. Anonymous9:41 PM

    Man... I was all stoked about the guitar tab website... I even went and booked marked it... and then came back and read the rest of your paragraph!!! SUCKS BIG!!!

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  4. That's shit about that guitar website!!! I was so excited to hear that and was gonna surprise Loverboy with it, since he sits and plays and sings to unwind... dammit! I feel for ya amigo mio!

    Oooh! Drinks made after us? Funkified! You should make up names to go with them too... can't wait to see what you come up with... I am tough though... I tend to like beer, once I get used to the taste again since it has been a while since I have truly had a drink... cannot stomach it and don't crave drinking much since becoming a yogi you see... and so I prefer things not too strong on the alcohol spectrum and Loverboy already knows that my drink of choice anytime we are out is fresh squeezzed OJ... I am a drink geek I am afraid!

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  5. Anonymous12:37 AM

    Being from wonderland, or not, I necessarily love jabberwacky - opps wrong word. lol ;)

    Thought actually is formed linguistically through the teeny little pathways formed from hearing something repeated many times, thus “your a no good piece of shit – becomes” fact in the mind of one who is constantly barraged with it, until he is barraged with “you are a hot awesome person” enough to form some new pathways - so ya but not really.

    Hope to Jabberwockey soon.

    You know my bottle, what more cold I want.



    Happy Three Hundred Mr Wombat.

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  6. {illyria}: Had a feeling.

    Pia: Ah. You meant something different by Black Beauty. Malibu rum it is. Actually I may make some minor alterations from the recipie I showed you but I've got a good sense of it now.

    And you know I'll never stop you.

    Shayna: Apparently there's a free tool called Powertab that's something like that. But I doubt it's quite as good. I'll be sure to check it out.

    Miz B: Oh sweet! I know exactly how to do this now. I've come up with a few epithets thus far. You will see.

    Cooper: I meant, "in a similar way." Good catch though.

    I'm not quite sure what you meant by that but I'm intrigued.

    I can think of some things ;)

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  7. Oooh! I cannot wait! And I am back to say what I neglected to say earlier so shame on me... Happy 300th!

    Oh! And the Practice, season 8, is the last season and the one that Alan Shore comes in on! I just saw one episode... interesting thus far, not yet the Alan Shore we know and love so it will be interesting to see if he develops into the total Alan Shore we know on BL...

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