bartonbowers

This Won't Last For Long (Post Count Up 300% Over Last Year !!!)

Thu, 06 Jan 2005 15:11:17 GMT

Ok, so as snazz pointed out... I've already doubled my post count for all of last year. With this one... I'll triple it. Believe me, the novelty will fade and I'll never post again, however... in homage to the guys who introduced me to this thing... I must blog what I lovingly refer to as a "BJ moment" that I had yesterday. No, not oral... BJ... better known as mitya000 .

Anyway, yesterday I was in the Randall's near my home stocking up on sweet, delicious chocolate milk. Now, I've had this idea (idea forthcoming) in my head for a couple of years now, but I thought I'd ask an expert for his opinion. The expert was the checker at Randall's... a fatherly-looking gentleman probably somewhere in his 30s-40s. Looked like a nice enough guy, and the store was empty, so I thought I'd attempt to entertain him and possibly embarrass my girlfriend, who happened to be with me at the time and, for some reason, says these types of actions embarrass her.

But I digress... the idea, I presented to the gentleman... is this. I first asked him if Randall's has to hand enter all the UPC product codes themselves, or if they are just there. I've done some moderate research into the UPC codes, and apparently, you can buy a block of them, or even just a couple. I didn't really persue it too deeply, so I don't really remember exactly what the details are... but I remember coming away with the notion that you could, indeed, as an individual, by a block of UPC codes for your "product" whatever it may be. So the Randall's guy says that, yes, the codes are just somehow "there". Now he admitted that this was not his particular area of expertise, so it may be, in fact, that Randall's nationwide has a master database, and they enter in their own products, prices, etc., and download them somehow to all the stores.

BUT!

And here's my master plan. I queried this guy as to if there was a synchronized master database of UPC codes nationwide. I figure there might be... heck... there's only one 20oz box of Cocoa Pebbles. I guess the stores might all set their own prices, but there's proably an entry for the box and some number associated with it in a master nationwide, or heck, even worldwide database. NOW! And here's where the plan comes into its beauty. I pondered... so if I could buy my own block of UPC codes, and then assign different "products" to those codes, and then merge my list into the master list, could I assign myself a code? Like, could there be the product "Barton Bowers" that exists in a database that is distributed to stores all over the country?!? And now the REALLY beauty part... I thought... wouldn't it be cool to then get that UPC code tattooed onto my arm!?! Think of the potential comedy as I reached over the counter and slipped in a scanning of myself between the razor blades and toilet tissue. I could even petition the stores to price me at a dollar (tax-free, of course). It would be worth it to fork over an extra dollar just to "buy myself" from time to time... just to see the clerk stare with a puzzled expression.

But now we go even further... because as I was explaining this very enthusiastically to the clerk, an odd expression came over his face. I could see that the smile that started when I began the idea explanation had faded... and now it was replaced by an expression that was equal parts of bewilderment, complete non-getting-me-ness, and sprinkled with a quick glance at the exit... indicating that was where he would like me to be heading... immediately. At that moment, I felt I had walked a mile in the shoes of a man that walks like that... from what I can tell... pretty much everyday. And that... was my BJ moment.

Believe me, mitya000 its all meant with love. I've seen that expression cross people's faces before, and now I understand... I understand, my brotha.

So It Occurs To Me...

Wed, 05 Jan 2005 15:08:39 GMT

... of something that I can actually use my livejournal account for:

RANTING

see, in general, I'm an extremely happy guy. At least, on the exterior. In fact, many would say overly happy and cheery. So that means that it will be really odd when I have a whole set of angry entries.

Anywho, I really never blog. I just have so much other stuff happening. But tonight when some friends and I poked around livejournal.com, I realized that I could use it to vent... and right now... I need to vent. Even if no one reads it.

Two things are happening right now that make me aggravated:

1. I play in a band. That band currently has no drummer. I like to doodle around with musical equipment... a lot. I just got a brand spankin' new Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-880 for Christmas. The first couple of days after Christmas, I spent literally all day playing with it. I forgot to eat I was so entrenched. One of the things that I did for fun was start to program in the songs that the band plays. Turns out that was a good thing, because we're playing tonight and we don't have a drummer (like I said, eh). We were going to use the machine. At 4PM yesterday, I turned off the machine after programming all morning on it. At 7:30PM I walked back into the house. I picked the machine up, moved it 10 feet, set it down, plugged it in... turned it on... and BOOM! Nothing that I programmed was there anymore. And not just the day's work... I'm talking anything that wasn't a preset encoded in ROM. ALL of the RAM was gone. Absolutely unreal. I have a whole house full of bandmates and so I have to just swallow all that because it wouldn't be productive to do what I really wanted to do, which was to throw the damn thing into a wall. Hours worth of work... days making up those hours. All gone in an instant. The thing has a USB port and a way to back up all the data. However, it just didn't occur to me that it would all be gone in less than a week. I have a machine from the company that I bought close to 15 years ago. It STILL has the original drum patterns that I programmed into in on the day I opened it up. What the hell?!? I certainly was planning to back up all the data, I just didn't know I'd have to do it every day. Why is the device that I bought 15 years ago, so much more capable of retaining data? At some point in the last 15 years, did the engineers say: "Let's focus less on data retention. I don't think users will be overly angry if they spend days programming information and a loose cable wipes it all out." I hate to be an old man... but what happened to craftsmanship? I would think the data retention thing would be priority number one. Make the thing bullet-proof. Encase it all in steel. Build in shock-absorbtion mechanisms of the "saving the data for 15 years" degree. DAMN!

2. The other thing that I do is build my own computers. I really find it fun to put together a computer from all the components. I love the control of knowing exactly what all components are in the machine. However, as I finally put the last pieces of the machine that's been sitting half finished for months together... I turn it on... and BOOM! Nothing. I had that happen once. The first machine that I ever built. It was my first, and my fault. I've built (for myself and friends and family and girlfriends) probably something on the order of 10-15 machines since that first machine. I learned from my mistakes on that first one, and they've all worked since... until now.

So basically, my memories of last night will be... nothing that I'mtrying to do right now is working.

CRAP!

(sp) [see previous entry]

Wed, 05 Jan 2005 04:26:41 GMT

blogger

Opening Entry

Wed, 07 Apr 2004 17:00:53 GMT

I'm not much of a bloger, so odds are that I won't update much, but many of my friends use live journal, so I thought I'd at least create an account. More later... maybe.