Adrian P. Dunston

9:06am: A sad little poem.
We. Can. Not. Get. Ahead.
EVER.
We're going to be poor until we die.

Someone sent me this sad little poem.  I think it's fantastic.  It looks like an album and song title.

10:33am: Harvard
Harvard is more like a cheerleading squad than a chess club. Chess clubs accept those with aptitude and turn them into better chess players. Cheerleading squads take people who look and act like cheerleaders -- regardless of aptitude for improvement -- and teaches them a set of cheers. Harvard is more interested in recruiting those with the looks and personalities that match the Harvard standard than they are with academic aptitude or achievement. And they don't do a better job of preparing graduates for the future than less selective schools.

Where do I get this wild conjecture? Why, I read it on the internet, of course. That means it's true! See Malcolm Gladwell's "Getting In"

3:18pm: Autism in Anathem
Listening to Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Found a great one-line description of autism there. There's one little kid running around asking all the smart people questions, correcting them when the give wrong answers, and making me think, 'Wow, somebody has Aspbergers'. Later on Erasmus says that the kid didn't notice the most striking thing about a statue because "...his mind was so well organized that he was blind to facial expressions."

Awesome.

11:26am: What is a stock? Part 5 - End
The conclusion to our exciting series! Our heroes will learn the agony of defeat and the thriftiness of bargain shopping. SHOCKING!

How do you lose money in the stock market?

Then! The next day, a dentist goes on tv and says, "Brushing your teeth with caffeine is probably not a good idea."

( Read more... )

12:55pm: What is a stock? Part 4
Continuing the series...

What is the stock market?

A stock market is a place where people go to sell their shares of stock in one company, or buy other people's shares of stock in other companies.

Here's where things get really interesting. Let's say a guy comes along called Khofi. Now Khofi has a lot of money, and he wants to make a lot more money. He's heard of Fred Co. He knows that Fred Co. makes a lot of money every year, but he thinks that soon Fred Co. will make ten times as much money as they're making now.

( Read more... )

10:57am: What is stock? Part 3
The series continues! It's like the crawling paragraphs in front of a Star Wars movie, but without the movie. Remarkable!

What is stock?

Remember when the people that own Fred each invested some money to start out with? Well, they didn't all invest the same amount of money. Some of them gave Fred Co. more money to start out with than others did. Well that's not fair. If I give Fred more money than you, then I should own more of Fred than you do, and when we start making money, I should get more slices of the 'pie'. How do we split things up? Easy! We invent stocks.

( Read more... )

2:10pm: What is a stock? Part 2
Continuing the series. Enjoy!

( Read more... )

2:11pm: What is a stock? Part 1
Someone I admire posted to her blog that she didn't understand stocks at all though it had been explained to her multiple times. She seems to deal well in concrete things, so I tried to think of how someone would think of the stock market in concrete terms. The best I could come up with was that a stock is like a ticket for pie. I couldn't think of a good place to post my explanation, so I'll post it here in several parts. Enjoy!

( Read on: She's got a ticket for pie, and she don't care! )

3:56pm: Autism is Great!
Not being autistic is also pretty cool. I've enjoyed it. But I would not want to live in a world without autistic people. I would like to live in a world where they are better understood and even *gasp* valued as equal members of society and not victims of tragedy.

From that day forward, he decided to challenge the disease model underlying most autism research. "I wanted to go as far as I could to show that their perception — their brains — are totally different." Not damaged. Not dysfunctional. Just different.

Wired Article: The Truth About Autism

HELL YES!

My experience leads me to believe that autism is a brain difference that -- while it often makes life difficult -- is not itself a disability and is often really neat. My experience is that of a parent, not an autistic person, but there are many autistic people who agree. Life is often difficult for autistic people and caretakers. My family has a hard time of things in ways that other families don't. But the autism itself, the whole manner of thinking is not disability.

Autistic people are not broken versions of typicals, the are whole versions of themselves.

8:22am: Stone Goddess
In four more days, I'll be in DC seeing my play on stage. That is unbelievably cool. The house is 70 seats, and tickets are on sale, so if you're planning on seeing it, you should probably order them online.

Synopsis, cast, ticket info.

What's this all about? Read on.
( Read more... )

4:42pm: SciFi Wondercult
The SciFi Wondercult now has a MySpace page. SciFi Wondercult. Tell the world! It's rap. It's pop. It's my very talented older brother having fun on the mic accompanied by myself and a few friends. It's at the same time egocentric and self-deprecating. Danny calls it suburban-rap. I'd say it's more than a bit nerd-core. Enjoy!

10:26am: Stop what you're doin' cause I'm about to ruin the image and the style that you're used to.

Humpty. Lyrically inventive, self-depricating rapper with an interesting voice and a great set of (Digital Underground) beats. Sir Mix-A-Lot. Also funny. Also fun to listen to. Like Z-Trip said, hip hop is supposed to be fun.

I'm listeneing to indie rappers. Nerd indie rappers. And every once in a while, I like what I hear. For you to poop on:

Jesse Dangerously (http://www.dangerously.ca) - I love this guy. He's my current favorite. Go to his website. Click streaming audio. Listen to Prestidigitator or Damaged Senses. You'll dig it.

MC Hawking (http://www.mchawking.com) - Brilliant physicist, rapper. Listen to his track on RhymeTorrents http://www.rhymetorrents.com/disc1/MC%20Hawking%20-%20Rock%20Out%20With%20Your%20Hawk%20Out.mp3

MC Frontalot (http://www.frontalot.com) - Coined the phrase Nerdcore. This dude's hard. He raps with asthma. Indier than thou == excellent (http://frontalot.untimelydeath.com/mc_frontalot_-_indier_than_thou.mp3)

Rhyme Torrents (http://www.rhymetorrents.com/disc1/index.html) - Just go here and listen to parts of Volume I. The following people are good: NurseHella, Beefy, YTCracker, 133t g33k b34t. Also check "Anime Convention" if you're into that. "The Last Fantasy" and "Legendary Rhymes" aren't necessarily good rap songs, but they're laid down with music from Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda. You're not really going to find that in too many places.

And for good measure, The Funk Gritty swears by Jedi Mind Tricks (http://www.jedi-mind-tricks.com/). Not particularly nerdcore. But particularly awesome.

10:57am: 9-16-86 The Sun
I'm going to tell you all about the sun. Do you know what the sun is? I didn't think so. I will tell you later. It is a busy day. Let's get a move on. Just like the clouds, you could not live without the sun. The sun is a ball of fire, gas, and things like that. Let's get a move on. Just like the clouds we have to get a move on. The sun is the only thing that makes light. It is time to say goodbye.

11:45am: 9-12-86 Clouds
There are many kinds of cloud. Did you know that you could not live without clouds? I didn't think you would. The clouds that make snow are cold. I forgot that, BUT I do remember one thing. The cloud that can make snow is a block of ice itself. Have you ever just and look at the clouds? I thought so. Do you know what clouds are? I didn't think so. It is fog. There is just so much of it. You can make a cloud. Here's what you need. Dry ice and water.

3:53pm: My Family 9-10-86 - 9-12-86
My Family. My family is a nice one BUT just like normal we have problems! Just last month my sister dumped a bowl of cereal in front of company. In my family I have 4 grandparents, three brothers, and one sister, a father, and a mother.

( Commentary )

5:40pm: 9-9-86
My grandfather has a lot of things to play with. He has a monkey-bar, he has a horseshoe throwing place, and things like that. My grandmother used to be a nurse so she knows how to take care of a wound. I like to go to my grandparents' house. They live in Wagram. I love my grandparents. My grandfather already has painted the house.

1:53pm: 9-2-86
Labor day may have been of comfort to most of you, but to some it was hard because two planes crashed. One was a passenger plane. The other one was a biplane. All of the passengers died. Half of the neighborhood was destroyed.

Gabriel is my baby brother. He is cute. His nickname is "grabby" because he grabs. When he hears a kissing sound he smiles. First he sat up, then he stood up, and then he crawled. He doesn't have teeth.

5:49pm: 8-29-86
Challenger was a rocket that blasted into space and exploded with seven people inside. They all died. One was a teacher. I bet her students were sad. We think at that time of year, the boosters were frozen. This took place in 1986. News reports say the last word they heard them say was "uh oh," and then Boooooom the ship blows up.

5:42pm: 8-26-86
Things that I like to do. I like riding my bike because I like going fast and going down the hill. I like to writing because I like improving. I LIKE school because I like to learn and I like making new friends.

5:35pm: LEA
I was digging through a box of old school materials to throw them away when I found a journal I was required to keep in second grade. It is in two binders labelled LEA. I think it stands for Language Experience, something or other. So from now until I forget or get tired of it, I will blog it up old school. I'll be correcting spelling and punctuation because otherwise it would be darned annoying. If people dig it, I might post scans of the originals. I think it's fascinating. After all. It's me.

I should note that I was forced to write this stuff. As a kid I was convinced I was lazy. Looking back, the problem may have been more complex. Whatever attention problems I have now, I don't think I'm lazy. The big point here is, I was a kid. I hated handwriting. I still do. The entries are short. Also, I was a bit of a nerd. That will come through quite strongly. I had a huge respect for authority and an overwhelming need to be liked. Family life was darn near idyllic. Also the Challenger blew up. That apparently made an impression on me.

Anyway, enjoy the show. Hope this is interesting to people who aren't me. But hell it's LiveJournal, don't we all?

11:15am: I was at funk_gritty's house last night. His five four year old son was jumping around, pretending to get hurt, acting like a robot, and making funny faces. He was doing this because my five month old son was watching him and cackling like ... well nothing laughs like that. Pearce was laughing, screaming, and hooting like he'd never seen anything so funny in his life. I guess he hadn't. He laughed so hard, he didn't notice he had to spit up. He ended up shooting milk all over Gritty's couch. After a brief clean up effort, I stood the boy back up to watch the five year-old slapstick genius some more. At this point, Pearce laughed so hard he crapped himself. Now he's a little baby. They do that quite often, but to see my son giggle and shriek until his body shook with a blast of feces was really funny.

In short, Gritty's kid is so funny, my kid shot from both ends and was laughing still.

11:59am: the_jade_dragon and I went out on our super special date last night. It was both super and special. While getting ready for the event, shortly after I commented on how gorgeous she looks, Jade pulls her dress up to her armpits, digs around in the left cup of her bra, pulls out a small metal object, and exclaims, "That's where the other earring went!"

If mystery is a central part of your idea of romance, marriage is not for you.

3:31pm: I haven't posted in five months...
Here's why:



More Pictures of Pearce

9:58am: the_jade_dragon had a lot of "practice" contractions last night. It won't be long! I'm hoping this week, but if she doesn't go into labor by the 21st, they will induce labor as a precaution due to very minor chemical complications that appeared earlier in the pregnancy. Fatherhood soon!

11:44am: This is a professional email I was copied on. It's from one company leader to another.

hey brian,
 
got your message, here is paul's email addy... hes usually pretty responsive.
 
paul@xxxxxxxxxx.com
 
if it doesnt work on the server we could probably install elsewhere.
 
thanks!

What is wong with people? What! I know, everybody's done this whining about bad email grammar to death, but I've got some steam and I'm going to let it the hell off. Let's start with the lack of capitalization. Damnit, people, there are three different keys on the keyboard to help you with making bigger letters and smaller letters. Just freaking pick ONE of them.

Next is 'addy'. This person has forgotten that there's a second half to the word address. At least she broke it off on a syllable. It's not quite as bad as people who abbreviate cheese to chee. The person that asks me for a 'grilled ham and chee' will get so many punches. So many.

Finally 'hes' and 'doesnt'. She can't be bothered to put in apostrophes. Apostrophes, people. These aren't hard pieces of punctuation. They're not semi-colons. They're just little dangly things for possessives and contractions. They're fun. Not too hard.

Why am I bitching about this? Is it because her casual lack of effort in creating a simple piece of communication is indicitive of an almost contemptuous disregard for the person she's writing to? No, I'm bitching because I'm a major dork, and have no sense of priority when it comes to spending my time.