Jason posted a link to a book containing 100 words that the good people at the American Heritage Dictionary think you should know. Here are the 100 words. So... let's see how I do:

Words I know at least one of the definitions of: 81
Words I recognize but don't know the definition of: 5
Words I don't recognize at all: 14

I'm not sure if these numbers reflect well on my vocabulary or not. Jason suggests that the list is largely comprised of mostly worthless words, but I find his supercilious hubris a bit jejune, don't you?

Anyway, here are the words I recognize but couldn't come up with a definition for: antebellum, bellicose, circumlocution, unctuous, and winnow. I've definitely seen all of these words used, so perhaps I should look them up. [And now I have.]

Here are the words I have no memory of ever having seen, ever: abjure, abrogate, abstemious, bowdlerize, churlish, deleterious, expurgate, inculcate, jejune, loquacious, lugubrious, moiety, pecuniary, and quotidian. Obviously, I've already looked up jejune and used it, above... it seemed like the oddest of the list, to me. Having now looked up these words, I must agree with Jason on this list; most of these convey meaning that I basically never need to express. I seldom winnow.

Of the 19 words I didn't know the definition for, I find it interesting that they are mostly adjectives with common synonyms (11) or transitive verbs (6). The remaining two words are nouns. The first of these two nouns is moiety, and I'm willing to bet that you had to look it up too. The second noun is just a beautiful one—circumlocution:

n. The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

In a way I'm sort of glad I didn't know that one, as I find circumlocution really irritating. And I think the people who made this list probably engage in a bit too much of it.

In January of this year, Popular Mechanics published some information about a video dropout problem experienced with some PS3 owners who were using Westinghouse flat panel TVs. The problem was caused by an inability for the two devices to properly exchange HDCP keys during the handshake, causing the HDMI connection to reset. Scores of people chimed in proclaiming that the problem was clearly with the Westinghouse TVs, as they had tested their PS3 on multiple flat panels and only the Westinghouse product had the blinking problem. Scores of other people chimed in to indicate that the problem was clearly with the PS3 because they were able to use all of their other HDMI sources (e.g. Xbox 360 Elite, etc.) with their Westinghouse TV and only the PS3 blinked. Sony and Westinghouse proceeded to have a little war about who's HDCP/HDMI implementation was not fully up to spec, and I think that war is still being fought. In the meantime, PM's advice for how to deal with the blinking was to manually re-seat the HDMI cable. Apparently the soft HDCP reset that is occurring after handshake failure is somehow different than a hard reset.

Fortunately, my PS3 works fine when connected to my Sony LCD. My Denon AVR, on the other hand, does not. I get the very same HDCP reset blinking behavior, but only sometimes. For 1080p passthrough, it works like a charm. So my PS3 experience is flawless. For upconverted analog signals, such as the 1080i component line coming from my home theater PC, or even the Denon's on-screen display, sometimes there's blink. And once there's blink, I've found that the only way to get it to stop is to reach back and unplug the HDMI cable between the TV and the AVR. Note that the AVR's upconversion is flawless and looks great; between blinks I get crystal-clear video from my HTPC, but the blinks obviously ruin the experience.

High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection is a turd in my drink.

It does absolutely nothing to enhance the end-user experience of high-definition video. It exists solely to protect the exorbitant profits of high-def content providers. And apparently, either the implementation is too difficult to get right or the spec is inherently flawed.

A note to content providers who mandate the use of encryption technologies in order to boost their profits: make sure your technology is transparent before you force it on us. I'm already annoyed by the limitations HDCP puts on my ability to use the high-def content that I've already purchased; now it sometimes renders my entire home theater useless until I re-seat the cable a few times. How is this a solution??

Update: I spent most of last night futzing with this problem. I've discovered that manually re-seating the cable is not a reliable fix at all. However, if I just let it blink for about five or ten minutes, it'll eventually sink up and then has no problems at all until I cycle the power. So I guess the current work-around is to just turn the TV, AVR, and computer on well before I want to use them... and go have a snack. Or something. Still not pleased. I'm looking at you, Intel...

But not just once... there are three of these newly-painted signs in a row, and all three occurrences have the Cyrillic "ИO" (pronounced "Yo!").

I saw the original Transformers cartoon movie while attending a violin camp in Steven's Point, Wisconsin, at the age of nine. At that time, I had invested tremendous amounts of time, emotional energy, and my parents' money into the Transformers franchise. This movie's effect on me was something that I imagine is probably akin to bathing in heroin.

The memory of this film being one of the greatest film accomplishments of all time is one that I protect furiously by vowing never to watch it again, lest I become blinded by its actual crapitude (see: Labyrinth, Legend, Dragonslayer, and all other mid-80's movies that were inherently great to "D&D-era Mouser" because they involved magic, dragons, talking robots, or anything I had seen on TV).

The announcement that a new Transformers movie was being made was a welcome one at Camp Mouser, though it was followed by a seemingly endless parade of realizations that it would probably suck.

1. Michael Bay.
   
2. Live action.
   
3. They transform into the wrong things (I welcome Starsceam's new F-22 Raptor duds, but Bumble Bee is a Camaro!? buh?).
   
4. It's a movie about talking robots that transform into cars and trucks.
   
5. The first movie wasn't really any good, either, if you were older than 10.
   

Then came the release of the new trailer [the "exclusive" one at the top] and all sins of Michael Bay were forgiven. In the end, I don't expect a gripping plot, good acting, or any of that sort of crap—just as I didn't give a shit about that back when I was nine. I wanted sweet-looking robots and explosions. And I must say that the robot effects in that trailer are a total pants-filler. I am so going to see this movie.

Sure, it may be the intellectual equal of Armageddon, but a giant fucking robot inlines through a bus, which explodes, and then the one with flame decals does a big flex move, and they fight. Hot damn.

The reason we do training climbs is to get the mistakes out of our system before we are in situations with little or no margin for failure. If I keep telling myself that, I'll feel like less of an idiot for choosing not to bring my snowshoes on this trip. It's not like I forgot, either. They were there, in the truck, at the trailhead... and I made the concious decision to not bring them. Mostly because it was about 17°C at the trailhead and I could only see patchy snow on the slopes above.

The first day's climb was mostly snowless, and what snow we did encounter was well-packed. I was feeling nicely smug when we arrived at camp and it was clear that snowshoes were just unneccessary weight. We made camp at Bull-of-the-Woods pasture and I slept soundly.

At 5am, we got up, made a quick breakfast, and off we went on the Gold Hill trail. The sign said that it was three miles from the pasture to the peak. Immediately, I could see that this was going to turn into a disaster. The Gold Hill trail gets about 0.1% of the traffic of the Wheeler Peak trail, but the segment of trail we climbed the night before was shared by both and thus saw lots more footsteps than what we were climbing in the morning. Without the packing of hundreds of feet, the drifts of snow crossing the trail were deep. In the cold morning, the surface was still hard and I could walk on it with my boots. But I knew by the time we got back it would be soft and a post-hole disaster. Still, I felt like a dork for not bringing the snowshoes and said I'd put up with the post-holing and hopefully above treeline the wind would have cleared the way.

After over a mile of gingerly walking on top of the snow and occasionally falling in to my waste, I had to throw in the towel. The rapidly softening snow told me that the return journey would be an order of magnitude more taxing and I was starting to feel the strain on my hip flexors, knees, and ankles. I gave my GPS and camera to Minesh and Laura and they continued on in reasonable comfort with their snowshoes while I post-holed my way back to camp.

It took me about twice as long to get back as it took to get out and by the time I got there my joints hurt. The weather was getting really warm and I was able to lose all my layers down to a polypro T-shirt and still be comfortable. I packed up my bivy sack and my share of the group camp gear and headed back down to the truck. I was at the truck by 11:15am.

Unbeknownst to me, Minesh and Laura were reaching the summit at almost exactly this time. I figured they'd get there much earlier than that, but that's becacuse we were believing the "3 miles" sign. The GPS track log and personal reckoning of Minaura suggested that the actual trail distance was more like 5 miles, so there was an unexpected 4 mile round-trip. They made it down to the truck at about 4pm, and I was starting to get worried that they had been consumed by a yeti or something.

Anyway, the decision not to bring the snowshoes was a bad one on my part, but the decision to turn around when I did turned out to be a very sound one. Mineaura said that the snow got worse and didn't clear at all until the last hundred feet or so. That, combined with the unexpected extra 4 miles of travel, would have made my post-hole journey all the more awful.

We all got good workouts, which is what matters for this hike, and Minesh and Laura both set a new personal altitude record for themselves at 12,711'.

Comments on the Gold Hill trip coming soon. But this has to come first:

The PS3 did indeed show up about 20 minutes before I left to go mountaineering with Minesh and Laura. And as I was getting in the truck, the mailman arrived with a package from Amazon containing my order of Blu-Ray discs. I wanted to buy a couple things and just see how much better it was before I determined my future disc-buying habits. The two discs I choose to get were Casino Royale and BBC's Planet Earth series. Here's a shot of the inside of the Planet Earth box, note the blue plastic smaller-than-a-DVD case which is a visual cue that this is, indeed, a Blu-Ray product:

See anything weird? Here's a closeup:

Apparently guerrilla tactics are finding their way into the high definition video disc format war. For reasons I can't fathom, the fourth disc of this four disc set was accidentally populated with an HD-DVD, not a Blu-Ray disc. And thus it doesn't work in the PS3. This is the weirdest error I've seen in awhile. I could understand being sent the HD-DVD box set instead of the Blu-Ray one, but how do the individual discs get shuffled like this!?

Amazon is shipping me a replacement, and I was very impressed with their customer service system. Their website asked me for my phone number and I clicked on a box that said, "call me right now." The phone rang within two seconds, and I was instantly talking to some guy who helped me out. He was equally bewildered by this mix-up.

Oh, and for the record, watching movies (and playing fl0w) in 1080p rocks my socks.

So it's about 8:30 AM and I just got a calll from a robot!! Erm... well UPS had their computer call me and tell me that my overnight package was going to be delivered today. I didn't order anything, so I'm not positive I know what it is. The robot left me the tracking number, from which I can see that it weighs 25 pounds. This is almost certainly my PS3 from shopfreepay, though their order page still says that it's "processing" and shipment info will be added soon.

Unfortunately, the robot also told me that I had to be present to sign for it and that it is being driven up from Albuquerque (why not the UPS facility in Santa Fe, an hour closer? Must have something to do with being overnight). So my guess is that if I leave for mountaineering before it arrives, they'll drive it all the way back to ABQ and ask me to drive down there to get it, which I won't be able to do until... St. Swiven's Day.

SO... do I just wait here until it arrives? How long do I put off leaving for the mountains before I give up on them? I've got a three hour drive ahead of me and then a two hour hike before I can camp, and it gets dark at about 8. I'm not adverse to hiking/making camp in the dark... but the question is... are Minesh and Laura?

And the deeper question, can I really accept delivery of a PS3 and then just leave for the weekend and not mess around with it!?

I'm already packed, so I'm just hoping that the UPS guy shows up well before 1:40, when I was planning on leaving. He left Albuquerque at 8:21, but who knows how many other goodies he has to deliver before mine...

I love this picture:

That's Felix Domke and Bunnie Huang (an old friend of mine from back at school) giving a talk at Microsoft this week. There are two things that are surreal about this photo. First, Felix is using a MacBook. Second, Bunnie is the man behind Hacking the Xbox. He did the original reverse engineering that allowed Xbox modchipping to take place, presumably (indirectly) leading to a massive loss in profits for Microsoft.

OK, Rainier is about 9 weeks away, so it's time to start training in ernest. I've been running twice a week at work with Minesh and Peter, and playing my usual regimine of handball, but this weekend begins the real Rainier Training Climbs.

Minesh, Laura, and I will ascend Gold Hill, 12,711' (topo), from the Taos Ski Village. We're going to go as far as Bull-of-the-Woods pasture (10,880') tomorrow evening, camp for the night, then hike to the peak and back, strike camp, and go back to the truck on Saturday. It'lll be a bit less than 3,500' of vertical in two easy segments, and the weather looks like it's going to be fantastic. Should be a cakewalk.

I had heard a rumor that the team responsible for Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari had disbanded after making Me and My Katamari for the PSP. This was a huge bummer for me, since I could basically play those games for the rest of my life. Naturally, it came as a wonderful surprise this morning when I was made aware of Beautiful Katamari, the next in the series, available for the PS3 and 360.

The only problem with the old Katamari games was that you rapidly extinguish the available content and are left only with (albeit substantially entertaining) replay. Given the next-gen consoles penchant for downloadable bonus content a la map packs, etc., perhaps we'll see Beautiful Katamari being an expandable game with occasional shots of sweet rejuvenation from those (obviously very very high) developers at Namco.

Katamari, expansion packs, high definition.... I need a towel.

..and a PS3, I guess. working on that...

So in a triumphant return to bowling after nearly two years, I did better than I figured I'd do. My first game was pure crap, at 89, but I followed it up with two games over my all-time average, 121 and 117. The first game brought the series average down to below my overall average, but I'm surprised I made triple digits at all. We had the lane for two hours, so we played a fourth game, but by that time we were in severe pain and had a really hard time controlling the ball. So my score of 94 should be forgiven.

Well, that was fast...

This morning my group leader was authorized to make me a verbal offer of employment as permanent staff. Much to my surprise, the number they came up with was not low-ball at all. As a result, the salary negotiation phase of the process took no time whatsoever and it's basically done. My group leader will now inform HR of the number we agreed on (which has already been authorized by HR), they enter the information into the payroll database, and I'm a TSM. They say that the new salary should take effect as early as Monday. We'll see... I'm always skeptical of anything that involves the Oracle system, but as evidenced by this post in the context of my previous post, sometimes it just works as it should.

This comes as quite a relief to me, of course, as it entails what will certainly be the largest one-time raise of my life (44%). And right now I really need the money. When the first el biggus paycheck comes in, which should be May 24, it's free beer on me at TriBev for anyone who's interested.

Apparently the whole signing session business went through, the director of the laboratory signed my conversion package, followed by several state senators, the president, and the secretary general of the united nations. So I now have all of the signatures I need.

Does that mean I am converted to staff as of this morning? No, it doesn't.

As far as I can tell, all that happened as a direct result of the signature this morning was a bit got flipped in our Oracle Enterprise Database-O-Rama, indicating that HR is now free to talk to me about how to proceed. We have to negotiate a salary, etc. Unfortunately, the general consensus around here about any operation that relies on the Oracle system to function is that it is doomed to failure. Or at least likely to drag on forever since no one seems to know how to get data into or out of Oracle, and it is constantly down.

My orders at this time are to wait for someone from HR to contact me, and it was indicated that I shouldn't hold my breath.

All-in-all, very good news... though for the time being there's no real change in my status.