Friday: New bigger backpack means more stuff to pack.

Technically it just means I can more easily pack the stuff I have, which isn't quite the same.  Still, getting the new pack was a good idea.  It's also a good idea to have a lot more computers than I need, so I can pack one now, and have one to watch youtube on tonight.

I hope this bird hatched ok.

I also solved the majority of the challenging stuff for work, so this next week will likely just be integrating that stuff instead of having to think.  Yay not thinking!

Wednesday: No, you forgot what day it was today.

At least work things worked.

Yay!

Yay!

Ghost pokemon.

And when I got home, I watched the episode of CCS where she fights the "Little" card, and the strawberry tart gets eaten before Kero can have his piece.

So he has her do the sensible thing and make him small, so he can enjoy the tiny remaining bit. 

Now I want a giant strawberry.

• Good.
• Dumbass.
• This is pretty cool.  And convenient for today.
• While I'm thinking about it, every week the Riverdale hashtag trends, and every week I think the emoji is a squirrel jumping.

Thursday: I hate good reviews.

Because then I spend all day rethinking things to come up with proper solutions.

Face cheese.

• The fact that these companies are using the life expectancy decline to pay out larger dividends to shareholders is why many companies should be nationalized.
• I should read Sarah Gailey's new book.

Friday: I donked up. I donked up real bad.

I should take care in the future to not do 31 commits on a ticket unless I really need to.  Since our rules say "tickets should have the minimum number of commits," this means I spent a large chunk of today rebasing, and reworking commit messages, and trying to turn all the commits into some semblance of order.

It was rainy when I finally left.  Also: my umbrella has ears.

• Strong agree.
• Yes.
• Julie sent this to me with no explanation, so all I can say is that I guess I'm a 3x?

Wednesday: This task ballooned quite a bit

I'll need to double check that it's really supposed to do that.  I don't mind it too much, because I have philosophical differences with the way it currently works, but it's more than just a two day thing.  It's more like a week or two.

I enjoy tiny weather frog.

• I would kind of like to see population weighted radial profiles.

Saturday: I'm pretty sure if I didn't have these blog posts, I'd forget what day it was.

Today was a two shower day.  Which suck.  Because it means you got up, got clean, then did something so horrible that the only solution was a second shower.

That something horrible was cleaning stuff, and I'm glad my only collecting vice is books.  You can get rid of books easily.  They're heavy, but they're also generally clean and not stacked under a thousand other things.

Maybe I should get a third bookcase when I get an apartment.  Hopefully the apartment I messaged about last night.  It has all my preferences, and is cheap.  I'm early in the game, so hopefully that's a good thing.  We'll see.

I always thought this grease stain in my old parking garage looked like a fat birb.

• Nnedi Okorafor's Wakandan Berbere Lamb.

Wednesday: I keep telling myself that a week is more than enough time to get ready.

This weekend I have to decide what I'm taking on the plane and what I'm not.  I've also decided that the old multi-pocket folder that I bought years ago is going to hold all of my important documents and things.

The flowers fell off.

I've also decided that seeing people I know from three years ago when I scan my historical photos is always a good thing.

• I don't have any links today, but I'm pretty sure all the news today was bad.
• Did you know that the internet can show you exactly what you want if you just ask?

Tuesday: Documentation sucks.

I know it's important, but it's challenging when you've built a huge system that works, and then have to explain how it all works so someone else can make it work.  At least I have this first pass done, and I've encased all the esoteric awk/sed/grep command lines into scripts.

From a decade ago.

Thursday: There was a bird that had been hit by a car in the road today.

It wasn't dead, but only one wing worked, and it couldn't move.  There was a guy on the side of the road who saw it, and it wasn't there later, so I'm guessing he dealt with it.  Sorry, bird.  That's not fair.

Then this evening I saw that Filbert was level capped.  Not on my watch.  He needs a tree house to be happy.  So I went into the Nintendo reward thing, cashed out everything for 80 cotton.

And upgraded my picnic set twice.

And then upgraded it again.

 And then, it looked like Filbert was sorry he was using up all my cotton and natural essence.

Because he gave me this, even though we'd already talked earlier and I hadn't left the campsite.

And this is why Filbert will always be Best Squirrel.  Marshal is still Tsundere Squirrel, but he's not contributing as much.

Friday: I really wanted tacos.

I didn't get a good look at it, but it was real, and it was great, and everyday should have dogs at work.

And my phone did this crap when I was getting lunch.  Not cool, phone.

That's just further evidence that I should get a new phone, I guess.  It sounds like next week there might be an update of my current phone, which is probably way thinner and faster and all that.

Anyway, back to tacos.  Julie's post yesterday with the taco picture made me really want tacos all day.  So I drove all the way over to Kailua to get tacos for dinner.

I usually get the barbacoa, but I got one regular steak today.  That's actually much better, with a richer flavor that I wanted from the barbacoa.  It's also less messy, as it doesn't have as much juice.

Also I wanted guac, but they put soap weed in their guac, so it's good that I asked beforehand.  Mostly I just really wanted that bacon and avocado taco Julie had.  I want that so much.

• Julie just asked about this yesterday, and my response was "I saw a thing about spicer, but I think it was a tweet or something.  So maybe? But not officially?  I would not be surprised by them half-assing getting rid of somebody."  He quit, because they kind of half-assed it by surprise hiring a new guy that nobody likes.
• I love this meme.
• Squirrel.
• "Well then, I'm off to Switzerland."

Thursday: Today was a garbage day.

It was rainy.

And then I had to wait 45 minutes for my dentist appointment.  No, dentist, I do not want to have wisdom teeth removed that aren't currently bothering me.

Then I had to go to the regular doctor, to ensure I don't have tuberculosis.  I do not have tuberculosis, but all the doctor people had cake.  Delicious cake I also do not have.

Four paragraphs removed because I was annoyed by multiple things at work.

Then I drove home, and had issues because two completely different people think hazard lights mean it's ok to park illegally.  Yeah, this is only a six lane road clearly labeled as no parking.  THERE'S PROBABLY NOT THAT MUCH TRAFFIC ON IT.

Also, the supermarket didn't have any California rolls that weren't spicy or brown rice. Who even wants brown rice sushi?  Bad people.  People who are wrong.

My office window also never unfogged.

I also realized today that my ranking for animals is highly correlated with the fluffiness of that animal's tail.  Squirrels?  Fluffy tail.  Red panda?  Fluffy tail.  Fox?  Fluffy tail.  Elephant.  Elephants are ok, I guess.

• I want cake.
• Fluffy dog.
• Conservatives have no interest in the truth.
• A bad day on Sesame Street.
• Increasing the minimum wage does not decrease employment.
• I had never heard of Willem Arondeus.  This was an oversight, and everyone should know him.
• Another thing everyone should see: "Dorothea Lange’s Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps".

Saturday: Monterey aquarium.

There was Dublin Dr Pepper.

It was a bit cloudy on the drive.

Jellyfish.

Jellyfish and silhouettes.

A turtle.

Sharks and ducks are friends.

Steampunk octopus.

Tuna.

Monterey does the tourist trap thing a lot.

 Then there was hiking.

In the forest.

The oppressive, maddening forest.

Friday: Cats, I guess.

I realized today that when this bag is folded it kind of looks like a kitty face.

It's not, though, it's actually a butterfly made of fruit.

I also tried CC Sports today, from the maker of CC Lemon.

I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, as "minerals/vitamin C" x "delicate coal bitterness" doesn't make any sense to me.  It's basically a lighter flavored CC Lemon.

With mint, I guess?

And then I saw this cat as I was leaving work.  You don't live here, cat!

• Old people are terrible.
• Tumblr summary.
• Banker summary.
• Scary things.
• Clock.

Thursday: Whale.

Totally a whale.

Monday: I don't know.

So here's a picture of the pig I accidentally trapped in a mine cart:

• Squirrel.
• More different squirrel.
• What are you doing, bird?  Even the other bird is asking, "WTF?"
• MORDAWWA.  I am looking forward to this.

Wednesday: I totally didn't waste two days discovering that the bug is in someone else's code.

And boxes are no longer allowed in the hallways at work.  So the ones outside my office were finally moved somewhere.  This tiny gecko has been dead behind them for so so long.

The links today are either Star Wars or animals.

• Star Wars.
• I'm not a giant fan of the show, but I really enjoy these Always Sunny title card posts.
• Yeah.
• This is pretty good, as it's pretty much what would have been going through Obi-Wan's mind.
• Force ghost.
• I really want more Ahsoka Tano, too.
• Animals.
• Lazy dog.
• Learned from the birb boss.
• Dog wreck.

Monday: So I totally didn't just fall asleep for three hours.

Ok, maybe I did a little bit.  I didn't sleep much last night, and then spent today moving boxes and putting things together for the conference booth. Woo.

Yes, there are actually for realsies alligators.  Also turtles, as you can see.  I'm going to try and catch the feeding tomorrow evening.

 And then I moved a bunch of boxes.

So I had a bigger than planned lunch.  I also met up with someone who I have randomly run into at conferences/pre-conferences like two or three times before.  It's a weird thing.

Then putting shit together, and discovering when everyone arrived and things were finished that we didn't have the second power strip we should have.  Oops.  It should be sorted tomorrow, though.

Also there's a snake display in the shack I can see from my hotel room balcony.  That sounds like a weird sentence, but to be fair, it totally is a weird sentence.

We also didn't know that there was a reception happening in the same room as our booth, and neither of the others were interesting in being there this evening.  It wasn't too bad, but I had reception food instead of a proper dinner.

And then candy instead of a proper dinner.  I probably should eat something healthier tomorrow.

Because why not take a picture of Ornament Borb?  It gives me a reason to link to the barb/birb/borb post again.

I haven't had as much time to read everything completely, so I don't have super complicated links right now.  I'll need to read through the backlog of links later.

• No, dog.  No.  That's not how that works.
• No, racoon.  No.  That's not how that works.
• No, domestic terrorists.  No.  That's not how that works.
• But hopefully, they'll all go to jail for forever.
• This reads as "Reagan wasn't so bad" until you get to the last few paragraphs, and you can only conclude "Reagan was pretty much a monster who could have made the world more secure, but didn't, because see above re: monster."
• I liked today's episode, but I don't think I'll be able to catch the rest.  It looks like the listings are being updated at the last minute to make the shows visible to the DVR, so if this continues I should be able to record them.
• I was watching this episode of Odd Squad and thought, "isn't that like most of the Kids in the Hall"?  Yes.  Yes it was.
• I like Rey, too.
• Marnie.

Thursday: Totally the kind of thing grown ups do.

Me, opening up the door to the elevator lobby: ""
Dog, standing there, pulling on her leash from behind the corner: ""
Me: "Oh! Hello, doggy!"
Dog: ""
Dog's owner: "Yeah, she's in a hurry today."

Whatever.  It was a surprise dog.  That happens.

Part 2: Solving problems with Fourier transforms because Fourier transforms are fun.

The other thing that happened today is Julie mentioned something about how to measure the orientation of text.  I found a few references online, and then while eating lunch, came to the conclusion that this is something that can probably be done with Fourier transforms, and that the algorithm I had in my head was effectively a Fourier method done on a irregularly binned version of the image.

The idea behind my algorithm is that text is basically a long sequence of characters, and those characters are typeset into rows that are non-overlapping.  This means that a block of text is vaguely defined as a periodic sequence of lines.  If you need to know the orientation of text (with the complication that you can't distinguish between mirror reflections and 180-degree rotations), then you should look for the angle of the tilt of linear features in the Fourier power spectrum.

So, since I have access to programs that can both rotate things and calculate Fourier power spectra, I gave it a try.

Sequence of text images and zero-frequency-in-center power spectra.

Yep, that looks like it works correctly.  Looking at the top left, the linear features in the spectrum are aligned vertically.  This is due to the fact that the lines of text are largely unconstrained in their length, but they are always close to the same distance apart.  Skipping the zero-x-frequency line, the lines to the right (higher frequency) correspond to increasingly closer lines.  These are separated by some f_spacing value, which is directly related to the font size/line separation.

Great, but what happens if there's an additional term to the distortion?  What if it's not just a rotation but some kind of scaling issue.  Gimp has a convenient "stretch the image based on a curve you can shift around," so I made a kind of "Star Wars opening credits" thing.  Does the Fourier solution still work?

Yep.  Since lines are no longer cleanly confined to a simple box shape, the power spectrum drops off much faster in the "along lines" direction.  Still, the axis corresponding to the "text page up/down" (which is the zero-frequency in "along text lines") is still much stronger, and the f_spacing peaks are still visible.

Part 3: Fuck, really?

Earlier today, I saw this buzzfeed article, and was calmly thinking, "yeah, I know, I've been playing it for months."  Then I got to #10 and thought, "wait, there's an English version?"

It turns out that last month when they had the update that added the train and other things that I've already bought, they added an English option in the menu.  I assume that since I've been playing for so long in Japanese, they didn't bother pointing this out to me.

The most important thing about this is that it means I don't have to make up names for the cats because I'm too lazy to translate them all.

So's he's not "Super Pretentious Cat Prince"?

Conductor Whiskers is pretty good.  "Train Cat" is probably a bit simple.  "Fucking Alpine Cat" is better than Bob, though.

And Sassy Fran is far better than "Maid Cat."

Part 4: Links.

• Dog cosplaying death.  I wanted to make sure I had a dog link to go with my dog story.
• Marnie.
• Birb.

Tuesday: I have too much crap to do.

Pastrami.

I literally just bought a pencil sharpener yesterday.  Had I known I could have gotten an animal one, I would have seriously considered paying $16 for a pencil sharpener.

• This is about Squirrel Girl.
• This is about David Sedaris.
• This is about tiaras, because I needed a third link.