So I just googled myself...

...which I do from time to time, and I found an entry in a transportation related blog called Trans-Talk which references a paper that I wrote for a graduate class at Wash U this past spring. Even though it's just a blog and not a real publication, it's still kinda exciting. You can check out the blog entry here.

On a related note, earlier in the summer a co-worker was looking up a topic for work on the internet and came across the same paper. It almost makes me feel like I'm making a contribution to society.

I officially had an "Oh, sh*t!" moment driving home today...

By the time I left work for home tonight there were 3+ inches of ice on the ground from the steady sleet all day. I did alright for most of the drive, though there was some slippin' and slidin' on 270.

Things took a dramatic turn for the worse after I exited onto Page. In order to maneuver from the semi-clear far left "lane" to the not-as-clear far right, to take the Westport exit, I had to go through a mess of piled-up as with stray tire tracks cut through it. As I did this, I went into a skid and totally lost it. I ended up facing the wrong way in the middle of the road (mind you, this was a highway-like road) and had to pull a u-turn while avoiding one oncoming car. Luckily, this was the only car anywhere nearby at the time. I made it home safely, with the only other trouble occurring while trying to get up the driveway (I had to dig myself a path up).

All in all, I came out unscathed, though a bit rattled.

We're goin' to the 'ship!

Cardinals!

This week's fortune.

Soon you will receive a letter from a loved one.

Cool picture.

Space Shuttle Atlantis landing in Florida this morning.

After killing 2 hours on Wikipedia and Google...

...I found a "famous" Nigerian professor whose name is the same as my brother's name and my name (or nickname)...Chike Obi. Here are some web pages with content about him:
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/obi-chike-fermat.html
http://www.supernaturalminds.com/ChikeObe.html
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/obi_chike.html

It all started with me looking up a place that I visited during my recent Eurotrip on Google Maps. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they now have detailed maps of many major world cities. Pretty soon I was mapping the world, including Nigeria. A few Wikipedia searches and links later, I saw our names in an article. I googled the guy, and came up with the pages above. I'm a dork.

Seems a little ridiculous if you ask me...

This domain, obezma.com, was set to expire in November. It is currently registered with GoDaddy, but I wanted to transfer it to 1&1, who currently provide my hosting, as they have cheaper rates. When I tried to do this, I got a message which said that the domain could not be transferred. I eventually figured out that this was because I had a lock on the domain at GoDaddy, so I removed the lock.

After a couple of weeks I tried again to transfer the domain, but got the same message. I called GoDaddy and a technician informed me that ICANN does not allow transfers within 60 days of domain expiration. This seems a little ridiculous to me. The reason I'm transferring is because my registration is about to expire and I want to go with a better deal. In the end, I had to renew with GoDaddy at a higher price than I would be paying 1&1. When I switch, I'll then have to register for additional years with 1&1 to be able to transfer. I guess that's not so bad since I plan on owning this domain for the foreseeable future, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

Curse you, USCIS.

I bought tickets to see Massive Attack, one of my favorite bands, in Chicago on their first tour of the U.S. in 8 years. The show, originally scheduled for September 13, has been postponed to September 27, a date I can't make, because they could not get visas from the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service in time. The band released the following statement:

In spite of timely and coordinated efforts, the essential U.S. immigration visas were not issued in time for the beginning of the Massive Attack North American Tour.

Subsequently, the band has been forced to cancel the first four shows (Toronto (September 10), Montreal (11), Detroit (12) and Chicago (13)).

Currently, the rest of the tour remains intact. The band hopes to reschedule the cancelled shows as soon as possible.

You can read a little more here.

The Eurotrip 2006 travelogue is finally up.

Check it out here.

Just arrived in Athens.

Italy was great, despite not getting my luggage until yesterday. About 300 pictures taken so far. More to come soon.

This week's fortune.

You should strike the iron while it's hot.

Zizou international.

Here are a few interpretations of how the headbutt by Zinedine Zidane was seen in different countries around the world:

In Germany:











In France:











In Italy:











In the U.S.A.:











In Hong Kong:











Thanks to Robert for the e-mail.

I must be a lot older than I thought...

...or the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is recruiting a little early. Here are some snippets from a letter I received from them:


Dear Obinna C. Orjih,

Our records show that you haven't yet registered for the benefits of AARP membership, even though you are fully eligible.
...
You need only return the form above. Please remove and keep the card below as your record of enrollment. You will receive a new card and Membership Kit, with full details on your benefits.

As a member, you'll have the resources and information you need to get the most out of life over 50.
...
I look forward to your joining us. I think you'll agree with our other members: AARP is one of America's very best values.

Sincerly,
[signed]
William D. Novelli
Executive Director


Whaaaaa?!!!

My hippie thought for the day.

Go see An Inconvenient Truth.

And/or go to climatecrisis.net and stopglobalwarming.org.

Promoted.

Finally.

This week's fortune.

A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

Yahoo! Mail Beta...holler.

Yahoo! is giving Google a run for the money, this time in the webmail category. I was recently able to try out Yahoo! Mail Beta, which is based on AJAX technology similar to what GMail uses. YMB one-ups GMail, as it provides an interface similar to what is seen in desktop mail apps such as Thunderbrid and Outlook. Plus it looks like they're doing away with the annoying advertisement at the bottom of e-mail messages from free account holders. Now if they could do something to match Google Calendar...

This week's fortune.

A dark haired woman will soon be giving you a gift.

Editor's note: Holler! If you're a dark-haired woman I know, I'm lookin' at you right now.

This week's fortune.

You will find happiness in mind and heart.

In the phase.

With the first of the Radiohead shows in Chicago 37 days away, I have already begun my obsession phase. This is where I start listening to all their old albums as well as downloading bootlegs of all the new stuff. This phase usually ends about a week prior to the show so I don't burn out on them. It starts back up again a couple of days before the concert.

Anyway, I'm liking quite a few of the new songs. My current favorite is 15 Step, which has an amusing clap beat and a killer guitar riff. Through the magic of YouTube (one of my new favorite sites...mostly because of the RH videos posted on there), I will share a video of it with you:

This week's fortune.

You are independent both politically and socially.

Editor's note: Holler that.

I am NOT down with Nuestro Himno.

Normally, I'm someone who doesn't really care what other people say or do as long as they don't harm me. I'm also one who's fairly apathetic when it comes to political issues. However, I feel that "Nuestro Himno," a Spanish recorded version of the United States national anthem, is out of line. I'll even go so far as to agree with the president on this one.

This doesn't mean that I'm going to protest against it or anything. After all, free speech is one of the reasons that make the U.S.A. so great. What I will do, though, is write a blog entry expounding my distaste. Bottom line: if you want to be a United States citizen, please be so kind as to sing our anthem in our language.

This week's fortune.

You will step on the soil of many countries.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 - better than IE7 Beta 1.

Microsoft is looking to improve on its recently challenged, but still dominant, position in internet browser market share with Internet Explorer 7. The second beta of IE7 was recently released, and I am inclined to give props. IE7 has tabbed browsing and RSS support, features which have long been offered by Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Unfortunately, the tabs can't be rearranged like they can in the other browsers. Other noteworthy aspects of IE7 are the Quick Tabs preview feature and its slick interface. The rendering style is also markedly different from the competitors and previous IE versions. IE7B2 definitely fixes some bugs that were present in the first beta, such as an inability to properly render Yahoo! Mail (?!). Apparently, there were some other incompatibility issues, especially in the area of security, which were fixed in this beta. All in all, I give the product a thumbs up, and move it up from a distant third in my browser preference to tied with Opera for second.

Time to switch to Google?

Remember that one time I mused about Google getting a calendar application? Well, they either read my post or they wisened up, as they just released Google Calander today. I have maintained that the reason I still used Yahoo! Mail is because of the calendar next door. I guess this means that I'm switching to Gmail...

This week's fortune.

A friend is a present you give yourself.

Alan Schwarz picks the Cards to win it all...

...which is a little more surprising than my friend Alan Schwartz picking them to win the Series.

Anyway, read Alan's and the rest of the ESPN experts pics here. While you're at it, note Rob Neyer's pick for NL MVP.

ESPNsoccernet - Nigerian referees given permission to take bribes

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=363449&cc=5901

Wow. The motherland is struggling a little bit these days...

This week's fortune.

Every man is a volume, if you know how to read him.

[Editor's note: WTF?!]

I helped make this possible...

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2006/q1/060327b_nr.html

Why must Dell computers always give me a headache?

Tonight I finally had time to set up the new family PC, a Dell Dimension E510, that had been sitting beside the front door for the last week-and-a-half. After hooking things up and plugging them in, I turned on the computer, ran through some setup wizards, then began uninstalling the numerous unnecessary programs.

After getting through a few of them, I ran across one that prompted me to restart in order to make the changes. When I hit "Cancel" to restart later, the computer promptly restarted...without logging out or saving any settings. Upon restart, I didn't make it through logging in before I was greeted by the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (or BSOD, as I fondly refer to it). Two more restarts yielded two more BSODs as soon as I logged in.

Hmmm...I sense a PC restore is in my near future...

This week's fortune.

You will take a chance in something in the near future.

Wanted: soccer chicks.

My indoor soccer team is in need of more female players. We play on Tuesday nights sometime between 18:00 and 23:00. If you are interested or know someone who may be, please holler.

This week's fortune.

The star of happiness is shining on you.

Looking for a gay-friendly travel destination?

If so, check out Orbitz's Gay and Lesbian Travel page. The fact that they have one is pretty amusing...in a slightly awesome kind of way.

On a side note, did you know that Gay Games VII will be held in Chicago this year? Go to their official site for more information.

Adventures in computer maintenance.

For the past few months, I have had to deal with a defective Bluetooth card in my notebook computer. The symptoms were random BSOD/crashing (especially with the Bluetooth radio and/or VPN client enabled), pop-up warnings about a USB device not functioning correctly, and a randomly repeating (highly annoying) warning tone.

After trying to reinstall my Bluetooth driver on two separate occasions, I called up Dell a month-and-a-half ago and asked for a new Bluetooth card. After letting the card sit in my room for the last month, I finally decided to install it. This was a good two-hour ordeal which involved disassembling the laptop's keyboard, display assembly, and palm rest. In any case, things seem to be working much better now. Here's a picture of my laptop disassembled:

This week's fortune.

Find release from your concerns and have a good time.

This week's fortunes.

You have a [sic] important new business developing.

Look around; happiness is trying to reach you.

This week's fortune.

Your love life will be happy and fulfilling.

Wrong address.

As I lay in bed a few minutes ago, the doorbell ring startled me. When I went to the door, I saw a couple of EMTs with a stretcher, and there was an ambulance in the background. As I opened the door, they realized that they were looking for number 12017, not 12107, on our street. They apologized and left.

My thoughts on this incident: it kinda sucks for the people at the other house to have help arrive five minutes later than it should have because of a misinterpreted address.

In case you're wondering, yes, we do get their mail from time to time...and they get ours.

I will soon be published!

I contributed to a paper that was presented at the Society for Experimental Mechanic's IMAC XXIV conference, which is currently taking place. Here are links to the abstract and to the conference site. I can't claim that much credit, as I was only the third author on this. In any case, I will officially be published whenever the conference proceedings are released, probably sometime later this year.

This week's fortune.

Turn your thoughts within - find yourself.

If you're looking for boots and you live in St. Louis...

...go to Chuck's Boots Superstore. They have, for the lack of a better expression, A TON of boots...of many different kinds. They also have some western-ish clothing, belts, buckles, hats, and sundry other items. I purchased a pair of Laredo Black Eagle Harness western boots there earlier tonight. I'd post a link to a picture, but I can't find them online and I'm too lazy to take a picture myself.

I witnessed a bird's suicide today.

I was merging onto I270 from Page on my way to work this morning, and a bird flew from out of nowhere into Tina. I'm not sure where exactly the bird hit, but it was somewhere low in the front. When I looked in the rearview mirror, I witnessed a puff of feathers, just like you'd expect to see in the movies. I was distraught for all of about 10 seconds.

This week's fortune.

You have an active mind and keen imagination.

I'm boycotting the city of Chicago.

At Ease reports that the city of Chicago does NOT want Radiohead to play there later this summer...even when they would have paid 100 Gs. You can read the Sun-Times story here.

Who cares about some no-name symphony orchestra? I think this calls for an Obi boycott of Chicago.

Penalized for doing the right thing...

When I placed my newly purchased CD copy of the album Z by My Morning Jacket into my computer at work, I was greeted by an End User License Agreement (EULA) which mentioned the installation of DRM-protection software if I accepted. My immediate response: Uhhhh...no!

After more research with the help of my friend the Internet, I found that "the SOFTWARE" (as they fondly referred to it) was SunnComm MediaMax Version 5. Sony BMG was responsible for this and another DRM software package, First4Internet's XCP, which installed a rootkit on Windows computers. For those who are not up to date on their tech news, XCP created a huge controversy because it opened a security hole when rooted on computers. In addition, Sony's initial uninstall program also had a security flaw.

The MediaMax support website insists that the two software products, MediaMax and XCP, are unrelated. However, I observed that both had similar symptoms and both were initially fixed incorrectly. Hmmm...

Needless to say, I was not happy about this. And neither are many other music fans...a Google search on the topic yields countless blog posts which protest against Sony. Even the artists are quite displeased...My Morning Jacket, for example, has a link to help pages about working around the DRM protection on their website. It's also been reported that they have sent out over 100 copies of burned non-DRM copies of the album to friends and fans who have had trouble with it.

Fortunately, when I ripped the tracks onto my laptop using Yahoo! Music Engine, I was neither prompted with the EULA dialogue box, nor affected by the DRM malware. The ripped tracks play fine, and when I downloaded and ran the MediaMax uninstaller it informed me that the software was not found on my system.

Alas, this brings us to my views on the issue. Though I was not harmed by this malware, I am still enraged. These days, I acquire the vast majority of my CDs through legal means. This is not because I am more ethical than thou...it is actually mostly because I am lazy. I would rather use a subscription service, such as Yahoo! Music Unlimited (shameless plug), to check out what's hot in music and then order albums that I like off Amazon.com, than spend hours scouring the Internet for high-quality versions of songs. The few exceptions to my legal acquisition are when a friend offers to burn me a copy of something he thinks is the fire...this usually leads to me buying more albums by the artist anyway. I think it's a shame that someone who acquires music legally is put at risk by buying the CD. Oh, and Sony is wac.

This week's fortune.

Your future is as boundless as the lofty heaven.

If I was a lesbian living in St. Louis...

...I would party at Novak's Bar and Grill. RFT readers voted it their favorite bar of 2005 and thrice voted it the best lesbian bar in St. Louis (2001, 2003, 2004). I would have to say that I had my best New Year's Eve celebration in recent memory there last night.