the klog

Six months ago, I tried out Track Your Happiness, a project created by a Harvard Ph.D. student working for the professor who wrote Stumbling on Happiness.

Three times a day (adjustable), the website texts you with a link that you visit on your smart phone to immediately fill out a survey indicating how happy you are, and answering a few other questions. At the end of three weeks, it correlates the results.

Some of it feels too personal to share with a wide audience, but here's one result that took me entirely by surprise:

Apparently, I am miserable on Wednesdays. I had no idea I was miserable on Wednesdays, but the pattern is so clear! It's natural to be happy on weekends, but I felt the week was more even. But that's not what the numbers say.

I suppose this validates the core idea in Stumbling on Happiness, which was that we are very bad at judging what really makes us happy.

February 4, 2010, 12:55 am

JUST NOW: My computer screen goes dark along with the whole office. Pitch black! I can't see anything! Oh, my coworkers say it's just a power outage. I'm not blind. Then, I wake up. But I can't move.

It's dark. I can't move. I can't open my eyes. Sleep paralysis. Someone stutters, "N-n-na-ma-go to the-... N-n-na-ma-go to the-" It sounds like my voice, but it's elsewhere in the room with me! I can't open my eyes, but I can swivel. I spin. Around and around. I hear the voice, always from the same spot, just a few feet away from me: "N-n-na-ma-go to the-" I still can't open my eyes. I manage to stammer out, "Whhho's THERE?!"

I wake up. For real this time. I open my eyes. I'm in my bed. There's no one in the room with me. It's dark.

I turn on a lamp.

A new film I made with my friends Amy and Chris:

[YouTube Link]

Plug: Music from the first half is by Leviathan Brothers, a band that my friend Miles is in.

I made a set of my top 18 photos of 2009.

Of course, Waiting with Sheep is my favorite photo I took last year.

Earlier: Top 12 of 2008 and Top 13 of 2007.

And here are my favorite 141 (and counting) photos that I've taken, ever.

Here's a random fortuitous juxtaposition.. I was catching up on The Big Picture while listening to the Dark City soundtrack, and the climactic track came on just as I got to the post about Iran. The climax of the film involves tearing down and rebuilding a world...

Step 1: Hit play on the YouTube embed:

[YouTube Link]

Step 2: Click this link: Three Days in Iran (opens in new window)

Robin Sloan's Annabel Scheme arrived in some pretty unusual packaging for a book. There had already been various other unboxing photos and videos, so I figured I had to make my own. I haven't had a chance to actually read the book yet, but I knew its general setting of an alternate, more techno-mystical San Francisco.

Earlier, I attended the book release party, where all the guests got a piece of "evidence" which we then had to tell a story about to a camera. I'm featured in the compiled video from that event.

So when I did my unboxing video, I sort of went with that general spirit...

[YouTube Link]

I made a doodle about a strangler fig and a monk.

Back in 2005, I participated in the jury selection process for an attempted murder trial. I blogged about that process recently in post titled "More Adventures in Jury Selection, or: How I Lost All Faith in Our Criminal Justice System". (Please go check it out if you haven't already read it.)

I was not ultimately selected for the jury, so I never to see how it turned out. I was curious, but as far as I know there was no way for me to look it up. One odd thing about our common law justice system is that judgments set precedents, but there's no easy way for non-lawyers to look up those precedents, and even lawyers have to pay big bucks to do searches.

Well, today a lawyer friend ecstatically told me about Google's launch of legal opinion search*. Just go to Google Scholar search and click "Legal opinions and journals".

I still remembered the name of the defendant and the street where the alleged crime took place, so I did a search... I didn't find the original judgment, but I did find this appeals court opinion. (Unsurprisingly, the defendant did challenge the prosecution's use of peremptory challenges to dismiss black jurors, and the decision discusses in detail each of the dismissed jurors, ultimately deciding that the dismissals could stand.) It's also useful how referenced opinions are conveniently linkified.

My lawyer friend pointed out that they'll still need commercial databases to check whether an opinion has been overturned, but that's a much cheaper query. They're convinced that this will be a huge boon to democracy, as well as to more financially strapped clients.

*Full disclaimer: I work for Google, but not for the Google Scholar group, and my opinions are my own.

I had seen these flagpole-like structures before outside of San Jose City Hall, but I didn't know what they were for. Here's a photo I took of San Jose City Hall a while back.

It turns out they are flag poles of a sort.. only they fly flags of mist! So awesome.

This is the most amazing robot hand I've seen. It can toss a cell phone up and catch it, and it can twiddle a pen!

YouTube link

I just wrote a review of the Depeche Mode concert I went to over at Pop Wenches.

That is the gist of my review of District 9 on Pop Wenches.

There's no other way to introduce this: The LOLCat Bible. My favorite part is how there's at least one bit they changed... NIV Leviticus 18:22:

" 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

LOLCat (LCV?) Leviticus 18:22:

U can has the secks wiff whover u luvs. Bein ghey is kk.

:)

I'm unfortunately not familiar enough with the Bible to find all that good stuff, but here's LCV Psalm 23:4

I iz in teh valli of dogz, fearin no pooch, bcz Ceiling Cat iz besied me rubbin' mah ears, an it maek me so kumfy.

(I assume you at least have a passing familiarity with the KJV version of Psalm 23.)

Also, some books are illustrated! See for instance Exodus 5.

Strangely enough, I actually found this via The Long Now Blog.

This is awesome.. It's a Mario that can't die! Based on a Java Mario clone, someone added A* pathfinding to Mario so that he always tries not to die, then let him try his best to follow the mouse cursor without dying. Really neat.

YouTube link

Oh, and here's the project page.

I wish I were in Montreal so I could play with this!

La Vitrine - Montreal from steven bulhoes on Vimeo.