This could be fun

I tried Google voice, and still have it I guess.  I liked the idea of a phone number I could give out that’s not my “real” number.  I could filter incoming calls to the spam folder like you can with email because that number is handled by Google.  Really, every phone company should give you the option for that, but you’re giving them money any way so they don’t care.  But I digress.

That means my gmail account is associated with my real phone number.  I’m guessing that’s why I recently received a text message that instead went to my gmail account.  The text message was sent from [friend's phone number]@vzwpix.com.  vzwpix.com was Verizon’s picture website that you could backup pictures before the days of smartphones that can connect to computers via USB.  I guess that could be another way my email is associated with my number.

I found out you can email messages back to that phone/email address and it will be received as a text.  So you can email a Verizon number like 4405551234@vzwpix.com and you can include attachments like pictures.

Have fun.

*SPOILER ALERT*: Creationists Don’t Understand Math and Logic in Addition to Science

For some reason, there’s a blurring of the Ohio and Kentucky border.  I’ve gone to bands’ concerts for their Ohio stop on a tour only to find the concert is in Kentucky near the border.

I’ve also heard people say the Creation “Museum” is in Ohio.  (Here’s why that should be in quotes.)  I’d defensively remind them that monument to ignorance isn’t in MY state.

But then I learned that we aren’t immune to having pseudoscience because there’s a creation museum in Akron, the Akron Fossil and Science Center.

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Oblivion Movie

From the few previews I’ve seen, I’m pretty excited about the movie Oblivion, the latest movie in the series featuring the character Tom Cruise.

Oblivion movie Tom Cruise by waterfall in a ruined city

I’ve never heard anyone explicitly say all the movies were related, but they all have the same character named Tom Cruise.  I’m assuming it’s the same character because I’ve never seen the actor that plays him do any other characters.

Even though the movies aren’t all stated as being in the same series, the ones I’ve seen at least have a narrative that kind of flows together.

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Humble Bundle for Android 4: Avadon

If you purchased the Humble Bundle for Android 4, and want to play the game Avadon on 64-bit Linux (Ubuntu in my case), the executable will complain file not found.

What it can’t find are the 32-bit libraries to run the self-extracting part.  You can install all the 32-bit libraries with

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

If you don’t want all those extra files, apparently you could just run the file through unzip and the files will be in the data directory.

But then you may get an odd sized screen when you are finally able to run the game.  If you can’t see the menu options to quit, hit Ctrl-Q at that menu screen to quit.

To set the screen size, open ~/.local/share/Avadon/Avadon.ini, and edit the part with

screenwidth=1024 
screenheight=768 
fullscreen=1 
gamespeed=0

Commute

Buildings like luminous strata in dark monoliths, driving on the black glass of wet asphalt reflecting halogen yellow of street lights.

I like the part of my commute that goes through downtown Cleveland.

downtown Cleveland at night