Posted by Ryan
November 19, 2007
When people ask me what I do I generally respond with something like “save the world from alien invasions,” but only when I want to scare the person off.
Yes, that a lie. I figured it’d been too long since I’d started out a post with a lie.
The truth is, I usually answer the question saying, “I’m a programmer.”
Not anymore though! I read a nifty article today and I’ve decided to change how I respond to this question.
Isn’t it pathetic? We live in a world where people don’t care about the things that you do — the things that interest you. Correction: They care more about how you make money, first and foremost. All the time — parents, friends, family, new people — they all want to know “what do you do?” But it reality, they are asking “how do you make money — what’s your job?”
- David Askaripour
From now on, when someone asks me what I do I’m going to say “I dance, fly fish, read, write, geek out, eat food, think, hike, and pretend to punch people in the face!” As I say that last part I’ll pretend to punch them in the face. People will think it’s hilarious.
Posted by Ryan
June 7, 2007
So I’ve been all sorts of productive today. Sort of. When I say that I really mean that I’ve put off a lot of important things in order to do other, perhaps less important things. Are they really less important though? I’m not sure they are.
Have you heard of DailyLit? It’s so incredibly awesome. I discovered it a week ago? Two weeks ago? I don’t remember, but I am loving it. Basically, you can read a book in your email or in an RSS feed. The idea is that people don’t want to take the time, or don’t have the time to sit down and read a book so you can have them send you pieces of the book everyday, or weekdays, or whatever! I signed up to get emails every weekday of the books A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It’s got to be one of the coolest ways to read a book. I often don’t feel like I can justify picking up a book and reading it, but reading a short email is easily justifiable. Each e-mail contains a link to have the next part of the book sent to you immediately, which I took advantage of a great deal tonight while reading both books. Anyway…
Yesterday and today I’ve been occupied with updating this website, along with Learn4Liberty. I haven’t done much aesthetically; I’ve mostly been cleaning up crap, finding and installing wordpress plugins, getting distracted with reading a bunch of stuff I found off of reddit, coming up with ideas for websites, etc.
In the process of doing all this updating I realized that I didn’t have an about page for this site. I was linking to the about page on ryanware.com, but that’s not all that helpful if you, say, actually wanted to learn something about me as an individual. So I started writing about myself, which I’ve never really enjoyed.
From my About Me page:
I’m really good at sleeping in. I have been known, at least twice a week, to push snooze on my alarm clock for anywhere from 1-5 hours. If sleeping in was a lucrative profession, I would be the Bill Gates of it. I wrote a little alarm program for my computer, which I use to blast music from my speakers at the time I desire to wake up. My sister, who also loves to sleep in, told me “that’s the loudest alarm I have ever heard.” The alarm does remarkably well at getting me out of bed. In fact, the speed with which I usually jump out of bed is akin to that of a butterfly attached to a bowling ball dropped from an airplane. What’s even more remarkable is that I turn the alarms off (after typing in 1-2 passwords) only to get back in bed. I am improving though! Really! It goes in cycles, but I am improving.
So a few weeks ago I was doing really good at waking up. I was a waking up early machine. I set my alarm and BAM I was out of bed and I stayed out of bed! It was great. And then I started staying up really late working on a deadline. Then I went on a dancing adventure to Denver. And then to Seattle. And now I’m back to sleeping in really late and staying up really late. Case in point: it’s now 3 AM as I write this.
So where does the “oh crap!” moment come in? So while I was writing that section about sleeping in I realized that tomorrow (err… today) is Thursday. And on Thursdays I wake up at 5:30 AM to attend a weekly Toastmasters club meeting. I’m not even tired yet! Okay, maybe I’m a little tired, but I certainly will be very tired by the time 5:30 rolls around. Especially if I don’t sleep, and even more especially if I do sleep. crap.
So of course I had to write about it, instead of going to bed when I realized that I was going to wake up so early.
But seriously, check out DailyLit. I’m addicted and loving it.
Posted by Ryan
January 20, 2005
A few random questions from surveys I’ve filled out over the years.
20. Do you think there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: no, I firmly believe it’s a book holding all the secrets to the female mind… which is why no one will ever find the end of rainbow….. no one knows all those secrets so they could have never been written down…. so the end of rainbow doesn’t exactly exist because the book doesn’t so if there is no end to the rainbow then it either has to be a circle or it doesn’t exist…. and we all know they exist…. or do we? I need to go to bed.
(What’s funny is that I still need to go to bed)
35. Do you feel understood most of the time: most of the time is a lot of the time, thus requiring me to say somewhat understandable sentences…. which I’m not sure possible if that is. speak like Yoda I try!
(in other words, not often)
12. What store would you never be caught dead in: Victoria Secret (so far haven’t been caught)
(I might mention I’ve never even been in one. Well, maybe the one in downtown SLC. It’s… or at least used to be split into two sections. one for lotion and stuff and the other for kumquats.)
39. Could you be a vegetarian: Sure I could, however… I could also be a woman….. both would be about as fun… *barfs everywhere*
(please note that these are my personal opinions)
42. What are you worried about right now: several things…. like, for example…. what on earth am I doing up at 3:40 AM when I’m going water skiing in the morning? Which shoes will look best with my outfit? I just can’t decide… maybe I should repaint my nails to match too!? Emma or Sense and Sensibility? Vegetarian or becoming a woman? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……….
(Well it’s only 2:20 AM now, almost 5 years later, and those are still rather perplexing subjects ;))
11) Fav. radio station: 127.0.0.1 if you can figure that out you know too much already, go home (haha!).
(remember, all you computer savvy people out there that this was a survey sent to those less savvy. It’s unfortunate most people probably just thought “oh star 102.7 FM”, a local station here. If they only knew.)
22) Brandy or Monica?: Who?
(Note: I’m including the following for the pure enjoyment of confusing the heck out of everyone, including myself.)
When eating frozen yogurt (hearafter known as PRODUCT) with a spoon (hereafter known only as SPOON) should one (END-USER) scoop the PRODUCT with the SPOON and then put the SPOON into the END-USER’s mouth (POINT OF NO RETURN) right side up or upside down: I’ve often been known to believe that any END-USER eating PRODUCT with a SPOON should insert the PRODUCT on the SPOON into the POINT OF NO RETURN with the SPOON and PRODUCT both in a to the side rotation of 180 degrees Fahrenheit, I think. The Fahrenheit part may be wrong. It must be Celsius. (upside down) Yeah, so anyway. By doing this the POINT OF NO RETURN belonging to the END-USER recieves the PRODUCT onto it’s taste receptors as quickly as possible. Studies by lots of professionals with titles such as “Really Smart”, “Employee”, and “Computer Geek” (sometimes all three) have shown that the POINT OF NO RETURN is often displeased or even angry at the taste of a metal or plastic SPOON as the case may or may not be. The POINT OF NO RETURN expects food or a product that is digestible, not a SPOON. You’d think the POINT OF NO RETURN would have picked up on it by now. The SPOON delivers the PRODUCT and should not be displeased if it gets a SPOON before PRODUCT. So until the POINT OF NO RETURN learns better I would say that the SPOON with the PRODUCT should be upside down upon entering that realm of darkness and destruction (hey, it sounds scary, but is necessary for the digestion of most products) so that the END-USER can enjoy the PRODUCT as much as possible.
DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibilty for anything caused directly or indirectly. Err… what I mean is… the above line “any END-USER eating PRODUCT with a SPOON should” sounds like it may or may not be referring to a product that eats end-users with a spoon. That is NOT what I meant to imply and I hereby claim with this disclaimer that disclaims any claims you may have against my claim that I will take no responsibility for any confusion, cold fusion, or just plain fusion caused by my directly typing an indirect insult upon any end-user eating product (an end-user that is eating a product). I think.
(the “point of no return” in this is in no way related to the point of no return referred to in the Phantom of the Opera)
17. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? my pillow is an animal! rrrroowwwllll!!! (note: i am not kidding! doh! i mean I AM kidding)
(no comment)
20. IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE? … am i supposed to finish the question or something? It’s incomplete. Flawed. If i could meet one person dead or alive… what? who would it be? what would I do? would I eat a banana infront of them? what? I would want to meet the person who wrote this dumb thing and say what i said in the previous question… or maybe just ask them if they want a banana or a kumquat, but not both because that would be spoiling them and would leave me without a kumquat (because who in their right mind would choose the kumquat?).
(In the actual survey I pulled this from the answer to the previous question was not “rrrroowwwllll!!!”. Also, I guess my obsession with kumquats is not a new thing. Looks like I’ve had it for at least 4 years. I really should go buy one. Or two.)
Well that was fun. Maybe I’ll do it again sometime. I’ve filled out a lot of surveys over the years (heck, send me another and I’ll post my answers on here!) The bulk of the old surveys are rather stupid, so I’ll just post the most interesting bits. If you don’t think these bits were very interesting or funny, well… uh, <insert witty comment>.
Posted by Ryan
November 19, 2004
I post a lot of my weird wacky humor, but haven’t actually posted any useful or real information about who I am. So in this post I shall try to keep these answers as truthful and serious as possible. Okay, so the serious part is a stretch, but at least the answers will be completely true!
Name:
Ryan Martinsen
Birthday:
March 12, 1982
How tall are you?
4′28″ 1/2
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Posted by Ryan
October 5, 2004
Much to the dismay of many of my friends I enjoy filling out and returning those e-mail surveys that circle around. You know, the ones that you’re supposed to fill out with what your name is, your interests, if body building is something you could see your best friend doing, etc.
I have quite a few of these things that I’ve filled out in the past. So I’ll be posting one periodically.
I’ve modified this a tiny bit so that those of you who don’t know me won’t gawk in horror at some of my responses which my friends know are completely 100% fake. I’m sure I missed some though. So if you read something that makes you think “oh my gosh, is he really like that?” it’s probably not true. Feel more than free to ask me. :)
On with the the survey…
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