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Hello! My name is Kyle D.P. "Royal" Ross and this is my Web site. It is now called "Nothing Profound". I started this whole thing because it seems like I answer the same questions over and over again, so why not just put it on the internet and then just give people the URL? Pretty damned clever, if I may say so myself.
Anonymous Ex-Girlfriends
"I really started off good being your friend, but sometimes
hormones can't be helped ... You're selfish and mean, but I
really like you and you're cute."
"I hope that you will die ... slowly and painfully."
"You are sensitive and hot."
"Kyle, you really annoy me."
Friends
"You and the rest of the cru are awesome."–B.Matthew
"You are a really bad person."–M.zalewski
"You have forgotten all my obvious faults ... I guess that's why I call you 'Sweetness'"–C.Bello
"Kyle is great. He's completely irrational, but makes the most sense out of just about any human being i know ... Kyle is a super-hero of a friend, if you can manage to put up with his madness."–S.Fallier
"You're a huge nerd who is totally inept socially, but sometimes you say the most brilliant, funny, insightful things and it makes me forget how much an asshole you are."–shawn
"Kyle is starting to look like the living dead!"–G.Hamon
"You are a motherfucking well-dressed sweetheart!"–H.Hammarström
"The brain is on holiday, but the mouth is working overtime."–Utter
"I tip my hat to you, sir."–W.J.Ross, my father
"You're the Fred Astaire of computer science."–M.Fjeld
"You're priceless."–S.Dean
Okay, Maybe One or Two from Me
"I'm not wise, I'm not rich, and I sure as hell ain't pretty, but
I'm the luckiest sonofabitch ever to walk the face of the earth
and you can quote me on that one."
"I am the last ray of the setting sun."
"My life is like a joke without a punchline."
"Invent your own truth."
"It's time to shine."
Featured Image
I have a rather large collection of images—people,
machines, nature, art, etc.—and I thought it might be
nice to share some sort of interesting picture from my
archives.
The strawberry poison frog (Dendrobates pumilio) is tiny and quite handsome, hopping about the jungle in its red jacket and blue jeans. It's a fairly common sight here in Costa Rica (we saw two this afternoon whilst collecting some data on our trees), having a higher concentration here than most places. We've been quite scared to touch them or to get too close, but a quick Web search indicates that it's unlikely that a human would be harmed; now, we're scared to touch them for fear of causing injury to the frogs.
Praise for this Site
I periodically receive e-mails from people who have liked
the site; I thought I'd post a few of them ... I
haven't received any "I hate your site" e-mails,
but, if I ever do I'll consider a "Bad Crap People Say
About This Site"— section.
"Interesting site—lots of content. I really like the bits on new technology."–Sev
"Your web site is ... wonderfully and oddly entertaining."–S.Falier
"I'm a complete stranger who came across your web page because it's part of my job to sneak around the internet looking for talent. Needless to say I got sucked in."–M.Spencer
"Your webpage is very popular with some of my friends ... I sent it to a couple and they were all pretty impressed so a couple send them to other friends and so on."–S.Mehrabi
"I must say, your web-site is pretty cool."–S.d'Souza
"I love it."–N.Rao
"Great site my good man."–guy who e-mailed me but didn't leave his name
"I enjoyed your website. Great stuff."–C.R.Swift
Over eighty per cent of unicorns surveyed visit this site compulsively. This is a fact.
Words of Wisdom
Here are some quotes from assorted sources—news sources,
friends, me, etc.—that I thought people might enjoy or
think funny or learn something from.
"It is worse to be irresolute than to be wrong."–W.Strunk, Jr
"Science is an exceptionally demanding and cruel mistress."–K.D.P.Ross
"I think of it as an ancient copy of high times magazine with a large astrology section. That's what the Bible is. That's not to say there isn't some amazing knowledge to be gleamed from it once properly understood, but sadly christians haven't found any of it yet."–"Mushroom Jesus"
"Over billions of years, on a unique sphere, chance has painted a thin covering of life—complex, improbable, wonderful and fragile. Suddenly we humans ... have grown in population, technology, and intelligence to a position of terrible power: We now wield the paintbrush."–P.MacCready
"I'm wearing sunscreen on a cloudy day ... If that's not optimism, I don't know what is"–K.D.P.Ross
"What luck for the rulers that men do not think."–A.Hitler
"When we are no longer able to change the situation ... we are challenged to change ourselves."–V.Frankl
"Sometimes it seems like we're all living in some kind of prison and the crime is how much we hate ourselves."–A.Chase, _My So-Called Life_
"A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it."–S.Crane
"Freedom is a myth."–P.McGoohan
"Volunteerism [in climate change] doesn't work. It's about as effective as voluntary speed limits. No cops, no judges: Road carnage. No rules, no fines: Greenhouse gasses ... I don't believe [carbon] offsets are just a distraction. But we'll have failed if that's all we do."–S.Schneider, climatologist
"Better a goat that can give milk than a cow that cannot."–Estonian proverb
"There are no christian children; only children of christian parents."–R.Dawkins
"Esse est percipi."–G.Berkeley
"Society is a foolish juror."–M.B.Eddy
"Logic is the cement of our civilization, with which we ascend from chaos, using reason as our guide."–Mr Spock, _Star Trek_
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."–H.D.Thoreau
"Being willing is not enough; we must do."–L.da Vinci
"To be is to be the value of a bound variable."–W.V.Quine
"It is good to trust others, but not to do so is much better."–B.Mussolini
"No one really belongs anywhere; that is why we have legs."–E.Hernandez
"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."–quoted in e-mail from N.Rao
Films I've Watched Recently
Many people seem to think that there aren't any films worth
watching; I disagree. Here are a few of the films that I've
watched or rewatched recently ... with "yay / meh / boo"
analysis.
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (W.Herzog) 
Croupier (M.Hodges)
Cube (V.Natali)
The Duchess (S.Dibb)
Haute Tension (A.Aja)
Inkheart (I.Softley) 
Mountain Patrol (C.Lu)
The Number 23 (J.Schumacher) 
Shaun of the Dead (E.Wright)
THX 1138 (G.Lucas)
News
Some notes about what's going on with my life, my travels,
and my less-geeky hobbies.
What Am I Doing? (live from Twitter):
Advanced Open-Water Diver (16 April 2009):
In a completely unexpected turn of events, I've ended up spending a month
in Bocas del Toro, Panamá. With a rather sizable lot of free time and
the sea everywhere, I had no choice but to unpack my scuba
kit to blow bubbles. It worked out to be less expensive, in the end, to
sign up for the AOW course—and, of course, I received another
certification at the end. Although a bit hesitant about the deep dive
(30m / 100ft) it turned out to be great ... except that I heard mermaids
singing (look up nitrogen narcosis). Underwater navigation was
also much easier than I'd anticipated, and the rest of the dives (fish
identification, night, and underwater photography) were wonderful. If
you're ever in Bocas and you're a diver, you absolutely
must
make a dive (or two!) at Sashen: The current is a bit strong at times, but
it's full of gorgeous coral formations and is home to some lovely creatures
(pufferfish, angelfish, damselfish, lobsters, and—if you're very
lucky—nurse sharks).
(Image: Photo of me underwater. Credit: N.L.Murdoch)
Goodbye, BlackBerry (06 January 2009):
In preparation for my departure, I've cancelled my mobile account, so don't
expect to find me by telephone any more! After forgetting that it might
help to keep some of the data on my BlackBerry, I did a service reformat,
removed my SIM, and powered it down. I certainly don't much miss receiving
calls, but it's a bit strange to not have a little friend in my pocket,
punctuating the day with vibrations announcing the arrival of tweets,
mails, and RSS updates—small reminders that the world exists and that,
for better or worse, I'm connected to it. Most humbling, though, is that I
am now returned to having a mere human brain: I no longer have Wikipedia,
Google, and OED (quite literally) at hand at all times. Now, I must
navigate the world on my own, rely on paper notes, and mind my time with a
wristwatch. I feel delightfully alone ... and slightly ludditely smug.
Preparing to Quit Bloomington (29 November 2008):
The count-down has begin: There remain 15 days until I escape Bloomington
for at least nine months (I shall be returning to my team at Microsoft for
the summer after I return to the States.). I am trying to accomplish what I
can before the day arrives, but I'm not totally optimistic: There are
candidacy papers, dental cavities, packing, moving (several times), holiday
gifts, AT&T, my desk in my office, etc. to deal with. It'll be sad to
leave the (few) people I know and like in Indiana, but one must do what
must be done.
Costa Rica (20 September 2008):
I am
extremely
pleased to announce that the plans about which I've been vague when talking
to everybody for the past few months are coming together at last. Rather
than what I'm sure
would have been
a fantastic time in the South Pacific, I will be leaving the States in
mid-January to live in Costa Rica until late June! I will be volunteering
at a conservation research centre, and I have a number of big goals in mind
in doing so:
Contact Info
If you want to contact me (and you
know
that you do).
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Terms of Use
How can you use this site?
Everything on this site is copylefted. Use it, mock it, whatever.
I'd ask that you link to this site if you decide to take any major
portion of the content. A "citation" for this site could be
something like:
<a href="http://osl.iu.edu/~kyross/">"Nothing Profound"</a>
Please also feel free to use this logo for the link:
Image Disclaimer
Any and all of the images on this page or anywhere else on this
web-site may (or may not) have been tweaked, cropped, adjusted,
edited, etc. to my liking (so long as the general meaning is
preserved) and are intended to represent the surrealism of the world
that I perceive rather then any kind of objective reality.
Privacy Disclaimer
Anonymous visitor statistics are collected by Woopra so that I
can see which bits of the site are viewed, etc. No personal
information (to the best of my knowledge) is collected.
osl
iu