I went to the Green Festival last weekend. It was pretty epic. The booths seemed well organized, too. The environmental financial organizations were all clumped together, the foods were clumped together, the coffee sellers were clumped, the charities were clumped, the merchants were clumped. If you knew what you wanted you could just go to that area.
There were a bunch of speakers that I skipped because they said the recordings would be on the website. I'm still looking.
I'm just going to write up a few of the booths that caught my attention.
A full list of exhibitors can be found at http://www.greenfestivals.org/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,53/Itemid,105/.
Filament Free
There's a real market among environmental websites for a decent designer and developers. Most of http://filamentfree.org is under construction. That's ok, because I just want to send you to http://filamentfree.org/betterbulb_products.html.
ECO supply
http//ecosupplycenter.com
Turned out that I had just been to their site the day before. No eCommerce, but they deliver to DC every week or two. I'll be getting my plyboo from them to close up my walls.
Full Circle Industries
http://fullcircleplanet.com/
Their products are made with "paper" that is made from 100% sugarcane fibers-Bagasse. This material is an agricultural by-product from sugar mills. Their factory uses these materials to make disposable paper products. Their bowls are oven safe and can be reused or composted.
Mr. Ellie Pooh
http://www.mrelliepooh.com/
Somehow I missed their booth. I just picked their card up off the ground and it made me laugh.
From their website "Since an elephant’s diet is all vegetarian, the waste produced is basically raw cellulose. Thoroughly cleaned and processed, the cellulose is converted into a uniquely beautiful textured product, marketed as “Ellie Pooh Paper”. This acid free, linen-like papyrus-type paper can be formed into art and construction projects, notebooks, cards and assorted gift items where the only limitation is ones imagination."
Recycle Place
http://recycleplace.com
Sell them your used printer cartridges instead of returning them to the printer.
Greenline Paper Company
http://greenlinepaper.com/
Sells a variety of environmentally friendly office, school, and food service supplies.
Green Earth Office Supply
: See my earlier comment about bad website design.
http://greenearthofficesupply.com/
Sells a variety of environmentally friendly office, school, and food service supplies.
Kwytza Kraft
http://chopstickart.com/
Products made from recycled chopsticks. I wouldn't buy anything, but I'd start saving my chopstick so I could make my own.
Eco Strip
http://eco-strip.com/
I got to see their product in action. They had windows that looked like they were pulled off an old barn and stripped them. They put an infrared heater over the area to be stripped. The head causes the resins in the wood to rise to the surface so that the paint practically wipes away.
Lime
http://www.lime.com/
Healthy living TV and radio. Starring some woman who stares at all her interviewees like they're saying the most interesting, important, and serious thing in the world. Four hours and that woman didn't appear to have moved an inch or changed her interested scowl in the least.
Ecoprint
http://ecoprint.com
EcoVision Partners
http://ecovisionpartners.com
Environmentally friendly printers.
Standard Solar
http://standardsolar.com/
DC area solar panel installers.
CarbonFund
http://www.carbonfund.org/site/
Their site has a calculator to determine your carbon footprint.
They'll offset your carbon emissions for $5.50 per ton.
Community Forklift
http://communityforklift.com
The retail arm of a deconstruction company. They tear down houses and preserve the outlet, vent covers, siding, cabinets, etc. and resell them. They work with Habitat for Humanity a lot.
Naturally Creative
http://naturallycreative.com
All natural craft products. Lots of yarn.
Bluehouse
http://bluehouselife.com/
Environmentally friendly cafe and home improvement store.
Cafe Campesino
http://www.cafecampesino.com/
Fair trade coffee merchant.
My Organic Market
http://moms-er.com
A DC area organic market. This one uses 100% wind power.
P3
http://epa.gov/P3
Sort of like the Solar Decathlon but with low energy use products.
The next show is 24-25 April 2007 on the National Mall.
New Society Publishers
http://newsociety.com
Too many nifty books to really give them a fair shake. Browse their book list.
The Wilderness Society
http://wilderness.org/
They have job openings.
Fuel Cell Store
http://fuelcellstore.com/
I can't get to the website right now, but they sell a bunch of fuel cell educational toys. Good for classroom use or toys for child and cubicle.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
test, test
I installed a phone jack downstairs on Sunday. I had to do a belly crawl under the house to do it, but it works.
So now that I have internet access downstairs I've connected my computer to my TV. That's right. I have a 44" monitor.
So now that I have internet access downstairs I've connected my computer to my TV. That's right. I have a 44" monitor.
From the Dougintology aquisition department
I recently picked these up in a yard sale. No, I don't really have room for them, but I couldn't pass them up.
Monday, October 16, 2006
300,000,000
The US Census Bureau estimates that tomorrow morning (Oct 17) just before 8:00 the population of the United States will reach 300 million.
This is up from 100 million in 1915 and 200 million in 1967.
This is up from 100 million in 1915 and 200 million in 1967.
NO! You were supposed to be DEAD!
"7th Heaven" is still on TV! A new season! They were cancelling it! They made a huge deal of it. There was a countdown to a final episode. Not a season finale, but the series finale. But it's BACK!
If you haven't seen an episode consider yourself lucky. I've only seen a few and it's awful. It has THE worst dialog, THE worst acting, and when it comes to the wholesome, heartwarming message they try to teach the exact opposite of a good message.
One episode in particular had the youngest daughter supposed to write and read a report about George Washington along with everyone else in class. 20-some-odd kids each reading nearly identical reports. So their daughter digs a bit more and goes beyond the legend of George Washington into who he really was. She gets the dirt on him. And she gets in trouble for it. Her parents get called in and told what she did. Then she's in trouble with them, too.
That was the message of that episode. Don't think, don't investigate, don't look beyond the surface, don't question the teacher. It's your job to be exactly like everyone else.
The other episodes don't stand out as clearly, but it was more of the same. I was pretty happy when it was being cancelled.
Sigh.
If you haven't seen an episode consider yourself lucky. I've only seen a few and it's awful. It has THE worst dialog, THE worst acting, and when it comes to the wholesome, heartwarming message they try to teach the exact opposite of a good message.
One episode in particular had the youngest daughter supposed to write and read a report about George Washington along with everyone else in class. 20-some-odd kids each reading nearly identical reports. So their daughter digs a bit more and goes beyond the legend of George Washington into who he really was. She gets the dirt on him. And she gets in trouble for it. Her parents get called in and told what she did. Then she's in trouble with them, too.
That was the message of that episode. Don't think, don't investigate, don't look beyond the surface, don't question the teacher. It's your job to be exactly like everyone else.
The other episodes don't stand out as clearly, but it was more of the same. I was pretty happy when it was being cancelled.
Sigh.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Game review: Destroy All Humans!
I just finished playing "Destroy All Humans!"
You're a member of a warlike alien race. Uncontrolled radiation from your weapons have caused your genitals to shrivel up. For centuries your people have survived and made yourself effectively immortal through cloning. But the genes are degrading and the species faces extinction. Luckily, some of your race, returning from an ancient conquest, took shore leave on Earth and bred with the proto-humans. Some of the alien DNA can still be found in the human genome. We're here to harvest the gene fragments from the human brainstem and rebuild our chromosomes.
You can disguise yourself as a human but it saps your concentration to keep up the illusion. To recharge your concentration you scan people around you and read their thoughts. The thoughts are hilarious, particularly if you know much of anything about the 1950's. One of my favorites was "They say Jimmy Hoffa is buried under here. Wait, he's not dead yet. Forget I said anything."
You start with some telekinetic powers you can you use pick people up. As the game progresses you can buy upgrades so that by the end of the game you can toss tanks around.
You get an anal probe gun. A full blast given to average people or police causes them to run around grabbing their butts until their brains pop out. You then collect the brains. They run between 10 and 100 depending on the person.
All around are hidden probes that served as an advance team. They're worth 75 DNA each.
You also get a lighting gun, a ion bomb, and a disintegrator. Oh, then there's your flying saucer which starts with a death ray and gains a sonic cannon and a quantum disruptor.
One of the final levels is called "Attack of the 50 Foot President" where a 50 ft tall robot controlled by the brain of the President (who you killed in a previous level).
As s bonus, the game comes with the movie "Teenagers From Outer Space."
I got through the game in a week. For the $20 I spent on it I think it's pretty good. A co-worker borrowed it before I played it. It took him several weeks with the cheat codes on. He was totally hooked, too.
Anyway, I highly recommend this game.
You're a member of a warlike alien race. Uncontrolled radiation from your weapons have caused your genitals to shrivel up. For centuries your people have survived and made yourself effectively immortal through cloning. But the genes are degrading and the species faces extinction. Luckily, some of your race, returning from an ancient conquest, took shore leave on Earth and bred with the proto-humans. Some of the alien DNA can still be found in the human genome. We're here to harvest the gene fragments from the human brainstem and rebuild our chromosomes.
You can disguise yourself as a human but it saps your concentration to keep up the illusion. To recharge your concentration you scan people around you and read their thoughts. The thoughts are hilarious, particularly if you know much of anything about the 1950's. One of my favorites was "They say Jimmy Hoffa is buried under here. Wait, he's not dead yet. Forget I said anything."
You start with some telekinetic powers you can you use pick people up. As the game progresses you can buy upgrades so that by the end of the game you can toss tanks around.
You get an anal probe gun. A full blast given to average people or police causes them to run around grabbing their butts until their brains pop out. You then collect the brains. They run between 10 and 100 depending on the person.
All around are hidden probes that served as an advance team. They're worth 75 DNA each.
You also get a lighting gun, a ion bomb, and a disintegrator. Oh, then there's your flying saucer which starts with a death ray and gains a sonic cannon and a quantum disruptor.
One of the final levels is called "Attack of the 50 Foot President" where a 50 ft tall robot controlled by the brain of the President (who you killed in a previous level).
As s bonus, the game comes with the movie "Teenagers From Outer Space."
I got through the game in a week. For the $20 I spent on it I think it's pretty good. A co-worker borrowed it before I played it. It took him several weeks with the cheat codes on. He was totally hooked, too.
Anyway, I highly recommend this game.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
More Segway
After further diagnostics it would appear that my Segway was suffering from low tire pressure. If one tire gets low you notice it right away. When both get low at the same time strange things start to happen. The gyroscopes can handle you tipping back and forth, but if you take a corner too fast when the tires are low it tips to the side and confuses the circuitry. It also lowers the milage. On the plus side, you don't feel the bumps as much.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Book Review: End of an Era
Robert J Sawyer. He's my man. He's one of the few science fiction authors writing today who actually make sure their science checks out. But he sticks mostly to 10 years from now instead of several hundred. So far I haven't read one of his books that made me think "boy, was he off his game there."
In "End of an Era" two palentologists climb into a time machine and go back to see what killed the dinosaurs. There's a bit of uncertainty in the mechanism so they go back knowing they could a few thousand years too early or too late. They find an Earth with two moons, roughly one-third of modern gravity, and with many of the dinosaurs being occupied by an intelligent blue sludge from Mars. Simce Mars is dead in our time they have to make a decision about whether or not the martians should be brought forward in time to prevent their extinction.
Meanwhile, in an alternate timeline the time machine project never was. The main character finds strange entries in his diary written by him 65 million years ago and starts to investigate.
Spoilers can be found in the comments.
He does a wonderful job of explaining the different theories about what killed the dinosaurs and what's wrong with the asteroid theory. He does a Jurassic Park quality job of talking about the dinosaurs. Except for the time machine and martians he plays it straight and has done the research to keep it accurate.
I highly recommend this and anything by Robert J. Sawyer.
In "End of an Era" two palentologists climb into a time machine and go back to see what killed the dinosaurs. There's a bit of uncertainty in the mechanism so they go back knowing they could a few thousand years too early or too late. They find an Earth with two moons, roughly one-third of modern gravity, and with many of the dinosaurs being occupied by an intelligent blue sludge from Mars. Simce Mars is dead in our time they have to make a decision about whether or not the martians should be brought forward in time to prevent their extinction.
Meanwhile, in an alternate timeline the time machine project never was. The main character finds strange entries in his diary written by him 65 million years ago and starts to investigate.
Spoilers can be found in the comments.
He does a wonderful job of explaining the different theories about what killed the dinosaurs and what's wrong with the asteroid theory. He does a Jurassic Park quality job of talking about the dinosaurs. Except for the time machine and martians he plays it straight and has done the research to keep it accurate.
I highly recommend this and anything by Robert J. Sawyer.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Book review: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
About the time I moved to DC I Gregory Maguire's book "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West". Now it's a popular Broadway musical. It's a good book, too. You recognize all the characters immediately and see a long, rich story, which Dorothy is dropped in the middle of and acts as a Deus Ex Machina to solve much of Oz's problems.
Gregory Maguire put out another book with the same idea of telling another classic from the villain's point of view. This time he tackles Cinderella. Since Oz had so much source material to pull from than Cinderella this book isn't as familiar or engaging until near the end.
The story starts with a mother and her two daughters arriving in Holland after fleeing England from accusations of witchcraft. But their relatives in Holland are dead. The mother gets a job cleaning house for a painter, eventually moving up to housekeeper for a wealthy businessman. When the wealthy businessman's wife dies she marries him.
The businessman's beautiful daughter is spoiled and has never had to do any work other than look pretty. Her new stepmother and stepsisters actually makes her do menial labor like stirring pots, waving flys away from food, and other chores. By her perspective this is hard labor and she hates it.
The fairy godmother is reduced to a tale she tells the stepmother after the stepdaughters help her get to the ball to meet the prince.
It's not a bad book, but if I were to recommend one of this authors works it wouldn't be this one.
Gregory Maguire put out another book with the same idea of telling another classic from the villain's point of view. This time he tackles Cinderella. Since Oz had so much source material to pull from than Cinderella this book isn't as familiar or engaging until near the end.
The story starts with a mother and her two daughters arriving in Holland after fleeing England from accusations of witchcraft. But their relatives in Holland are dead. The mother gets a job cleaning house for a painter, eventually moving up to housekeeper for a wealthy businessman. When the wealthy businessman's wife dies she marries him.
The businessman's beautiful daughter is spoiled and has never had to do any work other than look pretty. Her new stepmother and stepsisters actually makes her do menial labor like stirring pots, waving flys away from food, and other chores. By her perspective this is hard labor and she hates it.
The fairy godmother is reduced to a tale she tells the stepmother after the stepdaughters help her get to the ball to meet the prince.
It's not a bad book, but if I were to recommend one of this authors works it wouldn't be this one.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Potato trial results
Previously...
I started growing potatoes in a barrel.
http://dougintology.blogspot.com/2006/06/po-tay-toes.html
They sprouted and took root.
http://dougintology.blogspot.com/2006/06/mo-potato.html
The guys who worked on my house dumped my potato barrel. A tragic loss. The only remaining potato was the one I dropped on the surface next to one of my prickly pears. That's the same one shown in the second link.
That potato continued to grow and that icky brown spot continued to spread. The potato itself rotted away, but the rest survived. The three sprouts grew to be quite long and jumped out of the pot. But it was always kind of sickly. We had a drought going on, I wasn't there to water it, and it had been shoved under a tree so it wasn't getting as much light as it might have liked. They finally gave up and died about a week back. I pulled them up and threw them in the empty potato barrel to start next years growing muck. I looked back at the pot I just yanked them out of and saw something peeking through the soil. I dug around a bit and found this.
My potato crop. Sad it may be, but the concept has been proven and I will try again next year.
I started growing potatoes in a barrel.
http://dougintology.blogspot.com/2006/06/po-tay-toes.html
They sprouted and took root.
http://dougintology.blogspot.com/2006/06/mo-potato.html
The guys who worked on my house dumped my potato barrel. A tragic loss. The only remaining potato was the one I dropped on the surface next to one of my prickly pears. That's the same one shown in the second link.
That potato continued to grow and that icky brown spot continued to spread. The potato itself rotted away, but the rest survived. The three sprouts grew to be quite long and jumped out of the pot. But it was always kind of sickly. We had a drought going on, I wasn't there to water it, and it had been shoved under a tree so it wasn't getting as much light as it might have liked. They finally gave up and died about a week back. I pulled them up and threw them in the empty potato barrel to start next years growing muck. I looked back at the pot I just yanked them out of and saw something peeking through the soil. I dug around a bit and found this.
My potato crop. Sad it may be, but the concept has been proven and I will try again next year.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Segway
My poor Segway is sick. It didn't want to come home Friday. I wrote it off to the rain then. Today it came home but running slow and shaking. It'd been doing some shaking on the way home for the last month or so but I tried to dismiss it. After all, it got me TO work just fine.
If it can last until Thanksgiving I may be able to drop it off for a checkup somewhere between here and Wichita. I'm thinking either Gaithersburg or St. Louis. The guys here in DC are either crooks or have technical skills on part with any random 8 year old I might pull of the street.
I'd be willing to blow the money to get a brand new one if I hadn't just bought this wall.
If it can last until Thanksgiving I may be able to drop it off for a checkup somewhere between here and Wichita. I'm thinking either Gaithersburg or St. Louis. The guys here in DC are either crooks or have technical skills on part with any random 8 year old I might pull of the street.
I'd be willing to blow the money to get a brand new one if I hadn't just bought this wall.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Camera
I'm going to finally answer a question posted several weeks ago in the comments. What kind of camera do I use?
It's Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FZ30. It was chosen over some other pretty spiffy cameras because it will take SD Cards as did my last camera, my Palm Pilot, my memory stick, and Mom's laptop.
I can lock the shutter open for up to a minute as seen in "Fun With Cameras" and "More Fun With Cameras"
It seems to tweek the colors just a bit as seen when looking at the truck, grass, sky, and house in "Death of a Solar Panel".
The zoom is pretty awesome as seen in "Rubbish".
I didn't need the flash for any of the shots at the book release at work today. This disturbed the people at the party.
And finally, this is a picture I took during the Cherry Blossom Festival. The wind was blowing pretty hard that day and all the petals rippled nicely on the surface of the Tidal Basin. Click on the photo to see how big this picture really is.
It's Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FZ30. It was chosen over some other pretty spiffy cameras because it will take SD Cards as did my last camera, my Palm Pilot, my memory stick, and Mom's laptop.
I can lock the shutter open for up to a minute as seen in "Fun With Cameras" and "More Fun With Cameras"
It seems to tweek the colors just a bit as seen when looking at the truck, grass, sky, and house in "Death of a Solar Panel".
The zoom is pretty awesome as seen in "Rubbish".
I didn't need the flash for any of the shots at the book release at work today. This disturbed the people at the party.
And finally, this is a picture I took during the Cherry Blossom Festival. The wind was blowing pretty hard that day and all the petals rippled nicely on the surface of the Tidal Basin. Click on the photo to see how big this picture really is.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
An idiotic hypothosis
I think I mentioned recently that I visited the zoo not too long ago. While reading the signs a poorly informed idea came to me. But first the background.
Reptiles lie in the sun to warm up. Since their body temperature relies on the outside temperature they need to do that to get moving. I'm told that the whole being smooshed by passing cars thing is not part of natures plan and the reptiles that sun themselves on highways will, through natural selection, stop doing that in another few thousand years.
Many species of mammals behave similarly. The furry ones don't tan well and they can control their own temperature so those reasons are ruled out. According to the signs, they do this to kill parasites, bugs, and fungi that would like to live in their fur. These small beings can't handle the sun's UV rays as well as the larger creatures do.
The Naked Mole Rats have no fur. This is because they spend all their lives underground and can't bake away the parasite like the furry mammals must do. They also have life expectancies several times that of the mole rats that do have fur. Just how much longer is still being determined, but so far it's decades. Is this because they don't have the parasites and whatnot that the furry molerats have? Dunno.
So here's how my thinking goes. As the primates that eventually developed into us became more intelligent and started using and building better and better shelters, shelters out of the sun, we became more prone to parasites and the like that would normally have tanned to death. The proto-humans who had less hair also had less parasites et.al and lived longer and had more offspring. Over time they became the thinly haired beings we are today.
One could push this idea a bit further to try to explain why people from sunny areas like the Middle East have more and courser hair than people who developed in the cloudy areas such as the northern European climate.
One could, but it would probably be a bad idea.
Reptiles lie in the sun to warm up. Since their body temperature relies on the outside temperature they need to do that to get moving. I'm told that the whole being smooshed by passing cars thing is not part of natures plan and the reptiles that sun themselves on highways will, through natural selection, stop doing that in another few thousand years.
Many species of mammals behave similarly. The furry ones don't tan well and they can control their own temperature so those reasons are ruled out. According to the signs, they do this to kill parasites, bugs, and fungi that would like to live in their fur. These small beings can't handle the sun's UV rays as well as the larger creatures do.
The Naked Mole Rats have no fur. This is because they spend all their lives underground and can't bake away the parasite like the furry mammals must do. They also have life expectancies several times that of the mole rats that do have fur. Just how much longer is still being determined, but so far it's decades. Is this because they don't have the parasites and whatnot that the furry molerats have? Dunno.So here's how my thinking goes. As the primates that eventually developed into us became more intelligent and started using and building better and better shelters, shelters out of the sun, we became more prone to parasites and the like that would normally have tanned to death. The proto-humans who had less hair also had less parasites et.al and lived longer and had more offspring. Over time they became the thinly haired beings we are today.
One could push this idea a bit further to try to explain why people from sunny areas like the Middle East have more and courser hair than people who developed in the cloudy areas such as the northern European climate.
One could, but it would probably be a bad idea.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Casanova
Sunday October 8 and 15 PBS will be showing the BBC's recent version of Casanova during Masterpiece Theatre. That's 9:00 on local station WETA. Yeah, the WETA that you see at the end of lots of PBS shows.
Why do you want to watch? Well, if you caught the premier of the second season of the new Doctor Who Friday night or if you saw the latest Harry Potter (playing Barty Crouch Jr.) movie you'll recognize the title character. Casanova is said to be the role that landed him his part on Doctor Who.
Why do you want to watch? Well, if you caught the premier of the second season of the new Doctor Who Friday night or if you saw the latest Harry Potter (playing Barty Crouch Jr.) movie you'll recognize the title character. Casanova is said to be the role that landed him his part on Doctor Who.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Game Review: Hitman: Blood Money
I just finished playing "Hitman: Blood Money" on the rookie setting.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Hitman series of games, you play a man known as 47. He's one of a series of assassin clones that went rogue. You tried going straight in an earlier game but, as they say, they kept dragging you back in.
You work for something called Agency. They give you your missions. You're given a set number of goals and it's up to you to decide how best to solve them. You can come in with guns blazing and making sure that nobody walks out alive unless it's part of the mission. You can slip in with one of several disguises, kill only the targets, and leave undetected. You can shoot them, poison them, blow them up, run them down, push them from balconies, whatever. Any extra kills you need to get disguizes can be stuffed in a dumpster or deep freeze so they won't clue in security. The freedom the game provides is one of the best I've seen.
In this game there's another group killing Agency's agents. By the end there's only you and Diana, your contact, left alive and Diana is on the run. As the SWAT team is closing in on your location Diana comes and poisons you with a hypodermic needle to the neck as you've done to so many other people. It looks like she sold you out.
Gandolf bought it. She yelled "BITCH!" at the TV. Hey, she didn't learn the word from me. Wait, maybe she did. I guess I have been known to yell that at the TV when somebody does something sneaky to me that I don't like. Hmmm.
But at the funeral Diana comes up to your body, gives you a couple of guns and another injection. As the credits roll you start to wake up. Diana did the same thing to you that you did to a CIA agent you were trying to smuggle out of imprisonment in an alcohol rehab center and could only sneak out "dead". Wiggling the controls speeds up your recovery. You sit up and start shooting people. They're all heavily armed and all members of the group whose been killing people at Agency. All but a reporter and you have to kill him, too.
Great game, but the whole series is. Too bad there will probably never be a Thief 4. It's the only series I liked more than Hitman.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Hitman series of games, you play a man known as 47. He's one of a series of assassin clones that went rogue. You tried going straight in an earlier game but, as they say, they kept dragging you back in.
You work for something called Agency. They give you your missions. You're given a set number of goals and it's up to you to decide how best to solve them. You can come in with guns blazing and making sure that nobody walks out alive unless it's part of the mission. You can slip in with one of several disguises, kill only the targets, and leave undetected. You can shoot them, poison them, blow them up, run them down, push them from balconies, whatever. Any extra kills you need to get disguizes can be stuffed in a dumpster or deep freeze so they won't clue in security. The freedom the game provides is one of the best I've seen.
In this game there's another group killing Agency's agents. By the end there's only you and Diana, your contact, left alive and Diana is on the run. As the SWAT team is closing in on your location Diana comes and poisons you with a hypodermic needle to the neck as you've done to so many other people. It looks like she sold you out.
Gandolf bought it. She yelled "BITCH!" at the TV. Hey, she didn't learn the word from me. Wait, maybe she did. I guess I have been known to yell that at the TV when somebody does something sneaky to me that I don't like. Hmmm.
But at the funeral Diana comes up to your body, gives you a couple of guns and another injection. As the credits roll you start to wake up. Diana did the same thing to you that you did to a CIA agent you were trying to smuggle out of imprisonment in an alcohol rehab center and could only sneak out "dead". Wiggling the controls speeds up your recovery. You sit up and start shooting people. They're all heavily armed and all members of the group whose been killing people at Agency. All but a reporter and you have to kill him, too.
Great game, but the whole series is. Too bad there will probably never be a Thief 4. It's the only series I liked more than Hitman.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Movie reviews: Renaissance and Open Season
Renaissance
This is one of the few futuristic movies that don't paint a goverment controlled Orwellian nightmare. It's a detective story where a cop is trying to find a kidnapped researcher for that era's megacorp. Who took her? Why? And what dramatic plot of the evil megacorp will be thwarted?
Take the high contrast black and white art of Sin City and then make it a cartoon like A Scanner Darkly and you have Renaissance. It's all done in black and white - no grays. There is the occasional off black or off white, but it's always a reflection or computer display or something and it's just barely off black or white.
The art was the most interesting part of the movie. The story wasn't bad, but not something I'd be terribly interested in seeing again... you know, unless I had a date who wanted to see it.
Open Season
Another computer generated animation. It's a lot like Shrek in that you have a big character who just wants his home back and his irritating sidekick. The sidekick even gets called a donkey in one scene. Then there's all the wildlife who want to move into his home, too. But there's not all the singing and dancing and topical references of Shrek so I'd have to say this was better. This is one of the better non-Pixar computer generated animations that I've seen.
What you've seen in the trailers, the part where the wildlife rebels and fights back against the hunters doesn't happen until late in the movie. Leading up to that there's plenty of story and character development.
Good movie but I won't be getting it on DVD.
This is one of the few futuristic movies that don't paint a goverment controlled Orwellian nightmare. It's a detective story where a cop is trying to find a kidnapped researcher for that era's megacorp. Who took her? Why? And what dramatic plot of the evil megacorp will be thwarted?
Take the high contrast black and white art of Sin City and then make it a cartoon like A Scanner Darkly and you have Renaissance. It's all done in black and white - no grays. There is the occasional off black or off white, but it's always a reflection or computer display or something and it's just barely off black or white.
The art was the most interesting part of the movie. The story wasn't bad, but not something I'd be terribly interested in seeing again... you know, unless I had a date who wanted to see it.
Open Season
Another computer generated animation. It's a lot like Shrek in that you have a big character who just wants his home back and his irritating sidekick. The sidekick even gets called a donkey in one scene. Then there's all the wildlife who want to move into his home, too. But there's not all the singing and dancing and topical references of Shrek so I'd have to say this was better. This is one of the better non-Pixar computer generated animations that I've seen.
What you've seen in the trailers, the part where the wildlife rebels and fights back against the hunters doesn't happen until late in the movie. Leading up to that there's plenty of story and character development.
Good movie but I won't be getting it on DVD.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Book fair
Yesterday was the annual Library of Congress (and Laura Bush) Book Fair on the National Mall. There was a smaller group of familiar authors there this time than the last few years. I mostly went to see Spider Robinson. He's a sci-fi writer and author of the Callahan's Bar* stories. His wife, Jeannie, was there, too since they've put out three books together. She's a dancer and helped him write books about dancers in space.
He also recently released a book that was started with Robert Heinlein. Heinlein wrote the outline decades ago and it recently surfaced after his wife died. At some writer's panel at a sci-fi convention someone suggest that Spider finish it. A few weeks later he had the outline and turned it out. I'll write the review when I finish reading it.
Then I stood in line for him to sign one of the Callahan books. I figure that's what introduced me to that author so that's what I wanted signed. We talked briefly. He's great. He and his wife are basically still hippies.
Before Spider was the guy who wrote the book "Thank You For Smoking" which recently became a great movie. Instead of pimping his book or the movie he just performed a brilliant 30 minute routine about the trouble naming books.
All the speakers were video taped and should eventually be on the C-Span 2 website.
-----
*Callahan's isn't sci-fi. It's just a great bar full of funny people. Ideal books for pun lovers.
He also recently released a book that was started with Robert Heinlein. Heinlein wrote the outline decades ago and it recently surfaced after his wife died. At some writer's panel at a sci-fi convention someone suggest that Spider finish it. A few weeks later he had the outline and turned it out. I'll write the review when I finish reading it.
Then I stood in line for him to sign one of the Callahan books. I figure that's what introduced me to that author so that's what I wanted signed. We talked briefly. He's great. He and his wife are basically still hippies.
Before Spider was the guy who wrote the book "Thank You For Smoking" which recently became a great movie. Instead of pimping his book or the movie he just performed a brilliant 30 minute routine about the trouble naming books.
All the speakers were video taped and should eventually be on the C-Span 2 website.
-----
*Callahan's isn't sci-fi. It's just a great bar full of funny people. Ideal books for pun lovers.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Halloween
Halloween. The best holiday of the year. Better than Dougmas. It's all about sugar fed fear. It's also the only time of year you can wear a mask. And like it says in the first book of Doug "if they can't see the face, they can't use the mace".
First, the sugar.
I go to http://www.candydirect.com/ for my stocks. I mean just look at the crap they have in stores these days. I used to be able to go out and pick up a six pack or better of Snickers and other candy bars and then at Halloween they'd put out what they call "fun sized" bars. But now it's "fun sized" all year round and for Halloween they sell stuff that's even smaller than that. How lame is that? What candy bar executive thought people would like candy bars that can be fitted nasally? There's something very wrong when your candy bar is a choking hazard.
If you want a candy bar you have to look in the impulse items as you check out. But you can't go there to stock up for Halloween. That's why I go to the internet. I buy the boxes that are stuffed in the impulse item lane.
Next, the fear.
As a kid I had a neighbor that kind of freaked me out. Mom and the kids were alright. The dad however almost never spoke and always seemed to be the grizzled guy sitting in the shadows drinking beer and watching the game. Sometimes he'd go out back and shoot at the trash/burn barrel. So on one Halloween as I went over to their house for the first of the evening's candy I saw a body on the front porch with a knife in it's chest. I had a conflict. It was Halloween and that was probably fake, but it looked soooo real... to a little kid anyway. So I stopped and watched it. I came a bit closer, but I was really expecting the dad to come out any second and move the body. Finally, I ran back to my Mom and Dad who were still just strolling across our yard and warned them that the neighbor had killed someone.
If you've played Thief 2 then you know the room of which I'm about to write. The Haunted Library.
My parrot loves the Thief games. She'll ignore the screen most of the time for most games, but for Thief she's perched on my shoulder watching intently and making the occasional odd comment. So we were working our way through hidden passages when we started hearing the strangest sound ahead. Voices... but, not. You couldn't make out what they were saying. So we approached the door and listened. Whispering and ... something. We opened the door. A dark room. More whispering on the wind. Row after row of bookshelves. That's row after row of blind corners from which anything could step and come after us. We start down the carpeted row so that nothing can hear our footsteps. We move slowly. Watching. Listening. As we reach the first shelves, instead of stepping out, something materializes about a foot in front of us. Gandolf screams and flaps across the room. I scream and leap from my chair. By the time we look back at the screen the figure is gone and my character is fine.
So last Halloween I ran that level up to that room, stuck my character down a row of shelves where he could hear the best sound without the killer ghost getting him and threw the speakers out the window. Then I put a squat candelabra over the door. That's all. Candles and a good soundtrack. Kids who didn't know who lived here didn't want to walk up the sidewalk. One kid, about 5, froze half way up the sidewalk and wouldn't move. Some high school girls argued about which of them would lead the way up the sidewalk. For the next week I'd have people I never saw before coming by and complimenting my Halloween setup.
This year I have a good microphone and some adequate audio editing software. I did some web searches to get some good audio clips. Fire and brimstone preachers, shortwave radio broadcasts, and recorded clips from some radio programs that I couldn't tweek with software because they were RealAudio. I have about 9 minutes of audio that was able to get people in their nice comfortable cubicles to take a step back from their computer. I'm putting this on CD and leaving it on loop.
Here's the audio clip.
http://www.randalljennings.com/halloween_sounds.mp3
Proper adjustment of the volume is important, but you should be able to appreciate it even if you have it loud enough to hear clearly.
Halloween: when fear is fun.
First, the sugar.
I go to http://www.candydirect.com/ for my stocks. I mean just look at the crap they have in stores these days. I used to be able to go out and pick up a six pack or better of Snickers and other candy bars and then at Halloween they'd put out what they call "fun sized" bars. But now it's "fun sized" all year round and for Halloween they sell stuff that's even smaller than that. How lame is that? What candy bar executive thought people would like candy bars that can be fitted nasally? There's something very wrong when your candy bar is a choking hazard.
If you want a candy bar you have to look in the impulse items as you check out. But you can't go there to stock up for Halloween. That's why I go to the internet. I buy the boxes that are stuffed in the impulse item lane.
Next, the fear.
As a kid I had a neighbor that kind of freaked me out. Mom and the kids were alright. The dad however almost never spoke and always seemed to be the grizzled guy sitting in the shadows drinking beer and watching the game. Sometimes he'd go out back and shoot at the trash/burn barrel. So on one Halloween as I went over to their house for the first of the evening's candy I saw a body on the front porch with a knife in it's chest. I had a conflict. It was Halloween and that was probably fake, but it looked soooo real... to a little kid anyway. So I stopped and watched it. I came a bit closer, but I was really expecting the dad to come out any second and move the body. Finally, I ran back to my Mom and Dad who were still just strolling across our yard and warned them that the neighbor had killed someone.
If you've played Thief 2 then you know the room of which I'm about to write. The Haunted Library.
My parrot loves the Thief games. She'll ignore the screen most of the time for most games, but for Thief she's perched on my shoulder watching intently and making the occasional odd comment. So we were working our way through hidden passages when we started hearing the strangest sound ahead. Voices... but, not. You couldn't make out what they were saying. So we approached the door and listened. Whispering and ... something. We opened the door. A dark room. More whispering on the wind. Row after row of bookshelves. That's row after row of blind corners from which anything could step and come after us. We start down the carpeted row so that nothing can hear our footsteps. We move slowly. Watching. Listening. As we reach the first shelves, instead of stepping out, something materializes about a foot in front of us. Gandolf screams and flaps across the room. I scream and leap from my chair. By the time we look back at the screen the figure is gone and my character is fine.
So last Halloween I ran that level up to that room, stuck my character down a row of shelves where he could hear the best sound without the killer ghost getting him and threw the speakers out the window. Then I put a squat candelabra over the door. That's all. Candles and a good soundtrack. Kids who didn't know who lived here didn't want to walk up the sidewalk. One kid, about 5, froze half way up the sidewalk and wouldn't move. Some high school girls argued about which of them would lead the way up the sidewalk. For the next week I'd have people I never saw before coming by and complimenting my Halloween setup.
This year I have a good microphone and some adequate audio editing software. I did some web searches to get some good audio clips. Fire and brimstone preachers, shortwave radio broadcasts, and recorded clips from some radio programs that I couldn't tweek with software because they were RealAudio. I have about 9 minutes of audio that was able to get people in their nice comfortable cubicles to take a step back from their computer. I'm putting this on CD and leaving it on loop.
Here's the audio clip.
http://www.randalljennings.com/halloween_sounds.mp3
Proper adjustment of the volume is important, but you should be able to appreciate it even if you have it loud enough to hear clearly.
Halloween: when fear is fun.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Coffee cans
I have to complain about something rather stupid. Containers. There are several containers that we used to use all the time when I was a kid that I can't find now.
The one that sat me off is coffee cans. We used to always have more large coffee cans than we knew what to do with. Dad would cut the bottoms off and cut air flaps in them. Two stacked end on end would make a good charcoal lighting tool.
If you take a large can and a small can, fill the small can with ingredients, put the lid on and tape it down securely, put the small can in the large can, pack the extra space with ice and salt, seal the large can, then toss/roll the whole thing around for awhile you'd have ice cream.
But now even the bulk coffee comes in some sort of plastic tub. I had to pick up generic coffee to get the large can I wanted. Small cans are still available.
The other one is apple cider jugs. We used to have several 1 gallon glass jugs in the garage left from all the apple cider we'd drink in the fall. The mouth was just the right size that you could drop something on fire into the jar and set a hard boiled egg (shell-less) on top and watch it get sucked in. They were also good for cloud formation simulations.
But I just can't find those jugs anymore. Maybe if I search the farm hard enough I can find an old one.
The one that sat me off is coffee cans. We used to always have more large coffee cans than we knew what to do with. Dad would cut the bottoms off and cut air flaps in them. Two stacked end on end would make a good charcoal lighting tool.
If you take a large can and a small can, fill the small can with ingredients, put the lid on and tape it down securely, put the small can in the large can, pack the extra space with ice and salt, seal the large can, then toss/roll the whole thing around for awhile you'd have ice cream.
But now even the bulk coffee comes in some sort of plastic tub. I had to pick up generic coffee to get the large can I wanted. Small cans are still available.
The other one is apple cider jugs. We used to have several 1 gallon glass jugs in the garage left from all the apple cider we'd drink in the fall. The mouth was just the right size that you could drop something on fire into the jar and set a hard boiled egg (shell-less) on top and watch it get sucked in. They were also good for cloud formation simulations.
But I just can't find those jugs anymore. Maybe if I search the farm hard enough I can find an old one.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
stuff
Torchwood, the Dr. Who spinoff is having problems.
“What was originally going to be a dark and brooding series has suddenly gone all bright and glossy.” Why? Well the rather twisted and evil Dr Phibes says they can't get their flashy Panasonic HD cameras to work in low light. “A lot of tape has been junked. Scenes re-shot in full lighting. A certain Russell T. Davies is said to have choked on his Lava Bread and Cockles. Angry e-mails are heading towards lawyers in the Far East....."
But TV.com still has the premier listed as October 28, 2006 so we'll see.
Casanova is still supposed to be showing on PBS early in October with the DVD release immediately after on Oct. 17.
Season 2 of the new Dr. Who starts on Sci-fi Channel a week from Friday I think. It premiers along with the new season of Battlestar Galactica.
Lost premiers a week from today.
The WB and UPN combined network, CW, is running premiers this week. Smallville and Supernatural start tomorrow.
I've been running another blog. Nothing special. Just a collection of old Daria episodes. http://dariavideos.blogspot.com/
I started it after looking at a similar South Park site. http://southparkvideos.blogspot.com/
A guy I know on base has a blog and Flickr collection going.
His Flickr site shows favorites from the museum archives. http://www.flickr.com/photos/99129398@N00/
His blog is about comic related happenings around DC. http://comicsdc.blogspot.com/
There is a parrot chewing on my beard.
“What was originally going to be a dark and brooding series has suddenly gone all bright and glossy.” Why? Well the rather twisted and evil Dr Phibes says they can't get their flashy Panasonic HD cameras to work in low light. “A lot of tape has been junked. Scenes re-shot in full lighting. A certain Russell T. Davies is said to have choked on his Lava Bread and Cockles. Angry e-mails are heading towards lawyers in the Far East....."
But TV.com still has the premier listed as October 28, 2006 so we'll see.
Casanova is still supposed to be showing on PBS early in October with the DVD release immediately after on Oct. 17.
Season 2 of the new Dr. Who starts on Sci-fi Channel a week from Friday I think. It premiers along with the new season of Battlestar Galactica.
Lost premiers a week from today.
The WB and UPN combined network, CW, is running premiers this week. Smallville and Supernatural start tomorrow.
I've been running another blog. Nothing special. Just a collection of old Daria episodes. http://dariavideos.blogspot.com/
I started it after looking at a similar South Park site. http://southparkvideos.blogspot.com/
A guy I know on base has a blog and Flickr collection going.
His Flickr site shows favorites from the museum archives. http://www.flickr.com/photos/99129398@N00/
His blog is about comic related happenings around DC. http://comicsdc.blogspot.com/
There is a parrot chewing on my beard.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
picture
In the absense of anything to write about you get a picture I took in the fountain behind the base hotel.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Doonesbury
Take a screenshot. This is me being giddy. It doesn't happen much.
G.B. Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury, was over at the base's equivalent of a Ronald McDonald House. The door was locked but someone saw me and let me in. Gerry (I think that's right) was talking to three guys in uniform. I can't tell rank but they weren't Generals but seemed to be higher than Colonels. Anyway, they appear to be part of the ranks that run the base and Gerry talked to them like he's dealt with them several times before. I know this isn't his first visit to base so he probably has.
Anyway, they sat down in the lounge and talked and I grabbed a chair in the corner and tried to stay out of the way. Gerry was given a stack of books with paper in them to indicate how they should be personalized. The officials left and I caught up behind him while he stood in the foyer with nobody dragging him off for some official whatever.
"Pardon me, sir. Could you pity a fanboy for a moment?"
"Sure."
Then he saw the book I brought to sign.
"Oh, wow. This is an antique. This is back when I had long hair. This book is older than you."
Then he asked if I worked on base and we talked about the medical books I create. I meant to bring one of them over for him, but I spaced. We talked about the books and he started asking about the prospects for developing them electronically and generally had a nice chat.
p.s. It's Garry B. Trudeau. Not Gerry.
G.B. Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury, was over at the base's equivalent of a Ronald McDonald House. The door was locked but someone saw me and let me in. Gerry (I think that's right) was talking to three guys in uniform. I can't tell rank but they weren't Generals but seemed to be higher than Colonels. Anyway, they appear to be part of the ranks that run the base and Gerry talked to them like he's dealt with them several times before. I know this isn't his first visit to base so he probably has.
Anyway, they sat down in the lounge and talked and I grabbed a chair in the corner and tried to stay out of the way. Gerry was given a stack of books with paper in them to indicate how they should be personalized. The officials left and I caught up behind him while he stood in the foyer with nobody dragging him off for some official whatever.
"Pardon me, sir. Could you pity a fanboy for a moment?"
"Sure."
Then he saw the book I brought to sign.
"Oh, wow. This is an antique. This is back when I had long hair. This book is older than you."
Then he asked if I worked on base and we talked about the medical books I create. I meant to bring one of them over for him, but I spaced. We talked about the books and he started asking about the prospects for developing them electronically and generally had a nice chat.
p.s. It's Garry B. Trudeau. Not Gerry.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Book Review: Mindswap
I just finished reading Mindswap by Robert Sheckley.
The galaxy is huge and filled with populated planets. But travelling between them is time consuming and terribly expensive. The cheap way to do this is by trading your mind for one on another planet. The main character has a need to travel so he answers an ad for someone wanting to visit Earth. But when he gets where he's going he finds out that the body he jumped into was not one belonging to the guy who jumped out and had been promised to someone else. And the guy who has his body has disappeared.
Since he doesn't have prior claim on the body he has to leave it. Without the body his mind will fail in a few hours. So he starts hopping from mind to mind, planet to planet, taking miserable jobs and finding himself in a series of bad situations. The characters he meets get some of the greatest/most comical dialog you're likely to find. But the ending does leave you feeling like the author had a deadline to meet.
The galaxy is huge and filled with populated planets. But travelling between them is time consuming and terribly expensive. The cheap way to do this is by trading your mind for one on another planet. The main character has a need to travel so he answers an ad for someone wanting to visit Earth. But when he gets where he's going he finds out that the body he jumped into was not one belonging to the guy who jumped out and had been promised to someone else. And the guy who has his body has disappeared.
Since he doesn't have prior claim on the body he has to leave it. Without the body his mind will fail in a few hours. So he starts hopping from mind to mind, planet to planet, taking miserable jobs and finding himself in a series of bad situations. The characters he meets get some of the greatest/most comical dialog you're likely to find. But the ending does leave you feeling like the author had a deadline to meet.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
Video games
First go here and watch the video.
http://illwillpress.com/
If your speakers don't work or you don't have Flash installed for some reason or you wait two weeks for the next update, it's a cartoon of a squirrel ranting about all the evil corporations in video games either making zombies or making viruses that make zombies and it's your job to save the world.
Zombie games rock. Few things creep me out as much as a well done zombie game. I don't mean First Person Shooters (FPS) like Doom where you have to go room to room slaughtering everything that moves. I mean games like Thief where there's just a few zombies or undead homicidal lunatics that move like a grasshopper dying from wasp spray. There's other good zombie games. They move silently, slowly, unrelentingly, and come out of nowhere. Zombies rule.
There's another point in the video. Why is it that you're always having to save the world (or destroy it)? Give us some less dramatic games. Give us something with minor problems.
Minor inconveniences - the game
Level 1 - You go out to your car to get your lunch and see someone stealing your car. It's your job to recover your lunch.
Level 2 - You need photocopies of your presentation, but the copier is down.
Level 3 - You lost your keys.
Level 4 - You have to meet your date somewhere, but everything goes wrong.
Etc.
The point is that in each level you have a minor problem to solve and you have to deal with it in the most ridiculous method possible. Buildings are destroyed, governments toppled, aliens fended off, high speed car chases, etc. Just to recover a BLT that's been sitting in your car all morning.
http://illwillpress.com/
If your speakers don't work or you don't have Flash installed for some reason or you wait two weeks for the next update, it's a cartoon of a squirrel ranting about all the evil corporations in video games either making zombies or making viruses that make zombies and it's your job to save the world.
Zombie games rock. Few things creep me out as much as a well done zombie game. I don't mean First Person Shooters (FPS) like Doom where you have to go room to room slaughtering everything that moves. I mean games like Thief where there's just a few zombies or undead homicidal lunatics that move like a grasshopper dying from wasp spray. There's other good zombie games. They move silently, slowly, unrelentingly, and come out of nowhere. Zombies rule.
There's another point in the video. Why is it that you're always having to save the world (or destroy it)? Give us some less dramatic games. Give us something with minor problems.
Minor inconveniences - the game
Level 1 - You go out to your car to get your lunch and see someone stealing your car. It's your job to recover your lunch.
Level 2 - You need photocopies of your presentation, but the copier is down.
Level 3 - You lost your keys.
Level 4 - You have to meet your date somewhere, but everything goes wrong.
Etc.
The point is that in each level you have a minor problem to solve and you have to deal with it in the most ridiculous method possible. Buildings are destroyed, governments toppled, aliens fended off, high speed car chases, etc. Just to recover a BLT that's been sitting in your car all morning.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Stuff
Sorry for the lack of posts. Most of what I've had to write about has been about co-workers who read this.
The morning temperatures dropped 10 degrees this morning to 52°F (284.26°K). This lends a certain urgency to my hunt for my winter helmet. It's designed for a snowmobile rider, but it works well for riding a Segway at any temperature below 52°F (284.26°K). It's at 52°F (284.26°K), plus a cruising speed of 15MPH, that suddenly requires either a box of tissues or some sort of nose catheter. I hope to attack my bedroom/stuff storage with a team of sherpas after work. With any luck we'll find my gloves, too. As it is I had to try to make coffee with all the dexterity of a ... well, this guy.
I'm told there's some NASCAR guys visiting the soldiers today. I'm more interested in G.B. Trudeau's (Doonesbury) visit next week. I've got my 1975 copy of "The Doonesbury Chronicles" here for autographing.
Trudeau donated two of his original strips to the National Museum of Health and Medicine here on base. One was where B.D. was first wounded in Iraq and one was where the doctor who worked on him said "Your awe is thanks enough."
Gas is down below $2.50 here in DC. You'd think there was an election coming up or something. I haven't seen gas prices drop like this since Jim Jeffords left the GOP and opened the oil companies to Congressional scrutiny for their price gouging.
The morning temperatures dropped 10 degrees this morning to 52°F (284.26°K). This lends a certain urgency to my hunt for my winter helmet. It's designed for a snowmobile rider, but it works well for riding a Segway at any temperature below 52°F (284.26°K). It's at 52°F (284.26°K), plus a cruising speed of 15MPH, that suddenly requires either a box of tissues or some sort of nose catheter. I hope to attack my bedroom/stuff storage with a team of sherpas after work. With any luck we'll find my gloves, too. As it is I had to try to make coffee with all the dexterity of a ... well, this guy.
I'm told there's some NASCAR guys visiting the soldiers today. I'm more interested in G.B. Trudeau's (Doonesbury) visit next week. I've got my 1975 copy of "The Doonesbury Chronicles" here for autographing.
Trudeau donated two of his original strips to the National Museum of Health and Medicine here on base. One was where B.D. was first wounded in Iraq and one was where the doctor who worked on him said "Your awe is thanks enough."
Gas is down below $2.50 here in DC. You'd think there was an election coming up or something. I haven't seen gas prices drop like this since Jim Jeffords left the GOP and opened the oil companies to Congressional scrutiny for their price gouging.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Book Review: The Fourth Bear
The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
This isn't the first book in this fictional world but you can read these books out of order. The world is the Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading Police Department. See, in the town of Reading there are many nursery rhyme based characters. Jack Spratt, Mary Mary, Goldilocks, an assortment of intelligent bears, etc. Jack heads up the NCD.
In this book The Gingerbread Man, a homicidal 7 ft cookie, escapes from the psych ward where Jack put him 10 years before. But Jack isn't put on the case. Instead he's suspended. His boss suspends him at least once per case, the difference this time is that Jack isn't on a case.
While not on duty Jack and Mary investigate the disappearance of Goldilocks which drags them into the sordid world of competitive cucumber growing and why the homes of the best growers in the world keep exploding with atomic force.
One of my favorite bits is Dorian Gray and his indestructable cars.
I will be keeping and eye out for more of this writer's stuff.
This isn't the first book in this fictional world but you can read these books out of order. The world is the Nursery Crimes Division of the Reading Police Department. See, in the town of Reading there are many nursery rhyme based characters. Jack Spratt, Mary Mary, Goldilocks, an assortment of intelligent bears, etc. Jack heads up the NCD.
In this book The Gingerbread Man, a homicidal 7 ft cookie, escapes from the psych ward where Jack put him 10 years before. But Jack isn't put on the case. Instead he's suspended. His boss suspends him at least once per case, the difference this time is that Jack isn't on a case.
While not on duty Jack and Mary investigate the disappearance of Goldilocks which drags them into the sordid world of competitive cucumber growing and why the homes of the best growers in the world keep exploding with atomic force.
One of my favorite bits is Dorian Gray and his indestructable cars.
I will be keeping and eye out for more of this writer's stuff.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Have you ever heard a wallet scream?
Eric the handyman came by to collect his last check last night. About an hour before that I deposited a few paychecks in the bank. I knew this was gonna be tight. Fixing the wall was gonna be a blow to the bank account and fixing the bathroom too was gonna be pushing my luck. My original estimate of how close I was gonna squeeze it was pretty much spot on. I had a gap of about $2,000 between what I had and what I owed. I think all in all I paid this guy close to $24,000. It was worth it. Don't get me wrong. He's worked on a bunch of houses in this area and they all have as much praise for this guy's work as I do. My wall is great and my bathroom is better.
If you're in the DC area and need some work on your house you should call Eric. His number is (202)409-3820. Just give him a little time to get some sleep first.
In related news Gandolf, my african grey parrot, is back home as of last night. She was starting to go batty in the office. I kept her in an office on a secure military base for two and a half months and the only people who found out were the cleaning ladies. You may applaud now.
If you're in the DC area and need some work on your house you should call Eric. His number is (202)409-3820. Just give him a little time to get some sleep first.
In related news Gandolf, my african grey parrot, is back home as of last night. She was starting to go batty in the office. I kept her in an office on a secure military base for two and a half months and the only people who found out were the cleaning ladies. You may applaud now.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Bumpersticker 4
I know, I haven't posted the explainations of Bumperstickers 1-3 yet. One is written but I'm not ready to post it. Two and three I haven't touched yet. I just felt like writing number 4.
Bumpersticker #4 - Science: It's about how, not who.
This is one of my favorites. Coming from Kansas I've had to put up with the state school board's regular bouts with idiocy. Luckily I was out of high school before it really got started. Yeah, I know, if I got out that long ago I'd be the patent holder on the zero or something.
The idiocy I refer to is the Kansas School Board's ongoing struggle with Creationists and how to include the idea that the whole of creation was made by from nothingness by a huge, elderly, caucasion male with a flowing white beard and dressed in robes who may or may not be God. Ok, I exaggerate a bit. Creationists want science teachers to teach what they call Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design is the idea that there was an intelligent being who created everything or at least guided creation. Some Creationists are willing to say that evolution was guided by this being while others want to say that everything was created as is.
The debate goes around and around. Scientists talk about how there's no evidence to support the Creationists' desire for a creator. Creationists talk about the complexity of the eye or the uselessness of an undeveloped wing to say that they had to be planned and built as is.
This debate is going to go on for centuries still to come. My comments so far probably give you a good idea where I come down on the issue.
The bumpersticker simply tries to say that the science classroom isn't the place for this subject to be covered. Teachers have enough trouble covering the proven hows of the natural world without having to add the burden of who. Leave that to the philosophy class with the rest of the thought exercises.
I could get into my definition of the word "miracle" and the idea of "God's Toolbox", but I'll leave that for another time.
Bumpersticker #4 - Science: It's about how, not who.
This is one of my favorites. Coming from Kansas I've had to put up with the state school board's regular bouts with idiocy. Luckily I was out of high school before it really got started. Yeah, I know, if I got out that long ago I'd be the patent holder on the zero or something.
The idiocy I refer to is the Kansas School Board's ongoing struggle with Creationists and how to include the idea that the whole of creation was made by from nothingness by a huge, elderly, caucasion male with a flowing white beard and dressed in robes who may or may not be God. Ok, I exaggerate a bit. Creationists want science teachers to teach what they call Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design is the idea that there was an intelligent being who created everything or at least guided creation. Some Creationists are willing to say that evolution was guided by this being while others want to say that everything was created as is.
The debate goes around and around. Scientists talk about how there's no evidence to support the Creationists' desire for a creator. Creationists talk about the complexity of the eye or the uselessness of an undeveloped wing to say that they had to be planned and built as is.
This debate is going to go on for centuries still to come. My comments so far probably give you a good idea where I come down on the issue.
The bumpersticker simply tries to say that the science classroom isn't the place for this subject to be covered. Teachers have enough trouble covering the proven hows of the natural world without having to add the burden of who. Leave that to the philosophy class with the rest of the thought exercises.
I could get into my definition of the word "miracle" and the idea of "God's Toolbox", but I'll leave that for another time.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Metacarpal
I'm getting into the next installment in my virtual hand surgery series. This time I'm having the user repair a broken metacarpal. The 5th metacarpal is the one most frequently broken. Most stories I've seen have involved people falling off their bikes.
So after several days of online research and pouring through medical tomes (I couldn't put the book down. Hell, I could barely pick it up.) the boss finally got off the phone long enough to answer my questions.
We start with introducing the players - the anesthesiologist, the circulating nurse, and the surgical assistant.
The anesthesiologist will do a nerve block.
The user starts by putting on betadine solution.
Feel along the side of your hand. The pinky side. You can feel the pad of the muscle and the bone. The user may or may not mark along that line where they meet. Then the user cuts along that line.
In the fasciotomy program the internal pressure of the hand held the incision open. In this case the user will use self retaining retractors to hold it open.
I have to figure out how to get the user to get the pieces of bone together.
Then bone holding forceps will hold it in place.
A variety of lengths of plate will be available. The user will have to pick the one that fits. The correct answer is the 6 hole plate.
The user will drill the holes using the plate as a guide.
The user will then screw the plate in place and fix the bone pieces in place.
Then the user will close the hand. A much more satisfactory ending than the faciotomy where we just walked away from the wide open hand while waiting for swelling to go down.
So after several days of online research and pouring through medical tomes (I couldn't put the book down. Hell, I could barely pick it up.) the boss finally got off the phone long enough to answer my questions.
We start with introducing the players - the anesthesiologist, the circulating nurse, and the surgical assistant.
The anesthesiologist will do a nerve block.
The user starts by putting on betadine solution.
Feel along the side of your hand. The pinky side. You can feel the pad of the muscle and the bone. The user may or may not mark along that line where they meet. Then the user cuts along that line.
In the fasciotomy program the internal pressure of the hand held the incision open. In this case the user will use self retaining retractors to hold it open.
I have to figure out how to get the user to get the pieces of bone together.
Then bone holding forceps will hold it in place.
A variety of lengths of plate will be available. The user will have to pick the one that fits. The correct answer is the 6 hole plate.
The user will drill the holes using the plate as a guide.
The user will then screw the plate in place and fix the bone pieces in place.
Then the user will close the hand. A much more satisfactory ending than the faciotomy where we just walked away from the wide open hand while waiting for swelling to go down.
Monday, September 11, 2006
mysteries
There's a genre of mystery known as the closed room mystery. No, wait, those are mysteries where someone was killed in a locked room and there's no way for the killer to get in or out. No, I'm looking for books like the movie "Clue". You know, there's a group of people in a house, one gets murdered, and the rest of the story is spent finding out who.
I'm not a mystery buff, but I have a setting I think would be perfect for this style mystery. Anyone know of some titles along this line? I need a dozen or two to read just to get myself thinking along the correct lines.
I'm not a mystery buff, but I have a setting I think would be perfect for this style mystery. Anyone know of some titles along this line? I need a dozen or two to read just to get myself thinking along the correct lines.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
a miracle
I wish to report a miracle. A football game ended on time! It's either a miracle or further proof that football is rigged and the game ends when the network says it ends.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Etc.
I got my phone line back in last night. Sorta. I have a working phone upstairs. I need to burrow back through two layers of bookshelves to find my drill so I can punch a hole through the brick. Then I need to run cable and install jacks in the computer room, kitchen, living room, and maybe the bedroom. Antenna wire to follow the phone lines into the bedroom and living room. I might get my computer set up in the kitchen just to have it back.
The house has finally been cleared of all incandescent bulbs. I've got a couple of LED bulbs and several Compact Flourescent Bulbs (CFBs). I'm using mostly GE's soft white 60. It hesitates before lighting and it gets a bit warmer than I remember CFBs getting, but the light is white and bright. It's 15 watts that looks like 60 watts.
Alas, that model was too big for the globe for the kitchen ceiling fan. I went out and got a 9 watt (looks like 40 watt) CFB by N.Vision. It fits but it's blue light. I may replace it with a 40 watt (in appearance) from GE and move this one to the back porch.
Nearly got in a fight last night. A neighbor kid wanted to borrow my Essential Fantastic Four. I told him that if he waits until I'm done reading it I'll be happy to let him borrow it. Every day he asks me again and I tell him the same thing. So while I had my back turned on my house he slipped in and got it. I caught him trying to sneak off with it held behind his back. I've had previous trouble with this guy and his cousin. "No" is not in their vocabulary. "No" translates roughly to "wait until I'm not looking". The cousin is already banned from my house for taking a game I said he couldn't borrow and for trying to walk off with some change that the workmen left in the house. This guy lied to cover for his cousin in the past.
So I dope slapped him, snatched the book away, hefted him up and gave him a toss down the street. He turned around laughing and tried coming back. I advanced threateningly and snarling "don't even try laughing this off. You leave now. I don't want to see you here." A few minutes later his mom showed up with his older brother and uncle. Both guys were large men a head taller than me and head and shoulders taller respectively. I'm aware of the two guys looming and being threatening, but this isn't about them. I'm maintaining eye contact with the queen "B". She starts yelling at me about laying hands on her son. I told her that her son was a little thief who needs to stop trying to make off with other peoples stuff. She lets me know that I should have brought him to her to deal with. I let her know that if she disciplined her kids then they wouldn't need complete strangers doing it for her. This continued for a bit. Her claiming that her boy is very respectful of other people and their stuff. I asked if she'd met her son and how respectful was it to walk off with other peoples stuff when permission was specifically denied. She threatened to call the cops. I said "please do". Finally she headed off. Her thugs followed. The uncle kicked the Battleship game I was playing with a couple other neighborhood kids. I stood back up and went nose to chin with this guy.
"My bad" he said in the most sarcastic tone possible.
"Damn strait it's your bad."
"Just like you hitting that kid was your bad."
"You would have done something different if you found someone walking out of your house with your stuff?" And as he starts leaving I had to throw in "What kind of parent are you anyway?"
I knew it would piss her off again but it had to be said. She came back with the standard "What did you just say?"
"Do you really need me to repeat myself?"
She said something about how she'd lose her job if she hit me and left.
Then we started hunting down all the Battleship pegs.
The house has finally been cleared of all incandescent bulbs. I've got a couple of LED bulbs and several Compact Flourescent Bulbs (CFBs). I'm using mostly GE's soft white 60. It hesitates before lighting and it gets a bit warmer than I remember CFBs getting, but the light is white and bright. It's 15 watts that looks like 60 watts.
Alas, that model was too big for the globe for the kitchen ceiling fan. I went out and got a 9 watt (looks like 40 watt) CFB by N.Vision. It fits but it's blue light. I may replace it with a 40 watt (in appearance) from GE and move this one to the back porch.
Nearly got in a fight last night. A neighbor kid wanted to borrow my Essential Fantastic Four. I told him that if he waits until I'm done reading it I'll be happy to let him borrow it. Every day he asks me again and I tell him the same thing. So while I had my back turned on my house he slipped in and got it. I caught him trying to sneak off with it held behind his back. I've had previous trouble with this guy and his cousin. "No" is not in their vocabulary. "No" translates roughly to "wait until I'm not looking". The cousin is already banned from my house for taking a game I said he couldn't borrow and for trying to walk off with some change that the workmen left in the house. This guy lied to cover for his cousin in the past.
So I dope slapped him, snatched the book away, hefted him up and gave him a toss down the street. He turned around laughing and tried coming back. I advanced threateningly and snarling "don't even try laughing this off. You leave now. I don't want to see you here." A few minutes later his mom showed up with his older brother and uncle. Both guys were large men a head taller than me and head and shoulders taller respectively. I'm aware of the two guys looming and being threatening, but this isn't about them. I'm maintaining eye contact with the queen "B". She starts yelling at me about laying hands on her son. I told her that her son was a little thief who needs to stop trying to make off with other peoples stuff. She lets me know that I should have brought him to her to deal with. I let her know that if she disciplined her kids then they wouldn't need complete strangers doing it for her. This continued for a bit. Her claiming that her boy is very respectful of other people and their stuff. I asked if she'd met her son and how respectful was it to walk off with other peoples stuff when permission was specifically denied. She threatened to call the cops. I said "please do". Finally she headed off. Her thugs followed. The uncle kicked the Battleship game I was playing with a couple other neighborhood kids. I stood back up and went nose to chin with this guy.
"My bad" he said in the most sarcastic tone possible.
"Damn strait it's your bad."
"Just like you hitting that kid was your bad."
"You would have done something different if you found someone walking out of your house with your stuff?" And as he starts leaving I had to throw in "What kind of parent are you anyway?"
I knew it would piss her off again but it had to be said. She came back with the standard "What did you just say?"
"Do you really need me to repeat myself?"
She said something about how she'd lose her job if she hit me and left.
Then we started hunting down all the Battleship pegs.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Book reviews
No TV, no phone, no internet. I'm getting all kinds of reading done.
Shadow Falls by Simon R. Green
Shadow Falls is a city. It's much like Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere or Simon Green's Nightside. It's a supernatural area doesn't exist in normal space but you can get to if you know how or are really, really lost. The people in Shadow Falls may or may not have actually existed. Some are people, some are dead people who came back, some are rock stars whose legend became greater than the person, and some are gods, cartoon characters, or novel characters whose popularity has waned but aren't yet completely forgotten. They come to Shadow Falls because of the Forever Door. The Forever Door is the passage to the afterlife and is guarded by Father Time.
Naturally, something has to go wrong. One of the central characters grew up in Shadow Falls but doesn't know it. He forgot about it when his family fled when he was 10. He is prophecied to destroy the Forever Door. When his parents die he finds a note from his Grandfather that leads him back.
Murder is supposed to be impossible in Shadow Falls. But there has been a rash of murders with no clues. An unstoppable being known as the Wild Childe is responsible.
An army of fanatical Christians has decided to take control of the Forever Door.
Simon R. Green rocks. He tells fairly original stories and tells them in a way that keeps you reading.
Schrödinger's Ball by Adam Felber
Over on the right side of this page you'll see a link to Adam Felber's Blog. Adam also appears most weeks on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", is a stand up comic, and writes for some TV shows.
This is a rather surreal story. It hops between several groups of people with no apparent connection. But it's funny so you keep reading. The book crashes somewhere around page 90 and has to be rebooted. Near the end of the book the various stories finally come together.
It helps to have some understanding of the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle and/or Schrödinger's Cat model. Not completely necessary, but it helps. Basically, photons and electrons and whatnot exist not so much in a definate place and time but rather a cloud of places where they probably are until actually seen. Once seen they exist in a definate place. Schrödinger's Cat model was supposed to explain this behavior while pointing out how absurd it is. You put a cat in a box with a vial of poison and a uranium molecule. There's a 50/50 chance of that molecule decaying in one hour. If it decays the poison is released and that cat dies. Otherwise the cat lives. But until you open the box and look the cat is both alive and dead and neither alive nor dead.
One of the stories involves a person talking who can't seem to stop running into Schrödinger despite the fact that Schrödinger died several decades before. Schrödinger won't stop lecturing about anything and everything and continually moans about how he wished he never thought of the cat because nobody understands the story right.
Another part of the story involves a man who shoots himself in the head while cleaning his gun in his basement. He then goes out and hangs out with his friends for the next several days. Nobody saw him die or found the body so he goes about his life, although his behavior is quite odd, until someone finds him.
Essential by Marvel Comics
I picked up Essential Doctor Strange, Essential Spider-Man, and Essential Fantastic Four a few weeks back. All three books include 20-30 of the original stories. They're fairly cheap in both price and quality. The Essential Doctor Strange came right apart. Pages everywhere. The paper is essentially rejected toilet paper. Still, for $15 each they're not bad.
Doctor Strange sucks. I find the stories lame and the dialog comically bad.
Spider-Man was pretty good from the start, but there's still some places where you can see how dialog writing has improved over the years.
The Fantastic Four isn't as good as Spider-Man, but it's not awful. You can really see how the dialog writing has improved.
Shadow Falls by Simon R. Green
Shadow Falls is a city. It's much like Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere or Simon Green's Nightside. It's a supernatural area doesn't exist in normal space but you can get to if you know how or are really, really lost. The people in Shadow Falls may or may not have actually existed. Some are people, some are dead people who came back, some are rock stars whose legend became greater than the person, and some are gods, cartoon characters, or novel characters whose popularity has waned but aren't yet completely forgotten. They come to Shadow Falls because of the Forever Door. The Forever Door is the passage to the afterlife and is guarded by Father Time.
Naturally, something has to go wrong. One of the central characters grew up in Shadow Falls but doesn't know it. He forgot about it when his family fled when he was 10. He is prophecied to destroy the Forever Door. When his parents die he finds a note from his Grandfather that leads him back.
Murder is supposed to be impossible in Shadow Falls. But there has been a rash of murders with no clues. An unstoppable being known as the Wild Childe is responsible.
An army of fanatical Christians has decided to take control of the Forever Door.
Simon R. Green rocks. He tells fairly original stories and tells them in a way that keeps you reading.
Schrödinger's Ball by Adam Felber
Over on the right side of this page you'll see a link to Adam Felber's Blog. Adam also appears most weeks on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", is a stand up comic, and writes for some TV shows.
This is a rather surreal story. It hops between several groups of people with no apparent connection. But it's funny so you keep reading. The book crashes somewhere around page 90 and has to be rebooted. Near the end of the book the various stories finally come together.
It helps to have some understanding of the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle and/or Schrödinger's Cat model. Not completely necessary, but it helps. Basically, photons and electrons and whatnot exist not so much in a definate place and time but rather a cloud of places where they probably are until actually seen. Once seen they exist in a definate place. Schrödinger's Cat model was supposed to explain this behavior while pointing out how absurd it is. You put a cat in a box with a vial of poison and a uranium molecule. There's a 50/50 chance of that molecule decaying in one hour. If it decays the poison is released and that cat dies. Otherwise the cat lives. But until you open the box and look the cat is both alive and dead and neither alive nor dead.
One of the stories involves a person talking who can't seem to stop running into Schrödinger despite the fact that Schrödinger died several decades before. Schrödinger won't stop lecturing about anything and everything and continually moans about how he wished he never thought of the cat because nobody understands the story right.
Another part of the story involves a man who shoots himself in the head while cleaning his gun in his basement. He then goes out and hangs out with his friends for the next several days. Nobody saw him die or found the body so he goes about his life, although his behavior is quite odd, until someone finds him.
Essential
I picked up Essential Doctor Strange, Essential Spider-Man, and Essential Fantastic Four a few weeks back. All three books include 20-30 of the original stories. They're fairly cheap in both price and quality. The Essential Doctor Strange came right apart. Pages everywhere. The paper is essentially rejected toilet paper. Still, for $15 each they're not bad.
Doctor Strange sucks. I find the stories lame and the dialog comically bad.
Spider-Man was pretty good from the start, but there's still some places where you can see how dialog writing has improved over the years.
The Fantastic Four isn't as good as Spider-Man, but it's not awful. You can really see how the dialog writing has improved.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
House
Thanks to tropical storm Ernesto I had to put off moving home for a day. Even going home on Saturday there was a heavy mist.
The workers finished the bathroom, but they're not done with the house yet. The back window still needs bars over it and needs to be framed in. The back porch light needs to be reinstalled. The door on the second floor needs to have a bar across it to help prevent the neighbor kids jumping out. There's also supposed to be a screen that can be pulled across the door. And the drain pipe only comes halfway down the back of the house. So they still have their tools lying everywhere. This makes rearranging furniture a bit inconvenient. So while I'm back in my house I'm still a long way from reconstructing the living space. Once the tools are gone I should be able to do enough to make space for the bird to come back.
The tank on the toilet is really tiny. The inner workings are rather complex. This won't be as easy to fix as a regular toilet. But there's not a constant stream of water running down the inside so it shouldn't build up minerals nearly as fast.
What I'm most worried about is breaking the seat. You know how on most toilets when you lift the seat it leans against the tank? Well, with this smaller tank the seat doesn't hit the tank. There's a big gap between them. So eventually it'll break off.
There's a noticable difference in the water flow between the two buttons. One is 0.8 gallons, the other is 1.6 gallons (or 3 liters vs 6 liters).
So far it seems to work pretty well.
There's still no phone line in the house. I'm here at the office to check on Gandolf, call Verizon, check my e-mail, and get my jeans.
The workers finished the bathroom, but they're not done with the house yet. The back window still needs bars over it and needs to be framed in. The back porch light needs to be reinstalled. The door on the second floor needs to have a bar across it to help prevent the neighbor kids jumping out. There's also supposed to be a screen that can be pulled across the door. And the drain pipe only comes halfway down the back of the house. So they still have their tools lying everywhere. This makes rearranging furniture a bit inconvenient. So while I'm back in my house I'm still a long way from reconstructing the living space. Once the tools are gone I should be able to do enough to make space for the bird to come back.
The tank on the toilet is really tiny. The inner workings are rather complex. This won't be as easy to fix as a regular toilet. But there's not a constant stream of water running down the inside so it shouldn't build up minerals nearly as fast.
What I'm most worried about is breaking the seat. You know how on most toilets when you lift the seat it leans against the tank? Well, with this smaller tank the seat doesn't hit the tank. There's a big gap between them. So eventually it'll break off.
There's a noticable difference in the water flow between the two buttons. One is 0.8 gallons, the other is 1.6 gallons (or 3 liters vs 6 liters).
So far it seems to work pretty well.
There's still no phone line in the house. I'm here at the office to check on Gandolf, call Verizon, check my e-mail, and get my jeans.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Clarifying a detail
A public service announcement.
Thank you for your attention.
 |
| This is a tractor. |
 |
| This is NOT a tractor. |
Thank you for your attention.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Unnamed "Dinosaur Plant"
A recent shopping spree at ThinkGeek.com yielded the LED bulbs I mentioned about a week ago and what they call a "Dinosaur Plant". A serious internet search will eventually yield the proper latin name, but I don't plan to go through that again.
The product comes from Dunecraft. It adapted to a previous ice age by developing the ability to curl into a ball and blow away when the water dries up. It blows and rolls until it hits a new water source and then unfurls in about 3 hours.
This is mine after 5 hours in the water.
The product comes from Dunecraft. It adapted to a previous ice age by developing the ability to curl into a ball and blow away when the water dries up. It blows and rolls until it hits a new water source and then unfurls in about 3 hours.
 |
| The plant when it's dry. |
 |
| The plant after 3 hours in the water. |
This is mine after 5 hours in the water.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Book review: The Forge of God
I haven't read much Greg Bear. Most of the books of his that I've picked up just haven't sounded interesting. I finally picked up "The Forge of God".
It starts with the disappearance of Europa. Then new geologic formations show up which are just space craft in disguise. One kind of alien comes out of one and another kind of alien comes out of the other. One claims to bring great technology and the other claims he comes to save the planet from the other aliens. Then little mechanical spiders start showing up and taking over people... or networking them to better organize resistance. Two asteroids then hit the Earth. One of neutronium and one of anti-neutronium. They're on a slowly decaying orbit inside the Earth. Some of the people who have been nabbed by the spiders start gathering animals, books, and scientific records. The President gives up completely and tells people to just give up and wait to die.
Basically there's two batches of aliens fighting over Earth, or maybe just one alien messing with us, and the humans have no idea what's going on.
I'll put the conclusion in the Comments for those of you who want to see it.
I didn't really like this book. I don't know why. I didn't dislike it. It just sort of left me flat. What I look for in science fiction is a good story well told and some hard science. This didn't have much science. Some, but not much. What there was was good enough. The story was new but not told in a way that engaged me. It's not one of my highly recommended books.
It starts with the disappearance of Europa. Then new geologic formations show up which are just space craft in disguise. One kind of alien comes out of one and another kind of alien comes out of the other. One claims to bring great technology and the other claims he comes to save the planet from the other aliens. Then little mechanical spiders start showing up and taking over people... or networking them to better organize resistance. Two asteroids then hit the Earth. One of neutronium and one of anti-neutronium. They're on a slowly decaying orbit inside the Earth. Some of the people who have been nabbed by the spiders start gathering animals, books, and scientific records. The President gives up completely and tells people to just give up and wait to die.
Basically there's two batches of aliens fighting over Earth, or maybe just one alien messing with us, and the humans have no idea what's going on.
I'll put the conclusion in the Comments for those of you who want to see it.
I didn't really like this book. I don't know why. I didn't dislike it. It just sort of left me flat. What I look for in science fiction is a good story well told and some hard science. This didn't have much science. Some, but not much. What there was was good enough. The story was new but not told in a way that engaged me. It's not one of my highly recommended books.
Monday, August 28, 2006
And all the children dance!
Pardon me while I have an AOL moment.
I GET TO MOVE BACK HOME NEXT WEEKEND!!!!
They're installing the toilet now. They can't reinstall the old sink so I'll be getting a pedestal sink (~$40). They'll also put in a full length cabinet in the area where the bathtub just vacated so I'll still be able to keep my Draino and whatnot up there.
They weren't planning on putting in a shower door. They just expected me to use a shower curtain. But I've never seen a shower with a shower curtain unless it was a bathtub with a shower. After some heming and hawing and many tape measure sounds they think they can get a shower door to fit.
Plus paint AND screwing the vent back up AND reattaching that light AND installing a showerhead and showerknob. It shouldn't take more than two days of work as long as everything is there.
I GET TO MOVE BACK HOME NEXT WEEKEND!!!!
They're installing the toilet now. They can't reinstall the old sink so I'll be getting a pedestal sink (~$40). They'll also put in a full length cabinet in the area where the bathtub just vacated so I'll still be able to keep my Draino and whatnot up there.
They weren't planning on putting in a shower door. They just expected me to use a shower curtain. But I've never seen a shower with a shower curtain unless it was a bathtub with a shower. After some heming and hawing and many tape measure sounds they think they can get a shower door to fit.
Plus paint AND screwing the vent back up AND reattaching that light AND installing a showerhead and showerknob. It shouldn't take more than two days of work as long as everything is there.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Movie review: Monster House
I went to see Monster House this weekend. I hadn't planned to until a friend of mine sent out this review.
"Monster House" ranks up with "Hoodwinked" and "Cars" as one of the best animated pictures I've seen this year. Technically, the care taken with lighting and texturing is lushly apparent. The character animation, from gross body movements to facial movement and their application not only to the lines spoken, but their inflection, is simply excellent. The story reeks of the hands of the movie's executive producers - Spielberg and Zemeckis - and in a good way. Though his name's not on the director's credit, this is the closest thing Spielberg's come to the sense of childlike wonder and danger he achieved in " E.T.", which may explain why Amblin optioned this script in the first place.
The story is classic Kid's Neighborhood Ghost Story. The old man in the creepy old house who yells at kids to keep off his lawn... has a secret. It's lightweight, and might be a little intense for small kids. Miranda hid in my lap during a couple of scenes, although at the climax, when the demonic house is marauding around the neighborhood trying to eat children, Lillian was gleefully cheering it on "Get em! Get em!"
I found the whole story to be simple, but very well executed. A few clunky parts don't detract from the breezy pace and delightfully realistic (for the premise) dialog from the movie's 11-year old (or so) protagonists. The relationships are deftly executed enough to be blindingly familiar to anyone who was in 6th grade at any point.
What I loved about this movie was its lack of concern for propriety and willingness to throw some seriously fearsome visuals into a kids' movie. With the amount of sharp dialog, double-entendres, strangely affecting humor and one seriously fascinating (and scary) house, I wonder if the Ghost of Jim Henson doesn't warrant a third Executive Producer credit.
I highly recommend this picture. It's not getting a lot of audience right now, though it deserves more (shades of "The Iron Giant"), and the number of "This movie is not appropriate!" comments I've read from whiny parents so far (who would probably have a coronary if they saw "The Dark Crystal") should only cement resolve to show some box-office love to this picture. It's not perfect, but it's a supremely superior example of the type of entertainment that Grandpa Pixar has ushered into the world.
"Monster House" ranks up with "Hoodwinked" and "Cars" as one of the best animated pictures I've seen this year. Technically, the care taken with lighting and texturing is lushly apparent. The character animation, from gross body movements to facial movement and their application not only to the lines spoken, but their inflection, is simply excellent. The story reeks of the hands of the movie's executive producers - Spielberg and Zemeckis - and in a good way. Though his name's not on the director's credit, this is the closest thing Spielberg's come to the sense of childlike wonder and danger he achieved in " E.T.", which may explain why Amblin optioned this script in the first place.
The story is classic Kid's Neighborhood Ghost Story. The old man in the creepy old house who yells at kids to keep off his lawn... has a secret. It's lightweight, and might be a little intense for small kids. Miranda hid in my lap during a couple of scenes, although at the climax, when the demonic house is marauding around the neighborhood trying to eat children, Lillian was gleefully cheering it on "Get em! Get em!"
I found the whole story to be simple, but very well executed. A few clunky parts don't detract from the breezy pace and delightfully realistic (for the premise) dialog from the movie's 11-year old (or so) protagonists. The relationships are deftly executed enough to be blindingly familiar to anyone who was in 6th grade at any point.
What I loved about this movie was its lack of concern for propriety and willingness to throw some seriously fearsome visuals into a kids' movie. With the amount of sharp dialog, double-entendres, strangely affecting humor and one seriously fascinating (and scary) house, I wonder if the Ghost of Jim Henson doesn't warrant a third Executive Producer credit.
I highly recommend this picture. It's not getting a lot of audience right now, though it deserves more (shades of "The Iron Giant"), and the number of "This movie is not appropriate!" comments I've read from whiny parents so far (who would probably have a coronary if they saw "The Dark Crystal") should only cement resolve to show some box-office love to this picture. It's not perfect, but it's a supremely superior example of the type of entertainment that Grandpa Pixar has ushered into the world.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Base hike
Life on base is interesting. I was just walking back to my office and cut through the courtyard behind the base hotel. It's where wounded soldiers and their families stay after they're out of the hospital but still have therapy and/or further surgery.
One guy in a wheelchair was driving a remote control boat around in the fish fountain. Several more were sitting in a breezeway smoking cigarettes and drinking beers. A wife sat off to the side. She wasn't doing anything but didn't seem comfortable going over with her husband. In front of the hotel two more wives were swapping tricks to make their husbands take their pills. That was just one pass by there.
During the day a stroll across base is a parade of cybernetic replacements. Legs mostly. Running, walking, pushing their own wheelchairs until they get tired and then riding back. For the arms you have to go into the hospital and look around the waiting room or ride in the elevators. One guy I talked to was there to get his arm replaced since the one he had was twice as heavy as his last arm, his real arm.
This is a strange place to be.
One guy in a wheelchair was driving a remote control boat around in the fish fountain. Several more were sitting in a breezeway smoking cigarettes and drinking beers. A wife sat off to the side. She wasn't doing anything but didn't seem comfortable going over with her husband. In front of the hotel two more wives were swapping tricks to make their husbands take their pills. That was just one pass by there.
During the day a stroll across base is a parade of cybernetic replacements. Legs mostly. Running, walking, pushing their own wheelchairs until they get tired and then riding back. For the arms you have to go into the hospital and look around the waiting room or ride in the elevators. One guy I talked to was there to get his arm replaced since the one he had was twice as heavy as his last arm, his real arm.
This is a strange place to be.
Friday, August 25, 2006
More toilet news
Ignore my previous post about the toilet. It was written with the best information at the time, but that wasn't the toilet I got. Sitting in my living room is a Rockton dual force bowl. The company is Sterling and Sterling is owned by Kohler. Thus the confusion.
The price has dropped in half to ~$450.
Alas, when I went home yesterday nothing had changed in the bathroom since the weekend before. All that was new was a box of commode. I'm telling myself that since the remainder of the work can be done in a day there's no reason for them to show up until everything is ready. It's what I'd do. Go work where you can do the most instead of hopping about town on little 30 minutes jobs. This is my new mantra and I have fashioned a crude shiv for anyone who dares harsh my buzz.
The price has dropped in half to ~$450.
Alas, when I went home yesterday nothing had changed in the bathroom since the weekend before. All that was new was a box of commode. I'm telling myself that since the remainder of the work can be done in a day there's no reason for them to show up until everything is ready. It's what I'd do. Go work where you can do the most instead of hopping about town on little 30 minutes jobs. This is my new mantra and I have fashioned a crude shiv for anyone who dares harsh my buzz.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Rubbish
Man, daytime TV is crap. The guy across the hall got cable installed in his office a few months ago. If he were like most people in this building who have cable he'd leave it on CNN or Fox all day. No, he leaves it on NBC. So I get The Today Show blasting at me with such hard hitting journalism as "Americans now more polite than Brits". They spent at least 15 minutes on that subject. Even the real news shows keep their reports on actual news shorter than that. And you can tell who the target audience is. It's at-home mothers into organic this, herbal that, and all-natural the other.
And it'll get worse. Later he switches to Jerry Springer and the Springer wanna-bes. Yes, the show that shows us that the verbal skills of black women can only be expressed through yelling and an elaborate series of head snaps.
Look! Something other than me bitching!
Taken from the roof where I helped tear down those solar panels. That grain silo is ~3.5 miles away. The image (the one you get if you click on the image above) has been reduced to 25% of the original, but not cropped. I'm very happy with the zoom and auto-stabilization.
And it'll get worse. Later he switches to Jerry Springer and the Springer wanna-bes. Yes, the show that shows us that the verbal skills of black women can only be expressed through yelling and an elaborate series of head snaps.
Look! Something other than me bitching!
Taken from the roof where I helped tear down those solar panels. That grain silo is ~3.5 miles away. The image (the one you get if you click on the image above) has been reduced to 25% of the original, but not cropped. I'm very happy with the zoom and auto-stabilization.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
LED lightbulbs
LED lightbulbs are now on clearance at Thinkgeek.com.
Various labs have been working on LED lightbulbs for years. But they've usually put out too much heat. They've finally got some that can go on the market. These aren't the only model, but they're one of the more affordable varieties. Another variety is hanging in the kitchen in the "Green House" display at The Building Museum here in DC.
I gave these out as Dougmas gifts last year. Your usual means of judging brightness doesn't really apply. But I'd say the Vivid Plus is roughly 20 Watts. They put off a blue cast. The Plus would make a good bathroom or hall light for staggering around in the middle of the night without getting blinded. Not as harsh as a nightlight, but brighter. I'll be using one as a back porch light.
They're supposed to last ~10 years and the Plus should cost ~$2.00 per year to run. Sure, they're expensive but think of it as encouraging development of a promising technology.
Various labs have been working on LED lightbulbs for years. But they've usually put out too much heat. They've finally got some that can go on the market. These aren't the only model, but they're one of the more affordable varieties. Another variety is hanging in the kitchen in the "Green House" display at The Building Museum here in DC.
I gave these out as Dougmas gifts last year. Your usual means of judging brightness doesn't really apply. But I'd say the Vivid Plus is roughly 20 Watts. They put off a blue cast. The Plus would make a good bathroom or hall light for staggering around in the middle of the night without getting blinded. Not as harsh as a nightlight, but brighter. I'll be using one as a back porch light.
They're supposed to last ~10 years and the Plus should cost ~$2.00 per year to run. Sure, they're expensive but think of it as encouraging development of a promising technology.
My Kiosk
Several months ago I sat in on a meeting between my new boss and some people from an area museum. They're preparing a small display on hand surgery that will open for a conference in September and then a larger one will open early next year. I suggested that I could develop a virtual hand surgery application to go along with it. I was inspired by "Operation Frog" that I played with on an Apple ][ back in grade school. But then I saw the Virtual Knee Surgery and had all kinds of plans. My work was slowed by having to do what I'm paid for. Instead of having 3 operations to choose from they only get one in this initial version. I'm hoping to add another by the next stage of the display.
Today I went over to the museum to look at the kiosk that they'll be using. It's a decent piece of hardware. Looks like it was made in someone's garage. The internal electronics are a Macintosh Quadra from 1991 and an Apple monitor of about the same age. They used to have several, but as they died they got hauled off. This one is dead but they never got around to removing it. Lucky me. As long as the monitor works I'm in good shape. I have a few extra G4s laying around my office. We'll loan them one and probably sign it over to the museum permanently.
I'm psyched. I not only get to have my program running in a museum, but I get to breath life back into the kiosk that will be showing it. The guy I'm working with is learning to develop this same sort of stuff so hopefully he'll get many years of use out of this thing.
Watch this space for the eventual arrival of my program.
Today I went over to the museum to look at the kiosk that they'll be using. It's a decent piece of hardware. Looks like it was made in someone's garage. The internal electronics are a Macintosh Quadra from 1991 and an Apple monitor of about the same age. They used to have several, but as they died they got hauled off. This one is dead but they never got around to removing it. Lucky me. As long as the monitor works I'm in good shape. I have a few extra G4s laying around my office. We'll loan them one and probably sign it over to the museum permanently.
I'm psyched. I not only get to have my program running in a museum, but I get to breath life back into the kiosk that will be showing it. The guy I'm working with is learning to develop this same sort of stuff so hopefully he'll get many years of use out of this thing.
Watch this space for the eventual arrival of my program.
Monday, August 21, 2006
House update
I swung by the house again this weekend. The bathroom walls and ceiling are fully assembled and plastered. The floor and shower are fully tiled. The shower needs a knob, shower head, and door.
Looks like once the reinstall the toilet and sink, slap up some paint, that'll be it.
For them. I've still got a lot of work.
Looks like once the reinstall the toilet and sink, slap up some paint, that'll be it.
For them. I've still got a lot of work.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Movie reviews
Snakes on a Plane
Pretty much exactly what the title suggests. The idea was to combine three common phobias - snakes, flying, and confined spaces - into one action/horror movie. It's better than all those airplane disaster movies of the 70's but not as scary as "Airplane" with Leslie Nielson (that movie still freaks me out). It opens with a variety of shots of Hawaii that lasts way too long. Then they start developing the back story. They get through that as fast as possible because we didn't come to see that. Then a whole bunch of snakes get loose on an airplane to try to kill a witness to a mob hit.
This was a fun movie. Don't think about the story too much. Don't try to analyze it. Just watch it and enjoy. There was more laughing in the theatre than screaming, but there were some wincing at the attacks. Go see this if you're looking for a good mindless action flick.
p.s. There's no mongoose.
p.p.s. They could have just cranked up the AC and knocked out the snakes, but nobody asked me.
The Illusionist
First, my apologies to my readers in Wichita and similar mid-west cities. You probably don't get to see this movie until it comes out on DVD. This is playing in independent theatres and you don't have any of those. Neener, neener.
This is "Thomas Crown Affair" in the 1800's. A peasant boy and a noble born girl meet and fall in love. The meet in secret for years until they're torn apart. He goes on to become a great magician while she becomes engaged to the emperor's heir. They meet again when she is volunteered to assist him with a trick. They start to see each other again behind the crown prince's back. He finds out and loses his temper. She turns up floating in the river with her throat slashed and her horse covered in blood. It's pretty obvious that the prince, who is known to be abusive and has killed before, is responsible. The magician becomes determined to prove the prince's guilt.
One reviewer called this what M. Night Shyamalan wished he could still do.
I'll probably get this one on DVD.
Pretty much exactly what the title suggests. The idea was to combine three common phobias - snakes, flying, and confined spaces - into one action/horror movie. It's better than all those airplane disaster movies of the 70's but not as scary as "Airplane" with Leslie Nielson (that movie still freaks me out). It opens with a variety of shots of Hawaii that lasts way too long. Then they start developing the back story. They get through that as fast as possible because we didn't come to see that. Then a whole bunch of snakes get loose on an airplane to try to kill a witness to a mob hit.
This was a fun movie. Don't think about the story too much. Don't try to analyze it. Just watch it and enjoy. There was more laughing in the theatre than screaming, but there were some wincing at the attacks. Go see this if you're looking for a good mindless action flick.
p.s. There's no mongoose.
p.p.s. They could have just cranked up the AC and knocked out the snakes, but nobody asked me.
The Illusionist
First, my apologies to my readers in Wichita and similar mid-west cities. You probably don't get to see this movie until it comes out on DVD. This is playing in independent theatres and you don't have any of those. Neener, neener.
This is "Thomas Crown Affair" in the 1800's. A peasant boy and a noble born girl meet and fall in love. The meet in secret for years until they're torn apart. He goes on to become a great magician while she becomes engaged to the emperor's heir. They meet again when she is volunteered to assist him with a trick. They start to see each other again behind the crown prince's back. He finds out and loses his temper. She turns up floating in the river with her throat slashed and her horse covered in blood. It's pretty obvious that the prince, who is known to be abusive and has killed before, is responsible. The magician becomes determined to prove the prince's guilt.
One reviewer called this what M. Night Shyamalan wished he could still do.
I'll probably get this one on DVD.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Dr Who and friends
I'm a rabid Dr. Who fan. I was one of those kids you hear about getting freaked out by the opening credits and hiding behind the couch while Tom Baker fought giant robots. So you know I have to download the illegal episodes on-line hours after they air and then pick up the legal DVDs as soon as they hit the shelves. Due to my housing situation I'm still missing the last two episodes of season two and it's killing me.
I was listening to the DVD commentary and had to hop online to look up the status of the forthcoming "Torchwood" series. "Torchwood" is heavily referenced in season 2 and is the name of the spin-off starring Capt. Jack. It should start airing in October.
The Sarah Jane Smith character, also from the old giant robot/Tom Baker days, starred in the last spin-off attempt. I saw it. Rubbish. It was a good thing they killed it after episode one. But after her reappearance in season 2 they're giving her another chance with "Sarah Jane Investigates" which should start around New Years.
SciFi Channel will start airing season 2 in late september along with the new episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
And PBS will be showing "Casanova" this fall. It was essentially David Tennant's audition for the role of Dr. number 10. Some of you will recognize David from his recent role as Barty Crouch Junior in the latest Harry Potter movie. You can also hear him doing the voice of the caretaker in the Dr. Who webcast of "Scream of the Shalka". As long as you're there, go watch "Shada", too. It's one of Douglas Adams old episodes written for the Tom Baker days but played by Dr. #8.
I was listening to the DVD commentary and had to hop online to look up the status of the forthcoming "Torchwood" series. "Torchwood" is heavily referenced in season 2 and is the name of the spin-off starring Capt. Jack. It should start airing in October.
The Sarah Jane Smith character, also from the old giant robot/Tom Baker days, starred in the last spin-off attempt. I saw it. Rubbish. It was a good thing they killed it after episode one. But after her reappearance in season 2 they're giving her another chance with "Sarah Jane Investigates" which should start around New Years.
SciFi Channel will start airing season 2 in late september along with the new episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
And PBS will be showing "Casanova" this fall. It was essentially David Tennant's audition for the role of Dr. number 10. Some of you will recognize David from his recent role as Barty Crouch Junior in the latest Harry Potter movie. You can also hear him doing the voice of the caretaker in the Dr. Who webcast of "Scream of the Shalka". As long as you're there, go watch "Shada", too. It's one of Douglas Adams old episodes written for the Tom Baker days but played by Dr. #8.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Movie reviews
One of my co-workers has a huge video collection. Good stuff, bad stuff, all sorts of stuff. He helps justify it by loaning them out as much as possible. He brought me another stack tuesday.
Undead: This is a zombie flick with some aliens thrown in. It starts pretty standard with debris from space causing people to become undead brain eating machines that can only be stopped by destroying the brain. Then the clouds and burning rain come, the beams of light from the sky kidnapping bugs and people and cows, then the giant wall completely surrounding the city, then the glowing robed figures... and our heros keep trying desperately to get an airplane and escape over the wall.
The cover was familiar, but the title just doesn't stick with me. I'd seen this movie once before. It's a must see for the zombie movie fanatics, but I don't need to see this one again.
Wolf Creek: See story 132 (variant A) in "Every Plot Ever". A group of people go out in the middle of nowhere, get stranded, get help from a local bumpkin, the local bumpkin likes hacking them up, one escapes to tell the story.
This also uses character 59, the great animal hunter who has turned to hunting humans.
I don't get these movies. I love scary movies, but these aren't scary. These rely on images of people getting hurt to get a reaction.
The Hills Have Eyes(2006): See story 132 (variant B) in "Every Plot Ever". A group of people go out in the middle of nowhere on the advice of some local bumpkin, get stranded via sabotage, the local bumpkin (or friends) likes hacking them up, three escape to tell the story.
This has the bonus of twisted deformities on the villains to creep you out. Still not scary.
The most engaging character was a deformed kid who plays character 54, the standard good girl person among beast people who saves our heros and then dies so the heros don't feel obliged to save her.
Undead: This is a zombie flick with some aliens thrown in. It starts pretty standard with debris from space causing people to become undead brain eating machines that can only be stopped by destroying the brain. Then the clouds and burning rain come, the beams of light from the sky kidnapping bugs and people and cows, then the giant wall completely surrounding the city, then the glowing robed figures... and our heros keep trying desperately to get an airplane and escape over the wall.
The cover was familiar, but the title just doesn't stick with me. I'd seen this movie once before. It's a must see for the zombie movie fanatics, but I don't need to see this one again.
Wolf Creek: See story 132 (variant A) in "Every Plot Ever". A group of people go out in the middle of nowhere, get stranded, get help from a local bumpkin, the local bumpkin likes hacking them up, one escapes to tell the story.
This also uses character 59, the great animal hunter who has turned to hunting humans.
I don't get these movies. I love scary movies, but these aren't scary. These rely on images of people getting hurt to get a reaction.
The Hills Have Eyes(2006): See story 132 (variant B) in "Every Plot Ever". A group of people go out in the middle of nowhere on the advice of some local bumpkin, get stranded via sabotage, the local bumpkin (or friends) likes hacking them up, three escape to tell the story.
This has the bonus of twisted deformities on the villains to creep you out. Still not scary.
The most engaging character was a deformed kid who plays character 54, the standard good girl person among beast people who saves our heros and then dies so the heros don't feel obliged to save her.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Solar Decathlon
After yesterday's post I started wondering how the teams for the Solar Decathlon were coming along. For 2005 one school had a webcam so we could watch construction. I didn't know this until it was time to take everything apart so I missed most of the show. So I'm trying to get an earlier start this time.
The last time I looked the websites weren't even started. Now 19 of the 20 teams have sites, but only a few have posted their floorplans and sketches. And I'll present those to you here.
Cornell appears to be giving their home an exoskeleton. This gives several options for redesigning the outside by attaching or removing window shades or whatnot by season or mood. It provides easy access to the solar panels for maintenance. The panels could be repositioned to shade the roof or the deck. Air flows around the solar panels helping to keep them cool and running more efficiently. The solar panels shade the roof to keep the house cool.
Texas A&M seems to be using a modular design of a bunch of boxes with part attached as needed. They're putting plants on the roof to keep the house cool and make better use of the rainwater. There's also several small skylights to make the best use of natural light. The solar panels will shade the deck instead of being on the roof.
Kansas State is entered for the first time this year. I can't tell much from the image they provide. Looks like some recycled corrugated metal for shading the deck. Wooden slats over the windows to allow winter sun, but not summer. It's designed around the easy to transport mobile home model. Half of the building is for letting the sun in and half is for keeping it out.
University of Illinois has several picture of the plans they're considering here. They also seem interested in keeping the solar panels out of direct contact with the roof. They also seem to want to have sliding screens to put over the glass walls or remove at will.
MIT has an animated gif that you can see below. It moves too fast for me to make much sense of, but ... is that a sunken shower in an open air bathroom? No, that's a deck and maybe a hot tub? If so that shows confidence in their hot water production. Some windows have wooden slats outside while others have a pull down blind inside. And is that a pane of glass about a foot from the real window? The garage consists of a short wall about a car width from the house.
(note: when uploading this image the animation was lost. Follow the MIT link to see the original.
University of Maryland just has the one image. All I can see is that they put their wooden slats on hinges and that the solar panels are again up off the roof. They might be using them to channel rainwater somewhere.
I'm always pretty happy with what University of Missouri Rolla students come up with. The houses from 2002 and 2005 are being uses as on campus housing now.
They have a partially green roof and solar panels directly on the roof. Aside from that I can't tell much. You can see the floor plans here.
The last time I looked the websites weren't even started. Now 19 of the 20 teams have sites, but only a few have posted their floorplans and sketches. And I'll present those to you here.
Cornell appears to be giving their home an exoskeleton. This gives several options for redesigning the outside by attaching or removing window shades or whatnot by season or mood. It provides easy access to the solar panels for maintenance. The panels could be repositioned to shade the roof or the deck. Air flows around the solar panels helping to keep them cool and running more efficiently. The solar panels shade the roof to keep the house cool.
Texas A&M seems to be using a modular design of a bunch of boxes with part attached as needed. They're putting plants on the roof to keep the house cool and make better use of the rainwater. There's also several small skylights to make the best use of natural light. The solar panels will shade the deck instead of being on the roof.
Kansas State is entered for the first time this year. I can't tell much from the image they provide. Looks like some recycled corrugated metal for shading the deck. Wooden slats over the windows to allow winter sun, but not summer. It's designed around the easy to transport mobile home model. Half of the building is for letting the sun in and half is for keeping it out.
University of Illinois has several picture of the plans they're considering here. They also seem interested in keeping the solar panels out of direct contact with the roof. They also seem to want to have sliding screens to put over the glass walls or remove at will.
MIT has an animated gif that you can see below. It moves too fast for me to make much sense of, but ... is that a sunken shower in an open air bathroom? No, that's a deck and maybe a hot tub? If so that shows confidence in their hot water production. Some windows have wooden slats outside while others have a pull down blind inside. And is that a pane of glass about a foot from the real window? The garage consists of a short wall about a car width from the house.
(note: when uploading this image the animation was lost. Follow the MIT link to see the original.University of Maryland just has the one image. All I can see is that they put their wooden slats on hinges and that the solar panels are again up off the roof. They might be using them to channel rainwater somewhere.
I'm always pretty happy with what University of Missouri Rolla students come up with. The houses from 2002 and 2005 are being uses as on campus housing now.
They have a partially green roof and solar panels directly on the roof. Aside from that I can't tell much. You can see the floor plans here.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Batman's Toilet
I'm a Solar Decathlon groupie. The Solar Decathlon is an event held every few years (Oct '02, Oct '05, and returning in Oct '07) where college students from all over the country, and a few places outside, build houses that function off of the grid. They have to fit within certain dimensions, but aside from that anything goes. Once the house is built it is shipped to Washington, DC and setup on the Mall for ~10 days. They're then judged on comfort, energy use, climate control, engineering and some other subjects. And when not being judged they're open for public tours. Plan now to be in DC for the Oct. 2007 show.
For my eventual rear deck I tried to get some lumber I saw used in one house, but it turned out to be a special material invented by the students and not yet on the market. Based on what I saw there I'm trying to use foam insulation to insulate my house. I'll be doing the floor of my second story over in bamboo and plan for one wall to be bamboo that I'll stain in a design.
I also saw this toilet in several houses.
It has two buttons for flushing. One for solids and one for liquids. After all, you don't need as much water for a midnight trip to the bathroom that you might need for a post-Thanksgiving overload. So that's what I told my contractor that I wanted if he found it necessary to dispose of the old toilet.
He called me yesterday and said that he got one from Kohler (I'm almost certain that's what he said) but it won't be delivered until next week. Sure, why not. It's already been two weeks more than expected. I've worked this patch of loop carpet into something almost as soft as cement. So what's another week?
I had to go out to Kohler's website to see what they have. Turns out they only have the one model of dual flush toilet and it goes for the low, low price of only $900. Even their cheap models are $450. Granted, I've never bought a toilet before so I'm not too sure what they generally go for, and Kohler is one of the bad mamma-jammas of the bathroom fixture world, but for $900 I feel it should also wipe my butt and thwart the Joker's latest evil scheme.
I better not ever have to jiggle the handle.
More of my pictures from the 2005 Solar Decathlon can be seen here thanks to Wayne "Danger" Stout.
For my eventual rear deck I tried to get some lumber I saw used in one house, but it turned out to be a special material invented by the students and not yet on the market. Based on what I saw there I'm trying to use foam insulation to insulate my house. I'll be doing the floor of my second story over in bamboo and plan for one wall to be bamboo that I'll stain in a design.
I also saw this toilet in several houses.
It has two buttons for flushing. One for solids and one for liquids. After all, you don't need as much water for a midnight trip to the bathroom that you might need for a post-Thanksgiving overload. So that's what I told my contractor that I wanted if he found it necessary to dispose of the old toilet.
He called me yesterday and said that he got one from Kohler (I'm almost certain that's what he said) but it won't be delivered until next week. Sure, why not. It's already been two weeks more than expected. I've worked this patch of loop carpet into something almost as soft as cement. So what's another week?
I had to go out to Kohler's website to see what they have. Turns out they only have the one model of dual flush toilet and it goes for the low, low price of only $900. Even their cheap models are $450. Granted, I've never bought a toilet before so I'm not too sure what they generally go for, and Kohler is one of the bad mamma-jammas of the bathroom fixture world, but for $900 I feel it should also wipe my butt and thwart the Joker's latest evil scheme.
I better not ever have to jiggle the handle.
More of my pictures from the 2005 Solar Decathlon can be seen here thanks to Wayne "Danger" Stout.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Hurricane season
Hurricane season begins June 1 and lasts until December 1. After the escalation of number and severity of these storms over the last few years I've been paying a bit more attention than I have in the past. There was a big deal made of the beginning of the current season back in the beginning of June, but so far there haven't been much in the way of hurricanes this year. A few tropical storms, sure, but nothing to get upset about. I'm not complaining mind you. Hurricanes drive up the price of plywood and sheetrock and I want mine as cheap as possible. Even so, I was beginning to wonder when all the hurricanes were gonna show up.
A quick Google search came up with some numbers, but I'm looking for a simple graphic that sums it all up. The people at NOAA had a tiny little thing on this page but it's kind of hard to make out. I went to download it and found that they named the image "small_hfreq.jpg". Well, what happens if I remove the word "small_"? I get a BIG image.
So according to this things start getting heated up right about... today!
------
p.s. Click on the image to see the readable version.
A quick Google search came up with some numbers, but I'm looking for a simple graphic that sums it all up. The people at NOAA had a tiny little thing on this page but it's kind of hard to make out. I went to download it and found that they named the image "small_hfreq.jpg". Well, what happens if I remove the word "small_"? I get a BIG image.
So according to this things start getting heated up right about... today!
------
p.s. Click on the image to see the readable version.
Monday, August 14, 2006
The 10 Bumperstickers
I haven't talked about Dougintology much. There was the posting about prayer a few months back and a mention of Towel Day, one of the few official holidays, but that's been it. It's time to expand.
Dougintology is a religion of one. It's based on the beliefs of a guy named Doug. It has a single believer, also named Doug. Only Doug can tell Doug what Doug believes. If the Pope decides that the color blue is an abomination before God all the Catholics have to change their wardrobe. But Doug will just hit the Salvation Army and stock up.
Just as the Bible worshiping faiths have their 10 Commandments Dougintology is trying to come up with 10 Bumperstickers. Partially as something to sell, but also to sum up in simple soundbite form some of the essential beliefs of The Lord Doug Almighty.
Here's what I've got nailed down in not particular order.
1) Make abortion unnecessary, not illegal.
2) Stupidity is the deadliest sin.
3) I'm wrong and so are you.
4) Science: It's about how, not who.
Here's a few others under consideration
5) Marriage: Not a government concern.
6) Science: God's toolbox.
7) Lilith was a REAL woman.
8) "Tradition" is another way of saying there's no good reason for something.
9) Sterility is a gift.
10) Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.
I'll try not to harp on them too much, but when I'm running low on ideas of what to post I'll lean back on these bumperstickers.
If you have any other suggestions I'm open to hearing them.
Dougintology is a religion of one. It's based on the beliefs of a guy named Doug. It has a single believer, also named Doug. Only Doug can tell Doug what Doug believes. If the Pope decides that the color blue is an abomination before God all the Catholics have to change their wardrobe. But Doug will just hit the Salvation Army and stock up.
Just as the Bible worshiping faiths have their 10 Commandments Dougintology is trying to come up with 10 Bumperstickers. Partially as something to sell, but also to sum up in simple soundbite form some of the essential beliefs of The Lord Doug Almighty.
Here's what I've got nailed down in not particular order.
1) Make abortion unnecessary, not illegal.
2) Stupidity is the deadliest sin.
3) I'm wrong and so are you.
4) Science: It's about how, not who.
Here's a few others under consideration
5) Marriage: Not a government concern.
6) Science: God's toolbox.
7) Lilith was a REAL woman.
8) "Tradition" is another way of saying there's no good reason for something.
9) Sterility is a gift.
10) Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.
I'll try not to harp on them too much, but when I'm running low on ideas of what to post I'll lean back on these bumperstickers.
If you have any other suggestions I'm open to hearing them.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Death of a solar panel
Roughly 20 years ago Kansas gave tax credits for people who bought solar panels for their homes. I don't recall the exact requirements but most people who took advantage of it installed solar water heaters. My parents got some and my uncle got some. But age, and a hailstorm, have taken their toll on my uncle's house. Over the 4th of July Dad and I went over to help him take them down.
A recent hailstorm took out the two panels on the left.
We pulled a wheat truck around to the back of the house and built a quick and dirty deck on the top. It's easier to put them on the deck and then lower them down than to just lower them from the roof.
And those colors are natural. No photo retouching.
In the circle is where one of the hailstones hit. They were huge and they were jagged.
My uncle is gonna need his whole roof repaired. Some internal plumbing issues mean the panels will probably not be replaced.
A recent hailstorm took out the two panels on the left. 
We pulled a wheat truck around to the back of the house and built a quick and dirty deck on the top. It's easier to put them on the deck and then lower them down than to just lower them from the roof. And those colors are natural. No photo retouching.
In the circle is where one of the hailstones hit. They were huge and they were jagged.My uncle is gonna need his whole roof repaired. Some internal plumbing issues mean the panels will probably not be replaced.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Movie review: The Devil Wears Prada
This was supposed to be a review of the cult classic "Snakes on a Plane" but the movie listings were deceptive and it doesn't come out until thursday night. I went to see "The Devil Wears Prada" instead because while the theme is different the villain still gets killed by a mongoose.
If you've seen the trailers then you already know everything about this movie. Anne Hathaway goes to work at a major fashion magazine under the command of nightmare boss Meryl Streep.
For Meryl Streep's part they seem to have used the opportunity to try out the technology intended for next year's movie "Magneto" where they use computers to strip 30 years off of Sir Ian McKellen. That or lots of spackle.
Nobody from New York is going to believe me, but Anne Hathaway looked better before the makeover. Ok, there was that one dress that she wore to the party, but her hair, makeup, and clothing looked better before she was made "fashionable". Granted, they spent a lot of time, effort, and makeup to make sure she looked good before they made her "look good", but in life in general I prefer a t-shirt and jeans woman.
Oh, right, the movie. They drew this from page 62 of Sir Francis Jacob's 1639 book "Every Plot Ever", the sequel to his not terribly popular book "Every Character Ever". Someone from a midwestern backwater like Chicago or St Louis goes to New York thinking she can make it big in the newspaper biz. After getting turned down for dozens of jobs she applys for a job as the assistant to the Editor in Chief of a huge fashion magazine because after one year there she should be able to be a success in any magazine or newspaper. The boss is an abusive monster who hates her clothes and insists she work all hours of the day and night. She alienates her friends and boyfriend with her long hours. They say she's changed, but the movie only really shows that through her not being quite as critical of runway models as she used to be. Eventually she realizes she's becoming like her boss and quits to work for some small newspaper... after replacing her boss's driver with a mongoose.
The boss isn't as nasty as I expected. She was just movie boss nasty instead of real world boss nasty.
And at the end the boyfriend is moving to Boston for his dream job, basically tells her he wants her to go with, she all but agrees, and then she goes for her new job. So... I guess... she's not going? All this and she's still breaking up with him?
Good movie, but I won't get it on DVD.
If you've seen the trailers then you already know everything about this movie. Anne Hathaway goes to work at a major fashion magazine under the command of nightmare boss Meryl Streep.
For Meryl Streep's part they seem to have used the opportunity to try out the technology intended for next year's movie "Magneto" where they use computers to strip 30 years off of Sir Ian McKellen. That or lots of spackle.
Nobody from New York is going to believe me, but Anne Hathaway looked better before the makeover. Ok, there was that one dress that she wore to the party, but her hair, makeup, and clothing looked better before she was made "fashionable". Granted, they spent a lot of time, effort, and makeup to make sure she looked good before they made her "look good", but in life in general I prefer a t-shirt and jeans woman.
Oh, right, the movie. They drew this from page 62 of Sir Francis Jacob's 1639 book "Every Plot Ever", the sequel to his not terribly popular book "Every Character Ever". Someone from a midwestern backwater like Chicago or St Louis goes to New York thinking she can make it big in the newspaper biz. After getting turned down for dozens of jobs she applys for a job as the assistant to the Editor in Chief of a huge fashion magazine because after one year there she should be able to be a success in any magazine or newspaper. The boss is an abusive monster who hates her clothes and insists she work all hours of the day and night. She alienates her friends and boyfriend with her long hours. They say she's changed, but the movie only really shows that through her not being quite as critical of runway models as she used to be. Eventually she realizes she's becoming like her boss and quits to work for some small newspaper... after replacing her boss's driver with a mongoose.
The boss isn't as nasty as I expected. She was just movie boss nasty instead of real world boss nasty.
And at the end the boyfriend is moving to Boston for his dream job, basically tells her he wants her to go with, she all but agrees, and then she goes for her new job. So... I guess... she's not going? All this and she's still breaking up with him?
Good movie, but I won't get it on DVD.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Stupid bird
Gandolf, my parrot, has gotten way too comfortable living in my office. She was pretty quiet for the first few weeks, but now she has no qualms about belting out a tune no matter how many stars the General walking up the hall has on his shoulder.
They've almost got the bathroom done. Any day now. Aaaaany day now.
They've almost got the bathroom done. Any day now. Aaaaany day now.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Movie Review: A Scanner Darkly
Sunday I went to see "A Scanner Darkly". You've seen the trailers for this. It's the one where it looks like they took a life action film and then went back and traced the characters. Sometimes you're convinced that's what they did and other times you're convinced they didn't because things aren't moving or rotating correctly.
It's another Phillip K. Dick story made movie form. You'll remember him for writing "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "Minority Report", and "Paycheck" among others. I thought "Paycheck" would have made a better video game than movie, but there you are.
So, "A Scanner Darkly" stars Keanu Reeves playing an undercover drug agent. He wears a suit that is programmed with millions of facial features. So he can look like anyone. Around the office it just randomly shifts facial and physical features. Nifty technology, but he only wears it outside the office to give a speech to the Elk's Lodge or something like that.
I don't want to get too far into the plot. I'll just say that it includes a heavy dose of PK Dick's usual paranoia and a string of twists and new complications as the story goes along. Some you expect from 2 minutes in others you don't see coming at all.
I can think of two reasons to use the animation technique they did. First, it would be cheaper to create the effect of the shifting features on the suits if they just drew it. Second, by making an animation based as close to reality as they did it causes the viewer's perception to shift and drag you into an altered state of mind to allow you to sympathize more with the drug induced state of the characters.
I haven't decided if I'll but it yet, but I enjoyed the movie.
It's another Phillip K. Dick story made movie form. You'll remember him for writing "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "Minority Report", and "Paycheck" among others. I thought "Paycheck" would have made a better video game than movie, but there you are.
So, "A Scanner Darkly" stars Keanu Reeves playing an undercover drug agent. He wears a suit that is programmed with millions of facial features. So he can look like anyone. Around the office it just randomly shifts facial and physical features. Nifty technology, but he only wears it outside the office to give a speech to the Elk's Lodge or something like that.
I don't want to get too far into the plot. I'll just say that it includes a heavy dose of PK Dick's usual paranoia and a string of twists and new complications as the story goes along. Some you expect from 2 minutes in others you don't see coming at all.
I can think of two reasons to use the animation technique they did. First, it would be cheaper to create the effect of the shifting features on the suits if they just drew it. Second, by making an animation based as close to reality as they did it causes the viewer's perception to shift and drag you into an altered state of mind to allow you to sympathize more with the drug induced state of the characters.
I haven't decided if I'll but it yet, but I enjoyed the movie.
Monday, August 07, 2006
This is hypothetical, right?
So, you've sold your soul to Satan. In exchange you get enough money that number no longer matter , hot and cold running honeys (gender up to you), and enough power and influence to solve all the world's problems. You live to an obscene age and know you're going to die soon. You dig out your old summoning book and summon a succubus (or incubus). After a night of passion it eats your soul.
My questions to you:
1) How pissed off is Satan right now?
2) Did you really manage to cheat him? Sure, you got out of eternal torture but you've been eaten
My questions to you:
1) How pissed off is Satan right now?
2) Did you really manage to cheat him? Sure, you got out of eternal torture but you've been eaten
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Movie Review: Barnyard
I went to see the movie "Barnyard" today. It's a digital animation that's supposed to look like it's Aardman Entertainment (Chicken Run and Wallace & Grommet) claymation.
The story and the dialog was pretty predicatable. The cow (a male cow, not a bull but a male cow) who is the leader of the farm animals gets killed while defending the farm from coyotes. His... not his son, but the male cow that he raised from a calf, is pretty much a goof off but he's the new farm leader. He has some problems breaking into the job, but he finally figures it out.
The father figure is named Ben and he gives the goof off all sorts of advice and just comes short of actually saying "With great power comes great responsibility". Instead of a radioactive spider you get a copy of "Charlotte's Web".
But the movie has it's points. The scene when all the farm animals are panicing as the farmer comes to see their party looks like it was inspired by an Unseen University (read some Terry Pratchett) staff meeting. The way they take revenge on a cow tipper was fun. And the soundtrack is good.
I won't be getting this on DVD, but your kids will love it and you'll be able to sit through it several times and even enjoy it the first few.
The story and the dialog was pretty predicatable. The cow (a male cow, not a bull but a male cow) who is the leader of the farm animals gets killed while defending the farm from coyotes. His... not his son, but the male cow that he raised from a calf, is pretty much a goof off but he's the new farm leader. He has some problems breaking into the job, but he finally figures it out.
The father figure is named Ben and he gives the goof off all sorts of advice and just comes short of actually saying "With great power comes great responsibility". Instead of a radioactive spider you get a copy of "Charlotte's Web".
But the movie has it's points. The scene when all the farm animals are panicing as the farmer comes to see their party looks like it was inspired by an Unseen University (read some Terry Pratchett) staff meeting. The way they take revenge on a cow tipper was fun. And the soundtrack is good.
I won't be getting this on DVD, but your kids will love it and you'll be able to sit through it several times and even enjoy it the first few.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Fun with cameras
I take enough pictures for work and for projects that I keep telling myself I'll finish some day that I decided to upgrade to a deluxe bad mamma-jamma of a camera when the last one got too puny to continue. One of the features that I like is the ability to adjust the shutter speed. I can leave it open for as long as a minute. This won't allow me to take the spinning stars pictures I see in astonomy magazines, but it'll work out fairly well for most other stuff.
Like this...
You can't get quality darkness in the city. You've gotta get out where neither McDonalds or Starbucks dare to roam. I set up the camera on the back of the pickup, turned on a flashlight and put my hand over the lens, walked out in front of the camera a short distance, and then moved around while uncovering the flashlight where it seemed right. The light spider over one of my faces is a firework going off in the distance.
Like this...
You can't get quality darkness in the city. You've gotta get out where neither McDonalds or Starbucks dare to roam. I set up the camera on the back of the pickup, turned on a flashlight and put my hand over the lens, walked out in front of the camera a short distance, and then moved around while uncovering the flashlight where it seemed right. The light spider over one of my faces is a firework going off in the distance.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
more foam
My new hose came in today. I'll say this for the people at TigerFoam, the staff is friendly, helpful, courteous, and really did what they could to help me out without risking getting ripped off. They dropped it in the mail monday afternoon and it was here wednesday lunchtime.
But this hose only worked a bit better than the last one. The hose to tank B, the foam tank, lost some content through that same gap but not much. It ran down the tank and stopped leaking. Tank A, the tank with the brown liquid, started by losing some content. I figured if I hurried I could make the best of it. So I sprayed like mad. When I turned around Tank A was covered in foam (see it comes out as foam and then settles into a brown liquid) and was spitting foam across the computer room onto the far wall.
There appears to be a reason the website says this stuff covers 600 sq/ft 1" deep. You can put up an inch deep layer then move on while that sets up. You have to put up 6 layers.
I'm gonna have the crew just finish the bathroom and then get some slow fill stuff to fill in the walls. I'll have to hire professionals to foam the rest of the back wall and the underside of the roof.
So I cleaned up the mess. I put down an old shower curtain so I could just pick up the pool of brown liquid and toss it out the second floor door. Good thing I planned to rip out the carpet in favor of bamboo flooring because that carpet is ruined.
To look at my hands you'd think I was a reject for the part of The Thing in The Fantastic Four.
But this hose only worked a bit better than the last one. The hose to tank B, the foam tank, lost some content through that same gap but not much. It ran down the tank and stopped leaking. Tank A, the tank with the brown liquid, started by losing some content. I figured if I hurried I could make the best of it. So I sprayed like mad. When I turned around Tank A was covered in foam (see it comes out as foam and then settles into a brown liquid) and was spitting foam across the computer room onto the far wall.
There appears to be a reason the website says this stuff covers 600 sq/ft 1" deep. You can put up an inch deep layer then move on while that sets up. You have to put up 6 layers.
I'm gonna have the crew just finish the bathroom and then get some slow fill stuff to fill in the walls. I'll have to hire professionals to foam the rest of the back wall and the underside of the roof.
So I cleaned up the mess. I put down an old shower curtain so I could just pick up the pool of brown liquid and toss it out the second floor door. Good thing I planned to rip out the carpet in favor of bamboo flooring because that carpet is ruined.
To look at my hands you'd think I was a reject for the part of The Thing in The Fantastic Four.
By the power of Mentos, I command ye RISE!
You've probably seen the videos of Mentos and Diet Coke eruptions. Well I had to try it for the 4th of July. The trick is to get all 4 Mentos in before everything goes up in a column of froth. Mom used a funnel and got it to work. I tried a funnel and it didn't work. I also tried a tube. I wanted to try running a thread through the middle and dropping them in, but I was voted down.
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