Mass Hysteria

Nose Candy

2006-04-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

With all the fuss about Barry approaching The Babe's home run record (which would make him the #1-all-time left-handed HR hitter), I can't help but remember a highly-touted lefty who started his career a few years before Bonds.

What would have happened if this guy could have kept his nose clean (literally). Would it have helped if he was somewhere other than NY? I used to have his Fleer rookie card (1984); even in 4/10 condition it was worth $30 back in 1988 or so.

Nothing?

2006-03-30T12:54:00.000-08:00

We need to recapture the moral high ground.

-Fay Vincent

Nothing is more important to me than the integrity of the game of baseball.

-Bud Selig

These gems and more.

My ass.

Gee, Sammy and Mark* sure do look strong this year! -Selig, '98
Wow, Barry's golden** years really are looking golden! -Selig, '01

*Replace "Sammy and Mark" with "our TV ratings"
** Replace "Barry's golden" with "the next few"

Gonna take some cuts after work

2006-03-10T11:15:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday Rob left a message for me on my answering machine inviting me to meet him at the batting cage to take some cuts. Rob's excitment about this upcoming MSBL season was apparent; he kept talking about his mile-runs several times per week, and about his new duties coaching track at the high school where he had just started teaching. Even though he turned 30 during the off-season, his pitching form was as good as I've seen it in the 3 years that we've played together. This would be a rare occasion for him to be in Albuquerque during the week, but alas I had other stuff to do and couldn't meet him. I had to get some things around the house done before my LA trip.

Rob's enthusiasm and hope is hard to deny. For the duration of my relationship with him, he has been in college finishing his teaching degree while working odd jobs (including the Victoria's Secret call-center) to try to get by. Since we've been practicing for this season (about 3 weeks now) he's been obviously stoked that he and Trish have really turned a corner in their marriage, and they're really doing well. Financially they're doing better than they ever have, and they even have more time for 4 year old Jonah now.

Yesterday I got a call from Brandon giving me details of Rob's memorial service which will be tonight at 6:30 pm in Belen.

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/441029nm03-11-06.htm

James 4:13-15 (New King James Version):
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

See also Luke 12:15-23

Lemme ax ya dis: Can you kick MY ass?

2006-02-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

Young Williams: "Hey man, I got my master's"
GFreak: "Yeah so what, what, you my master now? I'm sposed to listen to yo' punk-ass?"

(Clicky if you can't see)

Hawaiian Airlines: Dual purpose?

2006-02-23T09:48:00.000-08:00

So, yeah, Hawaii is the seat of the Pacific Fleet, for good reason being nearly in the center of the Pacific and all...

It just makes me smile to think that I've been flying 737s all my life interisland (and now interstate). It makes me giddy to think that those same 737s can do this now. Ok, so they're slightly modified to do this, but still, it's cool!

Invading Fleet's Admiral: There goes another one of those interisland flights.
Ensign on the Deck: Uh, sir, that airliner's flying awfully low for an interisland flight, don't you think? And, um, it's a little off course, considering we're still 900 miles northwest of Kauai?
IF'sA: Did something just fall from that airliner?
EotD: TORPEDO!!!!

Yet

2006-02-16T09:05:00.000-08:00

Don't get your hopes up. This isn't the one we all know is coming.

Olsen Twins Strike a Pose

Pearls...

2006-02-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

Have I told you guys that I love this cartoon?
Maybe it's just me, but this strip makes me out loud quite often.

(Click for Yahoo!Comics page and full-size pic)

Shudder

2006-01-27T10:16:00.000-08:00

There are very few living things that I fear, and I believe those fears are mostly legitimate. I don't have an irrational fear of spiders, even though an arachnid did send me to the emergency room back in May of 1998.

But scorpions just plain freak me out. And this story makes my skin absolutely crawl. While I was on Maui cleaning out the side yard and working on cars that most people would consider "scrap", I found two scorpion corpses and saw two live ones scampering. I killed one and smashed the area that the other one squeezed into. The next day, Mom was stung on her right hand while clearing some palm brush from the back corner of the property (Dad found it and killed it).

Scorpions I can do without.

The Enviro-Wackos: At it again?

2006-01-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

So now I don't know what to think.

Mouse Frustrates Endangered Species Policy

A while back, I raged about the idiots who wrongly identified a "new" mouse as a distinct subspecies worthy of Endangered Species protection, stalling development across much of Colorado and Wyoming. While I don't encourage development, especially across natural wonders like Rocky Mountain states, I do bridle at the misuse of the ESA solely to prevent it. It's like crying wolf, and I don't dig on it. It weakens efforts to legitimately protect other animals.

Anyway, now this jumping mouse ("Preble's Mouse") has been found, by another group, to be distinct from the "Bear Lodge Mouse" after all.

"It seemed to me from the get-go, he wanted to find that this was not a taxonomically valid subspecies," Hallerman said.

Correct me, please. Isn't "hypothesizing" part of the scientific method? And did this second group not "want to find that this was a taxonomically valid subspecies?"

No, Seriously, GO AWAY!

2006-01-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

I've known 3-day-old babies that cry less than this.

Bonds Doesn't Want to Hit 2nd

I've said it before, YOU NEED TO GO AWAY. Hang 'em up, it's been a great career. Retire, go away, go fishing, golfing, I don't care, just go away. You were tiresome when I liked you. Good night. Your dad is turning in his grave, plugging his ears so as not to hear his son whining.

You and Dusty sure do make a great pair for African-American boys to look up to.

No, seriously, I don't want you on my team anymore.

An Extra Toasty Spot For You

2006-01-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

So I read the first few paragraphs of this article in the Wall Street Journal today (there was a copy in the breakroom at work). Side note: Since when does BugMeNot not work for the WSJ?

So anyway, if you have access to the WSJ, make sure you read this article:

Audacious Defense: Enron's Moves Were Legal

When the trial of former Enron executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay begins Jan. 30, defense lawyers will make a bold argument: Everything their company did was legal.

I wonder how all of those Enron employees feel about their lost retirement plans. I wonder how Skilling and Lay feel about their former employees' lost retirement plans. Seems to me that there's an extra toasty spot in The Warm Place for these guys, but I'm not one to judge.

All I Want For Christmas

2005-12-13T08:37:00.000-08:00

Maybe I won't fulfill my childhood dream of being an astronaut. Maybe I'll just be a space-pilot for Virgin Galactic. 38,000 people have paid the $20,000 deposit (fully refundable) for flights beginning in '07 or '08 (total ticket price is $200,000). Even better, the Virgin Spaceport will be right here in my backyard.

Maybe they'll open a space-pilot flight school out here... I can only hope.

If anyone wants to drop a deposit on a couple of tickets for me, tickets can be purchased here. I'll send you a Thank You note, I promise.

Baby's First Fabulous

2005-11-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

I am certainly out of the loop when it comes to official policy regarding homosexuality in the priesthood. I learned a bit from this article ("Vatican Speaks Against Gay Seminarians"), but I laughed out loud when I read this:

[QUOTE]
Thomas Plante, a psychologist who for more than 15 years has conducted evaluations of prospective seminarians for U.S. dioceses and religious orders, said the document would have an "enormous" ripple effect on the future U.S. priesthood if it is followed.

"Sexual orientation in almost all the evaluations I've done over 15 years hasn't really mattered," he said. "Now what's coming out of the Vatican is that it matters in a big way. That's a real challenge because we think that there are many, many, many gay men who are fabulous priests."
[/QUOTE]

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

A Newtonian God

2005-11-18T12:10:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't mind being the Vatican's Chief Astronomer... it makes you wonder what he actually does, though.

Vatican Official Refutes Intelligent Design

I agree with a lot of what the Reverend George Coyne has to say, especially that Intelligent Design is not science and has no place being taught along side evolution or in any science class. If it is to be taught, it should be taught in religion classes; even then I don't think it should be "taught" so much as suggested since it is, after all, a matter of faith.

It can be hard to resolve scientific evidence with matters of faith, but it can be done. Having faith in "intelligent design" or a "Newtonian God" does not mean that you don't believe in science; faith is inherently unscientific (or better anti-scientific) in that you believe things without evidence. It's kind of like being a skeptic; saying "Yeah, I see your evidence and I don't dispute it. However, I can draw other conclusions."

In some sense, I distrust the rapid "pushers" of Evolution because I feel a sort of anti faith, wherein they intend to "disprove God" rather than to prove some science.

Tell me, reader: do you understand what I'm saying, or am I rambling? Or both? Do you agree, or have another viewpoint? I'm sure you do.

Amazing Facts in this story

2005-11-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Browsing Yahoo!News, stumbled on this:
Archaeologists Unveil Ancient Church Site

Apparently a prisoner in Israel was doing some of his hard-labor-debt-repayment clearing rubble when he stumbled on a 3rd century mosaic indicative of a pre-Byzantine Christian church.

But you know what really caught my attention? The prisoner was serving a 2 year prison sentence for (wait for it) traffic violations. That would make you think twice about speeding or stretching that yellow light, now wouldn't it?

Speaking of bad ideas

2005-10-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

FBI: Maui Resident Admits To Selling Stealth Secrets

I told you housing costs on Maui were going up. See what lengths poor Mr. Noshir S. Gowadia had to go to in order to have a luxury home on the slopes of Mt. Haleakala?

Speaking of that, from The Delmore Realty I've been in this house, I've played football in this yard, I've played in the treehouse around back, and I've been banned from the woodshop. The former residents now live in Littleton, CO, and the guy with the Master's Degree in Agricultural Engineering is now a greeter at Wal-Mart.

NOTE: I found the house through Delmore (Chantel and I went to school with his kid) but I had to use the adrhi.com site to use the direct MLS link.

Oil drop experiment, redux?

2005-10-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

This is too bad.
MIT Fires Professor Over Falsified Data

I was reading, shaking my head, thinking "Boy I'm glad that I went to Caltech. Over there, where we instill the Honor Code, people don't do things like this. Integrity is pushed to the top priority."

And then I read the 4th-to-last paragraph. DANGIT!

Had all the positive black leaders there. Farrakhan. Jesse. Marion Barry.

2005-10-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

I heard this on one of the "investigative reports" about a week after Katrina hit; they talked to a group of black men, maybe in their 40s, and they made these claims.

The reporter made no comment, he just let them talk. And now I see this:

Bomb, not Katrina, broke dikes: Farrakhan

Semper Fidelis This

2005-10-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Huah!

Injured Marine defies attackers from the Omaha World-Herald. (Don't forget to get your login from http://www.bugmenot.com)

Some Things Just Don't Make Sense

2005-09-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

Kanani and I have been playing a lot of guitar lately, just kinda messing around and figuring out things that sound good. I bought a used Fender acoustic guitar several months back when we first started this; it's a common "entry level" guitar that is often sold in a starter kit with tuner, a couple of picks, a DVD, and a softcase.

Anyway, I guess with this sort of musical mindset we've had lately, I've been picking up on discordant things that I didn't really notice before. Things that are fine, but if you've been really thinking about or immersed in music for a while, they just don't sit right with you.

For example, has anyone else noticed that the background music on the Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials is "Sweet Home Alabama"?

References to David Letterman Make Me Hot

2005-09-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

So, Kanani finished up her play this past weekend, References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot by Jose Rivera, directed by Asae Dean, presented by the UNM Experimental Theatre. There are many highlights that I'd like to quote; far more than the Top Ten.

Background: Gabriela is a military housewife who's husband Benito is about to return from the field. Benito has been "different" since the war (1st Gulf War). They currently are stationed in Barstow, CA. Martin is the 14-year-old Mexican neighbor who REALLY wants to fuck Gabriela, and watches her pace in the backyard naked every night.

So without further ado, Greg's highlights:

COYOTE: You smell like soap.
CAT: You smell like shit.

COYOTE: Love with chains and collars attached. Love with no purpose to it, no reproduction, no passion. Love predicated on obedience. Love with violence implied.

CAT: After you've swallowed my moist outer layers--you can chew my heart muscles and give your jaws a real workout. Take you all night to eat my thighs.
COYOTE: Saliva's dripping down and something else is coming up.

COYOTE: In the wild we really know how to love ... get dirt in our eyes, wet the ground with our funky juice ... I'll knock you around so hard all nine of your lives will have orgasms ... Then you'll bear little coyote-cats--tough mutant sons of bitches.

MARTIN: I look at her ass and I hallucinate.

GABRIELA: What are you, twelve?
MARTIN: Fourteen, mi amor. And growing. I have new hair about to happen all over my body!

(Pulling away from BENITO, who has already unzipped her pants and undone his shirt)
GABRIELA: ...You know the cat's missing?
BENITO: When I'm home from the field we leave words and other debris at the door, then close the motherfucking door!
GABRIELA: Did you hear what I said about the cat?
BENITO: Ain't the pussy I'm interested in right now...
GABRIELA: Ay, Dios, man, God, shit: go play with yourself!
BENITO: Is it my fault you got the Ass of Heaven?
GABRIELA: Ho many ways I gotta tell you I'm not some strip-artist whore-bitch you picked up in some German night club--?
BENITO: Then don't wear those shorts!
GABRIELA: Clawing at me like I'm a piece of twenty-five dollar street trash--
BENITO: You know where I can get it for twenty-five? Dang! Point the way, girl!
GABRIELA: And it's hot! ...
BENITO: Okay, nena, that was a joke, I will not claw you , I will respect you, 'cause you are the farthest thing on earth from a twenty-five-dollar-German-whore-bitch-street-bitch-German-thing, really ...

GABRIELA (explaining her loneliness to BENITO): I tried making friends. But it's a scientific fact: the brain can only gossip and talk about soap operas for so long before it starts to puke on itself. Or maybe I just got tired spending my afternoons with those girls, with cucumbers in our mouths, practicing blowjobs.
BENITO: You were getting a valuable lesson!

BENITO: ... I am in the Army. In the Army you travel. That's what the Army is, homegirl! A great motherfucker of a travel agency! .. One year it's Germany where the whole country is full of Germans, and I'm sorry but we tried to get rid of the Germans, but dammit, the Germans didn't want to go!

BENITO: You gotta stop acting like you know more than everybody.
GABRIELA: I do know more than everybody.
BENITO: Then keep it to yourself, 'cause, you know what, it's boring, okay? It's a turn off.

BENITO (talking about how shitty his job is): ... and that's my job and I come home to you, all beautiful, like what you see after death and the angels greet you in the morning, and you hope, you know, God allows sex with the angels in Heaven maybe once in a while if you're extra good around Christmas...

(while BENITO sleeps, MARTIN saves GABRIELA's cat from a pack of coyotes and brings her home. Gabriela thanks him, but tells him to leave)
MARTIN: You saying you don't want me around no more?
GABRIELA: I'm saying my old man's back form the field and has a limited sense of humor when it comes to who he thinks wants to fuck me.

BENITO (upon being awakened from a nightmare): Everything's swirling in this room, carajo. Must be all the drugs I don't take but wish I did...
GABRIELA: You were talking in your dreams.
BENITO: I never dream.
GABRIELA: Everyone does. It's only human.
BENITO: I ain't only human. I'm human-plus.

GABRIELA: ... How come in eleven years in the Army I never heard you or any of your pinhead friends say one honest patriotic thing?
BENITO: I love my country. It's the people in it I hate.

BENITO: I swear, nena, you are unlimited in your ballbusting gifts!

BENITO: Hey, how do you clear an Iraqi bingo room? Yell B-52.

GABRIELA (telling BENITO about a scar): That was the morning I fell of the roof of my house playing Super Puerto Rican Girl and I caught the corner of a fridge we kept outside with my knee.
BENITO: A beautiful jagged mess. Like your mind.

BENITO: That's my real job. To hurt what hurts you.

GABRIELA (as BENITO is trying to become intimate): tell you what else I don't get. How, like, a feeling, which is made of nothing, gets made part of your body--you know? Why would a doubt make a burning hole in your stomach or a lump in your throat heavy as a man?
BENITO: Swear you use words like some people use razor wire and guard dogs.
GABRIELA: You know you get mean when you're impatient?
BENITO: I'm human and male so fuck me...

BENITO: You know I can fix every bad dream in your head. Okay? I can cure this insanity you have if you let me turn your brain off for a night. Turn off this river of words that keeps drowning us...

BENITO (giving her reasons not to leave him): A house, a car, insurance, shelter, love, you get love, because I stupidly, ridiculously, fanatically love you--you get that?--you see that in the plus column? Should I repeat? It's the love, stupid!

GABRIELA: Why do you gotta be so convoluted?
BENITO: 'Cause I'm not supposed to make it easy for you to break my heart.

MARTIN (upon awakening next to GABRIELA): After my pistol of love found its target and exploded with love-shrapnel inside her, and sent her mind to the dizzy edge of the universe, where it sat and wondered what the fuck hit it... she fell asleep. Mission accomplished! I am now a man. Seeds are planted. Other men notice my manhood and are suddenly afraid.
MOON (Bored, sarcastic): So hide your daughters, people.
MARTIN: SO HIDE YOUR DAUGHTERS, PEOPLE!

GABRIELA: Before you go, explain my dream to me. ...
MOON: It's a dream about soul mates.
GABRIELA: Who never agree? Who misinterpret?
MOON: You two go deep. So the wounds go deep. You give a person so much, you rearrange them. You rewrite them. He's your creation. You're his.

MOON: Shakespeare called me inconstant. "That nightly changes in HER circled orb"... even got my gender wrong... the motherfucker...

MARTIN: Are you saying I'll never get laid?
GABRIELA: Not with me, muchachito.
MARTIN (angrily): I gotta go. There's nothing here. Nothing here I want. You hear me? Nothing here I want! Nothing here I want!
GABRIELA: Take it easy, Private...
MARTIN: This whole thing is bullshit! And I don't want any more of you playing with my head, you cutting my nuts off, you doing psycho-brujeria-witchcraft on me. I'm glad we never got involved, bitch! I'm glad I broke your heart!
(MARTIN climbs the fence)
GABRIELA: Did I miss something here?
(MARTIN returns over the fence)
MARTIN: This is my life: I rent porn. I shoot coyotes at night. I harass faggots. I steal my relatives' weapons. I take target practice on the moon (MOON flips MARTIN the bird) and every day I get closer and closer to manhood and I worry how the world will crush me--and if I don't touch a woman's thing soon, will I finally go berserk and blow you all away?
(MARTIN climbs fence and is gone)

CAT: Nena, wait! What do I do if my lover's a ghost?
GABRIELA: Fuck him anyway, Cat.

The Son has Set

2005-09-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

Go home. And don't come back. You've done enough, hang 'em up and go be a first ballot member. And then recede into the woodwork, I don't ever want to see your mug or hear your name in any way pertaining to my beloved game.

Just go away.

Bonds practices with teammates, but still no go

By the way, how's your little brother doing? I saw him play in the HWBL back in maybe '94, but the last I can find on him is with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League in '99.

It's sad that neither of you kids had any respect for the game. Your dad did so much...

Here we go, hang on! UPDATED!

2005-09-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

You know, sometimes I enjoy living during historical times, when landmark discoveries are made.

New!Ceres is a mini-planet, fueling the on-going debate.
Water on Mars
Water on Mars (tee hee)
2003UB313 (largest planetary discovery since Neptune)

These are just the planetary things; I could go on for days about earthly groundbreaking discoveries such as our understanding of DNA (which has gone from near nil to "reprogrammable" in the time since I was a sophomore in high school).

Other times, I lament living during this time.
That day
Unrest in earth's womb
Mayor: Katrina Death Toll May Hit 10,000

So, that said, how bad do y'all think this "war" is gonna get?
Bush Nominates Roberts for Chief Justice

Way Better than John Mayer

2005-08-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

I got my own personalized copy (thanks Fun Bobby!) of Bremsstrahlung Live this week, and I've been listening to it a lot at work. As Ronnie mentioned a while back (here on July 6, in fact)), it was a simpler time, "a carefree time of unlimited potential in my life, though I had no idea at the time". Truer words have rarely been spoken of my time at 'Tech. I can definitely remember that show; both Max and Ronnie spoke to me (in the audience), and several times you can hear me ("restless native", "rabid fan") screaming between songs, and even Chan is audible at one point towards the end. I miss those times.

Anyway, I wondered if I could find something in cyberspace about Bremsstrahlung, perhaps a picture or something that someone posted, but alas "bremsstrahlung ron dollete" returned a rare null set from Google. Searching "ron dollete" of course returned hundreds of matches, tens of which were "real", but one (a hit from the Caltech Music Lab!) that led me to www.brigitteroth.net, and, most interestingly, www.jiwarecords.com. Apparantley Brigitte has released a CD, and, if Track 2 ("I am an Artist", available for MP3 download from her site) is any indication, she makes a decent folk singer.

In-Focus Imagery

2005-08-18T01:14:00.000-07:00

So I promised these a couple of weeks ago.

Our payment is now about $30/month more than for the 4Runner, but we save $20/month on our insurance premium, and we've realized 50% better gas mileage (22 to 33); with regular unleaded at Chevron in NM sitting at a national-average $2.59, that's pretty nice. We had been putting about 15k/year on the Toyota since moving here; assuming gas prices stay here, that's a savings of $588/year, or $49/month. I'll take it.

I'm still not sure quite how I feel about the color; it's "Grabber Green", a somewhat rare color (according to the Official Green Focus Thread on FocusFanatics.com. Don't get me wrong, I think it looks great, but using the name "Grabber ____" on anything other than a '69-'71 Boss Mustang (or other muscle Ford of said era) just doesn't feel right, not just because it's the wrong era... The Focus, while sporty and fun to drive, still isn't a grossly-overpowered rear-wheel-drive sports car.

Oh, yeah, the other car in the pictures is pretty fun too. Um, anyone wanna be a sponsor for the upgrades to that one? Just $700 will get your name on stickers in one side window and the rear windscreen, and "thanks" when I get into the Reader's Rides section of Car Craft and/or Mustang & Fords.

Wish List, Rev A

2005-08-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've been looking at these combo lathe/mill machines from Smithy for quite some time now, and I would still love one. Of course, I doubt that I would do enough work with one to warrant purchase, but then, I won't know how much I'll use it until I have it....

And then I saw this 50ft x 20ft x 8ft, 5 axis mill at Scaled Composites... I don't know what I'd do with it, but there's no question: I need one!

I was thinking about submitting a resume and application to either Scaled or Virgin Galactic, especially after today's news that the Scaled/Virgin-partnership has received the DDTC's approval regarding any possible ITAR restrictions. What do you think, Honey? We could live about 2 hours from Mammoth...

ND-Day

2005-08-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

A week-and-a-half ago, Ronnie said this:

"For me it's the large undefended border. I don't trust North Dakotans. They could invade Saskatchewan or Manitoba at any time."

What do you know: instead of using troops, we're using the contaminated water we've been "storing" for the last several years...

Once we crush their lucrative fish-farming industry, they'll be ours. The only question that remains is, what are they gonna call it? ND-2? Manidakota, or better, Manikota?

Roughly Translated to "super" in German

2005-08-12T00:38:00.000-07:00

Back when I converted my 1.0GHz Athlon into a frisbee, I gave Chan my ergonomic keyboard. So since I rebuilt the machine (700MHz PIII from the auction house) and named it "Phoenix" I have been using the Compaq piece of crap that came with her machine. I need a new keyboard.

When I first saw it, I thought "Cool, it'll be cheaper because of all the $$$ they'll save on ink, not to mention the overhead of maintain 104 different pieces; by my count, they only need ten distinct pieces now! And no more Dilbertarian uality issues!"

Instead, it will be sold for about $80. So it's on my wish list; Christmas is coming soon!

Apparently, I've got Crabs

2005-08-07T01:08:00.000-07:00

So I had a pretty shitty week of work trying to put together my Controls piece for PDR this week. In our team status meeting on Tuesday the Lead Investigator for this project informed me that our customer was hoping for a performance simulation. No problem, we said, we've got one. No, LI said, we need one for the system. Sonofabitch.

Because this PDR and its content is ITAR-controlled, I'll explain his request this way. Say you are doing a simulation of a car. The main component of the car, from a performance standpoint, is the engine. Yet there are many other components that affect the performance, including the transmission (manual, automatic, # of gears, torque rating), the suspension (all independent? live axle? coilover or leaf?), the selection of drive wheels (front, rear, full-time AWD, ?) etc.
So, basically, I had a rough simulation of the engine (hp, torque, and powerband estimates with reasonable confidence) and he just asked me (at noon Tuesday) to estimate performance of the vehicle at Pikes Peak. Oh, yeah, and have those slides by 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Oh, right, and after the meeting on Tuesday, I asked the LI whether the controls architecture really made sense, because it seemed to me that the "turbo" (still using the automobile analogy) wasn't really doing anything; it was pressurizing air, but just blowing it out the back instead of forcing it through the engine. He agreed, and I got to spend the next two days inventing a "new" turbo, which I would then get to simulate.

So, at about 9 pm Thursday, when it was fourth and long (7 slides including title and 2 backups) I decided to forego the normal set of "fluff" PDR slides -- you know, the ones with words? Thursday night I got about 3 hours sleep after reviewing my slides over a dinner of peanut butter and jelly.

Friday rolls around, I get to work around 6:30 a.m. with 7 very marked-up slides. I edited and edited and finally cut it at 7:50 a.m. -- about 5 minutes after the LI created the "Final" version of the presentation. DOH!

So, around 9:30 my turn rolls around; pretty early in the day, really. I've never had a PDR slot scheduled before lunch before, and it's different. People are still paying attention.

The audience consists of the seven team members, two in-house critical reviewers, and two to three (they kind of came and went) reviewers via Webex/telecon from St. Louis. I tossed up my slides which should not have been in the least bit controversial; alas, I had not rehearsed the "talking" part of the presentation enough (just one run through while pacing in my living room), and I stumbled a bit. Apparently, the St. Louis guys smelled blood in the water. Every piece of the controls architecture was picked to pieces, and, even though no problems were found, and in fact this new architecture was lauded as very clever, the guys left the discussion by saying "Yeah, ok, I guess that'll work."

So the nice thing was that I got to come home early Friday, around 2:30. Chan and I had a nice evening, celebrating Mike and her mom's 5th anniversary at the Olive Garden. Then we went over to their place and played cards until after midnight... at which point, as you might imagine, I was a bit tired.

Which brings us to this morning. I was awakened by the dogs (read: Luna) at about 6:30 a.m. as she demanded her breakfast. I got up, let them out, let them in, and fed them -- and fell asleep on the Love Sac for two hours. At some point I got up and gave the dogs their after-breakfast treats and went back to bed. Around 11:30a.m. Chantel announced that she was going to go hike the 10k Trail, and that she'd see me later. Uh-uh, it don't work like that.

So two hours later we're hiking (after eating breakfast burritos on the way up), and I'm grumpy but I don't really know why. I guess she picked up on it:

"You're crabbier than imitation crab-cake at a crab farm, you crabby crabberson."

I'm really not sure what that means, but it made me laugh. I'm glad I've got her around; when I'm feeling especially poop-headed, she knows just what to say to make me go "I'm sorry, WHAT?" I love my wife.

But They've Got Universal Health Care!

2005-08-04T15:58:00.000-07:00

Americans Didn't Flock to Canada After Bush Win

Now, really, who's surprised?

Maybe they finally realized that, when the government spends money, either the deficit increases or you pay more taxes.
Can't have lower taxes, lower deficit, and more government-sponsored benefits.

So Let's Raise Our Glasses

2005-07-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

At ten thousand twenty three feet atop Haleakala on Maui, this picture was taken by Chan, my then-fiancee in the summer of '98.

Sometime in the fall of 1996, sometime in late September or early October, I met Grant. My first real memory of him is standing in Alley 7, swinging a bat, getting ready for IH Softball to start. Andy and I were in 225, Grant and MJosh shared the triple next door; Grant came out of the triple and saw me swinging the bat.

"You play ball?" he asked, half intrigued and half already bored with the conversation. "Yeah, I played through high school." At this, his eyes lit up, though I didn't yet understand why.

A few months later I was a waiter and starting shortstop, and Grant and I were fast friends. Along with waiting came drinking, and along with drinking came long, late nights of introspection. In many ways, Grant changed and shaped my life. He was my own personal devil, Mi Diablo. He showed me that I would not, in fact, be struck dead on the spot for having a drink, or two, or ten. And when I did have ten, he stayed up with me, put me in the shower, and made sure I got into bed (and that was even before we were roommates).

Grant and I bitched a lot (mostly to each other rather than at each other). We had problems with women, school, baseball, or whatever, and we overcame the lot. I would have Flamed spectacularly sophomore year if not for Grant. Of course, if Grant could have offered me some protection in the lineup, I might not have walked 27 times in 21 games my junior year; then again, he's the only guy that's ever been hit in retaliation for one of my home runs.

In '98 I got engaged, and moved out in the Spring of '99 (after a tough couple of months where Grant was forced to share Page 201 with me and my fiancee), and another couple of months later he graduated. We drifted apart as I began my married life and he his professional life.

A year or two into my career at BSS, Liz revealed to me in stage whisper that Grant had found a girl... a girl who, somehow, seemed to be cool and seemed to really like him! Liz confided to me the warning that she had given G-Dub: if he and Jamie ever broke up, the "gang" was going to keep her, not him. I have only had the privilege of spending about 6 or 7 hours with Jamie so far; about an hour at Dale and Marie's wedding, another hour here in the 'Burque when Grant came to interview, and a few hours a few weeks back when the four of us hit High Finance and Satellite Coffee. That short time has been more than enough to know that Grant is getting an incredible woman with whom to share his life; and y'all can trust me that Jamie's getting a pretty sweet deal too.

I like to think that by moving to New Mexico, Chan and I have "saved" Dale and Marie and now Grant and Jamie from LA. Maybe they didn't all hate it as much as Chan and I did (and do); for now, we'll still consider it a favor. But it's been great to once again play ball with Grant, Tuesday nights now and softball instead of hardball... but we still put together a wicked outfield-assisted out at home a couple of weeks ago, a trademark of our CIT baseball career together.

Chantel and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary tonight, even as Grant and Jamie were sharing their vows with one another. Now Grant and I can help each other once again: neither of us will miss July 29th of any year to come.

We can't wait to spend a lot more time with these great friends of ours, Mr. and Mrs. Grant and Jamie Williams.

Cheers!

I'm getting a little verklempt

2005-07-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a pretty emotional -- or at least expressive -- guy, except when it comes to tears. There aren't many things that move me to water, but those that do get me almost every time.

This morning at 8:39 MDT I was moved to tears of joy.
NASA/KSC
NASA has successfully put mankind in space again. I almost said "men", but of course the Commander of this mission (STS-114) is a woman! I can remember being in preschool when Sally Ride became the first woman astronaut; she first flew on Challenger, the 7th shuttle mission over all (obviously, she was not on STS-51L, the fated Challenger flight in 1986).

When the Mrs. and I watched Armageddon, I teared up when they launched. The movie was terrible as SciFi goes, but nevertheless they were launching on space shuttles (or something like them), and that always does it for me.

I'll never forget turning on the TV on Saturday morning, Feb 1, 2003 as I was getting dressed for my 3rd CIT Alumni baseball game, only to lose all feeling in my legs. I called to Chan that something was wrong, to come here; I didn't know what it was, but it was bad. The image on TV was live, yet there was no sound, no speaking, nothing, just the American flag waving at half-mast with some sort of body of water behind it. I would later learn that this was the flag outside of mission control; this was how NASA confirmed the suspicion that Columbia was gone. No press conference, no emergency calls; someone just came outside and lowered the flag.

Buncha Savages inThis Town

2005-07-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

Update:
Thanks to Dale for this from the Indy Star.

I ain't sayin' he shoulda killed her...
...but I understand.

I just don't get it.

When I was in high school and my friends wanted to go "egg" someone for doing something stupid, I never went with them. To me it was a stupid way to retaliate for anything, let alone for that stupid thing.

Even on Halloween, when people would roam with a carton of eggs or a basketful of oranges, I just didn't get it.

So this morning, when I got out to the Jeep to find a half-dozen eggs coating my dashboard, seats, and windshield (the inside) I was upset. Then I called the police: non-emergency number at 7:15 a.m. only to get passed to this recording: "Thank you for calling the Albuquerque Police. Our hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Please leave a message, and we'll get back to you within 48 hours."

Look, I understand that I chose to call "non-emergency", but 48 hours? Really?

The bottom line is that someone on my block is going to be drawn and quartered this week. The financial compensation that I will demand includes (but is not limited to):
-Full cost of fully detailing the car. I don't care if it's an open Jeep with vinyl seats and no carpet.
-Several hours of my time (final total is TBD) at the hourly wage that Boeing pays me to compensate for the hour and a half already spent cleaning along with the hours remaining of disassembling the dash to get to the yolks that slid down behind.
-The cost of a new stereo (it currently still works, but I haven't tried to play any CDs yet...
-The cost - including shipping - of replacing the floral seat covers from Hawaii.

savages....

This is the third time in the last two weeks that there is evidence of tampering on this Jeep.

Getting Life - and budget - in Focus

2005-07-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

This picture is not ours, it's from a member of FocusFanatics.com. Ours (Chan's, that is) is this same color (minus the front end carnage): Grabber Green Metallic Clear, and apparently it's a fairly rare color option. The 2.0L is economical, getting 25 mpg city and 34 highway! It's also peppy, especially once it gets up over about 4k rpm. Interestingly the tach goes to 7k rpm, but there's no redline; I'm guessing the engine computer has a built-in rev limiter? Do all cars have these now? They should... (as long as they are reconfigurable, of course). I'd like to put an MSD 6AL capacitive discharge on the Cougar; the important feature is a swappable rev-limiting "chip". Nice for running hard (you don't destroy things as easily), but the 3k rpm limit chip is essential for valet parking, shipping, or other situations where the vehicle and keys are turned over.

So yeah, for the first time in my life, all of the vehicles in my household are American made. The 1999 Toyota 4Runner is on its way to a used car auction. She was great for a long time; other than the Cougar, I've never owned a car longer than her. We put 67000 miles on her in 3 years and 11 months; roughly 47 miles per day over that time period. When you put it that way, it really seems like a lot.

A lesson we learned: if you're going to sell a car for more than about $2000, you want to make sure that the mileage is below 100k miles, preferable below 80k miles. You see, most banking institutions won't issue a car loan on a vehicle with too many miles; some also have restrictions on age (i.e. 3 years old, 5 years old, etc). Just something to think about and keep track of, as you probably want to make sure you are no longer upside-down before you reach these selling points.

SO, that said, my daily driver is now the '93 Wrangler S... S means completely Stripped down. I love it; I've got a stereo (that we installed) and a heater for the brutally cold NM winter mornings, and two front seats (no rears). Currently the Jeep has 91k miles, but we have no plans to sell this beast. At some point (probably another 50k miles from now) down the road, the 2.5L 4cyl will get tired and I'll do a 85-or-later Ford 5.0L v8 swap. Strangely enough, the gas mileage shouldn't change much! In the meantime, I've gotta get the Cougar running.

You're Glib

2005-07-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

Holy crap this is funny, thanks Williams the Elder!

From Condemned by the Space Pope, we get Tom Cruise is a Sith

Someone needs to make one of him doing this to Matt Lauer too. From the transcript of his interview last week: (if you haven't heard the audio from this interview, try to find it. Hearing him say "mattmattmattmattmatt" is hilarious and disturbing at the same time.)

...

Cruise: I've never agreed with psychiatry, ever. Before I was a Scientologist I ever agreed with psychiatry. And when I started studying the history of psychiatry, I understood more and more why I didn't believe in psychology.

And as far as the Brooke Shields thing, look, you got to understand, I really care about Brooke Shields. I think, here's a wonderful and talented woman. And I want to see her do well. And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science.

Lauer: But Tom, if she said that this particular thing helped her feel better, whether it was the antidepressants or going to a counselor or psychiatrist, isn't that enough?

Cruise: Matt, you have to understand this. Here we are today, where I talk out against drugs and psychiatric abuses of electric shocking people, okay, against their will, of drugging children with them not knowing the effects of these drugs. Do you know what Aderol is? Do you know Ritalin? Do you know now that Ritalin is a street drug? Do you understand that?

Lauer: The difference is —

Cruise: No, no, Matt.

Lauer: This wasn't against her will, though.

Cruise: Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt —

Lauer: But this wasn't against her will.

Cruise: Matt, I'm asking you a question.

Lauer: I understand there's abuse of all of these things.

Cruise: No, you see. Here's the problem. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do.

Lauer: Aren't there examples, and might not Brooke Shields be an example, of someone who benefited from one of those drugs?

Cruise: All it does is mask the problem, Matt. And if you understand the history of it, it masks the problem. That's what it does. That's all it does. You're not getting to the reason why. There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.

Lauer: So, postpartum depression to you is kind of a little psychological gobbledygook —

Cruise: No. I did not say that.

Lauer: I'm just asking what you, what would you call it?

Cruise: No. No. Abso— Matt, now you're talking about two different things.

Lauer: But that's what she went on the antidepressant for.

Cruise: But what happens, the antidepressant, all it does is mask the problem. There's ways, [with] vitamins and through exercise and various things... I'm not saying that that isn't real. That's not what I'm saying. That's an alteration of what I'm saying. I'm saying that drugs aren't the answer, these drugs are very dangerous. They're mind-altering, antipsychotic drugs. And there are ways of doing it without that so that we don't end up in a brave new world. The thing that I'm saying about Brooke is that there's misinformation, okay. And she doesn't understand the history of psychiatry. She doesn't understand in the same way that you don't understand it, Matt.

...

Instead of cluttering inboxes, I'll clutter my blog

2005-07-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

News Anchor Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, NPR Reporter Cokie Roberts and a U.S. Marine were hiking through the desert one day when they were captured by Iraqis. They were tied up, led to the village and brought before the leader.

The leader said, "I am familiar with your western custom of granting the condemned a last wish. Before we kill and dismember you, do you have any last requests?"

Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan; so I'd like one last bowl full of hot, spicy chili." The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chili. Rather ate it all and said, "Now I can die content."

Peter Jennings said "I am Canadian; so I'd like to hear the English National Anthem one last time". The leader nodded to a terrorist who studied the United States and knew the music was the same as to 'God Bless America'. He returned with some rag-tag musicians and played the music. Jennings sighed and declared he could now die peacefully.

Coke Roberts said, "I'm a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what's about to happen. Maybe some day someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end." The leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and Roberts dictated some comments. She then said, "Now I
can die happy."

The leader turned and said, "And now, Mr. U.S. Marine, what is your final wish?" "Kick me in the ass," said the Marine." "What?" asked the leader. "Will you mock us in your last hour?" "No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass," insisted the Marine.! So the leader shoved him into the open, and kicked him in the ass. The Marine went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9mm pistol from inside his cammies, and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he leapt to his knapsack, pulled out his M4 carbine, and sprayed the Iraqis with gunfire. In a flash, the Iraqis were dead or fleeing for their lives.

As the Marine was untying Rather, Jennings and Roberts, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass?"!
"What!?" said the Marine, "And have you three jackasses call ME the aggressor?"

Got It! All this for only $1/3 Billion!

2005-07-04T01:17:00.000-07:00

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov

After 172 days and 140+ million miles, a man-made-copper-coffee-table crashed into Comet Tempel 1 at roughly 10 kilometers per second. The impact was expected to leave a crater somewhere between the size of an SUV to the size of a football field.

Favorite quote from NASA, post-impact:
I can't believe they pay us to have this much fun! Don Yeomans (Deep Impact mission co-investigator at JPL), 2:06 a.m. EDT July 4, 2005

I can't wait to see the TERABYTES of data that this has and will generate... Hubble and Chandra were trained on it, and the 'scopes in Hawaii were the only terrestrial ones with a view during the impact, so hopefully at least one of the Kecks was watching, as well as those on Haleakala!

You Drink, You Drive, You Lose

2005-06-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

Here in New Mexico, DWI continues to be a serious problem.

Posted by Hello

Attempting to operate any sort of wheeled vehicle while under the influence of alcohol may have distastrous results, as seen here. This lawn-tractor-sprinkler didn't stand a chance. Note the sprinkler's valiant attempts to continue watering the lawn even minutes after the accident took place.

A Day to Remember

2005-06-24T23:25:00.000-07:00

There are some days that you just have to look back and say, "Wow, today was a good day."
Today, I went to work at the normal time (around 7:30 am) but left early, around 1 pm, since I was kinda tired and unmotivated. So I met the missus for lunch at Costco and got a fresh-out-of-the-conveyered-oven slice of pepperoni pizza. Then I went home and played with my dogs for a while, and watered the grass and Christmas tree (we bought live this year and finally planted it a month ago). Then I took a nap with the missus. Then I put on my garage clothes and worked on the Cougar for about two and a half hours, finally getting the rear axle separated from the leaf springs. Then, after feeding the dogs (at about 5:30), we got dinner (again, 'zza at Costco since it's on the way) and went to REI and got a new climbing harness for the missus, then hit Stone Age until they closed (at 10 pm). On the way home we hit Hastings for A New Hope on DVD (rental), and now I'm gonna have some beer.

So, let's recap: 'zza for lunch and dinner, a short day of work, a nap, some beer, Star Wars, productive work on the car, play with dogs, and 3 hours of rock climbing.

I've had worse days!

Five Thousand Meters

2005-06-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

Ron's right; it does seem bigger when it's spelled out.

5k
Five thousand meters
22:56
Twenty-two minutes and fifty-six seconds.
Not bad for not preparing in any way, running a competitive distance for the first time since November '95. That's a pace of about 7:23 per mile; way down from my high school worst (21:03), but over a half-minute lower than my pre-race e.t. goal of 24 minutes.

I'm really glad I didn't drive straight from the race up to Santa Fe for 9 innings as catcher... I probably would have died getting out of bed this morning.

In other news, I received three hundred forty dollars worth of new parts for the Cougar today. Actually, $270 + $70 shipping (!); it's expensive to ship steel. I got new front coil springs and rear leaf springs, and all associated hardware. I'll be ordering the rest of the front-end crap this week, hopefully, and the shock/sway-bar kit too. And then it's thrash time.

6"
Nine inches.
See? Works every time.

Who Says Software is For Geeks

2005-06-09T23:50:00.000-07:00

Diggity recently posted a link to Geek2Geek, an online dating service for Geeks.

Well, I just spent the last 1/2 hour or so teaching my wife a little bit of HTML so that she can tweak her blog a little bit. Just after she showered. She's still naked, sitting at her computer. She keeps telling me to go take a shower. Only, she's still naked, sitting at her computer playing games. And she expects me to leave the room. She doesn't know me very well.

Those Were The Best Days of My Life

2005-06-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

So, learning to Blog and learning about the free tools available has taken some time out of my schedule.

Hello has some pretty easy-to-use, free photo sharing and archiving, so then I started surfing through the pictures that I have on this computer (MAN they add up once you get a digital camera!).

This is one of my favorite pictures of "us", taken film-style and scanned with an old Kodak PhotoSmart (or something like that) photo scanner, hence the scanner lines.

The picture was taken back on Maui during that wonderful summer of '98 at the playground of Ke'opu'olani Park.

See how she laughs? It intoxicates me still today.

Posted by Hello

You've Just Been Erased

2005-06-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

This device used to accelerate small metal plates to 4 times escape velocity, vaporizing the material that "catches" the plate 5mm later, will be used to study the interior of gas giant planets and stars.

Uh huh.

It accelerates an 850 micron-thick aluminum plate at 1010*g.

Gee, what to do with this, what to do, what to do....

See this Red Faction 2 website, click weapons in the upper right hand corner, and choose "CMRD-32 Magnetic Rail Driver" (the 8th one down). I definitely need one of these to... uh... protect my self and my property.

From Dr. Evil's HQ in Seattle...

2005-06-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

I officially hate Starbucks.

Why?

8:10 a.m.
Mrs. Freak: [getting dressed for school] I'm gonna get some Starbucks on my way to school; I'm really tired.
Mr. Freak: Ok.
Mrs. Freak: Nah, I don't have time, I'm already running late. I have to be on the road by 8:20 to get to class on time.
Mr. Freak: [about to walk out the door] How about this: I'll run to Starbucks and order for us both, and you can just drive by and grab your drink. You won't have to wait for the order. What do you want?
Mrs. Freak: Thanks Honey, that's sweet. I'll have a Soy Latte. The middle size.

8:20 a.m.
Mr. Freak: [to Starbucks barrista] Thank you!
Mr. Freak carefully balances his briefcase, keys, Mrs. Freak's Soy Latte, and his own Mocha Frappuccino.
As he walks through the door, the cellular phone in his pocket begins to pick out the first few bars of the Super Mario Bros. theme. Mr. Freak carefully sets the drinks on an outdoor table and fumbles for the phone.
Mr. Freak: [into the phone] What's up Honey?
Mrs. Freak: Um, which Starbucks did you go to?
Mr. Freak: [with pain, knowing that she's already at the one on Montano -- on her way to school -- rather than on her way to the one by Smith's -- on his way to work] The one by Smith's.
Mrs. Freak: Why would you go to that one?!?!?!

Stupid Starbucks.

Mikey's All Grows Up

2005-06-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ronnie hit the nail on the head. Winnie was the incarnation of the unattainable girl-next-door.

Maybe this is weird, but when Kevin Arnold had his first kiss, so did I (of course, I didn't really until I was 16, and Wonder Years was long off the air). And Winnie was always the unattainable one.

But I did attain my unattainable girl next door!

Starting a Blog

2005-06-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

When you start a Blog, it is important to set the tone carefully. The quality, topic, and voice of the first post is paramount! Much like the "hook" of a "5-paragraph-thesis", the first blog entry must intrigue the visitor to the site enough to warrant a return visit...

Of course, as the Blog matures, the first post will no longer be visible; thus each post must be of quality high enough to at least maintain the flow of visitors.

So I don't know why I feel so much pressure to feature something earth-shattering in my first post. What was the First Thesis nailed to the door in Wittenburg?

In fact, you can find that here.

But most of you are probably not here to discuss 16th century dogmatic shakeups, so for now, let's just have some fun! I've got some links to the blogs of my friends (my wife, Ronnie, and Grant) as well as some other stuff that's important to me. So stick around, and check back once in a while, and certainly comment on my posts! It's the only way that I know you've been here!

Hopefully, I've set the proper tone: I'm usually exceptionally verbose though rarely insightful; tangential train-of-thought departures run rampant; and nearly any topic could be discussed here on any given day.