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How not to get my vote
My quiet afternoon was interrupted by a very long parade of mostly large SUVs (more than 100?!?) and a limo with a re-elect T-whomever to congress. driving down my culdesac. The morons were lining both sides of the street honking for 20 minutes. I'm glad I didn't pick that moment to need to leave, say, for the emergency room or some such. I ( Read more... ) -
Lunar Eclipse
Cloud cover is breaking intermittently so I can peak at the eclipse. I can't recall seeing an L0 eclipse. It's quite dramatic, particularly with the clouds and the elevation (~2100ft). Pity I don't have a camera and tripod handy. -
on the subject of Langston Hughes...
I made myself stop before hijacking Brad's entry with literary commentary, but I dare say the relentless class- and racist struggle that gave birth to the whole of the blues has probably best been captured by Langston Hughes. And not just "Harlem," which of course gives us the line "What happens to a dream deferred?" but others like "Blues at Dawn ( Read more... ) -
Interesting Times
I just came inside to warm up after two hours of fire-watch duty and was pleasantly surprised to find the power on. Of course, there's no more news than what I can see for myself at the edge of my back yard: blown power lines have some two hundred acres in flames immediately across I-81. The back yard, full of pine trees, abuts the federal right ( Read more... ) -
Snopes gets it wrong?
Well, not really. They did update the "You've got to be kidneying" page with arrests in India in 1998, but still list this as "false" up front. Well, perhaps the fact that foreign tourists aren't the easy targets indigents are is no longer reason enough to label this "myth" a myth. Behold. -
my (anticlimatic) day in court
I have spent the last couple of months completely obsessed by a ticket I received for failing to come to a complete stop. Actually, the officer wrote the ticket for what he assured me was the lesser offense of "failure to obey a highway sign." I'm not sure how he meant "lesser" since they are both three-point tickets, but I've been obsessed by it ( Read more... ) -
(phone back)
The miracle of other people's effort has provided me with a new, fully-functional cell phone with the same old number. Joy. Of course, the service near my place of work is as crappy as ever, so it's a good thing that I simply do not believe anybody needs to be in contact all the time, or I might get annoyed ( Read more... ) -
The Don't Call Zone
My cellular telephone valiantly gave it's life protecting my ear from a football the other day and is now in three pieces. Since I spent enough of my grade school years on the phone to last a lifetime, I'd dare say many of you don't even have that number (and of course I agree that if you don't have I can't imagine why you'd want to call), but for ( Read more... ) -
(not really)Public warning
I just wanted to let y'all know that as of now, if you want me to read your email, do not use the words "watch" or "watches" in the subject. I've spent the last week deleting counterfeit watch offers, and I can take any more. The latest generation of Spamkings had best hope I don't get my hands on them, because I can't be held liable if I go ( Read more... ) -
Course set....
Today I met with my committee to chart out the experiments to wrap up my thesis. My plan of experiments, with inevitable additions and improvements, has been approved, and now I just need to cram it into the next six (or twelve, bleh) months, full of vague, short statements like "optimize the DDQ oxidation of the tetrone model" which could ( Read more... )