The NTSB put out the first of (presumably) several reports on the bridge collapse in Minneapolis last August.  I didn't see any real national news coverage of this, so I'm linking the reports here in case anyone cares.  The reason for the lack of coverage is probably that the first spectulations of faulty gusset plates turned out to be accurate-- ( Read more... )

I saw Buster Keaton's "The General" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017925/)  at the Music Box Theater today (http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/).  While I've seen it many times before, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they played a full score on the organ rather than pipe in a prerecorded one.  I've seen many films where live organ music was ( Read more... )

Okay, since I apparently didn't tell everyone as thoroughly as I had thought (again, sorry Randall), I got engaged back in November to Suzie, a friend of mine from back in high school whom I've been dating a couple years now.  Many of you know her and I'm sure the rest of you will at some point.  We're looking at a wedding date in June of '09, so ( Read more... )

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

B
I just finished watching Ken Burns' "The War" documentary that premiered on PBS this past fall.  I had missed it when it was shown on TV for various reasons, but the local library had the full set of DVDs.  The premise of it was to show the Second World War from a primarily American perspective--somewhat like an American version of the incredibly ( Read more... )

So, have you ever worried about hitting underground cables while digging, but couldn't understand how to stay safe without a coloring book to tell you how?  Well, friend, your prayers have been answered:
http://www.illinois1call.com/pdf/ActivityBook.pdf

...and yes, my oldest nephew will get a copy of this next time I see him :)

So, yesterday I went on a 20+ mile bike ride on the new I-355 Tollway extension (http://www.rollthetollway.org/).  This is the extension of I-355 from I-55 south to I-80 that has been discussed for well over a decade (and actually had a few phantom bridge piers for it constructed already when I was back in high school).  There were 5,000 bikers ( Read more... )

I just got an email from Borders Book Store telling me that I am now entitled to $0.00 in "Borders Bucks", which can be redeemed only prior to November 30th.  At the end of this message is says, and I quote: "Congratulations.  You earned it".

My question to you, dear reader, is whether or not Borders is deliberately trying to taunt me or merely ( Read more... )

Say, I was thinking of trying to do National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) again this year and was looking to see if anyone else was interested.  I tried it last year and had fun with it, even though I didn't quite make the 50k words that is the target length (oddly, time wasn't the issue as much as my story's premise running out ( Read more... )

Well, I said previously that I'd update my LiveJournal when I found a new job, so here I am again.  I started this past Monday for my new firm (and procrastinated updating LJ since several days before that ( Read more... )