Just ForThe Record

For future reference:

Six Plus Three Equals Nine!

Apparently I have a problem with simple arithmetic...

Also spelling, as spell check informs me I mispelled "arithmetic" the first time around. Anyway, yesterday we got a check from another location. I totaled up the charges (several times), it looked like three bucks too much. So I wrote a LONG note to finance explaining my figures, and asking what to do about it. Finance says, you added wrong. I re-figured. and re-figured. Finally used a calculator. Yikes! Back to third grade for me!

Bombing Out

Finally finished a Minesweeper game at "expert" level.



And yet, SOMEONE who doesn't EVEN (as Bob Verley might say) live here anymore has high score!

The injustice!


See the pretty desktop image? That was taken by that high scorer.

UPDATE: I have been told that the desktop picture is from the Gigapxl Project. Sorry about that, Chief!

Beat Out

Driving home from the grocery store, I was dismayed to be beat off the line by a Prius!!!

One of those funny-looking cars with the funny looking wheels.

One of those cars that I asked my son about, "What is that pimped-out looking thing?"

I get funny looks from him...

So Mr. Prius is in the lane on my right, zooms ahead by 100 feet, suddenly zooms left two lanes, only turning on his signal when he is already over lane, just like an SUV driver.

Then he turns into a left-hand turn lane (to Costco), THEN zooms back out in front of me, apparently having decided he WASN'T a Costco member at this time.

Or something.

But he DID have the turn signal this time.

So then he turns left at the NEXT intersection, which is a two lane turning left deal. Naturally, he gets into the inside lane, the short line.

The lane I'm not in.

And naturally, after the left and half-way up the hill, he cuts over into my lane, only he's about ten cars in front me by now.

I guess being ecologically-minded doesn't make one less of a weenie.

Coming Loose

It was a bit windy the other day, I suppose it was just too much for this insulator.



Or at least, the wood into which it was screwed. There are two more insulators up there, the Gas & Electric guy just fastened the service drop to one of them, but he said they were a bit loose too, so he thought the 2x4 they are screwed into should be replaced.

It was entertaining listening to the upstairs guy trying to explain to the building manager (on speaker phone) what the problem was. She didn't seem to be getting it. The Gas & Electic guy showed up within a few minutes, probably a half-hour, so someone must have made it sound like an emergency.

---

It's been kind of bummer week. Two people have passes away that I know. One was WAY too young, the other, well, older than me, but still. Heck of a nice guy. Life just seems cruel, sometimes, but then, that's life, I guess.

Big Eyes

Here's something to freak you out, and mess up the blog formatting for a while...

(You may have to right-click and choose "View Image" to enjoy the fullness)
(If I had a Macintosh, I would put Mac-specific instructions here. But, I don't.)

Feel free to use it as your desktop image!

Gar. Da. Tu.

Spent two hours trying to find out what that movie was, with the blonde guy holding something up, that was on television Sunday night, that I only saw a few minutes of.

One would think one could just set the date back a couple days on the TV Guide Listings. Oh, no.

No no no no.

You would be mistaken! It only goes back to yesterday.

Thank you so much!

Nice thing about a print edition, it doesn't disappear a couple days later.

Unless the dog eats it.

Finally found the week's movie listing, in .pdf format, on the Onion Tribunal website, SignOn San Diego. Had to text search for "Sun.", but eventually something looked likely.

It was Momento (wiki ariticle, in case you missed the movie.)

But then, YOU knew that!!

A Rememberance Of Things Past

I once had an Honda XL250. A nice, sturdy bike. Ran well, once I replaced the wrong carb some guy had stuck on it with the correct, stock, one.



The big plastic gas tank was a selling point for me when I bought this, as was the Preston Petty front fender.

The lad commented, on seeing this pic, that I haven't lost much more hair since then. But I HAVE lost some weight! Probably stoped wearing jeans around then, too.

The trusty bike broke down one day on the way to work. I parked it, LOCKED, it was gone when I came back after work. I went home to report it to the San Diego police, but since I don't LIVE in San Diego, I had to drive back to San Diego so they would take a report. Is that screwy?

I got it back a year later. The police caught the neighborhood kids who had stolen it. It was all beat up, and a footpeg bolt was broken off in the frame. The kids had to pay restitution, but since I had just priced replacement parts, and not actually had a shop estimate replacing the footpeg bolt, I didn't get much. I broke off a bolt remover in the bolt, so I never did get it out.



I eventually sold it to two guys from Imperial Beach, for a pittance.

Story of my life!

Too Wierd

I don't like to post stuff I've seen on Fark, 'cause, you should be there yourself, lazy!

But I can't resist this.

Wedding Dress Weirdness --

Trash The Dress


Brides Buy TWO Dresses

My wedding, as it were, cost, maybe, 50 bucks. But I'm known for being exceptionally frugal (read-CHEAP!).

How much did YOU spend? Did you get two dresses? Did you BURN them afterwards. And, if not, what DID you do with that white dress?

Lighter Than Air

I like blimps. In lieu of security cameras, I'd like to have a radio-controlled blimp with a video link to see just WHAT those people way over in the hidden corner of the library are up to...

This guy doesn't like them so much, anymore...

Book Review

This isn't really a review, as I don't know how to write one. But this book irritated me enough that I wanted to bring up a few points. The book is The Grays by Whitley Strieber.

First of all, it's a novel about UFOs. If you believe, you will probably like it. I don't.

pg. 42 Refers to an "HO-grade" model train set. What is that? In my 47 years in the hobby, I've only heard it referred to as HO scale or HO gauge. I felt a little sick at this point.

pg. 45 Not a problem here, the book says Conner is 11 years old. A couple of people on Amazon.com said at the end of book, a few days later, Conner is 13. I couldn't find any mention of that.

pg. 162 "An Air Police captain"... According to my research, U.S. Air Force security forces haven't been called Air Police since the 60s. They were called Security Police back in the 70s when I was in the war. As it were.

pg. 163 An Air Force general calls a female Air Force colonel "girlie", and refers to her boobs. Well, I was not an officer, but I'm not believing THAT scene!

pg. 216 A "transmitter" from Radio Shack has "a far greater power output" by bypassing a couple of resisters. I'm not electronic expert, but I'm thinking ... not. I have READ that one can shift the frequency on certain synthesized radios by snipping a resister or so. What kind of transmitter does Radio Shack sell? Citizen's Band? 5 watts? 27 mhz? Why not buy an amateur radio transmitter and apple fryer and pump out a thousand or more watts, no bypassing needed, at 28 mhz? Ten meters rules!

pg. 245 Sounds like a Dyson sphere, to me. Why not just say so? Too technical for the intended audience?

(Foxfire CRASHES! Thank goodness for auto-save!)

pg. 286 Roumania. Maybe it's spelled like that in Romania (or not), but this book is in English, and that is a very odd spelling, to my thinking.

pg. 291 "Super-secure sideband" communications system. Try digital. Frequency-hopping. But what do I know? If you want to sound like a duck, go with sideband.

pg. 292 Enter the secret code, "...then one-niner one in six three three eight nanosecond timed sequence." I don't know about you, but I don't think my reaction time is QUITE that fast.

pg. 298 Just a typo, not worth mentioning.

pg. 300 The building is exploding, and yet the infallible power source for the transmitter keeps on going.

pg. 301 What is the portent of "the lonely way"? I don't get it, and it's not mentioned again. Maybe in the sequel?

pg. 303 How many people were "modified" by Wilkes? I thought it was mostly kids, and only around ten or less. Sounds like the whole town is running amuck!

pg. 305 Someone "far down the road" is standing on a car, shooting at him. Why stand on a car? Isn't that dangerous? They need a truck bed to stand on!!

pg. 311 Washington Monument collapses, weak marble is blamed. Well, it's granite on the inside. But I don't doubt it would have collapsed in a 7.3 earthquake.

pg. 313 The antenna is gone from the miracle transmitter, but the affected citizens still run amuck (I like that word!). Even AFTER the transmitter is destroyed the affected citizens are still bent on their killer obsession. Except when they FINALLY come to their senses. But then we've got the killer modified dog, which the author has pointed will stay affected even AFTER the radio is silenced. In animals, the radio only turns them ON, not OFF. Ok dokay there, hoss.

Well, I suppose if one believes in any sort of "religion", one might be attracted to its fictional representation by one of its adherents.

But, I'm not.

Food

Ran across these food pics on the blog Axis Of Aevil. I'm hungry now!

How did I "run" across this? I was looking for antique cocoa advertisements, spurred by my reading of "Three Men On The Bummel"

No, I did not find a suitable advertisement.

Shark Attack!

I hear tell there is a great white shark off the coast of Great Britain.

The Sun, a newspaper renown for its veracity, has an article (with pics!), with a sidebar by James Orr of useful tips on avoiding shark attack.

Here be a couple of them:

"NEVER urinate in your wetsuit or the ocean — sharks can detect it from five miles away and will think you’re a fish in distress, a ready-made meal."

"DON’T clap your hands and bark like a seal. Great Whites often attack humans after mistaking them for their favourite meal."

Go read the article:

And remember, don't bark like a seal, kids...

Just Testin' Something Here

Just ignore this.


Cutty Sark test

Now this:



Ok, I think I see. I can see the big images on zooomr, but YOU can't. I CAN post a link to the big image, or I COULD copy and paste the html code from zooomr. Huh.

Interestingly, the giant image is all there in the blog preview, but in the actual post it is cut off.

Whoops, just noticed, when I log off zooomr I CAN'T get to the big image through the link!!

But the html code cut and past still is ok. I guess you would see the whole picture if it was like, man, in a regular ol' web page or somethin'.

Out and About

I ran over to the store yesterday. Well, FIRST I went to the library and checked out some reading material. The second book of the Gregor The Overlander series, and a Harlan Corben book, as I heard him on the radio the other day. There were a lot of books in the freebie bins, and I picked out a Theodore Sturgeon title I don't remember reading, and I'm too lazy to go see what it is right now.

Then I went to the store.

Got my stuff. Hauled it out to the vehicle in a shopping cart.

Now, you know me, I have two store "habits":

• I park as far away from the store as possible.
• I take a cart from near where I parked when I go INTO the store, and that balances the cart I leave there. At the cart corral, I mean!

But I digress...

I saw a lady with a full arm cast having some trouble with her cart, but I didn't offer to help her. But I DID think about it! I followed her as she left the parking lot in her Jeep Cherokee. She was having trouble turning the steering wheel, what with the cast.

And her cigarette.

Yes, I said cigarette.

The lady with the giant cast on her arm was trying to drive while smoking!

Idiot.

Sunday Morning

Junk science? Sounds like it to me!

"If the mother is eating Cheetos and white bread, the fetus will be born with those taste buds. If the mother is eating carrots and oatmeal, the child will be born with those taste buds," said Robert Trevino at the Social and Health Research Center in San Antonio, Texas.

from Children hear carrots, but buy Cheetos

I checked out their website (that is, the Social and Health Research Center), they seem to be doing good work, but that quote sure seems weird!

Of course, you will want to read the Fark! comments thread on this article.

Sad Note

I watched a show about the Grand Canyon last night. It's been a fantasy of mine to hike it. I looked up the depth, it's about FOUR ascents (is that up and back?) of Cowles Mountain, near as I can figure.

Anyway, I looked up Colin Fletcher, to see what he was up to, and found out he died last month, that would be June, 2007.

I read Mr. Fletcher's book The Complete Walker about a zillion times. It was very inspiring, although I never actually WENT camping, for various reasons. I loved to read his opinions on equipment and philosophy of hiking. I also read The Thousand Mile Summer (hiking the length of California) and The Man Who Walked Through Time (hiking the length of the Grand Canyon).

(Gee, I just killed this post by closing the tab accidentally, thank goodness for Blogspot autosave!!)

TPS Reports

Turned the boss boss on to the movie "Office Space".

I wonder how that will turn out...

---------------------------

Initialism Of The Day -- TLP (transient lunar phenomena)

Learn more in the article "Ghostly Moon events continue to mystify"

Wierd Drivers

On Lake Murray Blvd. I saw a white truck follow this bizarre course.



Notice he is proceeding through the wrong turn lane, waits for traffic to pass, then drives OVER THE CURBS to get to the side street.

Wierd, just weird.

Larn Sumtin Evary Day!

I just learned (in a Fark.com thread, of all places!), that "facetious" has all the vowels, in order.

Isn't that interesting?

TV Or Not TV

I'm listening to the theme song from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television series "Seachange" right now. I didn't like this series when it started, but it totally grew on me. And the song was totally earworming!!

If you want to read about the series visit this page.

The theme song (what I'm listening to) can be listened to, or downloaded, on the Episodes page. The opening theme can be played or downloaded on the Cast page.

Something To Think About

I'm not sure what's going to go on this blog, probably nothing much. There's not THAT much happening with me. Maybe I'll just put medical stuff here, to spare my many other reader from suffering through it on the other blogs...

I'd like to mention the Violent Acres blog. She very often expresses stuff I been thinking. Sometimes not. Rated "A" for Adult.

I read about the Monkeysphere on her blog. An example of stuff I've been trying to figure out.

If you have ever worked on a old British car, you may have experienced the wrath of Lucas, Prince of Darkness. Also some good stuff on interpeting your Haynes manual. For example:

"Haynes: See illustration for details
Translation: None of the illustrations notes will match the pictured exploded, numbered parts. The unit illustrated is from a previous or variant model".