That's the ending of a familiar Nebraska saying that begins "If you don't like the weather . . ." It's appropriate this week. High of 60 yesterday. High of 21 today. Brrr.

On a lark I rotated the reflection pictures I took a few weeks ago and reposted them, partially because I think the effect is interesting and partially because I found a Flickr group specifically for images like that.

Labels: photography

The fledgling of my nuclear family enjoys her day in the sun today. Of course, since she's a few years past the driving birthday and a few years shy of the drinking birthday, the extent of her new found powers is the ability to cancel out my vote (in 2008, anyway).

Happy 18th, Haley. :)

Labels: birthdays, haley

This is impressive. How long before you can do this, Tim?

I caught up with the entire season of "The Office" last night. In retrospect, staying up until 6 a.m. to watch them all was probably a bad idea, but it's like crack. Or Count Chocula. Which is like less unhealthy crack.

The "Angela" character on the show reminded me of a woman I overheard in conversation at a restaurant on Sunday night (yes, I eavesdropped; shame on me). The "So, tell me about your life" questions implied a first date of some sort, one brought crashing down by a violation of one of the cardinal first date rules: no talking politics or religion. A mutual disdain for atheists (yes, how ironic that I was sitting right behind them) started them on the right foot, but theological differences proved a pitfall. I can honestly say this was the first time I'd heard, in person, someone use the sentence "Do you know what it is that bothers me about people like you?" (If you're curious, what bothers her is people who don't go to the same church every weekend, because they're not submitting themselves to an established authority and thus are going to Hell. It's all about the membership card, you know.) I'd wager my as-of-yet-theoretical Christmas bonus that Date Number Two failed to transubstantiate.

I have heat! It's not entirely finished (some venting lines to permanently attach and a new programmable thermostat to install), but there is, in fact, a brand new piece of machinery standing defiant where the petulant scrap heap previously squatted. Still, that old furnace had a hell of a lifespan; if the inspection tag that was tied to it is to be believed, it was over 40 years old, double its projected life. I'll have pictures up later to amuse people with its quaint construction (it didn't burn buffalo chips or anything, but the filter system should be good for a laugh).

The Christmas presents I ordered in October have been back ordered again. My family may be getting little boxes saying "Quantum Christmas Present: Until opened you both have and do not have a gift. Open at your own peril!" I see Target is carrying the gifts I ordered now, and I could cancel the online order, but because I got a promotional discount on each gift it would cost me almost $100 more to buy them in the store. I'm really not that attached to the whole "December 25th deadline" thing. Besides, if I'm going to spend $100 on something, I have other things picked out, like a really cool towel rack or a voice-activated R2 unit, or, given the "responsible adult" image I'm expected to maintain, a furnace.

Labels: holiday, house, miscellany, quantum mechanics

This is just ridiculous. Since when is the peace sign a "Satanic symbol"? It was commissioned as a symbol for a nuclear disarmament group in the fifties (the lines are superimposed semephoric symbols for "N" and "D," representing "nuclear disarmament"); it's not like its origins are lost in the annals of history.

I find the entire concept of neighborhood covenants in general vaguely creepy, and this instance, involving a covenant president firing all of the board members and appointing new ones after they refuse to side with him, has "control issues" stamped all over it. Yet another reason to buy a nice, solid, steeped-in-character old house and renovate.

A post-Thanksgiving observation on the ever present malaise of impatience that emerges Jekyll-like from within otherwise reasonable people, denying reason in childlike tantrums soon forgotten.

Lane and I saw "Stranger Than Fiction" tonight, which was very good. It also provided a study of human nature, as a Friday evening showing after a holiday involves a certain degree of crowding and crawling lines, an environment that functions much like a boiler under pressure, substituting human inaction for heat. Standing in line for tickets brings ambient mumbling, a chorus of low voices that rises to open complaints about the efficiency of the staff and the travesty of being forced to abandon the quest for a bucket of soda and nachos due to an imminent movie time (an exasperated note reserving no personal responsibility for not allotting enough time).

On my return home, I shared a moment at a stoplight with the driver of an SUV. It was, in his defense, an unusually long light. That aside, I found it amusing that he pulled forward in successive three-foot advances no fewer than five times, as though he could transmit his impatience to the unconcerned red light through what amounts to body language. The last advance brought him nearly half a car length into the intersection, and I was almost certain he was simply going to run the light before he reluctantly retreated to avoid oncoming cars. I suppose I may have enjoyed slightly too much the fact that, after his hurry to escape the intersection that had become his prison, I caught up with him three stop lights later.

Labels: amusement, humanity

I hope everyone has a fabulous one. Safe driving and mashed potatoes all around, really.

In the spirit of family togetherness, I thought I'd post a snippet of a telephone conversation I had earlier this week with my grandmother. I'm sure Linde will love this one.

Her: Hello?
Me: Hi, grandma. It's your favorite grandson.
Her: Oh, Levi, it's good to hear from you!
Me: Um, no, the other one.
*pause*
Me: Jay.
Her: Oh, Jay, it's good to hear from you!

In her defense, I was on my Bluetooth headset, and it's a little echo-y. But I still found it amusing.

Labels: family, holiday

This has been a long week. Aside from some work-related stress, I found out that the furnace is shot. Current bid? $2,000. Bloody hell.

On the upside, I forgot I hadn't posted these. :)

Labels: house, twins

A real picture from an Amazon.com product page that has since been taken down. Whoops.

Labels: funny

I have to say that this is disappointing. Maybe New Line will wake up before it's too late.

On an unrelated note, does anyone want to buy me a new furnace? I'll bake you cookies . . .

Labels: entertainment, house

Everyone congratulate Marcy on the arrival of Meredith Elise (8 lbs. 4.6 oz., 21 inches). :) Everyone is doing fine and Marcy expects to be discharged Monday.

Labels: marcy, meredith

Because I'm being remiss if I go more than a few months without mentioning Schrodinger's Cat, ya know.

Labels: quantum mechanics, science

I'm on a roll. A concerned realization that my house was not, in fact, growing warmer after turning up the thermostat led to the discovery of a nonworking blower fan in my furnace (always a fun discovery when it's 28 degrees out), and to add insult to injury my monitor chose to die completely while I was sitting in front of it talking to Lisa on the phone about what furnace repair guy they use. A belated apology to Cris, who probably wonders why I blinked out in the middle of a conversation; in truth, I could hear his messages beeping and my iTunes playing, but it's like being blind. The fact that I'm posting this at all should tip one off to the fact that I've switched out the old monitor for the new one, although "new" in this case is used rather loosely (let's just say it will get me by until next March).

If you have any machinery or other important devices with moving parts, it's probably a bad time to invite me over.

Labels: computers, mishaps

The monitor quit working again this morning (or rather wouldn't turn on). Lo and behold, it was on when I came back from my shower. I have a suspicion that maybe it's a temperature thing, or some component that's worn out and takes longer to build up a charge or something. In any case, it seems to work as long as I don't turn it off. Which as you can imagine doesn't sit well with me. My firm was selling old used monitors several months back and I e-mailed them today on the off chance they still had a few left; I lucked out, and now I have one used 19" Dell monitor sitting in my basement for when this one gives up the ghost. I'm also going to need a new USB hub because my current one is built in to the monitor (that's what I get for buying a fancy monitor). In any case, it's annoying, but nothing to the level of a hard drive failure or anything (no one say it; I know where you all live).

Labels: computers

Pictures from last week's babysitting-slash-furniture moving. The twins were thrilled with the temporary jungle gym.

Labels: photography, twins

My monitor wouldn't come on tonight, despite 15 minutes of checking connections and poking around. The green signal light was on, and the speakers made all the startup sounds, so I knew the computer was on and the monitor itself was getting a signal, but it wasn't until I shook the monitor in frustration that it flickered on. Not a good sign. I give it two days. I guess that means I should look for a new monitor.

Labels: computers

I'm not as elated about the expression of the people's voice as I would have liked to be, but neither am I unhappy. In particular, I was hoping Jim Esch would win the House seat from my district (and in fact he was in a dead heat when I went to bed), but alas, it was not meant to be. Hopefully he doesn't give up and tries again.

Some random political impressions:

- Nancy Pelosi said the newly empowered Democrats in the House "intend to lead the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history." Dear Cthulhu I hope so. Please, please, Nancy, no partisan witch hunts or revenge agendas. It's bad for the karma, and if that's not enough it will certainly come back to bite you in the next election.

- The Senate results are not yet final (and I'm waiting for the recount requests to begin). If the Democratic candidate wins, the Democrats will control Congress by one vote (provided Joe Lieberman isn't vindictive about not being supported by the DNC and votes with the Democrats). If the Republican candidate wins, the Senate becomes a 50-50 split, at which point Vice President Dick Cheney gets to break any ties and the Republicans have a de facto 51-50 majority on any party line votes.

- I find it interesting that Joe Lieberman, previously a Democratic senator who was defeated in the primary and ran, and won, as an Independent, garnered more Republican votes than Democratic votes (the Republican candidate was in the single digits). So, in a scene straight out of a novel, we have the election of a formerly Democratic senator (who plans to vote Democratic) by Republicans.

- I know everyone is sick of politics at this point, but preparations for the 2008 elections have already begun (trust me). Democrats won this election largely by campaigning for change, which, quite frankly, they're not going to be able to provide. Even if they win the Senate and consolidate power in Congress, they have nowhere near the majorities needed to override Bush's vetoes (which will flow freely); I foresee many Democratic campaigns based on variations of "Well, we *tried* to change things, but Bush wouldn't let us." I don't think that's quite the clarion call that the immediate message was. I would have also preferred to see the Democrats win on their own merits, rather than on the incompetence of and the wave of scandal from the Republicans.

- I was disappointed that the majority (almost 90% in one CNN poll) of voters believe the elections are secure and accurate, despite the incompetence and secrecy of Diebold, the FBI's investigations of voter intimidation yesterday and the potential for massive electronic voter fraud. I'd really like to see Diebold lose their contracts.

- Pete Ricketts got his ass kicked. I was not unhappy to see that, given that the only exposure I had to him was his series of vitriolic and vicious attack ads. I know that negative ads work (sadly), but I have a natural reluctance to vote for those who use them. Really, if the best way to promote yourself is to point out the flaws in your opponent, you're really not leader material.

Labels: elections, politics

No, we're not talking mono.

I chanced across Radio Disney on my way to work today, which was playing, in appropriately elaborate voices and sound effects, that childhood favorite, "Little Bunny Foo Foo" (come on, you all know it; well, maybe not Mull). Only, in deference to our progressively non-violent facade, the lyrics substituted "kissing" in place of the animal cruelty expressed in "scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head." Which more or less destroys the meaning of the song, as what was before an admonition against random violence and the resulting consequences is now a seemingly arbitrary punishment from a fairy who views being affectionate as immoral. Silly fairy.

P.S. - Does anyone know what the hell a "goon" is? Is being turned into one bad?

Labels: amusement, radio

I took some photos in the Gene Leahy Mall downtown today. The air and light must have been perfect, because the water reflected just like a mirror. I'm pretty happy with how a couple of those turned out. What do you think?

Labels: photography

I spotted this on the way to work on Friday. I found it amusing, in a "shame on you hooligans for defacing a billboard but kudos for doing it in an entertaining way" way.

Labels: amusement, elections, politics

From The Techie Diva, filtered through my mental sieve:

Are You an Internet Addict?
Symptoms to watch out for:

1. Lying about how much time is spent online. Pass. I've never lied about my online time. I suppose the fact that I live alone factors into that.

2. General decrease of physical activity and social life. Neutral. This supposes a pre-existing social life; I've actually done more with friends this year than in previous years, a result of having a house rather than a cramped apartment. Physical activity is another story. I've not decreased, but I've not increased as much as I'd like, either (although not for online time reasons).

3. Neglecting obligations at home, work, or school to spend time online. Pass. I'm good at obligations. I've yet to skip one to be online.

4. Spending too much money on computer equipment or Internet activities. Pass. Amazingly, the last money I spent on computers was the Lightscribe drive I bought 10 months ago. I guess I did update Norton, but it was reluctantly. I suppose I should take this again after I shell out $2,000 for a Mac.

5. Feeling a constant desire to be online when they're away from the computer. Pass. I like being online, but I routinely skip it when I visit my parents.

6. Going online to escape real world problems. Hrm. Neutral/fail. I do spend a lot of time talking to people online rather than meeting people in person.

7. Disregarding the emotional or physical consequences of being in front of a computer all day. Pass.

8. Denial of the problem. What problem?

Labels: computers, internet

Images I've seen on the Web in the last week, presented, like the sugar-laden dregs of left-over Halloween candy, for your consumption:

Mull summed this one up succinctly. "Impressive."

Despite their similarities, it is important to understand the functional differences between restrooms and ATMs.

This is just incredible. I'm sure the "after" photo was nearly as entertaining. (Not that I'm advocating participating in anything like this, mind you. Really.)

And finally . . . I'm sure there's some sort of naughty comment inherent in this picture, but I'm not going there.

Labels: funny

Continuing in the fine tradition of good uncles incorporating science into their fun, I provided the twins and Nick with their own examples of chemical luminescence. The glowy thingies were a big hit.

Labels: holiday, photography, twins

Subtitled "A SIMply Delicious Costume Idea."

Lane's current online fascination (eventually to be replaced by the raw euphoria that accompanies "Spore") is The Sims 2, which for those of you unaccustomed to simulation games puts you in control of a family of virtual people. The Sim (virtual person) you're currently controlling is denoted by a glowing green diamond that hovers above his/her head. Project: SIMple Plan was submitted to Department J for processing, and we got to work from there.

First step, gather materials. Lane and I made a foray to the store with the twins in tow (actually pushed in front) and purchased about $30 of raw materials. Back in the workshop, I first tried to attach the cones together with spray adhesive, which proved far too weak, so I resorted to epoxy (which is far stronger than the styrofoam it's attached to, so it's not going anywhere). Then came a few coats of acrylic paint and a layer of glow-in-the-dark spray paint garnered from eBay. I made the mistake of using the spray paint in my workshop; the fact that the paint glowed gave me a first-hand demonstration of how far spray paint actually travels, which is about twice as far as I expected (if I use a flashlight to "charge" it I can get the floor and shelves along one wall to glow now, and the bottoms of my shoes were glowing for awhile).

Then I hit the first snag. According to the can, this glowing paint was supposed to carry a "charge" for 8 hours. Not even close. And since it was charged by light, the fact that light didn't hit it evenly all the time meant it ended up with darker and lighter splotches on the surface. So I set up a "charging booth" using my photography lights to try to charge it evenly.

Unfortunately, this led to the *second* snag. I left the diamond to "charge" for 15 minutes while I ran back upstairs, only to return to find the basement smelling of burnt styrofoam and the diamond lying against one of the lamps with a baseball-sized hole melted into the side of it. Now, I'm not given to profanity on a daily basis, but I do have to admit there was a period of swearing immediately following this discovery (Cris can attest to this).

After labeling this first failure v1.0, I returned to the store for new components, and discarded the glowing paint idea. Instead, I decided to affix glowsticks to the sides of the diamond, preferably set into the styrofoam itself. After wandering around the basement for 10 minutes looking for the best way to do this, I found a piece of copper tubing from a previous lightsaber-building project in a box on a shelf and discovered it was *just* larger than the glowsticks. I retired to the kitchen, where I heated the pipe in one of the burners on the stove and used it to cut channels into the styrofoam. The process was slick; I only wish I had a hand free to take a photo of it. The pipe actually sliced out spherical tubes of undamaged styrofoam with almost no effort. I cut three into each cone (along premeasured lines; no random guessing). Then came two coats of acrylic paint in a Lane-approved color for each before epoxying them together. In the meantime, I drilled a hole through the headband and epoxied one of the aluminum knitting needles (which I just happened to see in the craft section while looking for the cones) into place. Finally, I affixed rubber bands to the headband to give it more "grip" and set the diamond in place onto the needle.

Fast-forward to Halloween, where Lane and I did some impromptu rigging on the costume to get it to work. First we activated all of the glowsticks. Then we taped them all into their channels in the diamond. Finally we attached some fishing line to the back of the diamond and secured it to the back of her jacket to help stabilize it. And voila, one SimLane. We even tested it in the dark.

Labels: holiday