Excerpt of a SMS converstaion intercepted by the NSA anti-terrorism data sniffer in San Antonio Texas.
6/6/07 - 10:35PM CDT
SweetYoungThing: What kinda trouble you gettin into on the fake river?
6/6/07 - 10:37PM CDT
SomeGuy: Arrest, probably. I'll let you know later tonite. I feel like misbehaving.
6/6/07 - 10:38PM CDT
SweetYoungThing: Uh oh no good can come from that except for entertainment value of course!
6/6/07 - 10:40PM CDT
SomeGuy: It will involve a willing waitress from coyote ugly, and there is no doubt that it will all end and tears. Or perhaps bondage.
6/6/07 - 10:43PM CDT
SweetYoungThing: Whose tears? Yours or hers?
6/6/07 - 10:45PM CDT
SomeGuy: A little bit of both. Hers from fear and amazement, mine from the pepper spray.
-End of Transmission-
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
This can't be a good idea.
Another chapter from the "Like-my-nutritional-habits-aren't-bad-enough-already" department:
Beer Battered Deep Fried Bacon Double Quarter Pounder
"...it was the heaviest thing I'd ever munched on, and left me unable to eat for a good 24 hours afterwards."
Wow.
Beer Battered Deep Fried Bacon Double Quarter Pounder
"...it was the heaviest thing I'd ever munched on, and left me unable to eat for a good 24 hours afterwards."
Wow.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Saucy Shrimp
I had a jones for shrimp on Friday, so Saturday the Perfect Child and I headed out to Safe Harbor (the seafood purveyor of whom I have sung praises before...) to get some scrimps to cook up for dinner.
5 lbs of jumbo shrimp later, I was back at the Humble Abode and digging through the spice rack and dry storage to see what was available to work with...
I got out several cookbooks, including one from Uglesich's and made notes on several recipes and after a quick trip to Publix I set to work. At the risk of sounding full of myself, the results werefamous amazing astounding beyond compare pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.
For your gastronomic pleasure, I present to you, lucky reader,
Saucy Shrimp...
(serves 4, or 2 if one of the 2 is an ogre)
Hardware:
10" saute pan
6-quart soup pot
Shallow bowls for serving
Ingredients:
1/2 small onion
2 celery ribs
5 garlic cloves
1/2 stick of butter
2T bacon grease.
(What? You don't save your old bacon grease after frying bacon on Saturday morning? For shame. Tsk tsk tsk. Use another 1/2 stick of butter.
2T rosemary
2t thyme
1T fennel
1T cumin
2t celery seed
2 tsp black pepper
1 Qt chicken broth
8 oz bottle clam juice
2T Crystal Hot Sauce or Texas Pete
Juice of 1 lemon
1 6oz can of tomato paste
1 bottle (12oz.) Red Stripe beer.
3 to 4 lbs of prepared* shrimp.
2 loaves Cuban bread or baguettes.
Optional: white rice
*A note on Shrimp.
There are 3 schools of thought on preparing and serving shrimp.
1. International Method
Buy whole head-on shrimp, cook & serve them intact, so their beady little eyes are watching you as you shell and eat them. Big in Europe and in Asia.
2. Lazy American Method
Buy headed shrimp, leaving tail shells intact, or just cutting the shell a bit to remove the sand vein, but leaving the bulk of the shell in place.
Some people will make the case that this method makes the shrimp more tender and keeps more of the flavoring of the cooking spices close to the meat of the shrimp.
I've tried it and I'm calling bullshit on this theory. When you peel them, the spices come off with the shell.
3. Uncle Jay's Method
Buy head-on jumbo shrimp. (They are bigger, fresher and cheaper than their prepared counterparts.)
Head, peel and de-vein shrimp while listening to Jimmy Buffett's "A1A" album.
Before the last strains of "Nautical Wheelers" are heard, you will be finished with 3 or 4 lbs of shrimp.
I peel them completely for 2 reasons... 1) because I don't overcook them, and 2) that way my dinner guests can concentrate on enjoying the food, rather than peeling their meals and dealing with shrimp shells and legs, and messy hands...
Do it however works for you...
Ready?... Here we go.
Slice and dice the onion and celery, peel and mince the garlic.
Melt the butter and bacon grease in the saute pan, and fry the onion, celery and garlic until soft. Don't brown the ingredients...just fry until soft and translucent.
(Hey! No salt yet! That's later.)
While the veggies are frying, it's time to work with the spices.
You can use fresh or dried spices, depending on what you have on-hand in your larder.
I had no fresh spices...not even a sprig of rosemary...so all mine were out of rack...
If you have fresh, so much the better for you.
If your using fresh you want to do a little cut and crush to release the oils in the herbs. For any dry spices you are using, you'll want to chop/crush them, or take them for a spin in a spice grinder, if you use one of those things.
I have a mortar and pestle for just such an occasion. Heh.
So.. Have at it... cut, crush, chop and/or grind away...
Once you have prepared your spices, and your veggies are nice and soft, reduce the heat under the saute pan and add your spices. Stir to combine. Cover the pan and head to the next step.
Get all your liquids ready to use, open all containers and bottles. Put your soup pot on the stove.
Set your burner to med-high heat and transfer the veggies from the saute pan to the 6-quart pot. Add the chicken stock, the clam juice, Red Stripe beer, hot sauce, lemon juice, and the tomato paste. Bring to a boil, the reduce heat to just above a simmer (slow boil) for 1 hour, uncovered.
After 1 hour, test for flavor and texture. Now will be the time to add salt, more garlic or garlic powder, or any other spices you like.
(Nota Bene: You will notice there is no mention of cooking shrimp up to this point. Just want to make that clear.)
Serving / Presentation.
I really hate it when some people make a shrimp dish and insist on cooking the crap out of the shrimp, making them hard, bad-tasting shrimp nuggets.
If you drop your shrimp in a pot of, say, file gumbo, and boil it for 20 or 30 minutes, the shrimp will cease to taste like shrimp and will taste like, well, not good.
Shrimp only need a few minutes of cooking to make them tasty and flavorful and wonderful.
For this particular recipe, do it my way... It's a lot of work, but worth it.
Heat your saute pan over med-hi to hi heat.
Using a soup ladle, put 2 ladles of the broth in your hot saute pan. As soon as it starts to bubble (almost immediately) add a handful (8-10) of raw, peeled, de-veined shrimp.
Let them cook for 30 seconds, then turn them over and let them cook for another 30 or so seconds...
Give them a swirl or two, and maybe pan-flip them a time or two if your are able to do that kind of thing without slpattering the entire stove with sauce. The shrimp should be over the heat for 90 seconds to 2 minutes tops. They will continue to cook in the sauce for a minute or two more after plating, and will be completely and perfectly cooked if you follow the directions correctly.
Transfer the shrimp and pan sauce to a shallow bowl and serve with crusty bread for sopping up the sauce to one of your lucky dinner guests.
Repeat for each guest.
Cook only as needed to serve each guest. Be prepared to saute more sauce and shrimp as needed for seconds and thirds.
As an alternative, serve over rice.
Have some Texas Pete or Crystal hot sauce on the table for individual taste.
Addendum:
Leftover sauce: Put it in a jar- keeps in the fridge for 2 weeks.
For saucy crawfish - Use a bigger pot, add another beer and another quart of stock, 2 T of cayenne, 2T of
hot sauce, and 1t of black peppercorns.After broth simmers for 1 hour, increase heat to low boil, add 4 lbs whole crawfish to the full pot of broth.
After 20 minutes, ladle sauce & crawfish into bowls and serve. Have lots of bread on hand for sopping up sauce.
Enjoy.
TBG out-
5 lbs of jumbo shrimp later, I was back at the Humble Abode and digging through the spice rack and dry storage to see what was available to work with...
I got out several cookbooks, including one from Uglesich's and made notes on several recipes and after a quick trip to Publix I set to work. At the risk of sounding full of myself, the results were
For your gastronomic pleasure, I present to you, lucky reader,
Saucy Shrimp...
(serves 4, or 2 if one of the 2 is an ogre)
Hardware:
10" saute pan
6-quart soup pot
Shallow bowls for serving
Ingredients:
1/2 small onion
2 celery ribs
5 garlic cloves
1/2 stick of butter
2T bacon grease.
(What? You don't save your old bacon grease after frying bacon on Saturday morning? For shame. Tsk tsk tsk. Use another 1/2 stick of butter.
2T rosemary
2t thyme
1T fennel
1T cumin
2t celery seed
2 tsp black pepper
1 Qt chicken broth
8 oz bottle clam juice
2T Crystal Hot Sauce or Texas Pete
Juice of 1 lemon
1 6oz can of tomato paste
1 bottle (12oz.) Red Stripe beer.
3 to 4 lbs of prepared* shrimp.
2 loaves Cuban bread or baguettes.
Optional: white rice
*A note on Shrimp.
There are 3 schools of thought on preparing and serving shrimp.
1. International Method
Buy whole head-on shrimp, cook & serve them intact, so their beady little eyes are watching you as you shell and eat them. Big in Europe and in Asia.
2. Lazy American Method
Buy headed shrimp, leaving tail shells intact, or just cutting the shell a bit to remove the sand vein, but leaving the bulk of the shell in place.
Some people will make the case that this method makes the shrimp more tender and keeps more of the flavoring of the cooking spices close to the meat of the shrimp.
I've tried it and I'm calling bullshit on this theory. When you peel them, the spices come off with the shell.
3. Uncle Jay's Method
Buy head-on jumbo shrimp. (They are bigger, fresher and cheaper than their prepared counterparts.)
Head, peel and de-vein shrimp while listening to Jimmy Buffett's "A1A" album.
Before the last strains of "Nautical Wheelers" are heard, you will be finished with 3 or 4 lbs of shrimp.
I peel them completely for 2 reasons... 1) because I don't overcook them, and 2) that way my dinner guests can concentrate on enjoying the food, rather than peeling their meals and dealing with shrimp shells and legs, and messy hands...
Do it however works for you...
Ready?... Here we go.
Slice and dice the onion and celery, peel and mince the garlic.
Melt the butter and bacon grease in the saute pan, and fry the onion, celery and garlic until soft. Don't brown the ingredients...just fry until soft and translucent.
(Hey! No salt yet! That's later.)
While the veggies are frying, it's time to work with the spices.
You can use fresh or dried spices, depending on what you have on-hand in your larder.
I had no fresh spices...not even a sprig of rosemary...so all mine were out of rack...
If you have fresh, so much the better for you.
If your using fresh you want to do a little cut and crush to release the oils in the herbs. For any dry spices you are using, you'll want to chop/crush them, or take them for a spin in a spice grinder, if you use one of those things.
I have a mortar and pestle for just such an occasion. Heh.
So.. Have at it... cut, crush, chop and/or grind away...
Once you have prepared your spices, and your veggies are nice and soft, reduce the heat under the saute pan and add your spices. Stir to combine. Cover the pan and head to the next step.
Get all your liquids ready to use, open all containers and bottles. Put your soup pot on the stove.
Set your burner to med-high heat and transfer the veggies from the saute pan to the 6-quart pot. Add the chicken stock, the clam juice, Red Stripe beer, hot sauce, lemon juice, and the tomato paste. Bring to a boil, the reduce heat to just above a simmer (slow boil) for 1 hour, uncovered.
After 1 hour, test for flavor and texture. Now will be the time to add salt, more garlic or garlic powder, or any other spices you like.
(Nota Bene: You will notice there is no mention of cooking shrimp up to this point. Just want to make that clear.)
Serving / Presentation.
I really hate it when some people make a shrimp dish and insist on cooking the crap out of the shrimp, making them hard, bad-tasting shrimp nuggets.
If you drop your shrimp in a pot of, say, file gumbo, and boil it for 20 or 30 minutes, the shrimp will cease to taste like shrimp and will taste like, well, not good.
Shrimp only need a few minutes of cooking to make them tasty and flavorful and wonderful.
For this particular recipe, do it my way... It's a lot of work, but worth it.
Heat your saute pan over med-hi to hi heat.
Using a soup ladle, put 2 ladles of the broth in your hot saute pan. As soon as it starts to bubble (almost immediately) add a handful (8-10) of raw, peeled, de-veined shrimp.
Let them cook for 30 seconds, then turn them over and let them cook for another 30 or so seconds...
Give them a swirl or two, and maybe pan-flip them a time or two if your are able to do that kind of thing without slpattering the entire stove with sauce. The shrimp should be over the heat for 90 seconds to 2 minutes tops. They will continue to cook in the sauce for a minute or two more after plating, and will be completely and perfectly cooked if you follow the directions correctly.
Transfer the shrimp and pan sauce to a shallow bowl and serve with crusty bread for sopping up the sauce to one of your lucky dinner guests.
Repeat for each guest.
Cook only as needed to serve each guest. Be prepared to saute more sauce and shrimp as needed for seconds and thirds.
As an alternative, serve over rice.
Have some Texas Pete or Crystal hot sauce on the table for individual taste.
Addendum:
Leftover sauce: Put it in a jar- keeps in the fridge for 2 weeks.
For saucy crawfish - Use a bigger pot, add another beer and another quart of stock, 2 T of cayenne, 2T of
hot sauce, and 1t of black peppercorns.After broth simmers for 1 hour, increase heat to low boil, add 4 lbs whole crawfish to the full pot of broth.
After 20 minutes, ladle sauce & crawfish into bowls and serve. Have lots of bread on hand for sopping up sauce.
Enjoy.
TBG out-
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Phase 1, Wrapped. Sort of.
Well… The Stanley Cup Final is underway. Finally. (Is that redundant?)
I’m putting the finishing touches on the first part of arena installations...
In this part I’ve installed hardware in Atlanta, Anaheim, Buffalo, Calgary, Carolina, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Montreal, Nashville, New York Islanders, Madison Square Garden, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Tampa, Toronto, and Vancouver. The last stop for phase 1 is in Columbus Ohio during the draft on June 18-19...
There are a few that will need follow-up trips to get them completed... Basically any team that didn’t make 2nd round of the playoffs will get a second visit.
Phase Two is in late August. Boston, Chicago, Denver, Edmonton, Florida, LA, New Jersey’s new arena, Philly, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Washington.
I’m just back from Anaheim right now, cabling the TV Trucks for feeds from the new interface, and after taking a nightmare of a red-eye flight from LAX to Jacksonville and sleeping for 13 hours, I’m back in the saddle, getting ready for the NBA finals.
The countdown is on for my sojourn to Loggerhead Key...
Can you see Loggerhead Key out on the horizon?
Here... An aerial shot...
Talk about a deserted island...
The Lighthouse and the Keeper's Quarters...
Much more info on this forthcoming…
TBG, out-
I’m putting the finishing touches on the first part of arena installations...
In this part I’ve installed hardware in Atlanta, Anaheim, Buffalo, Calgary, Carolina, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Montreal, Nashville, New York Islanders, Madison Square Garden, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Tampa, Toronto, and Vancouver. The last stop for phase 1 is in Columbus Ohio during the draft on June 18-19...
There are a few that will need follow-up trips to get them completed... Basically any team that didn’t make 2nd round of the playoffs will get a second visit.
Phase Two is in late August. Boston, Chicago, Denver, Edmonton, Florida, LA, New Jersey’s new arena, Philly, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Washington.
I’m just back from Anaheim right now, cabling the TV Trucks for feeds from the new interface, and after taking a nightmare of a red-eye flight from LAX to Jacksonville and sleeping for 13 hours, I’m back in the saddle, getting ready for the NBA finals.
The countdown is on for my sojourn to Loggerhead Key...
Can you see Loggerhead Key out on the horizon?
Here... An aerial shot...
Talk about a deserted island...
The Lighthouse and the Keeper's Quarters...
Much more info on this forthcoming…
TBG, out-
Monday, May 21, 2007
Homeward Blog
Anaheim pulled it out last night so the series is now Anaheim 3, Detroit 2. The series goes back out to Anaheim for the next game.
I, however, am going home. At least for a day or three.
Fortuitous, since I promised the perfect child that I would take her and her minions to the midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean – At Worlds End on Thursday night.
So… Polly was heading back to Jax, and Steve was heading out to Anaheim for game support, and I gave them a ride to the airport. At 4:45 in the morning. Heh.
Steve’s flight was at 7:00 and Polly’s was at 8 something… Mine was at 11, and I'm loaded with equipment from the TVI Test. I dropped them at the curbside check-in at about 5:20.
I was there a bit early… Like 5 hours, after I did all my travel chores… gassing the car, dropping it off at the rental drop, and taking the shuttle back to the terminal. Southwest won’t let you check in more than 4 hours before your flight, so I got to sit and kill some time near the security line…
It was kind of a “A Day at Disneyworld” kind of thing… the line went through a series of s-shaped crowd management turns, and then due to the early flights, the line snaked back down a blind hallway that you couldn’t see from the entrance…
As people would walk up, the ubiquitous Crowd Control “let me see your ticket” TSA guy was herding people back down the hallway as they tried to find a way past the bulk of the line.
“Sir, follow the line.”
“Mam, the line is there.”
“Please, back of the line, sir.”
The fun part was the reaction as people turned the corner and saw how far the line extended.
“Oh Man….I don’t believe…”
“Damn.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Geez!”
“Oh no…”
“What the hell…?”
Or some variation on the above themes.
The there are the people who were late for their flights and tried to go through the “Crew Only” lane…. Not pretty.
“Please sir, we go by the line, not your flight times…”
Two girls turned on the waterworks trying to avoid the 30 minute wait.
Very entertaining, to say the least. Mr. No Tolerance didn’t budge.
Oh well.
I’m on Fistfight Airlines… I mean Southwest Airlines. Time to go stake out my position in line.
TBG out-
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Is that what they do in there?
Damn you, auto-correcting spell checker!
From: *********
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 12:40:11 PM
To: Everybody
Subject: Downstairs Lady's Bathroom
Good afternoon everyone,
You may now use the downstairs lady's bathroom; however, please be couscous.
Thanks,
--------------
Couscous?
There are so many comments and jokes that I don't know where to start.
TBG, Speechless-
From: *********
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 12:40:11 PM
To: Everybody
Subject: Downstairs Lady's Bathroom
Good afternoon everyone,
You may now use the downstairs lady's bathroom; however, please be couscous.
Thanks,
--------------
Couscous?
There are so many comments and jokes that I don't know where to start.
TBG, Speechless-
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
For Luc...
(Click picture for the full image)
The front row are the LA Kings RTSS officials, the back row are the Anaheim officials scoring on the new NHL HITS System.
Ain't technology a blast?
TBG out, taking pictures.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Spectator sport
Quote of the night:
We're (some guys from the NHL) sitting in a bar in Anaheim watching the Buffalo / Ottawa game...
10 minutes left in the game- the bartender asks Damien,
"Hey, you want another beer?"
"Yeah, as a matter of fact bring me ten, then you better call the cops."
Wow.
TBG, out drinking.
P.S. Ottawa won, 0-1, they are up 3 to 0. Someone tell the Fat Lady she's on in 5.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Memo from the Desk of Captain Obvious:
As we sat in lobby of the the Marriott (not the bar, go figure)
we were watching the Ottawa/Buffalo conference final go into overtime.
Dan P came up with the "uh...y'think?" quote of the night:
we were watching the Ottawa/Buffalo conference final go into overtime.
Dan P came up with the "uh...y'think?" quote of the night:
"This next goal is gonna be huge."
TBG, dreading overtime games, out-
Friday, May 11, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
From our "Don't-listen-to-what-she-says-Listen-to-what-she-means" Department:
Obviously a newlywed.
TBG out-
Obviously a newlywed.
TBG out-
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Fallen off the face of the Earth?
Well... Not really...
Last time I posted I was in on the road in the San Joaquin Valley heading for San Jose.
Since then I've been in San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver, Detroit, and finally back to Jacksonville.
As the late great Jerry Garcia said: What a long strange trip it's been.
Let's see...
A few pictures and a recap seem to be in order.
First- The drive from Jacksonville to Dallas was mostly uneventful.
I rented a Pontiac Vibe from Avis- gas milage wasn't too bad- I got about 360 miles per tank of gas. Not too shabby.
I got a late start out of Jax and as the sun was going down over Mobile it was killing my contacts so I stopped at one of the seafood places on Battleship Row...
My favorite one is being rebuilt after Katerina blew it out, so I had to go to the second choice.
Felix's
The oysters were local and not too bad, but not great either.
I had some crab soup too... Again, nothing to write home about.
They were out of the fried crab claws, which was the entire reason I stopped. Bummer.
Oh well... Just my luck.
I got back on the road just after sundown.
I made it all the way to Breaux Bridge just outside Lafayette LA before I had to break for the night, and I was off again just after daybreak.
I caught a quick lunch at Crazy Bob's BBQ in Hog Eye Texas...
And I arrived in Dallas fairly early that afternoon.
So with my carload of equipment I got to work the next day and the first of a oft-recurring problem presented itself.
"Uh... did anyone get a tape measure and measure the brackets and the rack?"
Once Dallas was finished I was off to laid-back California...Home of Pearly Sweetcake, you probably knew her well...
The Honda Center in Anaheim was on the list. I loaded their equipment in and found that their rack was even shallower than the one in Dallas.
Lovely. We'll be putting a new rack in there... Probably doing it the 3rd round of the playoffs.
I loaded up my rental car and drove the next shipment up to San Jose...
Ever driven up I-5, through the Breadbasket of California?
It's nasty.
Farmlands and stockyards. Yuk.
I had left Anaheim in the early evening and made it up just north of LA before I took a short nap, then drove on to Coalinga and got a room at a Motel 6, so I'd have a real bed and a shower before getting to the HP PAvilion Arena in San Jose.
I arrived in San Jose early the next day and spent some time in the arena,
and had dinner at a place called Hukilau in Japantown, San Jose. Not a bad little place.
I finished out (most of) the install the next day. There are a couple things outstanding that we'll iron out during the off-season, but overall we're doing good there.
The UPS took a little damage in shipment...
The shipping company obviously dropped it right on the corner of the unit...
(heh..heh...he said "unit") but I got it straightened out and it's ok now.
One thing about California- they wear their hearts on their sleeves and they wear their politics on their bumpers...
One sticker I really got a tickle out of...
I caught a flight out of San Jose the next morning for Seattle on my way to Vancouver...
There is a big, long explanation concerning why I went to Seattle and drove to Vancouver, involving reasonable airfares, rental car drop-offs and border crossings, and if you really want to know the details, email me.
Otherwise just accept it and move along....
Crossing the border at the Peace Bridge north of Seattle was cool...
I got into Vancouver that evening and stayed in a funky little Best Western called the Abercorn Inn in Richmond... The motif was Highland Scotland, and the folks in the bar were right friendly. The game was on that night and I hung out in the bar with a bunch of tourists from "Minna-Sowta" and had a great time.
Again, into battle the next morning, installing the UPS, switches, server, wiring, shelving and what-have-you...
The Canucks were practicing as I was installing my equipment... I peered over the edge of the press box to see what was going on...
Looked like a big druid worship circle, imploring the big fish-god to bring them a victory...
All went well... Obstacles were encountered and overcome.
I headed out that night, crossed back into the good ol' US of A, and stayed in one of the little neon-lit cut-rate hotel-places that border SEA-TAC, since I had a 5:30 AM flight to Detroit.
Just for the record- the Red Roof Inn at Sea-Tac is not worth the $59.00 a night that I paid. $39.00 would be overpaying. To call it a nasty shithole would be an insult to other nasty shitholes.
Avoid avoid avoid.
Back to Detroit. Again.
I got into the arena and got my hardware... I even found the cables that the building guys had run for me...
None of them were labeled, and I had no idea which ones went where, but I never let a little thing like that stop me... I jumped right into the fray.
What the hell...?
Doesn't that look suspiciously like a forklift tine hole in the side of my server box?
Why yes, so it does look like a forklift done skewered my server!
I'm fortunate, Constant Readers, that I was alone up in rafters of Joe Louis Arena; Had anyone been with me it would have been an embarrassment, As I stood there looking at the pierced box (No out-of-context jokes please) I went through all 5 stages of the Kubler-Ross grief cycle:
Denial - No way! They did not run a forklift tine into my server!
Anger - If I find the M#*&%@er who did this...I'm gonna razzel-frazzin...
Bargaining - Oh, C'mon... If I could fix that UPS in San Jose, I'm sure I could get this patched up...And besides, Detroit probably won't make it to the third round anyway.
Depression - Oh man... I'm screwed. This thing is dead-dead-dead, and they'll never believe it was like this when I got here. They'll blame it on me. It will all end in tears.
Acceptance - Screw it. I'll give it a shot just to see if it will work. Who knows, I might get lucky.
Well... It was ok... the damage was superficial. I dodged a bullet there.
I did as much as I could and then split out of there...
As for the East- teams like Ottawa, Bufallo and the NY/NJ multiplex, my compatriot Sean handled them...
Sean? You know Sean.
This is Sean. (He's the one on the right.)
The other one is Nicole. You can visit her at the Hooters near the Long Island Coliseum.
Ok... Onward. More stuff as we proceed into Round 3.
(Oh yeah- By the way- Luc, I got your message. I said *I* liked "Galapagos"... I didn't say *you* would... I am a warped and twisted literary omnivore. My taste is quite suspect. The only thing I like better than Hunter S. Thompson's writing is perusing pornographic stained-glass windows. )
TBG out-
Last time I posted I was in on the road in the San Joaquin Valley heading for San Jose.
Since then I've been in San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver, Detroit, and finally back to Jacksonville.
As the late great Jerry Garcia said: What a long strange trip it's been.
Let's see...
A few pictures and a recap seem to be in order.
First- The drive from Jacksonville to Dallas was mostly uneventful.
I rented a Pontiac Vibe from Avis- gas milage wasn't too bad- I got about 360 miles per tank of gas. Not too shabby.
I got a late start out of Jax and as the sun was going down over Mobile it was killing my contacts so I stopped at one of the seafood places on Battleship Row...
My favorite one is being rebuilt after Katerina blew it out, so I had to go to the second choice.
Felix's
The oysters were local and not too bad, but not great either.
I had some crab soup too... Again, nothing to write home about.
They were out of the fried crab claws, which was the entire reason I stopped. Bummer.
Oh well... Just my luck.
I got back on the road just after sundown.
I made it all the way to Breaux Bridge just outside Lafayette LA before I had to break for the night, and I was off again just after daybreak.
I caught a quick lunch at Crazy Bob's BBQ in Hog Eye Texas...
And I arrived in Dallas fairly early that afternoon.
So with my carload of equipment I got to work the next day and the first of a oft-recurring problem presented itself.
"Uh... did anyone get a tape measure and measure the brackets and the rack?"
Once Dallas was finished I was off to laid-back California...Home of Pearly Sweetcake, you probably knew her well...
The Honda Center in Anaheim was on the list. I loaded their equipment in and found that their rack was even shallower than the one in Dallas.
Lovely. We'll be putting a new rack in there... Probably doing it the 3rd round of the playoffs.
I loaded up my rental car and drove the next shipment up to San Jose...
Ever driven up I-5, through the Breadbasket of California?
It's nasty.
Farmlands and stockyards. Yuk.
I had left Anaheim in the early evening and made it up just north of LA before I took a short nap, then drove on to Coalinga and got a room at a Motel 6, so I'd have a real bed and a shower before getting to the HP PAvilion Arena in San Jose.
I arrived in San Jose early the next day and spent some time in the arena,
and had dinner at a place called Hukilau in Japantown, San Jose. Not a bad little place.
I finished out (most of) the install the next day. There are a couple things outstanding that we'll iron out during the off-season, but overall we're doing good there.
The UPS took a little damage in shipment...
The shipping company obviously dropped it right on the corner of the unit...
(heh..heh...he said "unit") but I got it straightened out and it's ok now.
One thing about California- they wear their hearts on their sleeves and they wear their politics on their bumpers...
One sticker I really got a tickle out of...
I caught a flight out of San Jose the next morning for Seattle on my way to Vancouver...
There is a big, long explanation concerning why I went to Seattle and drove to Vancouver, involving reasonable airfares, rental car drop-offs and border crossings, and if you really want to know the details, email me.
Otherwise just accept it and move along....
Crossing the border at the Peace Bridge north of Seattle was cool...
I got into Vancouver that evening and stayed in a funky little Best Western called the Abercorn Inn in Richmond... The motif was Highland Scotland, and the folks in the bar were right friendly. The game was on that night and I hung out in the bar with a bunch of tourists from "Minna-Sowta" and had a great time.
Again, into battle the next morning, installing the UPS, switches, server, wiring, shelving and what-have-you...
The Canucks were practicing as I was installing my equipment... I peered over the edge of the press box to see what was going on...
Looked like a big druid worship circle, imploring the big fish-god to bring them a victory...
All went well... Obstacles were encountered and overcome.
I headed out that night, crossed back into the good ol' US of A, and stayed in one of the little neon-lit cut-rate hotel-places that border SEA-TAC, since I had a 5:30 AM flight to Detroit.
Just for the record- the Red Roof Inn at Sea-Tac is not worth the $59.00 a night that I paid. $39.00 would be overpaying. To call it a nasty shithole would be an insult to other nasty shitholes.
Avoid avoid avoid.
Back to Detroit. Again.
I got into the arena and got my hardware... I even found the cables that the building guys had run for me...
None of them were labeled, and I had no idea which ones went where, but I never let a little thing like that stop me... I jumped right into the fray.
What the hell...?
Doesn't that look suspiciously like a forklift tine hole in the side of my server box?
Why yes, so it does look like a forklift done skewered my server!
I'm fortunate, Constant Readers, that I was alone up in rafters of Joe Louis Arena; Had anyone been with me it would have been an embarrassment, As I stood there looking at the pierced box (No out-of-context jokes please) I went through all 5 stages of the Kubler-Ross grief cycle:
Denial - No way! They did not run a forklift tine into my server!
Anger - If I find the M#*&%@er who did this...I'm gonna razzel-frazzin...
Bargaining - Oh, C'mon... If I could fix that UPS in San Jose, I'm sure I could get this patched up...And besides, Detroit probably won't make it to the third round anyway.
Depression - Oh man... I'm screwed. This thing is dead-dead-dead, and they'll never believe it was like this when I got here. They'll blame it on me. It will all end in tears.
Acceptance - Screw it. I'll give it a shot just to see if it will work. Who knows, I might get lucky.
Well... It was ok... the damage was superficial. I dodged a bullet there.
I did as much as I could and then split out of there...
As for the East- teams like Ottawa, Bufallo and the NY/NJ multiplex, my compatriot Sean handled them...
Sean? You know Sean.
This is Sean. (He's the one on the right.)
The other one is Nicole. You can visit her at the Hooters near the Long Island Coliseum.
Ok... Onward. More stuff as we proceed into Round 3.
(Oh yeah- By the way- Luc, I got your message. I said *I* liked "Galapagos"... I didn't say *you* would... I am a warped and twisted literary omnivore. My taste is quite suspect. The only thing I like better than Hunter S. Thompson's writing is perusing pornographic stained-glass windows.
TBG out-
Flight Tips
I sat with two Flight Attendants while waiting on my flight to Orange County...
We discussed the issues surrounding Flight Attendants and passengers...
I had to share my irritation with them about getting whacked in the shoulder every time the beverage cart passes, and they told me the Flight Attendant's Litany of Passenger Stupidity.
Here are my takeaways from this oh-so-enlightening chat.
(Bear in mind, it was 5:30 AM when this took place.)
Good Ideas:
1. Never push the call button.
(Get up and find your own blanket or pillow, I'm not your Mom. And we'll be back around with the beverage cart or to pick up the trash shortly. Cool your jets.)
And NEVER ever push the call button just to ask when we are going to land.
2. Unless you absolutely have to be up, keep your butt in your seat. If they're doing a snack-and-beverage service, it's almost impossible with people in the aisle.
This especially includes you 18-to-24 year olds... You don't need to go visit the other folks in your group to discuss the hottie in row 14. You'll have plenty of time to do that when you get to our destination.
3. If it's a short flight or a small commuter plane, use the bathroom in the terminal before the flight.
4. If there is a food service of any sort, asking for seconds of anything is a way to get the big "ASSHOLE" tattoo on your forehead by the Flight Attendants.
5. Look- here comes the Flight Attendants with the fod service. I think I'll wait until they arrive and are holding my tray out for me to take before I start putting away my laptop and papers...
(you can wind up wearing your beef-with-brown-gravy-stuff if you take too long.)
8. If you are traveling with little 2 year-old Precious, find out what he or she wants before the Flight Attendant gets there for the beverage service. Asking Precious what he or she wants as the Flight Attendant waits and waits and waits is a Bad Thing.
7. You are a dipshit if you ask for a pillow, watch the Flight Attendant look through 8 overhead bins to find you one, then when she finally finds one for you, you then ask for a blanket too.
7a. You are REALLY a dipshit if you watch your neighbor ask for a blanket, then a pillow, and THEN ask the Flight Attendant to find you one (or both).
8. Don't ask the Flight Attendants to help you lift your bag into the overhead bin. Jerk.
9. If you absolutely have to take off your shoes during a flight, have the good taste to wear socks. Please. And don't put your bare feet up on the bulkhead walls or the back of the seat in front of you.
10. A good way to get a drink spilled on you is to request a refill of your beverage by rattling your cup of ice at the Flight Attendant.
11. You have ample warning as the Flight Attendants get the plane ready to land before they make the announcement to shut your Gameboy, iPod, Walkman, MP3 player, laptop, Crackberry, or whathaveyou... If the Flight Attendant has to come remind you to shut you item off, you are an asshat.
12. Don't let little Precious wander up and down the aisle. And clean your kid up, for crying out loud. No one want to see Precious' candy-bar-stained face and hands rubbed against their clothes as he/she meanders down the aisle..
13. Don't paint your nails on the plane. (This is from 5/1/07, on my flight from Seattle to Chicago) The smell irritates everyone for 4 rows around you.
14. Don't touch!! Don't poke, tap, grab or tug the Flight Attendant to get her attention while she's serving someone else...
15. Speak your order in tones loud enough to be heard. (I'm guilty of this... Just mouthing the drink order, because I'm afraid of yelling over the ambient noise level of the plane.)
16. Don't call the Flight Attendant a Stewardess. No no no.
17. Don't, under pain of getting stragled with a seat belt extention, as you are getting off the plane, tell the Flight Attendant to "Smile!". Big mistake.
Never Never nevers:
1. Never yell at, curse at, intimidate or threaten a Flight Attendant.
They are protected by federal statutes (just like manatees and spotted owls). Any interference with them doing their duties can land you with a hefty fine and prison time (up to 10 years). The law and the TSA is on their side, and they will make your life miserable if they want to...
2. Don't upgrade yourself. Aside from the walk of shame *when* you get caught (and you WILL get caught)...it is theft of service if the Flight Attendant and the Captain want to make a case for it.
3. Don't take anything off the beverage cart. Unattended or not, don't take sodas, ice, water or booze... Stealing is stealing...Even in business class, where the booze is free, you can't just take it. It must be served. Part of the regulations for service. Don't touch the cart.
Things I still don't understand...
Why I get yelled at when my seat is reclined 2 inches during take off.
Why do we get the life vest and seat-cushion-floatation-device talk when we are flying from Dallas to Denver. Aside from the obvious futility of a water landing (i.e. a crash), I doubt the captain will be trying to land in a lake or a swimming pool if we are going down during that flight.
And the ubiquituous "to fasten your seat belt, to unfasten your seatbelt..." lesson:
Do they think there is anyone on there that hasn't ever used a seatbelt before?
TBG, heading out, again-
We discussed the issues surrounding Flight Attendants and passengers...
I had to share my irritation with them about getting whacked in the shoulder every time the beverage cart passes, and they told me the Flight Attendant's Litany of Passenger Stupidity.
Here are my takeaways from this oh-so-enlightening chat.
(Bear in mind, it was 5:30 AM when this took place.)
Good Ideas:
1. Never push the call button.
(Get up and find your own blanket or pillow, I'm not your Mom. And we'll be back around with the beverage cart or to pick up the trash shortly. Cool your jets.)
And NEVER ever push the call button just to ask when we are going to land.
2. Unless you absolutely have to be up, keep your butt in your seat. If they're doing a snack-and-beverage service, it's almost impossible with people in the aisle.
This especially includes you 18-to-24 year olds... You don't need to go visit the other folks in your group to discuss the hottie in row 14. You'll have plenty of time to do that when you get to our destination.
3. If it's a short flight or a small commuter plane, use the bathroom in the terminal before the flight.
4. If there is a food service of any sort, asking for seconds of anything is a way to get the big "ASSHOLE" tattoo on your forehead by the Flight Attendants.
5. Look- here comes the Flight Attendants with the fod service. I think I'll wait until they arrive and are holding my tray out for me to take before I start putting away my laptop and papers...
(you can wind up wearing your beef-with-brown-gravy-stuff if you take too long.)
8. If you are traveling with little 2 year-old Precious, find out what he or she wants before the Flight Attendant gets there for the beverage service. Asking Precious what he or she wants as the Flight Attendant waits and waits and waits is a Bad Thing.
7. You are a dipshit if you ask for a pillow, watch the Flight Attendant look through 8 overhead bins to find you one, then when she finally finds one for you, you then ask for a blanket too.
7a. You are REALLY a dipshit if you watch your neighbor ask for a blanket, then a pillow, and THEN ask the Flight Attendant to find you one (or both).
8. Don't ask the Flight Attendants to help you lift your bag into the overhead bin. Jerk.
9. If you absolutely have to take off your shoes during a flight, have the good taste to wear socks. Please. And don't put your bare feet up on the bulkhead walls or the back of the seat in front of you.
10. A good way to get a drink spilled on you is to request a refill of your beverage by rattling your cup of ice at the Flight Attendant.
11. You have ample warning as the Flight Attendants get the plane ready to land before they make the announcement to shut your Gameboy, iPod, Walkman, MP3 player, laptop, Crackberry, or whathaveyou... If the Flight Attendant has to come remind you to shut you item off, you are an asshat.
12. Don't let little Precious wander up and down the aisle. And clean your kid up, for crying out loud. No one want to see Precious' candy-bar-stained face and hands rubbed against their clothes as he/she meanders down the aisle..
13. Don't paint your nails on the plane. (This is from 5/1/07, on my flight from Seattle to Chicago) The smell irritates everyone for 4 rows around you.
14. Don't touch!! Don't poke, tap, grab or tug the Flight Attendant to get her attention while she's serving someone else...
15. Speak your order in tones loud enough to be heard. (I'm guilty of this... Just mouthing the drink order, because I'm afraid of yelling over the ambient noise level of the plane.)
16. Don't call the Flight Attendant a Stewardess. No no no.
17. Don't, under pain of getting stragled with a seat belt extention, as you are getting off the plane, tell the Flight Attendant to "Smile!". Big mistake.
Never Never nevers:
1. Never yell at, curse at, intimidate or threaten a Flight Attendant.
They are protected by federal statutes (just like manatees and spotted owls). Any interference with them doing their duties can land you with a hefty fine and prison time (up to 10 years). The law and the TSA is on their side, and they will make your life miserable if they want to...
2. Don't upgrade yourself. Aside from the walk of shame *when* you get caught (and you WILL get caught)...it is theft of service if the Flight Attendant and the Captain want to make a case for it.
3. Don't take anything off the beverage cart. Unattended or not, don't take sodas, ice, water or booze... Stealing is stealing...Even in business class, where the booze is free, you can't just take it. It must be served. Part of the regulations for service. Don't touch the cart.
Things I still don't understand...
Why I get yelled at when my seat is reclined 2 inches during take off.
Why do we get the life vest and seat-cushion-floatation-device talk when we are flying from Dallas to Denver. Aside from the obvious futility of a water landing (i.e. a crash), I doubt the captain will be trying to land in a lake or a swimming pool if we are going down during that flight.
And the ubiquituous "to fasten your seat belt, to unfasten your seatbelt..." lesson:
Do they think there is anyone on there that hasn't ever used a seatbelt before?
TBG, heading out, again-
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
The long road.
Another rental car, another highway...and according to Google Maps, 5 and a half hours from Anaheim to San Jose.
(And for the music trivia buffs out there, yes, I know the way to San Jose.)
So, just returning some hardware at Fry's, then I'm on the road.
Going to try to make it up to at least Coalinga tonite. We'll see how it goes.
TBG truckin'-
(What a long strange trip it's been.)
(And for the music trivia buffs out there, yes, I know the way to San Jose.)
So, just returning some hardware at Fry's, then I'm on the road.
Going to try to make it up to at least Coalinga tonite. We'll see how it goes.
TBG truckin'-
(What a long strange trip it's been.)
From the "Lessons Learned" Department
Here is wisdom:
While working on equipment racks with devices electrical within, that may or (more likely) may not be properly grounded, it would considered a Good Thing to power off said equipment and unplug or throw breakers for the same.
If you choose not to follow these words, remember that electrical cooking is a slothful process, and a technician may sizzle in his own fat for A Good Long While, before the Big Engineer in the Sky sees fit to end his suffering.
Here endeth the lesson.
TBG, singed and shaking...
While working on equipment racks with devices electrical within, that may or (more likely) may not be properly grounded, it would considered a Good Thing to power off said equipment and unplug or throw breakers for the same.
If you choose not to follow these words, remember that electrical cooking is a slothful process, and a technician may sizzle in his own fat for A Good Long While, before the Big Engineer in the Sky sees fit to end his suffering.
Here endeth the lesson.
TBG, singed and shaking...
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
This is new...
I'm on a Frontier Airlines flight, Dallas to Denver to Orange County.
There were about 40 people in line when I got to DFW at 4:45 this morning.
They'd been bumped last night due to the storms...
Lots of angry people, spent the night in the airport since the airline wouldn't comp hotel rooms.
The plane is full of people with a skewed sense of entitlement.
I doubt we make it to Denver before the pissed-off soccer mom 2 rows up takes a swing at the (insolent rude lazy) flight attendant.
(To paraphrase JWI: I hate a boring flight.)
TBG out-
There were about 40 people in line when I got to DFW at 4:45 this morning.
They'd been bumped last night due to the storms...
Lots of angry people, spent the night in the airport since the airline wouldn't comp hotel rooms.
The plane is full of people with a skewed sense of entitlement.
I doubt we make it to Denver before the pissed-off soccer mom 2 rows up takes a swing at the (insolent rude lazy) flight attendant.
(To paraphrase JWI: I hate a boring flight.)
TBG out-
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Booked by 3 - In character.
Ok...
The March Hare, of Keeper of The Mad Tea Party memed me again...
(I don't mind her memes, I kinda like them. They force me to think... Like this one from last August...)
So... The theme of the meme... Booked by 3...
Name up to three characters . . .
1) . . . you wish were real so you could meet them.
2) . . . you would like to be.
3) . . . who scare you.
Limiting choices to three is a difficulty.
Makes me really evaluate choices carefully...and still second guess my selections.
Oh well...
Happy reading.
Oh yeah-
I'm tagging Deidre at Time & Tides and James at Sarchasmic Hallucidations.
I'll try Yael at The World is MY Oyster, althought I know she is in transition now...moving from China to Germany. (Talk about culture shock!)
TBG- Packing my bags again.
BTW-
My current read: South-The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917 by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
The March Hare, of Keeper of The Mad Tea Party memed me again...
(I don't mind her memes, I kinda like them. They force me to think... Like this one from last August...)
So... The theme of the meme... Booked by 3...
Name up to three characters . . .
1) . . . you wish were real so you could meet them.
- Lazarus Long (Heinlein's Methuselah's Children, Time Enough for Love et al)
- Beowulf Schaffer (Larry Niven's Known Space Series)
- Travis McGee (John D. MacDonald's South Florida gumshoe)
2) . . . you would like to be.
- Jason Bourne - (Robert Ludlum's Bourne series)
- John Carter - (Edgar Rice Burroughs Warlord of Mars series)
- Dirk Struan - (James Clavell's Tai Pan)
3) . . . who scare you.
- Annie Wilkes. (Stephen King's Misery)
- Dimitri Ravenoff (Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash)
The guy has an h-bomb attached to his motorcycle and makes Kevlar-piercing knives out of glass. Hijacked a nuclear sub singlehanded. One Scary Dude. - Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, et al)
Limiting choices to three is a difficulty.
Makes me really evaluate choices carefully...and still second guess my selections.
Oh well...
Happy reading.
Oh yeah-
I'm tagging Deidre at Time & Tides and James at Sarchasmic Hallucidations.
I'll try Yael at The World is MY Oyster, althought I know she is in transition now...moving from China to Germany. (Talk about culture shock!)
TBG- Packing my bags again.
BTW-
My current read: South-The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917 by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
Monday, April 16, 2007
Bay Area Newspaper Writer gets Dumbass Award.
Can you trust anything this media outlet says when they get the basic facts wrong?
Women & Guns
Women with guns a growing phenomenon
By Christine Morente, STAFF WRITER
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO - KIMBERLY SHRUM grips a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver and aims at a target 25 yards away.
Bang.
A hot shell casing hits the floor, joining hundreds of others littering the concrete at Jackson Arms Indoor Shooting Range in South San Francisco.
Shrum centers herself and aims again.
------------------------
I've shot a lot of revolvers, never had one eject a shell casing.
Obviously the writer is ignorant of her subject and is writing for effect.
Was she even at the range?
Any article that starts with such a glaring error is very suspect.
And I was expecting either a rant against guns in general or a villification of 2nd Amendment rights... and I was suprised. The article was fairly balanced and informative.
Except for a decided slant toward the Gun=Power mentality...
A lot of people believe that a gun is a magic wand: If you point it at someone, they have to obey you.
Sadly, that's not the way it works. And just because you know HOW to use one, doesn't mean you will be mentally capable of using it when the time comes.
Back in the day (1991 or so) when I owned Computer Services Inc in downtown Jacksonville, we often worked long hours preparing our systems for shipping or doing other prep work.
Since our offices were down on Union Street it was de rigeur to carry a firearm in the office after business hours. This practice started after the third break-in attempt while we were in the office.
After that, we started carrying pistols.
The Woman Who Knows Most Things had initial misgivings on this practice.
My argument:
"I can carry this gun, and if circumstances call for it, I will use it. And then we'll hire an attorney to defend my actions.
Or, I can not carry it, and instead of hiring an attorney, you can come to the morgue to identify my body and buy a nice casket."
She never said another word.
Oh well... Revolver owners- watch out for those hot casings...
TBG out (at the range)-
Women & Guns
Women with guns a growing phenomenon
By Christine Morente, STAFF WRITER
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO - KIMBERLY SHRUM grips a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver and aims at a target 25 yards away.
Bang.
A hot shell casing hits the floor, joining hundreds of others littering the concrete at Jackson Arms Indoor Shooting Range in South San Francisco.
Shrum centers herself and aims again.
------------------------
I've shot a lot of revolvers, never had one eject a shell casing.
Obviously the writer is ignorant of her subject and is writing for effect.
Was she even at the range?
Any article that starts with such a glaring error is very suspect.
And I was expecting either a rant against guns in general or a villification of 2nd Amendment rights... and I was suprised. The article was fairly balanced and informative.
Except for a decided slant toward the Gun=Power mentality...
A lot of people believe that a gun is a magic wand: If you point it at someone, they have to obey you.
Sadly, that's not the way it works. And just because you know HOW to use one, doesn't mean you will be mentally capable of using it when the time comes.
Back in the day (1991 or so) when I owned Computer Services Inc in downtown Jacksonville, we often worked long hours preparing our systems for shipping or doing other prep work.
Since our offices were down on Union Street it was de rigeur to carry a firearm in the office after business hours. This practice started after the third break-in attempt while we were in the office.
After that, we started carrying pistols.
The Woman Who Knows Most Things had initial misgivings on this practice.
My argument:
"I can carry this gun, and if circumstances call for it, I will use it. And then we'll hire an attorney to defend my actions.
Or, I can not carry it, and instead of hiring an attorney, you can come to the morgue to identify my body and buy a nice casket."
She never said another word.
Oh well... Revolver owners- watch out for those hot casings...
TBG out (at the range)-
Seven Deadly Sins
Wow. Not good.
I'm not sure how to dress this up to make it look positive...
Discover Your Sins - Click Here
| Greed: | High | |
| Gluttony: | High | |
| Wrath: | Medium | |
| Sloth: | Medium | |
| Envy: | Medium | |
| Lust: | High | |
| Pride: | High |
I'm not sure how to dress this up to make it look positive...
Discover Your Sins - Click Here
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Kurt Vonnegut
That's a helluva thing to wake up to...
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. passed away yesterday, at age 84.
He had a sharp and slightly skewed sense of humor, and his books are some of the most interesting and thought-provoking I have ever, or will ever read.
His most recent book, A Man Without a Country, I never read. Looking at the review it seemed like a book I wouldn't enjoy...too much politics, and not satiric enough to mask his leftist-ivory tower-blue state personal politics. Doesn't mean I don't enjoy his older novels- I don't hold his current politics against him... He was an excellent writer and he will be missed.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
1922-2007
I'm looking at my bookshelf in my computer room/library and I see 5 books- 4 of which I got while still in high school...
I've always been a sucker for End-of-the-World stories, and Vonnegut wrote some great ones. Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions are up there, brought down every few years to be re-read, along with Welcome to the Monkey House, a great series of well-written short stories, Galapagos, and Slapstick, which was given to me by my sister back when we were in high school.
Though I have read many more of his novels, these five I keep for their ability to be entertaining and interesting to read every time I pick them up.
There should be 6 titles there... The Sirens of Titan is out on loan to a co-worker...from 8 years ago. Probably won't get that one back...
Due to limited shelf space I can only keep the very best books I read, and it's hard for me to brush aside a good book and send it off the the second-hand book store, but these, in addition to select titles from Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, and Stephen King have permanent shelf space reserved.
An Internet urban legend, "Wear Sunscreen", a fake MIT commencement speech was attributed to him, which some people still think we was the source of.
(The entire story here)
Should you be inclined, pick up a Vonnegut book. Be entertained.
Think about his story lines.
That was his aim, that his readers should use their own brains to live their lives, not blindly follow someone else.
Just a couple Vonnegut quotes to round things out...
I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.
Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.
And one for us bloggers to remember:
Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?
TBG out-
PS- My current read? I'm still slogging through "The Gulag Archipelago" by Solzhenitsyn
It's killing me.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. passed away yesterday, at age 84.
He had a sharp and slightly skewed sense of humor, and his books are some of the most interesting and thought-provoking I have ever, or will ever read.
His most recent book, A Man Without a Country, I never read. Looking at the review it seemed like a book I wouldn't enjoy...too much politics, and not satiric enough to mask his leftist-ivory tower-blue state personal politics. Doesn't mean I don't enjoy his older novels- I don't hold his current politics against him... He was an excellent writer and he will be missed.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
1922-2007
I'm looking at my bookshelf in my computer room/library and I see 5 books- 4 of which I got while still in high school...
I've always been a sucker for End-of-the-World stories, and Vonnegut wrote some great ones. Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions are up there, brought down every few years to be re-read, along with Welcome to the Monkey House, a great series of well-written short stories, Galapagos, and Slapstick, which was given to me by my sister back when we were in high school.
Though I have read many more of his novels, these five I keep for their ability to be entertaining and interesting to read every time I pick them up.
There should be 6 titles there... The Sirens of Titan is out on loan to a co-worker...from 8 years ago. Probably won't get that one back...
Due to limited shelf space I can only keep the very best books I read, and it's hard for me to brush aside a good book and send it off the the second-hand book store, but these, in addition to select titles from Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, and Stephen King have permanent shelf space reserved.
An Internet urban legend, "Wear Sunscreen", a fake MIT commencement speech was attributed to him, which some people still think we was the source of.
(The entire story here)
Should you be inclined, pick up a Vonnegut book. Be entertained.
Think about his story lines.
That was his aim, that his readers should use their own brains to live their lives, not blindly follow someone else.
Just a couple Vonnegut quotes to round things out...
I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.
Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.
And one for us bloggers to remember:
Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?
TBG out-
PS- My current read? I'm still slogging through "The Gulag Archipelago" by Solzhenitsyn
It's killing me.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
It's 47 degrees in Augusta GA
I'm really starting to worry that this "Global Warming" is actually going to catch on and people are going to take it seriously.
Take these idiots in Belgium... Fighting "Global Warming" by outlawing outdoor grilling.
And they are going to enforce it by using helicopter surveillance.
(Helicopters fueled by puppy breath and wishes, no doubt.)
Brillant. (Note: This was an April Fools Joke.)
Before you swallow Ozone Al's load of baloney, please take a gander at this site, which is not as slick and pretty as Al's movie, but it has much better hard science...
The REAL Inconvenient Truth
Next...
Check this out:
(From an e-mail I received...)
Look over the descriptions of the following two houses, and see if you can tell which one belongs to an environmentalist.
HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the temperate South.
HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps, which draw ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.
And now the answers…
HOUSE # 1 (20-room energy guzzling mansion) is outside Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.
HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as “the Texas White House,” it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
Gore's spokesmodel will yammer on and on about "Green Premium Payments" and "Carbon footprint exchanges", but in the end, he is exactly the kind of energy consuming, carbon producing prig that An Inconvenient Truth is warning us about.
Go look it up over on Snopes.com
Look-
There are four dogs in this fight...
(*I tend to believe demonstrable science, not fringe rhetoric spouted by edgy soi-disant scientists who will publish controversial crap just to get publicity (and thus, funding). These are the same people that warned us of Nuclear Winter from the 526 Kuwaiti oil wells that got torched in the first Iraq War...
Remember in 1991 Carl Sagan telling us, with a straight face, on ABC's 20/20 that the black clouds generated by the burning wells would blanket the Earth and cause global cooling? Sagan died in 1996 of extreme embarrasment for being so badly wrong.)
If I'm going to hang my hat on a reason for global warming, I'll have to side with the Pastafarians.
1700's - Pirates roamed the seas at will. Average tempature, 14.25C
2000's - Not so many pirates. Average tempature, 15.90C
So, By Ozone Al's own logic... We need more pirates.
TBG- Quad Erat Demonstratum
Take these idiots in Belgium... Fighting "Global Warming" by outlawing outdoor grilling.
And they are going to enforce it by using helicopter surveillance.
(Helicopters fueled by puppy breath and wishes, no doubt.)
Brillant. (Note: This was an April Fools Joke.)
Before you swallow Ozone Al's load of baloney, please take a gander at this site, which is not as slick and pretty as Al's movie, but it has much better hard science...
The REAL Inconvenient Truth
Next...
Check this out:
(From an e-mail I received...)
Look over the descriptions of the following two houses, and see if you can tell which one belongs to an environmentalist.
HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the temperate South.
HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps, which draw ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.
And now the answers…
HOUSE # 1 (20-room energy guzzling mansion) is outside Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.
HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as “the Texas White House,” it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
Gore's spokesmodel will yammer on and on about "Green Premium Payments" and "Carbon footprint exchanges", but in the end, he is exactly the kind of energy consuming, carbon producing prig that An Inconvenient Truth is warning us about.
Go look it up over on Snopes.com
Look-
There are four dogs in this fight...
- Those that categorically reject any climate change. Very very small group. Idiots, Flat-Earthers.
- Those that admit climate change, but see purely natural change such as the higher sunspot activity and other natural cycles as the only cause. Another pretty small group of people, Short-sighted mouthbreathing Boneheads.
- Those that admit climate change as being caused by both naturally occuring phenomena and manmade activity. Typically they’ll believe that the manmade change is smaller than natural activity. This is the largest group... the one that I'd fall into.*
- Those that believe that man is the cause of all evil in the world, including climate change. An interesting group: they’ll have the idiotic bumper sticker “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism” but then demand in blogs and letters to the editor that “THERE IS NO MORE DEBATE, CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL” against anyone with differing views. I have another term for these types, assholes. They’re the same ones who seem to think that in the face of all evidence, scientists are not human and therefore infallible. As long as it agrees with their sacred views.
(*I tend to believe demonstrable science, not fringe rhetoric spouted by edgy soi-disant scientists who will publish controversial crap just to get publicity (and thus, funding). These are the same people that warned us of Nuclear Winter from the 526 Kuwaiti oil wells that got torched in the first Iraq War...
Remember in 1991 Carl Sagan telling us, with a straight face, on ABC's 20/20 that the black clouds generated by the burning wells would blanket the Earth and cause global cooling? Sagan died in 1996 of extreme embarrasment for being so badly wrong.)
If I'm going to hang my hat on a reason for global warming, I'll have to side with the Pastafarians.
1700's - Pirates roamed the seas at will. Average tempature, 14.25C
2000's - Not so many pirates. Average tempature, 15.90C
So, By Ozone Al's own logic... We need more pirates.
TBG- Quad Erat Demonstratum
Bunnies...
My favorite Easter Bunnies
Because nothing says Religious Holiday, Ressurection and Redemption like a sugar coma.
Because nothing says Religious Holiday, Ressurection and Redemption like a sugar coma.
The Usual Suspects
The Many Faces of Sombrero Night
Too much tequila will do this to you...
Amazing out-
Too much tequila will do this to you...
Amazing out-
Friday, April 06, 2007
And the hits just keep on comin'....
"Do you use any vaseline on any of your gear?"
-Berry in Scoring Control
Wow.
Double wow.
Famous out-
-Berry in Scoring Control
Wow.
Double wow.
Famous out-
Pretty Pictures from Augusta
...or not so pretty...
Another fine tournament week...
No rain in the forecast like last year, Which is good if you want to finish in a timely manner and get home and do laundry and the like...but it's bad of you are a golfer and mant the greens to slow down and have opportunities to make birdies and eagles.
So...no rain, but we do have frost warnings.
Not so bad for me, somewhat worse for the guys who have to go outside and work on the course.
Earlier in the week is was pretty horrible with pollen...
The steps to the trailer. Each step would drag several hunderd thousand pollen granules into thte trailer, each with the express mission to make me sneeze.
Our carts, which had sat outside for the better part of a week before we got here, were coated with a fine layer of pollen.
We did get a little rain earlier this week which finally washed away some of the pollen...So I'm no longer eating Claritin like candy...
One last picture from work-
I had intended to go the entire week without actually going out on the course.
Alas, it was not to be... I did go out and do some testing with Ed and Mark, and later I went out with Mitch to to Hole 10 to look at a laser issue.
Ed and Mark preparing to run our test.
Then there was Sombrero Night...
Nice Mugs on that guy.
Ed Keyes, stylin'.
Raising the glasses
Zack, making an ash of himself.
John, Justin and Andy the Eurotrash...
And on Monday night we all got to gether to watch the Florida / Ohio State matchup...
Jamie, with his Suburban Couch Camouflage shorts on...
So much fun...
TBG out-
Another fine tournament week...
No rain in the forecast like last year, Which is good if you want to finish in a timely manner and get home and do laundry and the like...but it's bad of you are a golfer and mant the greens to slow down and have opportunities to make birdies and eagles.
So...no rain, but we do have frost warnings.
Not so bad for me, somewhat worse for the guys who have to go outside and work on the course.
Earlier in the week is was pretty horrible with pollen...
The steps to the trailer. Each step would drag several hunderd thousand pollen granules into thte trailer, each with the express mission to make me sneeze.
Our carts, which had sat outside for the better part of a week before we got here, were coated with a fine layer of pollen.
We did get a little rain earlier this week which finally washed away some of the pollen...So I'm no longer eating Claritin like candy...
One last picture from work-
I had intended to go the entire week without actually going out on the course.
Alas, it was not to be... I did go out and do some testing with Ed and Mark, and later I went out with Mitch to to Hole 10 to look at a laser issue.
Ed and Mark preparing to run our test.
Then there was Sombrero Night...
Nice Mugs on that guy.
Ed Keyes, stylin'.
Raising the glasses
Zack, making an ash of himself.
John, Justin and Andy the Eurotrash...
And on Monday night we all got to gether to watch the Florida / Ohio State matchup...
Jamie, with his Suburban Couch Camouflage shorts on...
So much fun...
TBG out-
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Yet another OOC
Day One of Tournament Play:
Hole 3: "We can't see the ball. What do we do?
Yours Truly: "Just shoot the player."
(long pause)
Hole 3: "Just a flesh wound, right?"
Film at 11.
TBG Out-
Hole 3: "We can't see the ball. What do we do?
Yours Truly: "Just shoot the player."
(long pause)
Hole 3: "Just a flesh wound, right?"
Film at 11.
TBG Out-
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