Viagramyacin

Now you can get and cure the clap, all in one easy pill.

Just don't take it with beer (in the extended entry - safe for work). more...

Posted by: Ted at 04:55 AM | category: Square Pegs
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

Baseball factoids

(courtesy of Sporting News)

This season, Barry Bonds has more intentional walks (67) than any hitter in the AL has total walks.

Back in 1934, NY Giants southpaw Carl Hubbell struck out five straight batters in the All-Star game. Those five were Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin. All five were easily elected to the Hall of Fame upon retirement.

The starting NL outfield (Bonds, Griffey [doh!] and Sosa), has combined for 1,735 career home runs. The entire AL starting lineup has a total of 1,799 career homers.

Posted by: Ted at 06:51 PM | category: History
Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 96 words, total size 1 kb.

It is a silly place

Major thanks to Lawren for pointing out that next year the Broadway musical version of Monty Python & the Holy Grail premiers.

Let the spankings commence!

Posted by: Ted at 11:19 AM | category: Links
Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 36 words, total size 1 kb.

Burial in Space

Space Services Inc. is poised to resume service in September launching containers full of people's ashes into space, where they will circle the Earth for years to come.

$1,000 for a gram's worth of you, or you can super-size it to seven grams for $5,300.

The company also offers a video of the launch and provides software that allows families to track the orbital location of their loved ones' remains in real time.

The last funeral flight, in September 2001, failed to reach orbit, but three prior launches did.

The company pledges a free relaunch if the first attempt fails. Chafer said the families of 48 of the 50 people whose remains were on the last flight had opted for another attempt.

"The key to the business is the routine access to space," Chafer said, adding the company planned to make three to four launches a year if the Falcon program proves successful.

As much as this appeals to me, I have a couple of problems with the concept. Right up front, let me state that I have no knowledge of exactly what kind of containers they're using, how they're being orbited, nor what kind of orbit they're using. If they're keeping everything together in one larger piece holding all the smaller containers, then that's good. If they're in an orbit that's not useful for any other purpose, then that's good. But this is basically littering in orbit, and someone is making money to do it. It sounds like the orbit will decay in a few years, so the problem takes care of itself eventually. But I don't want to fall into the trap of "there's plenty of room up there" because that kind of thinking led to problems with Earth's oceans. "Plenty of room" implies big, not infinite, and you'd be amazed at how much crap humanity has already left floating around over our heads.

Posted by: Ted at 09:44 AM | category: Space Program
Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 322 words, total size 2 kb.

I'll take 'ass whooping' for $1000, Alex

Have you been watching Jeopardy lately?

Jennings is making the most of a change in "Jeopardy!" rules. To mark the start of its 20th season last September, the quiz show lifted its five-game limit for winners and allowed them to keep going until they lose.

He's won 28 nights in a row, and has over $900,000 in winnings so far. The article talks about how self-deprecating he is, and it's true. This guy has had the opportunity to really run it up and hasn't done so. He makes modest, non-greedy Final Jeopardy wagers - which he almost always wins - and just destroys the competition by being faster on the button and giving the right answers. I've also never seen him buzz in just to guess at an answer, the guy has his act together.

By the way, my wife reminded me that we'd seen the longest contestant appearance streak ever on a show called Tic Tac Dough, hosted by Wink Martindale. On that show, a Naval officer named Thom McKee stayed on the show for 45 straight games.

Posted by: Ted at 05:58 AM | category: Links
Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 193 words, total size 1 kb.

Thanks

Thanks for all the good wishes yesterday. The three of us went to a local dinner theater, Mookie was along as part of her (upcoming) birthday present. Like most places of the sort it's small, dark and intimate, and the actors and technical crew double as wait staff.

Our waitress was a nice lady who was only an understudy for this show, she told us her primary job was "chief electrician". Reading the actors bio's in the program, we found out that she'd appeared several times on the television series M*A*S*H as Nurse Able and also (more memorable to me) as Frank Burn's wife - remember the "home movie" where she wouldn't let him drive?

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The food was fair (advertised as "Pennsylvania Dutch" style buffet - lots of dumplings and casseroles and such). The show was excellent: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This particular theater seems to specialize in musicals, and they have a pretty good cast for singing and dancing.

All in all, a nice day.

Posted by: Ted at 05:18 AM | category: Square Pegs
Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 173 words, total size 1 kb.

Happy Anniversary to my Love

Twenty-three years, and I'm ready for fifty more, because I feel exactly like this:

I'm no poet and I know it
I don't use five dollar words
This might not sound like much compared to all the pretty things you've heard
But here's how I'd explain it
Since you brought it up
It won't sound like anybody else's version of love

ItÂ’s like just before dark
Jump in the car
Buy an ice cream and see how far we can drive before it melts kinda feelinÂ’
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel inside
ThereÂ’s a cow in the road and you swerve to the left
Fate skips a beat and it scares you to death and you laugh until you cry
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel inside

It might not be more suitable for greeting cards and such
But itÂ’s a true and honest feeling and if you feel it half as much
We could go through life together without a worry or a care
Knowing deep down in our hearts that weÂ’ve got something special here

ItÂ’s like just before dark
Jump in the car
Buy an ice cream and see how far we can drive before it melts kinda feelinÂ’
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel inside
ThereÂ’s a cow in the road and you swerve to the left
Fate skips a beat and it scares you to death and you laugh until you cry
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel inside
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel

I have always heard you canÂ’t put love into words

ItÂ’s like just before dark
Jump in the car
Buy an ice cream and see how far we can drive before it melts kinda feelinÂ’
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel inside
ThereÂ’s a cow in the road and you swerve to the left
Fate skips a beat and it scares you to death and you laugh until you cry
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel inside
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel inside
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel inside
ThatÂ’s how I feel
ThatÂ’s how your love makes me feel

-- Max Barnes & Trey Bruce (Diamond Rio)

Posted by: Ted at 11:59 AM | category: Waxing Lyrical
Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 380 words, total size 2 kb.

The Trailer Trash Culture Thingy

Lynn from Reflections in D minor has put together the latest quiz to show just how uncivilized we are. Personally, I'm such a gentleman I take the dishes out of the sink before I pee (who recognizes that quote?).

Anyway, the choices are in the extended entry, and my preferences in bold. more...

Posted by: Ted at 10:04 PM | category: Links
Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 226 words, total size 1 kb.

Please explain

I watched Bound last night, starring Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon.

What is it about Gina Gershon that women find so attractive? She's not a classic beauty, but she is easy on the eyes, and I suspect that there's something more than just physical looks that drives ladies wild.

For the record, I really like the movie.

I just stumbled across another little interesting movie tidbit. The flick Donnie Darko (very odd so far) just started, starring Jake Gyllenhaal who also played Homer Hickam in October Sky (rocket movie, yay!), and is also the brother of Maggie Gyllenhaal, who starred in Secretary and plays one of the sisters in Donnie Darko.

No Kevin Bacon's were harmed during the making of this post.

Posted by: Ted at 10:30 AM | category: Cult Flicks
Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 126 words, total size 1 kb.

A little dark inside

Gahan Wilson. You may recognize his style, if not the name. Wonderful cartoonist who appeared for years in Playboy and National Lampoon, among other publications that teenagers searched through looking for pictures of boobs.

Posted by: Ted at 09:30 AM | category: Square Pegs
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.

A musical interlude

Saddam's visit to court, soundtrack provided by ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man.

Thanks to Travelling Shoes for the pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 08:24 AM | category: Links
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 26 words, total size 1 kb.

What would she call me if she weren't college educated?

Here ya go, Susie. No links for monkey boy, but in his honor I just watched Bride of the Gorilla, starring Raymond Burr, from 1951. Good flick.

Posted by: Ted at 10:20 PM | category: Links
Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 47 words, total size 1 kb.

More PDA reading stuff

I'm discovering that trying to read internet sites not specifically formatted for PDA viewing can be a royal pain in the butt.

Eric McErlain's Off Wing Opinion is wonderful. He's got a dedicated mirror site that formats everything nicely, so that when I 'sync' and it gets downloaded, it shows up beautifully on the screen of my iPAQ. So I get all the great OWO sports articles in a handy, easy to read format.

On the other hand, sites like Scrappleface or USS Clueless are difficult to deal with because of scrolling issues, as in horizontal scrolling, because the pages are too wide and don't format properly (if at all) when being downloaded.

Now it's certainly not their problem, because I imagine it's another bit of work involved to put up a PDA-formatted site with your content, and who wants more to do just for a relatively few readers.

So I was wondering, might it be possible to use an RSS aggregator to collect posts from hither and yon, using it to strip away the problem bits, and then point the AvantGo channel to the RSS output?

Must do more research...

Posted by: Ted at 11:51 AM | category: Links
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 199 words, total size 1 kb.

I'm in a good mood, honest!

World Court Rules Isreal's West Bank Barrier Illegal. Oops, I think they misspelled "effective". I've struggled with this one, because of the parallels between this wall and the Berlin Wall. Major (and critical) differences exist, but the two absolutely share the trait of being effective.

Moving right along...

The headline should've read "This Security Briefing brought to you by the letters 'C', 'Y', and 'A'". What exactly was the reason for that worthless little infomercial? Besides having something to point to later when the idiots start whining about not being warned, that is. Intelligence gathering is difficult and an incredibly inexact science art, and people need to start admitting that. The best organizations in the world get it wrong as often as not, and you'll seldom hear about the successes because it can compromise future operations. Yet now we get officials holding nonsensical press briefings to say the same thing they've been telling us all along in anticipation of some future molehill-sized fingerpointing fest.

Norbizness does this so much better than I do.

Redefining "jumping the shark".

All right, that's enough. I just saw a headline about cell phones damaging sperm, and the first thing that came to mind is "hang up while driving and getting a hummer".

Posted by: Ted at 06:10 AM | category: Links
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 220 words, total size 2 kb.

Excuse me, I thought you were someone else

There has been some buzz in our little corner of the 'net about a certain someone posting her fuzzy grainy miniscule picture on her blog.

This isn't her.

This isn't either.

Nope.

But I bet you wish it was.

PS. I have a date with her. Neener neener.

Posted by: Ted at 05:05 AM | category: Links
Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 64 words, total size 1 kb.

Students and Rockets

Here is NASA's latest press release about the Student Launch Initiative. You may recall that one of the prizes in the Team America Rocketry Challenge was for teachers to attend education-related workshops. This is one of 'em.

I'm lazy this morning. Links to the Student Launch Initiative and Team America Rocketry Challenge are at the bottom of the press release, or you can use the Search box up in the right hand corner here at Rocket Jones.

Posted by: Ted at 04:54 AM | category: Rocketry
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 83 words, total size 1 kb.

Give me your tired, your poor, your despotic?

Famous novelist or not, I'd have to vote no.

Thanks to Jennifer (who never links me) for the pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 07:06 PM | category:
Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 35 words, total size 1 kb.

Well, that was interesting

I just finished lunch, a "spinach pocket" from a little coffee shop downstairs. It sounded intriguing. They took spinach and a whole bunch of mushrooms (more than I expected, but it was too late to tell 'em to hold them), threw it on the grill, topped it with a scoop of cottage cheese, then melted provolone over the top. Folded into a hot flatbread, it tasted better than it sounds.

Not that I'll be ordering it ever again.

Posted by: Ted at 12:27 PM | category: Square Pegs
Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 86 words, total size 1 kb.

Virtual Voodoo Dolls

For Dawn, who probably needs these more than anyone else I know.

Posted by: Ted at 11:18 AM | category: Links
Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 18 words, total size 1 kb.

Houston, we had a hiccup

Scaled Composites has released the telemetry data from the historic first flight into space by SpaceShipOne, and despite the success of the flight, it wasnÂ’t flawless. At one point near the end of the 76 second burn of the composite rocket motor, the automated pitch control quit functioning, forcing the pilot to switch over to the backup system. The slight loss of control cost SpaceShipOne some 6 miles from the expected altitude and caused the craft to reenter the atmosphere farther south than anticipated.

The data also shows that pilot Mike Melvill experienced weightlessness for over three minutes, and experienced 5gÂ’s during portions of the reentry.

This flight alone was not enough to win the X-Prize. The goal is to make two flights into space with the same manned craft (capable of carrying three people) within a two-week period. At a recent press conference, Burt Rutan would not rule out additional test flights before going for the prize.

Posted by: Ted at 09:42 AM | category: Space Program
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 168 words, total size 1 kb.